Monday 7 October 2013

World Card Making Day - 5 Oct 2013 - Happy Birthday

The 5th October 2013 was World Card Making day, and also my eldest daughter's birthday.

This is her card:

She is looking for a job - we believe she may have secured a temp  office job for the next 6 months, but is continuing to apply for graduate schemes, hopefully for next Summer/Autumn.  The sentiment used is optimistically appropriate - believe... you can do it.

My card is made from SU Secret Garden and Feel Goods.  Both stamped in versamark and embossed in pool party on black card.  The flowers look stunning in real life embossed on dark card.

Saturday 29 June 2013

LIM - Sand

Today at LIM. The challenge is sand. By coincidence I've been playing with one layer cards and sahara sand (such a lovely neutral colour), trying to replicate the effect of distressed ribbons!

I've been away for a while, been having trips between Hampshire and Scotland, whilst my father was ill.  My father was a retired clergyman, but before then he was a biologist, and had an interest in natural history.  My parents had 9 free range hens, plus one cockerel who was on loan (and my father was hoping to have some chicks this summer to add to the menagerie).  I was lucky to be with him a lot over his last couple of weeks and with support of Marie Curie nurses and family he was able to die at home looking at over his garden (and watching his hens).

This was the Father's day card I made and took on my last trip.  He was special - love you Dad xx


The lace was from chocolate baroque, the sentiment was from Stamping all day, the hen was from Craft Stamper as a free stamp and I also used the ink drops and text from SU french foilage.  The lace was in sahara sand, and lightly sponged in the same colour. The ribbon effect was straw and sage distress ink which I sponged over and used my spritzer to add splashes of colour. The inks are an assortment of SU sahara sand, espresso, suede, crumb cake and coral.  


Whilst I was away in Scotland, I had the use of a cottage loaned by a friend of my mum's and this is the card I made for her.  This photo is not great (but I was in a rush to get it into today's post).  The stamps are the Chocolate Baroque lace, Thank you from SU Curly Cute, and the dragon flies are from Papermania, and were a group, which I cut up and separated as they are more useful this way. This background was a more minimalist version of the above (I'd just sponged the inks, and spritzed with water and coral ink). I like the way misting with water, makes some of the colour pop and leaves interesting water marks on the background.

Tuesday 19 February 2013

Swallowtail

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This week LIM:107 Up in the air and after a number of challenges, the effort is not to repeat yourself, and as I've made and posted on here a number of kite themed cards, I thought I should try something new.

Not the best photo, but you can see the embossed image reflecting in the light.

Sunday 10 February 2013

LIM:106 - one layer music

LIM one layer - Music, funnily enough my entry for a recent challenge fitted this brief.  Which left me thinking of new ideas.  I normally like one layer challenges, but today it took time to get there.

Firstly:


This seemed a little boring.  Coffee always aids the concentration/thinking.  So I did another attempt at the same sort of idea, but this time I also added more music and some linen thread and a chiffon bow.  I love the way the ribbon sparkles.  

Trying to give the effect of torn aged paper - by brayering in SU crumb cake, sahara sand and a touch of peach parfait, and then I sponged the edges to give more definition.   The stamps used are Penny Black - music background and the sentiment is from SU Inspired by Nature.  Passion can be a reference to a type of music used in Church during holy week, so the sentiment seemed apt.



Next weekend I'm off to Scotland for a few days to visit my parents - hopefully it won't snow.  Its a bit of a trek - takes around 8 hours to drive - I must be mad!

Tuesday 5 February 2013

Happy Birthday (kraft style)

Well, twice in one week... having found neutral cardstock, and needing other cards, I had a bit more of a play.



This was a quick and easy card to make.

I've used couple of die cut flowers using Memory Box Chloe die, some glitter and a neutral ribbon.  The little flower next to the Birthday sentiment is masked from SU pocket silhouettes and was aiming to match the shape of the die. This card uses lots of texture - the background of the nestie is in a Japanese linen texture card - all looks so much more interesting in real life.  

Entering into:
Creative Moments Use Neutral colours and
Less Is More  - Kraft and Kreme

Sunday 3 February 2013

LIM- Kraft & Kreme

Happy 2nd Birthday, Less is More.  

Less is more has been providing inspiration and challenges for two years. Today the challenge is Kraft & Kreme.



This is the SU medallion stamped in versamark and embossed in SU white embossing powder, which on Kraft card is a lovely creamy colour. The medallion is a large stamp, so I normally use an off the page technique (especially with this size card - 5" x 5"). I've cut a corner of the medallion and mounted it on a Fleur de Lis nestie. As its only two colours, I've added some texture by running my image through an embossing folder, and adding a sheer ribbon.

This weekend its been nice to have both daughters at home.

Sunday 27 January 2013

LIM: week 104 - Sketch and cogs

For Christmas I had my craft room stocked, many thanks to my other half. Some dies and a superb large pack of Core'dinations Sugar and Spice - for those of you who've not seen this, it is card which you can sand to reveal a different colour core.

On Friday it was my nephew's birthday - Happy Birthday Wil. I have been playing with embossing on Core'dinations card, sanding it and spraying it with Radiant Shimmer (to give the slightly metallic grunge effect), in order to make a suitable card for him. This is something I made with the left overs (because offcuts of card, can never go to waste, can they?) which is made to loosely fit with the LIM Sketch.




The cogs are the X-cut cogs, and are fun - I've cut them out in two coordinating colours and swapped the centres.  I've had real trouble extracting the card from them when using card, but they work a treat with this funky foam - which I bought years ago in a multitude of different colours when I was a Brownie Guider and my daughters were small enough to enjoy cutting and sticking.

LIM: 104 - Sketch

Its been a long time since I played along with the Less is More challenges.  We all had coughs and colds over the Christmas holidays, and then it was back to work with vengeance (a big project to complete and annual reviews - both of which are completed, yay).  This weekend, my PC has been rebuilt as windows 8, so while it installed, I've been playing.

Less is More: week 104  Sketch - uses a layout which is the kind of thing I like. For Christmas my other half helped stock up my craft supplies with Core D'ination card, and some dies - so I've been playing with layers, texture, cogs.  So for a change I thought I'd go really simple with a one layer card.



The strip of colour is using torn paper to mask an edge, which has been sponged in Broken China DI, SU Baja breeze and pool party.  The music is a Penny Black background stamp, stamped on SU Baja breeze and Island Indigo.  I misted some water over the top of both the background and again once I'd stamped the music.  The sentiment was from Hobby Craft in the 99p range of stamps, and is just perfect for a note card/thank you. I just love these colours!

My mum always likes my cards, especially the ones which she can use for any purpose.  In feb half term, I'm off to Scotland to see my parents, so this will be one of a stack for Mum.