Happy Day!

This is a re-vamp of a project completed a few years ago. The canvas has been on the wall in the craftie space both here and in the previous house and it had faded with the sun so it now has had a face lift. Sharing with you as yesterday was for me a 'Happy Day'!! (more at the end of the post...)

The canvas measures 12" x 10".

I used acrylic paints for the background and made (what I hope look like) fluffy white clouds across the blue sky with modelling paste.
The flowers in the bottom left and the butterflies are cut from paper napkins, and gesso'ed into place.
I  added a few sweeps of a paintbursh to make stems and dabbed a bit of pink onto the tops for flowers.

The bird and branch was cut from an old book.
The cherry blossom is an old stamp, flowers coloured with Distress Ink and the birdcage (also a stamp - image given to me by a friend) was painted then cut out, and I added a thin string of silver metal as the hanger.
My 'sunshine girl' was made from card with a bit of lace under her skirt.
The Happy Days stamp is done on a bit of tissue paper, stuck onto the canvas and a butterfly and a heavily embossed stamped dragonfly finished it all off.
Was a change from cards to re-do this canvas - had forgotten how much I enjoy the mess! 

So my 'Happy Day' -
yesterday I became the 2017 Bowls England President! Was a day with all kinds of emotions going on -sick with nerves before, pinched myself a few times afterwards as I kept seeing this gold chain round my neck, but overall a lovely day spent with a huge number of lovely people. Then last evening it was posh frock for the Presentation Dinner that when over officially marked the end of the previous President's year - and the start of mine!
Couple of pics to share for those of you who haven't seen them on Facebook -

- and yes that really is ME in the long dress! No photoshopping - just ME!
Have spent the last few weeks trying to lose weight from round my middle as over the last 2 years whilst Junior Vice President, then Senior Vice, I have visited many Clubs all round the British Isles - and was fed wonderful food at them all! So a bit of treadmill every day has been called for...
That's it - all my news for this week!
Am worn out today - think being up till 2am then the drive home this morning has seen me off completely!

Linking my canvas to the following Challenges -
Creative Artiste - A/thing Mixed Media
Frilly & Funkie - Out of the Cold
As You Like It - What do you make other than cards and why

Will catch up with you all this week - am having a quiet week at home! x  

Alcohol again

Just a quick post from me today and a quick CAS card to share made when I was playing with Alcohol Inks and inspired by Loll!

Used some ivory linen card as the base card this time as I thought it went better than stark white with the leaf.

The leaf was cut from a scrap piece of Yupo and the colours were Stream, Lettuce and Citrus.

I used the left over from the base card for the embossed wood panel and the frame.  I cut the inset of the frame with a nestie and stamped the sentiment in Lucky Limeade ink.

The 3 buttons were from my stash as I thought that rather than use sparklies, if I used buttons this could be a 'man' card!

Quite happy with this, although on reflection I perhaps should have used a die which had broader leaves so that more of the colours of the alco inks could be seen.
Might try this again!

Challenges -
Pixies Snippets Playground- Week 269/270
Addicted to CAS - Wood
HIMCR - Embossing
Alphabet - You for You Choose

Thanks for looking today. Have to brave the wet weather and do some shopping so will catch up with you all later - have a great day whatever you're doing. x

Flying High

Had a bit of a re-jig in the craftie space and a good tidy this morning - bet now I won't be able to find anything......

I've been messing about with inks again - this time Pine Needles and Weathered Wood with a bit of Fossilized Amber.
And am feeling quite pleased with myself as I have today (round of applause please👏👏👏) used two NEVER BEFORE USED Dies!!!

So after inking the main panel, I randomly stamped the cogs using Tea Dye DI and used the wire honeycomby stamp from SU Butterfly Basics inked in Versafine Smokey Grey along the bottom and right side edge.

The sentiment was a rectangle, but used the MISTI to re-position into a straight sentence. Looks a bit light here but is OK in real life!

The balloon die was rubbed with Pine Needles DI, then I applied a liberal helping metallic rubs in verdi gris and gold. Cut a piece of green vellum to sit behind it.

Finished off with the Never Before Used cogs die, and pewter, rust and gold rubs applied here too!
Matted and layered onto dark brown then Bermuda Bay card stock.

Challenges -
Stampin' Royalty #362 - Dies
OLLCB - Use Die Cuts
Cardz 4 Guyz - No patterned paper
TIOT -  Let's Get Messy
and I am also entering into this into #430 at Color Throwdown who have this gorgeous inspiration pic!

Thanks for taking the time to stop by today. Appreciate any comments you might leave - have a great week! x

Romance?

I don't do soppy.   With Valentine's Day looming, I am fed up with soppy!
Valentines' Day is dear husband's birthday.      We don't do Valentine's day.
We don't really do birthdays either - not cards or presents but we normally have a nice meal around the date - not ON the date 'cos everywhere is full of soppy!!!

I have made a 'not soppy' Love card - made for no other reason than I was feeling a teeny weeny bit soppy.
 
The heart stamp was a cheapie from Hobby Crafts - bought it as I don't posess any heart stamps and thought it might be needed.... first time it's seen ink!
I used a Brilliance Ink Pad in Rocket Red for the heart and the splats (which are from a Visible Image set).

The ink splatters across the card were a mix of the Rocket Red ink and Festive Berries DI as I wasn't sure if mixing water with just the Brilliance ink would work!
Mounted the heart on a scrap of vellum cut with a nestie, stamped the sentiment in Onyx Black and added a strip of corrugated red card (which means I can go play again over at CAS Mix Up!)

Unsurprisingly there's lots of soppy love themed challenges around so am linking to -

Crafty Purple Frog - Love is All Around
House of Cards - Love theme
Time Out - Inspired by words
              (and I have used 'Heart')
Uniko - Anything Goes
Allsorts - Hearts
AAA - CAS
House that Stamps Built -
                   Red/Hearts/Vellum

It's very cold here today. We've had a couple of snow flurries but it hasn't stayed. Changed the bed and done a little bit of housework this morning. Planning now on having a lazy day in the craftie space - in the warm!

Thanks for looking today - have a great weekend whatever you're doing - and if you're doing 'soppy' - enjoy!!  x  

Thursday

The days have passed quite quickly and there never seems to be enough hours in the day!
I have made a couple of cards and hoping that I will be able to link the other one up CAS Mix Up February Challenge as well as this one (if I ever finish it that is!)

I am always inspired by stuff seen on Pinterest and I suppose this one came from there too!
The challenge was to use corrugated card, with stamping and your choice of other techniques - I went overboard I think as I ended up using as 'my choice' - Fussy cutting, heat embossing, Distress Inks, splatter and vellum!

The colour combo is one of my faves.
This was quite quick to do and used up some odd scraps of Aqua and Black card along with a snippet of vellum.

The card was ran through the 'crimper' and just torn. Before fixing I lightly splattered some Peacock Feathers DI onto the white panel.
The butterfly was heat embossed in white, fussy cut and smooshed through the craft mat where I'd put the DI!
A scrap of ribbon, a sentiment stamped onto the tiniest piece of aqau card and a couple of gems to finish.

I am beginning to panic a little as I appear to have completely abandoned all the fussy and fancy stuff just lately.
I don't know whether it is because I always seem to not have a lot of time so am opting for clean and simple cards or because I am finding that CAS has become my 'thing'. Although as always I wonder if my CAS is well just too - CAS!!
I am not giving up hope that I will once again delve back into the stitching, distressing, generally throw everything on a card type of make - after all whatever will I do with all this stuff if I do????

Thanks for looking!
Hope your day has been good whatever you've been doing! x

More Alcohol

I was having a lovely time last week until that damn virus which I had before Christmas decided to put in yet another appearance. Not as bad this time but enough to make me feel more than a little fed up with myself....!
So the title of my post does not mean I used the coughing as an excuse to lubricate myself with drink (not that I need much encouragement) -  it means that I have made another card with the neglected alco inks!

I am beginning to enjoy just being able to chuck liquid inks onto a sheet of paper and have them all merge into yummy colours.
I am though struggling as to what to use the coloured sheets for but this one shouted Autumn Leaves.

Ivory linen textured card used as the base.
Colours on Yupo were Butterscotch, Caramel, Ginger and Latte.

I am hoping that these 3 shades are close enough on the colour wheel for me to join in at Less Is More this week. They are celebrating their 6th Birthday so I thought that a 'Thank you' to those who run the blog was called for!
The leaves actually have some distinct embossed veins which don't show up too well in the pic, but are quite effective.

The left over snippet was used as a dimensional panel - waste not, want not. So I am also taking my coughing body into the Playground - but will wrap a scarf round my face to keep my germs to myself!
Going to spend today catching up in blogland so will be visiting you all soon! xx

Animal Magic and other things!

Animal Magic is the theme of our challenge this month at Stamping Sensations . Great prizes again up for grabs but please observe our rules and remember we are a STAMPING challenge so must see a stamped image or sentiment as the FOCAL point. If you follow our rules you could be in with a chance of winning this fab prize from TATTERED LACE

I have a lot of stamps I rarely use - no surprise there then.... and I bet I am not alone.😛 I buy because I like them, maybe use them once (or even not at all) and then store them away.

This LOTV stamp is one of those (along with the other 3 I bought from the Mice set....) - this one has seen ink twice, the others once each I think!

I always think LOTV stamps need lots of embellies but I have tried to do one with hardly any on it at all - as I am intending on sending this through the post.

Originally I had a plain base but it really did look stark so this tiny flower embossing folder which was free in a magazine last year (or the year before?) was also taken out of it's wrapping!

Our flower shop mice were coloured with Promarkers, then matted onto green card after using a X stitch die to cut it out.
The little tags were snippets left over from the green card and the sentiment is from SU.

Other Challenges -
Crazy 4 Challenges - Animals

Thanks for taking time to have a look today - hope you will join us! x