Stampotique Triptych Challenge....

To be honest, I never thought my attempt at a triptych card for the Stampotique Designer's Challenge 27 would ever make it my blog...I seem to have been making it for ever, and felt sure I must have run out of time...but I do believe, I've just made it in the nick of time!! PHEWWWW!!

I started off by folding and cutting a piece of A4 card, then creating a background using acrylic paints in shades of yellow, blue and green on both sides of the card. I stamped with Daisy Daisy along the bottom edge of both sides. I stamped Row Houses onto old book paper and also onto white card, then coloured the card centre house with Distress Inks, cut it out and stuck it back in its correct position on the paper row. 

At this point I had 2 songs going round in my head.. both 'Our House', one by Crosby Stills & Nash (Our house is a very very very fine house, with 2 cats in the yard) and the other by Madness. Whilst I love the first one, the stamp seemed to lend itself to the lyrics of the second better, so that was the one I chose. However my house did end up with 'one cat in the yard' in the form of Kitty!! The little fence in front of the house is a Collage Anonymous download.

For the front, I stamped Welcome Door onto card, coloured it with DI's again and cut and mounted it onto the triptych. I completed the 'Welcome' phrase on the door with a few more words printed on the computer and edged with a fine black pen. I thought someone needed to be making the statement, and Two Sticks seemed to fit the bill perfectly!

I also decided to pop them outside their house on the inside too!

I think they'd definitely have to 'duck' to fit inside!!!

My mum has commented that my work never looks as vibrant on the blog as it does in reality. I think this is true of all of our work, but generally I tend to use my phone to take my photos, so this time I have actually used a camera, and taken advantage of the recent good weather and used natural daylight. I think they are a little better.....

Thanks for looking!!

xx

Anniversary...Mother's Day....and babies!!!

Had a busy couple of weeks preparing cards for last weekend! Obviously I couldn't blog these as I didn't want the recipients to get any sneaky peeks...but here they are now!
On Saturday it was our 23rd Wedding Anniversary...we had a lovely day & overnight in Chester, and thanks to my lovely hubby I am now the owner of a Pandora bracelet :) We went to 'Appy Feet' and had our feet nibbled by little fishies...a strange, yet very pleasant experience!

...And here is the card I made for the man himself....

It's very plain, but I love it for its simplicity! The bird image is Stampin' Up, the writing is all computer generated and the bunting is hand cut from printed paper, then doodled round. Simples!!!

Next up was Mother's Day...obviously we weren't at home in the morning, so Mum had to wait a little while for her card and pressie...she said it was worth the wait...so that was the main thing!! Here's the card...

I created the background using a variety of acrylic paints and ink sprays on watercolour paper. I then stamped the small butterflies (Stampin' Up, again!) onto this and stamped further, larger butterflies onto some offcuts. The words are, once again computer generated. Here's a close up...

The antennae took me longer to make than the rest of the card!!! I threaded seed beads onto very fine florists wire and attached to the back of each butterfly with red line tape. The butterflies are attatched with foam pads on one wing to give a little dimension. I had a spare butterfly left over, so decided to use it to make an insert for the card..

I made..well, with a lot of help from M&S!.....a lovely afternoon tea for us all...in anticipation of our trip to The Ritz for the real thing in May!!! It was a lovely relaxing weekend....though I fear my diet has 'gone to pot'!!! Guess what??? I don't care!! Next week is another week!!!

My final offering for today was made to welcome the most adorable little bundle of gorgeousness I've seen for quite a while! I wanted a slightly unusual present, and whilst I was hunting..came across this....

...which got the old cogs turning...I thought "Hmmmm, I'm sure I can alter that to look more imaginative than it does right now!" I THINK I was right!! 

It went to this...

...with the addition of some gesso and acrylics....and then to this....

...with some die cut flowers and letters!! Not forgetting the charms, of course....

It was posted 'First Class' on Friday....and still hasn't reached its destination, which is about 15 miles away! Could have walked there quicker!! Just hope it hasn't got lost on the way :(

Couldn't finish without a picture of the babe herself...

....how beautiful is she???

Thanks for looking...see you soon!

xx

PS....Just heard from Isabella's mummy...it's arrived!!! PHHHEWWWWW!!!!

Just a quick one!!!

Thought I would share a 'Thank you' card with you today! I made it for my cousin, who very kindly had me to 'stay-over' whilst Bethany was in hospital. She only lives about 20 minutes from the hospital, so it was much easier than driving backwards and forwards every day. She has 2 lovely spaniels, Charlie and Millie, so I wanted to make sure that that was a feature of the card....and I just love this house stamp and will use it any excuse!

I stamped the houses onto old book paper, then again onto white card. I coloured the latter with DI's, cut out and stuck them onto the other image. The letters are cut from a Sizzix die, and my finishing touch was the little spaniel charm, which I, unbelievably, found in my stash! She was delighted to receive the card...so a result all round!

Bye for now xx

Hey!!! Remember me????

Well, hello!! Finally made it back after a hectic three weeks! Bethany is more or less recovered and was delivered back to Sheffield on Tuesday, so now I can back to 'me things'!!
I have, at last, found time to finish my wonderful Tim Holtz Configuration Box....and it is now ready to share with you. What a FANTASTIC day I had...I met lovely people, made wonderful things, and generally had a ball!!!
My day started with registration at 8am, followed by a spot of shopping!! This was a first....not the shopping, but doing craft shopping at that hour in the morning!! Unfortunately the shop was FAR busier than Tesco is at a similar hour, but I struggled on!!! :)

Next it was off to the classroom where Tim was waiting for us, along with a fab pile of goodies for us to create with.

All our papers had been cut to size and scored, so all we had to do was snip out the corners, fold, and pop into the appropriate box, and VOILA!! In hardly any time at all we were already this far along!!

