If I Had't Posted Yesterday ...

... I would have shown you the box lid I made for my Promarkers but I had to schedule it for today instead..

Do you remember me making a box - 9th May I blogged it - from two Felix boxes?  You can see it here.

Well, yesterday I made a lid for it.  Here is is with it's lid on - so now I can store it on its side.

You can just see the "cheat sheet" I typed up with some notes from Vix's class at Vicky Stampers, which I found invaluable, stuck on the front.  After that I wanted to play with my Promarkers, but didn't have much time with the blog hop prep  (click on the link to go directly to the beginning if you haven't already - you have until and including the 23rd to enter by going around all six blogs starting here) but now I am ready to rumble.  Watch out for some "cute" cards!

I didn't show you in any detail the inside of the box so here goes

Pens all out so you can see the dividers and just how simple they are. I varied the widths according to the number of Promarkers I had in each colour family.  Don't envisage me buying a lot more of these as I am now into Pan Pastels (have you seen the great price of them at Oyster Stamps - five, yes, five for £20 and postage only £1)

Pens in

On the other side I have a compartment for "skintones" and one for "hair" so I can easily access them.

The only trouble is, I bought a dozen of those "fine" nibs for them and now they reside in a plastic box at the side - got to get my 'paper engineer hat' on now and think of a way to incorporate a pouch of some kind on the side.  Watch this space!

Hope this inspires you to make one of these yourself - a good morning of crafting and some cat food boxes, paper, sticky tape and you are good to go.  Of course, it would be quicker if you just put some old emulsion paint on, or gesso and then used up those old acrylics. Enjoy!

BINGO

Over on Out of a Hat Creations Florence suggested that they do a BINGO card this week.  I love this idea and so I set to and made this card following one of the recipes - 3rd row reading down

Flower - Cheery Lynn die
Diecut - Spellbinders fancy tag
Bling - centre of flowers
Image (and text in this case) - Chapel Road

Now this looks to be a very grey card when in fact it is green.  I chose these three lovely murky shades of green for this and look how it has turned out on the scan.  No amount of bending and twisting my laptop lid will get it to go green.  At least the orange of the flowers and the butterfly have turned out orange, if a little duller than in real life.

The words on the left hand side seem a bit blurry too but I guess that is because of the depth of the flowers that prevented the scanner lid from closing fully.

Oh blimey, why isn't it a lovely May day outside and then I could have taken a photo out of doors?  Oh for some sunshine!

Oyster Stamps Blog Hop Starts Today

Well, here we are at last, Oyster Stamps is launching its very first Blog Hop, in fact the first time the Design Members (Barbara, Linda, Martine, Pam, Paul and myself, Neet) have got together as a team.  I do hope you join in and visit each one of us as we upload our creations using our Grand Calibur and the Spellbinders Cut, Fold and Tuck Dies starting here today.

It all began with a bit of fun with our ‘boss lady’, Tracey, handing me four sets of Dies at Aintree show.  Four “Cut, Fold and Tuck” dies to do something with.  She then said she was going to challenge the team to come up with something using them.  Barbara and I chipped in and then the words “blog” and ”hop” came out into the conversation and before I knew what was happening it was taking off.

Here’s a short video to show you how these incredible dies work and a little snapshot of what I made with some of the ones I had been given to work with.  (This video went live yesterday to make sure it was working in time for the Blog Hop so it does talk about "tomorrow" which is "today".  Sorry.  Also the sound is fairly low but that is my itty bitty camera.  Please bear with me.)

Now you have marvelled at my finger nails (don’t often get them all to that length – wonder how long they will stay?) here is what I did with my dies.  It’s fun to buy more than one set of these dies as you can mix and match them - I threw mine in the air and let them land on my desk and then proceeded to make a card with a couple of them.  Now to puzzle as to which set they all belong to LOL.

It had to be a large card from me as I am always dem'ing the Grand Dies from Spellbinders so here I have used Grand Labels One and Four, CFT Angle Approach (Lg), Carnival Dream (Md) and Parisian Accents (thanks *Cindy - see link at end) for the corner pieces.

There are so many things you can do with these dies, not just restrict yourself to making cards, what about a candlestick (Spectacular Spin (L) drip tray ?  (NB please do not leave unattended when burning the candle – always take care with a naked flame or better still remove the tray when burning the candle)

A napkin ring (Floral Burst (M) to use on that table setting with the candlestick?  You could even make a placemat and put one in the corner – imagine them all in red, white and blue for a Jubilee celebration!

I used a sheet of A4 card, the Fleur de Lis border and made a place mat for my Party Setting

I even went and made a badge/rosette (Floral Burst (L) for George, one of the twins (sorry Tom, could not find your photo on my computer) which is what you could do for the kids who are having a party.  Either the child’s name or a number showing their age would be good fun and would fit in those party bags just fine.

There were so many things I wanted to make with these versatile dies – I thought a headband with one, two or three of them on the side would be rather cute, two or three brightly coloured ones on sticks to make some fun flowers.  The ideas are endless.  What can you come up with?

