less is more sketch

The scan does not really show my card up very well but as my photography skills are equally usless it will have to do. The challenge over at Less is more this week is to follow one of two sketches, you can find them here. My craft stamper magazine came today and I was very taken with the article by Joanne Allison. Basically you just take your distress ink pad and press it down onto your card blank to make an impression then stamp over it. She used blue with fish stamps. I chose crushed olive then overstamped with my dragonfly. I used a clear sparkle pen from Sakura for the dragonflies wings but I don`t think it shows up here. I also used a scoring board to emboss two lines either side of my happy birthday but I don`t think that has shown up either ! This technique is ideal for those quick last minute cards that you need in ten minutes flat or is that just me Lol ? x Lavinia

ATC

The challenge over at the Stampotique challenge blog which you can find here is to make an ATC. Now I must admit initially my heart sank as I have given up on making these as I felt I am so usless at them. I don`t know what it is that I find so hard, it could be the small scale of them. Often the stamps I want to use don`t translate to such small a piece of card. However, I feel I`m in a bit of a crafting rut at the moment so decided to just bite the bullet and go with it. My other Stampotique monster has come out to play today. In fact I only have four Stampotique stamps in total Lol, something I feel I need to remedy because they are really quirky which I love. I kept things really simple. I used distress inks in tumbled glass, then broken china over a crafters workshop chicken wire template. A small piece of paper found in my scraps box to ground him. The monster was coloured in with copic markers. Now if I had brains I really would be dangereous. Why ? because it has only just occured to me that you can go into the word program on the computer and type whatever phrase you need DUH !!! so thats just what I did, choosing my font and size. I also choose blue rather than black to tone in with the background. Why on earth didn`t this occur to me sooner ? saves phaffing arround trying to find the right size letters to use on things. So there you go, one ATC. Think I should go off and try some more now. Its still black and raining outside here. Definate crafting weather. Thanks for looking x Lavinia

twit twoo

quick post today. I`ve been looking at the less is more challenge for ages but equally have not taken part for ages either !. The challenge this week is to use a charm on your card. I have had these owl charms for ages now and have been dying to use them. The owl stamp is from Indigo Blu. I saw it on Judiths blog which you can see here and it was one of those stamps which I had to run off and order straight away. I confess to having a real thing about owls, I just love them. I used nestabilities to cut out my circles. I then used Tim Holtz distress markers to colour in the owl. I think these are the bees knees, the markers and worked really well on a stamp like this. I used a ivy stamp which I`m sure is from Chocolate Baroque to layer at the bottom of the circle. The sentiment I`ve had for ever and came from an old QVC kit from Hot off the Press I think. I then added the ribbon and my charm. So there you go, one quick card and I`m quiet pleased with how it turned out. Thanks for looking x Lavinia

artful times challenge green bookmark

So the challenge currently running over here at artful times is a sea of green. It has taken me all week to come up with something. I thought I liked green which I do but have realised its not a colour I use much in papercrafting. I think it is quite a hard colour to use actually without everything looking a bit dark. Anyway, being really fed up of doing tags at the moment I decided to do a bookmark which I can use. I have been meaning to do one for ages. I had a new set of stamps from Paper Artsy which I bought Saturday from Ally Pally. I used alcohol inks in shades of green for my owl panel. I used distress inks in bundled sage, crushed olive and forest moss on the backing card. The border at the top is a piece of metal foil which I embossed on a ten seconds studio mould then added another pattern border either side coloured with lettace alcohol ink. I ran a piece of ribbon down the back of the bookmark so that I can find my page really easily and backed it with a piece of patterned paper. Thanks for looking x Lavinia

stampotique challenge

OK so I`ve had this madcap idea floating round in my head since I bought my Stampotique monster. Today I saw on their challenge blog which you can find here the challenge is to use doodles in your creation. Hope this counts then as I drew my union jack flag freehand with the aid of the Times world atlas for reference ! I also added Keep calm and carry on to his sign. All my colouring was with copics, don`t think I`ve blended the colours very well tonight but I cannot see properly in artifical light. Thats my excuse anyway Lol. Thanks for looking x Lavinia

Tim Holtz April tag take two

Well, yesterdays tag went in the bin ! I hated it and don`t even know what I was thinking of. Everything I craft at the moment seems to take me more than one attempt as it turns out a disaster Lol. Fresh attempt today and it was completely back to the drawing board. I used weathered wood and iced spruce distress inks for all the colouring. The script stamp and harlequin are both from Hero Arts, the bird is from Chocolate Baroque. The frame was a freebie from some craft magazine that I`ve had for ever. I did use distress embossing powder over the harlequin pattern but am still not convinced I like this product. The bird was stamped onto grunge paper and blinged up a bit with sakura gel pens. I`m much happier with this attempt, hope you all agree with me. x Lavinia

two cards and a tag

The two cards I made yesterday to give myself a start to a stock of birthday cards. I am fed up with rushing to make something at the last minute Lol. Am obviously in a green and purple kind of mood at the moment. The Iris stamps are from Chocolate Baroque. The tag was supposed to be for Tims April tag, however, now I`ve made it I`m really not that enamoured with it. I think my background overpowers everything else. I am going to look at it tomorrow before I decide whether to upload it to Tims blog, probably not. Any constructive comments are welcome. I think I am a bit fed up of making tags at the minute and out of practise with card making ! Thanks for looking x Lavinia

artful times challenge

well, here we are again. So much for my good intentions of blogging far more regulary. I have not taken part in any challenges for ages especially since the just for fun challenge blog sadly closed. However, Von, Sam and Neet are back with a new challenge blog called artful times. The first challenge started on Friday and it was to make a tag. Seems to be all I manage to make lately what with the Alpha tag swap and Tim Holtz tag of the month ! I was at a bit of a loss which theme to use as there was not one specified. However, a look through my stamps soon gave an answer. The lady image is a paper artsy stamp set that I have had for ever but not used for ages. I stamped it then coloured in with copics. The background I tried out a new technique for me that I had seen on someones blog ages ago. Its a faux mother of pearl background, it doesn`t really show up in the scan but is really pretty in real life. I pounced white liquid pearls on a polythene bag onto a tag cut from glossy card. Once this was dry, I went over the tag with distress inks in victorian velvet, spun sugar and dusty concord. Its gives a lovely soft subtle effect. I didn`t want to go with traditional seaside colours for this, I was in a pink and purple sort of mood. The background shell stamps are from hero arts. I then stamped them again onto shrink plastic to make my embellishments at the bottom. I don`t use shrink plastic that often and don`t know why because it is fun to use if a bit scary ! Thanks for looking x Lavinia