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!

 

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.

 

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

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.

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:

http://itscraftingtime.blogspot.co.uk/

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

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