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Wednesday 31 August 2011

BF August ATC swap

No crafting here since Saturday - back has been playing up a lot, feeling rotten atm - but I thought I'd show the ATCs I received today from the August swap on the Bubbly Funk forum. The theme was 'a quote/a saying' - what a lovely lot of crafting from some special friends.
Click to enlarge

Saturday 27 August 2011

Fashions fade, style is eternal

'Fashions fade, style is eternal' (Yves Saint Laurent).

This card is very similar to the previous one.

This is for:

Colour create 78: kraft, red and white/cream
Crafty purple frog: hot ... red hot
Scrappy frogs: time for some bling
My time to craft 154: here come the girls
Happileigh 36: girly girls
Ooh-la-la 87: no backing paper
Digi doodle 73: anything goes
Aud sentiments 35: anything goes
Lothian crafts 17: anything goes
AiFactory: August anything goes

A woman should be two things ...

... classy & fabulous (Coco Channel) - that's what it says done the side of the card.

I've used Kanban toppers deoupaged. These have some red foiling on them that compliments the Craftime red glitter strip and the sentiment.

This is for:

Colour create 78: kraft, red and white/cream
Shopping our stash 14: red or ribbon or roses
Crafty purple frog: hot ... red hot
Scrappy frogs: time for some bling
Sarah Hurley 48: bling & sparkle
Charisma cardz 34: glitter it
My time to craft 154: here come the girls
Happileigh 36: girly girls

A relaxing birthday

It's a bit ironic making and showing this card because our bathroom still hasn't been completed - there have been lots of hitches along the way and we're still waiting for all the little finishing bits and pieces to be done. Our bath has been replaced with an enclosed shower unit ... but we can't use it yet!

Simply a Kanban embossed topper with sentiment, mounted on to a gold mirror mat, matted on to a shaped card.
This is for:

Spoon full of sugar 162: happy birthday
CCEE 1124: gold
Dezinaworld: golden
Mami doodles 32: shaped card
Squigglefly 112: waterworks
Scrappy frogs: time for some bling
Papertake: dies to die for
The paper shelter 28: die cuts and punches
Jellypark friends: die cuts and/or punches
Ooh-la-la 87: no backing paper
Digi doodle 73: anything goes
Aud sentiments 35: anything goes
Lothian crafts 17: anything goes
AiFactory: August anything goes

Commissioned diamond wedding card

One of the members of John's blind bowling club will be celebrating his diamond wedding anniversary soon, so I was commissioned to make a card. I recently bought some 8 x 8 cards, so thought I would use one of those.

The main background paper is a corner cut from a PM foil paper 'brown blue ornate' and I printed the sentiment on a piece of matching PM foil 'blue vintage floral', cutting this with a nestie and mounting on nestie mirror card mats.

This was one of those 'awkward to photo' cards because of the foiling, so the strip across the bottom doesn't show up as it really is - it has a copper foiling and then turquoise mirror card to match the nestie mat. Fortunately, I had some gems that were just the right colour, but I had to colour silver 60 with a turquoise copic - so this is for iCoic lover 44: use copic to colour embellishments.

Flowers are Craftime with Poundland gems.

This is for:

Paper pretties Monday: blue, brown and choice (white)
Everybody art: brown/blue
Scrappy frogs: time for some bling
Little Claire 12: wedding/anniversary
Paper creations ink 7: show us your flowers
Sarah Hurley 48: bling and sparkle
Papertake: dies to die for
The paper shelter 28: die cuts and punches
Jellypark friends: die cuts and/or punches

CHNC challenge 35: build it up

It's Saturday again, which means it's time for a new challenge on my Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge blog. For challenge 35 I'm asking you to 'build it up' - perhaps by using decoupage or pyramage, or just by making sure you can at least 3 layers on your card. If you haven't started making your Christmas cards yet, now would be a very good time to start, so why not go over to my CHNC blog and join in?

For my card I've used some Jolly Nation decoupage, a piece of DCWV backing paper and a recycled piece of card that features the star, wrapped with some fancy gold twine.

