A Birthday card for a young lady

Hi All
Me again.
I have been a very good girl and finished off all of the bits and pieces from my Alcohol Inks class but as you can see by the lateness of the hour there has been no time for photos so here is the card that I have made for a young girl that comes into the garage.

It is actually her birthday today but her Mum is going to bring her into the garage in the morning so that I can give her her card.

A good old Lili of the Valley topper, some background papers and a handmade flower. I hope see likes it.
Hugs Kimx

My kind of Alcohol

Hi All
I hope that you are having a wonderful weekend.
We had a fabulous class yesterday at Davina's playing with Alcohol inks. As a non drinker this is definitely my kind of alcohol, and we had so much fun playing with it. There was also cake and Easter Eggs, what more could a girl ask for!!
Because it has been such a long time since I have played with Alcohol Inks (I used the ones by Dreamweaver available from Woodware) I checked out Pinterest and Youtube for some ideas.

As you can see I ended up with loads of bit (this is just a small selection) which need finishing off.

As usual we made a tag which shows the inks used as a background on glossy card stock.

In fact there were so many techniques to share that we ended up making two. This second one shows inks used on acetate which I found HERE (about 5mins into the clip)
I'm off to do a bit of finishing off so I might try and pop back later with some more finished samples, it just depends on how much fun I'm having and whether I can stop before bed time :O).
Hugs Kimx

Through the Looking Glass

Evening Everyone,
Welcome to the weekend.
I've spent most of this evening writing the instructions for the last four class tags.
As you know I have had major computer problems which has meant that I have been unable to write the instructions for the Girls to add to their class tags, so I thought that I had better do some catching up.
I've also been playing, I mean prepping, for tomorrows class :O)
The only trouble is that I seem to have created a rather large pile of 'bits' that need putting together.
So instead here is a card that I made a little while ago for the daughter of a friend.

 It was very quick and easy, and made mostly with 'bits' from my box.

 A Lili of the Valley topper and a handmade flower,

along with a die cut frame and some leaves.
I'm pulling off my best nodding dog impression here at the moment, so I think I had better call it a night. There will time for a little more playtime tomorrow before I go out, so maybe I will get to finish a few things then.
Hugs Kimx

Embossed Alcohol

Evening
Nearly the end of another week. Would someone please slow things down or it will be Christmas again before we know it lol.

Here is another of the cards that I made for Hobby Art Jenny's TV show on Wednesday.

The background to the card has been made using Alcohol inks and an embossing folder, which is just the sort of thing that I will be sharing with the ladies in class on Saturday.

The sentiment and butterflies are from the new Hobby Art Butterflies set, stamped and embossed and coloured using the Vintage Pearlex Watercolour palette.

I embossed the piece of alcohol ink background and then applied Distress ink using the inkpad directly on to the paper. I heat embossed this which makes the embossing stand out.
hugs Kimx

Hobby Art Butterflies

Evening Everyone,
I'm sorry for my rather sporadic return to blogging, but what with DT samples for the TV, class prep and the imminent arrival of the next parcel of stamps from Woodware I have been otherwise occupied.
Speaking of the TV, did you catch 'Hobby Art Jenny' on the box today?
Here is one of the cards that I made for her using the fantastic new Butterflies stamp set.

The butterflies were stamped and embossed onto white card stock and then Distress inks were sponged over them.

I used a stencil to add some dots to the background as well as some tiny solid stamped butterflies from the stamp set.

The text stamp from the show has been used to remove ink from the background by stamping it with water.
I've been having such fun playing with inks and stencils just lately, but then I always did love making backgrounds.
Better get some sleep, I have more class prep to work on tomorrow. We will be using Alcohol inks on Saturday at Davina's and it has been quite a while since I last played with them so we need to get reacquainted.
hugs Kimx

Happy Easter weekend

Evening Everyone,
I hope that you have all had a fabulous Easter weekend, and that you are not too overstuffed with chocolate.
I don't really DO Easter, just ask my Girls. I was the mean Mum who bought them a book instead of an Easter Egg. Well they always seemed to get so many from everyone else.
I haven't really changed with the Grandchildren either, although I did give them a small cream egg (their favourite) and a couple of pound for their money box.
At work however we have had to do our bit to celebrate, so yesterday I press ganged the younger kids into dressing up and coming to work to greet all of the customers. The things I do on my day off lol.

I had promised to buy them breakfast, but the first thing my Boss asked them as they walked in to work was 'What would you like to eat? Choose whatever you want.'

The boys went for an All day Breakfast, typical boys, where as Sas went for a more reserved chocolate croissant. Hot chocolate all round and that was them sorted for the morning.

