Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Be Brave

In August I'll be meeting up with lots of other Docraft ATCers at our annual Luffy meet. This will be the third time I've been and I'm so looking forward to it. In past years it's been organised by the wonderful Barry and Janet, however, this year Janet will no longer be with us. She's very much missed, and Barry is doing a fantastic job of carrying on organising our meet on his own.

The meet is going to be a celebration in memory of Janet and her mother Bebe, and in Janet's honour the theme is Over the Rainbow. We're all making theme ATCs to swap- here's mine.


The lion is from the Octopode Factory's Over the rainbow set. The background is inked and splodged and stamped, and the images are highlighted with Sakura glaze gel pens.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Dorothy and Glinda

Follow the yellow brick road, de dum, follow the yellow brick road, de dum, follow, follow, follow, follow...... are you singing along?

I've started to dream in Octopode characters. 

The backgrounds for these two are from a sprayed Dylusions ink background with lots of stamping and inking on top, that was left over from a card I made- it was just right for a couple of ATC backs! I added some scraps of torn book pages and more inking and stamping in white - looooooove my Brilliance white ink pad.


Glinda and Dorothy have been hanging around my desk for an eternity, after I had a mad cutting our session a few weeks back. They're highlighted with a touch of glaze gel pen. The used penny stamps arrived on a letter and were just the right colour, and as I'm hosting a postage stamp swap on Docrafts at the mo, they'll fit in perfectly.

I'm entering this into the HDH Macabre Monday swap- From the bone pile

Friday, June 17, 2011

The Stamp Man Challenge- Butterflies and Dragonflies

Ready for another challenge from The Stamp Man? This fortnight we want to see projects with dragonflies and butterflies on. I used the gorgeous Aspects of Design framies butterfly flutters to make a tag.


The framies sit perfectly inside a nesties frame. Clever, eh? The background is alcohol inks on photo paper, overstamped in Archival black. The stitches are drawn on.

Righto, over to you guys, show us some fluttery butterflies and dragonflies!

I'm also entering this tag into the Try it on Tuesday challenge- a tag with a butterfly.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

WOYWW, late to the party again.......

....here's my desk......


You might spy......


  • A card commissioned by my cuz for a friend- hope she likes it, she said skulls were OK, honestly......
  • Some Octopode ATCs
  • Tatty toadstool stamp- can't decide where to file it yet, so it's living on my desk for a bit
  • My Dad's Father's Day card
  • Rapunzel


More nosying can be found at Julia's Stamping Ground. Enjoy....

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Clean and simple? Me? Yeah, right!

The challenge at Stampotique Designers Challenge is clean and simple, so I decided to have a go!

Stop laughing.


Seriously, it's not polite and I can hear you sniggering from here.

I know clean and simple isn't something that comes naturally to me (have you seen my house?), but it is certainly something I aspire to......well, if not aspire to, it's something I admire in others. Particularly in card making.

I can still see your shoulders shaking, you know.

Anyway, talk about out of my comfort zone... my work, as you can probably tell is usually messy, inky, layered and bright. Over the top, some might say, everything but the kitchen sink, but it's what I like to make. So this was one hell of a challenge. You get the picture, right? So, I'd better show you the picture....



Hopefully you're not still laughing...... I'm really, genuinely chuffed with it. I had the idea floating around my brain all day yesterday, so I got up and whipped it up in 5 minutes flat this morning. Quickest card EVER! The most difficult bit was holding the sequin waste in place whilst I found just the right shade of yellow ink (it pays to be prepared kids). In case you're wondering, Impress ink lemon yellow over the top of chartreuse green.

I am so proud that I have resisted the urge to glitter, add ribbon, distress, stamp, ink, rip, tear or otherwise gussy it up.

I'm going to enter it into the following challenges:

HD Macabre Monday- Pleasure and pain (Pleasure= Stampotique, Pain= Keeping it simple!)
Try it on Tuesday- Weird and wonderful
Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge- Male card
Papertake weekly- Anything goes (with optional all white + one accent colour)
Crafts and me- Stamp something

Ingredients
Stamps- Stampotique Mort had a pin curl, Smirk You're awesome
Inks- Versafine Onyx black, Impress Chartreuse and Lemon yellow
Stash- sequin waste to ink through

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

What's on my workdesk? Well, how nice of you to ask!!!!

Here's what's on my desk as of 6.30am this morning......


Not much.

A new embossing folder I bought at the weekend along with a cute Tatty Button toadstool stamp. 
My new Octopode Factory stamps that the lovely Lili sent me for getting published in Craft Stamper.
Some odds and sods I'm working on with bright colours.

My orange pop up rubbish bin looks very vivid, looks like it's been Tangoed.....

I've not felt very creative this past week, lots of horrible stuff going on at work, so at the weekend instead of making I moved things, got rid of my wooden boxes and introduced a new wire rack for my ink pads. The wooden ones might make a comeback at some point, but for now I'm liking the extra space.

For more desk nosying, go to Julia's Stamping Ground.

Friday, June 3, 2011

The Stamp Man challenge- Men and Boys

Yay, it's Stamp Man challenge time again! This fortnight, Michelle is challenging us to make a card for a man or boy. I thought I'd get ahead of the game and make my Dad's Father's Day card. Now I vividly remember making last year's Father's Day card, so I can't believe where the time has gone to!


I went for a diamond topped card, which looks tricky, but is really VERY easy to make. If I get chance, I'll do a tutorial on how to make one later today.

The background sections are layered up with stamping and ink blending. The little tickets and the sentiment are bumped up on 3d foam. I'm particularly pleased with the vintage gold paper I used to mat up- I got a pack of about 20 sheets from Hobbycraft in the sale for 50p!

I'm entering this into the following challenges:
Fussy and Fancy Friday- Card for a man or boy
Moving along with the times- No DPs
Fab n funky- Whateva

Ingredients
StampsAspects of Design 10- Men'sAspect of Design 61- Butterfly beauties (sentiment), Tim Holtz stamps- Admit one, Hero Arts Old French writing, Tim Holtz Visual artistry French market (harlequin)
InksVintage photo Distress Ink, Stampin' Up Rich Razzleberry
Card- Stampin' Up Rich Razzleberry, vintage gold paper, cream card
StashGold eyeletsFoam pads