Friday, 22 January 2021

A Monsterous Birthday

 


Today is my younger sister's birthday and I have made her a teepee shaped card using a tutorial from Mixed Up Craft. It is really easy to make but looks fabulous for a special person's card and of course it gives you 3 spaces to decorate.



This card has been made using 2 images from Bring on the Cake Stamps from Kate Hadfield Designs. Due to the triangular nature the pile of gifts and yummy cake are perfect for this shape.


 I previously made a paper template using 3 squares of paper 6" x 6". This gave me the ability to work out what size my triangle panels needed to be. I use a graphics program called Affinity Designer and made a template sheet with the 3 triangle panels needed to decorate this style of card. This then gives you the freedom to add your image and type any text, or indeed add any digital stamps as required.

The main image of the cake has been coloured with Promarkers. I added some Stickles glitter glue to the icing and some pink twisted bugle beads for added dimension. The background has been coloured by using Spectrum Noir Glitter Markers and a waterbrush. I scribbled a small amount of the purple and pink pens onto a palette and gently added dots to the background. The shimmer is very delicate but definitely sparkly.

The second image is the pile of gifts. This has been coloured with Promarkers again. I added a gold gel pen around the ribbon. The glitter markers have been used to add shading to the gifts and again to create the background. I added some orange dots as well as the pink and purple to match the colours in the gifts. This side is where the velcro dot gets added to seal the card so the triangular panel is a little shorter at this side.


The final side has been made using 2 of the images from the Party Monster Stamps set. I used the cute fuzzy monster and added the striped hat with the fuzzy pom pom on top. I added a sentiment by typing in the text. He looks like he wants to give a big hug so this is what I based my sentiment on. 


This again has been coloured with Promarkers and the glitter markers. The background has green pen added to match the eyes and teeth.


When I made a card in this shape before I realised that very quickly the 'feet' that the card sits on looks tatty in no time at all. This time I used a corner rounder punch and that has made a massive difference to the finish and looks so much neater.  I added some silver peel off stickers to the bottom edge around all sides.

Due to Covid I have not seen my sister since her birthday last year. She and one of my nieces work at a care home and they have had to be very careful not to infect the residents. Also she lives some distance away 60 miles/1.5 hours each way which is a definite no no with the current lockdown. This cute little monster will be the only way I can give her a hug at the moment.


Card Details -

Size - Fits into an A5 Envelope
Colouring Medium - Promarkers, Spectrum Noir Glitter Markers, Gold gel pen
Embellishments - Bugle beads, Stickles Glitter Glue, Peel off stickers, velcro dots


I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)




Art Impressions Stamps - #300 Celebrate

As You Like It - Favourite colour duo (pink and purple for female cards, can use so many different shades and make project bright or subtle)

Aud Sentiments - #266 Anything Goes with a sentiment

Cardz TV - #132 Anything Goes

CD Sunday Plus - #52 Anything Goes

Colour Crazy Challenge - #2 Anything Goes

Crafty Catz - #535 Anything Goes

Crafty Sentiments Designs - Anything Goes

Creative Fingers - #200 Anything Goes

Cute Card Thursday - #670 Birthdays

Digi Choosday - #3 Anything Goes

Everybody Art - #481 Anything Goes

Gem of A Challenge - #2 Anything Goes

House That Stamps Built - #J2021 Anything Goes

Incy Wincy Designs - Anything Goes

Lemon Shortbread - #137 Anything Goes

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - #150 Anything Goes

My Time To Craft - #449 Glitter & Sparkle

Passion For Markers - #575 Anything Goes

Penny’s Challenge - #488 Anything Goes

Polkadoodles - #3 Anything Goes

Scrapping4fun Challenges - #184 Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - Make Your Own Background

Stamps & Fun = Creativity - #381 Anything Goes

Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

Time Out Challenges - #179 Inspired by what I love (making special cards for family, colouring stamps, experimenting with fancy folds)

Use Your Stuff - #414 Use something old (pink beads were from a show at NEC at least 10 years ago)

Word Art Wednesday - #475-476 Anything Goes

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Wednesday, 20 January 2021

Panda Love Drops

 


Imagine That Digistamp have started the Progressive Challenges. If you completed a card using the Digi of the Month you automatically get the following month emailed to you. If not you can purchase that stamp for a reduced price.

