A Notecard - Breathe

Hello Everyone,

This is the last of the posts I've scheduled for the week and today I'm sharing a card made for the UKPC Craft Group Swap challenge for this month.

The theme for June is The Sea with this photo as a prompt.

As you can see, I was very influenced by the image of the sea. It's another Brusho background too - I'm obsessed with Brushos at the moment!

Supplies used:

• a square white card base, measuring 5" square, with a scalloped edge (from The Works)
• a scrap of white cardstock cut to create the background piece,spritzed with water and dusted with Turquoise Brusho ink powder
• a scrap of white card, also given the Brusho treatment but with a lighter dusting of the powder this time and cut to form a banner shape
• stamp - Stampendous 'Breathe'
• ink pads - Vivid Ultramarine (for the sentiment) and a turquoise from G Studio (VP0003) - this last was used to ink the edges of the background and the sentiment.
• another scrap of white card, just a smidgen larger than the first piece, for layering the sentiment.

So that's it. The holiday is almost over but tomorrow we will be traveling up to Aberdeenshire to visit my son and his family. We haven't seen them for a while so I'm really looking forward to being with them again.

Hope you've all had a wonderful week too.

Let The Music Play

Evening Everyone

Here's definitely something I made earlier, and then forgot to make a post about it.

It is a canvas board altered to fulfil the theme for the UKPC June Swap - music. I did write down all the materials used at the time but it's lost ... not surprising considering the amount of stuff there is in this craft room, sigh! 

Anyway, senior moments permitting, I'll do my best to remember.

I began by sponging Gentle Blends in pink, green and yellow on to the board, blending the colours in until I was happy with them.

Next, I dabbed silver Buff-It randomly over the surface and then stamped an Inkylicious music script stamp in black ink. Or was it the other way round? I can't recall! However, I do remember that to get the random effect I didn't put the stamp on a block but just held it in my hand and stamped here and there until I was happy with it.

The tag was made with white card, sponged with the same Gentle Blends and edged with Pebeo silver wax. The phonograph stamp is from the Artemio Office set. The embossed corners are from a set of craft stickers from Craft Works, they've been given the silver wax treatment too. Once finished I layered the tag on to deep pink card before attaching it to the canvas board.

The title was typed on to white card on my vintage typewriter, then cut out and edged with black ink.

I used shrink plastic and the phonograph stamp to create this little embellishment. All the lace, ribbon, spider web trim, twine and the button were found and liberated from my stash.

I'm amazed! I don't think I've done too badly remembering after all ... there's hope for me yet :)

Hope you've had as good a day as I've had and I wish you a good day tomorrow.

Thanks for taking the time to look.

Happy Crafting,

September Tag

Morning Folks,

I hope life is treating you well wherever you are and whatever you are doing.

I have a tag, made for a swap, to share with you today and it's my homage to the great man himself, Tim Holtz.

Needless to say, I had almost nothing from the supplies required for this month's tag but nothing ventured, nothing gained :)  I simply followed his instructions, improvising, adapting and substituting as I went.

For example, where TH used a manila label, I cut a scrap of white card to size and shape, and where he used a star patterned stencil, I substituted star-shaped sequin waste. Embossing paste, I had none ... so I made some up, a vaguely remembered recipe Ali Reeves mentioned during a TV demo some time ago, mixing PVA (white/Elmers) glue with cornflour (cornstarch) ... it worked perfectly :)  And that is pretty much how I continued ... I got pretty stumped on a few of the steps but, after cogitating and deliberating over the instructions, usually thought of a suitable substitute for almost everything needed to complete the tag.

