Owl Hidden Message Slider - Friday 5th September

Hello Friends!

Well what a couple of weeks this has been....this week especially! I have been catching up with your blogs again and it's really hard when you miss a few days isn't it? Our volunteer event on Monday was pretty good, people came along and had a go at micro volunteering (volunteering in the smallest amounts of time, mainly online); a few colleagues from the local Air Ambulance and Macmillan Cancer Support came along and got people liking them on Facebook and twitter, it was all good fun. We have also been holding a card making drive and supporting Age UK's Big Knit, but I want to have some photos before I tell you all about that. One of our volunteers took  some, but I haven't seen them as yet.

Then yesterday we did a coffee morning with Action for Children, which is trying to recruit more Fostercarers. I was there to offer volunteering advice if anyone wanted it. That was less successful, but I did meet two young women that through conversation over our coffees, discovered that the three of us had something in common...we love up cycling - they had just tackled their first pieces of old furniture (as have I with that desk) and we are all massive fans of Annie Sloan chalk paint...I thought that for three of us to discover this in the space a few hours was quite incredible! The other really nice thing that came out of the morning was that a lady, who is a Foster Carer also turned up and we used to work together, for the Volunteer Centre and hadn't seen each other in ages! So we could have a good catch up.

The downside from being out of the office so much this week is that I have all my paper work to catch up on...I will be in a bit more often over the next few weeks before my 2 weeks off, as I need to catch up with my volunteers.

Last night we had the first of our September Out of the Blue workshops and this is the card that my group made...sorry about the photos, I temporarily mislaid my camera this week (a whole other story) and took them with my phone, which never seems quite the same to me...

 The theme was a guy card, but I thought it would have to be something quite neutral and who doesn't like an owl? I used Mr Owl from Sam Poole's Woodland Creatures stamp sets and coloured him with Promarkers. The tree trunk is also one of Sam's Stamps, as is the leaf 'button', which  I heat embossed with metallic bronze embossing powder.

The backing paper is from Pink Petticoat and I also embossed the cream backing card with a leaf mask by Stamps Away. The leaves are all Spellbinders dies.

The card is a hidden reveal slider card: I made the aperture using a circle die cut twice and then snipped across the centre to form the window. Your could also use circle punches, but the die was easier. The slider is fixed between 2 strips of foam pad, enabling it to move in and out.

I stamped 'Have a Hoot of a Day' on the inside and Happy Birthday outside. When we made this last night, one of my group asked if I am left -handed - I'm not - but I had automatically made this card left-handed! I think I know why... when I am trying to think up cards to make for class, I search Pinterest for ideas if I am stuck. I only had a few days to come up with this week's card, so Pinterest was very helpful and gave me the idea for a slider, but the tutorials I looked at all had the cards going this way, hence I thought nothing of it! 

I did take photos of all the finished cards last night, but haven't had a chance to look at them yet, so they will be here over the weekend...today we are off to a wedding. It's the couple I made the Pop Up Box card for the other day - they have already had it and really really loved it, so I was pleased about that! Thanks for stopping by...

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

Guy Birthday Card - Saturday 3rd May 2014

Hello Friends,

Sorry I've been 'missing' a few days...I have managed to keep up with those of you who have been posting, but I myself have been so busy crafting that I'm afraid blogging had to take a back seat. I have been busily making cards for Sam Poole's design team, using her new nautical stamps which you can have  a look at over on her page - click here 

They are super guy stamps - I've never made so many male cards in a week before! My first post for Sam will be on Tuesday; I've just scheduled it and had never used Wordpress before, but it was fine (I think..we'll see on Tuesday, lol).

I've also been working on demos for our workshop this week...can't say what we'r doing, but it's our two year anniversary of delivering the workshops, so it is a little extra treat and not a card..I've already said too much!

I'm also still struggling with my sore throat and tickly cough..always this time of year, an allergy to something, thank goodness I don't get watery eyes as well!

Today I was hoping to post a very feminine card, my DT creation for Emergency Crafters this month, but the challenge has yet to be posted, so I can't share it quite yet. So, another male card..I think I went through a phase after Christmas where I decided to make some....

The mini stamp is by Stamps Away and I've had it for some time. I made a 6x6 kraft card blank and  covered it with the stripy card from stash. I then die cut a circle from the centre using Spellbinders Classic Circles Small.  The mini was also stamped on to kraft card, using archival ink, which I heat embossed with clear embossing powder to give a raised image with more definition. I like to do this on most of my cards. I die cut the image using the same circle die and inked the edges.

 I cut banners to decorate the front, attaching with brads; the sentiment is computer generated.

I used a piece of check paper from stash to cover the inside, behind the image and although I didn't photograph it, I also added the same paper, with the circle die cut through it, to cover the side behind the aperture, hiding the back of the brads.

And that's about it!

Hope you are all having a super weekend, the weather in our part of the UK has been glorious, so I hope it's the same with you. Tom and I have been to Tetbury today; it's  a small Cotswold town not far from us - we did our main food shop and browsed the antique and vintage shops. I found that one of my favourite shops there has started stocking my current new crafty love, Annie Sloan chalk paint and wax..and in small pots too! It was very busy with tourists today, which was nice, everyone was happy in the sunshine.

I came home and went out to the summerhouse (hereafter referred to as 'The Craft Barn') and did a bit more work on the old chair I've been working on. It has just in my life as long as I can remember, just an old chair (I think they call it Dutch style). It was one of the things I couldn't part with when my Mum passed away, but it really needed cheering up. I painted it with chalk paint and before I wax it, I am painting a little design on it, but I want to get it right, so it's a slow process...all will be revealed eventually. Of course, as soon as I had painted it, I realised that I hadn't taken a 'before' picture..oops!

That's me for today..but before I go, I thought you might like to see  a photo of our girls tucking into some lettuce this afternoon...

Love and Hugs,
Carole X