Sas definitely got into her roll, especially when a couple of customers gave them each a small egg, which she stored in her basket.

The Boss's daughters played their part as did the daughter of one of my other colleagues. In fact everyone at work that day had dressed up in white shirt and bow tie, and even a few bunny ears.

I made everyone an Easter name badge, and as you can see I am not a tidy workman.

Thank goodness for pre-coloured images and peel-offs is all I can say.
I can't believe how many Easter eggs we managed to sell. In fact there were none left by midday on Sunday so I hope that no one was expecting any end of season bargains.
Oh well, back to normal tomorrow so that's another Bank holiday over. Still, I suppose that there are another two to look forward to next month, for those of you that don't work on those days anyway.
Hugs Kimx

Playing with my Creative Palette

Evening Everyone,
Are you having a good weekend?
I have been having way too much fun playing with my Creative Palette and inks after some advice from the lovely Jane Gill.
I haven't been very successful with acrylic paint on it, but inks seem to work fine although the effects I have been getting are very different from those backgrounds I've pulled from my Gelli plate.

I used some Colorbox Chalk re-inkers to create the background and Hair Styling Gel as my extender. Jane had said that she used hand sanitising gel but this was the nearest that I could find at work.

I used several new Stampendous stamps in the background along with co-ordinating Distress inks.

I decided not to try and colour in the floral images that I stamped and embossed onto my paper so that the background would remain the focus.

The sentiment was added on a piece of torn vellum.
My resolve to use up all of my scraps is failing me at the moment as my pile of hand made background papers is getting bigger and bigger lol.
Better get some sleep before I start another play session.
Night night.
Hugs Kimx

Rose Trellis

Evening Everyone
How lovely to see the sunshine again, although it was deceptively cold, let's hope that they are not right about us getting snow for Easter lol.

I have had several anniversary cards to make recently, so I thought that you might like to see one that shows that I do use my stamps, really I do :O)

The stamped, embossed and coloured panel was actually created when I was staying at SirStampalot last month. I liked the stamp so much that it managed to find it's way into my shopping basket.

The image was cut out using one of Janice's fancy Nesties which I think will have to go on my wish list.
I have coloured the image using Distress markers and mounted it onto a dry embossed panel.
I added a little Stardust pen and some tiny crystals for a little bit of bling.
I wish my rose bush looked as good as this. I'm not very green fingered, just ask my Mum, she is the one who has to nurture my failures back to life lol.
I think I will stick to my stamped flowers, I know what  I'm doing with them.
Hugs Kimx

Floral Profussion at CCM and More

Hi All

Fiona is hosting our challenge today at Crafty Cardmakers and More and she has chosen 'A Floral Profusion' for her theme. She would love to see your creations which showcase your handmade flowers, the more the merrier!

For my card I chose an old Lili of the Valley topper (I do use my stamps girls, honestly lol) which I cut out using a circular Nestie.

The background to the card has been created using a large embossing folder, my E-bosser and some Distress ink.

I added some glitter glue to the flower centers.
The card has actually made for a friend to give to his Mum on her 70th birthday, so I added 'Mum' to the small tag on the topper,

and a circular greeting from Lili of the Valley, as well as a peel-off '70th'.

The assorted flowers and leaves have all been die cut from kraft card and papers from my stash.

We are sponsored this time by CRAFTY SENTIMENTS DESIGNS with 3 images of the winners choice.
As it will be hand delivered I have managed to get away without making a box.
Don't forget to stop by the Crafty Cardmakers and More blog and see what the rest of the DT have come up with to inspire you.
hugs Kimx

Wow, what a weekend!!

Evening Everyone,
I have had a rather unexpected end to the weekend, extra babysitting detail of the Grandchildren and a couple of extra bodies!!

 The weekend started off in a rather relaxing manner some friends round for a BBQ, despite the rather overcast weather.

It was actually a rather belated birthday treat for my 'surrogate son-in-law'.
All was going well apart from the fact that he had been stung by a wasp earlier in the day and his hand was continuing to swell (he is allergic to wasp stings and had already been to A&E)
After much discussion, and quite a bit of persuasion, he went back to the hospital only to be put in an ambulance which sped off at 90 miles and hour to East Grinstead where a team of doctors were waiting for his arrival!!
The upshot of it was a night spent at the hospital hooked up to a drip, with his wife and my daughter there for company (they had gone with him to A&E) and all of the children sleeping over here.
I ended up pulling Child Watch detail, they are all well past the baby stage, until everyone returned early this afternoon after my Sin-in-law had gone to collect them.
All the grown ups had been awake all night so as you can imagine there were a lot of rather tired people in need of coffee and feeding.
Rather appropriately tonight I have several cards to share that were made for members of the younger generation.

