Thursday 31 January 2013

What Do You Do With It?

Greetings weary traveller. Welcome to the Guild Hall. Yesterday I had received a new crafting quest scrawled on a torn scrap of parchment: to create something called an A-T-C. I had never heard of this type of craft before, and was excited to tackle the challenge. NO CRAFTING QUEST SHALL GO INCOMPLETE! I donned my gleaming rainbow shell armour, which I had recently cast some new warding spells on. I then armed myself with my great bow and sword, slipping a few daggers in my boots for good measure. Turns out I didn’t really need any of these items. Just some ink and stamps would’ve been sufficient.

I cut some paper to the appropriate size and gave it a few shots of Dylusions spray ink. Once the paper was dry it was very curly. Like VERY curly. Probably would’ve been better had I used heavier paper. Oh well - solider on! I used the Dylusions “Letter Jumble” stencil and spritzed some blue ink on it. I then stamped some hearts using some crappy white ink that pretty much wiped away if I touched it (didn’t matter how much I dried it with my heat tool). To complete the background I stamped one of the images from the Dylusions “Bordering on the Edge” set along the top and bottom. I then stamped Stampotique’s “Girl with Heart Purse” and cut her out, gluing her to the ATC.

That was it. My first ATC EVER! I don’t really know if this is how they’re supposed to go...or what exactly I’m supposed to do with it now {lol}, but it was fun to try something new and earn +194 ATC exp points. This will be entered into the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Challenge: Anything Goes
Try It On Tuesday: Get Ready To Celebrate Valentines Day
Wicked Wednesday Challenge #69: Gothic Love
Shopping Our Stash Challenge #87: Valentines, Hearts, Red, Love
Stampotique Designer’s Challenge #85: Whatever Makes You Happy (trying something new & crafty makes me happy!)

After crafting up a storm and staining my hands red, I was extremely tired and in need of a nap. Turns out crafting while wearing a full suit of armor and compliment of weapons is exhausting!

~ Guild Master Crystal ~

Want a Bump?

This morning we received an owl with a request for assistance from a villager. Her husband had been attacked by some brigands trolling the forest paths. I sent the Lady Commander of Copics and Guild Mercenary Kimmy, who happened to be visiting, to take care of the bandits, whilst the Guardian of Glitter and I went to the village to see to the injured man. We entered the small home and found the chap abed, writhing in pain. He had a nasty gash on his forehead that was bleeding profusely and one of his ribs was protruding from his body. Nikki is very strong in white healing magic, and set to work casting her spells to help the man. I found some bandages to dress the wounds after they had been healed by the spells, all the while planning the card I would make from this experience upon my return to the Guild Hall.

I started out by cutting Mr. Bump using SCAL and a Mr. Men font from Dafont like I did for this card

I then used Lawn Fawn’s “On the Mend” set to stamp all the cute smiley band-aids and the sentiment. I coloured in the band-aids using Distress Markers and my Hydra Brush. I distressed the edges with my blade, and added a little ink. I dug some ribbon out of my stash along with some blue buttons and called it a day. (Well for the front anyways...)

On the inside I stamped the flowers and sentiment from “On the Mend.” I totally regret the colours I chose for the flowers because after I was done I thought they looked like little alien flowers. Oh well.  Maybe they just look sick...green around the gills as they say......ya...moving on...

On the envelope I stamped some more of those ultra kawaii band-aids to make it all matchy matchy. I earned +240 healing exp points with this card.

This broken card will bump into the following challenges:
Perfect Sentiment Challenge #64: Anything Goes With a Die-Cut
Crafting For All Seasons Challenge #44: Buttons and Bows
The Paper Players Challenge #130: A Sketch from LeAnne


The Guardian of Glitter and I managed to help the injured man and ease his pain. Meanwhile, the Lady Commander of Copics and Guild Mercenary Kimmy were able to not only defeat the brigands, but also found their camp deep in the forest and recovered all the stolen goods. Quest complete.

