Monday 23 May 2016

Friends

I do wish that the weather would make up it's mind what it wants to be! Just when you start to dream that a sunny summer could be just around the corner, a few days of heavy rain bring you back to reality!

I've been telling hubby for a while now not to put bread on the patio for the birds as it's not the best thing for them to eat. Finally I found an article on the subject and that, plus the heavy rain causing the bread to make a soggy mess on the patio which I made him clear up, he decided to stop it.  In return I bought some special wild bird food balls that he could put out for them. Neither of us could believe how hungry our fine feathered friends are, they may be wee but they've gone through one ball every other day & I'm now down to the last one - something else for the weekly shopping list!

I thought I had my card for this week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge sorted out - oh how wrong could I be when I realised, after I'd made it, that I had used the exact same stamps I'd used a few weeks ago! Ah well, it was back to the drawing board to come up with a new card to fit in with this week's sketch:



The original card I came up with used stamps from the Penny Black "You're Retro" set. I used some Spray Distress Inks to create the multi-coloured back layer:

























I Used

Cardstock

White 300gsm - Fabiano

Blue - Crelando

Stamps
You're Retro Stamp set - Penny Black

Inks
Distress Inks - Tim Holtz
Promarkers - Letraset / Winsor & Newton




Once I'd realised what I'd done I started looking through my crafty stash to see what I had and found a Darice embossing folder "Feathers on Side" and decided to try something with that.



I thought instead of using different layers I would try using different colours on the same piece of card and used a highlighted part of the design to form the area where the dark strip is in the sketch. Once the Distress Inks (Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers & Seedless Preserves) were on I used some Starlight Gelly Roll pen over metallic Promarker to create the highlighted area. The sentiment was stamped using clear Versamark and set using silver embossing powder.

I had problems trying to get photos which showed the embossed stamp in the correct colour- some made them look black instead of silver, whilst not the best, these hopefully these show the detail.



I Used

Cardstock
White 300gsm - Fabiano

Stamps
True Friendship Stamp set - Kaisercraft

Inks
Distress Inks - Tim Holtz
Promarkers - Letraset/Winsor & Newton
Gelly Roll - Sakura

Monday 16 May 2016

Urban Cool

Been busy working on a Birthday card and present for our Great Niece's 4th Birthday on Tuesday (aka tomorrow!).  I kind of got carried away working on things for Annie's "Fairy Door" and ended up really cutting it a bit fine with this week's entry to the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge - managed to post with 10 minutes to spare!



As soon as I saw the bird I knew I what I had to do! Yep, bring out my Tim Holtz stamp folder!




I teamed the Tim Holtz bird up with some Woodware Clear Magic Graffiti stamps and Crafter's Companion Walls and Corners Texture stamps.


































Phew - now back to hopefully getting Annie's things assembled & finished tonight!

Monday 9 May 2016

Butterflies


Yippee! The sun is bright, the skies are blue - it would appear that Spring really has sprung! Hard to believe that there was snow on the hills a week or so ago - some parts of Scotland were warmer than some parts of the Mediterranean!

Had my son out for some driving lessons at the weekend - didn't get off to a good start as when we got to the car rental company he suddenly remembered that he'd left his licence at home! Back in my car to get the paperwork from home and then back again - fortunately they let us get the hire car for the full 2 hours we had booked. I took him a bit further afield this time to a local industrial estate which has quiet roads on a Sunday and plenty of them to get a good bit of driving done instead of a lot of stops and starts on smaller roads - even went over our mileage allowance. He actually felt as though he was doing some "proper" driving - and managed to overcome his reluctance to get out of 2nd & finally got the car into 4th gear! He just needs to calm down a wee bit with his overenthusiastic steering technique. Once again, thank goodness for dual controls - he wanted to do some tree hugging!


This week's Freshly Made Sketches Sketch had me scratching my head a bit - probably because I left it to the last minute.


When we were out driving yesterday we saw butterflies just about everywhere we went so with that as a theme I decided on the Butterfly Floral Lattice from Kaisercraft.

I knew I wanted to use some distress inks in the background so decided to make my own background paper - several attempts with sprays later, I decided that using the ink pads and a blender tool may be a better, easier, idea. I have used graduated brown, green & pink colours down one side then sprayed it with some bleach solution and came up with this. 






































I wasn't too sure which sentiment I wanted to use, the sketch shows a sentiment going across the width of the card. I wanted something that didn't take away from the image so in the absence of any velum (I know I have some somewhere if only I could find it!) I decided on strands of twine across the card and a small sentiment that would fit into the white area.


I Used

Cardstock
A6 Card Blank - Anita
Smooth Uncoated White 300gsm - Fabiano

Stamps
Butterfly Floral Lattice - Kaisercraft
Love (from Flutterby set) -Debbie Moore 


Inks
Assorted Distress Ink Pads - Tim Holtz
Versafine Vintage Sepia - Tsukinenko










Monday 2 May 2016

Lovely Day

Well it would be if the weather would make it's mind up what it wants to do! At least it's stopped snowing & hailstones. The sun is lovely when it's out, the inside of the car is like an oven, and I'm sure it would be quite warm outside if only the wind would go away! I've bought some border plants to bring a bit more colour into the garden, just need a break in the weather to have them planted out. 

My son starts study leave tomorrow, I do hope he remembers that the time off is for studying for exams and not for playing "Magic The Gathering" with his friends!

For this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge I, once again, couldn't quite make up my mind what to submit as I had made two different cards.






The first was made using freebie stamps and dies from the latest Crafter's Companion Inspirations magazine. The dies are intended for their new Diamond Press mini die machine but they work fine in my Sapphire. The hexagonal dies come in two versions, plain and stitched and the stamps are florals, bees and stitches so the choice seemed to be either a quilting theme or some busy bees.
I opted for the quilting. 

A sheet of card was stamped with a hexagonal stamp which has floral design & had Distress Inks dabbed on randomly for a multi colour fabric effect. The stamped images were then cut out using the stitched effect dies.









                                                                   
                      
I Used

Cardstock
300gsm Card Blank - Anita's
300gsm Smooth Card - Fabiano
Pearlised s/s Card - Create & Craft

Stamps & Dies
Crafter's Companion

Inks
Assorted - Distress Inks
Tuxedo Black - Memento



My other card uses a stamp from a set by Lindsay Mason and features a rather motley (or should that be muttley) crew of pooches.




                                          
They are a bunch of cuties, I think Jack was a wee bit jealous that they were getting more attention than him! In fact as I was colouring them in he jumped up behind me on my chair & sent my Promarker folders flying - pesky pup!

I decided the little poodle was a bit of a pampered princess so gave her a pink rinse. I used the colours in the bandana for the side panel and the sentiments came from a Simply Cards & Papercrafts magazine freebie set called "Furry Friends". 






I Used

Cardstock
300gsm Card Blank - Anita's
300gsm Smooth Card - Fabiano

Stamps
"Dogs 3" - Lindsay Mason, Personal Impressions
"Furry Friends" Sentiments - Simply Cards & Papercrafts

Inks
Tuxedo Black - Memento
Assorted - Promarkers