What To Say?

So much time has passed since my last "real" post.  I don't want to go into why I haven't posted anything because it doesn't really matter in the scheme of things.  You can tell a sad story and someone always has one worse.  You can tell a "hero" story and someone always has one better.  I'm not the kind of person who looks for a "Oh my goodness, poor you" or "Oh my goodness, you're amazing.!"
Let's just say....life is interesting and throws you curve balls.  We all do what we need to do!

There are a few people I want to thank for standing by me.  They have kept in touch, sent e-mails, and never asked for anything more than letting me know....they are there!  Not that I expect anyone to take time out of their busy day, and lets be honest ....we are all busy!  I really want to let them know I haven't forgot about them and they mean the blog world to me.  You guys.....really do!  From the bottom of my heart, Thank You!!!!

Di....you're the best.  I was beside myself when I opened your card at Christmas.  A card that came across the pond at what I believe to be the most wonderful time of the year!  You don't know how much that meant to me .....  and I shared it with everyone that came to my home over the holidays.  Love you!
Thank you!!!!

Gay, Tony, Kay and Bella....you've always been there for me!  A BIG Thank you to you!  Love you guys too!

To all my followers, I won't disappoint.  I'm planning on coming back - bigger and stronger.  I just need a little more time.  I've got some really great things coming, I promise!

Where ever you are in your day, I hope you're enjoying it.
Wishing you many wonderful creations!

To All My Blog Friends!

Happy New Year!

Second Blog Candy Winner!

The Candy.....



&

The Winner....



renaissance.lady

I was thrilled to see that I had so many entries for my second Cuttlebug Blog Candy.  There were 161 Inlinkz entries and 18 more via e-mail.  Thank you to everyone who entered and Congratulations

to renaissance.lady, the lucky (e-mail) winner.

Please send me your information and I will get your Cuttlebug to you.

Thecraftyelf@hotmail.com







First Blog Candy Winner....

The Candy.......

The Winner....

More Blog Candy - Bracelet Winner

Congratulations

#8

Kay Hammock

This is such a beautiful bracelet!  Kay, I hope you enjoy wearing it as much as I've enjoyed being able to offer it to one lucky person! 

Please send me your information (Thecraftyelf@hotmail.com) and I will get your gorgeous bracelet out to you.

Once again....Congratulations!  



GOOD LUCK!

Thank you to everyone who has visited, left comments and joined in my blog candy giveaways!  I am gathering all the necessary data,  making the draws and announcing the winners of both the bracelet and Cuttlebug this weekend.  I wish you all - good luck!!

WOYWW

Spreading the love!

Not much to share on my desk, sorry!  It's been an interesting few weeks.  So much has happened ....and all at once!

When family and friends are in need of help....we respond!  That's what we do.  It's the right thing to do!   I'm doing what I can to help and I believe I'm making a difference.   Sometimes you can't do anything but wait and that's the most difficult of all, you feel helpless.  My decision to put blogging aside for a couple of weeks and help out has been difficult, but necessary.   I know you understand.  I haven't gone anywhere, I'm still here.  I'm just so happy I am able to help and it feels so good!

Wishing you many wonderful creations!

WOYWW

 One of the many things WOYWW is responsible for is showing us all how quickly time flies!  You gotta wonder, are there any other days in the week?  Sometimes it doesn't feel like it ....does it?!!

I'm busy painting ceilings and walls so that's been keeping me away from my craft table lately.  Sadly I don't have anything in the way of paper, stamps, glitter or glue to show you today but I will share my evening project.  It's an afghan I'm crocheting for my new great niece, I'm trying to get it finished before the baby shower. 

If you are curious about the acronym WOYWW or why I'm sharing a picture of my afghan, click on The Stamping Ground where you'll find several others just like me doing the same.  I'm not going to tell you anymore, you'll just have to visit the link above yourself and join in some fun and escape to many different places around the world. 

Last week I wasn't able to visit everyone ((sigh)) and I'm not sure I'll be able to this week either.  I've got my "honey do" list to look after first before I can once again get back into my regular crafty routine.  I'm going to try do my best though, I promise.

Where ever you are in your day, I hope you're enjoying it.
Wishing you many wonderful creations!

More Blog Candy!

Look what's up for grabs!  The wonderful Helena from Helena's Boutique has made it possible for me to offer another stunning bracelet as blog candy.  You don't want to miss out on this one....trust me! 

This bracelet is stamped 925 (92.5% pure fine silver) and is Tiffany inspired.  This is a quality bracelet and measures 8" in length.  It's absolutely gorgeous!

Here are those pesky rules but necessary to make it fair for everyone!

1)  It would be awesome if you became a follower!
2) Please visit Helena on facebook and leave a comment saying you saw her gorgeous bracelet on The Crafty Elf's Blog.   Helena is so generous and always happy to offer some nice "bling" for my blog candy! 
3) Post my Blog candy on your sidebar with a link back here.
4) Add your name to the cute little blue guy at the bottom.




Good Luck!

Come On....Cut It Out!

Snappy title isn't it? 

Actually, Cut It Out is the theme over at Less Is More.  Chrissie and Mandi are the wonderful Diva's (they like being called that, I promise) of a weekly challenge that is so popular it now has over 1200 followers.  It's worth the visit.  This week they are looking for some kind of hole or aperture in your card!

Needing a card for a friends birthday today I turned to a couple of challenges to help get me started.  Here's what I came up with.

I ran a piece of white card stock through a crimper, punched out the design using a real estate tag punch and for the flowers I used two different sized flower punches.   Each of the flowers were finished off with a tiny pearl embellishment and stickles to add a bit of sparkle.  The sentiment is from Hero Arts and the ink is Tuxedo Black from Memento.

I'm also entering this card into Pixie's Crafty Snippets Challenge  where you use snippets of paper to create your cards.  This weekly challenge helps to use up all those little pieces of leftover paper (snippets) that keep piling up and never seem to get used.  Great idea isn't it?

Where ever you are in your day, I hope you're enjoying it.
Wishing you many wonderful creations.

Seeing Spots...

...is the name of the embossing folder I used from Cuttlebug.  It's a nice change from the Polka Dot folder, certainly gives a different look.  I quite like it though.

I used one of my new daisy embellishments from K & Co and cut out a thanks sentiment using my Cricut and Opposites Attract cartridge.  It all came together quite nicely to create a lovely thank you card.   I love to give hand written notes of thanks to people especially when they don't expect it.  The card being hand made also makes for a nice personal touch to the occasion.  

Where ever you are in your day, I hope you're enjoying it.
Wishing you many wonderful creations!

WOYWW

Good Morning!  Welcome to WOYWW where you show your crafty workdesk and whatever
project(s) are presently being worked on - or not.  Julia Dunnit from the Stamping Ground is the Grand Hostess of this weekly peek into homes from around the world sharing all things crafty. 

Last week I struggled with blogger when leaving comments on many blogs.   I began writing down the names of those blogs I was having difficulties with but then I stopped once I reached 10, I was getting very frustrated at that point.  It appeared many had issues with blogger too!  I'm going to make sure I visit them first this week. 

Keeping it short this week, lots to do today.  Here is what's on my desk.  Just checking out some new embellishments before I start a birthday card.

I bought them on sale just after Christmas, couldn't help myself.  Look at those Gerber daisies aren't they gorgeous?  See the glitter on them?   The garden tools and clay pot are just so sweet too.  Gotta go now, need to visit some desks.  Gotta go now and visit some desks.   Thanks for stopping by!

Where ever you are in your day, I hope you're enjoying it.

Wishing you many wonderful creations! 

Collage...

There is a technique challenge over at Just Us Girls.  They are asking for you to make a card using the collage stamping technique and they have even included a tutorial from Splitcoast Stampers showing how to create it.
Wanting to make a card for a friend I thought this would be perfect for what I was looking for.

I began with a piece of white card stock, stamped the background with the inkadinkado friendship stamp measuring approx. 4 3/4" X 3 1/2" using Perfect Plumeria ink from Versa Magic.  On top of the stamped background I stamped a whimsical flower (unknown stamp) three times using Certainly Celery ink from Stampin Up and then stamped over those same images just slightly offset using Mellow Moss ink also from Stampin Up.  At the top, I stamped the sentiment friendship from Hero Arts and used Mellow Moss ink once again.  Applying Perfect Plumeria ink to a Tim Holtz blending tool I added some colour around the edges.  This piece of card stock was then matted to Pale Plumb card stock which was then matted to white card stock followed by Pale Plumb again.  To finish off the card I attached all the card stock pieces to a white card measuring 6 1/2" X 5" and adhered 5 small pink heart shaped rhinestones. 

Hop on over to the Just Us Girls challenge and join in the fun, you have until Thursday.

Where ever you are in your day, I hope you're enjoying it.
Wishing you many wonderful creations!

Birds ....

bird

 

noun

1. any warm-blooded vertebrate of the class Aves, having a body covered with feathers, forelimbs modified into wings, scaly legs, a beak, and no teeth, and bearing young in a hard-shelled egg.

2. a fowl or game bird.

3. Sports .

a. clay pigeon.

b. a shuttlecock.

4. Slang . a person, especially one having some peculiarity: He's a queer bird.

5. Informal . an aircraft, spacecraft, or guided missile.

EXPAND

6. Cookery . a thin piece of meat, poultry, or fish rolled around a stuffing and braised: veal birds.

7. Southern U.S. (in hunting) a bobwhite.

8. Chiefly British Slang . a girl or young woman.

9. Archaic . the young of any fowl.

10. the bird, Slang .

a. disapproval, as of a performance, by hissing, booing, etc.: He got the bird when he came out on stage.

b. scoffing or ridicule: He was trying to be serious, but we all gave him the bird.

c. an obscene gesture of contempt made by raising the middle finger.

---

Now that we have the dictionary definition of a bird, we need to put it to the challenge.  The Less is More Challenge.  Chrissie and Mandi of LIM are requesting the following,

ONE LAYER CARD

with the subject of

BIRDS

Remember to add NO additional layers and to keep embellishments to a minimum

I used very vintage jumbo wheel from Stampin Up and masked off the bird from Stampin Up's Punch Potpourri.  I then re stamped the bird in the masked off area and added the sentiment thoughtful from Hero Arts.  I used only one colour of ink on my card, frayed burlap from Tim Holtz

I added detail to the card without using embellisments

The folds can be squeezed as tightly together as you like or gently pulled open, which ever
look is preferred.

I used the corner chomper from crop-a-dile

Cloud setting, for the opposite corners

I used the Martha Steward score board to score my corners

I scored eleven lines

For the bottom left corner,
I start to score from the bottom scoring upwards (I find this easier) to the centre fold of the card
scoring eleven lines.

I snip up the centre of the card to the top score line

I fold the score lines in an accoridan fashion.  I like to use my ruler to help
crease the lines

Then I use my bone folder to finish each fold. 

Here is what the corner looks like finished

Here is the card

Well, if you've got this far....thank you! 

Where ever you are in your day, I hope you're enjoying it.

Wishing you many wonderful creations!



What's Up With Blogger???

I've had a problem today with blogger.  I'm trying to comment on blogs and all I get is a blank page and then the computer freezes and I have to monkey around to get it back to the main page ???  This doesn't happen on all blogs but it's happened on about 10 so far today.  I've written down the names of the blogs so I can get back there later but still, what's up?

Is anyone else having this trouble?