Alter a box

Time is going so quickly these days, we are already back to our Altering week at Try It On Tuesday which, of course if your the lucky winner of our challenge, which is to alter a box, you could be spending your prize of £15 at our sponsor's The Craft Barn.  I made this oragami box with T. H Vintage Shabby paper stash papers. I altered it later by adding an additional sheet on the lid of the box, punched a pretty pattern mid way  down on the lid, which doesn't show here. I then secured some white ribbon. From the same paper stash, I drew around the outside of a masking tape roll, for one flower, then on the inside of the same roll for the two smaller flowers. I then completed them using the spiral method, which you will find in my Papercraft Tutorial blog.  I then completed the box, ready waiting for me to add a gift, with a punched out round label, stamped 'With Love' and added a few swirls. I look forward to seeing your altered boxes, I'm sure there will be some amazing ideas.

Come Fly With Me (4)

Oops! only two days to go for the remainder of the Come Fly With Me month at St. Luke's Charity Card Challenge  this is my 4th card, supposed to be one per week, but a bit late with my little Lily of the Valley fairy from Joanna Sheen. I've kept this one fairly clean and simple and have left space for someone to add a greeting of their choice. I believe she was in the pack I sent to the charity a week or two back. I coloured the fairy with Promarkers for her skin, and shades of greens from my Distress Inks - watercoloured. I'm looking forward to the next challenge wondering, will I manage 4 again? Keep up the good work ladies.

A sketch with a flower

This is the last of the Flower series for the month chosen by Jacqueline, who has chosen a sketch. Please hop over to the main blog at Make My Monday , not only to see the sketch but the other wonderful samples from the design team. The Top 3 will also be announced for the lovely tags entered this last week.
I didn't concentrate on the flowers maybe as much as I should, but I love the silhouette stamp from Debbie Moore and wanted to try what I call a negative /positive result. I stamped it twice, once with black, once with Spiced Marmalade onto yellow patterned paper,then  cut out the flowers and butterflies and stuck only part of them back onto the black inked area from the original setting. The backgrounds are text stamp from Creative Expressions and the swirl stamp is of unknown origin, a grey rubber stamp which is very useful.
T.H Distress inks used are Spiced Marmalade, Scattered Straw and Mustard Seed. I look forward to your sketch designs according to a recent Feline Playful poll, sketches are supposedly highly popular, so come on girls, let's see your beautiful interpretations, don't forget to include a flower.

Spots and Stripes

Over at Crafty Carmaker's the Challenge this week is Spots and Stripes, this leads my brain to thinking of a bright fun element. I hope I have achieved it with this card.

I recently bought a pad of colourful summer papers, which provided the pots and stripes on my card. I’ll be hiding this one away from my OH, I’ll keep it for his birthday.  A die cut oval, with the dreaded peel off to give contrast. I stamped the golfer from the Flippen Men series, by La Pashe. I coloured him in, using Promarkers and watercolour pencils. I hope the sparkly finish, with glitter glue shows on the glass of beer. I look forward to popping onto your blogs to see what you do with the spots and stripes. Check it out for the winner will get a fab prize from our sponsors. Thanks for any comments left on my blog, I do appreciate you took the time.

Lilac and Green

I made this card as an example for my class tomorrow - I am working my way throught the alphabet of crafting techniques etc, for the letter P this week the theme is "What more can we do with Peel-Offs?" I know cross your fingers and and whisper Peel offs, not my personal choice, but they can be dressed up.
I sprayed the green background with Cosmic Shimmer Mist,  used a peel off butterfly onto vellum, adhered with a glue dot. I painted inside the peel off with Dusty Concord, Peeled |Paint and Forest Moss. I used the Dusty Concord to shade the edges and Peeled Paint to shade the edges on the green background.
The colours of the card just happened to fit in with the challenge over on Tandastamps which is Lilac and Green, hope my purple shading isn't too dark. The sentiment is from Elusive Images.

