Tiger Tiger - A Snippet Card

Evening Everyone,

Late, as ever! I don't know where the time is going these days. I'm so busy and finding no time for crafting when there's a search going on for the box of Christmas decorations ... after hours of searching we still haven't located it and fear that it may still be in the attic in our last house :(

Anyway, here's another card made weeks ago; one featuring the swiped ink pad technique.

Needless to say, after all this time I've forgotten what materials I used. The black card base was stamped with a combination of wild flower and tree stamps using VersaMark, which was then brushed with mica powders in several colours, i.e. green, gold and blue.

The topper, a snippet of white card, was swiped with blue, green and sand coloured ink pads as a base for the tiger stamp. This was then matted and layered on to white card and gold textured paper. The greeting was made from an off-cut from the topper and gold paper.

Right then, back to looking for that box of decorations.

Hope you've all had a wonderful weekend wherever you are.

Happy crafting,

Spring Broom Wall Hanger

Evening Everyone,

It's been another busy and disruptive day at the present Casa Worthington ... I may have said this before so at the risk of repeating myself, I hate moving house!?!?

So it's been a case of NOMWW - Nothing on My Workdesk Wednesday - and no time to play, sigh, or not much time because I did sneak in for a few minutes to finish this small wall hanger.

 I've rather tired of making cards for the time being, besides I have a drawer full, so I thought I'd make something to hang on the wall instead. And I know Spring feels as though it's a long way off but it will come again, surely!

The base is a 6" square piece of recycled cardboard packaging covered in a patterned paper, the design is a paint distressed looking one, perfect for this project. The background is stamped with the Broom stamp from A Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady set, first in Versafine Vintage Sepia and then VersaMark brushed with gold mica powder. The sentiment, stamped in Momento Rich Cocoa, is from Sheena's A Little Bit Sketchy Spring.

To make the topper, a stamp block was inked with three shades of Adirondack, Sunshine Yellow, Peach Bellini and Willow, then sprayed with water to create the background. Once dry it was stamped with the same Broom stamp as used on the background. This was then coloured with Memento markers in yellows and greens.

The ribbon and the embellishments, gold die-cut butterflies, gems, pearls and sequins are all from stash.

I'm submitting this to Pixie's Crafty Snippets Playground Week 90 - the topper is made from snippets of white and brown card. While I'm over there I'll take the opportunity to see Di's first Zentangled project ... something I have yet to try, and as it looks so complex and arty, I may never try :)

I hope you are all well and that Wednesday has been good to you.

Take care and happy crafting,

One for CraftyHazelnut's Challenge #105

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick share today - a Christmas card that would seem to fit well with this week's CHNC challenge #105 - Anything Goes

Edited note: At Hazel's suggestion this card is also being submitted to her CHNC challenge extra for January - also Anything Goes. Thanks Hazel!

Hazel is asking us to show any Christmas card that hasn't been seen before or make a start on cards for next Christmas - this is one that hasn't been seen before.

This was a quick and simple card to make but only because I had already created the embossed paper used for the topper ... you can see how this was made in this earlier post. All I had to do was trim it to size, ink around the edges with Tim Holtz DI, Festive Berries.

Then wrap a length of white vellum ... stamped with the greeting using VersaMark and embossed with gold powder ... round the lower part of the topper. Voila!

To finish, the inside is stamped with one of my favourite PB stamps and another greeting.

Materials: white card base; smooth white card; Tim Holtz distress inks in Festive Berries, Shabby Shutters and Scattered Straw; Penny Black Holly Bough stamp; Papermania greeting stamp from Noel set; gold mica powder; Darice Snowflake Swirl embossing folder; strip of white vellum, VersaMark; gold embossing powder.

That's me done for today - I've been merrily crafting away for much of the day and, at the same time, making a serious dent in the snippet pile - more of that later :) 

Life will be getting back to normal for you all, as it is for me ... in my case, that's normal for someone who no longer has to go out to work. The odd thing is, that even though I've been fully retired for three years now, I still look forward to the weekend and the holidays. And, I treat Saturday and Sunday quite differently from the rest of the week. The EM, who has been retired a lot more years than I have, keeps telling me that taking off and doing fun things does not have to be confined to the weekend anymore. That being the case, we are off to visit my sister tomorrow :))

Take care everyone and happy crafting,

WOYWW follow up

Hello Folks

Later than ever today ... I've just had one interruption after the other and somehow never seemed to find the time to sit down and put this post together.

I hope you are all well and happily crafting away.

Yesterday, on my WOYWW post, the photo featured my first attempt to follow Kate Crane's instructions, in the most recent issue of Craft Stamper, how to mix distress inks with mica powders. Here's the finished piece.

After sponging inks on and leaving to dry, I stamped the script stamp in a distress ink which I then brushed with a silver mica powder (from Craftynotions). There's a lovely sheen which, as usual, is better seen in real life.

You can see it better on this photo. I over-stamped with Sheena's Silhouettes Grasses stamp set and black Archival ink. The butterfly has been given much the same treatment with DIs and mica powders and finished off with some green gems.

Materials used:

White deckle-edged square card base; piece of smooth white card for topper; Tim Holtz distress inks in yellows and blues; mica powders; Inkylicious Simply Script background stamp; Sheena's Grasses Silhouette stamp set; black Archival ink pad; green gems

Having completed this and liking the result, I went on to try different shades of distress inks and, again, here's the finished card.

This time I chose an ivory coloured watercolour paper which has, as you can see in the photo, a textured finish which was not as successful ... the texture makes it more difficult to get an even distribution of ink - I'll stick to smooth card in future. 

Materials used this time: 

Black square card base; square of ivory watercolour paper; Tim Holtz distress inks; Perfect Pearls and Craftynotions mica powders; Stazon black ink pad; Sheena Douglas Highland Silhouette stamp set

This is one technique I'll be repeating, just varying the colours and stamps to get the effect I want. 

I did find a wee window in which to finally open my set of H2Os and have a dabble with them. There's now several wet pieces set out to dry. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll do something with them - though not too sure what at the moment.

As I said earlier, my day has been somewhat fragmented and I'm now ready for bed, I won't need much rocking tonight, so I'll bid you all goodnight.

Happy crafting,

WOYWW 174 - What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday

Hello WOYWWers, Followers and All,

Well, would you believe it, we're into October already! I feel as though I've been well and truly cheated this year ... whatever happened to summer? Apart from a few, a very few, hot and sunny days, the last few months have been abysmal. Anymore summers like that and I may have to emigrate :(

Fortunately for us, crafting is, for the most part, an indoor pursuit :))  And as it's WOYWW day, courtesy of the admirable Julia, of Stamping Ground fame, and keeper of workdesks extraordinaire, I am here to reveal what's on mine today.

It's not too bad this week. There's this month's Craft Stamper open at a page describing a technique that involves distress inks and mica powders - which explains why the piles ... yep, more of my piles Lisa :))  ... of those distressing items scattered about. The piece of card at the front is my first attempt at following the instructions and, you'll have to take my word for this, the result is a lot shinier and prettier in real life than it looks in this photo. Most of the other bits and pieces - scissors, rulers, glue tape, etc. - are just part of my permanent crafting arsenal. The exception is the wheel of gems ... they were used to embellish the bunch of snippet cards standing at the back there and they are there until the glue gel under the toppers sets.

And that is my desk this week - pretty boring really. For a heap more interesting desks click the icon on the sidebar and go check out what everyone else is up to today - if you're a WOYWW novice you'll find a warm welcome at every link :)

In deference to Julia's brief, to keep it brief, I'll stop here and just leave you with my hope that you are all keeping well and enjoying better weather than the interminable rain that's our lot in the west of Scotland. I will, as usual, be popping in to visit as many of you as I can, if not today then sometime during the week.

Happy WOYWW and happy crafting,

Something Fishy - a fish themed card for a swap

Hi Everyone,

On the mend and catching up but still taking it easy ... I have a Christening to attend on Sunday and I want to be fit for it :)

I hope you all had a lovely weekend.

The weather here is appalling ... much like the rest of the UK from what I see on the TV news. Those of you down south are enduring floods, again!!! Sigh ... is it ever going to stop?!?!

Perfect weather for ducks and fish so this card seems kind of appropriate.

The theme for this swap tested me ... a lot! I had to search around for fish themed supplies ... I had only a couple of items in my entire crafting arsenal, a shell necklace bought 17 years ago in Cornwall and a Laura Ashley metal stencil bought 19 years ago - I used it back then to add a stencilled border in my bathroom! Here I used it to make an embossed border by passing it through the Cuttlebug, then, with it still in place, stencilled through it with a VersaMark pen and finished by brushing with two shades of blue mica powder.

After a bit of online searching, I finally found the fish stamp set on eBay and the ribbon was a serendipitous find on a visit to the craft centre.

