Crafty Cardmakers and more Challenge 142 - Sentiment

It's my turn to host the challenge this week at Crafty Cardmakers and more, and I have decided that I want to see your creations where there is an added sentiment. 

It would be lovely if the sentiment were the focal point of your design, as I have done in my sample, but as long as there is one on there, although not so small we can't see it, then it will count.

My card is a 7 x 5 inch textured white card blank.   I utilised some matching papers from my scrap box in a peach shade, and used some swirl stamps and distress inks to enhance them.    The base layer was coloured more intensely, and then the swirl was stamped in versamark and heat embossed onto it.

The next layer had some swirls stamped onto it using a complementary ink, and also some text was randomly stamped over the top.  The edges were distressed so they would pop when layered.

Finally, the sentiment was from a woodware set, and was stamped onto the same cardstock as the base card.  I liked the texture on the sentiment plate, but if you didn't like that, it could be stamped onto a smooth card.  I layered the sentiment topper onto some scrap gold card, and lay some ribbon scraps across the two sides - when you have a sentiment topper like this, you only need small pieces of ribbon to stick out of the sides!

The flower was punched with the same paper, but you could punch it from the layers that are going to be covered up if you didn't have enough.

Finally, I used some of the new Tonic Nuvo crystal drops in gold to add accents at top and bottom.

Challenge 141 - For a man or a boy

This week at Crafty Cardmakers and more,  Vania is hosting and she wants to see your creations for the men/boys in your life. So anything that is suitable for a man or boy will be fine.

For my card, I used a plain cream base card (A4 folded to A5).  I chose a piece of A5 brown card as my base layer and then rescued some of my scrap paper – this sun ray pattern is easily achieved with smallish rectangles of paper, cut in half diagonally and then stuck down on the top half of a backing sheet to form the “rays”.  When you have created the rays, it is a simple matter to trim it to size at the top and sides. 

For the bottom of the card, I used a strip of cream card cut with a border punch that was also layered onto the brown card, and which had the sentiment stamped into the right hand corner.

My topper was a borrowed stamp, so I am now not sure who made it (but it may well have been Woodware) that was stamped onto cream card with brown ink and then distressed with brown around the edge before being layered onto the same brown card as my base layer.

So there you have it – a really nice man’s card with very little outlay.

Challenge #140 Stitching, Faux or Real

This week over at Crafty Cardmakers & more Sue is hosting  the challenge and she would like to see your projects that include stitching. The stitching can be faux or real, but it would be lovely to see real stitching or even embroidery on your creations

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take part in this challenge, but why not pop over and have a look?  You can join in here: http://craftycardmakers.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/140-stitching-faux-or-real.html

Challenge 139 Crafty Cardmakers & more - a Shaped card

Kim is hosting our challenge this time and wants to see your shaped cards. Plain squares or rectangles DO NOT COUNT, but any other shape is fine.

 

Very fortuitously, I recently went to a make and take class with John Lockwood, demonstrating some of the Sue Wilson Noble dies, and we made a shaped card!

 

I was expecting die cutting, but this card was beautiful - and not as difficult as it looks!  The trickiest part was probably lining up the various dies so they are level.  I'm not convinced I managed it - one side looks a little uneven to my eye, but it's beautiful still despite that.

 

We used a plain A4 base card, folded in half and then the biggest die was taped so that the cutting edge was just above the top of the fold.  I was really worried I'd get this wrong, but amazingly, it worked.

 

Then we cut the various layers out including another of the largest dies out in a contrast colour (this lovely duck egg blue).  I decided to put one of the die cuts  (white) behind the blue filigree die cut, as I didn't want the sentiment to be seen, but it could have been left so you could see through it all.

 

We used some creative expressions cosmic shimmer pearl drops to put "pearls" all around the outer filligree edge, and in the filigree centre. 

 

Finally, I die cut the sentiment in the duck egg blue, and mounted it onto card and fussy cut around it, and stuck it in the bottom left hand corner.  In the top left corner I stuck a narrow ribbon multi bow which I had coloured with a promarker to match.

 

I couldn't afford to buy the dies after the class this time (I had far too many other goodies in my basket already) but they are on my Wishlist for Ally Pally in September - Creative Expressions give a discount if you spent over a certain amount.  All I need to do now is work out exactly which ones we used...

Crafty Cardmakers & More Challenge 138 - Make your own background

Pamellia is hosting today at Crafty Cardmakers & More.

She would like to see something that you have created using a background you made yourself. So NO designer papers please.

I like making backgrounds - sometimes I get more pleasure out of doing that than making the topper, to be honest.

I'm not a neat crafter - I like the messy play aspect of it sometimes, and I have been looking at the brusho backgrounds for some time now.  

Recently, I discovered a craft shop that specialised in all the arty inks and paints I love (check out That's Crafty, in Harold Wood) and treated myself (among other things) to a starter pack of the brusho paints.

They look like any other powdered paint and come in small drums.  However, if you shake a tiny piece of the powder onto a piece of water colour card that has had a plain water wash put over it, each speck EXPLODES into colour spectacularly!

This was a smallish card (A6) and I made it for a friend who recently lost her mum.  She was dreading this birthday, the first without her mum, so I didn't want to go over the top with her card.  

I used half a sheet of A4 white card folded in half to make my base card.  I cut a piece of water colour card from Crafters Companion to make my background layer.   First I did my plain water wash, and then using a small brush picked up some of the colour powder from each drum (turquoise, yellow, lemon,  orange and emerald green) and flicked it randomly on the wet card.  Where bits had dried a bit, I spritzed it and reactivated the powder.  When the wash had dried, I stamped onto it an inkylicious flower silhouette stamp inked up with black archival ink.  When it was dry  I spritzed the whole thing with some docrafts spritzing ink (gold).

When the card was dry again, I layered it onto a piece of black card  to make a thin edge that would make the colours pop.  I wrapped some black spotty ribbon around the bottom of the mat and layer, and then stuck the whole thing onto the base card.  

The last thing I did was to stick a bow made using the same ribbon and a stamped sentiment edged with distress inks onto my ribbon strip using my hot glue gun.

Challenge 137 Crafty Cardmakers & More–Dots

Sally is hosting for this challenge and she would like you to go DOTTY, so something that has obvious dots on.

I’ve been trying to use up my crafty stash recently – it’s a small effort to counteract the amount I buy!  For my card today, I used a 7 x 5 blank white base, and went through my “bits box” for the other pieces of card. 

I used the swiss dots embossing folder to make the silver base layer, and another folder called daisy and swirls for the pink layer.  My new cut n boss machine really embossed it deeply – this would have been perfect for sanding the top layer down, but I didn’t want the shabby chic look this time round so I left it alone.

I managed to cut out a postage stamp shape out of my magnetic sheet when I cut the white base for the topper – but I guess that happens to everyone sooner or later!  I taped it back in and hope that will hold for a while… *blushes*

I stamped another piece of the scrap pink card with the dotty stamp, and cut out a small butterfly to stick on as an accent, along with a pink gem.  The topper was stuck on with foam pads.

I had this grey dotty ribbon in my stash, which I felt went well with the pink and silver, so used that.  The ribbon was a bit stiffer than I like for bows, but it tied eventually, and I stuck it on with my hot glue gun.

Finally, I stamped the happy birthday greeting in pink and flanked it with two more gems.

Challenge 136 at Crafty Cardmakers & More - Wings

Mary is hosting today and wants to see something with Wings.. birds, planes, fairies, insects or even a steampunk clock, as long as it includes Wings.

 

My preference has always been for less embellishments on my cards - it makes it easier to post, and I just generally like a less fussy look.

 

This card is minimal in layers, but the topper itself is fussy in the extreme!  I was going through some folders on my pc and discovered this lovely digistamp - sorry, my record keeping is pants and I can't work out who to credit.  So if anyone recognises it, please let me know so I can do that!

 

My base card was my fave 6 x 6, and I used some scrap card to make the backing strip, running it through the cut n boss with the free hessian folder from the latest Crafters Companion Inspiration magazine.  The die was also a freebie from a magazine but (*points up*) as I said my record keeping is rubbish and I can't remember which one!

 

I coloured the image itself with promarkers, using primarily greens and yellows for the foliage.  I had purple card for my embellishments, so I thought the lime greens would work well, and I decided to use pink and blue for the birds.  I used spectrum noir pencils to colour the birds and apply definition and shading.

 

I used the pink and blue pencils I'd used for the birds to blend together to make the frame colour and finally, I stamped a simple greeting in the same colour as the scrap card.

