Thursday 31 October 2013

Finally getting time to craft again!

Well its now October, the little one is 1 year old (I know, where did the time go?!) and that means Mummy has a little crafting time whilst he naps (as he naps for a good hour twice a day normally). Every now and then, if I am very lucky, my partner will offer to look after him so I can craft. Recently I used this time to alter a plastic food container (by Systema) for a friend. Her eldest daughter is suffering some jealousy when the new baby is being breastfed so I have made a Snack Box for her, that only comes out during Boobie-time.
I used my Alcohol Inks to give it a pink/purple base and then added a little gold. Once this had dried, I added a lace effect "ribbon", some rainbow peel-offs (flowers and butterflies), hologram stars in gold, faux gem stickers in pink and purple and finally the word "Special" coloured pink with my Flex-markers and a circular "Enjoy" peel off for each end, coloured pink using my ProMarkers. I also used Foam Letters (The Range) to spell out her name and Snacks on the lid, so it was very personal to her.
Finally I sealed the entire decoration with PVA glue and whilst it was wet, sprinkled in very fine glitter.
The photos have not come out well using a flash so I will take some more in daylight and upload shortly but I am quite pleased with my first attempt at altering something and hope the little girl likes it!

Thursday 19 September 2013

Amsterdam etc

Well since I last posted, I have made more cards for Friends of Akitas Trust, another New Baby card for a girl (taking tomorrow when I meet her!) and a boy one just in case (2 people still due) plus a Thank you card for our friends parents, who lent us their flat in Amsterdam. They have a ginger cat named Boris and they are cat-mad too so I used that as the theme for the card. It was a glorious few days with good friends and not having to pay for a hotel made life much easier for us.
Papermania cream square cards, cat biscuit papers by BoBunny, hammered cream card from Creata layered over brown paper from stash (after it had been embossed and coloured using distress inks to make the pawprints "pop" out. Same brown paper used to mount the cat stamped image, again on the hammered card from Creata (fanastic quality and price!). Cat stamp by Kanban, coloured using Promarkers.
Cream Papermania square card, paper from Summer Breeze blockpad (First Edition Paper), Spellbinders Fleur De Lis Squares used on Creata's Hammered cream cardstock, pink iridescent Bazill card used with Joy Flourish die (cut in half to use one end at each corner) and Sizzix baby die (for words and bodysuit).
For topper: Woodware flower image stamped twice onto Creata Hammered cream cardstock. First image centred, corners rounded off, Antique Linen used to distress edges and gemstones added to corners (coloured with ProMarkers to match in). Second image, main body of flower cut out. Image painted using Distress Inks and then once dry, touched up with ProMarkers.
Main card body is a square Papermania card, scored down centre of one side and folded over. Paper added to folded over section and used again with Spellbinders to provide the layered labels that "hold" the card up. Ribbon from stash. Sentiment from a big Kanban box. Topper then attached. This is one of the cards for Friends of Akitas Uk to raffle/sell etc (www.friendsofakitas.co.uk)

Wednesday 7 August 2013

At last, some actual cards!

I have focused on two areas recently: new baby cards as several friends are expecting and raffle cards for Friends of Akitas, a charity whom I support. For the raffle cards, I have used some decoupage from Crafters Companion that came free in a magazine plus some that I got in a Create and Craft goody bag at Doncaster 2011. The new baby cards shown are the two I have sent people already but I have made two more in anticipation plus need a few more yet to cover all the imminent arrivals!








Monday 22 July 2013

Good grief, I actually won something..........

I enter quite a few craft related things plus Euro Millions (!) but have never won. In the last few weeks however I have won twice! The first was a Tattered Lace Dies giveaway from Nancy Watt on Facebook. I am now the proud owner of the Venetian Mask die, which is beautiful. I haven't used it yet but will post when I have done so. Second was Letraset's Independence Day giveaway  - I was a "blue" winner and received 3 blue-toned Pro Markers (I have all 3 colours already but am still excited by "freebies"!). Sadly however my Euro Millions entries have not seen the same success.........

Wednesday 17 April 2013

At last........

Well Baby K is now 6 months and also Daddy is currently out of work. These two things combined mean that I actually had some time yesterday to finish off a card! I started it some time ago, originally I had intended it for the Crafters Companion Breast Cancer challenge. I never got around to finishing it however and a friend was 30 today - who happens to love pink! So I put all the various elements together and added 30 and Happy Birthday to it. I had intended to spray it with CC iridescent Spray and Sparkle but the nozzle was clogged or something, as it just dribbled. Unfortunately the Multi-coloured comes out much thicker and was a bit over the top but I could not undo what had been done!I am however quite pleased with my shading on the image (Kanban stamp) using of course, my beloved ProMarkers!

Plain white card coloured using Distress Ink, pink mirror card from Craft Creations Ltd, pink patterned card from First Edition Paper Summer Breeze 6x6 pad. Peel Offs coloured using ProMarkers. Spellbinders used for the cut-out oval frame. Adhesive "lace ribbon" from stash.

Stencils galore

 I have been having great fun with stencils, experimenting with different techniques, mediums etc. Some are mylar but the majority are the...