Friday, 16 March 2012

Liebster Blog

During these past couple of weeks I have been lucky enough to have received this award twice.  The two lovely talented ladies who have given my blog recognition are Darlene Lyons (Scrappy Dues) from Canada and CheerDown (Ali D Cards) from Liverpool, United Kingdom.  It was a humbling experience to have received this award as I treat my blog as a hobby for my own entertainment to enter challenges, and also to keep a record of projects I've made, so to be made aware that other fellow crafters enjoy reading it is lovely.

May I also take this opportunity to thank everyone who has chosen to follow my blog and also those who leave encouraging comments on entries.  They are all appreciated.

oOo

"The origins of the Liebster Blog Award are somewhat unclear but the general consensus is that it originated in Germany, Liebster meaning favourite or dearest, to showcase bloggers with fewer than 200 followers. Upon accepting the award the recipient must then pass it on to five more blogs of note."


Here's what to do on receiving your Award
1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.
2. Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you.
3. Copy and paste their blog award on your blog.
4. Present the Liebster Blog award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve    recognition.
5. Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment at their blog.

oOo

Because I have received the Liebster Award twice I have chosen ten blogs to pass this on to.  They are in no particular order.

A Space to Create - http://jaynexpapercreations.blogspot.com/

Art Imitating Life - http://nicolasartimitatinglife.blogspot.com/

Sunshine Crafts - http://vickisunshine-sunshinecrafts.blogspot.com/

Jackie's space - http://jackies-space.blogspot.com/

Kizzy Designs - http://kizzydesigns.blogspot.com/

Kjersti's side - http://kjerstis-side.blogspot.com/

Lindy Lou's Meeting Place - http://lindylousmeetingplace.blogspot.com/

Making Papercrafts - http://makingpapercrafts.blogspot.com/

My Sand Box - http://nikkispencer-mysandbox.blogspot.com/

Simply Me - http://hazelspapercrafts.blogspot.com/

Thank you once again to the two ladies who gave me this award.
Liz xx
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Thursday, 15 March 2012

Granny's Tatty Teddy

 

This is a card I've made for Elaine and Ian to send their Granny for Mother's day.  I've used the Docrafts Tatty Teddy Stamp "Sitting Bear" as the main image for this one and have coloured it using Promarkers.  This is a really simple stamp to colour and only needed Ice Grey 1 and 3 and Powder Blue.  Stampin' up's ink Bashful Blue was used to sponge around the image, the scalloped card, the sentiment and the flowers. 

The backing papers are the left over pieces of patterned paper from my own Mother's day card and came from the Cuddly Buddly download A Patchwork of Papers Blue and the blue and grey ribbed pearlised card was from the Papeterie.  The large flowers were made from this card using Tim Holtz's Tattered Floral die with a shaped half inch circle raised on foam pads for the centre and and for the small flowers I used a Tonic Punch.  Blue satin ribbon from John Lewis, some silver brads, blue self adhesive pearls and peel off crystal dots were the finishing touches.


On Saturday I went to our local Hobbycraft store to look for some bits and pieces to put in my Mum's Mother's Day parcel, as she's also a card maker, and ended up treating myself to a couple of things too.  Amongst their reduced items I picked up a cupcake embossing folder and the X-cut speech and thought bubble dies and have tried these out on the card.  They went through the Big Shot easily and cut cleanly.  The enclosed magnetic sheet is a real bonus in keeping all the little bits in one place.  I can see all those little stamped characters having something to say for themselves on cards in the future.  Both Mother's Day cards and parcel have been posted this morning so hopefully they'll reach the Orkney Isles in time for Sunday. 

  
Although my mum-in-law is no longer with us to celebrate this day too we always remember her at this time of year as crocus bulbs she planted in our garden on one of her visits are usually in bloom.  They are also in her favourite colour.  Here are pictures I took of them a couple of weeks ago when they were in full bloom.



