Saturday 31 December 2011

Still playing….and just waffling!

Just trying to get my head round live writer ….what can it do

…. it’s time to start pressing buttons and having a play

what about adding pictures…
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well that seemed simple…by the way, this is Sharon and Steve, James’ parents,(James is Katie’s fiancĂ©e…yes they got engaged …Open-mouthed smile yay!!……but sadly cant afford to get married now they are renovating the cottage) creating some much needed parking outside the cottage. ooooh you can add faces…good fun.



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how about adding pictures retrospectively (oops needed to find spell checker for that one!!)



….that it so much better than blogger and this is Katie and Steve viewing the cottage nearly a year ago….Steve had just noticed the interesting way of holding roofing felt on the porch…..


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they’re clothes pegs?????…dont think they will catch on in the building trade!



Wow this is easy and so much quicker than blogger!! also been playing with layout…can you tell?

what next ….. change the colour of text…… simple……. font…. simple….

and just for the fun of it here are some pics of the cottage (just want to see if I overload it with pics… will it have a meltdown?????)

IMAG0012the cottage lounge - then….





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lounge - taking shape (just discovered the inglenook and the bread ovens beside it!!)



S1052234fireplace finally exposed… and ceremonial fire lit!! stand back ..the heat is intense?!



not sure how this will all publish …..now playing with formatting and great you can even cut and paste…..definitely think blogging is going to be a happier thing!!

well… soon time to flex my C.A.S…. economical crafting…. brain cells….

Cardmaking here I come!!!!!!



Just a little test.

O.k hello blog world…are you still there…well I know you all are as I have been keeping up to date with all the lovely creations everyone has been making but I haven’t had a chance to blog along myself!!

This is my first test with windows live writer, anyone who has kindly visited my blog knows I am a very inept blogger and “Blogger” has frequently got the better of me PLUS I had a falling out with Talk Talk…..they liked taking my money but weren’t so keen on supplying me with a functioning broadband!!!! soooooo all in all I fell out of love with my blog PLUS my daughter finally bought her cottage (complete wreck!!) and we have worked on it every available weekend since September.

Anyway fresh start….new year…new broadband provider……reasonably tidy craft room and a new way of blogging…I thought…. here goes time to pop my head back into the blogosphere again and wish you all a very sincere

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

I hope 2012 treats you well.

and my new years resolution…to fall back in love with blogging!



Friday 3 June 2011

Call Centre Survival Technique


Well life is still rollercoasting along and I have thought long and hard about Less is More's sketch challenge this week, but felt the week slipping away and no crafting time available.....was it going to be possible to join in this week!?!?......unexpectedly some crafting time presented itself last night!!!


Despite my clever tactic of leaving it as late as possible to ring a call centre, I still found myself sitting in a queue...after negotiating half a dozen menus...apparently"my call was very important to them and would be answered as soon as possible", I think that is code for "there are two of you daft enough to ring at this time of night and our single operator has had to pop out to the loo". BUT then the torture began ...music played in a loop....(I'll put the tune at the end...this I am doing to save you! because like me, you will start humming along...then wont be able to get it out of your head!!!). With the music serenading me in the background, I opened a Word Document inserted a two column, two row table, selected Auto fit, then typed each of my letters in each cell. I then spent the next few minutes playing with the font and formatting the borders, I copied and pasted the design and created different versions.


I was quite disappointed when the call was answered....... I wanted to play some more......perhaps with some colours. Still thank you "Nabul" you sorted out my problem very well....despite the occasional language barrier..and thinking my husbands Dive suit looked like a Spiderman costume (ebay item!!...anyone want to buy a Drysuit?).

Call ended....hit print...abandon husband to feed cat, lock up and make a cup of tea...run upstairs for quick crafting.
First card was simply a cut out panel mounted on foam pads (was going to stick it straight on but I liked the extra shadow the mounting created.
This gave me the idea for the second card.... as I was working very monochromatic, I wanted to play with the shadow idea some more, so I created the next topper in different depth layers (good job I had printed several matching panels)....then came the call..... "YOUR TEA'S GETTING COLD!!!!"..... so with music still humming in my head...I went to bed....



