Inky Fingers

I promised myself an inky day, trying out a couple of the new techniques that Tim Holtz showed in his Creative Chemistry class that I signed up for last week. I had bought some of his stencils when they first came out - I love the patterns, look at that burlap pattern, and the splatter one. I finally broke them out of their packets yesterday, and look how neat - they all clip together onto a jump ring, so even I (messy worker +++) won't toss them away by mistake....

I lined up all my distress inks ready for action - crikey! I have a lot...

 Who knew that distress inks are embossable? I didn't, but I dabbed ink through the stencil, then added clear embossing powder and heated...

I used ALL the stencils - never one to do things by half measures! The stamps are by Hero Arts, and I mounted the panel onto a plain cream card base....

Then I dug out the grunge board. Now this was a miracle in itself - I bought that stuff on sale in Tuesday Morning in the USA years ago and promptly lost it, then I found it but didn't know what to do with it, so I lost it again, now, just when I needed it, there it was, so I cut out some Sissix leaves and inked them. They look very glossy because I covered them (as Professor TH advised) with clear crackle glaze and I was waiting for them to dry.....

Now it's dry, and you can see the crackle - I don't think I got it quite right, but it looks okay....

So the leaves join the little boy in blue coloured image, waiting to make it onto a card, but even so, I had a lovely day, just messing around with inky fingers

Now I am going to chat about something that all my UK bloggy friends will have heard about endlessly, so they may want to sneak away now..... But for those of you overseas, those intrepid citizens of countries where you fight off rattlesnakes and deadly biting things on a daily basis, you may like to hear that there has been a huge amount of publicity here in the UK over some spiders that have sneakily found their way across the Channel into the UK, they are called Fake Widow spiders, and apparently, they can give you a nasty bite - not as nasty as their sisters called Black Widows, but a bite nevertheless. Now this has sent the country into a bit of a spin. We don't have many biting creatures here - just bees, wasps, horseflies and the occasional unruly dog..... We don't even have poisonous snakes, apart from one called an Adder, which is so rare that it's a protected species. So the thought of Fake Widows crawling onto your pillow and biting you has made the British stiff upper lip tremble a little, arachnophobia has become a national hobby. The newspapers are loving it of course, slow news day? Don't worry, we can wheel out the spiders again....

They even have experts telling us that we are killing innocent non-biting spiders, and this is not good for the environment...hilarious. Well, it's hilarious until the next time I see a spider in my bathtub, then I will turn into a screaming spider murderer - all those diagrams about how to recognize a Fake Widow will have been written in vain.....

Cheerio for now x  

Baubles - and Bows!

It's my turn to post on the Craftwork Cards blog again today, I am in a festive mood again, pop over to see what I have been up to and leave a comment.... 

Then pop back here to leave your name and on Wednesday I will draw a random winner to receive this gorgeous paper bows pad, full of the most lovely paper bows in different sizes, there is a lot of inspiration on how to use them over on the Craftwork Cards blog and Pinterest

I am taking an online course with Tim Holtz, Creative Chemistry 102. I did the first course last year, and although I am not really into mixed media (I love to see it, I'm just not very good at doing it...), I really enjoyed it. That chap certainly knows his stuff when it comes to talking about the different properties of inks, etc. He comes up with really cool techniques which I am dying to try out, but first I had to find the stuff, hidden in little corners all over the house. Alcohol inks, stains, glitters, distress embossing - all stuff I don't use every day so it has been a marathon to gather it all together. This is as far as I got - meanwhile, other, more organized people are busy posting the fabulous creations they have made with the really cool stuff they learned on the course from the master inker. All I can say is, they must be a lot more organized than me, and even with the great man himself explaining patiently what I should do with all this stuff, I still have to squint at each label, and watch the video again before I know what to do with it...

So this weekend is earmarked as a 'just for me' crafty fest. I have finished my Heartfelt Creations submissions and just need to photograph them and get them sent off, Monday will be magazine commission day, but tomorrow is a getting inky day - if I can find the right ink!

See you tomorrow 

Happy Birthday Daring Cardmakers.....

