Retro Sketch - with a magazine freebie retro stamp

I saw this fab sketch challenge over at Retro Sketches and was inspired to create this using some freebie dies I got from Creative Stamping Magazine.  I love the retro look to them and they stamp really really well, I was skeptical before I tried them lol

I created the background with bubble wrap,distress inks and shimmery water.

In the picture above I hope you can see the shimmer from, the perfect pearls that I added to the water I used with the distress inks, top tip I picked up from Jennifer McGuire, It is subtle.... until the light catches it!!

Now I was over visiting Darnell,the inventor of NBUS, don't know what im talking about?  lucky you you have a lovely discovery ahead of you, get over there... Now!!  Anyhoo, I love popping over to Darnell's not just because her craft is awesome but because she introduces and shares lots of other crafty bloggers work.  I saw a link to Pixie' Crafty Workshop and an intriguing challenge called pixies snippets,  I love the idea and was inspired to add some "snippets" of bakers twine and also punched some hearts out of the card I had left over from the background i made.

The stamps give really good impressions, I used versafine in black.

Thanks to their inspiration I'm sharing this with Retro Sketches challenge, thanks for the cool sketch you guys

Pixies Snippets, I will so be visiting Pixies place again.

And finally with Creative Stamping magazine thanks to their freebie stamps

Take Care

Tracey

congratulations Becca you Crafty Gal

I made this card to share with those crafty gals and to say congratulations to my pink teamie Becca Cruger for a well deserved appointment on the crafty gals design team.

I couldn't make a card for Becca, the Damsel of Distress Cards without using distress inks so I got some bubble wrap inks and water and had great fun making these backgrounds

I chose the bottom right one, the clear line was a happy accident but when I saw it I thought great place for a sentiment, now if only I could work out how to do it again ;).

I cut a circle from the background, paper pieced some ballons... just for a change;) and gold embossed a sentiment and added the strings with a glue pen.

I'm disappointed with how the colouring of the balloons turned out, I used metallic pro markers, New lesson learned, colour before sticking and then you can change out if unhappy.

Anyhoo big congrats Becca well deserved x There is a fab blog hop going on over at the Crafty Girls Corner sites, get your tush over there as they have some great individual candy giveaways as well as the challenge.

Thanks for looking

Tracey

paper piecing entry for My Favourite Things Sketch Challenge

I would like to share this card with My Favourite Things Sketch Challenge

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I am still addicted to paper piecing at the moment and after all the little note cards I made to practice with, see my post "Once you pop you can't stop" for those little cuties, I wanted to challenge myself a little more.

This is a single layer card, other than the sentiment which I placed using foam tape to add some height,

I love these dies and stamps by My Favourite Things and as they are currently my favourite things to play with I am sharing this over at Tuesday Taggers where their current challenge is... My Favourite Things!!!

Thanks For Looking

Tracey

Paper Piecing, Once you Pop You Cant Stop.

I tried my first paper piecing card for my new niece Baby Lucy.

I realised I had made a few mistakes and wanted to practice as I love the look of this type of card and have always loved jigsaw puzzles.  There is just something I find so relaxing and satisfying about popping those bits out of the dies and then assembling them in different colour combinations.  Add that to the lovely dies I used from Paper Smooches, Lawn Fawn and of course My Favourite Things and I have been in a paper piecing paradise.  The only real shame is how tricky it can be to get stamps and dies from these companies in the UK at a reasonable price :(  if you guys have found a good supplier please let me know

As I was practicing I found some brightly coloured card blanks I have had kicking around for a while, I cut them down and then started cutting some of my favourite shapes out of them.  I then wanted some cool patterned paper to piece into the shapes.

 I used distress inks and water with a little perfect pearls in it and was really chuffed with how they turned out.

The great thing about this type of paper piecing is that you just never run out of cute little bits waiting to find homes in new cards.  I have a little..ish box full of little bits and bobs just calling my name and a whole lot of note cards :)  I am on the look out for some new wordy dies as I think these look great in the form.

Thanks for looking and if you haven't had a go at paper piecing I urge you to try it

Tracey

Welcome baby Lucy

My brother and his wife got a very very special present over the holiday season, a gorgeous baby girl! Their son is going to be an awesome big brother

This was my first attempt at die cutting paper piecing and tho I am happy...ish with the finished card I have some "I meant to do that so I could learn" moments!
I'd like to share in the hopes of getting better through trying but also hoping you crafty gals will share your tips with me by pointing in the direction of cards/projects you have made using this type of technique.

Firstly a big one is use card/ paper of the same thickness, prob a rookie mistake but being a rookie I gonna make them ;)  I then tried to add height to the hello die cut using glossy accents.... not a great idea, it is still smaller and it really changed the colour to a not so nice one... hmm

I did like my bow, I am not a natural bowtier but this one went well fairly quickly, I made the little pink bo and then the white one and used the tails of the white one to hold the pink one in place.

I used glossy accents to stick it... I had considered glossy my old faithful, never let me down, sticky friend until this card, maybe it or I was having an off day but I ended up using double sided tape.


Popping back to the thought of glossy changing the colour of things, my lovely matey Becca, Damsell of Distress Cards, had a great idea and made a colour swatch of how embossing in clear changes distress ink colours. I have started one for myself  and have just had a thought that i may add a spot of glossy on it too.

I will be sharing this card with the girls over at Hiding in my Craft Room - theme is pinks
And That craft place - theme is monochrome


Thanks for looking, please share your paper piecing projects with me because I love the look but need some practice and tips ;)

Tracey :)

Balloon die cut birthday card for my bro

I made this card for my brother who celebrated his birthday yesterday, we had a great evening at Mum's, lots a giggles playing the "logo game" if you are from a family that likes games I definitely recommend it.

 I recently bought paper smooches balloon dies and have had a lot of fun with them and am still having ideas I'd like to try, however, I got an added boost of inspiration from Brenda over at Vintage Journey and Tennyson's poem "ring out the old, ring in the new" that she has chosen to inspire us all for this challenge. I have chosen to interpret this challenge by including my favourite new die, the balloons with my fav old die the umbrella man.  Also my brothers birthday, being the 3rd of January is the end of Christmas for us as a family and the first card of a year I make for a family member. Imagery wise I see the balloons of last year as floating away taking bad bits away yet still tethered by the fond memories we have and lessons learnt over the past year.

This is my favourite balloon project so far... I think ;) but am def sure it is my brothers taste. As mentioned I used Tim Holtz umbrella man die but chopped off the umbrella.  This die is one of my favs as I find it so versatile.  The negative works great for iris folding and the positive can be chopped into easily to get more use from it.  I used a crafters companion embossing folder and lots of brown distress inks for the background.

I cut the letters for "Happy" using a lawn fawn die and mounted them on the balloons using lashings and lashings of glossy accents, I love the 3d kinda spherical look this gives them and there's no way them little letters are going anywhere!

As I waffled on earlier I was inspired by Brenda at Vintage Journeys so am entering this card over at their fantastic challenge blog dedicated to Crafting in the style of Mr Holtz.

I am also sharing for the 2nd time over at Darnell's place, I have no idea how long I have had that embossing folder for!!!! get your NBUS on and get on over there ;)

Thanks for looking and hope the new year rings in lots of true for you.... and you :)

spectacular spectacles

Happy New year to you all.

I have been playing with some prezzies from Santa but have to admit I was a lucky girl and got a bit bogged down not knowing quite what to play with first.
I was browsing around some of my favourite blogs and thanks to my lovely teamie over at Eclectic Ellapu, Becca a true damsel of distress inkyness (she has some great news to share and some fab art so do pop on over)  I decided to use a lovely sketch from over at Retro sketches challenge site.

I used my new Die and stamp set "Geek is Chic" by My Favourite Things bought from the Simon says stamp site,  a pad of Kraftcore in Tim Holtz distress ink colours, and my corner chomper by we are memory keepers, anything that could get rounded xmas day did!

I just loved using these products, I stamped the background using two tone inking in a variety of distress ink colours, mat and layered using my kraftcore paper, I love the texture on this stuff.  I then cut one set of glasses out and layered the other set on some funky foam,  (a great tip from the awesome Jennifer McGuire) to add some dimension

 I finished up with one of the fab sentiments from the set,  I heat embossed them in white, I have quite a few as I am in Lurve with them all and finally chose this one.  The sentiments are really quirky and fun.

I am entering this card in the Retro Sketches challenge,  thank you so much for getting me out of my OMG too much new stuff where do I start funk,

Sweet Stampin Anything Goes challenge and finally

Darnell's NBUS challenge... wanna know what NBUS is, well pop on over for a good browse, lots of inspiration and a giggle.

Thank for popping by, please do say Hi and then I can pop over to see what you have been up to with your Santa prezzies

Tracey :)