I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges
My Mum's Craft shop Challenge 48 - Mum's the Word
Going Grey with Scrap Creations  GGSC105 Challenge - Ribbons and Pearls
Papertake Weekly Challenge - For the Girls or Mum
Dream Valley Challenges 27 - Mother's Day/Female Themed Creation 
Let's Ink It Up Challenge 21 -  Show us Your Flowers 
Pan Pastel Challenge 9 - Girly/Mother's Day 
One Stop Craft Challenge 173 - Mother's Day plus Ribbon 
Hotshot Craft Blog Challenge 5 - Ribbons


Thanks for reading
Liz xx
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Tuesday, 13 March 2012

Green Agapanthus

 


Back to my favourite set of Agapanthus stamps from Stampendous again but used with a green theme this time.  I've had these cards in my UFO (unfinished objects box) for a few weeks but as it's my sister-in-law Liz's birthday on Monday I needed to finish them off.  The other card is for a friend whose birthday is later in the year.

  
The patterned paper for this one came from the Citrus Papermania Colossal Paper Pack.  It's an older pack which I've had for some time but it has some lovely bright zingy colours in it which are suitable for Spring/Summer themed projects.  The dark green pearlescent card is from the Papeterie and embossed using the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder and the bright green card is one of my mistake buys but hopefully the other green tones are enough to quieten it down.  

I used Stampin' up's Garden Green ink to stamp with and their Garden Green grosgrain ribbon as an embellishment.  The sentiment is also from Stampin' up's Sincere Salutations stamp set and cut using an oval Nestabilities die.  The butterfly embellishments are peel off stickers attached to acetate, cut out and then the wings are folded back to give them dimension.  The acetate allows the wings to be flexible enough to lie flat in an envelope but spring up again once the card has been removed.


I used the Agapanthus Long stamp to decorate the inserts of the cards.  On the left of the insert the complete stamp was used and on the right I masked off an area and used only the blooms to make a patterned border.  The pattern isn't totally random as I angled the stamp in one direction and stamped at the top, the bottom and then as near to the middle as possible.  I then turned the stamp and stamped in the spaces between.  The tip of the top bloom was used to fill the spaces along the edge.  Stamping off the edge of a background layer was a tip I picked up at the very first stamping class I attended.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges
Card Caravan Challenge 14 - Lucky Green
Victorine Stamps Challenge 29 -  Green and White or Black 
Card Makin' Mamas Challenge 40 - Green 
Birthday Sundaes Challenge 47 - Green
Pie It On Challenge 11 - Shades of Green 
Do You Stack Up Challenge 62 - Go Green 
Raise the Bar Challenge 95 - Go Green 
Sweet Stampin' Challenge - Let's See Those Layers
Inky Impressions Challenge 49 - Luck of the Irish - Use Green 
Phindy's Place Challenge 96 - Monochromatic Green
Sassy Cheryl's Digi Stamps Challenge - Wearin' of the Green
Use It Tuesday Challenge 27 - Green  ( Backing paper taken from an unused pack of 12"x12" Papermania Paper)

Thanks for reading
Liz xx
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Monday, 12 March 2012

Penny Black Saturday Challenge 192 - The Young Ones

 

This is the card I've made for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge this week where the challenge is to make a card or create something for a child.  The inspiration for the colour scheme and layout came from previous challenges at I Love Promarkers and Passion for Promarkers.

This is an Easter card I've made for my nephew Angus.  I usually make matching Easter cards for my nephew and niece and as I'd already made a pink version of this card for his sister Leanne I decided to make this blue version for Angus.

The cards have to be posted, as Leanne and Angus live in Orkney, so rather than post them eggs too I usually put money in their cards so that they can choose to buy one themselves or save it for something else instead.  They're off to Disneyland Paris at the end of the month and come back Easter weekend so this time I may send the cards off early with some euros inside instead so they have some extra spending money for their holiday. 


The main image on this card is the Penny Black stamp "Bunny Bouquet" and has been coloured using Promarkers. 

The patterned paper was a sheet I dusted off from from my scrapbooking stash and the gingham paper was printed from Crafter's Companion Papercrafts Set 2 CD. The pastel blue and green card were from the Papeterie and the blue satin ribbon from John Lewis. Stampin' up's ink Bashful Blue was used to ink around the main image and the scalloped card and Encore metallic blue ink was used to colour the daisies.

Woodware large, medium and small daisy punches were used to make the flower embellishments.  With left over pieces of thin white card I punch out daisies and then, when I need them for a project, I sponge ink over the ends of the petals  so that they co-ordinate.  The small blue flowers were punched using a Tonic punch with a crystal dot peel off being added to the centre and the layered grass tufts were cut using a Quickutz die.

The sentiment was created on the computer and cut using circle Nestabilities.


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

Thanks for reading
Liz x
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Sunday, 11 March 2012

Fairy Bearday


This is a stepper card I made for Jenna, a grand-niece, who celebrated her third birthday yesterday.  Back in January I had made her brother Alex a card in this style using the free Heartly Farm downloads from Cuddly Buddly so I decided to make the same style of card for Jenna too.  To decorate her card I used the Cuddly Buddly download Teddy Bear's Playtime and the Happy Birthday paper from their download  A Patchwork of Papers Purple.  The gingham paper is from the Crafter's Companion CD Papercrafts 2 

Lilac pearlescent card was used for the base card and from the same card I used Marianne dies to cut the star circle frame behind the Teddy and the star ribbon border behind the Teddy's feet.  Pearlescent card is like mirri card in that it is difficult to photograph without getting a reflection from it.  The turquoise card is also pearlescent and both were bought from the Papeterie.  To personalise the card I added Jenna's name to the star frame using peel off letters and added the number three to the Teddy's wand.


The tag toppers on the next step were cut using a red Sizzix die.  A mixture of old and new tools were brought out this time.  The Woodware punches used to make the daisies were some of the first punches I bought when I started crafting.  Smaller versions of the Teddy image were printed, cut out and attached to the tags.  The ribbon used on this card is Marina Mist grosgrain ribbon from Stampin' up and Stampin up's Wisteria Wonder ink was used to colour the daisies.

The third layer was decorated with a cluster of daisies.


The back of the card is decorated with a matching Teddy topper from the same download and the Happy birthday sentiment below was cut using a Go-create die.  On the layer behind are heart shaped messages printed from the computer and then cut out using Nestabilities dies.  The final layer was again decorated with clusters of daisies. 


There are two more little grand-nieces in the family celebrating their third birthday this year and one to celebrate her first so I think I'll do a bit of batch making.  Lately most of the cards I've made have had a topper which has been coloured using Promarkers so it was a nice change to go back to papercrafting for this one.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges
Fussy and Fancy Challenge 58  - Fairies
Poodles Parlour Birthday Challenge 
Crafts and Me Challenge 74 - Things With Wings 
Celebrate the Occasion Challenge 53 - Birthday plus shaped card 
Crafty Sentiments Challenge - Bears
Hooked on Craft Challenges 18 - More than one fold
Make it Monday - Anything Goes

Thanks for reading
Liz xx
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Wednesday, 7 March 2012

Penny Black Saturday Challenge 191 - Case It

The Penny Black Saturday Challenge this week is to case Domi's card below.

 

I used the shape, punched border and layout of Domi's card for inspiration to make my Mother's Day card and this is the result.  I was lucky enough to get a Grand Calibur along with the plain and scalloped circle dies as a Christmas present and hadn't tried them out until making this card.  I got carried away and from this,


the intended circle card turned into this easel card.



Along with the two sets of Grand Calibur circle dies I also used the Classic Ovals Large and Labels Ten sets to cut the different layers.  Woodware large, medium and small daisy punches were used to make the flower embellishments.  With left over pieces of thin white card I punch out daisies and then, when I need them for a project, I sponge ink over the ends of the petals  so that they co-ordinate.  On these ones I went over the ink with a clear Sakura glitter gel pen to make them sparkle.  The ink used on these daisies was Stampin' up's Marina Mist to match the Marina Mist card and ribbon also used in the project.

The three different backing papers used on this one is from the Cuddly Buddly download a Patchwork of Papers Blue and the pale blue card was from the Papeterie.  A few sequins, beads, brads and pearls were the finishing touches to this one.

The back of the card is also decorated with layers of card and patterned paper and a personalised message is attached to this.  

The Penny Black image I've used on this one is "Daisy Swing" and is coloured using Promarkers and Sakura glitter gel pens and a white Sakura souffle pen was used for the cheek highlights. 


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

Thanks for reading
Liz xx
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