Things with Wings at Dream Valley... and Father’s Day cards!! :)

Hello folks!! :)

Yep, it’s that time again- yet another fortnight has sped by in a blur and it’s time for a new challenge at Dream Valley!! :) This time our theme is ‘Things with Wings’ and we are sponsored by Digi Doodle Shop :)

The fab DV DT has come up with a fantastic array of winged things to inspire you... lots of beautiful butterflies, fairies and general prettiness... and then my offering... which is my third male card in a row- I am seriously wondering what’s got in to me... and for this challenge, with all the lovely fairies and flutterbies in my stash, too?!!lol Anyway, here it is (or actually, ‘they are’!!):

These are actually the cards I had intended to be my DT piece for the last challenge but, as I mentioned, they were still sitting unassembled on my desk when I was writing that post!! They were, however, completed and safely arrived at my Dad’s and Grandad’s houses in time for Father’s Day, which is the main thing!! :) I don’t normally make the same/similar cards for the two of them but when I had this idea, I thought it would suit them both so just varied the colours so as not to send them the exact same thing :)

The tree panel is actually composed of four repetitions of a branch stamp from a gorgeous set by Katy Sue Designs (the Flowersoft people, I think) which I saw on C&C when I had been looking for a set of branch/vine/foliage type stamps for a while and just loved :) I am normally thoroughly disappointed with myself when I attempt this kind of stamping but this time I made test piece from scrap to try the composition out on instead of just jumping in on the card and wasting it... and imagine my amazement when it came out just how I wanted first time!!lol So I copied it twice for my F’s Day cards... and then again another twice for good measure, so I could pad out the old stock box a bit too!! :) The bird is from an Inkylicious set I got recently, too, and is stamped with FlitterGlu and gilded (I need more practice at this- think I pressed too hard and got a thick outline) with a bit of Glossy Accents for extra pop as they seemed a bit lost :) 

The spares with a more generic greeting, which I think would suit many occasions and people :) Just a bit of die cut dark brown card with some button twine and one of the ‘waste’ pieces from the die cut to balance that top corner, finished off a set of very simple, but, I think pretty nice, male cards... I was honestly really pleased with these; especially as I hadn’t been sure they would turn out at all well ‘til I was finished!!lol And actually, I think many ladies might be quite happy to receive one of these, too :)

I used:

• 5 ½ “ square cream and kraft card blanks
• Cream and brown cardstock
• Branch stamp from Katy Sue Designs ‘Trees and Flowers’ set
• Bird stamp from Inkylicious’ ‘Wings & Things’ set- how apt!!lol
• Versafine Vintage Sepia Ink
• FlitterGlu from IndigoBlu and Variegated Green Gilding Flakes from Crafty Notions
• Anita’s 3D Glaze (not Glossy Accents but cheaper and quite good enough for most things!!lol)
• Spellbinders Edgabilities Scallops die set
• Sentiments: Father’s day from Woodware Clear Magic ‘Tiny Phrases’ set and ‘For You’ from a Honey and Hugs set (with the ‘Especially’ cut off)
• Natural and Ivory Button twine from The Ribbon Girl

I’d like to enter these cards in the following challenges: Allsorts – Any Die Will Do :) ; Crafts and Me - Anything Goes :) ; Paperplay - Use a Die :) ; Crafty Ribbons - Clean and Simple :)

Well, thank you for stopping by today-  I really hope I’ll find the energy to get here again before my next DT post is due as I have a fair few things to share!! :) I hope you’re all well and not struggling with any nasty effects of the awful weather in the UK again!! :) Don’t forget to pop over to the Dream Valley blog to check out my teamies' gorgeous creations!! :)

 

Masculine in Monochrome... For That Special Guy at Dream Valley

Hello!! :)

Wow- got to love a long weekend but is anyone else kinda wondering how this weekend snuck up on them so fast!?!! Bank Hols are sooo confusing!!lol Anyway, Sunday it is- apparently!!- and so it’s time for another challenge over at Dream Valley... we want to see your creations ‘For That Special Guy’ this fortnight... just in time for Father’s Day, of course, but, so long as your entry is for a man, any occasion will do!! :) We are sponsored by One Stop CardCrafts and Sassy Studios...