Colour scheme: Jay Gee's nook 10: photo inspiration:


I'm entering this into the following challenges:

Divas by design 9: Christmas in August
Crafts4eternity R34: theme recipe: Christmas projects
Paper and such: farm animal challenge
Crafty creations 133: show us your inner animal
Paper cutz 106: wish upon a star
Digi doodle 73: anything goes
Aud sentiments 35: anything goes
Paper playtime 53: anything goes
Lothian crafts 17: anything goes
AiFactory: August anything goes

Update Friday 2 September: I've just discovered that having scheduled this post, I forgot to actually enter the card into the above challenges, most of which, of course, are now closed! - d'oh - what a prize idiot I am!!!

Thursday 25 August 2011

Baby boy

When I made the Jemima Puddleduck tag the other day I said that I would probably use it on a new baby card, so here it is. You can see how I made the tag here.

The gingham background and the spotty, scalloped border was part of a cupcake kit from QVC (no cupcakes in sight here!). I distressed the edges of the sentiment to match the tag.

This is for:

Phindy's Friday 69: something new (baby)
Creative Belli 124: gingham - the sentiment has been long forgotten
Crafts4eternity R33: embellishment recipe - tag
Simply create 50: time to distress
Sweet stampin: babies & little ones
CropStop 34: anything goes
Digi doodle 73: anything goes
Aud sentiments 35: anything goes
Paper playtime 53: anything goes
Lothian crafts 17: anything goes
AiFactory: August anything goes

Embossing ... or rather 'debossing'

John ordered me some Dreamweaver stencils for my birthday and they arrived this morning. I'd already got some embossing paste ready for using with them, but decided not to try this today as there is still chaos here with the bathroom being done and didn't want to bother to get bowl of water to put stencil in.

So, instead of using embossing paste, I decided to use the swirls stencil with my cuttlebug - followed the 'sandwich' I found here - and it worked brilliantly ... except that I put the embossed dotted card in the wrong way round, so I ended up with debossing on the right side instead of embossing, but I wasn't go to waste it, so I distressed the whole area by swiping it with stazon blazing red - so the debossed swirls didn't pick up the ink colour. I quite like it (although next time I'll try to remember to put the card the right way up).

The pink spotted paper is My Mind's Eye quite contrary summer and the ribbon is from stash, long forgotten about. The little sentiment is difficult to see here - it is 'just for you' - it was originally white and I swiped with blazing red and buffed for the silver to show through.

I rounded the corners for Pals paper arts 108 elements of style - soften the edges.

And the colour was inspired by the Lollipop ladies embossed cupcake picture:


The monochrome pink is also for:

Tanda teaser 178: monochrome
Truly scrumptious 64: rocked up pink

Also for:

365 cards day 178: buried deep - new stencil and 'never used' before backing paper
DDH week 13: dry emboss
Simply create 50: time to distress
Shopping our stash 14: red or ribbon or roses
Ribbon girl: project that features ribbon
Kaboodle 81: ribbons
Crafty sentiments: ribbons & bow
CropStop 34: anything goes
Aud sentiments 35: anything goes
Digi doodle 73: anything goes
Paper playtime 53: anything goes
Lothian crafts 17: anything goes
AiFactory: August anything goes

Happy school time

This is another quick sticky note holder, this time for a 'back to school' little gift, suitable for either teacher or child.

This is for:

Creative inspirations 66: back to school
Crazy challenge 81: back to school
Party time Tuesday 30: back to school
Use it Tuesday 14: back to school - the chipboard stickers from Poundland had been hoarded for a long while
For fun challenges: back to school
Papercraft star 59: back to school
Penny's 60: back to school
PaperPlay 34: back to school
Fairytale 22: first school day
2 sisters: back to school
Stamp insanity 74: back to school
Die cuttin' divas 29: for a special teacher
Your next stamp 49: fruit inspiration
Ooh-la-la 87: no backing paper
Challenge up your life 50: no patterned paper
Digi doodle 73: anything goes

Sticky notes holder

This is a sticky notes holder made with an offcut piece of card, decorated with a beautiful flower and a birdie twinchie that I made long ago - thought it was about time I used it. In fact, I searched on my blog and found that I made the birdie twinchie in May 2009 - wow! how time flies. The background was created with the shaving foam technique - you can read about it here.

