Fireworks!

    Hello....

What? Two posts in one week? I'll keep this one short, I promise!

So. just a quick post for this week's Daring Cardmakers project. 

Jenny is in the Challenge Setter's Chair for the very first time this week and once again, we have a topical challenge for everyone  to have some fun with!

"I'm so happy to be setting your challenge this week for the first time! 

Next week in the UK it's Guy Fawkes day or Bonfire Night on the 5th of November so in honour of this I would love to see your

 Fireworks 

themed projects this time round.

  In case you haven't heard of Guy Fawkes, he was part of the Gunpowder plot in 1605 which attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament .  The plot failed as someone warned the government and they caught them in the act and executed them for their crimes.  Traditionally we would celebrate by going to a firework display where we would burn a "guy" on a bonfire.  For those outwith the UK don't panic, nobody is actually harmed, it's just a fake!  When I was a kid we used to get an old shirt and pair of trousers and tie the ankles and wrists with string before stuffing him with scrunched up newspapers and adding a balloon head.  So every year we remember poor Guy and his friends and their failed plot to bring down the government!"

 Click here to see this week's design team inspiration 

 

 It's ages since I made a pyramid (aka Tepee)card, but I do remember there being a pyramid shaped firework in the firework selection boxes we had when we were small, so I thought I could probably alter one of those card folds to fit in with the theme.  It does fold relatively flat so could go in a DL envelope

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My Pyramid Card and printing Tutorial is Here

Following the tutorial, I printed out 3 pieces of star design digital paper (from an old Funky Hand collection) and glued the pieces together as shown on the link.

Once I'd put the pyramid together, I cut off the 'legs' you get when you make this card shape, to leave just the triangular pyramid. 

So that you can fold the pyramid into an envelope you need to fold two edges together and make a crease down the entre of one 'face' of the pyramid, its easier to do this before you start decorating!

I cut a small piece off the tip so that I could glue the 'fountains' of 

 paper and wire inside. 

These were made bu fringing silver paper and twirling it tightly around the ends of the lengths of wire before poking through and gluing it into the hole at the top of the pyramid.  

I added silver and red glitter stars along the pieces of wire. 

The words were created on the pc and printed out onto card before 

adding to the card front.

 The phot below shows the card when its folded down for mailing.  You might find a paper-clip helps to hold it flatter

We'd love to see your firework inspired creations, so please join in and share them with us!

Thank you so much for visiting today, I hope you'll leave a comment, I really appreciate it when people take the time to leave a message!

Happy Crafting, and please Stay Safe

Where the Heart Is

 

Hello!

I hope your week is going well, things are better here now because our heating is fixed at last! It seems that several things went wrong at around the same time, not just the boiler but the thermostat and other electrical things. We ended up getting the boiler fixed and then replacing everything else with a 'Hive'.  Once Hubby read that you could self-install the Hive, there was no way he'd miss out on that new challenge so Saturday saw him drawing wiring plans and reading up or wathcing videos on how to do it and by Saturday afternoon we were all set up again and the frequent trips into the loft to manually turn the heating on andoff were over.

He checked on his phone when he'd finished and found he'd done 22
'flights of stairs' while doing the job - but worth the effort as it cost a lot less than the £300+ that the electrician quoted

When the Lockdown first happened the people on our street made a big effort to connect with each other and its continued ever since, with regular Sunday chats in the street. So we were really sad when some of our lovely Neighbours moved to a new house.  We hoped to see them at our Sunday chats once they'd settled in, but the Rule of Six has made it more difficult for everyone to get together, even with our careful social distancing.

Anyway, I made this card to wish them well in their new home:

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White card blank stencilled with aqua inks.  I used the stripey stencil horizontally, then turned it vertically to get the criss-cross pattern

Die cut letters cut once in aqua, and 4 times in red, then glued together in stacks

Tonic Studios Scribbled Circles were die cut in silver, red hearts from various sets were added, then the little house matted on top.  I added some foil elements behid the windows and fanlight, and used an inked piece of card to make the door.

The sentiment was printed from the pc

 That's all for today, thank you so much for visiting, I hope you'll leave a comment, ots always lovely to know you're not talking to yourself

Happy Crafting, and please Stay Safe

Ghoullies and Ghosties

   Hello....

