Saturday 27 January 2018

Penguin party

Hello Lovely Crafters
Our new challenge for the week at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is Paper piecing



I decided to use these penguin stamps from Hunkydory, I love their little boots. 


It reminded me of those paper dolls people of a certain age will remember. You cut out the paper doll and then dressed her using paper clothes held on with fold over tabs. I seem to remember they never stayed on and were very frustrating. That was what passed for entertainment then!
I've used a mixture of papers from an ancient pack bought at WH Smith called The Paper Stack and freestyled the tree and present stack. The hats and scarf are coloured. 

What do I think?  - I think it looks as though a child has made it. 

I'm sure you can do better. You have a week to join in our challenge. 

I'm linking this to:
ScrappyMo's Rudolf Days challenge - January 2018
Pixie's Snippets Playground - snippets challenge
Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge 
Merry Monday - add snow


Thanks for visiting - Enjoy your day. x

Sunday 21 January 2018

Birthday blooms

Hello lovely crafters, 
I found myself in sudden need of a 90th birthday card. If I'd been paying more attention I wouldn't have had to make this in a hurry. It turns out I don't like making cards under pressure but it was done in time and turned out OK.
I found myself cutting out all these flowers as well, instead of choosing something more simple. I wanted it to be special though. 90 is pretty special. 



It does not show well here but I stamped all the flowers and painted them with purple and emerald Brushos then cut them all out. The are slightly raised on glue gel so there is a little dimension. The butterfly also has some Perfect Pearls for shimmer.
I stamped the end flowers on to the card base and glued the cut out ones on top to get the stamens as it really wasn't possible to cut them out! I added a tiny amount of black Stickles to the flowers. 
The flowers are Ultimate Crafts, butterfly JustRite and sentiment unknown. 

I'm linking this to:
Mrs A's Butterfly Challenge - #93 Butterflies + X is for Xtra Fold and/or the colour Peacock Blue/Green. No fancy folds here but the butterfly is a peacock green with shimmer too!

CAS Watercolour Challenge - Birthday


Thanks for visiting and Enjoy Your Day. x

Saturday 20 January 2018

Christmas Fairy


Hello lovely crafters,


We have a new challenge for you at  52 Christmas Card Throwdown. This time  it is a theme challenge and Andreja has chosen Fairies




Not having a fairy stamp, I went here and used a free digi stamp. Mary Ellen produces many drawings of all sorts which are free to use. 
I coloured my fairy with pencil crayons and then added some die cut branches and stamped lights. Fairy lights of course!
Soon after Christmas, MrC proposed a trip to The Range. It turned out they were selling off all their seasonal stock at a reduced price so I just had to buy a few things. There was paper pad which was so lovely I couldn't resist. I set to and started to use it straight away so the fairy is backed by two kinds of paper from the pad which is First Edition Merry Little Christmas.
The lights and fir branch are Leane Creatief.

I hope you'll have time to join in our fun challenge and visit the rest of the design team.
Thanks for visiting. Enjoy your Day. x

Saturday 13 January 2018

Feathers times two

Hello lovely crafters
It just so happens there is a new challenge on the block. The theme happens to be feathers. I happen to have a feather stamp and it happens to have Never Been Used. This is perfect as the challenge is organised by Darnell. 



The challenge is to make two cards using the same stamp but the cards must be for different occasions. Thus stretching our ingenuity and our stash. 


 Here are my two cards using a feather stamp and sentiments from Ultimate Crafts. 


I embossed the feathers in clear powder. 
I had an image in my head of rich colours blended so I inked over with a mix of ink pads (Danube, Teal Zeal, Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves) and a blending tool. Then I spritzed with water hoping for fine droplets. I never learn. I got great  drips but it was done so I went with it. More inking followed.
Then I removed some of the ink on the feathers with water. It didn't take of much so I tried a drop of bleach in the water. You only need a tiny drop and then you'll find yourself adding colour back in again. 
I finished it with some flattened raffia ribbon.
The sentiment was embossed in clear then I coloured the white card with a Pro-marker. Pro-markers colour clear embossing. Who knew? I thought it looked OK so I kept it instead of starting again and having a white sentiment. It isn't really blurred as it looks here. 


I was less pleased with this in general but now I quite like it. 
The feathers are embossed in silver and then painted in with Danube Blue, very dilute, and a touch of Perfect Pearls. I over-stamped more feathers in Cloudy Blue. 
I added a strip of paper for definition and a few gems. 
I'm also linking this one to the Stamping Sensations challenge Cold and Frosty Colours

Twofer is a great idea and is fun to try out a different idea with a stamp instead of immediately putting it away. (I'm sure you don't leave yours out to gather dust and fluff). 

Thanks for visiting. Enjoy your day. x


Make it simple


Hello lovely crafters.  Our challenge for you this week  at  52 Christmas Card Throwdown is a colour challenge.



I went round in circles, confused and lacking inspiration and eventually remembered that it is best to keep things simple when you are short of ideas.  

If you are not sure about a colour challenge choose the colour you are most comfortable with and start with that. 
That is not what I did here but it turned out ok in the end!

I can't tell you where the red twine came from. 
Oh, alright then, I know I am among friends and you are all as daft as I am. 
It is the loopy stitching from a bag of chicken feed! Don't tell me you wouldn't have saved it too.

Do join in with our challenge and get ahead with those Christmas cards. We had several new players last week who have resolved to do just that and were very pleased with themselves. 


I'm popping over to Pixie's Snippets Challenge to show Di and Parsnip, as this is all made from snippets. 

Saturday 6 January 2018

52CCT - January sketch

Hello lovely crafters!



Just when you thought the fuss was all over, 52 Christmas Card Throwdown are back with our first challenge of 2018.
Yes that's right - we are reverting to a weekly challenge to keep you on your toes and we have plenty of fun ideas to inspire you.
Have you managed to draw breath since Christmas? We've barely put away the decorations and taken down the cards and now we are starting again. 

This week is a nice simple sketch to get you started:




I started with piece of water colour paper and brushed on the sky with Ink Dusters using torn paper to make the snowy hills. This doesn't always work for me but this time it came together very well and quickly, too. 

I'm lucky enough to have seen skies like this recently. There is often a pink tinge in a winter sunset and I also have a Robin who has learnt to hang off the bird feeder.

I used stamps from Creative Stamping #37 Winter Garden. This Robin started life as a Great Tit stamp and has had a change of identity courtesy of some masking tape and ink and paintbrush. That would have worked well for a winter birthday but I wanted a Robin.

I have also Winked the trees and snow, of course. 

I hope you'll feel inspired to join in and do visit the rest of the team who have made some great cards. 

I'm also linking this to:
ABC Christmas - A&B for Antlers or Birds. 
and
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - anything goes or upcycle or use something old. The paper and backing are both old and the stamps are not new.