Oooh missed it

Well I've missed lots of things really

I've been missing from the blog for 5 weeks or so. Loads of reasons, mostly tedious and once you stop it is hard to start again
Which means I missed my blogaversary - I haven't got a date on my first post but it is something like the 8th May 2006. So 8 years I've been slightly squiffy now. I will put together a little giveaway soon (I'll admit it is mostly things I have accidentally bought twice. Its my age). Perhaps when I am on Sabbatical. I am going to be missing from my job for 3 months. As a Minister we get paid leave every 10 years (mine is every 11 at the moment though!) and I will be gadding about in the summer as Pilgrimage is part of my theme. But I am also going to put some craftyness in as well and may well use this blog as a record for that - or set up another with a link. Probably the former as the latter sounds complicated.

I'm missing a bit of skin as well. Two smallish moles were taken away and then it was decided they needed to take more skin. I'm longing for the stitches to come out as I am feeling like Frankenstein's monster at the moment.

I will try and catch up with myself but for today will just recap on those Daring Cards I did and haven't blogged. I'll go backwards though  - from feathers to football to flags
Feathers is this week's theme from super Sharon.
I made what was going to be a quick card last night which turned out to be not so fast

 

I knew that I would use my lovely Clearly Besotted feathers. I have some extra thick vellum from Craft Creations which takes embossing like a dream so I inked the feathers using various dye inks and added clear embossing powder. I cut round the feathers and they were all transluscent and lovely.

Then I decided to do a background as I am currently enjoying the Online Card Classes Watercolour class. I started by adding some white stencil paste to a dotted stencil.

And then I was impatient and didn't wait long enough for it to dry. So when I put ink on top the dots turned to splodges

So I started adding things to try and cover up the mess

And spilt a Tattered Angels Mist over it (the lid was off so I could flick some dots)

I decided some gold would help (I almost added yellow instead but THAT was actually averted). Then thought there ought to be gold on the vellum.

Which of course then crinkled up - as it has done every time I have tried this....

So I die cut the feathers from white cardstock using the matching dies and stuck the vellum down.

I reckoned that although the whole panel looked one hot mess I could maybe just use a sliver of it - which is what I did. The sentiment was stamped over the top (from the same CB stamp set).

I placed the enamel dot down, decided I didn't like it there - but it took the paper up with it so it went back down again...

and we wont mention the fact that I didn't notice the odd shape of the gold sequin.

Considering the catalogue of disasters it isn't as bad as it could have been...

Last weeks dare was from the amazing Jo - she wanted us to be inspired by football.

It was good timing for me as I need to make a card for Phil's 50th birthday - which is today. He is a big Bolton Wanderers fan and had mentioned that the elephant logo is coming back to the kit - much better than the rather boring dark blue and white of the strip. You can see the logo here.

 

I used little Memory Box dies to make the castle. The elephant is a PTI stamp. I have these fab Lawn Fawn Milo alpha stamps where you can stamp the whole word at once. Bolton's motto is "Supera Moras" - overcome delays but I canged it to "Supera Saeculum" - overcome old age. Some black glitter letters approximated the Bolton Wanderers main logo.

He had spotted me printing up a photo of the elephant so it wasn't a huge surprise today but I think he liked it!

and finally to catch up (I was missing from DCM for 3 weeks as well!) - flags 

This one was my choice as I thought flags could be inspirational in all sorts of ways. I went for the look of Japan

I made a stencil that I could stamp and emboss a large backround stamp through using white embossing powder. I then added various red Distress Inks and buffed it up. Some strips of Kaisercraft paper, my favourite birthday sentiment (Paper Smooches) and some black Stickles and it was done

Ooh nearly forgot a little strip of washi tape just for interest!

