Kraftyhands Blog Monthly Challenges

Exciting news! Kraftyhands is starting monthly challenges on their blog this Saturday 2nd June!  So come and join in over at http://kraftyhands.blogspot.co.uk/, create a project using Kraftyhands or Crafters Companion products available from Kraftyhands and be in with a chance of winning a £10 voucher to spend at http://www.kraftyhandsonline.co.uk/

There will be a different theme for each challenge, and you'll see plenty of inspiration from the Kraftyhands Design Team every month, so check out the blog at the weekend and share all your fabulous projects with us - we are all looking forward to seeing them!

Happy Crafting!
Mandy

Kraftyhands Vintage Motors Tag

Kraftyhands will be releasing their new Vintage Motors double CD set very soon, and us lucky girls on the Kraftyhands Design Team have the opportunity to have a play and make some samples for you to see ready for when its available in the online shop.

As well as making some cards, we were set a challenge to make a tag for the Kraftyhands Blog, so here is mine, along with some details of how I made it.

Getting all my bits n bobs together I realised that I didn't have any tags. No tags in a crafty stash - how can that be I hear you ask? Am I the only crafter in the land that a) has no tags and b) has never made a tag before???!!!  Not one to be put off, I cut a piece of card 10cm x 18cm and marked in pencil 2cm in from each side on one end, and then 5cm down from this edge, joined the marks,  cut the triangular pieces off and punched a hole in the top.



I then printed some sheets off from the CD, printing them out 2 to an A4 page to reduce the size to be suitable for a tag.

I covered the tag with the map background paper, cut out one of the main car images, inked it with Rusty Hinge Distress Ink and added that to the tag.

I tore some of the car parts background papers in two different colours, inked the torn edges and added them over the car image, trimmed and inked up all round the tag with the Distress Ink.

I cut out one of the car decoupage layers and put that on top of the tag with some dimensional glue.

I then added some torn and inked map background paper  and an inked Happy Birthday sentiment. And with a piece of ribbon, there you have it one tag!

Materials Used:

Kraftyhands - Vintage Motors double CD
Craftwork Cards - A4 white card, ribbon
Ranger Distress Ink - Rusty Hinge
Pinflair - dimensional glue gel

Happy Birthday PolkaDoodles

It's PolkaDoodles 3rd birthday!  So my card for their birthday challenge has 3 girls from the Pretty Sweet CD (which is yummy!) sitting on a cake from the Paper Boutique 1 CD.  I hope Nikky and team like it!

Materials used:
PolkaDoodles - Paper Boutique 1 CD (cake and background paper), Pretty Sweet CD (3 girls)
Spellbinders - Labels 4
Craftwork Cards - A5 white card blank
Kanban - irridescent gems
Letraset - fine line drawing pen (for the border around the card and sentiment)
Printed Sentiment - Chocolate Box font

Practice Makes Perfect...

... though I still have some practising to do, I was pretty pleased with the results with my buttercream piping using a new piping nozzle that I had seen recommended in several books and blogs.  Much better than previous attempts, and to me it looks like Mr Whippy ice cream!

Magazine: Squires Kitchen Bake School - vanilla cupcakes, vanilla buttercream
Tracey's Cakes - white chocolate sugar paste, orange chocolate sugarpaste (very yummy)
Blossom SugarArt - petunia cutter and mould, edible dusts and paintbrush
Wilton - 1M piping nozzle

Great Britain

Loving all things Red, White and Blue I've enjoyed being able to get hold of various stamps and papers with a Great Britain/London/Keep Calm/Union Jack theme that have become very popular in the crafty world this year.  This card was made for a friend of my OH's, and I am sure he will like it when he sees it in a few days time.

Materials Used:
IndigoBlu - Jack A6 stamp, Pomp & Pageantry stamp set (using the smaller Union Jack and the Great Britain logo stamps)
Artistic Outpost - London Underground stamp set (using the Keep Calm and Carry On stamp)
Craftwork Cards - white A5 card blank
Claritystamp - white double sided coated paper
Ranger Adirondack due inks - Denim, Cranberry
Gold mirror card from stash

DIY Birthday

Its my OH's Dad's birthday next weekend, and he loves woodwork, so I thought the toolbox stamps from Joanna Sheen would fit the bill, so with some promarkers and a little bit of time last night whilst the football was on I set to work... :-)

Materials used:
Joanna Sheen stamps - Old Tool Box, Elegance Satin card
Promarkers - various colours
Craftwork Cards - A5 white card blank
Spellbinders - Labels 25
Mirri card from stash

Tea and cake anyone?

Cakes not cards today :-)  Strawberry cupcakes with white chocolate frosting, and chocolate paste flowers.

Having been to the Cake Decorating and Baking Show at the Excel Centre last weekend I felt inspired to have a go at making some chocolate paste flowers to decorate cupcakes, which obviously means you need to make cupcakes too! How is that for an excuse!

Recipe Book: Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery - strawberries & cream cupcakes
Magazine: Cupcake Heaven 2 - white chocolate frosting
Tracey's Cakes - white chocolate paste, milk chocolate paste
Blossom SugarArt - petunia cutter and mould, edible dusts and paintbrush
PME - edible red pearlescent spray

Walk Like An Egyptian

Materials Used:
Debbi Moore CD - Egyptian Promise
Craftwork Cards - white A5 card blank
Joanna Sheen - Gentle Gloss Photo Gloss paper
Mirror card and gems - from stash

Happy St George's Day!

Its Monday the 23rd April, so Happy St George's Day everyone!

