Are there fairies at the bottom of my garden?

Back last year I had this great idea of making a set of altered giant playing cards - one every week! Unfortunately with my snail's pace crafting, work and life generally getting in the way, etc, etc, it has not happened. So, I think this is more of an occasional series. I do like doing them though, as they are a nice size to work with.

Here is my next one, actually made some time back in the new year before my life got turned upside down, but mislaid between the temporary bedroom craft room and my craft shed movements. It turned up again last week.

This design uses Adirondack dye inks for shading and black archival for stamping. The fairy is from Elusive Images, I added some Glamour Dust glitter to her wings. The sentiment is from Quietfire and the ferns and dragonfly are from Crafty Individuals. The vine leaf edging stamp is one I use over and over from Lavinia Stamps.

This design was inspired by my dear crafty friend Jo, who said when she came to stay with me, that if fairies existed they would live in our garden.

The garden is certainly a wild and special place!

Thanks for popping by!

Elaine x
 

Feel the love!

I made this little Valentine's card for my OH. I bought this little silhouette stamp from an E Bay seller recently I really love it, because we feed the wild rabbits in our garden and one of them in particular takes food from our hands, especially  if a sesame ryvita is on offer!

The sentiment is from the Elusive Images Artful Affirmations plate. These words seem so appropriate as we discovered recently when so many people supported us with love through some difficult times. The backing paper is one I made using my leafy background technique, using leaves from our garden.

Most of the colouring is done with the Paris Trunk dye inks. I only have a few of these "green" inks, but I am really getting to like these beautiful colours.

Enjoy your Valentine's Day.

Elaine xx

I've finished my Christmas cards!

I started off with such good intentions of keeping on top of making Christmas cards this year. I did actually start on Christmas cards in the summer for Elusive Images Design Team samples, but my own had to be put on hold. The cards in this picture were made in a big batch, with all the components stamped ready to assemble when I went on holiday in France in October. The deer on the red card design is a Papermania stamp - I just love this design. I added the greeting from the same stamp set on a tiny tag, tied on with red paper string. I finished the design off with punched snowflakes and a little red gingham bow. The green design has misteltoe corners, decorated with self adhesive pearls for berries. The sentiment is from the Waltzing Mouse Very Vintage Christmas set, a really useful set of small sentiments and labels, and the flowers are cut with a small Marianne poinsettia die.

The next card was a birthday card for my brother. I wanted to use the lovely Quietfire Walt Whitman quote stamp again and masked a sun and inked a shaded background before adding stamping. The birds are from a Tim Holtz set. the vine, from Lavinia and the plants are from Crafty Individuals

I really enjoyed making these cards, although they are quiet different in their approach, the second card is closer to my preferred style.

Hope your Christmas preparations are going well and you get some time for some creative escape.

Elaine

My first exploding box!

Earlier this month it was my crafty friend Judith's birthday. I wanted to make something special for her as she had been feeling really poorly with a horrible virus. I decided to have a go at making my first ever exploding box card. I have been really inspired by the work of another Elaine on her Magic Boxes blog and in particular, this amazing Indian inspired box which was commissioned by a chap for his wife - lucky girl.

I started with this lovely Persian Shrine stamp from Lost Coast, available from Happy Daze. I embossed the arch in fine silver EP and then cut out the shape and inked panels to go underneath in my favourite Adirondack dye inks over little stars stamped with a Lavinia stamp embossed in clear EP and a Viva clear flourish stamped in archival black ink. I mounted these panels on dark blue and turquoise card layers.  

I made a lid from more blue card and decorated it with the beautiful Elusive Images Indian Flower mandala stamp, glittered in shades of blue, with self adhesive jewels added. I decorated the edges of the box with glitter card and a phrase from the gorgeous set of abbey stamps CI 286 from Crafty Individuals, embossed again in silver.

I decorated the inside of the box with panels stamped with a tree stamp CI 209 from Crafty Individuals,  this gorgeous vine leaf and tiny slender mushroom stamps from Lavinia. Once again I shaded with the Adirondack dye inks in various shades of blue applied with Cut 'n' Dry foam. The central panel was stamped with the vine stamp, decorated with dark blue fabric flowers, with an oval panel with the delight stamp which is from a Hero Arts set. I added a couple of little stamped dragonflies whose wings had been painted with Opal Dust paint.

As always I love this kind of inking, building up the depth of colour and getting a sort of glow in the centre of the panels. I have to say it took me ages to put this together, but I was quite pleased with the end result and felt it had been worth the effort.

Last but not least, if you haven't already seen it, do pop over to the blog of the very talented Lynn Brown of LB Crafts where she has a very generous Tim Holtz giveaway going on until the New Year - someone is going to be a very happy bunny!

Elaine

Elusive Images Design Team Christmas Cards

Well it's a busy old time of year at the moment. Loads to do, not enough hours to the day and as card makers we are on guilt trips about sending shop bought cards too! I thought I'd share a couple of the cards I made as Design Team samples for the gorgeous and versatile Family Christmas stamp set from Elusive Images. I fancied making a card in monochrome and silver. It doesn't show that well in this picture, but the images on the tree are all glittered in three different colours of extremely fine glitter. The flowers are cut using a small Marianne Poinsettia die, the leaves use a McGill Pine Bough punch that gets good use all year round, even if I do have to stand on it to cut through card! The border at the bottom is cut with a Crealies die set from the Netherlands. These are new to me and cut beautifully. The whole thing is matted on silver.

The second card uses a rocking horse image. I felt this needed a vintage look., so I stamped this image and embossed in burgundy on some cream card, watercoloured with some Distress Inks and Inktense pencils and edged with some Vintage Photo DI before distressing the edge and matting onto burgundy. The image is backed onto an Artylicious holly DP and then added the cotton gingham ribbon, edging cut with the Martha Stewart Garden Trellis punch, with some whopping big flowers and very nice metal flower brads. The sentiment is also from the Family Christmas plate and I embossed and coloured it the same way as the main image. I always manage to take pictures that make things look wonky but I am sure the sentiment did not have that list IRL!

Go and have a look at the Graphicus website for these stamps through the link above and click on the gallery link to see all the amazing work the girls in the design team have come up with. While you are there check out their sale too!

Thanks for popping round!

Elaine xx

Lovely ladies

Elusive Images have released some new stamps that are a little different, three A5 plates of ladies in dramatic evening dresses . The girls on the Design Team worked on these designs last month and the results of all the hard work helped to launch the stamps last weekend. The stamps can be used to make beautiful wedding cards, to send a message for someone going to their prom or for any occasion where a posh frock is the order of the day.

For one of my submissions, I did something a bit different. Using the skirt from the main Belle Dame image, I stamped it 6 times in black archival ink to make huge petals. Then I coloured the images with Adirondack dye inks, Coloursoft pencils and an orange Copic Spica pen to add some sparkle. I added jewels in amber and yellow to highlight the design. I mounted the petals onto an 8 x 8 card covered in black velvet paper and added a flower from the very useful Big Flowers plate in the centre, coloured and bejewelled in the same way.  I think I am stuck in a little groove with these autumn colours!! Some people have described this design as looking like a kaleidoscope, which come to think of it, it does rather. Maybe not suprising as I was always fascinated by them as a child (and even an adult if I am honest!).

To see the stamps in all their detail, go over to the Design Team blog and you can see what the other girls have been up to. Glenda is doing a random giveaway of all three of these new stamp sets so leave a comment on the post on the Design Team blog (rather than just here) to have a chance of winning one of the sets. It's a random draw, so everyone has an equal chance of winning.

I will be posting playing card number 2 in a couple of days.

Elaine x

Back again!

I have been a bit quiet for the last couple of weeks as we were away in Brittany for a week's holiday and I have been playing catch up since.

Apart from rather mixed weather we had a great week and saw some great places that gave me lots of artisitc inspiration too. The highlight for me has to be the Abbey on Mont St Michel. I had visited before, but not been into the Abbey, it is an amazing place, on a huge scale, even more impressive because of it's location and how difficult it must have been to build. My favourite thing though had to be the gorgeous cloister garden. I have already mentioned my love of cloisters and they inspired one of my projects on the blog I share. I just wish there hadn't been so many people there! I would have loved to just soak up the peace!

