Sunday 11 September 2011

Cupcake Craft Challenge - Patchwork Quilt

The card was made using the stash of stuff in Docrafts July goody bag.



The card blank is an 8x8 scallop card. I have added star background paper and some jelly stickers to the card. The topper is made from scraps of paper which I have mounted and layered onto some of the purple card stock. The stitches are hand drawn using a micron pen.

Quick and simple.

I am entering the card in the Cupcake Crafting challenge.

Thursday 7 July 2011

Less is More - Week 22 - Colour - Christmas version

OK - Christmas is still many  a few months away, but this year I decided not to leave it until the last minute so I am going to try to do a Christmas card each week. The Shades of Blue challenge on Less Is More is perfect for Christmas so I made the following card:


I cut three different sizes of snowflake using the Slice cutting machine in two different shades of blue card and layered them together. I used a blue gem brad to fix them together.

The card is embossed using the Spellbinders snowflake embossing plate.

The snowflake was fixed on top of some pale blue ribbon.

I am also entering the card in the Winter Wonderland challenge - Christmas Buffet

Less is More - Week 22 - Colour

This week's challenge at Less is More is Shades of Blue.


The stamp is from Creative Expressions and was stamped onto glossy photopaper with denim distress ink.

The image was then mounted onto blue coredinations card which I had embossed and distressed.

I added some blue pearls and restamped the butterfly to add dimension.

Sunday 26 June 2011

Crafters Companion Monthly Challenge 13 - Here Comes Summer

The CC monthly challenge for June is "Here Comes Summer" and looking out of my window today, summer seems to have truly arrived, along with a massive attack of thunderflies or thrips. My computer screen looks like it is has a serious case of acne! I don't know how they manage to get in between the glass but once there you can't get rid of them.

My entry is a card I made for my dh's gran and children's great grandma.


The card is based on my favourite CC character - Popcorn the Bear. The images and backing papers are from the floral (I think) CD in the original set.

I just love the joyous feel of little Popcorn dancing in the sunshine!

Saturday 25 June 2011

Less is More - Week 21 - Sketch

OK. A bit more organised this week. I have managed to make a card for the Less is More challenge and upload it to my blog. IN ONE DAY!!!


The card base is glossy holographic card. I cut out three scalloped circles using nesties which I embossed with dots. I distressed the edges using wild honey distress ink.

The flowers were die cut from some acetate that I had left over from THAT challenge using flower shapeabilites. I then stamped over the acetate with a creative expressions stamp and heat embossed with copper meltdust embossing powder.

Close up of the flower
The flowers were attached to the circles with some copper gem brads.

I stuck the three shapes on top of some copper coloured ribbon.

I finished the card with a sentiment from the Xyron design runner. I originally tried to print the sentiment directly onto the glossy card, but no joy so I printed it onto some scrap card from the card I used for the circles and cut it out and edged with more wild honey ink.

I am entering the card in the following additional challenges:

Charisma Cardz Challenge - white and one other colour.
Secret Crafters Saturday challenge - embossing

Friday 24 June 2011

Less is More - Week 20- Monogram

Another last minute entry to the Less is More challenge. Note to self "must get more" organised!



The monogram is Dimension Forth stamp which I have stamped onto the card and then masked and created a background from a Creative Expressions collage stamp. The image and the letter were embossed in copper and I have added a glaze to the letter.

Thursday 16 June 2011

Less is More - Week 19 - One Layer

The Less is More challenge this week is to create a one layer card 'In The Frame'.

I am still enthralled by my Stampers Anonymous stamps and so I came up with the following card:


The frame was embossed on the card with a Spellbinders Nestie. I then made a mask using the same die and placed it over the card.

I created the background using distress inks and the leafy swirly stamp and then overstamped with the bird image.

With the mask still in place I used Crafters Companion glitter spray which really brings out the colours of the distress inks.

The sentiment is from the Crafters Companion Popcorn range.

Friday 10 June 2011

Less is more - Monchrome

Bit late with my entry to the Less is More challenge again this week, even though I made the card last weekend!

The challenge this week is monochrome. Choose a colour and stick to it but still keep to the general principle of clean and simple.

The last bit is always the hard bit when you have so much stuff in your stash and you want to put it all on your card.






I cut out two oval nesties in dark brown and light brown card and scalloped oval nestie in bronze mirror card.

