Mushrooms or Toadstools?

The last few days have been a pain - quite literally!  The injection I get for my TMJ has been wearing off for the last couple of weeks and so the long wait until the next one (end of April) begins.  Headaches, earache and the worst toothache (pressure from the over-tightened jaw muscles) I have had in goodness knows how long.  I was taking muscle relaxants and strong painkillers and still the toothache persisted, then I remembered clove oil - only I didn't have any and it was the middle of the night so off to the kitchen and flinging things around the baking cupboard until I found the long lost jar of cloves.   Within about half an hour of sucking on a couple of cloves (tastes awful) the pain was gone!  It's amazing how the simplest of natural things can be more effective than mighty pharmaceuticals!

When I can't sleep and looking for things to do I sometimes will get the stamp platform out and make some images that I can colour in later another time I can't sleep.  What a difference having a stamp platform makes when you aren't very good at stamping right first time!  I got my recent Woodware stamp purchases out and got on with churning some out, some just stamped and some stamped and embossed.  I recently ordered a couple more but they won't be here until later in the week (I hope).

I had some images already coloured and had already been cut out in stitched circles and when I saw this week's  Freshly Made Sketches Challenge

I thought I might use one of those but in the end decided against it and went for a simple mat and layer style instead using one of the Woodware "Three Toadstool" stamps I had been colouring in.  I had originally coloured one in red like a traditional "fairy" toadstool and made it up but after looking at it a couple of times I decided maybe I needed a to be a bit more colourful instead and came up with this instead. For the band I stamped some of the grass from the bottom of the stamp onto some green cardstock and fussy cut it to make a foreground then added a sentiment and the small heart in heart die from the Tonic "Hello Beautiful Layering Hearts" set.  The shaded background gives the hint of a circle.

Be You!

Nice to see the days getting longer & soon the clocks will be springing forward but today it is a bit on the chilly side.  It has been trying to snow and apparently it is going to be rather a cold week, it looks as though my heated throw will be staying out storage for a bit longer!

I was having a look for something among my crafty bits and bobs during the week and came across a sheet of Bird Crazy stamps I had coloured in a long while ago.  A couple of days later one of hubby's nephews had posted this Gif on his Facebook page

 so I just had to do something with the stamps which may be appropriate

I hadn't used these stamps for ages and when I saw the latest Freshly Made Sketches Challenge sketch

I originally thought that I would use one of the other stamps I had found as there were some ready coloured and cut out.  I came up with this in combination with a Tim Holt's Mixed Media #3 die but wasn't very happy with it so it was back to the drawing board (or rather the craft stash).

After a lot of staring at things I decided I hadn't really done many male oriented cards lately so set myself the goal at finding something to fit.  I had a checkered plate embossing plate (Crafters Companion "Gun Metal") and used that as my starting point and then the industrial theme began to take shape so the Tim Holtz "Gearhead" cog wheel dies came out. 

Originally it was just going to be an arrangement of the cog wheels but when it came to looking out a sentiment for it I found the Dyan Reavely "Be you, the world will adjust" stamp and remembered I also had a Tim Holtz world globe die.  My thinking behind this card was to set the globe slightly at an angle to the cogs as if it was part of a mechanism.  Oh well, it was just a thought, but this is what the reality of that looks like:

Crazy, Crazy, Crazy!

Apart from a couple of days & nights of the wind howling down the chimney, it's been a quiet week this week. 

The weather has settled down again, it's actually quite sunny today - well, sort of, when it's not cloudy. I've just been out to check the bird feeder and make sure it's got enough in it, I swear the birds around here are lucky they can get off the ground let alone fly - that's at least 12 fat balls & two lots of mealworm they've gone through since Thursdays & I've just filled it again! Yesterday it was like a scene from "The Birds".  When Jack went out for a nose around the garden they scattered.  They then started gathering on the old telephone lines, in the trees and on roof top aerials.  Once the dog came back in the birds started coming back and were queueing up to get at the feeder - then the squabbling started as to who was next - what a racket! If they are like this in the warm weather I think I better get well stocked up for the winter.

It's only been about 3 months since we started trying to persuade our teenage son to get a haircut, I'd been threatening to get him a couple of barrettes to keep his hair out his eyes! Yesterday, he finally gave in!  He has been asked to give a presentation on the "Career Ready" programme he's been taking part in for the last year or so.  It's to be given at a reception for new participants, local employers & various VIPs at a local 5 Star hotel so he needs to look the part! Oh, and it's school photo time - he's to be in three photos: solo, class & the Senior Prefect Team.  We don't have a photo of him in that school uniform & he's been there over 5 years!  He says he's camera shy but I'm hoping I'll have something for the family album.


Sketch Challenge

When I saw the sketch for this weeks  Freshly Made Sketches Challenge I decided that as it was a simple sketch I should perhaps make a card that was also something quite simple. 

There was a stamp in Crafty Impressions "In the Dog House" set that I had been puzzling over how it could be used so I decided to have a little play with that, and came up with this - I think this is the quickest card I've ever made!:

UPDATE

Thank you Kim for the Honorable Mention in this week's Challenge!

