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.