Mostly Words

I hope you've had a great weekend, here in my little part of Cornwall the weather has been fabulous all weekend, lovely warm and sunny.  I've been making a few batches of Christmas cards over the weekend and it has felt a little strange working with icy images and festive sentiments during this warm weather.

I've made batches of around 5 or 6 of each design, this is one of the designs which I think is perfect for the challenge launched yesterday on the Simply Less is More Blog with the theme of  'Mostly Words' .

I used a festive words embossing folder on a plain white C6 base card to create the background.

Using a set of stamps and matching dies from Sizzix Hero Arts to stamp the Happy Holidays square and cut out using the die.  Using a set of Sizzix Framelits dies I cut the pennant shape from a scrap of Stampin' Up! Cherry Cobbler cardstock, and attached it behind the square.

A simple but effective design I think and ideal for batch making, good to know I've added a few more to my stock of cards for this Christmas.

Thanks for dropping by to check out my latest project,  I hope you enjoyed your visit.

Dies and Punches

Happy Thursday everyone, we have a new challenge for you starting today over on the Cute Card Thursday Challenge Blog.  This week our theme is 'Dies and Punches' and our prize sponsor is Rick St Dennis.  If you're looking for digi images that are a little out of the 'ordinary'  then check out Rick's images.

I'm playing catch up with my Christmas card making as I still need to get quite a few made during the next few weeks, so I decided to use one of Rick's Christmas images to make my DT card this week.

I created a background layer using a Sheena Douglas embossing folder and white cardstock.  After embossing I rubbed over some Pewter Treasure Gold paste to highlight the raised areas.  I then attached this over a slightly larger layer of red card before attaching to the base card.

After printing the digi image I coloured it using my ProMarker pens and fussy cut out.  I then added Glossy Accents on the cherry, holly leaves and berries and a touch of Stardust Stickles on the cream and icing on top of the cookies.

The sentiment was created using a die - which was a magazine freebie - and more of the red cardstock.

The pine bough was cut out using a Marianne's die and the Poinsettias were punched out using Nellie's Choice punch and emboss sets in two sizes.  I used a gold Waco Pearlmaker Pen to add centres to the Poinsettias to finish them off.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing today's project, do hop over to the CCT Blog to check out the other DT designs this week. 

Thanks for visiting today.

WOYWDW

Happy Wednesday folks, I hope you have a wonderful day wherever in the world you are.

I don't have a new project to share with you today, however I do have a What's on Your Work Desk Wednesday pic to share.

This is mostly the reason I don't have a new project to share with you !  My gorgeous Fur Baby Tilly loves nothing better than sitting up on the table beside me when I'm working.  She would be more than happy if I was to sit with her on my knee all day, she loves cuddles and always wants to join in with everything I'm doing.  She gets extra cuddles on days that I do some knitting, which are her favourite days.

I have a project to share with you tomorrow, hope you'll drop by again to check it out. 

Sweet Sixteen

What a wonderful warm and sunny Sunday it is here in my little bit of Cornwall, hope your day is beautiful too, wherever you are in the world.

Recently a good friend asked me to make a 'sweet sixteen' card for her youngest daughter.  The brief was - aqua blue, cream, hearts, sparkle and "lots of feathers" - easy peasy then eh ?

Here's the design I came up with

 

I'm told the Birthday Girl loved it, which is always good to hear.

I created the background using various Distress Inks and Dylusions spray inks, then stamped the stars on strings image (a Craft Stamper freebie) and the larger stars using DIs.   A little Stardust Stickles over the stars added sparkle.

The image is an old Sugar Nellie stamp - which hasn't seen ink in a very long time - coloured using Copics then cut out using a set of Sizzix heart shaped thinlit dies.  I used a larger die to cut out another layer, which I coloured using DIs.

Luckily I had feathers in the right colours in my stash and added lots of them behind the image layer before attaching it to the larger heart layer.  Using a Waco Pearlmaker Pen I added dots around the coloured image and on her dress.

