Monday, 30 June 2008

My Blog Award





WOW Thankyou Jane for my Award !what a lovely suprise
Here are the rules if you would like to give an award:

(1) The winner can put the logo on her blog.

(2) Link the person you received your award from.

(3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

(4) Put links of those blogs on yours.


(5) Leave a message on the blogs of the girls you've nominated.


I am nominating these ladies ! they deserve it for all the lovely creations and pleasure they give me !

June
Holly
Daisy
Julia
Dee
Rita
Linda B

Saturday, 28 June 2008

Diamond Wedding Card

Todays task was a Diamond Wedding card........This is where my cuttlebug machine came into its own,i really enjoyed playing around with colours,designing with butterflies,flowers and backgrounds.

First i decided to have the main colours silver and lilac,and keep these colours going through the theme,with a deep purple layering for the outside edge of the layer's.

I proceeded to do all my diecuts first using,my flower and butterfly embossing folders,and just one diecut for the shadowing the butterflies...........

I dont know what you call this fold i did for the actual card,maybe concertina,so using silver card for this,then layering silver and lilac panels on the inside as well ,I then layered the flower embossed lilac piece on the inside at an angle,to attach the poem.

On the front outside panel,which is layered the same,I attached the butterflies,oops forgot to say I embossed this panel with a embossing board. In the center I stuck two large faux diamonds in between the lilac silk flowers,they dont show up to good here,but look very impressive haha.

The hardest part was making a box to put this card in,but managed fine with my boxmaker,I bought recently, from Crafters Companion, its the Top Score multiboard.

There is a saying a "workman is only as good as the tools he uses",or something like that,Its sooooo true.other than pulling it all together design wise lol.

Saturday, 7 June 2008

Poppies Stamped !

One of my favorite rubber stamps,just had to try this one out !
Using red cardstock and folded it gateways(like an opening in the middle)
I made the background of the poppy panels with my homemade inks,vintage colours,sprayed with gold so it sparkles.
Then layered up, stamped the poppy image onto that,then using some square silver card i had already.... stamped the butterflies onto same background as poppies,cut out and just stuck the middle of them so the wings stand up.
used peeloff's round edges of the red card.
The middle part i punched holes and used little hole'd stud's forget the name of them.
i shall change the black ribbon with red chiffon when i find some lol.
I dont know whether it works,but i enjoyed creating it !

Saturday, 31 May 2008

Keepsake Embossing Boards

My blog today is about Keepsake embossing Boards .......You must try the Glitter Girls Keepsake boards,its opened a whole new dimension in cardmaking for me,and I love playing around making new designs with them.

This one above is my latest board called Tall Stories,the butterflies are done with my cuttlebug machine, layered up,then with accent beads through the middle,i just love butterflies,they mean "love" so someone told me.so makes sense to put on cards to send to people you love.
The rose background paper on this card was printed off from one of my many CD's proberly a Joanna Sheene one,i really admire this lady a true artist,and lovely personality.

So not much to tell you about how i made this,so quick and easy,its just thinking up the ideas,which is the fun part of any cardmaking and Artwork.Also i,m lucky enough to have horded all this craft stuff,collected over the years,i just need a bigger flat haha.Its just so addictive and getting to the stage where i must not walk into a craft shop,or Ebay ! lol

When i think about crafting,its not really about what craft stuff you have,although it helps to have all this fancy latest state of the art machines etc........you can create or recycle bits with some imagination,which i have done in the past............ i,m just addicted to trying everything out that comes onto the market !Being retired helps it all keeps me occupied,so i do count myself lucky in that way.

Hope you enjoyed looking,that makes it all worth while.

Thursday, 29 May 2008

Altered Art

Altered Book
I love to alter books,i suppose you can call it recycling,as i pick them up in charity shops.
The picture is one i have just started,it was a childs board book,quite small and not many pages.
The inside pages i stick together to make them thicker,then use a number of techniques throughout the book,including,Gesso,torn pages,pockets,tags,braids,lace buttons etc,whatever the theme dictates to me.
I just love it as i can use up all my bits and piece's and recycle more of my stash lol.
This picture is of the cover,i found the emblem in a Maltese craft store,which is made of chipboard,and thought ahhhhh i can use that !
So to start i stuck it on with a good strong glue,then decided to do a Acrylic landscape all over the cover, back and front,acrylics dry quick,which helps,so i can get on and do the inside pages now !
Checkout

Wednesday, 28 May 2008

An Inky day !