We also saw some dramatic coastline.

Near Cap Frehel lighthouse people had built lots of little cairns out of the rose granite. Some were 2 - 3 feet high .....

......while this one was only about 4 inches high!

I also spotted some rather lovely shop and restaurant signs ....

........... some interesting shop windows ............ had Tim Holtz visited maybe?

and some great srchitectural details - this has shades of Harry Potter I thought!

While I was away I made a start on a new project I had the idea for a while back when I saw some giant playing cards in the 99p shop! Stupidly I didn't buy them at the time, so ended up finding some on line.

My idea was to make a set of cards with positive and affirming messages for myself. I liked the idea of using playing cards because it gave me 52 cards, one for each week of the year. I have had a difficult summer one way and another and need to focus on the positives on life whenever I can. I keep meaning to try journalling, but am so critical of my work it sort of defeats the object. This approach felt like a great alternative and a chance to do a manageable craft project just for me. I also decided that I am going to allow these cards to be less than perfect, so if the odd mis-stamp or blob or blotch happens, I have given myself permission to let it go for once!!

The first card uses the Don't Worry, Be Happy from the Words of Wisdom stamps from Elusive Images and the wonderful bees by Jo Capper-Sandon, which are a complete joy to use. The message seemed very appropriate for the first card in my set. The images are stamped in black archival ink, shaded with Colourosft pencils and the wings made to glimmer with a Sakura Stardust pen. The card is then finished off with shading in Wild Honey Distress ink.

Let's hope I manage to keep up making one card a week!

Thanks for popping by!

Elaine x

Still here!

Well, it's been a bit quiet round here - I have been busy on Design Team projects and can't show those to you. Here is a card I made at top speed yesterday.

One of my work colleagues has just bought a plot of land to build a house in Cornwall. I promised her if she got her plot I would make her a card.

I only had an hour to spare and unfortunately I think this shows. I used Distress Inks and Adirondack pigments for the background and every sort of inks you can think of for the trees and plants. The stamps are Arboretum and Wild Meadow from Elusive Images, a Nigella seed pod from Lavinia Stamps, a fern from Beeswax and the flight of birds from Clarity Stamps. The sentiment is computer generated.

I am not entirely satisifed with the end result, but then I rarely am!

Thanks for popping by

Elaine xx

What's in my gift bag - is it a trick or a treat?

Well today's the day for the big reveal - is it a trick or a treat? Is this where you win the lovely Elusive Images Halloween blog candy?

Well ................... the answer from me is ........................


that......................


I am a .....................

Sorry, but keep hunting on the other DT blogs before tonight!

Elaine xx

Trick or Treat gift bag!

Well I was a bit mean earlier in the week and only posted a sneeky peak of my halloween project as part of the Elusive Images spooky blog hop. Here it is in its entirety! It's not a great one for any arachnophobes out there!!

Here is what I used:

A plain black gift bag
Some white card
Twilight Zone and Spookylicious Elusive Images stamp sets
Ranger black archival ink
Adirondack dye inks in sunshine yellow, cranberry and eggplant
Distress ink in spiced marmalade
Cut and dry foam
Non stick craft sheet
Purple mirri card
Wide decorated Halloween ribbon
Narrow orange ribbon
Double sided tape

I stamped the house onto white card in the black ink and cut the panel to just outside the stamped image. I cut a small tag from more white card, punched a hole and stamped the Trick or Treat words in black ink. Using the cut and dry foam, apply the different colour dye inks. The aim is to build a glow on your panel and tag, I love this effect, it must be one of my most favourite ways to use ink. Firstly apply the yellow ink right across the panel and tag, working with the foam from the outside in pulling the ink onto the card from your non stick craft sheet. Next add the orange ink working across the panel and tag again. Add some cranberry ink, keep this colour nearer to the edge leaving a glow in the centre, work your way around each edge. Finally add tiny amounts of eggplant ink in the corners and the very edges of the panel and tag - be very careful not to be too heavy handed with the darker inks.

