Wednesday 31 October 2012

WOYWW #178


I missed sharing my desk last week with Julia and the WOYWW girls, so here's my messy desk this week!  At the top left there's my card I just posted waiting for the Stickles to dry and in the box it's sat on is my collection of little bottles of sparkle and pearl stuff.  Mostly though it's a pile of felt things I'm diecutting with Marianne's new Creatable dies to the left there.  I saw on the Marianne catalogue a banner made with them, however, they were finished off with blanket stitch around the edges and my stitching looked apalling so that idea went out the window!  I did manage to layer the two hearts together with running stitch and then came up with the idea of using little buttons to keep it all together - I think it's going to work!  I'm going to have to go shopping for some baker's twine or ribbon to string them together, and I will need more little buttons or another idea for fixing before I cut out more as I only had those half-dozen buttons in white.  Think I had best go shopping at Bunny Zoe's as there's 15% off across the store .. .. ..

Isn't he cute!


Well, after yesterday's busy card, today I have a rather plainer design to share with you.  The little lad is another of Nellie Snellen's new Christmas stamps and is coloured with Copics.  The background is a piece of Cuddly Buddly digi that I'd got in my stash and I've simply added green mats, green holly sprays cut with Marianne die LRO244, a stamped text, a little white organza bow, and a smattering of red gems.  I've added Stardust Stickles over the snowfall areas and carefully added Ice Stickles to his fur trims trying to avoid any Copic bleeding.  I've used G40, 43 & 46 for the greens, E11, 13, 15, 17 & 18 for the browns, and R22, 24 & 27 for the touches of red.  I think I've used BG70 for the shadow, I wrote that number down so it must be in there somewhere!


Totally Stampalicious have an anything goes theme this week, Allsorts challenge is for stitching, thankfully it doesn't have to be real, and the Dream Valley challenge is for glitter and bling.    BUT - Mr Blogger has 'mislaid' my reading list of blogs that I'm following so I'm totally lost and have no idea what is going on out there .. .. I am hoping that it's just a temporary glitch and that he will find my list at the back of a drawer and reinstate it for me, until then I must get on and finish my DT card for tomorrow and the laundry is piling up - not the best day for it as it's blowing a gale already and the forecast is for more torrents of rain!

Tuesday 30 October 2012

Is it a mess, or not?

Yesterday I had one of those crafting days, you know the ones, when you don't really know how the card is going to turn out and you keep going in the hope that it'll be alright in the end .. .. .. well that's what happened with this creation.  The image is one of Nellie Snellen's new stamps called Christmas birdie and I'd coloured her up last week with the aim of creating something with her using the Marianne Warm Winter Wishes papers - so at least the idea was there!  The best match for the papers, imo, is kraft cardstock and I loved how this card turned out the last time I used the papers.  Then when I saw the Incy Wincy blog yesterday I thought it would be the perfect challenge: it's a recipe - 4 patterned papers (base knitting pattern, crochet pattern on middle layer that's almost obscured, poinsettia flowers diecut from 3rd, and then the top left corner all but obscured by the greeting and the little deer embellishment are both cut from the 4th paper).  In addition there's the 3 brads in the centre of my flowers, the 2 ribbons (pink across middle you can just about see and a little red bow) and of course the 1 image. I've inked the edges of everything, papers and mats, with Sahara Sand chalk ink, added lots of Stardust Stickles to my image (and got p'd off that the red Copic colour's run into it especially on her shoulder), stamped a PB greeting in Poppy Red pearlescent brilliance ink and then cut out lots of Marianne skeleton leaves, LRO156, and the big snowflake I'm addicted to at the moment!  I still wasn't happy so added the pearls with my Wacco pen .. .. so .. .. too many big embellishments for the small scale image?  Perhaps I should have gone for smaller leaves and a smaller snowflake - I dunno .. .. it's growing on me .. .. .. and I've learnt that Stickles will dissolve Copic ink!

I certainly don't expect to win any prizes with this card, but thought I would share with you anyway and link up with Incy Wincy as their challenge was the inspiration for how it turned out!  It's going to be a pottering about kinda day today, waiting for Jason to do a bit more tiling before we start grouting another area in the bathroom.  I did get the final gloss coat on the door frame yesterday so no hold up there .. .. still have to paint the door but I'm going to leave that until the work is all done otherwise it's only going to get knocked about and grubby.  I still have a carrier bag full of spring bulbs to get planted so if it stays dry I might get that job out of the way - oh and I have my DT card to make for Thursday, so I'll not be bored!

Monday 29 October 2012

Festive Pup

This little 4" square card was snapped last night under my daylight bulb, so apologies for the shadows, but, it's the only card I still have to blog and I'm not sure when I'll get around to putting another one together .. .. gotta get on with the tiling and painting this week or I'll never be able to have that bath!