Fun in the Sun

We are challenging you to capture the sun with your free project today at Try It On Tuesdays  all the information along with some super work from the design team is on the TIOT blog. This being the third week in the month, you can enter any type of project as long as it represents the theme of - The Sun.
For my project, I felt the need to construct a scrapbook page. I used a tea plate and saucer to draw around for the centre of the sun,  played around until I had drawn the sun rays in different sizes,  cut out all of the papers and matting backgrounds. I stamped the title Fun In The Sun with Royal and Langnickel Ransom alphabet stamps. The papers are from the Sunshine Pack from Paprmania Capsule Collection.
Various elements added to the rays. The photo is of two of my grandsons enjoying the sun in Lanzarote.
I'm looking forward to seeing your sunny entries this week. Have some fun in the sun whilst your crafting .
I am also entering the LO into
Papertake Weekly challenge  -Here Comes the Sun
Stamptacular Sunday  -Fun in the Sun - the title has been stamped, please see above.
Pollycraft Challenges - Holidays/Vacations

Sentimental Spotlight

The challenge for the next two weeks in the Spotlight at Crafty Cardmakers' is to make your project where the main focus is on the sentiment. There are some fabulous examples made by the DT.
For the sentiment, on my card,  I chose a Crafty Individuals stamp Hope, for I am sending this to a friend, who is not very well. Her favourite colour is green, so I used green hues with contrasting cream and gold. I distressed the paper, then used mica powders, green, yellow and blue to colour the sentiment. The green shiny card is from my stash, along with the flowers.



A tag with a flower

Week 3 at our Make My Monday, the monthly theme of Flowers continues, the challenge for you this week is to make a tag with a flower, it can be on it's own or part of card. Using Cut & Dry foam I rubbed several TH Distress inks onto the cut cream card. Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalde, Scattered Straw and Walnut Stain. Heat dried it, sprinkled water from my fingers, again heat dried. I then stamped with Memento Onyx Black ink pad my latest, wonderful stamp from Hero Arts, Gratitude.  I re-stamped the flower, coloured it with Spiced Marmalade, cut it out and applied as a second layer, added a glaze to help to emphasise the flower, but I think too much of the glaze ran to the centre, now that it's dried properly it looks so much better. Leson learnt - "be patient and wait for wet parts to dry." I added a few swirls where there were big gaps and finished off with a black braid tied into a bow.

10 days left for Come Fly with Me

10 days left for the St. Luke's Card  Challenge- Come Fly with me. Here is my third entry, keeping to my target of a card a week, 4th to be posted in 5 days. This is one of my favourite stamps,  from Paperartsy, it can be used in so many ways. I started with a cream card. I used a swirl stamp and clear E.P. to provide a resist scrolled background. Then the background was coloured with several TH Distress inks. I dried the ink with a heat gun, then used the same scroll stamp but embossed with black E.P. Wrapped a piece of torn vellum over the spine of the card, added some black ribbon, secured it to the card with a brad. The topper in the centre was the same card, coloured around the edges and the Dragonfly stamp was again embossed with black E.P, then matted onto a piece of black card. I enjoy watching the chanages with resist stamping, it's so interesting. Thanks to all who may look at this card, thanks to those who can leave comments, I do always appreciate you took the time for a few words.
I am also entering this card into Delicious Doodles for their challenge All that Flutters

Z is for........

I apologise for the first few hours this was up, for some reason it wouldn't enlarge. I deleted the pic and added it again, I am pleased to say it does now enlarge when you click on it.

ZENTANGLE.  This week the girls at Less Is More really set my mind in a twirl. The challenge this week being A Monogram. A case of 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration in the words of good old Albert Enstein. Late last night the 1% inspiration light bulb flashed. This is my first real attempt at Zentangles, which is the artistic form of doodling. I had such fun doing this. The pic will now enlarge, sorry for earlier in the day.
Also entering this into Just 4 Fun - Getting Tangled Up.

I've been getting in a Mess!

