Try it On Tuesday - new challenge

Our new challenge at TRY IT ON TUESDAY is 'BLACK, WHITE AND ONE OTHER COLOUR'.
This is one of my fave colour combos - there's so much scope as there's so many different colours which are striking with black and white.

After using Lime Green with black and white recently I opted this time to go for Red.
This piece is now framed and hung on my back sitting room wall.

I started by masking off a circle and used a piece of card for a straight line to make the horizon. The Red sun was ink blended with a combo of  Fired Brick and Festive Berries Oxides - it really is a fiery red!

I lightly blended the remains of the colour on the brush below the sun, just dragging it in a 'V' shape in an attempt to imitate a reflection.

I used Black Soot Oxide for the rest of the blending taking care not to overload the brush and always blending onto scrap paper before blending onto the main piece and then only used gentle pressure as I didn't want it black.

The stamps are from Card-io and the white 'cherry blossom' and highlights were achieved with a white acrylic pen.

Thanks for looking - hope to see you linked up in the challenge blog! x

Card Chain Challenge July Reveal

 My swap partners this month for the Card Chain Challenge - I sent to Jo in the UK and was delighted to receive a lovely card from Linda in Michigan! (Thank you again Linda!)

So - I was a little pleased as I managed to have a bash at using the colour options and the theme of 'Asian' from the choices this time round.

A lighter bright blue (Topaz) was the base and before layering onto gold mirri card I used some gold embroidery thread to attach the Chinese coin.

I used a darker shade for the next layer stamping some bamboo and simply clear embossing.

The 'Bird of Happiness' is from an Altenew set, gold heat embossed (love this stylized bird) and the Happiness sentiment is from Paper Discovery.

Having checked the colour of 'Jade' on an internet search I found it was varying shades of green through the colour spectrum from a very pale green right through to Emerald. 

So once I had stamped and fussy cut my figure, I painted her in pale green and blue. 

There's still a few days left to sign up for the August challenge and we are being generously sponsored this time by RELATIVELY THOUGHTFUL who are offering a gorgeous digital download paper set called Egyptian Dreams for one randomly selected player in the Chain and are also offering a 10% discount for all our players!!
This discount applies to digital and physical products in the shop so wherever you are in the World we should all be able to benefit from this - the code will be included when you get the Card Chain Challenge contact email.
Come and join us! x

Red and Black

A lovely week away with our friends topped off with winning the Bowls England tournament - so now we have a hat trick of 3 wins in this event in four years - we're really pleased!
Only downside was a very tiring 6 hour drive home so as usual it will take me a couple of days to get over it - decided to spend my relax time doing a few cards for some upcoming challenges.

CAS Watercolour's challenge this month is 'Red and Black'. These colours always shout 'Oriental' to me so my card was obviously inspired by that.

I dragged a brush with some watered down black paint and made a few background mountains, adding a little pale red highlights.

I used an old stamp which is a little bigger than the impression here - the balance would have been all wrong as it was too big  for the background - so masked off the bottom first and then stamped in Versamark Black.

I used a coin and carefully drew a circle, which I then watercoloured avoiding the spire as much as I could!

Some more watered down black paint and a very old Chinese letters stamp (no idea what it means or even if it means anything at all!) before framing and matting onto the base card.

Quite pleased with how it turned out as I am still not confident with watercolours and although there's not !

Also sharing over at Pearly Sparkles where the challenge is to 'Use Some Red'. 
Thanks for looking - hope all is well in your part of blogland. x

Asian Inspired

I notice that Oriental themed stamps seem to be making a little bit of a comeback just recently. At one time they were immensely popular and now are undergoing a bit of a revival.
I remembered my little stash of embossing folders and stamps which have been neglected for a while so I have made some giving the old stuff an airing.

Will post the others as and when - but here's the last one I did yesterday ('cos it didn't stop raining here), and it just used up the leftovers from the days crafty sesh!
Quick, simple and I like it!

Chinese script on vellum. The branches cut from a bigger die in black pearly card and the flowers also from the same die set.
The 'vase' was a sentiment die with an oval centre - just snipped it off! I added a little bit of gold embossing powder to give it some texture.
And that's it.

It's a stunningly lovely spring day here (finally) - we have blue sky and sunshine - although still not very warm it is lovely to see the sun!
Sharing my little oriental make over at -
S+F=C -  CAS
Use Your Stuff - Spring
P B & More - Black/White plus 1 (hoping that the teeny bit of embossing doesn't count as another colour!)
SOS - Black/White + 1 (ditto about the embossing)
Library Challenge - Memoirs of a Geisha (stunning black/white/red cover too)

Thanks for visiting - have a great day! x

Oriental Miss

I love this real pretty image from Mo Manning. I think her facial expression is beautiful!