Just a quick post for this week's Daring Cardmakers project.  Better than my usual moaning, I hear you say....

Rizwana is this week's challenge setter and has a topical challenge for everyone this week:

  'Spooktacular Makes'

Show us your spooky cards or other spooky makes for Halloween. 

You can have scary pumpkins, ghosts, witches, bats,
spiders, skeletons...
 the spookier the better.

 

 Click here to see this week's design team inspiration 

 

 When it comes to Halloween I'm the miserable old bag who locks up early, closes the blinds, draws the curtains and doesn't open the door to anyone. It's not so much having fun at Halloween parties (when such things were possible!), with all the traditional 'bobbing for apples type games etc, its the way the "Trick or Treat" thing has obliterated all the local traditions of different countries. 

I think its a real shame when that happens - I'm sorry, but there it is!

Anyway, a challenge is a challenge so I made a little ghostie

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I'm useless at drawing, but managed to come up with this simple ghost shape.  I copied it onto the it on the reverse of a piece of white card before cutting out as Purple card blank with piece of black card the same width, but shorter, to leave upper and lower border.  Before adhering it to the card, some silver thread was  wound randomly around it for a spider's web kind of effect. 

I die cut circles i the ghost large enough for these bigger than usual googly eyes to pop through.  The ghost was adhered to the card using foam pads and the eyes slid under and into place.  

The mouth is a hand cut shape added on top

The die cut letters are cut using a Lawn Fawn alpha set.

 

Do pop over and see what the team have been making this week - and we would love to see your spooky creations!

Thank you so much for visiting today, I hope you'll leave a comment, I really appreciate it when people take the time to leave a message!

Happy Crafting, and please Stay Safe

What is a Snowflake?

 

 Hello....

 I'm late with my  Daring Cardmakers post this week.  Still struggling with with my Autumn Blues, feeling 'bleurgh' and everything being so much harder to do.  The heating is still not fixed, but at least we can turn it on manually now - even if it does mean OH climbing up into the loft to switch it on and off. It seems that its not only the boiler, but all the various electrical 'bits' too.  The electrician is due early next week so fingers are crossed for that.

  Anyway, Joanne is this week's challenge setter for the Daring Cardmakers

Did you know it's 

World Dictionary Day? 

I need very little persuasion to celebrate words - celebrate with us by using a dictionary definition, dictionary or book page or make words the focal point of your creation this week.

 Click here to see this week's design team inspiration 

 

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I started by stencilling a silver snowflake in the top left and lower right corners of the card blank

2 x Tonic Studios Scribbled Circle die cuts were glued onto the card (one glitter card, 1 pearl card) using foam tape.

A selection of medium and small snowflake dies were cut in a
variety of silver, white and turquoise card types and layered around the circles.

The Snowflake definition piece was created on the pc, resized and printed onto card. This was then matted onto turquoise mirror card before adhering in place.

To finish I added a few turquoise and silver gems and pearls

 

 

Anyway, do pop over and see what the team have been making this week - and we would love to see your mail-themed creations!

Thank you so much for visiting today, I hope you'll leave a comment, I really appreciate it when people take the time to leave a message!

Happy Crafting, and please Stay Safe

Glittery Stencilled Christmas

 

 hi there

I hope your week is going well so far - I had a really grotty day yesterday - the sort where only the duvet will do! Feeling better today though, so hopefully a duvet day did the trick!

We had another quiet weekend - to be fair, all the weekends are 'quiet' these days!OH was in the garage. tarting up the old cupboards he's bought for his new storage, and I sat at my craft desk and got glittery!

 I had a lot of fun experimenting with glitter paste and stencils and thought I'd share what happened with you today

 

Always on the look out for a short-cut when making Christmas cards I decided to take a risk and try stencilling directly on to some card blanks - these are some I've already run through the printer to add our Christmas message to the insides - again, a short cut!

