Beautiful butterflies

I was hit with crafters block this week when it came to planning next weeks classes - I had started working with one idea, but it just didn't come together the way I wanted. So I sat staring at the cat for inspiration - no joy, just communicated a telepathic message to him to jump up on my desk!

So I went back to my notebooks - ever since I started crafting I've kept notebooks with sketches, ideas & techniques I've seen & want to try - nowadays they'd be called something fancy like a smash book lol! But mine are tatty old spiral notebooks with scribbles & drawings & lots of arrows & notations :-)

Anyhoo - this was an idea inspired by something I saw on tv a year or so back. The butterflies are stamped in a circle. The outer border is stamped, then a circle of butterflies created by stamping & cutting out scraps of beautiful papers. 

Sorry for the waffle! I'm linking this to Pixies Snippets workshop, cos snippets were used!

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Men's cards - hubby birthday!

I couldn't decide what sort of card to make Hubby this year so..........I made 3!!

One for his love of music, using some inchies stamps and music embossing folder 

One to reflect his love of clocks - the little wooden embellishments I've been saving for nearly a year! 

And one cos he loves his car, and driving - used an old scrunched page out of a Haynes manual - complete with oily finger prints lol! Used a twisted stacker topper of a Mustang, some metal bookplates to frame words, and some wheel trim & screw head brads. 

I had a lot of fun making these, hope they give you some ideas for men's cards!

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Men's cards

This card is a mix of snippets & leftovers! When I use shop bought decoupage (in this case a stacker from Buzzcraft) there are usually too many layers. Problem for postage! So I tend to split them into 2 if possible, and this one is made from 'leftovers'.

The beautiful background papers are from the Wellington bear 12x12 kit - fab for men's cards, and great colours! The stacker and sentiment were mounted on snippets of dark red textured card, sadly the last teeny bits of this one [sigh]

Love the paper with the vintage rugby, football, golf & cricket balls - just perfect for this card :-)   Finished off with a few red card candi - again, they work really well for men's cards - pretty straightforward but a cute card. 

Linking this to Pixies snippets playground, now off to the dentist :-((

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Ink duster shadow panels

These are the samples for today's/tomorrow's classes. The main image is made by masking with post it's, using versamark to stamp the border, then dusting with Distress Inks. Then sponging black ink around the lower edges of the post it's to give shadows & give the illusion that the panels are layered. 

The background on the base card is then stamped using one of the main images & the same colours as on the topper - very effective!

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Dufex stickers used!!

Hurrah! I have tons of these stickers that I bought years ago when I first started crafting & was attracted to anything shiny or sparkly. I have been challenging myself to use up old stash & leftovers/snippets - conscience tweaked partly by my growing mountain of stash & partly by the amazing work of the playmates in Pixies Snippets challenge.

Anyhoo.....it was proper wintry weather here yesterday, so I carted my snippets box, ribbons & some card stock downstairs & spent a happy afternoon playing in front of the tv while hubby sorted out his music collection   And these are the 3 so far....

The toppers are Dufex stickers (engraved metallic images) layered on mirror card & card stock. The background papers are all from my snippets box - the red one has big glitter polka dots and has been languishing in the box for many years, waiting for a chance to shine lol! Even the ribbons are from my scraps bag - the gold & green one rescued from a box of chocs :-)

Linking these to pixies playground and off to sort the washing while its not raining!

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Cute Penny Black hedgehogs!

Had a lovely crafty evening with my friend Tracey couple of nights ago. She has acquired a huge stash of stamps from a lady who was getting rid of all her crafty stash, and so I had fun stamping off some impressions to bring home. This Penny Black cutie is one of them...... 

Background is a leftover piece cut off an old 12x12 - so old I can't remember the make! And the pink strip from my snippets box. Cut the Hedgie & matting layer with a Spellbinder & coloured the backing layer with a Pro Marker to match the main image. Finished off with a few card candy & some lovely paper flowers & leaves. 

Love the colours on this, & the Hedgie is so cute! I adore Penny Black images, but only have a couple of the clear stamp sets - have to remedy that!!

I'm linking this to Pixies snippets playground - hope I get in before the playground gate slams shut today :-)

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Woyww

The chaos that is my desk today....

The usual radio/spotty craft caddy top left. Then my duster brushes & heat gun. Centre desk you can see my mini album made at a workshop on Sunday with Hels Sheridan - finished off at home on Monday with embellishments, ribbon & more tags (that's why heat gun, duster brushes & ribbon scrap bags are still out!)

Finally front centre is a stash of Dufex stickers I bought when I first started crafting years ago. Back then I was a magpie - bought lots of shiny sparkly stuff which I don't often use now. My intention is to 'use it up' for mini cards like thank you's but so far only got as far as dragging them out of the basket lol :-)

So I've shown you mine......and if you're wondering what it's all about, take a peek at Julia's blog, she who hosts this weekly world tour. 

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Bits n bobs

This is based on a demo I saw this morning on Create & Craft. Lovely kit from Craftwork Cards but I have soooooooo many Christmas papers I didn't want to buy any more. 

These are from a Dovecraft pack I bought last year & have loads of off cuts. I store all my designer pack offcuts in the same pack as any remaining papers, do I always have snippets that match. 

This uses an easel card template I have, plus my Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die, and a whole load of offcuts & glitter glue lol!!

As I've used tons of snippets I'm popping over to pixies playground to see what other snippets makes are about this week, and as it's a Christmas card, I'm linking it to Crafty Hazelnuts anything goes Christmas Challenge

Thanks for stopping by

Debs

Live at Jodrell Bank!

Saturday night was great fun, but oh so cold! My sister bought tickets for my birthday for 4 of us to see the Halle orchestra play an open air concert at Jodrell Bank. Now, you'd think a concert in Aug might possibly rain, but would not be too cold?? Wrong!! It was flipping freezing! 

We still had a lovely time, the music was great, pre-show singers doing a medley of Rat Pack & show tunes. The dish itself is actually 76 metres tall and looked amazing......

That's the stage to the right of the dish, and here are the cold concert-goers!

And that was while the sun was still shining! Once the sun went down we had fleeces, coats & blankets and were still frozen - summer my foot! Oh wait, I couldn't feel my feet........

Later in the evening we watched that huge dish slowly turn to face us, to the strains of The Blue Danube - fabulous! Then there were lights & short films projected onto the dish 

And the evening finished with an amazing fireworks display, that I enjoyed so much I forgot to take any pics of it - doh!!

A great evening, well worth the shivers :-)

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

eBay stash!

I tend to buy a lot of my stash from eBay, particularly pre-loved stamps. I couldn't believe my luck last week when someone was selling off a load of Lili of the Valley stamps!

Only one appears to have been used - rest are absolutely pristine - and I got them at about half normal price - yippee!!

And this is them stamped up!

I have been in love with LOTV stamps for ages, and always drool over them at craft shows, but could never quite justify buying them as I couldn't see who I would use them for. At this price, I bought a batch to use for my craft class, with a Pro marker colouring session planned - and I get to play with them too :-). - watch this space!

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x