Crafty Cardmakers Challenge # 18

The latest challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers is a challenging Challenge. This for me is a 2 part challenge. I have used a sketch from Day 155 of 365 cards which was from August 2009. As a sketch I just wasn't inspired by it so never did it.

But the main challenge was to actually USE the Flowersoft that I bought at show at the NEC almost 2 years ago. I've got 6 pots of it and have never used it because I'd heard it could go all over the place and make an awful mess. Well I did make a mess, but not as bad as I'd suspected.

The papers are all from a colour co-ordinated capsule pad from Papermania. I just love the oranges and yellows, they are so bright and cheerful and a perfect antidote for the bad weather we have been having lately.

The shaped corners and the centre panel have been cut using Nellie Snellen Dies. The Flowersoft stalks have been placed inside a real terracotta plantpot and I have attached a ribbon bow from the co-rdinated accessories with the Papermania papers. The flowers, gems and sentiment are from my stash.

So I hope that you will take up the gauntlet and join in the challenge with us. I look forward to popping by your blogs and seeing your entries.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge # 15

We've got a new challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers based on a triadic colour scheme using a colour wheel.

For this challenge I have used the colours of Green, Purple and Orange.

I have used a download from the Pink Petticoat With Flowers collection and coloured it in with Promarkers. I have printed it out 3 times and decoupaged it in 3 layers using 3D foam

The backing paper is from the glittered Peeking Posies pad by DCWV and I altered the colours of the flowers with a Promarker so they matched the colour scheme better. The white flowers have also been coloured to match and pulled together with a spotty brad from Docrafts.

I used a Martha Stewart doily punch to make a black strip and attached self adhesive spotty ribbon from Docrafts. To finish I added a spot of bling to the flowers on the chair and a sentiment from a magazine freebie.

The layout of the card is Gloria's sketch over at 365 Cards for Day 352. I can't believe it is almost a year ago when the challenges started. Where has that time gone?

I'm looking forward to seeing the colour schemes people have chosen. I struggled with which colours to use so would love to see what other people have made. I hope you will join in the fun with us at Crafty Cardmakers

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #13

What a fab response to our last challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers. I couldn't believe how many entries there were and how many lovely new goodies our blog entrants had for crimble.

The challenge this week is with a romance theme. I am one soppy old romantic and love Valentines Day so this was an easy one for me to do :)

I used last week's sketch # 150 from CPS for the layout and was initially inspired to incorporate the packaging from some Papermania spotty buttons that I had bought to make a shaker card by adding some red heart confetti and silver chunky glitter.

The heart paper is an old HOTP one.The red paper and letters are from a freebie paper pack from a magazine. The Forever Friends bear is a sticker mounted onto card and cut out. The flowers are various Primas layered together with a silver beadcap and a spotty brad on a Sizzix diecut corner.

I used the swiss dots Cuttlebug embossing folder to the shaker panels, both outside and sanded back and inside and added a little red ink to the dots.

I have also incorporated the following challenges into this card :-

• Color Chef Challenge #35 - Black Red, Grey & White
• CPS #150 - Sketch Layout
• Caardvarks - Use colour Red & Hearts
• Pollycraft #32 -Fire & Ice (hope black is allowed too)
• Practical Scrappers - Patterned Paper
• A Spoonful of Sugar #87 - Lots of Layering
• Crafty Creations #51 - Valentines or Love
• Creative Belli Challenge #83 - Hearts
• C.R.A.F.T. Challenge #34 - Red
• Crafty Catz #16 - Love
• Allsorts #36 - Hearts & Flowers
• One Stop Craft Challenge #64 - Love & Kisses
• Rainbow Lady #87 - Fur (on FF bear)
• 365 Cards Day 210 - Use the sanding technique on your card (black spotty panel)
• Chocoholics Forum Challenge - Twilight colour theme Red, White & Black

Just For You

Tis the season for amour and I love making valentine cards because I am a really soppy and romantic person.

