Fanfare

I'm feeling really excited right now, as having got back into crafting over the summer I have now decided to get some new playthings to take my crafting in new directions, and have ordered some TH Distress Oxide inks, stencils and masking sheets.  My first order of distress oxides arrived yesterday,  so I just had to have a play with them!  

I have been watching numerous online tutorials recently about blending techniques etc. including one on Craft World which involved layering stamped distressed card on top of a non-coloured image as per the following photograph.

 that is what broadly inspired today's card. 

This was a really simple card - I stamped my main image directly onto my base card, then cut a panel of smooth Neenah cardstock which I distressed with my 3 inks and splattered with water to get some resist effect. I then stamped my image again onto the distressed panel, and sliced it to create the effect where the image beneath can be seen peeking through.  Finished off with a few scattered gems and a simple sentiment - voila! 

I have to say at first sight I am really blown away by distress oxides and will definitely be using them a lot more in future ... I can see why they have taken the craft world by storm over the past 3-4 years when I was pretty much out of the crafting loop.

My main image is an old Penny Black wood-mounted stamp; but I also used my brand new stamp positioning tool to place my sentiment directly onto the base card. On Monday I took delivery of a Press To Impress tool  and it's absolutely fab - don't know how i managed without it! In fact I'm now wondering about converting my old woodblock stamps to unmounted for future use!

Stamps: Penny Black "Fanfare" (3946K); sentiment - unknown;

Media: TH Distress Oxide inks - Picked Raspberry, Kitsch Flamingo, Salvaged Patina;

Gems from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Time Out #197 - Inspiration Quote

(I have been inspired by the ideas of flowers and friends)

A Bit More Time To Craft #145 - Anything Goes

A Gem of a Challenge #20 - Anything Goes

Crafter's Castle #45 - Anything Goes

Creatalicious #219 - Anything Goes with option of Friends

Cute Card Thursday #692 - Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers (Watercolour): September - Anything Goes

NBUS #30 - Use Never Before Used Schtuff (2nd entry)

(mine is my Distress Oxide inks and stamp positioning tool) 

Penny Black Saturday Challenge (September) - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Anything Goes

Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

That's all for today, but I will be back soon with more inky experiments. My question for the rest of this afternoon is ... should I play some more with my distress oxides or tackle my large basket of ironing??  Hmmm ....

'Til next time - thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Rudolph the red nosed dragon

Today I’d like to show you my first Christmas card using a cute Lee Holland Art dragon image … this one was a freebie for newsletter subscribers 😀

For some reason nothing seemed to go right in my crafting session yesterday, and I coloured various images and then threw them away !! Most particularly I tried to colour “Dragon building a snowman” which was my original image choice to go with these papers, but I couldn’t seem to make the snow dragon look right at all so I think I will need to think some more about how best to shade him! Also I seemed to suffer a lot today with bleeding of my markers in the detailed areas … I recently bought new Neenah card stock which I thought was what I had before, but with this it is definitely more difficult to control colour bleeding.

Eventually I decided to go forward with this image even though my colouring isn’t the best … I just needed to move on!

I am still working with just my mini craft tote at the moment, so the coloured image was made into a pretty simple card. Normal service will be resumed at the weekend so I should once again have access to all my stash 😀

Stamps:  Lee Holland - Dragon with sleigh (digi); sentiment - LotV “Christmas Grungy Messages”;

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Papers: LotV “Frozen Snowflakes”;

Tools: Martha Stewart snowflake punch.

Challenges I would like to enter:

ABC Christmas Challenge  -T is for Two (2 DP’s)

A Perfect Time to Craft (September) - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

Colour Crazy Challenge #37 - Anything Goes

Crafts Galore Encore #91 - Anything Goes - DT FAVOURITE

Crafty Creations #425 - Anything Goes

Cute Card Thursday #692 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Happy Little Stampers (Christmas) : September - Anything Christmas Goes with option of non-traditional

I ❤️ Promarkers #444 - Anything Goes with option of make it square

NBUS #30 - use Never Before Used Schtuff

(mine is my main digi image)

The Holly and Ivy #101 - Anything Christmas Goes

That’s all for today .. take care and back soon. Thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Love dragons

Not long ago I won a gift voucher for Lee Holland Art, and since then I have developed a bit of an obsession for his cute dragon images. I now own several including the adorable "Love Dragons" which I got specifically to be able to make my husband's wedding anniversary card. Today is our anniversary, so here is the card I have given him with love 💕💕

I have also just completed a class in colouring this type of dragon image at Kit & Clowder - it was my first full class and was absolutely fab!! My main reason for completing that class first (as I do have a few others in my inbox!) is so that I could make this card as good as it could be.