I stamped the little PB pup and coloured with my Copics, not much colour, just a touch of red for his hat and the BV20 - BV29 pens for the pup.  I've used one of the Marianne dies from LRO234 to cut him out and another to cut out the plain blue mat, then I cut out a piece of red pp from Marianne's Scandinavian Winter pad to fit in the square, tiny scraps of red card behind the corners then 3d fixed over my base layer.  That's a blue piece of pp from the same pad, again matted with the blue card - I think it's SU! Baja Breeze.  To embellish I've used lots of different Marianne die cuts, the most obvious being the mini poinsettia LRO142.  I've added lots of Stardust Stickles over the white fronds, centre of the flower, the snowflake and the pups hat, then to finish I put a little red gem in the centre of the flower and snowflake.  I am hoping that the sparkle and the 'exploding' embellishment will be ok for the Papertake challenge theme of fireworks glitter and sparkle!  Jingle Belles have a creature feature challenge, and I'm just in at the last minute for the Penny Black at Allsorts monthly challenge theme of Animal Magic.

Hope to catch up with you later, but now it's grouting and painting!

Sunday 28 October 2012

LIM Sketch

I had a chance to play today, seeing as it's been cold and wet so we couldn't do the planned garden chores.  I've created a card for the Less Is More challenge, which this week is a sketch panel in 3 sections - when I saw it I immediately thought of this stamp that I've had for years.  In fact it wasn't so easy as I needed the panel to fit the card from top to bottom, but with a little bit of judicious cutting and matting it just fits onto a C6 size.  The stamp is by Stamps Happen Inc, a Nan Goss design, and I used brown Momento ink to stamp onto SU! Sahara Sand card, and created my base card with it too.  I coloured the images with Copics: the yellow leaves are YR20, 21 & 24, the greens are YG61, 63 & 67, then the little squares and the pins are RV66 & 69. After I cut out the images I matted them onto a strip of green card, fixed brads where the pins were on the leaves and finished with Glossy Accents on the squares.  I scored a couple of lines down my base card so the panel could be 3d mounted with foam pads between them, then added a few pricked accents in the corners, and that's it!

Stampin' for the weekend have an anything goes theme this time around so I'll enter my card with them too.

Friday 26 October 2012

Scandinavian Winter

Marianne's Design Divas blog have a challenge this month to create a shaped card - this is my first attempt, and it's just a simple easel card created from a thick scallop square base card with the top folded.  Hopefully though, my Christmas tree will be interesting enough to qualify me for the challenge. The first picture shows the easel part - I've used a couple of paper designs from the Scandinavian Winter paper pack and either inked the edges with red chalk ink (on the tree) or added white faux stitches (on the paper matted with blue card stuck down onto my base).  The tree is from Marianne's new CR127 set with the lacy edge cut from blue card and the larger plain edged tree from the red and blue patterned paper.  To create the swags I cut the lace circle from CR1201 in blue card then cut out the centre with a circle Nestie and snipped pieces to fit, adding more white faux stitches.  The snowflake atop the tree is from the same set, backed with two flakes from the LR0124 Norwegian Ice Star set, the smallest in red is just that tiny bit bigger than the snowflake in the tree set so gives a little edge to it, then the bigger snowflake in blue is 3d matted behind.  The greeting from the Marianne Stamp Fairy set is stamped in London Fog Momento and finished off with a red satin bow. 

 
This is the base of the easel - the paper has the text already printed so I didn't want to cover it up too much. I've cut Holly sprays from LRO244, created a flower from the mini poinsettia set LRO142 and my favourite snowflake from set CR1225 (hearts). I've finished off with little pearls and red berries made with Liquid Pearls, although I'm not so pleased with them .. .. I've tried both the red Wacco pearl maker pen and the red Liquid Pearls but both give me a pointy finish rather than a nice round dome .. .. got any ideas?  I've no probs with the Wacco cream or white pens.


And here's the card - I didn't think when I took the picture on the glass table in the conservatory so there are odd reflection in the background!

Week #47 on the Christmas Card Challenge blog calls for bows, so as I have one on my card I'm going to enter with them.  Fussy and Fancy Friday have an anything goes theme so entering with them too.

My apologies again for not getting around to visit everyone who leaves me a comment, my internet is incredibly slow and if you have lots of pictures on your side bars my internet can't load them all, and I can't leave comments, that's if I get to see your blog at all.  I am trying but it seems that things are getting worse rather than better, I just hope the promised upgrade in the next few months really does make a difference to connections here abouts. 

Thursday 25 October 2012

Boo!


