Black Magic and a Butterfly

Greetings - I was going to be more active here this year, only once again life has intervened - including an altercation with a knife while cutting pumpkin..

I spent some time early in the year experimenting with the technique called black magic, that was one of the first things I saw when I 'found' Splitcoast Stampers some four years ago.

This card was made from one of the results, the image being cut with a Spellbinders Nestabilities oval and mounted on a scalloped oval.

There are two dp's, both of which came in random packs from the local Warehouse (think K Mart in the USA).

The butterfly was cut using a Cuttlebug die and embossed in a matching folder. I used two layers to give the colour some 'strength' as the vellum is quite pale.

After mounting it I added pearls for more dimension and interest.

The sentiment was embossed directly to the dp, and more pearls to the top corner.

I am linking this to:

Incy Wincy designs Challenge #96 - Nature

KB Cute Monday - # 15 - Anything Goes

Oh La La Creations Challenge #81 - Happy Birthday

Stamp with Fun challenge #113 - In the Garden

Kenny K's Krafty Girlz Challenge #47 - Fabulous florals

Thanks for calling by - may your day be blessed.  

Mine is when I know you have visited and especially when you comment.

Sunflower Wishes

Greetings once more to my cyber-visitors - it is always wonderful to know you have been here.

I wanted a cheerful card to send to a friend who is a bit under the weather at the moment, added to the fact it is the end of autumn (fall) here and the weather is rather wet and cold!!

I chose a sunflower image from Rebecca of Beccy's Place and printed it off four times, and the joined leaves twice, painted them with water colours and Twinkling H2O's, then cut two of the flower images back to give some layers, adhering them with foam dots to increase the dimension.

I wanted the flowers on a blue backdrop, but the blue card I found was a wee bit small, so ran it through the Cuttlebug in the Rellie Rave folder to give it some texture.

The sentiment (from Layers of Color Happy Wishes Set) was stamped with blue ink and embossed.

And as I assembled the whole I added some hand made tatting and chocolate pearls for some final detail.

I am linking this to:

Southern Girls Challenge #19 - Frills and Polish - use lace and pearls

Bunny Zoe's Challenge #12 - Lace - hand made tatting

Craft Your Passion - #59 - Let it all hang out (over the edge)

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #46 - Embossing

Get Hippity With Ippity Challenge #2 - Flowers

House of Gilli - Flowers

Make it Monday #38 - Anything Goes

Stamps + Fun = Creativity challenge #48 - Flowers

Stamps R Us - Goin' digital

Woodware USA - Challenge #28 - Anything Goes

Anita Be Stampin challenge #21 - Pearls and Lace

Clear it Out Challenge - Colouring

Use It Tuesdays - Flowers and a stamp not previously inked - the 'get well' part of the sentiment

Thank you so much for visiting - may your day be blessed 

Blue and White Flowers

Here I am again, and thank you for visiting again. 

 Yes, I have had a very productive time recently and I have loved it.

This card is one that I am really pleased with.

I started with a piece of paper from the Kaisercraft pad Le Château using the  'friendship' page, triming it to fit. 

I then used stamps from Layers of Color Nature Walk set for the rest of the card.  The flourish was only partly inked, with a combination of two inks to get the green that I wanted.

I then machine stitched the dp to the base.

Next the the flowers were stamped on white card with blue ink, and clear embossed, white glue added to the centres and gold micro-beads adhered.

The flowers were adhered to the card with a foam spot for a wee bit of dimension.

The whole card took less than and hour from sitting down to completion - love it when that happens!!

I will edit this tomorrow to link to some challenges - time has run out !


Linking to:
Your Next Challenge #42 - Pop It Up
Crafts and Me Challenge #35 - Anything Goes
Creative Belli challenge #117 - Anything Starting with S - sewing,swirl
Diva's By Design Challenge #2 - for the girls
Penny's Paper Crafty Blog - Challenge #35 - Anything Goes
Paper Pretties Challenge #154 - Flowers
Simon Says - Sparkle and Shine - the micro beads
The Sisterhood of Crafters - Let it shine - the beads and embossing
Truly Scrumptious #57 - Anything Goes
The Hot Spot Challenge #4 - case a cake - shades of lavender #2

Thank you for visiting - may your day be richly blessed.

Masculine Blues

Welcome to my blog, and thank you for visiting.

Yes, I am back again -and I have gone masculine, again - it's starting to look like a theme, but I have a lot of men with birthdays around this time of year.

