Monthly Archives: June 2012

Addicted to Stamps Eyes Down For A Full House ” Bingo “

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I want cats !!! yes you heard me I want cats !!! if there is anyone out there who is willing to trade then please send an email to buns@otenet.gr In exchange one porky French bulldog that goes by the name of girly girl and a small but feisty mini pincher Bailey bail . We  are at an impasse ,  as much as I love the dastardly duo it seems that they have had enough of me and have asked ( in their own special way ) to be transferred to a non crafting environment and who could blame them. Now I love my pets and I thought that they loved me but a complaint has been lodged and they are demanding certain rights .I did hear mention of the RSPCA being discussed between them which of course we dont have  here in Greece,  me thinks leaving the Mac un- attended and open while I am at work is not such a good thing after all ! so my dogs want out and I need something to cuddle during the times when the internet is down or blogger is mis- behaving,  so this time I would prefer a feline friend who is independent and can amuse itself, . I look forward to hearing from the interested parties and for those of you who have not seen R & B here is a photo of the little ” darlings ” oh and by the way refunds and returns are not accepted !

Right on to more important matters , its time for our second challenge over at Addicted to Stamps and I would like to thank everyone both old and new blogging friends who supported us in our first ever challenge , it was so lovely to see so may new and wonderful entires and I thank you all. Our new challenge for this week is  “Bingo ” and here is our little bingo chart for you to look at

We would like you to  choose a line either diagonal or horizontal, here is my take on the theme.

I chose, buttons, free and red for my line. The flowers have been cut with Paper Arsty dies the patterned paper I have no idea as to whom it belongs as the cover has long come off ( whats new ) the sentiment is SU and the HUGE button I bought at a crafting exhibition I attended recently in the UK. Looks like a simple card and it is but it took me about ten goes to get the cut outs exactly where I wanted them ! If you want to see some real talent and some beautiful inspirational cards then please head on over to Addicted to Stamps where you will see some fabulous creations by my fellow DT members who are obviously avid bingo fans !

Right am off to bed all of this dog trading business has worn me out plus the fact that the two terrors are yapping at my heels !

Take care and don’t forget my doglets

Marie

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge no 71 Make Your Own Flowers

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I am sitting here in the craft cave and am being bullied by the dastardly duo  Bailey and Rosy my two mutts who have decided that they have had enough of seeing only my back  for the past few,  well make that several hours ! I have a day bed in here and they are usually sprawled out on that or at my feet waiting to intercept any matter of crafty material that is destined for the bin. The little ” loves ” have been so quiet up until now due to the extreme heat but a sudden torrential downpour has cooled the air and revitalised their souls and they telling me in no uncertain terms that it is time for play. So as  I am writing this post I have an eleven kilo French Bulldog and a two kilo Pincher sitting on my knee both jousting for poll position….. oops there goes Bailey the Pincher ( did he jump or was he pushed ) he has been knocked off and is now yapping his head off, those mini mutts sure can bark . Right I better make this quick as Rosy the porker is one fidgety madame ! Its time for our new challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers and the theme for the next fortnight has been chosen by the lovely Aj who is asking us to make our own flowers. She would love to see your project including flowers made from anything you like as long as the flower itself is not store-bought . For more details pop over to Crafty Cardmakers and of course to see what my fellow talented team members have made to inspire us all. I used a Hero Arts stamp  and embossed it with its matching embossing folder by Sizzix ,not sure you can see the embossing but if you look really closely and squint just a little you might catch a little glimpse of it on the tiny flowers . The flower was made with my Cameo and I used Pan Pastels in varying shades to colour it, have mentioned that I love them ? you get such great coverage and if you make a mistake you can just rub it out with an ordinary eraser. Sentiment is by SU. I know you all wanted to see a close up of the flower so you could admire my Pan Pastelling skills !

Our two generous sponsor are:-

Digi Doodle Shop are offering a ten-dollar gift voucher and One Stop Card  Crafts are offering a 10 pounds voucher also.

