One for the Boys challenge at Crafty Cardmakers

Afternoon Everyone,
Today sees the start of a new challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers.
Our host this time is Sally and she would like a male themed project.
This could be for a big boy, a little boy or a baby boy, so long as it's male themed.

We are sponsored for this challenge by ONE STOP CARD CRAFTS who are offering a £10 voucher for their store as a prize, and DIGI DOODLE SHOP with a $10 Gift Certificate for the Store. 

My card has been made for one of the 'Boys' at work who is leaving us this week to join his wife in Canada to start a new life.
I hope that he will be following his dreams so the sentiment seemed highly appropriate.

I have followed the sketch over at Sketch Saturday using background papers from my stash.
I added some embossed leaves using a Clarity stamp and Frantage Aged Silver Embossing enamel. I also some Card Candy.

The image has been cut out using a Grand Nestie.

The stamp 'Lazy Afternoon' is from Lili of the Valley and I have coloured it using Aquamarkers and a waterbrush.
I hope that this is how Murali will spend at least some of his time once he reaches his destination.
Don't forget to check out what the rest of the team have come up with over at Crafty Cardmakers.
Happy Crafting
Hugs Kimx

With Love from Clarity

Evening All
I hope that you have been having a great weekend.
I have spent part of it working on new samples for Barbara's next TV appearance on Saturday and Sunday the 5th and 6th of May.
I can't believe how far into the year we are already, it's quite scary really, the weeks just seem to be rushing by.
Of course I can't share the art work with you until the show has aired so you have to be content with a card that I made some weeks ago using one of her stamps.

I inked the stamp using my distress ink pads, and then stamped it again without re-inking it, having embossed the first image.
Yes you can emboss dye based inks, you just have to be a bit quicker applying the embossing powder than with a pigment ink.

I cut the trees out using a Nestie and added a hand stitched border with a fine black pen.
'With Love' is also a Clarity stamp. I added a few tiny dots along the tree trunk.

The background to the card has been made using the fabulous Moonshadow Inks from The Stampman.
You will find a tutorial on how to make this type of background paper over on Vixykins blog, so why not pop over and check it out. More inky fingers involved, but it's great fun.
Crumbs, is that the time, I had better go and have my shower now so I get a few extra minutes in bed tomorrow.
Night, night.
hugs Kimx

Rollagraphs at the Woodware Bloghop.

Evening Everyone,
Well, I don't know what sort of day you have had today, but we had another lovely class at Davina's, and even though most people opted to apply the ink to their pieces of resist stamping using a brayer everyone seemed to end up with very inky fingers.
Just what crafting should be, nice and messy. Well, I like to get messy anyway and as none of the ladies asked for gloves I assume that they must have been OK with it as well lol.

This week Woodware have been having a Blog Hop with Clearsnap.
They have been making cards and gift using Rollagraphs which are wonderful stamps on a wheel.
I did a class on them a while ago and this is a card that I made from bits and pieces from my class folder.

The background behind the butterfly and the blue and green card has all been stamped using the rollagraph system. It is great way of filling a large area quite quickly, and there are some fantastic designs available.

I also made a couple of gift bags filled with sweeties using the rollagraph designs.

I hope that you have enjoyed the Woodware bloghop and that you will stop in again on Monday to see what  the new challenge is going to be.

Happy Crafting

hugs Kimx

Very Inky Fingers

Evening Everyone.
Boy am I glad that it's the weekend, no tills for two days yippee!!
Tomorrow I will be teaching at Davina's and the Girls may need to bring gloves with them as we are in for inky fingers lol.

We will be playing with plenty of stamps, glossy card and dye based inks as I share the resist technique with them.

I have used several different stamps sets here and a couple of Nesties, and I now have nice blue finger tips :)

It's a good job everyone knows that I don't do 'clean' classes.

Just as well I don't have white sheets on my bed as this ink is proving distinctly stubborn and refuses to leave me. I think I will give up and go to bed 'dirty'.

Night night.

hugs Kimx

Floral Mozaic

Hi
I'm still on a mission to use up bits that I have started in class so with that in mind here is a card made using a piece of the Magenta Mozaic paper that I made last Saturday at Davina's

The Mozaic paper is die cut and self adhesive so it is very easy to make a small area go a long way, as you can see with the four squares that have been used to make this card.

