House of Cards

We are into the second month with House of Cards and this time we have a sketch to follow and as this is the first week of the month we are back to CUTE AND FUN.  I've chosen an image from Polkadoodles - well two actually because I've combined the girl with the fence because I thought she needed something to be sitting on.  Backing paper is from a free pad I acquired recently and an EK Success punch was used for the border strip.  The simple addition of a couple of punched flowers with card candy centres; a computer greeting and there we have an approximation of the sketch.  Do take a look to see how their design team members have interpreted this by folllowing the link above.

Birthday Card

I was asked recently to make a birthday card for a 70 year old who does lots of baking and having given it some thought I decided to use something from Polkadoodles Picknix CD.  I printed off some background paper and a topper then a couple of embellishments in the form of a cup cake and oven mitt - both were   resized to fit - the cake was printed more than once so that it could be layered.  Die cut numbers were added to the rolling pin and the greeting printed on the computer.

Make My Monday Week 53

As it is Fathers' Day soon that is the theme for the challenge on Make My Monday this week and fortunately they also mention a masculine card.  I am quite pleased because I am rather too old to require a card for Fathers' Day!!  This is another card using something found in my oddments boxes, namely a printed digital image from the George at Work range by Charmed Cards and Crafts which I've actually made into a birthday card.  Background paper and the various die cut or punched pieces were all found in the oddments boxes as well - odd thing is that despite using lots of scraps recently the boxes are still brimming so I reckon they are quietly breeding overnight!!

Spring Flowers

Spring is just around the corner - it's official because at least two challenge blogs have chosen it as their theme for the month.  Make My Monday have a general theme of  Spring for the whole month with a specific theme of  Spring Flowers  for week 39.  Spring into Spring  is the theme of the month for the St Luke's Charity challenge.

I just knew that somewhere amongs my huge stamp collection I had a wooden stamp with daffodils and I eventually managed to unearth it to stamp onto watercolour paper and colour using Polychromos pencils.  Nestabilities were used to cut out the oval shapes and Spellbinders dies for the border; background paper is from a pad I've had for a long while and as usual the cover is missing - some stamping was added around the edge.  A stamped greeting was added along with a ribbon and scrap of floral paper from my bits box and that's it - two challenges covered with one card.

The Time Has Come...

... for me to have a MAJOR sort out and organisation of my craft room but before I launch into this mammoth task it is also time for Judith's Forgotten Friday challenge again so I've just made this quick anniversary card. Do go and take a look at her blog - some beautiful work to see and the current post is a Haloween tag using her forgotten or neglected stamps (mind you Halloween stamps are mostly a once a year thing anyway which is why I don't have any to speak of).
For my card I used three stamps from a set of frames and smaller stamps by Joanna Sheen which I have had for a very long time and haven't used for an equally long time - we're talking years here and the little heart motif had never been inked as far as I recall. Background paper is a piece left over from a recent project and is from Artylicious Seasons Greetings CD which isn't just for Christmas; the frame and bow were stamped using Versamark onto kraft card and gold embossed before being cut out; the Top Note die cut has been embossed using a polka dot mask (another item which I reckon has been used only once since I bought it; the sentiment was computer generated and cut out with oval punches from Stampin Up.

The Other Anniversary Card

As I mentioned previously I'd made two anniversary cards recently and this one actually used up the rest of the backing paper I'd printed which is better than putting it away in a box and probably forgetting all about it.

For this one I used:

A piece of card embossed with hearts and spritzed with Glimmer Mist
A heart stamped with Versamark and gold embossed (Chocolate Baroque stamp)
A heart cut with an X-cut die and embossed for texture
Sentiments produced on the computer punched with Stampin Up punches
A small piece of paper from my oddments box(Chocolate Baroque)
A Marianne die cut corner and some card candy

Anniversary Birds

I've been asked to make a Golden anniversary card and as there was no request for personalisation I actually made two so that there would be a choice and the one not chosen will go into my box as a 'spare'.  I turned to Artylicious Decadent Brocade CD (Chocolate Baroque) and printed off a sheet of backing paper and two inserts onto some metallic champagne heavyweight paper.  For this cards I've used the following:-
  
