Wednesday, 15 September 2021

Gingerbread House

 


Over at The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up it is the midway point of our challenge. That means it is the turn of the Merry Maidens to share some more fabulous Christmas cards


This paper pack Embossed Metallic Christmas Edition designed by Decosse's Dynamite Doodles is up for grabs to the lucky winner who follows the optional twist to feature Something Metallic on your card.







The Sponsor for this challenge is Beccy's Place who is offering the fabulous prize of $10 to spend in her store.



For my card I have used an image from one of the sets on my wishlist from Beccy's store Gingerbread Set. I adore the gingerbread house and knew it would look lovely if I decoupaged it to create multiple layers and highlight the intricate details. The whole set can be purchased from Beccy's Place store for $10 HERE



I started with a sheet of gold A4 pearl card for the base. On this is a layer of brown card and then the gingerbread paper from the Christmas Confectionery Patterned Papers set from Decosse's Dynamite Doodles. The great thing about digital files is that you can play about with the sizing and placement to fit your project. This is a real advantage when you have a motif that you can be certain fits into the size and shape of your project. No one wants to cut through the body of a gingerbread man!


I isolated one of each motif from the paper and enlarged them so they could be added as embellishments. Lisa's files are always really good quality and high resolution so they are perfect for this and a great way for you to stretch your supplies. Good quality digital papers easily allow you to expand your creativity in this way.

The gingerbread house is made up of 3 layers. The bottom layer is the full image. The next layer up is the whole roof and chimney. The final layer is the roof trim and the window shutters. All layers have been coloured using Promarkers.  They have been fussy cut with my trusty Fiskars embroidery scissors. These were a VERY expensive purchase when I first started making cards but allow me to cut very neatly and have lasted over 20 years. They only need sharpening every now and again by cutting through several layers of kitchen foil and they are as good as new. They have definitely been worth the initial outlay. 

The layers have been put together with some thin foam pads. Of course I have had to add lots of stickles glitter glue and some red gems. I added this to some brown cardstock and trimmed close to the image. This slight contrast gave a better separation from the element and the gingerbread paper.

I also added the trimmed gingerbread figures to card in the same way. Used a black fineliner to add some eyes and some red gems for the buttons.

The sentiment is one I created myself using a font that came in a special font package my hubby bought me from Serif who are the creators of the digital software I use:- Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer. 

I have included the png and jpg files below. You are very welcome to download these and use in your creations. If you do use them please do not claim as your own. It would be smashing if you send me a link to anything you make with my freebies and I can pop over and leave you some love.









For the gold metallic sentiment mat I have used one of my fave dies from Crafter's Companion Grace Frame. This was my very first die from CC and must be about 17 or so years old. I love how intricate the border is an it is a decent size so perfect for framing a larger sentiment panel.

All in all I am really pleased with this card. Beccy's image has turned out exactly as I had hoped and Lisa's gingerbread paper is the perfect combination to make a super yummy Christmas card that is good enough to eat.

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

Card Details -


Size - A5

Digital Image - Gingerbread Digital Stamps (Beccy’s Place)

Digital Paper - Christmas Confectionery (Decosse’s Dynamite Doodles)

Digital Sentiment - Freebie Made by Mandy

Dies - Grace Frame (Die’sire /Crafter’s Companion)

Colouring Medium - Promarkers

Embellishments - Gems, Stickles Glitter Glue



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


Beccy’s Place Challenges - Anything Goes With A Store Image

Cardz TV - #149 Anything Goes

CD Sunday Plus - #69 - Anything Goes with a Digital

Christmas With The Cuties - #52 Anything Cute & Christmassy

Colour Crazy Challenge - #35 Anything Goes with Colouring

Crafts Galore Encore - #91 Anything Goes

Crafty Hazelnut’s Christmas Challenge - #559 Anything Christmas Goes / Use Some Patterned Paper

Creative Fingers - #214 Anything Goes

Creative Moments - #222 Anything Goes

Gem of A Challenge - #19 Anything Goes

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - #165 Anything Goes

Morgan’s Art World - #9 Anything Goes

My Time To Craft Christmas - #18 Inspirational Image (gingerbreadman cookies)

Polkadoodles - #37 Anything Goes

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Monday, 13 September 2021

Toy Box Teepee Card

 



At Kate Hadfield Designs there are so many fabulous sets it is really easy to get inspired to use them. There are digital stamps which you can colour, coloured versions you can scrapbook or make into digital layouts. Papers, patterned overlays and doodles galore. No matter what your skill level there are so many goodies to play with.


I have used this great set of doodles Toy Box to make this Teepee fun fold card aimed at a young boy's birthday. I wanted to make it bright and bold in mainly primary colours and chose red as the base card as it linked in all of the pre-coloured images.




This card looks really complex but is super easy to make. You simply use 3 squares of card for your base, score diagonally across the middle and attach together. A velcro dot keeps the flaps together and you then have 3 sides to decorate. You can use one of these sides for your sentiment panel or do as I do and write it inside. You can find a great tutorial at Mixed Up Craft. I use 6" squares for my base and this folds down to fit inside a C5 envelope.

First I chose my designs which was the Rocket, Jack in a Box and Robot. I thought they looked great together for a young boy's card and the bright colours make it a fun and cohesive theme.

I started off with white triangles to fit the sides of the card. The images have been printed onto a matte photo paper so they look bright and bold. This paper is then perfect to use and add elements to the background. I added peel off stickers like stars and dots bit you could easily add colour with inks. The rocket has been fussy cut and popped up with foam pads with a foiled die cut sentiment added to form the 'front' of the card.



For the Jack In A Box I added some small pom poms as his arms outstretched made me think of a juggler. 


If you make this type of card yourself one tip for you is I use a corner rounding punch to neaten the points that form the legs. I found when I made one before that if you leave them pointed they can look tatty after a very short period of time as the weight pushes down on the card edge. Just the simple act of rounding the corners makes them look so much neater and stay in better condition.

Over at Kate Hadfield Designs there is lots going on. Kate is really generous with her freebies which are readily available. If you sign up to the newsletter you get access to an extra subscriber area the Doodle Den where there are loads more freebies. There is a gallery full of projects by the Creative Team and customers and so much inspiration for crafters and teachers. I would highly recommend you pop over there and join in the fun.

Card Details -


Size - Teepee Card folds to fit C5 envelope

Digital Images - Toy Box Doodles (Kate Hadfield Designs)

Embellishments - Pom Poms, peel off dots, coloured star stickers (Stickopotamus)



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



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Tuesday, 7 September 2021

Anime Cheers

 


Stamper's Delights run a Progressive Freebie challenge on Facebook and give you a free image set to work with if you make a card using any of their images. 

I have already entered this last month but didn't want to blog it as it was a card for an early September birthday. It has now been received (and she loved it)

The lady I made it for is a neighbour who has become a good friend. She looks so much like the girl in this image I thought it would make the perfect birthday card for her.

The image is Anime Cheers and has been coloured with Promarkers and some shading with pencils. The background has some added stars using a stencil from Crafter's Companion and a pink pencil.

The card is 8" square. I knew I wanted to use the large fancy font Happy Birthday sentiment die so it needed to be a pretty big card to accommodate it.

The card front has a layer of burgundy card and then the pink patterned paper is a wrapping paper from Paperchase. I often look at wrapping papers as a source of excellent patterns. Paperchase is one of my favourite shops and is very rare I don't come out with something from there. I love the colours, pretty circles with the gold detail. The gold ribbon and detail on the die really bring it out well.

Card Details -


Size - 8” x 8”

Digital Image - Anime Cheers (Stamper’s Delights)

Dies - Happy Birthday Sentiment (Crafter’s Companion)

Paper - Wrapping Paper (Paperchase)

Colouring Medium - Promarkers, Arteza Pencils

Stencil - Twinkle Twinkle (Crafter’s Companion)

Embellishments - Ribbon



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


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Wednesday, 1 September 2021

The Little Ballerina

 


It is the start of a new month and I am back with my DT hat on for 
The Freebie/Progressive Challenge at The Outlawz.


As long as you made a card with the August freebie you will automatically get the September image free. If you have not taken part before you can request this month's image so head on over there and join in the fun.

It is a fabulous way to use images from artists you many not have used before. Also sometimes the image is completely different to something you would normally use. It has been a good way for me to stretch my creativity and take me out of my comfort zone. 

I would highly recommend anyone who is not already taking part to jump in and have a go. We are a really friendly bunch at The Outlawz.


This month we are sponsored by Hetty Clare Art



We have been given this cute image The Little Ballerina to play with this month, absolutely perfect for a little girl's birthday card.

