Happy

Bet you thought I wasn't going to get a post done today, but I just managed to sneak in before crawling up to bed!

The swap theme at the craft telly forum this month was Flaming June, so anything that we think off as being associated with June is fair game. The cards are to be sent to the recipient by the end of the month. Inspiration had deserted me and, um, tomorrow is July. Rummaging through my stash tonight I found the Heartfelt Creations Berry Blossoms stamps and dies. Aha! My strawberry plants are full of red fruit, (which unfortunately the slugs are getting to before I do) and yummy strawberries do make me happy, especially as I don't have to share them with Hubby who refers to them as "poisonberries".

I stamped the motif 4 times and coloured it with copics and die cut them with the matching dies. I stamped a 6inch square kraft card blank with the word happy from a Winnie and Walter set, masking off the flourish at the end of the y so it fitted and heat embossed it in white.

Stupidly, I decided to add glossy accents to the strawberries before sticking them down with glue gel to form a frame. Of course, I got a fingerprint on one of the strawberries checking too see if it had dried yet and then dropped one of them face down whilst still tacky on the surface, but I think I got away with it!

Believe

Over at Sweet Stampin' they want to see stars, so I figured I'd have a go as I haven't managed to make a card for a challenge for a while, been too busy playing! Now, as they are a stamping challenge, let's start with that. I stamped the Heartfelt Creations, Open Vintage Floret in versamark on white vellum and then heat embossed them with white embossing powder, I then fussy cut them (don't tell Hubby that I've now ordered the dies) and spritzed them with water before shaping them and layering them up. Once dry I sprayed cosmic shimmer purple chalk mist on the back to add a little colour to them. I finished them with a little dazzler from eBay in the middle.
Wondering what stars I could use, I saw my Simon Says Stamp falling stars stencil and considered creating something to enter into the latest Less is more challenge, however as with all the best laid plans, it didn't work out like that!
I used the middle two shades of Altenew purple ink through the stencil applied with an ink duster as I didn't want to create a 'flat' colour background. I then die cut a square area that I liked and also die cut squares of purple, green and matt silver to layer it up with. I had found some Sue Wilson ivy die cuts lurking in my stash box and so chose the green to match the ivy. I die cut the Sweet Dixie Believe die (that I used on my canvas a couple of weeks ago) out of purple and also out of the matt silver miri card. I was thinking of using the purple as a drop shadow behind the silver, but the silver card creased a little in the die and so I reversed them. I did stick with my original plan of adding a tiny dazzler as the dot above the i though.

Apologies for the rubbish photos, the light is dreadful at the moment, the last one shows the true colours.

Sending love

Well, I can tell it's Wimbledon time of year. It's been raining heavily all day, I didn't realise how deep the standing water was at one of the roundabouts on the way back from the supermarket, it washed my windscreen well though!

As it was definitely the weather to stay indoors I had another play with the Botanical Orchid Bouquet stamp. I multiple stamped it with black memento ink on thin cardstock and coloured it in with my copics and then fussy cut them to decoupage up the image. 

I used a 6" square card blank and die cut a sheet of matt silver card and a sheet from a Lucy Cromwell for papermania 6x6 pad. It doesn't show up well, but the bunting on the paper is glittered. Before sticking the paper onto the silver card I die cut a banner die (no idea who made the set but they are purple) out of the paper. I then inserted a banner that I had die cut out of white card into the aperture, so that the front of the card was flat but with the silver showing through the fancy edges of the banner. I stamped the message from Clearly Besotted's mini messages set and added the decoupaged image to the card. Hopefully, tomorrow will bring some sun!

Thinking of you

Flippin heck there's been some heavy showers this afternoon, it's very dark so apologies for the photos. Another quick and simple card to share today. I stamped one of the stamps from the Botanic Orchid Bouquet set from Heartfelt Creations on watercolouring card and coloured it in with distress markers. I die cut it with the matching die and also used Spellbinders floral ovals on Matt silver card to create the frame. I pulled out a background made with pixie powders and die cut an oval to mount on the silver. Hopefully the second picture shows the mica shine in the background. I stamped the sentiment that came with the set on a card blank and job done!

