My Lovely Followers

Tuesday, 31 May 2016

Lacy Bird


Hi everyone! I'm just back from my holidays, but whizzing in with a card to share with you.

It's time for a new challenge over at Deep Ocean and it's

Our Furry/Feathered Friends

I made a vintage/shabby style card with a chipboard bird. I had a play around with some mixed media for this, and I'm loving how it turned out, hope you do too.




Products from The Ribbon Girl

Maja Design Enjoying Outdoors Papers
(I actually used some scraps of 12 x 12 papers from my stash, but the colours etc are the same in the 6 x 6 pad)
Purple Grape Sheer Ribbon
Ivory White Magnolia Flower
20 mm Lilac Open Roses
5 mm Crystal Gems

All other items from my stash

This card is for sale in my Etsy shop, just click on the icon below to take you there

ETSY

That's all from me today but once I have all my holiday washing sorted I'll have more inspiration to share with you.




Friday, 27 May 2016

A Year in Crafting - May

Happy Friday everyone! As this goes live, I will be on a train down to London to see family, so I thought it would be a good time to post the next in my series 'A Year in Crafting', since it's almost the end of May now. Yay I'm on time with it for once!

Anyhooooooo,  where has May taken me on my creative journey?
Well it's been a strange mix of a month really. Not too much that's new, but some things that I've revisited or expanded upon.

So....this month I've been doing a lot of shabby chic. My cards often touch on this style as I have a real love for it, though I'm firmly on the side of pretty shabby chic with a cleaner finish. If you look around Facebook and Pinterest, you will see many cards in a shabby chic style, but within that genre they all have their own interpretation of the style. Some are ultra distressed, I quite like to distress my cards, ruffling the edges, even adding little tears here and there sometimes, and I will usually ink my edges too. I personally am not such a fan of the 'tatty' edge, edges that look shredded with little tufts hanging off of them even, that's not for me. Likewise I love to add Gesso and/or white acrylic paint. But I err on the subtle side, with light daubings, washed out or dry brushings, small to medium flicks and splatters. Again I'm not a real of big glops of paint on flowers or great swathes of it. But you know what? That's just fine, we don't all have to like the same thing and that's the beauty of arts and crafts, you can find your own style, experiment, adapt, do your own thing. You discover your likes and dislike and even those can change over time.
Bet it would surprise you to know that when I first started I wasn't a big fan of highly embellished cards......yup, that's right, you read it. Hard to believe huh?
So I've been having a bit more of a play with mixed media, I just haven't had the time to do much yet, but I have enjoyed playing with texture paste and stencils, that's fun! and I've been incorporating chipboard pieces etc,. these are so on trend currently aren't they?

 I'm very tempted to have a go at a canvas, I just can't decide yet on my starting point, so maybe that will be something for my crafting journey in June.


I had a bit of a re-visit to mini albums. Frankly I adore making these but with full time work and other commitments it is soooooooo hard to find the time to complete these. I do have several that I've almost finished, and will have to complete and post soon, but in May at least I did a little one from start to finish and that was lots of fun. I made a video for it too, I really would like to make more videos, more video tutorials even, my main problem is light, as I can only film after work or weekends, (though this should get easier as the evenings stay lighter for longer) and workspace. I really wish I had room for a permanent set up so that I could video whenever the light was good and the mood took me.

I've been making more cards without images, not that I'm ever going to stop using stamps and digis, I love colouring them way too much, but it's nice to play with pretty papers sometimes without worrying so much about covering them up. 

I've not had time for any CAS cards this month, but look out for some coming up in June, I did manage to squeeze out a shaker card though.

I've also been planning my class for the craft retreat in September. Well ok....PLANNING may be wishful thinking, currently I'm still trying to decide what exactly I'm going to be making lol. The trouble is that I want to share so much, I have so many ideas, but I can't fit all that into a 2 hour class. So I'm trying to pare down and decide what to keep and what to cut out or do later in the free creative time . My head hurts....seriously lol.

