Holiday by the Sea

Greetings to you all, I hope you are well.
Today is a non-descript kind of day here in Rhyl, North Wales so it is perfect for crafting!!
I decided it was time for a break from Christmas preparation today so my card is beach and holiday related rather than anything to do with Christmas!

I like shaker cards and my friend recently did a shaker picture so I felt inspired to do my own shaker card!  Using sand from practically on my doorstep, I give you this summer scene to bring back some good memories :)

I used:
Beach scene stamp by Impression Obsession
Cocoa Memento Ink
Acetate
Sand
Tattered Lace Fishing related dies
Brilliance Gold Ink
Distress inks in: Gathered Twigs, Rusty Hinge, Salty Ocean, Tumbled Glass and Chipped Sapphire
Blue Card, Brown Card and shell charms from my stash!

The brilliance Gold was put onto the die cuts first and then light dustings of the various distress inks applied to give a multi tonal effect that alters as you move it in the light.

I hope you like this card-I had a lot of fun creating it :)

Challenges Entered:
Amusing Challenge- Anything Goes
Crafting At The Weekend- Anything Goes
Paper Creators Crafts- Use a Charm
Tattered Lace- Holidays

Thanks for stopping by, until next time-Happy Crafting!
xx

Christmas Time

Greetings to you all, I hope you are well.
I did start early on my Christmas cards this year, hoping to be prepared for Christmas fayre season and not chasing my tail to catch up as I was last year!
I have already blogged one design for this year (and will, no doubt, blog the amended version of that also) and those of you who followed me last year may even remember this next one.

 This was my first ever Christmas card design-in purple and silver with black.  This time around however, I offer it in several colour combinations, all utilising my absolute favourite Christmas stamp from IndigoBlu:
Blue and platinum

Green and gold

Red and gold

All with black ink.

Wow! embossing powder in silver metallic and in platinum
Gold embossing powder
IndigoBlu Christmas tree stamp
Liquid pearls in: onyx, imperial purple, gold, platinum and blue
Black soot distress ink
Versafine onyx black ink
Lavinia stamps small star stamp
Various small sentiment stamps

These are for sale, price frozen from last year, at £1.20 each or 10 for £10.
I do hope that you like these, please let me know what you think.
Until next time, Happy Crafting xx

Creative Blog Hop

Creative Blog Hop   I was asked by the lovely Cheremane Smith to take part in the Creative blog hop which, every Monday, sees lots of different crafters sharing information with others on their blogs, so here goes:     1. What am I working on?


When it comes to papercrafting, I am working on Christmas cards right now as I would rather not be surprised when December gets here!  I am also knitting a jacket for a lovely lady and designing a Tunisian crochet handbag! I always have several things on the go- a change is as good as a rest so they say ;)

2.How does my work differ from others in my genre?


I don't know that I have a particular genre, I like to have a go at everything! I think that coming to crafting from an art background gives me a different outlook and I often have different ideas about how products can be used so I guess that makes me different!


3. Why do I write/create what I do?


If I didn't create, I would go insane! There are so many ideas inside my head that I just think I might explode if I didn't let some of them out-it would be a colourful explosion though!! Actually, that gives me an idea.......


4. How does your writing/creative process work?   To be honest, I know this sounds really cheesy but I have had quite a few ideas come to me in dreams, or in that place between awake and asleep-I usually scribble some notes or a rough sketch so I don't forget then go about gathering what is required to make it!
Other times, it's just a case of picking up a crafting item, putting it to paper and seeing what grows there!!
 I am now supposed to pass this hop onto three other crafters but the only actual crafter that blogs who i know in real life, is the one who passed this on to me!  Therefore, I am only nominating one person (but hope she can nominate 3 in order to keep the blog hop going!), her post will be live next monday.  The crafter who blogs that I pass this creative blog hop onto is:

Rita She is a talented lady who has been crafting much longer than I have, and her work is very different to mine.  She is always encouraging of others and offers inspiration with each post, it will  be interesting to see her responses next week :)

That time of year

Greetings to you all, I hope you are well.
I return from my blogging sabbatical with renewed vigour and start as I mean to go on! So, it's August which can mean only one thing-the c word.
Here is the first of this year's Christmas designs from me, I like it but think it needs a bit of tweaking before I make a whole bunch of them!

After learning from the wonderful Cheremane Smith, the technique of using the alcohol inks on photo paper to create fabulous backgrounds I just had to give it a try :)

I used:
5x7 card blank
Photo paper
Alcohol inks in Pool, Cool Peri, Cloudy Blue and Silver
Jet black Archival ink
Tree stamp from Indigo Blu
Christmas sentiment stamp from Dreamees
Gunmetal mirri card
Teal pearlescent card
Teal ribbon
Blue and white Stickles
Gems and a charm from my stash!

I hope you like it, let me know and Happy Crafting xx