I thought that this image would definitely hit the spot this year as it is a bit different from the usual cute teddies, bunnies, hedgehogs etc. ... I really am hooked!

I really did take a long time colouring this image, and did my best to incorporate various techniques I had learned in my class such as drawing dragon scales and giving them some dimension, iridescent shading (on the tummies and horns), and a resist  mottled effect on the sky. 

Outside of that I kept the card fairly simple as I don't think men generally like too much fuss, though the card is quite large (8" square) and very sparkly with sparkly base paper, glitter card and metallic woven ribbon.

I certainly need to practice these techniques more, but it is very satisfying learning something new and then trying to apply it to a real life project.

Stamps: Lee Holland "Love Dragons" (digi); Woodware anniversary sentiment; Me to You husband sentiment;

Media: Promarkers:

Tools: Marianne Creatables heart dies; Provo Craft "Hippie Chick" alphabet and heart lettering dies;

Papers, ribbon and gems from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Allsorts #641 - A Challenge for Kath : favourite stamps with option of paper piecing

( 2nd entry - this time I  have chosen favourite stamps option)

As You Like It - Round Corners or straight edges and why

(This is an 8" square card which is my favourite for special cards as it gives so much space to showcase an image and embellishments).

Crafty Calendar (September) - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Creative Challenges #105 - Anything Goes (no twist)

Creative Moments #222 - Anything Goes

 Cute Card Thursday #692 - Anything Goes

Cutie Pie #163 - 10th Birthday Challenge - Cute Celebrations

Daring Cardmakers (September) - Oh the Romance!

Passion for Markers #609 - Something beginning with B (blue, bow)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Sparkle and Shine (2nd entry)

Stamping Sensations (September) - Stamp of the Moment

We Love Chocolate Baroque (September) - Anything Goes with option of Celebrations (2nd entry)

Hope the weather will be ok today so we can celebrate together ... still not going out to restaurants etc. due to Covid, but we will hopefully have a lovely meal together later 

Thanks for visiting.

Hugs, 

Paper Piecing - A Challenge for Kath

Hi everyone,

Last week when I had my experimental “inky playtime” with distress inks I actually made two splattered background panels … the first I used for a birthday card here, and I put the second aside as I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. However when I saw this week’s challenge at Allsorts, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

The lovely ladies at Allsorts have this week a Challenge for Kath - in memory of their friend and fellow team member who has sadly recently passed away. Having just come back to crafting and blogging in the past couple of months after doing none for the past three years (and to be honest very little since 2015 when my dad passed away), I didn’t know Kath; but I have been moved by how her crafty friends have pulled together to honour her memory with a challenge on her favourite themes, and even generously donated prizes themselves for the challenge winners … so it seemed only right to join in.❤️ So here it is.

The challenge theme is Favourite stamps with the option of paper piecing. I only have a limited number of stamps that are suitable for paper piecing and it isn’t something I do very often as I’m so cack-handed with the scissors, but I had a beautiful piece of abstract patterned glittery DP in my stash in the same colour scheme as my previously splattered background, so I thought I’d give it a go.  Also Penny Black stamps were my first love when I first started cardmaking, so that also ties in with “favourite stamps”. 

 I stamped my flowers onto my inky background, then again onto the glittery DP and fussy cut the main flower heads. I did a little text shadow stamping onto the inky panel before adhering my paper pieces, then mounted the panel onto some glimmery card stock. I then adhered the lot onto a larger piece of my DP, attached some twine and a heart shaped button, and attached to my card base. Quick sentiment and again the job was done. 

Even though this is a simple card it was not without its challenges. I have been away for this weekend and I took with me a mini craft tote to enable me to do a bit of basic crafting and/or colouring … but this included only 1 DP and wood mounted stamp (for this card),  a couple of clear stamp sets, very few ink pads and NO dies or die cutting machine.  Part way through making this card I realised I had no acrylic block to stamp my clear stamp sentiment (doh!) so I had to mount it on the top edge of a wooden stamp, stamp and pray! Let’s just say it took quite a few attempts before I was reasonably satisfied😀

Stamps: flowers - Penny Black “Whispers” (3377K); text shadow stamp - Butterfly kisses clear set; sentiment - unknown;

Media: Tim Holtz distress inks - Scattered Straw and Dried Marigold (spattered background).

