Crafts Beautiful May ATC Swap

Silly me ! I am getting myself all confused ! I shouldn't have posted my last post about the ATC swap because that is going on now. Never mind !

The May ATC swap's theme was Butterflies and these are the ATC's I made for it. I loved making these butterflies and it was the first time I had tried my hand at decoupage. I had been given a sheet of these butterflies in the prize I received from the Crafts Beautiful team for a competiton I won on the forum for Issue 12's "Let's Make Cards" challenge.

I return I received the first two ATC's in the picture and a lovely RAK from SusieB who hosted the swap - thank you all.

I am looking forward to see what the next theme will be and hopefully next time, I will post them in the right order !!!

Bind It All

I bought a Bind It All for a bargain price a couple of months ago but sadly, I've only used it once to make a birthday book.

The lovely Martine McKnight from the Crafts Beautiful forum designed my blog header and as a thank you I sent her a RAK (random act of kindness) consisting of a few stamped images, some clear stamps, ribbon etc. and I decided while wrapping it all up to give her something else and decided to get my Bind It All out of the box and use it. I made this notebook which was really easy. The chipboard I used from the covers were some backs of telephone note books I had asked the girls to collect for me at the place I work providing holiday and sickness cover and one piece gave me two covers so I was really pleased with that as it came for free !

The papers I used were Basic Grey Sugared.

The alphabet used for the word "Notes" is a Cuttlekids alphabet which I think is called "Fairy".

I used my Colorbox chalks to colour the letters and background.

The ribbon was from my local market.

Martine said she loved the notebook so it was a success ! I must admit, I toyed with the idea of keeping it myself !

Tilda & Co - That Torn It Challenge

The challenge on Tilda & Co this time is entitled "That Torn It" and this is my entry. I really enjoyed doing this one and tearing things has some sort of satisfaction feel to it !

The papers I used are Basic Grey Two Scoops and Basic Grey Sugared. I love these papers.

I coloured the sun with a yellow Sakura glaze pen (gives a lovely glossy, glass like look on paper) and a touch of orange Sakura stardust pen to give that extra *sparkle*.

Can't wait to see what the next challenge is !

Crafts Beautiful ATC Swap

Every month I take part in the Crafts Beautiful ATC Swap and although I find inspiration for the themes difficult, I love it ! The theme this month was "black and white" and I chose this too because I thought it would be easy. How wrong I could be ! When the votes were counted and the theme was black and white, I had no idea what to do.

With all my craft drawers and boxes opened all over the floor and every scrap and piece of paper looked at, I suddenly thought of an idea and this is what I came up with and I'm very pleased with the result.

This how I made them :

I covered the ATC size cards with black paper and then stamped the Dovecraft butterfly stamp on it with Frost White Colorbox Classing Pigment Cats Eyes Chalk and I then edged the ATC with Star Dust Stickles.

I then had some small tiles which I had bought from a craft shop to try out. I stamped the butterfly stamp on the tile with black Stazon and I also edged the tile too with the Stazon. When it was dry, I highlighted the wings with my clear Sakura Stardust pen so it had a shine.

I then covered the tile with a Versamark Watermark stamp pad and then put clear embossing powder on it and heated it up. Then while the glaze was still hot, I kept adding layers of embossing powder and heated it up until it formed a very glossy layer. This is called "triple embossing" and is very effective.

I then added a creamy white ribbon with a Papermania pearl brad.

I hope the people who received my ATC's in the swap liked them ?!

Don't you just love Penny Black's ?

We all had a lovely day out yesterday to Swindon as I wanted to browse round The Papermillshop and also The Range. I saw that The Papermillshop had the new Colour My World, More Than Words, Mini Word Album Templates there and I have an idea in my head for using them so I bought a couple along with many other things including these delicious Penny Black stamps (well you have to, don't you ?!). Both The Papermillshop and The Range had the 99p Studio G clear stamps there which are fantastic value and The Range were also selling a lot of Studio G (Dovecraft) wooden stamps for 99p. Did I fill up my basket ? Of course I did ! I also managed to buy a few bits and pieces for a RAK that I am making up so I was very happy.

Last night was spent fiddling with my purchases and trying them out and then I had a go with my Bind it All. I can't show you the picture yet as I don't want the receiver seeing it yet.

Tonight have spent playing with my Penny Black stamps. I love the animal Penny Blacks and have lots of them but for a change I decided to go for flowers and butterfly's. This is the result of my play tonight.

How I made my card :

Backing papers are Basic Grey Two Scoops 6x6 paper pad
Penny Black "Constellations (3867K) coloured with Whispers pens and then spritzed with water to give water coloured effect and put onto watercolour paper.
Penny Black "Bohemian (3864F) again coloured with Whispers pens and then spritzed with water and then "Waterfall" Stickles added.
Sentiment is a Dovecraft stamp (DCRS96) coloured with Colorbox Liquid Chalk Pads Dark Moss and Chestnut Roan.
Edged were brushed with All Night Media Blending Chalks, Earth Tones.

I also managed a play today too

I made this card with my second Ladybug stamp and this time, I tried printing and painting (with watercolour pencils) on watercolour paper and it was a lot easier to blend the colours as it did not dry quite as quickly as ordinary card and also it didn't buckle.

The papers used are Papermania Simply Elegant.

The beads are from Bijoux Beads in Bath - a gorgeous shop, just like buying sweets but a lot more expensive and you want more of them !

I have competition !

My darling little girl, Ski, decided she wanted to make a card today and knew exactly what she wanted to do and how she wanted to make it. After a few minutes of rummaging through my stash she finally found what she wanted. With a little bit of help with cutting and sticking of the backing paper, she was off and look what she created ! What a star and a budding crafter ! Well done, precious !

