The Stampman challenge #4 - Musical

Its a MUSICAL challenge over at The Stampman this fortnight and I've gone for a clean and simple design using Aspects of Design Classical Instruments. I made the background using starburst stains from the victorian bouquet set then stamped and embossed in moonglow midnight teal. I've then used an aqua brush filled with a diluted bleach mix and taken off the background colour. I've used a corner adourner for the mount and some gorgeous holographic silver paper I got off the shelf in The Stampman shop. Nice and easy one today!



Hope you can come join us for the challenge, thanks for stopping by! :)

Also entering into..



Totally Papercrafts - Clean & Simple

Rainbow Lady - Sparkle & Shine (Its starburst stains!)

Pete & Claire's Wedding Card

Made this one for a local couple who recently got married using a Pollycraft image of Cuthbert & Kiki whch is sooooo cute!
I know Claire's flowers were red and she had a tiara on with a white dress so I went with that. I've coloured with promarkers and added the tiara using teeny nail gems, the brides flowers are red sticky gems and the dress is glamour dust. Papers were from shabby princess one of the valentines packs and I've used ribbon roses and buttons as the stoppers. I made the stick pin with a heart charm, heart bead and 2 6mm swarovski crystal AB beads. The 3 large flowers are from hobbycraft, one is a red rose and the other 2 I cant remember the name but they have beady thingies poking out of them! Gave the card a spray or two of pearl glimmer mist to finish.



Entering into...

Polka Doodles - Colouring challenge

Pollycraft - Recipe (3 papers, 2 buttons, one charm)

A Spoonful of Sugar - Recipe (3 flowers, 2 buttons, one ribbon)

Papertake - Recipe (3-2-1)

I love Promarkers - Charming

Incy Wincy - Buttons & Bows (Ribbon is tied in a bow with a rose stuck on it)

WOYWW

Gosh I have been quiet lately! Its the kids with all their latest bugs and last week I've had a 2 and 3 year old with chicken pox. Mols was covered, Ethan fared much better and hardly got any. I think he's got cabin fever as he likes to get out most days and obviously cant except for a drive round so he's quite restless. Have amused them today with painting, they LOVE paint but its such a mission to clean up afterwards. This was the 2nd round of paint! I dried their pictures on the washing line, its not like I can get any WASHING on there lately is it lol! Play Doh tommoz I think!

Onto WOYWW over at The Stamping Ground! This is where crafters can have a snoop at your workspace, what you're making and how messy we are hehe!

I'm back on the hob this week. Was just finishing off a wedding card (late as usual!) Got my pliers there as I was making a swarovski stick pin and putting a charm on the end, my box of red, orange and yellow flowers, martha punch, not an awful lot to show as I took the pic near the end of production!

Awards all round and confession....

I don't *do* awards usually, they don't sit well in my psyche but I've had a few passed onto me lately by fabulous friends so this is a real struggle for me as I shall explain further but I want to do it for THEM!

First up is the Cherry on Top award given to me by both Vicky at Kips Cards and Lorraine at Lorraine's place - thank you girls!

1. Thank the person that gave it to you.
2. Post it with pride on your blog.
3. List 3 things you love about yourself. Eeek!!!!!!
4. Post a picture you love.
5. Tag 5 other people for the award

OK 3 things....

1. Errrrrm
2. Ummmmm
3. I'm not very good at this!

A picture I love...

5 other people...

1. Corry - She makes me chuckle with her phrases and pechant for saying girlfriend
2. Lin - She just makes me laugh because she just her
3. Judie - Stark raving bonkers and such a fabulous person
4. Tracy - When I grow up I want to make cards like Tracy

5. Jenni - She's a very quiet DT member so hoping to learn a bit more about her

*****************************

Next up the Beautiful blogger award from Judie. Thank You petal x

I have to tell you 7 facts about me and pass onto 7 people so here's the confession bit...

1. I find awards difficult because a few years ago I was diagnosed as having Aspergers. Not a lot of people know that until now because I have largely ignored it wanting to be treated as 'normal' which in the main part I am however it does have an impact and things like awards usually cause stress as to who to pass them onto so if I haven't passed it onto to you this time I apologise and its not because you're not loved :) I'll probably obsess over that for the next 5 years lol!

2. There now thats out of the way I have to think of another 6 things.... Ahh yes I have a thing for lists (its a family trait) I have a list for everything on my blackberry for example in my notes folder I have a list for challenges this week, a list of artists I like, my finances for this month, lottery numbers, my stamp list, there are about 30 lists in there.

3. I love fairies (no really, I'd never have guessed!) I prefer fairies with a bit of an edge - bad fairies :D

4. I have a very camp taste in music and every time I hoover I have I want to break free in my head.

5. I loathe Thomas the tank engine because of an ex's 3 year old nephew constantly throwing humdingers because he wanted the video on all day. Thomas thomas I waaaaaaaaaaaant thomas aaaaargh!

