Challenge 133 Crafty Cardmakers & More–Stripes

Our challenge this week has been set by our teamie Leslie – and unfortunately she is moving on to new challenges and is standing down from our DT.  It’s been a pleasure to be on the DT with her – I would strongly suggest you go over to her blog and catch up with her new ventures…

Anyway, back to the card.  The theme this time round was Stripes, and I looked through my stash for suitable paper and ended up looking at my Serif Digi kits.  Like everything else, I keep buying them, and never use them!  This year my resolution has been to use the things I buy, so I used craft artist 2 to pull together the basics of my card. 

However, because I actually like to physically do it, what I did was to make some layers and then physically cut out some of the other things to embellish the card.

The Digikit that most of the components came from was a Daisytrail kit called Sew in Love.  I printed off the stripey paper first, and used that as the base layer on my fave 6 x 6 square card.  I used two types of spotty paper for the next layer, and then realised that you could then barely notice the stripes – so I cut the second spotty square out to show the stripes below.  The flowers were also part of the digi kit, so I printed off a selection (adjusting the sizes for some of them) and then cut them out.  I painted them with some wink of stella pen (clear) to give them some glitz and arranged them on my card, sticking them in place with glossy accents.  I used buttons from my stash for the centres.

All that remained was what to put in the stripy square without hiding them – and of course, the answer is butterflies!  I cut two memory box butterflies out and coloured them with distress inks (gold Pebeo gilding wax on the body) before going over them with the wink of stella pen too.  I attached them with the glossy accents – and was really pleased with the outcome.

One more piece of kit getting dusty in my workroom used!

Challenge 100 - Winged things

Welcome to our latest challenge at Crafty Cardmakers where we would like to see Winged Things.  Your project must have something with wings as a major focal point. Not a tiny butterly charm, or a small bee in the corner of an image, the wings need to be obviously part of the focal point. Fairies, angels, LARGE butterflies, birds etc. would qualify. 

My card came about when I needed a "quick win" and utilised quite a lot of things I had already got in my stash box (backing mat, butterflies and sentiment). 

The base card was brown DL size, and the backing mat was embossed with a cuttlebug embossing folder (script) and distressed with vintage photo distress inks. I used oval nesties for the photograph and the mat and layers in the centre. The two butterflies  were spellbinders dies, also distressed with vintage photo. The sentiment was a bought one. 

 I was really pleased with the way this came out.

We are sponsored by 

CRAFTS AND ME

with three digis of the winner's choice from their great range

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.

Cowboy

I think it is therapeutic colouring with promarkers - they are so forgiving!

I found this really cute digi image on my pc and have no idea where I got it from.  But isn't he great?  If anyone recognises it, please let me know and I will happily credit the designer!

(EDITED TO ADD:  Thanks to Mynnette, who has identified the digistamp as being one from Precious moments)

The card is a plain white base with rounded corners, and the image was matted and layered with gold and brown card.  I made a faux stitching edge round the image, and used some gems to decorate the side.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:
Heart Song Inspirations Challenge - Anything goes.
House of Gilli - Anything goes
Incywincy designs - Anything goes

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 57 - heat embossing

We are kindly sponsored for this challenge by The Stampman (and Lady of course!) who are offering the winner the lovely prize pictured.

Starburst Stains Brush on The Fun - Holiday Wreath

Deep, rich, vibrant colours with a two-toned shimmer!

These are all dye based products, which give them that vibrancy and can be used on any porous surface, (paper, wood, fabric, balsa, chipboard, etc).

Instructions on how to use: Add hot water, (filtered preferrably, especially with the stains), let sit at least 10 minutes.

Shake or stir before each use.

The challenge set was to use heat embossing, and I usually enjoy that but for some reason this time I struggled a bit for inspiration.  After several attempts, I ended up with this card, which is a standard 6 x 6 card base in a burgundy leatherette cardstock.

I stamped the festive swirl onto the top left hand corner and heat embossed with gold detail embossing powder.  The Poinsettia was glittered using quickie glue pen and gold glamour dust.

The topper was a vellum image of father christmas and child, that was stuck onto plain card and then triple heat embossed to make it into a glossy tile.  That was mounted onto gold mirri board using four small gold brads.

I coloured some white ribbon with burgundy promarker to go along the bottom of the card, and attached a bow at the base of the topper image.

I also stamped happy christmas on the left side of the ribbon with gold inkpad, but alas it was too faint to show in the picture. 

Birthday boy

This card was made using a digi image from Sugar Nellie called Nathan.  He colours in like a dream!  (this time I used promarkers).  Nathan is sitting on a straightforward easel card made out of plain white cardstock.  He is mounted onto oval nestie diecuts, and matted onto an x-cut diecut frame.    Decoration was simple and in keeping with a plain and simple approach and the colour scheme was kept to the minimum.