This week on Cute Card Thursday we would like to see something scary on your creation, not necessarily Halloween, you could just go for spiders or something else that's scary!  I expect that most of us will go down the Halloween road and I found this digi image partly coloured in my box so thought she needed finishing off.  She was a freebie from Mo Manning ages ago, so not around anymore, and not particularly scary - although that mask makes Bronte look rather scary IMO!  I couldn't find any papers that would go so instead I stamped spiders webs (Magnolia) and bats (PB) onto a piece of orange card then matted it onto black.  I found a length of purple lace to wrap around, then cut out a black square from Marianne die LRO234 (will I ever get tired of using it), and a black scallop mat for my image so it could be 3d mounted on top with foam pads.  The pumpkins are Magnolia stamps and the Boo text is from a clear Penny Black set.  A little piece of purple silk and a black button to anchor my coffin shaped text finished things off.  The image and pumpkins are coloured with my Copic pens - but sorry no list of colours today as I had to clear the table so we could eat!  My crafting is spread out around the bungalow .. .. the pc is in my bedroom so here is where I blog, I tend to colour in the evenings at the dining room table with the aid of my daylight lamp, then when it comes to putting the card together all my stuff is in the conservatory.  The only problem comes when I'm blogging and can't remember what I've used and have to get up and go and find out .. .. ah well at least the walking is exercise!

There are loads of Halloweeny type challenges around at the moment so I'm going to link up to these ones:
Crafty Catz, Sweet Stampin', Digital Tuesday, Cutie Pie, Everybody Art, Moving Along With The Times, Crafrty Creations, Creative Inspirations and Party Time Tuesday.  Gosh! I don't think I've ever entered so many challenges with just one card .. .. but then I don't have reason to make more Halloween cards this year so it's one for all!

Wednesday 24 October 2012

Woodland Wishes


I sort of had in mind the Paperplay challenge theme of 'Wooden it be nice' for this card and used one of the Marianne Warm Winter Wishes papers on my base card as it has lots of end on logs, although it's been rather obscured as things went along.  I created the base from SU! Sahara Sand card and used it for my diecuts as well, inking the edges and embossed areas with Walnut Distress Ink'.  I've used the 3 squares from Marianne die LRO234, with the middle layer cut from another piece of paper from the Warm Winter Wishes pack that looks like knitting.  The greeting is from a Stamp Fairy at Marianne set of texts cut out with a scallop circle then 3d mounted as the top layer.  I've also added a couple of Marianne Christmas trees, LRO136, plus my favourite snowflake this year from the CR1225 set with the hearts.  As the whole card was by now looking a bit too sepia, but perfect for the My Time To Craft theme, I finished off with a pretty cream satin bow and cream pearls made with my Wacco pearl maker pen.  Half way through the making I wasn't at all sure about this one, thinking it too dull for Christmas, but now that it's finished I am quite pleased with it!  Here's a close up of the different diecut pieces:


I have to paint door frames again today so Jason can get on with the bathroom tiling - it's slowly coming together, and the toilet is now working!

Tuesday 23 October 2012

Another Festive Robin


The weather was lovely yesterday, at least here in Cornwall it was!  I decided to get the grass cut and trim all the edges of the borders and paths, and even managed to plant Winston Churchill (daffs), but I must get my fingers out and get on with the rest of the spring bulbs as it's getting a bit late now.  Today has started dull and grey so I am hoping that the postman will bring me another little crafty package I ordered, then I can have a play.

The card I am sharing with you today uses up the third little robin image from last week - he's coloured the same as the other two then cut out with a Nestie.  I wanted to use some of my new Marianne Scandinavian paper so picked out this ice blue snowflake design.  The papers are a mix of bright blues and reds so in keeping with the Scandi theme I matted with both red and blue card and added a row of white faux stitches.  I've used Marianne's doily LRO129 cut out in red card to mat my robin then drew around the die to get a blue mat for it that I cut by hand - not exactly my forte but I think it has worked out ok.  The white doily underneath is the circle die CR1201 cut in half to make it look bigger, and to decorate I cut mistletoe leaves LRO189 and finished them with white beads from my Wacco pearl maker pen.  It still needed something in the top left corner so I rummaged through my ribbon box and found this wrinkle blue tape to tie into a bow.

Totally Papercrafts have a Christmas theme running with a reminder that there's less than 9 weeks to the big day! and the Jingle Belles challenge is for a festive creature on your creation, while at Fussy and Fancy Friday it's an anything goes theme.

Sunday 21 October 2012

Shades of Autumn

 
New picture with a third rose leaf added - looks better now!

