Flat Friends Challenge Blog #2 - Dots n Stripes

I made this card for the 2nd challenge on the Flat Friends Blog using the lovely Taylor Bell digi image by Emma Canning.   I decided to have a go at the dotty background around the image using markers that I keep seeing around - not sure if I got it quite right here, I think maybe the shape should be different? But I still quite like the effect :-)

I am entering this card into the following:
Flat Friends - Challenge #2 Dots and Stripes
Make It Monday - Linky Party #117
Polkadoodles - Any Die Will Do

Materials Used:
Emma Canning/Polkadoodles - Taylor Bell digi image
Polkadoodles - Pen & Paper Circle 4 CD (papers)
Copics - E21, E33, E35, YG17
Flexmarkers/Promarkers - Lipstick Red, Pale Pink, Linen, Antique White, Light Fawn
Letraset - Black fine line drawing pen
Spellbinders - Reverse Wonky Rectangles
Kanban - gems
Craftwork Cards - white card blank

More Than 1 Fold at Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge

Its almost the end of November and its Wednesday! So its time for a new challenge over at Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge Blog and this week the theme is "More Than 1 Fold".  I've managed to add another Christmas card to my collection and use this cute penguin digi image from Crafty Sentiment Designs.  Do you think I got carried away with the gem stones... But if you can't have some sparkle at Christmas, when can you :-)

This week there are 3 prizes up for grabs, so pop on over to http://pennyschallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ and join in:

Crafty Sentiments - 3 digi images

Milk Coffee - 3 digi images

Scrappers Delight - 3 digi images

I am adding this card to:

Make It Monday - Linky Party #117

Through The Craftroom Door - Anything Goes #46

Materials Used:

Crafty Sentiment Designs - Christmas Penguin
Copics - RV14, RV04, BG000, BG15, BG23,BG72, YR04, YR07, C-3, C-7
Letraset - black fine line drawing pen
Kate Knight - Christmas Collection paper pack
Hunkydory - Glitter Glaze card (for the trees)
Hero Arts - Christmas Tree dies (from Reindeer stamp and die set)
Spellbinder - Labels 4
Kanban - irridescent gems
Craftwork cards - sentiment oval and 12 x 12 card (to make the card base)

Steampunk Pink

Happy Tuesday Everyone!  Here is another card I made using the Kraftyhands Steampunk Emporium CD which you can now buy here and while you are there take a look at the project gallery where you will find inspiration from other Design Team members.

This time I decided to leave the inks and grungy things in the box and went "pink and pretty" - although I did use some Core-Dinations Whitewash card which I sanded a little bit :-)

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
Make it Monday - Linky Party #117
Through The Craftroom Door - Anything Goes #46

Materials Used:
Kraftyhands - Steampunk Emporium CD
Core'Dinations - pink whitewash card, Sand It Gadget
Sizzix/Tim Holtz - Steampunk and Gadget Gears dies
Craftwork Cards - white card blank

Friends

Hi Everyone! I hope you've all had a lovely weekend - I just wish they didn't go quite so quickly!

I made this card using one of the sweet iamges on the new SWALK digital stamps CD available from Crafters Companion - so exciting to get these images in digi format as you can have them any size you want.   I chose pink, white and black for this card as its one of my favourite colour combinations for cards - with black including shades of grey.  I even made the wine pink - and as I do enjoy a glass of rose it seemed quite fitting!

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
Crafters Companion - Favourite Colour
Joanna Sheen - Anything Goes Excluding Christmas
Through the Craftroom Door - Anything Goes #45

Materials Used:
Crafters Companion - SWALK Digital Stamp Collection CD, SWALK 2 CD (backing paper), Die'Sire Lace Border 4
Copics - 0, B000, E21, E33, E35, E37
Promarkers - Ice Grey 1, 3, 5, Rose Pink
Flexmarkers - Pale Pink, Linen, Light Fawn, Antique White
Spellbinders - Classic Ovals, Scalloped Ovals
Kaisercraft - pink gems
Craftwork Cards - white A5 card blank, black card, sentiment oval

So Thankful at Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge Blog

Wow! Its Wednesday again already! So its time for a new challenge over at Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge Blog and this week the theme is "So Thankful".  I made a card using a really sweet bear digi image from Dustin Pike/Doodle Dragon Studios.

