Quotes & Lyrics - Better

I've missed challenge 18 due to personal pressures but I will catch up. I decided to get this fortnight's challenge done in good time. The words to choose from are Patience and Better. I decided on a lyric and came up with this song from Disney's 'The Little Mermaid'. I don't have many aquatic themed stamps so resorted to some computer generated images. My sea background is made by smooshing the edge of tumbled glass, broken china, salty ocean and faded jeans DI pads to create a ripple effect. The seaweed and fish are from a Kodomo set. The dark green seaweed is a small leaf stamp layered up. The shells are from a Crafty Individuals set. I was going for a colourful, cartoonish effect - I hope I've succeeded.

UK Stampers Postcard Swap - September

I didn't want to miss this month's postcard swap on UK Stampers which had a theme of Architecture. I brushed stripes of wild honey, spiced marmalade and barn door DI across a 6"x4" card for the background. The stamp is by Katzelkraft and the text is from a travel set.I then used brushed corduroy through a stencil and around the edges. The arrow is made from a stencil and some punched photo corners finished the postcard.

UK Stampers ATC Swap - September

It's been a long time since I last posted here - I've been away on holiday and since my return I have been occupied with a personal matter that has put crafting on the back burner but today I felt I needed to get onto my desk and make something.
This month's theme for the ATC swap on UK Stampers is 'Three Times A Lady', a perfect theme to use this old Stamp Magick stamp called Geisha Rushmore. I used a Memory Box stencil (texture rhapsody) and tumbled glass, broken china and faded jeans DIs on the background and flicked Glimmer Mist over. The stylised cloud, border stamp and butterfly are from an unidentified oriental set and some punched dragonflies finish the ATCs.

Bows

There are a lot of bow dies available at the moment but these are easy enough to make with one of the many free templates you can find on the web. I found mine on Thrifty Jinxy's blog . I was asked to make a female card with some tartan on it and as this was being delivered by hand I thought it was a good excuse to use this template and some wrapping paper I bought from Paperchase for 50p. I have also made these bows into hair clips by attaching the clips (available in Poundland) before gluing the centre strip on. The sentiment is stamped with a CeeD's set in archival cobalt. Here's the card with its matching present:

Paint Chips

After years of reading about it I finally found myself in possession of some paint chips - the little sample strips that show the different colours that can be mixed. I punched out some butterflies and stuck them onto a Hero Arts 9 square background (stamped in Brilliance Starlite Black). Although it's hard to see from the scan, the last butterfly in the bottom right corner is only partially stuck down so its wings are free. I mounted the square on a scrap of Crafty Individuals paper and cut some flourishes from a Marianne die. A very quick and simple card!

September

 

Well I guess that's summer done and dusted! For some reason, this year it seemed like during the  summer the talk was only of Christmas. August was filled with 'new season Autumn fashions' .Why can't we enjoy the seasons as they come rather than constantly looking ahead to the next?

Quotes & Lyrics - Grace

For the 17th challenge in the Craft Barn's Quotes & Lyrics competition the words to choose between are 'Grace' & 'Peaceful'. As my choice last time was a quote I wanted to do a lyric this time however I had a tough time finding a lyric I could work with. I felt that grace and style ought to go together and a quick search unearthed this old Tom Jones song ( I later remembered that 'Vogue' by Madonna also had grace and style in it). Here's the first verse:

Well she's all you'd ever want,
She's the kind they'd like to flaunt and take to dinner.
Well she always knows her place.
She's got style, she's got grace, She's a winner.

 Now I'm not sure that I would want to be 'flaunted' or referred to as 'the little lady' even by the legend Mr Jones so I decided to cherry pick the bits of the song that worked for me.
I recently bought some new stencils and this Dina Wakley silhouette which comes with the negative and positive fitted nicely. The background is a wash of Fresco orchid (a discontinued colour) and white acrylic. I used a diamond stencil and edged the page with Brilliance Victorian violet. The numbers are by Paper Artsy stamped with a Kaleidacolor ink pad. There are also some random white dots which I highlighted with a pink Uni Posca pen and 'chic' stamped with Brilliance platinum planet.
Although I had pencilled around the silhouette, I felt it lacked something so I cut another image, gave it a shaded effect with wild honey, spiced marmalade and barn door DIs and ran it through an embossing folder for extra texture. The arrow was shaded in the same way - I have a stencil of the awesome arrow but unfortunately it was pointing the wrong way so I made my own. The main title was cut with Sizzix petite petals and I die cut some flower shapes for my lyrics. The butterflies were punched from paint chips (more on that in a later post). Unfortunately with all the paint etc the page has curled up so I have scanned it for now but this has flattened the butterflies which are quite dimensional IRL. Here's a close-up of one of the butterflies: