From Cardmaking to Art Journalling

Firstly I'd like to wish all my Readers and Followers a very Happy New Year's Eve - however you are spending the day and evening, I hope you have a wonderful time and that the new year brings health and happiness to you and your loved ones.

So, for my last blog post of 2012 I'm sharing a little project I've undertaken as part of the 'From Cardmaking to Art Journalling' on-line course that a crafting pal Clare has produced.  It's free and available here if you'd like to have a go yourself.

I decided to make a loose-leaf journal with the pages we will create during the course, rather than using an existing journal.  The journalling I've done thus far has all been in existing books, so I thought I would take a different approach for this course.

Here's my Lesson One first page,

The 'theme' for the first lesson was to think about the coming year, what we wish for or dream of and what we want to achieve.  I have so many projects in my head using fabrics and quilting that I'm pretty sure there will be a fair bit of sewing going on during 2013 !  Hence the inclusion of some sewing related images in my design.

Materials I used to create my journal page are:

* Winter Limited Edition Promarkers
* Distress Inks in Black Soot; Frayed Burlap; Pumice Stone and Old Paper (applied using an   
   Inkyliscious brush and a Splodge Mat)
* Stamps by Dylusions; Hampton Arts; Reflections and a set of magazine freebies
* Goosebumpz Spray

After the design was completed, I flicked some water over the page to remove inks in spots and splodges randomly.  Finally I sprayed Goosebumpz over the whole page to set the inks, as DI's are not waterproof even when dry. 


The Goosbumpz isn't showing up on the main pic so here's a couple of close up shots which show it a little more clearly.  It gives the page a lovely soft sheen and texture. 


Thanks for checking out my last project of 2012, see you all next year !

True Blue Mood

How's your sunday going ?  I don't know about you but this weekend feels really strange to me, don't think my head or my body knows exactly what day of the week it is to be honest!  There's beef roasting in the oven, so I guess it must be sunday and just one more sleep and one more day until 2012 will be over and we'll be welcoming in a whole new year.

Whilst doing a little blog browsing this afternoon I came across a new challenge, thanks to my pal Linda - it's called 'SU-Only Challenges' and, as the name suggests, entries must contain only Stampin' Up! products.   Challenge #61 has the theme 'True Blue' and as I had some pretty SU! patterned papers of the right colour in my stash and a new set of Floral Frames Framelits dies that I haven't used yet, I thought I'd have a go this week.  Here's my card

Using a piece of the pretty double sided paper (sorry I don't know which set it's from, maybe someone could let me know?) I cut out a layer using the largest die in the set, then a layer with the next size down die cut from Midnight Muse cardstock.  The smallest layer was created using a stamp from the 'Mixed Bunch' set and cut out using the Blossom Punch.  The sentiment is from the 'Apothecary Art' stamp set and the tiny flowers in the corners from the 'Flight of the Butterfly' set - all using Baja Breeze ink.  I layered the sentiment over a scrap of the same patterned paper, but this time showing the design on the other side. 

Just a simple design on a 5 x 5 square card, and this will go into my stock of birthday cards ready to send out in the coming year.

I am building up my stock of SU! products, but there are so many more lovely things on my wishlist I guess I'll be collecting more during 2013 then ! 

Thanks for dropping by to check out today's project. 

Anything Goes......

It's thursday so a new challenge starts on the Cute Card Thursday blog, this week's theme is 'Anything Goes'.

It's never too early to start making your 'Thank You' cards to send out after christmas.  I've used this week's theme as an opportunity to get one made as my DT card. 

I love this stamp by Penny Black, so elegant and useful for many occasions depending on the colours used and the sentiment.  I used Copics to add touches of colour, SU! Cherry Cobbler ink to stamp the sentiment, a scrap of red card from my box of bits over which I added a length of gingham ribbon and a piece of red ric-rac.  The fancy edge was cut using an EK Success border punch.

A bit 'busy' to be a true CAS card but a simple and elegant design and now ready to post out in the next few days. 

Thanks for popping by today to check out today's project, why not hop over to the CCT blog to check out the other DT designs for inspiration, they're awesome.

Quilted Gifts

I hope everyone had a fantastic day yesterday, we ate far too much lovely food and Santa was very good to us all, leaving lots of lovely pressies under our tree.  It was a pretty 'full on' day with eight of us sitting down to eat our turkey dinner and christmas pud.

As all my family have now opened their gifts from me, I can safely share pix of the quilts I made as gifts for my Sister in Law and Niece, without spoiling the surprise.

