OLW - Cats n Dogs

Well in my case it's just a cat!  I seem to be running last minute for all my challenge entries this week - am posting this one whilst finishing my lunch at work - even with an extra day off this weekend I still have loads to do....

Anyhow - the challenge this week at One Layer Wednesday was to make a one layer card featuring a cat or a dog.  I decided to use an old stampendous wood mounted stamp, but I think this image is available as a cling now if you're prefer the more space saving style of stamp.  I love this image - I have a couple of friends who would rather have dessert, first, middle and last at any meal!  Simply stamped and coloured with pencils with a little glaze on the balloon.

Right, that's it - short and sweet from me today but I'll be back just after midnight with the new challenge for St Luke's Charity Card Challenge

Craftilicious x

Bookworm!

That's the name of the challenge at Cupcake Craft Challenges this week, and I've had a new Kraftin Kimmie image called "Lucy" for a couple of months but not yet inked her up - so this seemed the perfect excuse ;-)  I decided to make a bookmark - I'm run a bookgroup at my house and have far too many books "on the go" so an extra bookmark always comes in handy!

I simply stamped and coloured "Lucy", cut her out and fixed her to a square of paper which was folded in half, then cut in half diagonally, sticking down the cut side opposite the fold to create a little triangular pocket you can slip over the corner of your page.

Short post as I have 20 minutes to meet the deadline for this challenge - will stop by tomorrow with photos of my stash from the Lincolnshire show which was great.

Catch you later...
Craftilicious x

Waltzingmouse Sketch 49

There's a new sketch over at the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge and it's a goodie so I had to play along.  I flipped one of the elements slightly to fit my stamp but I hope it still counts.

I started with a white square base card and used a MS punch to create a scalloped bottom.  I added some purple pearl cardstock embossed with my damask folder.  Next came my waltzingmouse "balm of friendship" stamp - my first ever WM purchase, stamped onto pink DP with purple ink.  I made a carnation from the same DP and added some white branches with another MS punch and used a ribbon to tie the design together to match the sketch.

I might not get much chance to visit blogs tomorrow (or today whichever way you look at it - not yet been to bed but I guess it is Sunday now!) as I'm hoping to get to the papercraft show at Lincoln showground to get some new goodies :-D

See you later - Craftilicious x

LIM Week 17 - Entries 2 - 5!

Well - I've taken this weeks LIM challenge to heart!  I did my first entry this morning, going for the safe middle ground I am always drawn to with my need for symmetry, but I was determined to try and pick one of the different corners and go asymmetrical for once.  So I picked an as yet uninked hero arts set with trees, branches, birds and animals and selected the bird and branch below and went off the card with the branch in the top right corner.  I stamped the bird on separate stock and cut him out to cover over the branch, but added just the legs direct to the card.  All coloured with faber castel pencils to avoid colour bleed on the inside layer of card stock.  The happy hello is another hero arts stamp but its in a box, so I split it up by stamping just the areas I wanted and placing either side of the image.

I liked it, I liked it so much that I decided to have another go.....

This time I went with another uninked stamped from an inkadinkadoo clear set.  The sentiment was under the cake stand, so again I stamped just the areas I wanted then masked off the other, move it along and inked the sentiment to the side.  I coloured the roses lightly with pencils again, then added some pearl leaves and coloured the stand in silver.

There was no stopping me now - top right, bottom left - done.  So why not do the other corners too???  I did want to make some extra quick cards too for our first craft fair in a couple of weeks where we will be selling the results thus far from my Charity Card Challenge in aid of St Luke's Hospice [thanks to all the LIMettes who've joined in so far - we've had over 300 cards in 6 weeks - you are all A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!    If you don't know what I'm talking about then click the St Luke's Charity Card Challenge - you've still got a few days to play with our pattern challenge for May and then we'll be back at midnight on the first of June with a new one!!!]

OK, so back to the challenge at hand - I next went bottom right.  Not sure of the brand of stamp on this one - possibly inkandinkadoo again.  Stamped in stazon black, corners rounded, then I simply used some pastel sticks to scribble colour from the bottom right towards the centre of the "corner square" in deep reds, through orange to yellow, which I blended with a tissue.

