Yay!!!!!........Castaway Result

Coo it's a sign that I am back on top form today. Been whizzing about here, there and all over.

Finally went and got my hair trimmed and used the voucher that I was given for Christmas by Deb at the craft shop. Then into town for a few bits. Back home and as it's my day off hubby always expects one of my specials for tea so I made a fish pie today. Halo is now all nice and sparkly again. DD has me booked to watch a DVD tonight and I must admit that I am looking forward to seeing Marie Antoinette.

So not much time for cardmaking then today and you know how when you have a new product and you sit and read the instructions and follow them to the letter.......everything ends up looking pants doesn't it? Well in future I shall glance at the instructions, laugh hysterically and then chuck the damn things in the bin.

Having ignored now the instructions on the Castaway ink pad and going with my own instincts I have some good results at last on ordinary card.....it took me about ten minutes tops to do

The stamps used for this project are from the Tandastamps India set and very fab it is too.
So the pink card (which was just cheap matt cardstock) has been stamped with one of the small accent stamps using the Castaway pad and I didn't wait for five minutes as it said on the label..........I just ironed it as soon as I had finished stamping. Admittedly it did take a while for the effect to come through but once it did I was very happy with it even though it was a lot more subtle than I had expected.
I wanted the background to look like a piece of fabric so have embellished it with tiny peeloff dots and lines. The image was then stamped and embossed onto gold pearlised card and cut out. I had wanted to mount this onto a plain orange card but didn't have any so I took a cream pearlised card and coloured it first with Stazon Mustard and then dragged the Stazon Pumpkin over the top for a distressed look. This is probably better done with an ink pad that has had a bit of use rather than a new one.
Dead chuffed I got a result so will play with that a bit more now that I know what sort of card is best for it.
Next on my list will be the Memories Mists which I have just bought four of in some yummy colours. Will let you know how I get on with those.
Right well I have just been tagged for the very first time so I have to sort that out and pick who I will tag...........this may take some time so please try not to snore if you fall asleep while waiting........lol!!!
I have just one shot at this tonight so I hope it works
[url=http://craftsbycarolyn.blogspot.com]Carolyn[/url] has tagged me
1)Find the nearest book
That was up on a high shelf
2)Name the book and the author
Enquire Within Upon Everything by Herbert Jenkins one of those books you dip into and has information on just about every subject. Given to some poor soul as a Sunday Schhool prize in November 1928.........I bought it for stamping onto or altering in some way.
3)Go to page 123 and then the fifth line of text and type the following three lines onto your blog
the solid form, and if stirred as it
cools it separates in a state of fine
division. As this process is trouble
An article on Sal Ammoniac as a Freezing mixture........very very boring.
OK so I tag
[url=http://craftblog.craftybutterfly.co.uk]Wendy[/url]
[url=http://all-the-things-she-said.blogspot.com]Nicola[/url]
[url=http://jo-kill.blogspot.com]Jo[/url]
Please, please let it work cos I don't have time to redo it if it doesn't.
Night night all
Sheila-x-

Just another manic Monday

Don't know why I titled this as manic Monday as I have had quite a lazy day actually. Got the laundry finished and then as I wasn't very fit for stamping I have spent the day making some embellishments with my Tag-a-long and dies. I've made funky cars, tools and graduation caps and diplomas today using up some offcuts of DCWV textured card. They look fab so I'll make those up into cards this week.

I left the Castaway stamping because I had an e mail from a friend who keeps a careful cyber eye on me. She had read yesterdays post about me not feeling 100% and decided to remind me of what I tell the ladies in the classes I teach............if you are not happy with what you have done, don't throw it away immediately. Put it away, take it out again in a few days and look at it with fresh eyes. So I took her advice.............thanks hun.......that made me giggle and I feel much better for it.

I couldn't go another day without some cards to share so I have got together a small selection that I have done using the Floorwax technique........one of my favourites as the look on peoples faces when you tell them what it is made with is just priceless.

The first card is done with an Anita's stamp and I have used lovely metallic acrylic paints in blue, pink and green. The background is handmade metallic crinkle paper. So easy to make.

Take a piece of paper cut from a brown envelope and screw it up as tightly as you can to make lots of tiny creases in it.

Unscrew the paper and flatten it out but don't iron it.

Now apply Versamark ink all over the paper. Push the pad down firmly to make sure the ink hits all areas.

Cover with silver embossing powder, shake off the excess, then heat with your heat gun.......et voila........a piece of scrummy crinkley paper.

I usually make a piece just the size I need for a project as the edges look nicely finished off.

Floorwax Technique Instructions

Materials needed-:
Stamp of your choice
Stazon Ink Pad
Sheet of Acetate
Metallic Acrylic Paints
Johnson's Klear Floorwax
Stiff tissue paper as used for gift wrapping.....not household tissue such as kitchen or loo roll
An old or cheap craft paintbrush
*Cover your work area if possible with plastic rather than paper*
**Pour some floorwax into an empty screwtop jar for ease of use**
To begin with make sure that your acetate is larger than your stamp image by at least one inch all the way round.
Stamp the image onto the acetate using the Stazon ink pad and allow to dry for a couple or so minutes.
Turn the acetate over and working on the back of the image add a small puddle of floorwax followed by a few drops of each colour of your acrylic paint and gently swirl the colours together with the brush. Do not overwork it as you will end up with a muddy mess.
Make sure you take the floorwax and colour well beyond the edges of your stamped image.
Next crumple up a piece of tissue paper large enough to cover the back of your work and then lay it over the floorwax/paint mix and press it down gently.
Paint the back of the tissue with another layer of floorwax.
If you use a fairly thick acetate one layer of tissue is enough but for thinner acetate you can add another layer and then finish off again with floorwax.
Now leave on one side to dry or if you are impatient dry thoroughly with a hairdryer.....this will take some time.
Once dry you can trim and mount as desired.
***It is not neccessary to use an image within a frame. Mine are within frames for ease of cutting out and layering in workshops***

This second card is made with the large stamp from a set by Rubbadubbadoo. I love this stamp for use on graduation cards or leaving school cards. I even used it once on a special order for a card for someone who had just got divorced.........lol!!!
I've used metallic blue and pearl white paints for this one.
The seagulls are cut with a Sizzix Sizzlit die.




This final card is stamps from yet another Rubbadubbadoo set and I love this for mens cards and the inspiration for this particular card design came from an etched copper picture that used to hang at home when I was a child.
I've used copper and gold paints and the finished pieces have been mounted onto layers of Stardream card which has a lovely sparkle to it.

I have decided to add a Techniques section to the blog where I will post all the techniques used in posted cards. Hopefully this will save you trawling through everything to find what you want and it will save me having to type out the technique every time I use it.

I'll be starting it tomorrow and will add the floorwax technique first.

Well I had best go and catch some more sleep as I am at the shop tomorrow. It's not my class so I will just be till chick and the customers won't want to see me doing my impression of a wretched hag.......lol!!!

Night night

Sheila

-x-

Castaway Ink Pad */$%*!@

Feeling just a teensy weensy bit frustrated today as I have been playing with a Castaway ink pad and it just ain't doing what it's supposed to do.

Well I don't suppose I should blame the ink pad........I just don't seem to have any cardstock that it works on.

For those who don't know what a Castaway ink pad is......you stamp an image, let it dry for five minutes then heat it with an iron and you should get a bleached effect where you have stamped.

I'll need to experiment a bit more and have a good dig around in the card cupboard.

You watch I will just find the right card and all the ink will be gone from my pad.

I do need to get something done with it as we have had them in stock at the shop and I will no doubt be asked questions when people spot them on the shelf.

I've also been up and down all day tackling the weekly wash and I swear the neighbours must have shoved their laundry bags through my door as four people could not possibly make that amont of washing in one week.

After sorting it I discovered that most of it belonged to my DS who has not yet grasped the concept of the seven day week........you know.......seven days equals seven tee shirts, seven pairs of socks etc.

There must have been thirty pairs of socks and I counted 25 tee shirts, several pairs of jeans plus all his work gear.

I feel a bit of a talking to coming on for that young man.

Shocked hubby a bit by also cooking a Chilli from scratch for our evening meal and serving it up at 5pm on the dot..........I think he nearly passed out.

DD is on night six of a seven night, night shift and I do like her to have her meal before she goes to work rather than take it with her.

I have rashly promised that next Saturday I will make our favourite Winter Pork Casserole for probably the last time this winter. It seems to have got quite warm this last couple of days so we won't be needing stews and casseroles for much longer.

