You're a Christmas star

The theme on the Crazy challenge this week is 'you're a star', so I thought of Christmas and stars and created this:

Papers are Daisy Bucket star kissed.

This card is right for the colours on Lucy's 11: 'white, light blue, light kraft.

Simply Anna Griffin

This card is for Laura's sketch 54 on 2sketches4U:

I'm still using elements from my recently acquired Anna Griffin kit. This one makes a change to the pinks and reds on the previous cards.

It's also for:

Aly's Sunday 20: 'flower power'
Wee memories 11: 'let's get sticky' - the flowers are 3D stickers from AG
Theme Thursday: 'the colour green'
Crazy 4 challenges 42: 'paper flowers'
Pile it on 24: 'stickers'

Ice cream weather?

According to the calendar, it should be 'ice cream' weather, but today's weather certainly hasn't been very summery. The forecast, though, is looking better, so here's hoping for sunny, ice cream days to come.

There are quite a few summer and ice cream challenges around atm, which inspired me to make this card. The papers are download digis from Gina K Designs and the ice cream cone digi is from Paper Popsicles - coloured with copics. Ribbon is from stash. Sentiment is computer generated.

These are the challenges covered:

Order of the Opus Gluei 59: 'I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream'
Papertake: 'ice cream flavours'
Just us girls 38: 'light pink, chocolate, vanilla'
Quirky crafts 30: 'summer'
Shabby tea room 14: 'summer fun'
Tuesday throwdown 4: 'celebrate summer'
Pals paper arts 47: 'summer theme'
Scrappy frogs: 'summertime fun'
Stamp something: 'something summer' (not sure though whether digi counts)
ABC: 'W is for weather'
Sweet stampin 31: 'clean and simple'
Creative stamps friends 1: 'pink and brown'
Die cut dreams 53: 'strawberry and chocolate' colour combo
Spoon full of sugar 108: 'enjoying the sunshine' - nothing like an ice cream on a sunny day (but the sun is still hiding)

At last I've made it

There's nothing like a tight deadline looming to make us get on with a card, is there? I had a request for a birthday card for husband, with a Bible or cross on it - and perhaps some flowers. I have to confess that I thought it would turn out more like a sympathy card than birthday!

The background paper is American crafts tuly inspiring. The Bible was cut from nestabilities labels. The white flowers are craftime and the beige inner flowers are prima, secured with brads.

The Bible verse (from Psalm 118:24) and the sentiment were computer generated and printed on to pearlised, slightly embossed paper, on to which I put clear embossing powder the moment it left the printer and heat embossed, so it has more of a shine to it than you can tell here.

I wasn't given any idea as to colour, so I hope this is going to be all right.


You can click on the picture to enlarge.

I'm linking this for these challenges:

Flourish timeless 71: 'embossing'
Crafty Ann 17: 'embossing'
Speedy the cat 8: 'emboss'
Lots to do: 'use quotations'
Magical crafts 17: 'something for a male'
Polka doodles 24: 'male theme'
Stampin' sisters in Christ 43: 'masculine'
Raise the bar 23: 'what a special guy'
One stop craft 85: 'one for the boys'
Crazy4challenges 42: 'paper flowers'

Another sewing themed card

Having still got the digi files open on the computer and seeing that there was a sewing machine on the Jolee's stickers, I decided to make another sewing themed card, this time following Hazel's sketch 51 on Moving along with the times:

This time I used one of my HOTP faux stitching stamps. Details of other supplies are in my previous post.

I don't like the green cotton on the sewing machine - looks odd with other things being blue - think I might try to change it

I'm linking for these challenges:

Wee memories 10: 'in stitches' - I stamped with HOTP faux stitching
Crafty creations 72: 'it's a stitch up'
Anything goes (Craft Den) 3: 'buttons and bows in monochrome - hope I'm forgiven for the little bits of blue
The crafty pad 75: 'paper piecing' - on the dress form
Craft your passion 10: 'technique: paper piecing'
Aly's Sunday 19: 'sewing'
The play date cafe 34: 'black and white with a bit of colour - blue'
Sweet stampin' 31: 'clean and simple' - I used digi
Divine Diva 30: 'retro photo inspiration' - I chose to depict retro sewing - this was the inspiration picture:

Card for a sew-and-sew!

