Butterfly blues ....

This is quite late for my second post of the week - so just a quick one today. This card was for my niece's 17th birthday.  I started with a white, square base card from Craftwork Cards (just smaller than 6x6). The brown card is from a DCWV 6x6 Naturals self adhesive Mat Stack and the Kraft colour card is Papermill (Buff). I embossed a piece of Creative Expressions Coconut White card with my Grand MBossabilities folder. 

The edge of the light blue Bazzill card was cut with a Spellbinders Classic Triple Scallop Edgeability die. The dark teal-coloured texture-effect card is from Create and Craft. The topper is Hunkydory, and the swirls were cut from the teal and Kraft cards with Spellbinders Floral Flourishes. The lettering is from my XCut Rome Alphabet Die - and the finishing touches are a little bit of thin, white satin ribbon, and a lovely old wooden button from my stash.

Before I sign off, I've had another little win! The little boy's card I made for my Man's World Challenge won me another challenge over at Send a Smile For Kids - so there's another little badge over there on the side!! Seems like I'm on a roll!! 

I would like to enter this into:
Creative Corner Challenges - Button Up

Fussy and Fancy Friday - Birthday

Be back after the weekend. Hope you all have a good one!! 
Cxxx

CCM&M #111 - Mixed Media - Winter and/or Slap It On!!

It's the first outing for our mixed media Elves this week. This is the definition of Mixed Media that we are working to - just so everyone knows where we are coming from:

The term 'Mixed Media' is a broad spectrum term covering many aspects of arts and crafts. It can include altering objects - books, boxes, frames, furniture - art journalling, book making, collage and many more.

The items used in the creation of a mixed media piece are plentiful, and can include buttons, broken jewellery pieces, all sorts of things that other things that other people throw away and consider to be rubbish, paint in all forms, texture pastes, scraps of metal, fibres, filaments, chipboard, old photos to add or alter, pen, pencil, markers, crayons, chalks, polymer clays etc etc etc.

Yvonne is the bravest of the Elves - and has stepped up to host the first of these challenges. The theme is Winter and/or Slap It On!! So based around wintry colours and/or an 'anything goes' type idea. We want to see your album covers, canvases, altered art, upcycled, recycled, re-purposed or brand-new from-scratch projects. But, PLEASE, we DO NOT want to see any cards for this challenge. 

Our sponsors are Woodware who are offering £12 to spend at either on-line or in-store at your favourite stockist.  

Well, for me, I could not resist the urge to 'Slap It On'. My mind just started going off in all different directions of what I could do. And I didn't really want to not do any of it. So, in the end, I decided to used it as an opportunity to have a go at combining loads of techniques and materials in one space. This is the final project - I have put this picture here for those who are not interested/don't have time to look through all the stages that went into producing it. Feel free to scroll quickly down to the bottom!! 

For those of you that do want to know, grab a coffee as this may take a while!! I started by sketching out on a piece of A4 paper, all the ideas I had and how I wanted to combine them. Details changed as I progressed, but essentially the overall plan stayed the same. I then set about collecting possible materials for each part of the project. I have to admit, that it became increasingly evident that I have a huge amount of stuff - and choices were a little difficult. Some of the things from the original selection didn't actually make it to the final project - and other things slipped in!! 

So. I started with the background. I used an A3 piece of mountboard, and painted it with Magnolia emulsion paint. In the top right corner, I used a stencil (from Lidl) and inked through with Forest Moss, Rusty Hinge, Bundled Sage and Victorian Velvet DI's. I then dabbed a little perfect medium through the stencil, and embossed with Mica Boss, before brushing over Autumn Bronze and Pear Green mica powders. 

For the dots at the bottom I used Pearlescent Texture Paste (Lidl) through That Special Touch Dotty Mask. It did get a bit messy, so to try to cover the worst up, I used my finger to smear some along the edges. I then dug out something I haven't used in years - glittered flocking powder!!! Yes, I have a range of colours - but chose pink this time. 

The top left square is Spring Green card (Papermill) embossed with XCut's Butterfly Pattern A4 embossing folder. I then highlighted the raised areas with Cosmic Shimmer Blush Gilding Wax. Pink striped Washi Tape was then wrapped around this, before mounting it onto a cork square - from a self adhesive roll. The bottom right square is canvas (from a roll), brushed with a sponge and Eco Green Acrylic Paints in Mulch, Pumpkin and Moss. 

Although I didn't take a photo of this stage, I then stamped over the edges of the whole thing with a La Blanche swirl stamp and Indigo Blue Flitterglu. The gilding flakes are a mixture of colours - but mostly Variegated Green.

