She's leaving home...

A friend of mine has been wanting to downsize for quite a while - her 4 bedroom house was just too big now her children are all grown up and married with homes of their own.  Anyway, she finally managed to do it and has moved to a 2 bedroom ground floor flat instead.

I did her a welcome to your new home card, trying out the new Spectrum Noir pens (which I have to say, work perfectly with the promarkers I already have).  This card was made using a stamp I've had for years, plus some backing paper printed off from the MCS encyclopaedia cds onto card for the base.

The little bird was made using self adhesive peel offs - there are two sets, one outlines, and one outlines and centres in double sided tape.  I didn't have glitter in the colour I wanted, so I used the miniscule balls... I liked the texture very much.

The lace strip was made using a Martha Stewart edging punch, and the sentiment was printed out on the computer.

CD Sunday challenge - Dreams

The image for this one was taken from Joanna Sheen's Victorian Companion CD, as was the backing paper. 

Ordinary copy paper was used with a Martha Stewart edger punch to make the lacy "ribbon".

Just some Lines Challenge - easel cards

I like making easel cards, you get so much more to decorate! This is a twisted easel card made for Mothers Day, where the "mother" isn't actually your mother.
For this card, a pale green/grey base card was used and a topper from a sheet I had in my stash (It may have been from Hunkydory, or Sue Smith).

Quicky glue pen and glamour dust was used to enhance the flower on the topper.  The base of the easel was stamped with a swirl from Clarity Stamps, and some paper roses and leaves, made using punches.  The butterfly was stamped onto acetate and glittered.  So that the colour I wanted for the layer cards was matching, plain white card was coloured with promarkers.

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Passion for Promarkers Challenge - Sketch

I thought it was about time I joined in some challenges.  And since I love my promarkers, this one seemed a good one to start off with!

I made this card using the sketch provided.

The backing paper was from my stash, distressed at the edges with Faded Mahogany distress ink pad. The check and peach card were also from my stash. I cut some acetate the same size as the check card and stamped the corner with a swirl and attached it to the card with a brad. The flowers were punched, and a gem stuck in the centres. The bear was coloured with skin tones promarkers (I forgot to note the colours!) and was then cut out using the cuttlebug.

The lace is my standby paper lace, and the butterfly was stamped onto acetate and enhanced with gilding flakes.

Pretty in pink

Little girls like pink for some reason, don't they? I had to make a 6th birthday card for a colleague's grandaughter recently, and naturally the spec was for pink and glitzy.

This card is a twisted easel (my favourite style right now). I used backing paper and fairy images (body of fairy was decoupaged - but you can't see that in the photo) from Making Cards magazine, and pink glitter card to layer. I used a Wink of Stella clear pen to give the wings a shimmer.

I stamped the name on the glitter card and cut out the letters. The tag with "6" on it was made from the backing paper stuck onto glitter card with a large silver peeloff. The greeting was a peeloff stuck onto the glitter card.

Birthday turtle card

I often struggle with cards for children. And men...

I've had to do a couple of children's cards recently though - this is the one I did for the one year old. Of course, he won't actually have it - at that age it's more for the parents to keep in a box, isn't it?

This was a twisted easel card, made using plain white base cardstock. I used paper and topper from Making Cards magazine, and also some "googly eyes" from The Range. The flowers were punched, the small ladybirds were from my stash and the letters making up the name were stamped and cut out.

Because I wanted to match the colours, I used plain white card for the layers, promarked to the shade I wanted along the edge.
The sentiment on the base card was a clarity stamp, and I used peeloffs for the greeting on the front topper.

New Baby Girl card

A colleague in work has recently become a father for the first time, and I was asked to make a card for everyone to sign. 

I had a bit of a mental blank at first, but finally remembered I had some clear stamps of small hands and feet - and a neat sentiment.

I used pink tartan as the background paper, matted onto a plain pink to provide a narrow border, and an ~A5 portrait white base card.  I used a small flower punch to make a pink "ribbon" for the bottom of the card, and used the flowers to make a similar border at the top.