6. I don't watch TV except CSI and NCIS sometimes. The last time I saw eastenders stacey had just been found out having an affair with bradleys dad (was an xmas episode some time ago!)

7. I love parma violets :)

Right 7 peeps...

1. Lisa
2. Toria
3. Jane
4. Vicky
5. Lorraine
6. Alison
7. Dot

Crafty Cardmakers challenge 28 - Video Inspiration Lady Gaga

Its challenge time again over at Crafty Cardmakers and we're having a bit of fun and dong something a bit whacky this fortnight! I'm often asked as I'm sure many of you are "Where do you get Inspiraton?" Well for me aside from around blogger and craft stamper I often use music and video. There have been plenty of song title challenges before so we are doing a video one!

The video I chose is Bad Romance by Lady Gaga. This is one of the most viewed videos ever on you tube so it can't be bad! I only saw it quite recently and was immediately drawn to the colours, the bling and parts such as the shoes reminded me of Susie Sugar who has also humoured me and sponsored the challenge! The crazy hair she has I thought of Kraftin Kimmie stamps straight away, the hats she wears remind me of castles and lavinia stamps so on so forth!

Susie is sponsoring the challenge with approx £10 worth of her fabulous shoe die cuts and s also a guest designer for us too!

For this challenge at Crafty Cardmakers I picked out the black and diamonds and kept being drawn to the Red Hearts stamp by sweet pea. Using part of the video where she is wearing a black costume surrounded by diamonds I've coloured in promarkers, have used black glitter and glamour dust on the wings, glamour dust again around the edge of the image. The DP across the centre is glittered as is the ribbon and I've used glittery and iridescent sticky gems. I used nail gems on the bodice and for the hearts which are coloured black. To finish it has a spray of dazzling diamonds glimmer mist.

This is the part of the video I drew inspiration from :)

Hope you can come over and join in a bit of fun! BTW my steasel card in the sidebar comes from Marilyn Manson's Tainted Love video but I didn't think many would appreciate using that one lol!

Entering into...

Magical Monday - Flowers

My time to craft - Glitter & Glitz

Pocket Full of Posies - Winged Things

Creative Card Crew - Sparkle & Shine

Stampin for the weekend - Anything goes

Thanks for looking!

WOYWW + Catch Up!

I've been a bit MIA lately, not been around too much so going to have a catch up! If you're wondering what WOYWW is all about pop over to The Stamping Ground and have a mooch over other crafters creative chaos. I've sorted out my craft room as planned, made lots of space and thought long and hard whether I'm going to use a lot of the bits and bobs again. I think if I sent someone a card using printed decoupage, tea bag folding or iris folding they'd think I'd had a breakdown! Its a bit like Cath sending out a Tilda card, it just wouldnt happen lol! I donated a *lot* of stuff to Birchwood Community Church who run craft classes so they have plenty to play with for a while!

As I'm catching up I took these pics last week after I'd sorted my room out. I feel a bit embarrassed as it still looks a mess but ts organised chaos and ain't bad compared to what it was lol!

These are my starburst stains which are out of kids reach. I left my hydrangea blue on the desk the other day and Molly painted herself with it so they're stored HIGH up! Thats a cross stitch pic I remember making around 1994!

Ths cupboard is hard to access and houses dangerous and difficult to get out of the furnture items lke alcohol inks, acrylic pains, color washes etc.

My very orderly drawer of embossing powders, mainly moonglow ones!


My messy desk! I have starburst stains colour charts, my colour wheel, Molly's first chalk drawng, a picture panted by Ethan, a card I bought off Judy as I loved everything about it, my bead collection, papers, sticky gems, sewng machine, a canvas I've started with Molly's hand and footprints, 2 art decos which are now posted. I had done another set of angels and was just packing them and realised they'd asked for landscape and mine were portrait, I could cry seriously I could cry!

After I dropped off my stash for the church I popped into the charity shop next door and lookie what I scored for a quid :D :D :D

So todays desk well I still have an organised mess! I wanted to do some real stitching for the pollycraft challenge but my machine has other ideas! I couldnt thread it to save my life! Not much different to last week, theres a CIP (card in progress) for Crafty Cardmakers challenge next monday, my blackberry headphones, actually they're OH's coz I can't remember where I put mine! Mols left her callng card on the left there I see!

Final wrap up - well we've been out to see Thomas! I actually really dislike Thomas the Tank but my kids love him so I'll indulge them sometimes! They had a great day out hopping on and of trains all day and I lost count how many times they went on Thomas!

We're now confined to the house as Mols has erupted with chicken pox today aaaargh! I don't belieeeeeeve it! I'd got a free week next week and had planned to catch up with my neglected friends and all my odds and ends I need to sort out so now have the prospect of 2 toddlers with chickenpox with OH off on a bike tour. I'm already feeling a bit run down with the fibro having a go at my wrists again and the miserable weather isnt helping anybody except the grass! My laptop has been playing up too until it went into meltdown this week so OH has now fixed it so hopefully I'll be able to get on with admin kinda things like the cards for nan album which I can only edit in the evening so thats on my to do list next week.

Also the decos I need to do (or redo!) Wish there were a few more hours in the day!

Nevermind I get there eventually lol!

Night all :)

Spotlighting the Spotlight

Its our birthday over at Crafty Cardmakers so we have a birthday challenge still running if you want to play and this week is the turn of our spotlight challenges and we're doing the Spotlight technique! Its a lovely technique that you can really play around with and looks stunning. I chose to do a reverse spotlight where I coloured the whole image and used black and white spotlights.

I used stampscapes palms with huts (large) and watercoloured one with starburst stains in winter jasmine gold, peony scarlet red, red hot poker orange, hydrangea blue and moonshadow ink tawny turquoise on the huts. I cut out 2 circles from the black and white version, added 3d gloss then placed over coloured image, matted and layered, simples!

Entering into...

Gingersnap colour challenge - Yellow, orange & red

The Stampman challenge #3 - Easel cards

Its challenge 3 at The Stampman challenges this fortnight and we'd love to see your EASEL CARDS! Now you know what I'm like playing around with easels so I had to have a think and a few strong cups of gold blend before deciding on this one.

The problem I faced is its August and I traipsed round everywhere looking for novelty xmas lights only to be thwarted, I did try a few other types before remembering I have some of those light up pumpkins in the loft so a quick rummage and I struck gold!

What I wanted to do is put fairy lights in her hair but that will have to be for another day as I couldnt find a stringy light so I've built the unit into a base instead.

Here's the unit which has lights attached to a battery power box. If you want to play with lights look for something with a boxed power pack like this with the lights attached to it directly or via a wire. There will be riper pickings when the shops put out their xmas stocks just ready for pilfering :D
I made a box base to put the unit in, made my easel and cut out a hole for the lights to pop through. It also means you can access it easily to switch it on and off, change the batteries and whatnot. I've hidden it amongst some flowers and feathers as shown below.

This is the easel in daylight. I used some gorgeous holographic silver card I picked up off the shelves in The Stampman shop when I was there, it really catches the light. I'd sat in the dark with the light box shining it up onto a load of papers from stash and these worked the best for me. I have used the beloved 'bling maiden' from the Aspects of Design sheet Butterfly Beauties which you can find here. Me and the bling maiden always have a lot of fun, she's very forgiving!

I've painted her hair with starburst stains in blues and violets and taking some of the dye off wth tissue when it was wet leaving just a faint colour and the mica behind so it looks multicoloured in the flesh. The butterflies are punched from the holographc paper I've used so again catch the light.

And this is the night view of her in action lol! Instead of usng the flowers and lights as a stopper I set it further back for the best angle for the most light and used diamond brads there so she stands more upright to get more light.

And just to show she does actually work, here's a short video of her in action!

Entering into...

Pocket Full of Posies - All that glitters

Charisma Cards - Easels

Flutterby Wednesday - Open week

Sir Stampalot - Bring on the bling

Totally Papercrafts - Rainbow (The holographic paper shows the rainbow)

Lots to Do - Ribbons & Lace (Silver lace around box and silver holographic ribbon across centre of card.

Thanks for looking!

Red Hearts in Green

Here's a little post it easel, image is Red Hearts coloured with promarkers. I had fun making this one as I was asked for pastel green and black and love all the different looks you get with these stamps just by changing the colour scheme.

I've used the sketch from Passion for Promarkers, did scratch my head a bit with the zig zaggy shape but I'd seen Debs' one on facebook the other day and thought it looked kinda interesting! I've added mint green pee wee glitters using a quickie glue pen on the green papers and black diamond stickles on the black papers and also on the chipboard 18 which I then glazed over too. The mirror on the image is paper pieced with holographic silver and I've added teeny nail gems to the bodice and bracelet. The hearts have been coloured black with promarkers.

I'm off to me bed, come down with a cold boooooooo! Thanks for looking x

Entering into...

Passion for Promarkers - Sketch

Creative Card Crew - Cute & Girly

One stitch at a time - Mystical

Penny's Paper Crafty - Anything goes

Time for another Stampman ATC swap!

Its Time for another monthly ATC swap over at The Stampman and this month's theme is - Time! The Stampman ATC swaps are actual physical swaps so you send in your lovely ATC's and get some back - fab!
There was a good response to the first challenge and Janet is in the process of sorting them all and posting them back to players (She got the bestest job eh!)
Hope you can come over to play :D

This is mine and I used moonshadow ink for the background (yum!) and overstamped with a clock background who I don't know who its by as I borrowed it from Jills demo box when I was up there last week lol! I used moonglow embossing powders (double yum!) and the small butterfly from Aspects of Design butterfly beauties set stamped on starburst stains with some teal nailheads at the bottom.