Pinspired - Stable Door birthday card

There's probably a more correct name for this - but to me it's a stable door!  The original Pin is here.

Quite tricky to photograph so the full effect can be seen!
I cut an A4 piece of cardstock in half lengthwise, scored at the centre and then carefully cut the top half of the card front off.  Then I used some paper from a 6" pad for the inside and the front, being careful to line up the design so both panels matched.
The flowers are from SU, stamped and punched out.  The card actually sat in my 'to be finished' box for a while, because I couldn't find a stamp which felt right for the sentiment.  Obviously I don't have enough sentiments, after 24 years of stamping....... Hah!!!  Then I was having a bit of a sort out and came across this Woodware one, there are two big stamps in the set and this one looked best. It's now permanently in the stamp bags which comes to every crop with me - can't believe I had forgotten about it!
I really like this, it's a little different and I think it could be adapted quite easily to masculine cards - I'm sure I have just a few cogs and gears stamps just lying around...... LOL.

Late Christmas card round up

No, I promise I am not starting this early for next Christmas!!  These are the last few I made last year, but never had time to blog.
The first one is Pin-spired and is a take on the most pinned item on any of my boards, the Pin is here and to date it has been pinned at least 500 times ...... Pinterest used to give you an exact number of times it had been pinned from your own board, but that seems to have disappeared, just a global figure given instead now :-(

I used a Die-namics oval mat, Spellbinders deckled oval, snowflake background stamp and the main snowflake is from Bee Crafty.  Sentiment from Stamping all Day.

These cards are done using Sue Wilson dies and embossing folders.  I rounded the corners of card blanks and mats as I thought it went nicely with the snowflake.  Tiny peel off sentiments on SU punched tags, to finish.
OK no more Christmas cards.... until the 25th January ... mwah hah hah......

pin-spired birthday cards

I have decided that I really ought to take more inspiration from my Pinterest boards, instead of my more usual Pin-and-forget procedure :-)  I went to the Chailey workshop - run by Nicky, who can be contacted at nickyalevy@btinternet.com - and took along a batch of printed out Pinterest card ideas.
The Pin for this card is here and this is my take.

I didn't add the small flowers, because I hadn't packed the punch (thought it was in the bag already!!).  The flourish and flowers are from Stampin' Up (Everything Eleanor and Petite Petals), the tiny butterflies are from Dali Art and both the sentiments are from Stamping all Day.
Talking of Pinterest .... how do people with those boards of 4.5k Pins ever find anything???  I had trouble looking through my card inspiration board of 300 card design Pins, so have slimmed it to 250 and started a second board!!

Pinspired - Sy's November Pin challenge

I made these during November, whilst I was computer-less, and forgot I hadn't blogged them :-)  The two original Pins are here and here.
These are my versions:

I have to say that I am not that keen on the second one, I think I might have to re-visit the idea another time :-)  The papers are from Simple Stories and the bauble and branch dies are from Memory Box.  But I am really happy with the three tile card, it is a bit more gleam-y in real life LOL.  I held my breath as I stamped and embossed the sentiment (Stamping all Day) directly onto the card, but it came out perfectly.  I might put it off to one side next time though, instead of centrally.  The tiles are cut from the First Edition paper I really regretted buying ... LOL, I am determined to use it up .... then matted onto gold card.  I will definitely be using this design again!

Embossed, inked, panelled card - Pinterest challenge four of four

This is the final one of Sy's Pinterest challenge for this month.  She did ask at the start, what happens if she picks one of my Pins which I have done before and I said that's fine, I can always do it again, but differently.  So yes, I have done this one before, but it's worth doing again, I love the split panel layout.  The original Pin is here.
This is my take on it:

I took some cardstock which I had previously embossed with a folder and smoosh-inked, cut it into panels and arranged those on a mat.  I think the embossing folder is from Taylored Expressions. 
I wanted to keep it quite uncluttered as I love the elegant simplicity of the four panels and didn't want to cover them up too much.  So I die-cut a Dienamics twirly circle for a sentiment mat, stamped & heat embossed a sentiment (Stamping all Day) in a Wow embossing powder, a lovely colour called Paprika. Then I punched it out into a circle and attached to the mat, and put the whole thing onto the card with some 2mm foam pads.
Really like this one - will definitely use the design again!

Faux marquetry - Pinterest Challenge, second of four !

It's back to Sy's Pinterest challenge, she picked out four of my Pins to do over the month.  The first one is here.
The original Pin for today's card is here.
Here is my take on it:

First I used mini distress inkpads to colour a sheet of SU Very Vanilla, just swiping in rough stripes, and die cut the poppies (Memory box) out of it.  I wanted to do a stamped wood grain background and I think I may have finally found a way to use my unloved SU cardstock 'Crumbcake'  that I actually like!  First I smooshed over with Tea Dye distress ink and over stamped with the SU Hardwood stamp.  It needed a bit more warmth, so I smooshed Fossilised Amber DI over it and cut to size.
Then I die cut the poppies again from the hardwood background, being careful not to lose any of the pieces which would normally be 'waste'.  I cut a dark brown mat to size and then a piece of Stick It adhesive sheet to just smaller than the background, applied this carefully to the mat.
Very carefully ..... I stuck the background onto the Stick It, inlaid the inky poppy die cut and then put all the background 'waste' pieces back in. The sentiment stamp is from Lili of the Valley.
I am really pleased with this one, it's a lovely effect.

Pinterest challenge!

I asked Sy to pick out some of my Pins as a challenge, she chose four, so I will be doing one per week for Blogtober :-)

The Pin for the first one is here.  I put in my notes that I would place the sentiment higher than the original, but I ended up placing it lower instead!

The papers are from Graphic 45, Steampunk Spells, I think.  The sentiment is from Stampin Up.  It was a little fiddly to get the panels right, but I really like the way it has turned out and will use the layout again :-)

Pin-spired: white embossing & colouring on kraft cardstock

I made two cards inspired by this Pin - though I stamped the flowers from memory and then had a look to see how the card was assembled and realised I hadn't stamped them close enough together!  That'll teach me to look at the Pin first, next time!

The flowers, cardstock, sentiment and pen are all SU.  I stamped/embossed the flowers in white on Crumb Cake cardstock, then coloured with Real Red pen.  The card on the left is a more or less direct card-lift from the Pin, but I then tried something different with the rest of the cardstock I had stamped.  I cut three panels, they didn't quite line up due to the way I had cut the first square (didn't think that one through!) but I covered the non-aligned bit with a punched band (Martha Stewart) and a punched flower.
I am not keen on the cardstock, I know kraft is supposed to be bland and used as a background, but ...... it is a bit blah ...... maybe I do need to stamp the flowers closer so there is less background coming through!
I definitely must do more panel cards, simple yet effective... my favourite kind of card :-)

Pin-spiration - mosaic madness cards

I decided that I really should start creating from my Pinterest board, rather than just adding to it ..... :-)  So last craft weekend, I asked Sy to pick three items from my card-making inspiration board for me to try out to see what I could come up with.

She chose these two Pins here and here based on the Stampin' Up Mosaic Madness set, sadly the stamps themselves are now discontinued but the punch and embossing folder are still available.  She did choose a third, but I didn't get around to that one LOL.

I stamped a selection of the designs, punched them out and placed on mats embossed with the Mosaic embossing folder.  The small green motif was stamped directly onto the mat and is not completely accurate as the image is not in the centre of the rubber, so I had to guess!  Next time I will stamp and use a small circle punch, then attach them.  I used the SU word window punch for the peel-off sentiment on the left hand card and the circle-punched sentiment on the right is from Lili of the Valley.  I invert-rounded the corners on one card, just for a bit of extra detail. 
They were quite fiddly to do, but the results are not too shabby!

Pin-spiration - three layer Christmas card

So, at the time of year when I most need to craft, my mojo is steadfastly refusing to co-operate!  What else to do but search my Pinterest boards for inspiration :-)

Today's Pin-spired card has three layers, two die-cuts over patterned paper.  The original Pin is here, and this is my version of it.

I haven't done the ribbon as per the original, I don't think it needs it.  Both the sentiment and the village dies are from Memory Box and the paper is from Craft Creations.

I am very pleased with this one, I think it's one of my favourites so far this year.