Stampbord




Today i,m covered in ink !I decided to make some backgrounds and try out Stampbord,the only way to do it was use inks,I only heard about Stampbord this year,and bought some ATC size a few months back,it takes ink well and you can scrape out highlights,or if you muck it up sand it down and start again which is good !




The top background is just a try out,but the colours are so vibrant using inks I decided to bring them out even more using Dimensional Magic.But before doing that i stamped an oriental fan onto the dried ink's.

The other backgrounds above are using mica powder (Perfect Pearls) sprayed with my homemade ink and some gold,the pic does not do it justice,in real life its very sparkly and shimmers.
Same thing with the blue one only i dabbed a paper towel on top to give a pattern
Give it a try! if you dont mind getting messy haha.










Monday, 19 May 2008

Shrink Plastic

Shrink Plastic on ATC
Blogging today about shrink plastic,loveeeeeee it !
It can be a bit tricky,especially large pieces,i wont go into explaining how to do it as the instructions are on the packet,i use a hotgun rather than heating up the oven for this.
On this ATC i decided to show how much smaller it shrinks to the original rubber stamp,as you see the large image is background the shrink'd piece forground.using the same stamp.
You dont have to use rubber stamps with this,so many possibilities with your own artwork.
You can colour/paint the image before shrinking,but i chose black and white for my theme.
Its an amazing technique to try.......enjoy !

Wednesday, 14 May 2008

Oriental


Oriental
My one passion is anything oriental,i hear it is quite popular at the moment,so thought i would do todays blog about the above card,which is a bit more complex than the norm.
For some reason Oriental Art is depicted by certain colours,i dont know why,but it certainly works !
Those colours being,black red and golds......
But i have tried using different colours with this card to see if it works.
I started off with black card stock as my base,then stamped my oriental lady onto beige paper with black ink pad,then tore the edges which i bordered with gold Krylon pen.
Next i cut a circle and stamped the same image into it on black card,this image i coloured in with paints,then used Dimensional Magic to make a hard glass like surface,this bought the colours out beautifully !
Last embellishing with a gold dragonfly charm.
Hope you enjoy the effect i was quite pleased with this,not so rich as reds and golds though.

Saturday, 26 April 2008

Inked Backgrounds





Ink it up!

Backgrounds for cards are normally easy you can find them just about anywhere, example=downloadable printables,CD.s,wallpaper,the list goes on,even wrapping papers,but i dont like easy :))

I love to make my own with inks/acrylics/crumpled Paper/Stamping/Chalk's,another list that goes on,but its all down to the Art and your imagination !
These two example pictures at the top are created withAdirondack Alcohol ink,i am now making my own inks with Dylon clothing Dye's,just to see if i can haha,it works for me !


I start off with some pieces of Glossy card stock or photo paper,Then proceed to drop the ink onto the paper or sprinkle different colours then rotatethe paper/card,so the ink runs in different directions,as i go, i may drop in some more,WOW so exciting to watch as the colours intermingle with each other,its just amazing,i get a real buzz !
i could spend a day just making backgrounds,then stash them away,for the next card creation or ATC's.
Checkout

http://artygirlzchallengeblog.blogspot.com/






Friday, 25 April 2008

Silhouette Card

Silhouette Card
Another one of todays efforts !
Just layered and Stamped
The oval was made with my keepsake board.


Cuttlebug Embossing

Cuttlebug Embossing

This is my daily creation

Everyday i try to create something,so today as i had a new cuttlebug embossing folder i thought i would give it a try.

The background on silver mirror card is embossed with my new toy....very pleased so many lovely backgrounds i can make with this !

I layered it up with same onto lilac vellum then made the flower with vellum this was embossed with a Keepsake board then cut out,flower added.

A simple quick card,if you have the right tools !

The tiny flowers are done with a punch then fixed on with brads.

Monday, 14 April 2008

Pocket Cards





This pocket has just a pullout card with verse for a Birthday inside
ribbons attached to pull.