Elephants

Well here we are already a whole week into the new year and I have to say I am struggling to get back to normal ( whatever that is ) It has been very cold here this week and as I do my crafting in the conservatory I find it too chilly to sit there for very long, even though there is a good heater in there. We live in a bit of a dip and don't get much sun at this time of year, and there has been a couple of very white frosty days this week and the frost just doesn't melt all day. It has been a bit warmer today but it has been very dark and dreary so I'm afraid it is more tempting to sit in the warmth of the lounge with my knitting in the afternoon. This week I have been trying to finish a cardigan I was making for one of my great granddaughters so that I was ready to start a new crochet blanket yesterday. My  daughter gave me the kit for Christmas and the pattern is to be published on Fridays as a Crochet Along on Lucy's Attic 24 blog starting yesterday. I made a start last night making the long starting chain and then the first two rows which form the first stripe.  Now I need to try and get the next 18 stripes done before next Friday. I wonder if I will be able to keep up. Hope fully it will be warmer next week and I can get back to my craft table but in the mean time I am showing you this card that I made for my husbands birthday a while before Christmas and never got around to blogging it.
He really likes elephants so when I saw this art stamp from Imagination Crafts  I just had to buy it. I stamped it with Archival Watering Can ink onto some silver grey pearlised card and then mounted it onto light blue pearlised card. The greeting is from  Chocolate Baroque stamped and mounted to match. The backing paper is from an 8"x 8" pad of oriental designs, I'm sorry I don't know the make or name, but I have had it quite a long time. I trimmed it slightly smaller than the front of a 6"x 6" base card, and embossed the right hand side of it with a Stampin Up embossing folder,Stylish Stripes. I added a piece of striped ribbon at the edge of the embossing before fixing the the image and greeting panels.

I am entering this at Patties Creations Challenge - Use An Animal Image
                                 Seize The Birthday - Anything Goes

Thank you for your visit here today, sorry it has been a bit of a ramble. Thank you too if you leave a comment, I love to read them and really appreciate them .

Jean

The big 50

Well here we are it's the first day of a brand new year,and I wonder what it has in store for each of us. I'll start by wishing health and happy times in 2017 to all my readers here. I have spent very little time at the computer lately and appolgise for my lack of commenting and blogging recently. I am really hoping to make better use of my time this year and get back to blogging more regularly.
This card I am showing today was made for my daughter who celebrated her 50th birthday this week. ( That makes me feel quite old!!) I am sorry about the quality of the photo, it was taken under artificial light. The card is actually ivory and not white as it appears, and looked much warmer. I cut and folded the 6"square card from a sheet of linen textured card, and then found a snippet of smooth card which matched to stamp on. The bear stamp is part of a set from Docrafts which I think I got for a bargain price in the Range some time ago. It's a good set because it has several of bears in different sizes and also lots of little elements which stamp really well and I have found them very useful. It also has some sentiment stamps included too. I stamped the bear with Memento Rich Cocoa ink and coloured it with Derwent Colousoft pencils blending the shades with Sansodor. I coloured the envelope with a white gel pen to make show up better on the ivory card. The image was then cut out with a Spellbinder die from the Marvelous Squares set. I cut a square of patterned paper from a 6"x 6"Papermania pad using a Li'l inker stitched die and stuck it cornerwise onto the front of the card. I stamped Happy Birthday directly onto the card with a Chocolate Baroque stamp and Rich Cocoa ink. The 50th was cut from another small snippet of ivory card using a Britannia die. I coloured all the cut edges including the image and the numbers by running the edge of a dark brown distress marker along them. This is a bit fiddly especially on the small bits but it really adds definition to the edges. When the main image was stuck in place I cut a butterfly from another piece of the patterned paper and stuck it over the original one using silicon glue to raise the wings slightly.

I am taking this with it's couple of snippets to play in Pixies Snippet Playground where there is, as always, a super prize up for grabs.

I am also entering at Penny Black and More Challenge -Anything Goes
                                 Fashionable Stamping - Anything Goes
                                 That's Crafty -Anything Goes.

Thank you for your visit, Please leave a comment so I know you have been. I read and appreciate all of them.
Jean