Sketch for August

The new LO on The Sketch File is called Bouncing Circles - my first card using the sketch doesn't have circles (unless you count the flower centres), but that's the whole point of the sketches really - they are not prescriptive, its all about seeing the pattern and then having fun with it in your own way - check our how cleverly Brenda has done this over on the BLOG

The "Bouncing Circles" Sketch:

  

Materials and Tools

All papers: Funky Hand CD "Colour Me Happy", this colour collection
 is "Glad Rags"

Paper designs are all printed onto white Bazzill cardstock

The flowers are cut from one of the papers and adhered to the wiggly line "stems"  of another of them.  The leaves are hand-cut from scraps

Xcut tiny circle punch used to punch the little flowers from another of the paper designs and make the "brads"

Flower shaped button, Gingham ribbon

EK Success Border punch

Memory Box Flourish die

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

Getting In a Swirl

Today sees July's new LO published on The Sketch File Blog.
We have some lovely ideas for making great use of the sketch over on the blog and more to come each week. 

Recently I've taken to printing my Funky Hand papers onto white Bazzill - I absolutely love the marriage of the gorgeous designs on the textured card.   Obviously printing on stuff like that is a little more expensive than just printing on regular card or paper - but I think it's worth it.  A couple of other good things are that it makes me plan more what I'm going to make, then print on both sides even of quite small pieces of the card (with a cunning bit of cropping and resizing)  and finally it makes me think more about really getting the best out of that print run and using as much of the printed card as I can manage.
For instance, this card is made using scraps and off-cuts left over from the other things I made with the Summer Wedding collection

I've shrunken the July sketch - it didn't start out that way, it was going to fill the whole card when I started out, but things never seem to turn out as originally planned haha

 Materials and Tools

Cream smooth 14x14cm card blank, left edge trimmed off

All papers: Summer Wedding download collection from Funky Hand, rinted on to...

White Bazzill

Peachy pink organza ribbon, Pale pink pearls

Sketch; July In a Swirl LO from The Sketch File

Dies: MFT Oval Doily, 

Memory Box Fabulous Phlox, Elegant Swirl 9some pieces trimmed off)

EK Success Border Punch

Circle Punch to shape the spotty paper strip

http://kathyswafflesketchfile.blogspot.com/

There's something particularly satisfying about making something from scraps - or maybe it's just me that loves turning a little pile of paper and card, with the largest being no more than 12x7 cms, into something pretty and useable.
The problem is, there are still scraps left - albeit much smaller scraps....how low can you go I wonder?

Well, my parcel from Charmed Cards and Craft arrived while I was in the middle of writing this, and like a good girl I put it on the chair and didn't open it until this post was finished.  It's now screaming "Open Me" though, so I'll sign off and do as I'm told.

March Sketch File

There's a new sketch over on The Sketch File blog available from today. Please pop over there and see what Brenda and Kate have made for their firs projects using it.
Here's the card I made

Materials and Tools:

Papers: 6x6 "Engraver" from Prima

Butterflies also "Engraver" from Prima

Flowers: dusty pink wired carnations layered onto flat petals which have been inked to match the carnations.

Dusty Pink twill ribbon, Brown velvet ricrac

Small silver gems

This is the sketch I've used:

 I cut three square apertures and added the butterflies between to make up the 5 elements across the bottom.  The brown section is raised on faux chipboard for lots of dimension.  Before fixing this piece to the card I added the lower petal of each flower to the base card so that it shows through the square aperture but slightly offset.  The other layers of the flowers were added after the brown panel was in place

That's it for today - two days blogging in a row, are you impressed?
May even get one done for tomorrow too.....

Thanks for calling by, please leave a comment, they are always appreciated

Hardwick Hall

I'm still working my way through the photos of the places we visited when we added a year with the National Trust to our Life English Heritage membership,  It would be nice if I got the whole lot finished before too long. I've still a few places to do and then will need to do the facing pages and put the whole thing together.  Amazing really that I've stuck at it, however intermittently as usually long-tern projects like this end up in the "never finished" pile - some before they've even really started!
So, anyway, I've reached March 2011 and we're staying at the English Heritage holiday property The Lodge at Hardwick Old Hall.  Hardwick Old Hall is "next door" to Bess of Harcwick's New Hall, which was begun in 1590,
The Old Hall itself is still closed to the public for the winter, so we have that part to ourselves for the week we are "in residence",  Hardwick New Hall is open for part of the week so fortunately we are able to visit during our stay - and look how the sun shone!  Mind you the rest of the time it was thick fog!
Mini book page for Hardwick New Hall:

 I've used the new February Sketch File LO for this one.

  Instead of putting the photo on the top, I fixed all the background rectangles together then cut the circle aperture using a Spellbinders die to make it into a frame.  The photo was then slid underneath and fixed to the yellow paper.

I used:

Papers; Carta Bella "Beautiful Moments" 12x12 and 6x6

Lace, Red Pearls; Creative Treasures

White Pearls; Imaginisce 

Glossy Accents on mosaic squares

Spellbinders plain circles Die

Punches: 2 sizes of squares

Craft Robo for title

I thought I'd pop another couple of photos in too.
This is The Lodge, our home of the week

Part of the Old Hall:

The view from our bedroom window:

The nice thing about taking so long to get this book done is that it's lovely to re-visit these beautiful buildings via the photos, I hope you don't mind seeing a few of them!

That's all for now

November Sketch File

It's New Sketch Tuesday over on The Sketch File and I'm hoping that this one will inspire a bit of creativity.

I've made a couple of cards so far - they both use the same stash and to be quite honest, the second one was made largely from leftovers of the first - it's simpler too and only took about 10 minutes - definitely good at this time of the year

Here are my cards

Both cards;

All paper: Handmade Holidays mix of, 6x6 and 12x12 (Simple Stories)

Glitter card (dark red, gold)

Hand-cut "Wonky Trees"

Card 1;

Red Twine, Sentiment made from one of the "cards"on the paper, Bunting Hand-cut

Card 2; Zig-zag, hand-cut panel for bunting, Printed sentiment, Burgundy Stickles

This is the November Sketch;

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Thanks for visiting

Same...but different

A couple of cards today using the October LO from The Sketch File - it's the last week before the new sketch goes live, so not long left to play along.
I wanted to show how the same sketch can be manipulated to create two totally different cards.
For one I replaced the ribbon-stripes in the sketch and shrunk it down to make a row of tiny plants in pots, and in the other I replaced them with trees to make a Christmas card.

 I dug some old and very neglected Quickutz dies out to make this one

 Materials and Tools

Papers are MMT 6x6 Indie Chic "Ginger"

EK Success border punch, Spellbinders Nesties Labels 1

Quickutz Dies; 3x Small Flowers, Small Flower Pots

Hand cut paper "Bow", Imaginisce hot fix pink gems

 Materials and Tools

All papers Funky Hand "Winter Wonderland" download - printed onto card

Silver Glitter card (Best Creations), Silver crochet thread

Craft Robo to cut the five trees, EK Success small stars punch

This is the sketch I was using - you can find it HERE and see more projects made by the DT using it by scrolling through the last few posts on The Sketch File

Thanks for visiting

 

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