Paper Artsy & Distress

This was another of the cards we did today at Loobi Crafts.

We did the background first by blending Distress inks and rubbing through someTim Holtz masks.

The flower is by Paper Artsy and was stamped a second time, painted with Acrylic paints, cut out and decoupaged onto the card.

The orange circles were made with the end of a tube and acrylic paint.  Mine turned out quite bright so I decided to blend some more Distress ink round the edges of the card.

I forget to ask whose the sentiment was but it's the one I chose to use as I like it very much.  I think it would suit many occasions and wish I had bought it today.

I hope you come back to visit again soon.

Cardmaking at Loobi Crafts

 I had a great morning at Loobi Crafts in Leighton Buzzard with friends making cards with Lisa.  The shop is a real Aladdins  cave and well worth a visit if you're in the area.

We made three cards and this was the first.

The stamp is by Paper Artsy and the die is one of a set by Tim Holtz.  Lisa said they'd sold out of the die and I can see why.  I love it.  But I have got it on order ...    I saved the little hexagonal cut out bits.  I'm sure I'll be able to use them for something.  Have you any ideas?

Sorry the photo isn't the best but I wasn't quite sure how to show off the die to it's best advantage.

I forgot to ask what the papers are but think they're very pretty anyway and the little button just finished it of.

I'll be back with the second card later tonight and it is very different.

"Squizzer"

Hello and Happy Friday,

I've been out to Loobi Crafts with friends today and recently got home.

My hubby had taken this photo in the garden with his new camera.  He usually takes photos of bugs.

This made me smile so I'm linking to A Stitch in time Share a Smile

I had a great time card making this morning so will post again later when I've taken my photos of my cards.

Have a lovely weekend and hope you call back again soon.

Rudolph Day!

This is the first Christmas card that I have put on my blog.  It may seem a little early but I've heard about a challenge called Rudolph Day on Scrappy Mo's blog and would like to join in with this card.

I used some green linen textured core card and embossed it with a Sizzix embossing folder.  I sanded the embossing back to the white core and rubbed a little in the middle too.  I scraped round the outside lightly with a distressing tool then rubbed around the outside of the embossing with Distress ink.

I mounted  the topper onto a white A6 card, added some tiny beads for the berries, a red bow and a festive sentiment.  I added a little stickles onto the embossing but it doesn't show up too well in the photo.

Today I would also like to say Hello and Welcome to Julianne aka pinkjools who has recently joined my blog.

 

WOYWW #321

There is nothing on my workdesk this Wednesday.

I developed one of those flu type bugs last Thurday and have spent most of the time since then sleeping or watching daytime television.

Anyway I'm linking up with Julia's Stamping Ground where we have a look at what others have been up to since last week.

My contribution this week is a recent photo from my craft cabin window.  I see all sorts of interesting goings  on when I'm inside.

This is a regular visitor to the feeder.  No it's not a fish!

It's a wood pigeon.  They mainly feed on the ground or on the bird table.  This funny little guy clings on by his feet and hangs upside down to feed.  I wonder if he ever gets indigestion.

Penny Black Mice

Today I'd like to say a welcome to my two new followers  Liz and Jenny

Welcome and a big Thank You both for joining my blog.

The image on this card is from a Penny Black set  of clear stamps, all with mouse images.  Oh and I used up a few more  peel offs.

Thank you for your visit today and as the sentiment says

"Have a micey nice day"

Snippets Tag Card

I'd like to take  this card over to join in with the girls at Pixie's Snippets Playground

The background card has been in my scrap box for ever. It  didn't work when I first stamped it with a silver Brilliance ink pad, but I knew it would work with something one day .....

The pink paper is some from my stash.  I die cut one layer of the flower with the corner and the top layer with  another scrap of lighter pink paper and added a silver card candy to the centre.

The tag was diecut with a Marianne die from a scrap of white card which was already embossed  and the ribbon was a scrap too.  I finished with 3 clear gems and a silver-grey pearl on the four corners.

Quick Thank You

Thank you  for stopping by,

Just a quick post today as I've been totally out of action for the past few days. I't just some sort of bug but I can't manage to concentrate just now.