Yesterday I went for a little stroll with hubby and the dogs up on Goss Moor.  It was surprising how much green there is still around, albeit more muted and olive in tone, and every now and then a splash of scarlet red from fallen leaf or berries and a little bright yellow from the wild evening primrose flowers that seem to bloom right up 'till winter.

This afternoon I've let hubby take the dogs on his own to the beach as I'm feeling tired, and instead I've been having a play with my new mini hot glue gun.  I diecut the flowers from 3 different autumnal shades of HOTP card using Marianne die CR1202 - the advantage of the HOTP card is it's thin enough to shape and has a beige back so no white underneath to show up.  I've inked the edges of everything with Versamagic Sahara Sand chalk ink just in case, and once the layers were shaped and stuck together I added a gold bead with my Wacco pearl maker pen.  I found an old seed head stamp and stamped a design on a square of Eco board then used Versamagic chalk inks in Tea Leaves (green), Mango Madness (orange), and Malted Mauve (dusty pink) to colour, edged with a gold ink pen then fixed my flower on.  To pick up the green I cut a strip of the HOTP card to go across my base kraft card, a couple of rose leaves from LRO162 to slip under the flower, added the text, a little butterfly from LRO158,  and more gold beads.  It's for the Less Is More challenge so I quit at that!

Crafty Cardmakers and Allsorts blog challenges are also for autumn colours, and the Anything Goes challenge is to make your own embellishments - done that!

Saturday 20 October 2012

CAS Robin


I'm not long back from a visit to the new Hobby Craft shop that's opened in Truro this week, with lunch at a very nice pub thrown in after - thank you DH!  The shop was busy, very busy, and although there were some nice bits and pieces, especially in the scrapbooking area, I didn't come away with much new stash.  I was treated to a mini hot glue gun which has been on my wish list since using one at the Kernow Stamper's fair in the summer, but apart from that, a few packets of gems, some squares of felt and a magazine, that was it.  The prices were a little steep, there were quite a few Marianne dies on the shelves but you can certainly find them cheaper on line and the same went for most of the named brand items. 

I forgot to schedule a post for today, to be honest I'm feeling rather tired again at the moment and even crafting is beyond me.  Fortunately, this little robin is one I'd coloured earlier in the week and he simply went together with Marianne diecut LRO234 called Petra's square frames.  I've layered the two white squares onto silver mirri card then 3d mounted them to the base card.  Three plain snowflakes cut from silver using one of the dies in set LRO124 finished things off.

Charisma Cardz have a CAS theme challenge so I can enter my card, I think it's clean and simple enough. And, if you remember my rather plain CAS one layer card for last week's LIM challenge, well, I just had to tart it up a little bit:

I've inked my embossed stitches around the edge with pale blue chalk ink then matted my one layer onto pale blue card, added a length of sparkly blue ric rac across the corner before mounting onto the base card.  To embellish I diecut Marianne's mini poinsettia, LRO142, and inked it a little with the blue chalk ink, cut the holly spray, LRO244, from blue card and inked it with white chalk ink then finished with white pearls made with my Wacco pearl maker pen.  It's more 'me' now!

I am going for a bit of a rest now, browse my magazine and decide what I'd like to make next, but the actual doing might have to wait for another day.  Whatever you are doing, enjoy! and I look forward to catching up with you again very soon.

Friday 19 October 2012

The Nativity

 
This card started out as a bit of a play/mess about, but I am pleasantly surprised by how it turned out so am happy to share it with you. Plus, as it's a LOTV stamp and Lili's Little Fairies have an anything goes theme this week, I can enter it into their challenge.  The ABC Christmas challenge blog are on the letter 'U' and it's up to you, so entering with them too.
 
When my new Marianne dies arrived the other day I wanted to have a play and cut out the larger square from LRO234 in SU! Almost Amethyst card, unfortunately my CB plates have warped so badly now that embossing in the bug doesn't work, so I've had to do it the old fashioned way by hand! I am dropping hints that I'd like a new machine for Christmas .. .. .. Anyway, after embossing I added a little white chalk ink to the raised areas, although it barely shows up, and cut out the little medallion from the set in thin white card and inked with pink chalk ink to match the sheet colour. I also did the embossed stitch line around the edge of the image and inked that to match. I'd no pp that would match so just went ahead and stuck down the square onto my base white card. In addition to the little medallion flowers I cut and inked the fronds LRO245 and made a frame with them around the image.
 
 
The image is coloured with my Copics, the sheet with B60 & B63 and the background with B0000, 000, 00 & 01. The foreground is coloured with warm grey shades, her headdress, their socks and the trim on the crate with cool greys. The browns are my favourite E40 to E47, although his little top started as a cool grey but then I picked up an E41 by mistake so it's a totally unique colour! His headdress and the baby wrap are BG70 & 72. To finish things off I added little gems and actually decorated a little inside the card too!
 
