Two Cards from the Snippet Pile

Morning Everyone,

It's Sunday, Snippet # 31 Day over on Pixie's Crafty Workshop, and I'm breaking my own tardy record and posting snippet makes today ... how'z about that? It must be the influence of the Olympics.

Oh, and talking of the Olympics, wasn't that ceremony something! I loved it, though it was just as well we had the presenters interpreting for us at times. Particular highlights for me - the film montages ... got to be an inspired way of including TV viewers; the Queen's bit, proving that she does indeed have a sense of humour; the dark satanic mills rising from the ground; the NHS sequence - the children were a delight; Chris Hoyle, Steve Redgrave, and yes, David Beckham's role ... they did us proud - as did all the volunteers. I didn't want it to end, even though I was dead tired by the finish and could hardly keep my eyes open :))

I'd better get to those snippet cards.

First one up, uses snippets of white card and a piece of embossed gold card that's been lingering in the pile for about eighteen months! It's also monochrome ... I think I've caught the bug for this style after making the green cards earlier this week :)

Not much to it really. I inked the music note embossed card with the same gold yellow ink pad used to stamp the lovely old gramophone player image. I used Di's tip of drawing round the labels die to create the matting for the image - works a treat :) The sentiment is made using another trick. I've only got one size of the label punch, so after punching out the sentiment, use the same punch on the gold card for matting. Next, cut the label down the centre and then adhere it under the sentiment leaving a small margin showing at each end - looks as though you've matted with a slightly larger punch. Oh dear, I do hope I've explained that well enough :( Let me know if you need further explanation ... I could do it with photos if that would help :)

Materials used: 

square white deckle-edged card base

music note embossed white card - another from Chris's package

smooth white card for stamped topper

gold embossed card for matting

Artemio's Office stamp set

Tim Holtz distress ink, Scattered Straw

Ladybug Craft's It's Only Words 2 stamp set

Tools: Cuttlebug; Spellbinders Labels Nine. Stampin' Up label punch

The second card is quite different.

Apart from the card base, all the materials came out of the snippets, experiments and embellishment leftovers boxes. In fact, it is possible that certain WOYWWers may recognise the paper as it started life as the wrapping around a gift received whilst in Wiltshire! For this reason, I have no idea who the maker is or what the design is called - but it was far too pretty to throw away :)

All the edges of the paper are inked with pink, and the rose has had the ink sponges over it. Looking at the card again, I think perhaps I should have also inked all round the edges of the base card - it would have tied it all together. The jewelled embellishments started off as brads but I snipped of the prongs and used glue gel to fix them in place.

Materials used: 

white deckle-edged square card base

snippet of flowery paper - maker/name unknown

smooth white card embossed with the Stampin' Up Manhattan Flower folder

Colourbox Cat's Eye Chalk Inks, Pink Pastel and Warm Red

dark rose satin ribbon; two sizes of pink gem brads
greeting from Dawn Bibby's Delicate Scroll stamps set
Tools: oval punch; Cuttlebug

I see that Di is giving us an extension of an extra week in which to get our homework in on time! That's great, now that I've got my snippet cards in, I'm off out to play on the swings :)

Hope you are all enjoying the weekend, whatever the weather ... here it is dull and breezy, but warm, so not too bad and perfect for stopping in and crafting :)

Happy crafting,

Cardmaking Demonstration at Cardwell's Craft Centre

Evening Folks,

And welcome to my newest followers, Catherine, Trisha, Briony, Victoria, Lynn ... if I have missed anyone, I  do apologise, but I am so pleased you are there and hope you enjoy reading about my exploits and viewing the projects I create - thanks for being there :)

Hope you have all had a great day wherever you are. I went along to Cardwell's Craft Centre to watch Sheila of Docraft's demonstrations and it was both fun and instructive.

Sheila is a lovely lady, who not only has lots of crafting know-how, but also a lively sense of humour. It was her first visit to Scotland but judging by her happy smile, I think she won't need too much persuading to return.

The route through the garden centre to the craft centre - how pretty is that :)

The craft centre entrance - inside it's massive. It's well stocked and caters for all sorts of crafts ... papercrafting, stamping, quilting, knitting, jewellery-making, children's crafting etc., etc.

