Romance

Thanks for dropping in today and a warm welcome to my new followers.

Have been meaning to post this for a couple of days and the time has just gone as always. I am feeling very smug as I am continuing my resolution to use up some of this huge paper stack that I own and never cut into - so here's the latest offering using more of my Graphic45 Curtain Call papers. 

Can you feel the steamy passion??LOL

 

To coin a phrase -   they don't make 'em like that anymore'!!!  

All dark and smoulderingly broody with the odd sound of a bodice ripping thrown in for good measure!!!

And you weren't allowed to let both of your feet leave the floor during the 'passion' scenes never mind exchange mouth to mouth kisses!!! 

How times have changed - and not always for the better - now nothing is left to your imagination....  

   

Enough reminiscing! Back to the card - distressed,stitched and layered (yes the sewing machine is still out!), some old cotton lace from my stash, a couple of black card swirls and a doily inked with Antique Linen DI.

The satin ribbon kept fraying so I ended up using the pinking shears and I hope it hasn't spoilt the overall vintagey feel. I added the blingy buckle, a black pearl pin, two diamante pins and finished with two tiny sparkly hearts.

Challenges -

Dutch Dare - Distressing

Crafting 4 All Seasons - Love

Ruby's Rainbow - Vintage

Crafty Bloggers - Love is in the Air

Hooked On Crafts - Hearts

Friendships Garden - Love and 3 embellishments (no stamps allowed) 

Creative Craft - Valentines
Southern Girls - So Distressed

Have a lovely day whaever you're doing! 

Not happy......

but I decided to share with you anyway!
I have discovered I am deinfitely NOT a stripe person!
Oh the pain and the agony of my poor hurting head................
Here is the source of my anquish -
One Layer and STRIPES????????????????? How much can a body bear... I thought acetate was bad but STRIPES???????
I am putting myself in detention for the production and publication of this week's effort for the Less Is More challenge - and I'll let you into a secret - I wasn't going to show you but Maureen made me....

so brace yourselves - here it is.

Have you ever had an idea that seemed so simple and then when you tried to do it , it develops into the most difficult thing in the world?
Not helped by the teeny weeny fact that I don't posess anything remotely like a striped stamp.. (small detail???)

I vaguely remember seeing something like this on someone else's blog about a year ago - no idea whose blog it was and because my attempt is not as good as I wanted it to be that's probably a good thing as I wouldn't want anyone to think I'd made such a mess of their perfect idea!!!

So back to the stripes... I sat and cut 20 tiny strips from the sticky part of post it notes to create my grid... only took me about an hour! Then I had to position them so they were (reasonably) spaced.
The first three attempts went in the bin -(the ink was too dark, the spaces were too wide, I made a mess of taking off the strips...) and eventually arrived at something which is (just about) passable.
The stripes were done with Brushed Corduroy DI and the vintage car stamp and sentiment was inked with Vintage Sepia Versamark. 

I always think CAS are good for men and I wanted to do a 'man' card as I don't have many in my stash.... but am not sure this card will end up rectifying that or not..... depends on what you all say!!!! (Go on, I can take it.... I think!!!!!)

More Shabby!

Another very chilly and grey day here - have the heaters on full and am still not warm enough - need some fingerless gloves I think! Cold I may be, but I want to give a warm welcome to my new followers! It's lovely to see you!
Have a couple of unfinished projects laying about on the desk - mostly images which I've coloured that are waiting for assembly! Am trying to get round to making them up but I keep getting distracted by boring things like ironing!

Anyway here's one I DID manage to put together - this is another image from the Stempelglede Vintage Garden plate - just love these stamps!

Flowers were stamped  then painted with watercolours. I dusted some Spun Sugar DI round the edges, then distressed and layered onto dark pink linen textured card. I put some pale green linen textured card behind it and then ripped off some scrim and dyed it with the DI.
The other DP is from K and Co, layered onto the same pale geen and dark pink linen cardstock.
All the layers were stitched together - am going mad now with this sewing machine!!!!!!
The dark green cotton lace is from my stash as are the pink organza ribbon, pearl and pins. The flourish and the flower were coloured with promarkers.

Inside I used some more of the pale green and pink and just stamped onto the remnant of the K and Co paper. Stitched it to make a pocket and put a tag  inside the pocket which has a plain background to write a greeting. 
I am becoming hooked on distressing and stitching cards - hope I'm getting better at it with all this practice........

