Hiya, quicky update today.  Well I started Weight Watchers again lol!  So far I've lost 6.5 lbs, so pleased about that.  Had a bit of a shock when I last went to get my bloods done, I seriously need to get my sugar levels down and get some weight off!  So it has stengthen my resolve to be healthier. 

On a happier note, we are off to the Lake District again soon, so I am looking forward to getting up into the hills.  It just makes your heart sing :)

Anyhoo, enough of my waffling today's post is really about a couple of cards with totally different themes, the first is a bright and colourful under the sea theme and the other an outdoors theme with earthy tones.

This card started with me messing about with my distress inks, stamps and my gelli plate.  The background peice was made by swiping sapphire blue, salty ocean and peacock feathers distress inks onto my gelli plate and then spritzing with some shimmer spray.  I know that some people say not to use your inks on the gelli plate because it stains, but to be honest that doesn't really bother me as it's just stuck in it's packaging and I haven't used it really.  I may as well use it for something!  The colours seemed much brighter using this method.  I then flicked water and picket fence distress stain on to the inked card stock.  I recently bought Creative Stamping issue 10 and it had loads of lovely seaside themed stamps with it, I stamped the starfish and scallop shells in a random pattern onto the card and then embossed with stampendous white embossing powder.  I wanted the stamped images to pop so  I outlined them with a inktense pencil and just blended it out with a water brush. The white splatters weren't bright enough so I did some more with picket fence distress paint.  

The lovely mermaid image is by Wee Stamps and I coloured her with promarkers and then glittered her with a stardust pen and waterfall and eucalytus stickles. I mounted her onto American crafts cardstock and added some liquid pearls.

The scallop and starfish were cut from the mermaids and pirates cricut card and as luck happened this cart was the free cut for this week on the cricut website :) I then gave them a bit of a sand, added some shimmer spray and then covered them with rock candy crackle paint.  I like how vibrant this is.  It really made a change from the usual pinks and lilacs I usually use for girly cards :)

This second card I made in Mat for my OH's birthday, I've only just got around to photographing it lol!

All the peices were cut from the outdoor man cart, I combined 2 of the scenes on the cart to give me a forest scene with a mountain in the background, we are walking fans and love to get out into the Peak District and the Lake District and as we'd just got back from a fabulous week in the Lake District, this was perfect, he loved it!  All card stock is American crafts and cor'dinations, sanded and inked.  I used some See'Ds texture stamps to add some texture to the path and the area under the trees.

Well that's all for today, I'm off to drink my tea and make some cute gift card holders Tami White just posted on her YouTube. 

Happy crafting
Anna x

A Few More Odds & Ends I Forgot To Post

Ok, so I said I hadn't done much crafting lol!  When I've gone through my photographs I realised I had more than I thought!

My first attempt at an art journal page, this was so much fun!  Lots of stamping, sketching, and colouring with my promarkers.  I drew the poppies on marker paper and then coloured with promarker and cut them out.  Really would like to do more of this!

A cute card for one of my lovely colleagues at work, image from  All That Scraps
coloured with promarkers

 

Red Nose Day charity bake sale poster, I had so much fun making these silly red noses!

OK! My Bad - Not Posted In 2 Months!

Well here we are in August and I just haven't got around to posting for 2 months!  Haven't done an awful lot of crafting as I've been so busy.  A week in the Lake District in May, plus a week at home with Mark.  Lots of charity events at work including a 10 mile walk last month right in the middle of the heatwave we've been having.  I have another week in the Lake District coming up in September and it's not coming fast enough!

Ok! So here are a few odds and ends I've worked on over the last few months.

Just something silly while trying out my new flex markers :)

A sympathy card, not something I enjoy doing, stamped and coloured with distress markers

This was a bit of a challenge lol!  I had a request for an 50th birthday Elvis themed card, as the lady in question was having an Elvis themed birthday bash.  The actual card shape was made by welding several shapes together in the cricut craft room, the gorgeous photo I found on line and the roses are from I am roses I think.  Overall I think the black and white worked really well :) 

I am the designated charity champion in our store, along with another colleague,  so each month we have to come up with a different charity event.  Aprils was a breakfast hamper raffle, I make posters for all our events this is Aprils. It's always fun to try and come up with a different theme each month :)

These three are all coloured with promarkers, first and last images are from Wee Stamps and the center one is from  All that Scraps

This next card was for my Dads birthday, the ships wheel, sentiment and ship stamps are from Crafters Companion, the stamp used for the wooden panel background is by Bo Bunny I think, the texture for the wood was created by dragging ink pads over the cardstock and the I stamped the boards over the top.  The scene was created using Tim Holtz distress markers on watercolour paper.  The brass plate is from Docrafts.

 This card was for father's day for my Dad, I used the south western cart on my cricut and used a cut downloaded from the cricut project site, I love how vibrant this is :)

Card for my brother-in-law, he is a keen photographer and when out and about taking photos he has what we call a NO! Dad hat lol!  As his kids always shout NO! DAD!  when he puts it on, so here's a cute bear wearing a No! Dad! hat lol!

A quick scrapbook page of our night out bowling and then a meal at an all you an eat Chinese buffet YUM!  Shame I've just started Weight Watchers again lol!  Pics of my hubby, Sister, her hubby and kids :) 

A quick scrapbook page of the Easter goodies I made, the cookies were so good!!

Card for my nephew, used the robots cart and played around with embossing boards and folders to get some additional texture.

 There is more to come, I just have to fiddle around with the photos so they don't take forever to load!