Thursday 23 May 2013

Rain or Shine

I'm so pleased!!!! I got Honourable Mention on the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown  challenge, red and white. Thank you so much DT. That's great!!
I have not had much time this week to make cards. It has been so busy again, but I have managed to make one today and I will enter it into two challenges, the Colours and Sketches sketch challenge for this week and the Make My Monday greens and yellows challenge.



I used the Rain or Shine stamp set and inks from Stampin' Up. The background is a design paper from stash in a pale green, the umbrella and sentiment have been stamped in Handsome Hunter and the handle and rain in Daffodil Yellow. It has been mounted  on pale yellow card and yellow ribbon and bow, made using fork method, added.  I coloured in the flowers on the umbrella using a promarker. Its made quite a nice little card I think. I have made a small card this time, it is only 5x5" usually my cards are a lot bigger.
I dont know whether I will be able to do anything next week.  I am off to see my Granddaughter tomorrow and when I get back on Saturday, I have got a lot of clearing up to do in the garden, as I have had a 'nice young man' in to repair and paint my fences and there is a lot to tidy up.  I am hoping to go away again for a few days next week too, in my Romahome, but it depends on how I get on and the weather of course.  I hope you all have a lovely bank holiday weekend.



Thursday 16 May 2013

Jane Eyre

I love this weeks  Make My Monday challenge - Literary Inspirations - Jane Eyre.  I just had to have a go at this challenge. It has really got my old brain going, in fact I love these challenges because they really get me thinking.  I had two or three ideas for this one, but so far have only had time to make one card. I was inspired by the story not the book cover.  I don't have any Victorian Ladies or Gentlemen stamps in fact I don't have any people stamps, I'm more into nature and scenic stamps.  So I thought about the location for the story, the bleak moors, the remote house and remote master, after all Rochester wasn't very warm was he and I thought of poor Jane, who must have been so lonely at first, miles from anywhere, living in a huge hall with a little girl and a man who was quite unemotional and aloof.  Here is my card.  I hope it is suitably atmospheric.







The background was not brayered as I was going to do, but sponged using Distress inks and cut and dry foam.  The middle panel, was brayered and the grasses stamp is from Stampin' Up, Just Believe set. The wistful face of Jane (?) is a freebie from a craft mag. The face was originally white of course, but I thought it was a bit stark, so I toned it down a bit by gently sponging a very pale blue on it. I hope you like it.
I am busy gardening today, but I might have another go tonight, making a card using another of my ideas, a bit more ordinary this time.  I might put in on my blog and I might not.  It depends how it turns out. I hope you are enjoying the sunshine, rain supposed to be coming later.

Tuesday 14 May 2013

Red and White Christmas.

This is the card for the 52CCT colour challenge.  I love red, my favourite colour, but I had to do a lot of thinking which stamp to use. I love this Tim Holtz stamp, it is a set of four and I haven't used it before, so I thought I would use it in this challenge as its a little bit different. The ink is Poppy Parade, a lovely red.  I have kept is simple as the DT seem to like simple, so I didn't put any bling on it although I could have put a little bit perhaps, just a red gem on a circle perhaps, but left it in the end.  The top image is mounted on foam pads just to lift it up a bit.  I also did the same layout but mounted it on white card instead of red.  Which one do you like best?


White on red


Red on White




Grubby Oak Tree Card

Here is the card I have made for the  Colours and Sketches sketch challenge this week.  I don't like it very much, it has not turned out how I wanted it to.  I had the idea of using the Oak tree from Stampin' Up's Lovely as a tree stamp set and I wanted to do torn edges because I like the torn paper effect.  I thought I would sponge the edges with a dark brown ink, I used Creamy Caramel, but once I had done it I didn't like it.  I thought it just looked grubby.  I mounted it all on a background paper I had made using Tea Dye Distress inks, so I think the whole effect is quite dull. I sprayed gold mica on to the background but that hasn't shown up at all.  I think I should have used a different colour for the edges.  Any ideas?  I did think of colouring in the tree, but that meant I should have coloured in the bee and leaves as well and you can sometimes make it worse trying to make  it better, so I left it.  I haven't got time at the moment to try again, so I am submitting it to the challenge.  You never know, someone might quite like it.




I'm back!!

I'm back!! I have been away in my Romahome, had a lovely time, weather dry but cold, but lots of good company and loads of laughs.  Then I went and visited my daughter and granddaughter and had a super time, the weather was gorgeous, those two hot days we had last week.  (Hope that wasn't our summer) We explored Oxford, its a very interesting town and I cant wait to explore more of it. Later we played with the sand and water in the garden with Elsie.  I bought her a doll's pram and she loved it.  She is such a lovely little girl and quite the little Mother looking after her dolly.  Cant wait to see her again.  The rest of the time I have been catching up on things, but I'm back crafting now.  I sent Beth a Thank You card for the lovely  time I had and the presents she bought me.  After Christmas I discovered I had no Thank You cards to send people so I set to and made ten so I now have a stash of them.  I had great fun making them.  I used the triple layer technique and was able to use lots of stamps I haven't used before or not used often.  Here is the one I sent to Beth.



I like this technique because it is simple and quite quick and you can produce some lovely cards. The stamps I used were Everything Eleanor from Stampin' Up.
I was very pleased to discover just before I went away that I had achieved Top Three in the Make My Monday One Layer Challenge with my Little Bit of Sunshine.  I was thrilled and it was lovely to go away on a high.  Made my day.
 I have missed some lovely challenges whilst I have been away, some I would really have loved to have a go at, but never mind, perhaps I'll try the ideas sometime.  Yesterday I made two cards, one for the Colours and Sketches challenge and one for 52 Christmas Card Throwdown..