ATCs

I had got out of the habit of making ATCs, but have re-discovered how much I enjoy doing them!  These are for the ATC trail over on UK Scrappers - it's a great swap as you just make one ATC each for the person before and after you on the trail, so no big commitment to worry about.

I have done my favourite smooshy ink / overstamped background on two of these, with text / butterfly added.  The third one has some embossed cardstock, butterfly and die-cut trail.

Come and join us on the trail :-)

Update on boiler situation:  Mark the lovely plumber came round Monday afternoon and fixed it - we are very relieved because the boiler is 35 years old and we had thought we might need a new one.  It turned out that 35 years of dust, dirt, etc had obscured the sensor that allows the pilot light to work.  He took over an hour to clean it out (assisted by DH who was very interested in the inside workings of a boiler!) and it cost us £60.  Bargain!  It did take ages for the house to warm up again, it's amazing how cold the place gets with absolutely no heating - you don't appreciate these things until something goes wrong!  And having hot water again was bliss :-)

52 cards challenge week 4

 

One thing I am determined to do this year, is to take part in more challenges.  I especially want to try and keep up with the 52 cards challenge over at Kool Kitty Musings, making a card and a Christmas card every week inspired by a prompt.

I am sliding in under the wire for last Monday's prompt, which was to use paper from a paper pad.  The birthday card uses a sheet from Bo Bunny's Timepiece 6" paper pad as the background, plus I have made the rosette from a 12" strip out of the same collection.  The mats are cut with Dienamics Dainty Doilies dies, the ribbon border is also Dienamics.  The sentiment is a Tinchies stamp, haven't used it before, but it stamps beautifully, will definitely use it again.

As for the Christmas card.... well it appears the Evil Pink Genie has struck again!  These papers are from a Papermania pack, which someone bought me for Christmas a couple of years ago.  The snowflakes are punched, the mats are Nestie dies, the tree is a Dienamics die.  The sentiment tag is punched, with a peel off sticker on top, then I scattered some gold crystals around.

argh ... now must rush off as DH has just informed me that the boiler has packed up, we have no hot water, and he has to go to work .... I have to call a plumber :-(

More pink!

 

These are the next couple of cards from the pink magazine paper ..... I probably have enough left to make just a couple more, then I can move on!

Nothing very complicated about these - the butterfly is done with a Martha Stewart punch, the flourishes with a Dienamics die, the sentiment tags with a Nestie label die, and the ribbon strip with another Dienamics die.  The square crystals have been hanging around in my bling box for years :-)  The paper panels are matted with bazzill bling 'Hollywood' on the first card and framed with peel-off lines on the second.

A bit vintage

I was playing around with some distress inks at the crop and decided to cover a card blank with an inked/stamped background.  Antique linen and tea dye inks were blended together than I started randomly stamping.  I used a new cogs stamp from LaBlanche, have never used those white foam ones before, they are definitely different!  I used it with distress ink, they don't take that ink very well, but the washed out impression was exactly what I wanted.  I also used a crackle stamp, some swirls, some random dots (done in aged mahogany ink) and an architectural element (done in gathered twigs) which I have had for years and hardly, if ever, used!
Next time I do this, I will remember to take a photo of the background when it's done - it always seems a shame to cover it up!  I had a stamped and embossed poppy image in my 'bits' bag so matted that onto the card.  But it needed a little more .......
I attached a charm with some sparkly twine, die cut a sentiment tag and some pennants for the sides of the image, then added some crystals.
I am really pleased with how it has turned out and will definitely make some more like it!

A bit pink and pretty .......

 

Pink.  Flowers.  Two 'pretty' posts in a row.  Oh dear. 
I haven't actually gone over to the pink side :-)  In line with my determination to empty my craft room - at least enough so I can see some surfaces - I decided to take some card blanks and several freebie magazine papers to the Cardinal Colours crop last weekend.  I made several 'bases' and am now working my way through topping them!  The papers are from Making Cards magazine, which has good quality proper paper, not that horrible shiny magazine-y stuff, it's rare that I buy any other cardmaking mag.
Something else I need to concentrate on this year is to use the stuff that I buy, which then gets put away never to see the light of day again.  I have used my new 4" scalloped circle woodware punch - actually bought a couple of months ago, but not used! - the stamp is from Inkadinkadoo, also bought ages ago and never used, I stamped and embossed in metallic green.
The pink bling cardstock used for the mats and butterflies is new, I won a whole pile of assorted colours in the crop raffle, yummy :-)  The green and yellow bling are I think Emerald City and Hollywood and are from stash.
There are a couple more of cards using these pink papers to come, but I need to go and lie down in a darkened room for a while........ LOL.

Fifty Shades of White

 


Happy New Year!  One of my resolutions is to use up all the stuff I have collected in order to 'do something with' - yes I know I have said that before, but this is the year!
Last year at this time, one of my work colleagues brought in an empty tin, which had contained a mug, because she knows I craft ....... it has sat in my craft room ever since.  However last week she made a remark about how she was going to organise her dressing table in the New Year, so I said 'right, you can have your tin back then... what colour would you like it?'  LOL.
Her bedroom is apparently all white, so that was a challenge!  I found this white diamond paper in my stash and proceeded to waste a piece because I wasn't careful enough while sticking onto red tape - it wrinkled and creased, I was lucky to be able to rip it off before it had stuck completely.  So then I cut four sections, and stuck those down one at a time, that worked much better!  I covered the joins with peel-off lines.
The paper edges weren't quite aligned, so I stuck silver lace trim around top and bottom.  For the lid, I punched out a scalloped circle in Bazzil Diamond bling and a smaller one from the paper.  Then I attached flowers, pearls, and a 3D butterfly, made by punching out two, sticking one down flat, then sticking the other just down the centre with red tape.
On the tin itself, I stuck another flower and butterfly arrangement (to hide where the paper was covering the lumpy seam of the tin!) and flat butterflies onto the other sections.
It took a lot longer than I thought it would do!  Not to my taste at all, I have to say, but I am pleased that it has turned looking pretty - and my colleague was very happy with it :-)