Steampunk rodent ....

...  I've finally completed my card for this week's challenge at Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge - WMSC65.  I think the sketch this week is fabulous - drawn by Anya Schrier.

I've taken one liberty with the sketch - I turned it upside down so that the flourish edge is at the top of my card.  I've had a go at the steampunk theme - very loosely this is the anachronistic use of technological elements in Victorian (usually) times.  However, in my case it is more the mixing of grungy elements with fashion, flying and time.  I'm actually really pleased with how it turned out!  Let me know what you think!

I used Spellbinders Labels 20 to make the flourish element at the top of the card.  All the papers come from a coordinating set; I selected papers that had a subtle pattern but would allow stamped images to show up clearly.  I have used a number of different stamp sets - the dress and sentiment are from Waltzingmouse, there are several sets that came free with Craft Stamper and one set - the wings - that I got from a local shop, but sadly have lost the details of the company. 

To make the dress I stamped the image twice - once onto some plain white card and I coloured the decolletage area grey - like a robot!  The second image was stamped onto some crumpled paper - to give texture.  I cut another mat using Labels 20 - black satin onto which I attached some patterned vellum.  The wings were stamped, embossed and fussy cut!  The dress decoration are real little watch cogs!

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse - You're Lovely, Big Day Additions. Off Beat Backgrounds; Free from Craft Stamper - Tempus Fugit, Hot Air Balloons, Chandelier; See D's - Vintage (little pocket watch); Wings & Crown - don't know the company
Inks: Distress - Victorian Velvet, Aged Mahogany; Stampin' Up! - Regal Rose; Memento - Tuxedo Black; Versafine - Onyx Black
Spellbinders: Labels Twenty (S5-026) # 4 and 5
Paper:  Papermania - Inspirations Warm Tones
Accessories:  Martha Stewart punch; ribbon, clear embossing powder and card - from stash; Watch cogs free from local jeweller

Below is a close up of the dress - showing the crumpled finish and the little cogs - they are so tiny, but I think they really do give the feeling of "steampunk"!!

Kathryn saw the card this morning, she picked it up and ran away with it!!  She told me that it's gorgeous and she wants to keep it.  The sentiment I stamped is "Best Wishes" - I adore the font Claire used in the Big Day stamps - but there isn't one saying "Happy Birthday" - which is what I wanted, so I used this one.  I think it would make a super birthday card for a teenage girl!

Now, I can't put it off any longer - I HAVE GOT to do the ironing!!  So I don't think I'll be around again today!  See you soon.

Edited:  I've just realised this card uses the CR84FN38 colours of pink, black and grey - they must have been on my mind - but they work on this card!!

OLW - sentiment-a-mania ....

... this week's OLW challenge is being hosted by Jennifer at Styles Ink - OLW65 - Sentiment-a-mania - Jennifer would like us to make a one layer card with the focus on the sentiment, or at least must share the focus equally with any image!  I really like this idea - I do have a number of rather lovely sentiment/verse stamps, but I don't seem to use them as much as I should - so here goes.

I've kept the card really simple - the verse is an Irish Blessing - it's just gorgeous.  Stamped in green!!

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse - Celtic Heritage, Irish Blessings
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Garden Green (verse), Memento - Bamboo Leaves - images
Accessories:  Card from stash

The card is reasonably small, just 4" × 4" and has a subtle texture to it.  It's a simple card, but it took ages to decide where to put everything - I've got a pile of cheap paper in the bin - all with layouts that didn't quite work! 

And I'm also going to submit this to Less is More - LIM33 - Anything CAS Goes 1,000 challenge - at the time of typing this there are 545 entries.  The deadline for LIM is 10pm on Friday 23rd October - so there's still time to get some cards made for this challenge - but I'm not sure whether it's going to reach 1,000 entries!!  But this is one more for now! 

Before I sign off for the evening - I must share with you the lovely card that I got from Gay (Mustavecoffee) - it arrived today.  Gay won my Blogoversary Candy earlier this month - and she made me a super card - the birds are so sweet!  Oh yes, Gay was also kind enough to enclose a little pack stuffed with goodies - which will appear soon!

Thanks Gay - this is lovely!

And that's all for now - I'm off to play in my craft room - still have to finish Kathryn's thank you cards, and play with a couple of challenges too.  See you tomorrow!

Lola in red ....

