Thursday, 17 May 2012

Grandma in the pink...

I haven't been making scrap book pages for a while, so I jumped at the chance to work with the ***exclusive*** heritage papers from 'Its Crafting Time'. These lovely papers have been designed especially for British crafters to use in their heritage layouts.
The class was led by Helen at Its Crafting Time. (Even Sally who designed the papers came along to make a page!).
I chose to use colour photos of my Grandma who will be 90 this year.



Wednesday, 16 May 2012

Its Crafting Time DT Challenge - May sketch

A bit of a move away from my usual stuff for this one!

Scrap 365 magazine arrived through my letter box and I just fell in love with some of the really fussy designs, which for someone who likes neatness and straight lines (even my tearing tends to be neat!) is a bit scary.
I was also toying with the idea of working at 'fat book' size (4x4in) instead of ATC, so I have combined the two with this months sketch for Its Crafting Time.
I bought lots of big, blowsy papers that I thought could be good to tear, fussy cut, over stamp, paint and ink.

I also fell in love with some new dies; Mix'd Media Elements by Spellbinders, and Leane Creatief 'Lea'bilities' circle swirl and flowers.
A set of the new Martha Stewart decorative design silicone molds also fell into the basket...
Anyway, to playing...
Having tidied up (!) I couldn't find my metal trays for melting embossing powder in, so I sacrificed a spoon. I mixed WOW clear glos ultra high with a tiny bit WOW burgandy red regular and heated it carefully from underneath until it melted. The I swapped hands, and keeping a low heat on the melt, poured carefully into the silicone mold.
This seemed to work really well, so I tried it with WOW metallic copper instead of the burgundy.
The first stayed quite clear, but in the second one, the metallic seems to have gone to the outside of the mold.
The two shapes popped out of the mold really easily and gave a fairly clear impression. I managed to trim off the excess with scissors whilst it was still warm. The next job was to cut the square. This is from Stella Ruby 'Mrs. Foxglove's Brunch'. I cut the frame from a paper in my stash that is all browns and reds in a huge paisley pattern that I have alswys thought pretty horrible!The birds wing is also cut from the same paper. The leaves and wiggly bands are both cut from sections of the background paper. The tiny flowers are from the very last few pieces of some Tim Holtz paper in my stash. The crown is also cut from a section of the backing paper. I used the piece that the crown came out of as a mask and inked through with Versa Colour silver onto the backing paper. The edge is coloured with Memento Rhubarb Stalk. I also used this colour to ink the bird whilst still in its die. The big flower is die cut from My Mind's Eye 'Spirit Bright'. I have pieced everything together using sticky pads cut up very small, photo glue, and ultra sticky tape for the two UTEE pieces. The final additions are, as ever, the bling!!!
I really like the result. It is pretty, interesting and has lots of texture. I might even try it on a scrap book page!



I am also entering this project at:
http://atcswithattitude.blogspot.co.uk/ - butterflys and blooms

Altered Art Book

I have not really played with altered books very much. I don't really know where to start!
So I booked myelf and my sister onto a class at Its Crafting Time with Jennie from the Artistic Stamper.
We had great fun getting messy with inks and glue, playing with UTEE, and ripping up book pages.
These are the pages that I made:




Tuesday, 8 May 2012

Its Crafting Time DT Challenege - Black and White

London by Day and By Night


The stamp is The Houses of Parliament from the Artemio London set. I have stamped it in Tuxedo Black Memento ink onto light stamping card.
The dies are from Xcut, nesting rectangle scalloped.
The image is also stamped onto black card with clear embossing ink and then then embossed with WOW White Puff Powder.
The finishing touches are birds, the flowers (die cut) and teh gems, all from stash.


 

Sunday, 29 April 2012

Its Crafting Time DT Challenge - Embossing Folder

Inspired by last weeks success with shrink plastic and gilding flakes, I decided to make something sparkley!
The theme for the DT challenge at ITC this week is embossing folders; at papercreationsink it is 'April Showers Bring May Flowers'; and at crafts4eternity' the theme is spring.
Combining all of these I came up with my ATC design.

The background is Tim Holtz Core Dinations card in 'Faded Jeans'.
I have embossed it using 'Drip Drop' universal embossing folder from Craft Concepts'.
The flowers are cut from the same coredinations card using 'Rose Creations' Spellbinders dies. The flowers have then been embossed with 'Polka Dots' embossing folder by Crafts-Too. The leaves are from the same die set, cut in card from my stash.
In both cases I have sanded the embossing to reveal the paler core.
The flowers have been coated with Crafters Companion 'Spray and Sparkle'. This makes them a darker shade and a bit sparkley.
The drips have had lines of 'Diamond' Stickles down them.
The little girl in the rain is a Paper Mania stamp, 'Rainy Day'. I stamped it in Archival 'Jet Black' onto shrink plastic, allowed it to dry and then heated it to shrink. The back has been coated with Indigo Blu mega-flake 'Winter Dawn'.
The little bow and blue gem are from my stash.


This really reminds me of running about in wellies in teh puddles when I was little, right down to the bobbed hair and 'proper' coat!


Designed for DT challenge: http://itscraftingtime.blogspot.co.uk/

Also entered in challenges at:
http://papercreationsink.blogspot.co.uk/ - 'April Showers Bring May Flowers'
http://crafts4eternity.blogspot.co.uk/ - 'Spring'

Friday, 27 April 2012

Pink Flowers

I was so organised this week... Made card for CFC49 on CAS-ual Fridays, took photos for WOYWW... Forgot to transfer them from camera, fell asleep and missed all of the deadlines...
Oh, well! So, imagine my surprise when I discover that this weeks challenge is something with flowers or trees - bingo!
So here it all is then...
CFC50: Spring is here so show us your Clean And Simple creations
with flowers or trees.
CFC49: Create a CAS card using the sketch




bloglink - http://cas-ualfridays.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/cfc50.html

Thursday, 26 April 2012

OMG!

Help me please! I need adult conversation!
I have spent all day with 20 year 11 students in a small, dark room completing coursework...
The last few just wont go home! I have been here for 7 1/2 hours!!!
The girls are now rating the male teachers....
Argggggggggggh!!!!