Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 60 - use beads on your project

Jack is the host for this challenge at Crafty Cardmakers this week,  and she has set us the task of using beads in our project.

I've been in a "clean and simple" frame of mind recently, and I decided to make my card comparatively plain and unfussy. 

The base card was a woven effect white 6" x 6" and I found this wonderful butterfly stamp (from Woodware)  in my stash which is perfectly suited to having beads used as part of the embellishment.

I stamped it onto plain white card using a versamark pad, and then embossed it using silver detail embossing powder.  I then coloured it using cut and dry foam and the Spice Big n Juicy pad and cut it out.  Because the antenna were a bit fiddly, I cut them off and put them in at the end using a fine gold pen.  The beads were stuck in the circles using pinflair glue gel.

The flowers were made by layering 4 layers of the flower punch (which is one of a set of petal pairs from tonic).   I cut them (and the leaves) out from a piece of backing paper, which I distressed with the same colours from the big and juicy pad so that they would tone.

The Marianne swirl was cut from a satin gold card offcut and was stuck down using pva glue.

I only ever buy the plain white chiffon ribbon - it is so easy to colour it to the shad you want using promarkers!  For this card, I cut a length and applied it down the card on the right hand side, sticking it down on the inside with plain old sellotape!

I then positioned the flowers and leaves so they looked like they were part of the swirl and put the butterfly in position across the ribbon.

Finally, the sentiment was from a Flowersoft set.   I stamped it onto plain card and distressed it using the Spice big and juicy pad.

SPONSORS

 THE STAMPMAN

 We are kindly sponsored for this challenge by The Stampman (and Lady of course!) who are offering the winner a £10 voucher for their store, you can spend this online, in the shop or if you're lucky enough to see them at a show!  They have a ton of items in store, enough to tickle any crafty taste bud.
 
Co sponsor for this challenge is

DI'S DIGI DOWNLOADS

$10 Gift Voucher

Here, mojo.... where are you...?

I've not been in "the mood" recently.  I look at my stash and have no inspiration at all.  My stamps and ink pads are lying idle, and my notebook is full of half ideas but nothing tangible.  It's depressing!

I have ordered some Flitterglu though, from Indigo Blu (who happen to be sponsors this year at the Crafty Cardmakers challenge blog- go check them out!) and I am looking forward to playing with my foil flakes when that arrives.  I've also got to do a good luck card this weekend  for a colleague who leaves next week.  All I know is she likes horses...!

Just as well I also have the My Memories software, which is really useful when your mojo has gone and you need to make a card on the quick.  It's so easy to import pictures into it, and add embellishments and then all you have to do is to print it out!  I love my carefully crafted cards - but sometimes, you just need something right NOW.  If anyone wants to try the software, you can grab a bargain by using my code STMMMS59047 which, as a special offer, will provide you with a $10 discount off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store - $20 value in total!) 

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

Retiring

I'm quite a fan of computer crafting, as long as you mix it with other techniques.  I see no fun in just printing a card out using software, but being creative and imaginative in collecting elements for a card - that's different!

This card was created for a retirement.   The recipient was a keen artist - we bought him a complete set of paints and a palette for his leaving present - so I thought it would be apt to use images of paintings.

The card base was a plain standard white A4 folded to A5.  I used a creative impressions embossing folder to make the brick background and coloured it using distress inks. This was layered onto brown card.  Then I matted and layered some images of famous paintings and put them on the background like they were displayed.   The "chain" on the larger picture was actually a narrow peel off.

The final touch was the sentiment, which I made like a barrier notice using cocktail sticks to support it.  The greeting was actually written with a quickie glue pen and then covered with gilding flakes.  

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 59 - No floral embellishments

The challenge at Crafty Cardmakers this week has been set by Fiona, and she has asked us to use no floral embellishments.  I thought it would be nice to make a plain card, and in fact, have very little embellishment on it at all.  The card was made using a plain white base card, and my main topper was a digi stamp from one of our sponsors today - the Digi Doodle Shop. The digi stamp was called running away, and I was totally smitten with the image of the small boy and his best friend.  The best thing about digi stamps is that you can resize them to the size you want - this one fits a 7" x 5" card perfectly!   I coloured the image using promarkers, and having cut the corners with a punch,  mounted it onto silver mirri card and then onto blue card.   The greeting was from my stash, and the sentiment at the bottom of the card was stamped and embossed with silver detail embossing powder.

our sponsors are

DIGI DOODLE SHOP

$10 Gift Certificate for the Store

and 

ONE STOP CARD CRAFTS

ho are offering a £10 voucher for their store as a prize.

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

Happy Christmas everyone...

Very best wishes to all readers for a peaceful Christmas and a happy, healthy and creative new year.

Cheers!

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 58 - Use it 3 times

The challenge this week is hosted by Tracy  and is "Use it 3 times"

Use the same stamp/image three different ways. It could be the background, main image and a tag to match for example. (ie Christmas Wrapping Paper, Greeting Card and Gift Tag) Using different colourways is another way.

We're sponsored again by the lovely Joanna Sheen who is offering a £10 voucher for her online shop which is crammed full of goodies with new stock arriving all the time! Thanks once again Joanna!


 For this challenge, I used a freebie rubber stamp of a small angel that I got with a magazine.   I stamped it three times, masking the centre angel and then coloured them with promarkers.  I then cut it out using a nestie and distressed the edges with chipped sapphire distress ink.

I also stamped the greeting with another stamp from the same set.

The nestie shape was mounted onto blue card, and  this was then added to plain white cardstock, that had been distressed on the edges with the chipped sapphire stamp pad.  The final touch was to add the white organiza ribbon.

I used the same stamp to decorate the envelope, and I used an offcut of the blue card with a stamped angel decoupaged onto it as a book mark.

And the winner is.... GWENDRAITH

I used the widget random number generator to pick the winner of the software giveaway and it was..... comment number 2.

So, taking it logically, the second comment left in the list was by gwendraith.  I will be emailing the details of how to download the software to her - congratulations!!

And for those people who weren't successful this time - I will apparently be given another download code in three months time, so keep an eye out for another giveaway post.  Or, if you can't wait that long, you can still grab a bargain by using my code STMMMS59047 which, as a special offer, will provide you with a $10 discount off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store - $20 value in total!)

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. 

Clean and simple inspiration

Sometimes, less is more.  I thought I'd have a rummage through my stamps and see if I could find any that I hadn't used in a while.  I liked this simple orchid stamp because you could colour it in, or leave it as line art.

I used plain white base card stock, and embossed two thin lines down the righthand edge.  I think red stands out nicely on white, so used that as my contrast colour.  The highlight in the flower was done with a red Sakura gellyroll glaze pen.  Having said that, I think it would work superbly as a monochrome black and white combo - super easy if you need a card in a hurry!


Also, don't forget there are only a few more days left before a blog reader can win the fabulous free software from My Memories digital scrapbooking - 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

Another scrapbook page

I have been playing some more with my new My Memories software, and the free design sets that can be downloaded.  It was great fun trying out new layouts - the only limit is your own imagination!

The My Memories website has some very useful tutorials, which explain things like how to use imported images and digisets provided as freebies from other companies - very useful!

In this layout, I used a background from a My Craft Studio cd.   The possibilities are endless - and there are lots of free designs available on the internet as well as from the My Memories website.

The next step on my voyage of discovery is looking at making backing sheets for my cards - how expensive are the pre-printed sheets?  Now I can make my own!

So, remember, all you have to do to win a copy of this fantastic software  is to visit the My Memories website and leave a comment on my last post to say which of the design sets you like the best between now and the end of the current challenge at Crafty Cardmakers (no 56 - Recycled).   When the challenge is closed, on Sunday 27th November, I will randomly choose one of the comments left there to be the lucky recipient of the free software.   I will then contact the winner and let them know what code to use to get it.

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

Christmas needn't be fancy...

Christmas is getting ever closer and I am totally conscious that I still have loads of cards to make.  I thought I would try to be less complicated, and utilise all those embossing folders I bought for the Bug.

This card is made from plain white cardstock that is embossed with a swirly Christmas Tree.  (not sure whose embossing folder this one was).  Because I had embossed the actual card base, I found that I had a faint line down each side left from the embossing folder.  I debated cropping it and mounting it white on white, but then it occurred to me that I could make a feature of the lines!  Et voilá. 

A touch of glittery ribbon and some glamour dust on the stars meant that even though it was a simple and plain card, I think it still looks pretty effective!

I am entering this card into the challenge at Creative Card Challenges - Minimalistic.

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

My Memories Suite software - Blog Candy special offer

I've been meaning to look into scrapbooking for some time, as an extension of my card making. Like most people I have boxes of photographs that never get seen, and it's got worse since digital cameras became more common, because now I have even more images stored up on my hard drive!  But where to begin?  And did I want a physical or digital scrapbook?

Then I heard about the My Memories Suite, which is digital scrapbooking software that is rated #1 by Amazon and which has a value of $40...   It's great for utilising those digital images in scrapbooks and photobooks, but you can also use it for cards and calenders and when you have created your albums, you can just print them out - it is really easy to use!

The first thing I tried was to create a page using elements from some of the free kits I downloaded, and some photos from my hard drive.   As it was Remembrance Day, I chose to make that the topic of my page.

I've never made one before and was really impressed.  It just shows how easy the software is to use.

Even better, someone reading this blog right now could win a copy too!

All you have to do to win is to visit the My Memories website and leave a comment here to say which of the design sets you like the best between now and the end of the current challenge at Crafty Cardmakers (no 56 - Recycled).   When the challenge is closed, on Sunday 27th November, I will randomly choose one of the comments left here to be the lucky recipient of the free software.   I will then contact the winner and let them know what code to use to get it.

