Not quite Florida Playdate..

Hey,

As you know I didn't make it to Florida over Labor Day weekend.

But I did manage to host a not quite Florida playdate at my house on the Sunday.

This meant that we could use the kits we had pre-made.

Basically the plan was that each of us (x5 of us, including Ava in Florida) would kit x2 cards (or projects) for the others to make.

The photo above shows the x8 cards/projects we made on Sunday.

I'll walk you through them starting top left with my cards :)

I was the most efficient of the group and I had sent my kits to Florida already..so I had to make a couple of quick cards for the girls to make on Sunday! I decided to put my Pinterest board 'Look What I Made' to use. And it came up good, with x2 straightforward cards for the girls.

I used the Avery Elle 'Sea-Prise' set for my pufferfish card, the girls were horrified when they realised it was one candle that had to be stamped multiple times, so there were a lot of variations on this one.
The Unicorn card is by Pink Fresh Studio and uses all the stamps and dies from their 'Unicorn Dreams' set.

Moving clockwise to top right, these cards were Cheiron's kits. I loved her Toucan card - using Flora & Fauna stamps so much that I CASEd it (coming soon).
The floral card, used Altenew stamps and was fun to watercolour and we got to use Altenew markers, which are amazing and I do want!

Bottom right, kits by Tiff. She challenged us a bit, by getting us to make a fun envelope. Sadly I dropped the Panda stamp after stamping him, so I have a big black line across him, but hey as I always say, it's handmade, you gotta expect a little oopsie here and there. The envelope board was by We R Memory Keepers, stamps and stencils by Simon Says Stamp.
The Fox card used all the techniques and looks AMAZING!! Background stamp is by Simon Says Stamp, Fox and sentiment stamps by Rabbit Hole Designs. I love RHD stamps, the caffeinated range is hilarious.

Finally bottom left, kits by Lisette. The first card with the girl was fun, I have never ever stamped in a lighter ink and then coloured over it, very clever and way out of my comfort zone. The girl is by Picket Fence Studios, not sure who the dots are by. I love this card and the snarky stickers really worked well here. The Mermaid card uses the super cute Mama Elephant Mermaids and I loved adding the chunky glitter 'sea'.

The best bit about making all these things, were all the techniques we used - masking, heat embossing, watercolouring, blending, colour plucking. It was a masterclass in all the things that we have learnt over the years (mainly from our resident teacher Cheiron).

A fun playdate was had by all and we all left with gifts and 7 cards/1 envelope.
It wasn't quite Florida but it certainly made up for it.

Cx

ICAD17: Week Five...

Hey,

Happy Monday, hope you had a good weekend, mine was fun, starting with class on Friday, I'll show you pics later in the week.

So we are already mid-way through week 6, meaning we are only about 3.5weeks away from the end of ICAD17, so sad.

But let's not dwell on that..

I chose Day 31 Faux Wallpaper as my fave this week -

I got pretty creative here and added gold 'flocking' to a piece of Quatrefoil patterned paper, using a gold marker I'd forgot I had!! I added framed pictures to make it look like a wall. I love that I got to use the frames. I have had them for about 5-6 years, I think they came with me to the US!!

This is one of the awesome things about ICAD, I am using so many random parts of my stash, it is fun digging around in search of vaguely remembered items.

The photos are in day order, clockwise from the left and here is a link to the gallery with all the cards so far (including some week 6 ones!)

Cx

CASE: Concord & 9th and Dots..

Hey,

Welcome to December?!  ALREADY?!

I made these a while ago, but did not post them and as they are getting ready to go to a friend, I thought I'd share them with you.

After a class that Cheiron taught, I really wanted the Wildflowers set by Concord & 9th, it is so versatile.

I used the stamps to create scenes on postcards, but they felt a bit flat and I had seen this on Pinterest 

Photo by Dear Paperlicious 

And realised that dots would be the perfect way to liven up the scenes.

It worked so well, I have been using it all over the place!!

Both cards were coloured using distress inks and an aquabrush, the dots were added using a Letraset 0.3 finetip black pen.

I love both cards..dots make a bit difference.

As always I like to list the CASE source, in this case Dear Paperlicious - her blog is beautiful, you really should check it out.

Cx

It can't all be about Christmas!

Hey there, I am very pleased that I have followed my friend's advice and been more regular with my blogging, it's very rewarding - especially when my friends read it and send me emails to say how much they like it.

Today I thought I'd move away from the Christmas focus that I have had for the last month and talk about what else I am up to.

Obviously Christmas has been a big deal in my craft world this year and whilst I have been making all of the lovely Christmas things, I have realised that I might need some new tools, so here are some pics of the things I want or have already purchased and why I think they are handy.

Good chalks! These are vital, I had been using some cheaper ones, but the colours weren't lasting as long and so I invested in these Dovecraft ones, that come with a handy applicator tools and lots of applicator pom poms!

Dovecraft Chalks Bright

I do have a slice, I do have a sharp craft knife and a ruler, but nothing beats a good quality trimmer or guillotine and I haven't purchased one yet, but from the research I have been doing it would appear that Purple Cows make the best ones and from what I have seen I think I agree and they are reasonably priced.

Purple Cows 2-1 Laminator + Trimmer or Laminator + paper cutter

Whilst I have had lots of fun sourcing paper, etc, I think that next year (or later on this year!) will be investing in one of these lovely digital kits from Funkyhand - the picture below shows all the papers and stamps that come in their 'All I want for xmas' downloadable kit - they have lots of other kits and I am in love with the Papercraft Factory ones. Basically these equal really good value for money and you can use them over and over again and some of the designs below would be suitable for non-Christmas crafts too!

All I Want For Xmas - Downloadable kit

I have also been stamping quite a lot - not just Christmas cards, but other cards, gift tags, wrapping paper etc. Good quality inks are vital, I am a big fan of Inkadinkado inks - but they are hard to get hold of in the UK (eBay is a crafter's best friend!) I recently bought these chalk inks, they are sublime, they have a really nice blended effect and when they are dry they feel like chalks - cool!

Inkadinkado - Chalk Inks

Also if you are doing a fair amount of stamping, good quality marker pens are a must, now the jury is out on which ones are the best - personally I think it's a toss up between Letraset and Copic. I am using Letraset Aquamarkers right now and they are great, if you buy a 12 pack, you get a blending pen too and you can apply them to stamps. Another good tip for watercolour pencils or other waterbased markers is to use a waterbrush pen (this is a brush, that looks like a pen and you fill the handle with water, ink or colour), you can

then blend or paint over and you will get a watercolour effect.

Letraset AquaMarkers

I think my plan to NOT purchase anything craft related in November is not going to happen!

Have a good weekend - I won't be blogging, I'll be at the theatre with Hubby, building new warddrobes and getting on with Christmas.

Cx