Rose Tinted

I should have posted this yesterday, but as you might know if you read my blog, things have been a bit more manic than usual. I am more or less sorted...the alarm has been fixed, the new washing machine works brilliantly, the plumbing under the utility sink is fixed, the new printer will print (not how it's supposed to, but at least it will print) and we can make phone calls although we still need to program the phone....

So now I just have to sort Christmas!

This fortnight the Tanda Teaser is "Rose Tinted". I've had enough of Christmas cards now....got them all made and posted so I'm happy not to make another one for quite a few months! I did realise after I'd posted that I seem to have set rather a lot of colour challenges recently so I'll have to make sure I do something different next time!

My card is single layered. I have used Tanda stamps, Aquastamps (available from Tanda) and my Dune dots stamp (available from the Treasury in Kidderminster). I used stamped the padlock first then masked it before sponging distress ink over an acetate mask that I made using a spellbinders die.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

"Make it Monday"

"Corrosive Challenges - Anything but Christmas"

"One Stitch at a Time - Anything goes"

"Sparkles Forum - Anything but Christmas"

"The Crafty Pad - Anything but Christmas"



This is probably the last blog post that I will make before Christmas, so I would like to wish everyone who has visited my blog and especially those who have left comments a Happy Christmas and to say Thank you for your support and encouragement!

I hope to see you in the New Year!

New Stamps and New Beginnings!

We received our latest stamps from Creative Expressions last Friday and they are gorgeous! I've not had any Studio 490 "Wendy Vecchi" stamps before, but this Sentimental art set is fabulous. The main stamp is a lacy design and is perfect for square cards and the quotes are all very usable!

For my first DT piece I have made an easel card for one of my College friends. Her birthday is right at the end of December and I thought that as it is on the cusp of the New Year it might be nice to make her card into a little present too, namely a desk calendar. I chose the quote..."A perfect day is waking up with a purpose and retiring with a dream for tomorrow" as I thought it fitted the calendar theme perfectly. For stamping and distressing, I used Frayed Burlap Distress ink and Pumice Stone Distress Stain was used to dye the seam binding.

The flowers were made using Spellbinders rose creations (and some wrapping from some flowers that I'd kept), Spellbinders Foliage dies (grey mulberry paper) and the quote was mounted on card cut using the Spellbinders small labels die.

I am entering this into the following challenges:

"Corrosive Challenges - Anything but a Christmas card"

"One Stitch at a Time - Anything goes"

"Sparkles Forum - Anything but Christmas Card"

"The Crafty Pad - Anything but Christmas"

"Die Cut Dreams - Make a Date"

"Stamp and Create - Vintage"

"Try it on Tuesday - Anything goes"

Bon Voyage Tag

Hi, I'm not at home at the moment so I'm mobile blogging...I've come down to mum and dad's to see how they are doing. Sitting in bed burning the midnight oil trying to catch up with a few things and I am scheduling this to go live later this morning!
this Tag is my next DT piece using the Bon Voyage stamp set by Just Rite available from Creative Expressions. Paris makes me think of all things elegant, so I wanted to create something elegant to reflect this. I kept the colours muted and the lines simple. The dies that I used are from Spellbinders.

The ribbons are seam binding that I have coloured using Weathered Wood and Pumice Distress Stains. You cannot see it in the photos, but these inks seem to give the seam binding a rather lovely shot appearance.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges

"Totally papercrafts - anything goes"

"Cute card thursday - Anything goes"

"Cooking it up with katie - Anything goes"

"Inky impressions - must use ribbon"

"Die cuttin divas - tags, tags and more tags"

"Papertake Weekly - anything goes"

"Lawnscaping - tags or treat bags"

Keep Calm and Carry On!

Good advice in the lead up to Christmas me thinks and certainly kept me going this week! Had a bit of an interesting/challenging week...everything (not everything obviously but lots, you know what I mean!) seems to have decided to pack up, or go wrong, at the same time..the washing machine (beyond repair!), the printer (just as I wanted to print out address labels for our Christmas cards, the pipe work under the utility sink (I took it apart to plumb a new washing machine in and couldn't get it back together again), the telephone and thanks to a jobs worth at the local cinema my daughter's birthday treat.

