Stylish Blogger Awards

I don’t know too many Blogs that don’t already have this award and wanted to pass it onto Bloggers who hadn’t yet received one. Again may i say a huge Thank You to Lynne who gave me my first Award:-)

 

The conditions of this award are..

Step 1 - Make a post linking back to the person who gave you the award!

Step 2 - Share 7 random things about yourself

Step 3 – Award 7 recently discovered bloggers with this award

Step 4 – Contact these bloggers and tell them they’ve won the award.

 

I have already made a post linking back to Lynne and shared 7 random things about myself in this post .

I am awarding The Stylish Blogger Award to the following seven new bloggers i have found since i joined the Less Is More Challenge:

Ali

Brenda B

Cazro

Faitha

Linby

Starcyl

SueW

Hoping you all enjoy your awards, have a great weekend and thanks for dropping by:-

Less Is More Challenge Number 4

This weeks Challenge on the fabulous Less Is More Challenge site is to use 3 squares and keep the card CAS. Hoping my choice of 3 squares is acceptable for this weeks entry.

1.    a square aperture

2.   a stamped and glazed panel in the aperture

3.   Glitterboard square greeting

 

  Materials Used

250gsm white cardstock

Flutterby Stamps

V&A Stamps

Pitch Black Adirondack Ink

Holographic embossing powder

Red glitter board

Sakura Glaze Pens Red and Green

Crafters Companion Stay and Shine Gaze

 

Really enjoying the challenges and looking forward to feedback in your comments.  Hoping that the number of entries for this weeks Challenge reaches the 200 mark this week as Chrisie and Mandi’s site goes from strength to strength.

Thanks for dropping by:-)

Get Well Card for Aidan

Aidan is a little boy in the US who has leukaemia, he is 2 years old.  To read more about Aidan and  why  Auntie Margs Blogspot has requested that we pass this link on please visit to see if you can help too:-)

Making cards for little ones is not something i do very often,  i’m never sure what to do…This time i knew exactly what to do as i have recently purchased some Dark Room Door stamps by the wonderful Rachel Grieg.The Robot set is really great and this is the first time they have been used. Here is the finished card.

Tried to capture this without any light reflecting onto the card  so you can see the true colours of everything.

Thought it might be fun to add a couple of black and white images so that Aidan could do some colouring in on his card. This is the inner, hope he has enough room to play! There is also one on the back of his card as a surprise…

Finally stamped the envelope with another set of Dark Room Door stamps called Mail Art,  a very useful set of stamps.

Materials Used:

Darkroom Door stamps sets Robots and Mail Art

250gsm off white card stock

Gold speckled mirror card

Silver mirror card

Cuttlebug Embossing Folder Cogs

Promarker Pens

Woodware A4 card ribbler

Distress Inks spiced Marmalade, Broken Chine and Shabby Shutters

Black glitter pen

Pinflair Glue

Red double sided tape.

 

Hoping Aidan enjoys his Robot colouring card when it arrives.  It will be in the post tomorrow and usually takes about a week.  Happy colouring Aidan!

Thanks for dropping by and enjoy your weekend:-)

Very First Blog Award!

I was very surprised to receive this award from Lynne and would like to say thank you very much!

The list of people i will pass this onto hasn’t been drawn up yet and i apologise if this takes a few days.  I will email you all very soon.
The List of seven things you don’t know about me… mmmmm this has been a very hard thing for me to do, anyway deep breath and here goes…
1.   I buy more crafting goodies than i use
2.    I am a chocoholic
3.   Own a Pazzle Inspiration Electronic Die Cutting Machine
4.   Make most of my cards for charity Kidneys For Life
5.   Love to make my own jewellery
6.   Love photography
7.    Am very shy

Hope i have adhered to the rules for this award.  Please let me know if i need to do anything else. 
Thank you for dropping by:-)

Less Is More Challenge Number 3

So very tired this week and have struggled to think of how to portray this weeks theme from the Less is More Challenge, this week we can do anything to portray Spring.  My first thought was to stamp something that looked like a spring or  to write a sentiment about having a spring in ones step…That tired me out even more, lol:-)  After much deliberation, pondering, not being happy with anything here it is…

 

Don’t know why but took a few more pictures of the card , think i was hoping that by taking pictures from different angles it might help me to see if this was good enough to enter this weeks challenge.

