Romance, Love and Laughter

Hi Nomad followers and friends.   A big nomad welcome to Winnie who has just joined the merry band.  Another rainy day so no excuse not to craft.  Is that a double negative??  I am quite pleased with this project.  It was going to be a card but it has morphed into a hangy thing to commemorate a honeymoon in Paris and help warm a wall in a new house.  

I used a stamp from Crafty Individuals Vintage Ticket sheet CI 239 on some handmade paper.  I think it's banana, but it could be recycled clothes!!  Nice texture.  I was going to stamp a couple of times in red and blue but as you can see I got a bit carried away and used a number of different DI to create a whole sheet.  If they don't get buried in the rush they will undoubtedly be making an appearance at a later date.....

I used CI 260 Parisian Romance and put lace round the main image and used sticky pads to attach it to a piece of CI background paper.  I used the large stamp from CI 306 French Corsets on the background paper in Memento London Fog.  It's subtle.  I cut and arranged a number of the vintage tickets and added the clipped out words Travel to Paris.  The lady is part of CI 285 Hats and Bonnets.  The Spring sentiment is also CI.   I added a heart and key from Tando, both mini's.  The key I sprayed with gold paint.  I was going to paint the heart red but it fit so nicely au natural, including the soot marks!  Key to my heart??

I added an organza double bow.  Fab tutorial on tying these over at RRR.  Just make sure you used ribbon that looks the same front and back, unless you want a half and half ribbon of course.  It took a little practice but I now have a big bag of these to use on different projects.  Thanks Ginny.  

I put lace around the whole thing the added a bit of organza for a tie.  I was going to put it on a canvas but decided that was wasteful and found a piece of nice thick card instead.  So my tie and the lace are all nicely sandwiched and neat and tidied away. 

Entering this for
Crafty Individuals - Spring in Fashion
Tando - New Beginnings
Stampotique Designers Challenge SDC 97 - Trimmed Stamped Images

Simon Says Stamp and Show Passport to Fun
Simon Says Stamps - Anything Goes

Thanks for dropping by.  All comments gratefully received.  Take care, be crafty....

Hello Mother, What's on TV?

Good evening friends and followers.  It seems Spring may finally be with us.  It's been a dreary couple of days but it seems a bit warmer, at least during the day, and the grass is starting to green up.  There's even a few spring flowers and of course the weeds are starting to show.  Actually, I am quite looking forward to some serious weeds!!  I have had a bit of a bunny explosion and trying to keep many hungry mouths fed is quite a task.  

Over at Cheery Lynn they want us to be making something for Mothers Day.  Now this is my third Mothers Day this year.  In Norway it's the second Sunday in February, sometimes coinciding with Valentines Day.   Then it's March in the UK.  Obviously we are now looking at the US Mothers Day.  I wonder if there is a Mothers Day every month somewhere in the world??  

I have made a very simple card utalising some lovely papers I bought last week.  Sometimes I feel it's a bit of a cheat not getting messy with the inks and paints but then again they are so lovely it seems a pity not to take advantage.  

I cut a Cheery Lynn Spring Flower Burst Doily from cream card and coloured it with DI Picked Raspberry and Brilliance Galaxy Gold.  I cut a piece of the Prima Marketing Lyric collage for the centre and have used a different piece as the card background.  I thought the sentiment was perfect for mother.  I cut a Mini Dimensional Butterfly from some card I had coloured with alcohol inks. 

Here's a bit of a closer look at the butterfly and the lovely colours on the doily.  Yum.  

Entering this for
Cheery Lynn Designs Challenge 77 - Mothers Day
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Colour 
Simon Says Stamps - Anything Goes 

Happy crafting.  Thanks for dropping by. 

I Love the Rain Because..

Hi Nomad followers and friends.  Special hello to Sandy, great that you could join our merry band.   Rainy days are craft days.  Lots of UFO's at the moment but soon I just must sit down and tidy up a bit.  I am starting to lose things, the upside being that when I have to look for them in the ever growing piles I find something else that fires the creativity.   I think I shall have to make a UFO box.  Maybe that will facilitate the craft, especially when time is short.  There just never seem to be enough hours to do all the things I want to do.  

