The inside and the outside...........

..............Well I made these 2, as a means of showing FG what could be done with an electronic  Cutting machine.
These were made on my Craft-Robo SD 330-20, using a design from the Silhouette store, on 250 GSM cardstock.
The difference between the Craft Robo/Silhouette and the E-craft is the fact that the E-craft doesnt use a matt, and can cut anything up to 1mm in depth.
Silhouette/Craft Robo matts are a problem for me, either they are too sticky and tear the project, or they don't stick enough and the project shifts on the matt and tears.
The E-craft can have a similar problem with slipping, and I have found that firstly loading from the back can help with that for some reason, and if loading from the front I use one of the cheap, thin cutting matts designed for Kitchen use (you know the very thin ones, that can be rolled up), to stabilise the project, or an alternative is actually to use a coated card stock as a stabilising sheet, as the coat tends to grip the project slightly. When I have used a coated card stock, I was very surprised to find absolutely no marks on the base sheet!
Anyway, to the cards, and you will see why I labeled this "the inside and the outside".

 Here is the inside of one card sheet and the outside of another!
Both are a pearlised base Card, embossed with the Crafts Concept Funky Poinsettia embossing folder after cutting, and mounted onto a heavy weight Green Card base. A few Gems and some glittery ribbon from my local market finish it off.

Again the inside of one and the outside the other, same as the one above, but this time with the addition of a bit of red Glitter in the stars.

Right that's it for me, hope you like them, I have to finish getting stuff organised in here, and stuff taken to the charity shops, so I have some room to play, and I can get on with my DT work!

I am entering these cards in the following:
  Chocolate, Coffee and Cards Challenge #19 Emboss It
Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge #145 Anything goes
Fun With Shapes and more Challenge #115 Split negative challenge
The Poodles Parlour lets see those Die Cuts



Hugs to all,

Lou

oopsie, had to check, oh dear!

Well the title says it all really! I had to check wether or not I had actually posted this card! How bad is that? In fairness I made it 2 days ago, the night before my mate turned up to play, and it was put to one side for later, lol, so I am only a day behind!

This is quite a delicate card for me, so much so that I wonder wether it is too delicately coloured, wether I should have gone for darker inks or not?
But it's made, and you should all know by now, that I am an honest blogger, and boy have I posted some humdingers in the past!
So what have we got here? An amalgamation of electronic die cutting, manual embossing, stamping using inks, and using pens.
First to be produced was the bird with the flourish tail. Its actually a design I bought from the Silhouette store, and have converted it to be cut with the e-craft, on smooth white 250 gsm card stock. Beak to tail tip it measures 5 1/2", quite sizeable really. So fine I had this lovely bird.....what to do now?
So out came Mr Happy and a Sizzix embossing folder I received in my Goody bag from the My Craft Studio workshop in Doncaster. Okay, so now it is beautifully embossed, but it needs something to make it pop!
Milled Lavender Distress ink, and a large head blusher brush, as Doncaster had completely sold out of large Brushes for ink dusting with (boy was I not pleased about that), to add definition to the embossing.
Okay so now I am working in the lilac/purple range, which decided the base card colour, and the Matt cut from a sheet of 12 x 12" Docrafts Capsule collection paper.
A lilac ribbon, and it really needed something else.....hmmn! Okay, so out came some cute little stamps I got as a freebie with Nicky Hall's Creative Chronicles magazine, again from Doncaster. Some tiny little Lavender bunches! Perfect, but they are small, and I wanted to use 2 colours on the stamps........Whispers pens to the rescue! So a purple and a green pen at the ready I proceeded to stamp a little line of Lavender bunches above where I would place the ribbon. Huffing periodically to re-awaken the ink, yes those huff pens, they're the ones!
So ribbon attached, birdie attached, gems sorted just needed a sentiment, so Heartfelt wishes from the same stamp set, and what did I do? Picked up the WRONG INK PAD!!!! AAAAARRRGHHHH!!!!
Bit late now though! I picked up the Tattered Rose instead of the Milled Lavender! Now sorry I'm no Barbara Grey, even though the stamps are clear, as my hands dont hold steady enough, so it has to stay this way, until I root out everything again, and die cut a piece to stamp on, then I can cover it up, and hopefully hide the miss match in colours!
Told you I'm honest lol

hugs to all who make mistakes, Boy do I know how you feel!
So lets see if the various members of challenge groups have a good old giggle at my mistake!
The Pink Elephant:: TPE 160, use ribbon
Papertake Weekly Challenge: Anything goes
lou xxx

what I have been doing........

Okay as you know, I vanished for a bit, basically I was unwell, and not up to doing much. But Luckily a friend of mine is coming to play tomorrow, the lovely Linda Simpson, so I have to tidy all my goodies away instead of dumping them, and get on with some crafting! As my crafty fix has come from shopping these past few months instead of actually crafting, oopsie!
I am an incredibly lucky person, as some of my friends have to be the most caring and generous people in the world, and at this point I would like to say a HUGE thank you to my FG.
Last Friday I had a big weep, as FG had bought me an E-craft as a surprise to cheer me up! Wowsers! What a surprise, and FG you are the best and most considerate friend a person could have, and one day I will get my own back, when I win the lottery I am buying you a craft room, but you may have to wait for a bit, okay?

Right here is a card I made with some of the unused crafty stash that I had bought, and the E-craft:

This is an A3 Black Card scored and folded to form an A4 card. The papers are from my Stash, some old loose ones, matted and layered with a strip of wide Silver Ribbon, from the Pound shop last year. It was a wired ribbon, I just removed the wire, lol.
The main image is some new toys from the Doncaster Craft Show. Some Sparkle Medium, Aqua Sea, and one of the Stencils by Imagination Crafts, on some of the Black Gloss card that comes with it if you buy the Starter kit. I have to admit here, that the Aqua Sea Sparkle is Youngests, oops, lol.
Basically you smooth the paste on to the stencil as you would UTEE and lift it away, scrapping every last glimmer of Sparkle back into the pot, lol.
The word is again on the sparkle Black card, but the word is a design by Silhouette, and cut on my new E-craft in Doeflex!
My Silhouette is a C-330-20, just at the change over point between Craft Robo, and Silhouette, and it doesnt cut doeflex. But it doesnt stop me buying loads of the designs from Silhouette, as some are scrummy!
But this time, I wanted a stencil, so it was cut on the E-craft using one cut, and setting 7 on the pressure, the machine is a dream! Although the software isnt as advanced as the Studio Software, it is possible to use Inkscape to adjust the chosen design to your liking before cutting on the E-craft.
For die hard Slihouette users, dont worry the Sil hasnt been got rid of! The E-craft doesnt have an optical eye so it still has its place in my craft room, and will be used, but for cuts on thicker materials, and speed, then I will use the E-craft, as its a very quick Machine!
Right if you have read this far, this is a bit of a heads up, I will be running a Candy give-away in my next post so keep your eyes open!!

Hugs to all

Lou

WOYWW

Well Its Wednesday again, that means its time for WOYWW if you have no idea what I am talking about then you need to pop over to Julia Dunnits Stamping ground. Julias Blog

So Whats on the desk........... Cup of coffee most important at this moment in time as I am just waking up.........My "Tool Box" of glitters that have been heavily used especially on the boxes in the post under this one........The One card that I have made that I cant find an envelope for, there's always one, so guess who's going to have to make one , sigh! The green card is actually a failed attempt to make Christmas tree shaped cards using the Pinflair Steppers, I'll have another go later, and also my failed attempt at making the one shaped card I did manage to do de-bossed using the Papermania Christmas tree embossing folder. I was having a bad day yesterday, could I figure out how to get the de-bossed side on the front of the card? No, but walked away had a cup of coffee and the thought "DOH!"
My Dabbers arrive from Joanna Sheen, that was quick as always, so I have been finishing those little snowflake boxes off. There's DS tape, glues, and some new stamps from Joanna Sheen on the right hand side of the pictureand some die cuts that need to be put away, as I was using up the scraps, as I made them, which is a first for me lol.

