Anne-ecdotes

Remember

2011-11-12T11:51:00.000Z

UKS tag swap theme for November is "Remember" and the gemstone is citrine, so we had to include something amber/orange and something to do with remembering e.g. bonfire night, armistice day etc.

Lots of distress stains/ink used and my poppy is made from four red circles with a distress stickles centre.
It's beautiful and sunny here today (and dry! No mist or drizzle). I feel a walk coming on!

Have a lovely weekend X

Christmas Dressform

2011-11-07T17:05:00.000Z

Another swap on UKS - this time making a Christmas fairy from Tim Holtz's Sewing room die.

I've made a little wand for my fairy, and a little reindeer friend. I shall be receiving another 8 fairies from the other swapees and I'm really looking forward to them.

The photos are not very good, it's so gloomy today and I only had my iphone handy.

Thanks for looking X

Alice in Wonderland Jigsaw Swap

2011-10-21T13:43:00.003+01:00

I'm taking part in a swap on UKS with 8 other ladies and we are making an Alice in Wonderland Jigsaw.
We are all decorating 9 pieces and then we will receive one piece from each participant making a finished Jigsaw with 9 different pieces.

Here is mine, almost ready to send in the post so it can be swapped with all the others. I can't wait to get my Jigsaw back, there have been some gorgeous creations made already.

My puzzle pieces don't have a set theme, they are a bit of a mixture with Alice, "Eat me", the Cheshire Cat, the Playing Cards, Hearts and either the Queen, Rabbit or the Mad Hatter. I wanted them to have an "old book" feel.

Going to get my thinking head out of the cupboard now and make plans for my next swap..........Christmas Fairy Dressforms!

Thanks for looking X

Artsycrafts weekend

2011-06-21T10:39:00.001+01:00

I've just been lucky enough to spend another weekend at an Artsycrafts event in Warrington. The time just flew by, the company was great, the projects were lovely and we had a fantastic time.

On Saturday we used Paperartsy fresco finish paints and grungeboard on the back of a wooden frame:

For our next project we changed colours and we used the paints on some glass bottles:

For our final project we used moulds, plaster and the fresco finish paints to create an antiqued panel.

I didn't use this lion mould but I'm going to use him at home, I love him. I used a cameo mould:

I love these weekends, so thank you Lin and Leandra and I can't wait for next time.

p.s. I do apologise for the weird placing of some of the text in this post - sometimes blogger editing will NOT do as it is told! LOL X

May Tag Swap

2011-05-31T14:38:00.000+01:00

This is one of 6 tags I made for the May tag swap on UKS:
The tag had to include the colour green and something mystical/mythical.

The background was coloured with distress stains swiped over some clear embossed stars (bit hard to see here). This was then overstamped with foliage using distress inks. The face is a Studio 490 stamp and my doors were inked with black fresco finish paint, then fresco crackle, then fresco finish green paint.

When you look through the garden gate this is what you see:

More clear embossed stars with a distress ink background, then fairies and toadstools by Lavinia stamps and foliage by Elusive Images. The fairies have a little bit of stickles on their wings.

Thanks for looking. Going to do some baking with my son now - I will try not to eat the finished result but I know already that I will fail! X

Magical Places

2011-05-25T22:41:00.000+01:00

During the Easter holiday my lovely hubby took us to Disneyland Paris for 3 nights and Paris itself for 3 nights. We had a fantastic holiday and we were lucky with the weather too most of the time.

Here at last!

The view from our bedroom window.

One of the floats on the parade

Coffee in Paris

Outside Notre Dame

The Louvre

One of the beautiful Louvre ceilings

We walked and walked and ate and drank some delicious things.

We were also quite brave about some of the rides we went on - I can't believe that we ALL went on two rides that had a 360 degrees loop - woo hoo! It was all brilliant but exhausting and we needed a good rest when we got home! Lol! Unfortunately it was straight back to work and school but I really wish we could have stayed for a month, we loved every minute.

I have some tag photos to post soon and with a bit of luck I'll be doing some more crafting before long. It's been a bit manic around here as we are in the process of converting a playroom/dumping room (complete with massive Barney the Dinosaur and Teletubby paintings on the walls- inherited when we moved in to this house 9 years ago- yes we like to get jobs done quickly - ha ha!) in to a sitting room.

X

Queen for a Day

2011-04-20T11:18:00.000+01:00

Here is my tag for another swap on UKS

The background is Distress Stains and Distress Ink. This was then stamped over with a script stamp (Crafty Individuals) using Distress Ink.

The girl (Paper Artsy) was stamped on tissue paper and stuck to the tag. The crown at the top right is die cut from a book page and glittered with Distress Rock Candy stickles, then some bling was added to the points of the crown.

I stamped "Queen for a Day" (by Anna Griffin) on the bottom, and added a crown from Girls Paperie above that, and on the girl's head. Then came more bling around the ribbon strip and on the bottom of the tag. I stamped the threaded ribbon with a small image by Making Memories.

Hope everybody is enjoying this beautiful Spring weather.

X

A bit of Bunting

2011-04-06T22:49:00.001+01:00

I'm doing a Bunting swap on UKS and this is my effort.

The light was shocking when I took my photo so it looks a bit "muddy" - it's much brighter than this.

The background was done with Distress Stains ( so quick!), then overstamped with Crafty Individual stamps and an Italian script stamp using Distress Inks. I sprayed the whole thing with gold perfect pearl mist and added some German scrap, some lace and a punched heart with a button on top of it.

I sprayed some book pages with pink glimmer mist and made some flowers using Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die and finished them off with a gem centre.

I used green Inka Gold on all the edges.

I'd better try to get the Post Office with them this week or else it will be a last minute job. ( My forte!)

Thanks for looking X

Quick Anniversary Card

2011-04-01T15:08:00.002+01:00

I suddenly remembered an Anniversary on Monday so I needed a quick card:

The star stamp is by Lavinia, stamped in rocket gold ink. The paper is Prima and I stamped on the right hand side of it using pink glimmer mist and a border stamp - love the smudgy effect.

The hearts were punched out of Kraft cardstock, inked with the stars again and outlined with stickles.

The banner stamp is by Clarity stamps and the ribbon is SU.

It's all much more "glimmery" in real life! X

Let's Ink it Up - Die cuts/Punches

2011-03-24T10:20:00.001Z

I have made another card using my Tim Holtz dressform die and a fabulous EK button and needle border punch for this month's Let's ink it up challenge.

I die cut the dress form on grungepaper and then again with sticky backed canvas to make the dress. I stained the dressform and the dress using distress stains. The next step was to stamp a pattern on the dress with archival ink.

After I'd stuck the dress on the dressform I added a ribbon belt and frill and glued some German scrap along the neckline.

The background card is SU stamped with SU Bliss stamp.

I punched the button border twice and gold embossed the whole border and added a piece of plain border on top.

What a beautiful day...... but I'm going back to bed to nurse the stupid cough and cold that I have that just won't budge.

Thanks for looking X

Travel wallet

2011-03-21T13:23:00.004Z

The Just for Fun challenge is "A different Format", so I thought I would decorate a 7 gypsies wallet that has been in my "to alter" drawer for ever.

We are going to Paris later in the year and we have lots of different travel documents and tickets to keep safe. I decided to make a travel wallet so that everything can be kept together safely.

I covered the outside and the inside with 7 gypsies paper and added gaffer tape to the inside and tissue tape to the front cover edges. I made a little tag using a Tim Holtz label and 7 gypsies stickers. Then I have added two stamped images, both by Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous - I stamped the Eiffel Tower on tissue paper and adhered it with matte medium, and I stamped the French stamp on to a paper background using red archival ink. I added a rub-on post mark, distressed it all a bit with Vintage Photo Ink and then I sprayed the whole front cover with gold Perfect Pearls mist.

Inside


Back cover

Thanks for looking. X

Dressform Card

2011-03-20T17:10:00.001Z

This is the card I started at Sarah's Cards retreat. I used Tim Holtz's dressform die and one of his new stamp sets. The swirl is by Paperartsy.

A night on the tiles

2011-03-18T05:23:00.004Z

Well, a couple of nights anyway. I played with this mirror in our non-class time at Sarah's Cards retreat a couple of weeks ago. Tim Holtz has an example in his Compendium of Curiosities, but he used more tiles than I have done.

I had intended to be sensible ( ha ha) and not stay up too late but on Friday night we went to bed at about 1a.m. This meant yawns and matchsticks on Saturday morning, so that night we were REALLY going to be sensible.............we ended up going to bed at 2 a.m! Anyway, we had a fabulous time.

So - I spent my spare Sarah time laughing, (great company), and sticking Ideaology Fragment Tiles to various papers - Graphic 45, K & Co and Tim Holtz, along with a few stamped images, and arranging them on my mirror. I didn't finish it off til this week, and , Michele, it was VERY hard to stick the tiles on straight - I'm sure that you would have done a much better job. I bet it would be an easier job if the mirror was absolutely chock full of tiles like the example in the book (excuses, excuses).

Almost forgot to say that I stained the mirror first with Vintage Photo Distress Stains - so quick, I love Distress Stains! I might add some alcohol inks to a few of the tiles - if I make a mess I can always wipe it off with blending solution.

I also played with my new Tim Holtz stamps and dies to make a card, but will save that for another post.

Sarah's Cards Layouts

2011-03-13T17:47:00.003Z

Last weekend I had a fabulous time with good friends at Sarah's Cards retreat in Warrington. I haven't scrapped for ages so it was great to do some layouts for a change.
Here are three of the layouts that I did in the classes.

I'm still finishing off the other three layouts that we did.

Hope you are all having a good weekend. We went to the theatre in York last night to see "Count Arthur Strong's Command Performance" It was brilliant - after the first ten minutes I was aching so much with laughing that I didn't know how I was going to last through the whole show........very good.

Thanks for looking. X

P.S. For Karen's benefit(LOL!) the photo in Trafalgar Square is of my big sister, me (I'm the one turning round to look at the fountain) and my big brother.

Woo hoo! Look where I've been!

2011-02-27T11:17:00.002Z

Don't ya think I look a tad excited???? Standing next to Tim Holtz! LOL! It's because I was at this fabulous event:

Artsycrafts with Lin (LB Crafts), Leandra (Paperartsy) and Tim Holtz.

I arrived on Thursday evening and met up with Neet in the bar. Neet had done the Thursday class and was on her way home, but we had time for a quick drink and a chat. Then it was time for an early night as registration was 7.30 Friday morning!

I was on the early Tim class (there were 4 classes over 2 days - 288 attendees in total - the mind boggles at the time and effort spent in prepping all those kits).
We were all given a goody bag courtesy of Ranger:

In this little bag was a distress ink, a blending tool and pad, a paint dabber, a bottle of perfect pearls mist, some glossy accents, some matt medium and a scraper tool. We were also given 2 rolls of tissue tape each and I was thrilled to find that mine weren't ones that I had already.
The project was a configurations box and our kit contained every piece of paper cut and scored to the correct size. We also had a set of grungeboard letters and numbers and the new grunge tiles which are fabulous and enable you to make look alike printers letters. There were some really interesting vintage dictionary pages which I loved - Tim had brought a whole dictionary so we could help ourselves.

For the first part of the class we added our papers to the box, secured with tissue tape and then distressed it with ink and added perfect pearls for a hint of glimmer. We also made our "printers tray" letters/numbers. Then it was tea break time. Tim and Mario thought this was a fabulous idea and I think they are hoping to incorporate tea breaks in to their USA classes. Lol!

Tim was such a charismatic teacher - he explained things so well with a great deal of humour, he walked round all the tables all the time and was available to help anybody when needed. It was brilliant. He was happy to sign things for people and was just so friendly and approachable, nothing was too much trouble.

When we got back to our tables we had been given a little calico bag each that was STUFFED with treasures for us to put in to our boxes. In all the excitement I forgot to take a photo, but it was filled with things like little bottles with corks, ideaology metal items, buttons, a charlotte doll, an old car, cotton reels, numbers, tickets, a metal birdcage, flowers, tokens, pen nibs, string - marvellous. So then we set to work and filled our boxes.
The last step was to add our metal feet.

I still need to add some metal corners (which were also in our calico bags) to the top corners. I love it!

I almost forgot to mention the raffle prizes which were fantastic too - Stamp sets, Dies not yet available in the UK and limited edition Trade show bags.

All too soon it was time for lunch and then off to our second class with Lin and Leandra. We made this little house out of one large frame and 2 small frames:

The hinges were made from grungeboard and coloured with inka gold, and again these had all been pre-cut for us and the trees had been pre-embossed for us - an enormous amount of work.

Class finished at 5.30 and then it was time to drive home.

Thank you to all concerned, it was amazing, and after looking forward to it for 5 months it lived up to and exceeded all expectations. Happy bunny here. X

Romancing the Paper

2011-02-13T21:28:00.000Z


Front Cover

I have just completed a wonderful on-line course taught by Rachel Emilie Jackson called "Romancing the Paper". Over 5 weeks we covered lots of paper staining and colouring techniques, learned how to press flowers and then we combined all the techniques in a little reference pamphlet.

Page1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

Page 6

Back cover

I really enjoyed the whole course and I shall be using all the techniques over and over again. Thank you Rachel!
X

Romance/Valentine theme on Let's Ink it Up.

2011-02-06T16:34:00.005Z

I've made this little piece for the current Let's Ink it Up Challenge.

The background uses the Paper Blending technique by Liesbeth Fidder in the March issue of Craft Stamper, I used various script, music and ruler stamps on it. The die used to cut it out is from Paper Artsy.

I die cut a chipboard heart using a Sizzix die and coloured it with Victorian Velvet distress ink and Creme de rouge Tattered Angel spray ink. I silver embossed some script across it.

The flower is made with book pages cut with Tim's tattered florals die and sprayed with Creme de rouge and gold Tattered Angels spray inks. A pearl brad helped to assemble it.

The sentiment is a Wendy Vecchi stamp.

I finished off the edges with silver and graphite Inka Gold.

The pale colours make a nice change for me - I love them on other people's work but I can never quite pull it off myself, so very pleased!

Hope your weekend has been relaxing - all we seem to have done is eat out - ooops - diet on hold for yet another week. X

Love Potion

2011-02-04T17:01:00.001Z

An altered perfume bottle for this week's Playdate Cafe Challenge.

My empty perfume bottle was heart shaped, and the colours this week are blue, pink, burgundy and crimson. Seeing as it's almost Valentine's Day I thought I'd stick with a romantic theme.

I used Glimmer mists on tissue paper and stamped it with Plum, Crimson and Teal Archival inks using Elusive Images Damask Hearts and Swirls stamps.

The three-toned ribbon was in my stash.

I covered a die-cut heart with music paper, stamped "love" and added some lace and a dried flower to use as my tag.

I'm very pleased with my flower - have tried to dry them before without much success, but now I know how to do it properly thanks to a course I am doing at the moment, but I will post more on that in a few weeks when my course is finished.

Thank you for looking. X

Try it on Tuesday........Feel the Lurve!

2011-02-01T09:26:00.002Z

They're all loved up over on Try it on Tuesday, so here is a Golden Wedding Anniversary Card:

I used embossing on the white background and golden corners, and the hearts were punched with Martha Stewart punches.

I think the greeting is from Papermania.

The bling is by Prima and I sprayed the heart doily with various metallic paints. It's much more subtle and muted in real life, looks a bit dark on this photo.

The 50 is done with American Craft thickers, painted and then fairy dust added.

Hurray - January is over, a step further towards Spring! Happy 1st Feb! X

Wings

2011-01-28T17:43:00.001Z

It's Alter it with Wings on Try it on Tuesday this week.

Last year I mentioned that I had bought some large German Scrap wings in Covent Garden and I was waiting for the right project to use them on - well this is it!

I started with a black mirror from Ikea and covered it with gesso and then cream paint .

I added some Viva Terra for texture and also patches of Viva Decor gold Ferro. I spritzed a text stamp with water and stamped it in to the Ferro. When it was dry I rubbed on some gold and graphite Inka Gold to highlight the text.

I added some angels which were stamped on tissue paper with sepia ink and I stippled on some gold paint where things overlapped.

I attached some ribbon around the mirror and glued some buttons to the piece.

The metal pieces top and bottom were embossed through the big shot with a mould, then rubbed with terracotta alcohol ink. ( I might change this to gold later but will live with it a bit first - it goes with the sepia images but might be too much of a contrast with the other gold tones.)

The final step was to add my wings.

Thanks for looking x

Quick 40th Card

2011-01-20T16:41:00.001Z

I made this card using paper from Bella Boulevard and Crate Paper and the number thickers are by American Crafts.

I made it with this week's colours from the Playdate Cafe Challenge in mind - Grey, Green and Orange.

Another Playdate Cafe Challenge

2011-01-17T12:57:00.002Z

I spotted the base card for this in Paperchase and thought it was the perfect shade for this week at The Playdate Cafe Challenge.

The three colours this week are aqua, caramel and grey.

The stamp is Stampers Anonymous by Tim Holtz, stamped in grey and black.

The flower is part Prima and part punched cardstock and patterned paper.

The lace, ribbon and swirls I had in my stash box.

The top edge was made by putting some Tim Holtz tissue tape on black card, inking it with a blue stamp pad and then punching with a Martha Stewart punch. Mmmm must try that again with different colours and see what I end up with.

