Bus trip

Thanks for the OCD comments about my heart punching!  In my defence (and although I do occasionally have these tendencies) after punching out 1,080 hearts in 8 different designs I didn't want to mix them up so put them in my pots for safe keeping - this project is coming along quite well this week.

So, at work this week I was asked 'could I make a birthday card for man'.  I said yes with a bit of a question (given recent requests).  'He's 60, drives a bus and is a Bristol City fan'.  I kid you not, the craziness never ends.

Soooo, my first thought went to the Penny Black London bus which I don't own but a friend kindly let me stamp the image a while ago - amazingly in the chaos I found it and the card took shape:

I've coloured the image in copics - I did research on what colour the footy team are thinking I could colour the bus to match and handily enough they are red and white so that fitted in rather well.

The age and reference to the club are on the front of the bus.

Sentiment printed out to match the 'Bristol City' font and all layered to tie in - mounted on some great football card I bought at a local establishment recently.

Good job I bought it see Val?!

Back to the hearts before the next crazy request rolls in!

A Stampin' Up Adventure

Given the card that follows today might be a good day to mention (to those that haven't found out already) that I have recently signed up as a Stampin' Up Demonstrator.  I have become one of Jenny's team of Bloomin' Buds.

I am just sorting myself and coming up with a plan and fingers crossed in the new year would like to do the odd Stampin' Up party and spread the word - so watch this space.

In the meantime many happy returns to Anne from Crafty Bunch today who I made a Stampin' Up card for.

Colours used (both matching ink and card) are baked brown sugar, strawberry slush and crisp cantaloupe.

The background stamped leaves and the flowers and butterfly on the front are from the Polka-Dot Pieces stamp set and the sentiment is from 'Four You',
This card also used 3 different sizes of scallop circle punches, a small circle and the butterfly punches.

The large scallop circle was also decorated with the paper-piercing tool.  All finished with a few gems.

How many hearts?!!

A quick picture today just to show that I am still busy not doing Christmas cards!

The eagle eyed amongst you who have a good memory may recall a pile of hearts a while ago - I am now on the next round of the project.

This is a nearly-picture just short a few pieces of card and a few more hearts to be punched.

I have just stuck 480 hearts on to the relevant pieces of card - only another 600 to go now!!

Gone a bit cross-eyed so off for a nice soak in the bath before bed.

A Woodware crafty day out!

Another day out for me yesterday as I attended 2 workshops with the lovely Jane Gill down in Exmouth, run by Japonica.

The morning workshop was billed as using some of the stamps that Jane has designed for Woodware and we made this fabulous wreath.

Everyone had different shades of card from some new 6x6 pads that are available through Woodware.  They are slightly textured and also have a white core.  My wreath used sheets from the 'glamour' pad but Jane had also made a sample using the 'tropical' pad which included some zingy colours like lime, orange and pink - but they made a great wreath.

They all looked different too depending on who used gold, silver or white embossing powder for the images.  The stamps are Nordic Reindeer and Nordic dove (one with branch).  A ring was cut out as a base and I've decorated it with various punched plain and scalloped circles in different sizes (some stamped and embossed too) and some 'bling' shapes with fab glitter domes in.

Very pleased with the mornings efforts and went for a walk in the sun round Exmouth for a spot of retail therapy before the afternoon session which was floral punch craft.

And how cool is what we made in the afternoon?

Sorry this was the best picture I could get in the light today.
For this project we decorated a cone by covering it with embossing paste which dried a lovely gold colour and whilst still wet meant we could sit the card candi on it.

There were 5 different colour ways of tree for the afternoon and they all looked great.

We then punched out some flowers and leaves, shaped them and added those with a little tag and ribbon.

The cone is sat on some dowel decorated with washi tape that is sat in a little wood block that we also covered to match.

A very successful day indeed.

Christmoose gets a job!

Another day, another random request!
I was asked if I could produce a card with an electrician moose on it this week.  After a bit of eye rolling and asking why no-one could just ask for a standard golf or car card I came up with the following:

I 'utilised' my Woodware stamp Christmoose (who sports a xmas pud on his jumper).

I've stamped him on white card and copic coloured in everything except the jumper and scarf which I paper pieced.
The shoes have some glossy accents on them, his nose a bit of card candi and I added some fun flock on his antlers.

To make him 'electrical' I've added a piece of wire for him to hold and tweaked his arm position to suit.

Some layers added in matching colours, the background being a passing piece of embossed blue paper.

SU sentiment to finish off!
I am pleased to report my crazy friend and the recipient loved it.

More on my Woodware adventures tomorrow (hopefully).

Quilling in Somerset

So, last Saturday I ran 2 workshops in Yandles, Martock in Somerset.

I had 9 ladies in the morning for 'Quilling for Beginners', some stayed for the afternoon, some didn't but were replaced by new recruits so we had 8 ladies for the afternoon workshop which was 'Christmas Quilling'.

This is half of the morning group.  Everyone made a small shape sampler to practice forming coils in to teardrops, marquise, star etc.

You can probably then see on the table that project 2 was a snowflake card which was good to make using a few basic shapes.

The third project which everyone finished was a quilled frog which is mainly made of marquise shapes but in different lengths which is good for showing how to size projects.

This picture shows the other side of the table and the ladies who stuck with me all day!
(One of whom was my first teacher at primary school!!).

They were a very quiet group which they put down to concentrating.

In the afternoon they made a Christmas card which incorporated some shapes we hadn't used in the morning including ring coil, holly and fringing!

Everyone completed the card and some even started (& finished) a little filigree heart Christmas tree too.

This is the card:

I was very impressed with everyone else's fir cones as mine were cut a little too finely (a habit as I like small & fine things) but they actually looked much better with thicker fringing.

I also made a couple of variations of this card with a Christmas rose, a tapered candle, alternate side looping and a different way of adding yellow to the poinsettia just to show how you can change a card.

Everyone took away lots of finished projects and enjoyed themselves so a successful day all round for spreading the quilling word!

I also handed out my last few copies of print overruns of Quillers Today (with a membership form of course) to inspire everyone along the way.

Workshops

A quiet week on the blog front whilst I have been sorting things for firstly this weeks Crafty Bunch project (more to follow on that) and today's 2 workshops out at Yandles, Martock.

A quick pic from this afternoons delegates just starting out on a poinsettia, candle and fir cone card!

More pictures and details to follow.

Walking in Wales

Well, with much crafting to do yesterday - we went out for the day!!

We had earmarked the day for a walk, as long as the weather was ok and for once we were really lucky.

We trotted off to the Brecon Beacons - Graeme has a bit of a walking bug after our Lake District trip!

We walked to Pen-y-fan and not the easy, straightforward way but a rather longer and harder way of course.

This is a view nearer the start looking towards the summit on the right, with an almost equally large peak on the left which we skirted the top of on the way.

This is the view from the top, the valley from the previous picture being in the bottom right of this pic.

It was getting a little cloudier by the time we got to the top but still a beautiful view - and, ultimately, A view which is more than we got from Helvellyn recently.

Just back from being drafted in as a late replacement in a badminton match tonight so more panic crafting to come this week!!

Thinking of You

This was a sympathy card I got asked for recently.

Yet again I had a different vision in my head as to how it panned out but there we go!

I've used kraft card and ivory stamping card, both from Anna Marie Designs.

The stamp set on the top half is good old Vintage Vogue, now retired from Stampin' Up which I've stamped in the fab sounding baked brown sugar.  I think I used a slightly darker ink for the large flowers which I have cut out and added with a little 1mm pad (the card had to be posted).

I've also added a card candi on the flowers - this was the limit for getting through the post before extra cost!

Sentiment is from the lovely new Wetland stamp set, punched out and layered on the trusty SU scalloped oval.

For the bottom of the card I used the new roller which I won at Jenny's extravaganza recently - it's called 'Very Vintage' and goes very nicely with this stamp set.
I've added this layer to some SU border punched strips (dotted scallop ribbon border).

For not going to plan it ended up well and was much appreciated by those concerned.

Birthday gifts

A lovely couple of days away on a Spa break at Center Parcs at Longleat.
I can thoroughly recommend it.  We had as much time as we wanted in the spa on day 1 which contains lots of different steam rooms, saunas, meditation rooms etc and a little outdoor bubble pool.  Our package included all our food and a much needed back, neck & shoulder massage with mini facial which was soooo relaxing.

We stayed the night on fireworks night so got to see their fabulous display.  We also managed some time in the main pool both days and a few more hours in the spa on day 2 - it was all very relaxing and a great catch up with a couple of friends.

We went in aid of Karen's 40th and these are the presents I made her.

The organiser is a copy of one we did at one of Jenny's extravaganza's.  The colour theme had to be slightly led by the fact I needed 12x12" card which I don't have a big supply of.  The picture doesn't show it brilliantly but I think it was elegant eggplant card for the body of the folder.

If anyone missed a previous post it contains 12 pockets each with a little card for a month of the year so you can keep track of birthdays and important dates.

The origami box contains a folded paper album - each page is made from a sheet of 6x6".  I haven't made one of these for ages.

I have added a picture in each page that I know means a lot to Karen.  The box was decorated to tie in the colours.

And a final picture for today which one or two people will chuckle at (or be quite pleased!) and some will think I have lost it (some truth in that actually) - I will explain further one day.

Jill

Stamp-a-stack for Christmas

So, yesterday I had another crafty day out which I booked months ago - I went to Jo Dumbleton's Stamp-a-stack down in Dorset.

We made 12 cards, 2 each of the cards below:

Aren't they great?  We used many different stamp sets and punches.  We used embossing folders and framelits on the sizzix, stamping glitter, heat and stick powder, all sorts!

I had a couple of teeny mishaps (only 3 hours sleep wasn't entirely conducive to this) but you probably wouldn't notice and I am too much of a perfectionist.

My favourite card, no surprises if you know me, is this one:

I love it!  And have already made a couple more penguins.  This little chap is constructed from a combo of Stampin' Up punches.  I'll take a pic of the card inside for later in the week - and maybe see if you've worked out where everything comes from!!

Also have to report that for once my Mum did not win a raffle prize.

But I did!!!  Still not got the star prizes and this time I was drawn last so got what no one else wanted - still a prize though.

Off for a couple of days in the spa now so back soon with some more updates.

Jill

Choo-choo!

After nearly catching up I'm not quite up to date with blogs again and thought I had better update my own too as I have been busy this week.

This card was for my Godson.  As with everything I seem to have done recently I had a different idea of how it was going to look when I started but for various reasons this is what finally happened!:

Probably not a traditional card for a 5 year old either but Alex is a train fanatic so I had to use these lovely stamps from Molly Blooms.

I've coloured the images in copics, added some highlights with white pen and added fun flock for smoke.

Also coloured some peel off letters and number and added to some card candi which is layered on some punched circles.

A few layers of card, including one using Martha Stewart punch-around-the-page and some SU circle and scallop punches for the sentiment stamp from the stash.

This card is an 8x8" one too.  I did enter it in the Molly Blooms Facebook competition but as it wasn't as fancy as I'd planned and after seeing the competition I don't think it will get anywhere but I'm still really pleased with it.

Got another crafty day out tomorrow so will report back on that too.