Fairground Attraction

inside

My daughter is a great supporter of my crafting and that makes me feel I should make her something slightly spectacular for her birthday card. So, as usual, I couldn't think of what to make her until I saw the challenge at Cut it Up, to make a bendy card.

I've only ever made a bendy once before, and that was quite a simple one. So, in addition to the fantastic inspiration from the Cut it Up DT, I searched online for some good examples. I found this one by Crystal, which I used for inspiration.

Everything was cut on the Silhouette electronic cutting machine. The (pre-coloured) images are by Lettering Delights - as I had left this till the last minute, I decided against using the layered SVGs and instead, used the graphic files which I traced and 'print and cut'. The sentiment is a Clearly Besotted stamp.

As well as Cut it UP, I'd also like to enter:
Stampin Royalty just as I'm about to link up I notice it says 'dies' not 'die-cuts' and I wonder if digital cutting counts or just metal dies... ?
OohLaLa  die cuts
Crafty Friends anything goes
Creative Craft Cottage anything goes

City Crafter Challenge Blog - Old Stuff, New Look

This week's challenge at City Crafter, is to take an old project or old stash and make something new.

To be honest my project was not that old..I only got the dies for Christmas, but I wasn't happy with what I'd made ...here it is:

before 

On both projects the milk bottle and cookies are MFT dies and the words and spill were cut on the Silhouette.The background was an embossing folder.  As well as rearranging everything, reprinting the writing and cutting 'add cookies' bigger, I also decided to make the cookies look more tempting by adding 'sugar'.

This week, our Guest Designer is Magic Flying Boots, so please come and visit us at City Crafter and see what she and the rest of the DT have made, before entering your own creation.

I'd like to enter:
Unstampabelles use something new - these were my first attempts with these dies
Craft Cardmakers - add texture - embossing and the glittery flakes
QKR Stampede embossing
Happy Little Stampers Dies  anything goes
Tuesday Throwdown sentiment focal point

Bookworm

Here's a simple grungy tag that I will use as a book mark.

It was quick to make (well, if you exclude the time I spent looking for the stamps!) because it's one layer and uses only two inks - black and Dusty Concord Distress.

The luggage tag already had a bit of colour and grunginess, as it was one I'd use to mop up my craft mat when doing messy backgrounds some time ago. The text stamp in the background is Hero Arts, the main image is Stamping Bella, and the words 'book worm' are Clearly Besotted.

I'd like to enter:
Tag Tuesday  Bookworm
Country View 30 minutes or under
Eclectic Ellapu  anything goes

Hearts and Flowers Bag

It's my daughter's birthday tomorrow and it's become a tradition for me to give her some of those little heart-shaped chocolates you see in the shops at this time of year.

I've made this little bag to put them in - I cut it on the Silhouette electronic cutting machine and I used a stamp set from W plus 9.

I'd like to enter:
Just Add Ink  hearts, flowers
My Time to Craft anything but a card
Dragonfly Dreams hearts and flowers
Crafting When we Can  flowers

Just Ginger

Enough with the superfluous Valentine's cards! Here's a birthday card, made at my daughter's request for her friend. She told me she wanted a card with a big A on the front and a long-haired ginger and black cat.

I was lucky enough to win some digital images by Sami Stamps and so I decided to choose this one for the card. (Not sure if it's a giant cup or a tiny cat.)

I paper-pieced the cup and die-cut an A and a wonky circle shape. But when I tried to colour the cat ginger and black, I ran into difficulties. I don't think I've ever seen a long-haired ginger and black cat and when I tried it on some practice images, it just looked bad. So I decided to just make the cat ginger.

So, when I gave it to my daughter I apologised for the cat colour and she replied 'I didn't say ginger AND black - I said ginger OR black!'.

I'd like to enter:
Sami Stamps  circles
Alphabet Challenge  spots and dots
Happy Little Stampers  anything goes with dies
Creative Craft Cottage anything goes

Inkspirational Challenges - Photo

Our challenge at Inkspirational  is to be inspired by this picture:

For my DT project I used a new stamp by Penny Black and coloured it with markers and paper-pieced the coat. 

Our Guest Designer this week is Ros , my lovely team-mate from City Crafter. I hope you'll come over to the Inkspirational blog and see what Ros and the rest of the DT have made, and enter your own project.

I'd like to enter:
Addicted to Stamps  holiday
Penny Black Saturday something new - the stamp
Cards in Envy  valentine
Addicted to CAS pets
Deep Ocean  hearts

My Love Is Strong

Here's a minimalistic Valentine's card, which has been enlivened with a few touches of glitter which, of course, don't show up on the photo.

The strong man stamp, the little hearts and heart tattoo are by Avery Elle and I used one blue ink pad and one blue marker. I made the 'strong' on the Silhouette. 'My love is ' was made by cutting up some Waffle Flower stamps (the 'is' was originally 'miss'!) - I'm sure you can see that there were some spacing issues in the stamping...I've decided to call them the 'natural imperfections' of a handmade card!

I'd like to enter:
Happy Little Stampers  cas blue
Shopping Our Stash  winter blues
Casology  hero
Cardz4guyz love you
Stamp Ink Paper  love

City Crafter Challenge Blog - SWALK

I chose this week's City Crafter challenge ....SWALK.

For my DT card I embossed a Penny Black stamp in white on vellum. I stamped it again on cardstock, coloured it in and cut out the cat, which I paper-pieced onto the envelope. The greeting was made up of lots of separate Avery Elle stamps and the paper , which is ready-glittered was from a lovely pad my sister gave me for Christmas. 

Our Guest Designer this week is Jenny Martin , so I hope you'll come over to City Crafter and see what she and the rest of the DT have made...and enter your own project. 

I'd like to enter:

Penny Black Saturday  try something new (the sentiment on vellum is new for me) 

Retro Rubber Cross my heart (heart on envelope) Very old stamp ...five years? 

Use your Stuff  love is in the air 

Time Out  inspired by words 

Sweet Stampin  love is in the air 

You're so Sweet

Here's another card using a Stamping Bella stamp. I used the colour combo from Cupcake Inspirations and coloured it with markers and some touches of Wink of Stella. The hearts and 'you're so sweet ' are from the same set and the big sentiment is by MFT.

As well as Cupcake Inspirations, I'd like to enter:
Creative Knockouts birthday wishes
Challenge up your Life  hearts
Addicted to Stamps make your mark
Daisy Chain  heart

Hot Drink

Here's a Christmas card using a non-Christmas stamp (by Stamping Bella) - I hope it's Christmassy enough - hopefully the holly and the gold on green sentiment have ramped up the Christmassiness.

I'd like to enter:
Christmas Card Throwdown drinks
Allsorts  paper-piecing (on the stool)
Cut it up  hot drink (die cut is the holly)
Happy Little Stampers Christmas  holly