Double Easel Courtesy of Hyper Ni!

I am typing this very slowly, due to having a septic index finger, which is amusing Mr H no end as I am cursing whenever I hit the wrong keys. I finished a card shape I was inspired to try by Ni, a DoCraft pal and fellow blogger. Hers had a distinctly elegant touch; mine does not. I made  a mistake when it came to fixing the left side topper and had to peel (ie wrench) it off. You can see her blog here where she has a tutorial on how to make these easel cards



Double Easel Tilda



Cherry Tilda and Tilda with three flowers are coloured with Promarkers and are sitting on a wall digi stamp. They are adhered with 3D foam pads. A second wall acts as the stop and carries the sentiment, from Papermania, which was embossed onto green coredinations card and sanded. The backing card is also embossed coredinations card from the Whitewash collection, embossed with a cottage floral folder. I sanded it to reveal the core but it makes for a very dusty environment! I tore the edge of the bottom panel just to add a bit of colour since I had had difficulty in sanding effectively. I used some flat backed self-adhesive pearls and teeny flowers from my stash and some white glitter alphabet letters from Dovecrafts to spell LOVE on the panels. The card fits nicely in a DL envelope.



Folded down

I watermarked the card myself and now I am going to try a twisted easel card which is a variation on this, I reckon. I thought I would also show you the card I made for my very good friend, fellow crafter and stash-sharer Bernadette. It was her birthday yesterday and she is probably out shopping with her birthday money right now. The card is from the La Pashe range and is relaxing to make and always has a bit of a giggle factor.

The front



The rear! 

I would like to thank everyone who leaves comments for me, they are always very kind and make me feel a part of the blogging community. Today is going to be a lazy Saturday and so I hope that it's a good one for everyone, cheerio for now,

Docrafts Weekly Challenge

Just a quick post before I go out to lunch with Mum. We tend to eat so well that I must confess to a little replete nap, or forty winks, as Mum puts it, in the afternoon, which might come between me and a posting, lol.



Clares Weekly Inspiration Challenge 15 - 28 February 2011

This week was 'Inspiration' week where Clare gives a photo and invites you to take any element for inspiration. The photo was of a lovely branch of red leaves against the sky.

You don't get the full effect of the lovely Summer Driggs paper which I ran off the computer on photographic paper, giving it a gorgeous gloss, and which yelled out to be used for this challenge. I topped it with a Carnation from the La Pashe Build a Blossom Collection and a thank-you sentiment I made using a Dovecraft stamp and Glossy Accents.

 I was trying to capture the glossy look of the paper and at first I heat embossed the stamp in black but it didn't gel well with the card. Next I stamped in brown ink but it looked faded against the gloss - then my lightbulb switched on and I grabbed my bottle of Glossy Accents. It isn't perfect, one for the 'must do better' column, but it's the look I was after. The paper was the thing but I couldn't afford to run too much of it off ; not just pennies-wise but because I would be tempted just to keep it untouched. You wouldn't believe the wince when I put the sheet into my trimmer!

Cheerio for now, 

The Paper Shelter #1 Buttons and Bow and Totally Tilda Challenge #16 How Does your Garden Grow

Finally finished the two cards I had on the boil this morning and now I am ready to try Ni's double easel at last! The cards are for two blog challenges for a change!



The Paper Shelter Challenge #1 Buttons and Bows

I made a get well card with this sickly mouse, Pepe L'Souries, from the Paper Shelter and coloured him with Promarkers. Don't you just love his kitty slippers? I made the sentiment on my Paint app on my lap-top to tie in with the cheese tea. The backing papers are freebies from a mag and the button is from the Glitterpot but I have no idea where the yellow organza ribbon is from, nor the little black bead rope. the card candy or the pearls. I am pleased to be entering the inuagural challenge and urge you to have a look - Kevin 'McCrafty' is on the Design Team and his brilliant card inspired me to have a go this morning. The prize is a gift certificate to spend in the shop - think of all those great digis!



