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.

Something Useful!

For a while now I have been thinking that it would be a good idea to start cataloging my stash....how many times have I bought something I forgot I already had....and how useful would colour charts be instead of the scraps of paper that I currently use or loose in the corners of my handbag?!

Well this is the start of it...not sure how long it will take to complete, I know that I won't have it ready in time for the NEC in November, but at least I've started. So far I have made the front cover using the Vintage Typewriter stamps from Creative Expressions.

My local picture framer gave me a small pile of mountboard offcuts for free...So this was the start of my cover. I made a background by repeatedly stamping the typewriter in Weathered wood distress ink, masking as I went. This was distressed around the edges using Chipped sapphire distress ink. I mounted this layer onto dark blue card and stitched the two layers together with a zigzag stitch.


I stamped the typewriter on cream card in chipped sapphire and heat embossed in clear and then cut it out. I also stamped the typewriter keys in versamark and then heat embossed in clear before inking with weathered wood, stormy skys and chipped sapphire. I also stamped the typewriter in silver stazon on black shrink plastic, allowed it to dry, cut it out and then heated it to shrink it.

I'm thinking that once I've got some pages in my book I will decorate the book rings with lots of fibres....I love fibres, but I think that it will be difficult to add pages with fibres in place..hence waiting for a bit on this one.

Having checked out the feline playful blog I reckon that this will fit three challenges.....

namely..

"Fashionable Stamping challenge, Anything but a card"

"The Crafty Pad - Monochromatic"

"Stamptacular Sunday - Must use a stamp, You choose"

Tanda Teaser - Packaging

Hi, just a few mins to put together a post on the "Tanda Teaser". For the next fortnight the theme is to use packaging somewhere on your project. For my card I used the Spellbinders cogs dies to cut cogs out of fruit juice cartons. I then coloured these with alcohol inks. The inks used were distress inks and the banners were cut using the Tim Holtz die. The motorcycle and the crackle are Tanda stamps. The sentiment was stamped using individual letter stamps.

Having just checked out "the Feline Playful blog" I have seen that this card can be entred into two challenges.

Firstly "Just for fun - use something from the kitchen">

and secondly "The Southern Girls Challenge, slugs and snails something for the men/man in your life"

Where does the time go?

I really wish I knew the answer to this one! Before you know it, it's next week already! I seem to keep loosing days, last Saturday I had to take my eldest daughter to an open day at Reading Uni. I was supposed to watch my youngest row in the Stourport Head on the same day but couldn't be in two places at once so had to rely on a friend to bring her home.

This week I'm taking two days to go and see my Mum and Dad and try to help them sort a few things out. Dad still hasn't had a biopsy on the tumour in his stomach and seems to be getting weaker and weaker by the day. He's been offered a day a week in a hospice to give mum some respite and a wheelchair seems to be on the cards soon too. Not sure he's ready to accept either of these though.

So that's three days taken out of my week...still trying to fit all the other things that have to be done in so I guess that's why I haven't found a moment to blog or blog hop!

Luckily I have managed to have another play with the Vintage Typewriter stamps from "Creative Expressions." This week my creation started off with some black ribbon that reminded me of typewriter ribbon. I decided to stamp the hugs and kisses stamp onto the ribbon using "Pearl Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabber." I was going to position the ribbon to make horizontal stripes across my card but then decided that this wasn't going to work. Instead I used four strips of the ribbon to make a grid. I then stamped the hugs and kisses stamp randomly in Black Soot Distress ink in the centre, masking the ribbon where necessary. This was then matted and layered onto pink then silver then the white base card. The typewriter was stamped in Black Soot Distress Ink and heat embossed in clear ep before being cut out and mounted in the top left hand corner of the card. To balance the Typewriter I glued three white rose buds onto the bottom right hand corner with a pink ribbon.

I'm entering this card into three challenges, I'm sure there are more if I had time to look! Anyway, here goes.....

"Let's ink it up - Think Pink"

"Sentimental Sundays - Must include a sentiment, anything goes"

"The Crafty Pad- Vintage" My colours might not be vintage, but the image is so I hope this counts!

I hope you're days aren't as hectic as mine at the moment!



Thanks for looking!