I am entering this card into the Crafts and Me challenge - Birthday

Don't forget, the free competition to win free software from My Memories digital scrapbooking is still open - all you have to do is call in at my previous post and find out what you have to do...

You can make some cracking scrapbook pages with it - even me (and I am a complete novice!).

You can also find My Memories Suite at

Blog- http://blog.mymemories.com/
Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/pages/MyMemories/140359372717593
Twitter- http://twitter.com/#!/mymemoriessuite

Autumnal birthday card

This card is a birthday card I made for a friend who was turning 50.  She is a keen gardener so I thought she'd like this picture, and chose a neat sentiment.

Having seen it, another friend said it was a bit tactless - like now she was fifty she was in the autumn of her life.  Hopefully she didn't see it that way - it wasn't intended!

The image was stamped onto plain card (the stamp is one of flower softs) and was then coloured with promarkers.  It was simply mat and layered onto a card which already had foiling around the edge.

The sentiment was printed out and mat and layered on gold card.


I would like to enter this card into the challenge at
Oldie but Goodie this week - Forever Autumn
Deep Ocean Challenge blog - Fall colours

Snowmen

The relentless production of Christmas Cards goes steadily on.

I am not very good at producing masses of the same card, so I try to ring the changes.  That's why I love stamping so much - you can change things dramatically with just a touch of colour.

This card is a monochrome one - White base, white mat (embossed with the swiss dots cuttlebug folder, which I think is perfect for snowy winter cards) and layered onto silver grey card.

I coloured the snowmen in with grey promarkers and added some diecut snowflakes that I covered with quickie glue pen ink and then gilded with gilding flakes.

The sentiment was stamped onto the same silver grey card as the base layer.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Stampendous impressions - clean and simple
Secret Crafter Saturday challenge - white plus one colour
Ooh la la creations - let it snow

Christmas bear

Sometimes inspiration just doesn't come, and I have lots more Christmas cards to make this year still.  As a result, I thought I would copy one I did last year.  Previously, this was an easel card, but this version is a straightforward 6 x 6 plain card.

I used distress inks to colour the hills, using my cut and dry foam to apply the ink.  I've forgotten which company made the bear stamp (I really need to make sure things are labelled and stored correctly) but it was coloured using the distress ink to provide shadow and promarkers for the blue bands, then topped with glossy accent.  The icy touches (and snow) were done with a quickie glue pen and some clear glamour dust.

I would like to enter this card into the Bear challenge (week 124) at Allsorts challenge

New baby card

This is a card I recently did for a colleague whose daughter in law just presented her with a new grandson.

The card was a gatefold square card, with a raised centre flap.  I kept the colours plain and simple, using blue and white as the main theme.  The butterflies were punched (X cut punch, I believe), as was the dotted edge to the card gatefolds (EK Success edger punch).

 The inside flap was decorated with a topper made from layered nesties, and with a very old stamp (manufacturer forgotten, I'm afraid) that was languishing in my stamp drawers.  The image was coloured with promarkers.

Underneath the flap was the normal congratulatory sentiment, and a single "congratulations" was placed under the image.  Side panels were made from the same blue card as the topper and front panel butterflies.

I used peel off lettering for the baby's name.

This is a close up of the coloured image.

I am entering this card into challenges at
ABC-Challenge - anything goes 
Paper crafting Journey - punches or diecuts
Penny's paper-crafty challenge - anything goes

Totally Gorjuss Challenge 100 - a sketch

Totally Gorjuss have just issued their 100th challenge, which was a sketch and I thought I would have a go at it.

Now, Sketches sometimes bamboozle me a bit, because I get obsessed about matching it exactly, but this time it seemed to go ok. The colours are a bit brighter than I usually favour - I'm so not a pink girl! - and I used paper and images given free in Making Cards magazine, along with a couple of extras from my stash.  The paper flower and gems are also from my stash.

In the garden

 I am entering this card into Sentimental Sundays - Challenge 66 and Polkadoodles week 30 challenge - in an english country garden

This card is a double twisted easel, incorporating stamping, colouring with promarkers and spectrum noir pens, die cuts and marbled paper.  It fits into a standard DL envelope.

The base card was plain white cardstock, measuring 8 inches square, and scored in half. I used marbled paper (marbled using the My craft studio marbling inks) for the base of the card.  The base was decorated with two swirls (cuttlebug die) and the stopper was white card with the edges distressed in shabby shutters, and matted with the same paper I used for the toppers.  A sentiment  from hero arts was stamped on the centre of it, and the two corners were a clarity stamp.