This card is made from a lovely freebie paper pack that came from the latest issue of Simply Cards & Papercraft. It's all tweety birds and love hearts and in bright funky colours so suits me down to the ground.

I used the latest sketch at Inspirational Card Sketches for the layout. The backing paper is a red on red swirly design. The wavy heart strip was cut from another piece of the paper. The white card was embossed using the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder. I edged it with a black inkpad and distressed the edges with scissors. This is a technique that I have seen many people do but haven't had a go at myself. I like the fluffy edges it gave to the piece and can see me doing this again.

The central image is also from the free papers. I stuck it onto card to make it stronger so I could mount it on 3D foam. The little hearts are some great dimensional stickers I got from Paperchase on Saturday. I got oodles of really funky hearts for a £1. Last but not least the sentiment was added from the same paper pack.

I have incorporated the following challenges into this card :-

• Inspirational Card Sketches #49 - Layout of Card
• 365 Cards Day 280 - Put red & white stripes somewhere on your card (heart embellishment)
• Creative Card Crew #42 - Distressing
• Corrosive Challenge #46 - Distressing
• Creative Inspirations #43 - Use something New received in the New Year
• Flourishes - Feel the Love
• Get Creative With Ann GCA #73 - Love Is In The Air
• ABC Challenge - L is for Layering

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge # 12

Happy New Year!!

It's challenge #12 over at Crafty Cardmakers and we have been challenged to use new items that we perhaps got for Christmas, or just new in general.

I have used my new Sizzix scalloped die to cut the base sheets of card and linked them all together using eyelets and jump rings.The papers I used are mainly from a pack called Bloom & Grow from My Minds Eye. I found myself succumbing to this gorgeous pack of papers whilst shopping on Saturday! (this is despite telling myself not to buy any more papers a I have loads already)

I have embellished the pages using chipboard numbers from Poundland which I coloured in black. The butterflies, scalloped circles and journalling tag on the last page are from a freebie pack of papers from a magazine as the colours all matched so well. The rest of the flowers and leaves were cut from the MME paper pack and have been mounted using 3D foam squares.I have covered the leaves with Rangers Glossy Accents and added a few buttons. A couple of glittered brads, a liberal sprinkling of Stickles glitter glue and as Gordon Ramsey says DONE!

I have also been able to incorporate the following challenges into this 'card'

• 365 Cards Day 290 - Use a trio of at least 1 each of a flower, chipboard & button
• Crafty Calendar Challenge #4 - Warm colours
• Creative Card Crew #42 - Distressing
• Papertake Weekly - New Year & new items
• ABC Challenges - L is for Layering
• Creative Belli Challenge #82 - Glitter
• Flutterby Wednesday #91 - Theme of 'New'
• 3 Clovers Thursday #46 - project that represents your goals for 2010 (to create beauty and to stretch my creativity by making items I haven't done before. To get out of my crafty comfort zone)
• Cute Card Thursday #94 - Theme of New (New Year & new stash)
• Crazy 4 Challenges #18 - Polka Dots
• Our Creative Corner - 3D Item
• Practical Scrappers - Glitter/Bling
• 2 Red Bananas - Something with Curves (scalloped edges on pages)
• Pile it On - New Year
• There She Goes TSG#37 - Use at least 3 different embellishments
• Corrosive Challenge # 46 - Distressing
• Crafty Catz #14 - Bright & Sparkly

There was a fantastic response to the last challenge at Crafty Cardmakers and many fabulous entries. I look forward to visiting your blogs and seeing what new things you have been using. I hope you'll join us in the challenge.

Just Saying Hello

Apologies for the poor photo. I have taken it at night and the artificial lighting has played havoc with the colouring. The blue is a bit richer in real life but at least you can see how dimensional it is.

