Tuesday 26 February 2013

Dresser and basket.



These were the last two things I taught at Cleo Crafts before the shop closed. The little basket is made from a single sheet of a4 paper and that includes the handle. I must give credit to Kate for it was she who showed me how to do it and kindly allowed me to pass it on. Even though its made of paper it is quite strong and it would be easy to get carried away. There were quite a few baskets floating about the house for a day or two.

The card is supposed to look like a dressing table. We cut a piece out of the base card with a nest abilities die to make it look like the. Ornate bottom. The two little drawers were stamped with versamark pearl ink and because it is quite slow drying, especially on pearlised card, it smudged a wee bit but this just added to the vintage feel. The mirror section is framed with part of a Marianne Creatables die. We then stamped the little envelope, cut it out and raised it on a foam pad. The little rose was plain ivory but the edges were tinted with a little bit of purple inka gold which also gives a lovely sheen. The drawer pulls are actually made from two little buckle things with a gem, secured with pin flair glue gel, in the middle.

It's been strange not preparing for classes each week but I've learnt such a lot and look forward to the future and new and exciting challenges...... 

Masculine card.


This is another one of those cards that just came together and was, somehow, very pleasing. There are lots of layers and I think this is the key. The blue background is embossed with an alterations folder and the patterned piece is from kanban. My only regret is that I used up all of my ribbon. It came from America and is fab stuff. I was able to split it into narrower pieces and it didn't fray and it had a wonderful firmness about it. Aw well no point hoarding it! The stamp is from the sense of time set by stampin up. I think this would make a lovely card for a man for a special birthday or retirement.

Sunday 24 February 2013

My favourite Christmas card of this year.


This has to be one of my all time favourite cards ever. I saw something similar on Pinterest and adapted it to suit my supplies. The background was embossed, then coloured with distress inks. We wrapped the ribbon around this piece and mounted it onto a chocolate mat before attaching it to the base card. The next piece was the weathered clock which we cut from the same chocolate card as the mat. The Father Christmas image is from Stampendous and was stamped with brushed corduroy ink and the edges tinted to add to the vintage feel. The Christmas tree was cut from scraps of paper from a previous project. I love the subtle mellowness of the card and managed to keep myself from adding gems or glitter! Sometimes it is unnecessary to do lots of colouring in of stamps for them to be eye catching.

Butterfly drop down card.


This card was inspired by a tutorial from split coast stampers. The photo turn at the top holds 3 layers in place. They are connected with ribbon between the layers. The sentiment is from a stampin up set called sense of time. The butterfly is an Artemio stamp and we used vivid colours and stamping off the edge to highlight it. 

Dropped down.

When you turn the tab at  the top the layers flip down for added interest. The card base is stamped with a fern leaf, from the natures wonders stampin up set, in old paper distress ink (I think).

Thursday 21 February 2013

Christmas robin?


Believe it or not I was lucky enough to win a lovely set of Christmas stamps from Clearly Besotted. As soon as I saw them I realised I could use the little robin to make baby cards. It does have a little bobble hat on but that is so easy to trim off! We used the gingham card to make a background layer then we took a smaller piece and created a hole in the centre with the edges curling back. I was going for a "just hatched" kind of look. The little robin was stamped and coloured and the wing stamped on the gingham and raised on a foam pad. The ribbon was wrapped around the top of the stamped piece then this was place behind the 'hole'. I think the sentiment is from a set of Woodware stamps.

Frilly petticoat.


Hmmm, this card with a tag shows how different something can look depending on the colours used. The card on the right was my first and things weren't working out. I was in a bit of a down mood and I think it shows with the dark colours which I hadn't been really conscious of choosing. The one on the left was next day in class when I was a bit brighter in spirit! The petticoat refers to the lacy trim along the bottom edge, created with a tonic punch. I dunno why it made me think of petticoats but it did! We stamped the butterflies on the tag then again on scrap paper and cut those out to use as masks. Once masked we stamped the writing and used white embossing powder to make it stand out. The final stage was to go mad with distress inks and create the background before buffing the embossed areas. The base card was stamped with the same script  and the gaps filled in with the butterflies. The edges were distressed with brushed corduroy. We punched 2 holes in the tags and secured them together with a  piece of organza ribbon before attaching it to the decorated base.

