New Goodies arrived in the post

One of them was an embossing folder from Craft Concepts - Universal EF- Merry Christmas.  Another was a lovely die from Memorybox called Flowering Christmas Tree. I used SU card  - one of the new colours Lucky Limeaid  and Whisper White - and made this. The star is a bling bit from Annabelle Stamps, coloured with a Copic pen.

The card I diecut the tree from is a sparkly DCWV - Citrus Cardstock pad I have. 

I am entering this is My Time to Craft: Mostly White Challenge

The next card was cased from the internet somewhere last year.  I do not have the details. The image, colours and ribbon/laces have changed.  I used an image from LOTV - Christmas Candle, and coloured her with my Copic pens, and used some snow spray on her hood.

I did this before I put it through the Cuttlebug - tip for those who don't know:  DO THIS AFTER! I then used two different circle dies from Spellbinders and a doily, a piece of card run through the embossing folder Snowflakes, and the edge of the white is by a MS edge punch.  The ribbon is from my stash and the paper 'lace' is also. The card used is SU Pink Pirouette and Tempting Turquoise, with Whisper White.

This one is entered in Christmas Dies by Christmas Inspirations, found at http://natalduranteoanotodo.blogspot.com/
(I have now fixed the link!)

Diamonds are the girls best friend

I have an SU party this weekend (Hi Natalie) and have put together a few templates for this as make-and-takes or demo's.  I have another few ideas I am mulling over as well, so this may not be all there is to chose from yet.

I am hampered as I don't have a lot of SU DP in Christmas designs - in fact I cannot find any! I was sure I had some in the stash but must have used it all.  Anyway, here are my cards:

They are a bit basic - the bauble and the sentiment are embossed with clear over Orchid Opulance (no longer available) so I would use either Rich Razzleberry or Perfect Plum. The green is Old Olive. The sets are Delightful Decorations and Baroque Flourishes, with the sentiment coming from Seasons of Joy. I used the bauble punch to make the shape, and lined it up inside with the Stamp-a-ma-jig.  I pricked the line of holes for effect using the Mat Pack tool. The card is Whisper White and the DP is .........from the past!

This is it laying flat.

This one John didn't like, but I do - I have used a variety of stamps for snowflakes and randomly stamped them over the top of the card ( Island Indigo) with white ink, and then stamped some of the snowflake stamps from other sets with Versamark on Whisper White and embossed them with gold EP. They were then punched out with various size punches and added.  The strip of Pool Party card has been off-stamped with white ink and the swirl from Hope, and then sprayed with gold Smooch glitter. The sentiment comes from a Waltzing Mouse set. 

This is the diamond card - the shape is of course the reason for the name.  The stamp set is Winter Post, coloured in with Copics, but you could use SU markers.  I have cut the scalloped circle wit the die cutter and the circle is cut and embossed before being stamped and coloured, except I did put the background in with sponges before I removed it from the die. The gold card is from my stash.

It opens out a bit like a bon-bon. The sentiment is from an old SU set and punched out with an SU punch, and the edges inked with Poppy Parade ink. The card is a 12 x 12 bazzill and the DP is from Basic Grey's Nordic Holiday pad. 

I clipped it so you can see what it looks like in the envelope. 

Making them by the dozen.....

Christmas cards, that is.  I purchased a 12 x 12 sheet from Meg's Garden (actually, I purchased several other things as well, but this one is in red and white, with black line drawings - the Designs Galore - Old Fashioned Christmas on Red sheets) and then didn't quite know what to do with this one.  I played around a bit and then came up with these  I have made a baker's dozen from this sheet, and still have some small images left over,which I will probably put inside the cards when I prepare them for sending. Here is the batch, and I will show only one or two others - you will get the idea!

Sorry about the sun ruining the shot - came out just as I clicked it!

I used all Stampin'Up card, especially Whisper White and black, except for most of the base cards, which are commercial.  I roughly coloured most of them with SU markers using the water paint technique and in the process discovered I can use my biggest acrylic block for stamps as a nice palette! 

The embellies are all from my Christmas stash, except for this felt ribbon of flowers, which is out of my ordinary stash! This brad I have had now for three years and finally used it! The embossing folder is the Sissix Snowflakes one, and I also used Swirls a few times. 

