Pink & Girly

The challenge over at Do it with Digi's is Pink & Girly.

I have used a digistamp from Di's Digi Designs.  The ticket sentiments are from the lovely Lynne over at Sentiments4You.  I have used a 5" x 7" card blank and covered it with papers from the Papermania Summer Bloom set.  The top paper was put through my die cutting machine in a Cuttlebug embossing folder.  I used some pretty lace across the join in the two papers.  I coloured the image, which is called Maisie with Teddy, with Promarkers and cut her out using nesties - this was matted onto two other nestie shapes which have also been embossed.  The addition of some pink roses, some ribbon and gems finished off the card.

Thanks for stopping by.

Bah! Humbug! Crackers.............

Well, what an apt title for this week's challenge over at Bah! Humbug!............ I am afraid it's rather a feeble effort this week as a) I've been busy working on some commissioned cards and b) I didn't own any stamps that had crackers on them (or even an image of a looney......... crackers.... get it?)!!! lol

The only thing I had which fitted the bill was this pre-printed template which I downloaded from the web ages ago.  Its a card shaped like a cracker with decoupage on the front, a sentiment tag and I've also added some ribbon.  Hopefully I will do better next week!

Thanks for stopping by.

Die Cut Dreams "A Winter Birthday Card"

Firstly I would like to wish Die Cut Dreams Christmas Club a very happy 1st birthday.  They are hosting a great blog hop with loads of candy being given away.  Pop over and have a look. 

Their challenge, which is for the next two weeks, isn't a Christmas card but a winter birthday card.  I have used a Lili of the Valley image for this one - she's so pretty and not necessarily a Christmas image.  I have used Stickles to add snow and Snow Writer for her muff and pompoms.  The backing paper is from my stash and I have added a doily on top.  I have used nesties, ribbon, flowers and gems for the finishing touches.  The sentiment is on a sheet of tickets downloaded from the internet.

Thanks for stopping by.

Another Sugar Nellie............

I just couldn't resist using this gorgeous Sugar Nellie digistamp "Joy" again.  This time I have printed out a larger image and coloured in ProMarkers.  Then placing a circle nestie over the image I could see that part of her shoes would be cut off so I lightly drew in pencil around the bottom (inside and outside) of the nestie.  I then used scissors to cut around the feet.  I fitted the nestie back over the image but made sure that the cut out section was OVER the nestie - then put it through the die cutting machine as normal.  This was matted onto some matching cardstock using a blossoms nestie.  Using this method it looks like she is just about to jump out of the card.  The background paper is from my stash and I used a Martha Stewart deep edge punch for the border.  I added some ribbon, flowers and gems and the sentiment is from a Stampin Up set called "Circle of Friendship" and was cut out using SU punches.

Thanks for stopping by.

My friend Anne over at Stamps & Paper posted a lovely card the other day using a Sugar Nellie design and I couldn't resist and had to go right over and buy some of their digistamps.

Here is Joy - she is so pretty that I thought she deserved a real girlie card.  I've coloured her with Promarkers and cut out using nesties labels die and mounted onto card from stash which has been put through my Joy cutting machine in an embossing folder.  The backing paper is also from my stash; the bottom one is a DCWV Luxury Stack which was also embossed with the same folder.  A piece of lace hides the join and I have punched out photo corners using my EK Success punch.  I've added flowers and pearls to embellish and the sentiment was lying on my desk and is from a Papermania 3D sticker set called "Memories".

Thanks for dropping by.

Christmas Lace

Over at Die Cut Dreams the challenge this week is Christmas Lace.  Strangely enough one of our projects at this week's craft club was lace glittering so I decided to use this method as well as some ordinary lace on my card.


