Loving CAS! - Friday 30th January 2015

Good Afternoon Friends,

I really appreciate every one of you - my dear blog friends;  some of you I have more personal contact with than others, but I love visiting your blogs, sharing with your personal and crafty lives and soaking up the inspiration I gain from each of you.

Today I am welcoming my 90th follower Karen Hasheck - thank you so much for deciding to join my list of blog friends! Karen has her own delightful blog: http://karenskreativekards.blogspot.co.uk

A couple of weeks ago, you know when the volunteering database that shall not be named, was really getting to me, I had such a lovely surprise when I got home from work one day! I received this gorgeous card from my lovely blog friend, Claire.... http://hamnmuledesigns.blogspot.co.uk

along with this fab gift of stamps....

So on my day off I had a play with them and here are some CAS cards I created:

Claire and I have been blog friends for about a year now and we hit it off straightaway..Claire is across the Pond, but we've swapped crafty stuff and tips and had a lot of fun...so thank you so much Claire, I love these stamps!

That's all for today friends, I haven't forgotten to show you the crafty calendar gift I received from another of you last year...just got a bit of a delay on that one, keep watching!

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

Venetian Carnival Mask - Thursday 30th January

Hello Friends,

Hoping you are well and getting lots of craft time this week! Thank you for visiting and commenting on my blog. Yesterday was a card with quite a bit of colour, I love colour and when Hels Sheridan set the  theme of 'orange' for this week's Sunday Stampers I was really pleased - Spiced Marmalade is one of my favourite distress inks and I got to use it in abundance! I love the browns, oranges etc, which is why autumn is also one of my favourite card making times of the year - and seasons.

Today however it's back to monotone and another Zentangle inspired card made as an example for the ladies at our class tonight, the second of our Zentangle workshops. I've been making a lot of examples over the past few weeks and I do confess that the ones where I've added colour are my favourite - but that's just a personal thing, I always feel the need for colour! For work I wear a black sweatshirt or polo shirt with our logo on it, so with it I wear black trousers..but I always have to at least add some colourful earrings!

For our class we are providing an assortment of dreamweaver stencils for the group to use. Stencils are brilliant to use as a base for Zentangle designs and there are several books available that show you how to achieve lovely results using them - I have several more cards to post over the next few weeks that use stencils.

However, you can of course draw your own designs (I'm working on one at the moment), use masks, rubber stamps -anything suitable - and for this 

card I drew around a Spellbinders Venetian Mask die for  the basic outline.     

 

Before starting my tangle design, I partitioned areas of the mask by drawing  'strings' between two areas. This gives you a guideline in which to draw each different pattern (or leave blank). The strings can be anything you like - swirls, zig-zags or just lines.

For the background to the easel I used the 'Venetian' M-Bossability and die cut the image using Labels 17 and the 'outside the box' method to allow the 'feathers' to hang over the side.

I  shaded some areas of the design with pencil and used some black ribbon through a ribbon buckle die to the side of the image and added some gems and black and white hat pins.

For the base I drew a tangle design around the edge and added a sentiment (stamp by Indigo Blu) as the stopper with a diamante brad.

Apologies for the close up photo above, I haven't added pink gems in an effort to add some colour - I was wearing a red sweatshirt when I took the photo and somehow got a bounce of light back on this one!

Off to work now for a morning of the one thing I really don't like about my job! Sitting in a meeting all morning, when all I am thinking about it what I could be making better use of my time doing back at the office (or even better in the craft room)!

I'll be back tomorrow with that Zentangle inspired card that has a bit of a twist to it!

Thanks so  much for stopping by and have a great day all!

I am entering this card in 

Country View  Crafts current challenge with the theme of

"Monochromatic"  

-http://countryviewchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/read-on-for-this-months-theme.html

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

Sunday Stampers week - Wednesday 17th July

Good Evening Friends!

I haven't blogged since Saturday and it feels as if I have been away from here ages! The truth is, I decided that a weekend off just enjoying the sunshine would do my neck good and it seems to have worked, as it is much better now. All I've done is some stamping in the garden - I've had this idea to create and art journal of sorts for our holiday road trip and have been stamping images to colour in at times of relaxation!

Thank you for all your good wishes - and Jenny - I got some lavender oil and it's great! Thank you for suggesting it.

How are you all finding the heat? It's great when I'm not in work, although even with all the windows fully open, the craft room is pretty hot and I have been doing what I can out in our little Summer House!

Up until the weekend the hens weren't very bothered, but they are finding it a bit much now I think...we have extra water in their run, where they have plenty of shade and when they are out in the garden there are lots of shady places and we have been putting water everywhere for them...but other than lazing under bushes, they seem to be carrying on much as usual!

Today I am back using the hats and bonnets stamp again, this time a different design and it is also my creation for this week's Sunday Stampers challenge. Hels has set the theme of  creating layers...

I started with a blank A6 card and inked all around the edges with Dusty Concord Distress ink.

For the next layer I used a piece of Damask patterned pink card (the pattern is very pale so can't be seen in the photo). I cut it to about 3mm smaller all around and used a decorative corner punch on the edges.

The image was stamped and then die cut using Spellbinders Labels 17 and whilst I was doing this, I made an extra die-cut to use as a mask.

I placed the mask on the pink card, where I wanted the final image to be and secured it on the back with some low tack tape; then I stamped some script and flourishes around the edge and across the mask, again using Dusty Concord. To complete this layer I inked the edges with the same colour.

The stamped image is coloured using watercolour pencils and I stamped and cut an extra model to layer her on top of the original. Once I had finished colouring I out the shape back in the die and inked with Spun Sugar to give a little contrast. I  then added this to the front of the card in place of the mask.

The flowers were cut using the medium and large Spellbinders Bitty Blossoms and the leaf came from a set of leaf dies. Before adding the finished flowers I placed some lace along the card. To finish I added a bow and a little card candy script button, coloured with distress ink, plus a little pearl in each corner.

Thanks for stopping by, I really so appreciate your visits!

Love and Hugs,

Carole X