Saturday 30 December 2017

Believe in the Magic

Hello.  Welcome.  The New Year approaches apace and thoughts turn to things to be done.  You may call these resolutions, but I know I never keep those, so I shall call mine wishes.  I have a list of wishes.  Tidy the craft room is a regular wish.  Be more organised and use more stash are well up there, near the top, as is pay it forward.  If you haven't seen the movie put it on your wish list.  It's such a beautiful concept and it doesn't have to involve money, so there's no excuse.  

I feel blessed to have discovered crafty blogland where, on the whole, everyone is encouraging and always ready to give advice, cyber hugs on your off days and hip hip hoorays when it all goes right.  And I know some of you are lurking.  Watching and reading and never leaving a trace.  And that's fine.  I value my readers, and maybe you are not inspired enough to say anything.  Maybe one day you will be.  And maybe you have been thinking of starting a blog, but don't think your stuff is good enough, or that no one will visit.  But it is, and they will.  There are so many amazing projects to see, that maybe you feel you have to aspire to, but we are not in competition with anyone else and maybe what you share is just what someone needs to see, at that moment, on that day.  So today I am going to share a project that I love, a project that a better crafter may have thrown in the bin for any one of the many mistakes I made, but I decided to keep going and use the bad and make it good.  You may not love this, and that's OK, but I just want you to know that I do.  Have a beautiful, wonderful, awesome day and thanks for dropping by.  Hugz


This was inspired by the VLVS challenge


There are colour suggestions, and trees, and winter and the black and yellow hazards really caught my eye.  So I decided a Unicorn in the snow was perfect for christmas.  What could be more magical to believe in........


So I cut my ATC and stamped my unicorn and oh crap #1.  I have just cleaned that block but obviously I have got it all inky again!!  But that little flash of yellow caught my eye and maybe it's an interesting frame.  So I masked the Unicorn and stamped the little fir tree using Iced Spruce distress ink and some paper scraps to mask.  This is when it really dawned on me that I was using glossy card.  Sometimes these things just pass me by, but the beaded nature of the distress ink was a dead give away.   The urge to start again was ignored again.


It's christmas, and that means glitter, so I grabbed my most favourite iridescent glitter glue and ignored the fact that it recently became strangely water-like.   I added it to the base of my tree lines and it started motoring down the project like it was in the Indy 500 (that will get me a lot of hits from some very surprized people LOL).  As it started to drip off the bottom I redistributed it along the edges of the ATC.  A good save me thinks.  Then I went and made lasagna while glitter glue dried............


It was yummy (the lasagna).  Despite the glossy card thing I decided to still go with distress inks and my waterbrush for colouring the sky and unicorn.  Salty Ocean and Stormy Sky to the rescue.  Ha ha, just realised, Salty Ocean sky and Stormy Sky unicorn (with a few Salty Ocean highlights LOL).


Oh yes, hazard warnings!!  Were those over stamped smudges perfect or what!!  If I deleted all these step by step no one would know how many lives this Unicorn used up!!  That's stripey patterned tape on some yellow card added to the edges of the ATC.  A little smudge of yellow at the top left to fill that little gap and love this.


Last tip of the day, if your sentiment is too big Skrink it!!  I stamped the merry christmas greeting on shrink plastic, cut it out and skrunk it.  Perfect!!   All stamps are from Viva Las Vegas stamps.

Well, if you made it through that mega post I would like to say thanks.  If you are here for the first time hello.  If you are thinking of leaving a comment, or starting a blog, please do it.   And if you are making loads of cards and chucking them in a box then maybe you would consider joining the Card Chain Challenge where you will be able to get rid of one a month and get happy mail in return.  The January sign up is HERE and Unicorn is one of the options.  Thanks for dropping by.  Hugz

Unicorn is joining the fun at

10 comments:

Dotty Jo said...

And what a splendid beast he is too! Great make, Gail, glad you didn't bin him. x

Gerrina said...

What a beautiful way to use the unicorn! Hugs, Gerrina

brenda said...

A totally delightful creation for our current theme at Stamping Sensations challenge Gail, many thanks for joining in.

Wishing you a Happy and crafty 2018.

B x

Ryoma Sakamoto.Japan said...

Japan is New Year 's Eve today.
Last year was a great year for you, and I know you’ll have an even better one this year.
Ryoma.

Judy Iverson said...

Iona - that card is pure genius! And lasagna in the middle is great, too. Thanks for sharing. Happy New Year to you and yours. We're still traveling full time so I can't do the card chain challenge, but enjoying all your posts to make up for it.

rachel said...

This is brilliant - and I love the story behind the yellow! Wishing you a very Happy New Year and big thanks for joining us at Countryview challenges! Hugs rachel xx

Dora said...

Beautiful creation.
Thank you for joining at Stamping Sensations this month.
happy newyear!

Darnell said...

That an amazing unicorn and I thoroughly enjoyed its journey onto your ATC and how its surroundings came to be! I also enjoyed your thoughtful, positive, and encouraging post, Gail! Beautifully done!! We are (most of us) welcoming and nonjudgmental in our little corner of Blogland! We remember how timid and unsure we felt when we stepped into this new and strange world of card art and challenges and we enjoy paying forward the kindnesses of others who helped us! Hugs, Darnell

Linda said...

Stunning ATC! Thank you for playing along with the HLS ATC Challenge xx

Marlies said...

A lovely creation Gail and very original and nice to read how you made the "mistakes" come around positive to a lovely creation! Thanks for joining our challenge at Stamping Sensations. Marlies