Took a bit of time off tonight to watch a movie, the remake of one of my all time favourites The Wicker Man.

What a pile of rubbish and waste of time that was.

Even the gorgeous Nicholas Cage couldn't save it for me.

Caught the last of the Top 100 Sex Symbols and I shall be chaining myself to some railings somewhere and demanding a recount.........Johnny Depp is waaaaaay sexier than Angelina Jolie any day.

Anyway.....sorry for all the waffle and the fact that I don't have a card to share.

Hopefully I'll be able to do something with the Castaway pad tomorrow and if it's good enough I shall post it.

Night night all

Sheila

-x-

Daring Cardmakers 20/20 Vision

WOW a toughie this week from Kathy and it's taken me all day to decide on a design for this one.

Stamping as usual from me cos if I tried to get clever with papers, flowers and brads I would come badly unstuck.

So twenty faces, twenty pairs of eyes, twenty mouths.....however you want to count it....there are twenty.

I've been dying to use these Stampington stamps for ages and this card was also a good way to use up some small pieces of cream card.

Images are stamped in black Stazon and then cut randomly and coloured with my Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads........I just lurrrrrrrrve those colours.

The images have been mounted onto black card and then onto a cream card blank....which you can't see on the scan.

I did try to put a frame around it in my photo programme but it didn't look too good.....lol.

The word is cut by my mate Jimminy Cricut in Base Camp, using a shadow cut for the black and then normal cut for the coloured letters which were cut in cream card and then inked.

So have you 'Dared' yet?

Thanks girls........I enjoyed this one.

Sheila

-x-

Daring Cardmakers-Men

Making cards for men is the challenge from the Daring Cardmakers this week and when it comes to mens cards I always thank heaven for rubber stamps because without those images I would struggle to make any mens cards at all.

So the cards I am sharing today are both done using the same set of stamps from Rubbadubbadoo but done with different techniques.

The beautiful background on the blue card is a technique called drunken chalks which I love doing because you get a different look every time you do it.

For this technique you need to have-:

Fluid Chalk Ink Pads

Encore Metallic Silver Pigment Ink Pad

Surgical Spirits (Rubbing Alcohol)

White Gloss Card

Cheap Hairspray

I wanted to get a sort of misty early morning effect for the background here so I have used fluid chalk inks in blues and mauves.

Starting with blue at the top I have coloured direct to paper just by dabbing the chalk ink pad onto the card.

The next step is to cover the whole of the piece of card with the metallic ink until you can no longer see the chalk colours applied.

Then take a piece of cotton wool and soak it in Surgical Spirits.

Starting in one corner and working your way across and down the card, dab the cotton wool onto the metallic ink. Dab once and then move on, try not to go over the same spot twice.

You will see the metallic ink start to fracture.

Now either leave on one side to dry or if you are impatient like me.......dry it with a hairdryer.

Take some soft facial tissue and start to very gently buff the card. Some of the silver ink will come off but some will stay behind having been dried by the applied spirits.

Every time you do this technique, even with the same colour inks, you get a completely different finish so I usually make two or three pieces and then choose the best one for the images I am using.

If you are not happy with the look of your first application just re-apply the metallic ink and the spirits again then dry and buff.

Once you are happy with the look of your piece....spray with two coats of cheap hairspray and leave to dry.

The silhouette images look really good with this technique and couldn't be easier.

Stamp your image onto plain smooth card and cut out. Then using the same ink pad that you stamped with just cover the cut out image.

If you use a different ink or a pen to colour you will see the outline of the ink pad ink through the colour which spoils the effect so I always stamp and colour with Stazon.

The second card is just really chalking but then I have spritzed over that with a Sticky Fingers Autumn Inks Spray in Olive.

All stamping has been done in Stazon.

While I am not the author of the Drunken Chalks technique how I have described it above is my own version of the technique which works best for me.

Surgical Spirits is a flammable substance so as always please always observe good working practice and work in a well ventilated area........and put yer fag out!!!

Thanks as always to the DCM Team for the challenge.

Sheila

-x-

Daring Cardmakers Card with Folds

Now I have scanned and shown the card I will cover up the ribbon ends on the front flap by covering the back of the flap with a piece of the pink paper.

Thank you for looking

Sheila Todays card is one I have made for the Daring Cardmakers Weekly Challenge.

This weeks challenge was to make a card with folds in it or on it.

For mine I have chosen to make a fold in the card itself.

I scored two lines approximately 1" apart using the Scor-It scoring board.

The 1" section was folded back to the inside of the card and the larger flap was folded back to the front.

To decorate the card I have used a lace rubber stamp from the the TandaStamps new background sheet. I have deliberately not pressed too hard on the stamp as I wanted the lace to look old and tatty.

On the front flap I have added another piece of vintage ribbon and the final decoration is a Paper Artsy stamped image mounted onto gold card.

The rest of the inside of the card was then covered with Making Memories paper.

Underneath the fold of the card (on the larger front piece) I have added some original ephemera from a book and a newspaper. The ribbon and lace are also real vintage pieces.

-x-

The French Collection

Yesterday was a very long day.

I work in a village about four miles away from where I live and usually, with three drivers in the house, there is someone here to nip me over to the shop in the car.

Unfortunately yesterday they were all on early shifts and I had to go to work on the bus. Luckily this doesn't happen too often these days.

I say luckily because although I only work four miles away from home there is no bus directly to the village where the shop is.

So to start work at 10am I have to leave the house at 7.30am and take an hour's bus ride into town, wait half an hour on what I think must be the windiest street in Britain and then catch another bus out to the shop.

To add insult to injury this costs me nearly an hours wages.

The money doesn't really matter to me though as much as the wasted time......I do so hate the wasted time and the fact that when I get home all I want to do is sleep.

Oh well as I say it doesn't happen too often......thank goodness.

The shop was really busy today which was fab.

The Cricut has taken off really well and is flying out. It seems to have captured the imagination of our customers more than any other die cutting system.

I was very good and came home with my wages intact......only because I was too busy to look at the new stuff...............lol!!!

It might be a good idea to save a bit though as we are going to the trade show on Monday and I am sure we will be seeing and ordering lots of gorgeous stuff.

The card I have posted today is another one done on my accidental tissue on holographic card background.

This time it has been coloured with inks from an Ancient Page-Atmosphere Petal Point ink pad.

I just kept dabbing away with the colours until I got a really nice depth.

The image stamp is Inkadinkado from the Tin Can Mail range and that has been stamped in black Versafine.

I then stamped the image again onto a piece of copier paper and cut it out.

Using that as a mask for the image stamped onto the backgound I then inked up a Magenta flower and the Inkadinkado Eiffel Tower with a Brilliance ink pad in Moolight White and stamped over the mask to give a layered look.

The music background on the card blank is from the new Tandastamps background set.

I matted the stamped piece onto some mauve card and just darkened the edges with Stazon-Vibrant Violet.

The idea for the flower embellishment came from Gillian Hamilton

Thank you Gillian

I have had a question from a lady regarding the Rub On Waxes used on the cards I posted yesterday.

The waxes are manufactured by a company called Craf-T Products of Fairmont, MN.

They are also known as Metallic Rub Ons and come in a long slim palette of seven colours.

As far as I know there are four different sets and they are all fabulous but looking at mine and the use they have had Color Kit #1 is my favourite.

They are very reasonably priced at around four pounds and believe me....a little goes a long way so they last for ages.

I have used them not only on paper but also wood and terracotta when I used to do decorative painting.

I hope this helps.

Well all this typing has made me thirsty so I think a nice cuppa is called for before I start to assemble some cards I have been working on for the local shop.

Thanks for dropping by

Sheila-x-

Faking It

Good morning stampers

What a busy day yesterday. I had two classes at the craft shop, both very well attended which is always nice.

There was a delivery from one of our suppliers with lots of lovely stash which I shall be having a proper look at tomorrow when I go in.......and I shall probably come home with half if not all of my wages in a carrier bag rather than in my purse as usual.

Hubby had to take the car to be fixed as it was making a funny noise which turned out to be the wheel bearings and while he was waiting for it to be done he decided we would have a new car........a brand new car that nobody else has ever driven so we are quite excited. We should get it in about three weeks. I don't know why I get so excited......I don't even drive....lol!!

Still I do get to travel in it lots when I go away to do my demonstrating.

Right so....what have I got to show you today?

I thought you might like to see some stamping onto a different medium so all of the cards today have used fun foam.....also known as craft foam or funky foam.

