Wednesday 27 March 2013

Not sure...

...but I might have joined WOYWW
My contribution:

I wasn't going to blog this.....

....but as the Sunday Stampers Challenge is 'Shiny' this week I thought it sort of fitted!

It's my very simples Silver Anniversary card that I made for my lovely Nick (how he's put up with me for 25 years?? As my Mum would say 'he needs his bumps felt' Lol!!)

I used the free Craft Stamper Magazine stamp, stamped with embossing ink and embossed with Ranger Super Fine Detail embossing powder in Silver.  The words were added using Weathered Wood Distress Marker and embossed in Silver (bet you couldn't tell they were hand-written lol!).  I then drew the little hearts in Fired Brick Distress Marker to add the finishing touch. Finally matted onto Silver Glitter card (Create and Craft) and onto a white card blank.  Very simple but I rather quite like it! More important though, Nick absolutely loved it!!

Anyhoo, short and sweet today! but before I go I'd like to enter this in:
Do pop along - Hels has put together a real treasure trove of Blog Candy to give away this week and ....ooh what gorgeous Candy it is too!!

Bye bye for now from me! (I might be back later for WOYWW - depends on whether the pesky laptop plays nice with the camera - took me about 6 attempts to get them to talk to each other to download the pic above...gggrrrrrr!)

Friday 22 March 2013

Whoops! Got it....

Wrong!!


I was making a box for Deb in Canada and Oh Boy! Did I get it wrong! Started out like this:
And became this:
All well and good. Papier mache box , gessoed and then attacked with Distress Paints in Bundled Sage,Victorian Velvet and Salty Ocean.
 I used a wet brush to get a drippy effect

Candy Pink Cosmic Shimmer sprayed through TCW 'Harlequin'


Lid Stamped with the main image from The Border Collie set (Jane Natley Mayhew Collection, from ThatsReallyCrafty.com)


I added some touches of colour using Distress Markers

Nancy lending her artistic input!!


 And stamped Water Droplets on Tissue ready for the inside

And then it went horribly wrong!  Well, it was OK at first!
Yep OK! 


Nice.........

And then I put the lid on the box.........can you see what's coming??

Oops!


so that was a bit of a 'Design FAIL'!  Memo to self:  When working on a two part piece, work on them as a whole and not in isolation!!

Oh well! Back to the drawing board (dining room table).


Tuesday 12 March 2013

A Workshop with....

....Andy Skinner at the Artistic Stamper

Hello Peeps!

I actually added these photos to my Gallery before thinking 'Nah! They deserve a post of there own!  And that's all down to Andy Skinner.  We had a wonderful day on Saturday creating this absolutely gorgeous (in my opinion) Gothic clock:






As you build the layers up it becomes more 'metallic' looking. Each time I picked it up, I expected it to be heavier and colder!  It now resides in my office at work (Cos Ninja-Nancy-No-Pants was fascinated by the clock and kept trying to take it apart!) and everyone has been fooled!  They have to touch it to confirm it's chipboard! (Lots of grey fingers from the graphite - I really ought to seal it!)

I won't give Andy's secrets away! Suffice to say it's DecoArts paint and get yourself along to his workshops!  I've just joined the on-line workshop for the 'Book of Ruination'.  It's on special offer until the 15th March - Details HERE

Well, that's all from me! Bye bye until next time and thanks for reading!
Sand xxx

Sunday 10 March 2013

Happy Mothers Day.....

.....to my Mum!!  Here are the photos of the little box that I made:
 And yes,  my favourite acetate Dragonfly makes another appearance (number 3 - the first appearance was on my Mum's birthday card - I hope she's not getting fed up with my dragonfly fixation )
 I finally got round to using my new Creative Expression stamps - I've had them since before Christmas!  After giving the box a good coating of white gesso I used Cut -n-Dry foam to add Bundled Sage and Victorian Velvet Distress Paints followed by a spritzing of Cosmic Shimmer Mist in Candy Pink (I've definitely gone 'girly' on this one!)  I then stamped all the images onto white tissue paper using Jet Black StazOn before tearing them out and adding them to the box using Ranger Glue 'n' Seal matte.  To finish I added a strip of Ideology Tissue Tape 'Nostalgic' to the edge of the lid (how cool - it's exactly the right width!!).  All the aforementioned products are available for purchase HERE.
 These are from the Meadow Flora set by Sam Poole - I love their delicacy.
 I stamped the sentiment using Mini Words #1 from the Artistic Stamper onto white paper and outlined using a fineliner pen before cutting out.
I hope you have enjoyed looking at this post.  Before I go I would like to enter this in the following challenge:
The Sunday Stamper -Week 248- Use Something You Have Had For Yonks and Never Used
(although I think it might just qualify for the primary theme which is 'You Make me Feel Brand New' as I've used Distress Paints and they're new!!)

