More - 'New ATC's.

My printer died yesterday.  Well not actually died but may as well have done.  New one on it's way as I type but in the meantime I had to do something so back to the ATC's.  I had bought some new stamps by PaperArtsy  from The Fruit Pixie.  I have not bought their stamps before but I do like them.  What I particularly liked were the two Steampunk flower heads which I have used on these ATC's.  I used a paper from Carol Ann's Studio for the background. The birdcage was also one of the stamps.  I may well visit PaperArtsy and have a a browse.
The Iris ATC was inspired whilst I watched the BBC programme of The Chelsea Flower Show.  There seemed to be so many gorgeous Irises I felt inspired to get out a stitch pattern I knew I had. Just the perfect size.

CD SUNDAY - Easy Elegance

We had some beautiful 'Reflections' last week - thank you.  It is going to be difficult for Jenny to choose a winner.

I went back to Joanna Sheen's - 'Fashion Boutique'for my card this week.  I chose one of the Paper Dolls and a toning background paper. 

The flower is from my stash and I coloured the peel off sentiment to tone with the blue mirri card.

I look forward to lots more Blog hopping.  It does get expensive though as I keep finding shopping sites that I haven't seen before - and of course it would be rude not to visit.
xx

New ATC's - with lovely new toppers

Whilst I was Blog hopping - as we all do -   (wonderful time waster)  - I discovered this lovely place .

A few of the many many packets available fell in to my basket and I have started to use them on my ATC's.

I made 7 yesterday and had great fun just putting things together and adding charms etc as I felt like it.  I haven't titled them yet but I am leaning towards 'Pretty Steampunk'.  Not true Steampunk I know but I''ll get there.

The backgrounds were printed using MCS Steampunk but all the toppers are from Cardmakers Delight.  The charms are from Pink Cat Charms,The Fruit Pixie and Mei Flowers.  Other bits from stash.

Crafting time

Debs, Mandi and I managed to get some crafting time together during this weekend and we all made several ATC's. We always do have a great time and it is even more special when you can craft together with others. Debs did some of her new 'Art work' style, Mandi stamped and coloured and I did several different things but I did make this parchment one:

I started by using a straightforward grid pattern from Pauline Loweth's Gridwork Book.  I wanted to add something bright and different and I remembered these pretty sequins I had bought at a Show - as you do - and stitched them in place with holographic thread and a centre bead.  As an ATC must have a title we racked our brains and came up with 'Bombay Mix' as we felt the sequins looked very Indian in colour and style.

CD Sunday - Reflections

Hi everyone.  I hope you  enjoyed yesterdays sunshine.  A crowd of us  had a meet at the RHS Gardens at Wisley.  We  had a wonderful if tiring day and a restful and reflective day today is on the cards.

Here is my contribution to this weeks challenge and I hope you like it.

This is all from Joanna Sheen's - Fashion Boutique CD - except for the bronze mirri card and the ribbon lace.

Flowers and Butterflies

Here is the easier second card that we made at Barton on Sea. It has a gridwork border which I always love doing.  I added the glitter to mine.  It wasn't on Judith's sample.

Dreamcatcher

Here is the result of our first parchment project down at Barton-on-Sea last Saturday.  Another of Judith's great patterns.  This one I found  absorbing and it took total concentration - almost into the lunch break.  There is a lot to each part of the design.  Learning to do feathers was the purpose behind this and colouring them with felt tips.  Yes --- I did say felt tips.  I did the middle one - pink- using a felt tip pen and then abandoned the felts and just happened to have a couple of pencils with me.  Judith did notice but she wasn't too hard on me.
Here it  is  and and I am quite pleased with it.

CD Sunday - Trees and Shrubs

Good morning.  Hopefully not such a wet one as of late.  I was down at Barton- on- Sea yesterday and the drive back late afternoon was in sunshine.  At least that what I thought it was. We had  another great workshop session with Judith Maslen - but more about that later in the week when I have finished the two projects.