Having done a few images just using a single colour of glitter paste, I got a bit adventurous and decided to add some more colours to the same images

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These are 12x12cm card blanks

Nuvo Glitter Paste by  Tonic Studios

Both stencils by Funky Fossil

I've added guidelines with a Sharpie pen to frame the snowflake design and 

help line it up with the edges of the card/

A strip of washi tape holds the stencil in place, but allows me to lift it up to check the design has stencilled properly

To begin with I used a pink glitter paste

I wiped my spatula and without moving the stencil spread some

 gold glitter gel over some areas. 

Then I removed the stencil to leave this pattern

Once dry I added a gem to the centre and a black and white printed sentiment
 

Here's thee rest of the cards made using a couple of stencils, different colours of glitter paste and some gems, printed sentiments, the odd die cut and some gold thread

 

Rather than clean the stencils between uses, I taped another card in place and spread the remaining glitter paste through to the new card - you can just lift the stencil while its still attached at the top to check how the pattern looks and add more paste if required.

 

That's all for today, thank you so much for visiting, I hope you'll leave a comment, ots always lovely to know you're not talking to yourself

Happy Crafting, and please Stay Safe

Vintage Decoupage Postcard

 Hello....

 It's a bright, blue sky kind of day here, but I'm Mrs Grumpy again!  I have good reason to be - we thought the issue with the boiler of a few weeks back had gone, but no its got worse and we've had no heating for the last few days and any hot water that was left in the system is on the cool side of tepid now.  

Have you tried getting a plumber lately?  🙍

So we're going to hang on and keep our fingers well and truly crossed that our regular builder - plumber, who has plenty of experience with the house's weird plumbing  will find a few spare minutes to pop round and try to fix it because I get super-grumpy when I'm cold! Oh, and I have a headache too....

  Anyway, its Daring Cardmakers day Svenja has come up with something a bit different for us this week:

It's just the right time of the year for making cards and writing 

letters. Aaaand October 9th is world post day - so let's see some
Mail Art this week! You could feature letters and envelopes
on your card, decorate a beautiful envelope, make a postcard
 or even create some faux postage.

 

 Click here to see this week's design team inspiration 

 

I decided to make a postcard....but then was stuck for what to put on it (so often the case when I sit down with half an idea in my head!)

I've a 12x12 paper pad by DCWV which has a Paris theme - the papers are fabulous, but a bit too big to be really useful for cards and mini album, but that said they are rarely put away on the shelf because I've used them for so many things- its one of those sets you keep digging into but the stack never seems to get smaller! Anyway, one of the papers has a few vintage postcard type images on it, so I thought one of those would be a good starting point

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I cut the basic postcard shape from one of the DCWV 12x12 papers, then adhered it to some card to make it more mail-able.

Next I tore small pieces from other papers in the set, and a few bits from another Paris set of 8x8 papers, which may also be DCWV but must be at least 8 years old by now! I pasted down the scraps of printed papers, plus a few bits of gold foil biscuit wrapper (just happened to be on my desk...) and used thin coatings of PVA glue in between the paper layers to seal them.  I sprinkled Glimmer Dust over the glue while it was still wet, then when dry carried on adding more scraps of torn paper. more glue etc.  For the upper layers I used pieces cut rather than torn from the paper - the Gold Eiffel Tower, the words, the striped paper, flowers, and arranged them on the card before gluing down.  

The pink poodle is a die cut added for a bit of fun. 

Anyway, do pop over and see what the team have been making this week - and we would love to see your mail-themed creations!

Thank you so much for visiting today, I hope you'll leave a comment, I really appreciate it when people take the time to leave a message!

Happy Crafting, and please Stay Safe, its getting a bit Covid-scary out there

Framed Flower, and a Good Service 'Shout Out'

 hi there

I hope your week is going well so far - at least its finally stopped raining here/  My word, did we have some rain over the last few days!

As usual, I've got behind with blogging the things I've been making, so today I've a birthday card from August to share with you. this one was for the birthday of one of our nieces. 

Great Service Shout Out - Tonic Studios!

I had this LO in mind and really wanted to use the Scribbled Square frame set from Tonic Studios - I have the circles, hearts and squares sets and love them!  Ever since they arrived I've had bother cutting the largest of the squares, I tried again for this card - tried everything I knew that might get the die to cut but had no luck.  So I got in touch with Tonic Studios, explained my issue and told them all the different things I'd tried - and within a few days a brand new set of Scribbled Squares that cut properly popped through my letterbox.

