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Hugs Kimx

A Decoupage Daisy from Imagination

Eveing Everyone,
Are you havinng a good weekend? The weather here has been lovely and warm, not that I have ventured outside, I have been chained to my craft room once again.
Why is it that my 'Crafty To Do List' never seems to get any shorter? As fast as I cross one thing off the top of the list three more things appear at the bottom lol.
Oh well, I suppose it keeps me out of mischief and off the streets.
Today I have been working on some DT work for the lovely Sue at Imagination Craft, so it seems only right that my card tonight is one that I made a while ago using another of her fabulous Decoupgae stamps.

This card was made using Versamark, White Embossing Powder and Distress Inks.
The small daisy and the sentiment on the background panel are part of the stamp set.

The square panel is the main stamp in the set. I have padded it slightly with silicon and also added a little Pearly Paint to the flower center although it doesn't show up very well in the photograph.
Now I can cross Imagination DT work off my list tomorrow, and move on to Clarity. Maybe I will share a card I made for Barbara in my next post, we'll have to see how I get on.
Off to bed now.
Hugs Kimx

Just a quick Hello

Evening Everyone
Just a very quick post to share another of the cards that made their way into the pillar box this week.

 It was made using a very old Hero Arts stamp, more bleach and some inks.

Very simple, but I really like it. Probably as near as I have got to 'Clean and Simple' in a long time.
Have a good weekend.
Hugs Kimx

Happy Birthday with Bleach

Hi All,
I've been a busy bunny today, but not with crafty things I'm afraid. I've been visiting my Mum.
It did mean that I managed to hand deliver a birthday card so that it actually arrived on time as my brother-in-law was at the house and it is his birthday today.

I seem to be going through a bit of a bleaching phase at the moment. Here is the card that I made for Simon.

The leaves have been stamped and embossed onto blue card and then painted with bleach.
The sentiment is from Hobby Art, and yes, that is a peel-off border and some brads. I can just hear my friend Sharon's disapproval at them lol.
Hugs Kimx

Sorry Lin, it's the C word again lol

Evening Everyone,
And before you all think that I am being very rude, the C word in question is Christmas.
I'm saying it very quietly so as not to upset my good friend Lin, and numerous other acquaintances who will be squirming in their seats at the slightest mention of that certain season so early in the year.
Unfortunately most of the DT work that I have had to do just recently has been for Christmas so it has been hard for me to avoid it :O)

I have been trying very hard to finish off some of the vast quantity of 'bits' that seem to be accunulating after DT work, demos and classes.
With this in mind here is a card that I made using a  fabulous Flower Decoupage Stamp from Imagination Craft.

I love these stamp sets as they are so nice to use and they have several co-ordination smaller images as part of the set. And best of all they are very reasonably priced.

I think this particular set has to be one of my favourites, but then i am a sucker for Poinsettias. Stamped ones anyway, I always manage to kill the real thing lol.

I have coloured this image using a 'Wet Watercolour Technique and the Imagination Vintage Pearly Palette.

Unfortunately the photography doesn't do justice to the wonderful pearlescent finish that the paint gives to the image.

I also used some of the Mica Powders on the green and purple card stock.

The finishing touches included some Faux Stitching, a flower and some foliage.
I have managed to stay awake most afternoons this week, but I think that Mondays early start if finally catching up with me, so I'm off to bed.
I will get around to visiting some of you, but I won't make any promises as to when. So much to do, and so little time to do it in.
Happy Crafting
Hugs Kimx

She's been at it again

Evening Everyone
Just a really quick post tonight I'm afraid as the evening has got away from me once again.
My card tonight has been made by my good friend Sylvie for the Woodware Sketch Challenge using a lovely Lili of the Valley stamp JGS289 designed by Jane Gill.

Now I want to say that she has used chalks to colour the image and create the background, but the closer I look at it the more unsure I am about that because there seems to be so much texture to it, so I think I will just have to ask her.

I will also have to e-mail Dorothy as the link to the challenge seems to have closed already, or maybe it really is later that I think lol.
Better get some sleep and maybe it will all appear clearer tomorrow.
Night, night.
Hugs Kimx

Having a kick about

Evening everyone,
I managed to survive the day without a granny nap, so I am hoping that I will sleep better tonight. I think I managed about 3 hours last night, so I am knackered as you can imagine lol.
One of the cards in the pile that got written over the weekend was this one that my Grandson gave to his friend for his birthday.

I'm so glad that I made a couple of football cards for my box as they have come in very handy over the last couple of weeks.
They were made with Lili of the Valley die cuts and more patchwork background.

