Sunday 20 April 2014

Still Smiling

Gosh another post in less than 12 hours. I feel so 'on to it'.
I go back to work tomorrow, but I feel like I have had some good crafting time this weekend.

I have another card - this is for the Less is More challenge with the current theme 'Makes me smile'.


I chose this elephant from a Chocolate Baroque set because he has a wicked grin - he looks like he's done something really naughty and hasn't been caught yet. This is the first time I've stamped with him and he has come up so well that I'm grinning too. I coloured him with copic markers at  popped tiny dots of stickles on the red band of his cloth, The sentiment came from the same stamp set.

We have a number of elephant lover's in the family so it will easy to find a home for him on a birthday, and he was pretty simple to put together in this card, so perhaps I'll experiment and try other colour combinations.
Well - that's it for this post. I hope everyone has had a great Easter weekend.
Cheers, Dianne

Shabby Chic

I am loving Easter weekend.
The weather hasn't been wonderful, but it's been heaps better than the previous 10 days so it is looking pretty good in comparison - sort of like when your son finally tidies his room and you tell him how wonderful he is - when he should have been keeping it tidy anyway.

I have been able to spend more time doing some card-making and looking at other peoples cards on blog challenges. Sometimes I just feel daunted by how creative people are, but then I decide to emulate rather than surrender ... it's worth it for the satisfaction of doing something different, and something you feel pleased with.

The Just Add Ink challenge this week is a sketch which looked fun and I could see lots of possibilities for it.
I was thinking that if I had time it would be interesting to make 6 different cards based on the sketch because sometimes I get almost catatonic with confusion because I have so many bits of ideas and want to make it the best it can be. 

As a result of which I have bits and pieces of 'worked' paper that, although nice in their own right, have not been turned into a card because I've not been sure where to take them. But I keep them all on the off chance that I'll find the rest of the inspiration one day.

Meanwhile, back to this sketch - I decided to do something I haven't tried before at attempted a shabby chic card. And I was quite happy with the result. And it all came from my stash.


I started with the script paper by using an Elizabethan-looking font and Shakespeare's Sonnet 116, Then tore it and inked it with distress inks. 
The dark card in the background is a really dark purple that I always have in my stash, The top panel is a piece of Basic Gray and the bottom is a piece of blue card that I embossed and inked about with until it looked more relaxed. The lace is from my sewing stash, the flower I made & then added the skeleton leaves, and some branches from a memory box die. I inked and lightly glittered the branches. 

My daughter thought it looked great and wants it for a friend's birthday next month, so I will pop a birthday sentiment on it then. 

I know there are some faults with it - but I'm not saying ... but on the whole I'm happy with it as a first attempt at shabby chic, so thank-you 'Just Add Ink' design team for giving me the inspiration to push out of my comfort zone a little.

Well - my Easter break ends tomorrow, so I'm off to make another card
Cheers, Dianne

Friday 18 April 2014

Shadowing

I have a very late card to enter into the Less is More challenge this week. Chrissie's challenge was to show evidence of shadowing - it is also One Layer Week ...

I had a bit of a busy week, but in spare moments I kept playing with shadowing, but my attempts looked unconvincing.

I really wanted to enter the challenge, so after doing some housework and enjoying our first sunny day since daylight saving finished almost a fortnight ago, I got down to it  - nothing like a little deadline pressure to put a rocket under you.

And this is what I came up with - it is not world-shaking but I was happy with the effect.


I have had this little leaf stamp for ages & it is very handy.  I stamped it each time & re-stamped without re-inking to create the shadow effect,  Then I masked the first stamping of the leaves and used a text-like stamp - for this I inked it and then just whiped the left & right edges with my finger to give a fade-out effect.

Initially I just left it like that but it seemed a little low key, so I  chalked the leves with a little soft green to give them a bit of bounce.

I have not added a sentiment because sometimers it's nice to have a card to write a quick note in. I can always add one at the top if an occasion calls for it.

Well so much for our nice day - we are ending it with thunder - so I expect it will be grey and sticky tomorrow - yay
Have a lovely Easter weekend
Cheers, Dianne



Sunday 6 April 2014

Turquoise Hearts

After my last blog post I checked out the new challenge on 'Less is More' and discovered that it was 'A touch of turqoise' - one of my favourite colours.

I decided I wanted something jewel-like as my theme so I looked up turquoise on Google images and found some geat pictues of pieces of  turquoise.

 To create the same impression I coloured plain card with copic markers (BG13 & BG05). I coloured the whole surface alternately at least three or four times (they probably produce a pen that would be the perfect colour - but I don't own it) then I used my handy crackle stamp and stamped over it using black memento ink.

I die cut two hearts and clear embossed them to give a nice shine. I
 chose a textured cream coloured card to create a contrast with the shiny hearts. I embossed the sentiment (which I wish I had got a little neater - but next time will be better).
I felt it needed a little more so I took a narrow border off the front of the card and ran a strip of the turquise card down the side.


Here's a close-up of the hearts



I feel really pleased with how this turned out (except for my embossing on the words).
This will be my last piece of crafting for the week I think.

I have a science assignment to hand in on Thursday. Lewis and I had fun with a kinex Trebouchet in the weekend and now I have to write up my results and establish my conclusions etc.  So I'm really pleased I have such a productive period of crafting beforehand.
thanks for reading
Dianne

Saturday 5 April 2014

Layers

Good morning - well it is for me.
We have just turned the clocks back from daylight saving and will have to quickly get used to very short evenings and the beginning of winter here. As long as no-one tells the weather that daylight saving has ended - we have had a lovely Autumn (unlike our nondescript Summer).


I was home alone last night so I had quiet and space to craft in, a creamy chicken liver pasta sauce for dinner (and Tigger was happy because I gave him some chicken livers too), and I watched 'Big'. No one else in the family is interested in watching it, so I've been saving it for when I'm on my own. Tom Hanks is great - even now - decades after this movie was made.

I have been busy recently with non-craft things and had made a few unsuccessful attempts at last week's Less is more challenge 'Round and round' so I was feeling a bit creatively stunted. I saw that the 'Just Add Ink' challenge was 'Just add ... layers', so off I went and put a card together from pieces I had been experimenting with.


I really just let it grow how it wanted. The components just fitted together.
I had been practicing using my distress ink to make backgrounds (I love the crushed olive colour). and then I used a die as a stencil to add the dots. The branch is a memory box die, as are the leaves, and the blossom are mage from a punch. I cut everything out of cream cardstock and coloured it so I would keep more texture. I have added some fine glitter to the stem and centre of the flowers, and a little on the leaves (there is now glitter all over the table). It doesn't show up well on the photo but catches the light nicely in reality.

I was going to tidy the card to remove the edges of my experimental inking - but then decided I rather liked the fading out effect. so I trimmed the sides, left the top & bottom, inked the edges, and looked for paper to layer with it.

I didn't expect more dots, but they echo the smaller ones and the colours looked fine. And red! That was a surprise, but after I tried the red behind my composition everything else just looked a bit limp ... so Red it was.

I'm feeling much better about my creativity now and have started thinking about the Less is More - touch of turquoise challenge.

Hopefully I wont be so long between posts now either - well - I'm off to pack in a little more crafting before I have to round up the family and bring them back to the fold.
Enjoy your day and thanks for reading
Cheers, Dianne