City Crafter Challenge Blog - Jungle Animal

This week at City Crafter , Lucille wants you to use a jungle animal on your project.

I made this 'new baby' card at my daughter's request - it is the second time this year that she has asked for a lion card for a baby called Leo, so that name must be climbing the charts right now.

I used a Lettering Delights SVG cutting file. The file has the whole lion but I enlarged it and cropped it so I was just left with half the face.

I hope you'll join us at CCCB with your jungle animal makes- but first please go over to the blog and see what the rest of the DT have made.

I'd like to enter :
Crafty Animals 
Inky Chicks  animals
Fairy Tale  not more than 4 - card base, embossing folder, sentiment, die-cut pieces.

Thanks a Bunch

The image here is a stamp by Concord and 9th - I've used it loads and it's BY FAR my favourite ever flower stamp.  In fact , before I got this, I rarely used flowers as my main image. Since then I've bought many more flower stamps, trying to get the same happiness from them...but nothing has quite hit the spot!

Here I embossed it in white and watercoloured it using Distress Inks.

I'd like to enter:
Cas on Friday  flowers
Addicted to Stamps  flowers
Creative Craft Cottage  use a sentiment

Pro-Am Showdown #14- Woodland Christmas

This year, my self-imposed challenge is Pro-Am Showdown, where I take on a commercially produced card I've received (the Pro) and see if I can beat the professionals at their own game with my amateur card.

Here is the card that inspired me: 

the original , professional card 

I used a Stamping Bella stamp that I saw on second-hand on  Ebay - I got it quite cheaply - and I felt it had a similar feel to the original card.  I embossed it in white and then watercoloured with Distress Inks. Watercolouring is not my forte so I'm hoping the blotchiness is part of the charm (haha!).  The sentiment came from another set ( can't remember!) .

I'd like to enter:
The Holly and the Ivy 
Christmas at Sweet Stampin 
Crafty Animals 

Inkspirational Challenges - Autumn Photo

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

I was inspired by the autumn theme and the prickly look of the sparklers. I made a one-layer-card - the hedgehogs are by Paper Artsy, the sentiment by Mama Elephant and the leaf arrangement is Stampin Up. 

I gave this card to my grown-up daughter and she asked which of us is the bigger hedgehog - she overtook me height-wise years ago (although not necessarily width-wise!). 

I hope you will come over to Inkspirational and see the fabulous makes of the DT...then enter our challenge!

I'd like to enter:
Moving Along with the Times  autumn
Passion for Promarkers anything goes (coloured with Promarkers)
Always Fun monochrome
Sparkles Monthly  autumn colours 

Bicycle Pop Up Box Card

I'm lucky enough to own a Silhouette Cameo electronic cutting machine, which means I can buy cutting files and make some great shaped cards. I do think, though, that the fun comes with adapting the designs and 'making them my own'.

Here I took a Lori Whitlock pop-up box card , and adapted it for a 60th birthday card. Here's the original design:

As you can see, the major change is that I altered the middle section to make the numbers. The patterned paper is two sides of the same sheet by Simple Stories. The sentiments are by MFT and Clearly Besotted.

I'd like to enter:

Crafter's Cafe shaped card

Little Red Wagon  shaped card 

Seize the Birthday  anything goes 

Ice Skater

I made this card to join in a few challenges. It was also a challenge to photograph it! Mirror card is really hard to photograph and also, I've barely seen daylight this week.

The image is by Penny Black - I paper-pieced the skirt with a scrap of patterned paper. The sentiment is Hero Arts and I punched some snowflakes with a Martha Stewart punch.

I'd like to enter:
Christmas Card Throwdown  winter sports
Through the Purple Haze  untraditional Christmas Colours
Jingle Belles pink Christmas
Fab n Funky  paper piecing

City Crafter Challenge Blog - Pumpkins

This week , at City Crafter  we want you to include a pumpkin on your project.

Here I used a Stamping Bella scientist stamp and tried to give it more of a Halloween feel.  I masked off the things that were on the bottom of the stamp, by her feet, and added a pumpkin (Inkydoodles) instead. The background is a newspaper stamp by Prima.

I hope you will join us with your pumpkin projects, but first do come over to the City Crafter blog and see what the rest of the DT have made.

I'd like to enter:
Cards in Envy dress up
Crafty Cardmakers  spooky
Use your Stuff  add a pumpkin

Cobbled Together

Here's a card that's been cobbled together over a period of time. The image is a digi from Mo's digital pencil, that I coloured and glittered and didn't know what to do with next!

Last week, when I was feeling tired and uninspired, I played around with a bag of scraps and put the card together. The paper on the left was one that I made ages ago using a Hero Arts background stamp and following a Jennifer McGuire tutorial - I can't remember how it was done now!  Finally I stamped the sentiments.

I'd like to enter:
Little Red Wagon  leftovers
Addicted to Stamps  holidays
Cardz4Galz monochrome - hope it fits as I've used a lot of shades of blue and the rules say you can use a contrast neutral

Guest Designer at Try it On Tuesday - Halloween

Today I am honoured to be Guest Designer at Try it on Tuesday!  The theme is Halloween. 

The fabulous Design Team at TIOT make wonderful mixed media projects, and this inspired me to get my pinny on and get messy. First I got playing with alcohol inks and made lots of backgrounds (expect to see them cropping up over the next few months!) This one was the one I thought was spookiest. 

The carved pumpkin was cut on the Silhouette electronic cutter.  I embossed it with an embossing folder and added wax. The sentiment is Clearly Besotted. 

Thank you Try It On Tuesday - it's great to join you for this challenge! 

I'd like to enter:

Double D  fright night 

Eclectic Ellapu  scary 

Crafty Calendar  Halloween 

City Crafter Challenge Blog - What a Fun-ghi!

I chose this week's theme at City Crafter - use a mushroom/toadstool (however small) on your project. 

For my DT card, I used three mushrooms - one by Mama Elephant and the other two by Jillibean Soup. The Mama Elephant one had spots and stripes on it, so I doodled on the other two to make them match. The 'grass' is a fancy border stamp - very old- I think it was from Basic Grey. The sentiment is from the same Jillibean Soup set. 

I hope you'll come over to the City Crafter Challenge Blog, see what the rest of the DT have made, and enter your own funghi creation. 

I'd like to enter:

HLS cas one layer 

Casology  odd - odd number of mushrooms and one mushroom stamp is from a different set.