W is for Wisteria

It is time to be posting off the two tags for November and then just two to make and post for next month and I will have a beautiful collection of 26 'swaps'.  I won't be too sorry to reach the end of these swaps because while I've really enjoyed making the tags and of course receiving some in exchange, there have been months where it has been a fight against time to get them done and some months severe taxing of the brain cells to fit stamps etc to the letters..  Luckily I have the Chocolate Baroque Wisteria Lane stamp set so that was an obvious choice for this month and I added a die cut picket fence along with a stamped and decoupaged bird bath from another older set of CB stamps to complete the Wisteria 'garden'.

I realise as I'm typing this that the Sunday Stamper challenge this week is on the theme of BIRDS so I will enter the tag into that one as well.

Stitching

The autumnal theme continues on Make My Monday blog and this week the topic is STITCHING - REAL OR FAUX.   I've employed a bit of artistic licence here and gone with the mellow creamy browns of the season and I'd say this Wellington Bear from Papermania has reached the autumn of his life!!  A touch fanciful maybe??  I went for the faux stitching with a stitch stamp from Creative Expressions - keep meaning to actually stitch onto a card but just don't get around to it somehow. Background and various layers are all Papermania papers and there is a layer of decoupage on Wellington (I try to keep cards fairly flat these days because of the postage costs.  Often people won't buy a card if they think it will incur extra postage.  There are some great Design Team cards on the MMM blog - well worth a visit.

Floral Theme

The theme this week on Addicted to Stamps and More challenge is FLOWERS  so not too difficult to find a floral stamp in my collection.  This stamp comes from Crafty Individuals and is a favourite of mine because it lends itself to all kinds of techniques.  This time I've chosen to go back to a technique I've not used for ages using alcohol inks with acetate and tissue paper.  Originally this involved using a particular liquid floor polish which if I recall was often difficult to come by and the whole technique was a bit messy and took ages to dry.  This time I used Glossy Accents which dried a lot more speedily.  The finished panel was trimmed and mounted onto  black card; backing paper is from Prima and has been overstamped with a flourish stamp (Chocolate Baroque) in green;   black card was embossed using a Cuttlebug folder, then spritzed with Green Glimmer Mist; the butterflies were stamped onto some of the green background scraps using a free stamp from Craft Stamper, cut out then sprayed with Goosebumps.  A greeting and a few pearls and that's it - a floral card.

Acomplete change in the weather - after yesterday's beautiful sunshine it is very dark and lashing with rain!!

Special Request

Good Morning all - a beautiful sunny morning with blue skies, albeit a bit chilly due to frost overnight, but it is definitely good to see the sun.

I received a request from a friend to make a birthday card for her husband who is a keen amateur artist and I agreed because I knew there was an image on one of the My Craft Studio discs featuring an artist.  Unfortunately my memory didn't serve me too well as the 'artist' was actually a female one called Violet!! However there is a companion disc with a character called Alfie so with a bit of editing and playing around within the programme I was able to produce a male artist and of course I could include her husband's name on the greeting and on the insert so hopefully she will think this card suitable. Backing papers are also from the same disc and I added some pen squiggles - the paint tube and palette were cut out and layered for dimension.

Flying Crane

I often seem to end up with pieces of background paper cut to size for a card and then in the end not used. I always do a sort of 'dry run' with my layouts and sometimes decide that certain elements aren't quite right so they get put aside.  The paper here is one such piece which I was determined to use so I started with that and then stamped the crane and dragonflies onto card from the bits box, cut out with a Stampin' Up Sizzix die - the stamps are from a clear set by Chocolate Baroque. As this die is quite large all that was needed was a greeting popped onto one of the smaller die shapes, a corner and a few gems. It is a lovely sunny morning at the moment, hopefully it will last because I'm being taken out today to see the seasonal display at a garden centre - always impressive and I think lunch out is the plan too so that has to be good.

Make My Monday Challenge

We are onto a new month of challenges at Make My Monday and this time the theme is AUTUMN and the first thing they want us to do is 'use our supplies' - KRAFT AND STRING.  I've used some Tim Holtz Kraft resist card, sponged with Distress ink as a background.  A Sizzix (SU) topnote die cut has been partially embossed in a cuttlebug embossing folder using one of the wonderful Sizzix embossing diffusers to leave an oval shape un-embossed so that I could stamp the branch.  Another small tag shape was cut using a Sizzix die and onto this I've added a posy of Sizzix tattered leaves and branches cut from distress-inked watercolour paper with a hand cut swirly pine cone (sort of) and some stamped acorns. I'm afraid I was in such a hurry to take a photo of the card before the light disappeared that I haven't left time for the glue to dry on the pinecone but now it has dried of course there is no white streak in the middle!!  The leafy branch and acorns are stamps from Stampin' Up Touch of Nature set.  Some string tied around and a greeting and there it is. 

Do pop over to Make My Monday to see the inspiration from the design team and maybe even take part in the challenge - there is a prize on offer which has to be a bonus!

A Bingo Card

I think I might just be catching up a bit although there is still some of the dreaded housework staring me in the face this morning.  The people at Addicted to Stamps and More have given us a bingo challenge this week, where we can chose three items from a line to make a project.

I selected DIES, BIRTHDAY AND FREE (embossing) to make this card.  Background paper is from Prima, the main image is a digital stamp from Just Inklined, punched out with a Stampin' Up punch and popped onto an embossed frame by Sizzix (SU), I die cut a Top Note shape,  embossed, sanded and inked to show up the detail.  The swirl was a Marianne die cut from a scrap of spritzed card (forgotten what it was spritzed with now as it was from the bits box), as was theSizzix dragonfly.  I used a few odd bits for the flower embellishment and to die cut for the sentiment.

Now I really must step away from the computer and press on with the h****work - excuse the rude word!!