A Crafty Day

I've had quite a crafty day so far today starting with a great quilling workshop with Jill of Jill's Quills fame where we were shown lots of lovely ideas for quilled flowers.  I spent most of the time trying to perfect some of the more fiddly techniques such as 'folded' roses and fringed flowers using 3mm papers.  As Jill is also into Stampin' Up - See HERE - she delivered some stamps which I'd ordered from her.  It was difficult to decide which set to have a play with first but I settled on the floral set which, being triple stamped give the appearance of pen and wash.  I also made post-it note masks which I've saved in the case containing the stamps so that they can be used again if necessary.  I found some pieces of paper and card which went with the ink colours and made a quick birthday card - at least it was quick once I'd cut the masks and done the multiple stamping of the flowers!  Watch this space for something made from the second stamp set, also a multiple stamping set - I must say this technique is so much easier with the advent of photopolymer stamps .

Stamps - Penned and Painted by Stampin' Up
Colours - So Saffron, More Mustard, Certainly Celery and Wild Wasabi
Embossed border - Crafter's Companion

Feathers

This is the second card I made on Sunday, again mostly using up scraps of card.  I'm going to schedule this one just to see if the process has improved since I tried last (it was quite a while ago).

Embossing folder for background - Crafter's Companion brick wall
Feathers - Stampin' Up stamps with matching thinlits die
Text - large dictionary stamp also SU
Sentiment - also SU, stamped and heat embossed on a strip of parchment

Butterfly Challenge

Having had a spell where I've not made much in the way of cards, I've actually managed to produce two today and one of them is for the Butterfly Challenge where the theme is DIMENSION AND/OR DENIM.  I've used an embossing folder and dies which came free with a magazine recently because I thought I really should open the packet and try them.  I found a scrap of Tim Holtz paper which was a suitable colour for the background and the embossed card is also one of his - a whitewash card which has been lightly sanded to reveal the core after embossing.  The reverse of this card has also been used for the punched flowers (Stampin' Up punch).  I was going to schedule this post but as it doesn't always work for me and we are near the deadline I will post it today instead.

Snippets Playground

Another week has rushed by and my goodness it has been HOT - a bit too much so for comfort really although I imagine there are people who enjoy hot weather.  Anyway this means that it is time again to visit the Pixie Snippets Playground where the lovely Di has chosen some great picks from last week.  I'm not saying this because she was kind enough to include my card but there are others which illustrate some great techniques and ideas.  Alcohol ink seems to be back in vogue again but with some new paper which I've not yet come across and probably don't need although it always interesting to try new ideas (any excuse for a crafty shop).

This card was made a little while ago using up a stray image which was lying around together with some die cuts made from snippets of card.  I'm not sure how my pile of bits and pieces never seems to diminish even though I keep using them up!!  I'm aiming for a productive day today, hopefully using more scraps so that at least I should have something for the playground next week as well.

Image - Polkadoodles
Dies - circle from Tattered Lace, Lattice layers from Marianne
Sentiment - printed, cut out with bitty banner die from SU

Swirly Scribbles for Snippets Challenge

Well how is that title for a bit of alliteration?   I raided my bits boxes for a selection of colours to make this card and die cut the pieces several times, leaving me with four piles of bits and pieces on my mat - some of them very small I must say.  If you check out the post written by the clever Di HERE you will see her explanation of a really good way to deal with inserting all the teeny bits back into the spaces in the die cuts.  I did mine in the really fiddly way by sticking the main die cut shape down, then scrabbling through the coloured bits before sticking some of them back into the gaps with the aid of tweezers and glue which was a bit of a fiddly task.  I will certainly grab a sticky sheet to give her method a try next time I decide to go for this technique!!  Definitely a good number of snippets this week.

Sorry I've not posted much lately, nor left many comments but I've not been feeling 100%, hopefully on the mend now though.

Dies - Swirly Scribbles set from Stampin' Up
Sentiment - stamp from SU with large oval punch

Flutter Bracelet

This bracelet was also spotted on Linda's Blog and she has in fact made it in several different colour combinations and in THIS POST she gives links to the pattern source and also useful information about where to obtain the beads.  Mine has been made using what beads I have which I thought would go together and I'm going to try other colours when I have time to sort through my stash.

Again this is a small photo but if you click on the image you can see the larger version

Bracelets

Whilst I've not been too active on the card making front, nor blogging either, I've been beading.  A friend and I went to a bead fair recently and although I didn't buy too much, I was reminded that I have quite a few of the various Czech twin hole beads in my stash which need using.  I had a little trawl around Pinterest and came across lots to see and discovered THIS BLOG which introduced me to patterns I could use and maybe adapt slightly for the beads I have rather than buying more.  If you scroll down through some of the recent posts I'm sure you will see why I like what Linda makes - also why I will have to be careful not to be tempted into buying even more beads!!

This Lucy bracelet is one of Linda's patterns although I've not used exactly the same beads because I didn't have half tilas or silky beads.  Instead I substituted bricks and Kheops triangles.  I've made a couple of other items from her patterns which I might show you at some point.

EDIT - I 'm sure you all know this but if the picture is too small to see it will enlarge if you just click on it