Happy St Patricks's Day!

Without even realising it I seem to have gone along with the St Patrick's Day theme...my card for this week's Tanda Teaser is green and has Celtic designs all over it! Fear not, if you don't celebrate St Patrick's Day, the theme for the Tanda Teaser is to use an aperture somewhere on your card.

For my card I used stamps from Tanda Celtic Set 1, stamped in Versamark and heat embossed in gold embossing powder. The card was then painted with US ArtQuest mica colour Vintage paints which gave the image a lovely metallic effect. The aperture was made using nestie dies and the central circle pendent was also cut using nestie dies. The card was decorated inside and out......

I hope you find time to join us over at Tanda Stamps this week...we look forward to seeing your take on our Teasers.

Sue

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A Little Bit of Red

Where did this week go?! I didn't think that I had achieved much this week, but having just sat down to edit the photos of all the little crafty projects that I have done this week, I've realised that I have done more that I thought! Trouble was, as fast as I made things they were going out the door, hence the feeling that I hadn't got much done! February is always a manic month for Birthdays in our family and amongst our friends, however with a few recent arrivals in the last few years March is rapidly catching up....I turned over the calender page to March on Friday just to check what was coming up only to see that there are 7 birthdays in the first week and that doesn't count the two that fall on 29th Feb. Now got most of them covered thank goodness one of which will fit rather nicely in Linda's Alphabet Challenge which is R for Red.

This card is for my mother-in-law's partner, who keeps bees as a hobby...so he is into anything bee related...hence a bee card...Last year's card was one of my very first blog posts, but I had completely forgotten that I needed to make the card this week so I hadn't planned anything...normally I have this one planned way in advance....so I just had to go with what I had...namely Penny Black stamps again. The bees are coloured with Copic markers and the diecut circles and flowers were coloured using Distress Inks. All in all a quick, cheery, bright, simple card, just what I needed! I hope he likes it!

One of the things I have tried for the first time this week is digital downloads...I'm still not sure about the concept though...I really would prefer to have a real stamp I think...I'm not going to share what I did with the download just yet, but I was really pleased with how it came out....so watch this space.

Sue

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Quick and Cute!

Yay, Wendy is back! I think we have all missed her over on the Tanda forum. This week she has set quick and cute cards as the Tanda Teaser. This suited me down to the ground as I had to make a card for my youngest nephew. I stamped the teddy bear image (Tanda Toddler set Two)in Black soot and then coloured him using Copic markers. The heart was then covered in glossy accents.
The layers were all cut using Nestibility dies and the edges were distressed using Colourbox chalk ink. The blue strip across the card was punched using a Fiskars punch and then embossed with the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder. The tag was cut using a Spellbinders die and embossed in a Cuttlebug folder.

The 1 was stamped using stamps from the starter and toddler sets and then accented using glossy accents.
sue
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O is for Oval

Over on Linda's Alphabet Challenge she has set Ovals as the theme for this week's challenge. Easy I thought...then I thought again, thinking about it oval is a shape I hardly ever use in my cards...had to have a big think about this one.

February is a month when I have to make cards for a few keen cooks and having bought some asparagus last week (horribly out of season I know, but at £2.99 for two big bunches, I couldn't resist!) I was reminded of this psx stamp. The asparagus and range were both stamped in versafine, watercoloured then covered in a layer of glossy accents.


I stamped the asparagus several times so that I could decoupage the image to make a bundle. I used the Cuttlebug wax resist technique to colour the tag and the oval mount for the asparagus bundle. I used raffia to tie the asparagus bundle together with the tag, and silicon glue to give the bundle depth. All the images were matted and layered using card cut out in Nestibility dies and then stuck onto an acetate card stamped with swirls using cotton white StazOn.

The only thing to remember with these acetate cards is that lining your layers up is very important as if you are slightly out of line it shows on the other side...I always start sticking my inside greeting on first, then the front, then the inside front and finally the back. This way I seem to get good results every time.

Tanda Teaser - Floral Fantasy!

I'm keeping it simple this week over on the Tanda Blog, so I hope that lots of you will join in with the teaser! I made this card for my Mum and Dad's wedding anniversary today. So just in case they are reading this...."Happy Anniversary"....I believe that it is also Lesley and Ed's wedding anniversary today too....so "Happy Anniversary" to you too!!!!

The card itself is very simple, just stamped in Archival ink and then watercoloured. The "flower" centers were then dabbed with stickles and the whole thing layered up with card cut using nestibilities. The Dogwood stamp is from Tanda Stamps Flower set 1.

I hope that you will find time to join in with our fun over on the Tanda Blog and Tanda Forum!
Sue
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Tanda Teaser - Here Come the Celts!

I've had a set of Tanda Celtic stamps for some time now that I hadn't used, so I thought I should finally christen them! Consequently I have set the challenge, this week, to use a Celtic design or motive somewhere on your card. My card is based on the sketch from the July edition of Craft Stamper. I thought that the circles could be celtic shields and hence the starting point for my card.

The main circle was embossed in clear ep on olive green pearlised card, I then brushed over the image with gold interference paint so that the ep acted as a resist, this was then layered up with bronze metalic card and gold card cut using nesties. The two smaller circles where again cut out with nesties, but this time I used a brass stencil in my wizard to emboss a celtic design on to the bronze card. These circles where then punched and held together with a brassy brad to look like the centre of a shield.

The base of the card consists of a square of olive green pearlised card that I stamped with versamark and then dusted with gold Pearl-Ex. The quote was something I found somewhere on the internet. I think the words fit the celtic theme beautifully as many of the celtic knot designs have no beginning and no end.

I hope you all enjoy the challenge!

Sue
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Easy Elegance!

Hello again, I just got back from Mum's, Dad is doing well! The Doctors are very pleased about how the remaining kidney is coping with working alone which is good news. When I phoned this morning she said that he was being allowed home today. The only problem is that the Hospital have lost his hearing aid and his glasses, so he is not a happy camper! I'm just hoping that they can be found as it took 2 years to get him the hearing aid and he is rather fed up with not being able to see very well!

Well onto happier things, Wendy has posted this week's Tanda Teaser. The Teaser is called Easy Elegance, this made me think of an elegant lady stamp to be found on Tanda's retro ladies set 2. My card was stamped in fawn impress and heat embossed with clear before being water coloured using the Works pearlised watercolours and H2O's. The image was layered with gold card and SU card cut out with nestability dies.

Q is for Queen!

Well, what can I say, having done a playing card K is for King, I had to do a playing card Q is for Queen! The Queen stamp was custom made by Andrew at Tanda...the hearts, she had to be the Queen of Hearts, are from my Tanda baby set. The image was stamped and heat embossed with silver ep then coloured with H2O's. The Q was coloured with colourbox chalk inks and triple embossed with some glitter sprinkled on at the last moment. A bit of Krylon pen was used to do the edges just to finish it off.

Probably a bit too PINK for you Linda! Must introduce the boys (haven't decided which set of nephews are going to get this yet) to their feminine side. Have concerns already about my brother's eldest, Oliver...My brother just sent over a picture of Oliver helping him to make window jams....little does Oliver know that these are designed to stop him climbing out of the windows...as per his cousin (my youngest) who was caught half way out of a tiny window on the second storey at my mums! Luckily a neighbour knocked on the door to tell us that there was a small child hanging out of the upstairs window!!

enjoy
Sue
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Beautiful Butterflies

Despite the dreadful weather so far this week, I think Wendy is feeling in summery mood, as she has chosen butterflies as the subject for this week's Tanda Teaser Challenge.

For this week's card I have used the background butterflies from the Tanda Background set 1 and one butterfly from the Tanda Butterfly set 1. I have used the same resist technique that I used last week and used brusho inks to colour the piece.

Enjoy
Sue
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Tanda Teaser Time - Ahoy me mateys!

Didn't that week go fast?! Can't believe that it's Tanda Teaser Time again....I've lost my mojo a bit in the last couple of weeks and have to say I'm struggling to come up with a card to challenge you with for next week. I've got the title sorted, it's just the card that's troubling me. In the meantime I'm glad to say that it is Wendy's turn to set the challenge this week.

The challenge is to make something pirate related....I got the wrong end of the stick and just went down the nautical route....I did use the anchor from Tanda pirate set one though..so I am hoping that this counts. I'm also hoping that my brother doesn't see this as this is his birthday card for next week! He used to sail in the Tall Ships Race, and met his wife on the flight to Boston when he was going to sail the last leg from Boston to Liverpool. The boats are from my baby and toddler sets....see they're not just for kids! my brother will be 42 next week!

I've got a busy few days ahead with my parents and my father-in-law, so I'm not going to be able to get anything crafty done now until Monday when the kids go back to school....just when I've got some lovely new custom stamps from Andrew...my fingers are seriously itching!

Sue
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Oh Baby, It's the Tanda Teaser

Well I accidentally posted the pic of this week's card earlier on in my Blog. I meant to post the boy baby card and save the girl one for the challenge. Anyway the pink one is now on the Tanda Blog. I've used the baby starter set and letraset promarkers to colour the images. The tag and the label were coloured with the promarker too.

The baby boy card is very similar just blue instead of pink and I only used one scalloped border.....

Oh, I almost forgot, the pram is painted with glossy accents.

Enjoy

Sue

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Tanda Teaser and Z fold cards

When Wendy told me that the challenge this week was to make a Z fold card I wasn't quite sure what was required, I've never made one before and it really took me a while to figure out what I was going to do....

Fil is currently very ill in hospital so I decided to use the challenge as an excuss to make a card for him. I also decided to use stamps from my new Tanda baby and toddler sets to show that they aren't just for kids!

As "get well soon" is probably not appropriate in fil's case, I asked Andrew to make some alternative word stamps for me. Sure enough Tanda provided their normal excellent service, and the stamps were with me first thing the next day, unlike the new nesties (ordered the same morning from another company). For any of you wanting custom stamps I cannot recommend Tanda enough....and no I'm not on their payroll!


Got to go now as the kids will be coming home from school any moment now....ding dong, ding dong.....that's them....must fly!

Sue
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