Book cover

This weeks challenge over at Try it on Tuesdays
is to 'Alter it and add texture'.


 I decided to make a cover for a 'fat page book'
4 x 4 inches
The embossed layers were all stamped with a variety of stamps before going through the Bigshot and brayer. The colouring is weathered wood, and bundled sage
distress inks.






The central shape was triple embossed and sprinkled with mica powder,
 I pressed in the daisy stamp quickly before the whole thing set hard.

Here is the finished book, ready hold my calendar swap pages as I get them each month.
Please pop over and see what my DT mates have made this time, and  see all the challenge details. We hope you will  join us .




Thankyou for stopping by I realy appreciate your comments

Love You.

Valentines Day seems to be the in a lot of folks minds at the moment.
I will have a few more D.T. pieces to show you in the coming couple of weeks.
My OH and I,  after the first throws of  young love, many, many years ago, don't send them to each other.
Last year we celebrated our 45th Wedding Anniversary, so I think we must have done something right through the years.
 So this card is, 'to us with love'.

The colours  used are shades of cream [antique linen] , walnut stain, tumbled glass and stormy sky distress inks . Cream and light navy papers, the embossing folders are by Sizzix, the leaf a Memory Box die.
The silver embossed Heart is from Stamps by Chloe.

When I made this card this morning I had no idea it would fit these three super challenges
Sugar Creek Hollow  -Use colours, Cream, Brown, and Blue.
Cheerful Stamp Pad -Romance is in the Air
Snazzy's design team blog -their first challenge is Love/Romance.

Thankyou for stopping by I realy appreciate your comments

I can see you.

 Challenge 14 over at  Fashionable Stamping Challenges and this time our theme is  - 'Make it a Guy Thing'.

Once again my team mates have made some fabulous pieces, please pop over take a look, and get all the details. Please remember we like to see some stamping on your work.
For this card the stamps I used are by Indigo Blu, Paper Artsy and Stampers Anonymous.
The background paper  was also made  using these stamps.
The shading is distress inks, stormy sky and antique linen, I used watercolour paints for the colouring.

Thankyou for stopping by to take a look, I realy appreciate your comments.

In her dreams!

This little madam is living in hopes, all she wants is to be a Princess and her pet cat turn into her Prince.
Hey, we all have dreams.
I made this  for the colour Challenge over at Gingersnap Creations.
GS 136 -Glorious Greens.
 Main  stamps are by Stampotique and the flowers are well used so I cannot name the maker.
The background paper is scrunched and  layered up kitchen roll, painted with acrylics.
I edged  the base card with shabby shutters  Distress ink, but its so pale it  looks white on all my photos.
The other greens I used were weathered wood and bundled sage.
Punches for the branch strip and corners are  Martha Stewart's.

Thankyou for stopping by to take a look, I realy appreciate your comments.

Tags,

Tag making today, using up some small pieces of cardstock  and bits and bobs  left over from other projects.
But mainly an excuse  to use some new images from the Vintage Trio that came from Dezinaworld..
 June has the most amazing, generous offer  at her shop, so a huge  thankyou  from me.

So,  this tag was given the embossing treatment at some time and looked as if it had been coated with a mica spray, I added a bit more mica powder to brighten it up a bit.  Layered the image, quite a romantic couple I think, he may be about to propose after all  the 14th February is getting closer.
I will enter this tag in  The Craft-Room  Challenge 'Valentines'.

 More left overs were used for this tag as well, the little flower heads had all dropped off the stalks but I wasn't going to waste them. The image again is from Dezinaworld.

Thankyou for stopping by to take a look, I realy appreciate your comments.

Opposites

Its not often that  I make two such completely opposite types of card in one session.
 One in the style I prefer, the other a style I struggle with, more about that later in the post.

