MFT Bold Blooms (Foliage)

Do you ever make a card that you love so much that you almost can't bear to send?

This was one of them and yet it took just a few minutes to make.

Sometimes I can sit for hours and can't make a card for love or money. The ol' mojo does a runner or what I make just doesn't feel right. Those that I pontificate over or stress about for days are the ones that either end up in the bin or push me to the point of selling EVERYTHING (again!)...lol.

I love the simplicity of this card. 'Foliagey' cards just make me happy.

I'm weird...I know.

I used one of the leafy stamps from MFT's 'Bold Blooms' and loosely stamped the coloured section. I wasn't worried about stamping it perfectly...I wanted the colour to go over the outlines in a relaxed style.

I personalised it using Memory Box's Classic alphabet die set and added a heap of sequins from Neat & Tangled (Ocean Waves).

I love these leaves..., they'd be great in autumnal colours. Hmmmmm....might try them on Christmas cards, coloured with glitter. 

Have a groovy weekend X

Alcohol Inks and Clingfilm

Coooooeeeey!

Welcome back to Alcohol-Inks-Anonymous.

Today's creation was made with a piece of 110sm Yupo cut down to about 4"x4".

I used the lighter weight, cheaper Yupo as I was going to be moving the inks myself.

Now for some reason my camera has completely changed the colours of the inks in the photo above. I slooshed blending solution across my Yupo and then added streaks of Raspberry (which bizarrely photographed as red!!??), Purple Twilight, Snow Cap & Silver.

I then covered the Yupo with clingfilm, scrunched it up and set it aside for 24hrs. 

After 24hrs, I carefully peeled away the clingfilm and set it aside again fo finish drying. What you're left with is a crackled look, which if you do with blues can look like ice or with greens, like foliage. It's such a beautiful effect.

To finish I used MFT's Inside & Out Stitched Square Stax and a landscape die from Memory box. The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted.

A Confession...

Howdy Doody folks!

I've 4 million(ish) Christmas cards still to squeeeeeeze in before the big day but first a confession.

Cough! 

I bought...yes you read that right! I bought a pack of Christmas cards.

Cough!

There! Said it! It's out in the open....no more secrets. 

I had wayyyyyy too many to make this year, I panicked and in a moment of weakness I succumbed to a pack of supermarket cards.

(Hangs head in shame & slinks back to the naughty step)

MFT 'Dashing By' stamp

Memory Box 'Merry Christmas' die

Distress Ink smooshing

Waves

 

Coooooey!

My card today was made using a stencil from Memory Box ‘Texture Wave’ and stamping through the gaps with a variety of clear peg stamps from Cardios’ Majestix range using Versacolor ink pads….Simples!

Can’t stop…things to do, places to be.
Have a groovy weekend!

Green Spots

 

Hey Peeps!
I hope, if you’re in Blighty, that you’re enjoying the long Bank Holiday weekend.

 

For my card today I used a stencil from The Crafter’s Workshop ‘ Mini Circle Explosion’, to draw the circles.

Next I coloured some of the circles with a lush, lime green Sharpie & glazed them with 3-D gloss & mounted it to my card base.

Then I added a frame & 2 Memory Box ‘Chloe Stem’ flower dies.

Sentiment sticker is about a million years old (give or take…).

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Punching n’ Die-ing

 

Greetings peeps.
The weekend’s here…Yay!

Here’s a card made up entirely of die-cutting & punching (no one was harmed in the making of this card)….oh….and a wee stamped sentiment.

So not ENTIRELY made up of die-cutting & punching, but you get the picture.

Fav’ daughter has finally confirmed her university choice for September this year, so this weekend I will be starting a string of training sessions on ‘How to Survive Living Away from Your Parental Slaves’ (Catchy title Huh!)

Lesson 1 will be an introduction to furniture polish & that yellow rag we call ‘Duster’.
Have a great weekend all.

Letters & Fence dies – Memory Box
Grass & Sentiment – Clearly Besotted
Butterflies – Ancient X-Cut punch

Grrrrrr Moments

 

This card, made for my fabulous son, should have been dead easy to make but I was having ‘one of those’ days.

I dusted off the ol’ Promarkers to create a background & coordinating honeycomb embellishments, using dies from Clearly Besotted

I used a set of Memory Box alphabet dies to cut out my sons name.
This is when it all went downhill.