Challenge 125 Crafty Cardmakers & more - Spring has sprung

Marlene is hosting for us today and would like to see your Spring themed creations. So that could be a new life (baby) either animal or human, spring flowers, soft spring colours etc.

 I've gone for the new baby - especially since for the first time in ages I got the opportunity to do a pink card!  

I used my favourite Presscut stepper card die, a Sweet Dixie pram and rattle die and some card and embellishments from my stash. 


I love this stepper card die - it's just so versatile!  Also, it includes the dies to add the decorative layers.  I kept this card comparatively simple, just using a plain pink card from my stash (it has a linen texture) as the base layer.

I cut the pram and rattle out of centura pearl card, cut with great ease using my cut n boss machine.  It cut very well, with just one pass.  I used some candi to highlight the wheels of the pram, and the bar across the bottom of the card, to which I added the baby's name. 

I used a small best wishes sentiment from my stash, and finally, added a button and bow, which I stuck on with my hot glue gun.

Challenge 134, Crafty Cardmakers and more–A special woman

How fast is this year flying by?  I can’t believe it is nearly the middle of March and  it’s time for another challenge at Crafty Cardmakers and more.  Pamellia is hosting this one, and as Mother's Day is right around the corner she would like to see your creations for a Special Woman.  They don't have to be Mother's Day cards though, as long as they are for that special lady.

My card is for one of my friends to give to her mum – sadly, I lost my mum almost 3 years ago, so I don’t make one for myself any more.  She asked me to make it a super special one this year, as her mum is battling cancer and has had a really rough time since last Mother’s Day.

So this one is a biggie that needs a box!  I made an 8 inch square base card, and layered onto that with some spotty double sided card I had bought some time ago from Crafters Companion.  I cut a frame out of the same card (using the other side) and attached it to the card base using some pieces of card 5 x 1.5 inches, scored and folded at 1/2 inch and 1 inch to raise it from the base.

I used an image from a Debbi Moore cd (a freebie given away with a magazine) of butterflies for the centre of the base card, and printed off some extra butterflies which I cut out and along with the butterflies on the base, sparkled using my wink of stella clear brush pen. 

I used some flower dies from my stash to cut out some flowers along with a new purchase from Britannia Dies (rose leaves strip) to cut out my leaves, all in thin white card, which I coloured with distress inks.  I shaped the flowers with a ball tall, before spritzing them all with a docrafts gold spritzing ink.  I used some self adhesive pearls for the centre of the flowers, and arranged them on the corner of my frame, using my spiffy new Bosch cordless glue gun. (love it!)

I attached some gold chiffon ribbon to the other bottom corner of the frame and stuck a double bow onto it.

I put the cut out butterflies on the frame too, and then decided that the small ones needed a bit more bling – so I used stickles to make the glitter more obvious.

Using a scrap of offcut spotty card, I stamped the word MUM with a brown stazon ink.  When it was dry, I cut the letters out and stuck them on the card using silicone glue, and then glossed them with glossy accents.

Finally, on a piece of scrap white card, I stamped the greeting in the same brown stazon, before fussy cutting it out, and  toning it down with walnut and a pink distress ink.  I went round the edge of the greeting with some Pebeo empire gold gilding wax and stuck it onto the frame with silicone glue.

I was really pleased with the flowers – I love the way they look and I think it’s one of my favourite things to do.  And of course, I love the butterflies, too…

My “Book of Shadows”

While browsing You tube, I found a tutorial on making an antiqued book from scratch – and I also saw some replica book of shadows from the tv series Charmed.

I loved that series!   I resolved to have a go at this – albeit on a smaller scale -with the aim of populating it with recipes and remedies handwritten using my calligraphy pens.. 

So I sent off for the grey board for the covers and began.

These are the materials I used – greyboard for the covers, with some faux leather a la Sheena Douglass for the cover, which I’d coloured green and run through the cut n boss.  The spine was made using half of the centre of a kitchen roll inner tube.  Because I am a muppet, I didn’t take pics as I went, so pretty much all I have is the finished article.  But hey, very pretty! 

I used my serif craft artist 2 software to create my triquatra for the front cover, and coloured it with promarkers then backed it onto black card and edged it with gold micron pen, before spraying with varnish spray.  I was really pleased with the way it turned out.

The first time I covered the spine, I did it with more faux leather paper and swiftly learnt that it wasn’t going to work, because it split when I tried to close the book.  The trainer used fabric in the tutorial, and there was clearly a reason why!  I found some fabric, but when I had got it on the spine it was a bit pale for my taste. 

