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

Woyww

My desk is a total disaster zone, so I thought I'd show you what I've been working on instead!

These are paper pieced from a lovely set of papers called 'Back to basics II'. If you hop over to Pixies Playground you'll see a lot more ideas of how to use snippets and leftovers. The stamps are by Helz Cuppleditch - aren't they cute?! This is what we'll be making in my classes next week :-)

If you're wondering why I mentioned my messy desk, visit Julia's Stamping Ground & join the weekly desk- hop around the world. I will be visiting those desks over the next few days to gain inspiration and giggles :-)

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Woyww and painted backgrounds

Hi everyone, I've been away from blog land and not participated in WOYWW for ages - combination of poorly knee & not much crafting being done! But thought I'd share my desk today.....

I've been playing with my Cosmic Shimmer watercolours (same as twinkling H2o's) to create shimmery backgrounds for stamping. And here's a close up of one in progress...

The background is painted in random vertical stripes with cheap emulsion (I used leftover tester pot) then when dry, over painted with 2-3 colours of the cosmic shimmer. Sheena Douglass demo'd this ages ago in C&C & I tried it once then forgot about it. Now I'm liking the effect v much!

Between keeping my craft room pristine for potential buyers viewing the house, and working on Christmas DT pieces I can't share yet, I haven't had any time for 'me' crafting lol! 

Off to visit other blogs in the weekly Hol around the craft desks of re world with Julia

Thanks for stoping by

Debs x

Sun -v- snow

I've been away for a while on my hols. I must be one of the only people I know who leave UK in a heat wave, to holiday in the Arctic!

I kid you not, we cruised to the land of the midnight sun, which is in the Arctic Circle - and yes, the sun stays up for 24 hours - thank goodness for blackout curtains!  We had snow, sleet, rain and a force 10 gale, all the time knowing family & friends were bbq'ing in the sun!! 

Still had a lovely time, seeing real live wild reindeer in their natural habitat was amazing. And the Norwegian fjords are gorgeous. 

So no crafting for a few weeks, and have to say its been so hot in my craft room I couldn't summon up much enthusiasm. But today made this stepper card

I'm hoping it qualifies as a snippets make to enter the challenge over at pixies playground, as the whole thing is made from a leftover aperture card. I bought loads of these in my early crafting days, but struggle to use pre-printed cards now, I prefer to stamp & decorate myself. These were too pretty to get rid of, with glittered butterflies, so I set to with the scissors & this is all that's left of the original card!

Going in the snippets folder for another day! And the centre stepper card will be the basis of my classes next week - a twofer!! :-) 

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend, whatever you're doing. 

Thanks for stopping by

Debs xx

Seashells

I had a snippet of my embossed water droplets card left, and was racking my brains how to use it. Then I remembered this lovely sea shells set from Crafty individuals! And an off cut of 'wavy' paper from a First Edition pad.

You can just about see the droplets behind the seahorses. The original plan was to have just the seahorses, but then I decided to add a few seashells, so raided the white card snippets, stamped, coloured & cut out. 

Then I decided that I needed a second panel with a verse, and then more seashells!  Then I decided they needed to be glazed with Glossy Accents. So what was to be a quick snippets make ended up taking most of an afternoon lol!

Linking this to Pixies Snippets playground cos I used a ton of snippets!

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Ryn Tanaka Droplets stamp

I just had to show you the effects you can achieve with this amazing stamp!

The background behind my little hedgie (Hobby Art) is stamped with Versamark and embossed with WOW Blue pearl embossing powder, which gives this gorgeous 2-tone water effect! 

The papers are from a discontinued Dovecraft set 'Back to Basics II' - I picked up a set if 12x12 with matching buttons & gems for £2.99 at the NEC in feb. 

With mahoosive thanks to Di at Pixies Snippets  Playground, where I won the Ryn Tanaka droplets stamp, and as I used so many snippets, I'll enter this in the playground too!

 :-)

Thanks for stopping by

Debs xx

Steampunk snippets!

This card came about following a Cuttlebug 'how to' class that I ran earlier this year, and the card is featured in this months (July) Making Cards magazine.

