What techniques or styles do you struggle with?

Hi!

Sorry for the lack of posts this week unfortunately other activities had to take priority.  I'm sat here at my craft desk surrounded by colours and I have no idea what do to!

I've been watching lots of YouTube videos and updates from CHA and I see such amazing products and techniques with wonderful creations at the end. I look round my craft space and see most of the things I need to have a go.  But there is one "style" I just can't seem to get...  mixed media/craft journaling.  I can't seem to create random nice-ness!

So, when you don't know what to do then what better.. try and make a random nice-ness!

Before I post the pic of the "outcome" I would say that it nearly went in the bin several times!

Here's what I did..

• Base coat of Dina Wakley Media - Gel Medium (matte)
• Random rubbings of various Tim Holtz Distress Crayons
• A sprinkle of Paperartsy Infusions
• Spritz of water
• A bit if tissue to remove some of the excess water
• A blitz with the heat gun
• A background stamp with black stazon
• A sprinkle of Stampendous embossing enamals - Chunky White and Aged Silver

And this is the outcome..

Crafting With Friends Challenge #35

Hello!

Well here we are again at the end of a week! The speed time is flying in is making me dizzy!  It's been a great week.  Recovered (work wise) from everything that piled up over the Christmas break.  House is starting to look tidy (ish) again!  And I'm been involved in some parent/teacher stuff which looks like it could be very worthwhile.  So, enthusiasm running high!  AND, even more importantly, crafty spend has been at a minimum and some really quality time has been spent doing a bit of a clear out!  Still a fair way to go though!

I did manage to "ring fence" some quality crafty time to do my DT entry for the AMAZING fortnightly challenges over at Crafting With Friends!  Working with an image from the very talented Nikki Burnette. 

I chose Cadence. 

She immediately said "nature" to me.. so I went with a simple palette of colours (and a little bit of fairy sparkle glitter!) to produce this...

I love her face!  She is such a pleasure to colour in! I used a mix of alcohol pens to get the variety of greens and blending..

I hope you like her. Please take some time to pop on over to our challenge #35, it's ANYTHING GOES, and you need to join in!

I'm going to enter this card in the following challenges:

Brown Sugar

Colour Crazy Craft Challenge

Making Memories Crafting

Crafting With An Attitude

Crafty Creations

Inspiration Destination

Thanks for reading!

Mish Mash Monday!

Hi! Welcome to the start of a new week!

It's been a bit of a mish mash of things today.  Totally without any mojo at all to start with - so housework took priority.  Then after lunch, with no sign of the elusive mojo, and a tiredness associated with the start of a cold I looked around the craft room to see what was lying about.

Ages and ages ago I bought an MDF kit to make a stand for my excess Stampin' Up! Ink Pads.. the pieces have been lying around for ages.  So.. I decided to get the acrylic paints out and see what damage I could do.  I used Inka-Gold Old Silver for the sort of accent aged colour over various shades of yellow, orange and red pastel acrylics.  And I used a couple of shades of quite bright lime and apple greens for the top of the unit.

And now that I have put some of my pens in their storage I can see colours at a glance (no idea what do to with the 200 or so ProMarkers though!)  (A problem for another day!)

I did a wee bit of colouring and then made a little desk notepad.

Then some watercolouring. I got a new pigment liner (1.2 width) so I checked it was waterproof then had a wee doodle.  I used Gansi Tambi watercolours to finish it.  No idea what I'll do with it!

And, last but not least, I'm trying to learn how to draw (YouTube videos!) and I recently received some Wolff Carbon Pencils so I though I would have a go!  I found a tutorial for drawing an eye and here's my first attempt.  Great fun.  As long as there are people who only want me to draw them with one eye then things will be fine (as I'm not sure I could draw the other one to match!!)

I have to say, charcoal pencils are great fun, messy, but great fun!

Enough for today I think!

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #50

Hello!  Well here we are with my first DT entry for our "Anything Goes" Challenge at Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends in 2017!

I had great fun with this one!  We have two amazing sponsors for this challenge and I was lucky enough to get this gorgeous "Ducklings In the Rain" image from Sasayaki Glitter.  I coloured it using a mix of Copics and Spectrum Noir Illustrator markers.

LPOCF Challenges are always great fun so why not pop over and check out all the DT ideas then join in!  There are some fabby prizes to be won too!

Our sponsors for this challenge are:

A Day For Daisies

Sasayaki Glitter

I'm going to enter this card in the following challenges:

Crafty Calendar
Brown Sugar
Colour Crazy Challenge
Creative Corner
Jo's Scrap Shack
Making Memories Crafting
PDE Linky Party
Polkadoodles
Crafting With An Attitude
Crafty Girls Creations

Flower power!

Hello!

Brr! It's cold today but the threat of snow hasn't happened yet! High winds though - as demonstrated at around 2am this morning with a huge articulated lorry being blown over to the opposite carriageway on the Forth Road Bridge.  So it's traffic chaos for those who need to find other routes.

Half way through the week already though. I wonder if 2017 is going to be as fast as 2016?  I think it's partly due to always having to think about school holidays/terms etc, it breaks the year down into smaller chunks and they just seem to disappear!   Glad we've got our summer holidays booked though; it's nice to have something to look forward to!  Also planning some trips and can't wait to visit St. Petersburg again - one of the most fascinating cities I've visited.

Anyway, enough of holidays, time to focus on craft!  As the weather is so miserable I thought it would be nice to use these Polkadoodle flower stamps to make this card.  I've not put a sentiment on yet as the card could be for a number of different occasions.

Coloured with Spectrum Noir Illustrator markers (love love love them!)

I'm going to enter this card in the following challenges:

Crafty Creations

Creative Moments

Inspiration Destination

Chocolate Baroque

Crafty Sentiments

Creates and Makes

Everybody Art Challenges

Lemon Shortbread

Sunny Day Crafting

Through The Craft Room Door

Big Blue Balloon

Hello!

It's Monday already! The weather's been wet here but still not too cold - the forecast for the week is for snow though so it's catching up with us. 

I've been doing some more colouring with Spectrum Noir Illustrators and one of my fav Bugaboo digis.  Kept the embellishments to a minimum on this one and used the Neat & Tangled "Celebrate" die for the sentiment.  The papers are Lawn Fawn "Hello Sunshine".

I'm going to enter this card in the following challenges:

Crafting When We Can

Glitter N Sparkle

A Bit More Time To Craft

A Perfect Time To Craft

Crafting Musketeers

Crafthazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge

Petal Lu

Cool Treats!

Hello!

I hope you are enjoying the weekend! It's a dull and grey day here in central Scotland.  It's probably cold too but as I'm not going out it really doesn't matter!

Some time today to play with some new Stampin' Up! goodies - "Cool Treats".  Great fun dies and stamps and gorgeous washi tapes!

I felt quite summery when I was making this card!  And now in the mood for some mum and daughter baking time - we're making cake pops this afternoon!

I'm going to enter this card in the following challenges:

Come and Get It Challenges

Crafting When We Can Challenges

Glitter N Sparkle

A Bit More Time To Craft

A Perfect Time To Craft

Just Keep On Creating

Country View Challenges

Crafts Galore Encore

Dies R Us

Not Just Cards

World Wide Open Design Team

Pink Elephant!

Hello Saturday! 

This has been such a quick week!  There's been lots of spring cleaning going on - hard work.. but worth it! Where does all the "stuff" come from?  I've been really ruthless so far but the task is far from complete!

Took a little break from the tidying and (in the spirit of clean and tidy) I went down the CAS route with this little card using Stampin' Up! "Love You Lots".  Using Soft Sky ink for the background then Spectrum Noir Illustrators in Old Lavender and Wisteria for the elephant.  Matted up on Sweet Sugarplum and Pink Pirouette.  Simple!

I'm going to enter this card in the following challenges:

CAS Colours and Sketches (#204)

Crafting by Designs

Seize The Birthday

Crafting With An Attitude

That's Crafty

PDE Linky Party

Making Memories Crafting

Creative Corner Challenges

Brown Sugar

Have a lovely day!

Another little desk calendar

Hello!

I think I must be New Year obsessed!!  (either that or I bought way-too-many 2017 calendar tabs from ebay last year!!)  I was having a wee look around on Pinterest and found a little desk calendar with a pocket for little scraps of paper.  I followed the link to the very talented Stampin' Sarah and found all the instructions needed to make this little fella!

I used Tim Holtz Menagerie papers to decorate. Another quick make as I'm trying to kick my mojo into gear!!

Now, time to get on and get a couple of DT entries ready for next week!

Getting Ready..

..to go back to work! 

It's been great being off for so long over Christmas and New Year but now it's time to get ready to go back to work.  With crafting in mind I thought I would make a new desk calendar.  Nothing too fancy, just a quick 30 min make.

I used this Tiddly Inks digi stamp and coloured using Spectrum Noir Illustrator Markers (they really are great!!). I used Stampin' Up! coaster board to make the base of the calender and covered it with papers from the new Succulent Garden DSP (from the new Spring/Summer catalogue).  The cardstock is Mint Macaron and Sweet Sugarplum.

Now I need to mark on the important birthdays and this years holidays!

I hope you like it!

I'm going to enter this in the following Challenges..

Inspiration Destination

Crafting By Designs

Crafty Gals Corner (Use Something New!)

Crafty Creations

Wonderful Wednesdays

New Year Bubbles!

Hello!  This is my first post of 2017 and it comes to you wishing you a very Happy New Year!  Now that things are "getting back to normal" after the festive period I'm hoping that I get a little more time to craft!

Looking back over 2016 I did manage 174 posts although I admit that performance tailed off in the latter months!  2016 was a busy old year. Family things and work seemed to take up all the free time.  I need to take control of my time and ensure none of it gets wasted away on tasks that have no benefit!

It's a chilly day here in Central Scotland, although considering the weather we sometimes have in January it's really not bad at all! Frosty nights and mornings and a lunch time high of 4 degrees.  Warm and cosy here in the craft room though!

I think I started last year saying I was going to use craft stash rather than buy new things.  That started off fairly well.. but didn't last! I'm not in the habit of making New Year resolutions but I will be trying (trying!) to watch the crafty spending, make good use of my time, and blog regularly (not much point of having a blog if I don't update it!)

So here is my first card of 2017 made with a Sizzix die that Santa brought me..  I paper pieced all the bubbles - it took a wee bit of time but was strangely therapeutic!

I'm going to enter this card in the following "Anything Goes" Challenges:

Create and Makes

Sunny Day Crafting

Through The Craft Room Door

Crafting From The Heart

A Bit More Time To Craft

Country View Challenge

Crafts Galore Encore

Dies R Us Challenge