Dinner is Poured!

The Six Nations Rugby started back this weekend and Scotland's game was against Italy. There was a lot of shouting at the TV but I am pleased to say that, at last, Scotland managed a win and hopefully this means they won't end up with the "Wooden Spoon" this year! There was even more shouting at the telly later with the England v Ireland game but unfortunately my encouragement of the Irish team was to no avail!

This week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge gave me a few ideas and I ended up making three cards before deciding which one to go with.

Ok I admit it, I'm still playing with my Crazy Cats - well the matching Framelits arrived so a girl has just got to try them out. I did do one that's not cat related but it will be this Crazy Cat which will be this week's entry:

Dinner is Poured

This naughty cat has been trying to get the cream and has knocked over a bottle of milk to get some.

I used:

Cardstock

Ivory Linen Effect - PayPer Box

DS Striped - Trimcraft Paper Pad

Stamps & Dies

Tim Holtz Crazy Cats - Stampers Anon

Tim Holtz Crazy Cats - Sizzix Framelits

Tim Holtz Splat - Sizzix Framelits

Dyan Reavely Laugh Til You Leak - Stampers Anon

Inks

Memento - Tuxedo Black

Versafine - Onyx Black & Majestic Blue

Promarkers - Windsor & Newton

Another version I made using a Crazy Cat I felt sort of but not quite hit the brief for the Challenge but I liked it any way!

Got Catnip?

I used

CardStock

Linen Effect - PayPer Box

White 300gsm - Image Supersmooth

Stamps, Dies, Embossing Folders

Tim Holtz Crazy Cats - Stampers Anon

Tim Holtz Crazy Cats - Sizzix Framelits

Cat Sayings - Stampendous
Lillies - Darice

Inks

Memento - Tuxedo Black

Versafine - Onyx Black

Promarkers - Windsor & Newton

This last one has no cats used in it's production. Instead it's a little fishy, or rather it's a little  mermaid . . .

I used
Cardstock

Linen Effect - PayPer Box

White 300gsm - Image Supersmooth

Stamps & Embossing Folder

Little Mermaid - Woodware
Bubbles - Darice

Inks

Memento - Tuxedo Black

Versafine - Onyx Black
Tim Holtz Distress Inks

Promarkers - Letraset/Windsor & Newton

After applying the Distress Inks I splashed a little bleach on to the card to give an air bubble effect.

The Birds - Part 4

While waiting for the Crazy Cats stamps to arrive I had a play with some Bird Crazy Stamps & matching Framelits, some embossing folders and Lindsay Mason Stamps.

Rules

I Used

Cardstock
Kraft - PayPer Box
Blue - Crelando
White - Image Supersmooth

Stamps, Dies & Embossing Folders
Tim Holtz - Bird Crazy
Lindsay Mason - I've Had Enough
Craft Concepts - Hand Script

Inks
Distress Inks - Tim Holtz
Memento Tuxedo Black

Sitting Around

I Used
Cardstock
Kraft - PayPer Box
Blue - Crelando
White - Image Supersmooth

Stamps, Dies & Embossing Folders
Tim Holtz - Bird Crazy
Lindsay Mason - I've Had Enough
Couture Creations - Pure Pleasure

Inks
Distress Inks - Tim Holtz
Memento Tuxedo Black

.

Cool for Cats!

At last! I've had Tim Holtz's Crazy Cats stamps on pre-order since I found out about them last month and this morning the postie popped them through the door. Just one wee thing though - I forgot to get the Framelits too but not to worry though I should have them next week.

For the moment anyway I have been having a little play with them, my first one was a complete disaster and there were too many mistakes, to count!

Once I got that out my system I tried a couple of others and came up with these:

What I Used

Cardstock

Hammered Ivory - Papermill Direct

Navy - PayPerbox

White - Image Supersmooth

Stamps

Tim Holtz Crazy Cats - Stampers Anonymous

Smiles & Years - Lindsay Mason

Inks

Distress Inks - Tim Holtz

Promarkers - Letraset/Windsor & Newton

I Used

Cardstock

Hammered Ivory - Papermill Direct

Black - PayPerbox

White - Image Supersmooth

Stamps

Tim Holtz Crazy Cats - Stampers Anonymous

Smiles & Years - Lindsay Mason

Inks

Distress Inks - Tim Holtz

Promarkers - Letraset/Windsor & Newton

I Used

Cardstock

Hammered Ivory - Papermill Direct

Black - PayPerbox

White - Image Supersmooth

Stamps & Embossing Folder

Tim Holtz Crazy Cats - Stampers Anonymous

Smiles & Years - Lindsay Mason

Pure Pleasure Embossing Folder - Couture Creations

Inks

Distress Inks - Tim Holtz

Promarkers - Letraset/Windsor & Newton

I hadn't been going to add this card here as I'm not entirely happy with it. It was a real case of Murphy's Law . . .

