All Wrapped Up!

The next Tanda Teaser is all about wrapping up our special pressies! My sample is a box that I made to wrap a pressie for Zoe...I was hoping to give it to Zoe personally at the Bubbly Funk store opening last weekend. Unfortunately due to weather it didn't happen so I have posted (Posted vie Royal Mail that is) said pressie...just hoping that it doesn't get squished on the way!


Box and tag were stamped using my Klimt swirly block from Tanda using pearl-X and stickles. A pretty paper rose and raffia bow with a little bit of Kryon pen just finished the box.

Hope you love it Zoe!

Sue
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Baby It's Cold Outside!

Well it's been really cold here for the last week or so...today we had beautiful ice crystals coating everything...and just as the sun began to disperse the freezing fog that has enveloped us for the last couple of days...I saw this....had to stop the car and take a few piccys!



Enjoy!





These photos were all taken today from Holt Fleet Bridge just a few hundred yards from my house..it was minus 5 degrees Celsius at lunch time! Very cold but also very beautiful!

Here's hoping things warm up for Thursday as I need to travel south to see my Dad, who has been in hospital since last Tuesday and is now very fed up!

Sue
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Snowpeople!

I just spotted that there is a Snowpeople challenge over on the "Gingersnap Creations Blog" Perfect timing there as I have just made some sample cards for Patty at the Treasury in Kidderminster.


The last lot of sample cards were a great success and stamps and papers have been selling well as a result. Here's hoping that these cards do the same thing!


The snowmen stamps were from Impression Obsession, sentiment stamps were from My Sentiments Exactly, papers from Clover.


I stamped the images in distress ink and then coloured them using copic markers. The snowflake punch is from Kars and I used the tiny clear Glints as centres. Glitter and Glossy Accents also had a part to play.


All the materials used to make these cards including the Copics are available from Patty at "The Treasury"

A Few of My Favourite Things

I just found a Challenge site for Lili of the Valley fans! And this week's challenge is a Few of My Favourite Things.....LOTV stamps are certainly amongst my favourite stamps at the moment and having just stocked up at the NEC I had to join in with this challenge.


My stamped image was stamped in distress ink and then coloured using copic markers. My favourite things in this are, of course, the stamps, the copic markers, ribbon, Glossy accents, distress inks, SU punches and Martha Stewart punches.

F is for Foliage!

This week's challenge over on the alphabet challenge is F is for Foliage. I made this card using Bloom & Grow papers from My Mind's Eye. The stamp is from Lili of the Valley, stamped in distress ink, coloured with copics and then distressed around the edges with distress inks. I used glossy accents on the roses and apple to give a bit of dimension.

The larger flowers were made by punching out 2 large flowers, 2 medium flowers and one small flower (2 medium and 1 small for the smaller flowers). I snipped into each flower to form the petals and then I used an embossing tool to curl the petals. The flowers were then stuck together and a dab of glossy accents was used to form the flower centres with gold accent beads.


Now for the important bit, the foliage....My foliage was die cut from one of the designer papers in the pack. I've been putting glossy accents onto small parts of my stamped images for a while now and I really like the enamelled look that it gives so it was just an extension of this idea to cover the leaves in glossy accents. I'm really pleased with how this looks, note to self...need to get some more glossy accents!

Make a Decoration over on Tuesday Taggers

I saw over on Zoe's blog that Tuesday Taggers challenge this week is to make a decoration. I was chatting to Zoe the other day about shrink plastic and then I remembered the project that Jo Firth-Young did with my Christmas tree stamps featured in the Dec 08 edition of Craft Stamper. I've been thinking about trying the new metallic Stazon with shrink especially on the black, so this was the perfect opportunity. Unfortunately I cannot show you a black Christmas tree as I managed to shatter it by using a crop-o-dile to make a hole after I'd shrunk it....not a good idea! I can report though that gold Stazon works very well on black shrink plastic.

For my glass minders I used the frosted shrink plastic and my Klimt style tree stamp from TandaStamps. I used the gold Stazon, which interestingly enough went a sort of brassy colour when shrunk...(on the black it remained a lovely gold). I also discovered that it is not a good idea to splat your shrink to flatten it as some of the gold transfers across onto your acrylic block leaving a slightly mottled effect...well I know for next time!

Now did I own up to having bought a lampwork bead starter kit at the NEC? Well it has been sitting waiting for me to open the box and my fingers have been seriously itching! Having bought some vermiculite at the weekend, I finally opened the box because I thought that it would be nice to make some beads to use on my glass minders.....so the beads you see in the pictures are my first attempt at lampwork.....I'm just waiting for some more bead release to dry on my mandles so that I can make some more!!! It's pretty tricky, but I am quite pleased with what I have made so far...not managed to make a pandora style bead yet as I don't seem to be able to get a nice round shape yet....I guess I will just have to trawl the internet for how to videos.

E is for Embossing on the Alphabet Challenge

The Challenge on the Alphabet challenge blog this week is to have something embossed on your card....I made my card for my neighbour's son who is mad keen on music...He is an excellent drummer and has just made it into the final 40 in a national drumming competition. My embossing is the music on the tag. Not very obvious in the photo, but trust me it is there.

The image is a Mikey digital download from charmed crafts, coloured with copic markers and distressed with distress inks. The papers are from the Hampstead collection from Papermania.

Ladies Only Tanda Teaser

The Tanda Teaser this time round is called Ladies Only! Of course men are welcome to take part, it is just that the cards/projects need to feature Ladies. For my card I used a mixture of Tanda stamps and Paperartsy stamps and dies.

The centre of my floral embellishment is made from a bottletop filled with a stamped image of the lady's eyes, accent beads and UTEE. Inks are distress inks, papers are Graphic 45. The ribbon was from Fantastic Ribbons.

D is for Doodles

Over on the Alphabet Challenge this week it's D for doodles...so this is my attempt...the card was for a certain little niece who thinks that she is getting a pressie every time she sees us...brought about by the fact that she is the eldest girl in the family after my two girls...so of course...every time my girls grow out of something...it gets passed on down to Mia...Hence where's my pressie!

Stamp is Gorjuss girl coloured with copic markers...backing paper was from the new Essence of Nature DVD from Artylicious.

Peace!

This week's Tuesday Taggers challenge is called Peace, Joy or Love...I've been playing about with our family Christmas card for this year and this is my final version.... I decided to follow the less is more approach in the end. The Bethlehem stamp was stamped in black stazon onto watercolour paper then coloured using Prussian Blue watercolour, I then used sakura clear star to colour the star.

C is for Cats!

If you read my blog yesterday you will know that I just make a load of sample cards for The Treasury, my local specialist craft store in Kidderminster. If you live anywhere nearby you should definitely drop in...Patty has the Range and Hobbycraft on the doorstep, which are fine if you want what's available everywhere else, but for the really good stuff and the unusual she is really worth the visit. I've also noticed that she is charging less than Hobbycraft for her metallic stazon!

One of the sample cards that I made for Patty features a little girl holding her cat...so it's perfect for the Alphabet Challenge this week...C is for Cats...

The stamp is from Wild Rose Studio. I've coloured it using...you guessed it, copic markers with sakura clear star to provide a tiny bit of subtle shimmer...The papers are Jinkitz...Stamp, embossing folder, papers and punches are all available from The Treasury...(01562) 510203.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend and getting lots of crafting time!
Sue
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Sporty card and NEC stash

You can tell I'm a bit behind...it's Friday a whole week after my day out to the NEC and I'm only just posting a piccy of my stash!

Well here it is finally....mainly Lavinia stamps, Paperartsy stamps and Lili of the Valley stamps. The Lavinia calendar full of inspirational pictures was free cos I spent some money there! I've been wishing and wishing that I had the Tim Holtz tattered floral dies, but unfortunately no one had any in stock...so I've put some on back order. My Wizard will not take these big dies so I just had to buy the Big Shot..not pictured....it's sitting under the hall table atm...still trying to think of somewhere to store it...you might just notice that I also got some other dies so that I can try out my big shot in the meantime...I've wanted those flourishes since they first came out! I also splashed out on a starter kit for making lampwork beads...fingers are seriously itching on this front!


Now for the Tanda Teaser...this fortnight sees a sporty theme so my card is a little guy playing football...the main image is a Lili of the Valley stamp, but the footy boots and the star player stamps are from Tanda. As usual the image was coloured using Copic markers, and distressing was done using distress inks.

So why am I so far behind? I've been doing a favour for my friend Patty who runs The Treasury in Kidderminster..she was feeling a bit low last week so I offered to make some sample cards for her...I dropped them into the shop yesterday and she put them up next to the stamps I used. The samples have gone down really well and the stamps and backing papers are selling really well....Patty was really happy today! I've got some more sample cards to make for her now! I'll post one of the sample cards here tomorrow..it fits in with the alphabet challenge which is good timing!

Catch you tomorrow!
Sue
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Quick Hi!

Sorry to say there hasn't been much blogging going on here....been away..been a bit unwell and just got a new addition to the family....well those are my excuses!

