Wet and Muddy - Thank Goodness For The Wellies

A good afternoon to all you lovely blogland ladies and a special hello to my new followers.  As you may have guessed, due to the lack of blog activity, I am away on holiday.  Mad panic as the Alpha Challenge over at the Craft Barn finishes this coming Sunday.  The letter for the foutnightly challenge is "W" with the added interest of "use circles on the background".  Choosing the word came easy as soon as we arrived (caravanning in Devon) the site was soggy to say the least so out came the trusty Wellies, and last Saturday there was a feature on wellies in the paper, how could I not go with the word.

 

After much thinking of what to do with my limited resources I came up with a background using DIs in scattered straw, dried marigold, spiced marmalade and a new one for me picked raspberry.  Tim Holts mixed media circles stamp was used with festive berries DI on the background along with a dotty circle stamp (onefourzero Flourishes set) in tea dye.  I added some crackle glaze to the red circles to add interest.  I really wanted to use some texture paste this time round but had none with me so hope to try it on my next page.  The wellies from the paper were added to the page with some information on the origins of the wellington boot, the W was cut from paper and coloured with DIs.

 

 Job done, now I have to try post my entry, hope the network down here is good enough!

Have a Magical Birthday Alfie

Today I have my DT card for The Crafty Bloggers Network Inspiration,  pop over and take a look at the beautiful DT cards they are fabulous.  The sponsor this month is Rick St Dennis who has some fantastic digital images for sale in his Etsy shop.

I have also been working on some birthday cards for friends and family this weekend, the months are creeping forever onwards and I am behind with my cards, I usually have them all done and in a folder ready to go.  This is a card for my grandson who is six this month.  You have seen this digital image from Rick St  Dennis  before, he was used in my altered dictionary letter "M" for magician. I thought he would be ideal for a childrens' card and I am sure my grandson will be thrilled with what I have done for him.

I wanted to get away from my usual square card and thought the image looked good standing alone so made up a folding card with a narrow left hand side.  The card was embossed with a Tim Holts embossing folder and coloured with DI in scattered straw.I printed the image onto white linen card and coloured it with watercolour crayons, this was then fussy cut ready to attach to the card.  The impression I wanted to give was of a magician casting spells so added the swirls (Magnolia Doohickeys). A few stars were added to the swirls and plenty of glamour dust for a sparkly effect.

Only one more thing to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALFIE  have a fab 6th birthday.

Charmed to Meet You

Another post from me today, trying to catch up on all I have to do while I have the chance.  I will be away on and off over the next 4 to 5 weeks and need to sort out my crafting, what needs to be finished and what I can take with me to do when I am away.  The challenge over at Artful Times is "Charmed to Meet You", there is also a swap if you want to join in, but there are only 3 days left!.

I really enjoyed making  the flower embellishment, it made a change to sit and play with something I hadn't done before, and the keyring came about as I was playing with the brighter coloured DIs making backgrounds.

The 2 bookplates were cut using Tim Holtz Movers and Shapers tag and bookplates, and a shaped piece was cut from card to sandwich in the middle for the stamped image.  The pieces were coloured with DIs and the center piece stamped on both sides with Lavinia Stamps Lavender in barn door DI.  the three pieces were sandwiched together and tripple embossed to give shine and make it more rigid.  A few matching beads were added to the bottom and a key ring to the top.  My original thought for this was to fasten it to a tag as an added embellishment.

As I had my bead box and wires out I thought why not make a beady embellishment.  The beaded flower is something I wanted to have a go at for some time but didn't have the time to sit and fiddle about.  It was in  fact quite simple and not as fiddly as I thought.  I shaped wire into a daisy and wove wire round the center to make a base for the beads.  The beads were threaded one at a time onto wire which was woven  front to back each time and  the wire tightened to hold the bead.  I just kept on going until the center was full of beads.  The daisy petals are a bit wobbly but the wire is quite thin and it does add character to this embellishment lol!

The background I photographed the beady flower on is what I have been working on over the weekend, the colours are fabulous and I now have lots of patterned background for card making.

Bright and Beautiful in a Fairy Glen

Good morning again everyone, here I am with my second post of the day, this is my tag for the Lavinia Stamp Blog Challenge where to theme is Bright And Beautiful.

 

Over the weekend I had  been playing about with some of the newer colours of DIs and some blending sponge (which was a freebie with a magazine) and used these to colour the tag as they were out and ready to go.  The different colours were dabbed onto the tag overlapping in places then sprayed with a mister and allowed to run into one another. Once dry I stamped the Lavinia Fairy House in black Stazon and clear embossed it.  The Lavinia lavender stamp  and wild flower were then stamped using barn door DI, the vines/leaves at the top are part of a stamp set but am not sure who produced it, these too were stamped in barn door DI. 