I Used

Cardstock

White 300gsm - Fabriano

Black 300gsm - PayPer Box

Other Colours - American Crafts

Dies & Stamps

Tim Holtz Bird Crazy, Crazy Cats, Crazy Dogs - Stampers Anonymous

Tim Holtz Bird Crazy, Crazy Cats, Crazy Dogs - Sizzix Thinlits

"In the Dog House" Dog - Crafty Inspirations

Inks

Tim Holtz Distress Inks - Ranger

Smokey Grey - Memento

Midnight Blue - Versafine

Onyx Black - Versafine

Bird Crazy, Crazy Cats, Crazy Dogs 

I'd ordered a couple of new sets of Dyan Reavely stamps but although only one set, "Ugh, People!" has arrived it's still been time to play.  I do like them using them with the Tim Holtz Crazy sets - only two complete for now:

I still had some of my coloured Crazy Dog die cuts to use up & decided to team them with some backgrounds I'd put away for future use:

New Baby!

After everything my friend's family have had to endure these last couple of months or so, there was finally some good news for them today. In the early hours of this morning, two weeks behind schedule, her nephew and his fiancée welcomed their new baby daughter, Luna, into the world.

When I got the news, I was busy working on the card I was making for this week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge & it just so happened that I had decided to get my fingers out and get making a baby card! I knew time was running out and my previous ideas didn't quite work out the way I had planned so decided to have another attempt.

Originally I used a square of coloured card but after trying a couple of different options I changed my mind and decided to use a lacy die from one of the Tim Holtz Mixed Media Sets. The Stitched Ovals and the border strip are also from a Tim Holtz die set. The stork is from a Marianne Collectables Stork Dies and Clear Stamps Set.

What I Used

Cardstock

Ivory Linen Cardstock -  PayPer Box

Pink Linen Cardstock - Trimcraft

Dies

Tim Holtz Mixed Media Set #2 - Sizzix

Tim Holtz Stitched Ovals & Borders - Sizzix

Just a Note Alphabet by Jen Long - Sizzix

Ribbon & Buttons from my stash

Thank You

This "Thank You" card was made for my friend to give to the staff of the Acute Stroke Ward she spent several weeks.

I used Woodware's "Graffiti Thank You" stamp and coloured it with assorted Promarkers.

 I Used

Cardstock

White Cardstock - Fabriano Supersmooth 300gsm

Colours - American Crafts Summer Colours

Stamps

"Graffiti Thank You" - Woodware Clear Magic

Salty Cat Story

I  may not have posted much lately but it doesn't mean I haven't been crafty . Perhaps not really crafty, crafty just sort of crafty as in playing about with Distress Inks to make some backgrounds that might come in handy.

I have bought a few of the Tim Holtz Distress Ink mini pad sets so have a wider range of colours to play with now - added 4 new colours to my collection at the weekend. I sat and played for a wee while the last couple of nights putting ink on to card stock - different colour combos some left as the were while other had various things done to them. Nothing too exciting just some sprayed water or a fine spray of diluted bleach. The last couple I made were done using a lot of  water over the inked card stock followed by taking my salt grinder and leaving pieces of sea salt on the card then allowing it to dry. The salt reacted with some of the now diluted inks leaving flower-like images behind.

My camera has run out of charge and only had enough power left to photograph my entry for this week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge so will post other examples once it has charged up again.

I decided to use one of the new backgrounds on the card I was going to make for the challenge, if you look closely you can see the little flower-like areas left by the salt after it reacted with the ink. I decided to pick up on the orangey/yellow colour in the background to use as a contrast and to colour the Crazy Cat.

What I used

Cardstock

White 300gsm - Fabiano

Yellow - American Crafts

Dies & Stamps

Crazy Cat Stamp -

Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz
Crazy Cat Die & Stitched Ovals -
Sizzix Thinlits Tim Holtz
Cat Sayings - Stampendous

Inks

Assorted Mini Distress Ink Pads

Assorted Promarkers

Shop Til You Drop!

It doesn't take much shopping to make me drop these days, going out for a couple of hours can take me a couple of days to recover, hence I do a lot online be it the mundane grocery shop or more fun crafty stuff.

Some stamps I ordered from Amazon a few weeks ago, Penny Black's "You're Retro", finally arrived - unfortunately they were too late for the occasions I originally had them in mind for but they are great for cards for my friend's charity work. I wasn't too happy that the original order was cancelled by the seller without any explanation several days after they sent me an email saying it had been dispatched, same seller did the same thing on a previous order. It was even more annoying because they were still listed as being in stock & being offered for sale by that seller. Never mind, I managed to get them from another seller and now they're here it's been time to play!

The Freshly Made Sketches challenge this week I found to be exactly that - a

challenge. I don't know why but I just couldn't decide what to do and when I did I just couldn't seem to get those two side triangles to fit right then I had one of those "Doh" moments and it came together. It took me a wee while but I got there in the end!

A couple of weeks ago I got an 8x8" Lily of The Valley Nit Wits Collection "Perfect Pair" paper pad free with a craft magazine that were mentally "filed under 'L' for Later". The papers have some rather nice Spring/Summer designs so I had a look in my stash and found a nice spring-like green to use as a background.

The stamps used are from the Penny Black "You're Retro" set and to colour I sorted through my Promarkers and found some colours which approximately match those in the printed paper.

I Used

Cardstock

White - Fabiano 300gsm Smooth

Green - American Crafts, Summer

Pattern - Lily of the Valley, "Perfect Pair" Paper Pad

Stamps

"You're Retro" - Penny Black T for Transparent

Sentiments

"Meow!!"/"Never under estimate . . ." Stampendous "Cat Sayings"
"Growing old is compulsory . . ." Lindsay Mason "Smiles and Years"
"The older you get . . ." Lindsay Mason "Age Doesn't Matter"

Inks

Tuxedo Black - Memento

Promarkers - Letraset/Winsor & Newton

Other stamps from the Penny Black You're Retro stamp set: