WOYWW 77

Backgrounds I was messing about with last night is what's on my workdesk today.  If you want to know why I'm posting this, then take a look at Julia's Blog where you can find out and even join in this weekly snoop-a-thon.

WOYWW 76

I've been waiting all day to take this photo - only just made it for Wednesday!  So here we are ..... look what my lovely hubby made for me..... ain't he a star!  Just finished stuffing it full of inky goodness for the photo - so everything is kinda crammed on there in no particular order - job for tomorrow - organise it properly!

To find out more about WOYWW and even take part if you're feeling brave hop on over to Julia's Blog

WOYWW 74

First I must say thank you to all the WOYWWer's who left kind messages about my car crash last week.  Heard from the insurance company and, as expected the car will be written off.  Anyhow on to WOYWW which is hosted by Julia over at Stamping Ground.  This is what's on my workdesk today - I have an illuminated alphabet set of stamps by Elusive Images and I had planned to uses these for a card for the Design Team, but after painting them with those Twinking H2O's that you see there the other elements for the card sort of took control and changed the colourplan on me so I had to make some more and these ones were left.  So now I need to decide what I will make with these ones. but before that a coffee refill and some snooping round other work desks will be the order of the day.

WOYWW 73

Good Morning WOYWWers, first let me thank everyone who kindly wished me well with my dental appointment last week.  It was just a tiny filling that didn't take too long.  For anyone wondering what WOYWWers are you need to visit the inestimable (ain't that a great word) Ms Dunnit's Blog where all will be revealed.

This week there is not a lot happening - my lovely new Sir Tim die is lying where I left it several days ago because my mojo has done a runner.  I had a car crash on Sunday on my way to work, I hit some black ice and lost control, thankfully no other cars were around, just me, the car and that nasty patch of  ice. I wasn't hurt much - just a bit sore and stiff, but the car is a write off.  Anyhow I just haven't felt like doing much of anything except blubbering which I assume is the shock reaction.  Hoping today I can get some crafting done cuz I have some sample projects to complete for Elusive Images.

Heading off now for a wander round some other workdesks and perhaps find something to kick some life back into my mojo.

Elegant Ladies From Elusive Images

Elusive Images has just launched some lovely new A5 themeplates, each of which features a beautiful lady in a fabulous evening gown. Accompanying the lady on each of the plates are a lovely mix of swirls, ornate corners, chandaliers and candelabras.  You can see the new stamp sheets in their full glory over on the Elusive Images Design Team Blog where, if you are lucky, you might win one of the themeplates in a random giveaway.  You will also get to see some of the beautiful creations made by my fellow DT memebers to give you some inspiration.  We all agreed that these stamps would be very pretty to use for wedding themes, making lovely cards to give to the bride and bridesmaids etc, but their versatility does not end there, as the samples shown on the EI DT blog show!  The samples I made did wedding themed items, but this one is an any occasion card made when I gave in to my addiction to Vintage Photo Distress Ink and just had a nice inky play! 

The stamp was stamped with the Distress Ink onto cream card, only stamping the upper part of the image. I blended more ink around this and also used the ink as a paint to add some shading to the lady's face and arms.  The frame was cut using Nestability dies from more of the cream card which then had lots of that lovely Vintage Photo  ink blended over it.  The pattern on the frame was created by stamping the skirt part of the lady's ballgown in Versmark ink and dusting with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls. The frame is mounted over the image of the lady using foampads.  The background is more cream card and paper from the Artylicious Decadent Brocade CD onto which I blended yet more of the Distress Ink.  To finish the card I stamped a greeting, added some cotton lace and some amber coloured cabochon gems to the frame and as the corners of the backing paper.

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - 72

Good morning WOYWWers and thanks for all the lovely comments last week.  Short post from me today as I have to rush off to the dentist soon.  Will be back later to enjoy a good snoop round this week's desks. Here's my desk as looks this morning -  I left it like that on Tuesday before heading out to work the late shift.  I meant to mount those stamps on the foam and cut them out after work last night, but ended up watching telly till nearly bedtime instead.

If you're new to WOYWW and wondering what this is all about, head over to Julia's Blog to find out more.

Haunted House Card

This is a card I made using a stamp from the Elusive Images Spookylicious themeplate.  The background for the house was made by randomly blending Dusty Concord, Faded Jeans and Pine Needles Distress Inks over some white cardstock to completely cover the card surface.  I stamped and embossed the house using Cosmic Shimmer Arctic Black Aurora embossing powders, then highlighted the house using a faux bleaching technique.  