I stamped ‘Happy Birthday’ underneath his name & the ink smudged, so I re-stamped onto a scrap of card & stuck that on top….that looked rubbish.
Started again, only this time the ‘L’ die slipped in my Cuttlebug and his name came out all wonky.
The third attempt came out straight so I stamped the sentiment above his name & the same damned thing happened…ink smudged…Grrrr. Stamped again on a scrap & thankfully the position looked better this time.

Finally it was time to slip the background behind his name & stick on the honeycomb embellishments, except 1 of the 5 had suddenly disappeared. Mr C & I looked absolutely everywhere only to eventually find it stuck to the back of my arm!!
This card WAS made with huge amounts of love for my son (with a whole heap of ‘Grrrrrr’ moments thrown in).

Happy Birthday Oliver….love yer!!

 

Groovy Greens

 

Wotcha!
Here’s another card using Brushos & stencils.
Like the Muppet that I am, I forgot to photograph the Brusho colours that I used but I think it may have been Leaf & Sea Green.

Using acrylic paper, I spritzed a few drops of water, sprinkled on my Brushos & puffed the colours around using my Tim Holtz puffing gadget to create my background.
I then puffed a co-coordinating green Promarker pen around the edges (again, sorry can’t remember the colour…Doh!)

The next step (my fav’) was to use embossing paste with a stencil (Memory Box - Garden Fronds). I scribbled the same green Promarker pen as before on to my craft sheet & then added a small dollop of paste on top, mixed it together with a pallet knife & created 1 green frond. I sprinkled some glitter on too. When that was dry I repeated the process but this time just using the paste (which is white).

When it was all dry I glazed the green frond with clear gloss, for no reason, other than I like experimenting

To finish I outlined the card to frame it and I’ll add a sentiment at a late date.
Now, I’m off to write a blog post about Streptocarpus (like you do…lol).

 

 

Happy New Year!

 

Happy New Year everybody & welcome 2015.

Here’s another card using Brusho paints.

You can see from above the colours I used & the MINIMAL amount of paint ‘sprinkles’ needed to create the background. The powder is sprinkled onto dry card (I used satin silk art card this time).

Spritz with water. If you get any large water drops (see top edges of blue) then you can simply dab with tissue or paper towel just to suck up the excess water. Leave to dry naturally. I then spray with cheap hairspray to a) stop the colour coming off on your fingers & b) to re-intensify the colours).

I then cut out the portion I liked, added a Memory Box flowery border below & mounted onto my card. 3 gems…job done.
Ta-Da!

Puffing Sharpies

 

Ahoy!
I hope you’ve all had a fabulous Christmas & that Santa was kind.

My crafting experiments continue. The bin beside my little workstation is overflowing with disasters but I am, thankfully, having some success.

My card today was made using the Mini Aspen Trees template from Crafters Workshop & ‘puffing’ black & silver Sharpies pens with my Tim Holtz marker spritzer tool.
The white foliage is a Memory Box die, ‘Gentle leaf’, & the flowers are from one of the Papermania Capsule collections.

Enjoy your New Year celebrations.
See you next year.

Happy Birthday Mr C

Wotcha Everyone!
I hope you’re all having a great week…it seems to be flying by & the weekend’s almost here again. Woop! Woop!
A fabulous day gardening today with a client who shares my passion for all things flowery n’ ‘foliagey’…lol.
So far no storms, torrential rain or snakes…phew!
Twas Mr C’s birthday yesterday & this is the card I made for him. Alas the photo has made it look black when in fact it’s a rich chocklity brown. I’ve used a cute stamp from LOTV, coloured with Polychromos & 2 Memory Box dies for the branch & landscape background.
It’s official…I LURV Polychromos!!
Enjoy the rest of your week.
XXX

Scaredy Crows

The Doc (AKA Doctor Digi’s House of Stamps) has a couple of new image releases this week in the theme of The Wizard of Oz.
There’s Tin Man

and Scarecrow


and here’s my Scarecrow creation.

He’s temporarily left the Yellow Brick Road to scare off some pesky crows.
There’s a whole heap of awesomeness over at Doctor Digi’s plus a freebie, Grumpy Monkey…but don’t take my word for it…tootle over & check out the goods, you won’t be disappointed!

