Another Arched Aperture Card

I made this card recently for a friend who was in need of a little support. It was quite simple to do by blending Distress Inks to create a little sunset scene with Elusive Images stamps. The colours I used were suggested by a photo I took of a sunset (over the sea rather than land) when my OH and I were on a cruise a few years ago. I've tried to find it again amongst the several hundred we took over that two weeks, Lol, but so far without success. If I do manage to find it I'll edit this post and add it.


I love these arched aperture cards and I think I'm going to be quite reluctant to use the last one when I get to it as I've been unable to find any more.



I just wanted to remind you that it was my turn to post my art doll project today, over on my shared blog. I'd love it if you have time to pop over there for a quick look. Elaine posted her lovely lady a couple of days ago and Judith and Jo will follow with theirs over the next few days.

Thanks for being kind enough to visit.

Hugs
Lesley Xx

A Card for my No1 Son. (edited to remove a photo)

Hello everyone,

We had a weekend of two birthdays, Saturday was Alexa's and Sunday was her daddy's, our Son Jamie. Although I find male cards quite difficult like most of us card makers, making Jamie's is more of a pleasure than most because as some of you will know if you've visited his recently set up blog, he is an artist and therefore not only likes 'arty' type cards, he's interested in how they've been made.

I really enjoyed doing this because I got to use some of my favourite products including Ten Second Studio tools and techniques. I got the inspiration for the metal piece from a lovely piece of artwork by Hels Sheridan. Her blog is full of lovely, lovely artwork and she makes me chuckle which is always welcome. After embossing the piece of metal using a TSS diamond mould I sanded it, sprayed with a variety of Glimmer Mists, rubbed in black acrylic paint and then polished a lot of it off again before adding some more GMs. As you can see I used some Tim Holtz Ideology pieces too and a Tattered Angel framed font.

The paper behind the metal and the strips on top are a double sided sheet from my lovely pack of Graphic 45 and I made a Grungepaper flower using an Elusive Images stamp. The base card has been inked with Distress Inks and then stamped with an Invoke Arts stamp. The sentiment on the tag is also Elusive Images.

This card was a real labour of love because I got to use all the stuff I love best but mostly because it was for my Son.

Most of the products were from Graphicus except for the metal sheet, the Invoke Art stamp and the Graphic 45 paper, which were from Once Upon a Stamp.

These are a couple of my favourite photos from our holiday in Orlando last November.




 
As always thank you for your much appreciated visit.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

My Card for a Cheeky Little Monkey

I've just uploaded the few photos I managed to take on Saturday so I've edited this post to include a few.

This is Alexa making good use of the little table and stools her 'Dadad' and I bought her for her birthday together with an IOU for a days outing when the weather improves.


Here she is watching her favourite bit from the films taken in Orlando last November. The Shamu show! You can see where much of the pen ended up. It's a good job they are special washable pens.


And finally here she is moving in to give her cousin, our lovely Isabella, a big smacker of a kiss!




Saturday saw the 2nd birthday of our gorgeous little Alexa who is currently going through a very cheeky stage. She's absolutely adorable and knows exactly how to twist everyone (including complete strangers in restaurants as we discovered on Sunday) round her little finger.

This is the card I made for her.


The first photo was taken in electric light so the colours are not exactly true but it shows the shine of the 3D gloss on the letters and the gently glittered design on the purple paper. The alphabet capitals and the 'appy irthday' stamps are from Dimension Fourth. I overstamped the letters with some stamps from the Funky Florals themeplate from Elusive Images, coloured them with Copics, cut them out and shaped them before adding them to the card with silicone glue. It's the first time I've used those letters and I'm really pleased with how they came out.



The fairy image was one of a set of three I got from QVC when I first started stamping and I coloured her with pencils and Sansodor and then added a touch of Sakura Stardust clear which, of course doesn't show on here.

I recently bought two new Martha Stuart border punches and got the chance to use them both on here and I used all the teeny butterflies from the border to decorate the rest of the card.

Unfortunately, I've had the pretty papers a long time and as per usual, I chopped the manufacturers name strip off the bottom to get them in my storage box more easily so I haven't a clue whose they are.

It was my son Jamie's (Alexa's daddy) birthday yesterday so we had two celebration days and I will post his card later in the week.

I hope all you lovely visitors had a great weekend too and that the weather was as nice for you yesterday as it was here. It was so mild I went out for lunch without even a jacket. Big change today though with a cold wind and lots of showers.

As always, thankyou for any comments you have time to leave. I really appreciate them and like to visit you back when I can.

Hugs
Lesley Xx

Recycling/Altering?

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a lovely weekend and all mums had a lovely day yesterday.


The weather was pretty nice here except for a very cold wind but I had an especially nice day on Saturday with my crafty friend Jo. I picked her up from the station and we paid Once Upon a Stamp a visit (only 10 minutes from me) where we browsed and chatted for a couple of hours and bought some lovely stash. We then called for a nice pub lunch before coming back here supposedly for some craft play for a couple of hours, but after Jo sat down in my lovely new (very sunny at the time) craftroom we spent all the time chatting, drinking fresh coffee and eating cake and didn't lift an inkpad! Never mind, I really enjoyed the catch up.


My crafty share with you today is something I made around Christmas. It was originally something that some of my Christmas tree decorations were stored in and I decided to 'alter' it. First of all I covered it with Adirondack Paint Dabber and then I stamped the scroll design all round the outside edges in Stazon. I then held 3 squares of Stampbord together with masking tape on the back, blended some inks and stamped my image from the Elusive Images Butterfly Daisy Collage plate. As it's a while ago, I'm not sure what I used to colour the image but I think it was Derwent Inktense Pencils. I then separated the Stampbord pieces and stuck them to the inside of my box .


I then stamped the daisy onto Claudine Helmuth Sticky Backed Canvas, stuck that to some metal sheet and cut them out. I painted them and added a little bit of Precious Metal Paint to give a bit of shimmer and then shaped the petals a little using an embossing tool on the back. I have no idea where the lovely little chipboard bird came from but I inked it then overstamped and finally triple embossed it and added a gem for it's eye. If I remember correctly, I used Glimmer Mist sprays to colour the lace and stuck this around the edges followed by some German Scrap and finally positioned the bird and the last two daisies.

This was something a bit different for me, although I still couldn't resist using my favourite butterflies, but I really enjoyed doing it and was pleased with how it turned out.


Well I hope the sun shines on everyone this week and that it turns out to be a good one for you. Thanks for stopping by and as always, I love to read and really appreciate any comments you have time to leave.

Hugs
Lesley Xx

NB. Everything I used on this project except the little bird and the lace and of course, the box itself, came from Graphicus.

I think I've cracked 'em!

I've been wanting to get to grips with these paper roses that everyone seems to be enhancing their lovely artwork with.


As you may have seen in my previous post I got halfway there with one made from the largest flower (6.5 cm) on a Sizzix die. On Saturday I spent my evening practising making them from the smaller (4 cm) of the two flowers and I think I've got it cracked.


I remembered to use double sided paper which makes a whole lotta difference, and on some I inked the edges of the petals and on one I used some crystal glitter and another I used Ranger Distress Stickles Rock Candy.


I'm really pleased with how these turned out once I got the hang of them. I think I have a little 6 petalled flower punch somewhere, I wonder .................?


Before I close this post just a little reminder that my friends and I finished posting our projects for February on our Craft Stamping Quartet blog, in case you haven't had chance to have a look at them yet. It was Jo's turn to choose the project from March's issue of Craft Stamper and I'm off over there now to do a little post of sneak peeks. Here's a tiny taster.



Hope everyone is getting the sunshine we've been having for the last few days and that your week has got off to a good start. Thankyou for taking time to visit and please leave a comment so I can visit you back.

Hugs
Lesley Xx

A Touch of Gold.

I made this card this week (I've told you before, I'm a slow crafter, Lol!) for no particular reason except I wanted to try using just shades of brown with a touch of gold.


I stamped the main image once using Adirondack Espresso pigment ink and clear embossed it and then again in Versamark and embossed using Ranger Queen's Gold EP. I love this particular gold as it's very soft and not at all brassy like a lot of gold EPs. I then blended Antique Linen and Walnut Stain Distress Inks from the edges of my card in towards the images and finally used the same stamp and Walnut Stain to stamp around the edges stamping three times before re-inking. I then matted this onto a pearlised bronze card.

I again used Antique Linen and Walnut Stain to blend all around the edges of my base card and then used part of an Inkadinkado wood backed flourish stamp and the same DIs to stamp round the edges. I then rubbed my Versamark pad around the edges and embossed with the Queen's Gold EP. I used the same ink on the card for the sentiment which was from a clear set that was part of a kit from QVC way back when!

Finally, I added the Sissix die flourish and the gold paper rose. This rose was my first attempt at making one myself but I made two mistakes. 1) I didn't use double sided paper and 2 ) I thought I was clever and didn't need to look up a tutorial again - WRONG! I couldn't do the middle two layers properly because I'd used single sided paper, DOH! Anyway, rather than waste what I had done I just put a little tea rose in the centre of the 3 layers which had worked. I am determined to keep working on these roses though and would like to be able to make the teeny ones but I think I'm going to need a lot more practice.


I'm quite pleased with how this card turned out except for the rose which definitely needs a lot more practice.

I hope the weather is being kind to you wherever you are as we have had three lovely sunny days although still cold. The sunshine really makes me feel so much more cheerful.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you have time to leave a comment.

Hugs
Lesley Xx