A Cup of Tea for My Valentine

Good morning ladies, hope all is well in blogland today.  The CASology Challenge this week is "DRINK" so here goes, do I have Tea, Coffee or something stronger?  Thoughts of Valentine's day spring to mind so here goes.  This card is also for the CAS(E) This Sketch Challenge so I used the set sketch and here is what I came up with.

 

As this was for my hubby I used a beige card to make it more masculine, the papers are Pink Petticoat "Old Fashioned Girl", the stamp was a freebie with a mag.  I mounted the papers onto red card and added a computer generated sentiment.  The stamp was embossed with clear embossing powder to enable easier colouring as the card was quite soft, the cups were coloured  with a crimson promarker and the flowers highlighted with a white Pen-touch pen.  The white pen looks OK on the card but when photographed in detail it looks a bit messy, not sure if I will use it again, maybe practice makes perfect!

I now have a cute little Valentine for him indoors, hope he likes it.

Calling Time on an ATC

 

Calling Time on an ATC" is the theme at Artful Times Challenge Blog.  I have been clearing up my craft room and trying to use up all the scraps of card I have accumulated over the year so this is a great challenge.  I spent a day with my trusty Sizzix  machine cutting out tags and ATCs and some other bits and bobs, they are now in a tin ready for use (if I remember they are there!!).

 

The background was created with distress inks in fired brick, scattered straw, I added the diamonds with a PaperArtsy mask using dried marigold distress ink.  I stamped the image (one of my Christmas presents, PaperArtsy Clocks 1) using black Stazon and highlighted the wings with a little bleach.  I coloured a piece of card with Distress inks and stamped out the sentiment and cut it out to fit the ATC.

Changing colours and adding a photo to the clock face and metal distress stain I put together a second ATC. 

Would have loved to do some more but time is a little short at the moment, I have a list of challenges I want to enter so lots of cards, tags and other things to get on with, poor me lol..  I am also joining another design team in February Crafty Bloggers Network Blog, a fab site for you crafty ladies check it out.

"C" is for Going Round In Circles!

 

Here we are with another letter for the Craft Barn Alpha Challenge, the letter is "C".  For any of you blogland ladies who don't know about it let me explain.  The idea is to alter a dictionary, or use a dictionary to produce an ATC, Art Journal, or something of your choice, a letter is given every two weeks, and the challenge will run for the full year.  Check it out by clicking the link above.

I had Circus in mind as I have some lovely circus type stamps but found the word appeared right at the bottom of the page and over onto the next page, so had to think again.  Looking at the same page I picked Circumnavigate.  Searched through my boxes of stamps and found an Aspect of Design Nautical set, ideal for what I wanted.  I went on line and found a little info on Francis Drake, the info on Magellan the first person to circumnavigate the globe was too long winded.

Firstly I circled the chosen word with black ink.  The page was coloured with distress inks in broken china, scattered straw and tea dye in a random fashion, using a glimmer mask (tattered traveller) and broken china ink I added the stencil detail  The stamps were stamped using black Stazon ink and coloured with distress ink in tea dye.  The little bit of historic detail was added and a letter "C" which had been stamped with the script stamp.

Another dictionary page finished, I will have to work on a bookmark for this page as I did with my first, but this needs some more thought, rope came to mind but it may be too thick, the brain cells are still working on it!

Thank all you lovely ladies who commented on my first page, I look forward to seeing what you all come up with for the letter "C".

Flower Power

  

Flower Power is the theme over at the Allsorts Challenge Blog this week  Thoughts of hippies and the swinging Sixties went through my mind but I played safe and went with simple flowers.  This card also falls in to the theme for the Charisma Cardz Challenge which is to use two or more punches, and also the "Friends" challenge over at Less is More (my second entry).

The friend sentiment was printed directly onto the card blank using the computer,  the Hero Arts flourish was stamped in rose pink directly onto the card blank.  The flowers were punched out, coloured with distress ink and the two different sizes were layerd together, they were then placed on the card  following the curve of the flourish and finished with a self adhesive pearl.  The butterfly was cut out and coloured with distress ink and sprayed with perfect pearls, the butterfly  was placed on the card and a pearl added.  A little Glamour Dust and we have lift-off .

