DCM - Fish and Frogs - Double Dutch ....Not A Card

Oh boy……it’s been one of those weeks!

I’ve been rushing around like mad making sure I have everything ready for my holiday, as I fly to Florida early tomorrow morning. My main concern was making sure that dad will be ok and has enough food and meds to see him through until I get home but big brother will be with him so I'm sure all will be fine.

I’ve not had much time for crafting either, although I did do my
Daring Cardmakers card and one other special project that I managed to get finished which fits in with the Double Dutch challenge

Rein has set the dare this week and her theme is Fish and/or Frogs.



Considering I don’t have any Frog related stash you can guess what my choice had to be!



I stamped my fish twice onto Dark Blue Stardust card, embossed them in Silver and painted them with Twinkling H2’s. I then cut the fish from one of the images and mounted it on the other using 3d foam.

Next I made the three fish charms by stamping the same fish image onto Shrink Plastic using Black Staz On. They were then painted with H2O’s as well before being shrunk.

I run my card blank through an embossing folder before layering the card with the fish image and some printed vellum.

Card Blank – Do Crafts, Craft Tonic textured square cards
Card – DCWV Textured Pastels Card Stack, Craft Creations, Stardream
Inks –Ranger Distress Ink (Faded Jeans) Tsukneko Staz-On (Black) VersaMark (Clear)
Rubber Stamps – Inca Stamps, Stained Glass Fish
Embossing Powder – Stampendous (Detail Silver) Fun
Paints – Twinkling H2O’s
Embossing Folder - Cuttlebug (D’Vine Swirl)
Printer Vellum – Hot Of the Press

Other Bits
Silver Embroidery Thread
Brads
Eyelets
Computer Generated Greeting

The other project that I mentioned was a Chipboard book I decorated for a friend's ‘Special’ son’s 21st birthday.


Well, that’s just about it from me……off to finish my packing now!

I’ll see you again round about the 8th March when I hope to be able to join in all the challenges again and tell you all about the new stash that just happens to fall into my case. Lol!

Bye For Now
Sue
x

Opps....forgot to list what I used for the 21st Birthday book.

Chipboard Book –Maya Road
Patterned Papers – Basic Grey, Boxer
Inks –Ranger Distress Ink (Faded Jeans)
Dies – Sizzlets, (Honky Dory & Take it Easy 12 in. Alphabet Strips, Birthday Cake, Gift 3, Tiny Tag & Star) Cuttlebug, (Party Hat, Birthday Cake, Balloons & Present) QuickKutz, (Cat, Long Present, Small Present & Candles) Spellbinder, Nestabilities
Embossing Folder - Cuttlebug (Small Mosaic)
Buttons, Brads, Stickers & Fibres – Basic Grey, Boxer
Peel Offs – Craft Creations
Rub-On’s – E-Z Metallic Rub-On Transfers
3D Paint – Tulip (Blue Glitter and Red & Yellow Gloss)
Pens – Marvy LePlume
Glitter Glue – Stickles
Glaze – Judikins, Diamond Glaze

Other BitsChipboard Letters
Ribbon
Eyelets
Computer Generated Greeting

DCM - Going Green

Well before I show you my card for the Daring Cardmakers challenge this morning, can I just say a BIG thank you to everyone who joined in with the dare I set last week.

In fact it was so popular I think it ranked amongst the highed number of participants we’ve had. I loved seeing all your different colour schemes and all the beautiful cards you made and the same goes for this week…........I can’t wait to see what you do with Jozza’s dare!

This week Jozza has decided to go Green and we have to make card in various shade of it.

I can’t say that Green is one of my favourite colours.
I was put off it when I was at school because our school uniform was Bottle Green skirts and cardigans with….get this……a Red and White striped shirt.
They went so well together……not!

Lacking inspiration I took the aest way out and headed for my BG Boxer collection and all the enbelishments that go with it.......but still couldn’t bring myself to go completely Green, so added some Navy to break up the colour.

