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Sunday, 30 March 2008

Daring Cardmakers-Pins and Needles!!!

Evening all
Just posting my card for the DCM dare.
This week Jane has set the challenge to use pins on our cards and I have chosen a teeny little safety pin to hold the tag on this card I have stamped using a clear stamp set just released by Dovecraft in the Laura Ashley Collection.
I started off with a humungous puzzle piece from a kiddies jigsaw which I have sanded down and coloured with various inks....the green isn't quite so vivid IRL that was just how it scanned.
I then stamped with the first text stamp I put my hand on which is from the Aspects Of Design Nautical set.
The butterfly image from the LA set was then stamped in Brilliance-Pearlescent Poppy. I wrapped the ribbon round and then pinned the tiny stamped tag on....... and boy was that fiddly to do or what?
The centre of the card was masked off at four inches and a border coloured with inks and stamped.
I'm off to look at everybody else's dare cards now.
Ta ta for now.
Sheila-x-

Wednesday, 26 March 2008

Tanda Teaser-Butterfly Blue

The new weekly challenge is posted now over at TandaStamps
This week the challenge is to use blue and butterflies.
If you decide to take up the challenge, let us know by leaving a comment and a link to where we can see your work.
This is the card I have done for the challenge using a TandaStamps background stamp but you don't have to be a stamper to join in......anything goes.....we just love to see what everyone comes up with.
Have fun
Sheila

Tuesday, 25 March 2008

My First Spinner Card!!!

Well it's taken me forever to get around to making one of these but at last I have had a go......yay!!! It was so much easier than I thought it would be. I found the instructions on Splitcoast Stampers and they were very easy to follow.
The stamps I have used are a new set from Prima called Build A Frame by Iron Orchid Designs. It's a very useful set as it has seven 5.5 inch long borders in various widths including music, lace and text, four good sized corner stamps and six smaller stamps for backgrounds.....all for £19.99...brilliant value for money.
Colouring is chalks which has then been glittered in places with Stickles. I'm not at all happy with the peeloff greeting but I had mounted it all up before I decided to add a greeting and couldn't stamp one.........hey ho......I shall know next time won't I?

We have some snow at last........a sprinkling on the shed roof, the top step leading up from the garden and a smidgeon on the patio......not as much as I would have liked seeing as the moorlands all around us have apparently had a foot of snow.....unless that is hubby trying to wind me up with his tales......lol!!!

Right well I am off to make up another sample card for the class tomorrow and then I had best get some sleep.
Bye for now
Sheila-x

Sunday, 23 March 2008

Snow..........Or Lack Of It!!!

Here is the card I made the other day but couldn't show. It should have reached it's destination and been opened now.......hopefully.
Paper is All Around The Block. Image is from a sheet by Kanban. I cut around the figure and layered it onto another piece of the background paper, edged it with a black pen and then matted that onto a piece of black card. Music is peeloffs.

Well not much snow to report. I did get a bit excited at about 9am when we got some big fluffy flakes. It snowed for oooooooooh all of two minutes. While I was at work we had a good old hail storm and then two more minutes of snow when I got home......how mean is that eh? I almost begged a customer to take me home with her as she has snow at home in Canada........six feet of it!!!
I'm off Easter Sunday so I'm going to have a lie in for a bit before I make a start on designing something new for the ladies on Tuesday. Not a single idea in my head yet but I'm hoping it will come together later.
Off to beddy byes now.......night night.
Sheila-x-

Friday, 21 March 2008

Two Challenges Done!!!

Been a very busy girl this morning and have completed my cards for both the Tanda Teaser and The Daring Cardmakers challenges.
First up is the Tanda Teaser Va Va VROOM which has been set by Wendy who challenged us to make a card using anything with an engine. I thought I would have a go at doing a childs card and have used my Thin Cuts Monster Truck die and my new CuttleKids Tadpole alphabet with the addition of some doodling for the edging and on the letters.Next is the DCM challenge. It's All In The Game is Sue's first challenge......it's brilliant Sue......thank you.
The challenge is to make a card with a game theme so I have chosen Chess. The board is made from two colours of the alcohol ink backgrounds I did last week which were chopped into 1" squares. The chess piece is a stamp by Rubbadubbadoo.

I have made this card for Judy NZ so that she could see the alcohol inks on the nasty mirror/holograph card as she expressed an interest in it. Inside the the card is this gift for you Judy

Just to say thank you for your kind comments and encouragement.

