Gone Fishin' - Monday 21st July 2014

Hello Friends,

I hope you all had good weekends! We had a lovely day on Saturday once the storm had cleared in the afternoon: lunch in Bristol, a wander round the Harbour Festival, off to see the Rat Pack and out just in time to watch the fabulous Festival Firework display from the roof of the car park - wonderful view!

The Rat Pack was a very enjoyable evening, but whilst the 'cast' had superb voices, with the exception of the guy playing Sammy Davis, who was superb, they didn't really 'get into character' as they have done when we have seen this type of show previously. Still it was a packed house and such a mixture of ages in the audience, including some very young people, which was nice. My Mum was a big Sinatra fan (she saw his concert in Bristol in the 50's), Dad preferred Dino, so I grew up listening to the Rat Pack and always liked it(I may not have admitted that until much later in life though!)...when I think of the totally eclectic music tasted I 'inflicted' on them!!! Really, I had and still have so many musical likes it's quite confusing!!!

Anyway, yesterday I woke up with an attack of  Prickly Heat, so boy was I suffering with that yesterday...I just had to keep the skin cool and moisturised all day and it's not anywhere as near as bad today...it was all over my arms, throat, back.... I have only ever had it about three times and never as bad..horrible!

Now to today's card, which I made for one of our friends who loves fishing...

 The Fisherman and background stamps are by Woodware. I stamped the background stamp using Versafine ink on to green card and then heat embossed with clear powder, just  to make a 'raised background paper, which I matted and layered on to a kraft card blank. Sorry it doesn't show up so well in the photo.

Then I stamped the background again on to white card, using Versafine Sepia ink. I stamped the fisherman and greeting over this using Versafine black ink, then I inked the edges slightly using Vintage Photo distress ink. I matted and layered on to green card and kraft card.

I finished off with a piece of string tied in a bow and topped it with a litre fish, which was one of the off cuts from the images I had stamped - I coated it with glossy accents to finish.

 This above photos shows the inside of the card...I love tent fold cards, but they are so hard to photograph inside! I stamped the background again and but a strip to fit across the centre of the card. I stamped the greeting, which comes with the fisherman set and matted and layered on to kraft card.

Just a simple card for a guy!

Thank you so much for stopping by, I always appreciate your visits and comments..tomorrow is Tuesday so I will be back with another DT post for Sam Poole.

Love and Hugs,
Carole  Z X

Fairy Dreams - Saturday 19th July

Good morning Friends,

Well I certainly didn't sleep through last nights thunder and lightening, I think the last time I saw anything so spectacular that lasted so long was in Italy several years ago....in fact it's still rumbling on as I type this at about 8.30am! We aren't the only ones though, my dear friend Paola who lives near Venice sent me a photo she'd take the other day of hailstones that literally were the size of golf balls!

Today I am back with another 'Lavinia' card,  which I would like to enter in the following challenge:

Scrapology: Dreams and Delights, July Challenge

http://scrapology-adventuresinscrapbooking.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/julys-card-challenge-lavinias-dreams.html

 What I love about Lavinia( apart from the images) is creating the backgrounds (though I do have a monotone one still to share with you!). For this card I used my brayer and the following inks to create the background:

Distress: Chipped Sapphire, Dusty Concord, Seedless Preserves
Adirondack: Currant, Purple Twilight

To stamp the fairy and foliage I used Black Onyx Versafine ink, shadow stamping for background image effect.

The card is an 8x8 deckle edge, matted and layered using shades of lilac and purple card from Paper Mill. To finish I added stickles glitter and a little bow.

I thought you might also like to see these two candles I made as demos when we did our recent workshop using Lavinia stamps. The technique is really easy and I did explain it in a recent nautical DT post for Sam Poole, which most of you will have seen...here it is briefly again:

You need:

Pillar candle (mine cost about £1 in a local supermarket!)
White tissue paper - the kind you wrap presents with
Wax kitchen paper
stamps of your choice
ink
heat tool

All you do is stamp your image on the the tissue paper; these stamps are just black, but if you are using a stamp you want to colour, you can use any of your colouring pens, such as Promarkers. All you need remember is that it will transfer lighter than it looks on paper, so use darker colours.

I used Versafine for these candles and Memento for stamps I colour. I've tried different inks and they've all worked well.

Once you have stamped your image, cut or tear around it carefully, then place it where you want it on your candle. 

Take your wax paper, it needs to be long enough to wrap around the candle with enough left to form a 'handle' for you to hold at the back. Take a tight grip and then transfer the image to the candle using your heat tool..voila! You have a pretty candle, which you can decorate with ribbons, beads, whatever you like.