I'm sure that this is how everyone would have preferred to spend the weekend.

 We could have done with a little wizardry today,

And once again a little relaxation would not have gone amiss.

It was a birthday celebration I know but this is definitely not what the Birthday Boy looked like lol.

All of the cards have been made using Lili of the Valley toppers, so easy to use when you need a card in a hurry.
Lets hope that tomorrow is a little less frantic, I think that there will be quite a few grown ups in need of match sticks to prop open their eyes. Let's hope that they all get a good nights sleep.
Hugs Kimx

A new Baby Boy

Evening Everyone,
Are you having a good day? It's been distinctly chilly here, perfect excuse to craft in my book lol.

I told you that I was into my embossing folders at the moment. I used one on the background paper of this card, made for one of the guys at work who has just become a Daddy for the second time.

The super cute image is one of my Lily of the Valley toppers cut out using a circular Nestie.

The sentiment is from the  Hobby Art New Baby stamp set that Jenny recently took on the TV, and I added some Glossy Accents to the balloons.
Speaking of Hobby Art I have samples to finish tomorrow for Jenny's next show on 23rd April.
Better get some sleep.
Hugs Kimx

For my Mum

Evening Everyone,
I hope that you have had a good week and are looking forward to a nice crafty weekend, I know that I am.
Now where do I begin to share all of the cards that I have made recently.

I think that maybe this one that I made for my lovely Mum for Mother's Day is a good place to start.
I have become quite addicted to my embossing folders lately, especially since I have invested in an E-Bosser.

I'm not usually an electronic gadget girl, but this is brilliant, although I did have a bit of a meltdown when the first folder that I tried to use just kept getting spat out!!!
After a bit of a rant I tried a different platform combination and we were good to go.
I taped a couple of programs on Create and Craft yesterday, so I am hoping that there will be some tips on how to use it with dies before I cut into the wrong plate lol.

The central stamped panel on Mum's card uses one of my all time favourite stamps from Penny Black, Distress inks and some Glimmer Mists.

The embossed panel in the background was created using my Gelly Plate, acrylic paints and more Distress Ink.

 I added some stamped and stencilled images to the base card using Gold Encore ink.

The small panel with the diamond pattern was also pulled from the Gelly Plate.

The flowers and leaves were die cut from Core-dinations card stock with some added Card Candi and ribbon.
Mum is looking forward to one of her little road trips next week with her friend Liz. It's actually a 5 day break on a coach with hotel, meals and entertainment thrown in. She has a great time, and it would probably cost her more to be at home than it does for the actually holiday. Oh the joys of being a very lovely OAP.
Have a great time Ma, love you.
Hugs Kimx

Back at last, Thank you for caring.

Evening Everyone.
I'm so glad to finally be back in Blogland.
Sorry that I have been MIA for so long, but I have had major Internet and laptop issues.
I had been blogging every day, as some of you had noticed. In fact I have been amazed by just how many texts and e-mails I have had from people asking if I am OK since there has been no activity on the blog for a while.
Thank you soooo much for your care and concern. It has been wonderful to think that so many of you have missed me.
I'm very much of a technophobe when it comes to the computer. I'm absolutely terrified of pushing the wrong button and downloading some virus or other.
Give me crafty stash and I will play, but if I'm honest I'm rather scared of the computer.
My good friend Joe has rescued me, yet again.
It is so easy for computer literate people to go 'Oh you just do this, this and this!!!
By the time I have walked away, I have completely forgotten what to do (seriously blond) so I think that I will have to get him to sit down with me and go through things so that I can take notes. Maybe I need to get hold of a copy of Computers for Dummies, if there is such a thing.
Another reason for the blogging delay is the fact that I have had to find the disc to reload my camera package. Why do we always put these things away somewhere so safe we can never find them again. It is now in my laptop bag so of course it will never be needed ever again lol.

This card has been made to say Thank You to 'Inspector Morse', a crafty friend of a friend who has managed to track down a couple of punches that I have been desperate to get hold of.

The main stamped panel was created a while ago using an Artemeo floral stamp set and dye based inks.
The sentiment is from Woodware.

I managed to find some background papers in my stash that complimented the panel perfectly and I added the flower and leaves die cut from scraps. I also added some faux stitching and nail heads.
Lets hope that normal blogging service has now been resumed, and thank you once again for your concern.
Happy Crafting and hugs
Kimx