Saturday 29 September 2012

Something for the boys ..


Hi folks


Time to grunge it up a bit, so something a little more for the lads..


 Here are a few cards put together for my husband, Dad and my biker friends out there, in general most of the men in my life . (probably having a great days riding while I'm stuck on the  computer, O well perhaps I'll go out on mine the afternoon is the sun stays out.)

Those that aren't out there riding round the countryside will be getting greasy in the garage which is the inspiration for the first card below. Had my hubby in mind for this one as his birthday is on boxing day he always gets forgotten ,poor thing, so this year I thought I would get in early and get something on card before the Christmas season starts in earnest. Though As a card maker you will now we start on festive cards as some as the first leaves start to turn red and drop from the trees.


If this card had to have a name it would probably be called the 'ON THE GARAGE FLOOR' card
This is my entry for the 'Anything goes' Challenge at Ladybug Crafts and 'Texture Challenge' at Anything but a card's blog, I hope they like them.

I've used some Marianne dies for the smaller cogs and Spellbinders dies from the 'Sprightly Sprockets set' and have it on good authority that the large sprocket can be found on the rear wheel of any chain driven motorcycles, how cool is that!! I found some 'bronze angel hair' in my crafty stash and added that behind the tag, gives a look of wire wool and used some comic shimmer ' black granite' thick embossing powder for the 'oil splashes'. Some of the cogs have been dipped in thick silver embossing powder and some just dipped in a little fine silver embossing powder. The tags were stamped with a basic 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY ' stamp in Tim holts  'vintage photo' distressed ink and there are some buttons added which I found in a charity shop on holiday last month .( even on holiday we still cant help picking up bits!!) All these fabulous bits and pieces have been mounted onto a large tag and are sitting on some mirror foil card (220gsm) run though the new spellbinders M-bossibilities 'industrial' folder giving that fantastic checker plate effect, that men seem to love. I've used the checker plate on the cards below as well as a few of the sprockets as they suit bike cards so well, hope you like what you see .

The Bsa Rocket 3

BSA earned its reputation with four-stroke singles and twins, but in 1968, the company broke with tradition and introduced the three-cylinder BSA Rocket 3 motorcycle.

we see a few of these still about at the Classic car and bike shows we like to attend in the summer months.
I'm embarrassed to say one of my ex boyfriends had one which broke down on a regular basis. BSA's are a popular bike to restore, and always are popular on the craft stall..

Have to give a name check to an old friend Bosun at Bosun's Bikes.com who has a new love in his life 'Beryl'  his BSA Bantam That have only been a couple since 2012 but seem to be getting on fine.
The Classic Norton


AJS


Vincent or Rudge??


Not quite sure about the bike , Think its a Rudge but can't agree on this one , Paul (husband) thinks its an Ariel, the images are cut from old books collected at car boot sales and charity shops must remember to write the names down on back of image just in case we don't recognise it later. Loving the fishtail pipes on it and the Suicide gear shift.....Guessing someone out there will have had one in the past  and let us know...

News just in ..... After much research from the guys on Facebook, they believe its a Brough Superior!!
Thanks Lads xx

Time Flies..
This last card is for my dad who loves to collect his pocket watches so I thought this would be a nice one for him. The checker plate made from the  M-bossibilities 'industrial' folder  has come out again along with the  'Sprightly Sprockets set' . I think they work well with the clock and could be the inners of it. I have layered the smaller ones up to give the card dimension. it has a very masculine feel and works well in the silver and grey colours.  hope you like these cards sometimes its nice to make something less fluffy or cute and the boys need cards to so why not give them something more their cup of tea or mug as the case maybe x If you like what you see please leave comments as they are always appreciated and make my day xx

I will be entering this card into the following Challenges...
Heck of a challenge
Natalie and Amy's Challenge
Try it on Tuesday
Cards for men


Thursday 27 September 2012

Lets get festive..


Hi folks

 Time to seriously start thinking about the festive season and get crafting away on those special cards we will be sending out this year. Here's one from my spellbinders collections you may recognise some of the die cuts from previous cards.

The reindeer is part of the 'fanciful holidays set , this sits nicely on a two Persian motif dies cut in red and white and then on a fancy oval die. (spellbinders again) I kept the colours simple just red and black with a splash of silver and thinks this works well. I finished this off with a sentiment peel off and some holographic stars..

