It's CazzyTime!

Monday, 8 April 2013

Grafitti Max

I have been really lucky with various prize draws lately, one of them was Visible Image's facebook competition in which I won a character stamp, and I chose Max. I think he is pretty cool, and there are some other great characters so it was hard to choose. I used a Sizzix Tim Holtz embossing folder with Whitewash Cordination paper - I need a pad of this colour to make lots of walls! I decided to draw a grafitti sentiment on the wall with a bit more grafitti for effect, and I attached the panel to kraft card with some metal rivet style brads. Max is coloured with Promarkers and Trias. Max is an extremely good quality clear polymer stamp, I have rubber stamps that aren't as thick and deep as this and don't stamp as well, so I will be adding to my collection very soon. I am not happy with Max's hair yet, I need to watch some tutorials. I added some sequin waste (which looks a bit creased, and is the wrong side due to a patch of missing colour on the right side) to the card blank and some ribbon that coordinates with the Cordinations paper.

I have entered Max in the following challenges:

ABC challenge blog - K is for Kraft

Visible Image - Get stamping with your favourite stamps.

Simon Says Stamp challenge blog - birthday card.

Nom nom strawberries!

You have until Saturday midday to enter the latest Quirky Crafts challenge, either following Spyder Lyn's sketch with added items from the bingo grid, or just using the bingo grid. This image is called Strawberry Delight from Robyn's fetish and I coloured it with Promarkers Robyn's Fetish are providing two of the three prizes, the other sponsor is Digital Delights.

I used the sketch and from the grid I used: tearing, die cutting, embossing, and metal (eyelets). I wanted to make it fresh and zingy.

I remembered I was going to add stamped stitching and that it needed something so here is the messy result, should have stamped before assembling!

I have entered the following challenges:

Creative Inspiration Paint - Spring colours (April)

Ponds and small children don't mix well

We were concerned about our pond and the imminent possibility that Kenny will walk! So we researched lots, came up with different solutions including building a fence which looked awful and ROSPA guidelines indicated it wasn't ideal. We looked at metal grids, and different nets as recommended on a forum. We ended up with two samples, one looked pretty standard but stronger than the average pond net to stop herons and cats, though the company said it was bought to stop children falling in there was a disclaimer saying that it might not prevent drowning. So when the sample of this totally different and very strong net turned up from Ropeseller on ebay we were sure it would be the right stuff.

Man at work. Shaun made a new strong frame which is screwed down with and we can unscrew it to take it off if we need to. The net was a weird shape when it arrived, good job Shaun remembered that the corners were marked, so we stretched out the very long thin net using the markers and it did turn into the shape we expected. It was hard to get it right over the frame, we were trying to get the rows straight, and I had to help. Got my finger bashed and a scratch on my arm in the process.

Man proud of handiwork. Me Man and Me built this! I wanted him to fall on the net to test it but he wouldn't! We think the heron may have had a few fish in the transition period when the old nets and frames were propped on top of the new frame but didn't quite cover it. The heron inspected the new net - flying over then landing on the roof and then it flew off in disgust!

All this work is for Little Man - my gorgeous grandson Kenny who is 1 in May and pretty active. Here he is modelling the jacket I crocheted for him, it only just fits! One button undone here but it does curl up a bit.

Friday, 5 April 2013

Colourful day (WOYWT)

Thank you for all the lovely comments I have had recently, it is more than I am used to lately, most comments seem to be from spammers these days!

I have been colouring images most of the day and this is all I have to show for it, it is very time consuming but relaxing, and you don't realise how long it takes until you do a bulk lot of images! If I sat down and coloured all day every day for a month I might get through the sheets of images I have ready for colouring, well one boxful anyway!

Now I have lots of images ready to use, and a lot of them seem to be rabbits. Don't ask when I am colouring Bugaboo Easter images, it is because I like them! They are ready for next year, or maybe I will make them up ready!

Wednesday, 3 April 2013

WOYWW

I am joining inWOYWW at the Stamping Ground.

Doesn't look much different to the last time I showed you! Piles of stamps on one side as I was looking for certain stamps to sell, and some to use and then I think ooo I must use such and such, then they stay until they fall off the table or I can't bear it any longer! Max is in the middle waiting for me to come up with a colour combo I like, and some gorgeous Meljan Lyn images to the side also waiting hopefully to be coloured.

