Santa and those crazy birds.....

Hello there. I'm back with a Christmas card today.

When I looked at this weeks's LIM challenge and saw that it was Santa and one layer I knew I wanted to make this card. I hope I manage to link it on time.

So I stamped the hat first and masked it off and then I stamped the bird. I masked off the wing and then I stamped the candy stick. All stamping was done in Black archival ink.

I then stamped the sentiment and then the star which I embossed in black dancing glitz wow powder for a bit of bling. All stamps used are from stampers anonymous by Tim Holtz.

I coloured it in with distress ink and a damp brush. I used: abandoned coral, fossilized amber, espresso coffee and hickory smoke.

I finished the card off by adding some glossy accents to eyes, beak and stick. And that is my CAS card done, Theresa xx

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Simply less is more - one layer:Santa

Alphabet challenge blog - 'tis the season

Word Art Wednesday - anything goes

Christmas card Challenge - photo inspiration

                  

Thinking of you....

Hello there. I'm bombarding you with posts these days but I have been a busy bee.

It must be Tuesday again so time for another anything goes challenge over at Through the Craft Room Door.

This is the inspiration i have for you today. All the details will be in the next magazine published on TTCRD which comes out every 2 months. Incidentally the current magazine is out and is jam packed with loads of projects.

This is the type of card I don't look forward to making as it tends to be quite a sad time, however this was a sample I made to showcase some dies on Hochanda craft channel.

So hop over to TTCRD site for more inspiration from my team mates and the prize this week is actually a year's subscription to the afore mentioned magazine. So what are you waiting for?

Thankful....

Hello my crafty friends. Today it is time for another challenge over at the Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge.

This week the challenge is being hosted by Lozzy and she has chosen the theme Thankful.

Our sponsors for this week are Sweet Lilac Flowers and Fresh Brewed designs.

When I saw the theme of this challenge I knew I wanted to use a set of stamps by Tim Holtz. They had been waiting for the right moment for their outing and now here they are.

So I started with a piece of white card and blended distress ink all over it. I used squeezed lemonade, fossilized amber, crushed olive, twisted citron, carved pumpkin and abandoned coral. I spritzed with water and blotted with kitchen towel after a few seconds.

I wanted it more distressed so I sprayed it with hickory smoke spray stain. I then spritzed it with bronze perfect pearls spray for a bit of bling.

I stamped the large stamp with black archival and clear embossed it. I inked round the edges with vintage photo and gathered twigs. Then I matted and layered it as shown and stuck to base card.

Next I turned my attention to embellishments. I stamped the 2 leaves in the set blending various distress inks on stamp prior to stamping. I fussy cut them and spritzed some hickory smoke. The acorn was stamped in potting soil archival and the wheat in dandelion archival. I clear embossed both and fussy cut them as well.

I arranged them as shown and added some more flowers and foliage from Sweet Lilac Flowers. You can see some small buds that I created from smaller blooms. 

To keep to the more earthy feel of this card I added a raffia bow which looks more natural. 

So that is my inspiration for this challenge. for more inspiration visit the main FFFC blog and you will find lots more to inspire you from the rest of my team mates.

So do come and join us for this weeks challenge, Theresa xx

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Simon says stamp Monday challenge - N is for November with all its implications....

Pile it on challenge - leaves

Bitten by the bug 2 blogspot - thanksgiving; fall colours

Christmas wishes

Hello there. So finally I have hacked into some stamps that I bought a few months ago. I have now opened the second set and used all that set today and made 3 toppers. This was one of them.

I started with a piece of white Sheena stamping card. I then stamped the silhouette images and star in black archival and clear embossed them.

Next i got out the aqua tints. They were one of my purchases from the NEC last week. And i'm so pleased I got them.

I used a yellow, an orange and a red to create both the sand dunes and the sky.

Then I faux bleached the star with water and added clear wink of stella to it for some subtle bling.

I then stamped the sentiment in black archival.

All the stamps used are from the Sheena Douglass range.

Then I went round the edge with hickory smoke distress ink. I matted on black and stuck it to ivory base card.

And voila' one Christmas card in non traditional colours, Theresa xx

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Simply less is more - color challenge: fire

Word art Wednesday - anything goes

Casology - give (Christmas is the time of most giving)

Christmas stamping all year long - anything goes

Celebration Hop: Celebrate your day....

Hello my fellow crafters and friends. Over at TTCRD blog there is a celebration blog hop which will be running for the whole month of November.This is in celebration of the 1 year anniversary since Cara Malmrose took over the running of TTCRD blog and magazine. Every Sunday there will be a new hop starting, and there are 4 prizes up for grabs over at TTCRD site.

Winners will be selected weekly from the Main blog post and announced on Monday. 

