Whimsical Tree

Welcome

We have had a weekend of showery weather, so I managed some time in the studio - and reading, another passion of mine!

This is one of the cards I finished.

The recipient is a male who is very minimalist in his outlook on life, especially when it comes to cards!

The tree is a 'new to me' Die D-lite by Spellbinders with the name whimsical tree.  I cut it from a dark green card.

I mounted it onto a Marvellous squares die cut in a smoky blue card - I sponged the edges with a blue ink to give a better definition against the slightly grey cardstock I used for the base.

The sentiment (from a retired Layers of Color set) was stamped in the same blue ink, which  I also used to sponge the edges of the card.

The final detail was to stamp the tree image on the inside of the card. I unsuccessfully tried to blend the two colours slightly on the stamp, but it is what it is, and I am not changing it.

I am linking this to:
Lady Bug October Challenge - Die Cuts or Halloween
Card and Scrap Challenge #63 - Anniversaries/Birthday
Scribble and Scrap Challenge #4 - Anything Goes
Penny Black October Allsorts Challenge - Anything Goes
Opus Glui Challenge #168 - Something For the Man in Your Life
Fashionable Stamping Challenge #59 - Make a Card
Creative InspirationsPaint Challenge - Anything Goes

Challenges 4 Everybody #32 - Anything goes

Stamped Blessings Amusing Challenge - Anything Goes

Sweet Stampin' Challenge - Wood, Tree or Leaves

Thank you for visiting - any comments you may leave are deeply appreciated.

May your day be blessed.

Spring Sparkle

Welcome

Spring is in the air, and there was a new die to try and a card to make, and this is the result.

The background was made by cutting a couple of cloud shapes and sponging around them randomly with blue ink on some white pearlised card.

The sentiment was gold embossed - here you can see some of the shimmer of the pearlised card.

To keep up the sparkle, after the flower had been cut and sponged, and the die removed, Kindy Glitz was added.

The butterfly was cut twice, and the green vellum layer embossed.

Some wee red bows and rhinestones on the butterfly body and flight path finished the card. 

I tried to catch the sheen in this last photo, but it was not particularly successful. 

I am linking this to:

My Time To Craft Challenge #240 - Butterflies

Little Claire's Monthly Challenge #38 - A Child's Birthday

Sister Act Challenge #30 - Anything Goes

Docerela Challenge #48 - Anything Goes

Crafty Hands Challenge #1 - Anything Goes

Paper Crafting Journey - Anything Goes

Delightful Challenges - Winged Things

Craftin' Boutique Challenge #13 - Anything Goes

Crafty Girls Challenge #4 - Anything Goes

Thank you for visiting - any comments you leave are deeply appreciated.

May your day be blessed

Autumnal Poppies

Welcome

This card started as a sketch from Sweet n Sassy Stamps several weeks ago. But it would not do what I wanted it too, so it did not get finished until well after the challenge had finished.  

The image is from the SnS Precious Poppies set, and I coloured it with chalks.

The sentiment from the same set was gold embossed.

The button is from my collection - I suspect it was from either my Mother in Law or possibly even my Grandmother.... I love the wee indentations that look like gold bullion stitches. I snapped the shank off and mounted it over a green fabric flower.

All these elements were then mounted on a dark green handmade layer of paper and then the yellow base.  The edging under the poppies was a die cut, and there was also a gold edged ribbon layered in.

I was, ultimately, very pleased with the result.

I am linking this to:

Word Art Wednesday Challenge #103 - Anything Goes

Digi Stamps 4 Joy Challenge #78 - Embossing

Mema's Craft October Challenge - Autumnal/Fall Coat of Colours

Eureka Stamps Challenge #62 - Halloween Colours

Artistic inspirations Challenge #64 - Anything Goes

Pinspirational Challenge #80 - I took the colours

Through the Craft Room door - Anything Goes

Lady Bugs Craft Ink Challenge - Anything Goes

Deep Ocean Challenge #63 - Button Up

Creative Craft Challenge #21 - Anything Goes, blogaversary

Thank you for visiting - any comments you may leave are deeply appreciated.

