All the Challengers

Hi all,
Well while I was wide awake I had little time to myself.  When I had time, I fell asleep.... can you believe it..LOL!!  Nevermind it may be late as I prepare this post but I am here now and I have decided to make things a little different.
Before I talk to you about the winner of our Almost White Challenge, I would like to show you all the entries once more.

1.Sue Pass  

2.Christine Harrop

3.Jenny Lawrence

4.Jenny Lawrence

5.Andrea Ewen

 

6.Christine Harrop

 7.Christine Hussey

8.Melanie

9.Linda Wescott

 10.Mags

11.Oksana

12.Kim

13.Regena

14.Nicola

15. Patricia

16.Linda Wescott

17.Ani

18.Helen Mitchell

19.Christine Hussey

What a collective of talent and array of ideas. 

These are all so lovely and are all truly winners;  however, one has to be chosen, so I have made a decision to let you chose the winner!  Yes that's right YOU vote naming your top three and I will do the rest. 
Just EMAIL me your TOP THREE and I will post the winner tomorrow.   I will leave the vote open until 10pm tonight, so please try and vote even if you have entered yourself, but please DO NOT vote for yourself.

My final SPECIAL SURPRISE IS:-   

If I receive more than 15 votes I will put up a 2ND prize!!

So now it's up to you, get your votes in as soon as possible and lets see if we can win a prize for a second winner too.

Before I go I have the finished Notebook to show you at last.  I do hope you like my creation, it was a bit of a fight to finish it as I was unsure what to do for the best; I didn't want anything too fussy but I wanted to make it a little special.  I think I got there in the end, see what you think.

First I used my new Memory box swirl die and then started cutting some up to make a bigger swirl.

I cut away the same piece at the bottom of two diecuts, one at an angle and one straight cut.

Then I attached them to the top diecut and glued a reversed one to the bottom (The paper arrows show their positioning).   To be able to reverse the diecut I put each one under a piece of baking parchment and rubbed over firmly with a bone folder. This flattened them so they looked alike.

This is how it looked before I started painting and attaching mica flakes etc.

I used Martha Stewart multi purpose metallic paint on the letters and then sprinkled over silver Mica Flakes for texture and glitz (the paint holds the mica really well).  I love the way they came out, I just wish the picture did them justice.

I finished off with some Spellbinders Sprockets diecuts in silver and black textured card, some keyhole brads and some stamped wings from the Creative Expressions Steampunk Dreams stamp plate.  I used the rest of the stamp on a card that I will show you in a day or two.

I'm so sorry for the extended post today, I seem to have been uploading photos for hours!  But thank you for taking the time to view them all, I truly appreciate it.  Bless you.
I hope you all have a wonderful day today.
Best wishes Linda xx  

Almost White Papercraft Challenge

THIS IS A STICKY POST AND WILL STAY AT THE TOP UNTIL THE CHALLENGE ENDS.  

TO VIEW TODAYS POST PLEASE SCROLL DOWN.   THANK YOU. 

Good morning all,
Well I am doing it again, apologising..... Sorry about that (apology again...lol!).
Unfortunately when I was supposed to be putting up the Challenge post, as promised, I was nodding of on the sofa as I was shattered after having a poor nights sleep previously.  
So to the rules;  well there aren't rules as such because as you know I've never really liked rules (except where my children were concerned), so lets call them characteristics.

CHARACTERISTICS

1.  The theme is  'Almost White' with your base card in white or ivory.

2.  No more than two other colours, one of which should only be a very small amount.

3.   You can make any papercraft item(s)

4.  You may enter up to twice only but they must be different and one item must be a card or tag.

5.  All entries must be linked to my blog by the closing date of Sunday 23rd September.

6. Non bloggers 

 EMAIL the picture of your entry(s), with a little description and I will showcase it on my blog so it can be entered.

Here is my example from yesterdays post.

My Characteristics are:-   Base card of White, two colours of pink with hint of green

Now to the prize.  

The prize will be made up as the Challenge goes along.  Each and every week I will add something new to the prize until the closing date, the final piece being added on the completion day

To start the ball rolling, here is the first piece of the Prize Parcel:-

SPELLBINDERS   LABELS ONE

Update:-  The next prize to be added to the Candy pot is:-
 a £4.50 rubber stamp from LOTV (surprise winner chose Fur Cone stamps!)

Update 11th Sept:- The third prize to be added to the Candy pot is :-
a Wooden House Frame (surprise winner chose a Decorative Pins starter kit)

I do hope you will all try to take part and make this an exciting and varied Challenge.  I am so looking forward to seeing your fabulous creations, all the best.

Have a great day one and all.   Hugs Linda

Please see this POST for the original Challenge post and rules

Final entry

Hi all,
I am expecting my children for late lunch today and so I have little time to blog I am sorry to say.  However this may be rushed but it is still very important.  It is a final entry for the Almost White Challenge from our own lovely Christine Hussey.  So without further ado, here is her  stunning creation.

Isn't this beautifully done, that smattering of red just in the center really pops what was already a perfect creation.
I think the reason I love this so  much is that Christine has used the 'waste' pieces from cutting the Spellbinders Damask Accents border.  If we didn't know better, we could easily have assumed they were diecuts from a die in their own right.  I don't know about you but lately I have found alot of the 'waste' pieces from my dies are more useful than I first thought.  It's great to just sit and play sometimes, you'll be surprised what you find!  Thank you so much Christine, you've done it again, stunning!
Please forgive me rushing off like this.  I will have time to myself later so I will load up the Challenge results and post it for tomorrow morning, AND I have actually finished the Notebook that I started a while back;  I can't wait to see what you think. It's been hard to create something fairly simple when all I wanted to do was something very different indeed! I do hope you can stop by and give me your honest opinions.
Have a great evening all.  Big hugs Linda x

Another Challenge entry

Hello all
I am so sorry to have been away so long, but as I am sure you know,  life gets in the way sometimes and becomes so much of a juggling act we have to take stock.  The casualties for me were the blog and crafting I'm sorry to say, but I am slowly getting sorted and hope to blog a few times a week now.   To top it all off my Android phone then started to play up.  This meant I was unable to do my emails and follow all your blogs when I wasn't able to get to the laptop.  I was totally against having a 'smart phone' at first, I didn't need one......, withing a few weeks I changed my mind; I can't live without it!!  Anyway, I took it into the Vodafone shop and they have said it will be about a week...... don't they understand we need our phones.  I am now wandering around with a battered old phone that does nothing but ring and text.  Ah........!!!

Today I have a non blogger entry for the Almost White Challenge, it is a beautiful card in white and aqua (not sure of the exact colour sorry) with silver as the third colour.  It is by the talented Helen Mitchell.
So without further ado,  here is the pretty card for your delectation:-

The beautiful border die Helen has used at the bottom of her card is the 'Decorative Lace Border'  from Hearfelt Creation (made by Spellbinders) and the delightful flowers 'Prim Poppy' are from Memory Box Dies. You can get these dies from most online craft suppliers.  Helen has used the crinkle edged ribbon and pearly embellishment from Creative Expressions and the coordinating decorative pin Helen has made herself.  Just lovely Helen.

Here you can see how Helen decorated the inside edge using Spellbinders Damask Accents border (still one of my favourite borders, I love it hooked over the edge of a matt/layer.  It is also beautiful if you cut several and glue them together to form a deep lacey border (you can see ideas of this in my Tutorial).

I think you will all agree this card is very elegant and a perfect entry for the Challenge.  Thank you so much Helen.

Well that's almost it for today,  however I would like to end with a Daily Thought by Patience Strong.  I found this while tidying my craft room yesterday and I thought it would be nice to share it with you.  I hope you will bear with me.

NO GOING BACK

The path of daily life is strewn with opportunities passed by _ with beauty trodden underfoot and flowers of friendship left to die.  Good intentions, lofty aims and high resolves that faded out _  in the dust of disappointment, fear, frustration, failure, doubt...... Oh, if we could only turn and go back just a mile or two _ To say the things we should have said, and do the things we meant to do!

                                                                                               (Patience Strong-Thoughts for Everyday)

True?  Definitely!!

Have a wonderful day and remember someone special along the way today.

Biggest Hugs Linda xx

Just a quickie for a Challenge!

Good morning all,
I have a quick post today to show you a little card I managed to make earlier this week.  It is along the lines of a creation by the lovely Teresa Kline, but unfortunately I cannot, for the life of me, find the card to show you.  I will keep trying to source it so that I can put a link to it on Teresas blog.  
Here it is, isn't it fresh.  I don't know why one card strikes me more than another, but I just loved the overall effect of this one.  I think I love the colours against the Kraft card - its like flowers upon the earth and so perfect for the sentiment.  Don't you agree?  Here is a link to Teresa's blog for anyone who has never visited her (the card below is directly linked to the post on Teresa blog).

  So now as you can see, my card is along the same layout lines but completely different (and I've just realised how wonky my line of bunting is...ooo naughty Linda...LOL!)

