It's Time to Lipsynch....For....Your..............LIFE!

I am, of course, quoting the Queen of the Glamazons, Ru Paul for the title of this post. As I intimated in my last, I have been watching and obsessing with the fabulous Drag Race over which she presides.

As you may have noted, there has been an absence of crafting going on around here. I've been drawing and doing small household projects but I've largely left my craft room untouched. There is a reason and it's something I've talked about on here before. The ebb and flow around creativity. And I've been in the Ebb mode recently. I'm okay about that. There comes a point when it's good for me to take a break and go look for inspiration instead. And strangely enough, this time around, I've found it in Ru Paul.

But before I go on, here's a teaser...

Now when I find a source I love, I really go full out and dig deep into it. I've been reading Ru's books, including his autobiography. I've been listening to his fortnightly podcasts, "What's The Tee". I've been watching his shows. And I've been learning a heck of a lot about creativity, authenticity and determination.

The TV show is a competition starting with 14 drag queens who are whittled down episode by episode until three remain. There is a grande finale show and from the top three, a winner is crowned Drag Superstar.

Now bear with me, there's a reason I'm going into this. You see, to the mainstream, this is what drag looks like...

Roxxy Andrews from Season 5.

These are the Pageant Queens.

But in Season 4, right from start, I was bewitched by Sharon Needles (Geddit?), whose look was more like this...

And she was forever having to defend her unique aesthetic. Then, in Season 5, I routed for Jinkx Monsoon....

She was another who had an original look, creating characters of a vintage era and was given a difficult time because of her oeuvre.

SPOILER ALERT: Guess what....

They both won in their respective seasons.

The outsider, in a community of outsiders, walked away with the title and crown. They stayed true to themselves against some harsh bullying from the Pageant queens. They had their own style and authenticity and kept at it when the competing queens were constantly putting them down.

Are you beginning to see why I instantly loved them both and cried buckets when the underdog won? Add to that, the story of Ru Paul's life and all the other queens, winners or not and I've been swept away in the tide of resilience, irreverence and creativity.

Now everyone has their own different preferred places to go seek some inspiration. The courage and convictions of drag superstars has been mine this summer.

Okay you've got this far...shall I post a card to show that the ebb is giving way to flow?

Okay...

It's my cliched homage to the world of drag

Now with that out of my system, it's time to grab my supplies and start crafting again

Love You Card

I'm back with another card. Told you the muse was upon me. I'm not even supposed to be making cards at the moment. I have another project or two I should be finishing off first. Oh well, I go where the muse takes me.

It's mainly a die job. I used Lil Inkers stitched rectangles to cut out the multi colour cards. I stuck these down onto a scrap of card and ran the whole thing through a large square Lil Inker's die. I backed onto black card which was run through the largest stitched square die and backed the whole lot onto red cardstock using foam mount. I stamped the sentiment and backed onto more black card which I die cut using Spellbinders scalloped square.

Now if this doesn't brighten up someone's shelf and add a touch of fabulousness, I don't know what will!

POW!!!

You know what? I didn't think I'd be making anything in June, nor have the time to post if I did. Looks like I was wrong.

I was busy scribbling up some notes last night when I thought sod it and downed tools. I cleared my desk and pulled out a new die set which arrived in the post this week.  Bam Bubble by Paper Smooches.

Okay, so I didn't do something wildly innovative with it. In my defence, I had to get this idea out of my system. I'm afraid that the moment I saw this shape, this is what it said to me. And you know how much I love a simple, punchy design.

The word was die cut with a lettering set, out of felt. I was trying to think of a way to make them pop from background and I remembered seeing felt used by other cardmakers online in their designs and thought I'd give it a go.

Ahhh! It feels good to make something again :)

Intense Just For You

Hello there lovely readers

I've gone a bit wild with my colours again. It wasn't intentional. It started out by having a pink die cut piece just hanging around on my table which I thought should be used somehow.

I bought a new stencil from Dutch Doobadoo and dabbed the pattern over the scrap of card with versamark ink. I sprinkled black embossing powder over it and heat set. It's given it a really funky effect which you cant really see so well in the photo below. You'll have to take my word for it :)

Once I had my pink and black cut-out, I looked in my card stash and instantly thought I'd try it against it's complimentary colour, a yellow green. It was intense and in-your-face and just perfect. I stamped the sentiment, punched it out and added another die cut, this time using a subtler blue-green card.

I am just loving these happy colours. My head may be pounding but surrounding myself with rich colour is bringing a smile to my face.

A Rainbow of Ink

Hello there my lovely readers

It's been a while since I posted or indeed made anything which could be posted. Truth be told, I'm feeling a bit dicky at the moment. I pulled a muscle in my back over the Easter break. It healed very quickly but then other ailments followed. It didn't stop me from attending boxing lessons with Nick though. I felt sore from using muscles that have never, ever had to be used before, which was to be expected. However, the nausea and headaches have persisted.

So I really haven't felt like being creative this week. Until today. Today I thought I'd try an experiment with inks.

In the online world of card making, watercolour is the current trend that's been around for a few months. And indeed, having seen so many beautiful examples, it can't help but to rub off and inspire me eventually.

So I grabbed some white card, a pot of water and a brush. I didn't reach for my watercolour paints though. Instead, I grabbed my bottles of acrylic ink (you may recall I used them to produce some beautifully vibrant backgrounds for art journal pages). They are gorgeously intense in  their saturation and it only took a few droplets of each colour which I swiped at with my brush.

I didn't take a "before" photo of the colour sheet but the scrap left behind after I ran it through the die machine should give you a good enough idea.

I stuck the die cut to a piece of black card and stamped a sentiment in the bottom right hand corner and added white embossing powder. And that's as easy as it can be. And I love the vibrant rainbow of colour against the black.

Right, off to rest my weary head. Hopefully I'll be back in full creative force soon

And for those of you in the UK, hope you have a fabulous bank holiday weekend!!!

Happy Birthday Rosette Card

Hello my sweet lovelies

Another card to round the week off. I was inspired by this idea I found on Pinterest which used Washi Tape with a rosette embellishment.

I used Tim Holtz Rosette die and blue card to cut the concertina strip. I added the black washi tape and then glue the rosette together before attaching a decorative brad to the centre.

I die cut a scalloped circle from further blue card and mounted onto the red card with foam mounts. I die cut the banner and stamped the sentiment before again using foam mounts to attach.

Thinking of You in Pink

Hello my dahlings

Thought I'd have a play with my Washi Tapes this time around. I sit staring at them on my shelf on a daily basis and as deliciously designed as they are, I never rip into them. So I thought I'd change that.

And it couldn't be any easier. I just cut down some white card and wrapped a few strips of the tape around it. I didn't cover the whole card as you can see, however the white seemed too stark and i wanted more colour. I trimmed a piece of fuchsia card and stuck this on instead.

I stamped the sentiment (in black - I know - not ready to loosen the chain on that one yet) onto pink card and die cut it. I mounted it onto the fuchsia card and trimmed by hand, to create a border. I tried the design against the black background and it felt like it needed another pop of colour. The hint of orange as a matting layer just gave it that extra oomph I was looking for.

Let's hope that I am tempted to use my Washi Tape again, before it gathers dust on my shelf as I really love the effect it gives.