Second Post Wednesday

Hello everyone

 

Honestly, two posts in one day, whatever next? Am I spoiling you or what?!?!?!? I woke up this morning with a Christmas card kind of in my head - apparently it was a pretty brilliant idea too as with just the "smidgiest" adjustment it easily fits FIVE challenges. Now, answer honestly, how often does that happen???? I had to double check the rules to make sure that one of them wasn't the "dreaded" One Layer Challenge as that might just have scuppered my seemingly perfect plan - check out what I came up with and then go back to enjoying your day. Oh, and if you missed my earlier post and two CAS cards then please follow the link  here and you will be taken (as if by magic) straight to it!, I should hate you to miss out on the fab Acid Drops and Whatnots images I used on one of them .... anyhoo, no more prevaricating, here's my five in one card!

 

 

 

 

Materials used:

• 15cm square white card blank and matching sized envelope
• 14½cm square Kraft panel
• 13cm white card panel
• Die cut plain and scallop edged circles in earth tones of earthy red and kraft plus white
• Penny Black "twelve days of Christmas!, day Two image stamped using Memento tuxedo black ink
• Hero Arts sentiment stamped using Memento rich cocoa ink
• Alcohol markers to colour image
• Wink of Stella clear glitter pen to highlight
• Stardust stickles for the "fur" elements

 

Here's a close up of the image:-

Isn't it just the "tweetest"?

And, of course, as is rapidly becoming my signature look .... I carried my design through to the inside of the card and to the front and back of the envelope.

 

 

 

 

I will be entering this card over at Simply Less Is More where the challenge is:

 

Earth Tones.

 

And also in the ABC of Christmas challenge which, this time round is: "NUMBERS", and the Addicted to Stamps and More challenge which is "HOLIDAY", Create a card in non traditional colours over at Christmas Cards All Year Round (there IS a little traditional red for hat and wool but I hope the rest will make up for it) and finally the "KRAFT" challenge over at Christmas at SweetStamping. I can't enter any more (even if I found more) as there's a limit of 5 challenges to the LIM challenge.

 

And, woo hoo! it IS another card towards my (thankfully) growing stack of Christmas cards for 2014.

Have a fab Wednesday peeps

Second post of the day - a challenge entry

Afternoon readers,

 

How's it with you? It's really DULL and grey here and rain looks imminent - but it's looked like that for hours!!! Apparently, the rain woke my hubby during the night AND kept him awake for over half an hour - not me!! I slept through it all - ooops!

 

Anyhoo, on with the reason for my second post of the day - the challenge over on the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown blog this week is: SANTA ...... well, I DO love a Christmas card so ...

 

 

 

Materials used:

• White, scallop edged 300 gsm C6 card and matching sized envelope
• Deep red and striped paper panels from the DCWV winter stack
• Inkadinkado Santa image stamped on to white card using Versafine onyx black ink and cut out, leaving a generous border
• Alcohol markers to give the Santa definition and a hint of colour
• Crystal stickles to highlight the hair
• Glossy accents for the eye glasses
• White grosgrain ribbon
• White card panel cut slightly larger than the image panel and coloured using a red copic and then an Inkylicious checkerboard image stamped using versamark ink and permanent red pan pastel applied over the top - this gives just a subtle check image and does NOT show in the photo - sorry!
• Black card panel for matting
• Two faux metal snowflakes attached to the finished card using Glossy Accents - boy, I WISH they dried quicker!

 

Enjoy the rest of your Saturday

Collage work

Afternoon all,

You know, I've only ever nibbled at the edges of collage work .... mostly with distress inks and rubber stamps and NEVER (YET) with acrylics.

However, whilst at the Newbury Artstamps show recently, I entered my name in the prize draw at the Traplet Publications stand ..... and won. "What's this got to do with anything?" I hear you cry ..... don't get impatient - I'm getting to that bit! Part of the prize was two DVD's by Kate Crane. Now she's a collage artist of some repute and presented her step by step instructions on collage journalling over the two DVD's in a most interesting way - in fact I couldn't wait to get started so I actually ignored her cardinal rules of preparing my own colour wheel for the project and using adjacent and opposite colours ...... well, when you only have four colours of acrylic paints you find yourself just a BIT limited!!! These also happened to be: Pearl, Peach Bellini, Eggplant (purple - who'd have thought it?) and Copper. In fact I didn't wait till I got to the end of Kate's DVD - I dashed off and gesso'd three ATC blanks and then returned to my DVD watching

As soon as this was dry it was ........ off at a gallop! I laid out my non stick craft sheet (well a teflon oven liner at about 99p from Aldi anyway!) I ripped the tops off of my Ranger acrylic dabbers - oh bu**er! - all set fairly hard. So - out to the kitchen to add a little water and then stir with my "lolly stick" purloined from my last foray to Costa. I used my dabbers with the lids off so I could use a broad brush to apply the paint on to my ATC's ....... then left to dry once again - back to my DVD watching!

