I Dreamed a Dream (Fontine)

Last term, my 14 year old daughter entered a couple of reading Challenges at school. For one of them, she had to read 12 books in different, listed genres (!) She completed the task, so I treated her to a little 'vintage' shopping at the weekend and made her this for her to remember her achievement by. Proud of her? Oh yes!

The lovely lady, sentiment and the print on my torn heart are from Rogue Redhead Designs - and what marvellous stamps they are too! Lush red rubber that stamps beautifully, Yum!

They were part of a lovely gift I got a few weeks back. All of the 'torn' layers come from part of the packaging that the stamps came in (just love recyling stuff - it feels so good!)

The heart has a good splash of Glossy accents and a sprinkle of glitter.

My lady looks like she is day dreaming as well as reading and this reminded me of Fontine's song from Les Miserables. I used to be a Wardrobe Mistress in the Theatre, so adore my Musicals!

I am entering this card into The Blogger's Challenge - Texturise IT!
I am entering this card intoThe Stampman - embellish it - Challenge
I am entering this card intoCraft Your Days Away Distressing Challenge

Love - a clean and simple card - Fiskars Challenge

I 've been having a major sort out of my craft supplies and found bits and pieces I wanted to use up - like peel offs.

I stamped, embossed and cut out 2 hearts and then created 'ribbons' for them to dangle from by using double sided tape which I coated with glitter. That is such a simple but effective technique.

The 2 little tiny pearls on the hearts are the first thing I've used from some gorgeous crafting goodies sent to me by friends across the pond... Anita and Sue, I'm waving! xx

I am entering this card in the UK Fiskarettes Spring Challenge: Fiskars Spring Challenge, All you need is love

Gold, lots of Gold... and then some, with bells on!

A better piccie - the other one is too dark

I'd never made anything using a great deal of gold. Well, I have  now. Tonight I used the lid of my embossing powder, pushed it in the stamp pad and embossed circles on the tag - it was really good fun! I used several different shades of gold embossing powders. The little hearts at the bottom used a variety of effects learnt during the 12 Tags of Christmas and were cut out freehand. I had so much fun making this!

I am entering this card into the 'Gold' challenge at Sunday Stamper - after the goldrushand also the blogger challenge 'Wings and Things:http://www.lisasomerville.com/2012/01/wingsandthings-bloggers-challenge.html
and the Fashionable Stamp Challenge at http://fashionablestampingchallenges.cottagecrafts.ie/?p=2104
and the Anything Goes challenge at anything goes http://anythingchallenge.blogspot.com/2012/01/challenge-58-anything-goes-at-anything.html

Little Red

Little Red Awaits Her Cake! A quick card

   I embossed and lightly sanded a piece of DCWV card. I stamped an image (my beloved Paperartsy I think) in Black Memento Ink onto a card with a good grain on it in order to achieve a slightly patchy effect. I matted this onto red glitter felt to add depth.. Glitter was added to the debossed DCWV card and I added a collar and bow to the girl, who I coloured in using Fired Brick Distress Ink. I also added a swirl of glitter to mirror the swirls on the arch in thestamped  image. 

    I took a very quick piccie because Sherlock Holmes is on TV tonight and I've lots to do, including hunting for my other No 6 knitting Needle!

I am entering this card into The Stampman Challenge 'use red'
 http://thestampmanchallenges.blogspot.com/2012/01/use-red.html

and the spicy Ribbon challenge over at Gingersnap Creations
http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2012/01/gc134-spicy-supply-challenge-ribbon.html

Red Letter Day

An Interesting life!

This is the first time I have created a larger project using some of the techniques that I learnt during the 12 Tags of Christmas and I was really pleased with the results though the photo's have not picked up all of the details too well. I used the triple embossing techniques from Day 8 as well as the water splatting technique.

Creating the background -Tempus Fugit!

I cut a tag from a 12x12 sheet and then, stamped and embossed Tim Holtz clocks. onto the paper and stamped 'Tempus Fugit (time flies) too.

