I'm Dreaming...............

This week's challenge over at Die Cut Dreams is I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas and the inspiration for this card came from a recycled Christmas card I had sitting on my desk.  I thought it was a lovely image and I used my nesties to make a pyramage of the image.  This was mounted onto silver and black card which had a fancy edge created with a MS punch Cherish.  Backing paper was from my stash and again has a punched border.  The snowflake was die cut using my fantastic new die from Whimsy Stamps - which I think is the most delicate die cut that I've seen.  The sentiment was computer generated to fit my Stampin Up round and scalloped punches.  The wavy line sentiment was also computer generated and cut out with peel offs disguising any bad edges!!!   lol

Thanks for stopping by.

Less is More - One layer challenge

This week the 2nd challenge over at Less is More is "one Layer". This new website certainly makes you look at card making in a totally different light.  They have got a super tutorial on their website for this challenge on using your computer for the sentiments and it's brilliant.

I have actually made two cards for the challenge; one using the computer generated sentiment and the other using an aperture to stamp into.

For the first one I have used the same sentiment that was in the tutorial - If friends were flowers I'd pick you - and I omitted the L in the word flowers so I could use a stem of the flower for the L.  In this instance I have used a Stampin Up stamp "Love" as the stem of the flower and the head of a sunflower from a Papermania set.  The word "flowers" was printed as an outline image and I then used a Quickie glue pen and Art Glitter Monochromatic Brown to fill in.

On the second card I placed a nesties die on my card and passed it through my die cutting machine using the embossing plates so it just embossed but didn't cut the square.  I then used the same nestie to cut a square out of a piece of card which was then placed over the embossed square and taped down.  I used Distress Inks to colour inside the square and then I stamped a flower spray from a set I bought from Local King Rubber Stamps in Canada.  This was clear embossed.  The sentiment was also stamped in the same colour Distress Ink as the floral spray and clear embossed.  This was from a set called Birthday Words from Elusive Images - it comes as a one line stamp so I masked off the "come true" and stamped the first part above the main image and then masked the first part which allowed me to stamp the last two words under the image.  I think by embossing the square first it makes the image stand out more.

Thanks for stopping by.

Buttons & Bows

Over at Bah! Humbug! this week the challenge is buttons and bows.

I have put some holographic gold card through my die cutting machine in an embossing folder which came free with the Creativity Magazine a while ago.  It's a really nice Christmas tree image.  I have added blue and green buttons from my stash along with a green bow.  This has been matted and layered and added to a 5x7" card blank which was covered with co-ordinating paper.  The last addition was some Christmas tree printed ribbon.

Thanks for stopping by.

Faux Pressed Flowers

Just a quick post today.  I saw this great tutorial over on Splitcoaststampers for Faux Pressed Flowers.

On a piece of white card cut to fit a 5"x7" card blank I stamped a flourish and sentiment using a Big & Juicy pad and then chose some paper flowers to match the colours.  These were glued onto the flourish  and then put through my Joy die cutting machine in a Cuttlebug embossing folder - it's quite amazing how these 3D flowers almost become part of the background.  It was then mounted on the cardblank and I added some co-ordinating paper.  I then used a Martha Stewart punch to punch two borders - the top one I added some matching ribbon and a ribbon bow.  All the card needed then was the addition of some gems and it was finished.  If you don't like the flat finish you can lift up the petals of the flowers.

Thanks for looking.

Black , White and Pink

There's a new blog on the block.......... Less is More has just posted their first challenge which is black, white and pink.  Their aim is to promote the making of classic clean and simple cards which sounds really easy............. but it's pretty hard to pare everything down to such simple cards but I really enjoyed doing this challenge.

I've taken a square white card blank and embossed it using my Swiss Dots folder.  I then die cut nesties from black, pink and white card which were matted together.  On the white card I have stamped the word "kind" in black with a pink flower above (both came from a SU set).  The addition of a pink and white polka dot ribbon finished off this card.

Thanks for stopping by.

Valentine's card

The challenge over at Do it with Digis is Valentines.

I have used pearlised white cardstock and an embossing board to create the embossed areas of the card and then embossed the central heart onto red glitter card before cutting out and matting on the card and did the same with the ribbon bow.  I added gold peel-offs to accentuate the shapes and paper flowers to the rose.  The image is from Anne Bodil coloured with Promarkers and the ticket sentiment is from Sentiments4You.  The dragonfly charm is from my stash.

Thanks for stopping by.

Renewal of Vows

Before Christmas I was asked to make a renewal of vows card for a couple who have been married for over 40 years.  David is taking Julie to Antigua in March to renew their vows and he was very specific in what he wanted on the card............ not to make my life difficult you understand!!!!  lol

Anyway he wanted joining of hands, sentimental/religious, blues/greens and light/sunny representing Antigua!!!!!  What a challenge.

Must admit it took me quite a while of thinking how I was going to plan this card as it obviously had to be a bit "special" and then once I had started it again took me a while to be satisfied with what I had done....... luckily I don't charge for my time!

I began with an image of sky, beach and water on an 8x8" card.  As it was too prominent I added a sheet of velum on which I had embossed the bottom section.  Across this I placed some very pretty lace.  I used nesties to frame the photo of joined hands and then went a bit mad with the flowers but I wanted them to look like a bridal bouquet.  I added gems around the frame, a white ribbon with a rhinestone buckle and some die cut hearts with their initials.  Lastly I added a dragonfly which had been coloured with alcohol inks and a couple of die cut corners.

Then I had to make a box to hold the card and I made a top opening box using 12x12" scrapbooking card which luckily was a matching colour.  I added a die cut border to the top flap which was backed with silver mirri, more flowers, matching ribbon and a flower brad and a sentiment "How do I love thee?  Let me count the ways".  Julie's name was computer generated and matted using my Stampin Up punches.  The bottom photo shows how the box opens with the card inside.

Thanks for stopping by.

An oldie or a goldie............

This week's challenge over at Bah! Humbug! us "an oldie or a goldie" and suggest we use something we've had for a while that needs dusting off or something we have been drooling over but haven't yet used.

Well I'm not sure if my card for this week's challenge comes into these categories but to be honest I've been rushed off my feet lately.  Anyway as I was looking through my stash I came across these lovely die cut cards from Papermania that I bought absolutely ages ago but didn't use as they got snowed under with other stuff!!!  I'm sure you all know what I mean............  Anyway they are very simple to complete.  I just cut a piece of red pearl linen card to go behind the cut out poinsettias, added some die cut snowflakes, some ribbon,  peel offs down the sides and a sentiment.  Very quick and easy this week...........

Thanks for stopping by.

Blog Award

I've just been tagged to receive a blog award by my friend Val  - many thanks.

There are a couple of conditions for the award:

You have been TAGGED and want to participate?  Then create a post where you post the "LOVE BLOG" image.  You should also blog the person's link that gave you the award and inform him/her that you accept the award.  You can then choose 3-5 favourite blogs which you also link in your post,t hen each blogger will inform you that they have been tagged.

Dear bloggers:

The aim of this action is that we bring unknown, good blogs to light, so I would ask you not to blog fellow bloggers that already have 3,000 followers.

It is difficult to select a few from the many great blogs I follow and visit but please hop over to visit each of these which I have chosen to receive the Love Award:

Ikki
Linda
Sue
Lynne
Jenny

Please pop over to have a look at their blogs.

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.