Bright and Bold Flower

Good evening all.

Here is a card for 2 challenges: Crafty Catz Challenge #67 Flowers and CES Challenge #21 - Bright and Bold

I have to say that the yellow and red are brighter in real life than they are in this picture!

The main image, a glorious stamp from the Stampman, was stamped twice on glossy black card and embossed with gold powder. Both of the flowers were painted with Twinkling H2Os and allowed to dry. One flower was cut out and the card shaped before being layered on top of the other with Pinflair Glue.

The red card was randomly stamped with another poppy stamp from Elusive Images and embossed with clear WOW powder to give a watermark effect.

The sentiment, again from Elusive Images, was stamped and embossed in gold on glossy black card, cut out with a Nestie and layered onto a yellow scalloped Nestie shape and finally onto a glossy black Nestie shape.

To assemble the flower was layered onto yellow cad and the ribbons added on the 2 corners. This was bonded to the red card, which in turn was added to a layer of black and finally onto the A5 yellow base card. The sentiment was added on foam pads to give extra dimension to the card.

Oriental Lady

Good morning and Happy Sunday to you all.

A card for the The Stampman Challenge #15 - Oriental and .Sentimental Sundays #40 Chinese New Year

I decided to stay with the red, blank and gold theme for this so I started off with an A5 black base card.

The background was white card which was sprayed with Scarlet and Raven Glimmer Mist sprays. Once dry this was stamped randomly, using Versamark ink, with the same flower stamp that you can see on the left of the red card and this was embossed with clear powder. You can just see this effect along the top of the card. It was difficult to photograph!

The A6 central red card was stamped 6 times with the same stamp. Two more were stamped on individual squares of red, leather textured card which had previously been stamped with some oriental script. The script and flower stamps are by Judikins. The individual squares were mounted on squares of gold card and then mounted onto the red card.

The main image, by the Stampman, was stamped on leather textured card and sprayed with a pale glimmer mist. This was mounted onto gold card which in turn was added to the card using foam pads for extra depth.

Gold thread was wrapped around the spine of the  A6 red card and oriental style beads added to the ends of the thread. The A6 card was then taped shut and mounted onto the background card

Landscape

Good morning and welcome to Friday. That means the weekend is almost here. Hurray. Crafting time is nearly upon me!

However, I did manage to sneak some extra time in the last few days so here is my second challenge card of the week. This is for Critter Sketch Challenge #49 - Circle and Distress Effects

The card is based on an A5 brown blank card. The back ground started off as cream card which was: sprayed with several different green mica sprays, dried, screwed up, unscrewed, rubbed over with sandpaper to remove some of the spray on the high spots, rubbed over with Tea Dye Distress ink, sprayed with water, flattened out a bit and finally dried again. You almost have to feel sorry for it, to be treated so!

The border on the left hand side was designed on a Gypsy, cut on a Cricut and coloured with the same colour Distress ink.

The flowers: different size layers were sized on the Gypsy, cut on the Cricut, stamped with a random pattern, aged with Distress ink, shaped and layered with glue and a gem placed in the middle of each.

The main image - my favourite stamp at the moment from Sheena Douglass. The was stamped on water colour card with Adirondack Espresso ink and water brush whilst the ink was still damp. When dry, Antique Linen and Tea Dye Distress ink were used to age it. The image was stamped again on glossy card and a suitable size Nestie used to cut out the required circle. This was coloured with Promarkers and bonded onto the large image matching the lines exactly to give a highlighted area. Pinflair glue was used to do this, rather than tape, to give 'slidability' to ensure the image was perfectly positioned.

The lovely sentiment, also from Sheena, was stamped, cut out and tinted in the same way and mounted onto the Scalloped Nestie cut out.

The cream webbing strip was coloured with Tea Dye ink.

The border was mounted onto the distressed panel only along the edge so that the main image could be positioned under some of the flourishes. Once this was bonded onto the base card, the webbing was added with a slight curve built in to follow the shape of the tree. Everything else was then layered on top of this to give the completed effect. Assembly of the card was done using D-S tape and Pinflair glue

Geraniums, a Card for 2 Challenges

Good morning. Here we are, Thursday again....which means it will soon be Friday and hence the weekend.

Here is a lovely card for two challenges: Crafty Creations - Let's Heat It Up and Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #38 - Flubbers.

For the first challenge it needed such things as heat embossing, warm colours or something to remind us of warmer places so I heat embossed a Geranium stamp (Elusive Images), which reminds me of all the window boxes in France in the summer, and used lots of warm sunny colours. For the second challenge - Flubbers means flowers so the Geraniums and the hand-made embellishments fit the bill.

The stamped and embossed image (brass WOW powder) was water coloured with Aquamarkers and a water brush. It was cut out with a Nestie and the edges worked with Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink. A slightly larger cut out was made from a coppery card to frame it.

The orange and yellow flowers and leaves were cut out in various sizes with a Cricut /Gypsy, layered up and a gem added for the centres.

The easel card was made from 3 large Grand Nestie scalloped circles (about 6" diameter) layered with slightly smaller ones. The central circles are made from a gorgeous hand-made, thick, textured paper, cut out with a Nestie and over sprayed with copper mica mist.

Everything was assembled with D-S tape, foam pads and adhesive to give the creation you see before you.

Butterfly Fairy

Happy Sunday to you all.

A card for the CES Challenge #20 - Angels and Fairies.

The main image is from a My Craft Studio - Silhouettes - Butterfly Fairy. She was coloured with Promarkers and cut out with a Labels Nestability.  The shape was edged with Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink. Glamour dust was added to her wings to add some fairy sparkle.
An orangey-yellow shape was cut out with the next size and finally the orange layer was cut out after drawing around the outside of the last one.
The card base was cut out from bright yellow, leather textured card with a Grand Nestability making sure that the cutting edge overhung the edge of the card to stop it cutting out 2 separate shapes.
Two butterfly stamps from Elusive Images were stamped randomly over the yellow card with Brown Archival ink. The same two stamps were used to stamp some butterflies on white paper. These were coloured with Aquamarkers and cut out.
Gold thread was used to weave in and out of the holes left along the top spine of the card and knotted at either end.
The card was assembled with double sided tape and with Pinflair Glue for the small butterflies on the corners.

Let's Party - A Card for 2 Challenges

Good afternoon.

Went out for a lovely walk on this cold and frosty morning and I was delighted to see the first catkins on the trees. This must mean that Spring is just around the corner.

Still, on to the main point of this blog - a card for 2 challenges: Cards for Men Challenge #2 - Let's Party and Die Cut Dreams #81 - Use a Digi and a Rubber Stamp Together

For the DCD challenge - the Let's Party was from a My Craft Studio No Stamp Required CD - it is a font so strictly that is 8 stamps which I coloured in with Promarkers after printing them out on Super Smooth Paper. The Pub and the Beer stamps are from a set by Creative Expressions.

The Cards for Men Challenge gave the theme of Lets' Party. I had no real party type stamps but I thought "well you can always party down the Pub". The pub was stamped onto watercolour paper with Adirondack Espresso ink and it was coloured using the same ink and a water brush. The edges were tinged with Spiced Marmalade and Rusty Hinge Distress ink. The bear bottles were stamped and coloured in the same way and 5 sets were cut out - 2 for the label and 3 as individual embellishments

The Let's Party was cut out with a Label Nestability and with the cut out still in the die an edging of Rusty Hinge ink was added. A larger size of the same shape was cut from copper mirror board and the two were stuck together.

The base card is dark brown and A5 in size. The background layer a gorgeous piece of copper embossed card that I have had for ages and I can't remember where I got it from. Everything was attached to the base card with Pinflair Glue.

Birds - A Card for 4 Challenges

Good afternoon one and all.

Here is a card for 4 challenges: Totally Papercrafts #50 - Add a Heart, Crafty Catz Challenge #66 - Forgotten Stamp, Crafty Creations Challenge # 102 - It's a Bird Thing, and finally Crafty Cardmakers - Spotlight on Pencils.

The card is based on dark green hammered card, A5 in size. The backing layer was cream card that was sprayed with 3 colours of green glimmer mist and the polka dots were applied using metallic green paint through sequin waste.

The forgotten stamp is the large image, from Elusive images which I used a lot a couple of years ago but haven't used for ages. This is part of the bird element for 'it's a bird thing'. I stamped this onto white card and coloured it with Inktense pencils from Derwent. I used a blender pencil and burnisher to help blend the colours and to smooth the image out.

The two small hearts are from a free stamp from Craft Stamper designed by Elusive Images again. These were coloured in the same way as the main image.

To assemble, the background player was cut to size and the ribbons added before bonding it to the base card. The main image was added followed by the two hearts and finally the 3 groups of 3 sticky backed gems were attached for a bit of bling.

I think that about does it so I hope you like it.

Nymph

Good evening. Here we are at the end of Wednesday which means it is all down hill from here to the weekend and more time for crafting! Hurray!

A card for 2 challenges:
Critter Challenge #48, Colour and Embellishment which requires blue and silver with Pearls or Rhinestones and  Sketch n Stash #53 which provided the sketch for the card layout. The Stash element is the gorgeous blue patterned and textured card which I have had for ages.

A lovely blue pearlescent card provided the A5 base card. Lovely card this - it is white pearlescent on the other side giving a very luxurious inside surface as well.

A strip of the textured blue card was cut to size and it was edged with silver mirror card cut out with a Borderability. This is such a gorgeous pattern too.

The main image is from a Clarity stamp which was simply stamped on glossy, white card using Denim Adirondack ink. This was cutout with a circular Nestability and the edges tinted with Chipped Sapphire Distress ink. A silver mirror card scalloped circle was cut to make the backing.

The flowers are from a Cricut cartridge - I can't remember which one. The two different sizes were made on Gypsy and cut on the Cricut. These were tinted with the same Distress ink and layered with Pinflair glue. The large rhinestones were set in the middle of each flower.

The card was assembled to give the result you see above. I hope you like it.

Happy Birthday

Good evening to one and all.

A card for the Totally Papercraft Challenge #49 - Happy Birthday.

I went for nice bright colours as I am still in a Spring Time mood.

The butterfly and the two different flowers stamps are of my own design that I had made for me.

The base card is A5 in size, bright yellow, leather textured finish. I edged it with Spiced Marmalade Distress ink. The back ground layer started off as white card which I coloured with various colours of Distress ink. The ink was splodged onto a non-stick mat and were sprayed with water. The card was dunked into this until I was happy with the pattern. Once dried it was trimmed to size and from the offcuts a strip was cut for the bottom of the card.

A cream coloured aperature card was used as the basis for the main image. Inside the aperture is a pale yellow vellum stamped with the solid flower which was embossed in gold. The front was stamped with the other flower stamp, embossed in gold and coloured with Sakura pens in yellow and orange. Two ribbons were wrapped around the bottom of the card and secured with tape. The bows were made seperately and secured with Pinflair glue.

The butterfly, which look quite blue in this photo, was stamped on Fusable Film using Stazon ink. As with all fusable film the colour changes depending on the light. It other lights is looks pinker.There are two layers stuck together  along the body with silicone glue and the top one is glittered. The top layer is bent upwards to give dimension

The Happy Birthday sentiment was a free stamp from one of the crafting magazines. This was stamped and embossed as before and then cut out with a Nestability. A backing in a gold textured card was also cut and the two bonded together.

Everything was assembled with double sided tape except for the sentiment which was mounted with foam pads for depth.

Challenge Link: Totally Papercrafts Challenge #49

Dragonfly Tags

Good morning. Happy Sunday.

Here is a card for two challenges - The Stamp Man #14 - Distress and CES Challenge #19 - No Designer Papers.

The base card is Navy Blue and A5 in size.The Background was a piece of white card (that hates water) that was attacked with several colours of Distress Ink and lots of water. Whilst wet it was screwed up and generally battered about before touching more ink over the ridges that were created. When dry, it was trimmed to size and the edges roughened up with that magic edge tool by Sir Tim.

The script paper was stamped twice, side by side, using a Stamp Man stamp using Stazon Ink. The edges were torn and tinted with 2 colours of Distress ink (Broken China and Stormy Sky).

The piece behind the tags was coloured with Distress Ink and splashed with water to lift some of the ink. When dry it was run through a Cuttlebug with an embossing folder and finally sanded to remove some of the surface to age it.

The two tags were coloured with distress inks using a blending tool, stamped and embossed with a flourish stamp from Sheena Douglass. The front one had the word Love stamped (again from Sheena) and the Dragonfly stamp from The Stamp Man.

When the backing was assembled, a hole was punched to take the ball chain (Tim Holtz). The tags were threaded onto the chain and attached to the card and they are held i place with foam pads.

Challenge Links:
The Stamp Man #14 - Distress
CES Challenge #19 - No Designer Papers.

New Home Card

Good morning.

Thursday already. Nearly the end of the week. It is all down hill to the weekend from here! Excellent. More time from crafting!

This card is for the Crafty Creations Challenge  - New Beginnings. I chose New Home for the theme as I just love this cottage stamp by Clarity. A lot went into making this card so here goes........

Card size A4 in cream hammered card.

Background paper - I designed the pattern  in My Craft Studio, printed it on a laser printer and hot foiled it in gold.

Tag - coloured with various Distress Inks, stamped with the cottage in brown, the sentiment, computer printed as I did not have a suitable stamp, tinted with ink, trimmed and bonded to the  tag and some lovely rusty coloured organza ribbon threaded onto it.

Flower embellishments -  cream card, sprayed with various Glimmer Mists, stamped with the flower (sorry, I can't remember the manufacturer) and cut out when dry.

Matting layer under the main image - white glossy card to which was applied various colours of alcohol inks with gold mixive added.

Main image - white glossy card (A6). Cottage stamped applied so that it is the opposite of the stamp by using a brayer. Cottage stamp applied directly to the card above the reflected one. Same technique for the trees. The water was brayered in place after running the brayer over crumpled paper Sky brayered on after masking the main cottage. Hills added in the background by sponging ink over torn paper. Finally the edges were ined to give a vignette look to the completed artwork. Thanks to Barbara Grey for all those techniques.

The image and 1st mat were mounted onto cream card to give definition and the card was assembled to give the finished look.

Challenge link: Crafty Creations - New Beginnings

You Take the Cake - Card for 3 Challenges

Good morning.
Here we have a somewhat different style of card for me which is being entered into 3 challenges: Critter Sketch Challenge #47 - For the sketch design, Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #37 - Red and a Die Cut, Crafty Catz Challenge #64 - Food and Drink.

The reason that this is so different was because I had nothing in my stamping stash for Food or Drink so I had to resort to my Cricut Imagine cartridge which is suitably entitled "Yummy" - say no more!

The card is based on a 6" x 6" pink card blank. The square scalloped mats, the red oval  and the photo corners are all die cut with either Nestabilities or Sizzix dies.

The patterned paper was from my stash.The edges of the card blank and all the square mates were edged with "Worn Lipstick" Distress Ink.

For the food and drink elements, they were all done by the Imagine machine to print them and cut them out. The cupcakes were printed as layers so the extra cherries were printed to allow a decoupaged layer for added  interest.

Once all the elements were prepared it was a simple assembly job using double sided tape and foam pads. The final touch were the 6 pink flat backed gems added for sparkle.

Challenge links:
Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge #64
Critter Sketch Challenge #47
Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #37

Hope is the Companion of Power - Card for 2 Challenges

Second post of the day as I catch up on a few challenges. This is the problem of working full time - not enough time for crafting during the week.

This card is for 2 challenges - Cards for Men - Sketch Challenge and Die Cut dreams - Quote. See the end of the post for the links.

I started off with the cream, hammered card blank A5 in size. The background is a piece of kitchen roll which was used for moping up the craft mat when I was using glimmer mists in tones of brown. This was trimmed to size to give an even border all round and mounted in place with double sided tape.

The quote, from a chap named Sydney Bremer, is an Elusive Images stamp. The balloon, the checked background and the sentiment are from Creative Expressions.

The checked pattern has been stamped in black archival ink onto wood veneer which has previously been sprayed with Glimmer Mists. The balloon as done in the same way.

The quote was stamped in black archival ink on satin card which had been previously brayered with ink from a Big and Juicy ink pad. The sentiment was stamped onto the same type of card which had been sponged with the same colour as used on the quote.

The quote and the sentiment were matted onto a copper coloured textured card which I have had for ages and I haven't a clue where I got it from. The same card was used with an oval Nestability to cut and emboss the shape as required by the challenge sketch.

Everything was mounted onto the kitchen roll background with tape except for the wooden elements for which I used very large, strong foam pads.

Challenge links:
Cards for Men Challenge #1 - Sketch
Die Cut Dreams Challenge #80 - Quote

Thank You, a card for 2 Challenges

Good morning to one and all and a very Happy Sunday to you.

Here is a card for 2 challenges - CES - All Creatures Great and Small and Totally Papercraft - Thank You. See the end of the post for the links.

All the stamps, inlcuding the sentiment, used for this card are by Elusive Images. There are two different sizes of butterfly, the flourish corner, The Harlequin & Daisy stamp and the Thank You sentiment.

The flourish and the harlequin & daisy stamp were stamped onto watercolour card with black Archival ink. The daisy stamp was watercoloured with Distress inks - Mustard Seed, Dried Marigold, Spicy Marmalade ans Shabby Shutters.  The edges were tinted with Marigold and Marmalade inksThe sentiment was added using foam pads to give extra height.

Flower Card for the Critter Sketch Challenge #46

Good morning. I obviously am trying to be optimistic and think of Spring as this is my second flower based card of the week. It is just such a shame that it is snowing outside (again)!

The base dark green card was cut with the largest of the Grand Square Scalloped Nestabilities using my new Grand Calibre machine (a Christmas present to myself!).

The background was cut with the same, but 2 sizes smaller, from a sheet of card which I coloured with various green chalk inks, sprayed with 2 colours of green Glimmer mists and stamped with the snowdrop stamp from Sheena Douglass using Bottle Adirondack ink.

The main snow drop image and the gorgeous sentiment (a Clarity stamp) were stamped on watercolour card with Versamark and embossed with gold WOW powder. The snowdrops were coloured with Aquamarkers and the edges of both tinted with Shabby Shutters Distress ink. They were both cut out with Nestabilities and mounted on gold mirror card also cut with Nestabilities.

The vertical strip is green mirror card with a thinner strip of gold mirror card added on top. The horizontal piece of card is the same as the base card with decorative corners added with a Fiskars corner punch.

The whole card was assembled with double sided tape except for the image which was mounted with foam pads to make it stand out. A gold ribbon bow and three gold pearls were added as the finishing touches to complete the card against the requirements of the sketch. I do hope you like the finished effect.

Challenge link: Critter Sketch Challenge #46

Flower Card for Sketch and Stash Challnge #52

Good morning. Here is what I consider to be a fairly dramatic card for this sketch challenge. The stash used are the large fabric flowers which I won in a sort of crafting lucky dip over a year ago and have never quite known what to do with them as they are so large - about 6" (15cm) in diameter. They have been used to enhance the size of the image on an 8" x 8" size card.

First and Last (or Greatest) Challenge

This is an entry for the Crafty Cardmakers Mega Xmas Challenge of first card (or the oldest that you have a picture of) and the last card you made (or else the greatest card you have made).

Well, the pink card is one of my very earliest creations using Hot of the Press papers (if I remember correctly), some little tags that were stamped and coloured with Twinkling H2Os and peel offs, which I very rarely use now.

The oriental card is my favourite card that I made last year due to the number of techniques used. The background was made with distress inks on white card and a beautiful oriental stamp. The tag uses Sheena Douglass' Poppy stamp and the buttons were made from Fimo, stamped with various impressions before they were baked. For more details on how this card was made, please refer to my blog for Wednesday 10th Novemebr - Oriental Button Card.

I belive that that this fits the crieria for the challenge. At least it shows that I havemade some progress over the years!

Challenge link: http://craftycardmakers.blogspot.com/2010/12/crafty-cardmakers-mega-xmas-challenge.html

Gone Fishing

January is here which means 2 men's cards in the first week of the year for 2 birthdays on the 8th of the month! Consequently I panic as they are always difficult, as we all know.

So here is the first one for the man who is a fishing addict. This is being entered into 2 challenges, the links of which are given below. The card layout is based on challenge #8 of the Sketch and Stash Challenge site - the challenge (#51) being to use my own choice of the previous challenge sketches. I have owned the stamp and CD ROM for well over a year and this is the first time I have used it. The second challenge is 'Anything Goes' , Challenge #17 for the CES blog.

Not my usual type of card, as you can see. I have had to resort to CD ROMs etc for the backing papers which I do not usually do.

This backing paper and border come from a Crafter's Companion CD for Men. The main image and the fish embellishments are from the stamp set that accompany the CD ROM.

The main image and the fishes were stamped onto watercolour card with Espresso Adirondack ink. A damp brush was used on the main image to colour it by drawing the ink from the image and painting with it. The fish were left, just as they were stamped - no brushing required.

Three colours of Distress ink were used to 'age' the edges of the picture after it was trimmed to size. Once dry it was matted onto copper mirror card to give some definition. The fish were cut out and put to one side for the assembly at the end. The distress ink was also used to tint the edges of the border.

The base card is 7" x 7". A piece of the background paper 6.75" x 6.75" was matted onto the card and the various other elements applied with double sided tape except for the main image which was raised off the surface with foam pads. The copper blobs in the corners of the brown layer were made with Pearlidoodles.

Challenge links: http://ceschallenges.blogspot.com/2010/12/challenge-17-anything-goes.html

http://sketchandstashchallenge.blogspot.com/2010/12/sketch-n-stash-challenge-51.html

The Last Christmas Card

I know we are now in 2011 but I needed an excuse to post this Christmas card that I made for my other half. I was so pleased with it. Therefore this is to be an entry for the Crafty Catz challenge #63 which was my choice of any of their old challenge themes. Consequently I chose #60 - Christmas.

The base card is navy blue and A5 in size.

The background was made from white watercolour card which was tinted with Distress ink and when dry it was over sprayed with silver and lapis lazuli mica mists. The made the distress ink run and gave a very nice effect.

The two flourishes were cut on my Cricut machine.

The sentiment was hand foiled in silver and the edges tinted with Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink. This was matted onto silver mirror card.

The image, by Sheena Douglass, was stamped with the same distress ink onto watercolour card and then with a damp brush the ink from the outline was drawn into the image to add shading. Once trimmed to the required size the edges were tinted with the same ink (I just love this colour) and the image was matted onto silver mirror card. Although it is not that easy to see on the photo, I added snow, both falling from the sky and on the ledges of the house, on the ground etc, using a quickie glue pen and glamour dust to give a very delicate sparkle.

These were all added to the base card with double sided tape except for the sentiment which was applied with foam pads to give depth

Now I will forget Christmas cards for the next few months and look forward to all the new challenges that 2011 will bring.

Link to Crafty Catz challenge: http://craftycatzweeklychallenge.blogspot.com/2010/12/craftycatz-challenge-63-your-choice.html