Time for a break..

Ooh how lovely I’ve got the week off work this week and am looking forward to some crafting time with my mum who’s popping over tomorrow to make a start on Christmas Cards! I usually never start these till at least October, but having had to make some DT samples for Stamp Addicts, I’m kind of in the mood now so will make the most of it and carry on. Here’s one I made with one of their latest  stamps releases  -

I’ve embossed the tree in clear to act as a resist before colouring the background with Distress Inks and spritzing with water. The pears are embossed in Gold, and I’ve added dots round the edge and on the base card. A glittery Partridge, pretty, (if wonky) ribbon and shrink plastic greeting finishes off.

I’m sharing this here -

Ribbon Girl – Use Ribbon

Secret Crafter – Christmas is Coming

Simon Says Stamp and Show – Tim Holtz technique

Stampin for the Weekend – spots and dots

Totally Papercraft – Food and Drink (stretching it a bit but Pears are food after all!)

Thanks for stopping by - Esther  xx

Bank Holiday Challenges

I love Bank Holiday Mondays!! That lovely feeling on a Sunday night when you know you haven’t got to get up in the morning, and waking up in the morning and remembering it’s a day off…and then knowing that you’ll only have to work four days..and then having loads more time to craft!! AND – I especially like it because it means I can enter Linda’s Grungy Monday Challenge over at Studio L3 actually on the day. This week Linda wants us to use Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas, 2007, Day 10. And so, my card -

I have used this technique before and loved it…then forgotten about it and this is why I love the Grungy Monday challenge as it takes us back. I used it on the bottom panel of the card with Judikins Italian Script Stamp, then stamped again on some cream card which I’d coloured with Antique Linen Distress stains for the top half.

The flower I made myself (am going to put together  tutorial I think so won’t go into it now). As well as Studio L3, I’m going to enter this over at Simon Says Stamp and Show where they want us to use our favourate stamps. This is my all time fav background stamp so hope that counts. I’ve used ingredients from one of the Recipe Bingo lines over at The Stamp Man – Embossing Powder (in the Tim Technique), Ribbon and homemade background paper so am entering there too.  Finally I’m entering into the Sentiment challenge at Stamp Something.

Right off to make the dinner…thanks for visiting..and don’t forget the Craft-Room Challenge launches tomorrow!!  Esther xx

Splash of Green

Do you ever have an idea for a project, and enthusaistically get going only to be interupted by your mum phoning, distracted by your OH fiddling abut in the same room on the computer and just generally get frustrated when things are not going to plan! Well this is what happened during the creation of this Easel card for The Play Date Cafe.

Inspiration didn't come easily for this challenge, which is a colour splash - Black and White with a splash of Green. I've been thinking about it since the theme was announced and finally had an idea while driving between appointments for work today! Only to find that once home and itching to get started things did not run smoothly. Apart from the previously mentioned distractions, I struggled to get a good clear stamping to emboss - though the white embossing looks better than the black and then I couldn't find quite the right colour ribbon, I stamped my circle slightly off, couldn't find the message stamp that is the perfect size for inside the circle so had to use a smaller one, and to cap it all I creased the card slightly off so the bloomin thing doesn't stand striaght (though I've 'wedged' it for the photo).

But I persevered and the end result, while not perfect, is presentable and I was determined to enter it regardless after it had caused me so much frustration, I had intended to make more with different colours but sometimes you just have to admit it's just not one of your best crafting moments - and quit while the goings good!

I'm off to bed and maybe tomorrow will be a better day as I'm hoping to find time for the Compendiuum challenge from Linda at StudioL3.  Night all....Esther xx

Back out of my comfort zone...

Well I made this card with the intention of entering into the Just Magnolia Challenge as I'm determined not to stay in my comfort zone all the time with smooshy colours and distress inks, but I fear time got away with me and I missed the deadline by about half an hour..still I had other challenges in mind too so it hasn't been a total disaster!!

Ingredients - Stamps - Magnolia -Tilda with Butterfly, Hero Arts cling-dots, Patterned papers - Basic grey, Roses - Wild Orchid Crafts, Distress inks - spun  sugar, tattered rose, worn lipstick, bundled sage, shabby shutters, Mustard seed, Dried marigold, Stickles, gems and ribbon from stash and Sissix die for leaves, clear embossing powder.

The Challenges I'm entering into are -

• 
  
  By the Cute and Girly - Warm summer days
• 
  
  Quirky Crafts - Ribbons
• 
  
  ABC - X is for xtra dimension
• 
  
  Sir Stampalot - Laxy hazy days of summer
• 
  
  Basic Grey - Photo inspiration
• 
  
  Allsorts - Embossed (Embossing resist technique used on Tilda's circle)

Shoes...shoes..and more shoes...

You know a girl can never have too many shoes, my OH may disagree but I just love them and so when I came across this stamp by Hero Arts a few years ago I had to have it. It is still one of my favourates and so I was very excited to learn that this weeks challenge over at Tuesday Taggers is..'Shoes Glorious Shoes'. I've been itching to get creative with it but haven't had time during the week so today it was my top priority.I've had a lovely afternoon playing and I'm also going to use this tag to do my first step-by-step page (here) as a friend asked me if I would do some.  I used embossing resist with distress ink, versamark and clear embossing powder to create the background, added some Tim Holtz die cut flourishes, stamped the shoes three times with distress inks and used the same inks to add some colour.  I also made the ribbon embellishment and then stuck it all together, adding some liquid pearls, stickles and cut out shoes to finish off. I've used a blue palette to enter the Gingersnap creations Color Challenge - Shades of Blue and made the ribbon embellishment to enter this weeks Tag you're it challenge and because I did some embossing resist, this tag also fits with Allsorts Challenge week 58.

My first crafty post....

Thought I'd start off with something already stored on my PC. For my mum's birthday last year I wrote a book of crafty tips for her which included photos and samples of cards and craft techniques. The ribbon photo is one of my favourates because of the colours, but I ended up not using for the book so thought i'd share it on here. Ribbon is one of my favourate things to use on cards at the moment - if in doubt, stick a bow on it I say!!  

The flower stamp on this card is from Hero Arts and the music background is from Stampabilities. I used Tim Holtz distress inks with a resist technique demonstrated by Jennifer McGuire  - see the video below, I love this technique and intend to try it with all my background stamps but at the moment this music is my favourate so that's the one I did first.