I have my Spellbinders in DVD jewel cases lined with magnetic pvc, but I have run out of those now and due to winning several assorted dies and buying a few small dies which I was worried about losing somewhere I decided to buy an Artbin die storage satchel. This is nice and sturdy but a lot smaller than I thought it would be. You couldn't fit a set of Grand Nestabilities in but it is good for the smaller ones. It has 3 sheets of magnetic pvc, all are full now. It will fit 20 according to the blurb. So I am going to work out if it is cheaper to buy some sheets that I can cut to size or the refills.

The other 3 marker trays arrived so I have sorted all my Promarkers and Trias out now, and there is room for more. I won some too, but there were a couple of duplicates in the set. I have taken out all new duplicates and put them in the packaging, and all the used ones and put them in a Tria tin until I need them. I added Promarker dots to the ends of the pens, these are available from Letraset and are in packs of two sets of ready coloured dots, two sets of uncoloured dots with the pen names on them and a few plain ones. I used the uncoloured ones and coloured them myself, not decided if that is the best option yet.

I find that the trays move out of place a bit too easily for my liking, I wonder if the half size Marker Satchel is more stable? There are different clips for this one and the smaller ones. At least I can put the pens out of the way when not in use and keep them clean and tidy!

Update: Enfys is giving away a set of Flexmarkers on 12th April, I am telling you because you can see I need them so I don't expect you to go win them!

The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge letter R for rediger = to write

The Craft Barn Alpha challenge continues with the letter R.

R for Rediger meaning "to write". I decided to do the history of writing from ancient Eqyptian, with Chinese, handwriting and typewriting.

This didn't go as well as I hoped, some of the Paperartsy stamps are finely detailed and those didn't really work on the gesso. The lady writing is by Inkadinkado, one I will be keeping because I love it. I see she is wearing a hat, and I was sure it was her hair last time - maybe I smudged it! There are lots of different stamps on here, some by Papermania Urban collection, Cherry Pie Art Stamps, Paper Artsy, Elusive Images? and more. It didn't look too bad until I decided to add ink blobs, and straight from the distress ink bottle, those drops were HUGE and I grabbed some kitchen paper towel to try and soak it up or it would have been much worse! (I almost didn't post this at all). On with the next word I think (I have a couple of words in mind, but one of them I thought I had stamps for and I don't so I either have to hand draw or forget it and the page is all prepared)!

Sunday, 31 March 2013

Quirky sketch or not!

My visitors have all gone now and apart from demands to help hold bits of wood as Shaun makes a frame for the extra strong net we are getting to Kenny Proof the pond I was able to get on with these examples for today's Quirky Crafts Challenge.

The challenge is a sketch by Spyder Lyn using as many items from the bingo grid as you can, or just use the bingo grid with no sketch (amended, I got it slightly wrong before).

Belinda Bunny is one of the images kindly provided to the DT by Robyn's Fetish, one of our two sponsors. I coloured her with Promrakers and a Flex marker, cut her out with Nestabilities and used a Hero Arts sentiment. For this card I followed the sketch, used die cutting, baker's twine, real sewing and heat embossing from Lyn's grid.

I have entered this card in the following challenges:
Creative Inspirations Paint - Anything goes.
I love Promarkers - Spring is in the air (Wednesdays)
Passion for Promarkers - Bingo - I used die cut, glitter (on paper and in embossing powder) and "free".
Simon Says challenge blog - Anything goes closes soon.

This image is called Mrs Turner and Hootch, and I didn't follow the sketch. The image is coloured with Promarkers and a Flexmarker (I only have one), then I die cut it, used ribbon, embossed the pink background with an embossing folder, added Hero Arts stamped tickets die cut with a Tim Holtz Sizzlet die and added metal staples with the Fastenator.

Saturday, 30 March 2013

The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge - P for Papillion

I thought I was going to miss the challenge this time, but here I am just in time! The Craft Barn set P as the letter this time, and I picked Papillion meaning Butterflies. I had the perfect set which is unbranded and in a tin, and contains stamps of butterflies like collection specimens. I added in a couple of other stamps too. That brown streak on the butterfly page doesn't look too good now, it is meant to be a dark stain but didn't really work!