Colours are for There she goes 121: be inspired:


This is for:

Hooked on craft 6: things with wings
Truly scrumptious 64: rocked up pink
Paper creations ink 7: show us your flowers
Ooh-la-la 87: no backing paper
Challenge up your life 50: no patterned paper
CropStop 34: anything goes
Digi doodle 73: anything goes
Nadia's challenge 12: anything goes
Stamp insanity 73: anything goes
Paper playtime 53: anything goes
Lothian crafts 17: anything goes
AiFactory: August anything goes

Black, white, silver and pink

This is a quick card with Anna Griffin papers and components for Just for fun week 30: black, white, silver & 1 other (pink).

This is also for:

Incy wincy 107: anything but a card
Take time for you 48: everything except cards
Creative craft: anything but a card
Dutch dare 127: anything but a card
Paper creations ink 7: show us your flowers

Wednesday 24 August 2011

Kissing card ...

... no, not that kind of kissing - the stamped kissing technique. Creative sketches 44T technique challenge this week is 'kissing' - if you haven't come across this before you will find a link within the post at Creative sketches and if you Google you will find quite a few YouTube tutorials. I decided to join in this challenge, but, as you will see further down, this first card isn't for that after all.

I spent quite a time on this card, trying it out on rough paper first and then having to bin my first effort. Eventually, after having a lovely inky time I produced this card by inking the oval with Brilliance galaxy gold, inking the PM sunflowers stamp with memento rich cocoa and kissing this on to the oval. I then poured over detail clear powder and heat embossed. I chose the sunflowers stamp for this week's 'sunflowers' challenge on Inspiration Avenue.

As I was wanting to link this for Charisma 33: negative space (no more than a third of the card to be filled), I didn't add anything more to the card.

This is also for:

CAS-ual Friday 16: CAS that features embossing

Having done all this, I then suddenly realised that the challenge on Creative sketches wasn't just to use the kissing technique, but, of course, to follow the given sketch.

* * * * * * * * * *

So I made another kissing technique card using the sketch this time:

This time I inked up a Laura Ashley stamp with Brilliance galaxy gold and a little flowery stamp with memento rich cocoa, kissing these together, stamping and heat embossing with detail clear - I masked with a post-it note and repeated this twice more. I then stamped and embossed a little swirl stamp and the sentiment with rich cocoa.

You can't see the sheen of the embossing on this because it's a scan, but it shows the card a bit better than a flash photo in artificial light.

So I got there in the end with a correct entry for Creative sketches CS44T.

So this second card is also for:

Just some lines: embossing
Craft room: masking
Dezinaworld: golden
Ooh-la-la 87: no backing paper
Challenge up your life 50: no patterned paper
Little miss muffet 16: multiple images
Stampin' sisters in Christ 103: try something you might have been afraid to try before now - new technique
Woodware USA 40: try a new technique
Phindy's Friday 69: something new - new technique
Paper creations ink 7: show us your flowers
Polka doodles 33: single layer
Digi doodle 73: anything goes
Aud sentiments 35: anything goes
Nadia's challenge 12: anything goes
Stamp insanity 73: anything goes
Paper playtime 53: anything goes
Lothian crafts 17: anything goes
AiFactory: August anything goes

WOYWW 116

It's Wednesday again and that means it's WOYWW time - if you don't know what I'm talking about (is there anyone left who doesn't know?) just click on the link.

Mum bought me a Hougie board for part of my birthday present (well, to be truthful, I ordered it and she paid for it).

So far I've experimented with making rosettes. I need to make three large ones for a commission. I started with the small blue one, which was easy to make, but discovered that to make anything bigger I needed to prepare two strips and put them together - the pink one is about 6 inches across.

Thanks to all WOYWW-ers who left me comments last week. I tried to get round to everyone - managed to comment on lots, but apologise if I didn't get to all. I can't guarantee I will this time, but I'll try.

Tuesday 23 August 2011

Simply a gift card

Ages ago I bought a kit to make gift card holders - I used some and the rest have been in a box ever since.

I decided to make this one for Cupcake 156: a gift card.

The floral and striped pattern continues on the back and there are little cut out semi-circles to accommodate the gift card.


This is also for:

Leonardo da Vinci

When I saw the theme on Sunday postcard this week I just knew I wanted to take part and use one of my favourite stamps - Leonardo by Stampington, so this is also for Creative inspirations 125: use your favourite stamp (although, in all honesty, it's very difficult to pick one favourite stamp - I have so many) - and another favourite for Ladybug 36: favourite stamp.

