Challenge 129 at Crafty Cardmakers & More - Christmas

It's that time of year again!

Welcome to our last challenge of 2014 at Crafty Cardmakers & more.... 

We have picked a nice easy one this time around, Christmas. I am sure you all still have those last minute cards to get done so we look forward to being amazed at your fabulous creations.

We have lots of lovely goodies provided by sponsors for this our last challenge of the year, which will run for one month, instead of the normal two weeks, and that will take us into 2015 and our first challenge which will be on January 12th.

 I thought I would do a simple card, and spend more time on my colouring.  The base card is a 7 x 5 plain white card - this and the 6 x 6 is totally my favourite sizes.  Onto the base I layered some red card, and then on top of that a sheet of Christmas card from Hobbycraft.  It's double sided - which actually always irritates me slightly, as I don't like the waste of not being able to use the side stuck down...

Onto this base I stuck my sentiment and topper, both of which had been mounted onto the same red card as the base.

For my topper, I used a lovely stamp from the House of Zandra, of a wonderful Christmas dress. I stamped it onto some watercolour paper (a sample sent to me by my lovely Teamie  Josephine) which was perfect,  even though I coloured the image in using a combination of Promarkers and Graphit markers.  I used my clear wink of stella pen to give the fur around the top of the dress some bling.  The final touch was some gemstones in the corners. 

 Our first sponsor is

SIR STAMPALOT

With this fabulous prize

our next sponsor is my fabulous Teamie Kim - with this magnificent selection of goodies!

Challenge 128 - Crafty Cardmakers & More - Distress it

Lin  is hosting our 'Distress It' challenge this week at Crafty Cardmakers & more... 

She would like to see distressing, preferably lots of it, on your project.

Now, I love my distress inks, but I don't usually physically distress the papers much.  I don't like it when it looks like my layers weren't stuck down properly and have got caught, but that's just me.  I know the grungy look has a huge following, so I thought I would have a go.

For my project, I used a Kraft tag that I got as a freebie from a Do Crafts magazine (along with a very bright red ribbon and various other elements).

First thing was to rummage through my stash, and I found an offcut of a hobbycraft 8x8 sheet that was perfect for my base layer.   I used scissors to ruck up the edges and then distressed the edge with gathered twigs distess ink.  

Next, I used one of the old book pages I had bought from Chocolate Baroque a while back.  I like very much the effect of stamping onto old book pages, and I have numerous old books... but I couldn't bring myself to pull the pages out, in fact, *is mortified at the very thought of doing so* .  Great compromise - lots of pages of random old books at really reasonable price!  I stamped a poinsettia arrangement from a really old and favourite stamp set my mum liked to use a lot - (It was a docrafts papermania collection callled "at Christmas time".  It's probably not available any more, so I am looking after it!) and then coloured it in with promarkers and fussy cut it out.  I pulled at the edges of it with an x cut distressing tool to make them look less pristine and then distressed it lightly with the gathered twigs ink.

I cut a piece of the remaining book page to size, and distressed the edges with the tool and the distress ink and then spritzed both pieces of paper with docrafts artiste gold spritzing ink.  When dry, I put the layer paper onto the base layer, and then stuck the poinsettia topper onto that. 

The ribbon was a very bright red and stuck out, so I distressed it down with some walnut stain until it matched the colour better, and then I stuck it around the corner of the layers and tied it in a bow.  To ensure it stayed in place, I put double sided tape and glue on the back of the layers and stuck them all onto the kraft paper tag, which I distressed with a combination of gathered twigs and fired brick ink.  

I used an offcut of my base paper to stamp a sentiment onto (from Spellbinders Christmas Creations stamp set) and went round the edge with a gold marker.  I stuck this onto the top of the tag using foam pads.

Lastly, I stuck a balsawood embellishment from hobbycraft onto the corner, and using glossy accents put a nice gold star in the middle of it.

And at the end of all that it doesn't look bad at all.  Maybe I should stretch myself into doing other things more often?????!!!

I am entering my tag into the challenge at  
http://www.fashionablestampingchallenges.com/
http://glitternsparklechallengeblog.blogspot.co.uk/

We are hosted by

 

DI'S DIGISTAMPS

with a $12 Gift Certificate

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 like minded 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 also by

WOODWARE CRAFT COLLECTION

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

Woodware are a Yorkshire based family owned business, as well as distributing Dreamweaver Stencils and Stampendous Stamps we have a wonderful range of stamps designed for us by Francoise Read and Jane Gill. We also scour the world for new and innovative products for the crafty card maker, and have a great range of punches and tools of the trade, to find stockists in your area or to see the range visit the website www.woodware.co.uk.

Our design team are playing along with the challenge so check out our blog, which is there for inspiration at www.woodware.co.uk/blog.

Sad times...

In the past week I have had to make two sympathy cards for one of my friends to send to people she knows. 

When making sympathy cards I like to keep them as plain and simple as possible as it seems somehow more appropriate to me.

