Retirement Card & Maze Book

This is the card & maze book I made for my bosses retirement.
The full maze book is in a slide show over in my gallery.
http://pixiegallery.blogspot.com/

Space is limited on here these days since they invented upload limits!!!
Then when you reach the limit you are expected to pay! Hmm, we'll see about that.

The card isn't very well photographed, I had a few problems getting one & time was short.
But you get a general idea of it. I used greens & yellow Alcohol inks to make the backdrop behind the vellum & printed the image in greyscale. Stamped a swirl & heat embossed it for some effect & the greeting was placed behind the vellum. I chose the same image for the inlays. 18 people had to sign this card so i provided plenty of space!!!

DCM Bead"y" dare.

Yesterday was an emotional rollercoaster.
Many happy, funny memories all tinged with sadness.
They both loved their gifts & the buffet that we laid on for them. Two of the long term staff organised for old clients to come in & say their farewells. Some of us finally left the office at 9pm last night & went on to the pub & then for some chinese food! I hadn't a penny in my purse, but they insisted on taking me, I do work with some lovely people.
I will show pics of the card I made for all us staff to sign & the maze book I gave to Jayne.
Meanwhile I have to sober up & get to the hairdresser. Craig is going to make me blonde again today seeing as though the rain won't let the sun do its job!!!
Hee is my card for the dare. A very quickly made one when I came home briefly to change yesterday. I love this stamp from the See D's collection & the beads are in the flower centres. I've actually made 3 similar & sold them all!
I based it on an Art Journal card I made to give someone else as part of the prompt some weeks back.
Now for some more tea & toast!!!!!

More Rain!

After a whole day with nothing more than a dark sky & some spots, the heavens have again opened & it is pouring down. It is so dark, I am having to put a light on to type!
I have no energy when the weather is like this. I end up in bed early, sleeping the "summer" away as if it were winter.
Today is quite sad as my employers of 14 years, retire. They sold the business last year, but worked on as Consultants. It is early retirement & they have fabulous things planned. There will be some tears before this evening, rather fitting for the weather!!
Here is a card I made at the weekend while playing with my Alcohol inks.
The stamped design is done using the brushless watercolour technique.
I was making something else & had this piece of AI foil left over.
What I love about these inks is the fact you can use the same colours 4 or 5 times & never get the same effect. Each piece is truly unique.
I'm also pleased that I have completed a challenge EARLY!! Sadly too dark for a picture, heres' hoping for tonight as the deadline is Monday! Two more to do before 6th & 8th, so lets hope I continue in this vein.

Nigel's Birthday & a DCM card

Today would have been my BIL, Nigel's birthday. My sister has her birthday next week & they would always try to be in the Lake District or Masham, Yorkshire in between.
He was only truly at home when walking around the countryside or drinking Coniston Bluebird in The Queen's Head (the hotel on my art journal card in the post below)
Wish he was here to celebrate with us.

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The DCM mid week challenge was Gimme some lovin' & I have to confess to absolutely hating making wedding, engagement cards. I just can't make them very well. This isn't crash hot, I wriggle out of them at all times!!!!

Art Journal Week 25!!

Nearly half way!! The prompt was given to us by Tara, a friend of Emily's. As Emily is moving home & about to have a baby & trying to settle in. The prompt is A photo that means something to you.

This picture was taken by me in August 2000. It is very poor as I only had an instant 110 camera. But, the tag behind the pic tells my emotions when I look at this & how the memories of the weekend stay with me. The pic is of my sister & BIL at Queen's Head Hotel, Troutbeck, Ambleside, Cumbria. It was one of the best weekends' of my life. Now he has passed away & the picture is very precious to me. Each time I see it I am reminded of what a fun loving person he was & how much we enjoyed the time there.

This is a picture of the first twenty five cards on my big book ring!

Inspiration Alley- Be Happy Challenge

This challenge was close to my heart as my word for 2007 is Happy! Go to the site to see the full challenge's for yourself. I used a portion of the poem to add to my project, which is a 99p zip up CD case. It has a metal lid so I got out my alcohol inks for a decorative background before adding transparencies & tags. Music makes me happy! Inspiration Alley (pop along here.)

On a Card Sketch Catch-Up!!

Below is Di Hickman's 13/June sketch & the Caardvark circles challenge. Both of these are suitable for the circles challenge & I had great fun making them using freebies from magazines & a few bits given by good friends!!

Below are sketchthis cards weeks 14 & 15, I really didn't thing I was that far behind, but I have two more to make!!!

Wk14, is the birthday party & 15 is the flowers.

Now for a quick break before I crack on with a couple more!!

DCM Double Dare - Tag/Male

This dare fitted me perfectly this weekend. Apart from a couple of bits I need to finish off I had been asked for a selection of male cards. My friend Louise has her dad's birthday next week & the male cards I had were a bit too old for him! So this is the first & I hope to get a few more done once the retirement cards are out of the way.

The background is acetate & I have used alcohol inks & a fiskars corner punch, which i picked up for 99p today!! Yes, Im still in shock too!.

The inks are Adirondacks, Farmer's Market; Lettuce, Eggplant & Cranberry. I also stamped a steam train in the bottom corner & it s a light relief. My only permanent ink at the moment is timber brown stazon & black is really best!! The tag with the silver design is from a t-shirt a work colleague bought. They bring me ribbon, buttons & all sorts, I have them exceedingly well trained...lol.

Bless them , I am known to them as the office magpie. I stamped Happy Birthday onto it & then using some matching brown card, another office thrown away, I stamped the vintage car. The corners punched off are on the inside, which I had no time to photograph. The acetate is held on with two tiny black brads in opposite corners.

The weather is so bad I can't stay on line for long!!!

One Little Word My / Scraplift

Here is my attempt at the One Little Word challenge. I thought i had missed the deadline, but got time to complete this today. Papers are MM Olivia. Clock is printed onto inkjet transparency. Ribbon & Ric Rak papermania. Words made from alphabets, poundshop. MY narratives antique collection rub ons. Red heart is a ghost heart with alcohol inks. Im very pleased with this. I can't remember who we are scraplifting so this post will be edited when I get in touch with my team mates. We share our layouts tomorrow. I hope this got done in time!

Time Flys!

This week really has flown. I have had a lot to do but am managing to keep up!
I have made a few things I can't share right now & have a few things more to do that can't be shared either.
This card was made about 4 months ago & never seen the light of day. I entered it into a card competiton but didn't win. Papers are DCWV Far East & the blooms are orchids from Dunhelm.
Weather is awful. Roasting one moment ,torrential rain the next.
The weekend is very close & I plan to play with my craft toys as much as possible.

Fabulous.... the mid week extra at DCM

Yes, Fabulous was the single word given as a challenge on the DCM blog.
I decided that it has been a while since I've made anything fun & so I opened my new set of See D's Accesories stamps & stamped & coloured these hat, gloves & shoes.
I covered them with vellum to soften the colours & attached pink flower eyelets. I stamped in silver the words groovy girl & the stars for effect. The word fabulous is spelt out using an alphabet I picked up a while ago in a cheapy kit from £1 shop.
The background paper is papermania.

This was fun!! Thanks Ladies.

Art Journal Week 24 & a Digi Card!

This weeks' prompt was Remember When. I clearly remember our family holidays when I was around 10/11 years old. We had our caravan. We would go every single weekend to North Summercoates, to stay in it. I have such strong memories of walking around the lake for hours watching the pond skaters & dragonflies. I would lie on the grass, which was quite sandy & write poetry about the vivid blues of them. I would look up into the endless bright blue sky & dream.

The nights seemed to be light for so long. I loved our caravan. First stop was the local store for a paperback book about puppies or ponies. Something to fire my imagination even more!!

This was done for the launch of my friend, Vee's joint venture, a new challenge blog. It is called Inspiration Alley. You really should pop over & take a look. I think it is cool & hope to dip in & out of the projects as & when. Several of the ladies have got together to create something which I consider is totally unique. As you can see digi is definately not my thing. They promise altered projects & so far all the projects that are already on the site have full step by step talk throughs. Definately worth a look.

Happy Father's Day.. and my blooper!!

Whoops!! Indeed a blooper! I thought Father's Day was another weekend away, so on Wednesday evening I had a mad panic & had to come up with a card for my dad!

Well I got one made & out first class the next morning, but I forgot to take a picture of it!!

It was hard to know what to do this year as he has no new Housemartin pictures' isn't going to Australia & nothing new on the computer front.

So Happy Father's Day, Dad anyway!! You got the card, I know.

Well here instead is another card I made yesterday using Adirondack Alcohol Inks.

I stamped the daisy design 3 times onto a luggage tag. Coloured the centres & attached it to my card front. Then using inks; Lettuce & Meadow I inked a slidemount. Once they covered well, I inked over them in Mushroom to give an earthy appearance. Then, using StazOn archival ink in Timber Brown, I stamped small fern motifs & the words flower power onto the dried inks.

Tied a piece of ribbon from someone at works' clothing (don't worry they give it to me, I don't sneak up behind with scissors!!) I wrapped it around the slide & tied on a MM trowel charm.

The greeting is stamped from a See D's set.

Thanks for the lovely comments on my ink storage tins. I need another one soon as I treated myself to another pack of colours. Today I'm playing with the brushless watercolour stamping technique, as well as my alcohol inks. I've decided my ink stamps don't bleed as lovely as some I've seen used for this & feel a tad disappointed. I have the Pretty Colour pads from Lakeland Ltd.

DCM Dare, Embossing

Well the weather here was awful yesterday & I just didn't dare to be on the internet as we had violent electric storms! Last year someone I work with had their whole computer system blown when lightening struck the telephone wire. It completely fried the insides of the hard drives & they lost everything!!! So I sat & played with my new products & had fun, well once I'd finished work!

Here is my card for this weeks' Friday dare. Use embossing.

The papers were given me by a friend, Cat. So I have no idea who made them, all I know is they are gorgeous. I dry embossed the green background piece with flowers & butterflies using my rather "dusty" from little use, light box! I then cut circles from the same green paper & heat embossed two small flowers, stamped from the See D's tropical collection of stamps using a yellow Pretty Colour pigment ink pad, Lakeland Ltd & Heat it up Silver Pearl powder (my favourite)
The centre circle is a sunflower paper, again from Cat & all I did was use my clear embossing pen & draw roughly around the edges & centre & heat emboss using gold powder. The 3 circles were mounted first onto an offcut piece of acetate that had been alcohol inked for another project using inks, Wild Plum & Meadow. I let a bit of the embossing powder melt onto it beside the circles for a soft look.

I shall carry on playing with my inks for the rest of today as I have no Lewis to sing to me this week! I have rediscovered stamping as I never did very well before. Now the advent of clear blocks & sticky backed stamps has given my interest a new lease of life. I bought some rather expensive clock stamps today for stamping onto vellum & other beautiful things!!

Altered Art - Empty food cans

Rachel over on the Bumbleberry Cafe set this fun challenge of altering a pen pot. Well I don't have a pen pot, I have a fab silver bucket with big sun face on it. However, I do have a collection of delicious Tim Holtz alcohol inks & applicator/felt pads in need of pretty homes for my desk top.

The large can was orignially a very large pineapple chunks tin!! It has been inked with Wild Plum & Stream inks. Two strips of ribbon top & bottom & then a big lilac & purple bloom (papermania) stuck on the front. The small can was spagetti hoops!! All i did with this one was to wrap a piece of my fav CherryArte classic Coffee paper around it & glue another papermania blossom on the front with a pearl button from the new red mini button packs.

Had great fun making these & if felt good to take part in something before I get too tired & fall asleep.

Card Sketch from Di Hickman

I am a bit behind with sketches! This is last Wednesday's sketch from Di Hickman. I'm not keen on it now its done. Was late & I wanted it finished. Love the stamped edge but something doesn't look quite right. Oh well, chalk it up to experience & move on!!
I'm quite tired. Having to get caught up at work as my manager is off on holiday next week & I have several of her duties to do every day before I can begin my own work.

Something Old, Something New...

Something Borrowed & Something Blue...this is the recipe for the mid week DCM dare.
I didn't find out until lunchtime what the dare was & I couldn't get home fast enough to create this card. I planned it in my head while printing out the jetski documents, must have been the water theme that made me pick this!!

Something Old, is the tiny ribbon slide buckle. I've hoarded the buckle for two years! (not very clear but I needed this card sideways so you could get a look at the sheen & the fact that the front has been cut off 1 inch in from the edge to show the patterned background)The edge is my hand held Carl Cutter using deckel blade.

Something New, lots of things on this card are new, from the alcohol inks on the background to the stamps & the pens I used to to colour them.