In the class I demonstrated how to squash & cut loo roll tubes to get great cheap'Kraft Kard' - check out the large cogs. Also brown parcel wrapping paper - check out the embossed centre panel. And finally, used drinks cans - the silver embossed butterfly, and the silver and black cogs (can of  Guinness, anyone ;-))

Scraps of black card, embossed, torn and brushed with metallic mica powders. And the card was finished with a few flourish and butterfly die cuts from black card & parcel paper, and a few screw top brads with legs chopped off.  In fact, the only bit of this card that came from 'proper' stash is the printed background, also artfully torn  lol!! 

Cos of all the household bits n bobs used, I'm linking this to Pixies Snippets playground

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely weekend

Debs xx

WOYWW

This was my desk this morning, part way thru some landscapes in prep for a future class. Then I remembered a sample I'd seen at a recent show, I think it was the Lavinia Stamps stand, and a set of stamps from inkylicious that I've been wanting to play with, and I saw Deb Pen Pot use at the Crop ......

I love this image! Background blended with Inkylicious duster brushes using Spun  Sugar, Tumbled Glass, dusty Concord, and Black Soot Distress inks. Stamped in black soot & dusty concord, then added glitter with quickie glue pen. Then......the Tesco delivery man rang the doorbell & I spilled the glitter !!

Off to link this to Julia's WOYWW desk hop and will spend the next few days (ok, all week!!) visiting other crafters around the globe - see previous post for WOYWW crop homework sketch card!

Thanks for all the kind thoughts about my poorly knee - wearing a knee brace for now, waiting for referral to Ortho specialist. GP thinks maybe cartilage damaged :-(

Thanks for stopping by

Debs xx

Crop homework

This card is made from a kit included in the goody bag from the WOYWW crop - finally got around to making something with it!

The kit included a sketch, the card blank, snippet of pink & black paper & buttons. I made the backing paper from a scrap of cream hammered paper that matched the card. I stamped the background with brushed corduroy & Victorian velvet distress inks using a script stamp & Papermania urban stamps I picked up ages ago in the sale and this is first time I've used them - they're fab! 

And I couldn't resist adding yet more of the lovely Tattered florals (obsessed, Moi???!) from Shaz, plus a few card candi. 

Entering this in Pixies Snippets challenge, where last week I won the fabulous Water droplets stamp - cant wait to play with that when it arrives!!

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Thank you cards

 

These were made as Thank You cards for the lovely Julia and Jan for organising the crop on Saturday - should be safe to post now assuming mr postie has delivered on Time!

They were made using leftovers from various K&Co papers, the lovely Tattered Florals that were a gift from Shaz, and my HOTP layering Tool Kit. - great fun! The butterfly in the first pic was found languishing at the bottom of a box, from another K&Co kit (I am rather partial!!)  On the second card, I didn't have quite enough of the teal to make a full size layer as all the pieces were pre-creased down the centre from a previous class, so I had to improvise, and made a border, then there wasn't quite enough of the floral layer, so had to make the top layer shorter than the base layer, and hide the crease with a judicious butterfly, but it looks ok I think

Linking them to Pixies Snippets Playground  cos of copious use of leftovers, snippets and rummage bitz!

Thanks ladies, I had a ball at the Crop!!

Debs x

WOYWW

So this is my desk today, on the left a pile of roses & leaves made of air dry clay & painted with cosmic shimmer watercolours. Hiding (not very well!) behind the spotty caddy is my latest DT project using the lovely Beautiful Shoes stamps from Katy Sue & some shrink plastic. And on my cutting mat the project that will use the clay flowers. 

And the WOYWW crop....oh my! (See Mondays post for details) What a great time was had by all. I didn't get much crafting done but had a ball just the same :-) Met lots of lovely deskers and brought home this lovely pile of goodies.....

And a close up of those gorgeous ATC's....

And finally...... The Mötley Crop Crew in all their glory :-)) (Thanks to Gordon Mr LLJ for the fab pics)

Thanks to Julia the keeper of the desks, and Lunch Lady Jan for a lovely day out, I will be linking to Julia's Stamping Ground and travelling the world of desks over the next few days 

PS - for those who asked about the HOTP layering tools you can find them here - there are 2 different sets imaginatively title set 1 and set 2!! 

thanks for stopping by

Debs xx