My girls and I also had a lovely afternoon together and went to our local craft shop to see a DoCrafts demonstration by Dianne Herbert who was excellent and she thoroughly entertained both girls. There was only one problem. There wasn't anything Di got out of her tote that Ski had to shout around the shop "my Mum has that", "my Mum has that as well" ! I obviously spend far too much money and have far too much stash ! We made a hasty retreat to the park !

Thank's Di, you were brilliant !

Yippeee ! My new Ladybug Stamps have arrived !

My wonderful Postman brought my Ladybug stamps today and they are lovely ! I just hope I have done the colouring justice as I'm no artist.

How I made this card :

Ladybug stamped with black Versafine and coloured with Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils.

Touch of "Waterfall" Stickles on the flower petals.

Zig-Zags and dots are a rub-off by Papermania.

Backing papers are Papermania Retro Floral.

Yellow mat paper is handmade paper from Readicut

Flowers and brads are Papermania with Waterfall Stickles on the brads (hope it dries !).

I also edged the card in ColorBox fluid chalk inkpad (Blue Iris) - if it stands still long enough it gets "Colorboxed" !! Hehehehe !

I now have 2 other Ladybug stamps to try out and I will hopefully with get a play with those soon.

Tilda and Co Beads of Glory Challenge

I have decided to take part for the first time in the Tilda and Co Challenge. This is my entry. Keep your fingers crossed for me, I could do with another stamp to add to my ever growing collection !!

Can I break the rules ?

Now its not a terrible crime I am committing I am sure ! I would like to break the rules by passing on these lovely awards to a 4th person who I think truly deserves them. Her name is Kerry Jo and I have seen her on the DoCrafts Forum. He is a very talented lady, she makes fantastic cards and has just had her "doodles" made into a set of stamps and they are for sale on the Debbi Moore website http://www.debbimoore.co.uk/prodpage.asp?ProdID=655

Well done Kerry !

I have made the decision !

Wow, it was a hard decision to make and I have been thinking about it all day. I have decided to pass these award to :

****Drum Rolls****

http://enjayscraftpages.blogspot.com/

http://thecraftmaid.blogspot.com/

http://thecrafttable.blogspot.com/

Enjoy !

New Card

I have been busy this afternoon making a card for my Uncle's birthday. Male cards are so difficult but I bought this paper a while back and just knew it would come in handy sometime !

The backing paper is K & Company 12x12 Hopscotch Boy Toy Toss flat paper (what a name !) and I cut the little red car out of a piece and decoupaged it.

The circles are from K & Company 12x12 Hopscotch Boy Circles Flat paper and again I cut these out from the piece of paper.

The alphabet letters are from a free download from Shabby Princess.

The matting paper is from a handmade paper pack I bought from Readicut a while ago.

Award ? Me ?

But not just 1 award but 3 of them !

What a fantastic surprise I had this morning when I received a personal message from Lauren (Lollies) saying that she was passing on these 3 wonderful awards. I am amazed and feel so honoured, thank you so much. It means so much to me and I feel so proud to be able to display them on my blog !

Please visit Lollies blog, its a lovely place to go and have a wander - http://cardsandothercraftystuff.blogspot.com

I now have to pass these awards onto 3 other people. I have so many in mind it is hard to choose but I shall have a ponder and will post the lucky recipients names later.

I've been lost !

Well, what a day today (and for that matter, last night too !).

It seems that the email system is down and so I can't send (or even worse) receive emails. It's amazing how much you miss something when it's no longer there even if it is just emails. The problem still isn't fixed and its very frustrating. We were up until midnight last night thinking it was a problem with our PC and we were trying to fix it. We gave up in the end !

On a happier note I finally worked out yesterday afternoon how to design my ATC's for the CB June swap. The theme is black and white. I chose black and white thinking it would be easy but I had no inspiration at all for it and kept putting it off. I like colours far too much. The poll closed yesterday and it was time to pull my finger out. After all the deliberating, thinking, fussing and faffing I suddenly had a burst of enthusiasum and inspiration and ideas were coming out of nowhere and every single storage box I had was open on the floor with bits flying everywhere to find what I needed !

With the house like a tip, my OH and kids moaning because they were starving and I only had 10 minutes to get my little one off for dancing lessons, I was dancing around the room, kissing everyone and anything in sight because my ATC's were finally done and even better, they look fantastic (well, I think so anyway !).

I'm not posting a picture yet as I haven't sent them off yet. I will add a picture later.

Wow, a blog for me !

Well, here I am ! A blog ! This morning it was just a "I wonder if I could have one of those" and now, this afternoon, I'm typing my first post !

My OH has gone off to work and I amazingly have managed to set this up all myself, I am soooo pleased with myself !

I only started card making just before Christmas after seeing my best friend trying her hand at scrapbooking and I was so impressed, I wanted to have a try but somehow, I ended up in the World of card making rather than scrapbooking. I think I ended up trying my hand at card making because I was already making my own cards using my PC and various card making programs I had bought over the years but I loved the embellishments and all the gorgeous things you could add onto a plain piece of paper and totally transform it.

My Christmas present decided on, dining room taken over with everything craft my addiction began and it grew and grew and grew !

I have been a regular visitor to many craft forums and I have my favourites which I now regularly visit and I have been totally inspired by such very clever people and those people have helped me out tremendously with the many silly questions I have asked ! I have found out along the way that you have to ask those "silly questions" otherwise you never do find out the answer of how, when or what so bite your lip and ask !

I hope to be able to inspire others as much as they have inspired me so I hope you enjoy my blog.

Welcome !