Special Remembrance

This day each year is always bitter sweet for myself and my family as it's the anniversary of the day my lovely Mom received her wings and left us to continue our lives without her. 

As I begin to see all the decorations and costumes for Halloween Trick or Treat appearing in the shops as we progress through Autumn, it always brings to mind the sad journey I took to see my Mom for the last time.

Love You Mom and always will
RIP
xx


Yesterday, I went along to a South West Arty Crafters workshop with Bernie Simmons.  We had lots of fun, got inky fingers and I came home with two partly completed projects.  Thanks Bernie.

First up are the covers from my Art Journal which I decorated using gesso, Distress Inks, texture paste, stencils, stamps and various embellishments.  It's still a WiP as I have a few items to add etc.

Secondly, we worked on some MDF Christmas bauble,s painted using Mica Powders. 

I selected a tree shaped bauble which I covered with gesso then stamped on both sides - using some Hobby Art stamps - and started to colour using the MPs.  Again, a WiP and I will share pix of both these projects at a later date once they are completed.  I'll be adding more colours and lots of sparkle and bling using glitter and gems etc.

Thanks for dropping by to check out my blog today, I love receiving visitors !

Razzle Dazzle Thursday

Hi Folks, it's Thursday again and so I have a card to share with you.  It's my DT project for this week's challenge on the Cute Card Thursday Blog.  The theme for this challenge is 'Razzle Dazzle' and the prize sponsor is Bugaboo Stamps.

I decided on a CAS layout for my card, although the main image was actually far from CAS to create !

To create the main element I first took a piece of Tim Holtz text printed tissue - I've had this in my stash for a very long time but had not used any of it - glued the tissue to a piece of white card large enough to fit the stamped image. 

After the tissue covered panel was dry, I brushed some PaperArtsy acrylic semi-opaque paint around the edges to age/distress it a little.   I then stamped the image using Versamark and embossed with black embossing powder.  The image is a Karantha Stamp by Crafty Notions.

Using PaperArtsy acrylic chalk paints I roughly painted the flowers and leaves of the image, allowing the paints to spread outside the image outline.  Once this was dry, I painted a thin layer over the whole thing with PaperArtsy acrylic metallic glaze, to give the panel a shiny finish without covering up the text background too much.  Using a soft dry cloth, I rubbed gently over the embossed image to remove the metallic glaze and chalk paints and reveal the black embossed outline underneath.

Finally I sprinkled on some Aged Silver Frantage embossing enamel and used a heat gun to melt it from underneath.

Here's a close up shot of the panel showing the melted Frantage

I attached the decorated panel to a slightly larger piece of black card then adhered to an 8 x 8 scalloped base card.  Using a stamp from a PaperArtsy set I stamped the sentiment with jet black Archival ink and added three gems as a finishing touch. 

This week's challenge over on the Simply Less is More Blog has the theme of  'Newsprint' and as my card is CAS and has 'newsprint' on it I will be entering the LIM challenge with it.

Thank you for dropping by to check out today's project, hope you enjoyed your visit.

A Masculine Card and other 'Stuff'

I'm back !  Just had a few days away from home, hence nothing much has been happening here on Stamping Grandma recently - now that I'm back, I hope to get a little more crafting done than of late. 

As a start, here's a card made for a man - I never find masculine cards easy to make, but this one came together quite easily once I'd decided on a design.

I've had the 12 x 12 Graphic 45 Communique paper pad for quite a while and had only cut into a couple of sheets.  I decided the colours and designs were perfect for my design for this card.

All of the backgrounds, images, labels and wording are from the Communique pad and as you can see there's a lot to choose from.

This was created as a birthday card, but I didn't feel a 'Happy Birthday' sentiment would fit onto the front, so stamped an appropriate message inside.

During my little trip away from home, I met up with a lovely crafting pal - thanks so much for such a lovely afternoon Lauren.  We visited a craft village in Essex called Barleylands and found lots of lovely things we never even knew we needed Ha Ha !   Here's my crafty haul from our trip.

I'm so looking forward to playing with these new goodies. I did also manage to pick up a few little Christmas gifts too which was an added bonus (of course I haven't included them in the pic of my new stash).

