Bah Humbug Punched Borders Challenge

Yet another card to meet the Bah Humbug challenge - this time it is punched borders. Unfortunately I don't have a particular Christmas border punch so have used my Tim Holtz "On the Edge" die to cut a border from a piece of My Mind's Eye Christmas Glitter paper which I attached to a burgundy square card. I had run the main card through my Big Shot in a Cuttlebug snowflake folder to give it some texture. I then just had to use my new SU stamp "Dasher" which was matted onto some more of the glitter paper and then a plain card mount. The sentiment is a peel off on SU punched ovals and I have added a burgundy ribbon to the side. Things have been very hectic this week and I have been out at a pastel workshop today and only managed to finish the card before I went out. On looking at the photo I took I realised it needs something........... so I am going to add some Stickles to Dasher's antlers which I think will make it zing.

Thanks for looking.

Still here!!!!

Can't believe it's nearly a week since I last posted but I was asked - very last minute - to take a table at a local village coffee morning and I have spent all week doing inserts, bagging up and pricing cards etc. You all know what it's like - you make cards and they go on top of the pile and then it's a mad rush to get them ready to sell. Also had to make another treasure box and get out all my other crafty stuff that normally goes on my table. Anyway the sale was this morning and as I had already arranged to be out all day they kindly offered to look after my table for me - I am due to go in about an hour to pick up what's left (hopefully not a lot!!!!! lol) and see if I've made a profit which I can put towards our trip to Newbury in July.

Anyway I thought I would post a couple of kiddies cards I made this week which is something I never normally think of doing. I bought the two stamps from my friend Anne a couple of weeks ago as I really didn't have anything "children friendly" in my stash.

Both the stamps are from Funstamps and I decoupaged the clown and his balls and added Diamond Glaze to the balls and bells to make them stand out and I did the same with the steam train by covering all the steam with Diamond Glaze. I masked my clown and added the Whispers Happy Birthday sentiment behind. The backing paper on both cards was from my stash and the sentiments are peel-offs on punched card using my SU oval and scalloped oval punches. A few gems finished the cards off.

Thanks for looking.

Bah Humbug Snowflake Challenge

This weeks Bah Humbug challenge is to make a card with the theme of snowflakes.

Here is my offering - I used a square card blank and put some white card through my Big Shot in the Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder. This was cut down into four squares and mounted onto red card and added to the front of my card blank. The main image is a Forever Friends sticker which was put onto white card and matted onto red card; both of which were cut out using my Nesties labels die. The sentiment was computer generated and matted and layered using my Stampin Up oval and scalloped oval punches and then I added some gems, a ribbon and four more snowflakes to the background.

Thanks for looking.

Flap Card

You know what it's like when you order something on a whim and then when it arrives you don't really know what to do with it????? Hmm, I'm sure there are lots of you who've been through this. I had ordered a Baroque set which included some die cuts and they had been sitting around for quite a while so thought I'd better make use of them.

I started off wanting to use a larger square card and this one is 7" x 7" which you get by cutting two A4 sheet to 7" wide and leaving the length as is, turn them landscape and score at 7". Cut one flap to 3 1/2" and punch a decorative edge. Stick the back of one piece onto the inside back of the other and you have your outer card. For the inner card I have done the same but cut the pieces of A4 slightly smaller to fit inside the larger card and also made it a gatefold. Lay your outer card with the decorative edge at the top on your work surface and attach the gatefold card to the centre section. This way when you open the main card the inner flaps open out to give you a card that will sit nicely on a surface.

I decorated the front sides of the inner card with some of the die cut decoupage and added an insert. I tied some ribbon to the top outer flap and then punched out three circles which would act as a closure for the card. On top of the circles I added a bird on a branch which was punched out using my new Stampin Up punch. This was added to the front of the card using some d/s foam which allows the top edge to be caught underneath so the card closes.

As I was making the card up I happened to look out of the window and staring back at me was this beautiful Sparrow Hawk - absolutely lovely to look at but such a predator for the smaller birds in our garden. Luckily he stayed long enough for me to take a photo but then flew away - without lunch!!!