I Used

Cardstock

6x6 Kraft Card Blank - Hobbycraft

Red - PayPer Box

White 300gsm - Image Supersmooth

Stamps

Tim Holtz Crazy Cats - Stampers Anonymous

I've Had Enough - Lindsay Mason

Inks

Distress Inks - Tim Holtz

Promarkers - Letraset/Windsor & Newton

I also decided I would use a Crazy Cat for this week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge

and came up with this:

I Used

Cardstock

6x6 Kraft Card Blank - Hobbycraft

6x6 Gingham Check Paper - DoCrafts

White 300gsm - Image Supersmooth

Stamps

Tim Holtz Crazy Cats - Stampers Anonymous

I've Had Enough - Lindsay Mason

Inks

Distress Inks - Tim Holtz

Promarkers - Letraset/Windsor & Newton

The Birds - Part Three

Yep, it's those wacky Bird Crazy stamps again!

I recently came across a set of stamps by Lindsay Mason called "Quips" that I thought would be a great fit with Tim Holtz Birds, so here are a few of my attempts so far:

Voices

For this one I created a splattered background using the Tim Holtz Stencil to give a slightly, dotty, psychedelic look which I (or was it the voices) thought would perhaps go well with the Lindsay Mason Voices Quip stamp.

 What I Used

Cardstock

Black - PayPer Box

White - Image Supersmooth

Stamps & Stencils

Bird Crazy - Tim Holtz

Quips - Lindsay Mason
Splatters Stencil - Tim Holtz

Ink

Tim Holtz Distress Inks

Memento - Tsukinenko

Promarkers - Letraset

Stand Out

The background for this card came from a card my friend gave me for my Birthday. The front had a filigree cut out section so it just had to be kept as a template for experimenting with! This effect was created by running it through my Spellbinders Grand Calibur with the paper covered by the rubber tan mat. The embossed paper was then rubbed over with Distress Ink to lift the design. The Tim Holtz Bird was cut out and attached with a 3D glue so it would, as the quip says, stand out!  

What I Used

Stamps & Stencils

Bird Crazy - Tim Holtz

Quips - Lindsay Mason
Splatters Stencil - Tim Holtz

Cardstock

Navy Blue - PayPer Box

Green - Crelando

White - Papermill Direct

Inks

Distress Inks - Tim Holtz

Memento - Tsukinenko

Promarkers - Letraset

Pigeon v Statue

This quip was the one that sold me on the "Quips" stamp set and I just had to have it for my birds!

I kept the background simple and stuck with an open air feel by using Distress Inks to create a grass & sky background.

What I Used

CardStock

Black - PayPer Box

Pale Yellow - Crelando

Stamps

Bird Crazy - Tim Holtz

Quips - Lindsay Mason

Inks

Distress Inks

Memento - Tsukineko

Promarkers - Letraset

Cogs, Scribbles & Splats

Happy Valentine's Day!

Teenage son comes into my room to inform me that he will be heading out to meet some friends. "Who is she?" I enquired as son's face turns various shades of red, "Who says there's a girl, Mum?" so I told him his face told me all I needed to know - apart from her name but my guess as to that was, eventually, correct. I gave him the little box of heart shaped chocolates that came with the M&S "Dine in for Two" Valentine's selection his Dad & I plan to have tonight. Not to worry, there's a rather yummy pud (looks like a bar of gold bullion)  I picked up that may make up for  losing out on the chocolates.

The weather has been fickle again this time it can't make up it's mind if it wants to rain, snow or sleet but as long as it doesn't get too much colder I'll be fine. As it is this cold snap is playing havoc with my TMJ (painful jaw joint) as it sets the pain off. It doesn't help that the new Doc carrying out my last injection would appear not to have hit the right part of the muscle and I am experiencing the problems I normally get as the effects of it wear off around 12 weeks down the line only it's only been 3 weeks and my next one isn't due until the end of May. I can't have another injection so that leaves me muscle relaxants which are non selective and have been leaving me a little spaced out!

Time for this week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge.

As it's Valentine's Day I used "love" for the sentiment but I didn't intend this as an actual Valentine's card.

Cogs

I decided to try a masculine card as I had recently bought a couple of "industrial" type embossing folders one with cogs the other with a tread plate design.  It was kind of crying out to be made using metallic cards so out came the copper, silver and gold cardstock and my Grand Calibur.

Craft Essentials Creative Embossing Folder was used to emboss the cog design on the copper & silver card while the individual cogs were cut from gold card using X-Cut Cogs Chronology dies. Crafter's Companion "Gun Metal" folder was used as a back ground. The card stock with the embossed cogs was lightly sanded and then lightly inked to give a distressed look.

What I used

Cardstock

PayPer box

Dies & Embossing

X-Cut - Cogs Chronology

Lawn Fawn - Scripty Love

Crafter's Companion - "Gun Metal"

Inks

Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Peeled Paint
Memento - Black

Scribbles & Splats

This is another card I've been playing with using some Tim Holtz Dies. I love the ornate grille design, in fact it was the reason I wanted the set. I decided to team it up with the Scribbles and Splats.

The card stock base is a 300gsm white linen and for each cut out in the white cardstock there is a shadow piece in metallic copper placed behind it. I used a leather effect paper in Navy blue as a contrast.

What I Used

Cardstock

Hobbycraft - DL White Linen Card Blank

PayPer Box - Navy & Copper Metallic

Dies

Tim Holtz - Scribbles & Splat

Tim Holtz - Mixed Media

Lawn Fawn - Scripty Love