Christmas Prepartions

I've just found out there are only 2 more weekends before Christmas, not 3 as I'd been thinking!!!!!! Panic time.

I am feeling slightly better though as I made my Christmas cake yesterday so that's one "to do" ticked off the list.

Please forgive the short post again today. I have a box full of photos and bits and pieces for my JYC but as yet nothing has been made into pages, I think I'm a bit behind already!!!! Guess what I shall be doing for the rest of the afternoon.


I was playing with peel offs yesterday, yes I know, not at all fashionable but I was trying different things with them and the left over bits looked just as good so this is the card I made with them, cutting round the edge and then matting and layering the design. The BP was from the Artylicious CD and Dovecraft, I think. I have a bag full of Christmas papers that are no longer in their original wrapping. Various size gems were stuck on the tree just to liven it up a bit.


I hope you are all having a great weekend and your Christmas preparations are going well.

Thanks for stopping by.

Adorable Willow

I popped onto the blog to post this tonight before I got back to crafting and thought I'd just have a little a little nosey at what everyone has been doing and an hour and a half later I still haven't posted anything, I've been so engrossed in all the lovely things out there in blogland. Oh dear. This cyberspace takes up far too much time but I love it!!!!

Right, time is precious now so I'll keep it brief. I just wanted to show you my first attempt at using my new Whiff of Joy stamp of Willow with the cookies. Colouring in isn't something I've done a lot of, well not since I was five, so it isn't up to all those expert ladies standards out there, but I am looking and taking notes so hopefully she'll improve.


I made this card for my lovely Sister In Law whose birthday it was last Friday. She's not a flowery person so I thought this would suit her. I stamped the image on a labels Nestie and coloured her with Whispers pens. The BPs were all from Artylicious CDs.

I have to be honest and say I'm not really into cute cards. I prefer flowers and swirls but these WOJ stamps have really caught my eye, they are just lovely. We also know a Willow who is growing into a very elegant young lady so these stamps also remind me of her.

Thank you as always for visiting and the wonderful comments you leave me and I hope your Monday has gone reasonably well.

Tag It On Challenge

The theme of this weeks Dragonsdream Tag It On challenge was to create a postcard. There have been weeks when the theme of this challenge has made me think about what to do for a few days, but this one had me completely stumped. Tags I understand but postcards!!!!, so I decided to have a break this week.

I was blog visiting a few days later and I saw Debbie's postcard and it was really beautiful. It also made me realise that I probably could do something worth entering, it was only like doing a big tag.

Then on Friday I started with an absolutely streaming cold. Reading everyones blogs I know I'm not on my own and along with everyone else you are so loath to go anywhere because everyone is so frightened about Swine Flu, even though YOU know you've only got a heavy cold. We were due to visit my Mum in Law for lunch yesterday but I quarantined myself and stayed behind so had several hours to myself and even though I didn't feel my best decided to have a go at this postcard.


I inked it all over with Whispers Whisper Blue and then went round the edges with chestnut brown. I used an Elusive Images french set, can't remember the name now, for the background which was inked with various whisper inks. The address was done with whispers Royal blue and then distress faded jeans to get a shadow effect. The swirls were a Heidi Grace set and the stamp of the lady was from Crafty Individuals which I enlarged slightly by scanning it in to the computer first and then printing it and adding the same colour inks before sticking it on. The swirls were coloured with colourbox ink and the flowers were from prima. Small gems made the centres.

Thankfully this afternoon I'm feeling much better and my nose has stopped running at last so I shall be able to go back into the world tomorrow, which is good because Freya has to go to school for her last day of term, one day, I ask you!!!!

Thank you for visiting and I hope you've had a lovely weekend.

In The Style Of Tim Holtz

This is the theme of the challenge over at the Simon Says challenge. I am slowly being sucked into these challenges, Oh Dear, but when Tim Holtz is involved I find it very hard to resist.

I decided on another Tag. For me these seem the easiest medium when you just want to play and this is what I came up with.

I used a technique that Tim demonstrated on his fabulous blog where by you stamp your initial image using white acrylic paint. I chose a grungy heart. You let this dry and then spritz your colour over the top. I've used Turquoise and Suede Glimmer Mists with a hint of Gold. I let this completely dry and then inked round the edges with the trusty chestnut whispers ink. When you wipe the sponge over the painted image it wipes off any colour on top revealing the image underneath.


I stamped part of a Prima build your own swirl down the side and an Artylicious Inspirations stamp for the words in black pigment ink.

Lastly I stamped the heart again on a piece of scrap card and cut it out. It seemed a bit heavy so I decided to cut the middle out too. It was then painted with the turquoise glimmer and diamond Stickles applied. I attached it with a brad for added interest.

I don't think I've quite got enough things added to it to be completely like Tim's wonderful creations, but I love the colours and when the light catches them they really shimmer, the photos don't quite do the glimmer mists justice.


This challenge was a great excuse just to mess about and see what evolved. Great fun.

Scorching Saturday

Hasn't it been HOT!!!!!! What a gorgeous day. Hope it's been as good for everyone else.

I've done absolutely nothing today apart from pottering in the garden, filling a paddling pool (again), drinking coffee with my Sister-In-Law and reading a book. What bliss.

It's now 10pm and I shall do a bit of crafting with a cool glass of wine-does that sound tempting?

I have managed to finish a few more cards with that box of glimmer misted papers I found last week, so I thought I'd share another one with you tonight.


I had sprayed the background with starburst stains and already stamped a blue fern on this one, but it didn't really work and had been left in the box so I decided to change the colour scheme and stamped other Artylicious meadow flowers in a green and then the main one in fuchsia pink. I then inked up a piece of stampboard in the same blue as the background and stamped the same flower in the pink and just placed it on top to give it another dimension. The edges of the stampboard were sanded back to make them stand out.

I stamped the main white card with the same flowers but in a paler blue ink and just added the sentiment and some blue organza ribbon.


The main stamped image has a lovely golden sheen to it when the light catches it from the starburst stains.

This was definitely a case of leaving something alone when it was not working and coming back to it with fresh eyes.

Thanks for looking and have a great Sunday.

Fairies at the Bottom of the Garden

Week 2 of the Dragonsdream Tag It On challenge is Fairies at the Bottom of the Garden. Perfect for a family that share their home with so many fairies. No, I have not lost the plot, regular readers will know what I mean.

Anyway, I had a rough idea of what I was going to do and had a lovely afternoon just playing with lots of stamps and glimmer mists and this is what evolved.


I sprayed the tag with Cherry Blossom glimmer mist and let it dry and then Key Lime Pie. It was then stamped with Artylicious meadow flower stamps using green colorbox chalk ink for the background and then brighter pigment inks for the thistles. I coloured the flowers in gently with pencils to make them stronger.

The fairy was a stamp I have had for years and years. I stamped and cut her out and coloured her in with Sakura stardust pens but then spent ages trying to get her on the tag. She just wasn't right with the stamping. In the end I decided to hide her so stamped another stalk and leaves for the thistle and popped her behind it. I think this worked in the end.

The words were printed off the computer onto more glimmer misted paper and inked. The edges of the whole tag were then inked with green & chestnut whisper ink.

These tag challenges are becoming quickly addictive. I lost about 3 hours somewhere yesterday afternoon and still haven't found them!!!!

Amazing!!!!

Freya was stood in the kitchen while I was making tea tonight singing Christmas songs and I said to her "Don't sing Christmas songs when it's not Christmas, it's bad luck" to which she replied with all the conviction of a 7 year old "I don't have bad luck Mummy" which I thought was a wonderful outlook on life and one I wish we could keep as we grow up. I have to remind myself sometimes when life gets tough how lucky we are having a lovely family and home and nothing really to complain about.

Imagine my surprise, therefore, when I logged onto Blogland tonight to find I had actually won some Blog candy from the lovely Sally. What amazing Good Luck. I couldn't believe it. At first I thought, it can't mean me I never win anything, but after checking, there were no other Lisas anywhere so I decided it must mean me and I haven't stopped smiling since. It's totally amazing and I am so chuffed-Thank you so much Sally.

Well after all that excitement I had better show you some crafting, I haven't posted any for ages getting caught up with other things.

I treated myself to a new set of beautiful stamps from Stamptivity the other week (so much for the promise not to buy anything else this year and use what I already have!!) Unfortunately, they were just unresistable, especially when you have a daughter who totally loves fairies.

I made a background paper by painting Cosmic Shimmer paints thinly in long stripes and then stamped with black pigment ink to get some depth. I cut each stamped image out and matted it on glitter card and then black paper and stamped the wording on the left over painted background paper. It was stuck on with foam squares to give a different height.

The main card was stamped with Artylicious wildflower stamps in blues and mauves and then overstamped with black to make a lovely soft background.

I made all three cards in the same way using 3 different stamps but just varied the background card and glitter card slightly. I have to say I like all the stamps but the dandelion lady is my favourite. I think you'll be seeing much more of her!!

Have a lovely Bank Holiday Weekend.

Peacocks Galore

Hi there

Thanks for all your lovely comments-the decorating is going well, but STILL not finished. As I've said before we are not fast workers in this house. At the moment we are all high on paint fumes, but at least the weather has kept fine, if a bit breezy so the windows and doors are all open and the smell is slowly disappearing. Maybe by the weekend the new wallpaper will be on!!

I've managed a bit of crafting before falling into bed at night. Both these cards have been made using the Artylicious Peacock Party CD.

I printed the feather toppers onto card and then painted over them with H20's to give them a shimmer.

The black card was mounted onto gold mirricard and a backing paper from the CD and I finished off with black peel off corners and gold organza ribbon.

The pale card used backing paper from another Artylicious CD-I think it was Filligree Fusion- it was one I printed awhile ago and was sitting in my craft box- and green organza ribbon.

I am a lazy crafter and make cards without greetings most times so that they can be used for any occasion and added last minute when I decide to send them.

Well I'm going back to pondering over a layout I'm doing of the spring flowers. It's one of those that is just not working at the moment. Hopefully I'll get it sorted out soon so that I can Blog it!!

Worn Out

I think it must be something about spring being in the air, but we have decided to go mad and start some much delayed decorating, which entails scrapping off wallpaper that has been painted over at least 3 times-Nightmare!!!

I spent the morning helping out at Freya's school, my usual Wednesday stint but then have being scraping all afternoon and am now far too tired to even think about crafting.

I did make some more tags though a few weeks ago so I thought I would share one of those.

I inked the background for this one with Dusty Concord distress ink, using a very coarse foam, then went over a glimmer screen with Peeled Paint. The background text was stamped with a redder purple, not sure what colour now, but the edges were more Dusty Concord using Heidi Grace flourish stamps as was the main text using the Artylicious Inspirations stamps.

I triple embossed the chipboard swirl with cosmic shimmer Tropic Moss Blaze embossing powder which has a fantastic depth to it giving a verdigris effect.

Well it's a cup of coffee and an early night for me ready for an early start in the morning!

Tim Holtz Inspired

The weather has been lovely here for the last couple of days and today has been a Training Day so we have spent the whole day outside having a wonderful time. My daughter Freya, has been planting seeds and generally having a good time playing, and I have been trying to knock the garden into shape after the winter. I also managed to take some photos of the beautiful spring flowers. The daffodils are just beginning and we have a bit of blossom opening.

I have managed some crafting tonight and have been playing with tags. I discovered Tim Holtz's wonderful blog from a link from Glenda Waterworth at Christmas when he was doing his 12 Tags of Christmas project.

I have lots of inks and screens and stamps and have never used them properly and here was a way of trying out all sorts of things in a small way, perfect.



This was my first attempt.

The background was inked with a pale blue ink and then a small Tattered Angels glimmer screen was placed over and a green ink pad was wiped over the top with a Crafty Notions yellow ink sprayed over the top of that to build up some layers. The screen was removed and the text from the Artylicious Inspirations themeplate was stamped on in the same dark green ink and finally the border and corners were stamped in Brilliance Mediterranean Blue.

The dragonfly (Aspects of Design from The Stampman) was stamped in the same blue, cut out and coloured with an ink pad and coloured in with Sakura Starburst pens. Finally, green craft wire was curled and attached and then the whole thing was stuck on just by the body to give a 3d effect.

I had a lovely play, got thoroughly messy and ended up with something completely out of my usual style. It may not be quite up to Tim Holtz's standard but I shall hopefully use it on a scrapbook page in the future so that it doesn't just get put in a drawer and forgotten.

CUTTLEBUGGING

Well I think I'm slowly getting the hang of this blogging lark. I'm learning something new everyday about how to do things and there is some great help out there from other bloggers.

It's also really exciting to find people are actually reading my posts. I feel I have officially joined the blogging community now.

What with all this time spent on the computer my crafting has suffered lately. I have started some new scrapbook layouts but have nothing finished to include today so I thought I would show you the card I made for my lovely husband for Valentine's Day.





I was given a Cuttlebug for Christmas and just love it, there is so much you can do with it, I have barely scratched the surface yet but one of things I enjoy doing is embossing and then gently wiping an ink pad over to highlight the embossing, which is what I did with one of these hearts. The other was embossed gold mirricard, both using the D'vine Swirl embossing folder.

I stamped & gold embossed the white band with my favourite Heidi Grace stamps and this was matted with more gold mirricard. I then stamped around the edge of the card with a chestnut Whispers ink pad which gives a lovely soft image. The same ink was then wiped around the edges to blend everything together. The greeting was stamped from the Artylicious sentiments theme plate.

I was pleased with how it turned out and more importantly my Hubby thought it was lovely, which at the end of the day was all that mattered.

By changing the sentiments I think it would make a nice Wedding or Anniversary card.