Under The Sea..

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I can’t believe it’s been a month since my last blog post, I’ve being having some back pain which has meant less crafting and no inclination to photograph anything I have made.I have to admit it hasn’t stopped me increasing the craft stash though. My big sister Marie at Baileyrosy.com has been nagging me to update my blog and who I am to refuse.

Marie bought some Tim Holtz dies and having seen what she created I thought I’d buy the same and have a go, since this time she was mean and had hers sent to herself in Greece rather than to me.

Firstly I got some alcohol inks (or alcoholic inks as Marie prefers to call them) and had a great time using Pinata inks and some cheap metallic alcohol inks I bought on Amazon on some coated card-stock. I added some some alcohol blending solution and set to creating some interesting aquatic colours using my air puffer. I used the same method but on acetate to create an ocean.

Once dry I ran the Tim Holtz angler fish and clown fish through my Big Shot and then layered the pieces together. This was such fun, seeing how I could make interesting looking fish from my inking session as I never know quite how things will turn out.

I cut the Waffle Flower Crafts under the sea panel die from cream cardstock and then layered the acetate “ocean between a piece of plain cardstock and the panel die. I added some foam circles under the fish and popped them onto the card and using some clear flat back dots from my stash I added some bubbles. Finally I stamped and cut the sentiment from Purple Onion designs and affixed it to the card.

Mabel of course wanted to be involved, she’s loving the fame and who can blame her, she’s more popular than me!

I’ve decided to enter into the following challenge

https://happylittlestampers.blogspot.com/2022/05/hls-may-anything-goes-with-dies.html

and also

https://2craftycrittercrazies.blogspot.com/2022/05/challenge-62-anything-goes-with.html

and finally https://mynbus.blogspot.com/2022/05/nbus-challenge-38.html

Why not pop over and see what all the other lovely crafters are up to.

Thanks for stopping by, I’m off to create some more mess!

Love Kal X

Shocked…but in a happy way!

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I entered my first card challenge a couple of weeks ago over at http://happylittlestampers.blogspot.com/ and was amazed when my big sister face-timed me to say I was chosen as one of 3 favourites. To say I’m overwhelmed is an understatement! I’m so grateful to the team for choosing my card and it’s inspired me to enter more challenges, including their April challenge https://happylittlestampers.blogspot.com/2022/04/hls-april-anything-goes-with-dies.html

and also joining Darnell’s challenge over at Never Before used Schtuff http://frame.bloglovin.com/?post=8431965553&blog=20402327&frame_type=feed

I was also brave enough to ring for my mammogram results and am now 3 years breast cancer free, so a great week all in all!

This week Marie at http://www.baileyrosy.com (who happens to be my very talented sister) sent some new dies to look after until she visits from Greece, she thinks she’s gonna get them next time she visits, but I might accidentally lose them..It would have been rude to not try them for quality control purposes so I sacrificed my time for her and this is what I came up with

This stunning die set is from the Spellbinders “Paint Your World” collection and I’m in love with it. I love fiddly dies, except when the craft goblin invariably steals the tiniest cut or the actual die, you know how it goes, you search for hours, relent and cut a new one and then the original is returned as if by magic!

Mabel’s was working in the delivery department this week, bringing me the craft items that I ordered from Amazon. She wants to be more involved but she is still in training.

Mabel collecting the post.

Anyway, I started by stamping some Fiesta Blue ink by Catherine Pooler onto my mat and added with some water. I then painted this in a random swoosh onto a white panel. Once dried I hot foiled using the Confetti Dots plate from the Stamp Market and set that aside.

I cut the various die pieces for the paintbrush, added a little of the same “paint” to the bristles, stamped a sentiment from Crafters Companion, dug out my crop a dile and made a tag which I attached to the paintbrush handle with twine. I then set about cutting some dies from various shades of card for the butterflies. This and the placement is the bit I struggle with, I never trust my creativity.

I used foam circles on the back of the paintbrush to give some dimension, adhered it to the card and then spent what seemed like hours adding the butterflies and the sentiment. A few embellishments later and all that was left to mount the panel onto two shades of blue card from my stash and then onto a 7 x 5 card blank.