Card – Craft Creations
Patterned Papers – Basic Grey, Boxer
Inks –Ranger Distress Ink (Faded Jeans & Peeled Paint)
Rubber Stamps – Papermania (Happy Birthday)
Embossing Powder – Fun Stamps (Clear)
Rub On’s – Basic Grey, Boxer
Fibres – Basic Grey, Boxer
Brads – Basic Grey, Boxer
Buttons – Basic Grey, Boxer

Colour Create #2

Another lovely colour combination from the team over at Colour Create this week……beautiful shades of Aqua and Peach and an option to add some hand made flowers if we want.

My card is dominated by one large hand made flower and then some smaller stamped ones decorating the edges of the card.



I did slip up a bit thought because my lovely sheer ribbon has Gold edging to it….so don’t look too hard!

Card Blank – Craft Creations
Patterned Paper – I think it’s My Mind’s Eye ‘Tres Jolie’ but can’t be sure because it was only scraps
Dies – Sizzlets – Flower Set 2
Rubber Stamps – Rubber Stamp Tapestry Clear, Nature Plate 4 (Leaves, Flowers & Butterflies) Whispers Words (Happy Birthday) Personal Impressions Hearts and Flowers kit (Flower)
Inks – ColorBox Fluid Chalks (Aquamarine) Versa Magic (Pumpkin Spice) Versa Mark (Clear
Pigments – Blonde Moments, Festive Feast Pearl Pigments

Other StuffRibbon
Gel Pen
Hand cut Loopy Flower

CPS #101

I didn’t get around to doing this sketch from CPS. last week,

partly because I simply run out of time and the other reason was I was waiting for some particular rubber stamps to arrive.

You may recall that I was asking for some help a few days back when I was looking for stamps or images relating to line dancing….well as soon a saw the sketch it occurred to me that if I turned it up side down and turned my A5 card into a tend fold opening it could be made to look like a country-n-western style shirt……well that was the theory anyway!

Rhi over on the Daring Cardmakers pointed me in the direction of a great free font and Sue from the Tanda Teaser Team (that’s a mouthful to say Lol!) suggested a cowboy boot and also a text stamp that might work for me.
Thanks for your help girls and to Angela who also made a suggestion!

Anyway, I popped over to Tanda and had a look at the stamps Sue had mentioned and decided not to go with the text stamp but ordered the boot and a cowboy hat instead.
Now I just have to mention here the fab customer service and quick turnaround of orders that Andrew (the owner) always manages.
Not only did my stamps arrive within two days with a little hand written note on the bottom, he had also enclosed two free stamps which fitted in with the theme.
So this is recommend for Tanda Stamps and a big thank you to Andrew.

Here’s the card I made:-

My brief was to make a Blue Line dancing themed card so I went off in search of papers and found just what I was looking for on my Funky Hand ‘Now That’s Funky’ CD, in the Mans World collection.

I stamped and embossed the images directly onto the paper and then part coloured then with glitter gel pen.
The next thing was the computer printed greeting and for that I used the fabby font that Rhi had suggested. It great because the letters look like step directions.

Card – Craft Creation
Papers – Funky Hand CD
Inks – Versa Color (Black) Ranger Distress Ink (Faded Jeans)
Embossing Powder – Fun Stamps (Clear)
Rubber Stamp – Tanda Stamps (Cowboy Hat & Boot)
Dies – Nestabilities
Rhinestones - Kandi Kane Hot Fix gems
Gems – Anita’s Tiny Gems (Gem Wheel)

Other Bits
Blue Cord
White Embroidery Thread
Gel Pen (Blue)
Computer Printed Greeting

Sketch Saturday #37

Another template and another challenge!

This time it’s from Sketch Saturday and it’s a great one because it has so many possibilities.