Finally - my 5th entry to LIM (by mid afternoon on a Saturday - I think that might be a record!) I went for the last corner remaining - top left.  This time I went with a simple boxed sentiment, again from a Hero Arts clear stamp set and then I added a vinyl rub-on butterfly over the corner.  I filled the white space within it with glue and sprinkled on some lime green glitter.

I'd love to know your favourite - I think mine is either the bird or the butterfly, but I keep changing my mind!

I have to say a big thanks to Lady LIM and Diva LIM for another FABULOUS challenge - I love how their challenges (and their tips and comments) push me out of my comfort zone and make me try things that would just don't come naturally to me.  This challenge more than any other, in my opinion, is making me a MUCH better card maker, which is why I come back to play as early as I can every weekend :-D

Thanks for reading to the end - sorry it was such a long post....
Craftilicious x

Less is More week 17

Good morning LIMettes - hope you're having a happy-crafty start to your B/H weekend.  I can't believe its week 17 over at LIM already?  I missed the first challenge but have been playing since week 2 and can't believe I've been doing it for 16 weeks......

This weeks' challenge is a recipe and can be found here http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.com/2011/05/week-17-recipe-pick-square.html

I decided to play with my kitty inchies and selected the central square and used 4 inchies to create the central image so I'm kind of literally interpreting the whole sketch.  I have the doggy version of these too but I went for the kitty version in honour of my Lottie who is often a cantankerous beast but has been very lovely and cuddly for the last couple of days - she always looks cute whilst asleep....

I just lined the stamps up on my gridded block (great for getting things straight without a stamp-amajig) stamped in cocoa then matted and layered in browns and golds.  Going for the central image is a total wimp out for me - I am obsessed with symmetry so I am GOING to make myself do another card shortly and pick an asymmetric square design.

See you later....
Craftilicious x

Casual Friday Week 4

It's Friday which means a new challenge over at Cas-ual Fridays.  As I did the first challenge, I decided I wanted to try and play every week, and I've done the first 3, I thought I might struggle this week though as the theme is "Graduation".  Well this isn't such a big deal in the UK as it is in the US so I don't have any graduation themed craft supplies so I thought I was going to have to skip it.  However, as I used to work for a University I do know they present scrolls at Graduation (fake ones for the ceremony!) so I thought I could make my own fake scroll and this would make a perfect clean and simple card.

The scroll is a just a little pearl paper, tied with red ribbon, and mounted onto gold pearl trimmed with the same red ribbon.  I mounted both onto a black square base card and rounded the bottom corners for extra interest.  I added a simple "congratulations" stamped onto the same pearl paper as the scroll and set deliberated off centre.  I just need to find a graduate to give it to now....

Here's the challenge site if you want to play along http://cas-ualfridays.blogspot.com/2011/05/cas-ual-fridays-challenge-cfc4.html

Craftilicious x

PUCKa!

I needed to make a card for our nephew's birthday this weekend and there really is only one choice for him - it has to be an ice-hockey card as he's a massive Steelers fan.

I got the great image from Kenny K and its has just enough detail for you to be able to add your own team colours - which for the Steelers are orange and turquoise with lots of white.  I wanted some DP and was surprised it was so easy to find a match - its a sheet from the My Minds Eye Fine and Dandy set.  I cut the hockey player out and mounted onto a black oval, and printed a sentiment in a "puck" like font to wish him a "pucka" birthday.  I wanted him to just overhang the oval so his stick was on the DP, so I used a spotty ribbon to balance the otherside and cut a puck from some scrap black.  I think he came out quite well.

Night all, Craftilicious x

Meet Fred!

When I saw this stamp I knew I had to have it - I had NO idea what I would ever use him for but Flamingo Fred just stole my heart :-)

I decided to stamp him onto some kraft cardstock and colour with pencils - just a couple of shades of pinks and purples and then put him to one side until I needed him.  When I saw the colours at this weeks CR84FN, I thought they would be great to match with Fred, so I matted him onto some light and dark plum, added an embossed layer of craft and some stars.  The sentiments are made up from different sets - one from a party invite, the other from a random word set.  The reeds are from there she goes.  Finished with a little bow - now who could resist those comic eyebrows???

