Bottle tops

While looking around at other peoples blogs I saw that there was a challenge on Crafty Cardmakers to use bottle top(s) , Haven't played about with them for ages so searched around and found some I had already flattened( using the old Sizzex machine) punched out an image added glossy accents and a few beads. The lady looked like an old time movie star so I thought she might go with some of the Graphic45 papers I am hoarding.I haven't done any collage for ages so enjoyed doing this one, the bottle top does look a bit small on here but I like it anyhow !  I'm not going to be around for the next week or so, we are off to London on Monday for a few days (just missing the wedding !) Tomorrow my computer is off for everything to be transferred onto my new computer which I sincerely hope is going to be a bit faster than this one !  We have very poor broadband speed in this area so a slow computer doesn't help.  I will still have my laptop to use at home so will be able to still blog and visit while we are at home. 

Cool ! I'm a winner

No picture to post today as yet, I've had a lovely day with my friend Babs both  making a mini canvas ( with Crafty Individuals Stamps)  not showing it as its a little gift for someone, then I logged on to my blog and was over the moon to see I had been chosen as one of five winners on the first Craft Individuals challenge ! Now I just have to choose a stamp as my prize, think I already know what I want as I always have a list of their stamps on my latest wish list !  Tonight I am going to a group I belong to here in the village, about 40/50 women of all ages who get together once a month for friendship and fun and to raise money for charity (this year its Alzeimers) tonight its a music quiz and then The Nippy Chippy van is arriving with fish'n'chips for us all , don't know how they manage to cook them for so many people so quickly but they are always piping hot and lovely !

cream/pink & brown

This is another card made with a piece left over from my experiments with resist techniques while I was playing about with the Stampman challenge, this is the clear emboss and iron off one which gives a softer look than the white embossing. The flower is made with stamps from Artistic Stamper which I had to spend ages looking for and then they were right under my nose when I finally found them ! I did start off playing with this technique with green distress inks but somehow ended up back with the pink ones again ! I have never been a "pink" person and I can't believe how much pink stuff I have been doing recently, I'm sure I'll be back with grungy again before too long ! This card will fit the colour challenge on Secret Crafter so I'm entering it on there.

I'm resisting !

I've been having a messy time trying different resist techniques, think I like this one best, grasses stamped with versamark and embossed in white, card coloured with distress inks, the butterfly is cut from another resist piece using the clear embossing and ironing technique. This is for The Stampman challenge. The "ribbon" is seam binding dyed with alcohol inks.

Off centre

This is my Off centre entry for Less Is More challenge, its been the weirdest card to scan as no matter what background I have put it on, black,brown,dark green the scan would not pick up the background,however as it has got the card edges except for the ribbon going over the edge don't suppose it matters but cards always seem to show up better on a dark background.  Got some of my Artistic Outpost stamps out to play with, haven't used them for a while and I do love them.The seed packet stamp is especially useful as can put anything in the middle. I finally found out (thank to Ikki of Cuttlebug fame) how to emboss with Crafters Workshop templates, the only problem I found is that the tan mat is not wide enough to be able to emboss the whole 6" width of the template, If this has not been for Less Is More I would probably have gone over the embossing with chalks as the embossing doesn't show up very well on here.

stitching

Thought I was never going to finish this card, everytime I have started I have been broken off to do something else.  My current obsession of layered stamping and victorian velvet DI with the addition of a little barn door red once again. The tag is a graphic 45 and the stamp is from The girl's paperie. The little snap card at the bottom is a copy of an original one I have in my basket of old haberdashery items,they are pretty old as they are war time packs which would be second world war, I think these came from my Grandmothers.  I made this for Lets Ink It Up challenge which is Show Us Your Stitching and I think I can also put it on Secret Crafter which is stitching and Sir Stampalot which is Ladies and fashion.  Zoe just told me this would also fit the Just For Fun challenge which is Square so I,m popping it on there too.

Bird atcs

Have not got much crafting done the last few days as I've been trying to make the most of the nice weather and get some jobs done outside, today I have been trying to clean up the patio, seem to have lost quite a few plants to the hard winter so been emptying pots and washing them , clearing away accumulation of junk and hosing down, really needs pressure washing but that can wait until another day,then I spent another hour on my knees weeding.  Tonight I've been watching Lewis on TV ,seem to have missed quite a bit of it, must have dozed off !  I did manage to make a few atcs last night, this months theme on the Stampman swap is birds and I have so many bird stamps didn't know which to use.I really don't know why my scanner is changing the shape of things now, these are all the same size but two of them look much shorter than they are.

One layer

Well I have really struggled this week to make a one layer card for Less Is More, its against all my instincts !!! I almost scrapped this one too but then I thought I would post it anyway, I don't know why the wording looks brown as it is pink( a darker shade than the rose)  I have no idea who made the stamp and I don't know where it came from ! I don't remember having it but it was in drawer with some other old stamps, the bottom row of little flowers is from a Hero border set.

chair

Haven't done a tag for Tag Tuesday for a while so thought I'd give it a go this week.The challenge subject is  "chair" , I spent ages this afternoon trying to be clever with embossing and stamping on tissue paper etc but just ended up with a load of rubbish! went for simple with a bit of background stamping and a Paperbag Studio stamp, the wording at the bottom is from a Woodware set I think.

Square

This is actually a 4&1/2" card but I think it looks a bit oblong on here ?  Thought I would make something for the new Crafty Individuals challenge which is "Square" The stamp is of course one of theirs as are the lovely papers. The anchor is a very old PSX stamp and I've used a bit of bakers twine to finish it off.Please notice I tied a proper reef knot, the only knot I can remember from my Girl Guide days ! When I had painted the ship etc it looked a bit dull so I sprayed it with Antique Sprinkys and then with Moonglow Doubloons so its quite glimmery in real life.

Blue Butterfly

I have been playing about this afternoon with a fab set of stamps that my friend Babs gave me for my birthday. I'm still in the layered stamping mode and have used several stamps and some sequin waste stencilling on my background, butterfly is stamped with Chipped Saphire DI on a piece of basic grey DP.The nestie is the eyelet circle one which I bought in mistake for the lacey circles but rather like it so it was not too bad a mistake especially as I also got the Lacey circles for my birthday, lucky me.  As there are quite a few circles on this card I thought I could put it on the Just For Fun challenge which is "Circles".  I haven't been much inspired by challenges recently but am hoping to get something done for the new Crafty Individuals challenge, just waiting for inspiration ! ( ps: my birthday was last week but thanks to people who have wished me Happy Birthday)

Little boy's birthday

Don't know where the time has gone the last few days, I have done some crafting but mostly on stuff I can't put on here at the moment. This is just a quick card I made for one of our Great Grandsons who is six on Thursday so must get it in the post in the morning. I bought this Papermania stamp ages ago and had forgotten I had it, quick colour with copics and some bits of DP. Haven't done any challenges this week but hoping to get going with some soon.

layered stamping

Just been playing about tonight with layered stamping, this started out as a piece of white card,started by clear embossing the script and then colouring the card with DI Spun Sugar and Victorian Velvet ( new colours to me and I love them )and then ironing off the embossing. Doesn't show up too much on here but I have used four or five different stamps on the background, all stamped with the same two ink pads.The Hero art bird collage is stamped with Versafine Smokey Grey. I did restamp the bird and clocks and cut them out,edged the clocks with Brushed Corduroy DI. I had to add an extra flower as I thought I would try and darken the colour of the leaves and went straight in with a dark green and it looked awful so cut out another flower and stuck it over the leaf. This is not for anything in particular , just for the pleasure of making it !

Touch of red

Here's my little card for Less Is more which this week asks for A Touch Of Red. My little card has a bit more than a touch and you would not believe how many goes I have had at making it ! When red ink and me get together it spells mess!  I,ve been using a Memento ink pad and its extremely wet, probably something to do with me storing my ink pads upside down, everytime I thought I was getting somewhere I got another smudge or smear on it.The swirly stamp is from a Stampin Up set my sister sent me and the centre round stamp is from a Stampin Up set I won in the raffle at a Stampin Up day yesterday. We had a great day making a decorated box and six cards to go in it and also a book with calender pages and pockets to store cards in ( plus there were loads of lovely scrummy cupcakes ! )