Another children's card

This one is for my grandson.

The dog on a scooter is by Penny Black. The shop fronts are from the My Craft Studio Shop Fronts CD - I put them together and digitally recoloured them. The papers are by Cosmo Cricket.

I'd like to enter this for:
Corrosive Challenges - Another Dimension
Rainbow Lady - Dogs
Hotshot Caft - One for the boys
Tando Creative- Leap off the page

Sunny Birthday Card

This card is for my niece.
I used two Molly Bloom stamps - the girl was a freebie with a magazine. The foiled papers were leftovers from another project and I hope they give the card a sunny feel.
I'd like to enter this for:
Fashionable Stamping Challenges - Make it for a child
Simply Create Too - Add sunshine to your day.

St David's Day

I love to visit Wales, so I had to had a go at the Glitter Geeks St Davids Day challenge.

My best friend is half Welsh, and she’s going through a difficult time at the moment, so this card will be going to her.

Wales always makes me think of hills and castles. The hills background was printed from MCS Cromford CD. I found it hard to find a castle stamp or digi with Welsh-style castellations and without pointed roofs on the turrets. I  eventually found this free digi on Chi Chi Memories – I cut off the flags. The dragon is Funstamps and I made the sentiment on Word, printed it off and stamped the frame and punched it out. (Stampin Up). The daffodil stamp on the backing paper is an UM (not sure who by).

As well as Glitter Geeks, I’d also like to enter this for:

Gingersnap Creations – Words of Wisdom

The Stampman – Colours of Spring

Pink Elephant – Print it

Et voila!

I love it when a challenge really forces me to use my imagination, and this week, Daring Cardmakers has certainly done that for me with their ‘Marie Antoinette’ challenge.

I found an uncoloured paper doll on the internet and printed it off twice, once on white and once on patterned paper. I coloured in the skin, wig, ribbons etc with promarkers. I cut out the wig and dress and stuck them onto the body.

I made the background using ink and a text stamp. The peacock is a Hobby Art stamp, the corner is a Sizzlit and the ‘Merci’ is a sticker which I stuck onto an embossed oval.

I resisted the temptation to add cakes/ guillotines!

Something Fishy

My father-out-law (and his wife)  is a koi carp enthusiast and so I'm forever trying to come up with new koi related card ideas!  It's his birthday next week and this year, I've stamped the carp onto metal foil, using dark brown Staz-on, embossed the metal by hand and cut it out. I machine embossed some dark green cardstock (Tim Holtz folder? ) as a background.
I'd like to enter this for the following challenges:
Dream Valley Challenges Just for men.
Shopping our stash Metal mania
Creative Card Crew  Masculine
Truly Scrumptious All creatures great and small
The Stampman Texture

Doing the Docrafts - The Challenge Continues

Way back on New Year’s Day, I set myself the challenge of using every item in the Jan 12 Docrafts Goody Bag. Well friends, I have yet to achieve my mission. I got off to a great start with this and this. Then I got stuck on the last three items. The funny thing is: two of the three items were in the group of things I thought I’d find easiest to use!

Today, at last I have used one of those items – silver peel off stickers with ‘thank you’ sentiments. The main problem was that they were too bright and shiny. For this vintage-esque postcard, I dabbed the silver sticker with brown Staz-on ink to tone it down a bit.

I think this might be a quirky little thing to send to a friend who’s done me a favour. The postcard is digital – from My Craft Studio Crafty Characters CD . I inserted the e text using an old ‘handwriting’ font. The large Big Ben and the crown are Papermania; the Big Ben postage stamp is by Hero Arts and the woman is Non-Sequitur.

I’d like to enter this for these challenges:

Daring Cardmakers – Postable people

Digital Tuesday – Use your stash

Crafts and Me – Distressing

Bucket of red paint.

This is my third post today .....I’m off work (half term) and my little boy is at his grandparents, partner is out, I’ve a little cocktail on the go and it’s crafterama!

The woman stamp here is one of a set of three that I bought second hand from EBay and arrived this morning. They were less than £5 including postage – bargain. The paint bucket was from a MCS CD (A very Important Date) and I coloured the paint to match the lips and rose.

I’d like to enter this for the following challenges:
Papertake Weekly - Black, white and red all over
The Craft Pad  The letter B (for bucket)
Simon Says Stamp and Show Anything goes 

Magazine Addict - Craft Stamper Magazine March 2012

In this month’s issue Riet van Zundert showed how to use acrylic blocks to create a frame , using distress ink and water spray. I tried this out and the effect was much more subtle than Riet’s ( she must have used more ink) but I liked it for the aged framing effect. I’d use this technique again.

I’d been looking for a nice picture of cherries so I could join in the challenge at The Shabby Tearoom. I got this one from The Graphics Fairy, which is from an old Mrs Beeton.

