Delight!

I have been madly busy on the crafting front, but hardly anything I can share at the moment. As  a result my blog has been sadly neglected.

This is a little card I made for my lovely friend Lesley. I used a 6 x 6 kraft card blank and stamped it with the Heidi Swapp delight stamp. I stamped the bunting with a great Marion Emberson Personal Impressions stamp set onto some Do Crafts pastel coloured paper and stuck the flags onto fine paper string.

This is a remarkably simple card for me, I do wish I could do this more often!

I continue to have difficulties commenting on quite a few blogs at the moment, so forgive me if I don't seem to be taking any notice of your posts, it is not for want of trying to comment!

Elaine  

A slightly saucy pen pot!

I recently purchased a lovely pack of Do Crafts Kraft paper in 12 x 12. This is right up my street as it is patterned liked different stationery papers, squared, ledger etc and as anyone who knows me well will be aware, as well as having a serious stash habit, I am obsessive about stationery and especially love squared paper. I must be one of the few people I know who trawls stationery departments for notebooks with squared when I am on holiday in Europe. My poor OH is now resigned to it!

So, I decided my first project with the paper needed to have a stationery type theme and decided to recycle a baked bean tin into a penpot and here is the result.

I first painted the bean tin with black gesso and then added a panel of the squared Kraft paper that I had edged with a little Cranberry and Egglplant Adirondack ink. I added some gorgeous pointy black lace and some wooden scrabble tiles which were also from Do Crafts eons ago. I love these little tiles and will be very sad when I have finally used them all up. I made some roses from thinner kraft paper, inked again in Cranberry and Eggplant. The reverse of the pen pot hides a secret side!

Before I stuck the squared panel on, I used an X cut scalloped edging punch and added eyelets with my trusty Crop-a-Dile. I love using that tool, it is so sturdy and reliable! Under the gap, I stamped a piece of the plain card from the pack with a lace tag stamp from WS Designs. Then I added some lacing using a cotton fake leather cord. I realised then it all looked rather too Miss Whiplash, but at least her naughty side is generally hidden from view! Perhaps I can use some poetic license and claim it is speampunk!

I have to say the colour scheme and black lace takes much inspiration from the lovely project me and my CSQ pals did with Linda Elborne almost a year ago at our mini retreat near Bedford, which I posted here.

Elaine

As Free as a Bird

Well here is my take on the latest Crafty Individuals challenge Free as a Bird.

For some reason I had it in mind that I wanted to base my design on a patchwork quilt. The original concept didn't quite come together, so here is what I ended up with! I stamped CI 184 in Teal Stazon twice and then shaded with a mixture of DI, Eco Green and Adirondack dye inks. I mounted the birds onto nestie Fleur de Lis Square die cuts. I mounted the main panel onto a sheet of CI paper which I overstamped with the CI 182 flourish stamp in Aqua Vivid Ink. I edged that panel with more die cuts, this time cut with a Crealie border die in pink and lilac pearlescent card and mounted the whole thing onto a sheet of DCWV 8 x 8 paper. I added the little bird squares and then matted a couple of times with different shades of purple and some pink die cut edging strips that have been in my embellishment box virtually since I started crafting. The resulting panel is over 9 inches square.

The colours are a little washed out as I took the pic in direct sun.

Thanks for looking - have a great day!

Elaine



Saving Daisy

Do pop over to Kirsty Wiseman's blog here. She has organised an amazing crafty raffle to raise money for veterinary bills for a gorgeous little dog that needs urgent and expensive care. Please do your bit asap.

Elaine x

The Secret Garden

I have recently posted my latest contribution to the shared Craft Stamping Quartet blog I share with my three lovely crafty friends Lesley, Judith and Jo.

It would be great if you could pop over and have a look http://craftstampingquartet.blogspot.com/2011/05/secret-garden.html

Elaine x

Three friendship cards

Today I am posting three cards made in a batch from stamps I bought when I went to the Ally Pally show recently. They were real quickies, with all three taking less than an hour.

As soon as I saw the group hug stamp which is B Line on the LB stand I knew I had to have it. I had already spent my planned allowance, but this one made it go out of the window - I am sure you know the feeling!! The sentiments are from a brilliant value Kaisercraft clear set, there are about 10 stamps and they were only £2.99. These mixed font sentiments are great and I am really fussy about sentiments, they have to be just right or I would rather not use one at all!

I coloured with a mix of inks, I think I used Ecogreen Paris Trunk Parchment and DIs in Wild Honey and Vintage Photo. I stamped the images and sentiment in Ranger black archival. I should have masked the images before I added some of the scripts and textures as background from the Chocolate baroque Mail Art and Miniscripts plates. As a result I was less than happy that there is a halo between the images and background, slapped wrists for me for being lazy, time was against me!

Hope you all have a good Sunday, I am having a lazy one on the computer and crafting!

Elaine

Turquoise dancer

I have a few days off as well as the long weekend and I am letting myself craft every afternoon after doing other chores in the morning. Today I decided to have another inky play and this is the result.

I wanted to try and create a ripple effect that I had seen elsewhere. It didn't quite work as I hoped and will need more practising, but I was happy with the card I made in the end. I cut a number of concentric circles with my Martha Stewart circle cutter and then used these as masks while adding different colours of blue and turquoise ink with Cut n Dry foam and my new ink duster brushes, Tumbled Glass DI, Sailboat Blue, Stonewashed and Pool Adirondacks . I ended up with a bubble rather than ripples! Then I added the Lost Coast dancer silhouette stamp available from Happy Daze and added Tim Holtz and Inkylicious bird stamps, all in black archival ink. I have used these stamps together before, but I like the way they work together!!

Around the edge of the bubble I stamped Viva flourish stamps in turquoise. I added the happiness word with a Hero Arts stamp, again in black. To finish, I shaded the edges with Pool and Denim Adirondack dye ink. I matted the panel onto black.

I am off until Thursday, so I am looking forward to more afternoon play sessions.

Elaine x