Sunday at Beachy Head

We went for a brisk walk along the seafront at Eastbourne on Sunday and then up to Beachy Head where I took some photos of a dramatic sky. The sun was shining in just the right place to catch the white cliffs and I have some quite stunning shots, though I say so myself...LOL !!

That's me on the right in the silly but lovely and warm hat and that's my friend Penny with me who was visiting us for the day.
After this we had a fabulous late lunch at the Plough and Harrow, Litlington....I would highly recommend it if you live in the Sussex area!

Crafty Individuals Card

This is a card I made recently for one of our Stamp Club members for her birthday. I used the Crafty Individuals set CI - 287 - such a lovely bird set which I love!
It was quite simply stamped in Indian Ink on an alcohol inked piece of glossy card. The embellishment is made with black UTEE on a small square piece of Stampbord which I stamped into with one of the Inkadinkado bird inchies to which I added some tiny tube beads.
I really love the stamp I used on the envelope with the birds perched on wire (part of that same set). As I needed to stamp it twice, I drew a little post to connect the two.

As is my usual habit - here are some details.....

I tried hard to get a good shot of the UTEE piece but it's not that clear....hope you can make out what it is!!??

And finally....the completed tree!

TA-DA!!! Yes, you can finally see the painted tree in its finished state since it's now been sent to its new home. It's a gift for the owner of Cardmaking Paradise - such a lovely lady who works so hard and gives all of us involved with the magazine and forum such inspiration and also created a really lively community online. We even meet up now once a year in the flesh, those of us who can, at the Craft Barn Extravaganza in Lingfield, Surrey.
So this was for Sara and here are some photos of it......

And here, some details in close-up....

The bird was painted with black acrylic paint, stamped with swirls using Brilliance Lightning Black ink and then the whole bird covered in several layers of Diamond Glaze.
I painted the leaves using Deco Art Precious Metal Colours and stamped the trunk of the tree with an Elusive Images alphabet stamp.
On the stand, I used a Crafters Workshop Numbers Collage mask and Brilliance inks and acrylic paints, sealed with an old varnish which went wonderfully brown and aged-looking in places....one of those happy accidents!

At the base of the tree, I stamped a Kelly Panacci border stamp onto tissue paper and adhered it to the trunk with Mod Podge.

I hope Sara will find this a useful as well as decorative gift and wonder what she'll decide to use it for....what will finish up hanging from its branches???

Catch up time again...

I'm pleased to say that I'm beginning to find time to play again and do some creating so I thought it was high time I get my blog up to date.
So, first I have to go back to pre Christmas, when I did a swap challenge with my friend Stephany in the USA. We decorated a mini canvas and easel.
Here is the lovely and versatile one that Steph sent me - you see she decorated both sides....wish I had thought of that! So I can display it all year round!

These photos are really bad as it's so dark today.....kept meaning to take photos on sunny days but today, I didn't want to wait any longer so this is the best I could do.

Here is a close up of one of the heat embossed corners - so rich and opulent!

And this is a closer look at the non-Christmas side of the canvas in all its gorgeous glory!!!

I hesitate to add pictures of my canvas now but here it is... I should add the challenge was that we each sent a stamp we had never used, some papers and embellishments for the other person to use and then returned the stamp with the finished canvas.

I painted the easel with a mixture of acrylic colours and then crackle-glazed it, working in some Distress Ink afterwards for an aged look.

Yes, obviously these photos were also taken on bad weather days so rather dark!
Here are some photos of some of the detail on the canvas.....

That is one gorgeous embellishment - thanks Steph for giving me such great tools to work with!
I stamped the Eiffel Tower image onto a piece of canvas paper which I then mounted on thin card and adhered to the background canvas. This I had painted with acrylics onto which I scattered Barbara Trombley's Vintage Glass Glitter while the paint was still wet.

Thanks for a great swap, Stephany - look forward to the next one!

A couple of quick cards

Been far too busy to play much for ages but I did quickly make these two cards the night before I went to my local Stamp Club last week for two of our ladies who have birthdays this month.

This one was inspired by an article by Hels Sheridan in December's Craft Stamper but I only have one colour of Colourwash Spray so I used Glimmermists instead. The main image is a stamp produced by The Stampsmith called 'Maud'. The background stamps are by Stampers Anonymous, Magenta and Paper Artsy.











The other card was made by stitching the layers together on my sewing machine. The glimmermist sprayed layer is cotton blind material (an old offcut, great to stamp on too!) on which I used a flourish mask and then overstamped lightly with a Crafty Individuals flower background stamp which gives it a slightly 'batik' look.

The butterfly lady is also by Crafty Individuals and, funnily enough, I just bought it from Hels Sheridan last week so these two cards are loosely linked!
The leaf was cut from a piece of evening dress fabric I had kept after shortening it years ago.......I knew it would come in handy ONE day!!!

The tree is finished!

Yes, I finally did it but, as I will be sending it to someone in a few week's time, I'm not putting a photo up of it yet.....suspense, suspense!
Meanwhile, I've been looking at these new Pan Pastels on the market. I've been thinking of buying myself a set of soft pastels after doing a mixed media workshop but they seem so messy - the powder goes everywhere.
These Pan Pastels, apparantly, have much less flyaway quality about them and you can even buy them individually now. Pop over to Lin Brown's blog (the lady who runs LB Crafts) and you'll see some fab samples using these pastels and a fuller description.

Tree Progress and other bits

Slowly, when I have spare moments, the tree is coming on. To paint over the whole surface and get rid of that bright green took over 2 hours alone! Getting round those tight edges inside the leaves etc was tricky.
But, one that was done, I stamped over with Elusive Images alphabet stamps. Yes, I know a bit missed in the middle there but we can do something artistic with that later! LOL. The alphabet will only show on the branches by the time I've finished though I NEVER have an exact plan.

I hope to move on to the next stage this week....

 I had about half an hour to make some cards for Stamp Club ladies birthdays last week....well, maybe a bit longer than that but not much!
So I played with some paint strokes and then made these two cards with the results...

At Stamp Club we were given three criteria to make some cards. These were Tags, Lavender and Script. Here are two cards I made from the tags I made plus one tag as yet unfinished....

Lastly, I made this quick card two nights ago for my husband who had been away for nearly 4 months. The heart stamp is by Elusive Images, the sentiment I'm afraid Im not sure and the little Welcome Home is by Paper Artsy from a 'Mini' stamp set. I didn't have the right style of wings so I drew these freehand then stamped the Paper Artsy numbers stamp across them. The background was made with glimmer mists ages ago - knew it would come in handy one day.

The small heart inside is from Elusive Images also and comes from a stamp with 6 different hearts in a grid. I filled in the centre with a green  Sakura Glaze Pen then did some detail in Gold pen.
The frame around the main sentiment was also hand-drawn with a fine marker pen.

Click on any image to see more detail still!
Thanks for dropping by.