Crafty Cardmakers challenge 105 - clean and simple

The latest challenge at Crafty Cardmakers is hosted by Viv who has chosen the theme  of CAS or Clean and Simple. 

Clean and Simple is defined as 

A design of card with clean lines, minimal elements, areas of white space and few or no embellishments, most often single layered or minimal layers.

I chose a sympathy card for this challenge - I think the nature of the card really suits clean and simple, because it is not the time for fussy and embellished.

My card base was a 6 x 6 square plain smooth white card.

I particularly liked this clear stamp called humming bird garden, from Inkylicious, which was stamped with black versafine ink onto the offcut from my A4 sheet!  I trimmed this topper to size, and then edged it with the black.

A simple sentiment was stamped in the bottom right hand corner, and I used a fineliner pen to make my own "frame", using a method often used by Barbara Gray, but which I haven't really tried before.  I quite liked the outcome, so will probably use it again.

For this challenge: 

We are sponsored by
DI'S DIGISTAMPS 
with a $10 GIFT VOUCHER

I have been drawing since a child and studied graphics at College many years ago, I now work as a Medical photographer part time but my love was always drawing. I started cardmaking about 4yrs ago when I bought my daughter a cardmaking kit which we did together, but I’m afraid I got the bug! My daughter preferred scrapbooking. I then started looking online at other blogs and this then became my passion and I loved sharing my cards with likeminded people.
I love stamping and loved finding images, but sometimes I could not find what I wanted so I started to draw myself.
This then has become my second addiction and I have never looked back, I love thinking of new images, and its just fabulous to see others take them and make them into beautiful works of art. 
Long may it continue! 

and
 THE STAMPMAN

 We are kindly sponsored for this challenge by The Stampman (and Lady of course!) who are ofering the winner a £10 voucher for their store, you can spend this online, 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. 

Candle holder - present?

Credit for this project must go to Elena F's blog originally - and then a tutorial provided by Lasatas Crafty Hideout blog.  The basis of the project was a "wavy crisps" tin - I used the Aldis version of Pringles (because it was cheaper) for this one, but beware, it IS shorter than the Pringles version, and some long candles may not fit.  (The ones I had from IKEA didn't, sadly).

The papers used came from a Docrafts Christmas paper stack and the ribbon, lace and silk flowers were all from my stash.  I was really pleased with this as a first attempt!  The idea is that the long candles are tied together with ribbon and stored inside.  My tin still smelt a bit of cheese and onion, even thought I washed it out first, but I would imagine scented candles would remove that.  If plain candles were used, I would include a tumble drier sheet in the bottom of the tin to give some scent.

Autumnal card for a man

Recently I went to a class run by Michelle at In2Crafting, and one of the cards we made was perfect for a man's card.

This card is my take on that design - it is pretty much (well exactly) the same layout, but I used a 7 x 5 card base, chose different papers from my stash, and coloured the trees accordingly.

The background papers come from a pad from Trimcraft called Noel, and while there were some very christmassy papers in there, I think you will agree that the sheets I used really don't look like it.

The joy of having the middle strip is that you can actually use leftover bits of paper! I used some of the leftover parts of my backing paper to make some home made card candi - just punch out some circles using a regular hole punch and emboss them from the back using a largish embossing tool (not the glitter girls big one - a bit smaller).  I attached them to my card using pinflair gel.

The stamps are from Woodware (Kim's Coppice) and included the lovely sentiment.  I stamped the more solid set of trees with a combination of adirondack inkpads (sorry - didn't note which ones) on a plain piece of card and left them to dry.  Then, I stamped the more open set of trees slightly offset with versamark, and heat embossed with bronze embossing powder.  Before layering my image onto the layer card, I cut out the edges with a reverse circle corner punch.

I stamped the sentiment with versamark and embossed that too - layering it with  the same backing paper as the image.

I am entering this card into the following challenge(s)

My Sheri Crafts - Fall/Thanksgiving
So Artful - Trees
Ladybug Crafts - autumn colours

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 104 - Paper Piecing

The latest challenge at Crafty Cardmakers is hosted by Viv, who has chosen the theme 'Paper Piecing'
  

Viv would like to see something paper pieced on your project. You could, for example, paper piece a flower, part of your image such as a character's clothing, you could even paper piece an animal image for a funky look.. I am sure you can think of other ideas! 

I chose this time a card I made at a recent workshop at In2Crafting, led by the very talented Alexandra Kamann which somewhat fortuitously, featured paper piecing!

This is a technique I haven't used much in the past as my attempts have not been very successful.  However, the trick, I have learnt is to have a good stamp....

The base card was a kraft card base, that was 6" square.  Onto this, I layered  a textured turquoise paper.  The sentiment was stamped first, and then  snowflakes were stamped  all over with versamark ink and embossed with white powder.   At the bottom of the sheet, I stuck some double sided adhesive that had been cut into a wavy shape.  Ultra fine glitter was then rubbed into it.

The reindeer from Woodware was stamped firstly onto Kraft card and the antlers and hoofs were coloured using a white sakura glaze pen.  Then, I stamped the body of the reindeer on a selection of Christmas paper and cut and pieced the body area.  Finally (you can't really see it in the photo) I used a silver nail head coloured with red promarker for the nose.

This week, we are sponsored by 

SATURATED CANARY
with two of their fabulous digis

 Hello!  My name is Krista Smith.  I draw characters and do a lot of crafting:).  I gather a lot of inspiration from my two kiddos...they are sweet and goofy.  I love to see how other people color my images...It is always exciting to watch the colors bring them to life!  You can check out my artwork and family tidbits on my blog,Saturated Canary.  
Thanks for having me this challenge! Good luck everyone!

and also by

WOODWARE
 with this fabulous prize - 

'With a prize of £12.00 to spend at your favourite Woodware Stockist, either in store or on line'