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Saturday, 14 May 2011

Ice cream

This is for the sketch for Pink elephant 99:
This is also for the 'ice cream' challenge for One stop craft 131. I chose to use a stamped image featuring ice cream, but also ice cream colours for chocolate and strawberry. The image is Penny Black hot but cool. I had a couple of these in a rubber stamp swap quite a long while ago. I wasn't sure what ink had been used to stamp them, so I tried copics/promarkers on the first one and it was a disaster, so for this I got out my old colouring pencils - that made a change! The brown paper is from Dena designs. The pink card was embossed with a Crafts-too dots embossing folder. A pink foiled sentiment and a few flowers finished off the card.

I chose the Penny Black image for Penny Black Saturday challenge 141: clean & simple.

This is also for:

Irish teddy's: embossed
Freshly brewed 45: beach or summer
PaperPlay 19: celebrating summer
Mami doodles 26: spots and/or stripes
Make it colourful 18: dotty backgrounds
Prairie fairy Fridays 52: here come the girls
Crafty Ann 40: happy birthday
Crafty creations 118: anything goes
Penny's 53: anything goes
Scrappy frogs: anything goes
Sew many challenges 53: anything goes
Stamp something: anything goes
Inspire me Fridays 6: anything goes

Time travel

I put together a couple of digital images - one that I adapted a while ago for my latest Circle Journal - I used this as a background and then added a steampunk clock picture, changing it to match the colour of the original and using a fade effect to reveal the background picture.



This is for:

Crafty cardmakers 45: steampunk or machines
Crafty creations 118: anything goes
Penny's 53: anything goes
Scrappy frogs: anything goes
Sew many challenges 53: anything goes
Inspire me Fridays 6: anything goes

Magical butterfly spiral

For this card for Paper sundaes 68: magical & mythical creations I've used one of my all-time favourite digital images - butterfly spiral by Dewdrop crafts.

I kept to the black, white and red colour combo for Ladybug: black and white plus one, The paper shelter 13: black + white + one, If the shoe fits fashionista Friday 79: primary splash - black and white with a splash of red, blue or yellow - it's also one of my favourite colour combinations for Stamp dreams challenge 81.




This is also for:

My partner in crafting crime 26: incorporate numbers
Drunken stampers 67: by the numbers
Stampavie 141: ribbons
365 cards day 65: mythical creatures

Thank you, thank you ...

This is for CPS card sketches 217:

The colour combo is for Paper players 46:


A piece of red card was run through the cuttlebug with the 'thanks' embossing folder and then swiped to distress with victorian velvet DI - this was than mounted on an offcut of navy blue card. The 'thanks' die cut label is a Cosmo Cricket 'drop me a note' sticker - this is for Wee memories 56: anything sticky.

The embossing is for the current Irish teddy's challenge and the 'thanks' is for Stamp n doodle: thank you.


Green apples and oranges

This is for the colour combo for Raise the bar 66: green apples and oranges, using MME spotty spring paper background with squares of Ethan Kate left over from making my star box earlier. The middle panel was rescued from my 'odds and ends box.

I used the Claire's sketch for Sunday sketch & stamp 54:


This is also for:

ECP 38: pretty pastel colours
Crafty pad 120: spots & dots
Mami doodles 26: spots and/or stripes
Crafty Ann 40: happy birthday
Crafty creations 118: anything goes
Penny's 53: anything goes
Scrappy frogs: anything goes
Sew many challenges 53: anything goes
Inspire me Fridays 6: anything goes

Salt: a time for everything ...

Update: Thanks to Blogger - my original post for this was eventually returned - you can see it here.

Thanks to Jaqi for sending me copy of my Salt post that she had on Google reader, I am able to re-post this. You never know, Blogger might still restore the lost posts, but in the meantime this is a copy of what I wrote on Thursday.

It was Ruth's turn to choose the topic for today's challenge on Salt and she chose 'a time for everythin' based on the passage from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 - you can read what she wrote here.

This turned out to be a very poignant topic for us at Salt because, after much discussion and prayerful consideration, we have decided to cease the challenges, although the blog will remain open - we hope it will continue to be a blessing to those who visit.