... this is just a quickie - with one last card for this week's Jingle Belles - JB38 challenge to use a digi image in the card design.  It's another card featuring the ever lovely Lola Rose from Pink Petticoat.  Sadly, this image is not available any longer, but I do like Lola in a red Santa type dress!!!  There are some super new images of Lola Rose - so I may have to add to my collection :)

Image: Pink Petticoat
Stamps:  Waltzingmouse:  Say It Loud, Say It Loud - Winter Holiday (got mine this afternoon - it's fab!)
Inks:  Memento - Tuxedo Black
Spellbinders: Scalloped Rectangles Sm (S4-131) # 5, Rectangles Sm (S4-130) # 5
Accessories: Gold pen, patterned paper from scrap box, Promarkers, Sakura glaze pens, glitter

I'm not entirely happy with this card as I slipped a bit when added the gold border to the image - but I want to try and get Chrissie and Mandi up to the 1,000 target - so I've decided to share it with you anyway!

That's all for today - I think that's probably enough for today.  See you all tomorrow!

Lola Rose Christmas ....

... I've been on a roll this afternoon - here's another Christmas card featuring a digi image for this week's Jingle Belles - JB38 challenge.  I've kept the design really quite clean and simple as it's another towards Chrissie and Mandi's Less is More - LIM33 - Anything Goes 1,000 challenge.  At the time of typing this post there are 401 entries - almost half way to their target of 1,000 entries for the week.  There's still time to join in!

The image is from Pink Petticoat - who make some really lovely digital images and papers.  Sadly, this image of Lola Rose at Christmas is no longer available - but it is such a fun image.  I decided that Lola would be dressed reasonably casually in jeans and blue t-shirt - both coloured with promarkers.  The stars, baubles, handbag and present have been coloured with Sakura glaze pens - they have a lovely shine in real-life.  The backing paper is one of my digital papers from Pink Petticoat - I printed it onto some iridescent paper, which just about shows up in the photo!  The sentiment is from Craftwork Cards - edged with some silver!

Image: Pink Petticoat
Spellbinders:  Long Rectangles Scalloped Sm (S4-144) #4, Long Rectangles Sm (S4-145) #4
Accessories: Promarkers, Sakura glaze pens, card from stash

That's all - back soon!

A three in one card ...

...   CAS-ual Fridays - CFC20 have a super challenge this week - they want us to make mini clean and simple cards - well no bigger than 4" × 4".  I like smaller cards - so I made another today - this time I've gone with a Christmas theme using a digi image - which is the challenge at Jingle Belles - JB38.  And as it's reasonably clean and simple in design - I'm entering into the Less is More - LIM33 - Anything Goes Aim for 1,000 challenge.

My card is a 4" × 4" square - it's slightly creamy in colour and has a very subtle texture to it.  The image is from Pink Petticoat and I have had it for ages and ages - but I tend to forget about them.  So the Jingle Belles challenge was a good way to make me check out what I had.  I printed three images the same size.  I cut one out using my nesties and added colour with distress inks.  I used a gold marker pen around the edge to give a thin gold border.  I colour the cupcake case with a promarker and then cut out the frosting layer and added lots of glitter.  I also did a fussy cut on the holly leaves and berries - not easy - and coloured them with Sakura glaze pens.  I'm really pleased with this - nice to use the digi image too!

Image:  Pink Petticoat
Spellbinders:  Big Scalloped Ovals Lg (S-251) #4
Inks: Distress - Antique Linen
Accessories: Sakura glaze pens - red and green; crystal glitter, gold pen, card

It's turned out to be a lovely day here - the sun is shining and it's quite warm - so nice!!  See you later!

Busy ....

... hi - finally made it into my craft room about an hour ago.  It's been a fantastic weekend - Kathryn's party went off brilliantly.  I do have lots of photos to share - and I'll get them up later this week. 

I've got a card to share that covers three challenges:

• The Play Date Cafe Challenge - PDCC99 - colour
• CAS-ual Fridays - CFC20 - make a mini card, no larger than 4" × 4"
• Less is More - LIM33 - 1000 challenge - any theme you like so long as it's CAS

Chrissie and Mandi at Less Is More - have got more the 1000 followers and reached that number really quite quickly.  One of the LIMettes suggested that if we all entered a card to the challenge that Blogger might break!!!  So the challenge is to reach 1,000 submissions for this week's anything goes theme.  At the time of preparing this post - the are 324 entries - so a third of the way there!!  I hope to make another two or three cards for LIM33. 

This card was really quick to make - that's simply because the image is one that I printed out earlier this year.  The sweet flowers are from Pink Petticoat - who make some of the loveliest digi-images.  This one is an outline image and I simply coloured it in using Paint - pretty yellow flowers - bright and cheerful!  I had a rummage through my card stash and found this lovely pale lilac pearlescent card and used the gorgeous Fleur de Lis nestie to cut out a mat.  Simple, quick, easy - and very pretty!  The finished card measures 4" × 4".