So I thought I would post a few piccys....did want to post a piccy of the stash that I got at the NEC on Friday, but seem to have saved the pic somewhere other than I should have...still looking!





In the mean time I'm posting pics of Prague...a simply beautiful city and one of the new addition to our family...a baby hamster...still no name....might just end up being called pie...short for cutipie!


will try to blog soon...promise...just been a bit manic....

Sue
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Funky Feathers over on the Tanda Teaser

It's Tanda Teaser time again and this fortnight's challenge is to use feathers somewhere on your project/card. This card came about from an extension to the fairy workshop that I did just over a week ago at the Treasury in Kidderminster. I used black feathers and silver skeleton leaves to make the skirt. The bodice and background were stamped in versamark using Tanda Klimt stamps and then brushed with silver Pearl-Ex mica powder. The bodice was cut using a template that I had drawn myself. I added a crystal to the bodice to give the card a bit of bling....happily this allows me to enter it in the "totally gorjuss sparkle" challege...hope all the linking works as this is a scheduled post!

Z for Zig Zag

This week sees the end of another alphabet with Z for Zig Zag. I just splashed out on my second Martha Stewart border punch and realised that it would be perfect for this challenge. I've used it for three projects today, but I can only share one of them tonight...the other two are for upcoming Tanda Teasers.

So my entry for Z for Zig Zag is the box that I made for a Birthday present for one of my daughter's friends. The present was...you guessed it, a necklace.....

Going Dotty

This fortnight's Tanda Teaser is Going Dotty over at TandaStamps. I used the Polka Dot background stamp from Tanda to stamp the background. You may think you have seen this card before....it is very similar to the one I did for the Diamond challenge a few weeks ago...in fact the strip of diamonds on this card was the waste trimmed off the background of the diamond card....well I couldn't let it go to waste could I!

The dominoes were stamped using a cube that I found in a dump bin at the Stamp Attic in Wantage. I think this is going to prove very handy for men cards.

The dotty ribbon was from fantastic ribbons.

Preparations are going well for Saturday's workshop...getting nervous now!
Sue
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Two Challenges in One!

I thought that I should try to take part in the X is for Xmas challenge over on the "alphabet challenge blog". I had an idea in mind, just hadn't got round to making it happen. Then I spotted the theme for this week's challenge over on "Tuesday Taggers" is 'more than two legs'. This fitted my idea down to the ground so I had a play this afternoon. I'm not sure that I ended up quite where I planned and I am not entirely sure that I am so happy with it that it will be our family Christmas card this year.

The lambs and Bethlehem scene are from Art Impressions and I have coloured them with water colour paint, the blue is Prussian blue. Having stamped the lambs directly onto the card and matted and layered the Bethlehem scene, I still wasn't happy with it so I positioned the base card in a snowflake cuttlebug embossing folder and ran it through my Wizard. I then used cut and dry foam to colour the right hand side of the card with Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink, leaving the left hand side of the card white. Running the card through the Wizard had left a line down the edge of the embossing that I wasn't happy with so I ran a piece of ribbon (from fantastic ribbons) down the card to hide it before positioning the Bethlehem scene. The tag was stamped using Chipped Sapphire and a stamp from Graphicus. I attached this to the card with a bow in the same ribbon as I used before. The card has been finished off with a Clear star gelly roll saKura pen.

Well I guess that's me done before tomorrow's Tanda Teaser...so watch this space...

Thanks for looking!

Sue

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Pandora's Box

"Tuesday Taggers" theme this week is Pandora's box.....how lucky for me was that seeing as I just made a pressie for one of my good friends and boxed it! I didn't photograph the pressie in the box..just the pressies and the boxes separately, so I hope that's OK.
The necklace, bracelet and ear-rings were made using sterling silver beads and freshwater pearls. Anyone who reads my blog and Zoe especially will recognise the card used for the box....this corrugated card is absolutely fabulous for boxes...unfortunately I think that my local card shop cannot get any more. They have a fabulous deal on end of line...10p per A4 sheet, but once it's gone it's gone!


Nancy looked absolutely fabulous at her party, at least 10 years younger than her real age! The words on the tags on her card were "Forty? Be forever young!" Very apt! It was a great party, her father in law sang for us all (he made the final 36 in the very first X factor and that was after he had throat cancer...What an inspirational guy!) His Tom Jones impersonation was brilliant! Then Nancy's eldest son, Dillan, played with his band, and they were great too. Her younger son had us all wowed with his break dancing...I think Sarah is regretting not going now! We tried to get Emma up to sing with Dillan too, but she chickened out! Nancy and I are hoping that Em and Dillan might perform together at the Mars Bar in Worcester in the near future....nerves and homework permitting!
Sue
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W is for Wings!