When you are happy with your inking, mount the house panel onto a slightly larger panel of purple mirri card using double sided tape. Use a strip of the wide ribbon and mount it across the gift bag using double sided tape, folding the ends round into the fold of the bag. Stick the house panel onto the centre of the bag on top of the ribbon. Add a strip of the narrow ribbon onto the tag and stick this near the top of the bag with double sided tape.  That's your bag finished and ready to be filled with Halloween treats!

Dont forget to visit the Elusive Images Design Team blog to see all the stamp sets in their full glory. You can click in the side bar to find your nearest Elusive Images stockist. For those people ordering more than one set of these stamps, you can recieve a great inspiration leaflet, giving pages of ideas of how to use these spookylicious stamps. I've seen this leaflet and it is really great.

Happy stamping and happing hunting for the spooky Halloween blog candy.

Elaine xx

Elusive Images Blog Hop

Well it's that time of year when the nights draw in, I get out my hot water bottle, watch the trees turn beautiful inspiring shades and think of making pumpkin soup!. As crafters our thoughts turn to Christmas - noooo - not yet - first it's Halloween, a great excuse to use my orange and purple ink pads. 

All this week me and the other EI Design Team girls are hosting a Halloween themed blog hop. You can see the link to the DT blog in my side bar. There you will be able to see the Halloween stamps in their full glory and find out about special offers on the stamps. You can also see links to all the girls' blogs. Follow those to see what spooky projects we have all been working on and somewhere this week, on two of our blogs, you will have two chances to win some gorgeous Halloween themed blog candy from Elusive Images by leaving a comment.

I'll be back later in the week with the full reveal of my project.

Have fun and good luck!

Elaine x

Catching up!

Well it's been a busy old week for me. I managed to post my latest overdue project for our Craft Stamping Quartet blog, while the other girls were off galivanting at the Graphicus Retreat. Please pop over and see what we have been up to here.

While the lucky Retreaters were away, some of the other Graphicus Guild members decided to do some green projects because we were green with envy - here is my effort!! I used the Arboretum Stamps from Elusive Images to make another overdue birthday card for my friend, I used Adirondack dye inks in Citrus, lettuce and Pesto for the background, Olive Archival ink for the tree itself and all sorts of green inks for the leaves. I edged the stamped panel with different stamps from the Wild Meadow set from Elusive Images - another of my favourites. I used my leafy technique in the background and finished off with some ribbon and paper leaves. Even my OH was postive about this card - wonders will never cease!!

I managed to finally finish the project we started at the brilliant workshop we did with Linda Elbourne at LB Crafts during our mini-Retreat break in Bedford in June - I loved the workshop and the colours of this hanging are just gorgeous. My OH noticed this one too and said the roses looked like chocolate. Maybe he was feeling a little peckish! This project is based on three little canvases, covered with stamped tissue paper and decorated with various Tim Holtz die cuts from Grungepaper, some lovely TH metal embellishments and some Grungepaper roses coloured with Distress Ink and sprayed with Glimmer Mist. I must admit I didn't enjoy the assembling of the project with all the jump rings. Judith did a sterling job of teaching us how to do it properly on our break, but knowing what a fan Linda is of songs, I think I just want to sing I don't like jump rings to the tune of I don't like Mondays by the Boomtown Rats!!!!

I also taught my first ever craft workshop at a another retreat, a weekend for carers, to give them a break from their caring responsibilities at home. We made flag books and it went really well, I can't believe what they managed as they were all non-crafters, the big smiles at the end made it all worthwhile - even the ink up the wall, but I'll make a post about that on another day!


Thanks for popping over

Elaine xx

Another DT application card

I thought I would share another of my Elusive Images DT application cards.

One of the briefs for entries was a project in the Elusive Images signature colours of teal and brown. I decided to use a peacock theme, and used a DP from my Graphicus Guild pack from the Peacock Summer Party CD set and a stamp from the Peacock Fan themeplate. I embossed the image in gold detail powder on brown card, cut the panel out with a nestie scalloped rectangle die and matted the panel on gold card. I did the sentiment in the same way using a greeting from the Birthday Words stamp set. I added a turquoise ribbon and some large bronze brads.  

On a more frivolous subject, anyone who knows me knows I love bunnies. I even seem to be growing them in my vegetable patch now!

I just had to share this cute vegetable (well I know its technically a fruit!).

One of my Elusive Images Design Team entries

One of the reasons things got a bit slow on here for a while was that I couldn't show the cards I made for my DT entry. This was one of my favourites, using - surprise, surprise a nature theme!!

The main panel is made by using a real fern leaf as a mask, with colour added with a shaving brush. I then overstamped with an EI fern stamp from the lovely Wild Meadow set - one of my absolute faves! I then stamped the moths from the Daisy Collage sheet onto green vellum in black perfect medium and embossed in what I think was Angel Wings Gold Moonshadow EP. I cut out the moths and placed them onto the panel using adhesive microdots. I also stamped the EI sentiment onto more of the fern background and then mounted the whole thing onto a green Artylicious paper from my Graphicus Guild pack, adding some gorgeous lime green lace, deep green ribbon, green flowers embellished with metal charms and lime green jewel centres. I do love green!!

This is how I did my fern leaf panel.

I started by choosing a nice fern leaf. I chose three green dye ink pads, in this case Willow, Citrus and Lettuce. I started by sponging the two lighter colours over the white card with Cut 'n' Dry foam, more or less covering the background.

Then I added the darkest colour with a shaving brush to stipple around the fern leaf. Placing the leaf in the centre of the panel and working around either full or part leaves working across the card to fill the background.

The end result is a panel with varied depth and texture. I chose the best part to make the panel for my card and overstamped with the fern stamp.

I am thrilled this card was judged to be good enough to get me on the team - now I hope I can live up to expectations!!

Some really exciting news!

Well, I am delighted to be able to share some really exciting news that I have had to keep secret for the last couple of weeks. I am not one for adding lots of gadgets and images in my side bar, I like to keep things quite uncluttered around here. BUT, as you can see from the side bar, I have something to display that I am enormously proud and not a little bit awestruck by - I have been chosen to be part of the Elusive Images Design Team - to echo my counterpart and good friend Lesley - Wow and Double Wow!

It is almost exactly 3 years since I started making cards as I fancied doing something creative again after a break of a few years from sewing and other crafts. Little did I realise just what a compelling and addictive pastime it was to become. Towards the end of 2007 I found Elusive Images stamps, and since becoming a customer and a member of the Graphicus Guild I have learnt so much from the Glenda, Lynn and the rest of the very talented team. I have also found some wonderful and special crafty friends through the Guild, two are fellow members of the DT with me.

Can I just say a very big thank you to Glenda for having such faith in me and to my fellow new members of the DT - big congratulations - go girls! I will do my best to live up to expectations and have some hopefully good things cooking in my craft shed where I have a very messy craft desk right now. So watch this space for some big reveals in the not too distant future.

Elaine x

A little book

When we were on our mini retreat I found this lovely set of two papier mache boxes in the shape of books. I thought one would make a great alternative to a birthday card for my OH who is absolutely addicted to books.

I wasn't sure how to colour the box at first, I had planned to paint it, but found that Distress Inks in my favourite Vintage Photo gave it a great faux leather look with very little effort. I added a gold embossed image from the Inkadinkado Utopiary set, to try and make it look like a tooled leather cover. Then I added some of my favourite metal corners.

I added some gold rubbing paste on the spine and edged the box with some gold paper I had marked with the finest embossing tool I had to make it look like pages.

I lined the box with a 6 x 6 Webster's Pages paper that I thought looked like a book end paper design and added a greeting - this is one of my favourite Elusive Images designs, I love art nouveau and use it a lot, plus a little calender from the new Tim Holtz Lost and Found pad. I added the greeting on another tag later. I would normally decorate the inside of the box with many more bits and pieces, but my OH is not one for lots of fussy detail, so that didn't seem appropriate this time.

I think it looks a little ragged round the edges, but maybe that is OK for an old book!!

Thanks for popping by and I hope you are having a good weekend.

