Mermaid Week - Day 5 - Mama Elephant

I was lucky enough to win this stamp set from one of my favourite shops Dies to Die For in their big Christmas giveaway. I had it on my craft desk and when my eldest came in one rather miserable Sunday afternoon she spotted it and we all trooped downstairs to colour them in.

I stamped them on to Strathmore Coloured Pencil paper - for me! - and some white cardstock for the girls. I found some old Caran D'Ache junior pencils that my sister gave me and we sharpened them up and used those.

With my colouring on the thin paper, I decided I would make a shaped card with it and cut it out with my old faithful Spellbinders Standard Circle Large dies. I then got a card blank and cut it out with the same circle die, being careful to have it over the edge of the fold so it wouldn't cut there.I just attached the coloured panel on the front with some ATG tape.

Thank you so much for your encouraging comments on my posts this week and over on IG. If you do fancy playing along, don't forget to tag me and use #ruthsmermaidweek.

Happy Mermaid Crafting!!!

Mermaid Week - Day 4 - Lawn Fawn

This was the first mermaid set I bought and I've had it for very nearly two years now. I found two videos of me using it a couple of years ago with Inktense Pencils and using it with Felt. It's definitely had good use!

I wanted to make a spinner card as I think the little mermaid and the merman look as if they should be holding hands and swimming towards each other doing so.

Anyway, here's my card:

I used my Hahnemuhle paper again and blended distress inks over it in three shades of blue - no of course I didn't write it down! - I flicked on some warer and dabbed it off. This paper is brilliant for taking off the distress ink and leaving a fantastic splatter. I then added splatters with my Spectrum Sparkle pens.

I coloured the mermaid, merman and narwhal with my Caran D'Ache watercolour pencils and metallic water soluble pencils. The sea creatures are from my Clearly Besotted set and I used my Gansai Tambi on those. They were originally meant to go in yesterday's card, but didn't seem right for the occasion.

I put my spinner card together. If you want to know how to do this, I have a spinner tutorial on my YouTube channel.

The spin was a little sticky but once the whole card was dry, they flew around quite happily.


I've had so much fun with these mermaid cards and I'm so glad I've managed to use quite a lot of different media on them too. Please keep sharing on Instagram with #ruthsmermaidweek and don't forget to tag me @craftingwhilethebabynaps.



Keep on crafting!

It's a boy!

Hello, crafty friends. I don't know about you, but I can't believe it's July already. June was quite a crafty month with the Daily Marker 30 Day 2. I'm sad it's over, because I had so much fun learning new things, but all good things must come to an end, and it's time I started turning all that colouring into cards! 

Over on Instagram (it's lovely, really lovely, so much inspiration and friendly crafters!) I shared some colouring linked to a baby a friend was expecting. I hedged my bets and did two lots, one in pink and one in blue. I'm not usually quite so generic, but sometimes inspiration is lacking! Anyway, it turned out to be a boy, by the name of George, so blue it is!

I stuck with simple and decided to make a shaker too - any chance to get those Lucy Abram's shaker mixes out!

Supplies: White Card Blank (14.75x14.75cm); ME Up And Away Stamps and Dies; Papermania 6x6 Papers Capsule Collection; Memento Tuxedo Black; VersaMagic Dew Drop Night Sky; Derwent Artists Pencils; Caran D'Ache Metallic Pencils; LF Large Stitched Square Lawn Cuts; Acetate; Double-sided Tape; Red tape; Adhesive backed Fun Foam; CB Sweet Little Sentiments; Lucy's Little Things Shaker Sequin selection Glacier; Joe and Flo Baker's Twine; Sellotape Double Sided Sticky Foam Pads; Ranger Multi Medium Matte; Bazzill Cardshoppe - blue; VersaMagic Dew Drop Aspen Mist

I started by die cutting a square of blue Bazzill Cardshoppe using two of the LF large stitched square lawn cuts to make a frame. I then attached a piece of acetate to the back of the square aperture to start the shaker section. I then hand cut a piece of adhesive backed fun foam to match the size of the frame, and stuck it down on the back of my blue card. Face down on my craft mat I then filled the shaker section with lots of Lucy's lovely sequins and things. 

