SWALK

Okay, so I've now moved on from my Bamboo obsession, however my love of all things Crafters Companion continues.  The image for this card actually came from the SWALK stamps  CD, which I printed out onto Neenah card stock and then coloured with my trustee spectrum noir pens, think I'm finally getting the hang of them!

All of the papers are from the SWALK Christmas papers CD, the punch is a Tonic Studios ribbon punch, had great fun doing this one, but it took longer than I was hoping to put together.

I would like to enter this into the Sketch Saturday Challenge and the Spectrum Noir challenge, which is currently a 'spring' theme - most appropriate the 'I love the rain' stamp!

Hope you like & hopefully I'll be back again with another card really soon!

Bamboo

I have been having great fun playing with Bamboo, well it actually started out as playing with a new card design from Splitcoast Stampers, which uses an 11" x 11" sheet of patterned paper as the card base.  Now as STILL have the Papermania Claire Curd signature range paper pad that I bought years ago & am still trying to even make a dent in, I decided to use a sheet of this, didn't really matter which sheet but that's where I started.

Having used a black & white design, I then realised that this fitted perfectly with a little black and white panda and so inked up one of the lovely Party Paws stamps, which I then decided needed to be coloured in a monochrome scheme (apart from his lovely rosy cheeks!) using my Spectrum Noir pens, once I had this, the rest was easy.  The sentiment stamp is from the same stamp sheet as Bamboo.  The flower was a Quickutz die I've had for absolutely forever, and I cut out several (you only get 4 petals per cut) using black and silver, then layered up and finished off with a glittery blob in the middle.  The butterflies were cut with an EK Success punch, which has several different cuts on it to allow you to layer up the butterfly, I only used the deepest as I wanted the finer detailed butterfly, not sure if you can see it particularly well but some of the butterflies are silver and the other black.

It folds down to make it's own envelope as well (providing you're not putting it in the post) and just looks amazing (well I think so anyway!).

I'd like to enter this into the Crafters Companion Challenge Blog for april, which is flowers appropriately enough!

Well, hope you like, I'm off to play again!

I played in the Glitterpot!!!

Well, I'm enjoying a well earned (well I think it is anyway!) break from work this week, and as hubby had just sold his tennor sax and needed to deliver it (halfway meet), we decided to take a day trip to Sussex.  Yes, I know it's a long way to go, but it was a one off opportunity to go and visit far off lands and all the goodies to be had there.

The Glitterpot is well worth a visit if you're ever up that way (or fancy a very long day trip!), it is really well organised with loads and loads of stamps, papers, dies, inks and anything else crafty you can think of - it really is one of the best craft shops I've ever been in for variety (although our local shop, Just Tracy's is brilliant too).

Anyway, I restrained myself (mainly because we didn't take a transit van with us!) and bought a few little gems - a couple of sets of nesties, some stamps, some ink, more glue and knife blades oh and a paper pad, but not too much!

Well, when I got home I just had to play with it all, and the following two cards have used bits from my purchases.

This first one used a new stamp I bought of a Mo Manning image, she is just soo beautiful, but then I love all of the Mo images, she is such a talented woman and I love the fact that she shares her creations with the world and gives us the opportunity to craft with them.   In the background the lovely lacy doily is a Magnolia doohickey die, this comes as half of the circle and you then have to twiddle it round (technical term) and cut the other side - really easy once I'd got the hang of it & it creates a stunning shape.  The other items used on this one are from my existing stash, oh and the image was coloured with my Speccies, thanks to Tracy from Just Tracy's for the colouring day, I really learned so much from it, all put to good use on this image.

The next one is an image I stamped a few days ago and coloured but was waiting to turn into a card.  Bamboo is again coloured with Speccies, the backing paper is from the Bamboo CD, the die cut leaves and shape around bamboo are Diesire dies from Crafters Companion.  Flowers from stash (Wild Orchid Crafts and some from a craft show so I can't remember the company).  The butterfly and sentiment are from the Party Paws Luxury Card Collection oh and the peachy lace section you can just see behind the image, we that was a new stamp that I bought at the Glitterpot - gorgeous isn't it?

Anyway, hope you've had a good easter & overdosed on chocolate to your hearts content - diet can always start tomorrow!

Humphrey again

I don't mean to keep using Humphrey stamps (they are a lovely range though!), but I went to a colouring class on Saturday with Tracy at Just Tracy's using my Spectrum Noir pens.  I really enjoyed myself and learned some new things, and then just had to turn the images into cards.

These were the images I coloured in their raw form:

And here are my completed cards:

I'm really pleased with the results, and their not Christmas cards!

At the moment I'm working on my new Party Paws stuff, so hopefully in a few days I may have something to show, until then, have fun!

Humphrey

Or should that be Humph!  This post should have been done yesterday, I had a list of things that needed to be done, and all were ticked off, except blogging my latest make.  I know I have loads of other cards that are sat there just waiting for me to share with the world, but I made this one on Saturday and I was really pleased with it, it's simple but I just loved the image and have had it sat on my desk for weeks waiting to be turned into a card.

