Blogtober 2015 - pink birthday card

Last year, I took part in Blogtoberfest, a blog post a day for the whole month.  The organiser of this challenge has decided to retire it, so Krafty Karen is running a new version - Blogtober!!!

For my first post, I have decided to share the card I made for Karen's birthday in August - I managed to miss taking a photo, so Karen kindly took one for me!

The paper is from a magazine freebie 6" paper pack , Isabella by Bo Bunny.  The stamp was also included in the freebie.  The doily die is from either Marianne or Joy Crafts (can't remember which) and the butterfly flourish is by Joanna Sheen.

Pop over to Karen's blog for full details of Blogtober :-)

Beat the Christmas Rush - August

According to Einstein, doing the same thing again and again but then expecting the results to be different is a definition of insanity...... 
I ordered two new First Edition 6" paper pads - Silent Night and Gilded Winter - and just like every other FE pad I have ever bought, when they arrived I really didn't like them very much!  So either I am insane, or just continually optimistic LOL.  I'm sure many people love them, just not me......  So for this month's BtCR, I decided to go out of my comfort zone and try to make some cards with these papers, otherwise it would be a complete waste of money :-(

A simple one to start, Memory Box swirl die and Martha Stewart punched snowflake:

 

This paper is foiled in places, the photo doesn't show it clearly.  I do rather like this one, will definitely use the same design layout on other cards.  Another MS snowflake and SU punches for the sentiment tag.

Again the photo doesn't show it, but the large snowflakes on the paper are glittered.  The stamp is from Penny Black and was my birthday present from Karen, so I was glad that I could 'christen' it :-)

Pin-spired - Pin is here:

And finally, another Pin-spired card - this Pin has been re-pinned 168 times, so I thought I had better use it myself!  I have replaced the original oval with a rectangle:

So, I am quite pleased with the way they have turned out .... but I still don't like the papers .... LOL.  If you want to take part in BtCR, you have until the 24th September - hop over to Krafty Karen for details :-)

Gilding flakes birthday card

This is DH's birthday card.  I stamped the tree image (Hero arts) with Indigo Blu Flitterglu then used IB gilding flakes in their 'Yorkshire Dales' colour mix.  Well, he is a Yorkshireman :-)

Trouble is, the gilded image is so hard to photograph!  This is the SAME CARD:

See what I mean?

I die-cut round the image with nesties Labels One in the largest size, then made a card blank from the smallest size in the Grand Labels One set.  I also tried gilding the edges of the topper, I think it works quite well, though it was a little fiddly :-)

He liked it!

Beat the Christmas Rush - July

I have managed to be a little more organised for Krafty Karen's BtCR this month!  I have made five cards, yes five!!! That must be a record :-)
I decided that I really should use some Christmas stamps bought last year, which have never seen ink......!!  This snowflake lace stamp from Indigo Blu was stamped and embossed in white on kraft and also silver on white.  I matted the kraft onto red cardstock and the white onto silver mirri - which I don't usually use but I had got some free samples at work, couldn't waste them, could I? LOL.
My original plan for all five cards was this:

But after I had attached all five images to their mats and card blanks, I saw there was a small space in the design which was perfect for a tiny sentiment, so I did the other four cards like that.  The silver is difficult to photograph, I promise it is more 'silvery' in real life :-)

Five more for the box :-)

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 :-)

Playing with stamps - birthday cards

I stamped these collages a while ago, but at today's crop I finally got around to making them into cards :-)

For the first card, I used SU's Lovely as a Tree for the main image, which for some reason I always think of as 'Lonely' as a Tree, no idea why, that's just how I read it the first time I saw it and now my brain can't get rid of it!  I started by stamping the splat from the Gorgeous Grunge set in light green and blue, then over-stamped with the trees - having inked the trunks with a little brown and the main tree with dark green.  Today I matted the collage onto some Bazzill in Jacaranda, using a lace scallop punch (Martha Stewart) at the base for some detail.  The sentiment stamp is from Woodware, I think.

The second card has stamps from SU Gorgeous Grunge, the butterfly is also SU but I can't remember which set LOL.  The flourish is an old Artemio stamp and the sentiment is from Stamping All Day.  I stamped and masked the butterfly, then stamped the splat, the lines and the flourish in that order.  I finished it off today by adding the sentiment and matting onto the same Jacaranda cardstock as previously.

Really pleased with these two, I especially like the scalloped edging to the mat.

Beat the Christmas Rush - June

Just in time for this one - a couple of days before the closing date!  For details of the BtCR challenge, nip over to Krafty Karen's Fantastic Place.

I decided to make three cards using a new Memory Box die.  I cut three snowflake ribbons from Bazzill bling in Diamond, backed with Stick It adhesive.  It turned out to be a very fiddly die-cut to peel the backing off, I ruined the first one completely.  The secret is to remove it slowly and in one piece, if you try to take the 'arms' off on their own they just detach themselves from the main snowflake!!
So then I had two die-cuts.  I backed them onto Bazzill bling in Sparkle, I do like the white / aqua combination.  I wanted to round opposite corners, but did a wrong one on the first card, so had to round them all!  The second card went to plan :-)

For the third card, I took my already prepared base of Sparkle and die-cut the wording to go over it (Memory Box).  Very simple, but it does look nice.  Again, I would recommend a slow and steady removal of the Stick It backing paper for this die!

So that's three more for the Christmas box and soon the July BtCR will be coming up, hopefully I will be a little more organised for that one!