We had some fantastic entries for our last fortnight’s challenge and it was a pleasure to see so many lovely and talented blogging friends taking part . I would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who passes by to leave a comment I know how busy you all are and do appreciate you taking the time to visit. There are a few of you and I’m not mentioning any names but the guilty parties will know who they are , are just down right cheeky and I love it so don’t hold back !!!

Right I’m off as the howling has started up again oh sorry, my mistake it’s just hubby watching the football,  but better clear off cos I’ve got two dead legs and a sore you know what from this big lump sitting on my knee.

Hope this post finds you all as it’s scheduled as hopefully when you read this I will be at my aqua aerobics class !

Ta ta

Marie

Get Creative Sketch Challenge 20th June

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Two posts in one day well that’s a first for me !!! two posts in one week is rare enough ! Anyone visiting for the Addicted to Stamps blog launch please see my previous post. Due to circumstances beyond my control this couldn’t be avoided so if your email dinged a second time and you saw my name well not it’s not a mistake.

As it’s the 20th of the month its time for our card sketch challenge over at Get Creative and we were given this fun one to work with come and see

It’s to be used purely as inspiration, flip it rotate it, use it as you will as long as we can recognise the sketch bearing that in mind come and see me interpretation !

Lately I’ve been trying my hand at art journalling and having loads of fun getting inky and messy , although the feedback I got from hubby was just a raised eyebrow and no comment whatsoever , I think I heard something along the line of dogs dinner being muttered under his breath but I can’t be too sure. Having said that my two mutts are very well fed so I’m taking it as a compliment !! Anyway back to the art journalling as I said I have been having great fun with Dylusions inks masks and what not ,so I got  the idea to cut up a piece of  one of my masks and use it as the central piece of my card. The poor thing has been sprayed, gessoed, Pan Pasteled all over and with in an inch of its life ! I used my Cameo to make the mask and the scissors I used Pan Pastels to colour them and then added a couple of layers of Utee, what you’ve never seen pink scissors before …… I also covered my white card stock in pink Pan Pastels as it gives such a pretty tint to the paper. It seems that these pastels are all the rage or all the go if you come from Liverpool  ! I’m really loving using them and finding them better than ink and a little goes a long way which can’t be bad . The gorgeous crocheted flower I bought from Get Creative Embellishments who are also by chance our sponsor for the month. They are so pretty and beautifully made each one so different as you will see on my second card

Similar to the first card but here I stenciled directly onto the card and then placed the stencil on top but offset it a little . I only glued it in a few places as I wanted to give the impression that it was falling off, well that’s my excuse anyway. Another beautiful flower from Get Creative embellishments and for those of you like me who suffer from bloggers blindness here’s a little close up

As I said before Get Creative embellishments are our sponsor for this month and this is a little taster of what you could win aren’t they gorgeous

Why not pop over to Get Creative to see the beautiful inspirational pieces by the other members of the DT and why not have a peep at some of our other challenges that are currently running, you have until the 29th of the month to upload your entries.

Right think I need a lie down, two posts in one day has worn me out hope I didn’t tire you all and if your emails start dinging again it’s not me I promise !!!

Take care

Marie

Addicted To Stamps ” Make your Mark Challenge 1 “

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Its a new day its a new dawn and I’m feeling gooood !!! and why you may ask,  well……..drum roll ……….the lovely and talented and with undoubtedly good taste lol Kylie of Addicted to Stamps has invited me to join her along with five super talented ladies to be part of her new venture  a weekly challenge for one and all  ! I feel privileged and honoured to be part of this wonderful group of talented crafters and especially as this is a new venture. There will be weekly challenges and also for the scrapbookers amongst you a monthly one so something for everyone. I do hope you will  find the time in your busy schedules to come along and play with us

