Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 60 - use beads on your project

Jack is the host for this challenge at Crafty Cardmakers this week,  and she has set us the task of using beads in our project.

I've been in a "clean and simple" frame of mind recently, and I decided to make my card comparatively plain and unfussy. 

The base card was a woven effect white 6" x 6" and I found this wonderful butterfly stamp (from Woodware)  in my stash which is perfectly suited to having beads used as part of the embellishment.

I stamped it onto plain white card using a versamark pad, and then embossed it using silver detail embossing powder.  I then coloured it using cut and dry foam and the Spice Big n Juicy pad and cut it out.  Because the antenna were a bit fiddly, I cut them off and put them in at the end using a fine gold pen.  The beads were stuck in the circles using pinflair glue gel.

The flowers were made by layering 4 layers of the flower punch (which is one of a set of petal pairs from tonic).   I cut them (and the leaves) out from a piece of backing paper, which I distressed with the same colours from the big and juicy pad so that they would tone.

The Marianne swirl was cut from a satin gold card offcut and was stuck down using pva glue.

I only ever buy the plain white chiffon ribbon - it is so easy to colour it to the shad you want using promarkers!  For this card, I cut a length and applied it down the card on the right hand side, sticking it down on the inside with plain old sellotape!

I then positioned the flowers and leaves so they looked like they were part of the swirl and put the butterfly in position across the ribbon.

Finally, the sentiment was from a Flowersoft set.   I stamped it onto plain card and distressed it using the Spice big and juicy pad.

SPONSORS

 THE STAMPMAN

 We are kindly sponsored for this challenge by The Stampman (and Lady of course!) who are offering the winner a £10 voucher for their store, you can spend this online, in the shop or if you're lucky enough to see them at a show!  They have a ton of items in store, enough to tickle any crafty taste bud.
 
Co sponsor for this challenge is

DI'S DIGI DOWNLOADS

$10 Gift Voucher

Here, mojo.... where are you...?

I've not been in "the mood" recently.  I look at my stash and have no inspiration at all.  My stamps and ink pads are lying idle, and my notebook is full of half ideas but nothing tangible.  It's depressing!

I have ordered some Flitterglu though, from Indigo Blu (who happen to be sponsors this year at the Crafty Cardmakers challenge blog- go check them out!) and I am looking forward to playing with my foil flakes when that arrives.  I've also got to do a good luck card this weekend  for a colleague who leaves next week.  All I know is she likes horses...!

Just as well I also have the My Memories software, which is really useful when your mojo has gone and you need to make a card on the quick.  It's so easy to import pictures into it, and add embellishments and then all you have to do is to print it out!  I love my carefully crafted cards - but sometimes, you just need something right NOW.  If anyone wants to try the software, you can grab a bargain by using my code STMMMS59047 which, as a special offer, will provide you with a $10 discount off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store - $20 value in total!) 

You can also find My Memories Suite at

Blog- http://blog.mymemories.com/
Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/pages/MyMemories/140359372717593
Twitter- http://twitter.com/#!/mymemoriessuite

Retiring

I'm quite a fan of computer crafting, as long as you mix it with other techniques.  I see no fun in just printing a card out using software, but being creative and imaginative in collecting elements for a card - that's different!

This card was created for a retirement.   The recipient was a keen artist - we bought him a complete set of paints and a palette for his leaving present - so I thought it would be apt to use images of paintings.

The card base was a plain standard white A4 folded to A5.  I used a creative impressions embossing folder to make the brick background and coloured it using distress inks. This was layered onto brown card.  Then I matted and layered some images of famous paintings and put them on the background like they were displayed.   The "chain" on the larger picture was actually a narrow peel off.

The final touch was the sentiment, which I made like a barrier notice using cocktail sticks to support it.  The greeting was actually written with a quickie glue pen and then covered with gilding flakes.  

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 59 - No floral embellishments

The challenge at Crafty Cardmakers this week has been set by Fiona, and she has asked us to use no floral embellishments.  I thought it would be nice to make a plain card, and in fact, have very little embellishment on it at all.  The card was made using a plain white base card, and my main topper was a digi stamp from one of our sponsors today - the Digi Doodle Shop. The digi stamp was called running away, and I was totally smitten with the image of the small boy and his best friend.  The best thing about digi stamps is that you can resize them to the size you want - this one fits a 7" x 5" card perfectly!   I coloured the image using promarkers, and having cut the corners with a punch,  mounted it onto silver mirri card and then onto blue card.   The greeting was from my stash, and the sentiment at the bottom of the card was stamped and embossed with silver detail embossing powder.

our sponsors are

DIGI DOODLE SHOP

$10 Gift Certificate for the Store

and 

ONE STOP CARD CRAFTS

ho are offering a £10 voucher for their store as a prize.

Cowboy

I think it is therapeutic colouring with promarkers - they are so forgiving!

I found this really cute digi image on my pc and have no idea where I got it from.  But isn't he great?  If anyone recognises it, please let me know and I will happily credit the designer!

(EDITED TO ADD:  Thanks to Mynnette, who has identified the digistamp as being one from Precious moments)

The card is a plain white base with rounded corners, and the image was matted and layered with gold and brown card.  I made a faux stitching edge round the image, and used some gems to decorate the side.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:
Heart Song Inspirations Challenge - Anything goes.
House of Gilli - Anything goes
Incywincy designs - Anything goes