How on earth did I get so soppy

I've seen this style of two-fold card several times and fancied the challenge of making one myself. As experience has taught me, making these card variations is relatively simple. It's the decorating of them that can sometimes prove to be the stumbling block. It took mere minutes to make the card base itself with its cut out window. Then another hour faffing around trying to put it together with various design interpretations. I added something, then took it away. I added something else, then took it away. And so on and so forth. Finally I ended up with a soppy card. How on earth did I let that happen???? Haha.

Play Date Challenge 2

I enjoyed last week's Play Date Cafe Challenge and was delighted by some of the new blogs it directed me to. So, I've decided to play again. Three colours this time, all autumnal hues and shades that I like. It's an analogous palette plus a neutral so they harmonise together. I've opted for another card as these are the quickest to make. And look, yes I know, another flower! Cuttlebugged to within an inch of its life but a flower nonetheless. I included a ribbon and debated about whether it needed a bow but I've been adding those a fair bit recently. I need to break out of it and try something different. So for this card its left as it is. Less is more as they say, especially if you want to have more visual impact (mind I can't help but feel it looks like a garter belt. Trust me to give it a kinky undertone. Very DH Lawrence - flowers and garters haha)

Finally getting it out & playing with it

I've had a pack of grunge paper sitting in my craft room almost since the moment it hit these shores and have I done anything with it? Have I eckers like. So I did a little search on the Internet and found some tutorials on making flowers with it. It's been a while since my hands were covered in ink and paint. Even my craft sheet came out once I blew the dust off it.

The rose I haven't done anything with yet, I'll save it for any future project which requires such an adornment. The flatter flower was more suitable to go on a quick project such as a card. And as I haven't joined in with the Monday Mojo challenge, I went and had a look at their blog & decided my embellishment could be incorporated perfectly. I chose lighter colours such as yellow and pale orange so that the flower would stand out in contrast, keeping it as the focal point.

Yes the flowers were fun to make, yes the craft room looks like a bomb hit it (& so do I come to think of it) but will I find them addictive and carry on making them? Difficult to say. At the moment, I'm thinking no but I always find myself eating my words haha. Time, as they say, will tell. Now I wonder what else I can make with grunge paper?

Loving London and its Cultural Collections

Back in August, Nick & I took a mini tourist break in London to soak up some of the culture. On my return, I knew that if a reminder of the holiday was ever to be made, it had to be soon. Leave it for a few months and suddenly, the album would be yet another one on my "Someday Maybe" list.

I dug around to see what blank albums I already had (given that I seem to have collected a fair few over the years) and came across this spiral bound one, which seemed just about the right size.

Again, I opened up my InDesign software and placed photos and text together. There's no journaling in the layouts as I have kept it simply as a pictorial reminder. No need for thoughts, feelings or even factual snippets. The art, my dears, simply speaks for itself haha.

I set the printer to work, printing out onto the requisite papers, snipped, chopped, hacked and glued. Added some postcards I'd bought (where photos hadn't been permitted) and there we go. Another holiday album to join the stack. And though it took a fair amount of time and effort to produce this, by keeping the LOs similar, it cut it down immensely. The task of a whole 24 page album each with it's own uniquely designed page would be way too much just for recording a weekend away.

Mmm the simple pleasure of Mini Books

The fabulous goddess that is Kirsty Wiseman, bowled me over at the Harrogate show a few weeks back when she produced a handmade pressie just for little ol' me. I absolutely loved it. Simple yet very effective. Two leather coasters, holes punched into them with co-ordinating paper all bound together and voila, a gift for me to turn into something of my choosing.

So I went ahead and chose the topic, simple pleasures. I brainstormed a whole list and went on a google hunt for the images. I came up with a layout using Indesign, wrote out all the text - printed out all the pieces, grabbed my pattern papers and then, in a blur of glue and scissors, I had my complete creation. A perfect coffee table book from coffee table coasters.

