Forever Autumn DCM

The Daring Cardmakers have come over all seasonal and asked us to make something "Forever autumn".

I love autumn colours and carving pumpkins is great fun at this time of year so I decided to combine those things for my card. My pumpkin carving this year might have to be fun and festive rather than spooky as my friend's little girl really didn't like the Voldemort design I had in my porch last year and I'd hate to scare her off, she's a real cutie! I usually get my templates at Zombie Pumpkins and he has a selection of cartoon characters as well as the scary stuff so I might pick one of those!

Inviting a few friends over to help with the carving and maybe to eat pumpkin soup and pie could be a great way to celebrate the season. I used the Invitation Essentials set to do inside and out on this one.

Stamps:
All Things Fall
Invitation Essentials

Paper:
Papaya Puree Dark (Prism Papers)
Smooth white

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tea Dye, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain)

Other:
Sewing machine and thread
Copic markers
Sponge
Classic Circle Nestabilities

New blog alert! and maybe some blog candy, you never know ;)
Cornish Heritage Farms is celebrating a new season, too! A new blog to bring together all the best of CHF creativity has been launched and will feature challenges, highlights from the gallery, news of new designs and lots more. Why not drop by to see what's happening at the Farm? CHF Be Creative - there's rubber to be given away and all you need to do to be in with a chance to is leave a comment!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Harvest home

The Canadians have just celebrated Thanksgiving and the Americans are running up to their celebration which kind of had me wondering - why don't we do this in the UK? I know we have harvest festival services in churches and schools still but we don't really have a national day of celebration do we? Odd!

Anyway, the thing that got me thinking about this was this gorgeous new image from the Saturday Evening Post line at Cornish Heritage Farms. It's set for release next Tuesday (28th October) and as soon as I saw it I said "I think I'm in love!". I coloured this one with pencils but I've done a couple of others too with watercolours and markers and it's an absolute joy to colour with all of them!

I thought a notebook would be a great way to enjoy this image for a bit longer than a card. I removed the covers by gently prising open the spine and made some new, sturdier ones from some chipboard using the originals as a guide to punch the holes. The burlap background stamp was used on the inside of the covers too so the texture carries over.

Stamps (all Cornish Heritage Farms):
Autumn Harvest (Saturday Evening Post line - due for release 28th October 2008)
Burlap backgrounder
Live-Laugh-Love (Rummage Bin line)

Paper: Suede Brown Medium (Prism) and smooth white, chipboard for covers

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Antique Linen, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain)

Other:
Prismacolor pencils/OMS/stump
Wire bound notebook
Cropodile to make holes through covers

Thanks for visiting today, hope your day is a good one!

The shape I'm in...

The challenge today over at Cornish Heritage Farms today is to make a shaped card. I rarely think to do this so I thought it would be fun to give it a go! Last month's Craft Stamper magazine featured some fun fairy doors so I decided to do a little adaptation and make a fairy door card. I think this would be great fun for a little girl's birthday or 'just because' card. Perhaps the tooth fairy might even leave it to remind her to make her wish?

The top is trimmed to shape with a pair of scissors and I scored the door before stamping the wood grain backgrounder to give the impression of planks. I painted over the stamped swirl with acrylic paint just to give a tiny bit of dimension. The slightly less precise feel of the freehand paint seemed to go with the fact it's representing foliage, too. Tiny dots of 3D paint to represent blossom finish it off. I've added a couple of chipboard 'washers' behind the brad so that the handle really stands proud of the surface and can be used to open the door.

Stamps (all Cornish Heritage Farms):
Wood grain backgrounder
Weathered Wood backgrounder
Beautiful (the Rummage Bin line)
Everyday Petites (Mon Lisa Moments line)

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Walnut Stain)

Other:
Acrylic paint
Dylon 3D paint (like Liquid Pearls)
Decorative brad (Making Memories)

Lots of the DT girls are making shaped cards today so it's a worth visiting the links (over on the right) to see what kind of shape they're in, too!

Thanks for visiting today, hope you had fun!

Simplify!

Life these days is complicated. A quick reminder of the important things doesn't go amiss every now and again, I think: live-laugh-love. If you can do that, you have it licked!

Today's technique lover challenge over on Splitcoast is a cute stair fold card and I thought it would be perfect for a little flock of primitive sheep.

Stamps are from the new Primitive Singles line at Cornish Heritage Farms, releasing tomorrow.
- Live-Laugh-Love
- Primitive Sheep

Paper: Herbal Garden Dark (Prism), hammer texture ivory

Ink: Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)

Other: star brad, piercing tool, Scor-it, sponge

If like me, you don't have a piercing template, sketch or stamp a swirl onto scrap paper and pierce along the lines, just eyeballing the distance between holes. A little difference just adds to the homespun charm on a project like this!

