Merry & Bright

Good morning... How are you?

I hope all my friends across the pond enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving - I know The weather in some states was problematic and hopefully you are all safe.

For the first time in a long time we have a bright day... Frosty and cold, but bright!

It's been another week of ups and downs in the Crawford household but first I have 2 more AI cards to share with you

Here's where I lifted the ink for the previous cards

I haven't done any crafting at all this week... There's been other things to attend to

So it's a good thing that these cards make up quickly 

I love that mix of blue there and it seems lots of you still use Stickles and here was me thinking that all the new type drops on the market had outdated them.

So, you may remember that we took a trip to Cornwall earlier this year to visit our 3 cousins, one of which had been very ill with a rare form of cancer.  I'm very happy to say that having found an incredible surgeon who was prepared to take a chance and operate, Andy is now doing well and looking forward to a future. However, cousin Joy who I call my Cornish sister, has had devastating news, her husband has just been diagnosed with cancer and is not expected to survive the next few weeks.

 This year has been one heck of a roller coaster ride, probably more downs than ups if I'm being honest and I can but hope that next year will be a little kinder.

I'm wishing you all a wonderful day and many blessings

~ Ros ~

 

Alcohol Ink & Lifting

Hello!

It's another dull and dreary day here, but as promised I have some cards to share.

 

I covered one piece of 5x7 Yupo with alcohol inks (which made 7 cards) and  used a holly stamp to apply the lift which I then stamped onto white card. Today's cards are the ones I did with off cuts and the lifted ink

Card 1

 

 

I added a die cut sentiment and some stickles... Yep, I still have some of those and they still work!

 

Card 2

Card 3 used a scrap of AI from a previous card hence the different colour

You can tell I love using the AI's and nothing is wasted...  You will probably get sick of seeing them on my blog Lol! The thing is when it comes to Christmas cards I want something that makes up quite quickly and something I really enjoy doing. Sometimes the lift doesn't always transfer too well and those little scraps of yupo or a die cut sentiment cover any missing parts. 

I'll share the others next time

 Have a lovely day

~ Ros ~

Watercolour Christmas Cards

Hello there...

 The will to make cards has been sorely lacking lately and I really need to add to my meagre Christmas card collection...sigh

A while back I got 3 new stamps by Studio Light, I just liked the look of them but when it came to using them I drew a blank. So I stamped and white embossed 4 cards and then using only one shade of blue paint I ended up with these artsy cards

I added some embellishments and a bit of sparkle that were all left over from last year

 

The little hearts you can see on the card above are the pieces that came out of the SS snowflake

As always I use ordinary card to paint on... I prefer it to watercolour card simply because it's brighter. 

Some of you have asked which cardstock I use - I always buy it from the same place at Ebay UK. It's a lovely card weight (300gsm) so it allows me to watercolour quite well. I get the smooth white A4 and at £8.99 for 100 sheets it's good value. It's always perfectly packaged and arrives the next day. If you are interested here's a Link.

Making these did help get my mojo back and I made 9 non watercolour cards yesterday which I'll share in the coming week - Till then have a beautiful weekend

~ Ros ~

Another Birthday

Hello there... I hope you are well.

It's very chilly here and the leaves are falling like snow. My Ginger cat with all his blubber and a lush coat doesn't stay out for more than a few minutes and Missy hasn't ventured out in days. My neighbours are away on a short break so I'm caring for their kitty too -  Normally a wanderer, even he hasn't venture outside. But thankfully we have not had any severe floods or snow in my part of the UK so I'm grateful for that.

I have a little card to share that I made for my husband's DIL who has a birthday in a few days. It's an AI background, splattered with gold paint and stamped embossed images by Lavinia Stamps

 

It's hard to photograph the gold flecks, well, it's hard to photograph anything really as it's so dull here, but it does look kind of magical...Admittedly I could have used that stamp a few ways but I wanted something quick...

And inspiration isn't on my side right now. 

On another note,  I just wanted to say a big thank you to all of you who have sent me gorgeous handmade cards and caring thoughts following the loss of my bestie... It means a lot and I'm so appreciative of your friendships and your kindness

I'm wishing you a wonderful day

~ Ros ~

 

CAS Mix Up Challenge Reminder

Hello there...

We are halfway through the November challenge at CAS Mix Up

Have you checked out the gallery? My, you clever people are rocking this challenge!

 I'm sharing my second card featuring this technique

This time I went a completely different route from my first card and discovered another way to achieve this technique...I used glossy photo paper!  The glossy paper took the re-inkers really well...

...So I then added different coloured metallic Embossing powders before I heated the whole thing.

I got a really random oxidized look with a lovely sheen and even a little cracking here and there

To finish I added a die cut flower stem and an embossed sentiment.

Once again the rest of the team are sharing their amazing creations to inspire you up on the blog. We'd love you to join us for the last challenge of the year.

Thanks so much for your visit and for the lovely comments you leave... I really appreciate it.

Enjoy your day

~ Ros ~

Winter Anniversary

Hello... 

I finally got around to making a card, well, I had to, one of my brothers is celebrating his wedding anniversary and I didn't have anything suitable

I opted to do some ink blending splattered with white acrylic paint then stamped and embossed part of a tree and used a white gel pen on the branches

The little hedgehogs are by Lavinia Stamps and I 'hung' a wooden heart that was painted and then covered in a sparkly gloss.

The sentiment was computer generated and I dry embossed the frame.

We still have hedgehogs visiting at night and I am going through cat biscuits like crazy.. They love them. Given how cold it is I'm thinking that soon they should be hibernating... I reckon I could do that, just fall asleep and wake to Springtime Lol!

I hope all is well with you... Thanks so much for stopping by

~ Ros ~

Christmas Deer

Hi there... How are you?

I haven't made a single card in weeks now, even my last posting was scheduled.

It's rained non stop for days (and it's cold!) which should give me an excuse to stay in and create but DH and I have just been taking time out and watching the French series of Spiral. Funny thing is we don't normally watch TV during the day but sometimes you just have to step back.

I do however have a couple more Christmas cards to share that I made awhile ago - This one uses the last piece of the AI I did for the previous Christmas cards and I cut the deer out from the die I used Here

The sentiment stamp is an old one from Wplus9

The next card uses the same deer and a blended BG plus a frame die from Aliexpress that I also used in this post 

You can see I did some stamping and embossing on the BG as well as a little gold paint 

 

I've a few new stamps just waiting to be used... Hopefully I can get motivated soon.

Have yourselves a wonderful weekend

~ Ros ~

CAS Mix Up Challenge

Hello there... Welcome to November!

It's the start of a new challenge at CAS Mix Up  and this month the challenge is hosted for us by Susan.

This is the last challenge of year so we are hoping that you will be inspired to join in.

To be honest when I first saw this, I watched the videos done with SU foil products which I don't have and wondered what else I could use to get that metallic look - I do have mirri card, silver card and silver paper and hoped that maybe I could get similar results using one of these... You know I love a challenge. 
Well I wasn't very successful at first.. The re-inker just ran off my card/paper before I could even add the clear embossing powder. Determined not to give up, I eventually got a result

 I added the re-inkers with water bit by bit, drying in between and a closer look will tell you that I still didn't get full coverage of the silver paper but enough to clear emboss and die cut the leaf stems. 

They looks so delicate and shiny that it was worth it in the end and all I added was 2 die cut triangles and a stamped sentiment.

Of course there are other ways to achieve the oxidized metal technique using cardstock ... Check out the videos on the blog and the lovely examples by the rest of the team.

I can't wait to see what you come up with.

Have a beautiful day

~ Ros ~