So true...

I saw this video on a forum I belong to.  It's so true!!!



Today I plan to be productive and actually use some of my stash... I have an order for a first birthday card that needs to be delivered to the sender on Tuesday.  More later...

Crafty Cardmakers and more...Challenge 108 - Black and White

This time at Crafty Cardmakers and more... Kim is hosting our challenge.  She has chosen the theme of Black and White.  Black and White will be the only colours allowed, apart from flesh colours for skin and normal hair colours, but no other colours should be visible.

For my card, I have used a plain white 6 x 6 card blank.

My latest toy is the inkadinkadoo gear system, and following a post I saw on the Gentleman Crafter's blog, I thought I would give a go to stamping on parchment using white ink and then embossing with the pergamano tools.  I did several bases, but this one came out best for my purposes today.  

When stamped and dry, I turned it over and embossed some of the flowers on the parchment.  I then cut the parchment base down to fit the black matt layer I had cut for the card.  It's not easy to stick parchment down without the glue showing, so I used some black brads in each corner through both papers to keep it together before sticking the matt black layer to the base card. 

The topper was a crafty individuals stamp - so versatile, I love it - and I stamped it on plain white card using archival ink.  Using Black soot distress ink, I shaded the flowers slightly, and also the edges of the card.  This was then mounted onto black card with a narrow border.  When the ink was dry, I used a Wink of Stella clear brush pen to give the flowers some sparkle.    I stuck the topper into the centre of the parchment base using a sticky pad.

I stamped some flowers onto the parchment using a Dreamees stamp set, and heat embossed the large flower.  The smaller flowers were stamped with White versamagic and black memento for the centres.  All the flowers were cut out and the large one stuck together in a group of 3.  You can't see it clearly, but I overstamped with a small daisy stamp in white onto the petals before sticking it.  The small flowers were cut out and stuck on individually.  I used a small silver gem for the centre of all the flowers.

The sentiment came from a set I recently got when I ordered some tattered lace dies (I think!) and I stamped it onto white, punched it out using a woodware circle punch and edged it with black soot.  I mounted this onto black card, diecut using a round scalloped x cut die.

Finally, I used a tattered lace die to make the embellishment behind the sentiment out of black card.

Sponsors for the challenge this time are:

We are sponsored 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.

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

Happy Crafting! 

We are also sponsored by 

DI'S DIGISTAMPS

with a $12 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 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!  

It's a new year and a new name at Crafty Cardmakers!!

Crafty Cardmakers is starting the new year of challenges off with a brand new makeover, and a new name to reflect the slightly new direction some of our challenges will be taking - we are now Crafty Cardmakers and more...

We have also split the design team into three teams, two of which will alternate on weeks where we will be having our traditional type of challenge and the third team are responsible for our new venture.

Every 8 weeks we will be holding a Mixed Media style challenge, which we hope some of you will join in with. These challenges will run for 4 weeks instead of the usual two, and half way through them, there will be a new traditional style challenge, so that the end of the MM challenge and the other challenge will run concurrently and finish at the same time. Hopefully this sounds more complicated than in practice it will prove to be!

For our Mixed Media style challenges we really don't want to see cards, as we are hoping you will be inspired to show us something a bit more arty. So for example, you could make an album cover, or even a whole album, you could create a canvas, upcyle, recyle or repurpose something. Maybe you want to give a tattered old piece of furniture, box or jewellery chest a make over; or come up with something unusual completely from scratch. Whatever you do we would like to see a mixture of different media used and of different techniques.

Of course you will be welcome to add this type of project to any of our other challenges, as long as they fit the bill, but you might want to hold off to show them off in a challenge designed specifically for them.

The new challenge starts today, and our hostess Feebsy would love to see your creations along the theme of 'Bear With Me', in other words anything with a teddy bear, or more realistic image of a bear as the MAIN focal point of your project. Any sort of bear will be fine, so polar bear, grizzly bear, teddy bear etc., just make sure it is the MAIN focal point.

We are Sponsored by 

FLOURISH WITH A BLING

Flourish with a Bling is an Australian retail and wholesale company, owned by Lucy Patrick, Kate Settineri and Maggie Lloyd who are three passionate and avid crafting mums with a love for design, colour and everything Bling!

 “Our aim is to bring more colour and variety into the world of flourishes and embellishments. With our unique designs and new materials we feel we are putting the ‘Bling into Scrapbooking’. We have a beautiful range of flourishes, vines, pearls, gems and more. And just recently, Flourish with a Bling have introduced their own range of gorgeous flowers.”

 They also sell fabulous themed packs at amazing prices. They have flat rate postage within Australia and also post internationally (half price shipping for large orders). You can contact them or find all their products on their easy-to-use website www.flourishwithabling.com.au.

 Don’t forget to check out their facebook page for random giveaways and visit the blog to win monthly challenges or visit their gallery for inspiration and ideas too.

New techniques - using the inkadinkadoo gear system

I've been aware of the Inkadinkadoo gear system for some time, but always thought it was a bit expensive for the amount of times I would use it.

But then while watching Create and Craft I noticed they had it in their sale... with flexipay and I succumbed!!

It arrived really quickly and I was so looking forward to trying it out but unfortunately, the day after delivery was a work day and that was followed by New Years Day and annoyingly I had other plans that couldn't be changed.   I know, how inconsiderate!!

So I finally got down to playing with it this morning.

Firstly, if anyone does buy the system, I must tell you that the packaging it comes in is beautiful - but you have to totally destroy it to get the equipment out!!  This meant I couldn't use the packaging to store it, which was disappointing.  I got round it by using a toiletry bag set I had in my gift cupboard - the big bag for the gears, and the small bags for the stamps and cogs.  First time I've given myself a gift from that cupboard, I must say!!!

It is really very easy to make lovely background papers using the system - a bit like the old children's toy spirograph -although as I mainly make cards I think I will use the cogs a lot more than I will use the wheels. The stamps were also really good value - and I have already sourced and ordered some more (on sale from Oyster stamps).  Now I just need to get the square and rectangular cogs and wheels...

For this card I used just one colour to make the background and distressing the topper card (Memento Olive Grove).  The two tone effect was achieved by stamping twice without re-inking - you get a surprisingly effective shadow...

It's easy to line it all up because the cogs have alternative openings marked with a little hole, and you never lose your place because you know which openings to put your paddle in.  The stamps are super clingy, and you can vary the effect just by lining the stamp up slightly differently on the paddle. Cool!

I used the same ink pad to distress around the edges and corner of the paper.  I also used my sakura gellyroll pen to highlight some of the dotty areas when it was done (although that doesn't show up in the photograph, which is a shame!)  The only other materials I used was some lace from my stash - a wide organza edged with gold to go across the centre, and some very narrow edged lace to go round the edge of the topper.

This monochrome effect was very easy and I used the colour tones as inspiration to colour in my fairy topper, which was a digital image I had in my stash.

I'm not sure whose digi image it was, so my sincere apologies for not crediting!

I used promarkers to colour in the image - again, sorry I didn't note the colours this time, but they were mainly the olive greens selection for the leaf skirt and shoes and yellows/light brown/orange for the hair.  I used pale pink and skin tones for the wings, and made them shimmer using a wink of stella clear brush.  Again, you can't see this in the picture as you can in real life, sadly...

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

Through the Craftroom Door - anything goes

Inky Impressions challenge blog - anything goes

The Crafting Cafe - anything goes