'What you do speaks so loudly, I can't hear what you say.'
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Wednesday 31 August 2011

I’ve just been playing with an address label (A4) for an envelope.  Must do this some more, but next time, think about it first! Really must stop limiting myself to the stamps on the floor or desk and I need to tidy up already – hardly been in there but the room’s a mess again…  

Name and address removed for privacy.
envie cdec
For those who asked – the texture is created with my good, old, trusty Fiskars brayer, using the Mesh roller, which I absolutely love. I’ll never understand why Fiskars discontinued this – it’s THE best brayer around because it’s weighted and very, very easy to use, plus it has interchangeable rollers, with lots of patterns, although I only use the mesh and the standard. I used a Big 'n' Juicy inkpad, followed by chalks and Stampin Up inks to colour.

Tuesday 30 August 2011

Finished off two of the cards I’d started, using napkins – just had to have a play.  One of them is very red – should’ve made the background a bit lighter – but I like the richness of it. I’d embossed the background/napkin, so used acrylics to add the stamping. Next time I use this design, I’ll use more yellows and browns.

N3
This one is lighter and features some of my favourite baby birds!  I love the quote and it’s one I’ve had for a while but hadn’t yet used. When I was on holiday, there were swallows all around, sitting on telephone and electricity wires and practising their flying! It was a delight to watch the babies being fed by their parents, only stopping to feed, then quickly flying off again.  Loved the noise they made and the flocks were huge!  I stamped the border with an old rollagraph wheel stamp which I’ve taken off the wheel, along with all the others – they make great background/border stamps!
N2

Monday 29 August 2011

Anyone who knows me well knows that I love script/text/words/quotes, so I enjoyed filling in this background once the napkin had dried. It’s only a mess about and is a bit dark but I only realised how I could easily lighten it when I’d finished – will try that next time.

 
 
<KENOX S1050  / Samsung S1050>
 
shroom journal pagescan
Played around a bit more and actually grounded the page – something I rarely forget but this time did.  I also added some bits of white stamping and shading – not sure it’s lighter – possibly a bit richer, but I prefer it this way.

Saturday 27 August 2011

Seems ages since I posted anything on here but I haven’t been idle, lol.  Had a couple of weeks away, visiting my bestest ever friend, followed by my OH having a week off work, so lots to do and some day trips with lots of walking when the weather allowed.  I’ve done a bit of crafting, but not much stamping and have taken lots of photos but my card reader seems to be broken, so I can’t download the latest ones, even though I have some from the last few weeks.
Here’s my favourite fairytale house, where I spent my break.

MAISON
And here’s the little house (at the  bottom of the front yard) where I stayed while there.
<KENOX S1050  / Samsung S1050> 
I did some napkin art while there and have a couple of cards and a journal page in progress but they’re still drying, so I can’t finish them off yet, but here’s the other bit of crafting I’ve been doing.
S1053534
This may look like ganache but it isn’t – and here’s a clue!
S1053537 
Here’s a bigger one, lol.
S1053535
Yep, I’ve been soap making and have really enjoyed it.  We started with a recipe in a magazine while I was away, but I enjoyed it so much, I got some more stuff when I got home and these are the results.  They’re perfumed with various oils – mint, ginger, lime, lemongrass, grapefruit, mandarin, rose – and of course chocolate! I’ve tried a few different ingredients and recipes with varying degrees of success but it’s been so much fun!
S1053539
Today, I stamped a card while waiting for the rain to die down a bit.
2708
I used an Indigo Blu stamp, which is quite big, so I only used part of it, then watercoloured with inks and used a splatter stamp here and there, finishing off with a bit of glitter varnish over the petals, although you can’t see that, of course.  I love these colours.
Will be visiting you all in the next week or so, as soon as life settles down a bit xxx
Forgot to add these… not too pretty when close up?
3
5 
2

Sunday 7 August 2011

The background is Wild Honey and Crushed Olive Distress inks, with lots of splashed water.  I liked the look of it, but it’s a bit too ‘mucky’ looking for me, so I layered it up on Primrose yellow and white, to lift the colours a little.  No background stamping because I was trying to keep this one simple. The primrose and white don’t show very well, though – it’s brighter than this.

toy
I’m out all day today, then going for a little break, so see you soon xxx

Saturday 6 August 2011

Two very simple cards, made for two specific people, for whom they’ll be appropriate.

I love York and this is for my brother, who lives there.
Shambles
This one’s super simple but I like it…
nature

Friday 5 August 2011

No theme, really, just the same stamp with different colourways.  I love this Hero Arts stamp – it’s so easy to make a simple card with by just smooshing with Colorbox Petal Points in various colours, then clear embossing. I may well add some gems to the flower centres before I send them.

vot2
This one’s stamped with an Encore multicolour pad – Enchanted, I think – and isn’t embossed, but it has a lovely sheen. Must get this scanner and monitor calibrated cos the colours aren’t exactly true.
vot1

Thursday 4 August 2011

I love glossy card but it can be a nightmare to scan or photograph and it took several attempts in this bad light (very dark earlier) to get the Mountain Rose and Sherbet pink to actually show up. Both cards are different shades of pink – the brown is the wood they were on when I photographed them. Marks are from the scanner – have since cleaned it – oops!  No more acrylic paints on my little scanner, methinks – had to scrub it to get them off!

ai3
ai4

Wednesday 3 August 2011

A quick card made for someone very special, using Alcohol inks.
<KENOX S1050  / Samsung S1050>

Monday 1 August 2011

Had to do some journalling as part of my course and did it the creative way – inking, spraying, stamping etc – unfortunately, it was all ‘reflection’ on teaching and other stuff, so a bit dull. (Have you noticed that ‘REFLECTION’ is the buzz word of the moment, btw???)
Anyway, I’ve been working on a couple of pages for me in the last few days and finally got to finish them just now.  They’re far from perfect but I like them, despite the mistakes I made.  My pens weren’t too happy about writing on acrylic and gel medium, so I had to go over one section with another, thicker, pen which really spoiled it but hey ho, it was fun. One of the things I like best about journalling (just as it was with Altered books, which is pretty much the same thing when I do it, lol) is that if there’s something you don’t like – or an experiment goes wrong – you can just cover it up with more acrylic and/or gesso and start again.
My life’s going through another big process of change and adjustment right now, so that’s what I was thinking about – change and time.  Is time really as we think it is, or did the Celts have the right idea?  They believed that past, present and future were all happening at the same time but it just doesn’t feel that way. Kind of fits in with Quantum theories of alternative dimensions but I’d better not go off on a tangent, lol.  Yep, I’m reading novels again…. can you tell, he, he?
re

I like the first page better than the second.  I like the colours, but it’s also cos of the overwriting after the pens didn’t work and a change of heart half way through, which led to painting over part of it.  It was originally about time but became about ‘singing your song’, with a bit of ‘time’ thrown in, following on from the left hand page.  Probably should have started all over again but I liked the colours.

journal nature art
The colours on the second page are more varied in real life – there’s yellow and citrus in there, which doesn’t show up.  Not quite as emotive as the first one, though.
journal sing
Hopefully, I’ll improve with time, he, he. We all start somewhere…