I don't cut out the fiddly bits like the legs on this sheep - just stamp on your project, then cut out the main part of the image from your ivory cardstock and stick it over the image you stamped on your card base and your sheep's legs will look perfect!

TFL!

Too much to make, too little time!

Isn't that how we all feel sometimes? Lots of projects we'd love to do and things we feel we 'have' to make as well. Especially come Christmas time when we'd love to send a hand made card to loads of people but it's just not practical to spend hours over each one.

This week, the Cornish Heritage Farms Challenge Chicks mission is to create a quick card. I chose to make a quick Christmas design with this fabulous Saturday Evening Post Santa - even though he looks wonderful coloured in he's detailed enough to stand up on his own without a lot of extra work. I think he looks kind of like an old fashioned etching. I've just added a stamped sentiment, a bit of sponging around the edges and a pop of sparkly colour on the holly - a 10 minute card!

Stamps:
Santa's Lap (Saturday Evening Post line)
Christmas Expressions (Mona Lisa Moments line)

Paper: smooth white

Ink: Versafine by Tsukineo (Vintage Sepia), Tim Holtz Distress by Ranger (Vintage Photo)

Other: Copic Spica AtYou glitter pens (red and green)


Lots of DT members have quick card ideas to share with you today so if you could use a few quick tricks up your sleeve you might want to take a peep...
Alli
Becky
Carole
Jennifer
Julia
Julie
Kim
Kristine
Lisa Silver
Michele
Val

All the items for the Think Pink online auction are now on the Think Pink blog so if you'd like to help us raise some money for Breast Cancer Care, please take a peep and consider making a bid - hand made items and stash are on offer! It's a sealed bid auction so you'll need to make your best offer on anything you want - we're aiming to raise as much as we can! Thanks to everybody who has donated items and those who've already placed their bids too!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Dabbing it here, dabbing it there...

...paint and paper everywhere (sorry, you probably need to be British and have had Victorian era music hall songs pushed at you during your education for that!). It's Challenge Chicks day at Cornish Heritage Farms and today's challenge focuses on Adirondack paint dabbers. I'll confess right now that I own the sum total of one dabber (Snowcap) but it's probably the nicest acrylic paint I've come across so even without the aid of a crystal ball I see more in my future. The paint is thick and the foam dabber top makes it easy to apply to your stamps. To continue with the theme of the opening song... unlike father papering the parlour, it's definitely not going to go everywhere, it's very easy to control. The only word of caution is that it's best to clean up your stamp promptly as the paint does tend to dry quickly on there and it's easier to remove before it dries. I've not yet found a white ink that I'm really happy with the coverage of so for me, this white dabber seemed like the perfect choice to do a white-on-black card. I also used it to paint the chipboard letters. The pointing finger is a sticker; you could also use a dingbat font to print out and cut round yourself. Raising it on foam pads lets you overlap the finger tip and the chipboard lettering a little. Stamps: AlphaNumber backgrounder (Cornish Heritage Farms) Ink: Adirondack Paint Dabber - Snowcap Paper: Epic Laid Black (Prism) and smooth white Other: chipboard letters (Maya Road), sticker (Office Daisy Dots by Heartwarming Vintage/Crafty Secrets), foam pads Other DT members playing along and finding lots of lovely uses for Adirondack acrylics are: Julia Kim Kristine Lisa Silver Sherrie Thanks for stopping by today, I appreciate you taking a slice out of your day to visit my corner of the web!

Use your talents

Kathy has set this week's DCM challenge, she'd like us to use this quote on our cards in some way:

Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.

Henry Van Dyke

I had this image in my head straight away - I measured the size of the journal block stamp and printed out the quote from my PC into a box that size then used a stamp positioner to stamp over the top of the writing. I masked the block and stamped with two background stamps then sponged various inks over the woodgrain. I added a little bit of pencil colouring on the bird, a touch of white gel pen to hightlight some of the swirls and a drop shadow with a Copic. Two antique brass jumbo eyelets finish off the rustic look. I spritzed with Glimmer Mist too but that's really hard to pick up with the camera so you'll have to imagine the subtle shimmer, I'm afraid!

Hope you're enjoying using your own special talents today, thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Journal Box, Wood grain and Spanish Script backgrounders (all Cornish Heritage Farms)

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Antique Linen, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain)

Other: Prismacolor pencils, Copic marker, extra large eyelets (We R Memory Keepers), Inkssentials white pen by Ranger, Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels (Antique Brass), PC and printer

Live Life Wisely the DCM way

Now there's a mantra we could probably all use from time to time: live life wisely! This week's challenge over at Daring Card Makers is a sketch. Here's my take on it...