I was really pleased with how they turned out. I think I will have to make a couple more.

I can see some more birthdays coming up, and I don't always get much notice when anyone needs a card. 

I have a drawer full of assorted cards but never seem to have ones that are suitable for 'smaller people' :O)

Oh boy, look at the time, no wonder I'm nodding off as I'm writing this. I hope that just means that I am very tired and not that I am very boring lol.

Hugs and good night

Kimx

I'm having another Magenta moment

Evening everyone.
I told you the weather would go down hill after the longest day, well today has definitely been proof of that, sorry.
I decided that today I would try and finish a few things, 'just because', before I got on with the next round of DT things that I have to do.
So with that in mind I managed to get some of the bleach bits from class finished, as well as a pile of cards written and ready to send.

I seem to be going through a bit of a Magenta phase at the moment so here are just a couple of the Christmas cards that I have managed to finish today.

The image on each has been stamped and embossed onto Bazzil card stock  and then painted with undiluted thin bleach.

I have then painted the poinsettia with Barn Door Distress ink.
Some of the leaves have also been painted with Peeled Paint Distress ink and some have not.

I have kept these cards in traditional Christmas colours but there were others that I finished that were definitely not traditional at all. I will share those on another occasion.
I have to be at work at 5am tomorrow so I suppose that I really need to get some sleep even though I am still wide awake at the moment.
I can see I will be in need of a granny nap tomorrow afternoon lol.
Sweet Dreams
hugs Kimx

A day filled with Daisies

Evening, How's your weekend?
We had another fabulous class at Davina's (in Purley) this afternoon. More cake too since it was the first time Blanche had been there since her birthday.

As usual they made a tag to remind them of the technique. I can't believe that we are on Tag 10 already!!

 The tag contained examples of both painting with bleach (the daisies by Stampendous) and stamping with it (the wording by Artemio).

The background has been created by spritzing card with bleach in a Mini Mister bottle. I stamped all over it with the Hero Arts Leaf Flourish, Versamark ink and Clear Embossing Powder.

Once you have painted the image to bleach out the colour it is easy to add colour back in using your inks as I have done here with the daisies.
We didn't make any cards but everyone had a great time painting images with bleach for use at home. In fact I have several lovely Magenta panels to make into Christmas cards, so watch this space as they say.
We are a very friendly crowd, so if ever you are up for a fun filled Saturday afternoon why not check us out.
Details of July classes are in the side bar, so maybe I will see you next time.
Hugs Kimx

More bleach and a Disco

Hi All
I have been sitting in my Craft room playing, sorry, finishing my class prep :O) with the curtains open and I hadn't realised just how late it was.
I suppose it's all down hill from here given that today is the longest day of the year lol.
Tomorrow the girls and I will be playing with Bleach at Davina's, so I thought I would share one of the cards that I have made for the class.

I have used one of my all time favourite Hobby Art stamps designed from a sketch drawn by my friend Anna's Mum.
The background paper has been created by spritzing blue card stock with thin undiluted bleach.
Make sure you do this somewhere safe, like in the bottom of the bath or the shower. You never know someone might even think that you have actually been doing some cleaning instead of having fun :O)

The central image has been stamped and embossed onto black card stock and then painted with the bleach. This card didn't bleach terribly well so I added quite a lot to the petals and then heated it with a craft Heat Tool to intensify the effect.

The Grandchildren had a good time tonight as it was the school disco. Fortunately it is organised by age, but this does end up with a bit of a shuttle service going on throughout the evening.
Here are Saskia and Ciaran with their friend Kaitlin ready to go.
The little ones seemed to take forever to get ready, and there was much hairspray and gel as well as lippy involved. Oh to be 6 again when life is so simple.

The second shift involved Reece and Kaitlin's brother Ethan. A few years make all the difference, they wanted to stay outside and play football rather than get in the shower lol.
They all had a great time but came back bouncing off the walls after all of the sugar consumption. I'm glad I didn't have to get them to bed.
Speaking of which I had better make a move in that direction myself.
See you tomorrow.
Hugs Kimx

Magenta Garden Tile

Evening Everyone,
I hope that you have had a good day. Mine has been a lot less stressful than yesterday, but I can't help but be thankful that it is nearly the weekend.
I have been trying to prep for my class on Saturday, where we are playing with bleach. I do hope that the girls remember not to wear their best clothes. They should all be used to my messy classes by now, so I'm hoping that we will be OK.
There has been much playing and stamping this afternoon, but no actual card making so I thought that I would share a card that I made a while ago using bleach.

The stamp is once again a fabulous design from Magenta M.0469 Garden Tile, although unfortunately it looks as if it is no longer available.
One of the brilliant things with bleach is that it allows you to paint onto coloured card stock and still retain the true colour of the inks used.

I stamped and embossed the image onto Salmon Pink Bazzil card stock and then painted it with undiluted thin bleach.
You will have to experiment as not all card stock will bleach successfully.
Once the bleach has dried (you can speed and intensify the effect by heating using a craft heat tool) paint the image using any colouring medium. Here I have used dye based inks such as Distress or Kaliedacolour ink pads.

I tore the edges of the panel and mounted it onto black glossy, and green card stock.
I was really pleased with the subtle effect that this produced.
I will have to get a couple of cards finished tomorrow, plus the tag and instructions ready for Saturday afternoon. Oh dear what a hardship, that means that I will have to play some more lol.
hugs Kimx

Sorry You are Blue at Woodware

Hi All
So what happened to all the wet weather that the newspapers have been telling us is going to go on for the next ten years
Parts of today have to have been the hottest in a long while, or maybe it was just trying to deal with a brand new till system and customers who are in a hurry and don't care that you have only just started using it and don't yet know how everything works is what was making me sweat.
Computer simulation training is all very well but it doesn't allow for real Nectar cards that won't scan because the strip is dirty or worn and won't let you go back and start again once you have pushed a button. Whoever said change was good had better not get too close to me or they might get the raw edge of my tongue!!!!
Sorry......... rant over...............chill...........and so on to tonight's card.
This week the lovely Ladies over at Woodware are Sorry You are Blue. (How very appropriate lol)
Dorothy says that she is never sure what the girls are going to come up with when she sets the challenges so I hope that my card will be considered OK.
I'm feeling a bit 'carded out' at the moment after this last week so I went through my box and found this one that I made a while ago.

The stamp is by Magenta, (I do love their stamps) which I have stamped and embossed and then coloured using dye based inks.

 The greeting is from Lili of the Valley, but I hope that I will be forgiven for that.

I added some Woodware Ribbon across the card and some stamping with both inks and bleach to the blue background panel.
I think I had better get an early night, cause I can't see tomorrow being any less stressful than today. Let's hope that I'm wrong.
Hugs Kimx

Take Three Girls

Evening Everyone,
Well today has thankfully been a much more normal day, no major dramas. I have also finally managed to finish all of the DT cards that are being collected on Friday.
So here we are with another of the cards that I made for Barbara's last TV show.

The 'Three Girls' have been stamped using the 'Kissing Technique'.
I inked each of the girls using Colourbox Pigment inks and then 'kissed' the image with a clean stamp to remove ink leaving a pattern.
Stamp and emboss the 'kissed' image and there you have it.

I added lots of tiny dots, my new favourite thing to do, and so much quicker than it looks. The green panel in the background has been created using Multiple Resist.
I hope that tomorrow proves to be a nice easy and uneventful day, but as we are having a new till system installed I some how think that that might be a vain hope.
Hugs Kimx

So much for a nice uneventful day!!

Evening Everyone
I hope that you have all had a nice quiet uneventful day.
Ours has been quite the opposite. So much for my uninterrupted last day at home quietly making cards.
There I was having a very successful morning, hoping to get all of my top secret projects finished when there was a loud yell from the kitchen.
I rushed in to discover that our new 'Self Clean' oven had exploded during the cleaning cycle shattering the internal glass door and slowly melting the buttons and dial. We possess a fire blanket but as the oven is inside a wooden housing and smoke seemed to be coming from it I rushed down to work and borrowed an electrical fire extinguisher - just in case!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank God we live so close to where I work, but next time I must remember to put something on my feet other than Kroc's, you can't do anything quickly in them.
We got Jason to come home. Not quite sure what we thought he could do, but at least he did manage to move the oven forward out of the housing so that it could cool down.
After more than half and hour on the phone being passed from one department to another we are told that we need to leave the oven where it is (half in the housing and half on the ironing board) and someone will be out to REPAIR IT on Friday.
Call us crazy but we don't want it repaired we want it gone and a brand new one in it's place.
So let's hope that this week isn't too warm as our meals are going to consist of stews cooked in the slow cooker and plenty of pasta. We might even try fish fingers in the microwave, my good friend Gill swears by them.
So please excuse a picture less post. I think my heart has stopped racing from the drama, and the sudden exercise!! but I couldn't quite get my head round photos for the blog.
Note to self - invest in a fire extinguisher, and maybe a pair of running shoes lol.
Let's hope normal service will be resumed tomorrow.
Big hugs Kimx

