Brenda's Poppy Challenge

This is the card I've made for Brenda's Poppy Challenge and my entry is just scraping in at the last minutes.  The inspiration for the layout is taken from Emma's Case It Challenge over at the Allsorts Challenge Blog.  Instead of making the poppies the traditional red I took the colours from a 6x6 Tim Coffey patterened paper from a K & Co. pad as the starting point.  The other patterned papers are from the Cuddly Buddly download A Patchwork of Papers Blue and the denim paper is a backing paper from Joanna Sheen's Hollywood CD.

The main image is from the Penny Black stamp Bountiful and is coloured using promarkers.  Grand nestabilities circles and scalloped circles were used to cut frames for the image and Stampin' up's Bashful Blue ink was sponged around the image, the edges of the scalloped circle, the scalloped edges of the base card, the daisies and the sentiment.  A small X-cut punch was used to make the tag attached to the bouquet with a peel off message and a bow made with silver thread added to it.

The poppy flower embellishments were made using an embossing punch from X-cut and sequins and beads were added to the centres.  I didn't have matching blue card stock in my stash to punch the flowers from so I coloured a piece of white card with the same blue promarker pen I'd coloured the image with and punched the flowers form this.  The matching layer under the sentiment, the small tag and the dot embellishments were also made this way.  The daisies were made using a medium Woodware daisy punch.

The final embellishments were a couple of round silver brads and bows made from green satin ribbon from Club Green.  Although they say that blue and green should never be seen I'm hoping this has worked

Thanks for reading
Liz xx

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges
Brenda's Poppy Challenge
Allsorts Challenge Week 165 - Case It 
Penny Black and More at Allsorts - Summer Blooms
Penny Black Saturday July Challenge - Summertime
Love to Create Challenge 26 - Add a Tag
Whoopsi Daisy Challenge - Lots of Layers
Joanna Sheen Challenge - Animal Crackers
Stamptacular Sunday Challenge - Patterns Galore 
Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge 196 - Bright and Cheerful
Make It Monday - Anything Goes

Cased a Card

This is a card I made for a friend who celebrated her birthday earlier this month.  I'd liked how Elaine's birthday card had turned out so decided to make it in a vintage style for Kathleen.  The backing papers are from a bag of double sided 12 x 12 papers bought from Costco and they dictated the colour scheme.  Stampin' up's Pink Pirouette and Chocolate Chip cardstock and beige cardstock bought from Asda many moons ago were used to compliment the papers.

The dies, punches, stamps and layout are almost exactly as I used for Elaine's card but the ink and grosgrain ribbon used was Chocolate Chip from Stampin' up.  The Chocolate Chip ink looked quite hard and cold stamped on to the beige card so after inking up the stamp I randomly went over it again with a smaller burgundy ink pad and this added a touch of warmth to the image.  I did the same when stamping out the flowers and a couple of extra flowers were stamped, cut out and added over the circle frame.  Pearls and brads in co-ordinating colours were added as embellishments.   

The inside of the card was also decorated in a similar style to Elaine's one although I made more use of the patterned papers and added a few more stamped and punched flowers and stitching.  Both the outside and inside of the card were decorated using only two sheets of paper  I think I'll struggle to get all these papers used up as there is such a selection but lovely quality though.

I intend to make more cards like this one and try it out in different colourways.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge 165 - Use Stitching
Cute Card Thursday Challenge 227 - So Distressing  
Do You Stack Up Challenge 82 - For a Friend 
It's all about Vintage and Beauty Challenge 23 - Anything Goes
Moving Along With The Times Challenge - Pink, Pearly and Pretty Celebration
Crafts and Me Challenge 94 - Anything Goes

Divas by Design Challenge 45 - Happy Birthday 

Inky Impressions Challenge - Use Dies or Punches 

Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Anything Goes

Paper and Such Design Blog Challenge - Just Stitch It Challenge

Tuesday Alchemy Challenge 24 - Very Vintage (or at least looks it)

The Crafty Bloggers Network Challenge #1 - Anything Goes

Let's Ink It Up Challenge 25 - All Girl

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge 173 - To Die For - 2 different dies (Nestabilities and Grand Nestabilities circles dies and Sizzix framelit die.)

Allsorts Challenge Week 164 - Distressing
Fussy and Fancy Challenge 68 -  Vintage

Thanks for reading

Liz xx 

There was another Birthday

When posting Ian's card yesterday I realised I hadn't posted the card I had given Elaine for her birthday in May.  This was because it was orginally posted as a Mother's Day card when I had a guest designer spot at My Sheri Crafts.  Details of what was used to make the card can be found here.

Although we had already had our Mother's Day in Britain I made the card with Elaine in mind but attached the Mother's Day sentiments and messages so that they could be removed and the card personalised later for Elaine and this was the end result.   She'd given me the Hero Arts/Sizzix stamps and dies as a Christmas present so I had wanted to use them on her card.

Elaine and Andy were away on their mini tour of Scotland when she celebrated her birthday. As there had been a struggle to fit everything in the car she left her cards and presents at home.  This was the first time that we hadn't shared her birthday with her and I felt upset that she didn't even have a card to open from us on the day.  I couldn't let it pass without some acknowledgement so, rather than sending this card, I took a card I had already made and parceled it up with a couple of small gifts and posted them off to the hotel where they would be staying that night.

It worked out well as it proved to be a novel event for the hotel staff and was a nice surprise for Elaine to have mail waiting for her when she arrived.  Made me feel better too.  This is the second card which was made using the Hero Arts cling stamp Silhouette Flower.

Thanks for reading

Liz xx

There's Beanie A Birthday

As well as it being Ian's girlfriend's birthday recently it had also been his 20th birthday two days earlier and this is the card I made for him.  I was really struggling for a theme idea this year but ended up going with a beanie one.  Ian loves wearing beanies and it makes no difference whether it's snow, sun or rain, or how much I lament, the beanie still goes on.  

Just recently I took out my knitting needles and knitted a couple of the Fish 'n' Chips Babies vests and beanies after seeing this posting on Dawny P's blog and this was the first time Ian had seen me knitting.  He was genuinely impressed at the speed I was making and requested that I knit him a purple cabled beanie for his birthday.  I forgot about this conversation until I read a message on his facebook page a week before his birthday saying that he was "stoked" that he'd persuaded me to knit him a beanie for his birthday.  Fortunately I had purple wool in my stash and found a pattern on the internet and so was able to fulfill my promise. 

The paper pieced beanie on the card was made by using a small plate to draw around and then using the same plate to make a smaller section to set in the middle to give the impression of shaping towards the crown of the beanie.  The brim was made using strips of card rounded at the corners and the crown was cut using one of the circle nestabilities dies.  The little character set in the brim is Eric Cartman from Southpark.  His little message was created on the computer and then cut using an X-cut speech bubble die.  Unbeknown to me, whilst Ian had signed up to a month's free viewing on Netflix recently, he had watched a great number of the Southpark programmes so this made the card more special to him.

 The knitted beanie embellishment was made using an egg cosy pattern which I found on the internet.  The number twenty was cut using Sizzix sizzlets dies and some bling was added with a peel off Happy Birthday, some stars and silver brads.  Stitching was added to make an extra frame.

 

The Happy Birthday paper and gingham paper were printed in greyscale from the Cuddly Buddly download A Patchwork of Papers Blue.  This is the inside of the card with a picture of our beanie man included.  Although I think Ian looks more handsome without his beanie this is one of my favourite photos of him taken by his sister Elaine.  You can find it in the Portraits Gallery on her photography web site.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Make Your Own (Knitted Beanie Embellishment)

Craft Your Passion Challenge 120 - Black, White and One Other Colour (Grey)

Craft Your Days Away Challenge 50 - Shades of Grey and One Other (Black)

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge 142 - Monochromatic 

Fab 'n' Funky Challenge 131 - No Stamped Images

Crafts and Me Challenge 94 - Anything Goes

Thanks for reading

Liz xx   

Ahoy There

This is a card I've made for my sister-in-law's husband for his birthday.  They both used to sail together and took part in local regattas.  I took inspiration from Debby's post, as like her, I've seen lots of lovely cards made using the Stampin' up set The Open Sea and decided to try and create a similar styled card with stamps and dies I already have.  There are a mixture of stamp companies used in this one and some of the stamps have had there first use.

The main image is from a PSX stamp and, like the other stamps used, it was inked with Versafine Majestic Blue ink.  The frames and mounts for the image were cut using circle nestabilities and grand nestabilities.  Round silver brads were added to the navy frame to create a porthole effect and this is my second attempt.  After cutting out the frame I used the grid lines on a Scor-pal cutting mat to mark out even spacings for the brads.

The Navy Swirl background card is from a Kanban kit I recently bought from Create and Craft and it reminded me of waves.  The red and white card were stamped with the Hero Arts stamp Vintage Map.  Red stitching was added to the white card to make an extra frame and the edges were distressed and inked to give the effect of an old map.

The strip of circles were also cut using nestabilities dies.  The anchor embellishments were made using a Quickutz die, the stamped knots were stamped using Anita's stamps and the sentiment was  from the Stampin' up stamp set Sincere Salutations.

Other embellishments used were Stampin' up's Night of Navy grosgrain ribbon, small red dots punched using a ring binder punch and a reef knot using parcel string.

An unused topper was used to decorate the inside of the card and the edge of the insert was masked off and stamped with the Vintage Map stamp.

This card had a few false starts and a few pieces went in the bin but I'm happy with the end result.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges

Sisterhood of Crafters Challenge - Let's Hear It For The Boys

My time to Craft Challenge 183 - Make It Wet

Top Tip Tuesday Challenge 81 - It's All About Circles (Top Tip - after cutting a circular frame you can use the grid lines on the Scor-pal cutting mat to find even spacings for embellishments.)

The Artistic Stamper July Challenge - Circles

Cupcake Craftroom July Challenge - Layers

I Brake for Challenges, July - Red, White and Blue

Creative Mondays Challenge 11 -  For Men

Made Especially For you Challenge - Use Three Colours (Red, White and Blue)
Crafty Ribbons Challenge 24 - The Sea
Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge - No Rules 
Raise the Bar Challenge 108 - Red, White and Blue
Make It Monday - Anything Goes
Scrappy Frogs July Challenge - Red, White and Blue

Thanks for reading

Liz xx

Goal

This is a card I've made for the young lad next door.  Euan is in to all kinds of sports and I wanted to use one of them for his card theme. On Paul's blog I saw a round easel card and this gave me the inspiration to go with a football theme and the round shape of the card would represent a ball.  

The main image and two matching backing papers are printed from the Forever Friends Collector's Edition CD and the black and navy backing card and paper were from W Enterprises.  The messages were created on the computer and nestabilites and grand nestabilities were used to cut the base card, image, messages and backing layers.  Having enjoyed colouring digital and stamped images recently my CD collection has been neglected.  I'd forgotten how many lovely images were on this one.

The footballs and football boots embellishments were made using Quickutz dies with thread tied in bows for the laces.  The bows were made using Stampin' up Night of Navy grosgrain ribbon and the faux ric rac ribbon was made using the Stampin' up scallop edge punch and navy paper.  A football brad was used to loop the boots on to.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges
Digital Tuesday Challenge 169 - All Tied Up
Top Tip Tuesday Challenge 81 - All About Circles  Top Tip - use a scalloped edge punch to create faux ric rac ribbon by punching along one side of a strip of paper and then aligning the punch to create the ric rac wave before punching along the other side of the strip.
Dream Valley Challenges 36 - Anything But Square
Speedy fox and Friends Challenge116 - Masculine
Sisterhood of Crafters Challenge - Let's Hear It for the Boys 
Nutcrafters Challenge - One for the Boys
Make It Monday - Anything Goes

Thanks for reading
Liz xx

Making Notes

After making the pink and lilac card in the previous post there were still some flowers and pieces of backing paper left so these were used to decorate a notebook and both card and notebook are going to be given to Ian's girlfriend who celebrates her birthday tomorrow.  The ribbon box was raided and all those small pieces of ribbon that have been kept, just in case, and the bows which were discarded after cutting the tails too short were put to good use to decorated the wire.

The inside of the card was personalised for Emily and decorated with the outline flower stamps from the Penny Black Transparent set Pretty Petals.

Hopefully she'll like both card and notebook.

I'd like to enter this notebook in the following challenges
My Mum's Craft Shop Challenge 65 - No Cards Allowed 
Make It Monday - Anything Goes

Thanks for reading

Liz xx

Lilac and Pink

This is a card I've made using two of the flower stamps from the new Penny Black Transparent set Petal Party.  I needed something to do during the more tense moments whilst Andy Murray was playing in the Wimbledon final last week so I stamped out several of the large flowers on to lilac pearlescent card and embossed them using white embossing powder and stamped a few of the smaller flowers on to white card and also embossed them with white embossing powder.  Two of the darker shades of ink from the Brilliance Twilight ink pad were sponged over the flowers to give a shaded effect.  Once the flowers were cut out they were layered up and arranged to form a ring around the sentiment.

To make the co-odinating backing paper the smaller flower was stamped and embossed over a piece of white card and the same ink was sponged over the flowers and the background area.  I chose these colours to use up pieces of backing paper I had from other projects.  The Happy Birthday and spotted paper is from two Cuddly Buddly downloads, A Patchwork of Papers Pink and A Patchwork of Papers Purple.  The gingham paper was printed from a Crafter's Companion Papercraft CD.

The sentiment was stamped using a small Hobby Art stamp using the same shades of ink.  The ink was also sponged around the sentiment and the scalloped edges of the base card.  The little flower embellishments were punched using an X-cut small flower punch.  To add some sparkle to the flowers sequins, beads, pearls and crystal peel offs were added to the centres.  Stitching around the backing papers and an elastic tied around the spine were the final touches.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges

Penny Black Saturday Monthly Challenge - Summertime
Celebrate the Occasion Challenge 70 - Happy Birthday 
Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge - Layered
Let's Ink It Up Challenge - All Girl
Penny Black and More at Allsorts July Challenge - Summer Blooms
The Ribbon Girl Challenge - Girlie Card
Sentimental Sunday Challenges - Bingo (Pearls, Flowers,Stamp)
Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge 193 - Use Pastel Colours
Card Makin Mamas Challenge 49 - Rubber Stamping
Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge 140 - Spots
Crafts and Me Challenge 92 - Stitching, Faux or Real
Ruby's Rainbow Challenge 32 - Emboss It
Make It Monday - Anything Goes

Thanks for Reading

Liz xx

Thinking of you

Unfortunately I've needed to make two sympathy cards recently.  The first one was for Ruth, someone I've known most of the time I've been card making, we see each other regularly at Carol's Crafting Bee and who recently became my latest follower. Ruth's Dad slipped away peacefully after having gone through the various debilitating stages of Parkinsons.  She described his passing in a lovely way as "a promotion to heaven".  I know this will be a sad time for the family but I also know that Ruth will see this as a release for her Dad whom she always speaks so affectionately of.

I don't usually make sympathy cards but because of our crafting connection and Ruth being a Stampin' up demonstrator I wanted to link the two to let her know I was thinking of her and her family and this is what I made.

I chose to use shades of blue printed papers, card, ink and ribbon plus dies, an embossing folder and stamp sets from the Stampin' up range.

The second card is for a friend's husband who has recently lost his Mum.  I chose to make a similar card using shades of lilac and purple for this one.

Thanks for reading

Liz xx

Penny Black Saturday Challenge Week 208 - Hot Metal

This is my entry for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge this week where the challenge is "Hot Metal" and the card is also for a couple of close friends who celebrated their 31st wedding anniversary this week and for whom I was a bridesmaid.  

It was from Jenny's design team card that I got the inspiration to meet the challenge as, like Jenny, I had also bought the QVC kit which included these metal flowers but still hadn't got around to using them.  Unfortunately they had been rumbling around in a drawer for so long that some of them were badly scratched.  Whilst demonstrating the kit Dawn said these could be embossed so to match the black glittered flowers on the background paper I swiped the flowers with VersaMark ink and used Stampendous Disco Black embossing powder to emboss them.  The other metal pieces on the card were round silver brads which were also embossed and threaded through sequins to attach the flowers to the card.

The main image is the Penny Black stamp Squeeze 'til I Squeak and is coloured with Promarkers.  This stamp is a favourite of mine as I like using daisies in card making.  Usually I would have coloured the mice in shades of brown but to match the backing papers I've made these grey mice.  The image is framed using black card and So Saffron card from Stampin' up which were cut with nestabilities and grand nestabilites  plain and scalloped circles.  So Saffron grosgrain ribbon was used to make the bow and wrap underneath the image.

A stamp from Popcorn the Bear Special Couple stamp set was used to make the Happy Anniversary sentiment.  The stamp is a long one so I used the Stampin' up stampamajig and masking to stamp it to fit in the nestabilites oval.  Other embellishments  used were layered punched out daisies using a Woodware small daisy punch, heart peel offs, and Hobby House self adhesive pearls.

The background papers in this card were a gift from my Mum the last time she came to visit and had her first trip to Hobbycraft. They are double sided scrapbooking papers from Best Creation Inc and are from their Mr & Mrs range.  Lots of lovely glittering and glazing.

For extra framing I've stitched around the background papers and sponged the scalloped edges of the card using a mustard Promarker pen.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges

Penny Black Saturday Challenge Week 208 - Hot Metal
Allsorts Challenge Week 161 - In Bloom
Penny Black and More @ Allsorts July Challenge - Summer Blooms
Clear It Out Challenge - Anything goes plus use Yellow
Papertake Weekly Challenge - Anything Goes
Sassy Cheryl's Challenge 122 - Anything Goes
The Stamping Boutique Challenge 39 - Bingo  (Image and Sentiment/Brads/2 Designer Papers)
Totally Stampalicious Challenge - Bows and Ribbon
Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge 139 - Show us your Metal
Speedy Fox and Friends Challenge 114 - Use Metal
Card Caravan Challenge 22 - Stitching
The Stamp Man Challenge - Bling It On
Make It Monday - Anything Goes

Thanks for reading

Liz xx