CCM #98 - Fun In The Sun!

So, summer is supposed to be here - although it really seemed to come and go during the school summer term - I remember sweltering in my classroom with 32 hot and tired 8-year olds, and finding little respite outside under the trees in the grounds!! But, in the true British spirit, we never give up, and hope that another hot spell is just around the corner! And this time at Crafty Cardmakers we are hoping to encourage the sun out again with our 'Fun in the Sun' challenge!! 

Lin would like to see something related to summer fun - maybe holidays, or in the garden - basically something that you would do outdoors when the sun is shining that is fun, clean and legal!! 

Our sponsors this week are Saturated Canary who are offering two of their gorgeous digi stamps, and also Sir Stampalot!! 

I love camping - my family were never into it, but I first encountered it through Brownies, and finally caught the bug when I did my first DofE expedition. When I was single, I would head off on my own during my holidays, and my love of the outdoors grew. Now I am married, I have a husband who also likes the outdoors and camping, so we still tend to go most years - initially with my step-children when they were smaller - and now on our own. I have to admit that it has evolved from the days where I was happy to plonk my small tent in a field with little or no amenities. Now we have all the mod cons that electrical hook-up can provide. And a tent that does not require getting on hands and knees to enter!! 

I remember from my Brownie days, the whole toasting of marshmallows over the open fire - and later using the flam from my little gas burner!! I still love the charred outside with the really gooey centre!! So, when I saw the "Camping" digi from our sponsors, I just had to choose that for this challenge. I also relate to the longer socks and slip-ons thing she has going on - as that is generally what I end up pottering round a campsite in!!

So here's the card! I have used a piece of brown card stock from my stash, embossed with Spellbinders Dainty Dots grand MBossabilities folder, and folded into an A5 card. The rest of the card is from my scraps box. The orange and green patterned card is Kanban, whilst the lighter brown is Bazzill. I cannot remember where the distressed brown card came from. The sentiment is from a really old, cheapie set of sentiment stamps that I bought years ago, and the butterfly decoration was cut using Spellbinders Decorative Inserts 6. All elements were edged with Gathered Twigs DI.

The image was printed onto Joanna Sheen Elegance card (300gsm) and then coloured with Promarkers:

Logs/stick - Walnut, Cocoa, Henna, Terracotta, Tawny Owl

Fire - Pastel Yellow, Apricot, Ginger, Spice, Red

T-Shirt/Grass - Fresh Meadow, Apple, Grass, Forest Green

Skin - Almond, Ivory, Dusky Pink

Hair - Tawny Owl, Henna, Walnut

Socks/Shorts - Tawny Owl, Cocoa

Slippers - Soft Peach, Tequila Sunrise, Orange

I used Wild Honey DI to ink whilst the image was still in the Spellbinders Rectangle die, and then Cosmic Shimmer Aqua Twinkles on the flames, Sepia Accents on her hair, and Glossy Accents on the butterflies. Some little golden Kanban pearls finish it off!

So now it's your turn! Make sure you visit the Crafty Cardmakers blog to check out all the other DT inspiration. 

See you soon!! 

Cxx

Anyone for cricket?

Just a quick post. This card was a commission. It's a 6" square boxed card. The base card and box were made from a large sheet of Centura Pearl Bronze card. 

For the cricket theme, I used two of the large toppers from the Kanban Afternoon Cricket topper sheet. 

The mats are cut from Bazzill card and more of the Bronze Centura pearl, using Spellbinders Lacey, Scalloped and Classic squares. I added a few buttons from my stash for embellishment! The lettering was cut with my X-Cut alphabet dies.

For the inside of the box, I used the smaller toppers from the sheet.

Cxx

CCM #97 - 1, 2, 3 Challenge!!

How quickly has the last two weeks gone!! The end of term is always frenetic!! But, it's all over now and the holiday stretches wonderfully in front of me!!

So, on to this fortnight's challenge - which will actually run for 3 weeks - so plenty of time to get your entries in!  Our challenge is 1, 2, 3:

1 image

2 patterned papers

3 embellishments

We are sponsored this time by The Paper Shelter who have a $20 gift certificate on offer, and also by Woodware with £12 to spend on-line or in-store!

I have chosen to use an image from our sponsors, The Paper Shelter, called 'Yummy'! 

I coloured the image using Promarkers:

Ice cream - Blush, Apricot; Tawny Owl; Wild Cranberry, Rose Pink

Cream topping - Almond, Morning Mist, Cocoa

Cherry - Wild Cranberry, Rose Pink

Wafers - Tequila Sunrise, Blush, Ginger; Blush, Cocoa

Sundae glass - Morning Mist

The image was cut out with Spellbinders long scalloped rectangle, and I used Picked Raspberry DI to ink whilst still in the die. I added some Cosmic Shimmer Aqua Twinkles to the cherry and top layer of pink ice-cream.

The coffee-coloured swirl card is Kanban, edged using Spellbinders triple scallop and matching insert. The cream paper is Papermania Ivory Creative Tones. 

For my 3 embellishments, I have used ribbon, a button and pearls from my stash - all in pinky/purplish tones to complement the image.

Pop on over to Crafty Cardmakers to see all the wonderful inspiration from the Design Team - then start crafting!!

I would like to enter this into the following:
Dream Valley Challenges - Summer Days
Hobbycutz - Summer

Cxxx

CCM #96 - Birthday!!!

Woohoo! Crafty Cardmakers is 4 years old, and I have been lucky enough to be part of the team for over a year and a half.  So, it's only fitting that this challenge is all about Birthdays!! Our esteemed leader, Lin, is hosting, and she would like to see your birthday creations to help us celebrate!

We are sponsored this time be Di's Digistamps who are offering a $10 gift voucher.
 
And by Hobby Art, who are offering a gorgeous set of stamps. 

So, here is my offering for the challenge. I started with a Craftwork Cards 148mm square base card.

I embossed a piece of white card with an Embossalicious 6x6 Floralbunda folder. I used an old Colorbox Petal Point silver pad to ink around the edges of the embossed card, the Craftwork Cards Warren Rabbit topper and sentiment. The paper I have used is Papermania Ivory/Black Creative Tones. The topper and sentiment are mounted on Spellbinders Splendid Circles. The grey and white grosgrain ribbon is from my stash, as are the black gems and white pearls. The hat pins are from Creative Expressions.

Make sure you pop over to the Crafty Cardmakers blog to check out the rest of the design team inpiration. 

I would like to enter this into the following:

613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes with Birthday twist

My Creative Moments - Word Play Saturday - Birthday

Be back soon.
Cxxx

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!