Pro - Am Showdown #8 - Dog in the Snow

I made this for my self-imposed challenge, Pro-Am Showdown, where I take inspiration from some of the nicest commercially produced cards I've received.

Here's the 'pro' card that inspired me:

The commercially manufactured card that inspired me. 

I think this pro card is lovely, and it gives me lots of ideas..

For my 'amateur' card I used the dog stamp from Avery Elle , masked it and stamped the snow (Hero Arts) . I  coloured the dog with markers and paper-pieced the scarf from red glitter paper.  Then I stamped the sentiments (Mama Elephant).

I'd like to enter:
Addicted to Stamps  holiday
Challenge up your life  dogs
Christmas with the Cuties  cas
Dragonfly Dreams  add sparkle
QKR Stampede  paper-piecing - scarf in glitter paper

City Crafter- Let's Go Outside and Play

This week at City Crafter, Kirsty wants us to feature an outdoor activity.

Okay, I'll admit that my outdoor activity may not be immediately obvious - it's the sport, rugby!

I was asked to make a card for a female rugby player, whose team is called the foxes. I used a fox and sentiment from an Inkadinkado set but I was stuck for the rugby posts. Then Nonni visited me , and she had the clever idea of masking of parts of an Alte New bench stamp to make the post.  It was tricky and I had LOTS of attempts!

This week, we are pleased to welcome Amy  to the team, so I hope you'll come over to City Crafter and see what she and the rest of the DT have made, and join in the challenge.

I'd like to enter- 

Crafting by Designs  animals 

Fairytale Challenge hobby 

Look behind you!

Here I've used the dancer from MFT Polynesian Paradise, and the shark from MFT Ocean Pals. For the sea, I used some torn vellum coloured with Distress Ink. The patterned paper and 'summer' diecut are from Echo Park.

I'd like to enter:
Cute Card Thursday  seaside
Crafty Cardmakers  here comes summer
Use your Stuff  try something new - the way I did the vellum
Mod Squad colourful creations
Addicted to Stamps make your mark

City Crafter Challenge Blog - Hashtag City Crafter

I chose this week's challenge at City Crafter  and I'd like to see internet/ social media icons or symbols  on your creation.

For my DT project I made a layout featuring lots of icons including You Tube, Twitter and a hashtag, cut on the Silhouette. I scrapped a photo of my son and grandsons (12,10 and 6) - it was a selfie they took for social media and they're trying to look cool (although the little one is doing particularly badly at that!).

I hope you'll join in our challenge, but first, do come over to City Crafter and see what the rest of the DT have made.

I'd like to enter:

Cardz4 Guyz - stars 

Lasting Memories  red, white, blue 

Jawsome

Having been late to discover MFT Camp Create, I've got some catching up to do to meet the Thursday deadline. I had hoped to make several cards today but it was VERY hot and so I spent several hours lazing in the garden.

So now it's nightitme, I'm in my craft room with window open and fan on (this is England, we don't have air con!) and I made this shaker card. I followed the instructions on the MFT video - I've used various methods to make shakers before but I think this was my favourite.

The shark and sentiment are from My Favourite Things Ocean Pals set , and the shoals of fish are from MFT Mermazing set.

As well as Camp Create, I'd also like to enter:
Dream Valley square cards
Sisterhood of Crafters use your inagination
Give a Crafter a Cookie  picture
Mod Squad  square
Deep Ocean die cuts - used to make the shaker and the porthole

 

A Surprise Request

I was surprised when Steven, my partner, asked me to make a Fathers' Day  card - his dad died when Steven was a young adult.  The card is for his mum's husband - they've been together for over 30 years and this is the first Fathers'Day card Steven has given him!

This request was given to me after work on Thursday - so needed to be in the mail on Friday  - so I needed to get it together quickly. Luckily, the recipient's hobby is koi carp, and I've just bought the Hero Arts Koi layering set. The circles in the background are by Neat and Tangled - I stamped them in grey, then in white (slightly offset) and embossed them in holographic ep. The sentiment is Stampin Up .

I'd like to enter:
Tuesday Throwdown  for the men
Come and get it  father's day
Glitter n Sparkle  fathers day
Addicted to Stamps  anything goes
The Male Room  off the edge

Pro-Am Showdown # 7 - Hummingbirds

Here's another card for my self-imposed challenge ,Pro-Am Showdown, where I use commercially produced cards I've received to kickstart my creativity, Here's the 'pro' card I used as a starting point:

The mass produced 'pro' card

But I wasn't just spurred on by the 'pro' card. The current challenge at Time Out  is remarkably similar:

My final inspiration happened when I visited Greta's blog and found out about MFT Camp Create. The first two challenges are Watercolour and Resist - I used both on this card and I think I'll enter it for the resist challenge and try to use one of the watercolour panels I created at the same time for the first challenge. 

