And Now for Something Different...

A thoughtful friend spotted this knitting pattern and kindly passed it on to me because she knows how I like quirky things.  Wrist warmers seem to be all the rage at the moment and there are lots of different styles around but the fact that these had cute owls on the backs of them is what appealed here.  They are knitted in chunky yarn on four needles which I found a bit ifddly, mainly because of the small number of stitches and the large size of the needles plus the fact that there is also some cabling to do.  I do like knitting in the round but am more accustomed to knitting socks in 4 ply on fine needles (something else which I've been doing recently as well).  I've done my best to photograph them in the poor light and although the eyes do look different shades they are in fact all the same colour - just a trick of the light.  Again apologies for my lack of blogging but hopefully once the weeks get back to starting on the right day I can catch up!!

Wishing a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year to anyone I have missed.

Another Male Card

I've made another male card using the X-cut Horology range - this time some of the dies which make up into various pocket watches (a tad fiddly to do) and some of the other elements such as background paper and words - also the rest of the piece of kraft card embossed with the cuttlebug cogs.

I hope none of you are having any serious roblems with the relentless rain and wind which we seem to have with us today and threatened for the rest of the weekend. Let's hope that the New Year with bring something good when it arrives!

Steampunk Butterfly

This card uses the actual butterfly from the set this time (you may recall I made a card withs the rose stamp from the set).  I started by colouring some card with Glimmer Mists and once dry the butterfly was stamped in black and clear embossed before cutting it out - the body was cut out separately and layered.  Background paper was Tim Holtz vintage shabby with some overstamping and the trellis was cut using a Spellbinders die.  The cogs were cut from the same misted card; glitter brads were added to the centres and some copper was rubbed over the embossing. The cogs were cut with X-cut dies and the flourish was a Marianne die.  Sentiment was produced on the computer and punched out.

Male Birthday

When I spotted the new Docraft Creativity magazine with this wonderful free stamp as a give away I thought how good it would be for male cards. I'm not entirely sure but I think this type of globe is called an orrery or maybe an astral globe - perhaps someone clever might be able to put me right on this? What I should have done was do my research before writing this post!!

I stamped three times and embossed, then cut out some of the elements to layer.  There is a great new collection of Horology items with a steampunk feel  which makes them suitable for making these often difficult cards.  The background paper is from the same range, but the embossing folder used is one I already had although there is a new one from Docrafts with clocks and cogs as well as other exciting folders and new dies (very tempting). The embellishments were cut using a new die set which has a selection of cogs but I must say they were a bit fiddly to remove from the dies when cut despite using silicone paper with the kraft card. The sentiment is one lying around on my work space which I'd stamped a while ago and not used but it seemed to just fit nicely with the rest of the card. I now have a little pile of die cuts to make up a pocket watch - again a bit fiddly to deal with but hopefully they will appear on another male card very soon.

Seasonal Wishes

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my blogging friends and followers a Very Happy Christmas and a Prosperous and Healthy New Year.  Very many thanks for all your support and wonderful comments throughout the past year.  I hope you are all ready for the big day and that the horrible weather we've had forecast doesn't interfere with your celebrations.

This image was produced very quickly using Craft Artist

Steampunk Rose

When I saw these  Steampunk Butterfly stamps from Chocolate Baroque I just knew that a set had my name on it!  This card is made using the unusual rose which I love, a corner stamp and also another one which has been used on the background (a fragment reminscent of a rose window).  The main image coloured with Coloursoft pencils was stamped twice so that I could layer up the flowers and leaf; the background was a piece of watercolour paper inked with Distress stains and Adirondack ink, overstamped with the fragment and silver mica powder brushed on before the ink dried.  Pewter WOW embossing powder was used on the rose and on the corners. The main image and the metallic effect piece were cut using  Stampin' Up framelits dies (Sizzix).  A Tim Holtz embossing folder was used to produce the metallic piece which was a scrap of card with aluminium adhesive tape applied (bought from the DIY store).

It has been raining relentlessly here all day - and probably most of last night too, so I made the weather an excuse not to go out but stayed in to play with my new stamps.  Much more fun!!

Technique Tuesday

I was invited to take part in the Technique Tuesday challenge and there is a tutorial over there for this faux tile technique - follow the link to see it and also the work by their design team.  I used another Elusive Images stamp (now Chocolate Baroque), some Tim Holtz vintage shabby background paper and die cuts using up the other half of the Top Note piece which I cut yesterday and also a lattice Memory Box die. The sentiment was produced on the cojmputer and is layered onto an X-cut tag shape also die cut. I can see lots of potential for this idea and will probably be using it again as I'm sure it can look very different depending upon the stamps used.