Where did this year go?

Well I have no idea where this year has gone! I've just posted the last card I did in class and I know there is the one from September still to do. Upcoming tomorrow I am doing this festive little number using Tonic dies.

But back to the subject of time.

March - this was when I had radio frequency done on my lower back. It was supposed to make the pain better but instead it has magnified it threefold. It's the same old story 'if I'd known then what I know now'...I'd never have had it done. I used to bad days with a few good days. Now there's only worse days with bad days and the worse thing is pain cannot be seen so to a casual observer you may be having a good day when in fact all you want to do is curl up and sleep because you are so exhausted from the pain. People ask if you are O.K in greeting but they really don't want to hear again how bad a day you're having so you just reply 'yeah, I'm fine'. And I sometimes just want to beat up the people who call you 'speedo' when you're hobbling along or 'Ooo, I know how you feel, I've got backache today' Really! wipee wow! You have no idea!!
Anyway rant over.

May -June Meetings at work about how things are going to be reorganised. How if we don't do an NVQ3 qualification our jobs may be in jeopardy. So a girl has to do, what a girl has to do! get on with it. So I'm unofficially a student again. Studying, writing essays, answering question, and not one sentence answers.

July - August. Summer holidays! yeahhh. Chillaxing, studying, preparing my next 3 card classes and sleeping. Plenty sleeping.

September. Back to School. I must admit the changes are working out better although some things aren't changing fast enough. but on the whole I don't wake up dreading going to work. I just don't like getting up in the cold and the dark now that it's approaching winter. Dragging my never ending butt (now that exercise is not an option) out of a lovely, cosy warm bed.

November - nearly payday and I have no idea where the last 3 weeks have gone never mind the time since March. I did take Sami to look around De Montfort University in Leicester last weekend. 109 miles one way. I came off some of my painkillers because I was so scared I might fall asleep at the wheel but I paid for it walking round and up to this past Thursday (5 days). But another side is I now want to go to University and study Photography. We went to the Photography section and listened to the seminar then had a tour. I didn't see what was so special about some of the work being exhibited and thought "I can do as good as this". We went into a studio with cameras on display, backdrops, lighting tables and motion picture equipment and all I wanted to do was get my hands on it all. Sami meanwhile never broke a smile. SERIOUSLY? not even when she saw the editing room where there were banks and banks of apple Macs.
Well....... maybe one day. I'll win the lottery or some unknown relative will leave me a load of dosh! LOL

And now Christmas is almost upon us and I have no enthusiasm what-so-ever. I just want to hibernate and wake up in the Spring.

2100hrs. Time to go. I still have jobs to do before I turn in for the night.

Toodles.

Yve

Snowflake shaker card

Snow flake shaker card                                                                            

 

What you need

Creative Expressions Snowflakes Die CED3020

Creative Expressions Let it snow die CED3004
1 x A4 White card folded OR an A5 white card blank
2 x A4 White card
1 x A4 Pale blue card
1 x A5 sheet acetate
Tim Holtz Distress stickles Clear Rock candy
Embellishment Attic Snow Ice
Sparkly glitter White or Silver
Shaker adhesive tape (3D foam tape)
White cotton thread                                       
Glue gun

 Distress Inks used                             

Stormy Sky
Salty Ocean
Tumbled Glass
Shaded Lilac
Chipped Sapphire

 How to

1. Cut an aperture in your base card and cut a larger mat in white to accommodate the width of the shaker adhesive tape.
2. Take the waste piece of the aperture and randomly emboss using the snowflakes dies. You are not cutting so remember to use a tan mat and the embossing plates recommended with your chosen machine. When finished run through again but without the dies.
3. Randomly distress with your distress inks. (debossed side for shaker card and embossed for complementary card)
4. Cut 4 sets of snowflakes (2 x White card 2 x pale blue card) and one blue and one white “let it snow” sentiment.
5. Glue a piece of acetate to the inside of the aperture on the main card.
6. Place the embossed and distressed piece of card and glue it centrally on the mat. Edge with the 3D foam tape ensuring there are no gaps.
7. Hang the smaller snowflakes from the shaker tape with white cotton thread and tip a small amount of glitter, rock candy and snow ice.
8. Remove the protective covering from the shaker tape position the main card aperture over the mat and press down to seal.
9. Decorate the outside of the card.

 

White on black portrait of Daniel Gillies

I don't know any woman who doesn't like a bit of eye candy and in addition to Johnny Depp and Ian Somerhalder I also lurve to swoon over Daniel Gillies (shame he's married - lucky lady).

Anyway............... I just happen to work with an amazing artist (part-time professional) who does white on black portraits/studies. So inspired have I that I've attempted one myself. With the return of 'The Originals' my first portrait is of Daniel Gillies.

My next one of Ian Somerhalder is now underway but don't hold your breath for an early viewing. It took me a few weeks (on and off) to finish this one.

Yve

Box Card class preview.

Coming up in tomorrow's class we have this very colourful box card. Unfortunately this class is now fully booked, however, Jo our very lovely manager believes there may be enough interest to run the class again in the summer. SO...... if you are interested let Jo know and I will gladly oblige.
Just remember though.........make sure you don't have anything to dash off for, as my classes generally run over because we are having too much fun!

 

Happy crafting everyone.

 

Yve

Colouring inspiration

In February I made a little flip chart of colouring ideas for when we're having one of those crafters blocks. If you've caught my Facebook page you will have already seen these but for those who haven't here they are, with a little more information.

This is a Woodware periwinkles clear stamp. I have coloured it with Promarkers using the style of the Chameleon pens. Instead of using the 'special blending chamber' I've used the Promarker blender pen. Coloured pen with the nib you're using pointing up and the chisel nib on the blender pen pointing down.
REMEMBER : when colouring you must go side to side in straight or slight arc. The technique will not work if you colour in circles.





These two are the same but shown against a white piece of paper and the lower one a window.
They have been coloured using glass paints. Initially I stamped and heated embossed in black onto heat resistant acetate. I then used a cocktail stick to drip into the petal spaces. The raised edge of the embossing prevents the glass paints from running plus it gives the look of a stained glass window.

This one is coloured in Liquid Pearls. Place a generous blob of liquid pearls on a ceramic tile or similar water resistant washable surface and mix with water to make a paint.

 


This is the faux cloisonné effect. Dust some black card liberally with an antistatic bag or talcum powder. Stamp and emboss in gold. Paint the image using Cosmic Shimmer paints/mica powder/or any metallic paint and when it's dry treat it with Crystal lacquer.

These two are done with Spectrum Aqua pens. Both are stamped and
embossed in white onto watercolour card.
Before I start colouring I like to spray the image with water. I rarely take the pen direct to the image. I like to scribble the ink onto a white ceramic tile (I got mine as an individual from B & Q) add varying amounts of water (dependent on how dense I want the colour to be) and then apply it with a paint brush.

The top image is another Woodware stamp and the lower on is theStampendous Daisies.

Here I have used blending chalk with an eyeshadow applicator.








Here I have stamped and heat embossed in gold and used
Distress inks to colour it in. Dab the ink pad onto a ceramic
 tile and then paint as I have done with the Aqua markers.

















    This is stamped and heat embossed in black and painted with Cosmic shimmer paints.

 I hope you have found this useful. Check out my next post which is for the box cards class on 28th March 2015 at Samuel Taylor, Kershaws Garden Centre, Brighouse.

 

Yve

Colouring

OK...this is just a quickie. I have now formed a group on Facebook with the same name (yvejayecrafts) which you can join, ask me or other members questions and show off your own work. All I ask is you don't use it for selling your unwanted items.

If you know this already this post is just a duplicate of my Facebook one so I'll leave it up to you whether you want to read on at this point.

When Anna Griffin was on QVC a couple of weeks ago I bought the collectors set of dies despite having four of the seven dies in the collection. The following day when the programme aired on TV there was a collection with just the three dies that I'd wanted. As the three dies were only £6 cheaper than the set purchased I didn't consider cancelling or sending my original order back. When My order was delivered I immediately listed the 4 duplicate dies on EBay at £1.99 which would have covered the difference of £6 between the two sets. At the end of bidding I had made £43 (not including the EBay fees).
Having wanted a set of Derwent Inktense pencils for a few months I bought a set of 36 with my profits.
This is my first colouring practice with my fab new pencils. Before and after dry and wet.



Bored with ideas for those stamped images? Well next week I will be posting some ideas on different mediums/techniques you could use. It's later now and I'm tired so night night.

Yve

Water colouring

Last week (ish) I was watching the launch of the new Spectrum Noir aqua pens which reminded me why I had bought the Promarker versions a couple of years ago. Having seen a similar demo at the time I had wanted to try it , but as the way it sometimes goes, I'd never actually got round to it.

Anyway this week I decided to put any other projects to one side and finally get round to playing with the pens. I did two versions of this (but sadly dripped paint on one of them) and I was so pleased with one of them that I made it into a piece of wall art.

I hope you like it. I used the new heartfelt creations dies for the flowers and butterflies, Tonic Royal Fern die and a section of a Crafts two ( I think) die.

I'm so impressed and will be using these pens again in my colouring as I absolutely love them. They blend really well and colour mixing is really easy when scribbled on a glass mat.

Gotta go check my jam tarts now so more later.


Yve

Taking a break

For the last couple months I have been taking a break from card making and have returned to Scrapbooking. Although I prefer making cards I have built up a substantial stock of them which will take quite a while to use up.
So, without further ado here are a few pages for you to look at and maybe provide you some inspiration.

 

 

Above is my poochie who was 8 weeks old at the time this photo was taken. Because this is a 6" x 6" scrapbook space is limited therefore I have kept the layouts simple.



 



 

Here she is a little older. In this one I have used the new heartfelt creations dies and flowers which reflect the pattern and colours in the duvet cover she is lying on.

 

Here we have my late puddy cat, Ebony. She was about 6 months old in the windowsill picture and a few years older in the one with my late dog Meg. she is looking sorry for herself because she'd slipped into a bath of scalding hot water and wasn't allowed to lick the cream off her paws. Thankfully the water wasn't too deep.

 

 

In this photo she was she is still very much a kitten. This as taken in my first house whilst I was looking after my dad's dog Suzi. Suzi was in a road accident at some point and had lost her left eye and possibly received some brain damage. She was a natural mum and although I don't recall her ever having pups she used to let Ebony suckle her.

 

OK. Having to keep this short today but will post more when I get the chance.

 

Yve