New Year, New Challenge!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and that 2014 will be a great year, both personally and craftily, for us all.

The new challenge is,of course, the first of the year for Stamping Sensations. Our theme for January is one which I think just about everybody will love!

RIBBONS, BUTTONS AND/OR BOWS

You can use any or all of those items in any combination! We have a fab sponsor too, Nicecrane Designs, owned by the lovely Ignacio! He has a fantastic selection of digital downloads on a huge variety of topics, all of which are great quality and print out beautifully. Ignacio is amazingly generous and has given us a brilliant prize of £35 worth of design sheets of the winner's choice!

My first card uses Ignacio's sheet "The Incredible Jessie Wilcox", which has several charming images of children, mostly reading books.

I matted the picture and sentiment (Hero Arts) on to a piece of card cut with a Spellbinders die, then on to a piece of blue card. The flourish stamps are by Waltzing Mouse. To fit the theme I added a ribbon bow, and some tiny buttons which I think were from Hero Arts.

Here's a closer look at the image.

And at the detail.

I've used Ignacio's design on this card because I like it, but it isn't a requirement of our challenge that you do so. You may use anything that fits the theme.

My second card is quite different. For this one I took inspiration from the gorgeous button, which is 1.5" in diameter.

I stamped the flourish (Chocolate Baroque) first in yellow, then in grey, and fixed the button over it. The sentiment (Inkylicious) was cut out with a freebie die from Papercraft Essentials magazine. To go with the theme, I added a tiny thread bow to the button, and a ribbon to the tag.

We had some amazing entries for our previous two challenges, and I can't wait to see this month's. My terrific teamies have really excelled themselves with a truly delightful set of samples, so don't forget to go and check them out on the Challenge Blog. Thanks for looking!

Things with wings

The theme for August's Stampalot Challenge is right up my street! It's

TAKE FLIGHT

Now that should give plenty of scope - birds, insects, fairies, angels, or even aeroplanes spring to mind -  but for me it just has to be my favourite subject, butterflies!

I've been a bit awol over the past few weeks, busy with various things which have kept me away from blogging (some of which were crafty stuff, but more about that another time!) but I did manage to make my butterfly cards.

For the first one the butterflies are from a Hero Arts Framelits set. I've stamped them on to printed papers from Crafty Individuals (Book 3 Springtime) and then cut them out with the Framelits die included in the set. I've used the same papers for the centre circle, and for the banner (banner stamp by Waltzing Mouse and butterfly word by Crafty Individuals). The doily is by Cheery Lynn.

My second card showcases one of my latest acquisitions, by Prickley Pear, which is fast becoming one of my all-time favourite butterfly stamps, along with the others in the set!

Here the butterfly has alighted on a background of Trimcraft papers ("Neighbourwood" by Helz Cuppleditch) with an Aspects of Design (by The Stampman) Nestie frame stamp, sentiment by The Craft's Meow, and ribbon from my stash. The butterfly has a matching die (available separately) which makes cutting it out so easy.

There are two different sets of the Prickley Pear butterflies, and I have to confess I bought them both! How could I have resisted when they are all so beautiful? You'll be seeing plenty more of them in the not too distant future!

But back to August at Stampalot Challenge. The prize is fabulous, as usual.

My lovely teamies have come up with some absolutely gorgeous designs, so do pop over to the Challenge Blog for plenty of inspiration. I have a feeling that this month's theme is going to be very popular, and I'm looking forward to seeing lots of winged things, butterflies or not!

Medals and Monarchs

Our Birthday Challenge and Blog Hop at Stampalot were a great success, and thanks to all those who took part so enthusiastically. But now it's May, and time for a new Stampalot Challenge. This month we're thinking about both the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics, so we want you to come up with projects on the theme of

Medals and Monarchs

This will give you many options: you can go very patriotic, or use lots of 'diamonds' on your work or take the opportunity to celebrate your own country's involvement in the Olympics using your traditional colours.

I had no stamps in my stash which would suit the theme and I didn't want to spend money on something I would use only once, so I was delighted to find that the May issue of Crafts Beautiful magazine had a free gift of a collage stamp and papers which would fit the bill perfectly. This is what I did with them.

I decided to make a rocker card, which I covered with the papers. The main image at the top is the stamp. The bunting was made by cutting out the pennants from one of the papers, ditto the Queen's head.

The "E2R" banner is a Waltzing Mouse stamp cut out by hand, with a crown from one of the free papers, and peel-offs for the lettering.