Thanks for looking X

Tag for a Male

2011-01-12T21:38:00.003Z

The theme for Try it on Tuesday this week is a tag for a male.

The background paper is by Scrap within Reach (only had it for 10 months! Lol!) and has been overstamped with Pumice Stone and Sepia swirls (stamp by Tim Holtz).

The border at the bottom is a sticker, also by Scrap within Reach, and I added some trimmed 7gypsies gaffer tape immediately above it. I stamped over it with a crackle stamp by Crafty Individuals.

The Knight is by Elusive Images and it is stamped on to Stampboard. The stampboard was inked with Rusty Hinge and Pumice Stone distress inks first. The same swirls as before were added using Timber Brown Stazon ink, and the knight image was "scratched" with a metal tool to highlight some of the detail. I put a little silver Inka Gold around the edges.

I stamped "my hero" on a second piece of backing paper and inked it with Vintage Photo and Black Soot distress inks, then folded it in to a little banner.

I inked all the edges with black soot, added some ancient brads that I had in my brad box, then finished it off with some lovely stripey ribbon from SU.

Wednesday night already! This week is flying by.

Thank you for looking, and thank you (as always) for all your lovely comments this week. X

Moonfairies

2011-01-09T16:35:00.001Z

This week's theme on Let's Ink it up is "Anything goes". I decided to get my brayer out and ink up a background. The fairies , toadstools and cobweb are by Lavinia Stamps, the ground foliage is by Clarity Stamps.

I stamped the moon on pearlised vellum and embossed it with silver EP.
The ribbon is by 7gypsies and I put it on a background of card punched with a Martha Stewart punch.

The background paper and the ornate frame are by Tim Holtz.

The frame has a little Blue Steel and Graphite Inka Gold rubbed on it, and the fairy wings, cobweb and some of the upper foliage have some stickles on them for a bit of sparkle.

Hope you're having a lovely relaxing Sunday. X

I love Coffee

2011-01-08T12:13:00.002Z

The theme this week on Gingersnap Creations is Hot Beverages.

I used Brushed Corduroy and Pumice stone inks for the background, plus a little glimmer mist.

I've had the Coffee twill tape for yonks, and the sentiment on the saying made me smile. ( Can't remember who produces the coffee cups and saying stamps - sorry).

I don't know about being successful but I do know that I need gallons of coffee in a morning before I even start to function properly!

Must dash - Shopping trip awaits.

Have fun X

Happy Anniversary

2011-01-07T13:30:00.001Z

Green, Silver and Gold are the colours at the Playdate Cafe this week.

I made this tag to add to an Anniversary Card I am making. I embossed the tag with a Damask Cuttlebug folder first and added green, gold and silver ink. The silver heart ( Damask Hearts from Elusive Images) was embossed in silver on to tissue paper and glued to the tag.

I tinted a Prima flower gold and added a silver charm with a pearl brad.

I had the ribbon in my stash - normally use it for wedding cards, and just added some gold german scrap, a TH tag and a silver frame and gold heart charm.

Yippee it's the weekend! Have a good one.

Thank you for looking X

New Year Card

2011-01-05T21:09:00.003Z

I needed a New Year card for one of my friends in Australia, so as the theme on Tuesday Taggers is New Beginnings, and the theme at Studio L3 is Rusted Grunge I thought I'd have a go at both.
I used Alterations dies for the sign and the leaves, made the hanger "rusty" and sprayed glimmer mists on the leaves as a background.
The tickets are Tim Holtz and I added a bit of Inka gold everywhere.
It's a bit Autumnal, but I do like browns and greens!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-02T19:22:00.000Z

Happy New Year! I hope it brings you health, happiness and all the things you wish for.

We've had a lovely restful holiday for two weeks, it's been great. We've just stayed in most of the time - nothing like being cosy when it's freezing out there. I've only ventured out of the house twice since Christmas Eve - once to get some more fresh veg (how boring!) and then A and I went out for a lovely meal on the 30th Dec.

Hope you've all had a good time too X

Oh the weather outside is frightful but the fire is so delightful........

2010-12-24T17:12:00.000Z

Actually it's not frightful outside....... just very cold still. It's lovely and cosy inside though with a bowlful of nuts and a glass of ginger wine, oh and some chocolates and some mince pies too. Yum.

Happy Christmas everybody! X

A quick Christmas card

2010-12-13T20:55:00.001Z

This is one of some quick cards I made last week for Andy to take to work.
Card and paper is Stampin' Up!, the December panel in the background is a Tim Holtz texture fade tinged with Forest Fern and Barn Door distress inks.
The words are from the Cricut Christmas Cheer cartridge with some glitter glue and a ribbon added.

Sorry the photo's a bit odd - better if you click on it. X

A little play with Inka Gold

2010-12-04T12:32:00.002Z

When we were at our Artsycrafts weekend there was a beautiful little sample on display done with an Inka Gold painted background, so I thought I would give it a go. It's a little bit dark, and I might gesso it to make it a blank canvas and start again, but here it is in its current state:

Stamps used are Paperartsy, Lavinia, Clarity and Judikins.

I think I'll have a go with a white gel pen and do a bit of highlighting before I erase it.

Think (hope) we are having a little thaw outside - time to stock up and batten down the hatches for the next Arctic winds!

Thank you for all my beautiful birthday cards and facebook messages for yesterday my lovely friends. XXX

Vintage Christmas

2010-12-03T12:14:00.001Z

Just a quick post today of some gorgeous vintage gifts I have received this week. Above is a beautiful Victorian advent calendar that Andy brought me back from Covent Garden.

These are lovely Christmas tree decorations that my sister sent me. I love traditional Christmas decorations - I have to stop myself buying some new ones every year, there are some beauties out there.
Hope you are all keeping warm and safe. X

Surprise Birthday Party

2010-11-10T17:37:00.001Z

Just a quick post to show the cards that I made for our neighbours' (Angela & Eric) joint surprise birthday party last Saturday.

This was for Angela. Background paper is Tim Holtz, inked with Victorian Velvet distress ink on the edge. Flower is inked with pink spray ink and then fruit punch stickles was added. The plaque and the 50 were cut on my Cricut machine then covered with pink metal, purple ink added to numbers and a little ivy leaf stamped with green Stazon ink.

Eric's card was a variation on my previous stamped shirt cards. Background and tie paper is by Tim Holtz.

We all had a great time at the party. There was a Ceilidh band, so lots of dancing took place. DH and I even danced the Gay Gordons! I say! I haven't danced that since wet playtimes at school. James danced lots too. It was a lovely party for a fantastic birthday couple.

Must dash - time for J's juijitsu class. X

Warrington Frame

2010-11-09T22:06:00.002Z

Here is my finished frame, started at ArtsyCrafts in Warrington. The colour scheme was citrus burst. This is a joint effort - I had ripped my cardboard, painted it and painted my canvas before I had to go home. Lynne very kindly stamped and put embossing powder on my pieces, painted the frame and stuck the pieces in to the frame. She embossed the metal strips for the top and bottom of the frame for me too.

Lynne also made those fabulous flowers with metal, card and tissue paper. I only had to finish off a couple of them, so THANK YOU Lynne, thank you Leandra for suggesting that I leave my frame so it could have some more work done to it, and thank you Lin for posting it to me so promptly.

So......... I had to decide how to arrange my flowers and then make some stems and leaves:

I painted some grungepaper with distress ink and glimmer mist and then stamped some script on to it using the same distress ink. Then I put the grungepaper through a ribbler to make it slightly corrugated - blimey that was hard work, I almost broke my wrist! LOL!
Then I just had to cut some strips for stems, cut a few leaves out and glue them on to the frame.

The moth was die cut from metal and stamped with a stamp from Paperartsy using Stazon ink.

ArtsyCrafts Warrington - First 2 Projects.

2010-11-03T11:03:00.002Z

Lin and Leandra were fantastic teachers, the classes were so well organised, the supplies were plentiful, the colour choices were fabulous, Lynne was a great helper, the company was brilliant, the food and snacks were delicious....................can you tell that I enjoyed myself?

First of all we made a wisdom book containing a metal owl in a niche. This was done in the "Peacock Feathers" colour scheme, but I didn't make the colours strong, so it's a bit more of a "Jade" in hue.

On Saturday afternoon a change of tables was called for so this time it was "Apple Blossom". We made this gorgeous dimensional picture. I love the curtain effect - those girls are such clever designers.

I still have to finish my 3rd project - I left it behind when I came home early on Sunday and Lynne very kindly did some work on it for me and Lin has posted it to me so that I can complete it. How's that for absolutely brilliant service? Thank you ladies!
I'll post pics when I've finished it.

Thanks for looking. X

A few more cards .

2010-11-01T15:15:00.000Z

Had a fabulous weekend at Artsycrafts in Warrington with great classes and fabulous company but very VERY busy and the time just flew by. I'll post some pics next time.
Well I had almost a weekend as I had to leave just before lunch on Sunday because my little boy was a bit off it and wanted his Mummy, poor little soul. I'm glad to report that he's feeling much better today and almost back to his normal self.

Here are some more cards for my stall this month:


Craftwork Cards image and paper and SU buttons.

Craftwork Cards images and SU buttons


Rubberneck stamps and SU cardstock and buttons. Coloured with copics.

Rubberneck stamps, SU cardstock. Coloured with copics.


K & Co Paper, Elusive Images stamp, Craftwork Cards sentiment and SU cardstock and punch.

Normal Service will be resumed.....

2010-10-29T13:43:00.001+01:00

as soon as possible! Have had dreadful problems with my internet connection and e-mail recently, so that's why I have been silent! Fortunately it SEEMS to be working OK now, so I will be able to blog again and use my internet again - Hurray! I've been so lost without it, it's been driving me mad. I really, really LOVE the internet.

No time to post any pictures today though - I'm getting ready to go to the Artsycrafts weekend, so catching up on my domestic duties ( pardon??? Lol! You don't catch me saying THAT very often, ha ha) so that the three of us are all ready for Monday again. Almost finished - yay.

Hope everybody has a great weekend, and looking forward to blogging properly soon.

X

Well..........

2010-10-19T18:18:00.004+01:00

...... how time flies!!!! I did my class with my 14 ladies, had a great evening and we all enjoyed ourselves. On the same evening I found out that I had the chance to have a table to sell handmade cards at a Christmas Fayre in November. This was good news - or it would have been IF I had any cards already made to sell! - LOL! So ALL my spare time on weekday evenings has been spent frantically making cards- I've not looked at any challenges or my blog.

Weekends have been busy as always - we've been to the Lakes, visited family in Leicester and had visitors too, so wouldn't dream of cardmaking (and besides I normally indulge in a drink or two ~~or three or four~~ at weekends so not a good idea to try and stick down anything in a straight fashion).

So I haven't got anything to show at the moment except some of my cards:

The first two use mostly Craftwork Cards products

The 6 above use Whiff of Joy stamps and K & Co and SU papers.

These are copies of one of my PDCC entries

Prima stamp, Tim Holtz papers and rosette die, Wendy Vecchi stamp, SU stamp,
SU oval punch, Martha Stewart punch and Prima flower

These 4 use a lovely Barbara Grey stamp and 7 Gypsies flocked paper.

I'd better get cracking on some Mens' cards and some Baby cards I think. When I've done some I'll try to pop some photos on here.

Thanks for looking X

Navy, Lime and Silver PDCC 48

2010-09-23T14:21:00.001+01:00

I need a rest! Had a great but very busy weekend - lots of lovely food and eating (and drinking) out, lots of shopping ( I am a lucky girl- had a beautiful bracelet and some fabulous shoes bought for me by hubby) and lots of games played with James. In between all that there was the usual homework and domestic stuff to sort out for this week, so no time for playing in my craft room until today.

The playdate cafe has these colours this week:

Here is my card:

Patterned paper is K & Co. Ribbon is American crafts. Edge of card is inked with blue ink.
I made the "navyish" background with spray inks, and the foliage is embossed in silver (stamp by SU).

The bird is die cut from metal using a Paperartsy die, then I embossed it with an embossing folder in my cuttlebug. The next step was to ink it with green alcohol ink.
The eye is a gem coloured with a copic pen, and I outlined the metal bird with the same copic pen.

I am doing a card class for 14 ladies tonight, and then it will be the weekend again! Eeeeeek!

Have a good one!

X

Joy

2010-09-18T11:31:00.000+01:00

Beautiful colours at the Playdate Cafe this week:

I think the colours are gorgeous, but I wasn't sure how to put them together. I had a look in my tin of ATC "blanks" and found some tri-fold cards that I had never used, so I decided to give it a whirl:

The background is coloured with a combination of Distress Inks and Adirondack Ink, then overstamped with stamps from Clarity, Lavinia and My Mind's Eye.
I painted some card with Claudine Hellmuth paints and punched out my flowers, then added some inked old book page strips for the border.
The sentiment is by Elusive Images.
I love this combo ( did I mention that before? Lol!), it's really bright and cheerful.

Have a good weekend. We're going treat shopping in a minute - woo hoo!

Thank you Playdate Cafe, and thanks for looking. X

Black & White and splash of pink for PDCC

2010-09-10T16:54:00.001+01:00

Another Coloursplash this week over at the Playdate Cafe Challenge.

The coloursplash choice was between pink, gold and copper , and I chose pink.

Dress stamp is by Inkadinkadoo, stamped on white card, then embossed in cuttlebug. I used paper piecing by stamping the same image on a piece of SU patterned paper and cutting around the "dress" part and attaching it over the stamped image. I added stickles to the dots on the paper, and to the dress straps. Then I just added 3 black gems and layered it with pink and black card.

I'm so glad it's the weekend - hope everyone has a great one! X

Let's Ink it up Challenge No 2. Two posts in one morning!

2010-09-07T11:23:00.002+01:00

This time at Let's Ink It Up the challenge is to make a tag with a Vintage feel.

The larger tag has a background made with distress re-inkers and pearl pigments. The smaller tag background is Peeled Paint and Bundled Sage ink stamped with a Crafty Individuals swirl stamp and some tissue tape has been added.
The Post Card stamp is Crafty Individuals, and Take Flight is a Paperartsy stamp.
I'm much happier with this than with my pears. Lol.
Thanks for looking. X

Very quick go at PDCC 45

2010-09-07T09:10:00.001+01:00

Well we are back from a lovely relaxing holiday and I thought I just had time to have a play with this week's Play Date Cafe Challenge.

Mmmmmm - it was one of those times when I just could not create the image that was in my head - still, never mind, that's how it goes sometimes.
Here is my feeble attempt - if I had the time I would throw it in the bin and start again! LOL! - but I promised myself that if I did any challenges I would post the result whether I liked it or not and use it for future reference of what NOT to do.

Here's to the next one! X

Believe it or not - Navy, Hot Pink and Mustard?????

2010-08-27T11:58:00.000+01:00

These are the colours for the Playdate Cafe Challenge this week!

Not colours that you would immediately think of combining.

Anyway, I had a go and made a tag:

Inks used are Faded Jeans and Wild Honey Distress Inks and Raspberry Adirondak.
Stamps are Lavinia, Elusive Images and Cavallini.
Martha Stewart butterfly punch and background is a Tim's texture fade.
I like how the mustard and blue inks have blended to a matching green (as you would expect really! LOL!)
Must dash now as I have some holiday packing to do.
X

Let's Ink It Up Challenge

2010-08-25T12:01:00.001+01:00

The challenge on Let's Ink It Up is "Anything goes - with a twist". So we can create anything as long as it has yellow on it somewhere. I'm not a yellow "lover" but it's great to add as a highlight or accent, and I've made this ATC.

I stamped my background using the resist technique and Peeled Paint and Broken China Distress Inks, but I stamped my sun first and masked it. Then I just added some Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink to the sun, added my German Scrap Moon and some words from an old book, outlined with inktense pencils.
I inked the edges with Faded Jeans Distress Ink.
My little moon came from Pollock's Toy Shop in Covent Garden in London. I bought some fabulous massive wings at the same time but I'm waiting for the right project to use those on.
Thanks for looking X

Back from hols with a PDCC and step away from the macaroons!Take 2.

2010-08-21T14:18:00.005+01:00

We are just home from a great week in London, so time to give my feet a rest and have a go at another Play Date Cafe Challenge!

Two greens and a blue.

This was more difficult than I first thought, and I did struggle. I'm still not happy with the arrangement of the embellishments, but sometimes things just won't fall in to place. This is my second attempt, which I like better than the original, but I'm still not thrilled with. LOL!

All paper used is Ideology.

The flower is made using a PaperArtsy die, and I sprayed the top layer with Glimmer Mist and went round the edge with a Martha Stewart Punch and some apple green ink. There are two more "plain" layers underneath, but they don't really show here. It's finished off with felt leaves and a brad.

The background leaves are Wendy Vecchi and the bird on acetate is by Elusive Images.

The tag has some script in the background stamped with apple green ink and the bird image is by Cavallini. I put another layer of Martha Stewart punched paper under the green ribbon and again inked the edge.

Back to London - my crafty friend Paul has raved about Laduree macaroons in the past. Now I quite like macaroons, but can take them or leave them, but since we were in Harrods one day I thought I would try some. OMG - they are one of the scrummiest things I have EVER tasted - good job they are quite small and that I only bought 5 - they didn't last long. Will definitely be going back for more next time! Absolutely yummy, another addiction! Thanks Paul (I think) X

Play Date Cafe Challenge 42. Yo Ho Ho

2010-08-14T15:34:00.000+01:00

These are the lovely colours chosen by Sarah this week at the Playdate Cafe Challenge.

