Nature's Beauty - an ATC swap

One of the blogs that I really enjoy following is that of Diana over at The Velvet Moth. Diana makes the most exquisite pieces of art, often incorporating textiles and beads and of course often velvet!!! A while back Diana put out a call for anyone interested in doing an ATC swap. I was rather behind everyone else by the time I replied, but Diana and I did make contact and agreed we would do a one to one swap.

I have had a very busy time over the last few months with family commitments taking up a lot of time and although I have been doing various knitting and crochet projects, plus had a much needed and special holiday, apart from some essential card making, I have not been keeping up with my papercrafting and mixed media projects. So making contact with Diana and agreeing to do this swap, gave me a much needed incentive to get myself organised and plan something a bit more creative and demanding on my creativity.

Diana was ahead of me and her beautiful Moonlit Garden ATC, decorated box and tag arrived while my project was still pretty much in the planning stages!  Diana's project incorporates die cuts, lace, velvet, beads, gold embossing and script. For more information about Diana's design pop over to her blog where she has also posted about our swap.

Not surprisingly, I had also planned a nature themed project as the natural world provides a great deal of inspiration to both of us. The title for my project - Nature's Beauty only came when I was nearing completion of the project.

My first step was to take a sheet of A4 white card and cover it with my leafy background technique (see my labels on the right for other posts about how I do this), using Distress Inks. I cut out the ATC panel and I then added stamping with the little ferns with first and second generation stamping and a little stencilling, before adding the heat embossed tree die cuts and the little ferny butterfly which must be one of my most used stamps. I shaded the edge of the panel to give a glowing light to the centre, as I wanted it to look like a woodland glade. The final touch was the word "Beauty".

Diana had made a lovely little box to hold her ATC so I thought about what I could do as an alternative.

I used the beautiful Crealie labels dies that I had a feeling Diana would like and cut two out of the leafy backgrounds and two out of toning green card for the insides. I stuck them together back to back and joined them at the bottom.

These are decorated again with die cuts decorated with Treasure Gold gilding wax, some tiny micro beads on the hollyhock flowers and butterflies stamped with the script stamp in the beautiful Delicata Gold ink which I had never heard of until another of my special crafty friends gifted it to me. The insides are stamped with dye inks. I made a matching small tag and finished that off with some leafy ribbon that has been in my stash almost since I started crafting, so it was nice to find a use for it.

To hold the ATC, I wanted something to hold it in place vertically so had a play with some scrap card and managed a little paper engineering to invent what I needed!

I absolutely loved doing this swap with someone so talented who likes the same sorts of motifs and themes as I do. I have been struggling to get inspired and motivated and working on this little miniature gift has got me kickstarted again I think, so thank you Diana and for the beautiful Moonlit Garden ATC, box and tag you sent to me!

My project used the following supplies:
Dies - Impression Obsession - Hollyhock; Craft Emotions Hogweed; Tim Holtz - Wildflowers; Memory Box - Darla Butterfly; Sizzix Framelits Tags Rounded; Taylored Expressions - Birch Trees; Crealies Extreme Labels; Stampin Up butterfly punches; Tim Holtz Bigz tag die

Stamps - Inkadinkado - Meadow; Darkroom Door - Artist; Crafty Individuals - CI207/231/021; Woodware script; Chocolate Baroque - Poppy Meadow

Inks and sundries - Distress Inks - Vintage Photo, Peeled Paint, Squeezed Lemonade & Twisted Citron; Stampin Up dye inks - Crumb Cake & Chocolate Chip; Ranger Archival Olive; Delicata Gold & Versamark. Treasure Gold in Florentine Gold, Oxynite and Green Amber. Embossing Powder in Copper and Gold. Dark Green micro beads.

About time too!

It's been far too long since I managed to do a blog post. Thanks to 6 weeks down with germs in the end, I lost the end of February and all of March to any useful activity really. I feel like I am playing catch up on all fronts, not least the vegetable garden. Family commitments have also been quite challenging recently and I seem to have got very little paper crafting done, although crochet and even some knitting has continued.

I thought I would share a few projects that haven't been aired here before. I plan to make batch cards, but rarely do. A while back I bought one of the texture plates designed for use with UTEE etc. I decided to have a go stamping with it. At first my less than perfect impression put me off, but then I decided it was actually perfectly fine for using and the following set of cards was the result.

