More from Harrogate

One of the stands on our "must visit" list at the Harrogate show was of course that of Craftwork Cards. They had plenty of new goodies on display. I bought some papers, including some glitter-infused in gorgeous colours which will be great for Christmas cards. Also got some messages and embellishments in various shapes. And I couldn't resist some of the "Colour- me" ovals and butterflies. They also had some yummy new colour combinations of Card Candy, one pack of which (red, purple & lilac) inspired this card.



The Card Candy just happened to co-ordinate exactly with some Crafty Individuals background paper (from their Background Papers Book 1). I coloured the "Colour-Me" owls to match with Promarkers. The scallop border around the message is a bit of the glitter paper. Unfortunately, you don't see the effect very well in the photo, but it really is pretty. The stamped fleur de lys inner border is from a set of Just Rite stamps. I've only recently discovered these stamps, and bought the set at Harrogate, from Once Upon A Stamp. They work really well with Nestabilities, and the 1 & 5/8ths inch size fits beautifully round the Craftwork Cards in-circle messages. A silver peel off border around the background paper put the finishing touch to the card.

Another Secret Garden

I think the "Secret Garden" from Lavinia Stamps is my favourite stamp of the moment. Anything could be behind that gate! It's full of dreams and possibilities.

For this card I left out the fairy and used part of "Tree Trunk Trio" from Stampscapes on the left hand side. The trunks didn't reach the top of the picture, so I extended them with a black fine tip drawing pen. The leaves and other foliage stamps, and the toadstools are all Lavinia's. I used watercolour pencils to shade in the gateway and the background. It's probably a bit hard to see them in the photo (though they show up better if you click on it to see the big picture), but there's a Stampscapes deer and fir trees behind the gate.

And who knows what else you might find if you could enter therein......

Second childhood?!

Here are a couple of cards made with some of my new stash from Harrogate. Anyone who has read previous posts will know that I don't do cute. I must admit, however, that I do have a liking for fairies. Probably for the same reason that I like butterflies - they are such beautiful, ethereal creatures. A favourite book from my childhood, one which I still have (it's older than me!), is called "Once Upon A Birthday".


It tells the story of two children, a boy and a girl, who meet in Fairyland having been taken there magically to celebrate their respective birthdays. I loved it because it's full of gorgeous, colourful pictures of fairies. They have lots of exciting adventures in Fairyland, and in the end the little girl, once back home, gets a fairy outfit complete with wings for a birthday present, something I always wanted (particularly the wings!) but sadly never received!

Some time ago, at school, we had a reading week when staff were asked to take in a favourite book from their youth to read to a class. I took my fairy book, of course, interested to see what modern, worldly wise children, aged 5 to 7, raised on computer games and TV, would make of it. The story is strongly moralistic (eg. in one chapter a little fairy sulks because she lost a race in the school games, and her punishment is to come last in every game until she has learned her lesson, which she duly does) and quite politically incorrect. I was surprised, not to say delighted, that without exception they loved it. And, even more surprising, the boys did as much as the girls!

So what started this train of thought? New fairies from Lavinia Stamps! Lavinia Stamps are designed by Tracey Dutton, and her stand at the shows is always full of beautiful samples which are treats for the eyes. I was really taken with one card in particular. Check out her Gallery and you'll see it. This is my attempt to recreate it. I bought the Fairy, Vine & Secret Garden stamps at the show, and then filled in with others I already had, all Lavinia except for the trees on the left, which are by Innovative Stamp Creations. I would have bought the Lavinia Tree Root stamp also, but I'd run out of money by then, so I had to make do. I liked this fairy because she isn't too cute, and I love the air of mystery and magic about the "Secret Garden".




Still on the childhood theme, I couldn't resist these miniatures from
Clarity Stamp. I found the pretty ribbon at Harrogate too, but I'm pleased to say that all other materials on this card are old stash!

(The background paper, by Papermania, doesn't show up very well in the small photo - click on it to see the detail in the big one.)

Harrogate there we came!

Well, what a brilliant day we've just had. Sally & I had been saving ourselves up all year for the Great Northern Papercrafts Extravaganza in Harrogate. Usually we go to the Whichcraft show in Doncaster twice a year, but this year we decided to give Doncaster a miss, save up our money & give Harrogate a try instead, so we were very much ready for some retail therapy. The weather was perfect, we found just about everything we'd been looking for, and even met some of our blogging friends for the first time, which was lovely. Great to see them and put names to faces at last. Then we had a picnic outside in the fresh air to round it all off. Now I'm sorting out my new stash & looking forward to playing with it all tomorrow.

On the other hand, there's still a while before bedtime......

PS. Check out some fantastic blog candy from The Stampman (see my sidebar), but be quick, the draw closes at midnight on Monday the 14th!

Best laid plans....

Well, at my last post there were still three weeks left of the school hols. Now we've been back at school nearly a week, and I don't know where the last month has gone. Not to plan, that's for sure. Various things conspired to keep me from doing all that I wanted to, and the only crafting I did was to help my four year old grandson make birthday cards for his mum & dad. And a good job he made of them too!

A major problem was that my old laptop began to malfunction so much that it is not really safe to use now, and I had to get a new one. Not that I'm complaining about that! The new one is great, but of course I have had to spend a lot of time getting to know it & transferring everything from the old one.

However, it is now up and running, and I have managed to make two cards this week. Just as well, seeing as I will be restarting my card class tomorrow, after the summer break!