I came across a new (to me) challenge blog Italy on Sunday, that this time has the topic of 'dress form' for challenge 48. I googled 'dress form' and found a delightful blog, Mel stampz, with lots of free digis, including the ones I've used to make this card. I downloaded and played with the images, printing the dress form one twice - once on to blue patterned paper so that I could paper piece it. The beauty of digi is that you can play around with the size of the images, so the text is a much closer sample than the original.

The scissors and buttons are A touch of Jolee's sewing stickers.

It's for these challenges:

The crafty pad 75: 'paper piecing' - on the dress form
Craft your passion 10: 'technique: paper piecing'
Aly's Sunday 19: 'sewing'
The play date cafe 34: 'black and white with a bit of colour - blue'
Sweet stampin' 31: 'clean and simple' - I used digi
Divine Diva 30: 'retro photo inspiration' - I chose to depict retro sewing - this was the inspiration picture:

A 90th birthday card for a special lady

This card is for a 90th birthday for special lady who, we hope, is going to get lots of cards to help celebrate her special day - you can read about it here - and perhaps you might also like to make and send a card.

Once again, I've used Anna Griffin supplies from my recently purchased kit - I gather that Irene loves pink, vintage and flowers, so I hope she likes this.


I'm linking this for:

Cutie Sunday 96: 'pink, olive, red'
Party time Tuesdays 2: 'birthday - use a number' - I know it's officially late, but still wanted to do this challenge
Challenge up your life 23: 'vintage'

Yet another AG card

This is the sixth card I've made today from the Anna Griffin kit I got very recently - determined that this shouldb't be left in the box unused. The pink paper surrounding the Happy birthday sentiment wasn't from the kit, but it is AG (bought a long time ago). It's hard to see on here, but the added flowers are 3D.

This card is for sketch 37 on Sketch & stash:

A simple AG card

This is another card from the Anna Griffin kit, this time for CPS sketch 171:

I've interpeted the sketch quite loosely, turing it round and just using the AG papers, 3D flower, ribbon and sentiment:

A touch of Anna Griffin

This card is for Critter sketch 18, which also calls for the use of some ribbon:

The papers and 3D flowers are from the Anna Griffin kit mentioned in the previous posts, the bows are Club green and the quote is from HOTP, torn around the edges and sponged with tattered rose distress ink.

This is also for:

Secret crafter Saturday 87: 'include a quote'
There she goes 59: 'worn, torn and distressed'
Created by hand: 'gratitude'
Creative card crew 52: 'thank you'

A third AG flowery card

This is the third card I've made this afternoon using supplies from the Anna Griffin kit I purchased recently.

This time I've used the sketch given for Dancing in pajamas TCP114:

The colours used are for SPCC colour combo 52: 'pretty in pink, mellow moss, bravo burgundy'.


I'm also linking for:

Sunday postcard: 'roses'
Tuesday throwdown 4: 'celebrate summer - roses bring much enjoyment to summer
Pals paper arts 47: 'summer theme'
Quirky crafts 30: 'summer'
Sentimental Sundays 7: 'summertime'
Party time Tuesdays 3: 'anything goes birthday'
Fun with shapes and more 58: 'flowery' - I used a netability labels shape
Crafty creations 72: 'it's a stitch up' - stitching on the ribbon across the middle

Another chintzy card

Continuing with using some of my Anna Griffin kit, I made this card for Techno stamper Monday lunchtime sketch 126:


I used the colours for Kelly Jo's colour chef challenge 55: 'cream, muted green, soft blue'

As I've used a card with text on it, I'm also linking for Res-Q 50, which this week asks us to choose from five favourite challenges - I've chosen challenge 35.

I'm also linking for:

Sunday postcard: 'roses'
Tuesday throwdown 4: 'celebrate summer' - roses bring much enjoyment to summer
Pals paper arts 47: 'summer theme'
Quirky crafts 30: 'summer'
Sentimental Sundays 7: 'summertime'
Party time Tuesdays 3: 'anything goes birthday'
Crafty calendar June 9: bugs and beasties - optional extra: wings'
Gingersnap GC57 chestnut theme: 'wings'

The start of a flowery afternoon

This afternoon I've been making flowery, chintzy cards with an Anna Griffin kit I bought from QVC a couple of weeks ago. Will I ever learn? - I tend to buy these kits thinking they'll be a good idea for making quick-ish cards for my Tearfund sales and then often leave them in the box - but this time I decided I would start to use it as soon as I could.

So, my first card with this kit is for Sweet Sunday sketch 73:

I've used the colours for Cutie Sunday 96: pink, olive, red.