Not being a pinky sort of girl myself I wasn't sure about the colours but a good friend of mine loves pink and green together and I am sure she would love this one.

Recipe for good Friends

Good afternoon  blogland, another day and another challenge.  This week we have "Friends" as the theme at  the Less is More Challenge Blog.  The one thing I am lacking is a selection of sentiment stamps so I trawled through my digi images for a friendly type sentiment.  The only thing I came up with was the following "Friendship Recipe".

I am not sure where this verse came from but it is ideal for friendship cards

This is a simple card, the cupcake digi and verse were printed onto the card blank using Serif Page Plus desktop publishing.  The cupcake, a digi from Pinkpetticoat was printed onto patterned papers (from my scraps box) cut out and used to paper piece the cupcake on the card.  A little glitter and finished.

Thoughts of Sun Sea and Sand to Warm Us

Good afternoon all you blogland ladies, and welcome to my new followers, thank you for joining me.  Today I have been working on a card for the Passion for Promarkers Challenge which is "Whatever the Weather".  A snowy scene would be appropriate for the weather this week but I thought I would warm us all up with a summery card.  Thoughts of holidays, sun, walks on the beach and icecream (colours).

This is the finished result.  The photograph is very grainy and darker than it should be due to the "weather".  The colours are very pretty pastel shades, the papers and ribbon are from the Papermania Capsule Collection spots & stripes, hence the reference to icecream colours. 

The papers were layered onto a square card blank.  I stamped and embossed the Michael Powell stamp onto white linen card and coloured it with promarkers in pastel shades.  

The image was attached to the card at an angle and the card was finished with a ribbon and some shells and starfish embellishments.

Another card finished and ready for my birthday book, just the card for a friend who lives in Moushole in Cornwall.

Sent With Love For Someone Special

 

It's the weekend again, where do the days go?  I hope all you ladies are keeping warm in this snowy weather, a bit of stamping, brayering and punching soon warm you up!

I came across a new challenge blog recently while visiting some of you lovely blogland ladies, it is the CAS(E) this Sketch Challenge, another CAS challenge but with a difference you have to interpret a DT sketch in the Clean and Simply style.  If you love CAS you will want to try this one out.  I am still working on cards for my birthday book and this one will certainly go in the "ladies" section".  I know a particular lady this will appeal to.

 

Starting with a card blank I covered half the front with Papermania Signature vellum.  I coloured 4 of the smallest  flowers from the tattered florals die with scattered straw distress ink and stamped script over them in rusty hinge distress ink.  The flowers were mounted on the card and gold  studs attached to the centers.  The sentiment was stamped in rusty hinge too.

This card could also be used as a valentine card, may try using pinks and reds and see what I come up with.

One for the Boys

Today I am working on birthday cards for friends and family, there are quite a few to be made and I like to get them done and put in my birthday book so I always have a card ready when birthdays come round.

Thinking of a birthday card for a male friend I came up with this blue stamped card.  It fits nicely into the CASology challenge this week which is BLUE.  I may work on this in different colours for a few other cards (that's the mens' cards sorted!)

I masked a white card and coloured it with distress ink, removed the masking and stamped the Stampers Anonymous bitty grunge circles down the card in a darker shade of distress ink.   The circles were stamped out onto card and cut out to place on the card with sticky fixers.  The greeting was stamped and a piece of twine fastened round the card. 

Now to think of some nice girly cards for the ladies on my list.

Embroidery Hoop Alteration

The challenge over at Anything But a Card is things with wings, this is a bi-weekly challenge and will end this coming weekend.  I love bees, butterflies and all things fluttery so had the ideal stamp for this challenge, I wanted to use my Personal Impressions bee and a Stampers Anonymous honeycomb stamp, but what to use them on!