I've had a little play on my sewing machine since I got home and - inspired by the gift tag on Lauren's fabulous gift of homemade jam and pickled beetroot  - I stitched a couple of fabric tags.  These are my first couple of attempts and I'm sure I'll find ways to improve my production methods and designs!    I used one of my newly acquired stamps to decorate the larger heart cut from calico fabric and the sentiment is a Stampin'Up! stamp and used a couple of scraps of patterned fabric for the other one.  I'm thinking I might add some lace around the edge of the next one I make to pretty it up a bit more.

I've included a few different items in this post to make up for the lack of posts in recent days, I hope you've enjoyed your visit. 

Cosy Mittens

I'm sharing another little batch of Christmas cards with you today.  I'm liking the CAS style right now plus embossed backgrounds, so today's design incorporates both these styles.

I embossed the front of C6 base cards with this fun Christmas folder.  Using a set of stamp and dies from Sizzix/HeroArts I stamped the cosy mittens image using SU! inks in Raspberry Ripple and Baja Breeze then cut out with the matching dies.  I joined each pair of mittens with a length of twine and added a touch of Stardust Stickles on the cuffs.

The sentiment and snowflake stamps are from the same set as the mittens and sentiment .  Using a SU! punch I cut out scalloped circles from white card and stamped the sentiment and snowflakes using black ink.  Finally adding a touch of Stickles on each snowflake for added sparkle. 

The mittens and sentiment were attached using Pinflair glue to give them a little dimension.

Thanks for taking the time to visit I hope you liked today's project.

Festive but just one layer

Bit late posting today, sorry.  As it's Thursday again, we have a new challenge starting over on the Cute Card Thursday Blog.  This week our theme is 'One Layer' and our prize sponsor is Whimsy Stamps.  Here's my DT card.

I love one layer cards and I'm still needing to make a few batches of Christmas cards, so today's project fits both.  I'm not sure which colour I prefer I like them both, which do you prefer ?

Using a C6 size scallop edged card, I embossed the front with this fabulous Christmas bauble embossing folder.  I really feel it needs very little extra embellishment as it's pretty on it's own.  However, I added just a few coloured gems as highlights.

The sentiment was created using a Hero Arts/Sizzix stamp and die set and stamped using Stampin'Up! inks then cut out with the matching die.

There we are Simples !  Ideal for when you need to make lots of cards (which I do each year).  Making an embossed background and adding a sentiment is a great way to do this and making it a one layer card is even quicker than attaching an embossed layer to the base card.

I hope you enjoyed today's project and thank you for visiting. 

Not a card in sight

It's Thursday which means a new challenge starts over on the Cute Card Thursday Challenge Blog today..  This week the theme is 'Anything But a Card' and our prize sponsor is Whiff of Joy Stamps.

Whilst deciding what to create for my DT project this week, I thought of maybe making a tag, or a pretty box design.  Then as I was looking through my stash hoping inspiration would strike, I came across a small MDF shelf unit kit I bought from Stamps Away a little while ago.

Here's what I did with it

 

After assembling the shelf unit components, I painted the whole unit with black gesso.  I gave it a couple of coats to give a nice even coverage. 

 

I then selected the 'Communique 12 x 12 paper pad by Graphic 45 - I'm loving all the Graphic 45 papers and matching embellishments at the moment.  I cut papers from the pad to fit the various parts of the unit and attached them using PinFlair Bookbinders Glue.

 

I then fussy cut some small images from a few pages in the paper pad and attached them.

 

Here's a side view which shows the outside a little more clearly.

 

 

To finish the whole unit nicely and make it more robust, I gave the whole thing two coats of Crafters' Companion Spray and Shine.  I plan to use it for storage so the light varnish coating should make the papers more hardwearing.

Thanks for dropping by today, I hope you enjoyed seeing my latest project.

Ikebana

Happy Monday morning everyone, there's a definite Autumnal air here in my bit of Cornwall, we had lots of heavy rain and strong winds overnight.  I guess our 'Indian Summer' is now over and we are hurtling full speed into Autumn and Winter.  I can't believe that last Thursday morning I was sitting on Plymouth Hoe drinking coffee in glorious sunshine, it was so hot even at 10.30am.  I do love all the fabulous colours nature brings us at this time of year, but I don't like the colder weather brrrr.... !  I'll be breaking out my warm and snuggly quilts to wrap up in now the cooler evenings are here.

