Shoe Tree

I recently saw a really fab idea on Pinterest that was aimed at Wedding receptions. It was a simple tree outline that guests would put their fingerprint on instead of the traditional guest book. I thought it was a really cool idea but I wanted to use it for my cards. The idea included a download of the tree design in A4 size so I printed 2-to-a-page so that they would fit on an A5 card. I didn't just make a normal tree though...

(apologies for the not so great photo- not sure what happened there!)

I decided to make a shoe & bag tree which, if we're honest, most of us girls would love to have in our back gardens- if mine would grow Converse then I'd be in heaven! As I said, I had printed the tree outline to an A5 size but I trimmed it just smaller than this so that I could mat and layer it with some FAB pink glitter paper and a slightly dirty green base card. I used my distress inks to colour the sky (tumbled glass) and grass (mown lawn- I think that's the right name) and then used various shades of brown promarkers to colour the tree. I then used peel-offs, some straight onto the card and some paper pieced, to decorate the tree. A fun card for a fun lady!

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-

Creatalicious 'for the girls'

Papertake Weekly 'paper piecing'

Daring Cardmakers 'let's plant a tree'

OOO WEE OOO

Not sure what I'm going to do with my early Saturday evenings now that the latest series of Doctor Who has finished. I am loving Matt Smith as the doctor more and more but no-one will ever be as brilliant as David Tennant in my eyes- he was my first doctor so will always have a special place in my heart! This brilliant fanart is from the MayzyArt blog and I had to use it to make a card for a friend.

The base card is a 6x6 scalloped edge white card which I left completely as it was (no distress inks! shock horror!). I then used my favorite 'eerie' Basic Grey paper, rounding the corners before attaching it with double sided tape. I ran a silver mirror card mat through the grand calibur and embossed a star design onto it and then mounted my coloured image onto it. I coloured the image with my usual mix of spectrum noirs and promarkers. I wanted to add the key charm to the card as this is such an important aspect of the Doctor Who story so I used some TARDIS coloured ribbon wrapped twice around the spine of the card and threaded the key onto it.

I love this card and just wish that more of my family/friends loved Mr Tennant as much as I do!

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-

Love to Create 'for the kids'

Paper Shelter 'charming'

Cute Card Thursday 'tie it up'

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)

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'

A day in Wonderland

Over at Card Makin' Mamas there's a new challenge and this time it's 'Punches'. We are being sponsored by Rick St. Dennis digi stamps which I've personally not used until now. They have lots of unusual designs which I absolutlely love (esp. the 'Scary Go Round') but I decided to use the fabulous 'Alice in Wonderland' design. If you want to link up to the challenge then just click here, you can check out the rest of the DT inspiration too!

I started with the image, printing it to almost A5 in size. I coloured it using mostly Promarkers but I always use my Spectrum Noirs for skin. I mounted my finished image onto a mat of red foil card and then attached this to an A5 red card blank that I had layered with a checkerboard paper from the DCWV 'Immortal Love' 12x12 stack. I then used a small heart punch to cut some hearts from the same red foil cardstock used for the mat and attached these to the edge of the topper and onto Alice's dress.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-
Papertake Weekly 'anything goes'
Paper Shelter 'love is in the air' (because of all the hearts)
Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenges 'die cuts and/or punches'
Cute Card Thursday 'something blue' (Alice's dress)
Crafty Catz 'anything goes'

Call me...

I REALLY REALLY REALLY love DCWV papers and have even recently contemplated a trip specially to the U.S. just to get my hands on some as they are really hard to get hold of here in the U.K. This card uses a mix of DCWV papers and a Kanban topper to make a card perfect for a teenage girl (or a trendy mum) obsessed with her mobile phone!

I've used 3 different papers from the 'Generation Tech' stack, 2 as the backing papers and then another cut up for the 'text speak' toppers. The central 'Call Me' topper is from the Kanban 'so feminine' blockbuster- one of the last Kanban kits to be made! I cut the backing papers into triangles and mounted onto an 8x8 card blank leaving a white border around the edge and down the centre of the card. I layered the various toppers with different levels of tape & foam pads to add further interest.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-
Love to Create 'for a special lady'
Pink Elephant 'mother's day'
Clear it Out 'anything goes with 2+ patterned papers'

beautiful birds

My second card of the weekend uses one of my newest Saturated Canary images- I absolutely love Krista's designs and find them surprisingly easy to colour even as a relative newbie!

I folded a sheet of mint green A4 card in half to make an A5 card blank and then layered this with the backing paper which is from a Creata A5 paper pad. I then inked the edges of a Kanban 'cameo' die-cut with Tumbled Glass distress ink and then touched the real edges of it with a gold metallic brilliance ink pad. I coloured the topper with promarkers (except the skin which was my spectrum noirs) and then cut around the image carefully leaving a small white edge. I used 3d foam pads to attach my image to the 'cameo' die-cut and then attached that to the base card. I also punched 4 gold mirror hearts which I added to each of the corners to echo the scalloped corner punch I had used on the card & paper.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-

Saturated Canary 'all things bright & beautiful'

Stampin' for the Weekend 'punches &/or die-cuts'

Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenges 'animals'

Cute Card Thursday 'come fly with me'

Crafting Musketeers 'anything goes'

Crafty Catz 'inspired by a song' (Flying Without Wings- Westlife)

Daring Cardmakers 'mint green, pale pink & gold'

Totally Gorjuss 'swirls' (backing paper has swirls on it but difficult to see)

strawberry layer cake

It's a really good job it's a Bank Holiday here in England today as I had no time to craft over the weekend as I was at a craft fair. It was a successful weekend so definitely worth it but it means that today has felt like a Sunday and I'm going to be messed up all week! Here's one of the cards I made today using a lovely Forever Friends decoupage topper that has been in my stash for years!

I started with a 6x6 white card blank which I rounded the corners of. I layered this with a glittery paper from the Dovecraft 'London Line' range. I mounted the decoupaged topper onto a die-cut circle, that I inked the edges of with Spun Sugar distress ink, and then mounted this onto a die-cut, silver mirror card, mat. The final touch was the 3 strawberries in the corner which were an extra element from the decoupage sheet. I used different thicknesses of foam pads to layer them up and then accented them with some glossy accents.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-

Docrafts photo inspiration challenge

Songbird 'truly scrumptious'

Cutie Pie 'lots of layers' (of cake & decoupage)

Creative Inspirations 'birthdays'