Watercolour Challenge at Simon Says Stamp

I re-discovered my Papermania brush tip water based markers and brought out a Hero Arts butterfly stamp to have a play.  I scribbled some blue and purple markers over the butterflies, spritzed with water and stamped.

Next, I sprinkled some blue and purple Brusho powders onto the craft mat and spritzed with water, picking up the colour with a flat brush to paint a background.

A Hero Arts sentiment and some clear sequins, done!

I'd like to enter this card into:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Wonderful Watercolour

Mid-Month Inspiration at Craft for the Craic

It's time for some mid-month inspiration at Craft for the Craic.  I just loved Kath's snowy scenes on this amazing card, and I decided to do something similar but using some of my favourite Evergreen Bough distress ink in place of the brown she used.

I used a Simon Says Stamp Falling Snow stencil, inking through with Pumice Stone.  I then cut a stencil with the tree die and inked through with Pumice Stone and Evergreen Bough.  The whole thing was inked softly with more Pumice Stone and then sprinkled with Frantage before heating with the heat gun to melt the Frantage.

Some Tim Holtz and Whiff of Joy dies to finish off.

I hope you're going to show us what you were inspired by music to make this month at Craft for the Craic!

Crazy Birds

Couldn't resist Tim Holtz's Crazy Birds!

I coloured this one as a robin and cut out a wee Santa hat for him, using White Enamel Accents for the 'fur' on the hat.

Simon Says Stamp Falling Snow stencil and Distress Ink made the background, the die cut tree was coloured with Inktense watercolour pencils and water.  I cut a snowdrift, and then used a Wink of Stella glitter pen to add glittery dots to the whole thing but they don't really show in the photo.

The die cut sentiment is Tim Holtz.

Thanks for visiting!

Ger x

Inspired by Music at Craft for the Craic

Good Friday morning!  We have an 'Inspired by Music' theme this month over at Craft for the Craic and my card is inspired by Dylan's 'Blowing in the Wind'

I tipped out some Brusho powder paint onto a craft mat and spritzed with water then picked up the paint with a flat brush and painted the background on some Ranger watercolour paper.  The 'dandelion clock' (is that what you call them?) is gold embossed onto a tag, and some of the seeds are gold embossed onto the watercolour background.  The sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp, and I added some sequins and mounted everything onto some grey card.

Let's see how music has inspired you this month at Craft for the Craic.

I'd like to enter this card into:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Ger x

Ombre at Simon Says Stamp

I blended some distress inks - Festive Berries, Mustard Seed, Peeled Paint, Evergreen Bough and Wild Honey - through a stencil.  I wanted colours to suit an Autumn birthday.  I decided I didn't want the stencil pattern to be straight so I tilted the stencil a bit before taping it down.

The cute hedgehog is from a Penny Black set 'Paint the Town', coloured with Copics and Inktense Watercolour Pencils.  The sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp 'Happy and Smile' and the sequins are also from Simon Says Stamp.

We are enjoying fabulous Autumn sunshine all this week. Hope it's sunny where you are!

I'd like to enter this card into:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Ombre

Ger x

Trio of Colours at Simon Says Stamp

Sorry about the dark-ish photo.  I used some Cosmic Shimmer gold spray, and filled a spray bottle with water and added some Brusho paint powder to make a red spray.  Some Tumbled Glass distress ink was then added through a Tim Holtz stencil.  The sentiments are Simon Says Stamp and Hero Arts.

I'd like to enter this into:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Trio of Colours

Ger x

Personal Planners

Warning: Long post, lots of pictures, and no cards!  If you haven't been infected by Planner Mania yet it might be best to run away. Quite fast. Come back tomorrow when I'll be back to cardmaking :)

Having choked on my morning cuppa at the price of Erin Condren planners, but loving the vertical layout, I discovered Personal Planners.  So many choices! You can choose your front and back cover design (a collage of personal photos, for example), the colour of the elastic strap, the layout, lots of things, but best of all - which month you want your planner to start! You don't have to wait till January.

The customer service from this company is outstanding.  An absolute pleasure to deal with.

There are different sizes of planner from €23.90 to €28.90 (A5, the one I chose)  INCLUDING SHIPPING. Compare that to Erin Condren if you've a strong stomach.

I was told two weeks delivery time and my planner arrived well within that time frame.

I ordered in August, so chose September as the start month and they added a week or so of August so I could start using it as soon as it arrived.

The quality is lovely.  The plastic cover (front and back) is strong and durable and the actual cover is a decent heavyweight glossy card.

I just love the vertical layout, so much easier for me to see what's going on this week, but you can have the more conventional horizontal layout too.

There are tons of choices here - the design at the top of the page (I chose to match the covers), the layout, you can have times running down the page, weather, ruled or not, the colour of the lines, so much choice!

Oh and at this point you can choose the colour of your ruler, I chose clear.  Some people are annoyed the ruler doesn't run the whole length of the page and stick out the top to mark your place.  Doesn't bother me, I just place it so it sticks out the top.  You can 'unzip' it and place it back anywhere.

more choices - what you want at the bottom of the pages.  On the left side I chose To Do lists but there are lots of options.  

On the right I have This Week's Dinners (if I don't plan this dinner becomes a nightly craziness)

I bought some bits to pimp my planner.  Tesco have some cheap n cheerful stuff and the Stickie flag tags repositionable tabs are fantastic for adding pages to your planner - this video explains this much better than I can .  I found mine's in a local office supplies shop

You can also add pages and photographs using the method Roxy shows in this video at 4:00 mins in

Still here?  Then you might as well hear about Pilot Frixion erasable pens.  I bought a set of 3 in Easons reduced to €6.99.  Love these pens, they are so easy to erase.  And they have a clip which means I can store it tidily in the coils of the planner:

Another thing that's included with the planner is a plastic pocket which you can also unzip and place wherever you like in your planner.  Holds whatever bits you want:

there's a load of pages at the back of the planner, you can have maps and I forget what other options, I chose some blank, some squared (pic above) and some ruled.

I forgot to mention the inside cover page which you can also personalise with your name, an inspirational quote, your contact details if the planner is lost, etc.

Oh almost forgot, you can have dates personalised, e.g., all your family and friends birthdays printed into the planner.

While we're on the subject of planners, I'm thinking about getting these gorgeous stamps from Waltzingmouse Stamps

Do you use a planner and enjoy pimping it?  Let me know, I want to visit your blog for a peek!

Ger x