The faux bleaching is done by simply painting clean water over the areas you want to remove ink from, then dabbing the area with a kitchen towel to remove the water and as much ink as you can.  Because the stamped image has been heat embossed the inked background becomes slightly heat set and you don't remove quite as much colour using this technique as you would from unheated card.  For that reason I used  real bleach to take almose all the colour away from the moon area.  Once dry the card was dry, I blended Black Soot Distress Ink around the edges then mounted the finished image onto a mat cut from dark green foiled card.

The base card is a deep purple foiled card and the corners are chipboard pieces from Maya Road which I inked with more of the Black Soot Distress ink then covered in UTEE, two coats of clear UTEE followed by a top layer of the Cosmic Shimmer Arctic Black Aurora embossing powder.

WOYWW 71

Oh my goodness Wednesday already so it must be time for another WOYWW!  I didn't get to very many blogs at all last week so sorry to those who I missed, I will try harder this week as I really enjoy seeing lots of other interesting desks, crafty stash and inspiring artwork.  Now if you haven't heard of WOYWW before then the best way to find out more is to visit Julia's blog Stamping Ground where you can find out how to join in this regular Wednesday Snoop-fest. 

So on to the business of the day - here's my desk as I left it last night when I headed off to bed - a stamped background I have been working on, a pile of Prima flowers that I plan to use with the background and a mottley assortment crafty clutter piling up and pushed back.  Time now to grab a coffee refill and settle down for good nosey at everyone else's desks.

Things That Go Bump In The Night

This card was made using Hallowe'en themed stamps from Elusive Images.  The the toadstools, the spider web on the corners and the greeting all came from the Halloween Candle Themeplate.

To make the card I stamped the toadstools onto white card using black Adirondack Dye Ink.  Next I added spots over the tops of the toadstools using a Versamark Pen, then sprinkled clear embossing powder over the image and heated it.  With the spots of clear embossing in place I coloured the image using Copic markers then coloured over the whole image with the Versmark pen, coated the image with clear embossing powder and heated it up.  The clear embossing was to provide a resist so I could ink the background around the toadstools. 

The background was inked first with Pine Needles Distress Ink, blended right up to and over the image.  Next I blende some Dusty Concord around the outer edges of the image, then wiped the ink away from the clear embossed area.    I stamped the branches of one of the trees from the Arboretum Design-A-Tree themeplate around the edges and inked up just the spider dangling from it's web on the large Candle stamp in the Hallow'en Candle set and stamped it in to look like it was dangling from one of the tree branches.

I made a card blank from some black card and added mats and layers in orange and purple card. On the purple layer I blended Dusty Concord and Black Soot Distress Inks around the edges and stamped and embossed the greeting with black embossing powder.  The corners were cut from some of the orange card and stamped with the spiders's web stamp.  Finally I added some Black Diamond Stickles Glitter Glue around the corners and around the edges of the mat and some black brads.

Elusive Images Sponsors Play Date Cafe Challenge

Hi, this week Elusive Images are sponsors over on the Play Date Cafe Challenge and there is a fabulous rubbery prize to be won!  The challenge each week gives you a colour story to work to.  This week, as you can see from the photo above, it's a fresh take on some tradtional Christmas colours.  Over on the Play Date Cafe blog there is some wonderful inspiration from their Design Team so why don't you hop over there for a look and then play along this week. 

Meantime here's my take on the theme.  Details of the stamps I used and how the card was made can be found over on the Elusive Images Design Team Blog where there is even more inspiration for you from Glenda and some of the other DT members.

WOYWW 70

Good morning WOYWWers.  Sorry I missed last week, I was a bit under the weather last Wednesday and had far too much Elusive Images DT stuff lying around on my desk that involved some new stamps that have not been launched yet so I would have had to clear that up  before I could have taken a photo and joined in. 

This week however I just have one card - turned over as it need's to wait till tomorrow before I can blog it. The rest is most of my usual stuff - the push back method is working well for now, but I really need to take some time today to clear things up as the what you can see is only the tip of the iceberg, there are a heck of a lot more scraps that need to be binned and stamps and inkpads laying around that need to be put away that you can't see in this photo. Jo - the paint brush holder is working a treat. It's out of shot tho, but within easy reach!

Now before I go on I should explain WOYWW stands for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday, and it's a chance to find out if you really are the messiest crafter in the known universe or just an also ran by snooping round lots of other crafters workdesks.  To join in you need to visit the Goddess of Snoop Ms Julia Dunnit over at Stamping Ground.

