We’re off to see the Wizard

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Challenge #75 at Crafty Ann’s challenge blog is to use a film title as your inspiration. I couldn’t think how to craft something linked to my number one favourite film – North By Northwest (I am a HUGE Cary Grant fan), this was what sprang to mind next. I think it was probably also something to do with fact that I had some relatively unused Graphic45 goodies from The Magic of Oz collection.

Recently I said that sometimes you were better going with your first idea and sticking with it. For this project there were moments when the opposite was true, but being a little stubborn,not prone to admitting defeat and taking the easy option not being in my nature I stuck with it. I think I’m glad I did.

Having been inspired by Dionne’s lovely twisted easel cards that she did for the Crafty Boots children’s story theme I decided to give one a go for this. I loved how Dionne managed to tell a story in two panels – check out her blog to see what I mean. I’m not sure I’ve quite achieved the same effect here but I like the finished card.

Having made my twisted easel I then fashioned a yellow brick road out of some cardstock. I inked around the edges to give it a well trodden look – well just remember how many Munchkins walked that route! Next I cut two squares that were to go on the easel mounts. I started with the scarecrow and matted and layered some card to match the colours of the Graphic45 tag. I used some raffia on the tag and then also made a little bundle behind a cream button. The final layer, on which the tag, words and button are mounted is a bit of ivory jute ribbon. I used some raffia on the tag and then also made a little bundle behind a cream button.

Next I made the Tin Man panel (he was my favourite character – apart from the witch obviously). I used some Graphic45 paper and then made a heart out of some embossed mirri card. I also punched out a button from the same card and popped some red ribbon behind it.

I felt mean leaving out the lion (who I found a bit irritating in the film!) so popped him onto the yellow brick road along with some Magic of Oz tiles to act as stoppers.

 

I created this card in record time having had two days travelling with no time to prepare ahead. I hope it doesn’t show. It was a minor miracle that, having set to as soon as I got in from work, I even managed to catch the last bit of daylight which helped when taking the photo’s.

My sons absolutely loved this film when they were little and youngest son, the infamous DJ Beez, had an Emerald City cake, made by me, for one of his birthdays. I raided the pick and mix for every green sweet available. I’ll try and find a photo and pop it on here. The film was also a favourite of my late Dad. So many memories attached to making this card I think that, after all, I’m glad I did stick with it. However, I have thought of another film I’d like to use so watch this space.

 

 

Happiness is…?

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So how did you complete the sentence? What makes you happy is the theme for this week’s Sunday Stampers. Great challenge from Hels, except that now I can’t stop singing the Ken Dodd song and that wasn’t the song she linked the challenge to.

I decided to make some ATCs as I am participating in a swap across the pond and I thought this would be a good way of making sure that I got them done. There was no question about the content of the theme for these. Anyone who knows me well would guess easily. Obviously my family would be top of my list, but for me that didn’t translate easily into crafting. Number two on the list? Christmas of course!

For the first card I added in three other things that make me happy -snow, pink and bling. To start with I used some raspberry distress stain, then stamped pink snowflakes on top. To give it some depth I stamped and heat embossed some more snowflakes, this time in gold. Finally, I added some punched snowflakes. I stamped the words on a separate piece of stained card. The finishing touch were little gems and some faux pearls. If you look closely you’ll also see a tiny bee – that’s me, loving the pink snow and sparkle!

The second card is in complete contrast. First  I stamped on the card using Stazon and a massive great holly background stamp that I’ve had for years. Then I coloured the whole card using a mixture of Adirondack Juniper and Denim Blue plus some Pine Needles (love that colour) distress ink. I painted the holly leaves with some more Pine Needles and added red glitter (glitter always makes me happy) to the berries. Then I added some white highlights to the leaves. I decided not to add words, but created some variation in depth by adding a punched snowflake, a button, some pom pom trim and a strip of text.

You can’t really see the red in the picture but it looks fab with the pine needles.

