Distressed Butterflies

This is a fairly simple card that took me a long time to make. I went to my local shop, Made By You, last week and had a play with Distress Inks sponged onto the background, this is a card I came up with. I'm entering it for two butterfly challenges: the first is Danni's Flutterby Wednesday and this week Quixotic Challenges also has a butterfly theme.

The stamps are by Crafty Individuals. I stamped the butterflies onto a piece of card using Aged Mahogany and then on a larger piece in dark brown, then added lots of inks with sponges until I got a heavily antiqued effect. I also stamped a couple of framed flowers repeatedly and sponged them with slightly lighter inks, then cut out a frame. The smaller piece of card was stuck inside the frame and both were then put onto the larger piece of card, using pads for the frame. I added a cutout butterfly to the frame.

Purple flutter-by

Danni has been running the Flutterby Wednesday Challenge for ages now; I don't get to play along as often as I'd like. This week, for a change, I have a card to submit for the challenge. I visited the shop Made by You last Friday and had a play with some of Pat's workshop bits and pieces and came up with a couple of cards, including this one that I finished up at home. The butterfly is a Little Claire clear stamp, very large and ideal to use with shrink plastic. I've stamped it twice, silver embossed it and painted it with Distress Inks straight from the bottle, something I've not used before. The two background panels are stamped with a Papermania scrolly-leaf stamp in Distress Inks and the first panel also has some inks applied with a sponge. The vine shapes were cut from a long Cuttlebug border, I stuck both these and the butterfly layers down with silicon glue to give them dimension.

Nearly there!

I finished the first Christmas card list and now I'm finishing the second list - the ones I forgot first time round or got cards from someone I didn't expect to - am I the only person disorganised enough to have two lists? LOL! This is a quickie card for our new neighbours, the stamps are Artemio clear stamps that I bought from Made by You in Swindon. Papers is DCWV and the sentiment came from Craftwork Cards, as did the scalloped card.

There are a few last minute Christmas challenges around so this is entered for:

• Stamp Something Challenge - Holiday Somethings
• My Time to Craft Challenge - Yuletide Wishes
• Simon Says - Merry Christmas
• Crafty Creations - Traditional Christmas (red green and gold)
  

Monochrome Christmas

This is a quick posting of a card for Spoonful of Sugar's monochrome challenge. I learnt how to make cards with a swinging centre a few weeks back when I went to a class at Made by You in Swindon. It's a tricky card to take a good photo of but essentially it's folded so that the centre square hangs as though it's suspended, you can decorate the front and the back of the square. I opted for a clean and simple card, using clear Hero Arts stamps for the image and the border. They are stamped in Versamark and embossed with crimson powder.

The picture below isn't for the monochrome challenge; it's another of the swing cards, this time experimenting with a circle centre. The image is a digi from Shirleys2Girls and I used Paint to change the image so my reindeer had a back view as well as a front one :).

Oh Deer! No backing papers - Charisma Cardz

I've got a fairly simple card to show you today, made using the Woodware deer set again, which I'm really keen on using for Christmas cards. This week's Charisma Cardz Challenge calls for no patterned papers which I decided was ideal to show off this stepped card. I learnt how to make the stepped card in a class at Made by You, which also used the deer stamps. I've used Distress Inks in different shades of brown to make up the scenes for my card and the sentiment is also a Woodware one. Matted onto bronze pearlised card, a couple of pieces of card candy added in brown and finished!

Let it Snow

Here's another card made with that Woodware deer stamps set, this time looking very different for Stamp Something's Bling It Up Challenge and also for If The Shoe Fit's Bling It On Challenge. I've also discovered a new-to-me blog called Saturday Spotlight Challenge, their challenge this week is to make a scene. This is a variation of a card I saw in Made By You when I went there for a class. This card looks much better in real life than in the photo, I find mirror card and sparkly embossing very hard to photograph, sorry.

The idea of the card is to experiment with some quick and easy cards for Christmas. The hills are made by sponging Versamark onto navy cardstock, over torn photocopying paper hills and embossing with Silver Tinsel embossing powder. Then I've added trees, moon and deer and embossed again. The snow is made with Liquid Pearls, that have Glamour Dust scattered across while they're still wet, there's also some on top of the hills, though it's hard to see in the photo. Matted onto silver card and then more navy, sentiment added and also a couple of rhinestones in case it needed more bling :).

It's quite a quick card to make, what do you think? I think it needs something more, but then it may not be a quick and easy card any more...

Yes, Deer, it's a Pop-up Card!

A month or so back I bought a beautiful Woodware stamp set of reindeer and backgrounds, fell in love with it but couldn't think how or what to make. I was in the shop where I bought them earlier this week, Made By You, and the owner showed me a series of three gorgeous and different cards that she made with them, for a class. I never seem to be available for a class on the days they are being taught, but Pat very kindly let me tag onto another stamping class today and play with the reindeer!

This is all stamped and sponged with Distress Ink in Soot and Weathered Wood, so I'm entering it for Charisma Card's Challenge this week, It's so Distressing

Torn paper was used to shape the hills which were added using ink on Cut & Dry foam. The moon, trees, fence, grass and deer silhouettes are all from the same set, as are the reindeer embossed in white on black card. The reindeer are cut out and attached with foam pads. A Christmas sentiment is stamped and matted onto the pop-up and I've stamped black scrolls around the main card. Here's a detail of the pop-up:

Now I've made this card I can see how simple pop-up cards can be, but this was something I've put off doing - until now. The pop-up was easy, the most time consuming part was cutting out round those antlers! Please forgive the pun but I can see this card style popping up a lot on my blog in the near future :).

Waiting for Santa's Sleigh

Looks like I'm feeling Christmassy this week, here comes another card! This card is a CASE of a card I saw at Made by You last week that Pat, the owner had made. I saw the card and HAD to get the stamp set :). Oops how many times has that happened? The stamp set is by Creative Expressions, they have a set of Stylish Christmas stamps, I think this is number 3. A Spoonful of Sugar's challenge this week is Christmas, so this is my challenge entry.

I folded an A4 piece of card into three and then cut it down into a square to make a concertina card, I used the rest of the cardstock to cut 3 squares to stamp onto and then matted them onto silver Mirri card. I embossed the three different sizes of tree onto the squares, as well as the sleigh and heat embossed them with black sparkle. I used a post-It to cut out a mask for the moon and used watercolour Stargazers paint on the background. I love this card, I just need to find a small square envelope for it!

Simon Says Red & Green

It must be getting closer to Christmas... Simon Says has Red & Green as their challenge this week. There's the chance to win their challenge, but also don't forget that Lorraine gives away weekly candy to those who enter the Challenge, as do several of the other Design Team members.

My card is one I made at Made By You's Macmillan Coffee Morning last week, I hope they raised lots of money for cancer care. It's a simple card that I can make easily, it's always hard work getting all those Christmas cards made, so one that's straightforward is always welcome :). I've embossed cardstock with the holly Cuttlebug folder and sponged three shades of green Distress Ink across it: Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint and Pine Needles. I wonder who gets to think up the names, aren't they evocative? The berries are coloured with a red Tombow pen. I used a glue pen on the berries and the stems and added Glamour Dust to them. The embossing is mounted onto dark green card. The organza ribbon is stuck to a wide piece of double-sided tape and more Glamour Dust gives it a sparkly margin.

I think I'm going to make a few of these, they look good for minimal effort :)

PS Last day to enter my Blog Candy! I'm adding in a mystery extra candy, make sure you've entered.

Christmas Teddybear

Here's another of the new release Lili of the Valley stamps that I got, cute isn't he? I had fun colouring him with my Copics; normally I really work hard to keep the colouring even but on the teddy I had a great time scribbling to get a furry look :).

I've covered several challenges here:

• The sketch is Lili of the Valley's challenge this week

• One Stop Craft Challenge has Beary Nice as its theme
• Simon Says want stitching - real or faux and
  
• Pile It On calls for us to use our punches

Image is coloured with Copics and Promarkers, the background has Adirondack Denim ink sponged onto it. There is faux stitching around the edges and I've used a corner punch on the image and its mat. The papers came as a magazine insert and are all matted onto plain navy; the snowflakes are punched from pink card tha I've coloured with a Copic to match the teddie's presents. I've added Perfect Pearls to the snowflakes and some of the papers. Sentiment is from a new Woodware set of clear stamps that I bought today at Made By You.

I had a lovely crafty morning at Made by You today; workshops were running all day in aid of the Macmillan Cancer Nurses Coffee mornings. I made some simple Christmas cards, ate cake, had fun and did some shopping :). Almost makes up for not going to Ally Pally this year :)

Flights of fancy and some playtime

This week's Challenge at the Secret Crafter is to make something with "anything with wings". I had some free time yesterday and booked a class at Made by You in Swindon at the last minute. The class was using Nestabilities, which of course I have and use. However Pat who runs the shop is very flexible and I ended up playing and making some lovely backgrounds. I did make this card using the Nesties and the papers which Pat had for us. I think the butterfly is a Creative Expression stamp. I've gold embossed the butterfly onto white card and painted him with Cosmic Shimmers powders, mixed into a paint. All papers, ribbons etc. from Made by You. I think the colours work really well together and this is my card for Flights of Fancy.

Pat demoed using Cosmic Shimmer powders onto Versamark inked images so I had a play with this lovely ivy stamp. I added the gold embossed flowers as there was a small patch that hadn't inked up, which was difficult to see on the black card. Then disaster struck and I sprayed some Cosmic Shimmer Mist and caught the corner of this one. What to do? OK I sprayed some more with the idea that it then looked intentional :). Matted onto gold card and waiting a Christmas sentiment.
Then I made this beautiful background from Cosmic Shimmer paints, with a little Distress Ink added and spritzed with water till I liked the effect. I used a scroll stamp and repeatedly white embossed it around the edges. Again this will be a Christmas card background of some kind, seems almost too pretty to add to! The scroll is from a Creative Expressions set that Pat said she sells lots of. At under a fiver I can see why and of course I also succumbed :)
The final picture is of experiments with another set of stamps that I picked up there yesterday. This time they are a Christmas set from a new to me Belgian company called Artemio. There are Christmas trees, holly, snowflakes, pine cones, stars and beautiful stylised script. These look like being my main Christmas card set - just lovely. The clear stamps take Versafine perfectly but are repellent of some of my other inks, so I've been washing them and rubbing them with an eraser to bring them into line. I want to play some more with these, I think they are just perfect

In the Doghouse - Friday Sketchers #60 and Corrosive Challenges #20

Friday Sketchers has a great, very usable sketch this week, which I've based my card on for Janet's Corrosive Challenge, which this week is All About Dogs. I've made a fairly simple card using a lovely Elzybell's stamp called In The Doghouse.

I'm getting more confident with the Copics and the Promarrkers and I've used some bright colours this time, with a little Stickles on the flowers and some Glossy Accents on the dog's nose, which shows up better in real life than in the photo :). The image is edged with blue chalk pad and with Peeled Paint Distress Ink.

The papers are K&K Hopscotch and the brads came from Made by You.

Sweet Summer Sun - and 8 challenges!

It's been a lovely hot day today, in fact it's been hot for a few days and I've been drawn to making a hot summer sunshine card. I've begun with the very simple, very usable sketch from the CPS Challenge blog this week. I've used some lovely images from My Grafico, a set called Garden Elements and I've coloured them with Koh-i-Noor pencils in hot pinks and oranges to match Michelle's Summertime theme on the Digital Tuesday Challenge. This is also the theme at Cupcake Craft Challenges so I'm entering it for this Challenge too. Sadly Cupcake Craft is closing down as a challenge, it will be their last challenge next week. A Challenge blog is a big commitment and a lot of work, thank you to all the Cupcake gals for running their challenges for so long :). There's yet another Summer Challenge to enter at A Spoon Full of Sugar this week!

The challenge this week at One Stop Craft Challenge is to use Fruity Colours, so I'm entering my orange and raspberry card, though it has no actual fruit on it, it still fits the bill. Charisma Cards has an open challenge that you can enter up to four times, that they've called Rubbernecker Week after their sponsor, so here's entry #2 to their challenge. And last but definitely not least, my blogging friend Danni has a Flutterby Wednesday theme of creating an outdoorsy card with a butterfly of fairy. OK I make that SEVEN challenges in one card - yippee! :).

PS My Grafico has a Summer/4th July challenge which Martha has reminded me about (see my post below). So that makes it a record EIGHT!

Now, on to the card...

Digi images from My Grafico were printed twice and coloured with Koh-iNoor pencils. Flowers were cut out and added to the image with 3d sticky dots. The image was edged with Distress Ink in Worn Lipstick and matted onto pink card. The DP is an Artylicious printed paper from my Graphicus Guild membership. The Hero Arts sentiment is stamped onto orange Bazzill card and the whole of it matted onto pink. The butterfly from the set was then stuck down, some Glossy Acents and Stickles blinged it up a bit and I added two butterfly brads from a special offer pack I bought at Made by You. Enjoy the summer and I hope you enjoyed looking at the card!

Dusk till Dawn

New Challenge blogs seem to be popping up every day and there is more and more choice of challenges to take part in. If only someone could sell some more hours for the day so I can keep up with them all... :)

Stampin' for the Weekend is a new one, with my friend Vanja as one of the Design Team, having seen her lovely card and their great theme - From Dusk until Dawn - purple and yellow - I wanted to be sure to take part in this one. I went with a really nice sketch by Dawn from Inspirational Card sketches challenge #19 . I also included the Secret Crafter's challenge #35 for this week, which is bling, using some glitter, some gemstones and some Glossy Accents. Cute Card Thursday's Challenge #63 is to use punches and die cuts; I've managed to include this on the card too. Phew! I think four challenges in one card is my record, I'm always in awe of those who manage to fit umpteen challenges into one card, which takes some multi-tasking! OK that's the challenges, now on to the card :).

I have used all Elusive Images stamps for the card; the Graphicus Guild stamps this month include the bird and birdhouse, the brilliant "Best Wishes" stamp is from another, older, Guild stamp set. The papers are all from the papers included with the Guild membership. The birhouse is embossed with Adirondack Eggplant onto patterend paper, with a gem on top of it. The bird is stamped onto pale yellow Bazzill card and then again onto a pale yellow patterned paper, in Eggplant dye ink this time. I've used the birdhouse stamp around the edges for the leaf pattern. The bird is mounted onto the card using silicon glue and then painted with Glossy Accents, which seem to have turned the Eggplant a bit blue.

When I assembled the card I was going to use the thin piece of the sketch to the left for the sentiment, until I remembered the pearlescent card that I used a butterfly punch on a couple of days ago, the negative shapes were just too pretty to throw away so it went into the scrap box. I think it fits the sketch really well.

I stamped the "Best Wishes" onto the card when it was assembled, in Eggplant again, and added faux brads to the corners and gemstones below the butterflies. I've coated the brads in Glossy Accents and dropped some Prisma Glitter on them to give them a bit of bling. I also used a tip from a workshop I went to at MadeByYou last week for the ribbon: I used double sided tape wider than the ribbon, with a narrow sticky border each side of the ribbon and again, coated it in the glitter more some more bling. I think this is a great idea, may come in useful for any accidental sticky tape left showing :) .

Love the Dusk Until Dawn theme, great one to work with and it came together with the other themes quite well, I think.

Made By You - Elzybells Day

When I began cardmaking, I went to a beginner's class at Made by You in Swindon Old Town and really enjoyed it. I went to a couple more classes and then got out of the habit of going across; I don't tend to shop in Swindon at all. Then I noticed from the website that the shop was due to close and looking for new premises... Forgot about it until I checked recently to see if it had relocated and was surprised and pleased to see it's continuing in its current location.

I signed up for emails about the workshop programme and discussed it with my cardmaking friend Anne on Friday afternoon. We both had lots of things on for the dates that appealed, apart from the following day. So we rang on the off-chance that there were spaces and found we were the only bookings. We had a morning's workshop with Pat, the shop owner, just for the two of us, which was like having our own personal class - brilliant!

Pat showed us how to make four cards using 3 Elzybells floral stamps. The first one I've posted is probably the most complex. None of them was really difficult to make but each had a different technique. All the materials and tools are provided, all you bring along is yourself. So I found that made a really relaxing morning; all the decisions about which colour/stamp/layout had already been made and we just sat back and enjoyed the process. I've made a LOT more cards since last time I visited the shop, but I still learnt from Pat's demos.

The first card uses 3 stamps, watercoloured with Tombow pens, some decoupage and Perfect pearls for highlights. The borders are cut with a Hello Kitty die cut from Sissix; it cuts two long thin strips, rather than edeges a piece of card, very effective. The join is disguised with ribbon. I'm really proud of my bows on the card; Pat showed me a great way to tie them; she even managed to demo left handed to me!

The second card is much simpler; again it's watercoloured. The vase is a clear plastic peel-off, stuck to the same blue card used to mat the image and cut round. Another useful idea I got was to use a syringe for the silicon glue to decoupage; maybe now I can use all the tube and not throw it out half way because I can't get any more glue out :). Both cards have suffered a bit from being workshop cards, the Stickles has spread a little on the second card and stuck onto the first card, which has lost a decoupage bloom. I'll try to be more careful next time :) I'll post my other cardswhen they get finished, all the makings of them came home with me.

The shop's well worth a visit if you're in the area; it's restocking after having been due to move so there are some bargains there. But the main stamps seemed to focus on good British manufacturers who produce affordable, quality stamps: Elzybells, Little Claire, Crafty Individuals...