I need a pintervention.

Do you ever find yourself in a creative slump? Sit in your space and not know where to start? Have lots of ideas but don't get round to committing them to paper? That's what I am experiencing right now. The last card I made was at the beginning of April and it took 5 minutes, tops, before then, the last time I properly crafted was the end of March, my mojo has officially vanished.

Today I thought I would share two cards that I made for a submission call at the beginning of the year that were rejected, fortunately a third card was picked up for publication :) As I like to prepare all of my submission forms I thought I would include the full product lists and instructions.

I love this card, the colours, the chevrons (yeah, I still dig chevrons), just all of it!

Cardstock: (Kraft) Recollections, Michaels. Other paper: (Vellum, White), Making Memories Clear stamps: (Hello sentiment from Mini Blooms), Papertrey Ink. Ink: (Versamark) Tsukineko Embossing powder: (Gold) WOW! Color media…markers, pencils, pens: (Turquoise Perfect Pearls) Ranger. (Mango Orange Mica Powder) Cosmic Shimmer Paint: (Gelatos) Faber Castell. (Tarnished Brass, Distress Stain) Ranger. Accent: (orange, turquoise and gold seed beads) Michaels. Fibers: (Gold thread), Korbond. (white thread) Gutermann Dies, embossing folders, brass templates: (chevron placemat #53724 Jillibean Soup) Silhouette America.  Other: (Watercolour paper) Finished size: 51/2" x 4 1/4"

Instructions

• Make card base, cut watercolour paper to almost cover card base and roughen the edges with scissors. die cut chevron frame to use as a stencil and spray the reverse with repositionable adhesive. 
• Adhere stencil over watercolour paper and paint random chevrons in orange, turquoise, brown and gold, leave to dry. Once dry peel off stencil and adhere panel to card base. 
• Stamp sentiment on vellum strip, emboss and stitch to card base. Wrap gold thread around the vellum panel adding in beads, tie off the thread behind the panel and trim ends.

and here's the next one, a little more simpler in style.

 Cardstock: (white) American Crafts. (Cotton Candy) Bazzill Basics Paper. Clear stamps: (Hello sentiment from Mini Blooms), Papertrey Ink. Ink: (Versamark) Tsukineko. Embossing powder: (Gold) WOW! Color media…markers, pencils, pens: (Putty, Dusky Pink Promarkers) Letraset. Paint: (Tarnished Brass, Distress Stain) Ranger. Fibers: (gold thread) Korbond. (white thread) Gutermann. Dies, embossing folders, brass templates: (chevron placemat #53724 Jillibean Soup) Silhouette America. Finished size: 4 1/4" x 5 1/2"

Instructions

• Die cut place mat stencil from cardstock and spray the back with repositionable adhesive, reserve some of the chevron die cut centers for later.

• Make card from card stock, sew on white panel, place stencil over card and color in random chevrons with coloring pens and distress stain, remove stencil. Sew various chevron pieces to card with gold thread. Stamp sentiment and emboss.

So, back to the mojo-less-ness. I have tried numerous things to try and find some inspiration;

1. Blog challenges - There are so many great challenge blogs out there, I read the prompts, look at the DT inspiration then at the entries and then feel doubtful I could successfully pull of the theme.
2. Reading other blogs.
3. Pinterest.

and that's where things went seriously wrong, I can spend hours on pinterest, pinning random things, targeted searches, following link after link, yet still creating nothing. Julie Comstock on the Cosmo Cricket blog summed it up perfectly in once sentence for me in a recent post she made regarding social media.

"Seeing things on Pinterest takes ideas from me because I don't like to copy. I may have come up with that on my own, but after seeing someone else do it I feel like it's not an option."

This is exactly how I feel, I need to step away, try and avoid crafting sites altogether for a few days to recharge my batteries. Its going to be hard as pinterest is universally used on my laptop, phone and iPad, however, just as I typed that I thought "Why don't you just sign out of the apps for a few days" Doh, that's what I will do (because I can't sever ties with pinterest forever!) I am officially giving myself a pintervention.

I haven't really spent any money on craft items for a while and during that time I had amassed myself a wishlist of new goodies, fortunately I have had the funds recently to have a little splurge (thanks ebay!) and I have now amassed quite a little pile of new things to play with in the hopes that I will feel inspired. We'll see how it goes.

What do you do to kick start your creativity?

Ang

52 Cards Challenge 2014 - Week 13

March seems like it has been such a long month, I guess it's because February was so short, but even with it being a long month I have not really had much time to craft, or take photographs it seems, I made this card for the 52 Cards Challenge on Monday and have only just got around to photographing it.

Patterned paper and die cuts - Crate Paper. Stamps and Die - Avery Elle

(via Make the Day Special) Resin embellishment - Etsy.

Fortunately this came together quite quickly, although I decided to die cut some foam tape for the sentiment and got it all stuck in my lovely new die! I'm looking forward to make a few sets of cards using the lovely Simply Said - Hello stamps and dies over the next couple of weeks.

I hope you have had a relaxing weekend,

Ang.

WPlus9 Monday Mood Board #26

I managed to rustle up a card for WPlus9's Monday Mood board,, isn't the inspiration picture so pretty?

Paper-MME. Stamps-WPlus9. Doily dies - MFT and Cheery 

Lynn. Ink - Memento. Lace - Dainty Paperie.