I have made this card using a new die I have had from Sizzix which is a scalloped square. I have only used part of this shape to fall in with the layout of the card which was from Kazan's sketch # 43 over at 2 Sketches 4 You. It is ages since I have been able to participate in one of their sketches so it's nice to be back in the fold :)

The brown patterned paper is a magazine freebie from my scraps with a white gel pen faux stitching border around the edges. The blue sentiment panel is a Hero Arts rubber stamp printed onto a scrap of paper which turned out to be self adhesive.

The spotty ribbon was a gift from my Secret Sister Mags and I have attached a little butterfly charm to it with a jump ring. The chipboard spotty butterfly is one I had in a Colorbok Kit from QVC last year. I have embellished it with wire antennae and Kanban self adhesive crystals.

I have been able to incorporate the following challenges into this card :-

• 2 Sketches 4 You Kazan #43 - Sketch for layout
• Incy Wincy Designs #24 - Bling
• My Time To Craft #73 - Blue & Brown colour scheme
• Creative Belli Challenge #82 - Rhinestones
• La La Land #19 - Use a Charm
• Ildi Co's Creative Challenge #7 - Only use scraps and something metal
• Paper Play 1 Week 1 - Metallic Element
• If The Shoe Fits Fashionista Friday #17 - Chipboard
• Pile It On #30 Crystal Clear - Bling
• Crazy 4 Challenges - Polka Dots
• One Stop Craft Challenge #61 - Something beginning with B (Butterfly & bling)
• Get Creative With Ann GCA#72 - New Sizzix Die and rubber stamp
• 365 Cards Day 312 - Metallic Element (Charm)
• Sunflowers & Dragonflies #23 - Faux Stitching
• Just Us Girls #15 - Stitching
• Crafty Catz #14 - Bright & Sparkly

Thankyou

This is the season for the need to have lots of Thank You cards and I have cracked open a new pack of Anita's vinyl butterflies. They are very detailed and have a glitter covered film at the back so you can see it through the wings of the butterfly.

The papers are more freebies and scraps (tick a box there) and I have used a new unmounted rubber stamp set from Hero Arts and added glitter to it with the use of a Zig 2 way glue pen.

I have also added some Prima flowers, bling and a baby button from Docrafts.

This card fulfils the following challenges

• 365 Cards Day 271 - Giving Thanks
• Crazy 4 Challenges #18 - Polka Dots
• One Stop Craft Challenge #61 - Something Beginning with B (butterfly, blossoms, bling & button)
• The Crafty Pad #52 - Buttons
• Practical Scrappers - Buttons
• Pile it On #30 - Crystal Clear (bling)
• Sophisticats #16 - Fancy Borders (punched edge)
• Incy Wincy Designs #24 - Bling It Up
• Everybody Art #72 - Fave Colour Combo (Pink & Black)
• Creative Inspirations #41 - Thank You
• Stamp Simply #120 - Use New Things (new stamp & vinyls)
• Stamp Something - New Somethings (New stamp & Vinyls)
• Our Creative Corner - Clean & Simple (colour choice)
• Get Creative With Ann GCA #72 - Use Something New (Stamp & Vinyl)
• Helen's Crafting Friends Forum Challenge

Hello

Hello and welcome to a very bright card. I don't normally 'do' green but I am really starting to like using it, even brighter lime greens like this one. Very strange indeed for me.

I've got loads of papers and scraps freebies from magazines and I would like to try and use more in my cards this year. My little craft room is heaving with stuff so other than tools like dies and embossing folders I want try and limit how many papers I buy this year as I really do have an awful lot. I'm sure I'm not going to be the only crafter that says that though.... LOL

Card was made primarily with the Day 307 challenge from 365 Cards where you were to use 5 items 5 times. There are 5 individual papers, 5 chipboard letters, 5 brads, 5 Prima blossoms and 5 bling rhinestones. I used a black inkpad to distress the edge of the squares, the yellow mat and the edge of the card.

