Pixie's Snippets Challenge 13

I have been late for everything this week, but I was determined to make it into the playground in time.  I cannot miss my go on the swings.  I will be out there to play when I have handed in my homework to Miss Pixie. 

Number one is a leftover from a sheet of Debbi Moore ladies.  The main card was sent out months ago and the oddments have been in my box since then.  I just added a bit of my lovely Martha Stewart glitter to her dress and jewels to give it a lift.  Sadly, as usual, you cannot see the glitter, but it is there.

Number two is one of a batch of toppers I printed out and took on holiday last year to colour in.  It is printed on Clarity shiny silk card, and then coloured with my very limited Promarkers.  Sometimes, when you have a small range of colours, you have to get even more creative with the way you shade.  I think I could make a better job of this one if I did it again now, but I am not going to waste this topper.  Once it was coloured and dry, I polished it with a piece of kitchen roll, then added Krylon gold leaf round the edge.  I mounted it on a piece of lilac coloured textured paper and then onto white pearlescent card.

I used the same textured paper to mat this topper.  The sparkly bits were from a kit which I bought several years ago, with lovely flowery cards, and these sparkly peeloffs and glittery borders, and metallic flowers.  all of the items were pretty in their own way, but no way did they go together, so they got put into a box to be thought about.  I had a small set of pearlescent offcuts from PDA Card, and I used some of these to mount up these peeloffs.  This one looks better in real life than it does in this picture.  The scanner seems to have changed all the colours slightly and reduced the impact of the peeloffs.


These next two are from the same set, but backed onto dark blue card (should have been black, but I only have one sheet left).  The base cards are rejects from Kanban, being badly folded so they all need some trimming to tidy them up, but they are lovely colours, and pearlescent too.

The last one is a combination of papers and techniques.  It is a floral corner stamp from Clarity, my favourite company.  Again, I printed it out, but on ordinary smooth card this time.  I think I used Promarkers again for colouring in, but I did it so long ago that I cannot remember for certain.  I did it while we were away in the caravan, so it could also have been water colour pencils or even paints.  I found it floating around today, but could not find a stamp to put into the centre, so I decided to use one of the left over tags from a card I showed you a couple of weeks ago.  Hope you like it.

Right, I am off now to finish potting up the second batch of strawberry plants and the garlic cloves in the greenhouse.  Then I will join you all in the playground.  We could play "What's the time, Mr Wolf?"  Anyone want to join me?  (Don't forget Rudolph Day tomorrow, 25th March.)

WOYWW - 124 Where has the time gone?

I cannot believe that we are nearly at the end of the year again.  Where has 2011 gone?  I seem to have achieved so little.  Is it a sign of age or is it happening to everyone.  The pace of life seems just so fast.  You blink and another week has gone.  I am struggling to get round even half of all your lovely desks each week, for which I apologise.

I have been a good little girl this week, finishing off several projects and getting all the cards done that I need for November (only 4 needed for December).  So before I descend into total chaos with the Christmas stuff everywhere, I thought I would show you some of my finished projects.

I think I have shown you some of these before.  They are from a set of decoupage sheets that I picked up from Little Lou's in Redditch (Hayley West's shop), and are very pretty.  However I did have a problem deciding how to mount them.  In the end, I went for the simple approach to allow the artwork to show itself.  I think they could be used as sympathy cards too as they are plain.

My next finishing off was the Peter Rabbit Winter Tales kit.  I don't often go for kits these days, and I realised why, when I started work on this lot.  There is nothing wrong with them and all the elements are good quality, but they do not leave a lot to the imagination.  Anyway, they are finished and ready to send off, probably to our local children's ward.  I did add a little glitter to each one - well, it is for Christmas, after all.  I used some of my Martha Stewart glitter on top of the Quickie glue pen in strategic places, so it is not over the top.

Here are a couple more of the cards themselves.  You might struggle to see the glitter, but it is there.  The kit had the basic printed card and then there were lots of rub ons, which were quite good, apart from the white writing, some decoupage, some gems and paper flowers and I still had some left after I had finished the 24 cards.  It also contained the rubber stamps to go with it, so it was quite good value.  It is just that I prefer now to do my own thing.

They are a mixture of scenes and shapes and sizes, all with their own envelopes.  I quite liked the two bridge scenes, they seemed to lend themselves to setting up a story.  Because I was really trying just to get them done, I did tend to follow the pictures in the booklet to some extent, to make sure I had enough bits to finish all the cards. so there is not much of me in this set.

Today, I am hoping to get round a few more blogs than I managed this week, and still get some crafting in later on.  If you arrived here by accident, you are very welcome.  However, you might also like to have a nose over at Julia's blog, where you will find links to loads of other workdesks, some tidy and some very creatively covered.  You will be very welcome at all of them.  Please leave us messages, so we know you have been, and we will try to get back to you.   You will find Julia at   http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/

Diamond Wedding card as not seen on WOYWW - 94

Diamond Wedding

I thought this card would never make it.  The design is one by Robin Cockburn, called "Pearls and Chiffon".  The parchment work and the colouring was not too bad, but getting the parchment attached securely to the card was a nightmare.  It was supposed to be done with brads, but I could not find any jewelled brads that were not huge, and totally out of scale with the design.  So I ended up using blobs of Quickie glue pen, allowing them to dry and then applying the same glitter as I used on the words - Martha Stewart lapis lazuli. Once that was dry, I applied a thick dot of Pinflair glue on the back of each glitter dot, and placing the parchment on to the backing card.  To keep it in place, I ended up having to put a weight in the centre of the design  until the glue had set and hardened.

The wording was achieved by printing it out at the correct size and traced through with the Quickie glue pen, allowing that to dry overnight before applying the glitter, and brushing off the excess.  Then I turned it over and embossed from the back.  that has the effect of pushing the glitter out and creating more of a shine.

The problems continued when I scanned the whole card to keep a record of it.  I had not noticed that the scanner was set on an extra high resolution from when I was scanning in tiny family photos for use later.  So, without me realising it, the file was huge, and gave the computer indigestion, not allowing me to edit and straighten the image.  Then, of course, Blogger refused to upload it until I had shrunk it down drastically.

Anyway, it is done now and the card is ready to send.  Then I can settle down to sorting out all the cards I need for April and May, with a nice bit of playing thrown in for good measure.

WOYWW - 94

Barbara Gray - Flower stamp

Four different techniques

This is actually my desk on Monday night as I finished off the four cards needed for Tuesday, all to be hand delivered, thank goodness.  Four cards with four different techniques.  If you are short of time, just look at the pictures and read the captions. 

From left to right, the first was a new set from Barbara Gray (Clarity Stamps).  I stamped the main image with vintage photo distress ink, then stamped it again on to a large post it note.  This I used as a mask, first to mask the whole thing apart from the circle in the middle, which allowed me to use two of the smaller stamps in the set to create the design in the O.  Then I removed that mask, put the O back in position and used my brayer and Cloudy Blue and Juniper to give a soft colour in the background of the main part of the card.  I used my precious Derwent water colour pencils to colour in the flowers in the centre.  The 65 was done by writing the numbers with a Quickie glue pen, allowing it to dry for about 12 hours, and then rubbing Martha Stewart glitter into it, and brushing the excess off with a soft paint brush.  After matting and layering, I edged the whole card with gold Krylon.

Embroidery design - printed and water coloured

The second was one of my old embroidery designs, printed on supersmooth card, coloured in with water colour pens and pencils.  I am happy with the lady and the rose bushes but the grass needs to be improved.  More practice needed on that.  Again the edges were done with the gold Krylon, which, in my opinion, looks better on fancy edged card than on the plain edges.

Barbara Gray - feather stamp

The next one is a technique I have been playing with for a couple of weeks.  The stamped image is scanned onto the computer, resized and the colour changed to suit (my stock of ink pads is limited), then printed on to parchment.  Following a technique I saw Barbara demonstrate, the feather and the writing were then embossed from behind to create highlights.  The card was a pearlescent white card, printed all over with resized scans of the stamp.  I used small coppery brads to mount the parchment on to dark brown card (Papermill) and then glued to the main card with Pinflair glue gel.

Home printed disc faces

I discovered after buying my new printer that in addition to printing on thicker cardstock, it has the attachment to print on CD's and DVD's.  These are two programmes I have just taken off the overfull DVD recorder, one with Barbara Gray and one with Sheena Douglas.  I normally just scribble on the discs, but it is nicer to have pretty pictures on.

Seriously messy desk

This is my desk on Tuesday night while I am still in the middle of a Diamond Wedding card (hidden under the glitters to weight the glue down to make it stick.  Hopefully it will be stuck and dry by the morning.  Even my cup is messy, well empty anyway, and it has been there for at least two days.

One of our goldfinches eating the niger seed

I did manage a few minutes peering out of the window of my craft room, and this is what I saw.  We have a small flock of goldfinches, but they are at the limit of my camers lens.  They scoff the niger seed like it is going out of fashion, but they are such pretty birds.

I hope you enjoyed a wander round my messy home, and now perhaps you would like to visit more beautiful desks by going to Julia's blog at  
http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/

PS Sorry I did not manage to get round to everyone this week.  I did try, honest, but other things do keep getting in the way, and I like to read what everyone has said properly and give a good comment.  If I missed you this week, I hope I will get to you this time round.  By the way, there may be a PPS if the Diamond Wedding card finally gets its glue properly set and ready to go.  Watch this space.

WOYWW - 87

Sorry folks, I am rather late posting this week, but it is good to see you here all the same.  Before I show you what I have this week, I would like to thank all those who made it to my blog last week, and also those who joined as followers.

A slightly different workdesk this week.  I have finished the desperate cards, those that are needed this week, and have now till the end of the month to do the last three for February.  So, I decided the priority was to finish the shawl for the new baby, and try to get it done before he/she is actually born.  I started it over two years ago for our youngest grandaughter, but family troubles got in the way and it was never finished.  This time, I am doing it, so instead of playing with paper, paint, glue and things, I am busy fighting the worst written pattern I have ever met.  I do consider myself as a reasonably competent and experienced knitter, but I found one very critical mistake on the first line of the pattern.  It took eight attempts of knitting and unpicking to realise it was not me, but the design, and only by working it out mathematically did I get it sorted.  Now on the final border, there is one part which is very ambiguous, but very critical.  However, I think I have got it sorted now.  Watch this space!

My so tidy room last week is rapidly disintegrating.  We have to clear the lounge ready for tearing the wall boards off and demolishing the fireplace for a multi fuel stove.  That meant removing the cupboards where I kept all my embroidery threads for my cross stitch.  They were there because that is where I always sat to sew.  It has all landed now up in my craft room, together with my enamelling kiln and the bits to go with it (must get that out and have another go), the crepe and tissue paper I used to use at Christmas, and a couple more boxes of "stuff".  I did get very ruthless yesterday and threw away some things, manky zips, grotty elastic, press studs and hooks and eyes, and that sort of thing.

You can also see the cross stitch I started and nearly finished for my other grandaughter.  The excuse for not finishing that was that I broke my wrist and could do noting like that.  We also had a shunt in the car, being rear-ended by a car doing about 35mph when she hit us, pusing us forward into the car in front (we were stationary with the hand brake on).  That meant that I could not sit to do things like cross stitch for more that about 5 minutes at a time.  The unicorn is now the next project to finish once the shawl is done.

This is the parchment birth card for our great nephew which is now ready to post off.  It did take a lot of time, and I would not do parchment for anything but special occasions or for people who I know will appreciate the amount of work that goes into them.  The writing was done by doing a print out of the design, slotting the words into the right place (I used My Craft Studio Pro for this), then tracing the works from the front using a Quickie glue pen.  That is allowed to dry for a while (take the dog a walk or something else while you wiat), then with your finger, you carefully but fairly firmly rub fine glitter into the glue until it is covered completely.  Then use a paint brush or make soft make up brush to remove the excess, before turning the work over to the back.  You then need a small or medium ball embossing tool to emboss over the glittered words from the back.  The words will then really pop our and the glitter shines brilliantly.  I used one of the Martha Stewart glitters, which are brilliant.

Right, I am off now to wander through some of the many other desks on show this week courtesy of the wonderful Julia on http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ (do take the time to read some of her wonderful blogs - you will have a little chuckle) , before heading back to the knitting.  I did actually manage to visit everyone last week, though it took a fair bit of time, and saw some wonderful ideas and desks.  Hope you have enjoyed what you see on mine this week.

Birthday card

This is Magnolia, a design by Julie Rocas, downloaded free.  The card itself I created from a backing paper design, also downloaded but I have long forgotten where it was.  I used My Craft Studio to change the colours.

The actual embossing etc I did while away in the caravan last summer, and really enjoyed working at it.  It does not take up too much space and is easily put away and continued later - the ideal craft for holidays.  I had only a very limited range of tools, a small embossing tool, a mini shader, a large embossing tool and a small pair of scissors.   My tools are mainly PCA with one or two odd Pergamano. 

This was my first attempt at cutwork, so I was not too displeased with the result, especially as I had done no parchment work this time last year.  Now I am hooked.  The only trouble is that it takes a long time, especially in comparison with other techniques, so it is not something to be done in a rush for a birthday tomorrow.

I felt the card needed something on the front to finish it off, but I am not certain if the butterfly was the right choice.  The jury is out on that one.  The insert is also parchment, using the border and the little flowers.  Then I printed the design again but this time with the sentiment printed in the centre.  From the front, I traced the words with a quickie glue pen, allowed that to dry off a bit, then dabbed it with Martha Stewart glitter, rubbing it with my finger well into the glue.  Then I turned it over and embossed the words from the back.  The difference is incredible when the glitter has been embossed, the shine really stands out.  That is a technique I saw Pauline Loweth demonstrating on Create and Craft on a Christmas card.
 
Anyone who saw my Wednesday blog last week would not recognise my room this week.   The spare room had to be cleared out ready for the new carpet and redecoration, and we found lots of things I had forgotten.  They ended up in my room for resorting.  Then we had a date for removing the fireplace and putting in the new one.  That means lots of stuff has to be removed out of the dust etc.  That stuff includes all my embroidery threads (8 boxes) and other assorted sewing bits and pieces.  Now my floor has vanished again.  Another week or so of trying to move stuff around to find it all a home again.

Anniversary card

This should have been such a simple card to do, but everything went wrong.   Even the photo is not very good.  First, the Silhouette refused to cut properly, chewing rather than cutting.  With Shaz and Doug's help, that was sorted.  I cut the basic shapes, which was the card and the individual hearts (taken from LCM Griffiths' Crystal Dreams disc).  I actually simplified the outlines using the Silhouette Studio software.  I cut the card from the deeper mauve card, and the hearts from the same card and from a very pale mauve/silvery card.  Then I could not decide what to do next, so I took it downstairs and put it up on the cupboard by the TV so every time I looked at the TV, I could see the card.  Eventually, the ideas came.  I put the individual hearts through the Xyron, then sprinkled them with Martha Stewart glitter (I love that stuff), again in two colours, glued each one into place with Pinflair glue.  Then I decided I did not like it as a straightforward DL card, so I added a piece of the silvery card to the back to extend it, went round the outside and the inside edges with two different colours of glittery peeloffs.  The insert was created by manipulating several images in My Craft Studio, as well as the word art feature.  That was matted and layered, another darker mauve heart glued into the centre, and then a line of glitter added to the edges, using the Quickie glue pen.  In the end, the whole card turned out quite well and was well received.

If there are any tips to be seen in this card, it is not to panic when you get stuck.  Just put it where you keep seeing it all the time, and eventually inspiration will strike.  It may take a couple of attempts to get it right, but don't throw anything away.  Give it time.