This one was created using a mixture of colours from the Tradewinds Elephants collection of fabrics by Moda - SiL loves elephants so I knew I wanted to make a quilt for her with these fabrics.  I would have loved to cut the squares with an elephant in the centre of each one, but this would have created a great deal of waste fabric and would have meant me buying lots more lengths of each of the different colours of the fabric.  Despite this I think it's a nice bright and colourful finished quilt design.

 

Here's a close up shot of the quilt folded to show the pretty pink fleece I lined it with.  I quilted the whole thing with cross-hatch stitching, working diagonally across each square.

The next quilt is the one I made for my lovely Niece.  This one was constructed from around 100

4 inch x 4 inch fabric squares stitched together then a 4 inch wide border added around the edges.  I quilted this one by stitching 'in the ditch' (sewing along the seams) so the stitching is in squares.

 



 

Here's a close up shot of the quilt folded, I backed this one with the same pretty pink fleece.

Luckily both of them loved their snuggly lap quilts.

Enjoy the rest of your Boxing Day - me ?  Boxing Day in my home is all about having a really relaxing day - dinner is quickly pulled together from leftovers and we spend the day chilling out and doing anything we feel like doing.  I've been doing a bit of knitting and reading. 

Thanks for taking the time to check out my projects today.

Merry Christmas Everybody

To all my family, friends and the many kind and lovely people who visit my Blog from around the Globe to read about my crafty antics each week.  I really do appreciate each and every one of you and and love reading the comments you leave me. 

 

To all of you I wish 

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

 

However and with whoever you are spending the Festive Season, I wish Health, Happiness and Love to you and all your loved ones.

I'm Blessed to be spending Christmas with many of my family and by the wonders of modern technology and inventors of Skype, I am spending a 'virtual' Christmas with more family members who can't physically be here with me. 

Happy Holidays !

Quilting for Christmas

Hurrah !  I did manage to fully finish my Christmas Quilt in time after all.  I'm so pleased to have it all completed before the Big Day, wasn't sure I'd make it with all the other things I needed to get done.

I used a jelly roll by Moda to create the quilt top, this design is called 'Joy' and includes lovely bright and vibrant festive design fabrics.  I then backed it with cuddly red fleece rather than the more traditional fabric backing.  Lovely and snuggly to cuddle up with when the weather outside is as horrid as it is at the moment !  Thanks Dad for being my handy quilt hanger for this pic xx

Here's a couple of close up shots of the quilting, I used a fancy zig-zag stitch to 'stitch in the ditch' using red thread as a contrast against the fabric colours.

Hope you've enjoyed your visit today, thanks for dropping by to check out today's project.

A Stitch in Time.....

A stitch in time meant I managed to finish the table runner my pal asked me to make in time for her to use on the table for christmas day.  I was up against a tight deadline so decided to go with straight square patchwork pieced squares, 'stitched in the ditch' for the quilting element.  Here's a pic of it before I sent it off to my pal (she was delighted with it thankfully !).

I did promise/threaten to share pics of the table runner I made for my own christmas table once it was fully completed, so here it is

 

This close up shot shows the details of the 'Disappearing Nine Patch' design I used more clearly

 

 

and here's a shot of the backing/binding fabric

 

 

 



Thanks for dropping by to check today's projects, hope you enjoyed your visit. 

Eat, Drink and be Merry

Happy Thursday Bloggers, hope it's drier where you are than here in Cornwall !  Hours of rain and lots of flood warnings in the area right now - not at all pleasant.

As it's thursday we have a new challenge starting over on the Cute Card Thursday blog, our theme this week is 'Eat, Drink and Be Merry' and our prize is sponsored by Whimsy Stamps.

For my DT card I decided to use a stamp that has been in my stash for a very long time, but never actually been inked - how naughty am I ?   This is the delightful 'Baking with Nana' from Bells & Whistles and I can't believe I left it un-inked and unused for so long.   Looking at this image I can just smell the delicious aromas of christmas puddings and cakes baking - makes my mouth water !  I'm hoping to get time to get my mince pies made tomorrow, if I do that'll be one more thing to cross off my christmas 'To Do' list - how are your preparations coming along ?

When planning what to do for this week's challenge I thought about perhaps making a 'Happy New Year' card, but as I was going through my stamps looking for inspiration, I came across this one and I thought it would be ideal for the theme this week.  So, yet another christmas card and, as I've already sent out all my cards for this year, it will go into my stock for christmas 2013.

I coloured the image using Copics then fussy cut both characters, adding a little Glossy Accents on Nana's spectacles and on the christmas cake mix in her bowl.  The background paper is from Marianne's Designs 'Warm Winter Wishes' pack and I used a couple more different sheets from the pack to cut out layers using a set of Framelits dies from Stampin' Up!.  The christmas cake recipe was printed on pearl paper and I added red Stickles around the edges to 'lift' it against the bp.  I used Memento Rich Cocoa ink to distress all the paper layers before adding them to the design, a great way to define the die cut layers without actually matting them over larger layers. 

