Thursday, September 30, 2010

Comfort Crafts

I have recently had a spell of bad health and have needed to go slow with all things in my life. Truthfully, I did not have the energy to deal with much else, so, between napping, I would pick up my sock knitting. For me this is a mindless type of therapy and  as I don't feel I am wasting time whilst out of sorts, I am accomplishing something tangible! I guess I need another pair of feet so that I can wear all the socks I am knitting during times of stress! The fact that we live in a very tropical climate and only experience 'cold' weather for perhaps 2 months a year, does not help me with my stock of socks. Guess, time to start farming them out as gifts!!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Digi Image

I loved this image and thought it would be suitable for a man's card. I coloured it using my Copic's and cut it out with a Spellbinder Labels Ten die, lightly sponged it with Momento Sky Blue whilst it was still in the die so as to get a nice clean white rim around the tag. I mounted onto lovely soft coloured dp, used a few eyelets to attach it to the card. These I managed to over 'squeeze' with my Crop-o-dile. I forget you don't have to use brute force with this nifty gadget! I added a few dew drops and my favorite Papertrey sentiment on a tag to finish it off. I sent this to our one gent in our online stamping group for his birthday - I hope he liked it and apologise for not using stamps for the 'whole' of the card!

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Unlikely colour combinations!

.... for me that is!
The background dp was in a batch of papers I bought from Paola a while ago. I was unsure of how or when I was going to use it. However, I have been trying to 'step out of the box' with regard to colours and made myself thing this one through and I think it worked. I used  stamp sets from Mint Motifs called Very Square Sentiments and Very Square. There are different square backgrounds with sentiments that will fit into/onto these backgrounds. Love the set! Here I have stamped the light square with Memories Soft Wheat and the dark squares with Adirondack Pesto. The sentiment was stamped with Momento Cocoa. All squares were mounted onto red cardstock and grouped onto the front of a square card using the 'different' dp and then onto a dark green card. I found this lovely velvet feel butterfly to finish the card off with! Very pleased with the turnout, however, the photography needs a lot of tweeking - apologies!!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Another Tag Card

This time I used the correct colour tag and it turned out perfectly. It is the Hero Arts Cling stamp set featured in an earlier post. Coloured with Copics and then softly sponged with Distress Ink, added a few Paola's Pearls, a bit of brown satin ribbon and mounted onto a card that I had stamped with a background stamp from CHF. Soft and pretty.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Black & White - again!

I loved this card from start to finish. So seldom will I start a card and have everything fall into place. This was made for Debbie who is hosting our Advent swap, just to say thanks for all her hard work. It's a smallish card because I wanted the cuttlebug folder to emboss at an angle. Bit of a jiggle, but got it done. I used an EK Success scallop/emboss punch. Love the clean lines this creates. I used a lovely stamp set from CD Stamps called Tag Blessings. What is nice about this set is that you can choose your sentiment from their selection or as in this case, I found another that suited me better, and it fitted perfectly. Mounted on a touch of red and added a red butterfly - Martha Stewart punch. Bits of bling added to the tag and the butterfly finished it off perfectly. Debbie kindly featured it on her blog.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Using Doilies

I have picked up on the trend to use paper doilies on cards and decided to see if I could make something of it. I had coloured this Tilda ages ago so I cut her out and scratched around for all the trimmings you see on the card. For me, this is a very 'busy' card - far from my very structured layouts. Time to loosen the shackles and brake loose I guess. You never know if you like it until you try it.....................

Friday, September 17, 2010

Book Mark

A quick post today - I made several of these bookmarks for a recipe book I gave as a gift. They are really cute and so quick to make up!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Sweet Tilda

I have a couple of Tilda stamps and am slowly beginning to work with them. I really feel intimidated when I look at the awesome designs using these stamps, out there. I drool, quite literally, when I visit Paola's blog, as her Copic colouring in and card layouts are just to die for! I am very lucky to be the proud recipient of several of her cards, and they are displayed in a place that I can admire and study them every time I am in my craft room. I am slowly trying my hand at several techniques that I can work out, that she applies to her colouring in. So, every now and then, you will find a Tilda card on my blog showing my progress in this regard.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Share the Love


