A golden wedding card

I cannot believe how long since I managed a blog post! You would think I would have more time on my hands since retiring, but I have been quite a busy bee, although I don't seem to have a lot to show for it, certainly not on the crafty front, although I have been tackling the first instalments of the lovely Lily Pond crochet Along which I have very much enjoyed. I will update on that in a later post.

Here is one card I did make for some dear friends who celebrated their golden wedding anniversary recently.

I have seen quite a few cards recently using embedded die cuts (if that is the correct term!). I decided to try this approach. I cut out the words using a Frantic Stamper die (carefully holding on to the little bits in the centre of the letters) then I recut the die using a gold pearl card and inserted a little red heart cut out of satin mirri. The hearts were stamped with  Quietfire stamp and embossed with gold. I can't remember where I got the sentiment from.

I also had a lovely trip up to the Big Stamping and Scrapbooking Show at Ally Pally on 11th/12th April meeting up with a good few lovely crafty friends and had a smashing a great overnight catch up with three of my special crafty friends. Although the show was not as good as some we have been to there in the past, I love the building and still managed plenty of shopping.

 

 

Here is some of the stash I purchased!

Now all I need to do is to make time to use some of it! The priority for the moment is a major blitz in the old craft shed. I am hoping to spend a bit more time out there over the warmer months of the year, and some serious reorganization is required so I can get in the door. I have made a good start and am hopeful I can get going in there again in a week or so.

Whatever crafty endeavours you have underway, enjoy it!

Elaine

Happy Easter

I hope you are all enjoying a pleasant long weekend. We haven't seen a lot of the sun yet, but I think the weekend is set to improve!

I made a couple of quick Easter cards this week for our Mums. I took the easy route and went for pretty much identical designs.

I started with a Bo Bunny 6 x 6 paper which naturally split into an upper and lower area, just right for a landscape design I thought. I wanted to give these little rabbit dies an outing. They are a set of Signature dies from Joanna Sheen and have a quirky charm. This is the first time I used them. I added some grass cut with a Poppy Stamps die and some butterflies punched with a Martha Stewart punch.

I added the sentiment using a Chocolate Baroque stamps and then decided the upper right corner looked a bit bare, so after some thought, I incorporated a Memory Box leaf die cut and some mulberry paper daisies.

These were rather quick cards, but I am fairly pleased with the results.

I hope you have some self indulgent treats for Easter. I am trying to be good having had an enforced low fat diet for some time. I can afford to be a little more flexible now, but I know if I am too naughty I will put all the weight back on that I needed to lose, so a few treats in moderation is my plan!

Enjoy yourselves

Elaine x

The fun begins!

Well on Friday I retired from my main job! This means apart from about 10 hours a month when I will be doing one small thing, I am a free woman! Everyone I know who is retired already says they don't know how they ever had time to go to work and having been careful to put all our commitments into my diary, I can begin to see that could be the case.

I had a small tea and cakes do at work and invited people I had worked with over many years. It was an opportunity to get baking and break out some of my vintage china collection and it was a really happy occasion.

I was very spoilt with lots of individual gifts, cards and flowers. It was quite overwhelming really, but in a lovely way. I am trying to keep my flowers cool so they will last as long as possible.

The biggest surprise was a book of individual handmade cards from my colleagues. They decided that being a card maker they couldn't buy me a card and everyone including our Chief Exec made me a card with all sorts of decorations on them - what a talented bunch and of course each card had a personal message which was very special.

My main gift was a voucher for a specialist fruit tree nursery. I have designs on an apricot tree which has been bred for the UK climate and I cant wait to get it ordered and planted so we can be on the journey to an abundance of one of my favourite fruits! Imagine all that jam and chutney, not to mention sun warmed fresh fruits and possibly some wine too! Mmmmm

So as not to completely neglect my crafty posts, here are a couple of thank you cards I made for colleagues.

 

The first uses a stencil, over stamped with a W Plus 9 stamp that will be very useful. 

 



 The second uses a stencil again for the background and is overstamped with a set from Mama Elephant.

I leave you with a pic of a mug a friend gave me, what a great sentiment to remind me of what retirement will hopefully be all about!

Elaine x

I'm still here!

Sorry it's been a bit quiet around here lately. I had to have some surgery and it has taken me a bit of a while to get back on track. There hasn't been much going on in the craft department apart from my crochet as I haven't felt like sitting at my desk. In the meantime though I have managed some crochet and made great inroads into another blanket for a Christmas present which is already nearly a third done which is great! I have also bought a kit for a beautiful Waterlily Crochet Along blanket project designed by Jane Crowfoot. Although the full design cannot be seen yet, there are some stunning teasers, certainly enough to tempt me to buy the Stylecraft kit from the Wool Warehouse. The patterns will start to be released on 7th April and I have started to collect pictures of the elements revealed so far on a Pinterest Board here. I just hope my limited crochet skills are up to the challenge!