One of my favourite challenge blogs, Daring Cardmakers is celebrating their seventh birthday. They asked me to be a guest designer for this week - it would be great if you could pop over there and wish them a happy birthday. To be on the design team of a weekly challenge for seven years (and some of them have been there from the start) is a real commitment, so it would be nice to say thank you to them for all the inspiration - they come up with some really inventive 'dares' that have stretched me in the past. Here is a peek at what I made for them...............

and I thought it would be fun to trawl through my archives to see what the very first dare I took part in was, way back in October 2008, when I had only been blogging for a few months. The dare was to make an Autumn card, and here is mine - one big difference that I noticed was that I used to photograph my cards lying flat on a table and shoot from above, which gives a really strange perspective to some of them, the light isn't great on this one either....





While I was browsing that far back, I looked up the first card I ever posted on this blog, this elephant and matching envelope for Max's second birthday




It was fun to read some of the posts as well, I seem to have got a lot more chatty as time marches on. Who remembers the wild pig snuffling around outside our house in Florida in the middle of the night? The pig that everyone told me was an armadillo? And the almost blind man driving a golf buggy around the hospital car park? My life seems to have been quite normal just lately, I must go out more, in search of a few crazies adventures....

See you tomorrow x

Sidetracked......

 Well my little boy image from yesterday hasn't made it on to a card yet. I got sidetracked. I needed one little box for a project, so I went to Hobbycraft (for those of you not from the UK, that's our only big box craft store)

I couldn't just buy one little box could I? I thought I may as well apply a coat of Gesso to all of them while I was about it........ 

I rather like this one, it looks like a book.......

and opens into a box.......I could really go to town on this one

and then I found these, they are stencils intended to be used to sprinkle icing sugar on top of mince pies, but I rather fancy messing around with them and some ink. At the very least, I will keep one back for the mince pies!

So all this faffing around took up most of my day, I really shouldn't get distracted at the moment - here's my to-do crafty list for this month

Two magazine commissions

My submissions for the next stage of the Heartfelt Creations design team (coming along nicely....)

Samples for a TV show

Sort some kits out for a demo evening

Plus all my usual design team stuff

and the tail end of a nasty virus. Sniff

HELP! Right, I need to get my big girl panties on, and get on with it - maybe just a coffee and a little sit down to think about it all first......

See you tomorrow x

 

The Winner is.....

 No finished card from me today, I'll tell you why later, but I thought you would like to see a work in progress - colouring this sweet little boy image from the Magical Winter CD, also by Polkadoodles

I started colouring the darkest areas in Cobalt Blue ProMarker.....

Then extended that colour using China Blue, going over the parts already coloured as well....

Then filled in the rest using Pastel blue. I used tan and caramel for the rest of the clothes, coral and sunkissed pink for the face, and caramel and umber for the hair. 

Some liquid pearls for mistletoe berries, and a bit of glitter on the snow, and he is ready to go - drop by tomorrow to see the finished card....

I am back home from the Lakes. We had an exhausting day on Saturday when the three of us went into a sort of retail frenzy - here I am, taking a breather surrounded by just some of the shopping bags we were carting around, we could have done with a couple of pack horses to help us.....

After this excess of shopping, things went a bit downhill for me as I went down with some sort of virus and spent the rest of the weekend in the cottage, on the sofa, feeling sorry for myself. My husband thinks that this is definitive proof that too much shopping is very bad for you.......

Now on to the winner of the Bonbon Belles Cd from Polkadoodles, I used random.org and the winner is

POPPYLUVA

Congratulations, send me your address and I will get your prize in the post. Enjoy

See you tomorrow x

Oh Christmas Tree...

Here's a card I made with some Memory Box dies - my Christmas box is filling up nicely already. I love the effect of white on a dark navy background for Christmas cards, to me, it captures the feel of Christmas Eve which is probably my favourite day of the season. There is always something magical about Christmas Eve I think, that expectant hush, all the presents wrapped, the tree decorated, turkey stuffed........lovely!

I cut the tree out twice and layered one on top of the other to give a bit more dimension to the cut. The 'stars' are tiny clear crystal gems 

Another Little Lady....