Materials Used:
Serif - Craft Artist Professional (to create the image and text)
Craftwork Cards - A6 white card blank
Joanna Sheen - Gentle Gloss Photo paper
Red mirror card from stash

Going Gothic

Something a little different for me today, and I'm still not sure about it... I really like the look of all the grungy and steampunk cards and altered art, but I always end up making things with "pretty" and "clean" looks, but as I rather like the images on so many of the Debbi Moore CDs I couldn't resist giving this Gothic inspired one a go!

Materials Used:
Debbi Moore CD - Twilight Queen
Craftwork Cards - white A5 card blank
Joanna Sheen - gentle gloss photo paper
Adhesive pearls from stash

FORE!!

Over the weekend I had a bit of a move round/tidy up of some of my craft stash and 'found' some papers that are just the thing for cards for men, which was quite handy as I have been trying to make more male themed cards recently.  Its a pad from We R Memory Keepers with some cars and the odd plane, and many others that could be used for all sorts of occassions (as well as on cards for girls!!!) as you can see from the ones I ended up using here.  Anyway, I decided to get some stamps and Promarkers out this evening to have a bit of a play, and this is what I came up with.

And I thought it was fitting for the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #181 A Man's Card

Materials used:
We R Memory Keepers - Travel Light paper pad
Sugar Nellie stamp - Home Grown Manga "FORE!"
Spellbinder - Wonky Rectangle
Promarkers (and Flexmarkers) - various colours
Craftwork Cards - white card blank, Birthday message
 

Just Fur You

Materials Used:
Hunkydory Kit - For The Boys
Craftwork Cards - white 8" x 8" card blank
From stash - silver mirror card

Sail Away

Another couple of cards from my recent card making sessions. I had chance to photo them all at the weekend in daylight, so I'm catching up and adding them to the blog! :-)

Materials Used:
Hunkydory Kit - For the Gentlemen (toppers and background card)
Craftwork Cards - white card blanks
From stash - silver mirror card

Racing Green Take Two and Three!

Another couple of cards using the Hunkydory For the Gentlemen kit

Materials Used:

Hunkydory Kit - For the Gentlemen

KraftyHands - Wheelz CD Collection for the chequered background paper

Craftwork Cards - white card blanks, Birthday Wishes Message

From stash - gold mirror card, Happy Birthday peel off

Racing Green

I try not to buy card kits too often these days, but all too often some come along that you just can't resist! LOL! :-)  So, recently I bought a mega Hunkydory kit and have been having  a bit of a play with images for the gents!

I also thought this was a card suitable for the Joanna Sheen It's A Man's World Challenge
Only now I can't make the Mr Linky thing work on the challenge site :-(
Ah well, I'll try again tomorrow... Hooray it works today (Tuesday)

Materials Used:
Hunkydory Card Kit: For The Gentlemen
Craftwork Cards: black card blank and card
Gold mirror card
Cricut: George and Basic Shapes - I cut an oval frame in black, cut it to fit the card and put the 'birthday' part of the bunting along it

It's A Man's World

At last can share with you my samples for the Kraftyhands It's A Man's World CD as it has just been released :-)

It has images for Golfers, Fishermen, Chefs, DIY enthusiasts, Plumbers, Mechanics, Doctors, Business Men, would be BBQ'rs.... and Gardeners

Greenhouse Gardener

Number 1 Gardener

Happy Birthday Plumber

Materials Used:
Kraftyhands CD - It's a Man's World
Craftwork Cards - white card blanks
Silver Mirri card - from stash
Printable card - from stash
Ribbon - from stash
Spellbinders - classic circles
Cricut - Cricut Craft Room, George and Basic Shapes - for the greenhouse
HougieBoard - to make the World's Best Gardener rosette
and a packet of seeds!

I made it onto the Kraftyhands Design Team!

Yay! Along with some other lovely ladies I got a place on the Kraftyhands Design Team! How exciting!

Kraftyhands produce some fab CDs for us to craft with - from girly things, to floral things, images for the younger members of the family, and even CDs to help us create cards for the men in our lives!

Keep a look out for a couple of CDs designed to help us out with those 'man' cards that will be on sale soon, and for some samples that I helped to create :-)

If I Had A Single Flower

My new Spellbinders layered flowers dies arrived :-) so I decided to have a play!  I have to admit they are a bit tricky to get the card out of the dies and there are lots of fiddly bits to poke out to clean them up, but they are pretty - I think next time I will try Sue Wilson's tip for the more intricate dies and use some baking parchment between the die and and card to help release all the bits.

I thought these die cuts went well with a lovely stamped quote from Claritystamps and I wanted to create something quite simple, so here is my card which I think works well for the The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #176 No Image, Just Words

Materials Used:

Spellbinders - Layered Flowers, Labels 18

Claritystamps - If I had a Flower

Crafters Companion - pastel collection ribbon

Craftwork Cards - white A5 card blank and card

Pink card - from stash

Happy Mother's Day

I know its not quite Mother's Day, but I know that Mum won't be looking so its quite safe to share!

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:
Quixotic Paperie Sketch Challenge #4 Feb/March
Oldie But a Goodie Challenge - Mums The Word
   - old stuff from stash used for this challenge - Happy Mother's Day stamp is at least 3
     years old, and the K&Co paper is even older!

Materials Used:
Joanna Sheen stamps - Haberdashery/Sewing Machine stamp set
Happy Mother's Day stamp - unknown (though I think it may be MSE)
K & Co - patterned paper from stash
Promarkers
Spellbinders - Labels One
Gold mirror card
Craftwork cards - 8" x 8" white card blank

Good Luck!

Here is my card for the The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #175 - Green for Go

Materials used:
Core'dinations cards - green, brown
Cricut - Gypsy Font, Gypsy Wanderings
DCWV - green and brown stripey paper
Green gems - from stash