No Internet Access

Just wanted to say that for the next 5 ot 6 days I won't have any internet access - so the blog will be a bit quiet. However later on next week I should have some rather fun things to share!

Happy Blogoversary Janette !

My SBS 20 sister Janette is celebrating the first birthday of her blog "Cards and Chat" with some muystery blog candy. Pay her a visit if you can.

Another Award

Another award – and this one has been given twice, by Rachel who blogs as Loopy Crafting and by Carol over on Paperplay. It’s the Blogging Friends Forever award. I am honoured ladies, thank you so much for thinking of me.

The rules of this award,
1. Only 5 people allowed.
2. 4 have to be dedicated followers of your blog
3. one has to be someone new or recently new to your blog and live in another part of the world.
4. you must link back to whoever gave you the award.quite simple really it is a way of saying thank you to those who take time out for wonderful comments to boost your day.

I will have to think some more for my 5 people to pass it on to, especially the person who fits rule 3 as I am not entirely sure where folks who post comments on my blog come from or what exactly constitutes another part of the world – I am assuming it means another country entirely.

I know rule 4 says that passing on the award is a way to say thank you to freinds who reads my blog, but I am going to bend that rule a little here because I know there are people out there who read my blog and never comment, but they do read it fairly regularly. So for the record here is a public thank you to everyone who takes the time to look at this blog to see what sorts of inky trouble I have been getting into next - I never really expected to my little dairy to be of interest to anyone but me.

Oh My Word - An Award

I am so chuffed to receive this Brillante Weblog award from Carol. Check out her Paperplay blog when you have some time, lots of lovely inspiration to be found in Carol's work.

The rules for this award are as follows :

The rules -
1.The winner can put the logo on their blog.
2.Link the person you received your award from.
3.Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4.Put links of those blogs on yours.
5.Leave a message on the blogs you've nominated.

I guess now I need to go and think about some of the other fab blogs I read to pass the award onto.

EDIT : 1st August 2008

Well I had time while I was on vacation to think about 7 blogs to pass this award onto and here they are in no special order of significance execept for perhaps the first one - Glenda Waterworth, the designer of my favorite Elusive Images stamps and probably my biggest influnce when it comes to crafting.

Glenda’s Blog – Artylicious - Thanks for all you do Glenda, long may your work continue to inspire me and others.
Deby’s Blog – Just Add Love - A blog I only recently discovered but I am already in awe of this lady's talents
Jan’s Blog – Far North Designs - another truely talented crafter from the frozen north of Alaska.
Dan’s Blog – My Crafty Life - now this one is tougher, I often find Dan's work uncomfortable, but never the less it's powerful and gutsy work.
Michelle Zindorf’s Blog – Freedom in Creating - If you already know Michelle's work you don't need to hear my thoughts on it, if not then go look, because I promise it will take your breath away.
Sandra’s Blog – Sandra Dry Designs - One of our new british stamp designers, and a very new blogger. Keep your eye on Sandra's work.
Linda’s Blog – Black is Best - Yet another immensely talented artist with her own range of stamp designs.

Peacock Birthday Card

I have had to hold back on posting a picture of this card which I made earlier on in the week - it's for a birthday so I waited to give the mail time to deliver the card. I had a blast making this one, getting gloriously messy with Glimmer Mists, painting with Twinking H2Os and sticking on Gems. Sometimes I think I must have been a magpie in a past life because if it sparkles, shimmers or glitters in any way I want it.

The background papers was made using the Glimmer Mists - first I painted a wash of green glimmer mist (Lily Pad) over my paper, then while it was still wet sprizted with more of the Green and also a Turquoise (Turquoise Blue) and Purple (Lavender Fields) Glimmer Mists. Then I folded the by now pretty soggy paper in half, spirtzed side inward and crumpled it up into a ball.. then uncrumpled and unfolded being careful not to tear the paper. Next was the really difficult bit.. walk away... and beleive me that is hard for me to do cuz I love picking things up I am making and admiring the shimmer, but it needed to dry, and to do so without me getting my mucky paw prints all over it or tearing it! Anyhow it was late so I toddled off to bed and the next morning I spritzed more of the green, turquoise and purple glimmer mists on to it and once again left it to dry. Finally when the paper was totally dry I used Royal Purple Stazon ink to stamp a peacock feather randomly over it and added a few more spitzes of Glimmer Mist. The more I layered the glimmer mists the more it seemed to shimmer!

With my background paper made I chose a Peacock image from the Elusive Images "Peacock Glory" themplate, stamped and heat embossed it with gold EP, painted it with Twinking H2O's and added some deep sapphire blue cabochon gems to it. The feather I had stamped on the background comes from the same themeplate. Finally I cut out my image and stuck it to some of the same deep green card I was using for my base card. I edged both the green card and the backing paper with a Gold Sakura Pentouch Pen and added a Happy Birthday greeting. Once again the full effect of the shimmer from those Glimmer Mists evades my camera! I must apologise for the smudgy finger prints in the photo - good job I noticed them before hubby did and yelled at me for getting finger prints on the camera lens!

