Back again

Well, had a bit of break after the fair in the square, which from my point of view was a disaster, only sold two cards, but that's the way it goes sometimes.  Alison had a card stand & we both think that it was drawing peoples eyes, so I now have my very own card stand courtesy of Ebay.

I have started to make cards again, I'm working on a little gift set at the moment, with my favourite elephant, Humphrey.  In the meantime, just so that you don't think I've completely dropped off the planet, I thought I'd show you some stamped images I've been colouring.  The image is the same, I've just used some different mediums for colouring - Top right and bottom left are Spectrum Noirs, bottom right is coloured with Koh I Noor pencils (similar to prisma colours), and the top left is water colour pencils.

Hopefully, I will be able to show you the set in the next few days.  I'm also working on a storage system for my pens, but I'm almost beginning to wish I hadn't started.  It all began when I saw this photo on facebook by Louise Sharp

I thought, Wow, that's a brilliant idea - so following a search of the internet, I managed to find some tubing which looked suitable - it came as 5 x 5 metre lengths, which I worked out would be plenty to do what I wanted.  It all seemed so simple - cut the pieces to length, then glue it all together with either card or MDF, well it should have been simple, but the tubing is quite thick so it takes ages to cut each tube into 13 cm lengths - I've done 3 so far, and then once they're cut, the tubes have to be smoothed, luckily Geoff lent me his dremel to do them.  This however has it's own issues, I ended up looking very grey yesterday as all the fine grindings from the tubes went all over me!

Anyway, when it's finished I'll let you know.

TTFN

Humphrey in da house!

I have my Humphrey - YAY!!!.  I've only had a little play and not actually inked up any of the stamps yet (still stroking), but the CD is to die for, the images are just breathtaking and so to the cards:

This first card was created from one of the complete easel cards, it comes on several sheets, which you print, cut out and use the embellishments to create the layout which pleases you most.  I did print out an additional sheet from my other Humphrey CD as having folded the card base, the printed side ended up underneath.  The only other thing not on the CD is the sentiment, which I stamped from one of my existing Humphrey stamp sheets, but the tag was on one of the printed sheets - this is really great if you need a quick card.

 This next card moved away slightly from just using the CD - I printed out some of the topper sheets (I printed 3 sheets and had 16 images!), the images are truly breathtaking and I almost don't know which to start with, but start I did.  The CD is arranged by month, and I'm sorry to say that I can't remember which month this one comes from, but isn't he just gorgeous, I added some glamour dust to the bubbles, but then I used existing papers from my stash and stamped Happy Birthday (using an old Humphrey stamp plate), then cut out with a nestie.  Again this is a really simple card, but hopefully one that will be really appreciated.

This last card is really dinky (under 4" square) and is made from one of the complete card sheets, these are fab, and would make a great card set to give to someone.  It came with 5 layers of decoupage, but I only used 3 as I thought on a small card all 5 may look wrong.  The sheet came with some additional tags, which I may use on the inside, but not sure yet.  I will make an envelope for this card on my Ultimate Pro.

Well, that's it for the moment - I've slowed down a bit with the card making over the last few days, but I really shouldn't as I've still go the Fair in the Square to prepare for - it will be interesting to see which cards are preferred (if any).

TTFN

Last of the Popcorn!

Well, having printed some toppers, I have actually used all of them - even went beyond and and stamped a Popcorn as well and made another card with that!

This first card is with the last of the printed toppers - I decided that with the end of the school term coming up, I needed a couple of teacher cards for my collection so that I might be able to sell them at the fair in the square I'm doing with Alison in a few weeks (Arghhh!! not nearly ready for this).  I'm very proud of the stoppers on this easel card, they were hand drawn and coloured apples done on shrink plastic.  The 'abcd's were done using my Moxy alphabet for the quickutz, spellbinders for the tag at the bottom and shape for Popcorn, the papers were free in a recent magazine (love that word - FREE).  The bookshelf was stamped from the matching Popcorn stamp set and coloured with my Speccies.

This next card was the continuation of my brief love affair with Popcorn (don't worry, it's not over - he will be back) and is a stamped and coloured Popcorn done in a tunnel card - again he's coloured with my speccies, the paper on the outside is from the matching Popcorn Kids CD, but the paper inside the tunnel is again from that freebie pad from a recent magazine.  I've also used a sentiment from the CD and I've used some Dew Drops for accents.

I thought it was important to show you the back of the tunnel card so that you can see how I've decorated this so that you can put a message on it (always important with a card).  I used another paper from the CD, cut and embossed a plain piece of card and then chalked through the nestie frame for detail and then added another detail from the CD which was on the sentiments sheet.