This morning I decided the topper needed something more...ribbons... gems or..... buttons (did them to death last week) just didn't work, so I drew an additional frame....I love this look but find it so difficult.
But by forming the frame from post it notes, it allowed me to draw the lines quite easily


I used an ordinary gel, rollerball pen and just followed the ridge created by the edge of the notes.
I chopped the word "you" off a previously printed message and stuck it on.

So a quick bit of blogging, then off to work and I feel quite pleased to have made another couple of speedy cards...yes they are very plain...in fact I have now decided my cards are not so much CAS but PAS (plain and simple!!!!!).

oh and the music was ......."Eye Level" by the Simon Park Orchestra...you know the one..dah dah di dah, dah di dah di dah dah..dah dah di dahh du di dah dah. sorry if you now spend the day humming it.........HAVE A GOOD DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Wednesday 25 May 2011

Ready Steady......

O.K before I say the "g" word, I must quickly explain my absence....it's all my husbands fault! I have to share my husband with another female in the spring and summer, and if I want to spend time with him, I also have to spend time with her....well when I say female.... I do mean his boat (all boats are "she's" apparently). When the weather is as lovely as it has been I have to say it's not a hardship and I always have some crafting stuff with me so quite frankly sitting on a peaceful riverbank, with a glass of wine, beautiful sunsets and the man I love, is wonderful.....the only trouble is NO INTERNET! So whilst spending every free moment escaping normality has it's positive points, it also has it's disadvantages!
I am massively behind with blogging and my jaw dropped when I realised I had missed 6!! Less is More challenges..... I decided I had to have a go.....at them all....but I am still very pressed for time (payback for escaping so much, is massive backlog in house and repaying work swaps! plus still helping daughter buy wreck of house - so frustrating and time consuming).









Anyway with time ticking I decided to race myself..."how quick could I do this??" to keep it simpler I decided to narrow the challenges to using buttons on them all, this was supposed to make it easy....not sure it worked out that way......oh well...........



GO!


WEEK 11.... Acetate...yes I did groan.


Not sure the coloured wallet I cut up counts as acetate? could be plastic?


So have I fallen at the first hurdle? and the eagle-eyed will spot the lack of buttons but honestly the little snaps were with the buttons and they looked so much better than buttons...even if I did have to resort to hammering them on as they kept popping apart






Quick greeting generated on the PC...done!


....stop the clock - 12 minutes (would be so much quicker if my computer and printer were upstairs with my craft room ...but hey I am keeping fit at same time!)




couple of minutes to tidy bits away (hope you're impressed ...tidying is not my strong point).



WEEK 12 ...... Off Centre.......mmmmm!!!



20p bag of buttons from charity shop, scraps of ribbon.....20 minutes..not too bad...faffed with the greeting!!




Quick tidy again...and we're off..
WEEK 13 ..... Thank you or Congratulations









recycled flower..1 button and handdrawn elements
woo hoo!!!! 5 minutes!!! oh well 6 if you count the fact the button fell of and had to be restuck on.



not much to tidy ...




WEEK 14...... White on White....love this one... could have made loads, but will stick with buttons and as it's 17yr old niece's birthday saturday will go for a modern style to send to her.






17 minutes...could have been much quicker if I could have found matching, two holed, white buttons quicker....surprising how many looked white but weren't.



...buttons everywhere but will need some more next design...shove them to one side..




WEEK 15......Embossing.....Knew I saved my Easter egg box for something. .....the aperture was perfect for centering over the message(created in 'word'), then dry embossed round the edge (with knitting needle) to create a panel.





Ok 24 minutes.... card approx 10 minutes ...running round house like "Challenge Anneka" looking for missing button tin 14 minutes!!! (yes I have 3 button tins, 1 button box and 1 tub full and I still couldn't quite find something I really liked....and in the end all the fancy ceramics and shapes were put to one side and a couple of simple little blush coloured ones just seemed right to me...too plain?? what do you think??)



right... time now galloping away...will tidy away later...work in bombsite..


WEEK 16 .....Butterflies....so dear to my heart, so wow, how to do justice to this one on a budget...and with buttons!







OH DEAR 1 hour... now completely rushed and design completely different from the starting one!!!


Still not sure about this one being CAS. I drew round a large fridge magnet on the back of an invite (fabulous quality card), with a glue pen, sprinkled on glitter, then cut out (fabulous quality card nightmare to cut out!!!!!!!!!!)


Well approx 2 and 1/2 hours later and approx 1 1/2 hour later than I expected and I am finally blogging and blogger is being it's usual cantankerous self, so if this appears with giant gaps I am sorry, but thank you for stopping by and getting this far.



I must post this then go and pack for another weekend on the water, I am at work all day tomorrow and we'll leave as soon as I get home. I am hoping to get a chance to hop around some blogs later, I must see what you've all been up to!!!


Thursday 14 April 2011

The List


This has to be a quick post as it is not on my "to do list".....


I have a few days off work and I am the world's most disorganised, organised person.....so I made myself a list...and I was going to stick to it!!! The craft room called to me several times, I stuck my fingers in my ears and ploughed on regardless, but this one little card mainly created on the PC was the one exception but replying to an invitation was on the top of the list.


As an experiment I printed the wording in grey and I used a floral dingbat font for the decorative elements. I have been having a sneaky peek at the goings on at LIM Towers to see what everyone has been up to (naturally I have only done this whilst having my lunch....oh and breakfast ....oh and coffee breaks!) and inspired by Mandi I decided to bling my wording, but decided to try using a cocktail stick and pva instead of a glue pen....it was tedious...... but worked.


I ploughed on.....the biggest job of them all was to - sort - reorganise & deep clean our bedroom! Several sacks and two days later I am finished, I was feeling quite smug and dare I say it sanctimonious, inspired, I merrily hoovered the landing and horror of horrors, I decided to hoover my craft room. Now as Jenny at "crafting in the country" has agreed it is not a very wise thing to do...mainly as who know what treasures are lurking down there (and yes Jenny this week I am going for gold with "WOYCRF" what's on your craftroom floor),....... but in I bulldozed ..... time was ticking away and I got a little bit more frantic.... something precious rattled up the nozzle.....in horror I snatched the tube up AND........ promptly took out the entire contents of the shelves behind me.......I have shut the door on it...the floor is clean but unfortunately you cant see it, it's covered in peel-offs, stamped images di-cuts, stickers, rub-ons, paper, boxes, you name it, it's there!


This all gave more added poignancy to the little card I had started at the beginning of the week.


Another job on the list was to replace my printer ink cartridges, in the interest of economy I decided to use a refill kit....it went marvelously didn't even get any on my hands (miracle)....that was until I decided to use the little bit left in the refill tanks....I tapped it out, watered it and tinted a sheet of card... great I thought after I had to iron it (ironing was also on list!) I will make a note card. Found this quote a Gingers House loved it and decided to print it on my customised stock



Guess who forgot to replace the black ink .....DOH!


Thursday 7 April 2011

I give in.....!!!

No I don't need another scrolly font...No I don't need another scrolly font...I repeat no I don't need another scrolly font... O.K ...give in ....I do need another scrolly font...thank you Less is More Ladies you have convinced me .....Scriptina is a really lovely font and quite frankly it looked better than all my others and as this design relies heavily on the wording, the font was very important. This week at Less is More the challenge is "a touch of red" and I have an engagement card to make for one of our nephews (congrats Andrew and Eve). Engagement cards can sometimes be tricky, I'm not keen on too much wedding imagery for the event but I love the idea of celebrating being joined together, so a simple scrap of red ribbon joining the wording was all that was required. The wording was printed landscape on A4, trimmed, cut apart, scored and attached on the inside. To cover the fixings inside I added an insert ...just a touch more red! I was pleased with the card but began to think it was too minimalistic? So ..... I pushed the boat out and added a little red heart.....now not sure again....
What do you think ...with or without?????????????????

(don't worry the heart will easily detach, if the verdict is off,

it is attached with blue-tak at the mo)


Tuesday 5 April 2011

Book Chrysanths


Working part-time in a Library has the great benefit of having access to damaged books, so when my friend and colleague had her birthday approaching and was kindly cooking us lunch to celebrate, I decide to go armed with flowers.....book flowers.



