CBC weekend challenge 3

'Just what you need for the table at Christmas (PLACE NAMES)
They don't need to be for CHRISTMAS they can be for any occasion.
They can be any design you like but,
YOU MUST MAKE AT LEAST 4'

I expect there will only be the three of us for Christmas, but you never know, so I've made three with names and three without (I can always use the blank ones for us for Boxing Day):



Sorry, not a good picture, but you can see them more clearly if you click on it.

CBC weekend challenge 2

H gave us instructions for making a folded card.

'Make a Challenge fold Christmas card.

IT MUST INCLUDE ONE OF THESE WORDS ON THE FRONT
MERRY GREETINGS SEASONS
ALSO MUST BE A COLOURED CARD'



I enjoyed making this card (it was my second attempt - got the measurements wrong at first - should have had my reading glasses on!)

CBC weekend challenge 1

Helen has organised a weekend challenge for the CBC forum, which started at 10:00 this morning with this challenge:

I would like you to make a Key Ring,
this can be made with a plastic key fob bought from a crafty shop or
you could alter one you have already.
Or even just use layers of a cereal packet stuck together with a eyelet
at the top with a hoop.

YOU MUST USE A STAMPED IMAGE
OR IF YOU DON'T OWN A STAMP
YOU CAN USE A PRINTED IMAGE

I made mine from scratch. I used two chipboard shapes - a flower and a heart and covered both sides of each with silver acrylic paint. I then stamped randomly with this stamp:



using Stazon. I coloured the middles of the flower and randomly on the stamped image with a whisper pink pen and then covered each side with glossy accents - I had to be very patient to allow one side to dry before doing the other side ... and afterwards I wondered why I hadn't used UTEE, which would have been much quicker - d'oh!

All I then had to do was punch holes with my cropadile and thread a chain through:




I needed a keyring, so this challenge was just right and, for a change, it's something I'm keeping for myself.

Wedding day card

I was asked by a friend if I would make a wedding day card for their son. The card I've used is from PDA majestic night club purple (it has a beautiful blue sheen to it when it catches the light), which matches the invitations. I put two 160 mm square cards together so that there are two openings to the card. I've used two diamonte buckles and ribbon on the inner piece, which has some wording written by my friends.

The bride and groom stamp is one of my favourites, simply stamped with versamark and embossed with silver detail.

HS:MS:HS brush

'A device made of bristles with which to clean, paint or polish, or a brief encounter or contact. Find 'brush' in your space.'

These brushes sit in a pot on my windowsill - don't really know why I've got them, because I don't paint:

OCC - it's all about the coloring

I made this card a day or two ago to send to a crafting buddy on a forum to let her know that I was thinking of her.

I thought I'd share it for the challenge on Our Creative Corner 'it's all about the coloring' - showing a favourite way of colouring. Well, I have to confess that I'm not very good at colouring - find it difficult to get the blending right, whatever pencils, copics etc I use - but I'm fairly successful with this stamp (probably because it doesn't need much colouring!) - it's very simple, but one of my favourites (as you may have guessed, because I've shown other cards with it on). I used inktense pencils with a touch of Sansodor to blend:

ABC challenge: P is for pink & CBCC072 Paper plus

I was asked to do a birthday card with a pink theme, so I thought this would be perfect too for this week's 'P is for pink' on ABC challenge blog.

I used a Crafty Bitz paper that has a patchwork effect, cutting it up and re-arranging, with just the addition of a piece of pink velvet ribbon, primas (to hide the folds in the ribbon where it had been wound round card!) and the printed greeting:



As this card has used mainly just patterned paper, it is just right for challenge 72 on CBC where the emphasis needs to be on PP, no stamping etc.