 
The text is an old stamp, I think from an Elusive Images set, embossed and inked thefaux stitch edge to match the image on the front then simply added a medallion flower and fronds.  Still plenty of room for Mum to write - she's already made a bid for this one!  I have to take Mum to the surgery this morning for her flu jab so am scheduling this card, fingers crossed.  Catch up with you later, internet allowing that is, from Friday evening through the weekend it virtually grinds to a halt - the weekenders invading us and using up all our internet bits and bites!

Thursday 18 October 2012

A touch of sparkle

This week on Cute Card Thursday we are looking for a touch of sparkle on your creations, it doesn't have to be a lot, but if you really must - go for it!  I have been restrained and limited my sparkle to the star, a touch on the baubles and the pups hat on this LOTV stamped image called 'decorating the tree'.  I couldn't resist adding a little more to the centre of the Marianne diecut poinsettia flowers and as the card wasn't quite finished when my new dies arrived, I managed to add a few fern fronds and sparkle them too.  Then just to finish things off I found the iridescent ribbon and tied a couple of bows.  The pp is very old, from Anna Griffin, and I used a Martha Stewart punch to layer up my horizontals - and there's some ivory satin ribbon there too but that somehow got almost completely covered up!  Our sponsor for this challenge is Whimsy Stamps with a choice of 5 digi stamps as the prize.

Here's the close up of my colouring, with Copics of course.  It's another image that's been waiting to turn into a card so the exact colours elude me.  The browns are the E40 - E47 range and for the bigger lad's shorts and slippers I used E81 and E84, which is looking greener on my screen than in real life.  The red areas are the R20 range darkening to R29 with a little R00 added to lighten the dress. Not totally sure on the greens, but probably used G40, 43 and 46.  The yellows I'm thinking might be Y11, 13 and 15, as to the rest, I'm not sure, although the shading is various pale shades of warm grey.

Totally Stampalicious have a Christmas card challenge running this week so I'll enter my card with them.

Wednesday 17 October 2012

LIM with wings!

So here it is, my one layer with wings card for this week's Less Is More challenge.  I resisted the urge to stamp the snowflakes - they come with the stamp (see my last post) and left well alone. The curvy text is from a PB clear set and obviously doesn't have to be straight, thankfully. I messed up two earlier versions trying to get the text lined up! I have edged the card with embossed faux stitches created with Marianne die LRO161, I simply line the edge of the card into the die and run down with an embossing tool, keep turning and moving the card until I've gone all the way around.  Not sure why I didn't think of this before!  The little Robin is coloured with my Copics, the usual R22, 24 & 27 for red, E40, 41, 42, 43 & 44 for the brown and a touch of YG61, 63 & 67 for the green.  I've shadowed with B0000 & B000, extending the line under the text.  Finally, a little Stardust Stickles on his hat, well you gotta have sparkle at Christmas!

The Flutterby Wednesday challenge is for any winged creature this week, not just butterflies or fairies, so I can enter with my little robin.  The real one in my garden is getting a battering in the wind today so I've put out a few sunflower hearts and seedy bread crumbs on the lawn in the hope he can manage to land near by and hop on over.

WOYWW #176

It's Wednesday so time again to show off what's on your workdesk with Julia on her blog, Stamping Ground.  I have been trying to make a card for LIM challenge - one layer only and with wings - yikes! I picked up the little Nellie Snellen robin stamp back in the summer so thought I'd have a play with it, only in order to colour with my Copics I'd have to use my 'special' card and I only have A5 pieces.  So no pressure to get things stamped first time, including the text, actually it was 3rd time lucky.  The other two I've cut down to turn into something else with the help of my new paper pads you can see there on the left. I've cut the red circle for one of robins with a Marianne die you can see above it, I must remember to pop out the bits from the die before I put it away.  I keep them in the A5 sleeves that the LOTV stamps come in, well the ones that fit that is - you can just see a new one peeking in on the right and if you look carefully under the kraft coloured piece (still not made up) there's some die cut pieces from more of my new dies.

I am eagerly awaiting the return of my friend Wynneth, she's been gallivanting again and no doubt stash buying .. .. I wonder what she's bringing home with her.  Also, before she left I did an order for some SU cardstock in red and kraft and I'm desperate for it to get on with making up that little coloured piece!