For the next section, I started with a piece of old packaging, covered in Antique Pink Pebeo paint, and topped with Kroma Crackle mixed with Magnolia emulsion paint. I then used the tissue paper technique with indigo Blue Slap It On Matt, a textured serviette, Bundled Sage and Victorian DI's and a mixture of Papermania Chronology Stamps and Boofle Background stamps. The flowers are made from clear and white UTEE mixed with Cosmic Shimmer Melt Inks - Saffron Yellow, Azure Blue and Carmine Red. 

The 'Love' stamp is Sheena Douglass - but I don't know the name of the set! This was stamped in Victorian Velvet and cut with an XCut Nesting Scalloped heart die. The pearls are from my stash as is the paisley brad. I used Cosmic Shimmer Aqua Twinkles to mount the pearls in the flowers. This in turn was mounted on Papermill Kraft card, embossed with CC Embossalicious 8x8 Elegace folder, and inked with Walnut Stain DI. 

Another piece of packaging was painted with Mulch paint. I then stripped the top off of a piece of corrugated card, which I painted with Magnolia. Using a sponge, I swiped Pumpkin and Moss paints over the top. I used the tissue paper technique with Creative Expressions Mini Swirl stamps and Timber Brown Stazon. This was applied with wax from my Melt Pot. The flowers and leaves are cut from a DCWV Safari stack, with Spellbinders Bitty Blossoms and Foliage dies. They were dipped into clear UTEE for a faux porcelain look. The Faith stamp is another from Sheena Douglass, stamped with Walnut Stain, and cut with a Spellbinders Mega Scalloped Oval. The sticky gems are from my stash.

For the middle part, I used Deco Mache Papers - Peacock Feathers Orange and Boho Chic Leaves - and Decopatch Gloss to cover the card. The ribbons, cord, buttons, pearls and sticky gems are all from my stash. The backing card is Bazzill - and is embossed with CC Rose Garden folder and inked with DI's. The Joy stamp is another Sheena Douglass one, stamped with Forest Moss DI and cut with a Spellbinders Scalloped Circle die.

The final finishing touches include a UTEE owl, die cut shapes, more paisley brads, a heart charm tied with ribbon, ric rac, and pearls and gems from my stash. The whole thing was then mounted onto Dark Chocolate Centura Pearl card.

Well done if you've managed to make it to this point (or maybe you were sane and just scrolled quickly down). I do apologise for the long post, but I think it's the teacher in me that feels the need to explain what I have done.

Please pop over the Crafty Cardmakers and More blog to check out all the great inspiration from the Design Team. And we look forward to seeing your creations - just remember NO CARDS please.

I would like to enter this into:

That Craft Place - Anything Goes

Crafts 4 Eternity - Texture

Be back soon. 

Cxxx

Hi Karate!!

Sorry if the title has brought back bad memories of that aftershave from the 80's - but couldn't think of a better title!! Had a very productive day today. Spent the morning tidying the garden, and planting some more seeds. Unfortunately a mouse has got into the shed again (happened last year too) and decided to much on my seed potatoes that were chitting. Oh well - not much I can do about it - will just have to try to mouse proof things as best as I can.  

And then this afternoon I decided to start making some decisions over the website issue. I have spent some time updating it in terms of the stock, and sorted out all the junk email. But I still don't know whether I want to continue with it. It's not been that successful - but maybe that is because I have just not promoted it well. I have a load of stock that I want to shift - so maybe I need to have an on-line sale!! Ah well - something to ponder another day. 

Anyway, you may have worked out that the theme of this card is Karate. My brother-in-law (along with my youngest niece) is into his karate. So I had a look around and found this digi image called Karate Kirk from Scrapping Memories. 

I coloured him in with Promarkers: Skin = Almond, Ivory, Blush; hair = Eggnog, Daffodil Bloom, Pastel Yellow; the bench = Henna, Terracotta, Cool Grey 1,2,4; and Black for the other bits and bobs.

I cut it out with a Spellbinders Long Scalloped Rectangle and inked whilst still in the die. This was matted onto black card from my stash, and straw coloured Bazzill card. The textured silver paper is from Papermill. I used an insert from the Spellbinder Classic Postage Stamp Edgeabilities to cut the circular pattern from the silver and black layers. The letters were cut using my XCut Roma alphabet die and made sticky with my little Xyron.

Passion for Promarkers have a challenge this week which is 'Make it Digital' - ie to use something digital - be it an image, paper etc. So, as dear old Kirk is digi, I am going to enter this into their challenge. 

