WOYWW #304 - Wednesday 2nd April 2015

Hello Friends and WOYWW visitors!

Gosh, 1st April already and I promise not an April Fool insight on here I promise!

Well, it's been a while but I'm back with a WOYWW post! For those of you who don't know what this is, it's that time every week when we get to share what's on our desks courtesy of Julia and Stamping Ground   - click the link to find out all about it!

So what's on my desk this week?

Well, there are some water coloured sketches I've been playing around with for a  special project that I'm working on and will be posted in a few weeks time...and that's all I'm saying at the moment!

The mini album die will be making up the main part of the project...I'm just still deciding what to do with the cover...

 and as well as some CAS cards and Easter cards, my Annie Sloan workbook is tucked behind the art pad....I am a big fan of Annie Sloan chalk paint and 'Annie Sloaning' something is a bit of a buzz phrase in our house...well you can guess why!

Tom(my husband for new visitors) gave me the book one of my Christmas presents; it's  a place to put ideas, cuttings and record projects....

Last week I finally got around to putting photos of my first big furniture upcycle from last summer; an old desk we picked up for very little and I "Annie Sloaned' for use in our little summerhouse that I use as an outside craft area. I was thrilled when Annie looked at the photos on my blog and sent me a message...of course I've put that in there...I was pretty pleased with it for a first attempt at a furniture worker and I really enjoyed it.

Finally a few photos of one of the projects on my desk...a little Easter card. It's tiny, 4x4 inches square and made using kraft card. For the front I die cut a Spellbinders Scalloped Oval die and inked the edges with Shabby Shutters distress ink. I used a cute little die that one of my friends gave me as a birthday present for the images..it's 'Bunny Stuck in a Flower Pot' by Cottage Cutz, but the little bunny on the front is from a little set of bunnies by Impression Obsession and the leaf is from Spellbinders 'Sprigs'.

The main part of the card is inside, where I created a pop up using the bunny die, coloured with Promarkers...just  a bit of fun!

Thank you so much for stopping by, it's so nice to be sharing my desk again!

Love and Hugs

Carole X

Easter Chicks - Sunday 29th March 2015

Good Morning Friends,

Thank you for visiting, whether regular or a visitor, it's great to have you here! 

Thank you also for your comments on my bookmark, there was a bit of a fad to make these corner bookmarks a few years ago and I made a few back then, but when I received the die it, was the first thing I thought of making and it was a fun revisit, now I want to make some more...I did some sketches for a felt one in front of the TV last night!

We've had horrible squally weather this weekend, but I'm hoping it's just to get it all out of the way for a nice, sunny Easter, who knows!? At the moment it is so windy I had to put Cara and Tilda back in their run, they would far rather be scratching about in the garden, but it's for their own safety..hmmm...try telling that to a couple of hens!

Today's card, I want to enter in the current NBUS challenge and also this week's Allsorts Challenge where the theme is 'Feature a Creature'.

Have you see Kittie Caracciolo's cards? (http://kittiekraft.typepad.com/kittiekraft/)

I have long been an admirer of the lovely scenes she creates with dies, so I thought I would make a few Easter cards using this design idea. 

I gathered together the dies...all except the fence and borders are new and never before used: I either had them for my birthday (chickens and tulips} or bought them recently, just to gather a collection of 'useful' dies....

First of all I die cut all the pieces, everything except the fence was cut using white card. I used kraft card for the fence as it is quite delicate to completely colour: I simply inked it randomly with Vintage Photo.

Next I coloured all the die cuts: I used Promarkers for everything except the chicken and rooster, which I coloured with distress inks (except the combs and wattles, I did use pens on those). It's funny, remember I was sent those lovely Chameleon pens by my cousin in the US last year? I really really like them, but promarkers are still my go to pens..though to be honest, Chameleons are better suited to larger projects with lots of shading and colour variants.

I used a 6x6 card blank, the die cuts are small so would be lost on a larger card. I then created the aperture using Spellbinders Classic Squares and burgundy and very pale pink adorable-scorable card. Because there is a lot of colour, I wanted to balance this out by leaving the outer frame and background free of ink, I don't like to over do it with the inking on cards if I can help it. I used a pale blue card (adorable-scorable) for the background and left the die-cut sentiment (also new) white as well. I did try it in different colours but kept coming back to white.

These are the dies I used:

Spellbinders Classic Squares
Spellbinders Shapeabilities Sprigs...this is a 'pre-loved' die but new to me!
Spellbinders Wrought Iron Fence (I didn't have  a small enough picket fence so I improvised!)
Impression Obsession dies - Farmyard chickens: new
Spellbinders Die-Lites - I used the birds for the 'delightful tree' set, had it a while, first time used
Impression Obsession  -grass: new
Impression Obsession -Tulips:new
Impression Obsession - Easter Joy:new

Thank you so much for stopping by, I hope you all enjoy the rest of your Sundays,

Challenges to enter with this card:

NBUS Challenge #4 Anything Goes 

Allsorts Challenge week 304: Feature a Creature

Love and Hugs
Carole X