My card is not the one I had intended to share with you today... but as that one’s still sat unassembled on my desk after my bit of fun making cakes and jewellery for the Jubilee caught up with me and left me too exhausted to get anything done this week, I had to make a quick substitution... so this is the card I made for my Uncle’s birthday a few weeks ago!! ;)

I went for a very CAS look again- I am trying to get back into the mindset I was in this time last year when I’d been entering Less Is More every week as I so enjoyed that time... I felt more creative and more productive at the same time... got to be good!!lol

I used my fabulous new Filmstrip stamp from Inkylicious- an impulse buy as it was new in the shop the day I placed my order, having haunted the site for weeks waiting for a particular stamp (which is still sitting unused on my desk, typically!! :S) I was desperate to have to come back in stock, but I love it... I just stamped it on a panel of the same white cardstock as I used to cut my blank, in VersaFine Onyx Black, added a greeting from Cat’s Life Press and edged the panel. A bit of black Baker’s Twine and a few black gems and I was done... very simple, again!! :)

I’d like to enter this in the following challenges: Papertake Weekly- Anything Goes with optional theme of making a card for a man :) ;  The Stamp Man – Make it for a Man :)

Thanks for stopping by today and for your kind comments on my last posts - do pop over to Dream Valley to see the inspiration from the rest of our fab team, too!! :) I hope you all have a lovely week- fingers crossed for a bit less of the grey skies and a bit more sunshine than last week!! :)

Jubilee Jewels...

Hey there everyone!! :)

Happy Bank Holiday to you all- hope you’re all well and enjoying the weekend’s Jubilee festivities one way or another... my mum’s church had a ‘street party’ on the church path yesterday afternoon and I’m just so glad for them that it has been such a lovely day after she’d been dreading more of Sunday’s rain!! :) Mum made some displays for the event and of course raided my stash and equipment to help her along the way... also my actual help last week as she was running out of time to get things done, so that has been taking a lot of my crafty energy... but... I do have another Jubilee-themed project of my own which I thought I should try and share with you before all the celebrations are forgotten...

I discovered this fab blog a month or so ago after a bit of a browse on Pinterest and was very intrigued by the glass tile jewellery posts... I have never tried this kind of thing before but it seemed simpler than I thought it would be {I didn’t end up doing it the way she suggests as I didn’t read it all through and instead followed the instructions on the site where I got my supplies, which takes longer but might be more sturdy... will have to experiment!} so I popped off to Google to find some supplies...

And then promptly got rather carried away!!lol It’s not as bad as it looks, I do seem to have a couple more necklaces than my mum and I need but all the little round ones in this pic have been made into pins and are already with their new owners... when mum saw my first (okay, first successful, but more on that in a mo’!!) necklace she asked if I could make some little pins for the people at her church to wear :)

The Union Jack flags I used are a graphic I created earlier this year when I couldn't find papers I wanted for my cards- spent ages getting the proportions right!!lol- and then printed out sized to suit my various glass shapes... and therein lies the story, as I had a couple of botched attempts at first while I was finding my feet... they looked great when I made them and I was v pleased with myself... but by morning they were a blobby mess... yup, I’d used too much glaze to glue them into the metal pendant trays, and been too eager to see the finished results, so not let all the layers of sealant and the glaze to stick the image to the glass dry properly first... and the inkjet ink had run... too much even to call it an intentional style choice!!lol But I got there in the end thanks to some advice from the lady I bought my supplies from... if you want to know more about making these then pop to her blog as she has some Tutorial posts :) 

This pic is of a slightly different style- an epoxy sticker on a metal dog tag, which was a free gift with my order but surprisingly nice so I got some more!! :) The others are glass with the images glued on and then either set into a tray or with a bail added to the back. But the glass seemed to play up with my camera/ lamp and this shot through the sticker was the best one to show the pattern on the flag, which is a simple overlay of a photo of a jacquard fabric added over the block colours of my finished basic flag in my graphics program. The darker image just has another ‘burnout’ type overlay on top of that for a more distressed vintage effect :)

I thought I should try a different image so this is made with a piece of Bo Bunny Gabrielle paper... this particular piece is a bit busy for my tastes and I’ve always wondered if I would ever use it... very nice to be able to say yes, just not on a card!! :) It just needs a charm to sit over the top right corner when I find something that suits :)

I also made my mum a quick little pin with a couple of my crocheted flowers and a teeny Portobello Road button- love these!! :) – all stuck together with Pinflair!! :)

So, that’s what’s been keeping me busy this last couple of weeks- aside from helping my mum!! I hope you like them... I’m really excited by the possibilities of even more personalisation and creativity in my jewellery that this technique gives- so glad I took the energy to search out the supplies and figure it out so I’m sure I’ll be making more!! :) Right now, though, I really do need to reclaim my desk from all the different jewellery findings and glues, etc. so I can get to making some cards... June is a *veeeerrry* busy month for cards and I haven’t even started on account of not really having my head around the idea that it was going to be June so soon!! Ooops!!:S lol Best get going... well, maybe in the morning!!

Ooh- as a little extra, here is a of pic of the mini Victoria Sandwich cakes my mum and I made this afternoon... mmmm!! :) Can you tell I just love my Union Jack mug, btw...and the napkins even match!?!!lol