ART NOUVEAU MEETS GLITTER

        Hope you have all had a lovely weekend, I was very spoilt yesterday as our son and wife invited us for Sunday lunch. I have to admit that my son cooks a wonderful roast dinner so there was no hesitation in accepting. True to form it was amazing. 

          So this morning I got stuck into some housework, well I had to burn off some of those calories as our daughter-in-law also made a delicious apple crumble. So I have a clean house now and I needed some craft time. 

          I chose to do some die cut cards and used the lovely Art Nouveau  dies. I rarely have a plan when I start card making, things just usually evolve. I would probably get things done a lot quicker if I thought about it a bit more.  Anyway I die cut the first one then decided to use sticky backed adhesive so that I could put some glitter over it. 

    

                       So on the back of your die cut attach a piece of double sided adhesive, then peel off the backing and stick to your chosen paper. It was at this point that I decided to do a little bit of paper piecing in the snowdrops, so cut another die in white. Once that was done I sprinkled glitter over the entire image. 

         
             I repeated the process with another design but did not do any paper piecing this time.  

   

                          I did put some faux stitching around the edge with a whit gel pen, just took the starkness off it and also used some of the waste to make a little flower with a bit of twine to finish off.    

                 

                  So a couple of cards completed and although I did not have a plan I think they worked out ok. 

                     Thanks for dropping by, off to make a cup a tea now, I was hoping hubby would do the honours but does not seem to be happening.  xxx

TWO GROOVI SESSIONS

             I have had a busy few days attending some workshops, they all seemed to come along at similar times and I was determined to try and fit them all in.  The first one was last Thursday, which happened to be my Birthday. I went along to a lovely little craft shop at Rosliston Forestry Centre called Kraftitz. Hazel Edwards was running the workshop and a lovely lady called Julie is the shop owner.  There were only eight of us due to space limitations but it was a great morning. Hazel had a couple of lovely projects for us to do first of all a card and then a little gift bag. Kept us busy for the morning, I took along some cakes to help the energy levels and destroy the diets.  
                                                                                       

                       The card we did. There are some slight changes on mine as I wanted a little bit of gridwork on it. This one was made using   Tina's Christmas corners 2.   There are so many elements on these plates to use. 

                                                

                              
                             Just a little closer look at some of the detail.
                                           

             

                    The second project was a little gift bag. It did not take too long to complete but is very effective. Brilliant for those little gifts, you could also make a matching gift tag.

                     The light is reflecting off the backing making it look crinkled but in reality it is not.

                Then on Saturday I went along with Hazel and her husband Steve to Little Wenlock in Shropshire for another workshop. They also gave a lift to two more ladies, Dee and Linda. Poor Steve in a car full of women, he survived the experience though. We made another card and gift bag and although I can show you the card I had a mishap with my gift bag when I was putting the glitter on it. Knocked the bottle of sticky ink over it, so annoying. 

                         This one is made from the Christmas corners 1   again by Tina Cox.

                 
                                   A little bit of grid work, just embossed but there was a lot of laughter as dots were put in the wrong place. Can't put a butterfly on a Christmas card so I reckon there a lot of snowflakes being added. 
     

     
                   

                 I finished off the weekend by going to a stamping workshop run by Maria Moorhouse on the Sunday and I will show you that project another time when I have finished it. 

                    Hope you like these cards, my Christmas card pile is growing. xx                                        

CHRISTMAS COLOURS

              Well I don't think we can escape the fact that everyone's thoughts are beginning to turn to Christmas. The shops are beginning to put out their Christmas stock, well amongst all the Halloween stuff that is. I let that one pass me by, not a big fan although I usually have some treats for the children if they do knock the door. Any way I got sidetracked there. I am starting to think about all the presents we need to get, quite a lot for us as we have a large family . Also of course all the cards and I do try to make all mine, a big task. Every year I think I am going to be organised about this task but I never am. Will I ever learn. 

               I bought the lovely new Groovi Christmas embroidery plates designed by Tina Cox. I do like stitching on parchment or even just on card, it is not a quick card certainly so I always make sure they go to the people I know will appreciate them. So the first design I have stitched is the Baubles. Very pretty and I chose to use traditional Christmas colours. 

                This one is done just as the plate comes but it would be very easy to just use parts of it like any Groovi plate. 

       

                                                A closer view of the centre section.

                                                         
                                                         The pretty leafy corner.


        All instructions to complete these designs are included with the plates and if you need stitching guides they can be downloaded from   Clarity Matters blog. Scroll down to the bottom of the post to fine the link marked  here.  


                         Good luck if you decide to get stitching.

        Off to get my tea now and then maybe carry on grooving. xx 


         

A MUSICAL FRAME

              Hello again. What a miserable day it has been, no bright spells at all today. I think we have seen the last of the warmer days, shame but I do actually quite like our different seasons even if I am not at all keen on cold days. I have spent most of the day catching up on those dreaded household jobs. They have to be done even if I would rather be in my craft room. 

             So going back to September it was our youngest son's Birthday, he does enjoy his music so I wanted to find something suitable for him.  The Finest Music stamp seemed to be perfect for him.                                  
                                                                            

        It is a beautiful stamp, quite a large one as well. It is on offer at the moment so a good time to buy.   I chose not to colour in ,just kept to monochrome by shading with a nice soft pencil and a black Micron pen. I was pleased with the finished effect. 

                           I decided on a red die cut sentiment and some lovely red paper for the backing with punched corners. I liked just the small splash of colour. 

               He liked his card, I am pleased to say.  He is so very lucky as well as he has just managed to get tickets for Glastonbury yet again. He goes most years with a group of friends longing for the day when his little son is old enough to go as well.

                 Hope you all like this one, it is a wonderful stamp as you could mask of parts of it and just use little bits. 

                Right off to get my tea and settle down for the evening. xxx

                  

          

A BEADED DRAGONFLY

    September has been a month full of birthdays for me, seems like most of my family chose that month to be born.Means the Christmas cards have been put on hold but  back on track now pleased to say. At the moment I am working on one of the lovely embroidery plates designed by Tina Cox. For those of you who do not know what these are, it is sewing onto parchment. The design comes from one of the lovely Groovi plates. I will share the finished card with you all later but in the meantime here is one that I did for my daughter's Birthday last month.

                                                             
                                                             The finished card

                                            I added beads for the body of the dragonfly .                                                     

                           
                                                       One corner showing the stitching.

     Our eldest daughter ,Yvonne loved her card, apparently she saves all the cards I give her so that is lovely to know all the work is treasured. I also have many of her cross stitch cards that she has done in the past. 

                   So just a very quick visit tonight but I have several other cards to share another time.


                               Thank-you for dropping by. xx           

CHRISTMAS PARCHLETS

                 I have started some Christmas crafting, I did have a resolution to make a few cards each month throughout the year but that did not happen. Anyway started now so will just have to work harder. For the first batch I used Tina's Christmas parchlet plates, so pretty and lots of Tina's style in them. I added some gridwork around the edges using the grid border plates.                           

        

            So six for a start, better get working a bit quicker though. Right, you cannot see them very well in the photo so here are some individual ones. 

                                 
                                                             

                                                                 

       

                                                                     

               

               

               

                     No need for any snowflakes on the gridwork so quite pleased about that, no obvious mistakes.  Good start. 

                                         Hope you like these, give Tina's plates a try they make beautiful cards.   Here is the link   Tina's Christmas parchlets  
                                             Border Grids
                                            Border Grids 2
                                            Border Grid 3
                                            Border Grid 4

                     Bye for now. xxx

A CHRISTMAS BOOT

            Hello, I have been missing from this blog for a long time, it has been a busy time for us but I really should have made the effort to share my creations with you all. Anyway I have several in the pipeline. This afternoon I have been doing some colouring, something I am not usually very comfortable with but really want to improve. I have been watching and listening to all the experts. 