I need a birthday card for a young man in Wales who is going to be 7 soon, so I made this card for him:

The background was made using Distress Inks - Vintage Photo, Tumbled Sage and Broken China and the edge of the card was inked with Vintage Photo. The sand was stamped with A Stamp in the Hand stamp.
The Pirate and Ship were coloured with Copics and the map was coloured with Distress Inks and then decoupaged.
The Palm tree was made using a Basic Grey Stamp and the sentiment is Hero Arts.
Oval punch and Oval Scallop punch are Stampin' Up.
There is a little bit of Stickles glitter glue on the sea but it doesn't show up on the photo.

Thanks for looking. X

Etsy Inspired Challenge

2010-08-10T12:26:00.002+01:00

This week the inspiration comes from Cathy Walters on the Etsy Inspired Challenge which I found from Julie's Open Window - thank you Julie.

Cathy makes beautiful pendants and the item which inspired me in her shop was this:

and this is what I made:

The large tag came from Graphicus and I embossed it in my cuttlebug using a Tim Holtz folder. Then I added Distress Inks in Pumice Stone and Vintage Photo and sprayed it with Walnut Gold Glimmer Mist. I punched the bottom of the tag with my threading water punch.

I added a band of 7 gypsies gaffer tape and a strip of red ribbon and then I threaded my letters through on jump rings (Ideology).
The images came from ancient Distressables paper that I had in my stash.
The Fleur de Lis and Clip are from Ideology (again!) and I don't remember where the circular metal frame came from.

The postmark stamp is by Paperartsy and the stripy ribbon is from Stampin' Up.

I went around the tag with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and then I added some highlights to some of the embossed background with gold pearl powders mixed with water. I also blobbed (good technical term there!) some of this on to some of the images too.

X

Play Date Cafe Challenge Tuscan Sun

2010-08-05T12:48:00.000+01:00

I just love this week's colours on the Play Date Cafe Challenge - beautiful Tuscan hues. I adore Italy and these colours just make me long to be there again.

I decided to make a tag:

Background is Distress Inks - Fired Brick, Rusty Hinge and Wild Honey used with a mask. This was then inked with a crackle stamp and some script by 7 gypsies.
The Flower is Tim Holtz die coloured with the inks and finished with an ideology flower.
The tag is My Mind's Eye, edged with distress ink, and the letters are from Adornit and edged with an Adirondak pen.
The token, pin and key are ideology.
Ribbon is Stampin' Up! and the lace was in my stash.
Mmmm think I'll go get some holiday brochures!
Thanks for looking X

Tuesday Taggers - Black

2010-08-03T21:17:00.000+01:00

Black is the theme for Tuesday Taggers this week.
Background stamp is Paperartsy. Flower stamp is Hero Arts (VERY old stamp), with black distress stickles and stardust stickles added.
Ribbon is American Crafts and I bought the button with lots of lace bits on Saturday from a local shop.
Gems are by Kaisercrafts.
So....... lots of black and white this week. I like it! X

I don't know when to call it a day!

2010-08-02T13:49:00.001+01:00

Had a lovely, busy family weekend, so I've not had chance to play with this until today. This week at the play date cafe the colours are black and white with a splash of green.

I originally had just used the four black and one green flowerheads (Paperartsy) on this card and in hindsight that was fine......... but then I added the smaller flowerheads (Lavinia) and I think it has ended up looking too crowded, but time for posting is running out so I shall have to let it be.
The edge "dotty" stamp is by a stamp in the hand.

I must work harder at clean and simple! LOL! I never know when to leave things alone and have to keep adding extras. I shall re-do this for myself using just the five large flowerheads.
X

Happy Anniversary

2010-07-27T12:47:00.001+01:00

It's our neighbours' 25th Wedding Anniversary this week. They are really lovely people and I have made this card for them.

I glued some glitter on to a die-cut heart and the numbers are from American Crafts. Edge stamps are by Autumn leaves. I sprayed some white card with pearl glimmer mist and used this for the Martha Stewart heart punched strip and for the background for the sentiment (which is Stampington).
The pearly bling is by Prima and I bought the charm in a local shop.
The black ribbon is from Paper Mill.
It's a bit simple, but it looks better in real life.
Off to make an envelope now! X

Time for a challenge -Play Date Cafe Challenge 39

2010-07-23T19:42:00.000+01:00

Just re-posting this as I had a little technical glitch and had to delete my original post. Thank you to everybody who has been kind enough to leave me a comment on my card so far.

The Play Date Cafe colours this week were chosen by Julie, and I love this neutral palette.

I made this card using a quote by Lewis Carroll:

Stamps are by Cavallini, Paperartsy and Crafty Individuals, ink is Vintage Sepia and the flowers are by Prima.
Thank you so much for looking X

Love those Paperartsy Stamps

2010-07-01T17:04:00.000+01:00

I needed to make a Thank You card this week and I love these Paperartsy stamps so much that I went straight for them.
After using distress ink on the background I masked off all the edges of the card, then stamped those beautiful flower head stamps in the unmasked area. I removed the masks and stamped the scroll round the edge, then just drew a pencil line around the middle section.
The last step was to add my sentiment using my Stampington sentiment stamps.
This method was so quick and simple and I do like the finished card so I'll be using my masking tape again.

Thanks for looking X

Don't know where the time went!

2010-06-30T17:25:00.001+01:00

The last three and a half weeks have just flown by - been to London for a week and then my sister has been staying for two weeks. Last Saturday she and I visited North Yorkshire and had dinner with 29 men!.......But that's another story.....LOL!
So.....nothing happening in my craftroom lately.

The photos are of a box I made for my son to give to his Dad for Father's Day. It was covered with metal and decorated using ten second studio tools, some cardstock letters, my cuttlebug and black acrylic paint.
Bye for now - hope to post again very soon X

Texture for Tuesday Taggers

2010-06-03T12:27:00.003+01:00

The theme this week on Tuesday Taggers is texture and a prize is being offered by Tanda Stamps. I made some paper flowers using the fab Paperartsy flower die. They were sprayed with glimmer mist, inked and scrunched, then I put some brads in the middle.

Background paper is Crafty Individuals and all cardstock is by Stampin Up. The edge is done using a Martha Stewart punch.

Sentiment is by Stampington , Nestability label and American Crafts ribbon.

Thanks for looking X

Crafty Individuals Cards and some Distress Inks

2010-06-02T09:18:00.003+01:00

June already! I can't believe where this year is going.

Here are three more cards I have made for my friend's order. They are more simple than the ones in my last post and this time all the main images are by Crafty Individuals.

Card No 1:

The stamps in the background on this card are by 7Gypsies. The yummy ribbon is by Stampin' Up.
The crackle background is also by Crafty Individuals, stamped with Old Paper distress ink.

Card No 2:

This was really simple - Background inked with Spun Sugar and Victorian Velvet distress inks, main image stamped in Vintage photo, swirls etc stamped with Victorian Velvet, then a brad and some lace added.

Card No 3:

Inks used are Dusty Concorde and Milled Lavender, sprayed with Periwinkle glimmer mist. The ribbon is American Crafts and the gems are by Kaiser.

Thanks for looking. Have a great day - the sun looks like it is going to shine. Yaaaaay! X

Playing with Dies and Folders

2010-05-31T12:12:00.003+01:00

A friend of mine has asked me to make some cards that she can give to her employees and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to have a play with some dies and embossing folders.

The first card is made using a Tim Holtz embossing folder and a Paperartsy bird die:

The background is coloured with Bundled Sage and Crushed Olive distress inks plus Gold glimmer mist. It's really shimmery in real life.

The next card is made using the Tattered Flowers die:

The background is same inks as above over some masks. The flowers are inked with Victorian Velvet and Spun Sugar inks, then sprayed with Pink glimmer mist. Buttons are SU and greeting is by Stampington. The smaller flower stamp is by Magenta.

Next I used the Cogs die:

Background is Wild Honey, Rusty Hinge and Pumice Stone distress inks. Images (Elusive Images) are stamped using Vintage Photo distress ink. Cogs were inked and sprayed with glimmer mist, then I added an old watch spring to the larger cog and added some acetate to the large watch image. Mask is Tim Holtz.
I am going to use this card for the Tuesday Taggers mens card challenge this week.

Another of Tim Holtz's embossing folders now:

I just love this folder coloured with Tumbled Glass and Chipped Sapphire distress inks and Pearl glimmer mist. Old book page coloured with Tumbled Glass and punched with Martha Stewart border punch. The tag is coloured with Stormy Sky distress ink and Cosmic Shimmer silver mica powder.