Challenges I would like to enter: 

A Perfect Time to Craft (September) - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Allsorts #641 - A Challenge for Kath - Favourite Stamps with option of Paper Piecing

Colour Hues (September) - Yellow and Orange

Crafty Sentiments (September) - Anything Goes

Creative Moments #222 - Anything Goes

Penny Black Saturday Challenge (September) - Anything Goes

Simon Says (Monday) - Stamp It! (2nd entry)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Sparkle and Shine

Sweet Stampin’- Colours of Autumn

The Paper Funday Challenge (September) - Anything Goes

That’s all from me for today - take care, and thanks for visiting. 

Hugs,

Splatters and Splodges!

Hi everyone,

I decided to have another inky play yesterday afternoon, this time getting out my distress ink pads and following a Youtube tutorial to create a three-tone splattered effect on a piece of cardstock. This then developed in a fairly organic way into a card ... I allowed the background panel to dry and stamped my flower stamp onto it, then enhanced the spatter background effect by using a "splodges" mini stamp to create additional shadow spatter marks both on the image panel and on my base card using a co-ordinating Versamagic chalk ink and Colorbox Cats Eye pigment ink. I also used a swirly mini stamp from the same set to create a few shadow swirls round the edge of the panel. A couple of simple sentiments and that was it .. job done! It did take half the afternoon though, most of which was taken up by experimental trial runs!

I am having a lot of fun trying a few new things with the stash I already have ... it always brings on a longing for new crafty purchases though!

Stamps: main flower - Unity Stamps "Insightful Meadows"; splodges and swirls - Butterfly Kisses clear set; sentiments - unknown.

Media: Tim Holtz distress inks - Tumbled Glass, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint; Versamagic chalk ink - Aegean Blue; Colorbox Cats Eye pigment ink - Pistachio.

Challenges I would like to enter:

A Perfect Time To Craft (September) - Anything Goes

Addicted to Stamps and More #413 - Birthdays

Allsorts #640 - Anything Goes 

(does not include option of "for the love of my life")

Crafter's Cafe #273 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Crafty Calendar (September) - Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers (September -Watercolour) - Anything Goes with watercolour

Simon Says (Monday) - Stamp It!

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Stamp It! (2nd entry)

Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

We Love Chocolate Baroque (September) - Anything Goes with option of celebrations

Hope you're having a great day and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Insightful Meadows

Hi everyone. Since I restarted crafting a couple of months ago I have focussed almost exclusively on cute images coloured with my Promarkers, pretty papers and embellishments .... and long may it continue!!  This week however I have been feeling in the mood to try something different, and fancied trying some inky background blending. Initially I searched out my old Tim Holtz distress ink pads and at the weekend I treated myself to  blending tool, and this afternoon I sat down to have a play.  

Here's the result.

In the end I didn't actually use my distress inks, but instead sponged a background using some Versamagic chalk ink pads I found in my craft box. I also created a stamped wildflower meadow by using a variety of stamps from a couple of different sets of silhouette stamps. I then just matted the result onto two co-ordinating border layers and that was basically it... no papers, no ribbon, no flower embellishments (I needed a lie down after that!). Of course I couldn't completely leave this CAS card alone so I added a bit of glamour dust to the bee's wings and two teeny aqua gems to the sentiment.

I'm not actually tremendously well set up with supplies for this type of project, so I'm seriously thinking about buying one or two stencils and masking sheets so I can take things a bit further. However, despite a little accident right near completion where I got a bit of glue on my background I'm not too displeased with this first attempt.  

Stamps: Flowers - Unity Stamps "Insightful Meadows"; leaves, bee and sentiment - "Summer Meadow", free with Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine;

Media: background sponged with Versamagic chalk ink - Aquatic Splash, Sea Breeze and Aegean Blue. Image stamped with Memento ink.

Challenges I would like to enter:

A Gem of a Challenge #18 - Anything Goes

Allsorts #639 - Clean and Simple

Crafter's Cafe #273 - Anything Goes

Crafty Creations #425 - Anything Goes

Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes

Creatalicious #218 - Anything Goes

Simon Says (Monday) - Glimmer and Sparkle

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Stamp It in STAMPtember

Sparkles #143 - Monochromatic (2nd entry)

Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

So that's my crafting done for today. Thanks very much for visiting.

Hugs,

Let it Snow!

Hi everyone. 

