Green Birthday

Welcome again - I am making time to blog again today.

I needed a card for a birthday this week for a man who loves fishing.

I started with a technique I read about in a magazine, using gesso and distress inks - this is my second attempt and I was much happier with this result.  

My ink colour was Bundled sage, and then I added to the look by spritzing with some water - I love the way the distress inks react to water.

I then used masking to stamp only part of a stamp, and embossed it with silver before colouring with watercolours.  The stamp is by Hastings Rubber Stamps and is a 'composite' scenic stamp of New Zealand.

The tag is one which I had been experimenting using distress inks with ages ago, and was lurking on my desk, so I embossed the sentiment and added the paper string before adhering it to the card.  This layer was then adhered to a dark green base.

I am linking this to:

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge #211 - Go Green

Loves Rubber Stamps Challenge #43 - Shades of Green

Paper Minutes #260 - Tags

Twisted Tuesdays #45 - Spring into Green

Jens Digis Challenge- Going Green

Paper Pretties Wednesday Challenge #249 - Create Your Own Background

The Stamping Chef - Good-luck/green

Cards by Lady Anne - Challenge #6 - Anything Goes

Creative Belli Challenge #163 - St Patricks / Go Green

Crafter's Cafe Challenge #14 - Green or St Patrick's Day

Thank you for visiting.  

Any comments you may leave are always appreciated.

May your day be blessed.

Anniversary card with Silver

Welcome to my corner of the blogisphere

I have so meant to blog again before this, but once again life and I have not quite co-ordinated our schedules!!

I tried the blackboard technique the other day, and this is the result.

Although the stamping and embossing appear white in the photograph, IRL the embossing is a cream colour.

The image is from the (retired) Love set of stamps from Layers of Color. It was cut with a spellbinders die, and the 'chalk dust' added before I removed the die, and then mounted on a white layer.

The ribbon was rather insipid on it's own, so I mounted it over a piece of red card, and added the three silver heart bards to finish it.

The ribbon and sentiment panel were mounted onto white, the edges of that layer sponged with red before being mounted onto the black base.

I am linking this to:

Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge #146 - Anniversary and Silver

City Crafters challenge #150 - Inspired by a Song - All You Need is Love by The Beatles

Creative Card Crew Challenge #31 - Ribbon

Through The Craft Room Door Challenge March 12 -18 - Anything Goes

Tuesday Alchemy Challenge #52 - Anything Goes

Cupcake Craft Challenge #233 - It's Only Words

Make My Monday - Heat Embossing

My Grafico Challenge #147 - Anything Goes

Paper Playtime Challenge #5 - Anything goes

Victorine Oringinals Challenge #54 - Anything Goes

Thank you for visiting, and any comments are so very much appreciated.

May your day be blessed

Love Expressed in a Hymn

Welcome back to our scorching hot fall/autumn - we had some rain this morning, but not enough to make a difference.  

So this afternoon I headed out to the studio and made this and another card.

I started with the grey die cut (part of a RAK from Lovely Linda), and the pink card stock.  The grey dp is actually an offcut of wall paper.

The sentiment was stamped with red ink - it is part of an encouragement set that was produced by Layer of Colors, layered onto the die cut, and then onto some musical dp from a LilyBee paper stack.

The butterfly was cut with a cuttlebug die and embossed with one of their folders - there are two layers, one of pink card and one of pink vellum, and pearls were added to form the body.

The ribbon and bow was the remnant of some ribbon that I bought some time ago - it was quite a challenge to get the bow tied and the strip down the card! Some extra pearls were added to finish the card.

I am linking this to:

Word Art Wednesday Challenge #69 - Anything goes

Lady Anne's Challenges - Anything Goes Friday #7 - with Sentiment

Crafty Ann's Challenge #84 - The Sound of Music

Heck of a Challenge - Spring, butterflies and pearls

One Crazy Stamper - March Challenge - Anything Goes

Lady Anne's Challenges - NanaVic's 4th Challenge - Anything Goes

Drunken Stamper Challenge #117 - The Sound of Music (music dp and hymn words)

Totally Gorjuss Challenge #173 - Anything Goes with Pink

All Sorts Challenge #196 - For a Lady

Catch The Bug - Anything Goes Saturday Challenge

Thank you for visiting - May your day be blessed.

Thankyou for any comments you leave - they are most appreciated.

Flowers and Bling

Welcome I am so glad you have visited by blog.

Today I took refuge from the heat in studio and had fun playing with a new spellbinders die - Spiral Flowers Three, the leaves dies and a doily die.  My Cuttlebug had a real workout!!

The result is a very dimensional card, which I am pleased with. The flowers were sponged with violet ink to accentuate the colour. 

This is a close up, and in the bloom on the left, you can just see the purple rhinestone that I managed to place in the centre of each bloom.

The doily was cut in white card, and the swirl placed before the leaves and flowers were added - the swirl fought me somewhat and did not quite place as well as I may have liked.

The sentiment was simply stamped in a pearlescent ink to let the flowers take centre stage.

I am linking this to:

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #85 - Blooming images

Euraka Stamps Challenge #26- Flower Power

Kaboodles Doodles Challenge #160 - Use any Bling

My Craft Spot Challenge #88 - Pop It Up

My Grafico Challenge #146 - Anything Goes

Oh La La Creations Challenge #124 - Sparkle and Shine

The Crazy Challenge # 139 - Use Pink and Gems

Thank you for visiting - May your day be blessed

A Colourful Engagement

Welcome, and thank you for visiting today.  

With a short month and some distractions, I was running late with my usual card making for March, so spent most of the weekend in my studio, card making.  What a marathon, not that I am complaining, you understand.

On Friday evening I was asked by a friend to make an engagement card for her daughter, and although she did not give me a 'deadline', I knew that her daughter was visiting on Saturday, and that would be a great time for her to give it.

I started with the classic red and white and gold combination that I love 

- and partly because they are a more mature couple.

I made an easel card, and embossed the panel on the front with the cuttlebug Hearts folder, and layered a ribbon with a sentiment panel over that.  The sentiment is only part of a stamp, which I often use as it is very versatile.

The ribbon was used again on the foot of the card, along with the sentiment and the gold embossed hearts - placed using the stamp-a-ma-jig to have them looking as though they are entwined. 

The card was finished with little gold heart shaped brads on both panels.

I am linking this to:

Word Art Wednesday Challenge #68 - Anything Goes

Creative Inspirations Challenge - Anything Goes

Challenges for Everybody #14 - Anything Goes

Dream Valley Challenge #51 - Ribbon and Bling

Joanna Sheen Challenge - Layer it Up

Kenny K's Krafty Krew - Layer it Up

Robyn's Fetish Challenge #148 - Ribbon or Twine

Thanks for visiting - May your day be blessed

Poppies and Pearls

Welcome. 

I want to start by saying I had a health scare the other day, and I am making some changes, one of which will be to spend less time on my computer and taking life a bit more quietly in the sense that I will not be 'rushing around', rather pacing myself, and giving myself more time to get jobs done.

This may mean that I do not comment on as many blogs as I have done, or as often.  Thank you for your understanding.

I have just finished this card and am very pleased with it, although the camera has for some reason made the colours more intense, as in real life they are pastels.

The card is going to a farmer's wife, and I had in mind the view out of a window over a garden to the surrounding hills - although at the moment they would be brown, not green!

The poppies are a die cut from spellbinders, which I embossed and stencilled while still in the die.

The card opens to a shadow box - a technique I saw here on Paige's blog
She gives the link to the instructions, which I had to convert to metric, and bear in mind that card stock here is a slightly different size too, it was challenging, and I am not sure that I got it perfect (grin).

But I do love the final result - attained by using the Floral Oval and plain oval dies from spellbinders!  All the colouring was done using chalks/pastels.

I am linking this to:
Pink By Design Stamps - In the Garden
The Craft Spot Challenge #87- Flowers
My Grafico Challenge #144 - Anything Goes
The Pretty Little Ribbon Shop Blog Challenge #19 - Anything Goes
Cutie Pie Challenge #38 - Pretty Pastels
Bunny Zoe's February Challenge - Flowers and Pearls
The Crafty Bloggers Network February Challenge - Anything Goes
Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #85- Blooming Flowers
House of Gilli Challenge #50- Anything Goes with Pastels

Thank you for visiting - may your day be blessed

Class Time Again

Oops - where has the time gone - I so intended to write more blog posts this month... but life has been busy.

Just recently we spent time visiting  family, where there are two special small people who occupy our time, and we have the third special little person visiting this coming weekend.

Button and Lil'M playing well together.

Yesterday I had my first card class for the year, and as usual we did two projects - both included bows, which was requested by some, and dreaded by others.

The first card was a valentines using the felted cardstock technique.

They all agreed that they would never look at paper napkins the same again! As ever, each card was unique, with numerous variations in the placement 

of the napkin on the panel, and ribbon.

 

I also added a few rhinestones to my sample.

The second card was a challenge for some as I got them to screw up some old dictionary paper - not just once but twice to really increase the texture!

The paper was then inked with the direct to paper method.

The top part of the card was a swing panel, which they were intrigued with.

And the bow was tied with a bow maker which several of the ladies had, but did not know how to use, hence the request.

I finished the card with these rhinestones so I could show how the I had used some part swirls and individual bling to make something different.

Thanks for visiting - may your day be blessed.