Tuesday, 30 March 2021

Contact Me

 If you are interested in any cards that are on my blog or need to get in touch at all for commissions or Design Team enquires

please email :-

enquiries@madebymandy.com


Many Thanks


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Wednesday, 24 March 2021

I'll Be There For You

 


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.




A new freebie has been released called I'll Be There For You which has 2 papers, 3 flower ensembles and 2 leaves. It's a lovely little pack which can be used on it's own or easily incorporated with any other digital elements.



I'd seen there were a load of free scrapbook page templates in the Doodle Den and this Blocked and Squared really jumped out at me as I love geometric shapes and it inspired me to make a digital layout using this kit.


I use a program called Affinity Designer on the Mac. I find it easy to use when creating multi layer projects like this. In this 'card' there are 34 layers

 I started out with the teal paper as the background and added a layer of white as a border. I then used the layout and added the squares in the 2 papers.

I added the flowers and leaves, sizing up or down as required for each square.

As a final touch I added a text sentiment using an already installed font Zapfino.

There are oodles of freebies. Simply sign up to the Newsletter in the Doodle Den and you will be given access to so many resources. There is a gallery full of projects by the Creative Team and customers and so much inspiration for crafter and teachers. I would highly recommend you pop over there and join in the fun.


Digital Card Details -


Size - 6” x 6”

Digital Images - I’ll Be There For You Freebie (Kate Hadfield Designs)

Digital Papers - I’ll Be There For You Freebie (Kate Hadfield Designs)

Font - Zapfino


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


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Thursday, 18 March 2021

Honey Bear Thank You

 


Imagine That Digistamp have a Progressive Challenge each month. 
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 set we have been given to play with for March is Honey Bear. You get papers, images and sentiments which can be easily mixed and matched with other projects.


The starting point for me was the hexagon shape. I have a set of Torn Edge Hexagon dies that I have never used before from a mystery bag at Crafter's Companion which I thought would work well with this set.

I printed the coloured bear image on glossy photo paper. Kris' images are really colourful and I find the photo paper really brings out the vibrancy. I enlarged one of the bees in the image to use as an embellishment and also printed out a strip of the hexagon paper.

I used the largest of the dies to cut the image out and then made a slightly larger one from brown card which was trimmed with deckle edge scissors (remember using them all the time in the old days?) I added some sparkle around the edge with the clear glitter overlay pen from Spectrum Noir.

I used an A4 sheet of kraft card for the base and added the image panel to it. The stripe of yellow paper was matted onto a strip of the brown card. I then used a small die to cut the bee, matted onto more brown card and popped up using foam pads. The foiled sentiment (which was awful to photograph!) is from Kanban.

As a final touch I used some gold glitter glue on the flower centre and some REALLY old Stickopotamus bee stickers.

This is the perfect card to thank someone for being so sweet. 
We always need thank you cards in our stash ☺

Card Details -


Size - A5

Digital Image - Honey Bear (Imagine That Digistamp)

Digital Paper - Honey Bear set (Imagine That Digistamp)

Dies - Torn Edge Hexagon (Crafter’s Companion)

Embellishments - Stickopotamus bee stickers, Stickles glitter glue, Spectrum Noir clear glitter overlay


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Wednesday, 17 March 2021

Leah's Picture

 


You know how every now and again you have an idea and when you have made it it comes out better than you could have ever dreamed? Well this is one of those projects. I actually cannot believe I made this!

At Kate Hadfield Designs the Creative Team are given free reign on what we can create. Sometimes we have a prompt. This month Kate wants to highlight the overlays.


I have played with making digital cards before so I know the basics of how to layer but this has taken it to a whole new scale. 

A little neighbour over the road was 2 on the 15th. She is moving into her 'big girl bedroom' and her parents have been decorating her room. I know she is having greys and pinks and wanted to make a picture for her room. 

I use a digital program called Affinity Designer. I started with the background which is the blue and green paper from the Painted Pretties set.


I then added the cloudy sky overlay from the Springtime Overlays set. I wasn't sure if you could use just some of it but it is really easy to move it around on your page to cover only the section you want. I would imagine you can cut sections from it as well if you only wanted specific parts of the overlay. I will experiment with that in future projects. There are some lovely overlays in the store.


The main image I wanted to use was the castle from Happily Ever After. I made this quite a large size and then added the Fairy Godmother. The little Frog Prince looked cute and I really wanted to include the rainbow. Leah has been such a happy little soul over this year of strangeness and it has been lovely to see her blossom. She has been the colourful rainbow in even the dullest days.


Using Springity Spring I have I of course added the smiley sunshine. The cloud is the same shape as the over lay so it is easy to resize and 'colour' in some of the clouds in the sky. By only colouring some in this has added layers and dimension to the picture.


I have also added some of the grass tufts, daisies and some of the little creatures ladybird, snail, bee and a cheeky little worm peeking out of the doorway. 

The whole design was then printed out onto photo paper and the colours are really vibrant. I then framed it using a silver frame from my collection.

I hope it gives as much joy to Leah as it did to me to make it for her.

I really loved making this. Kate's designs are so much fun to work with and there are so many fabulous items in the store. I love making cards and colouring so the stamps are my faves. There are coloured images, papers, doodles and you are only limited by your creativity. 

There are oodles of freebies in the store too. Simply sign up to the Newsletter in the Doodle Den and your will be given access to so many resources. There is a gallery full of projects by the Creative Team and customers and so much inspiration for crafter and teachers. I would highly recommend you pop over there and join in the fun.

Project Details -


Size - 8” x 10”

Digital Paper - Painted Pretties (Kate Hadfield Designs)

Digital Overlay - Springtime Overlays (Kate Hadfield Designs)

Digital Images - Happily Ever After set & Springity Spring (Kate Hadfield Designs)

Embellishments - Silver Frame



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


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Monday, 15 March 2021

Ruby Christmas Drink

 


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


This paper pack Cheers Christmas Edition designed by Decosse's Dynamite Doodles 
is up for grabs to the lucky winner who follows the Optional Twist if you feature a BEVERAGE you might drink during the HOLIDAYS as the focus of your card. 

For example, eggnog, mulled wine, hot toddy, wassail, hot buttered rum, brandy Alexander, Christmas punch, hot cocoa, etc.



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 Bugaboo Stamps who is offering a $12 certificate from their store.


I love working with Jodie's images and this was a fun one to colour. I used Promarkers and loads of glitter courtesy of Spectrum Noir glitter markers, a glittery red gel pen, gold gel pen and a clear glitter gel pen for the glass.

I die cut the image using a Romantic Rectangles Nestability die and used some glimmer chalks around the edge.

The card is a tent style and measures 6" square. The green mat has been recycled from an old card and was the perfect size for the patterned paper which is the Fruit Punch from the Cheers Christmas Edition Pack. I loved the shape of the glass and the candy cane, totally Christmas. I also like the fun spotty border that frames the outside. The paper has been printed onto glossy photo paper and the colours are so vibrant. I also enlarged one of the glasses to make a motif that could be used on the card.


The green striped paper is a nod to the candy cane. It is from a HOTP Creative Cardmakers pack. I bought loads of them when I first started making cards years and years ago and they are still so useful today.

The sentiment was a freebie from Tlc Creations. It is part of a larger sentiment with a ribbon frame. One of the great things about digital is that you can crop them, resize and remove parts that you don't want to use. You only need basic editing software to be able to do this and you can tailor them to your own needs then.

I cut the image using a die from Petite Labels 1 from Spellbinders and again used the glimmer chalk around the outside edge.

Finally the enlarged fruit punch motif was fussy cut with my ever trusty tiny blade Fiskars embroidery scissors which I have had for about 30 years. They were really expensive at the time but I use them so much they were worth the money. The blades rarely need sharpening and I can cut really precisely with them.

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

Card Details -


Size - 6” x “6 Tent

Digital Image - Ruby Christmas Drink (Bugaboo Stamps)

Digital Sentiment - taken from Christmas Cheer Ribbon (Tlc Creations)

Digital Paper - Cheers Xmas Edition (Decosse's Dynamite Doodles)

Paper - Earth Tones Cardmaker’s Creative Pack (Hot off The Press)

Dies - Romantic Rectangles Nestabilities (Spellbinder) Petite Labels 1 (Spellbinders)

Colouring Medium - Promarkers, Spectrum Noir Glitter Markers, Red Glitter gel pen, gold gel pen, Sakura clear glitter pen

Embellishments - Glimmer Chalk



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

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Wednesday, 10 March 2021

Cute As A Bug for Mother's Day

 


Stamper's Delights holds a Progressive Freebie challenge on Facebook every month. If you make a card with any of their images then the following month you can request that set for free. I love Janice's images and you get lots of images and sentiments when you take part so it is a win win.

I bought loads of images recently with a gift card prize and this is one of the images I chose Cute as a Bug. I love the smiley face on the flower and the cute little expression on the bug.

I coloured the image with Promarkers adding some pencil to the hair for definition. I added black dots so she looks like a ladybird, while gel pen for highlights and glitter marker to the wings for shimmer.

I have seen lots of triple easel cards recently but most seem to stack behind one another and obscure the one behind.  I wanted to try something a bit different so made it up as I went along. 

I have seen a lovely card around blogland 'Rainbow Heart' by Mifta of MS Kraft Store and love the effect of the coloured strips. Inspired by this I used a lovely heart die that I got from The Works and cut this twice from black card. Behind the shape I added 1cm wide strips of scrap card in different colours. The strips were trimmed to the outside of the heart and I then cut another plain heart to sandwich inside. It was a bit fiddly but really happy with the results. I used double sided tape sheets for the heart and if I did it again I would have cut that first and added the strips to that instead of doing it the other way round and making it harder for myself..... lesson learned!

The image had been cut and matted using a Nestabilities labels 22 die. I had used the largest one for the image already so cut around this to make a larger one in plain black card.

I then started to place them together and test the easel function. Nothing I did looked right until I did it as a diamond pattern so used an 8" square card base and offset the shapes. I made a stopper using the sentiment which is an old digital from COLORink Digital Stamps who are now retired. It is perfect for this image and simply coloured with a marker.

The card base has a layer of thin black card and then a red spotty paper. I used self adhesive flower ribbon and added a little red gem to the centre of each one. The silver embellishment where they intersect is from a trim that was in the bridal section of The Range a few years ago and I added a black pearl to the centre.

Finally I added some of my favourite tiny glitter butterfly stickers and some lettering to the image. AS it doesn't specifically say Mother's Day Mom will be able to keep it on display for longer if she wishes and the bright colours behind the heart with be cheerful on even the gloomiest of days.

You can see in the image below how the card folds down. The sentiment is the stopper in front of the image and the 2 silver embellishments go behind the hearts so they stand up. It's a bit fiddly but once up, they stay up.


Card Details -


Size - 8” Square

Digital Image - Cute as a Bug (Stamper’s Delights)

Digital Sentiment - COLORink Digital Stamps (Retired)

Dies - Hearts in Heart (The Works), Nestabilities Labels 22 (Spellbinders)

Colouring Medium - Promarkers, Arteza pencils, white Gel pen, Spectrum Noir Glitter Marker

Embellishments - Flower ribbon, gems, butterfly stickers, alphabet stickers, gems, pearl, silver bridal trim



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


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Wednesday, 3 March 2021

Decorated Tree



It is time for another challenge over at The Paper Funday.
Our challenges are always Anything Goes with an optional twist. 
The twist this time is to use GREEN on your project.


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 are very lucky with the amazing sponsors that are lined up this year, many of which are old favourites and some are new to me.


I chose to work with Decorated Tree from QKR Stampede. 
I love making Christmas cards so green = Christmas Tree to me.

I coloured the image with Promarkers and added some gel pens for the red glittered baubles and the silver on the lights cord. I used Gold Stickles glitter glue on the lights and a gold glitter marker for the star on top of the tree. The image was then fussy cut.

I hadn't intended to make the card this way but it kind of evolved. I have a stamp/die/embossing folder combo that makes a window scene from Crafter's Companion and thought it would look lovely inside the window. I cut the die from brown card and used some gold gilding wax on the raised embossing. Behind the tree I added some striped 'wallpaper' this was more bold than I wanted so I added a layer of vellum over the top to soften the colours. The window frame is popped up on foam squares to create separation.

The embossing folder is quite large so I was able to make this into an A5 card. I used a thin sheet of beige card and added some colour with 2 shades of distressing ink. The card blank has been covered with a mottled effect brown paper and then for a final touch I added a sentiment recycled from a Christmas card that has been trimmed and the corners rounded.

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


Card Details -


Size - A5

Image - Decorated Tree (QKR Stampede)

Die - Winter View (Crafter's Companion)

Punch - Corner Rounder (Woodware)

Embossing Folder - Winter View (Crafter's Companion)

Paper - Noel Matstack (DCWV) & Clear vellum

Colouring Mediums - Promarkers, Glitter Markers (Spectrum Noir) Gel pens, Tim Holtz Distress Ink pads walnut & Tea Stain, Gold gliding Wax

Embellishments - Gold Stickles Glitter Glue


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

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