I am entering Fred into the following challenges - a couple requiring you to use kraft cardstock, and then the CR84FN colour challenge:

http://cutecardthursday.blogspot.com/2011/05/challenge-165-lets-get-krafty.html

http://thespottedchick.blogspot.com/2011/05/thats-krafty-thursday-51.html

http://cr84fncolorchallenge.blogspot.com/2011/05/cr84fn29.html

Thanks for stopping by - Craftilicious x

CAS-ual LIM Blingy Butterfly Sketch...

So yesterday, I had this idea to use a new embossing folder to create another entry into this weeks LIM challenge which is all about butterflies.  The folder is called "flutterby" so was a perfect choice, but I wanted to try to add colour to it.  It turns out, that this is a technique which although looks simple, really, really isn't - and here are 4 of my disasters to prove it! 

 
At first I tried to put ink into the depressions, wiping off any that got on the flat bit of the folder, thereby leaving the background white (well lemon pearl in this case) and just having the embossing coloured.  Too much ink to wipe off, meant I wiped it all off nearly and what was left was too wet - hence - a disaster (top right)!  So I thought, ink the sticky up bits and have debossed colour - that had to be more simple and effective - er no - top left.  Right, just emboss without ink, and then use an ink duster to "gently" rub the colour over the embossing once finished - apparently I wasn't gentle enough (bottom left).  Perhaps a brayer over the flat bits to colour the background then and have white embossing?  Better but still not quite good enough and this (bottom right) was my second attempt at the same technique.  At this point, I gave up on fancy ink techniques, embossed the lemon pearl as normal and coloured the embossing with copics - technique fine - colouring rubbish!!!!  Anyhow - I made it into a damn card anyway as I was fed up with my reject pile and here it is (I kept seeing the bottom as corn - hence the overuse of yellow!)

So, I needed a better picture to load into the LIM gallery.  I remembered a sketch challenge I wanted to play in over at Annabelle stamps http://annabellestamps.blogspot.com/2011/04/absc037.html so I used this as the basis for another entry.  I used another butterfly embossing folder (I think I have more of these than any one crafter could ever need!) and layered it up to fit the sketch, adding a there she goes sentiment, some ribbon and a dufex butterfly.  The dots in the sketch became gems, which also makes it a second entry for this weeks CAS-ual Friday blingy challenge - 3 in 1 - much better than my earlier disasters.

That's it for me and crafting this week - I'm going to spend my time tidying up the mess I made instead of making any more messes!!!

Craftilicious x

Colour Throwdown - Black, Grey and Lime

I don't often do colour challenges - I find it the hardest form of challenge as I have a colours I am comfortable working with, and others I don't.  I do follow them though, and play along when a combo comes up that suits me (I know the idea is to challenge yourself but colour is my Achilles heel...)   This week, I loved the colour combo at colour throwdown, and knew instantly what I wanted to make but have only just found time to do it.  You can find the challenge here - http://colorthrowdown.blogspot.com/2011/05/color-throwdown-142.html

I used a white base card, and mounted some grey damask from a papermania capsule collection onto black for the background.  I stamped a waltzing mouse label onto some lime swirl DP from My Minds Eye, cut with the corresponding nestie and mounted again onto black.  I added a simple sentiment from there she goes stamps again in black.  I made a paper ribbon from the same lime swirl DP and mounted again onto black across the centre of the card.  I then used a lovely thick ribbed satin ribbon and made a flat bow, secured with a lime green brad, this was set to the side with the sentiment at the other side for balance.

I am combining this with this weeks challenge at 4 crafty chicks which is to use brads.  I bought these jumbo brads ages ago and have only used one so far so I thought this was an ideal challenge to use another on.  http://4craftychicks.blogspot.com/2011/05/challenge-38-brads.html

Have a good evening,  Craftilicious x

Fluttering Less is More

Good afternoon LIMettes - I did start typing good morning then realised I was a bit slow off the mark with this morning's challenge and that it is afternoon already - very late for me with my first LIM card!  However, I have made two already so I guess that accounts for my tardiness [and the fact that I am finding it hard to put down my latest book - Meet me at the Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan - very fluffy chicklit but its about someone who is made redundant and opens a cafe which is something I'd love to do - the cafe part and NOT the redundancy obviously :-)]

Anyhow enough waffle - let's get to the cards.