The first card was a belated one for a friend & I didn't have time to stop & photograph it. For the class I decided to have a go at a tri-shutter card, as illustrated on the Splitcoast Stampers website. It's one of those things which looks very impressive but is in fact quite easy to make (fortunately!). I am still trying to use up stuff from my stash, ahead of a trip to the Great Northern Papercrafts Extravaganza in Harrogate this coming weekend, and mostly succeeded on this card. The background paper I've had for years. It's by Provo Craft, from long before the Cuttlebug came on the scene! Sally & I have been very good, & haven't been to any other shows this year. (Well, ok, I went to a teeny tiny one in Nottingham several months back & hardly bought anything much, so I'm not really counting that.) We've been saving ourselves for Harrogate. The thing is, having just bought the laptop, I'm going to have to be very careful about how much I spend there....

Halfway through the holidays

We've just had a lovely few days in Dumfries & Galloway, in spite of the rain, visiting places we hadn't been to before. On one day we followed the Galloway Kite Trail around Loch Ken. The trail was formed after the successful re-introduction of red kites to the area. The highlight of the day was seeing 50+ red kites descend on the feeding station at Bellymack Hill Farm. Food is put out there at 2pm every day, but the birds start to arrive before then. Wonder how they know what time it is! It was an amazing sight. Just a pity the weather wasn't better. Note the Scotch mist in the background of the photo! The rain was blowing straight into the hide from where we were watching, and I could only hope my camera would survive the soaking. (So far so good!)




It's always great to get away for a while, but withdrawal symptoms soon set in, so back to the crafting! My first task when I got home was to make a wedding anniversary card for my daughter and son-in-law. It's their 8th this year, traditionally bronze & pottery. I'd been waiting for an opportunity to use a gorgeous background by Lesley Wharton, aka The Paper Engineer, which she generously gave away as a freebie on her blog. The colours seemed just right for the occasion, and it didn't need any more than a few Prima flowers and an image from Crafty Individuals to complete the design.


I'm still trying to use up my existing stash, rather than buying new stuff. It's not working 100%, but I am definitely buying less new and using more old, so I'm considering that a success! I've had some gorgeous Daisy D's papers for ages and have kept getting them out to look at from time to time. They are lovely quality and the most sumptuous colours and designs. Believe me, making the first cut into them was not easy, but I managed it. There are several sheets of each double-sided design in the pack, and so I have decided that if I keep one of each, using the rest should be quite painless. As with the previous card, the papers needed little embellishment. I used three different papers for the background, dividing them with narrow gold peeloffs, and a fourth for the scalloped circle around the greeting. The Spellbinders ribbon tag was made from the reverse side of the scalloped circle paper. Of course, all the papers co-ordinate beautifully. A couple of Prima flowers, and a Craftwork Cards Circle Message finished it off.

Only three more weeks of the hols left.....

Circle of Friends

I have received another Circle of Friends Award, this time from Sally, and I'm thrilled. One of the joys of blogging, for me, is that it has opened up a new world and introduced me to lovely people with whom I might never otherwise have come into contact. We may never meet face to face, but their thoughts and comments on my blog are always encouraging and much appreciated. And of course their blogs inspire me too. So I am proud to call them friends.

Here's the award, which I would like to pass on to the following friends:



Sally H
Lisa
Brenda
Judith
Megan

What barbecue summer?

I've been up in Dumfriesshire for a few days, staying with my daughter and family. It's been raining most of the week, but we did manage to get out between the showers. Not looking forward to the drive home tomorrow - heavy rain is forecast all the way. Just had a ray of sunshine, though, in the form of a Circle of Friends blog award from Judith. Thanks, Judith, it's much appreciated and really did brighten my day.



I'd like to pass it on to the following people, all great blog friends. Please display it with pride on your blogs!




Sally H
Lesley
Lisa
Brenda
Megan

More non-card stuff

My mission for the summer holidays is to start getting some of my stash used - the impulse buys that I liked the look of when I bought them without any clear idea of what I would do with them, and which have since been languishing in the cupboard. One such item was a little Maya Road chipboard album. It consisted of six identical chipboard shapes, and rather than make just one album with them, I used two of the shapes to make the covers, and then cut some pages with my Nestabilities Scalloped Squares (which luckily happened to be just the right size!).



I sponged the covers with pigment ink and then stamped them with a Stamping-ton flourish and Stampendous butterflies, completing the front with a Spellbinders Ribbon Tag and a couple of flourishes diecut from Grungepaper. I punched some butterflies and a flower from the grungepaper to make charms to add to the ribbons and fibres with which I decorated the bookring holding everything together.

The photos inside are of my grandparents and great grandparents.

Grunge!

Well, as of today I have six weeks of school holidays to look forward to, and I am certainly ready for the rest! My card class is also taking a break until September, and since I don't have to make any card samples for a while I thought I might take the opportunity to explore other things. To that end, I have at last got my hands on some grunge paper.



It's strange stuff, with an almost suede-like finish. The smell when it first comes out of the packet is a bit offputting, but that does fade after a while (or maybe I just got used to it!). It punches nicely (need to use a sturdy punch) and also goes through the Cuttlebug. I punched a few flowers and leaves to begin with and coloured them with Distress inks. Then I decided to make a picture frame to stick them on. I used my Nestabilities to cut the frame. The grungepaper is very flexible, so I backed it with a piece of stiff card. Here it is with one of my butterfly photos.

Now to see what else I can do with it....