Something Borrowed, actually it is kitchen foil from my kitchen cupboard. I have used it wrapped around a piece of cereal box then I applied two colours of Adirondack Alcohol Inks by Tim Holtz, stream & slate. They give such a gorgeous rich colour together & in the two packs I have stream is my only blue.

Something Blue, well apart fro the alcohol ink the ribbon is blue. It is from a papermania pack.
The stamped design is from the See D's floral pack. I used a vase & then over stamped a rose at the foot of it. To colour them I lightly brushed my brushmarkers onto acetate & aded a tiny bit of water to give a very translucent, watercolour effect. The greeting is stamped using words from the See D's Accessories set.

Art Journal Wk23 & Alcohol Inks.

I have wanted alcohol inks for an age & seeing Keryn's card (DCM) really set off the longing again. I was so good & bypassed the shelf on Saturday morning, but after the huge disappoint of Lewis being knocked out of Joseph, a girl needed something new to play with to help cheer her up. I headed straight to the art dept of our garden centre first thing Sunday!! Trust me, I really did, cried like a baby, probably as many tears as him, bless. Well they did cheer me up as I got playing. The bottom card is the first one i did & it was simply inking ghost hearts. then using my new stamps & permanent brush markers to colour them in.

The AJ card didn't go as well. I discovered that the glossy card I covered my playing card with wsn't the right type so although it is a beautiful background effect, it doesn't have that shine.

The little book is made to mirror a maze book I am working on & just lists right now I am tired, sad, worried & creative. The tulip design is from one of my new sets of See D's stamps & is stamped in StazOn ink & coloured with the markers for a subtle watercolour effect.

DCM - Celestial

Well it is Friday night again, boy these come around quick. Not that I'm complaining like!! Oh no, I'm always ready for a weekend of "do as I please". This weeks dare was loosely named Celestial. I decided on a boy theme as I really don't make nearly enough male cards & after I made the layout recently about Malachi, (pronounced Mal- a- Kiy, to rhyme with tie, for those who don't know this Irish name.) which I totally love, I borrowed a design idea from the page.
Paper is DCWV Olde Worlde. Papermania metal tags. Queen & Co sticky ribbon. Rub ons were free from SI. Small padded silver star from Fenwicks. Word star in frame written in silver gel pen.

Work In Progress

I forgot all about posting on my blog today. I was so busy sorting photos for the slideshows over on my other blog it slipped my mind. I do have things to share but it will be DCM card dare day tomorrow so I may as well share this photo instead. It uplifts me, makes me HAPPY. I just aren't sure quite why but I feel the corners of my mouth curl when I look at it & in my book that' s happiness & I love it!
I'm hoping to get some scrapping done this weekend, the last week has been a bit of a damp squid. I can't get the pencil lines sketch to talk to me but I really want to do it.
I am poorly & I get so tired & need to sleep a lot. Very frustrating but not to worry. I need to crack on with a maze book & might just begin tonight if I can decided what flippin' colour Im going to use!!!

DCM Mid week Dare - No Glues allowed

Yes this dare disallows any glue, tape, glaze anything that sticks!!

Well I first tried sewing but something went "clunk" & my sewing machine is a bit poorly now. Must be going out in sympathy for its owner!

So not feeling in the mood now I ruined one card, I dug out all my beautiful brads, as I do have rather a LARGE collection! Set to work fixing these bits & pieces together. I already used staples on my office card & no patience to sit & thread ribbon or fibre through eyelets tonight.

So hee we have it, my specimen is made using Amethyst papers Dovecraft & papermania brads. Label from stationery shop, stamps See D's morsels tropical collection on tag & the wording is see D's, Garden of Friendship.

A New Blog

I have begun setting up a new blog. It is called Pixie's Gallery.
The link is in my sidebar.
I wanted to get all my minibooks & layouts on display as the photos are gathering dust here on my computer. It is time consuming to get them uploaded so give it a week before most of the work is on.
I have also included Youtube & will change the music selection frequently. You get to decide if you want a listen or not. Strange though that it only opens at the top of the screen!

Some of you may have noticed the music has been removed from this, my main blog & the reason for this is simply, it is causing problems. I think they are writing too many tracking cookies into the code & it is causing havoc, not to mention the adverts & pop ups!!
Im sad, its like the end of an era. I love music so much.
Anyway, I should be back again tonight with my DCM mid week dare entry!

