Dream

I decided to go for an oversized tag for my DT entry at Try it on Tuesday.   The challenge this fortnight is a Lucky Dip so you can choose four items out of the following:  Die Cuts, Ribbons, Pearls, Sentiment, Stamped image.

We are being very generously sponsored by Delicious Doodles who are offering 4 digi stamps of your choice to the winner of December's challenges.  So, if you get a crafty moment during your festive time, why not see if you can get lucky in the Lucky Dip?!!!

 

 

  

This challenge left me a bit spoilt for choice ... too many options for an indecisive like me! As its still the Christmas season, I was really tempted to go with a Christmas project.  But I am about to head to sunnier climes (can't wait - UK weather is not to be recommended lately!) and all my Christmas activities are behind me, so I have focused on 2013 and my up and coming wedding anniversary.  

Cards for men ... don't we all struggle with them?  My hubcap is not a fisherman, golfer or tennis nut so images along those lines are pretty much closed.  I have found that my best plan is to go for hearts and a suitable colour palette.

I started with a manila tag which I gave a couple of coats of gesso to.  I added some vintage music and book pages and gave it another swish over with the gesso.  Once dry, I stamped the border, heart wings and keys before attaching the die cut card hearts which were painted with red acrylic.  

I left if to dry before coating the entire tag with matte Mod Podge and attaching scrunched up white tissue over it all.  

The dreams pane was cut from card and gessoed.  I dry brushed pitch black acrylic and used a skewer dipped in black to add depth.  It was 3D mounted onto an identically sized piece of card which I had covered with vintage book pages.  The panel is finished with pleated tissue tape along one edge.

I gave the hearts a lift with some Dylusions red acrylic and rock candy distress which I applied with a spatuls to give loads of texture.

The key is made from Ten Second Studio metal.

My favourite flourish (Lost Coast Designs) and a little Black Soot distress kept the monochrome style true and I just had to bravely take hold of my pen and write my sentiment.  It's a little hard to read in the photo but it says:

"When two hearts meet

and fly together

the key to your dreams

has been found."

I guess after nearly 20 years, this must be true.  We got engaged after 6 weeks and married a year later.  He's not always my soulmate (Man ARE from Mars!) but our hearts are definitely joined ...

Have a fantastic time whatever you get up to this December ... x

My Girl

This is my first DT piece as a new member of the Anything But a Card team.  I am so excited to have been asked to join the talented group of DT gals and love that there is such a wide range of projects created for each challenge.  Scrapbooking, altered art, canvases, bags, boxes  ... the list goes on and on! Why not take 5 minutes to check out the fantastic projects that have been made and see how inspirational they are!

So, I am continuing my scrapbooking journey of creating a blended style.  I chose to have a play with a box of gorgeous oil pastels I purchased some time back but hadn't really got to grips with.  They are so soft and creamy to work with that I can't believe I have had them languishing on a shelf for so long!

I used them to create my heart and blended them out with a sponge dabber before sealing them with Judikins micro glaze.

I cut the lacy edge with a Martha Stewart punch and mounted my photo onto that before blending it into the page with molding paste and vintage book pages.  Once dry, I spritzed it all over with Shimmerz Sea Foam and Chalkboard Peacock.    I used some liquid acrylic (Golden) to add finishing blends to the pasted area.

White acrylic painted through sequin waste added the textured dots and I stamped the hollyhocks (Donna Downey stamp) with black Archival. 


I stamped and cut out the dragonfly was stamped and colouring his body with Stewart Gill Byzantia paint which has the most gorgeous sheen.  I used a silver ice stickle for the wings.

The final touch was to tint some of the flowers to match the colour scheme and stamp my title.

I hope you are all finding time to complete all your crafty projects at this busy time of year.  I'm enjoying everyone's blogs and seeing all their gorgeous creations.  I'm nearly done now for 2012 as we about to leave for Christmas and New Year in the sunshine!  I hope to still pop by everyone's blogs whilst I sit with a pina colada (lol!) but I may not be able to leave feedback to please bear with me!!

Wishing everyone a very Happy Christmas and New Year and a big thank you to everyone who leaves me such kind and thoughtful feedback.  It means so much and inspires me to keep moving forward in my creative endeavours! xx

 

Wicked Wednesday ATC

I don't usually do ATC's ... actually that's not true ... I have never done an ATC before in my life!!  I had to google to find out what size they need to be!!  Is that bad? 

Anyway, I might not be an ATC veteran but I am a big fan of Stampotique and I follow their blog and marvel at the gorgeous work that their DT create.  My kids buy me the small stamps for mother's day and my birthday which makes them extra special and they always stamp so beautifully they are a joy to work with.

I have been focusing on other avenues recently so haven't had chance to enter many of their challenges but I checked out the blog this week and found one based on Wings so I really wanted to put a mini project together and join in the fun.

So, I turned my tree (Daniel Torrente) on its side to create a branch for my little tired angel (Jill Penney) to rest against under the stars. 

I didn't want to cut and mount my branch so I stamped it in archival and then carefully created by background around it with a combination so water, distress stains, a heat gun and a paintbrush.  The stars are created from two sizes of crystals and the words are  Stampotique.

I coloured my branch with pencils and mounted my angel carefully with silcone gel  before adding some final border lines around the edge.