Thursday I went to a wedding so spent the whole week panicking about, and sorting out my outfit. Then my son and daughter in law and baby grandson arrived for a couple of days, the day after the wedding of Erika and Hon Tao that we all attended. It was a really lovely wedding, gorgeous venue and food, and the bride was truly stunning in a beautiful dress. Ermm I forgot my camera, the last thing I took was the wedding card below then I forgot to take the camera with me duh! I took a few pics on the phone but they aren't too good.

Anyway we ended up doing a roast lunch today because the visitors won't be here tomorrow, and inviting my parents and mother in law over, so there were nine for lunch, 10 with little Kenny! That was more than at Christmas however the boys did most of the work so it was pretty stress free.

Well I better get on and enter the Alpha challenge before it is too late.

Thursday, 28 March 2013

Double Happiness

Today we went to a wedding, it was a lovely day, the bride was beautiful, the venue was beautiful and the food was amazing. Even the band weren't bad.

I spent the last few days panicking about my outfit as usual, and then taking up hems on some silk trousers that were part of an outfit I already had (after spending an evening trying on clothes in M&S and buying some, I got Shaun to take photos of me in the skirt with different tops then my existing outfit and had to agree the existing one looked the nicest for a wedding, but the trousers were much too long).

Then I remembered the card, I hadn't made one! I was up until 1:30am this morning hemming the trousers and the lining, so I left the card until this morning before I got ready to go! I made a hexagonal shaped card with my Nestabilities dies in gold, added a red plain hexagon, then a teal frame (which looks blue here) and die cut a square then punched it with the Double Happiness punch using gold card. Finally I added two teal butterflies using a La La butterfly corner die that I won - I think it was from Oyster crafts. The glue is still went in the photo, I hope they stayed stuck on the card! I had to change the background in PSE, becuase the card didn't show up with pale gold on a white background!

Wednesday, 27 March 2013

Baby boys

Well here it is, better late than never! This is my other example for the Quirky Crafts All About Boys challenge. I used a cutting file and image files from our sponsor The Cutting Cafe. I cut the pages in blue and red, then the letters in polkadot denim paper, added some shrink plastic images from All About Boys, and the sentiment. I added buttons, ribbon from Crafty Ribbons, and baby white ric rac. Finally I added some dummies from stash.

Inside is decorated too, I can add more to this page, but it cannot be wider than the Baby blocks or it will show though the A.

The Y page has a little more width to decorate, again I can add to this and decorate the A page a tiny bit.

You have until Saturday midday to enter the challenge.

I have entered this in:

the Crafty Ribbons Inspirations Challenge - anything goes with ribbon.

Sunday, 24 March 2013

My brother's birthday card.

Now that he has the card, hand delivered by my parents today, I can show you what I made for my brother. He is a big ornathologist, even guarding some protected birds of prey when he was in the RAF. His present is also bird related, hence the card, I bought a piece of pottery with a bird in a tree to hang on his wall from the Made in Bradford on Avon shop, I wish I had taken a photo before I dashed it over to my parents, but it was all a bit of a rush, when I didn't need to take it for another day really. I hope he likes it better than my father likes his cat activity centres (about which he is still complaining).

The card features die cut shapes using a Sizzix Bigz die, I used the flower as a sun this time, and cut it in corrugated card, the bird is cut from a book page, a very old battered copy of Worzle Gummidge I picked up second hand to save it from the recycling bin. Brother is a Papermania stamp from a family set, and Happy Birthday is from a Hero Arts set. Polka dot ribbon from Fantastic Ribbons, and the spotty card was a piece of A5 I got from Payperbox pick and mix years ago.

I have entered this card in the following challenges:

Coffee, Chocolate and cards - Bring on Spring.

Anyway I will be back later with some more examples for the Quirky Challenge reminder post, I am having a battle with the ecraft which I so want to love, but it doesn't seem to want me to love it! I have had it since they came out and hardly used it becuase it always seems to fight me!

For those of you who follow my blog with Google Reader - this is about to disappear, however there is a replacement called Bloglovin, which seems to be even better. You can import all your blogs you are following from reader (do it before it goes) and it emails a daily activity update which I love because that way I don't miss anything and it is easy to scroll down through.