Some news

Hi everyone,
it's with a heavy heart I have written this post, after much thinking I have decided I need to step down from the design team at Crafty Cardmakers. I am unable to give the time and attention it needs and deserves at the moment and I don't see things here getting better anytime soon. My sister is really unwell again and there are lots of other things that I'm not going to share here that mean I don't have time or the inclination to craft. I would like to thank the team for giving me the opportunity and I loved going round to see all the wonderful things you had made.
I hope to be crafting soon and to share what I have made but don't hold your breath lol!

Time

Our challenge this week has been set by J

The main image on your card should reflect in some way the concept of Time - time passing, time spent, time waiting . . . You can use stamps, digi images, photographs, shop bought embellishments, your own drawings or anything else you can think of.

Our sponsors this time are:

DI'S DIGI DOWNLOADS

$10 Gift Voucher

I have been drawing since a child and studied graphics at College many years ago, I now work as a Medical photographer part time but my love was always drawing. I started cardmaking about 4yrs ago when I bought my daughter a cardmaking kit which we did together, but I’m afraid I got the bug! My daughter preferred scrapbooking. I then started looking online at other blogs and this then became my passion and I loved sharing my cards with like minded people.

I love stamping and loved finding images, but sometimes I could not find what I wanted so I started to draw

myself.
This then has become my second addiction and I have never looked back, I love thinking of new images, and its just fabulous to see others take them and make them into beautiful works of art. Long may it continue!

AND

THE STAMPMAN

We are kindly sponsored for this challenge by The Stampman (and Lady of course!) who are offering the winner a £10 voucher for their store, you can spend this online, in the shop or if you're lucky enough to see them at a show! They have a ton of items in store, enough to tickle any crafty taste bud.

This is what I used for the challenge, I found this great alarm clock card on the Internet, used my trusty Robo to cut out the shapes, I used some scraps of card for the letters, inked the edges and added a little card candi to the middle of the hands.

I found the Time concept a little difficult but now I have finished I'm really pleased with. I have been really busy with work lately so haven't been visiting my bloggy friends like I should but I'm hoping I will have more time soon so I can catch up on all your doings.

Hope to see your entry to the challenge when I'm on my rounds!

A Recipe for you at Crafty Cardmakers

This time at Crafty Cardmakers we have a recipe for you from Kim who would like to see 1 image (preferably stamped), 2 backing papers and 3 embellishments one of which must be a heart. This time we are sponsored by the fabulous Di's Digi Downloads with a $10 voucher to spend in the store.

I have been drawing since a child and studied graphics at College many years ago, I now work as a Medical photographer part time but my love was always drawing. I started cardmaking about 4yrs ago when I bought my daughter a cardmaking kit which we did together, but I’m afraid I got the bug! My daughter preferred scrapbooking. I then started looking online at other blogs and this then became my passion and I loved sharing my cards with likeminded people.
I love stamping and loved finding images, but sometimes I could not find what I wanted so I started to draw myself.
This then has become my second addiction and I have never looked back, I love thinking of new images, and its just fabulous to see others take them and make them into beautiful works of art. Long may it continue!

When I read Kim's requirements I thought anniversary card so that's what I made. I used my Tatty Teddy CDs to choose two backing papers, I used some flowers to create a border, added my lovely image, a sentiment and created a heart to go behind Teddy which I made very transparent. All these were done digitally.

I found some flourishes which I cut up to create the corner embellishments and added a little heart above the letter i in anniversary.

Thanks for visiting and if you are kind enough to leave a comment it will be read with great appreciation.

Monochrome Magic at Crafty Cardmakers

This time at Craft Cardmakers we have been asked by Beth to use shades of one colour, she is allowing one other colour to create highlights but thats all.

I don't usually make monochrome cards as I like different colour combinations on my cards but I had bought the Pollyanna and Pals CD which has lots of lovely monochrome images on it so I used one of these. I printed the topper sheet and decided which one to use then I found a black card to put it on. I know I should have found the card and then chosen the topper but it just didn't work that way this time lol!

As I had a square card and a rectangular topper I needed to trim the card and decided to make this a decorative feature using a punch. I had been playing with my embossing powders and decided to use them to create a faux frame around the card and to highlight the punched edges. I lined the inside of the card with some silver paper as well.

This is not my usual style but I like it and will probably send it just to say hello as she is posting her own letters.

Thanks for popping by and any comments you are kind enough to leave are read with great interest.

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.