Monday 13 August 2007

Cheryl's Blog Candy

Cheryl at Mum on the Run has some lovely blog candy to give away - check out her beautiful cards and leave a comment and you might just win!

Saturday 11 August 2007

Fabulous 40


This card was made for a very stylish 40 year old friend. The flowers are from the ellison thick cut daisy with doodledot number negatives in silver on top of circles in brown for the centres. The sentiment is a sizzix embossing folder. The wire stems are held down by the flowers and the ribbon.

Thursday 9 August 2007

DCM - Arrows?


Well, trees are arrow shaped aren't they? I have never used arrows on a card before although I do use them in my scrapbook. The DCM recipe called for 3 arrows, 3 circles and one square - whoops, I used a rectangle. The letters are quite square though! I had planned to use a stamp in a square (where the N & O are) but couldn't get the ink to match the dark pink. Sorry! The arrows / trees were hand cut, the letters are a sizzix extended cut die, the doodling is my own and all paper is last year's papermania Christmas pack. Pink may not be a traditional Christmas colour, but I use it a lot for Christmas cards (and all others!)

Di Hickman Sketch

This is my take on Di's sketch for this week. My sentiment has been moved across, but I think it still qualifies. The flower is an Ellison thick cut 3 d flower which I have cut in pink vellum. I love the way vellum holds its shape when it is curled. The bow is from an Ellison thick cut present. I have only ever used this die as a bow, never as a whole present! I didn't stick this down completely as I like my cards to be 3d. The green background paper and rub-on came free with my Quick and Crafty this month. To make the little pink dots easier to stick, I put double sided tape on the back of a bit of vellum and then punched this. That way the tape is the same size as the vellum and so doesn't show.

Wednesday 8 August 2007

Quick & Easy Cupcakes


This is one of my simpler cards - but sometimes I like simple best! I saw this sentiment on a sheet of rub-ons and printed it on a side fold a6 card. The cakes are a sizzix sizzlit which I bought individually on ebay so I don't know which set. I cut the cake from thick chocolate card, white, red and green to make 2 whole cakes and then in red and green to make the cherry. I used scalloped scissors to cut the bite mark. Tied the ribbon round to finish (with a bit of double sided tape underneath so it didn't move). Nice and simple!

Sunday 5 August 2007

Back to Pink



These cards were made as a set for my SIL to give to a friend. A new baby girl is on her way to join the family and so their daughter will be a big sister. As these cards are for the same people for the same event, I wanted to ensure that they co-ordinated.

I found this checked paper in Hobbycraft and thought it would be perfect for baby cards. The ribbon is from a top that I bought. It was a perfect colour match, so the top will have to do without the ribbon! The pram was made using a circle die and then cutting a segment out. It is mounted on foam tape for depth. The baby word is a sizzix medium sizzlit and I have layered white and DCWV pink to give it a bit of depth. I pricked the scallops to add some detail.


I used the same papers here to make the big sister card. The die cut bear was one I bought from Ebay (un-embellished). I made her dress from the pink paper and added a ribbon bow and flowers with gelly rolled centres. The bear is made from pearlescent card and my chalks don't stick, however I have found that ordinary felt tips shade this type of card very well. I used 2 shades of brown and one pink. I cut the nose from card and added a white dot. The face was drawn on with a cd marker pen as this dries really quickly. I made a dolly pram as before and used my extended cut sizzix serif die for the wording. I don't have a rectangle scallop die so the white panel was made with my scalloped scissors.

For you, Sue!

This is another of the Z cards I made last week, but I had to wait until the recipient (Sue) had opened it before I could post it here! I water coloured the cosmobella with my cheap and cheerful 89p watercolour paints from Tesco. I used clear glitter gelly roll on her hair to add touches of sparkle and also used gelly rolls for the red cherry and her silver belt buckle. I inked the edges of the white panel with a brown felt tip and then scratched them with my nails to get the distressed look. The faux stitching on the brown panel was also a gelly roll (what did I do before I found these???). The sentiment was printed on the pc and distressed as before. I added eyelets with my cropadile and mounted the piece on foam tape so it is the same height as the main panel when the card is shut. The only tricky bit was remembering to make sure that the join in the ribbon was under the bit of panel which is stuck to the card so that it doesn't show when the card is open.

Saturday 4 August 2007

Red and Black

Although I love all things girly, I am also strangely drawn to red, black and white.
This background was embossed with a sizzix texture plate, having spritzed the card first with water - it embosses better this way. The flowers are my EK retro flower punch and they have been embossed with an Ellison spots embossing folder. I then curled the petals over my trusty scalpel handle. This grosgrain ribbon is fab and I use it all the time. The greeting was printed on the pc an then I went round the edges with a black Sakura gelly roll to give a bit of shine.


This card was made with the off cut of the embossed red card (the texture plates are quite big). It seemed a shame to waste it so I cut 3 apertures in it with my sizzix alphabars doodledots numbers (the dies each have 3 circles on them with numbers inside - the idea is that you can use the numbers or the negative, but it is also really useful for apertures!) The present and cake are made using an Ellison cut and emboss folder called 'birthday seals', in mirror card. They are flat on the card blank and the red has been raised up on foam tape to give some depth to the windows. The happy birthday is my favourite Sizzix die. It is supposed to be all sort of piled up on top of itself, but if you cut it twice you can make it look like this.



