Quirky emboss it.

Myriam is leaving the Quirky Team to pursue other interests, and this is her last challenge to us. We will miss her loads, she is so talented.

Quirky Crafts has three sponsors for this challenge, Sweet Pea Stamps, Limited Runs and Robyn's Fetish.

My first card is made with a Limited Runs digi set called Birds on a Wire with another of their digis called Birdhouse 2 set. The sentiment and a few more come with the birds on a wire set.

I coloured the digis with Promarkers, cut out the panel with Spellbinders and fussy cut the birdhouse. The background is embossed with a set of three little embossing folders that came free with Card Making and Papercrafts magazine a while back, and I enhanced the embossing by rubbing chalks over it, although I don't fix them with hairspray because I am allergic to it!

I am running late with my Sweet Pea card but I will try and beat the deadline, if not it will be along later.

Hop on over to Quirky Crafts to see some even better examples of embossing and to play along with the team. All you need to do is include any kind of embossing on any kind of project.

This card has fluttered into the following challenges:

Cute Card Thursday - anything goes

Addicted to Stamps - make your mark (Wed/Fri)

Sketch Saturday - sketch

Fab n Funky - things with wings (Aug)

Have a lovely day

I recently bought a Sizzix Framelets and embossing folder set that makes a scene, clouds, sun and umbrella. I decided that the scene would be perfect for Warren Rabbit (by Craftwork Cards). The image is coloured with Promarkers and Copic glitter pens, and fussy cut. The background is embossed then coloured with Distress Inks for the sky and hills, and Promarkers for the rainbow and flowers and ground. The clouds and sun are die cut from Coredinations paper and then embossed and sanded.

The sentiment is a free stamp with the current issue of Craft Stamper magazine which I stamped, heat embossed and then die cut with Spellbinders. I know my rainbow colours aren't in the right order, I will do better next time!

I have entered the following challenges:

Craft all day - anything goes (March)

Avenue 613 - anything goes with optional 2d or 3d flowers (Sun)

Sweet sweet music

In honour of the Bradford on Avon Music Festival this weekend at the Wiltshire School of Music I have been making musical cards. I only just saw these stamps by Crafty Individuals at the beginning of the week and had to have them, and they came really quickly with some freebies, thanks Crafty Individuals! 

I stamped the music stamp onto some marled card, and cut a frame using a Spellbinders die, which I cut the centre out of to make a frame. The reason you are seeing three photos of this card is because I tried 3 different dies in the centre to get different effects. I embossed the frame then used the die as a stencil to shade it with plum Memento ink, and then cut the music sheet to fit behind. I stamped the piano and instruments and cut them out to add, oh and I should have said the first thing I did was stamp and heat emboss the sentiment using stamps from a Hero Arts clear set.

Do you like this frame the best? I just used a square Nestie in the middle here.

Or this one? I used the next size down of the main die this time.

They are all easel cards, inside I added a panel of the green card, some ribbon with musical notes, some Prima blooms and a gem, and a French horn, or is that a tuba?

Slightly different inside, I used Tim Holtz Ideology tape on this one.

I had high hopes of making more cards using this wonderful Dreamweavers stencil, and I tried it embossing it by passing it through the eBosser ( I had several attempts before getting anything like what I wanted, the one with two pieces of card to shim it worked best but then the machine reversed it and wouldn't accept that a second time, after which all attemps were not so good), then I tried the Big Shot, the Big Shot gave me a better definition, and I tried the embossing paste. I had a few problems with the ebosser and didn't end up with the result I had hoped for. I got in a mess with the paste trying to do the black piano keys only despite have the little brass masking tool, well I just got in a mess! So this one ended up with the dry embossed image cut from the keys, and I used black Promarker pen to mark the embossed notes, words and the black keys. I also used Cordinations Black Magic embossed with a music note folder and sanded, then die cut with Grand Nestabilities die. I mounted them on gold and added Happy Birthday cut out of some printed card I bought ages ago at a show, and I used Sizzix ;Lollipop dies for that.

I am entering the ABC challenge E for embossing, take your pick the cards above all have embossing!

These little characters are stamps which I think I bought from Smiling Summer Girl on ebay many years ago, I think they are mythical folk art figures maybe Mexican and beginning with X but I could be wrong! It is really bugging me that I can't remember what they are called. The set includes the figures in different sizes, so the block comes smaller, and the small individuals come in a bigger size. The sentiment might be from her too. If anyone knows please tell me. Anyway this is a CAS or clean and simple card, I used Kaleidoscope ink and stamped directly onto the card.

When the new stamps arrived I tried to use every bit of the one EZ mount sheet I had left, and some scraps! So the Crafty Individuals had to be mounted so I could use them and as many Krafting Kimmies as I could fit!

Ermmm, I think I need to order some more EZ mount!

Shaun and Richard outside in the cold and very wet laying a new base for the new greenhouse to come, with toughened glass so that Kenny doesn't have any accidents. The old greenhouse is being used as shelter here, and will be going to a new home next week!

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.

Number crunching challenge

Quirky Challenge time again, and Diane picked numbers.

I picked out this Paisley Peacock image from one of our sponsors, The Stamping Boutique. I love this image but it is very detailed and tricky to colour (so don't look too closely). I wanted it to be sparkly so I started off painting it with mica paints then I couldn't do the tail part, you would need a very fine brush and steady hand for that. So I got out my Sakura Gelly Roll metallic set and used that, with a mica paint background. I think I need some metallic Promarkers! Cut the peacock out using a Nestabilities label die. The embossed panel is using a folder I bought at a show and Coredinations Whitewash paper sanded, I am not sure who it is by now. Happy Birthday is a Stampabilities stamp, heat embossed in gold, cut out again with Nestabilities long rectangle die and scalloped die. Gold edged ribbon from Crafty Ribbons, and letters and number cut out with Sizzlet alphabets to spell Bel8ted (belated for those not into text speak and I am not a big fan but it works for this card).

