Tuesday 28 July 2015

The Birds - Part One

I've had a set of the Tim Holtz designed Bird Crazy for a wee while now and often stamp  them out and colour them in with my Promarkers just because I can - they do say colouring in is good for unwinding!

Last night I decided that I really needed to do something more with them so had a look through my Dyan Reaveley words stamp sets (I think they work really well with these expressive looking birds) and came up with a few ideas.

I love these weird & wonderful birds, and am already working on some more ideas for using them!

 
 


 

 
 

 


 
 

 
 
 
 

Monday 27 July 2015

Monochrome Birthday

If anyone was watching the Open Golf from St Andrews last weekend you will have a good idea as to the kind of dreich* weather we've been having in this neck of the woods for the last week. On the weather report last night they were talking of temperatures of being more like October than July - I can believe it too as my arthritis has been playing up.



 (dre·ech) Dialect, chiefly Scot -adj.
1. miserable, cold and wet (weather).
2. (tr.) dreary (referring to weather or a sermon).



For this week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge  I decided to try something I've been meaning to do for ages - make a filigree panel using a frame and some flourishes.

For the frame & back panel I used my Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 1 and for the flourishes I used the larger one from the Spellbinders Jewel Flowers & Flourishes set. Once the pieces were cut out all I needed to do with the pieces was to work out the best way to fit them together to make the panel.


 



The background panel is Couture Creations Exotic Embossing folder and the card is finished off with a black panel wrapped in a white chiffon ribbon. Some hot pink bling dots were added for a pop of colour.


 
Cardstock:
All Payper Box

Dies & Embossing Folders:
Spellbinders - Labels 1
Spellbinders - Jewel Flowers & Flourishes
Spellbinders - D-Lites Sentiments 1 Happy Birthday

Couture Creations - Exotic


Wednesday 22 July 2015

New Dies

I've been eyeing up some of Sue Wilson's Creative Expressions dies for a wee while now and earlier this week finally decided on two to treat myself to a couple.  After a lot of consideration I chose the "Tethered Hearts" Die Set from her Striplet Collection and an Ursa Die Set from her Gemini Collection.
 
I used both sets to create inset designs, they are so lovely I decided to keep the cards really simple and embellishments to a bare minimum.

The first has the "Tethered Hearts" set into the centre of the card and backed with a lovely light blue embossed foiled cardstock. The same blue card was used to create the sentiment and was finished by the addition of two small love birds and a bit of bling coloured to match the cardstock.

 
 
 

 
 
The Ursa Die was used twice (well it is from the Gemini Collection) to create a larger design which was then backed with a lilac pearlised cardstock and finished off with a small "Love" charm and some ribbon and bling which were coloured to match.
 

 



Cardstock:
All from Payper Box
 
Dies:
Creative Expressions - Striplet Collection "Tethered Hearts"
Creative Expressions - Gemini Collection "Ursa"
Spellbinders - "Congratulations" 
 
Embellishments:
Club Green - White & Silver Ribbon
Love Charm & Bling from own craft stash
Letraset Promarkers
 

Thursday 16 July 2015

Love Flies

The Open Golf starts in St Andrews tomorrow and over the last few days or so the traffic has been building up as people head along the coast for the practice rounds. No doubt I shall be awoken in the morning by the sounds of helicopters flying overhead ferrying those who can afford such things to and from the golf. I had originally planned not to travel along that way between now and Monday but I was reminded tonight that I have to go and deliver some craft stuff to my friend for a project she's working on and needs as soon as possible.
 
This week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge is probably the one that I have found easiest to decide on what to do.
 
Over the last wee while I have begun accumulating more & more stamps and one of the ones that arrived earlier this week was a small Hot Air Balloon by Dovecraft. Yesterday I had stamped out a few to practice on and as soon as I saw this sketch I decided that they would be the shape I would use. I decided to go with the ones that I had coloured using various neutral & brown tone Promarkers to try and give a vintage feel to them.
 
 
 
 

I created a background on some ivory coloured cardstock by swirling some Tim Holtz Faded Denim Distress Ink to give it the appearance of  a slightly cloudy sky. 
 

 Cardstock:
PayPer Box - Kraft
PayPer Box - Ivory
Image SuperSmooth - White
 
Stamps:
Dovecraft - Balloon
Debbie Moore - Love
Debbie Moore - (Time) Flies
 
Inks:
Versacolour - Sepia
Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Faded Denim
Letraset Promarkers
 
 
 
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Sunday 12 July 2015

The Letter

I have had my eye on "Frou Frou" Art Deco-esque stamps from Crafter's Companion for a while and been having "do I, don't I" moments where they made it to the basket only to be taken out again. Last week I finally gave in and got some - the special offer and Club discount helped!