The two lengths of lace were from my stash and I had these cute burlap flowers and butterflies which I thought would be perfect to finish off the design.  I added flower centres and butterfly bodies using the same Pearlmaker pen.

To give you a sense of scale, the base card was an 8 x 8 scalloped square card.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing today's project, thanks so much for dropping by.  I do always try to visit the blogs of all those lovely people who leave me comments, it's so nice to get feedback.

Happy Birthday Harry

Happy Birthday to my Grandson Harry - 17 years old today.  It seems like only yesterday since I was there when he came into the world and took his first breath.   Time certainly flies !

This is the card I created for Harry, I hope he liked it.

It's a one layer card and I created the background using distress inks, stencils and stamps.  I used one of my favourite stamp sets by Hero Arts.  I love the Graffiti stamp and the fabby splats and squiggles.

After I'd completed the base layer, I added a spray of Goose Bumps to set the DIs and make them waterproof.

I used a Spellbinders trellis die to cut some black card, then snipped a piece of it in a random shape and attached this over the background.

Using two sets of Stampin'Up! stamps I stamped the chevron pennant and the 'Blackboard' style sentiment then cut them out.  I attached these over the background to complete the design.

Thanks for dropping by to check out my project today, I hope you like it.

Rainbows

As it's Thursday, we have a new challenge starting over on the Cute Card Thursday Blog today.  Our theme this week is 'Rainbows' and our prize sponsor is Bunny Zoe Crafts. 

Here's my DT card, created for inspiration Recently I bought some Brusho paints, I'd seen them used on some fabulous creations on the internet and wanted to try them out myself.  They are a highly pigmented powder form of paints and so very versatile.  I've only scratched the surface of what I can do with them, but this first play was great fun.

To create the background, I used a piece of watercolour paper, spritzed it with water and then tapped out a few grains of different colours of Brusho onto the wet paper.  I then spritzed with water again and let the colours spread and mingle until I was happy with it, I then blotted with  tissue to remove the excess paint.

I then stamped the 'Raindrops' by Ryn on top of the dry background, using black Archival Ink.  I used a butterfly stamp from a set of Stampin'Up! stamps on another scrap of watercolour paper which I'd also coloured using the Brushos.  I cut out the butterfly images to add over the background, decorating with a little Stardust Stickles on the wings and Glossy Accents on the body area.

On the raindrops I added a few touches of white gel pen, to add to the realistic appearance of the water drops.  Finally, adding Glossy Accents over each drop to complete the authentic 3D 'wet' look.

I matted the background layer over a piece of black card and attached to the base card, on which I'd stamped the SU! sentiment in the bottom right hand corner. 

Here's a close up shot showing the raindrops more clearly.

 

The inspiration for my card design came from the amazing work by the very talented Eileen Godwin, thank you for inspiring me Eileen ! 

I hope you've enjoyed your visit today to check out my project, do pop over to the CCT Blog to see the fabulous creations from the rest of the DT for this week's challenge.

My Clever Dad

Hi there Bloggers, I've got a treat in store for you today.  A few days ago I promised to share pix of the projects my lovely Dad created during his stay with me over the past month.

Dad is a card maker and paper crafter these days, he used to do wonderful wood turning and carving, marquetry as well as cabinet making when he was a little younger.  These days the only sharp tools he gets to use are scissors and pokey tools !

Here are his latest projects

Dad tried out a few new skills this trip, working with Brushos to create water colour backgrounds, colouring images with water colours, heat embossing and building a scene using silhouette stamps. 

He made the ladybug pillow box to hold a few sweeties for the nurse who does his regular blood tests - not surprisingly, the nurses look forward to Dad coming in for his appointmens !

Dad is home again now and I'm really missing having him around.  I'll be seeing him again in November, and possibly a little sooner than that too if plans work out.

Thanks for dropping by here today, I'm very proud of my Dad and his achievements and very happy to share these pix with you.