Oh so quiet!

Good morning blogland

Can you believe it's August already, it really feels like this year is just flying, but as it is August (and the first Saturday) it's time for the new challenge over at Crafty Calendar Challenge.  We don't have a sponsor for this month but instead have a prize of a set of 2 Studio Light 'Grunge' stamps and an 'Anything Goes' theme.

This means the Design Team could use and make whatever they felt like however, as I'm still super busy at work, I had to dip into the vault to find a card I've not shared before.  I made this one for TTT's 16th birthday last year, but never got round to sharing. Here it is now:

Supplies used:

Digital Stamp:

Some Odd Girl - Cat Lady Kaylee

coloured with my Copics when I also made her a floor to sit on

Rubber stamp:

taylored expressions - Simple Strips: Birthday

Dies:

taylored expressions - Simple Strips: Asymmetrical

un-branded stitched rectangle set

Anything else:

Pretty Pink Posh  - Layered Hearts

Distress Ink

blending brush

And that's it for card stuff.  

On a personal note TTT is now at the end of her first week on the London residential Summer School for Psychologists in UCL.  She was really tired and homesick at the beginning but seems to have settled down now and is enjoying learning about all the different careers you can have as a Psychologist.  

It is very quiet here though with just me and TBDH left at home.  A small taster of what it will be like when she heads off to University this time next year!  

That is actually it from me now,

See you later,

Sarah

So typical of me!

 Good afternoon blogland

Look at that - a whole week since I posted last! It's only got to be one school holiday, or another, and my blogging goes down the drain! This time it was half-term's fault.

I do have another excuse though - we are turning the spare room into a craft room / spare room! I don't know if those of you who found me again since I've returned to colouring / crafting / card making will remember that I was crafting in chaos waiting for a craft room to be created and that was part of the reason I stopped crafting for around seven years?

Well the craft room never got built but what I got into instead (for about the last 3 or 4 years) is fitness - I had a couple of health scares which were put down to my weight / size.  I got serious about weight loss / fitness and work out now almost every day - there are exceptions but it is, on the whole, a regular thing. One pandemic happened and I had a melt-down about not getting to the gym and putting weight back on so hubby said right as the holiday cottage is shut use that as your gym. It can't be a forever thing though, so we are sorting out a bit of house re-modelling and that will include a new room being built for a gym.

Long story short - I've still nowhere to craft and it was decided (as we have zero overnight visitors) we don't need a dedicated spare-room.  Therefore it will be called, forever more - the craft/spare room.  Emphasis on craft. 

This entails a lot of shifting of 'stuff' and chaos - hence no cards made for a week. I've spent the weekend catching up - but on the whole the next few weeks will be erratic.

Card made in serious catch-up session - and you may only see me for DT work for a bit.  Or updates on moving my stuff around the house, or I may even share a couple of cards made last year but not blogged. Oh, and that's what I'm doing: dreaming big - craft room big!

Supplies used:

Digital image:

Some Odd Girl - Geeky Mae

Coloured with Copics

Rubber stamp:

Random single sentiment stamp - no details

Dies:

Pretty Pink Posh - Scalloped Borders 1

My Favorite Things - Stitched Circle

Not sure whose the circle flourish was made by I've lost the packet

Paper:

First Edition - New Bloom

This is getting a very long post - so for What I did: Re-sized, printed and coloured in with Copics the image.  Fussy cut her out and popped her on a piece of patterned paper with 3d foam. Used a piece of kraft card cut with a border die as an edger. Took die-cut shapes I had in my bag of bits and stamped the sentiment on the plain circle, then added 3 gemstones.  Glued it all to the card blank (which is a top fold 5x7 size).

et voila, job done

Hope those of you who were in the path of these storms in the UK are all OK and everyone else is hunky dory!

See you soon,

Signing off,

Sarah

Challenge /s:

Passion for Markers: Week 628 - Favourite colours: I tend to go for greens and blues.  Sometimes with an added shade of red. I don't know why I'm drawn to greens and blues - but I do also like skies and seas, maybe it's from living near a beach and in the open countryside!

Watercooler Wednesday: WWC335 - Anything Goes.  So sorry to see your challenge end - have thoroughly enjoyed taking part for the time I found you!

Fab 'n' Funky : Challenge #545 - Birthdays, embellishments are the gems on the sentiment.

Crafty Catz: #583 - Add a sentiment

Krafty Chicks Challenge: #599 - CAS

Kaylee

 Good afternoon blogland,

This is the start of a flurry of posts from me over the next few days - and I'm posting at this time today as it's a busy evening for me.  

TTT's going to be home from school shortly wanting her dinner, then I'm off out jogging, when I get back it's straight into dinner for me and hubby and I, finally, get to sit down around 8ish! Tues and Thurs are jogging nights and busy!!  Rest of the time I'm twiddling my thumbs, no, really am - don't laugh! Well that's what TTT thinks anyway! :-)

I won't waffle on too much as I won't have much to say in other posts.  So, moving swiftly on, here's todays' offering:

Supplies used:

Stamps:

Digital:

Some Odd Girl - Lazy Day Kaylee

coloured with Copics

Rubber:

Taylored Expressions - Simple Strips Background

Dies:

taylored expressions - Simple Strips : Well rounded

Whimsy Stamps - Connected Rectangle

Creative Expressions - Noble Collection : Double Stitched Squares

Anything else?