Butterfly post.

Cards made with the free stamps from a craft stamper magazine. I think it's because of the Kraft card that the colours aren't showing up too well. I had to pick strong colours of pro- markers .to stand out from the Kraft. I added a little strip of velvet ribbon for texture.

Saturday 16 February 2013

E is for entomology




So the letter to play with this time is 'e' and the first word I tried to illustrate was earth but that wouldn't work out for me so it was back to the drawing board. I wanted to try to find a word that other people might not think of so plumped for entomology. I have lots of Artemio stamps with bugs and things on so got stuck in. I used lots of distress techniques, inking tearing and I used the distress tool on the edges too. I also played with the layering, aiming to make it look like a really old book. I decided to add a pop of colour so stamped the dragonfly twice, once on card and again on vellum. I layered them up, took my photo and decided it still looked bland. What to do? A flash of inspiration and out came the cosmic shimmers powders. I haven't played with them for ages! Of course I managed to get some where I hadn't intended but liked the effect so added some more just wherever it would stick. I think it looks like the dragonfly has been flying over and settled on the page. The photo still doesn't pick the shimmer up too well because there are little touches on the distressed edges and the vellum wings are super shimmery but my light is not good enough to pick it up.


Wednesday 6 February 2013

Better colour.


There are beads and some silver halo glitter in the little bottle. 

Gears








The top left corner with gears and roses. The whole canvas has this sheen on it!

Bottle of beads





This shows the purple colour on the gauze and picks up some of the sheen.

Altered "canvas"


Ok. So this I just had to get out of my system. I've been itching to try an altered canvas for a while now and went for it last night and today. It's a pity the photo has hardly picked up the purple at all. There is some on the gauze and lots more on the frame. 

Of course there is a secret to this "canvas".   It's not actually a canvas at all but a 7" pizza box built inside out and with some layers of kitchen roll applied with slightly watered down pva glue to give the canvas texture! The dragonflies and gems came from a necklace I found in a charity shop ages ago and knew I would be able to use sometime, somehow. I've looped some of the chain they were on, with a few more beads, through the ready made holes intended to stop the pizza from sweating! Maybe I will try and get a better photo to show the colour and shimmers.

Sunday 3 February 2013

But gorgeous with a flickering tea-light behind!!


I love how the tea light flickers behind the vellum. We used the battery operated ones of course.


Just ok!

Ok, so time to play catch up. Well at the beginning of December my beloved step dad was admitted to hospital with a very poorly leg and to cut a long story short there were a few weeks when I didn't get back to my own home. Mum doesn't drive and being the only family member in the same country I had the bulk of the driving for hospital runs to do. He got home on the Tuesday before Christmas but was still housebound with nurses coming in to change dressings daily. I'm happy to say his leg is healing wonderfully well and it is possible he may not need the plastic surgery we once thought he would.

So, you would think things got back to normal? We were just getting back into routine when my poor hubby got a call from his family in Scotland to say his sister had been rushed to hospital, had been put into a coma and was seriously ill! We were completely shocked and he planned to go visit her only to have the plans ruined by snowfall both sides of the Irish Sea. So the trip was off but nerves were raw. We have been amazed by Gods hand in the situation because,although progress is slow,she is wide awake and improving steadily. She had suffered a stroke at 47 years of age. She still has a lot of recovery to go but is working hard.

Then for the final piece of news, and the craft shop in which I worked and taught my classes closed its doors on 26th Jan but I had a new 'one off' class in the Arches Centre, Randalstown. This is a new class for their programme and a kind of trial to see if it would be feasible. I'm happy to say feed back has been good and I may be invited back to do some more. I'm super excited for what the future holds and want to take this opportunity to try mew techniques and challenges. 

Anyhow this was one of the cards we did at some stage from the beginning of December.  I will be adding the others over the next few days and then you never know what I'll be up to...

Sorry for the long post but I wanted to explain my absence. Hope I'm forgiven.

C is for crochet

So this is my effort for the letter C in the craft Barn alpha challenge. I highlighted the work chosen by using it as the centre of my flower.  I love how it turned out and perhaps I might even get the next one done before the end of the first week and in time for the judging!! Lol.