A Christmas Card Using Elusive Images Stamps

I loved this challenge from Glenda Waterworth - why would I not - to make a Christmas card (my favorite kind of card) using Elusive Images Stamps (my favorite make of stamps) - what more could a stamp junkie want? The stamp I chose to use is a beautiful floral spray featuring Christmas Roses with Holly and Ivy foliage, it's one of the stamps that comes on the Elusive Images "Christmas Fusion" Themeplate.

I stamped and embossed my image using gold fine detail EP, then painted it with Twinkling H2Os, allowing the white and pink paints to bleed a little into each other on the flower petals, I then mounted this onto gold foiled card. I had already selected some deep green card stock which I got in The Paper Mill Shop and a backing paper from the Artylicious "Season's Greetings" CD which carries a beautiful story of how the Christmas Rose came to be.

After edging my paper with a Gold Sakura Pentouch Pen I applied the papers to my card along with a co-ordinated Greeting from the Season's Greetings CD. Finally the finishing touches - I stamped and embossed my Christmas Rose stamp again, this time only stamping the middle bit as all I wanted was the roses. Once they were painted with the H2Os I cut them out and mounted them on foam pads as an embellishment for the front of the card and then added an organza bow below the greeting.

Oh, I should add, I used the snapshot tool in Adobe to lift the papers into my graphics programme so I could tweak the brightness and colour saturation of the paper a little - in my head I had a very exact idea of the colour I wanted and the paper as it printed was just a tad too dark.

And now that's another Christmas card I can add to my tally for Fab's Big Christmas Challenge - if you have been reading my blog you may recall I decided to attempt the "nutters" challenge this month and try to have 6 Christmas cards made before the 25th of July.

SBS 20 - Group Site

Hi to all the sisters in SBS 20 - we now have a group site, please leave me a comment here with you email address so I can send you the invitation to join the group site. I have comment moderation enabled so no comments containing email addresses will actually be published.

Something Simple

I rarely have time to make cards at the weekends as that is when I work. This weekend I am also handicapped by having lent my favorite guillotine that I use all the time to a freind. She started card making about 9 months ago because she saw how much fun I was having, but has never found a guillotine or paper trimmer she feels happy using. She asked about the one I have as she is thinking of buying one of those. I said "look borrow it for a couple of days over the weekend and have a play with it, that way if you find you don't get on with it you have not wasted a lot of money on yet another choice that is the wrong one for you, and if you do like it you can buy one for yourself with confidence". I do think cutters can be personal - what one person loves and uses all the time another just does not get on well with at all.

Anyhow today my new Artylicious CD arrived, Peacock Summer Party, and oh my word! The designs on it are fabulous, can't wait till my days off so I can have a proper play with it! Mind you I am going to have a huge problem trying to decide which of the designs to use first as there are so many fabulous ones to choose from. One of the lovely things about this CD is that you can do something good by buying it. Glenda Waterworth, the designer of the CD, has a family member who suffers from a rare and little understood condition called Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) and has arranged that a donation from each CD sold will go towards research into this debilitating and incurable condition. More information on PSP can be found on the PSP Association Web Site.

Now why did I entitle this post "Something Simple" - well I keep photos of a lot of the cards I make and my new Artylicious CD has prompted me to look over some of the work I have made with previous CD's. I thought I would share this card from the Artylicious Fantasy Floral CD. It is a very simple card really. Just some shimmery opalescent card stock in a lovely rich purlple colour, 2 printed oval shapes from one of the CD's floral design sets, a peel off sentiment and finally the finishing touch - a butterfly printed onto vellum which I cut out and embellished with a few light touches of Stickles glitter. The butterfly came from yet another of the Artylicious CD's, aptly named Butterfly Bliss.

One last thought, if you have followed any of my links to those CD's take some time to browse through the Graphicus Gallerys. Why? Well because when my mojo has gone AWOL, the Graphicus Gallery is the place where I most often regain it. There is just so much to inspire on those pages.

More Glimmer Mists

I have been playing with Glimmer Mists again. This time I used one of the Glimmer screens and 3 different colours of Glimmer mist to create a background, I then used stencil brush to stipple on some pink ink around the edge of the stencil flourish to give it a bit more lift. The stamped quotation is a stamp by Clarity Stamp and was stamped with Versafine Onxy Black. I wish the camera could capture the shimmer better.

Brrrrrr......Freezing

I am still working on the "nutters" challenge for Fab's Big Christmas Challenge this month. As June is the sixth month Fab's "nutter's" challenge for June is to make not just one Christmas card as is required for the regular challenge, but six! Not sure if I will manage all six, but every card I do make just now means less pressure for me at the end of the year. Last year I found that the pressure to make enough Christmas cards was actually taking away a lot of the pleasure in making, so I am not too worried if I don't manage all 6 this month so long as I am enjoying making the ones I do make. I will be that much closer to having all the cards I need for Christmas 2008 ready in plenty of time. If you haven't started making your Christmas cards yet, why not join in with Fab's challenge, you don't have to go for the "nutter's" one, for the regular challenge all you need to do is make a single Christmas card - and you never know you might find yourself in festive mood and make more - not a bad thing to have some cards made nice and early if you always need a lot of hand made cards for family and freinds at Christmas.