This week I thought I would have a go at some stamping and using my new Flexmarkers for the colouring.  When I was at the Gateshead 'Sincerely Yours' Show the other week I saw a display of Michael Powell designed stamps.  One in particular seemed to apt for this weeks theme so I bought it.  You see -  no expense spared for our CD Sunday Blog.

Here is my effort:

I did enjoy it all but decided I hadn't got enough shades of green so of course off to Cowling and Wilcox and somehow another 24 colours (not all green) arrived in the post. Ho hum!

I used MCS - Secret Hideaways -' In the garden'  for the card itself and added a few punched leaves.

We look forward to visiting your Blogs and I hope you will visit ours as well.  Please feel free to leave a comment so that we know you have visited.  All are avidly read.

Truly - the art of craft

This is an unsolicited  big plug for my local craft emporium as well as a description of the super 'crafty' day I have just enjoyed. I already attend monthly Parchment lessons and workshops at The Art of Craft but they run many many morning/afternoon or all day workshops and yesterday I had signed up for the Cuttlebug beginners day.

Those of us who had other machines took along what we had and we had so much fun as well as learning masses from Jane - owner/tutor.
I learned plain embossing, embossing and then chalking, embossing on mirri card, on core paper and then sandpapering, die cutting, die cutting then embossing.  Colouring with a brayer. Embossing with parchment and acetate. On the acetate we then went on to colour parts of the design with Sakura Glaze pens.... amazing results.

Colouring using a brayer was brilliant.  One of my favourites of the session. I am going to have to fish my brayer back out of a box of give aways I had sorted as I hadn't used it for sooo long. 

This was all in the extended 2 hour morning session.  In the afternoon session we made cards using some of our newly learned techniques. We managed to make 5 great cards.  A little finishing off was needed at home on the tulip one - which I think is my favourite.

I shall now bore you with pictures of my proud achievments:

Needless to say several embossing folders and dies were purchased.
Thank you Jane and your ladies for another fun day at your place ....... and we learned quite a lot as well.

CD Sunday - Chocolate, cream and one other colour

Wow - what a long title.  This has been chosen by our Christine - who I am pleased to say is back with us after her long sojourn in foreign parts.  Lovely to have you back Christine.

This is my DT card:

The image and backing papers all come from Joanna Sheen's 'Fashion Boutique'.  I have dipped into this Cd quite a lot lately - for various projects.

The elegant model has been decoupaged - just the once.  The flowers were made using my latest must have purchases - Petal Pairs punches by Tonic.  I used one of the striped  bp's just to add a bit of interest and to blend in with the colour theme.  Pink candi buttons for the centres - as my one other colour.

I had a wonderful few days away with my friends in Northumberland.  Golly it's a long way there and back.  I took two days over both journeys and with the bad weather for my drives I am glad that I had made that decison.  We did visit the Gateshead 'Sincerely Yours'  show and I purchased a little something appropriate for the winner of the Top 3 for  'Sweets for my Sweet'.  I will let Jenny know as soon as I have chosen. We had great cards again so a difficult choice ahead.

CD Sunday - Sweets for my Sweet

The theme is my choice this week so I will be awarding a Top 3 prize.  I am also scheduling this post as I will be away over this Sunday - staying with a friend in Northumberland. And I believe today we will be at a local craft show so I could find a nice little something for a prize.

I combined my card for this theme with the birthday of my special friend  Debs.  She already has it as we celebrated her birthday all together at Covent Garden last weekend.

Here it is:

I used one of my favourite House Mouse stamps - 'The jelly bean heist'.  I coloured using  Faber Castell Polychromos pencils.  I really enjoyed doing this and it made me realise I don't do enough stamping these days - but there isn't enough time to do everything.  The card was printed from Robert Addams CD 'Sugar and Spice'.  The jelly bean paper couldn't have been more appropriate.  The sentiments were printed and cut out some time ago and put in my box of sentiments but I can't remember which CD they came from.  If anyone knows can they tell me please.  I spent a frantic time popping CD's in and out of the drawer in an effort to find the right one.
I will see you all next week and catch up with your blogs.

