A Far Away Friend

A friend recently moved permanently to Harris in the Outer Hebrides. She was married on a beach there a couple of years ago.  How romantic is that?  I have seen many photos of the beautiful scenery that she wakes up to every morning.  I hope to visit her some day.







So when I saw the latest challenge at Addicted to CAS was.....

....I decided to play along and use Harris as my inspiration.

I used a brayer to apply Distress Inks ( Scattered Straw, Peacock Feathers, Peeled Paint) for the sand, sea and land, tearing paper to  delineate each section. I lightly applied D I Stormy Skies with a sponge to create the sky. The card that was used is from  Clarity Stamp which has a shiny surface and takes to ink well.  The finished image was mounted on to a 6" by 6" textured card.  No sentiment this time.

Old News

Haven't posted for a while but I am determined to get back into it.  I though that I would detail some of the crafty things that I have been up to during my spell away from blogland.

 I attended a demonstation ( free) by Barbara Gray of Clarity Stamps at the Papeterie.  This is quite a coup for the Patererie as Barbara is a very busy lady and it is a long journey for her to make to come to Aberdeen.  From what she said, she was impressed by our neck of the woods - we are very blessed to have access wonderful scenery.  She obviously takes inspiration from her surroundings so I look forward to seeing some samples that depict the flora and fauna that we are surrounded by.    She has promised to come back again next year for two days of demos.

Anyway, she kept about 80 people enthralled with her skills and her humour.  This was made possible by the use of an overhead projector and a web cam. Without this equipment, I don't know how we could all have managed to see what she was doing. The mind boggles! I have watched Barbara create wonderful cards in person for many years at the SECC in Glasgow - usually on my tiptoes peering over the shoulders of others.  

 She is such a lovely person and is obviously committed to encouraging others to have a go at her style of crafting.  Her enthusiasm is infectious.  I attended the afternoon session but I gathered that some had been with her for the whole day!


I managed to takes photos of the results on my phone as she passed them round for all to see.

 I have also ugraded my Silhoutte  SD electronic diecutting machine to the Silhouette Cameo.  A bit rash really as I have only had the SD for a year and a half.  It came in for heavy use during the wedding prepartations detailed in previous blog posts and I thought that the Cameo would enable me to do larger projects.  I justified it by giving it to myself as a 40th wedding anniversary present.  My husband wasn't left out as he got a new high spec. camera. ( I hope to make use of this too!) 


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Stamped Tartan

Now, I can reassure you that this is the final card with my brayered copier paper backgrounds described in previous posts. I'm not saying that I have stopped exploring this technique, only that I am not publishing the cards here. ( for the moment that is.)

When I looked at this particular background, I was immediately reminded of the Harris tweed that reflects the landscape of Scotland. So I overstamped with a checked background stamp that was a free gift from a magazine to give the impression of tartan and then stamped the thistle to finish. 

I then mounted it onto back card and used 1mm foam pads to give "dimension". I may add a sentiment later to suit a particular occasion.

On another note, just to not let it go by without me recording it, today I taught my last ICT lesson with  a class of 7 and 8yr olds in one of our schools. I will retire in 2 wks as an ICT Development Officer. I am constantly astounded by the way in which children approach technology. It is far easier to work with pupils than it is to train their teachers!

Butterfly Wishes

Here comes another one of the backgrounds that I created on copier paper with my brayer( see previous post for details)  I stamped the butterfly first. This came as part of a set by Close to my Heart that was given to me as a present from my crafting buddy, Susy. The other stamps are as delicious as this one.  It doesn't show up on the photograph but the butterfly image contains words such as Fly Free, Believe, dream and Learn.

I looked around for a challenge that I could enter it and came across the Crafts and Me Challenges blog. The theme is Stamp Something (so free reign here) and I reckon this  card fits the bill. The only problem is the the challenge finishes in 8 hrs 30mins.  There have been 269 submissions so I have made a note to return. Not sure that my card sits comfortably with the other entries though  - as I'm in my CAS mode!

Alls Well That Ends Well

I know that this will be a familiar story for most (all) of you. but I had just finished making my card when I decided to add a final touch. I drew a black line frame around the image and ...yes.... I smudged it. Rather than assign it to the basket of other disasters waiting to be resurrected, I created another stamped image and mounted it on to white card big enough  to cover the smudge. This was then glued to the card. No one will know what lies beneath! I refrained from drawing the frame this time though.

The background on this card came from a sheet of cheap copier paper that I was practising with my brayer on. Because it is not "quality", it produced a texture that I loved and decided to use for cards such as these.  Just looking at the results inspired me and I made 5 cards in one session, chopping up the best bits into squares and rectangles.

I used:
Brayer , Big and Juicy Inkpad - Mountain Meadow, Sentiment- Hero Arts, scroll stamp-Crafters Companion

On another note.... My niece, Hollie, stayed for part of the weekend and wanted to make a card for her dad. He has a motorbike and I happened to have a stamp from Personal Impressions that fitted the bill.

Here is she and it.