One of Tim's mantra's is that we should 'embrace imperfection'. Well, I have, quite literally by including it on the tag ... seemed appropriate somehow given how imperfect the tag is :))

I won't say there wasn't times when the little grey cells felt defeated but it was a very satisfying exercise and a great way to use a few snippets of card. And at the mention of snippets, I am reminded that I can submit my tag to Pixie's Crafty Snippets Playground - any excuse to visit the duck pond and feed the ducks :))

Materials used:

• scraps of white card from the snippet box
• Tim Holtz distress inks - Festive Berries, Peacock Feathers; Dried Marigold, Brushed Corduroy, Vintage Photo and Black Soot
• dimensional paste made with PVA glue and cornflour
• sequin waste, masks from Special Touch and Crafter's Workshop and a plastic stencil for numbers
• white acrylic paint
• stamps - Craft Stamper butterflies, Denami Design dragonfly and the ruler from a sewing set that was free with a magazine, Artemio key, alpha set for letters - maker unknown
• gold embossing powder
• punches - circles in two sizes
• Archival Jet Black ink, VersaMark
• Tim Holtz Idea-ology Chitchats and black marker
• white American seam binding - coloured with distress ink

Edit Note: having been ordered by BJ to enter this on Tim Holtz' blog NOW ... how do I dare to disobey :) 
Thus, I'm submitting this tag to Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2013 - September 

It's dental check-up day, again :( Two appointments, one for the hygienist and the other for the dentist himself, groan ... I know it's essential but that doesn't make it any easier. Ah well, it will be soon over.

Hope you have something much more pleasant in your diary for today.

Take care and happy crafting,

Lavender Card and Bookmark Set

Afternoon Everyone,

This month's UKPC SWAP challenged me to create something on the theme of lavender ...  it could be the colour or the plant or whatever ... the choice was up to me. I love lavender flowers - the scent as you brush past the plant is delicious - so the decision was easy, especially when I remembered I had the brilliant Pamela West CD set to draw on for materials and this set is the result.

I printed of several sheets for the decoupage and sentiments, backing papers, insert, bookmark and the envelope.

For the card I put together the decoupage and layered it on to the plain backing paper, same with the sentiment.

I added a piece of card, coloured using the shaving foam method and Cosmic Shimmer Mist ... I was shocked to discovered that it's more than two years since I did this piece - click the link for how to of the method.  This I embossed with a super Dragonfly folder (a winning from the lovely Di's Pixie's Crafty Snippet Playground) ... dragonflies just seemed right with lavender but unfortunately the little dragonflies don't show up so well in the photo, sigh, isn't that just the way of it! It has been layered with some of the backing paper which has been edged with one of my two precious Martha Stewart punches, I think this one might be called Arch Edge but can't honestly say I'm sure.

I made two more dragonflies by stamping on to scraps of the inky card ... it has a lovely shimmery finish which is perfect for dragonfly wings. Black gems and black Stickles have been used to decorate the bodies.

 

I did use a sheet of the insert paper, trimmed down, as a layer on the front of the card and the topper sheet provided another little image for the back.

 

The bookmark was printed out on plain paper and then adhered to white card before folding and adhering the edges together.

The envelope is cleverly designed to give the option of being flat or being a quarter inch or so deep - perfect for a card that has some dimension to it.

Materials used: 

• plain white A6 card base
• Pamela West CD for decoupage topper, backing/layering papers, sentiment, bookmark, insert
• the piece of inked card hand done with the shaving foam technique and Cosmic Shimmer Mists, Meadow Lush, Blue Lime & Purple Violet
• Craft Concepts Dragonfly Embossing Folder
• Martha Stewart Arch Edge punch
• Denami Design Dragonfly stamp
• Memento Tuxedo Black ink pad
• Black ProMarker
• black gemstones, narrow lilac organza ribbon, Black Diamond Stickles from stash

I'm submitting this to Pixie's Crafty Snippets Playground - Week 83 - where Miss Di's only requirement is that we use snippets ... that's the hand coloured Shimmer Mist card on this card. As it's Sunday, start of Pixie's snippet week, I'll be able to skate right through the playground gates today ... unlike yesterday's debacle, talk about being embarrassed :(

Garden update: from my window, I can see a beautifully elegant collared dove preening himself/herself ... I've no idea how you tell the difference!  I think it is waiting for the EM who has been patiently trying to tame this one enough to get it eating out of his hand, and he could be close to succeeding :) 

Weather update: it's been raining, pouring cats and dogs in fact, but it has dried up now and the sun is struggling through the clouds. It looks like it's going to be a lovely evening.

I hope it is just as pleasant wherever you are. Take care and happy crafting. 