And I Love Promarkers challenge for this week is to Use A Die Cut - so hopefully my Spellbinders Nestabilities and Edgeabilties, along with the XCut Alphabet die will count there.

See you soon,

Cxxxx

A little more melt pot!!

Good morning - and another week has started. We're almost into March - where is the time going. Just a quick post today. This is a card that that I have put together - and incorporated things made with my lovely melt pot! 

I started out with a piece of mountboard, as I knew I wanted to apply some wet stuff - and didn't want the card front buckling. I have used black mirror card, on top of which is a piece of Papermania card (been in my stash a very long time). It was a 12x12 sheet of double sided card - one side is very vintage pearly pink, and the other is the stripes. So, having layered all this onto the mountboard,  I then took some Deco Mache paper (Pink Roses) and a few pieces of the Papermania card and applied them to the corners with Indigo Blu Slap It On Matte. I painted the whole of the front with the same medium to ensure the texture looked the same.

When it was dry, I used a craft knife to cut along the outside of the largest black mat - so you can't see the mountboard underneath on the finished card.

Next, I used a La Blanche flourish stamp with Indigo Blu Flitterglue, and stamped around the edges. I then applied some black foil. The foil didn't adhere to all of the glue - so I filled in the gaps with some gilding flakes (Crafty Notions - Variegated Red).

The four matching flowers were cut from the same Papermania card, with a Spellbinders Bitty Blossom die. Once rolled and stuck, I dunked them into clear UTEE in my melt pot for the faux porcelain look. 

I then added a whole cocktail of UTEE into the pot - including Lava Black, Tropic Pearl, Black - and also some old Do Crafts red embossing powder. The diamond shapes were made using Spellbinders square bezels as moulds. The flower that sits on top of the larger diamond was from a second mixing in the melt pot - and of course the colours never come out the same. For this one I used a little silicone chocolate mould. 

This is a close up of the large diamond, as the photo of the whole card doesn't do justice to the colours. It sits on top of three layers of ribbon from my stash - black, olive green and white.

I would like to enter this into:
Pumpkin Spice - Flowers

Digi Designs Challenge Blog - Tic Tac Toe - Embossing (hopefully UTEE counts?), Ribbon, Flowers

So, that's that for today. Be back soon.

Cxxx

Bright and cheerful!!

Bright and cheerful sums up a lot of things for me today!! The weather is definitely brighter - which always makes me cheerful! And today's parkrun was brilliant - not just because of the fab weather - but because I smashed my personal best by 45 seconds!! So that has also made me cheerful!! And things are starting to grow in my greenhouse - I just love it when those green shoots start pushing through!! 

And alongside all of the great new growth in there, my long suffering fuchsias are holding their own! They do end up fending a little for themselves over the worst of the winter - but they seem to have got used to being dumped in the greenhouse - and always come out bright and cheerful in the spring. Which leads me to today's card. Definately bright!! And hopefully cheerful!! 

My fuchsias have given me the inspiration for taking part in I love Promarkers challenge this week. It's a sketch challenge - and I really love the layout. Added incentive is that they are sponsored this week by Just Inklined - and I am becoming very fond of their digi stamps (remember my Shoes and Handbag card from a few weeks ago?). 

I have used a freebie digi from Just Inklined called (no surprise) Fuchsia!! I've not really coloured flowers in with my Promarkers before, but thought I would give it a go! I stuck to very traditional fuchsia colours - the candy pink and dark purple variety!! The colours I used are: Carmine, Cerise, Baby Pink, Sugar Plum, Aubergine, Amethyst, Olive Green, Marsh Green, Apple Cider, Green Shoot, Lime Zest, Soft Lime, Denim Blue and Pastel Blue. I cut the image out with the large circle from Crafter's Companion Chantilly Lace Stamping Frame set. 

The purple base card is from my local market - and I embossed the whole sheet with my Grand MBossabilities folder to give it texture. I then inked over the raised areas with Seedless Preserves DI, before scoring with my Ultimate. The pink circle is cut from C&C Texture Effect card with large Chantilly Stamping Frame, and inked with Worn Lipstick DI. This was mounted onto more purple card as I wanted it to show through. I decided to add some more layers between the image and frame, and used two Spellbinders dies - a circle, and a Lacy circle. The yellowy/green card is Bazzill - as is the light blue. I embossed the purple circle with the bottom part of CC's  Embossabilities Elegance folder, and inked with DI.

