Buy it - Try it: Get well card

I forgot I hadn't blogged this BiTi .... I bought a magazine a while ago with a free stamp and embossing folder, thought I would try out the folder.  I can't remember which magazine it was, I only buy them for the gifts now and they all blur into one!!!

I ran some pink cardstock through the folder and lightly brushed over the raised areas with Picket Fence distress ink ... so lightly it doesn't really show in the photo .... LOL.  I had some freebie magazine papers and die cut a circle to go in the middle of the embossed card.  Then I die-cut some pennants (Nesties) and some leaves (Sue Wilson) and put the whole lot together.
I decided to make it a Get well card, because I don't have that many in the box, I need more variety :-)
So, the embossing folder, the paper, the pennants and the leaves are all new, a four-in-one BiTi :-)

Good Luck leaving card

A colleague of ours left work recently and this is the card I made for us all to sign.

I had to take the photo at work, with it propped up on my keyboard, as I forgot to do it before leaving home LOL.
I just used a combination of aqua (light and darker) and white, with a Presscut die which has three separate layers making the whole frame.  Then I cut three Memory Box butterfly bases and overlays to place on top.  The letters are die cut.
The presentation of the card took place whilst I was off sick, unfortunately, but I am told that she liked it :-)

BiTi and OotD - Mother's Day cards

A combined Buy it - Try it and Out of the Drawer post :-) 
BiTi - I used three new dies, the Boudoir Square and rococo heart from Tonic Studios and a tag from the Spellbinders Victorian tags set.  Oh, and some linen textured cardstock which I bought at the Make It show.
OotD - I used a Memory Box diamond background die and some old freebie magazine papers.

Quite simple cards, but I am pleased with them and I think the recipients will be too :-).

More quotation cards

Oooh, I am late with my Blogtoberfest post today!
These cards were semi-prepped, with an inked/stamped background mat and an ATC blank given the same treatment and used as a topper.  I can't remember what brand the quotation stamp is.

I just needed to add a sentiment, so I went for two different birthday stamps (Stamping All Day) and a thank you (Tinchies).

52 cards challenge - week 20

I have caught up!  The prompt for week 20 is to take inspiration from the printed word, literature etc.

I knew what I wanted to do for both cards - but didn't have a "Bah Humbug" stamp.  One google search later, I had found this lovely little stamp on Ebay, from a seller called Make your Mark who are based in York.  The stamp gives a lovely impression, and I decided to do a simple 9-patch card, with the centre circle raised up on foam.  A peel-off line frame to pull the scalloped-punched circles together and it was done.  I think I might use foam on all the circles next time I make it.
The second card doesn't have a specific sentiment as such, so an appropriate message for the occasion can be written inside.  The wonderful steampunk ruby slippers image is a Stampendous stamp, which I stamped/embossed with gold detail powder and then attempted to colour in .... something which I am not that good at, this is my second attempt and the tiny jewels along the soles are to hide where I went over the line LOL.  But they do look good!  I then die-cut the image using a Go Kreate die, then cut the mat using the next size up.  A happy discovery was that these sizes of the die go very nicely into a 6" card blank :-)  DH had previously laser-cut a whole selection of gears for me, so I inked some up in two shades of brown and attached those.  I am very pleased with it, despite the bad colouring LOL.
So I am now up to date with the challenge .... until tomorrow's prompt!

52 cards challenge week 15

Still catching up :-)  The prompt for week 15 of the challenge was to have the text as the main focus of the card.
For the birthday card I cut some yellow paper from a Jillybeans 6" paper pad, used an inverted corner punch and wrapped a ribbon around it.  The text stamp is from Woodware.  I put a pearl in each inverted corner and that was it!  I must do this one again :-)
The Christmas card was slightly more complicated - starting with the fact that the Memory Box stamp (which I bought because I thought it would make good square cards) actually isn't quite a true square.  I discovered that fact by trimming all edges equidistant from the text, then finding it wasn't square!  It also doesn't seem to stamp particularly well, but perhaps that was because I was embossing, I will have to try it with just ink.  It wasn't a cheap stamp either......
So having trimmed it to a square, I then matted onto gold and cut a further mat using a PATP punch from Martha Stewart - think it's called Flourish Lace.  I adhered everything to the backing paper (all papers are Basic Grey 'Wassail') and then saw the stray speck of embossing powder ....... well I wasn't going to throw all the work away, so I punched a snowflake to cover the error, then others to balance out the card.  The tiny gold snowflakes don't show up well in the photo, but they do look nice IRL :-)

