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                                                         

EMBROIDERY AND PARCHMENT

               I have been spending some time trying out the new embroidery Groovi plates by Tina Cox. They are gorgeous designs and I do enjoy stitching on parchment, I used to do a similar thing on card. I have to admit that the needle Tina recommends is very fine, I am lucky that I can see to thread it easily but I am sure some people are struggling in which case I think you need to try whatever you have in your sewing box. See what works for you. 

            I already had loads of thread to use but did have the reel of gold Madeira thread from Clarity. It is a lovely thread to use and I think I shall get some more eventually. Anyway I have completed two of the plates and have already sent one completed card to my great niece for her Birthday.

                                           

                          This is the one that has gone off to my niece. All worked in Madeira gold thread.

                                                       A few pearls for a finishing touch

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           I chose to work my second design in black, silver and white. I mixed some of the black thread with silver as on its own too much of the black was a bit severe. 

   
                              

                                    

                                                                                      

            I need to try out the other two plates now and also use a few beads on them as well. I suppose the next thing will be to think about Christmas designs.  I hope Tina is designing but I also think some of the past Christmas plates could be stitched or at least parts of them. 

                      I hope you like these and if you have not tried stitching on parchment you might give it a go. The plates come with instructions. Embroidery Flowers   and    Daisy   were the two designs that I have used here. 

                          Have fun, back soon. xx

A HAPPY LITTLE BIRD

         How are you all? It has been a very wet two days here, not very warm either. I keep seeing all the barbecue items in the supermarkets but certainly not for me at the moment. I think they are very hopeful. I will cook my burgers in the kitchen for now. 

       I have been using a bit more of that yupo paper again. I shall have to have another play with the alcohol inks and yupo paper. It is lovely on a card. For the layout on this one I looked at some sketches. For those of you that don't know what these are, they are a drawn layout of a card design. Sometimes just need a little nudge to get started and a sketch will do that. I played around how I wanted the finished card to look and hey presto this is what I achieved. 

             All that was on the sketch was the little triangle at the bottom.  I used some vellum for the flowers which could be heat embossed. So I stamped them in versamark and used gold embossing powder. Then coloured on the back with some of my pro-markers. 

   

          Some little pearls in the middle finished them off. The gold leaves are cut from the woodland die which came in the  monthly club package from Clarity. No need to always use the whole die cut just snip out a few bits. 

           
                 Finished off with a Happy Birthday which was in the  Floral Frames. Useful little dies. Not sure why it looks red in the photo as it was gold card. Little bird out of a bit more yupo paper added the final touch.  


                I think it  has all worked out quite well. Hope you like it too. I am off to start another of the embroidery Groovi plates now. They are fabulous and very relaxing to do. 


               Thank-you for visiting.   Keep warm and dry. xx
                                                              

DANDELIONS and not a weed in sight

        Well today was the launch of some beautiful new plates designed by Linda Williams. We were very lucky to be able to use these plates at the recent retreat but they have been kept under wraps until today when she was using them on Hochanda.  A sell out, I am not surprised. This morning Linda was showing everyone how to create the fluffy bird, I am sure we shall be seeing loads on the Groovi page soon as everyone has a go. I did one at the retreat and will share that another day as I have not finished the card yet but I have completed the Dandelion card, Fabulous design.
 

        

           I really was not sure when we started this card as colouring and shading is not my strong point but I loved doing it. I am also quite pleased with the end result.  Got to be down to the excellent teaching that we had. I certainly feel more confident now. 

                              
                           Dandelion heads, too nice to be called a weed. 

             The other great thing that we learnt was how to create the lovely little seed heads. There is some of the single needle tool embossing on these, a clever technique and very effective. It is not for me to show you how to do these as it is Linda's tutorial and I am sure she will be using it at a later date.  I will just give you a closer look. 

         For some reason the background came out very dark on this photo but it does show up the seed heads better so I did not try to change it. 

        I hope if you bought the plates you will enjoy using them.   Blue tits and Dandelion plates 

        Thanks for dropping by.  xxx