To create the strips at the top and bottom, I used Spellbinders Triple Scallop Edgeabilities to cut the yellowy/green card, embossed with CC's Regency Swirl folder and inked with Crushed Olive DI. The pink card was cut with two of the inserts from the Edgeabilities Decorative Inserts 6, and backed with more purple card. The finishing touches include Glossy Accents, Cosmic Shimmer Aqua Twinkles, Card Candy and two butterflies from the waste of the border. 

So, I would like to enter this into:

I love Promarkers - Follow this Sketch

See you soon,

Cxx

Ooh La La!!

Ooh La La indeed!! Thanks to everyone who entered into my Challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers and More! There were 125 cards entered - so I have had a busy fortnight visiting and commenting on 125 blog posts! There were loads of fabulous creations - I could have had a top 10 instead of just a top 5. Please pop over the to the blog to see who the winners of the prizes were - and who made my agonized-over top 5. 

There's a new challenge starting today, hosted by the lovely Viv. The theme for the next two weeks is 'Come Fly With Me' - so she would like to see something bird or bird related as the main focal image of your project. Hobby Art and Di's Digi Stamps are kindly sponsoring this time.

My card today is not for the challenge, but a 6" square boxed card that was a commission. I was asked for something with shoes - and my Ooh La La Shoes in Bloom CD came to mind. So I asked what her favourite flowers were  - and it was poppies!! Once I found the image, the colours kind of took care of themselves. I was worried at first that they were a little bright - but the person who asked me to make it, absolutely loved it - as did her sister!!

I started with a large piece of red Centura Pearl card (The Range) which I used for the base card, the box, and for matting and layering. The green mottled DP is from an old Brenda Pinnick pad, and the the black is from my stash. I embossed the red mat with Crafters Companion Embossalicious 8x8 Elegance folder, and cut the fancy green mat with Spellbinders Decorative Labels 27.

The red satin and green gingham ribbons are from my stash, the letters and numbers cut with XCut dies, the black hat pins are from Creative Expressions, I glitzed up the shoes with some Cosmic Shimmer Aqua Twinkles to make them glittery, and added a few gems.

I used more images from the CD to create the insert for the card.

For the box, I scored the base and lid with my Crafters Companion Ultimate Pro - always get a perfect result! The decoration on the box lid is identical to the card itself, whilst the inside has a different Brenda Pinnick paper, a smaller version of the topper, and the red mat is embossed with the Embosallicious 6x6 Florabunda folder.

I would like to enter this into the following:

The ABC Challenge - F is for Flowers
The Crafting Cafe - Embossing

See you soon

Cxxxx

Double Trouble!!

Goodness me - what a day!! The rain hasn't let up all - have just seen on Twitter that Dorset was one of the wettest spots in the country today - with 31mm of rain in 12 hours!! A lot of schools had staff training days today - my nieces included. So I started my day with a 2 mile rain run accompanied by my 13 year old niece. Her fitness is improving so much - and today she ran the whole time without stopping. And more importantly without moaning or whinging!! Also had a lovely pub lunch with my parents and both nieces!! But now I'm sitting writing this, listening to the wind howling, and hoping that the trees at the bottom of the garden are still standing in the morning. A panel has already come out of the greenhouse and the garden is flooded. We're nowhere near as bad as a lot of people - so have to count our blessings. 

Anyway, onto crafty stuff. These are the cards I made for my the second birthday of my friend's twins. They are the most gorgeous pair - and I love spending time with them. But they can be a pair of pickles when they put their minds to it! Hence - double trouble!!

The toppers are from the Kanban Birth and Celebration set called 'Babies Cuddly Friends'. I love the natural colours of the toppers and stuck to the beige/kraft and cream tones for both cards. 

The base card is Papermill Buff (Kraft), whilst the decorative piece is from the matching cardstock in the set. The Mink Centura Pearl strips and mats are embossed with Grand MBossabilities Dainty Dots folder.

On Harley's card, I used the Teddy topper. The strip of Centura Pearl was wrapped with a wide cream satin ribbon, and a thinner brown ribbon with gold stars. I also chose darker brown and caramel tones of buttons from my stash. The original buttons from the patterned card were glazed with Glossy Accents, as were the Teddy's ears and eyes.

For Layla's card, I used the Rabbit topper, and kept the colours lighter. On the Centura Pearl strip. I layed a piece of spotty cream ribbon next to some cream grosgrain. And the buttons were all cream and beige tones. As well as the buttons on the card, I also glazed the heart balloons.

For both cards, I cut the number and letters with XCut dies.

I would like to enter these cards into:

Penny's Paper Crafty Challenges - Monochrome (hope this counts)
Simon Says Stamp - Get Krafty (base card is Kraft)

Back soon,

Cxxxx