Stargazing

Morning All
I hope you are having a fabulous Friday.  What a weird old couple of weather weeks we've had.  Last week the heat and humidity was leaving us gasping for air, this week, well, lets just say the central heating came on in our house a couple of times!  Our weather is never boring.
It's Daring Cardmakers Day today, and while last week it was down to the sea with Lythan, this week Miri wants us to travel much further!

WELCOME TO MY GALAXY

"A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, and dark matter." (wikipedia) And astronauts and spaceships and aliens ...
Create a galaxy card with a galaxy background or galaxy elements.

First I had to resist the urge to buy some lovely Galaxy chocolate and stick the wrapper on a card

Now, the whole Galaxy Background thing has largely passed me by, but when I saw the challenge I did register seeing quite a few mentions of them over the last few weeks.  So it was time to investigate and maybe try something new.
I found THIS tutorial for a watercolour galaxy background which was simple and straightforward enough for even me to try!

I had most of what I needed; watercolour card, brushes, white acrylic paint.... but, shock, horror!  I don't seem to have any watercolour paints  {weird!}.  Time to improvise then.  I have Gelatos, I have Distress Inks and both can be used to watercolour with.

I was fairly happy with the background I made, but going back to it the next day to actually make something, I decided it looked a bit too pale, so I added a blob of a dark purply blue ink to a palette (well. an old glue pot lid) and added some water, then brushed that onto part of the background I'd already made until I was happier with the result.

I added more flicked-on white dots and also some silver Starlight paint ones.

As some of the Gelatos I used are the metallic ones, there is a nice sheen to the background piece.

Other Info:

I inked the card blank with Memento 'Paris then stencilled the stars and dots with a Memory Box stencil

I printed the sentiment on white card, cut down to size then die cut the heart shapes (Die'Namics nested hearts)

There's a layer of scrap chipboard between base card and upper panel to add dimension

A few small stars and a tiny heart were punched from various silvery papers and added to the card to finish

It was fun to make the background.  It did take a while to get clean afterwards though 😉 🤣

There are lots of great ideas from our clever designers to see over on on the blog this week and I hope you'll take a LOOK

That's all for this time so thank for visiting

 

Bright and Bold Birthday!

Hello there

I hope you've had a minute to join in with the Market Fresh Blog Hop that's running at the moment it's just the four of us (Dawn, Enfys, Sharon and myself), in conjunction with Spellbinders - so a total of five blogs to visit and leave messages on.  There are four fabulous prized to be won - please check my project HERE to find out all you need to know.

Today though, I have a card using the June LO from the Sketch File to share with you.  It's a very simple design as I needed to get it made in a bit of a hurry!  Fortunately the current Sketch is really good for that sort of thing....

 Info

Kraft card blank, white, black, green, yellow and orange Bazzill card

The FAPPY letters were cut from a double layer of each card using a Memory Box die

Most of the stars were cut using a Tonic Nested Stars die set.  Others were punched with various punches

'birthday' is part of a Lawn Fawn 'happy birthday to you' die

Here is the sketch

The Sketch File June 2017

 That's it for this time.  Thank you for visiting

 

I Must go Down to the Sea Again

Good Morning!

I've been "Bonjour-ing" for the last few days, but after a lovely, if ridiculously hot and uncomfortably humid few days in France, we're back in England now.  I know the weather was hot and humid here too!  We stayed a night in St Omer before heading off into the Champagne region for a few days.  We have a subscription with 3D Wines, and 'needed' to visit the growers to pick up our order.  Life can be such a hardship sometimes.......
Actually, with the weather being as it was, it was almost as much of a pleasure to get down into the cool of the caves as it was to taste the various champagnes!  Well, possibly 

I wasn't going to miss out on Lythan's Daring Cardmakers challenge this week though - not when it was all about going "Down to the Sea", so I got my card made before we left.
I was actually paddling in the sea on Wednesday afternoon and we stayed the night in Boulogne to break up the long journey home - and then on Thursday travelled via the Eurotunnel, so I went under the sea too!
Anyway, here's my card

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Papers from two 6x6 paper pads called "Summer Feelings" by Studio Light

 (I just had to have them when I saw the beautiful colours and seaside designs)

The Beach Hut is die-cut using one of my newest favourite sets:'Prims' by
Spellbinders

I created the little hanging plaque in Paint Shop Pro and added a couple of starfish cut cut from one of the papers, and some Bakers Twine to hang it with

I've also cut a few other elements from the papers to add some dimension on the lower edges raising them on small pieces of chipboard.

