Wednesday 21 December 2011
"Street Life"
Wednesday 14 December 2011
"Blue is the Colour..."
Wednesday 7 December 2011
"It's A Hard Life"
Wednesday 30 November 2011
Summer or Winter - Which One Are You ???
Creative Craft Challenges - Free For All
Going Grey with Scrap-Creations - Christmas
Jens Digi Stamps - Merry & Bright (Non-Traditional Christmas Colours)
Party Time Tuesdays #44 - Anything Goes
Sassy Cheryl's Challenge Blog #92 - Winter
Craft Your Passions Challenge #86 - 'tis The Season
Craft Boots Challenges - Anything Goes
Wednesday 23 November 2011
"I Believe In A Thing Called Love......."
Thursday 17 November 2011
Sorry i'm a bit late!!
Thursday 10 November 2011
I won something !!!!!!
Cheers
Andy
x
Wednesday 9 November 2011
Following a sketch.
Wednesday 2 November 2011
A new week begins!
Wednesday 26 October 2011
...and the Darwin Award for utter stupidity goes to...
Me!
Yes that's right, I'm a complete moron. Who else would hold an electric hand whisk (still plugged in) and try and scoop out the extra cream left behind. One reflexive moment later and I'm stood over the sink with a shredded finger tip!! Fool!
But on to lighter things. This weeks I Love ProMarkers Challenge (#89 - Tags) card is up and on display. Overall I'm quite happy with it but I really wish I had stamped onto the tag direct rather than add a sentiment the way I have done, to me the two shapes are fighting each other for attention with neither one really winning out. One of the girls on the blog said she thought the tag looked like a magic carpet which I really liked - it's always amazing to me what other people can see in your work that you are oblivious too. The image is from the Digi Doodle Shop and I know she isn't Jasmine but she looks enough like her for me, so I kind of went with the Aladdin theme. Anyhoo, hope you like the card and I'll see you all again real soon, x o x o x o
Andy
Entered into Paper Pretties Wednesday Challenge #177 - Embellish
The Paper Shelter #37 - Anything Goes
Ruby's Rainbow #15 - Metal
Scrapbook Sisters Card Challenge #58 - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes
Party Time Tuesdays #39 - Anything Goes
Passion for ProMarkers # 123 - For a Child
Die Cut Dreams #101 - So Charming (metal embellishment)
Make It Monday #60 - Anything Goes
Thursday 20 October 2011
Oh L'amour, what's a boy in love supposed to do?....
Entered into KB Cute Monday challenge 31 - Anything Goes
Entered into Stamptacular Sunday Challenge #134 - You Choose
Entered into Bling It On Challenges October Challenge - No Patterned Papers
Entered into Lia's Stampz Challenge #5 - 2 Digis/stamps
Wednesday 12 October 2011
I Love ProMarkers Challenge #87 - Autumnal Colours
Sunday 9 October 2011
Christmas Down Under
Wednesday 5 October 2011
Guest Design Team Member - O.M.G.!!!!
Thursday 29 September 2011
Also entered into 4 Crafty Chicks - Anything Goes
Sunday 18 September 2011
Let It Snow...this early in the year!
So this week I was amazed to get a top three in the I Love ProMarkers
challenge Blog with my Val Ventura card. After checking out the site this weeks I saw that the new challenge was Travel and Transport. Instantly I knew which stamp I was going to use, I have a new Fizzy Moon stamp and he's on a sledge - well that's travelling isn't it?
Thursday 15 September 2011
Top 3 @ I Love ProMarkers Challenge!!!!
It is going to spur me on to enter into more competitions I think because this was only my second competition entry so I must be doing something right.
Already working on this weeks theme (which is Travel/Transport), so keep your eyes peeled on sunday for a new post.
'til then,
laters
x
Monday 12 September 2011
What A Weekend!....
Yesterday was spent getting the car valeted (thank you Lincoln Ford), shopping, eating out and getting our new shower installed.
Our old shower died in the week (we held a small ceremony, family only!) and I envisaged a bill running into the hundreds. Well it goes to show that it's not what you know that counts as one of the girls at out club (the lovely Tina), when asked if anyone knew a decent (and by decent, we meant cheap!) plumber. Tina pipes up with "I've got a brand new shower in the loft you can have for £30". So after snapping both of her hands off, she then tells us her husband Mark can fit it for an extra £20 - fifty quid for a brand new, fitted shower, I'll say!
So now Jo and I are all clean and sparkling agin it's time for the reason you're really here. This little lady is called Val Ventura and she is one of Kenny K's new Steampunk Burlesque girls. The tent is from Make It Crafty and both images were coloured using my lovely ProMarkers. The embellishment is a Tim Holtz and the backing paper is Magnolia.
The sentiment is courtesy of Pat at the craft club and is from Stampin' Up.
I wanted to make something a little different to the standard plain folded card and came up with this off-cente Z-fold creation.
I've included a second card this week as:
Saturday 3 September 2011
Meet Scarlett West
Monday 29 August 2011
Birthday Boy
I used this Edwin image as my teaching tool for the craft class tutorial a couple of weeks ago. Nice and easy to colour and quite easy for you to decide where your light is coming from as he's just a blank canvas really.
I used a new X-cut die for the star and I quite like the overall finished look of the card, i'm just not 100% convinced with the wall and the writing!
After a bit of lengthy discussion with Jo it became clear to me that I need to stop looking at the wall as a brick wall, it could be any type of wall and therefore it doesn't have to be brick coloured!!
If you colour the whole wall and stamp on it then the words tend to look a little lost. Sometimes you just come across stuff that you really like the idea of, you just have no idea how to use them effectively - these stamps are my new achilles heel, but there's no way i'm going to give up on them, I will get there in the end.
Entered into: Paper Crafting Journey - Anything Goes
Sunday 28 August 2011
Only one day to go!
x
Sunday 21 August 2011
This week, I are been mostly reading.....
As you can see, I am currently reading John Connolly's Every Dead Thing. I am a big fan of Charlie Parker and I have read a couple of them out of sequence and have now started them from the beginning. There's a new one out next month, very excited about that. If you haven't read any of his work I can highly recommend him. He uses a traditional detective set-up but with very few traditional detective novel scenarios. He writes about a strange, mysterious, often eerie world, one that very few detectives inhabit. There are some great characters in his work and his writing style is quite beautiful, very descriptive and quite poetic in places.
Whew! What a weekend.
We went to craft class together yesterday and it was my first time doing the class tutorial. I showed the ladies there how to use their ProMarkers a little better, giving them a lesson on how to get some shading into their projects and to add a little realism to their images, rather than leave them as just flat images. It seemed to go okay, most of them looked happy to have learnt something new and I even saw some really great work from a couple of the girls who had previously just coloured their images with one tone and that was it.
Well as you can see here, I've been busy making another card using my Kenny K digital downloads. This little beauty is called Eva Pearl and she is one of his new Steampunk inspired creations.
I also bought some of the new Graphic 45 papers at the craft class yesterday and they have a really beautiful steampunk theme to them, can't wait to have a go!
I used my Copics to colour her and I added the metal heart which I picked up at The Range, so I guess it must be a Do-Crafts product, that or the Paper Cellar. They were in a pack of 2 for £1 which I thought was very reasonable. Good luck finding anything on their web site though, under embellishments, in their cardmaking section they only have TWO items listed!
The little hearts on the card were part of a happy accident. I used one of my new nestabilities, a doilie circle with hearts around the edge. I was going to put it behind Eva but it just didn't look right. I was sweeping up the debris when I noticed all the little heart cut-outs. I thought they looked a little bit like butterflies, so I had them flying away from the bottom right corner.
Today was a smashing day as well. I started the day off with breakfast in bed (and it wasn't even my birthday!), then we went out for lunch - a traditional sunday dinner of (wait for it) - fish and chips!!! We went to The Elite fish shop on Tritton Road, Lincoln and the fish was just amazing, some of the nicest fish I have ever had.