Looking rather yummy but a bit bland don't you think? WELL, you've plainly not watched this DVD either then! Of course, with the paint applied thinly it didn't take long to dry so it was time to gather (like a beachcomber) the bits for my next step .......... the lids from two different pump toothpastes, some sequin waste and the top of one of my acrylic dabbers. First off I took a piece of cut 'n dry and a little eggplant acrylic and applied randomly through the sequin waste - which also just happened to be purple - go figure!Kate rather cunningly recommends an old credit card but all the ones I have are current but fortunately, I had the malice aforethought and bought the Ranger version whilst at the Newbury show - PHEWWWWWWWWWWWWWW, saved again. I put a little of the acrylic copper on to my craft sheet and pulled my ranger spreader through and then added to my ATC's. I also put a little of my newly re-activated eggplant acrylic on to my craft mat and swirled my lids round in it and ..... Voila! I did the same using the pearl paint and a different sized lid

Then it was time to break out the glimmer mists ..... in Tanzanite ..... are you sensing a purple theme thing going on here? I selected a grumpie which I then coloured with my new marvy alcohol markers and cut out

I then added a Tim Holtz ticket which had received the distress ink treatment  and to which I then added the grumpie phrase (also D.I.'d) and then all that was left was to add the journalling and a scribbled border and there you have it ..... my first ATC finished.

Well, what do you think? Will it pass for a first attempt? All I can say is thank heavens Kate Crane reckons there are no mistakes in art!!!! Thanks, Kate. Want to investigate Kate's DVD's for yourself? Try Here

Another inspirational mixed media/collage artist is Brenda Brown - check out her blog here

If you think it's OK then perhaps you'll check back again to see what happened to the other two too!!! In the meantime - the sun is over the yard arm AND it's Friday so ...... Cheers!

2nd post - challenge entry! If you missed my earlier post then please scroll down

Hi there,

It's me again - well I DID say I planned to do some scrap booking today ...... and I have. I needed to complete a double page layout and I also needed to record my recent crafters meet ups. I ended up spilling on to three pages but they kind of run as a series. On page three I added a Lavinia image and Sunshine Designs image, inked in Memento grape jelly and various embellishments - hope you like it and look forward to hearing your comments, as I always do .....

Hope your Wednesday is going well - it really hasn't brightened up much and looks more like rain than ever but hey - pretty sure the gardeners will love that! but I DO hope it won't rain just yet as my dear hubby is out trimming hedges. What a shame it wasn't us that won the £161,0000,0000.00 euromillions lottery? Mind you - I truly have no clue what I would do with all that money - but what fun I might have trying to spend it ...... first on the agenda? A PROPER craft room!

2nd post of the day, challenge entry, please scroll down to read my earlier post

Hi there, me again, just a quickie . . . . this week's challenge over on Simply Less Is More was to use acetate!!! Not a speck of acetate in sight which might mean this would be the first challenge I would have missed since they started them, I didn't really want to miss it - especially as I'd won a prize for March - thought it might seem rude not to enter. The girls over on LIM offered several possibilities and it's gotten to Friday before I've realised (holiday head alert here!) that I DO indeed have acetate . . . all of my self adhesive gems are mounted on the blooming stuff and I've been using them like crazy all week so have almost finished a sheet of ACETATE!!! Going to be almost right up to the wire before the challenge closes but, FINALLY, here is my acetate entry - Hurrah! Not perhaps my finest ever card but I shall leave you to judge for yourselves.

Front view

An angled view so you can see the acetate!

Materials used:

• Cream C6 card and envelope
• Recollections bee sentiment
• Retro flower punched in acetate and adhesive supplied using my Xyron sticker maker before . . .
• applying Silver leafing to flower
• Acetate with gemstones to attach acetate flower to card
• Marvy Le Plume II yellow marker

Hope you like it and ...... to my fellow LIM-ettes, my apologies if I've not commented on your entry but I'm still on vacation - I've gone through as many as I've had time for and if yours isn't one I've commented on it's not because I didn't like it - honest!

Happy Easter folks

2nd post of the day, challenge entry, please scroll down to read my earlier post

Hi peeps,

Want to welcome new follower Dolly Daydreams - hope you'll find a reason to return some time soon and leave me comments . . . I LOVE to read comments!

This weeks theme, set today by the lovely Rosie, is BAGS AND BOXES so . . .  I set about making a gift box with my limited stash here . .

Front of my gift box

Angled view so you can see the shape

Materials used:

• 29cm x 14.5cm sheet of heavy paper
• Triangle (14cm) of black paper
• Triangle (13cm) of DCWV Old World card
• Magnolia image kindly donated (my thanks to the donor) and coloured using copics and Viva Decor glitter pen
• Black card punched button (using my new Martha Stewart button punch) and threaded with turquoise ribbon
• Crop-a-dile to punch holes in the sides of the gift box
• Grey organza ribbon threaded through the holes and tied in a bow, to close the box

These boxes are super easy to make - ask Lauren as she discovered the instructions!!! And super suitable for small edibles - hence the choice of Tilda!!!

2nd post of the day, please scroll down to read my earlier post

Hi there,

Well, we've had a lovely lazy day today in paradise. Being Liz' last day we've checked her in on-line so she just needs to hit baggage drop once we get to the airport and doesn't need to wait in line with 1200 other would-be travellers. Her flight is scheduled to be 15 minutes late so we're compensating by leaving - surprisingly - 15 minutes later!!!

We've all had a lovely time and I wanted to make her a card which I plan to slip inside her case . . . . Lauren set a themed challenge this past week of a bright sunshiny day . . . I went lateral and went with flip flops after all, you only ever get to wear flip flops on sunny days .... don't you? So here's my card for Liz which is also for the sunshine challenge.

Materials used:

• Cream C6 card and envelope
• Fiskars sentiment inked in Memento London Fog
• Art impressions flip flops inked in Memento Grape Jelly and Rose Bud
• Sakura stardust pens to give added twinkle

Hope your Thursday is going well, we're off to the airport soon . . . but WE get to come home again - sorry Liz!!!

2nd post of the day, challenge entry, please scroll down to read my earlier post

Hi there,

Thought I would have another go at the challenge over on Simply Less Is More where the challenge is to make the text a feature of the card . . . I thought I would use an idea I saw in an issue of Craft Stamper - showcased in that issue by Joanne Wardle - it's so fab I keep using it too!

Materials used:

• White C6 card and envelope
• Post its for masking
• Distress Inks in: Wild Honey, Barn Door and Fired Brick
• Inkadinkado sentiment image inked in Archival Black
• Faux crystal gemstone

Hope you like it - it's another Christmas card done too!! Hope you've had a fab Tuesday - we have - we hit the beach. I've posted this stand alone as it's a challenge entry but, once it's done I'll post some more photos of last night's PLAN B (since the Gaylord Palms schooner bar was a private function) and of today's trip to the beach - so DO check back shortly ..........

I'm back!!!! 2nd post of the day - do please scroll down for earlier post

Oh boy, we had such a fab time during our 2011 Craftathon in Accrington!! We all made our way there on Friday - it was planned like a military manoeuvre with Jacqueline heading up from Cornwall and ringing me once she was safely on the train at Temple Meads so I picked up the same train at Bristol Parkway. We got off at Worcester and loaded our bags in to Cherry's car and headed to Stafford to pick up Wynneth and to meet the fabulous ANDY at the motorway roundabout!! I then played Satnag to Cherry as we headed north, regularly updated by Karen, who arrived first and Debs, who wasn't far behind!!! We fell foul of slow traffic on the M6 and arrived last, around 4pm to find a chilled bottle and some glasses under way - start as we mean to go on!!

Phil and Sandra, our hosts for the weekend, had kindly offered us the loan of their dining room for crafting purposed, despite being warned that the forecast was for haze (of glitter, that is!!!) and we wasted little time in getting started . . .

And here you can see that we have got our priorities right, cheers Debs!!!

This was my room at the Maple Lodge . . . .

And this is the Maple Lodge Guard Dog Seven (of nine, as in Jeri Ryan's character from Star Trek Voyager)

Wynneth and Jacqueline at the workshop within the Dawn Bibby Design studio

Front to back, Karen, Debs and Cherry

Rachel Greig, the owner of Dark Room Door rubber stamps and a keen workshop attendee admiring the finished books made at the workshop 

And this was our project ..... a booklet made from scratch featuring grungepaper cover decorated with ferro textured paint and stamped in before allowing to dry and then highlighting with metallic paints in turquoise and gold and then a concertina insert decorated with distress inks (scattered straw, frayed burlap, vintage photo and walnut stain) and then decorated using images by dark room door stamped in Ranger archival Coffee and then embellished with printed images also by dark room door. A fab and messy project.

