Moving home for a while....

I'm feeling the need for a change, so have relocated to Wordpress for a while.  You can find me here: Mycraftyhabit

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 169 - Summer

Bec is hosting our Summer Challenge.You can interpret this how you like, a coastal scene, summer activities, vacations etc. as long as it relates to Summer.
 

As usual You can enter anything you fancy, it doesn't have to just be cards, as long as it meets the challenge, and doesn't exceed the 15 total challenges entered rule.

I chose to make my card using a stencil and distress inks - it's amazing the effect you can get on a plain piece of white card!

The card base is a 6 x 6 white cardstock.  My topper was a piece of white card slightly smaller, onto which I attached a sunray stencil.  It was in my stash, and I'm not sure whose it is - but it's very effective!

I started with an orange distress ink in the bottom left hand corner (the sun) and then gradually moved into lighter colours, blending as I went and then replacing the sunburst stencil with the flowers and butterfly stencil. (I think they may have been the same manufacturer as I had them together in the packet...)  I used the darker orange for the flowers and green ink for the stems and flower centres, and finally purple for the butterflies.

All stencils removed, I stamped my sentiment in the top right hand corner.  The final touch was to go around the edge of the card with an orange promarker, and then I stuck it onto the base card.  Very simple, but effective.

Actually, the promarker tip is a good one for any time you don't have matching backing paper!

Crafty Cardmakers challenge #167 Shabby Chic/Distressed

Ina is hosting our challenge this time. We would like to see your shabby chic/distressed creations. 

As usual you can enter anything you fancy, it doesn't have to just be cards, as long as it meets the challenge, and doesn't exceed the 15 total challenges entered rule!

We are sponsored for this challenge 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.

My craft room has been partly packed up recently, as I have had some windows replaced and as a result nothing is where I need it to be and all my stamps are in a nice box underneath other boxes.  So where I normally use stamps to create a shabby chic background, I have had to resort to other methods this time!

I decided to create my topper sheet using my Serif Craft Artist 2 software (which to be fair, I use a LOT for backing papers anyway) and this was my first effort at creating something like this.  I was quite pleased with the way it turned out, but of course, added extras to it!

My card base is a new favourite - A5 landscape - for which I totally blame Anna Marie, of Anna Marie Designs...

I used some backing paper already in my stash for the main background layer, and onto this I applied my "topper sheet".  Before I stuck the sheet on though, I first tore all the edges and distressed them with aged mahogany distress ink.  I rolled one of the corners up, and in the gap created I attached a bookprint flower, also coloured with the same distress ink.  (I got the bookprint from an aperture I cut out from another project - the trauma!!  I hate damaging books, even when they look lovely afterwards).

I randomly stamped some butterflies using the mahogany ink and stamped the sentiment in the top corner.  Finally, I attached some faux pearls to the flower centres and the top of the butterfly feelers.    

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 166 - for that special man

With Father's Day a couple of days away we would like to see your projects for a Special Man. This challenge is being hosted by Lin!

You can enter anything you fancy, it doesn't have to just be cards, as long as it meets the challenge, and doesn't exceed the 15 total challenges entered rule!

My card was made using a sheet of elements from a Debbi Moore CD - I had been asked for a 60th birthday card for a train enthusiast and this image just fit the bill.

It is one of the things I like about Debbi Moore CDs - she provides a sheet of images that all go together for those times when you have to make a card on the quick  and just simply don't have time to research the right stamp/image, much less colour it in.  And then track down the corresponding paper!

This was one of my newer cds from Debbi, but I can't for the life of me think what it was called now - might have been vintage something (or for the men).  Apologies for the poor record keeping, as always!

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 165 - monochrome

Kim is hosting our challenge today and the theme is Monochrome. We would like to see your creations using MOSTLY one colour (hair and skin tones are allowed). Please make sure though that there is only one other main colour.

You can enter anything you fancy, it doesn't have to just be cards, as long as it meets the challenge, and doesn't exceed the 15 total challenges entered rule!