Blame it on the Doctor

That's Doctor Eileen who is responsible in part (actually no, shall we blame her entirely haha) for this layout. The wonderful crafty GP was recently sat next to me at an extended get together and in the process of putting together some very arty mini books, turned to me and showed me her Basic Grey set of rub ons. Eyes were literally on stalks when I saw this American word for spirited and feisty. I just had to have it and the good Doctor prescribed me hers, which was incredibly generous and I am deeply in gratitude for.

I knew exactly what tale it would be perfect for. It's a little bawdy, a bit risque but not overly rude. Mainly funny but not quite for all eyes, so I've censored a teeny bit. Anyways, that's not the bit you should be admiring. You should be looking at how the dramatic colour combo works together or lusting after my newly acquired Martha Stewart Loops punch (which isn't easy to come by in the UK, let me tell ya!) that I just had to use. All put together in my typical graphic design led style. Hope you like it Eileen :)

Now I Definitely Wouldn't Choose These

I'm grateful to Ann's blog for directing me to a new challenge site, The Play Date Cafe. As chance would happen, I'd already started a card, when trying out my new Martha Stewart punch. I'd stuck the grey patterned Anna Griffin paper onto a white card and there it stayed waiting for me to complete. When I saw that this part-made project had two of the challenge colours, I decided it was perfect to use. I ferreted through my scraps and found some orange and browns and with the help of some nesties dies and foam pads, I created the focal piece with sentiment. To add the finishing touch, I dug out some black ribbon and placed the bow under the sentiment to keep the balance.

One of the rewarding aspects of joining in on colour challenges is that they make you break your patterns and create away from your safety zone. Which is exactly how I feel with these. Three neutrals and an orange, they should gel but I can't quite get used to them being placed together. It doesn't feel right to me and that's okay. It means I'm trying something new and that I'm just not used to it. Maybe seeing the other entries will help persuade me or open my eyes more. One thing's certain, I'm looking forward to the next challenge posting.

Do you remember way back when

and I used to blog the LOs I'd made. Nowadays, its all cards, cards, cards. Fear not! I have actually been doing some scrapping but with an album created for a recent cultural trip to London and several LOs on the go - I've been waiting for an opportunity to sit down with friends at a get together to take my mind off the tedium of trimming a gazillion photos etc. Now that they are all cut down and ready to go, I've been getting on with finishing them. Here are four to be going on with for now. The London Album isn't quite finished yet. I'll blog that in due time.

Anyways, they are all self explanatory as each one captures a day out that I've shared with Nick. We've both been pretty busy this year and so at weekends, when the two of us find ourselves with free diaries, we've been taking off on little jaunts. This has included cycling around Derwent, Cakes at the Manchester Monastery, the Aston Engine Museum (which is much more fascinating than I first gave credence to) and lapping up Liverpool's summer of colour festival.

It should be made law that everyone must own an item that's flocked

Mmmmmm I have goosebumps go right through me whenever I see flocked paper. I know you can't see from the photo but the top section of this card, the black flourish pattern - its all flock baby. All the card used in this comes from DCWV La Creme collection and half the patterns contained within the pack are flocked.

Flock seems to be everywhere in the world of interior design and long may it continue to be fashionable. As for the card I've made here, I've kept it clean and simple. No colours, just neutrals. The previous card I posted was a lot busier with more layering. However, if forced to choose, I have to say I prefer this one.

I'm lapping up the minimalist movement. Same goes when I'm at my art appreciation course at night school. I'm discovering that I prefer my art to be uncluttered and displaying only the pertinent details. I feel part of me tense up inside when our tutor puts up an image on the slideshow with yet another busy painting of all these extraneous characters and images crammed into a small space.

Okay, deep breath. Vein on my temple is about to explode haha. Anyway, ahem, hope you like the card.

Camp it up and have a Fabulous Day

Here's my monday mojo inspired card though if you look at the sketch you'll find I've played a little fast and loose with the overall design. However, all the elements are there just tweaked sizes and positioning - haha okay okay, that's nearly everything then. I began by wanting to use my "Fabulous" stamp by Heidi Swapp. I absolutely love it (see what I did there) but don't use it nearly enough as it warrants. I embossed it using gunpowder then sat back to ponder what I could match with all the grey going on. And yup, I opted yet again for purples. I matted dark with light colours and vice versa to keep contrast. The ribbon I bought months ago at The Bead Shop in Liverpool. Loved how dramatic it looked but haven't found the right project to introduce it until now. The butterfly is made from one of spellbinders dies and a scrap of patterned paper. Oh yes and you may recognise the cuttlebug embossing from a previous card I made last week.

Three's the Charm

Sorry but couldn't think of a better or wittier title. Brain has given up. I was playing around with another border edging punch and decided that if I found three pieces of patterned paper which contrasted with each other, I could overlay them. I grabbed my chipboard box and looked for a piece I could add to it (I have so many pieces, its time I incorporated them into my cards) and all it then required was a sentiment. Clean, simple and I like it.

Oops another embossing mat found its way into my craft room

I'd ordered some new embossing mats a while back and part of the order came straightaway whilst a couple of others were awaiting a new delivery. So I'd kinda forgotten they were owed to me until they fell onto the doormat last week. Even if I've paid for them, it's still nice to have a surprise package waiting for you. So I thought I'd try and make a card which used one of them. I'm making a concerted effort to actually use my craft tools and not have them gather dust. And because I wanted to show off the embossed texture, I kept the design minimal with just a little extra interest added by punching out the edge. Keeping it minimalist also helps in creating a focal point. No clutter to distract the eye. Sorry, I know I veered towards grunge last week but I've swung back to clean and simple again haha.

What to do with leftovers

Having made the previous card from an A4 sheet of grey, I still had half leftover to make another. So I thought I'd try out matching warmer colours to grey. I'd seen it done effectively in a photograph of a sofa's upholstery. I also wanted to have a play at creating a raised frame using one of my nestable dies. And what with making the concertina flower from scratch and cutting out shaped border pieces, this card took longer to make than the final project deceptively appears. Kept me quiet though haha.

When it all looks a bit grey - add some blue

Limited time in the craft room recently. I've been too busy gadding about. If you're visiting Manchester anytime before January 2010, I highly recommend seeing the female surrealists Angels of Anarchy exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery. Some wonderful pieces there in a variety of medium including mixed media assemblages. It's well worth setting a couple of hours aside so that you can enjoy the paintings in a leisurely manner. It was extremely well received and popular on the day we went.

So in the spare moments I find to play, I'm still making cards (quite appropriate too as it was World Cardmaking Day on Saturday just gone). They're nice and easy and can be made in a relatively short amount of time. Wonderful for trying out colour schemes. For this one, I began by rummaging through my card and selecting a grey. As I looked at it, I thought, how drab, which enticed me to try and do something with it. Blue has always been my favourite go-to colour to match with grey and the light blue patterned paper gave the perfect contrast. Staying clean and simple, I opted only to add ribbon, a button and a sentiment. The idea of creating a loop and having the ribbon placed proud of the edge, is an idea I saw whilst blog hopping but I can't remember where from. A quick rounding of the corners to make the shape a little more interesting, and it was done.

Gypsy Chic

I wasn't planning on making a card last night. But my main computer had contracted a tiny troublesome trojan virus and I'd had problems going through the usual quarantine procedures with my anti-viral software. So I left it well alone whilst Nick zapped it and ran a couple of scans just to ensure everything was a-ok. Trouble with running scans is that they take an hour each time. So to kill time I started messing in my craft room.

I sat down without any clue, direction or thought and just meandered. I punched out some shapes from scraps. Then I moved them around my desk placing them in different ways. Then suddenly an idea formed and I began gluing away until I had this quilted background piece. Because it was a busy background, I fiddled and faffed around with it trying to find a combo I liked and then my eyes fell on a raggedly fabric lollipop flower I'd made before. It wasn't the correct colour so I dug out some more quilting scraps and hey presto, a new embellishment was born. Suddenly I was getting a Gypsy vibe from it & I pulled out some fibrous threads to add to it and there I had it. A gypsy chic styled card, just from mucking about.

Big computer is now fully cured I'm happy to report. I never doubted it. There's not a bug out there that Nick can't deal with provided it's caught good and early. Think I may go and treat it to a little defrag later on as a reward for being a brave soldier.