I coloured her using promarkers and am going to add a teeny amount of stickles onto the flower in her hair. I haven't yet decided if I shall leave this card as it is or put a greeting on it.

The background papers are from My Minds Eye and the oval frame was done using Coredinations paper, a Nellie die then the frame put through the cuttlebug using one of the Asian folders set and sanded.

I didn't have any flowers matching the kimono colour in my stash, so opted to colour the flowers with the promarkers.

I am entering this card into the following challenges -

Cupcake Crafts #81 - Flowers

Crafty Cardmakers - A Feminine Celebration (where you had to use a female form somewhere on your card)

Visions of Tomorrow

Finally I managed to find some free time yesterday to use my newly acquired Cuttlebug Asian Folders. I ordered them ages ago and they finally arrived on Saturday morning which irritated me immensely as I had to go out on Saturday and couldn't play with them!

I bought them from the USA cos as usual they get all the good stuff before we do!! (It's so unfair.....LOL) and as I'm not known for my patience, I wasn't prepared to wait until they're released here!

Decided to do just a simple card using the bamboo folder on Coredinations paper. The first two lines of the quote are a chinese proverb, I made the last line up to finish the greeting!! Printed it out on DCWV Oriental theme paper and mounted it onto chipboard.

I bought these huge oriental coins at Manchester at the end of last month and have been waiting for the folders to arive so I could use them!

Asia

The weather here has been dreadful today so I have spent my time making some Christmas cards, - all made using different embossing powders with a Papermania 'Bauble Decoration' stamp! The stamp is a popular one this year and I have to confess I really like it - will post some pics when I feel a bit more 'Christmassy'!

When I became bored (and believe me it wasn't long), I turned my attention to something else - this Asian themed card was made using Elusive Images stamps. The blossom background was done using just the edge of the stamp omitting the branches and I gold embossed both blossom and quote before mounting the quote on a black border and adding a strip of black card behind to give it some definition. The fan is a fabric one which I bought at the NEC last year and although a bit too pricey to use on a card I decided it was worth the expense - the pic doesn't show the embroidery very well as I am trying to take pics in artifical light which is never a good idea - maybe I will retake the pic over the weekend...(if I remember!)

I have submitted this card into two challenges this week - Wednesday Stamper's theme is Asia and Theme Thursday's challenge is 'Borders'.

England and the Orient!

Well what a mad week this has been - I feel like I've met myself coming back on several occasions!

This week has seen the culmination of almost 6 months preparation for a visit by no less than the England President! She brought a representative team of 24 players from Bowls England (which included yours truly!!) and we played against my home County at my Club. Pre match buffet, game, then a four course meal (prepared and cooked by my amazing other half) - this was a wonderful day despite the rain trying to unsuccesfully dampen our spirits. Visits by England Presidents are very rare, particularly in a County as small in (Club) numbers as we are. There are a few pictures of the day on my Flickr account. I have played on several occasions this season for Diane's Bowls England representative team and we've had great days - the one though at my home Club was very special!

So..... after all the excitement (and the washing up!) I struggled to do very much yesterday as I was still recovering! Today though my copy of Craft Stamper arrived complete with free stamp so I made an 'all occasion' Oriental card. I coloured the image with watercolours and stamped some chinese writing onto the ribbon. The flower is one I bought last year at the NEC!

Still alive and kicking!

I received an e mail today from a fellow blogger who asked if I was OK as it was over a week since I posted anything on my blog! I'm flattered that I've been missed!

I suppose everyone (me included) has been used to me posting so frequently during the winter months that it's only natural they wonder what I'm up to during the summer!

Although the weather took a downward turn the bowling doesn't stop - we played in Yorkshire last Thursday (cold, windy but dry), had a visit from a Welsh ladies touring team Friday and Saturday at Manchester and Southport (cold and raining), played in a County Pairs event on Sunday morning and afternoon at Southport (windy, dry but cold), then went to my home Club in Bolton to play in a National Mixed Fours (windy and cold), went to watch some of the men from my Club play last night (freezing cold) and today - well today I have had a much needed day off. You may have detected the theme here though - cold is not what kind of weather I want in June!!!