My LO is very simple because the K & Co paper I used is very 'busy'. I added some Hero Arts stamped cuckoo clocks and a few other clock faces. The passage from Ecclesiastes is The Message version - I printed on to an identical piece of K & Co (I so wish I had a printed that could cope with 12 x 12 - one day, perhaps) and used the stitched ribbon over the join. You can read the scripture verses if you click on the image a couple of times.

Please go over to Salt and see what the rest of the team did for this challenge - and join in if you can.

I'm linking this for:

Let's craft and create 19: sew lovely
Stampavie 141: ribbons
Allsorts 102: stamp a lot - use at least three different stamps
My partner in crafting crime 26: incorporate numbers
Crafty creations 118: anything goes
Creative Belli 117: letter S - stamping, stitching (my neglected embellishment: the ribbon)
Stamping vacation: No! No! challenge: no embossing of any kind
Stamping vacation: when I grow up: clockmaker
Crafty catz: give us a quotePenny's 53: anything goes

Make it Monday: 36

Scrappy frogs: anything goes

Flourish timeless 117: anything goes

Altered Alice chapter 4: tme

Sorry that I can't clear the spacing that's appeared just above here. Of course, I had some comments that had been made on the original post, but they disappeared with it.

Pastel does it

This card is for Corrosive 115 sketch time:
The spotted and striped papers are Craftwork cards vintage rose and the paper used to cut the scalloped nestie circle is K & Co boutique (I've had this for years). I distressed the little circles with tattered rose DI while the die cut was still in the nestie, distressing the edges of the card and the striped squares as well. The butterfly stamp is Stampotique by Janet Klein (stamped with tattered rose DI ink to keep to the pastel look).

I kept the whole card pastel for ECP 38: pretty pastel colours; it's also for Craft your days away 20: white + one, I did it: monochromatic, and Annabelle: say it in monochromatic tones.

The spots and stripes are for Crafty pad 120: spots & dots, Mami doodles 26: spots and/or stripes, Sunday stamper 153: the star spangled banner - stars and/or stripes, and Catch the bug: polka dots and stripes.

The butterfly is for Daring cardmakers: the darling BUGS of May, Totally stampalicious: bugs, Cutie Sunday 140: butterflies, Claudia & company 81: butterflies, Sarah Hurley 40: butterflies/things with wings, Stamp magic 35: butterflies, Whoopsi Daisy: things with wings, Paperminutes 165: wings, and Dutch dare 112: winged things.

It's also for:

Tuesday throwdown 48: use die cuts
Creative craft: distressed
Cute card Thursday 164: it's so distressing
Stamp, scrap, doodle: old supplies (the K & Co boutique paper - at least 8 years old)
Aud sentiments 28: no sentiment
Crafty creations 118: anything goes
Penny's 53: anything goes
Scrappy frogs: anything goes
Sew many challenges 53: anything goes
Stamp something: anything goes
Inspire me Fridays 6: anything goes
Divas by design 1: anything goes

Origami star box

Quite a few of the bubblies from the BF forum are on retreat this weekend (wish I could be there), but there are quite a few of us stay-at-homes, so Kathy has been organising a little Non-retreaters mini crop for us. She shared a link to a video to make an origami star box and I've just had a go - it's not perfect (some of the folds could have been neater), but not bad for a first attempt.

Like Kathy, I chose a 10 x 10 square of paper cut from Ethan Kate ripple stripe - I chose this because it was double sided but not too thick.

Now I need to think of something to put in my star box.



I'm sharing this with the following challenges:

Design dollies: time to fold it together
Crafty creations 118: anything goes
Penny's 53: anything goes
Scrappy frogs: anything goes
Sew many challenges 53: anything goes
Inspire me Fridays 6: anything goes
Divas by design 1: anything goes

Card and a half challenge blog


There's a new monthly challenge blog starting soon - details are all here. There will also be some 'just for fun' challenges throughout the month - sounds good. Helen is Clare's sister (Clare is one of the Christmas gang - links in my sidebar).

Invertage and pyramage

These look almost identical, but the first card is invertage, the layers looking inwards, and the second card is pyramage, with the layers stacked up, on to A5 stardream card. These were part of a set purchased two or three years ago from Create & Craft.

The birthday greetings were made with my dymo letratag label maker.