Heres the previously white boxes I was making, on the Silhouette SD.
except now they are gold! I had some gold spray paint in my sprays box, and its done a nice job of stiffening the card. Then I used Crafters Companion spray and sparkle for some twinkle, and inside they now have acetate coloured using the Tim Holtz Adirondak Alcohol inks, just ready for some ribbon!
Quite a tidy desk desk for me this week lol


Happy WOYWW everyone

Productive!!

Well, I have been a busy bee today, not only did I finish off the last of the Pilkington Christmas series and post it, but I also managed some creation as well, 


Well not creation really yet, just playtime, and I quite like this little set!

This is from My Craft Studio Advanced Encylopedia, CD 4. A Lovely little Paper-crafted tea service, complete with Tea bag and sugar cubes. I adjusted the colour as I wanted a more purple design, as opposed to the Delph blue on the template, and I have used a versa mark ink pad, and clear embossing powder to create a glaze on the pottery and spoon. The sugar cubes were glittered with Crafters Companion Spray and Sparkle silver, for more realism. Apologies for the picture quality, but as I have said before I really need a proper camera and tripod, as taking pictures isnt my forte.
This is going to be a gift for some one..........hint: Crafternoon!


I thought I'd also post a couple of my old commissions, which I found on my phone lol

This was a commission from  a lady at church to celebrate the 40 th priesthood anniversary of one of the old parish priests, now a Monsignor, back in June.
I used a design from Uk Scrappers, one of the free designs for the Craft Robo/ Silhouette for the filigree crosses, and embossed the top Cross with a Crafts Too embossing folder. Unfortunatley I dont have the full picture of the finished project....but I used 350gsm Pearlised Black card for the cover, 350gsm Pearlised Gold card for the liner. I embossed, then used embossing powder for the spine of the "Book" and the inside was parchment with praying hands embossed onto it.

The next one....... was very hard to do!!!!


All I had was the Name Katie, and the fact that she was 21, and the niece of our lovely parish priest!!! What to do? Couldn't do anything funny, might not be appreciated, had to be suitable........oh dear yes it caused me some problems!!!


In the end Me to You came to the rescue! Luckily I had just received the Docrafts Digital designer package, so I was able to use one of the Tatty Teddy designs, as you can see. I created the whole layers, and plaque on Docrafts Digital designer, added some Fluffy Stuff for the froth on the Champagne, and foiled the greeting on the plaque. Father Billy did have a good gwarf when he realised what the picture said!! hehehehe, who said Catholic priests don't have a sense of humour?

WOYWW124

Ok better late than never as I got most of last weeks done last night!! And boy that took some doing!!!
I have spent most of the day up and down the M62 so not much has been done, unfortunatly, and I really must have one of my mega tidy sessions tomorrow!!! I promise it will be tomorrow!!!

Right this week.....and better late than never!
much the same as yesterday.......... but here's Mr Happycut, complete with plates, Sizzix Labels dies, One of the stamped images from Pilkington Carol singers, (going monochromatic on this I think, and if I'm not too happy about it, I always stamp off a spare, just incase, it gets messed up, so I might colour that one - maybe some Tim Holtz Broken China), my scraps pile which is very slowly shrinking, a card I am not too sure about , that actually came from a Dingbat, and was drawn on the Silhouette, the remnants of Youngests playtime (grr), a Dovecrafts decoupage Pepper and Friends Xmas set, and of course the obligatory cup of coffee, my usual storage, my small Tonic guillotine, and if things on my table get any higher I am going to have to stand on a chair to take a picture!!!


and if you have NO idea what is going on pop over Here to see what is going on, as this lady provides you the opportunity to have a poke around in someone else's craft space, shame its only visual, hehe