An award!

It was so lovely to check my blog while away visiting my parents in Wales to find that Sarah had kindly given me my first award! My mobile internet connection was dire so I decided to wait until I got home to post it on here. Thank you so much, Sarah- great to have a blogging friend who is also a teacher- making the most of those last seconds of holiday!

The terms of this particular award are:-

1. Make reference to award and publish it on your blog
2. Share 5 things you like to do
3. And share with 10 blogs
4. Inform each blog
   

I like to:-

1. Cover the dining room with my stuff and make cards- obviously!
2. Spend time with my son- soon to be in KS2- where did the time go?
3. Visit my parents who are nearer now than they were when I lived in London but still too far away.
4. Chat with my husband and son at the dinner table each day. [Yes, the craft stuff gets put away for every meal- Oh for a craft room!]
5. Get 'happy mail', of the crafting sort! [My list of shops in my favourites grows ever longer and my wishlist far exceeds my salary!]

I'm giving this award to:-

Summer at Summertime Designs for sharing her wonderful free digi scrapbooking kits which also print beautifully for cards.

And to the following blogs that I follow and who follow me for sharing their cards and taking the time to leave kind comments:-

Julia at {The PerkyPig Gets Creative!} .

Denise at The Crafty Den .

Debby at A scrapjourney.

Tara at Happily Ever Crafting.

Jan at LilyPuss Cards.

{ I know that's only six but I really have to get the tea on now so will have to leave it at that!}

Ruby fairy...

Well, my son and I have been in Wales for a couple of weeks visiting my folks and I can't believe how fast the summer holidays have gone! I am back at school on Tuesday and the Head has asked me to go full time in year 2 until one of our staff is able to return from illness. He has indicated that it may go on until Christmas. This will obviously have an impact on my 'work/life balance' but I hope to keep on posting cards, if not quite as frequently as before!

Allsorts had a tough challenge for me this week- no rubber stamping! Rubber stamping is what I do! However, back in July I was lucky enough to win the prize over at Stamp Something Challenges which was $10 worth of digital stamps from Fred She Said. I have never used digi stamps before so decided that this was the push I needed. Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge was 'flights of fancy- anything with wings' so I have used the Little Miss Bitty Fairy image.

As I said I'm a total novice with digi images and as I printed on an inkjet I was rather worried about the ink running when I coloured. I decided to paper piece the dress by also printing her onto this Pink Petticoat paper. I coloured her skin and hair with brushmarkers but the effect looked really flat so I braved watercolouring them onto her cheeks and hair for more shading. I was desperate to use my shimmering watercolours for her wings so went for it and was pleasantly surprised when I didn't ruin it! Any hints on colouring digital images or links to useful info would be very welcome!

In keeping with the challenge, the sentiment has been computer generated then cut out and embossed with my wonderful new Spellbinders ribbon tags dies.

The colour combo of 'ruby, cream and gold' comes from Colour Create. Great opportunity to use this sumptuous red cardstock which is coated and embossed with swirls and circles along with this lovely matt gold and hammered cream- all from the local Pay-per-box. I used a few scraps of the printed paper and gold to decorate the inside.

Mummy-to-be card...

I'm really not sure if I like this card! It has taken quite a while coming together. I printed the front papers when I saw Colour Create's combo of pink, orange and green. They are a free download called 'Happy Mothers' Day' by Summertime Designs. But they have been sitting around for over a week because I was helping out at our Church Holiday club last week and, although we all had a fantastic time, I was too tired to craft in the evenings!

The design started to come together when I saw Friday Sketchers challenge. There were lots of curves which made me think of this Elzybells stamp, which I have had for ages but just not got around to inking up yet! I decided to follow this sketch and round the front of the card which meant I needed to go back to my DP and print a paper for the inside as it would show. About a week ago I persuaded my husband to answer loads of the things I wanted to do with Photoshop but couldn't and he even showed me some things I hadn't thought of! Refering back to my notes, I was able to lighten the pink by altering the opacity and overlay the flowers at the bottom and top corner before printing- I even impressed myself!

I had been thinking about Stamp Something's challenge to use a charm on your card- I don't have any charms! I decided to have a go at making one, so used a little bootie stamp from a Woodware clear set to stamp on shrink plastic. I used a hole punch to make the hole before cutting them out. I knew they were going to end up tiny because they were pretty small before I started but also because I checked them with my shrink plastic ruler (see end of post). They were so small that my heat gun kept blowing them away so I ended up heating them in a ramekin dish to keep them in one place! They are suspended from the mulberry flower by a fine silver thread as I do not have any jewellery making stuff.

Shrink Plastic Ruler.

I don't claim this as my own idea but can not remember where I heard it! Take an off cut of shrink plastic and, using a permanent pen, draw on a line with a ruler and mark off and number each centimeter. Shrink the 'ruler' and use it to give a guide of how small your shrinkies will end up. For example- Measure your stamp in cm. then find the same size on your 'ruler' to get an idea of their final size when shrunk. Sorry for the blurry photo but this is seriously small!

Cricketing Birthday card...

I needed a card for my cousin's son's birthday which is next week so decided to follow the Sketch Saturday sketch. I used the little cricketing teddy from Personal Impressions Clear sets as he is cricket mad. I coloured him with watercolour pencils, keeping the colours quite plain and matching the brown to the line in the argyle paper.

The design papers are all from a free download set called 'Fathers and fedoras' by Summertime Designs. Even the 'ribbons' are from there! I finished each one with a brad for boyish embellishment! I used a peal off for the greeting because I wanted it to stand out on the navy, unfortunately the 13 gets a bit lost on the patterned paper.

I decorated the inside simply with another piece of printed ribbon, a couple of die cut stars and a pocket to hold some money

Alter Something- Matthew's Photo Tin.

Stampin' For the weekend have 'Alter Something' as their challenge for this week. I have been intending to do something with these cigar tins for ages. My husband gave up smoking over seven years ago, just after our son was born, but just before he did he got into these tiny cigars and I have a stack of tins in the cellar. I even bought a can of spray paint for them over a year ago!

So here's what I did. I have never scrapbooked but thought I might try one of these hangings. To display some of my favourite photos of my son.
The pictures are all matted onto various papers printed from Summertime Designs free download 'Fathers and Fedoras'. I was able to size the papers before printing to scale down the designs for these 8cm by 7cm panels. Everything in sight has had the corners rounded off! The stars and hearts decorating the inside of the lid and base have been cut from the same papers with a Sizzlits die.

I wanted a little embellishment on most of the pictures so I have used either some silver shaped brads or some tiny white brads.

The back of each panel is decorated with a letter cut from the design papers and a few tiny peel off stars to add silver detail but not bulk. I don't have large alphabet dies or a Cricut so I printed out the papers, then used an old program I have to take a font from my computer and just give it a very fine outline, then put the papers back through my printer to give me the letters which I then cut out.