You are here: Home / 2009 / Archives for January 2009

OMG – the woman's gone punch mad!

January 31, 2009 By 18 Comments

Two posts in one day?  And both featuring punches?!!  Are you sure you’re on the right blog?

dsc_0423

You may have spotted the butterfly punch in the previous post.  So I thought I better give it the same treatment and make something with it straight away.  I realised when I made the last card that I have a very serious problem at the moment – all my Glimmer Mists except one single set (Winter Wonder) are at the office.  When I opened my Glimmer Mist cupboard (yes, they fill a whole cupboard) and I saw it was empty, I had to sit down and wait for the palpitations to pass.

Luckily, I have no shortage of already glimmer misted paper and card lying around, so I was at least able to satisfy my shimmer cravings by punching butterflies from some of my stash.  I so wanted to make a coordinating shimmery background, but the colours I had were wrong.

So I set to work with distress inkpads – smooshing several colours (mustard seed, spiced marmalade and aged mahogany) onto my craft mat and misting with water before dabbing my card in the puddles.  I’d already stamped the tree with a browny-greeny ink and embossed it with clear embossing powder before this step.

Once the background was all covered, I dabbed off the very wet bits with kitchen towel and oversprayed it with Silver Bells Glimmer Mist which gave it a nice pearly sheen and started to ease the withdrawal shakes somewhat.

I had the idea for the butterfly tree the minute I saw the punch in the shop. I punched out several butterflies from three sheets of glimmer misted card – don’t ask me which colours, the card was sprayed before Christmas so it could be anything!  I decided they needed a little something, so I stamped them with one of the flower stamps from the Arboretum stamp set, then used the same foam mat and ball tool technique as before to curl the wings, then flipped them over and ran the ball tool down the middle to make the wings pop up.

I stuck down the butterflies leaving the wings free – it will flatten down for postage, but the recipient can lift up the wings to give it more dimension.  As I was sorting out the layers, I decided to mount it onto a white card and stamp the background.  Well I must be out of practice because I completely messed it up, so looked around for some paper to cover it up with and I came across a print out from the Butterfly Bliss CD with the perfect mix of colours, so I covered the whole card with it.  I finished it off with the daisy punch mounted onto some fabric flowers which have been shimmered up a little.

dsc_0420

And while all of this was going on, I’ve also been working on some other stuff which I can’t share here yet as I’m submitting it to a magazine and they won’t publish it if it’s been seen before.  Being away from my craft room for a week has really got me itching to CREATE stuff – I’m like an addict who’s bust out of rehab and can’t get enough!  I think I might just take a trip down to the office to collect my babies, er I mean Glimmer Mists.

signature

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

Martha Stewart Punches

January 31, 2009 By 61 Comments

I’m sure you all know that feeling of coming home from a craft shop with an impulse buy and a slight feeling of “oh my gosh, will I ever actually use that”.  Well with the exception of the odd corner rounder,  I don’t really ‘do’ punches very much, so why is it I seem to have brought a whole load home in my suitcase?

dsc_04181

Is it the cute packaging?  The fact they are designed square so they all line up neatly together?  Is it in fact Lynn’s fault for giving me a Martha Stewart Punch shopping list, thus making me look at them in the first place?

Well, whatever the reason, I fell for them and offered them a loving home.  (These should soon be available in the UK, by the way).  So as I was unpacking the important stuff yesterday, I decided that these fell into the category of purchases that would sit at the back of the shelf and never get used if I didn’t do something with them straight away.

So I picked the hydrangea petal punch and set to work.  I found a sheet of pastel rainbow cardstock and began punching from the pink/ lilac/blue area of the card.

dsc_0411

I then dug out a piece of funky foam and using two layers together, rubbed a large ball tool in the middle of each of the flowers to curl them up slightly.

dsc_04121

I cut a scalloped circle (Nestabilities – coming soon to Graphicus by popular demand, and about time too!) and started sticking down the larger flowers.  I had inked the edges of the larger flowers, but decided that was far too fiddly, so abandoned that plan.  In fact, at this stage, I was wondering if I had been attacked by some strange form of jetlag I’d not encountered before, as all this fiddly, tiny stuff is just not me at all.

Anyway, I carried on and built up the flower head and was surprised at how quickly it all went together.  Adrian shouted through that dinner was ready, so I quickly spritzed on some Glimmer Mist and left it to dry while I savoured the gourmet delights of haricots poached  in a delicately flavoured tomato sauce on a bed of lightly toasted seeded crostini (or beans on posh toast if you prefer).

The Glimmer Mist had settled nicely into the flower centres and I accented it some more with some Hero Arts flat back pearls, then mounted it onto a lilac scallop circle, edged with purple ink.

