DT Project

Today it is my turn to show a project on the Snazzys design team blog.
Here you can see a sneak peak. To see the full project and see some amazing projects of other DT members go to Snazzys Design Team Blog

Waltzing Mouse Challenge 66

I just recently discovered Waltzing Mouse Stamps and I have to say they are brilliant! Today I decided to participate in one of their challenges where you had to follow a sketch and use at least one of their stamps.

Papers are from Bo Bunny and Pion Design.

Fashionable Stamping Challenge 5 "Vintage"

The theme on the new challenge blog Fashionable Stamping Challenge is "Vintage". Of course I could not resist...

This is a simple easel Christmas card. Papers are from Pion Design and the stamps used are from Katzel Craft (main image), Stempelglede and Waltzingmouse Stamps (sentiment). If you want to see other entries go to fashionablestampingchallenges

Box card

Work is rather stress full at the moment and I find that doing crafty card projects is just the perfect de-stresser. As it is my daughter's birthday next week and she wanted vouchers for her favourite clothes shop I decided to make her a gift box/card, just a little more exciting than just handing her an envelope...
I used Melissa Frances papers and stamps by Crafty Individuals and Tim Holtz.

This is the outside of the box.

This is what you see when you open the card.

Here you can see the inside. I made a little pouch to put the gift token in.

This finally is the little tag I made to go with it.

If you want to know how to make the box, there is a great tutorial (and a way more beautiful box )here

Easelcard/notecard holder

Inspired by all the beautiful papers that are around, I don't seem to be able to get away from making cards at the moment.
Here is an easel card that is also a little note card holder:

This is what the card looks like closed:

I have used papers from Bo Bunny's Father Christmas Collection. The stamp is a Tilda stamp by the Swedish company Panduro. A tutorial for this card (as well as many other projects) can be found here

Last of the witches ATCs

Here is the last of the series of witch ATCs created for the VPI yahoo group swap.
The background was created with multiple layers of paint, stamps, texture paste and vintage book pages.

The image is from a Lunar Girl collage sheet, the witches hat from a freebie from Constance Taylor, you can find it on Flickr. Finally I challenged myself to embellish with little bits of scraps that were flying around my very messy craft table...
I am also putting this in for the Simon Says Stamp and Show

3 Halloween ATCs for a swap

This year I find it really hard to get in the mood for Halloween, but as I had signed up for a swap in the VPI yahoo group, so I had to get going.

The one with the ribbon at the bottom has a freebie image from Land of Nod studios, the other two have images from a collage sheet I purchased last year.

Pion Design Papers Christmas Card

Just recently I discovered the stunning papers from the Swedish Company Pion Design. In the UK they are available from Dies to Die for. They are just the most beautiful, soft papers.
Here is a Christmas card made with the papers which I am going to put in for the Swedish (I think) Challenge Blog "Sketchy Colours". Here are some more views from the inside etc.

The tags are from the paper collection. I followed the sketch pretty much using nestability die cuts and flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts and my local craft shop. The little angel image was flying around in my stash...

Crafty Individuals September challenge "Hanging About"

The theme for the crafty Individuals Challenge this month is "Hanging about".
This is the first time I am taking part and I decided to make a heart shaped hanger.
I free cut a heart shape out of cardstock. Coated it with Gesso, inked the edges, then used one of the Crafty Individuals swirl stamps around the edges. The image is from one of their glossy A4 sheets.

Clicking on the title of this post will take you to the Crafty Individuals blog where you can see more creative entries.

Gingersnap Creations Chestnut Challenge Babes and Tots

Pfew, I only just made it still for the Chestnut challenge over at Gingersnap creations. The closing date is tomorrow (September 4). I got this cute little image on a collage sheet by Digital Daydreams on Etsy. I altered it a bit and then used it as the vocal point on this Christmas Card.

This is the outside.

