CCT#293- Sparkles

All things sparkly this week at Cute Card Thursday. This is a very simple card but it didn't need much else as it's just soooooo sparkly!! I used Glitz sealed glitter card on a plain white linen card background and then cut out the baubles, again from Glitz card, with a Stampin' Up punch. An old Stampin' Up sentiment and some bows finish it off.

CCT#292 - Spooktakular

Spooky goings-on are afoot this week over at Cute Card Thursday!! I have used Distress Stains to make the background on watercolour paper and then mounted it onto purple cardstock. The stamps are all from Stampotique and coloured with Copics and Promarkers. I've used an X-Cut punch for the balloons and little stars. The sentiment is a years-old Whipper Snapper one and I cut the star and numbers with my Slice. This is for a very special friend who is a Stampotique fan and who will remain nameless as, as you can see, she is celebrating a "special" birthday lol!!

CCT#291 - Candyman

This week on Cute Card Thursday the theme is anything to do with sweets/candy. It's been a very loooooooong time since I inked up a Tilda stamp but I loved colouring her in and paired her with Stampin' Up card and Basic Grey papers from the Blush collection. The flowers are made with Woodware punches and the leaves are Impression Obsession and Cheery Lynn dies. The sentiment is from a Stampin' Up set.
 

CCT#290 - Neutral Zone

It's neutral colours this week on Cute Card Thursday, which suits me down to the ground as I love working with soft peaches, pinks and browns. I stamped the Bildmarna cutie and then masked her off to add the tree, grass and clouds before colouring with Copics and Promarkers. The paper is Basic Gray. The sentiment I have had for years and can't remember where I got it and the little resin flower is a Prima.  

CCT#289 - Signs of Distress

I am purposefully late posting this as this was mum's birthday card and I didn't want her to see it beforehand!!

This week on Cute Card Thursday we are looking for cards with a distressed/vintage look. I used a Juicy inkpad with this Crafty Individuals stamp for the main image and added Distress embossing powder to the doily. The flower was made with Distress inks and a Woodware punch on old newspaper. I dyed some cream seam binding with Distress inks and finished the card off with a punched Martha Stewart border.

Lynn xx

CCT#288 - Ribbon

Bit late with my post this week! I've used a lovely Gorjuss stamp coloured with Copics and Promarkers. Lots of Spellbinders dies, an Impression Obsession die (heart stems) and some weaving with ribbon and it's done. 

Lynn xx

CCT #287 - Fairy Nice

This week on Cute Card Thursday we want to see your fairy creations. Love this theme!!

I started with some alcohol inks on acetate and smooshed Crystal Glaze on with tissue paper to make the background. When dry, I stamped these beautiful fairy silhouettes from Lavinia Stamps onto the acetate at the front and made a frame and card blank with Nesties. The flowers and leaves are from Wild Orchid Crafts. 

Lynn xx

CCT #286 - Hip to be Square

It's been a loooong time since I did a card for Cute Card Thursday but the lovelies that they are let me play again. Seems I'm part of the furniture like an old saggy couch or something. 

Anyhowz here it is. Square. Prima Engraver papers and butterfly. Wilton doily, Stampin' Up lattice die and Waco pen blobs, sorry, pearls. Stamp is from a Banksy collection by Bee Crafty and I think the sentiment is High Hopes. It looks like one of their fonts anyway. Failing that it was from the still much-lamented Elzybells. Sad old stampaholic that I am. Pop over to the CCT blog to check out sponsors and the lovely Design Team work.

Lynn xx

Darcy does Ecclectica!!

My lovely friend and crafty sister Darcy Wilkinson has only gone and got her own range of stamps with Paper Artsy!!  They are amazing and you must buy them now!!

I've used the extremely detailed butterfly heat embossed with silver and red embossing powder here and mounted them onto a homemade background using Dylusions inks and Glimmer Mists sprays. The beautiful heart vine background stamp is another Darcy for Ecclectica stunner. I've finished the card off with a Stampin' Up sentiment mounted on a Nestabilities die cut. 

