March Right In...

Can anybody tell me what happened to February?   I have a list that's getting bigger by the minute that should have had a few items crossed off by now, but the month just ran away from me!!!!
A new month means a new challenge over at CRAFT QUEEN blog, and this month you have a choice of 2 sketches, one provided by Liz, and the other provided by Petrina.
I've used Liz's sketch for my sample, but I also want to have a go with Petrina's sketch, so that's now going on my "to do" list...stay tuned is all I can say : )

Here is my card:  I used a kraft coloured card base, a die-cut from THIS Kaiser paper pad, THIS mesh ribbon, THIS new crepe ribbon, the sentiment is a stamp from THIS set, and I have also used THIS background stamp on the white cs strips.      The butterflies are punchies made with THIS punch and coated with some KG

For all the details on the new challenge and to see the beautiful samples the rest of the DT members have come up with check out the blog post HERE, and make sure you go over to the CRAFT QUEEN store and see all the gorgeous stock newly arrived HERE.

Thank you for visiting me, I hope to see you again soon...

A New Month...

And a new challenge over at CRAFT QUEEN's blog...

And these are my samples, 3 very different ATCs (Artist Trading Cards).      I wanted to use the great Crafter's Workshop 6" templates, to show a couple of looks that can be achieved with them.

For this ATC, I started by carefully laying THIS template over some white card, and dabbing some alcohol ink (I used StaZon teal ink) over the pattern.    I then stamped the mesh image from THIS set of stamps using the same ink.      The sentiment from THIS WORD BLOCK was stamped with black ink and stuck using foam squares.       I raided my scraps box and found some corrugated cs, which I dry-brushed with some bronze metallic paint,  and layered that over a piece of punched and watercoloured paper.    I added a yellow button (from a past kit), and a little red wire : )

 For this next one, I started with a white ATC blank, and laying THIS template, I carefully added some texture paste over the top (just like icing a cake) and removed the stencil, cleaning it up (the stencil) straight away.    I allowed the texture paste to dry overnight, and then I painted over the ATC with some blue and some bronze acrylic paints.    I then added the image of the ballerina (stamped onto tissue paper and stuck on with Modge-podge) from THIS set of stamps
The sentiment is from an old Teresa Collins stamp.      You can find the beautiful shell heart HERE, and the leaf HERE.

For the next ATC, I started out with some white cs, and THIS template,  onto which I sprayed a couple of coats of blue Glimmer Mist, allowing it to sit and puddle around the stencil, once dry, I stamped one of the tree images from THIS set of stamps, and trimmed it down to fit inside my beige ATC blank.

I stamped the sentiment (also from the same set of stamps) onto a scrap of vellum paper, adding a little orange coloured TINY TWINE, a square SHELL BUTTON, some butterflies made with THIS punch, and a tiny bit of a sripe ribbon

If you've never made artist trading cards before, they are a great size for using up bits and pieces, plus, you can try out new techniques in a small scale.

And just in case you didn't pick up on it, this month's challenge involves using the word "love", some twine, and a button.        For all the details, and to see the rest of the DT projects, have a look HERE, and don't forget, your entry can be anything crafty, a card, layout, ATC, OTP project, or a sewing project, as long as it incorporates the required criteria.

Thanks for visiting me, I hope I have inspired you to play : )

MMM or My Mess Monday!

There is a craft table under there somewhere...I swear : )
I've been working on a few projects, and because I've been time-poor, I haven't put things away as I usually like to do...instead, my crafting area has shrunk to a tiny clearing, but no more, I just had a little clean up, and I thought as a reward I would do a couple of projects...I have so many UFOs (unfinished objects for the uninitiated) but new projects are so much more fun, right?
Here's project No 1 for the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge blog, the criteria being to show some depth...

