A blog for cooking and crafts

Monday 21 December 2015

Buy it - Try it: Almost the last cards.....

I have just a couple of cards to make after these and then I am done.  This is actually the first year for a long time, where I haven't had several Christmas cards left over to give me a headstart on the following year!
I have just bought this lovely snowflake wreath stamp from Stamps by Chloe.  It stamps beautifully, I chose to stamp/emboss these in silver and pink.


I punched out the image with a Woodware 4" scalloped punch, then die cut the mats in mirri, using a Go Kreate die - amazingly they have the same sort of scallops, so go very well with each other.  The circular sentiment is from Stamping all Day and I punched that with a plain circle, then used the SU scallop circle punch for the mat, and raised the sentiment topper with some 1mm foam tape.  The pink embossing powder is from Wendy Vecchi, in Pink Peony.
The pink card is for a friend, for whom it wouldn't be Christmas if it wasn't pink.... LOL.
I really like this stamp, I'm sure it will feature in a Beat the Christmas Rush (or two!) next year :-)

Saturday 19 December 2015

Pinspired - Sy's November Pin challenge

I made these during November, whilst I was computer-less, and forgot I hadn't blogged them :-)  The two original Pins are here and here.
These are my versions:



I have to say that I am not that keen on the second one, I think I might have to re-visit the idea another time :-)  The papers are from Simple Stories and the bauble and branch dies are from Memory Box.  But I am really happy with the three tile card, it is a bit more gleam-y in real life LOL.  I held my breath as I stamped and embossed the sentiment (Stamping all Day) directly onto the card, but it came out perfectly.  I might put it off to one side next time though, instead of centrally.  The tiles are cut from the First Edition paper I really regretted buying ... LOL, I am determined to use it up .... then matted onto gold card.  I will definitely be using this design again!

Tuesday 15 December 2015

Middle Farm Cider Barn

It's not very often I re-do layouts, but I was very unhappy with the original treatment I gave these photos, so decided to start again.  I used a sketch - I think it was from My Creative Sketches - and some papers from Maja Design.


I love the layered effect on this, one slight niggle is the mistake in the journalling, but hey that's just part of the charm isn't it??  The title is cut on the Silhouette and the journalling stamp is an old one, from Stamps Away I think.
I am much better pleased with this version :-)

Monday 7 December 2015

Shades of brown

At the November crop, I was playing around with some distress inks to make smooshy backgrounds and decided to over-stamp an image in black.  I was really pleased with the effect, but they needed a stronger colour card blank to sit on than my usual white or cream.
So I ordered a selection of card blanks from Craft Creations in a few shades of brown, in light, medium, dark and kraft.  Oh and I chucked some burgundy into the basket for good measure LOL.
Two birthday cards:



And a New Home card, which was meant for DS1 when he eventually moves, but then I went a bit mad with the butterflies, so will have to do him something else LOL.


I really like the effect of these, will definitely be making more, in fact I started a couple at the weekend crop, but they are still works in progress at the moment.  The silhouette stamps - the flourish is from SU, the seed-heads and toadstool house are from Lavinia stamps.  Sentiments are all from Stamping All Day, the bubble background is from Indigo Blu.



Tuesday 1 December 2015

Let Sleeping Cats Lie

I managed to get several layouts done at the ATDML retreat, end of October / beginning of November.  It was the most scrapping I have done since ...... well, since the previous retreat in April!
This one uses a sketch from the Sketchy Scrappers group, when the sketch was first posted back in August, I really didn't like it and thought it wasn't for me - but it turned out I had the perfect sequence of photos for it :-)


It tells the story of how I looked out of the kitchen window and saw next door's cat asleep on DS1's lap in the garden, so I rushed to take a picture ...... whereupon the cat leapt off his lap and came to greet me!  We had several minutes of persuasion before getting the cat back on the lap for the photo :-)
The background paper is from stash, it may be My Minds Eye?  The squares are punched out of Bazzill dotted swiss and a white woodgrain cardstock.  The title is die-cut with a Memory Box alpha set and the journalling is written on stamped lines (Stampin Up).
It's a simple page, but I really like it :-)