Castles in the air ..................

The theme for the UK Stampers June postcard swap is

In the sky

and this is my take on the theme.

Firstly I drew a cloud shape to use as a mask, positioned it on the postcard & used my distress inks to produce the background, leaving the cloud shape white.

I used the sentiment & the castle image from my Lindsay Mason set. I coloured the image using my copics.

So there you have it - my take on the 'In the sky' theme is Castles in the air :-)

WOW!

I'm a lucky girl!

I visited Neil's great blog perfectly4med a little while ago & yesterday I found out that I'd won the WOW! Embossing Powder set of 6 powders in a carry case that he was giving away to celebrate 100,000 views of his blog :-)

Thank you Neil - looking forward to the postman's visit! :-)

Dancing the night away!

The theme for the May postcard swap over on UK Stampers is Party & I finally managed a play in my craft room last night!

This is what I came up with ....


I first thought of all the bunting & cakes etc that are around at the moment with the National Celebrations of the Jubilee & Olympics, but then went down a very different tack of party - dancing the night away! :-)

I love the feeling of movement in this image & I stamped it directly onto the backing papers & filled in with black pens.

The motif is from the same stamp set as the image.

I then got out my silver pen & highlighted parts of the motif & parts of the sentiment Party Time (from another stamp set) & also parts of the background paper too.

It looks very different in different lighting conditions & really sparkles at night under artificial light! This unfortunately doesn't come across with the photography today! :-(

3 stamps

The Less is More challenge this week is a one layer challenge to use just 3 stamps on your card.

I've used 3 stamps from a Personal Expressions set, stamped in a line.

and coloured them using my copics.

No sentiment as I'd used up my three stamps & although tempted to write a sentiment, not stamp it, I resisted & kept it truly LIM :-) 

Happy Birthday

It's hubby's birthday today and this is the card I made for him.

I stamped the image & then used my copics to colour it.

He actually looked on the back to make sure that it was one of mine! LOL

Although it looks deceptively simple the colouring took quite a bit of time to achieve :-)

My Domino Book swap creation ..............

on UK Stampers

I decided on the travel theme for my domino book.

This is the book open showing the travel related stamping

I left the back plain for the recipient to add their own personal touch - their own stamping or pictures, keepsakes etc

Craftytrog was very patient & waited until I returned home for me to post this off - I'd made it before I went off to Oz. 

I made a box to tuck it in & nestled it in tissue paper.

My 3D postcard

for the UK Stampers swap

The quest was to make a 3D postcard. The normal monthly postcard swap requires you to post the postcard naked (no envelope) so this was a one off swap that could be protected in the post.

I stamped the image & used distress crackle glaze over the copic colour on the wing. The background is distress inks & I used distress inks to colour in her dress.

The butterflies are punches, two different sizes glued together. I emphasised the edges using gold pen.

I used Andy Skinner quote stamps, some beautiful ribbon & some old currency coins & scattered the butterflies .....

I finished off with the bloom, the 3 elements held together with the small brad & the charm.


I boxed the postcard & stamped the box using a stamp set but didn't manage to take a photo in my haste to post!!

Domino family book

Gingersnap Creations Challenge GC141 is Granny's Photo Album & this is my entry - a domino book featuring photo's of my family on the maternal side. This is the front.

and the back of the closed book.

The open book

and a close up of my Great Grandmother & Great Grandmother & Great Grandpa

I'm very lucky to have some fantastic old family photos to draw on which I reduced in size & printed out to use:-) Some I used whole & some I cut out.

I'd started to make this domino book for my Mum just before flying out to Oz so just packed it up, including bits that I thought that I may want to use & finished it off .....

I'm having problems with blogger - not allowing me to upload all the pic's I wanted to but hopefully those that have uploaded will give you the idea of my domino book.

I loved doing it & it was much appreciated by my Mum :-)

Thank You cards

The reason for my lack of  posting, as some of you will already know, is that my father died unexpectedly & I've had to dash over to Oz to support Mum.

We had a lovely Celebration of Dad's life & Mum & I have been making Thank you cards for all the wonderful people that have been so kind.

Above are a few of the cards that I made after raiding Mum's crafting stash...... :-)

and I managed to photograph a few of Mum's - she had already sent a lot off before I realised :-)

Our styles are different but all the cards are made with love :-)

Less is More

This week is stripes

As it's also one layer week I stamped my stripes straight onto the card down 2 edges.

This is from a set of stamps & I stamped it one way & then the other

I finished with the sentiment which is again in stripes :-)

Heart on my Sleeve

Hearts are the theme on Sunday Stampers this week, in time for Valentines Day on Tuesday.

I cut my hearts out using my Sizzix primitive hearts from some Serendipity paper that I made a while ago - tutorial here. It was just perfect for the look I wanted to create. The paper itself contains stamping. I matted the hearts onto a grey bazil backing 

the dragonflies are stamped ........

I used a black pen to create the faux stitching - large & random

To finish I stamped the sentiment straight onto the card.

Pink & Red

Pink & Red is the Feb colour combo on Daring Cardmakers - this is my  Valentine card following the theme.

I used various red & pink ribbons, red & pink card. a happy valentine sentiment & a handmade heart.

Die cuts

This is my entry for CHNC - the theme this week is die cuts

I used die cut snowflakes which I cut using my Big Shot.

Firstly I stamped out the scene & lightly coloured with copics, then I used various stickles to highlight the snow.

I mounted the scene onto backing bazil

and finally sprinkled my die cut snowflakes from above.

February Postcard swap

The theme for the February postcard swap on UK Stampers is Circles.

After hearing the theme I couldn't get out of my mind the song Windmill's of your Mind which begins - Like a circle in a spiral, Like a wheel within a wheel, Never ending or beginning, On an ever spinning reel .......

So my postcard is based on this.

Firstly I used distress inks to do the background colour.

To make the dots in the spirals I used my cropodile to cut a circle from an old distress ink pad which I stuck onto the end of the wooden end of a paintbrush that I removed the metal end with the bristles - necessity is the mother of invention!

I then wrote the wording round the outside of the spiral.

And stamped tempus fugit across the middle

I used part of the free stamp from Craft Stamper magazine & emphasized the eyes,

 & the face again a freebie from Craft stamper with the lips emphasized.

I finished by adding circles using the same distress inks as the background.

As promised ..............

The details of the Altered tin that I made for the swap over on UK Stampers

The theme was wings

Glitter Monkey has now received the tin so I can share with the world :-)

This is the outside of the tin

and this is the inside.

Firstly I covered the tin using 12x12 paper.

I stamped the image, cut it out & then coloured the flesh areas with Copics.

The dress was painted with Distress crackle paint, weathered wood. The butterfly embellishment was securely glued using specialist metal glue.

I used crackle accents for the wings which I sprinkled with glitter whilst wet.

I used bronze 3D glitter-Gel for the hair to give colour & dimension.

The sentiment was stamped & mounted & the embellishment stars glued on & the bird secured with a toning brad fastened before gluing the sentiment down & snippets of lace popped on.

I used a key as a 'handle'

and managed to line up the paper properly on the top & bottom!!

The inside compartments were made in mount-board & coloured with alcohol inks, 

as was the part of the tin not covered with paper.