Crafty Cardmakers #5 Guest DT Card - and a bit of a photographic nightmare!

I was really thrilled when Vixykins asked me if I would make a guest DT card for this week's challenge on the new-ish challenge blog she has set up with some other fab talented ladies - Crafty Cardmakers.

If you haven't discovered it yet, then please do pop over and check it out .... here's what it's all about ...

"We are a blog designed for newer and less experienced cardmakers and bloggers with a new challenge every other Monday. Our design team also range from very new cardmakers through to more experienced with a special guest designer each challenge too! We also have tutorials and how to's which you will find links to down the sidebar. You don't have to be new to join in the fun but why not try something a bit different :)"

Hope you will be able to join in this fortnight, and to help get your creative juices flowing there is a great prize - a £10 voucher for Joanna Sheen - how great is that?


This fortnight challenge is

ribbons &/or fibres

... so I thought I would focus on using some "unusual" ribbon AND fibre ... and as my favourite fibre is white, turquoise and sparkly, that immediately suggested Christmas. I quickly got stuck in and tried an experiment, embossing using a brass stencil and my Cuttlebug (thinking of quick Christmas makes for when the production line really kicks in lol!) I was reasonably pleased with the result at the time .. but oh horror! ... when I tried to photograph it the next day I realised that taking an adequate photograph of mirri card is nigh impossible! As I've been out & about pretty much all weekend I didn't have time to make another .. so i hope youw ill all be kind (Vix was very kind - bless her!)

So here it is anyway ...


Recipe:
Main image: brass stencil of Christmas trees (sorry, no make on the packaging) run through Cuttlebug onto silver mirri card, matted onto pale blue and then white glitter card;
Sentiment; Cardology "Oh! My Words";
Paper: Reminisce; pale blue and white glitter card from Edwin Allen
Supplies: white felt snowflake ribbon by Papermania; fluffy sparkly fibre by Cardology;
Tools: punched edge on glitter card is Martha Stewart "embossed snowflake" edge punch.

Thanks for looking.

Stamp with fun - my favourite things

I just had to enter this week's Stamp with fun challenge #14, as it is a fabulous sketch, plus they are offering an absolutely adorable stamp set as the prize (fingers crossed!!)


I was eager to use my new supplies from my Quixotic Paperie blog candy win (see previous post) and this sketch allowed me to incorporate my gorgeous new crocheted ribbon :-). I kinda squashed the sketch to make it into a square, but hopefully you can still see the basic elements.

I would also like to enter this card into this week's Papertake Weekly Challenge as the theme is my favourite things ... and this card contains a whole host of those!! My fave stamps are undoubtedly Penny Blacks, BasicGrey papers are generally my favourites, and I also can't get enough of charms and pearls.

Recipe:

Main image; Penny Black "Frequent Flier", coloured with watercolour pencils and decorated with glamour dust (doesn't show up too well in the pics!)

Sentiment: Penny Black;

Papers: BasicGrey "Wisteria" - edges on image and paper cut using mega deckle rectangle nestabilities;

Supplies: crocheted ribbon and charm from Quixotic Paperie; flowers and jewel brad by Papermania; spacer from The Hobby House; pearls from my stash; leaves punched using Leone Em "Ash Family" punch.

Penny Black Saturday Challenge #25 - No patterned paper

Well it's the weekend already, so time once more for this week's Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Many thanks to everyone who joined in last week ... I tried to get round to visit you all and loved seeing everyone's funky Christmas creations. Don't forget to pop along to the challenge blog to find out who has won the gorgeous Sarah Kay stamps that were on offer as last week's prize.

Without further ado, this week's challenge is no patterned paper - so everyone can continue to stroke their paper stash instead of cutting into it, whist we look forward to seeing all your creations with whatever other forms of decoration your imagination can come up with :-) be sure to pop over to the blog to check out the other DT sample cards - they are a fantastic source of inspiration!

This week we have another gorgeous prize up for grabs .... Tracie has donated a gorgeous embellishment kit from Poppicrafts.

Here is the card I have made: I stamped PB stamp "Fantasy" onto lilac cardstock and embossed using snowflake tinsel embossing powder (white with lots of silver sparkle). I decorated the tree with Papermania translucent gemstones and Cardology white pearls, and matted onto white pearlescent card using my nesties. The sentiment is also stamped and embossed with snowflake tinsel powder, and is from "Make Your Mark" (a one off shop in York). I embossed a piece of lilac pearlescent cardstock with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and then wrapped it with sparkly snowflake ribbon from my stash, which I also used to tie a bow. I finished off with small Cuttlebug snowflakes diecut from white glitter card, decorated with lilac gemstones.

Hope you like it, and have a good weekend.

Kerry's blog candy competition

Kerry has got herself a right fabulous Load of Old Pickle and is celebrating 10,000 hits by hosting a brilliant blog candy competition - closing tomorrow 29/8. All she requires you to do is to link to her blog candy and to create a crafty project using her favourite craft essential - ribbon.