A very sheepish hello!!

Hello!!

Well we have moved. Twice. We are now settled in our "forever home" and I have just finished doing my craft room. Happy dance time.

Will take me forever to get back into blogging again but I will try!!

Here's something I made yesterday using a cheap pine letter rack from Hobbycraft. I painted using Ranger Willow paint and then covered most of it with Basic Grey Lily Kate "Wisteria" paper. A Tim Holtz memo pin, some Prima embellishments and a little blackboard from Calico Crafts finished it off. 

Hopefully it should help keep my kitchen a bit tidier, which is always a bonus!!

Artful Readers - February 2013

My February book for the Artful Readers group was “The 39 Steps” by John Buchan.

I have always wanted to read this book but never got around to it. It was much shorter than I had expected, more of a novella really, but still very enjoyable.

The story centres around Richard Hannay who has recently come to stay in London after making a modest fortune as a Mining Engineer on the Veldt in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). He befriends a gentleman living in the same lodging house who is in some kind of trouble and inadvertently becomes embroiled in a political nationwide threat to Britain.

This tale is definitely a product of the time in which it was written. It is set just before the Great War and by today’s standards is not very politically correct in places but I found it to be a fantastic romp through a bye-gone age and, although it was pretty easy reading, was enjoyable. I really had a sense of the suspense throughout the book and felt the ending tied up all the loose ends. I would recommend this book which, at 122 pages in the version I read, will only take you a couple of thoroughly enjoyable hours to read.

Here is my artwork, again created using Craft Artist Professional. I am really starting to get to grip with this software and am finding each time I use it that there are more and more things it is capable of.

Artful Readers - January 2013

I am a bit late in posting this as we have been quite poorly here this last wee while. Anyway, better late than never!! My first book for the Artful Readers group was “A Game of Thrones” by George R.R. Martin. I did not enjoy the book and really struggled to get through it. I usually love anything in the fantasy genre but just couldn’t get into this at all. Then I realised I had read this book before. Not literally but it was very similar to a) the Dune series by Frank Herbert b) the Lord of the Rings books by Tolkein and c) The Galactic Milieu series by Julian May and I felt I was reading an amalgam of the three with a bit extra thrown in. I know many, many people who love these books but unfortunately I am not one of them. The book is based on a dynastic struggle for the crown of a large but divided kingdom, achieved via intrigue, murder, betrayal and even incest. Apart from the feeling of déjà vu, I found it difficult to engage on a personal level with any of the characters. The “main” character in this particular book, who is the lord of the Northern kingdom, seemed the only interesting personality but even he seemed to behave completely out of character later on in the book and then was killed off anyway so there was not much that made me feel I wanted to continue with the series and plough through another FIVE books in total (with another one to come yet I believe).

I hope you enjoy my artwork to go with the book. I am trying to master the digital program Craft Artist Professional as one of my challenges for 2013 and this piece is part of that challenge.

Lynn x

Happy New Year

WOW it can't be January already?? I haven't had any mojo recently and have been really busy - as well as my crafty space isn't in my home at the moment and I am just not creating as much as I did as most of my previous crafty time was in the evenings.

To try and counteract some of this sloth I have joined Darcy's Artful Readers Group. We chose 12 books at the beginning of the year and commit to reading one a month, do a review and make something creative based on the book. As this combines my two of my three very favourite things, how could I let the opportunity pass by lol??!

They are to be books you have not read before. Here's my 12. These are not in any order, although I confess to having already already started A Game of Thrones as this is the set book for my Book Club this month (2 birds anyone??!!).

1. A Game of Thrones - George RR Martin
2. Robots and Empire - Isaac Asimov
3. Alive - Piers Paul Read
4. Lustrum - Robert Harris
5. Sepulchre - Kate Mosse
6. The Crimson Rooms - Katherine McMahon
7. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
8. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
9. Around the World in 80 Days - Jules Verne
10. The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bukgalov
11. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
12. The 39 Steps - John Buchan.