DCM - Cafe Chic!

I just thought I’d better take a little break from the mess that is my craft table and update my blog with the latest dare from the Daring Cardmakers
We have another ‘first time’ darer this week, in the shape of the very talented Vanessa and her theme for this week is

Cafe Chic!

Good morning everyone, my name is Vanessa, aka Ellepiggo, I've been cardmaking for several years now and I'm delighted to be part of the Daring Cardmakers team.

This is my first time at setting the dare and as we're on "firsts" I thought about the first thing that springs to my mind every morning - Coffee!! LOL!

Yes, I'm a bit of a cappuccino/latte macchiato girl, so I want to see lots of cards inspired by coffee!! Coffee colours, cup shaped cards, card inspired by a coffee jar label, using coffee beans on your card, coffee shop logos on your cards etc etc.....

I decided to use some wonderful Funky Hand papers, adding a spot of bling to the flower centers and made the quote the focal point of my card.


Card – Craft Creations Creative Hammer
Patterned Papers – Funky Hand, Now That’s Funky CD (Coffee with Pals)
Ink – Ranger Distress Ink
Quote – Printed on the computer

Other Bits
Brads
Ribbon
Diamantes
Charm
Flowers

Right then, back to the mess.
I wouldn’t mind but I spent half an hour before I started this morning clearing things up and now it’s almost as messy again as it was before I started!

DCM - Birds, Birds and more Birds

I’ve not had a lot of time this week to take part in the usual challenges that I try to do.
That's because it's been a whirlwind of hospital appointments, MRI scans, dentist appointments and lots of Christmas card orders but I couldn’t let Rein’s inaugural dare for the Daring Cardmakers pass by without joining in.
She says…..

I love birds so I'd like you all to make a card featuring birds this

week ......a bird in the snow, a birds nest, a carrier pigeon, a

white stork or birds in the sky, or...,or... even big bird!

I’ve kept things fairly simple, using just two papers from the gorgeous Basic Grey Wassail collection.
I don’t know about you but I’m finding it so hard to actually cut these papers up.
I find myself looking through them and saying….oh, this one’s too nice, I’ll save it for later and Oooo this one would be much better used on something else and then before I know where I am I’m at the bottom of the stack and still haven’t chosen a paper to use on my card, so have to start at the beginning all over again……….Sad or what?

Anyway, I eventually decided on two of the papers and with the help of my Nestabilities, I made this card.

Card – Craft Creations Creative Hammer
Patterned Papers – Basic Grey Wassail
Rubber Stamp – Personal Impressions, Rubber Stamp Tapestry
Inks – Tsukineko Staz-On, Versa Color & Encore, Ranger Distress Ink
Embossing Powder– Stamp ‘n’ Stuff Detail Gold
Dies – Nestabilities
Glitter – Stickles

Other BitsBrads
Ribbon

Gainsborough's Blue Boy

I’m sure that most of you will have heard of or seen the painting by Gainsborough called Blue Boy.

Well as of the night before last I have acquired my very own Blue Boy…..in the shape of BoJangles my cat.

He’s recently taken a liking to sleeping in the little round wicker basket that I keep my cross stitch threads and other bits and bobs in when I’m working on something and the night before last was no different.

But when I woke up in the morning I had to do a double take. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me because Bo, my Black, White and Ginger cat now has nice Blue patches too.




Sometime during the night, and I’m not quite sure how, he managed to get the lid off the Blue Highlighter that I use to make off my charts as I work and as you can see the result is rather colourful.
Not only that, I can’t get it to come off so he’s going to have to live with it for a while.

Guess I should be grateful that it wasn’t the Pink one I was using!

CPS #90

Another Christmas card and another template from CPS ..........and don't faint, I've actually managed to do it on the same day as the template was launched........yah!



I thought this looked very similar to their template last week, with a very slight difference but my cards look nothing like one another.
That's probable because this is a Christmas card and the one last week was a birthday card Lol!

Anyway, here it is.
The photo's not that great because of the lack of light so I'll try and get a better one tomorrow.


I’ve used my lovely Basic Grey Fruitcake papers with lots of layering on this card and very little else, other than the two hand cut trees decorated with eyelets.

Card – Craft Creations Kaskad, Bazzill Basics
Patterned Papers – Basic Grey Fruitcake Collection
Inks – Ranger Distress Ink,
Punches - Woodware small circle & corner rounder

Other Bits
Brads
Eyelets
Ribbon
Peel Off Greeting

Sketch Saturday #24

I’m well and truly into making my Christmas card orders now and for this card I’ve used this weeks template from Sketch Saturday


Here's my card


Card – Craft Creations, Creative Hammer Embossed,
Patterned Papers – Basic Grey Fruit Cake
Inks – Tsukineko Staz-On & Encore
Pencils – Prisma Color
Rubber Stamps – Fun Stamps (Choirboy), Elusive Images Christmas Flourish Plate (Greeting), Rubber Stamp Tapestry (Holly & Ivy)
Glitter Glue – Stickles
Embossing Folder – Cuttlebug D’vine Swirl
Embossing Powder – Stampendous Detail Gold

Sparkle & Bling

It’s Dottie and George week over at the Daring Cardmakers and not only do we have a wonderful sponsor, we have a Sparkle & Bling theme too.

This week its Jozza's turn for the Dare and as its Fireworks week here in the UK she has gone all sparkly - so the brief was lots of bling!!

We are sponsored this week by Louise Brigden (the designer of Dottie and George plus a whole host of other fabulous images) and Charmed cards and Crafts (the shop who sell the downloadable images).

I‘ve never used the Dottie and George images before and I have to say it was impressed. They were fun to use and printed out so well. Not only that, you get a choice of coloured or uncoloured imaged to print, so if you’re feeling lazy all the hard work is already done for you.


The dare was very timely for me because I needed to make a card for a friend who was leaving work to have her baby, so Dottie came in very handy indeed.
The problem was I made the card, took some photos, then gave her the card and pressie and then remembered, after it had gone, that I hadn’t given the card the sparkly, bling finish needed for the dare.........So now I needed to make another card.

As Christmas cards are firmly on my mind at present I decided to go with the Dottie and Snowman image which I coloured with Prisma Pencils, cut out and decoupage onto my card.

It also gave me the opportunity to bring out the lovely Artylicious Season’s Greetings CD by Glenda Waterworth to print my backing paper.
There was a fair bit of embossing, chalking and glittering going on here too although my glitter doesn’t really show up that well in the photo……….I promise you it’s there’s………..in no less than four colours.

I may as well give you a glimpse of the first card I made. For this I used one of the precoloured images of Dottie.


Card – Craft Creations Creative Hammer
Patterned Papers – Artylicious Season’s Greetings CD, DCWV Baby Stack
Images – Dottie Downloads
Dies – Sizzlits Nouveau Alphabet, Nestabilities
Embossing Folders – Cuttlebug Snowflakes, Cool Round Snowflake,
Punches – Xcut Snowflakes
Glitter – Stickles
Chalks – Pebbles Inc. I kan’dee
Flowers – Prima

Other BitsFibres
Brads
Ribbon

Craft Stamper

I’ve been buying this magazine for a few years now and aspire to create work as beautiful as the samples that they show each month……alas, I have a long way to go but it always inspires to keep trying.

The great news about this mag is that they have just started a Blog to complement it and as a celebration they have this blog candy up for grabs.


They also have a great subscription gift in the magazine this month……some wonderful PaperArtsy stamps.

Papertake - Simply Sparkling

Another of the birthday cards I had to make was done with this weeks Papertake challenge in mind.

This weeks challenge was inspired by all the bonfire and fireworks displays there have been lately! lol Simply sparkling - glitter, gems, or anything that is simply sparkling or along a bonfire/fireworks theme!

No rubber stamping for me this time ……..I’ve decided to play with my Sizzix Flower Parts set and the new Leaf Embossing folder that Lythan brought me for my birthday.

Oh, I've just realised I lied…….my greeting is rubber stamped……..I forgot about that!

You’ll notice that I’ve embossed the flower petals to give them some texture and the matt that the flower is assembled on was embossed with the leaf folder and then I ran an ink pad across the top the highlight the design.

Card – Craft Creations Creative Hammer Embossed
Patterned Paper – Crate Paper Cow Girl Collection
Rubber Stamp – Stamps Away greeting
Inks – Ranger Distress Ink, ColorBox Fluid Chalk
Pen – Staedtler Triplus Fineliner
Glitter Glue - Stickles

Other BitsRibbons
Gem
Eyelet

CPS #89

I’ve finally finished making all the birthday cards I need to take me to the end of the year, so unless I get anymore special orders I can concentrate on Christmas stuff from now on.

This is one of the birthday cards I made using the template from CPS


I started by inking over my card blank with Distress ink and then going over it a second time with a brayer.


The patterned paper panels have been embossed in a couple of different Cuttlebug embossing folders to add some texture and the car image had been stamped and embossed twice onto a piece of the patterned paper and then cut out and decoupaged.

Card – Craft Creations Kaskad
Patterned Papers – Basic Grey Archaic Collection
Inks – Ranger Distress Ink, Anna Griffin Pigment Ink
Embossing Powder – Fun Stamps Clear
Rubber Stamps – Fun Stamps V. W. Beetle, Stamps Away greeting

Other BitsBrads
Eyelets
Fibres

Sketch Saturday #23

Another card made for the order that I’ve recently received and I’ve used yet another template.

This one’s from Sketch Saturday and it’s Coco’s first ever sketch. I have to say, she’s done a good job because I really did enjoy working from it and I’m sure that I’ll use it again.


Here’s my card……but be warned……it’s bright.


I think the construction of the card speaks for it’s self but I was having great problems sorting out what type of greeting to use.
Sometime I stamp them and other times I like to design and print them on my computer but in the end I decided to do something I’ve not done for a long time…….stamp directly onto the ribbon using Staz-On.


Card – Craft Creations, Creative Hammer Embossed, Bazzill Bling
Patterned Papers – Basic Grey Color Me Silly
Inks – Tsukineko Staz-On
Pencils – Prisma Color
Rubber Stamps – Stamps Away (Boy) Line Dots Alpha’s
Paint – Pébéo 3D Gloss Touch

Other BitsBrads
Photo Anchor’s
Ribbon

I love the template from Papertake this week and thought I would use it for a very special birthday card I’ve been asked to make.

I had in mind to use my lovely Penny Black Lily stamp but when I started to look didn’t really have any patterned papers in the yellow and Orange shades that I needed for it. Then I remembered the ‘Now That’s Funky’ DC I brought from Funky Hand little while back and managed to find the perfect colours in the Sunrise collection.
Instead of printing the paper and sticking it to card as I would usually do I decided to have a go printing directly onto the card. I was really pleased with the results especially as it was printed onto a hammer effect card and as an added bonus, it made the card look posh because the back has the pattern on it too!

To go over the top of this I made a matt by putting some cream card through my Cuttlebug in an embossing folder and gave it a quick swipe with an ink pad to emphasize the design.



Card – Craft Creations Creative Hammer Embossed
Patterned Paper – Funky Hand CD printed directly onto card
Inks – Color Box Fluid Chalks, Versa Magic Chalk, Adirondack Dye Pad
Rubber Stamps –Penny Black Brush Lily, Whispers Words Greeting

Other BitsRibbons
Buttons
Stick on pearls
Peal Off Borders