 Here's another card made with an image from the lovely Digistamp Heaven CD from Polkadoodles......

Coloured with ProMarkers, I used Apple, Grass and Meadow for her dress. The little scallop banners are by Craftwork Cards...

Don't forget if you didn't drop by yesterday that you can win a double Cd from Polkadoodles, scroll down to yesterday's post and leave your name

I am off to the Lakes today with two of my girlfriends for a couple of days - I am hoping that the trees will be turning to their Autumn shades so my camera is packed and ready. I am looking forward to it - before I go I have a follow up appointment with my cardiologist which I am not so excited about! Have a lovely weekend x

Rainy Days - and another chance to win

 The forecast for the next couple of days is torrential rain.......

I am going through the seasons this week, Summer, Winter and now a rainy UK Autumn, for this one I turned to another Emma Canning digi image from the fabulous Digistamp Heaven CD by Polkadoodles.......

I used drops of glossy accents to look like raindrops on her brolly.....

Coloured with ProMarkers, I used
Purple
Amethyst
Lilac
The scallop embossed square is by Craftwork Cards, and the clouds are those little Memory Box dies - again!

 



I have a lovely Polkadoodles giveaway for you today, a copy of the lovely Bonbon Belles CD, which is a double CD, packed with wonderful colour collections of papers, sentiments, embellishments and digi stamps. All you have to do is leave a comment under this post, and pop over to the Polkadoodles challenge blog to sign up to follow - they have a challenge every Friday, and you will get to see some really lovely projects by the design team, and if you like challenges, this is a fun one to follow

I will draw a winner on Monday and let you know who won on Tuesday. Good luck

See you tomorrow x

Baubles and Beads.....

 At last I've found a use for some strips of beading that I bought on clearance in Michaels for a few cents.......

I used a Memory Box ornament die, some Christmas script papers bought years ago and some metal sheets....

So I feel quite virtuous, using up bits and pieces from my overstuffed drawers - the downside is that the copper sheet really is metal, and the edges are quite sharp, so I have options:

1. Enclose a pack of plasters (band aids) with the card, ready to mop up the blood from the cut they get when they open the envelope - I could gift wrap them

2. Send it to someone I don't like very much - no, that is mean, and I don't send cards to people I don't like (but I suppose I could make an exception, I could send it to a politician with warm wishes and hope for the best...)

3. Send it to someone in my family with a large 'keep this away from the children' sticker on the front

4. Perfect solution, send it to Mike, it would look very pretty in our sitting room. The downside of that is that we NEVER send each other Christmas cards, I've tried, and he always looks really puzzled and says 'but I am seeing you on Christmas day, you can wish me Merry Christmas then...

Ah well, I have almost three months to think about it. See you tomorrow x

The last days of summer....and a winner

A bit of a marathon colouring session took place over the weekend, and I thought I better turn this one into a card before Autumn really sets in....

The image is by Emma Canning for Polkadoodles from the CD Digistamp Heaven.  She is really suntanned, I enjoyed trying to make her look as if she had had a long day on the beach! I decided to use bright papers to represent the sky and sand. The sentiment is an old one by Judikins - I have never used it on a beachy card before, but it jumped out of the drawer and said 'look, I'm perfect'. My Memory Box clouds are my current favourite dies, and I seem to be pulling them out for almost every card I make....

I have had quite a few emails asking how I cut out the intricate dies - some of the Memory Box dies have such tiny little intricate details that some people are having a job getting the cuts clean. I swear by my metal shim plate, quite a few companies make them and if you cut a lot of dies they are worth every penny. It's just a thin metal sheet that you put over your die/paper before putting on the top cutting plate. Perfect cuts every time

We have had a few glorious days here in the UK, but there is a definite Autumn feel to the season now, the leaves are starting to change colour and our tiny garden is littered with acorns from the big oak tree. I notice that all the holly is laden with berries already. They say that is a sign of a hard winter to come, better dig out the thermals

Now to the winner of the Letraset Metallic Markers - thanks to everyone who took the time to leave comments here and on the Letraset blog. The winner is

S Bayles 

Congratulations. Her number was number 1 in the random drawing, and that's what random.org picked, just shows that sometimes the early bird does catch the worm! Send me an email please with your address and I will get them in the mail to you

See you tomorrow, I may have jumped from the beach to December 25th by then.....

Happy Mail

The start of another week - well, where did that weekend go? Mind you, when you are retired one day blends into another in a very pleasing sort of way. I had a nice bumper post on Saturday - these gorgeous new sentiment sheets and other lovely things from Craftwork Cards, and a BIG FedEx box from Heartfelt creations with some lovely products to work with for the next round of their design team selection process......

A few have you have asked to see the final project that I submitted for the design team call - I chose this one. I love the look of white ink on craft cardstock. If you haven't done so already, I would really appreciate you popping over there to vote for my blog on the Heartfelt Creations site - if you have the time and are in the mood for a bit of blog hopping, there are links to all the semi finalists blogs there.....



I spoke to Max and Milo on the phone yesterday. 'Max Rumley speaking' announced four year old Milo. 'No it's not, it's Milo!' I replied.  At the moment, he wants to be his big brother, when his new teacher did a home visit prior to him starting school, Milo said his name was Max. 'I am six' he stated. 'I don't think so' said the confused teacher 'you are four, can you point to the number that says how old you are in this book for me?' 'Yes' said the little monkey, pointing to the number six. Sigh....they are going to have their work cut out with that one......

See you tomorrow with the Metallic Marker winner x

Win a set of Metallic Markers

It's my turn to post over on the Letraset blog again today, and I have been playing with Metallic Markers - look how they cover even black cardstock with a gorgeous sheen and glimmer....

and, just in time for Christmas cards and projects, I have a set to give away to one of you. Pop over to the Letraset blog HERE leave a comment there, then come back here to leave your name. All those who have commented on both blogs will have their names thrown into the random hat, and I will pick a winner next Monday and announce it on Tuesday. Good luck



Another request for those of you who missed yesterday's post, a plea from me to you, I am applying for the Heartfelt Creations design team, and they are asking for people to vote for their favourite blogs, I would really appreciate it if you could spare a minute to go and put a check mark against my name. Those of you who read Going-Buggy via email, I am not sure if the link will work from your inbox, if it doesn't, click on the grey GOING BUGGY header at the top of your email and it will bring you right over here. You have to check five semi finalists, the only other one I know is Liz Walker, who is also on the Polkadoodles design team with me, and Lydia, both from the UK but they have a link to all the blogs HERE if you fancy a bit of blog browsing.... Everyone who does the survey will be in with a chance of winning a Heartfelt Creations gift voucher. The pink card is another one that I submitted for the design team call...

Thank you!

See you tomorrow x

Help please!

I love Heartfelt Creations stamps and dies, and when they put out a design team call, I decided to apply. Today I heard that I was a semi-finalist. See all the semi-finalists HERE They are asking folk to vote for their favourite blogs out of the semi-finalists, so I am calling on my troops, and  begging asking you to pop over and vote for me please- you have to vote for five people and you are in with a chance to win a Heartfelt Creations gift voucher 
The little box above was made with their products and was one of my design team submissions

Thank you x

Keep Calm.....

A simple little birthday card from me today, made with papers and image from the Sundae of Seasons CD from Polkadoodles - I love this paper, it looks just like a coarse linen fabric.......

There is quite a lot of machine stitching on the card, but because I chose white thread, it doesn't really show in the photo. I covered the cake stand with glossy accents to look like glass......

 I thought up this sentiment, it made me laugh, I can imagine sending this to a friend who is dreading another year on her age......

We had friends for lunch yesterday, the first time I have done any entertaining for AGES. Hard work, but the upside is that the house is now squeaky clean and shiny, a bit of a change from the inky mess of Monday, and the fridge is full of delicious leftovers.  Conversation flitted between comparing our genius grandchildren, showing photos of our genius grandchildren, musing about doctors and policemen who look about fourteen.....it was lovely, but when did we start having long lunches instead of long dinners that went on until 2 A.M? When did we get so (I'm going to whisper the next word, it can't be spoken out loud....) old? Max said to his daddy the other day 'when will Pops be one hundred Daddy?' 'A long long long time, you will be grown up and a daddy yourself by then probably......'
'Oh. I was going to make him a card'
Sigh
See you tomorrow x  

A Hot Mess......

