Texure - my (subtle) interpretation and how I finally mastered the spritzing tool

You know that feeling when you have so many ideas, and whatever you try just ends up being a total disaster and you find yourself with a craft room full of discarded bits, die cuts, dies strewn all over the floor and endless stamps spread all over the desk? If not, congratulations. If you do, let me know, I need to know I'm not the only one. Thanks. Anyhow, I proceeded from this state to eating my bodyweight in stuff I shouldn't be eating, and had a huge mug of coffee (only the second time in over three weeks that I broke my caffeine fast). Now my hands are shaking. 

Anyhow, I finally managed to produce a card which I'm not completely embarrassed about. However, I have to admit the inspiration for this card is not completely from my own head. I have borrowed it from this amazing card from Nichol Magouirk. In fact, this is a long story, but bear with me (if not, thanks for visiting, and do come back on another day when I'm not suffering from verbal diahorrea). Anyhow, I saw Nichol's gorgeous card way back last year when she first published it, and I was just blown away by it's amazingness. In fact, it inspired me so much that I went and bought myself the Tim Holtz spritzer tool as I wanted to create the beautiful backgrounds Nichol was showcasing. Long story short, I just couldn't make the spritzer work, at best I could get a few silly dots of colour come out of it, and that was it. So it just got forgotten. Today I dug it out again, as I thought I do have a PhD after all, and what else is a PhD than the ability to go back over and over to things that failed and eventually get them to work. I also thought that a spritzed background would be perfect for the Texture challenge over at Lawnscaping. Long story short, I ended up with the same problem, I couldn't get any colour onto paper. Then in my frustration I managed to somehow move the pen a bit in the spritzer which inadvertently made it pop into that tiny little groove in the nozzle bit that I hadn't noticed before. And then, all of a sudden there was colour aplenty coming out. I had finally mastered the spritzer tool!! I felt this to be almost as big of an achievement as my PhD...

So happily I spritzed the background in all blues, turquoises and greys I could find in my Tim Holtz distress marker arsenal. Great fun! Then I added some water and blue Perfect Pearls into a mini mister and gave it all a bit of a mist for that watery look and a subtle spark. These were my first two attempts at texture in this card, it's the visual texture of the splotchy background combined with the hammered texture of the cardstock. Then adding a bit more texture by cutting the background with a stitched rectangle die. Then for more texture, I double embossed the sentiment with black and glittery silver embossing powder. The die cut snowflakes also have lots of texture, first of all the sparkly and highly textured feel of the glitter cardstock, and I also built the snowflakes in two layers, the bottom being blue card for added texture in the form of height. Last, I created the multi-layered snowflake, and matted everything onto teal card using 3D foam tape. I hope you think this is far enough from Nichol's original card not to be considered plagiarism. And of course imitation is the greatest form of flattery is all I can say in my defence.

Anyhow, that's more than enough from me for now, thank you for reading all the way through to the end. I would like to link up with the following challenges:
Lawnscaping - Texture
House of Cards - Stitch it up
The Friday Mashup - Glitter 
Jingle Belles and Shopping Our Stash - Use something at least a year old (large snowflake dies, spritzing tool)
NBUS - Anything NBUS goes (the dark grey, blue and silver glitter paper, the deep blue cardstock, and that damned spritzing tool. Well, technically I've *tried* to use it before, but as this is the first time I've ever produced anything with it, I would say it counts as NBUS?)

Card: Coloured 240 gsm card in teal, Coloured 240 gsm card Vanguard Deep Blue, hammered 300 gsm white card, multiple colours of glitter card
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods
Ink: Tim Holtz distress markers Blueprint Sketch, Mermaid Lagoon, Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans, Peacock Feathers, Iced Spruce, Hickory Smoke, Cracked Pistachio, Tsukineko Versamark
Other: Black embossing powder from my stash, Papermania Tinsel Silver embossing powder, Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Stitched Snowflake dies, Mini Snowflake dies

Birthday card for Mum

Yes I'm still here, I'm still alive despite not having blogged for ages. I had a rotten, rotten day today. Just work related, nothing really serious, but it did get me really down in the dumps for a while. As in crying when driving home, and then hiding under the duvet and crying some more. But some cuddles from the Culinary Consultant made me feel better, and then I came across this link, and felt like an idiot. But I guess your own problems always seem huge until you get a bit of perspective. 

