Congratulations

I've been busy crafting today making a card to celebrate an engagement of 2 people I work with. It's a bit of a different card style for me but I really like it and think I will be making more like this. It was super quick too.

I started with a 6x6 white card blank and a circle clarity stencil. I placed the stencil onto the edge of the card and secured it with low-tack tape, making sure to cover the other parts of the stencil so I didn't accidentally get ink on other parts. The danger with this very simple kind of card is that any mistake would be really obvious!

I inked the circle using 'squeezed lemonade' distress ink and then inked only the edges using 'worn lipstick'. Where the 2 colours have blended, a really nice orange colour has been made. I used a Clarity Stamps 'Wee Folk' stamp to stamp the couple silhouette into the circle. I then used my Cricut Explore to cut the message from black card and stuck it onto the base card.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-
CRAFT 'CAS' 25.2
That Craft Place 'film inspired' 28.2 (the focus colour around the couple reminds me of the end of a rom-com just as the screen goes to the credits and turns black)
Craft Your Passion 'anything goes' 22.2
Daring Cardmakers 'L.O.V.E.' 20.2 (One Layer for a Valentines Engagement- O.L.V.E- spelling never is my strong point!)

Back to crafting- finally!

I haven't posted (or crafted for that matter) for about 6 months as work has been manic! Things have finally slowed down a bit so I'm back to crafting, posting & challenges- yay!

Thankfully, lots of the challenge blogs I take part in have 'anything goes' challenges at the moment which is great as a starter for me again.

I am posting a Christmas card that I made for someone at work-

It was a quick & simple card to make perfect as I was last minute (surprise surprise!).

I started with a 6x6 white card blank that I covered using Craftwork Cards paper from one of their recent Christmas packs that include papers & sentiments. After attaching the backing paper to the card using double sided tape, I used a Sheena Douglass stencil and gold Buff It paste to add extra detail to the background. I took one of the message toppers from the Craftwork Cards kit that matched the backing paper. I wanted to create a gold mirror border for the topper (to match the stencilled design) but didn't have the right shape so I used one of my die-cut shapes to firstly cut the topper and then to make a mat to match. I used foam pads to mount the message topper to add a little extra height and interest.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-

CRAFT challenges 'anything goes' 31/12

Christmas Card Challenges 'anything goes' 3/1

Crafty Hazlenut 'anything goes' 2/1

Crafty Hazlenut Extra 'anything goes' 31/12

Creative Card Crew 'anything goes' 4/1

Creative Inspirations 'christmas' 6/1

Papertake weekly 'anything goes' 6/1

Penny's papercrafting challenges 'anything goes' 6/1

That Craft Place 'anything goes' 3/1

Paper Shelter 'anything goes' 6/1

Flying high...

Now that I've discovered the wonderful world of box cards, I keep coming up with loads of ideas that I want to try- so far this is definitely my favourite!

My colouring is not the greatest so I have signed up to a Skin & Hair class at Kit & Clowder. They ask you to colour an image before you start the class to compare to later on so I decided to colour a Mary Poppins digi that I love. I chose this because I had a great idea for a card so even though the colouring isn't brilliant, I think the card is.

Here it is...

I used a sheet of pale blue A4 cardstock to cut the box card base and then trimmed the flaps to just 5cm to show the base a little more. I used docrafts London dies to cut out 3 layers of London skyline and scored these to match the base of the box. I then attached them with plenty of double sided tape.

I cut DCWV blue cardstock (as it has a white core) to fit as mats for the flaps and back panel and then embossed them with a Clarity Stencils cloud design. I sanded back the card to show the white core through for the clouds and then edged each piece with white ink before adding to the card.

I then used scraps of blue card (from 2 card bases that didn't quite work) to make my interior supports for some clouds cut using the Cricut from some glitter card. I chose slightly different clouds from 3 different cartridges included in my subscription (Nate's ABC, The first few years & Groovy Times). I attached one cloud to the inside front of the box, 2 onto the 2 supports and one onto the back panel before adding the Mary Poppins digi, coloured with Spectrum Noirs & Promarkers, using foam pads.

I'm loving the fact that she's actually flying over the London skyline! :-)

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-
Fantabulous Cricut 'anything goes'
Crafts Galore 'stamp/digi' 31/7
Creative Inspirations 'anything goes' 8/7
A Blog Named Hero 'colour it in' 14/7
Catch the Bug 'anything goes' 19/7
Graph'It 'anything with an alcohol marker' 11/7

Things with Wings

200th post!!!

I've been in the craft room again today busy playing with some more new goodies I got at the Newark Sincerely Yours show (and mixing them up with some old favourites!). I've also used my new Cricut explore again.

I'm really happy with how this card turned out and it's a bit different to my usual style.

I started with a card blank roughly 8x8 in size with a fancy edge. I wanted to create a layer for the card so I imported the shape into the Cricut and made my own cut file for it. I cut a mat from DCWV Latte paper and then another, slightly smaller, from pale blue card. I used 3 Imagination Crafts products to decorate the pale blue layer- new 'allium' stencil, new glitter paste and old stencil paint. I mounted all of my layers onto the card using double sided tape.

The card looked nice but it just needed something extra so this is where the Cricut came in handy again! I wanted a butterfly but wanted it to be very delicate and not take away from the stencil design. I found an image I liked from the cricut image library and then cut it from acetate. To add just a little extra glitz, I sprayed the acetate butterfly with Crafters Companion silver glitter spray. I then used an 'orchid' promarker to add a little colour to the body of the butterfly.

I attached the butterfly to the card with Stickles glitter glue, frosted lace, to make sure it didn't show through. It gives a delicate finish to the card and some extra dimension.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-

Crafting for All Seasons 'things with wings' 26/5

Crafts Galore Encore 'anything goes' & DT call 30/5http://cardsgalorechallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/may-all-your-crafting-be-merry.html

Imagination Crafts 'things with wings' 30/5

Polkadoodles 'things with wings' 30/5

The Pink Elephant 'anything goes' 1/6

Rising from the ashes...

Back in November, at the Lincoln Sincerely Yours show, I bought a brilliant Sweet Poppy stencil of a Phoenix- they had done a demo card where the Phoenix had been zen-tangled and it was fab. I had to get the stencil so I could make my own Fawkes inspired cards (and possibly use it in my Harry Potter scrapbook if I ever get it started!).

This is the first time I've used it so I've gone for quite a simple design

I started with a sheet of golden yellow A4 cardstock that I folded to make an A5 base card. I inked the edges of the card with Barn Door (Red) distress ink. I then used a Versamark pen to draw the phoenix design through the stencil onto a piece of white card. I did small parts of the design at a time, heat embossing with gold embossing powder. After I had embossed the entire phoenix, I went around the edge of the design firstly with a red promarker and then orange and yellow, blending the colours together. I also used my black promarker to colour the embossing on the eye- just to help it stand out a bit. I then trimmed down my phoenix topper and mounted it onto red mirror card.

I wanted to add a layer of texture to the background of the card so I cut a piece of orange net fabric, slightly smaller than the card, and then attached it using double sided tape.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-
Challenges 4 Everybody 'anything goes' 4/4
That Craft Place 'anything goes' 15/3
Blog named Hero 'stencil' 14/3
Catch the Bug 'anything goes' 8/3
Crafty Calendar 'animal' 2/4
Crafty Catz 'anything goes' 6/3
Paper Shelter 'animal magic' 4/3
Creative Inspirations 'boy thing' 4/3
Love to Create 'anything goes' 2/3

Christmas sparkle

I've managed to make another Christmas card today. That makes 3 so far for January- it won't last!

Here it is...

I started with a 6x6 white card blank and to make sure my topper matched perfectly colour-wise, I cut down another card blank to make the layer (I'd saved one that I'd messed up the embossing on ages ago so I used the back of that). I chose my stencil (Imagination Crafts) and used double sided tape to stop it moving. I firstly, inked the branch using 'gathered twigs' distress ink and then used an embossing pen to ink the snowflakes. I used 4 different shades of blue mica powders (also Imagination Crafts) to colour them. I also used the mica powders to dust all over the background.

Finishing touches were to add the gems and then mount it onto a blue mirror card mat and then onto the card. I will probably add a message before I send it though. Unfortunately, the beautiful shine of the mica doesn't show up very well on the photo but this one does show the blingyness (good word!) of the gems I've used...

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Crafty Hazlenut's Christmas 'shades of blue' 24/1
Paper Shelter 'winter blues' 21/1
Crafters Cafe 'bling' 22/1
Christmas Cards '1 layer' 26/1
Imagination Crafts 'anything goes' 31/1

Christmas 2014!

As I mentioned, in a previous post, my New Year's Resolution is to keep making Christmas cards all year round (so I don't have to try and make 14 in one night!). My plan is to try and make 2 a month and, so far, I'm on track- I've made one and we're only a few days into January! I'm really pleased with it too...

Pretty much everything on this card is brand new or something that I've had for a while but not used yet.

I started with the Stag design which is a Sweet Poppy metal stencil. It is a beautiful design with so much detail to it. I simply inked the design onto the kraft card using a stencil brush & Brilliance 'Pearlescent Crimson' ink pad. I then edged the design with the same ink pad before mounting it onto green mirror board.

I wanted a tartan background to match the Scottish theme of the stag but I didn't have anything in the colour scheme I needed so I decided to make my own. I took a piece of 8x8 kraft card and masked stripes with low tack tape. I inked the remaining kraft card with the 'pearlescent crimson' ink used for the stag. I carefully removed the tape and then re-attached it to the card the opposite way (to create stripes in both horizontal & vertical) and inked again. I then repeated this process but using Brilliance 'pearlescent olive' ink. The olive colour seemed to take a while to dry so I carefully removed the tape and left it for a few minutes to dry. I then trimmed the kraft card slightly so it would fit onto an 8x8 card.

To finish the card,  I wrapped some 'metallic copper' raffia around my background 3 times before I attached it to my 8x8 base card and then attached the topper.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-
Christmas Card Challenges 'anything goes' 5/1
Craft Your Passion 'new' 6/1
Crafters Cafe 'animals' 8/1
Pink Elephant 'anything goes' 5/1
Crafty Hazlenut Extra 'anything xmas' 31/1

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

I've been busy colouring this week, using some images from a cd-rom that I've had for a while but have recently re-discovered. I love it when you've forgotten exactly why you bought something and then look through it again and get that whole "ooooooo" again!

Anyway, this is another Christmas card using the Crafters Companion SWALK images.

I started by printing the image at the 4 to a page size, and then coloured it with a mix of promarkers & spectrum noirs. I used a Sakura glitter pen to highlight the snowflakes and then 'white opal' perfect pearls for the small snow blobs. I'm not yet an owner of any die-cutting shapes so I had to cut these out by hand- I used some Kanban mats as the stencil for the patterned paper and coloured image. I didn't have a stencil for the mirror layer so I used the same stencil as the topper and then just cut a little away from the pencil line to create the mat. The tree design paper is from a Dovecraft 'Merry & Bright' 6x6 paper pad which was a bargain last January! The card blank is from Craftwork Cards and already has the fancy edge that matches my chosen mat shape. To add a little extra interest to the plain white base card, I used a snowflake mask and 'picked raspberry' distress ink to stencil the snowflake design.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-
Polkadoodles 'xmas'
Papertake Weekly 'oh Christmas Tree'
Creative Inspirations 'anything goes'
Graph'It 'alternative xmas colours'
Crafty Catz 'spots & stripes'

Sk8er Boy

Here's another new card I've made using one of my favourite rubber stamps- Skater Ian. It was a bargain I got from the Sincerely Yours show at Lincoln last year which I hope bodes well for next week when I'll be visiting again!

I took a 6x6 'Black Magic' Coredinations paper, trimmed it to size & embossed it with a checkerboard pattern. I then distressed it to reveal the bluey grey base. I then used a chevron stencil and silver stencil paint to add an extra texture to the card. I then added some new washi tape to the corner of the card and mounted it onto a white 6x6 card base. I stamped the skater image onto white card and coloured it using promarkers and spectrum noirs. I then re-inked the hat and stamped it onto a small scrap of an old Basic Grey paper and paper pieced it onto my topper. I mounted the stamped image onto the card using 3d foam to add depth.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-
Crafty Cardmakers 'embossing, distressing & paper piecing'
Papertake Weekly 'sound of music' (inspired by the song 'Sk8ter Boi' by Avril Lavigne)
Daring Cardmakers 'stencil it'
Basic Grey 'song inspired' (sk8ter boi)

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore!

Many people who have seen my blog posts will know that I love Harry Potter so when I found the Har Repotter digi stamps on the Bugaboo site, I had to get them all! I am slowly getting round to making cards with each of them but I'm also making some shopping bags using the same designs. Here's my first card & bag using the Dumbledore image.

