New Year, New Challenge!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and that 2014 will be a great year, both personally and craftily, for us all.

The new challenge is,of course, the first of the year for Stamping Sensations. Our theme for January is one which I think just about everybody will love!

RIBBONS, BUTTONS AND/OR BOWS

You can use any or all of those items in any combination! We have a fab sponsor too, Nicecrane Designs, owned by the lovely Ignacio! He has a fantastic selection of digital downloads on a huge variety of topics, all of which are great quality and print out beautifully. Ignacio is amazingly generous and has given us a brilliant prize of £35 worth of design sheets of the winner's choice!

My first card uses Ignacio's sheet "The Incredible Jessie Wilcox", which has several charming images of children, mostly reading books.

I matted the picture and sentiment (Hero Arts) on to a piece of card cut with a Spellbinders die, then on to a piece of blue card. The flourish stamps are by Waltzing Mouse. To fit the theme I added a ribbon bow, and some tiny buttons which I think were from Hero Arts.

Here's a closer look at the image.

And at the detail.

I've used Ignacio's design on this card because I like it, but it isn't a requirement of our challenge that you do so. You may use anything that fits the theme.

My second card is quite different. For this one I took inspiration from the gorgeous button, which is 1.5" in diameter.

I stamped the flourish (Chocolate Baroque) first in yellow, then in grey, and fixed the button over it. The sentiment (Inkylicious) was cut out with a freebie die from Papercraft Essentials magazine. To go with the theme, I added a tiny thread bow to the button, and a ribbon to the tag.

We had some amazing entries for our previous two challenges, and I can't wait to see this month's. My terrific teamies have really excelled themselves with a truly delightful set of samples, so don't forget to go and check them out on the Challenge Blog. Thanks for looking!

Vintage Nature

Thanks to Brenda and her gorgeous projects (see here and here) using their products, I've recently become a fan of Nicecrane Designs, owned by the lovely Ignacio. Once I saw his gorgeous butterflies, I knew I had to have them, and on browsing the site I discovered so many more equally lovely designs. They are all in the form of downloads (instant gratification!) and many have a vintage feel.

Like Brenda, it is unusual for me to make cards with little or no stamping on them, but Ignacio's designs are so pretty, I had to make an exception for them! I ordered several sets, and Ignacio also very generously sent me some freebie sets too. (NB. I have not been asked to promote his products, I'm just telling you about them because I like them!)

Anyway, once I'd got them downloaded, I set to work to make a few cards. Now, I struggle with cards for men. Or rather I did! Nicecrane has some lovely Old Map images. They're sold as bookmarks, but I made mine into a card.

I did do a bit of stamping here! The base card was stamped all over with an old freebie map stamp from Craft Stamper Magazine, with the bookmark image matted on to a thin gold border and placed on top. I didn't want to detract from the image, so the only embellishment is a little sentiment banner. (Banner stamp:Waltzing Mouse, sentiment: Clarity Stamp, a freebie from a show.)

Nicecrane has several sets on a nature theme, which is right up my street. My favourite is called "Colorful Nature", with vintage-style images of birds and animals. I used the four bird pictures to make a set of cards. It looks as though I cut them out with a Nestie label die, but though I have one of those it was the wrong size, so I just cut away each corner with a round hole punch.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will spot just a teeny-weeny bit of stamping (a tiny border by Waltzing Mouse)! Apart from that, the images are simply mounted on to a background cut with Martha Stewart punch-around-the page punches, and each is matted on different coloured Bazzil card which I inked around the edges to continue the vintage feel. I think they make a pretty set.

Thanks for looking!