             I bought a stamp that I love at the recent Clarity retreat, a Christmas one of a boot, designed by Cherry Green. It comes complete with a coloured photo so I decided that was the way to go. Sit down quietly and follow the design first. I used my Faber Castell polychromos, beautiful pencils kept them sharp and put the colour down very lightly building up slowly. I am a bit heavy handed so this was something I had to work at. Below is the stamp set, comes complete with masks as well. Very useful.  
                                                        
                                                              
                                        So here is my effort and I am quite pleased with it.

                                                       
      
                      In fact I am so happy with it that I will make it up into a Christmas card. Now I just need to try it in some different colours.  The baubles are a separate stamp so they could be left off and the leaves coloured in autumn colours.  Makes the stamp more useful. Thank-you to Cherry  for her inspiration sheet. 

                      If you want this stamp here is the link   Boot and bauble stamp.
  
                                          Bye for now. xxx
            

                   
                                

TWO BUSY DAYS

             Last Friday and Saturday I went to the Clarity Open days held at Ditton Community Centre this year. It was a fabulous venue, loads of room, more seating which is great when there is a lot to get round. Lovely to be able to just sit for a few minutes with a cup of tea and maybe one of the beautiful cupcakes that were available. Barbara had arranged for them to be made and there was one for everyone. So generous. The girls from Clarity headquarters did a fantastic job in the kitchen making packed lunches for us all to buy. 

             Of course the main reason for being there was to watch the design team demoing their skills. They really are amazing with their creativity. I always come away with loads of new ideas and possibly a lighter bank balance after wandering around the shopping area. So I did take a few photos and want to share those with you.

                                 Dee Paramour working her magic with alcohol inks. She also had some new stamps which she had designed, i had to give one set a new home.

                              Tina Cox demonstrating her wonderful new embroidery Groovi plates. Who would believe embroidery on card could be so relaxing.  I can just catch a glimpse of Maggie Craner there as well, sorry Maggie cut you in half. 

          
          
       A couple of Tina's embroidery designs, so gorgeous and she was also showing us how to add some beads as well. 

 
            
                     

 
                  Linda Williams very busy showing how to colour the little fluffy birds. Such a talented lady and always happy to share her skills with us all. 

             Paul Church also demonstrating Groovi. He was using a new plate designed by Linda, lots of heart designs. It seemed to drop into my basket. Mind you Paul is very good at doing my shopping for me, last year he fetched a basket for me but stopped off to put several new dies in that he thought I needed.

   
                      Glynis Whitehead running the snip clinic. Not as bad as it sounds, she was there to help anyone who needed it with their picot cutting. She seemed to always be very busy.

   
                      Maria Moorhouse demonstrating the Mirror Mist on Acrylic shapes. There was some fantastic artwork on her stand and everyone was very interested to see how this product worked.

       
          Martine Smith using the Fresh Cut Dies. These are fabulous always cut beautifully. She had some great ideas.

   
      A special guest was Leonie Pujol.  I could have sat and listened to her for ages, well I suppose I did really. A lovely talented lady. 

    
          For some reason I do not seem to have a photo of Sam Crowe and I spent ages watching her keep creating arty pieces with the Gel Plate. I did get a picture of some of her art work though. So sorry Sam for missing you out. I will take several at Leyburn. 

         Finally of course the one person who brought the whole event together Barbara Gray. She was about to draw another raffle ticket, we were given one ticket on entry. The prizes were amazing extremely generous. I was not lucky this year but I have been past years so only fair really. 


    Sorry for the very long post today , there was another stand that I have not mentioned and that was the Encaustic art run by Mike and Shona Bossom. Both my husband and I tried the make and take but I will share all that with you another day. 

                                  Thanks for dropping by and reading to the end. xx
          

AN AMAZING ACHIEVEMENT

         I have been missing from this old blog for quite a while. I think life has just got in the way of a lot of things. I have not even done a lot of craft projects in the last few weeks. I have been down to the Clarity Open days in Ditton, Kent, last week and they were just fantastic. I will pop back tomorrow and share all the photos I took there and tell you more about it. 