Last card used Tim Holtz's Birdcage die:

The background is done using Bundled Sage and Peeled Paint distress inks and all the stamps used are by Paperartsy. Birdcage inked with Pumice Stone ink and sprayed with Vanilla glimmer mist. The embellishment is Tim Holtz Foliage charm. X

Play Date Cafe Challenge 31

2010-05-27T19:17:00.000+01:00

Julie set this week's colours:

I decided to alter an empty perfume bottle. First of all I coloured some tissue paper with bundled sage distress ink and dusty concorde distress ink and sprayed green and periwinkle glimmer mists on top. I glued this to my bottle using spray adhesive and added a label (from Artchix) edged with distress ink.

Next I stamped a Crafty Individuals scroll stamp with dusty concorde ink, I coloured the lid with copics and added some gems, again coloured with copics, two colours of ribbon and a strip from Artchix.

Artsycrafts Weekend Newport Pagnell

2010-05-26T15:31:00.000+01:00

I was lucky enough to go to a second Artsycrafts weekend during the second weekend of May. Once again there was a really friendly group of fellow crafters. I had a great time and thank you especially to these 3 ladies for being such good company: Kay, Freema and Neet:

We also made friends with the lovely Spanish girls below. This is Rita and her two sisters-in-law. Rita was the only one who spoke any English but we had great fun using sign language and they really were good fun and we had lots of giggles.

Our first project was a large tag:

On day 2 we decorated a bird house with paint, cuttlebugged metal and stamps:

The main project for the weekend was a sampler board using LOADS of techniques and gorgeous stamps, dies and various paints:

Lin, Leandra, Karen, Jo and Lynne did a fantastic job of organisation, teaching, filling us with sugar, coffee, cakes and keeping an eye on us all - Thank you!!!!!!!!!

Counting down to the next one already! X

Card in a box (almost!)

2010-05-19T13:36:00.002+01:00

I haven't made a card for ages but the other week my neighbour asked if I would make a card for her mother's birthday.

She wanted a card with dimension on it, so that meant that it wouldn't fit in to an envelope without being squashed. I used Prima paper and flowers, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, Craftwork cards greeting, coloured with distress inks, and American Crafts thickers.

I made a box base, but I didn't feel like making a lid, so I decided to experiment with a piece of co-ordinating cardstock instead, and this is the result:

I will experiment with making the ribbon a bit tidier, and hope that it's ok for my neighbour.
Thanks for looking. X

Play Date Cafe Challenge No 23

2010-04-06T18:30:00.001+01:00

I'm a bit late this week, but thought that I would still have a play with this week's challenge over at the Playdate Cafe.

Image is by Crafty Individuals, sentiment and oval punches are SU, I put the background card through
my Cuttlebug, the flowers are Prima and the flower stamp is by MME. A Martha Stewart border punch crept in there too.
Sorry it's a rushed post - bit hectic at the moment - can you tell? LOL!

Tuesday Taggers - Alter Something.

2010-03-24T09:07:00.000Z

This week's Tuesday Taggers Challenge is right up my street, I love altering things, so I started with a tin:

I used stamps from Paperartsy and Crafty Individuals for the front of the tin, and gave it a metal roof painted with Lumiere paints and a chimney using a Tim Holtz label stamp:

For the inside I used Prima Flights of Fancy paper for the background and Martha Stewart butterfly punches. I stamped flowers and foliage in the background using stamps from Clarity and Elusive Images, and did a bit of extra colour with Copic pens:

I did colour the outside and inside of the tin with alcohol inks aswell, but this doesn't show on the photos.
The tiny alphabet is by My Little Shoebox.

What a whopper!

2010-03-21T11:52:00.000Z

Yesterday I went to the Great Northern Papercraft Show in Harrogate and had a lovely time shopping and meeting up with friends. One of the sets of stamps I bought was the large butterfly from Graphicus. Glenda had some beautiful examples on display on her stand and I couldn't wait to have a go when I got home.

I coloured the background with distress inks (bundled sage and forest moss) and I coloured the butterfly in with distress inks and Nick Bantock inks and added a little gold glamour dust and some black stickles to the body.
The swirls (from the same plate) are stamped with forest moss again.
I'm going to have a go using metallic paints next, but not today - feel a bit yukky .
Thanks for looking X

Play Date Cafe Challenge 21

2010-03-19T08:59:00.001Z

Here are the colours for this week at the Play Date Cafe - spring is in the air!!!!!!

I used Flights of Fancy papers by Prima for the pink and for the butterfly. I think the yellow paper is Crate Paper. The flowers are also by Prima and the leaves were stamped using Nick Bantock ink and a Studio 490 stamp.

The sun is shining this morning and (dare I say it?) the air doesn't feel quite as chilly.

Let's hope it continues and Spring is finally on it's way.

Thanks for looking X

Artsycrafts Weekend

2010-03-15T17:32:00.002Z

Last weekend I was lucky enough to go to Artsycrafts in Warrington, organised by Lin from L B Crafts and Leandra from Paperartsy. The organisation was great and I met some lovely people and generally had a fabulous, messy time. This is what we started with:

This is what mine turned out like by the end of the weekend:

The photo has made the stamping look a bit wonky, but it's not QUITE as distorted as that in real life! :-)

We also played with terra and ferro paints on a mail slider:

I think I'm going to add some more metal and stamping to this later.

Finally we decorated a small tray with metal, paint, glimmer mists and tiles:

We learned loads of techniques and the whole weekend just flew by.

Quick Journal page.

2010-02-27T18:44:00.004Z

Just been having a play with Fired Brick and Dusty Concorde distress inks, then oversprayed with red and periwinkle glimmer mists. Background is various Tim Holtz and PaperArtsy stamps, then I had a bit of a doodle with a sharpie pen.

Play Date Cafe Challenge 18.

2010-02-27T09:31:00.003Z

This week on the Play Date Cafe Challenge it's black and white with a splash of teal. There are some stunning entries, go over and have a look, but here is my effort:

Swirl is Tim Holtz

Brad is K & Co

PP is 7gypsies

Coloured Cardstock and ink is Taken with Teal by SU

Must apologise again for the quality of photo - my SLR battery has died and I can't put my hand on the battery charger at the moment, so using my really old digi camera and it's not brill! Still, not to worry, I'm sure the charger is in a "safe" place! Ha ha - I'll find it when I'm looking for something else.

Have a great weekend! X

Tuesday Taggers - Get Messy!

2010-02-25T09:48:00.002Z

I certainly did get messy making this tag for my craft room. My hands were covered in distress inks first of all, then they were covered in Terra, Ferra and Viva metallic paints for the outside part of the tag!

Stamps used are from Papertrey and Tim Holtz.

Distress Inks were Peeled Paint and Spiced Marmalade.

Embellishments are from Tim Holtz and from PaperArtsy.

The light is terrible this morning and I couldn't get a good photo, so I'm uploading 3 bad ones! Sorry ! LOL!!!!!!

The Play Date Cafe Challenge No 17

2010-02-20T15:35:00.001Z

I made an ATC for the Play Date Cafe Challenge this week:

Stamps are Zettiology, and Paperartsy. Inks: Fired Brick and Brushed Corduroy Distress Inks. I added a little Tim Holtz metal, part of a Tim Holtz tag and some words from a book, plus a little dewdrop.
I found the ribbon in my stash.
Thanks for looking X

Play Date Cafe Challenge No 15

2010-02-04T15:22:00.013Z

The Play Date Cafe Challenge No 15 was announced today and I just love these yummy colours.

I decided to make a cover for my Art Journal:

I stamped the medallion stamp from SU in chocolate chip ink on to kraft cardstock, then I inked in the centre using a rust ink pad and a blender pen and added some distress stickles.
I masked the medallion image and used a Tim Holtz stamp and navy ink to stamp some background patterns. With the mask still in place I sprayed the whole thing with Frosty night glimmer mist.
I coloured a page of text with Jo Sonja's jade ink and cut a zig zag pattern out of it to put on the bottom of the page. It looked a bit too bright at first so I made it a bit more "muddy" looking as below:

I spelled "journal" using mini alpha stickers on a Tim Holtz journalling tag and attached it to the page using a Tim Holtz frame.
Finally I punched holes with my crop-a-dile, and added some eyelets and ribbon, then mounted the whole thing on some rust cardstock.
Thank you to everyone who leaves me such encouraging comments - they are all appreciated. X.

How to make 3 cards from one die cut.

2010-02-03T13:14:00.004Z

I made these three Valentine's Day cards by cutting just one die cut heart on my Sizzix machine. For the first card above I just used the heart shape that I had cut. Base card and sentiment is SU, and I cut a border on Kraft cardstock with my Martha Stewart heart border punch. Gems by papermania.

For the second card above I used the negative left after cutting the heart as a template and stamped through it with brown ink on to the kraft cardstock. Sentiment stamp is by Scenic route and gem is K & Co, coloured with a copic marker.

For my final card I cut around the negative so it had a square surrround and turned it over to hide all the brown ink left over from my previous card. Main heart stamp is scenic route and sentiment is by Papermania. I highlighted the card with stickles and fine red glitter.
The flash has washed out the colours quite a bit - the red is deeper in real life. They are not fussy, but quick and simple. Thanks for looking X.

Playing with Glimmer Mists, Kraft cardstock and Lavinia

2010-02-01T10:46:00.005Z

Last week I decided to make some backgrounds with glimmer mists. On the card above I embossed a swirl pattern in black first, then I randomly sprayed a green, red and a brown/gold glimmer mist on to Kraft card. I love how these inks look on kraft card, it's really subtle.

For the main image I stamped foliage on the background first, again using kraft cardstock and cappuccino ink. I added some gold pigment pearls too using a fern stamp, but it's hard to see those on the photo.
Next I used a gorgeous Lavinia stamp and embossed it with gold dazzle embossing powder.
The last step was to spray the whole thing with a red glimmer mist and stamp a little more foliage in the foreground.
Finally I just layered it all up with black cardstock and some more kraft card and brown ink.

The card above on the left was made by using versamark and bronze pearl pigments on the base card itself. The main image is black embossed (beautiful Lavinia stamp again - one of my favourites at the moment) and on the background behind the flowers I have stamped swirls in versamark ink and then sprayed green and brown glimmer mists over the top.
The edges were finished with a Martha Stewart punch.
My kraft cardstock supply is getting low - only have enough left for a couple of Valentine's cards.......................think it's time to go shopping!!!!!!!!!!!!!
X

Play Date Cafe Challenge No 14

2010-01-31T14:27:00.004Z

The colours this week at the Play Date Cafe Challenge are Orange, Lilac, Dusty Pink, Green and White.
I was stumped at first but then I decided to do an ATC, so here it is: Meadow at Sunset . Sounds very posh doesn't it? LOL!
I used Distress Inks, a variety of stamps and white embossing powder.
We had a thick white frost this morning, which was a bit of a surprise because it's been warmer lately. It was very pretty, but I can't wait for Spring. X

Tuesday Taggers - recycle Christmas leftovers

2010-01-24T16:33:00.003Z

A bit behind with challenges this week, but this is my Christmas leftovers effort for Tuesday Taggers - Used leftover flowersoft, green ribbon and graphic45 paper on this little birdhouse from Craftwork Cards. I used Distress inks and Elusive Image stamps first though. The photo has washed out the colours a fair bit - it looks better IRL - LOL!!!!!!!
Got to dash - have to tackle my Income Tax by 31st Jan - big groans!!!!!!!!!!!!

Play Date Cafe Challenge No 12

2010-01-18T14:40:00.007Z

Three shades of blue to play with this week at The Play Date Cafe.
The girl's face stamp is from Crafty Individuals, stamped on Stampboard.
The frame is by Tattered Angels, sprayed with glimmer mist, some squiggles have been enhanced with glamour dust and then a few Dew drops added.
Ink on the white card is Aqua by Adirondack, inked on over a Tim Holtz mask.
Small flowers are by Prima.
Blue cardstock is SU.
Sorry it's a it of a rushed post - trying to catch up with some work of the non-crafting kind - boo!
But needs must, have to earn a crust (not to forget stash money).
Love Anne X

Tuesday Taggers Bird and a Tag

2010-01-13T22:03:00.007Z

The theme this week on Tuesday Taggers is to include a bird and a tag.
Background is Distress Inks and Studio 490 and SU stamps.
Tag is stamped with a Cavallini bird image and punched with SU tag punch.
Butterflies are also Cavallini stamps, and I punched the bottom edge with a Martha Stewart border punch.
I bought the little hanger from Crafty Individuals and I just wrote the title on the label.
After our very slight thaw we had terrible black ice this morning, so another day of work missed which is very annoying!
Thanks for looking, hope you are all keeping warm and safe. X

Giant Icicle!!!!!!

2010-01-10T15:12:00.002Z

This icicle was hanging above one of our bedroom windows and when a slight thaw started today it was in danger of falling on to our new conservatory roof.
My very kind sister managed to reach through the window and grab hold of it with a towel so that we could dispose of it safely.
It was massive! 135cm long and weighing 9lb! Good job she rescued it!

Play Date Cafe Challenge No 11

2010-01-09T10:21:00.005Z

The colours this week on The Play Date Cafe Challenge are gold, silver, black and white.
I stamped some Lavinia seed head stamps with versamark ink and embossed with silver, white and gold embossing powders.
I used a Martha Stewart border punch on the bottom edge of my black cardstock and mounted it on matt gold card.
My base card is stamped with versamark and an Elusive Images stamp then dusted with gold perfect pearls, and I filled in the space on the bottom corner with another black seed head.
It's great to be doing some crafting again. I would never have thought of putting all these colours together on one project, so thank you Sandi for a great challenge.
Thanks for looking X

Happy New Year and Tuesday Taggers Challenge

2010-01-05T18:13:00.004Z

Happy New Year!
This card is for this week's Tuesday Taggers Challenge, and the theme is Black and White.
Medallion Stamp and sentiment is SU, oval punches are SU and lovely black and white ribbon is also SU. I used a cuttlebug embossing folder on the white card.
I finished it off by adding stickles and some gems.

Christmas Medallion

2009-12-20T15:58:00.002Z

Happy Christmas everybody! It will be here soon - that's why I haven't blogged for ages, been pretty busy, like everyone else, preparing for parties and family visits. This is a card made with the Medallion Stampin' Up! stamp, embossed in white and embellished with walnut stain distress stickles and icicle stickles. Ribbon is SU and sentiment is Stampington.

It's certainly looking festive when I look out of the window:
Poor Santa is covered in snow:
Have a very Merry Christmas, and thank you everybody for all your kind comments. I have loved having my blog this year and I've met lots of lovely people via the blogging world - looking forward to chatting again with you all next year.

Lots of love, Anne xxxxxxxxx

Completed Noel Tags

2009-11-30T13:30:00.005Z

Here are the rest of my Christmas Tags that I started a couple of weeks ago. It was very hard to take photos because the light here has been shocking for about a month - we just keep having torrential rain day after day, so I took some very quick (i.e. rubbish!) pictures during a short brighter spell.
All the papers and images are Graphic 45 again - just love their papers and can't get enough of them this year.
The little bells on the "N" and the "E" are from chocolate santas and reindeers by Lindt. You see I have no willpower and thought it was a good excuse to eat the chocolate so that I could use the bells. LOL! You will notice that I have only eaten 2 though, so I have shown a little restraint (so far!)
We've just spent the weekend in the Lake District - those rivers are certainly swollen!
We went to a wonderful Dickensian Christmas Fair in Ulverston. All the shopkeepers were dressed in Victorian clothes, there was a fun fair, stalls, mulled wine, roasted chestnuts, carol singers, a Punch and Judy show, a coconut shy, to mention just a few attractions. The whole thing was rounded off with a procession which included Santa Claus and Queen Victoria. It was just the thing to put me in a festive mood, so I think I'd better be finding those Christmas decorations in the loft pretty soon.
Hope you all had a great weekend too. x

The Play Date Cafe Challenge No 6.

2009-11-27T11:21:00.004Z

Sarah chose the beautiful colours this week, and you know when the idea you initially have just doesn't work? Well that's what happened to me this week - I had such a lovely ATC in my head last night but all the colours had other ideas. LOL!!!! It just didn't look anything like how I wanted it to, so I abandoned it and had a go at something else this morning instead.
Hope you like my "cheeky" girl. Have a great Friday. X

Play Date Cafe Challenge No 5

2009-11-19T11:57:00.006Z

The lovely Julie has chosen the colours this week for the Play Date Cafe Challenge- Silver, Blue, Purple and White.

I've had this little canvas for ages so I thought I would use it this week.
Background is Claudine Hellmuth paint, and Glimmer Mist using a Glimmer Mist Screen. The little image is from Crafty Individuals, and I outlined the image and the canvas with Stewart Gill paints.
I coloured the lace with Glimmer Mist and then used Martha Stewart Snowflake and Snowflake border punches. The white transparency swirl is from My Little Shoe Box. The Joy stamp is from Elusive Images.
The charms are to add a touch of silver.
I really enjoyed using these colours, so thank you Julie for the challenge - oh and by the way, did I beat the lovely Paul? LOL!