That'll do for today. Hope to be back again sooner than I was this time :)

Embedded die cuts

I really love the new trend for using die cuts so they sink within your base panel. It is quite fiddly but well worth it in my opinion.
Here are two examples made with some really cute and bargainatious dies from Clearly Besotted

This card was inspired by unearthing some teeny tiny brads. I chose three colours and found cardstock and papers to match. When I started card making I used to subscribe to the much missed Self Addressed card kits. I had loads of left over coloured cardstock card bases and I have now started hacking into them in order to create mats like this as I do prefer white or cream bases. I cut each word seperately and made sure I captured all the tiny white bits to put back when the coloured word went into the white cardstock (OK I cannot tell a lie, I might have had to recut parts of the words in order to make sure I had all the pieces). The star is a QK die cut from Amy Tan paper, raised on foam pads and given a few dots of sparkle

 

This one uses more October Afternoon papers (I am trying to use up some of my old collections) The leaf die is from Clearly Besotted too. The flowers are punched using a Stamping Up punch. I added some stick on gems and covered the words in Glossy Accents.

And finally a card that uses die cuts in a more traditional way

using more Clearly Besotted stamps and dies

Trying (and failing) to be like Jennifer

I have been going through a season of spendies in terms of card making recently. I am thinking about challenging myself to not buying any more for now - at least after the parcel I am waiting for arrives.... There is something disquieting when I get the "gimmies". Manufacturers bring out new products every month it seems and so many people make lovely things with them and I yen to do the same. Sadly, I don't always manage to make cards as fab as theirs and so move on to the next new thing instead. There is something important about learning to be content and enjoy what I have. But that is a scary thought so we will see....

Anyhoo, here are a few of my new best friends - all that were inspired by some amazing cards by that fab teacher - Jennifer McGuire

 

This was me trying to channel Jennifer McGuire (and using the same stamp set as well) This was my first go which I had to do fairly quickly so Phil could take it to his mum's. The stamps are MFT's Easter Bunny. The sentiment stamps are Clearly Besotted. I didn't quite get the spacing right so added some embossed lines. There was a lot of sparkle added by using a Wink of Stella pen and some liquid pearls. I loved her card so much that I bought both the flower set and the sentiment set that she used as well. I thought it would be good for some of the kind of cards I need to send in my line of work 

The phrase comes from the MFT set Words of Inspiration. I die cut this Dienamics flower from several papers (the green and orange are from Webster's Papers) and then embedded them back into the piece cut from white cardstock. A few gems and some foam pads and the card needed no more (in my humble opinion)

This card features another die cut freebie from Dies to Die for. I coloured it using some Copic glitter pens I have long neglected. The MTF sentiment is stamped with a grey ink

The final card for today was also inspired by Jennifer. I was in two minds about posting it as I think it is one hot mess to be honest! Jennifer made these awesome cards using watercolour paints and a thin paintbrush. She also used a stamp as a guide. I thought I would try freehand
A fail in my opinion

Maybe it is because my writing is still too thick (although I tried to use the thinnest brush I have) but to me it looks rather childish and silly. The main panel is watercolour paper and all the other elements of the card are from October Afternoon.
So what do you think? Should I persevere or give it up as a bad job?
And are you going to dare me to stop buying for a while?

Shiny happy people

Call me shallow (hello shallow!) but I do like a bit of shiny glittery paper. Whilst making an order for card bases at Craft Creations, on impulse I added a few sheets of glitter card to my basket. Glitter card used to be a right pain - flaky or slightly off in colour. This is adorable. As you can see from my last two daring cards which both feature said glittery gorgeousness.

We'll go backwards from this week - it was my turn to choose a colour combo for the month. I was drawn to this one from Design Seeds

It was only later that I began to wonder whether the fact that it is the colours of the Welsh flag might have influenced me! But I do love a bit of green and red and I think the cool greys stop it being too Christmassy. Although it would still work if you are one of those people who like making Christmas cards all year round.
I don't....

 

I went through some of my many paper pads and picked out some toning papers - from Kaisercraft; American Crafts Amy Tan and Simple Stories. I used a Dienamics flower die and cut the leaves and flowers out several times. I assembled the pieces behind a vase made using that glitter cardstock and a punch. (One that I have had several years and NEVER used!). The "thanks" is a die cut that came from Dies to Die For. I do like the way that they send some samples with an order! I added some Glamour Dust to the die cut and also to the die cut letters that I cut from green paper. Some of the flowers were raised on foam pads and all had little diamente gems stuck in the middle. And that is that.

