Spring at last!

Well, today is officially the first day of spring. You wouldn't have known it here - wet, grey & dismal all day. But we have had some really nice days lately, and the spring flowers are beginning to come out in the garden. The snowdrops have been beautiful this year, and now the crocuses are blooming.

The daffodils, however, are only just coming into bud, so when I saw that this week's Allsorts Challenge  (Week 44) was "Spring is in the Air"  I thought I'd make a card with daffodils to brighten things up until the real ones take over. Lots of challenges with spring themes this week, so I'm also entering it in  Rosie D's and By the Cute and Girly. Another easel card! I really like making them - they are easy to construct, look lovely, and stand up so well!

The daffodil stamp is PSX, coloured with Promarkers, and the tiny butterfly is by Crafty Individuals. The background papers and printed sentiment (I added the butterfly) were free with Making Cards Magazine. The sentiment says " May your spirit keep the freedom of a butterfly in spring, and and may your heart be filled always with the joys of simple things" which I thought was rather nice and quite appropriate. The border is my favourite Martha Stewart punch, with ribbon from stash.

Tuesday Taggers 9th March

I haven't had much time lately for blogging, or for crafting, come to that. Unfortunately, at the moment real life is having to take priority. However, I have managed (at the last minute!) to make something for this week's Tuesday Taggers, where the theme is St. Patrick's Day. Since I don't have anything specifically to do with St. Patrick, I'm hoping a general Irish theme will be okay.

I decided (inspired by Debbie Dolphin's host of wonderful examples) to make a round easel card, which I cut with my Nestabilities. I have just bought the Celtic knot die by Joy!crafts (available from Crafts U Love ) and it seemed to be perfect for this project, mounted on to some My Mind's Eye paper. The base of the card is stamped with the Hero Arts Delicate Vine Background. The "Good Luck" stamp is one of a set of stamps free with the current (April 2010) issue of Papercraft Inspirations Magazine. The Irish Blessing & butterfly are Elusive Images from Graphicus. I finished the card with some shamrocks made from punched hearts. (Edit: I now realise, of course, that shamrocks have three lobes to the leaf, so these had better be lucky 4-leaf clovers!)

It was a bit of a rushed job (I should just about make the deadline!) but I think it turned out okay in the end.

Sir Stampalot new Challenge Blog!

Sir Stampalot has a fantastic new Challenge Blog, with monthly challenges beginning on 1st April. They have a very talented Design Team, and it all sounds as though it's going to be great fun, so click the link on my sidebar to hop over and have a look.

Swirls and curls, and the case for digital stamping

My big reorganisation is still ongoing, but I managed to clear enough space on my desk to make a card for this week's Tuesday Taggers, the theme being Swirls and Curls. For the first time ever, I've used a digital stamp, the Hero Arts butterfly.

I'd previously bought a few digistamps from other companies because a) I thought I ought to try them and b) I liked the pictures. However, subconsciously I think I was reluctant to use them because they were not "real" stamps. I have thought about it for quite a while now, and come to the conclusion that there are parallels here with digital photography. Many people said originally that digital photography was not real photography. Now, especially with the advent of digital SLRs, even some of the diehard darkroom aficionados have embraced it. Photography has been a great interest of mine for many years but I never had the opportunity to have my own darkroom, so I joined the digital revolution with enthusiasm. I decided that whichever way the image was captured, the end result is what counts.

I think that this argument may also be used with stamping. Whether made with ink and rubber, or ink and printer, the image which appears on the paper is to all intents and purposes the same. It's what you then do with it that matters. This is illustrated very well by Jennifer McGuire in her video on the Hero Arts blog. I watched the video, checked out the Hero Arts digistamps, and that clinched it for me. Apart from being very good value for money (because each digistamp set comes with lots of extras) many of the HA digistamps have rubber equivalents (some of which I already have!), giving lots of scope for combining the two. Also, the digistamps can be resized, so there are endless possibilities.

Inspired by Jennifer's butterfly demo, I coloured mine with Distress inks and then overstamped it (real stamp!) with the HA flourish. To fit the swirls and curls theme, I stamped all over the base card with the flourish from Crafty Individuals (who are sponsoring this week's TT with a great prize!) and then added some swirly background papers from the gorgeous new Papermania Capsule Collection. A Martha Stewart punched border and a few Prima flowers completed the design.

I should add (in fact I'm doing just that!) that "real stamping" will always be my preference, and it's not often that I make anything without some stamping on it. However, digital certainly has its place too; it's just a different way of arriving at the end result, and I think we are very lucky to have so many and varied artforms available to us to create with.

I would be very interested to hear any other views for or against digital stamping!

A lovely day out

Yesterday Sally took me for a ride in her new car, destination Peterborough, so we could visit Sir Stampalot's new premises. We met up with Brenda there and had a nice cup of tea and some of Sally's delicious Bran Loaf while we admired the spacious new shop. It was lovely to see Brenda again & chat to her and Janice. Naturally we took the opportunity to spend some money, with some of the gorgeous new Penny Black and Hero Arts stamps being top of my list.

I intended to put them to use today, but in trying to decide where in my crowded craft room to accommodate them, I got sidetracked into re-organising my storage, a job certainly long overdue! I'm still in the process, and it's likely to take me a while longer yet, but hopefully when I've finished I'll actually be able to find things when I want them!

