WW #40 - SUMMER WEDDING

Oh how I feel sorry for the couples who have planned a summer wedding in this country. Fine if you are a scuba diver but absolutely no good if you expected sunshine. However, that's the theme this week over at Wicked Wednesday ATCs.
I have to admit to having sorted several weeks of challenge cards because I hope to be going off on my hols soon and didn't want to miss out on joining in. After all, the wonderful DT picked me as part of their top 3 again last week. Thank you so much.
This is what I came up with for this theme:

An old photo (I bet they had a lovely sunny day), a frame cut from some K & Co 12" x 12" paper, a brass charm, some little paper roses and bits of bling, a silver heart and a heart brad.
Hope you like it 'cos I enjoyed making it.

BIRTHDAY PAGE

Today would have been Toby's 22nd birthday, goodness knows how many human years that would have been. I think that his K & Co Blue Awning scrapbook is quite bulky now, so I am concentrating on his DCWV oriental one for all the next 'special' date pages.
Here is today's:

Sunning himself on the decking by a potted acer. The Japanese symbol on the flowers says 'WOOD' so I thought that was quite appropriate. He would have loved to be there this week with all this lovely sunshine, and I wish he was.............

3 TAGS CHALLENGE LAST DAY

This month, Heather set us a tag challenge. The themes were:
1.  season of mellow fruitfullness
2.  vintage birds
3.  the daydreamer

The idea was to use the finished tags within a journal page so we were asked to leave some places, both front and back, for journaling.
This is what I came up with:

This is the first one. I prepared the base with stains and then used Terra through a stencil to make the raised flowers. Once dry, I added the vellum Flower Fairy. The leaf at the bottom is from a Marriane design which I anchored by the stem only so that journalling could be added underneath without spoiling the effect with writing showing. I simply covered the reverse with K&Co paper.

The colours go well together.
The second tag had me thinking about Heather's pesky parrot ATC that for some time has fascinated me. I came up with this - not anything as good as that ATC I might add.

I distressed the edges of the card and then stamped all around with some mini flower stamps. The parrots were from free downloads, the punched border was made with a Martha Stewart punch and the centre paper is from some of Tim's stash. Again I used a download and altered it a bit for the reverse.

The addition of some peel offs helped the appearance.
The last one was fun too.

I stamped the girl and carefully cut her out. I then prepared the base by making it from a nestabilities die, distressing it and stamping the girl onto it. The word is a Tim stamp, the flowers and leaves are Prima. I finally glued the cut out image over the stamped one by the log at the top only. This gave a hidden space ie. the reverse, on which to include writing. I had fun with the back on this one.

I used the stencil from the first tag but blended subtle colours through it. I added my details around the white bits to show the recipient where journaling could be included.
I had to make these tags within a couple of days of the challenge beginning because we went away for a couple of weeks and are really busy now we are back. But for all my rushing to join in, I had great fun.
Thank you once again to Heather for this challenge and roll on the next one.

MY CLEVER PAL, SONIA

That's very true, Sonia is more talented than she admits. Her cards and ATCs are always so very neat and full of imagination. She's a child of the sixties, like 'T' and I, so we have a lot in common and we chat online when we can. By that, I mean when Sonia is not jetting off to Spain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL.
Anyway, before she does just that again on Sunday, she managed to make me some ATCs and post them off to me.

Love and Peace

A torn piece of K & Co paper over coloured mount board topped with a peace symbol. The gems are so neatly placed and the 2 words perfectly stamped.

Create


This card made me giggle. The image is Paper Artsy I think, which Sonia has stamped onto coloured card and then cut out!!  She has hand written the words onto acetate and stapled them to the side. Really effective.

From My House.......

I love this one. Grungepaper houses die cut from Tim's on the edge Townscape die, coloured , some fancy paper behind the windows and then mounted on the previously coloured base using 3D foam. The grasses are from some oriental stamps.









See, I told you Sonia is clever.

ANOTHER PAGE FOR MY PAL

I posted yesterday over on Crafting Buddies, the scrapbook page I have made for Toby's birthday, which is today, or should I really say, would have been today. He would have been 21 today, bless him.
I always try and make a page to celebrate certain dates, and this page is for his K & Co blue awning scrapbook.

The photo shows him curled up on the pillows of the back bed in the motorhome during the summer of 2008. We had to make that bed up as he could no longer jump the height of the pull-down bed over the front. Notice he found the sunshine!!
Here are a few close up shots of the page.

Well, the sun has come out and the awful gales have subsided into strong winds so I suppose I had better get the day started.

USING MY PAPER ROSES

I've gradually been using the paper roses I made over the past few weeks, mainly on ATCs.
Some of the backgrounds were in my stash box just waiting to be used too. I generally mop up spare ink from my craft sheet on ATC-sized card or mount board, ready for such an occasion.
Here is the first one I made yesterday.

I love all the browns on this one. The image is cut from a Crafty Individuals sheet - Love Letters 1. She is lovely. I used K & Co paper to make this flower, spritzed with heirloom gold perfect pearl. I like this one.
The flowers on this 2nd card are made from Tim's lost and found stash.

The feather and little charm finish it off.
All a bit of fun and a boost to my ATC swaps.

FEATHERED FLOWERS

Oooh eck! I do have trouble thinking up headings sometimes. I reckon this is one of those times. Never mind, this is what I wanted to show you.

Not everyone's choice of colours I know, but it all came about because I had already made the big flower some weeks ago and needed to use it before it got damaged. It's cut from K & Co paper using Tim's large flower from his tattered floral die, and then covered in UTEE with a bit of distress stickles to add extra bling.

The base of this wall hanging is mountboard covered with paper from Tim's vintage shabby stack. I cut another little piece and used a Martha Stewart punch to make the zig zag top. All the edges are distressed with dusty concord and crushed olive DIs and the diamond  and flourish stamps are Tim's too (well they are mine actually, but from Tim's range lol) I sanded around the base as well.
The other flower is cut from grungepaper using the smaller tattered floral die, distressed and over stamped with a verse stamp - guess who's? No UTEE on this one, I simply left it as it was.

The feathers are from some I bought from Hobbycraft but the wired beads were the bargain of last year.
Get this - £1.50 for a great long length from Abakahn (sp?).
The swirl is grunge, again from Tim's range. I stamped the sentiment onto a matt cut from a Nestability, gave it the distress treatment, put some 3D foam under one edge and tape under the other and stuck it to the base. I then re-stamped the words onto another bit of paper and cut out the words 'creativity' and 'art' and put 3D foam on those before adding them too.

The hardest part of this piece was fastening the wire. I used some spring wire and it had a mind of it's own. I had added a purple eyelet to one side of the zig zag border, and a large fancy one to the other, but trying to get the wire to twist around the hole was another story and had me uttering a few choice words every time I dropped it on the floor, or when it decided to stick in my finger!! Take my advice, don't use it in this way.

Well, I had fun doing this, took my time and just 'played'.

What have you been up to today then?

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS.......

I have been having the most AWFUL week. It should have been good because my little car was back on the road last Sunday. It runs like a fluffy cloud now, all light and happy, despite it's ever increasing swimming pool in the passenger well - no pun intended there!! But as far as crafting goes, I've come - that close to giving it all up!!!!
I've watched, with excitment, Tim's blog and seen all his new releases for this summer. I've tried to keep up with Wendy Vecchi too. A lovely lady in the US, Marti, who is at CHA now, has just shown photos of the workshop she attended yesterday where both of these artists taught along with Claudine Hellmuth. You should see the projects they made, fantastic.
So what the heck is the matter with me?
THERE IS FAR TOO MUCH NEW STUFF BEING RELEASED. How on earth could anyone justify the exorbitant cost of just Tim's releases alone???? How can I possibly save for a new (well not brand new but newer) car AND buy craft AND have holidays AND simply live!!! So, I've decided (hope I can keep to it) that I am only going to buy essentials such as glue and grungepaper and just the odd Alterations die this year. It has to be or I do what I've come close to - and give up.
So what has changed my mind or at least made it up for me?
CRAFTING FRIENDS
They are the salt of the earth. One wonderful lady knows how I feel and encouraged me to continue. I have a particularly wonderful piece of art of hers which I have studied and am in the process of making some of my own. Once made, I will run them past her to make sure I am not breaching her copyright, and if ok, I'll share them with you.
Then I received these from my lovely friend Sonia (you know, the one I gave some crafting goodies to) and she has no idea about this week.

This is so simple but because the papers are tops, ie K & Co, this ATC looks amazing and is a special little thank you.

These 2 are right up my street 'cos they are 'Timy' ones. Nothing to do with me here apart from the mountboard. Sonia makes the most neat cards ever.
But this 1 is the one that did it for me and helped me change my mind.

Now I know I want to craft.
So, with a little help from my friends, I've decided to continue. Now where is that mojo then..........................

A 3 CHALLENGE CARD

At last I've managed to get on the net after trying for days. As soon as I get on, it kicks me out so fingers crossed for this post.

This little card meets these challenges:

Copic Colour challenge #60 Click Here

B93 -light crockery blue or BG93 - green grey

E47 - dark brown

Y23 - yellowish beige ( I used Y21)

Lily of the Valley challenge # 51 - a sketch click here

Totally Papercrafts challenge #12 - spring click here

I hope that if you click on the post title you will be ushered to the relevant blogs, but if not, their links are in the side bar of my blog.