Elaine xx

Cupcake Heaven

Elusive Images launched these gorgeous cupcake stamps a while back as part of their celebrations for the company's 10th birthday. I decided to make something a little different. I love making cupcakes, I am an avid baker - I love making cakes and eating them - so I decided to use the designs to decorate a cake box!

I bought a plain cake box and went on a glitter fest, covering the sides and top of the box with panels of glitter card. I cut out the letters with my Cuttlebug.The little cupcakes were coloured with marker pens and the whole image covered with Glamour Dust glitter. Under each corner I added some fine satin ribbon in four pastel shades.

On the side panels I used the larger cupcakes, with the cake cases embossed in gold on white and the tops given the glitter treatment again. The tag is made using a Just-Rite stamp on a nestie scalloped circle, with a little cupcake stuck in the centre.

A quirky birthday card!

Well in the midst of my cute card making I needed to make a card for one of my blog sisters Lesley. I wanted to do something a little different and here is the result which I thoroughly enjoyed making. I was a little self indulgent because I made this card in my favourite colours.

This is another 8 x 8 card. I started with a frame that I covered with aluminium tape that I had coloured with Stream, Demin and Eggplant alcohol ink,  don't look too closely at that!  It was the first time I had ever used alcohol inks on a project. The background was decorated with glimmer mists through a swirly mask, but not much of that shows. I used a variety of stamps, from Darkroom Door, Beeswax stanps and Invoke Arts to make different elements. All were coloured with the same blue and turquoise Adirondack inks. The main panel was an altered beer mat - courtesy of Linda Elbourne. The large flower was stamped onto Grungepaper with a stamp from the Elusive Images Big Flowers plate, coloured with dye inks again and with a decorative brad and little turquoise jewel stickers. I added a triple embossed chipboard butterfly, a chipboard dragonfly decorated with some jewels and opal dust glittery finish and a selection of flowers including some made from inked book pages. The little metal heart was painted with precious metal paint and glimmer mist and a Tim Holtz wish adage ticket was added using a TH memo pin. The happy birthday sentiment was stamped onto seprate tiny tags using a Darkroom Door alphabet set and decorated with little star brads.

Thanks for visiting!

Elaine xx 

Just tinkering!

I have been tinkering with a few different cards and styles over the last couple of weeks. I do like to mix and match the styles I try out.

Firstly, this one uses a stamp from the Brocade Backgrounds plate from Elusive Images which has some gorgeous images. I stamped the image onto green vellum in black Perfect Medium and heat embossed in Angel Wings Gold Moonshadow powder. I then cut out all the leaves and stuck them onto a background of Artylicious paper from my Graphicus Guild pack. I actually cut all these out while I was on the coach on the way to meet up with my Crafty Friends at Alexandra Palace with my trusty little decoupage scissors from Tesco! A nestie sentiment panel, ribbon and green dewdrops completed this design.

This next card uses several Adirondack dye inks in Cool Peri, Stonewashed, Sailboat Blue, Demin and Eggplant. Starting with the lightest colours, applying with Cut 'N Dry foam and working outworks to add the darker colours closer to the edge. The stamp is Vine leaf from Lavinia Stamps, stamped in blue Versafine ink. The sentiment is from a Darkroom Door set Art de Fleur, volume 2. The butterflies are from a Crafty Individuals stamp (CI 231) that I find really useful.

This card uses another Crafty Individuals stamp (CI259) stamped in grey Versafine ink, I cut out the panels separately and shaded them with Adirondacks again. I backed the stamped images onto a Crafty Individuals backing paper from their Background Papers collection 4 - Trees. I added some punched and shaded paper leaves from a book page.

Lastly this is a bit of a cheating card, for a housewarming. I rarely use ready made embellishments these days, but I thought this little shaker style house was rather nice. I also used a little heart decoration I found in a lovely local shop at the weekend. I mounted the heart and house onto panels of Basic Grey paper from their Wisteria collection - this is one of my all time favourite paper collections. These are mounted on dark green Re-Make card, with a punched edging using the Martha Stewart Garden Trellis punch.

So I have been quite busy one way and another!