Papertake #31

I thought it was about time that I had another little go at a Papertake Weekly template, seeing as I’ve not done one for a little while.

At this time of year I always struggle for ideas because my two brothers have birthdays within a week of each other and in between is one brother’s wedding anniversary. I end up having to make three different birthday cards for each brother and two anniversary cards so it’s not in the least bit surprising that I run out of inspiration. The same thing happens at the end of June with my Dad’s birthday and Father’s Day the following weekend but in some ways this is worse because I have to do six different cards….all for Dad.

Anyway, I decided it would help matters along a bit if I used Katharina’s template and here’s my creation.

I’ve used ‘Crate’ papers from the Hampton Collection and some Bazzill card stock for the paper pieced computer, all edged with ‘Faded Jeans’ Distress Ink.

The Happy Birthday stamp is one that I brought at the stamp show at the weekend and is made by Stamps Away. ‘Brother’ is stamped using Line Dots Alpha stamps and both have been stamped in the same Distress Ink.

My card was finished off with some ribbon, a photo anchor, small brad and some faux stitching.

Thanks for looking.

Alexandra Palace - The Big Stamp & Scrapbooking Show

I had a wonderful day on Saturday at the The Big Stamp & Scrapbooking Show that was on at the Alexandra Palace last week end.

The ticket to the show and some crafty purchases were a birthday pressie from my lovely friend Lythan. The two of us spent all day admiring all the lovely goodies that they had on offer and we both came home with some nice new things…….lots in my case!
I went with the intension of buying some new rubber stamps because I’ve had most of mine for ages and I’m getting quite fed up with keep using the same ones over and over.

We also made a point of stopping by the Scrap Revolution stand to say 'Hi' to our friend Sue who was working her tiny socks off, poor love.


Anyway, today is the first chance I’ve had to try out some of my new stamps and here’s the card I made.



I’ll own up and admit that the card is not my own design but a near copy of a card on the Lavinia Stamps gallery, mind you; it’s no where as good as their's.
I’ve never tried making a card with this much brayering on before so I hope I can be excused for the blatant copy on this occasion.


This brayering technique is something that I’ve wanted to have a go at for a little while, in fact ever since Lythan pointed me in the direction of Michelle Zindorf’s blog. If you’ve never seen her work you’ve no idea what you’re missing. Her cards are perfect little works of art…..simply stunning.

As we were walking around the show on Saturday there was a lady on the Lavinia Stamps stand giving a demonstration. She made it look so easy so I came away with three of their silhouette stamps, three new ink pads and the intension of giving it a go. With hindsight I should have also brought a new smooth brayer too because mine is only a tiny one and it proved pretty useless.

I can’t believe that another week has flown by, here we are at Friday again and of course you know what that means, I’m sure.

It’s dare day with the Daring Cardmakers.

Jo here this week.... My Majestic theme is quite a simple one.... I would like you to incorporate a Crown (or Tiara) somewhere upon your card!

I can’t say that crowns or tiaras are things that I use a lot so I had fun trying to find a way to make one of them fit in with look of my cards.

In the end I went for all things circular……..all except for the crown that is!



The papers are all from the DCWV Black and White Prints stack with some doodling added for effect.

I hand cut the little crown from a sheet of thin Silver metal, inked the edges with Black Staz-On and added some embossing with my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder.

I cut various sized circles using my Nestability dies, inked the edges with Black Soot Distress Ink and embellished a couple of them with screw head type brads before layering them onto a piece of Black card that had also been embossed, this time using the Dots & Spots embossing folder.


I finally added the text.
‘My Prince’ is stamped with Black Staz-On using the Line Dot alpha stamps that came with an old Scrap Goods Kit and the circular greeting is from the Funky Hand, greetings sheet that I printed out for last weeks dare. I’ve inked the edges with Distress Ink and added a spiral clip, ribbon and a brad.

Who's in your Garden?

I was standing at my sink in the kitchen, washing up a little while ago and thinking what a lovely day it’s turned out to be……..the sun is shining, although it’s getting a little cooler now.

While I was looking out of the window I had a few little visitors to my bird feeder.

First was this little Blue Tit

who came and sat on the fence directly in front of me and then this cute Robin.
I was always under the impression that Robins were ground feeders but this chap has taken to eating from the feeder……well when he can get anywhere near it that is. I say that because I also keep getting visits from this little fellow.
I know that people say the squirrels are vermin and that you shouldn’t encourage them but I’m of the opinion that they are only doing what comes naturally and if we make it easy for them then why shouldn’t they help themselves.

Mind you, having said that, Mr squirrel isn’t my best friend at the moment. Bo my cat chases him if he sees him and I think they have had a couple of rucks. The night before last Bo came in with what looked like a burst abscess. I took him to the vets and sure enough he had been bitten……..most likely by the squirrel.
The vets trip cost me an extortionate £80 for antibiotics and pain meds, but what I was most upset about was that it was money I had put aside to spend at the Alexandra Palace Stamp and Scrap show this coming Saturday.

60,000 blog hits

No, not me.......

I’ve just been doing a bit of a catch up, looking around all the blogs that I like to stalk and noticed that Sheila, better know as Manic Stamper, has reached a great milestone on her blog…….over 60,000 hits….how amazing is that.

To celebrate, Sheila is offering not one but two lovely lots of blog candy, so get over there if you want to be in with a chance of winning. Mind you, while your there don’t forget to have a look at her amazing work.

DCM - All Mixed Up

I don’t know about you but I always struggle making cards for the opposite sex and as if making cards for the men in our lives isn’t hard enough, Tracey over at the Daring Cardmakers wants us to mix things up a little this week.

How come the majority of girls cards are pink and flowery and the boys are blue and have absolutely no flowers at all? What about cars for girls??? hmmm? This week Tracie wants you to mix up those genders and create cards with a little bit of something not normally found for that sex.

I suppose I could have gone for the ever-so-slightly, easier option of Blue for a girl but never being one to shy away from a challenge I went for a Pink and flowery card for a man.

Finding suitable Pink paper was my first priority, so I headed straight to my new ‘Now That’s Funky’ CD from Funky Hand which has a nice selection of designs and an option to print them in different colour ranges.

I’ve chosen the Pink and Gray papers for this card, so I printed off two different ones that I thought would work and the Happy Birthday Greeting and backer that were also on the CD.

The main picture is actually a kids colouring page that I’ve downloaded.
I printed it twice, coloured it with Prisma Color Pencils and then decoupage it onto the card. I also decided to add another pot of Geraniums to the picture, using a stamp from a Stick ‘n’ Stamp’ set that I have.

Finally I’ve added a hand made ribbon slide, secured with two large brads and a photo anchor.

DCM - The Same But Different

I had to give carefully consideration to my card for the Daring Cardmakers challenge this morning because once again Kathy has set us one hell of a dare.
You know, she’s right in what she says……….we all start with the same brief but the cards we make are always so different, which just goes to show how much imagination we all have.

This week she says she wants to see what happens when we all start with this quotation on our cards.

Use what talents you possess:
The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.
Henry Van Dyke
Now the reason I think that Kathy’s challenge is a corker is because I very rarely put quotations on my cards and am never sure how best to use them.

I decided on a bird and tree theme, simply because I couldn’t think of anything else to do but then I soon had another problem before I’d even got started………….no tree stamp.

While wondering how to get around this little problem I had a light bulb moment, not something that happens to me often.Lol!
I expect a lot of you may already do this but it’s never crossed my mind to use a digital image before. All I can think is that it must have been working with the Funky Hand download last week that prompted me to think of it.

I started looking for free digital scrapbooking downloads and came a cross Bon Scrapatit Designs
They had a page kit called ‘It’s Falling’, designed by Linda and in it is a tree which I thought would be prefect for what I had in mind.

Here’s my card
I started by printing two trees directly onto my paper, which incidentally was a sheet from the Memory Stor kit I have.
I covered the card with one of the trees and decoupage the second over the top.

Next I added a leafy border with my tapestry stamps and some ColorBox Fluid Chalks and Distress Ink..

The quotation was also printed onto the same paper and then the first part of it was cut with decal edged scissors and the edges inked before attaching it to the top of the card. The second part of the quote was also inked, layered onto the reverse side of the paper and then given its decal edge.

The final addition to the front of my card is the little birdie.
My lovely friend Lythan was kind enough to loan me her very cute set of ‘Decorative Birds’ stamps from Hero Arts the last time she came to play. They will be returned to her on Monday when I go to play at her house, so this was a good excuse to use them for one last time.

Now to the inside of my card.
I wouldn’t normally decorate the inside but I decided it would be fun to have all the birds ‘singing’ here when the card is opened so I stamped six more and coloured them with Prisma Color Pencils.

I printed yet another tree, larger this time and sat some of the birds on the branches and the remaining ones on the ‘Happy Birthday’ which was cut using a Sizzix Hunky Dory Alphabet die.

Tutorial for Daring Cardmakers.....and it's my Birthday....yah!!!

It may be by birthday but I don't really have any special plans for today. I may just suggest that I take dad out to lunch or something, we'll have to see.

It's strange that my birthday also coinsides with my turn to so do the Little Extra for the Daring Cardmakers because we’ve been taking it in turns to bring you something a little different each week.

I decided to have a go a writing a tutorial about dry embossing.
It was one of the first techniques that I found out about when I started making cards about six years ago and it’s still one I love having a go at.

If you pop over to the DCM’s blog you can see the tutorial and may be have a little go yourself if it’s not a technique that you’re used to using.

You’ll see that I’ve looked at a few different ways of embossing and the effects they can create.

First a card using the basic method of a stencil and a light box.

These next couple of cards are embossed onto thin metal sheeting and the second one was painted with Twinkling H2o’s.



This was the easiest of all because it was embossed using my Cuttlebug and an embossing folder.

Then this one was embossed with a stencil but this time on Parchment paper.


A finally.... a Pergamano card

All of my cards, with the exception of two have been made with papers are from the Shabby Saturday download from Funky Hand and the other various bit and bobs are from my stash.

I hope you find the tutorial of some use and I look forward to seeing all 'your' embossed cards very soon.

Sue
x

Tanda Teaser - Haute Couture

I’ve been having so much fun this week catching up with some of the many challenge blogs out there in the great ether that’s know as the web, so much so that my dear friend Lythan is now referring to me as Mrs. Template. Lol!

I don’t often manage to do all that many of the challenges but as I had quite a few cards that needed making and some time on my hands I decided to visit a few of my old favorites.

Today I’ve had a go this weeks challenge from Tanda Teaser
.........sorry Lythan, no template this time!

The theme is Haute Couture.

I’m afraid I’m not going to be very helpful on this one because I’ve no idea who the makers of the large stamp or the paper are. All I can tell you is that the paper is a scrap that was left over from a crop last September …see, it does all get used eventually and the stamp set I brought at Alexandra Palace the year before that.
I do know what the Paris stamps are thought….they is a set of Clear Choice Stamps, so one out of three’s not bad!

The main image has been stamped onto beige coloured vellum using Brown Staz-On and coloured with Prisma Color Pencils before being attached to the card with four metallic eyelets.

The rest of the images, including the one on the vellum tag have also been stamped in Brown Staz-On and the card finished off with sheer ribbon and flower shaped brads from my stash.

DCM Getting Funky With The Funky Hand!

What a horrible day it is today. We’re just into September, it’s dark, wet and windy and I think we’ve said goodbye to our summer for good ……..if you can call that one week of hot weather back in April, summer!

Oh well never mind, at least with it being so grotty outside it’s a good excuse to stay in and have a go at this weeks dare from the Daring Cardmakers. The blog’s looking really pretty this week too because we have been sponsored by Funky Hand and all the design team have used a set of their downloaded papers, Shabby Saturday to make their cards.
Not only that, if you pop over to the DCM blog and have a go at the template challenge you’re in with a chance of winning a download of this beautiful set of papers for yourself, so go on, get yourself over there…..you don’t want to miss out!

As I said, it’s a template challenge this week

And here’s my card.
All of the papers, the greeting and the large flower are part of the download and I used a few punches to make some more flowers in different sizes.
All that’s been added is some embossing, distress ink and a few spots of glitter glue.
I have to say how impressed I was with the Funky Hand papers.
I’ve only ever used a download once before and quite frankly it was pants. Even though my printer was working fine the papers came out with lots of lines across them and it put me off ever trying again. These Funky Hand ones are totally different because they print beautifully and the colours are just great.
I for one am off to their Shop to buy some more and hopefully I’ll see you there….in the queue!

By the way, if you stop by the DCM blog next Tuesday you’ll be able to see some more cards made in the Shabby Saturday collection as I’m using it for the cards I’m making for our Little Extra………so see you then!

Papertake #28 / DCM –Heat It Up

I mentioned yesterday that I had been making another card that wasn’t quite finished.

I was actually working on this weeks template from Papertake Weekly



but I was having a few problems with it, the main reason being that I made the card before giving any thought what so ever to the image that I was going to put on it.

In the end I decided to have a go at following the great little tutorial that Vanessa has written for the mid week Little Extra on the Daring Cardmakers blog and I stamped into to some UTEE.

As luck would have it I managed to find an old free stamp that had come with a copy of Craft Stamper a while back and it almost matched the flowers on the ‘New Garden Collection’ papers from Crate.
If you’ve never stamped into UTEE and have no idea where to start, make sure you hop over HERE and have a go…..It’s all explained in nice easy steps.

CPS #80

Oh boy am I on a roll today!

I’ve just completed my second template challenge and a third is almost finished….yah!

This one is for CPS and the idea is to pick any one of the previous 79 templates and then make a card and something else to go with it. Unfortunately when I read the challenge I failed to notice the ‘something else’ at the end so I’ve only made a card....silly me....... but never mind, may be I’ll get around to that bit tomorrow, we’ll have to see.

I’m still in anniversary card mode at the moment because I have a few coming up in the next few weeks so I looked back at all the old template and decided to settle on this one.

The papers are all from the K & Co Specialty Paper pad Blue Awning.

I cut the three hearts on my Cuttlebug using the Ellison Thick Cuts die Tipsy Hearts and then embossed all three in a Cuttlebug embossing folder.

Roberta Robo cut the beautiful scalloped lattice frame using a template designed by Silene and downloaded from UK Scrappers and the greeting was printed on my computer.

Sketch Saturday #14

While I was doing a bit of blog hopping this morning I came across yet another template challenge site called Sketch Saturday

I was quite impressed looking back at the templates that they have come up with so far and by the examples their design team have made so as I needed to make an Anniversary card I decided to take the plunge and give last Saturday’s template a go.

The papers are all from DCWV Luxury Stack and the hearts were cut on my Tag-a-Long using a Sizzlits Funky Heart die.

I printed the greeting onto Vellum using my computer and while the ink was still wet I used clear embossing powder over the top.

All the edges have been inked with Dried Marigold Distress Ink.