This card started with the sentiment, (from Our Daily Bread Designs - Scripture Collection 2 set) which I had already stamped on light grey card, silver embossed and then sponged over with dark gray ink to try and make it more defined.  

Initially this had been intended for a totally different card and was discarded - as was the sentiment and ribbon, which I found in my 'discard' box.

The main panel was mounted on a silver scalloped oval, the silver cord added, and then mounted on the blue which I had embossed with the cuttlebug argyle folder.

The sentiment is one from a local firm who are responsible for this stamping addiction - Kiwistamping

I finished the card with two more lengths of cord across the bottom of the card and a few clear rhinestones, and mounted everything on the black base card.

I am linking this to:

Cards for Men Challenge #10 - Someone Special - a brother

Crafty Cardmakers # 46 - Embossing

Creative Stamp Friends Challenge #25 - Favourite Colours

Incy Winsy Designs Challenge # 94 - Clean and Simple

Make it Mondays #37 - Anything Goes

The Shabby Tearoom Challenge #62 - Monochromatic.

Magic In The Air Magical Mondays - Embossing

Card Patterns Sketch 115

Our Daily Bread Designs Shine The Light Challenge #60 - recipe

Thanks for visiting today, and may your day be blessed.

Ball Games

Greetings to you all - thank you for visiting today.

I managed some studio time during the weekend, and although all did not go to plan I did manage to achieve some success, this being one of them.

This card came together very quickly for which I am thankful.  This image is one that was available at the web site Free Digital Stamps and was from an artist by the name of Sliekje

I coloured him with chalks with a wee bit of sparkling ink on the letters on his sweater.

The sentiment is from Kiwistamping and although I embossed it, the emobssing was absorbed by the hand made paper

The cream coloured panel was embossed using a cuttlebug embossing folder - which 9 year old boy is not fascinated by spiders!!

This is just a quick post as I started the day with a migraine and should not be on the computer....

I am linking this to

Card Cupids - no patterned paper

Corrosive Challenges - birthday

Creative cowgirls Challenge - Anything Goes

Emerald faires Challenge #1 - Anything Goes

One Stitch At A Time #62 - Anything Goes

Paper Sundaes Challenge #69 - Happy birthday

Pile It On - Boys and Girls Come Out To Play

Scrappy Frog Challenge - Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting, may your day be blessed.

Different projects

Yes I have been crafting, and here are some different projects that I have completed recently.  As a doting Gran to two beautiful grandchildren, I have been busy helping prepare for winter....

Here are a couple of projects I completed yesterday.

Although the children were born only three weeks apart, there is a distinct size difference at this point, as you can see from the dungarees!! I have also had to allow for the fact that one family uses 'clothie' nappies and one uses disposables, which are less bulky.

I couldn't help but add a wee bit of fancy stitching to DGD's!!

I was also able to find some adjustable buttons for the straps - far better than the velcro fastenings I used many years ago....

I have also completed a jersey for DGD 

And have started one for DGS!!

Unfortunately I have to pace myself when knitting as I am prone to RSI or OOS as it is also known - to put it mildly, it is a pain - or should I say 'character building'?

Thanks for visiting, and may your day be blessed.

Cool fun

Welcome again to my guests - I apologise for another long gap in my blogging - the joys of family specifically, and life in general, getting in the way!!

This card was a really 'fun' one to make as it all went very smoothly - the layout was probably the most problematic part of it all.

I started the card by designing and printing out some 'Happy Birthday' dp on the computer.  I did learn from this, and will off-set the words should I do this again.

Next I coloured the main part of the image (Crabby Cat by Bugaboo Stamps) with chalks,  trying to give the cat the look of a ginger tabby. The dark glasses were coloured with a calligraphy pen, leaving the glint white, and the frames with a glitter pen.

I then mounted the two main layers onto a layer of bright orange card.  Then came the fiddly bit while I sorted the layout.  After mounting it all on the dark brown base, I added some bling and then carefully dotted some dimensional glue onto the lenses of the glasses. 

I am linking this to:

Catch the Bug Challenge Blog - May - Anything Goes

CES Challenge #35 - Favourite Colour Combo (Orange and Brown)

Ellephantastic challenge #26 - Birthday/party

Marks finest Papers Challenge #54 - No Embellishments

One Stop Craft Challenge #130 - Birthdays

Sweet Stampin' Challenge Blog - Childhood Memories - a ginger cat

Crafty Annes Challenge #40 - Happy Birthday

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge - Quote or Sentiment

Digi's with attitude - Make us laugh

Thanks for visiting - I treasure your visits and comments.

May your day be blessed.