Artful Times Challenge: Time - Friday 25th January

Good Morning friends,

I've just been catching up on all your lovely blogs from yesterday..I didn't get online for long as I wasn't feeling too brilliant..nothing contagious! From when I was a child up to about 30, the sports I indulged in were pretty physical - horse-riding and ice hockey. My dad's fault, growing up in Canada riding horses and playing hockey were part of his life and it rubbed off on me! But these sports bring with them the risk of injury and I had a pretty bad fall from a horse, resulting in a  back injury when I was a teenager..undeterred I carried on, but every now and then my back tells me it's had enough and I have to rest...unfortunately sitting at a desk or computer makes it worse..but hey-ho it's been bugging me all week and is much better today, so 'back' to a bit of crafting!

I have made this little ATC for the challenge over at Neet and Von's Challenge Blog  Artful Times...do click on the link for all the details!

This fortnight's challenge is to create an ATC with the theme of 'TIME', it's been so long since I made an ATC and it was fun..this is my project....

I started with black card and stamped the Roman Numerals randomly using Versamark, then I embossed in gold. 

Then I stamped the clock faces, chain  and My Time on separate card and cut out. I secured the clock faces with 3D pads to make them stand out from the card and also added a brad through the centre.I wanted the chain to link the clocks to the quote so a fixed this around the edge with Cosmic Shimmer dries clear...so I started the week with a clock and now I've finished 'on time' as well - how about that?

Materials used:

Roman Numerals Stamp: Indigo Blu
Small Clock Face stamp: DoCrafts Chronology (free with magazine)
Large Clock Face stamp: Teresa Collins
My Time stamp: Paperartsy
Black card, gold embossing powder, versamark ink

Thanks for stopping by!
Carole X

WOYWW 190- Wednesday 23rd January

Good afternoon friends and fellow WOYWWers!

How did I forget it was Wednesday, or I would have saved this morning's post for tomorrow! Anyway, here I am back for another WOYWW week....this is where we show our desks and what's happening on them once a week. You can find out all about this by visiting Julia at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.co.uk

So this my desk this afternoon...a mess as usual! One completed project: the Valentine Card. I have  been tweaking this project for next week's workshop, which has the romance theme and it's also going to be a DT card (ssssh); there are also some pieces for another project, which has a time theme and  I am still working on..and that's about it for today apart from lots of ink and stamped images ready and waiting to be used!

Thanks for stopping by and I'll look forward to checking out some more desks this week :)

Carole X

Quackers for you! - Wednesday 23rd January

Good Morning Friends,

One of my lovely blog friends, Anne (Redanne) and I often comment that we have very similar likes in crafting..both fans of Tim Holz, Wendy Vecchi, inspired by the brilliant Hels Sheridan... in fact, it was via Sunday Stampers that we started to follow each other.

I have a long way to go to catch up with Anne's supply of Tim's stamps, but thanks to Anne I decided to participate in 'Tim's Tags' this year and I loved making my first one this month! 

When commenting on my clock on Monday, Anne said that the bunny stamp by Crafty Individuals was on her wish list and so were the ducks...well Anne, I take it you meant these ducks? 

Today's card  is a simple, whimsical little Valentines or Anniversary card - or even a 'Just Because' card made using a 6x6 card blank, covered with paper from stash, which I inked at the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink. I then chose another paper from stash, deep yellow with little hearts..it's a NitWit design that was free with a magazine last year some time. I roughed up the edges slightly and again inked with Vintage Photo.

The polka dot paper I used for the next layer, is actually the reverse of the heart paper and the little paper flowers were part of the same giveaway.

The cute ducks and sentiment are from a stamp called 'Favourite Ducks' by Crafty Individuals.

I love the way some of you whom I follow also decorate the inside of your cards, which is lovely. If I do decorate inside, it's usually my smaller cards as I have done with this one.. I used some more of the flowers and a heart, plus the same paper that I had stamped on. The sentiment is a Sam Poole stamp.



Thanks for visiting and happy crafting all of you!

Carole X 

Sunday Stampers Week 241 - Tuesday 22nd January

Good Morning Friends,

Another project rather than a card or tag today...glad you liked my clock yesterday, it's on the wall in my craft room now so I've no excuse for losing track of time! Thank you for your comments, they were very much appreciated...I really do want to get cracking on a 'Wonderland' one now!

Today is a 'double heart' hanging decoration which I made for this week's Sunday Stampers challenge, whilst we were 'snowed in' on Sunday. Sunday Stampers is a weekly challenge from Hels Sheridan and this week the theme is birds, which I have to say, is one of my very favourite subjects for any type of art.

I bought these chip board hearts at the Ally Pally stamp show last September (along with quite a few other shapes) and hadn't touched them, but last week when I primed the clock with Claudine Helmuth Gesso, I decided to prep a couple of other pieces at the same time, these hearts included.

They are individual hearts, which at the end of my stamping, I stuck together with Pinflair glue.

First of all I sanded the edges to give them more of a shabby look and then I stamped the bird (an Indigo Blu stamp) and the quote (a Sam Poole stamp) with stazon ink. I then coated both hearts with a few layers of Ranger Distress Crackle paint, leaving each to dry in between.