May your day be blessed.

Pink-tober

Welcome

This post is totally different to my normal, but something I have become increasingly passionate about.

I 'met' this blogger in another group where we had a mutual interest, and started following her blog from there.  I was initially unaware of her health issues, but the more I have followed her blog, the more I am convinced that breast cancer education is far more important than 'awareness'.

It is with her permission that I re-publish her article from early in this month, the first in a series of guest articles on the phenomenon call Pink-tober, which I personally would encourage you to read.  I have learnt so much from them.

Here is a link to this first post

http://tellingknots.wordpress.com/2013/10/03/pinktober/

Here is a copy of the post

Cancer Is Not Cute, or Why Pinktober Makes Me Queasy

Pink-to-ber n A portmanteau coinage used by many people who live with breast cancer to refer to October, the Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which is heavily dominated by marketing in the color pink and cute tags like “Save the tatas”. (See Komen, etc.)

(The following post appeared in a slightly different form on April 6, 2013.)

Cancer isn’t cute. It is a mortal illness. It disfigures. It kills. The treatment involves cutting off pieces of your body, killing living tissue with radiation, poisoning your system withchemotherapy. The treatment can have life-long effects on your health and well-being   And that is still no guarantee. Thirty percent (almost one third!) of women diagnosed with breast cancer AT ANY STAGE will end up with distal metastasis.

To be clear, distal metastasis means Stage IV breast cancer. Stage IV breast cancer is terminal cancer.

Cancer isn’t cute, and breast cancer isn’t “the good cancer”. How can anyone possibly call a disease that kills almost one-third of the people who become ill with it “good”? This isn’t about boobies or tatas—it’s about a killer disease. When I was first diagnosed I didn’t give two toots about saving my “girls”; I wanted the cancer out of me.

When I was first diagnosed, I experienced and conceptualized the cancer as a rapist inside me. GET THIS THING OUT OF ME! There was nothing cute about it. When I had my breast and lymph nodes removed and sat with surgical drains coming out of the incisions and I couldn’t lift my arm high enough to hang up the laundry, there was nothing cute about it. When I was having my first round of chemotherapy and all I could vomit was bile and I could barely hold down water – there was nothing cute about it. When I had first and second degree radiation burns over two-thirds of my chest from the daily radiation treatments – not cute.

Well-meaning as they may be, pink ribbons and cutesy “awareness” campaigns make me angry. To me, they feel belittling. They make me feel ignored. They make me feel cast aside because I have a a disease that is killing me. Go ahead and have a great fund-raising campaign and use the best PR tricks you can, but please don’t ignore the reality. Cancer isn’t cute, not even at Stage I. It bears repeating: thirty percent (almost one third!) of women diagnosed with breast cancer will end up with distal metastasis.

We don’t know who will belong to the 30% and we don’t know how to reduce the number of people who will get recurrences and/or mets. Yes, awareness is nice, but research is better. If you donate to a breast cancer cause, please know where your money is going. Give to organizations that are actively funding research. You can always buy a pink ribbon at the notions counter.

This month I will be featuring guest posts from men and women who have been affected by metastatic breast cancer. (which you can follow by going to the link above this article).

I hope you have appreciated this post.

Thank you for visiting - may your day be blessed

Gelatos and Victoriana

Welcome - so glad to have you visit my corner of blogland.

I bought a set of gelatos recently and this is the result of my first 'play' with them.

The first stage was to colour and blend the gelatos on the tag.

I then stamped the Victorian lady in black, and lightly sponged the tag edges with Tea Dye distress ink.

Gold ink was lightly sponged over the frock of the image, and around the edges of the tag, and clear Kindy Glitz was added to the edge of the parasol.

The embossed layer of the card was also letter-pressed with a gold gelato used to colour the 'shattered' embossing folder.

The card was finished by mounting it on a crimson base and adding ribbon and clear gem 3 dimensional Kindy Glitz.  Over all the card has a lot of subtle sparkle to accent the gorgeous lady.

