Sunday 14 October 2012

Butterfly birthday

This birthday card is based on the October DT sketch from Its Crafting Time. The sketch is really simple and gave me the idea for my layout.

The card is made on a piece of heavy weight linen photo paper, size 8.5 x 11.5 (letter size rather than A4) as this gives a shorter fatter card when you fold it in half.

The papers used in the background are 'Miss. Caroline' by Jen Allyson, published by My Minds Eye. The blue is trimmed with a rotary cutter to get the soft wavy edges. The butterfly paper is cut with a Spellbinders dye.

The main image is a Polka Doodles stamp that came free with Crads and Papercraft magazine. It was stamped with Memento 'Tuxedo Black' and coloured with Promarkers. The image was trimmed with a Spellbinders to match the butterfly paper. It was edged in Memento 'Rose Pink' and then sprayed heavily with Crafters Companion 'Spray and Sparkle' to give the sparkly laquered look. 

I then took three Tando Creative chiboard butterflies and painted them with pale blue acrylic. Once they wre dry, I then stamped them using a small rose stamp from the same set as yhe main image.

They were then covered in a thick layer of Glossy Accents to finish. Once the card was assembled, I added some pink gems from my stash to make the 'trails' linking the butterflies together, and stamped the 'Happy Birthday' to finish.
Grandma really liked her card, I hope you do too!
 

Saturday 6 October 2012

All in one???!!

This design is made from a single sheet of A3 water colour paper. The fold was shown to me by Cheryl at ITC craft club.
(I will try and make a step by step set of instructions soon!)
The fold leaves you with 4 diagonal pockets (and several other little hidey holes...) which I have put tags in.
The image stamps are by Indigo Blu, from the 'Sewing mends the soul' set. They have been stamped in a combination of Ranger distress inks and Memento inks. The ink has also been lifted using a water brush to give the appearance of water colouring in places.
The music background stamp is by Papermania.
The tag images are by Graphic 45, which I found had the identical 'Ellen Terry Corset' image on to the Indigo Blu stamps!
The stamps were sprayed with a mixture of Glimmer Mists and Dylusions Inks through masks from my stash. The Glimmer Mists are horribly expensive, but the shine is fantastic!

The ribbons, brads and other bits and bobs are all from stash.
 

Friday 5 October 2012

helloooooooooo

Hello All,

I am sorry that I have been missing in action...
I completely lost my crafting mojo and couldn't get to craft club at the end of last month (open evening), and I can't do the last Thursday of this month (quiz night...). School gets in the way of so much!

Any way, I seem to have finally got back into it, my 'spare room' has been turned back into a sea of paper and mess in the 2 hours since I got home this evening!

This is my first attempt at crafting since before my birthday party on the 1st September...

Pretty in pink.

 
 
All papers are from the 'hello luscious' range by Basic Grey. The ribbons are a Michelle Coleman design from Fancy Pants.
The mini-coasters 'Ornamental Circles' and 'Ever After Circles' are Blue Cardigan Designs by Imagination Project. The large flower matte (cut in two pieces) is 29th Street Market 'Spirit Sisters' by My Minds Eye.
The chipboard butterflies are Tando mini designs. They have been flooded with nail varnish and then small drops added to highlight.
Finally, the 'family' tag, the word stickers and the gems are all from stash.
 

I am going to try and be more activiely crafty again now!

Alison

Sunday 5 August 2012

Five Minute Friday... (OK, so its Sunday!)

5 minutes to write...

Here...

we go...

time is passing by and I watch it very little. I dont mark its passing in any great way. I record some moments in memory and in notes and pictures, but who knows which are the most important until you remember or forget.
There are few times that I am truly here. My life is patterened by the passing of students and school terms, but as fast as one passes the next comes.
This month I will be 40. My sister will be 30, my grandmother 90, my aunt turned 60 and my mother got her wish to be 65...
Again, I am not here...
Right now I am trying to type in stream of conciousness but am aware of all of the sounds around me.
After my hysterectamy I sought counselling with my partner. It changed us both. We learned to set aside time together and live in that moment. The undestanding of sensualness and sensuality that comes from the sharing of a smile, a sound, a smell, a touch. There is so much more than what we simply perceive.
I do not know what I truly believe, but right now, right here, I am thankfull for waht I have.

