Feed the Birds

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to win some blog candy from the lovely Maggie B - she sent me all the stuff in the photo above, though it did take Royal Mail 16 days to deliver it ...... we thought it had been lost forever!


This is the first page I have made from the papers.  The photo is of a bird food display outside a pet store - the pigeons were having a wonderful time pecking through the bags to get at the food!
I made the frame using a linked circle punch, tore and inked two of the papers and die-cut the pennants, oval strip and flourishes.  Then I discovered that neither the red card nor the green (from stash) die-cut flourish showed up very well on the paper, so it was obvious that I needed to cut one from the blue ...... unfortunately I had used the whole sheet as the background for the papers.  Thank goodness for repo herma - I was able to peel back the paper and carefully gut a piece of blue from the background to cut the flourish!  Lesson to learn - always gut the backing cardstock, whether you think you'll need it or not....... LOL.
I inked the tag in various distress inks , stamped a journalling block and attached with a brad.  The orange brads were from stash.  Maggie's embellishment pack included, amazingly, a feather!  So I placed it at the photo corner and added three more brads down the left side.
The title was die-cut with a Hero Arts alpha set, I had just bought it and it turned out to be just the right size for the pennants!
I have to say that I probably wouldn't have bought these papers .... well, maybe the blue one with the geometric swirly pattern ...... but I am really pleased with this page - just goes to show that coming out of the comfort zone can be a good thing!  Thank you Maggie :-)

52 cards challenge - week 11

A sketch prompt for this week's 52 cards challenge - actually I am quite late with this one, the new prompt goes live tomorrow..... LOL.  I struggled with this challenge for two reasons - first, I don't really like bunting!  Second, I have had the stuffing knocked out of me by the nasty flu bug I had had during the previous week.  I had to go back to work but I have been so terribly drained all week that I have done no crafting at all :-(
So, nothing too complicated here!  The birthday card has a white linen effect card blank with a gold mat and then a linen mat over that.  I die-cut two pennants from some gold and white patterned paper scraps, making one longer than the other.  The 'bunting' is a 3D butterfly floating on a curved line of gems :-)  I added a peel-off sentiment and another gem at the base of each pennant.
The Christmas card has some holly-embossed cardstock and holly paper (Craft Creations), with a gold frame.  I have made diamond 'bunting' with a punch and some crystals, and I found a ready made Christmas banner topper - not sure where that came from, think someone might have bought it for me.....
I really like the pennants, must do that again, but I think I will ink the edges next time!

52 Cards Challenge - week 10

Week 10 of the 52 cards challenge - this week the prompt is NUMBERS. 
My flu-ridden brain struggled with this, so I was grateful for Nat's suggestion of the 12 days of Christmas!  I was going to do something using some of the words, but whilst I was looking them up, I found this great graphic on Wikipedia :-)  So a very simple card - with the printed image, a stamped sentiment and pearls all on a mat of patterned paper (Craft Creations).
For the main card, I remembered that clocks have numbers on ...... LOL.  I used a new stamp from (whisper it.....) Papermania, not normally my favourite brand by any stretch of the imagination, but this stamp gives a good impression and I really like it.  The paper, which also has Roman numerals on, is from the Bo Bunny Timepiece collection.  I wrapped twine around the image and attached a charm before sticking to the card.  The sentiment stamp is from Hobby Art.  The little pennants are cut from corrugated card.

Beat the Christmas Rush - February

Here are my four cards for the February BtCR challenge at CCW - I managed to get in a bit earlier this month!
I have matted a Craft Creations paper onto cardstock, rounding the corners of each - I think that's a nice detail when using a scalloped card blank.  I attached the ribbon before adhering to the card.
The baubles are stamped and punched with a Stampin' Up  set, and made 3-D by using three baubles folded in half and stuck together.  I must credit Zoe Pierson for this idea, she taught it at a class at one of the Cardinal Colours retreats a couple of years ago!  A bit fiddly, as there are six baubles to stamp for each card, so that was twenty four altogether.... LOL.
I stamped the sentiment (Stampendous) in the corner and that was it!