Rescuing Silhouettes

Sometimes making a simple one layer card turns out complicated. Playing in Karen's OLW Silhouette Challenge has been fraught with mistakes.

The first card was all done except the sentiment ... and then I botched it with a crooked placement ....

So take 2, and the masking paper curled up while sponging, so had to hide the smudge with a higher placed sentiment which was NOT the original plan.

So tried a third one, and the cling sentiment fell off the acrylic block. Threw the card away. Used temporary tape to stick the cling, and it still fell off and landed crooked on the card. So tried a rescue. This was so not in the plan. I wanted to just sponge off from around the rectangle.

I'm going to bed!

Runway Inspiration

Runway Inspiration is from Peter Pilotto this week. 

I was going to punch out dots, but when I looked at my punched papers, I rather liked the arrows I found in my stash.

Smile

Playing with new stamps for the Anything Goes Challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

Sometimes when things go wrong stamping, and you make efforts to fix them, you get a result that you didn't plan but that turned out better than you thought. I stamped the red frame off-centre, and so to fix it, I stamped a second one. And I thought - Oh, that turned out well. Don't think I would ever have thought of doing it off bat.

Book Pages

I have another card for the CASology challenge of Books this week.

I used pages of 2 different books : one for the background, one for the butterflies. I glued 3 butterflies together back to back and used gelatos to colour them.

I think I should have added an embossed edge to the mounted white frame, but as I had already glued it down with foam, I used a fineliner.

Which do you think is better?

Jar of Tulips

Loving these challenges, so am playing again! Using the jar die cut mounted up on foam for dimension.

Annabelle Stamps Sketch Challenge

CAS(E) This Sketch

Less is More Washi Challenge.

Fusion Challenge 16 : Following the sketch for this one.

Books & Butterflies

So happy about the CASology challenge of Books this week.

Honoring Ombre at the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger too.

I'm going to have to play more than once for this one - I love books & reading. The first one is a card with a bookmark.

I punched out some book paper and then distressed each one in deeper shades of blue to create an ombre look.

Here is the card once the bookmark is removed - paint splatter and the band to hold the bookmark.

And the bookmark on it's own.

I will also enter it into the Less is More Washi Challenge.

Pots of Love

Combining a few challenges this week. Busy, busy, busy!

Annabelle Stamps Sketch Challenge

CAS(E) This Sketch

Less is More Washi Challenge.

Fusion Challenge 16 : I'm combining the photo and sketch challenge.

Magenta Stamp, May Arts ribbon, Silhouette shape, Annabelle Stamps sentiment, Hero Arts Heart Pearl.

Ink Storage

The first thing I'm organising are my inks. I need to have my inks within easy reach, preferably within arm's length. My Distress Inks are right in front of me and I stack them in colour columns. There have been a lot of posts about labeling them, but you can see that I have the left side inked by direct pad to paper technique, and the right side sponged on with the name written.

My Hero Arts inks have grown in number this past year, and I found that they do not stack as well - a lot of slipping and sliding, toppling and chaos! And I haven't labeled them so I'm always digging for the right colour.

It's a pity I threw away all my tape cassette storage boxes as I have seen they are a pretty good fit. But lucky me, I have a Silhouette. And so have been cutting and sticking their ink storage boxes this afternoon and evening - once I start, I like to finish - a little OCD?!

I am so happy - all lined up and in place!

The design comes with a little drawer with circle handle which makes taking them out a breeze. I inked up 1¼" circles with the corresponding ink using the direct pad to paper technique. I haven't decided whether to label them too - I'll sleep on it.

All my ducks inks all in a row!

While cutting out the boxes, I filled the empty spaces with border designs, butterflies, tabs and colour appropriate images. I was using the 12x24" cutting mat which saved a lot of loading time.

 I've got a whole lot of shapes ready to go.

Now I've just got to figure how I'm going to store my Memento inks (I have the little Dew Drop ones). Any ideas?