There are 3 prizes up for grabs this week, so pop on over to http://pennyschallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ and join in:

Stitchy bear Digital Stamps - $10 voucher

Doodle Dragon Studios - $10 gift certificate

http://digidarladesigns.com - TBC

I am adding this card to the Make it Monday - Linky Party #116

Materials Used:
Dustin Pike/Doodle Dragon Designs - Fairie Bear with Birdhouse digi stamp
Copics - B32, C-1, YR00, YR20, E15, E21, E33, RV10, V01, Y00, YG06, YG09
Wink of Stella - Clear pen
Spellbinders - Classic Circles, Lacy Circles,
Crafters Companion - Picket Fence die, Morehead CD (backing paper)
Craftwork Cards - white card blank
Core'Dinations - purple card
Kanban - irridescent gems
Unknown - Thank You stamp

Purple Rein...deer

Here is a Christmas card for my collection using my favourite character from the Cringle and Company CD set from Kraftyhands - Rodney the Reindeer!  I still have a few Christmas cards to make, but I guess its getting to be time to get the list out to start writing them.  I always have it in mind to send any that need to be posted on the 1st December so that I know its done, it just doesn't always work out that way...

If, like me, you are in Christmas card making mode there is still time to make some more and to enter this months Kraftyhands CHRISTMAS challenge, so come and join in over at http://kraftyhandschallenge.blogspot.co.uk and while you are there take a look at the inspiration from the rest of the Design Team. 

For each monthly challenge there will be 3 winners, the No1 winner will receive a £20 voucher to spend on the Kraftyhands webshop and the No1 winner's "blinkie", the other two winners will get a winner's "blinkie" for their blogs!  Anyone can enter the monthly challenges - you must be a follower of the challenge blog, and you can use any products you like, but to be the monthly winner of the £20 Kraftyhands voucher, you must use at least one Kraftyhands or Crafter's Companion product in the creation of your project.  So, pop on over and share your Christmas crafty projects!

I am adding this card to the Make It Monday - Linky Party #115

Materials Used:

Kraftyhands - Cringle and Company CD set
Joanna Sheen - gentle photo gloss paper

Craftwork Cards - white square card blank and card

Gold mirri card and gems from stash

Its Anything Goes at Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge Blog

Its Wednesday which means its time for a new challenge over at Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge Blog and this week its "Anything Goes" so craft your heart out and show us all your crafty makes!

This week there are 3 prizes, so pop on over to http://pennyschallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ and join in:

My Heart Pieces - 3 digis of the winners choice

The Paper Shelter - $20 gift certificate

Make It Crafty - $15 gift certificate

Materials Used:
My Heart Pieces - Mr Claus is Coming digi stamp
Ranger - Black Soot Distress Ink
Tombow - Red marker
Spellbinder - Holiday Tags
Kanban - red satin ribbon
Craftwork Cards - white card, sentiment

Guest Designer at Eureka Stamps

I was delighted when I was asked to be the Guest Designer for this weeks Eureka Stamps Blog Challenge - Scripture or Inspirational Saying.  The only problem I had was choosing which digi image to use from the large collection they have in their online shop!  Eventually I picked 35402 Season of Change, and came up with this simple autumnal card using just that image and some Spellbinder dies - the sentiment is so beautiful I felt it really didn't need too much else!