No card from me today - I have been inundated with projects that are a work in progress. I have felt for some time that I need some 'me time', time to mess around and craft just for the joy of it, time to try all those cool techniques, time to try out that melt pot that has yet to be heated up, time to play around with different paints, and textures and colours. So, I bought a book. Now there are a lot of Art Journals around, it seems to be a new art form, but my book won't be posh enough, or clever enough to be called Art, it will be my messing around book - look, I have paint all over the cover already!

So I have decided, whenever possible, to set aside a day or afternoon a week just for my messing about book, and Sunday was my first messing about day, do you know, I really loved it. I had so much fun with acrylic paints.....

tearing up old books and using some little embellishments that I have had forever and never known what to do with....

I found that my main problem was that I just couldn't leave well alone, when something was looking good, I just had to add to it, and again, and again, so the pages ended up with about ten layers of paints as I tried to undo the damage! Will I share with you? Well yes, but not these first pages, I may have enjoyed myself, but I would lose all credibility as a serious crafter if I took photos of them. Wait for the next messing around book day - I can't wait, it was so relaxing....................

Before I started with the messing about, this was my desk after working on some projects for Letraset.  I was knee deep in markers, hardly an inch to be seen on my desk.....

and this little beauty keeps beckoning me as well, I found her in Hobbycraft the other day, I haven't quite decided what I am going to do with her yet, she may have to join me on my messing about day.......

But apart from the colouring, I have been busy, honestly. Six of these have been carefully wrapped and are on their way up to Yorkshire to the Craftwork Cards team.....

So there we are, I feel revitalized after my 'day off' and can't wait to get that hot mess book out again. let's hope that I have learnt a lesson and that 'less is best' will triumph next time.....

See you tomorrow x

A couple more blasts from the past....

I have really enjoyed looking through these long lost photo files that have resurfaced after a computer repair. It's been interesting to see how my style/techniques have evolved over the years, and also bought back happy memories... These cards may have been put on here way back in 2008/early 2009, but I wanted to share them

The first two were made with a shaped card file from the Cutting Cafe, owned by my fabulous crafty friend Regina Easter. She was the very first person to ask me to join a design team - Bitten by the Bug, all about the Cricut. I can't tell you how excited and honoured I felt to be asked. I stayed on BBTB for many years, eventually Regina left to start her Cutting Cafe venture, and I was on her start-up design team for that, leaving only when I started getting a lot of magazine commissions and something had to give - I still play Words with Friends with Regina though, and love seeing all her creations. Pop over there and bookmark her site, loads of inspiration over there.....

I used the lovebirds from Joys of the Season for the first card - back in the days when a new cartridge was such a huge event, I remember making loads of cards that were nothing to do with Christmas and posting them on the message board which whipped up a bit of a frenzy

This second one was also done with Regina's shaped template and one of her sentiment circles....I was just as much into black and white gingham ribbons then as I am now!

I'm posting this next one again because I was very proud of it, it was a truly original idea of mine, I hadn't seen it in a magazine, or on a message board, I wanted a card for my son who is in the mobile gaming industry, and up popped pacman - I have seen many variations on the theme since then, so I obviously wasn't the only person in the world to come up with a lightbulb moment, but I always FELT I was first!!! 

the inside of the card.......

This one bought back a lot of memories, it's one of the first Polkadoodles samples I made for a Create and Craft TV show - I think it may have been the first time Nikky ever appeared on Create and Craft, I remember the presenter was very amused by the little doggie hiding among the trees, and kept coming back to it. It was the All Around and Everywhere CD, (or was it Back to Nature, one of them....) I had got to know Nikky through the Cricut message board as well, and when she started designing her CD's, I was on her start-up design team, and I am still with her a few years down the line....

So I am wallowing in nostalgia here - I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have!