Tuesday 16 October 2012

Three Little Angels

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! well on my craft desk and the overspill onto the dining room table it certainly is.  These 3 little angels had been coloured and waiting an age to be made into something, finally inspiration came today with the arrival of new stuff - new Marianne dies and a couple of paper pads I treated myself too.  The LOTV little angels were coloured with my Copics and as it was so long ago I can't remember all the colours - the dresses though have to be the very pale yellows Y0000 etc.  I found a scrap of digi paper in my stash that matched the cardstock and added little white faux stitches around the layers, matting onto aqua cardstock.

Here they are in close up and you can see the detail and embossing on the fronds, LRO245, gorgeous!  As well as those, I've used a flower from CR1201 to mat the text and created my flower embellishments from the smallest die in CR1202, plus lots of pink Stickles for sparkle and tiny little flower brads I found in my stash.  I had got a bit more dimension with the flowers by pinching the petals together but when I added the Stickles they went a bit limp .. .. still look ok though, don't you think?  I hope so as I'm entering the Totally Papercrafts challenge to make your own flowers, Paperplay's challenge for simply cute, and the Everybody Art challenge for bling!

Internet is slow again today, and once everyone gets home in the evening it virtually grinds to a halt.  I've managed to visit a few blogs though and will keep at it so eventually I'll get around to everyone who leaves me a comment.

Monday 15 October 2012

It takes two, or three!

Well what a weekend - I am exhausted but not sure why as I didn't get much done and the internet was virtually non-existent.  I did manage to finish this card but only got around to taking a pic this morning.  It's one of the older LOTV images called Three Wee Kings I'd coloured up ages ago, and on the cardstock that I was happy to use at the time, but now I've found something better at my local craft shop I'm not so happy with this.  The blending was difficult, especially on the blues I used for the background sheet and I found I couldn't go over the top to even things out without taking off the surface!  So no close up today .. .. but, I am happy with the way the card turned out.  With the mix of blues, reds and yellows in the image I couldn't find any patterned paper that would go so decided to emboss a layer of white instead.  I've used my CB snowflake folder and an edge folder that looks like a row of buttons - suitable for a boyish card I thought.  No flowers, but I did add a length of red satin ribbon and then a mix of Marrianne snowflake dies in red and white to finish things off.

The challenge at Cupcake Craft this week is for two, or more, characters on your creation, and Crafty Hazelnut is looking for snowflakes on this week's Christmas challenge - I hope she likes red ones!

Friday 12 October 2012

together for Christmas

I was doing really well this morning, or rather the internet was, and managed to get to visit quite a few of you!  And I even managed to make a craft order for some new Christmas papers and Marianne dies .. .. well you gotta now and then, don't you? Now it's slowed right down again so pictures are taking an age, and I was going to go shopping on the LOTV web site too .. .. spending the money I saved on the duvets and curtains! oh well, maybe it'll speed up again later .. ..

Today's card is another of the C6 blanks, this time in cream with kraft card extras.  Now the base layers I found already put together and after I'd coloured this cute LOTV stamped image in, I thought it might work even though the paper design isn't festive - it's a Nitwits magazine freebie.  The embossed scallop edge is a Marianne die, then I simply added some punched and inked holly leaves and a smattering of red heart gems.  Simple but sweet I think.
Here's a close up of how I coloured the image, with my Copics of course, although I forgot to note the numbers.  The browns are sure to be E40s as they are my favourites to use, and the reds look as though they are the R20 range, I usually go for those shades for my reds.  Not sure on the greens though, or the golden tones.

Christmas Stampin All Year Long have an anything goes theme this time around, and Creative Inspirations have the same theme so I'll enter my card with both of them.

Thursday 11 October 2012

CCT paper piecing


At last, my picture has loaded, I've striped and remade the beds, had a shower and made coffee whilst waiting for it.  I don't know about super fast broadband, mine is super slow, but, it's looking like my machine is at fault as the lads have no trouble picking it up on their mobiles and on other gizmos.  It means that commenting is laboriously slow - I am trying to get around to those friends kind enough to leave me a comment but I can't manage everyone, everyday.  Back to my DT card for Cute Card Thursday, and this week the challenge is to do a little paper piecing.  I'll admit it's not something I like to do, but thought the sails on this little lad's boat might look ok in a patterned paper.  I've used little pieces of paper from a Nitwits magazine freebie, including the texts and the faux ribbons with buttons.  My base is a kraft C6, I have to use these up so expect a few more smaller cards from me over the coming days/weeks.  The little lad is by LOTV coloured with my Copics:


His hair and shoes are the paler E40-44 shades, I used a couple of my newer colours for the hull of the boat, E81 & 84 and also added a little E81 to shade the gingham sails.  The reds are the rusty E04, 07 & 09, his sailor jersey is YR30 & 31.  I've added a little warm grey shadow and finished with light brown pearls made with my Wacco pearl maker pen.

Just one challenge to enter with this one, Creative Inspirations have an anything goes week!