I then attached some very sticky red tape to the back of the fun foam, positioned it face down on my craft mat and attached the card base on the top. I'm getting better at this the more I do and this one is not too squint!

I then attached some baker's twine to the back of the balloons and then to the monkey's hand. Then, with double sided sticky foam pads, attached them to the card front as shown.

The sentiment is stamped in Aspen Mist and attached with sticky foam pads. The additional sequins started by covering a slight smudge, but I added a few more so it wasn't quite so obvious! They are stuck on with the Multe Medium Matte.

Hope you survived the mid week heat wave - that'll be summer over now in the UK, we've already had torrential rain today!

Do enjoy your weekend, whatever the weather. Thanks, as always, for reading :)

Tea-riffic!

Hello crafty friends! Been a bit hectic this past week without a huge amount of time to do any crafting. We're away for a few days visiting family and also celebrating a big birthday for a really good friend. It's a birthday with a 0 at the end of it and this friend deserves a really good do. I'm sharing the card I made her with you today. She loves tea, so the Best Pun Ever from Lawn Fawn was just perfect:

[Supplies: Spellbinders Nestabilities Large Circles (I did not buy them from here, but they are no longer listed where I did buy them); LF Let's Polka 6x6 Paper Pad; LF Best Pun Ever stamp set and dies; LF Large Stitched Squares; Ranger Dye Ink; Ranger Glossy Accents; Wink of Stella 8mm Pen; Caran D'Ache Prismallo Aquarelles; CB Long Flag Die;]


It's a shaker card using the tea cups from the set and also some cupcake stamps I bought cheap in Hobbycraft, as the shaker elements along with some clear sequins. The tea cups were stamped in different Ranger Dye Inks, as was the tea cup on the outside, coloured using my Prismallo Aquarelle water colour pencils, then covered in glossy accents. The cupcakes have also been outlined using my Wink of Stella pen to add some sparkle. I encased them all in a square from my Papermania capsule collection cut using my LF large stitched squares, with the aperture cut using my Spellbinders large circles. I adhered it to the card with lots of fun foam. The background paper is LF Let's Polka. The sentiment is from the Best Pun Ever set stamped in Ranger Dye Pink Gumball onto the CB long flag die.

I really love this card and hope she does too. Thanks for reading and as always, have a fantastic weekend!

Butterflies and Roses

Two posts in two days? I'm getting carried away with all my The Daily Marker 30 Day Colouring Challenge and also the Pretty Pink Posh Watercolour Blog Hop. If you haven't been joining in with the former, you have lots of time still, but with the former, you have until Monday at 11:55pm PST (which I think is Pacific Standard Time!). The cards that are there from the design team are truly inspirational, and lead into even more inspirational cards from Joe Public - I had no idea there were so many crafters and water colourists out there.

 

I started off my card with just a blank square of water colour card stock and stamped and embossed a rose and some butterflies using my free Clearly Besotted stamp set from Simply Cards and Papercraft (issue 134). I then got busy with my Spectrum Aquas using the floral range (this is the one I use most often!). This was the result:

I liked the rose and the butterflies but wasn't happy with the background, so inspired by Debby Hughes' post using tags, I got out my CB rounded tag die and cut out the rose and the big butterfly, then fussy cut out the smaller butterflies. I found some previously die cut rectangles in my scraps box, got a couple of card blanks, one Kraft, the other white and with a bit of tape adhered the rectangles to the cards, then with some fun foam, the rose and butterfly tags on top. Some twine and then another butterfly set them off. I had to cut the cards down a bit as the rectangles didn't fit so well with the size they were, so using my WRMK Envelope Punch board, I made some new envelopes for them. I loved that when the cardstock went through my die cutting machine it went from textured to smooth. A different touch.