To make the swimming fish topper I followed Barbara Gray's instructions on her DVD, The Art of Transparent Stamping, Part 5 ... I couldn't have done it without her :)

The fish are stamped onto one side of a sheet of double-sided adhesive then covered in clear acetate. On the other side, using a craft knife, firstly, I cut round various parts of the fish and then, in an undulating fashion to represent waves, cut the background. Then it was just a matter of revealing the design bit-by-bit and brushing with mica powders.

The 'porthole' was created by cutting an oval frame of white card and heat embossing it with three coats of Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE). Once it cooled the the topper was assembled and glued together.

The seaweed is made from the die-cut branches my crafty friend, Maureen, aka Scrappymo at Scraps of Life, recently sent me all the way from Canada ... they were perfect for the job.

There's a layer of embossed card under the topper - the folder is, I think, meant to represent rings but I thought it looked enough like water bubbles to use it here. The clear dew drops also remind me of water bubbles.

The inside and back are decorated with a die-cut border - another item from the lovely Maureen.

Materials used:
Cardstock: one A4 sheet of white card, folded to create an A5 size card; snippets of smooth white card for embossed layers
Patterned Paper: one sheet of Crate Paper's Shine from the Sweet Branch Collection - both sides used
Embossing: Laura Ashley metal stencil; Cuttlebug folder from the True Love All-In-One set
Topper: half of a Clarity double sided clear adhesive sheet and half of a clear acetate sheet for fish topper; Stazon Jet Black ink pad; Kars 3 Fish stamp set
Mica Powders: Craftynotions Champagne and Light Gold; Perfect Pearls Interference Blue, Forever Blue, Interference Green, Forever Green, Berry Twist, Forever Violet and Forever Red
Frame: cArt-Us Oval die set; Platinum Melt Art UTEE
Embellishments: die-cuts - branches and border from Maureen; shells, clear dew drops from stash, and the Trimcraft's Smirk fish decorated ribbon from my craft centre.

I got to use up a number of snippets here - enough to submit it to the eagle-eyed Di, over at Pixie's Crafty Workshop, for her Snippets Challenge #39.

Whew! If you've stuck with me this far, many thanks :))  You'll be relieved to know that that is me done for now!

I've a fair old backlog of projects lined up but they will just have to wait because I'm off for a nice cup of tea.

Thanks for dropping by - I appreciate your visits.

Happy Crafting,

Christmas Alphabet - M for Merry

Good Evening,

It's been a lovely day here - sunny and bright for most of it but by the time I came to take the photographs of this card it had turned dark ... that'll be the daylight saving :(  I tried all sorts of light combinations to get some good shots of this card but have to admit failure ... this card is so much nicer seen in the flesh but here it is anyway.

This card is intended for a special lady, but I'm not saying who because, although unlikely, she may just pop in to read this blog.  However, with her in mind, I've gone for a vintage feel using some very pretty collage paper I bought online from an Etsy store, sumptuous gold braid and a lovely combination of purples, pinks and metallics.  

The topper base is black card which was covered in VersaMark and brushed with three shades of mica powder, light gold, silver and forever violet, before stamping the greeting, again using VersaMark to remove the mica powder. The amethyst tear-drop is a treasured gift from my late beloved mother which I am very happy to pass on to this special recipient - I know she will also treasure and take good care of it too.

After printing out and trimming the beautiful collage paper from madebyjanet it was inked around the edges with Victorian Velvet DI - one of my two new ink pads brought back from the craft show - love this colour ... better than Spun Sugar :) The gold braid came from the Bo Bunny pack also found at the craft show.

The insert:

The back:

Blogger seems to be acting up this evening and suddenly I'm unable to upload photographs - very strange.  If it recovers later I will add them to the post. In the meantime here's a list of the materials used:

• Cardstock: Aubergine pearlescent card for base; gold mirri and purple Papermania textured card for matting and layering; smooth black card for greeting topper 
• DP: From a collage sheet from madebyjanet, Big Music Paper - edge inked with Tim Holtz DI, Victorian Velvet
• Stamp: Docrafts Penelope & Percy Christmas Greetings; VersaMark ink pad; Craftynotions Silver and Light Gold Mica Powder Paints; Perfect Pearls, Forever Violet
• Insert & Back Trim: created using a combination of Christmas Inserts #36 and Christmas Delights #08 from Bearly Mine Designs
• Embellishment: Gold trimming from Bo Bunny; Creative Expression Brown Zipper Rose; Craftworkcards Candi, purple; white/purple print organza ribbon and taupe satin ribbon from stash; amethyst tear-drop from personal jewellery collection

I'm submitting this card to  Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge - CHNC Week 44 - someone special
- as this card has definitely been created with someone special in mind.