Art Journal Week 22, I Want To Learn

What a fantastic prompt, I would never think of some of these. I am quite excited as I have a stack of these altered playing cards growing & think the time has come to make the holes & thread them onto the waiting 3inch book ring. They will look amazing all 52 together. I think we have all done so well & I use this challenge as my weekly "ME TREAT". Time out to make a little piece of art just for me!

Well I really want to learn to play guitar. It has been a dream of mine since I was 3 or 4 years old & my parents bought me a fake electric guitar. I pretended to be Chuck Berry, playing "My Ding-a-Ling" to everyone & anyone who cared to listen! Or didn't as the case may be! (I always had a passion for sunglasses & pretended to be Ronnie Corbett, I was a very odd child!)
Anyhow, getting back to the point, I have had various lessons from various people & I just CAN'T learn!!
I am left handed brought up in a right handed family & neither way feels comfortable to hold the instrument. So I just daydream about being able to play. Rather like the daydream of being paid a better wage! Pipe Dreams they call them, we all should have them.
My excuse is I am a Piscean & we are dreamy, floaty people!

edit to this post as several people have asked about the background. It is paper. I purchased it from Lakeland Limited in a card making kit two years ago.

UKS challenge -May Week 5

Thank you Eleni. You set me the challenge, you threw down that gauntlet & I just had to prove to myself I could do it! So, here is my attempt at the weekly challenge. first Ive done in months & in 12x12 format. (But only because I desperately wanted to use this paper & it wouldn't cut down to 8.5x11)

A Voyage or Travel 10pts- paper & photo. Gillian will recognise this fantastic ship as it is not very far from where she lives.Paper is K&Co Life's journey travel log.

Use red 5pts- papermania reds cardstock collection.

Use a book title 10pts - Gulliver's Travels printed onto inkjet transparency using computer font Calligrapher. Attached with two black mini papermania brads.

Clock face/hands/numbers 5pts- The stamp on my photo & the paper also has a fob watch.
Other materials used, phototurn, clear stamps words.
Handwritten journalling done on the page of the travel log. SLO 10pts total 40pts.

I enjoyed doing this page. But I yearn to go back to my 8.5x11!

Pencil Lines #34 -Max

Edit to this post. I viewed my blog from someone elses PC & some of my text was missing on the paragraph at the bottom re: Lewis. Naughty Mr blogger. It has been re inserted now. Thankfully he won't see this as it appeared as thought I'd written him off!!!!! Sorry Lew!

This page was made using papermania cardstock from the earth pack. Orange patterned paper was free from Scrapbook Inspirations as was the arrow I placed my journalling in. The rub on flower was also an SI free gift. Fish button from a pack of cat buttons purchased from Papermaze. The paw prints were stamped in plae orange & they were a set of cat stamps I bought from Ebay.
Max is now quite grown up, but I adore the pictures of him as a kitten. He owns my sister, Tracy.

* * * * * * *

Congratulations, Lewis on making it to the final. Both performances were fantastic but I think the public have already made their decisions & it will be between the other two. I sincerely hope I am wrong!! We want talent! As I have said all along, Lewis is a shining star & he will have an amazing career ahead of him, on the stage. Then, he can become a popstar as JB said he would only ever be & make millions.
Go for it Lewis, chase your dreams & NEVER give up on them.
They WILL come true. Happy 18th Birthday for next week.

One Little Word - STOP!

Here is another fabulous challenge from those people over on the One Little Word blog.

I feel there is just a little something missing from this layout but none of my embellishments suited it. Some took over the page & others just didn't go with the colours. My teamies suggested ric rak,but I had none & now the glue has dried. So I have decided to go with it... as the layout suggests! The page is based on Sketchthis week 16, thanks ladies :)

Papers are BG Scarlet's letter, Letters to the world (main background piece), Walks in beauty, & the strip is Desire. Titls is the BG stickers that came with the paper collection. I drew the arrow onto black textured card. Text is typed in Broadway font.
Again, I have had problems getting a decent photograph of this page due to rubbish light & no amount of tweaking in my editing program has improved the quality much. I can't believe it really being June & all!!!

I have remembered the book page below is also broadway...knew it would come to me.
Thank You for the lovely comments about my "pants" attempt at the DCM challenge. I think I can be too critical of myself.