Recycled? Stone me!

Probably not what you can call real recycling, but many years ago we were sitting on a pebble beach, probably West Bay (or maybe not) and me, being into gardening at the time and laying paths and building rock gardens, suddenly noticed how 'nice' the little stones were. Not great lumps, all sharp and flint like, straight from a gravel pit, as found on our local beach, but tiny, round, smooth, almost gem-like, which glittered happily as the waves gently run back and forth over them. I filled a small bag with these little stones. Back then of course it wasn't taboo to remove pebbles and shells from the beach as it is now. Later I decided they were far too pretty to edge a small pond so instead used them to cover a rather cheap wooden picture frame. And this is it. I used PVA glue to fix them to the frame. The Die-cut Heart ♥ was made from a photo glue tube. Don't forget Quirky Craft's has a recycled romance challenge still going on at the moment...I was going to swap the picture for one of a wedding but decided, little Maria would look just fine.

New Followers! Hi and and a big (((wave)) to Nancy, a new blogger, who has made some lovely cards using my digis. Dragonllew, no link but I think I've found you! Alsteely, no link here and too many on Goggle to choose (they might not be you!) Lisa, another no linker and Sally!! Yay Sally has two blogs. I 'know' Sally through forums, I think Sally's blog was the first or second one I joined and then just had to have a go at making my own...it took me months to work things out (deleted it once by mistake!) but I'm now coming up to my second year!!
There's only one Challenge I've found so far I thought I could enter this into...(not read all the rules yet!!) so I hope it fits! Have a Happy Weekend. Thanks for stopping by!!!

This weeks WOYWW and freebie here and Spot The Difference Here

Challenge

All sorts challenge-inspired by nature (pebbles and Rhododendrons)
♥

Quirky Craft's Challenge is Rubbish!

Ok! I'm not being rude! It's true! Well, sort of! The Challenge over on Quirky Crafts has started. Did anyone guess what it is?? Nice and easy, with a little twist...

*Recycled Romance*

Ohoooo sounds a bit saucy... Anyway!! This weeks Challenge is being sponsored by the fabulous...

Digital Delights!

Which means, three lovely digi's will go to the Design Teams favourite crafty make. This challenge was set by Caro. So we would all love to see what you can come up with. Anything romantic (and crafty) but!! You have to use some thing that would normally (by normal people) either be thrown away or put into the recycle bin (or bag in my case)
I started off with a bent blank card, which I'd put by to use the card as card and not as a card, if you get my meaning, inked the edges with TH distressing ink, then found a scrap of Summer Driggs paper to cover that, and set about it with more ink and a nail file. I then decided to keep with the Summer Driggs papers, (freebies) but fixed those lovely heart papers (dance with me) on to some black 'felty type' paper, which was used as stuffing in a parcel, not nice enough to use on it's own, but too good to throw away... I then added a cardboard heart, a lovely red ribbon from 'ParkHouse' jewellery, no..not mine, in the bin at one of my other houses. (not my house!)
The tiny red hearts I started punching out years ago. Any time I had a nice box or packet too nice to throw away, I'd set to it with my punches. Most of these were Easter egg or perfume boxes. On some of the hearts you can see writing, I think it sort of 'adds' to it! (I bet you try to read it!) The flowers were fun to make, a bit fiddly, mainly because the punches didn't like the newspaper (too thin) so I punched out the newspaper, the brown parcel paper and the cellophane sweet wrappers at the same time, after I'd inked, scrunched them all up and then sprayed them with my only bottle of Cosmic Shimmers. The golden hearts were cut using my BigShot from... photo glue tubes, empty of course! Oh yes, the little Raccoon is Cupid Ridley and he can be found Here.
There you go! Sorry about the odd sized writing, blogger just HATEs it if I paste and copy!! (and I've already typed it all out again! Anyway!!! Pop over to Quirky Crafts and join in.
Now I did find some challenges for this card and now I'm back from skiving off somewhere I'll add them! One more thing, because I made this card last week, I've changed the colour of Ridley (as I now have a darker grey Promaker!) I've also added mock stitching, Stickles red glitter to the flowers and added a sentiment. The Font is called Pea Leslie's Happy Font and you can download it for free Here. Right! That's about it!
Oh one more thing, ever fancied drawing your own doodles? Try it here, go on, it's fun!!

Challenges
Delicious Doodles - Valentines
The Crafty Pad.- Hearts
2 Sisters Challenge Blog - Hearts

C.R.A.F.T. (Trimmies) - Valentines

Pixie Dust Studio Pixie Challenge - Valentines

Stamp, Scrap, and Doodle Saturday - Love is in the Air

Little Claires - Anything Goes
One stitch at a time- make it pretty...(I think!)

Crafty Ann's - Love is all around

The Crafty Purple Frog Challenge - Valentines Day/Romance

Dutch Dare - Love

Cute Card Thursday - Hearts and Flowers

Crafty Calendar - Love

For Fun - Hearts

Crafty Cardmakers - Hearts