I coloured the image with Promarkers and added some shimmer with Spectrum Noir Glitter markers. They are water based and you can use a water brush to pick up colour off the tip and add a little bit of shimmer. I used a fine liner to add some texture to the hair.

The image has been matted into a scrap of pink card which has been distressed with an ink pad. The spotty background paper has been recycled from the inside of a shop bought card. I have a few really good neighbours who save the cards they get for me so I can reuse and recycle bits and bobs from them. The foiled sentiment is also recycled.

I added some glittery ribbon and some little stick on embellishments from The Works and the perfect girly and sparkly birthday card is completed.

If you fancy having a go with this image I hope we will see you enter our challenge at 
The Outlawz and look forward to seeing the entries.

Card Details -


Size - 4.5” x 6.5”

Digital Image - The Little Ballerina (Hetty Clare Art)

Colouring Medium - Promarkers, Spectrum Noir Glitter Markers (Crafter’s Companion)

Paper - Recycled from a store bought card

Embellishments - Glitter ribbon & sparkly gems (The Works)



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

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Pretty Possum's Sunflowers

 


It is time for another challenge at The Paper Funday.
Our challenges are always Anything Goes with an optional Twist.
The twist this time is "Autumn / Fall"


We are very fortunate to have 2 sponsors for each challenge this year which means we get to choose which artist we would like to work with. This really is great as it gives us double the choice. We have some amazing sponsors lined up this year, many of which are old favourites and some that are new to me.

This months we are Sponsored by Jan's Digi Stamps and Colour of Love. They both have a huge range of digital images to use for many different occasions.

Autumn in the UK brings a crispness to the air, a distinct lowering of the temperature and the trees change colours. If you are lucky you will see tall sunflowers peeking over fences in gardens and they never fail to being a smile to my face.




Sunflowers are my fave so I chose to work with an image from Colour of Love for this challenge called Pretty Possums Sunflowers. 

The image has been coloured using Promarkers and shading added with Arteza pencils. This also provided the sky and soil. I like the contrast of the really vibrant markers with the more subtle shading of the pencils as it creates more dimension. 

I used gold card for the base and added my favourite daisy paper from K & Co. I have a few sunflower ones but they were too bold so opted for this paper instead. It's funny how you can have a big collection of papers and still not have the 'one' that is perfect......

The sparkly gold ribbon has a length of sisal garden string and a bow on top. I used kraft card recycled from Weetabix cereal packaging to mat the image and the sentiment on as I am always looking to re-use and recycle as much as possible.

I hope you will join myself and our fabulous Team over at the Paper Funday Challenge.

Card Details -


Size - 6” Square

Digital Image - Pretty Possum’s Sunflower (Colour of Love)

Paper - Daisy 6x6” (Tim Coffey / K & Company)

Colouring Medium - Promarkers & Arteza pencils

Embellishments - glitter ribbon, sisal string



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

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Location: Streetly, The Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield, Sutton Coldfield B74, UK

Sunday, 29 August 2021

Dragon & Cupcake

 



Kinda Cute by Patricia Alvarez has a Progressive Freebie challenge on Facebook. If you use any of her images and submit a card by the end of that month then you get a free image the following month. 

This card has been made with Dragon & Cupcake which I thought would be a great image for a birthday card for a male.

I used a kraft card blank and added some patterned paper which has been re-used / recycled from a Nespresso boutique paper carry bag. I loved the wonky stripe and the colours and it was too nice to throw away. This has a fairly large 'Nespresso' word on the bag which is concealed underneath the brown mat layer. Quite often you can easily cover these things up and still be left with a good area of the design to work with. I would always suggest to people to look at everyday items and packaging as there are so many things you can use in your crafting. If it saves a small proportion of items going to landfill we are doing our part :)

The image has been coloured using Promarkers and Arteza pencils. The background has little dots of Spectrum Noir Glitter Markers and Promarkers in blues and greens. The glitter markers are water soluble so I use a water brush and scribble a small amount of ink on a palette. A little goes a long way when using them in this way. It adds a small amount of twinkle thus making it more suited to a male oriented card.

The sentiment is an old Craftwork Cards one. I coloured the white wording with a marker to match with the colour scheme.

Card Details -


Size - 5” x 7” 

Digital Image - Dragon & Cupcake (Kinda Cute by Patricia Alvarez)

Paper - Recycled from a Nespresso paper bag

Colouring Medium - Promarkers, Arteza Expert Pencils, Spectrum Noir Glitter Markers (Crafter’s Companion)




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









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