Today I am sharing another couple of pages from my art journal. These were done a while back, but I am pretty pleased with the way they are coming out. Not my usual style, but experimentation is the name of the game!

I am continuing some common threads between the pages. The backgrounds are initially coloured with gelatos and stencilling is added, usually by taking colour off through the stencil with a baby wipe. All my pages also feature butterflies.

The pictures on both pages are from a cheap paperback book of Pre-Raphaelite paintings I bought especially to use for cutting up for art projects. It is great not to have to feel guilty about destroying the book as it is a mass produced cheapie. The second pages also has some added flowers taken from a serviette and both pages feature some stencilling in glitter paste.

I am very excited because next week will be my last week at work. I have decided to retire quite early and concentrate on things at home. I am looking forward to spending much more time in the garden, cooking, walking and generally living a simpler more carefree life.  It might also mean a bit more time for my arty endeavours, but we will have to see! There are lots of cupboards and things that need a good sort out first!

I hope you are enjoying the early spring weather, we are champing at the bit to get some of our vegetables started now I am feeling a bit brighter and tomorrow may see me in the greenhouse with my hands in the compost for the first time this year!

Have a great weekend!

Elaine

Good luck card

My niece has just landed herself her first job in graphics having completed her degree in typography last year. She is very excited! I wanted to make her a card that was relevant, but struggled for a while with what sort of design to go for. This is what I came up with.

This pencil stamp is from Lost Coast. I hankered after it for ages and finally got it on my one and only visit to Happy Stampers in Port Sunlight when the company were over from the US. I have to say this is one of those stamps that was very difficult to stamp. I wanted to use archival ink as I was planning to watercolour the pencils and I stamped the image about 10 times and still ended up cutting off some pencils. It is stamped onto smooth hot pressed watercolour paper. I tried everything!  I reinked my small and large archival black ink pads, I tried a large curved acrylic block with a handle especially designed for large background stamps, I tried a flat acrylic block, I tried with a sponge stamping mat underneath and without, I even used a hard brayer to flatten the paper onto the stamp from above. It was driving me a but nutty, but I was determined!   Sadly I don't think this stamp is one I will be using too often, but I do love that image.

I coloured the image with Aquarelle watercolour pencils and added the sentiment which is from a Sam Poole Creative Expressions set which is so handy.  The words seemed so right for her chosen career.

I just hope she likes the card. I think she will, she likes stationery and vintage images like me!

Elaine

Blooming birthday!

It is my friend's birthday this week and she is going through a pressurised time at the moment with things in her life. I made this card as a reminder to take time for herself. We have been talking a lot about mindfulness lately and it seemed appropriate.

Once again light conditions before getting it in the post did not help with taking a nice pic of this one. It is actually a really simple construction, put together after faffing about with all sorts of stamped and stencilled bits and giving up on those ideas. I have been feeling a bit under the weather lately and there is no doubt it saps the creativity somewhat!

The main papers are from a Prima 6 x 6 pad which has a strong nature theme and the sentiment is from a matching ATC pad. I added the strip and butterfly from a lovely K & Co set of embellishments that have been languishing unused in my stash for about a year if not longer. It's all mounted on a 6 x 6 card blank. After all my fiddling about I am quite pleased with the result.

On Sunday I went to a craft show in Portsmouth. It is always lovely to see what is on offer and get far too tempted by goodies. I always mean to be good, but I never quite succeed somehow. So I came away with a couple of dies, a few stamp sets, some ink pads and paints, card blanks and a bargain rack for my distress inks. You may recall I made myself a rack I was very pleased with, but for the time being working in my tiny crafty space, the spinner takes up too much surface space, so this one is a flat one which is perfect for now, not least because it only cost me £10!

Thanks for popping by!

Elaine

Art journal page

I am trying a bit of art journaling as a way of being a little more experimental and playful with my art work. I am not good at letting go of my perfectionism, but I seem to be giving it a go! This journal is a A5 sized hardback notebook and I am gluing pages together to give them more body. So far my backgrounds have all been made with my newly acquired set of gelatos. I find they work best on a gessoed background.

The thing I like best about starting with a layer of gesso is that you can take colour off through a stencil as I have here, with clouds and a small circles stencil. I finish off with a spray of fixative spray before I start gluing images on top.  In this case I used an image from a photographic magazine and butterfly die cuts. Finishing off with some mulberry paper daises that always make me feel happy when I use them as they are such cheery little things!

My words are chosen from my Pinterest wise thoughts board. I felt I was collecting loads of thought provoking words that should be given an airing some how. I typed a load out and have them to inspire my pages.

I was so pleased with the way this page came out. I really doubt myself having any artistic ability sometimes, so it is nice to just have a play and not worry too much about things being perfect all the time!

Whatever you are doing I hope you are having a nice weekend. I am off to a craft show tomorrow which will no doubt offer me plenty of temptation!!!

Elaine