Last Rays of Sunshine

OK I know I've been a bad blogger...I have been crafting...just not managing to get it on the computer though!  The odd thing is now Em is off in Falmouth I should have a bit more time on my hands!  Having said that I am back to ferrying Sarah backwards and forwards to school, clubs etc.  Em phoned the other night and finally she has admitted that she realises how hard I do work looking after the 4 of us...she is struggling to look after just herself, she hasn't done any ironing yet, she's only got her room to keep clean and she doesn't have a large garden to tend!

Anyway I digress!  I'm here to share the card I made for my Great Aunt.  She was 100 yesterday!!  Not sure that she is totally happy about being that old, but she is incredible.  She still lives in her own home and cooks and cleans for herself.  Her major niggle is that she has lost some of her vision, from what I can make out I think that it is her central vision that is going...she says she cannot see peoples faces when she looks at them. 

With this in mind I decided to make her a very textured card so that she can feel it rather than see it.  The inspiration for my card came from memories of eating sand sandwiches on Hayling Island.  I remember when I was very small Auntie and my Grandmother used to rent a beach hut and we used to go there sometimes.  It was a lovely spot, but there was just sand everywhere....and sand gets into everything including the sandwiches!

Hence I made her card a beach scene using Crafty Individuals stamps. I stamped in Black Archival ink and then water coloured the images. The card is built up of layers.  The base is a square of watercolour paper, to which I added a wash of colbalt blue and then used tissue paper to take out some of the colour to make clouds.

The next layer was stamped with a row of beach huts (crafty individuals) and pebbles (art impressions).  the roofs of the beach huts were cut out and this layer was painted with watercolours.  I stamped the girl onto a small piece of watercolour paper, painted her and cut her out.  Having dyed a few lengths of seam binding with distress stains I stitched across the bottom of the beach to make waves positioning the girl so that she looks as though she is paddling.  To give the impression of foam on the breaking waves I ran stickles along the top edges and added silver accent beads.

The speech bubble was die cut and stamped with an art deco style Happy Birthday (Tanda Stamps) before being coated with glossy accents.  The 100 was a Tim Holtz die, again coated with glossy accents.  Not being able to get enough of glossy accents I also coated the beach huts and the girls parasol with the stuff! 

Having assembled the card I stamped the seagulls (crafty individuals) in the sky and distressed around the edges with weathered wood distress ink.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:
"Chocolate, coffe and cards - Stitching"
"Clearly inspired - Ribbon or twine"
"Fussy and Fancy - Anything goes"
"Stampin for the weekend - anything goes"
"Delightful Challenges - Stitching"
"It's all about the vintage - make your own background"
"Paper-crafting journey - Ribbon or twine"
"Alota Rubber stamps - Birthday Celebrations"
"Crafty bloggers network - Anything goes"
"Make it Monday - Anything goes"
"Stamptacular Sunday - No Rules"
"The squirrel and the fox - must use ribbon"
"Penny's paper crafty - ribbon and or buttons"
"Whimsy Creation - Sparkly", my sparkly bit is the stickles on the waves
"Flourishes - Create a birthday card"
"Through the craft room door - Anything goes"

Q is for Quotes and Sayings

This week's challenge on the Alphabet challenge blog is Q is for Quotes and Sayings. Over the last couple of days I have been busy with the water colours, makes a change from Copic markers! When I was at mum's last week I watched a dvd on painting with acrylic inks and paints....whilst not watercolours I did think that I fancied getting back to splashing a bit of paint about. I even bought myself a tube of Payne's Gray. Having said that there wasn't a lot of splashing about on this card!...there is Payne's gray though!

Last week I managed to make a trip to the Craft Barn....I have been wanting to go there for ages and last week I was practically driving past the door soooo I dragged the girls in kicking and screaming....the youngest was pleading with me not to spend too much time in there, but then the eldest realised that she could get loads of stuff for her art and graphics...so guess what...we ended up buying more for her than me....I did get a couple of Tim Holtz dies, some alcohol inks, a Martha Stewart round the corner punch and a crafty individuals stamp. I am pleased to say I have used everything I bought except for the stamp...(will use that later today probably) and the alcohol inks.

The stamps I used for my cards are from Paper Bag Studio and my dotty stamp of course! I really like this stamp and actually ended up making two cards, slightly different colourways, but very similar.

Peace!

This week's Tuesday Taggers challenge is called Peace, Joy or Love...I've been playing about with our family Christmas card for this year and this is my final version.... I decided to follow the less is more approach in the end. The Bethlehem stamp was stamped in black stazon onto watercolour paper then coloured using Prussian Blue watercolour, I then used sakura clear star to colour the star.

