Products of Insomnia!

For a long time now I have been having problems sleeping.  Often when I'm using my stamps I'll stamp off a couple of extras and put them away to colour up on those nights when I can't sleep.  I also make up some backgrounds using Distress Inks and put them away in a folder for future use.  My friend is housebound so I thought I would start putting a few cards together for her so that instead of her spending a fortune on buying from online stores she could have some at home for when she needs them. 

I have accumulated a few now so thought I would haul them out and get some photos taken.

 Woodware Clear Magic "Jacqui's Garden" coloured using Promarkers.

Not entirely sure which way up is the right way up!

Woodware Clear Magic "Long Tall Flowers"

Woodware Clear Magic "Fairy House" with Couture Creations "Pure Pleasure" Embossing Folder.  Stamped and embossed with white embossing powder to give a faux bleached effect.  Coloured with Distress Inks.

Woodware  Clear Magic "Sweet Tweet".  Coloured using Distress Inks & Brusho powders.

 Tim Holtz "Mixed Media #5" Die Set with Distress Ink background.

Who Let The Dogs Out? - Part 1

Finally, over a month after ordering them on pre-release, my Tim Holtz Crazy Dog stamps have arrived.  Seems to have been a bit of a mix up at the retailers.

Never mind they are here now and I've been having a play with those and my new A5 die cutting machine from the Aldi "So Crafty" range. Didn't know that Aldi did such a thing? Me neither but they do now and it's a rather nice piece of kit! It came with two A6 embossing folders and 11 small dies, 2 of which are shown in the photo below.  The machine takes all formats of dies. In the Facebook Groups I belong to there have been quite a few people who have purchased one.  So far, everyone has been really impressed by the quality of it.

Anyway, I digress, back to the "Crazy Dogs" - aren't they cute! Got a few ideas for them although only 3 finished cards are on here at the moment - more to follow!

I decided to try and fit one in the sketch for this week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge

I decided to use the smallest of the dogs, not sure but it could be a dachshund I guess, and combine it with some stamps from the Crafty Impressions, Cathie Shuttleworth's "In the Dog House", set.  I think, perhaps, it's a rather loose interpretation of the sketch.

I Used

Cardstock

White 300 gsm Supersmooth - Fabriano

Colours - Crelando

Dies & Stamps

Tim Holtz Crazy Dogs - Stampers Anonymous

Barking Mad, "In the Dog House" Set - Crafty Impressions

Don't Tell Me, "I've Had Enough" Set - Lindsay Mason

Never Forget, "Smiles & Years" - Lindsay Mason

Here are the other two - not sure if they are meant to be a French Bulldog (or Pug perhaps) & a Bulldog or not:

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

It's Been a While . . .

In fact it's over three years since I last posted but better late than never I suppose!

I've had a Grand Calibur for a couple of years now but have rarely used it as only a 4 sets of dies. I finally decided it was time to get it out of moth balls and treat myself to some embossing folders and a couple of new die sets, here are the results. Oh and I bought some ink pads, including set number 4 of the mini Tim Holtz ink pads to have a go at distress inking. Here are some of the results:

Embossing folder: Darice Argyle Background

Dies:

Spellbinders Radiant Rectangles

Joy! Crafts - Butterflies

Joy! Crafts - Daisy Flowers

Inks: 

Tim Holtz Mini Pads Set 4 and 

Tsukineko Brilliance 3 Colour Ink Pad, Aurora

Sentiment: Anita's Birthday Sentiments from Do-Craft. 

Embossing folder: Darice - Vine Background

Dies: Spellbinders Radiant Rectangles

Ink: Coral Pink from Tsukineko Brilliance Colour Aurora Ink Pad

Sentiment - Anita's Birthday Sentiments from Do-Craft

Embossing folders: 
Outer Layer: Dots from Darice Happy Birthday Folder, 
Inner Layer: Couture Creations Art Nouveau Swept Away

Dies:
Spellbinders Radiant Rectangles
Joy! Crafts - Flowers, Butterflies and Leaves

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Minis Set 4
Sentiment: Anita's Birthday Sentiments from Do-Craft

Lilac Pearlised Card from PayPer Box

Embossing Folders:

Darice - Steampunk Cogs Background

Darice - Diamond Plate

Darice - Happy Birthday 

Grey Hammered Card - PayPer Box

Silver Mirror Foil Card (sanded down)- Home Bargains

Ink: Tsukineko Brilliance 3 Colour Ink Pad, Tiramisu 

used black over brown for a rusted appearance.

My son loves the texture of this card - says it's so "lifelike" he expected it to feel like metal.

So it's official, I've now got the embossing bug and have just ordered some bargains I found on offer at Amazon!

This was an experiment with Spellbinders Borderabilities Brackets. I was trying to make a card with a header ie the top section of the card was cut as an insert from the back of the card blank.

I used the 3 insert dies to create the design and the perforated edge die to cut it out from the card.

  

Here are the dies and shown with the "header", the bottom photo shows it in a bit more detail.