MrsBeez

Sequins dancing

Posted on May 29, 2015 by MrsBeez

Sorry about the bad pun for the title of the post, sometimes I just can’t help myself. I’m also a little giddy about squeezing in a second post this week after my recent blogging dry spell. City Crafter Challenge Blog are asking us to use sequins in a project for this week’s challenge. Here’s my card:

Now for a self-confessed magpie, I am very pleased with myself for managing to be quite restrained with the sequins. I have always admired how CCCB DT member Ros Crawford’s manages to always add just the right amount of perfectly placed sequins to her card and tried to take a leaf out of her book.

I started by smooching on some Cotton Candy distress ink through my Memory Box honeycomb stencil. I added some extra detail with a splatter stamp. Using Frayed Burlap and second generation stamping (blotting on scrap paper before stamping for real) I added the script and some more splatters.The butterfly was stamped, using Frayed Burlap, onto cardstock that had been coloured with Cotton Candy.

After matting and layering onto coordinating cardstock I made a rash decision to stamp the Happy Birthday. Fortunately, on this occasion, my gamble paid off! The final task was to add the sequins and I’ll be honest and tell you that this was the bit that took the longest. Gold looked too brash, silver added a nice sparkle but not quite the look I was after. After a ratch through my sewing basket I found these, evidently some spares from some garment that I must possess, which are just perfect.

I am also sharing this over at Sunday Stampers for this week’s “free” challenge.

Thanks for buzzing by.

Bumbling bees

Posted on May 25, 2015 by MrsBeez

Another week where I feel I have been missing in action! Thank goodness for the Bank Holiday weekend and a chance to play (and of course tidy!) and think about something other than work. This Monday sees the start of a new challenge over at Crafty Boots Challenges and for the next fortnight we are asking you to give us your take on this sketch:

Make sure you buzz over and see what the rest of the DT have been up to. Here’s the card that I came up with:

Well you didn’t think I’d be absent for so long and not bring some bees back with me did you?! I used a Memory Box stencil and smooched some Wild Honey distress ink through it and then stamped the bees.

Originally I thought I might paper piece the bees but, once they were stamped, decided a preferred them just as they were. I added a stamped sentiment and then mounted the card on some black to give it some definition.

I think this will make a great card for Mr Beez who celebrates his birthday in a couple of weeks. I am also sharing this over at City Crafter Challenge Blog for their “Inkyness” challenge and at Sunday Stampers where the theme is “free,” as in anything you like, as long as there’s stamping.

Thanks for buzzing by and, if you have an extra day off, enjoy 🙂

Watch the (vintage) birdie

Posted on May 18, 2015 by MrsBeez

Today we reach the half way point of our Lace and Ribbon Challenge over at Crafty Boots. As usual, the DT, together with guest designers, have added some extra projects that will hopefully inspire you to link up with us.

My card is one of my Gecko Galz DT pieces that, as you can see, has lace aplenty, there’s even a tiny piece of ribbon in there too! This beautiful vintage tag image is from this month’s Free Birds digital kit and I’ve layered it onto some inked and distressed cardstock.

The background paper is from the Parisian Dreams paper pack. I’ve used two different types of chunky lace trim from Wild Orchid Crafts.

Have a good week and thanks for buzzing by.

Blue beauty

Posted on May 11, 2015 by MrsBeez

I don’t seem to be blogging all that frequently at the moment. I’m itching to get my teeth into projects but my mass clear out seems to be taking up all my time. During my weekend tidy up sessions I tackled some of my neglected stash. It made me realise how my crafting style as evolved since I first began. I found cards I had made years and years ago. At the time I would have been very pleased with them, now it was a case of “what were you thinking?” I re-discovered masses of peel-offs, I used to use them all the time, and several sheets of self-adhesive ribbon, printed die-cut sentiments, as well as oodles of papers that were printed from CDs. Now comes the dilemma of what to with crafting stash that is perfectly fine but not likely to be used by this crafter again. Any ideas warmly welcomed 🙂

Talking of changing style, today’s card is probably indicative of that. Whereas once all my projects had self-adhesive gems, today they are likely to have ribbon, bows and lace. This happens to be rather handy as our new challenge over at Crafty Boots Challenges has the theme of “ribbon and/or lace.”

This is one of my DT projects for the Gecko Galz. The image is from the Colourful Cuties collage set and the papers are from the Toile Jolie pack.

