Scruffy Little Cat

Another new product I've bought in the last few weeks is another new cd from Crafters Companion. It's called Scruffy Little Cat and has some modern female designs. It was a pick of the week on C&C but I got it straight from the Crafters Companion website after joining their Inspire club which gives you a 5% discount on every product. I also found a voucher code online so I also ordered some SLC acrylic stamps that weren't available on C&C too.

This card is made using a topper from the cd as well as some Primarni wrapping paper, card candi and a craftwork cards paper bow.

I started by folding a beige piece of A4 card into an easel card and covering both the base and front panel with metallic leopard print wrapping paper. I then took the topper from the cd and mounted it onto pink 'bling' cardstock. I attached my mounted topper onto the front of the easel and embellished it with a paper bow. I then used 6 pink leopard print card candis to act as the stopper for the easel.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-
Graph'It 'anything goes' 31/5
Creative Inspirations 'birthday' 27/5 (I've left a space for the birthday message as it may need to be in Polish as I sell a lot of cards to Eastern European friends)
Crafters Cafe 'girly' 28/5
Totally Gorjuss 'buttons &/or bows' 31/5

Muddy Mess

I made another card today using lots of old goodies but some of them haven't been used very much!

It's a card in my usual CAS style and was quite quick to create (apart from the colouring of the digi stamp). The digi image comes from an Angelica & Adam crafters companion cd-rom that I've had for a while but not used all that much. I coloured the image with a mix of promarkers and spectrum noirs. I then used walnut stain distress ink to dirty up the edges of the topper. I took two different colours of camouflage print paper from DCWV 'boys'A4 stack and cut them to mat the topper. I used a Sheena Douglass embossing folder to add muddy splats to the green paper and then inked it with the same walnut stain distress ink as the topper. I scrunched up the brown paper before teaching it to the card to add the dirty scruffy look and add another texture. I layered everything up onto a khaki green A5 card blank folded from a sheet of A4 card.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-
A blog named hero 'embossing' 28/5
Catch the Bug 'photo inspiration' 31/5
Challenges 4 Everybody 'anything goes' 30/5
Crafty Catz 'embossing' 29/5
Digi Choosday 'day out' 3/6
Papertake Weekly 'cute' 27/5
Cutie Pie 'embossing' 7/6

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

Cricut Explore

Wow! It's been ages since I've had the time to blog (or craft for that matter). Not sure what happened?

But, I'm back and I have a super exciting new crafting toy to play with- the Cricut Explore. I've been desperately wanting/needing this since I saw it launched in the USA and it's finally made it here via Create & Craft. I've always loved Cricut machines but this one is soooooooo good!

I've made 2 projects this afternoon, 1 that was super quick and another that took most of the afternoon- but was well worth it.

I'll start with the simple one:-

I wanted to use one of the materials included in the kit for my first project as I knew the new material selector dial would be matched exactly to that material and would give me a great cut. I decided to decorate my machine using the silver vinyl sample.

I used a star design that was already in the Design Space software, cut it from the vinyl and then attached it to the machine- it was so easy and looks fab!

The second project took considerably longer but looks great too.

I've finally started work on my Harry Potter scrapbook and this is the title page for my photos of Diagon Alley. I wanted a silhouette  of the street on the page but couldn't find anything suitable in the  Cricut design library so I made my own! I found a photograph of Diagon Alley and imported it into the paint programme on my computer. I used the fill and eraser tools to remove the background of the photo and draw a white line around each of the shops to define them. I did the same with the windows, doors and other highlights. I then changed the colour to black and white leaving the silhouette. I saved this image and then opened it in the Cricut Design Space software. I then simply resized the image and then cut it. It isn't perfect but some of the windows panes didn't have very big gaps between them so it was my error and not the machines. It still looks great though.

The title Diagon Alley was also cut using the Cricut but with a font from my computer (it does that too!).

I love it and it's exactly what I wanted. It sounds a cliche but this Cricut Explore is definitely only limited by your own imagination and I certainly have plenty of ideas!!!