This card has layers of embossed, distressed papers for the background. I used bundled sage, weathered wood and shabby shutters distress inks to colour and shade this card. The image is by Indigo Blu
The flowers and lace came from my stash box.
Challenges
Sugar Creek Hollow  -Go Girly
Make My Monday  - Flowers and Leaves  The image also has flowers and leaves in her hair.
Craft Your Days Away -Distressing

It is simply ages since I tried a  LIM card.
 Chrissie and Mandi over at Less is More have  a 'Cut it Out'   theme  this week.
So away to the trusty  Big Shot with an Spellbinder die and there was my 'cut out'.
Its a Memory box flower die inside the card, with a paper flower and button on top.

Thankyou for stopping by to take a look, I realy appreciate your comments.

She's in the Mail

Try it on Tuesdays  and its a Wild Card Challenge.
The theme is  called  'In the Mail ', you can interpret this however you wish as long as its something to do with mail.
 So how does my  piece  relate to this?  I have altered a slide mailer.
Pop over for all the details and see what my fellow team mates have made.

Here is what the front [on the right] and the back  [on the left] look like. Both are a little darker than in real life, but once again lighting was a problem when taking the photos.
The mailer was coloured with acrylic paints, with a bit of gold shimmer paint. Most of the images were cut from Graphics 45 papers.  The words, flower head and cogs are  stamped.

Just a reminder that we have a  DESIGN TEAM   Call at TioT's. If you are interested in joining us , please enter DT  after your name on  MrLinky



Thankyou for stopping by to take a look, I realy appreciate your comments.

Beads

Challenge  60 over at Crafty Cardmakers is hosted by Jack and she would like us to use some beads. 

Our  sponsers this time are

  Di's Digi Downloads and  The Stampman [and Lady].

Both offering a super prize, so please pop over to Crafty Cardmakers for all the details and to see what  we have all been making.

I decided to use tiny seed beads on my card. The image is edged with them as are the centre petals of the flower. This wasn't as easy as I thought,  these little devils have a life of their own and much prefer to roll around everywhere  than to stick onto glue. The fashion stamp is by Crafty Individuals. Colouring is watercolours and chalk, with papers from my stash.

Thankyou for stopping by to take a look, I realy appreciate your comments.

Flutter-by

Another butterfly card,   this time I didn't reach for a stamp and used papers  from the pile I keep  to look at. I'm sure I am not the only one who does this. One of my memo's to myself  is to get them used.
 It' s the  Crowded Attic collection by Tim Holtz that I am using for this card..
The card is simply layered papers, with a few of the butterflies cut out.
I  even machined sewed the lace, adding the bow and a few  pearls.
This week  at  Gingersnap Creations   is the  Random Redhead Challenge GC 135  use your ' Favourite  Designer Paper'. now this I'm sure fits the theme.

Here's another page from my play journal.

Isn't she enjoying herself, cutting  out her paper hearts. The Stamp is by Stampotique .
The background as you can see is a mis-match of various stamps, stencils and colours.

Thankyou for stopping by to take a look, I realy appreciate your comments

Trees

Nature is the theme of this months challenges over at  Make My Monday and this week they are asking us to 'Create a Scene'.
The main image is a Sheena Douglas stamp which I shaded with watercolours. I overlayed this with a piece of acitate  which  I stamped  with bulrushes and words from Stampers Anonymous.
The Martha Stewart tree branch punch for some edging, on the variety of paper layers

Gingersnap Creations   GC134  are asking us to show some ribbon , so I shall be entering this challenge as well.

Thankyou for stopping by to take a look, I realy appreciate your comments.

Do you Believe in Fairies.

Its an Anything Goes week again at Try it on Tuesdays. So you can chose what you make,' but'
we are asking you to show us  a  ' Fairy'   on your entry.

We have some new changes happening this year at TioT's, the first is a Design Team Call.
Please pop over to TioT's for all the details and information, and also  see what my fellow teamies have made.

