Altered Book

I finally finished my first altered book which I made for Sara, a lovely lady who runs the Time for Crafting website and inspires so many people. It's OK for me to put the pictures up now as I sent the book to her a week or so ago so I won't be spoiling any surprises, lol.
I really enjoyed working on it and pretty much let the design of it flow along as I went. I can't wait to start work on the next one now. I plan to put drawers in it to put little keepsakes in so fingers crossed it will work for me. I just need to look out for a suitable book to alter. Hardbacks are good, preferably ones without glossy covers. I feel a trip to a second-hand bookshop coming on :)

Backgrounds

I was fiddling around the other day with trying to make a background - not for anything in particular, just for the fun of it. I used a gothic arch shape simply because it was to hand at the time and was really pleased with the outcome. Its made by stamping the images randomly over the surface in two different colours, then I rubbed it all over with a cotton wool ball dabbed onto a very light brown ink pad to give it an aged look and to take away the white of the card. Next I stamped the wording in dark brown and rubbed the ink pad round the edge of the arch. All in all I was very pleased with the effect. I didn't want to use the arch for anything but thought the effect would be great for a card so I did it again on a birthday card for my Dad which I will give to him tomorrow - his birthday was actually a couple of days ago but I forgot !!! Oooops !!!

Gothic Arch Challenge

This weeks challenge was 'Grunge'. Not something I'm used to doing so this made it a real challenge for me. I used some fine, corrugated card from the inside of a cracker packet for the background which I dabbed over with some Adirondak Paint Dabbers. It was too dark for my plan so I 'lightened' it up by covering it with a layer of tissue paper which did the trick! Next I used some of Tim Holtz' grungeboard shapes for the door hinges and the skull image which I painted with the dabbers again, highlighting them with some gold also. The wording was inspired by one of my son's books on Pirates which I thought went well with the image I chose, lol. All in all, I am quite pleased with my arch, the first I've done in a while now and can't wait for next Sunday for the next challenge now!

Beautiful Morning

It was such a beautiful morning with a wonderful frost clinging to all the trees and plant that I just had to rush out and take photo's. Here is one of the willow tree in our garden which looked just beautiful :)

Where shall I start?

Oh my! Where shall I start? I have so many projects I want to start on that I don't know where to start, lol. I've got some ATC's to start (and finish!), a load of projects I want to do from the Feb edition of Craft Stamper magazine, a very special something I am making for a friend who runs a craft website and forum and puts soooo much work into it I thought she needed a 'thank you' which needs finishing (nearly done) and I am trying to start a Circle Journal with some of the people from the Time for Crafting forum - not much to be doing then!!! I have also just signed up again with the lovely Gothic Arch people so will be making those again too.
So ..... instead of typing away on here I ought to be getting on with making something!
Watch this space!

Christmas is coming!

Well, I finally finished making all my Christmas cards and got them in the post! What a marathon that was but I did enjoy it all the same. Lets just hope that the recipients like their cards.

If you've never checked out the Time for Crafting website (http://www.timeforcrafting.co.uk/) then I suggest you give it a look. Sara has created a fantastic website for crafty people and we also have an online magazine which you have to subscribe to but it is very reasonable and you get some great templates and inspiration.

This is a card I made for my recently married cousin and her husband for their first christmas together. I used the template from TFC and cut it on my Craftrobo (Sara provides both craft robo and ordinary pdf templates). It is a beautiful concertina card and in real life is very sparkly but it is difficult to see on the photo. I put it through my cuttlebug to get the snowflake embossing and then swiped it all over with versamark and then sprinkled holographic embossing powder over it and heated to get the twinkly, snowy effect which came out quite well, you may be able to see it a bit better on the second photo. I added a bit of interest using my gorgeous Lumiere paints and then some blue glitter glue on the top edges of the letters.




I have no idea when I shall get to post again but I am aiming to start putting something on here at least once a week when we get into 2009 - time permitting, lol :) In the meantime, I wish you and yours

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

What we've been doing in the garden this weekend

This weekend we have been hard at work in the garden re-vamping the pond area which had got very overgrown and untidy. I have posted several pics of the work as it progressed and it's amazing to think we did all of this in one day - I would add that besides me and hubby, we had help from my parents and a man with a digger! When it's completely finished there will be a lovely herbacious border, a gravel garden and two new seating areas. Big thanks to my mum who designed the plans for the work and bought me some lovely plants to start off with :)

There are of course loads more pics but I didn't was to bore you with them all, lol.

I've been busy again!

First here are a couple of cards I made recently, the first was for my Uncle's birthday and is on cream card and DL sized. I used a lovely Judikins four-sided stamp called Kew Gardens which came from a friend on the Time for Crafting Forum. I stamped the images with Timber Brown Staz-on and then watercoloured the images. I used brown ribbon behind them and a small green ribbon bow in the corner. The sentiment is a rub-on.


This card wasn't made for anyone in particular, I was just experimenting with colour tinting textured card and layering rubber stamp images. I quite like the effect and it could be used for any number of occasions so this is one for my card storage box!

Because I now have so many ATC's I decided to make a storage box for them from an old cereal packet cut down and covered with pretty papers. All I had to do was make a lid for it!

Finally I just couldn't resist having another play with the stampbord and lumiere paints, this is a tiny piece just 1" square but I thought it would make a lovely hanging charm on a card or ATC.

More Stampbord

I have done another couple of pieces of stampbord. For the orangy coloured one I used shades of yellow and orange inkpads, stamped a flower design on it with black versafine ink and then heat embossed the top with clear embossing powder. On the blue one I used a combination of blue inks and blue lumiere paint which I stamped with a thistle design in black versafine again but this time I glazed it with crystal lacquer. I think I will probably either use these as toppers on cards or for atc's.

Stampbord

Woohooooooooooooooooo!

I love stampbord, it's so great! Just got a pack of assorted shapes and had my first play and its great - I stamped a butterfly image onto 4 small 1" square pieces and then clear embossed them, now i have 4 pieces each with a piece of the butterfly on, a bit like a very simple puzzle really. I plan to use them on an atc (or maybe another altered puzzle piece) and will post it up on here when I have finished it.