Just a little haul but you didn't think I'd leave empty-handed, did you? The Happy Days collection is lovely, the theme is a period I remember well, the 50s, and so tempting ... what could I do, the 12x12 paper stack, journaling cards and die-cuts just had to come home with me. The stamps come free with the magazine and there was a £2 voucher off the stack in the magazine, so I just had to take advantage of that too :))

The eagle-eyed among you might have spotted my new crafting companion, Bogdan, the schoolboy meerkat. He arrived here a few weeks ago ... all the way from Russia, via Holland and Paris ... I know this because I received email postcards keeping me up-to-date on his progress! Of course, after making such a long and tiring journey just to be with me, he now has a special place on my desk and in my heart ... Bogdan is here to stay :)

Finally, I thought you might like to see these gorgeous giraffes - too tall for the average conservatory, methinks, but still fabulous nonetheless.

It's raining again ... my roses are getting a battering and are beginning to look a bit bedraggled ... oh, for a few fair days!

I'm off to have a quick play with my new goodies.

Happy crafting to you all,

True Beauty

Evening All,

Well, we are waiting impatiently for the Olympics opening ceremony. I been tuning in and out all day, listening to the ringing of the bells and some of the commentary ... what a build up!

I started to write up about this card several days ago and had to abandon it for other things but at last I've found time to post it.

I love heavily patterned paper ... I buy it, admire it, stroke it and then just put it away. Lovely though they are the patterns are difficult to use. However, on my trips around blogland I spotted someone else also trying to tackle this problem and her solution was to stamp over the paper and make a real feature of it as I have done here ... I neglected to take a note of the person concerned, so if you recognise your hand on my card, please contact me so I can give you the credit you are due.

The paper I've used is from the Prima Madeline 6"x6" paper stack, and it is gorgeous. The topper, love the sentiment, is from the same stack. The butterfly was a present from a lovely crafter, Chris ... many thanks. I've covered it with glitter glue and added tiny white pearls to decorate.

The inside.

The back.

Materials used:
Square white base card
Prima Madeline 6"x6" paper stack
Coordinations cardstock - Tim Holtz Milled Lavender
Stamps from Inkylicious: Rose Sauvage; Simply Script
Ink pads: Tim Holtz Milled Lavender; Memento Tuxedo Black
White card with punched edge trim - bought ready-made last year from ebay
Tools: Scalloped edge punch; scalloped edge round punch; straight edge round punch; tiny scallop edging scissors
Die cut butterflies from my friend, Chris
Embellishments: Wild Orchid Crafts - mauve & cream roses, white cherry blossom and black crystal sprays; Ribbon Carousel - baker's twine; tiny paper and satin roses, white and black adhesive backed pearls - all from stash.

There's been no basking in the sunshine here today ... we've had rain, lots of it and it's breezy ... so not been tempted out into the garden at all.

I'm off to a new craft shop I've only recently discovered tomorrow - it's at Cardwell's Garden Centre near Gourock. There's going to be a cardmaking demonstration from Sheila Halliwell of Docrafts and, as the EM is on the hunt for a Rowan tree, we are taking a trip up ... no doubt I might just find that one or two crafty items may slip into my basket :)

Whatever happened to my vow to use up what I had before buying new!?!? I'm still making a real effort to use up stash, but I simply cannot resist acquiring new goodies - the Prima paper used on this card is a case in point. I suppose I did well to last into the sixth month :))

Right, I'm off for a cuppa, have a good evening everyone.

Happy crafting,

Snowy Park - CHNC Challenge 82

Evening Everyone,

I trust you are all well and I guess many of you are already following the Olympics ... it would be hard to escape the TV coverage as it seems to be on any time I've switched on today.

Because my computer broke down earlier this week, I've been busy in the craft space and have completed a few quick and easy projects. First, this is the card I've made for Hazel's CHNC Challenge 82 ... she asks this week that we make a monochrome project.

I opted to use mainly various tones of one colour with white rather than the black/white option, just for a change.

