Elegant Grey

I have a real thing for grey (is it my age?) and wanted to use some of this grey ribbon up. I stamped the SU Medallion (thanks Loraine!) in Versamark and sprinkled it with silver embossing powder. This powder is Papermania and its really quite a vibrant, molten silver when its used properly so I firstly brushed some of the powder away with my fingers (how come it brushes off so easily when u don’t actually want it to?!) and then after heat embossing I rubbed not-so-gently at the image with sandpaper. Sounds fairly drastic but I was pleased with the result. I embellished it with some ivory lace and the aforementioned grey ribbon. The cage is part of a set of three I’ve had since last summer and it just seemed to fit the style somehow.

Bow Wow

There is just something so scrummy about bakers twine and just SO many colours to choose from now! I’ve seen Jen Rzaza do a few designs similar to this and wanted to have a go myself so I did…

Simple but effective.

A Lil Weekend Project…

Well… it was meant to be a weekend project but it only actually took me, well three & a bit episodes of Smallville actually so how long is that? Two hours? Not made my mind up about Smallville yet but I love that house! Really amazed by how easy it was to do. I was a bit skeptical by the (badly translated) instructions on the packet of Decoptach paper which told me to tear the sheets into little bits but the pattern still really works and you can’t see (unless u look REALLY closely) where I’ve torn it.

I can’t find any before photos but it was originally black metal (a halloween decoration from TK Maxx) and I had tried to colour it with various spray inks and mixes of cosmic shimmer, water and alcohol but it wasn't really successful. Unfortunately this first attempt led to some of the colour transferring to the design but luckily it kind of adds to it.

This was one of those about-to-nod-off ideas, probably inspired by the veritable success Helen over at Fiddle Fart has with Decopatching almost everything in sight so I took myself off to Hobbycraft to find Decopatch was on 3 for 2 – which is the good news… the bad news is I bought three packets of the same design, not knowing how much I would need and this didn’t even take one full packet… Now I just need to decide what to do with the trees…

Hyacinth Bouquet

 

The graphic nature of certain flowers really appeals to me and I like the sketch quality that seems to be popping up in quite a few stamp lines just lately so I was pleased to rediscover this hyacinth image on my PC that I’ve obviously put to one side at some point. This banner design is a layout I’m fairly keen on just lately, so get used to it!

The flowers are coloured with Stampin’ Up inks & cut n dry foam and I went over with a white gel pen to lighten the centres.

A Rose By Any Other Name...

...would stamp just as well? Got a bit of a Jones for background stamps just lately so this gorgeous hero arts creature fell into my basket last week. I knew I wanted to go subtle and I'll show u the fruits of my first experiment when I can decide how to embellish it but for now I'm really very proud of this creation, a layout I've seen quite a lot - I coloured the 'embellishment' roses in with Regal Rose ink by Stampin Up and cut em out with my own fair hands *smug*

Rock out…

I’m not sure what made me buy this stamp set.. except it was cheap and tapes make me think of bein a kid. I’m not sure if I’ll use the sentiment very often (a lot of my cards go to old people!) but the tape is cute so hey ho

Getting Away With It...

They say u can pick ur friends but u can't pick ur relatives. Most of my relatives have a fairly good sense of humour - some would say strange - but even then there r only so many who I could get away with this card! It was inspired by Lucy Abrams' post about the latest Hero Arts digi kit releases, I decided I wanted the 'key to my heart' kit and needed a justification. Happy Birthday, Uncle John!

Eat, Drink & Be Merry

How cute is this paper? Its from Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety. The day I found out I could purchase it digitally was pretty much the highlight of my year! I used it as the basis for this card for a person whom I know likes food & cooking.

I printed the Graphics Fairy image on tissue paper, layered it over the Cosmo Cricket ‘tossed salad’ and artfully(!) tore it. I then sponged some old paper Distress Ink around the edges - which somehow makes the tracing paper seem more translucent, I think its an illusion – and then spent a very long time fiddling with a shrink plastic, only to end up printing the sentiment on paper and mod podge-ing it to resultant tag. A lot of faffing but a pleasing result!

Daylight, How Novel!

I sat down at my desk today and thought, wow I’m actually sitting here in the daylight! Unfortunately that was after 2pm on a thoroughly miserable day so it wasn’t long before I was switching the light on! I wanted to share this card with you, a request that I found quite difficult at first but I think it turned out ok in the end:

 

I was mostly impressed with these foam letters that I’ve had for ever and can rarely find a project they will suit but in this case I tried heat embossing them (I covered the surface in Versamark first) and I quite like the effect!

And in case you’re wondering what I did all morning, behold:

Festive or what?! Hmph!

A Stampin’ Up! Christmas!

      

Pop over to the blog of the incredibly talented Loraine to check out the details of these three gorgeous cards made with Stampin’ Up products. Finger crossed Santa brings me some £moolah to enable me to have another spending spree after Christmas!

Tis The Season

Would you like to see some more of my Christmas offerings? No? Well tough!
  
This cut-out was created on Robocop (among much cussing) and layered over some of last years Funky Hand paper. (I think I saw the idea on the Papercrafts Connection website but I can’t be sure).
The turquoise creation is the ‘Dasher’ stamp from Stampin’ Up repeatedly stamped in Versamark over a piece of aqua card. I printed the sentiment onto a strip of vellum and wrapped that around the card before layering it onto a card blank covered in a freebie paper from Design House Digital.
  
