Thinking of You

Evening Folks

I hope you are all well and looking forward to the coming weekend, even though for many of us in the UK it's going to be a cold one.

I'm looking forward to it even though I haven't planned to be doing much more than staying in and keeping warm :)

Sadly, the EM's sister's husband, Cyril, who had been ill for some time, passed away in hospital yesterday. The two quick and easy cards below were hastily made and sent to the EM's sister and Cyril's son and their families.

The photo strip was a leftover from an A4 sheet of photographs ... Foto Finesse Floral Toppers from Handy Hippo. I did hesitate to use the strip because of the splash of red from the poppies, but then I thought of what poppies represent - remembrance - and decided to go ahead with it. I'm glad I did because the EM loved the card and thought his sister would too.

It's matted on to a strip of blue Papermania textured cardstock from the snippet box which has been edged with a scalloped punch. The background stamping consists of various fern stamps from Sheena Douglass' A Little Bit Sketchy 2 Optimism set in Tim Holtz DI Stormy Sky. After stamping, I used a damp brush to 'paint' the fronds of the ferns to give a watercolour effect.

The stamping was carried through on to the inside and the back.

The second card, made with a much more subdued mix of blues and silver, uses the last of the photos - a lovely close-up of some fluffy seed heads. The base is a Kanban embossed card in silver and pale blue, the belly band and photo mat are from a scrap of navy blue Double Dot Cardstock from Bo Bunny.

 
A simple trim made from a strip of the card was added to the inside and back.

Once again my ribbon filing system proved to be a boon - I was able to find the perfect shade of satin ribbon   to trim this card very quickly. And even though I'm hardly half way through putting the stamp catalogue together locating the 'thinking of you' stamp was a doddle! It's not an exaggeration to say that Di of Pixie's Crafty Workshop has my undying gratitude for showing me her system ... it works a treat :)

And talking of Di reminds me that with all the snippets, leftovers and scraps that went into the making of these cards they can be submitted to Pixies Crafty Snippets Playground - Week 63

No materials used list tonight - it's been a busy day and I'm too tired. So, if you have any questions about the materials, please feel free to ask.

See you all tomorrow, hopefully :)

Take care and happy crafting,

The lengths Santa will go to ...

... deliver the presents :)

Hi folks, sorry I've been missing for a few days - couldn't even participate in WOYWW yesterday - boohoo!

I overdid it sorting out the craft space and put myself out of action! Nothing permanent, just a little setback and I'm getting back into the swing of things again.

I was able to spend an hour or so yesterday evening in the newly rearranged, reorganised, sorted and tidied craft space - lovely! The cataloguing of stamps was going along nicely until the record cards ran out! It's about half way done (I'm sure I never bought half of my collection - they breed when I'm asleep). A new supply of record cards is on it's way but until they arrive I've found another job to keep me occupied.

There's a couple of boxes of old cards from Christmas, birthdays, etc., waiting to be recycled, so I've challenged myself to make as many cards as I can before the record cards are delivered. This is the first.

When this card arrived at Christmas, I just loved the image of Santa endangering life and limb to deliver that teeny-weeny present to the chick in the nest :)

Inside decorated with washi tape 

To make the card, I die-cut the image with a plain circle die and matted it on to a slightly bigger circle (traced from the die then cut out with scissors) made from a snippet of red card which was then edged with crystal  glue. The band across the middle of the white card base is made up of two strips of red washi tape - a very nice houndstooth pattern.  A few red gems and some baker's twine completes the card.

Materials used:
Kanban 4" square white base card
Front image from an old card and X-cut nesting dies - circle
Snippet of red cardstock and Stickles - crystal
American Crafts red houndstooth washi tape
Red/white baker's twine and Anita's gem wheel - red gems

Back decorated with the washi tape

I'm submitting this to Hazel's CHNC challenges and, because I managed to use a snippet of card, to Di's playground too.

CHNC challenge 115: Santa and/or his helpers - no helper but Santa himself and clearly he needs helpers!

CHNC challenge extra for March

Pixies Crafty Snippets Playground - Week 63

Now, as I'm under orders to take it easy, I'm going to fetch a cuppa and settle down to visit some of my fellow bloggers - I'm curious to see what you've been up to in my absence :)

Take care everyone and happy crafting,

Tomorrow - the last of the inky backgrounds

Hi Everyone,

Groan! The rearranging of stuff in the craft space goes on still, so I've just escaped for a moment or two to share this little card with you.

Perhaps you'll be relieved to know that this is the last of my inky backgrounds, made using the last of the ink on the block. Having spritzed the ink with yet more water, it became quite diluted making the result fairly washed out. So, to add a bit more interest some sequin waste was inked through and a grid texture stamp was also applied to the background.

 

Once that had dried, the bird on the branch flourish and the sentiment were stamped in black ink. To do the top right flourish, the leaf and branch part of the stamp only was inked up, omitting the bird, and it was stamped upside down. Finally, the topper was matted on to a piece of black cardstock from the snippet drawer and adhered to a square shaped card base. 

Materials used: 

Card: white square Kanban base card; black cardstock for matting

Inks: Tim Holtz distress inks Shabby Shutters, Scattered Straw, Stormy Sky, Shaded Lilac; Adirondack Lights Peach Bellini, Memento Tuxedo Black

Mask: sequin waste

Stamps: LOTV Inspirational Sentiments; Art Journey, Sweet Dreams; Inkadinkadoo Bird Streamer

One snippet used certainly does nothing to reduce the scrap mountain, but it does mean I can pop over to Pixie's Crafty Snippets Playground - Week 63 and see what's what there :)

It's been snowing off and on here all day today but it's not lying ... in fact, the sun is shining and it looks as though it's going to be a glorious sunset. Doesn't look as though I'll be building a snowman anytime soon :(

Hope the mothers among you have had a wonderful day.

Happy Crafting,