I made this one first - I adore this set of stamps - you get 6 swirls in 3 different sizes and two directions, a swirly heart and several sizes of butterflies.  I stamped it versamagic tea leaves and then carefully embossed just the butterflies in the swirl with gold.  I stamped and embossed the mid-size butterfly on separate paper and cut it out to stick on the end of the swirl.  I added a sentiment from Chocolate Baroque and embossed in the same gold.  I really like the resulting card, but didn't feel there was enough white space to appease the Diva and Lady of LIM so I decided to make a second.....

For this one, I stamped a stampendous swirly butterfly onto pink glitter paper and carefully cut it out.  I stamped another Chocolate Baroque sentiment onto a oblong that I'd cut longer than nested shape thanks to Lady LIM's tutorial from a few weeks ago.  I like this new sentiment set and I thought the swirly font matched the butterfly perfectly.  I mounted this onto some of same glitter paper as the butterfly to add a narrow matching frame.

I got a new butterfly embossing folder last week, so I may be back with a 3rd card later - boy do I love Saturdays :-D   Hope you are having a great day too....

Craftilicious x

Cas-ual Friday with added bling!

It's Friday night so its the first of the weekend's CAS challenges over at CAS-ual Fridays and this week the challenge is to add some bling.

I decided to add some ink to some as yet uninked stamps from there she goes to a tiny card blank, and just added some clear gems to the centre of the flowers, the dots on the i's and a few at either side for a bit more bling.

It is very simple, but sometimes less is more ;-)

See you tomorrow for our regular LIM fix.....

Craftilicious x

OLW inspired by cake :-)

This is only the second time I've entered the OLW challenge over at Simplicity, but as I am all about the CAS of late thanks entirely to my weekly dabblings in LIM,  so I think it will become a regular thing from now on.
 
I absolutely loved the challenge this time round - you had to choose a cake from Cake Wrecks and use it as the inspiration for a baby card.  I chose the following cake as I love chocolate and pink together - although in my interpretation I completely changed the colours!

I used the stripes and the piping as my inspirational details.  I used an oval nestie to very lightly draw ovals on the top of the card and then drew over the pencil lines with liquid pearls in lilac.  I used the same liquid pearl to create the dotty pattern.  At the bottom of the card I created stripes in two shades of purple, masking off the stripes with post-its and sponging ink on top.  To finish it off I used some sheer ribbon to create a single central bow.  The sentiment is from a Joanna Sheen baby bunny set I think.

I really enjoyed taking inspiration from an object - it was lots of fun so here's the link to the challenge if you want to play along - http://simplicitybylateblossom.blogspot.com/2011/05/one-layer-wednesday-54-baby-cakes.html

Thanks for stopping by....
Craftilicious x

Pattern on Pattern

I thought I'd make another card for my charity card challenge  in aid of St Luke's Hospice in Sheffield which this month is all about pattern.  The challenge is open until the end of May so you've got plenty of time to play along - I hope you do, even if you can't post your card to the charity - play along online and help me spread the word about the challenge to as many bloggers as possible.  I'd like to get more players each month if possible so our little challenge grows from strength to strength.  Thank you ;-)

I also added some twine and a button, as I really wasn't happy with my entry to  CAS-usal Friday Challenge yesterday, so I thought if I used the twine to edge and separate the patterns in the central strip, and one central black button added a little interest and balance to the simple sentiment at the bottom.  I used a kraft card embossed with polka dots as the base for my card so I have dots, spots, stripes, gingham and diamonds - so plenty of pattern, but still in a clean and simple way.

Do remember to pop over to the St Luke's Charity Cards Challenge and take a copy of our blinkie for your sidebar to help spread the word about this simple fundraising idea.  Thanks again...