After coffee and biscuits we even had time to chat with Dawn herself and watch her demonstrating alcohol inks used with stazon and embossing folders - fab, thanks for your time Dawn.

We rounded the day off with a pleasant Chinese meal at the Moutai - shame about the service!

Sunday morning came around all too quickly and we had to squeeze our goodies, clothes and purchases back in to our cases and wend our weary way home. Thanks to my fellow craftathoniers for making this such a fun weekend - must do it again some time ...... soooooooooooooooooooon

My extra special thanks to Cherry for being chauffeuse this weekend and driving from Worcester to Accrington, and back - I really appreciated it. Cherry and Debs both did the driving for the craftathoniers in and around Accrington and I like to think I speak for us all when I say thank you both.

Hope you have all had a great weekend too

Wotcher peeps it's WEDNESDAY!

Woo Hoo, Wednesday again - hard to believe that I arrived here one week ago today . . . . and yet!

I managed to sneak a card in yesterday despite being busy almost all day! And guess what? It's a Christmas card, made using my new DCWV Christmas stack of papers (FAB, some beeeeooootiful vintage papers in there), my new Inkadinkado bauble stamp and my new Martha Stewart round the page punches acquired on a recent trip in to Michaels and a little of the gorgeous red/gold ribbon acquired on a previous trip!!!.

Over on Craftbubble's Craft Mad & Loving It group today is WOYWDW and at least my workdesk looks a little different to usual, so here is mine. I have posted a photo over on CMLI of the whole desk (and Whoaa I had a "must stop shopping" moment) but thought I would post something a little closer on here . . . check out my WIP - yes, that Penny Black stamp was bought by Wynneth (I bought the other one) but we both stamped a few images for one another . . . the strips you can see have been cut out from either mine or Wynneths new MS double edge punch - they're FAB!!

Anyway, my day is about to kick off, I'm off out with my neighbour, Sally, shortly. We normally head off to a mall someplace and amble around for a few hours then do lunch, chatting all the while - sometimes we actually buy stuff!!!!, but it's always great to catch up. SO, there may even be a third post today so do feel free to check back later .................... and have a great day yourselves readers. Thanks for stopping by.

2nd post of the day - please scroll down for earlier post

Finally got round to some crafting after not having the opportunity for would you believe a whole week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Cripes! It's unlike me but hey - crafting droughts happen. Anyway, here's my sketchie as set by Cherry over on the Craft Mad & Loving It group on craftbubble - shame I can't post it on there but Origin seem to be having a problem with their web site - hope they get it fixed real soon. Back to the project in hand - anyway, the twist was to make your own background so I used my fab background stamp and Distress Ink in Milled Lavender and then brushed perfect pearls in a sort of interference purple over it. I also die cut the scalloped vellum rectangle and then used a background word stamp and memento ink in Grape Jelly! and, yes, the pearls are there to cover up the glue holding the vellum down! Hope you like it.

I also needed to complete the Craft Mad & Loving It themed challenge for this week and the theme is Flight of Fancy . . . interpret as you will! SO, I took one of my favourite Paper Artsy images and stamped in memento tuxedo black before using the old blender pen and pro markers to colour in lightly. I used Distress Inks in Milled Lavender, Dusty Concorde, Victorian Velvet and Fired Brick around the edged before mounting on silver mirri card and then deep pink plain card. I used one holographic red butterfly peel off which I cut in half (discarding the body) and attached over the images wings. I cut a panel of the wonderful Costco double sided star paper and tied a bow in some fab red/black organza ribbon which I seem to remember picking up for a dollar at Michael's in Orlando!. I then attached this ribboned panel to my square card and the image panel on top before stamping the sentiments "Time Flies" and "Dream" on the base card before finishing off with faux pearls in black, grey and white - hope you think it fits the bill too . . . and thanks for looking.

As an aside - my cousin, her husband, their three children and my aunt and uncle (remember the cycling shorts?) are currently high above Canada on their way to Orlando Sanford where they have five nights booked in Disney's Fort Wilderness hotel and then two weeks at our place!! How I envy them even though its only 55 days till we will be there ourselves! That's if they haven't decided they like it there so much they want to just stay and stay and stay!!!