What a lovely image this is. I found her at Sassy Cheryl's store and just had to have her, and being a teddy fan, I did not need much convincing! I coloured her with my Copic's and cut her out using an oval nestie. Broke open my new Spellbinders Beaded Ovals purchased from Scrapping Circus on their CHA Pre-order sale (a wopping 35% off their already discounted prices - take a look at the site). They were only scheduled for shipping end September so was delighted when they arrived early this week AND did not have to pay any customs/vat costs - just collected the envelope from the post office! Back to the card - I sponged the embossed ovals whilst it was still in the die and mounted the lot onto a W&M dp paper from their 6x6 pads sets. Just had to add Paola's pretty pearls and went mad with the Martha Stewart Doily Lace punch. Love that punch!! This was such a busy card, I had to keep the sentiment tiny.
Love this card......


Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Hero Arts Inspiration

I bought this stamp and the Hero Arts Catalogue from Niki at Paperchain and was inspired to use a tag as they had in the catalogue. I only realised what a bad colour choice the tag was when I had stamped and coloured it and started matching up the dp. I realised how very yellow/orange the tags were and had to find a way to make them work. I decided to sponge them with Distressed Inks and try and use this look on the dp to compliment each other. I had bought some of the Tim Holtz tags from one of the RSA group last year but they were very big, but the perfect colour. I now need to source the smaller tags in the light colour of the TH tags. These yukky ones I had bought from the local stationers.
Can any local supplier assist me with the lighter shade tag?? Back to the card - I used adorable paper and pearls from Paola and my favorite sentiment stamp - AGAIN!! - from Papertrey. What do you think??

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Bugawumps

We have a 17 year old Schnauzer who is daddy's darling. Sad to see the slow down with age, but the sparkle is still in the eye!
I came across Bugawumps website via a link from Curt's World - he is also a Schnauzer fan - and was thrilled to find this Schnauzer stamp. This is the small version and there is a much bigger stamp. I contacted Laura Anne on the 26th August and collected my stamps from the post office this morning! Now how's that for efficiency?? Lovely lady - even enclosed a freebie. Thank you Laura. I just had to make a card straight away to show her my appreciation. I coloured 'Trixie" (our girl's name) using Copics, cut with a square Nestie and used my new Spellbinders Lacey Squares as the bottom mount. I scratched in my stash and found the lovely sheet of dp and was equally delighted to find co-ordinating ribbon! The sentiment is one stamp, but it was sufficiently well spaced to allow me to cut the rows out separately, therefore saving a lot of 'space' allowing the dp to show through. Can't wait to show DH when he comes home - I'm sure he will be tickled pink! Of course I will be told - not as beautiful as my girl! - meaning Trixie of course - not ME!!!

Tiffany Doodles Digi

I love the soft colours of this card. This is a digi image from Tiffany Doodles called Dogwood Branch. I used my Copics to colour this image, cut it out with my Spellbinder Labels Nine, sponged the edges of the image with Momento Desert Sand and mounted it onto a lovely pieces of dp from Basic Grey's 6x6 pad called Sultry - both the Momento ink pad and dp were from Cariena at the Scrapbook Studio. I used the scraps of the cream board to cut out several of the Spellbinders Doodle Parts, added Paola's pearls and a sentiment that was cut out using Spellbinders Tags. I was please to see that the colours I used comply with the Tiffany Doodles Colours challenge currently running, so I am going to enter this card. Some super digi prizes up for grabs. Pop over and take a look at the lovely entries on their blog.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

ATC - 1-4-1 Dance with me





I recently had to make a return 1-4-1 ATC and went looking in my "Coloured and Ready to Use" box for inspiration and found this adorable Lockheart stamped image. I am so in love with these stamps, but sadly they are wood mounted and cost a fortune to bring in to the country. I cut the image out with a Spellbinders Labels Eight die, mounted onto a lilac board that had been partially covered with a beautiful silk serviette I have been hoarding for years, and adorned with Paola's tiny pearls - they are just so beautiful! I enclosed it in this lovely little folder I made and popped it into the post. It was very well received!