[Supplies: Spectrum Aquas Floral; Versa Mark Ink; WOW! Embossing Powder Bright White; Simply Cards and Papercraft Issue 133; Baker's Twine - Joe and Flo; Bazzill Paper] 

I've another butterfly card I made earlier in the week that I'd like to share because the challenge at Addicted to CAS is butterfly:

 
[Supplies: Memento Tuxedo Black; CD Metallic Pencils; Wink of Stella]

Again using my CB freebies, these are simply stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured with Caran D'Ache metallic pencils, with some Wink of Stella on top. Very very simple.

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you have time to do some colouring and join in with the blog hop :)

My first shaker card!

Hello everyone, hope you're looking forward to the Bank Holiday weekend - those in the UK, at least! 

Tonight I'm bringing you my first ever shaker card. I have tried these before, without much success. Now I'm not saying it's perfect, but it does work and half the sequins aren't on the floor. I think I need a bit more practice, so this is hopefully the first of a few. No doubt a splurge on some nice sequins will be required - #impoverishedhappycrafter :)

  
I've made it using some of the new things I received the other day in my haul. It's a basic 6x6 card blank with a piece of Lawn Fawn Let's Polka as backing. The shaker part is a nice grey from my Papermania capsule collection, die cut with the new Lawn Fawn stitched squares - they cut beautifully - filled with some sequins from Hobbycraft. I need some Pretty Pink Posh! 

I wanted to see the backing paper through the shaker box, so it is backed with acetate to contain the sequins before attaching to the card - did I mention before that usually they end up on the floor? Some time looking at how to make shaker card videos might be well spent over the next couple of days.

The set is Mama Elephant Up and Away, stamped in various Memento dye inks, coloured with Derwent pencils. The balloons are coloured using my metallic Caran D'Ache, with a bit of Wink of Stella and glossy accents. The fox is hanging on with some red baker's twine.

I'm just so happy it worked, I had a lot of fun making it.

Thanks for reading, enjoy your weekend!

April Showers

They keep talking about a heat wave, but it's avoiding West Yorkshire at the moment, so with the grey weather in mind I decided to try the challenge at Addicted to CAS - Code word Showers.

The card top is a piece of water colour card die cut from the Memory Box stitched rectangles with the images stamped in Ranger Archival Ink. I used the bicycle from Clearly Besotted's Good Times set (the first thing I purchased from them and it's still my favourite!) and the umbrella from the Mama Elephant Up and Away set. I then added some colour using my Prismallo Aquarelles, and some rain dashes (ME Up and Away) in Memento London Fog. The sentiment (also ME Up and Away) is in Versa Magic Night Sky rather than my usual tuxedo black for a change!

Been a long week without much crafting, and it's funny how frustrated you can get without a bit of 'me' time, so I was grateful for baby's long nap this morning.

Thanks for reading! It's nearly the weekend again and hopefully it will be a bit brighter up north :)

PS Apologies for the not so great picture. I need to work out a better set up in my tiny craft space and also get a decent camera!

I like big books...

I bought a few nice things in the March release from Clearly Besotted Stamps. I do so love their style! The Bookworm Additions I had to have because I'm a librarian by profession and have lots of librarian and also book loving friends who will appreciate this... if only for the pun on the flag!

I have some Kraft card I bought a few weeks ago as I kept seeing it mentioned in various magazines and blogs. I'm not entirely sure I like it, but I'm willing to give it a go. I also hadn't used any lovely Bazzill for a while, so I grabbed some of my browns as I thought it would go with the Kraft. Who knew I'd like brown so much?

I started by stamping one of the books from the Bookworms set using my old favourite, Memento Tuxedo Black and colouring it in with my Derwent pencils with a bit of metallic from my new Caran D'Ache set. I stamped the two bookworms (one from the main set, the other from additions), plus the flag with my Versa Magic Dew Drops - Hint of Pesto, Aloe Vera, Perfect Plumeria - and then die cut them out.

I took some Bazzill card stock and cut to size to layer on the Kraft. I then die cut a circle using my Nestabilities Circles, from the top piece. It is just wide enough to show the bookcase behind it. I glued the bookcase to the back card, then stuck the bookworms to the back of the top piece of card, so they'd be in front of the books (they are a bit cheeky those bookworms!). I then attached the top piece with foam tape to add a bit of dimension. The banner I also adhered with foam pads.

