my Crafty Corner

Cards and other handicrafts made by Jean Straw

Tuesday 6 December 2016

Fairy Magic

Hi everyone, today I have a card for Mrs A's  Butterfly challenge only this time, as all the butterflies are apparently in chrysalis form at present this is a special month long challenge and instead of a butterfly we have to include a fairy. Both of the stamps used here are from Lavinnia Stamps. First I stamped the fairy with Archival Watering Can ink and then masked the image while I stamped the text using Memento London Fog ink. I coloured the moon with a very pale yellow Promarker, Lemonade, I think. I used pink and blue sparkle gel pens for the wings and blended the colours together with a clear Wink of Stellar pen. I also used a silver gel pen to highlight the stars and then winked over the wings again and the moon. I trimmed the panel down using a deckle blade in the paper cutter, and the inked around the edge with distress ink, Tumbled Glass, and then the very edge of the paper with a distress marker, Chipped Sapphire. I also added an edge of Stickles stardust glitter. The completed panel is mounted onto a card base of bright blue pearlised card. This is a birthday card but because of the text I put the birthday greeting inside, it says Have a Magical Birthday.

I am now going to link this up with
The Butterfly Challenge - All Kinds Of Fairies, Elves, Gnomes and Pixies

Thank you for visiting here today and for your comments which are really appreciated.
Jean

Friday 25 November 2016

Rudolph Day Sparkle

Hi, I'm here with my final Rudolph Day card for this year. I chose to use a recently bought Imagination Crafts stencil and Imagination Crafts Sparkle Medium. The card I used is very dark green to show up the sparkle nicely. In order to use different colours I needed to do quite a bit of masking off of the various areas, and apply one colour at a time. This was a bit of a faff, but using low tack stencil tape helped as I was able to reuse it a few times. As the Sparkle Medium needs time to dry before adding another colour I made three at the same time. When all was dry I trimmed the panel down a bit and stamped  and gold embossed the Greeting which is from a set of seasonal stamps that were free with The Creative Stamper magazine. Next I layered it onto gold mirri card before sticking to a DL sized ivory base card.


I am popping over to Scrappy Mo's blog Scraps of Life by Scrappy Mo to enter The Rudolph Day Challenge - Make a Christmas card.

Thank you for taking time to visit here today and for your comments which are really appreciated.

Jean



Thursday 17 November 2016

Four years Old Already

Good evening, it has once again been ages since I posted anything here, I have made several cards which I might get round to showing at a later time, but in the meanwhile there have been several distractions to keep me away from the computer.
However earlier this week it was the birthday of the eldest of my little Great  Granddaughters, she is now 4 yeas old, (where does all the time go?) and here is the card I made for her.
The image is a Gorguss stamp, stamped with black Memento ink onto a piece of ivory card, coloured with Promarkers and cut with a Lil'inker stitched rectangle die, and then matted onto a larger stitched rectangle of dark pinky/red card. This toned with the pinks much better than it looks in the photo. The base card is 5"x7" size and I cut a panel of the dark card to cover the front leaving a very narrow border. The patterned paper is from an 8"x8" pad called Belle and Boo from Trimcraft. I cut the bottom of the dotty piece with a stitched bracket edger die from the Frantic Stamper, and the flowery piece with a scallop blade in the paper cutter. I fixed these to the card, again leaving a small border, and the image panel was then stuck in place with thin foam tape. The greeting disc is a LOTV stamp coloured and matted to match, the two little tags were cut by hand and one stamped with "lots of love" and the other hand written, and fixed to the disc with a pink flower brad. The 4 is die cut from two layers of card and coated with Glossy Accents. I stamped the paper dolls part of the stamp onto a scrap of pattered paper and fussy cut it out and glued it over the original one. the scissors and book are little stamps in the same set and I stamped and coloured them and cut them out before adding them to the bottom of the image panel. I also added a little Glossy Accent to the hearts in her hair and boots.
The pattered paper and all the stamping card used here were snippets so I am going to enter it at Pixie's Snippets Plaground - Just Use Some Snippets.
Thank you for taking time to visit and for your comments which are really appreciated.
Jean