My Favourite Hampton Arts Stamp circa 2001

I stamped my wistful lady using Rich Cocoa Momento Ink. and painted  the lips and eyes with Worn Lipstick and Broken China Distress Ink, which were then covered in clear embossing powder and heat set. I covered the whole image in Clear Distress Embossing Ink and  embossing powder and embossed a second time. I repeated this process again,  this time,,, tapping hard to remove the the excess powder into a bin prior to embossing. I used a blending tool  and Vintage Photo distress ink and worked it  in a circular motion (quite hard) over the whole image. The Distress ink seeps into any gaps - Neat  huh? Here is a link to HRH T!m's instructions for this great technique...  12 tags of Christmas  The eyes and lips are more raised than the background image, which looks really cool.

and I shall call him... Bert!

I stamped the Tim Holtz gentleman  (who I shall call Bert) and then triple embossed him as well, this time making lots of cracks in the glaze by gently bending it - great fun! - this could be the new bubble wrap for me! I dropped a few dots of  the  distress inks I had out onto this image between the embossing stages. I repeated the process on the Hot Air Balloon  and also embossed the Portabello Road Postcards and The Tim Holtz Eiffel Tower image.

Red Letter Day - or Letters Wrapped in Blue?
I spent a while arranging the elements until they told the tale of the lady in a way that I think she would have liked! I am entering this into several challenges: including Grungy Monday Challenge 32 and the Red Letter Challenge at Simon Says Stamp and show http://simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.com/2012/01/simon-says-stamp-and-show-red-letter.htmland Sunday Stampers and http://theartisticstamper.blogspot.com/2012/01/birthday-bonanza-card-candy.html

4 down, 16 to go! (Day 2)

I have challenged myself to make 20 mini books from my existing stash to be sold for the Charity so lovingly run by 2 of my colleagues at the college where I am a lecturer.

Once I have done these, I have promised myself to move onto Greetings cards, also for the same charity. The books and the cards will be very simple as it is the start of term and I have lots of preparation work to do, but that's okay!

I used images I stamped and cut out ages ago and die cut some flowers. I used  DCWV card for the covers and the details were  highlighted with Glossy Accents.

All colouring in was done by my daughter - who fills in between the lines better than me :)

Mini Book - a Little Cutie!

   I spent most of this evening  looking through my own craft supplies - surveying my little kingdom as it were. I got quite excited by some of my finds, especially the remainders of some old Basic Grey and K&Co pads... the crafting industry is as fashion led as the fashion industry itself and it is always tempting to desire the newest items, leaving some of us with lots of unused goodies that we loved once but have squirrelled away and now neglect.

Maybe, just  maybe... in these austere times, one of the craft companies should consider offering a paper pack  (in addition to their normal ranges) with less duplicate sheets and more designs?  Imagine for example... A best of Basic Grey pad? 6x6, 36 different pages, I'd bite their hands of for one! They could trawl through their own back catalogues and produce different volumes - colour coordinating ones, mmm... what a nice thought!

I used a Sizzix page and  cut 20 pages from photocopy paper as well as a front and back cover. I'd sanded the coredinations card for quite a while before I realised it WASN'T coredinations at all but in fact had a white core, but I liked the effect so I kept going. I would have realised sooner, but was so engrossed watching Moulin Rouge (I love everything about that film) that I wasn't really concentrating! Yay, slacker! I die cut some Quickutz presents and punched some tiny hearts out of scraps of glitter card and dotty paper and then messed about with them till I liked the layout. I used long ended brads to fasten it all together and covered the ends with and extra strip of white glitter card, it made it look very neat on the back.

I am going to make more of these for a charity project I support at my work - it cost pennies, but I like it.

Back in the Day!

   When my friend suggested I complete this challenge, I was struck by both the brightness and number of the colours, hmm - was this going to be a challenge too far? I don't tend to use this many colours on a project and rarely go this bright. Still, I decided to have a go.

   Well, I faffed around for ages trying to get the right colours, or even something close, gathering up the goodies to make the card took two or three times as long as the making of it! - the 1980's Bananarama classic track comes to mind here! 'It's not what you've got, it's the way that you do it!' 

   Ah, back in the day, hugely influenced by this all female group, I remember going out at night in Brighton with friends, wearing dungarees over a vest, with a fetching scarf tied around my head and lots of red lippy, thinking I was the bee's knees - Well, you never know!!