The dress card was made using a Sizzix dress die. I cut it from thin wood, black card and red. I punched the flowers and name tag and added red centres and the name with Sakura gelly rolls. I have lots of this fab angel hair ribbon which gives a lovely touch of texture and then some more gingham to finish.

I think that that is enough red and black for now (I do have more!)

Back to pink next time!



Friday 3 August 2007

Christmas Bling


Today's DCM challenge is Time. I nearly went with a clock idea and something like 'time for fun' but when I went into my craft room I saw this Ellison cut and emboss folder on my desk and thought Snow-Time (in a Jim Carrey kind of voice!) The background is cuttlebug embossed and then highlighted with glitter. The blue glitter snowflake spins and is in an aperture so the navy behind it is actually the inside of the card (thanks Erin!).
This is not my first Christmas card of the year - I have been making them since June. Something about summer always makes me think of Christmas. By December, I will be making Spring cards!!!

Thursday 2 August 2007

First Challenge


The Daring Cardmakers challenge this week is to use checks and as I needed to make a card for someone I thought I would try to include this. The flower, number and heart are in mirror card and the checks are in the gingham paper and ribbon. Shapes are cut with a sizzix or by hand and I have added bling as what 7 year old girl can resist pink bling!!

Monocrome & Hot Pink


I seem to be in a Z fold mood at the moment as have made 6 this week! Most have been given away already, 2 new home cards for the neighbour who moved out and the one who moved in, and another emergency birthday. I have another which I will post later as it is for my friend Sue's birthday which is today - Happy Birthday Sue!
This card was inspired by Cheryl's cards, not one in particular, more all of them! The flower is a lot 'hotter' in real life. I have tried photographing it instead of scanning, but it didn't help. I love this patterned paper, it was in a block I bought at the Newbury craft show a few weeks ago and I only have 3 little squares left. The flower is papermania I think. I also got the little flower punch in Newbury - it is so cute! I paper pierced on the front fold and then added the flowers for balance. I have ordered a new little tool for piercing, In the hope that it will help my lines be straighter!

Birthday Wishes and Butterfly Kisses



This card was inspired by this card on Ana's blog. Hers is much much more beautiful, but I tend to do things more simply and so I 'minimised' the idea. The blue is DCWV so I had to carefully go round the scallop punched edges with a felt tip to hide the white core. I cut the circle with a cuttlebug 3" die and then embossed it with my swirls embossing folder. I use this all the time as it seems to go with everything! The butterfly was cut 2 times from the DCWV card and once from blue vellum. I then layered it so the card is the bottom layer, then vellum, then a card body and head. Wire for the feelers and ribbon for a trail. The greeting was printed on the pc. It doesn't show up so well on here, but I curled the bottom layer of the wings down and the top layer up to give him a little 3d ness. I have also made this card in pink but have already sent that to someone without scanning it first - emergency birthday!

Wednesday 1 August 2007

Baby Boy Card


This card was for a regular customer who had just had a baby. She has bought lots of cards from me so I wanted to make something special for her.
The punched bear was inspired by some in Papercraft Inspirations (I think) a few months ago, although I have added to him by giving him feet! I love chocolate and blue but this card took me ages as I really wanted to incorporate the patterned paper (under the ribbon). I just couldn't get the pattern to work with this card and kept adding more and more layers and elements to the card until I finally realised that less is more and reduced the patterned paper to this little strip. Sorry, I don't know where the buttons and pin came from as I have lots of multi compartment embellishment boxes and I take stuff out of its packaging and put it in there as soon as I can (else I lose it!) The wording is sizzix.
I am writing this with the washing machine going full pelt besides me as I am trying to catch up with nearly 2 weeks worth of washing - and with 2 boys on summer holidays that is a LOT!

Little Paige's Birthday


This card was a commission. I love making cards for babies and toddlers, which is silly really as I know full well that they are not remotely interested in cards.
The background is cuttlebug embossed, the bunny is a quickutz die and the name was made using a sizzix alphabet (and mirror card - not black!) I printed the number on the pc and hand cut it from white which was matted onto mirror card and hand cut again. The ribbon was part of a bulk buy from ebay. Some friends and I run a craft club and we bought 50m of this ribbon in each of 5 different colours. We used some of it for craft club and then paid for 10m of each colour for ourselves. I have load of pink and purple left but only 1m of the turquoise. How have I managed to use 9m of turquoise ribbon???
I have also made this design in blue for a boy and using a 2 for a girl. The 1 works better though as the bunny has to be at a funny angle on the 2. I also prefer the girl card because the boy bunny can't have a flower by his ear!

Hello


This is my first post! (Obviously!)
I made this card for my friend Tracy because she loves her bath (and I love this sizzix die!)
I used Brooke in the Bath by Sizzix, a scallop punch and some glitter for the bubbles. The hair is highlighted with a clear Sakura pen to give her some curls - although I'm not sure if they show up on here. The greeting is printed on my hubby's printer. (I bought it for him 2 years ago and he has yet to use it - I use it every day!!)
I tried to make her left arm and leg 'nearer' than her right by adding extra layers - I think it worked.
Baths have been a bit of a rarity round here recently as I live in Gloucester and we have had no running water for 9 days (well, not in the taps!). It finally came back on at 6pm yesterday and so I can wash again. We are not supposed to drink the water or wash up with it, but it is ok to wash ourselves in it - figure that one out if you can!