Challenge Cards for various places :-)

Well it's been ages since I posted something that wasn't DT work not that I haven't been crafting I just didn't have the time to blog it as well as make it! I am on Week Three of my course and do my certification call tomorrow so fingers crossed I will pass and can start work on Monday which would be good. Anyway here are the cards I have made recently.

This little cutie is from Tiddly Inks she was made for a challenge but I never got round to blogging her on time but I thought I would show you anyway.
This cute little chap is from Teddy Bo, I coloured him with my promarkers, cut him out, copied lots of little holly sprigs coloured and cut them out too for some festive decoration. I added some snowflake brads I've had forever, used a paper pad I picked up for £1 and added some seam binding to make my bow.
This is the same image but a more general card, I cut the fancy border on the Cuttlebug, mounted it on some green card, inked it a little to stop the white from being so stark, cut some shapes from the same paper pack.

This one is for my cousin's little boy I love the cute mice from LOTV and used some freebie papers from a magazine. I stamped onto watercolour card and used my pencils for this one.

I used this sketch from Sketch and Stash for my little mouse card and my new/neglected item was the stamp which I bought at the NEC and had never inked up until now.

As always any comments are greatly appreciated and most welcome.

I am entering the cards in the following challenges:

The Teddy Bo Challenge Anything Goes

Card for Men Seeing Red Mice Card

Sketch n Stash Free choice sketch Mice Card

Sketch Saturday Follow the sketch Christmas Card

OSAAT Use a digi Tiddly Inks Card

LOTV Male Card Mice Card

ABC Christmas Challenge Bears, Bows, Brads, Bling Christmas Card

OLLCB Use the same image twice Christmas Card (holly sprigs)

Using Beads for Crafty Cardmakers

This time at Crafty Cardmakers we have been asked to use beads on our projects.

I thought about this challenge long and hard, I tried various options but they didn't look quite right and I was beginning to fret about not having it done properly.

I looked around my craft room and spied the paper flowers I had made ages ago but not used, I had a look in the tub and there were my fuchsia's. Perfect I thought I can add beads to the bottom of the stamens and it will help it look more like a real flower.

I wanted the card to look quite different to anything I've done before so I cut a small aperture for the flower to hang in. I printed some backing paper from the Fairyopolois CD, printed the fairy off a few times to make my own decoupage. I'd not done this before as I always thought it wouldn't look right but I'm pleased with how the decoupage turned out.

I found some clear seed beads that have a coating on them which means they catch the light, well they do in real life anyway! I added them with some glue, I poked some wire through the top of the flower and taped it on the inside of the card, as I can't use an insert as it will cover the aperture I cut some card to cover my wire inside.

I used a Quickie glue pen and lots of Glamour dust to add some sparkle.

Thanks so much for popping by and as always I love to read any comments you are kind enough to leave.

No Flower Embellishments

Welcome back to real life, well that's how it feels here, all the Christmas food has been eaten (just about) hubbie is back at work and DD has been at school last week but most importantly I am starting a new challenge today. I am starting an on line course which I hope (fingers crossed) will mean I can work part time from home. I will keep you up to date on my progress. My aim for this year is to be more organised so I hope to be posting more regularly. The challenge this week at Crafty Cardmakers is to have no floral embellishments on your project. You can have a flower image or flowery paper but no flower embellishments, harder than you might think!

This little bear is from Lilli of the Valley, I stamped him on watercolour card and used my watercolour pencils to colour him, I was surprised at the difference the card made in the result you get with the pencils. I inked the card as it was white and too stark, the corners are from my collection of dies. I mounted the little bear onto some more holographic card just to tie it all together.

I hope you can join us this time, don't forget to pop across to see what my team mates have come up with.

Use your stamp in three ways

It's my turn to host the challenge at Crafty Cardmakers this time and I would like to see you use your stamp three different ways. I think we forget how versatile stamps can be so this is a gentle reminder :)

I used the Swirly-Whirlies Poppies from Little Claire's one of the goodies I got at the NEC.

This is the whole collection of my creations so if you want to stop here and leave a comment then you can, if you want to see them all close up then carry on.
I cut this tag using a Cuttlebug die, I also cut the stamp so I could have just the one poppy. I only realised I had smudged the tag when I added the pictures but hey it's handmade after all!. I stamped onto the seam binding after taping it to my non stick craft mat, the ink has bled a bit but I can live with it. I coloured both the tag and binding with a promarker, a poppy one of course.
I rummaged in my stash for my shrink plastic as I knew there was some in there somewhere and I found it. I punched a circle from the shrink, punched a little hole, stamped the single stamp, coloured with my Sakura pen this time and heated it to shrink. I used a little lanyard to make the charm for a mobile.
I don't normally do Clean and Simple cards as I find them really difficult but I think this one may qualify for CAS. I used Versamark ink, clear embossing powder and some distress ink. I really like this so I may do some more of them.
The final piece on my collection, I used some tissue paper, stamped my image coloured it with promarkers, cut up the images and heated each of them separately to add them to the candle. The poppies go all the way round and I even made a box from card printed with poppies.

If your still here well done you, I love reading any comments you are kind enough to leave and look forward to seeing your take on my challenge at Crafty Cardmakers.

Embossing Challenge

This week at Crafty Cardmakers we are hosted by Josephine who has asked for heat embossing.

I always enjoy using my embossing powders and the heat gun but I don't think I use them enough. I was watching a crafting programme a while ago featuring embossing, I was very interested in the resist technique achieved by Versamark Ink and clear embossing powder.

For Christmas this year I decided not to do a present for the majority of people, they will get a handmade box filled with sweeties and a nice surprise at the bottom. After making the boxes I had lots of large scraps left and wasn't sure what to do with them, then I happened on a blog showing a corner bookmark, my scraps were just the right size to make them so I made 40 of them. Yes 40 of them, I did it in batches which was much easier and quicker.

The card is 9cm square, mark at 4.5cm on three points score and fold in the corners, I punched the bottom of the bookmark to give a nice edge, I added another scrap of card to the back for strength. I got a lovely alphabet set at Hobbycraft ages ago for 99p, I used this my Versamark and clear embossing powder to stamp the initial of each recipient. I punched out the letters and inked them in various colours of distress ink. I mounted this onto some shiny paper (more scraps I'm afraid!) and added it to the front.

I had put the majority of the bookmarks in the envelopes of the Christmas cards before I realised I hadn't photographed them altogether so I took a picture of the ones I had left.

We would love to see your take on our embossing challenge so break out those embossing powders and join us this time at Crafty Cardmakers.