Have a good evening - Craftilicious x

Cas-ual Friday Week 2

I've tried several times to make a card for the new challenge at Casual Fridays since it went live on Friday night which is to use twine and buttons, which sounded like a doddle, but it turned out not to be so.  I'm not sure I like this now its done, I think I needed a black mat behind the red, but can't get it off now its stuck....

The poppy is a two part stamp from chocolate baroque - one solid stamped in red, one line stamped over the top (should have used my lego blocks to align it!) in black.  The sentiment is personal impressions.  I like the tiny dotty buttons and need to buy some more.

I'm off to bed to read my book and to hope the crafting fairy visits with my missing mojo tomorrow....

Craftilicious x

Waltzing Mouse Birthday ParTEA!

If you've been following my blog for a while, you'll see that I use Waltzing Mouse stamps quite a lot - Claire the owner/designer makes such wonderful timeless stamps that have hundreds of different applications - they really are just brilliant :-)   At the moment, Claire is celebrating Waltzing Mouse's 2nd Birthday and is offering a staggering prize of £200 worth of stamps (er yes please I hear you say - well hop on over to this page to find out how to play).  You have to use one of her templates - the tea bag is a great free download - and decorate it for a tea party.  This is my interpretation of the brief:

I cut the bag template from brown paper, and matted some teapot and cup paper onto the front.  I stamped one of the stamps from WM's Back in the Saddle set onto some more brown paper and printed my own text underneath to show that you are wanted for a parTEA!  (I know, bad pun but it made me laugh!)  The little character is a freebie stamp from this months craft stamper (great timing!) stamped onto white and coloured with copics and cut to fit the wanted frame.  I used a bit more DP for the tea bag string, and then cut out some cups and cupcakes from the damask decor cartridge on my cricut [sometimes you can find the strangest things hidden on the extra keys on your cartridges ;-)]  I added a 2 to the cake to show it was an invitation to parTEA with Claire and the Waltzing Mouse team.  Hope you like it.

I also decided to make a 2nd Birthday card to go with the invite and used this weeks sketch on the Waltzing Mouse Sketch Challenge site.  I used one of the stamps from WM's holiday labels set and stamped half of it along some white card to make my own custom stamped scalloped border.  I cut this out by hand.  I used some DP from the DCWV Linnen stack ( I then cut a mat using a nestie in white and matted this onto a teal pearl.  To continue the tea party theme I cut the whole damask shape which had the little cup as an extra layer that I used on the tea bag and coloured it in two shades of teal, adding a 2 to the teapot.  I used another stamp from the Back in the Saddle set to show it was for a birthday.  A little ruffle-folded teal ribbon over the top of the border and a few pearls were all that was needed for a little finishing touch.

Congratulations to Claire on Waltzing Mouse's 2nd Birthday - may there be many, many more birthday celebrations for us all to join in as your sucess grows :-)

See you all later - Craftilicious x

LIM Week 15 Embossing - Take 2 plus disasters!

Back again.  Chrissie gave me some fantastic tips on how to avoid the dreaded black spots so I thought I'd give the challenge another go.

This time I used one of my new chocolate baroque stamps - I bought them because I liked that you got a solid and an outline of the same image - in this case, an iris.  I created a gold mirror background using a glue stick and some mixed colour flakes and stamped the solid version in stazon over the top.  I used stazon again to stamp the outline version, half on, half off the flakes.  I wiped over the card with talc and stamped a greeting in the corner with black ink and embossed it.  Still a few tiny dots but nothing that would ruin the card this time, phew (and thanks Chrissie - you and Mandi are so generous with your time and tips and I know us LIMettes really appreciate it).

I thought I'd share the two disasters now I've rescued them - no longer one layer so don't fit the challenge, but I am pleased with the rescued results so thought it was worth sharing them.  The first is dry embossed along the bottom with a cuttlebug edge folder decorated with lilac pearl dots.  I did stamp the sentiment directly onto the card, but I screwed up the alignment so had to mat and layer it twice to get it centralised (LIM fail but I like it now it's "fixed")

 

The second is actually the card I started with this morning, my new poppies from the same chocolate baroque set as the iris.  I stamped and embossed originally centrally onto a square card, but I had lot of ugly dots all around so I carefully cut it out (again now no longer LIM one layer but worth rescuing I felt as it is a gorgeously luscious image) and coloured with copics, polychoromos and a little glitter.  The sentiment strip is from craft candy.