Well it's a gorgeous day here.......bright sunshine but a very strong wind and quite nippy. I am hoping for but not expecting the promised snow.......at least then I won't be too disappointed if we don't get it...........lol!!!
Off to tidy up my desk as I made the biggest mess doing these two cards.
Bye for now
Sheila-x-

Wednesday, 19 March 2008

Bloggin' And Runnin'

Just a really quick blog post tonight. Hubby is not well and I am very worried about him as he is never ill apart from the odd cold or stomach upset. This seems a little more serious than either of those although he insists he is going to work today. If he is no better in the morning I am going to be doing some insisting of my own and will make him go and see if he can get into the docs as an emergency. He does have an appointment but the earliest I could get him in is the 28th March.....if it wasn't so damned unfunny I would laugh.

So not had much time for cardmaking tonight just a couple of quick cards one of which is up yonder. A black and white photo with the background trimmed out which has then been layered onto bright pink card and embellished with flowers and gems.
The other I won't be able to show for a couple of days as it has been sent out for someone's birthday and I don't know if they visit my blog or not.

Bye for now
Sheila-x-

Sunday, 16 March 2008

A Job I Hate!!!

Here's what I have been up to today.
I've put the job of topping up on anniversary cards off for so long that I have made the job worse and ended up having to make more than I usually can stand to do in one sitting. So tonight I have come in from work and made a batch of these 50th and have started on 40th. I've never been a huge fan of dry embossing......mostly due to the length of time it took to do with a lightbox and stylus but the Cuttlebug makes it so easy......and makes a simple card look soooooo posh. This flower folder is my favourite at the moment but only until I get my hands on the spotty one. Unfortunately ours haven't arrived from the supplier yet as they are out of stock.....boo hoo!!!

Yesterday we had a guy at home with a JCB levelling off a piece of land at the back of our house to prepare it for a hard standing for parking. We have pure clay soil here so with the heavy rain we had yesterday........we now have a swimming pool at the bottom of the garden. Don't fancy a dip in it though......it looks decidedly murky. DH and the dog have tramped clay mud all up the path and through the house so I will have to find some time to get the shampooer out and clean the kitchen and lounge carpets.....as if I'm not busy enough.........bloomin' men and dogs....lol!!!

Hugely disappointed that Dancing On Ice has come to an end and not happy with the result as I really wanted Chris to win........even though Suzanne was fantastic. What am I going to do now on Sunday evenings.........that is about all of the TV I watch in a week and I can't really settle to see a film through at the minute as I get fidgety after about 20 minutes. I haven't seen a good film for ages. I think the last one we watched was the second Elizabeth one which was a load of pants compared to the first one. I want to see Atonement and I Am Legend which we'll buy at the end of the month so until then it will have to be season three of Grey's Anatomy on the computer for the twentieth time.

Well I best get off and do some work.......I have to bag up these cards and finish off the 40th's before I go to bed.
Nighty night
Sheila-x-

Friday, 14 March 2008

Daring Cardmakers-Teen Spirit!!!

Rachel has set her first dare at Daring Cardmakers and a very good one it is too.
It came in very handy to make me get some cards done for the local shop and this is one of the designs I did.
Spotty background has been made by using a piece of sequin waste as a mask and applying Versamark ink through it. I then dabbed over with turquoise chalk to set the ink and then rubbed more on in places to give a distressed finish.
The white circle has been grunged with a StazOn ink pad and then layered onto a punched scallop circle.
The handbag is from a Sizzix die cut in silver with a turquoise layer which has been stamped with a tiny flourish stamp from a Studio G mini set and sponged with Asphalt ink.
Thanks for looking.
Sheila-x-


ETA-I just reread the dare and realised I got it wrong......I wasn't supposed to do flowers or girly oh bu??er!!!

Wednesday, 12 March 2008

Tanda Teaser-Hey Up Me Old China!!!

The new Tanda Teaser challenge has been set and is posted HERE
You don't need to be a stamper to take part. Whatever your style, we love to see your takes on the challenges.
Don't be shy.....we don't bite.......well I can't vouch for Alex but the rest of us are OK.....lol!!!
Hope to see you there.
Sheila
-x-

Tuesday, 11 March 2008

Sorted!!!


Oh yay......the sort out is finally over and all but two boxes of stuff have been found places in my newly laid out room. The two boxes have been shoved under the stairs and heaven only knows when they will see the light of day again.
Anyway while I was sorting out I found a piece of white card that I had sprayed with webbing spray and never done anything with and Saturday night I had the urge to do some really grungy stamping and the two cards are the result.
The green card is the webbing background washed with Adirondack inks and then overstamped with a small border stamp in each corner using Versamark which was then brushed with Cosmic Shimmer powders.
The main image was stamped in Versamark onto glossy card, dried and then sponged with inks. I then roughly inked the stamp with black StazOn and stamped over the image again, shifting the image slightly and not pressing fully to leave areas unstamped.
The clasps holding the picture on are tag tabs which have been brushed with Cosmic Shimmer powders and attached with paper fasteners.
The front of the card blank has been stamped in black StazOn and then a piece torn from the side has been inked and attached to the inside edge with DST.
Stamps by Paper Artsy.