I am adding this card to the Make It Monday - Linky Party #115

Materials Used:
Eureka Stamps - 35402 Season of Change digi stamp
Spellbinder - Floral Ovals, Basic Lattice, Orchard Harvest Tags and Accents
Core'Dinations - card from the Elements pad
Craftwork Cards - white card
Serif Craft Artist Professional - to print the sentiment in brown

We Will Remember Them

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

I wanted to make a card for Remembrance Sunday, something clean and simple, so I used a beautiful set of stamps from IndigoBlu to make this poppy card.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
That Craft Place - Red for Remembrance
Card Crafters Circle - Challenge #48 We Remember
Delicious Doodles - Challenge #10 Remembering
Sweet Stampin - Anything Goes
Make It Monday - Linky Party #115

Materials Used:
IndigoBlu - Poppy Meadow stamp set, Perfect Stamping card
Copics - R14, R27, R29, YG03, YG17, C-7
Red and black card from stash

Keep Calm and Tumble!

My OH's youngest son is taking part in a gymnastic competition today, and he asked me to make a good luck card for him.  I have a few lovely girly gymnast rubber stamps, but I obviously couldn't use those!  Well, you've no idea how hard it is to find digi images or cutting machine images of male gymmasts!!! Perhaps with the success of our fabulous Team GB Olympic gymnasts this summer we may see more! And if I could draw I would design my own, but I can't which is why I love rubber stamps :-) The few that I did find really weren't suitable, then it came to me - being a bit of a "fontaholic" I thought about looking for a sporty image font that might give me something to work with - I found tons, but I chose one called "Sport 4 Ever", and used Craft Artist Professional to create the blue backgound and add "Keep Calm" text and the gymnast image.

Good Luck in the competition today Jack!

Materials Used:
Serif - Craft Artist Professional to create the image
Fonts - Sport 4 Ever, Keep Calm
Joanna Sheen - Gentle gloss photo paper
Craftwork Cards - white A6 card blank

Time Flies

Here is the last of my Steampunk style cards for now - and it turned out very differently to what I had in my mind when I started!  For this one I embossed a mask, sanded the image and then cut out the inner "blank" pieces to form the main image.  The background was printed from the Steampunk Emporium CD and stamped with a chicken wire image (a new purchase which I can see coming in very handy). The face image was printed and cut out with a Spellbinder circle die (as I hate trying to cut circles...), I also printed some text onto one of the backing papers on the CD.  Everything was inked and or distressed, layered up and this is the result!

I am entering this card in Through The Craftroom Door - Challenge #43 Anything Goes

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend - I am off to cook dinner and watch Strictly Come Dancing :-)

Materials Used:
Kraftyhands - Steampunk Emporium CD
Sizzix/Tim Holtz - Weathered Clock die
Spellbinder - Classic Circles
Creative Expressions - Chicken wire rubber stamp
Ranger - Black Soot Distress Ink
That Special Touch - Winged Dress Form mask
Core'Dinations - black card, Sand It Gadget
Serif Craft Artist Professional - to print the text (LD Punch Out)

Time For Adventure

Happy Weekend Everyone!!!

So, I spent some time looking at the "idea" of Steampunk, cards and altered art and all I can say is there are some awesome artists out there and fantastic work for us to look at!  Not sure if I will ever get there, but trying to take a bit of it all on board, here is a different take on the Steampunk idea from me! Not sure its really me, but I'm rather pleased with the result and I think I am getting closer to "Steampunk" :-)

I've used a tag and backing papers from the Kraftyhands Steampunk Emporium CD (available later this month, or this weekend at the NEC show), some Sizzix Tim Holtz dies, Core'dinations card, Ranger Distress ink, some text and a staple!  Hopefully this shows that you can take something and make many different looks - it all depends on your own style!