I am linking this to:

My Creative moments Wordplay Saturday Challenge/October - Anything goes

Punkin' Spice Challenge #42 - Dress up

Inkspirational Challenge #41 - Anything Inkspirational

Allsorts Challenge #229 - Ribbons and Bows

Catch the Bug October Bingo Challenge - ribbon, orange & players choice, tag.

Sweet Pea Stampers - Sparkle and Shine

Stampin' For The Weekend - Anything Goes

Sister Act Challenge #22 - Anything Goes

Jo's Scrap Shack FFC#22 - Anything Goes

Creative Fingers Challenge #7 - Anything goes twist - girls having fun

Southern Girls Challenge - Shine on - shimmer and shine.

Thank you for visiting - any comments you may leave are deeply appreciated.

May your day be blessed.

Fishy Faux Silk

Welcome

I had intended to be back before this but life threw me a curve ball and I missed!  

I made this card and actually had it addressed and in the envelope when I realised I had not photographed it, so I eased open the envelope, did the necessary and then resealed it!!

I was inspired by this post by the talented MariLynn.

I varied the instructions and started by stamping and embossing the fish images on a piece of white card, and colouring them with a silver gelato.

Before colouring the tissue using the ink, spray, smash technique described in the tutorial with watercolour crayons, it was stamped with Staz On ink using a grass stamp from (a now retired) Hero Arts Woodland Leaves and Grasses set.

Once the tissue was dried, I folded the tissue around the stamped layer securing it on the back - I then mounted that panel on a white base after sponging all the edges with blue ink.

The fish really did not show through the tissue all that well, so I took a silver ink pen lightly outlined the fish, which gave a what I felt was a very satisfactory result.

A lightly stamped sentiment finished the card.

I am linking this to:
Word Art Wednesday Challenge #102 - Anything Goes
The Sisterhood of Crafters - Anything Goes

Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge #149 - Anything Goes

Lady Anne's Challenge #12 - Anything Goes

Inkspirational Challenge #41 - Anything Goes

Creative Belli Challenge #180 - Leaves

Crafting With Dragonflies Challenge #13 - Nature, leaves etc

Crafting by Design - Anything Goes

The Crafting Cafe - Anything Goes

Card and Scrap Challenge #63 - Birthdays etc.

Thanks so much for visiting - any comments you leave are deeply appreciated.

May your day be blessed.

Pretty In Pink

Welcome

I finally felt up to crafting and not sleeping this afternoon, so wandered out to the studio, finished a card that was sitting on my desk, and then created this one.

I started with a sketch and colour challenge in mind, and  as I needed a card for a wee girls first birthday, I felt the pink was appropriate.

I started with the white base and layer, and sponged both edges with a Whisper brand ink named Plum.

I initially intended to dry emboss the panel using a letter press technique to emphasise the pink, but changed my mind, wrapped a piece of bubble wrap around an eraser and stamped with that - I was very happy with the result.

I decided to go with a texture panel for the next layer - that too was sponged and layered over the ribbon with just a peep of purple lace showing.

The greeting was gold embossed, and fitted perfectly on the end of the diecut, which was also lightly sponged before I removed the die.

The butterfly is a sizzex die cut, edged with kindy glitz, and I also put some kindy glitz in the embossing, and liquid pearls for the body.  The white diecut was cut from paper with wee hearts on it, which to my eye echoed the random dots on the base panel.  I layered the paper over pink card to give it some stability and strength to hold the wings up.

I am really happy with this card :-).

I am linking this to:

Stamping For the Weekend - Anything Goes

Sister Act Card Challenge #28 - Anything goes

QKR Stampede Challenge #60 - Anything Goes With Circles

Quick Quotes Blog - Stamping

Cut It Up Challenge #29 - Think Pink

Brown Sugar Challenge #63 - Anything Goes

Creative Fingers Challenge #6 - Anything Goes - Shades of one colour (pink)

Card Crafters Challenge #96 - Use Three Embellishments - Ribbon, lace and liquid pearls

A Creative Romance - Pink

Word Art Wednesday Challenge #101 - Anything Goes

Artful Crafts October Challenge - Pink and Sketch

Thank you for visiting - any comments left are deeply appreciated

May your day be blessed

Sunset Flowers

Welcome. 