The blue card has been sponged with Distress inks in Antique Linen and Blue Jeans then spritzed with water and dried. I over stamped using a flourish stamp from one of the Basic Grey sets.
The dragonfly is a Woodware Chippy which I have punched holes into with my Crop-adile. It had an ink wash and then was stamped and embossed in silver and brushed with Cosmic Shimmer powder. I'm chuffed to bits with the antennae as me and wire don't normally get on too well and I end up throwing my efforts away but I don't think this turned out too bad.





Jay of Indigo Inklings has very kindly given me another 'You Make My Day' award. Thank you so much Jay.
I will get around to passing this award on but my blog hopping time is severely limited at the moment as I have taken on another part time job and am now out of the house five days a week. By the time I get in and have had tea and bathed or showered it is quite late and then days off are spent catching up on jobs I've not got done. I'm not complaining although I will e glad when I get myself into a routine.




Well I had best be off and do another couple of things before I turn in for the night.
Thanks for dropping by.
Sheila-x-

Thursday, 6 March 2008

Two Challenges In One!!!


Due to a lack of time I have had to make this card to cover two challenges. First the 'dare' over at DARING CARDMAKERS for which we had to use hand sewing in our design. I wanted something a little chunkier than the normal sewing threads which is all I have at the moment so I split a length of parcel string and used that for the stem and flower detail. I couldn't find a needle that would take the string but not leave great big holes so I have used a pokey tool to push the thread in and out of the holes and then for the flower I have punched holes as part of the design.
The TANDA TEASER this week set by Wendy is to make a Get Well card so I have added a stamped sentiment.
Paper is Fleur De Terre by Around The Block. I am shocked that I have used this double sided sheet of utter scrumptiousness as I only bought it today. The card mat is one side of the paper and the scalloped layer of the flower is the other.
Sentiment stamp-unknown.




I have a day off tomorrow so I am going to have to clean this workroom. Without a word of a lie an elephant could lose itself in all the stuff I have lying about. It's just me being a very untidy crafter at the minute......worse than usual. Good job I don't want to use Jimminy Cricut as he is buried under the most humungous pile of of stuff.
DD has offered to cook tomorrow so this may be the last post I ever make on my blog.......lol!!! Bless her.........she's not that interested in cooking but she is really making an effort to learn just lately and tomorrow she will be attempting a homemade soup and homemade bread..........well a packet done in the breadmaker but something she hasn't tried yet. You may be forgiven for thinking that she is a little girl but no she is 28 years old.....lol!!! She has never been very domesticated but since I went through a bad patch with my health she has been amazing. I love her to bits and just don't know what I did to deserve her.
Anyway I think I might start a bit of this tidying now before I do anything else.
Thanks for dropping by.
Sheila-x-

Tuesday, 4 March 2008

Daring Cardmakers-I Am Woman!!!


Hi there
Sorry the blog has been neglected for a couple of days. I have been trying to catch up with some jobs and make some stock for the local shop plus I have been at work the last couple of days. I have a day off tomorrow so I have been able to take a couple of hours or so for myself and have a play with the DCM dare from last Friday....I Am Woman. These two cards are a tad late for Mother's Day so I have made them as just everyday cards.
I've used the same image on both cards with the same paper and ribbon and just used slightly different embellishments on each one.
For the top card I have done a Sanded Chalks background and then overstamped in the same chalk ink using a flourish stamp by Fancy Pants.
The bottom card unfortunately has quite a few peeloffs on it as I wanted to use them up but these are quite nice ones by Magenta in a lovely soft coppery colour. The flowers are some Prima hydrangeas which I just bought in cream a couple of years ago and haven't used much. Here I have used a tip I saw on Splitcoast Stampers (for colouring ribbon) to colour the flowers. I used Posh Rainbow metallic ink which I watered down in a plastic container and dipped the flowers into. I dried them with a heat gun and they retained their shape beautifully. The patchy bits are where the metallic pigments ran onto the fronts of the flowers as I dipped them and it gives the most gorgeous aged effect.
I will have a go at the Little Extra tomorrow if I have time. I have rashly offered to cook tomorrow to give hubby a day off.........when will I learn to keep my mouth shut.....lol!!!
Oooooh it's only just after midnight so I think I will play a bit longer seeing as I don't have to be up in the morning.......yay!!!
Bye for now
Sheila
-x-