Thursday, 29 October 2020

Merle


A very good friend of ours has asked me to make some Christmas cards for him. He is from South Africa and now lives in Slovakia where he also has family. 

He loves my cards and said there is nothing like them in Slovakia. He said if I could incorporate an African vibe into his cards that would be even better. Immediately thought of this image Merle from Beccy's Place that I had been considering purchasing for some time as I adore giraffes. We actually visited SA with Jean some years ago and went on safari to Krueger National Park. We saw giraffes in the wild and  I cried my eyes out with joy. It was a very special experience and a trip I will never ever forget for so many reasons.

I have coloured the image with Promarkers and added a silver gel pen for accents to the star and lights. I used a brown pencil to add some shading to the giraffe patches. I then added some iridescent Stickles glitter glue to the lights, baubles, star, stocking and to the twinkle part of the sentiment.

 

The layout of the card has been inspired by the latest sketch from the Stella Says Sketch challenge. I had to adapt it a little to suit how tall the image is.

I used a sheet of A4 white card for the base and added some dark red spotty paper. The giraffe print paper is from a paper pack I got from Poundland years ago. The patterned red and gold strip has been recycled from an old Christmas card. The plain card stock that has been used for matting and layering are all from my scraps.

Card Details -

Size – A5
Digital Image & Sentiment – Merle by Beccy’s Place
Colouring Medium – Promarkers. Silver gel pen, shading with Arteza pencils
Embellishments – Stickles glitter glue

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Tuesday, 27 October 2020

Halloween Milk Cartons


I don't usually make halloween projects as it is not such a big event in the UK, especially if like me you do not have children. We have lived in our house for over 4 years and never once had trick or treaters come round.

However this year I have decided to do something. We are really close to friends and neighbours who do have young children and Covid restrictions have made it hard for them this year.

Where we live is classed as a High category area as we are so close to Birmingham. This means that Halloween parties are not allowed as you can't go inside other people's houses. As it is also half term they won't even see their school friends.  It's hard enough being an adult in these crazy times but to try and explain to small children why they can't see their friends has to be difficult for their parents.

I decided I would make them a treat box filled with sweeties as it is very unlikely the kids will be going out trick or treating this year. 


So I have a Sweet Treats Milk carton embossing board from Crafter’s Companion which I have never used. I bought the 2 board set many many years ago for only £5 so it was too good a deal not to get them and finally I have been putting them to good use this year.

There are 2 sizes on the board, both of which are quite tall. I wanted to make it like an old pint carton so played about with the sizing to make the larger size shorter. I made one as a prototype and then cut all the parts needed to make 9 the same.


I found this cool pumpkin image/sentiment in my digi collection which is from Bross Artful Designs. This has been coloured with Promarkers and a Sakura glitter pen as a highlight on the sweeties.

The paper on the front its a glittery one from Deana's penny Lane by My Mind's Eye. It has lots of papers in purple and green which are perfect for halloween projects. The little bat is from Digi Stamp Boutique (retired). I printed them out on thin card and ran them through my Xyron machine to make them into stickers. I then fussy cut around them and added some white gel pen to highlight the eyes and mouth.


I added a sentiment onto a side panel. The spider and web is a digi from Meljen's Designs (retired). I coloured the spider in with a Promarker. The paper on this one is from the Teen Matstck from DCWV. I didn't have enough of the same paper so used a smaller dotty Papermania one for the others (you can see this in the main image)


The back of the carton has a sentiment from Diana All About Me. It is a freebie wordart that is very old but still available from her blog HERE. I have matted this onto a purple spotty paper from the Spring Burst paper pack by Papermania. I then added a plastic spider which was glued onto the top flap.


The last side panel has a mat of the same orange spotty paper. I have added a name tag for each of the children which was cut using a Thick Cuts die Traditional Tags by Ellison Design/Sizzix. I have had this for years and it is the first time I have used it which was a bit of a surprise. I guess I don't use tags very much! I added some pretty ribbon from my stash to embellish the tag.

Finally the milk carton is held together with a clip. I thought about perhaps punching holes and using ribbon but the children range from 3 years upto 9 so I wanted to make it as easy as possible for them to get to the goodies inside.

They are all now filled with sweeties and ready to hand out to the little ones on Friday. I do hope they will enjoy their treat.

Project Details -

Template – Sweet Treats Milk Carton by Crafter’s Companion
Digital Images – Trick or Treat by Bross Artful Designs (Etsy store currently closed), Bat – Digi Stamp Boutique (Retired), Cutie Corner Spider – Meljen’s Designs (Retired), 
Digital Sentiment - Halloween Word Art Freebie – Diana All About Me
Dies – Tags Traditional Thick Cuts – Ellison Design/Sizzix
Papers – Deena’s Penny Lane by My Mind’s Eye, Teen Matstack by DCWV, Spring Burst by Papermania, 
Colouring Medium – Promarkers, Sakura Glitter gel pen, white gel pen
Embellishments – Ribbon, plastic spiders, clips to close boxes


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

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Sunday, 25 October 2020

Grande Snowflake Snowman

 




Regular visitors to my blog may have noticed I have a bit of a penchant for Snowmen and Snowflakes so this card is a great combination of both.

I have recently celebrated my birthday and usually there is nothing I particularly ask for but this year I knew I wanted a Gemini electric cutting machine. The Works has an amazing offer in that they are selling the large one with some dies and embossing folders for £125 which is so cheap compared to the normal price. 

Crafter's Companion had brought out a new Glittering Snowflakes Signature collection. Now I do have quite a few snowflakey things but there were some gorgeous and completely different items that I NEEDED in my collection. Fortunately I had pennies to spend for my birthday so this Grande Snowflake is one of the new dies I purchased. It is 5' square so really makes a statement.

It was the very first die I cut on my Gemini, I thought it would be a really good test for it due to how intricate it was. After using my Big Shot for years I know that a die like this would have needed 2 or 3 passes and may not have cut all the bits out. The Gemini cut it out PERFECTLY in one pass. I was super impressed with it. I will still use my Big Shot as I have some thick dies and it is quieter than an electronic machine so better in some circumstances.

So my card features a cute little Snowman digi stamp from Stamper's Delights. It is an old one that is now retired but he was coloured up with Promarkers. I added some googley eyes, black gem 'coal' buttons down his body and some silver and iridescent glitter glue to highlight the snow and snowballs. This was then fussy cut and popped up on 3d foam pads.

The card base is a sheet of A4 silver mirror card. The blue snowflake paper is from the Woodland Christmas pad from The Works. I said I wasn't going to buy any more paper but this one was 1. very inexpensive at only £3 for a 12"x12" pad and 2. Had lots of different papers in it that I don't have anything similar so it 'fell' in my basket. The Works have a loyalty card and give you vouchers to spend every now and again. You get a voucher and always end up spending loads more - very clever marketing ploy 😉

The Grande Snowflake die was sprayed with Silver Spray & Sparkle from Crafter's Companion. This is like a spray on varnish which has glitter in it. It adds a very fine sheen all over the die and makes it look so pretty.

Of course me being me I had to put more sparkle on it so I added lots of gems in blues and clear and then some dots of silver Stickles glue. 

Finally the sentiment is a digital one from the Snowman set by Beccy's Place.

Card Details -

Size – A5
Digital Image – Snowman (now retired) - Stamper’s Delights
Digital Sentiment – From the Snowman set - Beccy’s Place
Dies – Grande Snowflake – Crafter’s Companion
Colouring Medium – Promarkers
Paper – Woodland Christmas – The Works
Embellishments – Silver Spray & Sparkle , Lots of gems, Stickles glitter glue, googly eyes


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

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Friday, 23 October 2020

Sparkly Christmas Wishes

 


Over at the Outlawz Challenge there is a monthly Progressive Freebie Challenge. 
If you have taken part in the previous month you get a new image to play with.

This month we were given Sugar IMG 242 from Oddball Art Co. You get a zombie version and this one I used which is the cute version.

I coloured the image with Promarkers and added some shading with coloured pencils to the hair and her top. I used a sakura metallic glittery gel pen to put some eyeliner around her eyes. She has a sad, melancholy look to her face and I felt the eyes drawing you into the image. I used a fine black pen to accentuate the eyelashes more. I had already printed out the image to use but decided to do something different with it so I fussy cut around it so I was free to place on a different project than intended.

I found this super sentiment in my digi stamps from Bross Artful Designs. Tracey's blog is not available at the moment and her Etsy store still exists but is not trading at the moment so I do hope all is okay with her. Goodness knows 2020 has been a very strange year and has affected lots of people in so many ways 😟

I printed the sentiment in a large rectangle so this gave me the space to place Sugar underneath. I coloured the stars with different shades of blue and added Stickles glitter glue. After all with that sentiment it would have been criminal for it not to sparkle!

I used some chalks from Pebbles Inc. to add some subtle colour around the sentiment and Sugar. I then added some silver peel off snowflakes to make it more Christmassy.


Silly Sugar is going to freeze wearing a sleeveless top at Christmas. Reminds me of a Christmas do in Broad Street in the middle of Birmingham a few years ago. We went to a nightclub and when we came out was snowing quite hard. I was really, really glad I had a long warm coat on.  There were so many young girls on a night out with no coats, totally not dressed for snow and tottering about in heels so high I would definitely have fallen over on my bum LOL Maybe that is why Sugar looks so sad, she's freezing!

Anyhoo, I digress..... The base of the card is a sheet of A4 navy blue iridescent card. I have added a blue embossed card with silver foiled stars on it. I have had that card for many, many years and normally I would think is too good to use but I am not getting any younger and have so much 'good' stash I thought I really ought to use it. 

The image is matted onto some more of the navy card and mounted on some foam squares. I added some stars that have been die cut from holographic card. I used some star shaped brads and these are threaded through the card layers and 3d foam squares to make sure they are securely held in place.

Although I hadn't originally intended to use the image this way I am really happy with how it turned out and that is another Christmas card in the bag.

Card Details -

Size – A5
Digital Image – Sugar IMG 242 from Oddball Art Co
Digital Sentiment – freebie from Sparkle All The Way by Bross Artful Designs (Etsy store not currently open)
Dies – generic star dies (magazine freebie)
Colouring Medium – Promarkers & Arteza pencils, Sakura blue metallic glitter pen, Pebbles Inc Chalks
Embellishments – peel offs, Stickles glitter glue, star brads


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

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Tuesday, 20 October 2020

Reindeer Gift



It is time for another challenge for Team B at Through The Craft Room Door


The Sponsor for this challenge is Stamp On It and they have a prize for the lucky winner.


As a store they have several collections that they sell both physical stamps and digital. 
I have used a digital image from the QKR Stampede section of the store called Reindeer Gift.

I have been making a lot of Christmas cards recently and my go to colour schemes are red/green or blues. I decided to do something a little different with this card. The sketch I used for the layout is from the current challenge at Daisy Chain Challenge. I rotated it and stretched it to fit a rectangular card.



I started off with the patterned paper with deer on it and used the colours of aqua, turquoise and kraft. The card base is a sheet of A4 white card. To this I have added a layer of a darker shade of aqua card. The deer paper is from a 6x6" pad Christmas Blues by Dovecraft. I matched up with a glittered snowball paper which is from Let It Snow also by Dovecraft. Both papers are very, very old.

The image has been coloured with Promarkers to match the colours from the papers. I decoupaged the reindeer and bow and mounted in foam squares for added dimension. The deer has been matted onto kraft card on thinner foam pads so it made it not too thick. The die is Classical Frame from Crafter's Companion. It is one of the very first dies I ever bought from them.... 

Following the layout of the sketch I added a scrap of ribbon and some snowflakes I assembled with different layers. The top one is s Sizzlits Cut n' Emboss die with a snowflake on top that was rescued from and old Christmas card. The aqua snowflakes are pre-printed die cuts but I have no idea where they came from, probably a magazine freebie. The shiny silver one is an embellishment that was from a Christmas decoration I got from the poundshop years ago. I took it apart and there were different colours and beads as well, all added to my stash. Finally the white ones are funky foam shapes that I had a long time ago. The sentiment has been recycled from a shop bought card.

Our challenges at Through the Craft Room Door are always Anything Goes so easy to enter. I hope you will join us.

Card Details -

Size – A5
Digital Image – Reindeer Gift. by QKR Stampede / Stamp On It 
Dies – Classical Frame by Crafter’s Companion & Snowflake 2 Cut n’ Emboss folder by Sizzlits
Papers – Christmas Blues 6x6” & Let It Snow 4.5 x 6.5” pads by Dovecraft
Colouring Medium - Promarkers
Embellishments – Ribbon, various snowflakes


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

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Saturday, 17 October 2020

Sunflower

 


In honour of the spectacular Autumn weather we are having I have made a card using the Sunflower image from Pinksy Doodles. 


I call sunflowers 'happy flowers' as they have the most wonderful smiley face. There are so many varieties and I have seen some amazing pictures recently of big fluffy headed ones that look stunning. I have even seen a photo of one on Facebook growing out of someones's chimney. 

This digital stamp set from the Pinksy Doodles store has the leaves and flower head as separate image, also a page which is suitable to decoupage as shown below. It really is a very versatile set  and amazing value for money.


I printed the image of the full sunflower 3 times as I wanted to decoupage the head and leaves. The bottom layer was left whole, the 2nd layer is the middle petals on the flower head and I cut the set of leaves from this. The final layer is the seed centre and I used the leaves to create an extra embellishment.

I have coloured the image with my beloved Promarkers. I then fussy cut the layers as required and they are mounted onto thin foam squares.


In the close up below you can see the bead detail I added to the centre. I put a thin layer of Glossy Accents down to act as an adhesive. I then carefully placed seed beads on the markings on the stamp. The rest of the circle was then filled with tiny Accent Beads. I then added a thicker layer of Glossy Accents on the top to encase it all. This makes it so shiny and the dimension on both the petals and centre makes this a very tactile card.


I used one of the sketches from the latest challenge at Cut It Up for the layout and rotated it to fit my image.



I used a sheet of A4 card for the base and covered it with the coloured flower paper from an old pad Woodland Folk from Papermania. This has been one of my most used autumn themed pads over the years. The colours on the flowers are a perfect compliment to this Autumn themed card.

The second paper is from an old Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine freebie Home Grown by Hot Off The Press. It dates back to 2014! All my patterned paper pads have been split up and organised by colour and the type of pattern. I simply went into my section of 'orange/small flowers' and experimented with patterns and colours until I found the combination I was happy with. I have never been afraid to mix and match suppliers and collections of paper that are intended to go together. I use Evernote to organise my supplies and have a photo of the contact sheet on the front of the paper pad which is useful for matching up which pad the paper has come from.

I cut the image and the mat layer using dies from the Rococo Frames set from Crafter's Companion. I love how ornate it is and that you can see a lot of the papers through it. It is quite large as well which is perfect for me as I tend to make more larger cards. Digital images are especially perfect for this is you have the flexibility to make the image as big as you need.

With the spare leaves I made a corner embellishment using some 3d flower stickers I bought from the poundshop a million years ago. I am sure many UK crafters bought the same ones. The sticky pads gave up the ghost a long time ago but that is easily replaced. I added a sentiment banner that was mounted on a scrap of the brown card and finally I added some tiny glittery butterfly stickers because what sunflower would be complete without a little butterfly or 2?

Head on over to the Pinksy Doodles store to check out the digital images, papers and cut files. The collection is ever expanding and you can be inspired and see the examples from our amazing Design Team. 

Card Details -

Size – A5
Digital Image - Sunflower from Pinksy Doodles
Papers – Woodland Folk by Papermania & Home Grown by HOTP
Dies – Rococo Frames by Crafter’s Companion
Colouring Medium - Promarkers
Embellishments – seed beads, accent beads, glossy accents, 3 paper stickers, glitter butterfly stickers

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



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