Reindeer Flight

I apologise for the fuzzy image. Usually when I take photos of my cards, I take quite a few to make sure I get a decent one. But this time I took one and thought that it was ok until I uploaded it. I've tried sharpening it with Photoshop but this is the best I could do at the moment.

This lovely reindeer die is from Tim Holt'z 'Reindeer Flight' set of two Sizzix dies. I had some nice ribbed card to give it nice texture and added a tiny black bead for it's eye. The background is the Cuttlebug 'Swirls' and the Christmassy strip down the middle is from Stampin Up. Another simple card that was easy peasy and quick to make. I was going to add a sentiment but it just looked too fussed so I left it like this.

I've got a really painful wrist at the moment which is making it hard to type. I don't know what I've done to it but it feels like I broke it!!! How can you break your wrist without noticing it until it's broke, lol?

Well I hope to get more card making done this weekend but it all depends what happens. Just when I think I have a nice clear day to get things done, other things crop up. Ah well, that's life.

Have a happy weekend and thanks for stopping by ...

OMG Tim Holtz Sneak Peeks

And also a sneak peek at ol' Funny Face!

Greetings.

This is just a quick post. I wasn't intending to post anything until I checked out Tim Holtz's blog. Summer CHA 2010 is here and all the new exciting new products are out. So many Christmassy new gorgeous things to look forward to.

My favourite of all are these lovely deer dies. I just have to have them!

And check out these spooky halloween dies - my favourite are the crow and spindly scary cat.

Oh no! I'm trying to de-clutter and minimise. But I can feel a shopping frenzy coming on ... yikes!

Have a happy weekend and thanks for stopping by ...

Fly little bird

I thought I'd try out the Barn door distress ink by Tim Holtz. My favourite colour combo is red, black and white so I thought I'd use that for this card. I think it might be okay to enter this for the black, white and red challenge too over at Inkurable Stampers.

I really love the effect water has on these inks and especially spraying water onto an uninked stamp and then stamping onto the inked page because it gives a lovely bleached out image of the stamp as the water reacts with the ink. Well that's what it's supposed to do, and I have watched the genius Tim Holtz do it and it worked for him. But did it work for me, or did it splash water in big splotches all over the place? The latter of course! And that's why you can see quite a lot of white splotchy bits on the background. Ah well never mind, I think it gives a kinda batik effect.

So then I stamped some flourishes from the Tim Holtz Artful Flight set in both Barn door distress ink and Versacolor over the background. And added the Hero Arts branches (from a set I can't remember the name of!). The bird is also from Artful Flight and what I did was ink around the edges of the stamp and then stamp it on the back of some text I'd typed in Word. The other words I typed in Word also but in different fonts.

Here is a closer look...
Will the little bird escape or will he be captured and caged forever? We will never know.

Have a lovely weekend y'all!

The Clock Has Decided

I've had this Tim Holtz white rabbit stamp from Alice in Wonderland for quite awhile and was waiting to get a clock image to go with it. I love this PaperArtsy clock and think it went well, seeing as it says Cluck o Clock which makes no sense as does most things in Wonderland. The foliage stamp is from Tim Holtz Artful Flight set of stamps.

As usual when making cards, I didn't have a clear idea of what I was going to make. I just swished about with Tim Holtz's beautiful distress inks and was inspired. The inks I used were Pumice Stone, Tumbled Glass, Peeled Paint and Walnut Stain. And I added some Antique Gold Perfect Pearls around the edge of the card.

What I really loved using was some Rangers Crackle Accents which I brushed over the clock face. I loved it when it did indeed crackle and makes the clock face look like cracked glass. Here is a closer look...

Oh look at Tim's tag. Why didn't I think of adding a fluffy bunny tail? He is such a genius!

I'm going out today to have coffee with a friend and hopefully to do a bit of shopping. So tomorrow I might not have any work to show. But I'm sure I will come up with something to write about.

Thanks for stopping by...

Songbird

As people who read my blog know, I love Tim Holtz products and now especially I love his rubber stamps. I was lucky enough to receive a great present from my friend Kate who bought me one of his sets 'Artful Flight' which has this gorgeous bird. I didn't have a clear idea of how I was going to use the bird but after playing around I ended up making this card. I used Tim Holtz distress inkpads for the background (Wild Honey, Scattered Straw and Adirondack Sail Boat Blue) - flicked water droplets over it to give cool faded out spots. I had some sheet music that I downloaded from Craft Stamper that I tore and added for a collage effect. The hearts are from Blonde Moments

I like using Tim Holtz distress stickles so added some to the bird to give some texture. I don't know if you can see it in this closer up picture but there is some on the bird's stomach. It kind of looks like coloured glass and gives a nice shiny effect.

Our clocks went forward an hour yesterday and I'm still not used to it. I've been yawning all morning so I better go and make a nice strong coffee to wake me up!

Happy Monday everyone :)

Lucky me and a visit from a dragon

Well yesterday it definitely felt like my birthday as I had another parcel arrive. This time it was from my sister Ady. OMG it was full of Tim Holtz products and a lovely gift voucher! The gift voucher above, is beautiful as it is handmade. It is from Art From the Heart a shop that sells the most gorgeous craft things. It is run by the very talented Dyan Reaveley who is very good at art journaling. I've only just discovered her and am intrigued by what she does.

THANK YOU so much Ady for such a wonderful treat!

Here are the gifts she sent me ... distress inks, distress stickles and Glossy Accents - I can't wait to play with them. I was so excited when I opened the parcel. Aaaargh I forgot to take a photo of the Salvage Stickers - they are so cool, I have ideas for them already! I'm so lucky :)


And then, later in the day I had a visitor. My friend Bert bought his very handsome Bearded Dragon (called Junior) to see me - isn't he lovely? I'd love a little dragon, so sweet. Don't think Miaowski would be impressed. She didn't show any interest in our visitor but then she was nuzzling up to the radiator at the time.
So far this week has been lovely and it's only Tuesday! Hurray, things are looking good. I'm in such a good mood. It's another time for a lovely quote and here is my most favourite by Woodrow Wilson ...

We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter's evening. Some of us let these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine and light, which comes always to those who sincerely hope that their dreams will come true.

Amen to that!

Playing withTags

I'm enjoying reading Tim Holtz's book 'A Compendium of Curiosities'. It's full of interesting techniques and is more of a 'how to create' rather than 'how to make' book. The lovely thing about my order is that the book came with a few accessories which made it more fun, as it meant you could start right away with experimenting.

I thought I'd use a few tags to try out some techniques on. I used the sponge applicator tool to applied distress inks. Love the new Brushed Cordroy inkpad I received AND the most gorgeous Perfect Pearls Antique Gold powder. I've never used Perfect Pearls before but you brush it lightly onto the wet ink you've just applied, and WOW ... the shimmer and sheen of the gold is very impressive but you can't see it in these pics ... it's a shame but my camera is just not picking it up. Trust me, get some Perfect Pearls, they are great and you can add a few sprinkles to water and spray it on for another shimmer effect.

Here is a tag I made with the Elegant Birds set from My Cute Stamps. Another lovely product I received was Rock Candy crackle paint - this is different from Crackle Accents as it provides a sheen over your image with small crackles as opposed to big crackles. I love that word Crackle! Anyway after I applied it, I let it dry and then smeared over it with my finger, some distress Rocky Candy Stickles which, when dried, gives a vintagey glass like effect. Think I might have gone overboard with that. You can see it looks like sugar in places...

And here is a tag I made using the Brushed Cordroy distress ink with the Antique Gold Perfect Pearls brushed around the edges. Then I repeated the crackle effect and added distress stickles. The rubber stamp image is from Memory Box.
Well no doubt you will be seeing more of my experiments soon.

Have a lovely Sunday...

Cute

I thought I'd have a great day on the craft front yesterday but instead spent too much time cleaning the print nozzles on that darned printer. So I didn't do too much.

But I did manage to come up with something. Using these two cute bird stamps from Squigglestamps, I made this simple card. I wanted to keep it simple as I wanted to highlight this pretty paper and co-ordinating card from Stampin Up. I also used my Nestabilities circle die and Scallop die to create a frame for the bird to perch on. I might use this as a Mother's Day card, not sure yet. My Mum won't see this anyway as she doesn't have a computer so it won't spoil the surprise. This is very cutesy. I know, I do love cute... I also love dark and edgey too but that doesn't come naturally to me. I'm working on it, especially when I get my Tim Holtz book .

Oh, I had an email yesterday from QVC to say that my Tim Holtz book has been despatched and is on it's way .... hurray! Actually I was expecting it to turn up yesterday but it didn't and I nearly took to my bed in disappointment! Huh! Want to see what I will be getting any time soon? Check this out ...
I'm loving today as it is rainy and dark outside ... my favourite kind of weather when I'm staying indoors trying to be creative. I feel all cosy and happy. If it was gorgeous and sunny I'd want to be outside and then I wouldn't get anything done. Mind you I am looking forward to gorgeous sunny weather, it's been a long cold Winter.

Someone who has a natural way with cute and cosy...

Yesterday I was inspired by Jennifer McGuire's beautiful butterfly card so I thought I would give it a try. Had a few bubbles in the glossy accents unfortunately but I think it adds to the butterfly's pattern :). The butterfly is from Hero Arts Winged Friends digital set, I resized and printed it out. It is coloured with Tim Holtz distress inks Shabby Shutters and Broken China - or green and blue as I sometimes call them!

I love inspirational quotes so I will leave you with one

The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen. - Frank Lloyd Wright, 1869-1959

Yay! I find that to be very true...