It was her 15th birthday on Wednesday and we decided to make the most of Orange Wednesday and go to see, My Week with Marilyn. The girl selling the tickets refused to sell us tickets....I'd gone flat out all day (Wednesday is my shopping and errand day so I was only just back to the house when she got home from school)to make sure that Sarah got her birthday tea and a homemade chocolate birthday cake before we went out. I was not impressed! OK I can understand them challenging a child if they are with other kids, but when they are with their mother! It was suggested that we should go home and come back with id....I said that that was pointless as this would take an hour and the film started in 30 mins! She wasn't going to back down...so we left. Luckily there is another cinema in Worcester, the Odeon. They saved the day! We got to see the film and hour later. Having watched it we all agreed that we didn't understand why it had been given a 15 certificate...We saw Breaking Dawn on Monday that was a 12a and much more graphic.

Ooops that seems to have turned into a rant...what this blog post is really all about is the card and key ring I made for my daughter's birthday. She is really into the whole Keep Calm and Carry on thing, so when I saw this on a stamp I had to have it for her Birthday card! Can't remember who's stamp it is at the moment though! I've used triple embossing to make what looks like and enamel sign and attached this to a piece of handmade paper that I had stamped a union jack on and then embossed it in Tim Holtz's brick embossing folder. The Union jack was an Indigo Blu stamp and I coloured it by adding distress ink stains directly onto the stamp, a technique that I had not tried before, but it worked! The flowers and leaves were all made using handmade paper and spellbinders dies.

The key ring was made using a stampboard square, and then triple embossed in the same way as the "enamel" sign.

My daughter was thrilled with her card and key ring, and my other daughter wants a keyring too.

I would like to enter this into several challenges:

"Totally paper crafts - anything but a card"

"Simply Create too - Embossing"

"Art Impressions Stamps - try something new to you"

"Cooking it up with Katie - Anything goes"

"I break for challenges - vintage"

"Papertake weekly - Anything goes"

"Crafty card makers - Heat embossing"

"Stamp and create - Vintage"

Green and Gold

I've just posted the next Tanda Teaser over on the Tanda Blog...can't believe that those two weeks went sooooo fast! The next challenge is to use Green and Gold as your predominant colours...Christmassy but it doesn't need to be..

For my card I have used Spellbinders dies, Tanda stamps (Tanda Christmas set 2), artylicious paper from Seasons Greetings, Distress ink and Copic Markers. The snowflake was from the Treasury in Kidderminster, I triple embossed it with clear ep and glitter.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

"Kaboodle Doodles - Christmas Colours"

"Make my Monday - Seasonal Add some glitter"

"Polly Craft - Christmas Fun"

"Stamp and Create - Vintage"

"Truely Madly Crafty Challenges - Christmas Images and coloures"

"Addicted to Stamps - Must use a stamp - Christmas Card"

Altered Shower Cap Packaging

For this week's "Creative Expressions DT piece" I have decided to alter an envelope that I bought back from Ragdale. This first picture is almost a "before" picture...it's actually my first attempt which ended up as a reject. The card was quite shiny and hence a bit slippy so my stamping was a bit off, I was a bit more carefull second time round!

It did have a shower cap in it but I have decided to turn it into something special...



It would now be perfect for a gift card/token. The stamps I used are from the JustRite Bon Voyage set and the JustRite Paris set. When I looked at the Bon voyage stamps on the website I saw the Paris set and thought that they would work really well together.

I have used both stamp sets to decorate this envelope.


This project seems to fit with the following Challenges:

"Divas by Design - anything goes"

"Paper Crafting Journey - Anything Goes"

"Southern Girls - Ribbon Madness"

"Bloggers JFF - Anthing but a card"

"Challenge up Your Life - Packaging/box"

Easel with a Twist

Just thought I would share this card with you as it fits several challenges atm. The card is for hubby's aunt. It's her birthday on Monday, but I think I am safe to show it as she doesn't know about my blog!


Basically this is perfect for her as she is an excellent cook and makes all the special birthday cakes and wedding cakes for the family. The stamps are from Lili of the Valley (except for Dune Dots which is exclusive to the Treasury in Kidderminster). Colouring has been done using Copic Markers and distress inks. The jam jar, umbrella and jam have been coated in Glossy accents and some glitter has been applied on the icing sugar. The flowers were made using Tim Holtz tattered florals die and the leaves were made using a Spellbinders foliage die.

This fits with 6 challenges as follows:

"Delicious Doodles - Hairy Legs"

"Glitter Fairies - Easel Card"

"4 Crafty Chicks - Birthday"

"Some Odd Girl - Show us your easels"

"Stampavie and More - Easel cards"

"Lili of the Valley - Anything but a Christmas card"

Goal!