On Saturday I tidied up my craft desk so that I could actually see the desk underneath all of my crap, sorry stuff, and I even lined some cards, put my stamp on the back and bagged them up ready to sell (if I ever get around to going to another craft fair or table top sale).  I have decided that I have waaaayyy too many Christmas cards and really should stop making them (but I love all the glitter!!!) and not enough of everything else.

So when I rediscovered the image and remembered the sheet of Popcorn bubbles backing paper that I had, I knew I just had to turn this into a card, then all I needed was to add a sentiment and the letters B A B Y stacked to look like childrens building blocks and a few dew drops finished it off beautifully (oh and not forgetting the stickles glitter - had to get it in there somewhere!).

Anyway, hope you like the latest offering - oh and ending on a high note, for all those that follow my blog - my darling daughter has finally decided to return home - she's brought the fiancee with her but I don't mind, at least I can keep an eye on her and make sure she's okay!

Saturated Canary Freebie

Well, I'm not going to keep apologising for my absence, I just keep forgetting to update my blog, I'm making cards and doing loads of colouring with my new Prismacolor pencils (they are just so much fun to work with & always give lovely results), but I just keep forgetting to take photos & put them online.  It was my mums birthday the other week and I even forgot to take a picture of the card DOH!!!!

Anyway, I've finally caught up and taken pictures of some of my cards, but I shall put just one online tonight - this may encourage me to switch the 'puter on slightly more often and post the others.

This card has been made for a few weeks, it uses a Saturated Canary freebie that I got aaaagggeess ago, printed a few off and have just been waiting to colour, I used my Spectrum Noir pens to colour the image, the papers were freebies, the card is core'dinations core essentials 'so mod', the sentiments are from Quixotic Paperie and are Whimsy Stamps, and the coordinating Whimsy Stamps die, these ticket stamps are my absolute favourites and I have loads of them.  I made the paper roses with the same backing papers and the punch for the leaves was from woodware (I think).  The glitter is one of the stickles range.

I'm really happy with this card, though I have no idea who it will be for - hope you like it too....

And I will leave you today with a message re stress that was posted on the docrafts website today

A Great Lesson on Stress

A young lady confidently walked around the room with a raised glass of water
while leading a seminar and explaining stress management to her audience.
Everyone knew she was going to ask the ultimate question, 'Half empty or
half full?' She fooled them all. "How heavy is this glass of water?" she
inquired with a smile.

Answers called out ranged from 8 oz. To 20 oz.

She replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long I
hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for
an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm.If I hold it for a day, you'll
have to call an ambulance. In each case it's the same weight, but the longer
I hold it, the heavier it becomes."She continued, "and that's the way it is
with stress. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the
burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on.""As with
the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before
holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden -
holding stress longer and better each time practiced.

So, as early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don't
carry them through the evening and into the night. Pick them up again
tomorrow if you must.

1 * Accept the fact that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're
the statue!

2 * Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat
them.

3 * Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle
of it.

4 * Drive carefully... It's not only cars that can be recalled by their
Maker.

5 * If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

6 * If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably
worth it.

7 * It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning
to others.

8 * Never buy a car you can't push.

9 * Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you
won't have a leg to stand on.

10 * Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

11 * Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.

12 * The second mouse gets the cheese.

13 * When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

14 * Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.

Don't know what happened to #15! Who cares, you have 5 more to read!

16 * Some mistakes are too much fun to make only once.

17 * We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and
some are dull. Some have weird names and all are different colors, but they
all have to live in the same box.

18 * A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

19 * Have an awesome day and know that someone has thought about you today.

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY

20 *Save the earth..... It's the only planet with chocolate!

Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor each morning the
devil says~~ "Oh Crap, She's up!"

Footprints

First, sorry for not blogging for a couple of weeks, I really didn't realise I had been gone for that long!  I have several cards that still need to be shown & I did manage to make one as well, but it took me about a week of faffing about (I keep getting side tracked with reading other peoples blogs, watching TV, working etc...).

The cards I've got to show today are from a recently purchased stamp set - as soon as I saw them I just had to buy them.  The stamp set came from Joanna Sheen and is one of the new 'our daily bread' stamps.  I'm not a religious person, but I have always loved this story, so like I said I just had to get them.

Both cards are 6x6, the first one is just a plain and simple white embossing on Kraft card, unfortunately, the writing goes onto the footprints background a bit and so isn't completely clear.

The next one is in colour, I got out my glossy cardstock and used some Tim Holtz distress inks to colour the background so it looks like sand and sea, the footprints were stamped in chalk ink and then the story was stamped in black using an archival ink.

Not sure where I will use these cards, but I love them anyway.

Well, that's it for me today, I have to go and get on with a birthday card for my mum, but as I have a stinking cold, I'll have to plug my nose with tissue while making it!

Have fun & see you soon.