These are for:

Crafty Ann 40: happy birthday
Pollycraft 92: boyz to men
Cardmadfairy 8: for the boys
365 cards day 33: boy oh boy - masculine with a touch of pink (the pink flowers)
Kaboodle 66: lots of layers
Crafty creations 118: anything goes
Penny's 53: anything goes
Scrappy frogs: anything goes
Sew many challenges 53: anything goes
Stamp something: anything goes
Inspire me Fridays 6: anything goes

CHNC challenge 20: don't get stressed about distressing!

Can you believe it? It's Saturday again and that means there's a new challenge on my Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge blog - challenge 20, which is all about distressing - this could be inked/sponged edges, torn paper, sanded embossing ... anything that counts as distressing - I look forward to seeing what you come up with. To find our more about the challenge and to enter your card please visit here.

For my card I used half of a white shaped card and used a small Brilliance pearlescent poppy ink pad direct to paper, concentrating more on the edges. I then stamped with three different stamps from a Tanda Holly Doodles set designed by Sheila Oliver - Sheila is a clever and creative crafter who is such an inspiration. I coloured the holly with my newly acquired (arrived in the post this morning) Marvy le plume alcohol pens and dotted the berries with glossy accents.

I then mounted this on to a piece of Craft Creations paper, having torn the bottom edges and mounted on a red linen card. Just the addition of the sentiment and the card was done.

(Why are the berries looking more orange and red on the photo - perhaps it's the effects of the glossy accents!):


I'm linking this for the following challenges:

CES 36: holidays
Creative craft: distressed
Cute card Thursday 164: it's so distressing
Sentimental Sundays 54: anything goes
Crafty creations 118: anything goes
Penny's 53: anything goes
Scrappy frogs: anything goes
Sew many challenges 53: anything goes
Stamp something: anything goes
Inspire me Fridays 6: anything goes
Divas by design 1: anything goes

Birthday garden

I needed to make another commissioned 80th birthday card (there seem to hav been a lot of them recently - 80th birthdays, that is).

The patterned A5 base card is by Dena designs, to which I added some DCWV stitched ribbon and the invertage garden design, a purchase two or three years ago from Create & Craft, with the addition of a computer generated sentiment, both mounted on to silver mirror card.


This is for:

Crafty Ann 40: happy birthday
My partner in crafting crime 26: incorporate numbers
Your next stamp 42: pop it up (I used foam tape for the invertage)
Kaboodle 66: lots of layers
2 sisters 39: how does your garden grow?
Freshly brewed 45: beach or summer
PaperPlay 19: celebrating summer
Sentimental Sundays 54: anything goes
Crafty creations 118: anything goes
Penny's 53: anything goes
Scrappy frogs: anything goes
Sew many challenges 53: anything goes
Inspire me Fridays 6: anything goes

Creatures birthday party

This is the photo inspiration for Cupcake inspirations 110 this week:

so I have made this card, using some paper that was in a Poundland scrapbook kit ages ago and some rather lovely creatures from a Tesco go create set of stickers - the eyes move.


This is for:

Crafty Ann 40: happy birthday
Ellephantastic 26 for May: birthday party
Cat's corner 50: very colourful birthday balloons (a cat needed to be included)
Ann's creative nook 134: anything goes with animals
Pollycraft 92: boyz to men (suitable for a boy's birthday)
Cardmadfairy 8: for the boys
Crafty creations 118: anything goes
Penny's 53: anything goes
Scrappy frogs: anything goes
Sew many challenges 53: anything goes
Inspire me Fridays 6: anything goes

Friday, 13 May 2011

Blogger posts temporarily taken off

As most of you know by now, Blogger has had major issues for the last couple of days and have announced that posts made from Wednesday until earlier this evening were temporarily disabled. This means that my Salt challenge post isn't available. I'll wait a day or two to see if it is brought back before I do it again (didn't keep a copy, so would have to start from scratch again).

A fish called Wanda?

When I went into Ryman's a few days ago to get a couple more Really Useful Boxes, I happened to see some fish shaped cards - a pack of 5 - which I thought might come in handy.

I coloured the fish body with Caran d'Ache watersoluble neocolor II, scribbling the colour first and then wiping over with a wet baby wipe. The tail was coloured with a Caran d'Ache water resistant neocolor I (this has a more pearlised look). I added a bit of colour here and there with a copic pen. A copic was also used to colour the sea and turquoise stickles added.

