Forgotten Friday 10

The stamps used for this Forgotten Friday challenge were a really lucky find for me last week at the charity shop in our village so I guess they must have lain neglected by someone else before finding their way there.  They are from a sheet of unmounted by The Stamp Man which I don't think have been used because they were only very roughly cut out and not mounted on cling foam.  The background paper was printed on pearl paper from Artylicious Seasons Greetings CD which is not just for Christmas as there are some great designs which can be used all year round.  The block of text was one of the stamps from the set and the image with the butterfly was stamped onto card which had been coloured with alcohol inks - the butterfly was stamped on the same card but  in green and embossed with silver pearl and was layered slightly offset to give a shadowed effect.  A few swirls were added around the edges of the background.

Funky Hand Monthly challenge

The March challenge at Funky Hand is 'Zing into Spring' and I've made a simple 'thankyou' card using a template from the Craft the Year Away CD with a fresh green background paper from the March collection. This card is following the current trend for cards with less decoration and the circles were printed directly onto white card and the words stamped onto toning card which was then cut using a Spellbinders die.  The design team put ideas on the blog  throughout the month and it is worth looking regularly to see what they come up with using the great Funky Hand products.

A Die Cut Cat

The topper on this card was made using one of the die cutting sets from Papermania Pampered Pets range.  This one wasn't too fiddly to assemble after it was cut although I have found some of their other ones have so many little pieces that they are in danger of getting lost on my desk before I get them stuck together. Background paper is from my stash and the cat has been mounted onto a couple of Nestability shapes.  The colours are  looking a bit odd in the scan - the embossed shape is actually a sort of mid lilac and looks far too dark here.

Less is More Week 7

The challenges at Less is More seem to be getting more and more entries each week and it seems that this clean and simple style is gaining momentum. Sometimes we actually need a fairly straightforward card and making cards for men is often a problem particularly if they aren't into sports and so on so this is the challenge this week - to make a plain and simple card for a man.  I think mine comes into this category because I took a kraft DL card, die cut two shapes also using kraft card and stamped the wording - job done.  The card blank is from Papermania, the large shape was a Sizzix die and the smaller one a Nellies die.  The words are from a set of birthday words from Elusive Images ( a play on words here too as it happens!). I resisted the urge to sponge the edges of the die cuts but I did add two fancy brads.

If you pop over to Less is More you will be able to see the entries so far this week and there is also a great tutorial on matting and layering using Nestabilities to get narrower borders.

Bah Humbug Challenge 11

The challenge this week on Bah Humbug is 'metallic' so all sorts of scope here.  I settled on colouring some glossy card with alcohol inks, stamping using Elusive Images Klimt Baubles and embossing with gold powder. The background paper is from Artylicious Seasons Greetings CD and I printed it on some beautiful metallic gold paper which I've just discovered is no longer available - sad or what.  Fortrunately I still have a small amount left so will reserve it for 'special' printing like today when I felt it went along with the  theme. The sentiment is also from the same set of Elusive Images stamps and I even went to my sadly neglected stash of peel-offs for something to 'hang' the baubles.

By the way - while I had my alcohol inks out I noticed that the mixatives (the metallic ones) had well and truly settled at the bottom of the bottles and it took me ages to get them mixed again.  I tried shaking vigorously to no effect and  resorted to tapping the bottles smartly on the table several times which eventually loosened the little ball from the sludge at the bottom and now they are well mixed again.  I must remember to give them a shake every now and then even if I'm not actually planning on using them at the time.

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!!

Bird of Paradise

I'm afraid I was tempted by this bird of paradise die by Marianne and the birdcage sort of fell into my basket at the same time - how does this happen?? Background papers are from My Minds Eye with an embossed panel using a Tim Holtz embossing folder. Now I've seen the photo on the screen I'm regretting adding the photo corners so I might just have to disguise them with a flower.  I felt something was needed there but I think I made a wrong decision.

 Edited - I have now added a small punched flower and it looks so much better - at least I think so.