Faith is the Bird

Evening Everyone,

I trust you have all had a good day and that you have accomplished all you have set out to do. After spending much of yesterday away from home, I've been catching up today - mostly tidying up my messy craft desk and dealing with all the scraps left over from all the birthday cards I found myself making recently. In fact, I've given myself a challenge to use them all up rather than add them to the snippet box ... I could be some time :)

The card I have to share with you this evening is one made several days ago for the UKPC swap. I know it has been received so it's now okay to let you see it.

My swap partner's favourite colour is lilac so, naturally, that's the colour I chose. The design is based on this sketch - taken from Cardmaking and Papercraft March 2011:

As you can see, I decided not to make a flat card this time but to use a ready made shaped card which already had the circle cut out. The topper was cut out of patterned paper that had a very tiny green polka dot on a white background. It was then sponged with a lavender ink before layering stamping on top using bubble-wrap, the string board - previously described in this post - feathers, bird on branch and sentiment. That sentiment has been languishing in my stamp collection for many months just waiting for the right occasion, that came with the choice of bird patterned paper ... birds became the theme.

The flower embellishments were made from snippets using a large daisy punch and several smaller ones - all shaped and layered together and a gem added to the centre of each before adhering them to the card. I have my friend Cassidy to thank for the beautiful filigree butterfly.

Because of those snippets I'm off to the playground to visit Di over at the Pixie's Crafty Snippets Playground - Week 73  - where the challenge is always to use snippets in whatever project made.

Materials: 

• a white pre-cut card base; smooth lilac card
• papers - polka dot design Crafts-Too Dots and Stripes pack, bird design Crafty Individuals Background Papers Book 3 Springtime, Papermania Chelsea Green Capsule Collection, lilac paper Docrafts Woodland Folk pack 
• inks - Tim Holtz Mulled Lavender, Memento Tuxedo Black & London Fog, Adirondack Eggplant 
• Die-cuts pre-cut filigree butterfly & lilac scalloped circle, circle X-cut die for topper 
• stamping - bubble-wrap and string on board for texture, Hero Arts Feathers, Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Visual Artistry Collection (bird on branch), Sheena's A Little Bit Sketch 2 Faith (sentiment), Ladybug Crafts It's Only Words 2 (greeting) 
• punches - Woodware daisy flowers 3/4" and 1.1/2", EK Success large daisy flower, Martha Stewart edge punch, Stampin' Up label 
• plum ProMarker; Violet organza ribbon; violet gemstones

That's about it for me for now. I'm off to watch the final part of Scott & Bailey with the EM but I'll be back later for an hour or so when I hope to do a bit of blog hopping before bedtime.

Just in case I don't see you later, I'll bid you a good night :)

Happy crafting,

Freedom and Happiness - embossing themed swap card

Hi Everyone,

It's been a wet and miserable day here and I wish I could say I spent it crafting but I'm afraid I have been otherwise engaged.

I hope you have found plenty opportunities to craft instead.

However, I can now reveal this card I made for a swap I participate in. This month the challenge was to include embossing ... any and as many types of embossing as you wished. So here's what I came up with.

There's three areas embossed on this card - the large back panel, the middle blue panel and the sentiment topper.

The large panel started of as a piece of smooth white card. I inked it up with two shades of blue, one from Big and Juicy, Hydrangea, the other Tim Holtz Stormy Sky, and one brown shade, Pumice Stone. Next, it was stamped all over with a selection of flourish stamps in Stormy Sky and then brushed with Champagne mica powder - in real life this gives a lovely sheen but sadly it isn't showing up very well in the photos. (This is the technique I discovered recently in Craft Stamper) Finally it was put through the Cuttlebug and embossed with the Scrolls Background folder.

The middle panel is made of a textured blue card,  also put through the Cuttlebug, this time using the Mini Polka folder which was first smeared with a VersaMark pad. Silver embossing powder was sprinkled on the debossed side and then heated to melt into the dimples.

The sentiment topper was cut from the same piece of patterned paper, Vintedge Flourish, as the bird topper, and matted on to a layer each of Kraft and navy card before stamping the sentiment with Vintage Sepia which was then heat embossed with clear powder.

The flourishes were stamped and brushed with the mica powder on the inside too. To set the mica I gave it a light spritz of hairspray.