And these two were created with the last of my gilding flakes that I picked up at the NEC almost two years ago. I love this stuff and may well have to procure myself some more. On the right hand card, I followed the example that I saw created on the NEC stand by covering the negative of the black silhouette – cut by Robocop – in soap before placing it down on the Woodware double sided adhesive sheet and covering the space left with the gilding flakes. Then I lifted the mask and covered the ‘sky’ with black glitter. Pretty cool, huh?

Flying High

I recently succumbed to a Hero Arts digikit sale on Two Peas and purchased the ‘Ode To Steampunk’ kit, with the intention that it would help me with my masculine cards. This card was created by printing the map overlay directly onto kraft card and the airplane and my custom text onto tracing paper which I tore and glued to the kraft. It seemed a lil flat so I inked the edges with old paper Distress Ink and over-stamped in the same ink with a Prima text stamp and then finished the card with air mail bakers twine and a stamped metal… um thing with the recipients name. I like it much more now, hope my uncle does!

WOYWW 126

Morning WOYWWers, r we well?

Last time I joined your party, I was preparing for my first ever craft fair and I think… it… went… ok…! It wasn’t earth shattering but it wasn’t as boring as I thought it might be!

Since then, I’m afraid I’ve hardly done anything! As my desk is testament:

I’ve been a naughty jodpea, I’ve been buying this week – now I just need to actually use the stuff! And yes that is a pair of orange tights  - make your own jokes!

If you look back at my last few posts you can see a selection of the things I made for the fair - n there’s more to come! (Is that a threat or a promise?!)

Shine & Shadow

Some more examples of the work I completed for the fair. I know I don’t really use my alcohol inks to their full potential but man, I love the effect of them on miri card! I had some of these cards lined up on the desk while I was making them and when they caught the light from the window they really shone!

I do intend to make some more of these so if anyone has any suggestions on a ‘skyline’ to use, I’m all ears…!

Happy Halloween!

Here’s wishing you a ghoulishy good Monday!! Meet Mike:

All The Fun Of The Fair

I seem to start every post with "wow, hasn't it been a long time since I posted?" so who wants to break with tradition? I genuinely haven't posted this month as October has proved to be the most manic month of the year... jus when I was planning me some hols too!

Yesterday was my first ever craft fair, at Essington Fruit Farm near Wolverhampton. The magnificent Loraine accompanied me, to hold my hand (and split the tea bill!) and I actually sold a few things. It wasn't a ground breaking day but it wasn't as bad as I was imagining. I just need to work on my people skills!

The illustrious Mrs Dunnit requested that I share some sneak peeks last week but I’m afraid I am not even a lil bit that organised but I did work my wobbly backside off to get enough stock together so how bout a series of here’s what I made earlier shots? I’m afraid there will be liberal showings of the C word but it IS two months tomorrow!!

The sleigh bells sentiment is a Waltzingmouse stamp and I can’t look at it without singing the song so I thought I could make a series of cards based around the lyrics – clever or cheesy?

WOYWW - Slow n steady wins the race

I'm conscious of how often I use the word bombsite but I really do have a talent for making a mess. Last month or so I've been furiously attempting to fill up my stocks in preparation for my first craft fair next month but I seem to have slowed down considerably in the last week! I also have mutiny on the craft robo front, he's chewing up almost everything at the mo, wasting card left, right n centre :( So after two hours in here last night I only produced one card but I'd better not show it to u cos it is still only September and some of you might get an attack of the vapours!

Kiss Me Quick

I'm so glad Lucy Abrams has picked up her blogging again as I find her work so inspirational and she stops me feeling guilty bout using computer generated embellishments (I dunno, somehow it feels like a cop-out but I think I owe this all-consuming hobby to the digital crafting world so go figure!)

She made clever use of a recent Hero Arts digikit release that was actually autumn themed (I.e leaves) but she went down the xmas route instead and created this:

Which I thought was such a great idea I literally ran home (well ok maybe not literally!) and made these tags:

The 'berries' are homemade card candy using scrap card with liberally applied versamark and pearl embossing powder stuck down with rolled up glue dots. There are five of them tied together here, thats not a huge ribbon embellishment!

Knees Up

Not only have I not been blogging lately, it seems I haven’t actually photographed any of my creations! So here’s a quick post about a get well soon card commissioned by my main customer for a knee operation patient:

It took a bit of faffing (and swearing at the printer) but I was pretty chuffed with how Robo Cop cut these crutches out in the end… and look how CAS it is!!

Christmas In July

Edited to add: Yes I did make these in July, somehow this post never got uploaded, oops!

I heard a DJ exclaiming over the ridiculousness of shops and restaurants already looking toward Christmas, taking bookings putting out merchandise etc. I was very tempted to text in and explain that in papercrafting circles Christmas in July is pretty much a staple and I’m afraid I’ve kind of jumped on the bandwagon this year as it dawned on me not so long ago that, as December is one of the busiest months in our family for birthdays and how much effort it takes to craft on the dark wintery nights, perhaps some forward planning would be sensible…? Yes you heard it sensible! Who’d’ve thought it? Am I getting old? Mostly I was inspired by this layout which I pinched from Therese Calvird at Lostinpaper:

which just shouted out to be recreated with snowflakes so I made these:

with my new Waltzingmouse stamps. Am I finally succumbing to a stamping addiction cos I really wanna go back and buy some of their frame sets… even tho I don’t own any nesties or even a manual die cutter!