More Scraps Used

I've managed to use up a few more  bits and pieces which I couldn't bear to throw away and produced another card for my box.  The flower is just part of a larger image from Chocolate Baroque and was one which didn't stamp perfectly - the fault was mine and nothing to do with the quality of the stamp I hasten to add!!  It was coloured with Copic pens and I cut out a circular piece with just the flower head which fitted perfectly into the doily die cut.  The white embossed piece was part of a larger panel using a Couture Creations embossing folder and the fancy die cut at the back was one I cut out to try out a Sizzix die.  Luckily I had this piece of backing paper which matched well with the 'oddments' so with a little bit of matching ribbon that's another card to share with you.

Ribbon and Lace

The challenge at Make My Monday this week is to use ribbon and/or lace and this is what sort of happened when I decided to have a go without any specific plan in my head.  The square embossing folder was one given away with a recent magazine - couldn't resist as usual!! I stamped a simple flower from the Sweet summer set by Stampin' Up, coloured with Copic pens. The little vase is the SU Christmas bauble punch with a slice chopped off, then it was embossed.  In actual fact the mauves on this card really match well for real but again the scanner seems to have changed the tones slightly which is a shame. Some cream lace was added to an X-cut punched border.  I've not added a greeting at this point as it always nice to have a few cards with no particular occasion in mind.

Pretty Flowers

The stamp used here is one of a set of freebies given away with a recent magazine and I do try hard to resist buying these but every now and then the stamps look so useful that I succumb.This card was made up using bits and pieces of paper and card mainly from the scraps boxes; sentiment was a wood mounted stamp from ages ago and the butterflies were stamped and punched using a set from Stampin' Up which came my way at a wonderful Extravaganza day. Border strip is an EK Success punch.  These designs are so easy to colour (I used alcohol pens) so good for quick and easy cards.

I'm planning a quiet day in the craft room today - nothing too strenuous as I'm all aches and pains after having had a little mishap yesterday when I tripped on an uneven pavement and landed flat on my face - my chin seems to have come off worst.  Believe me purple Desperate Dan is not a good look and also my ribs are feeling very sore on one side - probably landed on my handbag which I carry over that shoulder!!  Fortunately there was no one around to witness my stupidity so I picked myself up and carried on.

Heat Embossing

The challenge this week on Make My Monday is to use heat embossing and there are some great examples on their blog and a wonderful mid week motivation project by Suzi B. For my card I took some text paper from Papermania and some of their urban stamps on the same theme along with a Marianne die cut leaf spray and built up a monochrome collage to which I've added some ladybirds - also an Urban stamp recently released.  The ladybirds were stamped in black and embossed, then coloured with alchohol pen; a Versamark pen was used over the coloured areas which were then clear embossed before cutting them out and adding them to the collage.  Words were produced with a Dymo label machine.

Cheery Get Well

This is another bright card made using the free owl stamps which came with a recent magazine purchase.  Again I've raided my scrap boxes to come up with all the bits to die cut the layers and the striped backing paper is from a Papermania pad which I've had for quite a while. Luckily I was able to pick scraps to match the colours in the stripes.  Have a good weekend and I hope that the threatened snow doesn't materialise.

Addicted to Stamps and More

The challenge this week at Addicted to Stamps and More is for a CAS (clean and simple) card with lots of white space and minimum embellishment and this is my second attempt at achieving a result without any unwanted 'splodges' or fingermarks!!  The stamp is from Penny Black coloured using Flexmarkers, Promarkers and a touch of Copic.  The sentiment is from a lovely  set of butterfly stamps by Clearly Besotted and yes I have resisted the temptation to load this card with butterflies - so far anyway...LOL !! However I couldn't resist stamping the image twice, cutting out the daisies and layering for some dimension.

St Luke's Charity Challenge

This month the challenge on the St Luke's Charity blog is to produce a simple Christmas card with lots of white space - those who know me will realise I don't normally go for minimalist but here it is. I stamped this Michael Powell image (Papermania), coloured it with Flex markers and Copic pens, popped it onto a textured white card and added a stamped greeting.- all of which I managed without any grubby marks on the white space - I must be improving!!  There are some  great examples from their design team if you take a look at the blog.