Thank you so much for stopping by and leaving a comment! Is anyone doing anything nice today? We are going to a Rat Pack show in Bristol tonight (my Mum was a big Sinatra and Dino fan and the music rubbed off on me!), but it's the Harbour Festival, so we were planning a nice afternoon stroll at the festival, a meal...and after all this wonderful weather and almost 9am, it's as dark as can be and pouring with rain! Such a shame for all the organisers and participants as it's probably Bristol's biggest annual event, along with  the Balloon Fiesta.

have a good day, whatever you are doing!

Love and Hugs,
Carole X 

Sunday Stampers week 316: Altered note book - Friday 18th July 2014

Hello Friends,

So did any of you experience those storms last night? Apparently we did, but we slept through it, lol!

Before I start my post properly I would like to say a massive welcome to my 80th follower

 Angela Radford. Angela is celebrating her first year of blogging this month, do pop over and have a look at her fabulous art work - here - 

Thank you so much for following me Angela! 

Sunday Stamper week 316 - Everyday I write the book

For those who don't know, this is a weekly fun challenge set by the uber talented Hels Sheridan. All the deets are here

This week Hels has set the theme of Books, to be interpreted at our will -- alter a book, use book pages, make  a book...as always time is short, but I do like to participate in this challenge if I can. I love to alter note books/make note books and this is probably my quickest project ever! To be honest, it helped get my creative juices flowing as I've been struggling a bit this week...

This started out as a plain 16cms x 20cms exercise book, which (of course) I forgot to photograph in its original state, but believe me it was very ordinary!

I first of all covered the book with this paper by Graphic 45, from a 12x12 French Country design pad. I inked the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink. All the stamps, except for the blossom are by Graphic 45. The blossom is by Jofy for Paper Artsy.

I stamped the word ' Creative' and heat embossed to give it a little lift and shine. I then stamped the script on to a piece of kraft card and inked the edges, then I over stamped the ink bottle. I adhered it to the book, tucking it under the last that I had added to the top.

Next I stamped the 'sign' on to the same paper, rolled one side and a corn and adhered to the book. I stamped the flower  3 times on to the reverse side of this paper using  left over scrap pieces (can't waste any of this paper!), cut it out and layered it. After placing it on the book, I added a metal button.

I decided to add these ideology memo pins, thinking it would be a useful addition, but wanted to show how they could be used. I had stamped this phrase on to card but not used it, so I cut it out roughly and added it to a pin.

That's my offering for this week - thank you so much for stopping by!

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

The Bear's back on the beach! Thursday 17th July 2014

Hello Friends, 

Thank you for your comments on my WOYWW post yesterday...in answer to some of your questions..no the little 'craft barn' will not remain tidy for long! The main problem is that I am so pleased with the way the top of the desk turned out (all those hours of waxing paid off!) that I'm almost afraid to use it!!!

A few of you asked me about the wooden pencil holders on the desk...well, yes they were custom made by my very handy father-in-law. We picked up the odd cuts of wood at a Tree Festival at our local arboretum. Tom's dad drilled the holes for me and I varnished them and hey presto, customised pencil holders! The paint brush holder at the back was actually made by my dad, many many years ago and gave me the idea for the pencil holders.

Now for today's card...

Remember the bear that surfed? Well he's made a return to the beach on new card...this time the card was made for a guy who's birthday was this week and who loves to surf (well they  do live in Cornwall). He loved it and says he didn't stop chuckling. I am going to have to make one like this just to send to one of my Californian cousins who virtually lives to surf...I think it will appeal to his sense of humour.

I started with a layer of yellow card on an 8x8 blank. The fishy paper is by Pink Petticoat as are the beach huts, which are digi stamps. I block coloured them using Promarkers and made the bunting to match. Although it doesn't show on the photo, the beach huts have all been given a coat of glossy accents.

The bear is a stamp by Sam Poole, which I stamped using vintage sepia versafine ink on to cream card, heat embossed with clear powder and then coloured with Promarkers. The raised embossing gives the image a rough surface and therefore a more textured, less perfect effect when coloured.

The surfboard is a digi stamp from McMahon Five Designs, again coloured with a Promarker and coated with glossy accents. The 'seaside' quote is  by Pink Petticoat and the 'surf Dude' was computer generated.

Inside the card:

For the inside I made another surfboard and cut out two smaller beach huts. The greeting is computer generated.

Thank you for stopping by, hope you are all liking the hot weather! It was very hot in the office yesterday, but having the door wide open sent a gentle breeze through from the outer door, so it wasn't too bad really. 

I am blogging very late...highly unusual for me but Tom had to go out with some clients after work, so I'm home all alone, nothing on TV (well I'm watching the Masterchef final in the craft room), so decided to write tomorrow's blog today!


I'd like to enter this card in the Allsorts Challenge week 267 : Splish, Splash, Splosh!

http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/week-267-splish-splash-splosh.html

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

WOYWW - Wednesday 16th July 2014

Hello WOYWWers and regular blog friends!

I've haven't shared my WOYWW desk for a few weeks, but now I'm back and I'm revisiting my outside craft space for those of you who have either popped by before or are my blog friends.

First of all however, if you don't know about WOYWW, it's when we all get the chance to share our desks (and have a snoop around others!), it happens every Wednesday and all happens courtesy of Julia over at Stamping Ground   - click the link for full deets...

As some of you know I am a lucky gal and have both a craft room indoors and the use of a little summer house in the garden, where I decided that I would keep all my art parts, paints etc. I picked up a really old and sad looking desk for very little in an antiques/second hand shop and painted it up with chalk paint, which I then waxed. A little photo reminder is below...

We spent last Saturday doing some clearing up in the craft barn (as I have renamed it!), getting rid of rubbish and tidying up so that we could move the desk into it's rightful place...

 I painted the old chair too, but forgot to take 'before' photos... for first time visitors, the prim style hens were painted on there because we keep pet hens and I am just 'hen' mad!

In the little basket on the desk are some mdf parts to make a clock....that will be my first project in here...

 These are the shelves...I painted one of them to match the colour theme, the other still has to be painted (when I get the time and before Summer is out!). I've got all my little paint pots on one set of shelves and art parts on the others..together with boxes and cardboard I've collected to use in projects.

That's the story so far...except for.... when I went out to take these photos this morning a beautiful Peacock Butterfly was on the inside window behind the desk.I guess it may have got in there when the doors were open yesterday. I tried to take a photo of it, but it was right in the sun and to be honest, I was more concerned about opening the window and setting it free...and what a beautiful sight that was! I had to coax it  a little before it spread it's gorgeous wings and fluttered off into the breeze to enjoy the flowers as it should. As I didn't take a photo and wanted to remember it when I looked back on this post, I borrowed one from google...

Thanks for stopping by today...I'll get around some of you later, promise!

Finally....Thank you so much to all my blog friends for your comments here and over on Sam Poole's blog yesterday. I have to say that it's the first card I have made in a long time that I haven't been sure about! I was probably a bit out of my comfort zone with the colours and I think that in a few weeks I will make a similar card but very toned down and see if I like it better! 

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

Introducing Mr Pickles - Tuesday 15th July 2014

Good Morning Friends!

Today it's my Design Team post over at Sam Poole's Creative Studios. I really loved Sam's wild animal stamps that she brought out earlier this year...well now we have more and this time with a mostly Christmas theme. Do check out Sam's post for last Saturday to have a look at all the stamps in the collection.

I have only just started using them and I love them! This week though is just a bit of fun and a design that I had to get out of my mind before I could make any more!  I chose to work with Pickles, a really cute hedgehog and of course, hedgehogs aren't just for Christmas!

 I've really struggled to get my Christmas Mojo working so far this year...I always do...I wouldn't normally use these colours, but I wanted to follow through with the colours of the tree lights.  I  had remembered a House Mouse stamp I have, where the little meeces are entwined in tree lights and that inspired me with this card...so I just had to make it...and I think I got a little carried away...well it started out as a really CAS card of simply 'Pickles'. I look across the blogs and see some amazing CAS cards and I love them..can I make them? NO! I really struggle :)

Full details, plus the inside of the card, which I also decorated are over on Sam's blog and this is the link:

http://www.creative-studios.co.uk/mr-prickles-in-a-pickle

Please do pop over and have a look and leave a comment; you are all so wonderful to do so very week and you have no idea how much I appreciate it. I have lots of non Christmas ideas for this stamp and some of the other stamps in this collection, so keep looking !

Thank you so much,

Love and Hugs,
Carole X 

Christening Card - Monday 14th July 2014

Good Morning Friends,

A quackish post today as I have a big crafting day ahead. Before I start though, I wanted to mention Emergency Crafters to you, as I know some of you have taken part in their challenges in the past. I have been a Design Team member for about 2 years now (it was my first DT) and enjoyed it very much, so I am sad to say that Josie, who runs he challenge has had to take the difficult decision to close it, at least for the foreseeable future.

Some of you may have noticed that the site hasn't really been 'active' for a few months now. Anyway I know we all wish Josie well, I am still in contact with her and  some of the other DT members via Facebook.

Now to today's card: The image is by Mo Manning from Mo's Digital Pencil and I coloured it with my Inktense pencils. I embossed the background using the twisted hearts M-Bossability folder. I then used a mask which was free with a magazine and the new Cosmic Shimmer Sparkle Texture paste in Aurora Sparkle for the next layer.

The card is being personally give and not posted, so I made a wrap - papers are by Pink Petticoat

A short post today, I have been around and hopefully caught up with all your wonderful blogs...now I'm off to make some Christmas cards....using Sam's new stamps and they are fabulous! Please check back tomorrow for my DT post for Creative Studios!

Love and Hugs,
Carole Z X