Anything Goes Again

We've decided to stick with the Anything Goes theme again this week. I did have a big plan about what I was going to do - and then I ran out of time. So, instead, I dug into my draw where I have kept all those bits I kept from past demo days (and just couldn't throw away), and made up a few cards. 

These ones are made using Crafter's Companion Easel cards - in this case, the heart and the "square". I have also tried to use older dies that I had for making DT cards and probably never saw the light of day again - and in one case, a piece of card I didn't want to throw out.

So, the first heart is cut from Kraft Card, and I used some cream patterned card that I printed from a Crafter's Companion download (I think). If I recall correctly, the designs were originally made in A3 card, but then brought out in digital form. I used CC Stitched Edge Heart dies, with dies from Sara Signature Vintage Tea Party. The flowers are Hobby House and the sentiment I think is from Sara Signature Flutterby.

The second heart easel, is also cut from Kraft Card, with some Pink Core'dinations. The patterned overlay - cut with the decorative dies that come with the Easel Card - is CC Shabby Chic A3 card. The roses are the cheap ones you can get from The Range, and the little heart is embossed with a mini folder that came with the Diamond Press Starter Kit. I use the same sentiment as above.

The third heart easel is cut from black card, and the patterned is another CC download. The little hearts are CC Stitched Edge dies, and the shoe is from the Catitudes collection. The sentiment is CC Essentials Only Words.

And finally, the "square" easel is cut from Centura Pearl - but I managed to use it the wrong way round. The pink patterned card is Hunkydory - left from a topper set, and so is the actual topper. It's one of those Hunkydory ones where they print the design on the corner of the A4 cardstock. I rarely use them with the toppers - but then struggle to think how to use them!! I may have solved that one now. The butterflies come with the Easel Card die set, and I used a CC Stitche Square for the stopper.

I have  loads more of these Easel card bases already cut - so will undoubtedly be making more in the not too distant future.

Take care, and stay safe,

Cxxxx

All Geared Up

Yesterday was my stepson's birthday. It's the second year in a row he hasn't really been able to celebrate. This year because of lockdown, and last year he was in hospital having his gall bladder removed!! Here's hoping next year will be better.

Josh loves cars, so generally that's what I put on his birthday cars.

This one is a Hunkydory Pick and Mix Topper called A Retro Ride. I loved the yellow and red combination, so really picked that up with the mats and layers. I used Papermill Post Box Red Card, with some extremely old Create and Craft Yellow Textured Card (it's not actually textured - it just looks it). I also used some Crafter's Companion Luxury Gold Matt cardstock. I tilted the topper for a bit of interest, and cut the letters with Diamond Press Block Alpha.

Take care and stay safe,

Cxxx

Baby Cards

Last week, I shared a baby card with you, that I had made for our new Great Nephew. Today, I have the other two cards - one was sent to my in-laws (Great Grandparents) and the other to my brother-in-law and sister-in-law (Grandparents).

This one is using Hunkdory Special Moments - Bundle of Joy topper. I used silver mirror card and the paper is from an old Kanban paper pad. The words are from Crafter's Companion Essentials Only Words collection.

This one is Kanban Bundle of Joy Topper, with co-ordinating paper from the same Kanban paper pad as above. More silver mirror card and the dies are from same collection.

Take care,

Cxxx

Anything Goes!

Monday morning, and another new challenge over at Use Your Craft Stash on FB! We've gone for and Anything Goes theme this week - so..... Anything Goes. Whatever crafty project you are making with your old stash, join us and enter the challenge- just remember to add your photo to the album and tell us what stash you've used. Here's my inspiration for the week.

At first, I was thinking "We don't have a theme! I don't know what to do!", but then though, what do I really want to play with from my stash? Two things came to mind - rice papers and my melt pot. So

I used them to create the canvas.

The rice paper is an A4 one from Stamperia called Rose Garden with Fence, and I've used a 10x12 canvas.

As the canvas is larger than the paper, I used a palette knife to splodge white gesso and Imagination Crafts Menthol Starlight paint, onto the canvas. Then, rather than using a brush, I used the knife to spread it across the canvas. The paper was then stuck down with IC Satin Decoupage Plus.

The next step was to make some embellishments using the Melt Pot. I found the receipt in with the instruction book, telling me I bought this back in 2013, and I bought all the stuff to go with it - I have loads of large tubs of UTEE and some small ones too. I have the large tub of clear. I have the beeswax with a separate pan, the texture treads, inks designed to colour UTEE and a few moulds. But I am obviously out of practice as I managed to get the stuff on me twice - and that is very painful.

I never throw the unused UTEE out - and consequently I have a collection of things I never used, or ends of batches that I pour into little silicone moulds to set and keep for later. I wanted green leaves for the canvas, so gathered all the green and light coloured pieces from my scraps boxes, chucked them in the pot, and poured it into the moulds. There was a lot left over, so that has been saved for another day.

   

I didn't have much pink, so used the little bit I had, and mixed it with white, blue raspberry and clear UTEE. The little balls are UTEE Flex. The UTEE can be quite brittle when set, so this helps to stop it shattering if dropped.

Once made, the top can become matt from being in the mould. You can heat with a heat gun which slightly melts it and makes it glossy, but I decided to drag something else out the cupboard - my Cosmic Shimmer Mica Powders - which I dusted over the top. I used Golden Pear and Pearlescent.

 

And then, as always happens with me and mixed media, I forgot to take any more photos. But the next steps were stencilling the corner details on using Sheena Create a Flower A Leaf of Graph Paper stencil and IC Shabby Chic Relief Paste in Sage and Ashy Rose. I dusted these with Mica Powder too.  A little bit of stamping with an IC art stamp and Distress Oxides in Bundled Sage and Worn Lipstick added a little more to the background (but would have been better if done before the stencilling. And then I attached the embellishments with Finnabair Art Basics Heavy Body Gel, as they are quite heavy in relation to the canvas.

And there you have it. We hope to see all your amazing creations this week. 

Cxxx

I have entered this into: 

Mix It Up Challenge Blog #37

Love to Craft Challenge Blog #46

New Baby

Good morning!! Today I have the first of three baby cards to share. We have a new baby in the family - my nephew and his girlfriend have had a second baby boy. The first card is the one I sent to them. The other two, which I will share in the next couple of days, were for the grandparents and great grandparents.

So, Fletcher was born on Monday and I had to wait until the cards were received before posting. 

This is an 8x8 card using Hunkydory Pick and Mix Little Effalumps.  The background is made up of matt gold mirror card, the blue stars is from a Hunkydory card pack and the pale blue and yellow are from an old Kanban Pad. The white Centura Pearl is embossed with an old Crafter's Companion Embossalicious Everyday folder called Clouds. The balloons are cut with Crafter's Companion Essentials Balloons, and the clouds are from the Sara Signature Little Angel collection.  Lettering is cut with Diamond Press Alpha letters. The little star decorations are the waste from cutting the balloons.

We are looking forward to the day we can meet our great nephew - and also see our grandchildren again. Hopefully in the not too distant future.

Take care and stay safe,

Cxxx

A New Home

It's not been an easy road for them with all the COVID-19 stuff, but my stepson and his girlfriend were finally able to move house this week.

I managed to rustle up a simple card from my stash. The patterned card and toppers are very old Kanban - Home Sweet Home. And I just mounted them onto green and red core-dinations card with a few pearls. Simple and quick! 

Having lived in a small ground floor flat, they are starting to get used to having a garden and an upstairs!! Doug, the dog, is not going to know himself!!

Take care,

Cxx

All at Sea

Morning!! New week - new challenge at Use Your Craft Stash. The time the theme is "All at Sea" and/or "Blue".  So anything related to the sea - mermaids, fish, boats, beaches, lighthouses, beach huts - or just anything blue. Pretty wide scope there!!

I've gone for both this week. I started with an old Kanban Topper sheet called Beach Huts and Boats. I know it's very old because there are some postmarks on the little tags that say 2007!! 

I decided to use the whole sheet and make a little boxed set of cards. I used some 5x5 Scalloped Card Blanks from my stash, then looked through my boxes for all my blue patterns and dumped it all on my desk before sorting through and making decisions.

I ended up using the pad of paper from Lidl called Summer - it's the green one poking out from underneath. This one's been in my stash for a few years - and it had the perfect sea themed, blue papers in there.

I used some 12x12 blue card for the first layer - the boats have it embossed with Leoie Pujol's Bubble Explosion and then inked with Faded Jeans Distress Ink.  I used an old Kanban card sheet called Beige Script (think it came with a birds set) and the paper from the pad that looked like waves. I also used the little tags with some baker's twine.

For the beach huts, I embossed the blue card with Sara Signature Contemporary Christmas Elegant Snowfall folder, and again inked with Faded Jeans. I used another old Kanban card sheet called Natural Felt, and chose the seashell paper for these. I also used the sentiments that came on the topper sheet. All four had the addition of some flat back pearls.

The box was made on my Crafter's Companion Big Score using A3 Centura Pearl Snow White card.  I decorated the top with the same card and paper - and used my Embossalicious Everyday Beach Hut Folder - again with Faded Jeans ink. I also used the last of the sentiments from the sheet.

When I do commissioned cards, I generally only do boxed cards of various sizes, and I always like to decorate the inside of the box too. So I used up scraps to line both the inside of the lid and the base in a similar way to the top.

We're looking forward to seeing what you come up with this week - so get digging in that stash!!

Take care and stay safe,
Cxxxx

Finally finished!

I have finally finished the first of the quilted bed throws. The other is almost identical - just a different colour backing.  I always find the binding bit tricky, and can never be bothered to stitch by hand, so it can be a battle on the machine when you get to the corners. 

So here's the finished article. You can just see the colour of the feature wall behind, which is why the Country Yard fabric was perfect!! On to the next one - and I think I may need some cushion covers too!!

Take care,

Cxxx

Circles and Furry Things

Morning. It's another new week. I've just kind of bumbled through this past one, with plenty of baking and tidying keeping me occupied in the not so nice weather.

And a new week means a new challenge over at Use Your Craft Stash. This week it's Furry Critters and/or circles. So any animal with fur or just use circles - whichever is easier. And of course, we would love to see any type of craft within the theme. 

I chose to use this Darkroom Door Eclectic Stamp called Sitting Dog. It was a gift from a good crafty friend of mine, and I'm ashamed to say that I've never used it before.  And to stamp it, I dug out another piece of stash which wasn't even out of the bag - this Crafter's Companion Stamping Mat.  I stamped the image using Gathered Twigs Distress Ink onto Neenah Classic Crest Card.

I marked out the circle I would be cutting out, so as I didn't bother colouring too big an area. I used water to move the Distresss Ink and added a little more detail by going back in with the ink on a brush. The tongue was coloured with Watermelon Aqua Pencil (Crafter's Companion) from the Florals tin.

The background was created using Charcoal Brown Aqua Pencil from the Essentials Tin, and Tumbled Glass Distress Ink. To keep with the theme, I mounted it onto circles of card - all from my scraps box.  The large piece of brown card at the back has an aperture cut into it (where you can see the white) and was embossed using Crafter's Companion Textures Distress 8x8 folder.

We look forward to seeing what you come up with this week. 

Take care,

Cxxx