Mostly monochromatic and matching envelope!

Good evening, just a quick post to show you a little CAS card I made based on the CASual fridays colour scheme which was 3 shades of one colour, plus brown; and also a matching envelope for the Young Crafters Unite challenge.

This is a simple little thank you card which uses my waltzingmouse teeny trees stamps. My brown is the sentiment, although I think I maybe should have heat embossed that to make it stand out more. The envelope looks quite cream in the photo, but it didn't look that obvious when I was making it, but the light in the dining room isn't great! I was going to do a orange/red autumn colour scheme, but wasn't sure if that counted as one colour, so stuck with green!
I think I'm definitely going to enter the Young Crafters Unite challenge again, as making the envelope match was easy, but it really makes the card seem a little more special!

Bits and Pieces!

So its been about 2 weeks since I last posted, because I've been SUPER busy!!! I was so disappointed to have to miss the September Waltzingmouse blogwaltz, but due to the combination of a)not celebrating halloween, and b)not having the time to come up with an alternative, I just had to miss it. I'd done every one this year, and it was my aim to do them all, but alas, I won't now!
So last weekend I ran the Great North Run, the worlds Biggest Half marathon. After 7 months, 275miles and  over 45hours of training I felt ready. I had put myself forward following a 10km event in May which I found ok. Let me tell you, a half marathon is NOTHING like 10km! Its more than double, and so training really needed to kick up a notch. Also its a very hilly course, so I had to start doing hill training. I was feeling confident that I may actually be able to run the whole distance without stopping, although originally my target was to merely complete the course!!! The weather was almost perfect on the day with 80% of the time spent running it was raining. I was very pleased to finish in 2hours 17 minutes (I'd set myself a target of 2hrs 30mins) and even more pleased to have raised around £1500 for the Christie Cancer hospital. Before you even think it, I don't plan to do a marathon next, I don't have the time to train!

This weekend we went away as a family to North Wales, and it was the first time we've all been away as a family since my mum died, so it was a bit different, but we had a lovely time. Here's a picture of my monkey riding a mini tractor at The Green Valley Village.

Lastly, I couldn't post without a quick card, and I knocked this up quickly tonight. Part was already done and waiting in my card box, but I needed a birthday card for a friend for tomorrow, and I just haven't done any craft in weeks due to all my fundraising and training.
Its Waltzingmouse teeny trees stamps for the trees and bird, and the sentiment is Banana Frog. The background paper came free with a magazine last year, and I can't recall who its made by.

Cake Bake

Well today has been a busy baking day. Tomorrow I'm holding a cake sale at work to raise some extra money for my Half Marathon. I'm running to raise money for the Christie Cancer Hospital and every penny will be very well spent. Its coming up for 1 year since my mum died, and she was really well cared for at The Christie before she died. I have enlisted some friends to bake as well, but I have made Parsnip and Maple Syrup cake, Coconut sponge cake, banana loaf and chocolate cupcakes. Hopefully we can make £100 if we sell for £1 a slice. I'm also having a Sweepcake, where people try and guess how long it will take me to run the 13.1 miles, and the winner gets a cake of their choice! If you would like to sponsor me, you can do it easily  at www.justgiving.com/Bethan-Lycett-runs-again
Onto the cakes. I haven't yet filled the Parsnip cake as it needs a cream cheese filling, so I'll have to do that in the morning, but here's a look at the coconut cake

and here are the best cupcakes in the world (not my description, that's the recipe!).

 I almost broke my electric whisk while making the cupcake frosting, but my wonderful husband fixed it for me :)

Birthday tree - More WMSC#64

Here I have another card made from the walztingmouse sketch challenge #64.
I wanted to make a card using my beautiful tree stamps and with my waltzingmouse polka dot stamp, which is one of my favourite stamps at the moment! I stamped the polka dots onto white card with antique linen distress inks. I then sponged the edges and layered onto the card base. I stamped my tree image onto some card using my forest moss distress ink and sponged the edges as well. I layered this onto some dark green card and found some lovely grosgrain ribbon to match. I stamped the sentiment from my new penny black set onto a small banner shape I hand cut and then sponged this too. (I can't NOT sponge distress inks!!!)
I'm not sure now whether I should have put a dark green layer behind the polka dots too, but hey ho, it's done now!! Hope you like it!

Thank you trees WMSC#64 and Less is More challenge

Well I've been so busy, I haven't had chance to blog, but I wanted to sneak on and post this for a couple of challenges.
I am in the final stages of my training for this weekends Great North Run half marathon, and have been doing all sorts of fundraising. At the weekend I held a coffee and cake event, and this week I'm doing something similar at school. I have made so many thank you cards for all the people who have helped me, and will at some point post them, but for the moment I'll just post a quick thank you which I am submitting to this weeks Waltzingmouse sketch challenge, and also the Less is more Seeing Double challenge. I completely CASE'd this card from Margaret over here.

I have been really inspired by some CAS cards and especially Susan over at Simplicity, and it took alot of restraint not to put more on this card, but I really like it. The stamps are all Waltzingmouse Teeny trees.

Paper roses

I have seen a few times recently people making their own rose embellishments and thought it was something I'd like to have a go at. As far as my 'style' goes, I'm not very flowery, so I haven't really had a need for any roses, but I'm planning to make a few thank you cards and thought they would work well. I started by drawing a circle on a piece of paper (I drew around a tape roll!) and then cut out. I then cut into the circle in a spiral pattern. I have drawn what it would look like, but I just do it free hand with my scissors. It doesn't have to be neat, it probably makes it a better if its a bit uneven!

You then start from the edge and roll in until you have rolled the whole thing, you loosen off the rose towards the end and then stick the whole thing onto the little circular tab you have left at the end.

I started off using some raffia effect paper, and when my hubby got home he said "did you use book paper for that?".

 Now he wears glasses, but I'm not sure why he thought it was book paper, but it did make me think what a good idea it was. So I made a few of those too! In fact, when you get started you can't stop! I have loads now!