I'm also linking for:

Sunday postcard: 'roses'
Tuesday throwdown 4: 'celebrate summer - roses bring much enjoyment to summer
Pals paper arts 47: 'summer theme'
Quirky crafts 30: 'summer'
Sentimental Sundays 7: 'summertime'
Donna's den of crafts: 1: 'happy birthday'
Party time Tuesdays 3: 'anything goes birthday'
Meljen 12: 'fibre, ribbon or lace'

Green grows the ivy

This card is for the sketch on Annabelle 23:

The background paper is Crafty creations and the ivy stamps are whispers, coloured by bwater rushing with a hint of brushed corduroy and shabber shutters distress inks. The sentiment is actually greener than it looks here.


It's also for these challenges:

Theme Thursday: 'the colour green'
Alphabet: 'G is for green'
ECP 14: 'green'
Charisma cardz 24: 'all about bling'
Paperplay 24: 'something old' - the stamps are some of the first I ever bought
Twisted Thursday 61: 'use something old' - the stamps
Hand full of stamps 32: 'nothing like a little H2O' - I used a water brush with the distress inks
Alota 37: 'birthday'
Donna's den of crafts 1: 'happy birthday'
Party time Tuesday 3: 'anyhing goes birthday'
Clearlyistamp 14: 'birthdays''

Much more fun with the melting pot

The theme for this month's ATCs for the swap on BF forum is 'texture'. Having recently got my melting pot out from the back of a drawer, I decided that I would make my ATCs with UTEE with the help of my pot.

I cut pieces of mountboard into ATC sized pieces and one by one I swiped with versamark, put in the melting pot and sprinkled with gold, bronze and pearl UTEE.

When it was 'cooked' the ATC was quickly taken out of the pot and as quickly as possible the stamp was applied to the molten powder. I used this Tim Holtz stamp from the eclectic palette CMS 055:



The whole process of making them all took all afternoon - and I made a couple of spares so I have plenty to choose from for the swap. The most difficult thing was that the stamp was exactly an ATC size so it had to be placed exactly on to each mountboard piece - it's much easier if the stamp is bigger giving more margin for error. I went very wrong with one of them, so I just put it back into the pot to melt again - no wastage.




I'm linking these for:

Caardvarks June challenge: 'Create a *new* card using stamps and wet and/or dry embossing.'
Flourish timeless 71: 'embossing'
Artful inkables 22: 'Use a new technique, go out of your comfort zone, make something completely different than you normally would make' - I've never made any ATCs like this before, using the melting pot and stamping into the molten UTEE.
Wednesday stamper: 'I love' .... playing with my melting pot

Today's challenge on Treehouse 54 is 'tool time by Katie Tate' - use your favourite tool - for a long time I didn't use my melting pot much, but recently it has become one of my favourite crafting tools.

The mountboard I used was free from a framing shop that was going to throw it out (got a big bag ages ago), so this is recycled, which is good for ECP 14: 'green'.

Enjoy your day

This card is for Clare W's sketch for Moving along with the times 50:

I used the colours given for Stamping 411 challenge 127:

The image I've used is a digi called 'time for a cuppa', a download from Nutty Nutcrafters, which I've used for their challenge 18: 'to create a Fathers Day card, any style or theme will pass the only condition is that you use a stamp or digi stamp that we sell over at Nutcrafters.com.' I coloured the image with copics. The background is a piece from my scraps box (think it's DCWV, but not sure).

The colours are also for Moxie fab world Tuesday trigger: 'mapping colour':



With Father's day coming up on Sunday, there are still a lot of challenges cropping up with that as the topic or a general card for a male, so I'm linking for these:

Cards for men 12: 'father's day'
Cupcake 95: 'one for the boys'
Daisy doodles: 'father's day/manly' - I used a digi
Double Dutch 45: 'dda's treat'
Fiskarettes: 'male theme'
Incy wincy 45: 'one for the guys'
A little crafty place 43: 'one for the boys'
Creative craft: 'one for the man in your life'
Cas-tastic 8: 'father's day'
Creative Inspirations 65: 'one for the boys'
Fab n funky 28: 'just for dad'
Stampin' royalty 24: 'masculine themed'
Tanda teaser 148: 'for the big man'
CCEE: 'one for the males!'
C.R.A.F.T. 54: 'father's day/men's cards'
Paperplay 23: 'home' - this fella is obviously enjoying being at home
Paper cutz 45: 'father's day'
Simple doodles 19: 'just 4 you dad'
Town scrapper: 'father's day'
Drunken stampers 20: 'father's day'
Totally Gorjuss 34: 'for the boys'

I am a big cat fan

I love my big lion Magenta stamp (which is why I'm linking this for Crafty angels 38: 'my favourite stamp' - I can't possible choose one favourite stamp because I have many!). When I saw that the skinni challenge this week on Something completely different was 'cats' I decided that somehow I would use this stamp. However, it's a very large stamp, so I couldn't use all of it on a skinni 3" x 5".