Happy ATCs have made me happy. Loved having an excuse to indulge my Christmas obsession – is it too early to wish you all a Happy Christmas?!

Iddy biddy mini stationery set for a Queen Bee

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Do you remember those iddy biddy tiny stationery sets that you used to have as a child? I absolutely loved them but could barely bring myself to use them as then they would be gone(no change there then!). They were pretty unsophisticated in my day, I seem to remember you had to cut the stamps out by hand, but they were still something to treasure.

I was very excited when I came across someone, via Pinterest, who not only still had an original and complete set from her childhood (knew I shouldn’t have used mine!) but had used to create a template so she could make her own versions. Joanne, at Blue, Purple and Scarlett has very kindly produced a template and you can also see the different sets she made.

When I saw them, I just knew I had to give it a go and that it would be a great way to use some of the fabulous images over at The Graphics Fairy. I’d also been wanting to make a bee themed gift for a friend and I decided that this would be just the thing for her. I decided to make my set slightly (and I do mean slightly) larger.

Measuring and cutting out the wallet was straightforward. I cut squares of designer paper for the inside back and pockets and covered the front with the same. Before sticking down the paper on the inside I taped some seam binding, coloured with Tattered Rose distress stain, across the back, to act as the closure. I used one of the bee images from The Graphics fairy to decorate and mounted these on some brown paper. I added some ivory mini pom-pom trim, Prima ivory flowers and some faux pearls to the front of the pockets and I put some pink buttons in the centre of the flowers.

Wallet – inside. Image from The Graphics Fairy

I used another bee image from The Graphics Fairy on the front of the wallet and then added lace trim and more mini pom-poms, Prima flowers, buttons, pearls and seam binding. The words were printed out on brown paper.

Mini sationery set wallet front made using image from The Graphics Fairy

For the stationery itself, I made the envelopes using my Silhoutte cameo. I printed the little flowery envelope image from The Graphics Fairy on to the front of the envelope before cutting. Everything was printed onto the back of designer paper so that the envelopes would have a printed inside. To make the writing paper, I combined two images from The Graphics Fairy – a little bee and a pink frame – and printed them out on ivory paper. Then I simply cut them out, making sure they were small enough to fit the envelopes. I used more seam binding to tie a little ribbon around the bundle of paper.

Writing paper and reverse of envelope

Mini writing paper made with images from The Graphics Fairy

The notecard were done more or less the same way, but I folded the image over to create the notecard before cutting. A word to the wise – you need the image on the right hand side of the paper to do this. My first lot were on the left hand side!

paper, note card and envelope made with images from The Graphics Fairy

The little stickers were again made using my Silhoutte Cameo. Now I’m really pleased that, through trial and error, I found out how to cut them so that the backing paper remained intact. Once they were printed I cut them using the blade on 1 and the set the thickness as 4. I didn’t use the cutting mat.

Little bee stickers made with image from The Graphics Fairy

Stationery goodies made with images from The Graphics Fairy

Stationery goodies made with images from The Graphics Fairy

 

Here are all the little bits in their presentation wallet:

Iddy Biddy mini stationery set – made with images from The Graphics Fairy

 

I’m so pleased with how this turned out and it is a great way to use those delightful vintage images over at The Graphics Fairy. It took longer than it should have done because I was learning as I went along. Next time it should be much quicker. I’m thinking that I could make Halloween versions for my nephews and possibly Christmas versions for friends.

 

Happy Haunting

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After last weekend’s double Halloween countdown making frenzy it was a real luxury to just think about one card for the challenge over at City Crafter Challenge Blog. Halloween a in England is still a long way behind the celebrations across the pond and some people would like it to stay that way. But not me! I’m a huge, huge fan and it’s always been celebrated in my family, ever since I was little. So it’s been great to have an excuse to craft a card.