Isn't it refreshing when you get service as good as Tonic's?  Thank you especially to Sarah on the Customer Support Desk

However, it was too late to use for this card, so I had to improvise!

 

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Square white card with a black and white striped and notched piece adhered across it

I stencilled a pale aqua square shaped onto a separate piece of card then framed it with very narrow strips of black card.

This panel was cut out and adhered over the patterned strip
For the flower and swirly 'stem' I inked white thin card in yellow and green, then used a couple of die sets from Tonic Studios. For the flower centre I used Black Stickles. 

To finish I added the sentiment and a few tiny clear gems

 The Black and White elements were pc generated.

 

 That's all for today, thank you so much for visiting, I hope you'll leave a comment, You've no idea how happy it makes me when someone leaves a message!

Happy Crafting, and please Stay Safe

    

Just Stay in with a Good Book and a Drink of your Choice!

 

Hello....

I'm blogging from a very wet Hertfordshire today, and the weather suits my mood! It's getting harder for me to avoid my hibernation tendencies!

I hope you are feeling less grumpy than I am!

It's felt very Autumnal the last couple of days, the leaves are definitely on the turn now, but as yet they are not falling too much - hang on in there, I say!  Those dreary months of bare brown branches and dead looking earth are so long and so depressing.

Did I mention I was feeling grumpy?

  Anyway, its Daring Cardmakers day and reflecting the nicer, cosier side of the impending dark days Dawn's chosen a lovely photo for the October Elemental Challenge

October Elemental Inspiration Challenge
As its the first Friday of the month, its time for an elemental inspiration challenge. I have found an image which I think is perfect for October.  

Lovely warm autumnal colours and lots of textures.  
Please remember to use at least 3 elements from the image below on your creations and have fun.
Using the Colour palette counts as 1 element..
We're looking forward to seeing what you make

 

Click here to see this week's design team inspiration

I managed to squeeze a few of the elements from the picture into this one.  My original idea was to use a page from a book, but then, browsing around the digital downloads on Etsy for something to use I came across a fab collection of book spine digis which I couldn't resist!  I love digital images for the scope they bring to the crafting table - easy to crop, to cut bits from and of course to resize to fit your project

 

The elements from the image that I've used this time are: Book, Drink, Black and White (from blanket), Texture, Wool strands (Twine),  

 

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Fat rectangle white card blank, with a side fold

I stsarted by adding some Autumnal shades of ink to the card, then angled a stencil with a 'weave' pattern over the top and rubbed a Nuvo Bronze embossing paste (Tonic Studios) through part of it to add some of the texture from the picture.

The Book Spine download is from LuckyBeanStore via Etsy 

 

I resized and printed my chosen book spine image onto white card and printed it out.  After cutting the image out I spent some time folding along the lines between the books, then running a largish ball tool down the back of each 'spine' 
Next, to echo the gold lines on the book spines I added a margin-line of gilding flakes, plus a bit more on the lower left edge for an old book distressed kind of feel

The Black and White chevron paper was adhered to the top section, and some twine strands glued in place before the book image was glued in place - I used a piece of corrugated cardboard between the layers to give more dimension to the books

Next I hunted out a good quotation a

 

nd found the perfect one for Dawn's image from C,S. Lewis

For the cup and saucer I used dies from Spellbinders, but as they were a bit too big, I drew inside the cut line until I got the size I wanted. For the handle I used a swirl punch shape, which was more interesting than the basic circle shapes in the die set.

All the Black and White elements were created on the pc

I'm not sure I entirely agree with C.S. Lewis though, as I don't really like tea, and reading the trilogy of "A Suitable Boy" AND carrying it around for months while doing so, I'm not sure the long book bit either 😄 At least these days a Kindle means you don't go everywhere carrying you own personal doorstop!

Anyway, do pop over and see what the team have been busy with this week - and we would love to see your creations using elements from the picture too!

Thank you so much for visiting today, I hope you'll leave a comment, I really appreciate it when people take the time to leave a message!

Happy Crafting, and please Stay Safe, its getting a bit Covid-scary out there