How cool is this?!?!?

Most of you won't know this, but I was in Los Angeles for the last 3 weeks, visiting some friends for a bit of a holiday.  I had a great time (thank you for asking!), and as I left for the airport my friends gave me a parting gift.  My jaw just about hit the floor when I saw what it was - a crafting apron with my avatar professionally embroidered on it!!!  Isn't it fantastic! 

I've included a pic of me wearing the apron so you can get an idea of the size of the embroidery.  (If you look at my face in the pic and compare it to the embroidery, I think you'll agree the resemblance is uncanny!  lol)  I can't get over how thoughtful they were to have this made!  AND how sneaky they were!  :)

Back tomorrow! :)

Not-so-heavy Metal!

The theme for this week's Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge is "some metal".  I've always been a lover of the faux batik technique, and having rediscovered it lately, I used it again on this card.

I stamped the main images and embossed them with clear powder and then applied distress inks to the card, adding further grunginess with water splatters.  Finally I ironed off the embossing powder and added the metal accent.

Our ever-generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp is offering a $50 gift voucher as the prize again this week! The winner will be chosen at random from those who enter the challenge, so why not give it a try? At the very least why not head over to the Challenge Blog to see how the other members of the design team have interpreted this weeks theme! :)

ETA - For Gabby (and any others who are interested) Tim Holtz demos this technique here.

Card in a Hurry!

I needed a card for a friend the other day and didn't have a ready-made one to hand so I put this one together in just a few minutes!  I used squares from the Retro Grunge card stack for the panels and mats and the large mat was white card coloured with Walnut Distress Stain.  Not a masterpiece by any means, but it did the job! :)

More tomorrow! :)

All good things must come to an end

This is the last of the cards I made for the card swap.  A bit of paper tape, a bit of Tattered Time, a bit of stamping, a bit of distress stain and a bit of white paint and before you know it, you've got a card! :)

Something else tomorrow :)

Tattered Time Card

Here's another of the cards from the card swap I was in.  The background of the main panel is taken from DCWV's "Tattered Time" card stack.  If you like steampunk-y things, I can thoroughly recommend it!  The corners are more of the paper tape I bought recently and colouring was courtesy of Distress Stains.

More tomorrow!

10 minute David

Another card swap card today, and I couldn't make a collection of cards without including at least one with one of my favourite stamps!  The great thing about this card is that it only took literally 10 minutes!

I think the stamp is bold enough that you can play a bit fast and loose with the colouring of it, so I coloured this card with distress stains, just drawing with them on the card as if they were pens, not being worried if they strayed over the lines, which they were always going to do because the applicator tips are at least a half inch wide.  I'm really happy with the rough-and-ready appearance of the colour and feel that it works well with this image :)  In a way it's a bit like an oil painting - if you look closely, you can see where the colours have gone over the lines, but when you step back and look at the card as a whole, it totally works!

More tomorrow!  :)

The Pea and Ham Soup Card!

That green panel on the left side is really making me hungry for pea and ham soup! :)  I love the chalkboard style of the numbers on the black paper tape I used as a border for this card.  It's the only card I've made with that particular tape so far, but I predict more in the future! :)

More tomorrow :)

Grungy Monday 11!

I am very pleased to let you know that I am one of the guest designers for this week's Grungy Monday Challenge! Hosted by Linda Ledbetter, this awesome weekly creative challenge celebrates the techniques of Tim Holtz and this week's technique is taken from January 2008, and can be found on Tim's blog here.

After you've read the technique on Tim's blog, I'm sure you'll have no trouble working out how I made this card.  The only thing that might not be so clear is how I made the dark brown lines that run through the panels.  Quite simply, I just folded a panel where I wanted a line, and rubbed the edge of the fold with an ink blending tool loaded with Walnut Stain distress ink, finally flattening the panel again. 

Please bear in mind that although I have listed the products I've used, there is absolutely no reason why you can't try this with the things you already have in your craft stash!

List of products used:

• Distress Ink Pads in Wild Honey, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door, Fired Brick and Walnut Stain.
• Top Boss tinted embossing ink pad
• Clear Detail Embossing Powder
• Heat Tool
• Ink Blending tool with foam pads. 
• Tim Holts stamp sets: Going Somewhere, World Traveler and Creative Muse.

The other guest designer today is Deborah, please be sure to check out her always inspirational blog, her work is amazing! :)

By the way, if you love Tim's grungy style, you'll definitely love the All Things Tim yahoo group!  They even have a Grungy Monday file area where you can upload your work for the group to admire, and in turn, you can gain ideas and inspiration from the other group members.  Why not give it a look, it's free! (and awesome!)  :)

That's Torn It!

The theme for this week's Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge is "distressed/torn edges".  I had been thinking for a while about making something with a very restricted colour palette, so decided to do that with this funky/retro themed project!

I started off by stamping the circles in Bundled Sage distress ink, and then overstamping in black to give a slightly blurred effect.  The circles were masked off and the rays were stamped with Faded Jeans distress ink.  Finally the central panel was edged with more bundled sage, applied with an ink blending tool.  The mat was cut from white card and coloured in the same way.  The barcode stripes were stamped on white card with Faded Jeans ink and then edged with Bundled Sage.  The strip mat was coloured with Faded Jeans, applied direct to the card and then torn down each side.

Our ever-generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp is offering a $50 gift voucher as the prize again this week! The winner will be chosen at random from those who enter the challenge, so why not give it a try? At the very least why not head over to the Challenge Blog to see how the other members of the design team have interpreted this weeks theme! :)

All Taped Up!

Another card swap card today, with some of that paper tape I bought as a border around the edges of the stamped panel.  I dunno what it is about these 5x5 cards, but the size seems  to suit me perfectly, I'm really enjoying making them!

More tomorrow :)