Wedded Bliss

Good afternoon!

I would like to share a card I made for a friend, who wanted a personalised wedding card.

Here it is: ta-da!

Really loving this very stylish and simple silhouette stamp from the Mr Darcy set by IndigoBlu. I stamped up in silver ink onto a nice satin paper. Slightly inked around the edges with the same ink pad - the metallic ink seems to take much longer to dry, indeed, the next day the ink on my stamp was still wet!!

Although I took some time to think about what I would use, I took my inspiration from Julia Watts and Sue Wilson from Creative Expressions - using a Spellbinders M-Bossabilities folder "Twisted Hearts" side B (such good value for money as you get 2 embossing folders in 1!) and then just one of the Spellbinders die cuts from Ironworks Motifs set.

I gently inked up the embossed and die cut paper with Shaded Lilac Distress Ink, found a lilac satin ribbon my stash, printed out my own wording, using my favourite font for my sentiments (American Typewriter) - and then used Cosmic Shimmer Cosmic Pearl glue to do the pearl dots around the edges, which is directly onto a 5x7" card (DO Papermania).

I also used Spellbinders die Corner Flourish and added a little ink and popped onto the front of the envelope, just to bring the set together - added a big Cosmic Pearl glue dot to the back of the envelope too!

My friend was very happy with this and I will be using this design to sell in future, in a range of colours, maybe plain white too. I'm rather pleased with the end result

Thank you for visiting me and my jibber-jabber,
Peace & Harmony to all,
Maxine xxxxx

The little things I've been up to...

This weekend was not much of a crafty weekend at all for me.....at least, not in the pure sense of craft!!

We did, however, build and new area for the chickens, by putting up 6ft trellis and building a nice new gate - so they can't get out and ruin my flower beds, or Steve's vegetable patches!!! I love having my chickens parading around freely, however, it's very messy, as they poo everywhere and they also dig up the plants and our pebbley-stone pathways. So they have been asigned from the wild area (which they kept flying out of) to a nice new pen.

I've been busy with a book cover design all week, and the author is very pleased with the design I've done!! I can't wait to read the full book - and I will post pictures once the book is released!! But keep on the look out for Mark Cundy's book, The Osborne Legacy!

Other work....granny squares!! I crocheted 8 of them last night. I'm planning on making a big blanket and need to get some more colours. We have a nice pink (think strawberry milkshade!), we'll also get white and lime green - the latter being my daughter's choice - and it works very well! Can't wait to get them all made up so I can stitch them together!!! I've not made one with squares before, so I'm hoping it will work and can't wait to blog the results!!!

Craft! YES - well, I've been asked to do a personalised wedding card, which I've started - but not finished..... (you thought I was going to say 'so I'll finish' didn't ya?!).

I'm going to keep it simply, with only minimal distress inky (hard to me to keep it subtle!) and I've used an Indigo Blu stamp from the Mr Darcy set. I thought, with the card, I'd be influenced, by which I mean, more or less totally do the same as!, by Julia Watts. Using glue pearl dots all around the edges seems perfect for a wedding card to me.... I've embossed paper and will gently ink edges in DI shaded lilac, stamped a topper in silver ink, and will compose and print out a personalised sentiment. I've not decided yet, but I may try to use some diecuts to place behind my topper... trying to keep it all in white paper, with only minimal colour - to get a nice wedding feel.

Well, I shall get on and post pictures of the card soon - for now, I attached my naughty chickens (well, I attach a picture of them...). They are outside my little workshop/garden studio and having a little peck about. George is sunning herself - they all were and I tried to get a picture of them all, but Ginger and Amber decided to go walkabout instead, so here they are enjoying the sun, having escaped their previous pen.

Next are my cute guinea pigs - they are wanting to have a run about - which I do let them do, for exercise, however, I have to keep my eye on them just in case - here you can see them with some carrots I'd just given them - yum!

My messy area next to computer with a whole big bunch of stamps! Not sure why I added this image for you but just to show you that I'm always keep the tiniest selection of my stamps to hand!

Thank you for visiting! See you again very soon.
Peace & Harmony to all!
Maxine x

PS - I have not checked spelling or re-read my post so I apologise for any errors!

In the pink

I've opted slightly out of my comfort zone and used pink and black....

Although my stamp is beautiful (IndigoBlu "Ella Bella") I still can't seem to make a card pretty!

However, here, I started out my using a "Morrocan" mask to create a background paper - I inked over with Distress Ink "Victorian Velvet". Before heat setting or letting the ink dry, I dripped some water on to try to bleach out some of the colour - this did not go as well as I hoped it would, but perhaps I was too impatient to get on with making my card!!!

Using the Victorian Velvet distress ink, I inked around the edges of the card with the scrolly part of the Ella Bella stamp to create little scrolls and just some frilly edging. I then trimmed this down to 125mm square, dried and lightly distressed the edges with the same distress ink.

Next, I took my stamp and inked it with Ranger Archival in black. Gave it a really heavy coating to ensure the silhouette solid areas stamped up nicely, which they did! I used my little Quickie Glue pen and added some ultra-fine black glitter (unsure where from as in an unmarked pot).