The background paper is from my stash and the greeting is from Hobby Art.

I have spent the afternoon and evening trying to decide on the winners for my Vellum challenge over at The Stampman, boy is it a hard task. 

There is definitely something to be said for random generator, although when I have entered a challenge I much prefer when the winner is picked by the DT, can't have it both ways I guess lol.

If I didn't have a headache before I came home (which I did) I sure have got one now :)

Time to hit send I think, oh the responsibility of it all.

Night night.

hugs Kimx

Christmas Playtime

Evening Everyone
I begin to think that my cards this week should have a water theme rather than Christmas since we are in danger of being washed away here. Why is it that the weather men only ever seem to get it truly right when their predictions are for terrible weather lol.

A couple of girlfriends came round last night for a little Creative playtime and I decided to show them the wonderful technique that Mynnette has been sharing with us on her Tuesday Technique MONTHLY CRAFTY BLOG CHALLENGE THING, as she puts it. 

I absolutely love this technique and as you can see I got quite carried away when I was showing the Girls.

Fortunately they agreed with me and good fun was had by All, and several Christmas cards were added to every ones stash.

Why not pop over and visit Mynnette and check out her really clear instructions on how to make this type of card.

 I managed to incorporate several previously stamped and embossed images from my bits box, although I couldn't help making a couple of cards completely from scratch using the Woodware Christmas background stamp and the Holly set in the first two cards in this post.

I don't seem to have shifted my headache again today. A second day on the new till system is no better, so I must try and get my head down for a few hours at least.
I hope that you have a go at making some cards using this technique, and don't forget to link them to the challenge, I'm sure that Mynnette would love to see you.
hugs Kimx

A Happy Anniversary

Evening Everyone,
Just a quick post tonight as my head is killing me.
We have had a computer upgrade at work today and I swear that the person who designed it has obviously never spent any time working on a till.
My eyes hurt and I need a magnifying glass to read some of the back office reports that I have to deal with.
Oh well tomorrow is another day, as they say.

Today on the other hand was the Wedding Anniversary of Cheryl one of my colleagues at work, and this is the card that I made for her and her husband Rick.

The background has been made with woven strips of stamped and embossed card to which I have added a couple of stamped flowers, a wire stem and Hobby Art greeting.

Better make sure I have my headache tablets with me for the morning, and maybe dark glasses, but then I wouldn't be able to see anything at all. Perhaps that's the answer lol.

hugs Kimx

Snowflakes at 52 (Christmas) Card Throwdown

Evening All
The Theme challenge this week over at 52(Christmas) Card Throwdown is Snowflakes.
As you know I have been making Christmas cards this weekend, so this is one of them which included some snowflakes embossed with Stampendous Frantage Aged Gold Embossing Enamel which I bought at SirStampalot.

The snowflake stamp is also an old design from Stampendous M122 Snow Swirl which I bought on Saturday at Davina's. I'm sure that I probably have this stamp somewhere but as she has 50% off all of her wood mounted stamps at the moment it was easier to buy it than spend hours wading through my stash.
How naughty is that!! Still I will find it a good home if I do discover that I already have it, so someone will benefit.

The mouse on the bauble is an image from my stash but is by Great Impressions and is called Franklin Hanging On.
I used it for a magazine article some years ago but it has remained a favourite of mine. It is available from Horseshoe Craft.

The card base is made using a combination of scalloped and plain circles cut using Grand and regular size nesties. I sponged a little Stormy Sky distress ink around the edges of the white card.

I hope that you like it and that maybe you will be inspired to make a couple of Christmas cards to add to your   stash for this year.

I would like to enter this into a couple of other challenges

Lexi's Creations - Use your Punches and Dies

The Cutie Pie Challenge - Circles

Fashionable Stamping Challenges - Embossing

Paper Sundaes Challenge - Lets get Cute

Hugs Kimx

Two Cheeky Boys

Evening Everyone,
Have you ever had that feeling that you have spent the day doing one thing, when you should really have been doing something completely different instead?
Well that is the sort of day I have had.
I have had a wonderful time making Christmas cards, but I can't help feeling that there is something more pressing that I should have been attending to.
Oh well too late now, I will just have to panic next week lol.
My stash of Christmas bits doesn't seem to be getting any smaller, but I am pleased to say that my pile of finished cards has grown by quite a few this weekend.