I've used a Collections chipboard thingy (cabinet card ?), some brown acrylic paint, Distress ink (tumbled glass).     The little girl is one of Tim Holtz images, stamped onto acetate with StaZon ink (jet black)  which I had also coloured with alcohol inks (currant and ginger) as well as some viridian acrylic paint, and a coat of white acrylic for the underside.     The "doors" are held in place by some TH tissue tape, and I added a little wc paper painted with Twinks H2O (ginger peach), and a scrap of cotton lace (from Craft Queen)     The word is a stamp (from my scraps box)
I hope I have made it on time for this challenge...
I'll be back shortly, in the meantime, smile, it makes others wonder what you've been up to LOL

Last Day of November

...and your last day to email an entry into the Craft Queen Blog challenge, which, just to remind you, was to use some stamping and a pink ribbon...
Here's a card fitting that criteria:

All you need is to create something, take a photo and email it to Nicole...good luck.
I've used THIS ribbon, THIS ribbon, paper from THIS pad (out of stock), the word "PLAY" from a Darkroom Door Wordstrip.   The sweet stamp is by PRIMA, but it is out of stock too (my apologies)

Zutter Books and Stampbord

A while ago I entered the fabulous Stampbord competition, and I chose to use a couple of Zutter Cover-Alls (bamboo spine) books, which at 3"x4" are the perfect size to use with the ATC-sized Stampbord pieces.      We could not share our entries in our blogs at the time, so I'm sharing mine now...I had two entries, this first one made it through to the finals:

I started by covering the book with torn pieces of masking tape, then I gave the whole book a coat of acrylic paint (viridian) and the edges were painted with burnt umber  and bronze.    I then got one of those fun ATC-sized Stampbord pieces, and using some StaZon inks (mustard, rusty brown, blazing red) covered the entire piece, I then used various stamps from these Darkroom Door sets (Steampunk, Gothic Arches, Prague Vol 2 ) using StaZon ink (jet black) & then I scratched out some highlights using one of the Stampbord scratch knives.       I covered the whole Stampbord piece with a coat of DM to give it that nice shiny finish, and I made the insert using plain copy paper, cut to size and hand-sewn together.

For my second entry I used basically the same products, giving the cover a coat of viridian acrylic paint, and the background on the ATC-sized Stampbord piece was created by using watercolour paint and a sprinkling of salt, I then used this image from Stampotique Originals, as well as images from these Darkroom Door sets (Love Birds, Mail Art)     The motif in the top corner was drawn in using a Zig pen (0.5) and all the highlights were scratched using a Stampbord scratching tool, this entry didn't make it into the top 6, but I'm very happy with how both entries turned out just the same : )

And if you're wondering why I didn't cover this one with a coat of DM, it's because I really like the matte finish : )        Thank you for visiting me, and a big thank you to those of you who voted for my entry into the competition.   You can still see all the beautiful entries HERE.

And talking about competitions, don't forget to enter this month's Craft Queen challenge, just use some stamping, and some pink ribbon and email a photo of your project (which can be anything at all)    For all the details, go HERE and good luck : )

Hello November

A new month and a new challenge over at the Craft Queen blog, for all the details head on over HERE and while you're there, grab yourselves the cute challenge blog button (thanks Liz) to add to your own blogs : )
You can see the DT samples HERE , and here is a card I made using pink seam binding, and a stamp
as well as some very cute tiny twine in white, natural, red, and navy, which you can also get carded in coordinated colours of FOREST,  SPRING, and AUTUMN .    The squirrel ribbon can be found HERE (and there's also a different colourway HERE) and the squirrel button is HERE (make sure you have a look at all the gorgeous new wooden buttons , there's lots of fun shapes!!!)   Oh, and you can find the tiny letter stickers HERE, and the leaf is HERE, so make sure you enter your creation (it can be anything, as long as it follows the criteria) and you could win yourself some beautiful ribbons from CRAFT QUEEN.

A Change is as Good as a Holiday

...well, not quite as good, but I thought I'd give my blog a bit of a facelift, and after spending way too much time looking at different backgrounds, I came back to Blogger...I will eventually change again, probably, but for now I like the messy look, it's sooo me  : )
Don't forget there's only a couple of days left to enter the Craft Queen Birthday challenge, there's some fantastic prizes, so make sure you email your entry in...for all the details, have a look HERE, the winner will be announced on the first week of November.
Sorry I don't have any crafty photos, but I promise I will have some for next time you visit.

Is Your Entry There Yet?

How is everyone going with their entry into the first ever challenge over at Craft Queen's challenge blog?      Is yours HERE yet?   Make sure you're in it to win it...Go HERE for all the exciting details and to find out about some seriously generous prizes!!!

And don't forget there's some great ideas that have been featured in the blog all week, here's a card I made using some fabulous seam binding ribbon...Have you seen all the gorgeous different colours it comes in?   Have a look HERE , and don't forget to join in the fun : )

Problems With Blogger?

My apologies to all the lovely people who have left me comments here in the last couple of days, Blogger is not playing nice and when I try to comment in other blogs it does not allow me to sign in, and my comments disapper into cyberspace!!!   I hope they fix the problem soon..

  In the meantime, don't forget to visit Craft Queen's blog HERE, and for an added chance to win some gorgeous goodies provided by the very generous Nicole (Craft Queen herself) leave a comment in THIS post telling us what you think of the brand new beautiful header that Petrina created using a variety of snippets from the DT samples for our new challenge blog...You know the old saying, "you've got to be in it to win it" so go forth, comment and CREATE  : )

How Long Has It Been...

...since you used any eyelets?     For me, it's been forever LOL, so it was great to have a play this morning using some rather quirky shaped eyelets that I had forgotten were in my stash.    This is my entry to this month's theme over at Sarah's Inkurable Stampers challenge blog:

I started by cutting a tag shape out of purple cs, I stamped the Art Declassified image onto some white cs and stuck that to the tag, I then added the olive cs scallop edge (TH Alterations die), I was going to set the eyelets onto the orange strip of cs but thought they would look too plain, so I added bits of painted cs out of my scraps box and then set them with my crop-a-dile (which I use all the time to make holes, but I haven't used in ages to set an eyelet!!!)       The sentiment is a favourite of mine(and so true!) and it's from an ATC booklet I bought ages ago from The Stamping Queen., both the sentiment and the strip of orange cs were stuck on using foam tape for extra dimention.     I was going to leave it at that, but the purple section looked too empty, so I brought out some white acrylic paint and my favourite Darkroom Door b'ground stamp and voila! no more empty space : )  

I then added some orange and some red ribbon, as well as a white button, all from Craft Queen (because I like to rub shoulders with royalty LOL)      So now that I found my stash of eyelets, I wonder what else I can use them on?

Don't forget you still have time to join in with this fun challenge until the end of the month...

And you also have until the 18th of this month to vote for the top 6 entries to the Stampbord competition...You need to "like" Stampbord, and then go to the gallery and choose your favourite entry out of the 6 there...  Thanks for your visit, now go, create something  : )

A Tag for Simon Says...

I decided to join in with this great challenge over at Simon Says Stamp... It's the first time I'm taking part in this, and I almost forgot the due date!!!    But I think I've just made it : )

I've recycled some cardboard, painted with acrylic paint, stamped the TH stamp using royal purple StaZon ink, and the tag was distressed around the edges.        The girl  was stamped twice onto some coloured cs, once with royal purple StaZon ink and then again with rusty brown StaZon ink, I then cut her out and layered her over the top of some spotty ribbon and a bit of cs using some foam tape for added dimention.     The tiny flowers stamp was inked with timber brown StaZon ink, the red flower was cut with a TH Alterations die, and I added the gorgeous wooden button.      As a finishing touch, I added some Ice Stickles (in blueberry ice) .         I really enjoyed playing along with this challenge, and if you get the chance, have a look at all the great entries posted  : )        

A Christmas Card Again?

I just realized I forgot all about one of my New Year resolutions, to do a Christmas card a week!    Visit Hazel's Blog to find out more...
Anyway, here is my first Christmas card for the year...

I used a dark chocolate piece of cs as my base, some Prima pp, some pink ribbon, and both the sentiment and the deer are from THIS Darkroom Door set I used a 2" square shaped Stampbord tile, painting it with a variety of Twinkling H2Os wc paints, allowed to dry,  and stamped the image using  black StaZon ink, I then scratched the edges of the reindeer to add the highlight.    I then carefully worked out the placement of the tile and stamped the image onto my base pp, adding the Stampbord tile and some KG as a finishing touch.   
Thanks for visiting my humble abode : )

Christmas Card Challenge Blog (part 2)

If you missed out on Hazel's first giveaway, just go HERE for as second chance at some beautiful pp,
I'm still trying to get my Christmas cards done, so I will be joining in with this next year!