     Sizzix top note die cut embossed with cuttlebug swirls folder, sponged with DI and edged with gold pen
     Marianne die cut heart
     Two birds on branches using Stampin Up punch
     Numbers cut using X-cut dies popped onto punched circle and die cut shape
     A border  strip with hearts - Martha Stewart punch
     Wording printed from computer punched using Stampin Up punches

I will post the other card another day

Forgotten Friday

It's time for the Forgotten Friday challenge again - actually it is Saturday now and I'm really not at all sure what happened to Friday.  I've been trying to have a bit of a tidy up and sort out in my craft room which is a fairly regular occurence and never makes much impression on the chaos.  During this I came across a box with lots of die cuts and so on which I'd done whilst demonstrating the Big Shot back in April so I fished around and found all the necessary bits of this owl (as you can see he has lots of pieces) and decided he would fit the bill for the challenge this week. Background paper is from my stash and the border was cut with a Martha Stewart punch - the owl is popped onto a Marianne die cut and the sentiment was punched with Stampin Up punches.

Baby Dragon

This cute baby dragon is a stamp from Sweet Pea and he's been coloured with Inktense and Polychromos pencils with glitter added to the wings.  Background paper is from my stash (K and Co) and a Martha Stewart punch was used on the embossed card.  Some ribbon and a computer greeting and there he is to wish someone a Happy Birthday.

CD Sunday challenge

The challenge theme this week on CD Sunday is nursery rhymes and it is a good job there was so much inspiration from the design team or I wouldn't have known where to start.  I searched out my Victorian Birthdays CD from Joanna Sheen and found this colourful image of 'three little kittens' - used backing papers from the CD and added a punched border, a few flowers and a greeting layered onto a variety of punched shapes.

Home Sweet Home

I have to confess I just couldn't resist this set of stamps from Chocolate Baroque and this is just one of the images on the plate of Clarice Cliff type cottages.  Image was stamped onto 160gsm sketch book cartridge paper and coloured using Polychromos pencils, then cut out with a Nestability circle and brushed with some dye ink for the sky.  Background paper is from CB Essence of Nature CD and the 'art deco' sunrays were made using a Tim Holtz embossing folder, sponged with Distress ink.  The word is from the stamp set also and is on a Stampin-up punched label .In reality the colours relate to each other better than they appear on the scan - why do scanners sometimes change colours??  No doubt there is a technical reason!!.

Froggy Treat

When is an owl not an owl?  When it's a frog!  I'd made a little treat holder (similar in shape to a book of matches) and it has a little window inside to hold a chocolate treat - or any other treat really.  (Tutorial on Split Coast Stampers). The obvious thing is to pop in chicks for Easter, Santas for Christmas and so on but when I called into my local branch of M & S to see what was around I found some little foil wrapped chocolate frogs but hadn't got around to using them yet until I was thinking of other ways in which I might use my cute Stampin Up owl punch.  I've managed to turn him into a frog of sorts - I've not taken a picture of the inside because the foil on the chocolate is extra shiny and reflections are causing a problem.

Bah humbug Challenge 29

My lovely owl punch arrived from Stampin Up and I really wanted to have a play so I worked out a way to incorporate owls and the requested BEADS for the Bah Humbug challenge this week.  I turned two of them into Santa owls and sat them on chimneys - fine but how to use beads?  Then I had the idea of die cutting and embossing some trees and decorating one of them with tiny beads so now these two Santas are sitting on the rooftop with their own tree relaxing after delivering all the presents.  The sentiment is from a set of Joanna Sheen owl stamps which I remembered I had lurking around somewhere - I do love owls!!