Yesterday we were at my nephew's confirmation.  Congratulations Jan Christian.  Here's the card I made for him.  This was based on a sketch set by DCWV.  

 

All the papers used came from DCWV Pets Stack.  I thought the blue/brown was a great combination.  The skateboarder is a stamp from Norsk Stempelblad AS 16B set and the sentiment from Kort og Godt.  The staples are EK Sucess decorative staple bars and I used torn cotton fabric at the bottom and a piece of ribbon at the top.  

Entering this for 

Hjerteboden Utfordring 4 - Konfirmasjon

DCWV Stack-a-holic Template Challenge April  

Simon Says Stamps - Anything Goes

Creative Craft World - April/May Mini-challenge

Hope you are having a great weekend.  Thanks for dropping by.

Boing, Boing, Boing

Hello and a happy Saturday to you all.  The end of the month is fast upon us and I still have a mountain of unfinished projects that I want to submit to various challenges.    Just trying to keep ahead of the deadlines.  Over at The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge this fortnight it's W with circles in the background.  That's a bit of a tricky one in Norwegian because they tend to use V instead of W.  Or H, which is even less help.  So I decided to go to parts foreign, in this case Australlia, and check out the wallabys.  Then whilst researching, this is a very edumacational challenge, I found Wallaroos!!  Smaller than Kangers, larger than Wallies.  Yeah, but lets go with Wallaby......

I picked one of my favourite My Minds Eye cardstocks, love these dotty circles.   Then I took a foam rubber circle that came on a boozy gift box and some white acrylic and stamped madly and badly.

I stamped with a small wallaby stamp I had all over the sheet, added a wallaby printed off the computer, the definition and my W's. 

Entering this for
The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge - W

Have a great weekend everyone.  Thanks for dropping by.

Rocking Chicken

Hi Nomad followers and friends.  Welcome to another instalment of craft.  Twice in one day!  Must be keen.  Or maybe it's just a sure sign of rain!!

I have been joining in the fun over at Creative Craft World where we are working on beating the Christmas rush.  This is a lovely quick make so perfect for the Christmas crazy season.  Or even April.

 I used Sizzix Bigz die Bird #2 which comes with it's own embossing folder.  So I cut using gold card, embossed, added a hint of a tint of red ink, a bow and a brad.  I folded a piece of white card and cut it, setting the fold so it came level just under the back of the bird.  Your base card is headless but if there isn't a good length of fold I find the card has a tenancy to open instead of stand.  That's it, a rocking bird.  So easy, so I made a flock....

I just altered the card and ink colour.  In the case of the dark green bird I spritzed with gold shimmer mist.   The bling is unlimited too although if you add anything too heavy your bird may have a tenancy to look a little drunk instead of rocking.  

So 5 more christmassy cards.  That's 12 now!

Me and the birds are rocking along to the challenges at
Creative Craft World - BtCR
Ett Trykk Jubileumsutfordringer Uke 4 - Tørrembossing

Have a happy evening.  Take care, thanks for dropping by, craft on.....

Spring in Paris

Hello blog followers and friends.  A special hello to Karin my newest follower.  Thanks to all my followers for your support and to everyone who is kind enough to take the time to leave me a bit of sunshine.  

Spring is still being a bit sluggish here.  Things are starting to bloom and bud but it's a bit chilly again today, and wet, so a perfect day to craft.......

The background for this card is handmade paper in a chocolate brown with a cream print.  I used the Travel to Paris stamp from Crafty Individuals and one of my favourite Sizzix bigz dies Poodle. The fluffy stuff is vivelle, which is a bit like felt but with more texture, from Craft Creations.  Googly eyes and a necklace of sticky gems.   The collage detail is cut from a piece of Prima paper, the Lyric collection.  I only got these yesterday so pleased to be using them already.  Very pretty papers.  