Last time I joined in someone asked if I was going to label my drawers - if you click on that photo you will see they are labelled with contents on the left side of each draw.  I thought it would be easier to share the contents of some of them if I took the drawers out and sat them on the floor.  I had just about enough clear floor space to do that - so here are the drawers that contain my Glimmer Mists in the first photo.  The second photo shows the draws that hold Stickles and Pearly Stuff in one and the other my collection of Twinkling H20's ... well  most of them.  I have those lovely little pots of shimmery goodness roughly organised by colours as you can see.  Neutrals in one tray,  purples through pinks and reds into Oranges in the second one and  yellows, greens and blues in the last one.  The metallics, the interference whites and a couple of other sets are still squirrlled away on a shelf, I keep meaning to find the time to add them into the trays in that draw...oh well one day I suppose.

WOYWW 68

Good Morning WOYWWer's, and for anyone wondering what WOYWW is all about, then I recommend visiting Julia's Blog Stamping Ground where you can find out all about it. 

Today my desk is covered with stuff I can't show at the moment - new stamps from Elusive Images. So instead I thought I would show off my drawers. Hubby got me these as a pressy a while back and they are really useful for lotsa stuff.

The next pics are the top 2 drawers that contain mostly my Distress inks they are stacked 2 deep in each drawer. I tend to pair up colours so it makes them easy to find; Dusty Concord with Milled Lavender (purple colours), Spiced Marmalade with Dried Marigold (orange shades)- you get the idea I am sure. In the second drawer there is a random assortment of other inkpads too. Woulda shown you more of the drawers but the camera batteries have run out!

Trick or Treat - The Reveal

Well was it a trick, or was it a treat???.............


Um, yanno getting older make it hard to remember stuff............


Stuff like...................


Was I tricking y'all or not..... and.......


Stuff like........


Where did I put...............

THESE!!!!!

Yay......  it was a TREAT!!!

I have used a random number generator at Random.Org to draw a winner and the lucky number chosen was comment 26.  Now I should point out that someone commented twice, so technically the winning comment is 27th  in the list as I only counted 1 comment per person.  And the lucky winner is belindatec:

belindatec said...

I really love your card that cat is just perfect.

16 September 2010 00:17

Congratulations Belinda, please leave me a comment on this post with your name and postal address so I can mail your stamps to you.  Comment moderation is turned on for this blog so I won't publish the comment that contains your details.

 

Now it just remains for me to thank everyone who has taken part for all your kind comments and for entering into the fun of  our little Trick or Treat theme.  Right now Elusive Images are offering a wonderful inspiration leaflet (actually IMO it's more of a booklet) for anyone who buys more than one set of the Hallowe'en stamps.  It's a fab leaflet, with lots of ideas and several sets ofstep by step instructions - great for those of you who are newer stampers and may need a little help.  Full details of how to get hold of the leaflet can be found on the Elusive Images Design Team Blog.  Retailers should contact Elusive Images for details of how to get hold or the leaflet for their store.

Trick or Treat Part 4 - Time's Running Out

It’s that time of year again when the nights are drawing in, the kids are back at school, the leaves are starting to turn and the pumpkins are ripening......... and even more exciting it's nearly time to reveal who has won blog candy in the Elusive Images Hallowe'en Blog Hop.  Do I have some of these scrummy Elusive Images Hallowe'en Blog candy treats to give away, or is this just a trick?  Well if you want to know the answer you're going to have to check back later today when all will be revealed. 

There will be winners for sure, but did you leave your comments on the right blogs? The lucky winners will receive one of these Elusive Images Hallowe'en themeplates so if you haven't joined in yet you still have a few short hours in which to do so.  Scroll down to my "Trick or Treat Part 2" post and follow the instructions on the post.  Then make sure you visit the Elusive Images Design Team Blog and use the links there, or the ones in my sidebar to visit the blogs of the other DT members.  There are at least 2 DT members who have some blog candy to give away so hurry hurry..... don't be missed!

Trick or Treat Part 3 - Found that Blog Candy Yet?

We have been having a lot of fun on the Elusive Images Design Team for the last few weeks playing errr I mean working hard, making samples with Hallowe'en themed stamps.  A dirty job for sure, but someone had to do it [Grin].  Today I thought I would share one of those samples with you. The card was made using stamps from the Twilight Zone and Spookylicious themeplates, and paper from the Artylicious Essence of Nature CD.  I also used Distress Inks and Twinkling H2Os.

Right now we have a fun blog hop running for anyone who wants to win some hallowe'en themed blog candy.  Now the candy is hidden, not every Design Team member has any, some do, some don't.  The challenge is to find the blogs with the candy.  To give you a helping hand, here is the link to my blog candy post - be sure to follow the instructions in the post if you hope to find that blog candy! 

Of course I may or may not have candy, so to be certain of being in with a chance to win some of these spooktacular Elusive Images Hallowe'en themed stamps you will need to visit the Elusive Images Design Team Blog and also the blogs of the other DT members - you can find their links in my side bar and on the main post about the Blog Hop on the Elusive Images Design Team Blog.  You only have a day or two left to find that candy, as the winners will be drawn on Friday 17th September 2010.  Good Luck in the hunt!

WOYWW 67 and Elusive Images Halloween Candy

Well, where did the week go?  Oh yes I remember, I was busy schemeing with the the rest of the Elusive Images Design Team about a Hallowe'en themed Blog Hop with hidden Blog Candy for you to find.  If you want to know more, the start point is here at the Elusive Images Design Team Blog.  You have until the 17th of September to hunt down that candy. 

But now it's Wednesday again so it's time for WOYWW.  Last week I made it round everyone!  Geeze that was a lot of blogs, but I enjoyed every visit and found lots lof lovely inspiration along the way, not to mention some comfort in seeing that, after all, I may not the messiest crafter in the known universe.
 

Anyhow here's my desk this week, not a lot going on at the moment so I thought you might like to see what's over my workspace.... and here's a pic of some drawers that sit on the shelf directly over my desk - they hold Sakura pens, water colour pencils, Stampin' Up Markers, Whispers markers, some stencils, stencil brushes, gems, bits of ribbon and other various itty bitty crafty things.  On top are tins with more pencils, Primacolors, Derwent Metallic Pencils and Lyra Aquacolors - and before you say it, yes I have a bit of a pen and pencil thing going on ..... and worse.......I haven't even shown you my collection of twinkling H2O's yet..... maybe I will share that next week. 

In front of those drawers is the edge of the shelf - it's about 3 inches wider than the little drawer sets and a very handy spot to stuff things outta the way, I can reach up there while remaining seated at my workdesk!  Errr don't ask me what up there, most of it is small bits of card that really ought to be in a bits box or binned. I keep promising myself I will sort that all out Oneday.  The problem is Woden gave his name to  Wednesday, Thor's name for Thursday,  and Freya gave hers to Friday etc., but here's the problem..... for some reason nobody ever named a day of the week after the great god "One"!!! And ain't that most original and best excuse you EVER did hear for not tidying your craft space!!! [Big Grin]

Now if you're wondering what on earth all this is about then I recommend you visit Julia's Blog Stamping Ground as she is the orchestrator of this regular Wednesday Snoopathon.

Oops I nearly forgot, for those of you who visited last week and saw the part-coloured image on my desk.....here's how it turned out.

Trick or Treat Part 2

Well, the Elusive Images Design Team Hallowe'en Blog Hop is underway and all of the new Hallowe'en stamps can be seen on the DT blog.  Some of the EI Design Team have blog candy to give away this week........Do I have candy????   maybe I do, and maybe I don't..... Trick or Treat????? 

Here's a card that plays a trick..... open it up and BOO!!!  The stamps are from Elusive Images and include a  mix from the new Hallowe'en themeplates, Spookylicious, Twilight Zone,  and also stamps from Arboretum Design a Tree and Sketchy Alphabet. 

So..... do I have hallowe'en candy????..... well my lips are sealed, but if you want to take a chance on this being a treat and not a trick, here's what you must do:

• if you are not already a follower, you need to become a  follower on this blog
• You must also become a follower on the Elusive Images Design Team blog
• Link back to this post on your own blog if you have one.
• Finally  leave me a comment on this post

On the 17th of September the EIDT members who do have candy will draw a winner randomly from the comments on their blogs...... best make sure you visit all of us if you want to be in with a chance to win! You can find my fellow Design Team Members in my side bar.  Good luck in the hunt!

Please note this Blog Candy Hunt is now over and the winners have been announced.

Trick or Treat?

Good morning, I hope everyone is having a  great weekend.  Just a wee peek at something I've been working on for the Elusive Images Blog Hop which starts tomorrow.  If you want to see what happens to my pile of pumpkins, you need follow the Hop.  Your launch pad will be the Elusive Images Design Team Blog tomorrow.  Take care not to miss anything because you never know, there may be Hallowe'en candy to be found along the way!

WOYWW 66

Good Morning WOYWWers. Thanks for all the kind comments last week,  especially those about the brayered Hallowe'en cards..... what the photo at that distance probably didn't show is that each of those has a flaw of some kind... and that is why I was not happy with them.   Things like over inking on the reflected stamping bug me cuz I know it's there - I tend not to use stuff where my "inner school teacher" is writing "could do better" on the school report [Grin]  And on that note, I could do better, I really hoped to get round all the blogs last week..... fell short by quite a bit... made it to just over 70 folks.  If I missed your's I am sorry - and I will try harder this week.