Now down to crafting matters.  I've been sharing lots of Christmas designs with you recently, but today I thought I'd give you a bit of a break and bring you something different.

 

I've been playing with my Brushos again, creating some gloriously colourful backgrounds.  I created this one on a piece of watercolour paper, spritzing the paper with water, sprinkling on a few grains of Brusho crystals then spritzing water over again. Used like this the crystals seem to 'explode' with colour and create amazing effects.  I could have dabbed over with kitchen towel to remove some of the water and dry it more quickly, but I left this piece to dry naturally preserving more of the rich colour.

 

Once the background was fully dry I stamped this gorgeous Inkyliscious 'Ikebana' stamp using black Archival ink.  I then sprinkled a little Aged Silver Frantage embossing enamel onto a few parts of the background and heated from underneath.  

I attached the finished layer over a slightly larger black mat and positions slightly left of centre on a 7 x 5 base card, leaving room to stamp the 'Thinking of You' sentiment from the stamp set vertically on the right hand side.

This card could be used for a number of occasions, I like to keep a few 'thinking of you' cards in my stock for when I need a card in a hurry.

Hope you like today's project, thanks for taking the time to drop by.  I'd love to know if you've 'discovered' Brushos too and what you think of them - I just love them !

Have a great day whatever you have planned.

Santa's Little Helper

Hi Folks, I've another Christmas card to share with you today I'm afraid !  I just love this cute Elf  stamp from Penny Black.

I'd stamped and coloured this cute chap some months ago during a crafting weekend with my lovely pal, the Purple Princess (aka Kathy).

I came across the ready coloured image when I was sorting through my Christmas card making bits and bobs and decided he definitely needed to be turned into a card.

It's a nice large image and I decided a simple layout would work best.  I just matted the image over a layer of red cardstock and attached this over a piece of red and white patterned paper that I found in my stash.  I used a plain 6 x 6 base card.

The sentiment is a Little Claire's image, stamped in red and cut out using a Spellbinders scalloped circle die.

As a final touch of sparkle, I added Stardust Stickles to his hat trim and bobble and Glossy Accents to his fabby green boots and the ribbon around the gift.

One more card added to my Christmas stock for this year.  I hope you like today's project and have enjoyed your visit today, thanks for taking the time to drop by.

Spots and Dots

Welcome to Stamping Grandma's little crafting space, are you having a great day ?  I really hope so wherever in the world you are.

This week's challenge over on the Cute Card Thursday Blog has 'Spots and Dots' as the theme and our prize sponsor is Bunny Zoe Crafts for this challenge.

I'm trying to get ahead with my Christmas cardmaking for this year - the festive season is actually scarily close already. So apologies in advance, but there are likely to be quite a few on here over the next week or so ! 

Today's DT card is one of the Christmas designs for this year, I made a small batch of them - I find it easier to batch make each design. 

My take on the 'Spots and Dots' theme was to use the fabulous snowfall embossing folder by Sheena Douglas - I bought this one and a couple of others in the Christmas set, from Crafters' Companion recently.

Another new item in my stash that I used on this card is the Sizzix stamp and matching die set I bought recently in the Sizzix Sale.  It was too much of a bargain to miss (even though I had vowed NOT to buy any more Christmas stamps, dies, embossing folders, papers etc this year as I have a huge Christmas themed stash - I failed miserably, of course !)

I stamped the Snowman Snowglobe image using Black Archival ink, and cut it out using the matching die.  I then ran just the globe part of the image through the snowfall embossing folder, leaving the base un-embossed.  I then coloured the base of the globe using my ProMarkers.

The sentiment and snowflake are from the same stamp set and were cut out using the matching dies.  I then attached the various elements to the card front and finally added a touch of Stardust Stickles over the snowman.  He's such a happy looking chap standing there in his snowglobe, I'm sure he'll put a smile on the face of those who receive one of these cards from me.

Thanks for dropping by to see today's project, I hope you enjoyed your visit.  The creations from the rest of the DT and full details of this week's challenge can be found on the CCT Blog - enjoy !

Have a great day.