Got asked to make two "Sorry you are leaving" cards and I do struggle with "commissions" as I never quite know what the person asking has in mind and have to tone-down my love of grunge to produce something more widely accepted.  My friend has yet to see these so still the dreaded hand over moment but I have done lots of stuff for her in the past so hope she will like these too.

 I might see if I can remove the flower and cut a new one but this time stick the papers to cardstock first as this flower just looks too flimsy to me ... just don't want to wreck the whole thing by trying to get it off! Or another thought is I might stick two patterned papers back to back ... mmmm, will ponder!

I managed to get a little toned-down grunge on here with the background of the larger tag - felt any more grunge than that would send my friend running to the hills!

I got to play with my new Tim Holtz dies with the next card and I am currently loving the mirror effect of the little tiles - it really is clear, shiny and reflective!

 The card I embossed with the clocks was a different white to the base card I used which gave me an "oh piffle" moment but I ended up pleased it was different as it meant I got a tiny, little bit of grunge onto this card too by mucky'ing it up with Black Soot Distress Ink - sorted!

(goodness knows why the bottom photo' has appeared here upside down ... I didn't take it standing on my head - honest!)

Then I made two "new home" cards ... repeat of a design I've done before so they didn't take too long.  Hardest part is remembering not to lean on your glossy accents whilst it is drying!

 The word HOME is glossy accented ... so it is very raised and, er, glossy!

The flourises around the edge have Perfect Pearls brushed over them so they have that lovely subtle sheen ... looks much more effective In Real Life than on here.

And finally daddy's Father's Day card all ready for Sunday!.

xXx

We shall have a fishy ...

But on a card and not a little dishy!

Two cards needed for two of the nephews and as both have aquariums I remembered I got these little cardboard fishes AGES ago!  Really wanted to stick to my much preferred "tag" style of card but wasn't at all sure if grunge + fishes would work ... still not sure but I gave it a go.

Did the splodging of Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads on the craft mat and squirting with water thing and then swooshed around the tags ... just one of my favourite techniques and I love the moment when you turn the card over and see the result of all that swooshing for the first time.

I uummmmed and aahhhhhed for ages trying to decide whether to crackle glaze the tags or not ... eventually just decided to go for it and applied a coating of Rock Candy and then played Angry Birds until they dried.

I tried to transform the little cardboard fishes using my meltpot but had to admit defeat and ended up just using the UTEE and my heat gun ... managed to blow most of the coloured UTEE all over the place but think just enough colour is left to give the fishes a bit of ooomph.

One of my other favourite techniques is to emboss acetate so I put just a little on the tags and I stamped some little silvery dotty things around the edges of the tags.

I didn't want pretty, colourful, typically tropical fish so the nephews will maybe think "oh auntie" when they see their grunged-up, dark and gloomy specimens but, hey, who wants to be conventional?

Coloured and scrunched up some of Mr. Holtz's crinkle ribbon and managed not to set fire to it this time whilst encouraging it to dry with my heat gun ... gently does it!

The swirly bit on the right hand side isn't quite what I wanted but decided to leave it as it was rather than start again ... all about adjusting and adapting and tweaking as you go along, I guess, and nobody will ever know it didn't go to plan so ... ssshhhh, our secret ok!

It's back! It's back!

Oh thank goodness for that!  It's back!!!  My crafting mojo is back!!!!!

About bloomin' time I have to say and just in the nick of time to get some stuff underway and having no idea what to actually do I just got out some items from my craft cupboard (still too cold to work out in The Hut) and started to play and once I got going there was no stopping me and it was very late to bed last night.

First of all I was asked to make a "gift voucher" by my niece-in-law whom is a very talented photographer ... someone is giving her wedding photography as a present and needed a voucher to actually hand over.  

This spurred me onto doing any sort of crafting at all in quite a while and this is what I came up with.  Thank goodness for instant messaging on Facebook so I could keep sending her photo's of what I was doing and tweaking it as we went along! 

Decided it needed presenting in a box so made one too.

Next I decided to resort to my much favoured and preferred grunge style (Tim Holtz has a lot to answer for) and do what I love and enjoy doing the most.

Just sneaky peeks for now as they are maybe heading to a certain crop that is happening towards the end of the month!

Once these are finished I need to turn my attention to making my first EVER ATC's for Julia's anniversary over at The Stamping Ground.  Stress levels are high as I've never even given ATC's much of a thought before ... have bowed down in admiration of all those I have seen on-line and in blogs and so on but they are new to me otherwise.  So, no actual idea yet on what I will make but with my newly returned mojo I am sure something will come to me!

