I've been busy!

Well, I've got a few more bits and pieces to show you, as promised from my last post. When we were away on our mini Retreat, Elaine showed us how to make leafy backgrounds, using leaves from her garden and Adirondack Inks. I love the effect that these create, and have been making some since I returned home. The bluey grey one is the one that I made with Elaine's instructions, and the green one is one I made at home. I decided to use the green background to make a couple of Father's Day card, one for my Dad, and one for my Father-in-Law.

I have kept the rest of the card quite plain, as I want to show off the lovely background. I have used an Elusive Images stamp and sentiment, which I have edged with Distress Inks and matted onto dark green card.

I finally finished my hanging that I made in the class we went to with Linda Elbourne while on our mini Retreat. She is such a lovely lady, and kept us supplied with cups of tea all day. The piece that we made is absolutely stunning, and I really enjoyed making it. There are so many different elements involved; stamping onto tissue paper, making UTEE shapes, grungepaper roses, using crackle accents, it is really lovely.

Last but not least, my hubby and I will have been together for 31 years tomorrow. We got together at the tender age of 15 (ahhhh!), we were in the same class at school, and have been together ever since. As it is also Father's Day, my card needed to be a little bit multi purpose. He really liked the card that I made for his brother with the metal panel a couple of weeks ago, so I decided to use some metal on his card too. I recently bought a couple of pieces of gorgeous turquoise coloured metal, so I ran a piece of that through my Big Shot with the harlequin TSS mould. Wow, that was so easy! The embossing is really crisp, once I'd worked out what plate configuration I needed, (I'll never remember for next time!) I added the hanging sign bracket, which I coloured with Weathered Wood, Pine Needles, and Black Soot, to create a verdigris feel. Then I attached a bit of chain and a couple of jump rings. With lots of silicone, I then added a clock face and a spinner, to look as if it was hanging from the chain. I have not added a sentiment, as the card will be for both occasions really, and my insert will be blank too. I love the colour of this metal, which I also added a little bit of black paint dabber to, taking the excess off with kitchen roll. Hopefully he will be pleased with the finished card. Thanks for looking, Judith xx

Time Flies

Well, after an extremely busy week, I'm here to report back on our mini Retreat near Bedford. I went with my fellow bloggers from http://craftstampingquartet.blogspot.com/ Elaine, Jo and Lesley. We hired two adjoining apartments on a farm near Bedford, and spent a few days together just chatting and crafting. The accomodation was excellent, as we had two large tables, which meant that we coukd split up and work on our circle journals, or leave one table cluttered with craft stuff, and eat on the other one! We also booked a day class at LB Crafts with Linda Elbourne, and had a fabulous time with her, and then browsed around the shop afterwards. We may have made one or two purchases as well! I have almost finished my project from the class, and will post a picture of that when I have, as it is gorgeous.

While we were on the Retreat, we taught each other a few bits and pieces, and tried to work on some projects as well as our journals. Some projects were finished, and some things have been saved for next time, too much chatting I think! I showed the girls how to attach beading to Stampboard with jump rings and headpins. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of their projects, but here is one of mine. I have used Tattered Rose, Milled Lavender and Dusty Concord DIs on the stampboard, and then used a Lavinia stamp with Imperial Purple Versafine Ink. I have then atached an assortment of toning beads, finishing off with a pretty toggle clasp at the back.

I managed to get two lots of circle journal pages finished, first Elaines, based on a Secret Garden theme, as she is a nature lover at heart. I used a gorgeous green paper from a K & Co pad as my base. I made a handmade flower with book pages, and stamped a door with a Crafty Individuals stamp, placing another CI image behind of ferns and flowers. I used  larger versions of the ferns and flowers to stamp around the edges of the pages from an Elusive Images set of stamps. I used the words Secret Garden from the new Paper Artsy Hot Picks Stamp set. I used various Tim Holtz ideology pieces to finish off my pages.Apologies about the background of my photo, we worked in a right mess while we were there!

For Jo's pages, I went for a Venetian theme; we both share a love of Venice, and Italy in general. I used some Darkroom Door stamps as the basis of my design, and wanted to include mosaics in my design. I painted some Terra onto the top half of one of my pages, and brushed wild honey over the top, to give a plaster effect to the page. Lesley very kindly donated the perfect colour mosaics for me. Again, I made some handmade flowers with Italian newspaper this time! I used one of Jo's own masks to make the background for the second page by inking through with Wild Honey DI. I made these pages with a migraine, and really struggled to pull them together, but page number two with the mask went better than page number one, and I think that it shows. I used the word for 'friend' in Italian, a little ticket, and a motivational Crafty Individuals stamp to finish everything off.
We had a lovely time together, and are already in agreement that we must go again. We think that we need a month next time to get everything done...I'll be back soon with more bits and pieces to show you, Judith xx