The main stamp I've used for this weeks Freshly Made Sketches Challenge is the Frou Frou 



"Love Letters" which I coloured using Promarkers. I thought that because of the sentiment I had in mind for her, "I'm leaving now to go and find myself. If I return before I get back please ask me to wait.", suggested that she perhaps ought to be blonde (no offence to any other blondes out there intended!). The sentiment is something I saw a while ago, thought it was a bit of fun, so made a note of for use later.



The other stamps, the floral corner and the lips, come from a couple of small packs of Royal Langnickel stamps I picked up at my local "Home Bargains" for the princely sum of 29p per set!

 

I have also entered the http://papertakeweekly.blogspot.co.uk/ "Anything Goes" challenge and http://cardsgalorechallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ July "Use a stamp" Challenge.

Cardstock:
Image Supersmooth White
Create & Craft Single Sided Pearlised Pastels
 
Stamps:
Crafter's Companion - Frou Frou Love Letters
Royal Langnickel  - Hugs & Kisses
Royal Langnickel - Floral Touches
 
Inks:
Memento - Tuxedo Black
Letraset Promarkers - Various
Club Green DS Satin Ribbon - Black

Wednesday 8 July 2015

Naughty or Nice

I've had the Tim Holtz Bird Crazy stamps for a wee while now but earlier today I took delivery of some Dyan Reaveley Dylusions stamps that I thought would go quite nicely with them. I'd been looking at these stamps for a while but finally bought some from "Art from the Heart".  I discovered them on their website at half price so managed to get two of her sets for the price of one! When I opened the package this afternoon I got a lovely surprise, the stamp sets were gift wrapped in red tissue paper and tied with twine which had a double heart charm attached to it - a lovely touch - I should have taken a photo!


This particular word stamp is from Dyan Reaveley's Christmas range but thought it was quite appropriate for this particular avian. I think the quiff looks like a question mark which, to me at least, makes it a rather thoughtful, yet quizzical looking bird !
 
 
 
 
 
I thought that the saying I had in mind for this bird, "Naughty or Nice", was one more suited to a feminine bird  than a masculine one.   So to turn the bird a bit more girly I added eyelids and some long lashes with a fine liner pen and finished her off with some blue eye shadow to complete the look. 

Personally, I think this flirtatious little bird has already made up her mind . . . naughty it is then!!!


Cardstock:
Image Supersmooth White
American Craft Summer Collection - Green
Crelando - Purple

Stamps:
Tim Holtz - Bird Crazy
Dyan Reaveley Dylusions - Christmas Words

Inks:
Memento Tuxedo Black
Letraset Promarkers
 

Friday 3 July 2015

Hello My Friend - FMS 193


The temperature's rising! Wednesday was the hottest July day since records began and to celebrate that fact it was followed by a rather spectacular thunderstorm in the evening that lasted for several hours!

Out in the garden my "Deep Secret" rose is in bloom. This rose was one of my garden centre rescues a few years ago and I have to admit it's my favourite. Whilst in the photo it looks dark pink it is, in fact, deep red with the most beautiful velvety petals.  It is also rather large with this bloom being the diameter of a large saucer - pity they haven't invented scratch'n'sniff monitors as it's scent is absolutely heavenly. 


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I was working on how to put together my card for this week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge but after I had put it together I had gone out in the garden and on smelling the roses I decided to change the embellishment from a yellow daisy to a red (sort of) rose. The "sort of" is because I don't have a rose die so I just used some Sizzix ones from a stamp set that were sort of, roughly, that kind of shape!


 
 
I started off with a scrap of red card and a piece of white ribbon with some yellow daisies on it that gave me one of those "I wondered where that went" moments. As the background card is an ivory colour and the ribbon was white I decided to get my Promarkers out and originally thought to colour it red to match the red card but then thought to I could tie in the other colours I was planning to use by colouring it in bands - I think it has helped to bring out the ribbon's yellow daisies.
 
 
 
Here is the original version I made of the card.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Cardstock:
Assorted PayPer Box
 
Dies & Stamps:
Sizzix "Hello Friend"  from Hello by Jillibean Soup Stamp & Die Set
Sizzix - Flowers No.6 Framelits Die Set 

Spellbinders - Jewel Flowers & Flourishes
 
Inks:
Memento Tuxedo Black
Letraset Promarkers

 
Embellishments:
Card Candy
Ribbon from my stash