I then made some flowers and leaves using shapeabilites from some brown patterned paper and distressed them using tea dye distress inks. I sprayed the flowers with Crafters Companion gold glitter spray and finished them off with a gold gem.

The sentiment is from the Clearly Handstamped collection and was stamped using walnut stain distress ink.

Saturday 28 May 2011

Less is more - week 17 - Pick a Square - number 2

Well I couldn't just leave it there and anyway I had these new stamps from Stampers Anonymous to try out.


I masked off the bottom right hand square of the card and then stamped it with the background stamp. I then stamped the bird image which I embossed with black WOW embossing powder. I distressed the edges of the square with Forest green distress ink and added a black pen border.

The sentiment is from the 3 birds Clearly Handstamped collection.

I am also entering the card in the Allsorts Challenge blog - Things with wings
and A spoonful of sugar challenge.

Now should I do a chore or another card?

Less is more - week 17 - Pick a Square

Its that time of the week again. time for the Less Is More challenge. Seems like only yesterday that I was uploading Butterfly cards... :)!

So pick a square and keep it CAS as usual. Loved this challenge. I could make hundreds of cards for it. The real problem is knowing when to stop.

Here is my first card. Something a bit cute. I had some free papers and stamps from the Papercraft Essentials magazine and this is what I came up with:



Thing is I seem to have run out of white card. How could that happen?

I had some cut off left over from making the above card, so I made the following from the 3 Birds Clearly Hand stamped collection. The image is embossed with Sheena Douglass WOW embossing powder.

Friday 27 May 2011

Less is more - week 16 - Butterflies - part 2

Whilst twiddling my thumbs I also came up with the following card for the Less is more challenge:


The butterflies are shapes on the Crafters Companion embossing board. I have embossed the shape onto vellum which I then run through three different embossing folders. I coloured the vellum using pink, red and purple chalks. Then I sprayed them with CC silver glitter spray and added some red gems to the body of the butterflies.

The sentiment is from the Xyron Design runner.

Last one as the challenge finishes in ten minutes...

Less is more - week 16 - Butterflies - part 1

Last minute rush to upload my butterfly cards to the Less is More challenge. Been having a few technical issues with my internet connection. Still it meant I had time for papercrafting instead of web surfing...


The hexagon is a parchment project that I have tried several times before but it never quite worked. Pretty pleased with it this time round though.

Sunday 15 May 2011

Steampunk - Crafty Cardmakers

OK - I am a big fan of all things Tim Holtz and I love the distressed style, but I am still trying to work out how to do it. The Crafty Cardmakers challenge seemed to be the perfect place to start to find my style...

I decided a collage style card would be the best place to start and so I printed out loads of images from various My Craft Studio collections, some background papers which I edged with Martha Stewart stamps, I die cut some coredinations paper, which I embossed, distressed and sprayed with Crafters Companion glitter spray and a stamped image of an edwardian lady (sorry couldn't find anything Victorian).


I then stuck the whole lot together (if only it were that simple!!!) to come up with the card above. In the end not a lot of Tim Holtz but maybe I will be braver next time...

Less is more - Challenge 15 - One Layer embossing

I love embossing. Heat or dry embossing is one of my things. So why I am so lacking in inspiration this week. Definite loss of crafting mojo.



The card I am entering into this week's Less is More challenge is one I have been toying with for a while. The card base is centura pearl which I have cut into a 6x6 card blank. I masked the side with low tack tape and then stamped a poppy image from Clarity stamps on the edges. I added a butterfly from the 3 birds Clearly Handstamped range. The images were embossed with black WOW embossing powder.

With the masking tape still in place, I then loaded up my brayer from the Spice Big and Juicy ink pad, using the Barbara Gray from Clarity method, I layered a subtle background over the stamped image.

The sentiment is from the Xyron Design runner.

Saturday 7 May 2011

Less is more - Challenge 14 - White on White



Lovely idea for a challenge from Less is More, but the biggest challenge was getting a decent photo of the card! Seriously, I need to go to a workshop on photographing craft projects.

The card is a simple white A6 card which I have embossed with a flower pattern.

Using the Slice Think Pink design card I cut out three flower patterns in different sizes and then glittered the edges with white glitter and layered them onto the card. I used three white pearls in the centre.

The greeting is was made using a silver white WOW embossing powder.