The sentiment is from SU

The ribbon lace is an SU punch.

Today has been such a beautiful day......

So blue! And the temperature has been up to 23 degrees - lovely.  

I have been at a funeral this afternoon (yes,another one!) for a colleague - a great funeral, warm and full of love and a real celebration of her life. I think I am 'funeralled' out! Vale Fay.

Painting class this morning, although I did not paint, but drew and coloured in with pastels for a new technique (resist) a plate of cooked trout!  We will see what becomes of it when I add the watercolour! I painted a fish last week, using a new technique of adding tissue paper and PVC glue (sound familiar all you crafters?) for texture, and scribbling over my painting with ink and nib, and of blocking off some parts of the page with tape and then lifting it after I had painted in some of the background to create a faux background.  This is going to be good for my craft I know it but at the moment my crafting ability seems to be at zero!

Here is my fish!

I have done some crafting - here is an attempt at a vintage card using an image from some of Meg's Garden papers - Designs Galore:  Old Fashioned Christmas.  I cut out several of the images and coloured them with SU inks and a watercolouring pen. The background papers are from K and Company - Die-cut Mat Pad Glad Tidings.  I used a doily and coloured it with Distress Ink Antique Linen, and swiped some of it on the white parts of the images as well to dull them a bit.  The card is SU Cherry Cobbler, and the ribbon is left over from last years presents. 

The two cards below were made last week from a magazine I purchased which had some freebie papers and die cuts (sort of - I had to fussy cut them out) and I really just copied what was in the magazine as I had run out of steam at that stage and couldn't think to help myself. 

Then I though I would play with some alcohol inks at the weekend and made some background papers which will appear in the future.  I also put some onto a metal sheet (and some stamping tile and glass) and then stamped onto part of the metal with some StaysOn black ink using the SU stamp set - Merry and Type.  I then fussy-cut these out and 'hung' them onto the card (SU Tempting Turquoise). I practised tying the small bows by using a fork as a bow-tie and attached them and added a bit of gold with some Copic pens.  I put some ink around the edges of the TT card (SU Melon Mambo) and layered this up on some background paper from a magazine (unknown) that matched the colours and layered this onto MM and then put the whole on a commercial white card blank. The die cut label is from Sixxix and the ink is SU MM, while the sentiment is from WMS set - Tiny Trees. 

This card below uses the same set and again is alcohol inks but residue put onto a scrap of SU Whisper White.  It had a nice subtle look.  Again I fussy cut and this time used Smooch Gold but it got smooched as well!  I 'hung' these with a gold pen onto another piece of SU WW, and got it crocked! The sentiment is from the same set and stamped in SU Black. It is backed onto gold and then SU Calypso Coral.  The background paper is scrap from last year and the ribbon is a Vandoras Christmas parcel tie. They are not that good - sorry but I thought I had better show that I was doing something even if they are second rate! 

Life is not really for sissy's

I have been a bit low lately and not done a lot of actual crafting, except to make a small Christmas tree ornament. However, Spring is coming in the garden and I have some shots to share:

My tree

Lovely iris

 a low road - new track below the house

the Iris again

Rhodo's are such showoffs.

My bird - from painting class

Dashed off Dasher

In 20 minutes would you believe! From conception to finish - a bit of a change from the way I have been lately.  Anyway.......decided to enter the challenge at CR84FN:  #38 - pink, grey and black. Found a scrap of pink Christmas paper from Bo Bunny in the stash, and a piece of grey card embossed with an embossing folder from Provo Craft, and away I went.  

I decided to use the embossed card as a frame for a mounted section, so embossed the black and then cut it out, before wet embossing the SU stamp Dasher with white EP.  I added some bling, ribbon and a silver sparkly foam star, and mounting it on the pink DP and then onto a black card base. Done.

Pretty in Pink

I was playing around practising colouring with my Copics, and masking the image before spraying the background using my Copic air gun.  I love this little stamp from Lili of the Valley, and used that as the image but it was VERY fiddly to cut the mask out and as I had four images to cover, by the time I got to my last two, the mask was tearing and not fitting as well. I used XPress Mask-It and if anyone had any advice on how to use it so it doesn't tear - glad to hear from you!

Anyway, this card used the first image so the masking is pretty good, and the spraying is not too bad - it wanted an ethereal look, so didn't go for a smooth background colour. I have a book of challenges so used that to inspire the direction of the card I made with one image.

Delightful Sketches #Girly Girl
My Favourite Things #37 - Sketch
Stamp Fairy - #Glitter  (Ed - apparently you have to use one of their images so withdrawn)

The card stock is all SU - Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, Tempting Turquoise, Regal Rose - and the DP is from Cosmo Crickets DeLovely Mini Deck.  The flowers are Prima and the stamps are from Lili of the Valley. There is glitter on the wings, hair, wand and dress of the little girl and she is coloured with Copic pens. the sentiment is stamped in Melon mambo and the pearl stick is from my stash, while the little Kaiser pearls were white but I coloured them with the Copics as well. The lace strip is SU.

Playing with Alcohol Inks

I have been doing a bit of playing with stuff I have in my stash - and decided to try my alcohol inks by Tim Holtz. I have six of these: Faded Jeans, Antique Linen, Barn Door, Scattered Straw, Forest Moss, Vintage Photo.  I used the dabbed thingy and a sheet of shiny white from SU and created a background, and then stamped it with a wide variety of SU images from a number of different sets using StaysOn inks.  The sentiment is from Verve Stamps - just arrived in the mail yesterday from their sale last month! 

I then made six cards from the one sheet.  I was trying for a shabby vintage look but I am not that good at it.  Anyway, here they are - took me all afternoon. The flowers are most probably Prima and from the stash and so is the bling (Kaiser).  The card stock is SU and the shimmer is SU's Smooch gold mist. I used the SU punch to create paper lace and various Spellbinders Nestabilities and Embossing Folders. Everything else is from the stash.

I am going to enter these in the Paper Creations Ink Challenge #8 which is Vintage or Distressed Look - mine are sort of vintage!

The whole sheet

The six cards

Making Christmas seem closer.....

....by making Christmas cards! I have just had a big party for Stampin'Up so had to design/steal ideas for a demo and make/take card. Here they are:

This is the idea stolen from the SU website and used for my make and take - I changed the colour of the EP! It uses four out of the five of the new in-colours. All materials are of course from Stampin'Up.

My demo card - the client wanted me to demo the joy fold card, so we did it as a Christmas card.  The background papers are from my Christmas stash, and not SU papers, and the stars are sticky embellishments but the rest is all SU.

The card closed. 

This was going to be my make/take but after finding that double embossing needs care and time to get used to doing I decided on the other one - the baubles are punched out of card that has been dry embossed in the Cuttlebug and then wet embossed with Versamark applied with the brayer (carefully) and then the EP. The idea is that you get only EP on the raised sections - takes practice!

This is a sneek peak at a punch that will be available later this year, (and a stamp set to go with it) made with left over double-embossed card.  

Hopefully I will get back to challenges soon - maybe tomorrow!

A Bad Week

Started off last week with lots of final work for the Census, with my Collector's books needing to be reconciled and all the material needing to be counted (enumerated!) and sorted - took four days and a very sore back to complete.  Then I took one of those phone calls that you don't like getting. News that one of my sisters had died on her way to an overseas holiday. So, not a lot done.

Since then I have not done very much at all, but today I completed a card I had started for a challenge two weeks ago and just never got completed. Here it is - Tilda has been masked and then the garden and wall stamped over her, and both were coloured with Copics. I then decided to cut her out with a die, and practice the technique of only partly cutting her out - didn't work that well but I get the drift on how to do it. The sentiment is from Lili of the Valley, and all the inks and card is SU. Flowers are Prima. 

I also went to the SU Regional Seminar, and there were several make and takes - I made one but it is not very good - my mind was not engaged. Lots of lovely stuff and while I had no swaps made, some lovely people shared anyway - here they are:

My poorly make and take one, with SU materials of course, and we were all given this stamp set - Under the Big Top - and the wheels and box were made with punches and die cuts, and images coloured with SU pens in watercolour style.

Little envelopes stamped as well

Four small cards - I mucked up the celebrate banner

This is one lovely swap - the sparkle on the swirls is very pretty and the butterfly is gorgeous. 

Another swap idea. 

Then I was given a card last week as well from a friend to whom I have introduced SU and card making to, and this is her card to me -it's so good, thanks Gimi :