This is a card I made a short time ago with an embossing folder that I got free with a magazine.  I only used the bottom part of the folder and a snippet of  fancy paper at the top.

The die behind the flower is cut from the same paper. The sentiment is stamped onto a Marianne die.

I'd like to enter this into the Alphabet Challenge blog "L is for Lavender"

WOYWW 320

It's Wednesday morning so I'm linking up with Julia's Stamping Ground where we show each other what is on our Work desks  each week.

My hubby and myself are going to Cambridgeshire to visit  his aunt who now lives in residential care so my photo was taken last evening.

I keep my sewing machine in my cabin as it's only used for card making.

I am finishing off some notelets  that I didn't manage to get done when I went to a card making evening with friends recently.  I had made three cards and stamped these three but have to finish them off and add to cards.

On my desk are some washi tape and gems I am using, a border punch and a jar that I put small punched hearts flowers and butterflies into to use up small scraps of paper and card rather than throwing them away.

We'll be home about teatime so I'll be visiting desks in the evening and on Thursday.  Hope you all enjoy your day.

My Cupcake

I've made this card to enter into the Tuesday Morning Sketches #310 .

The cupcake  is made with one of my new sets of Stampin Up  stamps and a punch which arrived yesterday.  It's a set called  Sprinkles of Life and is the first time I've used it.  I think it's going to get used a lot.

The sentiment is from another SU clear set of stamps called Endless Birthday wishes with lots of mix and match words in two different fonts and two sizes.

The papers are Dovecrafts Basics which I liked so much I bought two packs.

I cut the papers to size, stuck them together at the back then ran through my Cuttlebug in a Cuttlebug embossing folder.  The flowers and mats were all cut with Die sire die sets and I corner rounded the white one.

I added a gem to the flower, glitter to the cupcake frosting and a touch of Sakura starlight orange to the flame.  The ribbon and purple paper are from my stash.

'Wild'

Good Mid Morning!

I've not been around long today.  I had a lie in as I didn't sleep well last night.  It was one of those times where your mind just won't switch off .

Anyway, I'd like to enter my card today in the Try it on Tuesday Challenge which is 'Hot & Wild' and Crafting From the Heart #69

I don't know what the stamp is.  It's wood mounted and one I bought from a friend who was moving abroad and selling her stuff off.

I stamped this handsome boy onto acetate then on the back coloured the sky area blue and the right hand side brown using permanent markers.

When I got out my tub of gilding flakes, which I'd not used for a time it was mainly small pieces and dust.  There were lots of the green coloured  flakes in there which I didn't want to use so it took quite a long time to select the pieces that I did want to use.  I made sure he had really bright gold eyes!

After gilding I sprinkled clear glitter onto the coloured areas then mounted onto black card and tore the bottom.  I hadn't got brads in the colours I wanted so used peel off markers to colour them.  The background card is a very pale blue which doesn't show too well in the photo.  I had to take lots photos of this card a before I got rid of the reflection from the acetate.

The sun is shining here and we're meeting friends for lunch today.  I hope you have a good day too.

Have a Lovely Day

And I hope you are having a lovely day!

This card was was made with a piece of card I'd previously coloured.  After using Distress inks I sprayed water onto my craft mat and swooshed the card around.

After embossing in my Cuttlebug I heat embossed the sentiment which I got free a long time ago.

I used Fired Brick ink on some raised areas, then decided to paint a couple of the flowers and colour the centres black.

I added the butterfly then some glitter glue (which was probably a step too far) and mounted onto black card then onto a white A6 card.

It was very quick to do and I like the colours but think the sentiment would have been better a bit lower down.

I hope you'll call again soon.

Batch Making & New 'Encouragers'

Hello and Welcome.


I'm very excited to now have more than 10 followers and would like to say welcome today to:-

Pixie
Kathy
KathyK
Shaz
Nessa

I'm sure many of you will recognize the embossing folder I've used for these cards.  It came free with a magazine.

I often batch make cards as most of what I make goes to my chosen charity each month.

I made eight cards using co-ordinations card in different colours, added glossy accents to the dots and silver-grey pearls plus some little bows.

The diecuts behind the small sentiment are from a set of Marianne dies.

Just Snippets!

Welcome!  I do hope you're enjoying your weekend.

Yesterday while I was in town I bought a Making Cards magazine.  I've not seen this mag before.

Anyway inside were some free papers including several zentangle for colouring pages. I think most of us enjoy colouring in don't we?  It reminds me of happy times when I was a little girl.

Yesterday evening I coloured in a section of one of the pages and made a card for my box of charity cards.

This morning I decided that there was a large enough scrap left to make a card which I could take along to Pixies Snippets Playground.

I coloured it, trimmed it and mounted it onto a piece of black card and added gems to the centres of three of the flowers.  The sentiment is a scrap of white card that I scribbled onto with a green Promarker.  The sentiment and dotty border are from a set by Paula Pascal.  I punched it out and mounted  it onto the card with foam pads.  I rubbed a light blush of pink round the two white sides of the card but it doesn't show up in the photo.

Using scraps and old stuff!

Happy Friday!

My card was made using an old brass stencil that I've had for ages and scraps of card that were all lying on my desktop.

I got out my little lightbox to emboss the stencil.  I've hardly used it since I got my Cuttlebug.  After embossing I kept the stencil in place and coloured the raised areas with Distress ink then added a little chalk to the cup.

I coloured round the outside circle with Distress ink too but it looked rather pale and uninteresting so I replaced the stencil and drew round the raised design with a fine black Micron pen and added the dots round the flower centres.

I cut the piece of pink card, which was already embossed, to size, and mounted onto a scrap of black card then mounted the image onto another scrap of black which already had the fancy edge and trimmed it down to size. I added the gems for sparkle and rounded the top corner of the card.

I would like to enter this card into the Challenge on That's Crafty Challenge blog. and the
613 Avenue Challenge Blog.

WOYWW #319

Welcome WOYWW deskers,

I can't believe another week has passed already.

I have edited my post in respect of the news that Eliza has very sadly passed away.  As I'm quite a new desker  we hadn't met but there have been many lovely tributes paid to her here today and it's clear that she was very well respected and will be sadly missed .

I looked around for some time but only joined in at WOYWW two weeks ago and I've really enjoyed it.   Thank you Julia at Stamping Ground for bringing us all together every week.

I've been playing with some acrylic paints.  The ones on my desk are recently bought and hadn't been used before.  I made tags for cards with some thick Kraft card.  Some  I decided to triple emboss, something I've not done for a while and my Crop o Dile came out for the first time in ages.

Wishing everyone a happy day.

Triple embossed tag

Today I got my acrylic paints out for the first time in ages.

First I cut a few tags from kraft card and painted with a thick coat of a bluey green colour.  When it was dry I painted over in areas with white paint.

I decided to triple emboss some of the tags.  For this one I inked up the butterfly stamp with black Archival ink and while the last coat of embossing powder was still wet pushed the stamp into it and left it for the short time until the embossing powder was cool and the stamp released easily.  I added an eyelet and the gold and silver material, which I frayed, to the top of the tag.

I stamped the butterfly again onto a piece of white card which I'd first distressed around the edges then mounted it onto some black card. The tag was put onto the white card.  The idea was that the wings on the white card would peep out from underneath the tag. However it didn't quite work on the right hand side as part of the hot enamel had squashed over the side of the card.  I should have cut the tag slightly narrower in the beginning.

  Oh well!  I enjoyed my playtime anyway.

The corner pieces are off cuts of card from my desk and the gems are just to add some sparkle.  The sentiment is from a set of greetings by Paula Pascal.

Hoot of the Day

Hello and thank you for visiting.

This is a card that I made recently.

I fell in love with this little fellow when I went to Loobi Crafts a few weeks ago.  I just had to buy the stamps which are designed by Sam Poole for Creative Expressions.

For this card I used some card from my stash for the background, embossed it with a Crafts Too embossing folder, smeared over with Distress ink and put the raised dots on with Inkssentials enamel accents.

 I stamped the owl onto Kraft card and added some darker brown with a water colour pencil and orange onto his beak.  I also put some Glossy Accents on the beak.

I stamped the eyes and chest onto scraps of white and cream card, cut both out and stuck onto the owl.  He is raised a little with foam pads.

I die cut a snippet of Dovecraft paper with a Spellbinders Labels Four die, stamped on the sentiment and cut the label to size.  There is a little Sakura starlight yellow around the outside of his eyes but it's not shown up very well in the photo.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-
Pixie's Snippets Playground Week 185 and
Crafting from the Heart Challenge #68

The Pied Piper Scarecrow

Hello and Welcome.

Last Monday I told you that I stuffed a rat.  Well it's one of the rats in these photos.

It was our village's Scarecrow Festival, with open gardens and cream teas in the church this weekend.  Thankfully we didn't have any rain until a couple of showers this afternoon.

There are some great scarecrows all round the village and this fine fellow stood on the green, across the road  opposite my sitting room window.

He was put up on Friday and will be there for a few more days but I think I'll miss seeing him when he's gone.

I hope you have a good week.
 Happy Crafting!

Bon Voyage!

Happy Saturday!

I saw a card like this one on Louise's blog a few days ago and really liked it a lot.

I was going to a class with her last night so I asked if we could make the card.  Here's mine.  

We made two other cards and 3 toppers which I really liked too but this really is my favourite.

The little ship is a Clearly Besotted stamp.  Isn't it cute.

Now I'll confess - two of the gems cover a small paint smudge and a hole I made by mistake with my sewing machine.

Thanks Louise.  I really enjoyed the evening.

Parchment Fan

Good evening.  I'm getting ready to go out soon so just a quick post.

I made this card when I went to Colemans with some friends on Tuesday.  No colouring on this one.  Just cut outs.

I added the jewels and brad when I got home and will have another go at this design probably putting patterns where I have the cut out holes on this one.

Have a lovely weekend and please do visit again soon.

Christmas comes early!

Or an alternative title "You'll Really Hate Me" .....

I've had a couple of busy days so haven't had a lot of time to craft at home.

Yesterday I really had to do some laundry and housework and I also had my hair done plus fitting in some Wimbledon watching. So,  I finished off die cutting these little guys from Tuesday and putting them together.

New Sizzix stamp and die set that I recently bought in their sale. The snowman's face is a separate stamp.

When they're made into cards I'll only have about a dozen more Christmas cards to finish for 2015.

I'm looking forward to doing some card making with Louise tonight as she had a couple of places free for her class.  She was my first follower so "thank you" Louise.

Thank you everyone for your visit.

New Home - In a Frame

I made this card at the weekend and would like to enter it into the Try it on Tuesday blog Challenge which this week is "In a Frame".

I used Sizzix stamps and dies for the house & sun, a Stampin Up punch for the banners and Papermania paper.  The sentiment is from a set by Paula Pascal.

I cut a large circle of paper with a from a Tonic matting set.  Stuck the circle onto the front of the card then cut out a smaller die from the front of the card to make a frame.  The smaller circle was stuck on the inside of the card.

The house was cut out twice and the two were stuck together with a piece of silver thread and attached to the inside of the card so that it could hang behind the frame.  I needed draw the house on the back of one to match the front  and finally cut out a frame to cover the overhanging thread on the inside of the card to finish off.

WOYWW #318

Happy Wednesday!

Thank you for visiting my craft space today.

I send over 100 Christmas cards every year and I am well ahead with mine this time.  I've only got about 20 more to do and in October will start on cards for 2016.

I took some Sizzix snowman stamps along to do at our craft club on Monday morning and yesterday afternoon started cutting them out with the matching Sizzix dies.  I've not used this set before so decided to start off by just making six.

This is how my desk was left yesterday when I finished crafting for the day.

The Pro markers are for colouring in the holly and berries and I cut a few red hearts out of the scraps of red card that was left after die cutting the scarves.

  The black and grey square object behind my mug is my Fiskars scissors sharpener.  It's very portable, light and easy to use but does a really good, quick job.  I've a bit more die cutting and colouring to do today then will be able to make another six more Christmas cards.

I'm now going to make myself a coffee and start my visits to the other WOYWW desks at Julia's Stamping Ground blog. 

Today I Stuffed a Rat

No it wasn't for dinner!
It's our village Scarecrow Festival at the end of the month and Brenda is making a Pied Piper scarecrow for our Monday Craft Club's entry.

She arrived today with lots of rats in a box.  Some were made with cones of carpet and the rest were made from hesian shopping bags.

They all needed ears and eyes added and the hessian ones needed stuffing and tails made.  So we all stuffed a rat this morning .....

Pic 1 is Margaret & Lily's rats and mine is at the bottom with it's plaited tail.  I had been stamping snowmen ready to die cut later.

Pic 2 is Janet stuffing hers. She'd been doing cross stitch.

Pic. 3  some finished carpet rats

Pic.4 Sandra and Pam sticking on eyes and ears with glue guns.


We had about 40 members there today and everyone got involved.

Thanks for visiting my blog.  Do please came back again.

Blue Birds

Happy Saturday!

I made this card yesterday afternoon and would like to enter it into the challenge on the Tuesday Morning Sketch blog.

The bird paper that I used for the background is from my stash.  I embossed the light blue paper in my Cuttlebug using a Cuttlebug embossing folder (Tiny Bubbles) then cut it into strips and mounted onto the cream paper.

Both the cream and white scalloped rectangles were die cut and the image is from a Stampin Up set.  I coloured with Pro markers and added a blush of blue chalk for the sky then added Glossy Accents to the water splashes.

The corners of the cream rectangle were chopped off with an X cut corner rounder and the topper was stuck onto the card with the image raised on foam pads.  I cut the banner from the background paper then stamped the Stampin Up sentiment which I punched out and stuck onto the banner.  The silver-grey pearls are from my stash and the small pink bow is made with crochet thread.

Enjoy your weekend and please do come back again soon.

Button and Bows

Good Morning Friends.

It's a lovely sunny day here and I'm looking forward to meeting friends for lunch later.

For my card today I used some Dovecraft paper for the background and Little Claire "Buttons and Bows" clear stamp set for the main image and the sentiment.  The top bow is an Inky Doodles stamp from a Christmas set.

The large circles were cut out with Spellbinders dies and the small circle is a Marianne die.

I coloured with Pro Markers and added faux stitching.  The three gems were coloured with peeloff marker pens and the tiny bow is embroidery thread.

I would like to enter this card into the Shopping Our Stash Challenge which this week is "Baubles, Buttons and Bows".

Thank you for dropping by.  I hope you have a good weekend.

Batch Card Making

 Welcome and thank you for visiting my blog today.

As we'd been warned it was going to be very hot yesterday I decided to craft for just a short time in the morning and spend the afternoon watching Wimbledon.

I decided to do some batch card making so I die cut  four of these 'spikey' circles with a die from an
X-cut set from watercolour paper.

I used Peacock Feathers, Mustard Seed and Abandoned Coral Distress ink.  I wiped some of each of the colours close together on my craft mat and spritzed with water.  I waited a moment then pressed the circle onto the paper instead of swooshing it.

I wiped the ink off the craft sheet after each circle was coloured and re-applied the ink. Although I used the same three colours each time all four circles turned out different colours  Here are just two examples.

I used a Hobby Arts sentiment stamping off the circle then I placed the circle onto some white card to find the right position.  After removing the circle I stamped the sentiment onto the white card, and stuck the circle back, matching up the sentiment on both the circle and the white card.  I trimmed the white card, mounted onto some black card and stuck my topper onto a 5 inch square card.  I added the gems for sparkle and balance.


Thank you for stopping by.  Please do come again.

WOYWW #317

Happy Wednesday  Everbody!

This is my work space this morning to be shared on Julia's Stamping Ground blog where we show others what is on our work desk on Wednesdays.

Yesterday evening I tried a new shaped card which is in the bottom left.  The rectangle of brown is a scrap of thick plastic bag that I shirt my wet glue onto.

The two egg shaped sponges are something new to me and I find they work quite well with Distress inks.

The cut out circles of watercolour paper are for my project today together with the 3 Distress and  the small spritzer bottle.

I'll  use the waste another time.  So after making a coffee I'm ready for a morning's crafting.

Thank you for your visit and Happy Crafting to you all.