Image:  Pink Petticoat (coloured on the computer in Paint)
Spellbinders: Fleur de Lis Squares (S4-318) #3
Accessories:  Card from stash

That's all for now - off to get Kathryn ready for her dance class.  We are now back to the normal routine of school, after school clubs and work - sort of nice too!!  See you later.

CR84FN38 - take two ...

.... it's week two for our gorgeous colours - bright pink, black and grey (silver) - I think these are such feminine and glamorous colours.  We already have lots of lovely entries - and there's still plenty of time to join in with CR84FN38.

The photos are courtesy of Leslie at A Creative Mint.  Last week I didn't have any stamping on my card at all - I've got a little on this week's card.  But I really enjoyed playing with the fabulous Kanban card from my stash - that I decided to use it again this time.  I covered the base card with some gorgeous silver grey vellum.  I used my nesties to cut the gorgeous Fleur de Lis square and black mat.  The 3D flower was made by stamping the image three times, embossing with clear powder and then painting the images with Twinkling H2Os, cutting and layering.  I added some little grey pearls to the top layer of the flower.  In my Kanban stash, I have a set of very large sentiments - so I thought I'd use one on the card.  I finished off with another little flower - again made up from Kanban die cuts.  A card full of bling!!

Stamps: Funstamps - 3D Flower4 (FF70)
Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black
Spellbinders: Fleur de Lis Squares (S4-318) #4; Standard Squares Lg (S4-126) #6
Accessories:  LLB - Vellum, Habico Pearls, Twinkling H2Os - Blushing Rose, Pewter; Clear embossing powder and card from stash

Our Guest Designer, Marie of Ink'd Wings, and some of the Design Team have also made cards to share with you - check them out!

Sue

Stephanie

Mona
 

That's all for today - I'm going to be very busy in the house - Kathryn is having her Birthday Party at home.  Lots of young "ladies" running around and having fun!  See you tomorrow!

Halloween Waltz - and Birthday wishes ...

.... it's 17th September and today is Kathryn's 10th birthday.  Kathryn brings light, laughter, love and a zest for living into our lives and occasionally a temper, tears and strop too!!  She's just wonderful.  Mind, I might be a bit biased here.  This is Kathryn's birthday card - I made it for the July Blog Waltz - Kathryn loved the card and so I've kept it hidden and given it to her today.

And 17th September is also the date for the September Blog Waltz - the theme this month is Halloween!!  If you want to join in with the fun click here to find out all the details.

I really enjoy Halloween, although we don't really DO Halloween in the way our friends in the States DO Halloween.  Things are changing a little though and the children in our village do enjoy going out to play Trick or Treat, and there are parties too.  So I've a really good reason to make Halloween cards now.

And I've another great reason to make Halloween cards this month - the current St Luke's Charity Card Challenge - Card Buffet has a super prize, donated by Claire Brennan - Wanda's Pantry.  To play in the challenge you must use four and only four of the following items, plus an image and sentiment.

Card Buffet
1. Patterned Paper	6. Flowers
2. Ribbon	7. Punches
3. Gems	8. Buttons
4. Pearls	9. Embossing
5. Charms	10. String

I've made two cards - well, I was having such fun and I just adore the stamps, the lovely bright colours and the papers!!   My first card has the following items from the Card Buffet:  Patterned paper (1), Ribbon (2), Punches/Die Cuts (7) and Embossing (9).

Stamps: Waltzingmouse - Wanda's Pantry, Midnight Feast
Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black
Spellbinders: Fleur de Lis Squares (S4-318) # 2 & 3; Standard Squares Sm (S4-128) #5
Accessories:  Halloween Papers by Jenny Pearce free with Making Cards; Embossing powder, ribbon and card from stash

My second card includes the following Card Buffet items: Patterned Paper (1), Gems (3), Punches/Die Cuts (7) and Embossing (9).  Wanda's boiling her cauldron and casting a spell - love the sparkles coming off the cauldron!!

Stamps: Waltzingmouse - Wanda's Pantry, Midnight Feast, Halloween Party
Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black; Memento - Tuxedo Black
Spellbinders: Labels 4 (S4-190) #5; Labels 4 Sm (S4-309) #6
Accessories: Halloween Papers by Jenny Pearce free with Making Cards; Gems, Black Sparkle embossing powder and card from stash

That's all for now - I'll try to get back to check out everyone's cards later today - in the meantime, we're off to celebrate Kathryn's 10th Birthday.  See you later!

OLW64 - Colour it ....

