I love you to the Moon and back!

It’s true.  I do.  I really do.  Cross my heart, and pinky finger promise.

I wanted to make a card which was fun, but sweet.  Not sickly sweet, and certainly not cute, but something which had a nod towards the inner child of a ‘bloke’.  A man of years, but still a boy inside.

So I decided that the ‘Love you to the Moon and back’ sentiment sounded perfect … but instead of making the card a more serious ‘love you’, I made one which suggested a rocket …. going forth to the Moon, landing …. collecting moon and star-dust …. and then returning to Earth, spreading sparkly Moon dust as it flew through the atmosphere.

I began by hand painting the background on some watercolour paper, using a combination of purples, blues and white from my Kuretake watercolours.  Once dry I embossed all around the edge with silver Tonic powder, which was meant to look like star-dust and moon dust.

I threw a few pinches of embossing powders over the painted background and then heated them slowly and gently so that they melted onto the watercolour background, and looked like twinkly stars in the sky.

Apart from the  ‘happy birthday‘ sentiment (bottom right of the card), the stamps I used are from Altenew.  But the happy birthday sentiment ….well that came from my ‘sentiment stamps draw’.  I cannot remember who the maker was.  I just knew that I wanted swirly writing, which might look like the trail of a rocket as it swooshed and swooped and looped the loop through the heavens, and that stamp fitted the bill perfectly.

The Moon is stamped using two stamps, and two different coloured inks,  and then using an embossing pen I ‘coloured’ in some areas and then embossed it in Tonic Silver powder.

I used the embossing pen to add a Moon dust trail to the ‘happy birthday’ sentiment.  The words themselves were stamped and firstly embossed in black, then stamped over again, but this time I stamped slightly ‘off’ from the first stamp so that just tiny bits of the black (meant to look like a sooty residue) peeped from behind the silver.

I have no idea if space ships leave a sooty trail behind them, but the idea was ticklish to me so I went with it.  I loved the silver over the top of it because it kind of pushed the sentiment into the whole picture.  Instead of it standing out and shouting, it was just there ….  part of the whole moon dust/star shine thing.

And that, as I am want to say, … is all there was to it!

I trust you are well and that nothing is wonky in your world.  Although …  having said that I know that some of you are having a bit of a ‘wonky’ time at the moment.  Please know that I think of you often, and each time I do, I push a prayer out of my heart and head, and send it heaven bound, asking for help to be given to you.

There are some of you who are missing family members, and I know how difficult that can be to deal with the trauma of losing someone.  My thoughts are with you, and I send you my love.

One of our blogging friends suffered a stroke just a few weeks ago, while she was off on her holibobs with her husband.  There was no warning, nothing odd going on, when suddenly…  out of the blue…  a stroke happened while she was sat there in the car.  Thankfully she wasn’t driving the car at the time. 

I know that there are some blogging friends who suffer with depression, for whatever reason(s), and having a family member who suffers with this, I know only too well how difficult life and times can be because of that.

And there are more … lots of people, who have worries of one sort of another.  A difficult time. Some difficulty that they are experiencing.   Please know that I’m thinking about you.  About you all.  I may not know you personally, but I know you by heart.  By the words you type on your keypad.  And because of that I’ve come to care.

You … reading right now.  I care about you.  I may not always comment on your blog(s), but it’s not because I don’t care.  Sometimes I just run out of words.  Sometimes I think how grand or brilliant you are.  Sometimes I sit here on my side of the computer and smile, giggle, laugh.  And sometimes I cry.

But then … there are those of you who are SO amazingly talented that I just sit here wondering how I can possibly tell you how brilliant you are without sounding like I want to stalk you;  or those of you who I want to kiss all over the face, leaving visible lipstick marks,  for making me laugh like a drain.

Y’know … you’re all uniquely, amazingly, incredibly wonderful.  I’m SO so glad that I began blogging, for I’ve found a world of the most fascinating, beautiful people who I never knew existed.  Crumbs …. how did I ever get along without you all?  My life is so busy now, keeping up with you, sharing your days, getting to know you, your families, your ‘stuff’.  I have no idea what on earth I did before blogging.  I must have had hours wasted,  doing nothing at all!

Blogging really is a magical thing.

So … thank you.  Thank you for being the most amazing person.  Thank you for keeping me reading, entertained, teaching me, and giving me something truly extraordinary.    What would I do without you.? [shakes head while smiling to self].  I’d be terribly bored, that’s for sure!

I am so very blessed.  Thank you.  Each and every one of you.

Have an incredible day.  Be good to yourself….  and to everyone else you meet.

Much love from me in my corner to you in yours.  ~ 

 

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Teachers help little ones to Bloom and Grow!

Daughter No.2 is Little Cobs’ (my Grandson) Mummy.  She’s not been too well and I knew she was in a pickle to get out to buy thank you cards for teachers and helpers at the end of term time for Little Cobs.  (Why she doesn’t just get all her cards from me -f.o.c. – is a mystery!).  So I offered to make the cards.  She needed three altogether and she left it up to me to design and make them.  (she trusts me!   Yup, she’s crazy,  I know!)

So for his teacher, who he loves, worships and adores to the moon and back … I made this card….

…  Made using Altenew Stamps (roses).  I decided upon the wording first,  – oh, and where it says  ‘Little Cobs’  on the photo there … in real life it actually has his name there, in the same font as the one I used for the sentiment, just smaller in size.  It says beneath his name, if you can’t quite read it:  aged 6 – because he is!  See … he and I are so close in age (’cause I’m 7 as you know) and this is why we get along so well and understand each other. 😀

Once the sentiment was printed, I stamped the images – 6 roses and some leaves, and then onto some spare card, I stamped two more roses, and fussy cut those out then added double-sided foam tape to the back to fix them to the card, in order to give it a little dimension.

To finish the front off, I added some Aurora Borealis sequins and a sprinkle of pearls in three different sizes.

The back of the card … well I resisted the urge to write:  Made by Grammy Cobs  …. and instead did the proper thing …

… if you can’t read it, try this one – I blew it up a little ….

And that …  is all there was to it!  To be truthful, it sounds harder than it really is.   There are two more cards, but I need to re-size photo’s of those so it’s just ‘Show and Tell’ for this one today.  😀

There was sadly no painting going on over the weekend as I had a doozer of a headache and even the thought of painting was too much.  I doubt I could have come up with an idea to make into a picture other than black, black and more black.

But normal service is resumed today.  I began to paint earlier but then ended up having a mega chat via text messages with daughter.  It would have been so much easier had I spoken to her on the phone – and darn quicker too.

These kids now, they have this monkey thing going on with their thumbs and can type out a chapter of a book quicker than I can find my smilies on my phone to add to a three word message!  I’m just  tooo  s…..l….o…..w  at texting.  Typing on a proper key board I’m fine at.  I’m a trained touch typist. (not bragging, just tellin’ ya)   But longish nails combined with teeny tiny keys and then add a sprinking of idiot to the mix – all that, in charge of a cell phone,  – well let’s just say it doesn’t make the perfect scenario!

So anyhoo…   … I began to paint, but ended up having to pack things away and continue the hour-long texting session.  However,  … I’ll be back in my craft room tomorrow and hopefully finish the painting off and photos will follow.

• For the girls reading:  It’s a watercolour life study of a naked man –  Mr.Cobs posed.
• For the men …  it’s a painting of a Kentucky Fried Chicken Family Bucket, with a bottle of Coke sat next to it. 

…  (and if you believe it’s either of those things then you’ll also believe I can knit jelly!)

In the meantime …  Have a Happy Tuesday.  Be kind.  Be brave.  Be beautiful.  Be you.  For  you  are truly amazing,  just the way you are.

Thank you for coming.  It means the world to me to see you.

Have a good day, where ever you are.  And where ever you are, may your God go with you.  

 

Hints, tips and part 2 of the ‘Guide to Stamping’.

Hello again! 🙂

Yesterday we went through the Rules (there aren’t any) and Guidelines for getting better images when stamping.  We learned the importance of a mouse mat.  We stamped the same image a few times.  We stamped it in different colours too and saw what a difference that made to the end result stamped image.  We chatted about stamping an image in different colours all at once.  And we did a bit of colouring of images once they’d been stamped,  using a rainbow selection of coloured stamped pads.

Today we’re going to move on to something a bit more fearful.  Sorry.  I meant to say …Fearfully Easy.  An impressive bit of stamp magic which, if you don’t know about these types of stamps yet, you’ll be surprised about.

A blog I follow ( PaperPuff ) summed up these particular stamps beautifully when she herself tried them for the first time a few weeks ago.  She called them the stamps of the Three ‘Oh’s.  smiling to myself here because I knew what she was talking about and she’s right. They really are  Three Oh’s.  You’ll see why …    Shall we begin?  Seatbelts on…  handbags on the floor ….  Let’s go!

These are Altenew Stamps.  I’ve blogged about them before, but this time I’m talking about them because I think anyone who’s having a problem with their stamping should absolutely have this set (or one of their other sets)  in their ‘armoury’.

There are a couple of brands of stamps which allow me to put together a ‘story’, in stamped images, in different ways.  Even if I use the exact same stamps over and over, I can actually still make one-off cards – each of them totally different from the last. 

These two brands are: 

• Card-io Stamps  – which I adore, these are available direct from Card-io themselves,  (their name is a clickable link which will open in a new window) ... 
• and . . .  the fairly recently introduced into this country:  Altenew Stamps.  You can now buy quite a selection of the Altenew Stamps from various places which you can find on the web.  Google ‘Altenew’ and it will give you suppliers.  (I use ‘My Mums Craft Shop’ and have had only great service from them – but shop around.  You may find a supplier close to where you live.).

For this ‘play around’, I’m going to use the Altenew Stamps, Vintage Rose collection, shown in the last photograph.

Some of the Altenew stamps come in big sets,  like the set in the photo above, but within that set is a collection of smaller ‘groups’.  In this set, each group makes one rose for you,  in different shapes and sizes, and there also different sets of leaves, again, different shapes and sizes.

In this photo I’ve tried to show you how I pick out each group that I’m going to use, and I pop them down in their group (in lines – top row is the large rose, middle row is the medium rose & bottom row is the small stamp) so that I don’t have to keep peeling them off the carrier sheet.

I’ve chosen to stamp a larger rose.  The particular stamped image I’m going to stamp has 3 different stamps just to make one rose.  In some ‘groups’ of the larger set, there may be 4 stamps to make just one image.  Keep reading, it’s not as difficult or as scary as it sounds….  🙂

One Stamp.  One pale yellow colour stamp pad.  The combination of which gives us . . .   a  frankly underwhelming image.  . . . . .  ‘Oh’ – number one!

You stamp the palest colour first.  The paler colour of the roses tones.  I’ve chosen the Yellow set of cubes from the Altenew Pads here – but if you have a selection of tones in the same colour way eg:  four different shades of red/pink, or blue, or green etc etc, then you don’t have to buy the stamp pads just to use the stamps.

Then, using the second rose stamp in the group and the next colour,which is slightly darker than the first pale colour.  . . .    ‘Ohh!’  – number 2.

As I mentioned above –  In some sizes of roses there will be three stamps, in others there will be four.  (Hence the reason that the Altenew mini cubes come in sets of four).

Mmmm.. what’s happened here then??  (I hear you ask)…   well, I want to show you OH! number three, but I wanted to make sure that it impresses you in such a way that you really do ‘get it’.  I’ve covered up the finished Large and Medium sized roses which I’ve already completed, and this last rose, the small one, is at that ‘second stamp’ stage …

That small rose has now had its 3rd colour from the stamp pads, but you can’t really see what I’m trying to show you about how these stamps will make you look like the Stamping Expert of the Year.  Let’s continue and see where this goes …

This time I’ve covered up all three roses.  But … I’ve added some leaves on vines.

If you’re going to ‘build’ a picture with these stamps – in this case a rose,  – you have to start with what’s in the foreground and then follow it up with whats in the background.  But in order to do this you complete each section at a time, but then cover up that section so that you don’t stamp over it and spoil what you’ve done.  As you can see in the photograph above, as I’m stamping the leaves and vines, some of the leaf/vine stamp is actually stamping onto the ‘covers’,  –  so, imagine the mess they would be making on the roses if I hadn’t covered up the work I’d already done.  (If this sounds complicated, don’t fret.  It’s honestly not … as you’ll see …..)….

Now the leaves in the photograph are fine and groovy, but … they don’t have any shadows, or veins to the leaves…..  so let’s pop some in.

I’ve stamped in the veins and shadows … but I’ve purposely ‘missed’ the right places on the leaves by just ‘off center’  with the stamp.  This ‘miss’ is a prolem that can happen to all of us at some time, so don’t beat yourself up or trash what you’ve worked hard on.   It’s not the end of the world.  Like I showed you yesterday, in part one of this guide, you can ‘paint’ with your stamp pads!  So this can be put right really quite easily.  Stamp the ink pad on your glass mat (or plate, saucer etc) and then dip your paint brush into a little water, but take off as much of the water as possible but leaving the bristles damp enough to ‘mix’ into the inky blob and then ‘smudge’ & paint the already (miss)stamped bit.  Then simply ‘paint’ the veins of the leaves just a little  ….. practise this a little on scap card.  You’ll soon get the hang of it.

No gaps between leaves and veins now.  So … are you ready to look at the roses? . . .

The third ‘Ohhh!’  . . . You can see how masking off the roses means that the vines and leaves don’t make a mess of the images you’ve already stamped.

 

So .. let’s stamp the other corner of the card in the same way …

 

I’ve stamped a group of 4 roses in the bottom left corner, so that you can see that even though two of the roses are the same, they look different because the stamped images have all been turned around and stamped differently. and the leaves are all different – even though they’re the same!

Shall we make a sentiment for this card?

In this photo I’ve stamped that same word in three differently places.  The top image I stamped on my glass mat.  The middle image I stamped on my desk top.  (That’s not the light giving that effect … that’s a missing part of the image.  And finally … the bottom ‘Amazing’ was stamped using the mouse mat, copy paper and then card sandwich.  You can see that the mouse mat really does make a difference.

If you don’t have a sentiment which says what you want to say, simply bring in other stamps, stamp them on scrap card and then use them together.

I’ve cut out the stamped sentiments then mounted them on some narrow foam tape and place them on the card.  The foam tape gives a little dimension to the card.

I’ve taken three photographs of this finished card, in different lights, so that you can get a reasonable idea of the brightness of the stamped colours which the stamp pads provide.

Lights full on, so that it’s heaps brighter.

Some bunnies wanted to say bye-bye!

These stamps really are easy to use, and I highly recommend them – for new stampers and stampers who have been stamping for years.  They really are such a great addition to your stamps.

Phew ... well that’s where we end on our hints and tips Guide to Stamping.  If there is anything I haven’t mentioned that you hoped I would, then please tell me in a comment and I’ll do my very best to help.  I’m not an expert.  I’m a crafter, like you, and these are things that I’ve found work for me, and after a plea asking for some help, I made this ‘Guide’ to help a fabulous lady, Mrs. P, but I’m also hoping that it might help someone else along the way too.

Thank you so much for visiting and having a coffee with me.  I love your company, as you know, and  the fact that you visit really does mean the world to me.  So thank you for coming.

May your Tuesday be filled with love and smiles.  Sending crafty hugs and oodles of  l ❤ve  ~  till next time …

 

 

 

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Just for You … with Altenew

I will pop the TV on to take a gander at Create and Craft (UK) now and again when I’m crafting up a storm in the craft room, and sometimes spot things that I’ve not seen before. This happened recently when they were showing some new stamps called ‘Altenew’.  A lady was on-screen demonstrating these new stamps (new to me) which I’d not seen before so I watched to see what they were.

If you’ve ever stamped with Card-io stamps then these are very much similar to those – although they’re bigger.  But the idea is the same, being that you use a variety of stamps in order to build up a unique picture or scene.  The postage and packaging charges push the prices up of anything bought on C&C so I looked around on the internet to see if I could find the stamps anywhere else at a cheaper price, and as luck would have it I found a small craft shop not far from where I live, called My Mums Craft Shop  ~  link: www.mymumscraftshop.co.uk  ~ who sell Altenew stamps.  They didn’t have the stamps I wanted in stock one the day I phoned, but they were waiting for a delivery, and the (really lovely) lady on the phone told me that they would be there within about ten days, after they’d made it through customs in our country, so I asked to be notified when the stamps were available for sale, and as promised I was emailed just over a week later.  (I can’t quite remember how much this craft shop charges for postage and packaging, but I know it impressed me and I vowed that I’d shop there again).

At the same time as buying a selection of the stamps I also bought two sets of Altenew stamp cubes.  And this post is how I got on with the stamps and stamp pads on my first use and sharing the card I made using the stamps.

I wanted to play with the Vintage Roses stamps, so decided that I’d just do some happy stamping to start with, in order to get a feel for the stamps and see how well the ink pads worked.  The following four photos are images stamped onto some scrap card out of my scrap drawer.  I perhaps should have chosen something a little better, as the ink wanted to bleed on this card, hence the smudgy outlines of the different colours.  But .. I was only playing so wasn’t overly bothered  ….

This ‘2 rose’ image was made using (for each stamp) 4 different stamps.  If we just look at the bigger of the two roses – you might just be able to see that there are actually  4 colours used.  Very pale pink;  a rosy pink;  a deep pink with a tad of purple added;  and finally an almost vintage style red.  All these different colours go onto 4 totally different stamps, (one colour per stamp) which will, when stamped, make up all the layers of the petals of the rose, and add the shadows and hi-lights.

I added a third rose, a rose bud and some leaves, all stamped with Altenew stamps in the same Vintage Roses stamp set.

Same stamps, this time using a selection of 4 different blue inks – from the Altenew Stamp Cubes.

The same roses –  only this time in Yellow.

By this time I’d got the idea, so decided to make a card and this card was the result:

Card made using papers from the Floral Muse range from Dovecraft plus  a sentiment “Just for You” from the same Floral Muse range,  and stamped images using the Altenew Vintage Roses.

I stamped the rose images a few times, so that I could fussy cut them and create a 3D decoupaged image of the roses, building up certain parts more than others, in order to give it the right ‘feel’.

Taken from an angle so that you could see the ‘layers’ of the 3D decoupaged roses.  If you look carefully you’ll just about be able to see the little foam pads between the layers.

I carefully dragged a glue pen around the rose petals and over some parts of the leaves, and sprinkled them with glitter dust, to give them a magical twinkle.

The Butterfly was stamped using an image from a set of stamps in the Floral Muse range, by Dovecraft.  I stamped it using a quick dry fluid chalk ink pad in a colour called ‘Rusty Bucket’.

The wide, pink Organza ribbon was wrapped all the way around the front of the card so that it continued onto the inside.  Added to the top of the ribbon inside was a sentiment stamp using the same ‘Rusty Bucket’ chalk fluid ink pad, – the sentiment stamp is from a small collection made by Jayne Nestorenko.

It needed a box, because I feared that the roses would get crushed in the post, as this one is going to the other side of the world, so a box was called for…

I made up a white 6×6″ box, but then sprayed it using some Lindys Stamp Gang sprays in two different colours, which matched the papers on the card really well.  I stamped another rose and some leaves this time using a different set of Altenew rose stamps, and once I’d cut the images out, I attached them to the top of the box – only this time the rose and leaves are flat against the box lid so making wrapping and posting easier and safer.

After using these new stamps, how do I feel about them?   Well actually I quite like them.  They give me the opportunity to make something unique and to make it personal, and gear it towards the person I’m making it for.  And … it stops all that fiddling about trying to get different colours of ink onto different parts of a stamp.  With this design it makes everything simple!

The ink cubes …  well the colours are nice…  and they’re VERY juicy, but to be brutally honest I did question if they perhaps had been used before.  The edges of the stamp pads were a bit ragged, as if they were old(ish).  After using them I concluded that they were so juicy they couldn’t possibly be old because they weren’t dried out at all, but I was disappointed on how ragged they were around the edges of the pad bit of the ink pad.  However .. they worked in the right way and they did what they said they’d do on the pot.

The blue roses were made using the Altenew Stamp Cubes.  The Red (pinky) roses and Yellow roses were made using Dew Drops ink pads in four different colours, and all the leaves were stamped using Dew Drops.  So if you have the colours already I think I’d say that you can use your own colours of pads – but make sure you have the right amount of different shades so that you can make the rose … or any other of the stamps which Altenew make.  (and they make quite a lot!)

May I just take a moment to say that I haven’t been paid money or given any crafting goodies for sharing my experience of Altenew Stamps or Stamp Ink Cubes.  Neither have I been encouraged, paid money, nor promised products or discounts to share my experience of the craft shop where I found the stamps I bought.  I don’t work for either of these companies.  I’m just a crafter who’s happy to share experiences with other crafters in order to make our crafty lives happy. 

I’ve really enjoyed playing with these stamps and like the card I made for my friend.  I think she’ll like it too.  There’s nothing so lovely as receiving a hand-made card from someone.

Well, Summer seems to have arrived – although we did have some spectacular thunder and lightning storms a couple of days ago, which scared me half to death and had two of my cats hiding under the furniture, and the dog barking her head off.  It sounded like a war zone … or what I imagine a war zone to sound like.  BOOM.  BOOM! …  rumble … rummmmmmble. (rain starts)  BOOOM ~~  KerBOOM  ~~  BOOOOOM!  I darn near joined the cats under the sofa, I’m telling you!

It’s also very hot here – humid and sticky and tiring.  I keep yawning – and I actually fell asleep in the chair on Monday afternoon!  I think I need to think like the Spanish and take siestas during the summer.  Ahhhh… just the thought is making me smile.

Well, that’s me done and dusted.  I wish you a very happy Tuesday and leave you with a few words to make your smile a little wider ….

Always remember to forget
The things that made you sad
But never forget to remember
The things that made you glad.

Always remember to forget
The friends that proved untrue
But never forget to remember
Those that have stuck by you.

Always remember to forget
The troubles that have passed away
But never forget to remember
The blessings that come each day.

Have a truly blessed day all.  Remember to stop at some point during your day and smile as you make a memory.

Heaps of love and Cobwebby squidges . . .

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