A Bit of Shabby Chic

Last week I received my order from Creative Expressions which included the Rambling Rose stamp set. I wanted to combine it with the Vintage Typewriter set that the Creative Expressions Design Team are working with this month. For my next sample card, I wanted to make a really pretty and feminine card and the roses were perfect for this.

Firstly I stamped the rose corner onto 14cm x 14cm cream card in pumice stone distress ink. I also stamped the large leaves in pumice stone on another piece of card. The tag was cut from the same card and stamped again in pumice stone using the sentiment from the typewriter set and the small rosebud from the rambling rose set. The typewriter was stamped on the same cream card with frayed burlap distress ink and then heat embossed. The sentiment was then stamped in pumice stone. This was then cut out.


I coloured the roses and leaves using faber castel pitt pastel pencils and sansodour. I covered the leaves in glossy accents allowed them to dry then cut them out. The base layer was distressed around the edges using pumice stone.

Next I made a green strip of vellum punched with a Martha Stewart punch with a strip of cream vellum over the top. I stuck these onto the square base and stitched around the edge and across the vellum strips. I glued the ribbon over the top to hide the glue holding the vellum down. the typewriter was stuck over the top of the ribbon, the tag was tied onto the ribbon and the leaves tucked in behind the bow and tag.

At this point if felt I needed a little something at the top of the card. An off cut of ribbon and a smokey brad did the business in the top right hand corner balancing out the tag at the bottom. The whole thing was then mounted onto a 15cm x 15cm brown card.

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

"Let's Ink it Up - Think Pink"

"Paper Sundaes - Lots of Layers"

"Sentimental Sundays- must include sentiment and sewing or stitching"

"Crafters Companion - Cards only pink and green"

"Die Cut Dreams - Brown, Pink and Cream"

Save the Date with Creative Expressions Vintage Typewriter Stamp set

Well, while I've got some internet I thought that I would try to catch up with some of the cards I've been making and been unable to blog! I have been busy crafting honest!

This is my next card using the "Creative Expressions Vintage Typewriter set". As you can see I'm still using up the ink sprayed watercolour paper! I just got the round the corner Martha Stewart stamp and couldn't wait to use it. I have a Tim Holtz mask that is similar and thought that the two would go together well...haven't had time to try this theory out yet though!

For my card I stamped the date stamp in aged mahogany distress ink and heat embossed it.

The rosette was made using seambinding coloured with distress inks and the letters were from the keypad background stamp. I decided to leave the stamp whole and just punch out the letters I needed. The finishing touch was a bit of stickles to give a bit of sparkle.

I am entering this card into the following challenges

"Sparkles Forum - Something that sparkles"

"Stamptacular Sunday - Must use a stamp, Autumnal colour photo inspiration"

"Artistic Stampers - must use a rubber stamp - Autumn Colours"

This week I received my order from Creative Expressions, so I have been playing with my new stamps making more cards....I will be blogging these over the next couple of weeks. I think I need to set up a facebook account as it doesn't look like I'm making anything over on the Creative Expressions facebook page at the moment...need to pin my eldest daughter down to show me what to do. LOL!

Hot, Hot, Hot and an apology!

Firstly, I have to say sorry about the lack of blogs this week....our internet has been awful, just when you think that you might be getting somewhere you get disconnected...I spent ages trying to get onto the internet last night and a whole long list of other peoples wifi came up...some of it protected and some not....My eldest was trying to get the internet on her phone the other night and actually managed to get onto someone elses wifi and not ours..Didn't work for me though (they are still unprotected but the signal is so bad it wouldn't connect)..I'm wondering if we have some internet virgins just signed up to broadband in the village and this is effecting every ones speeds...I know we are not the only ones feeling the effect, as my friend who lives just outside the village has been having the same problems.

It's steaming hot here in Worcestershire.....I had no idea that it was going to be like this when I set the last Tanda Teaser..Honest! This fortnight the Teaser is just add a bit of warmth...the idea being that you use warm colours on your card. I've used a Spellbinders die to cut a mask then used it to stencil a block of colour (I think I used wild honey distress ink). The Tanda Hotel Vendome stamp was stamped in coffee archival ink. I added a few gilding flakes and a bit of cream ribbon tied in a bow. This is quite an orange card so I think it will count for "Gingerloft's current colour orange challenge"

Thanks to the mask this is almost a single layer card, but then I mounted it on a pearlised brown card and then onto a base cream card, hence giving a framed effect.