... this week's OLW64 challenge is being hosted by Susan at Simplicity.  Susan would like us to make a one layer card (obviously), stamp an outline image and colour it with the medium of our choice.  So many possibilities!!!

I decided to use this challenge to make another card for this year's Christmas Card Collection.  I'm doing really well on that front too - I've made well over 40 cards so far - which is excellent, as this time last year, I had none!!  I had a look through my Stamp Catalogue and settled on this lovely poinsettia.  Stamped using Memento ink and coloured with Promarkers - easy peasy.

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse - Big Blooms - Poinsettias, Very Vintage Christmas Stamps
Ink:  Memento - Tuxedo Black
Promarkers:  Poppy, Lipstick Red, Baby Pink, Lush Green, Emerald, Meadow Green, Cool Grey 1
Accessories:  Card from stash

Unfortunately, I noticed that the Promarkers have bled a little on this card.  The base card is a slightly more absorbent card stock than I usually use - so in future no colouring directly on this card!!! 

It's been an extremely busy day - and a very messy one too.  I've spent most of the day painting 11 double photo frames.  The frames are pine wood and needed to be rubbed down, to get rid of the sharp edges, and then painted with white acrylic so that they are ready for Kathryn and her friends to decorate on Sunday.  I ended up covered in little spots of white paint!!  Still the frames look quite good.  I'll give them one last coat of paint tomorrow and then the girls can go to town with gems, buttons, stamps, ribbon, glitter - as much bling as they'd like!! 

The postman has been working over time too - we had another two parcels delivered today - Kathryn's had a steady stream of parcels arriving for her - all safely tucked away until tomorrow morning when it will be mayhem!!  The good thing was that one of those parcels was for me - my new goodies from Stampin' Up! - sadly I won't be able to play with them until next week.

And that's all for now - I'm off back to my craft room to for a while.  Bye for now.

Back to school ....

... I've made this card for the current Ribbon Reel challenge - RR10 which has a Back to School theme.  The challenge was posted at the beginning of September and I've left it late with my card, but there is still time to play along.  The Ribbon Reel ladies provided a super inspiration photo, for colour, as well as the instruction to use school elements and some ribbon/twine.

I've been quite literal with the inspiration picture.  I made the card landscape and it's a blackboard - with a personal message to Kathryn.  She started back to school last week and has been away at Nant for the outward bound course this week, so I gave her the card this morning.  To make the "chalk" writing on the blackboard I simply wrote a message using my Versamark pen and embossed with detail white powder.  Works a treat!!  I found the sweet school buttons in my stash and added some twine to them.  The books are a bit of clip art that I found and cut cut out.  I stamped the beautiful fountain pen and coloured it with Promarkers - Kathryn is quite keen to have a fountain pen!!  She's absolutely delighted with her card.

Stamps:  Inkadinkadoo - Pens (93401X) - it's actually an image of three pens and I picked this one!
Inks:  Versamark Pen; Memento - Tuxedo Black
Promarkers:  Poppy, Gold
Accessories:  Clip art from Internet, buttons, twine, embossing powder and card from stash

That's all for now.  It's a bit mad in the house at the moment - getting ready for Kathryn's birthday party as well as having various maintenance jobs done in the house.  Now I'm off to finish painting the photo frames - more on that later :)  Have a great day.

Wordsmith ...

... I've made this card for three - yes THREE - challenges!!!  They are a sketch, technique and colour challenge - respectively:

• Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge - WMSC64 - designed by Anya Schrier
• Just Us Girls - JUGS101 - Technique
• Colour Q - cQc102

I suppose the inspiration for my card comes from two of the designer cards on Just us Girls - Dana and Pam - I love the WM words on Dana's card and I like the layout of words on Pam's - so I CASEd them both!!  Thanks ladies.  The colours from Colour Q this week are so bright and cheerful and I thought they were perfect for this challenge.  There are so many lovely ways to say congratulations and well done using Claire's lovely stamps and creating a background with text stamps is such a nice way to showcase those words - this was really fun to make.  It's going into my stash for the time being - I'm sure I'll find a suitable occasion for it!

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse - Say It Loud, Bitty Banners, Back in the Saddle, Teeny Trees, Vintage Banners, Say It with Style, Fancy Phrases, Earth Angel
Inks:  Stampin' Up! - Tempting Turquoise, Certainly Celery, Basic Grey; Memento - Tuxedo Black, Lady Bug (Poppy Parade)
Spellbinders:  Stars (S4-092) # 2 & 3; Nested Pennants (S5-028)
Accessories:  Stampin' Up! card - Tempting Turquoise, Poppy Parade and card from stash

I've not long got back from picking Kathryn up from school.  The children had a brilliant time at Nant - they all look so tired!!  I think it's going to be an early night for Kath.  And it's just lovely to have her home - hopefully I'll be able to share a few photos soon - the teachers took quite a few!! 

