Miss Molly in her Polka Dot Outfit

Hello there...we have a new challenge for you at The Squirrel & The Fox. Our theme this fortnight is Something New...I'm sure you can find something hidden away in your stash that you've never used...so please come and play along with us :)

Our wonderful sponsor for this challenge is The Digi Garden...LOVE these cute images! My something new is the Molly digi...isn't she the cutest little thing :) I've made this for an upcoming 3 year old's birthday (in April, aren't I organised lol).

Please excuse my photographic skills (or should I say lack of!) in this photo...seem to have snapped the card on a bit of an angle this time :(  Anyhow...the base card is 120 x 170mm (approx 5 x 7 inches) and has been cut from SU Rose Red, as have the mats for the panels. The DP is Grant Archival. Little Miss Molly has been coloured with Copics, a little Prisma Pencil and her hair higlighted with a Spica pen. I've added little rhinestones to her top for a bit of bling. What little girl doesn't like a bit of sparkle lol Rhinestones have also been added to the corners of the horizontal panel.

I haven't coloured in a while and I definitely felt very rusty! To top that off, literally on the last curl I was colouring, the dratted Copic I was using decided to do a big "blob" of ink......GRRRRRRRRR...not happy Jan!!!!!!!  I've fixed it as best I can so I hope it's not too noticeable. I couldn't bring myself to throw it out and start again when I'd finished the whole thing! Of course, the colour that blobbed was the darkest colour...Murphy's Law! Boy, that Murphy has a lot to answer for!!

I wanted to add a sentiment...Happy Birthday or something...but I couldn't decide where or how I wanted to place it, so might go back and do that before I give the card. Maybe I'll just try a 3 and see how I like that. Obviously rusty at making cards too :)

Here's a close up of the little lady:

Please go and visit my teamies' blogs and have a peak at their wonderful creations...well worth the trip :)  Links are all in my sidebar.

Thanks for looking..........have a wonderful day :)

Introducing....Baby Owl :)

I'm back already lol  I kept thinking about making a smaller version of the Owl Treat Box that I made (check my last post) but knew the box section had to be made deeper for this to work. So... today, to get the idea out of my head!!, I went back and played around with the cut file I created for the original Owl Box. This is what I came up with:

Isn't she cute! Two of this little baby can be cut from an A4 or Letter size sheet of CS and takes teeny scraps of DP to decorate :) The base for this one was cut from CM Dusty Pink CS and decorated with papers from the Limited Edition Sweet Owl 6" paper pad. I had the same googly eyes that I used on the larger owl in a smaller size, so went with those.  I embossed the front section of the owl only with an embossing folder and all the edges were inked with SU Close to Cocoa (retired).

Here's a comparison photo...Mummy Owl & Baby Owl :)

It's much better with the deeper box area. I will be able to put more sweet treats in there lol  I'm thinking about making a whole family of these....Mum, Dad and a couple of kids...just because they're so cute. It would be very cute to put a message or sentiment on their little bellies...owl always love you....owl always be there for you....you're a hoot....I could go on and on but I'm sure you don't want me to LOL  Easy to see I'm an owl addict!!

Edited to add files. I've opened a MediaFire account so hopefully when you click on the link below, it will download a zip file of all the Owl box versions. Please let me know if you have any problems!

Owl Treat Boxes MTC
Owl Treat Boxes SVG

Thanks for looking.........have a wonderful day :)

Owl Treat Box

I'm back with another cut file...I'm on a roll at present with MTC :) I had another learning curve to make this...I had worked out how to do a basic trace (like the coffee cup in my previous post) but I hadn't done a trace that required being broken into parts for paper piecing. Sooooo...today was the day! I should be doing hundreds of other things, like yucky housework, but, oh well, this was way more fun...I think!!!  Tore my hair out a few times while working out the tracing and I could probably have hand cut 10 of these in the time it took to mess with the cut file lol  But, in the end, I'm really, really happy with this little lady...she's very cute...and I LOVE cute owls :)

I found the template for this while surfing Pinterest. (BAD place that Pinterest, it's such a time-waster lol) I'm usually pretty good at noting where things come from when I want to use them but for some reason I can't find the origin of this....I get so mad at myself when I do that!!!  If anyone recognises this, please point me in the right direction so I can give credit to whoever made the original template.

Here's the side view:

This was so quick and easy to make, cutting it with Maxxie (my KNK Maxx). Everything is SU except the googly eyes and ribbon. The base is Crumb Cake, all the DP is from Everyday Enchantment and the white eye panel is Whisper White. All the edges have been inked before assembling. This size uses most of an A4 sheet of CS. I'm going to try scaling it down and see if it still works...the opening isn't very wide once assembled, so it may not be practical to make it smaller.

Thanks for looking.........have a wonderful day :)

Coffee Cup Card

My friend Bronwyn asked me if I'd help her make a template for a coffee cup card, so she could do an SU tutorial for her blog. We spent yesterday afternoon together and eventually came up with this:

I learnt a few more things while playing around in MTC making this. I'm loving that software more & more every time I use it! We found an image and I pixel traced it, then set about cleaning it up and creating all the bits to make the card. The file has the card base and the templates to cut the DP. Please visit Bronwyn's blog to purchase the template and tutorial...it's very reasonably priced :)

For my card I decided to go with a recycled coffee cup look :)  Everything is SU except the stamped sentiment and the embossing folder. Card base is Crumb Cake, lid is Early Espresso, fancy tag is Very Vanilla and I've used SU DP for the cozy band. All pieces have inked edges and the embossing folder was inked before inserting the CS. I was sooooo impressed to find the sentiment stamp in my stash as I'd already decided I wanted to put "warm wishes" on the front...how lucky was that!! AND it fit inside the SU frame stamp...amazing!

My card has been cut with the MTC file I created. For anyone with a cutter & MTC, the file can be found for free in the forum discussions at Make-The-Cut.

Thanks for looking.....have a wonderful day :)

Tealight Candle Box Card

Hello everyone...happy Sunday :) It's time for a new challenge at The Squirrel & The Fox. Our challenge theme for the next fortnight is Anything Goes. Hope to see you playing along with us this fortnight.

I've made a couple of tealight candle box cards...phew, that's a mouthful lol...as birthday gifts for my two nieces. I'm slightly late with the first one, which was last Monday, but very organised for the next one which isn't until next month! You win some and you lose some :)

Here's the first one:

The box card is made from a free cut file that one of the MTC forum members posted back in August. I've been wanting to make one of these since I downloaded the file. I think they make a lovely, useful gift-come-card that can be used instead of ending up stuck away in a drawer.

The card base is SU Concord Crush...bit of a story to that!! I managed to run out of CS in the middle of making this...thank goodness Bronwyn came to my rescue...thank you so much Bron...*waving madly* Anyhow, back to the project...the DP is all Kaiser from the 6"  Magic Happens paper pad. The stamped sentiment on the tag is SU. I used a fancy Spellbinders die cut to back the handmade paper flower on the belly band. It's been a long time since I made a flower...I'd forgotten how much I enjoy it. Well, actually, I nearly had forgotten how to make them at all lol  I also forgot how heady the perfume of the Isocol is lol  I think I could become a rubbing alcohol sniffer...forget the glue sniffing thing, nowhere near as nice as Isocol :) The edges of the flower were sponged with SU Elegant Eggplant ink and the centre is finished with a rhinestone. The flower then had a spritz of Glitter Dust...the first time I've used it and I love it!!

Here's the second one:

The base card is SU Soft Suede and the DP is a mix of SU & Kaiser. The stamped sentiments are both SU. The fancy shape is included in the file and has been cut from the SU DP with a mat of Soft Suede...it mirrors the same cut-out shape inside. This has been topped with a Spellbinders fancy tag die-cut and a stamped, punched circle.. The whole panel has been popped up with foam dots to allow the SU seam binding ribbon to pass underneath. The ribbon ties at the side to close the card. Rhinestones have been added under the stamped sentiments for a little bling :) I just have to go and buy some Body Shop scented teaslight candles to fill the box, as I've done for the one above. Can't be having one nice smelly card and one boring one :)

Please go and check out my wonderful teamies' fabulous projects...links are all on my sidebar.

Thanks for looking.........have a wonderful day :)