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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Heartfelt

I have to apologise, this blog has been a little neglected throughout August...seems that things got a little hectic and being away from home has not helped with the creative process...just as well I scheduled posts for the Tanda blog before I went away!

This card was made for the latest Tanda Teaser. I used a text stamp from Tanda for the background panel and for the heart. I overstamped the text with a psx rose heart stamp. All stamping/distressing has been done using Victorian Velvet, Spun Sugar, Pumice stone and Black Soot Distress Inks. A smaller psx heart stamp was used on the tag and on the cream background. To give the card a little lift, I heat embossed the heart edges, tag edges and the punched edges with versamark and stardust embossing powder. The ribbon was from Fantastic Ribbons.

I notice that the Alphabet challenge has got to R for Rose this week.....wonder if this will count....if you look very closely at the heart...you might just be able to see the roses.

After all the masculine style cards I've been doing it was nice to get all romantic and girly for a change!

Sue
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Rosa Sine Spina

Sorry I've not blogged in a while...bit of a fiasco with Goldtrail, and a holiday crisis, meaning that at the last minute, our holiday fell through and we had to find another holiday for the same dates! So much of my time was spent trawling the internet looking for a new holiday and finding out how we could claim our money back for the one we were originally booked on....can you believe...we actually paid for and booked our holiday on the day before Goldtrail went belly up...we booked through and agent who then booked the flights with Goldtrail...so technically it wasn't us who placed the booking so to speak.

I've not got my computer at the moment so I'm a bit limited with what I can blog...but the Tanda Teaser has been set for the next fortnight and it can be found over on the Tanda blog...basically it's a rose theme for the next two weeks...you can see my sample card over on the Tanda teaser blog.
http://tandastamps.blogspot.com/2010/08/tanda-teaser-152-rosa-sine-spina.html

Got to go..money's running out!
Sue
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M is for Men

Over on the Alphabet Challenge the theme is M for Men. One of our friends helped us fix our loo the other day, so I thought that I should make him a Thank You card! I saw this Do craft stamp a little while ago and thought that it would be perfect for making the ever problematic 'Man' card. The image was stamped in Distress Ink and coloured with copic markers. The papers were from Papermania.

All At Sea

Bad blogger here....I just realised that I haven't blogged for over a week! I do have an excuse though....things have got rather fraught here. We were supposed to be flying off to Turkey in a few days.....you guessed it.....the travel agent had booked the flights through Goldtrail....we booked on Thursday and Goldtrail went belly up on Friday. We were away from home for the weekend so didn't find out that we were effected until we got home...this week, so far, has been spent trying to find out how to recover our money...doesn't look hopeful for some time...and trying to find another holiday...cash flow is going to a bit of an issue to say the least over the next few months!

To make things worse....I got a really bad puncture yesterday in my front tyre, so this morning was spent at KwikFit together with a quite a few pounds as my other front tyre was only just legal. At least now I won't get failed on the MOT for tyres!

Well onto happier things...the Tanda Teaser for the next fortnight is called 'All At Sea', you guessed it, it's a nautical theme. My card is an easel card made using the sea border and the ship stamps that Andrew at Tanda re sized for me. In this larger size they are proving to be quite versatile. I stamped the images in Distress Inks and then coloured the waves using copic markers. I hope that you can find time to join us in the Teaser and look forward to seeing your take on the nautical theme!

Sue

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The Wrong End of The Stick!

And I thought I'd been so clever!

A few days ago, I spotted Zoe's tag for the "Are You Sitting Comfortably" challenge over on Something Completely Different and thought I might have a go at the challenge too....left if for a few days and then came up with my take...two little girls sharing a cup of tea from Lili of the Valley....then with the card finished at about 11.30 last night I thought....you know what, I think this was supposed to be a tag! Sure enough, it was...I've used a tag and lined up the flower on the tag with the flower in the main image, but somehow I don't think it counts...might hedge my bets and enter it anyhow...