I inked the plate with some of my underused rainbow ink pads and rather like the colour gradation.

Here is a closer image of one.

The shell is a Hero Arts stamp, not sure where the sentiment is from. I combined with various die cuts and matting using card from my scrap box.

Here is a birthday card I made my Mum. This one uses a Sue Wilson pansy die and a Honey Doo sentiment stamp.

I have been spending a lot of time in the garden and greenhouse getting veg plants started. 6 varieties of tomato started life like this far too late.

These plants are now quite a lot bigger and planted out in our polytunnel.

I just about managed my annual pilgrimage to the craft show at Ally Pally in April. I must confess it was touch and go up until a couple of days before as I was still feeling so ropey, but a long term plan to meet up with my special crafty friend Judith, made me determined to get there! Here is a pic of my shopping from the day. Needless to say, much of it untouched as yet!

 

Finally a couple of sky pics I captured, these are back from April. A stormy one as we were crossing the water. 

 

A beautiful sunrise when we got up very early one morning to listen to the dawn chorus that was really spectacular that day. This is a pic of the track up to our house and the sky that day was a real bonus.

I have more to update, but I will try and do another post before too long.

Thanks to any one popping in, who has not given up hope of ever seeing a post from me again!

Elaine x

Spring at last!

Things have been very quiet around here, sorry. I have been fighting the effects of a nasty chest infection for over a month now and I have not been up to much on the crafty front. I am hoping things are starting to settle down a bit now.

This is another card that I made for the workshop I am planning, using silhouette stamps and stencilling. I used a Tim Holtz stencil and Darkroom Door stamps. The sentiment is from a Rubbernecker pick and mix stamp I picked up some time at Ally Pally and the butterfly is a freebie clear stamp from Indigo Blu from Craft Stamper magazine. All the inks are Distress Inks.

On the crochet front, the Twiddle Muff I mentioned in my last post is nearly complete and ready to be sown up when I can get to the fabric shop to buy something nice and tactile for the lining. In the meantime I have started a new crochet blanket. I am planning to take this slowly over the coming months and have made a start on the first of 16 large hexagonal motifs that I plan to complete between other projects. My brain is just about able to cope with this level of challenge again after weeks of feeling like I have been in the twilight zone of being poorly and sorry for myself.

 

Our daffodils in our woodland have finally started to come out. Everyone else's round here are much further ahead. The first bunch we have picked has been gracing our living room this week and has cheered things no end.

 

I hope you are in fine fettle and have escaped the beastly germs that seem to be lurking this year.

 

 

Elaine 



A recycled frame

I don't really do much in the way of teaching workshops these days as I found them far too stressful. Generally I am happy to let my crafting take me on a more gentle journey and away from pressure and routines to enjoyment and relaxation. However, occasionally I like to do things as a volunteer when I feel I can help other people enjoy some of that relaxation. Recently a friend asked me if I would run a session for the Women's Group at her church and that is coming up in March. I have started making the samples and this is the first to share. (Excuse my thumb in the pic!!!).

The workshop will focus on layered stamping with plant images, using lovely words and lots of ink shading. This sample is done with Distress Inks (except the sentiment which was stamped in Memento Luxe ink and embossed). From memory, my colours were Tumbled Glass and Cracked Pistachio for the base layer shading, Bundled Sage for some background text stamping and some plant images and Cracked Pistachio, Evergreen Bough and Chipped Sapphire for the rest of the plant stamping. The edges are shaded with some Evergreen Bough, Peacock Feathers and Chipped Sapphire. The sentiment stamp is from Darkroom Door - an old set I have had ages which is in one of their lovely tins. The test stamp and larger plant image are both Woodware clear stamps and the main image is from an Inkadinkado set.

I was lucky to pick up this Ikea Ribba frame in a charity shop for 50p. It had been pre-used and as a result the stand on the back is very battered, but it also meant it had a pre-cut card mount which I was able to reuse to frame my image. I am really pleased with the result and I hope my workshop ladies will be too.

