My first LOC Demo....! Ch 23 - 'Scary Stories'

Today is my first time on the 'Left of Centre' DT and the theme is 'Scary Stories'.

I've chosen 'The Raven' by Edgar Allen Poe and have used paper from 'Ikes' Art' with that title.

Materials:-

 8" x 8" base cardstock - black 
 8" x 8" Magenta Mirri card cut from an A4
 Ike's Art 'The Raven' paper printed off on 200gsm card in negative and colourized magenta
Select one of the Ravens from the paper, blow up in size, print in grey on white card approx 5" x 4".
Stickles to suit
Length of magenta satin ribbon
Three distressed lilac roses and three rose leaves.
Pearl-headed pin.

Method:-
Prepare black base-card (I used two A4's and adhered them with wide DS tape)
Trim 8" x 8" Magenta mirri by 1 cm to make a mat.
Trim 'The Raven' cardstock to just smaller than the magenta mirri.

With the leftovers of the Mirri, use a punch (mine is a Martha Stewart heart border punch) to make a frame for the Raven print.

Colour the Raven print with your choice of medium/colour.  I used two shades of stickles to portray the blue-ish cast from a Raven's plumage.

Slightly distress the background of the Raven print to make it less 'stark'.
I used TH Distress inkpads in Crushed Olive and Peeled Paint.

I adhered the magenta Raven print card onto the magenta mirri with my ATG tape gun then mounted this via foam squares onto the base-card.

Next, I adhered, with my ATG, the Raven print onto the magenta mirri punched border and then mounted the whole via foam squares onto the magenta Raven print card.

Finish off with the distressed roses.

If you only have ordinary ones you can distress them either with inkpads or, like me, singe them with a lighter! Take care with this last - there can be fumes!
I use Pinflair gel glue to adhere these and the bow of ribbon.
Last of all, when the bow is in place, if liked, use the pin through the knot.

Do pop over to the blog and see what the rest of the team have dreamed up and why not have a go yourself..?  

We have a blogaversary coming up soon too so keep an eye out for the celebrations!

Hugs Ei x

Clean and Simple

I love to go back over styles I haven't used for a while - and my natural style is usually anything but CAS!

So, I was spurred into action by my old teamies at Tip Top Tuesday with their demos for a CAS project and came up with this.

I've used the template for the bow kindly provided by their designer and think it looks fab!

I love the subtle calm look of these lovely vintage papers too but had a job refraining from using a die or two....! LOL!

Clean and Simple is what the theme is and Clean and Simple is what it is!

Hugs
Ei x 

Challenge 01/14 Have you Got.....? Crafty - White on White

One of my favourite themes is white on white. It always looks classy and lends itself to a shabby chic feel so I've chosen it for our first theme of 2014.

'Have You Got...? Crafty' is my crafty group on Facebook. It's not a selling group but one where you can request or ask for an item or source stash and one of the things asked for in 2013 was 'MOJO!'  So, the best thing for mojo, as we all know, is a challenge.

Here's my demo card for it.

I've used this style many times in the past but I think I've been heavily influenced by a very talented card maker by the name of Inger for this one!  I can no longer find her blog (it was bookmarked in my pc that blew up!) because I can't remember her surname but I remember her style as being very beautiful, feminine and chic.   If I manage to find her again I'll link her up.

There is a small prize for the winner of my little challenge and if anyone would like to join in on here - please feel free!

Hugs
Ei x

LOC Challenge 22 - New Beginnings

Today is the new Challenge on my new DT over at 'Left Of Centre'.  I'm not in this one but I thought I'd still let you know about it so you can pop over, have a little shufti and, perhaps, enter a project.

The theme, appropriately, is 'New Beginnings' and if you check out the blog, you will see all the beautiful cards made by my new teamies!

I'll be in the next one - already made my demo card - and it's a super change for me so I hope you will all pop over and cheer us on!


I've also had a little time over the holiday to do a bit of sketching and played with my pastels and chalks on New Year's Eve whilst sitting with the OH in the living-room.

This is my pup Lola having a snooze on the couch. She's lying on half-a dozen cushions which she painstakingly re-arranged to her own comfort before snuggling down for a good sleep!  Normally, I'd have a photo to show you to compare but because she was soooo sleepy and still for so long, I managed to do this one as a life (...or should that be STILL life...!) study.  