Anyhow, I haven't had any time in the craft room all week, apart from quickly decorating two jam jars the other night. I do love to give little jars of jam as a little "no reason at all" present. I gave a jar to a colleague who has given me lots of runner beans this summer, as well as my colleagues neighbours who gave me a huge bag of apples the other week. Today I'm showing a card I made a while ago for my Mum for her birthday, and since I know she received it it's now safe to show here on the blog.

For this card I used the gorgeous STAMPlorations dogwood stamp from the Floral Bliss set. I used Tim Holtz markers in Picked Raspberry and Seedless Preserves to colour the beautiful flowers with a watercolour brush. I stamped the gorgeous grunge-y frame from the same set onto vellum, and added a Finnish sentiment saying "Congratulations" and added a few pearls just because.

I am linking up with the following challenges:
Addicted to Stamps - Anything Goes
STAMPlorations - Anything Goes
Daring Cardmakers - Wonderful Watercolours
Make My Monday - Something beginning with F (flowers, frame)
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Stamp and blog hop

Card: Coloured 240 gsm card purple, Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine watercolour paper, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: STAMPlorations Floral Bliss, sentiment stamp from my stash
Ink: Tsukineko Staz-On Jet Black, Tim Holtz distress inks Seedless Preserves, Picked Raspberry, Twisted Citron, Gathered Twigs, Weathered Wood
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Stampin' Up Basic Pearls 

Alpaca my scarf

I am so excited my selected bits and bobs from the Lawn Fawn Christmas release arrived just in time for some weekend crafting. I am trying very hard not to fill my craft room too much, but every time Lawn Fawn comes out with a new release I just want every single bit of it. Sigh. Talk about first world problems. But this time they really outdid themselves. There is an alpaca stamp!! Alpacas are so awesome, they are my favourites. A while ago the Culinary Consultant arranged for me to have a day out at an alpaca farm, and I got to see hundreds of alpacas, including a baby that had been born that day. It was amazing, I put a few pictures from my day on my photo blog here. So I put in my pre-order for the alpaca stamp as soon as I saw it, and was very excited to get to play with it.

This card was inspired by a few challenges. First of all, the layout was inspired by the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge and the colours were inspired by Cupcake Inspirations. I'm also linking up with Crimbo Crackers where the theme is Small and Cute, and also with Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge where the theme is 'twas the night before Christmas. Last but not least I'm linking up with the Anything Goes challenge over at Christmas Stampin' All Year Long.

I created the background for my card using Stampin' Up Irresistibly Yours DSP and Tim Hotlz distress inks in Blueprint Sketch, Chipped Sapphire and Black Soot. I created the snowy hills from hammered white paper using Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Dies. I stamped the alpaca and coloured him with Copics and paper pieced his scarf from the new Lawn Fawn Let's Polka In the Dark paper. I stamped the cute sentiment from the stamp set onto green card and heat embossed it in white. Last, I used the new small snowflake dies from Lawn Fawn to create a few ornaments for the corner. Last, I added a band of the same green paper for the background that I used for the alpaca scarf. It's a small card, only 10x10 cm but I think it's a perfect for this wintery scene. And I just love the funny sentiment that comes with this set, and the alpaca is so unbelievably cute in his little scarf. 

Card: White 300 gsm hammered card, white 300 gsm card
Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka In the Dark
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Winter Alpaca
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Tim Holtz distress inks Blueprint Sketch, Chipped Sapphire, Black Soot, Copics
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside borders die, Mini Snowflakes die, Papermania Seafoam White

Field of flowers

Today when I went to the conservatory to photograph my card,  I saw that we had a little visitor in our garden. A little Muntjac deer was munching away on the apples that have fallen from the apple tree. Unfortunately the little creature was so skittish that I could only snap a few very poor quality photos through the window, but when I tried to quietly make my way outside for a few more snaps, the little cutie had already hopped along elsewhere. I do love these little moments of getting up close and personal with nature.

My card is also inspired by Nature, and the lovely STAMPlorations flower stamps. I was also inspired by the sketch over at Retro Sketches (although the result strayed quite far from the original inspiration) and by the inspiration image over at Just Add Ink. I am also linking up my field of flowers over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge where the theme is Make It Colourful and the STAMPlorations Anything Goes challenge. 