The sentiment is by Lilli of the Valley, stamped using SU! Cherry Cobbler ink and again I added red Stickles around the edges and on the hearts for added christmas twinkle.  I found a small length of ecru lace in my bag of ribbon/lace bits and added it to the bottom of the design as a finishing touch.

I hope you like today's card, do hop over to the CCT blog to check out the fabulous creations from the rest of the DT and maybe get inspired enough to enter our challenge this week - I'd love to see your interpretation of the theme.

Inchies, Rinchies, Twinchies and Moos.... oh and ATCs !

I'm not normally a fan of small/tiny projects, my style is much more to work bigger and bolder, but I do like to challenge and stretch myself by working outside my comfort zone occasionally.  Over on the 'Craft Mad and Loving It' group on Craftbubble, there's a monthly swap for ATCs or smaller, so I thought I'd sign up to the December swap which has the theme of  'Christmas'.

Now I do feel that an ATC is small and to go down to Inchies, Richies or Moos scares me somewhat !  I do like trying new things though, so decided to jump in and have a go at making some Moos.  I cut out my Moo bases and promptly went into a panic, all inspiration went out the window.  So I put them to one side and decided to go with ATC size instead for my swapsies.  Now I know this is a bit 'Cowardly Lion' but I just couldn't get inspired by the size of the Moos.

I have a little collection of Washi Tape in my stash, but have to confess that I haven't really used it much so far, so decided I would use some Washi on my ATCs.  I first covered two ATC size pieces of cardstock, one with greens and the other in reds.  I then used a Marianne's Craftable tree die to cut a shape out of the centre of the one covered in green Washi.  I attached this over the top of the piece covered in red Washi, using the negative die cut shape to reveal the layer underneath (leaving the tree shaped diecuts to use on some christmas cards).  Finally I added a star at the top of each tree shaped aperture, cut from silver mirri board using a star shaped Marianne's button die.

After finishing my ATCs for the swap, I looked again at the Moo blanks and thought I'd just have a go at doing something with them.  I decided to use some turquoise Dylusions to spray a random design on the base layers, just for fun, then I added a piece of the 'Let it Snow' Washi Tape along one edge and dribbled some gold paint on the ink spattered area.  I stamped the cute tall snowman from Sparkle'n'Sprinkle on to white card, coloured the image with Copics then cut it out.  A little Stickles 'snow' and Voila - a set of  Christmas themed Moos completed.  Not sure I'll rush to make more Moo's but these were quite fun to do.

I sent both the ATCs and Moos to Debs, who is kindly hosting the swap this month, and I hope the other members of the group like them.   By now everyone should have received their set of swaps from everyone else, so I think it's safe to share mine on here.  We all decided to keep them secret and not display them anywhere until each of us receives our full set of swapsies. 

 

When I received my swapsies from everyone else, I wanted to keep them all together so decided to put them on a page in my homemade smash book.  This one is my 'Arty Crafty Me' book and I'm putting lots of my creations and those of others in there.  I think the page of December swaps looks pretty good, what do you think ?

 

 

Thanks for popping by today.



Tag You're It

Friday again and another weekend approaches.  I've been busy wrapping christmas gifts for the past couple of days inbetween shopping and the usual chores !  On sunday I'll be collecting my Dad for his usual christmas holiday with us and at the same time we'll do a gift exchange with my Bruv, so I needed to get some tags made.  I'm excited to see my Dad and once he's here it will definitely feel as if the christmas holidays have begun.

Here's a couple of tags I created using the fabulous mini blueprint stamp set from Stampendous and Tim Holtz - did I tell you how much I adore these stamps ?

Firstly I cut out tag shapes using a Marianne's Design die and white cardstock, I then stamped the cute snowman image on them with Stampin'Up! Cherry Cobbler ink.  Using a Marianne's snowflake die and Cherry Cobbler cardstock I cut out the little embellishments and attached with nice strong glue.  I think the ric-rac ribbon looks really cute and very festive on these little parcels.  They'll be under the tree for someone special in a few days time.

Thanks for visiting to check out my latest project.  I've been busy sewing again and will have some finished projects to share with you over the next few days. 

Red and Blue for the Festive Season

Brrrrr... it's a bit 'parky' down here in my corner of Cornwall today, hope you're not too cold where you are.  Wrap up warm if you have to go out into the chill - luckily I'm able to stay in the warm at home today - not so luckily I'm tackling my mountain of ironing!  Still, once it's all done I think I'll have earned some crafting time, don't you ?