Tuesday 25 October 2016

Not A Card For Rudolph Day

Once again it is time for the Rudolph Day challenge at Scrappy Mo's, which  always starts on the 25th day and runs until the last day of each month. The aim is to make at least one Christmas item. This time instead of a card I thought I would show you these Christmas decorations which I made as a gift for my sister when she visited for a few days last week. I have had these MDF shapes for about two years and thought it was about time I used them. First I did two coats of white Gesso, sanding lightly between coats. The star and the bauble were then given a coat of white acrylic paint which gave me a surface to stamp on. I used Archival Watering Can Ink to stamp with, the robin stamp is from LOTV and the winter scene from Inkylicious. I used Promarkers to colour the images. I painted the points of the star with a metallic blue paint, the image has a circle around it so it was fairly easy to paint up to it. I think I used distress ink to colour the edge of the bauble, I didn't want to use too much as I am aware that it tends to smudge when you add the varnish.The angel was painted with cream paint and when dry inked all over with Brilliance Galaxy gold ink. I stamped the holly with a Penny Black stamp and Memento Olympia Green ink and used a Promarker to colour the berries. Then as we like our figures to have faces I drew one on, and then inked around the edge with Brilliance Cosmic Copper ink. I painted the bell with Starlight paint from Imagination Crafts, the colour is Mint. The stamp is from Heartfelt Creations, stamped with the Archival ink . The leaves are painted with a darker green shade of the Starlight paint and the berries with a Promarker, I also used a gold gel pen to add some highlights to the flourish.
                                                                                                                                                                                                          I covered the reverse of each one
 with holly decoupage paper, sticking  it with Modge Podge. I inked the  edges to match the fronts and added  some Frantage embossing. I cut some letters from gold and silver glitter card using some old X-cut dies, and used them to add some Christmas words. ( I have just noticed that I have put the letters for Peace in the wrong order, I can't believe I didn't spot that before.) I used Platinum Stickles to edge the first two, and metallic paint for the others, and then gave them all a coat of varnish all over. I added gold and silver threads decorated with beads to make loops for hanging.


I am going  to enter these ( mistakes and all ) at Scraps of Life at Scrappy Mo's
             Rudolph Day Challenge - Make a Christmas Item.                                                    

Thank you for your visit here today, and for your comments which I really appreciate.
Jean
                                                                 




















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Tuesday 18 October 2016

Autumn Birthday

Good evening bloggers it has been a while since my last post, but yesterday was my sister Kate's birthday and here is the card that I made for her. I used part of a Chocolate Baroque border stamp for the image. The stamp is almost 6" wide but I used this part of it to make an ATC recently and I liked the result so much and enjoyed colouring it too, that I decided to use it again for this card. I stamped onto a snippet of ivory card with black Memento ink and coloured with Derwent Coloursoft pencils, using a paper stump, and Sansodor to blend the colours. The word Autumn is an Inkylicious stamp. The base card is an ivory 15cm square and I cut a piece of pearlised purple card to cover the front leaving just a narrow edge. The faded leafy background paper was in a bundle given to me by a friend and I think it is from a Hunkydory set. I cut this slightly smaller than the purple layer and stuck it in place. I inked the edge of the approximately ATC sized image with Milled Lavender and Tea Dye distress inks, and then cut a mat from a snippet of the purple card.  After sticking the image in place I stamped the Chocolate Baroque birthday greeting below it and added three graduated lilac gems. The lovely orange and purple organza ribbon has been in my ribbon box for quite some time waiting for the right project and I felt this was it.

As I have used a couple of snippets I am going to enter this at
                          Pixie's Snippet Playground - Use Snippets
     and also at    Stamping Sensations - Autumn.

Thank you for visiting here today and for your comments which are all really appreciated.

Jean

Monday 26 September 2016

Rudolph Day Again

Hello,here I am turning up a bit late for the Rudolph Day Challenge again, but as the challenge remains open until the end of the month I'll still get in. I did make my cards at the weekend but didn't get round to writing the post last night. My photos aren't all that good either as the light was already beginning to fade when I finished yesterday, ( autumn creeping in fast I'm afraid). I won this Christmas decoration die in the Rudolph Day Challenge earlier this year so it seemed appropriate to use it for my card this time. As you will see I cut it from both red metallic card and gold glitter card, and the little caps from gold mirri card. I drew around each cut out bauble onto a sheet of double sided adhesive and peeled off the backing and placed the die cut pieces swapping the stripes and dots to make an inlaid two tone effect. It was a little tricky keeping tabs on all the little dots but on the whole it went quite well. I used red card to make the bases and folded them tent style. I cut ivory panels slightly smaller and stamped the holly corner with Versafine Olympia Green ink and added the red berries with a Promarker.  I decided where to place the ornament and used a gold peel off to make a hanging chain. Next I stamped the greeting with Memento Rhubarb Stalk, both of the stamps were magazine freebies, last year I think, and then stuck the panel to the card before removing the backing and adding the ornament. To finish off I edged the panel with Stickles glitter. This one is called Holly and it has green,red and gold glitter in it and has a lovely festive look to it. I don't think it is available any more which is sad as mine is nearly gone. I quite liked my finished cards and as I am so far behind with my Christmas card making this year I made some more, seven all together, the last two using a different colourway.
Here they are.

As all the baubles were made with snippets I will be entering this in 
Pixies Snippet Playground - Just use some snippets
As well as at The Rudolph Day Challenge - Make a Christmas Item.

Thank you for visiting here and for your comments, I really appreciate them
Jean

Tuesday 6 September 2016

Kaleidoscope Butterfly

Today I have a card to show you that I made for the Butterfly Challenge  where the letter this time is K for Kraft and/or K for Kaleidoscope. First off I apologise for the shadows and odd angle in the photo. I took it fairly early the other morning because the sun was shining so bright and I thought I would be able to capture the sparkle on the butterfly, but the sun was still rising and window frames were causing the shadow. I kept moving it around but it's surprising how fast the light changes. In the end I settled for a bit of shadow and a reasonable show of sparkle.
I started with a 15cm square Kraft card, and stamped the butterfly with Aridondak  Snow Cap ink and embossed it with WOW Diamond White EP. That's where the sparkle comes from. The stamp is a very old wood mounted stamp, PSX  I think. I masked the butterfly and stamped the random dots in various colours with another wood mounted stamp by Denami Designs, hoping this would represent the Kaleidoscope effect.The greeting across the bottom is a self adhesive paper tape from my stash. I tied the green ribbon with a bow in the corner and then added the multi coloured daisies and a few tiny butterflies. Whenever I have been die cutting I use my mini punches to punch out little flowers, butterflies ect, from the scrap bits and save the for projects like this.
So as well as The Butterfly Challenge where I hope my card qualifies for both parts of the challenge, I am also going to enter it in Pixies Snippet Playground because all the flowers are from snippets.
Thank you for visiting here today and for your comments which are really appreciated.
Jean

Thursday 1 September 2016

A First Birthday card

Good evening, and thank you to everyone who left me such kind comments on my last post after my being away for so long.  This coming weekend is the first birthday for my fourth Great Granddaughter, Ella and this is the card I have made for her.

The image is a LOTV stamp,
stamped with black Memento
ink and coloured with Promarkers. I die cut it with a Lil Inker stitched die and then cut  a mat from some pale pink paper. I cut a piece of the patchwork design paper very slightly smaller than the front of the 15cm square base card. I used a Victorian Velvet Distress Marker to ink the edge of this and all the other cut pieces. I stuck the pale pink mat to the background paper at an offset angle and stitched 3 pale blue buttons to a length of pink ribbon before wrapping it round the paper, slightly overlapping the mat and fixing it at the back. I then fixed all this to the card, and added the image. The greeting is another LOTV stamp which I cut out by hand as none of my round dies were the right size. I used an X Cut die to cut the hexagon mat and having stuck them together I added it to the card. Both the pink and patterned paper are from a pad called Belle and Boo which contains some really pretty designs for baby and young children's cards.
The pink paper and white card used were all snippets so I am taking this to show in Pixies Snippets Playground.
I am also entering at Love To Craft Challenge Blog- Anything Goes
and Simon Says Stamp - Anything  Goes.