HS:MS:HS fry + cling

Yesterday's word on HS:MS:HS was 'fry'. I fully intended to take a photo when I cooked our evening meal, because I used the frying pan, but I forgot, so in the end I took these shots:





Later on in the evening, I happened to flick on to UKFood on TV and there was an old Masterchef. I decided to try and capture a couple of shots from the screen - mmmm, every time I tried, the picture had moved on before I got the shot, so, not to be put off, I paused the picture and managed a couple of shots of salmon being fried with flames leaping around the side of the pan:





Today's word is 'cling' - I couldn't think of anything exciting for this, so this is my effort:

Salt: hope

It was my turn to choose the theme this time and this is what I've said on the Salt faith challenge blog:

Our theme this time is

Hope

We are living in uncertain times, so it's understandable if folk feel that there is no hope. As Christians, we have hope because of what Jesus did for us at Calvary. This hope isn't an airy-fairy 'maybe' for the future, but it is a certainty that we can claim now.

In our church we have recently been privileged to hear a series of sermons on hope, which is what prompted me to choose this topic now. On Sunday we sang the song which is on my LO, which I feel sums up our Christian hope:

Our confidence is in the Lord
The source of our salvation
Rest is found in Him alone
The Author of creation
We will not fear the evil day
Because we have a refuge
In every circumstance we say
Our hope is built on Jesus

The verse from Hebrews 6:19 says it much better than I could: 'We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.'

We pray that you may have the joy of experiencing this hope for yourself.

We would love you to show us your interpretations of this theme.

For my LO I used an All My Memories background paper called Carefree. The stripy backgrounds of the anchor and our photo are AMM serenity stripe and the song and the verse from Hebrews were printed on the plain sides of Chatterbox Scrapbook walls varsity stripem and denim urban stripe. The green letters of HOPE are thickers vinyl.





Please pop over to Salt to see the beautiful creations of the rest of the team.

CBC ATCs under the sea

The topic this for the October ATC swap on CBC was 'under the sea' (we've been going through the alphabet and it was hard to come up with a topic for 'u').

I had some coral reef background paper that I scanned and reduced in size. I then printed on to acetate and threw some clear detail embossing powder and a bit of holographic over it as soon as it came out of the printer, which gave a sprinkled effect. I ran the acetate through my xyron with the embossed side down, so that the surface of the ATCs are smooth. The acetates were then stuck on to a light greeny blue card, and the other bits and pieces added:





In the end, I enjoyed doing this. ATCs are a good way of trying out different things (not so much wasted if things go wrong - and they did at first - I tried embossing with other powder but it wasn't effective).

The word on HS:MS:HS today is shimmer: 'To shine with a soft glistening light. Find a 'shimmer' in your space today', so I think my ATC photos qualify that that too.

A nostalgic afternoon

I know this is a crafting blog, but so far today I haven't got any crafting to show, because I've been sorting through old photos. Ages and ages ago (and here I feel guilty), I brought all mum's old photos home with the intention of sorting them (oh, what a mammoth job that has proved to be) and scanning so she can see them on her digi frame that we bought her last year, or scrap some. I also have boxes of my own photos from way back, as well as all those that we've accumulated since we married.

What a task!! I originally went through a lot of mum's with her and made a note of who was who, but there are still some that I'm not sure about, so we're going to have to have a get-together to sort these out - I know that mum will enjoy doing that.

John's vision is so poor that the average sized photo is hopeless for him, so we've bought two 10" digi frames and the idea is that I'll put photos on memory cards to use with these - and from time to time we can also show these on the television, which, if he sits near enough, he can see.

So I've resolved this afternoon that once the Christmas fair at church and at mum's sheltered accommodation is over and I've made enough Christmas cards for our own needs, I'll stop cardmaking for a while and concentrate on sorting out the photos.

As I'm declaring this here, I might stick to it!

We also have quite a lot of the little video tapes from the camcorder that have never been put on to video - and now, anyway, they need to go on to DVD, so that's another vast job to be done. Here again, this needs to be done so that John can have a chance of seeing something on the TV screen.

Joanna Sheen challeng 26 October: all that glitters

The theme on JS's forum this week is 'all that glitters'.

This is a Christmas card using supplies from the DCWV winter collection:



It really does look more glittery irl than it does here.

LO with my bridesmaid photo

Lisa left a comment to say that the bridesmaid picture was crying out to be scrapped. I did this a while ago (think I've shown it before):



but perhaps I could do much better than this now. I still don't have confidence with scrapping and have to admit that I haven't done much for a while now - perhaps it's about time I did.