For a chance at winning the prizes you must

1. Comment on all the blogs

2. Be a follower of TTCRD blog

3. You MUST leave your blog address, name and email address in Mr. Linky at TTCRD!

Below is a list of all the sponsors and prizes available for this week starting on 8th Nov and running through the 14th Nov:

DigiStamps4Joy - PRIZE: $10 is digistamps (winner choice) 

Whimsy Stamps - PRIZE: $20.00 Gift certificate

Rick St. Dennis - PRIZE: 2 single images of choice

The Stamping Boutique / Glitterbabes - PRIZE: 2 images of choice 

PLEASE USE BOTH OF THESE BADGES

Below is a list of all the blogs you need to visit and comment on:

Willeke

Kamila

Stacey

Therese - you are here

Mary

Cara

Sandra

DigiStamps4Joy- SPONSOR

TTCRD BLOG

I am also offering some blog candy for whoever becomes a follower of my blog and comments. It is a large A4 embossing folder by Sue Wilson: pinpoint checkerboard

 

So without further ado let's get onto today's card. Today I have a masculine card for you. It is just one stamp but some careful shading makes it look as if there is a lot of masking and stamping.

It also has a sneaky peek of the sentiment dies that will be featured on Hochanda on the 13th and 14th of November as part of their One day Special.

So I stamped the A6 stamp on a piece of white stamping card in potting soil archival ink.

I then inked the whole piece with old paper distress ink to age it. I then started adding shading with antique linen, vintage photo, gathered twigs and walnut stain. I id same with little postcards, working separately on each.

To add the extra shadow around the postcards, pen and ink I went in with spectrum noir pencils. I used a few dark browns and in the end added a bit of black. This makes everything 'jump' off the page and looks dimensional. 

I find this quite cool as in reality it is flat.

I also added some glaze with a clear sakura pen on ink bottle and pen nib. 

When it was all dry i distressed around the edge and added some matting and layering.

Finally I die cut sentiment from chestnut card. Celebrate is a die on its own. Day is part of Wedding Day and the your is an amalgam. You comes from the Thinking of you die and I cut an r out of celebrate and glued together.

I finished it off with some pearls.

So I hope you enjoyed that process and I do hope to see you here and over the other blogs. The more you comment the higher your chances of winning.

Hop along, Theresa xx.

Away in a manger.....

The new TTCRD magazine has been published. It is worth subscribing as these magazines are a very good read and are full to the brim with inspiration.

Hello there. It must be Tuesday again as it is time for another Trough the Craft Room door challenge.

The sponsor this week is Little Claire's and you can find her shop here. She is kindly offering a £10 credit note to her shop.

The image i chose to work with today is Silhouette manger. I chose to do 4 cards with it that are all slightly different as i think this image is quite versatile. 

More importantly I have made 4 more Christmas cards.

All the details will be published on the TTCRD magazine which is published every 2 months and you can subscribe to it. It is a fab magazine that I have been leafing through that makes for a good crafty read. I was so chuffed to have my first projects published in the last edition.... looking forward to next publication.

Also t month there are loads of prizes on the TTCRD website that are associated with a bloghop. I will also offer some blog candy on my blog to join in with celebrations.

So be sure to join us. The hop started on the 1st of November and you have till the 6th to comment on the blogs to be in with  chance to win some of the fab prizes.

Some of the other team members are also offering candy on their blogs. So the more you comment the higher the chance of winning.......

gelli, stencil and punchinella

Hello my friends and fellow crafters. I hope this will be a quick post but I know I have quite a few pics.

I was nearly going to give the Claritystamp blog challenge a miss this month as everything got in the way and I hadn't had time to make anything. Then this morning Massimo said he needed to make a prayer box. It was supposed to be a shoe box covered by paper.

But obviously no oridinary paper would do for him. He said let's make gelli plate prints.

So he set about choosing the stencil and the acrylic colours.

So out with the large gelli plate and the ocean swirl stencil. He spread 2 greens, a bit of ultramarine and a tiny bit of black with the brayer and laid down the stencil. Together we mopped the paint off the plate with copy paper and once I lifted stencil, we were left with this beauty.

Then he spread wedgewood blue over the plate once the other paint had dried. I repositioned the ocean swirl stencil and then using punchinella (sequin waste), I lifted some of the paint off. Once I removed the stencil we were left with the above.

Then once it was dry he again spread gree, ultramarine and phthalo blue over it and together we pulled off the print below. I must say we were both very pleased.

Now we only had 4 more to go. He did give up after the third. There was a lot of waiting involved which didn't amuse him in the least.

 The hard work was now done and then it was up to me to cover the box.

It was a large graze box that I had kept as I liked it's shape and thought one day I will need it.

Below are the pics of the box from different sides.

We both really liked it.

And so I decided I would enter this in the Claritystamp challenge that asked for the use of stencils.

I hope you enjoyed the process and like our combined effort. Please feel free to leave any comments as Massimo would love to read them, Theresa xx.