Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge #293

It's Wednesday again (where does the time go?) and do it's time for a new challenge over at Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge Blog. This week the theme is anything goes and we've been sponsored by Oddball Art who gave me this fun image to work with.

The image is a .png file (you may have to rearrange those letters!) which means that the line art is on a transparent background so that you can overlay it over a different pattern or next to an image without obscuring it. I messed up my colouring of the first image and when I came to print it off again I used a different link to my printer and it gave me the option of changing the background to black. This meant I lost some of the reindeer flying near the moon, but I loved how it really looked like the night sky. Coloured with copics and the background paper is from a Lidl Christmas pad. Die cut the tattered lace greeting and added a few sequin snowflakes, hopefully on the second picture you can see that they also reflect blue and not just pink. Have a great day and I'd love to see your entries.

So, diets start on 1st September...

So, diets start on Thursday, both stash and weight! Fortunately, this purchase arrived before the deadline. Crafting.co.uk had an offer on over the weekend, spend over £40 and get free delivery and a free baby blue die cutting machine worth £35. Well, it would have been rude not too, wouldn't it? So I ordered on Friday and my order arrived today. Three sets of melded dies and my baby blue machine. Ssh, don't tell anyone but I might have done a second order as I needed some large number dies for milestone birthday cards and it said there was a free baby blue in that order too on the order confirmation page! I have a cunning plan for the second one if it arrives...

Anyway, lack of mojo (he must have gone to the seaside as you suggested Jenny!) meant that when I unwrapped my parcel I whipped up a super quick card to enable me to have something to blog this evening. I used the tattered lace melded die -a walk in the countryside and layered it up with white and Kraft card on a 6x6 card blank. A few flowers from my stash and some bits of die cut flourish that was lurking in the bit box along with a few blobs of nuvo drops. Super simple. 

Right, diets start on Thursday to give me time to get prepared. No more stash buying for a month, unless it is an essential like glue. Weight diet also starts then. I've put on about 3 stone through a combination of being ill, self medicating with food and also side effects of my medication. I googled a research paper for the type of drug I'm on and it concluded that most people did gain some weight, with the worst affected being those on the same drug as me! So, snacking out of the window, healthy food only allowed past the front door. It's my parent's golden wedding on 1st October, so that's my first goal, to be very good until then. 

Missing mojo

Well, the sun obviously didn't get the memo that it was a bank holiday, as it's been beautiful weather today. Hubby has been messing about with his bees and after doing a few jobs I settled down to do some crafting and discovered my mojo had gone AWOL. Spent 2 hours on a DT card that ended up in the bin, oh well, I managed to rustle up a card that I wasn't embarrassed to post eventually!

Fortunately, today's card was one that I made earlier using some of those dancing hippos again. I teamed them up with the memory box curved happy birthday die and Sue Wilson's heart lattice embossing folder. A bit of silver mirri card and a few gems to finish.

Right, off to search for my mojo. So much for getting ahead with some card making hey!

Hooray!

(Di, great minds certainly do think alike!)

Hooray, it's the Sunday of a bank holiday weekend here in England (sorry, Scotland). I managed a lie in til 8 this morning before my neck insisted I get up and move, however I reserve the right to have an afternoon nap later.

Another card that was inspired by the stamped, coloured and fussy cut, Clearly Besotted, Trouble in a Tutu images that I did earlier this week. Love that name, apparently it was inspired by the owners daughter! I bought the Hooray die in the clearance (along with um, others) at Clearly Besotted recently - the die is no longer available sadly, unless of course you win it at Snippets Playground this week!

I used my fuse tool again to make a shaker card and filled it with 1mm flat backed gems. They are obviously sparkly on one side and are silver coloured on the back so they work well in the shaker. The die doesn't cut an outside edge, so I used a circle die to create the frame. I do love the fuse tool in that you can make flat shaker cards, the deepest part of the card is probably the 1mm foam tape that the hippos are stuck on with. 