PS you may notice lurking in the second picture and propping the card up, a paper rose made from a Susan Tiereney Rose die, that was responsible for the burnt thumb! 

Radiant Roselily

Happy Monday! A relatively quick card that I made last night when yet again there was nothing on the telly. Happily, the Sewing Bee is on tonight so I shall enjoy curling up watching that later.

As the title suggests, I made this card using the Radiant Roselily die set by Tonic. I cut out the main die in matt gold card and then used the more ornate of the two options to cut the outside edges. I die cut the different sized flower dies that fit in the panels several times in white gold shimmer paper and gentlly shaped them with the Tonic flower tool set (my new favourite toy) and layered them up (hopefully the second pic shows the paper colour better). I added some Tonic White Nuvo drops in the centres as I couldn't find the right sized pearls in my stash (everything but what I needed!). Overnight they seemed to sink into the gaps in the petals and some even had a dip in the centre, so I've added another layer on top tonight. I mounted the whole thing on a DL card blank and job done. I'm thinking this might make quite a good wedding or anniversary card, in fact I might have just had an idea....

Another beautiful day

Well, not really, it's chucking it down here. This is the second card I made whilst playing with my Altenew Beautiful Day stamp set. I used the same inks as yesterday, however this time I decided not to add the final detail stamp to the flower and leaves, which gives it a softer look. Once again I didn't mask off the flower when adding the leaves, so instead I stamped a second flower and fussy cut that and stuck it on top with some 1mm foam tape. I added the sentiment with versafine black in. I used my tattered lace pin dot squares and essential squares to layer it up on some green card. Sequins as usual to hide the stray marks. I'm off to rest my right thumb now, I was playing making some paper roses this morning and managed to burn myself with the hot glue, got a nice little blister there now, you'd think I'd know better by now really!

Beautiful Day

Okay, you survived the peonies, now prepare to be bombarded with Altenew Beautiful Day cards!

I stamped the main flower using the Altenew set of 4 cube inks in shades of purple. As the stamps were new and I couldn't be bothered to "condition" them, i.e. remove the manufacturing residue off the stamp by rubbing them with a pencil rubber or similar the ink pooled a little on the surface but I quite liked that effect. I don't know if it's just because a lot of the Altenew stamps have large flat areas, but I find the pooling more noticeable on their stamps than other brands. 

After stamping the main flower I then added some little flowers and the leaves using memento new sport and pistachio inks and archival ink in olive. I didn't bother masking when adding the other bits as I didn't mind if they overlapped a little. I smooshed the second darkest purple and memento green ink pads on some plastic packaging and used a brush to colour in the sprigs. I added the sentiment in Versafine onyx black. I added a bee from the Inkylicious Winged Things set and used a little cosmic shimmer Mango Blaze pixie powder mixed with water to paint him and a tiny bit of blue ink watered down for his wings. Hopefully you can see in the second picture the mica shimmer on him.

Having managed to not get any inky marks on the card, a couple of marks appeared when I die cut the panel with the largest tattered lace pin dot die. Time to clean my plates! 

I added a narrow mat of coordinating purple card and mounted it on a cream A5 card blank that I trimmed down to fit. A scattering of white iridescent sequins hid the marks that had appeared.

I'm entering this card over at Penny's paper-crafty challenge blog where the theme is anything goes this week.

Oldie Friday

Blimey, today has been eventful on the political front hasn't it! Whatever your feelings about the outcome I hope that we can all pull together to give the UK the best possible future rather than fight about the result. *gets off soapbox"
As it's Friday it's time to share one of our older crafty makes, blogged or unblogged over at the lovely Erika's. This was a leaving card I made for one of our locums at work a couple of years ago. The image was a Joanna Sheen House Mouse Decoupage sheet. The patterened cardstock is from Hunkydory and I die cut some of Joanna Sheen's ivy flourish to tuck behind some paper flowers from my stash. I'm trying to remember who the border punch is by, but brain is kaput!

Hope you all have a brilliant weekend x

Some things are impossible to photograph!

You may remember that I mentioned that the PaperArtsy Glaze could be used on glass and mirrors. Well, the bathroom mirror didn't run away quickly enough! Apologies for the terrible photos, very tricky to photograph, especially when you're trying to avoid being in shot. The butterflies aren't smudged in reality, it's just that they are reflecting in the mirror. I used a piece of cut and dry foam to make an ink pad with the glaze in the same way that you would with flake n glitter glue and then stamped inkylicious winged things, an indigoblu butterfly that was part of a freebie set with a magazine and some small butterflies from a card-io set. If you slip whilst stamping you can wipe them off with a baby wipe. Once dry they seem pretty solid. Not tried using any cleaning products on the glass yet, just given it a good polish with a soft cloth. It actually looks pretty good in reality, even though 24 hours later Hubby still hasn't noticed it!

Yet more Altenew Peonies

This is the last of my Altenew Peony Bouquet cards for a while, honest. I actually managed to stamp this one without smudges, but languishing around for a week or so it managed to get some creases and so yet again, fussy cutting to the rescue! I cut two tattered lace pin dot squares out of white and red cardstock and embossed the white with a spellbinders folder. Red pearls on each corner, a sentiment from craftwork cards and a left over butterfly from the weekend coloured with a red spectrum noir sparkle pen to balance it out. 

It doesn't show brilliantly in the photo, but I used brilliance inkpads and there is a gold shimmer to one of them, which is much more evident on one flower than the other, whether that's due to masking the front peony I don't know, but it actually works well on the image. Hopefully, you can see what I mean in the following photo, which is also proof that I didn't get inky smudges on it!

InkBuds shabby chic book

Apologies for the ridiculous number of pics! This is the book that we made from a pile of A4 paper and card and Indigo Blu 12x12 paper pack. We used grunge paste on some of the pages through a stencil and distressed the edges of the papers as well as decoupaging up some areas. The bow on the spine was made using the WRMK envelope punch board. We decorated one side of each of the 10 pages during the day and I decided to finish mine off when I got home and added a little Mercury stickles in places. We made pockets in two of the pages and decorated tags with distress inks to pop in them as well as colouring our seam binding with the inks to match.

We also added in two acetate pages, using paperartsy frosting glaze to stamp on them. Apparently it can also be used on glass and mirrors....

If you made it to the end of all those photos, congratulations!

Spot the difference!

Apart from the fact that my purple "Believe" looks blue in these pictures of course!

Honestly, you'd think taking a picture outside in the daylight would give true colour, apparently not.

Sorry, for the cheating duplicate blog post, but I thought I'd share a few more details with you. We didn't add words to our canvases on the day so that we could each choose what word and font we wanted. I bought the Sweet Dixie believe die on Sunday (using the very generous 20% discount that Inspirations gave us) and cut it when I got home out of purple craft foam and then out of a scrap of the purple card that I made the zig zag card out of and layered them up on the canvas. After gluing the word on, I felt that the linen tape strips looked a bit heavy and so I coloured with distress markers one of the stamped butterflies that I had left over from the workshop and added that to distract from the tape.

We made the recesses in the canvas out of little boxes, the type that you get jewellery in. We were all most disappointed to find the boxes empty when we opened them! We used three colours of acrylic paint on the canvas and a dry brush type technique to apply them and bulid up the colour. The papers in the background are actually snipped from the cover sheet of the 12x12 Indigo Blu papers that we used to make our book project.

We had a hilarious weekend with Hels and Pauline, it was great too that a lot of people who attended the first weekend had returned and so new friendships are forming. The staff at Inspirations were so helpful and friendly too. Once again we all got a fab goodie bag and there were spot prizes given away at intervals throughout the day. They're planning another weekend of workshops in Preston in October and I've already reserved my place! If you ever get the chance to go on one of their workshops go for it, just make sure you take your "tena lady pads" with you if you have a "sensitive bladder"!

I'll be back tomorrow with the book we made. 

InkBuds canvas

I had a great day at the InkBuds workshop, lots of laughter and cake. Totally shattered now though!

This is the canvas that we made today, the middle picture is the most accurate colour wise. I'll post more tomorrow as bed and painkillers are calling!

Another one from the files...

A very quick post before I wander off to bed, having had a laughter filled day crafting with Hels Sheridan and Pauline Wheeler and 8 other fabulous ladies. Great fun, but not so great for the neck.

This was a card I made for a friend near Christmas last year when she lost one of her bunnies, I thought it covered both bases!

The bunny is a stamp by Joanna Sheen which I coloured with spectrum noir pencils. I die cut some centura pearl card with one of Sue Wilson's dies and layered it up on the card. I added a bow made out of creative expressions and added one of their dazzlers to it.

Oldie Friday!

Yay, Friday again. Early night for me tonight I think. Thank you all so much for your lovely comments, it really does lift my spirits to read them.
As it's Friday it's time to link up with the lovely Erika and share one of our crafty makes from the archives. It's Father's Day on Sunday and so today's oldie is the card I made for my Dad a couple of years ago. Not made his one for this year yet, but they're away til Wednesday in the caravan, so there's still time!

I think this was a lawn fawn stamp and die set that I used and I cut the hills freehand. The clouds are from a die that has a banner type thing with clouds dangling off it (possibly a memory box die) and I snipped a few clouds off it to add to the scene.

I shall be wandering off to bed shortly, just need to pack my crafty bag first as I'm off to a weekend workshop with the ink buds - Hels Sheriden and Pauline Wheeler. Really looking forward to it, I think pretty much everyone who was at the last one is going so it should be a really fun couple of days.

Hope you all have fabulous weekends planned too x

With love

Well, yesterday's appointment went well, eventually. I checked in at the main reception at the hospital to be told that I was a day early for my appointment! Not according to the letter that I showed them. She suggested that I went down to the clinic and ask. The nurse there pulled up the appointment letter on the computer and said she'd ask the consultant if he'd squeeze me in rather than have to get time off work and Hubby take time off again to take me. She came back and said it was fine and then when I saw the consultant he said I was on his clinic list for that day and it was just the computer system that was wrong! The outcome was more injections and an appointment to follow for some more radio frequency nerve lesioning. At least it means that they haven't given up on me yet! I had today off to recover and managed to get a little crafting done this afternoon.
I had a play with my tattered lace zig zag card die set. It certainly makes cutting the card shape a doddle. There are several matting and layering dies included in the set, but being picky they are only in two lengths as hopefully you can see in the picture and I would prefer to have them for all the sections rather than them use the space for flower embellishments dies etc. My other gripe was that some of the sentiments have not got enough space left on the end of the banner to stick it down. I'm sure you could use a bit of acetate to sort that though.
I used some purple card for the base from my stash which I'm guessing is about 350gsm, but it cut perfectly. The panels were from a Lucy Cromwell for papermania pad which have some glittering on them although it doesn't show up well in the photos. The butterflies were cut with my all occasions die, but everything else was cut using the dies in the kit. I added some flat "gems" to the body of the butterflies to finish - it would have been easier to do this before adding the butterflies to the card in hindsight!
The pearlescent lilac card that I cut the some of the butterflies and the sentiments from was in the bit box so I'm taking this card over to Snippets playground. Hopefully the treehouse has a leakproof roof given the current weather!

A card from the files...

I've scheduled this post as I'm seeing my pain specialist consultant today and there's a chance that he might do some more trigger point injections where they inject local anaesthetic into the trigger points of muscles to interrupt the expected pain message. Last time he did them it affected my motor skills for 24hrs, I whacked myself in the face trying to itch my nose and let's not even mention trying to get a cup of coffee to my mouth!

This is a super quick card that I don't think I've blogged yet. I got a text message one evening to say that a colleague's partner had given birth and could I make a card for the next day as we hadn't known the sex of the baby before she was born. Hunkydory kit to the rescue. I trimmed down one of the coordinating background papers to fit on a 5x7 card blank and used a layer of rainbow mirri card behind it. I popped the topper on and added a few flowers from my stash and cut some Marianne foliage out of the rainbow mirri card to finish it off. Very quick and simple but well received.