Saturday 31 December 2011

I made a clock!!


Wow, something different for me , making a clock, I'd taken a Tando chipboard clock face from the shop to have a play with and using a deep canvas ended up with a mildly steampunk finished project, I couldn't use the chipboard clock hands as they were too thick and the mechanism ones are a bit long but they're ok.It's now hanging in the shop, sorry about the sun reflection on the picture, hard to take a decent photo at this time of year.

Wednesday 28 December 2011

Christmas crafting


I hope you all had a lovely christmas, ours was quiet but nice, with good food (too much) and plenty of relaxation, since the day I have done a bit of crafting and this card was one of the things I made, I'd been asked what I could do with these Claudine Helmuth 'Domestic' clear and foam stamps and this is my take on them.

Friday 23 December 2011

indulgence and seasons greetings


I'm having a really indulgent evening, sitting with the lap top on my knee blog hopping and not feeling at all guilty, I'm also looking forward to not having to leave the house for the next four days unless I really want to - what luxury!! after the four days I'm sure i'll be ready to go out and about again hopefully after having produced some of the crafty things I have whirling around my brain. Before I do all this I must wish all my blogging friends a wonderful christmas and a very happy and crafty new year.

Wednesday 21 December 2011

Could have been a disaster!!!


Well at last my craft room is a workable space again, still lots to be sorted thro' and discarded to various good causes or the recycle bins but otherwise ok, I didn't manage to get my sewing room up and running but perhaps will over christmas. One word of warning, if you have an old plastic bottle of glue, be careful how you handle it, I picked one out of a box and a fountain of glue shot across the room as the side of the bottle cracked - I now need a new rug and my punches etc have all had a wash! how lucky that it didn't go in the direction of the computer, now that would have been a disaster!!

Wednesday 14 December 2011

Christmas Card Book




I saw, on the TV, how to make a concertina book out of 12x12 papers and had to have a go - this christmas card is the result and certainly different to my usual cards.

Sunday 11 December 2011

Vintage birthday



I suddenly realised I had three christmas birthday cards to make so here is what I made this morning amid the craft room chaos, I used my new Crafty Individuals stamp with some of their backing paper and added embelishments to give it a vintage look.

Monday 5 December 2011

Apologies and pictures!




Apologies for not visiting blogs as I normally do but I feel like the white rabbit just now, running hither and thither not getting anywhere, as I mentioned before we've been helping our friend Barry get his craft shop up and running ,it was opened last thursday, thankfully plenty of people turned out and he had a full shop, I'm posting a couple of pictures of outside and inside the shop. Now that is all over I'm clearing the craft room as I really can't work in the mess it's in at the moment and at the same time I'm turning our spare bedroom into a sewing room, how lucky am I?? I'm also posting a 'vintage' style christmas card I managed to make amid the chaos.

Monday 28 November 2011

'Days 'Til Christmas'



The Days 'Til canvas ( 12 x 12) was put together using a Tando chipboard kit with a few additions from me,including the board, paper and letters etc - I think I enjoyed making it even tho'I felt covered in paint,glue and glitter - I much prefer 'dry crafting' even so I love the canvas and it is in the shop as a sample as is the little Edwardian (or Victorian) boot, this was less messy to work on as I used a suede type adhesive paper and only painted the toe and heel.

Thursday 24 November 2011

Kraft core.






These cards I made as samples for my friend Barry's shop to show case the coredinations card, the two colours that I used have a Kraft card core, the brown just had to be made up into a mild steampunk /vintage style and the pink a more feminine card, I'm afraid I rushed the photo's so they aren't too good. The shop in Newbold Verdon, about twelve miles from Leicester, will open next thursday so we are all getting excited waiting for the big day and seeing the shop fill up with lovely stock!!!
The 'card' with the bicycle and watch on is actually an ATC I made to use up scraps, unfortunately it looks the same size as the cards but is actually 3 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches.

Sunday 20 November 2011

Back to Vintage


I felt the need to get a bit grungy in the vintage style and this card was the result, I stamped, punched and used the cricut then added lace and and a 'hat pin' embellishment. Thankfully I've finished my christmas cards (I think) so can do other things without feeling guilty.

Thursday 17 November 2011

Same stamp, same colours!!


Still making the odd christmas card in between samples and this is the latest, making sure I get use of this stamp this year, often we buy a stamp and use it once then put it away to forget for a good while. I was thinking what flowers to embelish with when I spotted these wooden flowers that I hadn't used so I glittered one and was pleased with the result.

Sunday 13 November 2011

Christmas tag


The latest Art n Soul challenge is for a bookmark to be accompanied by a christmas tag - here is my tag - the book mark is made but 'misplaced' at the moment, if it stays 'misplaced' I may have to make another!!! so fingers crossed I find it, that must tell you the state of my craft room!! I have used a fabric printed image that i've used many times over the last few years because it is a favourite.

Tuesday 8 November 2011

Calender Cards



I'm still making samples for the shop and the odd christmas card so nothing much to share at the moment, the cards I'm posting are ones I made some weeks ago when I got the idea of making a calender card - I think they came out ok and are workable, I want to try again and add a vintage or even 'grunge' touch to one.

Thursday 3 November 2011

Pretty???



These are two boxes that I decorated for Barry to use as samples in his Craft shop (which will hopefully open towards the end of the month), the boxes are made from a Sissix die and I used punches for the flowers, I think the white one would make a lovely wedding gift box.

Friday 28 October 2011

An empty jam jar.


At our last crafty natter, Julia gave us a really difficult challenge in the form of two stamped,empty,jam jars and a mask for them, when I went into the craft room after my holiday there they where sitting on the desk waiting...........so here's what I did - I put a digi stamp fairy into the jar and made a sort of easel shaker card without the shaky bits!!

Tuesday 25 October 2011

Venetian Views!




We really loved Venice so just a few more pics!!, St Marks Basillica which was so beautiful, a view of St Marks Square from the water and - another Gondola!

Monday 24 October 2011

Feels like a Laundry!!




A lovely holiday but back to the washing etc, I think I've brought mine and someone elses - did we really take all those clothes?? This cruise was quite eventful in that having had a smooth crossing of the Bay of Biscay we hit the Mediterranean in a force 9 gale with waves that broke some of the windows on deck 5 of the ship,it also meant that we could not go to Malta as the sea was too rough for the ship to go into Valetta harbour, the upside of this was having an overnight stay in Venice -the photo's show a very rough sea, a Venetian Gondola and one of the lovely shop windows in a street off St. Marks square.
I must get all the clothes etc sorted, the housework done and my craft room tidied before I start on a project or even christmas cards - that's my promise to myself - will I keep to it??

Tuesday 27 September 2011

Steampunk story book.





At our last craft and natter our friend Barry gave each of us three die cut pages to decorate so after a brief panic I decided on steampunk and used printed images,stamps and diecuts to decorate the pages,I thought a dictionary definition of Steampunk was a good centrepiece for the front page. At the moment I'm not doing too much in the craft line as I'm getting ready for my upcoming holiday,and when we get home the first job is to TIDY the craft room!! hopefully.

Sunday 18 September 2011

A 'Girly' Christmas


Another christmas card for my stash, this one to fit in with the Winter Wonderland challenge with the theme 'Girly', well this LOTV stamp is definitely my favourite girly for this christmas even tho' I've only used her once before.

Saturday 17 September 2011

Anything CAS goes !!


This is the theme for week 33 of the Less is More challenge so I'm hoping that my embossed and diecut embellished chrismas card will fit the bill, it does have plenty of white space!

Friday 16 September 2011

The Inventor!


Another 'mild' steampunk card, made for a crafting friend, I was worried that she would think it too masculine so before I sent it ( and after i'd taken the photo) I added some bling to the cogs in the form of gems and I think it feminised it a little.

Saturday 10 September 2011

Man Cards!!



I'm off to what looks like being the windy and wet north west for a few days and I've packed a few cards for Viv's charity box, she is always short of 'man cards' so I've made a couple using my steampunk stamps and papers, they aren't as dark as they look in the photo's, and yes you can see 'peel offs' they are HOTP steampunk dazzles that came in the paper kit - waste not want not!!

Thursday 8 September 2011

Mellow Yellow


We were given a choice of items to make this months St Lukes charity card challenge, I chose - patterned paper,punches/diecuts, ribbon and gems.My colour scheme of yellow with a touch of grey isn't seen very often but I'd recently bought some backing papers that colour so was 'inspired'.

Tuesday 6 September 2011

Steampunk card !



Well fairly mild steampunk I think, I didn't like it at all when I first saw it but lately, with the more feminine papers and things, I've quite taken to it and enjoy mixing the masculine and feminine.This card is made using the Tim Holtz bodyform die, the wings and crown are also Tim's. The flower was made from regular brown paper stamped with a paper Artsy flower stamp and crumpled to give it the grungey look.
I'm entering the card into cr84fn color challenge - lt blue, turquoise and nuetral.
gettingcricky challenge - winged things.
Craft your days away - make your own flowers.

Monday 5 September 2011

Travel Journal




This is what Jan and I sidetracked onto on our recent holiday, we'd seen the papers, and what had been made with them, when we visited the local craft store and decided to have a go - this is my Journal made with my next holiday in mind. I added pockets using the papers and extra pages using Kraft card.

Tuesday 30 August 2011

Altered Box


I recently found this round box tucked away out of sight and decided to alter it as part of Jan's birthday present, I covered it with paper and made the flowers to decorate it, added an image and some distress ink coloured lace then filled it with chocolates, there is lace around the lid that was originally green and I changed it to brown with a combination of coffe, walnut stain and distress ink,quite a strange cocktail but it worked!
I'm entering this into ToptipTuesday challenge - Shabby Chic and TryitonTuesday - Alter anything

Wednesday 24 August 2011

Digital Scrapping


I treated myself to a digital scrapbooking programme to use alongside my paper scrapbooking - apparently the mix of both is called Hybrid scrapping! I was worried I wouldn't be able to figure it all out but it is really easy and I've done a few layouts so far, this one is to go into a cruise ship shaped album I had for my birthday, I haven't added any shadowing to it but I'm happy with it and can add text as I go.The page has been cut short by the scanner but you get the idea.