Happy Day!

Happy Mothers’s day!!…I’m having a lovely pamper day, a break from the renovating the cottage, eating lots of yummy (and bad for you) stuff and of course crafting. YAY!!

This has meant I have actually had proper time to have a play with Less is More’s challenge of masking…naturally my fingers itched to use stamps but actually masking and stencilling is one of the easy ways to make cards without spending anything at all.

So it was back to the felt pens and daubers for this one

Using a knitting needle punched through paper onto a soft mouse mat, created the torn circles. I keep a pot of buttons and coins on my desks as they make handy guides for projects that need small circles. I created three bushes on my tree for Allsorts “three in a row” challenge

            

I then drew a flower pot and using “bog standard” tracing, repeated the design three times to create different elements of the pot.  The layers of colour were created by mixing colours together, then rubbing the ink over the masks, working from one side to build up light and shade. A final bit of texture was added to the tree by stippling the darker shade on with a piece of packing foam. The stalk was added on after the leaves and pot, masking the area required with post-it notes.

          

I did find the dauber created a very subtle shade through such a small gap, so I used an off-cut from a Memory foam insole to get the ink into the gap which worked extremely well.  To finish I grounded the pot with a little bit of shading (masked with torn paper. The greeting was part of a much larger message on a recycled Birthday card.

CONFESSION: I cant even call it a school girl error as I think a school girl would have been more careful!! but I was so eager and gleeful in my extra crafting time I carelessly  wrenched the mask off my card, which I had diligently attached with masking tape…..you can guess what is coming …….there was …a hideous little tear on the side of my card. I had even de-tacked the tape on my p.js (yes I was crafting in my jammies…how decadent is that) but there it was …mocking me…oh well I like matting white on white…so no massive harm done.

After amazing, fabulous Eggs Benedict (cooked by Katie and James…and waited on by hubby Steve). It was straight back to the craft room for another version of the topiary tree. This time with the safety net of creating the elements separately, then decoupaging them onto the card. The message was from the same recycled birthday card but this time it was cut from the inside and pleated to create a banner.

I have only now had the chance to post this, I have spent the rest of the day with Katie and Steve. We have turned an old kitchen shelf into a house sign for the cottage(using my cricut to cut out some lettering)….. we needed a new sign as the old one was attached to the front porch….which got into a fight with a Concrete Mixer Lorry on Tuesday…the mixer lorry won!!! ……and we have all just cuddled up and watched “One Day” with tea and a packet of crunch creams.

My wonderful mum died 16 years ago and today is always overshadowed by not having my daughter Gina here (I craft in her bedroom, so it is a  special place for me) but I am lucky and privileged to have had them in my life.

to my loved ones….Thank you for this special day,

……and to you all who visit ….thank you for popping by and putting up with my ramblings. …..I hope you have had a lovely day.

When is CAS not CAS?

Well its one layer week at Less is More again, and I applaud Chrissie and Mandi for keeping us on the straight and narrow with the core rule of CAS which is as minimal as possible……and I thought I knew exactly what I wanted to do….but as I often find, I went completely off track….oops.

One layer is always difficult for me as it definitely lends itself to stamping (against my blog philosophy!). The theme lent itself perfectly to a card I wanted to make featuring one of my favourite quotes, which is the best way I know of conveying hope to someone when things seem at their darkest (sadly I have cause to make another one of these cards and I make it with a sad heart, but also with much love and care).

The quote is :- Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.   - Rabindranath Tagore
For once I decided I didn't want to use white, but the only scrap that I thought suitable was a strip of A4 flecked card…didn’t want to do another A6 so I decided to off set the spine to create a dl size. I had made my mind up to have just the words on the front and perhaps a little image inside but as the inside was to be visible I thought “this kills two birds with one stone!!”…perfect?!?…

….and that’s where it went a bit wrong… I really think there is not enough “white/negative/empty” space for this to be truly CAS, plus it’s overly fussy for CAS

I made my own stencil for  the bird and used felt pen ink smudged on with my handmade daubers…as the bird appeared to be floating I “grounded” him by lightly stencilling over a torn paper edge

inside I just twisted a dauber to give a faint hint of a sun and without reinking smudged some sky with the blue dauber…..then I got carried away and distressed around the edges with a little more ink….the final nail in the coffin I think, as far as CAS is concerned.

So… not happy with the final result for the challenge I decided to use one of the other text boxes I created when I was playing with  the quote. BY the way I downloaded a fantastic free font from kevinandamanda.com called RAGE which I thought perfect for the word FAITH. I also used a dingbat font for the little scrolly details at the top (called Florals 2 from 1001 free fonts I think) .

I printed the text panel onto my normal square white card. I centralised it as it seemed a very formal arrangement.

 

This is more the sort of CAS I am comfortable with….and I sat on my hands a resisted any urges to add any embellishments ….not even one itty bitty tiny one! (although I think a tiny bow at the top would have been quite nice!!)

I was going to add a little bird inside but when I created a smaller bird stencil  it ended up looking like a miniature Tyrannosaurus Rex!!!! so I gave up!!

Now… more importantly … off to look at the lovely creations I can see at Less is more.!!

DAUBERS AND INKING (No inkpad or special foam needed!)

I thought I would post some pictures of the daubers I use when I want to ink around the edges of cards, pictures and mats etc.(if you're new to card making a mat generally means a background card or paper that the focal point is mounted on). Daubers are also great for applying paint, particularly when stencilling.

To make a dauber you will need some fabric, I prefer cotton T shirt fabric as it is stretchy and can be pulled taught. Cut a square of fabric, then a second square which is folded into a tight ball. Place this in the centre of the first square, draw up all the corners and edges and fasten above the ball with an elastic band.

When inking and stencilling I normally work on a non-porous surface like a ceramic tile, plastic lid, acetate or a non-stick baking sheet/liner (my baking sheet came from a pound shop!). Instead of ink I use watebased felt pens. Scribble some of the ink onto the non-porous surface, wipe the dauber in the ink and apply to paper. (Try mixing and blending several colours)

Work in sweeping circular motions, starting off the paper gradually working on to it. (practice on some scrap paper first)

TIP- if you have any left over ink try spritzing the inky surface with water or wipe over with a wet wipe, then blot with a plain piece of paper. if you want the paper completley covered swipe over the paper with the inky baby wipe. This can be used as a matching backing papepr or saved for a future project.