I thought the sentiment and the collage elements perfectly fitted with the travel to Paris stamp.  Spring in Paris.  How romantic. 

Entering this for
Simon Says Stamps - Travel/Cityscapes
Kort o Mania - Vår

Have a great day everyone and thanks for dropping by. 

Not This One, The Other One

Hi and hello everyone.  Got to be quick cos the challenge at PaperArtsy is closing soon.  I have been working on a Linda Cain inspired project but the one I was going to submit has become something of an adventure so I am doing a second little make from the leftovers.  Watch this space for the original idea.  Well, not this particular section of my space cos obviously it will be on a different post but.......  Anyway, enough waffle, on with the art.

 

Linda was doing this technique where she stamped into texture paste here.  I've used some chipboard and applied a good layer of paste and then stamped using swirls from PaperArtsy SIDD05 set.  I don't think I spritzed enough water on cos it stuck a bit to my stamps but great texture.  Coloured with various generic acrylic paints.

Stamped a lady from PaperArtsy LPC001 onto tissue paper and then stuck it on.  Couldn't remember what glue to use so went with hope and glossy accents.  Added some hand dyed wool trim and a bow.  I don't think the camera liked the bulky wool.  Ended up taking this inside with shadows so you could see the tissue paper allows the texture to show through.  The ripped edge of the tissue paper also makes a subtle boundary between the bright background colours. 

Entering this for
PaperArtsy - Welcome Back Linda Cain
The Artistic Stamper - Texture
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Background

Have a great and crafty Sunday.  Thanks for taking the time to visit. 

Chocolate and Dreams

Evening bloggers and blog readers.  Welcome and I hope you are having a wonderful weekend.  It's been a lovely sunny day so gardening was on the agenda.  Organised the greenhouse, potted up a few things, planted some seeds, cursed the mouse.  Yesterday I had 8 cucamelon seedlings.  Today I had 4.   No fair, leave my plants alone.  I know spring is late and there is a lack of greenery but my seedlings are strictly off the menu.    Ah well, one of the joys of gardening. 

I have been working on a project that has come together as a result of a number of challenges and quite pleased with the result I am, I am.  Ett Trykk have a jubilee celebration going on and are looking back at things that were in fashion back then.  When I was young.  OK, younger.  They were looking for a photo stamp.  Cheery Lynn are feeling Pretty in Purple and Stampotique wanted Birthdays.  Isn't it lovely when it all comes together like that?  Happy dance.....

I have used Little People Collage stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms and stamped with DI Dusty Concord.  I used Cheery Lynn Spring Flower Burst Doily and cut it out twice from purple glitter card.  I mounted one behind my image and then used the angel wing to fancy cut some chocolate handmade paper to back it and the main image.  The second doily I cut the middle out and also mounted it on the chocolate paper.  The patterned backing is My Minds Eye Parlor Print card.  I added two strips of purple ribbon and then backed with the brown handmade paper again.  The clock is from Kort og Godt and the Happy Birthday is a preprinted diecut. 

Entering my little purple princess for
Ett Trykk Jubileums Utfordringer - Photostamp
Cheery Lynn Designs Challenge - Pretty in Purple
Stampotique Designers Challenge 96 - Birthday
Papertake Weekly - One Patterned Paper

Have a great evening.  Thanks for dropping by and all your lovely comments.  Don't be shy, let me know you was here. 

Coming of Age

Greetings Nomad friends and followers.  I hope that the week is going well for you all.  Here in Norwayland we are coming into Confirmation Season.  Now in the UK it is actually quite a rarity for folks to get Confirmed.  Obviously it has dropped out of fashion and after remembering all the studying we had to do I am not totally surprised.  Here in Norway, and I suspect the whole of Scandinavia, it is something that almost everyone does when they reach 15 and it's usually a Spring thing.  Many do get confirmed in church but there are also non-church services so I think it's sort of a right of passage to adulthood, rather than the strictly Christian thing I experienced many years ago.  So here people maybe don't send New Year cards or Easter cards but you can bet there is a demand for Confirmation cards.  I am making a few this year but as with anything I am finding it easier to make for the young ladies rather than the young men.  Since I need male cards I decided I needed to sit down with that as a goal and here's the result....

I started by making a background collage of stamps.  I used Clearsnap Rollerstamps Define It, Happy Hands and Simple Dots with black ink.  I just rolled away and filled in the gaps.  I bought these a little while ago in a sale and was going to take them off the rollers but since seeing how fast you can cover a large area I am a bit of a convert.  I tinted using DI Dusty Concord, Pine Needles and Walnut Stain. 

I made a second background using DI Ocean Spray, Pine Needles, Mowed Lawn, Tattered Shutters, and Barn Door, spritzed with water and splatted with white paint.  Onto this I stamped my boy stamp from Kort og Godt, cut him out, mounted on black card and cut him out again.  The sentiment is also a Kort og Godt stamp stamped onto card I had embossed with Sizzix Cracked embossing folder and then coloured with DI Mowed Lawn.  Mounted on black card again and I added a couple of silver metal corners from Korthobby. 

I mounted the whole thing on black card and added another silver metal flourish from Korthobby at the top. 

Entering this for
Korthobby Utfordring April - Konfirmasjon
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Background
Kort O Mania - Vår

Sorry I didn't have the proper name on the stamps from Kort og Godt but I clipped the packaging so don't know what they are called.  If anyone does please let me know for my future reference.... 

Take care, have a good one and thanks for dropping by. 

For a Friend

Welcome Nomad followers and friends.  Thanks for joining me.  It's always nice to have a bit of company on my journey.  

I have been working a little CAS this evening.  It should have been quick but the ideas just never seemed to gel.  Sometimes you pick some elements you really want to use and try and build a project but it just won't come together.  Then you change just one thing and a whole new vista opens up.  Sigh of contentment.  

I started working on a piece of off white card with a shimmer finish.  I tore a piece of paper and masked off the 2/4 of the card width.  Then I used Tando Distorted Harlequin mask and applied DI Dusty Concord top and bottom and DI Picked Raspberry in the middle.  This gave this quite attractive stripe.  

 

I applied a chipboard sticker from Basic Grey Indian Summer set and then stamped the sentiment with a stamp from Crafty Individuals set CI-277  with black ink.  

Entering this for 

Basic Grey Challenges - CAS

Artful Times Challenge 27 - Stencils/Masks 

Thanks for dropping by.  Any comments you feel inclined to leave always make me smile.  

Be warm, be safe, be crafty.....

Finally Spring

Hello hello everyone.  Thank you all for your very kind comments.  They are little rays of sunshine in my day.  Finally Spring appears to have arrived.  Hurrah.  Yesterday was wet and wild but with the storm came some warmth and today suddenly there's crocus and I even saw some daffodils in a sheltered spot.  Not in my garden yet but soon, soon........

Everybody seems to be thinking spring and flowers and April showers and I have been playing around with a project or two.  Felt I wanted some bright colours and motifs and what brighter than a balloon.

This is Distress Chipped Sapphire on glossy card, spritzed with water and then blotted.  I used this as my base card.  Usually I blot with tissue paper but I wondered if I could use a piece of paper instead and grabbed a piece of watercolour paper.  The result is below.  

A much more open effect.  I added a variety of Distress inks working in stripes from the corner in the colours of the rainbow.  Then I edged with DI Ocean Spray and mounted it on the base card leaving a small amount of the base card showing.

 

  
The balloon was cut from gold mirror card and free paper from a magazine using DoCrafts Vintage Balloon Dies and Cheery Lynn Pixie Guardian die for the basket.  The saying is from the same free papers and seemed appropriate.  I got a bit stuck here until I saw the challenge over at Ett Trykk where they are looking back at various techniques and wanted us to use homemade or bought foam stamps.  I decided to cut a butterfly stamp from funky foam using Cheery Lynn Mini Dimensional Butterflies.

Here's a photo of three butterflies I cut from foam.  The one I used in this project I mounted on an offcut from a rubber sheet and used on an acrylic block.

Very pleased with my stamp.  I really should cut myself some more from all these lovely dies I have.  I stamped the butterflies in DI Dusty Concord.

Entering this for the following challenges
Ett Trykk Jubileumsutfordringer - Skumstempler (used foam butterfly stamp)
Simon Says Stamps - April Showers
Stampotique Designers Challenge 95 - April Showers Bring May Flowers
Dies to Die For - Spring

 Happy crafting everyone.  Thanks for dropping by.

Dasher, Dancer, Donner, Blitzen

Hello Blogland.  Hope everyone is having a sunny, crafty, relaxing Saturday.  This is a real quick post and a real quick make.  Working on my Alpha Dictionary for The Craft Barn Challenge and this fortnight R was the one.  I had a few options here and was going to go Raven/Ravn but after making a bird themed P I thought I would look elsewhere.  So here we go with Reindeer/Rein....

I cut my reindeer using the Sizzix die and then embossed with the matching folder.  I added a hint of black ink to the die cuts and stuck them on the My Minds Eye card stock.  The letters are Sizzix Ida Lou's Flowerbox dies and the definition comes from Wikipeadia.  

Sometime simple is best and since it's sunny out I'm off to do a bit of weeding.  

Entering this for
The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge - R

Have a great weekend everyone.  Thanks for all your lovely comments and for dropping by. 

Nitro and Morphine

Hello, hello, bloggers, followers and friends.  It's been a funny old week.  I can't believe it's Friday already and on the craft front I have started much and finished little.  It's still holding cold here so the garden is taking only a fraction of the time I should be putting in.  I have only been blogging since last October so I have yet to see how I can portion my time so I still manage to craft when it's light outside and the garden is full speed ahead.  Usually at this time I am outside all the daylight hours, and there are quite a few of those already.  We are in southern Norway so in the summer we aren't midnight sun, maybe only 11pm sun!!  Looking forward to that.  May have to work on a portable craft area so it can join me outside......

This week over at PaperArtsy it's Helen Chilton's last week as DT and what a week.  I have been dabbling at this Helen inspired project for days, turning things, tinting things, obliterating everything with white paint!!  Brave horrors....  This project is based on Helen's second day this week. 

  

I started by stamping the Tall Ship Lady from PaperArtsy LPC001 on glossy card using Distress Ink Picked Raspberry, Salty Ocean and Mowed Lawn.  I inked and stamped three times then stamped twice on a different sheet.  Re-ink and repeat and you get the one above and the one below......

This is my background for the main stamp image.  I stamped the Shiplady in black archival...

Photo a bit out of focus.  Then I fussy cut her.  At this point I regretted not picking one of the less ornate stamps.  It was a bit fiddly.....

Back to my background and I decided I would use it with the stamp images upright.  No, no upside down.  No, on the side.  Oh happy accident but yes!  I did some doodling.  I was pleased with it but it was a bit sharp.  Was it was Helen who says if it doesn't blend then cover it with white pain?  Horror.  Am I so brave??  Yeah, what ever, it's only an hour or so if it all goes horribly pear shaped.  But actually friends, followers and small furries it worked......

I decided my Lady didn't stand out enough and backed her with black card which necessitated more cutting.  At this point I have wildly exceeded my fussiness threshold but after investing so much time and feeling the emergence of Art I kept on keeping on.  A little addition of some metal pynt from Korthobby and a couple of brads and she is as near perfection as I could want.  That metal flower garland from Korthobby seems made for her.  Must stock up on these.  The size was perfect and it frames her face gorgeously.

I mounted the background and the Lady on some bright pink card I had rounded the corners and then run a line of lace round before sticking everything down.   The blue behind is scrap that got inked during another project and it may be reincarnated at a blog near you soon......