 

Materials Used

Stamp free from Craft Stamper Magazine

Distress Ink Pine Needles

Pro Marker Pen-Gold

Crystal Stickers for the wording

Glitter card

Rub on lines from Anitas Stickers

Black Diamond Stickles Glue

5x5 square white card 250gsm.

Stamped three flowers onto white cardstock using the Pine Needles Distress Ink cut out and then cut down the lines to be able to shape.  Coloured the backs of the flowers with the Pro Marker pen.  Glued them to the card using Pinflair Glue, placed the stems down and cut to size.  Cut a piece of glitter card placed the word Spring on top and then cut a scalloped edge following the shape of the crystal stickers to get the scalloped edge.  Put a tiny amount of Black Diamond Stickles Glue in the centre of the flowers and let it dry.  Finally glued the Spring wording on the bottom right hand of the card.

Sounds easy but took ages to get everything just right.! After much pondering have decided to enter the card into the challenge…

 

Thank you to all of the people who have left comments over the last couple of weeks it was great to read your kind and encouraging words.  Thanks for dropping by:-)

Just Want To Say.....

'Thank You' to all of the people who are following my Blog.  Having a Blog is a bit of a scary adventure, i never know when or what to write about at the best of times.  At the beginning of 2011 i decided that it was time to muster some confidence and post more of the things i like to make and share how they were put together. Am hopeful that you will call back often and leave a comment if you have the time.

Started my Wordpress Blog to show the altered projects, photographs taken with my Lumix FS30 (have found macro shots are becoming addictive) and items i make with my fantastic Pazzle Inspiration electronic Die Cutting machine, so if you feel like hopping over there for a look i hope you like what you find.  Had to start again with this Blog as i tried to change it and really messed up everything,  After much frustration and deliberation decided to scrap the old and to start again... There will be more posts there very soon.  Am working on two projects that i am quite excited about, have started photographing how one of them has been put together , the process is a steep but enjoyable learning curve!

The link to the Wordpress Blog is Here

Again, a huge 'Thank You' for becoming a Follower and i hope that you enjoy your visits.  Take care and thanks for dropping by:-)

Valentines Card

Thought i would share the Valentines Card i made for my OH.  Decided to cut the front design out using my  Pazzle Inspiration dies cutting machine.  Even though cartridges are not required to use with the machine there are a number of CD’s available for those who have not yet got the hang of designing their own files.

The card is A4 in size, to create the aperture on the front of the card i cut the centre out using the PI.  It was quite easy once i had worked out how to centre it all and place on the mat to cut. Used acetate behind the aperture and then lined the card front with textured paper as you can see on the left in the photograph below.  This allowed me to stick the large heart design on the front of the card and the glue stayed hidden.

The lips were also cut from another design on the Inked UP CD; this CD has lots of tattoo type designs on it and is really useful for celebration type cards.

The thickness of the card is around 350gsm, wanted it to be very sturdy as there is a lot of weight from the large heart and flourish embellishment.  Used a Cinch to make the holes and then Zutter wires. Ribbon was used to cover up most of the wires.

Forgot to say the card was coloured using Distress Inks Fired Brick, Spiced Marmalade and Wild Honey.  The front page was then sprayed using Cosmic Shimmer Mica Sprays.  Love the shimmer you get with these mica sprays. The inside of the card was decorated using some very large Valentine stickers i had from last year.

The back of the card was also decorated with one of last years stickers.