Right, am off for a quick look at what everyone else has been doing before I go to collect my husband from work and make our paella.

Best wishes,   Craftilicious x x

LIM Week 15 - Embossing

Well, I thought blogger was going to ruin my weekend with its "1 hr maintenance" that last 3 days!!!  However I was sooooooo relieved when I finally saw it was up again last night so that today's LIM challenge would be able to go ahead - phew!  I'm still waiting for some of my lost comments to reappear but they are still working on it apparently so fingers crossed.

This weeks challenge was to do embossing - either dry, or heat embossing.  I had several ideas, one was to use a lovely new poppy from chocolate baroque, but I embossed it twice and both times were disasters!  Any tips of avoiding "dots" where you don't want them, removing too much powder where you do want it whilst trying to avoid the "dots", and stopping your paper curling would be much appreciated!!!

So I switched from evil black embossing powder to clear (much easier to hide your mistakes!) and decided to use my old favourite stampendous agapanthus stamp and to do a emboss resist technique.  I used a wavy rectangular nestie to dry emboss a frame into which to stamp.  This also creates an area to fill with colour to show up the clear embossed image.  I used victorian velvet in the middle and blended dusty concord into that and up to the edge of the frame.  I used a dark flesh polychromos pencil to carefully add a coloured line to the middle of the embossed frame to bring out the victorian velvet.  A simple sentiment from there she goes finishes it off, but I wish I'd done it in black as the purples don't match....

Right off to do a bit of shopping - will be back to comment on all your entries later while I watch Eurovision - come on Blue - no nil points please!!!
                                                           Craftilicious x

Less is More Take 4!

See, told you I was a WoW convert now ;-)   As I got a new cricut cartridge on Tuesday, I couldn't resist having a little play last night.  As I was just testing it I just used white card and I was really pleased with the shape I cut so I thought it would be rude not to turn it into a 4th card for this weeks LIM challenge, - 4 is definitely a record for me despite my LIM obsession!

The cartridge is called Damask Decor and its one of the new ones Cricut have just released.  I wasn't going to buy any more but I just HAD to have this one, there are so many beautiful intricate shapes you can cut.  This one has 3 layers a the bottom.  All were cut at 2½ inches and layered up and then covered in glossy accents to get a thick covering of glimmer dust on as I wanted an encrusted super-sparkly look.  A bit of script covered vellum from a DCWV stack and s few score lines were all I felt the card needed.  Tried a few sentiments but I felt it spoilt the clean look so I left it without - right choice???

I'm going to try some more designs from this cartridge for my friends wedding invites - I think it will be perfect.

Thanks for stopping by.

Craftilicious x

Damask Decor

Just a really quick post with a card today that was almost entirely created on my cricut (see now it's out I can't stop playing with it!)  I was browsing the new cartridges out on Monday and found one that I totally had to have immediately so I ordered it and amazingly it arrived in the post yesterday (how's that for service!!!)  It's called Damsak Decor and it's just stunning.

One of the features I liked the look of was the one that allows you to create whole cards at the push of a couple of buttons, and envelopes to match.  So while I was waiting for bath to run yesterday whilst getting ready to go out, I made this - colours inspired by old blue and white china.   A craft candy sentiment was all that was needed to complete the card.  I think you will be seeing a lot more form this cartridge as I start to play with it....

Happy crafting
Craftilicious x

Lily's Scrapbook

I've recently finished my 2nd ever scrapbook - I find layouts much harder than card making but I do enjoy it when I get into it.  This one was for my newly arrived great niece - who is called Lily.  I thought I'd share a few of the pages to see what you all think.  The album and lots of the stickers and embellishments were from an American Crafts kit that I picked up in December from TJ Hughes - I bought quite a few as they were a bargain £4!

The stickers and heart were part of the kit - the flowers and gems were my additions along with a few leaves from a MS punch.

The corners are cut on my cricut from the "from the nest cartridge" and then the flowers around her face are punched with a pearl drop centre.