Happy Father's Day

Evening Everyone
I hope that you have had a wonderful Father's Day. Have you been waiting on him hand and foot, just as he is supposed to do for Mother's Day?
I have spent another day chained to my desk but the Grandkids have been making sure that their Dad is looked after with a cooked 'Brunch' and plenty of cups of tea and coffee.
We also had a lovely Sunday Roast dinner, which is always a favourite with everyone.
As my own Dad is sadly no longer with us I had no need to make a Father's Day card so I thought instead that I would share this card that I made for a friend to give her Dad on his birthday last month.

Her Dad had been in the Navy for most of his adult life so she wanted something with a Nautical theme.
I had very little in the way of stamps for this so I just had to have a little bit of a spend up with Woodware.

The greeting on the map is what Vicky asked me to put on the card, it is what they call her Dad.

The ship has been coloured using Distress Inks and then the sails have been painted with thin undiluted bleach.

I used Frantage powder on some of the background images as well as Sticky Embossing Powder and Copper Leafing.
The base to the card uses one of my favourite Punch Around the Page punches which is great for Men's cards.
I would like to enter this into the following challenges
613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes or TWIST Someone Special (A Male)
Dream Valley Challenge - Father's Day / Male Theme
Totally Gorjuss - For Dad
The Hobby House - Anything Goes (The compass charm is from their collection)
The Artistic Stamper - Makes for Men
Better get to bed, it is my last day off tomorrow and I still have so much left to do. I'm hoping that the Grandchildren will wake me up before they go to school.
Hugs Kimx

Another New Arrival

Evening Everyone,
Are you having  a good weekend. The weather has been very changeable here with big black clouds overhead, which thankfully haven't come to anything so far except a few spots.

It's just as well that last time I made a card for a new baby I made a couple of extra ones for my box as we needed one today and I have had no time to make a new one.

Once again I used one of my Lili of the Valley die cuts and a combination of Grand Nesties which I bought at SirStampalot.

 It was nice to make a nice big card for a change, although of course I also had to make a box for it lol.

The sentiment is also from a Lili of the Valley stamp set and the flowers are made using a Tim Holtz die.
I would like to enter it in to the following challenges
Stampin for the Weekend - Cute
Alphabet Challenge - I for Image
Thanks for stopping by, see you again tomorrow, I hope.
Hugs Kimx

A chalked Flower

Hi All
Here we are at the weekend, yet again, I hope that the weather has been better at your end.
We actually had some sunshine here which was nice. I even left my craft room, if only very briefly, to walk down the road for some milk. Well I can't be expected to craft with out coffee now can I!!

 Among the cards that I sent last month was this one made using a very old Rubber Stampede flower stamp.

The stamped image has been coloured using chalks and it has been mounted over background papers from my stash.
I added some peel-off lines to the right hand side of the card which worked quite well I thought.
I think I might have a reasonably early night tonight and start fresh tomorrow.
Still so much to do, and so little time to do it all in.
hugs Kimx

A Clarity Birdhouse.

Evening All
I need a break for a few minutes from the card making so I thought that I would post my card for today

This was just a simple one made for the last Clarity TV show.
The Birdhouse is part of the next Classroom Kit, and I used second generation ink to stamp the image onto white card stock.

I also added all of the tiny black dots with a fine Micron pen.
Best get back to my crafting, my days off are flying by and I'm not even half way through what I have to get finished.
Thanks for stopping by.
Hugs Kimx

A Day full of Happiness

Hi All
I've had a very productive day, how about you?
Definitely a day for staying indoors and playing, it's been pouring with rain here practically all day.
The parcel of goodies that I ordered from Woodware arrived today, so I'm sure that went a long way to helping out in the creative department lol.
I'm working on some hush hush projects at the moment, but I have a deadline that is approaching very fast. Where on earth does the time go I would like to know.

My card tonight was made a while ago, just because!!

The little lady from Magnolia, by way of SirStampalot, is called Tilda with Daisy and was coloured using my Distress Inks.

The part embossed panel was in my 'bits box' as were all of the pieces of background paper.

I added some faux stitching and finished the whole thing off with a sentiment from Lili of the Valley.
My craft table is calling, and as I don't have to get up early for work tomorrow I think I will get back to it while I am feeling inspired.
See you tomorrow.
Hugs Kimx