Hosepipe Ban

It was about this time last year that news reporters started looking at the state of our water supply here in Blighty, with dried up rivers & depleted reservoirs. Within 2 months we were plunged into a nationwide hosepipe ban.
Cue 365 days worth of ‘ocean-filling’ rain fall.
Gardening Gus from Doctor Digi's House of Stamps can put that dodgy hosepipe back in the shed and while you’re there you might want to dig out your rainmac.

Gawn Fishing

Angling Andy sure has got a whopper and the 'smuggiest' of smug looks to boot.

No sign of a fishing rod though...hmmmm....me thinks he's cheated with a trip to the fishmongers.

Kids won't remember Fishmongers, Butchers or Bakers...they were from the black n' white days.

Hope you all have a good weekend.

 

Stamp - Angling Andy - Dr Digi's House of Stamps

Papers - Papermania Birdsong collection

Memory Box Tree & Fence dies

Promarkers, Craftwork Cards sentiment

Jaffa Snorting

Greetings Fellow Bloggers!

I hope you all had a good weekend. I spent mine flitting between my nurses outfit & my crafters hat...and before you start thinking I've gone all kinky dressing up, my Sof's not at all well at the moment, the doc's not sure if it's a type of flu or some kinda weird virus but it's been going on for almost 2 weeks and now my Oliver's got a hacking cough so our living-room looks like the ER (minus George Clooney). When the brows had been mopped & their every need tended to I found some time to make some Christmas cards for Mr C.

On Saturday night Mr C suggested the kids had an early night and that we go to bed with a cuppa & a jaffa and watch TV. I thought maybe a romantic film, a bit o' slush before.......?

Well I found him laying there watching a gory horror film!! I don't 'do' horror films, my overactive imagination goes into mega-over-drive & I end up having nightmares, so I went & grabbed some images I'd printed off & my pens & thought I'd colour to distract myself from the hideous film.

Warning!

Do not eat Jaffa cakes in bed if the film on TV involves eyeballs & metal rods or hands & nails (of the joinery kind). Somehow I managed to choke on said Jaffa, some got snorted back up my internal nasal pipework & the rest got splattered over the duvet. Several slaps on the back later the jaffa was dislodged from my throat, the remainder I had to blow out through my nose into tissues.

Who says romance is dead?

Remember kids, don't try this at home, I do these experiments so you don't have to!

 

CAS cards using Memory Box dies

Oh Baubles!

Darn! Silver card just doesn't like the camera lens...so I want you to don a pair of your sparkliest Dame Edna glasses, squint and imagine just how shimmery n' shiny these cards really are.

Mr C has requested 35, yes 35 CAS cards!

Thank goodness for the invention of the die-cutting machine, dies, adhesive gems and vino.

So I know you're all waiting for verse 2 of our countdown to Christmas, here goes...

A few Tra-lala's to moisten those tonsils and this time sung to the tune of Jingle Bells...

 

"Memory Box, Cheery Lynn

Hoo-rah have saved the dayyyy.

A dab of glue and some stick-on gems

and a glass of wine way-hey!"

Brrrrr......

Blimey it's so cold tonight I've switched on the heating, much to the annoyance of Mr C who thinks December is when it should go on!

Mind you, he's walking round in a body warmer & jumper rubbing his hands together with 'dragons breath' as he moans at me.

In celebration of the heating being switched on, here's a card reminding us all exactly what summer should have been like this year...flip-flops, shorts & lollies.

Have a groovy weekend everyone.

xx

 

Stamp - Summer Boy - Mo's Digital Pencil

Promarkers, Memory Box Arboscello Tree die

Craftwork Cards sentiment

T-Minus 106 Days Until Christmas

With Christmas a mere 106 days away, panic-stations have set in and the race is on to get all my cards made in time.

The supermarkets are stacked floor to ceiling with tins of sweets, on offer as always at half price, although funny you never see them at full price (Cynical? Moi? Never!). One shop I went into at the very end of August already had several piles of crackers on display and I believe Christmas cards are already adorning the shop aisles, but seeing as I make all my own I wouldn't know what said aisle looks like.

I've had an order for 30 CAS cards so I've made a few of the one above to start. Not a Promarker in sight...I know...Insane!

With the temperature outside today hovering around 28C, it's nice to be indoors making chilly cards.

Have a groovy week everyone, stay happy n' safe!

 

Memory Box Arboscello Tree die

Navy & White cardstock, oodles of silver giltter.