Bah! Humbug! Day ...Text....

Oh I had so much fun making this card for our new challenge at Bah! Humbug!  This week our theme is to use text as a focal point.  Wow, brilliant news as ever since seeing Barbara Gray's show on Create and Craft recently when she showed some amazing word stamps I've been desperate to have a play using words and their shape as a feature on a card.

I decided to take the obvious route and choose a word with a couple of convenient circular openings in the letters.  I must admit that on starting the card I was thinking of the 'Os' being apertures and the polar bears being stamped on the card inner.  In the end though I used acetate and made the 'Os' into shaker areas with the polar bears stamped on card behind.  The glitter card letters were cut on my Cricut machine using the basic cartridge that accompanied my machine.

Materials used...

• Woodware Polar Bear clear stamp set
• Cricut machine and Plantain Schoolbook Cartridge
• Diamond Dust (in the shaker part)
• acetate and clear foam tape to create shaker section
• sentiment computer generated and printed on to white card
• blue glitter card and silver mirri board
• silver peel off

Additional challenges...

• Simon Says Challenge - Move it (think the moving snow counts)
• Die Cut Dreams Christmas Challenge - a child's Christmas (what kid can resist playing with a shaker card?)
• Pixie Dust Studio - fur or feathers (on this occasion white fur)

Don't forget to pop over to Bah! Humbug! and check out the fab designs by my team mates Irene and Max and hopefully you'll have time to join us in our new challenge.

Have a great Friday.

Ann xxx

Happy Birthday House Mouse Challenge...

The House Mouse Challenge has been around for two whole years and they are celebrating with an anniversary blog hop and a fantastic sketch challenge to mark the event.  I chose to use my House Mouse ballerina stamp which my daughter bought me.  How cute is that mouse?  The papers are some that have been in my stash for years.  I think the patterned ones were in a huge bundle by Papermania and the plain card is by DCWV.  

My card is also for the challenges at...

• Crafty Creations - Music and Dance
• Practical Scrappers - Use those buttons (I know the button I've used is not an obvious one, but the flower in the middle of the punched flower is a button.  I had to break the back off it - honest!)
• Crafty Ann's - Monochrome

 Enjoy the rest of your day everyone.  I'm off to try out some of my new craft stash.

Bookmarks...

Both my daughter and I are avid readers and we both buy books like there is no tomorrow.  Just the other day (after finding one on the shelf that I'd crazily bought for the second time) we decided we needed a bit of organisation.  Laura bravely took on the job of writing each and everyone of them in a notebook to try and bring some order into our book mania.  The number of books she wrote down was/is scary.  Oh my goodness I have nearly as many books as I do rubber stamps and that is a lot!  

Anyhow as she had took on this tedious job I decided to make a sort of 'thank you ' bookmark and one for myself too as with 175 books to get through we both need to do some serious reading.  I've added a name tag on Laura's, but I guess the pink gave the game away anyway.

The stamps I've use are by Stamptivity and are available from Debbie Moore Designs.  There are actually 3 different sets, but I particularly have a fondness for dandelion images (not on the lawn though) so I chose that set.  I actually got an email from the company yesterday and they have free postage till the end of September and if you add the code STAMP10  there is 50% off. What a bargain?

My bookmarks are also for the following challenges...

• Totally Stampalicious - Bookmarks
• Rainbow Lady's Challenge Blog - Black, white and silver.
• Tuesday Taggers - Books

Phew two posts in one day - amazing.  Back at work tomorrow so got to make the best of a free day.

Ann xxx

Poundland stamp storage files...

Yesterday I found these fabulous stamp storage containers at Poundland.  I already knew how good they are as my daughter bought me a set a few years back, but I've never been able to track them down since at either 'cheap' shops or office supply shops.  They really are fab so if you are anywhere near a Poundland (not the Rotherham one as I'm calling in tomorrow to get some more and I don't want them to be sold out) watch out for boxes like the one in the photo below.

They are just deep enough for a layer of stamps stuck to both inside panels of the box.  I laminated the Elusive images design sheet to put between the stamps so the the rubber was not pressing on the rubber at the other side when I closed the box.  Dents in stamps would not be funny!

As you can see in the photo I'm stashing a sheet of clear stamps in there too.

This the box closed - very slim - very compact and you can even pull out a side piece which allows you to store it in a lever arch file.  I did take a photo of this, but it didn't come out very well.  I think I would prefer mine out of the file and just stood on my shelf really, but it's nice to have the option.

I don't normally decorate my storage containers.  I think I must have been having a funny turn.  I do think it will make getting these stamp sets out a real pleasure though and maybe I will use them more.  The bird on the design is from the Elusive Images set 'Birds of a feather' and the stamp details were computer generated using 'Australian Sunset' font.  A little bit more dusting going on in the background too.  Wish I could work up more enthusiasm for the other kind of dusting, but I can't.

My storage container is perfect (I hope) for the challenges at...

• Crafty Ann's - Monochrome
• Charisma Cards - something new or not done before (not a new technique, but I haven't decorated a stamp storage box before)

Wishing everyone a fab start to the week.

Ann xxx