Crafters Companion Monthly Challenge 12 - Girl's Birthday

If nothing else, making this card has shown me that I seriously need to invest in more Crafters Companion stamps LOL!



The card is an A5 base made from yellow pearlescent card.

The backing paper, sentiment and the images are from the Crafters Companion Platinum CD - the birthday collection. I actually uploaded them into My Craft Studio to resize them and then alter the colours to the yellow tones shown. It also meant that I could crop out the images I wanted and not print the others.

The main image was cut out using a square spellbinders die and then coloured with wild honey distress ink whilst still in the die to create the white border. I have glittered the flower and the lines in the present, although you can't see that in the photo.

The yellow scallop die was used to cut out the second layer to the topper. And yes, its more yellow paper from the January Docrafts Goody bag.

Both squares were edged with gold pen.

I shaped the Souffle image to add dimension to the card and then stuck  Souffle and the present on to the card. Souffle and the present are also well glittered!

It's not easy to see on the picture but there is also a yellow lace ribbon behind the main topper. I have been practising making lace borders with my Martha Stewart Stamps.

The card is finished off with flowers and buttons from the Docrafts goody bag.

I am entering the card in the Crafters Companion Monthly Challenge.

Sunday 1 May 2011

Less is more - challenge 13 - Thank you card

Another Less is More challenge, but a little easier since the only the requirement is that the card is a Congratulations or a thank you card.



The card is a simple card with an embossed top part, a sentiment from my design runner (and I won't go into how long it took me to get that bit right!) and some glitter stuck on to double sided tape.

I apologise to all the other LIMettes if I don't have time to comment on their entries this week. I bet they are all fantastic.

Friday 29 April 2011

April Showers

I was going through my crafty magazine rack and I came across some freebie papers from HunkDory featuring the Raindrop character. A quick play and I came up with the following:





You might also notice the use of I used one of the backing papers that came with the freebies from Crafters Companion.

I used a Martha Stewart edging punch on the card and some of the backing papers to create the layered effect.

The image is from the Hunkdory freebie and is a simple decoupage image which I edged with peel offs. The sentiment is also edged with peel offs and I have added some buttons because they were on my desk and seemed to fit.

I am entering the card in the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge week 100 - April Showers.

Crafters Companion - Easter Competition No. 2

With so many Crafters Companion freebies, it only seemed right to make another card.





The card is based on one of the oval toppers. I have die cut a spellbinders oval scallop in copper mirri board. I used one of the backing papers edged with a Martha Stewart punch. I then used my MS punch around the page with some copper textured paper to create the next layer. The base card was edged with peel offs. I made some flowers using spellbinders flower dies from more of the freebie backing paper, coloured with wild honey distressing inks, which I layered together to create the flowers with a red gem in the middle. I also die cut some leaves and coloured them with forest green distress ink.

The card was finished off with some copper ribbon and a Nancy Watt's knot.

Crafters Companion - Easter Competition

Crafters Companion had some gorgeous free downloads over Easter and I couldn't resist having a play.



The card was inspired by the butterfly decoupage. I cut out three haphazard triangles from some of the free backing papers and mounted them on blue holographic card and then cut around with deckle edge scissors. The triangles were mounted on an A5 card made from white centura pearl card.

The decoupage butterfly image was mounted in the centre.

I coloured some gold peel off flowers, added a ribbon and bow and some embellishments to finish.

Saturday 23 April 2011

Less is more - challenge 12 - Off Centre

Its Saturday and time for another Less is More challenge. I think I am a glutton for punishment. However, this week the challenge is a lot less daunting as it is a recipe with the simple instruction - OFF CENTRE.

I have been practising with Flowersoft so I thought I would use some of the flower stalks I created and came up with the following:






A simple recipe: five flower stalks, a pot and a stamped sentiment, all on a square lilac card.

Unfortunately in a moment of madness I put my coffee cup on top when I thought Man U were about to score and turned to look at the TV, but thanks to my lack of ability with the camera you can barely see the mark!

A wedding card

Not surprising that there are few wedding card challenges at the moment. Can't think why? But thought, I may as well have a go and came up with this:


The card is a 6X6 square card to which I have added a red spotted background from Red Hot Bed.

The image came from a My Craft Studio collection, but I forgot to make a note of which one and, of course, I can't find it again. Yes I have too many MCS cds. I created a background for the image using the old faithful denim blue and forest green distress inks from Tim Holtz.

