Pink & Green

I've managed to get in the craft room again today and have made another card. It's certainly not as CAS as my last one but was still pretty quick to put together when I'd finally chosen what it was that I wanted to use- far too many things to choose from!!!

I started with a 6x6 white card blank and the topper. I wanted to pick out the pink and green elements from the topper and bring that into the rest of my card. I took the spotty paper from Papermania 'spots and stripes pastels' pack but it didn't look right being put straight onto the base card (because of the white on white) so I mounted it onto some pink 'bling' cardstock before adding it to the card. I gutted the middle of the bling card so that I could use that to mount the topper instead of needing another piece. I layered up all of the papers/toppers and then started to embellish.

I added a Craftwork Cards striped paper bow, buttons and the green sticky ribbon to finish off the card.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-
Cute Card Thursday 'floral' 25.2
In the Pink 'cute as a button' 4.3
Creative Inspirations 'buttons' 24.2
Pennys' Paper Crafty Challenges 'spots & stripes' 24.2
Digi Choosday 'pastels' 3.3
Papertake Weekly 'bingo- ribbon, die-cut & buttons' 24.2
Ooh La La 'green' 1.3
Catch the Bug 'girls just wanna have fun' 21.2

Angelica giggles

Just this morning, I had a delivery of the beautiful new Crafters Companion 'Angelica & Adam' double cd-rom that I ordered from C&C on Monday morning. It has some brilliant boy friendly images and cute girly ones too. This is the first card I've made using the digi stamps that are on cd 2. I'm really pleased with how it turned out although I'm not sure if I used enough pink! :-)

I started by printing the digi stamp from the cd to roughly half a sheet of A4 (the option that puts 2 photos on one sheet but slightly smaller because of not fitting to frame). I then coloured the image using my Spectrum Noirs but (for me) using a very limited selection. I tried not to blend the colours too much, particularly on the skirt, as after watching Leann from Crafters Companion doing her demos, I think I probably blend my colours together a little too much and lose the shading- I like how this has turned out anyway.

When I had finished colouring the image, I used an old Kanban mat as a stencil to mark out and hand cut the image to the finished shape. I did the same with a slightly larger mat onto some Kanban pink dot embossed card which I matted my topper onto. I then chose a piece of pink A4 card stock and folded it in half to make an A5 card blank. I wanted to add an extra something to the background but not too much to take away from the main image. In the end, I decided on some stamping. I used my Inkadinkado rectangle stamping gear and simple heart stamp to create the simple background design.

I mounted my topper up onto the base card and then added 4 small pink buttons in the corners. The final touch was to add some 'crystal' Stickles glitter glue to the girls dress and bows. You can't have a pink girly card without glitter on it somewhere, can you?

Close up of the new colouring style...

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-
Catch the Bug 'bingo challenge' buttons, pink/red, embossing
Craft your Passion 'girly' 24/2
Cutie Pie challenge blog 'spots' 1/3
Creative Inspirations 'buttons' 25/2
Crafters Companion 'Clean & Simple'

Crafters Companion are also having a DT call. I've entered, if you want more info there's a link here.

Present time!

I'm still doing quite well in my Christmas Card quest for 2014 and have managed to make another one today. It's a CAS style card and was very quick to make.

I started with the topper (pre-coloured image from Lili of the Valley) and mounted it onto silver mirror card. I then chose a blue snowflake pattern paper from the Forever Friends Kraft Notes range and mounted them all onto a white 6x6 card blank. To finish the card, I used a bow and 3 buttons, all from the Papermania Festive Spots & Stripes collection.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-
Christmas Card Challenges 'anything goes' 1/2
Catch the Bug 'photo challenge- penguins' 1/2
Crafty Hazlenut's Christmas Challenges ' trees' 31/1
Craft Room Challenge 'water' 3/2 (ice is just frozen water after all)
Cutie Pie Challenges 'cute blue' 1/2
Love to Create 'buttons' 26/1
Creative Inspirations 'ribbon' 28/1

New Grandparents

A friend of mine at work, has just become a grandma/nan for the first time so I've made a card for her this weekend that we can all sign for her and her husband. Her daughter had a little girl, so I've gone a little pink mad!

I started with an 8x8 white square card as I wanted it to be large enough for 15 people to sign. I then chose the topper (from a Lili of the Valley pre-coloured topper set) and the word/message topper (from Kanban). As the word topper had the scalloped edge, I decided to make each corner of the other aspects all different so I used a scallop corner on the other topper before mounting it onto silver mirror card to match the Kanban topper. I then chose 2 pink patterned papers from the Papermania pastel spots & stripes 6x6 paper pack and again, gave them 2 slightly different size of rounded corner. I layered the papers on to the base card, and then added the toppers using double sided tape for the word one and foam pads for the image. I then chose 2 heart buttons for the white spaces and added the peel-off message.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-
Love to Create 'pink'
Papertake Weekly '2 by 2' (2 toppers, 2 papers, 2 buttons)
Stampin' for the Weekend 'anything goes'
Catch the Bug 'think pink'
Challenges 4 Everybody 'anything goes'
Totally Gorjuss 'wings & things' (the word topper talks about angels- hope this is enough to fit the theme)

Spot & Stripe Christmas

The second card I made this weekend was a Christmas one using Papermania 'festive spots & stripes' and a pre-coloured 'Lili of the Valley' topper.

I started with a 6x6 white card blank, to which I attached a pre-cut patterned paper shape from the 'spots & stripes' range. I then took a Lili of the Valley topper and mounted it onto red mirror card. I then added stitching detail to both the topper and the patterned paper shape using a black promarker. I mounted the topper onto the card with double sided tape. The topper had a bow design on the 'tree' so I decided to add a real ribbon to it instead and then added the buttons to the right edge of the card.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-
The Pink Elephant 'dots & stripes'
The Paper Shelter 'stitching'
Cute Card Thursday 'ribbons'
Totally Gorjuss 'traditional christmas colours'

Shore Thing!

Last week I bought some of the new 'Ahoy There!' papers from Papermania thinking that they would go really well with the Michael Powell seaside stamps I got last year. Here's the first card I've made using both the papers and the stamps.

I started with a white 6x6 card blank which I had rounded the corners of with a corner punch. I then took one of the Ahoy There! 6x6 papers and trimmed it to fit the card before also rounding the corners of it. I stamped the 'shore thing' stamp onto white card using a black Versafine ink pad as I was planning to water-colour the image. I used my distress inks to do the watercolouring, sticking to the 3 main colours of red, yellow & blue. I used 'squeezed lemonade, 'barn door', 'chipped sapphire' & 'tumbled glass', putting some ink onto an acrylic block and then picking it up with me water brush. This allowed me to control the amount of colour I used and therefore the shading of the image. I trimmed the image leaving a small white border and again rounded the corners before mounting onto the card. I completed the card by adding the 3 white buttons which I threaded with red, yellow & blue twine from the Dovecraft 'London Line' range to echo the colour pattern of the beach huts in the main topper.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-
Stampin' for the Weekend 'buttons'
MayzyArt 'for the boys'
Pink Elephant 'male birthday' (I haven't put the message on yet as I sell cards to many non-English speakers who want a message in their own langauge)
Here Come the Boys 'buttons'
Totally Gorjuss 'water'
Crafty Catz '3-2-1' (3 buttons, 2 layers, 1 topper)
Polkadoodles 'spring colours/pastels'
Paper Shelter 'anything goes'
Challenges 4 Everybody 'anything goes'

naming day

This is another new card from a topper sheet that I haven't used before that is also from a Kanban blockbuster. It is an alternative on the traditional christening card, being for a 'naming day' instead.

The backing paper, topper & tag are all from the Kanban kit and I simply added a creamy yellow A4 card (folded to make an A5 base card), pale yellow grosgrain ribbon & 3 cream buttons.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-
Clear it Out 'anything goes & 2+ buttons'

Teddy with a BIG flower!

Been busy this afternoon making a few more cards before my holiday runs out! It's starting to look a bit more like spring (even though I am still wearing a hoodie!) so I thought I'd make a nice bright springy card.

As always, it was pretty quick & simple to make. I started with the topper which is a new one (for me anyway) from Lili of the Valley. I then chose 2 papers from the Forver Friends kraft range which matched it nicely. I mounted the topper onto the lilac mat and then wonkily put this onto the turquoise backing paper- all on top of a 6x6 card blank. I then used my black promarker (with the fine tip nib) to add the stitching detail around each piece. The 3 buttons were 'borrowed' from my sewing stash and then I adding some extra sparkle using my stardust stickles.

I am entering this card into the following challenges-
Mayzyart 'sparkle'
Clear it Out 'spring flowers'
Cute Card Thursday 'something borrowed'
Lili's Little Fairies 'all stitched up'
Totally Gorjuss 'anything goes with sparkle'
The Pink Elephant 'spring colours'

Urban Stamp Owl bag

I am always looking for new ideas for crafting and for the past 6 months have been making & decorating bags as well as my usual cards. As soon as I got the new DoCrafts Urban Stamps Owl the other week, I could see it on a cotton bag as a really simple but very cute design.

The bag base came from Hobbycraft and I started by using my cricut to cut a template for the branch (I'm not very good at drawing freehand!). I used Dylon fabric paints to paint the branch directly onto the bag. For the owl, I used a load of scraps of fabric that I have lying around- you can get lots of freebies from various internet companies as long as you don't mind getting a ton of emails! I stamped the owl twice onto copy paper and then cut one into pieces and the other just around the outline. I used these as templates to cut the fabric pieces. I used bondaweb on the back of each piece to prevent fraying and make it really easy to attach to the bag. I also used some black thread to hand sew the detail onto the body, beak and wings.

The finishing touch was the 2 large black buttons for eyes.

I am entering this projects into the following challenges:-

Stampin' for the Weekend- 'anything but a card'

New Baby- lily & lilac

At the NEC last weekend I managed to get some die-cut toppers from the Lily of the Valley stand. They have normally not got many left to choose from when I get there on the Sunday but because I went on Saturday this year, there was a wider selection. I have had this topper before but really like it so it was worth getting another. I've used the topper in conjunction with lots of lilac things to make a baby card suitable for either a boy or girl or unknown!

I started with a 6x6 square card blank and rounded the corners with my new corner punch. The next layer of lilac spot paper is from a Kanban baby paper pack, followed by 'bling' cardstock and then the topper- all with rounded corners. I finished the card with 3 small purple buttons and the large lilac grosgrain bow.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-

Paper Shelter 'anything goes'

Lili's Little Fairies 'buttons & bows'

New Gorjuss girls stamps, papers, buttons, twine... ;-)

Yesterday, I went to The Range to go and have a look at the new DoCrafts goodies because I was super excited about the launch of the new Gorjuss range. I have to say a huge thank you to the really helpful staff at The Range in Kings Lynn as they hadn't been able to put some of the new products out yet but they went to the warehouse and bought out a pallet of boxes and let me find what I wanted! I ended up with 8 fabulous stamp sets, papers, ribbons, decoupage, bakers twine & buttons (that came free with the Creativity magazine) as well as the new goodie bag and new animal urban stamps. The stamps inparticular are brilliant because they are really deep cut rubber and while that does mean they are not see-through, they stamp perfectly with excellent clarity (even though I'm not a great stamper). Here's my first card I've made using my new goodies-

This card was inspired by the packaging of the Gorjuss products (which can also be used) as it shows the stamped images left as black & white, giving a drawn look. I really liked how it looked so thought I'd use it on my card. I started with a dark purple A4 piece of card that I've had in my stash for ages which I folded into an A5 card blank. I then used 2 papers from the 8x8 and 6x6 paper packs as mats. I made the topper by stamping using a black memento ink onto one of the 6x6 papers that has a distressed lined effect. I mounted this onto the purple mat and then added the buttons (free with magazine) and a mini black bow from my crafty stash. I finished the card by wrapping the purple & cream bakers twine 3 times around the edge of the card and then knotting it before fraying the hanging part.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-
Love to Create 'wrap it up' (bakers twine)
Cute Card Thursday 'something old' (A4 base card)
Creative Inspirations 'buttons and bows'
Paper Shelter 'animal magic' (cute pussy cat)
The Pink Elephant 'anything goes'
Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenges 'favourite colours' (purple & black)

Foiled & Distressed Kanban dress card with ribbon flower

This is one of my most favourite recent makes and is far more detailed than my usual style. I do love it though.

I started with an 8x8 scalloped edge card blank that I inked using my distress inks. I added some swirls onto the base card by using a stencil and my quickie glue pen with some gold foil (a bargain from the Kanban outlet). The main card topper, also from the Kanban outlet, was made using 2 flat images of the same dress. I cut out one and layered it up with 3d foam pads and then added some foil highlights using both gold & teal colours. I didn't have any gold mirror card/paper in the right shade to match the rest of the card (for matting & layering) so I again used my foil, and thin double sided tape, to create a foil edge onto my mat.

I used my cricut 'paper lace' cartridge to cut the teal floral mat from another Kanban outlet paper that has a floral embossed pattern. I mainly used this to add another texture to the card. I completed the card with a ribbon flower.



I made the ribbon flower by firstly choosing 3 differently textured ribbons, and a button, that matched the colour scheme of the card. I also found a dark teal button from my stash. I cut the dark brown ribbon into 6 equal lengths, folding them in half and attaching to the back of the button with PVA glue. When that layer was dry, I repeated the process with the teal ribbon, cutting each piece slightly longer and attaching it inbetween the first brown layer. I repeated the process for the final layer but rather than folding the ribbon over, I cut the ends of it into the v shape. When all the glue had dried, I attached the ribbon flower to the card with some more PVA.

It's a sort of Spellbinders inspired card made without any Spellbinders products! In fact, the Kanban outlet bargains mean that this was an incredibly cost effective card to create but did take a fair amount of time.

I am entering this card into the Card Makin' Mamas 'Anything Goes' challenge at http://cardmakinmamas.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/a-new-year-and-new-challenge.html