Happy New Year and a few cards

This was my last attempt at Craft Stamper of the Year, and this round was Indigo Blu. Having learnt my lesson from the previous round where I only bought one stamp that proved hard to use, for this round I bought a set called Wild Meadow and a Sunflower stamp and I had the freebie small butterfly from Craft Stamper magazine. I also bought black stamping card from Indigo Blu, as previous winning entries had used 3 or more elements from the sponsor. I actually got this one in a day before the closing date, or maybe it was hours as I was up to the early hours of the morning finishing it because we were leaving for Devon the next day. I stamped onto the black card with Brillance and the pad has three colours of blues and greens, and then heat embossed with crystal pearl powder, and I trimmed this and mounted it on some gold card then onto the card blank, I think I left the image a little long, however I had been stamping and practicing for hours and forgot to make it a little shorter and had no time to do it again. I stamped the sunflower onto white card several times and coloured them with Promarkers and Trias, then cut and decoupaged the images so each layer gets a little smaller, and I stamped and coloured the butterflies in the same way. I painted over the sunflower and butterflies with artists irridescent medium to give it shine, and finally I stamped the sentiment onto parchment paper and die cut it, edging it with the same brown ink I used to stamp it. I actually bought stamps to complete the last round but ran out of mojo, so got nowhere! I love the stamps and I am sure they will get a lot of use.

This card was also for Stamper of the Year but the round before Indigo Blu, which was sponsored by Crafty Individuals, and I have a lot of their stamps, however this all went horribly wrong! I started by trying to glue book pages together to make an altered book, but it was clear I wasn't doing it right and I didn't have time to look for the instructions - again this was the last day! So I carried on with the book theme and used a page from the book which is about a beautiful garden outside a house window, and I cut a window into the middle and used a Sizzix cut and fold window die with the top part hidden. Inside the window I stamped and embossed the bird cage and some blue birds. Outside I stamped branches and birds, and then went to grab the flower stamps - it wasn't until I had spent some hours colouring them in that I realised I had grabbed the wrong make of stamps for the flowers, I had stored Graphicus (Chocolate Baroque) stamps on the same sheet and the Crafty Individual stamps were right next to them - whoops! Again with no time to redo the whole thing I had to just finish off with some Distress walnut coloured ink painted onto and around the page, which is mounted on Kraft card on a lighter Kraft card blank. Oh Dear!

Christmas Eve make, delivered to a neighbour at 11:30. I was making quick cards by this time, and this was the Crackerbox Palace santa and sleigh stamped onto linen effect card which was embossed with the snowy village and I added Ice Stickles to highlight that image. Crafty Ribbons of course, and by the time I got to Boxing day and still making cards I had refined this a little but didn't take more photos so I need to make some more so I can!

This was inspired by the Crafty Ribbon DT, and used up some short ends of ribbon. I only had one of these card blanks left but I am sure I can reproduce this in some other way with the tools I have! Ribbons are Crafty Ribbons except for one tiny bit, black and silver which is Papermania. I sprayed the card blank with bronze Glimmer Mist and added a star and some wooden ornaments, and this was for Shaun.

Not a card, this is an insect hotel and was one of my Christmas pressies!

The Quirky Crafts challenges will begin on 6th January for 2013, and the winners of the last challenge will be announced then!

Panic, less than a week to go!

Now I am making cards with all the bits I have to hand, and the images I can find that I coloured and die cut a year or maybe two years ago and these are the result. I have a lot more to make and have just about run out of handy bits so next I need to make very quick cards! (The fact I have had a relapse of my sinus problems hasn't really helped here). Today we have shampooed the carpet and cleaned the floors, washed all the dog toys and half the bedding, the other half will go in hopefully tomorrow when the first is dry, and all because a certain little man is coming to visit for Christmas and is crawling now! Dogs are due to be shampooed tomorrow too!

I have had this Darice topper set for ages, and didn't want to use it because it is real felt and is lovely. 

Another Darice topper set I had ages ago in a mystery box from the USA I think, the card with punched mat was all ready for something to go in the middle, I added red and green stickles into the holly shapes.

This fairy jumped into my hand and the the Snowflake Circle (Hero Arts) was already stamped and embossed and cut, they go well together.

Penny Black dog again, on one of those scalloped cards I have a pile that I die cut which is handy, the card is embossed already with Seasons Greetings, so just added some Crafty Ribbon.

I have entered this one in:

I love Promarkers - anything but square challenge ending 2nd Jan

Spyder Lyn Young's fab snowman and robin image again, another scalloped card and more Crafty Ribbon.

I have entered this one in the Chocolate, Coffee and Cards challenge - Snowmen

Another snowflake circle (Hero Arts) mounted on a scalloped card with a Spellbinders bird, and a bit of ribbon.

The house panel was done by running some metallic red card though a die cutter with a brass stencil then sanding the colour off to show the houses. Scalloped card and Crafty Ribbons Ribbons (from Bev's Christmas Bag).

This time Fluffles by Stampendous is a fairy cat, freebie paper, Crafty Ribbon ribbon, I love this and bought some and then won more in Bev's Bag and even more in Laura's blog candy!

Fluffles is helping with the trimmings! More Crafty Ribbons., This image is heat embossed in green.

This one had to be entered in the ABC Christmas challenge - Deck the Halls!

Remember the tags I made a couple of weeks ago? Well they are too good for tags, and I can't make all my tags like this so they are now on cards, freebie papers. Images by Paper Pretties.

I have entered this card in:

The Joanna Sheen challenge - with love at Christmas ends 10th Jan

Finally for now, this card was already made, I just added an insert. Tree embossed and sanded Cordinations paper, gems, torn vellum and holly eyelets.

Don't panic - last minute Christmas makes

Caro set the Quirky Crafts challenge which is Last Minute Christmas Makes! Any last minute make can be entered. I decided to make a Tri Shutter Card in honour of Diane who set this as a challenge ages ago, and Diane is leaving us to concentrate on her new business, so this will be her last challenge sadly.

I used Doodle Dragon Wolfie images, I thought these three made a good little story.

I took two photos so you can see the ribbons I used clearly in one and the images clearly in the second. I recently won Bev's Christmas bag from Crafty Ribbons Challenge blog (thanks Crafty Ribbons) as as they are also sponsoring us (along with The Stamping Boutique, so there are 3 prizes for the last challenge of the year), I thought it would be nice to use my new ribbons along with some from last year's Bev's bag.

I coloured all the images with Promarkers, I could have used the pre-coloured versions if only my printer was printing properly! In fact I could get a lot of cards done faster if it was. I added a couple of buttons, one with baker's twine threaded through it. When the card is closed you can see Christmas and Snow from the ribbons, and you see the full phases when you open the card, I tried to take one to show that but the card wouldn't stay shut on my little easel.

I hoped to have more cards to show you but I have been ill all week with a nasty virus that attacked my sinuses and made me feel terrible, I spent a lot of time in bed but I am much better now so I will be making some more, I really need them!

I am always in a last minute panic at Christmas, this year is worse that ever because all the cards I have made so far (which isn't many really) have gone to Made In Bradford on Avon, I have presents still to buy and loads to wrap, and the house to clean and shopping to do..........I need a Christmas fairy!

As for the Tri-Shutter card, I had to check the instructions, which were in inches. I first tried to use the Scor-buddy to score my A4 x 5 1/2 inch high cardstock, by scoring one end at 2" and 4" and then turning it round to score the other end, this didn't work as A4 card is a little short of 12".

So I tried it on the metric Scor-pal, and scored it at 50cm, 100cm, 200cm and 250cm and it worked fine. The back edge is a little short but this doesn't show at all, and I could use the sparkly red cardstock I wanted to.