Two Challenges in One!

I thought that I should try to take part in the X is for Xmas challenge over on the "alphabet challenge blog". I had an idea in mind, just hadn't got round to making it happen. Then I spotted the theme for this week's challenge over on "Tuesday Taggers" is 'more than two legs'. This fitted my idea down to the ground so I had a play this afternoon. I'm not sure that I ended up quite where I planned and I am not entirely sure that I am so happy with it that it will be our family Christmas card this year.

The lambs and Bethlehem scene are from Art Impressions and I have coloured them with water colour paint, the blue is Prussian blue. Having stamped the lambs directly onto the card and matted and layered the Bethlehem scene, I still wasn't happy with it so I positioned the base card in a snowflake cuttlebug embossing folder and ran it through my Wizard. I then used cut and dry foam to colour the right hand side of the card with Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink, leaving the left hand side of the card white. Running the card through the Wizard had left a line down the edge of the embossing that I wasn't happy with so I ran a piece of ribbon (from fantastic ribbons) down the card to hide it before positioning the Bethlehem scene. The tag was stamped using Chipped Sapphire and a stamp from Graphicus. I attached this to the card with a bow in the same ribbon as I used before. The card has been finished off with a Clear star gelly roll saKura pen.

Well I guess that's me done before tomorrow's Tanda Teaser...so watch this space...

Thanks for looking!

Sue

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Xtra Large!

This week's Tanda Teaser has been set by Wendy and she has decided to challenge us to do an extra large card....not really my forte....bit of a petite is beautiful girl me so totally out of my comfort zone. I even had to go and buy some extra large card to do the challenge. I found some A4 cards in The Range, but totally panicked on the way to the checkout and just had to put them back on the shelf! Then I found some 8 x 8 cards in my fav stationary store in Worcester...This is the second 8 x 8 card that I have made...you will have seen my first in Wendy's last teaser a couple of weeks back. For this card the main image was Agapanthus Cluster by Stampendous stamped in Impress Ultramarine and then the stems were coloured using Copic Markers. The background panel, main card, tag and edges of the main image were stamped using Agapanthus Bloom again with Impress but also with Weathered Wood Distress Ink..A water colour effect was obtained on the main image by just brushing the blooms with a damp paintbrush to move the ink to fill in the petals. The edges were distressed using Distress Inks.

I hope if you are reading this you can find the time to take part over on the Tanda Blog! Wendy and I look forward to seeing your art work over there!

Sue

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Wheel Thing!

Over on the Tanda Blog, Wendy's teaser this week is to use wheels somewhere on your card. I've had the bicycle stamp from Flower Soft for ages and so far hadn't used it....so this was the perfect excuse to get it out! It is a huge stamp so in turn calls for a large card...something I'm not really accustomed to..I tend to prefer smaller, daintier cards, so this was quite a challenge for me.

I stamped the bicycle in Coffee Archival Ink and then water coloured the image, on the metal parts of the bike I used pearlised watercolour to give a metallic sheen, the rest is just conventional watercolour.

The base card has been distressed with Distress Ink and wheels (from the Tanda penny farthing stamp on Transport set 1) were stamped around the edge in the same ink.

Tuesday Taggers, Curly and Swirly Challenge

Just seen over on Zoe's blog that this week's Tuesday Tagger challenge is Curly Swirly, sponsored by Crafty Individuals. Just had to join in and as "Crafty Individuals" is one of my fav stamp companies I thought that I really should use their stamps for my card....

My curly swirly element is in the background you can only just see it but trust me it is there! It is a beautiful swirly flourish provided by one of my favourite CI stamps namely CI182. the main image is CI204, water coloured and accented with Glossy Accents. The tartan ribbon was from Fantastic Ribbons and just seemed to be perfect with the thistle motif.

Must dash...got to start tea!
Sue
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Riot of Petals and messy fingers!

This week Wendy has set the Tanda Teaser and she has chosen 'Riot of Petals' as her theme. Just perfect timing as I had to make my mother-in-law's birthday card last night. Her favourite flowers are pansies so my personal challenge was to use the same PSX stamp to make a card that was different to all the previous ones using the same stamp!

While I was doing the messy inky part I remembered reading on Zoe's blog that the Tuesday Taggers wanted to see our messy fingers this week so I grabbed my camera in one hand and photographed the other...have to say I usually get messier than this, and the kitchen counter was nowhere near as chaotic as it usually gets!

To make the card I selectively inked the pansy flowers/leaves with Marvey pens, stamped them onto watercolour paper, and then used a damp brush to fill the petals with colour. I cut the leaves and flowers out and arranged them in two panels on my card. The sentiment, Lost Coast Designs, was stamped using the same pen as the flowers.


Just as an afterthought I've just included pics here of other cards made using the same stamp in the past..it just goes to show how many different cards can be made using the same stamp when chosen wisely.

The first two use the same technique as the card above, the last one is actually some pressed pansies from my garden, but the background was done using the whole stamp and the watermark technique with versamark.

Muddy Boots! Another one for the Tanda Teaser!

I almost forgot to post this one...I made the card for my Dad, a keen gardener, just over a week ago and completely forgot that I'd put boots on it. Hazel's card reminded me of the wellies I'd used so I thought that I would share it with you...thanks Hazel!

The stamps are by Woodware and I have to admit that I bought them ages ago, with my Dad in mind, but hadn't used them until now. I stamped the main images in Jet Black Archival ink and then water coloured the images using Marvy le Plume pens. The seedlings were stamped using the pens and then the colour was dragged out with a damp paintbrush. I used Glossy Accents on the main images, the ladybirds and the snail's shell.

Keep an eye out tomorrow on the Tanda blog, Wendy will be posting the next Teaser and I know it's going to be a good one!

Sue
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Tanda Teaser - Holiday Fun!

Hi there, it's Wendy's turn to set the Tanda Teaser this week over on the Tanda Blog and this week she has chosen the theme "Holiday Fun". For those of us with children of school age this week sees the end of the summer holidays, but I guess some of you, without school age kids, will be jetting off to warmer/drier climes and making the most of lower fares! May I wish you Bon Voyage!

My card this week uses a stamp from Tanda advert plate 3 and the wish you were here stamp from Tanda Postage set 1. The main image was stamped in Black archival ink and then water coloured using the works pearlised paints. The background was made using the nautilus stamp by Clarity stamped repeatedly in weathered wood. These have then been water coloured with a little pearlised paint and then hi lighted with stickles. The shells were found on the beach a couple of years ago.

I hope that you will find time to join us over on the Tanda Blog and forum, and that you enjoy this challenge!
Sue
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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 - Tag It!

This week's Tanda Teaser is to use a Tag somewhere on your card. As I have been away/rather busy over the last month or so, I have decided to do a "here's one I did earlier" card. You can tell I grew up with Blue Peter!

I used the Artylicious, Butterfly Bliss CD to print the double sided background for the card. The front of the card was made using an image from TandaStamps Advert Plate 4. I stamped this in black StazOn onto very heavy weight white card and then watercoloured it. I punched holes in the corners and then fixed the watercolour with acrylic varnish before triple embossing the image so that it looked like one of those old fashioned signs.




For the inside of the tri-fold I used various stamps. For the tags I used the Tanda Travel stamp set 1 and Postage set 1. The other stamps on this side are from PSX and Sir Stamp-a-Lot.

I hope you enjoy this week's Teaser!
Sue
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T is for Tree

For this week's letter I have used a tree stamp from Crafty Individuals. The background was painted first using my old watercolours. The tree was then stamped over the colour wash in black impress. The hedge at the bottom was stamped using the tips of the branches down the edge of the tree.








The chipboard T was coloured using colour box chalk inks and then triple embossed with clear ep. A tiny bit of orange glitter was dropped onto the hot ep and then on the final heating I dropped some metal leaves into the ep. The leaves were punched out of a coke can that I had annealed in the flames of my gas hob. A little bit of fun recycling going on there!

enjoy!
Sue
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Forever Friends!

It's Wendy's turn to set the challenge this week and I'm not at home! If you read this at the correct time it means I've managed to find an internet cafe in Turkey! I'm writing my blog posts before I go and saving them as drafts so that I can publish them when I am on holiday. From my experience last year I couldn't read the Greek blogger so I thought if I was a little organised before I go, I would just need to click on the orange button to post....I hope it works!

After everything that has been going on over the last couple of months I am now a little behind with the teasers and I have to admit that this is one I did earlier, quite a bit earlier. The card uses one of my fav PSX stamps and is coloured with pearlised watercolours from the Works.

The saying just reminded my that my mum introduced me to her "old friend" the other day and the emphasis was very much on the old. I said that she must be a very good friend, not realising that the lady was actually 92....she didn't look a day over 60! She sounds like a truly amazing woman, having survived the Holocaust and getting a Phd in Physics, in those days women didn't ususally get to study Physics! Truly a remarkable lady!

I hope to catch up with you all when I get back from my Hols!
Sue
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P is for Play

P is for Play, well what would we all like to be doing...I know I'd like to be messing about at the seaside! Many happy days spent with my Dad rock pooling and making dams! So here is my "P" in the alphabet challenge. The P is stamped with sand from "A stamp in the hand" stamped on top of colourbox chalk inks and triple embossed with clear ep. The main image is a stampin' up stamp that has been water coloured with my trusty old (and I mean old) watercolour paints.

Thanks again for the challenge Linda!
Sue
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Iconic Images

This week, for the Tanda Teaser, I thought I would invite you all to use an image that you think of as being iconic. For my card I chose to use Andy Warhol as my inspiration. My little piece of "pop art" was created using black impress and a stamp from Tanda's Retro Ladies set 2. The faces were then coloured using copic markers.








I think that this second card also qualifies for this challenge as I think that the girl is Marilyn, don't quote me on that though, I could be wrong! The stamp is from a set of stamps that was featured in Craft Stamper a while ago, I think it was called Glamour Girls. I stamped the central image on watercolour paper in black stazon, this was then coloured with watercolours, cut out and coated with diamond glaze. The base image was created by stamping and masking the girl 3 times so that the images overlapped. With the masks still in place I sponged grey colourbox chalk ink on the bottom of the card so that the girls had something to sit on and the top half was coloured with a beige colourbox chalk ink. The border stamps, from Clarity, were stamped in black stazon to give the effect of a film strip, then the edges were stamped with field of sky from Judikins in grey stazone. The central girl was positioned with sticky pads. To finish off the image was matted and layered with hammered silver card onto a pearlized grey card. The ribbon and the bling gave the card the finishing touch.

I hope you enjoy the challenge
Sue
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Another ATC in Craft Stamper!

Thanks Linda for letting me know that I was in Craft Stamper again....I still haven't got round to subscribing yet so I have to dash into Worcester to get it on the day it comes out...my excuse is I'm waiting for the freebie!

I entred two atc's in their summertime challenge, the atc that craft stamper have published uses the "Go to the Cornish Riveira" stamp from the Tanda Advert Plate 3. I stamped the image in black stazon and then watercoloured using the Works pearlised paints. This was then sealed with acrylic varnish before being triple embossed with clear ep. I edged in Krylon to give the impression of those old fashioned tin advert plates. The small shells were collected from the beach a couple of years ago, the gold accent beads represent the golden sand and both these were fixed using glossy accents.



The second atc, which was not shown in the magazine, was made in exactly the same way, except I used a stamp from Tanda Advert Plate 4.

Unfortunately the photo in the magazine doesn't quite do my atc justice as it looks a little brassy, these photos are a much better colour representation of the real thing.

thanks for looking

Sue
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Tanda Teaser Time Again - So am I "Cracking Up"?

It's Wednesday again already, and that means one thing.....time for a Tanda Teaser....well actually it means, big shop day (yawn!), girls Synro swimming night, late tea to name but a few things that go on on Wednesdays in this house.

This week's challenge is about crackle effects, hopefully it is not a prediction of what I will do this week due to current events in our household!

For my card I have used the crackle stamp from Tanda's Background Set 2 and stamps from Linda Luckin's Horse Plate 2 and her small fir trees. The image is coloured with watercolours. the buckle is a recycled coke can coloured with alcohol inks and the strap is my rendition of faux leather.

Enjoy
Sue
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C is for Cat

Hi, this is my take on Linda's C alphabet challenge...like Linda I thought cat...coloured with watercolours, lakeland cat stamp used....the thick acrylic paint on the C gave a really textural effect that looked like fur...hence the c looks a bit like a tabby cat's tail!

...I've put the abc together and I'm quite pleased at how they look together so I'm hopeful that my project might just work...got to think hard for some of the letters though!

No pink yet and hopefully none to follow...only have nephews to think about...daughers are past alphabet posters..pics whatever!

enjoy
sue
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It's Wednesday so it's Tanda Teaser Day

Hello, well today was my turn to set the tanda teaser. One of my daughter's good friends loves horses so it seemed natural to send her a horsey themed card and Linda Luckins Horse plate 2 fitted the bill nicely! Linda's small fir trees also made a perfect background. Hence the theme for this weeks challenge became "All creatures large and small"

Enjoy

Sue x