Once I see what the others have made I think I will get back to making more things.  Hope you do too – they are on sale here at Oyster Stamps so get them quickly as the orders will be flying off the shelves in no time.  In the meantime though, you need to follow all the wonderful talented Design Team to see what incredible makes they have all done.  Just leave a comment on every blog and at the end, 6pm Friday, 25th May, all the names of those who have commented (on ALL SIX Blogs) will go into a hat and a winner will be chosen who will receive two of the dies we have been using!

Be sure to peek in at the other DT Members  - tomorrow we are with Linda and then going on to

Sunday - Pam

Monday - Paul

Tuesday - Barbara

And ending with Martine on Wednesday.

Have fun!  And please leave us a comment to tell us what you think of our creations and our first ever blog hop!  Remember, there's going to be a lucky winner.

Links as promised:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vSpPO7o61U&feature=channel&list=UL – * Cindy Etchinaw’s You Tube video

http://www.amazingpapergrace.com/warmed-with-joy/ - Becca’s Amazing Paper Grace Blog

WOYWW 154 and Being a Bit Patriotic

Cannot believe I posted quite a bit last week, well three times between WOYWW's - somehow don't think that will happen again this week but you never know.  (Can I just remind you, please put your number - life is so much easier with it.  Last week try as I might I could not post on these blogs - Samantha, Peggy and Glenda - for various reasons, I did try, honestly).

Not much to show all you travellers of Blogland, namely followers of WOYWW, the BIG blog 'hoparound' that takes place each Wednesday, thanks to our leader Julia, and goes on into the weekend and beyond.  The reason is that I am getting ready for a Blog Hop of my own (see our bright pink logo right - thanks Sam).

Oyster Stamps who I demonstrate for have now got a Design Team and Big Mouth here (yeah, that's right - me) suggested a Blog Hop.  So I am co-ordinating it and we are ready to fly this coming Friday.  Probably all of the others are ready to fly now but I still have a bit of co-ordinating to do to make sure it runs properly.  Fingers crossed.

In short my space is cleared for the photo shoot but I did make one thing just ever so quickly last night which I want to show you.

The other week when I was in Manchester I saw a girl walking by with a lovely Union Jack bag slung over her shoulder.  Thought how much we should all be supporting our country whilst there is so much red, white and blue about and found the bag in a Department Store.  Oh dear, Mega Bucks!  A bit too much for me to pay out for a bag with a Union Jack on it as how much I want to be patriotic.

So when I was in my home town the other day I saw this cushion cover in a well known Pound Shop - it is cotton, has a zip across the top and so I just dug two holes in - either side of the zip - and threaded some cord (was this from pyjamas?) through, and voila - a Patriotic Bag!

Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy!  Why don't you make one?

I did try to put big eyelets in but the cord would not go through, you could do it as I did, and/or machine stitch around the holes to make a sewn eyelet (which I am going to do later) or unpick the zip, run a hem on the two top sides and sew tape handles on.

Let's all fly the flag for Britain - Yeah!

What on Earth Am I supposed to Do with These?

Well, yesterday I did a bit more spending before I settled to make some cards.  I went out doing the Food shop with the sole intention of doing that but ended up visiting The Range for a new bird feeder and ... well you know what it is like ... had to visit the Craft centre.  It was then I realised I needed some more little containers for brads, only 99p - well I thought they were but guess what?  They had gone up in price, am sure they were 99p last time.  They didn't have the papers I wanted (do I REALLY NEED more papers?) so I then went to Hobbycraft, on my route home you understand, and they didn't have them either but I got two new stamps to add to my Michael Powell collection from the other week.  Here they are (the house type ones) with the two I bought the other week.  These were at a brilliant price of £2.49 - a whole £2 less than the seaside ones I already had.  And they are rubber and mounted on a sticky backing!  Jemima?  Oh, she's for something for Chloe, well, at £1.99 who could resist?

In my tidying up the other day I came across these pre-cut cards, popped them on one side and decided yesterday to use them to make some birthday cards.  Now am I missing something because I did not know how to use them.  What should I have done?  Can you enlighten me please!

This is the shape, it folds in the centre on the front and has half a Label type shape cut out. There is not an overlay for it so how do I mount something on it?

Well, I wanted to use them so I drew around the shape on a piece of folded paper and then cut out my own overlay.  This is one card I made

Can you see what I mean now?  I used my new Pan Pastels (Turquoise, Magenta and Violet Shade) to create a background for the bird stamp and then I stamped and embossed the bird.  Mounted it on a very narrow mount of black and then coloured the shape I had cut out with the same colours of Pan Pastels but made it look a deeper colour. (I was going to edge it with my Black Dabber but it was dried up beyond recognition.  Now soaking in water in the utility room well out of my way.  Those Dabbers have been a complete waste of money for me.)

I finished it off with a piece of paper from my Old World Stack which I adore.  The recipient does not know how much it cost me to part with that piece of paper, it was a "shall I  shan't I" moment.  But she is worth it.