I’ve used mainly Graphic45′s Happy Haunting collection for this. I was so pleased with the spider’s web that I cut on my Silhouette Cameo last week I made a couple more for this card, plus a spider on a thread. I gave the spider some green glitter eyes and also glittered up the webs with silver glitter and some orange jewels at the centre. I’ve added black and orange ribbon down the side and a little orange bow at the top. The final touch was a piece of orange pom-pom trim along the base of the Happy Haunting tag.

Detail

Detail

It’s a shame that people don’t generally send Halloween cards in this country. However, I know two little boys who will probably be delighted to receive this!

Through the wardrobe

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As a child I loved books as much as I do now. I still have most of my books from when I was younger and they all bear the scars of my decision to turn them in to a library and give each one a number. I religiously wrote out the numbers by hand and stuck them to the spine with sellotape. I even wrote the number and title into a big book. I vaguely remember getting half way through and thinking this wasn’t such a great idea, especially as I had pulled all the books off the bookcase in order to do it. But I did keep going and woe betide anyone who didn’t put a book back in its correct place!

A favourite was The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe. I spent many a happy hour sitting in our wardrobe trying to get to Narnia. (Yes really!!!) I had the whole series of Narnia books but my favourite was always this one. Turkish delight was always essential too!

So when I saw that the current challenge over at Crafty Boots was to be inspired by a children’s story or rhyme I knew exactly which book I would be basing my card on.  I even knew which image would be my starting point – this is from my original paperback copy:

I made some snow from torn book pages and covered them with gesso. Then I stamped lots of fir trees, embossed them and then coloured them with some Pine Needles distress ink.  I also stamped a lampost image in the centre and then used Chipped Sapphire distress ink to paint the night sky. I coloured the lampost with Promarkers. I added some more fir trees and decoupaged them to give a bit of depth. Finally, I gave the trees a good dusting of Flowersoft glitter frosting.

Now I could have stopped there, but I’d a plan to make this into a little triptych. So I made panels to go either side of my main image and then a wardrobe door as a cover. The door was made using brown card – I cut a fancy top using a Spellbinders die. Then I embossed some of the same card, using an M-Bossabilities folder, to create some door panels. I also made some decorative embellishments again using Spellbinders dies. If I could find my split pins the doors would have had handles too!

Wardrobe door

The second panel, which is the reverse of the wardrobe door, is simply an image of a lion, a phrase from the book, a bit of gold net and a jewel ,

Panels 1 & 2

For the panel on the other side I cut out lots of snowflakes using my Silhoutte cameo and added them to a frosty blue background. There is the white witch’s crown in the corner, cut from silver mirri card. I gave each snowflake a frosting of glitter and a jewel centre. Again I added a phrase from the story which I printed out on my computer.

Panels 2 & 3

It’s a pity that there doesn’t seem to be a supply of Narnia themed crafting goodies – papers, digi-stamps, rubber stamps. I’d love to see Graphic45 bring out a range.

Do take a look at the Crafty Boots pages and it’s worth a special hop to Dionne’s blog, who is one of the DT, as not only did she set the challenge but she has also done a different card for every day the challenge is live. She has produced some amazing cards and also brought my attention to a new Aladdin’s cave of crafting supplies – Wild Orchid. Can’t see me holding out for very long before I place an order there but first, I need to go and get some turkish delight!

Autumn Days

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Craft packages ordered =0, Craft packages recieved = ? – I lost count, there was a little stash waiting when I got back! (*blushes*)

So here I am back from Grimsby, absolutely shattered and aching limbs and feet having been standing on them for two very long days. The delegates on the course I was delivering were lovely and an added bonus was that it was dry when we re-loaded the van. It goes without saying that I am very pleased to be back home – and it’s Friday – whoop, whoop!

Don’t you find that it’s sometimes best  to stick with the first idea that you thought of? I should have today. I went all around the houses before I ended up back where I started. Could have saved a whole stack of time. Anyway, today I have altered a large matchbox and given it an Autumn makeover. I am entering this into the Anything But A Card challenge #2 which is all about texture.

I covered the matchbox with some paper that I had decorated using Dylusions inks. Next I added a strip of Kanban’s ivory spider’s web net and some moss in the corners. I also used a small piece of a Craftie-Emblies chicken wire mask. The leaves are from Tando and have been spritzed with Dylusions and doodled on. The little toadstool is also from Tando and I coloured this with promarkers before coating with crystal clear glitter. The words were printed out on my computer and the finishing touch was a few glass dew drops.

I couldn’t leave the inside of the box empty so lined it with some moss and some corrugated card which I had dabbed with ink. The squirrel, again from Tando, was coloured using distress inks and I’ve added a magnetic strip to the back.

I’m also entering this into the Tando Challenge Blog which has the theme leaves or trees. Love how this turned out, but once again struggled with getting good pics in the dark!

Whiter than white

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Craft packages ordered = 0, craft packages received – still no idea, hopefully several waiting for me at home.

There was a moment, at the beginning of the week, when I wasn’t sure I would have anything ready to post for today. As I knew I was going to be away it had to be ready in advance. So on the morning of my departure, at ridiculous o’clock in the morning, as well as packing, ironing, sorting the washing, so it didn’t take over the whole house in my absence, and endlessly scrubbing my hands to rid them of Dylusions, I put together a little card for this week’s challenge at The Shabby Tearoom.

Using the picture for inspiration you have to use white plus only one additional colour. You are allowed to use neutrals too.

Now as soon as I set eyes on that birdcage I knew I had to include one. I really wanted to use one of my favourite little wooden ones but, having used one quite recently, I decided instead to use a die cut  instead. I also used a die cut bird. I edged the bird with a little Tea Dye distress ink and then glittered it and the birdcage. For the card itself I used white card and an M-Bossabilities folder. The ribbon is white American seam binding which I stamped with my little bird stamp. In the corner is a little arrangement of flowers and fronds made from white card and my Martha Stewart and Tonic petal pairs punches. Finishing touches are plenty of pearls, a button, a little bow and a tag with a Tim Holtz chit-chat sticker.

Detail

 

Detail

Very pleased to see how well the seam binding takes the stamping – will do this again. Also very pleased to have got this done, even if it did put getting to the station in time to catch my train in jeapordy. Having been away for three days I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed being able to do a little crafting every day. Looking forward to getting home tonight and, hopefully, a weekend of crafting ahead.

 

Something fishy going on

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Craft packages ordered =1, craft packages received = ? Well I’m away.

Here I am in Great Grimsby – well that’s what it says when you arrive at the station. As predcited – van unloading took place in the rain. Not happy :( On the upside, I just about managed to get rid of the last traces of ink on my hands before I had to do my cooking demonstrations.

As I am currently away from home I had to make sure that I had things to post here in my absence. I thought that, as I am in what was once the world’s largest fishing port, I would make a little something as a tribute.

I made the background using Dylusions – Cut Grass, Fresh Lime, Vibrant Turquoise and London Blue. I used the same techniques as yesterday – spritzing with water, spritzing with ink then spraying water through my spirals mask. I allowed it to dry overnight and then sprayed some more colour through the mask. When it had dried for the second time I highlighted the spirals by doodling with white, black and gold pens. The wooden fish came from Crafty Emblies - I just added a few gilding flakes. Rather bravely, I wrote the words freehand. The finishing touches are the little bee and some glass dewdrops.

 

I am dedicating this to Grim,  the Danish fisherman who apparently founded Grimsby. He chose to settle there having failed to carry out the murder mission he’d been sent on!

 

Masking and ghosting

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This is a nightmare week. I’m hoping I’ll feel better when it’s over but it rather depends on how things pan out. Yesterday, my colleague and I got soaked loading up the van ready for our travels. Today we are off to Grimsby – oh the glamour. Looking at the weather there’s more than a good chance that it will be raining when we unload the van later today and when we re-load it on Thursday evening. Oh that I could stay huddled up in the warm crafting.

Anyway, today I have a tag to share with you that is for this week’s Sunday Stampers challenge – masks/stencils. Very excited about this as I LOVE Dylusions inks and this was a chance to play with them some more. That said, not the best thing to be mucking my fingers up with the day before two days of cooking demonstrations!!!

I haven’t done a lot of tags, partly because they are not currently in my crafting stash. Or so I thought and then I came across a couple of large manila tags I never knew I had – just what I needed. The colours I used for this are Bubblegum Pink, Lemon Zest, Pure Sunshine, Crushed Grape, Squeezed Orange and Postbox Red. If you’ve used these then you’ll know that it’s quite difficult to keep track of what you actually did. What I can tell you is that I sprayed the tag with water before adding the inks. I used the ghosting technique – spraying water through stencils once some ink has been applied and then dabbing it off. Also, once dry, I sprayed some ink through the stencils. The masks/stencils I used were a swirl, dots, flowers and text. Some you can see more clearly than others.

I added some leaves and flowers - stamping with black Stazon. The leaves I highlighted with white pen and the flowers were painted with some more Dylusions. Next, I stamped some words in purple Stazon and some little bees in black. Then I used my big bee stamp on some text and cut it out before sticking onto the tag.

The finishing touches were some white seam binding and a cream prima flower. Both of these I spritzed with more ink. Very happy with the effect and colours this created. I scrunched the seam binding for a crinkled look.

I didn’t set out to create a summery feel but it turned out that way. Here’s hoping for a break in the cloud, even if it’s just while we unload the van. Grimsby here I come!

 

Halloween Countdown

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After Christmas, Halloween is my next favourite seasonal celebration. Even ‘though my boys are now young men, I still get them Halloween goodies and decorate the house. The first they like, the latter they cringe at! I also have little nephews who love Halloween too. Now I don’t get to see my nephews nearly as often as I would like, so I like to find lots of treats to send them throughout the year. This year, I decided I would send them a Halloween countdown calendar.

I wanted to make a magnet type thing on a baking tray, but Mr Beez didn’t manage to do his bit and spray the tray black. So I thought I would make a little flip-over calendar with a page for each day from the first of October. Then I decided I would make them one each. No problems – that would be 62 little calendar pages plus 2 front covers and a little stabilising contraption so it would stand up!

I had a good supply of Halloween crafting stash – Graphic 45s Happy Haunting Collection,  Echo Park Apothecary something or other and another Halloween collection by Pink Paislee. Naturally, it being Monday, some images and background papers came from the Graphics Fairy. To make life simple I decided to make each calendar identical, that way I could make two pages at a time and it would cut the thinking time down. The most tedious job was sticking all the background papers to the cardstock. I could have done with a heavy duty tape runner but had to make do with finger-lifted double sided tape.

I cut each card, added background paper and then punched two holes in the top. That just left me to decorate each one and then to add a number. The numbers were cut using my Silhouette Cameo and  I also cut a few Halloween images to use as embellishments. In addition to the cardstock and papers I have used various ribbons, buttons, gems and sequins. Even a little bit of moss on the skeleton. All the cards are held together by 25mm book rings and I made a little stand to give it a bit more stability. (I’ve since removed this as it didn’t really seem to need it)

I’m going to show you the pages that used images and backgrounds from the Graphics Fairy first:

Backround and images from the Graphics Fairy. The Owl and pumpkin have been glittered

Background and image from The Graphics Fairy

Background and letters from The Graphics Fairy

Background and skeleton images from The Graphics Fairy. Moss is added to the corners

Here are the finished calendars:

The finished countdown

And here’s all the pics:

I absolutely loved doing this, but it was madness to do it all at once. Another time I would do a few at a time and really go to town with the decorating and embellishing. However, I have a feeling that Freddie and Henry will love them!