I used a scalloped 5x5 card base and initally I was going to add the shaker frame directly onto it but I decided to add a mat of silver mirri and then a square of white in top before adding the shaker and those cute hippos. I couldn't resist adding some clear wink of Stella to their tutus and a few larger gems to finish.

Right, off to order some pen refills ( I had an assessment from Access to Work a few years ago, for those that don't know they are a government agency that supports disabled people to get and remain in employment by assessing for and in some cases funding equipment or other solutions that will enable the person to work. I feel like a total fraud having them involved as my problems are so minor compared to others. However, my case they part funded a special chair, writing slope, voice dictation software and training to use it and a wheeled bag. They will also consider paying for taxis for me if I become unable to drive, which is essential for my job. One of the simplest things they recommended was an ergonomic pen with gel ink. I ended up buying the pen myself, but work reimburse me for the refills. I ran out this week and had to resort to a normal biro. It's amazing how much more pressure you need to write with a biro rather than a gel pen and obviously the grip isn't as easy. I'm normally in pain by the end of writing a paragraph using my good pen and typically I had really complex things going on this week which ended up with 3 or 4 sides of A4 reports!) and then hubby and I are off to a garden centre for a mooch about. Hope you all have a great day x

Hello!

Hello! I went AWOL yesterday, my neck has been playing up lots the last couple of weeks (not that I like to admit it to anyone, least of all myself). I hoped that not commenting for a bit would help, but apparently not, so after work it was a very very early night with some extra painkillers. Hopefully, when finances are on a more even keel, we can look into changing my car for an automatic. Various doctors and nurses have said that not having the use the gear stick all the time would help. 

Parsley is doing well. He's not impressed at having eye drops, but he is allowing me to put them in, even if it means he shows his disgust when back in his run by flicking his back feet and thumping! Got to love them. 

I managed to get a bit of crafting done this afternoon and made three cards in total. I spent some time earlier this week stamping and cutting out images so I assembled the bits into some cards.

I used a clearly besotted die that I got in their clearance section recently and cut it out of gold and silver mirri. I used my fuse tool to make the shaker element and added it to the back of the die cut with a bit of pink card behind it. I added a rainbow from the magical unicorn stamp set and the little unicorn is from the new Clearly Besotted Be Lucky set and has a touch of wink of Stella on him (or her?). I couldn't resist adding some googly eyes to finish!

May all your wildest dreams come true.

Honestly, why can't I take a decent photo these days? Not helped by the fact that it's been a very dark and gloomy day. It's looked like it's going to tip it down at any moment, but so far it's stayed dry.

I had a trip to the vets this evening, I noticed Parsley a Bunny had a bit of white discharge in his eye yesterday. Of course, despite being there when I put him in the carrier, by the time he saw the vet it had vanished! The vet still prescribed some drops though, even if Parsley was um, less than keen on being examined! Last time he had the discharge he needed his teeth doing, but fortunately they were fine this time. There was lots of stomping and foot flicking in disgust though when I put them both back in the run (as they live together they always go to the vets together to give moral support),

Right, back to the card making. Yep, it's that unicorn set and pixie powder and clarity stencil time again! This time I added the fairytale castle which I cut out if pink card and backed with cream, using the Sweet Dixie die. Really love how affordable their dies are, this one was under £6 in the craft shop in Preston. Right, off to get something to eat now and then a commenting I will go!

Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge

Wednesday again and it's time for a new challenge over at Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge Blog. This week's theme is - Anything Goes and we have a great sponsor and prize from Art by Miran

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/artbymiran

Prize - 3 digi images of winners choice

They gave me this bewitching image to work with. I printed out the digi stamp and got out my beloved copics to colour it in. I die cut it and a silver mirri mat with my favourite tattered lace pin dot rectangles. I embossed the black background paper with a creative expressions embossing folder, I've lost the label, but I think it was something to do with quilts. I know, really helpful, right! I got out some gold mirri card and die cut some Docrafts nested stars and the memory box jumbled birthday to finish the card with.

Happy Birthday

Did you melt today too? My thick green polycotton uniform trousers are not the best summer wear! Still, at least it was dry today. 

