Blush!

Thanks to all of you lovely people for leaving such wonderful comments on my blog! I was overwhelmed and delighted to receive your feedback. Being a member of the Daring Cardmaker's has been an amazing experience for me - it's lovely to have found you all! (I actually blushed with pleasure at reading all of your comments.)

I have been doodling another card in between all the other activities around here today. I am usually very slow at making my cards but am getting a little speedier. Sometimes I get an idea and everything just flows - other times it's painstaking work that takes DAYS! Kwim? The fast ones are few and far between. Anyway, I took inspiration from a biscuit tin I have all of my pens in for the broder of this one. It's my interpretation of their Victorian embellishment. I used copper, green and gold gel pens and a fine black felt pen to make the designs. The whole card is drawn work 'cept for the brads and paper/vellum/ribbon. It's a bit sparkly too - though there is NO embossing powder on this one :-)

Doodling

Thanks for the doodling challenge, ladies at Daring Cardmakers! I drew this pair of boots after I saw a stamp that I absolutely loved once, and couldn't buy the stamp. I used water colour pencils to shadethe doodled boots and then did doodles in the background too (the fence and grass and shadows etc). The flowers are stamped.

Sparkle Card!

OK - you ladies at Daring Cardmakers asked for Sparkle, and I think you've got it in this card! Talk about daring - all that gold embossing powder - I nearly set my kitchen alight using the toaster to 'cook' it! (Would that have counted alongside the coffee quirks I read about tonight?)
Anyway, here it is, in all its glory. I didn't do anything too technical. I used ordinary writing paper to print the words with Word Art, then jazzed them up with gel pens. I used embossing ink on the rest of the card, then gold embossing powder (did you notice??) Next I stamped the Merry Christmas sentiment on white cardstock, enhanced it with gel pens, pinked it, pinked the edges of the main matt, then jazzed it all up with some ribbon and wooden painted stars. Out with the glue stick and voila - one Sparkle card. Thanks for the idea - I now have a total of ONE Christmas card for my box! Gotta start somewhere, right?

Thank you for your comments, Daring Card Makers!

It was wonderful to log in to my blog today and to find three lovely comments from new stamping friends! It's fun to be part of a new community of Daring Card Makers. Here is the link to the Daring Card Makers blog for anyone else interested in having a look: http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com/

I think I'll just travel on over and see what this week's dare is...

New stamp maker

I went to a craft fair today and found this clever little sponge that takes on impressions you push it into. First you heat it, then you press it into something (like a brick wall or straw or a leaf) and it takes on that shape. Then you use it just like a stamp! When you are finished you just wash it out, reheat it and re-press - it takes on the new shape. And you can use both sides of it. It's called a 'make-a-stamp mouldable block form' and I got it from a lady who owns a scrap booking shop. Must go try it out - results to be posted later :-)
Meanwhile, here's a picture of my little dog Trixie playing Only Queen of the Old Back Yard Stump.

Hope, till tomorrow at least

Tomorrow I plan to make some more pages.

Hope so far...

Hope evermore

Hoping still

Continuing Hope

More Hope

Hope album

I'm part way through the album I am making for DS. The colours are nice - blues and 'cement' and a buttery yellow, mainly, with sprinklings of black. Once I make the 'hope' pages, I will start adding photographs. Most people probably do this as they go along, but not me. Maybe next time. I think this album is going to have quite an impact - "I Hope"! It seems like such a special thing to do for your children. I CASED nearly all of the layouts but they wound up not being exact copies :-)
Anyway, here are a couple of the pages so far.

A card & a photo journalling window

I just made a card witha fish hook in it. I found a turtle stampe that was really calling to me to be used, and so I combined the stamp and the hook with some twine, and voila - a card for a man's birthday. I would have positioned the stamps a little differently and also tried to stamp more 'cleanly' if I had had time to recreate the card. How do people get such crisp, clear stamps every time, anyway?

I also had a wonderful experience learning that working with photos, telling a story and using my card making 'skills' is very satisfying - I always thought I would not be interested in photo journalling/scrap booking - but a friend has introduced me to this craft in a lovely way, and I think it is going to continue to be a part of my craft life! I am making a 'Hope' album for our son who recently married, and want to do 'Hope' albums for our other son and daughter. It is such an inspiring thing to do for someone, and so special. Will post some of the results another time when I have had a chance to scan some pages of the album I am working on.

The Wedding Card

This week was a lot better craft-wise. Here is our DS's wedding card - it is a larger than average card. I found a special something to put inside too, about the Marriage Alter - it's a lovely bit of wisdom about how you have to put more into a marriage than you take out. A lady I just met in a Creative Memories class sent it to me - how wonderful and how timely!

I will post my creative memories page here once I work out how to scan it satisfactoriy - it is too big to fit on my scanner. The class was such an enjoyable experience, I'm going back for more. Real soon.

Till later.

Stamping and scrapping - Nil

I am working a lot this week so have had no time to do anything crafty - will have to be sure I include some fun time soon, or I will suffer withdrawal!!