I have done some crafting in between - I started a project at the beginning of last week and finished it today. I cannot post it though as it's a birthday present and I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise! So once the recipient has opened it I will put a pic on here then you can all see I haven't been 'craft-less'!

In the meantime, here's a card I made for a friend using oriental papers and tags.

Normal service has resumed.........

At least I hope it has!! Have been without a full broadband connection since last Wednesday and I wouldn't have believed how annoyingly irritating the last week has been. I have felt bereft without being able to speak to all the friends I have made here in blogland and cyberspace. I could read and send e mails with the aid of a mobile broadband dongle thingy but couldn't do anything else!
I've had the dear husband ranting and raving at the ISP every day for a week (not only on my behalf I might add... he's been unable to sink submarines or shoot anyone with all his 'clan' friends which has made him extremely tetchy!). The dear husband is a computer whizz and has been telling the ISP that the fault was at their end not here.... finally this morning they sent an engineer round to the house....OH told the ISP that the engineer was wasting his time.... miraculously once the engineer arrived our internet connected without him doing anything!!!!!!!!!!!! Spooky??? Or just the ISP deciding that dear husband was right?????
Right, enough of the internet problems...
In the absence of connection I've been at a bowling green somewhere in the country nearly every day and have had no inspiration for any crafting (probably cos I was too irritated!). My County Team recorded their first win in the first inter County game of the season which reminded them that they achieved the impossible last year and won this Inter County league ! Hopefully the Team Manager (Me) can keep all their spirits up - there's a long way to go and there's bound to be a few slip ups on the way!
I have posted a pic of an ATC I made under the term 'fiddling about' (which is what I do when I have no inclination or ideas to make anything meaningful!). It's a sponged ink backgound with an oriental style stamp and a pretty oriental facial image printed on vellum then mounted on card. A few fibres etc added to give some depth. Not one of my more adventurous efforts but wanted to post a pic!!!

Oriental Bird

I am on a bit of a roll this week (or should that be last week????) as my altered tin made the Nautical Theme photo sampler at Theme Thursday - can't tell you how pleased I am, especially as it was my first attempt at making an old tin into something else!

Today at Theme Thursday the subject was 'Birds' - those of you who follow my blog will know I've made quite a few 'bird' things just recently so it seemed silly not to carry on and make another page for my bird journal!

Although for the 'journal jam' I chose the theme 'vintage floral', I thought I might try something a bit different for the challenge.

So here is my oriental bird - I have only done one side as I need to do the other as a progression from the other pages already completed. With this in mind, I thought I'd be better sticking to a more neutral theme, but once I got started I realised that birdie desperately needed an injection of colour! So - on with the pink flowers, thread and fibres! Have not quite worked out how I'm going to make this birdie fit in with the others - if I can't I can see another journal coming on!

(The other birdies I completed for the jam are on my posts from 1st March and 11th February).

Oriental Dreams Part 2

As if the weekly challenge and the monthly art doll swap wasn't enough to keep us all occupied Margaret thought we should do another challenge. Both Margaret and I wanted to do something altered but the problem is the group is international and postage and packing might be a difficult (and expensive) problem for large or bulky or fragile items.
I was the host for the first 'Altered Swap' and I chose to challenge everyone on the group to alter a CD. I selected the theme of Oriental and here is my completed CD.
I love this sparkly hand made backing paper. I think the colour is striking and set this as the base for my colour scheme. I stamped and embossed the images in silver onto blue vellum which I then mounted on thin card to give them a bit more body. Holes drilled in the top and the bottom for the fibres and I also stamped and embossed a flower image onto the back of the sparkly paper (the plain side) and hung this from the bottom fibres. The ric rac braid and the 'dream' chipboard sticker carried on the colour scheme. I added a glass flower to the bottom (unfortunately this hasn't shown up too well on the photo!) and some fibres round the outside edge of the CD. I enjoyed doing this so may make another one as the closing date for entries isn't for another 3 weeks!

The theme of Altered CD's is also the challenge on Saturday Workout.

Inspired by Oriental

I know red and black is much over used when it comes to things Oriental, and much as I like the greens, blues and golds also associated with it, the red/black combo I am still drawn towards, mainly because I think they're striking together.

We were given a sketch this week as a background template on 'Tag You're It' and here is my tag.

The oriental images are printed on a transparency and mounted onto white card hence the pic isn't as sharp as in real life!

(By the way, one of my bloggin 'sisters', Kristen has a draw going on for some Basic Grey papers and other must-have stuff. Draw will be done on Valentine's Day, so why don't you pay her fab blog a visit!)