Another card made with the My Favourite Things Magical Unicorns to share today. I made the background a while ago with pixie powders and a clarity cloud stencil. I trimmed it down to fit a 6x6 card and added blue/green and gold mats. I stamped, coloured and fussy cut out the rainbow cloud and the unicorn to which I added wings with the stamp set. I stamped the sun directly on the background. I made a paint out of the pixie powders to colour the sun, it shimmers like the clouds, but of course my dodgy photography doesn't show that! The memory box jumbled happy birthday die was on my desk, so I cut that out of gold mirri and added it to the card along with some tiny gems to finish.

Wishing you rainbows, unicorns and glitter.

Well, I've survived another Monday at work, can't wait for the bank holiday next week, even if that does mean that it's nearly September!

I finally got a chance at the weekend to play with the My Favourite Things Magical Unicorns stamp set. I stamped the images up and coloured with my copics and then fussy cut them. I used the other half of the background that I used for my sister's birthday card and stamped the castle in it to get the flags before sticking the coloured castle over it. I stamped one of the sentiments from the set and cut it out in a banner shape. I added faux stitching around the edges of the banner, panel and card and then smudged them in the bottom right corner of the card. Whoops! That part of the card was then amputated, taking it from a 5x7 card blank to something slightly slimmer!

Happy Bird-day

Sunday evening already, where does the time go? I managed to get a bit of a lie in this morning and a bit of crafting done this afternoon. Apologies for the poor photo, it's tipping it down and is very dark and gloomy.

I inked up this mini set from the recent Clearly Besotted release. Masked off the bird and stamped in the bird bath before adding the splashes and flying birds. I coloured it all in with my copics and die cut it with Simon Says Stamp stitched rectangles to match a matt silver mat I had lurking. I didn't tape down the die well enough and so it cut slightly wonky. I had to add the banner to hide the wording behind it which was now standing out like a sore thumb bring wonky. I fussy cut out a few extra birds and added them with some foam tape. I finished it off with some glossy accents on the water and some 1mm gems.

Right off to catch up on some commenting now!

Sweet Stampin' Challenge - Back to School

It's time for another new challenge over at Sweet Stampin' and this week we have another great sponsor, Crafts U Love. Our theme this week is "Back to School", before you enter the challenge, have a look at my teammates wonderful cards and see if you can spot the "triplets"!

I used the cute schoolboy stamp by Lili of the Valley and coloured him in in my favourite copics. I kept this card very CAS, die cutting some tattered lace pin dot rectangles (they may have been added with foam tape...) and the sentiment I think was also a tattered lace die. I finished the card off with some ivory nuvo drops. I have to say that I like the tonic nuvo drops, I used cosmic shimmers coloured dimensional PVA in the past, but found that they seemed to dry with a slightly tacky surface that could stick to the back of another card if any pressure was on them, whereas the nuvo drops seem not to have the stickiness. Have you found any differences? You could always try both out on your entry in our challenge!

Oldie Friday

Thank goodness it's Friday! Has it been a long week for you too? Everyone I've spoken to in the communal kitchen at work has commented on what a long and tiring week it has been. Hubby is allegedly going to Wales tomorrow for gold planners barbecue and will be back Sunday, so I'm hoping to have a rest and try to sort out some of my craft stuff so that we can find the kitchen table and lounge floor again!

I'm massively behind on visiting and commenting on all your wonderful blogs and I think I might have to admit defeat as I'm never going to catch up at this rate given my current tiredness and neck pain. Can I blame that all on having a tooth out? I am still loving seeing what you've all been up to and promise I will comment as much as possible in future.

