Sympathy Card

Just in case people are checking in a worrying I am fine but just too busy to blog for a while. I had to make a sympathy card this week and realised how few cards I see for these occasions that I like. For me a card for these occasions is a delicate balance that has to do so much. Something you know suits the person grieving but in your own style,  using all of your usual techniques but not looking too playful, sensitive to the occassion but not too sad.

I sometimes think it is sensible to make several at a time but then realize it is more meaningful when you take the time to think of those involved as you make it. As its the first card I have made in a long time I thought I would take time to check in and share it.

As its Wednesday I am also going to link up with WOYWD.

Using your Old Stamps Up

I truly think stamps are addictive. Once you get the bug you cannot stop coveting or simply buying the next one. Several times a year there are new stamps released and there will always be those that you decide you just cant do without! It is easy to spend hours chasing down some stamp used in a project you have admired on someones blog or Pinterest. There are always new exciting products coming out. You could easily spend your days shopping rather than making. Often I find myself looking at a stamp and thinking of all the things I could make with it. Its so easy to persuade yourself that the new shiny stamp will make the best ever project and forget the multitude you already have.

Often your own stamps become invisible, you forget them amongst the thousands. Lets be honest, it probably goes beyond the hundreds. I think it is important to spend more time experimenting and creating than shopping and using what we have I will exercise our imagination. I will certainly be richer! I do not like to think of the amount I have spent on stamps since I started using them.

I am setting out to use more of my stamps. To be creative with what I have. It will be my own personal challenge. I am sure I am not alone in having many stamps which I have not used in years or even some which remain in their cellophane waiting for their first taste of ink.

Four months until the end of 2018 I will try and go cold turkey with the shopping and use as many of my virgin or neglected stamps as possible. For fun I will post the total in the New Year. Please feel free to join in!

To start off I am using a set lusted after for over a year and finally bought, in January! Bird Feather by Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous. This lovely set has 2 birds, eggs, a beautiful twiggy nest and a large feather. Ironically the stamp that pulled me in most was the smallest, the row of Fig 1-7. This is the only stamp I have used since I bought the set.

I haven't made a clean and simple card in ages so I am trying to keep this nice and easy. I did use watercolour cardstock as a base because I have run out of white cards.

The larger bird from the set is stamped on the edge of the card. I have stamped a bit of nest so he appears to be sitting on the edge of his nest. The figs 1-7 are stamped in the same sepia archival ink. The stamped image is heat dried so I can wet the card. The final element is a quick spritz with water then a little sprinkle of infusions in "Slime." I mounted the finished card front on green coloured cardstock.  I have added no sentiment to the front as I can stamp whatever is appropriate inside when I use the card.

I love the infusions splatter and I do love this stamp. Not sure what the fascination with figure numbers is. Perhaps it comes from hours poring over old botany and other books with beautiful engraved black and white illustrations.

Im linking this up to Crafty Creations challenge #372 which is Anything Goes

Crafty Individuals Bird stamp Card

I have enjoyed being able to work in my studio again now we have a little cloud to cool the sunny Irish sky. I dont feel like I had been back at work long since my visitors left when I was forced out by the heat. I tried to at least look in on all the blogs I follow but somehow if  I am not working creatively I dont feel part of that world. It seems so much more vivid and meaningful from inside. Just looking is not as engaging. I see and creative sparks start firing off but they cannot take flight or develop without experimenting. There is a lot to be said for a very messy desk and sticky stained fingers! This week I have been playing with a lot of paint and oxide but nothing I am happy with. My pile of discarded backgrounds is growing. I will have to get out the Big Shot, maybe then I can die cut them into something wonderful.

I went back to my distress ink and made a thank you card. Always feels good to finish something before I leave my desk.First I made a blue and green distress background. I love the way you can create rich jewel colours, like stain glass with a lot of light but intense too.  I used a crafty Individuals stamp "Bird," stamped onto my coloured background in black archival ink. I stamped a couple of times so I could chose the area that looked best and had the option of extra design elements.

After cutting out each element I mounted them on book pages, edged them with a distressing tool and a little black ink. Then I mounted the book page pieces onto two green cardstock panels and glued these directly onto a Kraft card base. The sentiment was stamped in black archival directly onto the card base. The sentiment is from a set by Avery Elle "Oh Happy Day."

Now I have to return to the world of domesticity and wash my inky fingers. Do your kids laugh at your brightly stained fingers? Mine often comment and make up strange activities I might have been up to to get green, purple or red fingers. 

Im linking up with Julia at WOYWW this week

Free Birds Printable

I have not posted a free printable in years so here goes. I will try and make it more frequent now I am more active with my blogging.

