Black and White

 Well this happened today.

Created for Gecko Galz Papercrafting Challenge Group over on Facebook. The theme was Black and White with a pop of colour. 

Recipe - Love Potion Craft Kit

Paper sheet number 4, turned black then copied and placed to so the music fills the right hand side.

Paper sheet number 2 turned black, cropped, edges roughened

image number 3, cropped, flipped to look right, copied and turned black.

Heart from copy of image cut out and placed over original image.

Feature Day at Gecko Galz & Umbrella at Digital Whisper

Today is my day to feature my Design Team project for 'Love Stories' over at Gecko Galz,
and it also fits a new challenge over at Digital Whisper which is another challenge blog I haven't done before. All new things this year!

A 6 x 6 digital page done CAP2, using an image from April Showers, with a rainy day photo from  Pixabay and a quote from the web written in Curl MT

I hope you'll join our Love Stories challenge where the winner will receive a $25 shopping spree at the Gecko Galz shop. The only rule is that you must use at least one Gecko Galz product, which can be something you purchased from the shop or a freebie.
If you sign up for the Gecko Galz newsletter, you'll be able to claim a free collage sheet each month and get first claim on the $1 Wednesday deals!
Why don't you pop over to the Gecko Galz blog to see all the fabulous designs by the very talented Design Team. Don't forget to grab the free digi stamp on each post!
We also have a Facebook Group where there are more monthly challenges for you to play in, each with a Design Sheet to win.

Amanda xx

entering in: Digital Whisper - Umbrella

Snow Queen at Gecko Galz

A new month means a new Customer Challenge at the Gecko Galz and the theme for the month of December is 'Snow Queen'. So why not play along - join the challenge with the chance to win $25 at the Gecko Galz shop!
The weather has finally turned and its freezing! As I write this I'm in a long sleeve shirt, jumper and a cardigan.... cannot get warm today. Had a lovely 6 mile walk with OH and Quinn the Border Collie this morning, blow the cobwebs away so I can focus on that C word coming up..... Christmas!! Being a Retail worker, it started about three weeks ago, Christmas is so drawn out in shops by the time it actually gets to the week of Christmas, its 'lets just get it over with!'

But there's still plenty of time to make those Christmas cards, so have a look at all our Design Teams makes for last minute inspiration!! (And to start present buying!!)

My first sample is a 7x5 card, all done digitally in CAP2 and then printed out as a big topper, inked the edges with Glam Gold pigment ink and then stuck on the white card.

image from Snow Queen Design Sheet

Champagne gems

backing paper from First Class Passage Paper Pack 

Next comes a 6x6 card, this is my favourite Christmas card so far this year. 

image from Snow Queen Designs Sheet

backing paper Silent Night paper

plain white card

small oval die

Spellbinders Heirloom Ornaments Stamps sentiment

Royal Blue pigment ink

snowflake die cut

white pearls

Another 6x6 card now

image from Snow Queen Design Sheet

blue glitter card

random blue backing paper

snowflake die cut

blue stars

sentiment done in CAP2 to match the image

My last card, 5x7.

paper from 'Starlight ATC Collection'

Gold card stars

gold gitter

Glam Gold pigment ink (edged card with)

Creative Expressions Sentiment Die Cut

I hope you'll join in with our Snow Queen Challenge, where the Winner gets a $25 shopping spree to spend at the Gecko Galz shop. (The only rule is that you must use at least one Gecko Galz product... this can be one of the freebies, or, of course, you can buy at the Etsy shop).
If you sign up for the Gecko Galz monthly newsletter, you'll be kept up to date with new releases, $1 Wednesday deals and be able to claim a free digital collage sheet.
If you pop over to the Gecko Galz blog, you will see all the fabulous designs by the Design Team - and maybe grab a freebie or two.
If you haven't a blog/and or/ on Facebook, head over to the Gecko Galz Papercrafting Group where there are more monthly challenges, with the chance to win a digital collage sheet.

 Amanda xx 

Feature Day at Gecko Galz

This month its 'Garden Bliss' so after doing something digital on the previous post I wanted to make something, albeit using Craft Artist 2 again.

I tried making a minizine a fair few years ago and well, lets just say it was umm, okay.. I gave it Delia as a little present and she smiled and said thank you. Probably still lurking in the dark recess of some drawer. UhUh.

This time I impressed myself - I love it when I do this.Makes me feel like a proper crafter!

So, this is how to make a mini zine:

Tip: I used 300gsm card and it folded and shaped a lot better than something lighter. I also practised with a piece of copy paper first - and you can see the folds in it as well.

Take an A4 piece of paper and fold & score it in half as in a5 card blank so you have a central crease.

