.....and relax

What a great weekend I've had...after a very stressful week I have ignored the housework and indulged in some crafting which has left me very relaxed.  My creative session resulted in some entries for challenges of course. I started off yesterday by having a go at the quilting challenge over at Gingersnaps Creations. Not a technique I've used before I made a design for the front of a sketch book I've had hanging around for a while. I use the book for my scrapbook LO sketches and thought the linking squares where sort of representative of the many LO's inside - I have these notions occasionally!

I used the gorgeous colour palette set over at The Play Date Cafe who are celebrating their one year anniversary!  I was tempted to jazz up the book cover itself before applying my design but decided I liked the plain black border. I created four pieces of patterned paper by applying Distress Inks, then stamping and embossing with clear EP. I cut each piece into the required shapes and 'quilted' them onto card stock.  Obviously this is going into TPDC challenge and  Gingersnaps Creations - Quilting, but also Simon Says Stamp and Show - 'anything but a card' and Allsorts - 'spots and stripes'.I enjoyed myself so much with this technique I decided to stick with it and made this Christmas card using another pattern (there's a link to the patterns, which are from McCalls on the Gingersnaps blog).

 

This time I created the patterend paper pieces with alcohol inks before using versamark ink to stamp the snowflakes and embossed with silver and pearl EP. The BP is alcohol ink spritzed with Cosmic Shimmer though it's not very shimmery on the pic! I stamped and embossed the snowflake swirl and then added some gems which are not very clear on the pic either (unless you click to enlarge). This card is my entry into -

Beary Sweet Challenge - 'Spritz the Glitz', Totally Gorjuss - 'Sparkle' and Gingersnaps Creations -'Versamark'.

And finally I made this vintage style card - I love this style and as I'm trying to get together some Christmas cards to sell went with this lovely stamp from  Stampington & Company which I had last year but didn't get round to using. I created the BP by using an assortment of stamps, distress inks and a gold ink. I then layered up with some printed vellum, DP, lace and the Stamped image which I had layered a couple of times to create contrasting borders. It looks quite red on the pic but is much softer in real Life! I made this using the sketch from the Friday Sketchers challenge and it also fits with Charisma Cardz - 'vintage' and The Artistic Stamper - 'Layers'.

Wow...thanks for sticking with me if you got this far, maybe should of split that into two posts!! Hope you've all enjoyed the weekend too.....Esther xx 

WOYWW..having a tidy!

Hi -  I've been having a bit of a sort out so my pics this week are not of my desk really, more of my storage - this is a before pic - a pile of stuff that seems to grow overnight and hide my very nice wicker draw unit which is really too good for shoving in the corner

so..off to the local catalogue store I went..you know the one...and all my mess stash is now safely tucked away in here...

like so....

and my nice wicker unit is now in the front room !

I do have a card on my desk that I made last night - had another go at a cutesy card with a magnolia stamp - a style I've struggled with in the past, but this one I'm quite happy with -  

I used this sketch which is the Just Magnolia Challenge this week, Basic Grey Paper, Hero Arts flowers, sissix die cut leaves, ribbon, flower beads, wire, pearls and buttons from my stash.

The stamp is Alva with Flower and I have stamped and paper pieced using scraps of paper from my stash. Face, hair, hands and flower painted with Distress inks. I've not tried paper piecing this detailed before and although it was sooooo fiddly am pleased with the result.  Even the background is paper pieced as I used double sided, cut a circle from the middle,  turned it over tand fitted it back in.

This card is for the following challenges - 

Basic Grey - Paper Piecing

Just Magnolia - Sketch

Charisma Cardz -Try something new

A spoon full of sugar - Fall Colours

Creative Card Crew - Autumn

Well if you want to join in the fun and have a nosey at other people's desks, get yourself over to 'The Stamping Ground' where our auspicious host Julia always has a warm welcome (see link on my sidebar)

Thanks for popping by - I managed about 50 desks last week, which is  record for me and enjoyed everyone of 'em....Happy WOYWWing everyone, have fun .....Esther xx