Nestie shapes, lots of flowers and an Elzybels stamped sentiment and an old vellum quote.

I've left the quote stamps empty for Mum and Dad to write in.

This was my favourite layout - a double page spread of smiles and giggles.  Page above - Branch cut on cricut from the nest again, bird part of kit but coated in glossy accents, butterfly is ribbon.  I made my own photo corners using a MS corner punch and "snipping" into it to slide the photo in before sticking it back down to hide the snip.

Page below - This grey paper is from a gorgeous pad by GCD studios - I added a vellum border with a MS punch, and a hand coloured lily for Lily ;-) that I coloured with pencils on kraft to bring out the white when blending.  The photo corners are from an old sizzix die, as is the LOVE.  I love this photo as Lily is staring straight into Mum's eyes...

That's all I have to share tonight.  I'll be back Wednesday possible with a new card as we're out at a gig again tomorrow night - Tim Minchin this time - can't wait :-)

Craftilicious x

OLW meets CR84FN

I've been meaning to join some of my blogging friends in a challenge I've been watching for a few weeks - One Layer Wednesday - another CAS blog, but I've just not managed it due to time constraints.  This week I had the time, but have been struggling with the theme of circles as I don't have any circular stamps (or so I thought!)   However, when tidying up earlier I found an alphabet set that is all circles so I can indeed play :-)

It's a very simple card so I wanted simple clean colours and chose to use the lovely colours from this weeks CR84FN challenge which are bright pink, grey and cream.  I simply stamped the sentiment in London Fog, and the flower in Rose Bud, both momento inks, onto a cream base card - it really doesn't get much cleaner or simpler.  (Although the ability to take a straight photo might help!)

Here are the links to the challenges if you want to play along:

OLW - http://simplicitybylateblossom.blogspot.com/2011/05/olw52-round-and-round.html

CR84FN - http://cr84fncolorchallenge.blogspot.com/2011/05/cr84fn27.html

Night all, Craftilicious x

Carnation Tutorial

One of the LIMettes asked me if I could do a quick tutorial on how to make the carnations I used on my third LIM entry this week - so here it is - hope you find it useful Lorraine 

You don't need much equipment - a scallop punch, a bradawl or poky tool, a brad (any colour as you don't see it in the finished flower) and a mini mister.  I keep a spare eraser on my desk to put underneath things when I pierce holes so that's in the photo too.  Punch your scallops from PAPER not card.  Different thickness will give different effects and will need different amounts of water so play around and see what effects you can get.  For this flower I used 5 layers - in yesterdays I did 7 - again depends on the size and thickness you want - I would say 5 was a minimum though to get the effect.

Line your layers up and make a small hole in the center.

Put your brad through the hole and fix behind but leave a little slack so the papers don't pull off the front in the manipulations stages later on (you can tighten it up at the end if needs be.

Put your fingers behind the first layer and gently spritz with water.  Allow it to soak into the paper until it is pliable (the thicker the paper the more water required and the longer it takes to soak)  Take care not to over wet it though.

Scrunch the edges into the middle - the more you scrunch the more natural the finished flower - you make need to "open" and re-scrunch the middle layer to get the right effect.  Spritz the next layer as before and scrunch again.  Repeat the process until you run out of layers.

Once you get to the end you'll have a carnation "bud" (sorry for the blurry photo here).  Keep it scrunched until it begins to dry.

Open up the layers, and manipulate until you are happy with the shape.  You can stroke an inkpad over the edges carefully to get that striped edge effect that some carnations have, or add some stickles for extra sparkle..  Fix to your project with silicon glue on the open bit of the brad.

I've also seen these done with card, where the layers of card are pulled apart to reveal the fibres.  You cut the shapes, then ribble them twice, turning 90 degrees in between.  Then you wet them, then you should be able to carefully pull each layer into 2.....   Not tried it yet but I'll show you if I get chance to play with it later.  In the meantime I hope this was useful.

Happy crafting.

Craftilicious x

LIM White on White Take 3......

