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.

Gifts for the Kids

It’s some time since I’ve updated you on how the cushions for the Kid’s Company charity are going and the good new is that to date Nicki has put together a grand total of 25…..how amazing is that!

Things have slowed down a little now because we are waiting for the next batch of children’s names but that doesn’t mean that we’ve stopped stitching altogether because we are still working on the embroidered / cross stitched panels in redness.

Here’s a few of the panels that I’ve stitched and the little cards that go with them.

Mermaids

Aliens

Cats

These are just the ones that I’ve personally been involved with but you should really pop over to Nicki’s site and see all the other works of art she’s created.

A Piping Hot dare from the Daring Cardmakers

Why does a challenge blog have to be so challenging?

That was the question I was asking myself as I prepared my card for this weeks dare set by Jane at the Daring Cardmakers …….and a real stinker of a dare it was too. Thanks Jane!

Piping Hot!!

Hello, Jane here. How are you all?

Now, it's my turn this week to set the dare and I want you to use PIPE CLEANERS!! Any shape, colour or form - put them on a card! I know it can be difficult to incorporate Pipe Cleaners on cards (sticking them down is one obstacle!) but they can be put to lots of interesting uses too!

So go on - it wouldn't be a challenge site if it was easy would it?

Ummm, what can I do with a pipe cleaner…….….any ideas?

Well, after much raking of my few brain cells I couldn’t come up with anything that was particularly out of the ordinary and ended up using mine for flower stems.

My starting point was a Cream card blank that I promptly attacked with a speckle brayer and Peeled Paint Distress Ink and then I added a leaves with a tapestry stamp.
Roberta Robo was called into action for this one too.
I cut four different sized flowers layers for each flower, three in paper and the last in acetate and I also cut the scalloped border using a template that Rachel B over at UK Scrappers has kindly shared.
I added some Stickles Glitter Glue to the back ‘loopy’ layer and Alcohol Inks to the acetate before layering them with 3D foam and topping each one off with a punched circle and a button.

My three Green pipe cleaners form the stems which have been tucked down behind the hand cut flower pot and finally I made a little punched tag, added a tiny peel off and tied it on with organza ribbon.
I also made a little Ladybug, intending to attach it to the side of the pot but it turned out looking like a big Red blob and didn’t make it to its intended spot.

Two weeks, One challenge.

Papertake Weekly is yet another challenge site that I’ve not visited for a while and as I said in my previous post I’m short of inspiration at the moment so what better to find some than to visit old friends and give the challenges a go.

This week the brief is to make a card with stitching on, be it real or faux. I also like the look of this template from the challenge last week so I decided to combine the two.


I often wonder how people get started when they sit down to make a card. Do they have an image in mind and fit the papers around that image or do they start with the papers and work from there. I guess it’s governed to some extent by the occasion the card is intended for but when I first sat down to make this birthday card I had no pre conceived ideas at all.

My starting point was the 6 x 6 Basic Grey Mellow pad that I’ve had for some time and used very little of. …..not because I don’t like the papers……..more a case of it’s a bit small for me when the majority of my cards are 15 x 20 or there a bouts.

Having looked through the pad, I came across the lovely Green paper with Burgundy and off White flowers and then had a look through my Memory Stor Costco collection to find a couple more papers that would co ordinate with it.
Next I had to come up with an image which is not that difficult when it’s for a female’s birthday. I remembered some stamped imaged that I have of flowers in a vase type thing which would be perfect if I coloured it to match using my Prisma Color pencils. I’m sorry that I can’t tell you who the stamp is made by but I think it’s from one of the stamps that Carolyn brought with her when she came over a while back.

I layered the card following the template and included some faux stitching around the stamped
image, all topped off with some sheer ribbon, little tiny Silver brads and Red diamantes.

Last but not least I made the sentiment spot using an E-Z Rub-On Transfer ‘Happy Birthday’ and a Peachy Kiwi ‘Fancy Circle’ stamp which I embossed with Silver.

What a Hoot!

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve had a go at the CPS templates but as I had quite a few cards to make over the last few days and was in much need of inspiration, I decided to have a go at the latest one.

As soon as I saw this template I was so excited and knew exactly what I wanted to do because it gave me the chance to use my new Sizzix Owl die.

Here’s my attempt:-


I’ve used a Blue card onto which I’ve layered some of the sky effect paper from a 6 x 6 Basic Grey ‘Mellow’ pad. The cute little Owl was cut from two sheets of paper from the Memory Stor Costco Kit and I’ve used Distress ink around all the edges and added some detail to his eyes with a White Sharpie pen.

I went for a tree effect down the side of my card which was stamped using Technique Tuesday ‘Whispy Gigs’ stamps along with a few tapestry stamps to add the foliage, using a combination of Peeled Paint and Vintage Photo Distress ink and a Dark Green Color Box Fluid Chalk ink pad.
The little Owl was then attached to the branches with 3D foam.

The greeting is stamped with the Skinny Dip alphabet from Purple Onion and a 99p Studio G set from the Range, using the dark Green Color Box ink.

And there you have it!

A Big Black Cloud

There’s been one of those hanging over me all week in the shape of a visit to the dentist.

I’m such a coward when it comes to visits there but this time it couldn’t be put off any longer because I’ve had an apses on one of my front teeth and two lots of antibiotics haven’t done the trick. Finally yesterday I had it sorted with Root Canal work, not something I would like to go through again in a hurry but at least I survived to tell the tale!
My face is so painful this morning though, in fact it's more painful that it has been for the last week but my dentist assures me it will settle down in a few days and be back to normal….I just hope he’s right.

Anyway, now the real reason for this post…......the Daring Cardmakers weekly dare.

It’s Tanya's turn to set the dare and this time it's a dare with a POINT! A nice sharp point, at that!

This Way!

I want to see arrows on your cards - whether big, small, straight, curly, lots or just one arrow

This is yet another dare that’s way outside my comfort zone. I can’t ever remember having used arrows on my cards before, so needless to say I struggled big time but I did eventually managed to create something that looks a bit like a birthday card Lol!

Can’t say I’m totally happy with it though as it seems to lacking something, see what you think…….

The patterned papers are both Basic Grey - Skate Shoppe, some of which has been put through a Cuttlebug embossing folder and the stamp is from Tanda's Retro Men Set 1.
I hand cut the arrows and added some doodling and computer printed greetings.

I finished the card off with some faux stitching and a couple of photo anchors

Blog Candy Alert!!!!

And you really should pop over and see what the lovely
Juliet has up for grabs......…if you’re the lucky one.

But don’t just go over for the blog candy, if you haven’t already, spend a bit of time looking at her work because I think she’s so talented and creates the most wonderful cards…….go see for yourself!

Go on, I dare you!

It’s Friday and It’s dare time again, but not only that, it just happens to be my turn to set the dare for the Daring Cardmakers.

I think I may have come up with a fiendish one to stretch your creative flare.

It’s a Wrap

No, not the kind stuffed with Chicken & Cesar Salad or the woolly kind you put around your shoulders to keep you warm, mind you, the way our summer is going I think we could all do with one of those!

I would like you to give your card a coat made of acetate, vellum or anything for that matter.

As long as it ‘wraps’ around the outside of your card, anything goes!

I didn’t have any problem coming up with the theme for my dare but when I got back from Switzerland on Monday and had to think about the card I was going to make it didn’t seem quite such a good idea………I really did struggle.
The design team were all on form and came up with some great interpretations of a wrap so don’t forget to pop over to the Daring Cardmakers Blog and see their creations.

I eventually decided to get out my Pergamano paraphernalia and made a vellum wrap with an aperture to go over a stamped card.

The sunflower stamp is by Rubber Stampede and is coloured with prismacolor pencils. I also used them on the vellum and found that they worked very well on the back to add subtle shading behind the two lines of flowers.