Lay it flat and fold one side in to the central crease,

then repeat with the other side, so it looks like this:
















and closed:



then fold over on its self:


then again:



Open it back up and cut along the crease as in the picture:



Open the paper up and it should look like this with a slit along the middle where the scissors are placed.



fold it length ways and 'push' the paper apart



so it folds itself:



then fold it flat in to a little book




Once I'd folded, creased and folded again, I selected which three images I wanted to use and then browsed  The Quote Garden (my new favourite site!) and picked four quotes, one for the front and one opposite each image. I took everything into CAP2 and sized a green coloured square to 3.50 x 2.50 (atc size) and then added an image on top - I did this for each piece, so each one matched. It sounds complicated but it was the quickest matting and layering ever!

Then it was time to printout and construct my minizine, I added a few green pearls to finish it off.

Amanda xx

Gecko Galz - Garden Bliss

Over on the Gecko Galz blog, the challenge for April is 'Garden Bliss'. Feel free to join in and have a play - there is only one rule, and that is you need to use at least ONE product from Gecko Galz shop or it can be one of the free products, stamps, collage images, or digital papers!! The winner will receive a whopping Spring-loaded $50 Gecko Galz shopping spree!

My garden, termed rather loosely, is one of my favourite places - if I'm not in the garden I have the front door open so I can hear the bird song and our chickens chortling. We've just put up a 6x6 wooden greenhouse. in which there will be tomato plants, lettuce etc - cannot wait to get going!
Its not a very scenic garden by any stretch of the imagination but there are shrubs and a few flowers and a lovely big Twisted Hazel tree which I had for my birthday. So I definitely feel  Garden Bliss.

'Floral Symphony Paper Kit'

'Free Birds Craft Kit'

I used the floral paper as my backing paper then overlaid the muscial one on top and altered the transparency of it so you can just see the notes in the background. The four birds came from the Craft Kit and I just placed them onto the page. The quote came from The Quote Garden.

Amanda xx 

For these and many more designs, check out Gecko Galz on Etsy.

Putting on the Green

Over on the Gecko Galz blog, the challenge for February is 'Putting on the Green'. Feel free to join in and have a play - there is only one rule, and that is you need to use at least ONE product from Gecko Galz Etsy but it can be one of the free products, stamps, collage images, or digital papers. The winner will receive a $25 Gecko Galz shopping spree!

First up is a digital project I did using 'Glass Slipper' from the 'Ever After' paper pack and an image from 'Gypsy Magic' design sheet. Quote from the web.

I used the paper as my background. I thought the gold swirls would work well with the image. I then imported the design sheet into my work space and cropped it down till I had the image I wanted to use. Altering the size I placed it in the right hand corner, then used the wine glass tool which in easy speak allows you to play with the transparency of  your selected item from different angles. once I was happy with how she faded into the background, I matched the colour of sentiment to the swirls.

For this card I used an image from 'She is so Lovely' design sheet.

Background paper Websters Pages "Petite Papers" collection

Lime paper from Websters " Best Friends" pack

Peel offs

Green Pearls

The Hobby House 'champagne' gems

bow

For this card I used an image from "Sweet little Cuties" design sheet.

Using an oval die I cut the image out and then cut the same size oval out of a piece of cream card and used this as a picture mount.
The green flower, gold embellishments, lace and snip art corner all came from Craft Box.

For these and many more designs, check out the Gecko Galz  Etsy shop

For these and many more designs, check out the Gecko Galz shop.

Courtly Love Customer Challenge

Happy New Year!!

A new month means a new Customer Challenge at the Gecko Galz and the theme for the month of January is 'Courtly Love'.

So why not play along, join the challenge with the chance to win $25 at the Gecko Galz Shop

~~~

It was lovely to do a card which wasn't a Christmas card, I think that's why I went a bit crazy with the pearls, add my undying affection for Mr Darcy and it all went a bit.......

image from 'Vintage Flirtations' design sheet 

paper from 'Courtly Love' Paper pack 

burgundy paperstock

pearls, lots & lots of

Spellbinder frame die

quote from Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice Mr Darcy, superbly acted by Colin Firth

Using an A4 sheet of white card I measured about 29cm along the long side and about 16cm on the short side and cut the card accordingly.

I then measured 10cm along the long edge and scored down the card to make the front of the card.

(this size card will just about fit into a C5 envelope, might have to do a little snipping to fit properly)

I resized my image using Craft Artist to use as the topper for the front of my card, also did the same with my chosen backing paper  (using the measurements of the long edge with the 10cm taken off) and printed both off. 

To make the quote topper I used the same backing paper but cropped it so it was just the plain pink area, typed my chosen quote (sheesh, it took me ages to find the one I wanted to use!) and then printed it out. With hindsight, I should have made the font a teeny bigger.

I backed my topper with a panel of burgundy card and then stuck it onto my card, I stuck the backing paper straight on to the card.

Using the SpellBinder die I centred the quote in the middle and then die cut it out, then die cut a piece of burgundy card stock to go underneath it.

Lastly I added the pearls, and more pearls.

All I can say is........ 'Oh, Mr Darcy!'

disclaimer - Neither Mr Darcy, nor Colin Firth were harmed in the making of this card 😍

