For the Boys

The challenge on Addicted to stamps his week is a themed card suitable for men or boys.  I've used a Stampin' Up stamp - the sails were cut out and layered up for a bit of dimension.  Backing paper is from Tim Holtz vintage shabby range, layering is done with Nestabilities and I just added some die cut swirls which look a bit like ocean waves.

R is for Retro (and Ribbon)

My second tag this month is less elaborate but no easier to think of something to fit the letter - it seems to get harder as the alphabet progresses and I daren't think about the end few letters yet.  A favourite set of stamps from Elusive Images (now Chocolate Baroque) is Retro Flowers and this is what I turned to for this tag.  The background was inked with Distress inks and then water stamped which lifts some of the colour.  The main image was simply stamped and embossed, cut out using a Spellbinders die.  The retro style embossed piece of card was produced by inking the embossing folder before inserting the card - a piece of ribbon was added for good measure.  These two tags have been posted off now and I'm looking forward to seeing which 'swaps' I'll be getting this month - the collection is growing.

Q is for Quilling

Time to be thinking about sending off the two tags for this month in the Chocolate Baroque alpha tag swap and for 'Q' I settled on quilling which is something I'd not done for years but I have all the 'stuff' for it.  At first I had difficulty thinking of anything to fit this letter especially as products from CB have to be included but this aspect is taken care of with the background which was coloured using Distress Stains and then some overstamping using CB grasses stamps to form the basis for my quilled 'garden' complete with cheeky frog sitting on a stone.  I will show you my take on the tag for 'R' another day.  At the moment it is so dark indoors that I need the light on to see what I'm doing and there is torrential rain so I won't be going to the post with these today.

Designing Jewellery

I've been tinkering about trying out various patterns, threads and colour combinations for braids made on the Kumihimo disc and plate - then of course what to do with these miscellaneous lengths of braid??  Some of them are being turned into items of jewellery and here is a necklace with a charm dangle which I designed to use this piece of black and gold braid.  The photo isn't as sharp as it might be because I should have used a tripod when taking it but I'm sure you get the general idea.

Forgotten Friday

Well another week seems to have disappeared while my back was turned but I have managed to come up with a card for Judith's Forgotten Friday challenge using a butterfly stamp from Crafty Individuals which I came across while looking for something else and realised it was a 'must have' when I bought it although I can't remember when it was last inked.  This was another case where I was trying to use up more of my scraps and everything on this card is just that.  Backing paper was an odd piece which seemed to go along with the text theme of the butterfly stamp which was stamped onto a page from an an old book which had fallen to pieces (couldn't throw away the loose pages could I??). A scrap of card coloured with alcohol inks was embossed with a Cuttlebug text embossing folder and I dyed some cream ribbon with the same colours.  Stamped sentiment on a die cut  ticket.  I'm busy at the moment playing around with a few jewellery ideas for a show demonstration but hopefully will manage a bit of inky stuff in between times and I will try to post on the blog more than I have managed this week.

A 'Cased' Card

I hope my friend Jill doesn't mind that I've 'cased' a card - or at least the idea- that she posted on her blog yesterday.  I'd not come across this technique before so thought I should give it a try and I adapted it to fit a square card using Stampin' Up products.  Stamps were from Fresh Vintage for the background and Apothecary Art for the shaped piece which was cut with the matching Framelits dies.  I can see this working with many of the stamps I have and is something I will be doing again so thanks Jill for sharing the idea.

Butterfly

This card was made using up scraps of card and paper from my bits box - strange thing is despite how much I use the piles don't seem to diminish!!  The stamp used was a Doodle Butterfly from Chocolate Baroque and for the sentiment tag I used stamps from Stampin' Up.  Nestabilities were used to cut the red border and cream shape and another scrap of cream card was put through an embossing folder  Backing paper was an oddment left over from another project.

 I made a start yesterday evening on clearing the rain forest -  aka my garden - but as it is raining again today I thought time in the craft room would be a good idea.  The long grass and weeds will have to wait although I'm soon going to need a machete to get out!!