I've had this flower fairy stamp for ages and think that this is the first time I have used it. I used the Copics to colour her then distressed the edges with bundled sage ink. The base paper is from K & co and the flower fairy card is from my stash as is the ribbon. The lovely little flowers are Prima. I tried to colour a gold peeloff greeting using a green Copic but it didn't come out too well.

I'm glad I've got this far tonight. Let's hope it loads now.

CAKE

I should have posted this challenge entry last night but when I looked at my card I realised I had forgotten an element. As the light was artificial - even though I have a daylight bulb - I thought it better to leave it 'til now. The Lili of the Valley #49 is a sketch. Check liliofthevalleythursdaychallenge.blogspot.com for details.

The little duck was a free download and I've coloured him with copics and used a nestability frame to cut him out. The rest is simple, K & Co papers, DCWV ribbon, Prima flower, some little flowers from Lakeland when they used to sell craft and finally, a couple of sticky gems.

It's nice and cheerful and just the job to brighten a rainy today.

TOTALLY COPIC SHOPPING!!

Alright, the heading is my feeble attempt at saying that this card is my interpretation of an entry to 2 challenges.

The first is for the:

Copics Colour Challenge #56- click on the blinkie on the right hand side

BV02 - prune, Go2 - spectrum green, B32 - pale blue

The second is for the:

Totally Papercrafts Challenge #8 - click the link on my blog list

this weeks challenge is a sketch - luv these!!XXX

I've used some lovely lilac pearlised card for the base and added K & Co patterned papers as per the sketch. The lovely image is a digi design coloured with the required Copics and cut around using a Nellies frame. The matching fibres came with an order from Craft Obsessions, received this week.

Had fun with this one, but then, I have fun with most of these challenges.

ROSES

This weeks challenge from Sunday Stampers is Roses. Pop over to their blog for details: http://pinkleart.blogspot.com/

Here is my entry. I chose a pink A5 base which I covered with K & Co paper. The stamped image is a gorgeous one I received last week from an image swap which I simply coloured with watercolour pencils before using Antique Linen distress ink to age it a bit. The ribbon is from Anna Griffin, the peeloff is coloured with alcohol ink and the little butterfly is from some charms I bought from Courtyard Crafts just outside Poole in Dorset.

It made a change to make a vintage style card and I enjoyed doing it.

DARE U2 DIGI STAMP CHALLENGE #30

I've had a go at another challenge. This one is from:

http://dareu2digistamp.blogspot.com/ and is entitled - Hearts/Valentine.

Anyone can enter so long as you use a digi image on your creation. Also, the image can be anyone's whether a free download or one you have purchased.

I started this card yesterday and have only just completed it! I am useless at making them quickly. Apart from anything else, I have so much paper that it takes hours to go through and find something suitable and matching! Oh crafters, you know what I mean don't you??

I cut a 6"x6" base card which I covered with K & Co papers. The pink stripey one is punched with my MS doily lace punch - it's gorgeous. The beautiful ribbon is from my 'little' !!!!!!! stash as are the bows with hearts. The chipboard heart is from some stash I bought from a famous friend and the rhine stones again are from my stash. I coloured the image with copics and the background is 'washed' with Sakura tiara so it sparkles just a bit. I know it's all a bit simple but I thought that if I kept to just a couple of colours, it may just work. Hope you like it.

LILY OF THE VALLEY CHALLENGE #45

I found this challenge on one of the blogs I follow and thought I could have a go because it is a sketch challenge.

Visit http://liliofthevalleythursdaychallenge.blogspot.com/ and have a go yourself.

I used a 6"x6" base white card, K & Co papers, a gorgeous digi image which I cut out with my nestabilities, Prima flowers, DCWV ribbon, water colour pencils and a copic pen, 3 flower brads, stickles, a piece of embossed card from one of my ATC swapping buddies and a length of purple ribbon cut from a t-shirt!

I enjoyed this one very much.

I'M CHALLENGED!

I've decided to have a go at the Copic Colour Challenge which is renewed weekly. Click on the link in the side bar for details.

This week, which is #46, asks you to use the 3 colours :

G00 - Jade Green

RV21 - Light Pink

B32 - Pale Blue

I love Copics but am in the process of learning how to use them so thought this challenge would help me and also give me an excuse to increase my stock!! Ok, I know that's an excuse, but it's a good one.

This little card has surprised me because I feel really happy with how it turned out. I used K & Co papers, DCWV ribbon, Petaloo flowers, Nestabilities cutting frame, some brads and a little bit of malibu feather. The main image is a new addition to my craft stash and is by Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps.

As I have used something NEW, I am also entering this card in the Craft Garden's January challenge, NEW. Again, the link is in my side bar.

Now I've had a little play, it's back to the decorating!!