Other half's birthday card

It's Maurice's birthday in a few days and as we're off to our daughters for a visit, and to see our granddaughters, yeah, I thought I'd better get the card done as I need to take it with me.  I think mens cards are always the most difficult ones to make.  

I decided to get the melt pot out and have a play with beeswax.  I printed off a page of the old Times which I posted a few days ago and inked with DI tea dye.  I then put a layer of beeswax over the top, stamped the hand onto tissue paper, put it in the beeswax then onto background, did the same with the sealed with a fish stamp and a Crafty Individual image.  Stamped and triple embossed a T!m clock, added hands, a cherish metal tag and 4 brads which I hammered with T!m's hammer.  The sentiment was computer generated and again popped into beeswax and applied to background.  Enjoyed messing around but took ages to clean up all the beeswax, but on the plus side, my cuticles and nails are in good condition now, lol.  Right the competition is.........how old is my husband?

Birthday card for Mo

It's my friend Mo's birthday today and here's the card I've made for her.  Been influenced by all the metalwork done at the Artsycraft weekend (I went last October and would recommend it to anyone), so got out my  stash and gave it a go.  The heart was cut from chipboard with my Cricut and the butterflies are, of course, grunge paper.

Right, up early to make a cake as I shall be seeing her tonight at Craft Den Studio.

Cute and Scones

Those of you who know me, know that I don't usually do 'cute', but tomorrow we are going down to our daughters and will be seeing our granddaughters for the first time since Christmas.  I am so excited, I usually see them at least once a month, but you all know why it's been such a long time.  Lucie and Charlotte love making cards, so I've made this one as a sample for them, stamps the images ready and I'm actually going to let them have a go with my Copics....

Another brill recipe for you..

I made these at 8.00 this morning and as I put them on the plate to photo, Maurice decided he would have another, I made 9 and now there are only 6 left,  he's been sneaking in whilst I've been in my craft room.  Naughty boy....we're supposed to be watching what we eat.

Mabels Scones (it was a recipe from my mother-in-law)

8 oz S R flour

2 ½ oz sugar

3 oz marg

Pinch of salt

Sultanas

1 Egg

Little milk or water (I prefer water)

Rub in flour, salt and marg.

Add sugar and sultanas

Whisk eggs and water

Mix all ingredients together

Kneed gently

Form into 9/10 rounds and place on a greased baking sheet.  Don’t roll with a rolling pin, and don’t flatten too much, they are meant to be ‘rustic’.

Bake gas 6, 400f, 200c for 10/15 mins, until golden brown.

Whilst still warm, split and butter

They are good cold, best eaten a.s.a.p.  Ours never make it to the next day!

NB  SR flour can be substituted for wholemeal flour for those health conscious people.

I love distress inks

Felt like doing  bit of altering this morning and made this for a friend.  It's a Maya Road chipboard piece, coloured with distress inks, each side highlighted with different colours of pearl pigment.  Grunge paper flower, stamped with script stamp, coloured, then edged with pearl pigment, small hearts are a Paperartsy stamp, coloured and finished with rocky candy crackle paint.  Added a T!m element to finish.

Art Calendar Challenge March

This is my March page, I decided I liked the background so much, that I'm not going to put any papers on it.  I may add some more embellishments.  The stamping is a bit rough because my hands are still very shaky and as I was stamping, the phone, which was right beside me rang and made me jump.  Oh well, never mind.

Such a beautiful day here in north Sheffield, we're off to see my aunt and uncle in Derbyshire this afternoon.  Edna has Alzheimers and because of my illness, we haven't seen them since December.  They are both in their mid 80's are do very well.

Time and Tide wait for no one

Decided to enter The Play Date Cafe Challenge this week where you have to use the colours orange, yellow and chocolate.  Here's my entry and what I did:

1. Used an MDF arch which was cut out by my husband
2. Painted with Terra and whilst still wet stamped with PaperArtsy clocks stamp
3. When completely dry, coloured with acrylic paints, using Claudine Hellmutt's yellow and Blonde Moments orange, then went over with Viva copper paint
4. Edged in Espresso acrylic
5. Made the watch using copper metal and PaperArtsy Clocks 3 stamp
6. Cut wings out of grunge paper and inked with brushed corduroy

I enjoyed creating this on a very rainy, dark and windy Sunday morning.

ATC September Challenge

Only just managed to get this done this morning, cutting it a bit fine, the last day of the challenge at the Craft Den, is tomorrow, and the theme is Travel.  I had a great one in mind, but when I saw one of the other entrants, it was along the same idea that I had.  Serves me right for being so late, I shall do the October one straight away.

Background is distress inks, stamped with T!m's french writing, then overstamped with 'Paris' and clock stamps. Used travel queen image from Lisa's Altered Art, but typed my own title, put wings behind her.  Stamped a butterfly image onto shrink plastic, painted with water colours, shrunk it and then attached to atc with glossy accents. Distressed the edge and edged with walnut stain.

Third time lucky!

The last time I tried Fimo wasn't a great success so never bothered again, until this week.  I decided to make some buttons.  Prepared the Fimo, made the button shapes, stamped with a text stamp, looked on the back of the packet for the instructions re baking them.  Popped them in the oven for the said 30 mins and waited.  Went back in kitchen after 30 mins and could not see across the room.  When I opened the oven door, all the smoke alarms went off and black smoke puthered out.  Burnt to a crisp.  Couldn't understand what I done wrong.  Made some more, put them in the oven again but this time looked at them after 15 mins.  Again burnt to death.  I just could not understand what I was doing wrong.  With the last bit of Fimo made some more when my hubby asked if I was sure I'd got the temperature right.  I said of course, it says 230c, he laughed his head off and had a look on the back of the packet and guess what?  It was 230f or 110c.  What a dope I am.  Baked at correct temperature and above is the result.  I've painted some of them with Claudine Hellmuths paint.

Last night at Craft Den we made this pretty little tag book, used Paper Artsy papers and stamps, made flower and butterfly out of grunge paper using Wendy Vecchi stamps.