In amongst all of the Christmas cards I also managed to make this for a couple of cheeky little boys who celebrated their birthday on Saturday. They come into the garage every morning with their Mum and are always full of smiles, so I thought that I would make them a card when I found out that it was their birthday on Saturday. 

I have used one of my Lili of the Valley toppers cut out with a nestie. I added some stiching and glossy accents, and mounted it over background papers from my stash.

The dinosaur punch is by EK Success.

The number is also from my stash and I have coloured and embossed it so that it fitted better with the colour of the card.
I hope they like it, I guess I will find out tomorrow.
I would like to enter it into the challenge over at Here come the Boys.
Off to bed now, night night.
Hugs Kimx

Magenta Mozaics at Davina's

Evening Everyone,
I hope you are having a wonderful weekend, and it hasn't been raining too heavily.
We had a lovely if very select class at Davina's this afternoon.
Unfortunately several of the ladies were unable to make it but we went ahead anyway.
We will repeat it later so that they don't miss out.

The class was designed to showcase the lovely Magenta Mozaic sheets that are available from Woodware.
These sheets are plain white A4 self adhesive sheets that are made up of die cut shapes - squares, triangles and diamonds both large and small.

We cut a sheet into smaller pieces which were then stamped, embossed and coloured using Kaleidacolour inks.
I used images from an Artemio Spring clear stamp set and masked the flowers before stamping over the entire thing with a Manuscript background stamp.

Once the sheet has been stamped and coloured the individual squares are peeled off the backing and reassembled onto white card stock leaving a narrow border between the squares. The resulting panels are then mounted onto co-ordinating card stock.

On this second card I used the same flower stamp to embellish the left hand side of the card. I first painted these images with bleach before painting with the same colour inks as the Mozaic panel.
I like these Mozaic sheets.
They are very easy to use and you can make several cards from a quarter of a sheet so it makes them a very economical purchase, and fun to use too.
Hugs Kimx

Shabby Chic challenge at The Stamp Man

Evening Everyone
Today sees the start of a new challenge over at The Stamp Man where the lovely Brenda is looking forward to seeing your Shabby Chic or Distressed creations.
Sorry that my post is much later than it should be, but it was due a spot of unexpected babysitting. Pocahontas this time, and a bit of their Easter egg :)
Before I share my card I just wanted to thank everyone who entered my vellum challenge.
I'm really not looking forward to having to pick a winner, but I will be popping in on everyone over the next few days so don't forget to check out The Stamp Man blog on Friday to see who I finally picked.

For my card for this challenge I chose the lovely Stampendous CRP147 Cling Butterfly Post.
Amazingly so did at least two of the other Design Team, how spooky is that lol.
I decided to go with my second colour choice and opted for Pink and Brown. 

I stamped and embossed the image using Versafine Vintage Sepia and clear embossing powder, and then added colour using Victorian Velvet and Brushed Corduroy Distress inks. I painted the butterfly with the same inks and then added a little sparkle with a Gelly Roll glaze pen. 
I tore round the panel and distressed the edges before mounting it on to the card which has an added panel of background paper and a punched border..

The flowers are made using the latest addition to my crafty stash Spellbinders Shapeabilities Bitty Blossoms.

They were cut from background paper from my stash, and I also added some punched leaves, buds, pearls and a pin.
If I'm brutally honest I'm not totally sure what Shabby Chic is so I do hope that this fits the bill lol.
Why not pop over to The Stamp Man and check out what my wonderful Teamies have come up with, I know that they will appreciate your visits, just as I do.
The Kids are all safely tucked up and sound asleep, so I think it's my turn to get to bed.
Night night
hugs Kimx

A last little bit of vellum

Evening Everyone,
Hasn't it been cold today, and wet. Although of course it is bound to have been the 'wrong sort of rain' to help out with the hosepipe situation that we have here lol.

