Never-ending Nature

Phew, I am just in time to enter the Sunday Stamper's challenge, which this week has been 'nature'.

Also the Take a Word prompt was 'birdlife'. So with those two ideas in mind this project was born:

Last year for Mother's Day I made my Mum and MIL never-ending-cards and my Grandad was thoroughly fascinated by Mum's; kept playing with it and thought it was really complicated (of course I didn't let on how simple they actually were lol!!). So I decided that for his birthday this year I would make him his own to play with.

I chose to use my gorgeous bird stamps (from 7 Gypsies) -I've had them for a good while now and I still reach for them all the time! And chose to go with neutral colours for a masculine look and a natural feel.

The base and panels were made from white card, inked up with DI's (Antique Linen, Tea Dye and Walnut Stain). All stamping was done with black StazOn and the two darker DI's. The panels were layered onto black card and it was all stuck together using a combo of DST and gluestick. It took quite a while to do - 14 rectangular panels and 24 squares, plus the layers argh!!

Well I think all that work was worth it as I love the outcome. Just need to sort out some wording for it now, but as his birthday isn't until June I've got plenty of time to find something appropriate!!


This is also being entered into Simon Says Stamp Challenge, which this time around is Anything Goes!


Thanks for looking, I now have to try to remove the Walnut Stain Distress Ink from my fingers....


Take care and happy crafting,
Charli x

WOYWW....already?!

Where on earth has the past week disappeared to?! It only seems like a day or two ago that I was blogging my desk last week.


It was so nice to get up this morning at half past six and *not* have to put the light on!! A sure sign that spring is coming.... if you ignore the weather presenter that is!!


Anyhoo, here is my desk today, a real mix of this and that that I've been playing around with.

And of course, having received my new toy last Thursday I have been playing alot! Here is my gorgeous Cuttlebug V2, next to my handbag because I just can't get over how compact it is! Its so lovely (and all the better for not being completely green!)

And here is where it lives when its not being played with on the lounge floor! This shelf is just along from my desk, which you can see on the far right. The drawers hold paper (plain and patterned), card and Xmas stuff in the bottom drawer. The black and white basket hold finished projects. Just please ignore the ancient state of my computer lol, its only the casing thats old I assure you - the insides are all fairly new.

Happy desk-hopping everyone. I will be heading over to the lovely Julia's blog to have a nosey myself after work.


Take care and happy crafting,
Charli x

Purrfectly Masculine

I often struggle with cards for men, that's one reason I love Distress Inks so much as I find the right colours offer a good masculine look.

This time I was a little lost when trying to think of a design I could use for a male cat-lover.... then I saw the challenge for the Secret Crafter this week is a patchwork background, and that seemed to ignite a spark of inspiration.

Also I'm entering this card into Sarah Hurley's challenge of four-legged friends!

I took a plain white A6 card blank and drew a diagonal grid of one and a half inch squares using a brown Indian ink pen. I then lined the squares with faux stitching (I just hope the 'imitation patchwork' still counts for the challenge lol).


The rows of blue squares were coloured with Weathered Wood and Faded Jeans, and just Faded Jeans. The green columns are Tea Dye and Forest Moss, and Forest Moss and Walnut Stain. I inked the squares by masking them one at a time with sticky notes.


The panel was made in the same technique; a square of white card split into 9 one-inch squares using the same pen, then little crosses added to the joins to represent stitches.


This time, the 5 paler squares were masked and coloured with Antique Linen and Tea Dye with the stamping of the little cats and sentiment done with Walnut Stain. The other squares were WW and FJ, overstamped with FJ; and TD and FM, overstamped with FM.


The finishing touch was to add the trim twice around (its really thin!) and knot it.


In my opinion a purrfectly masculine card!


Happy crafting,
Charli x

Mother's Day

Yes, I know its still a good few weeks away, but I'm trying to be super-organised this year. Plus its the current challenge at C.R.A.F.T.

This card is also eligible for the Alphabet Challenge - R for ribbons.

And it was supposed to be entered into last week's Tuesday Throwdown, whose challenge was tags, but I forgot to upload it yesterday... ooops!

The card is a trifold a little smaller than DL, and I cut 3 panels and 3 pockets; some were run through my new Cuttlebug V2 (love, love, LOVE my new 'Bug!!) and inked up. The other panels were inked and stamped. 'Happy Mother's Day' was stamped in black StazOn and everything else was done using Distress Inks (Milled Lavender, Victorian Velvet and Dusty Concord).

The tags are chipboard flower fairy ones that I've had lurking for a while; they were a craft mag freebie. They were layered onto silver mirri and threaded with white shiny organza ribbon.