Forgotten Friday 26

Friday again and time to visit Judith's Forgotten Friday blog - well worth a visit as she has made a beautiful bird card.  For my card this week I've visited an old and almost forgotten technique (temporarily forgotten by me anyway!!) using decorative paper napkins.  The traditional way to do this is to use 'mod podge' or decoupage glue to adhere the top picture layer onto a piece of card but I tried the modern way with some cling film and an iron but be aware that not all cling film works (there are tutorials on the web).  Doing it this. way gives a very flat smooth result and I'm not sure I don't prefer the slightly textured effect you get when using the 'messy' method.  The background paper is some which I've had for some time, months in fact ever since a friend asked me to pick her up a couple of sheets from my local craft shop and naturally I couldn't resist buying some for myself, promptly stored it away and forgot I had it!! The flower was made with a Marianne die and a flower punch using up odd scraps from my HUGE bits box - why is it I just cannot throw out anything unless it's smaller than a postage stamp??

Forgotten Friday 25

Friday again and time to dig out some forgotten item from my stash to make something for Judith's challenge - why don''t you have a go as well?  This week I'd been looking through folders on the computer at my digi images and I seem to have loads which have been used very rarely if at all which is a shame as I bought them because I liked them at the time.  This giraffe is from Pink Gem Designs; background papers are  from my stash; I've added a ribbon with daisies and punched out some little daisies to match. along with leaves using a Stampin Up punch.

Anniversary Card

I was asked to make a Golden Wedding Aniversary card recently and for this I printed a background paper onto gold pearlised paper from Decadent Brocade CD and stamped and gold embossed two hearts using Damask Hearts stamps - both products from Chocolate Baroque.  A piece of toning card was embossed using a heart Cuttlebug embossing folder and then sprayed with gold Glimmer Mist..  Sentiment and the number  were produced on the computer.  I've been a bit quiet on the blog this week because I've  been concentrating on playing catch-up with a mystery quilt project which I should have started in January when we had the first set of instructions and I purchased the fabric.  Thankfully I am almost there now and will take a photograph when it is completed.

Tatty Teddy

Docrafts have just brought out a range of Papermania Tatty Teddy items which are quite appealing.  For my 'I-spy friend' (you know who you are) I didn't actually buy this stamp because it was free along with a small embossing folder on the front of their Creativity magazine.  He has been coloured with Copic pens and the image was cut out with a Nestabilities die.  Background paper is from the Pampered Pets range and the sentiment was a stamp from the freebie set.  Some natural coloured ribbon was coloured using the same Copic pen as I used on Teddy's nose and a Sizzix square lattice embossing folder (Stampin Up) was used on one of the layers.

Bird Cage

Last year a friend bought one of my cards with wording on to send to one of her friends and this year asked for something similar but with a different verse so I stamped off all my suitable words and let her choose.  This Elusive Images stamp was her choice and I used backing paper from Artylicious Echoes of Italy collection, overstamped around the edges with some swirls (also EI stamp).  The birdcage and bird were stamps from Papermania from a set called Tweet which is being sold with a donation of £2 per sale going to Cancer Research UK.  The addition of some cream lace and a computer greeting complete this card - I do hope she likes it!!

Forgotten Friday 7

The card I've made for the Forgotten Friday challenge this week uses a 'forgotten technique'.  I was reminded of this earlier in the week when I got together with three other crafty friends and one of them  (thanks Janet) told us about a way of using cling film with the lovely images which often appear on serviettes.  This is instead of using mod podge which is how I've done it before and as well as taking ages to dry it has a strange smell and can be messy.  Unfortunately I haven't been able to get the right brand of cling film yet so I resorted to using a piece of Bondaweb instead which also works but would work out more expensive than using cling film.  Background paper is from Papermania and I added some black lace and a scrunched flower made from brown wrapping paper, sprayed with Glimmer Mist.  Greeting was composed on the computer, cut out using Stampin Up punches and the leaves were cut using a Marianne die.  Judith had made a flower using brown paper - thanks - I'd not have thought of that but it is effective.

Bah Humbug Challenge 8

Well we are up to week 8 already at Bah Humbug and this week's challenge is 'things that fly' which should give everyone lots of scope.  I decided to go for robins but if these two little fellows eat the pudding they are eyeing up I think they might have problems getting off the ground. The background paper, robins, pudding, holly and sentiment strip were all printed from Polkadoodles Sundae of Seasons - cut out, glittered and popped onto a couple of Sizzix die cut shapes.