I brooded about it for a couple of days and then toned it down using distress ink and gilding wax.  Result!!

For the inside, I turned again to my trusty CA2 and printed off some suitable backing paper onto thin card and stuck it into the inside covers.

I ordered my album posts and corner protectors online as I couldn’t source any in my local shops, but while I was waiting for them to be delivered decided it was now time to turn my attention to the papers. 

The original tutorial linked to a method of aging paper with tea – so I took some basic copy paper and dyed a batch with some nice Assam tea.  When they had dried, I rounded off the corners, and edged all around on both side with gathered twigs distress inks.  For the front sheet, I used CA2 and my laser printer to print off the wording Book of Shadows onto one of the dyed sheets.  I then ran the sheet through the foiling machine, foiling only the decorative Initial letters in gold.  A nice side effect was that the foiling machine melted the laser ink in the remaining letters, leaving them shiny!

      

So, the finished book, in it’s box, and out of it.

This is a close up of the corner protectors that I bought.

And finally, a view of the inside with the album posts and paper sheets in place.

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!

A quick card…

This card was one I needed super quick – and while I was in work, at that!

I realised during the morning that it was my friend’s birthday the following day – so as I always keep a bit of stash in my drawer at work “just in case” I  rummaged through it and came up with a pullout of paper and images from Making Cards magazine to make my card during my lunch break.  It was limited resources, but I decided to treat it as a challenge.

I used my trusty 6 inch square base card, and used a square of the plain side of one of the sheets as my base layer (don’t you hate it when they double side the paper?  I always feel I am losing a sheet, not gaining one!) and then took some strips from the patterned sides to use as decoration and sentiment. 

I cut the large butterfly out from one of the sheets, and although you can’t really see it in the pic, coloured over the wings with my wink of stella clear pen. 

Finally, I went around the edges in a white gel pen to make faux stitching. 

And hey presto!  Ultra quick birthday card!

Challenge 132 Crafty Cardmakers and More - Love, Love, Love

As Valentine's Day is a heartbeat away our host for this challenge, Lorraine, would like to see your love themed creations. So love, romance, valentine, wedding or engagement will all be suitable.

For my card, I chose a 7 x 5 inch landscape base card.  I am trying (largely unsuccessfully) to reduce the amount of unused stash I have in my room and so I dived into the scrap card/paper and topper boxes to make this card.

I believe the heart backing papers and the image came from a freebie in a magazine as they were all on the same A3 folded to A4 sheet.  However, when I had them layered up, and the small toppers attached with foam pads I thought something was missing.

Back to the scrap card box, and I chose some red card left over from Christmas, and using a stamp set (free gift from a magazine called Happy Day clear stamps) I stamped out the bunting, and then stamped in the appropriate lettering using (possibly Hobbycrafts) small capital letters.  

I stuck the bunting onto some red and white bakers twine with wet glue and when dry, tucked it behind the backing paper and the small toppers with initials on, sticking it with glossy accents.

Thinking of You card

 I like CD Crafting - to have thousands of sheets of images and backing paper on hand is so liberating when I look at the amount of space my existing papers take up!

I recently had a big order for Thinking of You/Sympathy cards and I decided to make the theme floral for most of them.

The CD I used for this card's images  was Debbi Moore's Cottage Garden Moments.

My card base was my fave 6 x 6 inches, and I put the base layer of the backing paper onto it, rounding all the corners with my corner edger.

I used some of the white card left over when trimming down my A4 sheet to make the card base for the topper.  So that it looked more ornamental, I used the inverse corner edger from Xcut to make the shape.  I used a silver marker pen to edge it - really makes the card "pop" and is so easy to do!

I fussy cut out one of the images on the sheet and mounted it on the topper using foam pads.

Finally, I used a silver peel off on another piece of scrap card, cutting the pointy edges "by eye" to make a chevron.

I am entering this card into the following challenge:

CD Sunday - Floral Frenzies


 

Crafty Cardmakers and more challenge 130 - Something Old, Something New

As we have just said goodbye to 2014,and 2015 is in it's infancy, our hostess, Leslie, would like to see your creations incorporating something old and something new. This could be old stash and new stash combined, or perhaps an old technique and a new one.

 

For my card, I thought I would share a wedding card I have made for a colleague to give to her nephew.  