Wednesday 10 October 2012

WOYWW

oh my! what a mess .. .. still got coloured images waiting to be turned into something, and I'm so not happy with that card, which by the way is square (on my screen looks rectangular), but can't figure out what more to add .. .. it's had several sentiments tried out in the top left corner but none of them looked right.  As it is I've covered up the most interesting part of the patterned paper (a digi piece from my box of Cuddly Buddly bits and bobs) with the flower and swirl embellishment.  I think I must have left Mr Mojo in Truro yesterday, he's probably still browsing around Dunelm Mill!  I did have a great day out and managed to find a pair of curtains and 2 duvet covers for the new bedroom.  I will have to shorten the curtains, and they are barely wide enough, but at only £20 they were a bargain and will at least give us some privacy over the winter months.  I've still not plucked up the courage to start the wallpapering though! I forgot to say, I'm joining in with Julia's What's on your workdesk Wednesday again.


Well here is the card, a LOTV image coloured with my Copics then finished with a little chalk ink around the edge while the Nestie was still in place, Stardust Stickles on the snow and Lace Stickles on her fur trims.  I've glazed over the lantern to make it shiny, and as I didn't have the right colour of pearls I've gone over pale pink ones with RV69 - not entirely happy with the result there either!  Any how, I am entering Paperplay's challenge for shiny (sparkly glitter, shiny pearls and lantern), and Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas challenge theme of Carol singing. 

Jason is busy cutting and sticking tiles on the bathroom walls, so once he has a wall finished it will be my turn with the grout .. .. messy fingers for the rest of the week then!

Monday 8 October 2012

Christmas for the boys

The current challenge over at Lili's Little Fairies is to make a Christmas card for a boy/man.  I saw this stamp and ordered it a few months ago when it first came out, and I even got it trimmed up and stamped out .. .. but then it took a while for me to get around to colouring in.  The current theme was the perfect opportunity and I had fun with the bright colours - I'll probably keep this one to send to one of my grandsons.  The papers are bits from my stash that I'm trying hard to use up as pennies are tight what with having to spend on the build and new furnishings.  I've doodled a stitched edge and matted with my very last piece of bright red cardstock, so that is something I will have to put on the shopping list.
I've coloured my stamped image with Copics, the snowman with BG70 & 72 and a touch of BG90 for the shadow.  The reds are R22, 24, 27 & 29, the greens are G12, 14 & 16, the blues are B93, 95 & 97, the beige tones are E30, 31 & 43, then finally the black/greys are C0, BV20, 23, 25 & 29.  I like those BV shades for colouring 'black'.

Incy Wincy have an anything goes theme this week so I can enter their challenge. 


Sunday 7 October 2012

My Favourite Snowman

He comes out every year, my Serendipity Snowman.  This time he's emerged without any sparkly snow .. .. I had to sit on my hands and firmly put the Stickles back in the box!  I have a couple of customers that like to send cards to members of the Armed Forces and they sometimes have rules about glitter .. .. there mustn't be any. The background is the redone piece I was telling you about yesterday.  In the end I've simply stamped the snowflakes with Brilliance Pearlescent Ice Blue, also  I dragged the edge of my image and the background with the same ink before mounting onto silver card.  It's a simple card, with the image panel 3d mounted for a little added interest - but nothing else! 

I coloured him with my Copics, BG70, 72 & BG90 for the snowman himself, RV63, 66 & 69 for the pink touches, B93, 95 & 97 for the blues, G20, 24, 28 & 29 for the greens, E70, 71, 74 & 77 for the browns, and then shadow with B60.  I had the Less Is More challenge in mind when I started, but I don't think I have enough white space for them - mine got snowflakes stamped all over it!  Instead, I'll enter the Totally Gorgeous anything goes challenge, hopefully they wont mind the lack of sparkle!  And, the Fab 'n' Funky challenge is for no patterned paper this week - so I can enter with them too!

Saturday 6 October 2012

LIM in silver

Today is World Card Making Day - so I managed to grab an hour or two this afternoon to play!  I have made a couple of cards for the Less Is More challenge for a touch of silver - this is the first one, the second I'll schedule for tomorrow so fingers crossed it pops up!

Keeping it simple, I dug out the silver embossing powder and heat gun .. .. although my attempt at creating a snowflake background for the second card with a silver interference powder didn't work as well (dirty Versamark and too hot and sunny in the conservatory so the stamping dried too much before I could get the powder on - but the bits that did work looked good so I might have another go once I've invested in a clean ink pad),  Anyhow, the stamps are all old Elusive Images rubba  from several years back.  I cut out the partridge and fixed him with 3d foam pads so he sits proud.  The text I wanted to bulge a little so I matted it onto silver card then fixed with silver brads.  Silver is so hard to photograph, especially when the sun is shining but I mustn't complain about that!