Last week I did make a card in good time for the fabulous Svenja's dare. But my hubby had taken the camera to his mums and I couldn't take a photo (somewhere in the house is at least one more working camera but we can't think where!)

He did take some wonderful shots though

so I forgive him!
Plus he did help me out with Svenja's dare - Money makes the world go round
I was a bit stumped until he suggested looking at pictures of money. I looked at a Euro coin and went "ker-ching!"

I combined silver and gold glitter card. There is some dry embossing on the right hand side as per the coin but that is really hard to see. I also gave an authentic tone on tone look with a Heidi Swapp glittery sticker. But to avoid that completely blending in as well I added a die cut heart. Some very old LYB letter stickers and a very new Clearly Besotted word die and some almost as new Fancy Pants papers finished off the card - along with some stick on gems.

Right (imagine me brushing my hands together as if there is work to be done). I am now going to write some more quick blog posts as I am forever making things but not having the time and energy to share them here and what is the point of a blog if you don't. There may be some things a-changing soon but I will leave all that to another day....

Minding the gap

I was just feeling pleased with myself that I was blogging fairly regularly when life got in the way again. I have had very little play time recently which is never good. And when I sit at the computer there is often work to do (or just enough time to play Pearls Peril and/or Criminal Case on Facebook) before going out to do more work. Or I am tired after the sentence above.
There we are then.
Soooooo, catch up time.
I did make a card for last week's Daring Cardmaker challenge - Fairy Tales. It was a clever idea that had us all thinking hard and I think the team came up with some fab ideas. Mine is quite simple

can you guess the tale?
give up?
Its Goldilocks and the Three Bears!
The papers are all Websters Pages and I added gold glamour dust and a Clearly Besotted stamped sentiment in Delicata gold ink (which is LOVELY). I do feel a bit sorry for big and small butterfly so I might actually give them more gold before I send the card anywhere!

This week we were sent some lovely goodies by Docrafts - some dies and papers. Many of the team were sent Gorjuss images but I had just the papers (but two die sets so I am not complaining!) which is why I don't feature any cute girls on my card. Hopefully it still counts as Die-licious!

I was sent the fabulous butterfly - there are several different wings and a side view as well. It is fairly big - this is a 4x4" card. There are holes in the wings and I decided to fill them up with gold cardstock from Craft Creations. I used the rest of the cut out gold card as a second layer to lift the butterfly without adding too much bulk.  The dots on the body of the butterfly were made using Beads In a Bottle in gold.

The doily came from a Quirky Kit and was originally kraft but I sprayed it with Gold Lame colour shine. I added some cream cardstock which was embossed with a Maggie Holmes folder. I bruched the cardstock with Delicata gold ink. "Love" was diecut with another Docrafts set - a lovely swirly alphabet. I cut this twice - once with the purple paper and once with the gold and offset it ever so slightly for a subtle effect. "With" was spelled with some Carolees Creations alpha stickers I have had forever.

Here are some close up shots

Ah yes, I did add some Stickles blobs which went horribly wrong and dried to be totally the wrong colour so I slapped some toning pearls over the top! I wish I had done the panel in vellum not cardstock but there we are

Here is hoping there is less of a gap before I can next share my crafting.