I have a (very!) large number of wood mounted stamps, some of which I've had for many years. A lot haven't been used for a long time, some of them because my style has changed over the years and they no longer suit what I do. They have now been put in a box for sale. (If anyone is  interested in them (Nottingham area), email me for details via the address in my profile!). Others don't get used because they are put away in drawers in another room, and since they're not to hand where I work I tend to forget about them. So I'm going through them and unmounting the ones I really want to use again. It's like rediscovering old friends!

I may not have any pictures to post for a few days (and apologies if I don't get round to looking at everyone's blogs), but I'm hoping that once I've got everything sorted it will give me some fresh inspiration. That's the theory anyway!

Amazing Blog Candy from The Stamp Man!

Jill is giving away either a complete set of the new Tim Holtz Distress ink pads (12 new gorgeous colours!) or the complete set of the 12 new re-inkers to two very lucky winners!

If you'd like to be in with a chance of winning , hop over to Jill's blog for all the details. This really is a fantastic prize!

Starting them young, and Allsorts Challenge week 40

Well, I had a great week up north, albeit exhausting! Needless to say, I didn't get any cards made, though we did have time for a bit of crafting. My four year old grandson had two birthday parties to attend while I was there (his social life is far more hectic than mine!) and he wanted to make cards for his friends. He decided to do some stamping, and here's what he made.

It was all his own design. He chose the inks and stamps (Clarity Stamp, Stampscapes, and Non Sequitur) and just got on with it. All I did was cut it out and mat it for him. I thought it wasn't bad for a 4 year old. He then decided he liked it too much to give it away! So he made a couple of other cards for his friends. 

I'm still trying to catch up after my week away, so apologies if I haven't managed to get round to everyone's blogs. I feel as though I've been out of circulation for ages. However, I did get a card made for this week's Allsorts challenge, whch is to incorporate a tag, ticket or label in the design.

I went for a vintage look. The background paper is old stash (Anna Griffin I think), overstamped with a Crafty Individuals text. I also used a Martha Stewart punch and Prima flowers. The flower centres are made with micro beads (very old stash!). The photo is of my maternal grandma. I was looking for something in my sewing box the other day and came across my thread cutter, the sort you are allowed to take on aeroplanes. I'd forgotten I had it. It's a circular blade set in a case which exposes parts of the blade, similar to this by Tim Holtz. I don't do so much sewing these days, and even less flying, so I thought my thread cutter would come in handy for distressing paper, and as you can see, it worked really well. And it's much prettier than Tim's!

Backgrounds

I'm going to do some background techniques with my class tomorrow, including my favourite direct-to-paper with overstamping. I have some new class members who haven't done any card making before, so I've tried to make it fairly simple to begin with. This sample shows the first outing for my new Hero Arts Antique Brocade stamp, which I think is destined to become much loved. I stamped it over paper sponged with Versamagic inks. The girl and butterfly images are from Crafty Individuals' Miniatures Books "People & Places 2" and "Butterflies & Flowers" respectively. I used the huge butterfly from the Elusive Images "Patchwork Butterfly" plate as a background on the base card, and the sentiment is from the same plate.

Next week it's half term, so I'm going up to stay with my daughter & family in Dumfriesshire. Lots of playing and babysitting planned, so I'm not likely to get much time for challenges, or even blogging. There'll be room in the car to take one box of supplies with me in the hope of managing to make a few cards. The question is, what will I be able to conjure up from only one box of stash? Now there's a challenge, if ever there was one!

The winner!

The time has come to draw the winner of my blog candy earrings.

Mr. Random.org chose No. 7, who is.......

CRAFTIMAMMA (Lesley)

Crossing all your fingers and toes must have done the trick, Lesley, so congratulations! If you'll email me your address, I'll send them off to you straightaway.

A Bear

The theme for this week's Tuesday Taggers is Teddy Bears, with a lovely prize on offer sponsored by The Craft Barn. Now, of course I don't do cute, but this week I just had to rise to the challenge. I want to introduce you to my bear. He was given to me when I was born, and has been with me ever since (a long time!).

Here's a picture of him (and me) in his youth. [I've just noticed that the lace on the edge of the gown I'm wearing in the photo is remarkably similar to a Martha Stewart Zig Zag edge punch design!] My bear was very smart then, with a beautiful golden coloured coat and soft brown paws, and inside him he had a musical box which played the tune of "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf"! That long ago ceased to function, unfortunately, and nowadays he's looking a bit worse for wear.

I can't remember what I used to call him when I was little, if indeed I ever gave him any other name than teddy. But now, he's very definitely Fred Bear!

Anyway, here's the card I have made in his honour. I only have a few bear stamps, but this one seemed very fitting as not only is it a very traditional style of bear, by PSX, but it's also one of my oldest stamps. To show him off I coloured him with Promarkers and set him in a Nestabilities frame against some My Mind's Eye paper, embellished with a Martha Stewart punch, a few Prima flowers and some ribbon. The sentiment is by Rubber Stamp Tapestry.

My old bear's glory might be somewhat faded now, but I'd swear he's still got a twinkle in his eye!