Welcome


Hello, my name is Dionne and I have been crafting for a very long time. As a very young child my mother tried to teach me to knit, it was a disaster. However, it must have sparked an interest in making things and, partly to prove that I was not totally useless and partly because I really wanted to make things, I taught myself to crochet. Over the years I have developed a love of cross stitch and all types of paper craft ..... I eventually even taught myself to knit.


I am married to a very understanding man, thank goodness, because I spend all my time either crafting, thinking about crafting or talking about crafting. I am hopeless at housework and dinner is often late!


Thank you for visiting my blog.


Dionne

Wednesday 25 September 2019

Congratulations Cliff the Stork

A few days ago I posted a card which was inspired by The Crafty Stamper'.  When I visited The Colour of Love's website to purchase Georgie Giraffe, I was struck by the number of really cute baby images they had, so I purchased another.

This image is called Cliff the Stork and, once again I took my inspiration from the stunning card made by Carol The Crafty Stamper. However, I could not faithfully reproduce her design because my stash of dies is very different to hers. Why is it that, no matter how many dies you have, you never seem to have the one you want?

Before making my card I spent the better part of the day sorting through all of my dies to see exactly what I had which I could use with this card.  This process left me asking myself three questions .....

  •  i) why do we crafters buy so many dies, especially the nesting ones? 
  • ii) I have tried several different ways of storing my dies and nothing seems to work that well so, when you have so many, what is the best way to store them? and 
  • iii) why do these little bits of metal weigh so much? (My arms and shoulders ached so much after lifting those heavy boxes.)

At the start of this tidying up process I had all of my dies in one large box , admittedly there were a few new ones which had not made it to the box, and the box had burst it's seams.  I tapped up the box and then started re-stacking the dies, I could not get them all into the box.  I then hit on the idea of attaching all of the nesting dies to those magnetic sheets and putting them into a ring binder.  I still could not get the remaining dies into my big box.  My die and embossing folder stash now fill one ring binder, an extra strong box which started it's life as a Christmas hamper (I think that did mention that it was a big box) and three shoe box sized boxes and I still do not have the dies I wanted to make this card!


I coloured Cliff the Stork with Promarkers and picked out one or two places with Glossy Accents.  The dies are Spellbinders and Transer and the ribbon is from Really Reasonable Ribbons.  I used two different coloured inks to distress the edges of the card and the blue backing paper is pearlised - unfortunately, you cannot really see that here.


(I am sure there must be a way to turn this photograph the right way up but I cannot for the life of me figure out how.)

If you are not familiar with The Crafty Stamper's work, may I suggest that you take a few minutes to go there now, it is packed full of awe-inspiring designs.  

Have a good day and thank you for visiting my blog.


Dionne

9 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for the shout out.I agree about the dies although I only have one small box full-but I have a few sets of nesting dies and most of them never seem to fit what I want!!!Gorgeous baby card and love the cute stork image and die-cut balloons
    Carol x

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    1. You're welcome. You really do come up with a lot of stunning designs and techniques. These days I only follow two people and they are the two people who inspire me the most!

      When I bought my first die cutter, it was from either QVC or C&C, and it was part of a deal with something like a dozen sets of Spellbinder nesting dies. They seemed to be something I just could not do without but, as it turned out, I have hardly ever used any them because they were too small for the cards I make. I also have quite a few Bigz dies - which I do use, but they take up a lot of space, and collectively they are they are pretty heavy.

      Dionne xx

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    2. Thank you for the compliment!I don't have a lot of dies but still have some that are unused and as you say at the time you need them then never use them
      Carol x

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    3. Ha ha, I think we are all the same. We get sucked in and buy things we never use but at the end of the day we have our favourites. Which is why I thought your resolution to use some of that unused stash was inspired.

      Dionne xx

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    4. Are you on FB Dionne? if so my page is Carols cards x

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    5. Oh dear. I am much better at crafting than social media stuff. As far as I can see there are several Carols cards and I cannot work out which is you. ummm!

      I would invite you to find me but there at least 5 people with my name ..... oh but only one with my rabbits as their profile photo.

      Dionne x

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  2. Gosh you do have a lot of dies and of course you need more! I am still hankering after the right stamps for my Christmas cards despite a huge box, many of which are unused. This is a beautiful card and I love how he looks in the different shades of blue. Great lay out and embellishments x

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    1. Thank you. I have really enjoyed the few cards I have made recently, although they took me a very long time to make - I have really slowed down. Not like the days when we were making half a dozen cards for each Crafty Boots Challenge!

      You are not alone, I've still not made a start on my Christmas cards, altough I have bought a massive amount of pre-coloured toppers, and I have treated myself to a fancy side stepped die. I must make a start after my hols.

      Have a good week.

      Dionne xx

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Thank you for visiting my blog, I look forward to reading your feedback on my work. I hope you will visit again.

Dionne