 Each of the easels were 4 inches square, with the corners rounded.  I distressed the edges using shabby shutters distress ink.  I then used a nestie to provide a shaped layer in complementary paper, and matted the two toppers onto that.

The first topper (on the left) was one of the free downloads from the Sentimental Sunday website, with the edges distressed using shabby shutters, and the flowers coloured using a mixture of promarkers and spectrum noir pens.

The second topper (on the right) was a sarah jane clear stamp.  I coloured the image in using a combination of promarkers and spectrum noir pens, and again distressed the edges using shabby shutters.  The small butterfly was from my stash.

I didn't put a specific sentiment on there - it can be a birthday, a get well, or just a thinking of you card that way.

Just some Lines Challenge - easel cards

I like making easel cards, you get so much more to decorate! This is a twisted easel card made for Mothers Day, where the "mother" isn't actually your mother.
For this card, a pale green/grey base card was used and a topper from a sheet I had in my stash (It may have been from Hunkydory, or Sue Smith).

Quicky glue pen and glamour dust was used to enhance the flower on the topper.  The base of the easel was stamped with a swirl from Clarity Stamps, and some paper roses and leaves, made using punches.  The butterfly was stamped onto acetate and glittered.  So that the colour I wanted for the layer cards was matching, plain white card was coloured with promarkers.

F

Passion for Promarkers Challenge - Sketch

I thought it was about time I joined in some challenges.  And since I love my promarkers, this one seemed a good one to start off with!

I made this card using the sketch provided.

The backing paper was from my stash, distressed at the edges with Faded Mahogany distress ink pad. The check and peach card were also from my stash. I cut some acetate the same size as the check card and stamped the corner with a swirl and attached it to the card with a brad. The flowers were punched, and a gem stuck in the centres. The bear was coloured with skin tones promarkers (I forgot to note the colours!) and was then cut out using the cuttlebug.

The lace is my standby paper lace, and the butterfly was stamped onto acetate and enhanced with gilding flakes.

Creative Expressions Calling Card Challenge

These are the basic materials to make this calling card (ATC) focussed card.
  
The base card was a hammered white card cut down to 6" by 6" size, with the edges coloured with Faded Mahogany distress ink.  On this occasion, as I wanted a heavier colour, I used a cut and dry foam pad.  If I had wantedthe colour to be lighter, I would have used an ink duster (from Inkylicious) as I find they give me a more delicate effect.

I used plain card distressed around the edges with Aged mahogany distress ink for the calling card.  Onto the centre I stamped a daisy flower, which was coloured with a combination of distress inks and water color pens, and around the edges of the card I used one of Clarity stamps (the swirl pattern).

The sentiment came (I think) from a Hero Arts stamp set.  In the centre of the daisy I put a gem. (It started as a crystal, but ended up a pearl!).

The other background layer was cut by a nestie, and using a paper from a Crafty Individuals background papers pad, Book 1.  The edges were distressed with the same coloured stamp pad as the base card.  I also used a strip of the cool stick on paper lace from Kars.

For the flower, I used a 2" six petal punch from Woodware to cut one shape, and cut two 1" daisy shapes from the Crafty individuals paper.  The edges were shaped and curled and coloured with the Aged Mahogany to tone in.  I then layered them up, ready to be used when the card was nearly finished.

TOP TIP - if you use the same paper for punching out flowers as the backing paper, you can ensure that the colours match.

First, distress the edges of the base card, which has been cut to be 6" by 6". I have used Aged Mahogany distress ink by Tim Holtz. Then put down the first layer. I have used a deep red textured paper with a shiny finish. This colour toned in with the faded mahogany distress ink, and provided a striking contrast.

I was only leaving a narrow edge on show in this paper, or I would have run it through the 'bug with one of my embossing folders - probably the lattice one from Creative Expressions, as that is one of my big faves at the moment. And you get a really cool effect with it on this paper! But as only a narrow edge would be showing it wasn't worth it.

The next step is to layer on top of the red card the decorative paper. 

For this, I chose a sheet from Life's Journey paper pad from K&Company. I've had the pad a fair while, so it might not be available any more...

I like to round the edges on my papers with the corner punch - to me it looks nicer than square.

I put the layer to the left hand side, so that my lace strip could go down the right hand side, showing the red through it.  Finally, I put the nestie shape onto the backing paper at a jaunty angle, using foam tape to raise it from the backing.

Next, I put the ATC card onto the nestie shape, also at an angle, and also using foam tape.

Finally, I put the flower onto the top right hand corner, and decorated the top left and bottom right corners with faux pearls.  As a final touch, there just had to be a butterfly in there - it's sitting on the leaf next to the flower!