SDC 12 – sketch

Anew challenge up on the Stampotique designers blog – this week it’s a sketch.  The sketch is nice enough, and I did the first version of the card using it, with some Felt Fusion by Queen & Co (how long have I had that sitting, unused in my stash? a couple of years at least!), some scraps, and some vellum (again, tons of that in my stash but a bit out-of-fashion nowadays) but in the end, I prefer my version, minus the two side blocks.  The colour in the photo isn’t as true as I would like it, but the morning light comes in the other side of the house.  You can’t really see it, but I punched with a button-hole punch over Moon Girl’s hands so I could thread the flower stem thru it and make it look like she is holding it.

which do YOU prefer?

LOVE mini done!

Finished it.  Only because every blogspot post from WOYWW yesterday gave me the same weird error message – otherwise I would have been blog hopping most of the day.  I’m going to go back and give it another go today and see if either I get the same error, or if by this point there is something in the Blogger help forum thingie that explains what it is and why.  I did TRY two different browsers, thinking it was Camino that was the problem but Firefox didn’t work either, so I am clueless as to what it could be. Quite annoying, as everyone is so good about leaving WOYWW comments I hate t be the one that lets the side down LOL!

Anyway, here we go:

You can’t really see some of the stamping on the no-quote pages, but there is something there on every one (eyes, clock faces, circles) which all tie in to the quotes.

My favourites?

Love and electricity are one in the same, my dear. If you do not feel the jolt in your soul every time a kiss is shared, a whisper is spoken, a touch is felt, then you’re not really in love at all.

Love which has been tested by distance & obstacles, and has passed, is true love.

To love someone is to understand each other, to laugh together, to smile with your heart and to trust one another.

Love is energy: it can neither be created nor destroyed. It just is and always will be.

OK, I am giving up now. Sorry to all you WOYWW visitors. Know I did *try* to comment:

WOYWW – making progress!

Another WOYWW – check out the blog and join in – it’s fun and always inspirational!

Still working on my little mini about love (go back to yesterday’s post to see the cover) but not done yet!

I had a happy accident that I think needs further exploration.  I had printed a photo on some cheap photo paper (just unearthed it while tidying and wanted to use it up) and the ink was taking forever to dry.  I had the pot of interference violet out as I used it on the wings on the cover so on a whim I dusted it over the still wet photo.  It makes the photo look a little dull tilted one way but tilted the other the iridescent violet really shows.  I think this could be a bit fun to experiment with! Not sure if it will show up but here are a couple of photos:

Since DD and DS are off out for the day I have high hopes for lots of WOYWW visits! And with luck I’ll finish this up in between hopping around the internet and post it tomorrow.

To Blathe

It’s been a crazy couple of days.  Lots of running the kids around, lots of disrupted time at my desk, lots of NOISE, due to band practice (a word of warning – most band practice has to be done at the drummer’s house!  If you aren’t up for it, encourage your child to play something small and portable) so this little project has been started and stopped more times than I care to say.  And it is still not done.  But DD is at the office with her Dad and DS is at a movie with mates and it is blissfully quiet for the next couple of hours. With luck I can finish it.  But rather than miss out another day here is the cover – innards still in progress but at least I have a plan at the moment.

A little bit of explanation – “To blathe” is what Miracle Max interprets the utterances made by our hero, Wesley, as he lies not quite, but very nearly, dead.  When asked why he wants to live he says “True Love”, which Max, reluctant to help, tries to claim was actually To Blathe.  Brilliant movie.  Better book.

The letters are THickers (gold originally, but sponged with Pearl daubber paint) and the wings are from one of Tim’s collections, stamped with Dusty Concord and dusted with Violet Interference Pearl-ex.  As to the inside, that will have to wait another day, while I crack on and try to finish it.  To be honest I’m not 100% sure what I have planned for the inside will work, but we shall see.

Sunday-someplace-else

Not strictly speaking a craft site, but worth a look if you want a giggle.  Regretsy is a site that highlights misguided Etsy items and there are some seriously unbelievable items listed – the Twilight paintings alone will have your jaw dropping faster than you can say “Bite me!” But the ones that have me in stitches today are the wall decals, and these two in particular:

and









Honestly.  And, ok, I freely admit I don’t really get the whole Fairy thing, but surely, SURELY, this is a step too far!

There is a book, and all proceeds from the sales go towards charity:

Profits from Regretsy merchandise are used to hire Etsy artists to create handmade products for various charities, or to directly benefit Etsy sellers in need.

All revenue generated by Regretsy.com is donated to charitable works. See our Charity page for complete information.

Money raised to date for all projects: $8073.68

Some of the listing make me wonder it an Etsy psychiatric fund might be one place to stockpile money because clearly there is a need.

I’ll end with something where I cannot decide if it’s genius or insanity – the blurb, here, says: You too can be part of the Twilight saga. It’s a photoshopped poster where YOU can be the one in Jacob’s arms. Fine for a star-struck teen, but can you imagine?

One of those days – and a true goth card

Yesterday was one of those days. Morning spent getting DH and the kids sorted out for their weekend at WOMAD (and apparently not well sorted as DDs raincoat zipper split not soon after they arrived and no back up – Bad Mommy, bad bad Mommy) and then a trip out to DDs school for the final end of year assembly. I’m not ashamed to admit I got quite tearful, seeing her up on the stage singing to Waving Flag when it came to the “when I get older, I will be stronger…” line (soppy Mommy, soppy soppy Mommy) then back home and loading them up and waving them off. In between I had a horrible moment when it appeared my camera died a death, but a little fiddling and a different memory card and it came back to life, thank goodness. Then, the phone system, which is a VOIP system, died with the internet, but only for a few hours. Slept funny and woke today with a pain in my back that meant moving gingerly was the order of the day, when cleaning, and lots of it, was the plan. Best laid plans and all that….

Anyway, after last week’s comment by DS that a card I made for one of his friends birthdays was a bit too “goth” I decided I would make a really goth card to show him the difference. I know he has at least one friend that it will suit, and if not it was still an interesting experience. I had seen a few articles in my newly-acquired stash of Craft Stamper back issues on making “masterboards” and also a post or two from WOYWW about “one sheet wonders” so sort of combined the two ideas into one.

First I made the background by smudging a few colours of Distress Ink on cardstock, then spritzed it with Cosmic Shimmer, then with water, then layered a variety of stamps over it. I didn’t go down the whole OSW path and cut it up in pre-determined chunks to create 12+ cards, but I did slice off a strip to make this:

The wings are a Tim Holtz stamp and the skull came from that same Viva StampVegas grab-bag from 10+ years back.  The font is Billy Argel NightStalker from DaFont.  All in all making the masterboard was both fun and a lesson in what not to do (should NOT have used a text stamp that doesn’t work well sideways, but then they DID say that in at least one of the articles so shame on me for not paying attention.)  I can see this working really well for a couple of projects I have in my head so I expect I’ll play around with it a bit more.

Happy to say the painkillers are working a bit so I may get to do the cleaning after all… oh joy.

WOYWW – 21 July 2010

Another WOYWW – Check it out and join in – it’s always fun!!




A deceptive workdesk this week.  No scrappy or stamp-y project but a load of stamps, now neatly organized in CD cases.  In the back you can just about see a couple of desk tidy things I got at TK Maxx (I always type that as TJ Maxx first, as that’s what they call it in the USA) that nicely house all my Cosmic Shimmer mists and my Radiant Rain and the couple of Tattered Angels glimmer mist, although I am considering just tossing them in the bin as I really don’t like them by comparison to the (cheaper, richer) Cosmic Shimmers in one and all my various glues and Glossy Accents (sepia, crackle, matt and glossy).  Just under the CD cases, which I have in the top shelf of a dish rack from Homebase. you can almost see an issue of Craft Stamper, open to an article by Lousette on making your own papers – the one technique I really like involves repeatedly stamping script, clear embossing over a flourish, then rubbing ink over it all, with the embossed bit resisting the ink.  Love it.  Her articles always inspire me and I was lucky enough to pick up a handful of back issues for £2 at the Newbury Stamp show so I have lots to try out!

Oh yes, and my big Disney mug of iced tea!  Couldn’t make it thru the hot summer without it!

Last week I got A LOT of error messages when trying to comment on Blogger. It didn’t follow a pattern that I could determine, but it was very annoying.  With luck this week it will be a whole lot better.  I saw some fab stuff on desks across the net last week and expect to see the same this week and I do like to be able to comment so here’s hoping.

Alcohol ink technique

I haven’t had much time to browse YouTube recently, but I did find a few minutes the end of last week to have a quick look.  I saw a Ranger video for making a necklace using Memory Glass and alcohol ink.  The technique, for embossing over the AI, trapping the colour, was a cool one, but in reality, the likelihood of me making a necklace was pretty slim (also, I have no memory glass, frosted or otherwise) so I looked for a way to make the technique usable for ME.  I did it on acetate (always a bit risky with a heat gun as melting of the acetate is a distinct possibility unless you keep the gun moving and far enough away to prevent melting while close enough to actually melt the embossing powder) and was delighted that it worked and looked pretty cool.

Here is the video slideshow I did for it.

I think it could make nifty embellishments and would also make a very cool ATC background! Have fun, but take care!

Sunday-someplace-else

Today, another download spot for vintage goodies. The site is Vintage Stampers Freebies and they have some fab images:

or if you prefer a more soft and sweet style:

They also have lovely background papers so it’s well worth a little meander thru the older posts and maybe even a bookmark if you use this sort of thing often.

Have fun! and Happy Sunday to you all….

Another layout – must be a record!

I did another layout, one I had planned for the crop but never got to (too busy chatting I suppose)

It’s interesting.  I always refused to use my own handwriting on layouts – it’s rubbish, as you can see, with none of the charm of Shimelle’s, for example, and no matter how many times she urged me to just let it go, to not worry about how bad it looks, and just add that bit of me to my layouts, I just could not do it.  I did try – I usually add something small, like the date, even if journaling is mostly done on the Mac, in a nifty font, but no matter how I practiced or lightly wrote first in pencil, it looks crap.  But weirdly, my shopping list often looks quite stylish, or at least by comparison.  Why can’t I make my journaling look that good?

Cleaning up some very messy junk drawers, I found something.  It was a little handwritten note my Grandmother sent with an engagement gift to me and DH.  I’ve saved it all these years. I keep finding it, looking at it, welling up a bit, then tucking it away “someplace safe” and losing track of it again till the next time I stumble across it.  It’s nothing special, in what it says, but the fact my Grandmother wrote it makes it special to me.  It made me think that just maybe in 20 years time my kids might like to see my messy handwriting.  So I have allowed it to creep onto my layouts a bit more.  I don’t think I will ever give up computer journaling, especially when it is very long, as my journaling often is. but for now I am trying to let it go.  But I swear, the first time one of my kids asks “What the heck does THAT say?” I will abandon my handwriting for clarity!

I did experiment with making 3D daffs but in the end this little sprig of flowers looked a whole lot better.  And the photos, while old, make me so happy that my kids actually really get along well.  DS is so protective of his sister, and she delights in “annoying” him (part of her bedtime routine is to get her jammies on, brush her teeth, get her night brace on, then “go annoy Jackson,” said just like that.  She opens his bedroom door and throws a sock at him while he is “killing stuff” on COD. or makes rude noises then says “JACK!” like it was him, if she sees he is on Skype and then giggles madly.  To be fair, he tells her “you smell” all the time, so he isn’t without his own annoyance techniques.) but it’s something they share that, unless its in danger of getting out of hand, I try not to interfere with.  My favourite layouts are almost always ones with them interacting and I hope they will appreciate them too, later in life – and overlook my rubbish writing!