Challenges -
Just Traceys - Female with Lace/Ribbon or Tulle
CES - Lots of Layers
Anything Goes - Bingo (and I chose the bottom line of Swirls & Pearls, Flowers, Stitching, Ribbon & Lace)
Allsorts - Free and Easy
The Crafty Pad - Spring Colours
Our Creative Corner - Flower/Friend 

Thanks for dropping in today - have a lovely weekend whatever you're doing. x

Where did you get that Hat?

Woke up this morning to a wonderful pea souper of a fog - Looked like someone had stolen the world when I looked out of the window!
Has cleared a little bit now but not a day for doing a lot although I do need to do a bit of shopping for boring things like window blinds and a light fitting.
Have another distressingly stitched creation to share before I go spending money -
my previous stitched cards have been done on a tiny battery operated machine bought for about a tenner! I have long been the owner of a rather large fancy Brother portable machine and am also the proud owner of a Singer machine complete in a solid wood drop down table that belonged to my grandmother and was bought for the princely sum of £5 4s 11d over 50 years ago - both work perfectly and I used the Singer machine a lot to make my own curtains and stuff when I couldn't afford to buy ready made or have someone else do them for me!
The Brother, sadly, has seen the light of day 3 times in the last 5 years - but I made a resolution to use is this year - and yesterday I did.

So here is the finished project (she says smugly!) complete with a fancy stitch -I ignored the comments of DH about getting dust on the card etc etc etc

The image is of course from LOTV, mounted onto a brown cardstock frame cut with a nestie then layered onto a doily.
The papers are part of a pile of Candy stash I received from the lovely Debby - they're called 'Isabelle' by First Edition.
Distressed them all, stitched together, added a sentiment stamped in Vintage Sepia versamark and a flourish cut in co-ordinating card.
Finished off with a couple of bronze pearls, lightly glittered flowers and a couple of pearl pins.
 Here's a little peep at the inside too! 


Challenges -
Pixie Dust - Girly Girl
Poodles Parlour - Anything Goes
Fussy and Fancy - Polka Dots
Craft Your Days Away - Get Stitchy
Hotshot Crafts - Flowers

Thanks for visiting - have a lovely day whatever you're doing. x

A first!!

It is Sunday isn't it???? And here I am with my entry for this week's Less is More challenge.
A record!!! After last week's flurry of activity just a few hours before the challenge finished, I have today managed to make a card with a whole week to go!!!
LIM are celebrating their first birthday and although I haven't managed all the weeks have enjoyed taking part and I have REALLY enjoyed visiting everyone else's (even on the weeks when I didn't submit anything!). So congrats to Chrissie and Mandi - and STOP EATING THAT BIRTHDAY CAKE!!! LOL

So - here it is -
I don't normally do DL cards but fancied one for a change. The cardstock is white pearlised card.
I have had a Viva Decor flourish set for a long time and rarely used it but saw it whilst looking for something else and thought it might fit the bill.

Finding the stamp was easy - the ink not so simple! After scrabbling about in several drawers and boxes, I found a pigment ink called 'Robin's Egg Blue'. I stuck my finger on it to check the colour and decided it was the right shade. (the front of my jumper also bears testament to that too cos I forgot I still had wet ink on my finger and pulled down the bottom of my sweater - which had in fact started off it's life as pink........................)

Anyway - after stamping the flourish twice I used some holographic embossing powder - this gave it a bit of luminous sparkle instead of just raised clear embossing.
The butterfly I inked using a tiny paintbrush with Spun Sugar DI and some of the Robins Egg pigment ink and then the same embossing powder. The butterfly wings are raised with 3d foam pads.
I thought the three pearls were a great shade match and I can't do a card without a teeny bit of bling!

Am also submitting this into Flutter By Wednesday - Open Challenge, Paper Sundaes - Clean and Simple and Pixie Cottage - Clean and Simple

After I'd done, I wondered about  whether the butterfly was a bit 'lost' being almost the same shade so I have taken a pic with a black pearlised one sat on the card - I may do another with a black butterfly, and stamp the sentiment in black ink and a few black pearls instead. What do you think?


Thanks for visiting - a big hello to all my new followers - it's lovely to see you.
I'm away to do a bit more paper distressing on a half finished card!
Have a great day whatever you're doing. x

Queen of Hearts or Queen of Last Minute!

Definitely the latter! Here I am at 8.35pm and just posting my entry into this week's Less Is More.
The flippin thing isn't even dry - and because of the light the pic is pretty damn awful too... but has to be linked before the Head Girls pull the plug on Mr Linky - so  I will taker a better pic tomorrow! Update - Tried again this morning but pic still not the best!!
The rules this week were really specific (and stern...LOL), Landscape with a panel and the panel had to be positioned exactly where the sketch said....
So I have!

This started off life as a free digi stamp and fortunately was 'panel shaped'!!!

I printed it out twice then stamped over one of the images with a large Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection grungy background stamp I picked up in a bargain bucket for about £2 about 3 years ago that has seen ink only once in it's entire life....(shame on me....)
I then cut out the hearts, coloured them with a promarker and mounted them onto the panel using foam pads to give them a bit of dimension.
I used some glossy accents on the largest heart (which isn't dry....yet). The whole panel was then layered onto red and black card before putting onto the white cardstock.
The sentiment stamp is another I have had for years.

OH and I don't exchange Valentine's cards - who needs a special day to show someone they're your whole world????!!!
BUT - it's his birthday on Valentine's Day  so this year he'll get a card with hearts on!


Other Challenges -
Cardmadfairy  - Hearts
Simply Create Too - Red Hot
Sweet n Sassy - Valentine
Digi Doodle -  Love is in the Air
MAWTT - At least one heart
Cheerful Stamp Pad - Romance is in the Air
Thanks for visiting - have a lovely weekend, whatever you're doing. x

Well I think I blinked and missed the weekend!
The last few days have simply flown by  and I have no idea where the time went - or what I did whilst it was going!!!!
Here's my share for today (and the last few days! LOL)-
I am sooooo unsure about the colours on this card. The papers are by Raspberry Road and if my Mum was still with us, she'd have described them as 'sludgy green colour'!!!
I just wanted to do something a bit different from my normal colour schemes but am not sure if I achieved the objective - which was after all to create a  card that someone would be happy to receive...........!

Anyways, this LOTV stamp was one on my shopping list for the NEC in November - I didn't go but my friend did! She says she bought more stuff for me off my list than she bought for herself........ little fibber - don't believe it for a minute!

So back to the stamp - it saw ink for the first time on Friday and I coloured it with watercolour pastels after duster brushing the edges with crushed olive distress ink. Think these little mice are the scrummiest things ever!  

I added a little bit of sparkle to the rose bucket I mean BOUQUET.... which probably doesn't show up the best in the pic but looks OK  'IRL'.
I used a paper doily(duster brushed with crushed olive distress ink) , some pearls and a length of lace from my stash and finished with a scrap cut off from the lace box, a couple of punched out card flowers and leaves and a sentiment which was a freebie stamp in a craft mag.

Stitched, layered, distressed (several times!) onto dark green cardstock - oh and the inside is decorated to match the front!

Challenges -
One Stop Crafts - Stitching
Crazy Challenges - Flowers
Sweet Stamping - Animals
Crazy 4 Challenges - Layer it On
Craft Your Days Away - Distressing
My Time to Craft - A is for Adorable (and I think the mice are just that!)

Thanks for dropping by today - am off for a coffee so I can then sit and catch up on all your newest creations. x

Watercolours

Sun shining here at the mo, but wintry showers forecast - it's quite cold despite the sunshine.

I finished this card yesterday afternoon and it was too dark to take a decent pic - but at least it means I have something to share with you this morning!

I fell in love the minute I saw this Stempelglede stamp set last year and have used all of the stamps on the plate (which is unusual for me! - Normally I buy a set, use one and the others gather dust!!)

This beautiful birdie though is my fave.


I duster brushed 'Tattered Rose' distress ink around the edge of a piece of scrap cardstock grading the colour to the centre so it was barely visible when it reached the middle. I then stamped the image in Versamark and spent a glorious couple of hours with my watercolours.
All the papers used apart from the first pinky/peach base are by Raspberry Road.


The birdie was distressed and layered onto co-ordinating cardstock and stitched.
I then distressed, layered stitched, distressed, layered, stitched and distressed-layered-stitched again with all the other paper and card. The birdie was mounted onto foam pads.
The pink lace piece peeping out from behind is from my stash.