I stamped with versamark and then used a light creamy coloured chalk to dab on the image, surrounding this with dabs of perfect pearls bronze. I then wiped across the whole image to soften the look and very lightly sponged the edges with brushed corduroy distress ink.

The letters are Brenda Pinnick - they really are crooked! - had to take loads of photos till I could get a presentable one, so have left this as it is, but have since stuck the 'g' down properly.

As usual, you can click on the picture to enlarge it.

The current challenge on For fun challenges is 'Can you pop?' - poppin' pastels - using versamark and chalk - which is what prompted me to make this skinni in this style (originally I was going to stamp and colour). It's a while since I used chalks like this, but always did like the soft effect that can be achieved.

It's also another entry for Totally papercrafts 20: 'animal magic' and also for Artful inkables think ink Tuesday 22: 'use a new technique, out of your comfort zone, make something completely different than you normally would make - although I've used chalks and perfect pearls like this, it's been quite a while and I don't usually make skinnis (well, only for SCD last week).

WOYWW

It's Wednesday again today and so it's WOYWW day on Julia's blog.

I know that some of you think that my workspace is always tidy, but it isn't, as you'll see today.

I started off by printing a digi image ready to make a masculine card - I coloured it with copics ... and now it's buried beneath other stuff that I've moved on to - in fact, I've just realised you can see it peeping out underneath the chalks.

I decided to have a play with my large Magenta lion stamp - one of my favourites - to do a skinni for SCD which this week has the theme of cats. So this involved stamping with versamark and playing around with chalks, perfect pearls and distress inks - this is still a work in progress. Update: it's finished - you can see it in the post above here.



Now I'm going to get on with finished the cat skinni for SCD and then rescue the guy in the armchair to make my masculine card - unless I get distracted and start something else - this so easily happens to me ... and eventually I go back to what I started!

Sweet drummer boy!

This is for sketch 37 on Do not wast your Thursdays:

The text paper is DCWV (lingering in a box for a long while now, but seemed just right for this card. The image is a Charmed Cards and Crafts download: Rock till you drop 'drummer George'. Blue and white striped paper is from my scraps box and ribbon from stash. The base card is stardream red, which has a slight sparkly sheen to it.

This is also for:

Dottie's world: 'any kind of masculine card'
Totally Gorjuss 34: 'for the boys'
Dare U 2 digi 39: 'red, white and blue'
Rosie-dee 73: 'something blue'
Cupcake 95: 'one for the boys'
Daisy doodles: 'manly' - included a digi
Incy wincy 45: 'one for the guys'
Lexi's creations 16: 'something old' - the DCWV text paper
A crafty little place 43: 'one for the boys'
Crafty creations 71: 'child's play'
CCEE: 'one for the males!'
Crafty Ann 16: 'fly the flag' - colours of your national flag (UK - red, white and blue)
Raise the bar 22: 'sweet music' - well, I'm sure George's making music, but I'm not sure how 'sweet' it is!
Just us girls 37 technique challenge: 'digital image'
Really reasonable ribbon 1: 'masculine' - use ribbon
Hand full of stamps 31: 'how cut is this'
Paper playtime 3: 'red, white and blue'

Enjoy your travels in Venice

This is a simple card to give to someone who is going to Venice. I found the picture of the theatre on the internet. The lady going to the theatre is a digi download from Charmed Crafts: 'world tour, Madison in Venice' - you can see a close up of her underneath the card.



This is for City crafter 9: 'Venice, beyond Gondola' and also for Daring cardmakers: 'the world is your oyster'.

A pile of Birthday presents

Still trying to use up some of my Dena designs card/papers - the lines across the paper are actually folds. I've just realised that you can't really see the Happy Birthday silver on glittery black, but the light's faded now so no hope of getting a photo.


Donna's den of crafts has 'happy birthday' for the theme of their first challenge, so I'm showing this there (will try and come back with something better before the fortnight is up).

It's also for:

Party time Tuesdays 3: 'anything goes birthday'
For fun: 'happy birthday'