Of course you can use 12"x12" cardstock and the inch measurements would work fine, you can get two 6" high cards from one piece, and use the metric Scor-pal or the buddy if you turn the card, or you can trim the card to 30cm and use the metric board.

I have entered the following challenges:
I love Promarkers - one for the boys weekly Wednesdays
Dustin Pike's Doodle Dragon Studio challenge - Don't get your tinsel in a twist (Sunday 30th)

I won blog candy!

So far I have won Crackerbox Palace stamps as blog candy for commenting on their cards, and I won another stamp for making a card with the blog candy stamps.

I won a House Mouse project book and CD from Joanna Sheen, I was the random picked winner of the prize, they pick a top three but the prize is random, lucky me!

I also won Bev's Bag from Crafty Ribbons Challenge blog.

I won Laura's 111th post candy too, Laura is on the Crafty Ribbons Challenge DT and I went to look at something she made which is when I found her blog candy.

Before that I won Kraftin Kimmie blog hop candy and a challenge candy.

So I am on a roll right now!

Crackerbox Palace santa card

I am still playing with my blog candy stamps from Crackerbox Palace, this time I decided to make a square card, then I turned it into an easel card, it is perfect for this because the paper behind the cut houses is covered with the part that attaches it to the card blank. This time I die cut a moon with gold pearlescent paper, I also tried yellow vellum and the paper pattern showed through that. I stamped the sleigh with Brilliance black, I found I needed to stamp twice, once onto the patterened paper, then I had to align the stamp over the moon so that it looks like it was stamped once. This is because the paper caused a break in the stamped image, and even doing it this way I had to repair a tiny break with my Marvy Wet Looks black pen.

Inside I used the Papermania purple printed ribbon and some buttons from stash with baker's twine in the two that had holes.

Experiments and Angels

My first card is inspired by all the white on white cards I have seen, just using die cuts to make a gorgeous card. Someone came into the shop looking for a card with an angel on it, and I said I had a beautiful angel stamp if they wanted to commission a card, but I can't put cards in the shop using Inkadinkado stamps and I had actually put this one up for sale, but reprieved it. I spent hours stamping angels on different card, and trying different ways of colouring. I have white on black card, and on blue, and Silver on blue metallic - didn't stamp well on that. I have sheets of angels stamped with white Brilliance ink and embossed with pearl powder where I tried several different ways of colouring the background leaving the angel to stand out in white and this is the one I liked the best. I used Distress Ink pads in blue and black to create this with my foam pads and wooden handle, I tried bottles of distress ink but couldn't get the colour I wanted, not enough blue until I used the pads.
 I have mounted it on snowflake embossed card (all the card is pearlescent ivory) and framed it with Spellbinders snow frame, and added bunches and single Spellbinders snowflakes. I also added a few music notes, maybe they should be in blue! I die cut Peace with Sizzix dies, added a little Stickles ice to the snowflakes and stars, and added a satin edged white ribbon.
I hope she likes it, and I think the family will be getting various angel cards this year, I really need to make my family cards!

I have entered this card in the following challenges:
 Incy Wincy challenge - snow (Mondays)
Joanna Sheen - with love at Christmas December
Papertake Weekly Challenges - Snow White (Tuesdays)
Emma's Crafty Challenge - let it snow
The Stamp Man - In the Bleak Midwinter December challenge

This card is also an experiment, I am not happy with it yet but I am going to keep working on it! I used two stamps by Crackerbox Palace that I won in their weekly blog candy giveaway recently. I love the sentiment, I nearly put it inside, but the front was too bare. I used a Sizzix Tim Holtz on the edge die to cut the houses (townscape), and a Grand Nestabilities label 23 to cut out the aperture. I backed this with some Papermania paper from years ago, and tried to paint a moon with Artists Irridescent Medium, then I stamped the Santa with his sleigh and reindeer over the moon and sky, I don't think the reindeers on the moon show up well, so I will work on different moons! Ink used Stazon Vibrant Violet. Ribbon by Papermania, which I found in my Christmas box and it was the perfect colour but was too wide so is doubled over the spine of the card.

