Fantastic News!!!

Hiya, I have some very good new's which I've been itching to share with you.  As you may know, Let's Ink It Up had a recent DT call which I decided I would apply for.  I was absolutely thrilled, and extremely honoured, to find out a couple of days ago that I have been offered one of the six places! Of course, I accepted straightaway - a big thank you to the team!

Let's Ink It Up is a rubber stamping only challenge blog, no digis permitted, and runs monthly challenges, one per month.  They have a fabulously talented Design Team who I will be very proud to work with, and I'm really looking forward the months ahead.

If you click on the logo above, it will take you straight to the challenge blog.

Check back on 4th March for my first DT creation, I hope to see you over there!

Bye for now,

Maria x

At Last - A Card!

Hi, I'd like to share a card with you before I head off to Liverpool to see my mum - not a piece of ribbon or cord to hang this from in sight!!!.  It's her birthday on Tuesday and I realised just last night that today would be the last day I see her before her birthday. As I hadn't yet done her card, I had to make her one rather sharpish!  I decided on some lovely pastel colours for this, possibly inspired by the mild weather and bit of sun we had on Thursday - was that a sneak peak into Spring, I wonder?  This is what I made for her (will try and get a better photo later):

The dp, mounted on sanded Coredinations,  is by Melissa Frances and I have added a lightly inked  MF die cut border across the top, a postage one in the top right corner, and added some Ice Stickles over the flowers in the top left corner.  The stamped image is by Crafty Individuals - I have sponged white cardstock with some pastel coloured inks, then stamped over with Versafine Smokey Grey.  I added a little touch of diluted distress ink and Ice Stickles to the bow in her hair and diluted ink to the top of her dress, then mounted onto the same Coredinations as the dp.  The white flowers were coloured with distress ink, layered up and fixed with a brad, and the beautiful deep lace trim came from Dunelm Mill.  A couple of gems to finish.

Crafty Individuals are looking for Spring themed creations for their current challenge, so I'm going to enter my card over there, along with The Stampman Challenge, who are looking for Colours of Spring/Easter.  Other challenges I'd like to enter are:

The Poodles Parlour - Mother's Day or Card For A Female
Paper Play Challenges - For A Mother
Crafts and Me - Shades Of Spring

I hope you (and my mum!) like it!

Have a great weekend and make the most of it - it's far too short!

Maria x

Chocolate Brown, Cream & Orange - Craft-Room Challenge DT Project

Hi, another two weeks have passed and  it's now time to move onto our next challenge over at the Craft-Room.  By the way, all of our Cute & Cuddly entries were stunning.  This time, it's the turn of our extremely talented leader, Zoe, to choose the theme, and she has chosen a colour challenge:  Chocolate Brown, Cream & Orange - click on her name to visit her blog where you will find so many fantastic creations, tips and techniques.  The prize for this challenge is a beautiful set of Andy Skinner stamps - Batik Garden.

Now, if you've been to the challenge blog today, you will have noticed that this is the last challenge to be sponsored by the Craft-Room Online Shop (all of the stock now has 40% off so grab it while you can!) as Julia has taken the difficult decision to close.  However, the good news is that challenge blog is staying and you are in for a treat when you find out what fantastic sponsors we have lined up for the next 12 months, all thanks to Zoe.

Back to the current challenge, my creation started out as a card but before I knew, it was hanging from a piece of ribbon!

Various brown inks, from cream through to the darkest brown, including Distress Inks, Jenny Bowlin, and Heritage, some torn paper, a circle mask, and a few stamps were used to create the scene on cream cardstock.  The tree house, it's foliage and the path, the two little fairies, and the toadstools are all from Lavinia Stamps.  The foliage on the bottom and top right hand side are from Hero Arts.  I've then gone over the door and steps with diluted ink to give the illusion of texture, and the same with the little path to give it a little depth.  I've mounted it onto dark brown card, then onto mountboard which I inked around the edges.   The cream fabric trim along the bottom is attached to the back through the rivets and sits a little away - I thought it looked a bit like a little fence but that could just be my imagination running away with me, lol.  Another two rivets at the top and some brown sheer ribbon threaded through to hang from.

I hope you can join in with us and I'm looking forward to visiting your blogs to see your inspiring creations with these colours.  If you need a little more inspiration, please check out the rest of the design team's creations as they are fabulous.

I would like to enter my creation into the following challenges:

The Fashionable Stamping Challenge:  Monochromatic plus one other colour (I used all shades of brown plus
                                                          orange)
Crafter's Companion:  Anything Goes
Sparkles Forum Challenges:  Things with Wings
Divas by Design:  Wings and Things
Flutter by Wednesday's:  Anything with Wings

Bye for now,

Maria x 

Monochrome Magic...In Shades of Blue

Hi, I hope you're all having a good weekend, unfortunately they just don't last long enough.  I think the working week should be 3.5 days, but on the same pay of course :-).

By the skin of my teeth, I have managed to create something for the Crafty Cardmakers Challenge, their theme is "Monochrome Magic" and closes in a matter of hours.  I have used a bare plywood frame measuring 6.5in x 6.5in to create a picture in shades of blue:

The frame has been painted with Craig & Rose Chalky Emulsion in Pompadour then stamped with script and harlequin stamps.  I have coloured some text dp with Faded Jeans DI, sponged through a sequin waste mask with the same colour, and edged with JB Spice Tin, then attached down the sides of the frame. 

The beautiful image is by Paper Artsy and has been stamped with JB Spice Tin onto the same inked dp as I used on the frame.  I have tinted the flowers on the image with some ink mixed with water, and added clear Distress Stickles onto the darker leaves.  The centres of the flowers are blue chipboard circles covered in crackle glaze.  I have also used the harlequin stamp and sponged through the sequin waste mask around the image, and added glossy accents inside the clock part.  I've covered a navy blue chipboard bracket also with crackle glaze and attached an inked flower covered in stickles, and then a watch face/timepiece.

The navy blue glittered heart was triple embossed with clear UTEE to seal the glitter in - it's made it look as though the glitter is encased in glass - I love how this has turned out.  The idea for this came from Shelley Hickox at Stamptramp (thank you!) where you can check out her fabulous tutorial for this technique.

I'd also like to enter my picture into the Crafts & Me Challenge, as they have a theme of Distressed at the moment, and Simon Says Stamp And Show, who have a theme of Anything Goes. 

That's all for now, I'm off to scrub my fingers again as they're still a very pale shade of blue, despite many washings, and look as though they're gonna drop off with the cold!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Maria x

Love and Lace

Hi, I hope you are all nice and warm - the weather is freezing.  Roll on summer, and the hotter the better, as I hate winter!

Before I share my creation with you, I'd like to share some good news with you!  I'm going to be a nanna!   Yes, my daughter is having a baby, and is now at 14 weeks.  Now that I've got over the initial shock, I'm quite excited.  Until we know the sex, the baby has been nicknamed Smidge for the time being :-)

Now, I'd like to share with you my entry for The Stampsmith's current challenge of Love and Lace.  I love their images and as my o/h kindly bought me a couple of new plates for Xmas, I try to enter each month.

As you know, I do like my little wall hangings (really? I hear you say!) and that is exactly what I've made for this challenge:

The background took me ages to get right - I've covered a piece of mountboard with bare canvas (one of those little houses) and cut to size, then applied Metallic Rub-on Paste in Colonial (from Happy Daze) all over (I love this stuff!).  I've then stamped a large damask background stamp (Darkroom Door) over it in cream acrylic paint then dryed off with the heat gun.  You can't see the pattern very well in the pics but it's a lovely damask fabric look, and the subtle metallic gold comes through nicely.

Next, I covered a Tando chipboard frame with Viva Ferro Metal Effect Colour in Precious Steel Gold.  I then stamped the image in Timber Brown Stazon onto glossy card and cut around it - something I don't normally do - then layered onto some Melissa Frances dp, and attached the frame on top. I've then attached it all to the canvas covered mountboard using TH long fasterners, first threading them through two gold embellishments.

 

I've attached some beautiful antique gold metallic lace (Dunelm Mill) across the top and part way down, a vintage SU brad, and a cream tassle dangling from the point at the bottom.  I've hung it by some plain white cord coloured with an antique gold mica spray, and added "Amour", on some white card coloured with metallic rub on, in Distress EP.  

It took me a while to get the background and the frame right, but I love how it's turned out, and it's now hanging from my dimmer switch in the living room!

As the current theme over at Happy Daze is Love, using your favourite technique, I thought I'd enter my hanging, and also Crop Stop, who's current challenge is Wedding or Anniversary, and Let's Ink It Up who would like to see Ribbons and/or Lace.  The Stampman is looking for Texture in their current challenge so, with my canvas background and Viva Ferro, I will enter this as well.

Keep warm, and have a great weekend!

Maria x

Cute & Cuddly - Craft-Room DT Project

Hi, it's time for another challenge over at the Craft-Room Challenge, but firstly, thank you - what beautiful Valentine entries we saw.  This time it's the lovely and wonderfully talented Julia's turn to choose the theme and she has chosen Cute and Cuddly.  As usual, there will be a random draw for a £10 voucher to spend in the Craft-Room Online Shop, and there's still 30% off everything at checkout - usual rules apply - and the DT team will choose a top 3.

 Now, I can't remember when I last thought "cute and cuddly" so this was definitely a challenge for me, lol.  I dug out one of the very first rubber stamps I every bought (Stamps Happen).  I decided (groan!) that instead of making a card, I would make a little hanging (surprised?):

Everything, including the colouring of the teddies, is done in various distress inks, along with some Jenny Bowlin Brown Sugar ink (which is quite dark, but such a gorgeous shade of brown) for the background/background stamping.  I then mounted the stamped image onto some sanded Core'dinations cardstock and attached.,

For the teddies, I used a drop of various reinkers mixed with a spritz of water.  Colouring that checked teddy and those three red hearts were a challenge in themselves!  

The text I made up and done on the pc, and those beautiful wooden heart-shaped buttons were from Marie at Dolly Daydreams (thank you again Marie) - they were part of a fabulous prize I won in a Get Creative challenge a few months ago.  Some cream cotton lace around the bottom to finsih, and it is hung by some dyed seam binding.

There are a lot of creams and browns around for little ones at the moment, so I thought it would be nice to hang up in a little one's room, or maybe on the door?

I hope you join in with the challenge, I'm looking forward to visiting your blogs to see your creations.  If you need some inspiration, please check out the creations by the rest of the Design Team as they really are stunning.

I'd like to enter my Cute 'n' Cuddly teddy hanging into the following challenges:

The Cutie Pie Challenge Blog - Anything But A Card
Charisma Cardz Challenges - Vintage
Colour Create Challenge - Whites or Creams, Light Browns & Dark Browns
My Time To Craft - A is For Adorable

Have fun and I hope you all have a great week!

Maria x