This is a page from  my play journal,
All the background, has  as usual  been made by blotting stamps etc , testing colours then left until I made my mind up what to add.  If I remember the blue flowers  , are from when I painted some floral die cuts for another project and the colour was to bright for what I had in mind, the paper in this book realy soaks up excess colour
The stamp is an Emerald Fairy, sittting on a daisy,  talking to her pet ladybird.
She was coloured with watercolours.

Thankyou for stopping by to take a look. I realy appreciate your comments.

 A big hello to my new followers, thankyou for coming to see what I have been making.
Last but not least, I think some of my blogger issues are getting sorted, I've altered my Comments to  pop up instead of embedded.  There are still one or two folk that I just get the blank page when I visit , still one step forward at a time.

Butterflies

Bugs and Butterflies is our next theme over at  Fashionable Stamping Challenges http://fashionablestampingchallenges.cottagecrafts.ie/ We would like you to show us these little  creatures somewhere in your project, also please remember we are  need to see your Stamping on the project.

Our regular sponser is offering s gorgeous set of stamps as a prize  My fellow team mates have some  super examples to show you, so please pop over and take a look.

My piece is a small canvas.   After layers of gesso, antique linen and victorian velvet distress inks, I stamped up the background with stamps from  Stampers Anonymous Papillion set. The butterflies also came from this set, they were  heat embossed and watercoloured.  The lace and trimmings came from my stash.

Also to my blog friends, apologies  for not calling, I am still having problems [as are many others]  I cannot access some blogs or leave comments or even see your posts.

I will also be entering this piece over at

Gingersnap Creations GS133 use a Set or line of stamps.

and Sugar Creek Hollow  Embossing.

Thankyou for stopping by I realy appreciate your comments.

Gremlins in blogland.

To my friends out there in blogland. I am having problems visiting you all . Occasionally I can leave a post, some times I cannot even get to see your blog and get a blank page.
It is giving me hope that I don't seem to be the only one experiencing this problem. I am hoping it gets back to normal soon.

Call of the wild.

Continuing the Nature theme over at Make My Monday this weeks challenge is to include  Animals  on the project..
I love stamping but  have very few animal stamps.  Then I remembered  I had a Joanna Sheen CD that hadn't seen the light of day in many a moon,  that would  help me in my search for a suitable image. As you can see, I have used  this handsome cat,  together with some backing paper, also from the CD.
Adding a few bits and pieces from my stash to finish  the card.

Thankyou for stopping by to take a look, I realy appreciate your comments.

Flower Power

The folk over at Just for Fun are taking us back in time this month. First off is a visit to the 60's and 70's.
I have  a host of memories for these decades. all good ones.
This card I made using a My craft studio CD, so it is computer generated, with a couple of flowers etc added.

Thankyou for stopping by to take a look I realy appreciate your comments.

Tag week again over at TioT's.

This weeks challenge over at Try it on Tuesdays   is to make a Tag using  a 'Resist Technique.
Pop over and see how my team mates made  their  tags.
My background  had two techniques. The small white leaves were heat embossed. Then, the blue leaves stamped out using a dauber resist technique, both methods can be found in Tim Holtz Book, The Compendium of Curiosities.
The colouring is various layers of Distress inks, with a final rub over the suface with a lightly spritzed [water] piece of kitchen roll to remove the excess colour from the leaves.
Trimmings as usual are from my stash as is the image.

Thankyou for stopping by to take a look, I realy appreciate your comments.

Bloom and Grow, for Crafty Cardmakers Challenge

My first card as a DT member for Crafty Cardmakers is for Challenge 59 hosted by Fiona  and is to use -'No Floral Embellishments.
You can use floral backing paper and flowers in the image but no actual floral embellishments.

We have two sponsers this time.
One Stop Card Crafts who are offering a £10 store voucher as a prize.
Also, Digi Doodle Shop who are offering a $10 certificate for their store.

On this card I have used an old favourite stamp by Art Journey. I just love this little lad who seems to be growing out of the flower -pot, the daisy on the  stamped border is by Joanna Sheene.
Paper layers from my stash.
All the shading was done with wild honey distress inks, and I used watercolours  on the main image.
It was hard not to add a floral embellishment and have finished the card trim with  a cord passed though a couple of eyelets.

Thankyou for stopping by to take a look, I realy appreciate your comments.

She's a Star

'Dream the impossible and reach for the stars'. 
Well everyone has a  wish or a dream , that one day we hope may come true, with heath and happiness along the way.
So has this little charmer, dressed up in her posh frock. You have to chuckle she is a' star'.
The stamps I used are Stampotique, the star being a freebie with a magazine.  The  main image   was on my wish list and arrived with my Christmas goodies.
I am unsure who to attribute the word stamp to, I've had it for ages.
Not being a tidy soul the papers etc were lurking on my  my desk .
All the shading was done with watercolours ans Victorian Velvet Distress ink.
Challenges
Stampotique Designers Challenge- Wish for the New Year
Happy Daze  blog- Try something new for the New Year

Thankyou for stopping by to take a look, I realy appreciate your comments.

Stampman 3rd Annual Awards

The Stampman 's Third Annual Award is instead of a new challenge this time is for us to go back over what we were making in 2011 and choose something that we were happy to have made.
 This is harder than you think,  I have eventually decided  on  a Steampunk hanging here is the link to the original post.

 Thankyou for stopping by to tale a look.

Amelia

Our first challenge of 2012 over at Try it on Tuesdays is to make a Card.
 It must be All Your Own Work with   'No Bought Designer Papers or Embellishments'.
Pop over and get all the details and see what my fellow teamies have made.
Our regular sponsers are once again 'One Stop Cards and Crafts.

Amelia  is a paper image that came from a friend.
The ribbon is recycled from a gift parcel.
For the rosette, I hand pleated a strip of vellum.
Adding an air dried, moulded flower, that I made  back last March at a Craft retreat. { I found  a few more , obviously  carefully put away to look at, think you all know what I mean saying that].
The background paper was made with Pink Paislee stamps.
 Clear embossed then brushed with ' green patina'  one of my new Perfect Pearls colours. .
 Words were stamped with bundled sage  Distress ink.

Challenges
The Artistic Stamper Creative team blog's   January Challenge  is Vintage.
Simon Says Stamp and Show   Something Old,  Something New

Thankyou for stopping by to take a look, I realy appreciate you calling.

January and sharing some exciting news.

This is the first  monthly swap I am sharing with a craft friend who doesn't blog. We have decided to make a  calender  'fat page book'.
This is my version  with the  January tab on the back. We are going to make the front and back pages ourselves.

Besides old well loved stamps, I used  a set of Kanban and Urban by Papermania that she sent me for Christmas.
I used distress inks for colouring, the bird cage is a Memory Box die.

Challenges entered
Make my Monday  new theme for this month is Nature and this week  its a focus on Birds
Just for Fun its Anything  goes

Now I am shouting out my news. [I have tried many times to get this posted at the top of this post] 

Just before the holidays   I was asked  by  the talented folk over at Crafty Cardmakers  to join their Design Team. You can guess  my answer was  'yes please '.  I am realy looking forward to the challenges.

Thankyou for stopping by , you know I realy appreciate your comments .

New Stash

Our first challenge of  the New Year over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges is  the  'Anything goes, using your  new stash'.  Please pop over and see what my fellow team mates have been making with their new goodies. We'd love to see what Santa brought for you.
  In my goodies for  Christmas were several new stamps and a variety of of embellishments.  The OH   listened , looked at the items on my wish list and had things pointed out to him on the internet . I can honestly say I am looking forward to using my stash over the coming weeks.

This is one of my new  stamps, she is by Kanban, coloured with watercolours and highlighted with loads of glitter.. The hat pins and corners are also  new.  All the papers I had in my box,  along with the ribbons lace etc.

Thankyou for stopping by to take a look, and a Happy New Year to you all.