Monday 25 October 2021

Christmas Brads Trio

 


It is Christmas Day in only 2 months time so what better day to show you a Christmas card made with a free download from Kate Hadfield Designs.


Pop over to this post on Kate's Blog and you can download these cute Christmas Brads. They are intended to be used as a digital element on a page but I have resized them to 5.5cm across and printed onto glossy photo paper and they are so crisp and clear. Just goes to show that the files are such high quality they can be used as a main image too.


I used a DL slimline card blank and covered with a mat of red paper. I then added some plaid paper which was a scrap from a previous project. I was careful to trim the design so it was symmetrical..... I know I'm a bit OCD with that LOL

The images have been matted onto scraps of red card that were cut with a circular die. These are just an unbranded set I got from Ebay for a few pounds. These are popped up using really thin foam pads.

Once assembled I simply added some Card Candi from Craftwork Cards in the corners.

I really love how my little experiment turned out. They printed out so well, really crisp and clear.

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.


One of the most fabulous things about being in this Creative Team is that we have free rein to make anything we want to using the sets in the shop. This is amazing for inspiring creativity as there are so many amazing packs to play with. I feel very, very lucky to be able to have this opportunity.


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 - 10.5cm x 21cm DL Slimline

Digital Images - Christmas Brads Freebie (Kate Hadfield Designs)

Paper - Christmas Basic Style (Craft Sensations)

Dies - Generic circle die (Ebay)

Embellishments - Card Candi (Craftwork Cards)



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


An Autumn Birthday

 


Many moons ago I was the supervisor on the curtain department in a big Allied Carpets store. I have loved fabric and textiles since I was about 10 and although retail can be long hours it was a fabulous job. I was a trained interior designer and really loved helping people match fabrics to the carpets they had chosen.

At one time the designer Jeff Banks created a Home collection in conjunction with us and there were an amazing range of voile panels which had embroidered leaves woven into them (they were REALLY expensive) I had the display one when the range ended and painstakingly cut the leaves out with my trusty Fiskars scissors as I knew I could use them in my crafting somehow.

Of course.... they never have been used until NOW! This card is using one of those leaves and they are just beautiful. I needed to make a birthday card for a friend and neighbour. In the UK Autumn is definitely in full swing now so it seemed appropriate to make it an Autumn inspired card perfect for an adult male birthday.

I used brown cardstock for the base and added one of my most favourite leaf papers.The handmade paper is thick with a leather texture and gold sparkle threads embedded in it. You can see this more clearly in the image below.


I added a wooden button from The Works and tied some parcel string and a scrap of sisal string. The ends were then secured under the patterned paper.

The mesh leaf has been treated to a couple of swipes with a product called Glitter Kiss from Cosmic Shimmer. The fibres in the mesh have picked this up and it has a subtle glitter to it. It is a gel like texture with glitter suspended in it that does not shed when dried. It may be my new favourite thing !

Finally the sentiment is a very, very old foiled one from Kanban which has been popped up on 3d foam pads.

Card Details -


Size - A5

Paper - Woodland Folk (Lee Holland by Papermania), Handmade paper with gold sparkles

Embellishments - Mesh Fabric leaf, string, sisal string, wooden button (The Works) Glitter Kiss (Cosmic Shimmer)



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

Sunday 24 October 2021

Snowman Taking Photos




Kinda Cute by Patricia Alvarez runs a Progressive Freebie Challenge over on her Facebook group. You can use any image by Patricia to enter and then if you submit a card you can get a free image the month afterwards

My entry for this months challenge using one of the fab images from Patricia's store 'Snowman Taking Photos'. This will be the Christmas card for my hubby who is a keen photographer. I fell in love with the image when I first saw it.


I used Promarkers to colours the image along with a silver gel pen and a Spectrum Noir clear glitter overlay. I find the glitter is very subtle from this and very hard to show on photos. Snowdrifts were created with lots of Stickles glitter glue.