I inked up the stamp with two shades of green before stamping on white card and then added iridescent glitter. Even though it looks black in the photographs, that is green mirri card that the image is matted onto. The same goes for the ribbon ... it's a lovely deep shade of green. The card really does look better in the flesh, so to speak ... the camera may not lie, but it does fail to show the truth at times :))

Materials list:
Square white card base
Cosmo Cricket DP, Sweater Weather
Cuttlebug Snowflakes embossing folder
Penny Black Snowy Park stamp
Papermania ink cubes in two shades of green
Smooth white card for stamping and embossing , green mirri card for matting, iridescent glitter and glue pen; narrow dark green satin ribbon; white card candi - all from stash

After I completed the card I was sitting staring at the inked up stamp, thinking I should clean all that green ink off, when it occurred to me that I could try a technique I've seen Sheena Douglas demoing - overstamping.

To do this, I spritzed the water over the ink and then stamped it on to white card. Once this had dried and I'd cleaned the stamp, I stamped over the image again but this time with black ink. Here's the result.

Instead of glitter, this time I've used Crystal Stickles to decorate the image. The beautiful embossed card and the die-cut leaf spray came in a fabulous RAK from my Docrafts friend, Chris Lee - many thanks Chris.

Once again, it does look much better in real life ... hopefully you can see the hint of green through the black in this close-up.

Materials list: 

Base card, backing paper, white card and green mirri for topper, stamp, green ink cubes, all as for the first card
White embossed card, Tied Together
Die-cut leaf spray
Memento Tuxedo Black ink pad;
Wide check ribbon, Ribbon Carousel
Crystal Stickles, Papermania green glitter brad and white pearls in three sizes - from stash

The backing paper used in both cards is from a piece leftover from last year, or it could even be the year before that, and the white card for the stamped images was rescued from the oblivion of the snippet drawer, making both cards perfect for submitting it to Di's Snippet Challenge - 30 :) 

There's more to share but I'll save that for tomorrow ... it's late and I should be heading up to bed and the land of nod.

I'm looking forward to watching the Olympics opening ceremony tomorrow, that's for sure. The EM, at 73, says he remembers the last Olympics staged in the UK. He was about 11 years old at the time and had to go to the local cinema to see the filmed highlights ... in black and white! He's dead chuffed to be seeing the Olympics in the UK again, and this time in full colour and high definition :)

Now, I'm really off to bed, The Boss woke me at 5.30 this morning, desperate to be let out ... it's been a long, long day.

Edited Note: Sandra over at Stamping For Pleasure has told me I can enter these cards for her July Rudolph Day challenge, and as I intended to but forgot, I'm submitting them now :)

Goodnight All,

WOYWW 164 ... a reasonably tidy desk this week.

Hello Everyone,

Happy WOYWW to you all ... time to snoop around and check out what my fellow crafters are all up to, if anything ... I believe the great fire ball in the sky has made an appearance down south tempting you all outdoors.

In fact, I have heard someone to say it was too hot to be near the computer! I wish!!! Up here in the northern climes we have a return of grey skies :(

Back to the workdesks ... time to hop over to Julia's place, the Stamping Ground - just click the WOYWW logo on the sidebar to do this - and be transported around the world on a desk-shaped adventure.

Here's mine ... photo taken near midnight Tuesday so won't look any different Wednesday morning.

I've been putting together a scrap layout and now it's finished this is the fall-out!

Two plastic folders, one with sheets of alphas ... that's a Bo Bunny one you can see on the top ... and the other with fairly sizeable scraps from 12"x12" sheets of paper. I keep the larger leftovers together in this folder whilst the smaller snippets, lying to the right, go into a separate box.

Under those are two sheets of design paper that I considered using for the layout but then changed my mind, so they will have to be filed back where they came from.

Also out are some Kiwi Lane templates ... my favourite template supplier ... and a pair of small scalloped edge scissors. When these came free with a craft magazine a few months ago, I put them away thinking I'd never use them, indeed, might even pass them on to my granddaughter ... I've used them twice in as many days this week because the scallop they create is a great wee size!

The two strips lying near the coaster are there to remind me of the materials used in the layout. The lovely die-cut flourish lying to the left was a gift from Chris, a crafting buddy :)

I'll be looking for that phone in the morning.

It has just struck midnight, so time for this Cinderella to hit the hay. Will visit as many of you as possible tomorrow or, failing that, over the coming days.

I wish you all a wonderful day wherever you are.

Happy crafting,

Two Tall Thin Cards

Hi Everyone,

Apologies for being MIA ... I've been without my PC for couple of days ... disaster :(

Fortunately, a quick call and my techie wizard, who knew immediately what was ado, was round in a flash to put my little world to rights once more.

Unfortunately, nothing could be done about the freezer that died at the weekend ... water all over the kitchen floor kind of died! It has now been consigned to the town's refuse disposal place and, as we have also got one of those tall fridge/freezers, we have decided not to replace it. Bonus: the kitchen now looks even more spacious without it :)

Okay, enough of that, on to the share for today.

Two quick and easy cards made using the long, thin toppers from the Kanban Rose Garden sheet ... the same one I used on my SILs card I posted about a few days ago. Thought I'd better use them up, otherwise they would linger in the stash for goodness knows how long :))

I added glitter to the rose petals, it's very pretty but doesn't show up too well in the photograph. Cards like these are really handy to have tucked away in the card drawer.

Materials used:
Craft Essentials white base cards, 3.5" x 8"
Kanban's Rose Garden toppers
Iridescent glitter and glue pen
Short leftover lengths of pink satin ribbon for one and mint green grosgrain ribbon
Pink pearls; green gems

Simples! Well, it would have been if it weren't for tying those bows ... they took me forever :)


Hoping to get back to normal now that I'm back online which means I'll be back tomorrow for WOYWW.

In the meantime, I'm working on a scrap layout that seems to be taking me forever :(

I hope you are all well and, for those down south, enjoying the long overdue summer and the beautiful sunshine.

Happy crafting,

A Rose Garden Birthday Card

Hello Everyone,

I'm still not here ... I'm off on my jaunt to the Yorkshire hills ... so by the wonders of modern technology here is a card I made for my sister-in-law, Margaret, who will be 86 on her birthday next month.

A pretty feminine card for a very feminine lady who is going through a hard time at the moment. Her husband of goodness knows how many years, Cyril, has for the last nine years been ill with Alzheimer's. And, sadly, this year it was decided that his condition had become much worse, so much so that Margaret herself has become too old and too frail to continue looking after him. It wasn't an easy decision for the family - but a necessary one. Nevertheless, and understandably, Margaret, despite accepting that it was necessary, is taking it badly now that Cyril is in a care home, particularly as she has never in all her 85 years lived on her own.

This sentiment is one of Pink Petticoats digital New Simple Sentiments #1.

Back

Materials list:

A4 sheet of white card, folded in half to form A5 size card

Holly Pond Hill Victorian Collection 12"x12" design paper - very pretty little patterns in pastel shades but bought about 15 years ago so probably no longer available.

K & Company Brianna Block Collage 12"x12" design paper

Kanban Rose Garden Topper Collection - just love these overblown peach roses

Tim Holtz Coordinations, Milled Lavender

Birthday greeting - from another Kanban Topper Collection - Weston Park Squares & Sentiments

Pink Petticoat digital sentiments - New Simple Sentiments #1

Spellbinders Nestabilities Die, Labels Nine 

Adirondack ink pad, Peach Bellini

Embellishments: Prima Say It With Pearls flourish, Papermania pearls, peach lace, peach satin ribbon, gold peel-off edging

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend and that the weather is being kind to you.

See you all again soon,

Pots 2 Go - Scrap Our Stash July Challenge

Hello Everyone

The challenge over at the Scrap Our Stash Challenge this month is entitled 'Star and Stripes' and I have to admit I was quite stumped for this one. Here in my wee corner of Scotland we don’t celebrate anything with the stars and stripes, however we did see lots of red, white and blue when we were on holiday in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, a month ago ... gosh, is it that long ago already! 

The Diamond Jubilee celebrations were still much in evidence and I just had to take a photo of this delightful shop window.

I chose to make this layout A4 in size – approx 11” x 8” for a change. The papers used are from the Best of British Paper Collection which was issued with a copy of Crafts Beautiful magazine. The bunting was cut out one-by-one and positioned across the top. The title is the name of the shop – the photo has been cropped and matted on red cardstock.

All the embellishments came with the collection except the flowers which I made by punching out shapes, crumpling them up to distress them a little, and adding a tiny pearl to the centre.

