Finished cards...

Here are the finished cards I was working on earlier in the week. The boots come from a serif digikit which I re-sized in Craft Artist 2. The first one came out way too big (!) so I used that for a friend's birthday coming up later in the year and reprinted for the commission 21st card.

The shoe stamp is from Stamps by Chloe and the papers were from Craftwork cards - I only had just enough!! The brief was for a very fashionable 90 year old who likes her bling and was known for her heels -  it's a bit bright for me but it was fun to make.

Not feeling very focussed on crafting lately and have been pottering finishing off old WIPs and re-organising my space as I took delivery of a new printer at the weekend. I feel sad to let my last one go as it started behaving immediately I gave in and bought a new one. There wasn't much wrong with it except unreliable colour printing (Look at the two boot cards!!), hopeless and very irritating when I'm trying to do digital crafting - a print head problem I think and it's not worth the cost to fix it.  It did seem to use a lot of ink though so I hope this new one will be better.

Right it's a lovely day so going to take mum out for a walk in the park. Time we both got out and blew away the cobwebs I think. Have a good monday.

What's on Your workdesk Wednesday # 177

It's Wednesday again, and time for our weekly deskhop courtesy of our illustrious leader the lovely Julia of Stamping Ground. Pop on over there to find out all about it and join in!!I've been playing and the main desk is just a pile of bits and bobs but as I have actually been being productive I thought this week I'd show you my other two desk areas (one of which is cunningly disguised as a chair)

So voila some cards. Had my dylusions inks out to make some backgrounds though most of these I think are from the papers I put in my spray box when I'm having a bit of a spritz. Wanted a few simple but 'arty farty' cards for my Macmillan coffee morning (eek, it's next week!!), makes a change from teddy bears and flowers.

Kept them quite simple, but the backgrounds are quite lush. mmmmmm
 
And also been making tags, again playing with the dylusions and those Lynn Perella stamps.

Not sure where these are going but it's good to play!

So that's it for this week, I am home this Wednesday so should make my rounds in good time. Thank you to my new followers - I have noticed and will be round to visit those with blogs as well.

Happy WOYWW everyone!!

 

21 again........ Corse not (!)

I suppose it's to be expected being as my own daughter is 21 later this year but I have had to make so many 21st birthday cards this year it's getting boring!!!! 

Here's one I made for a close friend of the family.

Sorry the photo looks fuzzy but it's just the shadow. As I often say, my photography skills aren't up to much.

Anyhow must say the inspiration for this card from my buddy Trudy who has made some similar ones (hope you don't mind Trudy!!). I have that lovely memory box corner die and thought it was such a great way to use it with the TH mannequin that I just had to try it myself.

Here are a couple made with scraps and Kanban Toppers.

Oh and here's another one I did a while ago for a friend. Err....... do you think I'm getting stuck in a rut??

Anyway, must get on, only got another 3 21st cards in the pipeline.........

Mother's Day Card (No1 !!)

Well I'm not sure if  this is going to my mum or not as it may go to a commission unless they decide they don't like it. My mum would love it but I am not entirely happy with it. It's a hybrid effort with some digital elements, stamping, decoupage, promarker colouring, nesties and embellies. It sure took long enough for me not to be pleased with it. Just looks a bit unbalanced. Since I took the photo I added a little cross charm under the bow (a cross was in the brief) and I'm a little happier with it (Just can't stop fiddling that's why everything takes me so long).

I took an A4 card and cut it down a bit as I actually find A4 cards a bit too big - we need another size between A5 and A4 I think!!

Part of the commission was for 'lots of words' (you know what mums are like LOL) and so I tried to do a fancy fold up thing in the middle with a sheet of A3 and added my verses but for some reason I couldn't get the colour of the text to change which was a little annoying but it looks OK.  (Please don't laugh at my excruciating verse). Unfortunately I hadn't anticipated that a sheet of A3 folded in half and then in half again is basically A5 sized - so it doesn't cover the whole of the  card. But I'd already done the front so I wasn't going to change it!! Aaah, forward planning.........

And then, because I cut down the A4 card I had to make a box because I didn't have an envelope. I used the green hougie board rather than the enveloboxer thingy that is staring at me because I really have not worked out to use it yet. Of course, I hadn't thought about using a sensible measurement when I cut the A4 card so that was easy (NOT). LOL, I have all the 'stuff' if only I had an ounce of common sense sometimes I would make my life easier.


So it may be for my mum or someone else's mum, I'll find out tomorrow. Would save me a job if they decide to buy their own as I haven't even started on MDC No 2 yet. But there's always Saturday.....

Finally a little plug.... for the March Art Draw. There have been very few entries so far this month so if you've read this far and you haven't entered why not go to the relevant post here and leave your name. You don't even have to say anything much (although that would be nice!!).

I am pleased to announce.............

that I have been asked to join the design team over at Try It On Tuesday. This very friendly challenge blog is having a makeover with additional DT members and a re-vamp of the way the challenges are run, so why not pop over and find out what is happenning?

This is my first design team project for TIOT and I decided to make a card based around some of my favourite things - in this case, Family, Flowers and Flutterbies!!



The card is destined for my dear sister whose birthday is this week (in fact we were out yesterday having a glass or two of bubbly to celebrate).

The butterflies were made using fusible film and angelina fibres ironed on to a Clarity butterfly stamp. It gives a lovely iridescent effect  and looks great layered up.

I used an edging punch for the lace, nesties for the centrepiece and the spiral flowers were die cut from vellum which gives a lovely delicate effect - although you do have to wait a little longer than normal for the glue to 'grab' hold.

I am really excited about becoming 'part of the team' and seeing what everyone creates for the challenges. So pop on over and take a look!!

What's on Your Workdesk? Wednesday # 140

So, just exactly where was I working?
And how many pairs of scissors
does one girl need?

Oh dear.

What a mess!!

ALL my desks were fine and dandy until I got a call to make an emergency card. I recently did a commission for a 'shoe' card (here).

Great idea, use the guillotine as a
storage shelf. Ah, another pair of
 scissors. You can never have too
 many pairs of scissors.

Someone else saw it and asked if I could make another one - first catch, it needed to be there for Thursday, so meant making and posting out on the same day.

Second catch - it was for a guy!!

I'm saying nothing.

Good job I've got another one
(guillotine I mean)

But this is what happens when I'm in a rush and my crazy takes over. So this is my workdesk this Wednesday. The thing I was working on before I got the call is buried. It will stay like this until Friday now, think I'll just shut the door.....

Why am I telling you this? Well, it's all down to Julia of Stamping Ground who hosts this weekly blog hop known as WOYWW. Hop over first to Julia's to read what's what and find out how to join in.  
Oh, here's the card:- 

Do you think he'll like it LOL? (I actually like it better than the original. And it took me half as long to make. Perhaps I do work better under pressure. Or to unusual briefs.(!?!))

P.S. February Art Draw is open.
Have you entered? If not, why not?
Go on, you know you want to!!HAPPY WOYWW.


Just a few piccies...

to prove I haven't gone into hibernation again. The Christmas cards are continuing apace, but I am a bit loathe to put too many up - you never know who's looking!! Anyhow here's a tealight card I tried out, another tutorial from Stampartic. Very simple and a nice little gift. It would also be nice a bit smaller with just 4 tealights I think.

And a birthday card for friend, who isn't particularly girly so I have kept it simple and subtle. If you are not familiar with this stamping technique, it is achieved by covering a peice of black cardstock with versamark and brushing over with mica powders. You then stamp your chosen image with versamark which lifts off the mica. I usually just seal with a light dusting of hairspray. It is quite nice to quarter or cut the image up and mount on to black card to give a tile effect but I had cut the card to such a weird size I couldn't do the maths so I left it as it was. It will do.


Finally an emergency wedding card I had to make last weekend (why am I always so disorganised lol?).

Had completely forgotten (to make the card, not to go to the wedding) so used my Craft Artist programme to do the background and personalise it so it looked like there was a bit of effort made and here is my first hybrid card. Again, I don't suppose it will stand out in the crowd but at least it was a one off. Bye for now!!

 (If you haven't already done so don't forget to join in with my November art giveaway - details in the side bar)