K is for...

Ok, if I'm honest I've cheated a bit with this one. See I went through my dictionary and wasn't sure what to choose and then my new set of lawn fawn stamps arrived. I so wanted to use them I've slightly shoehorned them in on the basis that K is for...

Kelp

a large type of seaweed according to the definition in this dictionary. 

Of course all I need now is a dog and I could enter both of the current craft barn challenges!!!

However, failing that, I'd like to enter this in to the craft barn dictionary challenge , cutie pie splish splash splosh challenge and stamping sensations feature a creature challenge.

Aloha!

Just dropping in to say a quick 'aloha!' to the good folk at atcas. Here's my make for this fortnight's challenge.

Aloha everyone!

The 'faux' bleach effect

Ok, I have to start this post by saying I hate British use of the word 'faux'. Faux is the French word for fake, right? So can we all just say fake and be done with??!! There, got that out my system.

Speaking of British, I think the weather on this card will be pretty topical for some right now. Of course the sun is always shining here in sunny Devon but not everyone is so lucky! ;)

Also speaking of British, I'd like to take a moment to apologise to all those lovely Europeans who take time to visit this blog. Sorry that apparently a smidgen over half of my country apparently can't see the benefit of working together. There, also got that one out of my system! (maybe!)

Right, now time to stop being so opinionated and talk cards!

This one was made using the aforementioned 'faux' bleach effect, partly as I spritzed the card with water for a rainy look and partly as I used water to try to lift some of the colour from the clouds. It wasn't that successful if I'm honest and I ended up wirking in to the clouds with a white gelly roll pen.
The stamps are from the lawn fawn hello baby set and the inks are distress inks and pro markers. I added wink of stella to the clouds and smooch spritz to all the blue for a bit of shimmer.

I'd like to enter this card in to;
Less is More - Faux bleach
Simon Wednesday - Add shimmer

An inky summer garden

This week's theme at Simon Monday is a summer garden. When I saw it I knew I absolutely had to take part but it's taken till now to find the time - eek!
Anyway after a good inky fingers session this morning here is what I've come up with.

There's a mix of stamps used here from Lavinia, hobby art, crafty individuals and penny black. I've used mainly distress inks, blended, spritzed and stamped, although there is some fineliner and gel ink highlights added in. I finished it all with a good dose of wink of Stella but this is the best photo I could get off that I'm afraid.

I'd like to enter this in to:

SSS Monday - summer garden

Craft stamper- get inky 

Penny black and more- flower power

Little Claire- create a scene

Penny black Saturday- birthdaysI decided against adding a birthday message after some deliberation but as this card is destined for a birthday girl I'm hoping it still counts!)

T is for

There are so many interesting words starting with T! I decided it was high time a cat featured in my dictionary and so selected the word Tabby. I have a lovely set of tabby cat stamps, although for whatever reason they are no longer in their packaging, so if anyone can shed any light on who made them I would be pleased to know!
The stamps are quite finely detailed and having created a thoroughly inky background with a bit of blending, spritzing, stenciling and the rest, I realised the cats just wouldn't stamp as well as they could. Enter the tags. At this point I noticed that tag was on the opposite page so this week T is for Tabby and Tag!

The inks used were ground espresso, lucky clover and carved pumpkin distress inks. The stencil is from crafty individuals and the tags are a sizzix die set.

I'd like to enter this in to the craft barn dictionary challenge (of course!) and also craft stampers 'get inky' challenge and stamping sensations 'feature a creature.'

A little evolution

I love it when a card evolves in to something you really didn't expect. When I started this one, in my minds eye it was going to have some silhouetted flowers against a hazey purple sky in the lower left corner of the card.
By the time I had finished blending the purples through a circular mask, the colour was just crying out for a bit of shimmer spritz. I lifted the mask and there was undeniably a planet staring back at me so I went with it. I turned the card a quarter turn to put the planet in the 'sky.' A quick addition of some silver star stamps (from Lavinia and craftwork cards) and a message (also craftwork cards) and finito!

I'd like to enter this in to
Less is More - Purple
Craft Barn - Stars
SSS Wednesday - Fathers Day / For a guy
Craft stamper - Get inky

The big 100!

As the title suggests this is my 100th blog post since starting on a blogging venture almost a year ago! I make no apologies for the longer length of this post - it's a special one, hopefully with something of interest for everyone!

I start with the previously promised tour of my new craft space. It was high time I had a proper space - no more running up and down the stairs between the craft cupboard and the kitchen table every time I thought of something I needed!

There was a pretty tight budget involved here. We already owned the shelving unit although it wasn't previously in use. The table top and two drawer units came from Ikea along with the shiny new lamp which was the one extravagance. Also new from Ikea were the white magazine boxes giving a total spend of just under £100. The little brown tubs are ones I have been collecting for some while. Riverford send us our veg in them but I thought they would be perfect for all those little bits and pieces! 

The set of drawers immediately to my left contains all the things I need to have 'grab-able.' Top down this is; Ink pads, stationery and sticky things, colouring pens and pencils, glitters, embossing powders and liquid pearls, card blanks, paper pads.

A closer look in a couple of drawers. I'm really enjoying the ink pads laid out in a single layer - so easy to pick the one you want! Nothing is labelled yet to give me time to check it all works and make any changes I need to.

On the shelves the little boxes are filled with all sorts from punches to paints to smaller acrylic stamps. The magazine style white boxes house more stamps, dies, craft magazines and scraps of paper. Wooden stamps are in the mini chests of drawers below so that everything is in reach.

At some point I hope to have a little pin board on the wall in front of my work space and this handy chart will definitely be on it! I found it the other day on the hobby art website along with some others. It's so useful, you colour the squares that you have which not only gives you a quick reference guide to what you own, but also shows the pens true colours. 

Under the shelves are a few more key bits and pieces - scrap book papers, stickers, rub-ons and embellishments stored in the folders and a range of miscellaneous items stored in the giant shoe box. 

Now for the shameful bit. This is my ribbon box :0

I'd love to hear how you all organise your ribbons or if you have any top tips because I'm stumped! some ribbons are on rolls or card and they're fine but it's the really silly scraps that I just haven't got tamed! 

Ok, so that's the tour. Now on to a few cards eh?!

A super simple LIM. I fell out with the inlaid die technique in a big way after my last attempt but when I cut this new Sheena Douglas die it was just crying out for it. It's fair to say the technique and I have made peace again! This is based on the less is more sketch. I'd also like to throw it in the mix for casology's CAS 200 challenge.

I had been wondering how to address the Penny Black Saturday 'Masculine' challenge when I found this PB stickeroos yachting set. I teamed it with papers from Basic Grey and Kanban (fitting with the 2xpapers craft barn challenge) and added some green ribbon layered with the grosgrain ribbon. (For the crafty ribbons masculine challenge)

This one hasn't photographed well but it was another attempt at a shaker card. I mixed a magic potion (ingredients photographed below) masked part of the card and spritzed away. The flamingo is a magazine freebie die backed with some pink paper from the stash and filled with pink beadazzleds. The sentiment is from craftwork cards. I made this card with the allsorts pink challenge, SSS Mask it challenge and SSS monochrome challenge in mind. It was based on the Less is More sketch and suitable for the celebrations at AAA cards.

PHEW, what a long post! I'm glad you stayed with me to the end! TTFN Lou x