Paper Players Sketch

I really liked this sketch from the Paper Players and so I thought I'd play along.

Here I found a scrap of DP in the drawer and thought it might look good with this Simon Says Stamp Christmas tree die.

It's a Sizzix embossing folder with just a few pearls added, The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted.

Birds of a feather

I really couldn't resist this little chap who rather looks as though he's been at the Christmas pud a little too much!

I decided to paper piece him  as I've been going through my designer paper drawer and thought it time that some of it was used.

I inked the edges of the pieces and added Glossy Accents to the beak, berries and leaf. The stamps are from Woodware.

Time Out Challenge has a challenge entitled Birds of a feather flock together and this is my interpretation!

New technique...to me!

Somewhere in Blogland I saw a card that was made using an embossing folder together with a die to double emboss a piece of card.

This is my attempt at it!

I used a Sizzix holly embossoing folder with a Die- namics stitched strips metal die to emboss some card for the front of this card.

It takes a little sorting out of plates etc to get the correct sandwich, but this is what I did, to use in my Cuttlebug

• Base plate
• OPEN embossing folder (using only one side)
• Solid die (facing upward)
• Card
• Kirsty Allsop Cuttlebug embossing mat (It's slightly thicker than an old style Cuttlebug embossing mat)
• C Plate

DO NOT CLOSE THE EMBOSSING FOLDER!

I based this card on the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches

Having dug out some DP for a previous challenge I decided to try to use up a little more for Christmas cards. I have no idea what make this is. I used a dienamics pierced pennant for the front but shortened it somewhat to fit the sketch.

The snowflakes are from Simon Says Stamp and the joy sentiment from Sizzix.

A few cards

When I saw the challenge at Muse, it really appealed to me. I don't use designer paper much these days but to use it in a CAS way is still OK in my book.

This is from a sheet of HOTP Vintage Christmas paper. Each card uses a little of it and all have the theme of Christmas trees. Not a rubber stamp or ink pad got anywhere near any of these, they are all merely die-cuts... but they please me.

Sentiments by Simon Says Stamp and Sizzix, trees from  Memory Box and Poppy Stamps.

This is the inspiration! What beautiful cards!

Another Christmas card here this time following the sketch from CASe this Sketch!

Simon Says Stamp snowflakes and Sizzix sentiment on a Sheena Douglass embossed base.

Finally another card following a sketch, this time from Freshly Made Sketches

Once more I seem to be on a die-cutting trip. The sun is from Lawn Fawn, the hello from Clearly Besotted and the embossing folder from Darice.

Off to Slimming World again this evening... I've been on target weight-wise for quite some time, and although it might be good to be just a tad lighter, I feel pretty good at this weight. If I go too far, I start to really look my age! I guess I have to choose between too much around the middle or too little around the face!

Read all about it

The challenge at Less is More this week is to use newsprint somewhere in the design of the card.

• I began by stamping an Impression Obsession newsprint stamp onto some ivory paper.
• Next I stamped some Clearly Besotted leaves and an acorn in shades of Distress Ink, over the first stamping, placing the stamps in the orientation I needed for my finished card.
• I die-cut the leaves and the acorn and stuck them onto a piece of ivory card in the desired position. At this point the leaves were surrounded by the card on all sides.
• I drew  a pencil line from the top to the bottom of the card at the point where I wanted the die-cutting of the leaves to end and placed the card onto the cutting plate aligning my pencil line with the edge of the plate. Only the part of my card I wanted cutting was on the plate, the rest was hanging off the end. I then popped the dies over the leaves and acorn and ran it through my Cuttlebug. It took three passes to do this.
• I did a little more jiggery pokery to cut out the rest of the card with a Lil Inkers stitched die, cutting only up to the leaves and then reversing back through the machine. 

The small leaf was cut by hand as there isn't a matching die for it.

The sentiment is from Gina K Designs.

I think maybe a few pictures are called for for this technique! I'll see what I can do. I'm hoping Santa will bring me a video camera so that I can start to do some proper tutorials, if I can get the hang of it!.

This card is in the same vein although there is no partial die-cutting here. The same background stamp was used with the same set of leaves from Clearly Besotted.

The embossing folder is Adagio from Couture Creations and the sentiment is from Stampin' Up. I thought that the little cascade of pearls added a sweet little touch.

Today we will be looking after our grandchildren until tomorrow... should be fun!

HOME

New Home

I love this embossing folder from Cuttlebug, It takes ink really well, which is why this print worked out well. The text is a mix of Memory Box  alphas, and the Happy word from WPlus9. The little house is from a Poppy Stamp strip die of  houses.

CASology's key word this time is HOME so this kinda fits!

                                                         

Freshly Made Sketch

I really like this layout from Freshly Made Sketches and can see me using it many times over in future.

The DP on this is a scrap from Pink Petticoat which has been in my drawer for a while but I think it looks great in this small strip.

The punched hearts have been embossed with Holographic embossing powder and the font used for the sentiment is 'are you serious'. I thought that the rounded edges of the card matched the style of the font rather well.

Hi Sweetie

I have a few cards to make today and before I crack on with those, I'd just like to post this quickie card for CASology's Candy challenge before it closes.

This image is a digi from Dustin Pike, coloured with Mirage pens, cut out and popped up onto dimensional pads. The sentiment is computer generated in 'my oh my' font. I think it's rather cool... the font that is.

Now to get on with my day!

Little creatures

On Thursday I did a little demo-ing at my local Hobbycraft store. I was doing mainly die-cutting with my new Cuttlebug... my old one was rather like me...showing signs of age!

I met some really lovely people, although my start was delayed by an emergency trip to the dentist after breaking my temporary bridge on Wednesday evening. 

In getting out my stash to take, I suppose the idea for this card came to mind. These dear little ladybird dies are from Elizabeth Designs. (Sometimes it's quicker to check the make of products online rather than scrabbling through my drawer of empty packets to find out.) The branch is Memory Box and the flowers are Sizzix. The edge punch is from Martha Stewart.

More ladybirds here, this time from Impression Obsession. I think they're rather cool

The challenge at "Less is More" this week is Little Creatures... I think these are small enough.

This afternoon I shall be heading off for a little retail therapy with a couple of chums and then we will be joined in the evening by our respective spouses for a meal to celebrate my friend's birthday!

What a nice way to spend a day!

I would like to say hi to Elaine, whom I met in Hobbycraft the other day, I tried to reply to her comment but I'm not sure if it works going through Blogger. So, Hi Elaine and thanks for your kind words!

One, Two!

At "Less is More" this week the challenge is to have a ONE layer card, with two of something on it!

Here are my efforts for this week.

I opened a drawer and spotted the stamp for this pair of Santa's boots and couldn't resist them. I clear embossed them after stamping to make them nice and shiny and added a little Flowersoft to the tops of them for the furry bits. The stamp is from Hero Arts, framed by an embossed, Dienamics pierced square.

Here are a couple of digi flowers from A Day for Daisies, which I combined and added a computer generated sentiment.

They were coloured with watercolour pencils and blended with a water brush.

The spatters are from Stampin' Up's Gorgeous Grunge set.

This last one is actually a one layer for the image, it's merely added to the front of the card to conceal the inks which bled through from the colouring.  I could have left it as a card front, but it looks a little gross on the inside without doing this process.

The stamp is an old one which needs to be glued to the acrylic block, as it isn't self adhering. I'm afraid I don't know the make. The sentiment is from Mama Elephant.

I've been busy this week finishing some stationery and bits and bobs for a wedding. Here is one of the table names, a place card and a card for one of the guests on each table who is being nominated to be the carver for his table. 

The tall card is a menu.

I haven't stuck the table plan down yet, I want to make sure that the bride is happy with the orientation before I finally stick it!

                      

I made a whole bunch of these bags , for the bride and groom to pop some favours in and place on the pillow of each guest. They are taking over the whole hotel! I think they're going to include some paracetamol!

Use a stencil

I drew and cut this stencil with my Silhouette. It's made from acetate and so can be used over and over again. I used Sweet Poppy Pearlescent White embossing paste, which gives a lovely sheen.

The butterfly is cut from a Memory Box pair of dies. The top layer cut from vellum and then coated with Wink of Stella in Black. Sadly the hints of gold don't show up in this picture. The sentiment is from Penny Black and it's finished off with a few pearls and black studs.

It's for Addicted to CAS's challenge  - Stencil

I am dedicating this card to my bloggy buddy June.
Have a wonderful birthday June

Lovely colours

When I saw the colours at CAS.. Colours and Sketches this week I really wanted to make a card using them. Here it is!

The colours were

and I decided to use the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches to follow

I didn't have any Lost Lagoon ink so I used a pen in a similar shade.

The image is a digi by Beccy of Beccy's Place.

I made the tag with the twine on, by cutting a pierced fish tail pennant die from Dienamics, making a fish tail at each end of the cut. I also elongated the rectangular die-cut beneath it so that the proportions would be appropriate.

The sentiment is from Lili of the Valley.

KIS

The challenge at Keep It Simple this time is  3.

Here is a simple card with three die-cuts.

They are all from Simon Says Stamp, I really like the script of this sentiment.

 I pierced the edge by hand and was pleased at how evenly it worked out.

I may make a few of these this Christmas!

My Time to Craft -Die-Cuts

CAS on Sunday

For the challenge at CAS on Sunday, I made this card

following this lovely inspiration

As you can see I have kept fairly closely to the original. My butterfly is a Hero Arts digi, coloured with Mirage Pens and a little mica, then covered with Glossy Accents.

The side panel is made with a piece of Black Co-ordinations paper and a Cuttlebug EF,then sanded. The underneath colour wasn't quite close enough in colour to the butterfly, so I sloshed on a little Distress Ink. The happy die is W+9 and the day is part of a Clearly Besotted die.

Easy Peasy really.

This one is based on the same inspiration and is for the challenge at Just add Ink

Just add Baby!

A few cards made on World Cardmaking Day... that can't be bad!

Autumn's Bounty

What a poetic title for a colour challenge... but I'm sure everyone knows what is meant by that!

I love autumn shades and here are the cards I made for the autumn colours challenge at "Less is More" this week!

I used this image yesterday when preparing  service sheets for a Harvest Festival service for a priest friend, for this coming weekend. It accompanied the hymn "Praise and Thanksgiving" which has a line in it which reads "Fruits of the orchard". I thought it was quite appropriate. It wasn't coloured on the service sheets however. Here I used Mirage Pens and a little Glossy Accents.

The embossing folder is one I bought today from Cuttlebug and the sentiment is from Tattered Lace. I think it's a Dienamics tag which I shortened slightly.

For this I coloured a piece of card with distress Inks using sponge daubers and then die-cut the leaves using a Cheery Lynn set of dies. The background is simply a splodge of inks using a watercolour brush. I can't remember the make of the sentiment... I'm thinking Simon Says Stamp but can't be sure.

This is also for Retro Sketch #135 and I'm using Sketch #132 

I cut these little trees from the scraps from the previous card's left overs. The harvest moon was masked and the sky inked with Stormy Sky distress ink. The sentiment is from Hero Arts.

Unusual Christmas

The challenge at AAA Cards

is

KRAFT PAPER, VELLUM, GLITTER, A STAMP & A HOLIDAY

My card has a couple of Dee Distinctively Christmas trees, one in plain white card and the other overlaid with vellum, both of which have had a lick of clear Wink of Stella. The background has been embossed with Sheena Douglass's Snowy embossing folder and decorated with a few glittered stars. The Memory Box sentiment was cut with a Spellbinder tag die. It's an unusual colour combo of Christmas but I quite like it!