Our first challenge is ” Make your Mark ” anything goes as long as your use markers. Well , when I saw the theme for this first challenge I was ready for handing in my resignation ! I have only used markers once and that was one colour on a Fimo heart ! My knees buckled my legs turned to Jelly and I went in search of my very limited colouring implements which had been purloined long ago by my younger son to deface , he says to enhance his school books. What did I find to my dismay …..about 10 markers, five without lids and these of course were the colours  I wanted and the rest well you can all be the judge by looking at my card ! Being a Saturday afternoon the shops were closed and I needed to make my card in a jiffy so here I present for you my very first creation with dried up Promarkers  !. I practiced all day Sunday (what did we do before you tube !!!) and I was fearful that I wouldn’t have anything to show you but here it is…..

Thought I would give you a close up of my rubbish sorry amazing colouring !!! This is known as the black magic technique,  you stamp the image onto black card in white ink  , I tried both Stazon and SU, SU is in my humble opinion a better base. Once the ink is dry you then colour over it with pencils ,  as the challenges was markers that’s what I used ,then you add willy nilly ( Vicky aka Crafting Claire please  help me here with the spelling )  white marker pen to highlight the image ) and Bobs  your uncle ( you Brits remember that saying  !! ) it worked well sort of .

I stuck another of my superbly coloured ( tongue in cheek ) butterflies on the inside , it seemed a shame to leave it off as I had made so many of them,  in other words I made it so you are seeing it !!!

I used Hero Arts butterfly and die cut for the image , Spellbinders for the frame cut with foam and one of my new Sizzix embossing folders for the base. Now if I can do it then so can you !!!! So please come over to Addicted to Stamps to see what the experts,  in other words the rest of the DT have created to inspire us , I am definitely inspired and will be seeking  out some one to one lessons !

We would love for you to like us on Facebook as we will be announcing our winners there too ….so come on why not pop over to Addicted to Stamps  for all of the details and maybe even join us cos I know you are all addicted to stamps !!

I would also like to enter this into the Bearly-Mine challenge who are asking us to use flowers on our cards.

Take care

Marie

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 70 No Cards, Tags or ATC’s

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Phew !!!! trying to get this posted has been a real test of wills both mine and poor Lin’s the boss at Crafty Cardmakers ( thanks for all your help ) It seems that blogger doesn’t like Greece very much and has been influenced by all of the bad press the country is getting at the moment, anyway wont bore you with all of the details as I still have a bit of a headache !!!

Over at Crafty Cardmakers its time for a new challenge and a very interesting one too. Our hostess with the mostest is Carol and she would like to see anything but a card, tag or atc, it could be something you have sewn or knitted , mixed media, anything as long as it is not any of the above. Now when you see what I have made you will most probably wondered why I even bothered but here goes anyway.

For a while now I have been toying with the idea of art journalling but was a little scared to have a go, seeing carols theme for the next fortnight spurred me on so here is my first attempt a work in progress if you will…..dont laugh ok !

The background is made with various alcohol inks that I put into spray bottles and added water then went a bit mad with the misting.  Once dry I inked up a couple of Tim Holtz and IndigoBlue stamps and randomly stamped over the pages.  Using my Cameo I made some stencils with acetate and again randomly placed on the pages and used Gesso to cover them. Using a white Sakura gel pen I outlined some of the details. I think I need to relax a little more as looking at it now it looks a bit well …uniform, better luck next time.

As the challenge was for anything other than cards I thought I would make a little box as I wasn’t entirely happy with the above. I used some lovely paper napkins to cover the wooden box which I Mod Podged . I used it to store these paper fish bones that I made with my Cameo and added an eyelet for the eye .Now why would anyone want to keep paper fish bones in a box you may ask well…. when I have dinner parties I like to have a theme and usually make some sort of paper creation for the table. This weekend I will be having a little party and  I will be making Sushi so hence the little fishes . Each guest will have this together with their place setting,  so see there is a method in my madness. Oops nearly forgot to show the box !!!!

Do pop over to Crafty Cardmakers to see the other wonderful projects by my team mates and why not take part. We are once again generously sponsored by :-Di’s Digi Downloads

I would also like to share this with Moving Along with the times who are asking for anything other than a card.

Right am off to the gym , wish me luck as its in the high eighties today and its a 25 minute up hill crawl to get there, so hopefully I will be around to see you all later

Take care

Marie

Get Creative Card Challenge ” Window Card “

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Hello you lovelies !!!! Hope you are all well and fighting fit. It was a holiday weekend here in Greece and the sun came out the city emptied and was very peaceful, I unfortunately was unwell so was stuck at home while OTHERS  ( husband ) played tennis and frolicked in the waves . To be honest he’s not much of a frolicker but you get my drift. Due to my bed rest am a little far behind with today’s post so here goes.

Over at Get Creative its time for our first card challenge for June and this is what our leader Irini has to say:

Good morning
every one
What do you see when you look out the window in the morning?
No that is not a part of the challenge but a window is!!!!!!!!
You challenge today is to make a card with a
window on it

Now you can cut it like an aperture card
or you can stamp an image
or you can use a die cut
just let your imagination go wild!!

My take on the theme

I took the theme literally and with the aid of my Cameo created the above, the sentiment is from SU

Liked it so much I made another one !

I cut the frame using my Cameo and took a napkin and attached it to heavy card stock using Mod Podge another layer on top and then when dry cut out this section and adhered it to the card. A few beads for bling and there you have it !

As the cameo was all warmed up I made this other little number adding the DP from my stash and used a Spellbinders nestie for the heart.

This was a really fun theme and I made about eight different window cards I got a bit carried away ! More of those another day. Do pop over to Get Creative to see what my other fabulously talented team mates have come up with you may even win a prize !! This month we are being sponsored by Get Creative Embellishments check out their Etsy store lots of lovely goodies here.  You have until the 29th of the month to upload your creations so Get Creative and have some fun !

Right about time I had a peep at what all of you fabulous crafters have been up to !!
see Ya !

Marie

Make it Monday Colour Challenge

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Good Morning to you all and especially to all my friends in the UK who will be celebrating the Queens Jubilee, hope the weather keeps fine for all of those street parties ! It’s a holiday weekend here also in Greece and hope the rain stops so we can get out and about !

Make it Monday will be celebrating their first anniversary next week and to end their month-long theme of florals they have given us this beautiful colour prompt to inspire us. I really enjoyed taking part in their challenge a couple of weeks ago and when I saw this pretty photograph I knew I wanted to take part.

Here is my interpretation

I ‘m not sure quite how to classify this creation its a cross between an invitation/card/envelope. . The lacy envelope thingy was made with the help of my Cameo , easy you make think but its the result of ten attempts !!! It kept sticking to the carrier sheet and as its such delicate paper it kept ripping ! when I finally did get it of in one piece  Mr pokey tool and I had a difference of opinion. I wanted to poke out all of the holes and he preferred to leave some in ! So running out of paper and patience on my tenth attempt I finally managed to get a perfect one !! I printed onto velum this gorgeous paper from Designer Digitals and using a Stamp from the SU  set Sweetheart I stamped a little sentiment inside. Using  a bigz die by Sizzix Flowers and Daisies I cut out several flowers and then coloured them with Pan Pastels in pink. Am loving those Pastels so easy to use I only wish I had bough more of them. Made my own brad with my I-Top tool using some old fabric and placed it in the centre.

Heres a photo of the inside.

The flower has a clip at the back so it can be attached anywhere else on the card once you have opened it. The insert could be glued in place and is perfect for an invitation or can be used as a little note card.

Back View

The back could have been left plain but I got a bit carried away and decided to go the whole hog and carry the colour theme all of the way through.

Do pop over to Make it Monday to see the amazing inspirational pieces by the very talented design team who I have to say are one of the nicest bunches of ladies in blog land !

Right enough crawling from me time for work

Take care

Marie