Anyhow,   This was my desk last night, I'm in the process of making a new version of that Lighthouse scene card for someone.  Their father, who is quite ill, saw a picture of the card and loved it.  However I no longer have the original card to send, so I said I would make one for him. Started the colouring last night, and have a few ideas how to remake the card, but make it different from the original too,  even tho I am aiming for the same kind of vibrant colours as the first one.

Now if you are wondering what this WOYWW stuff is all about, then I recommend a visit to Julia's Blog Stamping Ground where all will be made clear..... hmmmmm or maybe not so clear.... more likely to be pretty messy.....but it's all nice creative mess!

WOYWW 65

I missed WOYWW last week, had a rather shocking visit to the optician for an eye test - geeze the price of varifocals!!! Who ever said old age does not come on it's own must have been thinking about the massive bills for things like that that come with it!  Anyhow after some help from other crafters online I found a better deal on new glasses, which I sorely need, at Tesco..... just a case of getting them made up now.

First pic up today is for Julia - the evil genius behind this regular Wednesday madness and if you want to know how to join in the fun, well all you have to do is visit Julia's Blog.  Thank you Julia for my lovely WOYWW easel that arrived safely last week.  The card was made using a stamp I have been playing with for a forum swap where the theme was "Old Freinds or Latest Purchase"  The "Floral Spray" was one of my first ever Elusive Images stamps and is indeed an old and trusted freind - a lovely image for so many occasions.  While I was making my swap card another idea for using the stamp was kinda bubbling away underneath and this is what happened.... seemed that turning it into a "thank you" card was the right thing to do.  I matted it onto some orange card and thought I would then stamp sort of background on a card blank, but when I went digging in my stash I found that silvery green card that I had forgotten I had, and it just seemed to colour match so well with the leaves in the main image that I decided that leaving it plain was best.

And here's my workspace as I left it at bedtime - sorry the bit of white card on my cutting mat is something I cannot show as it's a Design Team project so I turned it over - but I spend last night colouring the stamped image on the other side with Derwent Inktense Pencils.... mmmm I lurve those pencils. The bottles in the plastic bag are Tinkabella Inks from Graphicus, got an idea for that red colour that's lying on it's side. Behind that some attempts at a brayerd card with a halloween theme... not happy with any of them so not sure that idea will mature into anything worthwhile, but they are there cuz I will probably have another crack at it some time this week.

This is the space to the left of my work area - see I am still being good - no return of the huge piles of stash - I can even have my box of pencils open with both trays available for me to pick colours from! The box of stamps contains the stamps the sets of stamps that I am currently working with, there is more in there than just those house stamps.

Sparkly Stuff

Today I have been making something just for my own pleasure, one of the stamps from the new Elusive Images Christmas designs kept popping into my head with thoughts of an ice blue and white colour scheme. At first I was thinking "stamp it on vellum", but when I sat down to have a play with the stamp  I found my hands reaching for some Stamp 'n' Bond and Glitter.... have I ever mentioned that I am addicted to glitter? The stamp in question comes from the Winter Birds themeplate, it's a sort of counter part to the ornate corner stamps which feature on the Angel of Light themeplate, and yes I used one of those fancy corners too.

The dangly square is actually 2 squares, cut with nestablilites, which I stamped and sprinkled Stamp 'n' Bond onto, heated, then applied the glitter.  I edged the squares with a little Tumbled Glass Distress Ink, then stuck them back to back so as no matter which the the dangly bit turned you would see the design.

I cut an apperture in the main card with one of the bigger nesties, edged it with glue and more of the same glitter.  I also stamped the corner stamps in each corner, again using the Stamp 'n' Bond and glitter.  The greeting was created the same way.  The dangly square was suspended on jump rings and a bow at the top finished it off. 

As this weeks challenge on My Time to Craft is "Glitter and Glitz" I have decided to enter my card into the challenge.

WOYWW 62 - I tidied a bit

Ok the mess got to me.... it was getting to be really tricky to make anything without loosing stuff I was actually trying to use! Now I just need to organise the rest of my storage a bit better, cuz it's pretty much a hodge podge.  Anyhow the tidy was done on Sunday, and included the piles of stuff on the left side of my desk. What you see now is something I have been working on... a stamped image which I have had to cut out as I can't show it yet, and some card and papers in colours I might use with it.  The papers are from an Artylicious paper pack which I think you can see in the second photo.  I also included a piccy of a cupboard where I keep a lot of my unmounted stamps and a few other bits and pieces.