My bling has resurfaced to add detail to the image and also in a decorative strip underneath.

I’ve used some pretty organza ribbon and net lace then added a cluster of dusky pink paper roses.

The other DT members are sharing some beautiful projects over on the Crafty Boots Challenge Blog, be sure to buzz over and take a look and don’t forget to share your work with us too.

Have a good week and thanks for buzzing by.

Bookish star

Posted on May 6, 2015 by MrsBeez

So I needed to rustle up a quick card for a male friend’s birthday later this week. It needed to be so simple that its making didn’t alert Mr Beez to the fact that I had taken ~~another~~ a break from my major clearing up exercise. It also need to be slim enough to avoid any Post Office shenanigans as my local one still operates the dark ages policy of half-day closing (I know!!!). Ideally I wanted it to provide my entry for this week’s Sunday Stampers challenge, which has a books theme, and give me an excuse to play with my new Distress Inks – Mermaid Lagoon and Cracked Pistachio.

Yep, I think this ticks all the boxes! I used the Primitive Stars Alterations die to cut the stars from book pages. I inked the largest star with my new inks – I love these two colours and love them even more together. I used a white gel pan to add some detail and black pen to add detail to the un-inked star.

I used the same inks to stamp the diagonal lines – a stamp from the Stampin’ Up! Gorgeous Grunge set , then layered on the book page stars before topping it all off with a small gold foil star.

I love it when a plan comes together!

Thanks for buzzing by.

Bird in blue

Posted on May 4, 2015 by MrsBeez

Already we have reached the half way point of our “Things With Wings” challenge over at Crafty Boots. If you buzz over today you can see some more inspirational projects from the DT and our special guest designers. Here’s the card that I am sharing

This beautiful bird image is actually from a sheet of digital paper that comes as part of the Gecko Galz Free Birds Kit.

I’ve layered up hessian, muslin and fabric and some burlap centre stitched ribbon, then topped everything off with a piece cut from the paper.

To decorate I’ve added some of my favourite organza rose trim, a scrap of lace, a button and coordinating rose cabochon.

It’s a Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK and I’ve been continuing in my quest to tidy up my crafting space. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been able to tackle it and I can’t say I’m loving the stage I’m at right now as it feels like I will never get everything sorted.

Thanks for buzzing by.

Inspired by the Masters

Posted on May 3, 2015 by MrsBeez

We have new challenge over at Anything But A Card and the theme for the next four weeks is Inspired by the Masters. Simply choose the master and also the painting/ sculpture/etc that inspires you and use it to create a project. Whilst I was studying A’ Level art at college I found that the more that I learned about a painting the more I would appreciate it. I ended up liking a lot of pieces! Consequently, choosing one for my DT piece wasn’t easy, in fact it proved impossible and I ended up making two!

I’m sure you know which paintings provided the inspiration for these two pieces but perhaps you weren’t expecting Agatha?!

Van Gogh’s Starry Night is one of my absolute favourites. I am a fan of anything celestial and I just love the swirls and whirls he creates and the textures of his mark making. I also love it that you’re so focused on the night sky that it’s a while before you notice perfect little village.

For my little scene I used various shades of blue distress ink and a swirly stencil on some cardstock and then used this to cover a large matchbox. I used the little star from Agatha Star (Magda Polakow for Stampotique) plus my Stampotique moon and stamped and coloured these separately before adding them to the background. I used Polychromos to replicate the textured swirls in the original.

The tree and grass were created using Stampotique’s French Text stamp. Agatha Star herself was coloured with a combination of Promarkers and Polychromos.

My second piece was, of course, inspired by Monet’s water lilies.

The base is an old ribbon spool that I painted with Mermaid Lagoon Distress Paint and some Dylusions London Blue. The lily pad is a piece of green cardstock that I stretched using a ball tool. The water lily was made using a Spellbinders spiral flower die.

Agatha herself was created using paper clay and the tissue transfer technique. You can find full details of how I did this on my earlier post here. If you check out the reverse side of Agatha Traveller, you will see I have managed to decorate that too.

This is easy to do simply by flipping your stamped tissue image so the inked side is facing down. Because the tissue becomes almost transparent when you apply glue, the lines still show through from the reverse. I just removed the face and instead drew some hair to match.

