CD Sunday - Art Nouveau

Over at CD Sunday this week our theme is 'Art Nouveau'. I felt very at home with this particular challenge as I was able to use a William Morris inspired stitch pattern for my image. I have done a few of these and I love doing them and using them. For the background paper I went to Joanna Sheen's Cottage Garden CD(2) where there are a wealth of suitable papers from which to choose.
I used a new (to me) MS punch for the edges and some 'ribbon' and some flower lace that I had purchased from my favourite store - The Art of Craft. 4 little pink brads to fix the image and matt layer and then a chiffon bow to finish off.
I hope you like this card as much I enjoyed creating it.

CD Sunday - Get ahead get a Hat

Over at CD Sunday this week our theme is - Get ahead Get a Hat and this is my DT contribution. I went back to one of my old favourite Cd producers - Carol Ann's Studios. I have used her 'Glitz 'n' Bitz' CD (CD-14) for everything except ribbon, pearls and hat embellishment (which I found at Sandown with this challenge in mind).
Our DT team have come up with some very different takes on this theme and I look forward to seeing what our challengees create.
Hugs
xx

Grid Work

This a pattern by Christine Coleman in the March edition of the parchment Magazine

LESS IS MORE - One layer challenge - tree or flower

I haven't used my stamps for so long I had to go hunting for them and I found the Christmas ones first - and this 'tree' was on the top. I have just stamped using Stazon and then coloured with Sakura Gelly Roll Metallics.
The card is pure white but the light today was so awful that where ever I tried to photograph I got this dullish look.
The stamp is a clear one from Woodware designed by Jane Gill.
When I entered last weeks challenge my bestest friends weren't too sure about my change of style. I will be interested to hear what they have to say this week.

CD SUNDAY - Swirls and Pearls

We had some great entries last week for our sponsored challenge and congratulations to Beryl on being the lucky winner.
This week our theme is 'Swirls and Pearls' which always seems a popular theme judging by all those die cut swirls I have seen whilst visiting other Blogs.
I confess I haven't got a die cutting machine of any kind. So I have used an MCS image and parchment and chosen a corner motif which has been copied, pasted and flipped and printed to make it in to a border. I then embossed the pale pink parts of the images then backed with dk pink plain card. The parchment flowers are from my stash and so are all the pink pearls. For the sentiment I used a Pergamano letter grid.
We always look forward to seeing your entries and visiting your Blogs. I personally learn so much on my travels around our 'Blogland'.

Less is More - Pink, Black and White

There is a brand new Blog on the block - Less is More - and I found it whilst blog hopping last night. The whole idea is to keep it clean and simple and the first theme is Pink, Black and White.

I got quite excited but then I thought that I would find it difficult to follow the clean and simple ethics doing parchment which is anything but simple. But for this first challenge I remembered the extra piece of black parchment I had left over from a lesson and decided to make one of my parchment flowers in black and pink. I put the flower and black peel off sentiment and heart on to a pink scalloped matt I had bought from Ribbon Box.

I don't know if I will manage anymore Clean and Simples but time will tell.

CD Sunday - Friendship

I am so thrilled that a personal friend of mine, Debs of Debbees CD's, is our February Sponsor at CD Sunday and that she has chosen such an apt theme.
I met Debs through a craft forum and we seemed to hit it off straight away and have become firm friends even though I am old enough to be her Mum (who I also count as a good friend). Debs stays here with me when she can and we love 'doing shows' together and Debs also joins us on our parchment stand at Sandown. Her foray at the NEC last November was a great success and some of you may have visited her stand and seen the great CD's that she produces.
For her chosen theme of Friendship I have made a gift bag and tag using papers and images from her CD . Who could resist those two fabulous chickens.
I wish you all good luck and look forward to seeing all the entries and visiting your Blogs.


p.s. I meant to say that I had used a Robert Addams CD for the gift bag pattern and tag. I can't remember which one but I think he has a pattern on most of them.

Leaves

This is using a pattern by Susan McGuirk bought as a download from CraftsUprint.

80th Birthday

A Christine Coleman pattern or rather a combination from her numbers selection. A mixture of felt tips and pencils were used for the colouring.
The purple mirri card and the paler purple backing piece were both from 'The Art of Craft' where I was at a workshop yesterday finishing off some cards.

Dragonflies

This is made using a pattern by Judith Maslen. I love Judith's patterns. They are stylish and so enjoyable to work on and Judith seems to have designed a pattern to suit almost every occasion. I have attended a couple of Judith's workshops and Debs and I are heading South for the next one in March.
This pattern - as you can see is called Dragonflies, and involved two or three disciplines as well as embossing. Pen work, colouring with polychromos pencils blended with oils and then using a fine grid.
The addition of the very fine glitter to the wings and the sparkly gems are my own additions.
I have added a link to Judith's site in my sidebar at the top. I am sure you will enjoy looking at her patterns.

Using fancy grids and Cd's with parchment

This is where the true traditionalist parchment devotee will sigh but I want to show how using fancy grids and craft CD's can be used to create a pleasing parchment card without having learned all the skills of this truly beautiful and ancient craft.
I printed the the jug of flowers from a Cd straight on to my parchment paper. On my printer - a Canon - I use Matt Photo Setting - best quality -and remember to let it dry before handling.
I then used a Siesta ruler grid for the border - choosing a part of the pattern that would fit around the image. This is the hardest bit of all but I did a dummy run using paper and pencil - which also told me the size I should set on my printer when I printed the image on the parchment.
I then embossed the appropriate part of the image from the back and then fixed to my backing paper with brads. Ribbons and white half pearls were the finishing touch.