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