Un-branded embossing folder

BoBunny - C'est La Vie Collection (patterned paper)

Distress Ink and blending tool

MDF flower.

What I did:

Re-sized and printed the digi stamp, coloured it in with my Copics and fussy cut out.

Die-cut a square of linen card, embossed with the folder and inked it with the Distress Ink. 

Die-cut the rectangle with more of the same linen card.

Attached a piece of patterned paper to the card base, glued the panel to the paper and the rectangle shape to the embossed panel.

Put 3d foam on the image and sentiment, then popped them onto the card. Finally glued on the MDF flower.

et voila, job done!

Still practicing staging my photos and using the light box - a learning curve I can tell you!

Hope all is well in your worlds and be back soon,

Signing off,

Sarah

Challenge / s:

Passion for Markers: Week 625 - embossing

Gem of a Challenge: Challenge 2 - Anything Goes

Addicted to Stamps and more: Challenge #421 - Make your mark

Use Your Stuff - #440 - embossing

Seize the Birthday: #230 - embossing

Going dotty

 Good evening blogland

Looks like I'm doing the evening posting thing again! 

Still just plodding along here, getting on with life and nothing exciting happening so not much waffle to waffle on with.  TTT is steadily working through her exams and says most of them have been 'ok', a couple have been 'quite good' and then we had 'oh, that was easy!'. Arrrrrgh, I see more arguments over revision in our future!

Moving onto crafting - I'm having quite a lot of fun on Instagram looking at how people present their makes.  Everything from lots of props (dies, stamps, flowers, pieces of wood!) to the simplest of no background at all.  Well I've done the no background when I first started making cards, I've been doing the brick looking background and now I'm trying props! It's made more fun with my new light box as I can adjust the colour of the light, from warm to cool, and brightness, Expect to see a range of different items in the pictures as I play around. So far I quite like putting my Copics in, but not sure about other props. Hmmmm!

Here's my card:

Supplies used:

Digital stamp:

Some Odd Girl - Big Pressie Tia

coloured with Copics

Rubber Stamp:

Taylored Exressions - Simple Strips : Birthday

Dies:

Pretty Pink Posh - Scallop Borders 2

Un-branded stitched rectangle

Taylored Expressions - Simple Strips ; Well Rounded

Anything else:

Cuttlebug - Swiss Dots embossing folder

Pink Distress Ink

White gel pen

black card

What I did:

Re-sized and printed off the image on Copic friendly paper, then coloured in with my Copics. I added white dots with the gel pen on her dress and shoes.

I then die-cut the image out with the rectangle and used the border die to trim off one edge of the panel. I also used the rectangle to cut another piece of white card, embossed it and then inked with the Distress Ink.

Glued the embossed panel to the card blank, then added the image panel with 3d foam pads. 

Finally glued the sentiment to the image panel and base with glue and 3d foam pads.

et voila, job done!

You'll have to let me know what you think of my attempts at an 'arty' picture - both this one and all future ones as well.  I'd honestly be interested to know!

See you soon,

Signing off now,

Sarah

Challenge/s:

Passion for Markers: Week 623 - Going Dotty

The Cutie Pie Challenge Blog: Challenge #167 - Simple Starts (CAS)

AAA Birthday: Game #33- Two Favourite Colours (Green and Pink (at the moment anyway!))

Happy Little Stampers: January CAS Challenge

Beachward bound

Hello Blogworld,

Well that was another unintended break - no idea what happened other than I just sat down to write this post and realised it's been a week!

I could blame it on being busy trying to take the colouring up a level and colour both my own backgrounds / scenes and using digi images to build scenes - so was busy crafting instead of blogging. Or I could blame it on just not realising time was marching by.  Hmmm, wonder which it will be!

So onto card and onto my first attempt at making my own background. The image and sentiment are stamped but everything else is freehand.  Overall am pleased with it but, as always, can do with improvement which comes with practice.  Also doesn't help that I created my own unique Copic colour by re-filling a pen with the wrong colour! Still upside is that I'll have to go get a new pen (or two!) now.

So card:

 I used:

Stamps:

Some Odd Girl - Beachy Tia

Whimsy Stamps - Fantabulous

Coloured with Copics

Dies:

Pretty Pink Posh - Scalloped Borders 1

Creative Expressions - Noble Collection Double Stitched Rectangles

Anything else:

Anna Marie Designs - Stripe Paper

string from my stash

I will be sharing attempt number two at creating a background during the week - how exciting!! 😉

That's me signing off now,

See you soon,

Sarah

Challenge / s:

Colour Crazy Craft Challenge: Week 26 - Anything Goes

Allsorts Challenge Blog: Week 631 - Sea, Sun, Sand

Gem of A Craft Challenge: Challenge 14 - Anything Goes

Cute Card Thursday: Challenge 690 - Anything Goes (optional summer theme)