...stop.

Wednesday 1 August 2012

Does anyone know what this flower is?

At school we are having a new sensory garden built over the Summer. I have been goin in and taking photos of it as it grows and develops. Whilst hunting around, I found a wonderful deep purple and white flower that the bees seem to love and got some great pictures.
The only problem is, I dont know what the plant is! Answers on a post card....
The photos that I took inspired me to do some scrapbooking. I chose two images with bees on and created a page using the first of the new Its Crafting Time DT challenges.
The first four are listed below...

1.     06.08.12 Pink & Black Cathy, Anesha, May, Jan
2.     13.08.12 Faces Michelle, Laura, Mel, Alison
3.     20.08.12 Supplied Product Cathy, Anesha, May, Jan
4.     27.08.12 Sketch Michelle, Laura, Mel, Alison


I started with a sheet of Bazzil that I colour matched to the flowers. Then I sprayed Prima resist canvas flowers and butterflies with a mixture of Tattered Angels glimmer mists, Dylusions spray inks and Cosmic Shimmer misting inks.
I matted the two photos onto MMI papers from the same set.
Once I had all of the parts laid out on the sheet, I then decided that the layout needed something else, so I decided to stamp the corner.
All of the stamps are by Inkylicious and the inks are Memento. I started with the black and then added 3 tones of pink/purple. The sentiment is also from the Inkylicious range.
Once everything was stuck in place, I added the sticky gems - you can never have too much bling!!!

This is designed for the ITC DT challenge:

Tuesday 31 July 2012

Birthday Boy


Now you know when the man in your life says 'have you got a male oriented card knocking around...?', it really means 'I forgot my brothers birthday, can you make me a card...'???!!!

So, here is my emergency contribution to sibling happiness:

Recipe:
The card blank is 8x8 scallop edge from Craftwork Cards
I inked through a cogs design mask from 'A Touch of...' using dried marigold Distress Ink.
Then I inked over it using a clock design mask also from 'A Touch of...' using aged mahogany Distress Ink.

I cut the first mat from a book page using a scallop edge Spellbinders die then embossed and inked through using the aged mahogany.
Then I randomly stamped a key design around the edges, also in aged mahogany.
The next layer was cut using the next smallest Spellbinders die.
The image of the little boy was stamped in vintage photo distress in. The edges where also inked in aged mahogany.
The large key comes from a Prima Resistant Canvas set. I inked it up with the all three Distress Inks. I decided the colours weren't defined enough so I held a henna colour Promarker against it in several places.The clock face is from Kanban and the hands are from mystash.
The two paper strips are from Graphic 45 paper.
The ribbon and sticky gems were added next and then I masked off the card so just the little boy showed. I was going to spray with Glimmer Mist, but remembered that distress inks are water based, so I sprayed with Spray and Sparkle (Crafters Companion) instead.
To make everything tie together, I then inked through the cogs mask in aged marigold on the inside. Then I inked up the little boy stamp in vintage photo, stamped it onto scrap paper, sprayed the stamp lightly with water to reactivate any remaining ink and then stamped the image. This gave a much lighter effect.
I also repeated this on the envelope, this time inking the little boy in both aged mahogany and vintage photo.






Having sorted my man, I am going to enter this card into the following challenges:
http://sentimentalsundays.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/challenge-113-paint.html
http://atcswithattitude.blogspot.co.uk/ challenge #19 anything goes
http://dillybeanschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/ribbon-challenge.html





Sunday 29 July 2012

5 minute thoughts...

It is 18.04 on a wet Sunday night in July and I am half watching repeats of formula 1. This used to be what I did on a Sunday with my Dad when I lived at home. Daddy and Mummy were always the centre of my world. Everything revolved around the family. And then he was gone. He found another and left us. I know it wasn't done to hurt me but it did. He is not so far away, but in my head he is.
Mummy is gone now too, but she is beyond my reach. She suffered for the loss of Daddy, she grieved but knew he was still alive. I grieve for both  of them.
I could pick up the phone and talk to him, but where to start? (Hamilton has won the race, not sure that I really wanted him to ... glad to see a Brit on the podium, but would have been nice if it was Button...)
Anyway, this stream of conciousness stuff is not easy to do.
I am not sad really. I am just fed up with the rain after such a beautiful sunny week...
Back to the theme of beyond...
Beyond today I have 5 more weeks of holiday...
Beyond next Friday, I have two weeks to spend with the man in my life...
Beyond the summer I have knew students to meet and learn with...
Ooops, is 16.10 and I have run out of time...

A xxx

And through the round window...

So, week 1 of the summer holidays comes to an end, and it is raining...
I suppose I shouldn't complain, we have had a full week of glorious sunshine!
The sun and the goodies I found at Papermaze gave me the inspiration for this mad little project using the Tando Creative round mini printers tray:

My lovely friends A & J were celebrating both their 4th wedding anniversary and a house move this week, so this little moment was designed for them.

I glued together the layers of the printer tray using Glossy Accents and then painted it with Kaisercolour 'mushroom' acrylic paint to seal the surfaces.
I mixed Kaisercolour 'tropical water' with Reeves modelling paste to give a thick textured media. I pushed this through Tando Creative 'harlequin' mask to give some texture to the surface.

Whilst the paste was drying I inked up the spray of flowers from a Prima Resistant Canvas pack using Dylusions 'fresh lime' and 'bubblegum pink' ink sprays and Cosmic Shimmer 'blue lace' Misting Ink Spray.
I also made up the small paper flowers from Spellbinders 'bitty blossoms' and sprayed them with Tattered Angel Glimmer Mist in 'pearl' and 'irridescent gold'.
Once the texture paste was dry, I sprayed over the whole printers tray with the Dylusions and Cosmic Shimmers Misting Sprays to add more colour and dimension.

I cut background papers to fit each segment from MMI Miss Caroline 'dolled up' 6x6 paper pad and inked the edges using 'salty ocean' Distress Ink. I glued in each of these with Glossy Accents.
Each of the elements was then glued in place, except the boat. The background for this segment was cut from a map showing where A&J got married and where they have just moved to. I then filled the segment with ultra think WOW powder from a Melt Pot and then sank the boat into it.                                               The last steps where to add the reeds and fishes, stick on the resist canvas flower spray and add the cherub and the bow.

The printers tray also comes with a stand which I painted in 'tropical water' and then stamped with FlitterGlu and added 'autumn rose' CraftyNotions gilding flakes to finish.

I had great fun making this and everyone who has seen it has said they like it!
I hope you do to!

I will be entering it at the following challenges:

http://tando-creative-challenges.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/25th-july-2012.html
http://sentimentalsundays.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/challenge-113-paint.html
http://atcswithattitude.blogspot.co.uk/

Tuesday 24 July 2012

Day 2 of the Summer Holidays...

or...      
         Oops, there goes the housekeeping...

I woke up this morning thinking what a beautiful day for a trip into the country side! So I went on a blog hop to find a shop that I hadn't been to before and so began my exploration of the Suffolk 'tourist route'. Remind me next time I try something new to go the way the AA suggest and not rely on my knowledge of the pretty routes! The day was so wonderfully sunny and bright that every bugger with a snail hooked to their car (sorry... caravan...) decided to take the tourist route to!
After several moments wondering if caravan and combine harvester would fit down narrow lane side by side and watching enviously as motorcyclists diassapeared into a wind swept distance, I finally arrived at my destination - Papermaze in Otley, nr. Ipswich.
What a lovely friendly little place! Well worth the drive. I found lots of new stuff and some different brands I haven't heard of before. I think my favourite is Tando Creative. I have picked up a mask, a bag of board butterflies and two mini printer trays.

I am seriously looking forward to making some new stuff with all this kit!

Monday 23 July 2012

Invitation...

Day one of the summer holidays!

So far, I have been to school and marked the rest of my L3 BTEC applied Science coursework, backed up all of my useful resources ready for lesson prep and thrown away lots of toot...
I have also been to the bank, done two loads of washing (the third one is in now...), stripped and changed the bed and gone through my wardrobe and thrown out all the stuff that I don't wear or has gone manky!
God, my life is exciting!



I rescued all of the buttons off the tops and shirts and now have a pile of inspiration to play with. 
Then I went on a blog hop to find some ideas and ended up on a site I hadnt come across before called Fat Cat Studios where I found some great digis.


I loved these little owls and they seemed to fit with the colours from the buttons, the Things with Wings theme from Sentimental Sundays, and the Art with no Boundaries Clowning Around.
The layout is based on Sentimental Sundays bonus round.

I hope you all smile like I did when I found the digi!

I will be entering this card at:

Friday 20 July 2012

CAS on a black card blank

Hoorah! Its finally the Summer break! The students left at 1pm today and by 3pm I was home and catching up on sleep...
It didn't last long though, the crave to craft struck and I have finally got back in my craft room after 4 weeks of insanity at school (the last few weeks are always so busy!).
I know all you parents out there are bemoaning my 6 weeks off, but I assure you it won't be all fun and games and I do have all the painting, shopping, cleaning and going out to cram in that you can take days off to do...

OK, whinge over now! I love my job and I love the kids (most of them...), but they do rather get in the way of crafting...

So, here it is - my first venture into the craft room since the end of June...


The card is 4x4, cut from folded A4 textured black card from my stash. I have cut mats from silver miri and an off cut of the black base card.  The cog design is embossed from a 'Touch of...' mask which I then coloured up with Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink to give a distressed look. The top mat is cut from an off cut of the cogs, using a Spellbinders die from 'Mix'd Media Elements'. I embossed it and then inked through to get the shading.
The metal cogs, flowers, gems and 'with love' stamp are all from stash.

I hope you like it!

I am going to enter this at:
http://cas-ualfridays.blogspot.co.uk/ CFC62: Back in Black
http://fatpageswithattitude.blogspot.co.uk/ challenge 18: Anything Goes
http://sentimentalsundays.blogspot.co.uk/ Rough around the edges (distressing etc.)

Monday 25 June 2012

Floral Tones

Evening all, been a while! School is mad, we are just at the ned of exam season and are counting down to the Summer break at the end of July...

Anyway, back to scrapbooking...

This week I have been inspired by the Crafting Time (http://itscraftingtime.blogspot.co.uk/) DT challenge theme 'Flowers', and the Color-me-scrappy (http://color-me-scrappy.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/challenge-6.html) colour theme of 'flora tones', a lovely range of blues and pinks.



The bright pink backing paper is a lightly textured bazzil cardstock. The flowery backing paper is from Chatter Box 'Powder Blossoms' and is cut with a wavy edge using my trimmer.
The dark red matte is a left over from my photography A level a couple of years ago (Bazzil basics).
The blue matte at the bottom left is Coredinations Tim Holtz 'Faded Jeans'. It has been embossed with Crafts-Too dotty folder.
The pale blue matte (stolen from the DT box!) has been cut at the bottom into a curve and trimmed with wide blue lace (also stolen from the DT box...), stuck on with ultra sticky red tape.

The flowers are a mixture from 'Itty Bitty Blossoms' and 'Layered Flowers' dies; and 'Got Flowers' from my stash. The leaves came with the Bitty Blossoms.
Each flower has a sticky back gem in the centre. 
The final elements are the sentiment and the swirls. These are from Crate Paper 'Blue Hill Collection Impression Diecuts'.

Oh, yes, and the picture is of my little sisters wedding, nearly 5 years ago now!

Monday 11 June 2012

I can tell you why I dont like Mondays...

(with apologies to the Boom Town Rats)

It is 5.41 on a Monday morning. It is pouring with rain, Colin is snoring faintly above me and the birds are happily telling the world they are alive (it is at times like this I wish Annie Cat was a more efficient hunter!).
So, I haven't slept. Tried eating comfy stuff. Made mug of hot orange squash. Have been blog hopping...
Gave up and wrote cover lesson for my year 9's.
Ought to have done a lesson for year 8, but because of the rotation I havent seen them for 3 weeks...

Burying Mummies ashes today at 11.30.

See, I told you I knew why I don't like Mondays!

Would rather be at school coralling yr 9 boys who have absolutely no interest in being there whilst trying to provide a high quality lesson to those who do care...

I actually love my job, just not at this time of the morning...

Oh well. Should probably stop whingeing and set about facing the day!

Saturday 9 June 2012

Design Team Call


 
Fancy adding the above button to your blog? Well if you do then here is what you have to do.
Email three photographs of projects you have made along with a few words (no more than about 50) about yourself and why you started crafting to helen@itscraftingtime.com
Projects must be your own work from your own designs
We are looking for people who can committee to making between 2 - 4 projects a month for 6 months (depending on your choice of project preferred eg card makers weekly, altered art twice a month etc) The areas currently covered are: ATC's, Card Making, Scrapbooking, Altered Art, Mixed Media work, Jewellery Making, and Journalling.
You will be required to keep a regular blog and link your blog to ours and your posts to ours (DT submissions only not every post!) and we will do the same back. Please note that if your are sucessful, DT projects must not be used for other challenges or competitions without permission first (we need to make sure that other blogs and sites being linked up to us are relevant and appropriate to our business, only 3 linkings per project will be agreed to)
 
Closing date Midday on Friday 22nd June

Wednesday 6 June 2012

put a bling on it...

Another simple card, stamped directly onto a card blank.



The clock lady was stamped first and then masked to over stamp with the script back ground.
The mask was then trimmed and coloured using promarkers to highlight the skin and areas of the dress. I attached this using foam tape to raise it up. I added a ribbon round her waist.
The sentiment tags are from Tim Holtz (Ranger) 'Chitterchatter'.
Finally I added the bling gems and some glaze to highlight sections.
Lots of white space left!!!

This card will be entered at:

http://cas-ualfridays.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/cfc55.html - put a bling on it
http://atcswithattitude.blogspot.co.uk/ - anything goes

Spotty Monkey...

This card is 8inch square, cut from a folded A3 sheet.


The spotty paper and two monkey papers are by Daisy D's (from stock at Its Crafting Time). I sprayed the card blank with two blue ink sprays. The circles are cut using a plate and two rolles of tape to get the different sizes. I couldn't find a monkey big enough to be the focal point, so I sketched one myself from the paper designs and coloured it with ProMarkers. All of the edges and inked with Memento 'Pale Sky'. The three small word tags are from Tim Holtz (Ranger Crafts) 'Chitterchatter'.
The theme is a combination of spots and a sketch from Sentimental Sundays; and a colour pallete from Colour-me-scrappy. The pallete also has a spotty feather with it, so it all linked up nicely!



This card will be entered at:

Less is More - Red, White and Blue...

This card is for Fathers day and only uses 3 colours (red, silver and blue) on a white card. The stripes are stamped directly to the card blank and then edged with blue and red Promarker 'stitching'.

The circles are from the same collection of stripey stamps, but this time they are circular.
I found the #1 Dad stamp in the same stash at Its Crafting Time.
I tried to keep it down to as few elements as possible and only added the one additional layer.
Not sure that there is enough white space for it truly to be clean and simple, but I like it!













I will be entering this card at:
http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/week-70-colour-challenge.html - red, white and blue
http://sentimentalsundays.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/challenge-105-show-me-your-spots.html - show me your spots
http://dillybeanschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/stripes-challenge.html - stripes
http://fatpageswithattitude.blogspot.co.uk/ - anything goes/fathers day

A Craftastic Day!

Just Monkeying Around...
This week at Its Crafting Time our theme was a sketch. I found some wonderful papers by Daisy D's with monkeys on! They inspired both the ATC's and a card.


I cut the ATC bases from white card and inked the edges with Memento 'Rhubarb Stalk' ink to pick up the colour from the dots on the paper.

The green paper is the reverse of the spotty paper. The central square is the green paper again, edged with Rhubarb Stalk.

The small monkeys have been fussy cut from the paper and the central monkeys from a yellow spotty version. I used a Kars 1in circle punch to cut them out.

Finally, I added red, clear, and blue gems; and then some blue glitter glue around the edge of the circle.
These ATC's will be entered at:    
     





Sunday 3 June 2012

Its Crafting Time DT Challenge - Brown & Cream

Crafting Gives You Wings...

This weeks theme at ICT is to use the colour cream and brown. As I have a linking for Tim Holtz and all things smudgy this was ideal!
I started with 3 cream ATC blanks (7Gypsies) which I added colour to using an Ink Duster (Inkylicious) in shades of Toffee (Versafine) and Rich Cocoa (Memento). I had a tag with a cherub cut out of it from and earlier challenge. I used this as a stencil and coloured through it with Rhubarb Stalk (Memento). I then added a few leaves using a Paper Artsy stamp in the Toffee.
I added sections of a steam punk clock face topper (Kanban) which I coloured up to match and also sections of another left over die cut from a previous challenge.
Ribbon and ric-rac is from a range at ITC.

The owl, queen and angel stamps are all by Paper Artsy. The cog stamp I have no idea who its by.

The cog embelishments are by Tim Holtz and the gems from my stash.

All three ATC's have wings on, hence my title...!





These ATC's will also be entered at:

Monday 28 May 2012

Its Crafting Time DT Challenge - Music

I found 3 great photos of my Dad when we were clearing out Mummy's house. The one that I have scrapped here we think was taken for his 21st.
I have chosen neutral, earthy tones to fit with the colouring of the photo.

The papers are all from ITC, but a mixture of stuff that I had in a box of left overs from other projects and craft days.
The red back ground mattes have been embossed using Couture Creations 'Adagio' embossing folder.
The scrolls in either corner have been stamped with a Papermania music stamp.





The flowers and leaves are cut from paper scraps using Spellbinders dies  'Floral Tags' and Rose Creations'.
The yellow and orange paper flowers I think are by 'Got Flowers', they came in a bottle...
The journalling tag and the paisley piece underneath it are by My Minds Eye '29th Street Market'.
I have edged everything with Memento inks in yellows, golds and browns. With the journalling tag I have then picked up some of the colour with a water brush to touch in the flowers and leaves.
I made 3 embellishments by melting High Gloss WOW powders on a spoon and pouring it into Martha Stewart silicone molds.
Lastly, I have added lots of gems and then given a subtle sparkle by spraying the two groups of flowers with Spray and Sparkle.











I am going to add this page to:
http://www.smudgyantics.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/weekly-challenge-embellish-it.html
(although I haven't used one of their images)
http://color-me-scrappy.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/challenge-4.html
(cherry colour)

Tuesday 22 May 2012

Its Crafting Time DT Challenge - Stamped Images

This week at ITC  (http://itscraftingtime.blogspot.co.uk/) the challenge is to use some stamped images that we have been sent. They are all from the Indigo Blu range. The ones that I have chosen to use are from 'Sewing mends the Soul'.
This is an A6 card on white. The background has been stamped and the edges inked with memento Summer Sky.
The thimbles are stamped in Memento Paris Dusk, as is the sentiment.
The frame was originally white, but has been inked with the same colours to match.

Both the corsetted lady and the corset have been coloured with water colours.
The flowers and lace are from stash, but don't the colours go well!
Finally, must have some bling!
Just 2 gems, one in each flower center, and a little Flitter...



I am also going to enter this card at:

Friday 18 May 2012

Book Of Me

When I went to the NEC earlier this year, I picked up a ring bound book by Prima. I have been looking at Smash Books for ages, but wanted something a bit more freer that I could add extra pages to and the Prima book seemed to be the thing.
The front section has a calendar, double page to a month; followed by journalling and blank pages. It comes wit 4 slip files, some plastic wallets, stickers, tags and sticky buds.
I have been keeping a diary in it of all the little things I have done this year.
In the journal section I have been writing little thoughts, poems and rants as I think of them (or I just need to get something off my chest!).
It is also a place to put odd photos, leaflets, ticket stubs and things from days out. You know, all the things you keep saying that you are going to scrap, but never get round to...
Anyway, here are a couple of pages so far...