Cross stitch in progress 3

Another update on the Nine Trees :-)  It looks a little lumpy in the photo as I have the frame hanging off my steering wheel LOL.

I plan to finish the central seven trees and then see how to get around the fabric problem - it's not quite wide enough to have an ideal amount of excess on each side for framing, so it would have been tight anyway, plus I started half an inch to the left of where I should have.  There are two options, doing seven and two separate ones to form a triptych, as I mentioned in the last update.  Or..... I might be able to swap the two end trees with each other - the furthest left tree is 35 stitches wide and will not fit onto the fabric with enough left for framing, but the furthest right tree is only 23 stitches wide.  12 stitches difference is nearly an inch and I think it will work :-)
Watch this space!

Out of the Drawer - doily die

I had partially made up this card and decided it needed a doily die-cut .... as you do :-)  I found this die (Hero Arts? - it's difficult to remember when one doesn't keep packaging) and thought it would be suitable.

Well.  I very quickly remembered just why this die was in the drawer!  It is a pig to cut .... many passes through the machine and multiple shims later .... I finally had my doily.

The paper is from a 6" pad, I cut to fit the card blank and added the ribbon, pearls, paper doily and clock face (Robert Adams die).  The dots are done using texture paste through a stencil and then inking them with a gold ink pad.  It was at this point I decided on the doily...... having finally managed to cut it, I coloured it with the same gold ink pad.  Then I stamped a sentiment (magazine freebie stamp) and circle-punched it, with a punched scalloped circle mat.

I am actually rather pleased with the finished card - but I must find an easier way to cut that doily!

Variations on a theme - resist embossing technique

I was late setting off to the ATDML retreat a couple of weeks ago, even though I had been very organised with everything packed the previous evening.  But on the Friday morning, I decided I wanted to stamp/emboss some images in white to take with me and play around with distress inking them.  This of course took far longer than I had thought it would and so I was late :-)

Having inked and over-stamped the images at the retreat, they have been on my desk crying out to be made up into cards.  Here are three I did using an old Stampendous agapanthus stamp.

I am not quite so happy with the last card, I think it would have been better if I had found a toning background mat.  But it's OK :-)

I have some more images to make up yet, so watch this space!!

52 Cards Challenge: week 45

I had a wonderful time at the retreat as usual, the classes were fab and I spent quite a lot of some money in the shop ..... well it would be rude not to ..... LOL.

It was the first chance I have had to have a bit of a play with my new Stampin Up goodies.  So I had a go with the Petite Petals set and its matching punch, also the Gorgeous Grunge set which I bought a while ago.

I really like the effect achieved with masking off stamped images and using a matching punch means no fiddly cutting out of the mask!  The flowers were stamped first, masked off, then the lines and the splotches were stamped over the top.  Very pleased with this one, I am going to do a few more, they are suited to birthday, get well, thank you cards ..... think I may do a mat next time, though.  The sentiment is from Stamping All Day.

The 52 cards challenge for week 45 is 'botanical', so this fits nicely!  I haven't taken part in this challenge for a couple of months at least, must jump back in.