Thank You to the Boys in Blue - You are Amazing

Evening Everyone.........rant alert!!

This morning we were in the middle of a fuel delivery at work when a customer parked their car in a spot clearly designated as No Parking. I could see the delivery driver politely ask the guys to move their vehicle, but he was ignored. 

As luck would have it two police officers followed them into the shop, so I explained the situation and asked the officers if they would mind asking the gentlemen (and I use the term very loosely) to move their car. I wish I hadn't asked as the officers were then subject to a great deal of arguing and abuse before the customers threw their shopping aside, stropped off and vowed never to shop with us again. I don't think we will miss them lol.

What happened to respect for the law? Is it any wonder that we as employees are told not to challenge customers who don't abide by the rules surrounding masks when a uniformed officer, an upholder of the law, can be subject to such abuse over what was actually a safety issue at any time, but especially during a fuel delivery.

I wouldn't have their jobs for anything. The altercation left me shaking, and it wasn't me being yelled at. I'm really rather sorry that I asked for their assistance now, as I'm sure they were too. Not a good start to anyone's shift.

So now that I've had my rant, here is a card for the all the police out there.....You are AMAZING.

I made this card a while ago using one of Jane Gill's beautiful floral dies from Woodware.

I stamped and embossed the image several times onto a piece of dark blue card stock and then painted it with a pearlescent paint such as Creative Expressions Irridescent Watercolour or a Pearlex palette.

I trimmed the panel and layered it onto some co-ordinating blue embossed card stock

I added the sentiment strip to which I added a little fussy cutting.

My turn to cook dinner tonight so I had better get a wiggle on. Thanks for stopping by.

Stay safe and Craft.

Big hugs 

Kimx

A floral masterboard.

Evening Everyone,
OMG, what happened to the sunshine yesterday?
I don't know what happened to the traffic either, but everything seemed to be going at a snails pace. So much so that I ended up walking home after an abortive attempt by my daughter to drive me there.
She was trying to be nice and drop me home after we had taken shopping to my Mum, but we got caught up in the tailback caused by whatever was going on on the M25........1 hour to cover a quarter of a mile!!!!
With three small children in the car all needing their dinner I ended up sending Becki home via an alternative route, while I continued home on foot which seemed the most sensible course of action. Not a bad walk really, apart from the torrential rain which appeared while I was half way home. I arrived looking a bit like a drowned rat lol.

Painting is always very relaxing, especially when the weather outside is dreadful.

We had a very enjoyable class a couple of weeks ago painting with one of my favourite colouring mediums...….Pearlex.

Most of the Watercolour Pearlex colours look so much better on dark coloured card stock,

so I created a masterboard by repeatedly stamping and gold embossing a beautiful floral stamp from Stamps by Me.

I painted all of the images with colours from a couple of my Watercolour Pearlex palettes.

I love the beautiful vibrant colours, with just a hint of sparkle. So much better in the flesh.

Once I had finished I chopped the masterboard up to create six different, but similar cards.

I also stamped and embossed the image onto a couple of strips of mop up background,

to create another couple of cards. Just what I need to send to several friends whose birthdays I have missed.

Off to bed now.

Hugs to All

Kimx

Powdered Pearlex and Chalks for Christmas.

Hi All,
Given the inclement weather that we have had recently I thought that I would share a few more Christmas cards with you.
We are playing with Decorating Chalks and also dry powdered Pearlex in class tomorrow, snow drifts willing of course lol, so here are a few of the samples that I will be taking with me to inspire the ladies.

Pearlex works well on both dark and light coloured card stock, although I think that I actually prefer the effects on dark as it is much more striking.

Stamp with Versamark and then dust the image with a very small amount of Pearlex and a paintbrush. Less is very definitely more as they say.

These first couple of cards, using a very old snowflake image, use Pearlex powders.
I love both the mediums that we will be playing with, although I do particularly associate Pearlex with Christmas because of it's beautiful sparkle.

The panel on this one is created with the Decorating Chalks which is applied to the versamark stamped image using a cotton wool ball.

 

Pearlex powders can also be mixed into a paint with the addition of a little gum arabic and water.

These last few cards use this to paint the central panel on them.
I don't want to confuse everyone with this technique so we will have to play with Watercolour Pearlex on another occasion. That's another class to add to the list.

Several of the backgrounds to the cards have been created using Embossing folders and a hint of Gilding Wax.

It looks like the snow has melted here at least, although who knows what it is like just up the road.

Better get a wiggle on, my lift will be here soon.

Have a great crafty day, and stay warm.

Hugs Kimx

Anything but a Card at CCM

Well as I predicted, my toothache really has got the better of me.
The antibiotics took nearly a week to kick in and I have been popping painkillers like they were going out of fashion, all of which left me feeling sick all the time. How my daughter Becki put up with it for the entire 9 months of her pregnancy I will never know. I could barely manage a week!!
I think part of the problem is that I don't usually take any pills at all so my system is struggling to cope.
I started to feel a whole lot better at the end of last week after another emergency appointment to drain the infection, and my bank balance can look forward to a huge hit when I start treatment for a root canal filling.........oh joy!
On a much happier note Chloe is gorgeous, and Emma is being a very helpful 'Big Sister' despite co-incidentally hitting the terrible twos.
I have been working on Thank you cards for all the wonderful prezzies that the Girls have been given, but as I can't share them yet I though that instead I would show you the picture frames that I made for a recent class.

