Rock God!

Today's card uses a few old favourites that I always know I'll use at some point and one of those things that I should use more often but just don't seem to!

The background card is an 8x8 base card, inked with 'tea stain' distress ink. The 2 backing papers are both from DCWV 'Rockstar' 8x8 & matstack pads. Rockstar was my first DCWV stack and it is still my favourite. I use it for so many scrapbook pages too. The topper is printed from 'Just Ink'lined' best of 2012 cd-rom which is a disk I've has since the end of 2012 but don't use that often. This topper was perfect for what I wanted though.

I coloured it with mainly Spectrum Noirs today but with an odd bit of Promarker. I wanted to make the topper look as if the posters & drum kit were old & the guitar was the shiny new toy so after colouring the posters & drum kit using slightly subtle shades, I went over the top of it all with a light brown to tone down all of the colours and add that vintage look. I then coloured the guitar in a totally different colour palette and added some glossy accents to the body of the guitar.

I used 1 8x8 DCWV paper as the background and then trimmed down a matstack piece for the element in the corner. I wanted to pick out the 'rock and roll' part of the paper so I glued it with a quickie glue pen and then foiled it. This is something I've tried before on a scrapbook page and it worked really well.

I tore the edge of the topper and inked it with 'tea stain' distress ink too before using 3d foam to add it to the card.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-
Polkadoodles Digi Choosday 'for the boys' 23/1
Clear It Out '2+ papers' 21/1
Creative Inspirations 'anything goes' 21/1

Mod Podge

I have Mod Podge! The world is not safe!

winter wonderland

This card uses another topper that I coloured a while ago but ran out of time to make into a card. I've finally got round to using it, and it means that I've made 2 Christmas cards so far in January!!!

I coloured the topper using both Spectrum Noirs & Promarkers and then used a Kanban mat as a stencil to cut it into the decorative shape. I added a, hand cut, blue mirror card mat and a larger mat cut from Dovecraft 'Merry & Bright' snowman paper. To add extra detail to the 6x6 elegant edge Craftwork Cards card blank, I ran it through my grand callibur with a snowflake mask, and then gently rubbed on some pale blue chalk with my finger.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-
Christmas Card Challenges 'anything goes with option of polka dots' 19/1
Catch the Bug 'winter wonderland' 18/1
Crafty-Hazlenut's Christmas Challenge 'winter weather' 17/1
Cute Card Thursday 'cold & frosty' 15/1
Creatalicious Challenges 'turquoise winter' 13/2

Pretty Grunge!

Today's card is one that I absolutely love- this normally happens with my newest cards being my favourite, but this one more than ever. It's a mix of old & new stuff and uses some ideas that I've never done before.

Here it is..

I haven't done any colouring for quite a while so I went back to one of my favourite Saturated Canary digi stamps and coloured her using a mix of Promarkers & Spectrum Noirs. I stuck to a pallette of pinks & greys but glittered the boots with some doodlebug glitter (to make them like a pair I'm lucky enough to have!)

I used a Kanban die-cut mat to draw a template for the shape of the topper which I cut out by hand, inked gently with Black Soot distress ink, and then matted it onto a co-ordinating die-cut layer. It was originally black & white so I used my Picked Raspberry distress ink to tie the colour in with the digi image.

I wanted to go for a slightly grungy/distressed look, so for the background, I took a piece of grey & white striped cardstock (new 'Mambi'  (Me & My Big Ideas) cardstock pad- bargain from TK Maxx) and cut it as a mat for the topper. I then took an offcut and attached it to the bottom of the original piece of card with the stripes going in the opposite direction. I then inked around the edges with the same Picked Raspberry distress ink that I used on the topper mat. To add to the 'grunge' look, I used my ScorPal scoreboard to score & fold some lines across different parts of the card.

I then took a piece of A4 pink cardstock and again inked the edges with Black Soot distress ink before adding the cardstock & topper. I folded some of the lines I had scored on the striped cardstock so that they stood out and only put the double sided tape in the centre. I used 2 layers of 3d foam to attach the topper so that it didn't squash the edges of the cardstock.

Here's a photo to show how it stands out...

I'm really pleased with how the grungy/pretty look has worked and I think that I'll try the folded distressed background thing again!

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-

Crafting Musketeers 'grunge' 29/1

Graph' It 'anything goes' 12/1

Cards Galore 'anything goes' 28/1

Polkadoodles 'anything goes' 12/1

Crafty Catz 'pretty in pink' 16/1

Polkadoodles 'girly, girly, girly' 19/1
Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenges 'anything goes' 14/1

Crafters Cafe 'anything goes' 14/1

Papertake weekly 'anything goes' 14/1

Challenges 4 Everybody 'anything goes' 31/1

Let's Celebrate

Another new card today- again using some new products!

I love most of the DoCrafts/Papermania range and always look forward to their new releases every 2 months (new GORJUSS stuff in March!) and this recent update to the Art Deco range is no exception. The new silver, black & pale green colour scheme is beautiful. I picked up the 'Ultimate Die-Cut & Paper pack' which is always such a bargain as it contains toppers, decoupage, backing papers, messages- everything you could need. This is the first card I've made from the kit and all I've added to it is the 8x8 base card and 3 feathers in co-ordinating colours.

It was a really quick & simple card too...

I started with the 8x8 card blank and 2 backing papers from the kit (the middle layer one is black with silver foil so it didn't photograph well but is stunning in real life). I chose my topper that I wanted to use and then used a fancy edge corner punch on all 4 layers. I layered the card together using double sided tape apart from the main topper which I used 3d foam on. Because I wanted to secure the feathers behind the topper, I didn't put a foam pad in the top left corner so that I could place the feathers after the topper was in place. I attached the feathers by putting a small amount of pva glue onto the end of each one and then carefully placing it behind the topper.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-
Creative Inspirations 'celebrate' 7/1
Crafty Calendar 'celebrate' 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

Hogwarts Acceptance Letter

Happy Christmas Eve!!!

Another non-card making post today as thankfully my Christmas related cards are all done. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for presents! I never really feel in a Christmas present sorting mood until work had finished for the holidays so that never leaves me much time. 

Luckily a trip to the shops yesterday was very fruitful, last night I finished making my own version of Mrs Weasley's clock (for a Harry Potter loving friend) and the sewing machine is now busy making a Hogwarts Acceptance Letter for the same friend- hope she loves them as much as I do!

I used a blank 12x12 piece of mdf, painted it matt black and then used Indigo Blu Flitter Glu and foil to do the numbers, distressed edges and the hands. I then printed small pictures of each member of the family and glued those to the hands. 

It's not quite as magical as Mrs Weasley's but it really works!

This is my other creation, a Harry Potter Hogwarts Acceptance Letter, word by word true to the original in the Philosophers Stone but personalised for my friend. I plan to frame it so she can hang it somewhere in her home. 

I tried a practice run a while ago and it worked really well.

Merry Christmas!

I am entering the clock into a new challenge blog I have just found:-
Crafting for all Seasons 'anything but a card'