A Winner and THE Answer

Apologies for the late posting - couple of technical problems. The card has gone AWOL and I spent ages trying to find it - to no avail. I then made a video of the technique and have been battling to get it uploaded.

First  . . . the winner of the random draw is number 30 which makes it Froggietalks! Congratulations. Please contact me with your details.
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And Judy1223 guessed the answer correctly. I inked up my embossing folder, spritzed it with water and then put the watercolour paper in and put it through the machine. The video has step by step instructions with added tips and suggestions and I will get it posted as soon as I've sorted out the technical gremlins!

Guessing the new Technique!

A little light bulb went off tonight as I was struggling with getting what I wanted using what I had. And then the fun began  . . .  I could hardly contain my excitement . . . and this was the result of the first try . . .

Can you guess what I did? Leave a comment and you'll have a chance to win the random draw. The deadline will be Monday 4 October, 2:00pm Mauritian time. 
The prize will be . . .

plus an additional mystery item!
You can see the other cards on my flickr photostream.

Thank You

I love the Week of Gratitude and card inspirations that Susan (starting here) and Mary (starting here) are doing. (You will need to remove the date section of the address to see the more recent pages.) We all need to acknowledge those in our life who have helped us in the myriad of ways that enrich our lives . . . help, support, laughter, gifts, comfort, advice, inspiration, friendship, encouragement . . . to name a few.

I want to thank Nancy (here) for her lovely Sept CCC card and generous gift of goodies. I loved her rich colour combinations on her card and on the extra distressed, inked card that she sent along. Look at that lovely perfect pearl Starburst Lace stamped shimmer! I added a collage of black stamped images and mounted it on kraft card, adding the message and butterfly.

And so thanks for the colour inspiration for my entry to Susan's Simplicity OLW (One Layer Wednesday) challenge (here)

PS. And thank you Nancy for your snazzy flickr button that you designed, and let me use!



Passed the nth Hour

Well as I expected, I dithered and found a lot of other things to do today instead of cleaning my studio . . . important things like getting some sun, doing some suduko, learning what zumba is (the new latino dance aerobic craze), getting caught in watching extraordinary people . . . and it was only the fact that I said I would post a photo that got me in there . . . close to dinner time. Which is why I am still up at 1:47 am! And of course I just had to make a card after all that effort . . . inspired by the colours of Jillian Foster's card on day 3 of her challenge this past week. (See here)

At least you can see the desk top now! (Of course there is artful photography just getting the clean bits!)

Even cleaned up the other tables!

The question now remains "How long will it stay like that?"!!!

The MESS!

I've off to tidy my studio today - yuck! but I've been avoiding going in there since getting back from UK and I can't create until it's done! (Well I CAN if I just start making mess somewhere else but I think I've spread over such a large area - 3 tables - that I'd better nip this rampant disorder in the bud . . . oh no, it's actually way passed bud phase - it's blooming!)

Maybe I need a little sun first . . . . . it's such a beautiful day here!

Here are photos taken in Dec (but it's pretty much the same again) to show the "damage" and I challenge myself to send you photos of the state this evening!

My place (my mess shouldn't extend past this space!)

But I've overflowed to TWO tables like this  . . .



Warm & Fuzzie

So warm and fuzzy about winning one of the Fabulous 5 for June on the Hero Arts Blog! (See here) I had such fun making this card. One of those light bulb moments when I just "saw" the clouds as sheep. And then I found the perfect message from the clear stamp set CL342 Everyday Sayings. And I certainly need something warm right now - it's freezing here - well as freezing as a tropical island can get - 15°C and there's no heating!

Missed Dodo Scrapchicks

I was so sorry to miss the last Dodo Scrapchicks session. I enjoyed the layout so much, could not let it go by. So stayed up Wed night to finish it. I turned the LO on it's side as I wanted to make a facing page and wanted it to flow. Thanks Nadine for your choice!

Not simply Masking

Oh I do so love Simplicity by LateBlossom and this week has been masking on one layer. Although I kept strictly to the one layer policy, I went a bit wild with the stamping. Well, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do! Sigh! One day I'll be doing simply stunning cards, but in the meantime here's mine :

I used the silhouette flowers of Hero Arts cut on the Silhouette machine as the mask.

And I had such fun, I had to make another :

Used another cutout from Silhouette machine - flower 1020 - which I sponged with Tumbled Glass and Shabby Shutters Distress Inks and then stamped with HeroArts Antique Bocade in Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

9 Ways with 1 Stamp

I took one of the Hero Arts silhouette stamps (Silhouette Meadow Flowers see here) and tried 9 different techniques. With the exception of No. 7, I started with white card.

1. 
   
   Stamped in Sky Blue Colorbox pigment ink, then added a script stamp in Hero Arts Soft Sand, and finally added black shadow lines with a fineliner
2. 
   
   Stamped in Sky Blue Colorbox pigment ink and embossed with clear embossing powder, then stamped the script inked with Faded Jeans and Forest Moss Distress Ink, and then sponged the unembossed areas with Shabby Shutters, Crushed Olive, Tumbled Glass, Broken China and Faded Jeans Distress Inks, and lastly wiped with a dried wet wipe.
3. 
   
   Stamped the script in Hero Arts Soft Sand first, then stamped silhouette stamp in Sky Blue Colorbox pigment ink and embossed with iridescent embossing powder, then sponged with pink,m purple, green and blue from Tsukineko Kaleidacolor Pastel Pad. I had thought the dye ink might stain the sparkles, but was happy to see that it didn't.
4. 
   
   Stamped the script in Hero Arts Soft Sand first, then stamped silhouette stamp using the graded Pastel Colorbox option pad and embossed with clear embossing powder, then applied the Faded Jeans directly to the image, and lastly wiped with a dried wet wipe.
5. 
   
   Stamped the script in Hero Arts Soft Sand first, then inked the silhouette stamp with Colorbox lavender and inked HA Starburst with Royal Blue and stamp-kissed repeatedly inking before each kiss; then stamped the silhouette stamp and embossed with clear embossing powder.
6. 
   
   Stamped in Sky Blue Colorbox pigment ink and embossed with Blue Pearl embossing powder twice. Added dots of Blue Liquid Pearls to centres.
7. 
   
   Started with turquoise card. Stamped with Versamark and embossed with white embossing powder.
8. 
   
   Stamped HA Friends Definition stamp with Fired Brick Distress Ink, then stamped the silhouette stamp with Versamark and embossed with clear Embossing powder, then applied Fired Brick directly to unembossed areas, and lastly wiped with a dried wet wipe.
9. 
   
   Stamped the script in Hero Arts Soft Sand first, then sponged Tea Dye Distress Ink around the edge, then stamped the silhouette stamp with Versamark and embossed with clear Embossing powder, then applied Vintage Photo Distress Ink to unembossed areas and wiped with a dried wet wipe.

And here are the cards I made with each piece. (Have temporarily misplaced number 5, but will add it when I find it - gremlins in my studio!)

Big Ben in London

Made sure I didn't miss London in Vicky's Around the World Challenge (see here if you want to join too.) Her inspiration photo was

and my take on it was

Kept with the red, white and blue as the colours of England (their flag as well as the photo) and had to put in a clock.