The challenge over on "the alphabet challenge" this week is W is for Wings....shame...I just posted the Curly Swirly "Tanda Teaser" , complete with a lovely set of vellum wings, a few days ago so I guess it doesn't count.

Never mind though because this gives me the opportunity to tell you about the first workshop I will be doing. Do you remember Peggy, the altered clothes peg? Patty from the Treasury was so impressed with her that she has asked me to do a couple of workshops to show people how to make fairies for their Christmas Trees. The fairies pictured are the samples that I have just made for the shop to publicise the workshop.


The 2 1/2 hour workshop will be held on Saturday 16th October, either 10am to 12.30pm or 1.30pm to 4.00pm, at the Treasury, 200 Park Lane, Kidderminster DY11 6TQ (If you know Kidderminster, that's just behind Matalan). Tickets are limited due to space and cost £12. So if you want to come please book in advance by Patty at the shop on 01562 510203. During the workshop you will make a fairy (traditional red/gold or contemporary blue/silver) to take home using fantasy film and flower soft amongst other products. If there is enough demand we will repeat the workshops, possibly in November.

Well I'd better go...as usual there is far too much to do today and we are going to one of my friend's 40th birthday bash tonight, of course I've made her a special card and pressie, but you will have to wait to see them, don't want to let the cat out of the bag just yet!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Sue

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V is for Vintage

Sorry for my lack of blogging over the last few weeks....you know the saying...so much to do...so little time! About time I posted something and so I thought I would take part in the Alphabet challenge "V is for Vintage"....so here it is...really soft colours for a days gone by feel card......

The stamp is from Lili of the Valley coloured with Copic markers, distressing and stamping was done using Distress Inks. The punches are from various companies including SU.

Sue
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Curly Swirly...and purple hearts

The next Tanda Teaser is called Curly Swirly...namely use lots of curls, swirls, flourishes etc on your card/project....I needed to make an anniversary card for my hubby and as his fav colour is purple I used that as my colour theme. I stamped the Tanda Klimt swirl block in Distress Ink onto some purple wrapping paper to make my main background, then I heat embossed with white sparkle ep onto velum as the next layer. Then I triple embossed my heart form...well maybe more, using moonglow ep from the stamp man and various other ep's...then I stamped into this with encore silver. I wasn't totally happy with the result at this stage so heated it again...just as it melted and before the encore silver dispersed..I thought...that's it...perfect...

The Lost Cost wings behind the heart were stamped onto vellum in the same moon glow ep as used on the heart. The heart was given a bit of a lift by layering some fantasy fiber underneath it.

I hope you find time to join in with us on the Tanda Teaser...
Sue
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Diamonds are are a girl's best friend!...Especially when they help to make the perfect "Man Card"!!!!

Just spotted on Zoe's blog that the Tuesday Tagger challenge this week is Diamonds...well this is perfect for me..I just made this card for one of Dh's Uncles. The diamond background is a stamp from Judikins and the Chess stamp was from a cube picked up at the Stamp Attic in the summer when I met up with the Tanda girls. I kept the colours simple, just black and white...The ribbon was perfect too....thanks to fantastic ribbons!

sue
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Seeing the wood for the Trees

Don't tell a certain person that I've posted his birthday card early ....I couldn't resist...T is for Trees over on the alphabet challenge! I got a call yesterday from Maggie to say that the loads of love accessories stamp set from Su had arrived! Itchy fingers or what! Just had to play.... and here it is....

Backing papers are all over the place....but they go together nicely!

Seeing in Blue and Green

Hello there....been a bit absent lately...other things seem to be getting in the way of crafting and blogging at the moment for which I can only apologise!

Well I have made a few cards over the last couple of weeks to make sure that I have some more challenges for the Tanda Teaser, I just need to find time to keep blogging anything else that I can get done on top of these Teaser cards.

Speaking of the Tanda Teaser, for the next fortnight I have set a colour challenge, namely blue and green. Anyone who knows me will know that these just happen to be my favourite colours, I hope you like them too!

For my card I have used a custom stamp (made by Tanda Stamps)for the main image and the numbers from Tanda Inchie Alphabet Set 1. The papers were from an Artylicious CD rom..(I think it might have been Fantasy Floral, but don't quote me on that). The tag was embossed in a cuttlebug embossing folder and the flowers were punched using various flower punches. The flourishes were cut using a Spellbinders die. The main image was coloured using copic markers and mounted under a piece of acetate.

I hope that you will find time to join us over on the Tanda blog and forum and look forward to seeing your work over there!

Sue
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