Kanban 'so feminine' toppers- Tea for Two

I have a huge selection of old Kanban kits that I don't use very often at the moment but I dipped back into one, of the many, boxes and found this lovely topper. It's called 'Tea for Two'. I also used a 6x6 scalloped card blank, Basic Grey 'sultry' papers and my new (ish) cricut Elegant Edges cartridge.

I started with a 6x6 craftwork cards scalloped card blank and used my new Elegant Edges cricut cartridge to cut an almost 6x6 decorative circle from a patterned 'sultry' paper. I then cut a matching shadow from a plain pale pink paper from the same 'sultry' pad. These were mounted onto the card with double sided tape.

I used 'spun sugar' distress ink to add a pale pink edge to the topper and message before mounting onto the card with 3d foam. I then made my own large card candi style decorations for the corners of the card.

   

I did this by punching 4 circles from the patterned paper and moulding them into a curved circle with my fingers. I placed 3d foam squares onto the back of each piece and then used this to help me hold the circle as I triple embossed it with clear embossing powder to make it shine. They were then ready to attach to the card.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-

Paper Shelter 'punches & dies' (punched circles to make card candi, cricut die cutting) 25/2

Penny's paper crafty challenges 'lots of layers' 25/2

Catch the Bug 'colour challenge'1/3

Daring Cardmakers 'something old' (toppers) 28/2

Polkadoodles 'sugar and spice' 7/3

Crafty Catz 'cream, green +1' 27/2

Graph' It 'florals' 28/2

Craft Room challenges 'colour challenge' 3/3

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'

The Night Circus

I recently re-read the book 'The Night Circus' for the second time. I really love it and it inspires me in many different ways. For anyone that has not read it then I recommend it wholeheartedly and after you've read it, you'll see where my card came from! I have also provided this card to the Basic Grey Challenge Blog as my second GDT card so why not go and join in with the Clean & Simple challenge there this time?

As the CAS challenge demands, this was a very simple card to make. I started with a 6x6 white card blank and a Kanban circle mat. I used low tack tape to stick the circle into the middle of the card and then used my black promarker (with fine tip) and a ruler to draw the lines all round. When I removed the circle, I had the perfect blank space. I then used an EK Success star corner punch and my favourite Basic Grey 'eerie' 6x6 paper to punch a range of sizes of stars which I attached to the card with a quickie glue pen. I then added a few silver peel-off stars and the red 'Happy Birthday' message.

I am entering this card into the following challenges-

Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge Blog 'red, white & black' challenge

Crafty Catz 'anything goes'

Mucky Pup!

It will soon be my grandads birthday and he is a very keen gardener. I have made this card ready for his birthday and will be entering it into the following challenges:-
Love to Create 'pick 2'- die cuts & distressing
Paper Shelter 'punches & dies'- flower punch
Polkadoodles 'distressing'- papers
Here Come the Boys 'no stamps allowed'
Kanban 'anything goes'
Cute Card Thursday 'spring fever'
Catch the Bug 'green thumb'
Basic Grey 'spring'- archaic 6x6 papers

This was a very quick card to make using some new(ish) Kanban toppers from the mens themed blockbuster kit from C&C, my xcut flower punch for the flowers, punching them from Basic Grey 'archaic' 6x6 papers and some card candi for the centre of each flower.

Basic Grey 'Love Owls'

Here is my latest card that I am entering into the Basic Grey 'Anything Goes' challenge and Catch the Bug 'Anything Goes' challenge.

I started this card with the fabulous 'Love Owls' image from Bugaboo. It's an image I used for a project for the Card Makin Mamas design team and I really do love it! I tried to find promarkers/spectrum noirs that matched the colour scheme of the challenge but I was really struggling to find some in my collection so instead I found out my beautiful Basic Grey 'sugared' 6x6 papers as I knew those colours matched the challenge theme and then matched my pens to that instead. I coloured the image using a mix of both promarkers & spectrum noirs but the pink colour didn't really work for me so I ended up blending in some blue & grey to try and get a better match- it really does show just how well alcohol pens will blend. When I had finished the colouring, I trimmed the design down and then inked the edges with 'Frayed Burlap' distress ink. I rounded the corners and then mounted it onto a pink distressed card from the Basic Grey 'sugared' 6x6 paper pad. I then got a floral patterned paper from the same paper pad and trimmed it down just a little to fit on the 6x6 scalloped card blank, I also rounded the corners on this too. I used 3d foam to attach the topper at an angle onto the card.

*I managed to miss the deadline for the Catch the Bug colour challenge but their new challenge is 'Anything Goes' so thankfully I can post it for that challenge instead!*

SC Purple & Black

My latest card is my absolute favourite- EVER! (I usually do like my newest card best but this is my MOST favourite...)- the reason is, I have used my 2 favourite colours so this card is perfect for me- Would it be a bit weird to send myself a birthday card?

This card also fits with lots of challenge themes this week so I am entering it into the following challenges:-
Saturated Canary 'Love' (as I love the digi image & the colours)
Creatalicious 'L'Amour' (for the reasons above)
Basic Grey 'Favourite' (as I've used my favourite 'eerie' papers)
Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge Blog 'favourite colour combo' (purple & black)
Challenges 4 Everybody 'Anything Goes'
Crafty Catz 'bingo' (embossing, flowers & punches)
Polkadoodles 'shabby chic' (distressed edge papers- this is as shabby as I'll ever get!)
Stampin' for the Weekend 'distressed' (sanding of the embossed star cardstock)
Cute Card Thursday 'an eye for detail'

I started with an 8x8 scalloped edge card, which I matted with Craftwork Cards purple star embossed cardstock (from a prize pack!) that I distressed slightly and Basic Grey 'eerie' 6x6 paper (that I punched a star corner into). The main image is a digi stamp from Satuarted Canary (Honey) which I coloured with both Promarkers & Spectrum Noirs. The 3 flowers came from a pack that I picked up cheaply after Christmas so I didn't mind putting 3 on the one card!

Bugaboo Digi Stamps- 'Love Owls'

This is the first card I have created for the Card Makin Mamas Design Team. The theme was LOVE and my lovely (!) main image came from Bugaboo Digi Stamps website. This is the first time I have used an image from their website but I can see that I'll be going back there again. They had lots of brilliant designs to choose from.

I am also entering this card into the Basic Grey 'Love is in the Air' Challenge.

The idea for this card started as soon as I saw the digi-stamp. I knew that I wanted to do paper piecing with it although this was something I had never done with a digi stamp before. I was hoping to be able to change my printer settings so that I could print the image straight onto a 6x6 paper and then cut out the different pieces I wanted, unfortunately this wasn't going to work. In the end, I printed the image onto plain white paper and then attached my base, cloud design, paper over the top of the printed image and then put it through the printer again. I repeated this process for the other elements I needed, carefully cutting the papers roughly to size before putting them over the part of the image I wanted. As it was my first go at this technique, I printed each piece seperately but now I know that it works, next time I will fit on as many parts as I can in one go.

The background cloud design came from a 6x6 DCWV paper pack that I've had for ages. I printed the owls onto 2 different shades of textured brown paper from the Papermania 'Bird Song' collection with Basic Grey 'Sugared' paper for the girly owl & Sissix 'Pastel Little Sizzles' for the boy one. The heart was printed onto some more DCWV 6x6 paper which is the same paper I used for the card background. I coloured the leaves, small bird & flower with my promarkers.

I rounded the corners on my main topper & backing paper before mounting it onto a 6x6 scalloped edge card blank.

'House of Kanban' templates & Basic Grey 'eerie' paper pad

Entering crafting challenges has really helped me to get back to using some of the products from my stash that haven't seen the light of day for many a month, or year! This weeks Polkadoodles challenge inspired me to get out my Kanban dress templates, some beautiful Basic Grey 'eerie' papers and my sewing stash too.

The challenge was 'stitching and lace' and can be found here http://polkadoodle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/week-3-stitching-real-or-faux-and-lace.html. This is my entry into the challenge

The 'lace' element of this card is the net fabric used for the base of the skirt and there is some real stitching (not visible) at the sides helping to create the shape.

I started by drawing round the 'House of Kanban' template onto some black card and then cut it out. I cut a circle of purple net fabric slightly larger than the base section of the dress and used some small tacking stitches to secure it at either side to match the shape of the card. I then used the card as a template to cut the scalloped base into the net fabric. The bodice and top part of the skirt were both cut out from my 6x6 Basic Grey 'eerie' paper pad. The paper sections were attached to the card base with double sided tape and were perfect for hiding the stitches and the top edge of the net.

It was a pretty simple card to put together and also a little bit unusual & 'goth'- a bit like me!

s.w.a.l.k. 'new parents' card

I've been having a play with my new s.w.a.l.k. digi stamp cd rom and really loved some of the images for the slightly more unusual card sending moments e.g. new home, belated birthday & expecting a baby. They seemed perfect for the Basic Grey Challenges blog, challenge 85 'New Beginnings' http://basicgreychallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/challenge-85-new-beginningssomething-new.html. So here's my entry-

I started with a Craftwork Cards 6x6 fancy edge card. I drew round the card onto the back of a flamingo & giraffe print 6x6 paper from Basic Grey 'sugared' paper pad. The paper made me think of couples and love as the giraffes had little hearts above their heads. I cut out the paper to match the shape of the base card and attached it with double sided tape.

The topper was printed from my Crafters Companion s.w.a.l.k. cd-rom and coloured with Spectrum Noir pens. I used the leftover piece from a Kanban mat sheet, as a stencil, to draw the fancy shape around the image and then cut it out by hand. I inked it very lightly around the edges with 'Squeezed Lemonade' distress ink. I then got a matching Kanban silver mirror card mat slightly larger than the one I had cut myself. I used my Grand Calibur with a Crafters Workshop 'Mini Star Shower' 6x6 stencil to emboss a star design onto the mirror card mat. I then inked this with Tim Holtz Adirondack 'Wild Plum' alcohol ink to give it the pink tone to match the backing paper. I completed the card by using 3d foam tape to attach the mirror card layer and then the main topper.