Not exactly batch making!

Happy Sunday Morning everyone!

Once again I'm scraping in by the skin of my teeth, lol!  The lovely Darcy (who you can find HERE) has been running a challenge this week to win a set of her very fun Christmas Stamps designed for PaperArtsy.  The challenge is to use one stamp to make as many cards as possible using different techniques ....... I managed 3, lol! ....... hence the title of my post!  I have quite a few ideas for more but unfortunately time ran out on me.  I had decided to spend the whole of yesterday evening having fun with these cards but a lot of people living around here seemed to have saved the noisiest fireworks they could find and were letting them all off last night for nearly 5 hours!!!!!  Even several heavy downpours didn't stop them. This meant that we had a poor dog being driven to distraction and getting himself in a right old hysterical state and needing my attention more than my cards. I really hope that's the end of the fireworks for this year.

Anyway, enough of my little rant, on to the cards I did manage to make.  I don't yet have any PaperArtsy Christmas stamps by any of their designers yet so have used a holly swirl stamp from my rather large collection of other Christmas stamps.  I bought this stamp (along with the lovely candle stamp used on my last card) at the NEC about 3 years ago and this is the first time it has seen and inkpad....... shame on me!

Card #1

 Bottom layer is stamped with Watermark inkpad & top layer is stamped with Versamark & clear embossed before blending Iced Spruce & Evergreen Bough Distress Inks then flicking water droplets & dabbing off with tissue.

The sentiment is coloured with Sakura Sparkle Pens which is my favourite subtle hint of sparkle ..... had forgotten how much I like them ;D!

CARD #2

 Very simple card with holly swirl stamped using Bottle Adirondack dye ink and heat embossed with clear EP.  The holly leaves are punched from a piece of white card painted with metallic paint.

Card #3

This card is stamped with sticky stuff and then had gilding flakes applied for the holly swirl.

This is the candle stamp I bought to go with the holly swirl all that while ago & it is stamped with Black Archival ink with touches of watercolour using Distress Inks and a tiny bit of gilding to the flame.  I used a Spellbinders label die and layered it onto some Christmas dp I've had in my stash for ?????? years!

The sentiment is a freebie from a mag I bought this week.  Don't usually buy mags any more but loved this Kaisercraft stamp, papers & Kraft tags that were the free gifts .  This time I've watercoloured it with Distress Inks.

I've used PaperArtsy Smoothy card for all the above makes and it is lovely to stamp onto

So there you have my three offerings for the challenge.  If it hadn't been for the bl.....y fireworks, for my next card I was going to try stamping the swirl with Fresco Finish Snowflake to create a resist.  I'll still have a go at that after I've made a couple of cards I need before next Monday.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone and till next time .................

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

Poor neglected stamps!

Hello everyone,

After my last marathon post I'll try to keep this one fairly short (Yippee I hear you all shout!).  I am really disorganised when it comes to  getting cards made in time for folks' birthdays but I was really pleased with myself that today's card was finished and posted in plenty of time for it to reach it's destination by the due date, lol!

I made this card a few weeks ago for a crafting friend who has moved to Scotland.  Since I have know her Lynne has made me some beautiful birthday cards (all carefully saved) so I wanted to make sure I made something I was really pleased with.  I used the Indigo Blu anemone corner stamped onto white card and coloured with Derwent Coloursoft pencils.  I stamped the beautiful  hummingbird from Designs by Ryn onto white card and coloured with pencils again before cutting it out.

I stamped the raindrops, also from Designs by Ryn, onto acetate (hence the reflection on each photo, lol) and cut this to the same size as the white square.  I decided where I wanted the humming bird to be positioned on top of the acetate and placed some Cosmic Shimmer (dries clear) glue underneath this point and also where the sentiment was going to be to hold the acetate in place.  I matted these two layers onto a square of co-ordinating blue card and then onto the card base before adding the bird and the sentiment, which was stamped and die cut, with 3D foam.

Although this card somehow didn't end up quite what I'd had in mind at the outset, I was still very happy with it and really enjoyed good old fashioned pencil colouring.  It's the first time I've used any of the stamps and I love them all.  The raindrops are so cleverly designed and look so realistic I think.

I managed to meet up with Lynne for a quick catch up at the StampMagic show at Doncaster a few weeks ago which was lovely and if you have to time to follow the link I put in to her blog you'll find some beautiful cards and also some wonderful photographs of the very special area she lives in now.

Till next time ...................

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

Wow, I finally managed to make something!

Hi lovely visitors and thanks for your visit today.

Blimey hasn't the weather been awful again but unfortunately not quite bad enough here to blow the blooming fireworks out!  I should think we have a few more evenings of the darned things driving us and more to the point, the dog, crazy before we can relax of an evening again.  This morning though I have gorgeous sunshine beaming into my craftroom ;-).

Anyway, yesterday I sneaked in a crafty playday ...... at the expense of the bottomless ironing pile, lol!  All week I had been wanting to join in with the current PaperArtsy Blog Challenge because the wonderfully talented Jo Myhill had inspired me with her very first project of the week.  The other two are equally inspiring but I knew I only had time for one ................ at the rate I work anyway, lol!

I loved Jo's little wooden frames but only had one in my stash (bought from PaperArtsy at the StampMagic Show a couple of weeks ago) and it is bigger than Jo's at 15 x 15 cm so I decided to turn mine into a Christmas decor piece but still following Jo's techniques in the main.  This is the result!

Although I have quite a few PaperArtsy stamps in my collection I don't yet have any Christmas ones yet (really fancying some of the JoFY ones ;D) but I did use the Mini 61 script, a border from HP1102 and a little circle from HP1008 for the centre of my Shrink flowers.  The Merry Christmas and flowers that I stamped the Shrink Plastic with are from my other collections.   The photos follow the sequence of events in the progress of making this project although, as usual I got carried away getting painty and kept forgetting to take some stages, lol!

I used Fresco paints, Archival inks and Treasure Gold throughout.

                                      

When I painted the shrink plastic I thought what a bl....ooming mess, lol, but once I had stamped all over it it looked much better and once cut out and shrunk I was really pleased with it.

Here's a before and after shot.

                                       


                                       

As Jo said it does take on a sort of velvety look and feel but you do have to be careful when handling it as it's easy to flake off the Frescos.  Jo was right about the patience you need to let it all dry too ;-) not to mention assembling the flowers!

                                       

I stamped and die cut the sentiment using a piece of the Shrink plastic I had left over.

Being me I wanted to add more foliage and so I used my Tim Holtz garland to cut various pieces from card painted with Holly and Claret Frescos.

                                       

The Arty Inklings Challenge is anything Christmas so I'm going to enter this project there too.
EDIT  I'm also entering this into the Stamping Sensations Challenge which is Christmas.
            and The Artistic Stamper November Challenge which is also Christmas.
EDIT EDIT (lol) I'm new to entering multiple challenges and yesterday I linked up to the
                     Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge which was anything goes but forgot to put a link back                        to their blog on here.  The challenge has closed  now so it's probably too late but I'm going to                        link anyway 'cos there are such fab things to see over there.

                                           

Well, I still haven't made any Christmas cards but I'm really pleased with this little decoration.  Thanks for getting me started Jo.

Hope you all enjoy what's left of the weekend.  Till next time ................

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

A very important birthday ......

Hello Again,

Happy Friday to those of you who have finished work for the weekend and for those who don't get the weekend off I hope you have a pleasant two days work.  I'm also hoping the weather is going to cheer up a wee bit for us all.  It's been very mild here with a high of 17c today but we've also had quite a bit of rain again.

Anyway, to get back on track, yesterday was my favourite Daughter's (I only have the one, lol) birthday so I thought I'd share the card I made for her.

It was a simple and relaxing card to make using stamps from the Jo Firth-Young range at PaperArtsy.  The spikey flowers which I love are from JOFY14 set and the words are from JOFY11.

Everything was stamped using Onyx Black Versafine ink and I chose a selection of words (there are others on the set too) to make the sentiment I wanted, cut them out and added them to the card with foam pads to give a bit of dimension.

I used Derwent Coloursoft pencils on the spikey flowers.

I'm looking forward to seeing Jenna (and her family) on Sunday afternoon for a few hours as OH and I are off up the A1 for tea with them all.  It will be cuddles all round ;D!

Have a smashing weekend everyone and till next time ...................

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

What a smashing weekend I had!

Hi everyone,

Nice to 'see' you and thanks for dropping by!

I spent last weekend in Milton Keynes with a lovely group of ladies I've come to know through Twitter.  Sam I met briefly irl at the last StampMagic show along with Emma and I also spent time with Emma at the Anna Diabrowska weekend in Swindon a few weeks ago.  The rest of the ladies in our group I had never met face to face before but somehow it doesn't really seem that way when you've been tweeting regularly for a few months, lol!  Lin was the one who had arranged a weekend of classes with the lovely Lin Brown (YoursArtfully) for our special little band and we were joined by Helen, Jax and Jacqui plus Janet (who is not a tweeter).  The workshops were held at a lovely shop called The Bead Scene which led to lots of temptation to buy pretty buttons, charms & ribbons ....... needless to say I didn't take much tempting, lol!

Unfortunately, I had to keep my head down and crack on with my projects to have any chance of keeping up with the others so I didn't get chance to take any photos of the other ladies but if you drop by Sam's blog she has some lovely pics of us all.  She's a speedy Gonzalez when it comes to crafting and got time to keep the camera clicking ;D!

Here are some pics of the beautiful project we did on the Saturday.

And some pics of the gorgeous Oriental style project from Sunday.

and this is a close up of the lady in the niche.  I think she's so lovely!

I think just about all the products we used can be obtained from PaperArtsy, including all the stamps.

I've not given any how to instructions because that wouldn't be fair to Lin but if ever you get chance to go to one of her workshops, please do.  She's a lovely lady and wonderfully patient teacher.  We all had such a fab weekend and can't wait to do it again.

I'll be back again soon but till then ........

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

A Birthday card for a very special friend which is also my last DT project for Snazzy's

 Hello and welcome lovely visitors,

As I was fresh from the fabulous weekend of Anna Dabrowska workshop at Snazzy's so had a head full of 'Finn' style techniques, I wanted to make a birthday card for Elaine who spent part of that weekend with me, that included at least a nod towards Anna's style.  I also wanted to make a 2nd project for my final week on the Snazzy's DT so decided to combine the two.  So, instead of my usual sneak peek of a DT project I am going to show more photographs on here but if you want a bit more detail on the how to, please hop over to the Snazzy's DT blog.

Whilst I really liked the chalk effect designs on one side of the papers, most of them cried out for scrapbooking but the reverse sides are the ones I really fell in love with so these are what I used for both my DT projects this month and they were perfect for Elaine's card.  There was also a perfect sentiment on one of the stickers so it just had to be, lol!

I chose to co-ordinate all the embellishments rather than alter the colours with sprays as you usually see in Anna's beautiful work but I did want the dimension.

I loved playing with all these bits and pieces but I still can't stop 'over thinking' as Anna puts it, lol!  It takes me an age of moving things around until the balance pleases my eye ;D!

Until next time.............

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

PaperArtsy Blog Challenge - Joanne Wardle Inspiration (2)

Morning again,

Wow, this has to be a first for me, two posts within an hour, lol!

This is my second card taking inspiration from Joanne over on the PaperArtsy blog.  Once again I have shamelessly copied Joanne, even keeping the same name on the card because it is my son's name and he would have loved a card like this when in his teens.  Come to think of it he'd probably still like it, lol!  Anyway, you can get all the how to details from Joanne's post on the PA blog and also, once again, I have had to use stamps from my own stash. 

and a little close up

That's it for today folks.  I might manage to have a go at Joanne's bonus project from yesterday's post this evening but if not I'll try at the weekend.  I have got a post scheduled for Thursday with my final Snazzy's DT project but in actual fact I will be up in Harrogate from tomorrow night childminding this cheeky little chap for a couple of days.

 

my 20 month old grandson, Charlie!

Isn't he adorable but I have a feeling I will be somewhat lacking in energy when I come home Friday evening, lol!

Have a good day everyone and see you again soon.

Hugs

Lesley  Xx