A quick short post

well its gone midnight, so just time for a very quick short post about some play today, then bed for me!

It must be a good 2 yrs since I last did a DL card!
I was purely playing, I took some card, and used  Papermania and Hampstead stamps by Papermania, and stamped with Flitter randomly all over it. then once I had gilded it, I decided to change the colour of the background, using Tim Holtz's Milled Lavender distress ink, on a DTP, okay I thought, what can I do next? So out came the stamps again and I used a violet pigment ink to stamp, then poured the clear embossing powder all over it, big Mistake!
The distress ink wasnt dry!! there were bits of embossing powder all over it, but undaunted I heated it up! Which gave me a rather attractive mottled effect, and the flittered areas were embossed al well! How that happened I have no idea, but I thought it looked pretty good, so I decided to make a card with it.I cut it into 3 strips, as I thought that if the pieces were any bigger it would be too much, and then I had a bit of a brainwave, so I have all sorts of texture going on all ready, and then I went and Crimped it with my Westcott crimper. I made a DL base, added some milled lavender to the edges, and stuck the strip down the middle of the card. I made a rosette from so paper in my stash, its old and loose and I cant honestly tell you who its by, sorry, and then Flittered the sentiment. I decided to add the Violet to the edges of the rosette and sentiment, to bring it more into keeping with the rest of the card, added some pearl gems, and a butterfly and trail.
The insert is made using one of the stamps from the background, and a sentiment from the Hampstead collection.
Right tomorrow I'll find something to enter it into, but I have just eaten a crispy Bacon Buttie with tomato sauce, and now I am feeling really sleepy, so its off to bye bye's for me,
sleep well everyone!

Hugs,

Lou

Blog post part 5...boy am I getting bored now!!!

Okay just one more after this then I am up to date!!

This is again on a 5x5" base card, sorry I have some I'm trying to use up. The backing paper is from the A6 pad of Midnight fairy-tale Papers, and I stamped the biggest castle onto it. I think Flitter seems to work best on a coated paper or card stock, but I did lave to leave it to cure for longer than on uncoated, as in the previous post. And in the set of stamps are 3 Minuscule faeries, so I stamped them on one side, then changed the order and stamped again on the other. Then off to wash the stamps!

The flitter glue isnt like Versa Mark! Or PVA, it reminds me of something we used to use at school by smell, and the fact that it doesnt like to come off stuff, think it was something we used to use in Art class or something like that, as I cant see them letting me loose with glue at any other time!

The scrubbing pad you get with gilding flakes although reasonably rough, doesnt mark the coated picture underneath, and I took the picture at a different angle so you can see the effect I wanted to achieve, quite ethereal, and not there, as the image in the background shows through the stamp.
I trimmed the base paper down slightly to fit on the card, and ran some navy blue ribbon underneath and around the back.



xx

Lou

Blog post part 4 Pegascorn

Part 4 already? Boy am I behind myself!!

Ok more experiments with Flitter.
I got some lovely fantasy stamps in the Christmas sales, from Papermania, the Midnight fairy tale set. Its all Fairies, Unicorns, fairy castles that sort of thing, and I do like my Fantasy, but I do wish people would stop confusing Pegasi with Unicorns!! Pegasi have wings and can fly, Unicorns have horns! Not both!! otherwise it would be a Pegascorn, or something like that!! Same with Elves and Fairies. Elves have pointy ears, and Fairies have wings! Dont combine them, its WRONG!!! And it annoys me!! If you are going to draw Mythological creatures, at least re-search it before you do!!
I had actually thought about chopping the horn off the Pegasus before stamping it, and the only reason I got the set was....they actually managed to do a Unicorn, not a Pegascorn in one of the stamps, otherwise I would have avoided it like Wildfire!! I really dont like it when someone cant be bothered to do a job properly! Its like writing a book about some one in real life, then not being able to differentiate between that person being a dwarf or a giant!! Erm the height tends to give that away!!
Sorry will stop ranting now! But I'm definatley adjusting those Stamps!!!

An A6 card base, and a sheet of A6 paper from the Papermania midnight Fairytale kit. The smallest castle I did floating in the clouds in the Lancashire Rose Gilding flakes from Indigo Blu, as its quite a pinky red gold colour, and the Pegascorn was done in the Ice Gilding Flakes. A couple of small feathers, and a purple gem to finish off.

xx



Lou

Wey hey we have a tree!!

Just a quick post with some more cards, this time I will take a bit of time and explain them as I go along, and give myself a break from doing the tree that hubby dragged me out to buy today.


First up for your delectation.......

Bit hard on the eyes in this light I must admit. Papermania silver embossed christmas Vellum's from my stash, papermania SnowFall embossing folder, HunkyDory Frosted christmas collection, some Grey pearlised card, and some ribbon from my stash.
The embossed vellum's are very pretty, but quite understated, and I needed something to compete with the die cut HD shapes, so I dug out, (yes I used it again!! for some reason this year it seems to be my favorite!) my Papermania Snowfall embossing folder, and then went over the embossing with and embossing tool to make it stand out more. For a bit of light relief have you seen the nose?


next up

HD frosted Christmas foiled pink cardstock, and coordinating tree, some MCS white embossed vellum, some pink ribbon form my stash, and some pearl gems from Dovecrafts, and Samuel Taylors. I did have quite a stash of the HD frosted Christmas collection, Thankfully, I am nearing the end now.