This is for:

Aly's 41: shaped cards
Some odd girl: get into shape (shaped card)
City crafter 56: by the sea
Gingerloft: under the sea
The paper variety: lights, camera, action (A fish called Wanda)
Craft us crazy 8: use your favourite embellishments and/or something new - the shaped card is new
Creative inspirations 59: glitzy & bling
Shelly's terrifically thrilling Thursday: bling is
365 cards day 40: clever colouring - 4 different methods of colouring - watersoluble pastel, water resistant pastel, copics, stickles
Aud sentiments 28: no sentiment
Freshly brewed 45: beach or summer
PaperPlay 19: celebrating summer
Crafty creations 118: anything goes
Penny's 53: anything goes
Scrappy frogs: anything goes
Sew many challenges 53: anything goes
Stamp something: anything goes
Inspire me Fridays 6: anything goes

Thursday, 12 May 2011

CAS Lily of the valley

This week on Daring cardmakers the theme is Flowers for May - either hawthorn or lily of the valley. I used a clipart picture from Publisher and digitally tweaked it a bit. The base card is pearlised (haven't used any of this pearlised card for some time) and the dark green textured card is some that I came across when I had my sort out last week - no idea where it came from or how long I've had it - from my early days of cardmaking. The background paper behind the picture and the sentiment is from Dena. The sentiment was computer generated and printed, using one of my favourite fonts, Lucida Calligraphy.

This is also for:

Paper pretties 153
: add texture to your card
Rainbow lady 152: let's feel it
I did it: monochromatic
HLSC 21: green
If the shoe fits fashionista Friday 78: May goes green
Dream valley 6: flowers
Sunday postcard: April showers bring May flowers
Card cupids: flowers
Creative card crew: May flowers
Everybody art 141: flowers
Top tip Tuesday 33: flower frenzy
Delightful: flowers
Raise the bar 65: flower power
Crazy 4 challenges 86: April shwoers bring May flowers
Pear tree 48: spring
4 crafty chicks 37: spring has sprung
Stamp something: May digi day
Tanda teaser 171: get well soon
Paper crafting journey 10: get well soon
My Sheri crafts 56: get well soon
Penny's 53: anything goes
Scrappy frogs: anything goes
Flourish timeless 117: anything goes

Salt: a time for everything ...

It was Ruth's turn to choose the topic for today's challenge on Salt and she chose 'a time for everythin' based on the passage from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 - you can read what she wrote here.

This turned out to be a very poignant topic for us at Salt because, after much discussion and prayerful consideration, we have decided to cease the challenges, although the blog will remain open - we hope it will continue to be a blessing to those who visit.

My LO is very simple because the K & Co paper I used is very 'busy'. I added some Hero Arts stamped cuckoo clocks and a few other clock faces. The passage from Ecclesiastes is The Message version - I printed on to an identical piece of K & Co (I so wish I had a printed that could cope with 12 x 12 - one day, perhaps) and used the stitched ribbon over the join. You can read the scripture verses if you click on the image a couple of times.

Please go over to Salt and see what the rest of the team did for this challenge - and join in if you can.

I'm linking this for:

Let's craft and create 19: sew lovely
Stampavie 141: ribbons
Allsorts 102: stamp a lot - use at least three different stamps
My partner in crafting crime 26: incorporate numbers
Crafty creations 118: anything goes
Creative Belli 117: letter S - stamping, stitching (my neglected embellishment: the ribbon)
Stamping vacation: No! No! challenge: no embossing of any kind
Stamping vacation: when I grow up: clockmaker
Crafty catz: give us a quote
Penny's 53: anything goes
Scrappy frogs: anything goes
Flourish timeless 117: anything goes

Wednesday, 11 May 2011

WOYWW 101

Well, it's Wednesday again - and the day has nearly gone already - we were up at Guy's this morning for a foot health appointment for John and somehow the time since we got back has gone very quickly - so, it's time for WOYWW 101.

Update: it's nearly Thursday now and I still hadn't completed this post! (I stopped to do my Salt LO for tomorrow - more about that then).

I didn't take part in WOYWW last week because I was in the middle of having a really good sort out of my craft stuff - on reflection, perhaps I should have shown what a muddle I was in then. Anyway, I've had the biggest sort out I've had since this room was fitted out - which, unbelievably, was nearly four years ago - it doesn't seem that long.