I used a Fiskars punch to create a 'ribbon' from paper and then layered a strip of green paper on top before fixing the flower/brad/bling combo in place.

Anyhoo, this card satisfies the following challenges:-

• 365 Cards Day 307 - Five for Friday (use 5 items, 5 times)
• Colour Create #35 - Lemon & Lime plus optional Spring or Summer Flowers
• Crazy 4 Challenges #18 - Polka Dots
• One Stop Craft Challenge #61 - Something beginning with B (blossoms, bling and bright)
• Flourishes Timeless Tuesday #48 - Colour Combo of Black, yellow plus another colour of your choice (green)
• Pile It On #30 - Crystal Clear (bling)
• Sophisticats #16 - Fancy Borders or Punched Edges
• Creative Card Crew #42 - Distressing
• Helen's Crafting Friends Forum Challenge

Happy New Year!

Woohoo, Happy 2010 folks :)

I've started the new year off with a bang and I've made a card already....yippee.

This card fulfils the challenges as below

• The Pink Elephant #47 - Choice of 2 sketches
• Cards for Men #2 - Use the theme 'New'
• Little Paper Shop #48 - Colours of light blue, Navy and silver
• 365 Cards Day 188 - Use a flock texture
• Fussy & Fancy Friday Challenge #1 - New
• Daring Cardmakers - New beginnings
• Paperplay #46 - New Beginnings
• 3 Clovers Thursday #45 - Celebration
• Cupcake Craft Challenge #71 - Celebration
• Charisma Cardz - Celebration
• Secret Crafter #64 - New Beginnings
• Rosie Dee's #61 - Open Theme
• Creative card Crew #41 - Anything Goes
• My Time To Craft #72 - Anything Goes
• By The Cute & Girly - New
• Rainbow Lady's Challenge #84 - New

The base card is a metallic silver and I have cut a mat in a navy blue sparkle cardstock. The papers are from Heidi Swapp and it is the first time I have brought myself to cut into it. The birdie ribbon in the centre was cut from a flocked sheet, it feels lovely just like Fuzzy Felt when I was a kid :) The circular pram is a cardstock sticker with the addition of a birdie rub-on. This is matted onto more of the navy card and mounted on 3D foam. The sentiment are stickers from a co-ordinated sticker set.

I've gone off the boil in combining challenges for the last few months and I'm going to try and make a concerted effort to do more challenges again. I really enjoyed doing this for some months last year and I felt it gave me more focus in making cards for specific reasons. I start level 2 of my college course next week so hopefully I'll be able to fit more crafting into my schedule and be more disciplined with myself instead of vegging out in front of the TV when I'm tired.

Last Card of 2009

Well this is the last card I have made this year for the challenge for today Day 306 at 365 Cards which was to delve into your stash and use something that you've had for a long while.

The wire word is from a Papermania pack that I have had for about 18 months or so. It comes with small silver brads and I have swopped them for some Queen & Co spotty brads that I have also hoarded and not used.

The base card is pale pink and I used an offcut of metallic pink card that I had previously cut a Nestabilities mat from so made it like a frame for the card. The cake is a glittered diecut, the flowers are various Primas with a sequin flower, K& Co self adhesive pearl and a Papermani glittered brad. Last but not least I have finished the corners off with a little glue and glitter.

The use of glitter and bling entitles me to enter it into challenge #48 for Crafty Creations too :)

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my followers and all my blog friends a wonderful New Year. I hope it will bring you all you wish for and more.

As for me, 2009 has had more than it's fair share of troubles, but I am grateful to have a wonderful man by my side and we are stronger than ever. With the help of some very special friends I have got through it all and I am looking forward to a much brighter 2010.

Last Christmas Card

This is the last Christmas Card I made for our very good friends Garry and Hazel. I used a Kanban concept sheet from a QVC kit and the majority of it was punch out decoupage shapes what have been layered with 3D foam. It's all glittered and lovely, really am impressed with these sheets :)

The card base is an A4 sheet of shimmer cardstock and I have used various snowflake peel offs from Docrafts/Anitas/Papermania. The sentiment panel is also from the sheet.

I have been able to link this up to the challenge for 365 Cards for Day 259 which was to make a card featuring or inspired by snow. Quite apt considering it is snowing in Birmingham at the moment.

Crafty Cardmakers 9th Challenge

It's the 9th Challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers and Vix set the DT a great challenge to either use a non-traditional stamp and colour it using red and green or use non-traditional colours on a Christmas image. Well I think it is easy to see which one I opted for :)

The base of card is an A4 sheet folded in half. The patterned paper is from the DCWV Rose Tinted Christmas stack.

Stamped image is Penny Black coloured in with Promarkers, fur trims are Woodware fluffy stuff covered with glitter and heat embossed so it puffs up. Image has been cut out using my new Nestabilities die set and matted onto metallic card. The whole image is mounted onto 3D foam.

A second strip of card was punched using the Fiskars scallop edge border punch and the bobble trim is from Doodlebug. Added embellishments are Craftime glittered snowflakes and pink gems from Paperchase.

I used the card sketch for Day 274 at 365 Cards as the inspiration for the main layout of the card, adding the extra strip at the bottom because Iove the bobble trim so much, I mean who can resist a row of perfect little snowballs. I have th4e perfect recipient in mind for this sassy likkle card and she will love it.

Really looking forward to seeing the cards submitted for this challenge and hoping to see so interesting colour combinations. Come on over and join the fun at Crafty Cardmakers

365 Cards Day 273

OMG, I have just realised that this is my 501st post, that's a lot of cards and waffle from little old me LOL

In a very rare move for me I have actually made a card for the challenge at 365 Cards on the day it has been set. OMG !!

The challenge for today, Day 273 is to use a damask pattern on your card. The papers used are from the new Chatsworth collection from Papermania. This range is not my usual style in the least but I really like the soft colour pallete in the range and the paper has a linen effect texture too. It's very classy.

The square card as been covered in the spotty paper in the chocolate and duck egg colourway and I used the Damask paper to mat on the top. I used a 1" wide chocolate ribbon to wrap around the paper. The central oval is one of the rubber stamp sets in the matching range with a sentiment from the pack inside. I used a Marvy le Plume pen in a similar shade to highlight the frame and added Sakura clear glitter pen which is very sparkly but you can't see it very well in the scan. I cut out the frame and matted it onto an oval cut from the spotty paper. This is mounted on thin foam pads to raise it from the card a little.

The pack offers designs in chandaliers and birdcages and I have the matching rubber stamps too so I'm sure these papers will be popping up in more projects soon.

365 Cards Day 266

The challenge at 365 Cards for day 266 was to make a card with a stamped image that had been coloured in with something other than markers.

The stamp from this one came in a forum swap and I have no idea what make it is. I coloured it in ages ago with Twinkling H20's and a little bit of Sakura glitter pens for the finer details.

The paper I used is from the Lime Rickey collection by Basic Grey. I love how bright the colours are and it matches the bright colour of the towel perfectly. I used my new Fiskars punch on the edge of the paper and cut a border from thin white card to go underneath.

365 Cards Day 258

Another Christmas Card down and the challenge for Day 258 at 365 Cards which was to incorporate a hat of some sort into your card.

The image is a digi download from Dustin Pike and has been coloured in with my ever faithful Promarkers. The backing paper is a left over piece of a giftbag which has got flocked snowflakes on it.

The ribbon was a wider one that I cut in half and has cool metallic stars on it. The snow is a bag of fluffy glitter stuff that I found in my stash, haven't got a clue where I bought it from but it looks a lot like the Flowersoft that is all the rage at the moment but I know it was a fraction of the price and was a big bag too. Needless to say I was covered in the stuff when I finished the card :)

365 Cards Day 251

The challenge for 365 Cards Day 251 was to use only 2 colours to make your card.

The main starting point for this card was a giftbag that I recycled. The text was at the bottom of the bag and the white snowflakes are flocked, obviously as a crafter I NEEDED to recyle this and make it into a card.

I trimmed the panel and added it to a darker blue DL letter sized card blank. The added gems are Papermania and Paperchase and the blue metallic snowflake is from a Poundland christmas decoration. Keeping it simple I added a little glitterglue to the card and left it at that.

Crafty Cardmakers 8th Challenge

Sorry for being a little late uploading my latest challenge card, I am sure you will understand when you read my last post.

Anyhoo, the latest challenge at Crafty Cardmakers is to use something clear in your design.

I have really enjoyed using acetate this year to replace a card front. Of course, the Cuttlebug folders make it so easy to add an embossed design to your card and I have made some nice cards using this technique.

To make this card I trimmed a card blank down leaving a 2cm strip at the front. I used a Fiskars punch to make a decorative edge. I ran a piece of acetate through a snowflake Cuttlebug embossing folder and used double sided tape stuck it to the inside of the overlapped front edge.

The paper on the inside of the card is a piece of wrapping paper from Paperchase. They do some fantastic metallic and flocked designs and around £1 to £2 for a massive sheet they are very good value too.

The large snowflake is a 2 step Cuttlebug die that punches and then embosses the shape. It is cut from Doodlebug flocked cardstock so feels like Fuzzy Felt :) The ribbon is a self adhesive one from Papermania, the gem is Paperchase and the sentiment is from Kanban.

I have also been able to incorporate an older challenge from 365 Cards for Day 122 which was to use a piece of wrapping paper in your design.

365 Cards Day 148

The challenge at 365 Cards for day 148 was a sketch.

I used a mixture of free papers from card magazines and the circle panel is a piece of patterned backing card from some packaging which I thought was too pretty to throw away.

The snowflake square is a chipboard shape from Brenda Pinnick's QVC kit matted onto a scrap of blue card with the edges rounded off. I have added a smattering of Stickles glitter glue to it.

The holographic snowflakes are from Christmas garlands at Poundland with a Craftime die cut shape mounted on top. The sentiment is from Kanban which I trimmed down a little and punched the corners off. Last but not least I added a bit of doodling with a fine tipped black pen to enhance the edges of the lighter panels.

365 Cards Day 8

This is a card for one of the oldest challenges for Day 8 at 365 Cards that I hadn't completed which was a sketch by Kazan Clarke from 2 Sketches 4 You.

I decided to make an easel card and used a patterned paper by Imaginisce which has got snowflakes and glitter trails on it. The snowflake is a Cuttlebug die and I have used Doodlebug flocked velvet paper. The gold ribbon is Papermania. The die cut circle and snowflake chipboard is from a QVC Brenda Pinnick kit. The silver snowflake from Craftime and the sentiment panel is from Kanban.

It's only a 4'" square card but the easel style makes it more special and it is very tactile due to the materials used. More importantly it's another Christmas card done and another 365 Cards challenge off the list!

365 Cards Day 34

The challenge for day 34 at 365 Cards was to make the dominant shape on the card an oval.

Now, I am ashamed to admit this but the central teddy bear image is a freebie digital image I printed out 2 years ago with the intention of making into a card for my Mother In Law. I'd cut it out and put a border of glitter glue all around the edge and then hadn't actually used it on a card as I'd not got round to making it !

I was determined to use it for her card this year, she loves teddy bears and I know she'll really like it.

The base card is an A4 sheet of dark green textured card. The patterned paper is from K & Co. The image is mounted on 3d foam. The ribbon is from my stash and I am so proud of my bow, it is one of the most perfect I have ever tied :) The sentiment is a sticker from a DCWV QVC 3 sets of drawers kit and was matted onto gold card and raised up on 3D foam.