Lovely as a tree

The challenge on this week's Tuesday Taggers is to take our inspiration from a poem. Given that I love trees, I couldn't fail to be inspired by a poem about that very subject - "Trees" by Alfred Joyce Kilmer, an American journalist, lecturer and poet. "Trees" is probably his most well known poem.

I printed the poem on to a shaped cutout from the Artylicious Essence of Nature CD rom and composed my card around it. The base of the card is covered with matching paper from the CD. I stamped an Elusive Images tree on the top part and mounted the poem along with two tree images from the Crafty Individuals Miniatures book Nature's Beauty.

For the stopper, I cut a branch and leaves from Grungeboard and coloured them with Promarkers.

Here's the finished card. I really enjoyed making this one!

Out of my comfort zone

This week, the  fabulous Allsorts Challenge Blog is one year old! So their challenge for the week, is, naturally, birthdays. Here's my entry.

It's quite different from my usual style. Generally speaking, I don't do cute, and I don't do fruit! Nor do I do hot colours. I much prefer cool or muted tones - blues, purples, greens, and my work tends to be nature, arty or vintage inspired. However, I thought that for such a celebration something a bit more lively was called for!

The background paper (which includes the flourish & the trims at the bottom) was a freebie from Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine a while ago. The cake and sentiment stamps are from a set by Impression Obsession. It took me about 10 minutes to make, which again is unusual for me! Normally I like to take my time, and often get part way through a card, leave it & come back to it later, to see whether I'm still happy with the direction it's taking, or whether I've changed my mind, before I finish it off. That's because I hardly ever have a plan in mind before I start! I just collect a few things together and see where they lead me.

Anyway, you'll gather that this card was some way outside my comfort zone, and that being the case, I'm also entering it for this week's Tuesday Taggers, whose theme happens to be "Step out of your comfort zone"! Funnily enough, now I've done it, I actually quite like it! And I managed to use up a bit of old stash too!

Swirls and curls, and the case for digital stamping

My big reorganisation is still ongoing, but I managed to clear enough space on my desk to make a card for this week's Tuesday Taggers, the theme being Swirls and Curls. For the first time ever, I've used a digital stamp, the Hero Arts butterfly.

I'd previously bought a few digistamps from other companies because a) I thought I ought to try them and b) I liked the pictures. However, subconsciously I think I was reluctant to use them because they were not "real" stamps. I have thought about it for quite a while now, and come to the conclusion that there are parallels here with digital photography. Many people said originally that digital photography was not real photography. Now, especially with the advent of digital SLRs, even some of the diehard darkroom aficionados have embraced it. Photography has been a great interest of mine for many years but I never had the opportunity to have my own darkroom, so I joined the digital revolution with enthusiasm. I decided that whichever way the image was captured, the end result is what counts.

I think that this argument may also be used with stamping. Whether made with ink and rubber, or ink and printer, the image which appears on the paper is to all intents and purposes the same. It's what you then do with it that matters. This is illustrated very well by Jennifer McGuire in her video on the Hero Arts blog. I watched the video, checked out the Hero Arts digistamps, and that clinched it for me. Apart from being very good value for money (because each digistamp set comes with lots of extras) many of the HA digistamps have rubber equivalents (some of which I already have!), giving lots of scope for combining the two. Also, the digistamps can be resized, so there are endless possibilities.

Inspired by Jennifer's butterfly demo, I coloured mine with Distress inks and then overstamped it (real stamp!) with the HA flourish. To fit the swirls and curls theme, I stamped all over the base card with the flourish from Crafty Individuals (who are sponsoring this week's TT with a great prize!) and then added some swirly background papers from the gorgeous new Papermania Capsule Collection. A Martha Stewart punched border and a few Prima flowers completed the design.

I should add (in fact I'm doing just that!) that "real stamping" will always be my preference, and it's not often that I make anything without some stamping on it. However, digital certainly has its place too; it's just a different way of arriving at the end result, and I think we are very lucky to have so many and varied artforms available to us to create with.

I would be very interested to hear any other views for or against digital stamping!

A Bear

The theme for this week's Tuesday Taggers is Teddy Bears, with a lovely prize on offer sponsored by The Craft Barn. Now, of course I don't do cute, but this week I just had to rise to the challenge. I want to introduce you to my bear. He was given to me when I was born, and has been with me ever since (a long time!).

Here's a picture of him (and me) in his youth. [I've just noticed that the lace on the edge of the gown I'm wearing in the photo is remarkably similar to a Martha Stewart Zig Zag edge punch design!] My bear was very smart then, with a beautiful golden coloured coat and soft brown paws, and inside him he had a musical box which played the tune of "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf"! That long ago ceased to function, unfortunately, and nowadays he's looking a bit worse for wear.

I can't remember what I used to call him when I was little, if indeed I ever gave him any other name than teddy. But now, he's very definitely Fred Bear!

Anyway, here's the card I have made in his honour. I only have a few bear stamps, but this one seemed very fitting as not only is it a very traditional style of bear, by PSX, but it's also one of my oldest stamps. To show him off I coloured him with Promarkers and set him in a Nestabilities frame against some My Mind's Eye paper, embellished with a Martha Stewart punch, a few Prima flowers and some ribbon. The sentiment is by Rubber Stamp Tapestry.

My old bear's glory might be somewhat faded now, but I'd swear he's still got a twinkle in his eye!

A bit different, and blog candy!

Just managing to scrape in again for this week's Tuesday Taggers, where the challenge is to use a jigsaw piece in your artwork. I puzzled over it for some time, and then decided for a change to make some earrings. Long time ago, before I started cardmaking (ie. about 20 years ago!!), I was into jewellery making, but haven't done any for ages, so this project has definitely used old stash! The two pieces I used to make the earrings are from a real old jigsaw which was destined never to be made up again as it had many pieces missing. I've no idea what the picture was, as the remaining pieces were given to me in a plastic bag, but I'd guess it was an old countryside scene. The colours were quite dark, so first of all I painted them with a white Ranger Acrylic Dabber. Next I coloured them with Brilliance inks and overstamped with my current favourite Hero Arts flourish stamp. The backs and edges were covered with a black Promarker. I gave them a top coat of clear embossing to protect them before making them up into earrings.

They are displayed on an ATC stamped with the same Hero Arts flourish. The words are by Inkadinkado and Papermania, and the tiny butterfly is also by Inkadinkado. The butterfly jigsaw piece was made with a clear peel-off sticker over an image from the latest Crafty Individuals Miniatures book: "Nature's Beauty".

I didn't have a recipient in mind when I made them, so I have decided to give them away as Blog Candy. (I hardly ever wear earrings!) If you'd like to win them, please leave me a comment, (or even better, become a follower if you are not already, though that is optional!) before next Monday, Feb 8th. Mr. Random.org will choose the winner. Please note, if the winner does not have pierced ears, I can change the fittings to suit.

Now I'm off on Brenda's blog hop (see my previous post for details).

Tuesday Taggers 19 01 10

The theme for this week's Tuesday Taggers is "Leftovers". I've only just started doing their challenges, and didn't know about saving things from Christmas for this week's, so I hope this will count.

I've made a card for my younger grandson for his first birthday next Thursday, and apart from the lettering, it's made entirely from the packaging from a set of children's reward stickers. Very plain and simple, but the bright colours will appeal, and he loves animals, so I think he'll like it.

Here's the original packaging:

And here's the card:

I think I'm safe posting it now - I don't think he'll be reading my blog before next Thursday! (Although [proud grandma alert!] he has been walking since he was 10 and a half months old, can say quite a few words and does great impressions of sheep and lions!)

PS. Is anyone else unable to see their followers at the moment? Since yesterday Blogger Dashboard tells me I have 39, but on my blog there's just a blank space where they should be. And I can't see anyone else's. I've had a couple of new ones today - thank you and welcome to my blog, but I can't see who you are! Please leave me a comment and say hello, so I can come and visit you!

PPS. When adding my entry to Tuesday Taggers I inadvertently put the wrong link in Mr Linky, & had to post another saying ignore the previous one. Hands up all those who looked at it anyway!

Tuesday Taggers

Here's my entry for this week's Tuesday Taggers. It's 10 minutes to the deadline, so details to follow!!

..........

Well, I think (I hope!) I made it in time! The theme for this week was "Tag it with birds".  I'm pleased to say that all the materials on this tag are from my bit box! The background's done with alcohol inks, all stamps are by Crafty Individuals.

New challenges!

Another of my crafting aims for the new year is to start entering some challenges. I didn't really have the time to do so last year, but I'm making a start here with a card for Tuesday Taggers. The theme for this week is "Classic Black and White".

The flourish stamp is by Hero Arts, and the butterfly and sentiment are Elusive Images from Graphicus. I used two Martha Stewart punches, the Simple Scallop, and the gorgeous new Pop Up Butterflies. The bonus with the latter is that you get lots of little punched-out butterflies left over, so I stuck a few amongst the swirls, having coloured them black with a Promarker. The sentiment was cut out with a Nestabilities frame.

Working to a brief like this is a bit outside my comfort zone, but it will do me good! I did enjoy the challenge.