Back on blog

Hi to all my blog friends, I am at last able to sit at my computer, although I still have not done any crafting for at least three weeks. Thank you for your messages you are very kind.

The two cards I have posted to day were made several weeks ago but I have had to keep them to myself until they were due to be presented on Ideal World at 2pm today. There are theme plates with fairies, unicorns, wild flowers and nature. I am looking forward to watching the show with Glenda & Lynn this afternoon.

New Elusive Image Unmounted Stamps

Using the unicorn theme plate I stamped the unicorn onto fuseable film. The background was sponged onto a glossy card and then overstamped with shades of green.

for this card I have used glimmer mist to colour the background. The leaves were coloured with pearl lacquer. The scroll design on the corners were part of a christmas tree stamp

Still here!

Just letting you know that I am still here. I have been troubled with a really bad back and not been able to do very much at all lately. Frustrated that I can't get in my craft room or on the computer much, but will join in again as soon as I can.

Sandra

Black & Blue

Trying a new technique for 'rainbowlady's' challenge. I used a multi coloured inkpad to brayer onto white matt card, I then spritzed the brayer with water and brayered again to soften all the bands of colour. Then I used 'jazz blue' glimmermist and sprayed over the top and immediately used the clean brayer to blend the colour in.

I stamped with black ink and then highlighted with a white gel pen. The background paper is from Damask Delights CD.

Stamp used from E.I. Damask squares unmounted theme plate.
CD: Artylicious Damask Delights

Atumn ATC - Sept. swap

This is 1 of 2 ATC's for the Graphicus Guild Sept. swap. I used:
Butterfly Bliss CD for the backing paper.
E.I. unmounted stamps from 'Wild Meadow' and 'Diamante Delights' unmounted theme plates.
White opaque pen and black gel pen. Acetate, gold leaf.

Mackintosh Bauble

It is nearly two weeks since my last post, I have been away on holiday and then on a business trip so this is the first chance I've had to catch up. Thanks for the comments posted while I've been away.

This card is for the papertake weekly challenge this week for a charity event. I have kept this in simple monochrome using IE Mackintosh Bauble stamp, which as you can see is not just for Christmas. Apart from stamping in black ink I have added a bit of glitter glue.

Autumn - challenge

This autumn theme has been done on a large piece of stampbord, rather than a card. I coloured the base with mustard, green and red dye ink. Then I used EI stamp on top but only lightly inked the stamp so as not to cover the background too much.

Then using an homemade mixture of UTE clear which was mixed in three batches with butterscotch, lettuce and red pepper alcohol inks to make a transparent coloured UTE. I inked the corners with versamark and then just added layers of the above embossing powder to give a deep cover, into which I stamped the chrysanthemum EI stamp coated with a copper brilliance ink.

I then went over the leaves and flowers with pigment powder to give some definition and sparkle.

This artwork is for rainbowlady's autumn challenge

Geisha -Sketch Saturday

First of all thanks to those of you who posted comments on the ATC's, sorry I've been a bit late in getting to them but had a few problems with Internet, your comments are very much appreciated.

I've been a bit pre-occupied with other things this week so have not had chance to get into my craft room. However this is my first challenge this week for 'sketchsaturday'. Having had a slight tidy up of my craft room!!! I found some clear acrylic stamps that were in the bottom of a draw and took the inspiration from them.

Light - Graphicus Guild ATC swap

This months theme for the Graphicus Guild Swap (of which I am the hostess) was Light. The theme is set by Glenda so I have no forward planning on the idea's.

I must admit I found this theme a little challenging this time but having played with my 'glimmer mists' to make some backgrounds I decided to use a couple of pieces for my ATC.s.

Rather than spraying the mists I painted the backgrounds using a large soft brush, blending two or three colours. The effect was a lovely soft watercolour with shimmer, which unfortunately dosn't show up too well on the photo's.

This colour made me think of the garden after a shower when the sun comes out. Still droplets of water on the flowers but a lovely light fresh feel.



Not much else to post this weekend as I have been working on some new samples for E.I. so will have to hold off posting them for a little while!

A bit of summer

I've been feeling a bit down today, the weather has been really dull and grey here for the last 3 days. So to cheer myself up I decided to go and look through all my paper and find something bright and colourful. So here it is, quite simple just using turquoise and golden yellow papers. Stamps used are from Elusive Images. Now I really must tidy my craft room!

Lavender

My entry for this weeks papertakweekly challenge. Using patterned background papers. The stamps from an Elusive Images set. I coloured the stamp using brush pens and then added lavender flower soft to give dimension.

Childrens Card No 2

This time a boy's version with the Cute Companion stamps.

Cats in the garden.

Tom is eyeing up the fish in the pond for a little snack. Mum Tilly is a bit annoyed with him this morning as he has been attacking her quite a bit.

Tom finding another route to get at those fish, or perhaps there is a big juicy frog on those lily leaves. I must have rescued about 3 this week that he has brought me. Fortunately most of them he just brings in to play with and I managed to get them back to the pond. However we were not too happy last week when they both brought in a couple of baby birds, which unfortunately died the next morning. Although we love the cats it is always sad when they kill another animal.

Tom helping his dad in the garden. I don't think thats quite level!

I have posted these photo's mainly at Glenda's request, hope you enjoy. (click on photo to enlarge)

Childrens Card

This is a card I made with the thought of putting it in to crafts 4 charity. They are looking for childrens designs and I just love these 'Cute Companions', Ihave bought all the sets and the CD. I think they are so cute and just waiting to be watercoloured!

I find that the stamps are very easy to position, a lot of thought has gone into the design by Jayne Nestorenko.

Thank you all for your comments on previous posts, they are much appreciated.

My Time To Craft Challenge

Being new to blogging this is my first attempt at a challenge. I have picked 'mytimetocraftchallenge' 2 buttons, ribbon, flower and glitter.

Having recently bought Cute Companion stamps and never had to make a baby boy card before I thought that this would be a good time to try it out. So this is my first entry.

The image was stamped with black ink and coloured using a blue and silver Sakura pen and washed out with a damp brush. Glitter glue was added to the moon. The 'wonderful news' was stamped using a blue Brilliance ink. The textured background was done with a Fiskars background plate (have had this for a long time and hardly used!).

Slide Mailer

This is the slide mailer that I promised myself I would do one day. I think I have had this in one of my craft drawers for about 3 yrs!

Anyway some new Adirondack acrylic paints and Butterfly Bliss CD inspired the colour scheme. The stamps are mainly from Elusive Images except for the swirly ones which came from I don't know where. They are a clear set but have no name on the package. Must have got them from a show.

If you want any more info on how I have done this just ask.

Exploding Flower

Items used: exploding flower template, stamps from Elusive Images, fantasy floral theme plate and big flowers theme plate. CD butterfly bliss for the butterfly's

I coloured the outside layers by using a stipple brush and just a slightly darker tone of ink than the card colour. Then I over stamped with the flower stamps.

Centre flower is a fabric flower.

Sister's Birthday Card

It's my sister's birthday this weekend and she is really into pink and black at the moment. So I thought I would make a card using this P.M. paper ( I have bought her some elements of this for her birthday). The card is A4 in size and I have printed out an acetate front with swirl elements. I used some chipboard letters as templates to cut out SISTER from the patterned paper and glued them to the base card. The pink flowers are chipboard.

Busy Weekend

More cards from my busy weekend crafting

From a new set of stamps from Elusive Images. Posies.

These stamps are just fantastic for stamping on parchment. I stamped the large posy stamp 4 times with white stazon onto parchment. The roses have been coloured from the back with Inktense colour pencils. I have embossed the frill on 2 layers alternating from front to back, this gives the impression of a frill.

This heart stamp I thought ideal for a wedding card. This time I stamped onto shear heaven paper which is similar to parchment but has different qualities in that you can paint onto it without it warping. I have used twinkling H2o's for colouring. Also a little glitter glue was painted onto the bells.

Similar technique to yesterdays card, using glimmer mists for background. This time I sponged an oval stampbord with die inks then over sprayed with gold. Then stamped and embossed with gold one of the elements from the background.

This is a card I have made today using a new set of stamps from Elusive Images.

The background was made with 'glimmer mist' spray inks. However instead of spraying I painted a peice of A4 white card with two colours of pink and then oversprayed with gold. I then cut out the area I found most interesting.

The background was stamped using a dark pink chalk inkpad. The front image was embossed in gold and coloured in with Sekura metalic pen. The embelishment is a circle of pink shrink plastic stippled and stamped using a stazon ink.