By The Cute And Girly - June

June 1st already and the start of a big weekend of celebrations, which of course means we have woken up to rain this morning and the big school picnic this afternoon has already been cancelled!!

We aren't thinking about the weather at By The Cute And Girly this month as we have chosen the theme of 'Cute As A Button'.

I've got another of my newer Magnolia stamps inky - Tilda's Family and coloured them all in with Copics.

For the papers and cardstock sticker I've used the new release from BoBunny - Little Miss, expect to see lots more from me using this sweet range.

Lots of embellishments, which seemed to take me ages to choose.  The bobbly flowers are made by Melissa Frances, I got the leaf ribbon from Cuddly Buddly and the flowers from QVC.

Couldn't resist a few butterflies punched from the same papers to finished off, a projects just not dressed without them!

This month's challenge sponsors are:

Simon Says Stamp

Joanna Sheen

Di's Digi Downloads

Hop on over to the challenge blog to see all of the fab DT creations and to enter your 'Cut as a button' projects.

I'm entering my card for the Just Magnolia challenge as the theme for #159 is anything goes.

** Kate **

WOYWW #156 and "A handbag!"

It's the 3rd birthday of WOYWW today over at Julia's place and to add to the excitement there's an ATC swap too.   I kind of shared my desk yesterday, but I'll re-post the pictures at the bottom in case you weren't here.  In the meantime I have something else to share, it's all Kathy's fault really going on about needing a new bag for the summer.  For those who don't know me well there is no way I need a new handbag, I have enough handbags to last me the rest of my life, but what's a girl to do when others are getting new bags??  Buy one, of course.

To sweeten the blow I can admit it was reduced from £73 to £15 in Tacky Maxx and I have my suspicions it could never have been £73, but it is very nicely made.  I wanted something summery in a casual kind of style and this fitted the bill.

Here are the desk photos from yesterday, as you can see I have a lot to be going on with .

Happy anniversary WOYWWers!

** Kate **

The weekend and some thank yous

Had a scorching weekend here and was out and about enjoying the weather. We went swimming and I was reminded of swimming trips when I was a little girl. There was only an open air swimming pool then, with little wooden huts surrounding it that you change in and just left your stuff lying there. That old outdoor pool is now a car park.  There are probably only a dozen days a year when you would want an open air pool in this country, but Sunday was definitely one of them.

Rounded off the weekend with a Jubilee tea party for 300 members of Girlguiding UK. Can't share the people pictures, but this little girls shoes were the talk of the day.

Now for the thank yous. I have had a bit of a lucky streak lately and, as they say, these things come in 3's so I have 3 prizes to say a heart felt thank you for. The first was a discount voucher from the Whiff Of Joy Challenge to spend at the Whiff Of Joy shop. In a way this was a bad thing! I never realised how easy it was to order from Europe and how good the postage rates were, there is nothing to stop me ordering more now!?!? Here's my goodies, some older images I have always wanted to get my hands on and some brand new ones.

Next up was a $50 Simon Says Stamp voucher from Simon Says Stamp And Show.  Wow, I stuffed my shopping basket and then some, well it made sense to add some extra on, then I just paid the one lot of postage.

I went a bit mad on the mini Magnolias, they don't seem to have taken off over here and Simon Says had so many to choose from, perhaps their distribution is limited in the UK?  Also, I was ecstatic to find the Preposterous paper I had been wanting for some Alice themed makes.

Last and by no means least, I heard from Lisa Truesdell at the start of the weekend that I had won a place on Studio Calico's Washi Workshop!

I am one very lucky girl.  A big thank you to all the blogs and their sponsors for these fab prizes.  Now I need to get crafting.

** Kate **

CAS Christmas

Where does the weekend go to?  I'll do a news round up tomorrow, but in the meantime I have this card ready to blog.  I know some people don't like to hear the C******** word before September and some before December1st but there's been a bit of a postal shake up in the UK and things are going to be a bit different around here.  The restrictions on the cost of stamps have been lifted and a 1st Class stamp has nearly doubled in price.  I hope it will not be the death of the Christmas card as that would be very sad.  We are lucky to have another option locally, the Scout's Christmas Post, but the cards do have to be posted by the 1st week in December.  All this adds up to being in control and getting prepared early.  So here it is my 1st of the year (I think) and here's to many more!!!

