Finally! a card!!

Have had a very busy week and finally managed to get to the studio the other day, but did not finish this off until this afternoon. 

We have had a long weekend here and we had family staying, as well as doing a day-trip yesterday to the beach.  All very enjoyable but one can't stamp and entertain at the same time - although one can chat and knit at the same time, so the shawl is growing.

The image I used is a rose from Kiwistamping - one of my original stamps and one that I still use regularly.  I embossed it with gold and coloured the stem and leaves with watercolour markers,  then went over that base with twinkling H2O's, and coloured the rose with the paints too. 

I then sponged the edges with warm red chalk ink before mounting it on the darker card, and punching the edge with a fiskars punch.  The next layer I embossed with the CB using the textured textiles folder - I sponged the edges and then decided to keep going and sponged all the embossing, and found that I needed to run the edge of the paper over the ink pad to give it some definition.

I then assembled the card, added the pearls and finished it off by putting a layer of dimensional glue to the flower.

I deliberately wanted to keep the sentiment discrete, so used a pink ink (Magenta by Versacolor) and embossed it with clear embossing powder.

I am very pleased with the result.   We have some more wet weather coming up so hopefully I can get some more craft work done this week.

Friendship

I was asked at church this morning to make a card for on of our members who has not been well, and is now "in care" in another town. 

She has also been part of a small group who knit for Operation Cover-up, a part of a larger organisation, Mission without Boarders, who supply blankets for orphans in Romania and other impoverished European countries where there is acute poverty - some of the blankets go to poor families as well as to the orphanages. 
It is this group who have asked for the card.

Getting  back to the card, I started with a scripture stamp from Our Daily Bread Designs and built the card around that.  I stamped that in Pearlescent Thyme ink, then cut that out with a Nesties, embossed it and then sponged it with Memento Bamboo ink, mounted it on a scalloped Nestie in red. 

The ribbon has two layers - the red is over a gold on, which makes it really sparkle.  The flower made of is three layers - they are from Layers of Color and were part of a RAK from Linda (Lovely Linda on SCS) and held together with a yellow brad.

The sentiment (from Kiwistamps) was embossed in gold.

His Holy Name - word 20

Over on SCS there is a challenge running this year on the names and attributes of God - something that I am really enjoying.

This is my 20th scrapbook page for the challenge - Bread of Life.

This is way out of my usual 'style' - if I could be said to have a style.  The Angel Wings are from Layers of Color (Part of a Rak from Linda aka Lovely Linda on SCS), the stars are also from her.

The angel wings are mounted on dimensionals and I added some Kindy Glitz to them as well. The wee bow is in the ribbon that I have used on all the pages, as part of the giving some continuity to the book.

The stars are grouped in threes to reflect the Trinity, and I framed the page by sponging some ink around the edges.

I have so enjoyed these challenges and feel i have learnt so much from them.

Thank you for reading this - I am blessed when you leave comments :-)

First time at Midnight Madness

This anniversary card is intended for a third anniversary, but my DH asked me if it was for a Ruby anniversary due to the red rhinestones, and the fact that there are four of them!!  Grrrrrr.       I got really messy making this - the joys of sponging all the white with ink (Brilliance Pearlescent Lavender) on the lace, the scalloped nesties and the the edges of the of the lemon card .....                                                This was the first time I have worked with the paper lace, and it was fun - great to know that I can make it whatever colour I want to to co- ordinate as needed. I glued two strips back to back to get the width that I wanted.             It is a simple card, but the rhinestones really sparkle IRL.The sketch is part of the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #23 for this week - (see here)

Thank you for visiting :-)

Baby animals

This is one of the cards that I had underway the other day - inspired by the Sketch Challenge on SCS (SC250) and the Layer Of Colours image of the giraffe that I received in a RAK from my Australian friend Linda (aka Lovely Linda on SCS).

The other two images were cut from some DP that was a gift from DD last year and although it does not show, they glisten when you get the light on them.  The gold textured fibre was from my DIL.

I popped the giraffe up on dimensionals to really make him  focal point, and I also covered the saddle and roller skates with dimensional glue to add some 'extra' to him.  

I just had to finish it all off with some piercing - my favourite extra which does not detract from the main image.

Here you can see the gleam on the gold, and some of the 'glisten' on the cut out image.!!

Thank you for taking an interest in my wombling :-)

A Baby card

Another wet afternoon spent in the studio - only one card completed, but some others enroute - this one is for a challenge over on Stamping Sisters In Christ Challenge #8 for a baby card... it has rather unconventional colours, but then it makes it appropriate for anyone. 

The main image was part of a RAK from my dear friend Linda in Australia (Lovely Linda on SCS).  I chalked this image, which was a challenge as the brown chalks I had were not the shades that I wanted, so I had to mix and match and re-colour several times.

I then found that I could just cut it out with my largest Nestabilites rectangle, so promptly did so, then mounted it on a  scalloped rectangle cut with another nestie.  The brown was a scrap that I had on hand, then the next green strip was put through a swiss dots cuttlebug folder.  The yellow was a part of a card that was killed as it went wrong - nothing is ever wasted - then mounted on a very dark brown.

The word congratulations was embossed with gold to give some emphasis.

I am quite pleased with this card - the afternoon was actually quite productive and the next few days should show this.

Thanks for visiting and please leave a comment - they are all appreciated.

Tuesday's tattle :-)

Nothing to actually show today - the days have been taken up with mundane things like housework!!
What craft I have done has been either knitting, or today it was cross stitch.

The project I am working on is an autumnal scene of 62,000 stitches.  It is one that I have had 'on the go' for over two years, but this year has shown some progress as I spend most Tuesdays with a friend, deliberately working on it.  The story behind taking on such a
project is that my DH saw the picture in a catelogue, and liked it, so I rashly said I would stitch it for him.....  It is a Mystic Stitch design called Autumn Peace (http://www.mysticstitch.com/detail.aspx?ID=82)

As DH is not in the best of health, it is a bit of a standing joke between us that I may not finish it before he departs this life!!

Thanks for reading my blog, and I do love it when you leave a comment to say that you have been.

Sunday Afternoon results

Its been a couple of days since I have written - I had a good excuse yesterday as it was my birthday :-) I had an awesome day and was thoroughly spoilt by both close and extended family. One of the really great things was that some stamps I had ordered from Our Daily bread Stamps arrived.

I did get some knitting done and some studio time yesterday, that I used to prepare a box for a gift to be given later in the week. I not only covered the box, but added some stamping odds and ends to go in it.

Today I was experimenting with my new stamps and completed a couple of visiting card sized items for the church 'blessing basket' used to acknowledge birthdays and other special days. Oops, should have rotated these before I uploaded them :-) I am sure a little neck exercise won't hurt. You can tell I am a novice!!

I then tried for some challenges with a thank you card which is needed after yesterdays spoiling. The layout was an Our Crafty Corner challenge as well as the theme of thanks for the Crazy 4 Challenges , and it also qualifies for the Stamping Sisters In Christ Challenge.

The darker green was put through the cuttlebug with the Fantasic Flowers folder, and then I used some twinkling H2O's in oyster to highlight the design. The bunch of flowers was silver embossed and painted with twinkling H2O's again, and after cutting and embossing the square I then sponged the edge with some lavender ink before removing the nestie. The label was a shapabilities ribbon label, again sponged with the lavender and the green ribbon was threaded through the card, and the wee bow made the finishing touch.

So that has been my creativity for the last two days - that is apart form the usual creative cooking that I do - i.e. the quickest way to present tasty food! I am a bit of a lazy cook - otherwise known as 'throw and hope' cooking.

Thank you for taking the time to read this - I love reading your comments when you have visited.

Thanks and birthdays

Today has been wet and cold, a great day to be inside and crafting :-). I spent time in the morning knitting, and another cm has been added to the shawl, then this aftenoon was out to the studio and a couple of cards were completed - playing with new papers that I received this week.

The first was made using some handmade paper from a Trade Aid store - I tried it several ways before I settled with mounting it on white and then dark brown. Despite the thanks label - cut with a shapability - and ribbons it still looked rather stark, so I got the chalks out and coloured the flowers, and was happy with the result!

The next card used some metallic fibre/paper that was also in the gift - I sponged the edges of the card with chalk rouge ink and Adirondack Espresso ink. Next was the metallic layer, then some lace and ribbon, then a cuttlebug embossed layer (using the textile texture folder - do love that one) then the white, which was cut and embossed using nestabilities. The angel and greeting were embossed with gold, and I added some twinkling H2O paint to the wings of the cherub. I popped this up on dimensionals, and added the silver brads as a wee feature . I must admit it looks better IRL, but as the day was wet and dull, I had to take the photoraph inside under a halogen lamp and flash - not the best conditions.

thank you for taking an interest in my world and creations. Please leave a comment - they are always appreciated.

Today's creativity

Today has been quite an interesting day creatively - I have bitten the bullet and created this blog, and learnt how to put a 'blinkie' on it! (Thanks Linda)

Craftwise I have added 1cm to a baby shawl that I am knitting - in three ply wool. It is a lacey one so I have to concentrate - there are currently 640 stitches on the (circular) needle, so it is a long way to unpick if I make an error. Thankfully I have been able to correct a few previously with 'creative' knitting :-).

I have not been into the studio to make anything in the papercraft area, but I did get this card done yesterday. The main images were stamped and the fish silver embossed for emphasis. The silver background was a pie plate embossed with the cuttlebug d'vine swirls folder. The layer behind that again was some metallic fibre given to me by my DIL.

Thanks for reading my blog, and I do appreciate your comments and knowing that you have visited.

First Post

this is my first entry as i have just created this blog... ;-) Hope I use it a lot!!