It comes in a very wide range of colours but I only usually use either black or brown and I buy A4 sheets as that size is easiest for me to store but it does come in bigger sheets. It's cheap at around 50p for an A4 sheet and you can use one sheet for quite a few projects.

Whatever finish you are going to apply the basic stamping technique is the same.

You will need a stamp that has some detail in it such as the ones used in the sample.

So first you need to cut a piece of the foam slightly larger than the stamp you are using.

Take a heat gun and heat the piece of foam.....if it curls turn it over and heat again until it flattens.

You will see the surface change slightly as the foam heats and once you think it's ready, quickly place your stamp onto it and press very firmly, gently rocking the stamp to all four corners to make sure you get the full impression.If you are not happy with your stamped image don't worry........just reheat the foam to remove the image and start again.

If you look at the samples you will see a slight ridge around the outside of the images where I have cut around the edges. If you cut directly around the stamped image you get a very flat looking piece so always cut just outside the ridge which is caused by the stamp being pushed into the hot foam.

The simplest and quickest way to colour the finished pieces is to use Rub On Waxes.

These are just applied with the pad of your finger, just skimming over the surface so that the wax hits the raised areas. Leave to dry and then gently buff with a soft cloth.

The knight has been stamped onto brown foam and then had copper and bronze waxes applied to give an antiqued look.The Love image has been stamped onto black foam and been finshed with a white wax to give a faux stone look.

The pear has been finished with an antique gold.

There is another technique for colouring but I am going to cover that another time for two reasons, 1) it is a much lengthier process and I don't want to bore you to death in one posting.......and 2) I can't find my pictures.....lol!!! It does help if you have pictures to show doesn't it?

I'll love you and leave you with that then........if you made it this far without falling asleep you get a gold star!!!

Happy Stamping

Bye for now

Sheila-x-

Very Vintage

The stamping challenge over at Crafts by Carolyn this week is Vintage and I was very cheeky and added some cards to the gallery which I had done previously......Vintage being one of my most favourite styles of card.

All of the samples have been created using stamps by Rubbadubbadoo.

I will be doing a couple of new cards to add to Carolyn's gallery sometime this week .

Meanwhile the sorting and moving about in my workroom continues as I just can't get comfortable with position of my new desk as I am sitting with my back to the doors to the outside and to the kitchen.

Although I have almost doubled my storage space by adding the new cupboard I had forgotten that I had a couple of boxes stored in the kitchen which needed to be sorted and have the contents found space for.

The saying 'pint into a half pint pot' really does apply here.

This is all hopefully going to be temporary as once we can get a builder to come and give us a quote........we are on our third request now........I will be having two large windows removed and the spaces bricked up. One large window replaced by a smaller window and fitted units installed.

There will also be a custom made storage unit for stamps and dies.

I can't wait for everything to be behind cupboard doors so that I can at least 'pretend' I am tidy.

It's been a very dark and miserable day today. The snow is all gone now and everything in the garden is looking very bedraggled.

Roll on spring I say...........although I wouldn't say no to one last snowfall.........just on my back garden will do if nobody else wants any.....lol!!!

Right well I am away to do a bit of stamping and maybe have another session on Jim now I am getting used to him.

He's a hungry little piglet and is steadily chomping his way through my stash of card and papers..........making room for some new when I can decide which I want.

The trouble is I want them all.......the new Basic Grey, Crate Paper, you name a company and they have something I like.

Happy Stamping

Bye for now

Sheila-x-

Well that took longer than I expected.

Well I had hoped to have had this done and posted by long since but life got in the way yet again.

My new work area didn't work for me so had to hunt down a small desk to fit the only other available space. I found one at Argos eventually and it is just right for the space. Not sure how long it's going to last with me stamping and punching on it but it will do for now.

Then my dear son informed me that tonight we would be having an overnight guest.........his girlfriend. So I have been racing round trying to make the house look nice. They have just arrived and she didn't turn round and walk out so I must have done a good job.........lol!!!

So.........the card.

Well I have to say that I am so pleased with the background on this one. As usual the scan doesn't do it justice......it looks almost transluscent in real life and it all came about from a bad shopping mistake I made months ago when I bought some...what I thought was silver mirror card. It turned out to be an unpatterned holographic card which changed colour as it moved and I hated it. So there I was, stuck with this huge pile of card I knew I would never use............until the other night.

I was using up a pile of tissue paper I had saved from a delivery of clothes by applying it with a wet glue to a piece of card to create textured backgrounds which I could ink or paint. The card was driving me mad though as it was curling and warping with the moisture from the glue. In the end I grabbed a piece of the offending silver card and added some tissue with the glue. As it had a protective coat of the silver it didn't warp. I was thrilled that I would be able to use it up.

What I didn't realise was that as the glue dried and went clear a very soft sheen showed through from the card and made the tissue look sort of pearly. I wondered if it would lose that when I added colour to it so I rubbed over the surface with a Brilliance three colour inkpad in Peacock. The ink pad itself is pearlised but there was also a deeper glow to the finish which looked amazing.

I stamped over the background using a Hero Arts shell stamp from a set of four that I have and a cluster of shells from the Rubbadubbadoo Seaside set. I used Versamark and then added a teal chalk over the top.

I stamped the main image onto white card using Versamark and added light and dark teal chalks. I then stamped the image again onto thin white paper using black Stazon and very carefully cut out the shell shapes. I placed this over the stamped and coloured image as a mask and then applied Versamark ink. I removed the mask, added clear embossing powder and then heated. Then repeated that for a deeper embossed look. Once that is done it looks as though you have added dome stickers to the shell images.........doesn't show well on the scan though.

I mounted that onto silver mirror card and trimmed to a very small border.

The lettering is from the Base Camp Cricut cartridge. I cut it in shadow for a chunkier look, edged the letters in white gel pen and then added irridescent white glitter glue.

The thread is sewn through punched holes and the stars are punched from silver mirror card and glued on.

I'm going to don a wig and dark glasses and go and buy some patterned holographic card to see how that works for this background.....I'll keep you posted on that one.

I still have a few bits to find places for in my newly moved about room so I shall go and do that and then I quite fancy the DCM challenge this week. Last weeks was a bit difficult for me as hubby didn't want me to use a photo of him on something I was showing on the internet....silly fella!!!

Happy stamping then

Bye for now

Sheila-x-

Black and White Challenge

This week's stamping challenge on Crafts by Carolyn is Black and White with a splash of colour.........one of my most favourite although I do love black and rich cream too.........or brown and cream. I always think they look really classy.

Stamps I have used for this challenge-:

Smile, Laugh, Giggle
Circle of dots was a stamp with a heart
inside the circle......they were more use
to me as seperate stamps so I parted
them........lol!!!! It was a £1.99 stamp from
a bin at Craft Central and I believe that they
have been doing the same stamps in
Michaels, USA. The word stamps are from
My Sentiments Exactly.

Happily Ever After
The sentiment stamp originally had the tiny heart attached to it but again they were
more use to me as seperate stamps.
Another £1.99 bin stamp.
The dress is another one from
My Sentiments Exactly. I really love their
shaped word stamps and must add some
Christmas ones to my collection this year.

Simply Roses
The stamps here are both by Rubber Stampede.
The background stamp is gorgeous just
stamped like this in black Versafine onto
pure white card but I also love it to use with
Versamark on white gloss card as a resist
background. The first time I used it for that
my eyes nearly popped out of my head. It
just looked stunning.
Because of the amount of detail on both of the stamps I used black Versafine rather than Stazon to get a true black colour.

Well I still have to finish the inchies for the swap and I really must do something about the DCM challenge cards too. I did ask hubby for a photo for the scrapbook card but he wasn't very chuffed about me using his photo on the web......probably frightened Interpol will catch up with him..........lol!!!

Just want to say hello to the visitors I am getting from the USA and Canada.

Thanks for dropping by.....I hope you liked what you saw and that you will come back again.

Off to tidy my mess up now before starting again.

Bye for now

Sheila-x-

Backgrounds......Finished Cards.

Well I have managed to get time this morning to put together a couple of cards using the backgrounds I showed earlier in the week.
The first one uses the Verdigris EP over heated Bondaweb for a distressed look which reminded me of old garden ornaments and in particular sundials. So I stamped a sun image by Magenta onto brown cardstock and heat embossed using a Copper EP. After trimming I rubbed a little Cosmic Copper Brilliance ink over it and also over the distressed background to tone it down.
It has been layered onto a card blank with a cut and fold front which has been stamped around the frame with a bee stamp and a paintbrush handle dipped into the copper ink pad for the dots.
The inner back of the card has been covered with a garden themed paper by K&Co.
I finished off with copper brads.