She'd been on a long walk up Moel Famau with my husband, son and my son's Labrador and they were ALL exhausted and slept like logs afterwards.

I did a couple of other pastel sketches too and was pleasantly surprised by the outcomes as I've never really used pastels before. They were particularly good for Lola as you can actually draw in white - all white or all black dogs are a nightmare to draw!

Off to make some more.... well, not sure yet, but SOMETHING! lol!  Bound to be messy whatever it is!
Hugs
Ei x

New DT

Just a quickie to let you all know I got into the Left Of Centre Design Team! :D

Rather pleased with myself - and looking forward to some regular crafting which, hopefully, will stretch what's left of my creativity!

The button on my sidebar, takes you to the blog as will any reference to LOC that is highlit.

You will, however, have to put up with me 'mispelling' 'center' as 'centre'.
I'm English. That's all! LOL!

Hugs
Ei x

'Left of Centre' DT Call

The superb 'Left of Center' team are looking for new DT members.

As you all know, I've been poorly for the last couple of years and last year my crafting and blogging both suffered as a result.  I did join one DT which actually didn't take off  which was disappointing as I would love to do more quirky stuff - you know I'm not over keen on 'cutesy' but still did it for previous DT's as I like to challenge myself but LOC is a lovely challenge blog with a good variety of styles and teamies with different talents.

So, I've made an early New Year's Resolution to not only ramp up my crafting but to get back into a quality DT again, and so in this post I'm going to showcase three of my favourite creations, as per instructions.

Boy! That's going to be hard...!  There are so many and I'm a Libran!

Anyway - to start with, here's one I created with one of 'Simply B's' Steampunk images. I love this range of stamps and am determined to use them more often than I have - it's a shame they have not had more of an airing recently.

As always, I coloured the image with my Copics, deliberately keeping to a subtle range of shades with the exception of the bird, which I wanted to contrast and tie into the fabulous Graphic 45 papers.

For my next piece, I'm using a non-card project. It's a clock I 'punked' for my son to suit his 'demi-steampunk-esque' flat.

This was, formerly, a plain rectangular black clock with no legs or embellishments.

For my third project, I guess a 'normal' cutesy project needs to be shown, so here we go!

This is a Christmas pop-up card I made for my Tilda-mad friend Di last year. She swears it will come out every year until it's no longer presentable! LOL!

It's 12 x 12" and has four or five 'steps' with seven Tilda characters in  a snowy scene.

There are many others I could have chosen - most of them are on this blog somewhere - but in the end it's a matter of individual taste.

I enjoy making things period! I don't have 'favourite' techniques or genres as such - but I do like quirky above cute and I love to use stamps - real or digi.

My Copics are my favourite colouring method, although I'm beating off the urge to buy Pan Pastels at the minute - I can't afford another obsession! LOL!

Now for the scary part! LOL! LOC have asked for a picture of me......! O:  

I don't, as you all know, do photos.......  but I guess needs must! :D

...see? Scary indeed! This was in the hospital on the day of our third grandchild Elvie's birth on 1st August. Told you I don't 'do' photos! LOL!  I guess there may be some on Boxing day but we'll see if they're fit to publish! At least I may have some slap on in that one! This baldy look doesn't suit me - that's for sure! Hehehe.....!

I really enjoyed my stints on the DT's I was on - C.R.A.F.T was my first one - they were very brave - I didn't even have a blog then! I had to get blog-literate very quickly!  Wonderful bunch of ladies and, latterly, man our Kevin McCrafty!

Then, I was asked to join CraftyCardmakers - they were a lovely bunch of ladies and very talented too - got on famously with them all.

Top Tip Tuesday was next - that was SUCH an interesting challenge blog as we took turns setting the technique and producing a tutorial for that technique! Really challenging, stretching and fun!

I was also on a couple of guest DT's  - Copics Colour Challenge, Allsorts, 
Saturday Sketch and Penny Black and Colour Create are the ones I remember.

I enjoyed it all immensely but when my illnesses and full-time care of my grandchildren combined to be too much, something had to give and it was my blog and the challenge DT's.

Happily, due to hard-work, good luck and a major operation last February, I'm a new woman and ready to take on the world again!

Whatever happens, I'll be posting on here a lot more this coming year, I hope.

Well, 2013 has been a blast for me - Merry Christmas to everybody and a very Happy 2014!
Hugs
Ei x

My latest card...

...using one of my own images.

I really like this one!
Hugs
Ei x