Feeling slightly colour blind

This week at Daring Cardmakers it is time for the monthly colour challenge
It is absolutely gorgeous

Now when I have some crafting time I copy and paste various sketches and ideas onto an A4 document. I try and get as many as possible onto one page (cheap I am) and possibly I made my copy of this colour seed just a leeeeeeetle bit too small as I "read" the colours wrong. I was v. cross with myself as I absolutely love these colours together, but just didn't have any time to make another card this week.
I haven't told my sons yet but I know they will enjoy this mistake as they are both quite prfoundly colour blind and being a loving mother I have spent many happy hours laughing at them getting colours wrong.
Anyway, here is my card

Papers are from the latests Amy Tan 6x6 pad, a Kaisercraft Christmas pad and some very old Heidi Swapp.
The dies are from Dienamics; Sizzix and Clearly Besotted and the sentiment is from Imagine That. Oh and I used two circle punches and some Hobby House gems.
The finished card is quite nice but I will never love it as I will always say to myself "why did you see that colour as yellow and not lovely sage green. why? Why? Why!"

I did play with other colours for a new challenge this week. I saw some people playing along and decided to have a go.
Virginia wanted people to use watercolouring as well as this inspiration piece

and I made two cards

This one uses a free stamp I had with a magazine, embossed in white and then watercoloured using yellow, pink, orange and red distress inks and a waterbrush. The papers are Heidi Swapp, Amy Tan and MME. The sentiment is computer generated

This was another free stamp, watercoloured in a similar way. I added Amy Tan papers and some washi tape. The balloons are Clearly Besotted dies and I had drew the string. The balloons were given the Wink of Stella treatment

Expect to see loads more cards like this as I really enjoyed the process :)

Always look on the bright side of life

Even when it is hard!
Phil and I are struggling with the Cold That Will Not Go Away.
He is almost at the end of week 3 poor lamb and I am well (or not well) into week 2. We are mostly able to work but then get all weak and feeble all of a sudden and have to rest a bit (or watch 24 or Fringe, depending on who gets to the tv first)

I do try to look on the bright side. Maybe actually what I try to do is look with hope. That is a fundemental part of what Christian faith means to me - that I have hope that God can make a difference in my life and others; that I have hope that I can share his love and that God works in all things to do good. Of course, I struggle with this at times - when people don't behave as they should; when tragedies happen; when life is plain unfair. But I still have hope. In funerals I sometimes use the prayer "you can change the shadow of death into the brightness of a new morning" and to me that is what hope is about.

Which is what I wanted to express in my cheery card using the song lyrics/sentiment from the Life of Brian. It also reminds me of Phil singing this at a karaoke evening on a French campsite and the organisers apologising profusely to parents as it contained a (mild) four letter word. It would be a Minister who used profanity ("I only read what was on the screen" says Phil)

And why make such a card? well Gez asked us to be Sentimental for this weeks Daring Cardmaker challenge - and use a phrase that means something to you.

I used papers from the new Amy Tangerine pad (the yellow); the new Maggie Holmes pad (theclouds)  and Simple Stories colourwise (the black and white chevron). I added one of those fab October Afternoon chipboard clouds, a typed sentiment (font: Times and Times Again) and some Smash washi tape.
When I made the card last night I added some Liquid Pearl dots to the washi tape and left them to dry. It turns out that washi tape is not a good surface for the dots as they all fell off this morning!

(the background is some scrap paper I have used to do my Sharpie pen outlining. And stapler practice. Yes, I need stapler practice)
So the dots were replaced with stick on pearls....

Did I mention how much I love those clouds?
Have a good weekend - I hope that you are able to look on the bright side - and know some hope in your heart too :)

A walk down memory lane

Last week was a trip down memory lane. Only from last year though as we stayed in the same cottage for half term as we did then. Phil and I have had rotten colds which are hard to shake off so we spent a quiet time relaxing, eating and walking a bit. The main excuse for being there was catching up with Emrys. It is so nice to hear him and Carys chattering and giggling together.

And I have had a longer trip down memory lane with this week's Daring Cardmaker challenge. Sharon chose the theme of Old but not forgotten, trying to find our oldest crafting buys to use. I don't have much of my very oldest. Many of those papers and stamps I have given away in the past. But I have kept a few, which I have used this week.