A macro shot of the heart embellishment on the front cover…

A project which was definitely made with love…

Thanks for dropping by, would love to read your comments :-)

Less Is More Challenge Week 2

Pleased with the single layer challenge this week as it is something i struggle with.  The stamps i used for the main flower image is from Paper Artsy Hot Pick range.  The line of dots stamp is from American Crafts from the Sentiments Large plate and the saying is from Flutterby Stamps.

Used Ranger Paint Dabbers Wild Plum and Eggplant to colour the tulips, this allowed me to stamp a more water colour or distressed look. The dots and the words were stamped in Slate Grey from Adirondack.

Enjoying the Less Is More Challenges, hope you stop by and join in.  The site seems to have grown so much since last week and i can see why.  Thank you to Chrissie and Mandi for starting up this great challenge Blog and for the clear instructions on how to enter and  also the great Glossary.

Thanks for dropping by, would love to read your comments:-)

Clear Tape Spots

Found this pack of 350 Clear Tape spots in our local Poundland shop, purchased them and then it struck me how much fun i could have playing with them. 

Experimented with a couple of different ink pads, Momento and Stazon.  The Momento ink worked but needed heat setting for a few seconds; the Stazon worked immediately but was difficult to use.  The acrylic stamp i used for the image was sticking to the clear dot so i tried placing the stamp over the dot and after applying pressure lift the carrier sheet up and peel the dot off the stamp.  Got some different results from trying this technique.

 

Sometimes a great image was produced and other times not so good, just practice to get better results.  Used a few different images this one is from a Dawn Bibby set from 2010. You can see the size of the dots if you look above the stamped flowers.  Not yet tried stamping with a huge background stamp and covering a whole lot of them.  I had other things to do with single/multiple images as you can see in the following images. This flower stamp is from an Elusive Images set called Decadent Brocade. The dots also looked good when grouped together to create a fuller flower centre, next tried scrunching the centre of the flower after i stuck the dot onto the card to get a textured look.

 

 

Made an A5 card using the scrunched flower and using the CAS (clear and simple) technique which i am trying to use more and more at the moment.

Thank you card using three of the stamped clear dots placed onto a white background,  added two acrylic flowers and layered onto a handmade background paper; this was made using Tim Holtz Distress Inks Broken China and Faded Jeans. 

Using the clear adhesive dots to decorate an envelope adds that professional look to your finished project.  Contemplate stamping your initials onto them  so that your projects become even more personalised.

 

Hoping you get hold of some of these very inexpensive dots and see what you can do with yours.

Thanks for dropping by:-)

Less Is More Challenge No.1

2011 is the year when i am going to learn how to do the ‘less is more’ type of card.  I was really pleased when i found a Blog called Less Is More Challenge Blog. 

This is my entry for their first challenge. Their chosen colour scheme is Black, White and Pink.   Not my colours of choice but this is what these challenges are all about…Used Woodware 3” Scallop Punch and a 2” Round Punch to make the flower, stamped with a background stamp from Flutterby Stamps (this stamp is one of my all time favourite stamped images), so very pretty and very versatile. The saying on the flower is one from the Elusive Images Thank You Plate.  The pink clear tape is from Prima Clearly IOD range. Used Distress Inks Spun Sugar and Victorian Velvet to colour the flower and used Momento ink to stamp the wording. Finished off with a three acrylic flowers.

Hoping that my card is suitable  as i enjoyed leaving all that scary space… 

Thanks for dropping by :-)

Home Sweet Home

Attended a fantastic workshop yesterday at Paddy's Stamping Place called Home Sweet Home. the tutor was Kay Halliwell-Sutton.  What a fantastic lady Kay is.  She has a great sense of humour and is a pleasure to learn from, will hopefully attend many more of her workshops.
Lots of images today as for once i managed to photograph each step of the workshop.  Have to say a huge Thank You  to Kay  for two things, i learnt a lot from her workshop today & her Melt Pot didn’t seem to want to work so she made all of the UTTEE pieces herself to save time etc:-)
This is the basic house shape before we got started painting and distressing  our ‘Home’.

Chose three colours to paint the house,  the box front is Ochre, the roof Slate Blue and rear/sides Plum.

The next job was to paint the insides of the front, Kay told us that to paint the inside of the box with a dark tone (she used a mucky chocolate brown shade) would help the background papers pop from the boxes after they had been distressed.

We got to use some of the new Paper Artsy  Haddon Hall 12 x 12 card stock to make the backgrounds for the box.  This card stock is really good quality and great for distressing and stamping over as seen below. You can also see the cotton reels that we got to paint and cover. 


Had great fun with the cotton reels, painted them Slate Blue and then covered them with paper and some Woodware Metal sheets which  Paddy can get for you.  My favourite is the middle cotton reel with the metal tape ruler finish, this was made using an embossing folder but not sure which company sells this particular design.

Needed to prepare the metal to use , took three pieces which had been cut to size and embossed them using the Sizzix Express machine and a few different embossing folders.   Then the pieces were painted with Black Acrylic paint (all of the paints we used in this project were acrylic paints), left for a couple of minutes and then the excess paint removed.  We did this by taking a piece of kitchen roll and making gentle circular movements; this helps to remove the excess paint.   If you press too hard you can take off too much  paint so try to be gentle if it is your first time trying this technique.

 

Had to take a macro shot of this amazing UTTEE owl made by Kay using one of her silicone moulds, the detail is amazing and she put different mica powders in the mould before she added the UTTEE. the result is outstanding. As you can imagine we all wanted one of these for our boxes.

After we painted the house it was time to choose our stamps.  I chose to use Elusive Images and Paper Artsy Stamps.  The ones below are from Elusive Images, i had to use these words as they are so true. It says, “There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people”.

Time to start putting it all together…

This is as far as i got before i was too tired to go on. Said my goodbyes and headed home to rest and take stock.

Woke up this morning to find new inspiration, this is the completed box.  Have taken some close up images of each section so you can see clearer how great these look when completed.  I decided to also decorate the back of the box as i don’t think this will be hung up, i am hoping it will be seen from both sides. Think I need to complete another two houses so i have a little village to look at; themes are already being mulled over.

Really wanted to add some beads as i love making jewellery so chose a couple of glass beads to compliment the rest of the items in the house, thought it would be fun to use a large acrylic bauble, which is actually a xmas tree decoration, added a flower top and another glass bead to get the finished look.. 
The butterfly on the back of the box was cut using my Pazzle Inspiration die cutting machine and the design was taken from a CD called Inked Up also from Pazzles. Coloured the butterfly using Alcohol Inks from Ranger. Please contact Pazzles directly if you are interested in their Inspiration die cutting machine.
If you want to know how to get hold of any supplies used in this workshop please contact Paddy on 0161 798 5115.

Hope you enjoyed seeing the house made step by step.  Thanks for dropping by:-)

Sad…Goodbye Paper Mill

Paid my last visit ever to the local Paper Mill Shop.  Received an email last week saying that all the Paper Mill shops were closing down Sunday 6th  February.

When i arrived this lunchtime the shop was practically empty but i did get some mirror card for 75p per pack of 5, a large box of paper for £12 and an A3 box for £10.  Their card cuts perfectly through my Pazzles inspiration die cutting machine. 

Said goodbye to the ladies who i got to know and who were always a pleasure to speak with.  The news for them was sudden and they have been so busy sorting out the stock that they haven’t had time to search for another job. I wish them all well and hope they find another job very soon.

Thanks for dropping by:-)

Minimalist

Trying to keep the minimalist theme going. Got the cupcake stamps free from the cover of  the latest Do Crafts Creativity magazine.

Took a macro shot of one of the images to show how fabulous Pro Marker Pens are.  I copied the stamp colours on this occasion to get a feel for the stamp.

The local stationers  had a sale on certain items, fell for this lovely simple wood mounted flower stamp which cost £2.99.  Enjoyed colouring the flowers in with the Pro Marker pens and used pastel colours again.

Thanks for dropping by:-)