BUTTERFLY AFTERNOON

         My goodness it is cold here today, potentially going to get some snow but maybe it will pass us by. I am hoping it will all be clear by the weekend as I have a workshop with Hazel Edwards on Saturday afternoon and then our monthly workshop with Maria Moorhouse on Sunday. Busy weekend hopefully. 

      So while it is so cold I am using the time to do some craft and catch up on jobs that I have been meaning to do for a while. Nothing too energetic as I still have a painful back but it is improving slowly. Thank goodness. 


       So I found out this NDC butterfly that had not been used, not sure why because I do like it a lot. Used it for the first card. 


                                                   

           Colours are a little pale on the photo, (that vibrant stage did not last long Maggie) so I have taken a few closer shots. It is heat resistant vellum used on the butterfly. 

     

          For the background I brushed through a small section of  a stencil with Artistry ink, colour Tenacious Teal. I also spritzed with some blue dilusion ink and some Inca Gold paste made into a spray. Finally I brushed lightly through the script stencil in random places with Black Shadow Artistry Ink.

       For the butterfly I stamped it out on heat resistant vellum with Versamark and heat embossed with white embossing powder. Little bit of careful cutting out and layering up. I also die cut a couple of swirls from a Spellbinders die. Then fixed everything in place.

    For the next card I used Tina's flowers and once again they were stamped onto vellum and heat embossed with white embossing powder. I brushed over them lightly with some ink to match the background which is a piece of Clarity paper.   

    

       

            I had to trim the paper to fit my base card and in so doing cut off the darker edges so I used some Distress Oxide in to blend over the edges. I also die cut a circle out of the middle before assembling my wreath so that the sentiment stood out a bit more. 

  

                               Little closer look at the flowers.

    

       The butterfly is a Crafter's Companion one that came with my Gemini. (Whoops I missed a gem there on one of the flowers, better put that right.) 

    

         The teapot stamp is next on my list to be used. Will be back later in the week hopefully. In the meantime stay safe in the snow if it arrives.

                       Bye for now.  xx 

          

PARCHMENT TRADING CARDS

 
               Parchment Trading Cards or PTC for short are a very lovely way to share our artwork with the Groovi system. Basically these are very small cards ( 2.5" x 3.5" ) with a sample of our work on. Josie Davidson has set up a group on Groovi worldwide for us to share these, each month we shall be paired off with someone and we have to exchange a card. She will also set a theme for the month. 

         This last month it was free choice as it was the first. I was paired with Eve Hammond who lives in Spain. We have exchanged our cards and posted them on the Groovi page so thought I would now share them with you here.

                     This is Eve's card, so lovely and I really like how she has used the brads as the centre of the flowers. They are in my favourite colour as well. She has used one of Tina Cox's parchlets for her design.  

                       Eve enclosed this little card as well. It has last month's NDC Groovi plate embossed onto the front. Neat little way to use it and I do love these old style telephones. Trying to imagine my grandkids using these today

              This was the one I sent to Eve. I used the Elizabeth Lace plate ( designed by Josie Davidson)  around the outside and some little flowers off one of Tina's plates for the middle. The dragonflies are by Tina Cox as well. 


     I have seen some gorgeous cards being shown on the Groovi Facebook page and it certainly seems to have proved popular. Wonder what next month's theme will be. Parchment is good for me at the moment still struggling with pain but in my back now. Must have lifted something wrong yesterday at least my ribs seem to have settled down. Still I am missing the various bugs that are circulating at the moment so that is good. Hope you all are too. 


        Thanks for dropping in and hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend.  xx     


            
         

CUPCAKES but no ruined diets.

                   Hello, hope you are all ok. Very icy here today, a slight dusting of snow this morning and the ice has hardly cleared. I have only poked my nose out to go to hairdresser which I really needed. I was beginning to resemble an Old English sheepdog, even got the cold nose today.


             I thought I would have a change from parchment and get my inks out. Part of my mission this year is to use each of my products at least once to make a card. Too often I buy something thinking it is wonderful put it to one side for later but never get back to it. 


             So I found one of my NDC stamps. This is from the design club that is run by Claritystamp . We pay a monthly subscription and receive a stamp, stencil, Groovi plate or Die depending on which club you subscribe to, or if you are like me all four. I could not decide between them. 

            Anyway out came the cupcake stamp. I decided on some paper piecing, using up some of those scraps that we all hang onto.

           I masked off the top part of the stamp and inked up the lower part. REMOVE the masking tape and stamp onto chosen piece of paper. Then repeat process with top part of stamp but onto a different piece of paper. Mine were from the Brighton Rock paper pad from Clarity.  Bit of cutting out next, Maggie Craner if you reading this not a tricky one. Cut outside the inked line. Just a question of glueing to some card and layering up next. I added a flower and leaves as well.  Tina's flowers

         I added a strip of matching paper to the base card with a ribbon band then attached the topper. Added a bow and a few pearls in the corners.

        So have a look through your paper scraps and use them up paper piecing. Not sure we will ever get to the bottom of our scrap boxes though.


                       Thanks for dropping in. xx




               

HENNA CORNERS AND A MANDALA

                 My goodness it has been so cold today looked lovely from inside as sun was shining but definitely did not want to hang around long outside. I have caught up on a few jobs today and spent some time this afternoon in my craft room. Trying to use a few of the stamps that have never seen the light of day. I will share my results with you another day but I have another Groovi card that I have been working on the last few days to show you today. 

            For this one I used the henna plate, I wanted to see how much I could find from one plate. So many lovely designs on this one. 

                 First use the mandala design and two shades of lilac parchment paper. Remember to have the darker side of the parchment facing up so that you get a nice crisp white finish. I used the whole mandala on the darker piece of parchment and then just the middle section on the lighter piece. Emboss  all the little dots and leaves then pierce around the outside edge with a two needle tool. Shallow at first then re-pierce when you are ready to snip around. 

