April Showers

I've just got back from a week at my Mum's, and oh how I have been missing my crafting! I left several scheduled posts so you, my friends, won't have missed me as much as I've missed you!

On Easter Monday we took the train in to Liverpool to see the Terracotta Warriors exhibition and oh my, the rain! In fact first thing in the morning there was snow, which turned to very heavy rain when we were waiting at the station for the train. Luckily it dried up later, in typical April Showers style, so when we got back here and this month's Papercraft Essentials was waiting for me, complete with rain/pond/puddle themes stamps, stencil and die set, I had to play straight away.

The stencil and the boot stamp are from the magazine set, and the umbrella and sentiment from two Clearly Besotted sets.

I am sharing this with

Addicted to CAS - Rain 
Addicted to Stamps and More - Anything Goes
Creative With Stamps - CAS & Sentiment

 

Guest Designer at C.R.A.F.T. Challenge

I'm delighted to have been invited to be this week's Guest Designer at the C.R.A.F.T. Challenge where this week's theme is Get Well Soon.

I have used the image Recuperating Rita from Doctor Digis, who are one of the sponsors of the challenge.

I have coloured it with pencils to try to get a wood-grain effect on the furniture, and adding a drop of Liquid Pearls for Rita's earring and Glossy Accents to her eyes.

I had to computer generate the sentiment because, to my amazement, I don't seem to have a single Get Well sentiment among my stamps, dies and stickers. The finishing touch is "Elastoplast" ("Band Aid" to my non-UK friends) made from a snippet of weave-textured skintone card.

I am sharing this with
Crafty Creations Challenges - Anything Goes
Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes
Pixie's Snippets Playground - challenge 323  (I know the only snippet is the "Elastoplast" corners, but I think you'll agree it's vital to the card!)

Post Script  - I have just ordered a fab set of Get Well stamps, having realised that the gap in my stash was a great excuse to shop!

Feature a Creature at Sparkles Christmas

Our April challenge at Sparkles Christmas is to Feature a Creature.

I've featured a reindeer - and rather a lot of robins! The stamp and the papers were magazine freebies some years ago. I've used a Spellbinders die to cut out the reindeer - I'm not sure what the blobs around the edge are intended for - perhaps to hold flowers, gems or candi? But I like to use them on snowy scenes like this because they make me think of snowballs.

The sentiments are woven ribbon, they remind me of those name tapes we used to have to sew into our school uniforms!

I am sharing this with

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - stars or Anything Goes
A Bit More Time to Craft Extra - anything Goes
Winter Wonderland - Animals
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper challenge - April

No Patterned Paper at CD Sundays

Our new challenge is just starting at CD Sundays, and this time Meg has chosen "No Patterned Paper" as our theme. So you'll need to use your CDs for the main image, sentiment or embellishments this time!

I've used a lovely image from Joanna Sheen's "Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady" CD.

I've stencilled a honeycomb effect on the lower right of the card and added a bee and sentiment cut with the Dovecraft "Bee Happy" die set.

I am sharing this with
2 Crafty Critter Crazies - anything goes with a creature on it
Dies R Us - Anything Goes
A Bit More Time To Craft - Anything Goes

Dragonfly circle

I made this card after watching several videos showing me ways of extending the usefulness of the Misti, now I've added the Creative Corners to my arsenal.

To make the card, I cut the panel and an identical sized piece of scrap paper.  On the scrap paper, I drew lines between the midpoints of the top and bottom and left and right and then diagonally between opposite corners, making sure they crossed exactly in the centre, then with a contrasting pencil drew lines halfway between each pair of lines, again going through the centre, to divide it into 16 segments. I then placed the paper in the Misti, using the Creative Corners to position it, and placed the dragonfly stamp - a Linda Luckin stamp that is between 10 and 15 years old - in place so that it lay along one of the original horizontal/vertical lines and the wing tips touched one of the contrasting lines at each side, then closed the cover to pick up the stamp.

I then replaced the scrap paper with the card panel and stamped the dragonfly in pale blue ink four times, rotating the card a quarter turn each side, to get my first four dragonflies.

Next I swapped back to the scrap paper and re-positioned the stamp so that the dragonfly sat on one of the original diagonal lines, again with the wing tips touching intermediate lines each side. Then put the card back in place and repeated the stamping and turning, this time with green ink. It's a lot easier to do than to describe!

Finally I used an ornate corner stamp - this is a very old acrylic stamp that I *think* originally came from Tandastamps  -  and again used the scrap paper to position it before stamping the corners. I added a hint of pale blue gel pen to the stamped corners.

The sentiment is a magazine freebie stamp.

I am sharing this with Retro Rubber - Anything Goes

Super Heroes at Cardz 4 Guyz

Our theme for the next two weeks at Cardz 4 Guyz is Super Heroes.

This sweet little chap is a digi called Spider-Man Andy from Pink Gem Designs, coloured with Promarkers. The sentiment is stamped with words from a Studio G mini stamp set. The background is grey card, embossed with a brickwork folder then sponged with red ink, and I've added two die cut cobwebs.

I am sharing this with
Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes

March Rudolph Day

I'm usually hammering on the door of Scrappymo's on the 25th of the month, waiting for the Rudolph Day doors to open, but I'm running a bit late this week and here's why.

Last week was my older daughter and son in law's 10th wedding anniversary, and they decided to mark the occasion not with a meal out or a holiday, but by running a half marathon to raise money for the Make a Wish foundation which provides "dreams come true" for children with life-limiting conditions. The race was this weekend, so the grandchildren came to stay with us while Mummy and Daddy went into London to run their race, staying overnight the night before to make sure they weren't delayed on the train in the morning, so we had a very busy weekend filled with an Easter Egg Hunt, lots of singing and dancing, and a teddy getting flushed down the loo at 1am. As you do. It didn't leave any time for crafting but it was a lot of fun and Mummy and Daddy came home very proud having achieved their target race times AND their fundraising target of £1,200.

All the singing reminded me of a Christmas song that had been one of their Mummy's favourites when she was a little girl, "When Santa Got Stuck Up The Chimney" - she loved to shout the "ATCHOO!"s at the end - so today I made a card that sums up the song.

I dry embossed the card using a Darice embossing folder. The starry sky is stamped with a Uniko snowflake stamp and heat embossed with silver. What is it with silver embossing powders? The last two I've had didn't actually stick to the ink at all and this new one clumps and goes gloppy. I never have those problems with gold!
Santa himself is a Little Claire stamp from one of their Trio sets, coloured with Promarkers and finished with Stickles. I seem to have captured the sparkle on the photo - I might need to crack open a bottle of champagne tonight!

As well as Rudolph Days I am sharing this with

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Inspired by a song
52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Embossing