Favourite 5

Bit of an odd day for me today as it would have been Mum's birthday, so the old mojo has taken itself off with the kleenex somewhere - no crafting but spotted this yesterday on Debby's blog and thought it might be a little bit of fun and something for me to do as I knew I wouldn't feel much like doing anything.............oh yes, something for me to do allright..... how do you choose just FIVE???

Coops has chosen seventysix million........ well 10 anyway!
I've been good and whittled down my 2011 creations to the said 5 so without further ado, here they are -

This was my very first side stepper and also my very first first place in a card challenge so obviously I was pleased with it!!

The Adorables collection of stamps from Sugar Nellie saw me spending quite a bit this year! Had to have them all - this one is called Faith and was amongst the first that I did using the sewing machine on cards! 

This was one of 5 commissioned cards in the space of about 2 weeks - I made one for a lady at the Club and when others saw it I had a rush job to make two more wedding cards and two more anniversary cards in the same design! 

(If you want to see 2 of the others they're here and here!)

HAD to include this christmas card made using a digi from the ridiculously talented Mo Manning and done in what I think were non traditional Christmas colours for a change.

and finally what I call a 'grown up' card! A CAS card which I actually really enjoy doing!

So there we are - it was so hard to choose just 5 cards and I was amazed to see actually how many I have managed to do this year - I've enjoyed my crafting year as always and it's been just great visiting everyone's blogs looking at all your magnificent creations. Thank you for allowing me into your blogland world and a big thank you to all my followers and visitors.

Thanks too to Debby for giving me something to do today - have spent a while going through all my pictures and taken my mind off other things

Wishing you all a wonderful 2012.

xx

One Ticket to Ride

We've had some horrible weather the last few days and today has continued the trend - lots of rain and dark skies... woke up this morning and was just settling myself down again in what I thought was middle of the night darkness when I looked at the clock....... which showed the time to be 8am!
So have had a quick trip to the supermarket with OH, as always everyone else is preparing for a siege (is war about to be declared?????) - do people REALLY eat all that stuff they put in their trollies???? How many parties are there on New Years Eve? Everyone I speak to says ' we're not doing much, staying in and watchin telly' or ' don't like going out New Year' etc etc so who is coming to consume the mountains of food and drink I have seen going through the checkouts??? OWN UP NOW!!!!!!
I felt quite indaequate with my milk, a small joint of beef and some carrot and turnip!!!! (Actually there was a few garlicky mushrooms and some cheese as well but no doubt you get the idea that my poor trolley looked quite bereft and sad as it only contained such a paltry amount whilst all it's friends were puffing out their chests and doing weight lifting impersonations!)
OK - enough of the drivel - 

I actually tidied my work space on Tuesday (and Wednesday....) and thought that instead of putting away the scrappy bits I should use them up - so here's the result.

It seems such a long time since I did anything really messy and having bought this 12" round canvas on a recent shopping trip with Maureen  I decided to alter it rather than add it to the pile - I was originally going to make a clock but the best laid plans etc etc.....
The Leanne Elllis stamp from the 'Journey' collectionwas bought from a fellow crafter on E-bay earlier this year - a bargain, so thanks Anne! Coloured with promarkers and UTEE'd three times for a high gloss.
I tore some K and Co paper for the backdrop and distress inked the edges of the canvas, then set about using up the scraps which I'd placed in a small pile to be put away.
Some of this stuff had been lying about on the desk for months and I just kept shoving it to one side!

The chipboard pieces were from an Ecetera Dimensional Embellishments pack and having used up the other bits only had these two left. I secured them together with an old button cut off one of Mum's cardigans. It has a lovely antiqued outside with a shiny jadey green pearly centre which was the exact same colour as one of the promarkers I'd used on the stamp! 


The little wooden heart is from a tag on one of my presents - it started out it's life as pale pink but with the help of the promarkers is now a pale greeny blue colour!

The seagull is actually a brooch which I have had for ever and all the other bits (heart charm, Tim Holtz 'Wander' disc, buttons, ticket, fibres) are all from my stash.

Challenges -
Ooh La La - Anything But a Card
Crafts 4 Eternity - Include a Quote on your Project. (Absence makes the Heart grow Fonder)
Try It On Tuesday - Altered Week
Craft Room Challenge - Anything Goes
The Stamp Man - Favourite Project of the Year. - This was quite difficult really - but eventually decided that the last thing I have made is always my favourite!!!!
I Love Promarkers - Anything Goes

The Warm Fuzzies!

Was your weather unseasonably warm on Christmas Day? We have some friends in the South of England who said it didn't feel like Christmas at all as the weather was too warm! Last year we were bothered cos we were snowed in!!

We have sun and blue skies today but a very very strong wind - a walk later to blow away the cobwebs I think....
Anyway whatever your weather was I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas.

As I've neglected my ancestry research of late, am doing a bit of  what my husband lovingly calls 'talking to dead people' today - need to do a bit of internet trawling before visiting the library  - but before I get my head buried in the past here's a share with you for today.

I sent this at Christmas and forgot about linking it to the challenge - fortunately I'd photographed it!

Am submitting this into the current
House Mouse challenge which is called 'the Warm Fuzzies'! Doesn't that make you want to snuggle up in a fleecy banket?? LOL

(I was full of warm fuzzies after a couple of Tia Maria's on Christmas Day!!!! - Actually looking at the pic which is a wee bit blurred maybe I had the 'warm fuzzies operating the camera too.....)

Other challenges -
My Time To Craft - Winter Pals
Oldie But Goodie -  Christmas Animals
Paper Creations Ink - Something Old (which was my HouseMouse stamp), Something New  the DP papers which I bought this year for Christmas)

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

To all of my blogging friends and followers -

I wish you a wonderfully happy Christmas filled with everything you could wish for.

Thank you for your visits, comments, help and inspiration and
may 2012 be a fabulous New Year for you all.

 

xxx

Silent

I haven't been about as much this week but no doubt as everyone else is mad busy in the run up to Christmas, I won't have been missed.
I've mananged to visit a couple of blogs over the last few evenings but to be honest I'm dog tired when I get home every night and am struggling to do anything apart from flop down on the sofa then take myself to my bed!

Have several cards that I finished and didn't share yet so here's one for now......

I was inspired by another card maker, Steph, who's forte is clean and simple cards, and she had done a version of this in black and white which was lovely, so I had a go at CASEing it.

I used white pearlised cardstock and printed the sentiment in dark grey ink.

I have had some dark grey satin ribbon for eons and have always wondered what to use it on other than sympathy cards, but as I had some grey pearlised cardstock I decided to try using the grey/white colour scheme for this card.

Some snowy white cotton lace and the grey ribbon were stuck onto the white card just below the sentiment and I added a tiny silver wreath charm under the bow.
I layered it onto the grey card then onto white again and was really pleased with the simplicity of this card - it's recipient took the trouble to mail me telling me how beautiful she thought it was so that made me happy too!
The added bonus was that it was real quick to do - so I made a few of them using different colours for the sentiment and adding co-ordinating ribbon. I also used up my entire stash of christmas charms (which weren't many really!! LOL), so will have to buy some more for next year! (Any excuse).

A few challenges -
Partytime Tuesdays - Use Ribbon
Papertake Weekly - Last Christmas Card (and this was amongst the last ones I made even though it mightn't be the last I'll post!! LOL)
City Crafter - Winter White
Creative Craft - White on White
Paper and Such - Quick Last Minute Card
Whimsy Stamps - Charms

Music is my first love.....

Once I saw the theme this week at Less Is More, I kept hearing the words to John Miles' amazing song - if you don't know it go listen HERE !! (Showing my age now aren't I? LOL)

Anyway back to the challenge - the theme (if you hadn't guessed) was Music.
From a 7 year old singing the second verse of 'In the Bleak Midwinter' solo at a school carol service to Handel's Messiah with the Merseyside Youth Orchestra at Manchester Free Trade Hall and the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool in my teens to listening to my wonderful OH playing his piano (and keyboards), music has been very special to me throughout my life.

So with my passion for music it is suprising that I possess very few musical stamps - but it didn't matter as I had already formulated in my head what I wanted to do - which is a first for me as usually I'm agonising for hours!! 

Random musical notes stamped round the edge of a 6 x 6 card.
The image (printed onto glossy white card) just shouts ' Joy' at me somehow - the sheer happiness of having music which makes you want to dance wherever you are and whatever the weather - and the sentiment seemed to fit perfectly.

Since I have taken the photo (light was going so rushed to snap the pic) - I have added some really tiny white gems to the points of the umbrella (I had some 'raindrop' shaped gems but they were far too big and looked ridiculous!!) - the tiny ones added just a touch of sparkle and hopefully look like raindrops!

Cold!

My goodness it's cold here today! The wind is icy and chills you right through. Been out shopping for the food for the Xmas party on Saturday - 48 coming again this year - hope the weather holds and we don't get as much snow as last year when after spending the Friday cooking Turkeys we woke up on Saturday to 2 feet of snow and unable to get out of the drive - Party cancelled till the New Year! Hope we don't have a repeat this year, if only because I would like to be able to get my OWN food in my freezer!

Thought I'd share another one already in the post -

I followed a sketch from somewhere for this - then forgot to enter it, now can't remember whose sketch it was - what a sorry state!

Mo's image coloured with promarkers then layered onto red cardstock.
Little mouse doesn't look cold does he? All snuggled up under his blanket.

The backing papers are from My Mind's Eye and First Editions and the sparkly gems are from my stash.
I added a bit of red ribbon and am still playing with the new nestie tags as you can see!

Challenges -
Come and Get It - Red, Green and one other (and I used cream) colour
One Stitch at a Time - Use a Digi
Crafty Boots - Christmas
Truly, Madly, Crafty - Christmas Image and Colours
Make My Monday - Red Ribbon
Hooked On Crafts - Christmas

Am done!

So I am finished - not literally - just mean I have finished making my cards so am feeling quite smug - but what am I going to do now? Iron? Dust? Clean windows? Put up the christmas tree? Definitely not!!!!
Haven't decided about the tree this year - didn't bother last year as didn't feel like Christmas at all after losing Mum and it being her birthday on 31st Dec and all and confess that this year am still not feeling christmassy despite all the glitter and snow dust etc that's all over the craftie space desk and floor....
Might get down the small fibre optic one for the dining room so at least when OH and I are eating our turkey it looks a little bit like Christmas... am still considering!!!
Thought I would share this card with you as it's already been received and opened -

I adore these K and Co Winter Wonderland papers. So much so that the stack I bought two years ago still has half of them left as I hate cutting into them! They'll be a collectors item if I keep them any longer but don't be surprised if I'm still using them in 2020!
The 'snowflake' is actually cut from the sheet and I just used 3d foam pads after adding some sparkly gems for a bit more bling!
The blue antique lace layered across some red cardstock is from my stash as is the red organza ribbon and red satin Christmas tree.
The sentiment is a freebie from TLC and I cut it out with a nestie, then sponged it with Tumbled Glass distress ink, punched a hole and added an eyelet making it into a tag. I ran a glue pen across the letters and dusted some red glitter over it.

Challenges -
Jingle Belles- Christmas
Card Mad Fairy's Digi Days - Tags (and I hope my tag on my card fits the challenge)
Crafty Calendar - Cold and Frosty
Sugar Creek Hollow - Tags
Card Makin Mamas - Christmas
MAWTT - Last Minute Christmas

So with my cards finished have to decide what project to start next... maybe I'll make a couple more for next year???? LOL
Thanks for visiting - have a nice day whatever you're doing.

Cloud

I have spent an absolute age this morning trying to take decent pics of some of my recent makes - have given up as a bad job. The sky is as grey as can be and using the flash on the camera makes the pics even worse! Actually we're having some horrendous weather and the forecast is for more of the same today - we're not as bad as a wee bit further up the coast into the Cumbrian hills or Scotland I don't think, but it's definitely not a day for being outside. (not that I needed any excuse to stay in the craftie space......)

Just wish the light was a bit better!

So with my apologies in advance here is a card I've made for our niece in America which will be delivered by M-I-L next Tuesday when she arrives there for her annual Christmas pilgramage to see all the American relatives!

I opted for a pink and brown colour scheme with liberal doses of sparkle, both with the DP papers (by First edition from the Love Letters and Summer Breeze stacks) and by the glitter I applied on anything that stood still long enough!
The image was a present from a friend some time ago and has been laying on the desk waiting to be coloured.
I used some pink pearls and a PC generated sentiment layered onto brown cardstock.
Even though this is going to be delivered by hand, I couldn't go too mad with the embellishments - M-I-L goes 'across the pond' like she's preparing for a siege so there's not a lot of space in any of her cases and what space there is means whatever there is in there is in danger of being crushed to death!