The first card uses some lovely Basic Grey Urban Couture thatI have been hoarding

the red panel is actually from a folding matchbook album that I have never used. I added some chipboard from my stockpile (don't use much of it, can't bear to part with it) which I coloured using MR Huey white and a Glimmer Mist chalkboard green paint to try and approximate the colour of the backing paper. It is slightly more successful in real life than it photographed. The sentiment is one of my first ever stamps - a wooden backed one. I've never found them that easy to use. I added flowers from an Imagine That set and some sticky gems. The final touch was a Martha Stewart butterfly. Oh and everything is inked round the edge using Vintage Photo distress ink. The only colour I had for many years!

To be honest, I didn't really like that card much so decided to have another go. I was supposed to use another old stamp but forgot and used a newer one. I'm glad really as the old one does look terribly out of fashion now!  I used a Freshly Made sketch

to make this

More old Basic Grey - this is my first BG love "Lollipop Shoppe".
I used a very old Sizzix die for the parcel.
The sentiment is Clearly Besotted.
And to be totally retro - I used one of the last peel offs I still own!
The parcel is mounted on foam pads

I've also been making layouts. Here is one that also uses up some old kit

The photo was taken last week when it was still really awful down in the South West so there is a blue cast to the white that I can't eradicate with my photo shopping skills (none)
There is no patterned paper on here at all. I emptied out two packets of die cut pieces from the Girls Paperie that I have had for years - lots of frames and pennants and clocks and things that I have used endlessly and still never seem to finish. So I placed them down on the page and then gessoed over them so that close up you can still see the pattern but they don't overwhelm.

Then I decided to outline them all to give some extra dimension.
There were lots of little numbers and I added the letters that began each of our names. That was a blessing in that there wasn't a full alphabet in either packet of die cuts - just that our initials featured in the selected words (Lucky and Travel as I recall). As you can see there weren't quite enough numbers so I had to improvise

I thought these Cosmo Cricket alphabet stickers blended in very well

Using up all that old stash was enormously satisfying!

We are going to need a bigger Ark

I can't decide whether I am going to wake up tomorrow on Ararat or in Oz. The weather in South Devon has been so wet and so windy this week. And last week. And the week before. Etc. I live waaaaay above sea level so little chance of flooding just here. Although a few streets away a house has just fallen into the sea....

So to distract myself I have been enjoying making some cards. And this week's Daring Cardmakers' challenge has been such a joy. And a bit hard as well :)
The joy came from the fact we were sent some fabulous goodies from the latest Quirky Kit. Now, as I am on the QK design team I may seem a little biased. But honestly? This kit has just driven my creative juices wild. So many lovely things to play with. I can't wait to get my full kit next week. Rather than just creating one card I have made 5 - but not all fit with the theme of the dare
Which is the hard bit - a touch of neon - is the dare for this week.

You do need to bear in mind that there has been very little sun this week and so it has been hard to get a good photo. All these cards look rather blue/white so imagine the colours a bit brighter please! Eventually I hope to retake the photos - apart from the card I have already sent that is!

So neon cards first

 

I cut down one of the grid cards. The grey patterned card with white circle is from a cut apart sheet. I cut two strips of patterned paper and stamped a Pink Paislee "happy" on one of them. "Birthday" was written using Cosmo Cricket letter stickers (from the last time bright pink was "in"). I added a bow made from the string in the kit and added some Daffodil liquid pearls. We won't mention the fact that the pearls went slightly wrong at the bottom :)

What I hadn't done on that card was use my nemesis - the VERY neon yellow card. I decided that I really needed to give it a go.

but I did cheat a bit! I found this pink and neon green ribbon from the time before the last time bright pink was in and so daubed some Peeled Paint distress ink on top of the yellow to make it more of a green neon. And actually the match is now exact in real life. I used a large herringbone embossing folder on the card base and then layered up various papers from the kit. The flower is a Martha Stewart punch and the button is actually a toning bright pink. Once I had added the Clearly Besotted sentiment I decided that some of the white space at the botton needed filling so I stamped some Imagine That tiny flowers in bright pink and stuck some Beads in a bottle bright green dots on the top (again, a better colour match than it looks here).