Card: Daler&Rowney 300 gsm watercolour paper, 300 gsm linen textured white card, black 240 gsm card
Stamps: STAMPlorations Floral Bliss and Bloom Sketches
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress markers
Other: Lawn Fawn Scripty Congrats die, coloured pearls from my stash

Splish, splash, splosh

I am enjoying a lazy day off. It's grey outside, but I had wonderful visitors earlier in the day and now I'm just playing around in my craft room, seeing where the mood takes me. Yesterday we had fun night out with the Culinary Consultant, we really need to make an effort to go out a bit more often. The evening started with a very good BBQ meal (some of the best beef ribs I've ever had I'm happy to say) in a small place called Smokeworks in Cambridge (if you happen to be local, and like smoky BBQ, you have to try it out!!). We then had a good laugh at (with?) the puppets from the visiting production of AvenueQ. As we didn't make it home until way past my bedtime last night, I was happy I had had the foresight of taking the day off as I'm a bit tired today. 

That was a bit of a detour, so back to today's card. It's inspired by several challenges. The layout is inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch, the theme is inspired by the Splash challenge over at CAS on Sundays and the colours are from this weeks colourQ challenge. In addition, I'm linking up with Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge where the theme is trio of colours.

Card: 300 gsm hammered white card, Stampin' Up Rich Razzleberry
Stamps: Stampin' Up Remarkable You, Gorgeous Grunge
Ink: Stampin' Up Pool Party, Wisteria Wonder, Rich Razzleberry, Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangles dies, Stampin'  Up Hello You dies

Holly Jolly - Use a die

*This is my second post today, if you are looking for the Crafts Galore Encore post, please scroll down*

As usual, the last two weeks have flown by, and it's time for a new Holly Jolly Christmas challenge. Don't forget we are already in September, and Christmas is getting closer and closer, three and a half months to go anymore! Thank you to everybody for linking up your gorgeous Snowflake and Sparkle inspired cards, we loved seeing them. Don't forget to hop over and see if you are one of our winners. This time we are challenging you with the theme "Die cuts". This gives so much scope, so let your imagination fly. All we ask for is that your crafting has to be Christmas (or winter) themed. 

Our wonderful sponsors this time are Dr Digi, A Day for Daisies and Di's Digis. Hop over to Holly Jolly to see how the DT have used images from our sponsors to inspire you. Our sponsors are also giving away prizes to our randomly selected winners. You've got to be in it to win it!

I got to play with the super fun Dr Digi's Rescue Squad. I coloured the image with Copics and fussy cut it. I cut the snowy landscape using Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies in hammered white card. The sky is actually some recycled glittery blue card that used to be the wallet that held the certificate for my Master's degree! I cut it with the Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies. I used a Fiskars punch to cut the snowflakes from silver mirri card. The sentiment is from the Stampin' Up set Endless wishes, and the snowflake is from the Lawn Fawn set Critters in the Arctic. I mounted everything onto some Stampin' Up DSP and a white card base. I just love how that dark wintery sky looks agains the snowy white rolling hills.

I would like to link up with the following challenges:

Glory of Christmas Challenge - Humorous/fun

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything Goes

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Use some silver

Christmas Card Challenges - Anything Goes

Chocolate, Coffee and Cards - Use a sentiment

Crafts for Eternity - Weather

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Winter Wonderland - Create a scene

Card: White 300 gsm card, white 300 gsm hammered card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, recycled dark blue shimmery card, silver mirri card

Stamps: Dr Digi Rescue Squad, Stampin' Up Endless Wishes, Lawn Fawn Critters in the Arctic

Ink and colouring: Copics, Tim Holtz distress ink Chipped Sapphire

DSP: Stampin' Up Santa&Co

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside and Stitched rectangles dies, Fiskars snowflake corner punch

Crafts Galore Encore - Anything Goes

It's time to say goodbye to summer and start to embrace the dark evenings and chillier weather. Who knows what the autumn will bring with it this year, I'm hoping at least some apples, pears and hopefully still some more tomatoes as well. I got a big bag full of apples from my colleague's neighbour, and I'm taking them som apricot jam in exchange. I love the whole produce swapping idea, great to get rid of things you have and excess of and get some amazing goodies in exchange.

Onto more crafty business. It's already time for this year's ninth Crafts Galore Encore challenge, and our theme this month is Anything Goes. I thought I would channel my craftiness into something else than papercraft this month, so instead of making a card, I knitted a baby's overalls and cardigan. It was fun to do something a bit different for  a change. If you are doing any sort of crafting this month, do link up with us over at Crafts Galore Encore as we love to see your creations. If you participated last month, don't forget to check if you are the lucky winner.

I would like to link up with the Anything Goes challenges over at PDE Linky Party, Craft Your Passion, Crafting with and Attitude and Not Just Cards.