That's all for now.  Take care.  See you tomorrow!

Stamp catalogue ....

... I thought I'd show you how I keep track of my, many, stamps.  And how I store them too.  I've mentioned a couple of times that I have a Stamp Catalogue - well, it's actually two volumes now. 

I use ring binders, plastic folders and cheap copy paper.  All new stamps that I get - including those that come free with magazines - get inked up and stamped onto my cheap copy paper as the reference sheets.   








A photo showing a couple of pages from the Catalogue.  These are some of my Waltzingmouse sets.




When I first started the catalogue, I used the same colour ink for all the stamps, however, now I try to use different colours for each set and also draw section lines around the sets so that I can easily see what's in what set.  For example some recent sheets are:

You will notice that I've written on the reference sheet showing which box the sets are stored in.  So, for example, I want to use Tatty Ted - I go to Box 2.  Easy!!

The reference sheet below is one of my early catalogue pages and, unfortunately, the sets were not stamped in different colours - although I have sectioned off the different sets.

After stamping the reference sheets - I scan them all onto my computer.  Then I put the original stamped sheet into my Stamp Catalogue - so that I can see the actual size of the image and I put a copy of the reference sheet into the relevant box.  Describing it make it sound a bit complicated - but it's really easy.  This box contains just Waltzingmouse stamps - and you can see the copy sheets in the lid.

I store my stamps in "Really Useful" plastic boxes (see above) - the 4 litre size is perfect to take two layers of wood mounted stamps or lots and lots of clear acrylic stamps.

This storage system has evolved over the last six years, and it should be revised - but it's such a big job that I keep putting it off!!! 






That's all for now.  But do pop back later, I plan to spend some time in my craft room - some I can share with you later, but the bits I'm making for Kathryn's party will be a surprise for later this week!  See you soon.

Paper pumpkin ....

.... the challenge at CAS-ual Fridays - CFC19 - this week is really fun, they would like us to use paper piecing on our clean and simple fall (autumn to us in the UK) card.

To me autumn - or fall, if you prefer, is a time of plenty and fruitfulness - so it was reasonably easy to decide which set of stamps to use on my card.  The fun bit was selecting the papers to use and then cutting and sticking!!  Great fun!

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse - Peace and Plenty
Ink:  Memento - Tuxedo Black
Spellbinders: Fleur de Lis Squares (S4-318) #4, Standard Squares Lg (S4-126) #6
Accessories:  Papermania - Inspirations Earth Tones, Card from stash

I decided to use a sentiment for Thanksgiving as I think I'll be sending this to a friend of mine who lives in the States.

I've had the most wonderful morning in town - I feel like I'm walking on air - the massage has sorted out lots of kinks in my back!!   And the facial was heavenly.  And it is even warm and sunny - bliss!  That's all for today - see you tomorrow.

Jingle Belles ....

... this week's challenge at Jingle Belles - JB37 - is to make one of the following:

make a freestanding (2.5 x 3.5") Xmas-themed Artist Trading Card

OR

add an ATC-sized element to your holiday card

OR

incorporate a playing card into your design

OR

use a recycled Xmas card (or an element from

one!) on your (newly made) holiday card!

Initially, I thought of making a playing card using Sue's card as inspiration - it's a fabulous idea, but I just couldn't get it to work for me.  So I decided to make an ATC- sized element for my card instead. 

I cut a blank card to size - 2.5" × 3.5" - and then decorated with scraps from my drawer.  I found a lovely bit of paper with Christmas trees and snowflakes on it.  First I cut out the snowy sky out for the background and added some fantasy film which I ripped to make some snowy hills.   Then I cut out individual trees and stuck them randomly on the card.  I also found a scrap of plum vellum in my scrap box and cut out a fancy tag onto which I stamped the sentiment.  Finally I stamped a few additional snowflakes on the card and added some silver peel off snowflakes too.  I stamped some lovely winter flourishes onto the card base - using two different shades of purple to coordinate with the ATC-sized element!  Quite pleased with this one.

Stamps:  Kanban - Christmas selection
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Perfect Plum, Elegant Eggplant; Versamark; Stazon - Black
Spellbinders:  Fancy Tags (S4-235)
Accessories:  Clear embossing powder, peel offs, paper scraps and card from stash

That's all for now - I'm off for a facial this morning - sheer indulgence!!!  See you later.