Every box etc has been sorted (and I was a bit ruthless with what I kept and didn't some for the grandchildren and some for the charity shop - and some for the recycling paper bin). Everything is now properly labelled.

So, my actual worktop is clear of any crafting atm - a lot of photos to share today, mainly because I want to keep them as a reminder of what this room can look like when it's organised - not that the workspace will stay clear like this - in fact it's already been covered with various items since taking the photos.

This is an overall view of where I sit to craft, including my new very comfortable chair (the old one I had was comfortable, but was bought about 25 years ago ... a new one was needed). This chair will go up a bit higher than the previous one, which gives me a much better position at the keyboard and for crafting, so you will notice there is now a box on the floor to put my feet on because they don't reach the floor with the chair at the right height. Because I don't need to use the pull-out shelf for the keyboard, I've got items on there that are in use a lot, so they are handy when I need them.

I needed to buy a couple more Really Useful Boxes for inside my big cupboard (photo further down) and while I was at Rymans I saw some little folding crates that are made by RUB - only 99p each - thought they would come in handy, but as yet I don't know what I'm going to use them for - you can see them here near my rotating 'lazy susan' with my copics and promarkers etc.

To the right of where I sit there is a couple that has two pull-out shelves - originally to house my printer and craft robo (which I'm going to sell because I don't use it now - have got the large cricut). Quite a while ago I got a wireless network printer, so that sits the other side of the room out of the way. This means that I can use the pull-out shelves for other things, so I've got my boxes of scrap offcuts and inserts at the top and boxes of flowers sorted into colours and types and envies on the bottom shelf.

To the left of where I sit there are four drawers - I've even sorted and tidied them:

And further to the left is a corner cupboard - the door is open in this picture - the space goes much further back in to the left, so there is a trolley and things I don't use often stacked away.

The inside of my big cupboard:

This room originally, of course, was the 'spare' room which housed a couple of put-you-up beds, so they are still in here, covered with a Laura Ashley throw that matches the curtains - this gives me another surface to use. The boiler is in the corner of this room, but I have my back to it while crafting, so I don't have to sit and look at it - and it does mean this is the warmest room in the winter, which I love. You'll notice I also have to give some space to our linen bin and cushions for our garden chairs.


I am very fortunate to have such a lovely space to craft in (especially as our whole maisonette isn't very big). Today I haven't shown much of the shelves above my workspace - where I house most of my wooden stamps. I've now ordered a couple of extra shelves so that will enable me to spread the stamps out a bit and/or get more!

I'm also sharing this on Shopping our stash, a new challenge blog that is asking for us to show our workspace.

Tuesday, 10 May 2011

Indigo, ice and inspiration

This card is for ABC Christmas challenge I for indigo, ice and inspiration - this photo inspiration was given:

It's also for the sketch given for Paper pretties 152:

The base card is stardream, which has a lovely sparkly look to it. The stitched paper is an offcut from long ago (no, I didn't stitch it), mounted on silver mirror card. The strip across the middle and the sentiment are from an old QVC kit and the snowflakes were rescued from an old card, with the addition of Poundland gems in the centres, so this is also for Bah! humbug 18: going green (the recycled snowflakes).



This is also for:

I did it: monochromatic
Creative inspirations 59: glitzy & bling
Do more with less: stitching with Alice Wertz
Scrappy frogs: anything goes
Flourish timeless 117: anything goes


Therapeutic colouring

I thought a bit of colouring in might be a good idea this morning - it must be a throw back to childhood, but it can indeed be very therapeutic to sit and colour in an image - I used copics, of course.

This is for the sketch given for Stampotique 29:

and I chose the colours from MME spring and summer papers for Stampin' royalty 70 colour challenge:

The stamp is a Stampotique one by Janet Klein. The strips with gold foil edges were left over from a recent Easter kit.

I'm also linking this for the 'home sweet home' challenge 40 on Anything goes.

Oscar



Sad news here last night - John's first guide dog, Oscar, had to be put to sleep - he was a very poorly dog in the end - he was 13 last November, so a good age for a golden retriever. He not only was so precious to John as a guide dog, but to us both as a pet - although he hadn't lived with us for some time now, we still felt an attachment to him and are very sad - he was so special. We are so glad that Bob brought him over to see us the day before his 13th birthday (we could tell then that he wouldn't last too much longer).