Quick & Colourful plus a Little Adventure

Just a quick post today - no bells and whistles, showing a card I made whilst the web was down temporarily this morning (something to do with BT Broadband)

I sponged two colours of Distress Ink onto watercolour paper, Picked Raspberry (which I always read as Pickled Raspberry) and Salty Ocean. I used a stitched Lil Inkers Die to cut it out. I then used another die to cut out the sentiment in yellow card. I backed it all onto a glittery green base and stuck the whole lot onto red card.

Oh, I almost forgot. Though I'm not posting about it as regularly, I'm still incorporating Adventure into my life and yesterday I attended something for the first time which Nick had arranged. It's an adventure I would never dream of doing - Go Karting! At an indoor centre in Manchester called Karting 2000.

(Not a photo we took. It's from their website)

Up front I'll say I'm happy to have tried it once but it really, REALLY wasn't my thing. Nick had a great time, which makes me more than happy enough to have attended. But I am not the most ambitious person when it comes to speed. I even have little old ladies overtake me on the motorway.

For 15-20 minutes, I stayed in the left hand side, pootling along at the slowest speed possible, cringing whenever I hit a tight bend. Everyone else happily squealed their tyres, threw themselves round the course and overtook me, many, many times. Oh and the noise! Those karts don't half make a racket. I was relieved when the chequered flag was waved to indicate the end. I am so glad there weren't any photos taken of me in shabby overalls, complete with a hair net and racing helmet, gagging on the taste of petrol that seemed to be permanently in my mouth.

If I hadn't come across exactly as a petrol-head to Nick before, then I think it sunk in afterwards. Boxing, I can do. Boys' toys, I don't. My normally pristine palms, had blisters. I was in danger of developing callouses!!! I couldn't wait to go home, run a bath, add lots of smelly salts and wash any evidence away that I had been near oil and grease.

Today, inking up a card in bright colours, I feel more at home.

Colour Q #242

Hello Sweet Friends

I'm sat here tidying up my digital files on the computer listening to the rather marvellous music of Sohn. It's taking me back to my more youthful days. He's a musician  signed to the 4AD record label, who used to have my favourite artists on their books, the most well known being Cocteau Twins. So I'm drifting away here on a sea of experimental sounds.

Anyway, that aside, I actually pulled some of my paper stash out and made a card. It's for the Colour Q challenge. I haven't joined in with them for a while but when I saw what was lined up - I immediately wanted to see what I could do with these happy hues

I think this is fast becoming one of my favourite palettes. The combo is fabulous. Not sure I gave it full justice but this is what I came up with

And yes your eyes aren't deceiving you, I've used a glittery card too. I'm not sure without looking back through the whole of my blog but I think it's the first time I've ever made a project with glittery card.

Now you may find it goes a bit quiet on my blog throughout June. I'm going to be busy carrying out a few upcoming work projects with deadlines and for a few days, I'll be travelling as well. I'll not have time to make anything to share on here. But rest assured, all is fine. I'm dabbling in digital scrapbooking and making project life style pages as a creative outlet as this is easier to pick up and drop in short bursts. Hopefully, when I return to blogging, I'll have a few to share.

Colour Q Challenge

Hello There Sweet Friends

I haven't joined in a creative challenge for some time now. I'm happy just making stuff as and when the urge arises these days. However, I was tempted to have a go at this week's Colour Q challenge.

And here's the card I came up with

I used the same flower die, the Memory Box Whimsy Circle, which I used in my previous post except this time, I filled in all the spaces. It meant cutting into three different colours of card and selecting the pieces from each to create a whole flower as above. So I have extras left over to use another day. The addition of a button not only finishes the design off, but adds the pink colour from the scheme.

Trying out Embossing Paste

I treated myself to a couple of pots of Wendy Vecchi's Embossing paste the other day. It was good fun to play around with and I lost all sense of time. However, as lovely as the results are, it took a few trials and several errors before I began to have success. The white paste was pretty easy to master. The translucent one took a bit longer. There's a fine line between spreading on a layer which is too thick or too thin.

And given that there's a fairly long drying time, I didn't know if my technique had improved until several hours later. However, I stuck with it and came away with a couple of samples which I used in making cards.

Not easy to photograph either as the light here was quite dull but I think you can see the gist of the effect you have.

I shall continue to play with the pastes and dig out some more stencils. I'm determined to master it. If only it wasn't so darned messy.

Washi Tape Play

Finally I understand the lure of Washi tape. I admit I didn't see what the fuss was about when it started filtering through to the craft community. However, I'm now hooked. I've ordered a collection of rainbow coloured tapes but they haven't arrived yet. I do have my stash of black and white tapes though.

I saw a few examples of Washi tape which mitred the corners and I fancied trying it out. Not as easy as it looks. I cut a piece of plastic with a mitred edge and stuck my washi tape pieces onto it, so that I could accurately trim of the corners. Being plastic, it was easy to peel the washi tape away, once I had cut to shape.

Sticking the tape down onto the card was the trickiest part as it has a tendency to curl back on itself, making accurate piecing difficult. With patience and a few hits and misses, I finally stuck it all down.