Fortunately I found some more inspiration in another challenge this week. Daring Card Makers Challenge is entitled "Brrrrrr.......Freezing" and the brief is to make a card that is inspired by images, colours, embellishments - anything that makes you think of feeling cold and reminds you of winter. Anyhow here is my "chilly" card!

The Snowman stamp is from Visible Image and has been stamped in Black Archival Ink then coloured with Prismacolor pencils. The shimmery snowflake background was made by sponging blue dye based ink onto white card stock the spritzing with Gimmmer Mists. After it dried I stamped the snowflake image in Adirondack Dye ink (Denim) then spritzed some more with the Glimmer Mists. The photo really does not do justice to the gorgeous icy shimmer from those Glimmer Mists. Finally I edged the both the Snowman image and the background with a silver Sakura Pentouch pen.

The card itself is some pearlescent card stock that I picked up at the SECC in March and I have used some of the offcuts of my background to punch out small snowflakes and to make the text message. The Let It Snow text was also stamped with the Adirondack Denim ink.

Favorite Flower Challenge

This was a really tough challenge on Rainbow Lady's Challenge Blog! Why? Well because it was so hard to decide, Roses or Daffodils? I love both! So how did make my final choice, well I chose my favorite flower stamp. I adore this Rose Script stamp from Elusive Images. I think if I could only own one stamp, then this would be it.

The card is a simple one, I stamped and embossed in fine detail gold embossing powder onto some ivory Moondust card, Moodust is a beautifuly shimmery pearlescent card, very similar to Stardream card. I used fine detail EP because the script on the stamp is very fine and delicate and looks smudgy when heat embossed with regular EP. I painted my rose using Twinkling H2Os and then matted this on to some red Moondust card and mounted the finished topper onto more of the ivory Moondust card. The text stamp is also from the same Rose Script themeplate. Finally I added some peel-off corners in gold.

Just Because ...

I don't really have a title for this post because this card was not made for any particular occasion or challenge, so I guess it's a "just because I can make it" sort of card.

The little dog stamp is from a set by The Angel Company. He was stamped with black Archival Ink then coloured using Prismacolor pencils which I blended with low odour white spirit and paper stumps. The papers and the greeting text stamp are from an Hot Off The Press kit and the flowers are from Prima.

Grid Challenge Card

A member of a card swap group asked us to join in a challenge swap making a card using a Grid Scoring technique she had recently discovered and enjoyed doing. The technique involves scoring parallel lines across your card in both directions to create a grid. In the challenge I have scored on the diagonal, but it would work in the horizontal and vertical axis also. I am not really a pink person, but I used pinks for this because the person I am swapping with tends to create what I think of as very feminine designs so I hope she likes this one.

After making my grid layer I found my mind kept wandering to the trellis people use in their gardens to support climbing plants so I decided to decorate my card with leaves and flowers. I inked the grid with some Adirondack ink to make the embossed lines stand out more, the leaves are punched out and the flowers are from the center a stamp which came with a recent edition of Craft Stamper. I stamped only the centre flower and then heat embossed it with some Cosmic Shimmer EP. The petals and center of the flower were coloured using Sakura Stardust pens in pink and orange. I then cut the flowers out and stuck them and the leaves to my "garden trellis"

The get well sentiment was a bit of an accident as to my knowlege the person I am sending to is not sick right now. I had meant to pick up a "Just for You" stamp from a set of clear Hot Off The Press sentiment stamps but didn't realise I had grabbed the wrong one until after I stamped it! That will teach me to double check by stamping on some scrap first as it's tricky to read text stamps that are in such an elaborate font!

Three Challenges - One Card

This card has been in my head now since I made hubby's birthday card. As the idea formed I thought great, I can make that for Fab's Big Christmas Challenge this month. It also works for the Daring Cardmakers challenge this week as the theme is "Christmas in June" and my third challenge is My Time to Craft where this weeks's theme is "Seasons".

The card was made using a limited edition stamp from Elusive Images which has been made for members of the Graphicus Guild. I stamped the image in black Archival Ink, then created masks by stamping on to scrap paper and cutting out the elements I wanted to mask. With my masks in place I was able to use my brayer to colour the hills in the background and then to colour the sky using Adirondack dye based inks. The Christmas star was stamped with a stamp from Clarity Stamp and heat embossed using a mix of gold and holographic embossing powders. I mixed them as I wanted only just a hint of sparkle. I then added snow to the tops of the hills and on the trees with a white Sakura Souffle Pen and finally added another hint of sparkle using Stickles glitter glue in "Frosted Lace". The Frosted Lace is not a very sparkly glitter so it's quite subtle. The backing paper is from the Artylicious Season's Greetings CD set and the words are from a favorite Christmas Carol - "In the Bleak Mid Winter".