I am entering this card in Through The Craftroom Door - Challenge #43 Anything Goes

Materials Used:
Kraftyhands - Steampunk Emporium CD
Sizzix/Tim Holtz - Steampunk, Gadget Gears and Weathered Clock dies
Core'dinations - black card (sorry not sure which card stack this is from), Sand It gadget
Serif - Craft Artist Professional to print the text on one of the Kraftyhands backgrounds
Ranger - Black Soot Distress ink
Staple - from my desk :-)

Get Well Steampunk Style

Here is my second Steampunk card to share with you - what do you think?  Having printed out some toppers and backing papers from the soon to be released Steampunk Emporium CD from Kraftyhands I die cut a pile of gears/cogs from gold mirri card using the Spellbinders Sprightly Sprockets set. After using a few on my first card which I distressed, I decided to get out some alcohol inks (now these don't come out very often as I haven't really mastered the inky, grungy look) and ink some of them up.

You can see the result of the inking a little better here.

Now, I know that this is probably not what most people think of as 'traditional' Steampunk, but I quite like it!  However, it probably is still a bit on the 'clean' side, so I am off to do some research on the internet to see if I can come up with anything a bit closer to what you see in the magazines.

I am adding this card to the Make It Monday - Linky Party #114

Materials Used:
Kraftyhands - Steampunk Emporium CD
Spellbinders - Sprightly Sprockets and Classic Circles
Ranger - Denim Alcohol Ink
Crafts U Print - Crafty Bob's Premium Gloss Craft Photo Paper
Craftwork Cards - white card

Kraftyhands meets Steampunk

Kraftyhands are launching their new Steampunk Emporium later this month (in fact if you are able to make it to the NEC this weekend you may be able to pick one up there as they have a limited number available at the show).  I've always liked the idea of having a go at Steampunk so was very excited to  hear about this CD and even more excited when it arrived in the post!

 

The CD is full of fabulous images - there are card making sets, rocker card sets, as well as backing papers, toppers, a photo frame and even a clock project.  Now, my style of crafting tends to be quite clean, with lots of straight lines and everything all lined up - not intentional, that is just the way it is :-) so I have to admit that as well as being fun, playing with these images has tested me a bit.

 

Here is my first attempt, which I have tried to grunge up a bit by distressing the mirri card (I really must try not to use mirri card on EVERY card I make...) which you can see in a bit more detail here.

 

I am adding this card to the Make It Monday - Linky Party #114

 

Materials Used:

Kraftyhands - Steampunk Emporium CD

Spellbinders - Sprightly Sprockets, Classic Circles

Crafts U Print - Crafty Bob's Premium Gloss Craft Photo Paper

Craftwork Cards - white card

Core'dinations - sanding block

Gold mirri card from stash

Art Deco Lady Pandore

I made these elegant art deco lady cards using items by Gordon Fraser available from Crafts U Print, plus the odd bit from Debbi Moore's Glitter and Glitz Rome CD (which I am pretty certain was also largely designed by Gordon - apologies if this is incorrect).

I've kept them all very simple as I think the lady is so beautiful that she really doesn't need very much else.  I'm sure they will also look lovely with lots of flowers and die cuts etc. so I am going to try something different with them, but for now I rather like the simple elegant design - I hope you agree!

I am adding these cards to the Make It Monday - Linky Party #114

Materials Used:
Crafts U Print - Art Deco Lady Pandore toppers in blue, aqua and cream; Art Deco Flourishes Kit; Art Deco Lady Pandore scene
Debbi Moore - Glitter and Glitz Rome CD
Joanna Sheen - Gentle gloss photo paper
Craftwork Cards - white A5 card blanks
Gold mirri card and pearls from stash

Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge 101 - Lot of Layers

Exciting news to share with you today - I have a place on Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge Design Team!  So here is my first DT card for Challenge 101 - Lots of Layers.  Pop on over to http://pennyschallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ and enter a card as there are 4 fabulous prizes this week:

Robyn's Festish- 4 digi image

Digi My World - $10 voucher

The Stamping Boutique - 3 digi images

Sassy Studios - 4 digi images

I used a lovely mermaid digi stamp from Sassy Studios for this challenge, and teamed her up with some really pretty papers and embellishments from a Serif digi kit, which I think worked perfectly - I hope you like her! 

I am adding this card to the Make It Monday - Linky Party #114

Materials Used:
Sassy Studios - Syrena digi stamp
Copics - E40, E41, E51, E21, E33, R20, BG10, BG13, BG23
Serif Craft Artist Professional - Under the Sea digi kit for background papers and embellisments
Craftwork Cards - cream 8 x 8 card blank
Pearls from stash

Cocoa for Santa

Here is another lovely topper from the Mulberry Wood Christmas pack - Santa looks so cute, and I just love the hole in his sock with his big toe poking through. He has a slightly surprised look on his face, so I like to think that he has just got back from his whirlwind tour delivering presents and is now enjoying putting his feet up with a cup of cocoa and someone has popped in to surprise him with a present!

I am entering this in the following:
Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge - #97 three different papers
Make It Monday - Linky Party #114

Materials Used:
Crafters Companion/Hunkydory - Mulberry Wood Christmas card pack
Spellbinder - Frosty Forms
Craftwork Cards - white square card blank
Kanban - gems
Silver mirri card from stash

When Santa Fell Out of the Chimney

I have been making some more Christmas cards this week, and this one is using a topper and some papers from a Mulberry Wood Christmas pack which I bought from Crafters Companion recently - they had some fab offers as part of their Birthday Week celebrations and this was one of the items that I added to my stash!

I am entering this in the following:
Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge - #97 three different papers
Make It Monday - Linky Party #114
Crafty Ann's Challenge Blog - #77 Christmas
Just Keep On Creating - Christmas is Just Around the Corner

Materials Used:
Crafters Companion/Hunkydory - Mulberry Wood Christmas card pack
Craftwork Cards - white card blank, oval sentiment
Kanban - gems
Silver mirri card from stash

Golfing Santa

I'd like to share this fun Christmas card with you today.  I've used a topper and backing paper from the Festive Funnies CD by Ooh La La Creations - it has some really great images for making cards for people that you want to send something funny and a little bit different.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:
Ooh La La Creations - #117 Christmas
Just Keep On Creating - Christmas is Just Around the Corner
Make It Monday - Linky Party #114

Materials Used:
Ooh La La Creations - Festived Funnies CD
Card Craft UK - Happy Christmas sentiment rubber stamp
Craftwork Cards - white 8" x 8" card blank
Holographic mirri card and silver embossing powder from stash

Kraftyhands November Challenge - Christmas

Its the start of a new month, so its time for a new challenge over at Kraftyhands, and we have a new blog for the challenges http://kraftyhandschallenge.blogspot.co.uk and new challenge rules which make it even easier for you to take part.

This month the theme is CHRISTMAS!  So if you haven't made a start on your cards yet, or just have the odd 1 or 2 to finish here is the perfect incentive to get all that glitter and sparkle out and see what you can come up with!

I used the Cringle and Co CDs for the main image, sentiment and background paper. Then using one of my favourite (and very simple) layouts used some white card and glitter to create a snowy scene for Priscilla and Percy to sit on.

So come and join in over at http://kraftyhandschallenge.blogspot.co.uk.  Anyone can enter the monthly challenges, the only criteria is that you must be a follower of the challenge blog.  You can use any products you like, but to be the monthly winner of the £20 Kraftyhands voucher, you must use at least one Kraftyhands or Crafter's Companion product in the creation of your challenge project.

Each month there will be 3 winners, the No1 winner will receive a £20 voucher to spend on the Kraftyhands webshop and the No1 winner's "blinkie", the other two winners will get a winner's "blinkie" for their blogs!  So pop on over and join in the fun!

I am entering this card into the following challenges:
The Crafty Pad - #194 Christmas is Coming
Crafty Ann's Challenge - #77 Christmas
Crafty Ribbons - Christmas
ABC Christmas Challenge - V is for Vibrant Colours
Make It Monday - Linky Party #114

 

Materials Used:

Kraftyhands - Cringle and Company CD set
Joanna Sheen - gentle photo gloss paper

Craftwork Cards - white square card blank and card

Glitter and mirri card from stash