Here's a close up of the paper - I love it - in fact I love this stack!

The other card I made with the intention of entering it into the Out of a Hat Creations Challenge for this week - Vintage Lace.  As I have no Vintage Lace I used an embossing folder (Textile) and a MS punch to make false lace.  I hope it does not get disqualified as the girls deserve some entries and I just didn't get time last week.

Pity you cannot see the pearls around the edge of the photograph.

I actually made three cards but cannot show you the other one as it used the die I need for the Blog Hop with Oyster Stamps.  Roll on Friday when it begins - see you then!

Spending Again

Oh dear me, I have not left the house but I have been spending.

Over £40 on this little lot which has just arrived:

and nowhere near enough colours of Pan Pastels to do anything with - just going to have to get the card out and spend a bit more so that I can do something with a bit more colour in.  Had a chat with "mi' mate Sam" (she uses them really really well) and decided to get Violet (had to get "shade" as they were out of the Violet), Turquoise and Magenta as it seemed a nice colour mix to work with and I am a bit addicted to Turquoise at the moment.  Thought I needed a strong blue so went for Phthalo Blue, a yellow (Ochre) and a green (Chrom. Oxide Green) and on Sam's recommendation got a white to tone down colours making them into "Tints" (*see below for a quick colour lesson).

Then there was a little spend at Oyster Stamps on the new Distress Inks - I was not going to get into the frenzy of buying these limited colours (my Distress Inks, which you all know I adore, are stored in boxes and honestly there is not room for any more) but I could not resist these colours.  The Spring set drew me more than the other two had done - bet I end up with the Summer ones too.

Oops, forgot the reinkers!

This was after a spend on Fine adapters for my Promarkers as my good friend Lorraine had given me one and I found it to be most useful.  As these were being purchased from Joanna Sheen I decided to top up on my favourite EZ Mount at the same time so a substantial spend was made there.

Ah well, I am not going to Port Sunny today so this is instead of.  On that note I think I might just go back and order some more Pan Pastels.  Everyone is buying them like crazy so I had better hurry before more colours are out of stock.

See you later - oops!  Forgot I have to pay for my new cupboard and then I am having another built - ooer - oh blow it - Pan Pastel order here I come!

* Most of us know that Red, Blue and Yellow are the three Primary colours and when we mix two of them together we get Purple (red and blue), Green (blue and yellow) and Orange (yellow and red) but did you also know that every colour on the wheel can be altered in three ways by Tinting, Shading or Toning (and I am not talking about mixing two colours together here so think of all the possibilities you have).  Did you know that even Black has a primary Colour as its root?
Hues are the purest and brightest colours that form the full spectrum of colours which progress around the Primary Colour Wheel in gradual increments.  A Tint, on the other hand, is simply any colour with white added.  We often think of these as pastel colours. Shades are any colours with Black added - these are the dark colours.  Finally we have Tones which have both White and Black added - are often referred to as being "greyed down".

Hope this proves helpful to you with your colouring.  An excellent site to learn all about colour is here.

Really is Toodle Pip now for today as I must get on ordering and then making (some birthday cards quick).

BIRDS - of the Feathered Variety of Course

Well, here we are again with yet another Challenge from Artful Times.  It only seems like a week ago that I was posting the last one.  Thanks to all you lovely folks out there who joined in with our challenge - we do appreciate each and every one of our followers and we love to visit your blogs to look at your entries from your thumbnails.

Just a reminder that you need to check our Guidelines to make sure you are eligible for the next time we give a prize out.

This month it was Von who chose the theme for our Challenge and as you can see from the heading, from Von's and Sam's postings and from the Challenge site it is "Birds".

I have some quite nice "inchie" stamps of birds so I decided to use them as I do enjoy making inchies but rarely get asked to do them in a swap of any kind.  When I am making mine I always use mountboard as I think it is much more substantial than ordinary cardstock for such a picture.  Here are my Bird inchies - on a tag for this week's Challenge:

You will never guess what I used for the background on the actual inchies - DI's - yes, my usual Distress Inks - I must start to use something else.  I am getting boring!  The images were stamped with Archival Black Ink and the tag was sprayed with Crafty Notions Turquoise and then oversprayed with Champagne.  I really do like these sprays as they seem to work better than any others on the market.  Such a shame that you cannot see the glimmer from the photograph.

As well as doing these inchies I did some, identical, but in Polymer Clay.  Yes, if you use a light colour (I used white) you can colour in just as on cardstock with your Distress Inks and then stamp your image with the Archival Ink - bake them in the oven and they come out just fine.  I'm not showing them to you as I haven't done anything with them yet, I need to do some more and then I will decorate a photo frame with them like I did before here.  (Although the inchies were a lot more complicated that I used previously as they were a collection from my Polymer Friends)

Right, as usual I have chatted far too long, hope you enjoy all the 'birdie' things the Artful Times team have done and we all look forward to seeing what you make for us to look at and comment on.  Remember, we like comments too.