I used the same distress ink on the flourish and stamped a sentiment onto co-ordinating card and cut out with a nestie and finished the front with yet another button from Mum's box and a scrap piece of shabby ribbon.

Here's a close up of the birdie  so you can click on it to enlarge if you want to and a peep at the inside.

Challenges -
Cheerful Stamp Pad - Birds of a Feather
Creative Stamp Friends - Old Fashioned/Antique
Crafty Bloggers - Distressing
My Mum's Craft Shop - Flowers
Craft Your Days Away - Distressing
Crazy Challenges - Vintage
Alphabet Challenge - 'Y' for 'YOU choose'
Moving Along With the Times - Bloomin Marvellous

Thanks for visiting me today, have a lovely day whatever you're doing. x

Holes!

Well Apertures to be a wee bit more precise!
Apertures are the challenge at Less Is More this week. I made this card on Saturday but am sidetracked in making another 'shabby,fancy,vintagey, distressed' creation at the mo and only realised this morning I hadn't posted it!
So in complete contrast to the previous post (and no doubt the next one-LOL) here's a clean and simple card in an attempt to get at least a 6 out of 10 from the Head Girls!

The image is called 'Spring Rain' from DZDoodles.
I separated them and printed the Umbrella onto the front of white linen cardstock. The sentiment was also PC generated.

I used an oval nestie to cut out the aperture positioning it outside the frame of the brolly so that the handle would sit in the centre. It was a bit fiddly cutting round the handle of the brolly and I maybe should have stuck an acetate piece into the 'hole' to give it a bit more strength but hopefully it'll stand up OK the way it is.

I lined up the wellie boots and printed on the inside of the card - there is a 'Get Well Soon' sentiment underneath.

I took the pic of the inside before adding some glossy accents in an attempt to imitate raindrops!

I like CAS cards but have always found them difficult to do - the ideas I have in my head never quite turn out the way I think they will! Temptation is a terrible thing and I deliberately sit at the end of the space well away from the drawers and boxes containing all the embellies when I'm making for LIM - can feel detention looming if my hand strays towards the flower box!!! LOL

I'm also entering this into the One Stop Craft Challenge of 'Under the Weather' this week.

Thanks for dropping by - have a lovely day whatever you're doing - I'm back to the distressing tool and the sewing machine! x 

Shabby

Morning everyone!  The sun is out here at the mo - let's hope it lasts although the forecast is for showers....

I have been wanting to make this for over a week once I got the stamp and finally finished it yesterday. I cannot tell you how much I actually enjoyed making it - fiddling about with lace, scrim, paper and of course distress inks - I was in heaven!!
I used  Broken China, Bundled Sage, Crushed Olive and Spun Sugar on the stamp and I am beginning I think to finally get the hang of the duster brushes.
The papers are all from the delicious Raspberry Road 'Moments in Time' collection.
There are a lot of layers on this card and was panicking a wee bit as I didn't think the machine was going to co-operate! In the end I didn't stitch the actual stamp but mounted it with 3d foam pads!

So- 4 layers of papers all distressed, edges dusted with broken china ink and stitched.
Some cream and pale blue antique style lace from my stash.
Some scrim which I dyed with the distress ink and the flourishes were cut out with my new dies (a christmas present from Maureen). 

The little Eiffel Tower is shrink plastic. (Don't you panic when it first starts to shrink???!!!LOL). I added a couple of pearls in the top left corner, a tiny sparkly dragonfly and a piece of fabric stamped with 'Paris' which I again dyed.

I absolutely adore shabby ribbons and this length was a present from Maureen. It was cream so out with the distress ink again! The button is another from my Mum's button box - its got a beautiful pearl centre and has a real antque vintage look to it. I hand stitched the ribbon and button . I am really pleased with this bow - it just seems to look 'right'!

I followed the colour scheme and theme into the inside and waste not want not, used the ends I cut off from the ribbon with a ribbon slider to frame the space left for the greeting.

Challenges -
Sugar Creek Hollow - Go Girly
CardMadFairy - Ribbons and Bows
Paperplay - Ribbons
Crafty Catz - Ribbons and Bows
Gingersnap Supply - Ribbon
Digital Tuesday - Romantic Card
Crop Stop - Shabby/Distressed
Penny's Paper Crafty - Ribbons and Buttons
Ladybug Crafts - Bows
Allsorts - Needles and Pins