Muse #134 - Pastel Bubbles

Hi guys

We've whizzed around to another Monday which means it's time for a new challenge at Muse and I'm delighted to be your muse for this week.

The idea at Muse is to use the Designer's card as the inspiration for your creation.  You can interpret it as you wish; using the colours, layout, techniques, etc.  You can find out more about the challenge guidelines here.

After Michelle's fabulous bold design last week I decided to give you a pretty pastel creation for this week's challenge.

I started by stamping the bubble background in VersaMark onto some mixed media paper and heat embossed in white.  I then squished three Distress Inks onto my craft mat and diluted with water before watercolouring them, one at time onto my paper.  When each colour was almost dry I then went back in to add more depth of colour to some of the bubbles.  I cut the panel down and mounted it onto some black cardstock before adhering flat to my card base.  I swirled some fine silver metallic thread into a messy circle and then adhered the die cut 'hello' over it to hold it in place.

Materials used:

• Stamp: Marion Emberson Designs - Bubble Background
• Ink: VersaMark; Distress Inks: Salty Ocean, Cracked Pistachio and Spun Sugar
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White
• Cardstock: Daler-Rowney - Mixed Media; Papermania - Premium Textured Cardstock
• Die: Clearly Besotted - Hello Word Die
• Accents: Fine Metallic Silver Thread

Challenge entries:

Crazy 4 Challenges - Challenge #300 - Something that relies on the wind (bubbles)

Sweet Stampin' - Emboss It

Thanks so much for joining me today, and I hope you will play along.

Eyelet Accents

Hi there

Tonight I've made a card and managed to combine a few challenges.

The first challenge is at Less Is More and this week the recipe is to use any kind of metal on our creations.

There is another challenge this week at Daring Cardmakers and the theme there is 'Old but not Forgotten'.

When I first started cardmaking many years ago I used a lot of eyelets and brads but these have been abandoned for a year or so and certainly since I started blogging, so I thought I'd give my eyelets an airing.

Until now I've used them to accent corners or to thread ribbon through but I went in a different direction today and used them to accent my stamped image...

When looking through my stamps this one just jumped out at me as it had little rings which were perfect to accent with the eyelets.  I stamped the image on a white panel and randomly affixed the coloured eyelets.  I chose a bright pink card base but didn't want the pink to show through the holes in the eyelets so I adhered a scrap of black cardstock behind the eyelet section before attaching the panel to the cardbase with 3D foam strips.  And there you have it, so easy.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Marion Emberson Designs - On your special day; Clearly Besotted Stamps - Many Messages
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black
• Eyelets and cardstock from stash

I would also like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #84 - Clean and Simple
Dynamic Duos - #91 - Triple Threat Week

I never thought I'd really like a card using eyelets and I'd pretty much left them hidden away in my craft cupboard, never to be used again!  I'd love it if you'd leave a comment to let me know what you think, and share if there's anything in your stash that you've abandoned.  You never know, use it in a different way and you just might surprise yourself! :)

Bye for now

One Layer Thank You

Good morning guys

I made this card last night as I wanted to have a go at the latest Muse Challenge as its their 1st Anniversary.  But then my internet decided to throw a wobbly so I couldn't get a connection!  So, this will be a very quick post this morning otherwise I'll be going to work with no make-up and wet hair!

I'm not crazy about this card in the slightest, I was fiddling around for ages trying to figure out what to do and this isn't what I intended at all but I thought I'd share it with you anyway...

I was inspired by the grey gridded background and the trio of colours.  I stamped the distressed grid and then I went in search of some red, green and blue card and some dies.  Nothing was really working and this ended up as a one layer stamped card!  Oh well, another to add to my stash anyway! :)

Materials used:

• Stamps: Kaisercraft - Grid; Marion Emberson Designs - Just Because; Clearly Besotted Stamps - Many Messages
• Ink: Versa Color - Rose Red, Green, Royal Blue, Polar Blue; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Gems from stash

This is Jackie Rockwell's card we were to use as inspiration...

Phew, right I'm off to get ready for what Monday has to throw at me.  Have a great day whatever you're up to.

Cosy Snowman

Hi guys

I'm back today to share my final card this side of Christmas, having now tidied away my crafty mess for the second time!

This is the card I made for my chap and I'm really pleased with how this one turned out :)

I stamped the snowman image and coloured him in using ProMarkers and FlexMarkers before die cutting using a circle die.  I then used a smaller die from the same set of nested dies and stamped the first sentiment.  I then stamped a piece of background cardstock with a cluster of snowflakes stamp and the second sentiment.  I popped both die cuts up on 3D foam before tying some twine around the whole panel and attaching a heart button.  The whole panel was then adhered to the card base.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Penny Black - Sweet Snowman; Marion Emberson Designs - Sparkling Christmas; Personal Impressions - To My... (Sue Dix)
• Ink: Impress - Jet Black; Versafine - Onyx Black; Versa Color - Polar Blue
• Coloured with ProMarkers and FlexMarkers
• Dies: Xcut - Nested Circles
• Twine: Doodlebug - Brights Selection
• Button: Craftime Additions - Country Love

Challenge entries:

A Gem of a Challenge - Anything Goes

Addicted to Stamps and More - Anything Goes

Charisma Cardz Challenges - Anything Goes

Dream Valley - Christmas

Paper Pretties - Let It Snow

Passion for Promarkers - Include a Sentiment

Sketch Saturday - Anything Goes - Any Sketch: I chose #272

So now I take this opportunity of wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and very best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year - but hopefully I'll be back with more to share before 2014 makes an appearance!

Bye for now...I'm off to open the Baileys! :)

Festive Feline

Hi there

Today I have another Christmas card to share with you, this time its the card I made for my Mum.

She is currently looking after a friend's house whilst also cat-sitting for three little fur balls so I thought it appropriate that I made her a card featuring one of our feline friends!

Materials used:

• Stamps: Wild Rose Studio - Molly and Baubles; Clearly Besotted Stamps - For Everyone; Marion Emberson Designs - Sparkling Christmas
• Ink: Impress - Jet Black; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Embossing Folder: Free with a publication
• Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities - Classic Ovals Large
• Coloured with ProMarkers and Flexmarkers
• Twine: Doodlebug - Brights Selection
• Gems: Papermania - Glazed Gems (Iridescent)

Challenge entries:

Merry Monday - Use an Animal on your Christmas Card

Less is More - Choose a Previous Challenge - I chose Week 120 Theme - Cats or Dogs

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Christmas card

Passion for Promarkers - Include a Sentiment

Addicted to Stamps and More - Anything Goes

Just a short post today as got a few bits and bobs to do before Christmas and I'm at work tomorrow - luckily only a half day though :)

I hope all your Christmas plans are coming together nicely - not long now! 

Take care

One Layer Thank You

Hi guys

After a lazy morning followed by cooking the Sunday roast I decided to spend some time crafting this afternoon.

There are three current challenges I've spotted today, all requesting One Layer Cards:

Less is More - One Layer Card: Thank you
CAS on Sunday - One Layer Wonder
My Time to Craft - One Layer or Less

*Update - thanks to Nancy I'm also entering this card into the technique challenge at Just Us Girls which is to create a background of words :)

I decided to have a go at creating a word background.  Only yesterday I watched a video tutorial by the awesome Jennifer McGuire and had this technique in mind when I created my card.  Jennifer is a-ma-zing, its well worth a visit to her blog if you haven't yet discovered her talents.

I raided my clear stamp stash and grabbed any 'thank you' stamps I could find and then used a square die as my guide and organised the stamps upside down within the square.  This is a lot more difficult than it looks!  Once sorted I transferred them onto my stamp press to keep the stamps in position.

I then used my square die with my embossing mat to create an embossed square on my card base, without cutting through.  I then stamped the various thank you images in four different ink colours.

I'm not entirely happy with the layout but not bad for a first attempt!  With so many different fonts, some having scroll details, it was quite a task to find a layout that worked so what looks like a simple card actually took a while to create.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted Stamps - Butterfly Wishes, Butterfly Wishes Additions, Honecomb; Woodware - Salutations; BoBunny - Sentiments Stamp; Marion Emberson Designs - It's all in the Words; Penny Black - Salutations; Wild Rose Studio - Everyday Greetings; Hot Off The Press (name of set unknown)
• Ink: Versa Color - Magenta, Turquoise, Violet and Split Pea
• Die: Xcut - Nested Squares

I think I need a few more attempts at this technique but I'm really happy with the embossed square frame, great for adding interest to one layer cards.

Thanks for popping by and I hope to see you again very soon.

On Your Special Day

Hi there

Tonight I am sharing a card I've made to fit four challenges.  It's not very often I manage to combine challenges, I'm usually rushing just to get a card made before the deadline! 

I made this little card and used the 'On your special day' sentiment so it can be suitable for more than just a birthday.

 

This was quite easy to put together.  I die cut the heart in the white cardstock and stamped the leaves and butterfly on the coloured cardstock, where it would show through the aperture.  A bit of layering up and some little gems and it was complete.

 

Materials used:

• Cardstock: Stampin' Up - Wisteria Wonder; White cardstock from stash
• Stamps: Marion Emberson Designs - Just Because and On your Special Day
• Ink: Versa Color - Imperial Blue
• Gemstones from stash

 

 

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

 

Dynamic Duos #76 - Monochromatic Shades of Purple

Addicted to Stamps and More # 69 - Clean and Simple

My Time to Craft #240 - Butterflies

Sweet Stampin' - Wood, Trees or Leaves

 

 

I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself tonight as I've got a horrible cold and I'm sat here in my PJs with hot honey and lemon for company!  So this little bit of crafting has cheered me up.

 

Take care and thank you so much for popping by my little space in blogland :)

 

 



Sketch Saturday Week #280 - Guest Designer!

Hi there

Its Saturday (yay!!) and therefore time for the next challenge over at Sketch Saturday!

This is my second week as Guest Designer and I'm loving this little role for the October challenges.  I want to give the lovely Lizy of Lizy's House of Cards massive thanks for inviting me to be part of the team, I'm having great fun putting these cards together.

Before I show you this week's sketch and card I wanted to let you know that Sketch Saturday are celebrating their milestone of 2000 followers and are offering lots of thank you candy.  There are multiple prizes and therefore multiple winners and all you have to do is add your details to the Linky before 31 October 2013.  That's it - easy peasy!

So, onto this week's fab sketch...

 

I think you'll agree this is a brilliant sketch to use as a basis for your cards and this is what I came up with for this design...

 

 

 



I started by covering the card base with some green cardstock.  I then cut some patterned paper slightly smaller.  I stamped the sentiment on a strip of white card and ran this though my Big Shot using a snowflake embossing folder before adhering to the patterned paper.

Next I stamped two baubles onto green and pale coral cardstock using VersaMark ink and heat embossed using white embossing powder.  I then fussy cut these out.  I adhered some ribbon in position and fixed this on the back of the patterned paper.  I then popped the baubles up on 3D foam.  This top layer was then adhered to the green card base.

Materials used:

• Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Premium Cardstock (colours); white cardstock from stash
• Patterned Paper: Dovecraft - Christmas Blues
• Stamps: Marion Emberson Designs - Sparkling Christmas
• Ink: VersaMark; Versa Color - Celadon
• Embossing: Stampin' Up - Powder White; Snowflake folder free with a publication
• Ribbon from stash

Please take a moment to visit the Sketch Saturday challenge blog and see what the fabulous Design Team have created this week.  And why not have a go yourself, this is a really versatile sketch so there are loads of options.  And don't forget about the great offer of Thank You Candy!

Thanks so much for popping by and I hope to see you very soon.  Have a wonderful weekend.



Winter Warmers

Hi there

As promised, I'm back to share my second white on white Christmas card.

This card is only 10cm x 10cm but the little mittens are so cute I thought they belonged on a smaller card :)

 

 

I started by running the front of the card base through my Big Shot with a dotted embossing folder.  A snowfall EF would have worked better but this is still on my shopping list!

 

Next I used a scrap of white cardstock to stamp the mittens in VersaMark ink.  The stamp is one of the £1 range of stamps at Hobbycraft.  I then used some embossing tinsel which is white with flecks of silver glitter.  I then stamped the sentiment in silver before die cutting the images within a square.  This was then mounted on 3D foam for dimension.

 

Materials used:

• Stamps: Hobbycraft - Little Mittens; Marion Emberson Designs - Sparkling Christmas
• Ink: VersaMark; Versa Color - Silver
• Embossing Tinsel: Heat It Up - Snowflake
• Embossing Folder: Sizzix
• Die: Xcut - Nested Squares

 

Challenge inspiration:

 

Less is More - White on White Christmas

Keep it Simple - All is White

 

That's all from me at the moment but hopefully I'll be back very soon with another card to share.  As always, thank you for your visits and lovely comments.

 

Bye for now

 

 



Sparkling White Christmas

Hi guys

When I saw the new challenge at Less is More this week I really wanted to see what I could create to fit the brief.  Chrissie and Jen have challenged us to make a White on White Christmas card.

Keep it Simple have also set a challenge where the theme is All is White, so I'm combining these two challenges.

I had all sorts of ideas in my head of what to do with my small selection of Christmas goodies but putting them into practice was a lot more difficult than I first anticipated!  White on white is hard and I've realised I'm in desperate need of Christmas dies!  Photographing white cards is also a challenge in itself but luckily we have a brighter day down here today which has helped.

I've made two cards for the challenge, this being the first one...

 

I remember the last time I used white embossing powder it ended up looking cream rather than white, as on my previous pine needle card here.  So to try to avoid this, instead of stamping the wreath in VersaMark or white ink, this time I used silver.  Although the silver is covered by the powder it has made it a brighter white.

I've used a shimmery pearlescent cardstock here.  I started by stamping the wreath in silver and covering with white embossing powder, and then stamped the sentiment in silver ink and covered with clear embossing powder.  I didn't want the sentiment to get hidden in the pearlescent base.  I then heat embossed the two elements at the same time rather than heating twice.  The card did warp slightly, a problem I always encounter when heat embossing so this panel had to sit under some heavy magazines to straighten out. 

I wrapped some white organza ribbon around the panel and made a bow, this was then popped up on 3D foam.  A little bit of bling was added to finish.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Penny Black - Crystal Wreath; Marion Emberson Designs - Sparkling Christmas
• Ink: Versa Color - Silver
• Embossing Powder: Stampin' Up - White; Rubber Stampede - Clear
• Cardstock, ribbon and gems from stash

Thanks for popping by, I'll be back shortly with my second white on white Christmas card.

Less is More Week 131 & CAS(E) this Sketch #40

Hi guys

Firstly I'd like to give a warm welcome to my new followers, Jo, Deepti and Christina.  Thank you so much for taking an interest in my blog, its always great to know that people appreciate my creations :)

Apologies for being a bit quiet this week, I've been spending a few evenings trying to organise my stash into some sort of order.  My cupboard still needs some more planning as I seem to have bought too much recently and have no room for it! Oops!  I've also started to make a set of swatches for my inks so I can see the true colours.  Its very difficult to imagine the exact colour just by looking at the pad.  Its a work in progress but should get it all sorted how I want it soon.

Tonight I'm here to share a card I've made for a couple of challenges.

 

 

 

Less is More - Colour challenge / inspiration photo

 

 

 

CAS(E) this Sketch #40 

 

 

It took a while to pull together some materials from my stash to fit the colour challenge but I think I did ok.  I love the sketch this week and its one I've used a few times over the years, I love the simplicity and the vertical sentiment.

 

Materials used:

• Cardstock: Textured card base from stash; Papermania Premium Textured Cardstock
• Stamps: Marion Emberson Designs - On your special day; SP & Company - Just a Note
• Ink: Versa Color - Charcoal and Umber
• Ribbon and dew drops from stash

 

I hope to be back at the weekend with more to share with you, thanks as always for visiting and for your kind comments :)

 

 



Muse Challenge #14

Morning crafters

Woke up really early this morning and couldn't get back to sleep so decided to get up and put my papercraft head on.

Its the last day to get entries in for this week's Muse challenge and this week's muse is Virginia Lu who has created a gem of a card. 

I had a rummage through my stamps and just couldn't find anything I wanted to use....need to shop!  So, instead I decided to trawl through my very neglected patterned papers and found an unopened pack so got stuck in. 

This is what I came up with, I think its pretty clear where my inspiration came from, pretty much every element of Virginia's card!

 

 

The patterned paper has an off-white background so I started with a cream card base for a change, I think white may have made the paper look a bit grubby.  This design took a while to plan out as a fair amount of measuring was needed to get the four strips the same size and to ensure they fitted correctly.  Once the strips were adhered to the pink background card I ran the whole thing through my Big Shot using a circular die.  Once stuck to the card base I then stamped the sentiment through the window and also stamped a flourish to mirror the design in the paper.  A few gems were added to finish.

 

Materials used:

• Cardstock: Cream card base from stash; Bazzill Basics Premium Cardstock (pink)
• Design Paper: Dovecraft - Garden Party 6 x 6 Designer Paper Pack
• Stamps: Clearly Besotted Stamps - Happy Everything (sentiment); Marion Emberson - Just Because (flourish)
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black
• Die: XCut - Nested Circles
• Gems from stash

 



This is the beautiful card by this week's Muse, Virginia Lu...

After making my challenge card I was left with the cute little circular die cut so in true crafting 'I'm not throwing anything away' fashion, I made this card using the same materials.  The sentiment is from SP & Company 'Just a Note' stamp set.

That's all from me today.  Got a busy day, not doing anything exciting just mega busy, off here and there.  Thanks for visiting and I always appreciate any comments you take the time to leave.  If you get chance follow the link to the Muse challenge, there are some really stunning designs this week, its going to be a tough choice when it comes to voting!

Have a lovely Saturday :)

Fusion Card Challenge #3

Hi there

Today I've made a card for the challenge over at Fusion Card Challenge.  Unfortunately, I missed the first two weeks on this new challenge blog but when I saw the inspiration photo I really wanted to enter this one.  I love the colour combo, my bedroom used to be almost identical!

The idea of this challenge is to use the sketch or the photo as inspiration, or a Fusion of the two.  You can see the inspiration photo further down in this post.

Here is my card, I chose to combine the two inspirations to create a Fusion...

 

I used dies to cut out the leaves and flowers.  I have scored the black panel at the base to mirror the stripes in the inspiration photo.  Here is a closer view to show the detail...

 

 

 

Materials used:

• Dies: Clearly Besotted Stamps - Leafy Accents; Sizzix - Flower Layers #6
• Cardstock: Papermania Premium Textured Cardstock (pink); Black cardstock from stash
• Stamp: Marion Emberson Designs - On your special day
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black
• Ribbon and dewdrop from stash

 

 

Here are the inspiration photos for the challenge...

 

 

Thank you so much for visiting and please leave a comment, your views are always greatly appreciated :)

 

Right, I'm off to bed!