Summer Silhouettes 2.

I had great difficulty deciding which card I was going to submit to the Colours and Sketches challenge.  So I thought I would send this one too.  It is very similar of course, but with a bit more red in it.

I have mounted this one on to Red Card for a change. Again the technique is the same as the last one.

This might be my last post for some time, or at least the last challenge I will do.  I am away again in my Romahome tomorrow for 10 days or so and then I will be home for two weeks and off again in it at the end of September.  I am determined to use it as much as possible this year as last year was such a disaster weather wise.  When I get back I want to focus on making Memory Books as I have been promising myself I would make some of my Granddaughter for two years now ever since she was born. It will take sometime as I have hundreds of photos I have got to sort out first!! I might do the odd challenge and I will of course post progress of the books on this blog. I hope you enjoy the rest of the summer.  I will of course continue to follow your blogs, because I love them.  Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to post comments on my blog. They really are much appreciated and keep my spirits up especially when I am having a bit of a card design block and think 'my cards are rubbish.'  So thank you to you all   Love Viji. x

Summer Silhouettes

Here is another clean and simple card ( I cant do fancy) for the Colours and Sketches colour challenge this week.

Unfortunately it has photographed very pale again and is distorted.  I can assure you the card is straight edged not wavy!!
I did not have Bashful Blue or Crumb Cake ( I thought I had) so I used Ballet Blue and Creamy Caramel.  I did have Real Red.  I inked up a block with the blue and caramel and spritzed it with water and stamped it onto the card.  This is a technique I saw demonstrated by Ali Reeve of Stamps Away on Create and Craft some months ago and fell in love with the technique and immediately set about making a lot of cards using it.  It was great fun as you just stamp an image over the top and you have a great, simple, quick card. I took the cards along to my craft group to show them, but it was a bit messy for some of them to use.  I dont mind messy, in fact when I am trying to be clean, it still can be messy!!!  I have used this technique often since.
Technique Time Tuesday challenge this month is Smackin' Acetate and it is a very similar technique, so of course I had a lovely time with that challenge too.  For the rest of the card I used Stampin' Up Summer Silhouettes which is a lovely set.  The sentiment is an odd one I had. The card is mounted on Real Red card stock.  I again made quite a few for my stash, but with different layouts.  I had a great time.  Hope you like it.

Green dragonfly.

I thought I might enter this card too in the  Make My Monday challenge.  It is very different to the last one, being very bold instead of soft.  It uses the Clarity Dragonfly and the Stampin' Up Just Believe grasses stamp.  I used Big and Juicy Mountain Meadow inks to sponge the colours through the apertures.  The stamps where also inked up in it using the different shades.  It has a different feel to the last one doesn't it?

I am going to try and have ago at the latest CAS sketch challenge, if I have time, otherwise this will be my last post again for a while.  I am going to my daughter's for the weekend and off in the Romahome again at the end of next week. Might go to Anglesey or mid Wales. Enjoy the rest of August.  See you soon.  Viji. x

Aliums

 Make My Monday challenge this week is silhouettes. I love silhouette stamps and I have quite a few of them, so it was difficult to make up my mind which ones to use.  In the end I chose  a Clarity stamp Aliums. I haven't used this stamp much so thought this would be a good opportunity.  I also thought of Clarity's dragonfly, so made a card using that stamp too.  Technique Time Tuesday  have a technique challenge making backgrounds (Smackin' Acetate) and this was right up my street so I thought I would combine the two challenges.
I have only got one set of Stampin' Up write markers, the New In Colour set.  These colours are very soft so I used those just as the video showed.  I made quite a few trial backgrounds and chose the one I liked the best.  However they where all quite nice so I ended up stamping silhouettes on all of them so now have 6 extra cards to add to my stash.  When it came to stamping the image I decided that as the colours where so soft, black would be too harsh, so I used a Distress ink in Tumbling Glass to stamp the faded image in the background and Stampin' Up's Pacific Point for the main images.  I really like that colour, it is a lovely blue.
Assembling the card gave me some problems as I looked at the DT cards and cards that had been already been submitted and they were stunning, all beautifully mounted using ribbons and embellishments and shapes and imaginative layouts.  I don't seem to be able to do this.  My cards on the whole are just very simply mounted with nothing too fancy on them and I did feel that this stamp needed a simple setting.  So here it is.