The stamp set this month is Panda Love Drops. You get the cute image in outline and colour, 4  sentiments and 3 papers. So many uses for this set.


I have been without a colour printer for a long time. The Epsom inkjet printer we have was a good one but no longer supported and we cannot get a printer driver for it that will work with either a Mac which we both have or a Windows machine which hubby can use a virtual machine. it really, really annoys me that a perfectly good machine is rendered useless when the software is not updated, it is just so wasteful (sorry for ranting....)

Hubby did an experiment with hooking it up directly the Linux server. As long as I save it out as a pdf then hubby can print. The ink cartridges that are in it still work and we have some spares still so we will use what we have and then re-assess when the consumables have gone.

I had not intended to make this card using the pre-coloured image but hubby asked me to create a pdf as a test print so I decided to put together the elements so make this card. I use a program called Affinity Designer and it is great for creating fully digital projects as well as pages ready to print so easy to create a PDF file such as this. 

I had laid out what I wanted to use in a specific layout but then noticed that the current sketch from Cheerful Sketches Challenge would work with a bit of tweaking so went with that.


The card base is a sheet of card folded into a 6" square.  I added the heart paper leaving a border around the edge. 

I trimmed more of the cardstock to suit the sketch and added the strip of word paper from the kit, trimming the bottom edge. The panda image was then added on top.

The sentiment I have matted with a scrap of red card. I then added a red swirly epoxy sticker heart. This was from an unopened pack of Royal & Langnickel heart stickers that came from The Works a very, very long time ago. Got to be at least 8 years! The sentiment and heart loosely echo the 3 flowers so I am happy with how that turned out.

After not being able to print in colour for so long I cannot tell you how happy making this card has made me. It is colourful and cheery sure to make any recipient smile with joy.

If you visit my blog and are not already taking part in the Digi of the Month challenge I would urge you to pop over there. Kris' images are really lovely and you get so much in each pack. You can buy this one at the reduced price and away you go then.

Card Details -

Size - 6" Square
Digital Image - Panda Love Drops (Imagine That Digstamp)
Digital Papers - Panda Love Drops (Imagine That Digstamp)
Digital Sentiment - Panda Love Drops (Imagine That Digstamp)
Embellishments - Epoxy Sticker (Royal & Langnickel)


I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)

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Friday, 15 January 2021

CAS Robin & Holly


Over at The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up it is the Merry Maidens turn to showcase some fabulous Christmas cards.


This paper pack Velvet Textures Jewel Tones designed by Decosse's Dynamite Doodles 
is up for grabs to the lucky winner who follows the Optional Twist to make the card Clean & Simple



If you want the chance to win this month's featured paper pack, be sure to create a card that features the twist.

The Sponsor for this challenge is Lunagirl who is offering a $10 gift certificate from their store.


I don't have access to a colour printer at the moment and cannot print out the digital papers so I have made a fully digital card. This way I can honour both the image artist, and use Lisa's digital papers.

I chose to use the Christmas Birds & Holly Rounds using the little robin from the top row. I really do love robins and this is such a lovely pose.


I use a program called Affinity Designer to make my digital layouts. 

The base layer is the emerald green paper from the Velvet Textures kit. The subtle texture stops the background from looking too plain and gives a slightly two tone mottled effect.


I have used a Holly & Berries paper from the Christmas Greenery kit.


The image has been cropped from the Lunagirl image sheet and framed with a red circle to match the robin.

Finally I added a sentiment from the Holiday Hoopla Wordart Collection


As this is Clean & Simple there are no embellishments and I have kept the layers to a minimum. I am not know for having a CAS style so this was a very hard challenge for me I can tell you.

I do hope you will take part in our challenge and look forward to seeing your creations.

Supplies Used :  

Digital Image -  Christmas Birds & Holly Rounds (Lunagirl)
Digital Papers - Velvet Textures Jewel Tones & Christmas Greenery (Decosse's Dynamite Doodles)
Digital Sentiments -  Holiday Hoopla Wordart (Decosse's Dynamite Doodles)

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)

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Thursday, 14 January 2021

Heart Flower


This card has been made using the single flower image from the Heart Flower set by Pinksy Doodles. It is a lovely set with the main plant and the single flower. As soon as I saw this I just knew what I was going to do with it.



I printed the image 3 time to create layers. The back layer is the full stamp,  layer 2 follows the spiky flower petals and layer 3 is the heart flower petals and the centre.

All layers are coloured using a combination of Promarkers and Spectrum Noir markers. The final layer has lots of shading with Arteza pencils. All layers were fussy cut and raised up on foam pads.

I filled the centre with glossy accents to act as a glue base. I then used a combination of small flower beads and then filled in the rest with tiny accent beads. I added some tiny purple gems to the flower beads to add a bit of sparkle. You can see the centre in more detail in the image below.


I used a spotty patterned paper cut into 4 squares laid onto the lilac card base. These squares have been edged with a Pentel silver paint marker.

The sentiment is from Brenda's Sunny Sentiments pack from the Pinksy Doodles Etsy store. You get loads of lovely sentiments perfect to cheer someone up

I printed the sentiment, edged with the silver marker and added some tiny purple star gems in the corners.


This card is for a neighbour and friend who cheered me up with a bunch of flowers when I needed it. She is a teacher, working from home with 2 kiddies and I imagine she is a little overwhelmed at the moment. I wanted to thank her for her lovely gesture when I needed a boost and will be returning that with this thank you card and some pretty flowers. The sentiment on the front is particularly apt and I decorated the card centre with a typed sentiment, edged with the silver pen. This is a pre-bought card blank that I don't usually use as I think they are too thin so I added a white one on the inside as the 'insert' and then added some more of the patterned paper to the inside.


I do hope you like this card. I really enjoyed making it as the bold flower outline really lent itself to layering in this way. It took quite a while to do but crafting brings me so much joy and I know the recipient will appreciate the work that has gone into it.

Card Details -

Size - 5" x 7"
Digital Image - Heart Flower (Pinksy Doodles)
Digital Sentiment - Brenda's Sunny Sentiments (Pinksy Doodles)
Colouring Medium - Promarkers, Spectrum Noir Markers, Arteza Pencils, Pentel Silver Paint Marker
Embellishments - Flower beads, Accent Beads, self adhesive gems


I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)

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Sunday, 10 January 2021

A Bookworm Birthday

 


I am absolutely delighted to announce that I have been chosen to be on the 
Creative Team of Kate Hadfield Designs



There was a CT call early December and I applied.  I first became aware of Kate through digistamp downloads with one of the UK craft magazines.  I then signed up to the free downloads section of the website Doodle Den and had used a couple of the stamps in different projects.

I love Kate's doodles, they are so bold and cheerful and suit my style of crafting. There are just so many digi packs in the store to choose from that it is so easy to be enthused. The very talented team use the digi papers and elements in so many creative ways. It is an honour to be amongst them. There is a fabulous gallery on the website where the members show what they have made using the digital packs too.

This card has been made for out best friend's little girl who is 3 today. We live very close by and during the lockdowns we have seen them many times as we are within walking distance. This last year she has really come out of her shell and loves to learn and reads books (and is read to a lot too). I always want to nurture that so have bought her some cool picture books for her birthday that have jigsaw pictures inside them. I would play with them myself if I was her age so I hope she likes them.

So the gift I have bought her has really inspired the theme of this birthday card using the Bookworm Stamps pack.

You get 30 stamps in 3 different formats. Bold outlines which are great for enlarging. Many of the resources are used in educational settings so these images are perfect for that. You get standard digital stamps and also a white filled version which can be useful when layering different images together.