Tuesday Taggers Colour Challenge

2009-11-18T19:49:00.002Z

A chipboard star decorated in the colours red, gold and green for Tuesday Taggers this week.
Paper, image and letter are all from Graphic 45. I only needed to add a little ribbon and some gold stickles and it was finished.
This is the first star of four that I am going to decorate to spell Noel. Thanks for looking. x

Tuesday Taggers No Patterned Paper

2009-11-14T21:02:00.005Z

No patterned paper allowed this week on Tuesday Taggers.
I did the background using the resist technique with Inkadinkado stamps and colourbox inks. Image is from Crafty Individuals framed with a Crafty Individual white frame that was punched with one of my Martha Stewart border punches, coloured with Dusty Concord distress ink, then a little glitter was added.
I used two colours of American Crafts ribbon for the bow and brads are by American Crafts too. Flowers are some of the Prima ones I bought at Ally Pally.
Thanks for looking. Have a great weekend x

Play Date Cafe Challenge No 4

2009-11-12T14:54:00.006Z

I just love the colours this week from the Play Date Cafe. The light is so bad here today though (very dark and rainy) that it's been really hard to take a decent photograph of my effort.
I have altered the negative of a chipboard letter A to make a little wall hanging.
I painted the background with Claudine Hellmuth paints, then stamped over the top using Adirondack inks. I followed this with Creme de Cacao, Robins Nest Blue and Spring Mint glimmer mists but it's really hard to see in the photo.
I stamped on the dark cardstock using Champagne Versamark ink.
Stamps used were by Crafty Individuals, Cavallini and Prima. I stamped the butterflies on paper that I'd coloured using Claudine Hellmuth paints and then punched them with my Martha Stewart butterfly punch. Finally I added some Tim Holtz metal, a flower, a part of a tag and some ribbon through eyelets set with a crop-a-dile.
The lace on the bottom is by Melissa Frances.
Hope you're having a good day and that you have a lighter, brighter day than we have here!
Thanks for looking x

Just Us Girls Challenge no 6

2009-11-09T09:03:00.007Z

The challenge this week at Just Us Girls is based on the sketch above.
Stamp is by Hero Arts and I used it as a background first, stamping with Versamark ink and dusting with bronze pearl pigments. Then I used it with a rust coloured ink for the main image.
Patterned papers are 7gypsies and Graphic45, both punched with Martha Stewart Punch, and the greeting is stamped on to a 7gypsies sticker.
Had to scrape ice from the windscreen this morning - what a shock, but at least it's stopped raining and we have a beautiful sunny day. Hooray!

Play Date Cafe Challenge No 3

2009-11-06T17:54:00.004Z

The Play Date Cafe challenge colours this week are black, white and red. At first they reminded me of Art Deco things, but the more I thought about it the more Alice in Wonderland kept popping in to my head so I made this wall hanging instead.
Paper is Graphic 45, alphas are my little shoebox and stamps are by Stampattack. I've had the stamps for ages but never got around to using them until now. I also used my Martha Stewart heart border punch.
Have a great weekend. I have some sorting and clearing to do and an appointment with a skip - lucky me!

Simple Tuesday Taggers Handbags and Gladrags

2009-11-04T17:46:00.005Z

The Tuesday Taggers theme this week is Handbags and Gladrags and I decided to keep it simple.

Sorry the photos are a bit washed out with the flash - wasn't home in time to take photos in daylight and I wanted to post them tonight.

The first Card uses an image by Clarity Stamps which I coloured using grey shades of copic markers, added black stickles and four black gems, and then mounted on grey and pearlised cream cardstock. The final layer is some yummy FLOCKED (woo hoo) 7gypsies paper, then black cardstock.

The second card uses Anna Griffin handbag stamps coloured with copics and with some glamour dust added. As you can see I just mounted them on squares of black cardstock straight on to a white card base.

I usually don't know when to stop adding things so it made a change to be a bit of a minimalist!
x x x

Beep Beep!

2009-11-03T11:56:00.003Z

This is a card for the grandson of one of my friends. I've used American Crafts ribbon, Sassafras and Stampendous stamps and the background is Brilliance ink and Distress ink. I had another go with my Copics to colour the image.
Happy Birthday Freddie!

Just Us Girls Challenge No 4

2009-10-30T18:39:00.005Z

I saw this challenge on Sarah Anderson's beautiful blog, and thought I would have a go. The Just Us Girls Challenge this week is to use a 3D flower.
The flower is made of grungeboard using Elusive Images stamps, Distress Inks and Stickles.
Lace ribbon is salvaged from a bunch of flowers (LOL!), number stamp is Wendy Vecchi, background paper is Black Market Paper Society and rub on is Daisy Bucket.
Hope I'm in time for the challenge!
Edited to add - I wasn't! But never mind, I had fun making the card! LOL!

Play Date Cafe Challenge No 2

2009-10-29T11:53:00.004Z

These are the colours this week, chosen by Sarah . They are perfect for Halloween, so I decided to make a little tryptych:
I painted the background with Claudine Hellmuth paint, then stamped black images from Lavinia stamps. I added some text coloured with Mustard Seed distress Ink and then stamped Boo using Tim Holtz letters in black and inked them with a little yellow too.
I added a little German Scrap to the middle arch.
I used some stickles on the webs and on the bodies of the spiders. Finally I attached some hinges using brads. X

Happy Birthday Sarah B.

2009-10-28T17:58:00.004Z

It was the lovely Sarah B's birthday earlier this month and this is the card that I sent her. It is actually more shimmery than you can see from the photo.
Background is paper by Sassafraslass, the leaves are stamped on Old Olive Card using a Wendy Vecchi stamp, and the sentiment is stamped using a Stampington and Co stamp, again on Old Olive, and cut out using a ribbon Tag Die.
Pink Ribbon is SU, and I edged everything with brown distress ink.
I added a little glamour dust to some of the flowers, so it really sparkles in real life.
Hope you had a fabulous day Sarah!

Tuesday Taggers Bursts of Colour.

2009-10-27T14:07:00.005Z

Tuesday Taggers challenge this week is "Bursts of Colour" sponsored by The Craft Barn. I coloured the background of this tag using the faux bleach technique and Mustard Seed and Broken China distress inks and edged it with Spiced Marmalade distress ink.
The stamped images (Wendy Vecchi Studio 490) are stamped with the lush Nick Bantock inks and the butterfly was painted with glimmer mist, although you can't tell in the photograph. Brads are by American Crafts.
Thanks for looking x

Tree Trimmings and Christmas Jingle

2009-10-24T07:56:00.002+01:00

These are a some of the cards I made last Saturday on our lovely 12 hour day. I used the Christmas Jingle Scrapbook kit from Stampin'Up! and the matching Tree Trimmings stamp set.
They were REALLY quick to make, and all I added was a little bit of Stickles.

Play Date Cafe challenge No 1

2009-10-23T18:31:00.003+01:00

My attempt at the first challenge for The Play Date Cafe - see Julie's Open Window lovely blog.
Swirl stamps are Basic grey I think, and I bought the Lord of Non Linear Thought stamp at a show from Paddy's Stamping Place about 3 years ago. Paper is 7gypsies and cardstock is Stampin'Up!
Inks are Colourbox and Distress Inks.
Brads are MM.
I panicked earlier today because I couldn't get on blogger! Hot sweats and withdrawal symptoms were the order of the day - can't do without a good blog hop! LOL!

A little witch for Tuesday Taggers

2009-10-22T19:50:00.004+01:00

The theme on Tuesday Taggers this week is "Things that go bump on the night" so here is a little Halloween Card. Background is Distress Inks covered by fusible fibres, the image is from a Vintage Holidays CD, the sentiment is Stampington and Company (love that font), and the black has some opal dust and some little halloween charms that I found in an old box of craft things.
It's a lot more glimmery and shiny in real life. x

A Jar Challenge

2009-10-21T17:14:00.005+01:00

Last Saturday I went to a 12 hour craft day in Stockport and spent a fantastic day in great company. We all just played with our stash for 12 hours - brilliant!!!!!!!
Alison had brought various challenges for us to draw at random and try if we wanted to and the one that I drew was to decorate a glass jar.
I used alcohol inks to cover the glass first, then I decorated the jar using MME and seven gypsies papers. I added gold paint to the rim, stamped some 7 gypsies tags with a holly stamp and a blonde moments sentiment, and finished it off with American Crafts ribbon.
I'm not sure what I'll use it for - might save some pennies in it to buy Christmas goodies, or I might just fill it with yummy chocolates ready to hand round.
I also made some Christmas Cards and decorated a 7 gypsies portfolio, but I'll post those another day. x

A quick thank you card

2009-10-15T21:09:00.002+01:00

This was a card I made using Stampendous stamps for my son to give to one of his classmates.
Sentiment is a Craftwork Cards handbag with the handle cut off but don't tell the boys!