October

November

December

Thank you for stopping by,

Best wishes for a wonderful 2014 to all

Debbie

July

August

September

April

May

June

A little bit of my year in craft

I thought I would post a pictures from my albums on the computer from each month of the last year.
Here go's

January

February

March

My beautiful birthday card from Sarah

Serenity Tag Card

Good morning. I hope everything is good and crafty today. I've certainly been enjoying the festive season with family and friends. I have also managed to enjoy a few hours play time with ink and stamps.
These new stamps definitely help to bring a little serenity while working with them, the images are so beautiful.

I started with a large tag shape and stamped the serene lady with Memento Onyx Black which allowed me to colour with alcohol pens. I restricted myself to flesh colours as I wanted to add lots of colour to the background. Before colouring the background I cut a mask of the stamp and laid over the image. For the background I used Mown Lawn, Tumbled Glass and Ripe Persimmon distress ink then spritzed with a little water. I dried with a heat tool and stamped the flowers and blossom with French Ultramarine archival ink. I mounted onto black and found a piece of orange card and trimmed them to the shape of the tag.
Many thanks for visiting and I wish you a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year. Debbie

A Trio of Cornflowers

In the middle of the rush towards the festive season, I have a card that reminds me of days walking through the fields during the Summer. It won't be long and the dark nights will start to get shorter.
The flower single Clear Stamps are delightful to colour.

When I had stamped the Cornflower three times with Memento black, I did a search of Pinterest to find pictures of the flower, the colours are amazing. I coloured with alcohol pens, the same for all three then trimmed and mounted onto a blue card. I was a little stuck for a background as I didn't want it to be to fancy working against the flowers so I set too with the pens I'd used to colour the Cornflowers. With my glass matt and a ruler I drew lines with the fine tip of the pen creating a checked background. I started by drawing the darker blue at one centimetre intervals and five millimetres and then in between with the lighter blue and green pens. When finished I trimmed the background, added a sentiment and the stamped images, the centre flower is raised on foam pads.

Many thanks for visiting, Debbie.

Fabric Flowers and a tutorial

Good morning.
I admit I have a passion for fabric, paper, card and didn't realise how much I have until I've been re organising my craftroom. I will post photographs of my new room but it's taking longer to put everything back and sort than I originally thought it would.

Here is a tutorial for making the flowers.

I love working with all types of fabric and organza has been really interesting. I saw a brooch about four years ago and I had a go at making it.

There are many different ways to make the organza flowers and I made a few with circles of organza which are quicker. From the original interest I'd had from friends I made poppies that have been sold for Remembrance Sunday. I have made approximately four hundred, YES four hundred.

In November I did a workshop for a group of Ladies of various crafting abilities and they thoroughly enjoyed making up the Poppies from the kits I'd prepared. I took along some other flowers I'd made from bits and bobs of fabric I had and cut with my Tim Holtz flowers die.

Thank you for visiting and I hope this post has given a little bit of inspiration to have a play.

Debbie

Delightful Flower

There are so many beautiful flowers in bloom during the spring and summer seasons that treat our eyes to a festival of colours and the Fritillary amazes me with its checked petals. Nature has created the most amazing patterns.

For the flower I stamped with black Versafine, embossed with clear powder and coloured with a Graph'it pen the colour is Bougainvillea which is a beautiful deep purple colour. I lifted a little of the colour near the tips of the flowers with Copic blender pen. I purchased the Nestablities 5x7 Elegant Labels set during the Summer and used it to cut out the flower panel and background from purple. I added a rectangle of white card and fixed it to a purple card. These dies are so detailed I only need to add a sentiment to the bottom.

Thank you for stopping by, Debbie

Two little dickie birds

sitting in a tree (well flowers for my card). The title came from a rhyme my Mum used to say to me, one was called Peter and one called Paul. While making this card they verse constantly went around my head.

This card definitely evolved from the birds I stamped and coloured, I used alcohol pens and triple embossed with clear powder. The background needed to be colourful but dark to help the birds stand out from it. I used salty ocean, peacock feathers and picked raspberry and smooshed them randomly onto white card. The birds needed something to perch on so I reached for the flowers from the Punky Flowers and stamped and coloured them with water colour pencils. I added clear Wink of Stella glitter, I think the photograph shows how rich these pens are with sparkle. To create a border I stamped one of the flower heads with picked raspberry randomly around the edge. Finally, I used a bright pink, black and bright blue card to triple mount, highlighting the colours I used.
Thanks for visiting. Debbie.

Marvellous Magnolia

I'm delighted that one of my favourite flowers is now available for me to play with. I have a four year old Magnolia bush in the garden that we planted five years ago and it is such a pleasure to see the buds bursting through, one of the signals spring is on its way. It releases the most beautiful perfume during the evening.

The stamp is a lovely size and I stamped it twice with black Memento ink. I coloured with light pink onto the base of the petals and green alcohol pens for the branches. I trimmed around the flowers and as they are at the edge of the card I added pink card behind. Next, I stamped the sentiment onto white and die cut with a nestablilitie. With next size nestablitie I cut out a pink backing, glued together and added to the card. I tied a white organza bow around near the folded edge.

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day. Debbie

Owl you need is Love

Hello.
I decided to make a bright and colourful background for this little owl to sit against. So out came the inks, stamps and stencils.

For the owl I used glossy card and distress inks and stamped with Archival black as I used Versafine wasn't drying on the card. He is a little cutie and not so tricky to cut out.
For the background I started colouring a white piece of card with squeezed lemonade, peeled paint and peacock feathers. With stormy sky I stencilled through a circle mask and then stamped with the wavy lines stamp from Abstract Fragments. I had my melt pot handy and poured UTEE onto the stamp and cut out a wavy edge heart. When it cooled I rubbed with gold wax to highlight the detail. Finally I stamped the sentiment and added to the top corner.
Thanks for visiting. Debbie

Grey Parrot with splattered background

I'm sure we are all guilty of waiting by the door for the postman to deliver goodies through the letter box. When Glenda showed us the first drafts of the Steampunk birds I fell in love with them.

My bird today is from the idea of an African Grey parrot and I wanted to add colour. I set too by stamping the bird with memento black and coloured with grey alcohol pens. Then made a mask to cover him and placed it carefully over. I put a plastic glove on and sprayed a selection of inks into my hand and spattered the inks onto the card. When the inks had dried I lifted the mask and used Broken China Distress Ink around the edge. I mounted onto black and a magenta colour card that was closest to one of the spray ink colours. The sentiment is A clear stamp that can be bought as a single or as part of a multi buy Fairyland Words.

I apologise for not posting photos of my re decorated craft room as it's not finished yet.
Thanks for visiting. Debbie

A Festive Fairy

Hello from a chaotic craft room DT member. I have been without a PC and craft room for five days. I'll tell the short version. My hubby and I discussed that in the New Year we would revamp my craft space. He told me last weekend that he needed to drill a hole in the wall from the garage into my room but one of the units was in the way. I got in from work on Tuesday and everything had been stripped out and stored in the garage. Wednesday and Thursday were spent painting and shopping for new storage units, a chair and new flooring. Friday he laid the new floor and we built the new furniture. Saturday I spent carefully retrieving my precious Chocolate Baroque stamps from under the piles of magazines and papers. BUT I'm not going to moan as I now have an amazing space to create in, just a little earlier than planned. I'll post a few photo's on my blog this week when I've sorted a little more.

My Festive fairy is from the February set of stamps and she is a joy to work with. I stamped her onto white smooth card and coloured her with alcohol pens. I added Wink of Stella clear to her wings but unfortunately the photograph hasn't picked it up. Using Peacock Feathers Distress Ink I blended around the edges to add more colour. With the same colour inkpad I stamped the holly flourish to create a background and with black ink stamped the greeting at the bottom. I mounted onto black card and trimmed with a fine bored as I didn't want it to domineer the card.

Thank you for visiting. Debbie

Warm colours Winter Fairy

Hello. I can't believe how this year has flown by. My card today was started in August, on a fabulous day playing with lots of crafty goodies at Waterworth Towers. Judith, Lesley and I were invited to spend a day getting painty, inky and generally having fun. It was a day I'll remember for a long time as I love the company of good friends who have a common interest in crafting and learned such a lot from the discussions we had.

The background for my card was made from red, pink and yellow Acrylic paint and the Gelli Plate. I brayered the paint across the plate and laid the Climbing Vine stencil on top then placed paper over it to take a first print. I then lifted the stencil off and laid down black card for the second print which is the one I used for my card. While waiting for the paint to dry I sprayed a strip of white card with yellow, pink and orange Dylusions. When the strip dried I stamped the standing Fairy and sentiment with Onyx Black Versafine. Before assembling the card, I trimmed the edges then mounted the Fairy and background onto black card. I added a few strips of ribbon and finished by attaching to orange card that had been embossed and a white base card. Thank you for stopping by today. Debbie.

Festive Robin with Abstract Fragments

The crackle background from Abstract Fragments is quickly climbing to the top of my favourite stamps list. I had the colours for this card in my head before I chose the stamp for the main image.

For the background I inked the stamp with Archival Ink Potting Shed and randomly stamped onto white card. The stamp fits together beautifully as it has no straight edges. Around the edges of the card I used Festive Berries Distress Ink. The Robin sitting on the Bird house is form the Christmas Tweetings set was stamped with Versamark and embossed with gold powder. I water coloured the image with Distress Inks, added the sentiment and a little red ribbon. This card will be added to my Christmas card box which will be opened soon. I can't believe how quickly the festive season is coming around this year.
Many thanks for visiting. Debbie

Fragment background with Couture Lady

Sometimes you just need to play with the goodies that you have in your stash. I was off work last week and gathered a hand full of inkpads, card, paper, new stamp from the texture fragments and my favourite Julie Nutting Couture Lady stamp.

For the background I blended Squeezed Lemonade, Mown Lawn and Peacock Feathers then over stamped with the stamp from Abstract Fragments with Peacock Feathers. I added a few foliage stamps along the bottom to ground the doll. The lady was stamped onto white card and coloured with copic pens and dressed by paper piecing paper. Colouring white flowers is ideal to be able to tie in the colours used for the background, I sprayed with Dylusion Inks.

Thanks for stopping by
Debbie

Nature Fragments meets the Gelli Plate

Hello. The card I have today is made with Adirondack inks, Distress inks, black embossing powder and my Gelli Plate. I'm not good at tidying up painty mess so when I saw the Gelli Plate being demonstrated at Harrogate show using inks rather than paint I just had to give it a go. I have only used the plate with Adirondack and Distress and must say the Adirondack gives a better effect than the Distress. The distress inks bead even when brayered many times. After a play day on Thursday with Glenda and Lesley other dye ink pads can be used, I think it will be a trial and error technique.

I started by applying Peach Bellini to the Gelli Plate with the brayer as a base coat, it looked as if there was hardly any ink on there but it definitely is. Next, I inked the wood grain stamp from the new Nature Fragments stamp plate with Cranberry and stamped on the Gelli Plate. I repeated with my new favourite colour Stream then placed a square of white card over the plate and rubbed with my hand. I love the reveal when lifting the card away to see what's happened underneath.

The beauty of using the ink rather than paint is that you can over stamp with fine detailed stamps. For the stamping I used the Gothic Angels stamps, the Angel has been coloured with pens using similar colours to the background.

I have a few more cards using this technique to post and hope that you'll give it a try.

Thanks for visiting,
Debbie

Halloweens nearly here

Here are a few samples I made using Chocolate Baroque stamps and I'll be putting them out around the house in the next couple of days.

The first I picked up at a show and dripped a few distress paints down with a few added spritz's of water to help the drips. I stamped the three panels with Versafine black and stamps from Chocolate Baroque.

This will be standing on the window sill with other bits and pieces I've made and bought.

Thanks for stopping by
Debbie

Fancy Flourishes

It's been an age since I've made a card in an other colour than white.

I used the stamp from the Fancy Flourishes with black versafine ink on the red card for the background.

The sentiment is my favourite on a nestie shape and the butterflies are made from a Martha Stewart punch.

Thanks for visiting
Debbie

Doily look alike

Hello. The card I have today shows how the small stamp from the Fancy Flourish Clear stamp set can be used to make a look like doily.

I started by cutting a 14cm square and with French Ultramarine Archival ink placed the stamp on each four sides. Next, I stamped in between the first four then stamped from the centre to where the stamps meet. I stamped the sentiment from Birthday Words which is great for the inside or front of a card. The sentiment was die cut and added. I mounted on to a pale blue then attached to the card. Once I had worked out the placing of the stamps they are quick to make.
Hopefully the UK weather will be kind this week as the schools are off.
Have a good day.
Debbie