 I have not got much done these past few days as by early afternoon my body says 'stop' - much to my disgust as I have new toys to play with....

I started this card with the stamped image that I received as a RAK some time ago, and sponged distress inks over it - IRL it really has much stronger colours and does look like flowers silhouetted against a sunset.

The camera was not kind to this card.

The lace border was the greaseproof paper layer used when cutting card in the die - I wrapped it around the ends of the red embossed layer, and used the rhinestones as extra adhesion for it.

The flowers are Itty Bitty blossoms, cut in a lemon toned paper and sponged with ink, the larger of the flowers had a gem placed in the centre.  The leaves were cut from tissue paper, and had some ink sponged on them while still in the die.

I am linking this to:

Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

Creative Craft Challenge #20 - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge #101 - Anything Goes

Stamp n Doodle Challenge - Wet or Dry embossing

The Sisterhood of Crafters - Anything Goes

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Use a Rubber Stamp

Lady Anne's Challenge #12 - Anything Goes

Divas By Design - Three of More Layers

Creative Moments Challenge #27 - Anything Goes/Autumn Colours

Addicted To Stamps Challenge #66 - Anything Goes

Thank you for visiting - any comments you leave are deeply appreciated

May your day be blessed

Die cuts,Bling and a Flower

Welcome. 

I am back - the maintenance has been done and I am now in recovery mode... and although I am not allowed to lift any great weight, I am able to lift a pencil or pen, cut paper and work a cuttlebug :-).

I made this card for a teenager, and started with a print out of a photograph that my Daughter in Law took some years ago - she and my son took a lot of photos and put them onto a CD for me so I could use them for background papers - this one is of a guitar neck, and was taken at a concert, hence the unusual colours.

I trimmed the image and when I adhered it to the green card base, I layered a strip of  die cut lace under it.

I die cut a small doily and added metallic thread around it.  My initial stamping was not acceptable, so I stamped and embossed again, then cut the sentiment with a circular die, sponged it and then layered it onto the doily.

I embossed the sentiment using a glitter powder, which give quite a rough surface, but it is very sparkly IRL.

I cut the smallest doily and layered paper flowers over it and secured them with a gem brad - it was amazing how the flowers picked up the colours in the background.

The final touch was the rhinestone swirl, which brought all the elements together.

I am linking this to:

Sister Act Challenge #27 - Anything Goes

Kitty Bee Designs Aloha Friday Challenge #9 - Flowers

Cut It Up Challenge #29 - Think Pink

Crafty Cutz Weekly Challenge #201 - Anything Goes

Chocolate, Coffee and Cards Challenge #49 - Flowers

Paper Creators Craft Challenge #15 - Die cuts or Punches

My Sheri Crafts Challenge #120 - Stitch Time

Thank you for visiting - any comments you leave are deeply appreciated.

May your day be blessed

I Don't Know What's Happening!!!

Welcome

I really don't know what is happening with my sense of colour - I would never have put these colours together when I first started card making!!

I started this card with scraps on my desk ... the dark green and a scrap of the printed papers, and the green and orange card.

The printed paper was punched along both sides to form flowers.

The crochet flower is one I made some months ago, it was mounted over the purple paper flower and held together with a purple brad.

Here is another view to show the dimension of the flower.

I added some pearls to finish. As I am not sure what I will use this for, I have die cut a sentiment panel, and will store it with the card ready to stamp it when needed.  Two pearls will cover the brad holes.

Thanks for visiting - I am pre-scheduling this post as I am away for a day or so undergoing surgery.  I will publish your treasured comments when I am on the mend.

I am linking this to:
Mema's Crafts - October (fall) coat of colours
Creative Inspirations Paint - Inspired by - Anything Goes - week 2
Crafting By Design - Anything Goes
Challenges and Candy Challenge #18 - Colours of Autumn

May your day be blessed.