Challenged by Claire

My friend Claire, who blogs over at Ninja Killer Cat  loves photography - and also loves visiting stately homes, so often combines the two and creates a photographic record of her visits.

Knowing my love of dragonflies, she sent me this photo from a recent trip and challenged me to make something inspired by it.

Beautiful, isn't it?

Here is my interpretation of it.

To make it, I used an M'bossabilities folder to dry-emboss a sheet of purple card. I die cut the dragonfly using a Spellbinders layered dragonfly die set and stuck it to the card, then roughly covered the entire piece with Imagination Crafts Alchemy wax in gold. When it was dry I lightly sanded the background, to remove some of the wax from the raised areas, sanding more firmly towards the edges. To break up the expanse of gold, I added a die cut label and sentiment.

I am sharing this with
Inkspirational - Purple and Gold
Fab'n'Funky - Embossing, wet or dry
Make My Monday - Embossing, wet or dry  
Watercooler Wednesday - Anything Goes feminine

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers challenge #109 - Engineering

It's time for our latest challenge at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers and this time our theme is E for Engineering - in other words, our annual Steampunk challenge.

 

Doesn't Edna look divine in that outfit?

 

I was longing to use these acrylic cogs and the wooden dragonfly, so I'm afraid there is a distinct lack of snark in my offering, but hey, that's OK (as long as it doesn't happen too often!)

The background is stout grey card (from the back of a notebook) covered in gesso and stamped with dragonflies and cogs then spritzed with gold mica powder shaken up in a spray bottle of water. It gives a lovely sheen that doesn't show on the photo. I smudged a bit of gold foil around the edges here and there too.

The two acrylic cogs were covered with Glossy Accents then sprinkled with gold and copper glitters. When dry, I painted over the word "Create" and the heart using Imagination Crafts Starlight Metallic paint then painted some card with the same paint to die cut the cogs from. A Tim Holtz flashcard and that beautiful  wooden steampunk dragonfly button finish it off.

I am sharing this with
A bit more time to craft - Anything Goes
 Craft Rocket - Use embellishments
Crafty Calendar - Things With Wings



Tiny tiger

I really love the cute set of jungle animal stamps that was a magazine freebie last year  - for this card I have used the tiger stamp and one of the sentiments.

I coloured the tiger with Promarkers and added two tropical leaves punched with my old favourite Woodware punch, then added some stamped footprints to the card.

I am sharing this with

CASology - Jungle
Less is More - a sketch

2 Crafty Critter Crazies - anything goes with a creature

Singing in the rain

No, not Gene Kelly - a pesky cat! However much we love our cats, when they start caterwauling outside the door on a wet night we do NOT feel like crawling out of bed to let them in, do we?

The background paper for this card is from the Coosty Creations "Cats" download.  The main image is a cat from the Katzelcraft "Les Chats Russes" set, stamped and masked and then the Katzelkraft Water Wall stamped over it. The umbrellas are stamped with the Clearly Besotted "April Showers Again" set and the sentiment is die cut using Tonic Studios Pin Up "Singing in the Rain" dies. With so much going on, I decided to keep the colours to black and white apart from a tiny splash of colour for the cat's tongue.

I am sharing this with

Allsorts - All About Pets 
Cardz 4 Galz - April Showers
Sparkles Monthly  - Weather/showers 

Use a CD at Back to Basics

It's time for our second challenge at Back to Basics - have you  joined us yet?

This time we would like you to use a craft CD, or if you really don't have one (not even a magazine freebie? are you sure???) use a kit. Maybe one that's gathering dust somewhere because you are too "grown up" a crafter for it - how about taking a look to see what new ways you could use it?

For my card I've used a paper and topper from the very old Joanna Sheen CD "Oriental Dreams". I've added a stamped Chinese text panel, a metallic butterfly from The Works and a metal fan charm from a very, VERY old QVC kit.

I am sharing this with
2 Crafty Critter Crazies - challenge 14
A Bit More Time To Craft - Anything Goes
 Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes
Rubber Dance - Metal (theme)

Is it vintage or shabby chic?

I do get confused between vintage and shabby chic! I suppose vintage elements can be used in designs that aren't shabby chic, and shabby chic cards can be made with images too modern to be considered vintage, but there is a huge overlap between the two and I think this card fits firmly into both camps.

The image is stamped using an unmounted stamp that I've had for 4 or 5 years - I think it is a Crafty Individuals one. I've teamed it with papers, flowers, buttons and doileys from the dovecraft Curiosity Corner range - again, things that have been in my stash for several years now - scraps of ribbon and lace and some punch-out letters from an old goody bag from my early days of papercrafting. Oh, and a random bird sticker, I'm not really sure where or when I originally got that!

I'm sharing this with
Retro Rubber - Vintage













Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - anything goes
Shopping Our Stash - Mothers Day  (British Mother's day was weeks ago - but what mother doesn't love tea in a dainty china cup?)
Love to Craft - Anything Goes

also, although there is no challenge this week I'm linking up to Use Your Stuff because I've used such a LOT of stuff!

Reindeer at Sparkles Christmas

Our May challenge at Sparkles Christmas is reindeer.

My card was inspired by one that I made back in February. This time I used the reindeer stamps from the SU Cookie Cutter Christmas set, stamped on kraft and with a little colour added with pencils. The sentiment is from the same set and I've added a few die cut pine sprigs and some of those lovely Lidl snowflake stickers.

I am sharing this with
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Anything goes/for a child
Christmas Crafts All Year Round - Anything Goes  
Holly and Ivy - Anything Christmas Goes