Then I decided to combine two trends together - neon and gold. Mainly because I have a new Delicta gold ink pad which is a lovely bright gold colour.

The pink card is from one of my old Self Addressed card kits. Some of the cardbase styles were not me but I am glad that I kept them as I love the colours and can use them like this. I added a background stamp using my new gold ink pad. The papers are all from the Quirky Kit and I also used a die cut flower from a Crate Paper line. I added the gold pen for emphasis. The green circle has Fruit Punch Stickles all over it. Finally I added the sentiment in that gold ink again. The final touch was some American Crafts glitter tape.

Now come my not at all neon cards - which are actually my favourites.

Lots of black pen going on here! That vellum is just the most beautiful material ever. I added some Wink of Stella glitter pen to the circle just above the cloud and also on the raindrops. The Paper Smooches sentiment just said "get well" which seems a bit abrupt for British ears so added the meek "soon" using a brush pen.

Although part of me wanted to just hoard the vellum I was a big girl and used a huge piece of it.

The feathers are cut on the Cameo and I dipped the ends in Versamark and embossed them with glitter embossing powder. Then I outlined the rest of the feather with a gold pen. I stamped and embossed the Clearly Besotted sentiment using Detail Gold powder. I used a heat gun on the back of the vellum and there were no problems. I edged the vellum piece with gold ink. After attching the feathers I used glue on the vellum behind them and also used the strip of gold tape to anchor the vellum to some white card. The whole piece was then raised on foam pads.

Hope you have enjoyed looking at these as much as I enjoyed making them :)

Oooh doesn't time fly!

One day I was a tiny schoolgirl just facing the world

Soon after starting school they discovered I was short sighted and needed to wear glasses. Since then I have only taken them off at discos as a teenager (which did once lead to so much disappointment on meeting me the day after than my ardent suitor of the night before did a flit in Woolworths) and to get married (didn't want glasses sticking up through the veil!).
And suddenly in the blink of an eye (that will be the drops the optician put in) I am at thismoment
duh duh durrrrrr
varifocals. One of the true signs of getting older

They do end up a little clearer than that - there was actually sun in Torquay today (never fear, there was also a few rain showers!)
The grey hairs are on their way as well. But only a few so far. Oooh I look glum in the photo - but I was focussing on focussing and focussing. I was holding up a DSLR and trying to guess whether I was in the frame. And then I would look through the wrong part of my glasses and everything would pitch and sway. Ah well, better to get older than not (says the person who spent the best part of yesterday at a death and dying conference)

Still looking at cards wot I have made is cheery - especially if they are in bright colours. Which couldn't be helped for my Daring Card this week as we had a gorgous photo to work with

Greys and yellow and orange/coral and a hint of gold mixed up with chevrons and script. I came up with this

 

The chevron paper is orange and the circle paper is much more yellow in real life. I think each paper came from a different pad. The grey is Authentique Strong, the yellow is Lily Bee, the gold stripe is Dear Lizzy, the coral spotty paper is Fancy Pants and I think the chevron is Simple Stories. I die cut and layered until it felt right. The coral paper had cream toned dots so I covered them with Liquid pearls. I have been trying (and mostly failing) to do a brush script that I like - mostly because I don't want it to be neat and in a straight line and also because despite having about 20 brushes, none seems to do the trick (and of course,  it can't be me at fault!) I wrote "love" with a brush felt tip pen and then covered it with a Wink of Stella glitter pen

you can see the sparkle a bit better here.

I've also made 2 more cards based (loosely) on Lucy Abrams sketches this week

This one didn't work out as I wanted it too. Perhaps because the line beneath the circles is too far up? I quite like its graphic quality though. The papers are all Heidi Swapp
Then there is this one

I decided to try something a bit busier

which I am happier with. These papers are all Crate Paper. I love the numbers paper! The sentiment is Clearly Besotted and I covered the candle and flame with Rock Candy distress stickles. After they had dried the flame still looked a bit pale so I painted on some yellow distress ink on the top.

 My weekend will involve work, rest and play. Hope yours will too!