~ Guild Master Crystal ~

Tuesday 29 January 2013

Well Isn't That Just Bleachy Keen

Today as I was absently sorting my lord husband’s freshly laundered small clothes, my mind started to stray as I repetitively folded and sorted each item. In less than 14 revolutions of our planet, it will be my name day, and I had yet to started preparations for any festivities. I am finding as the years wear on, my name day becomes of less import and rather than excited I start to feel sad as the date approaches. Suddenly no longer interested in the white under-cloths before me, I set out to my crafting chamber to create a card.

I started this card by cutting out the base using the Art Philosophy cartridge. I then cut out a smaller layer using some textured paper I had recently procured from the discount shelf at the Paper Weaver’s stall in the market square, adhering it with pop dots. This earned me +62 dimensional exp points.

I stamped the image from the Unity “Change is a Good Thing” stamp and coloured the seams of the underwear using my Distress Markers, while adding some shading with the Hydra Brush. I stamped the sentiment using Lawn Fawn’s “Jessie’s ABCs”.
 
On the inside I continued the sentiment (which I saw on one of those e-cards everyone posts on FaceBook) with “Jessie’s ABCs” and added a Happy Birthday from My Pink Stamper’s “Family & Friends” set.

On the envelope I fashioned using my Scoring Board of Deep Folds, I stamped an image from the Dylusions “Further Around the Edge” set.

This tighty whitey will be stretching its way into the following challenges:
Pixie Dust Studio Challenge: No Squares Allowed
Spark Your Creativity Now! Challenge #5: Anything Goes
Challenges 4 Everybody Challenge #12: Anything Goes
Love To Create Challenge #50: Anything Goes with a Sentiment
Die Cuttin’ Divas Challenge #100: Anything Goes
CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #87: Make Your Mark
Unity Friends With Flair (later on this week)

In an attempt to not get too melancholy by my fast approaching name day and adding another year to the stack, I shall focus on completing some more crafting quests and playing with my direwolf...he always manages to cheer me up.

~ Guild Master Crystal ~

Monday 28 January 2013

A Game of Monstario Party

The Lady Commander of Copics had a few of her monster friends over today to play some Mario Party. As I had numerous chores to do around the Guild Hall I was not able to join in the merriment. I could hear them all laughing and chatting and eating crisps. As I was passing through the hall, a basket of clean tunics on my hip, I almost crashed right into one of the ‘lil monsters. He stood in the hall, blinking at me with large bulbous eyes and clutching a half dead owl. We stared at each other for about 20 awkward seconds before he spoke. “This mine,” he said holding out the poor bird for me to see. I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could get anything out, the orange monster had turned and scurried back down the hall, feathers from the owl trailing behind him.

I started this card by stamping “Little Hoo-Hoo” by Stampotique and colouring him with Prismacolors. I then used my new stamp “Cooped Up Notes” by Unity and coloured the edges with Distress Inks. I used up the rest of the background sheet I had managed to finally cut up for this card. I added that 'ol red stitched ribbon and a super old heart button for embellishments then stamped the sentiment using Lawn Fawn’s “Sophie’s Sentiments”. I manged to score -90 hoarder exp points, bringing my level down to 10,303. I sure have a long way to go...

On the inside I used the leftover strips of the background paper and stamped the sentiment from the Lawn Fawn “On the Mend” set. 

I stamped some simple hearts on the envelope and quickly coloured them with Distress Markers.

This monsterific card will be roaring into the following challenges:
Stampotique Designer’s Challenge #84: Love Theme
Cute Card Thursday Challenge #253: Out of This World
Penny Black Allsorts January Challenge: Love is in the Air
4 Crafty Chicks Challenge #126: Use Buttons
Spark Your Creativity Now! Challenge #5: Anything Goes
Simply Create Too Challenge #29: Anything Goes
Use It Tuesday Challenge #48: Warm It Up (use red, orange and/or yellow)
Tammy’s Scrapin’ Corner Challenge #47: Use Buttons
Crafting For All Seasons Challenge #44: Buttons and Bows
Fat Pages & Cards With Attitude Challenge #32: Love

When I later poked my head into the room to check on the Lady Commander and her fuzzy friends I saw the orange monster clutching that poor owl so tight it couldn’t breathe....literally. I’m fairly certain the life force left its body about two minutes later. I wonder if Olga knows a good owl stew...

