Paper piercing with an element of guilt...

It's a paper piercing challenge at LIM this week. I haven't used paper piercing on my cards for ages so thought this would be a nice opportunity to revisit this technique. I found my piercing tool but couldn't remember what I used to put under the card to pierce into. Then I had a light bulb moment, and this is where the element of guilt comes in: I turned over hubby's mouse mat and found a little row of holes! You may want keep this to yourselves girls, but mouse mats make great piercing mats.

I'm up to date with all my housework and have written three assignments this week so today I'm planning lots of card making. Because, as they say in the advert 'I'm worth it!'

Happy crafting everyone!

By your side...

Belated Valentine's greetings to you all, I hope that you all had a suitably loved-up day!

 

Here's the card that I made for my hubby. All very simple and CAS, and made using one of the fabulous new range of Alice Palace plates from Crafty Individuals. Check out their new look website, its so attractive and easy to use.
I'm being rather cheeky by linking up over at CASology, but their Cue for Week #31 is RED and I really feel that the tiny red heart stamped in the corner of this card makes all the difference! Let's hope they feel the same...

Although its been a lovely sunny day I haven't seen much of it as I've been writing an assignment on educational and developmental theorists. I've just finished working on Jean Piaget and am now tackling Freud. Is it just me or was that man a wee bit odd????

 

Anyhoo, enjoy the rest of the weekend. Its half-term for me next week so I'll be trying to fit in some serious crafting time amongst all the study.

Happy crafting everyone!

Take it Make it Challenge

So Craft Stamper Magazine now has an online challenge - wooohooo!

The idea is that Katy and the DT girls will challenge us to tackle a technique showcased in Craft Stamper magazine: then we Take it and Make it our own!

For challenge #1 we get to play with a 'Faux Airbrushing' technique, demonstrated by Joanne Allison in the March 2013 issue. We get nearly TWO whole months to grab a copy of the magazine and perfect the technique before the challenge closes at midnight Friday 5th April. The girls will announce the winner on the Craft Stamper site on  Monday 8th April. 

I couldn't resist having a go straight away as I was knocked-out by the DT cards. I'm currently into masking and thought the technique would suit this style of card.

I masked-off a section on my card and got busy with Distress Inks, then sponged through some sequin waste with more Distress Ink to achieve the faux airbrushing effect. I inked-up a beautiful Art Journey stamp, but masked the surrounding words to leave just the image of the girl. I finished by adding further detail with a Craft Stamper freebie stamp and sentiment by Hero Arts.
Not a quick process, but very enjoyable and hopefully good enough to enter the challenge.

Happy Crafting everyone!

A relaxing weekend!

A quiet weekend of sleeping late, making cards and generally 'vegging-out' was needed following a week full of ups and downs.

A definite high point of the week was the completion of the library. The kids love it, and the staff all seem to say 'wow' when they come through the doors. Lot's of hard work, but totally worth it!

 

Here's one of the cards that I've made this weekend. I love this gorgeous image from Paperbag Studios called 'Laugh'. I masked the middle section of the card and sponged with Distress inks. I stamped with Hero Arts 'Heart Flourish' and finished with a Papertrey Ink sentiment.

  

I made a few other cards, covered myself in ink and shook the stresses and strains of the week away. Isn't card making just sooooo relaxing!

 

Happy crafting everyone!