Speed Craft Sunday 3

Good Morning!

Its Sunday, so it must be time for a very quick crafty project.

I need to show you one i did earlier this time, because i'm slightly demented trying to do too many things at once. January is always a challenging month for me, i get myself into a right state over my tax return, but i'm struggling extra because of my bad arm, everything is taking longer than it should and some things i simply cant do for myself at all,  and i'm beginning to question if  i'm doing a good job at work, so quite honestly wondering if its time to change direction.

But for now i'm trundling along as best i can.

So here's a speedy project...

 This is a DL card made by stamping the outline of the Marigold and Friends stamp set, 1st 2nd and 3rd generation in Library Green archival ink, then stamping the outer fill, again 1st 2nd and 3rd generation ink, Prickly Pear this time.

And what about some speed craft coasters to match?

Same colours with the addition of, hang on i'll go and check...Buttercup archival.

Ok that's all folks, thanks for popping in, have a lovely sunday!

Maria x

Finish it Friday 4

Hello and thanks for stopping by for another Finish it Friday.

Iv'e really been looking forward to showing you this one.

I was prepping some samples for Leonie's Hochanda shows (Today 8am and 4pm), her new frameless stencils are very cool.  So i was playing with the Gel plate and ended up with tons of surplus bits-great opportunity for a Finish it Friday project I thought!

So this is what i started with...

The more colourful piece was the 'blot', the pale piece was just cleaning the stencil with a spray of water, and the lovely die cut is from the Daisy fresh cut die.

I trimmed off a strip of the colourful piece and brushed a little Blaze ink to take the whiteness away. Edge in black sharpie.

For the pale clean up piece, I just laid the stencil back over the card, lined it up and brushed a touch of Blaze ink and some lilac ink, i left the edges alone so the colour faded away.

Add a few splatters using the same red and lilac ink on a paintbrush.

Edge the card with black sharpie, add the brighter strip and tuck in part of the die cut.

Add a die cut sentiment, maybe a couple of 'coffee cup' style stains, wrap some twine around and bang the whole thing on an 8 inch card blank!

I loved this one so much played with the gel plate some more so i could replicate the card so i had one to give Leonie for her show and one for me to keep for my birthday card stash.

Hope you like it!

Maria x

Kind Hearts, Kind Thoughts...

Good nearly afternoon!

How's the weather with you? We've had snow here last night and this morning, hoping it will all be gone very very soon, i didn't order it and i don't want it!

So now iv'e had a quick moan i'll show you a card.

I had a few random sheets of paper from an old pad, i liked the open space through the middle so decided the Garden Heart die cut would fit nicely.

I gold embossed the words from the Garden Heart stamp set above and below the heart.

I added a touch of colour with a beige marker, and some gold pearly bits to accent.

Looks a bit rustic? I quite like it.

Thanks for popping in, come back soon!

Maria x

Groovi Tuesday 3

Good Morning and thanks for joining me for another Groovi Tuesday.

Here's what i have for you today...

Not tricky at all this one.

I used Linda's Cosmos and Lace plate for the border, I picot cut the edges but not inside the border, i've done that on other projects but i wanted to keep this one simple, especially because the Birds in a Tree design is so very pretty already.

I coloured with my Pergaliner pencils and backed the piece with a piece of paper from the Northern Lights pad.

Hope you like it!

Before you go, just a little reminder its also YouTube Tuesday, and I have seen the project that Barbara has done for today-OH MY DAYS!!! Go and see, honestly.

OK, gotta go, hope to see you again soon.

Maria x

Speed Craft Sunday 2

Evening!

Better late than never? Its been a busy day, class at Preston actually, but i did manage to make a speedy card while the ladies were busy crafting away...

So i had my precious Pan Pastels on the desk, and my beloved Deerscape stamps, soooo...

I took a piece of linen card, sectioned off an area with low tac tape and sponged yellow pastel.

Then i borrowed the Leafy Swirl stencil from my good bud Susan 10 Toes, i sponged versamark through the stencil, lightly though, i only want a bit of subtle texture.

Remove the stencil and rub over the card with a sponge without adding any more pastel, subtle see?

Reposition the tape to work on the top area, sponge a good amount of red and yellow pastel, then blend together in circly movements. Yes circly is a word, i just invented it!

Some stamping, now the thing you gotta remember with linen card is when you stamp you need to press firmly to get past all the lovely texture, this is where my stamp platform is invaluable.

A cool trick for the moon, place the waste from punching out moon masks on the card and use a pencil eraser to remove the pastel.

Cherry Blossom foliage and a cool sentiment, edge in black sharpie pen and slap it on a A5 card, good to go!

Hope you like it, thanks for popping in.

And also, incase you didnt know, our Paul Church is on Hochanda with the current One Day Special, hes covering for someone who has had to cancel, so bless him! He will no doubt have some cool demonstrations, check him out if you can.

Maria x

Finish it Friday 3

Good Morning!

And welcome to another Finish it Friday, when i dip into the box of unloved and abandoned bits and bobs.

I actuallly collected another box full of said bits from work the other day, yes i have more than one box of crap-dont judge me! So i had a root last night, i was very excited, wanna see my desk?

Are you judging me again? I can feel it...

So this is what i chose.

I remember that little stamped piece, it was from a Aquatint class. The stamp set is available here, its rather nice.

I need some sort of background, maybe this one...

Or this one? how am i supposed to choose!

In the end I went for the crackly painty stencilly one...

Which one would you have used?

I think I might enter a couple of challenges with this, ill go and look for some and come back.

Thanks for popping in, hope you can come back soon.

The Earth has Music...

Hello!

Just a quick bloggy post while i'm having a cuppa between tv shows, i'm back on Hochanda at 4pm and will be demonstrating these two cards...

I love easel cards, not made one in ages, so really looking forward to showing you how to make this one.

And a nice clean and simple Groovi card, i really liked how this turned out too.

A big shout out to the Clarity design team for all the fabulous samples, so many stunners!

The Dies are available here

Groovi is here

Right, back into the studio to tidy up, hope you can join me at 4pm.

Maria x

Groovi Tuesday 2

Good Morning and thanks for joining me for another Groovi Tuesday.

I usually struggle doing a piece that's just all white, but i'm actually happy with this one.

I used...

Aquilegia Lace plate to build up the lacy frame.

Linda's 123 Flowers plate with Daisies for the centre piece.

I used a 5 in a circle perforating tool

A little bit of stamping found its way onto this piece too, oops, I used Art Nouveau stamps for the sentiment and corners, and finally i used a piece of designer parchment from the Shenandoah pad.

That's all for today, i need to go and pack ready for tv tomorrow, i have some lovely new Groovi plates and Fresh Cut dies, maybe you can watch Hochanda 12pm and 4pm.

Maria x

Speed Craft Sunday 1

Morning!

I had an idea for another regular feature for my new bloggy, yep its called Speed Craft Sunday.

The idea is quite literally to create a project very quickly-we all have that occasion when we need a card fast don't we.

So here is instalment number 1, i'm actually trying to get ahead with my cards for the next couple of months.

I started with...

 My trusty brick wall stencil, some stencil card, Wee Fairies stamps, Wordchain stamps, Wordchain Alphabet stamps, I love those for personalising cards!

I stamped the text first in Cornflower archival ink, it doesnt look very blue in the pic but it is.

Next i stamped the fairies in black, then added a few stars in Buttercup.

I added a touch of colour with my stencil brushes, but didnt add any fresh ink, just what was left on the brushes, nice and subtle that way.

Edge in black sharpie pen and mount onto an 8 inch card blank.

It was so quick to make, i thought id add a touch of colour on the inside too...

Hope you like it!
I found a handful of challenges to enter...

Love to Craft  Anything Goes
The Happy Craft Challenge {love the name} Anything Goes
Artistic Stamper  Anything Goes
Crafty Catz  Anything Goes, optional twist Birthdays

And can i just say a little thank you to the volunteers at Paper Playful, they spend the time collating tons of challenges every single day so they are easy to find in one place, Thanks ladies!

Thanks for popping in, i really appreciate your visit!

Maria x

Finish it Friday 2

Good Morning, its Friday...

so it must be time for another Finish it Friday!

So this is what i started with from the overflowing bit box.

The die cut frame was from when i was cutting some black and white circles, i was slightly forward thinking by being quite careful where i positioned the cutting dies, so i would be left with neat waste.

The arty piece? i cant remember making that, it might have been a demo piece.

I think its a combination of chalk paint and Oxide inks, all the texture parts are from the Journal stamp set, the poppies are a stencil, after inking through the stencil i then glazed with clear embossing powder, it looks really neat in the flesh.

The arty piece is behind the circle aperture but i trimmed off a little strip first and layered it up and added it on at the bottom.

I really love this card, might not give it away!

Would be rude not to enter it into a couple of challenges though...

Creative Knockouts Anything Goes

As You Like IT Anything Goes

Crafting With An Attitude Anything Goes

Thanks for popping in, hope you'll come back soon.

Maria x

Groovi Tuesday 1

Happy Tuesday to you!

Another feature that I definitely wanted to bring along from my old blog to my new one is Groovi Tuesday.

So here we go!

I have so many Groovi pieces to show you, how to choose? So i looked through for some favourites.

This is one of my faves because its got my boys name on it!

I used the Dream Dangle Groovi plate designed by the lovely Linda Williams, and also used various letters from some of the other dangle plates to make up the name.

The backing paper is from the Northern Lights pad.

Also, i happen to know, today's YouTube Tuesday from Claritystamp is Barbara using the fantastic  Groovi lace plates, so do pop over to Barbara's blog for the link, it'll be there some time today.

Thanks for popping in, hope you'll come back soon!

New Floral Frames.

Good Morning, hope you had a good weekend!

Today i wanted to show one of the projects i created with the new Floral Frame Fresh Cut dies...

The die sets are really lovely and especially useful because each one has a sentiment included!

I seem to have a ton of little calendar tabs left over again this year, so I thought id try and incorporate one in this project, shame its a tiny bit wonky!

In addition to the main die cut in the centre, I cut four extra little swirls to add to the corners, I didnt need the whole design so i just cut from little offcuts.

I would like to enter this into a couple of challenges...

Simply Create Too   Anything goes with no twist

My Time To Craft  Something New its calendar for a new year!

Click on any of the links above for the challenges or for the lovely new cutting dies.

Thats all for today, thanks for stopping by.

Maria x

Niceness on tv today!

Hello and thanks for stopping by, hope your Sunday is going well.

I have a selection of my samples for Barbara's Hochanda tv shows today..

Garden heart stamp with a little bit of watercolour.

Garden Heart stencil with some paste and paint on canvas.

Garden Heart Groovi, but not a heart.

Garden Heart Freshcut die with a pretty paper from my stash.

All goodies are available on the Hochanda website and Claritystamp website.

Then at 6pm Barb will be launching a lovely Freshcut die One Day Special, i'll show you some of those samples tomorrow, so please pop back!

Maria x

Finish it Friday 1

Hello and thanks for stopping by!

When I was constructing my new blog, one of the themes I definitely wanted to bring along from the old blog was Finish it Friday, this is where I rummage through my box of scraps, part finished odds and generally unloved bits and bobs, and then I create something.

So this is Finish it Friday 1.

I started with a couple of straight forward bits...

I have no idea where the embossed panel came from, I must look and see if its a folder that I do actually own, because I love my finished piece.

The stamped panel has been in the box for a long time, the stamp is Snowdrops from the Wildflower set, can you see the splash mark at the bottom?

So I simply trimmed the grubby bit off the bottom and re-edged with sharpie pen.

I used one of my favourite Clarity text stamps, but only wanted the Best Wishes, so left the  'Love and' uninked, theres nice spacing between the lines on this stamp so its easy to just ink up in part.

I wrapped a bit of twine around the bottom of the panel, and then added it to the embossed piece, all mounted up onto an A5 card blank ready to give away!

That's all for today, come back soon!

Washi Tape challenge

Hi there!

Quite a late post tonight, busy day, but I still wanted to blog because I spotted a cool challenge over at Happy Little Stampers blog.

The theme is Washi Tape, and it needs to be clean and simple...

This is my entry

The card is a cream 5x7 inch, I used Tim Holtz washi tape, some twine and the Letterbox stamp set from Claritystamp.

Thanks for popping in, come back soon!