Got loads to blog..part 1

Okay, I have been too busy creating and not enough blogging!! So I now have 6 that I can blog, and others that I cant just yet!
Hubby got himself 4 more cans of Lager tonight, so I now have 2 empty and cut open cans to play with later...., but in the meantime, in true Blue peter fashion....
Here's one I prepared earlier:

Okay this one looks unfinished, and to a certain extent it is, but I have had lots of bad experience in the past of people liking the card, but its for the wrong person, eg mum, when they want it for a best friend, so Now I have got into the habit, of leaving most blank, until they are needed.
This was the other half of the lager Can experiment. I tried embossing it using a mask, but it didnt take too well, so I embossed it with a Papermania embossing Folder, Silent Night, and applied some alcohol inks. Then I took some plain white flowers from my stash and coloured them Ruby red and orange with my promarkers, added a Leaf, and then proceeded to assemble the base.
I took some A4 Pearlised paper in Burgundy, and used the Pronty A4 Plastic mask Flourishes, and Embossed it in My Happy Cut. Added some Gold and Red twisted cord, that I got from a Pound shop on the run up to Christmas, and unraveled the ends to make it like down Flat so I could tape it to the base Burgundy card.
A day later I Managed to finish the card off.........

I got a Leane Creatief Die the other day, and must say I really like it. Its very delicate, and has a main frame with leaves, and various matted layers inside, down to the absolutely TINY! I took some Gold Mirri, and some Burgundy card stock, and cut a frame from each, interlinking the 2 frames, so that they swap positions on the right hand side. I used the first Mat layer created by the frame die, on the Mirri, and then Cut the next layer Mat in Cream pearlised paper. I stamped the greeting in Rocket Red Brilliance ink, and BOY is that a juicy pad!, and then embossed with some red detail powder. I slipped the sentiment Under the twisted cord, and mounted the frame over the cord, Done.

Right need to go sort out the photos for the rest that need to be blogged back soon........

xx

Lou

My disaster revealed, and explained.

Some times when I am feeling creative, I have an idea in my head, and NORMALLY it turns out exactly as I had envisioned it. NOT this time!!! And whats more disturbing, I have no idea what went wrong with the design in my head , apart from Maybe, the colours...........

here is the disaster, in all its yuckyness.......

A Lager can, courtesy of Hubby, some alcohol inks, a Crafts Concepts Winter Tree embossing folder, some burgundy Vellum, burgundy and Gold ribbons, some Skeleton Leaves, orange card stock, and embellies, oh and some red holographic  tape.
Its the first time I have played with cans, and must admit that It was Ali, from C&C that inspired me to get the scissors on it!
 Cutting it was rather nerve racking, as hubby was shouting at me to "Be Carefull!! Whaat the H*** are you doing?" etc, but I ignored him and carried on.
I grabbed the Tim Holtz alcohol inks, reds, greens orange and Gold, and daubed it all over, liked the effect, so now to emboss it. I tried with a couple of stencil/mask sheets but wasnt too impressed with the results, so decided to run it though an embossing folder, ta-dah! Result! So I collected the colours I had used in the inks, burgundy, red, orange green Gold, in the following forms....Vellum, card stock, tape, leaves and ribbon, and some embellies recycled from Christmas Crackers.
Now in all honesty It should have worked!! But it didnt.
And I have no idea where it went wrong. I know I sat there looking at it from time to time, and I cant even say that I was having a Bad day, as I created another 4 cards after that that I really liked, the Debbees CD's cards, and two I'll post in a bit. The urge to bin the thing was incredibly strong, I was that disgusted with it, but kept looking at it trying to decide what was wrong with it,.
Now I must explain here about my FG, (Fairy Godmother). She is a real person, we met through Crafting, She is a very Generous and caring Brummy, and does really exist. I tend to bounce ideas off her, and I have recently spent 3 hrs on the phone giving her a lesson in My Craft Studio crafting! (She liked the idea of CD crafting due to the space factor, but never actually got round to doing any, until last weekend, where I set her the Challenge of making 2 cards using MCS, and the Art work she has on her PC, you know all those CDs that you buy, and they just sit there. Well she got lost in MCS that day, spent 4 hrs fiddling, then I phoned her back and gave her the phone tutorial,) NOW she gets it! She has a good eye for colour and placement, but low belief in her own abilities. She did NOT believe me when I kept saying that the card above was PANTS. UNTIL I sent her a pic of it, and she then said it was PANTS!
So I am not the only person who said it was PANTS, and thank you to any WOYWW'ers visiting, for your kind comments, but honestly, this version really is PANTS!
So I then wasnt allowed to bin it, as I wanted. I had to take it apart and re-do it...........mistake telling FG I think!
So I dutifully did as I was told, a large amount of judicious cutting, and chopping later I ended up with this...

Much better!!, The card base is the same as before, just chopped smaller. The metal sheet has been mounted onto some Burgundy Pearlised card, then onto some gold Mirri, I swapped the burgundy ribbon for another Gold one, you can just see then top and bottom, and a sentiment, and I am much happier with it, how I messed it up the first time round I have no idea!!
I just hope that the recipient doesnt take the card apart, they will be incredibly surprised if they look on the back of the tin sheet!!!
I say at the top in the spiel about me, that this is a record of my crafting journey, both for myself, and for the inspiration of others, and I do try to be an Honest Crafter. There is no point in me saying that I only make cards I am proud of. I make mistakes, we all do, sometimes we have ideas and they work, sometimes they dont, this is an example of an idea NOT working, but due to pressure form FG, I re did it, and I love it! I do hope you have someone like FG in your life, who is honest, but knows you can do better, when you are disappointed with how something has turned out. She made me re-do it and I am pleased she did though I will admit, I resisted at first!

Thanks FG hun, xxx


Lou