These are extremely simple to make and can be made on any scale, each flower used approx. 4 pages, but smaller versions use less. I took inspiration from DYSU's challenge of "clear, light pink and mauve" colour theme. Unfortunately I found these extremely difficult to photograph and the very pretty light purple piece of tissue that I had been saving for a project, looks very blue!

After slicing the pages into thin strips these were stuck in star pattern onto a circle of card (the circle wont show so they don't need to be precise, mine were just a bit larger than a 2p piece).

Each flower requires two layers, which once dry are curled (using your thumb, lightly pull fronds over closed scissors). The effect can be varied by alternating the direction of the curls, but for this project I had mine all curling backwards. I created stalks from rolled up paper. Slice an A4 piece of paper corner to corner, then roll up tightly, working diagonally to the smallest point. Using a glue gun, stick this between the two layers.


I created some buds from tissue twisted over some cotton wool, the stalks were created by staining kebab sticks (felt pens or paint works well), these were finished with some looped strips of the page strips and some slivers of green paper cut to form long leaves.

Each flower had centres of smaller petals formed from torn tissue.

I arranged the elements into a bouquet and added extra leaves attached to the stalks of the larger flowers and also onto strips of green card. these were then encased in matching tissue and some clear cellophane.

The bow was a very vibrant pink.....but this actually matches my friends hair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Monday 28 March 2011

Knew I kept them for a reason!


Well it's sketch time at LESS IS MORE....mmmm.....I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with sketches.....but I like a challenge.... and FAB N FUNKY have "a do it more than once" challenge (multiple folds on a card), so I decided to flip Mandi and Chrissie's sketch and add in some extra folds for a little something extra (also wanted to use up more scraps!!) I took a couple of 10cm wide strips of card scored a couple of flaps either end of the longer white strip and created a hinge on the black strip, leaving it long enough to tuck under the white flap on the right.



I then attached these together with photo glue (nice and repositionable).


The wonderful little image was from Meljen's designs which I found through Free Digital stamps. The image is perfect for my husbands Anniversary card (he's and electrician so particularly apt!)


Again I was faced with colouring an inkjet image without promarkers!?! chalks were too dull.... it was then I decided to go in for the kill......lurking in my gel pen draw were some flourescent gel pens inherited from my girls......I actually thought they were disgusting but as I never throw anything away......I felt sure they would come in useful for something......


....FINALLY their moment to shine (literally) has come....and incredibly they still worked (they are years old!!!) I did find that the printer ink could still be picked up with these but as they were a fine rollerball I could manage to colour in carefully without to much disaster. In fact I was impressed how well they flowed and blended, but to give it a finishing shine I covered it in clear nail varnish....three coats...had to do a third as I managed to stick my thumb print on the second (ooops, wasn't dry!).


I created the message in Word and highlighted the "light" word with the gel pen, Mandi (Less is More)has done a clever little tutorial on matching font colour to computer generated images, I really must have a go at this. It's so nice to have such helpful tips, it's fun joining in challenges but learning something new is a great bonus.


Now for the big question. .....is there a crafting black hole/Bermuda triangle?


Last week I had to do a bit of batch card making, I am completely rubbish at tidying up as I go along, so gradually the desk disappears...and so does things that I need....as I worked I lost my lovely metal handle Swann Morton knife, my Fiskars double ended embossing tool, my medium embossing tool and the new disposable Swann Morton knife I got out to replace the missing metal one! Now my lovely little craft room (was Gina's bedroom, so it's a special place for me), is not very big, so they cant have gone far,....... I surrendered and tidied everything back in it's place......STILL MISSING...this is nuts they have to be here.


Every week as I am nosing round blogs I see WOYWW where lovely crafters take a snap shot of their desks etc and show whats there.....


......well I have decided to start WOYCSF (What's on your craft space floor!!!!!!) because this, during my search, is what I found hiding..... and I didn't know they were missing



and you guessed it.....no knives or embossing tools ????????????!!!!!!!!!!

They are officially .......Looooooost ........innnnnnnnn........Spaaaaaaaaaaaace!?!


Friday 25 March 2011

CHEATING...but bargain cards

Apologies first, my blog is primarily about making cards without purchasing anything special just card and glue, but as I still make lots of cards for other reasons as well and as these cards were made as frugally as possible, I thought I would do a quick post about them.

I supply my niece with batches of cards which she sells in her Pub on the Norfolk Broads. She and her husband work very hard to raise a lot of money for the R.N.L.I, she keeps a basket of cards on the bar which she sells and keeps the profits for her charity. With this in mind I try and make the cards as economical as possible and I soon realised the best sellers were the CAS style (didn't know it was called that then).

I received an emergency text the other day that despite taking a fresh batch last weekend, they had all gone! so I have had to make a quick fresh batch. I make as many male cards for the pub as I do female, so thought I would enter this one into Less is More's Masculine challenge, the whole batch took me half the time that previous entry did, which did turn out to be of a fiasco!! (thank you to the lovely people who left me supportive comments!).

This little guy is from an Inkadinkadoo set and I have coloured him with promarkers, but I wanted a little bit more texture than flat shading so I dotted a couple of different shades over the base layer, then dotted the blender pen to create further detail. I actually think this style of colouring (bit "pointillism" effect) could be achieved with felt pens....will have to try this some other time. The stamping is far from perfect. I love the image but as they are clear stamps I find I don't always achieve the same crisp finish as with rubber. (my excuse and I'm sticking to it....."a bad workman always blames his tools" .....fair comment I think ...gloss over that!).


I used a couple more of the "Humorous Birthday!" set, another Inkadinkadoo Camping set (there are also lots of campers and caravaners on their site) and an image from Earnies 99p stamps (fab little, usable clear stamps, great value)



I also did some other stamping techniques, I stamped the bikes on a scrap of fantasy acetate film, this gives a great 3d effect, again very popular with the lads of all ages, also did some waterclour effects, with the Sheena Douglas Creative Expressions pub (needless to say popular), and some lovely unmounted rubber stamps from Xelacrafts. I have had these for ages and have used them countless times....for some reason the lady is VERY popular. Joking aside I actually think she is gorgeous.... "a bottom to aspire to", good job mine is behind me and I don't have to look at it!! lol....... I know it isn't that shapely!!!!!

Despite typing fast (miracle) my time is running out and I must go to work. If I don't get to visit you and comment I apologise, I wont be back till later and know I wont get much time but I always keep an eye on the wonderful inspiration everyone provides....

HAVE A GOOD DAY ALL!


Tuesday 22 March 2011

NOT....to plan!!


SOMETIMES I have a lovely clear idea in my head for a design.....SOMETIMES no matter my good intentions it just doesn't go to plan.

LESS IS MORE has a "masculine" theme this week.....great..sometime ago I scanned some denim fabric and it prints brilliantly and I have made quite a few successful cards (the blokes/teens seem to have liked them) with it.

With the CAS style in mind I thought my "white" space would be denim this week.....with a simple focal point of a circular sentiment with a couple of small mock rivets...........

First the printer ran out of ink.....ended up with some very pink hued denim (not great for blokes). Plus I couldn't find the sentiment I wanted...so had to quickly make a text box message....made that too big!


Cut and scored the card, hoping to lose the worst area of pink....was so busy thinking of a redesign I scored it completely in the wrong place and ended up with uneven sides .....ok.....best of bad job decided to attach a nice navy textured scrap of card that I had found to extend the front panel.

Decided to ink the message (disguise the pink) went too mad with the ink (getting flustered now ....should really leave it alone).....ok..... will distress and sand it to lighten...although not sure that these are great techniques for CAS, IN FACT....I can decidedly feel the CAS slipping away, really should leave it alone now and come back. No. I carried on and inked and distressed the base card.....getting carried away now!


Panel needed more detail so rounded up a couple of old drawing pins...they didn't match (distressed these with a file), bent the pins over (hammer...that actually felt good!!) and attached them through the card.


Design was still lacking...OK...... will do some jeans style stitching on the join....great... test piece went well....


