Happy Birthday for yesterday Megan

Evening Everyone,
Not quite two posts in a row, but there was a very good reason for that.
Yesterday was my eldest Granddaughters 19th birthday, and I had chosen one of these cards to give to her.

I have just spent the last hour writing my rather wordy post, only for the bloody computer to swallow it up without saving it. GRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!
As I have to start work at stupid o'clock again tomorrow, I have abandoned all plans to rewrite it. So you will just have to put up with loads of pictures and no text.

The one advantage to the very early start, is the equally early finish which means I will be able to get away to see the littlest grandchildren for my sleepover all the sooner.
Happy Crafting and hugs
Kimx

The Results of an Inky Afternoon

Evening Everyone,
Did you had a good weekend? I certainly did.
We had a fabulous, if rather inky class on Saturday, inspired by a technique that I found on YouTube.

The lovely Tracy Dutton from Lavinia Stamps has posted several clips using the Gelli Plate, inks and Brushos.

It creates fabulous backgrounds

which can then be used with some of the wonderful stamps that she has designed.

I am always on the look out for new techniques for the Girls to play with, so this was perfect.

They love the Gelli Plate and inks, so it was great to add in some Brushos/Colour Bursts for extra interest and colour combos.

I was disappointed with mine at first, because of course they didn't look like Tracy's, but as I am always telling the Girls,

backgrounds look totally different when they have been stamped on and trimmed down.

I used a combination of trees, foliage and fairies

along with the odd crow

and deer, and ended up extremely pleased with every one of them.

I added the moon mask to all of them which just seems to finish things off perfectly.

I am also a complete convert to the Versafine Clair inkpad for perfect stamped images.

This is often so hard to achieve with a solid image like these beautiful fairies.

I painted some of the stamped images with bleach to remove some of the colour,

and also added some subtle shimmer with a sparkle pen along with the Gelli Roll glaze pen to define the outline of the moon.

I did say that it was a very inky class, as the Girls's hands prove.
My Sunday were spent in the very enjoyable task of turning all my bits of background into the stamped and finished cards that I have shared here. Well some of them anyway. I do try very hard these days to finish off everything that I started in class, otherwise they end up in the bits box which never seems to get any smaller.
I thought that as this was a rather picture heavy post anyway,  I would keep some of the cards for another day. You never know I might even manage to blog two days in a row.
Off to the gym now with my friend. It has been quite a while since we have managed to get there so today is going to be really hard. Never mind you have to start somewhere I guess.
Have a great day.
Happy Crafting and hugs
Kimx

One Man's Trash..........

Afternoon,
I do love making backgrounds, it's always been one of my favourite things to do. The trouble is knowing when to stop playing and turn your creations into cards.

The following cards were made using a piece of handmade Brusho background.

I have to say that it wasn't the best piece from my stash, but that's the trouble with me, I can never throw anything away.
I have started to set aside pieces that I am less keen on which I can then take with me to use in class if needed. 'One man's trash is another man's treasure' as they say :O)

I obviously adopted this approach after I made these cards, but having stamped, embossed, matted and layered the panels, I am more than happy with the finished results.

I randomly stamped and embossed in black and then added further images using gold ink.
A tiny white border finishes the panel off perfectly, and 'lifts' it from the main card.
Finishing touches include sentiments, faux stitching, black pearls and glitter glue.
If all goes according to plan this will go live on Wednesday afternoon. If not it's back to the drawing board and forget about scheduling posts lol.
Hope you are having a fabulous day.
Happy Crafting and hugs
Kimx

Playtime with Brushos/Color Burst/Pixie Powders

Evening Everyone,
We had another fabulous afternoon, this time playing with Brushos / Color Burst / Pixie Powders.
I also took along an assortment of stamps, dies, embossing folders and stencils for us to play with using ideas that I had found on Pinterest and YouTube.
Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a card finished, but it has meant adding to my ever growing pile of backgrounds as it was just too much fun playing.

As usual I liked other peoples pieces better than my own, but I think that is often the case.

Since I didn't manage to finishing anything off I am sharing a card that I made a couple of years ago during another such play session.

I added some stamped and embossed images,

along with some Imagination sparkle medium added through a diamond stencil.

Here are a few of the other pieces that I made during that previous session.
Now if I could just find a few extra days in the week, I might get some of them made up into cards lol.
In the mean time I have a special birthday card to finish and some cards for both Hobby Art Jenny and Jane Gill who will be appearing on Hochanda next Sunday and Monday the 29th and 30th July.
No rest for the wicked!! I sure hope that I enjoyed myself :O)
Happy Crafting and hugs
Kimx

A Belated Birthday Greeting.

Evening Everyone,
It's Monday again, where on earth is the time going to?
Having spent the weekend making DT samples I decided that I really ought to try and catch up with some commenting.
And then I realised why it is that I try and spend as little time as possible on the blasted computer.............it is just sooooooo slow.
It seems to take forever to do anything, so I have done a bit of housekeeping on my blog and made a few comments and then I am calling it a night before the darn thing ends up being thrown through the nearest window.

So here is a card that I sent to Barbara Gray for her birthday earlier in the month.

The central image has been stamped onto a piece of Brusho background from my stash which has then been layered onto a piece of background created using my Gelli Plate, a stencil and acrylic paint.
That's enough for tonight, my stress levels are through the roof, so have a good evening.
Hugs Kimx

Thank You, Thank You

Evening Everyone,
Are you cold enough? It's b....y freezing here today, bitter cold.
Hopefully at this time of year you are in need of several Thank You cards to send after all of those fabulous Christmas gifts.
Having only just finished Emma's birthday thank you's I hope that we can manage to be a little more speedy with her Christmas ones.
Mum is still working on her ideas for them, so here in the meantime are a few that I made a while ago using a fantastic old Magenta cling stamp set.

 They are only tiny cards,

 made using up some scraps of background created with Brushos.

The stamp set is made up of several rectangular and square stamps 

 which all tessellate perfectly.

I cut around the stamped images and mounted them onto small plain white cards.

I can't remember who made the sentiment, but as you can see even without it it makes a lovely card for any occasion.
Time for my nice warm bed I think.
Bye for now.
Hugs Kimx

Making the Most of Sue Wilson

Morning Everyone,
I did think I might have finally written all of my Christmas cards, until I thought of a couple more as I was in the shower this morning, so maybe not lol.
Anyway I thought that we might have a break from them on the blog today and share something different.

 These cards have all been made using Brushos or Color Bursts.

The background to this one also uses a Dutch Doobadoo stencil and a fabulous Hero Arts grasses stamp.

 I also added a little bit of sparkle with a little Imagination Sparkle Medium.

This one uses a different stencil, 

as well as a moon mask and some extra sponged ink.

These last cards use plain Brusho backgrounds

and stamped images

that match the fantastic Sue Wilson die.

Of course not wanting to waste anything, I have used up every part of my die cut card to create nice decorative borders

as well as using the centers as nice ornate frames.Maybe I can get back to the gym now that I have finished my card writing, I certainly need to, although it is not looking good for today. Why is it that having a couple of extra days off might make for a short week, but it feels like today has gone on for ever.
Time for a granny nap, me think the gym can wait another day lol.
Have a great day.
Hugs Kimx