Craftwork Cards stash

I love the papercraft materials from Craftwork cards. The following card was made using various bits and pieces from their Boxing Day sale goody bag.

From the goody bag, I used the backing paper,  die cut buntings which I have glittered using Hunkdory Butterfly wishes glitter, the circles embossed card which I have coloured with distress inks, a die cut butterfly edged with distress ink and embellished with green jewels and a sentiment also from the goody bag. The green ribbon was from my stash with a pink jewel embellishment.

And I haven't even got to the gorgeous candi in the bag yet...

I am entering the card in the Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #59 No Floral Embellishments challenge.

Sometimes its worth looking at your CD collection

I was tidying my craft desk and putting my various CDs into some form of order when I found Joanna Sheen's ATC Assistant. Its a gorgeous CD packed full of images and backing sheets and ideas. I can't believe it was gathering dust at the back of the cupboard. Although, that's more due to compulsive shopping and the newer CDs in front of it, because it is a superb resource CD. Whilst it may be aimed at ATC makers, the images etc also make perfect toppers for cards.

I had some scrap twelve by twelve paper on my desk and I was looking for an image and style to match and the ATC Assistant was the perfect solution.

The card uses the scrap paper as the backing, distressed with walnut stain distress inks. The topper is an ATC backing paper with a vintage image topper that I cut out and mounted on top. The flower was made from the remains of the scrap paper using a spellbinders Flower Creation die, distressed inked again and finished off with a jewel brad. The sentiment was also printed from the ATC Assistant. I edge the toppers and sentiment with distress inks as well.

I am entering the card in the Joanna Sheen Challenge and Daring Cardmakers First Friday Colour Combo 1 challenge

Less is More - week 49 - Predominantly Purple

Well purple is my second favourite colour and so what a perfect challenge to start my New Year's resolution to restart entering challenges and doing my blog.

The card is a simple card made from spellbinders (ironworks) with a bit of distress inking and a purple ribbon.

Sorry about the picture quality. The camera needs recharging after Christmas!

I am entering the card in the Less is More challenge.

Less is More - Week 22 - Colour

This week's challenge at Less is More is Shades of Blue.

The stamp is from Creative Expressions and was stamped onto glossy photopaper with denim distress ink.

The image was then mounted onto blue coredinations card which I had embossed and distressed.

I added some blue pearls and restamped the butterfly to add dimension.

Less is More - Week 21 - Sketch

OK. A bit more organised this week. I have managed to make a card for the Less is More challenge and upload it to my blog. IN ONE DAY!!!

The card base is glossy holographic card. I cut out three scalloped circles using nesties which I embossed with dots. I distressed the edges using wild honey distress ink.

The flowers were die cut from some acetate that I had left over from THAT challenge using flower shapeabilites. I then stamped over the acetate with a creative expressions stamp and heat embossed with copper meltdust embossing powder.

Close up of the flower

The flowers were attached to the circles with some copper gem brads.

I stuck the three shapes on top of some copper coloured ribbon.

I finished the card with a sentiment from the Xyron design runner. I originally tried to print the sentiment directly onto the glossy card, but no joy so I printed it onto some scrap card from the card I used for the circles and cut it out and edged with more wild honey ink.

I am entering the card in the following additional challenges:

Charisma Cardz Challenge - white and one other colour.
Secret Crafters Saturday challenge - embossing

Less is More - Week 19 - One Layer

The Less is More challenge this week is to create a one layer card 'In The Frame'.

I am still enthralled by my Stampers Anonymous stamps and so I came up with the following card:

The frame was embossed on the card with a Spellbinders Nestie. I then made a mask using the same die and placed it over the card.

I created the background using distress inks and the leafy swirly stamp and then overstamped with the bird image.

With the mask still in place I used Crafters Companion glitter spray which really brings out the colours of the distress inks.

The sentiment is from the Crafters Companion Popcorn range.

Less is more - Monchrome

Bit late with my entry to the Less is More challenge again this week, even though I made the card last weekend!

The challenge this week is monochrome. Choose a colour and stick to it but still keep to the general principle of clean and simple.

The last bit is always the hard bit when you have so much stuff in your stash and you want to put it all on your card.

I cut out two oval nesties in dark brown and light brown card and scalloped oval nestie in bronze mirror card.

I then made some flowers and leaves using shapeabilites from some brown patterned paper and distressed them using tea dye distress inks. I sprayed the flowers with Crafters Companion gold glitter spray and finished them off with a gold gem.

The sentiment is from the Clearly Handstamped collection and was stamped using walnut stain distress ink.

Less is more - week 17 - Pick a Square - number 2

Well I couldn't just leave it there and anyway I had these new stamps from Stampers Anonymous to try out.

I masked off the bottom right hand square of the card and then stamped it with the background stamp. I then stamped the bird image which I embossed with black WOW embossing powder. I distressed the edges of the square with Forest green distress ink and added a black pen border.

The sentiment is from the 3 birds Clearly Handstamped collection.

I am also entering the card in the Allsorts Challenge blog - Things with wings
and A spoonful of sugar challenge.

Now should I do a chore or another card?