Stamping Boutique are giving 3 images away so you too could own the Paisley Peacock or other images of your choice!

Our new and exciting sponsor this time is Doodle Dragon, who will be giving $10 to spend in the store.

Just pop on over to Quirky Crafts Challenge blog for more great examples and to enter your project (which must contain numbers) now.

Angel in paradise

Here is the same angel but stamped and embossed with white Brilliance ink and Hampton Art white embossing powder from a set of pastel colours. Added a punched edge using a Martha Stewart trellis punch, stamp is as before Inkadinkado, sentiment is Hero Arts. Snowflakes punched with Xcut punch and a freebie Tonic punch that I got with a magazine recently. Accent colour here is blue metallic only used for the biggest die cut label, Nestabilities used for the die cuts.

Don't forget to go and enter your black and white craft project with an accent colour and lots of punching over at the Quirky Crafts Challenge blog. You have until Friday (around 16:00 GMT) to get them in before voting starts Friday afternoon. Don't forget to visit and vote on Friday or Saturday even if you haven't managed to make something for the challenge.

I just spotted a challenge I can enter, The Crafty Pad challenge this week is snow (there are a lot of snow cards about, not to mention the weather in the U.K. right now). Going to look for more.

ABC Christmas challenge blogspot have an Xmas challenge so have entered that too.

New home (bad blogger)

Oh I am a bad blogger, not blogged for ages! Well I did go away to Torquay for a few days, but have been back for a couple of weeks so no excuse really but I am struggling to find my mojo.

In Torquay we were on a bus when there was a bang and I watched a large seagull tumbling over and over coming to rest on his back with his feet in the air on the pavement (sidewalk). I assume he was trying to steal some food from someone on the top deck and didn't realise about glass. I wonder if this was the silly bird, probably not.
We went into Paignton to watch Inception (or Conception according to the hotel receptionist) which was awesome, and then we waited at the bus stop for our ride home, we had enquired where the stop was when we got off the bus at the cinema. We waited................and waited, tried ringing the number on the sign but no answer, in the end started walking. Got to the next stop and found the buses stopped 10 minutes ago in Paignton! We had seen an open top bus speeding by but he didn't stop at the bus stop, in fairness we didn't flag him down but he wasn't really looking at the stop anyway. We assumed that the open top bus was a special tourist bus now I think it was maybe the normal service in summer and we just missed it.
We were due back at the hotel for our evening meal, so I had to ring them to say we would be late and rebook a later table, and then we kept walking back to the main road to look for the other bus - every 10 minutes. We saw plenty of buses but all going the other way, finally a little bus turned up and it was going our way, yippee at last!
No sign of the seagull who fell, so he either got up or had been removed.

This card was for my Son and Daughter in Law who just bought their first own home, and it is white with a green roof and door. I used a set of Dario stamps for this and stamped onto black card with white Versamark as my first choice seemd to have dried up, and then added white embossing powder. I cut the house out and stamped another one on white card and coloured the roof and door before cutting them out and layering them. The tree, sun and blooms are were coloured with my Marvy wet look pens straight onto the stamp but not embossed. The butterflies are because it is was also the first wedding anniversary and the fence is a Sizzix die cut.

Quirky Crafts Challenge 18 - Christmas

I picked this fortnight's challenge over on the Quirky Crafts Forum and I thought we should do Christmas before we get there. My card is stamped and embossed in silver using two Penny Black stamps. I love this tree and hope to use it in many ways, but as it is so near Christmas I might not manage that. Still have loads of cards to make though so maybe sticking to one stamp and design is the way forward, also it is hard to remember who I gave which card to last year. I made 11 of these cards with varying trimmings. All panels were die cut with Nestabilities large rectangle and large scalloped rectangles.
Ribbon was a RAK from Deanne, thanks Deanne, and I think I have some more of the same somewhere in my stash, if only I could find it.........

We have just been to our first Christmas party of the year and it was good fun. Took another evening out of making those cards though!

You can enter any project you like in this fortnightly challenge, and you could win a prize. There are some wonderful DT examples on the forum including an altered tin, and an exploding box with darling tree in the middle.

This Thursday colour challenge

I got home at 5:15, had inspiration and made this in the colours Monet puts together so well. I love teal and turquoise right now too. Hopefully this is in the nick of time as it has taken just 30 minutes - you can probably tell that!

I stamped the background with a Hero Arts silhoutte stamp, then stamped and heat embossed the butterfly and cut it out to mount on the background for a 3d effect, then I punched out the three sizes of flower in spare card, the blue was stamped too, and added a matching turquoise gem to the centre.

Cazzy's little helper or I recruited a new card making addict

I had visitors, my son and his girlfriend, and my youngest son's girlfriend. They were here for a couple of days, stayed for a BBQ, and some of us went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull which was brilliant.

My Son's girlfriend V, offered to help me make some cards, it was fun doing it with two people, I was stamping and embossing and V was cutting mats, and sticking them and the toppers I wanted to use up.The result was 15 cards, which is strange as the toppers come in twos, I will have to look for an odd one.

Hopefully this will kick start me to use up the rest of the toppers and things I want to get through.

I also made this very quick card with a DoCrafts apeture card, backed with Dovecraft designer paper and topped with a Papermania die cut which was complete with gem.

Stamped and embossed greeting.

Here is a card that I cut on the Robo and V decorated for her Dad.

While this creativity was going on my Son was doing a life laundry job on my craft room, tidying up and clearing stuff out, taking stuff for V's sister who is also into card making!