Where does the time go to. The start of the new academic year is always busy, long days, late nights and little time for crafting. Over the past few weeks I’ve managed to make just one card, which I'm not sure about so holding on to that one for now to see if I make changes. I decided this weekend to take a break from it and met up with some like minded friends for a crafting session. I didn’t really have a project in mind, though I know Ive got several birthdays coming up that I need to get organised for, but just to meet up and chat is always good. As crafting got underway, I decided to make paper flowers as a way of relaxing and set about stamping assorted size flowers onto pink patterned paper. Once stamped, the flowers were cut out, shaped and layered to give depth. I arranged the flowers and leaves onto a backing paper and as a finishing touch, used a Dreamweaver stencil and embossing paste to make the sentiment.

Sunday Morning Blues

 

I was up bright and early with the birds this morning and its turning out to be another sunny day. As I laid out some materials for crafting, I realised I really do need to invest in some larger embossing folders. When starting out cardmaking the thought of doing a large card didn’t even cross my mind and I made lots of small cards, mainly using the free kits from crafting magazines following the designs step by step. As interest grew, so did the size of card and I mostly now use 8x8. I only have two embossing folders that can fill that size and one I don’t actually like all that much so I tend to use the same background over and over again. Being limited as I am, I still used the folder but tried to break away from using it just as a square background.

Todays card was made using an Embossalicious folder Regency Swirls, Martha Stewart Cosmos Punch and Marianne Design Frame and Swirl. I tinted the background, flowers, frame and swirls with Shaded Lilac Distress Ink.

 

 

 

Slip Sliding Away

Was a busy week last week with not much time for crafting, which also meant no blogging, but I managed to make a little something over the weekend. I often find when buying themed paper packs that there are papers that just end up at the bottom of the paper pile either because the colours are too bold or I just don’t know what to do with the patterns. I am challenging myself now not to buy any more papers but to try to be a little more experimental with the papers I have.

This weekend, I dug out papers from the Mariposa Paper Stack which I bought about a year ago in a sale. I have used some papers to cover drawer fronts, and I gave some papers to a friend, but I decided to use them to make a sliding card. This technique was something I haven't tried before but thought I would give it a go. I made a few mistakes when making the card, like cutting the slot too big, but I managed to rescue it. I also used some old Christmas papers to make a second card.

Butterfly Magic

Woke up to glorious sunshine of this Bank Holiday Monday. Too nice to stay indoors so crafting was short and sweet this morning. Today I used Butterfly Magic – an expandable die from Spellbinders, though I only used it for one straight forward cut. It can be a bit fiddly to line up when expanding and it doesn’t cut out all the segments attached to the outline, so you have to go around these parts with a craft knife, but it is a lovely die.  I also used Marianne Design Ribbon 1 and Memory Box Woven Circle.

On your [Pro] Mark [ers]... [Letra] Set...Go!

Today was a day for stamping and colouring. I haven't coloured for quite a while, and by my own admission I'm not very good at stamping so tend not to do much of this.

I started going through the various stamps and settled on scribbled roses. No idea who made them as I no longer have the packaging, but they can look quite good.

Once I had stamped the images, all that was left was to simply relax and colour away…

 

Destressing by Distressing

I was up and about early today with all the shopping done and in the cupboards and fridge by 10:00 am. Then came the dilemma…do I clean or do I craft. I compromised and decided on a bit of cleaning first followed by a bit of crafting. Defies logic really to clean up before making a mess, but at least it would be done for the weekend.

Having tidied and vacuumed, I had a mooch in my craft stash whilst I thought about what I wanted to do. I decided to make a card using some of my flower dies. I like making cards with flowers and butterflies.

I laid out the flower dies and made a selection of a few of the smaller dies. After choosing  an Embossalicious embossing folder (Regency Swirls) a distress ink pad and sentiment, I was all set to go!

On a Wing and a Brayer

They say there is no rest for the wicked…where on earth did such a saying come from; I can’t rest, but am definitely not wicked! I had such a busy day yesterday which started with a  12 hour shift at work, followed by picking my  son up from work who was also on a late shift and needed a lift home due to lack of public transport. Came home and had a quick shower before cooking us something to eat and then rather than being tired, I was fully wired and couldn't switch off. Times like that I tend to get out the craft. I decided to make cards using the brayer for my admin support team who have done a great job throughout the last academic year. For anyone who has tried brayering, you know how frustrating it can be but also how relaxing it can be. Frustration comes from sometimes not finding quite the right card, but having recently stocked up on Clarity Silk Card, I was good to go.

 I started by gathering all my resources together in one place. I masked off a section of the card as I wanted a white border, and then punched a circle from post it notes.

When I first used a roller I was heavy handed to say the least, it took me a long time to realise I wasn’t rolling the flat walls but eventually I figured out it needed a lighter touch. Another learning curve was starting and finishing off the page. I prefer to brayer over a stamped image rather than add the images later, simply because I'm not too good with stamps and I prefer to mess up at the start of a project, rather than at the end.

For this card, I stamped the image from the Indigo-Blu Wild Meadow stamp set with Staz-On Jet Black and used Adirondack Stonewash on the brayer working diagonally across the card. Once I removed the masking tape, I covered the image with a posit it and added a little colour to one corner and stamped over using first and second generation stamping using a small branch from one of the Majestix stamp sets. To finish, I stamped the sentiment........job done!

All that was left was to mat and layer the image onto a piece of white card.

Keeping It Simple

Well its day two of my blog and after having a lazy start the day, I decided to spend a little bit of time crafting before the day is over and I’ve done nothing at all. I’ve spent a couple of weeks now trying to organise my ‘stuff’ as I’ve noticed I’m losing things, like my lovely TatteredLace ‘Happy Birthday’ sentiment. 

My dies were stored in a plastic box on magnetic sheets, but I’ve now started to organise them into binders, with themed pages.

Today I decided to go for an easy card and set about laying out the items on my craft table. I am not as lucky as some and don’t have a dedicated craft space. I tend to have to work on a small coffee table in the lounge; not perfect but I get the job done.

I started by die cutting all the pieces that I would need; a scalloped circle from silver mirror card, a white circle, flowers and leaves from the Spellbinders Bitty Blossom collection, a Marianne Butterfly3 and Cuttlebug Polka Dot embossing folder. I then punched the edges of a piece of spotty card using Martha StewartDouble Loop Border Punch. 

Once everything was cut, it was just a case of rolling up the flowers and shaping a little with tweezers, embossing the white circle of card and then gluing everything in place using my trusty Collall glue. As a last minute thing, I added two flourishes from silver card and a single white feather. I'll add a sentiment later...maybe...

 

From Small Beginnings

It all started with the smallest stamp I've ever used in my life! For those of you who are adept at making stunning imagery with Card-io Majestix stamps, I applaud you. I have seen many a small stamp and have often received these as ‘freebies’ on craft magazines, but I've never know what to do with them. I then saw a demo at a craft show using Majestix stamps and all I could say was ‘WOW’. Needless to say, I bought a stamp set; like most crafters, I see something new and I've just got to try it. Well I got home and tried stamping a lovely flower wreath, try being the operative word and I use the word circle very loosely! Anyway, to cut a long story short, the circle didn't work too well (I will need a lot more practice) so I practised stamping on a piece of scrap card. I was quite happy with the result so decided to add the ‘scrap’ card to a larger card, I added an embossed piece of card, some flowers and leaves, stamped a ribbon, added ‘Happy Birthday’ and well….here was the result.'

Keep Calm and Craft On

So what do you do when you are having a bad day where nothing is going right. You keep calm, get out your craft and lose yourself in a world that only crafters understand.