Masked Moments

This week it's the dreaded  One Layer Challenge at Less is More, with an "anything goes" theme, so I decided to have a go at creating the illusion of depth  and dimension using masking. It's a technique I tend to forget to use, and yet the results can be very effective.

My first La Pashe design team post

You can find it here: Mobility Love

Milk carton style gift box

I've had a change from making cards today. I made a milk carton style gift box instead.

I started with an A4 sheet of white card, and gathered together a selection of foliage stamps and a mixture of dye and Distress ink pads in shades of green and brown.

Then I chose the largest, most open stamps and stamped them at random over the card in various colours.

Next I used smaller, bolder stamps and darker shades to stamp over the background, building up a random pattern all over.

I scored the card into 7cm squares, which leaves a 1.5 cm (approx. - A4 isn't a stamdard metric measurement) at one end, then used an ink pad to define all the score lines.

Then I cut through the vertical score lines in the top and bottom panels, and cut away the narrow end strip of the top and bottom panels. I brought the narrow flap of the central panel around to sit underneath the opposite end, and glued it in place,  then glued the bottom four panels over each other one at a time to give a firm base. At the top, I folded two opposite panels down to form the lid then scored 1cm from the top of the other two panels and punched holes for ribbon to tie it closed.

I finished it with an embellishment stamped with one of the leaves I used in the design.

The stamp I used for the embellishment was one of the first stamps I ever bought, about 15 years ago (if you've read my previous post today you'll know I'm having a bit of a nostalgia fest) and has been my most loved, most useful and most used stamp ever since. The writing has worn off the label but I think it was a Personal impressions one.

I'm joining in with:

Addicted to Stamps and More #81 - Anything Goes

Make My Monday - Anything But A Card

Floral Fantasies 5th Bloggaversary Celebration where there is great candy on offer for sharing a project made with your favourite crafting item (see the photo in my sidebar for what's on offer)

Do you remember....

..... about 15 years ago, when no hand made card was complete without a layer of Mulberry paper? I haven't used any for years, but when I was sorting through some of my stash this week I found a bundle of untouched A5 sheets of it. How old-fashioned, I thought!

Then I saw this week's photo for {PIN}spirational challenges....

.... a row of old-fashioned books. So my theme for this card is old-fashioned. An old-fashioned style of card using old-fashioned Mulberry paper with a greeting in an old-fashioned script. I've taken the colour scheme and the gold embossing from the photo.

Cats and Dogs

If, like me, you live in the south of England, you'll know it's been raining cats and dogs for weeks. Homes have been flooded and left without power, whole communities cut off, roads and railways closed, and there seems to be no end in sight. I'm lucky in that I live at the very top of a small hill, so I'm not in any danger, but like everybody I'm getting heartily fed up with the rain!

So when I saw that this week's challenge at CASology was "AND" the first thing that sprang to mind was Cats and Dogs - at first rain and then that thought led me on to the animals. I didn't think I would have anything suitable for making a CAS card with, then I remembered these stamps that were free on a magazine cover and have never seen ink before. I think the expression on the cat's face looks as if somebody needs to talk to him about his catnip habit!

A rainbow of butterflies

Sorry if I'm a bit quiet at the moment, this week I've been having hospital tests  which have left me feeling a bit weak and groggy, and next week I'm going away to visit my Mum, so I'm not doing very much cooking or crafting at the moment.

I'm still finding it hard to stop playing with the Grande Calibur I got for Christmas. Today I've been die cutting lots of tiny butterflies. The sketchy swirl stamp was designed by Linda Luckin a few years ago - I don't know whether she still makes stamps as her artistic interests have moved on, but I have some lovely and very useful stamps from her stamping days!

I'm playing along with:

Less is More who are celebrating their 3rd birthday this week with a colour challenge - Rainbow
Crafting Musketeers challenge 10 - Butterflies
Addicted to Stamps and More challenge 81 - Anything Goes

Very Exciting News!

I'm absolutely delighted to be able to tell you that I recently applied for a place on the La Pashe design team and heard this week that I've been accepted. I heard a few days ago, and shared my news on Facebook, but I really wanted to announce it on the blog on an entry for CD Sundays, because it is by joining in with this challenge since my blog started that I've learned that CDs and decoupage can be used for so very, very much more than the "print a background and a design, layer design up and stick on background" that I'd thought of them as being useful for before.

So thank you to the CD Sundays design team and participants for your ideas, inspiration support and comments.

OK, Oscar speech over, time to get on with this week's challenge  Ribbons and Bows. And it won't surprise you that I've celebrated by using a La Pashe CD, The very Best of La Pashe 2012. I wanted to do something that would be suitable for Valentine's Day, and the "Mobility Love" design from the Decoupage Plus section looked ideal.

But being stubborn, I wanted to make it Pretty rather than Witty, so I've prettied it up with ribbons and a lace doyley.