Dolphins...

My friend S's husband is mad about dolphins and she asked me for a very quick card for his birthday.

As it happened, I had only just been reviewing my cd collection, and had spotted these images on a Debbi Moore cd!

I used some card from a hunkydory kit for the base card and just used a couple of toppers and some cut out dolphinsfrom the cd.

One very quick card!

Challenge 123 at Crafty Cardmakers & More - Ribbons/Lace and Pearls

I am hosting the challenge at Crafty Cardmakers & more today and my theme is 'Ribbons/Lace and Pearls', so I would like to see ribbons or lace, {or both} AND pearls on your creations.

For my project, I made a candle holder from a "shaped crisp tin" (aka pringles, or the generic equivalent!)

For information, the authentic pringles tins are better for longer candles because the Aldi ones (which I used) were about an inch and a half shorter.  However, don't discard them, because they are perfect for storing the small scented tealights!

I used some papermania capsule collection papers (3 patterns) trimmed to around 10" x 5" in black, some satin and organza ribbon, some black and white paper roses, some small formed leaves and lace offcuts and some pearls on a string from my stash,  and a creative expressions blingy gem for the centre of the bow.

So how was it done?

1.  Wrap the first patterned paper around the bottom half of the tin and glue in place.
2. Then wrap the second patterned paper around the top half of the tin, meeting the top line  of the bottom paper, again, gluing in place.
3. Wrap the third piece of patterned paper which has been trimmed so it leaves a gap in the centre around the top of the tin, but only glue the bottom and around the top from an inch in from the centre edges. 
4. Curl back the edges as shown and glue in place. (Double sided paper is nice for this one)
5. Add the lace around the top and bottom of the tin, nudging it up against the metal rims.
6. Add lace and ribbon around the centre, covering the paper joins.
7. Add the pearl trim at this point to the exposed centre panel.  (Don't go right up to the top, as it will stop the lid going on).
8. Cut some ribbon strips and stick to the centre front, over where the ribbon around the middle of the tin is joined.
9. Glue ribbon bow over the top of the strips.
10. Glue flowers and leaves along the side of the rolled edges - I used a hot glue gun for this part as it guaranteed instant stick!
11. Squirt some silicon or pinflair glue gel into the opening at the top of the rolled back sides and push in ornate pins/gems.
12. Decorate lid by cutting out two 3 inch diameter circles from the patterned paper of your choice, and glue one to the top of the lid and one on the inside.
13. Finally, glue lace/trimming around the side of the lid.  Glossy accents worked well with this!
14. I filled my tin with a combination of small candles and tealights - and because they were scented, it hid the smell of cheese and chives - which remained despite the tin being washed out!!

 I hope you enjoyed finding out how my tin was made - why not now visit my teamie's blogs to see more detail on the projects they made? You just need to click on the link above the pictures on the Crafty Cardmakers & more blog.  And if you are inspired, please join in with the fun and submit your own entries.

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 our blog, which is there for inspiration at www.woodware.co.uk/blog.

A polkadoodles cutie... male birthday card

So my new Polkadoodles CD arrived today, and it totally distracted me from my planned "To Do" list (not hard when that's mainly housework!)

I'm not usually a lover of "cute" but this little fisher bear was just perfect for a 70th birthday card I have been commissioned to make for my friend J to send.

It's on my favourite 6 x 6 card base, and every single thing else (except the twine, of course) came from the decoupage design sheet printed from the cd.  Oh, plus one of the kraft backing sheets and some layering card (cream and kraft) from my "bits bin")

There are 4 layers on that bear in a boat!! I did it with pinflair glue gel though, as foam pads would have raised it too much and it is still postable.

I glossed the buttons and the bear's nose with glossy accents and it finished it off perfectly.

I am entering this card into the following challenge:

Through the craftroom door - anything goes

A Christmas gift box with tag

 I hate to admit it, but the C word is coming up fast, and so I have been thinking about my cards and gifts and panicking slightly...

This is the gift box I have come up with for the girls in work - very easy to make, just two sheets of 8 x 8 card with embellishments largely bought ones for speed.



Originally, I was going with the battery operated candle as in the picture, but am now going to put inside the box a mug, with a sachet of hot chocolate and a small poly bag of mini marshmallows.

The focal point of the box though, is the neat tag with my very favourite snowpeople image stamped on it - not sure where it's from (I'm so bad at keeping my records!) - which I coloured with my trusty promarkers and wink of stella clear pen.

Despite the fact I am a wee bit disappointed in the cardstock (as I noticed now that there is bleeding from the hat) I am entering this tag into the challenge this time at

I love promarkers - it's all about tags

ATCs

A new venture for me quite recently has been ATC card swapping.   It's quite a challenge to make this tiny work of art - a lot of my stamps are just too big, for instance.   This month in the swap I joined in with,  the theme was travel - and I had a lightbulb moment for what I could do with that leftover piece of Sheena Douglass faux leather I made - turn it into a suitcase for my ATCs!!  

The suitcase was made with Kraft card - 2 small boxes 4" x 3" x 1/2" and covered with the faux leather in one piece to form the case and allow it to be hinged.  I folded some more of the faux leather in a strip to make the handle and the tab, which was secured with velcro.  I used my cropodile to make the eyelet holes for the tab holder. 

We do 2 ATCs each time - so in line with the theme I scanned the front cover of my passport and resized it so that folded, it would fit the ATC card requirements. 

But it was too flimsy, and needed some support... so I printed off a sentiment onto 160gsm paper, cut it to size and then using my distress inks and a crackle stamp, created the background to the card which was stuck in the inside of the "passport".   

On the other side of the passport front, I used some docrafts stamps to make it less stark.  The whole thing was then stuck onto a standard ATC card blank.

For the second card, I used a piece of scrap 160 gsm paper which I coloured randomly with distress inks.  Over the top of the colours, I stamped a map (papermania, possibly) in walnut ink.  I  covered a standard ATC card blank, wrapping my map around it. 

I used a sentiment and two images from a serif digikit, resized and distressed around the edges to overlay the map.  The finishing touch was 4 small AB gems to go in each corner.

Crafty cardmakers and more challenge 122 - make an impression

It's challenge time again at Crafty Cardmakers and more!

We were asked to make a card using dry impressing (rather than heat embossing), and I think this monochrome effort really fits the bill.

I used my favourite 6 x 6 inch card base in white, with the edges rounded.  I used a tonic square deckled edge die to cut my black base layer out, and layered onto that a slightly smaller square in white, which I ran through my calibre in a creative expressions folder.

My ribbon strips were cut using a Sue Wilson Bow die - they weren't quite long enough to go over the whole card, but the bow neatly disguised that!

I cut the bow tails out with the die, but used a sue wilson stamp on white card for the bow itself, which I covered with double sided adhesive sheet and then applied micro beads to it, before making it up.  This gives a lovely effect - I really like it.

I traced the birdhouse pattern onto parchment paper and embossed it using a ball tool.  I cut out the centre panel and backed the aperture with a piece of white card stamped with the bow stamp pattern.  This was also covered with double sided adhesive mounted onto black card and the whole birdhouse was stuck onto the top so that the glue did not show through. I covered the double sided adhesive in the centre panel with the backing sheet while I cut round the birdhouse shape, and then removed it to apply the micro beads.

The final touch was the Happy anniversary cartouche.