Under the Sea

This is the card that I made for OH´s birthday this year, because since his last birthday he has become a PADI qualified diver. It also gave me the opportunity to break out this lovely stamp set from Elusive Images.

I was helped enormously by having the watery background, which had been made by my sister during a session when we were both playing with Starburst Stains. I had always wanted to create the large seahorse with Fantasy Film, and I used a dark peacock blue film that I bought ages ago at a show. However, I also wanted to use the shell and starfish stamps, so that gave me the challenge of how to create the sea bed. Luckily, I found a paper in the Artylicious Echoes of Italy set that looks like sand, and I stamped some extra texture onto the paper using a stamp called (I think) Field of Sky by Judikins. 

I stamped all of the shells and starfish onto printable inkjet labels, and coloured them with Promarkers. The I cut them out and stuck them to the background. I stamped a couple of smaller seahorses and weeds directly onto the background. After adding the Fantasy Film seahorse, I attached a piece of acetate over the whole picture using brads. As a final touch, I stuck some Zoomz to the top layer, to look like bubbles. 

Because of the acetate, I wasn´t able to avoid the reflection on the photograph, but I hope you can get the overall impression.

Thanks for looking.

Back to the threes

After a brief diversion into other topics, it's back to the theme of threes. This time, I have used a stamp from a Penny Black transparent set and inspired by the hearts, followed a romantic theme for all three. I also took the opportunity to practise my colouring with Promarkers.

For the first card, I used a panel of wrapping paper. It's a shame that you don't get feely-vision, because the red hearts are actually flocked, so it's a very tactile card. Simply embellished with a cuttlebug border folder, which I chalked very lightly to emphasise the text.

For the second card, I used another Cuttlebug embossing folder, a small heart from the same Penny Black set and a lovely text phrase stamp from a set of children's quotations by Inkadinkadoo.

Finally, this is my first attempt at an easel card. The hearts are all from a themed plate by Elusive Images, and some lovely backing paper by Craft House (I think). I coloured the heart brads with a Promarker and used a foiled sentiment by Papermania.

Thanks for looking,

A Grungepaper Rose for my Valentine

It's that time of year again, when I rack my brains for an idea for a Valentine's card for my dear OH. This time, I thought it was an opportunity to have a go at making a grungepaper rose, as I have admired the many examples that I've seen in magazines and on blogs recently. Here is the result:

I made the rose by stamping with one of the flowers from the Elusive Images Harlequin Daisy set, and coloured it with Fired Brick Distress Ink. The other images are from the Harlequin Rose set by Elusive Images, stamped in Memento Ink in Rhubarb Stalk - a lovely rich red. I coloured the rose with my Sakura Stardust Pens for a bit of sparkle, and there's a bit more bling from the gems on the label. Finally added some hearts punched out with the fabulous Martha Stewart Lattice Heart punch. The backing papers are slightly shimmery and are from a set by Crafts House.
I hope you like it.

Playing with Promarkers

OK, so the doing things in threes didn't last very long. I actually do have 2 of 3 of the net set ready but have stalled on number 3. The main reason for that is that I got sidetracked last week - I went to a craft show and bought some more Promarkers, so I felt the need to practise with them in an attempt to improve my colouring techniques.

However, in the spirit of using up more of my thus far unused stamps, I have been using them with a couple of sets of cute Penny Black stamps that I bought longer ago than I care to admit.

Here are the results so far:

The stamp is from the Purrfect Day transparent set by Penny Black, coloured with Promarkers and mounted onto backing papers from Basic Grey and Hot of the Press., which have been punched with a Martha Stewart border punch. Finishing touches are a ribbon bow in pale lilac and some dots of Pearlidoodles.

I love this cute cat. Coloured again with Promarkers and mounted onto shapes cut with Nestabilities. The backing plate has been embossed with the Birds and Swirls folder. Just a simple bow on a curly clip to embellish.

It's that cat again, this time mounted on to my first attempt at a teardrop card. The backing paper is from a huge Papermania pad that I bought ages ago, and I've used the same paper on the other sides of the card, which is a trifold.

Well I haven't made three cards from the same stamp, but from the same set of stamps, so I guess that counts as doing things in threes.

Thanks for looking.

Coffee and Cream Fleur de Lis

As a brief departure from doing things in threes, because I haven't posted for a while and I still haven't done number three of the next set, here is a card that came together fairly quickly.

I made this using the Fleur de Lis pendant die set by Spellbinders, layering the pieces like a medallion and mounted onto panels cut with dies by Go Kreate. I used some flat back pearls by Basic Grey to embellish.
A fairly simple card - the dies did all the work really.

Inspired by Craft Stamper and doing things in threes

I have some questions for any fellow crafters reading this? Do you buy much more stash then you ever use? Do you hoard pretty papers and find yourself reluctant to cut them up and use them? Do you ever wonder if the shopping for craft products has taken over from the actual creating? Do you forget how much stuff you really have and then find yourself buying duplicates?

At some point last year I found that I was still going to lots of crafting shows, but I was coming home with fewer purchases. There seemed to be less 'stuff' that I needed. I have a tiny home and my limited storage space was already overstretched beyond belief. With craft products taking up valuable space in three rooms, I was finding it difficult to get past thinking "if I buy this, where on earth will I put it?". It was then that I took the drastic decision to actually use all of those papers and embellishments, if only so that I could make some room for more. That in itself was unbelievably liberating. If you've read this far and understand what I'm talking about, do give it a try - you really won't regret it. Why spend a fortune on stuff that you don't want to use? Even if you can't find exactly the same thing to replace it with, there are always new products coming along on which to spend your crafting pennies.

Now don't get the wrong impression, there are still many, many things in my crafting stash that I haven't used yet, including various punches, umpteen Cuttlebug embossing folders and cutting dies, and let's not talk about the microwave glass fusing kiln that my OH bought me for Christmas in 2008......Worst of all are the stamps - rubber and clear, mounted and unmounted - that I just had to have, but which have never seen even a sniff of an inkpad. Now I'm not really one for making New Year's resolutions, but this year I have resolved to use those stamps, and not only to use them once but to make at least 3 projects with each of them.

This is a long preamble to explain why I'm starting to do things in threes and to adopt as a theme for this blog my very own version of stamping contrasts.

For this trio I was inspired by a project in the very latest edition of Craft Stamper, which featured stamps from Stampin' Up. I wouldn't want to violate any copyright by posting a picture of the card on here, but if you have the magazine, you can see it on page 47.

Stamps from Harlequin Daisy themeplate by Elusive Images. The three panels are all coloured with Distress Inks. Backing paper from the Graphicus Guild Members' collection. Embellished with zoomz.

Stamps from Musical Jester themeplate by Elusive Images. Backing paper is another one from the Graphicus Guild Members' collection. Embossed panel uses Cuttlebug Devine Swirls embossing folder. EK success border punch and a Creative Acrylics text panel coloured with gold Krylon.

Once again Elusive Images Harlequin Daisy stamps, this time with a backing plate made from Coredinations whitewash card and the Cuttlebug Diamonds in the Rough embossing folder. Contrast strip was punched with Martha Stewart Lattice Arch border punch. Zoomz and ribbon to finish.

If you like the cards or have anything to say about hoarding your stash, then please do leave a comment. Or just leave a comment anyway to let me know that someone is reading :)

A New Start

Well it's been a while since I posted on this blog, but I've decided to give it another go. It's unlikely that I'll ever manage to post every day, or even every week, but I've started off 2010 with renewed inspiration and motivation to create more cards (and possibly other projects), and more motivation to photograph my work and show it on this blog. So there you go.