Materials used:
Cardstock: A4 sheet of white hammered card for base; Core'dinations navy card for layering; Docrafts Papermania blue textured cardstock; Kraft card; Westcountry Paper - A5 Elegance Satin Ice White for the large stamped and embossed panel 
Ink pads: Big and Juicy Hydrangea ink pad; Tim Holtz distress inks, Stormy Sky and Pumice Stone; VersaMark; Versafine Vintage Sepia
Patterned Paper: Vintedge Flourish patterned paper
Stamps: Dawn Bibby's Delicate Scrolls stamp set; Creative Expression's Sincere Sentiments stamp set
Embossing Folders: Darice Scrolls Background; Docrafts' Papermania Mini Polka; 
Mica Powder: Crafty Notions Champagne
Embossing Powder: Stampendous Clear; Heat It Up Silver 
Ribbons: caramel organza ribbon; navy satin ribbon

All the materials for this card came out of either my stash of supplies or my endless pile of snippets so, on that basis, I'm popping over to Di at Pixie's Crafty Workshop and submitting it to Sunday Snippets #42.

I won't be around on Friday - I'll be up in a Glasgow hospital undergoing a couple of exploratory, and somewhat invasive procedures, which will keep me occupied for much of the day - but hopefully I'll be back, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, on Saturday.

In the meantime, I wish you all a great Poet's Day (Push of Early, Tomorrow's Saturday) and a happy weekend to come.

Happy crafting,

WOYWW - Wk 176 - What's On Your Workdesk

Hi WOYWWers, Followers and All,

Last week I wasn't up to participating in WOYWW and missed the fun so I'm back this week to join in the massive weekly snoop around the world's crafty spaces courtesy of the estimable Julia Dunnit, our amazing keeper of the desks, over at the Stamping Ground. Don't know what this is all about - where have you been?!?! To join in click on the WOYWW icon on the left sidebar there - you'll enjoy the experience :)

This photo was taken late Tuesday evening but I can assure you it will look exactly the same in the morning. In the forefront, what you see is the beginnings of a Halloween tag! Now, I don't do Halloween but the EM suggested that I make an exception this year and create a card for our wee granddaughter because she does do it. She gets into costume and enjoys the whole witches, ghosties, spiders and scare-yourself-rigid thing. Instead of a card, I've opted to make her a tag to hang in her room - she'll love it :) I haven't really got a plan, I'm just playing around with a couple ideas and I've pulled out some supplies that I think might be useful - suitably spooky paper, coordinating cardstock, ribbons and trims, black ink pad, of course, a couple of punches, a roll of spider web-like stuff, and the Hougie (my trusty score board) - there's the beginning of a rosette lying on top. That bit of grey card at the front is my go-to tag template - I made it a couple of years ago and it's still going strong.

At the back, among all the usual bits of crafty stuff, you can see a few tubes of rub-n-buff in a dish, a bottle of really good adhesive, a box of baby wipes, oh, and my treasured WOYWW badge :)) There's also a couple of cards I've just completed - they are propped up on top of two packs of card bases from Craftwork Cards and Docrafts Papermania  papers and flowers, from the Chelsea Green Capsule Collection, used in the making, are still on top of the baby wipe box waiting to be put away. Here's a couple of close-ups:

Lovely paper and I just love red and green together :)

Finally, just in front of the chook cupboard is a card the postie delivered only this morning :)

It's a swap card from Julia S-W at Julia's Stuff - isn't it fabulous!

I love everything about it - the inked and embossed background is beautiful and the glossy inked flowers are gorgeous and who wouldn't love the cute rabbit and the goose. Another wonderful piece that will go up on my display shelf and be treasured. Julia's post on how she created this card is here.


Mrs D will probably not be one bit surprised that I've nattered on as usual ... hope she will forgive me, yet again :)

Hoping to get around to visiting a goodly number of you today, though I cannot promise to visit you all - wish I could but there are so many of you and so little time :) However, I do promise to do my best and if you leave a comment I will definitely return the visit and leave you a comment too as long as Mr Blogger isn't playing up ... he has already signed me out, with absolutely no by your leave, while I've been writing up this post!

In the meantime, I wish you all a wonderful week and a happy WOYWW.

Happy crafting,