I'd like to welcome my most recent follower, Rita. I hope you will enjoy keeping up with the makings, meanderings and occasional moans of this happy crafter. You've brought the total of my followers, or encouragers, the more appropriate term used by Shaz of Oz, to over 100. How did that happen? It kind of sneaked up on my while I was still planning what to do to celebrate reaching the century :) However, I've been working on it and, at the risk of being accused of being a big tease, I will be revealing all very soon, so keep watching this blog for my 100 Followers Celebration Giveaway!

In the meantime, Happy Crafting,

Edited Note: Blogger sorted itself out and let me upload the rest of the photographs :)

Out of Africa - gilding flakes again

Hello Everyone,

It's been a busy couple of days, keeping me from posting anything. However, here are the finished cards using the Out of Africa stamp set - some of you may have spotted the toppers on this WOYWW 110 post a couple of weeks ago.

The toppers were made following Barbara Gray's demo,using double-sided adhesive sheets, gilding flakes, mica powders, and the Out of Africa Clarity Stamp set with black archival ink, and simple matting on pearlescent card and layering on Papermania textured cardstock.

The larger (A6) of the toppers was just split into three, matted onto gold coloured pearlescent card and then layered onto a green card base. The smaller one started off the same A6 size but I got a fingerprint on the adhesive and that's a disaster - it shows through the mica :( Luckily the offending print was in the top left corner so I trimmed it off and matted the topper onto a pale gold pearlescent card and then layered it onto a brown card base.

The inserts are just white copy paper stamped with the warrior using Big and Juicy Spice ink pad.

And that's it - off to do a bit more blog-hopping, attempting to catch up after the last couple of hectic days.  I hope you are all well and that you have a great weekend coming up.

Gilded Card - first experiments with gilding flakes

Afternoon All,

The postman brought me a pot of gold last week, well, gilding flakes actually. I've been dying to try these after seeing a YouTube video of Sarah Lawrence of Crafty Notions - link here - demoing the deckle-edged effect. So on black card I applied and spread the glue, then sprinkled and rubbed in the flakes as instructed. The result was nowhere as good as Sarah's but it was my first time!

Not wanting to waste this first effort , however amateurish, I made this topper using up bits and pieces from my stash and adhered it to a ready-made ivory base card. I stamped Hero Arts' Wavy Stars, a favourite of mine, with black ink onto the gilded panel, then with VersaMark onto the black card which I then brushed with gold mica powder. The panel of music note card, although creamy in colour, was a bit too light for my liking so I embossed the edges with gold powder.

The inside and back are decorated with gold embossed stamping. As this card could be used for any number of occasions, I'm leaving the greeting/sentiment for now.

Materials used:

• Card: Ivory Luxury 5.5" Square Card (140mm x 140mm); black card for gilded panel; music note patterned card from Payperbox.
• Stamp & Inks: Hero Arts Wavy Stars; Stazon Jet Black; VersaMark Watermark Stamp Pad
• Other Materials: Gilding Flakes Sunshine,  Light Gold Mica Powder Paints & Craft Adhesive, all by Crafty Notions; Heat It Up Gold Embossing Powder; two jewelled heart embellishments from The Works; black satin ribbon & gold raffia from stash box.

This was fun so, after this first foray into using gilding flakes, I'm now looking at other ways to use them. There's nothing like getting your fingers sticky and covered in gold stuff  ; )

After blogger getting into a tizz last week and being down for a couple of days it's nice to be back to normal again. However, I didn't sit twiddling my thumbs waiting for blogland to get back to normal. No, I took advantage of the enforced downtime and sorted out, chucked out, re-organised and cleaned the craft space and today it's positively gleaming. Even the EM got caught up in the flurry of activity and, after inspecting my handiwork and passing it as impressive, decided I deserved another shelf. So after a quick visit to B&Q, and donning his handyman overalls, the job is done.

Now there is less stash on the floor and more space for The Boss to curl up in - as you can see she likes to keep an eye on me while I play : )

Okay, that's it for today - got a lot to do and so little time to do it in so I'd better get a wriggle on.

Take cared all of you and happy crafting,