As ever, please use this freely for your own handmade work but do not sell it as a printable.
Enjoy x A

Bright and Cheerful Carabelle Birds Card

Just a quick post to join in SSS Wednesday Challenge. Who can resist trying to do a bright and beautiful project? I am using this as a prompt to use a new Carabelle Studio stamp I bought over a month ago. Finally it is seeing some ink! I used lots of stencils and three colours of distress to do the background. The main image is stamped in black Rangers Archival ink. Ive listed the colours and stencils below. It was a fun playful card.

I have left space at the top to add a sentiment when I use it. Never know what occasion it will come in handy for. I often leave it until I use it to stamp my sentiment. That way its quick to finish it off with a sentiment that's appropriate.

Stencils used:
Crafters Workshop Mini Filmstrips
Crafters Workshop Mini Quatrefoil
Crafters Workshop Mini Grandma's Doily

Tim Holtz Distress ink colours used:
picked raspberry
mustard seed
spiced marmalade

Stamps used:
Carabelle Studios 'Taches et Coutures
Carabelle Studios Collage avec des Oiseax


Simon Says Stamp Bright and Cheerful challenge

Little folded book

Ive had house guests and been unable to craft or blog for over a week. While they were here I was frustrated and impatient to disappear off to my studio. Of course once they departed I found I had lost the muse and it took several days of false starts to get back into any creative flow. I wanted to join in with several June challenges and started making a flag book. I was taking lots of shots of each stage but its not easy to get going if you are too self conscious of the process. I decided to put that project aside and got out some patterned paper and my new tubes of Tim Holtz design tape. I have seen lots of lovely projects by Astrid Maclean and others using it, recently I succumbed bought a selection.

I was thinking about the Mixed Media Monthly final challenge. They are "Wrapping it up." So sad to see this challenge blog go but it is hard work and they are all still blogging on other sites so the inspiration will continue I'm sure. This is my offering for wrapping it up.

I used some really old paper from Prima's 'Printery' collection and Heidi Swapp's 'Vintage Chic' collection. I used some stamp illustrations from an old stamp catalogue.

The illustrations in this book are lovely. I think they are nicer than some actual stamps, the detail in the engraving and printing is so fine. As they are all black and white I can colour them to suit any project. One of the Heidi Swapp papers has the exact colour of Tim Holtz's cracked pistachio Distress Oxide ink. I used it throughout along with some Gathered twigs distress ink and Potting soil archival ink. I added some of Ranger's rock candy crackle paint to the cover. I added old book pages cut up into words a bit like the chit chat words. I have put a link below for the pretty bird scraps, more long horded items!

On the final page I used a pressed flower from last summer.

I finished this little book in one session. It was just what I needed - to get lost in the pleasure and satisfaction that creating can provide.

Although I took no photos of the making I have photographed each of the five pages/sections.

I used a tutorial from Kay Williamson on Club Scrap  LINK If you fancy trying to make this book her tutorial is very good. I made mine a little bigger cutting 5x5 inch squares and 2 1/2  inch covers. I dont know what this style of folding pages is called. Do let me know in the comments if you do.


Materials used:
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Design tapes: Remnants, Elementary,Humidor
Prima Printery 8x8 paper
Heidi Swapp Vintage Chic 8x8 paper
Ranger Distress crackle paint - clear rock candy
Cracked pistachio Distress Oxide ink
Gathered twigs distress ink
Ranger Archival ink - potting soil
Board for covers (from back of a sketchbook)
old book text and images
Bird scraps LINK


Im entering this in:
Mixed Media Monthly challenge #49 which is thier "Wrap it up"

Mini Album Makers June Challenge

Green Shadowbox with tintype

Here is another assemblage using my old studio portraits. This photograph is a tintype. The image is made by coating little tin metal plates with a light sensitive coating. They are like daguerreotypes, each one is unique and cannot be reprinted. I have put the photograph into a shadowbox frame, still intact, nothing glued or attached to it. The lady in this portrait is sterner than my imaginary seashell collector. I imagine her as a Victorian 'bluestocking,'  seriously engaged in studying botany and ornithology.

The box is lined with old dictionary paper from 7 gypsies. I used a fragment of paper from an old botany book. It is crumpled and coloured with distress ink to age it and add more green. A little K&Co bird sits in a real branch. In one corner there is a small piece of coral. This assemblage has a very spring feel to it and is now sitting on our fireplace.
Thanks for looking enjoy your weekend. x

A flock of wood and paper birds

Mass production line of little birds for a fair. My husband cut out the wooden shapes from a template I made. The feet are twisted wire and then I used lots of scraps of patterned paper.