It's Been A Funny Old Day

Evening lovely Bloggers.

It's been a funny old day after a funny old night. We were sleeping soundly last night when suddenly the burglar alarm went off. Without thinking we woke up and flew out of bed and down stairs to turn it off, then Hubby went to investigate. Luckily, it was only the cats who, it appears, have learnt to open the kitchen door and chase around the living room setting off the detector. Guess who was not popular!!!! We will be making sure the door is properly wedged from the outside before we go to bed tonight.

Consequently, we have all been walking around with fuzzy heads today from a distinct lack of sleep.

I haven't produced anything worthwhile to show you so I thought, as it's supposed to be the last day of Winter, I'd share a layout I did of the snow on Christmas Eve. I used lots of embellishments made on my new Slice and was quite pleased with the results I got.


The snowflake paper was Fancy Pants and the music paper the inside of a lovely shaped paper from the Snowy Serenade set from Bo Bunny, who make my favourite papers at the minute. They are just gorgeous.

The title was cut on the Slice, as was the shadow for Winter, which I added glitter to for extra sparkle.


The snowflakes were cut in different sizes, the first layer sprayed with Denim Glimmer mists and the top layer covered with Martha Stewart snow glitter.


I printed the swirls from a Photoshop brush and then cut them out, very fiddly, but worth it I think.


I'm still learning what to use my Slice for but I'm finding the more I use it, the more I love it.

Well, I think it's almost time for bed, but before I go I'd just like to say that I've now been a fully paid up member of this lovely blogging community for exactly one year this weekend, wow, that went quickly, and what a wonderful year it's been. I've met some fantastic, warm, friendly, very talented people, both in cyberspace and in person and I'd just like to sign off by thanking each and every one of my followers for their continued support and inspiration. Here's looking forward to another great year.

Getting Messy

Hi everyone. I don't know about you but I've had enough, it was lovely the first time and even the second but not after 3 months. What is she rambling on about you might ask. SNOW!!!! We had another fall last night and it's wet, cold, foggy and HORRIBLE. I really NEED the Spring now!

Sorry about that, I am calm and collected again now.


To cheer everyone up I thought I'd share with you a photo I took on Monday at our local RHS garden, Harlow Carr which gives hope that, even though there is snow on the ground, the flowers are still there and beginning to appear. Aren't these little cyclamen just so bright and cheerful.

Over at Tuesday Taggers, they have asked us to get messy fingers this week. Well I don't need to be encouraged twice, especially when they offering a prize from The Craft Barn.

I have been having a go at the acrylic stamp storage book that was brilliantly demoed in this months Craft Stamper and this is the cover for it. I think I used every product I own which was great fun and I did get extremely messy.


The mountboard cover is painted in blue metallic acrylic paint and then the background is various shades of acrylic paint randomly applied. I over stamped this with Graphicus Wildflower meadow stamps in various colourbox queue pigment inks.


The background for the main panel is alcohol inks and then over stamped from the same flower set and white embossed. I used a small grass stamp from the set to edge the border on both panels.

The quotation background is Broken china distress ink and the quotation is from the Inspirations themeplate again from Graphicus. I have matted everything with silver mirriboard.

I was having a playing session trying out a lot of the techniques I've seen or read about recently and luckily (quite unplanned) the colours all went together nicely so for once I could put to good use all the bits and pieces I made. I've just got to make the stamp holders to go inside now!

I hope you are all coping with this rotten weather and as always thanks for stopping by.

Time.... For More Snow!

Happy Sunday again and for those of you under a white blanket again, stay warm!!

I couldn't believe my eyes when I opened the curtains this morning, another good covering of the white stuff. After the last few glorious days it was a real surprise. Although yesterday was sooo cold. We had beautiful, crystal blue skies here but went 12 miles down the road and ran into thick fog and the car thermometer said -3oC. How funny that the weather can be so different in such a few short miles.

This week's theme over at Tuesday Taggers is "Time." Something I think we all probably wish we had more of, I know I do. A few more hours in the day would be perfect.

I've been loving doing tags again at the minute so forgive me for another one. I will do something different for next time I promise. I've combined a clock with my love of Dandelion clocks too. I don't own any clock stamps, something that will have to be put right, so I printed this clock face from the internet and stuck it on the tag and then inked over it to look a bit like the moon.


The background was done with various colourbox pigment inks and the stamp is a Bella Panel from Stamptivity stamped in Brilliance graphite black. I always have trouble getting a dense black image with these stamps so touched up with a bit of the ink afterwards and I've noticed the image looks a bit patchy. Something to get right next time.

A few stickles were added to the stars and some foliage from the same stamp set around the edge to finish things off.

Thanks for stopping by and if it's back to school tomorrow after half term, I hope it's not too bad. We have one more day to go. A Training Day has been tagged on.

Another Little Tag

Hi there all you lovely Bloggers. I hope your week is going well and if you're on half term it's not been too stressful!!

We have had a lovely week so far, going out twice for lunch and catching up with friends and family. There has also been some crafting done too, so no complaints from me!!

The theme for By The Cute and Girly challenge this month is Love, and while making my last tag I didn't like the first background I made but instead of binning it I decided to have another look at it and came up with this.


It has a look of Love although it doesn't actually say it anywhere and I do have a love of any kinds of roses, not just red ones so I hope it qualifies.

Thank you for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your week.

Love Is All Around

Happy Valentine's Day to you. No matter what you are doing or whether you are sharing it with someone or not, I hope you have a lovely day.

The theme for this week's Tuesday Taggers challenge is "Love Is All Around" and they have a lovely prize from The Craft Emporium so I thought I would do a tag using all the things I have been playing with this week.


The heart is triple embossed using Blue Maroon Aurora Cosmic Shimmer EP and Gold Lustre just dropped into it while still hot. Don't ask me whose stamp it is, it's one I found at the bottom of my box and doesn't have a name on.


The swirls were those QVC foam swirls again. I can't get enough of them and the letters were cut on my new Slice, which I'm still getting the hang of. I stuck silver gems on to provide a bit of bling and then made some paper beads, which I have discovered this week and are now being put on everything I do!!! They are very simple and don't cost anything, an added bonus. I would be happy to provide instructions if anyone is interested.

It's not a pretty, pretty tag, but I was making a card for my Hubby at the time and think I've got into the habit of thinking from a male perspective and not being girly!!

Before I go, I must just apologise for my lack of blog visiting this week. I have been a very poor blogging buddy and will try and get round all your lovely blogs and see what you've been creating in the next day or so. I'm so aware that you are visiting me and leaving such wonderful comments and I love reading them and feel guilty when I don't return the compliment.

Thank you, as always, for stopping by.

Adding Swirls

Hello everyone out in Blogland and I hope, if your suffering from yet more snow this week, it is not causing too many problems for you and you are staying safe and warm.

It has been a beautiful day here, gorgeous blue skies and sunshine, although cold. Lets hope it lasts for next week and half term for those of you that are on holiday from school!!

I've had a lot of thank you and just general thinking of you cards to make recently and I think Kay Carley's Funky Flowers are great for that. They fit any occasion and so have been getting a lot of use.


I made a first batch up, which were just stamped onto a label Nestie and coloured with a glitter gel pen and water brushed with inked edges to soften them. The image was then matted onto some Artylicious BP which had been punched with a Martha Stewart border punch.

After I'd finished the first lot, I was admiring Kay's cards on her own blog where she'd been using the same stamps and she'd under stamped the image with swirls as she always does and it looked just beautiful. She generously gave me permission to try out the same idea and although mine is nowhere near as good as Kay's, (I need to learn not to be so heavy handed), it's interesting to see how it makes the same image, coloured in the same way, look different.


I'd be interested to know what you think, or do you do something else around your edges.

Thank you, as always, for stopping by. All the cards are now done and sent out so I can get back to being messy and just playing again.

Lovely Grungeboard

Another Monday and guess what, it's cold and wintery yet again!!! Still I'm not complaining, I've had a lovely crafty day indoors keeping warm.

I hope your weekend was good, don't they go fast? We spent Saturday bicycle shopping. Freya has suddenly taken to cycling. She's had a bike since she was small but been more of a scooter girl. Anyway, now she's decided she prefers her cycle it's far too small for her so we decided she needed a new one now rather than waiting for her Birthday later in the year. Success was had and while we were chatting to the man in the shop , both Hubby and I commented on the fact that we'd had our first bikes from the same shop when we were small. Laughing the man said he'd probably sold them to us as he'd been working there for 40 years!!!! Funny how life goes round in a circle. I bet there's not many places were that would happen nowadays.

As some of you may know I decided this year that I would try and make more practical things when crafting instead of numerous cards that just sat in a box and so today I'm sharing another creation with you.

I had a new mobile phone for Christmas but needed a case for it to protect it from all the rubbish in my handbag. After trawling the internet I couldn't find one that I really liked and then had a brainwave. Why not make one out of grungeboard!!!! It's like leather anyway and any excuse to use it, I love it to bits!!


This is what I came up with and it does work!!!!

I worked out the pieces I needed to cut out from looking at the cases I'd seen and used my phone as a template. After each piece was cut out I painted them with pale blue acrylic paint and then brushed this over with white paint on a very dry brush to get some texture.


The flower stamp is from Prima and was stamped with pearlescent sky blue brilliance and clear embossed and then painted with Cosmic Shimmer mica powders by adding water to them.


I punched all the stitching holes with a pokey tool and then sewed it all together with Martha Stewart cord. Some time later and with sore fingers I attached a magnet and brad to the flap to create a fastener, covered it with a bit of decoration and hey presto, one cover.

It's not as perfect as a bought one, but I shall use it with pride.

Well, I need to go and cook tea now so I'll just say thank for stopping by and I hope your Monday has gone well. Keep warm if you're visiting from the UK, if not and you've got warm sunshine, please send some our way, we are in desperate need!

Moving

Just when you think it's safe to utter that "Spring" word, back comes the snow and the cold. What a difference a few days make. We've had snow, not much admittedly, but enough to provide a covering for the last two days and today it's thick fog, real stay inside weather! I hope it's brighter in your little part of Blogland today.

I've eventually finished my card for Brenda's challenge over on Floral Fantasies where she has a wonderful prize from Sir Stampalot. If you haven't already had a peek , it's well worth checking out.

The theme is Moving so I have done a Welcome to Your New Home card for my eldest Nephew who is moving into his first home next week!


It's very difficult to get a decent picture so I hope you'll bear with me.

I found a photo of a door on the internet and then photoshopped it to look like a painting and cut it so that the door actually opened. The greeting was done on the computer and a Crafty Individuals keyhole stamped on top. It was then matted behind the open door. I added glossy accents to the door and some mini gems for the handles.


The Crafty Individuals key was stamped onto grungeboard and cut out, easier said than done, and silver embossed. I rubbed black archival ink over the top just to dull the shine a bit. This was then hung on the wall from a brad.


It was all mounted onto a card that had been rubbed all over with a brown colourbox ink and the Heidi Grace swirl added as a finishing touch in the same blue as the little flower that was originally in the photo.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope your week is going well so far. I can't believe it's Thursday already!!

Sunny Days

Hello from a very sunny corner of Yorkshire. I hope the weather is as gorgeous for you as it has been for us all weekend. Unbroken sunshine and clear blue skies, although cold, but it feels like spring is not far away!!

Thank you all so much for your warm and wonderful Birthday wishes, they made my week. I get the distinct feeling that being 40 is highly recommended which has made me feel tons better and I shall grasp this decade with both hands and enjoy it!!

I need to get back into the swing of all the challenges that are out there, but at the moment have just been enjoying playing with some of the new things I've had recently so I thought I'd share a card with you that I made after playing with my alcohol inks.


I sponged stream and denim inks onto acetate and then stamped the swirls (Creative Expressions) with Graphite black brilliance and left to dry (although not long enough because I still smudged it-duh!!). It was then mounted on silver mirricard which reflects the inks beautifully.

The flower was a Sissix Daisy die and the greeting from Kay Carley. I also stamped the background card with the QVC foam swirls.

Well, the craft table beckons so I'll just say thank you for stopping by and I hope your Monday is going well.