Next

Again HD frosted Christmas, Papermania silver embossed Vellum's, and some Polka dot ribbon from my stash.


next

I have no idea, what this style of card is called, but yes its HD again from their contemporary Christmas Collection you'll be pleased to hear. This is basically how you make it up, with no adaptions, and I just used some MCS Crystal Glitter to add the snow.


next

See now I have got bored and fed up, and am starting to interchange things! 2 separate HD kits Contemporary Christmas, and frosted Christmas, some C&C mirri Board, ribbon from my stash, MCS glitter. 


and now 

Ok I gave in , it was sitting there in front of me you don't expect me not to take the easy way out under the circumstances do you?
So HD frosted Christmas, and frosted shapes, some polka dot ribbon, and some Purple gems from my stash, yes even I am getting sick of the pastel pinks and blues right now!!


and finally, the piece de resistance............... drum roll please..............

Hunkydory Frosted Christmas! The card base itself doesnt photo very well, as it has bits of glitter embedded in it, very strange, and quite smooth to the touch, but unusual, and I try not to use it, you know how you want to hoard the unusual stuff? I used the Nestabilities Lacy Ovals die, and cut half way across, then embossed the full die on My Happy Cut, and folded. Then yes I know, I know, HD frosted Christmas AGAIN, look I have to use it up and GET RID OF IT as I am THOROUGHLY BORED of it now, you really don't appreciate how much comes in an HD kit until you have to use it!!!


Still got some HD christmas kits to use up, but they are ALOT more varied than the frosted kit, sorry HD but I have had enough of this set, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing, especially when I HATE batch making cards!!!
Right the tree is assembled, the lights are on it, (youngest refused to go to sleep as he cant wait to get up and decorate it), the pine needle oil is on the tree but I cant smell it due to being full of this cold that is just waiting to let go, (I am allergic to real pine or coniferous trees, much as I love the smell of them, but a rash I dont fancy at the moment thanks!) and its just waiting for youngest in the morning. Middlest was cursed quite roundly for NOT having got the decorations out the loft before I took him back to College last night, and as I didnt fancy Chicken Tikka drumsticks, hubby went and bought me a very large Spring Roll from the Chinese so I didnt have to have a sandwich for dinner.  So now I am going to crack on with some more cards, think I'll do some Flower Soft ones for a change Yippee!!


And last but not least a pic of our Pup for Brenda. It has been really hard work this time putting up the tree, as the pup wanted to eat it, and all the decorations, thought moving the furniture was a big game of hide and seek, but for all that I am somewhat biased AGAINST Rottwiellers, this one chose me, and is such an affectionate little fellow that I wouldnt be with out him, so here is our "Tank". Taken tonight at 8mths to the day old, bless him!

busy busy busy!!!

well thought I'd post the finished article for those following the Woww!

Clean, simple, and effective.
Black card, sprayed with silver Crafters Companion  glitter spray, the Sizzix framelits dies ( for those struggling to find these I got mine from crafting.co.uk), Stamps away Pilkington Carol Singers, a papermania Noel greeting, with Adirondack Pitch Black and a black and white polka dot bow with 3 ball headed sewing pins. And of course the obligatory glitter, I have a huge "Glitter Station" of My Craft Studios, Crystal glitter, which I use all the time!! 
 In the meantime, I have been busy, the craft room is tidied, the card stock re-arranged, and the huge pile of scraps..........., well it doesn't even fill a small tray. Hows that!!
I must admit, I was quite hard with myself, and threw some of it away, but I did do as Sue H suggested, lol, and put most of it back where it came from so 

Please note, this was actually taken with me lying back on my poor old Garden table, that is currently my work area, lol the edge of the grey baskets are right next to the edge of the table, I am really surprised I didnt break it, as its Glass!!!


On top are my coloured papers, my La Pashe collection, soon to be extinct as I have the New mega disk on order, my boxes of Barbara Grey Classroom stamps, a Giant Christmas Rossette, and my patterned card. Next shelf down are my Pearlescent card and paper, and my Mirri Board, my Design Runner, my large Hollands Pie dish, that holds my melted embossing powder for glazing, and my Big and Juicy pads.
Next shelf is the A4 and 12x12 card stock, with my Clarity card, and finally my A3 cardstock, some oversized paper for making bags with, and my patterned papers, 6x6, 8x8, and 12x12. On the bottom shelf is a couple of reams of insert paper, my light box, and my spare glues and sprays.
Hanging from the sides are the 2 loves of my life, my Tonic Guillotines. Oh and my Parchment grids. The butchers block I use for the glazing, embossing, anything to do with heat, and under it is my beloved Foil-it Machine, you can just see the back corner sticking out!
I love the foiling machine.....it is so easy to use and creates some outstanding effects which can be totally unique.

This one was created in Docrafts Digital designer. The trees and the deer/stag were silhouette images which I printed on my laser printer, then foiled in green and matt gold foil from Patsy-May. The tree shadows and hills (used with a Blitzer, a handheld air brush machine sort of thingy, but mine is a bulb that you squeeze and it propels small amounts of ink out of the pen to a masked area.) were using the Pastel Blue Promarker. The sun was the Lemon Promarker, again Blitzed.
The Flowers Holly leaves and pine cone are My Craft Studio Christmas Paper Flower Expert, with a bit of Glitter, all matted on to some Matt silver Mirri board.
Foiling is very cheap to do at home, once you have got past the initial expense of the Foil-it machine and foils. I use my inkjet printer to print the main background or picture first, then run it through my laser printer with a greeting or flourish (I have a new one, but you can pick up a cheap mono laser from ebay for silly money, a friend of mine got one for £4.99!!! And I thought I was cheap!!!). Any colour TONER from a laser printer will act as a glue when you heat it, not just black, so beware if you try to foil a lasered image! But the results and applications are amazing. I foil all my inserts, quite a few greetings, and it adds a really professional finish to the card.
Right I'm off up the M62 repeatedly for the next couple of days, so I shall probably miss the WOWW this week, but I'll try to visit everyone when I get back,


Have fun!!


xx