Wedding Card

Just a quick update for a new card I have.

This is die I borrowed from a friend and I cut lots of black and cream pieces in one sitting to use when inspiration strikes.

The paper is actually a staple of mine, wallpaper.  I find it robust and cuts nicely and of course it is free when you ask for a sample!

I added some ribbon, a resin heart at the top and a glass heart below.

Clean and simple (unusually for me).

Happy crafting

Kyla

Speedy Recovery card

I needed to make a special card for some recently who had a nasty fall and broke her leg.

 

These embossed cards are quite large and I bought them from the charity table a couple of crops ago at the WOYWW meet up.  I have been mainly using them for weddings etc but I thought they would make a good base for this card.

 

I die cut some TH butterflies from board and coated them in some indigo blu flitter glue (love this tacky glue) and covered them with gilding flakes.

I stamped a sentiment and matted and layered it on silver card.

 

A feminine get well soon card and one perfect for the recipient.

 

Happy crafting

Kyla

Silver cards

 So at the WOYWW crop the lovely ShazSilverwolf brought her dies with her and I cut a TON of these (I tried purchasing the die at the NEC show but none of the stalls had one for sale-good job as now I have lots in different colours!!).

I thought that these would be suitable for both male and female cards (and both silver since they were inspired by Shaz!).

The top one is in silver and on a plain white card.  I am not great at doing plain cards but I think this one works ok.

This one is on holographic card and backed with a slightly metallic grey card with some bradless brads just to add some dimension.

That's it for now,

Happy crafting

Kyla

WOYWW

 Happy What's on your Workdesk Wednesday where across the globe many of us (led by Julia, there is a link on the right) bare all and share our desks of shame.

This week is almost the same as last weeks as I have been busy being social instead of crafting.  On my desk are the left over supplies from making a few tags for the crop and a recent purchase.

 

 

 I don't often buy a magazine just for the cover freebie but this months Simply Craft and Papercraft has an embossing folder and these stamps, which I think are varied enough for me to get quite a lot of use out of them (I try not to purchase more stash unless I can think of 3 uses for it).

 

 In case you were wondering what I made last week for my friend who is moving to France-well we put together an emergency kit (chocolate, candles, matches, bin bags etc...the sort of things you have no idea where you packed them).

I also bought a small tool box and converted it to an emergency stash box....

 

 filled with chocolate!!!  I have taped a sheet of acetate over the top so Bex will have to cut the chocolates out!!

 This is the card I made from a recent die I bought (I thought I could use all the different layers for so many ideas, hence I bought it).

My "Man Bites Dog" cards this week are 'Scam Nurse Stabs Lawyer'!!!

Happy crafting

Kyla

Masterboard ATC's and a right mess!

Hello peeps.  Yesterday was the WOYWW crop to celebrate 6 years of this tom foolery and what an amazing day it was.

Friends old and new met, chatted (some even got crafting done...not me, too much chatting) ate cake, learnt some new techniques, ate a lovely veggie lasagne and then some more cake!

I will blog about that on Wednesday and even got Julia to pick some "Man Bites Dog" cards for the occasion!  This post is the shame that was my desk the day I decided to make my ATC's for the anniversary swap.

I decided to make some masterboards so glued music pages to card and sprayed them with mica's and spray inks.

I thought the quickest way to dry the glue etc as it was a nice day was to hang them up on the washing line-goodness knows what my neighbours must have thought?!

 This is the chaos that was my room.....a total mess!

 Lots of die cutting, inking and splodging going on.

 The first few die cuts bits and pieces I just thought it would be quicker to brush onto the floor then pick them up when I finished....27 ATC's later I realised this was a mistake as the floor was littered with left over die pieces and some were sharp ones too!

 But it was worth it in the end. 27 ATC's all finished in time for the crop.  Many were passed round and I filled several of the envelopes that Julia had to send onto people and I even remembered to leave a few ready for the proper Anniversary on the 27th May and the official  swapee and a few to those of may visit and would like one on the day.

After yesterday I am totally shattered and am grateful that today is a day of rest!

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

Knitting needles and brag books

Hello peeps, so here we go again with another roundup of some of the Christmas presents I made this year (looking back I didn't realise I had made SO many!).

This photo isn't brilliant, but its a knitting needle roll that I made my mum.  Its made out of quite heavy upholstery fabric so that it should withstand needles being poked in and hopefully stand up to quite a bit of abuse.

 This is a brag tag book for my Nan in NZ.  Its a chipboard tag mini photo album that my Nan can keep in her handbag and contains recent photos of me, my hubby, brother and his wife too.  The fern leaves are made out of air drying lightweight clay with a Martha Stewart (I think) mould and coloured with Dylusion sprays.

The letters are cut from a cereal box, coloured, glittered and then glossy accents to finish them and make them shine.

 

For family I also made a few more fabric covered notebooks

 

 and another quilted one (these really are a pain to make though as they take me SO long!)

I have more books to cover during 2015 but at the moment I cannot bring myself to make any more as, I think I need to concentrate on another craft for a while!

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

A turkey of a card!

Howdy folks, just a quick update as its becoming mighty chilly here so I need to find my fluffy socks and get a hot chilli chocolate on the go!

I made a couple of these cards for thanksgiving for a couple friends of mine over in the states.

 

I cut the dies from some scrap white card and coloured them in with pro markers (to be honest I couldn't work out which part should be cut out of which colour card so thought this way was WAY easier).

I die cut a fence which I distressed with DI and mounted it all on a gingham background, adding some highlights on the turkey with a white gel pen.

Nice and simple.

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

An UFO to finish the year

 Hello peeps, it's the end of the year and what a year it has been.  

My nephew was christened, my brother got engaged (for those of you who don't know, he lives in Ecuador and met a lovely girl over there, who before moving to Ecuador lived just a couple of miles away from him in London-see the world is small!!), I went to many art exhibitions (including one that had live tattooing....with free cider!), saw a lot of live comedy, went to many vintage fairs, loved every minute of the Olympics and especially the Paralympics, saw lots of live music, a festival and re-embraced my love of outdoor wild swimming (which I grew up doing).  Oh yes, and work full time and lots of craft!!! (phew, reading this back its no wonder I am knackered!).

To end the year I finally finished my MDF banner I have been making.

It is hung above the window in the craft room
 

I added homemade resin pieces (purple jewels, pink roses and a steam punk piece above the letter t).  I dyed plain white lace with distress reinkers (shaded lilac and brushed corduroy), covered the MDF with TH papers and cut the letters out of my TH Sizzix wordplay die (my new Christmas pressie from my hubby......the boy did good!!.....downside is that it doesn't cut all the letters....but he has contacted the supplier and I am sure after the holiday season they will be back in touch and will sort it out).

I hope you all had a fabulous festive season and I look forward to 2013 with anticipation.....

Not sure about new years resolutions....they tend to put pressure on you (and I have enough of that) so maybe work less, craft more? 

Happy crafting

Kyla
 

The postman rings twice

No not the dodgy Brando film.....the postie arrived with a parcel of die cuts from my friend Sam (who I have known since I was 11 and we used to cycle to school together.....ooh, she knows SO many of my teenage secrets!!).  This is just a small sample of what she sent.

This summer we met up (she is lucky enough to live by the sea) and found out we both love crafting and both have a big shot...so we thought we could swap die cuts to see if we would use them before splashing out on buying the dies....well, I already have plans for the speech bubbles and the snowflake I think looks a little like a bishop from the game chess (the bits between the points)....so I have a plan for them too!  Thanks Sam, its great when the postie comes and its not bills!

This is another one of my tags that I am making into cards, I make so many tags for 'warming up' when I start a crafting session, or to practise a new technique or when I am not inspired, then I bung them all (technical crafting term that is!)  in a basket and later on (often a few weeks later!) I add some bits and bobs, some backing papers and hey presto another card!

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend, they have given out the first proper frost in the south west of the UK tonight, so hopefully a bright but chilly Saturday will follow.

Happy crafting
 Kyla
 

So taking some time today to browse the web and I came across a cracking challenge blog 'shopping our stash.blogspot.com' which encourages your to use the stash you already have rather than having to buy new, and lets face it, unless you are totally new to crafting then you no doubt have a TON of stash.  I have been crafting since I was about 7 years old, now I am 40 and live in a 3 bedroom house with my hubby....well you can guess just how much stash I have amassed over the years, what with that, my hoarding tendencies (is that me or are all crafters the same....I can't walk past a skip without having a little rummage!) and my love of charity shops and car boot sales (though not as many these days as getting up early on a damp Sunday morning suddenly has very little appeal-I wonder why?!).

So I decided to have a go. A few years ago I bought some sheet music in a charity shop and although I have used a couple of pieces I worry that sheet music will become too expensive and I wont be able to buy anymore!  Seriously, this is how crafting gets to you!!  But I decided to make a tag.

I glued the sheet music to some scrap card (seriously this is great card for putting through Colin and generally grunging up, £2 for about 1 kilo of scrap card from the card making industry lots of bit left over from apertures etc-you never know what your getting, but this time I got a lot of gold card so bonus!).  So, I glued the music paper to some card using some multi-medium and smeared over white gesso adding lines of gesso with the edge of an old credit card (well, a promotional Love Film card!). When dry I die cut a tag and added colour with distress inks and inked through some sequin waste.  I then spritz a little mica and water to blend everything together and add a little sheen.

Next I hit my hoard of ribbon (admit it-we all have one,if not two secret stashes of ribbon....we know we;ll never use it but its SOOOO much just to touch!!), or at least my wired ribbon.  Now, I was suckered into buying an entire box of these at a show some years ago (I am MUCH more discerning these days) so I have a large collection of different thicknesses and colours.  But they do made great ribbons and look great on tags.  So I decided to make a couple.  I added  a couple of TH tattered leaves that I scrunched up, distressed and spritzed with water to blend the inks and coated them in gloss accents for a bit of shine.

Finally I used some gold vellum (again, I bought this about 7 chrismas' ago!) and die cut a bumble bee, colouring in the body and adding some stickles for a little bling.

So pop over to shoppingourstash.blogspot.com and use up your stash....it'll make room for more when I hit the Autumn craft shows!!! (I KNOW it defeats the object, but anything that uses up stash is good).

Happy crafting

Li'l pidge x

I knew it.....I knew the big shot would change my life!! Now I don't think this is an overstatement...I have tried embossing and cutting EVERYTHING, I have been through my recycling bin and fabric scrap box!! You have been warned, you visit the nest, expect to be frisked for goodies that can be put through the big shot. In fact, it's become a member of the family...so I have decided to name it...Bertha! Yep, big Bertha the big shot!!! So this weeks play... This is the card I made for my Mum's mothering Sunday card. The background papers are torn and distressed and I have added a small piece of vintage text that I gesso'd and distressed and then over stamped. The bird is cut out of dove grey glove leather over stamped. I then made 2 eggs out of air drying paper clay which I painted and glazed for a high gloss, then made a needle felted nest to home them in! As you'd expect I then assembled the whole lot with my glue gun. I use my glue gun so much its knackered! I 'borrowed' it from my dad and its over 20 years old and now the rubber tip has finally broken off so there is now an exposed metal point-which gets VERY HOT (I am speaking from experience here!!) so I think a trip to Axminster tools is overdue!

This card is an order from work for a male's 21st card. The brief was he was a member of the Real Ale Society and a fan of Radio 4 comedy, not an easy combination but I think it turned out ok.

The background paper is BRA (Bristol Real Ale) and embossed some acetate to represent the head on beer and a I added a customised train ticket from Bristol to Mornington Crescent!!

Like I said, I am falling in love with Bertha!!!!

Off to play some more.....

Li'l Pidge

WOYWW

Welcome to another WOYWW, I cannot believe its nearly April-where the hell is the year going? The lighter evenings are certainly a blessing though-its so nice to drive home in the light and soon it'll be light late enough to be crafting without the curtains shut! Yes, Spring is here and she is dancing her merry dance around the plants (and weeds)! And the drivel above is a good example of why I rarely drink coffee-a cup at work today instead of my usual calming ginger and turmeric tea (believe me it does taste better than it sounds) means my head is thumping and I am hyper!!!! So, whats on my work desk this Wednesday? Well, I missed last week as I was at the NEC (having such fun and now owning a die cutting machine) so thought I would play. I have bee gesso'ing some old book pages ready to use for various projects and on the far right my red scrap box is starting to become unwieldy again so I think I need to set myself another challenge to make a couple of cards just from the scraps. In the middle/back is my orange ribbon flower (NO idea what to put that on) that I made from wired ribbon that I curl round and shred one edge to produce a pretty frilly edging. On the right is my new wooden storage caddy that is a bit like a lazy Susan (I wonder why they named it that?) that I bought at a car boot sale for 50p and it fits all my new cosmic shimmer sprays perfectly (a bit more luck than judgement that one!)

To help me remember which dies and embossing folders I already have (I MAY have had to buy a few at the NEC once, or maybe even before, I bought the die cutting machine!) I thought I would make a tag book using them. The Tim Holtz embossing folder has been accented with sepia glossy accents to add some dimension and the cotton reel had thread wound round it

The swallow is cut from very thin metal and coloured with alcohol inks and the bumble bee is layered with card stock and vellum to help the wing flutter.

For a first attempt and a quick and easy way to remember which ones I already have I was quite impressed.

Any hoo-if you get a chance, pop over to Julia's WOYWW blog for a good old nose around some other desks...I know I am!

Happy crafting

Li'l Pidge x