Meanwhile I made the leaves and flowers using stamps from the same Indigo Blu stamp set as the bird. I stamped the leaves on some quite heavy kraft card from stash and the flowers on ideology Glassine (another Ally Pally buy). The leaves were then dipped in UTEE, heated in my melt pot and the flowers were coated in glossy accents...I was trying to create different textures as you would find in nature.

I was actually quite pleased with finished project...hope you like it too!

Carole X

What's the time Mr Rabbit? - Monday 21st January

Good Morning Friends!

As promised yesterday, here is my first clock!

It is a very simple design...to be honest I wanted to see how I got on with it, if I enjoyed it..and the answer is that although I'd primed it during the week the entire clock, using the simplest of designs took me a morning and I loved it!

The  MDF clock and mechanism comes ready for you to decorate as you wish - when I first got it I gesso'd it with Claudine Helmuth gesso and once that had dried I gave it a thin layer of white acrylic paint. My final touch after that was to take some blue acrylic, put some on a  dry brush, but then get most of it off straightaway, then swipe it in small strokes randomly over the clock. This barely shows but gives in more of a vintage, worn look.

The numeral stamp set, also with cogs and a rose stamp is made to accompany the clock, but whilst I used the numerals, I chose different stamps for my design.

I stamped the numerals and the little decorative strokes with flitterglu (from Indigo Blu) and then covered with gilding flakes.When I opened my gilding supplies box, I had a very tiny amount of Yorkshire Dales left and some Autumn Blaze, so I mixed the two together. It was a good job I watched Kay from Indigo Blu demoing this from CHA last week, because I had never noticed that on clocks with Roman numerals, the VI is always upside down - I even checked it with a clock we have! So I didn't stamp upside down by mistake, in case you were wondering!

For my design I wanted a quote and I  also just had to use this Crafty Individuals Bunny Stamp that was on my desk for another project. The quote I chose is from a stamp Indigo Blu and I thought it was pretty fitting for a clock, as it refers to not wasting a moment of our time. I used Stazon ink for my stamping.

I am definitely going to make some more of these - this one is going to my craft room wall, but I have ideas for a Steampunk one, an Alice in Wonderland design.....can't wait! What do you think?

Thanks for visiting!
Carole X

Technique revisited - Sunday 20th January

Good morning Friends,

I hope the snow is starting to clear where you are..the only 'plus point' has been that usually on a Saturday we are out somewhere, whether it's local or meeting friends, but this week there really wasn't anywhere to go, so I got to craft whilst Tom quite happily kept the hens company clearing snow in the garden! Bliss - my perfect Saturday!

You may remember me telling you that I could not resist buying one of the new clock kits from Indigo Blu...well it arrived during the week! I  excitedly primed it with Gesso and paint straightaway, then yesterday I set about finishing it ...check out my post tomorrow for the full update and photos...all I can say is, wow was it fun!

Today's card is very similar to one I made for one of our classes last year...

It's made using a Wheatsheaf stamp from Woodware: I stamped the image three times on one piece A5 of linen card and once on a smaller piece of card, using versamark ink. I then inked it all over using Broken China distress ink to create a resist image. 

I covered an A5 card blank with blue card and matted and layered the stamped sheet on top, then I did the same with the smaller rectangle and the sentiment rectangle.The sentiment stamp is a Sam Poole stamp. I finished off with some bakers twine and ribbon.

The reason I am revisiting this card is because Amy and I are going to do a one of workshop for a local craft group this Tuesday and we chose this card from our regular workshops to take along for them to make.

Before I go, a few last snow hen photos...

It was actually Lacey, our Speckledy, who ventured out first, followed by Penny

...then Bella and Cara

They were very pleased when Tom cleared the snow from the lawn for them!

Thanks for stopping and looking, I really do appreciate it! Also thank you to those of you who hopped over to say 'Hi' to my friend Amy, who is now blogging...she's started posting her gorgeous creations now, check out her blog at http://craftylittleideas.blogspot.co.uk

 See you tomorrow with my clock!

Carole X

Snow photos....Saturday 19th January

Good morning blog friends,

So were you all snowed in yesterday? Tom took three hours to get to work using walking, train and bus and then they closed the office in the afternoon, so he made the journey back (which was much quicker) and worked from home anyway!

I did my bit, by clearing a path and feeding the birds lots of extra food, but the hens looked at me as if I was mad when I suggested they leave the relative comfort of their enclosure, especially as I spread straw all over the floor for extra warmth...

Looking over our garden first thing yesterday morning

"Are you mad?" they say when I suggest they might like to free range!

So it's toys inside today..they devoured a lettuce in minutes, ate copious amounts of mealworms and played with their corn filled balls

We have had a garden robin for years, those who have followed me for a while will know we had a pair, a nest and lots of lovely little robins last summer and the parents were very tame. This little one has been with us since August and is always around when I'm in the garden...he is on the verge of eating from my hand..bless! This could well be the basis of this years Christmas cards!

I did manage to get some crafting done between shovelling snow...mostly working on an extra workshop we are doing for a group of local ladies next week and a football themed commission. But I also managed to gesso and paint a few art parts ready to transform, so hopefully I will get one of the finished over the weekend,

Hope you all have super weekends,

Carole X