          Today though I am just sharing a card I made for my grandaughter as she has just received her degree results and I am very proud to say that she achieved a first.  Even more fantastic is that she did an horology degree, very unusual.  She also won two awards.   

             She is 21 in a few weeks time so I am sure we will have a very good celebration.  Photo below is Heather and her dad at her exhibition a couple of weeks ago standing by the amazing clock she built for her degree. Definitely not a kit either, she had to make all the parts and polish them. Hours and hours of work.
  

 


                                

                 Hope you can excuse me being a rather proud nan.  Have a good weekend everybody and take care on Sunday when we are supposed to be having some very heavy rain again.  

                I am off to a workshop tomorrow with Josie Davidson and Chris Walker, going to be  a good day, they always have a wonderful project for us. 


                                Thank-you for visiting. xx
             

A SKETCHY FLOWER

         

         How are you enjoying the half term break, school holidays usually pass us by these days as our kids are adults with families themselves now. On this occasion though we are looking after our daughter's dog for the week whilst they are in Cyprus. A two year old Cocker spaniel, I wish I could bottle her energy. Fortunately Julie has booked her into the doggy day care for us during the day for four days. They are getting rid of some of her energy thank goodness. She is very lovely though so we will forgive her for tiring us out. 

         Have you watched the You Tube on Barbara Gray's blog this week, Sam Crowe is making her debut this week and is showing us how to make  our own  Scribble wrapping paper.  She is fabulous with the Gel Press and Mixed Media projects.  She did so well no sign of nerves.   I thought I would have a go at her demo. I have just made a card not wrapping paper but used her technique. So if you want to have a go follow the above link to watch the video. 

  
               My interpretation of Sam's flower. I do not have the rectangle Gel Press that she used so made do with the triangle.  Still works quite well I think.  I have not mounted it onto a card base yet which is why the corner is lifting. 

 
                      I could not resist popping one of the gems I had into the middle of the flower.

       Do pop over to Barbara's blog and give Sam your support. Looking forward to seeing what else she has in store for us.   xx

              
           

A BIT OF SCRAP

                 Last week I went to my usual  monthly class with Maria Moorhouse in Shrewsbury, always a fabulous day. There were some lovely projects, stamping ones this time. I am not sharing the projects with you as those are Maria's techniques but we did do one where we pulled off a print from another piece of card. I was not sure what I was going to do with it but Barbara Lancaster who was sat opposite me was very confident that I could create something. She had more faith than me at that moment but I set to yesterday afternoon with inks and stamps. 
     
                                This was the piece of card that I started off with. The colours on it are Worn Lipstick, Antique Linen and Mustard seed Distress Oxides.

 

           Firstly I found a flower stencil I liked and randomly stencilled flowers on the card with some white gesso. I used a little sponge to dab it through the stencil.  Then when the gesso was dry I used another stencil and  sponged through with Mustard seed and Antique linen. These were a bit brighter so showed up better. Finally using the script  and coffee stain stamps from the journaling set and Watering Can Archival ink I stamped over the card. I used second generation ink as I did not want it to be too dark. 

          Still does not look that promising really, I went round the edge of the flowers with a white gel pen to make them stand out a bit more.

                  Then I cut it all up into four squares, bit drastic but I had a plan. 

             Edged around the squares with a black Sharpie pen and mounted them onto cream card then a base card. Looking better but still very plain.

   

      
           It needed butterflies. These were stamped onto heatproof vellum with Versamark ink and embossed with white embossing powder. I coloured with pro-markers and cut out. I like using vellum for these sort of things as it cuts out easily and neatly. 

 
             So that bit of scrap turned into a pretty card and of course I cut four squares and have only used three. Here is the last little one.

                                                     I love this little card only 3" square.   

          Bit of a long blog post today but I hope you like these cards and don't dismiss your scrap pieces. 

                       Thanks for reading enjoy the rest of the weekend. xx