Steampunk - Crafty Cardmakers

OK - I am a big fan of all things Tim Holtz and I love the distressed style, but I am still trying to work out how to do it. The Crafty Cardmakers challenge seemed to be the perfect place to start to find my style...

I decided a collage style card would be the best place to start and so I printed out loads of images from various My Craft Studio collections, some background papers which I edged with Martha Stewart stamps, I die cut some coredinations paper, which I embossed, distressed and sprayed with Crafters Companion glitter spray and a stamped image of an edwardian lady (sorry couldn't find anything Victorian).


I then stuck the whole lot together (if only it were that simple!!!) to come up with the card above. In the end not a lot of Tim Holtz but maybe I will be braver next time...

Crafters Companion Monthly Challenge 12 - Girl's Birthday

If nothing else, making this card has shown me that I seriously need to invest in more Crafters Companion stamps LOL!

The card is an A5 base made from yellow pearlescent card.

The backing paper, sentiment and the images are from the Crafters Companion Platinum CD - the birthday collection. I actually uploaded them into My Craft Studio to resize them and then alter the colours to the yellow tones shown. It also meant that I could crop out the images I wanted and not print the others.

The main image was cut out using a square spellbinders die and then coloured with wild honey distress ink whilst still in the die to create the white border. I have glittered the flower and the lines in the present, although you can't see that in the photo.

The yellow scallop die was used to cut out the second layer to the topper. And yes, its more yellow paper from the January Docrafts Goody bag.

Both squares were edged with gold pen.

I shaped the Souffle image to add dimension to the card and then stuck  Souffle and the present on to the card. Souffle and the present are also well glittered!

It's not easy to see on the picture but there is also a yellow lace ribbon behind the main topper. I have been practising making lace borders with my Martha Stewart Stamps.

The card is finished off with flowers and buttons from the Docrafts goody bag.

I am entering the card in the Crafters Companion Monthly Challenge.

Crafters Companion - Easter Competition No. 2

With so many Crafters Companion freebies, it only seemed right to make another card.

The card is based on one of the oval toppers. I have die cut a spellbinders oval scallop in copper mirri board. I used one of the backing papers edged with a Martha Stewart punch. I then used my MS punch around the page with some copper textured paper to create the next layer. The base card was edged with peel offs. I made some flowers using spellbinders flower dies from more of the freebie backing paper, coloured with wild honey distressing inks, which I layered together to create the flowers with a red gem in the middle. I also die cut some leaves and coloured them with forest green distress ink.

The card was finished off with some copper ribbon and a Nancy Watt's knot.

A wedding card

Not surprising that there are few wedding card challenges at the moment. Can't think why? But thought, I may as well have a go and came up with this:

The card is a 6X6 square card to which I have added a red spotted background from Red Hot Bed.

The image came from a My Craft Studio collection, but I forgot to make a note of which one and, of course, I can't find it again. Yes I have too many MCS cds. I created a background for the image using the old faithful denim blue and forest green distress inks from Tim Holtz.

I cut the image out using an oval spellbinders die and then matted onto blue pearlescent card (Crafters Companion) cut using a slightly larger scallop oval die from spellbinders.

The flowers were cut from a sheet of flowers from Red Hot Bed that I have had for ages and so had forgotten about. I layered them up and added a blue flower sequin and gold gem to finish.

I finished off with a peel off sentiment on the same blue pearlescent card, cut around with scallop scissors and edged with silver pen.

I am entering the card in the following challenge:

Crafty Cardmakers - challenge 44 A Royal Wedding.

Easter chick card

Well, since I have all that yellow stuff and since I have to make an easter card...

The base card is a 6"x6" card made from white card stock. I cut out the backgrounds from various yellow paper in the Docrafts goody bag and then coloured the edges with distress inks to make them stand out from one another. I then edged them with peel offs to highlight them more. The circle scallop was edged with glitter since I haven't the patience to put a peel off round all those scallops.

The circle and scallop circle were cut using the trusty spellbinders dies!

The decoupage image is from a freebie cd containing Honey and Hugs characters. The chick (Honey?) is perfect for Easter. I sprayed the decoupage with Crafters Companion spray and shine. Try as I might cannot get a photo of the card that does not glare off the shiny bits.

The eggs were some oval peel offs that I stuck on various buts of paper and cut out and then decorated with peel offs or gems.

The sentiments were from my new Xyron design runner which I cut out with scallop scissors, edged with gold pen and then sprayed with irridescent spray from Crafters Companion.

I am entering the card in the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge blog - week 99
Daring Cardmakers - Spring Fling

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge - Recipe

When I saw the challenge from Crafty Cardmakers, I knew I had to enter. Why? Because the main colour to use was YELLOW and I still have loads of yellow stuff left over from the Docrafts January goody bag.

The base card is plain white card folded to create an A5 blank. I have overlayered it with a piece of yellow spotted pattern paper from the goody bag which has been edged with a Martha Stewart punch. The card and the paper were edged with faux stitching using a green glittery Sakura pen.

I added some green ribbon and a bow to add a bit of highlight.