I liked the wooden boards so used some wood print paper and a little white pigment ink to recreate the look from the picture. I finished it off with Fresh Cut Florals and the sentiment on a small MFT doily.

I haven't done much crafty shopping for a while but was happy to find Studio Calico wood veneers at my local Homesense and TKMaxx for £1.99 a pack and cute little American Crafts glitter pegs for the same price.

I have been wanting to experiment with watercolours for a while but haven't found a set at a reasonable price so it wouldn't be too bad if I don't get on with them, however, I did pick up this set today for £4.99. I can't wait to start playing!

Happy Sunday :)
Ang

Tuesday Trigger: I'm Craving Navy

Time to enter the Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger Challenge, this week it's 'I'm Craving Navy' and I knew just the card that I wanted to make.

I had an idea of a peach, navy and gold card, which only really came together after I bought the floral stamp set. I stamped the flowers in Adirondack salmon ink and the leaves in gold pigment ink adding pearls and gold studs. The sentiment is heat embossed and the glitter strips are from DCWV.

Here is the trigger inspiration

I like how clean and fresh the colours look together, however I took the navy accent colour from the inspiration image and paired it with warmer colours. Have you thought about joining in? The details can be found here.

Thanks for looking,

A x

52 Cards Challenge Week 3

Hello, thank you for those that entered last week, there were some beautiful cards made!

Here are the prompts for this week: Blue, Flourishes, Hello

I had fun making this card as I got to use some of my lovely Making Memories Noteworthy papers!

Remember you can use just one of the prompts or all three and it's up to you how you interpret them :)

Look forward to seeing you next week and I hope this is helping you create some stunning cards!

Hi, Hello, Howdy

I love making little notecards. They are a great way to use up scraps of card and also a fun way to try new things. I am addicted to making cards in 2.5"x4", mainly becuase I have a stash of envelopes in that size!

I wanted something bright and cheery that would allow me to use my newly amassed stash of Accessorize/Paperchase stickers which are just too, too cute! I also tried magic mesh which I have had kicking around for a few years and have never thought to use before.

This one came about when I was making the get well soon card and had the stripy paper leftover. The papers are K&Co Greenhouse as is the journalling spot and some die cuts. The pretty felt flower is from crafty templates sugar, sugar kit. Hopefully it's cheerful colours will brighten someones day!

Get Well Soon

There are so many people around me at the moment who are poorly and whilst I might not be able to visit I can make them a card to let them know I am thinking of them. I had a good day of crafting today and was pleased to get a couple of projects finished in time for posting, I'll pop a couple of pictures up later.

I love the green get well card, it's much more vivid IRL but the light was v. sucky today and I am still learning how to use my camera. It felt a bit different from the usual cards I make, I'm still experimenting with colour which you can see here

Okay, not ground breaking, but very, very bright for me! I think I like it, I also made a similar card with a different sentiment which I also post soon.

I don't have any specific rhyme or reason to my cardmaking, apart from specific occasions, I like to pull out different bits and pieces, see what works and generally have a 'play'. I have noticed that I tend to make the same birthday/hello cards so I am trying to cover some different occasions to plump out my card box in case I need a one in an emergency or if I don't have the time. I do need to make a baby card so I think that will be my next project and I'll make some extras for my box!

PS. Have you tried these?? I am convinced that they are the work of the devil because they are so delicious, you must try them, no, resist, run, save yourself!!

Ushering in the new year.

Happy new year! I'm a few days late but I am back nonetheless. I moved house in early December, I knew that I would rather move before christmas than straight after but forgot what an upheaval it can be (seriously, who forgets that?) but I am now all moved in and settled and everything is where it should be and all I can say is thank goodness!

The biggest revelation was how much craft stuff I have, and it appears that I have enough to last until the end of this decade. I hope to give a few bits and pieces away on here then donate the rest to the local arts and crafts for seniors group.

I haven't had many opprtunities for crafting since I have moved and all hopes of making my own christmas cards were dashed due to work commitments and not being able to find anything! However, this week I was able to sit down and (semi) relax and create a few bits and pieces which I'll post over the next couple of days.

As I was organising my bits and pieces I found that I had quite a bit of K&Co Madeline papers and embellishments so decided to use some on a couple of cards but have hardly made a dent! I used some die cuts, seam binding ribbon and some hand tinted paper roses all finished off with some sparklies and pearls on the card at the top.

This one felt a little more out of my comfort zone, a little shabbier than usual. I used the aforementioned papers, some die cuts, gathered tulle, velvet ribbon and some sizzix die cut swirls painted with crackle paint and alcohol inks.

I hope you have all had a wonderful christmas and I wish you all a very happy new year and I am looking forward to sharing more craftiness during 2010!

Today's Progress

Used up some more of the kit from Crafty Templates , I've never used a card kit before but I have found that I am able to create much faster from a kit! I'm thinking of putting together my own kits from my own supplies and see if that boosts my productivity!


I did add a couple of my own things, I used a sizzix die for the birds and branches and imaginisce stamp for the sentiment.


I used my sizzix machine for the flowers and some extra aqua bazzill, perfect pears and a thanks sentiment stamp

This is my least favourite, it didn't come together as I would have liked. Paper 'buttons' from the paper included in the kit, rikrac, sequin leaves and a cuttlebug folder.