Anyway, the hummingbirds are Clarity, the flowers are a corner stamp, stamped twice (brand unknown) and the watercolours are Lindy's Stamp Gang Magicals. 

I'd also like to enter Crafting By Designs , wings. 

Inkspirational Challenge - Photo

Our new challenge at Inkspirational  is to be inspired by this photo:

For my DT card I used a digi stamp from  Day for Daisies, which I coloured, paper-pieced and cut out. I mounted it on some floral patterned paper and added sentiments by Justrite,

Our Guest Designer this time is Lynda and I hope you'll come over to Inkspirational and see what she and the rest of the DT have made, and enter your own creation.

I'd like to enter
Crafty Friends  friendship
Dragonfly Journeys paper piecing 

Guest Designer at Stick it Down

Today , I'm proud to be a guest designer at Stick it Down . 

Here's the sketch for their single-page challenge:

I hope you can see how I've interpreted the sketch in my layout. I've used lots of random, old stash, all different brands. The layout tells the story of when my son met one of his sporting hereoes, by chance, in the local shop. 

The journalling reads:

Alex met his football hero , Arsenal player Theo Walcott, in the local shop.

Alex had just finished football camp and was wearing his Arsenal kit.

 Alex said ‘hello’ and Theo said ‘hello’.

Alex unzipped his jacket to reveal his Arsenal kit and Theo said ‘Good man!’

Alex was delighted …’I can’t believe I met Theo Walcott!’ he said, all the way home.

But when he told his school friends , no-one believed him! 

Shame I have no photo of the actual footballer, but that might have been too much of an intrusion when the poor guy had just popped in for a pint of milk! So just a photo of my son glowing all the way home. 

Thank you very much, Stick it Down , for having me as Guest Designer. 

I'd like to link to :
Scrapbooking Top Fifty  real not perfect - the photo was taken just after the event, not as it was happening. 

City Crafter - Frame It

At City Crafter this week , Stella is challenging us to use a frame.

This little frame stamp is by Papermania and was actually rescued from a bag of stuff I'm getting rid of. This is bad news for clutter-control as it proves that you shouldn't throw things away as you never know when they'll come in handy!

Anyway, I decided to create a panda portrait gallery, using masked-off pandas from two different W plus 9 sets.  The sentiment is by Lil Inker.

I hope you'll join in our challenge, but first, do come over to City Crafter and see what the rest of the DT have made.

I'd like to enter:

Crafting by Designs black white and another colour 

Eclectic Ellapu  a touch of purple 

Passion for Promarkers  add a sentiment (used grey and lilac Promarkers)

Pro-Am Showdown #6 - Snowy Scene

I'm quite far behind with my self-imposed challenge , Pro-Am Showdown  - I should have done at least 11 by now and this is only number 6. So, the idea is to take inspiration from a commercially produced card I've received. And here is the card:

The professional card

So from this I took - colours, simple shapes, white outlines , the snow. 

I stamped and embossed the trees (Paper Smooches) and sentiment (Papermania?) . With an embossing ink pen and white embossing powder I added the line under the trees and the snow. I coloured the heart with a red gel pen. 

I'd like to enter:

Happy Little Stampers Christmas  tree
ABC Christmas  more than one (tree) and love (heart)
Moving Along with the Times  embossing
Sparkles Forum Christmas   non trad colours

Christmas Cheers

Here's a Christmas card. I didn't use a Christmas stamp but I coloured it in 'Christmas colours' and it has the word 'Christmas' on it, so hopefully, if someone receives it in December they will realise it's a Christmas card!

I stamped just part of a very old, very large and very quirky Stamps Happen stamp, and coloured it with alcohol markers. I added a pattern to the skirt using gel pen. The sentiments are Avery Elle.

I'd like to enter:
Addicted to Cas  cheers
Snarky Stampers  d for drunk
Retro Rubber  ag - ten years plus?

Laminator and Foil

I'm always ready to jump onto a crafty bandwagon, and my latest one is foil sheets and a laminator. I've seen this demonstrated by Jennifer Maguire and wanted to try it . When I looked into it I thought it was quite expensive - the Deco Foil gel was quite hard to find here in the UK, and the one I bought cost £10. Then, another £5 for some silver foil but luckily, I already have a laminator. So £15 to get started but I suppose I would happily spend that on a set of stamps , so....

I decided to test this out while making a wedding card for the parents of one of my son's school friends. I don't know them very well, so I wanted to make something inoffensive, if you know what I mean!

I used a Tim Holtz stencil for the foiling, and stamped and embossed the sentiment (Hero) in white.

I do like the foiling effect but I also think it just looks like I've cut a piece of ready-made foiled card. Is this card just a little bit boring? I think if I 'm to justify the cost of the foiling stuff , I need to find a way of making something a bit more unique - something I couldn't just buy off the shelf. So I will need to have a think about that.

I'd like to enter:
Come and Get It  weddings
A Gem of a Challenge  wedding
Inspired by all the Little Things

Mermaid Transport

glitter shot 

I recently bought two sets from My Favorite Things (Mermazing and Ocean Pals) and immediately decided I wanted to use them together. So I masked the mermaid and sat her on a whale.  They're coloured with alcohol markers and I've added Wink of Stella.

The background was made with a stencil (cut on Silhouette) and Nuvo mousse - I did need a few attempts at this! The Echo Park patterned paper and sentiment were a gift from my dear friend Nonni.

I'd like to enter:
Aud Sentiments  summer
Crafty Addicts  summer colours
Simply Create Too  summer fun
Paper Craft Happy  summer
Do-All Kreatives  summer

For the IT Guy

Outside 

One of the IT guys from work just turned 30 and I was asked to make a card to give him from our team.

I used a laptop cutting file from the Silhouette store...it was meant as a Father's Day card so I designed my own sentiment and numbers, I was just about to stick it all together when I thought that it seemed a bit dull for a birthday card, so i added some layers of glitter card!

I'd like to enter:
Shopping Our Stash  dude
Stamp Ink Paper  masculine
Mod Squad spark it up
Fab n Funky  men

City Crafter Challenge Blog - Photo

At City Crafter this week, Kirsty wants us to take inspiration from this lovely photo:

For my DT card, I used a digi stamp from A Day for Daisies, which I coloured with markers and paper-pieced. I added a Clearly Besotted sentiment.

I think it's fairly obvious how I've been inspired by the photo, but there are many ways you could interpret this, I hope you'll have a go, and don't forget to pop over to the blog and see what the rest of the DT have made.

Inkspirational Challenge - Windows

Our new challenge at Inkspirational  was chosen by Carol , and it is ...Windows.

Apart from  the sentiment, everything on this card was die-cut on the Silhouette electronic cutting machine. The woman, which is an SVG cutting file from SVG Cuts, was part of a Christmas set, but I chaged the colours to make it birthday. The window cutting file is from the Silhouette store,

Our wonderful Guest Designer this time is Pam Sparks  , so I hope you'll come over to the Inkspirational blog and see what she and the rest of the DT have made, and enter your own creation ...don't forget the window!

I'd like to enter:
Shopping Our Stash  sweet
Seize the Birthday  sweet
Fusion  just the photo

Funky Flowers

This was a real-life challenge from my daughter - a 'funky' birthday card ' by tomorrow ' and no cute animals (spoilsport!).

So I agonised for a while about what counts as 'funky'. But she seemed pleased with this,so I guess it fulfilled the brief.

I used W plus 9 'Feathers and Florals' and a sentiment from MFT. The flower middles are eyelets. ( Well done to me, I think, for using up old stash, even if it's only two eyelets!)

I'd like to enter:
Crafty Cardmakers floral profusion
Time Out  flowers and friends
Cas-ual Fridays  patterned papers

So Long Succulents!

The cacti stamp here, by Stampendous, is one of the oldest stamps I own  (and I have some very old stamps!) . I  punched the edge of some card, stamped the cacti twice and then rummaged in my offcuts for a similar size piece of cardstock. So, the orange was quite random but I like it. The sentiment is by Avery Elle.

I'd like to enter:

Cas on Sunday  repetition (the cacti stamp and also the border)
Curtain Call  succulent
Addicted to Stamps  cas
Sweet Stampin  old stuff - stamp (15 plus years) border punch (over 10 years) and the orange cs is probably quite old too!

Pro-Am Showdown # 5 - Animal Shape Card

In January I set myself a challenge - Pro-Am Showdown - where I take inspiration from a commercially produced card.

I need to make a birthday card for my 8-year-old nephew and decided to take inspiration from this card, which I received for my birthday:

the professional design 

The idea I wanted to copy was to have the shape of the animal as the whole card.

I took a graphic file from Lettering delights and played around with it so that it  could be constructed into a card that would stand up. I also added a sentiment. I actually printed this out with registration marks intending to do a 'print and cut' on the Silhouette, but before I had time to do the 'cut' bit, my computer broke down and had to be repaired , so I had to cut it all out by hand. 

I added lots of holographic glitter to the tail. (It's not green irl!) 

I'd like to enter:

Deep Ocean  shaped base, stripes (on tail) , sentiment 

Through the Purple Haze  animal 

Craft Rocket for a boy