Buttons and Bows - Its Crafting Time DT theme

Its been a difficult week so far. Mummy is now in St. Nics' hospice in Bury St. Edmunds.
Lucy and I drank a couple of bottles of Asti and cleaned out my craft cupboard (she says that I have a problem and perhaps ought to seek advice for the level of my addiction!).
Anyway, I can find stuff again now!
Whilst doing the tidying I came across some old ATC miniature post cards that seemed to be the right colours to go with my ideas for the 'buttons & bows' theme for the design team.

The background is stamped with a floral stamp from the Kanban Peacock set in Memento Potters Clay. The same image was then stamped with clear embossing stamp pad and then embossed with Stamp-n-stuff clear embossing powder. I then brushed Memento Cantaloupe over the whole ATC and then polished it to take it off the clear emboss.
I used the clear embossing pad round the edges and the dipped them in Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Powder in Aged Mahogany.
The other two backgrounds where done in a similar way.
I have also used Memento Dandelion, Stamp-n-stuff embossing powder Star Dust and Tim Holtz Distress Stickles in Aged Mahogany.

I then triple embossed the mini postcard with clear emboss and whilst it was still warm, I sprinkled Star Dust powder in and then heated that.

The other two post cards were treated in a similar way, embossing and sprinkling different powders in when hot.

Finally, I mounted the poat cards onto the ATC backgrounds, added the bobbly black ribbon (supplied) and then the buttons and tiny bows (supplied). And of course I added some sparkles!!!

A Secret Garden

Still playing with my new digi kits!

This is an ATC sized piece based on the theme 'Secret Garden'.

This is the actual size!

New Digikit to play with!

I have just uploaded the 'Little Birds' digikit for Craft Artist Professional and thought this sketch would be a great way to try it out!

The photo is not new, I took it at the beginning of September at my cousin Charlottes wedding.

On the left is Grandma and on the right is my Mum.

http://sketchandstashchallenge.blogspot.com/   Sketch n Stash Challenge 79...Julie's Sketch

'Kanban Peacock Blue'

So this card was a case of word association football...

The theme at LIM for week 50 is CAS, one layer with Birds; and at The Craft Garden the January challenge is monochrome.
I thought about the Kanban Peacock stamp, tried to decide on a colour, then thought of course! Peacock blue! Doh!
There are just 4 gems on the card, the only other sparkle comes from a Sakura gelly roll pen. I think I might actually have behaved and kept to the brief in both cases!

It is my lovely Mums 65th birthday today, the last we will all spend together. Her cancer has taken over and she is failing fast. She hates being in hospital and is desperate to get to the hospice. We are all taking it in turns to go an see her today as she can no longer cope with all of us together.
I just hope she has a good day!

Crafting is very much my sanity at the moment. I can lose myself in a stack of stamps and a box of inks and for a little while I don't think of anything else. I hope my students at school are doing OK and it is not to fraught there.

Oh dear, I didn't mean to get into rant mode on my blog, but it seems to have happened! I hope you can all forgive me!

I hope my Mum likes her birthday card!

http://thecraftgarden.blogspot.com/                 Monochrome
http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.com/         CAS, one layer card, birds

have since found this challenge to add my peacock to...
http://thesecretcraftersaturdaychallenge.blogspot.com/          anything goes with blue

Its Crafting Time DT Challenge - January Sketch

Evening all!
This week my ATC's are based on a square sketch! Mild panic ensued when I saw this...
If it was a card or a scrapbook page it would have been fine, but a tiny lttle rectangular ATC...?


All in one, an idea comes together...



Anyway, inspiration did finally hit and I realised that 4 ATC's almost make a square. This made it both easier and harder. The colours come from what is in my stash and my current leaning towards purple!

I put the 4 ATC's together and layed out the design, then fiddled until the elements worked together as a whole and then as individual pieces.

In pieces, so it did work!

Hope you like the outcome!

DT link:
http://itscraftingtime.blogspot.com/

Just to prove they work on their own as well!

Annie wants to help! (again...!!!)

Predominantly Purple

This is my card for Less is Moore - wk 49 - Colour
http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.com/

It is simply based on a design a saw on their blog some time ago and seemed to

be perfect for this birthday card!

The baloons and sentiment are probably about 15 years old, I found them in a stash of stuff at the bottom of a box at the back of the wardrobe! The little flowers were added to cover a couple of smudges, and then I just couldn't resist the purple gems! I just cant make cards without a bit of sparkle!

The images are coloured in a combination of Promarkers and Sakura glaze and metallic pens.

I hope you like it! 

Emergency card!

You know when you suddenly realise you have run out of time...
Well, thats when the ATC collection comes in really useful!
lol ;-)

Ooh La La!

Hi All,

This is the first week of the new Crafting Time DT posts.

The theme for this week is 'Green and Purple'. My contribution is to makes sets of ATC's each week.

This set of 3 do break some of the ATC rules - the decoration falls off the card blank and they are probably a bit deep!

They are inspired by a set I made several years ago with miniature bodices, lace and beads.

These ones are based on some paper I found in my stash left over from a class at crafting time.

 http://itscraftingtime.blogspot.com/

Ingredients:

Memento Inks: cottage ivy, lulu lavender, grape jelly, bamboo leaves, new sprout, rose bud

Music stamp: Personal Impressions

Green fine lacquered paper: artsy.licious (Chatter Box)

Heavy patterned acetate shapes: 'beautiful dreamer', Glitz Design

Flowers, ribbon and gems from stash

arggggggggggggh