 

The tag was backed with black card to give a contrast edge and a ribbon was coloured with the three colours and stamped with the flowers and vine stamps before attaching to the tag.  The black backing is not clear on the photo as I put it on a black background to photograph it so the bright colours would show up.

 

Really enjoyed playing with these bright colours and my lovely Lavinia stamps, a few people will be getting some bright and beautiful birthday cards to brighten their day this year!

Ring, Ring - Bling, Bling

Good morning blogland and a warm welcome to my new followers.  Today I am posting my altered dictionary page for the Craft Barn Alpha Challenge.  The letter this fourtnight is "R" and my chosen word is ring.

 

A ring was placed around my chosen word and a few other associated words, the pages were coloured with distress inks in picked raspberry, mowed lawn and peacock feathers.   Using a set of Spellbinder circle dies I cut out 4 rings in different sizes, these were stamped  in the DI colours with the circle stamp from the Bitty Grunge stamp set by Stampers Anonymous.  Picking certain words from the variations on ring I set about finding some pictures/stamps etc to use,  the telephone, dancing children, circus and engaged lady are all digi stamps, and the words are computer generated.  The pictures were coloured with watercolour crayons and cut out ready to fix to the pages with the stamped rings, the words were cut out and coloured with DI.  My letter "R" was stamped with the circle stamp and fixed to the page along with the rings, pictures and words.

 

 I added some white acrylic paint rings using an eggcup, to give the impression of cup marks on furniture and added a ring pull, I had to force hubby to have a beer last night so I could use the ring pull bit!

Can't wait to see what you other ladies have come up with your entries are always fabulous, I will be popping over to the Craft Barn Challenge soon to take a look.  A big thank you to all of you who leave me comments I love reading them.

Twinchies That Bloom In The Spring Trala

Good morning lovely blogland ladies, another month has flown by and it is Twinchie time again. The challenge over at the Show Us Your Twinchies Challenge Blog is "Spring", so come on ladies we want to see all your spring twinchies to help awaken spring and get the weather warming up a little.

Here are a few of my Design Team Twinchies, you can find mine and the other very talented design team members' twinchies here, pop over and take a look.

  

Lambs and Easter bunnies always make me think of spring, here are two cute digi downloads from Pink Petticoat, coloured with Promarkers and fastend with 3D sticky pads.  The images could be fastened on with a wobbler to make them even more fun. 

Spring bulbs, the first snowdrops, followed by daffodils and tulips. These images were a download from a craft magazine and coloured with watercolour pencils.

The March hares (a free stamp with a Craft Stamper magazine) were stamped in brown Stazon onto a chalked background, and soft breezes bring with them spring was a digi image coloured with water colour pencils.

Birds are nesting and the garden is full of life.  These two twinchies were coloured with DI and part of Stampendous Bird Frame stamp stamped onto them.  I tripple embossed them with clear embossing powder with a little blue irridescent powder added, the flecks from the blue powder are showing up as white on the photo but maybe with the weather as it has been with the late snow it may be apt for how spring is shaping up lol.

Happy Easter with a vintage feel

Good morning blogland and all you lovely ladies out there.  Another month has arrived and with it another Crafty Bloggers Network Challenge and my Design Team card.  This month the theme is "Anything Goes" and this month's prize will be fabulous digital downloads from our sponsor Rick St Dennis.  Pop over and take a look at the other fabulous DT cards and details of this month's sponsor and the challenge here.

I chose this fabulous digital download from Rick St Dennis called Isabella Easter Egg Hunt, it has a Victorian feel to it so I decided to try something a little vintage.  I found some lovely Prima Botanical Collection papers and went from there.  I added a little worn lipstick DI to some of the papers and sewed round the edges of the pieces before matting and layering them onto the card.  Two small patterned doilies were added and a strip of gathered ribbon (from an old blouse).  The image was printed onto white linen card, cut to shape and the corners rounded using a Martha Stewart lace punch, the image was coloured with DI and mounted with 3D sticky pads, paper roses in pink and cream were added with a few pearls.

I did think about distressing the edges of the card and image but decided to go for vintage colourings rather than well worn vintage, not all recipients of my cards understand the concept of distressing a card!!.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Rhedd and  Rosies Challenge - Vintage/Shabby
Alsorts Challenge Blog - Vintage

Cards Galore - Vintage