           
             I used a little dot of perga glue in the middle to layer up and added a pearl in the centre. For the base layer I used standard parchment paper and the nested square plate to get my outline. Then I chose one of the gorgeous borders that are on the plate and positioned it carefully around the outside. I did not trace one of the middle parts as these have been snipped out. You need to be very careful when snipping around outside edge as the hollow leaves are very fragile.          

          I added a few leaves in each corner and used brads to secure my design to backing paper which is one of the Clarity papers. 

          Plates used are :-

          Tina's Henna Corners 1

           Nested square

                            Thanks for visiting. Stay warm and safe this week if it goes icy. xx

QUEEN ANNE

          No, I have not changed the name of our Queen, I have been trying out the lovely new Queen's lace plates from Claritystamp. These were designed by Josie Davidson who is very talented in parchment work and especially loves her gridwork. This has always had to be done by counting from a grid pattern but now has been made a lot easier by the development of these Groovi plates. 

          I had my set for Christmas from my husband so had to wait a while after the launch. Goodness was I longing to get them as I too love gridwork. Then typically I have not been very well the last few weeks and have not felt like doing anything, anyway making up for lost time now. 

         The first one I used was the Queen Anne plate. Beautiful. I love the result which was achieved very easily. One side of the plate is used for the embossing and then turn it over to do the piercing. Just have to line your piece of work up carefully. It really is straightforward. 

              The lovely butterfly in the middle was from a plate designed by Tina Cox. Only needed a few gems and a little glitter and I had a beautiful piece of work.

       
            I just need to try out all the other designs now. Well I have a lot of cards that need making so plenty of chances to use them.

               Queen Anne Lace Duet
                     
               Tina's Butterfly Mariposa

       Thank-you for dropping by, a quick post today, I need to get back into spending time here. Stay warm this next week just seen the forecast, brrr going to get cold. xx

       

KRAFT CARD and TINA'S DOODLES

              Hope you are all having a good weekend, goes so quickly especially for all of you still working. I am lucky to be retired but still seem to pack a lot into the days. Anyway managed to escape to my desk for a while to use some of my stamps for a change. I chose Tina's doodle stamps as there is a lot to be done with them. 

             Today's cards are quite simple, I also used the lovely chrysanthemum stamp from Clarity. Such a large stamp , lovely used lightly as a background as well. 

                                 
                                                     Close up of the chrysanthemum .
.


                       For the above card I just stamped the flower with black Archival then coloured in with Faber Castell crayons. I used three shades of the same colour to get some variation. The little dragonfly is from the doodle set. The little tag is die cut from a Tim Holtz set of different size ones that I treated myself to when I was at the NEC last year. They are proving very useful.

             Lots of doodle flowers on this one, I have to admit that I forgot I had the masks to these stamps or I might have overlapped a few.  The flowers are stamped in Versamark then heat embossed with white embossing powder.I used Faber Castell pencils again for adding colour, some little gems in the middle  for a bit of sparkle. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              A little closer look at the flowers.  

            

                I do not use Kraft card very often but enjoyed making these. as for the doodle stamps I must try a few more ideas. 

            Links for stamps used are:-

                          Tina's Doodle Stamps          

                          CHRYSANTHEMUM

                                 All for now. Bye and if you have time please leave a comment. xx

ONE THAT GOT AWAY

           I know Christmas is well behind us now and Easter eggs are in the shops I believe. Incredible, but this is one card that was not finished until the last minute and I have not shared it at all. 

         I get all the other cards done first and Fred's has to wait til last. Does not help either when he keeps peering over my shoulder. He seems to have sixth sense as to when I am trying to do something for him. 

           For the large bauble in the middle I used the Night before Xmas plate , just left the middle design out and put in some gridwork. I did something similar at a workshop with Josie Davidson quite a while ago and really liked the effect. I love doing gridwork as well. 

         the two little baubles come from one of Tina's plates, picot cut round, coloured and mounted onto a piece of white card then decoupaged onto the main piece. All mounted onto a piece of Clarity paper and of course some glitter as well although it does not show in the photo. 

            Right that is Christmas put to bed for now. Will I be more organised this year. I think so but usually do not manage it. 

    Groovi plates used are:-

        Night Before Xmas 4

        Tina's Christmas Baubles

        Linda's Christmas plate   For the little elements at the side of card.



                                Bye for now. xxx


                                                

NEW YEAR, FRESH START.

         Well I have sadly neglected this little blog of mine lately. I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you a very Happy New Year.

       
         I am not making loads of resolutions, I shall not feel terribly guilty then when I do not keep them. I do really want to get back to blogging though. I am still enjoying all my craft and have started to use dies more now since Claritystamp brought out their own range.  I have even joined their die cutting club from this month.


          So on that note I will just share a few of the die cut cards I did this Christmas. All of the die cut pieces were backed with double sided adhesive then mounted onto a piece of coloured card and some lovely Pergamano glitter rubbed over. Gives a beautiful effect with minimal effort.


                                                   

               
                  The deer one was made with   Deer Heart aperture die. Found a lovely piece of Clarity paper which made it look like a sunset in the background. The white stitching around the black card was just done with a white pen.

 

         
                         I used the Stocking round aperture for the next one. Would be lovely for a bit of paper piecing.

                  The last one uses the Treescape die. I used a piece of white paper at the bottom of the picture to get the look of snow. So a bit of paper piecing on the back of the die cut. I love this die as depends on the season as to which colours you use. Certainly not just for Christmas.



                  So a quick visit for my first blog post of the New Year. I will share the last Christmas card tomorrow then time to move onto all things new.


                 Thank-you for dropping by.   xxx