I started with the heart and made it a large size to be the background of my ensemble. I sat the girl towards the bottom. I added the 'I Love Books' onto the spine of the book. I had intended that the main image would be decoupaged so also printed the girl and a separate book layer.

The little bookworm I flipped so it would be looking at the girl and printed a stack of books from the set. I added the text to the banner and then all the elements were printed out and coloured using Promarkers and Spectrum Noir Glitter Markers.

The heart is coloured using shimmer chalks from Pebbles Inc. I have a stencil which has lots of different shaped hearts on it. I used 2 medium ones to chalk hearts in the background and then used an Ultra fine pink Sharpie pen to draw open hearts.

All the elements were cut out using some super sharp Fiskars embroidery scissors I have had for about 20 years. They give me the control I need for the fine cutting required for decoupage. I have tried other scissors over the years but nothing compares to these. When I cut out images like these I use a Promarker to go around the outside edge with a light touch. This covers up the white edge and makes it look a lot neater. I mounted all these onto foam squares, you can see the dimension more clearly in the close up below.


The base of the card is an 8" square card blank. I used a colourful hearts patterned paper and added a layer of pink underneath so this is the perfect girly card for a very special 3 year old.


Card Details -

Size – 8” square
Digital Images – Bookworms Stamps (Kate Hadfield Designs)
Stencil - Hearts
Colouring Medium – Promarkers & Spectrum Noir Glitter Markers
Embellishments – I Kan Dee Chalks (Pebbles Inc)


I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)

 


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Wednesday, 6 January 2021

Beat Those Winter Blues


It is our first challenge of the year over at The Paper Funday.
Our challenges are always Anything Goes with an optional twist. 
The twist this time is to use blue in your project.


We have 2 sponsors for each challenge this year. I opted to use images from a new to me designer Karamfila. I was truly stunned at how many digital papers, clip art and outline stamps there are in her Etsy store. They are so elegant just like the lady herself.


For this project I chose to use Articland Doodles. It has a fabulous selection of winter themed images which will be perfect for Christmas cards. I have already got my eye on a few other images from the set but particularly wanted to use the penguins.


I had seen a little video of how to make a hat for a pom pom snowman garland using a toilet paper roll and wanted to have a go at making a hat to adorn the penguins heads. I tried and better tried to get some blue wool. I managed to get some aqua but it was far too green to use for this project. 

Plan B - I did have was some blue stranded cotton skeins which I use for cross stitch. I cut some lengths and started looping them round the cardboard. I however totally underestimated how much thread I would need. I used 2 full skeins of the light blue but still needed more to fill it. No more thread the same colour so I used a darker blue and created a striped effect which looks better anyway. It took nearly 4 full skeins of thread to make this so I will definitely use wool next time!

The hat is really easy to make. You loop the threads and secure with a slipknot. Then group all the threads together and tie another piece around them. The loose ends can then be fanned out like a pompom and trimmed as required to neaten. I then used some wadding to stuff into the hat so it would keep it's shape.

Once I had the hat made I could then print the image out to fit. It is coloured with Promarkers and I then cut it out with my small pointed trusty Fiskars scissors. I used some grey card for the body and rolled it up into a tube. I then added it to the inside of the hat and stuck the penguin on with red line double sided tape.  

The first image from the set at the top of this post has the ear muffs on. I have put this on one side of the tube so it is double sided.

On the other side is the plain penguin. I posed him with some little snowmen my Mother in Law knitted for me. They are having a snowball fight with some glittery Docrafts snowballs.

 


I am really pleased with how this has turned out. I just love it when I see an image and a little idea pops up of how to use it. It's nice to create something different from a card every now and again too.

We have so many fabulous sponsors this year and I am looking forward to working with their images.

I hope you will join myself and our fabulous team over at The Paper Funday Challenge.

Project Details - 

Size - 13cm high
Digital Images - Penguin Outlines 1 & 3 from Articland Doodles (Karamfila)
Colouring Medium - Promarkers
Embellishments - almost 4 skeins of embroidery thread!


I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)








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