I printed the image onto coloured paper and then used the technique with the acrylic block. I tore and inked the edges. I stamped the same coloured paper with a musical script stamp. I put it all together with gingham paper, brads and a ‘get well soon’ sentiment. Hope you like it.

As well as The Shabby Tearoom, I’d like to enter this for the Get Well Soon challenge at Moving Along with the Times.

Seeds of Love Packet

I wanted to come up with an idea for Sir Stampalot  In the Garden challenge and eventually thought of a seed packet. I spent a disproportionate amount of time on the internet looking for instructions and templates! I tried out a few before I chose the one I wanted. I've used several shades of  green Distress inks and a Hero Arts leaf. The girl on a tree swing is by Stampin Up.

I'd also like to enter this for:

Fashionable Stamping Challenges Monochromatic plus one other colour

Fab n Funky Try Something New (the seed packet)

Easy, Tiger!

I wanted to take part in Less is More’s one layer card challenge as it’s always very challenging! It took me a while to come up with an idea for the ‘stripes’ theme, but when I did, the thing that took longest was looking for the UM tiger stamp! (I’m not very organised.)

I stamped the tiger using Kaleidacolor ‘Capuccino Delight’ , them masked it and stamped over it with a Hero Arts stamp called Holiday Stripes. I quite like the patchy effect at the top, hoping it looks like a sunset!

What I particularly liked about making this card is using old stuff that I’d almost forgotten about. Everything I used (apart form the card) is well over 5 years old.

Mother and Baby

This is a beautifully romantic mother and baby image from A Day for Daisies. I love paper piecing and used a scrap of pp for this; together with a little bit of colouring in, 3 gems and a glass heart.

I’d like to enter this for:
A Day for Daisies   Have a Heart
CAS-ual Fridays  CAS Paper Piecing
The Crafty Pad B is for ...(baby)
The Pink Elephant Challenge  Pink

Mad about you

I wanted to enter the CD Sunday challenge because I've got quite a few CDs now but don't get much use out of them. The theme is "A la Mode" and I thought I'd find something appropriate on the MCS fashion-themed CD "Dressing up Dolly Divas".  What I found there was this NSR image of a top hat and that made me think 'mad hatter' and then, with a valentines theme, 'mad about you'.  The patterned papers are from MCS "A very important date." The main one was black and white and I coloured it with Tim Holtz ink. I traced and cut out the heart, dry embossed it and added the words. I cut the front of a square card so there was about a third left and trimmed the back flap around the hat to make it a shaped card.

I often have problems getting a good photo of my cards because of  lack of light. Today, however, my problem was that my little boy ( in his pyjamas) wanted to be in the photo and then ran off with the card!

I'd like to enter this for:
CD Sunday A La Mode
Rainbow Lady Have a Heart
Winter Wonderland  No Square or rectangle cards
Here Come the Boys Favourite Song (Mad about you by Hooverphonic)
Craft Ann's Love is in the air.

Vintage Beach

I made this card while watching the snow fall outside my window in dark, freezing England. Maybe that's why my beach card is not too sunny! 

I know this card is a bit plain for some tastes, but I really enjoyed the challenge of stamping the central panel and don’t want to smother it.

The woman, deckchairs and ticket stamps are all Oxford Impressions; the seagull is  Crafty Individuals and I think the verse is Non-Sequitur. I stamped the woman, masked her then stamped the deckchairs (twice). After stamping the verse and the seagulls, I inked round the edges. I coloured the metal ‘beyond’ tag with alcohol inks.

I’d like to enter this for the following challenges:

Sugar Creek Hollow  Vacation at the Beach
Challenge up your life  Monochrome
Crafty Cardmakers Monochrome Magic

A card for my daughter

My daughter was born on Valentine's day, which gives me a great excuse to incorporate hearts into her birthday cards. I cut the heart out using the Coluzzle template and knife - something I've not used for a long time because I have a die cutter, but I realised I didn't have the dies to cut a large heart. The little girl is a Heather Ellis digi, coloured in (inexpertly) with Promarkers.
I'd like to enter the following challenges:
Truly Scrumptious - Love and hearts
Moving along with the times - Have a heart
The Crafty Pad - Fresh spring colours

Superhero Valentines

Here’s a Valentine’s Card for my partner. He seems to like a ‘clean and simple’ style – shabby/vintage is a bit beyond him.

The ‘love’ heart was an acrylic stamp – brand unknown – and the superhero was a 3 birds rub-on. The red patterned paper was a leftover from some magazine freebie from years ago. The words ‘My Hero’ were from a sheet of tiny rub-on letters. Tricky!

I’d like to enter this for these challenges:

CAS-ual Fridays – On the red Carpet ( Superman)

One Stop Craft Challenge – For the one I love

Rainbow Lady’s – Wearing Red