~ Guild Master Crystal ~

The Fae of Glimmer Mountain

Today the Guardian of Glitter and I were scouring the caverns under Glimmer Mountain searching for the rare Shimmer Rose. The fabled plant is said to bloom for four months and its petals can be used to create glitter powder that will actually emit light. This would bring our crafts to a whole new level! As we were following a tracking spell we cast upon entering the caves, Nikki and I were suddenly attacked by a pack of angry fae. We ran from the caverns as the fair folk swarmed around us. After we had made it above ground, I looked back to see a single fairy standing in the mouth of the cave. “The Shimmer Roses belong to the fae. You humans shall never have it,” she spat. 

I started this card by cutting out the oval shape using the Art Philosophy cartridge and stamping my new Kraftin’ Kimmie’s stamp - “Lilybelle”. I then coloured her with Prismacolors and added some glitter to her wings to make ‘em more sparkly. 

 This earned me +80 glimmer exp points, allowing me to level up! I cut the silver whooshy shape along with the pink shape the sentiment is stamped on using Art Philosophy. For the background paper I used a piece that was already cut from one of my Christmas packs. I figured it had glittery pink stars on it, so it would look fine as non-Christmas paper and went well with the whole fairy theme. I added some of that silver ribbon, which is about two years old, and some silver brads to finish off the card.

On the inside I used a leftover strip of the pink star paper and stamped a sentiment from the My Pink Stamper “Birthday Crazy” set. I added an image from the Inkadinkado "Decorative Corners" set.

On the envelope I stamped a couple of the Inkadinkado “Flower Flourishes” images using Spun Sugar Distress Ink.

This sparkly mess will flutter into the following challenges:
Divas By Design: Fairytales
Cute Card Thursday Challenge #253: Out of this World
Fairy Tale Challenge #59: My New Stamp (Lilybelle is new)
Spark Your Creativity Now! Challenge #5: Anything Goes
Kraftin’ Kimmie Stamps Challenge #163: Something Old, Something New (Lilybelle is new, ribbon is oooooold!)
Simon Says Stamp and Show: Seeing Stars
Creative Craft Challenges2: Bling It Up
Creative Card Crew Challenge #28: Girly
Dream Valley Challenges #49: Girls, Girls, Girls
Love to Create Challenge #50: Anything Goes With a Sentiment
My Craft Spot Challenge #84: Wish Big!
The Corrosive Challenge #166: Put a Pin in it (use “Pinspirational” photo):

The Guardian of Glitter and I watched as the fairy stepped back into the shadows and melted into the darkness of the cavern. “We need that flower,” Nikki whispered under her breath.
“I know. But we’ll need to come back with a plan..and weapons...much more weapons,” I replied. We headed back to the Guild Hall to find the Lady Commander of Copics and start working out a plan to sneak back into the caves and steal the Shimmer Rose from the fae.

~ Guild Master Crystal ~

Sunday 27 January 2013

Early Morning Pentagrams

This morning I awoke to frantic pounding on the Guild Hall door. Donning my fur robes and wiping sleep from my tired eyes, I padded down the stone stairs to see what all the commotion was about. I swung open the door and standing there was a clearly distressed woman. “Please, you must help me!” she cried. “Someone has stolen my baby!” I took her to the kitchen and Olga the house gnome fixed the poor woman a cup of tea whilst I roused the Lady Commander of Copics and we got dressed for the unexpected early morning quest.

This Christmas card was a fairly simple one. I cut the image using the Winter Frolic cartridge and glued it all together. I added some yellow glitter to the star to make it look more...well...like a shiny star. This earned me +50 glimmer exp points. I cut the oval shape out and stamped the sentiment using the My Pink Stamper “Christmas Wishes” set. Some pieces of brown cord finished off the front of this creation.

On the inside I stamped some more words from the “Christmas Wishes” set - nothing too fancy.

I offer this starry card to the following challenges:
My Craft Spot Challenges #83: Bling it Up!
Christmas Cards All Year ‘Round January Challenge: Anything Goes Christmas
Spark Your Creativity Now! Challenge #5: Anything Goes
CHNC January Extra: Anything Goes Christmas
A Gem of a Challenge #64: Holidays
CHNC Challenge #109: Nativity
Paper Playtime Challenge #2: Use Some Brown
Creative Challenges2: Bling it Up

After casting some locating spells, we managed to find the baby in an old barn on a piece of abandoned property. Surrounding the trough the child was laying in were black markings and pentagrams. Obviously the work of some demon or witch trying to perform a dark ritual. This was all much too heavy for me first thing in the morning, before I've even had a cup of coffee. We rescued the child and searched for the guilty party, but could find no trace of the being. We will have to remain vigilant to ensure no more children are taken from the village.

~ Guild Master Crystal ~

Saturday 26 January 2013

Red Spritz Bomb of Love

Greetings and welcome to the Guild Hall this fine crafty day. Today I was in the crafting chambers tinkering with a red spritz bomb. Inventing new weapons for our crafty quests is not easy however, and things quickly got messy. When the Lady Commander of Copics finally came to check on me after the fourth explosion sounded from the crafting chambers, rocking the Guild Hall, I was covered in red ink, as was everything else that wasn’t protected, including my direwolf, Lycan. Oopsies.

I started this card by masking off a strip in the center, then just giving it two quick sprays with some Dylusions spray ink. I used the hearts stamps from Lawn Fawn’s “My Silly Valentine” set then took off the masking. I then stamped the sentiment from the same Lawn Fawn set and scored the center portion. I added some twine and called the front of this CAS creation done.

On the inside I stamped the sentiment and apple from the “My Silly Valentine” set and coloured the cute ‘lil apple with Prismacolors.

The envelope I gave a quick spritz to match the card and stamped the heart ‘n arrow from “My Silly Valentine”. I earned +102 ranged exp points for all the spritzing that went on with this card. This allowed me to level up my great bow, Fungi.

This spritzy card will get inky in the following challenges:
Tammy’s Scrapin’ Corner Challenge #46: Red and/or Hearts
Penny Black Allsorts January Challenge: Love is in the Air
Spark Your Creativity Now! Challenge #5: Anything Goes
A Gem of a Challenge #64: Holidays
Cardz TV Stamps DT Challenge #23: Color Challenge - red, black & white only
Brown Sugar Challenge #26: Valentines
Fat Pages & Cards With Attitude Challenge #32: Love

It took about 15 bottles of shampoo and a cleansing spell to get Lycan and myself clean. I am still finding red ink in various nooks and crevices. At least I got the spritz bomb to work finally. It will make a formidable explosive weapon.

~ Guild Master Crystal ~

Wolf's Bane's Performance

Yesterday we received a raven informing us that there was to be a musical performance that evening in the village square. As my fellow Guildys and I have been quite busy questing, we thought it may be a welcome respite to go enjoy some non-questy, non-life threatening entertainment. As the night drew nigh, we went to the village and made our way to the square. It was packed with townsfolk, some from as far away as the Sarkonian Grasslands. There were numerous vendors set up, some selling tunics with the band’s name - Wolf’s Bane - embroidered upon them. Once the moon had fully risen, the band began playing. 

I started this card by stamping “Tyler” from The Greeting Farm’s Creeper Crew Collection. I stamped him on various other patterned papers to paper-piece his hair, shirt and jeans. 

