Thursday 27 September 2012

Stamping on Veneer


Hello Friends,

I've not been keeping up with my homework!  There is so much inspiration at this Kick Start class that I'm swamped with ideas and as I said in an earlier post, Jennifer and Kristina hadn't realised that this was a very busy time for me ;) !!!

Yesterday and today we have been sent off to play and try new things.  Well I don't really have time to "play" at the moment but I did have a quick play yesterday with Stampin' Up's White Craft ink, but the results weren't as pleasing as I'd hoped, so I need to get back to that one :-(, but I will, next next week, when I have more time.

Today one of the lovely guest tutors used some paper back wood veneer.  This inspiration sent me straight to my garage where I knew I could find a roll of half used worktop edging from years and years back, which I thought would do nicely. I first had a go at die cutting it but it just broke/snapped - so I quickly decided I'd simply stamp and emboss an image and colour it with my Copic's.  The result was great, apart from the fact that the veneer came on a roll and it really doesn't want to lay flat!!!!

Here is my card, you can see the curve a bit, but hey ho, at least it's something new that I haven't tried before.......


Now back to getting ready for my crop which is this Saturday.  My ladies are in for a treat, I'm off to bake up some home made treats (not sure they can scrapbook very well on shop bought treats!).

Hope you have time to craft soon.

Carole
x



Sunday 23 September 2012

Triangle card - Silhouette Cameo

Hello Friends,

I've been busy all day, it's all work again around here again and no play - lol!!!

As I have had the day off today from the Kick Start class and, am totally up-to-date with my homework (apart from the whole craft room tidying/sorting stuff - lol!), I thought I'd concentrate on what turned out to be a tricky challenge for me.  I was so delighted to find The Cameo Spotlight blog, and want to join in as much as I can.  This week the inspiration is triangles and I thought I could do something!

I did a little surfin', as you do ;) and found a great card, I spent quite a lot of timetrying to make a cutting  file on my Silhouette Studio software.  It did take me absolutely ages and I have to admit that my DH, had to step in at one point, to tell me where I was going wrong ;),  but in the end I managed to create a whole cut file for all the bits!

Hope you like my card...........




This is a screen shot of what I ended up saving to my Silhouette software, of all the bits!  My card is smaller than the original, it fits perfectly into a 5 x 5 envelope.



Let me know what you think.

I love creating and designing on my Silhouette Studio software, you should give it a try!

Carole
x

A gift for Nurse Suzy

Hello Friends,

Sometimes there is just one small thing that someone can do for a friend, that will make a huge impact on their lives.  This is a little gift, rather funny you might think, but my friend is a district nurse and spends many hours on her knees looking after other peoples legs and poorly feet.

Unfortunately she is someone who is suffering now with her own legs, so I had a little think and hope this little gift idea will help her to help to help others...


I'm hoping that she will be pleased and that it will make some impact on her day to day life.

Sorry about the photos being so dark, I do need to practice with my photography!

Enjoy your Sunday.

Carole
x

Saturday 22 September 2012

Print & Cut - Silhouette Studio Software

Hello again,

I'm back!  I cleared up the mess I made last night, did my ironing, been for a 2.5 mile walk in the lovely autumn sunshine and have now completed my homework for this lovely class!

Today there were two wonderful teachers, both sharing lovely ideas and video's with us.  It was all about window shopping, not necessarily in the craft shop either!  We were sent surfing to our favourite stores for inspiration.

I didn't have to go far, I have found a designer store that caters for my figure - I didn't think one ever would, but I found one, just a few months ago and I love their clothes!  They do a lot of clothes that you don't need a waist for - and that's me!  This is their website, and if you click on the link you will see where my inspiration came from for this card........



I don't feel it's quite finished, but if I ever decided to use it then I could girlie it up with hearts and flowers and if I wanted to make it more masculine, then I could add buttons.

I designed the whole card on my Silhouette Studio software and this is a picture of the screen before I sent it to print.....


Can you see that I imported the inspirational image so that I could have it right in my work space, which made it easier to replicate.  I also used the colour dropper tool, to grab the colours.

I was pleased to be able to search for inspiration away from crafty blogs and shops, it makes you think of what you can use with what you have on hand and doesn't make you wish you had this product or that ink etc!

Now with my homework done, I'm off to order this dress.............


........well, I might just have to go into Oxford tomorrow to try it on - I love it!

What a day..........now gotta go and cook supper!

Happy surfing for ideas, not blogs or craft shops - anywhere but!!!

Carole
x

Kick Start - Day 5


Dear Friends,

I got into crafting last night in my new space and am pleased to say that I think it's definitely going to be a great space to work.  I found my old Ott-Lite, I hadn't used it for years as it didn't go all that well in my old space, I dusted it down and now have a great day light lamp on my desk, which means it will be nicer to craft in the evenings.

After the inspiration yesterday from the Kick Start class and making the card I showed on my blog yesterday, I continued to make cards until pretty late last night.  I made all of these.........




All are using a glitter technique, either two different colours or all white with some if it coloured with markers.

Enjoy your day, I'm not crafting today, until I've done my ironing - the pile I have is distressing me!  Oh and I have a glitter clean up operation to complete, I might start there ;) !

Happy crafting.

Carole
x



Friday 21 September 2012

Kick Start - Day 5 with Silhouette Cameo Christmas card

Hello again Friends,

I'm on a roll, my crafting space is getting organised and I have enough stash in here now to be able to produce something creative!!  Yippee :)

I've got my computer, my Silhouette Cameo, a stack of drawers, two whole shelves full of my stuff a cupboard with some of my samples in, my huge desk (but not big enough - lol!!!) and a couple of small temporary tables (oh I love tables - I have a whole stack of little ones that can be popped up anywhere - he he he!).

I managed to find my Sizzix double sided adhesive sheets and made this little card out of a piece of one of those sheets, my Silhouette Cameo, some plain card stock and two colours of glitter (green and white).  The base card was embossed with one of my original Cuttlebug embossing folders and the ribbon is from Stampin' Up - wish I had more of that!

The inspiration for this card came from this fab class, I keep mentioning it, I hope you are checking it out!


This was so easy to make, I might just make a few more whilst I have the stash out and the cutting file open on my computer, I only have a couple of button to press to be able to produce lots!

Happy crafting, I'm just lovin' it!!!

Carole
x

Kick Start - Day 5

Hello Friends,

Where is a girl to start????  I know that I said that I wouldn't be cooking or cleaning whilst I was trying to keep up with the fab Online Card Class - Kick Start, but I was only joking!  DH needs a good meal and I do have to stop snacking if I'm ever going to reach the body of my "body double"!

But with the homework commitments I'm definitely sinkin'!  What Kristina and Jennifer didn't realise was that  I had just started to turn a bedroom into my new crafting room, they hadn't a clue how much work was involved when they talked about organisation and tidying - LOL!!!! Perhaps next time, they'll check with me to see how I'm fixed before they give out so much inspiration and homework!

I would love to have made cards like theirs today, but I'm still on the tidying mode and am stuck until I get some stash into my room.  So I have spent some time today getting said stash into said room!  Whilst transferring the box of dies from my garage to my room, I did tidy them ;) - I put them in some sort of order and turned them all the right way around :)!

Whilst sorting them I saw something I did a while ago, with some of my dies.  A crafty friend of mine told me about sticking a large sticky white label to my dies and die cutting them.  You can see from the photo's below what I mean.  I also wished I'd saved all my acetate sleeves with the idea leaflet in, when I worked out that if you just cut off the end tabs of the dies, it makes for easy storage.  See the Stephanie Ackerman ones in the photo's below to see what I mean.............




I'f I'd have thought of this system earlier, I would have been much happier with my storage solution, but at least I know now (although, with the Cameo Silhouette on my desk, I can't imagine buying many more!) lol!

If you look closely at the bottom photo of the hearts, you can even see that I've written the measurements of what size card stock I need to cover the hearts!

Hope it help with storing your Sizzix dies.

Enjoy your day.

Carole
xx

Thursday 20 September 2012

Kick Start - Day 4

Hello Friends,

I was missing in action yesterday - our homework for the Kick Start Online Card Class, was to tidy our crafting areas.  I did have a session of putting things away/finding new places to put things, but I still feel it will be a little longer before I can share more photos of my new craft studio!

Today the very lovely Shari Carroll, one of my very favourite card designers showed us some of her crafty storage ideas and then followed with a fabulous card demonstration.  I was so taken by the card, I have spent the last few hours trying to make a Studio file myself, similar to the one she bought from Kerri Bradford.  I was going to purchase the one she had, but then thought it would be a challenge to see if I could make my own cutting file and after many attempts and many many wrong clicks of the mouse, I managed this cut file and I'm over the moon!


After cutting it out, I made this lovely card.......


I used papers from the Nature Garden collection by Prima, along with card stock from my stash.

Now I've made this file, I'm sure it won't take me too long to make lots of different ones - I wonder if I ever will ;) - lol!!!

It's way past my bed time, but I really wanted to get this up on my blog for you.

Happy crafting.......with your Silhouette!

Carole
x

Tuesday 18 September 2012

Kick Start Day 2, MOJO259 & Distrezz-it-all!

Hello Friends,

It's day two of the fabulous Online Card Class, Kick Start.  We had more help and inspiration on ways to store our inspiration and ideas ready for when we need them.  Watching these class videos has made me realise that I would gain more time later, if I spent time now organising my supplies/ideas/tools etc.

I decided to start with writing a list of the tools I own, it really is a little embarrassing to think of how many tools I have, all of which I "needed" at the time of purchase - lol!  I stopped writing my list when I found my Distrezz-it-All made by Zutter.  I haven't had this tool for long, I bought it, used it once and my DH thought it was far too noisy to use, whilst he was working and he couldn't see the point of messing up perfectly straight edges!  I took it to one of my crops and showed it to my ladies, but non of them used it, they wanted perfect matting and layering too and couldn't see it's charm!

Well today, DH is out of his home office and whilst the cat was out, the mouse decided to make noise!  This card was partially made, just ready to stamp the greeting and stick, so before sticking, I used the opportunity to "Distrezz" all the bits before sticking and I love it!

What do you think....................?


I took the photo with the machine in the background so you know what to look out for!

The inspiration behind the Card Sketch I used, came from this weeks Mojo Monday, sketch challenge 259.

Please leave me a comment if you like it.

Happy crafting......with your own tools!

Carole
x



Monday 17 September 2012

Kick Start Day 1

Hello Friends,


Today is the first day at the Kick Start class from Online Card Classes and I already know that if I am going to be an "A" grade student, I'm going to have to be on the ball and will be very busy over the next two weeks.  There will be no housework done, no meals freshly prepared, kids will have to organise their own lives - I'm busy!

Today's class was all about where to find inspiration.  We were shown different ideas, where to look, how to gain inspiration and where to start, from both Jennifer and Kristina and how to document our ideas/what we find.

I thought I'd share one of my own ideas here today.  You all know I love my Silhouette Cameo and you all know that you don't have to look very far for an excellent on-line class ;) !  So, as I'm a total Cameo/stamping techniques crafter these days, I find most of my inspiration from on-line card sketch challenges.

The card I have for you today is from one of those challenges the Baisc Grey Challenge......


I can't always enter the challenge competitions because I don't always use the products associated, but I do try and give credit to the challenge designer at least, if it appears on my blog.

Now I'm addicted to my Silhouette Cameo, these sketch challenges are a breeze.  I can make up the whole design in my Silhouette Studio software and simply cut.

This is the Silhouette Cameo mat, loaded with the different papers......


This is a screen shot of some of the images from this card........


I loaded my mat with 4, 6 x 6 papers from the collection called "Nature Garden" from Prima and cut the images as shown in the screen shot of my Silhouette Cameo.