I will be entering some of these cards in  the Christmas Card weekly Challenge and Emmas Hints Anything goes Challenge wish me luck xx

The reindeer comes out every year and is an old favourite and so does the Tree stamp below




 
This stamp is humongous and fills a 7'' x 5'' card easily You could simply stamp it on a card blank and emboss it and job done!!! but I've never been very good at doing that as I believe 'more is more' so this card has been blinged up with some silver mirror foil snow flakes cut from some Marianne designs dies and decorated with some red 'ruby' gems from my crafty stash. The corners were punched out using one of my woodware corner punches before the card was assembled and then mounted onto some silver mirror card. My entry in the C.R.A.F.T Challenge

The village stamp is new from the 'Stampendous' range  and if i say so myself makes a lovely greetings card for Christmas. I really enjoyed making these cards and think there are more to be had from this stamp . Apart from the obvious of just stamping and colouring there is an opportunity to decoupage and paper piece too, these are a few ideas for the future to try.

These two below have just been stamped and decorated in a basic way with embellishments and a frame and then matt and layered onto co-ordinating coloured card There's glitterly 'snow' on the roof tops but Alas my camera didn't pick this up very well.


The card below was done with a light brown / beige colour ink pad and has a softer feel to it
also my entry to the Crafty mess Challenge hope they like it.


Just to show I can do simple if I have to,
 here's a card in with a different look

Simple but festive without the over the top bling element , I took my inspiration from a card made by Sue Wilson the Spellbinder Queen
 


My favourite of the bunch is this little card made from craft card , this medium has a 'old package/brown paper parcel 'feel to it and so I used a brown parcel label for the main topper and added the reindeer and sleigh which I cut using my Cricut machine. I try not to use this too much as I feel it takes away from the 'hand crafted' element when electric machines are involved, but in this case I didn't have a die I could use for the sleigh and the sentiment wouldn't have looked right unless it was cut from the same craft card.

Wednesday 26 September 2012

Harrys Day out and Flutterbye Hedgehog

This card is dedicated to a fat ginger tom called Harry that shares a flat with my daughter who is normally is a house cat and doesn't get out much..

You will need
'In the garden' Penny black Stamp Set
cream 7x5'' blank card
black, cream and white card
ribbon
paper flowers

If you are a cat lover or know one, you are going to love this penny black set of stamps. The set is called 'In the garden' There are a dozen stamps in the pack and the opportunity to build scenes are endless. For this card I first ran some white centura pearl card through the cuttle bug with a brick wall embossing folder and then inked it up with a 'fired brick' Distressing ink pad then Stamped the flower pots a few times onto some white card. I then stamped them onto post-it slips and then used them as masks to cover the flower pot images I then stamped some more over the first set to create the illusion of a row of pots. I then cut them out. I then stamped the watering can and the fat cat seperately and then decoupaged them on to the card. I coloured the image with pro marker pens but spectrum noirs will do a great job too.



When the topper was finished I matt and layered onto a spellbinders shape labels 17 cut from brown card and a slightly larger one in some distressed purple card and then put onto some cream card that had been distressed round the edges using a Dusty concorde distressing ink pad and then onto black card. This was all mounted onto a cream card blank and finished with some paper flowers, some ribbon, a bow and some pearls


Heres another creation for the J and C Creations Blog

Penny Black Flutter Bye Hegdehog Stamp

 
I used:
colouring pens or pencils
pink pattened paper
paper flowers
coloured embossing powders
paper doilie
silver mirror card
heat gun
plain brads
ladybird embellishments
Sentiment label
Here's a pretty wooden stamp from Penny Black called Flutter-bye its approx 3'' x 4'' in size and is very cute. I've stamped it onto white card stock with a black Tuxedo memento ink pad and then coloured in with my trusty pro-markers, but you could use any pens spectrum -noirs will do a fabulous job too.
when the colouring was done I cut and embossed with a classic scallop spellbinders die giving the edge a light dusting of a Tim holts fired brick distress ink pad
I always do this first and then match colours on the card to the image after.
when I have my stamped image finished, I then build my card around it . First I took a 15cm x 15cm card and covered it with a pink pattened paper.
I then cut another spellbinder shape, this time a picot edge circle out of orange card I matt and layered my image on this and these were then glued to my glittered doilie.

The doilie (I bought mine from sainsburys for about a pound in the cake section) is created by stamping a regular doilie with a versamark pad, and then dipping into a mix of stampendous halo glitter and thick embossing powder, and then melting with a heat gun till the glitter is set. This gives it a real sparkle.

The butterfly that sits on the hegdehogs nose is from the same stamp, but I've cut it out and decoupaged it onto his nose. In the orignal stamp it is flying just above...

I cut 4 corners from a marianne 'corners' die in silver mirror card and stuck one in each corner of the card then added some paper flowers and punched out leaves.