CD Sunday - Ring a roses

Now for this week's theme I had no lack of possible images from many CD's to choose from and I settled on Joanna Sheen's - The Pamela West Collection.
To add some 3D effect I punched out some roses and the blue flowers from a spare topper with my Pinflair punch.  I love using this punch - you get such a good effect.  The butterfly in the corner is made with parchment and is from a pattern by Pauline Loweth.  I have a few of these in my butterfly stash box and the green and yellow I had used on this one is a perfect match with this picture. I haven't chosen a sentiment so it will go in my box for use at a later date.

We had some great Toybox Treasures and I enjoyed my visits around the Blogs.

By the time this scheduled post has arrived I will have had my day out at Covent Garden with our  Ladies who Lunch group. We have been doing this for sometime now and we always have a great day and I am sure that yesterday will have been no exception.

Here is a small addition to my posting.  An ATC made with one of the small toppers left over from the sheet printed for the card.  I don't like to waste these sheets. I used the Pinflair punch again to punch out a couple of mini butterflies.  You can just see them.

CD Sunday - Toybox Treasures

 I would like to wish everyone a Happy Easter and lots of yummy chocolate goodies.
    
This one was a challenge for me as a DT member.  I went through all my CD's and stamps and couldn't find anything I thought really suitable. A girlfriend even emailed  to me some suitable backing paper but I couldn't find anything to go with it.
In the end I went back to a  stitching pattern I had bought some time ago but not used.  So here is Mr. Ted - who is always a toybox treasure.

  

 The  pattern from Form-A-Lines was stitched on 300gsm white pearl  card and then mounted on red mirri card and then  gingham backing paper from Robert Addams CD - 'Printable Gingham' etc.  The gold teddy bear embellishment came from a Pick of the Week from C&C ages and ages ago.  The red candi was bought at a show.

We have had yet more wonderful entries into our challenge and it is so pleasing to see new names and old friends joining in each week.   Good luck in the draw.

CD Sunday- All sewn up

We are so pleased to welcome back Debs of Debbees Cd's as our sponsor for April.  Debs chose her CD
'Stitchin' Tails'  for the DT to use for their projects - each using a different folder.  I was pleased as this one has always been one of my favourites from the Debbees stable.  For  the prize Debs is offering the choice of any one of her CD's.
Apart from welcoming Debs we are welcoming Colleen as our Guest DT member for April and saying goodbye and thank you to Pamela for her great contribution as our GDT for March.

Here is my project using Folder 3 from Stitchin' Tales

This is an old embellishment box that I have been using to keep my cottons in for when I and my crafting ladies do Stitchcards. As it is often out on the table for the craft sessions I thought I would jazz it up.   The sewing needle charms were bought from Meiflowers stand  at Bluewater and the scissor charms from Fruit Pixie - I think. The wooden painted buttons from Ebay and the other buttons from stash.
Debs has seen this in the flesh as she was here with me last weekend and I think she would have liked it but  I was quick to tell her that it wasn't a Debbees sample.
We had lots more lovely cards last week and I look forward to more Blog travels this week.
x

Bouquet - parchment lesson

Our March parchment lesson was last night and we had a dry colouring project to master.  I must confess that my heart sank a little as sometimes I find this discipline a little difficult but this time I was pleased.  It just needs the first few strokes to go right and somehow it falls into place. You place the blank parchment onto the outline drawing of the flowers etc and then colour the flowers directly over the pattern.  No outline itself is drawn on the parchment.   We also had a scan of the finished article to copy and a list of all those pencils that were used  by our Tutor in the making of the sample.  The whole project used about 18 different colour Faber Castell Polychromos pencils.  They all have to be kept incredibly sharp as you use very fine individiual strokes to build up the shape and colour. It takes a lot of concentration and tongue biting.
After the colouring we did some embossing to the flowers to add dimension and then we embossed the 'cellophane' wrap to the bouquet.  Some of this is done on the front as well as the back to again give the right feel to the shaping.  A real piece of cellophane is used when embossing on the front - between the picture and the embossing tool to prevent the parchment getting shiny.
I finished it off today using an oval decorative grid and stitching to the background with beads.  The card wrap is from Joanna Sheen's Jane Shasky Cd.

