Final Holiday Post

Just so you know I wasn't relaxing completely on holiday, I was also making up Knitty Kitties to sell this Christmas at the Fayre. :) If there are any left over this year, I am thinking of popping them on Etsy :)

Card For The Bride.

Really struggled to get this card looking right, I don't normally use pastels and I'm not that confident with watercolouring! There were a few incarnations of it before I setttled with this one. Never hurts to have a restart! :)

I used white heat embossed stamped images from a Hunkydory Clearly Stamps Set called Celebrations. Once embossed I used distress inks like watercolours to colour the images and backgrounds. I also used inks to make the backing papers.

Distress Inks: Peeled Pain, Shaded Lilac and Worn Lipstick.

I printed my text (in Edwardian Script) and then added the banner shapes by hand in lilac pen. The bride one was stuck across the middle of the flower heart.

Inside, I used the champagne glass from the stamp set and cut it out after watercolouring it. I added hearts from the stamp set, sequins and glossy accent bubbles.

I repeated the sequins and bubbles on the blank area left for the personal message. I really like the flute, hearts and bubbles, and might reuse that idea the next congrats card I make.

Pumpkins!

Challenge 27 on The Crafty Addicts Challenge Blog has started! This time the theme is Halloween Colours (Or Anything Goes) and we very pleased to be sponsored by Moonflower Digistamps! They are offering a great prize of a $10 voucher, so worth a go! All you need to do is blog your card and post a link to it using the Linky button on the Challenge Blog Page (scroll to the bottom to see it!)

I have used the image called "Gina Pumpkin" by Moonflower Digistamps, she was great fun to colour, three times over in places as I did her as a layered decoupage.

I used polychromo pencils on white and kraft card. I had printed the image 3 times so was able to make her into a decoupage. 

The stickers are old ones I think from Hobbycraft, I love them.

The papers were freebies from http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/

The font is "A Charming Font"

Stars are from Shimelle (American Crafts)

Close Up Of Gina

Sponsor Badge

More Frenchie!

Last month I had in an order for a french bulldog birthday card. At the time I made two, in different colours, and decided to use the pinky one as a wedding card for later in the year, as the couple with the frenchie are getting married. So this card I made for myself to give someone (it's been a while) but it's really nice to not have to consider any requirements other than my own :)

I masked a frenchie image and used watercolours (Gansai Tambi) to make an interesting background. I cut out the frenchie and left it as a void. I mounted it with 3D foam onto a pink sparkley paper and a pink matt. Then onto a white card base. Added banner and enamel bling.

Holiday Wildlife Post.

Part of the great thing about holidaying in Anglesey is the easy access to so many bird species, without waiting in a hide for hours! I didn't get very spectacular pics, my camera is a bit on the wonk, but I did manage to get a record of most of the interesting things we spotted!


At first I thought this was a sandpiper, but now I'm not sure if it is a Godwit?! Do you know what it is? Apparently a black tailed Godwit is seen in the area and this bird was significantly bigger than a common sandpiper. (Seen at Rhosyr)

 In the distance spotted some Cormorants! (Rhosyr)

Was so distracted by the Little Egret, that I almost didn't see the Grey Heron behind! (Rhosyr)

Think these are Redshanks. There were large groups of them all along this part of the coast. Wanted to include this pic as it shows how great they were when they ran!  (Rhosyr)

 Oyster catchers! Finally a bird I can confidently identify! (Rhosyr)

Spotted the red on the back of this Kestrel whilst we were out in the car near Dulas.

Also whilst out in the car, near Dulas, we had to wait for the Partridges in front of the car to remember they could fly! We followed them for a good 250 metres before they  moved off the road. They were in with a group of pheasants too.

On the west coast at Newborough we spotted a flock of these Turnstones on the edge of the beach. Plenty of seaweed around, which is what they appeared to be interested in.

 

We also saw a buzzard and lots of different gulls and terns that unfortunately I didn't get pictures of. The starlings were out in full force and starting on their murmurations. Geese were traveling in formation overhead. There were masses of rooks and an occasional crow, as well as all the different garden birds.

Just a quick non bird distraction that occured! RED SQWIRL! :) We didn't see any of them in the offical red squirrel reserves, but we did spot 2 out on our travels :) This is a very poor photo but does show how splendid his tail was! Almost like a minature fox at first glance. (At Llaneilian)

Anglesey Holiday.

Spent last week on hols in Anglesey. We stayed in a cottage near Moelfre, somewhere we had stayed in 2008, it's gorgeous and had been upgraded since our last stay, now all very plush! Here is a pic from the front of the cottage, looking out towards the coast.

The view from the cottage in 2008.

The View from the cottage in 2016 (Instagram pic)

We spent most of the holiday going to beaches and visiting our favourite spots on the coast.

Aberfraw - only popped out the car to get a photo here, the sun was setting and it looked really pretty.

 Amlwch Port - also has a rather nice Chinese takeaway that we went to on the way home one day. Sunset was fabulous!

 Cemaes Bay, where we were going to fly the kite but it was far too busy in the car park this time and the tide was in, so not much beach to use or walk the dog on. This is Rog (My partner) and our dog Holly (a Chocolate Labrador)  in the foreground.

View from near Llaneilian - we went off piste for a nosey towards Point Lynas Lighthouse and this was one of the views along the way.

Lligwy, our nearest beach and favourite dog walking spot. Holly loves it!  It's about 2 mins from the cottage that we stay in and is one of the nicest quietest beaches we visited. Think we went here almost every day. (This pic was at sunset on our first evening there).

Newborough Beach, also next to a red squirrel reserve.  It costs £4 to park near Newborough beach but there are good facilities there and usually a really epic beach, but once again we got there at high tide! The view was impressive though.

 South Stacks. Fab RSPB shop and café. No puffins this time of year. Also VERY WINDY! Have to pop here to get RSPB pin badges and buy some postcards. Everyone has a gannet postcard this year, it was puffins last time we went!

Trearddur Bay - beautiful bay with a small beach. This is where we stayed on our last Anglesey holiday.

We also saw lots of interesting wildlife, but I shall do a post about that tomorrow, just so nothing is too picture heavy! It was a lovely holiday, lots of beautiful scenery and awesome skies! I also did quite a lot of crafting in the evenings and worked on some new dog related digistamps. We are now home and have almost finished the holiday washing (does everyone hate that bit?) and it was nice to go through all our pics and make this post :).

Second Wedding Card

I made two cards for the couple getting married last weekend, here is the second one. I went for white on white, my first time! I combo'd alot of dies to make this!

So, the main part of the easel is a huge combo of dies, on some textured background papers ( hard to see!). The flowers are mainly from Wild Orchid. The two doves top right are wooden laser cuts, painted. The pearls are from the stash. The ribbon is a white version of the cream ribbon we used on their actual wedding invites. (Off ebay).

As you can tell, it was super hard to get a good photo, but here it is laid flat. Its 20cm x 20cm, so pretty large!

Dies used - 
Tonic - Wreath
Joy - (Background landscape) Mery's Christmas tree and house border.
Marianne designs - Bike LR0394
Die'sire - Traditional Bunting
Sue Wilson - Maidenhair Ferns
Nestabilities - Hearts
IO Dies - Birch and Cardinal DIE079-U
And the couple were a loan from a friend, not sure what the die is called, but it also has a stone arch!
***Edit - It's Crafts Too Presscut Die - Bride and Groom PCD14***

Inside the card, to make the rest for the easel to latch onto, I cut out three dogs, also in white, two Frenchies and a Pug! Their dogs are called Esmae, Bert and Ted! More lace and flowers as above.

Love these new Grace Taylor Papers!

Commissioned card I made back in June for a friend. The recipient loves German Shepherds, so I had to include one. I love these new papers by Grace Taylor ( Home Sweet Home, 100 Sheet Paper Kit, 12x12) that I got recently from a fair.

Completely straight forward easel card with matting and layering and Wild Orchid flowers. Font is Apple Butter.

Ribbon, dies, foam tape etc all from crafty stash.

All dressed up - bride and groom.

Commissioned Wedding Congrats Card for the couple I recently made wedding invites for. This beautiful image is from All Dressed Up, and it was the only one that I thought was cute, but not saccharine or sickly or animé!

This stamp is called "Over The Moon", I had to remove the text when I printed it because I knew it was going to get at least partially covered. I printed it onto kraft card and coloured it with polychromos. Her invites were on kraft card, and had bunting, so I wanted to included them somewhere in this card too.

Here is a close up of the centre of the card.

Papers were all from the stash, and mainly freebies from magazines. Flowers from Prima and Wild Orchid. Stars from Shimelle. Bling from stash.

Dies used
Joy - Clouds
Die'sire - Traditional Bunting
X-cut - Butterfly
Marianne - Bird LR0137

Pair of black, red and white kitty cards.

This started as a commissioned card for a 60th birthday, but I eventually made a pair of cards using two backgrounds I had created to compliment the image and colour scheme.

The central image is using an Inkylicious  stamp called "Cat - Toby".. which I picked up in a Craft Fair some time ago and had not used before. I really like it! And I was able to edit it to use as a black and white cat and as a black cat for the commissioned card. The butterfly stamp came with the image and I used a grass stencil to give the cat a base to sit on.

The two backgrounds were made by first blowing (distress reinker) inks with a straw! I love the look of it, and discovered if you blow really hard, you can make quite a thin network of veins! On the one version I then used normal distress inks to colour the cardstock, and on the other left it white.

Distress Ink Base layer - Ripe Persimmon, Barn Door, Spiced Marmalade and Fired Brick
Reinkers - Mustard Seed, Carved Pumpkin and Candied Apple.

Stamps in background, using Versafine Onyx Black  - La Chat Noir from Craft Stamper Magazine, "We Love Cats" from the Apple Blossom Craft Collection and Poppy Paint Fusion Set from Sheena Douglass.

Glossy Accent on eyes, bling and ribbon from stash to finish.

I scanned and reused the backgrounds so I could  make matching inners for the cards.

Autumn Colours!

Loved working with Autumn colours for this Challenge, No 26 on The Crafty Addicts Challenge Blog! The theme is either Autumn Colours, or as normal, Anything Goes.

We are sponsored this time by the lovely A Day for Daisies who have some of my very favourite images to colour. This time, for my inspiration card, I used "Playing in the Pumpkin Patch" which was so nice to colour! I've used polychromo pencils on Neenah Sandstorm Cardstock for this one, wanted to see how it worked with the polychromos, imho it's just a bit too smooth, but I was able to blend fine on it.

I also went a bit mad with the embelli's but I was having fun and didn't care about whether I was being cost effective! I used dies for the clouds (joy) , bunting (die'sire) and butterfly (xcut). I used card and paper from my stash, probably each piece from a different collection and time period! The flowers are from Prima/QVC. Bling also from the stash. The greeting is a font called "Angel Tears".....think that's it!

Close Up of the image.

Sponsor Badge, click to visit the shop.

 

Halloween Kitties on The Crafty Addicts Facebook Challenge.

New challenge has started over at the The Crafty Addicts on Facebook! This time the theme is ATG or Halloween Colours, and the sponsor is me! Lol, well Knitty Kitty Digis!  :) If you would like to take part, just add a photo of your project to this month's challenge album! Prize is three free KKD images from the shop. You can see lots of work created with the image in the facebook group too. (click on the cats below!)

Card using Pumpkitties - available in the shop here.

Card using Kit or Treat  - available in the shop here.

I made two cards, had to have a back up incase the watercolouring went wrong, my watercolour skills are rather random! :)  I popped to Helen's house again, so got to use her Gansai Tambi Watercolour Paints!
So printed the digi onto the card stock, masked it and used watercolours for the background. When dry, unmasked the image and coloured it with copics. Added a vellum banner and sequins, mounted onto card. Font is "A Charming Font".

I am entering this card into the Show Us Your Pussies Meowloween Challenge!

Aladdin Sane.

Commissioned 21st Birthday Card in the style of a David Bowie LP. Fun brief! I loved making this in the end, though in my brain it seems more complicated than it was in actuality. I could do with some larger round dies, but a tin lid turned out to be exactly 5 inches so, win! :)

So I chose the iconic Aladdin Sane Album, I think it must be the most famous image of Bowie? Her name is Abbie and I was soooo tempted to rename the album "AbbieIn Sane" but I thought that might be too rude! lol. (With a commission you have to be rather more polite, don't you think?)

The Album cover is just a sleeve, like a real LP Cover and then the card slots inside. Here is the card stood up, it's a normal tent fold, but round!

I layered up lots of black circles, and made them shine with a touch of glossy accents. I downloaded the red centre disc for the album and just converted it. The centre is foam mounted/raised and the 21 is a void. I layered sparkly paper behind it to show through the "21".

I love this image from the album shoot (found whilst I was trawling google) and decided to make it the new back cover album art.

Lino cutting!

I had a commission for a linocut! They are such fun to do. Every time I do one I get a bit more confident and a bit less haphazard and it's nice to have a completely new learning curve to get on. I had done a cat pic last year, and a friend wanted me to do another, the same scale, background and frame, but another cat, to make a pair for the first one. I actually used "Smoothie" as my muse. He is adorbs! :) Here is a little progress pic I uploaded to instagram. I gave them finished and boxed to the customer today.

Perfume!

This is a commissioned card for someone who loves perfume. I also decided to start to have a play with my Craft Artist Software and some of the images from the Steam Punk Parlour and Victoriana kits, both from Daisy Trail.

It makes a completely different style of card I think, and I seem to have a lot of skills to learn (drop shadows being the first one suggested!) but the customer liked it and I think I managed to make the easel card look a bit like a dressing table! :) The large black circle is actually mirri card and reflects like a mirror.

So elements from Steam Punk Parlour and Victoriana both from Daisy Trail.
Wood paper from Joy Wood Texture Paper Block.
Pearls from Stash.
Font is Edwardian Script.

Pop Up Vintage Travel Card

Another commission card, but this time a Vintage Travel Pop Up for a 21st Birthday. I collected up lots of stamped images and free clip art to make this theme. The pop up box blanks from Every Craft A Pound are just so easy to use.

I kept the colour scheme quite simple as it was quite an eclectic mix of elements and styles.

Most parts of this from the crafty stash. Of note are these fab epoxy stars from Prima.

Close up detail.