Then I added some little sentiments onto the backs.

And here is the card for my MIL; my first 'double twisted easel' -catchy huh?!
I really like how this one turned out.

Pale pink pearlescent card run through the 'Bug. White card layers inked up. Flowers were stamped and cut out, the pink ones were inked and over-stamped, the lilac ones were put through the 'Bug too (can't you tell its new?!) and then inked. 
Sentiment was stamped in StazOn, roughly masked off and over stamped with a floral journalling panel.
Obviously all inking was done with DI's, this time it was Milled Lavender, Victorian Velvet and Worn Lipstick.


Charli x

Under the Sea

That's the new challenge over at Crafts and Me.
Now if I think of under the sea, I think of mermaids; my fave image of the moment is this gorgeous flippered gal from ching-chou kuik. Speaking of favourite stamps, that just so happens to be the theme for Sweet Pea Stampers!


And what colours say 'underwater'? Blue and green of course. Guess what? Yup another challenge, this time Crafty Creations are asking for a feminine birthday card in just those colours (and the perfect way to move on from all that pink yesterday).

And to finish off, Simon Says Stamp Challenge has a recipe of 1 image (the mermaid -check), 2 papers (the dotty one and the stamped/inked one -check), and 3 types of embellishments (shaped beads, gems and string -check!)


Image stamped in black StazOn and coloured with DI's using the watercolour technique (Faded Jeans, Weathered Wood, Forest Moss, Tea Dye and Walnut Stain); plus fleshtone watercolour pencil; cut out and layered onto foampads.
Strip of torn white paper inked with Weathered Wood and scalloped border stamped in Faded Jeans to look like scales.
Torn strip of green dotty paper, edged in Forest Moss.
Torn piece of white card stamped with sentiment, coloured WW and edged in FJ; wrapped with strand of string and adhered with foampads.
Beads threaded onto knotted string double strand.


Take care and happy crafting,
Charli x

WOYWW

Well, there I was "Little Miss Organised" this morning. As soon as I came home from taking little one to school, I took a picture of what was left on my desk from last night. But....


I couldn't transfer the photo onto my computer d'oh! Had to wait until this evening to get hubby to find the other SD card, the one I usually use and works fine in my PC, then retake the pic so my desk is slightly different from this morning (namely the WIP from last night is now complete)


And finally, here is What's On My Workdesk (this) Wednesday:

As you can see, its all very pink, but for good reason. That has become the banner/header for the blog I set up for my daughter. (There is a link at the top left of my blog - only one project uploaded so far though).

Not too much of a mess, but really need to clear some space to work on something thats not pink!!

Join in the fun over at the Stamping Ground and show off your workdesk!

Take care and happy crafting,

Charli x

Sweet Simplicity

Lately I've been doing alot of projects where I use lots of colours to colour a stamped image, and a fair bit of papers for backgrounds and things, but yesterday I had the urge to just simplify everything.

To make this card I literally used about one and a half sheets of A4 plain white cardstock, 2 Distress Inks (Dusty Concord and Forest Moss), 2 floral stamps, the sentiment stamp with black Staz-On, and a strip of plain white satin ribbon.

I think when you keep all the 'ingredients' simple and white, it allows for more creativity.



Firstly, I scored, folded and trimmed a sheet of card down to standard DL size. Then measured the stamp I wanted to use and found that it would fit a 2x3" panel perfectly. I cut 3 panels to follow the sketch over at Cards and Things.


I stamped the image onto each panel using Forest Moss, then used a wet paintbrush and smidge more ink to colour in the leaves.


The flowers themselves were stamped onto other card in Dusty Concord (I love how those two colours give a vintage feel without being really girly), using the same method to fill in the blooms. Once they were dry I cut them out roughly and layered them onto foam pads.


I cut 3 panels slightly bigger, and three more a little bit bigger still, then inked them with the Distress Inks, alternating the colours of the panels; then layered them up.


I drew a line across the base where I wanted the ribbon to be and masked off the top portion with sticky notes. I chose a small flower stamp that was easy to ink by pressing the flowerhead onto the purple and the stem onto the green, then blotted it on scrap paper each time before stamping onto the card.


I coloured the white ribbon with the Dusty Concord and stuck it down with DST as wet glue would've made the colour run.


Finally I added the sentiment in black to the right hand panel, and added all three on foam pads.


Incidently the theme at Lexi's Creations is 'flowers' so I'm entering it there too.


Wishing you all a great weekend; we're off for a family gathering so should be good fun!


Take care and happy crafting,
Charli x