The card........didn't!
......will now have to use an insert (will draught print the denim and make a matching insert later.....need ink first!)
The stitching was so wonky (hadn't been drinking honestly), I had no choice but to stick the message over the mess.
PLEASE tell me I'm not the only one who can so completely get things wrong....my advice to myself, if I'm doing any of my cards is "when it's not working.....LEAVE IT ALONE!!! come back later"
Why did I not take my own advice?????


Monday 21 March 2011

Scrap box birthday.

This is a really economical card to make as it uses just a few scraps and a free digi image from CRAFT CREATIONS. The base cards was also created from a sheet of their new value pack of POPSET CARD, which I have to say is amazing quality for such good value, (I tried it with promarkers and it works well those too). At 10p a sheet it really is worth cutting and scoring your own blanks.

I created an embossed panel on the front with my new and improved embossing tool!!!

My original tool was only 6" long and the embossing ridge was made of card. I felt this didn't create a totally crisp edge. This time I used an old 12" ruler and attached it to a piece of a plastic chopping board/dinner mat. It is important to make sure that the ruler is attached in line (allowing a 5mm ridge) with the embossing edge or you will end up with a uneven panel when scoring. This time I didn't bother attaching the embossing tool to a bottom mat, it seemed unnecessary. Further details of my original design is here. I will now make a proper version as I think this works quite well... will post more detailed instructions later. It really can turn any scrap into an embossed mat that looks just like an embossed nestabilitie shape. As the picture above show you can also emboss directly on the base card quite easily, the worst bit that took a bit more care was down the spine.

Once the base card was created it was simply a case of draught printing the image, attaching coloured card over the image then reprinting. This was repeated on all the coloured pieces.
Each element was cut out of the required colours.
The chocolate cake was highlighted with a white gel pen (a correction fluid pen also works well for this).
The card was assembled and a present cut from the scrap card, decorated with a silver gel-pen and finished with a mock bow. A few salvaged confetti sequins created some movement over the design.

This card is created for a 5oth birthday, don't worry the recipient will not escape a reminder....it will have a lovely great big 50 inside........she's not getting away that lightly!!

And as it is with a CRAFT CREATIONS IMAGE I will enter it for their march challenge.
PAPERTAKE "Triple Tastic" challenge (my card has three balloons!)
SIMON SAYS has a birthday card challenge
DYSU wants a bow added.
and PAPERPLAY wants embossing.


Tuesday 15 March 2011

STICKING MY NECK OUT!!

Ok I have precisely 40 minutes to make this card and get it posted!!
The card actually only took minutes to make "Looks Like it" .... I know..... but it is meant to be exactly what it is (does that make sense?)......when I first started my blog my main aim was to prove that cards didn't have to cost lots to make, no special products needed to be bought, it didn't need to be made in the mould of established techniques, or taken up as a hobby, the most important ingredient was taking the time to make something unique for someone else.

As I hopped around yesterday I came upon the "One Layer Wednesday" at Simplicity.... a truly amazing blog...and just as amazing was her challenge to use inspiration from a Pinterest Site and wow what inspiration, I spent ages looking at all the fabulous things (I have always collected pictures, quotes etc to inspire me but here was a great new world to browse...head was spinning with ideas). It was when I was looking around Marta's quotes we received a phone call to say a relatives long awaited operation had been cancelled.....again.

It then occurred to me as I was looking at the site that I was so busy making cards for my blog (and if I'm truly honest ...to impress other cardmakers) I was forgetting sometimes the card is just about the sentiment.

So Malc this is for you......need I say more!



Now I am going to stick my neck out and be brave and enter the challenge as I am truly grateful for the inspiration.
One of the quotes looked handwritten and was washed with colour (out came the trusty felt-tip pens for my watercolouring). I even took inspiration from Marta's blog header and made a mini card from the stack of memo cards I keep on my desk.



My card is not in the league of the incredible crafted examples that have been created for this challenge. So many people have now turned card making into a true art form, which I so admire, but hopefully no-one will mind me waving my little flag from the "homemade" corner.


Monday 14 March 2011

CARD CRAFT S.O.S!!!!


This is a quick rescue of the second card I created in my previous post, I got carried away with the beaching and ended up with a horrid uneven panel along the bottom.