Thanks for looking.

Something old and something new...........

My great cyber buddy Liz of Make a Lasting Impression kindly sent me a sheet of her precious, mainly unobtainable, Grungepaper to have a play with. I haven't used it before and although very pliable it is quite fibrous and my punches didn't like it - so ended up putting it through my Big Shot with a scalloped circle Nestie. I spritzed with Glimmer Mists and then followed Tim Holtz' instructions for making his rose. I think it would be easier using a plain circle Nestie as the scallops don't help when curling the petals. Anyway I ended up making a couple and then had to make a card to put one on! I used my Clarity Stamps "Velvet" lady and dug out some fantasy fibres which had been lurking on a shelf for a very long time (something old). I decided to use two colours for her outfit which I was quite pleased with. The backing card is from my stash with an offcut edged with my Martha Stewart Arched Lattice punch, some mirri card behind and a ribbon added. The sentiment is from a Stampin Up set, matted and layered using the SU oval and scalloped oval punches. The leaves are made using my L-Em Fern punch.

The other day I was watching Create & Craft when they featured their Loopi Loom. I loved the effect you got with the scarf but thought it was pretty expensive at £22.99 for a piece of wood and a couple of dowel rods........... so I fluttered my eyelashes at my DH and no sooner said than done and I had my very own version. Last night I made two scarves using it and here is a photo of one of them.

This next card is a simple one made for a friend. I used the Papermania stamp set coloured with ProMarkers. The backing paper was from a SU set. I added a piece of ribbon and some gems. The sentiment is from a SU set and matted and layered using their punches.

Thanks for looking.

Labels card

I've been neglecting my crafting over the past few days as I'm trying to get my husband's Open University assignment typed and ready to go tomorrow - unfortunately it's got lots of statistics, regression analysis (don't ask) and figures.................. I'll definitely be glad when he's finished the course!!!

I bought this lovely stamp last week from one of the girls in our craft club. It's by Impression Obsession and called Large Gift Tag Trio.

I stamped the image three times; once on the background card, another where I cut out the tags completely and the third where I cut out elements from the tag to decoupage. It was coloured using my ProMarkers and matted onto purple mirri cut out using Nesties Labels 8 dies. The plain backing on the main card was put through my Big Shot in a Crafts Too embossing folder (daisies), and the bottom card is from Elusive Images. I added some purple ribbon; the sentiment is from Stampin Up, cut out and matted using SU punches. The flower was made by punching 5 layers of matching card using SU scalloped round punch; these layers were spritzed with water, crumpled and then fixed together with a matching brad. I then teased the petals into the shape I wanted and left to dry. The decoupaged elements were finished off with some Diamond Glaze.

Thanks for looking.

Club Night samples

On Wednesday evening we had our monthly club night and did two projects. The first one was tri-shutter cards and the second was puffy boxes.

The shutter cards are fun to do and all the girls enjoyed them. We actually had a challenge at the start of the evening to show all our club members how easy it is if you have the right equipment. The challenge was to see how long it would take Anne, Jan and I to make a shutter card by cutting down a 12x12" sheet to 12" x 5 1/2", then cut two slits 1 1/2" in from each long side from 2" down to the 10" mark and finally to score the card at 2", 4", 8" and 10". Anne had her trust Fiskars cutter, Jan only had a cutting mat, ruler and craft knife and I had my fabulous Scor-Pal (which I wouldn't be without). I think it actually took me about 20/30 seconds, Anne was quite far behind and poor Jan had virtually not even started!!!! It was good to show the girls how easy things can be with the right equipment.

The second project was making a puffy box using a CD as a template. These are lovely little boxes. The box on the right hand side of the photo had a flower made out of five pieces of card that were cut out using my Stampin Up scalloped circle punch, cutting about 1/2" in from the side of each scallop, wetting the card and scrunching them and then securing with a brad. Once they are secured you just tease them into the shape you want and leave to dry - it's interesting to see how much they hold their shape and just how firm they are when dry.