With tissue tape added it was time for a coffee break....

Upon our return to the work room, this little bag of goodies was waiting for us!! 

We were not allowed to open it until we had permission, but, oh it was WORTH THE WAIT!!

I made a fair bit of progress during the time we had left, but have completed my project at home...and here it is....

I don't think all the compartments show up that well on this picture, so I'm going to bore you with a close up of each one....no apologies!!

We made our own printing style blocks with grunge....

In the afternoon we had a class with Lin and Leandra and made this.....

It was a great day.....my hands were clean by the following Monday, and I love my finished products!! Sorry to have rambled, and been a bit photo-heavy....but here's one last one to finish!!! :)

Not a great picture...Bethany reckons I look like I have a gun in back!!

Have got some more stuff ready to post...so will be back soon!!

xx

What a week!!!

Well.....you know when you have a plan, and it goes completely wrong?? Well that was me this week!!! Ian was away in Florida (...on business allegedly!!) so I decided I'd have a really crafty few days. I went blog hopping and wrote a list of challenges of all the things I felt I could tackle. I even NEARLY completed the one for Play Date Cafe...it just needed a few finishing touches.....then...I got THE PHONE CALL!!!
It went a bit like this...... "Hi Mum...thought I'd let you know...just been to the walk-in centre and they think I may have appendicitis so I'm on my way to hospital"...yes, it was Bethany...in Sheffield! Not that far away in reality, but FAR TOO FAR for my liking!!

Well to cut a long story short I spent from Friday to Sunday travelling between Manchester and Sheffield to 'the sickbed'. On Sunday I got a grip and realised I really needed to stay over there!! After many tests it was decided that it was indeed the appendix causing the problem, and it was whipped out! I was able to bring her home on Tuesday evening...much to my relief! She is still in quite a lot of pain..and has a wonderful battle scar...mum is convinced they used Glossy accents to glue her back together again...whatever happened to good old-fashioned stitches?? She said to me a couple of weeks ago that she would like to come home for Sam's birthday (yesterday) but I have to say I think these were very extreme measures to take!!
Talking of Sam's birthday...here is his card..

I coloured some old book pages with various DI's. The bird stamp is a 'freebie' from Craft Stamper but I felt he needed longer legs....just like Sam (17, and 6'3"!!)...so I drew them on. The bird is also coloured with DI's.

A closer look at 'Birdy (Crowy) Long Legs!'

It was also Ian's birthday whilst he was away....and here is his 'well-travelled' card...yes it's been to Florida, and back!!

 I coloured the background paper with Dylusions Ink Sprays and then sprayed more over a mask. The stamps are 7 Gypsies... I really wanted to use that 'crow' and couldn't think of a better opportunity! Because the envelope was black and a bit tricky to write on, I decorated that too!!

When I eventually got back onto my blog yesterday, I was greeted with wonderful news. I had a comment from Lily at The Octopode Factory to tell me that I had won her giveaway....just what I needed to cheer me up!! Can't wait for my goodies to arrive!!

I am writing tonight from a hotel room in Newport Pagnell. To be honest my feelings are mixed....I am SOOOOO excited about my class with Tim Holtz tomorrow, but a little guilty at having to leave Bethany. She is in the VERY CAPABLE hands of my wonderful mum, who has taken over nursing duties in my absence, and I know she will be more than well looked after!! So...onwards and upwards...I am going to have a ball.....and will be displaying my production VERY soon!

Bye for now...I really need an early night.....!!!

xxx

Valentine's Card and......another Challenge!!!

Well, I can reveal my Valentine's Day card at last!! I haven't actually handed it over yet....but I think the chances of it being viewed on here now are so remote, I've decided to post it!!
I think I like this card more than any other I've ever made....I don't know why...I just do!!

I made the background paper by randomly 'splatting' Adirondack Dabbers and Dylusion Ink Sprays. I then sprayed more ink over the heart mask. When I cut my paper to fit on the card base I made a mistake and cut on a marking that actually wasn't there, so my paper ended up too small...really must get my eyes tested!!......I decided to print my message onto white card to fill the gap, and actually REALLY like the effect I got, so it turned out to be a 'happy mistake' and a technique I shall use again :) The heart is hand cut from patterned paper and mounted onto white card. I added some doodled lines and stitches. The characters are, of course, Stampotique. I left them black and white and just highlighted their hearts with some Fired Brick DI.  To finish off I added a tiny tag to the flower the girl is holding, and some heart sequins to the message at the top!

I have decided that it fits the bill for the Stampotique Designers Challenge 24, so am entering it there!! I know....getting braver by the week!!

Back with the birthday cards in a few days!!

xx

A 'splash of lilac' at Play Date Cafe....

Still striving for inspiration I thought I'd browse a few blogs and see if I could find a challenge, or two, to get those juices flowing!
At The Play Date Cafe I found this one..create using just black and white with a splash of lilac/purple...so I thought I'd give it a go!! I know...I'm getting SOOOO brave!!!

I started off by painting the edges of the plaque with black paint. I then created the background paper using very watery purple and lilac acrylic paint, onto which I placed masks and sprayed Aubergine and Granite Dylusions Spray Inks. I finished of with a swipe (good word !) of gesso. I then stuck my 'masterpiece' to the plaque and edged with Black Soot DI. My favourite Stampotique stamps came out again...and were just highlighted with a touch of Dusty Concorde DI. As both my characters had such lovely smiles  I felt this saying was perfect to complete my first challenge! :)

I hope it's OK....now I'm worrying that I've used more than a 'splash', or that I don't follow the instructions to post it correctly...AARRRGGGHHHH!!! Big gulp...and here goes!!!

xxx