Catching up!

It has been a while since I have blogged anything other than a CCM Challenge Card. As we are heading towards the summer holidays and school is starting to wind down, I am at last finding time to catch up with all sorts of things. The garden is finally tidy, and all my veggies and salad stuffs are growing - way behind where I would normally be - but at least it its all in motion now.

The sun has been shining today, and I have sat in garden for a while too - just relaxing. I am looking forward to completing my year of teaching, and returning to supply teaching in September. I have missed being able to craft and create in my own time - everything this past year has been very pressured and constrained by time. That said, I'll probably be worrying by October that I don't have enough work to pay the bills!

So, I have decided to start blogging some of the cards I have created for family and friends over the past few months, and hopefully this will get me back into blogging more regularly!

I'm starting with a card from April. This was my niece's birthday card back in April. 

At the time, she was a blue belt (hence the colour scheme) but this past week has gained her purple belt! 

I used Promarkers to colour in the Karate Girl image from Mo's Digital Pencil. It's so long ago, that I can't actually remember which pens I used. I know I used Joanna Sheen's Elegance card to print the image on.

The blue card is from my local market, and the patterned card from DCWV Spring Glitter Stack. I used Spellbinder Classic Triple Scallop Edgeability, and an insert from the Classic Postage set to create the decorative edge. The fancy mat is Spellbinder Decorative Labels  27 (cut in half). The lettering is cut using X-Cut dies, and I added a piece of pink ribbon, and blue and pink pearls from my stash.

I would like to enter this into:

Send a Smile for Kids - For the Girls

Hopefully be back with another post soon!! 

Cxx

CCM #94 - Steampunk!

This week's challenge is hosted by Doreen, who has chosen 'Steampunk' as her theme. We are sponsored by Di's DigiStamps with a $10 gift certificate, and by The Stampman with a £10 gift voucher.

Now I like the idea of Steampunk, but it's not really something I choose to use much in my cards. I did however, buy the Kanban Steampunk toppers when they first came out. Now, I know a lot of the true 'Steampunk'ers out there may consider this not to be a true representation, but I really like it - so have chosen to use 'Harrison' as the focal image for my card.

The cream base card is from Craftwork Cards, and I have used Kraft card by Papermania. I started by stamping the Papermania Beautiful Timepieces Urban stamp, and the largest of the Boofles Urban stamp Patchwork set onto the Kraft Card using Frayed Burlap DI. As I tried to make this into a kind of patchwork effect, there were gaps where it wasn't lined up correctly, so I used one of the cogs from the Chronology set of stamps that came free with DoCrafts Creativity magazine a while ago to fill in the gaps. I then embossed this with That Special Touch Cogs masked and used the Frayed Burlap direct to paper to bring some of this to the forefront. I ran a pair of scissors along the edge, before inking them.

On another piece of Kraft card, I stamped the armillary from the freebie stamp set. It's wierd, but I've always wanted one of the those for my garden. I cut this to size and then stamped another of the cogs around the edges, before distressing and inking them. 

The 3 embellishments are bottle caps.I stamped 3 cogs and roughly cut them out, before sticking them into the caps. I then stuck in some Cousin's charms - they look a little like pocket watches even though they aren't! I also added some Mother of Pearl mica flakes into the bottom before pouring on clear UTEE from my Melt Pot.  Am quite pleased with how they turned out - but it did come at a price. I tend to pour any left over UTEE into little silicone moulds so that I have solid lumps rather than lots of fragments. I had quite a bit left so needed more than one mould. Totally forgetting what I was dealing with, I managed to put my thumb into the the first one whilst trying to move it out of the way for the second. The high pitched yelp brought my OH running very quickly to see what had happened. Let's just say, it took a while under the cold tap before I managed to break off all the (now set) UTEE. I do seem to have come off lightly - no blister or scarring - only very sore skin! 

I also stamped the pocket watch from the Chronology set onto Shrink Plastic (one with a grid pattern on it) using Timber Brown Stazon. I cut this out before shrinking with my heat gun.

I inked the edges of the topper to dull it down a bit, then finished off with some twine and a matching sentiment. 

Pop on over to the Crafty Cardmakers blog to see how the other DT members have interpreted this challenge.

Cxxx

CCM #93 - Father's Day

This fortnight our challenge is hosted by Feebsy who has chosen Father's Day as her theme. It's Father's Day here in the UK on 16th June - so we want to see creations inspired by the father figure in your life. It can be anything from a card to a scrapbook page, or a knitted scarf to a piece of altered art. It doesn't have to be specifically for Father's Day - but please let us know the inspiration for your work in order to qualify for the prize draw.

We are sponsored this time by The Paper Shelter who are offering a $20 gift certificate, and also by Woodware.

       

I have chosen to use 'My Little Garden' from The Paper Shelter, and make a Father's Day card for my Dad.

Dad was 72 this month, and retired 7 years ago. One of his passions now is his 'little garden'. He spends a lot of time there growing things from seed and from cuttings. He has passed this love of gardening on to me - and also to my eldest niece, who has set up a 'hospital' for any sick plants that need special care.

I started with a piece of green card that I picked up at a local market, and ran it through my Grand Calibur with an A4 Spellbinders MBossability folder called Dainty Dots. I used the 4 dot diamond design side for this. I bought this folder ages ago - then got caught out as my machine was the old one! I recently bought a new set of plates and my hubbie managed to take out the original guide plate and replace it with the new one. So now, I can use this great embossing folder.

The digi stamp was printed onto Joanna Sheen Elegance card and I used my Promarkers to colour it in:

Watering Can: Cool Grey 1, 2 and 4

Plant Pot: Morning Mist, March Hare and Sandstone

Flowers: Eggnog/Lemon, Daffodil Bloom/Tulip Yellow, and Summer Sun

Grass/Foliage: Forest Green, Apple, Grass, Fresh Meadow

The green backing card is Kanban Ornate Floral Vines, and the yellow is Hunkydory (not sure exactly what kit it was from). I used Spellbinders Grand ovals and Grand scalloped ovals to cut the image and mats, and inked the edge of the image with Iced Spruce DI.  The sentiment was stamped with a mini alphabet stamp set and DI, and cut with the Ovals die.

The wide ribbon has been in my stash forever - no idea where I got it from it's that old!!

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

My Sheri Crafts - Father's Day

Pumpkin Spice - Father

Sweet Stampin' - Father's Day

Wags n Whiskers - Father's Day

By for now!