I stamped a stalk and two leaves from our Ruby Tuesday stamp set and the stamped the words from the Words of Gratitude set, inked the edges and mounted that onto the same lilac card.

The whole thing was then mounted onto a lilac card with a nice patterned K&Co paper.

dsc_04171

The flash has bounced off the glimmer mist a little, so here’s a close up showing the texture.

dsc_04151

Well, I don’t have a plan for this card, so I’ve decided to give it away to someone right here on the blog.  Leave me a comment and I’ll pick a name randomly on Sunday.  Let me know if you’d like it addressed to you and signed, or left blank so you can send it to someone yourself.  It’s almost 6 inches square.

signature

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

Still Thursday?

January 29, 2009 By 14 Comments

Just a quick note to let you all know we’re home safe and sound and we have a very wowly Basil cat with us.  He  turned his nose up at our strange airline smell and went straight off to check his territory and is now back with us, gracing us with a variety of  pathetic, recriminating and heartrending wowls at the rate of approximately one every ten seconds.  Thanks Bas, it’s good to be home.

Full report coming in the next couple of days when I have caught up on some sleep.

signature

Filed Under: Blog

What day is it?

January 29, 2009 By 9 Comments

Well hello everyone, I’m almost back home – blogging from Amsterdam airport while we wait for our connecting flight back.  I’ve just spent nearly ten hours on a plane and it was yesterday when I left and now it’s tomorrow – weird!

The pictures in the previous post were from Tattered Angels booth and some gorgeous parisian 12×12 papers from Dove of the East.  The no-photography rule was put in place by CHA to protect copyright theft, but individual companies still had the right to allow you to take photos if you asked.

I helped teach a workshop with Tattered Angels on Tuesday – the students made a garden book (similar to the one in the previous entry).  The album comes as a gatefold album with the clear fence overlay already on.  The front is delicately embossed with a tree which you can pick out by rubbing an inkpad over it.  It’s just beautiful.

I learned a few things myself too – did you know you can heat Glimmer Glass and shape it?  I saw some delightful flowers made with the snowflakes from the winter Glimmer Glass pack and I’m dying to try it out for myself.

I spent far too much money of course, so once the orders start to arrive, you’d better help me out.  Most things are shipping fairly quickly, but some stuff won’t be shipping til March.

The pink misting mat that Tattered Angels have on their blog is HUGE – a real table top size!  However it is a little pricey – looks like it will have a UK retail price around £50-55.

Anyway, not long til our flight, so I better go.  Basil would never forgive me if we missed it!

signature

Filed Under: Blog

Yum yum

January 27, 2009 By 17 Comments

I have attempted to blog several times in the last few days and I am so tired I keep falling asleep over the laptop!  So I’m just going to post a few pictures, it’s about all I can manage right now …. zzzzz

dsc_0317dsc_0330

dsc_0259

dsc_0260

Filed Under: Uncategorized

California Dreaming

January 23, 2009 By 21 Comments

california

It’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it!  Yes, I am off to the winter CHA show to do some shopping.  CHA is the Craft and Hobby Association and every year they hold a massive trade show in Anaheim, California, for all the world to display their crafting wares.

It will be tougher than ever this year with the dollar-pound exchange rate at it’s lowest rate in eight years.  At the time of writing this, the dollar is currently at 1.35 to the pound which is vastly different to the 1.97 that it was last year.  Plus banks, credit card companies and exchange bureaus don’t actually give you the true exchange rate as you pay commission, etc so  you’re more likely to get about 1.24 when you actually pay for your goods.

I’m sure there will be no shortage of “must have” products at the show, but the good old days of cheap imports are over, I’m afraid, so be prepared for American imported products to go up in price this year.   We have to pay shipping which is usually charged in dollars too, so that’s gone up, then the British government levy duty on imported goods as well and of course that goes up because it’s a percentage of the cost of the imported goods.

All of that means that I have to shop extra carefully for only the best stuff.  I have a simple rule of thumb at these events – would I give it house room myself?  If I want it badly enough to take it home with me, then I figure you guys will probably want it too!

So, talking of ‘must haves’, there are plenty of companies who are exhibiting at CHA who have already put sneek peaks onto their websites and blogs.  Tattered Angels have some gorgeous new Glimmer Screens and matching stamps; Tim Holtz has a new line of stamps that Lynn and I have already earmarked, plus lots of new things in his Ideaology range; then there’s the email I received from Ranger about all sorts of interesting sounding goodies they are releasing at the show…

So if you see anything you like the look of, now is the time to tell me about it.  In fact, you have TWO DAYS as the show starts on Sunday.  I am not making any promises, but I will take your comments on board as I’m walking the floor.

signature

Related Posts with Thumbnails
Filed Under: Uncategorized
«Older Posts