The second card has been done on the Blue Glue
and Embossing Powder background.
The paper is from a DCWV stack and the glue background has been layered onto some gold pearlised card.
The flower has been stamped twice onto smooth cream card and has been painted using Walnut Color Wash Inks from 7 Gypsies and the cream area painted with Pebeo Touch which was watered down slightly and gives a slightly waxy look when dry.
The whole image was cut for the first layer and the flower only for the second.
A ribbon embellishment and a foiled greeting finish off the card which would make a lovely Mother's Day card.

Right.........off to see what the next job is on my list.
Hope you are all having a good weekend.
Sheila-x-

Inchies?........Wot's that then?

Oooooooooh I do let myself in for some things. I have signed up to do an Inchie Swap over on UK Stampers. Why would you sign up to do something that you had never even heard of until the minute you were asked... it's beyond me. They could have wanted me to send an inch off the end of each of me fingers for all I know........lol!!!

Well having done a bit of a Google and had a mooch around a couple of places I now 'get it' and am absolutely in love with them......and I have made........two (insert blushing emoticon)...........lol!!!

OK so I need to have 25 but I have two more than I had yesterday don't I?

The surprising thing is that you don't need to buy anything special apart from 140lb watercolour paper and mine was about £2.50 for a mahoosive sheet from our local art shop. The rest is just anything goes really.......pictures from magazines, catalogues, your computer, hand drawn or stamped plus some text and a coloured background made on your watercolour paper with paints, ink pads, H20's.....whatever you have. The first one is the hardest as going by that my entry would have been finished in 2010 but the second went together in no time.

It's great fun.

Had a busy housewifey day today and caught up with loads of jobs that needed doing.......you know the ones that always get left for Mum to do........I fully expect one of my pair to ask me one day if we can get an electric dishcloth.

Not much time for stamping then today. I was going to do something with the backgrounds I did earlier in the week but the day has just run away with me so that is on my list for tomorrow along with the Daring Cardmaker's dares for this week and a few more cards made with Jim the Cricut.

So I guess I am going to have to go back to something I have done previously...yet again which is a tad naughty I know..........still, how about some Paper Patchwork?

This beautiful face has been stamped onto Overhead Projection Film using Stazon ink. I then trimmed her down and ran her through the Xyron so that the adhesive was edge to edge and then attached her to a piece of patterned paper. Once I had stuck her onto the card blank I placed papers around the outside edges and attached them with double sided tape.

The words were stamped with a Hero Arts alphabet and the face decorated with a gem embellished flower.

Brilliant for using up scraps of paper.

The paper used here was designed by a good friend of mine called Jo.

The tag for the Paris card was made using a Sizzix

blank tag and decorating it with one inch strips of

alternating papers. It was then sanded with a fine

sanding block before being embellished with various

die cuts, stamping and ribbon.

A couple of ideas then for all those offcuts we just can't bear to throw away.

Right a coffee and then I'll make a start on the stamping.

Bye for now

Sheila

Jimminy Cricut!!!!!

My little fella has arrived...............yay!!!

Well he arrived at the shop this morning and he is still there but Deb let me bring the shop one home for the weekend to play with and I will pick mine up on Tuesday when I am next at the shop.

Have to say that I am well impressed with it. I love the alphabet on the cartridge that comes with it and the basic shapes are fabulous for making both mats and layers and embellishments. The phrases will come in useful too although I would have preferred a Happy Birthday to Birthday Blessings.

Everything comes with a shadow option so you can get perfect layering every time.

So far I have cut thin paper such as that from the DCWV paper stacks, Basic Grey weight paper and Bazzill weight card with no problems apart from not setting the pressure dial correctly for the Bazzill which meant I didn't get a completely clean cut.Once you get the hang of setting the pressure though you are well away.

So here are a couple of cards I have put together..........shocking colours for me but the sun is shining this morning and it just made me feel like using something bright and cheerful.

I am already trying to decide which cartridge I shall go for next and I see they have bought out some new ones already including a Mickey Mouse font and a Disney images one.......just perfect for scrappers with Disney pages to scrap.

Well I'm off to play a bit more........blow the serious work for today.

Catch you later

Sheila-x-