Today was your last chance to enter my Vellum challenge over at The Stamp Man.
I will be popping back to see everyone over the next couple of days before I make my final choices. This is the bit I hate, having to choose a winner, it's soooo hard.
The main panel on this card was made during my brayering class a couple of weeks ago.

Vellum is a great way of adding a greeting to a card without totally obliterating the image underneath.
I added a little ink to the edges of the vellum here and attached it to the card with brads.
I hope that you have enjoyed looking at the cards that I have made during the vellum challenge, and that you will check out the new challenge which goes live tomorrow midday.
Hugs Kimx

A Green and White Christmas

Evening Everyone.
I have just finished making my card for the new challenge which starts over at The Stamp Man on Friday midday, and I hadn't realized that it had got sooo late, so this is a really, really quick post for you tonight.

I have been trying really hard to make at least a couple of Christmas cards each week, inspired by some of the wonderful challenges that I have found.

This card was made especially for the colour challenge over at 52(Christmas) Card Throwdown where they are looking for Green and White.
The stamped panel was in my bits box, and the background papers are from my stash, so I have been a very good girl.
Look at the time, I really must get to bed.
Hugs Kimx

Turquoise and Brown at Woodware

Evening Everyone.
They have a new colour challenge this week over at Woodware - Turquoise and Brown. I love this combo.

I have used the lovely Woodware clear stamp set FRCL205 Proud Peacock, distress inks and some Pearlex. I cut the Peacock out using a circular nestie and mounted it onto brown and turquoise background paper from my stash.

The background to the card has been created using the feather stamp from the set and some pearlex paint.
Of course I added a little bling, some stitching and glossy accents to the eye.
Why not try your hand at making a card using these colours and enter it into the challenge.
hugs Kimx

Crafty Cardmakers challenge 66 - Fantasy

Evening Everyone.
Today sees the start of another challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers, where our host Lin wants to see a  Fantasy theme to your projects. So dragons, fairies, witches, etc, anything Fantasy or mystical just please make sure that the fantasy element is the main focal point of your creation and not a small fairy charm in the corner for example.
Our two fab sponsors are, Crop Stop with a $15 gift certificate to their store and Di’s Digi Downloads with a $10 gift voucher for their store.

I didn't have any trouble choosing my stamps when it came to this challenge.
What else would I use but Wizard Tilda  and Lillyrose the Dragon. 

I didn't have a suitable background stamp so I made my own on the computer and printed it out. I added distress ink around the edges and stamped the Shooting Star Border into the corners with the same colour ink.

Tilda has been coloured using Distress ink and then placed over an oval panel cut out with a nestie. I added some glossy accents to her glasses.
I sponged a little colour onto the oval with the nestie still in place, and also added a few stamped stars.

The dragon was a little too large so I decided to shrink her so that it looked as if Tilda had done just that.
The only shrink plastic that I could find was frosted so I painted the back of the shrunk dragon with some white acrylic paint to make the colours a little more vibrant.

The main background to the card has been punched using the Woodware Crafty Edger and Star cassette (The other half of the panel from the Woodware 21st Birthday challenge card)
I have added a large punched star behind the Dragon and a liberal sprinkling of smaller stars around the card.
I hope that you will join us HERE and don't forget to check out what the rest of the team have come up with.
hugs Kimx

A Vellum Cutie

Evening Everyone
Wow, where did that weekend go? I hope that those of you that made it to Ally Pally had a good time.

Tonight I am sharing another card which uses vellum.
This cutie comes ready coloured on a sheet of vellum along with several other images. I believe that it may actually be a Pergamano product but I'm not quite sure.

I have mounted the image onto white card to enhance the colouring and then cut it out using a nestie.

The panel on the right hand side of the card is vellum which has been embossed using an embossing folder.

The card and background papers are from my stash.

The flowers and leaves are also made from vellum using a combination of punches and floral DooHickeys.

I've managed to finish a couple more Christmas cards this weekend. Following some of the Christmas challenges is definitely paying off, and I even won another Honourable mention over at 52(Christmas) Card Throwdown which is a lovely added bonus.

Hugs Kimx