We have a new challenge starting today over at CCM where our host Angela is looking for Anything But a Card so these fitted the bill perfectly.

I recently held a class where we made picture frames using some old wood mounted stamps.

This frame uses a Magenta stamp which has been coloured in using Watercolour Pearlex.
The floral embellishment is from Stampin Up

This frame uses the same Magenta stamp

and some Hero Art floral stamps.

This frame uses a very old Penny Black frame stamp. It was actually made many years ago but will make a fabulous Christmas gift.

It is the perfect image for some decoupage, although now I would prefer to use silicon glue to attach the cut out images.
I hope that you will find the time to join in with our challenge which runs for the next two weeks, just remember that we are only looking for Anything but a card.
Have a great week.
Happy Crafting and Hugs
Kimx

A Floral Heart for Valentines Day

Evening All,
Happy Valentines Day. Have you all had a wonderful day being spoiled rotten?
We have had some amazing £50 bunches of roses as work, beautiful I know, but I have to be honest and say that I would much rather have a nice piece of jewelry, or even better, a voucher to spend at a craft store :O).
In fact, call us ungrateful, but both my daughters and I are all of the same opinion that we would go mental if someone spent that much on a bunch of flowers for us.
At least the weather has been bright, if a little chilly. Not like 38 years ago when I spent the afternoon, in labour, crammed in the back of a very small car driving through a blizzard to get to the hospital in Greenwich. Jenni took a while to appear, by which time there was no public transport, so her Dad spent the night in a side room sleeping on two chairs that the nurses had pushed together for him. I can't see that happening now. Health and safety and all that lol.

I don't send Valentines cards, so here is the next best thing, a Wedding card for a friend who finally got to tie the knot last week.

The floral heart stamp which was designed by Jane Gill has been stamped and embossed in gold and then painted with Watercolour Pearlex to give it a beautiful shimmer.

I tapped the edges of the cream card with a Versamark ink pad and then added gold embossing powder before layering the panel onto some blue background paper.
I hope that you get to enjoy the rest of your evening, what ever you may be up to.
Happy Crafting and Hugs from me.
Kimx

Peacock Feathers

Evening Everyone,
Have you had a good Saturday?
We have had a great time in class today playing with Alcohol inks, which I will try and share with you tomorrow. I have had no time to finish anything as I have been trying to catch up with some DT posts.
Instead I thought that I would share the last of the cards made with the fabulous Hobby Art CS155D Feather.

I stamped and embossed the peacock feather several times onto a piece of handmade background paper from my stash.

The images were painted with a Watercolour Pearlex palette and the sentiment added from an old, but very well used stamp set.

The blue background paper has been embossed using a feather Embossing folder and then gently highlighted with gold Gilding Wax.

I used the rest of the piece of handmade paper to stamp and emboss the feather in gold for this next card.

I also used the same Pearlex palette to paint the feather.

The sentiment from the feather set has been stamped and embossed onto white card stock in black and then the panel is edged with versamark ink and gold embossing powder.
No nearer to getting any Christmas cards written, and now I have only one day left till I go back to work, so it looks like this year is going the same way as every other one.
Oh well, never mind, life is too short to stress about it.
Happy Crafting and hugs
Kimx

Quick and Easy Christmas Cards for Woodware

Morning Everyone,
We are bringing you ideas for Quick Christmas Cards over at WoodwareWitterings this week in case you are starting to panic..

I played with a lovely old Woodware stamp set FRCL047 Mr Frosty and a new Stampendous one CRY032 International Snow.
I don't like making the same card twice so I made several different cards for you from the same set.

Instead of fussy cutting the snowman out as in the first card, I created a mask and stamped over him so that he looks as if he is standing in front of the sentiment panel.
Like all of the dark cards I used thin bleach to take the colour out of the image before painting back in with watercolour Pearlex and Sparkle pens.

These two are probably the nearest I get to making the same card.

Once again I fussy the snowman panel and added him over the sentiment using silicon.

My final card took a little more time because of the border, although the central panel has been created in the same way as the rest of the cards.
I hope you can find a few ideas here to help you with those last minute Christmas cards.
Have a great day.
Happy Crafting and hugs
Kimx

Vintage and Lace with Woodware

Morning Everyone,
I hope that you have had a good week.
Today it is my turn to share a card with you over at Woodware.

This week we are looking at Vintage and Lace.

I have stamped and embossed JGS308 Heart Garden in gold and then coloured it using Watercolour Pearlex.

I used a Dreamweaver stencil to create the background panel, dry embossed and coloured using brown dye based ink. I attached a strip of lace and ribbon to the panel before adding it to the main card.

I stamped and embossed the same image around the edges of the main card and then sponged the whole thing with dye based inks.
A few tiny pearls continue the vintage theme.
I hope that you will check out what the rest of the team have made this week HERE.
Have a great weekend.
Hugs Kimx