Thanks for all the lovely comments last week.... perhaps I ought to explain about the wallpaper... When we moved in, that was the wallpaper that was on the walls, we thought OK that can wait to be redecorated...BAD MISTAKE... because the spare room ended up becoming a dumping ground for stuff we couldn't find a space for, we never seemed to get around to doing something with it and then my I got my first computer and needed a place for that....and finally when I took up stamping I needed a craft room!  The room still fulfills all of those functions, but as a result I'm sorta trapped as to how to change that wallpaper cuz I have no idea where we could put our stuff if we had to empty things out to redecorate.

Now there were somes questions in amongst those comments last week, so I figured I should reply.

Pam, what I was doing with the trees will be revealed in due course .... but it's something spooky.

Bleubeard and Elizabeth, the white looking thing is a one of those La Blanche foam backed rubber stamps.  As for the stamp in tubs... well there's more, check out my third photo today.....all those A4 storage boxs stood on end like books contain more rubbah.

Sunshine Girl, the trees are from an Elusive Images Themeplates called Arboretum: Design-A-Tree.  They are bare trees that come with small leaf and flower stamps to "dress" the tree with - if you want a spring,  summer or autumnal tree you can have it... or just leave them bare as winter trees.  I've put a link in for you cuz I love to enable fellow stampers!

Julia, yes haha.... I adore trees so of course I have a bit of a "tree thing going on" [insert evil grin here]

I hope I have answered everyone's questions, sorry if I missed any out and for writing such a long post.  And there you have it, the crazy snoopy fun that is WOYWW - to join in the fun, visit Julia's Blog Stamping Ground - but be warned, it's addcitive!

Last but not Least

The last of the 6 cards I made for the Elusive Images DT application - a colour challenge.  Glenda had specified that one of the projects submitted must follow a specifed theme and given a choice of about 4 or 5 themes, I chose a colour challenge - Brown and Teal. 

This time the main image is by Clarity Stamp, but the patterns in the dress, and on the edge of the inside back, are done using what I tend to think of as "incidental stamps".  Those small decorative stamps that come on sheets of unmounted stamps which, while they are pretty, often sit around unused because we are not sure what to do with them!  The stamp in question comes from the Elusive Images "Delightful Damask" themeplate

To make the card I stamped the lady onto some white card using a permanent black ink, I also made several stampings onto pages of a post-it note pad, making sure that part of the image fell over the tacky area, this was for cutting out to make masks for the dress.   I placed the masks in turn over various parts of the image and coloured the dress using a stencil brush and Versamagic inks in the appropriate brown and teal colours.  The pattern was added  by overstamping through some of the masks with the pattern stamp from the Delightful Damask themeplate.  The border round the image and also on the edge of the inside back of the card was created in much the same way, using masking, stencil brushes and overstamping.  The right hand edge of the front of the card has been trimmed back to reveal the stamped border inside the card. 

The background layers were cut from card in the challenge colours, the ornate cormers were cut with a Cuttlebug die.  I should appologise for the photo, this one seems to have a lot of camera shake in it, I always take more than one picture of my card, but in this instance I must have deleted the wrong image from the camera and as the card is no longer in my possession I cannot take a better picture.

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - 62

Here we are, Wednesday again and time to join in the madness that is WOYWW!  Last week was fun, I made it round everybody's space - yipeee. Thanks to eveyone who visited me, I love reading your comments!  If you are wondering what WOYWW is all about,  take a look on Julia's Blog.  I have to say I enjoy having a snoop round other people's spaces, great way to get ideas and be inspired by what they have going on in their space.
This week I have some stamps sitting waiting to be cut out, that will be my next job today, I have some projects bubbling away in my head to make with them.  You can also see some failed attempts at an idea, they are sitting there to remind me to keep working on it when I have time, the idea will take shape eventually. 

I also thought I would share a peek at some of the mess on the left side of my desk... errrr shameful ain't it, I really must try to tidy that away and reclaim some space!  Those tubs contain mostly stamps, I really ought to get them stored away in my filing system - hmmm maybe I should show that cupboard next time, it's fairly tidy.

Quick 'n' Easy Elegance

One more of my design team submissions, and a break from the nautical theme.  This card uses a stamp from the Words of Inspiration themeplate by Elusive Images.  It's been heat embossed in gold on to Southfields gold Moondust pearlescent card that I had cut using a Nestabilites die.   The card blank is also the same gold Moondust card. The matting layer is cut from Base Metal card also by Southfields.   The printed design is from the Artylicous Decadent Brocade CD.  I printed this onto ink jet printable pearlescent paper so it would have the same shimmer as the rest of the card stock I was using, sadly the photo does not do the shimmery quality of the cardstock and papers real justice.