Well, I asked yesterday if you were sick of seeing Christmas cards and the comments I received said to 'keep 'em coming', soooo ...... here's another one for you.

 

 

Once again I've used the sweet winter season stamp from my Stampin'Up! hostess gift from last month with the pretty Baja Breeze ink.  I also used Baja Breeze cardstock to cut the holly spray and the scalloped base behind the stamped image.  I used circle nesties in plain and scallop to cut layers from BB and Real Red and also for the image.  Then used a Marianne's Designs die and matching sentiment for the shaped layer at the top and a Cheery Lynn holly die.  The bp is from the pack of papers I got in Hobbycraft recently and I've added some Stardust Stickles on the stamped image for a bit of sparkle which of course, as usual, isn't showing up in the pic.  I love the blue and red colour combo, a bit different for a christmas design. 

 

I made this card to give to a crafting pal and I think she liked it !

 



I'll have more creations to share with you next time, thanks for visiting today.

Mini Blueprint Christmas

Are you sick of seeing christmas cards yet ?  I hope not as I have another one to share with you today !

 

 

I absolutely adore the set of mini blueprint stamps by Stampendous I bought recently.  So far I've only used the christmas themed images from the set to create gift tags but wanted to make a card with them too. 

 

I stamped the images using Memento Cottage Ivy ink on to SU! Crumbcake cardstock, then added these over slightly larger layers of SU! Garden Green cardstock.  The bp is from the Warm Winter Wishes paper pack by Marianne's Designs and both the merry christmas ribbon and red ric-rac were from my stash. 

 

To finish off the design, I added small touches of Stardust Stickles on all the images to give them a little christmas sparkle.

 

This is one of my favourite christmas creations this year I think, the red/green/kraft colour combination is such a great one, I'm loving it.

 

Let me know if you are happy to see more christmas cards or if you're fed up with them !  I have a few more yet to share - so be warned !

Birthday Wishes - All in a Row

It's Sunday and I'm looking forward to meeting lovely friends for a pre-Christmas meal and catch up this evening - another night off cooking for me then Yay !

As I mentioned yesterday, the theme for this week's challenge over on the Simply Less is More Blog sparked a couple of design ideas for me, so here's my second entry for this week.

I needed to get a birthday card made for a male family member and this design fits the bill.  I used stamps from a couple of sets from Stampin' Up! stamped using SU! Baja Breeze ink.   My initial idea was to just stamp the three Happy Birthday squares, then after I'd done that I thought it would be fun to add the Happiest Birthday sentiment too.

Simple, clean, all in a row and one layer - perfect for the challenge I think.

Enjoy your Sunday peeps !

Snow, Snow, Snow.... All in a Row

I hope your saturday is going well, we've had lovely blue skies today, but the temperature is way down low !  Much nicer than the dull, dark and damp days we've had recently I must say.

This week's new challenge starting today on 'Simply Less is More' is a One Layer card and the theme is 'In a Row'. 

For my entry I've used a cute set of Snowie stamps from Artemio.  I stamped directly in a row along the bottom of the base card, then added some soft colouring using Copics, creating my one layer design. 

 

I added Stardust Stickles for a snowy effect on the ground, on top of the log and also on the Snowpeople's hats, plus just a touch on the snowflakes forming part of the sentiment.  The sentiment was from a set of magazine freebie stamps, stamped using SU! Baja Breeze ink.

There's another idea brewing in my head for this challenge, so I may be back with a second entry for this week later.  I haven't been able to participate in many of the LIM challenges over the past few weeks, so maybe I'll catch up a bit this week. 

Thanks for visiting today, it's great to see you.

Festive Table Treats

How are your christmas preparations going ?  I'm doing quite well now and have been making some little treats to put on our Festive Table on the big day.

These little treat boxes are such fun to make from a small sheet of heavyweight patterned paper.

For my project I used papers by Stampin'Up! a little £1 tree stamp I picked up at Hobbycraft recently for the tag, and some red and white twine to wrap around and attach the tag.

You can make these boxes any size you wish, I used paper cut to 5 inches x 4 inches as this makes a finished box just large enough to hold three foil wrapped mint chocolates. 

Just a quick post from me today, I'm out for a lovely christmas party meal this evening with friends, should be fun !

Thanks for your visit today, hope you'll be back soon.

Red and Green

It's Thursday again and time for a new challenge to start over on the Cute Card Thursday blog.  Our prize sponsor this week is Love to Stamp and we have a Red and Green theme.  These two colours are very popular at this time of year, so I'm expecting to see lots of christmas card entries this week.