Saturday 27 August 2016

Rudolph Day Medley

Woohoo! I,m back!! Hello happy bloggers, I have had a rather long break from blogging, due in part to a computer problem which was preventing me from accessing my blog pages. This was caused by a mistake on my part that  I didn't know how to fix, but I am pleased to say that it is resolved now.The trouble is, that having had a break I was finding it hard to get started again, but one day this week I sat down to sort out a huge pile of old Christmas cards that had been sent to us in the past with a view to finding something I could recycle to enter the Rudolph Day Challenge this month, and this is what I came up with.



The challenge is hosted by Scrappy Mo at Scraps of Life by Scrappymo Blog, and runs monthly from the 25th. (Rudolph Day), until the end of the month. I enjoy this challenge and have missed being able to enter. The requirement is to make one or more Christmas themed items.
I kept them fairly simple selecting some images that I liked and trimming them close to the edges. I chose coloured card that toned with the pictures and cut and folded the base cards. I found contrasting coloured and metallic snippets to mat the images and used various stamps, embossing and die cuts for further embellishment. The patterned paper that I used on the two square cards are from pad that came free with a magazine last year. The orange paper on the top left hand card was a snippet that has been in my box for ages, I think it may have come from Graphicus, ( before it became Chocolate Baroque)

Thank you for dropping by today and if you leave a comment I will really appreciate it and will return the compliment and visit your blog. I hope to get back into the swing of regularly  visiting and commenting again now.
 I hope every one is enjoying some good weather this holiday weekend.
Jean









Saturday 25 June 2016

Rudolph Day in June


Hi to all of you who are wondering if I had hibernated for good. The truth is that to start with I had lots going on, but since then I have a big problem with the computer and it's still not resolved. It means that I can't use my blog dashboard to write posts or to see my reading list. I can do this on my tablet, and I have managed to do some commenting by this means, but I apologise for not keeping right up to date. However I really wanted to enter the Rudolph Day Challenge as I missed last months and I am way behind with my Christmas cards. I am trying to do this on my tablet, and it is very frustrating as I can't make my photo go where I want it to. I will attempt to post it when I,m done  but I don't think I will be able to link it up to Scrappy Mo's for the Challenge from here though.
I used a new signature die to make my card, and cut it from a piece of white card which was cut slightly smaller than the front of the dark blue base card. Before sticking it down I put some double sided tape behind all the window openings and coloured  the cut out bits with a yellow Promarker  and put them back in place. I also stamped and embossed the star at this stage, using Versamark and WOW sparkle embossing powder. I stamped the wise men with part of a Stampendous stamp and the words are all Chocolate Baroque stamps. I used Brilliance Lightning Black ink for this, and then stuck the two layers together.                                                                                                             
I shall now see if I can post this and maybe even link it to The Rudolph Day Challenge.
Thank you if you are visiting here today and for bearing with me, I really hope to  get this problem sorted out soon. Any comments you leave are gratefully recieved, I hope to be back soon.
Jean                                                                                                                         

Wednesday 11 May 2016

A Birthday Rose

This is a card that I made recently for a friends birthday. The Joanna Sheen rose was stamped onto a piece of white stamping card that had been used to mop up the last bit of ink from my craft mat at the end of a previous ink smooshing session. I can't remember what inks I used and the result is very subtle. I used black Memento ink to stamp the image and then coloured it with Promarkers. Next I cut it with a die from the Spellbinders Radiant Rectangles set, and then mounted it onto a green mat. I chose two patterned papers from an old Papermania pad called Regency, and cut two rectangular panels each with a scalloped edge on one short side. These were also mounted onto matching green card. I wrapped a length of green silk ribbon around the striped one and tied a bow on the edge, before fixing them to the 15cm. square base card, and sticking the rose panel on top. I stuck a piece of the spotted paper to some thin card before die cutting the small butterfly with a Cheery Lynne die. I gave it several coats of clear Wink of Stellar before adding it to the card and sticking some tiny pearls to it's body. The Birthday greeting is my favourite little Stamp Tapestry stamp. As I used my Cuttlebug machine for the die cutting I am entering this at,

                        Cuttlebug Mania - May Flowers, and also at the following challenges.      Simon Says Stamp - Flowers
                        Stamping Sensations - Anything Goes
                               
                               

Saturday 30 April 2016

Robbins For Rudolph Day

Hello, here I am very late again with my Rudolph Day card this month. We have been away this week and I made my card ready before we went and started to prepare the blog post but I lost the photos as I uploaded them from the camera and I just didn't have time to sort it out before we left. However we are home again now and magically my photos turned up again when turned the computer on!! So I think I might just get this posted before the close of play.The main stamp I used for this is from Crafty Individuals, and I stamped it onto white card with black Memento ink. I coloured it with Coloursoft pencils and Distress Markers, and after trimming it close to the image I brushed the edges with Tea Dye Distress ink. Next I mounted it onto a red mirri card mat cut with a scalloped Spellbinder Nestabilities dye. The base card is a white A6 size with the fold on the short side. I stamped the Chocolate Baroque corner stamp and sentiment directly onto the card with Olympia Green Memento ink, and then stuck the image panel in place. I added some Stickles to the corner berries and to the icicles on the main image to give  bit of sparkle.

I am now going to dash over to enter the Rudolph Day Challenge at Scraps of Life by Scrappymo.

Thank you so much for visiting here today and for all your kind comments on my last post. I am fine now and hope to get round to visiting all your blogs soon.

Jean

Friday 15 April 2016

Birthday Snippets

Once more it has been ages since my last post. A little accident and nasty bug have left me with little inspiration for craft or blogging recently, so I apologise yet again for my lack of commenting and I hope to be back to normal soon.
I suddenly realised that I needed a birthday card to post for this weekend so set about to make something fairly flat and pretty, and this is what I came up with. I cut and folded a white 15cm. square base card, and all the other card used was from the snippets boxes. For the background colour swipes I used a stamp from a Paper Smooches set, stamped with three various ink pads. I just picked colours that I liked the look of together. The leaves and flowers and the tiny butterflies are all Stampin Up stamps. The centers are stamped with yellow ink and then prettied up with yellow Stickles. The sentiment stamp is from a Sheena Douglas set that came free with a magazine that I was looking at because it had some pretty fairy stamps and a flowery embossing folder with it and then I realised there was this fabulous SD set as well as an extra freebie with copies sold in Sainsbury's. It has two nice sentiments a lovely corner flourish and several nature, meadow flower type stamps. The layering card is from Papermania, and this was the last little piece of this particular shade and it was just big enough to cut both mats. All the squares were cut with Li'inkers stitched square dies. The sentiment square looked too white so I stamped some random dots in the same inks as the flower background. I stamped an extra flower and cut it out and fixed it where the panels overlapped, and stamped a further partial flower onto the card base, and the little flight of butterflies to the right of the main image.

Now I am popping over to link this up at Pixies's Snippet Playground.
I am also entering at Stamping Sensations - One For The Girls

Thank you for visiting. and for your comments, I really appreciate them all.
Jean

Wednesday 30 March 2016

A Little Late For Rudolph Day

 Hello, I am here with a card for the Rudolph Day challenge at Scraps Of Life With Scrappy Mo. I am a bit more than a few days late this month as RD is the 25th, but as the challenge remains open till the end of the month I will just about get there in time. 
As this is only the second Christmas card I have made so far this year I went for a fairly CAS style so that I could make several at the same time. While I was staying with my sister Kate recently she gave me a bundle of mirri card in lovely jewel colours and I decided to use some of this for my cards. First I cut and folded six A6 size ivory base cards with the fold on the short edge. Next I cut panels of the mirri card slightly smaller than the card fronts, and stuck them in place. I cut six smaller pieces of ivory card and stamped the trees with a Paper Artsy stamp and Versafine Olympia Green ink. I embossed the images with some very old green EP. The Noel stamp is from the same set as the trees and I stamped with various inks to match the mirri card and embossed them with WOW clear EP. The two gold ones were stamped with Versamark and embossed with gold
 EP. I then stuck these panels in place and finished them with tiny gems in matching colours.
So now I am off to link this up at 
The Rudolph Day Challenge - Make a Christmas Card.

Thank you for visiting today and for your comments, I really appreciate them all.

Jean


Friday 18 March 2016

A Snippet Card and a Crochet Ta-Da!!

This card was made for my brother in law whose birthday is this weekend. Apart from the A6 size base card it was made entirely from snippets so when I have done here I shall be skipping over to Pixie's Snippet Playground to see what fun and games the other playmates are getting up to.
The stamp I used is Reflections from Inkylicious, stamped onto white card with Memento, Olive Grove ink, and then the background coloured with distress ink and ink duster brushes. I cut it with a Nellie Snellen  oval die and as it was the largest in the set I drew round the outside edge of the die onto dark green card and cut it out by hand to make the mat.The trellis is cut with a Memory Box die from another snippet of the same green card. The back panel is a snippet of light blue card trimmed slightly smaller than the card front and embossed with a Stampin Up folder called Stylish Stripes. The top part of the sentiment came with the Inkylicious stamp and the Birthday bit is from Stamp tapestry.

The challenges I am entering are Pixies Snippet Playground - Use Snippets
 and Dream Valley Challenges  - All About Birthdays


                                                                                   Now for my Crochet Ta Da!! moment. At
Christmas my family gave me two lovely Attic 24 blanket kits from the Wool Warehouse, and I am happy to say that I finished the first one last week end. There is a choice of two patterns with this kit and I chose to make the Sunny Granny Stripe one. There are fifteen colours all together and it is very bright. This is a poor photo because there is a rather bumpy bedcover under it. I just put it over the spare bed in order to get a complete photo. I have taken this close up of the corner to show the pattern and the neat little border. I have already started the second one, it is not as bright as
this with one more autumnal shades and a slightly different stitch
pattern. Watch this space!!

Thank you all for visiting here and for all your lovely comments, I appreciate all of them.
Jean
                                                                                                                                                           

Thursday 3 March 2016

Spring Birthday

Hello everyone, here is a Birthday card made recently for one of my sisters. Fortunately she lives near me and I knew I would see her on the right day so I didn't have to be too concerned about the layers on it.
I started by stamping the silhouette stamp from Stampin' Up with brown Archival ink, (Potting Soil), onto a snippet of white card. I then die cut it using the 2nd largest die from the Spellbinder set, Elegant Ovals, and while it was still in the die I lightly  brushed around the edge with Broken China Distress ink. I coloured the leaves green with a marker pen and added some tiny spots of Flower Soft to look like blossom. I die cut a stitched rectangle of patterned paper from LOTV Country Lady pad using a Lil'inker die and matted it onto some pale pink card, and then stuck the oval onto it.The base card is a 15cm white square with the front partially covered with another paper from the same LOTV pad and also matted onto the same pink card. All of the cut pieces of paper and card were edged with a brown  distress marker. I like to do this with almost all of my cards as I think it adds definition to the edges. I wrapped some pale pink satin edged organza ribbon around the card before fixing the image panel with thin foam tape. I made the little roses using a Brittania die and snippets of the pink and a tiny snippet of green card. The petals are edged with a pink distress marker and given a little sparkle with Diamond Stickles. To finish off  I made a bow with the ribbon and fixed it together with a small die cut tag stamped with Happy Birthday. The stamp is from Stamp Tapestry but I'm not sure what make the mini tag die is.

As I used a few snippets I am taking this over to Pixies Snippets Playground - Use Snippets.
 I am also entering at    The Sisterhood of Crafters - Think Spring
                                      The  Artistic Stamper - Springtime
                                      Live and Love Crafts - Signs of Spring

Thank you for visiting here today and for your kind comments, they are all really appreciated.

Jean

Thursday 25 February 2016

February Rudolph Day

Hi there, I'm back with my first Christmas card this year, made for the Rudolph Day challenge at Scraps of Life by Scappymo. I missed last month for various reasons and so I made sure I was ready this time.
This is a one layer card for easy posting, and the stamps used are Chocolate Baroque, apart from the greeting which is a magazine freebie. All the stamping is done with Memento Expresso Truffle ink, and coloured with coloursoft pencils, blended with Sansodor and a paper stump.I added a few touches of gold with a gel pen. When I had finished colouring I cut an oval aperture from some spare card and used it as a stencil to add a glow around the lantern, using Squeezed Lemonade and Antique Linen Distress inks and a duster brush. I brushed over the lighted area with clear Wink of Stellar and used a snippet of gold peel off for the hanging chain. I also added a touch of snow effect along the branch and cones with some sparkly white embossing powder.
So now I am off to link this up at The Rudolph Day Challenge. This is a lovely friendly Challenge to take part in so if you feel like making a start on Christmas cards it runs from today 25th until the end of the month.

Thank you for visiting here today and for your comments, I appreciate them all.

Jean

Monday 22 February 2016

Birthday Butterfly

This card was made for my Grandson's partner who, when I met her last year told me how much she liked butterflies, and I promised that when her birthday came around I would make her a card with a butterfly on it. Her birthday was at the weekend.
The main stamp I used is from Inkylicious stamped onto a snippet of white card with Memento Rich Cocoa ink and coloured with a mixture of coloursoft pencils and Promarkers. I stamped and coloured the butterfly again and fussy cut it out to layer over the first one. I trimmed the image and edged it with a brown distress marker, and then layered it onto a pearlised turquoise mat which I had cut with a Li'l Inker stitched square die.The butterfly flourish and the sentiment are both stamps from Chocolate Baroque. They were stamped directly onto the 15cm. white square base card with the Rich Cocoa ink.  I highlighted the flourish lightly with a gold gel pen, and gave the coloured butterfly wings a coat of clear Wink of Stellar.
I am going to enter this at The Butterfly Challenge - S is for Stamping and /or Sapphire. I have included plenty of stamping.
I am also heading over to Pixies Snippets Playground as I used white and turquoise snippets.

Thank you for visiting here today and for your lovely comments, I really appreciate them all.

Jean

Wednesday 17 February 2016

Floral Frame

Hello again at last, I have been away from my blog for nearly two months, and apologise to everyone for my lack of commenting too. There have been several reasons for my absence, starting with two weeks right after Christmas of feeling very unwell with a flu - like cold which sapped my energy, inspiration and enthusiasm to do anything very much. Then my sister Kate from Spain was coming to stay and we had a busy few days visiting our other sisters who live within easy travelling distance from here, and also managed to fit in a shopping trip. When she went home I went with her and spent almost two weeks enjoying some warm Spanish sunshine and relaxation.
I have been home for a week now and have caught up with all the washing and housework and actually got around to spending some time crafting, more or less the first this year.
Here is one of the cards I have made. I used a set of Memory Box dies which includes a die to cut the blank background panel as well as the floral frame die. I used snippets of white, green and pink card for this.The sentiment was stamped onto the white backing with memento Rhubarb Stalk ink and an Indigo Blu stamp which came free with a magazine some time ago. I cut the frame once with green card and then again with pink and snipped the flowers away and shaped them slightly with a ball tool and fixed them over the green ones with glue dots. For the tiny bright flowers I used a tiny snippet and cut it into bits and just placed onto the appropriate places and ran it through the cutter again. The base card is a 15cm square, with the front covered with some plain beige backing paper from a magazine cut around the edge with a scalloped blade in the cutter. I used a Crafty Individuals background stamp and Memento Rhubarb Stalk ink, lightly stamping off  some of the ink onto spare paper before stamping onto the card. I then stuck the floral frame in place and finished the flowers with tiny pearls in the centers.

I am entering this at Pixie's Snippet Playground.--- Use Snippets
                            Addicted to Stamps and More --- Anything Goes.

Thank you for visiting here and for your comments, I really appreciate them all. I will try and get back into visiting all of your blogs again soon as well.
Jean