Oh my goodness what an honour!

I'm over the moon having just seen that I've been featured in the Friday Follower's Gallery at Ikki's Cuttlebug Cupboard.  I've followed this blog and learnt so much from her it's means a lot that she has picked out two of my cards for her gallery.

Made my day.

Bah! Humbug! and Here comes Santa Claus...

Oh my goodness I can't believe that's it's only 183 sleeps to Christmas!!  Good job that thanks to Bah! Humbug! and the other Christmas Card Challenges I enter this coming Christmas will be a breeze as far as cards go.  I've even started making the gift tags.  Oh my halo is shining so brightly these days -LOL -  if I could just work up a little enthusiasm for the ironing I might even be up for a medal.

This week our theme at Bah! Humbug! is Father Christmas and for my creations I've used a clear stamp by Little Claire.  I think this stamp is such a cutie and I'm sure I will be using it a great deal this year.

My card is an A5 piece of card folded in half lengthways to create a very tall thin card.  As you can see I've used the Swiss Dots folder to create my background.  Santa's eyebrows and fur hat trim have been glittered and I also added a tiny pom pom to his hat.  The sentiments are peel offs.

On the matching tag I've used white flowersoft and glitter to give texture and again a real pompom for the top of his hat.  The sentiment was computer generated.  I used gold peel offs to complete the look of the tag.

In addition to Bah!Humbug! my tag and card were also made with the following challenges in mind...

• Aud Sentiments - any sentiment but must have the word 'love' in it.  On the tiny tag on my card the sentiment is 'With Love'.
• ABC Challenge - extra dimension - my image is raised on foam pads and the pompom and flowersoft also give extra dimension
• My Time to Craft - Yuletide in June

Hope to see you at Bah! Humbug! this week.  Have a fun day everyone.

Something a little bit different...

I bought the amazing forest brass stencil by Dreamweaver some time ago and the first time I tried it with embossing paste I loved the result, but wasn't quite sure how to colour it or use the finished piece on a card.  Having found it in one of my drawers during the mass sort out session (alongside quite a few other unused, but still loved items) I decided to get into action instead of being such a wimp.  The following is a quick write up of the method I used to create the tree scene...

1. Taped stencil to black card.
2. Applied white embossing paste to whole area as evenly and smoothly as possible.
3. Carefully unpeeled the tape and lifted off the stencil to be washed.
4. Allowed paste to dry completely and then lay stencil back on top.
5. Attached a card circular mask where I wanted the moon to be.  
6. Using a stencil brush applied Distress Inks to the create the background.  (Denim and Pine)
7. Removed the moon mask.
8. Trimmed and sprayed with Crafter's Companion Silver Glitter Spray (also used on embossed panel on card and the punched border).

I'm am totally obsessed with the Crafter's Companion Spray.  It is just gorgeous.  Once you start using it the temptation to spray everything is just way tooooooooooo much.  I haven't got shares in the company or being paid in anyway to say that - honestly this is really magical stuff.

My card was made with the following challenges in mind...

• Friday Sketchers - a great sketch for a large focal image - thank you guys
• Crafty Ann's - Embossing (paste counts too I'm sure)
• One Stop Craft Challenge - One for the boys (think my card could be either really, but it's certainly not girlie)
• A Spoonful of Sugar - Best Wishes
• Crafty Creations - add some shine (think my favourite spray will count here)

Have a fantastic day everyone.  Oooooooooooooooh less than a week to my birthday now - not that I'm excited or anything - LOL.

For my friend...

This is the card I was working on and keeping secret at the beginning of this week.  It's one for my great friend Max and having heard the squeals all the way from Scotland to down here in Yorkshire I know she has received it and it's safe to post on here.

The stamp is from a Popcorn the Bear set by Crafter's Companion.  I really like this set as it has three tiny sentiments that are just the right size to pop in the tag tied to the duck's flower.  Such a cute duck - love it to bits.  

The patterned and plain card I've used is by Kanban.  To add interest I embossed some of the layers using Cuttlebug folders.  The flowers are punched using Woodware punches that have been in my stash since I first began making cards.  

In addition to being a card for a great buddy my card was also made with the following challenges in mind...

• Crafter's Companion - Sketch
• Practical Scrappers - Flowers
• Cutie Sunday - Summer
• Crazy4Challenges - Paper Flowers
• Simon Says Stamp - Friends (must be getting psychic in my old age as that's two weeks running where my card for Wednesday has fit the Simon Says Challenge before I read the challenge - how weird is that?)

Have a fantastic day everyone.  Let's hope this sunshine lasts and lasts.

White Christmas...

Okay who stole the challenge blog that was covering the theme 'White Christmas'?  I'm sure there was one somewhere and seeing as I'm supposed to be so organised and running the 'Challenge Mania' blog to help everyone out you would think I would get it right at least!

Ah well I had tons of fun doing these and they will be so handy come Christmas time.

So simple to make using the largest Sizzix tag die, Cuttlebug snowflake die and embossing folder with the Swiss Dots folder thrown in for good measure.  I cut two tags so that the rear of the tag is nice and smooth to write on plus the ribbon is sandwiched neatly between.  The tiny tag is also a Cuttlebug die with a simple peel off greeting added.

Luckily my tags are also perfect for the following challenges...

• My Time to Craft - Yuletide in June
• The Cuttlebug Spot - embossed tags
• Crafty Ann's - Embossing

Yeah found it ...

• Die Cut Dreams Christmas Challenge - All White Christmas

I knew I was sticking to all white for some reason - apart from the fact that I think these will look so classy topping a present wrapped in silver foil type wrapping paper.

Hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful sunshine.  So hot here in South Yorkshire - just fabulous.

Ann xxx

Toilet paper...

Hmmm, I wonder how many people saw Sheena Douglas on Create and Craft last week and marvelled at what she created with toilet paper.  Well I did and I was daft enough to go and give the technique a try out.  I hadn't got the set of stamps she used so I gave the technique a go using two background stamps that I thought might give interesting effects.  Interesting being the operative word here.

I suppose the thing that got me really interested in giving this a go was the fact that I didn't need to buy anything at all, because all you need to begin with is toilet paper, water and a rubber stamp of some kind, preferably one deeply etched with big spaces between the etching.

First of all you need a length of toilet paper.  About 6 sheets should be enough and then you fold the paper up making sure that the folded piece is large enough to cover the stamp.  Then comes the fun part - wetting the paper.  Using a water spritzer wet the paper until the fibres begin to fuse together.  It helps to keep turning the paper over wetting both sides.  It's surprising how much water the paper holds.  You can tell when the paper is ready as when you press on it the imprint of your finger can be seen. 

Now lift the paper careful and place on the stamp.  Press down gently and then using an firm brush such as a stippling brush pounce the paper until you can see the design of the stamp clearly.  Then allow to dry.  It takes ages to dry naturally.

Once dry you can remove from the stamp and investigate the finished result.  My crackle stamp worked really well as you can see in the photo.  This is the reverse side that was against the stamp.

The dot stamp didn't look quite so effective on the reverse.  This is the side that was facing upwards.  Once the design is off the stamp you can carefully tear around the area you want to use.

Then comes the colouring part.  I think Sheena used Distress Inks and I haven't got very many in my collection.  I would have loved to have done the spotty piece in hot sort of animally colours, but hadn't got anything in that colour so I tried a brown rubbing the ink on with cut and dried foam.  Not a good idea as the rubbing naturally breaks up the toilet paper.  Dabbing the ink on is more successful.

I'm not thrilled with either of these.  The rusty colour is the side that was facing up and the green is the side that was against the rubber.  However, my crackles piece was far more successful (although in the picture it looks a bit iffy).  I used Denim Distress Ink and dabbed the ink on the design and rubbed the edges to get a really distressed dark edge.

I quite like this piece, but I haven't a clue what I'm going to do with it.  Ah well I had fun - wish they made really dark colours of toilet roll.  That would be interesting.

If you do decide to try this remember to dab not rub the ink on.  The bits that come off if you rub make a dreadful mess and are really tricky to clear up.  Believe me I know!

Have a fun day.

Ann xxx

Wowza I won an award...

So excited to discover that my ribbon holders won the Sprinkles award at the Pile it On challenge blog.  What an honour? The winners at Pile it On are always such stunning creations so I'm both stunned and absolutely over the moon to have been picked out.

Oh my goodness I've also discovered that I was picked as being in the Top Five at the ABC Christmas Challenge!  Well I never!

Can't show anything new today as although I've been busy creating everything seems to need to be kept secret at the moment.  The Summer Fayre went well on Saturday.  Most of the 70 or so bookmarks sold and for a small event I was really pleased that my craft table raised well over £40.  I need to start making bits and bobs for my daughter's Nursing Home now.

Hope your start to the week is as great as mine.

Ann xxx