I used a dark red scrap of card to give a pop of brightness and interest

There's a little shell 'button', a hand cut lifesaver ring and a tiny half pearl for the door handle.  The small red hearts are cut using a punch

That's it for this time, thank you so much for visiting.  I'll be catching up with your own blogs to see what I've missed just as soon as I can!

Carnations for Carol - Spellblogging for Spellbinders

Hello there!

Thank you for joining me for another Weekend Spellblogging post for Spellbinders

This week I've used some gorgeous dies, both new and old to create a very special birthday card.
This is a commissioned card for a customer who has a friend celebrating her 90th birthday - what a great excuse to be extravagant with flowers and flourishes!

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I used a smooth white card blank matted with green card to begin with.
Next I arranged three of the dies from
Victorian Garden Romantic Vines  Shapeabilities  Etched Dies set onto a piece of Diamond Bling card so that they made a pretty border in the lower right corner.
Once they were cut, I matted the white square onto my card so that the lovely green shows through the die cut areas 
I inked up the gorgeous leaf and flourish shapes that had been cut out in a toning shade of green to use under the flowers.
The lovely flowers are created with the Carnation Creations set by Donna Salazar.  I used Foamiran to make all three flowers.  This product is a very thin foam which is easy to shape into the most beautiful flowers - and there are lots of fabulous Spellbinders dies which are perfect to use to cut the shapes you need!

I created the sentiment on the computer and used a circle punch to cut it out, then matted onto this lovely flower doily shape from
Moroccan Accents Shapeabilities Etched Dies To finish, I tucked pieces of the inked flourishes under the flowers, added a little ribbon bow, some pearl strands and a few flat backed pearls in the corner. 


Victorian Garden Romantic Vines  Shapeabilities  Etched Dies

 
Carnation Creations  Donna Salazar Shapeabilities  Etched Dies

Moroccan Accents Shapeabilities Etched Dies

All of these dies are by Spellbinders

That's all for today, so thanks for visiting, if you click on This Link  you'll find yourself at the Spellbinders store where you will find more temptation than you've ever dreamed of ;)
And you can get your hands on these lovely die sets, of course!!
Just before I sign off - please take a little peek at my sidebar, where you'll see an advance message about a bit of fun my fellow Spellbloggers have cooked up along with the lovely people at Spellbinders

Happy Crafting

 

Not of This World....

Hello - Happy Friday to you!

A quick post from me today - it's a busy one so I must not witter!

It's Daring Cardmakers Day again and this time Joanne posed a rather non-Kathy-friendly challenge for us:

Out of this World

It's Joanne here this week, combining interests again! I've always been a big fan of stories - whether written, spoken or acted. Since time immemorial it seems we've told stories of the fantastic and unexplainable. Let's see some imaginary or mythical beings this week - fairies, mermaids, aliens, unicorns, hobbits, dragons... where will your imagination take you? 

Hmm, "What to do with that?' I thought!

Then while putting away some papers from a recent "Craft Box" I came across a piece of paper covered with cupid drawings  and decided to go down the Classical Mythology route, with the "Birth of Venus"painting by Botticelli as the focus.

To be honest, I'm not happy with this,but I didn't really have enough time to start over

I won't list how I made this as frankly, I can't remember everything!

 I used papers, die cuts, stencilling, various inks and paints, flowers both handmade and ready made, pearl strands, pearls, gems and dewdrops.  
The picture is from Google Images and I resized it to fit my project before printing out.

If you teleport over to The Daring Cardmakers Blog you'll find a whole galaxy of other-worldiness!

It would be great to see what you could make.....

Have a great weekend

Drive On

Hi there
Just a quick post and a simple card to share with you today.
 
It's little scrapling-style card using the June LO from The Sketch File Blog.  Scraplings are the strips left over when you fold and cut a piece of A4 to make a square card.
I've used papers from an Authentique 6x6 pad for this, and at last managed to use a piece from one of those papers with little pictures on - lots of paper collections have them and I never know what to do with them!

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Paper all Authentique

Vintage car picture cut from one of the papers then adhered to 

a piece of scrap card

Bakers Twine

The 'steering wheel' is from a bag of mixed metal cogs

Tiny squares punched from red card

This sketch:

The Sketch File June 2017

I've not added a sentiment - yet - It may be a birthday card, or it could also be a 'you've past your driving test' sort of card.

That's all for today, thank you for popping by, please take a look at The Sketch File Blog - we'd love to see what you could use the sketches for.

Prim and Proper - Spellblogging for Spellbinders

Hello there!

Thank you for joining me for another Weekend Spellblogging post for Spellbinders

This week I'm using a fabulous die set called 'Prims' which doesn't really give a lot away as a title, does it? 
As you can see from the picture above, what you get are all the bits you need to make a really cute house, complete with flowers for the 'garden' and gorgeous star and heart shapes to add a flourish

 
Info
I used a smooth white card blank, then for the top section I printed the sentiment directly onto another piece of the same card, cutting down to size to fit on the deep aqua mat
To give you an idea of size,when you fit the triangle and rectangle together to make the basic house, it measures abt. 11cms high and 5cms at the lower edge of the triangle.
Here's all of the components of the sweet 'Prims' die set 

- you get a lot in this one!

I kept this really simple, just cutting the various pieces from coloured card. I stencilled through the door piece with slightly darker ink, which gives a subtle highlight to it.
 I couldn't resist adding a tiny bit of bling, so I cut the tiny circles for the flowers from yellow glitter card.

The only extras were the tiny punched hearts in the lower right corner. 

When I saw this set in the Spellbinders shop, it just had to come and live with me - I could see how versatile it would be.  The various pieces combine to make a lovely little picture, but all of them will find their way into other projects - even those basic shapes will be handy, and the heart,star and flowers are just adorable!
I made this as a card, but wouldn't it work perfectly as a little canvas?  A lovely gift for a New Home, perhaps....

   Thanks for visiting, if you click on This Link  you'll find yourself at the Spellbinders store and you can get your hands on this beautiful die set too!

Happy Crafting

 

Straw Poll

Good Morning! 
Happy Friday to you all - I hope you are well.  I couldn't resist using that phrase for my title today - what with the UK going to the Polls yesterday and Dawn's challenge for The Daring Cardmakers being to use Paper Straws on our cards.  Oh well, it amused me, anyway 🤣😁 

PAPER STRAWS

I love that you can buy them in lots of lovely patterns and colours and of course they look great in your drinks.  To be honest every time I see a lovely set they just happen to fall into my shopping basket and then I have to hide them from my daughter.
So this week I would like to see paper straws used on your cards.   But don't worry if you haven't got any straws you could make your own by rolling up some of your designer papers.
We can't wait to see what you come up with.

Well, the only straws I had were plastic ones, so I went down the 'make your own' route.  I have absolutely masses of suitable papers for doing this, but of course, instead of using some of those, I decided to use some cute printable papers I'd downloaded last week instead.  And as I usually do, I printed them onto white Bazzill card.  Not the best decision as the card is really just a tad too thick to make rolling it easy.
Never mind eh

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White card folded to create a pot shape, with a 1cm hinge between front and back.  I cut holes in the hinge section for the straws to go through.