I'm not here really ... I'm depending on Mr Blogger to schedule this post for me.

Take care all, and I'll see you when I get back :)

Happy crafting,

Anniversary Card

Evening All,

Weatherwise, we've had a lovely day here, the sun has been out for most of it and it's even been slightly warmer than off late :)

And, we've been preparing for our weekend break ... our anniversary celebration.

Of course, I made a card for my DH.

The topper is one of the Michael Powell images from Docrafts. I spotted DH admiring this in our local craft shop so slipped it into my basket ... when he wasn't looking, of course.

The papers are from Wild Rose Studio's For Men pack. That's silver paper, not mirri card, that I've used for matting - can't remember where it came from but it's really nice. The blue card is also from Docrafts and leftover after another cardmaking session.

I found the greeting in my wee drawer of punched bits and pieces ... it was perfect for this card so I just matted it with some scraps of silver and blue card.

Inside, another topper from the same collection.

This little image on the back was punched from the packaging!

I can't believe I'm doing this but, as there was a number of leftover scraps used in the making of this card, I'm going to be nipping over to Di's playground and submitting this to her Crafty Snippets Challenge #29. It might be something of a snippet first to use some up in an anniversary card for your DH!

Got to be short and sweet today ... I'm being ambitious and trying to type up a couple of posts to schedule in the hope that you won't notice I've sloped off for a romantic weekend :))

Hope you are all well and looking forward to the long summer break - children in England break up today whilst here in Scotland they've been on holiday for the last fortnight already!

Happy holidays and happy crafting,

WOYWW Mark 2 - What a Difference a Day Makes

... now, I'm not bouncing up and down full of beans, but I'm a heckuva lot better than I was yesterday and here's the proof.

Yes, I've found the energy and enthusiasm to tidy the desk. It all started with a visit to the craft space from the EM - he stared at my desk, aghast, and remarked that he couldn't see where I worked, there wasn't a clear space big enough. Sound familiar?

I did realise that I was beginning to accumulate stuff around me ... to hand ... for quickness and ease of use ... while I was trying out inky techniques, but putting it all away again, that was a different matter. I sat there and thought, and thought, what to do? And having thought about it a bit more, I decided that what I really needed was a vegetable trolley! As you do!!! Not only that, but a vegetable trolley that would fit under my workdesk and still be big enough to store stamps and ink pads galore!!! 

Lots of research later and the best one I could find, right height, right depth of basket and right price, was to be found at Argos. This all met with the EM's approval and so this morning he hot-footed it down to our nearest branch and picked up this little beauty :)

Operation centre, aka the dining area, and here I am with my Tommy Walsh mallet finishing it off. The Fairy Liquid was a tip from the resident handyman - smearing the tops makes it much easier to fit all the legs on!

Job done :))

In the craft space and here's what I've done with the rack.

As you can see it slips under the workdesk perfectly.

Lower basket - a mix of rubber and clear stamps.

Middle basket - Claritystamps

Upper basket - ink pads

Now, if I drag this sort of stuff out on to the desk, it will only take a matter of moments to stow them tidily away again.  After all the stamps were decanted into the trolley I was left with this empty basket - perfect for storing some of the smaller punches I do keep on the desktop.

And the final touch, the first sweet peas from the garden - picked especially for the occasion by the EM :)

Gorgeous!

Tomorrow is our 16th wedding anniversary and we are going to celebrate. Now that I'm in recovery mode and the tortuous trotters are very much better ... still not up to any serious mountain walking but short strolls are allowed ... we are going to revisit Kirkby Lonsdale at the weekend. We passed through there last month, on our way to Harrogate, and liked the look of it so much we wanted to return.
As I said at the outset, what a difference a day makes, even the sun is shining :)

Thank you to everyone who sent get well wishes ... they worked!!!

I hope you are all well and looking forward to the weekend too.

Happy crafting,

WOYWW 163 - ink pads everywhere

Good Morning Everyone

It's another What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday ... time to pop over to see Julia, head desk-keeper, over at The Stamping Ground - click the WOYWW logo over in the left sidebar - for the not-to-be-missed opportunity to peek at other folk's workspaces.

Before I reveal the state of my desk, I must apologise to all my fellow WOYWWers for my lack of commenting last week. Because the EM and I share everything, he gave me his cold!

As a result, I really didn't get around to many desks - and I'm still one degree under but hope to do better this week.

On to the desk.

Another mess - the detritus from the ATCs I've been making - tons of ink pads, half of which I didn't use, but got them out just in case, several pieces of foam, a bottle of rock candy distress stickles, and a couple of gem wheels :)

Almost out of site on the left is a box of embossed card and behind everything is a pile of magazines waiting to be sorted out.

In front of that is the final ATC - there's an other one around somewhere, it just didn't make it into the shot. There was five inked backgrounds so there's five ATCs - I've never made so many before!

And right at the front is a packet of my preferred cold remedy tablets - caffeine free - caffeine makes me jittery! This week these have been a vital part of my crafting and non-crafting arsenal :))

A close up of the ATC. The stamp set is Sweet Dreams by Art Journey.

Right, I'm off ... need to get my head down for an hour or two but will be back later to visit as many of you as I can.

In the meantime, I wish you all a lovely WOYWW.

Happy Crafting,

Flying High ATC

Hi Everyone,

Hope you are all having a lovely Sunday.

My cold has peaked today so no crafting has been done ... hopefully tomorrow will see it off :)

So, at the risk of boring you all rigid with the ATCs I've been making here's the third ... and the last for a little while!

The background on this ATC is a mix of Squeezed Lemonade and Peacock Feathers distress inks.

The Flying High stamp set with the balloons was free with Craft Stamper some time ago, and the foliage is from Kanban's Spring Meadow set. 

The stamps were inked with a variety of shades of Papermania cubes. A few of the foliage sprigs were inked with Versafine Olympia Green. 

A scrap of striped design paper was stamped and pieces for the larger of the hot air balloons.  I won't submit this to Di's playground ... I hardly think that scrap warrants being called a snippet :))

Embellishments are some tiny gems in shades of gold and green.

I think ATCs have finally won me over ... I could get addicted :) However, I've some pressing cards to make as there's a few birthdays looming so I'll be putting the ATCs aside and concentrating on the cards for now.

The cold remedy tablets I'm taking are making me sleep a lot ... not a bad thing when you have a cold but it does mean that I'm doing very little of anything. 

I am hoping to stay awake long enough this evening to watch Wallender on my brand new TV ... yes, the EM has treated me to a new flat-screen, DVD playing telly for the craft space. He has his reasons ... he hates Wallender!!!

Oh, and it is our wedding anniversary on Friday ... another reason for the pressie :) Sixteen years ... who would have believed it ... the years seem to have just flown by!

Right, time for another cuppa, I think. 

Happy crafting to you all,

It's the Little Things - another ATC

Evening Folks,

I hope this finds you all enjoying your weekend.

Haven't accomplished much today ... I've somehow managed to catch the EM's cold now that he's got over it - as if having tortuous trotters wasn't enough!

So this is just a quick share this evening.

Just another ATC using one of those inky backgrounds I did earlier this week. On this one there's a mix of all three of the Tim Holtz distress inks, Peacock Feathers, Shaded Lilac and Squeezed Lemonade.

The stamps are a mix of Lavinia Stamps (the spider web, trees, toadstools), Kanban (the foliage, grass birds) and Tim Holtz (sentiment).

The inks are also from a variety of sources - mainly Papermania ink cubes and Memento. I'm still practicing the technique of inking a stamp up with more than one colour, e.g. I inked the spider web stamp with brown for the tree trunks, green for the branches and grey for the spider web. I've found it easier to do this if the ink pads are small - either cubes or cat's eye shaped - that way I can dab the chosen area of the stamp with the corner of the pad.

To make the spider web twinkle, I've used a Versamark pen and silver mica powder (Crafty Notions) - bad photo but you can see the sheen on this view.

I've always considered ATCs more of a challenge than any other thing I've tried and creating a scene from an inky background the most challenging of all, but it's proving to be fun trying :)

I hardly dare mention the weather - it's been good today, again! In fact, the EM had to get the hosepipe out and water the garden!!!

Right, I'm off to settle down with a cuppa and Lewis, then it will be an early bed for me tonight, dosed up with a couple of cold remedy tablets ... never let it be said I don't know how to live :))

Crafty hugs to you all,