The images on the mat were cut in the DSP, as mentioned and the bits to the side were cut on the base cardstock I used, which was Stampin' Up's Natural white.

My end card did not use all the pieces I'd cut, but that's how it goes!

Hope you like my card and inspiration on how I'm getting inspiration these days.

Happy crafting and don't forget if you live in the Oxfordshire area of the UK, then I'm your "go to girl" for installation/set up and one to one tuition for your Silhouette Cameo.

Carole
x


Wednesday 12 September 2012

The Cameo Spotlight challenge #3

Hello Friends,

The card I'm showing you today is for a friends birthday, I'm sure she is away on holiday but it will be waiting for her when she gets back.


I've used the colours I have closest to the ones in this weeks challenge over at The Cameo Spotlight challenge blog so that I can enter this card.

The Cameo cut outs were all from the Silhouette strore, which I cut and stamped using my favourite Stampin' Up background stamp called En Francais.  The flower in the middle was again cut out with my Silhouette Cameo, this time using vellum, I embossed each little petal from the back to give the flower some dimension and shape.

The colours used were River Rock, Marina Mist and Whisper White, all from Stampin' Up.

Enjoy your day and I hope you have some time to craft.

Carole
x


Tuesday 11 September 2012

Silhouette Cameo - Boy's card

Hello Friends,

Sometimes when you run out of time and could do with a little help it can come in many different ways, ways in fact, that you wouldn't even think of.

Yesterday I posted a card I made on my Silhouette Cameo and the very lovely Jackie Rockwell from the Cameo Spotlight challenge blog commented on it.  I traced her comment right back to the challenge blog, one I didn't even know about, and found this card, just at the right time.

I've been worrying (why do we worry so much about "boy" cards?) about making a card for our nephew for at least a week - and with my crafting area out of bounds until yesterday, I worried even more!

This is my take on her card ............


I found the same images in the Silhouette store and wrote the sentiment myself.

It is very different from my usual style but I really like it.

Hope you have some fun playing with your Silhouette Cameo later today.

Carole
x

Monday 10 September 2012

Silhouette Cameo - New home card

Good morning my friends,

I've got a few things to craft with, in my new craft room now (it's going to take some time to get it all in here!).  My Silhouette Cameo was the first arrival, then my computer and some card stock so I could make this new home card for my daughter.


The inspiration for this came from seeing Hayley West, who did some drawing and cutting out on the Silhouette Cameo yesterday, on Create and Craft and this post from A Blog Named Hero.

I made the little block of flats myself using roofs, doors and window images from the Silhouette store.  The rest of the images also came from the Silhouette store.

I've got plenty more crafting to do over the next few days - I'm so behind with it all, so will be back with more for you to see very soon.

Have a great day and happy crafting.

Carole
x

Sunday 9 September 2012

My craft room

Good morning friends,

I'm just popping into my blog to update you on my craft room progress.  I now have a desk ............



quite a large one at 90cm wide and 180 cm long, but that's not the best bit..........




the best bit is that it goes up and down, using that little control above!  So I can work at what ever height I like, it should help with all my aches and pains.  I like to stand when I stamp, so I won't be breaking my back and punching out shapes whilst my desk is lower should be a breeze!


Finally here is my posh stool.  It is so comfortable, it is shaped like a riding saddle and goes up and down too!

Later today I hope to get some crafty stash in here so that I can start my new creative journey tomorrow, so watch this space.

Have a great Sunday and happy crafting.

Carole
x

Friday 7 September 2012

My crafting break

Hello my friends,

I know it's been a while since I posted something for you to see and I apologise for that.  I've been away and now that I'm back my time is being taken up by turning one of our rooms into a new crafting room - just for me!

I'm super excited, it's quite a large room and I hope that once it's all organised I will be able to craft my little heart out without ever having to clear up again - lol !!!!!

Watch this space, I'm hoping to be able to craft some time over the weekend or shortly after.

Enjoy this September sunshine and craft when you can.

Carole
x