And this is the inside. The papers used are from Bo Bunny Etc and Father Christmas ranges.
More information and great examples can be found here

Spicy Supply Challenge at Ginger Snap Creations

Some of you may have noticed that I was chosen to be the Ginger Muse for the month of September over at the Gingersnap Creations blog.
One of the challenges this month is to create something with baby wipes.
Here is a tag I made

Baby wipes were used for a background scrap, the embellishments on the left and the ribbon at the top.

Normally I only use wipes for spreading paint around or sometimes for cleaning stamps. Playing around with it like this was great fun. I discovered all sorts of things. Once they are dry they take ink and sprays beautifully. I found I could not die-cut them with punches, but other dies work beautifully, though you have to be very careful with intricate dies. The most exciting bit was to discover that when you dry the sprayed wipes and/or die-cuts with a heat gun, they crinkle and shrink (do it in a well ventilated room, as the fumes are probably not too healthy). This gives a wonderful crinkly grungy effect. I loved the fact I could even use strips to tie bows like a ribbon. Die-cut leaves look almost real when they are dried and crinkled a bit. I am sorry this does not really show up in the photo.

If you have not played with baby wipes yet, give it a go, it's great fun.
You can add your pieces here under Spicy Supply Challenge and even be in with a chance to win a prize.

September monthly calendar

It's that time of the month again, monthly calendar time!
You can find out more about this here
Here is my filled in August page

And September all ready to go. I created it with my usual technique, a mix of Golden acrylic paints, gesso,stamping and paper napkins

Black shrink plastic

Today I am doing a review on Blank Shrinkplastic over at the Snazzys Design Team Blog
If you want to see more head over there.

First Christmas Cards

I know it's only August, but these are the last days of my holidays and I was in the mood for using some of my vast collection of scrapbook papers, so here are my first creations.
If you are interested in how to do the start card, you can find a good tutorial here starcard. It's in German but Google translate and the pictures will probably help.
This is the card closed:

And here it is open.

Here is a simpler card made out of a piece of 6 x 12. If you want to know how to make it, email me.

Altered envie for mail art swap

Here is an altered envelope I created for a swap in one of my art groups.
The Background was created with acrylic paints, distress stain in wild honey, a paper napkin and some gesso. I then added details with papers and stamps from Bo Bunny's new etc range, - love that line of papers. The images of the cute guys are from Altered Artifacts on Etsy.

This is the back

And this is the front

Back at last

Got back from two fabulous weeks in Ireland last night. Had no internet there at all, so really look forward to visit you all!

Here are a few pages from the smashbook I worked in while away. A couple of journal entries and a couple of sketches of some of the characters we saw.





Also wanted to let you know that today I posted my first design team project for the Snazzys Design Team Blog

Here is a sneak peak. Hope you will go and have a look, they have fantastic products.

Off on holiday

Tomorrow I'll be off to Ireland for 2 and a half weeks. I probably won't have much access to the internet.
Every year I toss about what and how much in the way of art materials to take. Usually I play in a journal. This year I thought I'd make my own Smash book, just to see whether I like using that sort of thing.(They seem to be very popular right now).The plan is just to use "finds" i.e. tickets etc and scraps. I made different sections for my smash book, one for notes, one for ideas, one for things to keep. one for sketches and a few more including a "random" one for anything else. I had great fun making my book with may different kinds and types of paper, a load of pockets and spaces for tags and things to stick in of course.
Here is the cover. The image I could not resist using is a freebie from my wonderful friend Terri, you can find her website here.
See you all when I get back on the 22nd.

Monthly Calendar Journal August

As many of you know, Kate Crane hosts a monthly calendar challenge. I have been doing this for over a year now and it is great fun. You can find out more on Kate's blog here
Here is my July page all filled in:

And here is my August page ready to go

For this page I started to put Gesso all over, then used many layers of Golden fluid acrylics, blended with a baby wipe.The paper out of which I punched the circles was created in a similar way but then I stamped all over them. As they were quite dark I added more gesso and paints (Titan Buff). The imagery was created with the help of a paper napkin. August 2011 was stamped as were some of the other details on the page. I set myself the challenge not to use any digital images this time.