I'm also going to enter my card in to the ABC Christmas blog challenge for 'T' the twelve days of Christmas - mine is the first day of course!


Friday 5 October 2012

Frosty Fairy

Today I have another Christmas card to share with you - this time with LOTV Festive Fairy.  I've coloured the stamped image with my Copic pens, but find that those pinky violet shades fade out a lot, so not light fast - at least not in my conservatory.  I did go back and try to darken some areas, and to be honest she looks better in real life.  There's lots of sparkly glitter added to her wings, the snow and around the edge of the scrap of pp I found in my bit box, I think it's a piece of Cuddly Buddly digi from a year or so ago.  My embellishments are created with various Marianne dies and the Nellies Choice punch and emboss poinsettias - I have all 3 sizes and layer them up, then cut up the biggest layer to create the leaves.  A touch of ribbon and bling finishes things off nicely, don't you think?

I can link up to the Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge as it's for sparkle and bling, and Flutterby Wednesday also want to see some sparkle on your butterfly or fairy creations.

I'm  not sure when the next project will be ready to share with you - unless you want to see my painted skirting boards.  I've got some gorgeous wallpaper to hang in the bedroom, but I'm a little bit scared of starting it just in case it all goes horribly wrong, I'm telling myself to be brave, take a deep breath and cut the first piece!

Thursday 4 October 2012

CCT ribbon challenge

It's good to be back with the girls on the Cute Card Thursday design team, and this week the challenge is to use lots of ribbon on your creation.  I wrapped my base layer with a length of satin ribbon before mounting my image with 3d foam pads, and used a couple of colours of organza to tie the double bow .. .. not a lot but hopefully enough to inspire you.

The image is LOTV little trumpet angel and she is coloured with Copics along with glitter on her wings and a clear stardust pen for the stars.  Thankfully I managed to colour several Christmas images in odd moments throughout the summer so I have a few in reserve to make up my cards, time is ticking by fast!  I've used a scrap of digi paper for my background mounted onto aqua card, then added the white dots to the edge of the card with a gel pen.  The rest of the white pearls are made with my Wacco pearl maker pen, whilst the embellishments are made from Marianne's mini poinsettia and ivy wreath dies.

Over on the Papertake Weekly challenge blog they are celebrating 5 years of blog challenges!  and with tons of prizes, and an anything goes theme - I'm entering my Christmas card.

Wednesday 3 October 2012

WOYWW

 

I've often see the craft desks joining in with Julia and the what's on your workdesk Wednesday, so after sharing my new craft space, here's a zoom in of the cluttered desk.  You see I have a few more coloured LOTV Christmas images waiting to be turned in to something or other, but the main focus is those things on that bit of kraft card .. ..
 
Back in the summer I went to the first UK Stampers Cornwall show in Bodmin and met up with some of my crafty friends from back in Saltash and Plymouth - I do miss our Monday afternoon get-to-gethers.  Anyhow, on one of the stands (sorry I can't remember whose) we did a make and take using the new lightweight Eco stampboard and I split a pack with my friend Wynneth.  When I was getting around to putting my stash away in the craft area, I got sidetracked into having a play.  The board takes ink extremely well - first a stamped swirl background then a selection of different colours of Brilliance pearlescent ink sponged over.  To pick out the dots on the background stamp I went over with a metallic pen, punched a hole with my crop-a-dile then decided to see if my old embossing powders would still be viable.  I like the verdigris finish around the edge of the green version, but the pearl red powder on the red version has over melted the edge a little too much in places.  But hey, they still worked!  to decorate I added the roses and little charms then got to fiddling with bits of wire, beads and flower soft - now what to do with them?  I found a gold ring in a bit box to fit the green version, but will need to get silver for the red to tie in the silver charm - then maybe a few more rings to make them into handbag charms perhaps .. ..maybe tie a little ribbon around the first ring .. .. I'll have to see, until then they will be sat on the desk .. .. waiting inspiration!

And now I'm back!

with a new craft area at one end of the conservatory.  I've made use of the old pine bedroom furniture and although I've still got stuff in boxes, I'm able to start making cards again!  You can see that the garden is very narrow and the lawn a bit of a mess, but gradually it will get straight and tidy, and I will keep nibbling away at the grass and adding more plants to hide the wall.  I would have liked a bigger garden, but as it's only me to look after it all, probably just as well it's just a narrow lawn surrounding the bungallow.

Now I'm off to do a bit of blog hopping and catch up - I'll be back tomorrow with a card to share, untill then, happy craft day!