On the crochet front, I have just finished one major project to be shared in due course after delivery and I have started something new.  This is going to be a Twiddle Muff, you can find out a bit more here . The idea is to make a muff, usually knitted or crocheted with all sorts of texture and added items that can be touched and experienced and they are designed to meet the needs of people with dementia. Apparently they can help calm anxiety and restlessness.

This one is destined for my SIL who sadly has early onset dementia and faces many challenges. I am really enjoying making up a design that I think she will enjoy. I am using lots of shades of purple as that is her favourite colour, plus shades of red, yellow and orange which I was told are good colours for people with quite advanced dementia, which apparently can even affect colour recognition. This is just the start of my design, but I have included things that will be as safe as possible while adding interest so, this far I have included glitter and pom pom yarns and ribbon into my rows. I am off out today to explore a quirky local haberdashery shop that might offer some extra features. I will share the finished result in due course, but I think this is really a lovely idea and I hope it will bring her some comfort.

Whatever you are up to, enjoy your week and I hope you escaped unscathed from Storm Imogen. We did, but locally winds reached storm force 11 and 96 mph so I was glad when the storm had passed over last night.

Elaine

Perspective

It's my niece's birthday today and this is the card I made for her.

I used the Stampin Up Hardwood background stamp, while the butterfly and sentiment are from the Stampers Anonymous Perspective set. I embossed the butterfly in black before adding colour with DIs using a blending tool. I added colour to the letters on the sentiment with a distress marker.

A short and sweet post today, lunch is calling and a walk beckons this afternoon as part of my New Year resolve to increase my levels of physical activity. Got to get those steps in!

Hope your weekend is going well!

Elaine x

Paper Artsy 2016 Challenge Topic #2 - Hearts

Here I am again taking part in a challenge. The second in 2016 already! This time it is the Paper Artsy challenge and one of my favourite motifs for including in craft projects - hearts.

Now I have a few PA stamps, but few that were quite right for this challenge. I wanted to cut out a heart mask and stamp through it and in the end I found an old Squiggly Ink stamp that worked nicely. I stamped in shades of yellow, orange, deep pink and purple. Then I added shading around the edge with Picked Raspberry and Dusty Concord DIs. The letters are stamped from another Squiggly Ink set and I added some little wooden hearts to finish that I had painted with Blood Orange and Eggplant Fresco Paints.

We have just had our first picnic of the year (in the car) looking out over quite a wild seascape.

I was glad to be in the car at this point, but we did find a more sheltered spot for a quick walk ..........

....and enjoyed taking in the highlights of colour that are visible even on a quite murky day.

I am just enjoying a cuppa back at home in front of the woodburner and my next task is to make a big pot of warming veggie stew for dinner!

There are some definite benefits of living in a seasonal climate!

I hope you are enjoying your weekend so far!

Elaine x

WOYWW # 346

Well I think this is a first for me. Which is surprising given how much I enjoy nosing in other people's craft spaces! I am linking up with Julia here in the spirit of doing some different crafty things this year. This is my desk today!  This is the desk in my weeny indoor crafting space I carved out for myself in 2014. It measures just 1m x 2 m and is in the old larder of my house. You can see how narrow the space is by the width of the A4 folder open on the desk!

My desk is currently occupied with my newly completed ink swatch folder. I am something of an ink pad addict as you may be able to see by just some of the ink pads in view. These are also lurking just out of shot! There are more down in the Craft Shed too (they are probably currently frozen!) Yes, I know I have a serious problem with this addiction of mine!

I have used the cold weather of the last week as an excuse to stay near the fire and make up and stamp these ink swatch cards using the idea developed by lovely Jenifer McGuire who must be the queen of craft room organisation! I have had these coin pocket folders for about a year, but finally I got to work on  over the course of the last week.

The reason my desk is currently filled with my lovely folder is not just that I need to stroke it, but also that I am busy choosing inks for a colour challenge for the newly renamed Seven Hills Crafts blog this month. This is the new name for one of my favourite craft companies Make the Day Special.

I have included a few pics of the pages below while I bask in the pleasure of a job really well done (I won't bore you with them all!). It was quite a task as I have over 350 pads of different shapes and sizes. I have yet to index my rainbow pads so the job is not quite complete, but that will need a bit of a different approach.

Hope you are finding a nice cosy place for your crafting in the current cold snap!

Elaine x