In the centre of each of the flowers there is a brad, these were made by dipping regular brads into a versamark pad and then into coloured embossing powders and melting with a heat gun. I did this several times until I had a thick coating on each one, I used some pointy nosed pliers to hold them as they get quiet hot when you are doing this. When they are cool you can put them through your flowers.

I added a sentiment and some wooden ladybird embellishments and the card was complete
hope you like it xx



Thursday 20 September 2012

Time for Change..


Welcome to the new layout of my Blog ,
'ROSIES CRAFTY BLOG' has had a major face lift as well as a name change and is now TRACEY ANNE DESIGNS. I hope you like what you see and will visit and/or follow me and maybe pick up a few helpful tips on cardmaking on the way xx

love and hugs Tracey Anne aka Rosie xx

HO HO HO


Hi guys

The First card is my entry into the  'ABC Christmas Challenge' (Santa's coming to town..)
 hope they like it

ITS THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR.....

well it had to happen sooner than later, Christmas has arrived in my craft room and its starting to feel a little like Santa's workshop with all the images of elves and reindeer scattered round the shelves. Big Thanks to Stamposaurus.co.uk for bringing out such a fabulous selection of Stamps Today I've been busy with their 'Christmas Mischeif' images ranking from suspect Santa's, reindeers, Santa's little helpers to dancing Christmas puddings, (which is one of my favourites) to colour in . Talking of colouring in , My trusty Pro markers and Spectrum noirs  were out for these, along side my Tim Holts Distressing Inks.





These first two are of 'Trainee Santa's' , or wanna be Santa's  maybe, they all look a little young for the real thing and I'm pretty sure the big fella wouldn't forget to put his trousers on the big day!!! These images were a lot of fun to work with and came with the sentiment 'Its the most wonderful time of the year' which you can use on any of your other Christmas cards too always useful to have a few sentiment stamps for the holiday season . They stamp clean and clear with a momento ink pad and I would highly recommend them for new comers to stamping as they don't have too much detail for the beginners to get confused by, but produce charming christmas images


.
ITS BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS










                       

    Favorite Stamp of the day is this one , It comes with the sentiment 'Its beginning to look a lot like christmas and is a pure joy to colour. If you were wondering about the christmas pudding in the top card it is a chocolate orange coated  pudding (Not a burnt one like the hubbie thought!!) which one day I will get round to creating for the festive table. Dont think because there's a bird costumein this stamp it has to be a robin I've done another card featuring a pink fairy, a yellow duck and a custard coated pudding. use your imagination on them, thats when its all about!!!



SANTA'S LITTLE HELPERS


Santas little helpers , all in green and red and full of christmas joy. Doesnt it make you go all gooey inside and long for cold damp nights and a frosty window .........No, me neither!!! Its hard enough dealing with the British Summers let alone longing for Snow . No, Christmas is grand and I love every minute of it but it can stay in December!!!!!!!
 That gives me 6 more months to make amazing christmas cards for the people I love.
The card above is my entry into the 'Anything Goes' Challenge at Stamp and Create.com
 hope they like it xx

All Products highlighed can be found on the Stamposaurus Website


Till next time, Stay jolly and have a Merry July xxx

Rosie


Tuesday 18 September 2012

Christmas Bauble Card and Wall Hanging

Here are  a couple of Projects I put together for J and C Creations Blog Website, As part of their Design Team I enjoy making sample projects and cards to inspire others to create and you will always find a few helpful tips in there too...

'Bella on Bauble' is a lovely little stamp that's easy to colour from Wild Rose Studio, here she is riding high on a card just for you. Inside the card is a pocket which holds a bookmark, you could easily substitute that for a gift voucher or money wallet if you choose to
                                                             
Items used
Bella on bauble Stamp
Annabelle Christmas paper pack
spellbinders die Classic Scalloped circle
Spellbinders die floral Doily die
Tim holts 'Red brick' Distress ink pad
La Rue flourishes Die (memory box)
Spellbinders ribbon banners die
versamark ink pad
glue
Promarkers
 red ribbon
Merry Christmas sentiment stamp
gold, silver and clear glitter
floral stamp
Gold embossing powder
Martha Stewart edge punch
 Acetate, white and silver card
Silver  border peel offs

All items highlighted can be found on the J & C Creations Website

Cut a large Circle and decorate with a floral stamp and emboss with gold embossing powder and a heat gun, then ink over with  a Tim holts 'Red brick' Distress ink pad and glitter randomly to give a  silver and gold frosting to the 'bauble'. cut out an aperture in it using the floral doily die then cut an apeture in that using the spellbinders die Classic Scalloped circle. this makes a frame for bella to sit in.  cut out 2 silver flourish dies in silver card and mount your coloured and cut out 'Bella' onto it. I used promarkers on her and added some clear sparkle glitter to her hat.
Cut an aperture using the spellbinders die Classic Scalloped circle  in a square white base card and add acetate to aperture cover back with patterned paper from the Annabelle Christmas paper pack edge front and back with silver peel off stickers. add Bella to acetate using glue and cover workings on inside with a disc.
Add 2 cut ribbons using the Spellbinders ribbon banners die and place your sentiment to the front of your card. I cut mine in silver and red. Add a bow to the top to finish front of card
Inside the card, cover the back with matching paper from Annabella Christmas paper pack and cut a Triangle from a contrasting paper and add to make pocket. I decorated mine with an edger punch from my punch collection ,the stamped image of Bella again, some paper buttons and a 'merry christmas' sentiment stamp.  add a bookmark or subsitute gift. This was an easy card to make and Bella was a joy to stamp. Why not check out this stamp and other Bella stamps in the wild Rose Studio collection at the J & C Creations Website  or go their blog and look at some fabulous designs by the members of their design Team







Another project for the J & C Creations  'Anything goes' Challenge

Here is a traditional Christmas Door/Wall hanging, I stayed with the green theme throughout as I think it's a much nicer and classic colour for the season and makes a nice change from the usual red all the time.

I used
Tim Holts Pine Needles Distress ink pad
Tim Holts Peeled Paint Distress ink pad
Tim Holts Faded Jeans Distress ink pad
Marianne 'Winter birds' design creatables die
Spellbinders floral doily die
Cosmic Shimmer Glitter Jewels 'Ice Crystals'
Green ribbon
white card
2" circle punch
white and coloured pearls
Christmas Sentiment Stamps

Take some white card and colour a third of it with each colour blending into the next, Cut out 2 'Winter birds' dies and 'sandwich the coloured card inbetween the two die cuts and cut around the die , cut out 4 floral doily die cuts and sandwich the green ribbon inside 2 of them top and bottom, Stamp sentiments and punch out with circle punch and add to hanging. Decorate with coloured pearls and a bow, I put white ones down the ribbon and soft green on the birds tag in the middle. Add some Glitter Jewels to the Sentiment labels around the bottom for a little festive sparkle. A quick project for the coming Christmas season, hope you like it

all items highlighted can be found and purchased on the J & C Creations Website

Tracey Anne xx

Sunday 16 September 2012

Reindeers in Training



These two cards are of  'Reindeers in Training' I particularly like how this one turned out, it would be nice maybe for a baby's first Christmas or even Twins and Triplets First Christmas!!! There are plenty out there, I have loads of friends with Twins boys and 2 friends with Twin girls and an older brother. On this card I coloured the centre reindeer with pink ears so I must of being thinking big sister with little brothers when I made it.

The Poinsettias are made from clear vellum and the Spellbinders 'poinsettia layers' shapebilities set, run through my cuttle bug and a memory box Swirl die for the silver foliage. The grossgrain polka dot ribbon can be found on the Stamposaurus website .As usual the photos don't do it any justice at all . Of course you could do this card in Pink or in lemon if you were making in advance for the arrival of a November or December baby and hedge your bets so to speak.

The card on the left is more glam and sparkly with a deep green background made from one of my Embossibilities folders and an olive ink pad .using my blending tool and foam pads to colour it with. There are gold swirls and red gems blinging this card up and a lush red ribbon to finish it off . If you look closely you will see there are snowy 'glitter jewels Iced crystal' fragments from Cosmic Shimmer on the main topper where the reindeer are standing. A card for a magpie maybe...
 

Sisters

 
This card reminds me of my little sister Christine. She had the long blonde hair which I was always jealous of, although not so little anymore we are still quite close. she has a family of her own now as do I, but when we are together we revert back to being little kids again and seem to get into all kinds of mischief....  
 
 
I used a Crafters Companion stamp to create this card and love the soft pink colours in the ribbon and spellbinders die cuts. As usual the Pro markers did the colouring with a little help from me and a selection of gingham papers and paper buttons finished the look. Hope you like it .


August 'Anything Goes' J & C Challenge

Here's my contribution to the J and C Creations 'Anything goes Challenge' last month....

Baby Gift Box


Heres my contribution to the 'Tim Holts Anything Goes Challenge' Its a cute little baby gift box I made from a clear acetate box and lid and a beautiful Marianne Pram Die Cut

Products used
Clear Acetate box
Marianne Pram Die
Tim Holts Distressing Ink Pad 'Spiced Marmalade'
Tim Holts Distressing Ink Pad 'Tattered Rose'
Liquid Pearl 'Bisque'
Spellbinders Floral Doily motif Die
Pearl embellishments
Spellbinders Ribbon banners die
corner punch
small flower punch
lemon and white card


You will need a clear Acetate box, most Crafts stores will sell these. mine came with a white paper lid which I inked up with the spiced marmalade ink pad, I took some white card and used a pretty corner punch on it and some lemon card and cut and embossed the spellbinders doily die-cut. I Cut out the pram and decorated with the marmalade ink pad and some pearls..I have cut the pram out again in some bright yellow card and pearl white and have taken the cut outs from the hood and put them back in the inked pram to give some variety to the look then I have stuck it onto my lemon floral doily die and glued that and the white card all onto my box lid and decorated with some flowers.

My flowers are made with a small flower punch and then inked up using the 'spiced marmalade' again and some 'tattered rose' pink from the Tim Holts range. Check out all the different colours in the huge Tim Holts range on the J & C Creations website when you get a chance there are tons to choose from. I stuck the flowers together and put a 'pearl drop' in the middle using the 'Bisque' liquid pearl and glued these onto the corners, then added the labels on the front and some ribbon round the edge of the lid and bottom of the box and its was done.

In an ideal world this box would have the cutest pair of baby booties in or a baby toy, but as my daughter has ignored all my plea's to make me a grandmother alas I had none in the house!! So I have put some bodycreams and some mini shower gels inside instead for the
babys new mum. If you get time this design can easily be carried over to your card making and how nice would that be to have a card to give that matches your baby gift box.


All products highlighted can be found and purchased on the
J & C Creations Website

Tracey Anne xx

Our Feathered Friends....

Annebelle's 'feeding Robins' Stamp from Wild Rose Studios makes the prefect christmas card for any animal or bird lover and stamps beautifully . This one has been cloloured with Pro markers and decorated with clear sparkle glitter hope you like it


Items used
Parchment paper
Red mirror card
memory box Triffany frame die
Promarkers
Merry Christmas stamp sentiment

Such an easy card , first emboss some white card though an embossing folder. M-bossibilities do a large range that can be found on the J & C Website. colour the top of this using your Tim Holts Red brick Distressing ink pad and place on square card blank.Then just colour your image put onto embossed card,cut out some frames in red mirror card and tuck in under image. I cut mine in half before doing this and then cut out some layered poinsettias from parchment paper, colour red and add a gem to the centre of each. Add the poinsettias around the frames . Add a sentiment and there you are, a quick and simple but cute card for christmas x



Friday 14 September 2012

The Dark Side....

One of my favourite subjects is Goth Culture, and loving this Designs from Debbie Moore Hope you like want I've done with them I love the look of the vamp in this card She is smoldingly sexy and always puts me in mind of the Alice Cooper hit 'Poison'...

The image was taken from a Debbie Moore craft sheet , they tend to turn up at most crafting paper shows or you can get them on the Create and Craft shopping Channel from time to time. not very creative on my side but a good seller at the craft shows and country Fayre's we attend during the summer months . Just cut her out and put on a pretty spellbinder shape and decorate with some purple or black ribbon or lace  a little glitter and she is guaranteed to sell . not all cards need to take hours to create this was put together in 15 minutes .




cake dance

PENNY BLACK - THE CAKE DANCE
Here's a card designed for the J and C Creations Blog , Just one of many I have designed for them and which can be found on their blog . 


 Penny Black 'Cake Dance' Rubber stamp
white card stock
Patterned paper and card
Sentiment
colouring pens
white lace



This card was made using a Penny Black rubber stamp 'Cake Dance' which can be found on the J and C Creations website , I stamped it onto white card with a memento stamp pad and coloured in using promarker pens. you can use any pens you choose.

 First I  took a 15cm square base card and covered with pink check patterned paper , I added some lilac pattened card and then some white lace across it , I matt and layered some soft mint check paper onto silver card and mounted my colour stamped my hedgehog image on to it. I added some 5mm self adhesive pearls in the corners and a sentiment at the bottom. I kept the colours light and pastel as I had a baby's first birthday in mind for it . The hedgehog image is so cute and ideal for younger children's cards





The Pearls make a lovely embellishment without making the card top heavy and the colours are fabulous with over 9 sets to choose from, I used the 'peaches and cream' and the 'liking lilacon this card. The stamps are great to work with and stamp a clear and crisp image every time.