Papers 'In the Garden' Download by Pininkie via Etsy

Pinwheels made from 6cm squares of the printed card. I used a large brad to fix them together

Paper Straw stems are fixed at the back and have hand cut leaves attached

The plant pot is covered with a couple of papers from the same download collection, with the striped one having a pretty edge cut with an EK Success border punch

The little sign is all created in Paint Shop Pro.  The background is just made by using the colour codes for the download papers, then I used a couple of different fonts to add the words.  The flourishes are from a font that gives swirly patterns in place of letters  and the little pictures are from a fab free dingbat font (Garden Dingbats available from DaFont)

Once I'd got everything in place I resized and printed all in one go

It was fun to make - and I was really pleased with the card shape itself, I might be using this again.  Even though its very dimensional it still folds relatively flat for putting into an envelope.  I think this finished card would fit into an 8x8! envelope btw 
That's all for this time, thank you so much for coming to look.  I hope you'll join in with us over at The Daring Cardmakersthis week

Two for Tuesday

Hello!
Anyone know what's happened to the Summer?  Surely the last couple of weeks of lovely weather wasn't all we're getting?  Today out patio thermometer says its only 7deg out there (the heating came on this morning)!  At least the rain has stopped bucketing down and now the sun is shining but the poor trees are really being whipped about by the wind.  Just typical when my lovely peonies had just decided to start opening!
Anyway, a good day to stay in and do some crafting and I've made a couple of cards for the new LO on The Sketch File blog over the last couple of days
One was really quick and simple and the other one, well, it wasn't!

Info

Embossing folder 'Sea Beauty'   (Spellbinders)

Distress Inks in various blue shades plus purple

Silver Alchemy Wax

Sparkle Medium in turquoise and silver

Flower: Spiral Blossom One Shapeabilities Etched Dies 

'Sprigs' Die D-Lites Etched Dies    

Sentiment:  Special Birthday Sentiments Stamps (Classic Spellbinders)
Pearl brad and gems to complete

June Sketch:

The Sketch File. June 2017

And now....something quick and simple, using scraps from another project

 Info

Download papers from Pininkie via Etsy.  They are from two paper sets with a Coral and Mint colour palette.

Butterfly die is by Apple Blossom (CraftStashUK)

Tiny circles made using the berries from a Mistletoe die set

Sentiment is a homemade decal sticker

I had a little pile of these papers left over from the DCM's 'In a Teacup' challenge of a couple of weeks back.  It's actually interesting to make the decision to be confined by what you have on you desk and its definitely a good way to use up those scraps!  The original printed pieces were about 7x10cms each - but they already had bits cut out of them for the other project.  I may have to challenge myself to use the rest for something else, now!

That's it for this time, thank you so much for coming by, I hope you'll leave a message before you leave 😁

 

Flower Field (Spellbinders Spellbloggers)

Hello there!

Thank you for joining me for another Weekend Spellblogging post for Spellbinders

This week I've used a lovely little die set called Flower Field, which looks great used alone, but is going to be so handy on other projects too - especially the little tufts of 'grass' - something I've often needed and ended up having to do my best to hand cut with scissors, but now I have a much better way to make them!  Plus, these little flowers are just so cute!

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I used a smooth white card blank which I printed the sentiment onto before doing anything else.
There's some lovely 'Spring' green card for the grassy parts, and various scraps of coloured card for the flowers, some of which I also added a depth of colour by dabbing with ink in several shades.
I've used a couple of layers for each of the larger flowers and used a ball tool to give shape.  Popped a few tiny stamens through the hole in the centre and adhered in place.  
To finish, I just popped a few flat backed pearls in the corner. 

This cute die set is called Flower Field by Spellbinders

I really like how this simple LO worked out - I think it shows off the die cuts well, and shows how useful this set would be to have in your stash - it's so easy to combine with other sets isn't it?  .

That's all for today, so thanks for visiting, if you click on This Link  you'll find yourself at the Spellbinders store and you can get your hands on this beautiful die set too!

Happy Crafting