UFO spotting #1

The current challenge at Shopping Our Stash could have been made with me in mind - we're being asked to use our UFOs aka UnFinished Objects. Those backgrounds we made that didn't quite work with the topper we had in mind, the die cuts that we cut too many of, the stamped images and experiments we set aside for later.....

Well... as you can see, I do have a few UFOs hanging around...  

So here goes with the first of my UFO makes. 

This die cut peacock was one of a pair I cut a few months ago from a piece of card I'd inked specifically for the purpose. I used one and set aside the other to use "in a day or two". As you do. The blue green inky background was just the right colours for it. That has been in my UFO box for so long I can't remember when or how I made it. I chose a piece of bleach-sprayed burgundy card from the UFO box to back the peacock, knowing that I still had plenty of the plain burgundy left for matting the background, due to a slight "user error" some years ago when ordering burgundy card online, when instead of the "10 sheets" box I clicked the "100 sheets" one and was too proud to admit my mistake and ask for a refund. Proud as a peacock, perhaps? 

The sentiment is cut from a very old Cuttlebug die and I've had it lurking for so long that I've lost the dots for the i's. But little blue pearls work very nicely with the blues in the card! 

So that's my first finished UFO card... I'll be back over the weekend with more. Look out, Shopping Our Stash - this may be a busy week for you! 

Bold Gold

It's ages since I've posted twice in one day, lockdown has seen my crafting mojo get very temperamental, but while it's paying me a visit I'm determined to make the most of it!

It's not often I manage to make a CAS snippets card, but I never throw away even a tiny scrap of black or white card so my snippets basket was the perfect place to find what I needed for this border and butterfly.

A month ago today I shared a card made with a very old NBUS stamp from Graphicus so today seems like a good time to share a card made with the one stamp from the sheet that I'd used before,  this lovely bold border. I heat embossed it in gold on black card then added it to my base card, with a sentiment stamped below. The butterfly is cut with a First Edition layering  die set and finished with tiny gold pearls.

I am sharing this with

Pixies Snippets Playground - challenge 379 

Less is More - Borders 

The cat that walks by himself

Cats can be very independent creatures, can't they?

This gorgeous cat stamp is a very old PSX stamp which my daughter bought about 25 years ago and I am "minding"  for her. I've coloured it with pencils to give a ginger tabby effect and layered it up with papers from an old issue of Making Cards plus some cute kitty ribbon. The Tim Holtz sentiment perfectly sums up a cat's attitude to life!

I am sharing this with:

2 Crafty Critter Crazies - Earth Bound Animal 

Fab'n'Funky - Creature Feature 

2 Crafty Critter Crazies - Challenge 39 

Show us your Pussycats - Furrything Goes 

I found a lost stamp!

This flower-on-text stamp was a magazine freebie, Craft Stamper I think, that i got several years ago and immediately lost. I've searched high and low for it many times, with no luck, and then at the weekend it turned up -  right in the middle of my box of flower stamps where it should have been all along and where I must have looked at least 20 times for it. I think there's a poltergeist living in among my craft supplies....

I stamped it three times on pink card using embossing ink then heat embossed it with navy blue powder. Then I fussy cut the flowers and die cut leaves from navy blue card.  For the background I die cut a circle of pink cloud-effect vellum and used an embossing folder to add the flowers. 

I am sharing this with

CAS Mix Up - Embossed vellum (vellum, stamping, heat embossing, dry embossing, die cutting, fussy cutting)


The Flower Challenge - Navy and one other colour (pink)


Crafty Calendar - Flowers 

Craft Rocket Challenge - Embossing dry/wet  (used both)

Butterflies and swirls

I was pleased to see that the current challenge at Shopping Our Stash is Stickers, because I keep seeing this part used sticker set in my stash and thinking I really must use some of them again. But you know, once they are gone, I won't have them any more....

I've had them in my stash for years and years - the garden centre craft shop I bought them from closed down about 15 years ago so they are at least that old.  To go with them, I chose this NBUS Linda Luckin stamp of about the same vintage (I bought a whole sheet of rubber just for one of the stamps on it and had never even cut the rest out, so I have several more NBUS swirls to play with now I've rediscovered it), which I stamped and heat embossed with my very newest item of NBUS, "Serene" embossing blend from WOW.  It's a lovely blend of aqua, white, black and sparkly powders that give the embossing varied textures as well as colours. The dotty trails on the swirl echo those on the butterflies, and to link them together even more, I added gold liquid Pearls to a few of the dots.

I stamped and heat embossed a sentiment, then used a marker and ruler to frame the card. Finally, the large butterfly did't look quite right as its head was made from a large brown gem, so i carefully eased the gem off and replaced it with an aqua one.

I'm sharing this with

Shopping Our Stash - Stickers 

A Bit More Time To Craft Extra - Anything Goes 

NBUS - NBUS (Never before used schtuff)

Oh, and I still have one of the butterfly stickers left, so I haven't not got them now after all!

Poppies and Lace

Although it's grey, cold and windy today we have had some glorious summer days recently and they have  reminded me of the trips we used to make to Cornwall when my father in law was alive. At this time of year, the fields on either side of the A303 were always full of poppies and given how slow the traffic was on fine days,  especially in the area around Stonehenge, there was always plenty of time to enjoy them!

For this card I used an assortment of dies to cut and emboss the lace corners and topper, and a very, very old unmounted stamp that I've had for about 20 years for the poppies. I coloured them with Promarkers - there used to be a time when I found those tiny stems daunting to colour with the tip of a Promarker  but I seem to have learned much better control nowadays. The sentiment is a random loose unmounted stamp that lives in my sentiments tin - it looks as if it came from a set once upon a time but I can't recall which. I have a feeling it's a Woodware owls set which I've had for about 10 years.


 I used the Misti to line up the word around the edges of the topper, and added the topper to the card using foam pads for a little depth.

I am sharing this with

Passion for Promarkers - A celebration 

Watercooler Wednesday - Feminine anything goes


Country View Challenges - Summer Fields 

Retro Rubber - Summer time 



Addicted to stamps and More - Make your mark 

ships

A year or two back I got a set of Hunkydory papers and toppers from their Planes, Trains and Automobiles range, and after playing with them a few times popped them into a folder where they  have languished ever since. Then while sorting out some old craft mags I saw some cards made with them so I thought I'd try recreating some of the ideas.

This card uses some of the Historic Ships toppers and two of the coordinating papers. I cut the legend off the toppers to affix separately and then trimmed off the border from around each image. Then I covered kraft card with some of the wood effect paper and added a central strip of ship collage paper, and arranged the toppers over the card, finishing with some black gems. 

I am sharing this with 

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - anything goes 

Use Your Stuff - Masculine or Fathers Day  

Pearly Sparkles - For the boys/men