M is for Music

This is the second of my three alphatags for this month and after some thought I decided to go for music as the theme for the letter M.  Stamp used is from Chocolate Baroque and the instrument has been glazed with clear embossing and layered for some dimension. The background on the tag was done using distress inks and overstamped with music and a treble clef.  The words were printed on a Dymo label maker.

Addicted to Stamps Challenge Week 1

I was introduced to yet another challenge blog, mainly because two of my friends are on the design team - it is called Addicted to Stamps and as well as a weekly card challenge, they are doing a monthly scrapbook one.   If you follow the link you can see what they are all about and maybe join in.  For the first week they have asked us to 'make your mark' - using markers to colour an image being the general idea.  In my trawl through the bits boxes I came across a stray printed digi stamp of Magnum (from Ladybug Crafts) so have coloured him and his friend Lily with Copics and made a cheery get well card. Background paper is from a pad which has lost the cover (had it for ages) and I added a Memory Box diecut border, some corners punched from scraps and a little button from a pack of cat and dog themed ones which I bought some years ago.  The little faux brads in the corners are bits of the 'waste' left over from cutting the border - don't laught Anne!!!  As this card incorporates some neglected items it should also qualify for Judith's Forgotten Friday challenge so two for the price of one this week.

St Luke's Charity Challenge

I was reminded on my friend Anne's blog that I'd not yet made a card for the St Luke's Charity challenge which this month is 'Deck The Halls' so a Christmas card I guess.  When I saw Anne's mid month motivation card I was sure I had a similar stamp in my collection and once I dug it out I realised it was exactly the same (a very old wooden stamp by PSX which I've had forever).  I've made a quick card using it and also using up some seasonal papers from my stash from last Christmas - I really am trying to use things I already have in an effort to clear some space but I have to say using this small amount of paper hasn't made much difference to the heap!!  The stamp was coloured using Copic pens; background papers and greeting are from Papermania and a nice red ribbon finishes off the card.

Forgotten Friday 40

It is thanks to Miranda that I dug these stamps out to use this week and to my shame although I've had them for ages (we're talking years here) they had never been inked - how bad is that??  Do take a look at her blog to see some of her lovely work.  This card was made for Judith's Forgotten Friday challenge and of course this is another blog which has beautiful work - they are both on the Chocolate Baroque design team and these large flower and leaf stamps are CB (formerly Elusive Images).  First of all I stamped one of the large flowers on a piece of ivory card with Versamark and clear embossed, then applied various Distress inks with cut'n'dry foam and overstamped with a swirl stamp in one of the colours to give a subtle effect.  The leaves were stamped also with Versamark and embossed with Queen's Gold, coloured using Copic pens and cut out before arranging them on the card with a small gold die cut flower (Marianne die).  This weekly challenge is brilliant for making me use items which lie neglected and sometimes even completely forgotten - thanks Judith.

Forgotten Friday 38

Friday again already and time for something for Judith's Forgotten Friday challenge.  During my recent efforts to have a bit of a sort out of my stash I came across a box with a selection of stamped and/or digi stamp images some of which I'd coloured and some not so I decided to use one of the coloured ones for the challenge as I'd completely forgotten what was in the box - what am I like??  I thought these birds (a digi image from Pollycraft coloured with Copic pens)) would make a cute 'congratulations' card - background paper from my stash has had a border added with a fineline pen, a Martha Stewart punched border was added along with a couple of punched flowers. A friend had commented that she thought my cards had been a bit dark of late so I hope she likes this brighter one (you know who you are)!!

LOTV Cutie

Apologies for not blogging much this week but I've been busy preparing for some beadwork demonstrations this weekend so there may not be much blogging then either!!  For this card I used one of the free Lili of the Valley images which were given away with a magazine a while ago.  Colouring was done with Copic pens and various backing papers were used from my stash but I can't recall the source because I often take pieces from various pads to match up for a project and then change my mind and don't use them all. The flowers are from a pot of mixed coloured ones with a Marianne die cut leaf and the greeting was a free download.

