Friday, 31 January 2014

Gelli Plate Here I Come, Ready or Not.

Hi Guys'

Well, what a foul day, there's a right storm blowing up here in Spalding. So what better place to be than in the warm, in my craft room, playing. No.... creating. My poor little dog isn't happy though, she can't understand why I won't let her out to run around in my BOG of a garden, then come running back into the house, muddy paws and all. She just sits by the patio doors, staring all forlorn down the garden. Oh well, she'll learn.

I've been busy on my computer for a couple of weeks creating my website to start a little hand made wedding invitation and stationery business. It's something I've wanted to do for ages and I know there are loads of websites already out there, but hey, nothing ventured and all that. Here's a little collage of some of my work. I have a bedroom full of samples now. My brain needed a rest though, I'd no idea there'd be so much work in it.






So today I decided to play with my new 'Gelli Plate Kit' that my children bought me for Christmas. I'm not one for messy crafting really, I like clean digi crafting, so this is going to be interesting.






So, Gelli plate, check, brayer, paint, stencils, card, copy paper, inks and brushes, check, and here I go. Barbara makes it look so easy, I'm sure I'm going to struggle, but hey, if Martyn can do it, why not me? 






Here's my first attempt. I realised pretty quickly, that I wasn't putting on enough paint, hence the overkill on this first one. I quite like it though.





This second one has an aperture, done in nice bright colours, and by now I'm feeling more confident. I must say though, I'd no idea the finish would be quite so rough, I expected smoother.






No stopping me now, come on, I have to dirty ALL my stencils, they are brand new. I ended up getting a bit carried away, but I figured, if I'm going to make a mess, may as well make a batch. Bit like baking.





Have to say though, one of my favourites is the last one I made. I just smothered the Gelli plate in titanium white, to remove all the old paint and didn't really expect anything special, but take a look, it's lovely.





Anyway, off to add some distress inks and make my masterpieces into cards, still got some new unused stamps that I got for Chrimbles to try out.  I've got quite a few to make, so I'll post them when they're done.

Hope you enjoyed reading about me getting my feet wet and if you thought you couldn't do it, it's made you think again. It certainly has me. Oh, and thanks Barbara, it's your inspiration that got me started.

Thanks for popping by, do come again.

Love,

Jools.  xxxx

 

Monday, 30 December 2013

'Sorry You're Leaving' with Fabulous Fashion.

 
Hi Guys',


Thought I would get a quick post in before 2013 leaves us and 2014 is upon us. I'm not sure just where the last year went, but I can remember my Nan telling me that time flies faster the older you get. I think she may have been right and what's worse is that I'm now saying it. Scary!!

Anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that you didn't have to work too hard. I entertained this year and thoroughly enjoyed it. My sister now has a puppy, so with my puppy and her puppy, it was a busy day. I really don't know where they got the energy. They ran around like loons, boxed a lot and didn't sleep much at all. Ah well, it was Christmas. Needless to say, they both resembled dead dogs on Boxing day.

I love today's card, think it might be one of my favourites. It was made for one of the girls at work who was moving on in her career. I was handed a bit of a challenge with this one because Malwina is Polish, so I was asked to do the greeting in Polish. That was a new one. It was easier than I thought though, isn't the web a wonderful place.




 





The design is from my 'Fabulous Fashion' cd. Walwina is very fashion conscious, with a fabulous figure to boot, so I really couldn't have picked anything more fitting.









The tag greeting, roughly translated, wishes her all the best in her new job, goodbye and good luck, etc, etc. Well I hope it does.








I didn't see her the day she was given the card, but I'm assured she loved it and would you believe it, she actually understood the greeting.

Hope you like it and thank you for dropping by. Do come again, because guess what, my New Year's Resolution is to stop making excuses about being too busy and post more. If Barbara can do it, I can.



I am entering this card into the following challenges :-

 


Well, I'm off to play with one of my Christmas pressies. Gonna do some mono printing on my 'Gelli Plate'. Wish me luck. Happy Prosperous New Year to one and all.

See you soon,

Jools.   xx



Wednesday, 30 October 2013

Silver Wedding Anniversary Card.

Hi Guys',

A good morning to my fellow bloggers, from a beautiful sunny Spalding, cold, but beautiful. Thought I'd share one of my several silver wedding anniversary cards that I've made in the past couple of months. Did something relevant happen in 1988, or is it just that my friends are of that age group where they're all celebrating their silver wedding? I think it may be the latter.

Todays card was for one of the girls at work, to give to her loving husband. The brief was to incorporate some kind of invitation for the special trip she'd planned as his present.







The card was designed in CAP2 in neutral cream, black and grey, to make the card more masculine. The backing paper is a simple broiderie type design, in cream and grey and to add that special touch, I stamped 25 randomly all over it. For the greeting I made a tag with calligraphy type text, in keeping with the wedding theme.  I added shadows to give the appearance of depth and finished it off with a heart embellishment. It was then attached to the card with black and silver ribbon.








The invite part was the most troublesome, so I decided to make another tag and put it into a pocket.








To finish, I added some decorative cut-outs, using the same design as the backing paper, with some black card candy for extra detail.








I boxed the card, again using the same design as the backing paper.


Hope you like it and thanks for popping by.


I am entering this card into the following challenges :- 


 
 

See you soon.

Jools.  xx