I started off by taking a piece of card and, using red liner tape (as it's so strong), covered the width on the card that co-ordinates with the width of lace you will be using.  When you have your tape in place put down your lace over it and make sure it is very smooth.  You can use a little roller which is normally used for seams on wallpaper when you're decorating...........  Pour over your first choice of glitter (mine was red) and rub into the glue.  When all is covered remove the actual lace and you are left with the "negative" pattern.  Using another colour of glitter (in this case gold) pour it over the strip and it will adhere to the glue.  When I had finished I cut it to size for my square card blank.  I added gold mirri and red card and put a strip of lace over the join.  I have used a Lili of the Valley image and made a red frame using nesties.  I had a small piece of glittered lace left so used my EK Success photo corner punch to give me corners for the frame.  The sentiment has been stamped and embossed with red glitter e/p and matted.  Some red roses, Stickles and gems finished the card.

Thanks for stopping by.

Using Stencils

The folk over at Bah! Humbug! have set us a challenge card this week using stencils.

For this card I started off with a brass stencil with the word NOEL - I thought I'd using it slightly differently so got out my gold embossing paste which was spread evenly over the stencil.  I've often found that the stencils are slightly warped/bent so you tend to get paste under the stencil; but this time I used some Crafters' Companion Stick & Spray as a temporary adhesive on the back and it worked very well, keeping the stencil very flat to the card.  Removed the stencil immediately so I could wash it and let the paste dry.  I then trimmed the image and matted onto gold linen card.  I then took another stencil (Imagination Crafts) and laid it down on card and spritzed over the top with  Moon Glow.  This was matted onto white pearl card.  I took an 8x8" blank card and cut some gold linen card to size and used my Martha Stewart punch to cut out the snowflake border; these were attached to the base card.  I attached two pieces of gold ribbon to the spritzed background, used foam squares to attach the NOEL panel and then cut out some more snowflakes using a nesties die.  When the card was assembled I added some gems for that extra bit of "bling".

Thanks for looking.

Punch out your sentiment

This week's challenge over at Die Cut Dreams is "Punch our your Sentiment".  I was lucky to be in their Top 3 for last week's challenge so would like to take this opportunity to thank them very much.

Close up of pyramage

For this easel card I have used a stamp from the Elusive Images "Christmas Tweetings" stamp plate.  This was coloured using ProMarkers and then I put the image through my die cutter using three nesties to create my own style pyramage.  The first (largest) layer was put on a red mat using d/s tape; the second layer was added using foam tape and for the third and final layer I used a double layer of foam tape to raise it up.  The backing paper was from my stash and came, I think, from a Papermania set.  The sentiment is from a calendar set of stamps from Lili of the Valley and punched out using a Stampin Up circle punch and then layered onto red and gold mirri mats.  I then added some ribbon, gems and a variety of flowers which were punched out with SU punches.


Thanks for looking.

House Mouse card

It's my friend Janet's birthday today and I'd like to wish her a very Happy Birthday.  Hopefully we will be seeing her tonight at our craft club meeting.

I've made a card using my House Mouse Autumn Berry stamps which were coloured with ProMarkers and Diamond Glaze added to the berries.  The base card is pearl white A5 which I have put through my Joy die cutting machine with a Cuttlebug embossing folder.  I was able to lay the entire card out flat (A4 size) so I didn't get any impressions on the back of the card and then put it through twice - once for each side of the card.  It will be really nice when the manufacturers start making larger embossing folders!  The layers have been cut using my Go Kreate XL Frilly Labels and also Nesties labels dies.  The flourish is a Sizzix die and I have added some purple ribbon and gems.  The sentiment is from the House Mouse stamp set.

Thanks for stopping by.

Give away............

Ikki over at Ikki's Cuttlebug Cupboard is giving away a Diamond Cardcraft Eaziscore Board.  Just pop on over to her blog and leave a comment to be in with a chance of winning.

Just a quickie!

I don't know if you're like me but I collect all these freebie stamps that come with magazines but never seem to do anything with them!!!  They all pile up and I keep thinking "hmmm must do something with those"!!!!  lol

Well, today was the day.  I made use of a freebie set with came, I think, with the Creativity magazine.  Simply stamped the image and coloured with pencils, added the handbag stamp and the sentiment and then matted onto co-ordinating card using a labels die.  Not sure if you can see from the photo but I put the layers through my  Joy A4 machine in a new QuicKutz Diamond embossing folder.  Everything else used is from my stash.