The colour scheme I used was inspired by the theme this week on Created by hand: red + blue + purple, also for Paper creator's crafts 5: red & blue. I used fired brick and stormy sky DI to distress the edges, stamped the image with stazon vibrant violet and lightly brushed in parts with the stormy sky. I then splattered water here and there - for Squigglefly 112: waterworks.

This is also for:

Ooh-la-la 87: no backing paper
Challenge up your life 50: no patterned paper
Stampin' B 124: distressing
Simply create 50: time to distress
Shopping our stash 14: red or ribbon or roses
Crafty purple frog: hot ... red hot
Nadia's challenge 12: anything goes
Stamp insanity 73: anything goes
Paper playtime 53: anything goes
Lothian crafts 17: anything goes
AiFactory: August anything goes

Mariposa thank you

For this card I've used some DCWV mariposa paper, from the 8 x 8 pad. I originally only had the 12 x 12, but liked the patterns so much that I then bought the 8 x 8 so I have the versatility of either.

The bunting is stamped with one of the Forever Friends springtime, coloured with copics, the ribbon bow is Papermania and the Thank You is a rub on mounted on to a die cut distressed with spiced marmalade DI.

The colour combo is for Crafty creations 132: red, orange and green.

This is for:

Cooking it up with Katie 71: die cut a banner with ribbon
CES 50: banners, bunting & flags
Flutter by Wednesday 167: punches or die cuts - with butterflies
Papertake: dies to die for
Alota 65: falling for bugs - I've used autumnal colours and butterflies
Pollycraft 107: autumn colours
Hooked on craft 6: things with wings
Shopping our stash 14: red or ribbon or roses
Crafty purple frog: hot ... red hot

Jemima Puddle Duck

It's been ages since I did anything for Frankie's Dragons dream tags, so I thought I'd join in TIO92: child's play.

I've used a Jemima Puddle Duck stamp that I got free ages ago with a magazine. I coloured the image with promarkers, distressed the edges of the hammered tag with mustard seed DI, added some gingham ribbon and the rub on sentiment.


This is also for:

Creative Belli 124: gingham - the sticky ribbon has certainly been neglected for a long time
Crafts4eternity R33: embellishment recipe - tag
Passion for promarkers 114: no patterned papers
Ooh-la-la 87: no backing paper
Challenge up your life 50: no patterned paper
Hooked on craft 6: things with wings
Catch the bug: the birds and the bees
Take time for you 48: everything except cards
Creative craft: anything but a card
Incy wincy 107: anything but a card
Stampin' B 124: distressing
Simply create 50: time to distress
Sweet stampin: babies & little ones
Nadia's challenge 12: anything goes
Stamp insanity 73: anything goes
Aud sentiments 35: anything goes
Paper playtime 53: anything goes
Lothian crafts 17: anything goes
AiFactory: August anything goes

I might be back later with this tag on a 'welcome baby' card (thinking about it).

My birthday

I had so many birthday cards - I thought I'd show them in batches because there are so many.

Thank you, everyone.

If you click on the pictures you can get a closer look.

From family and friends:

From crafting friends on Bubbly Funk forum:

From crafting friends on Crafts by Carolyn forum:

From crafting friends in the Christmas card club:

Mum bought me a Hougie board - and gave me some money to spend (I'll be choosing some more crafting goodies). I had a lovely box of crafting goodies from one of my nieces and family and a necklace and iTunes gift card from my other niece and family. I have an M & S gift card to spend from my brother and SIL.

I haven't got my present from John yet - five Dreamweaver stencils should be on their way soon and some more money to spend as well.

The firm who are doing our bathroom atm arranged for this wonderful vase of flowers to be delivered (should really have taken a photo on Saturday, but, with all that's going on, I didn't get round to it, but you can see that the flowers are still nice and fresh):


Because of all the work going on here we didn't go out for my birthday - had pizzas etc delivered instead. When it's all finished and we're back to normal (whatever that is - lol!) we're hoping to have a day out - it will just extend my birthday celebrations.

Anyone for Anya prize ... and a thank you

Postie's been and brought me the prize I won from Anyone for Anya for their 'no paper' challenge recently - you can see their post about it here.



This is a brilliant prize. The stamps are all pre-cut and mounted to cushion on an acrylic block.

I'm such a happy bunny to receive these - thank you to Natalie and all concerned at Anyone for Anya.