Challenges -

Creative Belli - Winter/Christmas

Penny's Paper Crafting - Merry Christmas

Incy Wincy - Non Traditional Christmas Colours

St Nick

Had a lovely day yesterday with Maureen and her 'long suffering' - we again met half way between our respective homes at Trentham. No gardens this time - was quite a cold and grey day with some spots of rain and of course I had to keep my husband from wanting to go and fall on his bum on the ice rink ....
BUT we DID have a HUGE Christmas Lunch with the suitable Mincmeat and Apple tart for pudding, a wander round the shops and a nice day!
Have a quick card to share with you - I made one similar to this last year and I really like this stamp and so didn't need much excuse to use it!

St Nick was stamped on white pearlescent paper in Cranberry ink and the edges distressed.
I didn't have enough of the backing paper to cover the entire card so had to improvise by cutting it into two pieces and hence the snowflake border mounted onto dark red and white card which was made wide enough for the ribbon to cover and also hid the empty space on the card. I ran some white versamark ink acrossd the backing paper as it was a very deep red.
The snowflakes were lightly inked with the same cranberry colour and then I added some glossy accents and a sparkly gem.
Apart from having to wait for the glossy accents to dry this was a quick card and I also used up some scraps of paper!

Challenges -
Try it On Tuesday - Father Christmas
Creative Card Crew - Tis the Season
My Time To Craft - Vintage Christmas
Truly, Madly Crafty - Xmas Image and colours (and I hope my Cranberry qualifies!)
Addicted to Stamps - Christmas Card 

Green (and grey....)

Green is the colour challenge over at Less Is More this week.... grey is the colour of the sky outside!
Another really horrible day here - it hasn't stopped raining in the last 24 hours but I'm hoping that Ive managed to ward off the chill that was threatening me last night.
Am just off out for an hour but thought I'd post this, my first entry into the LIM challenge.
It isn't very inspiring I'm afraid - my brain has the fuzzies!!

So - white cardstock layered onto green. I cut out a small square piece of foam with deckle edge scissors to make the background stamp and used shabby shutters distress ink. The idea was to make it look like a brick wall!

I inked the holly flourish stamp with peeled paint distress ink and stamped round the edge of the card. I cut out a couple of tiny leaves stamped with the same ink and then added these to the sentiment which I mounted onto the same green card. Finished with some red stickles for the berries and a red flat backed pearl on the leaves under the greeting.

As I still have a few more cards to make I doubt whether this will be my only entry into this week's challenge!

Catch up with everyone later - off to brave the rain (again!).

Challenges -
Less Is More - Green
Daring Cardmakers - Holly
Gingerloft Challenge - Christmas
Inkurable Stampers - Holly

First Christmas

Quick post with one to share tonight cos it's late and I am wanting to go and snuggle up in my bed with the hot water bottle! Got absoluely soaked through today - rain was that bad, it went through my showerproof (???) jacket and made my jumper wringing wet - came home had a huge bowl of soup but am still shivering - so it's bed as I don't want to be full of cold in the morning.

This was a card made for a gentleman at the Bowls Club who had seen the previous one I made with this image. Their family has just grown with the addition of their first great grandson and he asked me to make him a Christmas card using the same Mo Manning digi image.

Craft Creations Foiled Stars paper used, matted onto silver holographic card. Have no idea why this paper is called 'Foiled Stars' as the stars aren't foiled at all!! They just blend into the background and you really need to get up close to even see them!

I coloured with promarkers and again ran my glue pen across the bauble before applying a helping of glitter. I used a silver metallic pen to colour the stars on the bauble.

I put the image onto a silver frame cut out with a nestie.

The metal star with the blue star gem was in my stash, as were the silver stars I used on the easel prop. I secured the large metal star with a blue organza bow.

The sentiment was PC generated and I added a couple of silver pearls to finish the card off.

The pic isn't very good (so what's new) but this time my excuse is the glare from the holographic card!

Challenges -

Glitter Fairies - Easel Card

Creatilicious - Christmas and it must sparkle!

Crafty Anns - Recipe and I chose Ribbon, Bauble, Silver

Card Mad Fairy - Digi - Winter Wonderland

Patties Creations - Christmas

Some Odd Girl - Easel card

 

Thanks for stopping by   - your visits (and comments!) are REALLY appreciated.

Off to get on the pj's and the wooly socks!

Away in a Manger

From CAS to OTT?
Was a bit concerned about the colour scheme I chose for this card - I wanted to do another 'non traditional' colour and sorting through the stack of papers - (did I really buy all those paper pads????) - I picked out pastel pinks, blues, pale greens but then found this pad from My Mind's Eye full of brown, cream and blue tones.
So decided to give it a go. What do you think?

I Know the designs on the paper are not 'christmassy' and probably the traditionalists with red green gold silver etc may not be particularly enamoured with it but I think it's turned out OK.
The image is from Mo Manning. Isn't the expression on the little angel's face just brilliant?!I coloured it with promarkers and pastel chalks (although you can't see the pastel blue background behind the little angel very well) and added some glamour dust onto the wings.
Papers were all layered and distressed.
Coloured the flourish with a promarker to tone in and added a couple of brown pearls to the bottom left corner.
The flowers are from Wild Orchid and my local haberdashery shop!
Oh and look what I got for Christmas - a new nestie set of tags!!! (Well they were a Christmas present to me from me......and I actually bought two sets but shhhhhhhhhh.......lol)

Challenges -
Digistamp 4 Joy - Christmas but no animals
For Fun - Christmas
My Mum's Craft Shop - Keeping Warm (and baby certainly is that all snuggled up in the hay!)
Craft Your Passion - Anything Holday Related

Thanks for visiting - appreciate all your comments.

What horrible day it's been here weather wise - we've had lashing rain and howling gales and it's not very warm at all!! On the up side is the wind has almost stripped the trees bare so once we can get a chance to get outside and clear up all the dropped leaves the garden shouldn't need much tending to - thank goodness.

Here's my offering for today - love these mischevious elves from Mo Manning - there's a whole set of them - this one is called Little Elf Mim.

The pic is a bit wishy washy - when really the Echo Park backing papers are a rich deep red but you get the general idea!

Mim is coloured with promarkers and I used some fluffy stuff on the hat and hemline.
The bauble was run over with a glue pen and then glittered.
I finished with a PC generated sentiment and a dark red satin bow.
Another one for my Christmas pile!

Challenges -
DP2 - Elves, Fairies, Santa or Snowmen
Pollycraft - Christmas Fun
Craft Your Days Away- Buttons OR Bows
MAWTT - Ribbons and Bows 

CASE'd card

I saw a card made like this some time ago and scribbled a sketch of it onto a bit of paper. I wrote down who's card it was on another piece of paper and dabbed a bit of glue to keep them together - yesterday I found the scrap of paper with the (bad) drawing on and a torn corner where the other piece had been stuck on - so - if this was your original idea I thank you for the inspiration and hope I've done your awesome card justice.

Spent a long long time punching out the leaves for this and made my hand sore so resorted to using my foot after a while!! (A trick I learnt from Maureen.....lol)
It was painstaking sticking them all on the embossed circle individually but I got there in the end.

I'm beginning to use this diamond shaped embossing folder nearly as much as the swiss dots one - But I do like it and think it's a perfect 'all occasion' design and is suitable for a man's card too.

I used white pearlised cardstock and red polka dot paper and placed some red satin ribbon across the paper join.

I put the 'wreath' on the card with foam pads for a bit of dimension positioning it slightly over the edge of the card and then trimmed it to the card edge for an 'off centre' effect.
I stuck on a small red bow and some red gems for a bit of bling!

The sentiment was stamped using Stazon Blazing Red Ink.

This is my second entry into the 'Bit of Bling' Less Is More challenge this week and I'm feeling quite smug with myself as my Christmas card stash is growing - albeit slowly!
Guylou also has a 'wreath' challenge this week.

Having problems with the camera today! (What's new???? LOL)
This is the first of 2 cards for Less Is More challenge this week (the other not dry so will post later!).
The challenge was 'a bit of Bling!'

This really is a CAS card - just white pearlised cardstock embossed with a winter design layered onto a dark grey pearlised card then onto more pearlised white cardstock.

The sentiment and tiny snowflakes were stamped in Pearlescent Blue ink and clear embossed. The sentiment was a freebie in a homestyle magazine and I thought it was one of the best freebies I've acquired recently! It came with a couple of flourishes, four different types of tiny snowflakes and a flourish frame. Not bad!! 

I just spent a wee while sticking tiny sparkly gems on each of the snowflakes.

Sorry the pic is a bit naff - I'm actually pleased with the way this one turned out - it looks quite good 'in real life'!

Challenges -
Dream Valley - Sparkle
Paper Sundaes- Winter Wonderland
Crazy 4 Challenges - Snow
Less is More - Bling

Back to other things

Our Art n Soul group over at Flickr has periodic challenges and the last one for this year was to make a Bookmark.

The group is an International one so setting challenges for swaps is quite hard as we can't make anything that will cost a fortune to post.
The bookmarks were going to be swapped randomly between the group as Christmas presents and  I also added a second challenge of a Christmas tag to accompany your bookmark so the recipient had something to open!

Never one to set simple tasks I also told the group they had to have lace somewhere on their project.

The closing date is 30th November and here I am with only the darn bookmark finished!

I'll set to tomorrow and get the tag done but thought for now I'd better blog the bookmark as even though it's on the Flickr group's photostream we always upload onto our blogs if we have one as well.

The bookmark measures about 6" long and is linen textured 'Paris Night's paper on thin but strong mountboard.
The image was printed onto cotton fabric and stitched to the paper.
I added some scraps of lace from my bits box which I stitched by machine and hand.

The printed ribbon seemed quite fitting for a bookmark as I think reading is such a great thing - there's nothing better than burying your head into a book and losing yourself in a story - so these times when you can escape into another world and not worry about everyday life for a short time are definitely moments to be treasured!

It's been quite a while since I made anything other than cards and even though I was panicking a bit because I had so little time left to complete my own challenge (LOL), I quite enjoyed assembling this!

There's a couple of challenges that my little bookmark will fit -
Fussy and Fancy - Make a Gift
Dutch Dare - Recipe - Ribbon, Image, Layers
Papercrafting Journey - Anything Goes

The Christmas Flower

Here's a card made with one of the images I've coloured over the last couple of days.
I spotted a layout similar to this while blog hopping and thought it was beautiful - so thought I might have a go at my own interpretation!

The flower has three layers and the top two were finished with glossy accents. I used some gold Stickles on the flower centre and dotted some red glitter onto the holly berries.
I am really pleased with the way the glossy accents has dried on the petals - they're shiny and bright - just like a Xmas card should be!

White pearlised card was used for the embossing and I put some broad red ribbon between the two embossed designs.
Am undecided whether to add a greeting or not - I quite like the starkness of this card as it is.
Shall pop it in the stash and decide when I come to send it!

Challenges-
Make My Monday - Flowers, Foliage or Snowflakes
CardMadFairy - Texture
Digi Doodles Best - Red and Green (and although there's more red than green, there is some green on the leaves!)
Digital Tuesday - Sparkle and Shine
Pile it On - the letter 'P' 

Happy Monday!

Hope all is well with everyone here in blogland - thanks for visiting!
Quite a grey day but at least the overnight rain has stopped - had a reasonably craftie productive day yesterday - gots lots stamped and coloured - now all I have to do is assemble them all onto papers and cardstock!!! 
 

This card is for my own stash - I love these snowmen from Sassy Cheryl - the whole collection make me smile - and isn't this one just brill with his cup of cappucino - just what is needed on a cold grey November day - complete with marshmallows of course!!

I wanted to give him a 'cool' look so opted for the blue/brown colour scheme rather than trad christmas colours. I used some glamour dust on his scarf and dotted his clothes with a white gel pen. The spotty background paper just seemed to fit him even though it's not specifically a Christmas paper!
The sentiment is a freebie but I altered the centre wording to something I thought more appropriate for a coffee bringing snowman (!) and the blue seam binding ribbon was a pressie. I threaded a sparkly snowflake button through the ribbon and finished off with some punched snowflakes with tiny gems for sparkle.

Challenges -
Sassy Cheryl - Anything Goes
I Did It - Snowmen
Pan Pastel - Frosty and Bright
2 Sisters - Let it Sparkle
Crafty Emmas - Snowflakes
One Stop Challenge - Blue 
Crafty Catz - Snowflakes

Second visit!

Don't say you weren't warned - you'll be sick of me by the end of today....

Second entry into this week's 'Silhouettes' challenge at Less Is More.

Image stamped with Onxy Black Versamark over a background sponged with Whispers Inks - Royal Blue and Starry Night. I ran a distressing tool round the edge of the image before mounting onto black card.

The 'moon' was dusted with some glamour dust and thanks to Chrissie I ventured with the glue pen and some glamour dust across the wording to give the 'magic' some sparkle.

I randomly sponged the excess on the make up sponge around the white space - I was real careful as normally I am so 'heavy handed' what I want to appear 'subtle' sometimes looks the 'Invasion of the Coloured Blobs!'

Thankfully, the colour is very light and there's still lots of white space to satisfy our Head Girls! LOL 

Two tiny black pearls in the bottom right corner finished it off.

Be warned - this will not be the only post of the day!
And if you've any bunting, then put it up cos here I am with my FIRST entry this week into the LIM challenge (and it's only SUNDAY!!!!) Don't know what I'm going to do on Thursday now - or for the days inbetween - no anguish over what I'm going to do and I'm running out of time etc etc.... trouble is, my head is full to bursting with stuff that I want to do for this week that I probably won't get anything else finished cos I'll be flitting about from one half finished thing to another!
So here's the first of the 3 that I've started - this one is complete, the other two are waiting on the desk!
I have had numerous discussions with other crafters about digi stamps. Some think they cannot be classed as 'hand made' as it's the PC that does all the work! Not true! Whilst I love good old fashioned rubber stamps and making messy with ink, I DO also like digis and think that if you've limited space for storage and not a lot of cash to throw about then a small stash of digis are invaluable and anyone who has ever worked with them will know that it's not easy and the PC definitely DOESN'T do all the work particularly if you're printing straight onto card!!!! 

This beautiful digi was a freebie from TLC and I thought it perfect for the challenge this week which is 'Silhouettes'.

I know this has a couple of layers but I have tried to keep the card clean and simple - I like black/white/pink colour combo so it was natural that I would use it - I wanted to use the linen textured card and have found that sometimes printing direct onto it doesn't turn out the best so played safe with this one and printed it separately just in case it wasn't as sharp as it should be. Actually it printed beautifully, which I think is probably to do with the brilliant quality of the image rather than the quality of my printer!

The sentiment also is a TLC digi freebie and it's one of my favourites as I think it is so true, when someone does show you kindness your day seems so much brighter.

Challenges -
Less Is More - Silhouettes
Crazy 4 Challenges - Black, White and one other colour
Mark's Finest Papers - Black,White and one other colour

Thanks for visiting - off to see if my ink has dried - be back later!

A 'grey' Christmas!

Been a lovely day here today so made the most of it out in the fresh air!
Am sitting here thinking about what I am going to do for another challenge but in the mean time - brain cells are struggling for inspiration - I thought I'd better post this.

I was a bit unsure about these papers but decided to keep the clean stark colour combo of grey and white and just add a splash of colour on the image.

I also followed a sketch for the first time in ages! 

The little boy hanging stars on his tree is another from LOTV (just for a change - LOL) and I added some crimson onto his hat and stars and used three different shades of grey for his clothes. Some glitter used for a wee bit of bling and I popped the image onto a nestie frame and layered onto the card with 3d pads. I used a Nellie Snellen die for the corners.

I thought about puttin red gems instead of the card candy on the white ribbon but once I'd coloured them with one of the grey shades decided to leave it as it was and just let the image make the statement.

Challenges -
CRAFT - Stars
Willow Sketchie - Sketch
Frosted Designs - Die Cuts
Winter Wonderland - What a Cutie 

Thanks for visiting - off to try and galvanise my grey cells into action!

Anyone seen the number 14?

Bus I mean!!! So I don't post for a week then here I am two together! LOL
I apologise for the pic - will take another tomorrow but I really wanted to get this second go at last Saturday's LIM challenge....

Found the leaf stamp (as mentioned in previous post)................. not in any of the stamp drawers at all but there I was looking for a nestie (to make a frame for a christmas card) when I saw this little bit of red rubber complete with cobweb poking out from behind the metal cabinet.......... so after making the spider homeless, I inked it and accomplished my mission to use this brilliant quote.

Unfortunately electric light is not good for pics is it? But never mind, you'll get the general idea!

I used Versamark 'Umber' ink for the outline of the leaf and then clear embossed. I coloured it with a variety of distress inks (amazing on something so small- lol), used Frayed Burlap, Rusty Hinge and Barn Door! I think maybe I could have made the stem of the leaf a wee bit thicker so that it covered the end of the twig but overall am reasonably OK with the finished article!
I sponged some Vintage Photo distress ink round the edges of the card and finished with a gingham ribbon.
(Oh and the twig image was a digi download from somewhere about two years ago and I altered the colour to brown using Page Plus.)

I toyd with the idea of stamping more leaves along the bottom below the ribbon but decided to leave bare - the 'one red leaf' didn't look to me like it needed any friends!