I have simply machine stitched a scrap of black card, attached this over the damaged area and trimmed down to fit, then added a PC printed message.

This card started out as clean and simple for Less is more but now perhaps best suited for some other challenges
The STAMPMAN is looking for Florals (with Mother's Day in mind), I love the chance to make a card in honour of my mum, She passed away 14 years ago but she will always be with me and I love the chance to still make her something special as she was a truly special person.

BEE CRAFTY is also looking for Spring florals but this time in a digi format......until the card was rescued the entire design was created on the PC with a free digi (downloaded ages ago) from FRED SHE SAID.

POLKADOODLES has a colour challenge of black, white and ONE other colour.

Then I began to wonder, as the card was no longer CAS.....

perhaps it needs something more?

SUGAR CREEK HOLLOW has a handmade flowers challenge and DARING CARDMAKERS suggested "homebaked" (homemade embellishments). so........

Laying in front of me on my very untidy work surface was a scrap of ribbon cut from a scrap that I used on Katie's card last week!!!
With a quick running stitch I gathered the ribbon and stitched to secure, I then noticed a little black headed pin on the pin cushion which I pushed through the centre of the flower then used the pin to tuck behind the black panel....I was going to stitch on a button but I liked this better.

Really this card was destined for "recycling heaven" but actually I was quite pleased with both rescue options...so it's thanks to the challenge sites for some inspiration!!.... I think I now have quite a useable card.


Sunday 13 March 2011

OFF THE PAGE AND A STEP TOO FAR!


Can't believe another week has gone and it's time for the next LESS IS MORE CHALLENGE. It's the week I slightly dread ONE LAYER CARDS, this time the theme is OFF THE EDGE.

Yikes!! this was going to be a challenge without stamps. Especially as Chrissie and Mandi at LIM decided to up the game by decreeing "no embossed lines".....rats..... just when I thought I would continue with my "Faux" faux nestie technique from the last challenge, but this is what I love about the site, they continually push the boundaries!!!

WELL.....The only way I think I was going to achieve this was to design on the computer and then chop the card down to size, BUT, this is a budget crafting blog and the idea of wasting card made me slightly wince!! SO..... I decided the best thing would be to create a design on A4 which would then cut down into two A6 long cards, this way my design could also not only be.... off the page........

but over the page.........


......and inside the page!!!



I used a lovely little free digi I got sometime ago from FRED SHE SAID. I copied the flower and pasted it several times across the middle of an A4 landscape page in Word (set margins to minimum). I then opened another page, used the same settings and created two columns. At the bottom of the columns I created the messages. I then printed both pages on the same sheet, reprinted the flower design on the inside.

I love carrying the design onto either the back or inside the card when I use my stamps..to be honest I don't often do both on the same card!!!!

To enhance the design I painted inside the image with neat bleach,leaving some highlights of yellow card (avoid the printed lines as these can smudge).

So I was pleased with my first card.....but decided to push the design a bit further for the second.
  • I highlighted the scrolls with bleach...pleased with that

  • Added some dots on the little flower....liked that

  • Decided to create a bleached panel over the message....carefully masked the area with rulers and tape............YUK WHAT A FAILURE!!

A step too far......



Will now have to rescue this card!!!!!!

The rescued card is now here


QUICK TIP:- if cutting and creasing your own printed card , it's worth putting the folded card inside a piece of clean paper before you finally neaten the crease.....
.....on my first card I discovered too late that even though the ink appears dry it can drag across the clean areas!!!


Not sure if you can see but by using a paper the ink transfers onto the paper ....not the design!

Thought these cards would be suitable again for PAPERTAKE as this time the cards have a bit more Lemon Zing

And as SIMON SAYS made me so welcome last week even though I had a hand drawn image I thought I would join them again with a proper digi image.

CREATIVE CRAFT CHALLENGE is all about thank you's this fortnight, so my first card should fit in with that.

and my final challenge is a new one for me ONE STOP CRAFT CHALLENGE who are also looking for clean and simple.

Just realised my photography is absolutely rubbish.....the card was a beautiful lemon colour and doesn't show in the main pictures....how disappointing :(