Make sure you buzz over to Anything But A Card and check out what the rest of the DT have been up to and find out which masterpieces inspired them. For further inspiration take a look at the virtual art gallery that is Artsy. You’ll find all your favourites plus lots of new works too.

Thanks for buzzing by.

You are my sunshine

Posted on April 29, 2015 by MrsBeez

I feel like I have been away for ages, not just a long weekend. We had a great time and I am happy to be able to tell you that my cousin successfully completed the London Marathon in just under 5 hours and we got to see her en route. We got a great pitch at Canada Water, renamed Buxton Water for the day, and were so excited when she came around the corner looking very sprightly at the nine mile mark. We then moved over to Canary Wharf, nineteen miles, but sadly we didn’t manage to spot her. I had a big tub of Haribo for runners to grab as they went by and they went down very well indeed. It was a great occasion, such an electric atmosphere, and we were so happy that Harriet achieved her goal and raised almost £3000 for Hospice UK.

It was freezing cold in London whilst apparently warm and sunny back in Sheffield. Mr Beez and I returned on Monday and then I had to go back to London for the day yesterday. Just as I was heading off to the station it started snowing!! So I thought it would be appropriate to share this card with you today:

Not only is it a taste of summer, the sunflower, as I mentioned last week, is the symbol for Hospice UK. There are also a couple of bees in there too which means I can remind you about our “Things with Wings” challenge over at Crafty Boots!

These are some little buttons that I picked up from Ebay and popped on an inked and stamped miniature tag. Can you also spot that little bee buzzing around on the image?

The fabulous chalkboard image is from the Gecko Galz Beautiful Words collage set and the yellow paper from the Miss Muffet paper pack.

I’ve layered up the papers and image with black card and a doily and used ribbons from Really Reasonable Ribbon to decorate.

Today we are waking up to black clouds and torrential rain in my part of the world. If you are experiencing the same, I hope this card brightens your day a little.

Thanks for buzzing by.

Blue and brown things with wings

Posted on April 27, 2015 by MrsBeez

Happy, happy Monday. As I am scheduling this post I can’t yet tell you how my cousin got on in yesterday’s London Marathon and whether we got to spot her or not! What I can tell you is that it’s time for a new challenge over at Crafty Boots Challenges and that our theme for the next fortnight is “Things with Wings.” For me, this opens up all sorts of possibilities to use some of my favourite crafty icons – butterflies, bees, fairies etc Today, I decided to go with…

…butterflies! This beautiful image is from the Gecko Galz Provence Garden digital collage set. I’ve teamed it with some fabulous striped paper from the Easter Parade Kit.

The lace trim is from my stash and the diamond satin ribbon from Really Reasonable Ribbon.

I hope you will find time to buzz over to Crafty Boots Challenges and check out the rest of the Design Team’s projects.

Thanks for buzzing by.

21 again?!

Posted on April 25, 2015 by MrsBeez

My youngest son’s girlfriend, Jess, will be celebrating her 21st birthday this weekend. Whilst she can’t believe how old she is, I would quite happily take that age on again if you offered me the chance! As you know, Mr Beez and I are in London this weekend so will miss the party and celebrations but will make up for it on our return. Like my youngest son, Jess is also a chef so there was clearly only one stamp I could use in the creation of her card:

Yes, this is Agatha the Cook, another super cute creation from Magda Polakow for Stampotique. As someone for whom cooking is a key part of their job, I was beyond excited when this design was released. I think many of my work colleagues will be introduced to little Agatha, via birthday cards, over the forthcoming year.

I began by stamping Agatha and colouring her in using my new favourite combo of Promarkers and Polychromos. I added a hand drawn border and then mounted the image onto pink glitter card.

I’ve done the same with the sentiment which is a stamp from Chocolate Baroque.

The most time consuming bit to create was the bejewelled 21, which are stickers I picked up from Ebay. Some muppet, who will be nameless, managed to throw them away by accident. After several hours hunting high and low the slow realisation of what I, I mean someone(!), might have done. Fortunately, I was able to retrieve them from the recycling bin the day before it was due to be collected!

I opted for black and white gingham ribbon as pink just didn’t look right and it reminded me of cheffy trousers! I had one of my tiny wooden spoon embellishments left so have tucked this in under the bow and topped the whole thing off with a pink rose.

I’m sharing this over at Sunday Stampers where the theme is “friends.”

Thanks for buzzing by.