I couldn’t decide what sort of card to make, a Birthday card, a Mother’s day card, an Anniversary card….oh decisions, decisions, decisions!
In the end I left the sentiment off and will decide what to use it for later.

You really should pop over to site and see what the DT have done with it though because they’ve made some beautiful cards!

Here’s what I did with it:-


Sorry the photo's a bit out of focus. I'll try and get a better one in daylight tomorrow


Card – Craft Creations
Patterned Papers – Wild Asparagus ‘Always’ (Plain reverse side of paper)
Dies - Spellbinder, Nestabilities
Rubber Stamps – Rubber Stamp Tapestry (Butterfly Blooms)
Inks –Versa Magic (Spanish Olive & Aegean Blue), Versa Color (Sky Blue) ColorBox Fluid Chalks (Creamy Brown, Chestnut Roan, Dark Moss,)
Glitter Glue – Stickles (Crystal)
Small Brads – Basic Grey, Archaic

Other StuffSticky backed Pearls

Di Hickman #1 (4th Feb)

No actual card making for me as yet today because I’ve been out on a shopping spree this morning. I was looking for some new clothes for my holiday, mind you it’s not stopped raining so far today and it’s hard trying to think about t-shirts and shorts when all I want to do is curl up in front of the fire and not set foot out side of the house.

I did do some cardmaking yesterday thought, so I do have something to share with you.

I used Di Hickman’s template as the basis of this card.

I went with a stamped image that my lovely friend Lythan gave me…how cute are these cats!

I’ve painted them with Distress inks, cut out each of the nine little panels out and mounted each one onto 3D foam so it stands out from the card.

I’ve also added some texture to one of the panels by running it through my Cuttlebug and then highlighting the pattern with wax metallic run on’s.


Card Stock – Craft Creations
Patterned Papers – Basic Grey – Perhaps
Stamp – I think it’s Inkadinkado but can’t be sure
Inks – Distress Ink (Tattered Rose, Dried Marigold & Antique Linen)
Embossing Folder – Cuttlebug (Floral Fantasy)
Die – Sizzlets Hunky Dory Alphabet
Large Brad – Basic Grey Archaic
Pen - Staedtler Triplus Fineliner (Brown)

Other Bits
Ribbon
Silk Flowers
Cat Paw Button
Fish Bone Charm
Wax Metallic Rub On (Gold)

Basic Grey Challenge #21

When I made this card this morning I had quite forgotten that today was Basic Grey day.

And it just so happens I'd used BG papers...how lucky was that!

Their challenge is:-

Lets Mix it Up

This week we would like you to mix it up, we would like you to use at least two different Basic Grey ranges in your creations.

I’ve used papers from the beautiful Ambrosia range and by lucky accident the big brads and the Grey fibres are from the Boxer Collection.

I was intending to use small Orange brads but when looked all through my stash I couldn’t find anything to match so I eventually settled for the large Grey Boxer one’s instead.

Card – Craft Creations
Patterned Papers – Basic Grey, Ambrosia
Big Brads – Basic Grey, Boxer
Fibres – Basic Grey, Boxer
Ink – Ranger Distress Ink (Dried Marigold)
Embossing Folder – Cuttlebug (Leafy Branch)
Glitter Glue – Stickles (Xmas Red)
Paper Punch – Woodware (Corner Rounder)

Other StuffRibbon

Even better news!

Anyone who follows my blog will have read last Tuesday that I had just found out I had won not one but two prizes in the Cuttlebug Challenge blog hop last weekend.

Well, my news gets even better:-

I have just had another email from them informing me that because my name came out of the random picker twice I have actually won their
Grand Prize.To say I’m gob smacked is an understatement………..

And my prize………

TENsecond Studio goodies to the value of $150

How amazing is that!

I’ve had a little experience of their products.
I attended a card making class at Imagine That our local craft shop and we made a Christmas cards using a die cut snowflake and the TenSceond Studio metal over the top.
I enjoyed the class so much that I promised myself that I would go back and do another class just dedicated to the metal work but so far I haven’t managed to do it…….well I have no excuse now!