Today I had a sudden and unexpected urge to get started with some Christmas cardmaking. I have already made one Chrimbo card this year but that involved using a coloured image that I found in my stash; so this was the first one I made completely from scratch for 2021. 

My first task was to have a bit of a look in my sash to remind myself of what I've got ... that is one of the pleasures of coming back to cardmaking after so long hardly doing any. I found an absolutely fabulous old LotV paper pad featuring snowflakes in funky colours, so that formed the basis of today's card.

This cute Penny Black image is one that I have had for years and don't use very often, but it looks so joyful it just put me in the mood.  My colouring still needs practice, but I guess the only way to get batter is by keeping on trying!

Stamps: image - Penny Black "Let it Snow"(1524K); sentiment - Make Your Mark;

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers, Copics (fur); snow decorated with glamour dust;

Papers: LotV "Frozen Snowflakes";

Tools: Martha Stewart “Snow Flurry” Punch Around the Page; Whimsy "Winter’s Jewel 1” large snowflake die; smaller snowflakes - unknown.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Addicted To Stamps and More #412 - Christmas

Allsorts #637/638 - Add Some Sparkle (3rd entry)

Christmas Craft Creations (August) - Non-traditional Colours

Christmas With the Cuties #52 - Anything Cute & Christmassy

I ♥ Promarkers #442 - Anything Goes with option of more than one layer - WINNER

Incy Wincy - Use a Card  Tutorial and/or Animals (2nd entry)

Penny Black Saturday Challenge (August) - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Anything Goes

The Holly and Ivy #100 - Anything Christmas Goes

So ... that's 2 Christmas cards down, quite a lot still to go ... guess I'd better get busy!

'Til next time, take care and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Magic and Sparkle!

Today is one of my good friend's  birthday, so here is the card I made for her using the second adorable dragon digi image that I recently won as a challenge prize from Lee Holland Art.  

I have to say that I am totally in love with this range of images, to the extent that I have now followed Lee's site and thus got a free dragon Christmas image to play with - whoop whoop!! .. so you'll have to watch this space for that one which I''m sure will be coming soon!

I have also recently signed up for my first colouring class with the lovely Kit & Clowder, as I was lucky enough to receive a voucher for my birthday. I selected a detailed techniques class (colouring skin and hair) and I'm still at very early days with that, but I have already popped a couple of extra classes into my online basket including one to colour a Lee Holland dragon painting a rainbow!  I think that will be an autumn project for me, but it will be interesting to see how my colouring of dragons  changes as I get that class done.

This card involves a lot of sparkle on both the glitter card borders and the flower; and as it was a sunny day yesterday I was for once able to capture it pretty well in my photos. 

Stamps: Lee Holland "dragon with birthday cake" (digi); sentiment - unknown;

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Papers: LotV Nitwits Collection - "Perfect Pair";

Tools: Spellbinders Nestabilities  - Fleur de Lis Squares; Marianne Design Creatables - LR0110 (flower and swirls)

Challenges I would like to enter:

A Gem of a Challenge #17 - Anything Goes (2nd entry). - TOP 5

Allsorts #637/638 - Add Some Sparkle (2nd entry)

Crafter's Cafe #272 - Fantasy

Crafty Animals #53 - Anything Goes With an Animal - TOP PICK

Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes

Creative Knockouts #415 - Birthday Wishes

Cute Card Thursday #691 - Anything Goes (4th entry)

Penny's Challenge #503 - Anything Goes With Paper (3rd entry)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Add A Sentiment

We Love Chocolate Baroque (August) - Favourite Stamps 

(at the moment I am just in love with these dragons!)

That's all from me for today. Hope you're having a nice evening, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Silver Wedding

2 special friends of mine are celebrating their silver wedding anniversary next week, so I just had to make them a special card to celebrate. I wouldn't normally post such an occasion card before the actual date, but I asked permission from my friend so I could enter it into a couple of current online challenges which offer lovely prizes, and she said she was fine with it and promised not to peek!!

So here it is...

I veered away from my usual cute style, and decided to go for something simple and understated but (hopefully) stylish. It is an 8" * 8" card so plenty of room for my impact dies which I don't use very often. 

The whole thing consists of die cuts using mirri card mounted on white sparkly background paper, with the only hint of colour being a little chalking on the embossed butterfly wings.  In reality this card is very white and silver and very sparkly, but for some reason it was really difficult to capture this in photos - even when Ii tweaked the brightness etc. 