The Olympic topper is a Nestie shape, and the rings were made from Craftwork Cards' Candi, with holes punched out of the middle, then coloured with Promarkers. A few suitably coloured pearls and jewels provided the finishing touches to the card.

I didn't start with a clear idea of how the end product would look. I kind of made it all up as I went along, and it turned out gloriously over the top, but I quite like it! I think this is going to be a popular theme, and there's plenty of inspiration from my lovely teamies on the Challenge Blog, so do go on over and check it out. Oh, and there's a rather special prize too!

I'm looking forward to seeing all your creations in celebration of this year's great events.

Just because

It's the first time for ages that I've had chance to make something just for its own sake, rather than for a particular occasion. Some of the ladies at one of the schools I work at are keen to set up a craft club, just amongst themselves to begin with, but with the intention of opening it up to parents and the local community once it gets going. They asked me if I'd like to join them. I said yes, of course!

They hadn't heard of teabag folding, so I made a couple of cards to show them what it is. I used to do a lot of teabag folding at one time, but that was a long time ago. I really enjoyed going back to it. There are many websites which have free papers to download, and one I really like is Derek's Teabag Tiles which has loads of lovely designs. The butterfly papers I've used here are from Derek's.

The first card has the teabag design backed with a Nestie Butterflies Circle.

I love the butterfly circle but it's very difficult to get it out of the die! I found that putting a layer of waxed paper between the die and the paper you're cutting works wonders! The butterfly corner is a punch I've had for years, in fact one of the first punches I ever bought.

The second card uses a simple kite fold, with the same papers from Derek's and a Nestie Lacey Circle. The corner stamp was from Elusive Images (now Chocolate Baroque) and the centre message from Craftwork Cards.

Having made my teabag cards, I started to put my things away and noticed the Butterflies Circle cut from the wax paper, still on my desk. Loth to throw it away I sat and looked at it for a moment, wondering what I could do with it. Then I remembered the faux batik technique. Very carefully so as not to tear it, I crumpled up the circle and smoothed it out again. Then I ironed over it on to a piece of glossy card so that the wax was transferred to the card. Next I brayered over the card with ink from a Big And Juicy inkpad (Spice). The wax resisted the ink and the pattern was revealed.

I finished the card with a banner stamp by Waltzing Mouse, sentiment by Chocolate Baroque and two of the tiny butterfly cutouts from the punched corners.

It feels great to be back crafting again because I want to, rather than because I have to. I had got out of the habit, I think, with all the upheaval of moving house and settling in to a new job, and indeed a new way of life, but I'm pleased to say my enthusiasm is returning. Watch this space!

That went quick!

Can't believe a month has gone by since my last post! Already I'm almost at the end of my first term in the new job, and this week we have the keys to our new house! Just got to get our stuff moved up from Notts and then we can move in! I can't wait!

Anyway, being the first of the month, it's time for a new Stampalot Challenge and for October the theme is

Food, Glorious Food

So anything to do with food is what we want to see on your entries! And there's a scrumptious prize on offer, generously donated as always by Janice & Andy at Sir Stampalot. Feast your eyes on these goodies!

I decided to use some recently acquired stamps by Waltzing Mouse for my sample. I made my own background paper with the plaid stamp from the "Off Beat Backgrounds" set. The label stamp, which is made to fit a Nesties Label 4 die, is from the "Rescue Remedies" set, one of my Waltzing Mouse favourites. The little corner stamp is from the "Very Vintage Labels No. 2" set. The floral paper and cupcake stamp are magazine freebies. I paper pieced the cupcakes and added a bit of colour with Promarkers.

Sorry this is such a short post, but I'm hoping it won't be long now before we get moved in to the new house and I'll be back in business in my new craft room! Watch this space! 

Quick update!

Ages since I last posted anything, I know, but things have been moving pretty quickly here! The house hunting was very successful, I'm glad to say! We found just the sort of place we wanted, with wonderful views across the countryside (pics to follow!), and couldn't believe our luck when we found we could actually afford it! We hope to be able to move in by the middle of October. In the meantime, I start my new job up in Scotland next week! So I'm now staying with my daughter and family, but will be travelling backwards and forwards for a while until we have got our things packed up ready for the move. Blogging will have to take a back seat for the time being, I'm afraid, but I will try to keep in touch as often as I can. I managed to bring enough stash with me to keep me going (I hope!!), not that I will have much spare time to craft, but should be able to cope with cards for family & friends and my DT work.

I had a couple of cards to make before I came up north, a wedding anniversary card for my daughter and son-in-law, and a birthday card for my niece, so here's a quick share of those.

For the anniversary card I used my new cameo stamps from Waltzing Mouse, cut out with Nesties. The papers are some I've had in my stash for years, not sure now who made them. I used a Martha Stewart border punch to trim them, and then inked around the edges. It wasn't until I looked at the photo that it occurred to me that the two cameos and the greeting made a face!

 

For my niece's card, the dog stamp and patterned papers were all freebies from magazines. I coloured the dog with Promarkers, and framed it with Nestie diecuts. The ticket stamp and die are by Whimsy Stamps. Now, I know this is cute, and I don't do cute, but my niece likes cute, and dogs, and pink, so I gritted my teeth and did it!

Sunday again!

How did it get to be Sunday again so quickly? I'm sure time goes faster the older one gets. Even so, I managed to make a scrappy card for Jules's Sunday Scrap challenge.

I've mostly used up scraps of plain paper and card, except for the embossed bit at the bottom, which is by Papermania. It has a very pale pink and white pattern on it (hard to see in the photo).  Stamps are all by Waltzing Mouse, except for the writing in the background which is by Hero Arts. I used VersaMagic and Versacolor inks to stamp the background, and the same inks to colour the roses.

And that's two posts in two days! Must have too much time on my hands! (Or maybe I should go and tackle the ironing instead!)

Less Is More Challenge Week 1

The new Less is More Challenge has begun this week, and the theme for week 1 is Pink, Black and White. I love the clean and simple look, but it is not easy to do! And pink doesn't figure on my list of favourite colours, so I certainly did find this challenging. Not that that's a bad thing! Anyway, having just received my second order of Waltzing Mouse Stamps, I couldn't wait to use them, so here's what I made.

That gorgeous border is a good seven and a half inches long. Unfortunately I don't have an acrylic mount that long, or so I thought until I realised that my Cuttlebug C plate would do the job. The border tessellates beautifully. I stamped it in black, and again in white above the black, although the white doesn't show up very well on the photo. Bearing in mind the clean and simple brief, I thought it wouldn't need anything else besides a Nestability lacey circle and the Waltzing Mouse sentiment, but it didn't look right. I tried adding a ribbon, putting something behind the circle, and other bits and pieces, but nothing worked. I was ready to throw it in the bin. As a last resort, I punched out a little butterfly and stuck it on. Believe it or not, that tiny thing made all the difference. I'm still not sure I like the finished card, but that's probably because of the colour.

I definitely enjoyed the challenge, though, and am looking forward to the next one.

Jules's Sunday Scrap challenge

Just made it in time to join in with Jules's Sunday Scrap challenge. Jules has set herself the task of making something each Sunday using only pieces from her scrap box, and invites anyone to join in. So here's mine.

I've punched the flowers from scraps of coloured vellum, and given them glitter glue centres. Unfortunately the colours don't show up very well in the photo. The leaf is left over from yesterday's card. The background papers have been in my scrap box for so long I can't remember where they came from, but I think the patterned paper is by Hot Off The Press. The girl stamp is by Innovative Stamp Creations, and the border is one of my new Nestie-compatibles from Waltzing Mouse. The sentiment is by Katzelcraft.

I found this quite a difficult challenge, but I've got so many bits to use up, I'd better have another go next Sunday!

Got new stamps

Ever since I bought my first set of Nestabilities, I have thought that there should be stamps to go with them. Since then I've found that there are some companies making some. A while ago I bought a few Just-Rite stamps, but I'm not impressed, either with the designs or with the fiddly mounting system. But last week I discovered Waltzing Mouse! Wow! What a revelation. Just what I have been looking for! The company, based in N. Ireland is owned by the wonderful Claire Brennan, who designs all the stamps. To get some idea of her genius, check out not only her Nestie-compatible (and other) stamps, but also the "Secret Stamp Set", the idea behind which is quite simply brilliant! You need a password (provided) to see it! The website also has a fabulous gallery of inspiring samples.

The problem was which to order first! I settled on sets to go with my Labels 2 and Labels 10 Nesties, but then couldn't resist the "Rescue Remedies" set, so I will now have to buy the Nesties to go with the stamps!

I used Ella Blue papers (by GCD Studios) as a background for the stamps, which I had to cut around, not having the dies. (Yet!) The sentiment, I think, is an old Craft Stamper freebie.

The next card has the Waltzing Mouse border stamps on the Nestie die-cuts, Basic Grey Cappella papers, and an Impression Obsession sentiment. There is a bit of glitter glue in the flower centres and butterfly body, but it doesn't show up in the photo.

I have two more of the stamp sets already on order. I don't think they'll be the last!