A Little Bird Told Me ..

Today it is a simple little card for a man (don't we hate those)  I was struggling to come up with an idea, and then the postie delivered some mail with this lovely little die from Tonic in it (which was free with an order!)  Result - just what I needed.

I cut it out of black card, also using one of my Clarity picot dies around it      I could have chosen not to use the picot die and just cut the image out of the centre of the card.   (It also comes with it's own surround to make a hanging bauble tag sort of thing.) 

I also cut a circle from Clarity Designer paper (Rainbow River) to back the image.

As my eyes are still not that good following my cataract op  (distance is fine, but still have problems with close work until I get me new glasses) I used a square die to align the pencil lines I wanted to draw in the corner (I know even so they are a bit wobbly as I couldn't actually see the corner of the die - duh! .... but you get the gist of the idea to make life simpler.

Keeping the front of the card simple, I just made an insert in Craft Artist to continue the sentiment, and created some matching corners, and added a picture of aircraft in greyscale to complete, as the recipient loves aircraft.

Introducing MDF Tim - Spaceman

My latest project is complete -  MDF Tim Peake (as requested by my daughter).

view of one arm

view of second arm

back

sitting

I had a guide from a picture of a lego Tim, and also some pictures of Tim's space suit.   I had an inspiration for his hair - I modelled it using FMM Air Dry Clay - this proved a brilliant idea, as it can be removed.    When dry the hair was painted with various shades of brown, etc.

Work in  Progress - Face added with Posca Pens

I used Craft Artist to design his "clothes"  - taking the badges in and re-sizing them.  I created some zips.  I also took his name badge from his space suit, and then redrew it using a couple of elements from the real one (i.e. clasps etc.)  Having checked sizes by printing on copy paper and adjusting as necessary, I had intended to print them on rice paper, but my printer didn't want to play .... and then by chance I found some printable clear adhesive sheets in my stash - Result!

Picture of Tim's space suit for comparison.

If you would like to build and paint your own MDF brick man - you can find him (or her if you want to paint it as a girl) at Clevercut.co.uk.

5 year old granddaughter learns to use Craft Artist

Front

Back 

Insert

I have already mentioned that I had the grandchildren over the weekend, and that the 5 year old created a picture for her Dad that I forgot to take a picture of.   Well on Sunday, having seen the card her sister made for a friend she wanted to have another go and make a card for her Mum and fiancé.    With the help of her 8 year old sister this is what she created in Craft Artist.  and I promised to put it on my blog.   (I should add here that they have three cats and a dog - thus the theme).

I love that they want to learn to use all these skills, and will always encourage them.  (Obviously the 5 (nearly 6 year old is just learning to work with computers at school now.

They all also enjoy colouring, so the colouring books, pencils and alcohol pens were all out on the table over the weekend.   All they were too young to do papercutting - we photocopied a couple of the designs, and the youngest two coloured them in instead!

I had intended to introduce them to the messy art of paint pouring - but we didn't get that far ...... so that is saved for another day!

Wine Buff!

A card for my son who enjoys his glass of red wine!  I have used the Katy Sue Designs "The Wine Buffs" cd.  backing paper and main image matted and layered onto burgundy card stock.  I then 3d'd  the glasses and the bottle.   (I used craft artist platinum to create glasses and the bottle as they were originally on white backgrounds.)  I imported them into Publisher and added the wording and the numbers.

The insert using one of the backing papers from the cd and one of the toppers (all imported into Publisher)

finally a bottle label from the cd with words added for the "handmade by " bit on the back!

Iggle Piggle Cakes & Card

It is my youngest granddaughter's second birthday on Sunday.  She is adores Iggle Piggle.  My daughter-in-law wanted to make her main cake - so I offered to make some fairy cakes, knowing that they are all the rage now.   Must confess I don't "DO" fairy cakes as a rule - apart from adding a bit of water icing or turning them into butterflies!  However, at a recent sugarcraft show - everything was fairy cakes, so I treated myself to some cutters (the large cakes) and also a head mould, which I used for the little cakes.  Hopefully the children will think they look like Iggle Piggle and Upsy Daisy! 

The large cup cakes were iced with  Burgundy M&B Paste with a Regalice flower added and a few pink sugar sprinkles.  The mini cakes were iced with Karen Davies sugarpaste - vanilla flavour for Iggle Piggle and Marshmallow flavour for Upsy Daisy.

as you will see these compliment the card I have made for her

The card was created using some Daisy and Dandelion images and put together in MCS.  Iggle Piggle, present and the two cup cakes on the right were decoupaged.   You can't really see it from the picture, but quite a bit of Sakura glitter and clear glaze pens were used on the image.  The sentiment was added to the picture in Craft Artist Platinum.  Just updated this photo as decided to add some flowers to compliment the cakes!

Birthday Owl

I have been playing with Craft Artist Platinum for past few days - still a few glitches in the programme which keeps crashing!  Panic set in yesterday when I had been creating this image and the programme crashed again on going to print preview!   Was ready to send the disks back last night and went to bed really miffed as couldn't een re-open the programme!  However, this morning's attempt opened the programme and I managed to recover most of what I had done!

Well this is it - used a digi image of an owl and coloured it using the brushes!  Then added a few bits and bobs, some text on the bottle and a greeting.  Hope it will make my daughter chuckle!