As it's Friday, it's time to link up with the lovely Erika to share an oldie. I don't think I've shared this one before. It was a card that I was asked to make about 2 or 3 years ago for a colleague who's daughter was graduating from uni. The brief was that it should be girly and that she liked cats. Now, I remembered seeing a Penny Black graduation cat stamp, but of course it had been discontinued when I wanted it. I can't remember the actual stamp image I ended up using, but I know it was on a wooden block, which probably means it's somewhere in the storage unit. I had to mask off whatever the kitty was holding whilst decoupaging him up and add in the graduation certificate scroll which was made from some scrap paper and tied with a snippet of red ribbon. I stole the idea of using a crochet border die to frame the circle mat from another blogger possibly Debby? I stamped some hats using a graduation stamp set I got on eBay and added those. I remember buying another stamp set which had the sentiments included in it. I finished it off with some flowers from wild orchid crafts, although I got a little carried away with them. The details may be vague, but I remember that the colleague and her daughter loved it! Right, off to watch the second Corrie of the evening and then bed calls. Sweet dreams x

For you

Almost the weekend, is it just me or has this been a long week? Managed to cobble this card together tonight. I started to assemble it on Sunday when I was rummaging through the bits to be made into cards box/pile/dumping ground and I got as far as die cutting the pixie powder background and black mat with tattered lace pin dot squares, before promptly losing the bird. It must have flown off somewhere before returning to roost tonight! Apologies for the dodgy photographs, I was trying to capture the shimmer and the artificial light is making the card darker and the white base card, pinky.

I stuck the two layers down with foam tape and then added the clarity bird which had previously been stamped on watercolour paper and fussy cut. The die for the sentiment was still on my desk, so I cut it out of black card and added it. I decided to finish off with a few drops of ranger enamel accents in black. It does seem to be very gloopy, maybe it's just my bottle, and tends to leave a stringy trail if you're not careful. I may revisit the dots and add a little more to make them more equal, or I may put it in the box once dry and ignore it...

I'm back to playing catch up on my comments, so, apologies if I haven't visited you yet, I'm on my way! 

Penny's paper crafty challenge - anything goes

It's time for a new challenge over at Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge.  Our theme this week is anything goes and we have 2 fabulous sponsors and great prizes.

Our Sponsors this week are 

Lacy Sunshine

Store - http://lacysunshine.weebly.com/

Blog - http://lacysunshine.blogspot.co.uk/

Prize -3 digi images of winners choice 

and 

The Paper Shelter

Store - http://www.thepapershelter.com

Blog - http://thepapershelter.blogspot.co.uk/

Prize - $10 Gift Certificate

I used this great coloured image and paper from The Paper Shelter for my card. I printed out the image  three times and fussy cut it then decoupaged it. I die cut the base layer with a circle die and added a slightly larger mat in matt silver card behind it. I cut the background paper to fit a 6x6 card blank with mats of kraft card and matt silver card. I cut the Noel die (tattered lace) twice out of the matt silver and layered it up to add definition. 

I added some snowflakes in kraft card and certainly didn't add them to hide any glue smudges... I added the die cut holly sprigs to each corner and added some mercury stickles to add a little gentle sparkle. Oh, and some faux stitching sneaked in there...

I'm looking forward to seeing your makes this week x

Seasons Greetings

Thank goodness it's Tuesday tomorrow! Fingers crossed I shall enjoy a smidgen of a lie in before attempting to tidy the crafting table of shame. I had some cunning storage delivered on Monday and hopefully the parcel redelivery I've booked for tomorrow will be my ribbon storage from Ali Reeves company. 

I quick play for my card tonight. I decided to try to recreate some of the cards we made on Saturday. I had fun making the wreath card and got everything slightly covered in blue ink, but ultimately decided it wasn't my style. Instead I masked off a strip on a 6x6 card (as it was lying on my desk) and replicated the snowflake strip that we had made using the Hunkydory sparkling baubles stamp set. I had a rummage in my stash to find an ink to work with and came across an unused blue Generation Inx ink pad by Stamps by Me. They produce some layering stamps and promote this ink as being good the use for multiple generations of stamping to give multiple shades. I have to say that it is very juicy and even the third generation impression was still a good strong colour.

I used an inkylicious ink duster to apply the background colour in a sweeping stroke, at the workshop we used shaving brushes to apply the ink and then added the snowflakes in first (when I forgot to blot), second and a few in third generation ink. I repeat stamped the dotty border in versafine black ink to edge the band. 

I die cut the sentiment out of a bit of matt silver card that was leftover from making tomorrow's design team card and layered it up twice to add some definition. The sentiment is from the original tattered lace snowglobe die set and is great in that the apostrophe and dot above the i are attached do you don't lose the tiny bits of card when you try to stick them on. The matt silver holly was a reject from tomorrow's card, not sure where the actual die came from, so I added it along with three blue gems to finish. In hindsight I think the proportions may work better on a portrait rectangular style card, so may make one like that later. 

As the sentiment was cut from a scrap of card, I'm going to enter this card over at Snippets Playground. I'm going to see if Parsnip has melted in the heat!

Have a monster birthday

Another quick post as bed calls. Tooth or lack of it is still playing up and so painkillers and an early night are on the cards!

Another card made with bits from the bit box. The purple card had imagination crafts citron sparkle paste added to it through a star mask and was die cut with my favourite Simon says stamp stitched rectangles, as was the Mirridazzle card behind it. The monster, planets and sentiment are all clearly besotted. All finished off with some foam tape (surprise surprise!) on a 5x7 card blank. Hope you all get a good nights sleep x

Happy birthday

A very quick post as we've just got in. Hubby dropped me off at my parents in Kendal at 9.30 this morning whilst he went to a goldpanning world championships meeting further north and then we had tea with Mum and Dad before heading home.

This was the card I made for my sister who was celebrating her birthday whilst in holiday in America at a certain mouse themed park. I thought this Clarity Fairytale castle fitted the bill which I coloured with distress reinkers and fussy cut out before mounting it on a pixie powder background made with a clarity cloud stencil. A bit of faux stitching to emphasise the clouds and I coloured the bottom cloud with a warm grey copic to ground the castle. I stamped and fussy cut the banner and had wrote the greeting on it. I layered it all up with white and black card and foam tape to finish.

Right off to see if I can get away without ironing my tunic for work and then bed. Sweet dreams!

Workshop Day

Well, after an early night I awoke refreshed and ready for the workshop today in Preston. It was run by John Bloodworth as I mentioned yesterday as part of his awareness and fundraising mission for Mind, a mental health charity here in the UK. We were crafting using the Hunkydory silhouette Christmas range and so John was assisted by the lovely Ann-Marie who is the main Hunkydory demonstrator on Create & Craft TV channel. You can see in the above picture the projects we made. It was great to revisit the basics of stamping and masking etc as well as snipping out some fabulous laser cut shapes. We were able to bring home the materials we'd used and you can see some of the left over laser cuts in the above picture, there was also loads more, which you can see in the following picture, including the 3 stamp sets.

I can only think that Hunkdory were very generous to us, as the cost of the workshop was just £30 and the majority of that went to Mind and I'm sure our goodies cost more than that, plus they gave us a 10% discount off anything we purchased. Well, with an invitation like that...

NB. One or more items may have been omitted from this picture on the grounds of Hubby might see this picture. Included in the picture at the bottom is the colouring postcards that are available for making a donation to Mind. 

When you buy from the shop, they often give you a freebie and today was no exception as these were popped into my carrier bag today,

Lots of extra goodies! It was a great day out, I met lots of lovely ladies, including Tara (Hi, if you're reading this), who is going to have the misfortune of my company for a crafting session in the future. Ann-Marie told us that there is going to be a release next weekend of some new stamp sets which will be available on a 3 for 2 offer along with a stamp magazine which will have a free stamp set with it. I know one of the stamp sets includes a peacock (as Ann-Marie showed me a sample she'd made on her phone) and I think she said it also had an owl and a parakeet, but we shall have to wait and see. Think I'll have to sit on my hands, must not buy any more stamps.... Yeah, right!