As luck would have it my mum was sorting out here sewing things and asked me to get rid of some old embroidery hoops and frames, she is 89 and anything she needs to get rid of she gives to me, usually so I can take it to be recycled somewhere.  Well I decided to recycle one of the hoops myself for this challenge.  I had seen an article in one of the Craft Stamper mags some time ago for an altered hoop, although I hadn't taken much notice at the time it stuck in my head and popped into my mind when I was sorting through the hoops and frames.

 

The Aida was from an old cross stitch which never got finished, slightly faded but a pretty pale blue, the honeycomb was stamped over the Aida using brown Stazon.  The bees and flowers were stamped onto tissue paper, coloured with promarkers, cut round and stuck to the Aida.  

 

The fabric was fastened into the hoop, trimmed and fastened underneath with double sided tape.  Using double sided tape again I fastened the lace round the hoop.  Some of the honeycomb was highlighted with stitching and beads, and a few buttons were added to the background.  Little butterfly beads were added to the lace and a beaded rope added to the hoop fastener.  I wanted to add some wording, time flies or bee mine, but couldn't find anything suitable I wanted to add.

Another project I enjoyed working on, now I only have to think how to get rid of the remaining hoops and frames! 

My Take on Tim's Tag

 

Having visited the Tim Holtz blog and checking out the the 12 Tags for 2013 I thought I would give it a go and try produce the 12 tags though the year, one because it will be fun and two I may pick up on some new techniques to use in my crafting.  This is a great idea for me as I do tend to do CAS style cards and need to let my imagination soar a little!!

These tags are my take on "Tim's Tag".  I didn't have all the Ranger/Tim Holtz products used so had to improvise somewhat and am sure more new products will join my stash as the year progresses.

 
I followed the basic tutorial on the site substituting my bits and pieces for things I didn't have.  I thought the film strip needed a little something so filled in two frames with some stamping, had to make my own small label too by cutting out a stamped image I liked.  The bulldog clip was found in the office, It looks a lot bigger than the one used in the tutorial but it is quite ancient.  I like curly edges so distressed the sentiment and curled one of the corners and set it at an angle rather than straight.  Lastly a strip of satin ribbon was coloured with distress ink, heat dried then stamped with black Stazon.


I used:
#8 tag cut using Sizzix die
Papermania embossing folder and Urban Stamps
Papermania metal cogs
Stampers Anonymous stamp "Stuff to Say"
Cogs and film strip cut from card using the Silhouette electric cutting machine 
Ranger distress inks and metal distress stains (on cogs)

Looking forward to what comes next month, maybe something Valentine related! 

 
 

Thinking of Spring, butterflies and flowers

This week's challenge at the Allsorts Challenge Blog is to use Dies and  Punches.  An opportunity to rifle through my box of dies for some inspiration.  I was thinking of Spring and new beginnings and remembered I had some lovely Pinkpetticoat sentiments and pretty  papers which hadn't been used for ages.

  

I started by printing out the sentiment and a sheet of lemon coloured blossom paper, cutting the sentiment to size leaving white space underneath to cut out the butterfly and randomly tearing a strip of the patterned paper.   I machine stitched round the edge of the sentiment and coloured  the edges with lemon coloured chalk,  attached the strip of patterned paper  to a square kraft card, the sentiment was placed over the patterned strip so the patern showed through the butterfly.  The card was decorated with the cut out butterfly and two Memory Box  chloe stems which were edged with dried marigold distress ink.

One card finished today, hope the rest of the week is as productive.

Thanks once again to all of you lovely blogland ladies who have left comments lately. 

A touch of deja vu

Working with the same stamp used in my last post I have come up with this CAS card for the Simply Less is More Challenge Sport or exercise" and a one layer card.  Skating and dancing must fit the bill and there is only one layer to this card.

This one layer clean and simple card was embossed with a dotty folder and a round Sizzix diffuser to leave a flat area to stamp the Marianne Designs stamp.  The words were printed using the computer.  The image was stamped, embossed with clear powder and coloured with distress inks.

