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!

Cute cards!

This is quite an unusual style for me - a cute, pink card! A work colleague asked me to make a first birthday card for a little girl. I am not that keen on cute images as a rule and have only a few such stamps in my collection for use on children's cards.

Anyway, not wishing to be churlish, I tried to approach the challenge with some enthusiasm!! When I went to the craft show at Alexandra Palace I spent some time looking at the incredibly skillful card samples made by Bev Rochester on The Hobby House stand. One of the images she used was this delightful creation from Mo Manning called Soaking Up The Joy. I love this image because it really captures the feeling of the pleasure of having the sun on your face after a long cold winter! I used the digital image available on the website - the first one I have ever used. I made a note of the layout Bev had used to try and ensure I recreated something respectable myself. Not that I am likely to ever reach her level of skill if I practised for 100 years!!

The card is my usual favourite 8 x 8 size. The main papers I have used are Papermania Rose Garden, including some of the die cut letters in the pack. I used markers to colour the image and some Distress Ink in Tattered Rose to shade the edges. I had hoped to use DIs as watercolours, but the water made my printing ink run, so the colouring is a bit more "in your face" than I had hoped for! I cut out some nestie shapes and used a couple of punches, including the gorgeous garden trellis punch from Martha Stewart to add some interest. I finished off with a Craftwork Cards sentiment, some paper flowers and little pearly green buttons.

I remembered another card I made about a year ago in a cuter style. This one uses a rather sweet Stamposaurus Fairy Princess stamp that I really like.

I have enjoyed crafting in my tidy shed this week and am still busy trying to organise my stash! I am having a major push to mount and index all my stamps, taking a theme a night to get organised and I must share an idea I have for ribbon storage. I found this trouser hanger in Poundland. Used with Ikea curtain clips I think it will be just what I need to keep my ribbons under control, but in sight so I used them more - so watch this space!

Elaine x

I'm still here, just!

I have been so busy I have hardly had time to think, but finally I think I am getting a little space to get on with some crafty projects again.

Spring is springing at last and its time for me to move back into my craft shed after the really long cold winter. This is the view from my shed window at the moment - a host of golden daffodils! The birds are busy nesting and the garden is full of beautiful baby rabbits, there are so many distractions!!

I have decided my craft desk needed a major blitz to try and give myself as much space as possible to work. In the process of the major sorting though, I got distracted by smaller jobs like colour coding my buttons and flowers!

Last weekend, I had a lovely trip to the Stamping and Scrapbooking Show at Alexandra Palace. Normally I only go up for the day, but this time I made a weekend of it with my Craft Stamping Quartet companions Jo, Judith and Lesley. We hardly ever all get together in real life, so this was a rare treat to spend some quality time together and it was the first time I had actually met Lesley, although we both agreed it felt like we already knew each other!!

I had such a brilliant time, bought lots of lovely stamps and other crafty goodies that I am gradually making time to play with. The sun shone all weekend, and going for two days, meant that Sunday gave me the chance to really spend time watching the brilliant demos of people like Linda Brown and Linda Elbourne, Hels Sheridan, Barbara Grey, Bev Rochester and Tracey Dutton. What inspiring people they are and incredibly hard working, demoing virtually non-stop for two whole days.

Just to prove I have been doing some inking, here is a set of four tiny cards I made with one of the freebie stamps from Craft Stamper magazine. I bought these tiny black card blanks in a moment of madness at a craft show a couple of years ago and they have been languishing in my card blank box ever since.  I realised they were the perfect size to mount this stamp and I made a set of four to share with my crafty pals. I coloured the main images with a range of blending Adirondack dye inks. The circles were coloured with Inktense pencils and then I added Glamour Dust glitter over the top. I mounted each image on a blending colour glitter card panel.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend!

Elaine xx

My first ever art doll

Please visit the blog I share to see my first ever art doll project inspired by Sue Roddis in March's Craft Stamper magazine. Details of how I made her and the stamps I used are on the other blog.

Thanks for looking!

My other blog!

Well, not just mine! Today I was the last to post the first project on the blog I share with three other talented crafters. Please pop over and take a look and what we have all created.

Elaine x

Eastern Grasses

That's the name of this gorgeous new stamp set from Elusive Images - see here

Another rather unsatisfactory photo - it looks a long way away - was I looking through a telescope?!

In this project, I have combined the stamp with a lovely Artylicious background paper from my Graphicus Guild paper stash with a pale blue and lilac palette, which set the colour scheme for the project. The card is my favourite 8 x 8 size. I did make this a while ago, so I can't be sure which inks I used, although I am fairly sure the shading is done in Distress Inks. The leaves on the long strip are highlighted with Coloursoft pencils. The stamped panels are matted onto grey and lilac, with the greeting (also EI) embellished with blue pearls.  

A new bird stamp!

I have been really busy at work lately and haven't done nearly enough crafting lately. I gave myself some time off on Saturday and went to a craft show in London. This was a treat as I met up with my crafty friend Jo and indulged in some very enjoyable craft retail therapy. I bought one of the new Crafty Individuals stamps.  I adore this stamp and knew when I first saw it, I just had to have it!! I think it will be very useful for those ever problematic men's cards.

I stamped the image in black archival ink and then cut the tiles out separately. I masked the bird's heads with Eclipse tape and then added different shades of Adirondack dye ink with Cut 'n' Dry foam. Once I had built up the colours I wanted, I removed the masking and coloured the birds with Coloursoft coloured pencils. I mounted the tiles on a small hammered white card. These are actually wedding favour cards from the Paper Mills shop, but they make lovely small cards and have very nice card envelopes too.

I sent this card to another crafty friend Judith, who hasn't been feeling very well lately.

Elaine xx