Valentine

Went for vintage for Tag Tuesday's valentine challenge, its what I always think of when anyone mentions Valentines, they are all lace and ribbon and roses, I would love to get one of them, my husband does not "do" romance and has never sent me a valentine except for one time when my daughter got a whole box full of them free from a promotion job she did, as they were all the same I didn't get anymore after that!. Its a good job he does have other redeeming ways! The lace heart is an old Inca stamp stamped and embossed on vellum, the image and tickets are from Bella Creations, lace, ribbons and scrap paper from stash.Just adding this to another challenge  Craftyourdaysaway which is Love

Get your brain in gear !

Seem to be in a funny old mood tonight, I should be finishing some atcs for a swap but can't seem to settle to do them. Saw that TMTA challenge this week is steampunk which I love even if I can't do it very well ! This is me needing my brain winding up !

what next ?

Yesterday I had been looking around at what people had been doing for the Compedium of Curiosities challenge, I never have any of the stuff to do the challenges  so don't usually play,however I was feeling in an inky ,messy mood and remembered I had a full box of  memory glass squares so thought I'd have a play with them. I tried to colour them with  1. pro markers/copics  2. OHP pens  3.peel off pens !!!  then I found three adirondack pens, they worked but the colours were all wrong, next I tried painting on the alcohol inks,ruined the paint brush and made a mess, in the end I dripped on some alcohol ink blender and then the alcohol inks after that I gave up !  the good thing is everything wiped off easily so I could start again.  I quite like the angel ones but will pass on the rose . The question now is what do you do with them after you have made them ?
Can't imagine sticking them on a card unless I was wanting to do the recipient some damage as I imagine they would be glass splinters after the post office did its stuff !

TK Max sale

Wandered into TKmax in Harrogate this morning, just killing time until my bus home and I found scrapbook kits previously selling at £12.99 or £14.99 on sale for £2 each .  I didn't particularly want the albums ( altho they are good quality Colorbok and Pebbles Inc ones but they each have 20 0r 24 sheets of 12x12 papers in them ,plus various brads etc, a few slipped into my basket somehow! then I also found a Memory Keepers pack of double sided 12x12 papers and glitter brads for 70pence, didn't get round to looking at anything else after that, just scurried off home to gloat over them ! Off to cook the dinner now and may get round to actually doing some crafting later.

Winter

A quick tag for Tag Tuesday and Try It On Tuesday challenges.  Image from the internet, downloaded it ages ago and I can't remember where I found it. Background sprayed and stamped with Crafty Notions inks and wording computer generated.  The wording is from the calender poem  "January Brings The Snow" we all learned as children but I don't know who the author of it is .

Rhymes and Tales

Made a few atcs for the Stampman swap which is Rhymes and Tales. I love childrens nursery rhyme and fairy story books and have quite a few which I have collected just for the illustrations. When it came to making my atcs I was stuck for what to use so ended up using digital images for three of them,the other one with the "pretty maids" is part of a Stamp Camp stamp. The images are all from Digital two for Tuesday which has some lovely images and also has samples made by various designers on how to use them. I've always been wary of using digital images as I just love my stamps too much but have to say I did enjoy making these.( there is some stamping on all of them even if its just the birds and waves !)

Grandson's birthday

I'm still having a hard time getting back into crafting, have missed all the challenges this week. I have spent ages looking for a box with lots of fat quarters of fabric in it and I can't find it anywhere ! I'm sure I could have found something to do Tag Tuesday challenge with but I didn't do it.  Try It On Tuesday challenge was for a Male theme tag, something I would usually have enjoyed doing but didn't do that either !  I have made some atcs for the Stampman swap but there doesn't seem to be a link on their site to post them on.  I have started making a book with Christmas cards (2009 ones) I saw it on blog somewhere and thought it seemed a good idea as can put in envelopes etc for letters and photos from Christmas too. If I ever get it finished will post it and the (if I can find in again !) the blog where I found it.  Made this card this afternoon for a Grandson's birthday. he is a car mechanic so hope he likes it.  The cogs are Tim Holtz alteration die,cut from silver metallic card,coloured them with alcohol inks at first but wasn't pleased with them so did the rusted grunge technique on them and thought they came out quite well.  The cuttlebugged panel is also from the silver metallic card and looks quite industrial  I thought. The Stampman fortnightly challenge is to use any thing distressed , my cogs are embossed with walnut stain distress embossing powder.

Snowdrops

Still no rush of inspiration for anything or indeed any motivation to attempt anything much so just another simple little card for a few challenges. This is a very old stamp I dug out, I have another snowdrop stamp which is a much bigger but after trying to stamp it several times I got very annoyed with it and think it might end up in the bin ! I know the acrylic stamps take up so much less room but nothing beats a good old wooden block one ! I,m putting this on these challenges

1. Lots To Do - Winter Flowers
2. Daring Cardmakers - January Flowers
3. Craft Your Days Away - Anything goes
4. Lets Ink it Up - Anyhting goes.

New beginnings

Seems my brain is on a go slow, hard a hard time thinking of anything to use for a card with the theme of New Beginnings, new year, new home, new job, new romance ? nothing lit the mojo ! Eventually decided to use this little girl stamp from Papermania. Its her first day as a "big girl" going to proper school ! This is my entry for Try It On Tuesday challenge

mosaic

This is my tag for Tag Tuesday's challenge which is mosaic , I had some strips left over from an old "caught in crystal" project so used those interspersed with Mizuhiki cord, it looks really pretty and sparkly in real life ,doesn't show so well on here. I was reluctant to cover it up after spending so long cutting and sticking the pieces so left it simple with just a bit of lace and a vintage image. I've just noticed in the picture that some of the bits of cord are coming loose , I don't think the double sided sticky paper was as sticky as it should have been, I have had it rather a long time! I have a new packet somewhere but after the big tidy up for Christmas a lot of my stuff is playing very hard to find. It looks a bit more like patchwork than mosiac but there we go !

bits & pieces

Bit late but thought I would put this on for Theme Thursday, which is "pattern"  .I,m trying to use up some bits and pieces and found this background which is stamped and embossed with white EP and then coloured with distress inks, the little bird is a Stampin Up punch which my sister sent me for Christmas (along with lots of other goodies). I think the bird might have looked better without the gem for its eye but its stuck firmly so will have to stay !

Earth Tremors !

Whoo, we just had an earth tremor here in North Yorks, just heard it was 3.6 so not a massive one but wondered what on earth was going on, thought O.H had fallen out of his chair at first !!!  I have just taken down all the Christmas decorations and CLEANED house, so beware ,thats what happens when you do housework instead of crafting.

Old Father Time

Tuesday Tagger's challenge is for Old Father Time, this is my little collage piece, didn't really work out how I had planned but thats not unusual for me , I love anything with clocks and watches on so was an opportunity to get out the stamps and mess about. Seem to be having difficulty getting back into crafting mood, its so easy to just loll about with the chocs and mince pies.  Been to the village tug of war today, think most of the village crammed in the pub afterwards for pie and peas, me, who never wins anything ,won two prizes in the raffle including a litre bottle of whisky ! maybe missing for a while if I get started on that, or maybe I would be better sampling the chocs I won too !The challenge is sponsored this week by The Craft Barn I,m also linking this to Sandy's Victorian Fantasy challenge too