My card was made using my fave 6 x 6 card base.  Onto this, I used a piece of background card I made myself, using the "baby wipe inkpad" method with brilliance inks.  I overstamped it with a floral image (most likely dreamees or chloe stamps).  Onto this I mounted a frame - I forget which die this is but it's really versatile when you cut the centre out with a scalloped edge too - I coloured this offcut with distress inks to match my background, and stamped it with the same floral image and a sentiment.  I turned it so it was diagonal to the way it was cut so that the background could still be seen and the final touches were the flowers I stamped out and cut out, and the dragonfly.

A really pretty card - and if you haven't tried the wetwipe inkpad technique, it's pretty fun!

Crafty Cardmakers challenge 164 - Stitching, Faux or Real

Maike is hosting our Stitching, Faux or Real challenge  this week. Your stitching can be embroidery, hand stitching, machine stitching, drawn or stamped stitching or even die cuts that create stitched edges.

 

You can enter anything you fancy, it doesn't have to just be cards, as long as it meets the challenge, and doesn't exceed the 15 total challenges entered rule!

I do have a sewing machine, but it's currently buried under a mountain of other things, so I decided to rely on my favourite faux stitching for my card.

The base card was a 7 x 5 plain white one, and I layered onto it a black mat with a black and white patterned layer with a strip of ribbon wrapped around it.  

The topper was a diecut figure (tattered lace) mounted onto white card, and then onto black card.  I did the faux stitching on the black card in white, and on the white card in black.  I did the same for the small sentiment, which was also diecut.  I mounted the topper onto the base using foam pads, and used one foam pad on the right hand side with glue on the left to apply the sentiment.  

Final touches was the bow out of the same black ribbon applied to the right of the image and the three gems in the top left hand corner.

Challenge 162 Crafty Cardmakers - 3,2,1

Jenn is hosting our 1, 2, 3 challenge today. We would like to see 1 Image, 2 papers, 3 DIFFERENT embellishments please.

You can enter anything you fancy, it doesn't have to just be cards, as long as it meets the challenge, and doesn't exceed the 15 total challenges entered rule!

We are sponsored for this challenge 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.
 
Woodware design team are playing along with the challenge so check out their blog, which is there for inspiration at Woodware Blog.

To make my card I used

• a woodware stamp (dogwood wreath),
• a paper pad from Phill Martin,
• a paper pad from Create and Craft,
• some ribbon from my stash,
• some self adhesive pearls bought from Crafty Devils and
• a stamped butterfly that I glittered and cut out before attaching as an embellishment.

I also used shabby shutters distress ink and some pink and green promarkers.

My card is my favourite 6 x 6 inch square base (although this one is a lovely pearlescent
green card bought from Anna Marie Designs).

Onto this I layered some paper from a Create and Craft member gift pad. I punched the corners with an inverted rounder so that the green base could be seen. I then cut a ribbon strip and a square from the Phill Martin double sided paper. I attached the patterned side of the strip across the centre of the first layer, and then, using the plain side of the paper square, stamped my image onto it with perfect medium and embossed it with olive green embossing powder.

When I had coloured in the stamp with the promarkers, I distressed the edge and mounted it onto some old gold pearlescent paper, and then stuck onto my card base using foam pads.

I tied some ribbon from my stash around one side of the card, finishing with a bow. Finally, I stuck the stamped and cut out butterfly onto the top of the wreath and the pearls onto the corners.

Challenge 161 - Crafty Cardmakers (a shaped card)

It's me hosting our Shaped Cards challenge today and I would like to see a shaped card. 

This means no rectangles or squares please, and this time it does have to be a card! 

Please remember the 15 challenges total rule too - if you enter more than 15 we won't be commenting and you won't be considered for winner or top 5.

My card is a pop up box card - for this one I used a hunkydory base that had fancy edging on it.  I'm working with my scan n cut to make my own template up using shapes but I haven't mastered the whole welding etc process yet...

My brief was a 90th birthday card for a friends Nan and I was told she loved flowers and butterflies and particularly daisies.


I used my serif programme to make my backing papers for the box base, and I used some tonic dies that I had for the flap tops.  All the toppers were edged with distress inks.   I used another die to make a bunting banner bearing the word "NAN", that I attached to tooth picks and then inserted into the box by attaching them to the "bridges" inside.

The flowers wre all dies, that I coloured with distress inks and a finger dauber to colour the centres.  I coloured the butterflies in the die cut toppers with the same colour distress ink (lemonade?).  I stamped the greeting into the topper on the front flap (which I had cut plain) and finally, attached a triple bow cut from organza ribbon to the front, and a 90 pennant to the back.

Challenge 160 at Crafty Cardmakers - Easter

Apologies - I thought I had scheduled this for the right date, but apparently not as I have just noticed it is not there and have uploaded manually!

***

Our hostess for today's challenge, Mary, would love to see your Easter inspired creations. You can enter anything you fancy, it doesn't have to just be cards, as long as it meets the challenge, and doesn't exceed the 15 total challenges entered rule!

My card base was made using a tattered lace die - Ornamental centre stepper.  I really like these die sets - tattered lace dies are often too fancy for me -  but these are really useful.  You get the score and cut lines done for you and more importantly all the mats and layers can be done quickly and easily.  This set in particular came with lots of embellishments.

To "dress" my stepper card I used a background paper I had from a kit which I cut with the dies and distressed the edges.  My brief for the card was easter, lambs, chicks and daffodils so I used some stock images I had on a cd and imported them into my serif craft artist 2 (LOVE that programme) and created the images to embellish my card.  It's not totally to my taste but the commissioner loved it, and that's what counts!

Challenge 159 at Crafty Cardmakers - Go Green

Pam is hosting our 'Go Green' challenge in honour of St. Patrick's Day on 17th March. So let's see all your Green creations please. You can enter anything you fancy, it doesn't have to just be cards, as long as it meets the challenge, and doesn't exceed the 15 total challenges entered rule!

My card  was a simple design that I made for a friend who had a bereavement.  My cards rarely have many layers on them, and this was no exception.

I used my favourite 6 x 6 base card and  a flowery and a striped and a plain green paper from a Dreamees cd for the background paper - I love this part of using cds, you can pretty much guarantee the papers from the same family will go together!  I started with a square of the striped paper and down the centre I stuck a strip of the floral design.  I used the plain green paper to make the mat for my topper, which was a woodware stamp stamped with a green distress ink.  I used distress ink around the edge of the topper after I had rounded the corners, and coloured the flowers with the same distress ink.  I stamped the sentiment onto the same colour card as the topper, and edged it with a promarker and distressed it with the same distress ink as the topper.

Finally, I added some pearls to either side.  

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 158 - A special woman

Marlene is hosting today, and the theme she will be judging is For a Special Woman. As Mothers Day (in the UK) is just a couple of weeks away, we would love to see your cards for a Special Woman. So Mother's Day cards/creations, or cards/creations for any woman who is special, Daughter, Wife, Friend etc. will be fine. You can enter anything you fancy, it doesn't have to just be cards, as long as it meets the challenge, and doesn't exceed the 15 total challenges entered rule!

We are sponsored for this challenge 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.

As a rule, I don't really make overly fussy cards.  I admire the skill that goes into making them, but I'm never quite happy with my own efforts.  This card is much more my cup of tea!  I made it for a good friend who had reached the big 50 birthday. 

My base card was a scallop edge 6 x 6 white card.  Onto this, I layered a mat of plain pink and put onto that my topper, which I had stamped with this floral shoe stamp (Chloe's??) and simply coloured it with my promarkers.

Before I stuck the topper down, I wrapped some white chiffon ribbon around the top left corner..  Onto this I stuck a double bow made from the same ribbon, and in the centre of that I suck a white flower, coloured with some distress ink.  My friend wasn't 100% happy about the number of birthdays (lol), so I included it as  a very teeny centre to the big flower! 

Finally, I stamped a small sentiment on the pink base card and stuck that on with a foam pad, and put a couple of stamped flowers  from another impression of the shoe stamp that I had coloured and cut out onto the shoe to give it some texture.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 157 - Love, love, love

Julie is hosting our Love, Love, Love Challenge. As Valentine's Day is just around the corner we want to see your 'love' themed creations. 

You can enter anything you fancy, it doesn't have to just be cards, as long as it meets the challenge, and doesn't exceed the 15 total challenges entered rule!

My own project this time was something I made at a recent craft retreat run by Anna Marie Designs - and it is mixed media.  I am assuming it is for home decor - it's definitely too big to go on a card.  I'm not 100% sure I like it - but I am a firm believer in trying everything, because you never know when a crafty technique will sneak up and hook you!

The base is an MDF heart shape, with a matching frame that was glued onto it.  We then put on our rubber gloves and covered scrap ribbon, hession, gauze and various other materials in a black gunky stuff called structuriser.  It was MESSY.  Having covered all of the heart with the bits, we left it to dry.

The following day, we coated any parts of the MDF showing with black gesso and left that to dry too.

Then the fun part - colouring it!  We used on this occasion Viva Decor Inka Gold colours, but I would imagine you could use any creamy paste or gilding wax to get the same effect.  Finally, we went over the top randomly with a bit of pinflair on our finger and then sprinkled some crystal glass over the top.  

Unfortunately, it doesn't really show very well in the picture (and trust me, I tried very hard to get a good shot!) but I hope you get the idea.

I have come to the conclusion that super messy is not my thing - paints yes, the gunky structuriser?  I think I'll give it a miss...

And as an added extra, I thought I'd add a card I made using a shape from my Brother Scan n Cut.

This was a 6 x 6 black card base with an overlay in white with hearts cut out.  I sized the hearts down slightly and then cut them in red and stuck them inside the apertures.

Finally, I stamped some suitable words on the red hearts and added a hand cut tag with a sentiment on it.

Inside it just says Happy Valentines Day.

Keeping it simple

Last week I made a card for my friends birthday.  My mission to use stash I have bought continues, and I found these white cards with the die cut edge in the drawer.  I used a Woodware Stamp on a piece of white stamping card and stamped it in Black archival ink.  Then, I coloured the centres of the flowers and the leaves with promarkers, and coloured everything with one of the new spectrum noir clear sparkle pens. 

I gave the part of the card under the diecut a bit of glitz by using a Nuovo Glue pen to cover the area and then covered that with glamour dust.  I did the same thing in the black line border for the stamp.

Before I stuck the topper on with 1mm foam pads, I edged it with the yellow promarker.  Finally, I die cut a sentiment and coloured that with the same yellow.

This was a really easy card to make, and very effective.  I really like woodware stamps for this.

#156 Punches and/or Dies - Crafty Cardmakers challenge

Maike is hosting our challenge today and the theme is Punches and/or Dies

You are welcome to enter anything as long as you have used either punches or dies, or even both, and please don't forget to enter no more than 15 challenges including this one.

For my card I used my tattered lace circle stepper die and the free papers that came in a magazine for the layers, along with a Phill Martin paper pad.

I like a stepper card, because you can decorate them as plainly or elaborately as you like.

For my decorations, I used some die cut tattered lace flowers, that I coloured with my distress inks.  

The topper was from a cd (crafters companion, I believe, but I am not sure without trawling through them all to match the sheet I had printed out).  

Crafty Cardmakers & More challenge 155 New: Baby, Marriage, Home etc...

As it's a brand new year we thought we would go with a 'new' challenge. So you can interpret that in many differrent ways, it could be to welcome a new baby, a new home, marriage etc. I am sure you can think of many different 'news' you can inspire us with. This challenge is being hosted by Sally so it will be her job to choose our winner and Top 5.  

I am still on a mission to use up my stash, so my "New baby" card this time used a sheet I  think I printed off at some time from a crafters companion or Debbie Moore cd (but it might have been one from a kit).

Sometimes, you need a card in a hurry and there is no shame in making use of something ready prepared.  Sometimes I do that by printing off a card kit from a cd and sometimes I use a sheet I have already.

This card uses my favourite 6 x 6 square base, with the corners rounded off.  I don't know why, but it seems to look a bit more professional when I do that...!  The base layer has "layers" already incorporated into it (probably using the shadow tools, such as those in Serifs Craft artist).  However, I cut out and added the pocket and tag separately myself, and the teddy bear topper, at a jaunty angle. The baby's name was added using silver letter peel offs.  

I don't really use peel offs any more (although I suspect their use will be resurrected in time as most things come round again, *grins*) but I do use the border and letters still.