When I get old......

I got this image from Sweet Pea Stamps as part of the Facebook progressive challenge that ends today. As soon as I saw her I thought of the poem about wearing purple and a red hat, and behaving disgracefully when you get old! The poem is by Jenny Joseph, and I left out two verses.
This sort of evolved, I was thinking mixed media and remembered the wooden triptych (well more than one) I had and thought perfect! I had a lot of trouble with the background, it was painted in Fresco Mud Brown, that was fine - then I decided to stencil cogs using Dylusions sprays in white and then coffee colour. Well it looked good when I removed the stencil for about 10 seconds - then the ink just bled and merged and lost definition. I tried again with paint dabbers, first Adirondiac then Distress Paint, but the same thing happened each time, so I gave up on that.
I coloured the image with Promarkers, and added some Cosmic Shimmer clear glue to her monocle (don't even ask about the problems I had doing that!). I added detail to the background with Dreamweaver embossing paste, the problem here is that they are very old. I have had them at least 10 years probably more and whereas the gold used to add numbers to the bottom of the right hand panel was unopened and still fine, the red I used for the hats was not, it was rubbery and stringy and didn't give me a smooth result. There was more of the gold above the image but I managed to squash some of it!
The image is partly framed with a die cut cog, cut with a Spellbinders die. I printed the poem on parchment and tore it out, inking the edges before adhering. A piece of lace seemed appropriate, maybe I should have found some purple - I didn't think of it until afterwards and don't know if I have any! The flowers and leaf were die cut with Spellbinders bitty blossom set, I picked the flower that looked most like a cog, cut it in silver holographic card and inked it to age it. The Tim Holtz life key is hiding a black fingerprint!
Finally I painted the whole thing over with sparkly Mod Podge, and the rubbed Treasure Gold round the edges.

This project has been entered into the following challenges:
TTCRD - anything goes 26th to 1st June
Artful Times - closing down party (June 3rd)
Digi Chooseday - pretty in purple (Tues)
I love Promarkers - anything but square (Wed)
Cute Card Thursday - cute
That's Crafty - The Numbers Up (8th June)
Left of Centre - upcycle/recycle (Fri)
Love to create (Pan Pastels) - mixed media #11
Inkspirational - purple (5th June?)
Anything but a card - high 5 (Sat)_

Merry Christmas everyone! WOYWW #238

I hope you are having a great Christmas! All I want for Christmas is - painkillers!

A couple of last minute cards, which I had made last year apart from a greeting on this one...

and baubles, ribbon and a fairy on this one!

I then resorted to making up a Forever Friends kit I got with a magazine!

Anyway Yesterday I just didn't stop all day, shopping in the morning for last minute gifts and food, working with my son and his girlfriend to prep as much as possible for today's dinner, ironing, tidying, wrapping presents and making those final cards - my back (which you might already know is in a bad way, have been offered surgery as an option), was so sore!

This morning when I woke up I could hardly move, my knees are also full of osteoarthritis and getting down stairs was painful, and yet I had to clean the kitchen and bathrooms so just got on with it. Then I was cleaning the windows where Shaun missed them and fell over and into the pile of presents and had to shout for ages for Shaun (who was outside) to come and help me up. Some of the presents might now be a little squashed, and my back is even worse than before - hence wanting painkillers! I rang my dad to ask him to bring his drugs when he comes over, he didn't need to take them after his surgery last week!

I have joined in WOYWW at the Stamping Ground, missed it last week as I was just too busy.

Sweet sweet music

In honour of the Bradford on Avon Music Festival this weekend at the Wiltshire School of Music I have been making musical cards. I only just saw these stamps by Crafty Individuals at the beginning of the week and had to have them, and they came really quickly with some freebies, thanks Crafty Individuals! 

I stamped the music stamp onto some marled card, and cut a frame using a Spellbinders die, which I cut the centre out of to make a frame. The reason you are seeing three photos of this card is because I tried 3 different dies in the centre to get different effects. I embossed the frame then used the die as a stencil to shade it with plum Memento ink, and then cut the music sheet to fit behind. I stamped the piano and instruments and cut them out to add, oh and I should have said the first thing I did was stamp and heat emboss the sentiment using stamps from a Hero Arts clear set.

Do you like this frame the best? I just used a square Nestie in the middle here.

Or this one? I used the next size down of the main die this time.

They are all easel cards, inside I added a panel of the green card, some ribbon with musical notes, some Prima blooms and a gem, and a French horn, or is that a tuba?

Slightly different inside, I used Tim Holtz Ideology tape on this one.

I had high hopes of making more cards using this wonderful Dreamweavers stencil, and I tried it embossing it by passing it through the eBosser ( I had several attempts before getting anything like what I wanted, the one with two pieces of card to shim it worked best but then the machine reversed it and wouldn't accept that a second time, after which all attemps were not so good), then I tried the Big Shot, the Big Shot gave me a better definition, and I tried the embossing paste. I had a few problems with the ebosser and didn't end up with the result I had hoped for. I got in a mess with the paste trying to do the black piano keys only despite have the little brass masking tool, well I just got in a mess! So this one ended up with the dry embossed image cut from the keys, and I used black Promarker pen to mark the embossed notes, words and the black keys. I also used Cordinations Black Magic embossed with a music note folder and sanded, then die cut with Grand Nestabilities die. I mounted them on gold and added Happy Birthday cut out of some printed card I bought ages ago at a show, and I used Sizzix ;Lollipop dies for that.

I am entering the ABC challenge E for embossing, take your pick the cards above all have embossing!

These little characters are stamps which I think I bought from Smiling Summer Girl on ebay many years ago, I think they are mythical folk art figures maybe Mexican and beginning with X but I could be wrong! It is really bugging me that I can't remember what they are called. The set includes the figures in different sizes, so the block comes smaller, and the small individuals come in a bigger size. The sentiment might be from her too. If anyone knows please tell me. Anyway this is a CAS or clean and simple card, I used Kaleidoscope ink and stamped directly onto the card.

When the new stamps arrived I tried to use every bit of the one EZ mount sheet I had left, and some scraps! So the Crafty Individuals had to be mounted so I could use them and as many Krafting Kimmies as I could fit!

Ermmm, I think I need to order some more EZ mount!

Shaun and Richard outside in the cold and very wet laying a new base for the new greenhouse to come, with toughened glass so that Kenny doesn't have any accidents. The old greenhouse is being used as shelter here, and will be going to a new home next week!

New stuff photos

I Promised you stamps, and here are some of my new stamps and stuff. I still have to take photos of my goodies for the cards in Beautiful Cards magazine which weren't the cards I imagined they would be - as I couldn't remember what I sent in! There are more stamps and goodies since these photos!