A new ATC Swap

I thought I'd give everyone a heads up about a new ATC swap that is starting on UK Stampers. We have had a monthly swap hosted by Vonny for some time but from September we are starting an alphabet swap. Over the next 26 months (!!!) we will cover the whole alphabet in random order. Vonny has let us know the letters for the first 3 months so that we can work around any holidays etc in advance. The general ATC swap rules are here and the specific info for the Alpha swap is here. We are a friendly bunch of crafters and would be delighted if anyone else wanted to join in. The first set of swaps will not take place until the end of September so there is loads of time to take part. There is no long term commitment involved - you take part as and when you can. I hope you give it a try.

LIM 237 - Another Wedding Card

 

An early entry from me this week as I just happened to be putting the finishing touches to this wedding card when I saw that this week's theme on the Less Is More blog is 'Congratulations'.

I cut a 12cm square card from white Bazzill cardstock and added an 11cm mat which I embossed with a lattice folder. the Hobbycraft sentiment was stamped, gold heat embossed and die cut with a nestie labels die which I embossed with a rubber mat. The flower is a Marianne die with pearls added. Quick and simple but I like the elegance of gold and white for a wedding.



A Wedding Card

I saw a tutorial for a tri-fold card and thought it would be perfect for a wedding card I had to make. Unfortunately I cannot remember whose blog the instructions came from but as soon as I find out I will give the proper attribution.
Edited to add: the instructions are on MiniOwners fab blog here.

I wanted the card to be predominantly white with a touch of gold and lots of texture . I used 2 classic Cuttlebug embossing folders d'vine swirls and swiss dots and a nestie heart die which I embossed with a rubber mat.

The text is a Hobbycraft stamp which I heat embossed in gold.

Craft Barn Weekly Challenge

This weeks challenge on the Craft Barn blog is to use pens. I used my Clearly Besotted poppy stamps with my Whispers pens to give a faux watercolour effect. The sentiment is from the same set. The frame is from an old set of foam mounted stamps that I bought on holiday in Florida when I first started stamping. It had been pushed to the back of one of my stamp drawers and when I found it the rubber had perished and was starting to crack. I stamped it one last time before it crumbled and had to be thrown away. I liked the imperfect print and added some bright colours to highlight the swirls.

UK Stampers Postcard swap - August

Sometimes you are presented with a great theme and just can't seem to do it justice. That's how I feel about this month's postcard for the swap on UK Stampers. The theme chosen by Jill is a great one  - put a frame on your postcard but I just couldn't think of anything original to do. In the end I opted for this very old stamp from Stampington called 'pressed profile'. I'm making an effort to revisit the lovely stamps in my collection and it's been a while since I used this one. I recently acquired a couple of Color Box petal point ink pads in Mosaic and Enchantment. The background used various colours from both sets, some DIs, a stencil and a crackle stamp. The image itself was coloured with Twinkling H2Os. The word 'flower' is from a Paper Artsy set.

Calendar Challenge - August

This month's recipe for the Craft Barn calendar challenge is pink and butterflies. I used a large butterfly background stamp by a company called Gourmet Rubber Stamps and stamped it in Brilliance starlite black (this is my go to ink pad when I want a soft grey). As the stamp was not large enough to cover the whole of my calendar page I placed it centrally and covered the unstamped areas with pink paint. I then used a Fiskars border punch top and bottom (the blue areas you see are actually holes) and added some tiny punched butterflies. The pink butterflies were stamped and cut from patterned paper and card and highlights added with a Wink of Stella pen.

Katzelkraft Monthly Challenge - August

I finally had a chance to get to my desk and have a little crafting time. This month on the KTZ blog, the challenge is 'anything but a card'. I managed to cut some of my lavender this year and it is drying in the sun at the moment so, as my machine was out, I thought I would make a couple of bags to put the dried lavender in. This is a project that is recycling various items - the bags are made from an old school shirt and the ribbon was cut off from an item of clothing. I had the perfect stamps for this in KTZ 51 and used Stazon ink. As my lavender is still drying I've just filled the bags with something else for the moment to give you an idea of what they will look like.
Here's a closer pic of the back:

 

and the front: