That Folder...

A couple of weeks ago, I was one of the lucky winners of 'That Folder' over at Pixie's Snippets Playground...I think I must have been living underneath a rock, because I'd never seen it anywhere before! Apparently it was a 'must-have' item that was originally a freebie with a craft magazine, but proved so popular that they made some more and it's available to buy in a set with a couple of sentiment stamps. Anyway, it arrived in time for me to have a little play with it at the weekend...and I can see why it was such a hit! I made a couple of cards to test it out:

I used the folder to emboss pieces of vellum, then layered them over teal and purple card. I stamped the sentiments that came in the set on to strips of white card...I masked of the symbols before inking, so that I just had the words...then added some faux stitching along the edges and matted them on to co-ordinating card. I cut a couple of butterflies from snippets of the same card using a Joy Crafts die...and added lots of adhesive pearls. I managed to hide all of the adhesive underneath the sentiment strip, butterflies and pearls so that it wouldn't show through the vellum.

Here's a better view of both cards:

And the purple:

Challenges for these cards:

• Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes
• Crafty Girls Creations - Anything Goes
• Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes
• Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anything Goes
• Penny's Paper Crafty - Anything Goes
• Pixie's Snippets Playground - Use Snippets
• Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

Butterfly Hello

I received a set of Prima oil pastels for Christmas...they're water soluble, so I had a little play at making a watercolour background on today's card. I scribbled a rough butterfly shape using a couple of the pastels, then blended them using a waterbrush. I added a die cut butterfly (cut using a Joy Crafts die) over the top, a sentiment (cut using a die from a Craft Asylum set by Sizzix) cut from a piece of card coloured using the same pastels, and some adhesive pearls.

Challenges for this card:

• 4 Crafty Chicks - Anything Goes
• As You Like It - Anything Goes
• C.R.A.F.T. - Anything Goes
• Cute Card Thursday - Anything Goes

Pile It On! Challenge - Not Cute

We have a new Pile It On! Challenge starting today...and the theme is:

'Not Cute'

Our sponsor for this challenge is SLS Lines:

Prize either 3 Single Digital Images or $10 worth of Digital Merchandise from the SLS Lines store!

Considering that about 99.9% of my craft stash would be considered 'cute', I found this theme quite a challenge! I decided to go for an elegant/shabby chic look...and picked papers from the 'Vintage Charm' pad by My Mind's Eye. I cut the butterflies from some of the plainer papers in the pad using Memory Box and Joy Crafts dies, and layered them up...they're not exactly the same shape, but it worked quite well. I embossed the bottom one using my CuttleBug 'Tiny Bubbles' folder. I inked around the edges of everything with 'Tea Dye' Distress Ink...then distressed the edges of the green panel, and added some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a black gel pen. The sentiment stamp is from the 'Big Sentiments' set by Paula Pascual, and the adhesive pearls are by Papermania.

Here are the challenges I've piled on:

• Pile It On! - Not Cute
• Allsorts - No Squares
• Chocolate, Coffee & Cards - Thank You
• Crafty Calendar - Things with Wings
• Creatalicious - Butterflies
• Creative Card Crew - Embossing (The butterfly is embossed)
• Dream Valley - Things with Wings
• Little Red Wagon - Make an Impression (The butterfly is embossed)
• Sweet Stamps - Things with Wings
• Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes
• Time Out - Grunge & Embossing (The butterfly is embossed)

For more inspiration from my lovely DT buddies, please pop over to the Pile It On! Challenge.

Oldie but a Goodie Challenge - Filigree

We have a new Oldie but a Goodie Challenge starting today...the theme is:

'Filigree'

The prize for this challenge is:

Tonic Studios Die Set 'Be Mine'

My intial thought when I saw the theme of this challenge was 'Eeeek!'...but then I remembered that I had a couple of fancy butterfly dies that would pass for 'filigree'! I started by stamping my Stampendous 'Agapanthus Clusters' and Hero Arts sentiment stamps in black ink, then blended Distress Inks over the top (Shaded Lilac, Milled Lavender, Dusty Concord, Weathered Wood, Stormy Sky, Faded Jeans & Chipped Sapphire). I then stamped some flourishes from the 'Fantastic Flourishes' set by Hero Arts in water...splattered some water over the top...then gave the whole thing a generous spritzing of 'Baby's Breath' Cosmic Shimmerz. I used a Joy Crafts die to cut the butterfly from navy blue card...then daubed some 'Picket Fence' Distress Stain over the edges, before spritzing it with some more of the Cosmic Shimmerz.

Here's a close-up of the 'filigree' butterfly:

I'm also entering this card into the following challenges:

• Allsorts - Happy Birthday
• Charisma Cardz - May Flowers
• Crazy Challenge - Bingo (Pearls - Flower - Die Cut)
• Inky Impressions - Bingo (Die Cut - Stamp - Flowers)
• Less is More - Include a Die Cut

For more inspiration from my lovely DT buddies, please pop over to the Oldie but a Goodie Challenge.

Climbing Up

It was my birthday at the weekend...and I recieved some fab new crafty goodies which I had a little play with yesterday evening. On this card, I've used a new stamp ('Climbing Up' by Woodware) and a gorgeous butterfly die (by Joy Crafts) from my lovely bloggy buddy Pauline. I started by stamping a Hero Arts 'Music' background stamp on a piece of white card, then blended 'Stormy Sky' and 'Bundled Sage' Distress Inks over the top...blending 'Old Paper' and 'Brushed Corduroy' around the edges. I stamped the 'Climbing Up' stamp using the watercolour technique, using 'Faded Jeans', 'Chipped Saphire' and 'Forest Moss' inks. For the background, I blended 'Old Paper' and 'Brushed Corduroy' inks over white card before embossing using my Cuttlebug 'Swiss Dots' and Craft Concepts 'Blooming Season' folders. I cut the butterfly from card inked with 'Chipped Saphire' and 'Brushed Corduroy', and added a sentiment from the Hero Arts 'Fabulous' set.

Challenges for this card:

• Creative Craft - Tic-Tac-Toe (Green - Flowers - Distress)
• Flutterby Wednesdays - Anything with Wings
• Paper Crafting Journey - Distressed/Vintage
• Simon Says Stamp (Mondays) - Dies
• Stamping Sensations - Wings & Things with a Touch of Vintage