Lots to do: 32 nature

A piece of blue card was run through the cuttlebug embossing folder and then inked with brown, mustard and red - the saying was computer generated. This is for the challenge on Lots to do: Nature. The flower was a cream one that I inked.

JB Friday night challenge 24 October

The Friday night challenge on 24 October on JB was 'fun with felt'.

I don't know how I've got the cheek to show these really, because they are only ready-made felt toppers from Poundland mounted on some magazine freebie papers.

I will be adding a sentiment, but am waiting to see whether I want to put 'grandson' or whatever or a name (that's my story and I'm sticking to it).

So here are my two very elaborate cards!





My excuse is that I'm trying to use up bits and pieces that have been in my Christmas stash for far too long (and I'm not sure why they were ever there in the first place).

Ink on my fingers: Sunday Stamper 32

I made a totally blue card for the challenge on Ink on my fingers: Mr Sky Blue.

I used a couple of paisley stamps from Tanda randomly, using Stazon ultramarine on the blue base card and also stamped a panel and mounted on silver mirror card, which is raised up with foam (but you can't tell that from the photo). The sentiment is also raised to give the card a bit more dimension.



So there's no patterned paper in sight (which makes a nice change).

HS:MS:HS SPS with a twist

On HS:MS:HS today: 'This Saturday I’d like to try and make our SPS shots just a little bit more interesting - so who's going to play? What I would like you to do is post a favourite childhood photo of yourself, but one that has a little story behind it. Not looking for an essay, just a few lines about the memories that the photo brings. Can you do that?'

This is me as a bridesmaid in November 1954 (I was seven). Mum decided that I should have my hair cut and home permed especially for the occasion, but she was never much good at doing hair, particularly anything to do with perming! - hence the fuzzy look (after lots of brushing).

There were six bridesmaids altogether - three adult and three children.

My dress was white with a silvery pattern on it. I remember thinking that the gloves were so posh and the horseshoe of anenome flowers was beautiful (doesn't show in the old black and white photo).

Saturday's Workout: bandana technique

I saw a challenge on Saturday's workout which involved the 'bandana technique', a tutorial for which can be seen here.

I thought I'd give it a try, but I think it was stupid trying to do it quickly at this time. I chose what I thought was a simple stamp, but, on reflection, I'm not sure it was a wise choice because it has straight lines and my white lines aren't straight (mainly because I rushed them). Anyway, I've had a try and now I know what to expect I think I could make a better effort with a bit more time and concentration.

For the blending of colours I used Stazon blazing red, cactus green, mustard and saddle brown.

Tracey's CJ Tag

The theme of TraceyR's CJ on BF is 'tags' - each person in the group is invited to decorate a chipboard tag in whatever way they choose.the light is bad, but I need to get this into the post in the morning.

The papers are BG sultry and the rub ons are Kelly Panacci. Edges inked with chalk inks, with the addition of a Brenda Pinnick chipboard square frame and some ribbon originally bought from CBC.





The scans show both sides of the tag, which obviously are the same size, although they don't look like it here!

DLO on Melissa's CJ

It's my turn to do a DLO in Melissa's fab CJ for the group on CBC.

Melissa chose 'My dream' as her subject and said, 'I would love to hear from you all what your dreams are. Big or small! Whether you have fulfilled any yet. It could be your childhood dream or most recent one! The possibilities are endless really.'

My DLO is all about a dream come true when I went to Bermuda. I've simply used some DCWV backgrounds and produced the journalling and photos on computer, adding a few buttons and doodling.

You can get a better view of the journalling by clicking on the pictures.





I enjoyed doing this, as it brought back many memories.

Dottie's world Sunday challenge: spotty dotty

This is a spotty card for the challenge this week on Dottie's World: 'spotty dotty'.

'I want to see SPOTS. It doesn't have to be Dottie, you can of course use any of the downloads. BUT I don't just want to see a circle or two.'

So I used a piece of dotty paper from English Paper Company Airy Fairy and a stripey piece run through the cuttlebug swiss dots embossing folder and the lovely image of Dottie in bed. I thought it would make a bit of a different get well card: