Feeling festive?

Right now I am running to stand still and meeting myself coming back to mix my metaphors slightly!!!

Here is another of my Christmas card designs.

The trees are stamped using the Stampin Up Wonderland set. I love these tall trees, them give such a gorgeous image and it layers up so nicely as well. I added some ink shading with different Distress Inks. The sentiment comes from a freebie stamp from a magazine. I finished off with a flourish stamp and some teeny tiny gems.

I'm not sure I am feeling that festive as yet. I keep trying to get in the groove cooking gingerbread cookies and playing Christmas CDs, but there is so much to do and not enough time so I am a little stressed!. Still, things are being ticked off the huge December "To Do" list at a faster rate than I am adding more tasks, so I must be making some progress!

Elaine

More Christmas

Phew! Most of our Christmas cards got posted yesterday! That feels like a good thing ticked off my massive December list. Here is another of my cards and one of my favourite designs this year.

 

This uses the Ornamental Pine stamp set from Stampin Up and the design is like quite a number that have appeared on Pinterest. This was one of those designs that actually takes quite a while as you have to let the ink dry properly between stages - the actual pine stamp, the ink shading and then the snow embossing. I stamped the snow using a stamp from the SU set Gorgeous Grunge. The cones are decoupaged. I added a few tiny gems for a little sparkle too.

 

Amazingly all my different card designs this year have fitted through the postal slot for thickness - result! All the more amazing as I have added gems and sequins.

 

I started to put a few decorations up last night as I have a visitor for the weekend. Quite a bit earlier than usual, but it has brightened the place and me up considerably. Photos to follow, but my mantelpiece is looking more like the pic in my blog header now.

 

I hope you are also getting some pleasure from your Christmas preparations and are finding time to stop and breathe some spicy scents and enjoy the experience!

 

Elaine x

Christmas is coming!

Goodness where has the time gone since my last post? So much for being retired, my feet don't seem to touch the ground. I certainly seem to manage to keep myself busy one way and another. My new(ish) hobby of crochet continues to bring me a lot of pleasure. It is also a useful way to add to my stash of Christmas gifts and I have enjoyed being able to make a number of different garments and blankets. There is something so nice about making snuggly things for your loved ones.

Today I am sharing one of my Christmas card designs. I am so pleased that I have managed to make all my cards this year by making smallish batches of several different designs.

I must confess this is a CASE of a card by Dawn Woleslagle I  spotted on the W Plus 9 Design Team blog when theses stamps were launched. These stamps are available in the UK from Make the Day Special, one of my favourite mail order companies these days as they carry a really original selection of products. The deer and bird images are die cut with a matching die set. The sentiment is from Kaisercraft. I die cut the snow drifts using a Die-Namics set. The finishing touch was a little glitter glue.

I hope all is going well with your Christmas preparations and I plan to be back a bit more during December to share more of my Christmas designs and other Christmas preparations.

Happy Weekend!

Elaine

Mists and mellow fruitfulness?

It seems to have been ages since I posted here, so I have a rather long, but I hope not too boring post today.

The first project I am sharing today is a 8 x 8 canvas made as a housewarming gift. I used a variety of techniques and mediums, using gelatos and acrylic paint to colour through stencils, collaging different papers, stamping onto tissue and adding home made crochet flowers with button centres. This took a couple of hours to make and as you might imagine it was a pleasant time of messy creative play.

My recently rediscovered love of crochet has continued to keep me busy. I finished my Cosy blanket following the pattern of Lucy at Attic 24. This pic reminds me of one of the pleasures of making a blanket - that you can sit under it when it gets bigger. Not a benefit to making a blanket in the summer months though for sure!

I also started and finished (just yesterday) another lap blanket using the leftover yarn from my Cosy and Lily Pond blankets. These are both presents for family members. I really love the idea of making cosy crocheted gifts for my loved ones. I have just started on a crochet wrap in some gorgeous yarn for my Mum which is already growing nicely and is a very easy pattern.

 

This was my first attempt at doing overlay crochet, following the lovely Circles of the Sun pattern. Now this is a real challenge, not least as the yarn is rather prone to splitting, but I keep telling myself it is a good learning experience! There are also some incredible tutorial videos over on the In a Nutshell blog, that lady is a saint to spend the time to make such helpful films!!! I have a lot of practising to do with this pattern I think!

 



I love this time of year. The light has a gorgeous quality, as I witnessed on a recent walk around the grounds, and along the beach of Osborne House.

There are beautiful colours out there in the trees and plants, fruits and veggies seem abundant in the garden and there is a bit of a nip in the air (but not too much). I always feel like it is time to gather in the harvest and prepare to batten down the hatches and get our homes and larders ready for winter.

Despite some neglect this year due to other demands in our lives, the garden has come up trumps with some lovely produce. Plenty of interesting tomatoes and some useful, if rather small onions.

 

 

I have been busy with preserving some of the harvest and some bought in goodies, including chutney, amazing seeing a panful like ....

...... this transform into rich thick loveliness. I think my camera steamed up a little at this point!

 

 

I made some stamped labels for the finished article using some magnetic WRMK alphabet stamps I got in the charity shop. They make rather wonky lettering which I rather like. The lids will be covered with some pretty paper before the chutney goes to new homes.

 

Some of our damson harvest has been transformed into jam.

The latest yields of crab apples picked yesterday are destined to become mint and crab apple jelly this week.

We haven't really had much in the way of mists here yet to be honest, but we have certainly had plenty of fruitfulness!!!

Happy autumn!

Inking, stitching and a thank you!

I am back with another of my inked and layered cards made for another of my special crafty friend's birthday which was this week.

I inked my background with Distress Inks in Cracked Pistachio, Peacock Feathers and Iced Spruce. I added some interest with a doiley stencil and then overstamped with a Woodware Script stamp and then a Just Rite Fern stamp. The sentiment is by Honey Do stamps. The darker stamping is in Chipped Sapphire. I mounted the panel onto a 6 x 6 black card. I always love black as the background to my inking.

Next I would like to share my finished Lily Pond blanket. This is the most complicated crochet project I have ever tackled, a Crochet Along project which is designed by Jane Crowfoot and published in 8 fortnightly instalments by Stylecraft Yarns. It started in April and I more or less kept up to date with the different sections, just hitting the odd point where I was very challenged and slowed down.

Although my blanket is not 100% perfect, I am really happy with what I achieved and I feel much more confident for tackling more challenging projects now. In fact I have already ordered the new Jane Crowfoot Persian Tile blanket kit which is really beautiful.

One of the blogs I enjoy following is Mitenska - a simple blog from the blustery north. It is the blog of Sarah, an artist and photographer, Mum, wife, sister etc. I love Sarah's blog especially for her beautiful painterly photographs which I always find such a pleasure to browse through. A while back Sarah had a blog competition to win one of her hand drawn and painted name paintings. I was the lucky person chosen at random and this is my name drawn and painted especially for me.

I am hoping my OH will make me a frame for it and the plan is to display it in a new studio space that I hope is in the pipeline for me in the not too distant future. Sarah's work incorporates lots of natural images and fine detail. Look at this lovely daisy. I can't tell you how much I wish I could draw like that.

You can see more of Sarah's work here on her blog and there are links to how to order similar things for yourself too. Thank you so much Sarah for your generosity, it was such a treat to get this in the post.

Hope you are not too wet wherever you are. We seem to have escaped the worst of the wet weather here, but I see not too far up the coast it has been really wet and there has been flooding. Typical summer holiday weather and so different from my last post!

Elaine

Green leaves

It is one of my special crafty friends birthdays today and this is the card I made for her.

I started actually making one of my leafy backgrounds, then I added so much detail over the top I completely obliterated much sign of it!

I used a number of different green Distress Inks to build up my layers. After the leafy layers, I added some colour through a doiley stencil. The sentiment is from Rubbernecker, one of many I have picked up at bargain prices at different shows at Ally Pally. I then added leaves around the edge using a Just-Rite fern stamp and a Papertrey Ink gingko leaf stamp. I finished by adding some shading to the gingko leaves with Prisma pencils and finished with some ink shading around the edge before matting onto a medium green background. This is a 6 x 6 card.

I am feeling very inspired to make nature themed cards at the moment as things are so lush in the garden. Currently I have some gorgeous lilies out just outside our front door. The smell is truly heavenly.

I also picked the first blackberries of the season yesterday which are in the fridge ready for a crumble tomorrow. It is lovely getting more and more produce from the garden as the weeks go on. Our apples are swelling well and our leeks are promising a bumper year. The courgettes are at that point where they turn into marrows when you have just turned your back for a moment!!!

The other delight at this time of year is picnics, I really love them and this was a spot we chose on Friday for our lunch on top of the cliffs. It was so peaceful apart from the sound of the sea lapping on the shore. Perfect peace!

Whatever you are up to I hope you manage to find some moments of perfect peace too.

Elaine x

A graduation card

My sister graduated last week and I wanted to make a card for her. She has worked very hard and like many mature students really enjoyed her studies. Sandi Toksvig is the Chancellor of her University and she gave a brilliant and rousing speech about what is important in life. It was a happy day!

 

I started with a white panel and added colour with Distress Inks. I know I am rather boring in choosing this colour scheme, but it is like putting on a comfy pair of shoes! I used a Memory Box stencil to make the sunrise. It is only one sided, so I had to flip it round. The image and sentiment are both Inkylicious stamps, stamped using Memento Luxe ink. I did something I haven't tried before which worked well with this ink. The girl's dress didn't stamp too well as I hadn't really let the background dry enough. I have in the past used a Memento dye ink pen to colour in the gaps, but it is visible. This time as I had used the pigment ink, so I got a new sponge eye make up applicator (20 in a pack from Poundland bought for inking not beautifying!) and I gently added some extra ink and it worked very nicely. I added the hills using some torn paper as a mask and more shading sponged around the edge.

I was going to make a wallet in the shape of a mortar board, but I remembered I had some 8 x 8 white card boxes, so I decorated one of those. Apologies for the dreadfully washed out pic. I think I should be writing a permanent apology on this blog to that effect lately!

We seem to have had quite a few duller, cold days recently. I have missed sitting in the garden for my lunch break with my radio programmes on I player and my crochet. I am working my way back through the archives of Ramblings and The Pallisers, which keeps me out of mischief. I hope you are continuing to enjoy the summer whatever you are up to.

Elaine