Time to take a break while the camera charges, maybe even watch Dancing on Ice on TV tonight!

Dancing On Ice in a Winter Wonderland

 

Here I am again, at the last minute as usual for the CASology Blog Challenge.  The cue card for this week's challenge is Winter, I thought this cheeky chap dancing on the ice was ideal.  The card also fits the Addicted to CAS weekly challenge embossing so I will be entering it there too.  This subject would be ideal for the Simply Less Is More Challenge "Sport or Exercise" but it is a one layer challenge, I am sure I can manage to use him again!

 The stamp is "Ice Skating" by Marriane Designs, I stamped him onto the card, embossed him and coloured him with distress inks.  I embossed a square piece of card with a dotty embossing folder, cut out the center with a spellbinders die, and stamped the sentiment in the bottom corner.  Some string was tied round and fastened with a bow, the panel was them fixed to the card with 3D sticky fixers.

I am working on half a dozen other things at the moment and hope to post a few more creations later today or tomorrow, at last I am getting organised and maybe next week I will not be posting to challenges at the last minute.

Thanks to all you lovely ladies who have been commenting recently, your comments are very much appreciated. 

"V" is for Very Frustrated!!

 

Today is the day to get to grips with the Craft Barn's Alpha Challenge,  I gathered together some dictionaries and finally started to alter my chosen dictionary.  I couldn't make my mind up what to do so tried two options, alter the actual dictionary or make an art journal with the pages.  The journal didn't work out well so the altered dictionary it was.

 

After flipping through "V" for inspiration I fell upon VISTA, thought this would work with my Machael Powell Urban Stamps "Clock tower" and "crooked cottage".

I started by circling the chosen word with a black pen and stamping the clock tower scene which I coloured with distress inks.  The top part of the crooked cottage stamp was stamped along the bottom of the page twice and also coloured with distress inks.  I doodled inbetween the two stamped areas to make it one continuous stamped image.  A letter V was cut out of paper, coloured blue and stamped with flowers which were coloured red, this was stuck to the page and butterflies stamped randomly up the page and coloured blue.

I wanted a way to find my page when I went back to my dictionary, a ribbon bookmark was created by stamping flowers and butterflies on to a white ribbon with black Stazon, colouring the ribbon, flowers and butterflies with distress ink.  I folded over the top of the ribbon and fastened a paperclip inside the fold to make a clip to fasten the ribbon to the page.

The "Very Frustrating" part was getting some ink on my stamping block when stamping the butterflies on the page and not realising until I had stamped the butterflies. I decided to leave it for the time being, but will try incorporate it into the stamped picture with a bit of doodling when I have thought out how to do it!  

Tagging along on a challenge or two

I am still waiting to receive some super crafting things I ordered last week but as always when you want something it takes ages for it to arrive.  I have decided to try out tags this year, Tim Holtz has been very helpful with some of his tutorials, if only I can remember some of the techniques!!

At present I am working on a tag for the Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2013, I don't have all the items suggested so have improvised with what I have and some Sizzix/Tim Holts products, I will let you have a peek when it is finished.

On to other things though, the following tag was made for the Artful Times Challenge where we have to use 2 or more embossing folders in our design.  I am also entering it in the Splodgeaway Challenge which is "New Beginnings".

 I cut out the tag using the Sizzix "Tim Holtz" Tag and Bookplate die and embossed it with Craft Concepts Budding Vine using a Sizzix embosing diffuser.  The tag was coloured with distress ink in mustard seed  and the house stamped and coloured with Distress inks.  The greeting was printed onto a vellum tag and the top half embossed with the vine folder,  the tag was torn just below the greeting and attached to the main tag.  A Sizzix tattered floral flower was cut out and embossed with a Cuttlebug dots folder then coloured with distress ink in dried marigold and spiced marmalade.  The flower was assembled and atached to the tag with a die cut leaf, and a ribbon fastened through the top to finish it off.

 

The gold ribbon was stamped with black Stazon using the bird and flower stamp from the same set as the house (freebie with some magazine, not sure which).