I chose the words for this card because it seemed to fit the occasion, applying to for a place on the Elusive Images design team, I was indeed holding onto the thought "why not"!  However, while I was making the card I was thinking that any appropriate sentiments could be substituted to suit many different of occasions, Birthdays, Christmas and even sad times such as a sympathy card.  For any of these occasions and more, the design printed from the CD would make a lovely elegant background for a wide variety of messages.  I suspect that for Christmas this year I may make a few more cards using this kind of layout and some of those lovely papers as it's not a time consuming card to make when lots need to be made!

Seashell Stepper

This is another of the cards that I made as part of my submission for the Elusive Images Design Team. To make it I used  Elusive Images stamps from the Underwater and Seashell Collage themeplates, both of which are available from Graphicus.  This was one of those cards that seems to take over once you start making it, and ends up being very different from the card you first imagined in your head.

To make the card I started with an A4 sheet of ice blue pearlescent card onto which I stamped the large corner stamp of the shells and seaweed  and embossed with detail silver EP at the bottom right corner.  With that done I cut the lines needed to free the middle section of the card from the outer edge, freehand cutting the curve around the edge of the stamped image and scored the lines across the card needed to create the stepped folds.  With that done I stamped and embossed the little silver seahorse on the right side of the card and then folded along all my scored fold lines.

For the seashells I used Distress Inks with the wrinkle free technique to colour some white card. The ink colours are Tumbled Glass, Spun Sugar and Bundled Sage. Once that was dry I used detail silver EP to emboss the various shell and starfish images onto it and then cut them out. I glued all my cut out shapes to the front and middle steps of the card.   

The card was finished off by making a greeting for the back step using Nestabilties dies to cut and emboss another piece of my Distress Ink coloured card onto which I stamped a greeting using a stamp from Clarity Stamp. I used a little Stormy Sky Distress ink to blend around the edge of this to pick up the embossed detail from the die.  If you look closely there are also some small shells stamped randomly in the same Distress Inks used to give the card it's colour, not sure if they really show up in the photo.   This was layerd onto some scalloped mats cut from more of the the same ice blue pearlescent card I made the step base with and another cut from silver foiled card. and stuck to the back step of the card .

WOYWW 61

My latest crafty acquisition  is what's on my workspace! I've been lusting after Copic markers for about 2 years now.  These are my pressy from hubby to celebrate being chosen to be part of the Elusive Images Design team!   Not got time yet to play with them as I have some deadlines to meet. The projects are already underway and were  planned without the use of Copics in mind.  As I expect to have to work through a learning curve with the pens I figured it's best to wait till I have time to have a proper play and making mistakes won't matter.   Off to get a refill for my coffee now then have a snoop round some other workspaces! To join the snooping why not visit Julia's Blog - she's the evil genius behind WOYWW!

More from the Sea

My last posts have featured some of the lovely Elusive Images Sea themed plates, and this one does too, but after making that very grungy card I felt the the need to make something cleaner and fresher.  This card also formed part of my application for a place on the Design Team. 

While I had been toying with watery themes it had occured to me that I have the Cuttlebug "Tiny Bubbles" emobssing folder and that if I coloured some silver foil card with Alcohol inks I could make a lovely bubbly background for something. I used Stream, Stonewashed and Lettiuce alcohol inks to colour the silver card, cut a shape using a nestabilites die and cut a frame with the same dies from plain silver card.  The background shape was then embossed through the Cuttlebug folder to create the bubble texture.   I stamped and heat embossed the little seahorse from the Elusive Images Underwater themplate onto an assortment of card using different embossing powders and cut them all out to find the one I liked best against my background.. My final choice was white EP on white card.  With all my bits made I assembled the frame and background and stuck the little cut out seahorse into place. 

Next I needed something to mount this onto, so I made a background blending Broken China, Stormy Sky and Shabby Shutters Distress Inks onto some card.  Once the inks were dry I stamped one of the seashell images from the same Underwater themeplate and embossed with white EP.  I mounted this onto white card stock, added a band of silver card across the centre with some white spotted organza ribbon then finally stuck the framed seahorse over this.

Getting Grungy

This one is another card that I made for the Elusive Images Design Team Application - remember I said in my previous post that the Lighthouse Scene is a lovely image - well it is an I couldn't resist making a very different card with it.  As Glenda has posted a photo of  this one over on the Elusive Images Design Team Blog I thought I would share how I made the card.