I cut the image out using an oval spellbinders die and then matted onto blue pearlescent card (Crafters Companion) cut using a slightly larger scallop oval die from spellbinders.

The flowers were cut from a sheet of flowers from Red Hot Bed that I have had for ages and so had forgotten about. I layered them up and added a blue flower sequin and gold gem to finish.

I finished off with a peel off sentiment on the same blue pearlescent card, cut around with scallop scissors and edged with silver pen.

I am entering the card in the following challenge:

Crafty Cardmakers - challenge 44 A Royal Wedding.

Speaking Professionally

The challenge this week from Daring Cardmakers is "Speaking Professionally", so I dusted off the Crafters Companion Occupations CD and looked for inspiration and came up with:





The image is a pyramage image of a farmer which I have edged with a gold peel off (not that you can see it in the picture), layered onto brown card which I have then cut with deckel edge scissors and edged with a gold pen (see previous comment about the photo).

The background is printed from the same CD and then cut with my new punch around the page Martha Stewart punch. Oops, been shopping again!

A bit of ribbon, some gems and a peel off sentiment, also on the brown card, cut with the deckel scissors and edged with a gold pen to finish off.

As my dh and his mate from Staffordshire would say "Jobs a good un!".

Sunday 17 April 2011

Easter chick card

Well, since I have all that yellow stuff and since I have to make an easter card...



The base card is a 6"x6" card made from white card stock. I cut out the backgrounds from various yellow paper in the Docrafts goody bag and then coloured the edges with distress inks to make them stand out from one another. I then edged them with peel offs to highlight them more. The circle scallop was edged with glitter since I haven't the patience to put a peel off round all those scallops.

The circle and scallop circle were cut using the trusty spellbinders dies!

The decoupage image is from a freebie cd containing Honey and Hugs characters. The chick (Honey?) is perfect for Easter. I sprayed the decoupage with Crafters Companion spray and shine. Try as I might cannot get a photo of the card that does not glare off the shiny bits.

The eggs were some oval peel offs that I stuck on various buts of paper and cut out and then decorated with peel offs or gems.

The sentiments were from my new Xyron design runner which I cut out with scallop scissors, edged with gold pen and then sprayed with irridescent spray from Crafters Companion.

I am entering the card in the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge blog - week 99
Daring Cardmakers - Spring Fling

Charisma Cardz Challenge - Pink, Black and Green

Pink, Black and Green - sounds like an awful colour combination doesn't it? But if you look at the wonderful cards made by the Charisma Challenge design team, it is anything but awful. So I thought I would have a go...



The base card is a long piece of A4 white card, folded in half and then trimmed to fit the size of the elements chosen.

In my stash I found a piece of paper that had pink and green on it and used that as my background. The paper was edged with a Martha Steward punch and overstamped with a glitter girls flourish (not sure that shows up on the photo).

I then searched through my stash of Crafters Companion card and found some matching pink and green card. I die cut various circles and scallop circles using spellbinders dies from the pink and green card and some black card. Using a smaller spellbinders die, I then cut three white circles from glossy photo paper.

I stamped three cupcakes from a set of stamps that I got from a magazine (probably Papercraft Essentials or Crafts Beautiful but not sure). I coloured the images with promarkers using the same green/ pink theme.

I stuck everything together, added a sentiment and some ribbon to finish the card.

Saturday 16 April 2011

Less in more - challenge 11

Another Less is More challenge and another difficult one, but it gave me a chance to practice with acetate and try out an idea I had a while ago.

I have a few embossing folders which I sadly neglect but I had thought about trying to emboss on acetate to use as an overlay, so this is what I came up with for the Less is More challenge this week:






The image was stamped onto glossy photo paper and cut out with a spellbinders die. I then embossed a piece of acetate with a pattern and again cut it out with a slightly larger version of the die.

The two pieces are attached to the card using silver brads.




On the same theme, I stamped the image directly onto acetate and used black and then silver embossing powder to fix the image. Again the images were cut out using the same spellbinders die and attached to black and white card respectively with silver brads.

Need to practice that technique a bit more though.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge - Recipe

When I saw the challenge from Crafty Cardmakers, I knew I had to enter. Why? Because the main colour to use was YELLOW and I still have loads of yellow stuff left over from the Docrafts January goody bag.



The base card is plain white card folded to create an A5 blank. I have overlayered it with a piece of yellow spotted pattern paper from the goody bag which has been edged with a Martha Stewart punch. The card and the paper were edged with faux stitching using a green glittery Sakura pen.

I added some green ribbon and a bow to add a bit of highlight.

The image is a stamp that I found when tidying up my collection. I think it came from the Glitter Girls. I stamped the image on glossy photo paper and coloured it in with promarkers. The green elements are the same green sakura pen that I used for the stitching and I also added some gold sakura pens to the flowers on her hat which you can't see in the photo but is very glittery.

The image is layered onto more yellow paper cut into oval shapes from my Spellbinders sets. The layers were warmed up using Wild Honey distress inks and edged with a gold pen.

Using scraps of the yellow paper, I punched out a lot of small flowers and layered them up to make the smaller flowers. The larger flowers were in the goody bag, to which I added some green glitter as a highlight. In the centre of each flower is a gold gem.

I then punched out some butterflies from more of the scrap paper, sprayed them with Crafters Companion glitter spray and used them to link the flowers and the stamped image together.

The sentiment was made from more scrap paper and using my new Xyron design runner (yes, I have been shopping again...) I printed out the Happy Birthday and then cut the whole thing out with scalloped scissors. The sentiment was edged with a gold pen and stuck on with foam tape.

Crafters Companion Monthly Challenge 11 - Aqua and Brown



The card base is some brown pearlescent card from Crafters Companion. Using some aqua textured paper, also from Crafters Companion, I created two panels which I edged with a Martha Stewart punch. Over the top of the panels I have stuck pieces of ribbon (using the xyron sticker gadget).

The image is a stamp from CC and one of my favourite Popcorn stamps. The 'relax' sentiment is from the same set. The image was stamped onto glossy photo paper and coloured using promarkers. The background to the image was made using distress inks applied with cut and dry foam. I used the same inks to colour the sentiment.

The flowers were made from a My Craft Studio backing paper and various flower digital punches from the MCS program. I cut them out, scrunched them up, coloured them with distress inks, layered them together and then used gold flowersoft to create the centre.

I am entering the card in the Crafters Companion Monthly Challenge 11.

Saturday 9 April 2011

Less is more - challenge 10


The Less is more challenge entry.

Having taken on board the helpful criticisms on challenge 9, I sat down to compose a card for challenge 10. Making a sentiment the focus of a card is not easy. My first attempt was a bit ropey but I think fulfilled the requirements of the challenge. My second attempt was a better card, but was the sentiment the focus of the card or the border edge. A couple more options ended in the recycle bin so I went back to the first attempt and did it again.

This time I decided to use Centura pearlescent card as that would enable me to emboss the ink and make it stand out without the need of a border. I used to sizes of spellbinders dies to create the frame and with lots of masking tape and making sure all white areas of the card were covered up so that my inky fingers didn't leave any unwelcome marks, I added forest green distress inks to the borders using cut and dry foam. The card lets the ink stay wet long enough to add embossing powder (Wow clear holographic). The sentiment from Clarity stamps (one of the first I bought) was embossed with Wow ebony fine embossing powder.

As usual, my camera skills don't seem to be able to show off the embossing to its best effect...

Thought you might also like to see the rejects:

The first attempt...
My favourite???

The rejects...
Inky fingers.

Tuesday 5 April 2011

Bling and sparkles

Two of my favourite ideas for cardmaking!



The card base and the yellow backing paper came from the never ending January goody bag from Docrafts. I haven't even got close to using everything yet.

I have warmed up the edges with wild honey distress ink and punched a border on the bottom using a Martha Stewart edging punch.

The image is from the Penny Black 'wonderful' set. I have coloured the image using glittery Sakura pens. The hedgehog spines are a copper glitter stuck on using a Sakura glue pen. I have edged the image with the same glitter.


The sentiment is from the same PB stamp sheet.

Then I have gone a bit mad with gold gems.

I am entering the card in the Charisma Cardz challenge 9 BLING & SPARKLES.

Less is more - challenge 9

I was playing around with some Clarity stamps as I have various corners. I was practising pattern building when I made a frame. It seemed perfect for the Less is more challenge and so I stamped the frame onto a white A6 card. I added a flower stamp in the centre which I coloured red with a promarker and then glazed.

The sentiment is one of my favourites from the Clarity range.

I really enjoy the Less is more challenge. I have always loved making cards with lots of bits on but now I am learning to make simple cards as well.

Tuesday 29 March 2011

Quick card whilst the football is on...






DH is watching the football so I thought I would occupy myself with some crafting. I came across a challenge blog a few weeks ago - the Less is More challenge. I found it quite intriguing but haven't yet had a go!

The card is a DL card blank, one of a few I have lying around and which I tend to ignore because the thin shape can be quite challenging to use.

I stamped a butterfly image with various colours of distress inks directly onto the card and then using a mask, I used the same stamp and inks to create the background stripe. I used a thin black pen to outline both the butterfly and the stripe just to bring them off the page.

A quick sentiment stamp at the bottom and the card is done.

It has taken me longer to write this blog entry than it did to make the card!

I am entering the card in the Less is More challenge week 8.

80th birthday card





The starting point of the card was my first ever Lili of the Valley stamp that I bought at the NEC last Friday. It's a pretty little girl with a bunch of flowers. I loved it when I saw it and thought it would be great for a Mothers Day card but then I did something else for Mum. I couldn't wait to use the stamp though and so I decided to test it out.


The image is stamped onto glossy photo paper and then coloured in using promarkers (has anyone seen my ivory pen?).

I die cut the image out from my new oval spellbinders nesties and then did a mat from my new oval scallop nesties. The topper is completed using some gold letter peel offs to make the phrase 'young at heart'.

On an A6 card, i made some backing paper from the Pampered Pets range I bought a few weeks ago. I used one of my Martha Stewart edging punches to create a border at the bottom. Its also repeated on the back of the card.

I wrapped a piece of green ribbon around the backing paper before sticking the topper onto it.

Then I used some Fiskars punches to make a lot of little flowers which I coloured with distress inks and then stuck one on top of the other to create dimensional flowers. From the same set of punches, i made some butterflies.

The card is completed using sentiment and number peel offs.

I am entering the card in the following challenges:


Crafty Cardmakers - Special Birthday challenge
Lili of the Valley - Punch it challenge
Sarah Hurley Challenge Blog - Go Green
Ladybug Crafts - Handmade flowers challenge

Birthday for a Teen card

Another foray into my My Crafts Studio collection found this beautiful image - perfect for a teenage girl and very reminscent of Saturday evenings from soooo long ago!


Its a bit pink but then that is a colour that I always find a bit of a challenge.

The base card is A4 white Centura pearl folded in half to make an A5 card.

The background came from the Kids NSR collection from MCS. I have added a silver ribbon and silver peel offs to the edges. I have added some green gems to the ribbon.

The topper is an image from the same MCS collection printed onto glossy photo paper. I have added some glitter that is not too clear in the photo but it does form the water from the shower amongst other bits.

The topper is mounted onto pink card that has been embossed with a flower pattern and then glittered over. The flower shape in the corners is from a corner punch. The whole lot was then layered onto silver holographic card but that didn't look right so I coloured the card with a green promarker. I also added some green gems to the corners.

The flowers were made from the left over backing paper which I cut using the spellbinders flower shapeabilities, crinkled, distressed with fired brick ink and then stuck together and sparkled using Crafters Companion iridescent spray.

The sentiment is just a gold peel off stuck onto scrap pink card and cut with a deckle edge pair of scissors and edged with the green promarker.

I am entering the card into the Charisma Card challenge - Birthday for a teen card

An Easter easel card - Crafters Companion Monthly Challenge 10

I started out from the Crafters Companion Souffle CD. I printed out a sheet of pyrimage and two coordinating backing papers. The pyrimage is mounted onto a scallop die cut created using a nestabilities die. The bottom layer of the pyrimage is edged with a curvy peel off.



The base of the easel card is a C6 hammered card folded inside out so that the hammered effect is seen on the bottom plate. The front of the card is another C6 card. The front of which is covered with one of the backing papers. The card will open out again, see below, so that there is a space to leave message. The front part of the card is closed with a ribbon for stability..

The border holding the easel part upright and the gold trim on the front of the card was made using a Delicious border die cut from X-cut.

I have warmed up the colours using wild honey distress inks.

More gold peeloffs have been added to bring out the edging strip and to fill in the bottom edge of the card.

I created a sentiment from letter peel offs stuck onto gold card to finish it off.

I started this post on 13 March 2011 and have only just got around to publishing it. Its been a busy few weeks. But I have a week off from work and will spend as much time as I can crafting. I have some super goodies picked up from the NEC to play with...

Sunday 6 March 2011

Pampered Pets - part two

And then I did this one:



Again I stamped the image onto glossy photo paper. I cut out the picture using a nestabilities circle die. Leaving the image in the die and masking over the dog, I created the background using forest green and faded jeans distress ink for the ground and the sky. Using a sakura pen I traced the outline of the inner circle of the die to create the border. The doggies coat has been coloured in using sakura pens but as usual my inexpert camera does not pick up the full effect of the glitter.

The outer border is a piece of the pampered pets paper cut out in a scallop circle nestie and then highlighted with green - and in real life they are holly green - gems. Two more patterned papers from the pampered pets range make up the background mats with a green ribbon and a sentiment from the freebies on the magazine to finish it off.

If only I didn't have to go to work tomorrow, there is so much more to play with...


I am entering the card in the following challenges:


Charisma Cardz Challenge - four legged friends

Pampered Pets

I went to a craft demo on Saturday whilst my wonderful dh took the kids to their swimming lesson. It was by the wonderful Tracy Creedy from docrafts. I was inspired. Not that it takes much to inspire me when it comes to buying crafty stuff. Possibly spent more than I intended.


Anyway I have been having a little play with some of the stamps I bought.


A very simple card. The cat was stamped onto normal glossy photo paper and then masked before I added a paisley backgound stamp behind using fired brick distress ink The whole is mounted onto a piece of the pampered pets paper which I have embossed with the pampered pets embossing frame. I have highlighted the embossing with the same distress ink. I added a pink ribbon and then used a sakura pen to add stitching around the card. The red embellishments are roses taken from the freebie on the Docrafts creativity magazine, as is the sentiment.

I am entering the card in the following challenges:


Papertake weekly challenge - anything goes
Charisma Cardz Challenge - four legged friends

Wednesday 2 March 2011

Sketchy Thursdays - Sketch 2.24

I have the image of Dominic stuck on a pot in front of me for years and I can't think why I never made a scrapbook page of it before. It is such a joyous image of young child with no cares in the world.



The page base is the green coredinations. I have layered some green tone paper onto borders made with metallic green card. The scalloped edges were embossed from the Ultimate Pro and then cut out and edged with green stickle glue.

Two strips of the green metallic card were cut about 1cm wide and then a strip of gold holographic peel offs were placed in the middle of each.

The two photos have been edged with green Diamond Sparkles glitter from HunkyDory using double sided tape. It is such a messy thing to do but so worth it.

Using another piece of the green paper I stamped a tree image from the 3Birds Clearly Handstamped set repeatedly. They are so easy to use. You hardly need to apply any pressure to get a good clean image. The strip was then distressed using Forest Green distress inks and then sprayed with Crafters Companion spray and shine.

The title is stamped from the same Clearly Handstamped set.

A few peel offs and another stamp in the top corner finishes the page nicely.

I am entering this in the Sketchy Thursday challenge.

Sunday 27 February 2011

CD crafting

I was playing around with My Craft Studio and created a lovely image which I printed onto glossy photo paper. But what to do with it? Inspiration, as ever, came from a number of Challenge blogs and so I created the following card:


I only wish my ability to photograph things was better because the above does not show off the wonderful glitter effect.

How was it made...

In my MCS collection, I have Simply Silhouettes. The main image is made from a background, a silhouette of a fairy and some butterflies. As I mentioned above, I then printed the image onto photo paper. I love the fact that you can resize images in MCS to match the paper sizes in your printer. Basically, I resized the image to 10x15 photo paper and printed it out from the photo paper tray. No need to waste a full A4 piece of paper!

I then matted the image onto some more yellow paper from the Docrafts Goody bag (I know it just goes on and on) which I darkened to match the colour of the topper with Wild Honey Distress ink.

I added some Fairy trails glitter from Hunkydory to highlight some of the elements of the image. You simply cannot get the full effect of that glitter in a photo! It is magical.

The topper is then matted onto Centaura Pearl card which I have punched down the side with a Martha Stewart border punch.

I punched out some butterflies with an old hand punch I found in a drawer and have been dying to use for a while. I decorated the butterflies with a black glitter Sakura pen.

The flowers were made from copy paper! I cut out a multitude of flower shapes and then using the scrunch technique turned them into petals which I layered on top of each other to create the roses. A quick spray with Crafters Companion iridescent spray and they were done.

The whole lot is mounted onto an A5 black card (i.e. an A4 sheet folded in half!).

I am entering the card into the following challenges:

Charisma Cardz - Black and White with one other colour
Crafty Cardmakers - Fairy and two paper punches
Allsorts Challenge - Make your own flowers

Wednesday 23 February 2011

Sketchy Thursday and YELLOW!!!

More yellow...

More inspiration from the Docrafts goody bag. It just goes on and on and I haven't even opened the buttons, bows and flowers yet. Fantastic value.

I read in a book on making scrapbook pages that yellow was a colour to use sparingly. I disagree. I am not normally one for bright colours. I maybe a girl but I hate pink.

Anyway how did I put the page together?

The main sheet is yellow coredinations paper from the bag. I have cut a piece of the yellow patterned paper from the bag and overstamped the edges with a branch stamp from the Three Birds 'Clearly handstamped' selection. I cut out a square of black card and overstamped it with white ink using the same branch stamp. The yellow ribbons used to form the frame were stuck down using the Xyron. The ribbons also came from the bag.

The photos are matted onto more of the yellow paper. The crossed ribbons are actually sticky borders from the bag.

The journal is another stamp from the Three Birds selection and is stamped onto a scrap piece of the yellow paper and matted onto a scrap piece of black card. The scallop edge was done using a freebie pair of scissors.

The letters of the title were from the Forever Friends springtime selection.

Saturday 19 February 2011

Heart card and Docrafts goody bags

I have the January 2011 Docrafts goody bag which is bursting with bright yellow 'stuff'. Kinda daunting to know what to do with it all when the outside sky is grey and dreary so I have been ignoring it somewhat.

The sun came out earlier this week and whilst tidying up my craft desk I came across the wire heart from Clarity Stamps club which I hadn't gotten around to testing yet. Valentine's Day has been and gone and its a bit early to be thinking about 2012.

But why not combine the two for a different type of card.

Very Yellow

The card base came from the goody bag and was covered with one of the yellow papers from the bag. I created the second layer from some teal card left over from a challenge card and matted a rectangle from the SAME sheet of paper which I had darkened using Wild Honey distress inks.

From the Glitter Girls Majestic Board, I created a centre element using the same teal card and some more of the SAME sheet of paper. The card is edged with Stickles glitter glue and the central oval is edged with a fine border peel off.

The topper was then stuck onto a ribbon from the goody bag which was suspended on the matting layer to add a bit of dimension.

The heart shape is stamped onto a cut off from the SAME sheet of paper. I have embossed it with gold pearl Meltdust. I find the meltdust embossing powders really good for fine lines and not just for using on meltdust papers. I have coloured the sections of the heart using sakura gel and glitter pens.

I added some gold coloured gems and a sentiment to finish it off.

I am entering the card in the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Putting On The Glitz
Sweet Sketch Wednesday - Sketch 89
The Stamp Man Challenge - Hearts
Cupcake Craft Challenges - I ♥ You

Valentine's Day scrapbook page

From the heart

My husband bought me a card and some flowers for Valentine's day so I thought I would save the memory in photos. Having taken the pictures, I decided to celebrate them with a scrapbook page.

The base is taken from the reds coredinations card. The bottom half of the page was covered with some paper I had "lying around" and the remains of some pink coredinations card left over from another project which I tore to create a border.

I added two borders from a scrapbook pack. I cut out a flourish from some scrap paper using the slice machine and sprayed it with Crafter's Companion gold glitter spray. I made some flowers from the remains of the paper used to cover the lower half. The flowers were die cut from a spellbinders set in two sizes, crumpled and then stuck together with pinflair glue gel, followed by a quick spray of irridescent glitter spray and a red flower gem stuck in the middle.

Using a label die from Spellbinders, I made a journal entry from scrap bits of paper and card. The outer red was edged with Stickles glitter glue and the inner one was highlighted using distressing inks.

The photos are matted onto crushed jewels card from the Glitter Girls.

I then stuck the whole thing together and "Voila".