Thanks for looking!

Bye bye for now from me!
xxx

Ooh P.S.  I was privileged to do a workshop with Andy Skinner yesterday at the Artistic Stamper, making a Gothic clock.  When I find where I've managed to download the photo's I'll add some pics to my Gallery!

Wednesday 6 March 2013

WOYWW

Hoping to join in!  I've been following  this site for ages as it shows that I'm not the only one who works a tad chaotically!  Here's my entry for this week and yes, that is a 'Ninja Shield' activated and waiting for deployment!  The box is a work in progress for my cousin in Canada.

One day you might just see an empty dining room table!  If that happens, I am SO going to post a photo LOL!! 

I've been nominated....

....for an award!!!! (Running around house going 'Weeeeee!!!!!!')  Thank you Rosie so much for nominating me for this:












About the Award - This award was designed to be a blog award in the pay it forward fashion. Once you've been nominated you award it to blogs that you like that have fewer than 200 followers to encourage new visitors to visit these new blogs. Rules for Acceptance - Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to their blog. Post the award onto your blog. Give the award to 5 bloggers who you appreciate that have fewer than 200 followers. Leave a comment on their blog letting them know that you have given them this awesome award. 

Here are my forward links chosen for their inspiration and encouragement for my blog!

Geraldine at Cards et alia
Sue at I can't draw but I can do this
Suzie at Weasel
Dot at Dot's Dabbles
Ryn at Designs by Ryn



Tuesday 5 March 2013

Just want to say.....

....A BIG Thank You to everyone who has looked at my first post and especially to those who have taken the time to comment as well!! I know that it takes time out of busy days - in fact, I honestly need to retire so that I can spend all day crafting and all night reading blogs and blogging!  This is going to be a very short blog and is a 'Hint at Things to Come'.

Here's a sneaky peak at the box I've made for Mother's Day on 10th March (UK date cos I know it's different in other parts of the world!)
Oops! Ninjas shnuck in under my radar!


A peak inside....

....and a peak outside!



I'll publish the full pics on Sunday but I may well do another 'mini  blog' of previous projects later this week!  Watch this space!!

PS. Sorry for the Ginormous pic of Sid and Nancy at the bottom of my blog - will try to resize and add to my side bar (any tips on resizing will be gratefully received!)

Thank you for looking!

Bye bye for now from me! xxx

Sunday 3 March 2013

I have arrived in Blog Land.....

.....actually I arrived just over a year ago and managed to create it but haven't done anything since!!! Well, this is my first 'proper' post!   It's all about a little box I altered to hold my Niece's gift card for her birthday.  I gessoed a plain wooden box before attacking it with Pool and Sail Boat Blue Adirondack Dabbers.  The Dragonfly from Stampers Anonymous Classics 1 was stamped in black StazOn, masked and over stamped with the Water Droplets in ultramarine StazOn. I then stamped the Dragonfly again onto acetate and coloured with 3 or 4 alcohol inks (can't remember how many - it was getting quite late by this time!!) before cutting him out and gluing to the stamped image before adding the little blue stick-ons.
 The Water Droplets  on the sides were inked in Broken China DI and heat embossed using a clear embossing powder to add a little texture and finally, the Ideology Word Band (Know in your Heart you are loved) painted in Salty Ocean DP and rubbed back to leave the colour in the etch was attached using Glossy Accents:

And the inside: ModPodge and 7Gypsies Tissue coloured with Distress Markers:

Well I hope you've enjoyed my little post!  All I have to do now is find out how to link to whatever I need to link to, find out how to add the blogs I follow to my side bar, how to enter challenges and hope that someone does actually view this!  Anyways, Thanks to Nick for taking the excellent photos.  All the materials with the exception of the Water Droplets Stamp were purchased from The Artistic Stamper.  The Water Droplet stamp is one of my favourites by Designs by Ryn - do visit her online shop for inspiration!

So until I next venture into the world of Blog it's Bye Bye from me!
Sand x

A year later...

Well, I obviously got as far as creating a blog a year ago!! Now I just need to start using it!!  Watch this space....