Room status at end of Day1 : Craft sheet taped down on table; Paper storage boxes back in white shelves; plastic drawers cleaned and back in place - but still all empty; Polka dot boxes back in place; Distress Inks and Hero Arts Inks in order! O boy what a long way to go!

The First Step

I have been overwhelmed by the sheer volume (and therefore mess due to lack of space) of craft supplies in my craft room. Even my friend and fellow craft/hoarder who came visiting last week (you know who you are!) was shocked at the state of it - and was so kind and sweet enough to offer her help to start to put order this morning. So Susan's post this morning, As Loose as it Gets, made me smile and wish that she could come over and put order too.

My drawers and shelves around my work space were FULL, yet they were not the items I was using! In fact, I had taken over a whole other table with supplies I am currently using. So I decided that radical action was needed:  I have taken out EVERYTHING from my small craft space!

Could you believe that all of this was in my small room (1.5 m x 2.5m)?

There was no an inch of space and so it had not been cleaned in ages. So after a good scrub it looks like this:

I have decided that I must empty ALL the drawers and I'm going to start from scratch and start putting in things that I am using now. What doesn't fit is going to have to go!! It's all rather daunting, but hope to get there step by step!

Flowers

Playing with new stamps and the colours of ColourQ Challenge.

Triangle Trend

I've been wanting to make a card with cut out triangles for a while. Love the colours for the Colour-Q Challenge this week, and found the perfect papers.

 A close up of the papers

Manchester Colours

Kim's card scramble over on Hero Arts flickr group tonight was to make a MASCULINE card (always a challenge) in the colours of your husband's (or yours) favourite sports team. Team is Manchester United .... colours red, yellow and black. Not an easy one for me.

First card ... created a zigzag border in the colours with a black panel with the wishes.

The second takes me back to the off-kilter design.

Paris Twinchie

Now it's time to make a twinchie for abroad for the Show Us Your Twinchies Holidays and Destinations Home and Abroad Challenge.

I have been to Paris twice, yet would happily go again and again. A city to love ... delicious food, wonderful city to walk around, great museums.

A Silhouette cut Eiffel Tower using great textured cardstock from Clubscrap, foam mounted above a mix of stamps.

Again I mounted it on foam on a card.

PARTY!

Barb is having a Grey plus one colour challenge over in the Hero Arts flickr group.

I've been wanting to do one of these off kilter cards which I've seen on a number of blogs.

I decided to use the Hero Arts Tide Pool with Charcoal. The letters and gems were coloured with Copic marker BG13 which is a perfect match.

I just loved the texture that you get from that paint stamp I used for the background. So here's a close up, also showing the diamond stickles I added to the white bits of the sentiment.

In Paradise

The Show us your Twinchie Challenge is Holidays and Destinations Home and Abroad. My home is very much abroad for others .... and it certainly has parts that are paradisaical. So to show my tiny spot in the Indian Ocean, you have to have coconut trees, beaches, sun and sea.

I made a lot of 3D detail but adding layers of leaves and sand.

You may be wondering what to do with twinchies ... the perfect addition to a card!

One of each

Heather's OLW challenge this week is ... One-one-one ...
One stamp
One colour
One sentiment
... and of course, One layer.

As a someone who's favourite colour is blue, I'm loving the Hero Arts new Cornflower blue ink. I thought this dandelion stamp would go well with the light blue, and added one of my new Papertrey Ink sentiments.

It looks like it could be 2 stamps, so here's the proof it's only one.

This will be my second card for the 2013 Thanksgiving Crusade.

I will also enter it into the The Paper Players One Layer Challenge

Lots of New

I have my new gelatos ... new inktense pencils ... and new Papertrey stamps ... and I've played with all for this card.

Inspired by the sketch on Retrosketches

And keeping with my favourite colour blue and the challenge at JUGS

I made the panel using the gelatos and letting water drip down the colours. The butterfly (one of my all time favourites from Hero Arts with the matching die) is coloured with both gelatos and inktense pencils, and some stickles to add shine.