 

The old was the style - she wanted it to be the same as the card I did for her sister's birthday, and the new was the luscious gold  and ivory ribbon I snapped up in a sale last weekend.

 

 The card itself was an 8 x 8 base, with an acetate dome front.  For the front  of the card, I used backing paper from a serif kit, onto which I had put a photograph of the happy couple.  I used the same serif kit to make the heart topper, which I replicated and cut out and decoupaged.  I decorated the corners of the card with pearls, and put my ivory ribbon bow so that it covered the fact there was no bride to be under the neck! 

 

The acetate was prefolded and stuck down with super sticky double sided tape and the gold ribbon went inside the card, and hid the "join" where the card back was stuck onto the card front acetate.

Finally, I used some peel off stickers to put the sentiment on the acetate dome.

Challenge 129 at Crafty Cardmakers & More - Christmas

It's that time of year again!

Welcome to our last challenge of 2014 at Crafty Cardmakers & more.... 

We have picked a nice easy one this time around, Christmas. I am sure you all still have those last minute cards to get done so we look forward to being amazed at your fabulous creations.

We have lots of lovely goodies provided by sponsors for this our last challenge of the year, which will run for one month, instead of the normal two weeks, and that will take us into 2015 and our first challenge which will be on January 12th.

 I thought I would do a simple card, and spend more time on my colouring.  The base card is a 7 x 5 plain white card - this and the 6 x 6 is totally my favourite sizes.  Onto the base I layered some red card, and then on top of that a sheet of Christmas card from Hobbycraft.  It's double sided - which actually always irritates me slightly, as I don't like the waste of not being able to use the side stuck down...

Onto this base I stuck my sentiment and topper, both of which had been mounted onto the same red card as the base.

For my topper, I used a lovely stamp from the House of Zandra, of a wonderful Christmas dress. I stamped it onto some watercolour paper (a sample sent to me by my lovely Teamie  Josephine) which was perfect,  even though I coloured the image in using a combination of Promarkers and Graphit markers.  I used my clear wink of stella pen to give the fur around the top of the dress some bling.  The final touch was some gemstones in the corners. 

 Our first sponsor is

SIR STAMPALOT

With this fabulous prize

our next sponsor is my fabulous Teamie Kim - with this magnificent selection of goodies!

Challenge 128 - Crafty Cardmakers & More - Distress it

Lin  is hosting our 'Distress It' challenge this week at Crafty Cardmakers & more... 

She would like to see distressing, preferably lots of it, on your project.

Now, I love my distress inks, but I don't usually physically distress the papers much.  I don't like it when it looks like my layers weren't stuck down properly and have got caught, but that's just me.  I know the grungy look has a huge following, so I thought I would have a go.

For my project, I used a Kraft tag that I got as a freebie from a Do Crafts magazine (along with a very bright red ribbon and various other elements).

First thing was to rummage through my stash, and I found an offcut of a hobbycraft 8x8 sheet that was perfect for my base layer.   I used scissors to ruck up the edges and then distressed the edge with gathered twigs distess ink.  

Next, I used one of the old book pages I had bought from Chocolate Baroque a while back.  I like very much the effect of stamping onto old book pages, and I have numerous old books... but I couldn't bring myself to pull the pages out, in fact, *is mortified at the very thought of doing so* .  Great compromise - lots of pages of random old books at really reasonable price!  I stamped a poinsettia arrangement from a really old and favourite stamp set my mum liked to use a lot - (It was a docrafts papermania collection callled "at Christmas time".  It's probably not available any more, so I am looking after it!) and then coloured it in with promarkers and fussy cut it out.  I pulled at the edges of it with an x cut distressing tool to make them look less pristine and then distressed it lightly with the gathered twigs ink.

I cut a piece of the remaining book page to size, and distressed the edges with the tool and the distress ink and then spritzed both pieces of paper with docrafts artiste gold spritzing ink.  When dry, I put the layer paper onto the base layer, and then stuck the poinsettia topper onto that. 

The ribbon was a very bright red and stuck out, so I distressed it down with some walnut stain until it matched the colour better, and then I stuck it around the corner of the layers and tied it in a bow.  To ensure it stayed in place, I put double sided tape and glue on the back of the layers and stuck them all onto the kraft paper tag, which I distressed with a combination of gathered twigs and fired brick ink.  

I used an offcut of my base paper to stamp a sentiment onto (from Spellbinders Christmas Creations stamp set) and went round the edge with a gold marker.  I stuck this onto the top of the tag using foam pads.