The topper was made with a nestie label number 1 in the same pink as the base layer, and a nestie label number 5 for the centre which was stamped with the images.  Both layers were distressed with Victorian Velvet distress ink before being layered.  I used foam pads to add some height to the white label number 5. 

A small pale pink bow was used at the top of the base layer, and a strip of paper lace was used across the card underneath the topper where the final sentiment was placed, using pinflair glue gel.

There are also two embossed lines top and bottom of the base card, but it isn't very clear from the photograph.

Summer Crafting at Doncaster

I made a spur of the moment decision to go to this show yesterday - about a 380 mile round trip.  I must be mad!  Petrol cost me about £45, plus the spend when I was there... yup, mad.

But! I got some new polka doodles stamps and ultimate graphic paper (and what a star Nikky is!!! Full of tips and helpful advice)

I also got some labels five nesties with rubber stamps from the stamp man that fit them perfectly.  I got practically my mum's body weight in plain card (not mine - it wouldn't have fitted in the car *grins*) and a £10 goody bag from the create and craft stand.  This bag was really good value - included a multi purpose heat tool as well as a craft knife set, peeloffs, glitter, many 3 d embellishments, 3 packs of speciality papers and a big block of decorative card. Also as I am a club member I got an extra pack of goodies worth £4.99. 

After housework today I am going to play with my new stash.  Woo hoo...!!

Creative Expressions Calling Card Challenge

These are the basic materials to make this calling card (ATC) focussed card.
  
The base card was a hammered white card cut down to 6" by 6" size, with the edges coloured with Faded Mahogany distress ink.  On this occasion, as I wanted a heavier colour, I used a cut and dry foam pad.  If I had wantedthe colour to be lighter, I would have used an ink duster (from Inkylicious) as I find they give me a more delicate effect.

I used plain card distressed around the edges with Aged mahogany distress ink for the calling card.  Onto the centre I stamped a daisy flower, which was coloured with a combination of distress inks and water color pens, and around the edges of the card I used one of Clarity stamps (the swirl pattern).

The sentiment came (I think) from a Hero Arts stamp set.  In the centre of the daisy I put a gem. (It started as a crystal, but ended up a pearl!).

The other background layer was cut by a nestie, and using a paper from a Crafty Individuals background papers pad, Book 1.  The edges were distressed with the same coloured stamp pad as the base card.  I also used a strip of the cool stick on paper lace from Kars.

For the flower, I used a 2" six petal punch from Woodware to cut one shape, and cut two 1" daisy shapes from the Crafty individuals paper.  The edges were shaped and curled and coloured with the Aged Mahogany to tone in.  I then layered them up, ready to be used when the card was nearly finished.

TOP TIP - if you use the same paper for punching out flowers as the backing paper, you can ensure that the colours match.

First, distress the edges of the base card, which has been cut to be 6" by 6". I have used Aged Mahogany distress ink by Tim Holtz. Then put down the first layer. I have used a deep red textured paper with a shiny finish. This colour toned in with the faded mahogany distress ink, and provided a striking contrast.

I was only leaving a narrow edge on show in this paper, or I would have run it through the 'bug with one of my embossing folders - probably the lattice one from Creative Expressions, as that is one of my big faves at the moment. And you get a really cool effect with it on this paper! But as only a narrow edge would be showing it wasn't worth it.

The next step is to layer on top of the red card the decorative paper. 

For this, I chose a sheet from Life's Journey paper pad from K&Company. I've had the pad a fair while, so it might not be available any more...

I like to round the edges on my papers with the corner punch - to me it looks nicer than square.

I put the layer to the left hand side, so that my lace strip could go down the right hand side, showing the red through it.  Finally, I put the nestie shape onto the backing paper at a jaunty angle, using foam tape to raise it from the backing.

Next, I put the ATC card onto the nestie shape, also at an angle, and also using foam tape.

Finally, I put the flower onto the top right hand corner, and decorated the top left and bottom right corners with faux pearls.  As a final touch, there just had to be a butterfly in there - it's sitting on the leaf next to the flower!