I actually love this and it came out as close to what I had imagined, I’m off to make some cards with another die from the series, so I probably won’t surface until after Easter.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Easter!

Kal X

Craft Stash increased again!

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Three years ago I was diagnosed with breast cancer, after surgery and radiation I was given the all clear and recently had my annual mammogram. I’m not great with health appointments so was really pleased that I was able to drive myself to my appointment (accompanied by long suffering son) and as a treat decided to buy myself some new crafting equipment…any excuse right? As fate would have it a voucher appeared in my inbox from Crafters Companion offering me 50% off one item and I plumped for their “a year of craft”starter set which came with a free 2nd box. While I wouldn’t normally go for such things, I managed to get the whole lot delivered for under £50 and it arrived last week. Its full of stamps,card, embellishments,dies, etc so this weekend I decided to try some of the projects.

There are cards with instructions how to make the projects but I decided to change the dimensions and use papers from my own stash.

I took a piece of cream card and stamped one of the wreath stamps that came in the set and then using watercolour pens gave it some subtle colour.

wreath detail

While I waited for this to dry I took a 7x 5 blank card and covered it with a piece of navy card-stock, I then cut a rectangle of green patterned paper and adhered a contrasting patterned paper to the bottom. I centred a piece of navy grosgrain ribbon over the join and attached this to my card base.

Once the wreath was dry I used the matching die cut, ran it through my Big Shot and then cut a smaller circle of cream card which I stamped with my chosen sentiment. I adhered the sentiment to the card and then using foam circles popped the wreath on top to give it some dimension added some coloured pearls and hey presto!

For those of you wondering, Mabel decided not to join me but instead tried her hand at scrambling some eggs….

I’ve decided to enter this in http://craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper.blogspot.com/

I’m off to try out some more projects, thanks for reading and happy crafting

Kal X

Anything Goes with Dies, so here goes

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I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been paper crafting for some time, but really concentrating on cards for the last year or so. My “darling” sister Marie baileyrosy.com has literally twisted my arm so far up my back to enter into my first challenge, so here goes. Everyone knows you don’t mess with your big sister. I am so nervous to enter my challenge, so if there are any glaring mistakes please forgive me.

Since she lives in Greece and dies are harder to come by, Marie often has them sent to me and when she visits gets to take them home, (so long as Mabel, my kitten and partner in crafting hasn’t misappropriated any bits).She kindly let me loose with this beautiful Folk Art Birds die cut , hot foil and stencil set from PinkFresh Studios.

First I hot foiled with a gorgeous royal blue I had in my stash, ran it through my Big Shot, then using the 4 stencils and some Catherine Pooler inks I got to work colouring the image. Mabel thankfully was napping at this time, otherwise we would have had a more abstract effect, but joined once I had used the co-ordinating dies to cut out the pieces.

It’s hard to photograph foil!
Mabel helping!

Finally I adhered the finished front onto a plain white card base I made, et voila!

Please pop along to Happy Little Stampers to see some beautiful cards made by real crafters and a huge thanks to anyone who has taken the time to read my blog. I’m off now to visit some other blogs to see if I can learn from their wisdom.

Happy Crafting!

Kal x

Welcome!

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Firstly let me introduce myself. I’m Kal, 56,I live in England and I’ve been crafting for a few years now, initially knitting, but my sister Marie encouraged me to start papercrafting , although I am not as talented as her I love getting lost in a project.

Marie is a marvel with cards(check her out at http://www.baileyrosy.com) she introduced me to my first piece of crafting equipment the Sizzix Big Shot embossing machine several years ago. Needless to say like many crafters I know, I now have an enormous stash of card,sequins, equipment etc!

Last year we added to our furry family by bringing a beautiful ginger kitten into our family, who we named Albert, a quick trip to the vet and her name was changed to Mabel. She soon demonstrated her love for crafting by running off with rolls of washi tape, important dies and stamps and by her love of my machines. So she’s the star of the show and a bit of a diva.

One day I’m sure she’ll produce a masterpiece with all her stolen items, but until then please join us on our adventures! Thank you for reading and happy crafting.