The little boy on the bike that I did the other day ended up with another cog..you should be able to see him here.

K is for Kids

I just spotted over on the "Alphabet Challenge Blog" that this week's challenge is K for Kids. Bit of luck there...I was just making a birthday card for Ollie (one of my nephews)last night....not sure I'm totally happy with it yet...just might add another "cog/flower" somewhere along the bottom...still pondering though.

The boy is from Lili of the Valley, stamped in Black Soot Distress Ink, then coloured with Copics. I used Weathered Wood Distress Ink around the edges of the main image and of all the layers of backing paper (Papermania Blueberry Hill). I grounded the little boy by stamping Cobbles by Art Impressions in Weathered Wood. I also used this stamp again on the strip of backing paper that I used across the card. The flourishes were cut using Spellbinders dies.

While I'm here I thought I would share a little something with you....My veg patch is coming on nicely, especially the mixed salad leaves....My borage is running amok and flowering beautifully at the moment. Borage has fabulous blue flowers and they are edible, how fab do you think they look with the fresh green lettuce leaves? I think they could look great in ice cubes too! Best of all, once you've grown borage it seems to seed itself in the following years so you don't need to sow seed yourself!

Sue
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Look East!

Wendy is taking a short break, well I hope that it will be a short break, from setting the Tanda Teaser. So for the next couple of months I will be setting the Teasers on a fortnightly basis. The challenge for the next two weeks is to make something with an oriental theme....I recently asked Andrew to re size the wave border on the Pirate plate and thought that it looked a bit like the waves in Japanese prints...Looking at the Tanda Turtle stamp, I thought that the two stamps complimented each other very well and I was inspired to make this card. I used the wave border as a border stamp and by using a mask, I also used it to create a background. Images were stamped in Distress Inks and then coloured using Copic markers. A little bit of sparkle was added to the foam on the waves using stickles.

J is for Jewels!

What a week! I've had no time to make any cards what with Em's prom...I was still doing the hem on the day! And then it was Henley! So as you will see I was over the moon that this week's alphabet challenge was "J is for Jewels"....and best of all this didn't necessarily mean on cards!

This is Em just before we left for the prom. We decided that she needed straps and as a compromise she agreed to a halterneck made of pearls. I also couched a string of tiny pearls on the bottom edge of the drape over her bust.....I also made her a bracelet of three stands of pearls to match the pearls on her dress
The prom was last Wednesday, then on Thursday we took Em and her friend Kate to Henley. It was the first time Em had been able to come...she had a great time and wants to come again next year. By Friday she was exhausted! This is Em and Kate in Stewards. Henley is a great excuse for some new jewellery! Kate wanted a bracelet and ear rings to match her dress so I got my beads out. Her bracelet was made by crocheting with fine wire. I threaded various blue beads onto the wire before crocheting....similar to my altered yeast tin in an earlier post.


































My final jewelled piece for the challenge is a pearl necklace, bracelet and ear rings that I made for me to wear at Henley...I bought the beads at the NEC earlier this year, all the findings are sterling silver.

I is for Icy Colours over on the Alphabet Challenge this week

This image could be sooo tacky with black and red costumes, but it turns quite classy with these ice blue tones....a perfect man card that doesn't offend the ladies...at least I hope that's what I achieved here...otherwise I am probably in trouble!

The image is made up from digital images from "charmed Crafts" Maddison was printed out 3 times side by side in her rather riskay outfit and coloured with copic markers. A tiny bit of shimmer was added to the girls' feathers and corsets with a sakura clear star gelly roll pen.

The chosen colours make this perfect for the icy colour alphabet challenge over "here"

Quick prom update...Em's dress is almost finished...just the hem to do...hair and makeup rehearsals this weekend went well..I finished the underskirt today...it's been a bit of an interesting weekend...ended up with 6 teenagers....were only planning 3, best laid plans and all that!

Catch you all later, thanks for visiting...
Sue
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