I coloured the rest of him using Prismacolors then glued on the pieces I had cut out, adding some subtle shading with pencils. I cut out the circle he’s on and the piece the sentiment (which is also from the Creeper Crew Collection) is stamped on using the Art Philosophy cartridge. I embossed the circle with music notes and the blue strips with a zig-zag pattern using my Cuttlebug. The red music note I cut using the Rock Princess cartridge.

 
On the inside I used a strip of the leftover music note paper and decorated the rest to match the outside. The sentiment I stamped using My Creative Time’s “Wow! So Many Candles” set.

On the envelope I stamped some music notes using Lawn Fawn’s “Sophie’s Sentiments” set to make it match the rockin’ card. Making this card earned me +219 musical exp points, which will help should I ever wish to change my class to a bard.

This musical creation will tune itself to the following challenges:
Fantabulous Cricut Challenge #145: Sound of Music
Penny’s Paper-Crafty Challenge #111 - Embossing Wet or Dry
Simon Says Stamp Challenge: Let’s Get Paper Piecing
Spark Your Creativity Now! Challenge #5: Anything Goes
Challenges 4 Everybody Challenge #12: Anything Goes
Chocolate Coffee & Cards Challenge #31: Rock On!
Shopping Our Stash Challenge #86: Use oldest ribbon (red ribbon is one of the first rolls I ever bought about two years ago)
Anyone For Anya: Sketchy Sort of Day


As the moon rose, the clouds parting to let it shine, the band members slowly began to transform into werewolves! I should’ve known. *sigh* Luckily, a Crafters Guild member never leaves the Guild Hall without her weapons. I pulled my great bow, Fungi, free and notched an arrow. So much for an uneventful and quiet evening.

~ Guild Master Crystal ~

Tuesday 22 January 2013

The Rainbow Dimension

I had assembled the Lady Commander of Copics, Guardian of Glitter and even Guild Apprentice Lindsay at the Guild Hall. I brought everyone up to speed on the escaped Colourkin situation and we discussed a plan to track it down. We headed to the armoury to don our equipment, then made our way to the stables to set out. As soon as we were off the Guild Hall property and on the main road, we could instantly see the Colourkin had been this way. Splashes of rainbow colours were everywhere. We rode towards the village, following the splotches of rainbow colour along the way. As soon as we passed through the village gates, we were transported to another dimension - one of bright and endless colour. We knew this interdimensional portal to be the work of the Colourkin. Finding it here, in its own world, was going to be much more difficult.

So this is the first “art journal” page I’ve ever done...ever...so please don’t judge. I don’t even know if I want to go so far as to call it that. I basically found an old spiral diary that I haven’t written in since 2009 and was 80% blank and flipped to a random blank page to decorate. I spritzed the background with Dylusions sprays inks, then just stamped away with various Dylusions stamps and Stampotique’s “Relaxin’”. I used a white gel pen to create some hi-lites and interest to the page. I earned +130 art journal exp points, which isn’t even close to leveling up that skill yet!

This rainbow mishmash will be entered into the following challenges:
Stampotique Designer’s Challenge #81: Journal Cover or Page, Diary or Calendar Page
Simply Create Too Challenge #29: Anything Goes
Spark Your Creativity Now! Challenge #5: Anything Goes
Fairy Tale Challenge #59: My New Stamp (Relaxin’ is brand spankin’ new!)
Cupcake Craft Challenge #226: Make a Scene
Crafts and Me Challenge #116: Something New (Relaxin’ stamp is new!)

We were able to catch a break when we stumbled across one of the residents of the rainbow dimension that was willing to speak to us. Guild Apprentice Lindsay was fluent in Colourspeak and was able to converse with the blanche-faced rebel. The colourless insurgent led us right to the Colourkin's hideout where we were able to slay it using some crafty spells and lucky dice rolls. It was fortunate we were able to dispatch that foul creature so swiftly before anyone got seriously hurt - or rainbowed.

~ Guild Master Crystal ~