I just thought that I would show you a man card....never an easy card to make! This is the card I made for my husband's birthday....He is a football (soccer if your're American) referee in his spare time so Football is always a good place to start..only problem is that he has probably had at least two cards from each football themed stamp that I have already. So I had to find a new image. I found this Momanning image and downloaded it from her site. Hubby's fav team is the Blues or for the uninitiated...Birmingham City. So my footballer is coloured in blue. The papers were all from the Treasury in Kidderminster...(About a Boy series I think), the rosette was made using a Tim Holtz die and the tab was a Stamp'in Up punch. The image was coloured with Copic markers and distressed with Distress inks.

I would like to enter this into several challenges as follows,

"Birthday Sundaes - Must have Birthday Sentiment", some of the paper had got a bit neglected at the bottom of a pile of offcuts.

"Here come the boys - Cards only, must be masculine for the man in your life"

"Marks finest papers - Make it masculine"

"Alphabet Challenge - V is for Vibrant"

" Delicious Doodles - Hairy Legs"

Pretty in Pink!

Hi There. I 've just got back from a lovely break at one of the best Spa Hotels in the UK, now another 3 days behind, but it was a nice break all the same!

Before I left I made this Pretty pink key ring as my next Creative Expressions design piece. I didn't quite have this in mind when I started...I was thinking of making a pendent using the Eiffel Tower image from the Just Rite Cling stamps that we are demonstrating this month, but when I went through my stash my ideas changed and this where I ended up. My girls are now fighting over it so I guess it's a hit.

The fob is made from Stampboard. This particular piece was already coloured and ready to go....an aborted previous project...well you know what they say about crafters! I do remember that it was coloured using Color Box chalk inks as these stay where you put them when you heat emboss over the top. I stamped the postage stamp and the corner flourish in Jet Black Archival ink (again this will stay in place when embossed). Using a cropadile, I punched a hole in the top corner and inserted an eyelet before Triple embossing with clear embossing powder. To get a really smooth finish I like to use the normal powder rather than the coarser powders more usually used for this technique.


I have attached a small loop of distressed silver chain and then attached pearls and crystal beads to add a bit of sparkle.

I would like to enter this into several challenges as follows.....

"Fussy and Fancy - Make a gift not a card"

"Samuel Taylor's - December Challenge, anything goes"

"Creative Inspirations Paint - Anything but a card"

Just For You!

This month it's a bit different for the Creative Expressions Design team, this time we've been given the "Bon Voyage set from JustRite Stamps". These stamps are designed to work in conjunction with Spellbinders dies. I haven't got the perfect die for this set, but the lacy oval die seems to work reasonably well.

For a change I thought I would make something other than a card...hence...a pillow box..loads going on here...The box was made using card that I'd stamped and distressed using, stormy skies, black soot and weathered wood. I used a strip of designer paper that I stamped and distressed as per the main box. The label was stamped with Chipped Sapphire Distress ink (For You was from the rambling rose u mount set). The flower and leaves were die cut using Spellbinders Rose Creations and Foliage dies. A silver brad, a bit of silver krylon pen and some glossy accents finish the project off.

Oh almost forgot...fusible fibres and gunmetal stickles also got a little bit involved too..

I would like to enter this into several challenges as follows:

"One Stop Craft - Colour Challenge Blue"

"Rogue Redhead Designs - Dress Down, one designer paper"..you can't see it very well, it's the band wrapped around the pillow box, but I promise it is there!

"Squiggles and giggles - anything but a card"

"Fussy and Fancy - Make a gift anything but a card"

"Pile it On - Anything with a P...P for Pillow box and Paris"

"Hooked on Crafts - Punches and or die cuts"

"Lexi's Creations - No straight edges"

"My Craft Spot - Hand made flower power"

Keeping it Simple!

Seriously, I need to keep things simple....Christmas is galloping towards us and I still need to make loads of Christmas cards! So I decided that one layer might be the answer....sounds easy but I have to say that it took a few experiments to get it right, but once you get the correct colour balance etc....you're off....serious batch process to create something that still looks pretty good. I still need to make the inserts but I am feeling pretty smug as I almost have enough Christmas cards done...a bit of natural wastage in the last year or so, so the address list has got smaller.

For both cards I stamped the holly stamps in Versafine Olympia Green, the berries and other red stuff is stamped using festive berries (one of the limited edition Distress inks).

On the Merry and Bright card I've dusted the berries with glitter to add a bit of frosty sparkle. Serious glitter attack...I'm covered in it....the kitchen counter is covered with it and now I think it just might be an added ingredient to this weeks bread batch...so we will all be sparkly on the inside! LOL!

I'm entering this card into several challenges

"Make My Monday - Christmas with flowers/foliage or snowflakes"

"PanPastels UK Challenge - Frosty and Bright"

"Quirky Crafts - Clean and Simple"

"2 Sisters- Let it Sparkle"

"Allsorts - One Layer Card"

"Phindy's Place - Christmas Cards"

"Wags and Whiskers - Christmas theme"

Oh and I should have said that these cards are for the current Tanda Teaser over at "Tanda Stamps Blog"

More Gilding!

Since discovering Indigoblu's Flitterglu I just can't seem to leave it alone! This time I used their gilding flakes too....how yummy does their Yorkshire Dales look on green pearlised card. For this card I have used stamps from Sam Poole's Stylish Christmas stamps, available from "Creative Expressions".

I've gone a bit to town with the old Spellbinders dies and distress inks too!

I would like to enter this card into a few challenges....

"Our Daily Bread designs - Baubles, bells or anything hanging"

"Fabulous Friday - Die cuts"

"Floweret - Christmas"

"Phindy's Place - Christmas cards"

"Wags and Whiskers - Christmas"

and last but not least here one for Zoe, Neet and Von over on "Just for Fun" where the challenge is to use you fav technique.

Not Just for Christmas!

These stylish "Creative Expressions" Christmas stamps by Sam Poole are certainly not just for Christmas! Having been on a whistle stop tour over the last couple of weeks, I totally forgot to make my brother's anniversary card....realised that I was a week overdue! Plus he lives in America so that's probably another week overdue by the time his card arrives! Feeling very guilty!

This card started as a Coke can...I annealed it in the flame on my gas hob to get the pattena and then embossed and pierced it. The beads are coke can too..just cut into strips and rolled up.

I finished the card off by stamping the swirly flourish around the edge.

I'm entering this into 4 challenges:

"House of Gilli - Monochrome"

"Crafty Cardmakers - Recycle"

"Critter Sketch Challenge - Monochrome"

"My Partner in Crime - Use any Freebie"

For this last one...my stamp was "free" as I am on the design team for Creative Expressions and of course the coke can was recycled.

Two's Company

Hi there I just thought I would share this anniversary card with you. I made it for my mum and dad's 50th Wedding anniversary hence the golden, champagne colours. The image was stamped in black soot distress ink and coloured with copics. The flowers and leaves are Tim Holtz dies and the lacy borders were punched with a Martha Stewart punch.

I'm entering this into the following challenges:

"Cupcake Crafts - Two's Company"

"Penny Black - all creatures great and small"

"Stamptacular Sunday - Punch it"

"Lili of the Valley - Creature Comforts"

"Cuddly Buddly - feature two little characters"

Oh a little tip...you know one of those well I tried it and it failed...you see the numerals...well they were cut using Tim Holtz Vintage Market....I then coloured them with gold Krylon pen....then coated with glossy accents...guess what they turned green...great if you want a verdigis effect but I wanted gold...so the numerals you see here were coloured using gold eco green pure gold acrylic paint...Glossy accents don't turn this green!

Rustic Charm

For my next card using Sam Poole's Stylish Christmas stamp set, from Creative Expressions, I have gone for a rustic theme.

The traditional reds and greens of Christmas lend themselves to a rustic treatment and what could be more complimentary than brown paper and natural raffia. Ok the brown paper is really card that looks like brown parcel wrapping. I shall send this card to one of our North American friends or relations because they know what a Cardinal is. We don't have cardinals over here, but I remember seeing them when we lived in the suburbs of Philadelphia and I have to say they are quite stunning.

I have used Gilding flakes again as per my last card, but have left off the glitter. The Poinsettia spellbinders die and the raffia have added a really rustic feel to the card that I am quite pleased with....and guess what...there is no restriction on the thickness of a card when you send it abroad...unlike sending internally! Not yet anyway!!! so result!

I an entering this card into three challenges...

"Samuel Taylors Challenge - Christmas Cards"

"Gingersnaps Challenge - Raffia"

and

"CCEE Stampers - Three different shapes on your card"

A Little bit of sparkle!

As I type this I am sitting in the reception of a hotel in Madrid....The travel bug really seems to have bitten lately, only problem is that nothing is getting done at home and blog posts have been few and far between....I'm having to schedule this one so that I can add the photos later....They are on my laptop at home...so with any luck this should appear some time on Friday afternoon with pictures! If not the pictures should come soon! I just spent an hour or so working on the toppers for our family Christmas card for this year and I have discovered that Ranger Stickes do not travel by plane well.......I had my own glitter fountain! I guess for some reason the pressure had built up inside the tube on the flight and then hadn't equalised itself since. A bit hairy when you are sitting in the reception of a posh hotel and crafting on antique inlaid table!