Anyway, can I once again say a big Thank You to the girls over at the
Cuttlebug Challenge blog and an even bigger Thank You to TENsecond Studio for donating such a wonderful prize.

I can’t wait to see what it is!

Oh, and I’ll be sure to come back and show you what I get when it arrives!

DCM - A Touch of Oriental Splendour

Morning everyone,
I hope the snow isn’t causing too many problems were you are and that you’re ready and rearing to craft today.

I ask this because it’s my turn to set the dare over at the Daring Cardmakers this week and I would love for you all to in.

I thought I would treat you all to a Chinese Take Away this week.

No, I’m not talking about food……I’m talking about my Oriental Splendour Dare!
I would like you to make a card with an Oriental influence and the ‘Take Away’ I referred to is the twist in the tail.
When ever Oriental is mentioned most people, including myself immediately reach for Red and Black so I’m taking them away from you and removing them from the pallet of colours that you can use on your card.

So to recap:-

I dare you to make an Oriental themed card which doesn’t use Red or Black.

I decided to have a go at another technique that I’ve not tried before………Faux Batik.

Here’s my card:-

I guess it helps if you have the right things to hand when trying out something new.
I was so keen to give this a try, only to find I didn’t have ‘the right things’ so had to improvise and my card didn’t quite turn out as I had hoped.
I’ll definitely be giving it another go though!

For those who haven’t a clue what Faux Batik is, basically what you do is stamp your image onto your card using a Versa Mark pad, sprinkle with clear embossing powder and heart emboss and then spritz the panel with various colour washes.

Now this was where I had to improvise because I don’t have any colour washes. Instead I made my own using some Blond Moments Pearl Pigments and Ranger Perfect Pearls which I mixed with water and painted them across the image.

When the paint is dry you have to turn the image over onto some kitchen paper and iron the back of it. This melts the embossing so it soaks into the paper, leaving the plain card showing through underneath.
Next I layered the panel onto some patterned paper which I had embossed with a Gold Bamboo design along two sides, offsetting it to the top Right hand corner.
The next layer was Cream card which I Gold embossed with Cherry Blossom and coloured with a metallic Gel Pen and Prisma Colour Pencils and then this is turn was layered onto another panel of patterned paper, giving me a topper made up four layers.

I then covered my card blank with patterned paper and added a wrap of ribbon before attaching the topper and adding some brads and clips.

Card – Craft Creations
Patterned Papers – DCWV (The Old World Stack & The Far East Stack)
Inks – VersaMark (Clear) Ranger Distress Ink (Peeled Paint)
Pigments – Blond Moments Pearl Pigments (Festive Gold Luster) Ranger Pearl Pigments (Forever Red)
Rubber Stamps – Rubberdubbado, Stick-n-Stamp (Geisha) Personal Impressions (Cherry Blossom)
Pencils – Prisma Color Pencils
Embossing Powder – Fun Stamps (Clear) Stamp-n-Stuff (Detail Gold)

Other BitsRibbon
Brads
Clips
Metallic Gel Pen

Urgent.......Call For Help!

I’m just wondering if anyone in the big ‘crafty’ blog world out there can help me out please.

I need to find some Line Dancing images and at the moment I’m not having a lot of luck.
I don’t mind if they are images to download or stamps ….anything at all really, but at the moment I’m stuck and I’ve been asked to make three cards.

I’ll be really grateful if anyone can help by pointing me in the right direction please.

Many thanks
Sue

Cuttlebug Challenge - Be Inspired #17 - Love

Next up today I needed to make an Anniversary card and the Cuttlebug Challenge fitted the bill perfectly because the theme this week is Love.

Lots of dry embossing on this card……on the background paper, the dark Blue mat, the heart and on the flowers.
There’s also some heat embossing on the mat because I decided to try rubbing a VersaMark pad over the dry embossing, sprinkling it with Gold embossing powder and heating it with a heat gun to highlight the detail.




Card Blank – Craft Creations
Paper– DCWV, Luxury Stack
Inks – Distress Ink (Faded Jeans) VersaMark
Embossing Folders– Cuttlebug (Floral Screen)
Embossing Powder – Stamp-N-Stuff (Detail Silver)
Dies – Ellison (Double Heart) Sizzlits 12in. Border (Love with Hearts) Cuttlebug (Asterisks & Vintage Corner)
Paper Punches – Woodware daisy (Yellow) XCuts Flower

Other BitsRibbon
Gold Seed Beads

Tanda Teaser – Seeing Spots & Sketch This #77

All these challenges and templates are proving to be so useful for me at the moment.

I’m trying to get ahead of myself with card orders because my holiday is coming up so I’ve been using the challenges to keep on top of things. The good news is that I’ve finished all of my orders for February and I’m currently working my way through the cards I know I will need to do for March, so I’m on track.
If only I was always this organized!

So this is my second challenge of the day and it’s the Tanda Teaser, Seeing Spots.

For the life of me I couldn’t think of one single stamp I own that has spots on so I went for spotty Funky Hand paper instead.
I still used a stamped image thought, because I stamped the car onto the spotty paper, so hopefully it still counts.

I also used the template from Sketch This for the card lay out,

making various layers, with the Funky Hand papers.

Here’s the card:-



Papers – Funky Hand, Now That’s Funky
Stamps – Fun Stamps (V.W.Beetle) Whisper Words (Happy Birthday)
Inks – Distress Ink (Faded Jeans) Versa Fine (Onyx Black)
Embossing Powers – Fun Stamps (Clear)
Pencils – Prisma Color Pencils
Chalks – Readicut decorating Chalks

Other bits
Ribbon

Double Dutch #10

Well here we go with my first card of the day and my first ever Double Dutch challenge.
Here’s the template.

I always find making cards for men so difficult and all the more so when you don’t know them personally as in this case. If I knew of any hobbies it might have helped a bit but no such luck so I decided in the end to keep the card very simple.

I’ve added some texture ‘Cuttlebug stylie’ with some dry embossing. I also mounted some of the squares onto 3D foam and added some faux stitching.

The greeting was stamped twice, embossed and then layered onto the card.
Lastly I ‘chalked’ the card using my trusty box of eye shadows.


Card – Craft Creations
Patterned Papers – Memory Stor (Costco Kit)
Inks –Ranger Distress Ink (Vintage Photo) Versa Fine (Onyx Black)
Embossing Powder – Fun Stamps (Clear)
Stamps – Papermania (Greeting)
Embossing – Cuttlebug Embossing Folder (Number Collage)
Pen – Staedtler Triplus Fineliner (Black)


Other BitsBrads
Eye Shadow

OMG.......I'm in Shock!

On and off over thee weekend I’ve been popping across to the Cuttlebug Challenge blog where they were having a ‘Luv Bug’ Weekend, which translated to three days packed full of tutorials and projects that the wonderfully talented design team had made.
Not only did it help take my mind off my painful knee and the op that I’m waiting to have on it but it was fun and there were also prizes up for grabs each day.

Well, I’m in shock because when I visited the site today there was my name on the winners list, not once but twice. Aparently I won a prize on Saturday and on Sunday, just for visiting all the blogs and leaving a little message for them all, which was in no way a chore I can tell you.

I’ve no idea what I’ve won because all it says on the blog is a gift pack but I’m sure it will be wonderful what ever it is.

Still can’t believe I’ve won, so thank you girls for a great weekend and for making me a winner twice over.

By the way, if you haven’t visited the Cuttlebug Challenge blog yet, can I suggest that you do. It full of great tutorials and there’s lots of ideas that I would never dreamed of doing.

I have a loooooong list of things to try out now!

Papertake – Hearts & Flowers & Mojo Monday #72

Another card made today and two more challenges under my belt.

The theme for the Papertake challenge is Hearts & Flowers and I’ve had my first go at a Mojo Monday challenge, using their template.


Here’s my card:-


Unfortunately the photo hasn’t come out very well and my card looks Grey when in fact it’s Powder Blue and Pale Green.
This one will have to do for now but I’ll try and get a better photo in the light tomorrow.

Card Blank– Craft Creations
Other Card – DCWV Textured Pastels Stack
Papers – DCWV Luxury Stack
Rubber Stamps – Rubber Stamp Tapestry (Heart Deco & Spring Offering)
Inks – Ranger Distress Ink (Peeled Paint) Versa Color (Lapislazuli, Neptune, Sky Blue & Green Tea) ColorBox Fluid Chalks (French Blue & Ice Jade)
Dies – Spellbinder Nestabilities, Sizzlit’s (Heart)
Paper Punch – Fiskars Threading water Punch
Glitter Glue – Stickles (Crystal)

Other BitsRibbon
Brads
Sticky Backed Pearls
Computer printed Greeting

Colour Create #1 & 2 Sketches 4 You #19

This weekend saw the first challenge from a new group of crafters who call themselves Colour Create .
Every Sunday they will give us a new collection of colours to work with and this week it was Pink, Green and Brown.

I combined my card with this week’s template from 2 Sketches 4 You

and here’s the result:-

Card Blank – Craft Creations
Other Card – DCWV – Textured pastels Card Stack
Patterned Paper – Basic Grey, Sugared
Rubber Stamps – Whispers Words (Happy Birthday)
Inks – ColorBox Fluid Chalks (Brown) Ranger Distress Ink (Vintage Photo)
Embossing Folder – Cuttlebug (D’Vine Swirl)
Glitter Glue – Stickles (Pink)
Gems – Anita’s Tiny Gem Wheel
Numbers – Basic Grey Alphabet Stickers (Sugared)
Border – Basic grey Element Stickers (Eva)
Other StuffRibbon
Fabric Flowers
Button

Basic Grey – Challenge #20

I’ve just finished my second card for the day and it includes a couple of firsts for me.

It’s my first attempt at a Basic Grey challenge.

I came across their blog whilst I was doing a bit of hopping this morning and it looked quite interesting so I thought I would give it a go.

My next ‘first’ is an attempt at making those little distressed flowers that I mentioned the other day. I’m not completely happy with mt attempt but hopefully I’ll improve a bit the next time I have a go.

Anyway, here is the template from Basic Grey challenge.

And here is my card:-


Card Blank – Bazzill Bling
Other Card – DCWV Textured Pastels Pad
Patterned Papers – Basic Grey, Oh baby, Girl
Ink – Ranger Distress Ink (Dusty Concord)
Embossing Folder – Cuttlebug (Swiss Dots)
Thread – Anchor Embroidery Silk

Other StuffButtons

Sketch Saturday #36

Oh my….we have SNOW!

All I can say is…….. roll on some warmth and Florida sunshine in just less than three weeks time….Yah!

In the mean time I’ll have to be content with playing with the fabby template from Sketch Saturday while I dream of warmer climes.

I think this is such a versatile template and the girls over at Sketch Saturday have made some wonderful cards with it so why not pop over and have a look.

This is my little effort:-


Card – Craft Creations
Patterned Papers – Basic Grey, Sugared
Rubber Stamps – Rubber Stamp tapestry (Porcelain Bouquet) Personal Impressions (Hearts & Flowers Kit Greeting)
Inks –Versa Magic (Pumpkin Spice), Versa Color (Sand Beige) ColorBox Fluid Chalks (Olive Pastel, Dark Moss, Rose Coral & Rouge)
Glitter Glue – Stickles (Pink)
Gems – Anita’s Tiny Gem Wheel

Other StuffRibbon