After lunch we went to the cinema to see Glee: The 3D Concert Movie which was really good. There were only 5 people in the cinema (well, the sun was out, so you can't blame people), but that didn't stop me from singing along to all the songs.
The only downside to the film was that there just wasn't enough Kurt, and don't even get me started on the total lack of Sue Sylvester! I have read on-line though that she will be making an appearance on the DVD/Blu-Ray, so that's me going over to Play.com to pre-order my copy right now!
So I hope you have had a good weekend too, they really make the working days worthwhile don't they?
See you again next week,
Andy
x
Sunday 14 August 2011
Jayne Jettpack - a Kenny K creation.
All Kenny's 'girls' can be used for a quite broad spectrum of cards. They are not just for men's cards, to be used for a cheap bit of titillation, they are really versatile and I think I will be making quite a few Christmas cards using his artwork. Most of the women I know love these girls.
As for this card, well I fell back on using my Nestie dies again (in all honesty, they are all I have in my stash that is really suitable for the Steampunk style) but I intend to add to my collection soon by getting some of Tim Holtz's incredilbe range. I did however, find a large metal daisy which I think goes perfectly and remains honest to the style of the card. I've probably had it for a few years now, one of those items you buy because you just know it's going to look amazing on a scrapbook page, but then it just sits there, gathering dust while you merrily crack on with other projects.
So once again dear reader, I hope you like what I've made. I feel quite proud of this particular card, there's a certain member of my family I already have in mind who I want to send it to, so please feel free to leave a comment or two. I welcome feedback - good or bad (as long as it's honest!).
Some Odd Girl - finally finished
Today's first card is the Some Odd Girl stamp I bought from Quixotic Paperie last weekend. She cost a very reasonable £6.99 and she is called Photo Kaylee.
I really like the anime style, the big startled looking eyes and the disproportionate legs. She was really fun to colour and she comes with some essential accessories like a snapshot, some small icons (heart, flower and star) and a couple of useful expressions (Smile and Picture Perfect).
As well as Kaylee, there are other characters too. Mae Tia and Toby are just three of them and I think they are well worth a look.
For me, the hardest part came when it was time to put a card together. Because she is so different from anything else I have I did struggle a little, I even took one card completely to pieces, but I got there in the end. I think using the My Mind's Eye paper helped (what's that? no Basic Grey I hear you say) as I tend to use my mountain of 6x6 papers rather than look to my 12x12 stash (so precious to me!).
Anyway, I hope you like the finished product. If you do, let me know (or even if not, I can take it), i'd love to hear some feedback.
Here's a close-up of Kaylee so you can have a better look at the way she has been coloured.
Saturday 13 August 2011
Nearly, but not quite....
Tuesday 9 August 2011
Fly Me To The Moon.
A first dabble with Steampunk
Friday 5 August 2011
From out of the digital domain...
Another Gorjuss little angel
So Gorjuss
I don't know what it is about these strange little creatures but I fell in love with them the minute I saw them. They have a Tim Burtonesque feel to them and like the Magnolia stamps they also have no mouth but still come across as very animated.
I've used some Basic Grey paper (of course!), a Nestability (naturally!!) and an embossing folder (d'uh, it's like we've never met!!!).
So no big changes in what I use to make my cards with then, but if it ain't broke, why bother getting the socket set out eh?
I think what makes this slightly different to what I usually do is the colouring. I've tried to keep the image and card a little more gothic than I normally make, it felt in keeping with the stamp.
Some of the other Gorjuss stamps though are very girly in tone, I just don't know if they are for me.
Back Again!!
There's a call for new Design Team members at one of my favourite websites - Quixotic Paperie. They are based in Weymouth and the last time we visited the family we were going to visit them but they are web-based only, so imagine our disappointment. They stock some of my most favourite stamps, including Kraftin' Kimmie, Kenny K and some lush new Gorjuss stamps.
Anyway, I have to have a current blog so I thought it was time to get a few more posts out and hope that I am lucky enough to be chosen.