~~~

I hope you'll join in with our 'Courtly Challenge' where the Winner gets a $25 shopping spree to spend at the Gecko Galz Shop. (The only rule is that you must use at least one Gecko Galz product... this can be one of the freebies or, of course, you can buy at the Etsy shop)

If you sign up for the Gecko Galz monthly newsletter, you'll be kept up to date with new releases, $1 Wednesday deals and claim a free digital collage sheet!

If you pop over to the Gecko Galz Blog, you will see all the fabulous designs by the very talented Design Team - and maybe a freebie or two!

If you're on Facebook, head over to the private Gecko Galz Papercrafting Group where there are four monthly challenges, each theme has a digital collage sheet as a prize.

Amanda xx

By the Shore

Sat and did this page last week, playing with a new kit (freebie) I got off DaisyTrail, which sadly closes on the 11th of this month. Also purchased a few digi kits in the sale.
Only just found the time to upload it.

used 'vintage vacation' digi kit by Rosie H
image from Gecko Galz 'Splish Splash' sheet 1

entering in: gecko galz blog = August - by the shore

wine glass tool

20 days since I posted...... 20 days since I actually crafted. What with the heat, work and general stuff I never got round to doing much, so sorry to all the ladies whose challenges I normally take part in.

Well, the heat has gone - to be replaced with rain and dull skies although today looks like it could be nice and bright.

XXX work ramble, please skip if easily bored XX

Work has taken a turn for the worse , but only in the fact that I have gone back down to my contracted hours of 13, for the last couple of months I have been doing 30ish every week. (originally the job was 16hrs as this was the last vacancy when the new shop opened and I didn't want to be on the dole, so i took it, plus with my illness I didn't want full time hours back then)
A colleague has had to transfer onto the Deli counter from her own dept for health reasons so her hours have wiped out overtime hours, not that its her fault. I'm just worried that my little grey cells won't be able to cope with the sudden lack of work stimulation and I slide back into a depression - so trying to avoid this way of thinking I am looking at it as if I am having a rest, extra time out, play time, me time, whatever!

XX work ramble over XX

Last weekend I rejoined a Craft Artist users group and this weeks tutorial/challenge was to use the 'wineglass' tool which alters the transparency of something, in various ways.

Never used this before - didn't even know what it did, so have had a play.

original image gecko galz free collage images

digi kit used - Folk Florals by DaisyTrail

wineglass tool - Radial at 0% opacity (basically formed a circle round her head)

also entering in a Gecko Galz challenge 'orange and yellow'

Quote

Digitally Made Challenges have their new challenge up for this month and its "Quote - include a quote on the project or tell us the quote that inspired your project and how"

Doing things a little differently as usual,  I decided to use a quote from Supernatural. Oh boy, was it tedious looking through all the eye candy different characters quotes to pick one which I could use!

It actually took me just over 2 hours to do this page, as I kept trying different backgrounds but me being me, went with the first background I'd played around with...

There are quite a few layers/components to this page;

background 

Devils trap symbol

the Impala

material 

frame

writing

Had great fun putting it all together, especially love that the Devils Trap looks like its engraved into the picture, totally by accident when I was using the transparency tool to fade it.

The Impala image came from Pinterest, and the digi kit I used was "Grunge it" by Seaside Crafter over on DaisyTrail

entering in: Digitally Made Challenges = quote

It also looks freakin' awesome as a wallpaper on the computer:

okay, I'll stop channeling Dean Winchester now..... 

the letter M

So today is the first day of my June holiday, one weeks glorious sunshine at Costa d' Hilcote. or not, as the weather today is cold and wet,did I mention its very cold!!

Decided to do some crafting today and drink lots of coffee to keep warm. 

New challenges are up on the Gecko Galz facebook page, so I chose to do  ' letter M' 

I thought of mermaid straight away, just had to find a suitable GG image, then googled "mermaid poems" and the one I used was one of the first I saw, usually I end up trawling through loads of stuff and end up really fed up.

GG image from July 2015 email freebie

Coquette kit paper no 6

Edges and mint green

Didn't think I'd get time to do something for the current Butterfly challenge, if I have odd day off I don't get to craft much, but if the days off fall together I seem to be more organised.

Done something digital today, so can enter into two challenges.

Done in pastel colours to co-ordinate with the mint green butterfly, using a Butterfly digi kit. Plenty of tweaking and fading of things, so not going to go into details like I usually do.
I like this so much I'm going to buy a small box frame and hang it up somewhere, as a gentle reminder that its ok when things change, you just need to adapt.

entering in:Butterfly challenge = E for edges and/or mint green

and onto the 2nd challenge, with a heavy heart as its the very last challenge from this lovely Digital blog. Everyone on the DT and all the participants are lovely people and create some amazing projects, it will be a shame not too have this inspiration anymore.

entered into: Digitally Sweet = anything goes

A digital Christmas card

Back to working 13hrs - just two days at work, sudden drop from working 28/34 hrs for last 2 months or so.....eek! The first few days at home are fine but then I start to miss going out to work and then that's when my moods start to nosedive and I get really low. Trying to stay positive though - plenty of cards to make between now and next Thursday.....

Here's a 100% digital Christmas card I did this morning.

Using a Gecko Galz image, I resized it and then using the colour pipette, I matched the 'backing paper' to the background of the image, slightly altering its transparency to fit better. The smoky border came from a digi kit I have, again just played around till it looked like the edges were smudged with age. I bevelled the edges of the newly created topper and then made another 'backing paper' of the same colour to put the the topper on, so you can see the beveled edge more clearly. Drew 2 little circles and colour matched the red from the image, agin using the bevel tool - which made then look like shiny gems. Last but not least I found a bow from another kit and matched the red, adding a deep shadow to it. This sounds quite quick too do but it wasn't as I kept changing my mind on colours, placement.....

entering in:  digitally sweet = a digital christmas card

colour challenge

Over at fripperies and butterflies the colour challenge for August 15th - Sept 14th is based around one of my favourite flowers - the Sunflower.

 

This time I didn't want to do a card, I wanted to do something different. So I ended up doing a journal page for my ring bound notebook I purchased (going cheap) to pop all my crafty stuff in, so I could keep a better track of challenges, cards etc.

 

Fate dealt her hand when I visited a blog I haven't been to for simply yonks - I decided to visit Lilac 'n' Lavender and the latest post featured sunflowers so used the lovely designs as my base and played around with Craft Artist and inks.

 

I used the sunflowers from here and the background for the postcard from here and the sunflower image from here

 

 

                                          

journal page

 

I changed the size of the image to fit my page, leaving a little border so if I  rip the page out when the journal is full I can then use it somewhere else. (this is me thinking ahead for once *lol*) In CAP, I dimmed the colour down so it wasn't as bright then printed it off.

 

 

                                         

page without postcard

 

I like the over all effect but I could have stamped the sentiment higher. When I printed it out, for some reason my printer decided to 'line' some areas, so I got round those areas by extra smudging with the ink. The middle of the sunflowers were especially bad so I ended up sticking my finger in black pigment ink and fingerprinting the middles which, happily, mimicked the texture of actual sunflower hearts. Using bronze and black pigment inks I smudged away to give it a faded/vintage look. (Also smudged the white page so it would match)

For the pocket I folded over a doily (Dovecraft Floral Muse) and glued down the sides, the bit of lace covered the top nicely, then I just had to find a butterfly which went with the color tones.

 

 

                         

postcard

 

I'd found this quote before I visited Lilac n Lavender - fate again! Using CAP I cut out and resized the stem of sunflowers turning them into each corner to make a border, I then cropped the main sunflower image and dimmed that to make a centre piece, over which I wrote the saying. Printed it out and stuck it to the front of one of my many vintage postcards, the back says

 

Dear Madeline

Wishing you many happy returns on your birthday. With love to all.

From

Aunt Louise

 

post mark - Sept 1931 @ 11.30pm Plaistow E13

 

entering in Fripperies and Butterflies on FaceBook.

All that Glitters

This card made itself.

Yes, it did.

Because I had no idea what I was going to do for this challenge, apart from using this very beautiful lady from the Breathtaking Beauties image sheet.

I used CAP2 to resize her, and printed her out.

And that was it.

So, somehow - the velum was found, then the right colour paper was found to go underneath so you could see the pretty swirls better on said vellum, and the colour tone matched the vintage look.

I admit to using the doily.


Strip of lace, feather off of a Fairy Angel light, ribbon, flower embellishments, gems and the die cuts just happened.

The little flowers on the feather were white, so they coloured themselves Cool Grey to match up.

Do I need to call Mulder & Scully........well, maybe just Mulder?

purple blue paper

Laurence Llewelyn Bowen (yes, I had to google how to spell it) Vellum

doily

Gecko Galz 'Breathtaking Beauties'

Crafty Blitz small white flowers

Ribbon

Hobby House 'champagne' gems

Do Crafts stamp.

Do Crafts corner die

snippets of brown design paper from The Works.

obligatory Laurence pic

 

Entering in: Gecko Galzs = All that glitters
                    Snippets Playground = -week 213

birthday

I had so much fun making the cute little calendar cards, I decided to make one for Andrews birthday.

 

Gecko Galz Steampunk Papers - Picture It

plane from Google search

washers

 

Using CAP2 I resized the backing paper, then imported the image and used the photo editor to blank out the white space surrounding the image, then turned it sepia to match the tones. I picked a font that I thought matched the theme of the card and printed the words out separately.

 

Ah! the words...... bit of an odd choice for a vintage by-plane, don't you think?? Well, yes but their referencing one of our favourite films 'The Mummy'.

 

I kept everything to scale and printed onto an A4 card, then assembled the front of the card whilst it was flat - using a promarker to go round the edges of the sentiments to make them stand out. The two washers came out of a tin full of diy bits and bobs.

 

Last thing to do was refold and glue.

do you believe?

The colour chart for the latest challenge over at fripperies and butterflies (closes 15th Sept) is

 

very vibrant and cool looking. I couldn't settle on a physical make so I used CAP2 to make a 100% digital one.

 

 

Gecko Galz February & may pinterest freebie

Fripperies & Butterflies freebies

Jodie Lee Designs butterfly garden papers no 10

butterflies from a digikit.

 

I chose a paper from Jodie Lee, and using the colouriser in CAP2, changed the colour to match the lighter green in the chart, placed that as my background. I had two images I wanted to use but couldn't decide which to go with, so I used the February one has a material - the overlay on the background is the February freebie - again I changed the colour to match the background, then increased the size until just the lower skirt was showing then faded that, which added another texture onto the background. I flipped the girl image so she was facing into the frame and then using the edging tool I changed the edges into 'glow' and decreased the actual edge line until it had blended right back into the background. The sky of the image matches the background so it looks like the image has 'broken' out of it. Added the butterflies to fill the gap below the writing....

 

And like the quote says, if you believe - you will see them ; )

 

entering into: Fripperies and Butterflies facebook page

                      digitally sweet = things with wings

 

 

 

 

 

a whiter shade of...

This card looks better in actuality, the shadow on the weeping angel is highlighted in the photo, but not so much on the card.

I also came across a new challenge blog, which looks interesting, so I thought I'd enter this months. All the other designs look so amazing!

 

 

An Angel mourns the loss of their lover.

 

 

Delicious Doodles - Dark Valentine & Weeping Angel

Spellbinder die cut (small one)

Do Craft die cut (large one)

white pearls

white gesso

 

 

I used CAP2 to resize and place my images, and also to lighten them using the transparency tool. Once I was happy with the size and placement, I printed the page out, cut down to fit a 6x6 card and then rummaged around in my die cut off-cut box, to see what I could find. Stuck them on and added a few pearls. The Gesso was a happy accident *cough* there was a mark on the paper below the Angel, so I had to think how to cover it up..... three applications of Gesso later, I think it worked.

 

entering in: delicious doodles - white on white

                    forever dark - challenge 3

 

 

with nanny

Over on the Gecko Galz blog, the July challenge is 'seaside memories', on receipt of the July email freebie sheet, I spotted a lovely picture, well two actually, to maybe fit this theme - and a butterfly image which will fit perfectly with another blogs theme.

Gecko Galz July email sheet

Do Craft pastel ribbon

pale blue gems

 

Everything was imported into CAP2, I took the colour from the main image and used that to colour the background & sentiment tag.

entering into: gecko galz blog - seaside memories
                      digitally sweet challenges - anything goes (2nd entry)

its a mans world

How blinkin' hard is it to make a male card????? Oh my goodness, family I'm ok with as I temd to use hobbies etc., but a leaving card for a colleague??

I did manage to fit it round a challenge theme though, even if it was 'anything goes' *lol*

 

Gecko Galz 'Industrail Age' stamp n19

stylish man ???

black card

 

 

I used CAP2 to fill in the stamps bubbles, and add some of my own to fit what I wanted to say in. I think the guy came from The graphics Gairy -- not sure, anyway all I did with him was increase the size to fit the design.

 

entering in: Gecko Galz Papercrafting Challenge Group

                    digitally sweet challenges : anything goes