Now, where was I?  Oh yes, back to getting wonderfully inky fingers. 

Sending thanks

Now I know she has received it I can share this tag I made for Maggie C ... without her I would not have my little blog and am finally, slowly, kinda getting to grips with my Wishblade (which is now a Sillhouette due to some unloading/downloading/offloading/uploading or whatever it is!).
Unfortunately I made this BEFORE finding out Maggie is not a fan of the Tim Holtz grungy style but I put so much work into it I decided to send it anyway (with an apology) rather than make something more to her taste.

If you look closely you can see my brads-bashed-with-the-meat-hammer ... was pleased how they turned out and it was very theraputic!
Well, won't be able to blog for a while as we are just popping off in the caravan for a little break and won't have any mains power.
No crafting for a week ... got withdrawal symptoms already!

Pixie's Snippets

Ok ... here goes!  Have been persuaded into the playground that is Pixie's Snippets and what a jolly nice place it seems to be.  I have been taken firmly by the hand and encouraged to join in the fun so here are my first two snippets EVER!!!!!


They all follow the "tag" style I prefer rather than being "proper" cards so I do hope that is ok?!?!?!?


The first one uses a snippet of painted, embossed acetate ... a tiny piece I had left over and below that is a really teeny-tiny snippet of a piece of card that I used when my hubby's brother and his wife came round for a curry and she made the mistake of asking a question about crafting.  To cut a long story short out came various crafting bits'n'bobs and I ended up demonstrating my Vagabond ... that little embossed and die-cut snippet had been put into the recycling but whilst tossing and turning trying to persuade myself to enter Pixie's Playground it occurred to me that it too was a snippet!


The butterflies are cut from snippets of card left over from birthday cards I have been making for this year and which otherwise would have gone into the biscuit tin of offcuts that I give to my friend for the kids at the school where she works to use for "sticking".  The string was also a bit I had lurking in my box ... must have been cut from the reel at some point and not used.

The next offering is almost a total snippet as I had thrown out the base tag which already had on the label with the wording "The Journey Awakens the Soul" stamped on it and the bird which I had glossy-accented.  I had no intention of ever using it and was only keeping it to remind myself what not to do next time.  It was more a reject than a snippet!
Whilst thinking about Pixie's challenge I realised the message on the card was representative of my little journey into the playground and I thought I'd see if I could tweak the tag back into life.  I have had a little battered pocket dictionary for years and years ... it was originally my sister's when she was at school ... it has sat on my shelf for 30 years or so but only this week I threw it in my "Tim" box.  So the tattered flowers are grungepaper onto which I have stuck pages from that dictionary ... hope they are classed as snippets!  The ribbon at the top was dyed with distress ink to match the tag and I added a little round disc that says "wander" as I thought this also described what I was doing by wandering into the playground.

SO here I am ... whizzing around on the roundabout and putting the straws into the little bottles of milk (someone promised I could be Milk Monitor as it was my first time!!!) and getting ready to sit in the naughty corner with a Dunce's cap firmly on my head as I find out I have totally lost the plot and missed the point completely when it comes to snippets.
I promise to try harder next time!

Visiting fellow bloggers

Thanks to hubby being at a committee meeting last night I managed to get around quite a few fellow WOYWW'ers last night.
I find it fascinating seeing how we all work with pretty much the same products but in such very different environments and locations and all produce such different work.
I always search your workdesks for anything Tim Holtzy and LoVe seeing the results from using his stuff and the words "distress inks" and "grunge" seem to leap from the page to me.
I enjoy seeing work that is not to my style or taste but which can trigger an idea and get the creative juices flowing - especially during times of Artistic Block or lack of mojo!
Probably no time to craft today - really annoying as I have lots and lots I want to be doing - but need to get ready for our little trip away!

WOYWW 139

Although not entirely as I pictured them in my head I got the anniversary cards for this year finished ... 18 all the same so was able to get a little production line going and they didn't take too long at all.  
The longest time was spent "experimenting" to get the look I wanted and after playing around with distress inks trying to get the grungy look I love I decided to go for the crisp & clean look instead.  
I also decided against a red mat for any of the layers as I wanted the full impact of the red heart and glossy-accents has really made that heart stand out!  Was going to mount them onto a white opening card but I am favouring "post-card" style cards this year so what you see is what you get ... you just turn it over for the greeting.
Not sure what, if anything, I will be working on today yet ... once I figure it out you will be the first to know!!!!!  Happy WOYWW'ing everyone!