Oldie Friday

Yay, it's the weekend. The tooth or lack of it, is feeling much better today, still sore, but the hard lump has gone down a lot and I think *touch wood* that it'll be fine now. Not loving the rinsing 4 times a day with hot salty water, but am following the dentist's advice. Don't know why, but I was overcome with tiredness driving home from work. It was a proper wind down the windows and turn the radio up and sing along to stay awake job! I managed to stay awake long enough when I got home to have a tin of soup as I'd not had breakfast or lunch, before I gave in and went to bed for an hour? Still shattered now, so will finish this post, watch the first Corrie and then wander off to bed.

As it's Friday, it's time to link up with the lovely Erika to share an oldie. This was the second ever card that I posted on my blog when I started it in March last year. I used a decoupaged image from a Crafters Companion BeBunni CD-ROM and some lili of the valley papers. I added a bow made using a Sue Wilson die and a craftwork cards printed sentiment and a few papermania glittery gems.
I'm off to Preston for a workshop tomorrow organised by John Bloodworth aka Gentleman Crafter as part of his All Counties Craft Challenge which is fundraising for Mind and raising awareness of mental health issues. Should be fun and in a great cause too. Hope you all have a fabulous weekend x

Happy Birthday

It was Dad's birthday yesterday and this was the card I sent to him. I stamped the Sheena Douglass train stamp in black versafine on smooth watercolour card and coloured it in with distress reinkers. I trimmed the panel down and added black and green layers to fit on a 7x7 card blank. I stamped the sentiment from the set and fussy cut it and added it to the card with some foam tape.

I ended up having my tooth extracted at the Dentist yesterday. He X rayed it as he was concerned that the lump inside my mouth might be a cyst as it was so solid. It was as I thought, an infection and he talked me through the X-ray on the computer screen which was actually very interesting whilst we discussed options. Given that the tooth already had one root canal and a gold crown, even with further treatment the long term prognosis was poor and so I opted to have it out. Fortunately the local anaesthetic did the trick and with a bit of pressure and effort from the dentist it came out cleanly. I could have an implant to replace it but at a minimum of £2,000 I decided against it - that's a lot of crafting stash! I'll probably have some bridge work on the NHS when it heals instead.

I obviously learnt something on my forage day though, as when I was sat in the car park giving myself a minute to settle before driving home, I noticed one of the nightshade family growing through the hedge!

When Hubby got home he asked how I'd got on. I explained what had happened and his first question? "Did you ask for your gold crown back?" Talk about gold fever! Oddly enough, I had foreseen this and explained to the dentist who did indeed give me my crown back, complete with tooth as despite spending a few minutes on it had been unable to prise it off. As I said to the dentist, if Hubby is that desperate for the gold he can do it himself! At least I needn't worry about sleeping with my mouth open anymore...

Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge #290

It's time for another challenge over at Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge Blog and this week our theme is "Anything Goes" and we have two great sponsors and fabulous prizes, 

Little Blue Button Stamps

Store - http://lbbstamps.com/

Blog - http://lbbstamps.blogspot.co.uk/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Little-Blue-Button-Stamps/548116598552527?ref=hl

Prize - $10 gift certificate for their online store

and 

All Dressed Up

Store - http://www.etsy.com/shop/alldressedupstamps

Blog - http://alldressedupchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/

Prize - 2 Digi images from their store

I used an image from All Dressed Up for my card. I printed out the digistamp and coloured it with my copics. I die cut it out with a tattered lace essential rectangle die and cut a mat out of orange card using the tattered lace pearl rectangle. I used papers from the Lili of the Valley, "One Birdie Lane" paper pad to form the background. To embellish I used paper flowers and stamens from my stash along with some gold ribbon and a bird charm. I found some small gold buttons from papermania that were a free gift with Creativity magazine recently and added those to opposite corners. I couldn't resist and so added some faux stitching to define the laters. We'd love to see your creations this week at Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge Blog.

Deer to me.

Another card made from the bit box (well, plastic bag technically). I believe the deer are from Clearly Besotted Woodland Kisses, the grass die cut is possibly impression obsession (io) and the stitched rectangles are from Simon Says Stamp. The green background is another pixie powder one, the weirdly angled second photo shows some of the shimmer from the powders.

Day off tomorrow, yippee! Trip booked to emergency dentist (as the tooth under my crown is very sensitive and there is a swelling on my gum where it joins my cheek bone that feels very sensitive and aches a bit) boooo! I did laugh to myself when the receptionist was asking if it was painful, well it hurts but as I'm already taking morphine regularly who knows! Hopefully it won't be too expensive (fortunately I have an NHS dentist) as I might have had a tiny teeny little splurge on the new Clearly Besotted releases and some of their sale items. There might have been a teensy little package or two that arrived from them today. Possibly. Definitely not though if Hubby asks, I've definitely had all these ages....

From Owl of Us

Monday has rolled around again, I have no idea where the time is going... As there was nothing on telly last night I decided to have a rummage in my "things not yet made into cards" box and try and use up a few bits. I found this tree of owls that I had coloured and die cut when I first got the Heartfelt Creations Sugar Hollow collection but which had not made it onto a card. I die cut a frame out craft card using Sumon Says Stamp stitched rectangles and mounted it on a 5x7 card. I found the sentiment stamp that came with the tree and holding my breath stamped it on the card. I then used foam tape cut into the most annoying tiny bits to stick on the back of the tree and then spent another 10 minutes cursing trying to get the back off the tape, before sticking the tree to the card. Maybe I'll leave the tree flat and raise the frame if I make this card again!

For you

This is the quick card that I made for a swap with the theme of "Eras". I really struggled with this theme for some reason. I used the Create & Craft Couture Deco Boutique die collection to make this card which I felt gave it a 1930's feel and simply used a Tattered Lace sentiment to finish it off. Not so sure about the corner flourishes, but it was made and in the post before I over analysed it! Of course, now, I can think of 10 card ideas I could have made! 

Sweet Stampin' - Use Black, White and One Other Colour.

It's my turn to provide some inspiration this week at Sweet Stampin' where our challenge this week is to "Use black, white and one other colour". Our sponsor this week is Bunny Zoe Crafts.

As it's wedding season I decided to make a wedding card. I used Sue Wilson's couple and cut them twice in black and pearl white, so that I could paper piece them. 

I used Create and Craft's Couture "Enchanted Escape" collection to cut the frames in black and white card. I cut the trim from the collection in black and then snipped it in half as it was too short for the 8x8 card and tucked it behind the frames. I chose pink as my added colour as it always seems a popular wedding colour choice and added a mat and strip of it to the card as shown. The white background was embossed with Sue Wilson's "Heart Lattice" embossing folder. I assembled the card using a mix of flat glue and some of my copious foam tape! 

I then remembered that it was a stamping challenge (whoops!) and so die cut a small frame from the collection and heat embossed in white the sentiment from Lili of the Valley. Despite using my anti static bag it took me 5 attempts to get one that I was happy with. White on black shows up all the stray flecks of powder perfectly!  As the panel was so small (no, I didn't think and die cut each panels before stamping on it, won't do it that way round again) I decided to stand the panel on top of the tin of coffee rather than hold it whilst heat embossing. Of course, you're ahead of me in realising that the plastic lid of my coffee tin wasn't heat resistant and melted onto the back of my panel and dripped into the tin of coffee! 

Hopefully, you will have a much less eventful time joining in the challenge. Just don't forget the stamping!

Oldie Friday

It's time to join up with the very lovely Erika to share an oldie. Today's oldie is the very first card I posted on my blog when I started it last year. No surprise that bunnies were involved, oh look and some faux stitching...
I was commiserating with the also very lovely Barb (who incidentally happened to be my very first follower) about losing dies whilst crafting. I thought I'd share with you too my two helpers.

I recently invested in the Spellbinders magnetic pick up tool, which is a large plastic diamond on which the front face is strongly magnetic. It's great for chucking dies at so that they don't get caught up up in scraps of card etc. I think it was about £8 on Amazon.

My other favourite tool can be seen in front of it. It's a telescopic magnetic pick up stick, which even has a light!

I bought this particular one from tesco for about £3 but I've also seen them in garden centres and diy shops (handy if you drop a screw down the back of the cupboard etc apparently). I've been known to shove it in the bin and have a swish round with it to rescue a lost die. It doesn't work very well if you have a metal bin though! As I commented to Barb, it's also very handy if you drop a die on the floor as because they're flat they can be a pain to pick up and if like me you find that people have been lowering your floor (it's so much further down to reach than it used to be), then it's great to allow you pick them up without clambering under the table! 

Have fun crafting x

Mojo still AWOL. Reward offered.

Typical isn't it, I have the week off work and my mojo is missing. I spent 4 hours this morning making a DT card, finished it and then realised it didn't have any stamping on it. Not good for a stamping challenge! Cue one hastily stamped sentiment.

I still hadn't managed to make my July card for a swap, but finally managed to cobble something together. I shall share it after the recipient recieves it.

A very simple bit of crafting this evening to relax. I bought the Creative Expressions Paper Cuts Collection Christmas Feast Dies, recently from iconuk and decided to take them out of the packet. I cut red card, gold mirri and Hunkydory Mirridazzle and glued them on 5x7 card blanks. Super quick and easy. They may be my mass produced Christmas cards this year, they cut perfectly even with the mirridazzle which is a pain as it has a thick plasticy layer. I still had to poke a lot of bits out with the mirridazzle but they came away easily and quite therapeutically! I also bought the Noel set from the same collection, so might have a play with them later. I think the frames could be quite useful as they are not overtly Christmassy and so can be used in everyday crafting and they are different but interchangeable between the sets. I hope mojo turns up tomorrow! 

Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge #289

It's time for a new challenge over at Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge. The theme this week is "Anything Goes" and we have some great prizes on offer

 Store -http://www.bugaboostamps.com/

Blog - http://www.catchthebugblog.blogspot.co.uk/

Prize - 7 digi images of winners choice 

Store - http://www.disdigistamps.com/

Prize - $12 gift certificate

I've used a Bugaboo image for my card. It came with a different sentiment, but I chose to add a stamp by Indigo Blu to my card. I coloured my digi stamp with copics and used tattered lace oval dies to cut it out and add a frame. I very simply added a black mat behind the white background and added a few black gems to finish. I look forward to seeing your creations!

Missing: Crafting Mojo. If found please return to....

Pfft, 6 cards in the bin and all I could come up with was this. It is straighter in real life honest!

I was saved by the courier turning up with the Craftwork Cards Botanical pads that I ordered during C&C's free postage and best ever deals event recently. The black and white image had a few purple highlights added with a copic spica pen, so there is a hint of sparkle to it. I stamped the hello sentiment from a Winnie & Walter set on the image and mat and layered it up with silver and black card on a 6x6 card base. I added some purple ribbon from my stash (I think it was from Lidl last Easter) and scattered on gems to hide the inky smudges that I had got everywhere (maybe I'll tidy up before my next crafting session). Oh well, maybe tomorrow will bea better crafting day.

For you

Well, I made it home safely. It was bright sunshine and my car was parked in the sun and registering 29 degrees out at 9.30 this morning when I left Peterborough. By the time I got to the M62, my sunglasses were off and the windscreen wipers were on, hey ho.

I managed to make a couple of cards this afternoon, one a DT make that I'll share on Wedneday and this one that I made using the one of the Heartfelt Creations, Under the Sea stamp and die sets. I stamped the fish and coloured him in with my copics and die cut him. I used a left over bit of a pixie powder background which I die cut with the tattered lace pin dot circle and cut a matching mat of silver matt card. I also cut a tattered lace sentiment from the silver card.

I mounted it all on a black card base that the lovely Rahmat sent me. I added a few AB gems to represent bubbles (although the largest gems might have been hiding and distracting from a glue smudge). 

I'm going to take this card over to the Snippets Playground  as the silver card was from the bit box, as was the stamping card. I've not been over there for ages, so I hope Parsnip has been behaving himself!