Crafty As L

A couple of weeks ago, our cats were fascinated with watching the falling snow.   From inside, that was - they weren’t that keen on it when they went out!   That’s what inspired this week’s cards but I’ve also added a fox into the scene too. To begin, I taped down some watercolour card, wet it all over and then randomly daubed various shades of blue and grey paint onto the damp card.   Whilst the paint was still damp, I sprinkled a few grains of salt on each panel and set aside to dry naturally. It’s a bit hit and miss as to how it turns out as if the paper’s too dry, nothing will happen.   If it’s perfectly damp, lovely snowy effects will appear. If the paper’s too wet, the blooms will spread further so the snowy effect is lost. As I’d used watercolour paper, which is a bit textured, I used my MISTI so that I could repeat stamp the images to get good coverage.   I used Lavinia stamps - Mooch and one of the foxes from Set 1. To ground the animals, I li...

It’s time again for my Visible Image DT post and my brief this week was “monochrome with a pop of colour”.   With the card being predominantly black and white, I decided to add some extra interest and dimension with texture paste. I began with the background as it would need time to dry.   After attaching the Ledger stencil to a piece of black card with some low tack tape, I applied Distress Grit paste through the stencil with a spatula. After removing the stencil and quickly washing immediately in hot, soapy water, I went back to the panel where the paste was still wet and applied silver white glitter, shaking off the excess, and set aside to dry.   Once  completely  dry, I used a dry, flat paintbrush to remove any other excess glitter that had not stuck. Whilst the background was drying, I stamped and clear heat-embossed the small butterfly and sentiment from Counting Moments .   The butterflies were quickly coloured with a pink/purple alcohol mark...

It was Mr L’s birthday a few weeks ago and I was struggling to think of what card to make him so scrolled through Pinterest for ideas.   After seeing one that appealed, I thought how I could recreate it with supplies from my stash. First, I knew I had a fun toadstool in Lawn Fawn Gleeful Gardens so that’s where I began.   I stamped and clear heat-embossed it so I could colour it with alcohol markers.   I cut it out with the matching die. Next, I die-cut FUN GUY using Lawn Fawn Louie’s Alhpabet from some very old Stampin’ Up! paper which had toadstools on it.   Perfect!   I wanted the letters to be stacked so cut a few layers from red card and glued them all together. For the other lettering, I sketched it in pencil and then went over the large letters with a black Posca and used a 0.8 Micron pen for the smaller letters.   It was only after I’d finished the card that I realised how ‘uphill’ the writing at the bottom was but it was too late by then. ...

I borrowed the title of this post from Only Connect, a UK game show that in our house is addictive but largely impossible.   We get very excited if we get one question right in the entire show!   I bought the Heart of a Lion pattern for this quilt from Etsy and it was my first go at a Foundation Paper Piecing.   It was a baptism of fire and I had a few moments when I thought I’d just chuck it into the UFO (unfinished objects) box, never again to see the light of day.   However, I persisted, finding a way that worked for me, and I’m so glad I did. The pattern came with three size options so I chose the largest as I though that would be the easiest for a beginner.   After printing out all the pages on thin paper (I found this  paper on Amazon and the reviews said it was perfect for FPP), I then trimmed and assembled them.   I used the guide sheet and coloured pencils to indicate which colours were applicable to each section. Each section is num...

Welcome to my first Visible Image DT post of 2026.   Our theme for the next two weeks is Uplifting, encompassing positive quotes, hopes, dreams and inspiration.   For my card this week, I’ve paired a golden oldie, Where Dreams TakeYou , with a stamp set from a recent release, Change Direction . After cutting a piece of white card to 5¼” square, I stamped the eye using Versafine Onyx Black and clear heat set.   To preserve the white of the eye and the highlight, I used a Versamark pen and scribbled over the white areas, added clear embossing powder and heat set.   I then repeated this as I didn’t want any spray stain to seep through, giving the eye a bloodshot look! Next, the sentiment was white heat embossed under the eye. Now I was ready for the spraying so I propped the panel up in my spray box.   I opted for rainbow colours of Distress Spray Stains plus some plain water to get things moving.   On finishing the spraying, I stood the panel onto a she...

Happy New Year! I do love Christmas but it’s also nice for things to calm down and go back to normal again.   For my tags in recent years, I’ve started doing what my Mum used to do, which is cutting up the previous year’s cards.   The trouble with that in the Christmas just gone was that we ran out half way through the wrapping.   Quite often, people had written a little note inside, which is lovely to hear their news, but no good for converting the cards to tags afterwards.   However, a friend and my M-i-L had some pretty festive napkins so I kept the ones that weren’t smeared with mince pies with the intention to repurpose them into tags. These ones that my M-i-L had needed to be dissected to remove the “home composting” section.   These were 3-ply napkins so, after removing the two backing layers, I used a fine paintbrush and a little water to draw around the various elements which made them easy to tear apart leaving a soft edge. After watering down ...