So that's my crafting journey for May. Not too much on the surface though there is lots going on in the background which I will share with you as soon as I'm able if it all comes together.

Enjoy the rest of May, it might be June before I'm with you again...but then that's not so far off now is it? Once again thanks for taking the time to read and share my crafting journey with me. After all, if you didn't read them I'd just be talking to myself!  ;)


Thursday, 26 May 2016

Art by MiRan Wedding Day - Shaker Card

Hello everyone! I had a play recently with one of Whimsy's May release stamps - Wedding Day - from Art by MiRan., and I decided to make a shaker card. You don't see many wedding shaker cards around so I had a lot of fun designing this. I actually had ideas for 2 different cards, so I'll post the other one later.

For this one I cropped the couple so that they appear to be looking out of the shaker window. 

I some of my new Spellbinder border dies and some more beautiful papers from the Crafts & You, My Wedding pad.

I've coloured the couple with my distress ink markers but I'm afraid my colouring isn't at it's best here, I've had such a busy week and trying to get everything done before I'm away for a few days vising family, so it was rather rushed and not in the best light.




From The Ribbon Girl

5 mm Flower Pearl Trim

That's all from me, I'll be packing once I'm home from work tonight!


Tuesday, 24 May 2016

Saturated Canary - Singer


Hi Everyone, hope your week is going well.

I'm sharing a card with you today that I made as a commission for a friend at work, for her daughter's 13th birthday. She loves to sing and recently took part in the school musical, so I thought this theme worked pretty well.

I decided to make the card an easel card and I have to say I LOVE how it turned out.

The image is from Saturated Canary, you can buy her from the shop here but make sure you are quick as it's closing in August.


The front of the card when closed.

The card opened up.


Some close up shots.



Friday, 20 May 2016

Wedding Day

Hi everyone. I'm just popping in with a DT card for The Ribbon Girl.

Today I used the beautiful Crafts and You pad, My Wedding to make a shabby chic style wedding card.

I've been playing a little with some mixed media here, which was lots of fun.





The Ribbon Girl products used


This card is for sale in my Etsy Shop, just click on the icon below to take you there.

ETSY

That's all from me today, enjoy your Friday!



Wednesday, 18 May 2016

Saturated Canary - Turtle Love

Hello lovely crafters! It's time once more for a new challenge over at Deep Ocean Challenge and this time our theme is

Shabby Chic

Oooooh don't I love this one! :)

I've been making quite a few in this theme recently, but I thought I would share this pretty girl from Saturated Canary called Turtle Love.

Krista will be closing her shop in August, so if you want to own them, you need to snap up these digis soon.

I coloured her with my distress ink markers and used a slightly older Pion collection called 
A Day in May
which it is isn't it? 


Lots of layers, cheesecloth and gesso here.



Products used from The Ribbon Girl


This card is for sale in my Etsy shop, just click on the icon below to go there

ETSY

I'm entering the following challenges:

A Bit More Time to Craft #20
Animal Friends Challenge #38
Classic Design Team Open Challenge #02

That's all from me, but don't forget to check out the rest of the team's shabbylicious makes.

Until next time!



Sunday, 15 May 2016

Magnolia - Olive Tilda

Hi everyone! I hope you are enjoying your weekend. I've been having lots of fun crafting this weekend and have been playing with some mixed media and all sorts, which you will get to see later.

For now we have a new challenge at The Ribbon Girl and as usual for the 2nd challenge in the month the theme is

Use Any Image

So you can enter anything you like, cards, layouts, altered items etc...as long as it has an image on. This could be stamped, printed, photographic, the choice is yours.

For my card this time I thought I'd use one of my Tildas. These get less of an airing these days and I have to admit that this is the first time this little beauty has seen any ink...ooops!

I coloured her with my distress ink markers, and matched her to some older Maja Design papers from my stash.