A simple Tilda, coloured with Copics and jazzed up with some jewels.

The sentiment stamp was a freebie from Crafts Beautiful last year.

Challenges:
Christmas Card Challenge #26 - Bling
Let's Ink It Up #23 - Bling
Christmas all year round - Carol/song - We wish you a merry Christmas

** Kate **

Birds in my hair

I was attempting to comment on lots of entries for this month' By The Cute And Girly when something stopped me in my tracks over at Diane's Favourite Cards.  It was this stunningly, beautiful digi from A Day For Daisies that I had to buy IMMEDIATELY!!!

I have kept my card fairly simple as really all that was need was this beautiful image.  I might have to do a CAS card with it or one of the others in the set - yes, it came in a set!  I've used BasicGrey Curio papers throughout and embellished with a Prima flower and a Kaisercraft word stamp.  All of the little pearly dots are Liquid Pearls.

Not forgetting the decoration of the actual image which was coloured with Copics.

Challenges:
BasicGrey - Anything goes
Digital Tuesday #161 - Purple, yellow and brown
Ladybug Crafts Ink - Wings
Kaboodles Doodles #120 - Dress for success
Creative Inspirations - Anything goes
Counterfeit Kit - Card Sketch

** Kate ** 

Cheeky Monkeys

.....and now for something completely different!  Which is the name that Shimelle has given to the series at UK Scrappers which is focused on trying out new techniques and ideas for pages.  This month the step-by-step instructions used bright, zingy patterned paper, a photo strip and winding twine around brads.  All things I don't typically use on my pages.  Here's how mine turned out.

I have to say that during the process I didn't like it at all but, once I added the journalling on the left to balance out all the activity on the right, I was really pleased with it.  I'd recently rediscovered where my stash of white 12x12 had been hiding and so there will be a few more pages now starting from a completely white background.  For the photos I opened a Word document and inserted  text boxes of the same size onto a landscape page.  Once I had inserted the pictures I wanted into the boxes, I removed the lines from around the edge of the boxes and moved the images until they were touching.  So I didn't waste half a sheet of A4 photo paper, I ran a different set along side for use on another page.

All of the papers are Amy Tangerine Sketchbook and the large letters are from her earlier line, never has one set of alphas been used to make so many titles, I will be buying some more of them if I spot them.  The smaller foam letters are from Papermania and the twine is Jilly Bean Soup.  Nearly forgot to say the little doily is from Poppy's Cabin.

I'd been admiring Dylusions sprays on other peoples projects and decided to take the plunge and try some to brighten up my subtler mists, I love them!!!!  This one is Fresh Lime and I also have Bubblegum Pink as Rhonda had said they were her top 2 choices.

** Kate **

Royal Albert Hall - A scrapbook page with Handy Hippo

To ring the changes with my latest Handy Hippo project I thought I would make a scrapbook page and in particular I wanted to use the 'Love London' stamp set from Penny Black with some photos from our recent trip up to the Albert Hall.

The plain grey cardstock from American Crafts has been decorated with BasicGrey Kioshi papers cut into strips and also punched.  The Letters for the title are from BasicGrey too.

For extra detail the background has been splashed with ink from an Aquamarker.  I scribbled a Bamboo pen on a non-porous surface and spritzed the ink with water.  It was then liquid enough to pick up with a brush which I tapped over the page to give a lightly misted effect.

I've stamped the image of the London double decker bus and coloured it with Promarkers.  It's then been cut out and added at the front of my title, so it almost looks as though the bus is driving away with the title flying behind it.

All of the supplies used are available from Handy Hippo where all the items can be found using this link to a pre-filled basket that can be edited to remove or add any items that you wish.

** Kate **