The first card I made was for a man, so I kept it ultra clean and simple, with 2 narrow mats, one in black and one in gold on which was mounted embossed pearlescent card with the sentiment stamped and embossed in the centre.

The second card I mad was for a woman, so I used a different shaped embossing folder, and added some lavender cardstock and used matching distress ink on the flowers.


I am entering my card into the challenge at:

http://craftingwhenwecanchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ - Clean and Simple

Challenge 127 - A touch of charm

Josephine is hosting today and her theme is 'A Touch of Charm'. She would like to see a charm added to your project.   

Now, back in January, I had a Grand Plan to make one or two Christmas cards a week so that I wouldn't be frazzled in November.  

Did I do that?  Hell no.  So yes, it is November and the frazzle is well and truly on!

This card was one of my frazzle makes - utilising items from my stash, and a cd decoupage image and backing paper.

The CD is a new one - Fabulous Christmas by the House of Zandra.  It's packed full of quirky Christmas Characters, and I spent far too long browsing their create a scene part of the cd... In the end, however, I printed off some burgundy red damask pattern backing paper, and a combination backing paper of the decoupage image I chose, of the Father Christmas.

The base card is cream and 5 x 7 inches, and I matted the red, then burgundy paper onto it.  I then put a strip of the burgundy paper across the front, and layered onto it some shiny paper ribbon saying Merry Christmas from my stash.  It didn't look that creased when I put it on, but in the photo the light has really caught it and distorted it...

My decoupaged backing image was layered onto cream, then burgundy then cream paper and was stuck in the centre of the card using foam pads.

I used my trusty gellyroll stardust pen to highlight the snowflakes (which unfortunately doesn't show well in the photo) and then finally, added the silver metal charms - a bells and mistletoe combo for the wooden beam at the top of the image, and a small present with hanging "for you" tag to go at Father Christmas's feet.  Both were stuck onto the card using Glossy Accents.

Challenge 126 at Crafty Cardmakers - Cut it out

Sonia is hosting the challenge today at Crafty Cardmakers & More... and has chosen 'Cut it Out' for her theme. She would like to see die cutting or punching on your project please.

 

My card was made for a friend to give to her sister on her 60th birthday, and she asked me to include a photograph of her as a child.  

 

As this was a special birthday, I decided to make the card a bit larger than normal, at 7 inch x 7 inch cut out of pearlescent card.  As it also included a silk lily flower as an embellishment, I made a matching box and added an acetate "dome" to protect it.

 

I die cut the aperture from the front of the card using my grand calibur and a tattered lace die set.  I put the cream card with the photograph mounted in the centre behind the aperture, and then put the other frames from the dieset around it.  The smallest frame was still a wee bit too big, so I cut it down by taking about 1cm out of the centre of each side and then joining them up.  To hide the joins, I used some pearl heart embellishments, tieing it in with the small pearls around the outer frame.

 

The silk flower and ribbons came from my stash, as did the peel off sentiments, which I stuck onto the acetate dome.  Finally, I used some gold and burgundy cord to finish off the card.

We are sponsored this time by

HOBBY ART STAMPS

With this fabulous prize

Rodney the Reindeer

As a family business we're a friendly, helpful, bunch at Hobby Art.  All our stamps are designed by us and manufactured in Britain.
Look at the gallery on my blog - jennymayes.com - for lots of card ideas using the Hobby Art range. 
We're pleased to sponsor the Crafty Cardmakers Challenge and look forward to seeing the entries.   Good luck everyone.  Jenny and all. X 

and also by

DI'S DIGISTAMPS

with a $12 gift certificate

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 like minded 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! 

Pop up 6th birthday card

Another day and a new card style for me today - a pop up card.

My friend C's little boy is 6 next week and loves his lego, so I thought I would make a card featuring the characters he plays with.

I've seen pop up cards online and thought they looked good and made a prototype using some stamped flowers that worked so then moved on to the real thing.  The only question was, where would I get the images of the characters?

Then I remembered that I had a book of stickers that I had bought some time ago and hadn't given away/used and I thought I would have a go at making it with them.

The card itself is easy to make, all from one A4 sheet of card and goes into a 6 x 6 envelope.

The trickiest part was sticking the characters inside so that they don't over hang the edges - when it is in the box shape it's not always obvious!

So how is it done?

Well, I have thought about doing this card at one of my classes (probably in February) so wrote out some instructions when making the prototype card and these  have now been typed up and can be seen below.

The main card is 6" x A4 length, and is scored at 2.75 inches intervals along the long edge, and at 3 inches on the short edge. 

There is about 1/2 inch left on the length when all the scoring is done - I cut the top part off and left the bottom half as the glue tab.

The spokes inside are made using a 1" x 8" strip of card, scored at 1/2 inch, 1 1/2 inch, 4 1/4, 5 1/4,  leaving 2 1/4 at the end.  Fold all score lines and stick the 1/2 inch tab to the other end to form a rectangle shape.  This gets stuck inside the main box.