Fancy Fold

A little time agao I saw a video from Jennifer McGuire demonstrating a Bridge fold card and so I thought I would try it. I have worked out a couple of sets of dimensions which will fit into British envelopes. This one is for a 150 x 150 mm envelope. The joy of these three dimensional cards is that they readily fold flat for mailing.

I began by making the card base and then searched for a set of heart dies which could make a frame to bridge the gap across the front. I found these from Little B amongst my stash. The Mr & Mrs die is from Kaisercraft, although I think it is now discontinued. It was just too small to attach across the heart so I cut a piece of acetate to put behind the heart on to which I could attach the words. I used an embossing folder from Couture Creations (which co-ordinated really well with the foliage sprig from Sizzix,) for the back panel. To complete the card I added a twinkle of Glamour Dust on the heart and the sentiment and added a few tiny pearls as berries. The edges of the front flaps were cut with a border die from Stampin' Up.

Addicted to CAS

Just Us Girls

2 Step Stamping

A friend asked to make a couple of cards and requested her friend's name with some flowers and sparkles on the front.

I made the name on my Silhouette from some thinnish card in Buttercup Sample font. With this particular font I only had to move the first letter a little closer to the second letter in order to weld the letters together, as it is such a flowing font.

The flowers are from Altenew; the secondary stamping with Stampin Up Baja Breeze ink, which matches the colour of card really well. Both the name and parts of the flowers were twinkled with Glamour Dust and a few tiny, tiny gems sprinkled over the flowers. She wanted the birthday greeting to be printed inside the card, so I used the same font for that.

As the flower heads are in one corner of the card I thought that I would include it in the challenge from AAA Cards

This card also has the image in one corner but as it isn't flowers I didn't think I would add it to the AAA challenge.  This one is for the challenge at CASology where the prompt word is Ring.

Here I use a simple image from Winnie and Walter and a sentiment from DoCrafts. I stamped it in Stampin' Up Baked Brown Sugar and simply watercoloured the centre.

I noticed that one of the fabulous DT has used a tree ring for her card, but it's the first thing which came to my mind which I knew I had an image for!

Daisy

At the end of the week my eldest grandchild will be 11 years old, about to leave Primary school and move on to Secondary school.  In September she will be starting at the Royal High School in Bath and she can hardly wait! We will be going to see her this weekend to help her celebrate!

For this card I made the name with my Silhouette and die cut a few daisies, I think the may be Memory Box but I'm not sure. I dry embossed the centre panel with a Cuttlebug folder, extending it a little to fit the width of my card. It's easy to emboss from both ends matching a symmetrical pattern like this.  The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted. I twinkled the name and the centre of the daisies with a little Glamour Dust.

It's based on the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches

I'm off now to buy her gift!

Bridge Card

The other day I watched a video of Jennifer McGuire making a card with this different fold, which she called a Bridge Card and I thought I would like to try it out. Being in the UK I had to work out sizes to match our card and envelopes, so after a little experiment with a bit of scrap paper, I managed to work it out.

Despite being 3 Dimensional, it still folds flat for mailing.

I am often asked for cards with specific references, by members of my choir, . This one was for an old Naval friend with whom the choir member had served in submarines many years ago. He was to be having his 68th birthday and he was a Scot. The tartan he wears for formal occasions is the Ancient Lamont. So here is a card with the Lamont tartan, a picture of a submarine, his age and his name. I hope it will do!

My friend sent me a picture of the tartan which I printed out to use as the background. I used a  clipart submarine ( I thought it better to have a cartoon type image rather than risk getting the wrong class of submarine).

I made the name element with my Silhouette, mounting it on an offset and covering with a layer of Glossy accents.

 Seize the birthday  - Topping - Cover the card

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge
Vacation - Travel

Christmas elf

I have used this little elf from Bugboo once before; that time sitting him on a dry embossed wall. This time I decided to add  a gift box for him to perch on. I drew this in Word and sat him on it. I then decided to paper piece the gift. After cutting it out  thought that I would add a real pice of ribbon to the box. It was a bit of a fiddle but I finally managed to get it on, slitting the card to the side of his feet to draw the ribbon through to make it go behind his feet.

The sentiment is from MFT.

