November Quintiles

Well November seems to be rushing by while I've been pondering how to depict the theme of FIREWORKS  which was the obvious choice for the Quintiles this month.  Eventually I had a flash of inspiration and decided to use some of the stamps from  Elusive Images (now Chocolate Baroque) sets - Retro flowers/Vases because they  gave me the impression of bursts of colour in the sky such as would be seen with fireworks.  I used two different approaches here - one using the clear embossing resist technique, starting with yellow card and gradually adding images followed by a slightly darker colour of distress ink, then more resist with a darker colour and so on.  The other one was made using very dark purple card with  stamped and embossed images using various colours of Cosmic Shimmer embossing powders.  The descriptive word was typed on the computer and cut out with a label die.   It is lucky really that I actually got these made this month because it took me so long to come up with an idea but hopefully they will get there in time!!

Quilled Christmas Card

Yesterday I attended a seasonal quilling class with the lovely Jill and came away with lots of ideas for Christmas cards.  The card we made was this one which includes some lovely quilled pinecones which I'd not seen made before.  To my shame I've not actually done any quilling since I went to a class with Jill this time last year, consequently I'm not too happy with my poinsettia flower which to me looks a bit spindly so I might make some better ones for another project.  We were also shown a great Christmas rose flower which I made when I got home before I forgot how it was done so you might be seeing that at some point. I enjoy going to workshops and meeting other like minded people and I also treated myself to lunch which meant no cooking yesterday.

Where Did That Week Go??

I can hardly believe it is almost a week since I posted anything on my blog - apologies.  However I've at last managed to find a bit of time to get into the craft room and make something for the  Make My Monday challenge  This week they are asking for ANYTHING BUT A CARD and CHRISTMAS THEMED so I decided to use one of the box 'blanks' which I bought recently at the Stampin' Up Extravaganza.  The boxes are made from sturdy kraft card and have an acetate sleeve which slides over to cover the contents (mine is empty at the moment) but they are food-safe so could contain some nice home-baked goodies perhaps or even some shop-bought ones which appear to be home made - not that I'd cheat like that LOL!!!  I've added some patterned paper with matching mat layer and die cut a selection of Marianne poinsettias using Centura Pearl card.  The embossed detail doesn't show up in the main photo but the close-up should give you an idea.

Twelve Tags 2013

I expect many of you know about Tim's 12 tags series but if not you can check it out here.  I've not used all of the ideas this year and somehow I never seem to have quite the items he's used  although I can usually improvise if necessary.  The chalkboard technique used on the latest one has taken my fancy so I had a go but instead of using the traditional 'blackboard' colour I've used a very dark purple card and rather than make a tag I've decorated the cover of a journal. I've also incorporated a few of his other techniques from Creative Chemistry.  I won't go into details because you can read all about it on his blog but I used one of his blueprint stamps, Distress inks and stains along with various masks/stencils for the background.

All I need to do now is launch into jornalling which is an entirely new field for me - very daunting seeing all those blank pages staring at me!!

House of Cards Challenge

The first week of each month in the House of cards Challenge is CUTE AND FUN and this month they've given us a colour challenge by way of a photograph of poppies so my card has been made using various poppy shades.  I must say that their photograph is quite vibrant with more orangey (not sure this is a word!) colours now I look at it again but I've used various reds, and greens which I hope will be acceptable. The image and papers all came from Funky Hand CDs and the border made using a Tonic punch with the 3D flowers being made with a punch from Stampin' Up and also some of the 'waste' from the border with a few odd die cut leaves which happened to be lying around.  It's another grey and damp day here but I did see in the paper this morning that the first snow has landed in Co. Durham so I hope that doesn't mean we are in for an unpleasant winter this year.

Autumn Flowers

AUTUMN FLOWERS is the theme for this week's challenge at Make My Monday and there are some lovely cards by the design team for inspiration.  I've used a silhouette stamp from Stampin' Up, inked using marker pens and cut out using a die from their Apothecary Accents set.  The embossed background is Centura Pearl card with a Creative Expressions embossing folder and the various layers and borders used up some more of my scraps of paper and card which hopefully tone with the image in autumnal colours.

Christmas Ted

I can't really rouse much enthusiasm for Christmas yet although I heard yesterday that there were 'only 53 sleeps' until the big day so maybe I should start getting into gear.  I did make a seasonal card in the week using up some odd  die cuts which were on my desk, along with one of the Tatty Ted images I'd printed.  The background paper is from the Tatty Ted range as well and the dies used were from Marianne and Nelly Snellen.  Enjoy what's left of the weekend.