Yes I'm back again and yes DIVA LIM I take back my hate comment unreservedly, I think I actually LOVE white on white now :-)  You can give me lines if I complain again ;-)

This wasn't something I intended to do in white at all.  I'm going to make the wedding invites for my husbands friend and his wife to be but they haven't really got an idea of what they want so I said I'd mock up a few ideas.  With all the playing I'd be doing on the cricut with the pearly white card this morning, I just thought it would work so well as a wedding invite (although she's not going for white so it might morph into cream on cream or something similar but at least this was a good place to start for ideas.)

I started with the carnation flower - which is handmade.    I learnt how to make them last Sunday at the papercraft show and they are super easy - you just need a circular scalloped punch, a brad and a water spritzer.  [Edit Sunday - here is a quick tutorial on how to make them as requested]  However, as easy as they are, I'm not sure I'm going to fancy making them over 200 times if they pick this design....  I'll have to make sure the other designs are a bit more easy to assemble!   I cut the flourishes from the same cindy loo cartridge on my cricut in the same pearly card and cut the nestie label in the same card before stamping and embossing the "you're invited" onto it with an opaque white powder (shows better IRL than I can get the photograph to show here today with the awful light thanks to the rubbish weather).  I cut a strip of white card and a matching strip of stripey vellum and wrapped a sheer white edged ribbon around it et voila!

I'm also going to enter this into the "wedding challenge" over at die cut dreams http://diecutdreams.blogspot.com/2011/04/die-cut-dreams-challenge-88-wedding.html

Right, that is definitely it for me today - got to get ready to go out this evening as we're off to see the mighty Daniel Kitson at the Crucible - he's so amazingly funny we see him every time he's here.

Have a good weekend
                                   Craftilicious x

LIM White on White Take 2

So, I'm back again pretty quickly with take two - despite saying I hated the idea of white on white - I've had a change of heart.  This one is ALL white - not a hint of even a black outline.  No sentiment though as I couldn't fit one on (perhaps that shows there's not enough open space to be truly CAS but its hard to do both!)

Well it seemed a waste to get the cricut out for one little frame - so I cut another, from the same pearl paper.  This time it's a floral doily from "cindy loo" again.  I embossed the frame section only with the dotty folder (sorry to repeat but I don't have another pattern that is small enough to work) and then I dry embossed some veins into the leaves by hand.  I edged the flowers with frosted lace stickles and added some gems to the centre.  The doily is slightly raised off the base card with silicon glue.

I may yet be back again later......
                                                 Craftilicious x

LIM Week 14 White on White

Morning to my LIMette mates - its Saturday so its our favourite challenge of the week.....

I was chatting with Lady LIM yesterday on email as she is kindly donating some cards to my charity card challenge and we joked about her not giving me a hint at what today's challenge would be and I said as long as it's not acetate again it will be fine - but boy oh boy I think today's white on white is actually even more scary and definitely more difficult that the dreaded acetate.  My heart sank and I nearly wimped out, but my husband told me to just think outside the box and have a go.

I'm glad I did - cos I don't think this will be my only entry this week - I have another one "drying" as I type....

I started with a 5" square and I cut the frame on my cricut on pearl white using my favourite cartridge "cindy loo" cut to 4.75" to fit the card.  I ran the frame through a dotty embossing folder on my big kick and added 4 white dotty craft candy dots.  I originally stamped the "love" heart direct to the card in white and embossed it with white tinsel, but it really didn't show up, so I hope doing it in black counts as "outline" as per the rules of this weeks challenge - I did TRY to be totally white Miss honest!  I don't remember where I got the stamp its part of a set (the other heart is smaller and the love is in relief) as I've had them for years.  It's my friends anniversary later this month so I think this may well be their card (good job they don't read my blog!!!)

As well as entering this into Less is More, I'm also going to make this one a second entry into CASual Friday's new challenge as this one is definately focussed on "text" which is their theme.  Fellow LIMettes should check out their challenge if you haven't already - I think it might be almost as much fun as our weekly LIM fix ;-)   Mix your text with some pattern and then you can enter my challenge too......

Happy crafting - see you later with my second entry - and now I'm inspired and less scared of white, maybe even a third!
                                     Craftilicious x