Fusion (Just the sketch)

CAS Christmas

Digging out old stamps

When I saw this sketch from CASe this Sketch

I immediately remembered that I had a set of stamps from Artemio which should fit the bill. The fortunate thing was being able to put my hand straight onto them (not a frequent occurrence).

The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted and the die cuts from MFT.

Cleo my granddaughter is taking a nap so hence my haste... a card made and blogged within nap time!

Rescued!

Don't you just hate it when a card has gone well during creation only to be ruined at the last moment!

I felt that this one was fine until I stamped the sentiment in my MISTI. Someone once gave me a tip that to make the magnets easier to handle, a cover of Washi tape made them easier to handle. Sadly one of the magnets had got  something on it which transferred to the bottom corner of the card. I'm not really sure what it was but it was indelible. My answer to the problem was to trim the top panel quite drastically from its original size. I think it still just about works.

Inspired by the Ombre challenge at CAS Mix Up I made this one for the Challenge  at Just US Girls.

I even went as far as using similar colours to those in the prompt.

The stamp is from Papertrey Ink, inked with Versamark, sprinkled with three shades of WOW embossing powder and heat set.

The sentiment from Clearly Besotted was stamped with Stampin' Up, Night of Navy ink. The butterfly dies are from Simon Says Stamp.

Here is my second rescue of the day!

I was going to cut out this AI image with a rectangle Framelit die, but somehow the die must have shifted just a tad as I began to wind it through my Big Shot so that the fire extinguisher ended up right at the edge of the cut out and was totally unbalanced. The remedy was to cut the whole thing out with scissors, smoothing the edges with an embossing tool to give  a better finish and mounting  it on dimensional pads. I think in fact that this was a better treatment than the one I originally planned. The sentiment which was part of the original Framelit diecut was just re-cut with a little, stitched, rounded corner, square die.

It's for the challenge at CAS on Friday - People

Maidenhair fern

There's still time to join in with the challenge at CAS Stencil this month where the challenge is to use Perfect Pearls or Pearl Ex.

Here I used a large stencil from Ryn Stencils. As it is such a huge stencil I used just part of it. I stamped through the stencil with Versamark Ink and the after removing the stencil added Perfect Pearls in two shades of green... Interference Green and Green Patina, using a soft brush. After buffing away all the excess powder I set the image by wafting the card through a mist of water, not spraying directly onto the card. As I wanted to keep some 'white space' in the card, I added the sentiment (Clearly Besotted) over part of the image and dusted the fronds with a few minuscule gems!

It was a real delight to be Guest Designer this month, as I simply love the challenges at CAS 'Central'!

Watercolour die cut

I find something really serene about this die cut flower from Sizzix. I coloured it with Brushos and love to see the reaction when water is added. Some shades seem to separate into several component colours and I think the effect is fascinating! Simplicity itself.

The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted. 

CAS watercolour Something Blue

Texture Paste

A little time ago I dug out some texture paste to use for one of the challenges at CAS Mix Up and since then I have wondered why it remained in the drawer for so long untouched!

Here I used some Pearlescent White Embossing Paste by Sweet Poppy, through a Craft Workshop stencil. I sprinkled a few shades of Brushos onto the stencil before removing it.

The stencil itself looked pretty good so I took many prints from it, by activating it further with a few spritzes of water. Now I have lots of backgrounds in hand! 

I cut the aperture with an MFT Peekaboo square and added a sentiment from Clearly Besotted. Sadly I don't recall the make of the bird die which I double layered for added dimension.

It's for the challenge  at Just Us Girls - Texture Paste

Here is a card made from one of the prints from the stencil.

After lifting the stencil from the card, I spritzed it with water, which activated some more of the Brusho powder, then placed it onto another piece of card, using a piece of paper towel over it to add pressure. I was really pleased with the watery, ombre look. Some die cuts flowers from Alexandra Renke and a simple sentiment from Hero Arts completed the card.

CAS Mix Up - Ombre

CAS Watercolour - Blue

No Peeking

Have you ever started something and thought "I wish I hadn't had this idea!"?

When I dreamt up this card, I thought that I would colour the image with alcohol markers, but then thought that they would show through onto the inside of the card, so then I thought that I would paper piece the image instead....bad idea, these pieces are miniscule!!!!! The card is  5"x 5", so the gifts are tiny! What started out as a potentially quick card turned out to be anything but quick!

The image is from MFT and the sentiment from Penny Black. The embossed  stitched square is from SSS.

It's for the challenge at CAS Christmas

Ombre Birthday

Today I thought that I would have another go at doing a card for the CAS Mix Up challenge, which this month is OMBRE

For this card I used a Papertrey Ink stamp, inked with Versamark and then stamped onto black paper. I used three metallic shades of embossing powder, sprinkled sideways over the image and heat set.

The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted.

The dragonfly, from a Memory Box die, was cut three times and layered to add a little dimension and the wings cut from vellum, dry embossed to give a little texture and wiped with a metallic gold inkpad. This was my attempt at a little veining for the wings.

Twinkle toes

Oh to be able to wear shoes like this! There was a time many moons ago that I might have managed a few moments in heels as high as this but these days comfort is much too important!

I love these quirky images from Bugaboo and I know just who I can send this card to!

It's my DT card for the Christmas challenge at Happy Little Stampers!

It was coloured with alcohol markers, a Gelly Roll pen and a little Wink of Stella. I cut it out with an MFT pierced die and made the sentiment on the computer.

As I got into a little  water colouring on board my last cruise I need to go and get some more supplies... it's surprising how quickly I got through my little pan of ultra marine! However for this card I thought that the markers would have a little more impact than water colours.
Christmas Kickstart CHALLENGE
Elves and the Shoemaker

Perfect Iris

Recently I was lucky enough to win the challenge at CAS Stencil. It was for using Embossing Paste with a stencil and this was the card chosen.

As well as receiving some lovely goodies, I was asked to do a Guest Designer spot for their challenge, (which this time is to use Perfect Pearls or Pearl EX) and so I thought that I would use a similar layout to that card.

For this new card I made a stencil from vellum, again using a Sizzix die. 

I laid the stencil over my card and tamped it with a Versamark inkpad. After removing the stencil I added Perfect Pearls in Pewter using a soft brush. To set the medium, I wafted the card through a mist of water from a spray bottle, not spraying directly onto the card.

I cut the Iris using a Penny Black die, from a piece of deep grey card to complement the pewter Perfect Pearls and added a layered die cut sentiment which completed the card!

  

These are such great challenges, I do hope you will join in with us!

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge
Anything Goes

Watercolour

I really enjoyed the watercolour classes on my recent Cunard cruise. Here I used a technique which I learned there. It was to make a background wash, by having the paper at an angle and drawing the fairly wet brush across, using the drip line of one row to begin the next one. I changed from using Intense blue to Ultramarine, gradually adding more and more water to give the Ombre look, which is the challenge this time at CAS Mix Up.

I die cut the Sizzix 'Peace' sentiment and layered it three times to give some additional dimension. The star is a triple layered die cut from Memory Box and the the 'ON EARTH' part of the sentiment was stamped and embossed in silver  from a Papertrey Ink stamp set. A few gems finished the card.

It's also for the CAS Watercolour challenge which this time has the theme SOMETHING BLUE.

CASology Calm

Dancing Chickens?

A friend of mine saw my last chicken card and asked if I had any chickens dancing... she wanted a card for a fitness instructor whose class was dance based. My Penny Black chicken stamp had chickens which were definitely exercising, but not necessarily dancing, so I decided to try a little masking to see if I could change their appearance somewhat!

Before inking, I masked out the chicken on the right, plus the towel and the dumbbells using a little sticky tape. After I had removed the tape and stamped the image, I filled in the missing bits with a fine tipped pen, before gently colouring with Copic Markers.

The sentiment was computer generated once more using Buttercup Sample font.

CAS on Friday  - Use Bird(s)

In Shape

The theme at Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge this time is FUNNY

I love this chicken ... she is part of a larger Penny Black Stamp, which I masked before inking, so as to get just this one lovely lady! After colouring with alcohol markers, I cut her out and popped her onto... what else but a circle!

The sentiment was generated on the computer and printed directly onto the card.

I get the positioning of the text where I want it by setting the zoom to 105% in my Word program, which makes the image on my screen the same as a sheet of  A4. With a piece of copy paper (which I can see through) cut to the size of the card front, I place it over the screen and as I put the text in text boxes, I can just grab them and move them to the desired position. Very technical... but it works for me.
CAS on Friday Use Bird(s)