Anyway - hope you like these, I will be moving on to a Humphrey obsession now as I have recently taken possession of the latest 'year of Humphrey' CD and ALL the stamps (SQUEAL!!!!!), they are so gorgeous and I was close to hyperventilating when I saw how much wonderful stuff is on the CD - you must take a look at the toppers section, there is so much there, I printed off 3 sheets and now have 17 images to work with.  There are all sorts of Easel cards and so much other stuff to get the Mojo flowing, have to highly recommend this one, just go here to see for yourself!

See you soon with some Humphrey TTFN!

Friends

Wow, sorry it's been a week since my last post - I have been crafting & will try and get my creations on line during the course of the week.

My card for the moment was from last weekend and uses another one of my Popcorn images.  The backing paper started life as a paper bag, I can't remember from where as I've had it so long, but when I first saw it I thought 'hmm, I'm sure I can use that' (closet hoarder, yes, I know!). The copper pearls on the right hand side are from one of my Viva paper pens - the flowers are from my stash and have been glued together with a candy dot centre (I had to add some glitter as the glue squidged out so I needed to cover that up).  Yet again I've used one of my Whimsy Stamps ticket stamps and die for the ticket - definitely think I've got my value out of these.

Well, I sold my Gypsy last week and now I'm waiting for the latest release of Humphrey to arrive, so not patient, especially having seen the online show with Leanne Chivers yesterday on Create and Craft - I am a huge Humphrey fan & this latest delivery will ensure that I have EVERYTHING Humphrey.

Anyway - got to go get ready for work - boo for Mondays!

More Popcorn

Well, I've been playing again with the popcorn images I printed off & I've had a great time, one more stepper card (much simpler than the last one) and, I think they call it, a tunnel card (will definitely be doing these again, I can see them being fab for Christmas scenes!).

The Baby card is really simple and uses a backing paper from the CD, I also stamped and coloured a picture of popcorn's dog - the word and squares were cut on my Silhouette, boy does that machine cut really well, detailed and small!

The tunnel card again used a backing paper from the popcorn Kids CD, and nesties for the shapes - the sentiment is back to my Whimsy stamps ticket stamp and die - I sooo love these.  This was such a simple card to make and practically threw itself together, it fits in an A6 envelope.

Anyway, suppose I'd better go and get ready to go to work (got to earn the pennies for crafting somehow!).

TTFN

Troublemaker

This is what my friend Kirsty calls herself, she isn't but I think she would like to be!

This is actually not a card, but a topper, but it could easily be added to a card front & a quick card is born!  The image is one of the one's I've had coloured for absolutely forever but I just haven't got round to using, I believe it's a Penny Black stamp, the paper is from my stash & I've had it for so long I couldn't tell you where it's from.  The ticket stamps are from Whimsy stamps which I got from Quixotic Paperie, together with the die that cuts out the ticket too - they are fab & you will definitely be seeing plenty more of these (I bought loads and need to get some value out of them - Lol!).  I would highly recommend a trip to Quixotic as they have some lovely stuff, and Elaine is so helpful - when I was looking at the ticket stamps, the matching die was out of stock so I emailed to see when it would be coming back in - Elaine emailed me back very quickly to say that she had found one hiding away & would keep it back for me, hows that for excellent service! - having ordered, my stamps and die arrived the very next day, which was a good thing or I would have been glued to the window waiting!

Anyway, hope you like the topper - I'm off to play with popcorn bear again!

Have a great crafting weekend all

More Popcorn

Well, there would be more popcorn bear, I printed a whole sheet of different images ready to turn into cards & this is only my second.  I have been playing with my Silhouette Cameo in the meantime & have upgraded to the designer software so that I can make use of some of the amazing .svg files that are out there (free too!).

Anyway, back to the card, the papers used were from a freebie Serif paper pack from a magazine, the pack is called 'picnic in the park', it seemed to work quite well with the image of popcorn eating strawberries.  The doily in the background was created using my silhouette, so you will probably see more of these!  The embossing folder was from a pack of border folders done by Docrafts/papermania (not sure what name they went under for this range).  The strawberry embellishment I am most proud of as I created this from scratch using translucent shrink plastic, I drew a basic strawberry myself on paper first and then traced it onto the shrink plastic with my pilot drawing pen, then coloured with my speccies and shrank it (it nearly didn't work as the edges stuck together but I managed to get them apart).

Well, hope you like it, finally I'm starting to have some fun again!