For my DT card I've chosen to use a stamp from the lovely new bauble set of stamps I recently bought from Stampin' Up!. 

I stamped the bauble three times onto white cardstock using SU! Cherry Cobbler ink - I'm quite pleased with myself getting them all lined up fairly well without using a 'stamp-a-majig' or anything, just lined them up by eye.  I then attached this over a layer of SU! Pear Pizzaz cardstock and tied a length of red and white twine just above the stamped layer.  This was then layered onto a very slightly larger piece of Cherry Cobbler cardstock to make the whole thing pop against the white basecard.

I then drew a line from the top edge down to each of the baubles using a red Spica Glitter Pen, making it appear that they are hanging from the twine. I added touches of gold Stickles on the baubles but this just isn't showing up on the pic.  Finally I stamped the Marianne's sentiment in the top right corner using Cherry Cobbler ink. 

Another CAS design for today's project, I made this card for a pal who is a great fan of clean, simple and elegant designs, I hope she likes it !

Do pop over to the CCT blog to check out the fabulous creations from the rest of the DT, they are such a talented group it's well worth a visit.  We'd love to see an entry from you too, why not give it a try this week ?

Thanks for dropping by to check out today's project.

Blue Christmas ?

I can't believe it's wednesday again already, my how this week is flying by ! 

I'm sharing another batch of christmas cards I've created this week.  When I printed out my list of friends and family to send cards to I realised I needed to make quite a few more to add to those I'd already finished.

For this year I've made lots of my cards in the Clean and Simple (CAS) style for a couple of reasons.

1. I really enjoy working in the CAS style and

2. they are lighter and flatter to send through the post when they are winging their way to various parts of the world.

I used the SU! Four Seasons Hostess stamp set and Baja Breez ink to stamp the Winter Season image from the set.  I then cut the stamped image out using a set of nestie scalloped circle dies.  I added this over a slightly larger layer, cut using the next size larger die in the set, from Baja Breeze cardstock.

The sentiment is from a Marianne's stamp set stamped with the same ink and I added touches of Stardust Stickles on the snowflakes and on the hat of the bird in the centre of the image for a bit of christmas sparkle. 

Thanks for visiting today, I do appreciate you taking the time to check out my projects.

ATCAS Baubles

The codeword for challenge #2 on the Addicted to CAS blog is 'Bauble'.  For my entry this week I decided to use my set of Stampin'Up! Sizzix Holiday Ornaments Framelits which I bought last month.  Rather than use the dies with the matching stamps I thought I'd use them to cut bauble shapes from some lovely SU! christmas papers.

After cutting the bauble shapes from patterned paper, I used the just the top of the dies with gold mirror card to create a cap for each of them.  By using the same dies the cap fits exactly on the top of each bauble. 

On a 5 x 5 base card I doodled some curly 'strings' with a red Spica Glitter Pen before attaching the bauble shapes in position so they look as though they are hanging from the top of the card.  Finally I added touches of Stardust Stickles to give the baubles some christmas sparkle.  The sentiment is from a set of stamps by Marianne's, stamped using SU! Cherry Cobbler ink.

Yet another christmas card finished, I think I may almost have enough made now.  I'm busy getting them all written and ready to post in the next couple of days.  I have a few birthday cards to make for family and friends with birthdays in December and early January, so it will be a nice change to create something other than christmas cards this week

Thanks for taking the time to check out my project today.

Green and Red - How Festive !

Happy Monday and welcome to a new week.  This year I vowed to get myself organised much earlier in the year for Christmas, planned on making at least one card a week throughout the year.  I started off quite well, but then went for months without making a single one !  I have been doing some batch making and thought I had almost enough cards finished, however when I sat down to write my cards in preparation to send them out, I discovered I needed quite a few more. 

This week's colour theme on the Simply Less is More challenge is Red and Green - perfect for some seasonal cards.  So I've created an entry for this week and added another card to my stock ready to send out.

I've had some Washi Tape in my stash for a while but haven't really played with it very much so far, so thought I'd dig it out and use it.  I stuck the Washi on to a piece of white cardstock then cut out the tree shape using a set of Marianne's Craftables dies.  I added the Washi tree over a couple more layers in red and green using larger dies in the set.  A sparkly gem on the top of the tree, a sentiment from a set by Marianne's stamped in Pear Pizzaz SU! ink and my Red and Green LIM card was finished.

I made a couple of cards in this design before selecting the one to enter for the challenge, here's a pic of both of them together.

Right, I'm off to continue more card writing, hope you have a great day, thanks for dropping by to check today's project.