It makes me laugh and I hope it does you too! Thanks for reading :)

Monkey baby

A friend had baby no. 2 last week. Another little boy. Time for a card! I've been thinking about it for the past week and decided I'd incorporate it into the Tic Tac Toe challenge from Make The Day Special. I've chosen the diagonal Metal/Metallics-Circles-Stripes. It actually turned out pretty much how I envisaged it which is a first!

I started by stamping the balloons from the Up and Away Mama Elephant set onto a piece of white card using Memento Tuxedo Black. I coloured the balloons in with my new metallic pencils from Caran D'Ache. I love them and have to use them again soon! I cut them out (I need to get the dies to go with this set) and attached them with foam pads to the stamp on the card blank. I stamped the monkey onto the card blank holding the balloon strings and coloured him in with my Derwent Artists Pencils.

Now, the tricky bit was the tail and the little blue bundle. I used a cut out balloon to create a stencil of the bundle and cut it out of white paper then inked it up with in Aspen Mist. I got some blue and white twine and tied it round the neck of the bundle. I then stamped the monkey's tail onto some white card, coloured it in and then cut it out - that was hard! I then threaded the twine through the tail and stuck it onto the monkey and a foam pad under the bundle. Think it works well!

The jungle is the free Clearly Besotted fuschia stamp from Simply Cards and Papercraft issue 133 and stamped multiple times in Hint of Pesto. The sentiment is also from Clearly Besotted (yes I am!) and their Sweet Little Sentiments set.

I added the stripes from my Pebbles basics set down the side because I needed stripes for the challenge.

Thanks so much for reading. Please feel free to leave me a comment. I love hearing from you. I hope you've had a great Easter weekend. 

Another engagement!

This time my older sister, which is really lovely, although I rather hope she's not reading this because I haven't sent it yet! If she is - it'll be with you next week :)

As usual it's a white card blank. I'm favouring tent fold at the moment. I cut a piece of my new Papermania 6x6 smooth coloured card slightly smaller than the card base. I chose purple because of the fuschias. The stamps are from the free Clearly Besotted set from Simply Cards and Papercraft issue 133, and the inspiration for the card came from there as well as from Vixx Handmade Cards. 

The leaves are stamped in Versa Magic DewDrop Hint of Pesto and then fussy cut. The buds and flowers stamped in Jet Black Ranger Archival Ink onto water colour paper. I then took the opportunity to use my new Caran D'Ache Prismallo Aquarelles that I bought on holiday. I like them, and I'll practice a bit more with them. After the vibrancy of the Inktense pencils, these were different to work with. I fussy cut the fuschias out too and attached them all with foam pads to the card front.

The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted's Mr & Mrs set. I rounded the corners of the card top with the reverse punch on my WRMK Envelope Punch Board and attached it with foam tape.

Thanks for reading and I'm hoping my sister likes it!

Crafty Switzerland :)

We're on holiday in Switzerland, but that hasn't stopped me hunting down some crafty things to take back home to Blighty. I love my three Derwent Inktense pencils, and I'd like some more. However, every time I go to an art shop, they only have the single pencils in stock and I'd rather buy a tin of 12 - it's more economical at the price they are.

Whilst shopping for baby's first birthday present (tomorrow!!) in the Coop (it's a supermarket with a shopping centre) in Lausanne, I came across Caran D'Ache tins of watersoluble pencils. The pencils are Swiss made (like Derwent are British made) the company has been around for 100 years. I thought it would be a nice reminder of our trip, so I purchased:

A tin of 12 Prismalo Aquarelle

A carton of 6  Fancolor Metallic colour pencils - I thought they were different!

And for good measure some handmade butterfly stickers from the craft section I just liked the look of.

No photo because despite me following all the instructions, Google+ won't talk to my iPad and I can't upload photos from this device. Suffice to say, they are lovely and I am very happy. Just to survive the journey back with the kiddies so I can use them :)