Well, when it comes to making cards using ribbon I don't need asking twice LOL! Last week I made my first Christmas card that used multiple new Chrimbo ribbons I'd bought, and I was so pleased with the effect I thought I'd make another using a different colour scheme! .... after all, if you can't use multi-ribbons in a ribbon competition, when can you?? So I got out pack of Papermania ribbon I bought last year but never opened (!) and got busy. Here is the result - hope you like it !

I used: main image Penny Black "Holly Jolly" coloured with watercolour pencils and Twinkling H2O's; Papermania ribbons; paper and glitter card from my stash; E-Z Rub on sentiment and holly; Dovecraft corner holly punch.

All challenges lead to Christmas!

I've been too busy to make any cards this past week, so I haven't entered any challenges. I'm also very aware that the time for Chrimbo card preparation is drawing near, and I was inspired to start making an effort after going to a Christmas launch event at a nearby craft shop "Crafts4u2do" in St. Helens. So ... from now on I'm going to be looking at tying in some of my challenge cards to Christmas card making .. starting now!

This week's My Time To Craft Challenge #26 is Cats; Cute Card Thursday #23 is Soft Furnishings (you can use fabric, ribbon, stitching, buttons etc, anything you can find on the soft furnishings in the home ie curtains, cushions, sofas etc.); and Penny Black Saturday Challenge #10 is Ribbons - as you can see I have incorporated both ribbons and a button into my design, plus a scalloped edge with brads that you could imagine is the shape of a pelmet with studs.

Main image: Penny Black "Holly Jolly" coloured wtih watercolour pencils & Twinkling H2O's

Sentiment: E-Z Rub On Transfers

Paper: Carol Wilson Fine Arts

Ribbon: The Paper Company Studio

Button: Doodlebug

Three challenges in one

I'm in luck! I saw this morning that this week's Penny Black Saturday Challenge is "Down on the Farm" ... I don't own any stamps of pigs, cows or geese, but this week Evelyn C from Docrafts sent me a monthly friendship card which kindly included a lot of lovely stamped images .... including a PB cow!! So I was champing at the bit (or should that be chewing the cud??) and thought I would incorporate a couple of other challenges, namely Papertake Weekly - Katharina's Sketch #7, and a non-blog challenge I do over on Docrafts entitled "C for clashing colours!!" The flowers actually look the same deep pink as the ribbon and card in real life!

Anyway ... I used: Penny Black stamp "Bundle of Wishes", matted onto matte pink metallic card (first use of my new Nestabilities!!); sentiment stamped in Brilliance copper ink from PB transparent set "Salutations"; background papers from DCWV, with semi circle cut using X-Cut Multishaper punch; flowers by Prima; brads and small crystal gems by Papermania.

Penny Black Challenge #6 - Snow Much Fun

Well it's Saturday again already, and time for the Penny Black Challenge - this week it is to make a card featuring snow! This made me chuckle as I have already made a snowy card for the first PB challenge, plus another for the recent "Dazzle!" challenge - at this rate I'll be well ahead by December! So this week I have pulled out one that hasn't appeared on here before as I need to nip off and clean the house (groan!)

I have used the PB stamp "Royal Mail" coloured with watercolour pens and pencils and decorated with glitter glue. The background stamp is Hero Arts "Christmas script", and the very wide holly sparkly ribbon was an experiment from a cheap Chrimbo decs shop!

Penny Black Saturday Challenge #5 - Sketch

I've only tried one sketch challenge before and really enjoyed it, so I decided to get stuck in with this one for PB Saturday Challenge #5 as it sent my thoughts off in different directions whilst trying to use my PB's. Here's what I used:

PB image and sentiment from the transparent set "Bubbly" - I watercoloured the image, and embossed the sentiment using Brilliance "Lightning Black" ink and holographic powder. Background papers, the largest white blossom and the sparkly brad are by Making Memories, the other flowers are Prima and the brads on the image are Papermania.

I will no doubt also be entering this card in the non-blog Docrafts alphabet challenge this week ... B is for Bubbly, bathing, bowl, bubbles, brads, blossom, black ink, background papers! It is also a birthday card for my Docrafts friend Samantha!

Hope you like it!

Penny Black Saturday Challenge 4 - Buttons and Brads

I made this card this afternoon for the PB Saturday challenge, which this week specifies that the card should use buttons and brads. It is also my Docrafts July friendship card for Evelyn C. This was certainly a challenge as I rarely use buttons so had to actually raid my sewing box!

The main stamp is by Inkadinkado, coloured with Cosmic Shimmer paints and Twinkling H2O's, and the sentiment is PB "..second self". Round metallic brads are by Papermania, the dragonfly brad is by Lakeland, and the flowers are by Prima. Papers, ribbon and buttons are all from my stash. Hope you like it!