 Ok same card but I overstamped the sleigh with Brilliance black ink so it shows up better, the stamps are mounted on cling foam and have the image printed on the back so you can see it through the block, so I could get it close to the same place and it just has a violet shadow now which I am happy with.

I have entered this card in the following challenges:

My Time To Craft - Non traditional colours Christmas card closes 14th Dec

Santa baby

It is that Tiddly Inks Santa Baby again, slightly different colouring same paper and ribbon from Crafty Ribbons. Papers are from a freebie book that is one or two years old.

He/she is in the Made in Bradford on Avon shop now, unless already sold of course.

I have entered this card in:

ABC challenge C for clear out (Saturdays)

Quirky Tags, and a change of Design Team members

There are two sponsor for the latest Quirky Challenge, which is set by Diane and is Christmas tags. The images I have used on this set of tags are all from Paper Pretties, and called Cocoa, Claus and Oh Tiny Tree. I cut the tags with the eCraft, once I had unburied it and dusted it off, and given it a shock by turning it on. I thought I would see if there were some nice tag shapes and there were! I cut some small ones to begin with to test for the size I needed, and that gave me the idea of bundling the main tag with a small one (or two for Claus) to use some of the sentiments and Claus's bone that come with the images. I die cut long rectangles with Nestabilities dies.

I used several different ribbons from Crafty Ribbons on the tags, and the images are coloured with Promarkers.

The other sponsor is Doodle Dragon Studios and I will be adding a set of tags with Dustin's images on later.

We have just announced that Diane is Leaving the Quirky Team and who her replacement will be in the New Year, over at Quirky. So hop on over and find out the latest news!

I have entered the tags in the following challenges:

 Crafty Ribbons Challenge - use two or more ribbons.
Little Miss Muffet Challenges - Tags. (Ends Wednesday 12th)

Christmas is coming.....

I had a call to work in the shop, and did I have anything Christmassy? So I had to get into gear, and get making or finishing previously part done cards. I have been suffering with extreme pain in my arm, neck and shoulder and drugged up on very strong painkillers so haven't been able to think straight for weeks, but this gave me the incentive. First card, or batch of Penny Black Christmas sheep, (should that be a flock of cards?) I had made these up but not added an insert, so I die cut the inserts to match the cards I die cut with a scalloped card Sizzix die, and the ribbon is from Crafty Ribbons. Colouring with Promarkers and Papermania glitter irridescent glitter glue. Rectangle and scalloped rectangle are Nestabilities dies.

I just received this really lovely Baby's First Christmas ribbon, and I bought Santa Baby from Tiddly Inks. I coloured baby with Promarkers, there will be a few version of this one soon! This great paper is from a book of free papers which I may have had for years, I would love to get more, it is children's letters to Santa. Shapes die cut with Nestabilities.

 Not such a great photo, but the card is already in the shop so it will have to do. Penny Black stamp, coloured with Promarkers, die cut with Nestabilities, paper free with magazine, lovely Merry Christmas ribbon from Crafty Ribbons, foiled greeting, and I made a matching tag from leftover scraps.

Penny Black froggies, coloured with Promarkers, die cut with Nestabilities die, card and insert die cut with Sizzix Scalloped card die, ribbon from Crafty Ribbons, Papermania glitter glue.

I have entered this card in the Penny Black Saturday December challenge - glitter and sparkle

This great snowperson with robin is a Spyder Lyn image, I love it! Coloured with Promarkers, and glitter glue added. Die cut with Nestabilities, more freebie paper, and ribbon by Crafty Ribbons, Christmas tree brads....

and this is another easel card, a style that I becoming very fond of. The card used for the card blank and mats is from Papermill by the way, I love the colours. Some of my new tree ribbon inside the card from Crafty Ribbons of course, and a glittered wooden tree ornament. Tag from leftover bits.