   Any hoo, before I get stuck in the 80's...After folding a piece of Coredinations jewelled card, I stamped and embossed a Hampton Arts stamp and coloured in the images with Sakura pens. I added a stamped sentiment and embossed using a lime green embossing powder. A smattering of Bumblebee glitter and I was finished - don't worry, tis only the name of the shade of glitter... no bees were harmed in the creation of this card!
 I am entering this card into the Our Creative Corner Challenge:  http://ourcreativecorner6.blogspot.com/

Clare Curd - New Fiskarettes Ambassador UK - Good Luck!

Clare - Good Luck in 2012

   Back in the day, before my old tabletop computer decided that it would celebrate the event of getting online... by switching itself straight back off, I used to visit the Fiskar's UK website and joined the Fiskarettes. Now I can get online (and stay there!) I've been popping in and have posted a couple of bits and pieces, big changes afoot, the site has been closed for a short while and is currently mid revamp. 

   I was delighted to see that the new UK Fiskars Ambassador is  the the lovely Clare Curd... currently spreading Holtzy goodness and other stuff on the Create and Craft TV channel. (not long till the great man's birthday... AND I've managed to get my card in the post to him, so I'm feeling smug!) 

   So, if you are docrafter's, a Create and Craft viewer, or read docrafts Creativity why not drop by and say Hi to Clare? If you are new to crafting, there are lovely clear instruction on how to make a post too

Any hoo - Good Luck Clare!  Here's the link:- http://www.fiskarettes.co.uk/ 

Tim Holtz, Happy Birthday Tim!

   I wish I'd had longer to make something more elaborate for Tim Holtz's birthday  on January 7th - and seeing the fabulous creations appearing on http://studiol3.blogspot.com/  I'm a bit shy about posting this with them. I started with a piece of Coredinations Whitewash card, distressed, 'kiss' and 'ghost' stamped it (as I'd learnt during the 12 Tags of Christmas) embossing several times along the way. I used a T!m stamp for the 3 gentlemen and had a bit of fun giving them party hats... naturally T!m, being the birthday boy, got a  crown. which I embossed in copper. I cut them out (probably unwisely as I left my specs at work today) and die cut 3 Quickutz balloons and added his name.  I hand wrote the sentiment 'King for a day' with an embossing pen. It's prettier and more textured than in the photo, my camera is very simple and the light just bounced back in the piccy
I am entering this onto the Grungy Monday challenge/celebration of  HRM Tim's birthday

I'm feeling like Bambi in Blogland!

Something old - Something new

Note added 10th January 2012, a few people have been asking me about this stamp, it is a striking image isn't it?
It is a Hampton Art Stamp called Large Face Frame. It's number is 2234. It is quite old, it says 2001 on the stamp. I remember there was a smaller face too! I hope this helps :)

   I've been bouncing about like ' Bambi in Blogland!' - or, having just been out and about and seeing  the grumpy faces on many of the shoppers on Western Road, possibly  'a Tigger in a sea of Eyeore's!'...Why?...
 
 Well, 2 good people whose blogs I visit daily, won, in Sir Tim of Holtz's amazing 12 Tags of Christmas awards - they are both great bloggers whose generous comments have encouraged my own fledgling blog  -  and I was so happy and proud for them. Do drop by and give Sue and Anita  a wave!

http://theartfulmaven.blogspot.com/                             http://sue-thislife.blogspot.com/

   In the midst of all that excitement (happy emails wending their way back and forth across the pond) I checked updated posts from the blogs I follow and comments on my own site and found to my joy and amazement  the winner of a very gorgeous item  - a vintage crafting CD on a beautiful vintage blog was... ME! Huge excited, happy thank you to Julie.  (Oooh, the very word 'vintage' sends a thrill up my spine) this is the loveliest site (and there is a very cool sister site too) so, when you get back from Sue and Anita's, why not drop by?

http://avintagechic.blogspot.com/

  I made the  card at the top of this post to give to a neighbour who moved over the New Year. I managed to use up old stash (card, Papermania elements, stamp) and a new, New Years Stamp I got free in a magazine - so I am entering this card into the:- Simon Says Stamp and Show ... Something Old ... Something New  Challenge. http://simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.com/ and the  http://fashionablestampingchallenges.cottagecrafts.ie/?cat=12

I then used up more old and new scraps (another free stamp, this one from my beloved Craft Stamper magazine)  some  brads I found in a remainder bin pre Christmas and a Sizzix page die to make this  book. After crafting in all the bright colours over Christmas, it was good to use a starker colour scheme.