Well enough of that and onto my next card using Sam Poole's wonderful Stylish Christmas stamp set. I was really happy to receive these stamps from Creative Expressions, they are so versatile, as you will see if you visit any of the other design team blogs. I have a bit of catching up to do!

For my card I used the Robin, the flourish (how fab is this stamp....certainly not just for Christmas! ) and the Noel stamp. I also used a brand new product, Flitterglu from IndigoBlu. I'd had these guilding flakes for absolutely ages and ages, but I didn't really like any of the products that you used with them, consequently they tended to just sit in the drawer, as these things do. Until now that is!

You will be seeing quite a lot of gilding flakes from now on. What's even better is that the technique works really well with these Creative Expressions stamps.

For my card I used Fliterglu directly on the robin stamp and stamped this onto red card. The gilding flakes are then patted over the stamped image before being rubbed off and buffed. I used the Fliterglu on the flourish stamp but instead of flakes I used fine bronze glitter to make a background. Noel was stamped in Aged Mahogany Distress ink and distressed around the edges a bit. The robin and the layer under it was cut out using a Spellbinders die.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

"Chrimbo Crackers - Must be Christmas Make it Sparkle"

"Dutch Dare Card Challenge - Punches and dies"

"Forever Friends - Must include an animal, something old, something new"

"Inky Impressions - Glitter"

And last but no means least,

"Ruby's Rainbow - Something with wings"

I'm starting to panic now.....it's been several hours since I applied the Stickels and they are no where near dry...I'm supposed to be getting a taxi in an hour's time! EeeK!

Traditional Red and Green for Christmas

Just a quick post....by the end of this week I will be another 5 days behind, perhaps things might get a bit more sane next week! Fingers crossed!

Card was made using Tanda stamps, Copic Markers and Distress Inks.

Serious Catching Up To Do....

Sorry been awol....go away for one week...and so I am now soooo behind.....

Just spent a week in the Canaries. Sunrise on the way out was better than the picture...The weather was fab and the pool was great but trust me it really took your breath away when you got in.....hence I left it till about 4pm before getting in....got to swim almost everyday though...so pretty chuffed with myself.

So on Monday when I got back I was really looking forward to the package from Creative Expressions containing the latest set of stamps....then I got a call....come to the Treasury on Wednesday night....new product.....strictly need to know only....going live at the NEC today....how could I resist?....see if you can find it at the show...2 mins if that into the demo...I'm like....I've got to have it NOW! It works perfectly with these latest stamps....but you will have to wait till later....I haven't finished my card yet using this product....so instead I'm showing you the card that I had planned in my head all the time I was away.....


I used Weathered wood and Broken China Distress Inks and turquoise stickles to make this card.

I'm entering this card into three challenges....

firstly

"Shelly's Images - Monochromatic plus ribbon"

secondly

"Crimbo Crackers - Must Be Christmas"

and thirdly

"Stamp Insantity - Chilled out blues"

An experiment........

Ok so this a little experiment....I 'm not where I usually am and I am relying on an iPad and a very, very dodgy wifi to do this. Hubby got me an iPad for my birthday in the summer....really it was a pressy for the family to take away on holiday or out when we are away from home.....so there's me trying to learn what I can do with the thing.....so can I post a blog from this thing? I started this before I left home by saving the picture in a draft post, so now I'm adding the text.

It looks like it's going to work, but I have no idea how to put links in, and not sur the wifi here is up to it!

My card is the next Tanda Teaser, Sepia tones....this is the first of my Christmas Cards this year and uses the Tanda Dot and strip Christmas set.

My next Christmas card here is very likely to be made using the Stylish Christmas set from Creative Expressions.....my fingers are seriously itching I have to say! Probably the only reason I want to go home!

Watch this space.......

I've Started but Haven't Finished!

In my last post you will have seen that I have started a book to catalogue all my ink pads, inks, paints etc......I've now managed to do the pages relating to my distress inks.

So now I have gone from this....


To this......






I grouped the inks into colour groups and then arranged them so that the shades got deeper as I went down the page. I used the fabby vintage date stamp from the Creative Expressions Vintage Typewriter set to stamp each colour. I added the codes ri for re-inker and ds for distress stain after the name so that I know what I have in my stash. Still got quite a few re-inkers and stains to get, so hopefully this will mean that I don't double up on any accidentally.

It wasn't until I had done this little exercise that I realised how lovely these colours are together! I'm sorry the photos don't do the colours justice.