The image was stamped with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and I used a wet paintbrush to drag colour from the stamped outline to create extra shading in the image.  Where I needed more shading I dabbed the ink pad onto my craft sheet and used my wet paint brush to pick up a litte more colour.  If you look carefully there is also a tiny touch of Aged Mahogany in the image.  The ink was very watered down on my craft sheet then picked up on my paint brush and used to make the sails on the boats stand out just a little more.  Once the image was dry I used  the blade of my scissors to distress the edges a bit then used Cut 'n' Dry foam to blend more ink from the Vintage Photos pad around the edge to create a vignette effect.  Finally I dragged and smudged my Versamark pad around the edge, sprinkled on Gold EP and heated.

The finished image was mounted onto black card which I embellished with some kitchen twine that had been grunged up to look like old dirty ropes from a sailing ship. I did this by  using just about every shade of  brown distress ink I own, from Frayed Burlap to Brushed Corduroy!  It was easy enough to do, just splodge the brown inks onto a craft sheet, spritz liberally with water then roll and scrunch the peice of twine around in the inky puddle so it soaks in the inky water.  Let it dry then repeat as needed to darken.  Once the twine was nearly dry  I made the browny shades more uneven by smudging a little ink directly from the ink pads onto the twine and lightly spritzing so as to make the inky smudge bleed into the twine more - it bleeds better if the twine is still a little damp when you do this.   The knots were tied using an authentic sailors knot - in this case a figure of eight knot.  I wanted the knots to be the Real MaCoy, so I did some research online and found this web site with some great instructions on how to try proper sailors knots.  Just click on any of those knots and an animated page opens that shows how to tie the knot.

Finally my background layer - once again I turned to my Distress Inks in assorted shades of brown and used the wrinkle free technique to create the background.   Once this was dry I overstamped with Versamark using an anchor image from the Seashell Collage themeplate and dusted this with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls then very lightly spritzed with water to set the Perfect Pearls.  The edges were treated in the same way as the edges of the main image - distressed with the blade of my scissors, a little ink blended with Cut 'n' Dry foam, and smudgy gold embossing.  The whole thing is mounted onto black card from the same stock I used to mat under the main image.

If you got this far, sorry it's such a long post, but I wanted to share how I made this card because I had a lot of fun making it!

OMG - On Cloud 9!!! & WOYWW 60

OMG I can't believe this - I got picked. The only sure way to fail at something is to never try.......so try I did, but with no real expectation of success. What am I wittering on about I hear you ask? The Elusive Images Design Team Call,  I applied and got chosen! For me this is a dream come true and my feet haven't touched the ground since! I am both extremely humbled and incredibly proud to be a part of Glenda Waterworth's Design Team. Humbled because I see so many wonderful creations on other people's blogs and find myself thinking every time.... "if only I could make something so beautiful"; and  proud to think that someone as talented as Glenda considered my work worthy.

At this stage thanks must go to my 2 most wonderful friends Fabyon and Jess. Fab thank you, your support and belief in me when I was trying to put together projects for the DT Call submission helped me to not loose faith. Jess - you know what you have taught me about life and giving it your best shot no matter what - if not for your wisdom I would never even have applied.

Now you may have noticied my blog has been a little quiet, my father in law's death followed by an intense 3 weeks of overtime at work left me with not a lot of time to craft recently.  However normal service has resumed and I can now share some of the projects that I made as part of my DT submission.... so here's the first.  Nothing fancy, just a simple stamped image from the Elusive Images Seashore Scenes themeplate, coloured with Derwent Inktense Pencils and a brayer for some of the sky, then matted an layered on black gloss and white linen card.  This image is so lovely it really doesn't need anything else. However if you scroll down a little bit you will see a different treatment in this post.  The greeting stamp is one from Hobby Art and was stamped and embossed with black embossing powder so it would be shiny to co-ordinate with the black gloss card.

What's On Your Workdesk Wedneday (WOYWW) - hmmmm gotta be careful about what is camera view now - but this is what was on my workdesk when I went to bed last night - I am trying to flatten some card that curled when it got wet - Glossy Accents being the culprit in this case.  The bits under that acrylic block weighed down by the tub of Rock Salt are for a Design Team project, but I hope I can share the results with you soon.  Off now to take a wee peek at some other workdesks, why don't you join me by visiting Julia's Blog.  Julia hosts this little bit of fun every Wednesday and lots of crafters join in, I guess we are all a little bit nosey about other crafters workspaces!

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