The banner reads 'Til Konfirmanten' and is a stamp from Kort og Godt.  I stamped it on a piece of cotton fabric which I had tinted with Distress inks and frayed the edge.  Confirmation is a BIG deal in Scandinavia.  This is definitely an unconventional confirmation card but I am sure there are some unconventional young ladies out there.  The corners are cut using the Sizzix ATC and Corners die.  These are becoming a regular thing as well.  I tried different colours but the plain chipboard worked best. 

I am sharing this with challenges at
PaperArtsy - Welcome Back Helen Chilton
Korthobby Utfordring April - Konfirmasjon 
Sir Stamp a Lot Challenge - Special Occasions

Take care and thanks for dropping by.  No bleach was used in the making of this project.....

Fancy That

Good evening blog friends and followers.  Oh, maybe that's good morning.  I don't know where the time goes.  Since we shifted to summer time my personal clock seems to be a bit haywire and I am perpetually surprised by the hour.  I always seem to be a bit late, rarely a bit early and never on time.  Ah well, craft on and craft away good friends. 

I was thinking what fun it is to do challenges.  They make you tackle things you otherwise would not and make you think outside the box.  I've gone a bit 3D for my latest submission to the Cheery Lynn Challenge where this week it's Back to Nature. 

I made a big piece of background by spreading Distress Ink Chipped Sapphire on white card, spritzing with water and taking off the excess water with a tissue.  Sounds familiar I know, I used this on my last project, but this time I made a big sheet cos it's lovely.  From this sheet I cut a Cheery Lynn Spring Flower Burst Doily, tinted it with VersaMagic Night Sky and Ocean Depth, cut out the centre, quartered it and stuck a quarter in each of the corners of my card.  Sounds complicated but looks like this.....

 

I cut another doily from blue glitter card.  I cut 6 Cheery Lynn Snowflake 2 in white, folded them in half and then stuck them back to back to make a 3d snowflake.  I mounted this in the centre of the card and added a Cheery Lynn Hummingbird cut from gold card.  I used a little tab to mount him so the card can be flattened to post and then he hops right back up again.  I added lots of Cheery Lynn Mini Dimensional Butterflies cut from gold card, went around the edge of the card with VersaMagic Night Sky and then mounted the whole thing onto a slightly larger piece of the same background card.  Glad I made lots!!

This is a slightly out of focus picture hopefully showing the height I achieved for the hummingbird and also you can see the snowflake better.  

This is what it looks like folded flat.  Excuse my finger, it wouldn't stay flat unless I held it down.  A great pop up device!!

Entering this for
Cheery Lynn Designs Challenge - Back to Nature
That Craft Place - Animal Challenge
Country View Challenges - Butterflies
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Anything goes

Hope you have enjoyed looking.  This was such a fun make.  Take care, thanks for dropping by.

The Girl With the Starfish Earring

Greeting blog followers and friends and a special hello to my new followers.  I have decided that names are important.  I always used to call my roosters Hans.  It made it easy to remember and there was only ever one we were keeping at a time, so no problems.  Then year before last we hatched a beautiful black fellow who seemed to be getting on well with his dad, Hans, so we decided to keep him.  I named him Ninja.  At one year old Ninja decided he had waited long enough and beat the stuffing out of poor Hans.  My man says survival of the fittest so Hans became a very tasty stew and Ninja rules the roost.  Too late to rename him now but I shall be sticking to Hans at the next rooster exchange.

I needed a birthday card.  Actually since it's April I need a lot of birthday cards!  Does everyone have a month like that when it seems there are so many birthdays?  I always forget someone because they come thick and fast.  After checking out the happenings over at PaperArtsy I decided I could be inspired by Michelle Webb and cover a few challenges at the same time.  Sometimes ideas come together and as soon as I saw Michelle's stamping on masking tape I knew it was something I wanted to try. It went well with an article on mosaic cards in Ett Trykk magazine.

I stuck some strips of masking tape onto an old cutting mat.  I took small stamps from PaperArtsy Ding Dong SIDD5 and Lynne Perrella Collection 001 and stuck them on an acryllic block.  I inked them using Versa Magic Aegean Blue, Night Sky and Ocean Depth and stamped until my tape was covered.  

I randomly took up the tape pieces and stuck them to a piece of card to create a mosaic.  Kind of steampunkty?  Then I blended on some Distress Ink Salty Ocean and spritzed with water.  The ink nicely coloured the tape edges and filled some of the white space.  

I blended DI Chipped Sapphire onto two pieces of card, spritzed with water and then used a tissue to mop up creating this lovely watermark effect.  Then I stamped one of the ladies from LPC001 onto one piece of card and cut her out.  

I suspended a couple of metal charms from Korthobby from her hat, OK not quite earrings!! and mounted her on sticky pads.  

I tore an aperture in the second piece of card, stamped using the small shell stamp LPC001 in Memento London Fog around the edge and then highlighted the torn edge and the frame with Brilliance Galaxy Gold.  Regretted that after as it made photographing a nightmare but the shimmer looks fab in the flesh, so to speak.  I stamped the sentiment from SIDD05 using black ink onto the watermarked card and tore round the edges.  I edged the card with DI Salty Ocean. 

Entering this for 
PaperArtsy - Michelle Webb
Ett Trykk- Mosaikk Kort
Simon Says Stamps - Happy Birthday

Quite pleased with this although this one definitely looks better in real life that in the photos.  True for many things I suppose.  Anyway, off to try and put something else together.  Thanks for dropping by.  I appreciate your support so leave a comment so I know you was here.  Take care, keep warm, hope for spring and craft on.......

Walking the Fish

Good evening good folk of Blogland.  I hope you all had a wonderfully relaxing and chocco filled Easter.  Back to the same old same old.  I had a break from the craft and the blog while my sister was visiting. It's always nice to spend time with them from the Old Country.

It's still sunny and cold here in Norway.  We had hardly any rain last month and we are on fire alert.  The mountain across the fjord caught fire last weekend and we had ringside seats for the three day it took them to put it out.  The flames at night were amazing but we were at a safe distance so just exciting for us.  No such fun for those closer to the action.  No-one hurt, just a burnt mountain.  Luckily there was no wind and the ground is still so frozen that it seems only the surface vegetation was burnt and it may green up again in the summer.  Nature is a wonderful thing.  OK, back to the craft.  Over at Joanna Sheen Challenge Blog they want weather related things.

I have been playing with tissue paper and acrylic paint.

I scrunched my tissue paper, stuck it to a piece of chipboard and then splashed on some blue acrylic paint.

I made a mask using Sizzix original Music Notes die and worked in some purple acrylic.

Here's what it looked like without the mask.

Then I dry brushed on some white acrylic and dribbled some dark blue down the page (sorry didn't photo that bit).  Then I found a bit I liked and cut an ATC using Sizzix ATC and Corners die.  You know I always though it was a bit silly to buy a die to cut rectangles but since becomming an ATC fan I decided this would save loads of time.  And it gives nice rounded corners.  Very professional.

I embossed Umbrella Man from the Artful Muse embosssing folder set onto black card and sanded.  This card has a white core so I got a nice effect.  Then I fussy cut him and stuck him onto the ATC.  The words are computer generated with a bit of a doodle and I edged the ATC with Distress Ink Walnut Stain.  Don't forget the fish.  A lovely little charm from Korthobby.  You heard of it raining cats and dogs??  Well, I am sure they would eat the fish so Umbrella Man has him safe under the umbrella.  

Entering this for
Joanna Sheen Challenge - Come Rain or Shine
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Very Strict Challenge
That Craft Place - Animal Challenge (one man and his fish)

Have a fun and wacky evening everyone.  Off to find an aeroplane........  Thanks for dropping by.