I have entered this card in:

The Papermill Christmas challenge.

Crafty Ribbons Challenge - use at least two ribbons ends 5th December

Whoops forgot the title again!

Sometimes I make a card and I am not happy with it, sometimes I think a card is OK, and sometimes I am very happy with what I have achieved, and this is one very happy card!

I used the Doodle Dragon Studios Xray cat image, this is so funny, coloured with Promarkers and Trias, and die cut with Nestabilities, I was trying a partial die cut, well I was trying to just emboss it so I could cut round the head but cat got decapitated so I had to print another image and colour another head to attach.

The stripey paper is DCWV, mounted on Kraft card with fish eyelets. Greeting is from a Hero Arts clear set, heat embossed in gold.

Inside my easel card I added a panel of Kraft Card and some Papermania ribbon, I stamped Dad using a Papermania stamp from a clear set and heat embossed it in gold, die cut it with a Nestabilities label die, and added a couple of metal buttons. I used leftover bits to make a matching tag.

This is a reminder that the current challenge is Come to the Dark Side, no cute images, and runs until 1st December at Quirky Crafts.

Jak Heath's Letraset giveaway

Jak Heath is giving away a set of the gorgeous Letraset metallic markers on her blog, hop on over to enter and see her colouring tutorial.

Ballet shoes

Something totally different to my last post, I got a couple of half price dies and this is the result of my first play with them. I used the Spellbinders Mirror Mirror die and Memory Box Lady Dancing which I didn't realise was seperate dress and shoes and lady (I hope I don't lose the tiny shoes die, kept losing one shoe which just wouldn't stay stuck on), freebie paper stamped with a greeting and Crafty Ribbons polka dot chiffon ribbon.

Come to the dark side - we have cookies!

It is my turn to set the Quirky challenge and it is: Come to the Dark Side - no cute images! I want to see dark themes, un-cute images and/or dark colours.

We have two sponsors this time, and these images are from Doodle Dragon Studios and are called Grave Dolly and Rotten Apples. I coloured them in with Promarkers though there are both coloured and uncoloured images in the file in case you don't have the time to colour them yourselves. I found this DCWV paper which is so funny, it says nothing is crazier than family, perfect!

Scaredy Cat is also from Doodle Dragon Studios, and don't believe what Lyn tells you - he is not cute!

I feel he should be attached to a car window, but today he is on my card coloured with Promarkers. I had some cat patterned card which I think is Payperbox, cut that out with Nesties, and the backing paper is DCWV. Ribbon is by Crafty Ribbons, sentiments are Papermania (Nephew) and Hero Arts (Happy Birthday).

This is Zombie Girl from The Stamping Boutique who are also sponsoring us, and who have a non cute blog called Poisoned Peas. She is coloured with Promarkers and Trias and I mounted her on a Spellbinders fancy square, then on DCWV papers, and I added some ribbon from Crafty Ribbons from my gold edged taffeta bag. What sentiment should I use? Lets have Tea, Time for Tea or something else?

I have entered this card in the following challenges:

Poisoned Peas - The Walking Dead Nov challenge.

This is Medusa also from The Stamping Boutique and she has caught our imagination as there are three versions on the challenge post at Quirky Crafts. Coloured with Promarkers and cut out with Nesties, then mounted on some holographic black card (I think it is the last sheet sadly) and then some DCWV Rockstar paper with the gold edged taffeta ribbon from Crafty Ribbons. Again there is no sentiment yet, I was thinking of Bad Hair Day? what do you think?

I have entered this card in the following challenges:

Cute Card Thursdays - Starry Starry Night 

I love Promarkers - Moon and Stars

I hope to have at least one more card later but I decapitated the other character and now the printer won't play with me but as soon as I can get it going I will reprint and finish the card.