Totally Tilda #16 How Does Your Garden Grow



Having just done a garden themed card for the Tilda Challenge on Docrafts I was disconcerted to find that Susie and the team had also chosen gardening as their theme. Rita, aka the Papercraft Tutor had a splendid garden shed decoupage set on her weekly newsletter and so I printed it out on card and took out one shed image and the flowerpots to serve as Tilda's garden shed. She is rolling in leaves and was coloured with Promarkers; I am trying to get blonde hair right and thanks go to Bernadette who generously sent me a sandstone Promarker which she had a double of. The backing card was a free download from Pop n'Stick and the sentiment is from Rainbow echo Designs. The white roses are from Papermania as is the Dew Drop in the centre of the orange flower, which is from the Dovecraft Sugar &Spice range. Check out the challenge on the link in my sidebar - the prize is a doohickey from the Magnolia range.

The gorgeous Neil Oliver is about to come on the telly so I'm off on the pretext of learing about ancient Britons while revelling in the lovely voice of the small but perfectly formed Mr Oliver, cheerio for now,

Ooh, Neil just said 'hazel' but he was talking about ancient woodland!!!!

Creativity Club Challenge #4

We are over the whole car thing and the feeling flumpy thing so I spent most of today away from home instead of in it. I have had no crafting time today but I finished the card for the fourth Creativity Club Challenge on Docrafts. I also experimented with my own watermark for this card! Not as good as Lynn Salmons but worth it to increase my confidence!

The host of the challenge picked a sketch with a featured panel; I had already stamped Tilda with Chicks onto just such a handcut panel so I was practically finished. I skewed the panel because I was going to mat it straight onto the yellow cardstock panel but thought the skew gave it a bit more oomph. The backing papers and the flowers in the centre of Lynne Salmons digi sentiment came from Papermanias Lemon Sorbet range; all the rest is from my stash, although the dew drops are from Papermania too. I finally remembered to edge my paper panels with an inkpad as it's supposed to afford some definition but my own internal jury is still out on this one.

Cheerio for now, I'm off to skype my eldest daughter,

More on the Docraft Challenge front!

Although Mr H and I are suffering from general malaise today I think it had a lot to do with us refusing to buy the car that we had put in for because we felt we had been misled. No-one likes confrontation and we had to put ourselves in its direct path yesterday. The misleading information posted on the  dealer's national website and apparently taken as gospel by the sales force, was  incorrect, but in fact had sold us (or sucked us in, depending on how forgiving you feel) on that particular model. Our sales rep had also given us incorrect advice which he later tried to deny and said that it was my mistake! Picture steam coming out my ears...

We were very frustrated especially when, seeing a potential sale going up the swanee, the salesman tried to find another model to sell  to us. We had to peel ourselves away one by one. So we are wallowing in self-pity for a bit and eating comfort food - me,  my homemade lentil soup, which Mr H, rather unkindly calls 'fart juice' and watching sappy films;  him, he's waging virtual war on some virtual planet and drinking coffee and eating fruit - whatever floats your boat.

Two cards for Docrafts Challenges

Front

This is for Kates Tilda Challenge, She asked for a different shape of card from our norm with pastel colours, ribbon, gem , buttons, bows etc I opted for an easel shape and ballerina Tilda. I used two frames that I cut out of blue coredinations cardstock and pink pearlised paper and backing paper from the Honey & Hugs range from Docrafts. Ribbon rosebuds and leaves are from Hobbycraft and the double ribbon and pearl gems are from my stash.

Flat piece and sentiment/stop



Whole card

The sentiment is from Lynne Salmons range and the blue and pink cardstock is coredinations. Eight pink mini buttons from Papermania were mounted on the sentiment with silicon glue.

The second card is for Jenbob's Penny Black Challenge. I own just  the one PB stamp which I recently bought from Crafts4U2Do so I had to enter.



Don't you just love the moosie!



Jen asked us to have red, white and blue predominating and we were to use one PB image, two ribbons, three backing papers and four gems. I embossed the blue and white panels; sanded the blue and swiped the white with the Dew Drops Danube Blue ink pad, doing the same with the sentiment panel.

Off to design a card for the new Club Challenge, cheerio for now,