I am not 100% happy with the finished card, I feel I failed myself alittle as the idea in my head did not come out completely on the finished article.  I wanted the pink to be less bright, even though this is called baby pink.  I was really looking for a very soft and muted pink but had nothing that pale in my stash.
I was trying to create a card that was 'almost white' with hints of colour to just distinquish the diecuts and flowers but not make them overpowering.  Nevermind, you now have the gist of my idea.
So with that in mind, we have our Challenge (at last).

The Challenge is to create a papercraft item with the theme  'Almost White'.
Your main colour must be white or Almost white (Ivory) and must have no more than two other colours with one being of a larger percentage than the other.  (eg. My card is White with secondary colour Pink and a tiny touch of green in the flowers).
I do hope that makes sense, I am very tired now and am getting a little dim witted (now, now, no sarcasm please, I know I am not the brightest spark at the best of times...LOL!!)   Please think about it and see if you can find the time to enter something.

I don't like lots of rules but just ask that everyone enters something new and never seen before today in blogland.  Each participant can enter up to two different papercraft items (eg. one card and one tag OR one tag and one box etc.)  Two of the same type of papercraft item is NOT allowed (eg. two cards is a no no!).
So there you have it, I do hope you will all join in and play along.  I will be back later today to put up the prize (or prizes) and the linky for your entries.
Hugs Linda xx

MY RECIPE:-
Base card   -    Ice white Centura Pearl card from Crafters Companion
Embossing   -   I used the matt side of Centura Pearl card and 'Tied Together' Embossing folder from Creative Expressions
Lace   -   Dovecraft eyelet lace from Ebay
Flowers   -   Wild Orchid Crafts
Ribbon   -   Upcycled (from inside a dress)
Half Pearls   -   8mm white pearls from Ebay (up to size 14mm, also in ivory)
Pink card & spotty paper    -    from my stash.

A Case Study card

Case Study CSC95

Today I have created my first ever card for a blog challenge.  It is for Case Study Challenge blog and  Joy Taylor is the muse for June.  Here is the card she did as inspiration:-

 

I am also entering this card into the Joanna Sheen Challenge Blog.  Two challenges for my first ever competition card.  I am quite excited.

This side view shows not only the dimension on the front of my card but also the inside decoration too.   I wanted to do something totally unique and very different.

I don't decorate the inside of all of my cards, but as this card is a top fold,  I wanted to ensure it was sturdy and could stand alone without collapsing.

Starting with Centura Ice White pearl card in size 5 x 7inches, I then layered it with plum card before using panels of canvas effect card in bright white.  This canvas card has a slight sheen to it and is also stunning when used with ink etc to create toppers etc.  It was a purchase from Aldi and has become one of my favourite cards.

The sentiment I used is one I've had for many years, but unfortunately cannot remember the manufacturer.  The fancy swirl beneath is a small stamp from a collection by the wonderful Anna Griffin.  It can be used in so many ways and it also makes fabulous lacy borders (*).

Next I used my Spellbinders butterflies and cut out three each in soft lilac vellum and also plum card.  Using some of the canvas card again with Spellbinders Moroccan Accents, I made an intertwined border for along the left hand side.  I love the effect of the border dies intertwined, it gives them a totally different look and expands the uses of your dies.  Sue Wilson of Particraft gave me that fab idea, thank you Sue.

(*) I have a quick tip for you here:-  If you have lots of small stamps and have often wondered what to do with them - use them to decorate around your Spellbinder diecuts.   If you leave the die in place and then stamp carefully around the edge you get a fabulous bordered finish to the stamping and it works out alot cheaper than buying the new stamps that are made to fit these dies.  If you want to create a border with a blank in the middle for your sentiment,  hold a smaller diecut in the center (as a mask) while your die is still in place and then stamp into the gap between.  Don't worry if the stamp doesn't fit in the gap, just let it stamp over the edge.  When you remove the die and the smaller shape (mask) you will have a perfect border around your diecut shape.

Often I will stamp the sentiment first onto the bigger diecut and then find a smaller diecut that covers it the best before I proceed with the border.  This allows us to create a border in the size that suits your sentiment without having to squeeze it in afterward.

Well that is it for now.  I hope you have enjoyed seeing my Case card today and will find some use from stamping tips.  I will try and do a photographic, step by step tutorial for those tips.   I don't have very good lighting etc for that type of thing, but I think I'd like to give it a go.  Wish me luck.

Bye for now.  Hugs  Linda xx  

Oh, before I forget, I will be back at 2pm with names of our 3Winners for our draw.