52 cards Challenge - week 14

I am very behind on this, but am trying to catch up!  The prompt for week 14 of the 52 cards challenge was - hexagons.
The Christmas card has hexagons punched from silver cardstock, with punched snowflakes on top.  I ran the mat through the bigshot in a snowflake embossing folder and wrapped a ribbon around it before adhering to the navy card blank.  The sentiment banner is a from a pack bought at Ally Pally a few years ago.
For the birthday card I used papers from a truly awful 6" paper pad I had bought because it was only £1.99 and the cover illustrations looked OK...... one of the papers had roses on it so I die-cut hexagons from it to include a rose each.  The mat is one of the worst papers from the pad, which looks OK as a frame LOL and the main background paper is one of the least horrible ones!!!  I used two white flowers, inking the smaller one completely with some pink chalk ink, while the larger one was inked just around the petal tips.  The pearl swirl is from stash, bought years ago and never used.  The sentiment strips are die-cut pennants.
I have to say, despite the fact that the papers are not so great, I actually really like the way the card has turned out.  Just goes to show ....... :-)

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 9

 

This week's prompt for the 52 cards challenge is ROSES, though for the Christmas card any associated plant is allowed!
I knew immediately which stamps I wanted to use :-)  The rose bouquet on the Mother's Day card is one of my very first stamps, bought around 1993.  For the background paper I used a sheet from an old K&Co paper pad, matted it onto green, tied the ribbon around then attached to the card.  The image is stamped in a green chalky finish ink, die-cut with a nestie deckle edge oval, then matted onto a Dienamics doily oval die-cut.  The sentiment is a Tinchie stamp and to finish I added a few pearls.
For the Christmas card, I went for holly ..... this is one of my favourite Christmas stamps, I think it is an old Elusive Images one.  I stamped and embossed in gold, then coloured in using Flexmarkers - I'm not very good at colouring, but for a simple image I can manage to make it look reasonably presentable :-)  The image is matted onto gold pearlescent card and I stamped the sentiment at the base, not sure what make that stamp is as I didn't keep the packaging - maybe Hero Arts.

Stamped & Masked card

This card started with a mistake ....... I had smooshed distress inks through a circle aperture straight onto a card blank, with the intention of over-stamping with a silhouette in black.  Unfortunately, when I lifted my stencil, I discovered that the inks had gone under the edges in plsces.  It sat in my 'in progress' card box for a while, then I decided to try and disguise the non-crisp edges with a different stamp.  I chose this freebie stamp from Craft Stamper magazine, stamped it onto scrap paper to make two masks, then stamped it three times over the inked circle, masking the previous image each time.  It's been a while since I have done masking, I had forgotten how much fun it is :-)
I punched out the image into a scalloped circle and used the new(ish) 4" scalloped circle punch from Woodware for the silver mat.  I made an interrupted frame with peel off lines and sentiment and just placed the image in the centre ..... incidentally the photo makes the image look a little off centre, but in real life it is perfect, honest.  LOL.

Valentine card

It's that time of year again :-) 
The prompt on this weeks 52 cards challenge was to use hearts - easy to do on this valentine card for DH, but I am not yet sure how to do the Christmas one!
I over-stamped the card blank, not sure how many stamps I used, probably about six, and several different ink colours too!  The topper started life as an ATC, but I decided to add the 'love makes the world go round' sentiment and make it into DH's card.  It has a smooshy inked background over-stamped with some crackle, swirl and gear stamps, the heart (Technique Tuesday) was stamped and embossed separately, I attached the clock hands after I had stick it down to the base.
I added a ribbon and die-cut buckle to the mat to finish.  Hope he likes it ...... wonder if I'll get one in return this year???

Scrapology January card challenge

Well I never!  Two Scrapology challenges in a row :-)  This is the January card challenge, which was to use a colour palette of purple, lime and silver. This is quite out of my comfort zone, as was the page challenge, but I decided to give it a go anyway!
I remembered a Bo Bunny paper range that I had originally used for a Little Girl layout a couple of years ago, there was plenty left for a card.  There is some turquoise in there as well, but the purple and green are definitely the star colours LOL.
I cut round the 'wave' design and put it onto a mat of purple, which is framed by some silver peel-off lines.  The butterfly is punched from silver card with a Martha Stewart punch and I added a bit of a pearl trail.  I made it a congratulations card, mainly because the only 'happy birthday' stamp I had with me at the workshop wouldn't fit into the available space!
Not my colours at all, but I think it has turned out well - just goes to show that it can be good to get out of one's comfort zone once in a while - I'm going to run back to my safe place now though!

52 cards challenge week 6

 
The prompt for this week on the 52 cards challenge was to use old stash.  For the 'main' challenge card I used some old Authentique paper and found a pack of doilies in my 'why on earth did I buy that' drawer :-)  I smooshed a cream ink over the white doily so it matched better - this worked very well, but the doily was more fragile than I had thought and I did end up tearing it, luckily in a place that is covered!  Now I know how to use up the rest of the pack LOL.  The topper started out as an ATC which I wasn't happy with, the stamping looked a bit flat - but I wrapped the ribbon around and that made all the difference.  The sentiment is a peel-off on a die-cut label.  A pearl in each corner and it was done.

The Christmas cracker challenge card has paper from Basic Grey's Wassail range, which is a few years old now ......  The stamp is a Penny Black bought in the post-Christmas sales, I inked it up with two colours of Memento at the same time - old technique, but effective and much easier to do with the pointy type ink pads than it used to be with the big oblong ones many years ago LOL.  Both the image and the sentiment are die-cut with deckle edge Nesties, the sentiment is a Tinchies stamp.  The border is from Dienamics, and is one of my favourites.  A pearl in each corner ...... :-)

52 cards challenge week 4

 

One thing I am determined to do this year, is to take part in more challenges.  I especially want to try and keep up with the 52 cards challenge over at Kool Kitty Musings, making a card and a Christmas card every week inspired by a prompt.

I am sliding in under the wire for last Monday's prompt, which was to use paper from a paper pad.  The birthday card uses a sheet from Bo Bunny's Timepiece 6" paper pad as the background, plus I have made the rosette from a 12" strip out of the same collection.  The mats are cut with Dienamics Dainty Doilies dies, the ribbon border is also Dienamics.  The sentiment is a Tinchies stamp, haven't used it before, but it stamps beautifully, will definitely use it again.

As for the Christmas card.... well it appears the Evil Pink Genie has struck again!  These papers are from a Papermania pack, which someone bought me for Christmas a couple of years ago.  The snowflakes are punched, the mats are Nestie dies, the tree is a Dienamics die.  The sentiment tag is punched, with a peel off sticker on top, then I scattered some gold crystals around.

argh ... now must rush off as DH has just informed me that the boiler has packed up, we have no hot water, and he has to go to work .... I have to call a plumber :-(

More pink!

 

These are the next couple of cards from the pink magazine paper ..... I probably have enough left to make just a couple more, then I can move on!

Nothing very complicated about these - the butterfly is done with a Martha Stewart punch, the flourishes with a Dienamics die, the sentiment tags with a Nestie label die, and the ribbon strip with another Dienamics die.  The square crystals have been hanging around in my bling box for years :-)  The paper panels are matted with bazzill bling 'Hollywood' on the first card and framed with peel-off lines on the second.

A bit vintage

I was playing around with some distress inks at the crop and decided to cover a card blank with an inked/stamped background.  Antique linen and tea dye inks were blended together than I started randomly stamping.  I used a new cogs stamp from LaBlanche, have never used those white foam ones before, they are definitely different!  I used it with distress ink, they don't take that ink very well, but the washed out impression was exactly what I wanted.  I also used a crackle stamp, some swirls, some random dots (done in aged mahogany ink) and an architectural element (done in gathered twigs) which I have had for years and hardly, if ever, used!
Next time I do this, I will remember to take a photo of the background when it's done - it always seems a shame to cover it up!  I had a stamped and embossed poppy image in my 'bits' bag so matted that onto the card.  But it needed a little more .......
I attached a charm with some sparkly twine, die cut a sentiment tag and some pennants for the sides of the image, then added some crystals.
I am really pleased with how it has turned out and will definitely make some more like it!

A bit pink and pretty .......

 

Pink.  Flowers.  Two 'pretty' posts in a row.  Oh dear. 
I haven't actually gone over to the pink side :-)  In line with my determination to empty my craft room - at least enough so I can see some surfaces - I decided to take some card blanks and several freebie magazine papers to the Cardinal Colours crop last weekend.  I made several 'bases' and am now working my way through topping them!  The papers are from Making Cards magazine, which has good quality proper paper, not that horrible shiny magazine-y stuff, it's rare that I buy any other cardmaking mag.
Something else I need to concentrate on this year is to use the stuff that I buy, which then gets put away never to see the light of day again.  I have used my new 4" scalloped circle woodware punch - actually bought a couple of months ago, but not used! - the stamp is from Inkadinkadoo, also bought ages ago and never used, I stamped and embossed in metallic green.
The pink bling cardstock used for the mats and butterflies is new, I won a whole pile of assorted colours in the crop raffle, yummy :-)  The green and yellow bling are I think Emerald City and Hollywood and are from stash.
There are a couple more of cards using these pink papers to come, but I need to go and lie down in a darkened room for a while........ LOL.