Thank you Lynnda

                                            

 This week I received a wonderful parcel in the post from Lynnda at Oak House Studio. A few weeks ago she hosted one of her very clever online One Stamp events. There were so many fantastic projects from people and I loved playing along, particularly as she chose one of my favourite stamps to play with - her lovely double daisy stamp, and I was lucky enough to win one her very generous prizes for contributing on the facebook page.

I am in inky heaven....but so far have not had a decent session to really play with the wonderful stamps and inks I won.
I was intrigued by one of the little stamps and I decided to have a quick play and create a card with just the stamp, household products and scraps.

Lynndas stamps are so well made, I didn't even need a mount. I decided to try beaching some scraps of coloured card. I applied mainly neat bleach with one of my handmade daubers. The more it dried the better the effect, but I must admit I was a bit disappointed with the results, perhaps I need to try some different types of card. But as I was short on time i used some of my test pieces to create a little floral basket.

Inspired by LESS IS MORE to create texture I used some scrap corrugated car to make the basket and CASology wants some distressing which was definitely the touch that was needed to make the basket a bit more interesting. I also used the paint, to paint slivers of paper for leaves and I paint distressed some card to stamp the message on (another stamp from my prize).

I wasn't sure there was enough texture so I suspended the a panel from rough string ......still not satisfied I tried adding some faux blind stitching round the edge.......I'm sure it would look better with some matts and layers but I wanted to stay true to C.A.S. if possible. Which is also the challenge this week at HIDING IN MY CRAFTROOM. 

 

     

                                                                     

      

Not sure it was a success but next time I will practice on some scraps first instead of being gung-ho and going straight for it .....especially while the glue was still wet....and it was still attached to the card!....slightly scary moment when I lifted up the ruler and half the flowers were attached to it!!!!!.....will I ever learn to be patient?.....unlikely ;-)

Less is more - texture

CASology - distress

Hiding in my craftroom - CAS

Where has the week gone....

......And as usual my good intentions are out of the window ....trying to get several jobs done at the same time and not completing any of them ....including blogging.

I did manage to decorate a parcel for someone this week...in desperation I did reach for some craft tools (circle punches) but this was to aid me with recycling a used bit of wrapping paper ....and in my defence I also used scraps of paper for the decorations .....I would have stencilled the circle design with paint but actually didn't have much time to allow for drying and I think the paper circles covered any marks much better..

....and as I was in a hurry and to make up for my crafty cheat I recycled a cord handle off one of my ribbon boxes to attach the hand doodled tag. To add a bit of colour to the tag I just loosely coloured with some felt pens and then washed over with water.....so quick and .... truly.... I prefer the effect if I rush it and bleed the ink over the edges 😉

I turned one of my practice pieces into a little note card, which hopefully fits in with Less is Mores one layer "add a stem" challenge.

I'm hoping my circle design and label counts for Allsorts circle cards challenge (does a tag count as a card?)

I have never joined in with "Hiding in my closet" before, but as they have a scrap challenge I thought my project my fit in with them
Another challenge site new to me is Crafting with an attitude.
Allsorts
Hiding in my closet
Crafting with a attitude
Less is More

.....did think the card needed a little more detail....can you "spot" the difference😁

Warts and all.....

When I restarted my blog I promised myself not to get too carried away, just pop on a few projects and visit some of the fab crafty sites.....but.... When I saw that "Less is More is 5!!!" I had to join in.

It's a challenge site dear to my heart as they started just after I got my blog going....and unlike me they have great staying power and are incredibly successful.

The projects that people create for their challenges are simply stunning and I have kept up with their weekly challenges throughout my blog absence.

 But oh no!! .....White on white....a theme I love but in reality I would reach for my die cuts or even white embossing powder to fulfil this challenge, so for a while I was stumped as to how I could do this with my frugal ethos.....and I nearly succumbed  .....embossing folders called to me and my Cricut was rearing to go.......but as I wanted to celebrate the beginning of less is more and my blog I knew I would have to keep to "no crafty stuff allowed".

Anyway I made a little topper which I attached across an A6 portrait style card. I only attached it along the bottom which allowed me to tuck in a mini card with my "secret" message.

The pleating was quite hard without my score board but I did come up with a method which gave nice even folds but it was still quite difficult to keep it from going "squiffy". Might pop another post on with the details .....essentially it was creasing it across two different widths (a ruler and lolly stick) before pleating.

My original idea .......was awful! .....In my head it was brilliant but unfortunately like a lot of my cunning plans it didn't quite work as expected ..and isn't it hard matching white paper......really was the worst bit of the pleating project and it still isn't a good match.....but at least it was better than.......

 as the post title says the "wart"...

....While we were doing MORE decorating at the weekend I spotted the lovely, ready made filler Steve was using.....ah..ha!! I could make a fabulous embellishment with that...pure white ...very mouldable and can be sanded when dry......some how the pot found its way into my craft room....made a dear little heart and as I was rubbing my hands with glee a voice said over my shoulder ...."you do realise that can take days to dry" ....pessimist!!! Couple of hours later ....look ye of little faith...it's gone hard ....but oops as I took it off the tile the SOFT centre gave way and it broke......I hate it when he's right!

I know I will mix it with PVA and make it more bendy.....mmmm well it was interesting to work with (will have to experiment with ratios another time) but I did manage to knock up a heart ...bit bulky but that will do.....I will sand it when it's dry........well that was the plan......too much PVA clearly doesn't like sandpaper....back to the decorating....as I was undercoating the doors it dawns on me .....if I dunked it in the paint it would have a lovely thick coating .....

Fab! nice and smooth....time was ticking on so I put it on the heater to dry.......BIG mistake.   My lovely smooth heart was now quite cracked and distressed.

Still I think Steve will see the irony in his Valentine card....not only is it made with his own filler, it now has quite a few cracks to fill??????

In the bag....

Well at the moment I'm still on my gift wrapping crusade....keeping it as frugal as possible of course.

I have just made a fun little bag of treats for someone who has got to spend the night in a hotel on their birthday. 

 

  The bag was a 10p lunch bag and I have kept it quite simple as it is for a bloke.  The stamp set I used is also quite inexpensive....it is a little set I bought some time ago in the "Tiger" store and it has some cute little scenic items..... (yes the set was cheap but I did have to trim off the excess rubber).

I just used the buildings..... I created some masks on some post it notes so that I could overlap them, I always try to save my masks with the sets....I really hate cutting out !!!!!

The tag was created with some little Image tree typewriter font stamps and the pointing finger was very cheap......it was a free gift!

While I had the stamps inky I created a bit of wrapping paper for a bottle of wine, again it had to be masculine.

In hindsight I wish I had kept the stamp the same way up, alternating the stripes would have been ok on a boxed parcel but not sure it works on the upright bottle??? Still I think the recipient was more interested in the contents! !

Dipping my toe back in the water I would like to join in few challenges with my projects

I'm still very rusty with the linking stuff so hope I get it right....

I would love to join in with two challenges I have never tried before, both have chosen "monochrome" as their theme.....I do hope my projects fit in with....
Crafters cafe

& Crafting Musketeers

And it's lovely to see Allsorts challenge blog still going strong, this week they have clean and simple, and as I tried to keep the bag as simple as possible I'm hoping it fits in with their theme.
Thanks for popping by.....if you get the time let me know what you think x x