The Ribbon Girl products used

Cheesecloth
Clementine Lace
Vintage Seam Binding Lady Lavender
9 mm Plum Velvet Ribbon
20 mm Cream Open Rose
10 mm Cream Open Rose
Hip Rose Bud 2 Tone Lilac
Beaded Berries Ivory/Cream
Beaded Berries Lilac/White
Beaded Stamen White
8 mm Ivory FB Pearls
6 mm Ivory FB Pearls

This card is for sale in my Etsy Shop, just click on the Icon below to be taken there

ETSY

I do hope you can join in with us, you could win one of the following







and have your card shared on the Ribbon Girl blog.

That's all from me folks, I'm off to enjoy the rest of my Sunday, have fun!!




Saturday, 14 May 2016

As if in a Dream

Hello everyone! I hope you are having a wonderful Saturday.

I'm just popping in quickly to share a card I made with some of the papers that The Ribbon Girl are now stocking. I'm soooo happy they are stocking papers now and I can get my fixes in one place lol. Want to know some more great news? From next week they will start stocking Chipboard Pieces from Scrapinec! How fab is that? I can't wait :)

I went very shabby chic with this one, daubings of white gesso and some splashes of acrylic paint here and there as wll as distressing.  I finished off with one of Kay Fatula's gorgeous butterflies that you can find in her Etsy shop.



Green Satin Ribbon
19 mm Alice White Guipure Lace
S/A Ivory Pearls

Right I'm off to make dinner and then ...you guessed it, more cards lol!

See you soon .



Friday, 13 May 2016

Whimsy Stamps May Release - Elisabeth Bell - Wedding Joy


Hello lovely crafters! Have you been enjoying the new releases from Whimsy Stamps? I certainly have and the team have really made some fabulous projects with them. Today I'm using Wedding Joy from Elisabeth Bell's Little Cottage Cuties Collection and I have to admit that this stamp is my absolute favourite from this month's release, she looks gorgeous and so sweet and innocent. I think this stamp would be perfect for so many occasions and not just weddings, depending on how you colour her up.


I went for quite bridal colours, but it would also work really well for a confirmation card.

I've coloured her in my usual distress ink markers and I'm afraid it was a busy week and I didn't note the colours.


I covered her dress in Wink of Stella and it has a glorious sparkle in real life but as usual on the camera.....nada... and oops I just realised I forgot to colour in the rose leaf on the little dog lol!


I used the following items on my card

5 mm Sea Charm S/A Pearls

This card is for sale in my Etsy shop, just click the icon below to go there.

ETSY

That's all from me but don't forget to swing by the Whimsy Blog to check out the rest of the team's lovely makes and for the chance to win a prize.

One more time before I go.....I'm going to be here....are you?





Wednesday, 11 May 2016

Whimsy Stamps May Rubber Stamps Release Day 1 - Mariposa

Hi everyone, it's time for the first day of Whimsy Stamps rubber release for May. 

I have a treat for you today in the shape of this cute little chappie or chappess called Mariposa, from the Wee Stamp Collection.  Like all of the artist Sylvia Zets' images, this is just too sweet for words.

Mariposa means butterfly so I dug out 2 of my precious butterflies from Kay's Etsy shop and after finding papers that went with them, I coloured this little bundle of cuteness in coordinating colours, with my distress ink markers.


DI colours: Vintage Photo, Antique Linen, Victorian Velvet, Spun Sugar, Evergreen Bough, Forest Moss.


I added lots of Wink of Stella to the wings, but sadly I couldn't get that to show in the pics.


I've linked some of the embellishments used below:

White Chrysanth

This card is for sale in my Etsy shop, just click the icon below to view there.

ETSY

You can check out all of the new release stamps here, and find lots of inspiration using them on the Whimsy Inspirations blog.

If you'd love to get your inspiration in person and create in a beautiful environment with some of the Whimsy Artists and Design Team (including me squeeee!!!)
then check out the information below, but don't wait too long as places are limited  :)


Well that's all from me today, but I'll be back on Friday with some more May release inspiration.

Have fun!