I know I haven't blogged for a few days, but I haven't been idle. I have been creating a right mess and having a lot of fun. Every now and them I want to play and experiment. I  also felt it was time for my class to get down good and dirty. Boy! Did they have fun. I used photo gloss paper, cheapest I could find, it works fine. I used a mixture of mica powders, placed into  puddles of water, mixed and with a  paint brush, added both lansdcape wise and portrait wise, put aside to dry. This type of card  dries very quickly.Don't be tempted to use a heat gun, for after only seconds the film on the coated card will start to melt. Using the same method , I also used LuminArte powders. Other samples are with the solid mica watercolours from Cosmic Shimmer, and  H2O's mica paints. Also I used, Cosmic Shimmer Mists, a few Moonglow Glitz sprays. Most of the results are above, some I have made into cards. Here are a few:-

I am entering the fairy card into the Sweet Stamping Challenge Blog for Things with Wings.

If your now off to experiment, wear a pinny, a pair of rubber or plastic gloves, cover your work surface, relax, make a mess and have lots of fun. I did!
P.S. More of a different painting mess to follow.



Come Fly with me (2)

Here is my second card for June's theme of Come Fly With Me at St. Luke's Charity Card Challenge.  I believe it is now at the end of Week 2, so I have two more ready. I love this stamp from Elusive Images ( now Chocolate Baroque). I coloured the owl with watercolour pencils and a Sakura gold pen. Added twine and a brad for decoration. I thought this card suitable for either a man or woman. It is placed on kraft card onto a dark blue card.

Butterfly Tag

It was my choice again at Try It On Tuesdays  this time we are challenging you to make a TAG, with butterflies. It supposed to be the summer, I was hoping to have seen a few real ones by now, but no luck.
Please pop over to the main blog for the design team have produced some stunning butterfly tags, such a variety, so I am looking forward to visiting your blogs to see what you produce. As always, have fun.
Ingredients of my tag are:-
Lindsay Mason - Personal Impressions Tattered Butterflies stamps.
TH. Distress Inks - Peeled Paint and Pine Needles
Cosmic Shimmer Mist Meadow Lush
La Blanche swirl stamp and gold E.P.
Green mix fibre
Green and gold foiled card behind the tag apertures.

Come Fly With Me

On my blog travels I found, St. Luke's Charity Card Challenge , one which I am hoping to try to support each month. I don't live in the area, but a few cards a month may be more useful to them, than to me. I think it is a brilliant idea, well done to all those involved. My plan is to enter one card each week, it is a monthly blog, but you can enter as many times as you like. If I enter a card a week, that way, I will be weekly putting their name up on my blog. This is my first card for June. The theme is Come Fly With Me, my first form of flight is an areoplane. I made this card following a sketch  for my own card class, for a challenge I gave them. I stamped the cracked matted sheet, and coloured with TH Distress Inks Weathered Wood and Tumbled Glass, the world globes and post card label were stamped and coloured. The plane is cut from a sheet of transport cards.

Die Cut Flowers

Our second week over at Make My Monday, thanks to all the players last week. My congratulations to the top 3, there were some wonderful cards in our first week. The team have made some fabulous examples using this week's theme of Die Cut Flowers. Please check out the details over on the blog.
For my card, I decided to make the same type of flower I made on my red card, except they are smaller and tighter. I used 2 Nestabilities, from the small octangal scallop dies, cutting 5 layers per flower. Wet them, screwed them up, straightened them out, piled them up, added a brad to hold each flower together, then pinched the layers upwards to make the flower shape,  added a little glitter to the edges. I used TH Vintage Shabby paper for the flowers, stems and lower background. Several TH Distress inks for the matted sheet.
Have fun, playing with your Die Cut Flowers, I look forward to visiting your blog.
Also entering into the following:-
Totally Gorguss - Flower Power
JUST 4 Fun Anything Tim see above
4 Crafty Chicks - Handmade Flowers
Craft Your Days Away    Monochrome

In The Frame

The two girls over on Less Is More have again come up with a devilish plan, In the Frame. This is my fourth attempt, I have been thawted by simple stamping errors, I even made one on this, but was able to hide it with a flock of flying birds. Please Chrissie don't say I should have kept on trying for I think I'll cry. I nearly gave up, but not one to be beaten, especially by my own silly mistakes here is my completed effort.
I used TH Distress inks for the background, Tumbled Glass, Weaathered Wood, Mustard Seed and peeled Paint. I stamped the leaves with Whispers Green Leaf. The owls were coloured in with water colour pencils.
The leaves and owls are from Paperartsy, Flora and Fauna set, the flying birds are from Inkylicious. Off to see if I can find another challenge this will suit, after the time I have spent I need to spread the love. LOL
Also entered Crafts and Me - Stamp Something
Crafty Anne's Blog - use more than one image

Lime and Lemon

Stampin for the Weekend the challenge is for Lime and Lemon, such good fortune for only last week I bought a Hidaway pack of beautiful lime, lemon and orange papers. Here is my card. I have used a Molly Bloom stamp of the ballerina, used Promarkers and watercolour pencils to colour her. I used some bought roses but the smaller flowers and leaves I made. The technique can be found on my Paper craft Tutorials blog, Spiral roses. These ones are more curved for I cut them out with a wavy edged pair of cheap craft scissors. These are such pretty and fresh colours. Thanks for looking.

Wintertime Blues

My promise to myself about making a Christmas card every week, has been as good as my New Year's resolutions, (useless).  Trying to make amends this is my entry into Craftyhazelnut's Christmas challenge, which this week is Wintertime Blues, I have only 3 hours left. The card was made early in the week and I forgot to take a pic of it. I chose navy card, used a Fiskas punch for the white punched edging. Stamped the stocking (Debbie Moore stamps)  with Versamark and used Stampendous detailed white embossing powder. I used silver mirri to mat it onto, which is terrible to get a decent pic of. I found this was a quick and easy card, so maybe  few more will be following.

Monochrome Flying Stars

This week at Less Is More the challenge is Monochrome, I love colour but black and white is my chosen monochrome for this challenge, it so suits the stamp, which is a Penny Black - Flying Stars. First it is stamped directly onto the white card with black ink. Then stamped onto black card with Versamark, sprinkled with Stampendous Detail White Embossing Powder, heat set. Positioning onto the black card is the most difficult part for when you punch out the circle with a 3" circle punch it needs to be able to match with the black image. Matted onto black card, a black slip knot added for the side looked quite bare. No greeting by choice for it is left open to add an appropriate greeting when needed.

Here Comes Summer

A Spoonful of Sugar this week are challenging us to Here comes Summer, well I certainly agreed last Thursday and Friday but in typical English style, the summer is so intermittent, today is cool and threatening rain. Nevertheless, with summer in mind, here is my card. I used two stamps from the Flowersoft Wheelbarrow range, which make lovley cards for men and of course ladies. I used my favourite watercolour pencils to colour this.

Wild Thing

This week at My Time To Craft they have challenged us to Wildlife Reserve, terrific, another chance to use a favourite stamp of mine by La Blanche. I have a set of 4, but this is my favourite one.  I stamped the leopard onto white card and used several chalks to colour it. I glazed the eyes and the nose to make them look more life-like.  This is an A5 card which helps to show it is quite a large stamp.

Weird and Wonderful

Over on Try It On Tuesdays, Georgina's choice this week is Weird and Wonderful, I found this card needed more thought than normal. I try to jump out of the box on a regular basis but I felt as though the lid was shut on me on this one. This is the interesting part of challenges I find, to be so challenged, to thick differently from the norm.  Recently I bought this stamp from E-bay, why? You may well ask, I bought a small dolls house, again from E bay which I visulised as a Witch's Cottage. As soon as I told my grandson James, over a period of a couple of weeks it became HIS Witch's Cottage. The skull is to decorate the walls in the dungeon and the attic. I sprayed the card with various mists, stamped on the skull in black, then embossed the gold swirls with gold E.P. Added with various stamps, Smile It's Your Birthday. Added it all to a purple card again with embossed gold scrolls around the edges. I can't wait to see your creations of Weird and Wondeful. the design team have made some very weird but wonderful cards. Don't forget the winner will receive a prize form the sponsors - One Card Stop, their logo is in my side bar. Good luck

Exciting News! New Blog Monday 6th June

I am thrilled to announce some exciting news, Jacqueline of Deezine's Art has asked me to join her in her new venture of a challenge blog - Make My Monday which will go live on Monday 6th June. I am so excited, and I can't wait for us to get started. Please pass the word to your friends for we need to let folk know about us. I am delighted to be part of the Deezine Team, congratulations to the team, who will be
Jacqueline, Cath, Fliss and Suzanne B, the latter two being fellow teamies from the now closed LIIU. I am looking forward to being with old friends and getting to know and making friends with Cath and Jacqueline.
We have some great themes planned and interesting ideas are being discussed, plus prizes. Please add us to your followers and pass on the word. See you on Monday.

A Red Flower - New Challenge Blog

This is the first week of a new challenge blog - Make My Monday, which is owned by Jacqueline Dee of Deezine Arts,    I am so thrilled to be part of the Deezine Team, along with Cath, Fliss and Suzanne B, who have made for our first challenge some stunning red flower cards. We are a weekly blog, with some exciting challenges ahead, there will be  Top 3 winners each week and an overall prize winner once a month. Please read all of the rules on the blog. For our first month the Theme is Flowers,  the theme will change monthly, the subject will change weekly. So enjoy, have fun and good luck. We would also greatly appreciate you displaying the Challenge Blog logo and letting your blogging friends know of our launch.

On the background of the card I stamped the  large corner  rose stamp, the small leaves and roses from a Creative Expressions Rose set by Sheena Douglass, embossed with gold E.P. Coloured in with watercolour pencils. The large red flower was made with my Cuttlebug,  I die cut 4 layers of paper and 2 layers of tissue paper with a large scalloped octogen die. Wet them, scrunched them up, joined them together with a brad, then shaped them into a flower shape whilst still wet, allowed to dry, then teased into shape again.
The sentiment is from Inkylicious Trees set, again stamped onto a die cut from Small Octogons set.
Fire Brick distress ink was rubbed around the edges of the sentiment and the main card.

Parchment is in the Spotlight

For the next two weeks at the Crafty Cardmaker's Spotlight challenge you can have a go at Parchment.

This is probably my fourth attempt at Parchment, I think I’m too heavy with the embossing tool for I invariably end up piercing a hole somewhere. Please don’t look for they will be there, but I do like to try different techniques, which is why I love this challenge group, the girls are so open to trying something out of their own comfort zones. For my parchment attempt, I went to Google, typed in ‘ Free parchment patterns’, found this , which wasn't too hard. I'm not a peel of f person either, but the corners needed a little soemthing. Placed onto rainbow paper. You don’t have to use parchment, vellum gives a nice finish. The aim is to try and to have fun, relax and learn from the challenge. I did.

I can't sign in!!!!!!!!!!

I am having a problem, I can't sign in, I have signed out and back in but I  can't stay signed in.
I can't comment on any of my DT's. I am hoping and assuming it is a problem via Blogger but I don't know how to resolve it!
PROBLEM RESOLVED - THANKS

Altered Art -Dream

 The Altered Art theme this month at Try It On Tuesdays, was chosen by Georgina. The idea is to alter anything you wish, along with the theme of DREAMS. The team have made some fabulous examples. Certainly worth having a go, for the prize is a £15 voucher from The Craft Barn, you will need to be sure you display their logo in your write up to be in with a chance to win. Good luck to everyone. I decided to smarten up an old shopping list book bought from Wilkinson's store, it cost me 49p.
I first covered it with black card. then on white card, I sprayed several colours of mists, rubbed the edges with Walnut stain and stamped the dandelion and the floating parts with black ink. All the stamps are from a fabulous A4 plate from The Stampman called Across the Miles. The sentiment is from Creative Expression Time A5 plate.  Again I look forward to visiting your altered art items, have fun.
Also added into the Craft Room Challenge a new fortnightly blog which started yesterday. Good luck ladies, wishing you every success.

ATC - Beach

Over at ATC Challenge Blog, a fairly new challenge blog  This week, the challenge is Beach/ Seaside, with some dimension. This is my entry. Stamps are from Inkylicious and Creative Expressions. I used watercolour pencils and Tumbled Glass Distress Ink. The dimension is provided by adding some small shells from an old shell necklace bought in a charity shop.