A parchment mask

Debs and I had our first trip of the year down to the New Forest to Judith Maslen's workshop on Saturday.  As always we thoroughly enjoyed the day and came back tired but contented with our efforts.

As always we had two brand new patterns to work with and here is the first one completed.  I am still working on the second pattern.

Judith showed us a slightly different way of colouring which she had seen demonstrated. I was pleased with my effort on the rosebud but not so happy with the larger rose.  But let's face it - at least we weren't  using felt tips. Phew!!!

CD Sunday - Spring has sprung

I have been dying to post this card as I was so pleased with it when it was all finished. It was made for a special friend and I combined it with our CD Sunday theme.  My friend - Joyce - will have seen the card by now as it was her birthday on Thursday.

It was  one of those moments in card making when everything seemed to be just right.  I hope you like it too.

The Cd I used was Joanna Sheen's  'the heart of the garden' by Jane Shasky.  I printed out one of the backing papers three times.  First direct to 280gsm white linen effect card -  folded to make A5.  Then the same again on 140gsm parchment to make the wrap.  I added a strip of cotton lace down the middle.  Then from the sheet of toppers printed on parchment I made the 3 pink spot butterflies and added antennae and pink half pearls. From the third sheet of backing paper - printed on good plain paper -  I cut out the six smaller butterflies.  I used the  Happy Birthday sentiment  from a peel off sheet by Anita.  They are white glitter but I coloured them to tone with the butterflies.

We had another really good response last week to our 'Spots n Dots' theme.  Lovely cards.  I hope 'Spring has Sprung' will equally inspire you all,  and I know I will enjoy my visits to your Blogs.
xx

CD Sunday - Spots n Dots

Before I get to this weeks challenge - Spots n Dots - chosen by Jenny - I must say a big thank you to all our challengees for last week.  We had so many great cards to go and see and Blogs to visit. Thank you.

 Spots n Dots.  -  I went back again to one of my very favourite CD makers - Carol Ann's Studios.There is just something about the style and the exhuberance of colours on all her CD's
This Cd is CD 14 - Glitz 'n' Bitz - used  for the bp and toppers.  The Art of Craft for spotty ribbon and Bluewater Craft Show  for handbag charms.

 I hope we have as many - if not more  Blogs to visit this week and I look forward to browsing all the talented work  and picking up ideas.
Here's to a good week.
x

2nd part of new parchment project

Here is the second and last part of the pattern.  It might be a little while before I can finish it off as there is great excitement here (for me) as my new craft cupboard is arriving tomorrow.  I ordered it at the Bluewater Show and it is finally on it's way.  I now have to make a space for the many many boxes of flatpack I have been told to expect and space for my son to do the building and the wall space it needs. 

Here is the photo of the last pieces

Next parchment project

Readers will remember that I made all those miniature handbags last year using patterns from two books by Amanda, Ching-Hsiang Yeh.   You were all very kind with your interest in the project as it went along so I want to share this one with you.  Amanda has  written and produced a third book which I purchased at the end of last year.   Until now I haven't had time to really decide where I was going to start with her new patterns.  They are all very different to her previous projects.

Here is the first stage

of the first one I have chosen to do.  Any guesses as to what it could possibly be?  If you happen to have the book please don't spoil it.

CD Sunday - From me to you

We had some great entries in last weeks challenge for which we thank you all and I am sure this week's theme is going to be just as popular.
For this theme I have chosen to make a little gift box which I thought very appropriate, and it is from Joanna Sheen's 'Dancing with Shadows' CD.  The only thing I have added is the spotty ribbon from my stash.
There isn't much more I can say about it except that I think it looks chic and unusual.
I look forward to viewing the many entries I am sure there will be.
I really enjoyed reading all the lovely comments about my parchment card last week.  Thank you.

CD Sunday - Imagine

As I write this the sun is shining and hopefully Spring must be in the offing by now.  Thank you all for your great entries in our 'Recycling' theme and we will be posting my choice soon.   I did get a little something at the Make-It Show - so it won't be a recycled something.  That would be taking it too far.

On to this week.  As a team we have been using images from the new CD from Elegant Inspiration - 'Imagine'.
I chose Pegasus.  I knew as soon as I saw this one I could use it on parchment so here it is.

I have a brass stitching and embossing stencil that I bought some time ago but not used and somehow it seemed right for this image.  I measured the centre square so that I knew the image size to print so that it fitted perfectly. I embossed most of the pattern and Pegasus and then used the stitching holes to add some pretty blue beads.  I printed out Happy Birthday in some fancy fonts until I found one I liked and then traced and embossed.
I always enjoy making these sorts of cards and I hope you like it too.

It is a new month so as well as welcoming our Sponsor - Elegant Inspiration we are welcoming Pamela again as our Guest Designer.  I know how much Pamela enjoyed herself last time she was with us and I know you will enjoy seeing her great contributions to our challenges

Thank you to Jen for all your wonderful creations last month.

Please visit the Blogs of my  fellow teamies  - they would love to see you and I always appreciate any comments you may make on here.

Debbees Cd Challenge - March 2012

Good Morning - and a very late one at that.  A combination of Debs having problems loading pictures on to the Challenge Blog and me having a bad night means that I am only just loading up my DT card  for you to see.
Here it is.

From the papers that Debs gave us I have used the topper and one of the bp's.  I printed out the topper on parchment and embossed the two fans  and pricked out the immediate area using a PCA bold grid.  On the border which was 'pretend' ribbon threading I 'took out' the squares of ribbon so that I could thread some real ribbon.  The matt layer is a toning crackle design from an Ooh La La CD and the card is the  sheet of Deb's bp
printed on 280 gsm linen effect card.  The gems are some very sparkly holographic peel off gems.

We have chosen a winner for the February Challenge and that is Pamela .  You see Pamela we weren't upset that you had 'chopped up' Deb's papers. Rather the opposite. Congratulations.

Please have a look at what my fellow teamies have produced and take part in the Challenge.

I have been honoured with a Blog award

Sue of Sue's Crafty Corner has done me the honour of awarding me the Liebster award.  I am thrilled and very touched.  It is very kind of Sue who's work is so inspirational.
As I haven't been here before Sue I am going to copy and paste from your blog.
Hugs
xx


I must pass on the award to five other people, who's blogs have inspired me, It also needs to be someone who has less than 200 followers.

Put a comment on their blog, so that they know about it.

Link back to the person who gave me the award and thank them.

Post the award on my blog.

These are the five people that I would like to give this award to:

Michelle  -  The Messy Barn
Margaret -  Margarets Designer Cards
Jocelyn - Jocelyn's Place
Debs - Debbees Crafting Corner

Meg - Bits and Pieces

CD Sunday - Recycling

I love craft recycling and this theme was one of my suggestions and choice so I will be choosing the Top 3 this week.
Here is my contribution and hopefully - inspiration.

My recycled part is the flowered frame which is the top of a Sainsbury's tissue box.  I scanned one of the flowers on the side panel of the box and traced it on parchment to make the central flower which has been embossed, coloured and pricked. The yellow and blue backing papers are from Carol Ann's Studio CD 12 - Patchwork Petals and the little flowers are punched from bp trimmings.

There are so many things that can be recycled  so I am hoping to see a bumper crop of entries.

I am visiting the Make-It Show this weekend so I will be looking for a special little something for the Top 3 winner.

Just to continue the recycling theme but not part of my DT remit  - have a look at these ATC's.

 The first one is from a parchment sample card I made sometime ago cut down and a flower added.  The second is a tag from a card I just didn't send to anyone and the last uses one of those little purse calendars with added clock charm and beads.  No Cd's involved in these but I could have easily used something from a CD.  I recently made 36 such ATC's.  I was having a very strict clear out and instead of throwing stuff away I reused as much as I could.
I have a confession to make.  I am awaiting delivery of a 'craft cupboard' and so I need to be  organised before it arrives so a mega  sort out and tidy up is under way.  I have chosen the Sewing and Quilting model. I don't sew but this model will take my computer  in place of the sewing machine.