The patterned paper is from a 6" Craft Sensations pad. You get 10 patterned papers and 3 of each design. One of them has glitter and the other 2 are plain. Of course I had to use the glitter one didn't I? Any excuse to add glitter LOL

The silver paper is a wallpaper from B & M. I often look at wallpapers with an eye on using them in projects. They are a substantial weight of paper and at the moment there are so many fabulous glittery and textured papers about. A trip to B & Q can be a great source of inspiration.

To finish I added some enamel dots to the buttons on the large snowman and some smaller ones on the eyes. The sentiment I have added from a DCWV winter themed drawer set I had from QVC goodness know how many years ago. It seemed perfect for the photographer to say 'Merry Christmas' instead of 'say cheese' as he was taking the photo of the little ones


Card Details -


Size - 6” Square

Digital Image - Snowman Taking Photos (Kinda Cute by Patricia Alvarez)

Paper - Winter Wonderland 6” (Craft Sensations)

Colouring Medium - Promarkers, silver gel pen, Spectrum Noir glitter pen, Enamel dots, Glittered sentiment die cut (DCWV)

Embellishments - Stickles Glitter Glue, Enamel dots, Glittered sentiment die cut (DCWV)



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


Friday 22 October 2021

Happy Birthday Cake

 


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 doodes 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. 

One of the most fabulous things about being in this Creative Team is that we have free rein to make anything we want to using the sets in the shop. This is amazing for inspiring creativity as there are so many amazing packs to play with. I feel very, very lucky to be able to have this opportunity. 


For this card I wanted to showcase one of the great sets that you can download for free as a member of the Doodle Den. Details of how and where to subscribe are at the bottom of this post.

I used the Happy Birthday set and you get pre-coloured doodles and 2 styles of line art stamps that you can colour yourself. It really is the most versatile set.



I used an 8" card blank for my base so printed the image quite large. I use photo paper sometimes glossy but in this case a matte paper. I find the colours come out really well, so vibrant and colourful. The images are always very high quality and crisp.

I used this month's card sketch from Cheerful Sketches for the layout and adjusted it to fit a square layout. The base spotty paper is a magazine freebie. The striped glittery paper is a wrapping paper from Paperchase. It is my favourite stationery store and they have so many beautiful papers that are way too good to use as wrapping paper. You get the equivalent of 8 sheets of A4 paper for only a few pounds so really good value for money.


The image has been distressed around the edges with an ink pad and I used a Spectrum Noir glitter marker to add a bit of sparkle to the flame.

The sentiment is freebie 852 from Desert Diva. I have been following Hannelie for years and she has so many fabulous sentiments on her blog which are still available to download. I would highly recommend you pop over there and see for yourself. She is a very talented card maker and has a very distinctive style.

I trimmed the corners with a corner rounding punch and added a mat of metallic card underneath. I also used this to create the small section on the left hand side. There was already so much pattern I decided to keep this plain but added a flower gem on top of a circle. Finally I added some gems to the cake.

I have just celebrated my 50th birthday but didn't have a cake ( I really wanted one this year and hubby told me I should have asked for one.....) so this is my calorie free virtual cake instead. It's probably better for me I guess LOL

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 - 8”

Digital Image - Happy Birthday Freebie (Kate Hadfield Designs)

Digital Sentiment - Freebie 852 from Desert Diva

Paper - Pink Stripe (Paperchase), Spotty is a magazine freebie

Colouring Medium - Spectrum noir glitter marker 

Embellishments - Self adhesive Gems (The Works)


Tuesday 19 October 2021

Xmas Decorations

 


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 was running really behind last month as I was preparing to go on holiday and had my 50th birthday and 20th wedding anniversary which led to lots of family thing and meals out. My birthday last year was a bit of a non-event due to bad timing so it was really nice to have a proper celebration this year. I managed to get this added to the Facebook group but didn't have time to blog it.

The image is an older one from Stamper's Delights Xmas Decoration and I have used Promarkers and a gold gel pen to add decoration to the baubles. Mum used to have a stripy one like that when I was little. It was a really fine thread wound onto a plastic bauble that mysteriously became unravelled... (I was always taking things apart to see how they were made LOL)

The plaid paper has loads of glitter embedded in the red. It is from a traditional Christmas pad all in red and green so I used gold throughout to add some metallic shine. The text side strip and sentiment have both been recycled from old Christmas cards. 

I added some red sparkle washi tape, a die cut snowflake from a set I have not used before and a red sparkly gem as a finishing touch.


Card Details -


Size - 6 x 6”

Digital Image - Xmas Decorations (Stamper’s Delights)

Designer Paper - Merry Christmas Traditional (Craft Sensations)

Dies - Splendid Snowflakes (Sheena Douglass at Crafter’s Companion)

Colouring Medium - Promarkers, gold gel pen

Embellishments - Washi Tape (The Works), self adhesive gem



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


Friday 15 October 2021

Winter Cottage Snow Globe

 


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 Snow Globes designed by Decosse's Dynamite Doodles is up for grabs to the lucky winner who follows the optional twist to feature a Snow Globe on your card.





The Sponsor for this challenge is Pattie's Creations who is offering the fabulous prize of 3 images from her store.


For my card I have used Winter Cottage Snow Globe. It is such a lovely scene and I knew it would make the perfect focal point for my card.


I knew the perfect paper to create the background and sized the snow globe image to fit comfortably within the patterned border. I added a typed sentiment into the base of the snow globe and printed a second layer of this so I could decoupage it.

The image has been coloured with Promarkers. I used a pencil for the sky background, and a Sakura clear glitter pen to add sparkle to the stars and snow. I fussy cut the snow globe and then added a layer of acetate on top to create a 'glass' effect. I left a little tab at the top and folded this onto the reverse to secure it so there was no adhesive visible on the front. The 2nd layer of the base was then added on top with some thin foam pads for added dimension.  

The card base is 6" and I added a silver mat around the snowflake paper. This is from the Winter Weather paper pack. I changed the hue of the paper in my digital program to make it a richer blue. That is the beauty of using digital products, you have so many ways you can easily manipulate them to change colours, crop, resize, use only part of an item. They really are so very versatile. The paper has been printed into a glossy photo paper and this makes the colour really vibrant.



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

Card Details -


Size - 6”

Digital Image - Winter Cottage Snow Globe (Pattie’s Creations)

Colouring Medium - Promarkers, Arteza Expert Pencils, Sakura Clear Glitter gel pen

Digital Paper - Winter Weather (Decosse’s Dynamite Doodles)




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




Wednesday 6 October 2021

Birthday Party Owen


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 the theme 'Halloween OR Add Purple'


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. This month our Sponsors are Fred She Said Designs & Paper Nest Dolls



I chose to work with Birthday Party Owen from Paper Nest Dolls. I have been making a concerted effort to make more masculine cards this year both young men and older ones and loved this fun image. I very rarely make halloween projects so opted for the purple option and knew this would be a great way of adding lots of colour including purple.

All the papers and card are from my scraps and I assembled the majority of the card before I coloured the image. This enabled me to use fun papers with several colours and then used those to ensure the card was co-ordinated. The background paper is from one of my favourite ever paper pads the Glitter Stack from DCWV. I loved it so much I bought it in 12" and 8" versions. The glitter is encapsulated and fun for a male card but not girly.

The final touch then was to add the foiled sentiment from Craftwork Cards which has been matted onto co-ordinating layers.

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

Card Details -


Size - 6” x 6”

Digital Image - Birthday Party Owen (Paper Nest Dolls)

Papers - all from my paper scraps including Glitter Stack (DCWV)

Colouring Medium - Promarkers


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