The card was made with an 8x8 square base card, a paper printed from 'Wishing on a Star' cd-rom (Katy Sue Designs), some stickles glitter glue, 'Hog Castle' stencil with black stencil paint and then the 2 Har Repotter digi stamps coloured using both Promarkers & Spectrum Noirs.

The bag uses the 2 digi stamps transfered onto heat'n'bond- iron on adhesive for fabric and a load of fabric scraps. The details of the images are hand sewn.

I am entering this card and/or bag into the following challenges:-
Crafty Cardmakers 'card with matching bag'
Creative Inspirations 'anything but a card'

Hagrid meeting the first years off the Hogwarts Express

I absolutely LOVE Harry Potter so when I went to the NEC and saw 2 different stencils one showing Hogwarts & the other the Hogwarts Express, I had to have them! I also recently bought some brilliant 'Har Repotter' digi stamps from Bugaboo so they had to go together to make some fab-u-lous cards (there are lots but here's the first)

I started with an 8x8 card blank that I distress inked the background of with 'stormy sky' and 'tea dye'. I then used the 'Hog Express' stencil with promarkers and then mounted on my 'Hagrid' image that I had coloured with promarkers & spectrum noirs. I added a hint of clouds/steam using a waft of versamark pen and then mica powder over the top.

I am entering this card into the Cutie Pie 'Favourite Film' challenge.

Saturated Canary 'walker girl' zombie with skulls

Here is another new card that I've made to enter the Digital Tuesday 'birthdays' challenge and Saturated Canary 'good vs evil' challenge. I'll let you decide if it's good or evil though!

I love all things a bit gory & gothic so while this card has images some people may find 'evil', I most definitely find it 'good' and it is perfect for a friends birthday, even though it's not until October! This is the first time I have used the 'walker girl' zombie image from Saturated Canary but it was one I bought when I first discovered their wonderful designs. I have also used 'Midnight Spell' papers from DCWV which I have had for ages but not really found a suitable project for them- now I have!

I started by folding a piece of A4 black card into an A5 base and then used one of the DCWV papers as a mat. There is a hidden element to the backing that can not really be seen in the photograph but I have added some very subtle skulls to it. I did this by using some new skull shaped post-it notes that I saw in Wilkos- I cut the eyes, nose & teeth out of the post-it and than stuck it to my card, inking with 'dusty concord' distress ink. As this colour is similar to the original background,  the skulls are not obvious when you look at the card from the front, but as the light shines on the side view, they suddenly appear. It's a bit like that famous painting of Henry VIII that from the front has a blurry splodge in the corner but from the side, it's a skull.

I coloured the SC image with my spectrum noirs and then mounted it onto another paper from the DCWV stack. I mounted this onto the card and then tied some black organza ribbon around the spine. Before tying the bow, I added the metal skull charm so that it would hang from the ribbon freely.

Kanban 'Love & Marriage'- Love at First Sight

Here's another card I've made from the new Kanban 'Love & Marriage' kit- part of a C&C blockbuster. I am entering this card into the following challenges:- Crafty Catz 'Love is in the Air', Daring Cardmakers 'Love is in the Air', Catch the Bug 'Affairs of the Heart', Creative Inspirations 'Sent with Love', Cute Card Thursday 'Love Struck' and Polkadoodles and Studio 12 'Valentine Love'.

This was a very simple card to make & also very quick. I started with a fancy edge 6x6 card which I inked using Spun Sugar distress ink & a 6x6 'Capricious' template from The Crafters Workshop. The topper came from the Kanban 'Love & Marriage' kit and the silver mirror card mat came from another Kanban kit meaning that the shapes were exactly the same & layered perfectly.

'Setting the Scene' Owl card

Here is my latest creation, designed for the Daring Cardmakers 'Setting the Scene' challenge which has been sponsored by DoCrafts.

I started with a 6x6 scalloped edge white card blank and my 'Imagination Crafts' 6x6 'Dust till Dawn' stencil. I drew the line of the hills onto some plain white paper and then cut along the line so I could use this as a mask when I inked the card. I did the same, using a post-it note for the moon. I coloured the sky, using 'Stormy Sky' distress ink first and then did the green hills using 'Peeled Paint'. I then put the stencil back onto the card and used 'Gathered Twigs' distress ink (for the pathways) and 'Black Soot' (for the houses). I then used Imagination Crafts 'lamp black' stencil paint and a small stippling brush to highlight the owl in the tree. The final touch was to bring out the moon by covering it with 'Frosted Lace' stickles glitter glue.