A Light-bulb Moment

Miss Shell has been playing with light-bulbs (she clearly doesn’t get out much, lol).  She mentioned in a blog post that she had thought about making some of those light-bulb vases that are all over Pintrest at the moment.  She spied some for sale online and there were a ridiculous price.  You can read about that here.

I sniggered a bit and dared her to make her own – which of course she did (within an hour or so, in fact).  Take a look at her success in her follow-up post.

Then – because she is a bit like that – she dared me and Vicki to have a go too. (Vicki had also made a comment on her first post)

So …….

……  I did.  Yay me.

Honestly – if I can do it, so can you.  Anyone else game to give it a go?

Esther  xx

 

Dance

The current challenge over at The Craft Room is simply “Dance”.  The design team have come up with great samples(as usual) so why not pop on over, take a look and join in.

Here is my entry:

 

I went back to the tried and true Distress Ink technique of “smooshing” a variety of colours on my craft sheet, spritzing with water and dragging my tag through it a few times.  The stamp is from Tim Holtz and the silhouette is traced and cut on the Cameo. The crystal droplets just finish it off nicely, I think.

Thanks for stopping to take a peek.  I do appreciate it.

 

Esther  xxx

 

Dragons Dream Tag it On #164

You may, or not, have noticed that I have not been taking part in the tag challenges over at Dragons Dream Tag It On very often of late.

I have struggled with the letter part of the challenges, mainly.  That, combined with putting my time and energy into my exercise/weight loss effort, means that I just haven’t had it in me.

I did actually complete #163 – The letter Z and a face but didn’t get a blog post written in time to link it up.  I will pop a photo in at the end of this post though, just to show what I came up with.

This fortnight May has set the challenge as “The letter S and the Colour Blue.”  Now this one was so much easier.

I trimmed the bottom off a Prima tag and added some lace and bakers twine.  I used a stamp (no idea what brand it is) that has some sewing pattern references.  I resized and printed off the spool from a Kerri Bradford kit that I have and wrapped it with blue sewing thread.  I added a doily stamped on blue canvas, a blue hat pin and the wee blue rose.  The tape ribbon is from Typo and the zipper pull was floating around on my desk (how fortunate).

 

As for the non-entered tag …..  I really struggled with this.  A version of my original idea had already been entered and being stubborn (who, me?) I wanted to come with something else.  This is what I eventually made.

I even had two faces, hehe.  I had fun paper piecing Tilda’s clothes and hair.  I coloured the birds and the giraffe with Gelatos and a water brush.  The stone wall is also stamped and then shaded with Gelatos.

So, there you have it.  Two challenges in one – so to speak.

Cheers,

Esther  xx

Influences of the 20th Century

The Craftroom challenge at the moment is to create a project that is influenced by the 20th Century.

There were so many great events and historic moments between 1900 and 2000 that it was quite hard to settle on something.

I chose to do yet another tag, mainly because I am somewhat time poor these days and I really do find it a good medium to showcase techniques.

I had a new background stamp that came with a magazine and I have been itching to use it.  It was perfect for this tribute to Princess Diana.  I stamped it with Archival and coloured it with a combination of markers, leaving out the distress markers that I would normally use.  I added a scrap of lace, some pearls and the photo.  I used my Brother label maker with clear tape for the text.

Reasonably simple but elegant, I think.

Esther

Dragons Dream Tag It On #161

I missed the last tag challenge – I just could not come up with anything.

This time around the inspiration is the Letter “A”, tag that is not the usual shape and, as usual, to include at least one real stamped image.  I really had to put my thinking cap on for this and I am pretty happy with the result.

Out with the trusty Silhouette Cameo to cut the anchor and the title.  I haven’t used my Magnolia stamps for ages but I thought Pirate Matilda was simply perfect for this.  I coloured her with watercolour pencils and popped her up on foam.  I “finger knitted” some bakers twine for the anchor’s chain.

Thanks for popping in to take a look.  Why not join the fun at Dragons Dream Tag It On and see what you can come up with?

Cheers, Esther

February Layout Challenge

A Facebook group that I belong to has a challenge to do a layout about something or someone you love.

I don’t usually do the whole soppy Valentines thing so I thought I would give the Hearts and Roses a wide berth and do something much more subtle.

February is also the month of our wedding anniversary and we ticked off 16 years this month.  After some ups and downs, re-assessment and moving house we have settled into a new happiness - one I reflect on and am grateful for, daily.

We had a professional photo session back in November and while we don’t have all the images yet (gotta pay them off, lol) we were able to select 3 or 4 to start us off.  There were some awesome photos taken that day and you will see many more when I finally get them all, but this photo of James is one I really love.

The layout itself was inspired by on I saw on Pintrest – some amazing layouts on there!  I used a patterned paper from the 9th Wave collection by 7 Dots Studios, added texture past through stencils from Maya Road and Crafters Workshop. I added Distress Ink sprays, distressed the edges with a couple of punches and doodled a bit too (I NEVER do that).  The wooden flourish is from my stash, as is the key and the charm.  The Library Card and Sentiment card were created on the Silhouette Cameo.

It was really good to do a layout for James – to be honest there are not that many.  I must rectify that from this point on.

Thank you for stopping in and for all the encouraging comments you leave.  It means a lot.

Esther  xoxo

 

Tag It On #159

This fortnight at Dragons Dream Tag It On the requirement is to use the colour Green and something starting with the letter F as well as the use of at least one real stamp.

Green Frog sprung immediately to mind, lol – No decent frog stamp in my stash however, so I came up with a plan B.

My husband would agree wholeheartedly with that sentiment!

I stamped my image and used water–colour pencils and a water brush, punching it out and popping it up on foam for some much needed dimension.  I typed the sentiment out on a word document, changing the text colour to white and the background to a deep sage green.

Thank you for taking the time to see what I have been up to.

Take care,  Esther xoxo