Dies: Memory Box "Bella Bouquet" ; Provo Craft Cut & Emboss "Butterflies"; Spellbinders Nestabilities "Decorative Labels Eight"; Tattered Lace "Alphabet Retro" (sentiment); Provo Craft "Hippie Chick" (numbers);

Paper, gems and ribbon from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

A Gem of a Challenge #17 - Anything Goes

Allsorts #637/638 - Add Some Sparkle

Crafty Creations #424 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

Penny's Challenge #503 - Anything Goes With Paper (2nd entry)

Simon Says (Monday) - Dry Emboss

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Add A Sentiment (2nd entry)

Sparkles #143 - Monochromatic

Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Time for dinner now, but I'll be back before too long with another card I made yesterday ... I'll just say it will involve another cute dragon!  Hope you are enjoying your weekend whatever you're doing.

Hugs,

Summer flowers

Today I have a fairly simple card to show you ... I needed a birthday card to put in the post, and found an image in my stash which I stamped and coloured many moons ago .... so that was the basis for my card and it all went from there!

I thought with my image already stamped and coloured this would be a quick card but I was sadly mistaken ... it seems to take forever to get set up, find the papers and embellishments I want, decide what to do ... and today it was exacerbated because I couldn't remember how to use my Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page so had to look up the correct paper sizes!! it all came together in the end though after a few failed attempts with the punch!

I have also found my old watermark signature, and spent a bit of time looking up and experimenting with how to put it on my photos as that memory was well lost in the mists of time ... but I seem to have got there!

Stamps: Main image - LotV; Sentiment- Penny Black clear set "Salutations"; tag sentiments - LotV "tiny tags";

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Tools: Tattered Lace "Cute Critters" dragonfly die; Martha Stewart “Wildflowers” Punch Around the Page;

Paper, ribbon and gems from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Corrosive #8 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Crafty Calendar (August) - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Crafty Creations #424 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Cute Card Thursday #691 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

Incy Wincy - Card Tutorial and/or animal 

(I chose the easy option of an animal!)

Moving Along With The Times #133 - Summer Fun or Summer Colours (yellow/orange)

Passion For Markers #605 - Add A Tag - TOP 5

Penny's Challenge #503 - Anything Goes with paper

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Add A Sentiment

Sweet Stampin' - Feature an Animal

Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

That's all for today, have a nice weekend and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Summertime Blues

I needed to make a birthday card for a friend, so I decided to take my primary inspiration from this week’s Simon Says (Wednesday) Challenge - "Summertime Blues". Having decided on a colour scheme I had a dig around to find some suitable papers that were both summery and blue, and then searched for an image to suit the papers … rather the opposite way round from my usual method which normally starts with an image.

 

Here’s the result. 

I love this cute image which I have had forever but I don’t think I have actually inked until now. It was quite difficult to colour but I’m a fairly pleased with how it turned out.

I’m also trying to reach out dies I’ve not used for a long time, such as this gorgeous butterfly and scrolling foliage. 

A couple of years ago when I was last into crafting I bought a special storage case for my dies to store them on magnetic sheets but didn't label them! However lately I got to thinking  I was sure I had stored all the packaging in the loft somewhere so that I could create an inventory of what was in the case later .... and my dear husband had a look at the weekend and found a large carrier bag full - happy days!! So now I will be able to put together an inventory and mostly know what I'm actually using!

Stamp: Fizzy Moon “Celebrations”;

Sentiment: LotV - Art pad No. 8;

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Paper: LotV Nitwits “Petal Fresh”;

Tools: Spellbinders nestabilities; Magnolia Doohickey "Swirly butterfly" and "Heart Swirl Branch"; Cheery Lynn Designs "Fanciful Flourish";

Supplies: Flowers by Wild Orchid Crafts; ribbon and lace from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

A Gem of a Challenge #16 - Anything Goes

Allsorts #635/636 - Anything Goes with option of roses - mine are on the lace 

Corrosive Challenge #8 - Anything Goes

Crafty Creations #424 - Anything Goes

Cute Card Thursday #691 - Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers (August) - Anything Goes With Dies

Incy Wincy - Summer / beach and/or Animals

Seize the Birthday #220 - Stripes

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Summertime Blues

Stamping Sensations (August) - Any Celebration 

Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

After a mammoth crafting session yesterday I’ll be having a day off today to let my back recover from sitting for hours on a hard dining room chair!! Thanks very much for visiting. 

Hugs,