As an additional bonus, if you submit an entry to the Crafty Cardmaker's challenge, you may also win a £10 voucher from the lovely Joanna Sheen (who is the sponsor) too!

  

And if you don't win a copy of the software, you can still grab a bargain by using my code STMMMS59047 which, as a special offer, will provide you with a $10 discount off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store - $20 value in total!) 

 Just enter the Code STMMMS59047 on the shopping cart page here at My memories.com

I downloaded the software straight to my computer with no problems at all from here in the UK, so it isn't a problem that the company is based in the US.

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

A quick card...

I had a bit of an "eek" moment today.  I suddenly realised I missed a birthday yesterday, so I had to make a card super quick.    Worse, it was for a man so was doubly difficult!

The topper was made from the new Big One cd, which has just been released from La Pashe.  The image used was a trinitage - 3 layers of decoupage, but nothing fiddly.  I wanted this card to go in the post, so just used foam pads to separate the layers (you are supposed to put them on a multi fold stepper type thing I think to really make them stand out)

As  a result you can't really see from the photo that the lower bits at the front (up to the cloches and the cabbages) are raised, which really make them stand out in real life! 

The base card was a white 5 x 7 blank and I used a sheet of "grass" backing paper as a mat on top of it.
 
The final touch was the sentiment, which was a silver peel off mounted onto plain black card.  It is going to be late - but it's the thought that counts!

Get well ... again

I'm beginning to feel like I am doing nothing but get well cards lately!

This card was one that I had to pull together in a hurry, so I used some diecut decoupage from my stash, and some rather nice backing paper I bought at Doncaster (if only I had bought more!!!!).

This is an A5 landscape easel card and I used my nesties to cut the topper backing shape and the sentiment.

The sentiment along the front was stamped (but unfortunately I can't remember whose stamps I used).

Birthday card for Josephine.

I got a little reminder pop up from my LJ list today to say that it is Josephine's birthday. 

So it is too late to post the original, but I thought I would dedicate this card to her - and hope that she has a wonderful day!

The card is a 6x6 portrait white base, which was distressed around the edges with vintage photo distress ink.  I used some copper tone paper which was punched along one edge with a Martha Stewart punch and a piece of scrap from my box to form the background. 

The topper was a crafty individuals stamp, stamped using the vintage photo distress ink and coloured with distress inks - vintage photo, victorian velvet and a combo of bundled sage and pine needles.  I used a stardust pen to colour the bee wings. I mounted the topper onto pink mulberry paper, which was wetted and torn to get a frayed edge.

The flowers were all made from scrap paper and punches, and were made into a bouquet with the addition of some punched leaves and a white chiffon ribbon tinted with the vintage photo distress ink tied into a bow.  All were glued into place with pinflair glue.

Finally, I stamped a greeting top and bottom on the patterned paper.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 54 - Colours (Pink Brown and Cream)

My, how time flies!  It's time for the next challenge at Crafty Cardmakers, set today by Vix, and this time we were asked to work with colours - pink, brown and cream to be precise!

This challenge is sponsored by ONE STOP CARD CRAFTS who are offering a £10 voucher for their store as a prize.

So come on, why not have a go?


My card is one for those who have their birthdays around Christmas, so it has some of the festive imagery too (check out the cute robin!)

The card base is a 6 x 6 inch in cream, and I used a coffee coloured backing paper for my base layer.  I cut two corner decorations from some of the scrap cream card and used a holly corner punch to decorate them.  The image is a sarah kay stamp, coloured with promarkers, and that was diecut using a nestie.  The shape was then mounted onto another nestie diecut shape in pink (label one, I believe). 

Before sticking this onto the card using foam tape, I put another panel of scrap cream card across the lower half of the card to make a contrast. 

Finally, I used some pink gems to act as holly "berries" at the top, and three larger pink gems to act as an accent around the bottom right corner.

The sentiment was stamped onto the last of my scrap cream card and distressed slightly around the edges with tattered velvet distress ink (although that doesn't show particularly well in the photo).  The very last touch was a double two colour bow, taken from the ribbons that came in the Polkadoodles Christmas kit.

Blog candy opportunity

Sue Wilson at Particraft has a blog candy opportunity going  on... she will be drawing at random from her followers when she reaches 1900 - and she is up to 1873 already! 

There are five sets of A5Stamp sets for you.  A set of Tim Holtz Grunge board pieces, a fun mask to play with, a rub it scrub it pad, a large acrylic block, black archival ink pad, a couple of jars of Cosmic Shimmer embossing powder, color spray wash,  a perfect medium pad, Cosmic Shimmer spray mist, a pack of natural wood buttons, a Tim Holtz Distress Ink, decorative stick pins and an Adirondack ink pad. 

So what are you waiting for?  Get yourself over there and follow Sue's blog!  

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