Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #221

Hello everybody and welcome to my crafty space!  Hope you are having a good day!!

It's time for a new Challenge at Crafty Cardmakers.
Angela  is our lovely host and the Theme is -
 EXPLOSION OF COLOUR!!
As always, whatever you wish to create is fine, as long as you use lots and lots of colour!!

For my DT contribution, I have created a simple tag.

I started with a piece of watercolour paper and used Distress Inks to add the colour.  The colours I used are Mustard Seed, Fired Brick, Forest Moss, Stormy Sky and Seedless Preserves.

Dried the inks a little with my heat gun and then daubed gesso through a Floral stencil by Kaisercraft, went around the edges of the flowers with a white gel pen and added a little stamping.

Once all of that was dry, I cut it to fit a 6.5" x 3.5" Craft Tag by Ranger and glued it down.
The flowers and leaves are by Little Birdie and I added some prills and micro beads in and around the cluster.

The die is Sevington Border by Memory Box.  This was a scrap left lying on my desk.  Thought it was time to put it to good use.

The sentiment was generated on my computer.  I have a page of little quotes and sayings which I typed out in Word and then printed off.  So handy when you need a quick little quote for something.

The ribbon for the bow was coloured with the same Distress Inks used for the background.

So, have I inspired you at all to join in with the Challenge?  Pop on over to the CCM blog and take a peek at the creations by my Teamies.  I'm sure you'll find plenty to inspire you there.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #221 - Explosion of Colour

Thank you so much for stopping by.  It is so lovely to have you visit and thank you for any little comment you may care to leave.
Have yourselves a wonderful day!
Take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge # 219 - Lace or Ribbon

Hello dear visitors and welcome to my blog.  So glad you stopped by.  

A warm welcome to my new followers too.  Very happy that you have decided to join me and I hope I can inspire you in some small way.

It's time for a new Challenge at Crafty Cardmakers and this time it's all about Lace or Ribbon!!  Well, this is a Challenge that is right up my alley!!  LOL!!   

Kim is our host for this Challenge and the Team have once again created some stunning inspiration for you.  

As always, you may create anything you wish, whether it be a card, a scrapbook page, some home decor or mixed media piece, whatever you like as long as it follows the Theme.

I guess you won't be too surprised that I have, once again, created a card.

 The papers used are from Kaisercraft's Pen & Ink paper pad and I distressed the edges with a distress tool and a little ink.

Added some tule between the layers ..

.. and lots of pretty lace as well.

The branches were cut with a die from Megs Garden called Greenery.

The gorgeous flowers and green leaves are by Little Birdie ..

.. and a lovely ribbon bow finishes the card off nicely, I think.

More of the same papers decorate the inside.

Done and dusted!!

I do hope you will pop over to the CCM blog and take a peek at the fabulous creations by my Teamies and that you will be inspired to join in with the Challenge.

For all the details and to link up your entry follow the link below ..
Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #219 - Lace or Ribbon

Thank you so much for stopping by and for the lovely comments left on my last post.  I truly appreciate them. 

Take care, stay safe and God Bless.
 oxox Marg

Getting ready for Christmas

Hello my dear friends and lovelies!!  So pleased you dropped by. 

Hope you are all having a wonderful day.

Well, I have finally started making my Christmas cards.  

You might be thinking that it's still only October, but I'm thinking 'Oh my goodness!!  It's near the end of October already and I haven't even started on my Christmas cards!!!!'   LOL!!

For a little while now I have been testing different techniques on making Masterboards and I finally did one for Christmas that I really liked.  It is much the same as one I did a while ago (you can check it out here if you wish) and, just as I did back then, I have cut this one up to create my cards.

This piece has been matted on some green cardstock.

The Distress Ink colours used for the background are Forest Moss, Crushed Olive, Fired Brick and Wild Honey.   The poinsettia stencil is from Tim Holtz.   It was one of the things I purchased from Funky Junky Boutique with the voucher I was lucky enough to win from Mini Album Makers Challenge Blog.

To construct the layers under the cluster, I used some corrugated board (which was lightly swiped with gesso) half of a die cut doily and, somewhere underneath it all, there is a small piece of gauze as well.

Created the flair sentiment by printing it, punching it out and covering it with an Epoxy Sticker.
Easy Peasy!

Another piece of the Masterboard on the inside ..

.. and the full frontal!!

I will have a few more of these to share with you.  As a matter of fact, I will probably bore you silly with all the Christmas cards I will be sharing over the next month or more so I will apologise for that up front .. LOL!!



Have you started your Christmas preparations yet??   I usually end up leaving mine till the last minute and then get totally stressed out in the rush.   Hopefully I will get all my cards made soon (??!!??  Ha!!)  and then I can concentrate on the rest.  I did say 'Hopefully'.  LOL!!

Thank you so much for dropping by and taking a look.
Have a wonderful day!!
Take care and God Bless.

1 Master Board = 3 Simple Cards

Hi everyone!!  So lovely to have you drop by.

Hope you are all having a wonderful day!

I've been spending some time watching videos (don't we all??)  on You Tube and came across one that I found really interesting.  It was made by Eileen Godwin of Eileen's Crafty Zone and she was demonstrating how to create a Masterboard.   There's actually two videos and HERE is the link to the first one if you're interested.   There, you will see the link to the second one as well.   I thoroughly enjoyed it and was inspired to have a go.  

So, this is what I made.

I didn't take progress photos while I was making this (if you wish, you can see all that on the videos) and I even forgot to take a photo before I cut it up so I simply pieced it back together so you could see how my Masterboard ended up.  The colour was added with Distress Inks and I wasn't overly impressed with my colour choices at first but, started to like it more and more as it progressed.
The colours I used are Mustard Seed, Ripe Persimmon, Faded Jeans and Pine Needles.

I managed to make three cards with this masterboard and am really happy with the result.
They are all very similar but, still, a little different.

The first card measures 3.5" x 7".

I used similar elements on all three cards.    Had to use prills, of course, along with some micro beads.

The gauze has been brushed with gesso to give it shape and structure and the flowers were coloured with sprays made from Distress Re-inkers.

Got myself a Brother Label Maker just recently (been going nuts labelling everything I can in my Craft Room.  LOL!!) and used it to make the sentiment.  

Wrapped the twine around the panel on this card before tying the bow.

The second card measures 4" x 6".

 

  Larger flower this time and simply left it as is.  Another label from my maker for the sentiment.

 Didn't bother wrapping the twine around this one .. just added a simple bow.

The last card measures 4.25" x 5.5".

Same gauze, same prills and micro beads.

 Different flowers again, coloured with sprays made from Distress Inks.

I thoroughly enjoyed creating this Masterboard and then the three cards.  It was something totally different to what I normally do and I love the results.  As I said at the beginning, I didn't really like my colour choices at first but it turned out nice and bright and cheery in the end. 
Thank you so much Eileen for sharing your talent and for inspiring me to do something a little different.

Thank you all too for dropping in and taking a look.  I hope you will go over and check out Eileen's video and her work .. I think she is awesome!!

Whatever you plan to do today,  make it a good one and have fun!!

Take care and God Bless.

In My Planner - March 2016

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.
I'd like to extend a special welcome to my new followers.  So sweet of you to join me in my creative journey and I hope I can give you a little inspiration along the way.

I'm back to share another update of my Planner.  Can't believe it's the middle of April already!!  Once again the year is flying past way too fast.  Who do I need to talk to to slow it down a bit!!??  LOL!!

The divider pages between February and March.

There was a pocket in the left hand page but I don't need that anymore so I adhered some quotes, etc. over the top of it.

The full month at a glance.

March wasn't a terribly busy month for us but we did have a few things happening.  A couple of Birthdays in the family and, of course, these was Easter as well.  I might have gone overboard with the stickers on these pages but, what the heck, it's just my Planner and I do love the stickers.

Week 1.

Week one was reasonably busy but I did have some space to add a few quotes and stickers (always find room for those LOL!!)   My darling hubby and I celebrated our 49th Anniversary in this week.  My goodness, those years have flown by.  They do say time flies when you're having fun don't they??

I added a Heidi Swapp transparency here as well.  It makes a nice cover for the extra little note page I added as I had a fair bit to write about.

Found some new stickers too .. the puffy owl ones .. I do love owls!!
Here's a closie .. Isn't it cute??

Week 2.

Week two was a bit hectic too.  Had a Birthday to celebrate in this week.  It was nice to have a quiet day on the Sunday .. LOL!!  There is another of those new puffy owl stickers  .. did I tell you I love owls??  You'd never know would you??  LOL!!

Week 3.

I have actually made a few 'stickers' of my own by simply using clip art.  Turned out alright I reckon'!!
And .. guess what .. some of them are .... wait for it .... owls!!!  Love the drunk one!!  Bit like me  on a quiet night at home!!  He!! He!!

There's also some butterflies (and a closie of some of the stamping I did in this month's pages) ..

and coffee cups!

Made some of them the right size to fit into a 1" circle punch, but some I have to fussy cut or use my trimmer to cut them out.  Pop a little glue on the back and voila!!  I think they are rather cute and, in case any of you are interested, here is one of the pages I put together.
 Hopefully (because I have never done this before)  if you right click on the image and select Save, you will be able to print these for yourself.  I really hope this works.  If it does work, and if enough people are interested, I will share more of them later on.

So, onto week 4 .. which also looks like it was quite busy!

Mmm???!!  Maybe March wasn't as quiet as I thought it was??  LOL!!

Of course, this was Easter week which is always a wonderful and Blessed time for us.
We have been very Blessed in every aspect of our lives and I do thank the Lord for all of it. 

So, this is the final week for March.

In this week my darling hubby celebrated his Birthday .. hence, the balloons!!   Not much happened for the rest of the week though so .. more space for stickers!!  Yayy!!!  LOL!!

A couple more closies of the stamping around the edge of the pages.

And .. that's it! .. March, done and dusted.  I'm hoping that, in the April pages, I will have a few photos.  Have bought myself a Canon Selphy and am learning to use it, so, you never know.  All I have to do now, is remember to actually take the photos!!  LOL!!

This turned out to be a much longer post than I thought it would.  Thank you so much for sticking it out till the end and thank you all for visiting today.
I hope that you enjoy the rest of your day and have a lovely weekend as well.

Take care .. stay safe .. and God Bless.
Do what you love and love what you do.