Yay - back at it

It is has been months since my last post and I have just spent part of last week, and the weekend making cards & playing with my stamps. It's been lovely.

I have read blog posts where people talk about losing their Mojo ... I felt like I had lost even more than that for a while. It wasn't just inspiration, but the confidence to actually sit down and create.
I  looked at challenges but didn't feel I had the courage to start things, or see them through. But I still enjoyed checking out entries to challenges and have seen some awesome cards over the last few months.

It's interesting how when one part of your life is out of kilter it effects other parts. Now I have started a new job and made some decisions about parts of my life, I feel so much better about myself and where I'm headed. I don't have the aswers to anything much - but at least I feel like I have some idea of what the questions and issues are.

Possibly the fact that it is winter (Spring supposedly - though you wouldn't know it) here and the family have all had horrible colds (sometimes more than once) has impacted my mood - so maybe the beginning of spring (if only notional) will boost my confidence.

Some Months ago I bought the Mackintosh Windows & Mackintosh Beauty stamps from Chocolate Baroques. They were so beautiful I almost felt unworthy of them amd, apart from a card for my daughter's birthday I have not used them. But my husband really likes these stamps, and it's his birthday this week so I sat down with them.

I can't show his card because he may well read this blog & I want to keep it as a surprise since he made the effort not to peek while I was working on it. Anyway having been envigorated by my success with his card I went on with the same technique and made a card for  his mum's birthday, which is coming up in a couple of months. This is it and I'm really happy with it.

I thought I'd get my crafty ball rolling by entering this in the Simon Says Stamping Wednesday challenge which requests the use of a rubber or clear stamp - no digi stamps & this is definitely a rubber stamp image.
I stamped the rose window stamp from the Mackintosh Windows set & embossed with copper & coloured it in with copic markers. The 'happy birthday, is from another Chocolate baroque set. The pink card has been versamaked with a selection of the single rose stamps & I popped it onto a dark blue card.
I was so chuffed at how this turned out that I went on to 'experiment' with different colous using the mini version of this stamp that came with a Craft Stamper magazine a few months ago ... & I now have my first Christmas card

 I was nicely surprised by the different effect created by using red for the roses. I still need to stamp a sentiment onto it. None of my current ones look quite right, so I guess I will have to have a look for one - but that's ok - I can handle the shopping :-)


The interesting thing about these Mackintosh Windows stamps is that they are so complete they don't need much in the way of extra work. They are definitely the star of anything they are applied to.
It's back to work for me tomorrow morning - but my crafty mess is still on the table and I have lots of ideas to keep me busy - yay
Thanks for reading & looking.
Happy crafting everyone :-)

Mothers' Day

It is Mothers' Day in New Zealand this Sunday and I like to make Mum a card - let face it - if anyone appreciates your creativity it's your Mum - especially once you move out of her house and any resulting mess is not her responsibility.

I thought she'd really like the shabby chic card I made a few weeks ago for a challenge (see here), but that had already been nabbed by Eleanor for a friend's birthday card. So I decided I'd do something similar. For the original I copied a Shakespeare sonnet & used a nice font I found.  I was hoping to do the same with a mum-themed poem, but I couldn't find anything on the net that wasn't too cute ... so I decided to write something.

Mum's are complex things - as are our relationships with them - so I thought I'd just write about how it took being an adult and having my own children to appreciate all that she had done for me, and is still doing.
Anyway it sounded ok when I'd finished (though definitely not a poem), however, having written it I couldn't bring myself to tear it into a strip for a card, so I ended up making a bit of a feature of it and building the card around that.

It was another card that used up bits from my stash, so that always makes me feel a virtuous. The little flowers are cut from some vellum & I like the translucence of them.  I was pleased by how willing they were to curve - I thought the vellum would be too inflexible for that.

Now I need to find an envelope to fit it and get it in the post today otherwise it wont make it to Feilding by Saturday's post.
I'm not entering it into any challenges ... except the 'hope Mum likes it' challenge.
Well - enough fun - I'm off to do some housework
thanks for reading, & have a lovely day
Dianne

One Layer - Flowers

It has been a couple of weeks since my last posting.
I've wanted to craft and have kept an eye on some of the challenges, but somehow other things took my time. I guess it was good that I had so much productive time over Easter.

Yesterday afternoon I checked out the latest challenge at One-Layer Simplicity Challenge and the theme was 'fabulous flowers'. And, yes I am one of those people with a large collection of flower and nature stamps, so I knew I had to give it a go ... besides I should be working on a science paper I'm in the middle of ... so what better time to stop and do some crafting.

I tried to do some masking with a circle but the effect wasn't what I'd hoped (though I have not given up on it yet) and then uncovered a large single flower stamp that I have always liked. My card grew from that - keeping in mind the element of simplicity.

I masked the top edges and inked the stamp petals with a peony red and the stamens with yellow, I don't often ink with two colours on a stamp - but this time it came out better than I'd hoped.

Then I removed the mask and ruled a border round the stamp.  I really like borders - they add a bit of formality to an image.

I coloured my flower with chalks and popped the sentiment in the opposite corner for balance.
This was a reasonably simple card to make ... coming up with the idea is what takes the time.

Anyway I am really happy with it and will enter it into the One-Layer Simplicity challenge.
thanks for reading and please leave a comment
Cheers, Dianne

PS. I've just read over my post to make sure I have not done anything too stupid with my spelling, and looking at my card again ... I think a bee would be nice .... so I'll go away and think about that one - Dianne

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

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

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