  I did put a little bit of bling on it, by adding a gem in the centre of the blooms.  I hope you like it.

Just for interest I am showing the dragonfly one I made, but wont be submitting this one in either of the challenges

Actually this doesn't look too bad in the photo, but I don't think it is as good a the Aliums. I am looking forward to your comments...thank you.  Viji x

Pink Butterfly

Space is very limited in the Romahome so crafting is difficult, but this time when I went away I did some Zentangle, as it doesn't take up much space or equipment and so is easy to do.   I used to do it as a child, but then it didn't have a fancy name, it was just doodling!  I haven't done any for years, in fact I think the last time was when I was at college, a very long time ago!  I love doing it, so I looked at this weeks Colours and Sketches blog and saw the colour challenge so thought I would have a go and feature one of my Zentangle panels.  It took me as long time to get round to doing the card because I have been away from it for so long and I needed to get my head back into crafting mode. I did enjoy it although I am not very happy with the result, but thought I would submit it anyway.  Just to get back in there!.   So here it is.....

Again it hasn't photographed too well.  The butterfly is a Sheena Douglas stamp and I coloured it with Melon Mambo ink painted on and I can assure you that it was symmetrical, The left wing is the same as the right.  I then coloured the body grey using a grey water colour pencil as I don't have the Grey ink and I also coloured two panels in grey  the top left hand one and the bottom right with bubbles. The rest of the panel I sponged in Old Olive, again it has come out in the photo very pale.  the whole panel is mounted on Melon Mambo card.  I love this colour combination.  I have looked at the design team and the entries and there are some stunning cards entered.  Oh well at least I am back on the horse, for a while anyway.  Must have a go at some of the other challenges now.  Make My Monday silhouettes looks good, but which stamp set to use... decisions, decisions.
See you again soon.  Viji. x

I'm back (for the moment)

Its nearly six weeks since my last post and since I did any crafting (except for a little bit while away, more about that later) I hope I can remember what I have to do.  I have had two trips away in my Romahome, I had a wonderful time.  The first trip was to Suffolk, a part of the country I have not visited before. I have always wanted to go to Southwold, so I made my way across country to there.  It is a lovely little seaside town and lived up to my expectations.  I shall certainly go there again.  I met some lovely, interesting people and visited some very interesting places and the weather was fantastic.  My second trip was much quieter, just to the Welsh Borders and it was very quiet, on one site I was on my own!! Something I did not expect at this time of year. I needed the quiet as the week before I had had a lot of problems at home with things going wrong, the worst one being water pouring down into my airing cupboard!!  All my sheets etc were soaked and all had to be washed again, but at least I got to sort all the cupboard out. A very good neighbour came and sorted it out for me.  I dont know what I would have done without him.  I really do have some lovely neighbours, so I sent him one of my thank you cards that I made just after Christmas, plus a present because I was so grateful to him.  Here is the card I sent.

Not a very good picture I'm afraid. I used a selection of Stampin' Up stamps and of course the usual triple layer technique.
In between trips in the Romahome, (called Matilda) I spent my birthday weekend with my daughter Beth, her partner Andy and lovely little granddaughter Elsie.  I was treated to a pedicure, a lunch out and then in the evening a wonderful Proms in the Park concert at Blenheim Palace, it was fantastic, complete with cannons. muskets, and fireworks which were spectacular!! It was also very very hot!!!! We practically melted.  Here is the thank you card I sent Beth, again from my stash.  I shall have to make some more, my stash is getting low.

This stamp set is Vintage Vogue from   Stampin' Up.  Its one of my favourites and I use it a lot.
So it has been a wonderful summer so far and it isnt over yet.  In between all these trips I caught up with jobs round the house and garden, getting up at 6 a.m. to do a couple of hours in the garden before it got too hot.  So I had no time to craft, but I did keep in touch with the blogs and have missed some lovely challenges.  I am going to try a do a couple before I go off again, which I hope to do soon, not sure where yet.
Thanks for visiting my blog.