Thanks for looking.

New Beginnings

The challenge over at Do It With Digi's is New Beginnings.  The lovely Lynne over at Sentiments 4 You is kindly giving away a sentiment for this challenge so if you fancy a go pop over and visit her.  The only rule for the challenge is that you must only use digi stamps.

I decided to use this digi stamp of a house in the woods and thought it could be a new home card.  Unfortunately I don't know where it came from........ it would be so much easier if people giving away free digi stamps would actually put their name/blog on it when you download so you could actually acknowledge them.  Anyway I printed it out on pearl photo paper and it is matted onto copper mirri and dark brown cardstock.  The backing paper is from my stash but I think it's from Graphicus.  I imported the sentiment into a graphics programme to allow me to change the text from black to brown/sepia to match the main image and printed it out, again on pearl photo paper, and matted it on the same card as the main image.  I added a border at the side using a SU edger punch.  I then added a flourish which is a Sizzix die cut, some flowers, gems and ribbon to finish off the card.

Thanks for looking.

Bah! Humbug! Holly and Fairies

Well folks - here we go again.......... only just taken the Christmas cards down and Bah! Humbug! has started up their challenges again!

The first one is Holly and Fairies and whilst I was clearing my table (!!!) I found this card that I had started last year and the white card had already been die cut using a Nellie Snellen frame die and mounted onto red card - so I thought that was a good place to start.  I decoupaged all the layers of the die cut up using Pinflair glue gel and then stamped this image of a Christmas fairy praying from Lili of the Valley which I coloured in with Promarkers.  The wings are made from Angelina Fibres although it doesn't show up very well in the photo.  I used Stickles on the holly berries in her hair and used glue gel to add her to the top of the decoupaged die cuts.  I then stamped a corner holly leaf image at each corner and added more Stickles to the berries.  It's a very simple card but hopefully will ease me into crafting for next Christmas!!  lol

Thanks for stopping by.

Definitely a man's card!!!

It's my nephew-in-law's (does that make sense......... my husband's nephew!) birthday soon - he lives in Sydney, Australia and it's been a while since we've seen him.  He is absolutely besotted by any kind of sport; especially cricket but we shouldn't really mention that at the moment!!!!  lol

So I decided to use My Craft Studio "The Finishing Line" to create this card.  As with most of the cards made with MCS you simply print out the elements you want and mat and layer as required, which is what I've done.  The sentiment has been printed out onto a hazy image of the front racer on the circuit but I totally forgot to add my words when I was in the MCS programme........ so I printed out the sentiment onto some copy paper to make sure it was the correct size/orientation and then used some repositionable glue tape to attach the oval over the sentiment on the copy paper and then sent it through the printer again.  This is a trick I use quite frequently and it works a treat if you want to print onto ribbon.  All I've added is some mirri card and black brads.

Thanks for looking.

Happy New Year to Everyone

Happy New Year to everyone.  I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and got lots of crafting presents!

One major present I had this year was the new Joy A4 die cutting machine.  Now I will agree with everyone that it's not the prettiest looking piece of equipment but it actually looks better in real life.  What I am so impressed with is that you can put an A4 sheet through to cut an aperture in the front of an A5 card............ you can emboss the entire front of your card and one bonus is that when you put your nesties through the machine it not only cuts but actually embosses at the same time!  I couldn't actually believe that but it's great and certainly that saves an awful lot of time.

I had to have a play with it when we got back from spending Christmas with my sister Val and the rest of the family.  I took an A5 card and placed a Go Kreate XL Frilly Labels die over the top to create a shaped card.  I had some left over backing paper and toppers from one of the cards I made from my Ooh La La Shoes in Bloom CD so thought I would utilise these to make a birthday card for a friend.  I used the smaller Go Kreate die to shape the backing paper and then used nesties labels to cut out the main image and it's mat.  A piece of ribbon, some flowers, a touch of Stickles and a SU sentiment completed the card.

Thanks for stopping by.