Thank you for all the good wishes for my birthday. I've received loads of cards and will show them on here soon - with the work going on in our bathroom, we're a bit topsy turvy (to put it mildly!).

Monday 22 August 2011

'Wish you were here' postcard

This is for Daisy doodles 40: postcard, using one of their images, coloured with copics.

It's also for the sketch for Dutch dare 126:
Papers are DCWV summer.

This is also for:

Whoopsi daisy: summer fun
Order of the opus gluei 111: oh I do love to be beside the seaside
St Luke's August: oh I do like to be beside the seaside

Christmas gifts

This week Jingle Belles 'Holiday fall to layout' has joined with Clean & simple for their FTL 154 sketch:

I hope I haven't been too liberal with my interpretation of the sketch. I usually tend to stick too rigidly to a sketch, so I suppose it makes a change that I've 'dared' to tweak it!

The papers and the 3D image are all Jolly Nation, with the addition of a doiley, scalloped border and sentiment.

This is another card for my CHNC challenge 34.

This is also for:

Happileigh 36: girly girls
Totally papercrafts 80: Christmas in August

On the look out ...

'On the look out' is the name of the Delicious Doodles digital image that I've used for this card. I think they are 'on the look out' for the farmer, so this is for Digital Tuesday 124: on the farm, also for Paper cutz 105: down on the farm.

I digitally changed the colour of the image and mounted it on to pink card and just lightly copic'd the rabbits' ears and noses with E93 tea rose.

The background paper is from a Doolicraft pack of scrapbooking Mocha papers. The grosgrain ribbon with gold stitching is from my stash - it looks odd in the photo because of the way the flash has caught it. The flower is a craftime one.

This is also for:

Crafty catz 97: pink & brown
Ribbon girl: project that features ribbon
Kaboodle 81: ribbons
Fab n funky 86: a stitch in time

Here we go again

Regular visitors to my blog will think they've seen these ATCs before. Yes, I made a set of six of them for the August swap on the Bubbly Funk forum, but, unfortunately, they haven't arrived despite the fact that they were posted two weeks ago - you can see the original ones here.

So here is a new set of six made today:

Once again the background is a part of a Kanban image stamped with stazon ultramarine, with the butterfly lightly coloured with pale blue grey copic. The saying is a Stamping up stamp. Edges were distressed with stormy sky DI.

A closer look at one:

So this time I'm linking these for:

ATC challenges 8: anything goes/wings
Hooked on craft 6: things with wings
Take time for you 48: everything except cards
Creative craft: anything but a card
Incy wincy 107: anything but a card
Sketchy colors 81: shades of blue
Tanda teaser 178: monochrome
Sukkersott 133: monochromatic
Bizzy Becs August: use butterflies and the colour blue
Stampin' B 124: distressing
Simply create 50: time to distress
Scrappy frogs: time for some bling
Ooh-la-la 87: no backing paper
Challenge up your life 50: no patterned paper
Stamps R us: anything goes
Nadia's challenge 12: anything goes
Stamp insanity 73: anything goes
Aud sentiments 35: anything goes
Paper playtime 53: anything goes
Try it on Tuesday: anything goes
Lothian crafts 17: anything goes
AiFactory: August anything goes

Copic coloured pearls

Today's challenge on iCopic lover 44 is to use copics to colour embellishments.

I chose these white pearls:

and coloured some with R29 lipstick red:

The card is a Kanban stamp coloured with copics, using the coloured pearls for flower centres.

I've quite often coloured white flowers with copics, but this is the first time I've coloured white pearls, so I'm linking this for Stampin' sisters in Christ 103 - trying something new, and Phindy's Friday 69: something new, also for Woodware USA 40: try a new technique.

I chose red for the hat and coat for Quirky crafts 11: red hat society - the project must feature a hat and it must be red.

I chose yellow for the flowers for 365 cards day 173: vintage plus yellow.

This is also for:

Polka doodles 33: single layer
Crop stop 33: pearls ... pearls ... and more pearls
Scrappy frogs: time for some bling
Happileigh 36: girly girls
Ooh-la-la 87: no backing paper
Challenge up your life 50: no patterned paper
Nightshift stamping 80: flowers and leaves
Pollycraft 107: autumn colours
Stamps R us: anything goes
Nadia's challenge 12: anything goes
Stamp insanity 73: anything goes