Bear with Flower

The other week I spotted a give-away on a magazine of some Lili of the Valley images on card  to colour and cut out so I couldn't resist - pity the magazine wasn't as good as the images but I reckon it was worth it because there were 20 different images..  This one has been coloured with Promarkers and Copics.  Background papers are from my stash, sentiment was computer generated using My Craft Studio and I added a Marianne die cut butterfly.

Bah Humbug Challenge 16

The challenge over at Bah Humbug this week is - the man himself, Santa Claus - so I turned to Joanna Sheen's Enchanted Christmas CD set which has lots of Santa images.  I've chosen one of my all time favourites and printed it off in two sizes together with the accompanying background papers. I coloured a peel-off bow with a matching Copic pen, added a computer greeting with a bit of matting and layering and that's it really for this week.

Less is More Week 9

While I was making my card for the Less is More challenge this week I had an idea for a second card so have made two this week.  For the first one I've used stamps from the Flora Bella set by Elusive Images (now known as Chocolate Baroque), stamped onto a Nestability shape and coloured with Copic pens.  The corners are a Marianne die and the wording was stamped direct onto the DL card after everything else was in place (still a scary thing for me) but fortunately it went OK first time!!  The second card was made using papers from Funky Hand CDs.

Forgotten Friday 9

Forgotten Friday comes around very quickly and Judith has made a lovely card using a set stamps which were lying unused - her blog is well worth a look anytime.  My card uses a couple of stamps from a set called Studio Sketch which was a hostess gift from Stampin Up a while ago and I think I only used one or two of them once when I got them first - it's a good thing that I have to keep tidying up and reorganising all my 'stuff' because it certainly reminds me of what I've not used recently and that in turn is handy for this challenge.

I used background paper by Artylicious, a piece of card embossed using a Cuttlebug folder and a couple of Marianne Die cuts.  The image and greeting were stamped on kraft card which is a favourite of mine at the moment. The two buttons were dug out of my huge button box which lies neglected nowadays because I don't do dressmaking now and rarely knit garments either to use them up. I don't think I'm likely to run out of buttons even if I put some on every card I make!!

Christmas Cat

Well winter has officially reached the south west - we awoke to snow this morning but of course nothing like as much as there has been further north.  It all looks very pretty but causes such disruption and I opted to stay indoors.  What else to do but make a Christmas card - this is one of my favourite seasonal stamps which I received in a goody bag of unmounted stamps many years ago.  I've always found it very versatile because it can be a cat of various colours and is large enough to work on shrink plastic for a different look.  The background paper is from Papermania and is double sided which always causes me a dilemma of which side to use but decided on the option with a very large poinsettia.  It has been  edged with a gold pen and I didn't want to cover up too much of it so just added a die cut poinsettia.

Another Reindeer

It was such a wet miserable day yesterday that I treated myself to a day in the craft room with a few breaks to sit by the fire with warming cuppas.  I made a Christmas card and realised that it fits the Bah Humbug challenge so that will be two cards for that one this week.  Image was stamped and coloured with Copics using a stamp which came with a bargain grab bag many years ago and the poinsettia was die cut using a Marianne die set which I only bought on Monday.  Background papers are from Papermania, ticket came from Cuddly Buddly and the poinsettia was overpainted with champagne shimmer paint.

Bah Humbug Challenge 39

Well I think I might be psychic - the Bah Humbug challenge this week is 'cuties' and I've just made this card which fits the bill, using a Forever Friends peel-off from a sheet which came in my recent goody bag purchase. I put the peel-off onto some white card, cut out around the outside and coloured him with Copic pens.  He has been popped onto a Nestabilities shape which was run through the Swiss Dots embossing folder.   Background papers are from Papermania Classic Christmas  pack and the greeting is a Crafts Too embossing folder; the fur on his hat has been covered with dimensional glitter 'snow'.