Something Beginning with B

While visiting some of my favourite blogs I spotted a challenge from Allsorts and they seem to be playing a game of 'I-Spy' and the letter is 'B'.  I was just about to post this card which as it happens has a bird on it so I guess this would qualify.   I stamped a large dictionary page as background before over stamping with some flowers and a branch.  I then stamped, coloured and die cut the bird and punched out a few tiny flowers from scraps of card coloured using the same ink as was used to colour the bird (Distress Markers).  A fancy die cut which was lying around just seemed to fit the space at the side and a stamped greeting was cut out with banner dies with the bottom layer being white card coloured with Distress ink to match the flowers.

Bird - Best Birds stamps and matching dies from Stampin' Up
Dictionary Page - Stampin' Up large stamp
Wisteria Flowers - Stamp from Chocolate Baroque
Banners and Fancy Shape - Sue Wilson dies.
Flowers - punch from Stampin' Up

Snippets Playground Challenge

I normally make something specifically for the Pixie Snippets fortnightly challenge but this time I'm entering something made for a challenge set by the patchwork and quilting group of which I'm a member because it uses eleven and a half snippets of yellow fabric - don't ask!!  I will however explain why such an odd number in case any other groups would like to give their members a similar challenge so bear with me.

Here goes - we were told to use black fabric measuring 10" x 30" as our background and next we had to pick (lucky dip style) a colour, a shape and a number from three pots each containing ten  folded pieces of paper - my draw resulted in having eleven and a half yellow circles to work with.  The project was to be kept a secret until completed in time for the big reveal which was last Thursday which means I can now share a photo of my efforts.  There were some very ingenious ideas and some forty or so of these hangings will be displayed at our next quilt exhibition and possibly at a Crafts4Crafters show in the autumn as part of the South West Quilters stand.

As I had raided my scraps of fabric to find the yellow snippets and also found some green and purple to add to the mix I reckon this will qualify for the Playground this week.  The yellow circles were made into Suffolk Puffs (or yo-yos for American readers) and I then cut out a stem, leaves and a couple of butterflies so that when applied to the background it would, hopefully, pass for a flower - maybe a hollyhock??

I hope you all have a lovely Easter weekend - weather looks quite nice at the moment but definitely not as warm as it was a week ago.

Easily Sidetracked ...

Yes, that's me!!  I started this morning with the intention of catching up with one of my least favourite jobs which is preparing and putting inserts into cards, then popping them into cello bags with envelopes.  A very necessary job I know but one which I tend to leave until there a pile to deal with rather than finishing off as I go along.  As the title suggests I did become sidetracked and started playing around with a technique for using an embossing folder to emulate the letterpress effect.  I brayered some ink onto one side of the folder, then stamped a house scene directly onto the folder before popping in a piece of watercolour paper and running it through the machine.  Magic - the house is now peeping through the birch trees!!  I coloured the house and bushes with Distress markers, drew a few birds in the sky, added a sentiment and here we have a New Home card.  I can see that this technique has many more possibilities and is one which I will be using again I'm sure.

Incidentally I have now printed off all the inserts I need and I REALLY am about to finish off what I meant to do today before I do anything else.  I've even done an insert for this card and the ink is hardly dry - how good is that?

Embossing Folder - Woodland Scene by Sizzix (Stampin' Up)
House - stamp from a Chocolate Baroque set (had them for years)
Sentiment - free from a recent magazine give away

Butterflies

I like to try out a new die when I get it and so I've made this simple card using a cascading butterfly die - the sentiment had already been die cut and was lying around unused just waiting for a suitable card.  In hindsight (wonderful thing that) I think It would have been better if I'd maybe embossed the brown layer because it looks rather plain and even now I might just add some die cut corners.  I'm sure there are many more exciting ways of using this die set which I'm sure I will discover as I play with it.  I cut the outline die into the brown card which was then backed with a layer of gold before cutting the butterflies and their frame in cream Centura Pearl card.  The brown layer was slightly raised up so that the frame and butterflies would sort of drop inside.  This is quite a large die and would lend itself to being featured on a much larger card than I've used here. (this is a 5" x 7" card)

I've just looked at the theme for the butterfly challenge this time in case my card fits - of course it doesn't and I should really have read the butterfly post first!!

Butterfly die - Sue Wilson Cascading Butterflies
Sentiment - Crafter's companion die

Experimenting

Yesterday I visited the Crafts4Crafters show where naturally there was so much to see.  I'd decided that if I saw them I would treat myself to some of the new Tim Holtz Distress ink pads and I was lucky although there only appeared to be one trader who had them on display.  I thought on the whole that it was a good show but with less paper crafting than in some earlier shows - there seems to have been a 'shift' towards more general crafts and there were lots of opportunities to see knitting, crochet, embroidery,  traditional felting, needle felting, patchwork/quilting and so on as well as fabrics of all kinds.  A very enjoyable day out.

Anyway I had a little play onto some white card with the ink pads I bought  and came up with quite an acceptable piece on which I've stamped a dandelion clock with some of the other stamps in the set.  I found  suitably coloured pieces of paper and card in one of my boxes and put this card together.  I'm sure there are lots of possibilities with these inks, including the fact that they also work on dark card and of course the experiments will continue - also I guess a few trawls around YouTube!!

Backing paper - odd piece from my stash (Chocolate Baroque) probably discontinued
Stamps - Dandelion set from Hobby Art
Ink colours - TH Distress Oxide, Fired Brick, Fossilised Amber, Broken China
Sentiment - free stamp on Stampin' Up punched shapes

A Great Crafty Day

I recently went to a wonderful Stampin' Up Day presented by the lovely Jill of Jill Stamps Up where we had a stamp set to use and take home with us.  We were given a wide selection of projects with 3D items to make and some cards too.  It was a very busy day and Jill had worked so hard to provide us all with comprehensive 'kits' and instructions for everything.  I didn't quite  manage to get everything done in the time and went away with 'homework' so to show some of my friends that I actually finished off things at home here are a couple of the cards - still two more to do!  It was amazing and interesting to see lots of lovely samples showing various ways to use this set of stamps in so many different ways.  There was double stamping involved here but relatively easy to do with the photopolymer stamps.

Stamp Set - High Tide by Stampin' Up
Colours - mainly Dapper Denim and Real Red

Tidying!

I've been making an effort to restore some semblance of order to the chaos which is my craft room and naturally have come across a selection of images, bits of card (some of which has been treated in some way) and other general detritus which all need either using up or throwing out.  Those who know me well know that I don't really 'do' throwing out except in extreme circumstances so at the moment I'm in 'using up' mode.  The image on this card was just waiting to be coloured, which I've now done using a mix of alcohol pen and coloured pencil; the pieces of card are all scraps which I've now die cut into useful shapes; the background paper is from my box of paper pad remnants and of course I've used three more pieces of 'card candy' - I probably have thousands of them in various colours (not counting though).

I'm ploughing my way through so hopefully I should have some more cards to show you.

Image - from Love You set Stampin' Up
Circles - Stitched shapes dies (SU) and scalloped circles (Tattered Lace)
Sentiment - free stamp with set from a magazine give away
Banner - Sue Wilson dies, white layer embossed after stamping - Sue Wilson embossing folder
Card Candy - Craftwork Cards