Hope you like her! x

Woodland Scene

For this card, I used lots of alterations dies.  I am, by default, a scene maker and find myself connecting stuff together to create a story so I decided to start by die-cutting lots of images and colouring, inking, adding snow and embossing them and see where it took me.

I covered my card with vintage dictionary paper and I must share this funny story with you ...  I chose a page at random from the dictionary - my only criteria was that I didn't want a page with any images.   I trimmed the white edge and placed in on my craft sheet ready to ink with distress stains when I glanced down to find that the page I had chosen had a definition of fornicate on it!  Definitely not required!!  Fortunately the flip side was far less racy ... but just glad I spotted this before I had to judiciously place some of my trees!!

So, I covered my card with the text and embossed the snowflakes in white glitter before pouncing the card on my craft sheet with Stormy Skies, Tumbled Glass and Picket Fence distress stain.  I added the snowflakes which were cut from glitter card using 3D silicone glue.  25 was inked with Evergreen Bough and a flourish stamped and embossed with Silver Fox Enamalz over the top.

I coloured the fence and deer with vintage photo distress stain and used white Enamels Accents for the spots on the deer.  The snow is flowersoft.

I fixed all the elements down using different heights of 3D glue ... job done!

I'm entering this card into Play Date Cafe PDCC160, Simon Says Snowflakes Challenge,   Sweet Stampin' Dies & Punches Challenge and Stamping for the Weekend Challenge 23 Let it Snow.

Hope you are all having time for your Christmas Crafty Projects. x

Santa Card

OK ... starting to enjoy this Christmas crafting lark and Christmas card making more specifically!!  It's more of a surprise to me than anyone else.   The only snag is that I've left it rather late in the day either to get necessary supplies or to have the time needed to really get going - oops!!  (Note to self:  start earlier next year!!)  Big thankyou at this point to David and Brenda at Craft Obsessions for hunting out my order at short notice and nearly crashing their website in the process!! Thanks guys!! 

So onto this little card.  I covered my card with a lovely script paper which I overstamped with some flourishes by Dusty Attic.  I used some vintage music paper which I stained with Festive Berries and Gathered Twigs distress stain which I then flicked with water to give it texture.  I then embossed a more complicated flourish design over this with Gold Sparkly (Cosmic Shimmer) which is hard to capture with the camera.

The image was down loaded, edges distressed, curled and inked with a little more Gathered Twigs (what a great brown it is!)

The poinsettia is a mini Tim Holtz Alterations die cut from vintage paper and inked with deadazzles for the centre.  The leaves are cut from Glassine paper which was scrunched and inked with alcohol inks.

Anyway, can't stop ... got another card to make!! xx

Christmas Bird

I've had to succumb to making some Christmas cards so this is the first one Hot off the Press!!  I bought the mini cardinal die some weeks ago as he was SO cute but when I saw his big brother, perched on this twig ... well it was a must have item!

I covered my card in vintage music paper which I inked with vintage photo and peeled paint and I stamped the holly with gathered twigs.  The bird is cut from chocolate co-ordinations paper so I sanded him down to reveal his red core and dry brushed some red acylic paint to brighten him up.  The spruce foliage was painted with acrylic paint and a little glitter added.  I used polar white flower soft for my snow.

The pointsettia was cut from vintage book pages, inked with festive berries and painted with Rock Candy distress.  The centre is beadazzles,  The holly leaves and spruce foliage is cut from Kraft Glassine which I inked with alcohol inks. 

I used tissue tape to create the ruffle and some pearls and gems to finish it off.

I'm going to enter this card into the following challenges:  Fashionable Stamping 'To Die For', Gingerloft 'Leaves' and Totally Gorjuss 'Anything Goes ... with Glitter'.

Starting to feel a bit festive ... hope your Christmas plans are coming along too ... x

Quarr Abbey

This is my first post as be DT member of the Try it on Tuesday blog - which is very exciting!  I have joined a fabulous group of talented ladies so be sure to go and take a look at some of the gorgeous creations they have made for this challenge. 

This fortnight is "Let's get Inky'!  What a great initial challenge for me as I always struggle not to get inky!!  The other bonus is that if you are not a Christmas crafter (and I am not!) this challenge is still right up your street.

We are sponsored this month by Delidious Doodles who are offering 4 digi stamps from their store - so don't miss you chance to be a winner!

I'm really excited to post this layout as I have been working hard on my techniques and style but am only just able to start posting my new creations ... so watch this space!!  One of things I really wanted to achieve was a more seamless end result and so I've been getting through a fair bit of molding paste and acrylic paint lately and taken over the house whilst they all dry out!

This photo is of the ruins of Quarr Abbey on the Isle of Wight which actually now forms part of a farmhouse garden.  There are great views over the ruined walls towards the mainland.

I used molding paste with a stencil to create the bricks and more paste and inks to blend out my photo.  I decided to be quite bold with my colour scheme by adding the pink but I really like the end result.  

I used acrylics and shimmerz inks for my background and added flourishes with a Lost Coast stamp.  The bird and branch is by Maya Road and the flowers and butterflies are Prima.

The sheep stamp is part of an Artemia farmyard set (that I had no use for but fell in love with!) from a little craft shop in Cornwall.

Hope you are all having a great week ... x