Lastly, I stuck a balsawood embellishment from hobbycraft onto the corner, and using glossy accents put a nice gold star in the middle of it.

And at the end of all that it doesn't look bad at all.  Maybe I should stretch myself into doing other things more often?????!!!

I am entering my tag into the challenge at  
http://www.fashionablestampingchallenges.com/
http://glitternsparklechallengeblog.blogspot.co.uk/

We are hosted by

 

DI'S DIGISTAMPS

with a $12 Gift Certificate

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!

 

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.

Sad times...

In the past week I have had to make two sympathy cards for one of my friends to send to people she knows. 

When making sympathy cards I like to keep them as plain and simple as possible as it seems somehow more appropriate to me.

The first card I made was for a man, so I kept it ultra clean and simple, with 2 narrow mats, one in black and one in gold on which was mounted embossed pearlescent card with the sentiment stamped and embossed in the centre.

The second card I mad was for a woman, so I used a different shaped embossing folder, and added some lavender cardstock and used matching distress ink on the flowers.


I am entering my card into the challenge at:

http://craftingwhenwecanchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ - Clean and Simple

Challenge 127 - A touch of charm

Josephine is hosting today and her theme is 'A Touch of Charm'. She would like to see a charm added to your project.   

Now, back in January, I had a Grand Plan to make one or two Christmas cards a week so that I wouldn't be frazzled in November.  

Did I do that?  Hell no.  So yes, it is November and the frazzle is well and truly on!

This card was one of my frazzle makes - utilising items from my stash, and a cd decoupage image and backing paper.

The CD is a new one - Fabulous Christmas by the House of Zandra.  It's packed full of quirky Christmas Characters, and I spent far too long browsing their create a scene part of the cd... In the end, however, I printed off some burgundy red damask pattern backing paper, and a combination backing paper of the decoupage image I chose, of the Father Christmas.

The base card is cream and 5 x 7 inches, and I matted the red, then burgundy paper onto it.  I then put a strip of the burgundy paper across the front, and layered onto it some shiny paper ribbon saying Merry Christmas from my stash.  It didn't look that creased when I put it on, but in the photo the light has really caught it and distorted it...

My decoupaged backing image was layered onto cream, then burgundy then cream paper and was stuck in the centre of the card using foam pads.

I used my trusty gellyroll stardust pen to highlight the snowflakes (which unfortunately doesn't show well in the photo) and then finally, added the silver metal charms - a bells and mistletoe combo for the wooden beam at the top of the image, and a small present with hanging "for you" tag to go at Father Christmas's feet.  Both were stuck onto the card using Glossy Accents.

Challenge 126 at Crafty Cardmakers - Cut it out

Sonia is hosting the challenge today at Crafty Cardmakers & More... and has chosen 'Cut it Out' for her theme. She would like to see die cutting or punching on your project please.

 

My card was made for a friend to give to her sister on her 60th birthday, and she asked me to include a photograph of her as a child.  

 

As this was a special birthday, I decided to make the card a bit larger than normal, at 7 inch x 7 inch cut out of pearlescent card.  As it also included a silk lily flower as an embellishment, I made a matching box and added an acetate "dome" to protect it.

 

I die cut the aperture from the front of the card using my grand calibur and a tattered lace die set.  I put the cream card with the photograph mounted in the centre behind the aperture, and then put the other frames from the dieset around it.  The smallest frame was still a wee bit too big, so I cut it down by taking about 1cm out of the centre of each side and then joining them up.  To hide the joins, I used some pearl heart embellishments, tieing it in with the small pearls around the outer frame.

 

The silk flower and ribbons came from my stash, as did the peel off sentiments, which I stuck onto the acetate dome.  Finally, I used some gold and burgundy cord to finish off the card.

We are sponsored this time by

HOBBY ART STAMPS

With this fabulous prize

Rodney the Reindeer

As a family business we're a friendly, helpful, bunch at Hobby Art.  All our stamps are designed by us and manufactured in Britain.
Look at the gallery on my blog - jennymayes.com - for lots of card ideas using the Hobby Art range. 
We're pleased to sponsor the Crafty Cardmakers Challenge and look forward to seeing the entries.   Good luck everyone.  Jenny and all. X 

and also by

DI'S DIGISTAMPS

with a $12 gift certificate

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!