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

More playing cards

Well, so much for my weekly posts of my altered playing cards! Life seems so hectic, but today I have been doing a little catching up, being creative and doing some baking too!
 

Here are cards 2 and 3. Card 2, uses a lovely image of a lady - this is available from a number of companies. This is a Cherry Pie stamp. This stamp got me e mailing the very talented stamper Paula Whittaker who also loves this image, when I wanted to know who made it. I love Paula's work and she has been very generous with her patient answers to my questions about stamps, papers and techniques - thank you! The words are from Artistic Stamper. I used a mask to create the background and added a chipboard bird and a little bling!.

Card 3 uses a word stamp - I think it might be a Cat's Life stamp possibly, the child image is from  Joanna Sheen. This is stamped in plum archival ink, coloured in pink sherbert and coloured gently with Coloursoft pencils. I think these words are very apt, sometimes when I am at work, dealing with something very challenging, wondering how I ended up doing what I do, when really all I want to do is craft these days, I think of these words!

Lastly, I posted my latest project on the blog I share with the lovely Jo, Judith and Lesley.

Do pop over and have a look at our projects this month (I think we might just have stretched the month again!). Judith's project really sums up our special friendship perfectly.

Thanks for stopping by.

Elaine x

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

Another little girl with butterflies

A while back I posted a card made with this beautiful little girl stamp - Gabrielle - from Imagination Crafts and some sparkly butterflies. I knew I could do it better and last week I had the chance when I needed to do a card for another little girl in our family.

I stamped the image in black archival ink and then sponged Spun Sugar distress ink and then Pink Sherbert Adirondack dye ink across the whole card with cut n' dry foam. I then used a mask, flower frenzy template also available from Imagination and used another Adirondack dye ink - in raspberry I think - to pick out the pattern all over the card avoiding the face. I shaded the edges and corners with wild plum ink and I think a tiny touch of Eggplant.

I mounted the panel onto an 8 x 8 card blank, added the sparkly butterflies, this time a more subtle white and added some tiny silver dots in each corner.

This card came together in less than an hour and I was really pleased with the end result, even if I do say so myself!

Have a great crafty weekend!

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