CD Sunday - Wings and Legs

Good Morning everyone. I hope the weather is better now as at the time of my doing this scheduled post it is chucking it down.

What a super lot of great entries we had last week and it is going to be a tough job for Wendy M to choose just one winner.  Thank you all for joining in with us.

Now for this challenge I used a photograph of a beautiful 1920's/30's brooch and printed it on card, good paper and parchment.  This is my favoured way of layering up my toppers so I have some parchment to emboss which I think adds to the dimensional effect.  After I had embossed and decoupaged I coated the top layer with Perga Gloss to bring back the 'jewel like' sheen. 
The backing paper came from 'Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady' CD from Joanna Sheen.  I couldn't believe how well the dragonflies fitted in with my topper.  From the spare bp I  cut out a dragonfly and some flowers to add to the topper.  I really enjoyed making this card and I hope you like it to, and it will give some inspiration.  Your comments are always avidly read and appreciated.

Here is the card:

Parchment - Heart Corsage

This little topper or corsage as I have called it was  the project in our last parchment lesson. The heart itself is made using a fine straight PCA grid and the streamers using a Multi Grid No: 19 (diagonal). It is all very fine and fiddly to put together but worth the trouble I think. It measures 8.5cms x 10cms -including streamers.  I used some little transluscent pearl beads from my mega store of beads for the flower centres.  I haven't decided how to use the finished heart yet but have just photographed it against a red card to show it off.

Hope you like it.

xx

CD Sunday - L is for...............

My 'L' is for Lilac.  I love Lilac and I am afraid that I am one of those who cannot resist having it indoors when in flower.  Just a few branches in a large vase looks wonderful.  Anyway I digress.  For my project this week I have chosen something from my latest Cd purchase - 'from the heart of the garden'  from Joanna Sheen - artist Jane Shasky.  I love all these images and I hope to use many of them.  Even if I don't they are beautiful to look at.
I chose to make 6 notelets and matching envelopes - all with a box to put them in. I printed out one of the toning backing papers on to card for the box and used a template from a Robert Addams CD.  This project isn't as simple as it looks because you have to be  very accurate in cutting out and folding - especially the envelopes.  I have discovered they go wonky very quickly without due care.
Here they are:

We had some lovely 'A La Mode' cards and many congratulations to Linby - our winner of an Ooh La La CD. 
I am looking forward to seeing many different 'L's' during this week.

Whilst on Debbees CD stand at Bluewater

I  copied the card designed by Judith Maslen in collaboration with Debs that appeared in February's Parchment Magazine- details here

Here is the card made.  My apologies for the non existing backing paper.  I hadn't taken any with me and  just had to buy a pack of plain  white cards to use. Also here is a photo of the stand. The demonstrator is conspicuous by her abscence  as she doesn't like her picture being taken.

CD Sunday - A La Mode

This month we are lucky to have Ooh La La as our sponsors.   Wendi and Emma were kind enough to sponsor us  back in 2010  and we are delighted that they have offered to do it all again.  This time the CD they have chosen for us is the new 'Shoes in Bloom 2'.  Now I raved about the first Shoes in Bloom and made many of the sample cards for the T.V. launch and this one is just as good - if not better.  You will not be disappointed.

We were all given a different folder to use and mine is 'Lily Pink'.  I wanted to make a parchment card and the colouring of this shoe is ideal for such a purpose.

Here it is:

I printed the image directly on the parchment having decided where my border was going to be embossed.  This is a border by Florence Holmes.  I have added some toning colour just to give it a lift.  I had the flower already made.  I couldn't believe the colour match.

Ooh La La are generously  offering a prize of any one of their CD's so a worthy prize indeed.

We look forward to seeing your 'A La Mode creations' - they don't have to be shoes - anything really fashionable will do.  Good luck.

February Challenge on Debbees CD's Blogspot

January's winner will be announced today by Debs  here. We didn't have as many entries as we hoped but those we had were brilliant and thank you for joining in with us on this new venture.

For this month Debs has given us some papers from her very brand new Double Cd Set - 'Heart and Flowers' 
- a mixture of delicate and pastel and bold and bright and just perfect for Valentines Day, Engagements and Weddings. Available singly or as a multi buy.
 It is on her site already but will be officially launched at Bluewater.  There are some beautiful papers on these CD's.
Here is the DT card I made from the papers we were given.  One of the shaker frames lent itself to be done on parchment so that is what I did.

Please join in the challenge.  You will find the papers and details here.  We look forward to visiting you.

Don't forget to visit us at Bluewater - Feb 2 - Feb 5th on Stand No: CC40

CD Sunday - Tag you're it

I don't often make or use tags so this one took some thought and I decided that the Cuttlebug had to come out of the cupboard. I only have one die for a tag so there wasn't much choice. Once I got started though I was on a roll. I couldn't get past the thought of Butterflies on the tag and found some new to me beauties on Robert Addams 'Printable Butterflies' CD. I cut out and completed 3 in graduating sizes so then had to make 3 tags as I couldn't leave one unused. I have a girlfriend with a birthday next month and although she doesn't make cards she always finds a special one for me so this will be a special for her.

This will send my fellow teamie Christine into orbit as purple and butterflies are her very favourites and I have put them both on one card. Sorry Christine.

CD Sunday - Zodiac

I wasn't sure what I was going to make for this challenge. I haven't a lot on CD's that I thought are suitable but then I remembered I have the Zodiac stitchwork patterns. I also have a family birthday due at the end of this month so I stitched away with 'Aquarius' - chose a blue gingham background from Robert Addams 'Printable Ginghams etc' and hey presto. A birthday card for No:1 son.

I decided to set it all at a jaunty angle but when I had finished remembered that water doesn't flow at an angle so...........poetic licence and all that!

CD Sunday - Enchantment

It doesn't seem possible that we are already into the 2nd week of January but here we are with another challenge. Our teamie Christine chose this one and I knew as soon as I saw her choice what I was going to do. I felt that I needed to get back into some parchment and this image of the Unicorn is one of my favourites. And what could be more enchanting than a Unicorn.
It is a download picture printed on 140gsm parchment then embossed from the back and a border made using a Pergamano semi circle tool and a PCA sun tool. I then stitched the finished piece to a metal grey mirri board mat with clear sparkly beads. The layered grey/white backing card comes from Joanna Sheen's Dancing with Shadows and the black card and ribbon from stash.
I hope you like this as I loved making it.

So exciting......................

....... photos of a couple of my parchment card samples are in February's Parchment Magazine.

I posted last year about the launch of a CD made by my friend Debs in collaboration with Judith Maslen. The Cd is called 'Fairies are Everywhere' and the artwork is all by Judith - and Debs has created backing papers, inserts etc all to go with the images and produced the CD. It went down well at the NEC in November where it was launched.
Now Judith and Debs have featured one of the drawings with border etc in the magazine and there are 3 copies of 'Fairies are Everywhere' on offer in a competition - details in the magazine.
I did the samples for the Show and here are the two that have been shown in the article.

Debs will be at Bluewater (Stand CC40) with this CD and all her others so please come and see us. Details at top of Sidebar

CD Sunday - Sea Life

We had such a wonderful selection of cards for our theme 'O is for Olympics'. I was very impressed. I thought it quite a difficult challenge but we needn't have worried - you came up trumps.
This week we have Sea Life as our theme and I have used an image from
Joanna Sheen's 'Jayne Netley Mayhew' CD - shaped card section. I made this card with a particular person in mind who is tragically losing her sight and I felt she could feel the raised turtle, decoupaged shells, brass charm fish and the bubbles which were from a peel- off sheet.
I enjoyed making it and here it is

Congratulations to sue-b for being our 'O is for Olympics' winner.