Welcome to What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday

Morning,

Recently, I was asked to make some Christmas cards with a more religious feel to them .. a batch make .. you may have seen this first batch already as I made a mock up and e-mailed to my pal, for approval - she plainly liked them!

Materials used - see below

Since I already posted the originals for the above make, I won't be entering any challenges with the but ...... for the other batch, for the same friend ... you won't have seen these . . . . .

Materials used:

• White C6/A2, 250gsm card blank and matching sized envelope
• White card panels for the front and insert of the card
• Inkadinkado sentiment stamped using Ranger Archival jet black ink on to the white card panel
• PSX image stamped on to a snippet of white card using Ranger Archival jet black ink
• Peerless watercolours used to paint the image
• Plaid dimensional gloss and crystal stickles used to highlight and, once dry, I fussy cut around the image before mounting on to black and then red card

I'll be entering the above makes for the following challenges:-

1. Scraps of Life - October Rudolph Day - ANYTHING (Christmas) GOES
2. Holly Jolly Christmas - challenge No. 83 - SNOW or SNOWMEN (I went with snow, but you can see that, can't you?)
3. Aurora Wings - challenge No. 38 - ANYTHING GOES
4. Christmas Card Challenge - challenge No. 46 - ANYTHING (Christmas) GOES
5. Hiding In My Craft Room - challenge No. 272 - ANY HOLIDAY

And another make for my commissions ... 

My card

The front and back of my card and front of my envelope

The inside of my card and reverse of my envelope

Materials used:

• White, 250gsm, C6/A2 card and matching sized envelope
• Two pieces of white card cut to 3.75" x 5" and 4" x 5.25" + three snippets of white card. I punched one with a Martha Stewart punch and, along with the larger snippet coloured using an alcohol marker
• On the smaller snippet I stamped my Penny Black image using Ranger Archival jet black ink and applied just a little colour using alcohol markers
• Crystal stickles to highlight
• White gelly roll gel pen to doodle a border on the purple matting layer

I'll be entering this for the following challenges:-

1. Crafting when we can - challenge No. 130 - NO SQUARE CARDS
2. Crafting with dragonflies - challenge No. 68 - LETS GO FLORAL
3. Through The Craft Room Door - October 25th challenge - ANYTHING GOES

And now for a sneaky peek at my desk since it IS What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday I will be entering my desk for week No. 386 and where I am entry No. 34

Tuesday and a bit of a shape day ....

Morning 

A "SHAPE" day? If you read on you will see why .... Not often I start one card and turn out something completely different these days but, plainly, it DOES still happen. I started with a perfectly nice sketch from The Paper Players and produced the blue circles panel ... originally JUST blue circles. I stamped a perfectly nice crazy birds image on a die cut circle and coloured it - it looked so totally pants I nearly threw both bits away. Anyhoo, I had myself a bit of a rethink about SHAPES and ...... well check it out below.

My card

The front and back of my card and reverse of my envelope

The inside of my card and front of my envelope

Materials used:

• White C6/A2, 250gsm, card and matching sized envelope
• Two pieces of white card cut to 4" x 5.25" + snippets of white and light blue, for my image panel and matting
• Carabelle trio of scribbled circles stamped using Brilliance Mediterranean blue ink, once stamped I matted this panel on to the light blue card, cutting to a narrow border and it was at this point I had my rethink .....
• My Favourite Things solid circle stamped using Hero Arts neon yellow ink and their dotty circle stamped using Memento rosebud ink
• Carabelle triangle border stamped using Memento lilac posies ink
• Stampers Anonymous sentiment stamped using Ranger Archival watering can ink
• Crystal stickles to highlight

By the way I like this SOOOO much better now, with apologies to The Paper Players for NOT using their sketch after all ... I'll be entering this for the following challenges:-

1. Crafting when we can - challenge No. 130 - ANYTHING GOES
2. Lil patch of crafty friends - challenge No. 44 - ANYTHING GOES
3. Great Impressions - October challenge - ANYTHING GOES
4. Crafting from the heart - challenge No. 133 - ANYTHING GOES
5. Craft your passion - challenge No. 335 - ANYTHING GOES

I really liked the layout and images so I thought I would try a more masculine version ..

My personal fave is the brighter version but I DO think this one works too, don't you?

And The Paper Players sketch? Here it is ... ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong with it, just plainly not my day to be using it!

Have a great week

Welcome to the start of another week

Morning 

First order of business today is to welcome my newest follower, Christi, thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you again soon.

If you've been reading my blog much this past week or so then you will know that I've been commissioned to make a bunch of birthday cards and a bunch of blank cards for the "commissionee" (Is that even a word?) to select the appropriate occasion. This is another one of the generic occasion free cards! Hope you like it as much as I do .. it's what I'd like to call "extreme CAS"!

My card

The back and front of my card and front of my envelope

The inside of my card and reverse of my envelope

Materials used:

• White, 250gsm, card with matching sized envelope
• Two pieces of white card cut to 3.75" x 5" and 4" x 5.25"
• Dina Wakely star image stamped using Ranger Archival jet black ink
• My Favourite Things splatter image stamped around the star using Memento rosebud ink
• To the larger white card panel I applied the Memento rosebud ink DTP (Direct To Paper), to form a coloured border
• Crystal stickles used to "bling it up"

I'll be entering the above make for the following challenges:

1. Stamplorations - October CAS challenge - ANYTHING CAS GOES with optional twist of BLACK
2. Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - challenge No. 44 - ANYTHING GOES
3. Craft Your Passion - challenge No. 355 - ANYTHING GOES

And then I wondered how I could make a card using the star from the above card and yet make it different ...

My card

The front and back of my card and front of my envelope

The inside of my card and reverse of my envelope

Materials used:

• White, 250gsm, card and matching sized envelope
• Two pieces of white card cut to 3.75" x 5" and 4" x 5.25"
• Dina Wakely star image stamped using Ranger Archival jet black ink, including on to a piece of post it note which I cut to use as a mask
• With my mask in position I stamped the Studio112 frame around the star using Ranger Archival jet black ink
• My Favourite Things splatter image stamped around the base card using Memento grape jelly ink
• Alcohol inks to colour
• TPC Studio sentiment also stamped using Ranger Archival jet black ink
• Crystal stickles to bling up the project

Whaddya reckon? Did my "same but different" card look different enough?

Have a great week peeps

Welcome to a post from me, on a lazy Sunday morning!

Morning all

How's your weekend coming along?

We were out to dinner with friends (who happen to live next door too, how lucky are we?) ..

Craft wise? A couple of projects to share with you today, here's the first one. I threw loads of abstract images in shades of blue at it - hope you think it works.

My card

The front and back of my card and the front of my envelope

The inside of my card and reverse of my envelope

Materials used:

• White, 250gs, C6/A2 card and matching sized envelope
• Two pieces of white card cut to 3.75" x 5 and 4" x 5.25"
• One piece of blue card cut to 4" x 5.25"
• Dr PH Martins Bombay Indian ink (turquoise) sprayed across the lower portion of my card "front" and set aside to dry
• My Favourite Things lines stamped using Brilliance pearlescent sky blue ink
• Carabelle small circles stamped using Brilliance Pearlescent lavender
• Stampers Anonymous numbers image stamped using Brilliance Mediterranean blue
• My Favourite Things splatter image stamped using Ranger Archival watering can ink
• Paper Bag Collection scratched chevron stamped using Versafine Majestic blue ink
• White gelly roll gel pen used to scribble a border around the blue matting layer

I'll be entering the above make for the following challenges:

1. Brown Sugar - challenge No 221  - ANYTHING GOES
2. Creative Fingers - challenge No. 118 - ANYTHING GOES
3. AAA Cards - challenge No. 76 - MASCULINE

And now on to a snippet make ... again, as part of a commission, I have purposely left off a sentiment as the person I am making these cards for will add her own greeting, as appropriate.

My card

The front and back of my card and front of my envelope

The inside of my card and reverse of my envelope

My snippet collection

Materials used:

• White, 250gsm, C6/A2 card and matching sized envelope
• White card cut to 3.75" x 5" and 4" x 5.25"
• Snippets of white, black and blue pearl card
• Dina Wakely stars and Stampers Anonymous stars (insert, reverse of card and the envelope)
• stamped on to a white snippet using Versafine Majestic blue ink
• My Favourite Things splatter image stamped using Distress Ink in barn door
• On the larger white snippet I applied (DTP method) the barn door ink before stamping the MFT splatter using the blue ink ... which I also used to edge the white card panels
• I matted my image panel first on to black card, then the red card and finally blue pearl card

And I will be entering this for the following challenges too:-

1. Pixie's Crafty Workshop - challenge No. 252 - USE SNIPPETS
2. Alphabet challenge - October 14th - Q is for QUICK AND SIMPLE
3. Simply Papercraft for all occasions - challenge No. 39 - ANYTHING GOES
4. Thats Crafty - October 14th challenge - CLEAN AND SIMPLE

Enjoy the rest of your weekend

Hey there, SECOND POST OF THE DAY WARNING!!!

Hi there,

Yes, it's me and I'm back with my second post of the day .. if you missed my earlier post then either scroll down or click on this link, I should hate for you all to miss out on a fab Christmas/Seasonal challenge!

Anyhoo, on to more crafting ..

My card

The front and back of my card and the front of my envelope

The inside of my card and the reverse of my envelope

Materials used:

• White, 250gsm, card and matching sized envelope
• Two pieces of white card cut to 3.75" x 5" and 5" x 5.25"
• Snippets of card in white and black
• Studio112 frame stamped on to one of the snippets using Ranger Archival jet black ink and coloured using alcohol markers and Crystal stickles, to highlight. I fussy cut out the centre
• Art Impressions image stamped on to another white snippet and coloured using alcohol markers and Kaisercraft glitter gel pen with a dash of Mod Podge dimensional gloss on the wine glass .... this was cut to fit my frame with both the glass and hand fashioned to appear outside the frame
• Piece of purple "wool" wrapped around my base card
• Stampendous sentiments stamped using Ranger Archival jet black ink
• White gelly roll gel pen used to doodle a dotty border on the black matting layer

I'll be entering this for the following challenges:

1. CAS-ual Friday - challenge  No. 159 - FIGHT LIKE A GIRL
2. Creative Fingers - challenge No. 118 - ANYTHING GOES
3. Morgans Artworld - challenge No. 21 - FRAME IT
4. That's Crafty - October 14th challenge - CLEAN AND SIMPLE

I recently canvased opinion regarding glues and said that I had run out of wet glue and had to use a glue tape runner ..this was only a few days ago. I looked at the card I "taperunnered" this morning and 25% of it had started to come away from the base card - thus reinforcing why I needed to get some "proper" glue. I'm going to name and shame because the glue tape runner said it was a "permanent" adhesive, yeah - right .. IF PERMANENT IS THREE DAYS OR LESS! 

Regular readers will know that I LIKE to enter the challenge over at Simply Less Is More but, this week, it's "VELLUM or ACETATE" and I realise that I have NEITHER in my stash!! I know, what are the chances but hey .. I'm no quitter and I DO have a week so .... watch this space!

I'm also sorry to have to tell you that I have more stash .. like I NEED more stash but ..

I could so NOT resist this little lot!

Have a terrific weekend

Saturday and post number one from me .....

Morning all

I have news ... which is why this is an early post from me .. I'll be back later with my regular post. I'm delighted to say that I've been invited to be a Guest Design Team Member over at the Always Use Rubber challenge blog, for today's challenge, which is: "WINTER and/or SPRING". This is a new challenge blog (although it's been around a while as TWOFERS) which issues fortnightly challenges which MUST USE rubber or polymer stamping and no digi's - right up my street so I was thrilled to get my invitation - without further ado, here is my make ..

My card

The front and back of my card and back of my envelope

The inside of my card

Here's how it progressed ...

Stamped, embossed and masking fluid applied

2nd image fussy cut out, coloured, glittered and glossy!

Colour applied to original panel and masking fluid removed

Materials used:-

• 15cm square white, 250gsm, card blank and matching sized envelope
• Two pieces of white card cut to 13½cm square
• One piece of navy card cut to 14cm square
• Snippets of black, navy and gold card, for matting the iamge panel
• Anita's crown image stamped on to a snippet of card, twice, using Ranger Archival jet black ink
• Once the ink was good and dry I cut one stamped image in to a square and using my Inky Antics circle image I stamped using Versafine embossing ink, applied clear embossing powder and heat set
• Whilst that was cooling I used alcohol markers to colour my second image which I then fussy cut out before applying gold glitter glue and Plaid dimensional gloss
• Whilst that was drying I applied masking fluid to the first panel, just to the "pom poms" on the crown ... and went away to make coffee whilst that dried too!
• Once the masking fluid was dry I applied Distress Ink in candied apple to the square panel, using a Tim Holtz mini blender and foam pad. I removed any excess distress ink from my embossed areas and allowed to dry before removing my masking fluid. 
• Once finished I sprayed with Crafters Companion Spray and Shine once I'd finished
• Stardust stickles were applied to the "pom poms" and "ermine trim" on the crown and set aside to dry
• Once dry I applied glue to the tips of the crown and dimensional foam tape to the bulk of the crown and placed on the red card panel before matting on to black, gold and navy card mats
• To the insert panel I used Memento London fog to stamp the Anita's image then overstamped with My Favourite Things sentiment stamped using Ranger Archival jet black ink

I hope you will pop over and  have a go at this challenge too .... you may be familiar with the team as the challenge blog used to be known as TWOFERS, just remember that you MUST USE STAMPING (rubber or polymer) on your projects

I'll also be entering it here:-

1. Perfectly Created Chaos - challenge No. 4 - ANYTHING GOES
2. A Snowflakes Promise - challenge No. 31 - SEASONS or ANYTHING GOES and it's just for fun this challenge
3. Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge EXTRA - October challenge - ALWAYS ANYTHING (Christmas) GOES

Have a great weekend, be back later ....... to be taken to my (now published) second post then please click on this link