I took distress ink Black Soot and inked onto my card black around the edges, to give it the impression of frame - then glued my paper to the card.

I added some little square black gems and did a few cosmic shimmer pearl dots in a pinky/red colour (the colour name has worn off the bottle!!) - It has taken me a while to perfect the dots as they usually spread and are more flat, however, I'm pleased to have finally got it right!!!

I hand wrote a little bit of wording "Seek beauty from within" and edged around the pink paper with some stickles black glitter glue.

Job done! Hope you like - I'm going to enter into my first ever blog challenge!

Not sure about my flower - I like the flower, but not sure if it goes on the card ok, hence the different pictures, with and without - let me know what you think!

The flower was made with some black docraft flowers, the larger of which I coloured with the Victorian Velvet distress and black archival ink (using the Ella Bella stamp) - the smaller one was in black paper, so I just glued them together and added a little docraft glimmer shimmer dome.

It's a bit basic, I know, but....well someone may like it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Peace & Harmony to all,
Maxine xx

Another little canvas

Today I am sharing a canvas I worked on yesterday. As I had a first attempt with my previous blog entry, using the poppies, I thought I'd have another go.
I used IndigoBlu stampes again, just as I felt the look went with what I was going for!
The image isn't very clear, I added sparkle to the heart, and a glossy coat to the wording, which was quite reflective in the photo.
The top corner is using the Cosmic Shimmer Gold Pearl Texture paste - and I've gone over with some Golden Light and Patina Cosmic Shimmer Metallic Gilding Wax. (nb - get the Creative Expressions Solvent Blending Solution for use with Gilding Wax, as the wax does dry out. Just a few drops and set to one side - or mish up a little and apply with a brush).
Oh I did also use some old Embossing powders around the heart - I tried to halo it but ended up going over the bottom instead - but I'm still quite pleased with the results. Colours I used were Gold Mirror and Verdigris from Personal Impressions.
Used Ranger Black Archival ink on tissue and applied with Slap it on from IndigoBlu.
Added a couple of little gems and few flakes of IB Yorkshire Dales Mega Flakes.....
Edged with the black Gee-Soo good from IndigoBlu...

Voila! One little canvas.

Hope to see you again soon,

Peace & Harmony,
Maxine xxx

What a glorious day!

Hello fellow bloggers,  I hope my blog reaches someone today!!

I have been very busy with work this multi-weathered week - graphic design work, as well as crafting in preparation for a shopping event this Saturday in the local social club where I live.

I would like to share a very quick little canvas project I made yesterday and would certainly appreciate any feedback.

So here it is - for this I have used mainly IndigoBlu products (with the except of the canvas, which I believe I purchased in The Works a few years ago - oh, and I coloured the poppies with 'Poppy' and 'Marsh Green' ProMarker pens).

I've used a range of the IndigoBlu products, which I would highly recommend! Firstly, I applied Gee-So Good! in black to the blank canvas. Due to speed, I used the heat-gun to help it dry, and it worked well!!! However, if you have 'blobs' of gesso, they bubble so sort of swoosh the heat gun quickly over top of it to dry.

Next, I applied some of their amazingly thick and juicy English Cottage paints! In this I used a mixture of "Grandma's Teacup", "Peppermint Tea"  and "Hot Cocoa". (haha, I didn't realise until just now, that they are all sort of hot drink related names!!) Aaaaaaanyhow, I blobbed on the paint, and randomly swooshed about - trying to give the impression of sky and earth.

Next, using Ranger Black Archival I stamped onto some cheap tissues (2 ply are good, as you use less, and therefore waste less...however, if you can separate before stamping, all the better). I used IndigoBlu stamp set "Poppy Meadow" for the majority of the stamping, with the addition of the swallows from the "Mr Darcy" set. These were very quickly dried with the heat gun before tearing carefully around the edges of the stamped images. (I managed to rip into the image a few times, but no matter, as it's easily fixed in the next step...)

Using the IndigoBlu "Slap It On" product (you just have to love the names of their products!!), I applied the stamped tissue onto my canvas. If you look at the focus poppy, you will see that I have overlaid, and also reversed one of the poppies, which you can do with the tissue/slap it on combo, as the image is just as good reverse!

Next I used some IndigoBlu Mega Flakes, "Yorkshire Dales" - and oh wow, when I opened the box, which I did for the first time yesterday, just, wow again, the colours are totally amazing! I applied the flakes to a piece of smooth paper, using my flitterglu, then stamped the butterfly image onto this (using black Stazon to ensure it would stamp to the flakes). The butterfly was from an exclusive IndigoBlu set that came free with Simply Cards&Papercraft a few months ago. This I cut around, and applied to the canvas, using Cosmic Shimmer glue.

Lastly, which you can't see in this photo, I went around the edges of the canvas with the black GeeSoGood! to finish the image and give it a lift only a frame can do! Voila! I hope you like!

This was not unintentionally done due to D-Day, it was a random choice to use the poppies, but feel it is a fitting piece to share on this of all days.