When I cut my piece of twill tape for this card, it curled over at the end and I decided I liked the effect so I stitched it down in a way that let it keep right on curling!

My only change to the sketch was to tilt the rectangle at a slight angle as straight didn't really seem right with the slightly grungy feel of this. I've roughed up the edges a bit too (I just use scissors held in a V shape to do this).

Stamps: Journal Box, Time to Stamp, Aged Sheet Music Scrapblock™, Spanish Script Backgrounder (all Cornish Heritage Farms)

Ink: Adirondack dye ink by Ranger - Espresso and Latte

Paper: Prism Suede Brown dark, smooth white, ivory hammer texture

Other: blending chalk, cotton twill tape, extra large eyelet (We R Memory Keepers), sewing machine and thread.

TFL! Hope you liked it :o)

It's Challenge Chicks day!

It's Challenge Chicks day at Cornish Heritage Farms and today's challenge is to use Adirondack inks. I love these inks and my colour selection is growing perhaps a bit more rapidly than my wallet would like - the news that they're launching a range of pigment inks to coordinate with the existing dye-based ones might not be good news for the budget!

This adorable collage stamp is a new release from the Rummage Bin line at Cornish Heritage Farms and will be available tomorrow. She looks so dejected, all dressed up in her pretty frock, you have to hope that she's right and her prince really does show up some day!

I brayered Espresso ink onto the rubber to stamp the image and then used other ink pads to watercolour her (if you don't have reinkers you can just squish the lid of your pad down onto the felt and when you open it up you'll have a little pool of ink you can use with a brush). Her skin was coloured with pencils to give it a smoother, slightly more solid look. I just sponged a bit of ink onto the background so that the colouring keeps the focus on the little girl.

As little girls often seem to have a collection of 'treasures', either in pockets or in a special box, I added some eclectic bits and pieces as embellishments on the card.

TFL! Hope you enjoyed your visit today.

Stamps (all from the Rummage Bin line at CHF):
Someday My Prince Collage
Swirls from Beautiful
Clocks from Time to Stamp

Paper: Scrapblock Layers and smooth white

Ink:
Adirondack by Ranger (Espresso, Latte, Raisin, Cool Peri)

Other:
Lyra Skintone pencils
Gold gel pen (scribbled on to plastic and used as watercolour for her crown)
Vintage Buttons
Vintage lace
Waxed linen thread
Square brad

Lots of the CHF girls are playing today, why not check out some more uses of these fabulous, vibrant inks?

Alli
Becky
Dawn
Jennifer
Julia
Julie
Kim
Kristine
Lisa Silver
Michele
Val

Santa's Lap!

It must be something about the unseasonably cold weather and the nights starting to draw in - I keep wanting to make Christmas things!

I love this Santa stamp and wanted to make something with a bit longer life than a Christmas card so that I can bring him out each year! The canvas is 8" x 8" with torn cardstock stuck at top left and the gold circle painted directly onto the canvas with acrylic paint. I stamped Santa and the little boy onto smooth cardstock and coloured them with Prismacolor Pencils then cut the image out and stuck over the gold circle. I wanted to retain the artist's initials though so I inked just that part of the stamp and stamped directly onto the canvas before I stuck Santa into position. I used the edge of the inkpad to apply a little ink directly under the image to ground it a bit.

Here's a little bit of trivia for you: this image originally appeared as a cover for the Saturday Evening Post in 1923. The SEP enjoys iconic status in America and is the subject of many a fond recollection (it stopped publishing in 1969). The artist for this image was J C Leyendecker.

I dusted off Mr CraftRobo (he's been a little neglected since I discovered stamping) and cut the word Christmas in a nice cursive font. I added some Glossy Accents to give a raised finish. The word merry is chipboard letters that have been inked and dry brushed with gold acrylic paint.

I guess everything else is obvious, lots of ink and sponging, some Prima flowers and a brad. The red velour fabric is tacked onto the frame with small nails to hold it in that kind of ruched way.

If you have a computerised cutter that uses gsd files and you would like the welded word Christmas, just send me a message and I will happily send you the file for your personal use.

TFL, hope you enjoyed your visit today.

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Stamps: Santa's Lap (Saturday Evening Post line), Aged Sheet Music Scrapblock™ (Cornish Heritage Farms)

Ink: Fired Brick, Antique Linen and Vintage Photo - Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger, Vintage Sepia and Onyx Black Versafine by Tsukineko

Paper: smooth white

Other: 8x8" canvas, Prima flowers, crystal brad (Making Memories), Prismacolor and Lyra Skintone pencils/OMS/stump, velour fabric, white satin ribbon, chipboard letters (Maya Road), metallic gold acrylic paint

Tools: sponge, Craftrobo