The image is a stamp that I found when tidying up my collection. I think it came from the Glitter Girls. I stamped the image on glossy photo paper and coloured it in with promarkers. The green elements are the same green sakura pen that I used for the stitching and I also added some gold sakura pens to the flowers on her hat which you can't see in the photo but is very glittery.

The image is layered onto more yellow paper cut into oval shapes from my Spellbinders sets. The layers were warmed up using Wild Honey distress inks and edged with a gold pen.

Using scraps of the yellow paper, I punched out a lot of small flowers and layered them up to make the smaller flowers. The larger flowers were in the goody bag, to which I added some green glitter as a highlight. In the centre of each flower is a gold gem.

I then punched out some butterflies from more of the scrap paper, sprayed them with Crafters Companion glitter spray and used them to link the flowers and the stamped image together.

The sentiment was made from more scrap paper and using my new Xyron design runner (yes, I have been shopping again...) I printed out the Happy Birthday and then cut the whole thing out with scalloped scissors. The sentiment was edged with a gold pen and stuck on with foam tape.

Less is more - challenge 10

The Less is more challenge entry.

Having taken on board the helpful criticisms on challenge 9, I sat down to compose a card for challenge 10. Making a sentiment the focus of a card is not easy. My first attempt was a bit ropey but I think fulfilled the requirements of the challenge. My second attempt was a better card, but was the sentiment the focus of the card or the border edge. A couple more options ended in the recycle bin so I went back to the first attempt and did it again.

This time I decided to use Centura pearlescent card as that would enable me to emboss the ink and make it stand out without the need of a border. I used to sizes of spellbinders dies to create the frame and with lots of masking tape and making sure all white areas of the card were covered up so that my inky fingers didn't leave any unwelcome marks, I added forest green distress inks to the borders using cut and dry foam. The card lets the ink stay wet long enough to add embossing powder (Wow clear holographic). The sentiment from Clarity stamps (one of the first I bought) was embossed with Wow ebony fine embossing powder.

As usual, my camera skills don't seem to be able to show off the embossing to its best effect...

Thought you might also like to see the rejects:

The first attempt...

My favourite???

The rejects...

Inky fingers.

80th birthday card

The starting point of the card was my first ever Lili of the Valley stamp that I bought at the NEC last Friday. It's a pretty little girl with a bunch of flowers. I loved it when I saw it and thought it would be great for a Mothers Day card but then I did something else for Mum. I couldn't wait to use the stamp though and so I decided to test it out.


The image is stamped onto glossy photo paper and then coloured in using promarkers (has anyone seen my ivory pen?).

I die cut the image out from my new oval spellbinders nesties and then did a mat from my new oval scallop nesties. The topper is completed using some gold letter peel offs to make the phrase 'young at heart'.

On an A6 card, i made some backing paper from the Pampered Pets range I bought a few weeks ago. I used one of my Martha Stewart edging punches to create a border at the bottom. Its also repeated on the back of the card.

I wrapped a piece of green ribbon around the backing paper before sticking the topper onto it.

Then I used some Fiskars punches to make a lot of little flowers which I coloured with distress inks and then stuck one on top of the other to create dimensional flowers. From the same set of punches, i made some butterflies.

The card is completed using sentiment and number peel offs.

I am entering the card in the following challenges:


Crafty Cardmakers - Special Birthday challenge
Lili of the Valley - Punch it challenge
Sarah Hurley Challenge Blog - Go Green
Ladybug Crafts - Handmade flowers challenge

Pampered Pets - part two

And then I did this one:

Again I stamped the image onto glossy photo paper. I cut out the picture using a nestabilities circle die. Leaving the image in the die and masking over the dog, I created the background using forest green and faded jeans distress ink for the ground and the sky. Using a sakura pen I traced the outline of the inner circle of the die to create the border. The doggies coat has been coloured in using sakura pens but as usual my inexpert camera does not pick up the full effect of the glitter.

The outer border is a piece of the pampered pets paper cut out in a scallop circle nestie and then highlighted with green - and in real life they are holly green - gems. Two more patterned papers from the pampered pets range make up the background mats with a green ribbon and a sentiment from the freebies on the magazine to finish it off.

If only I didn't have to go to work tomorrow, there is so much more to play with...


I am entering the card in the following challenges:


Charisma Cardz Challenge - four legged friends

Pampered Pets

I went to a craft demo on Saturday whilst my wonderful dh took the kids to their swimming lesson. It was by the wonderful Tracy Creedy from docrafts. I was inspired. Not that it takes much to inspire me when it comes to buying crafty stuff. Possibly spent more than I intended.


Anyway I have been having a little play with some of the stamps I bought.

A very simple card. The cat was stamped onto normal glossy photo paper and then masked before I added a paisley backgound stamp behind using fired brick distress ink The whole is mounted onto a piece of the pampered pets paper which I have embossed with the pampered pets embossing frame. I have highlighted the embossing with the same distress ink. I added a pink ribbon and then used a sakura pen to add stitching around the card. The red embellishments are roses taken from the freebie on the Docrafts creativity magazine, as is the sentiment.

I am entering the card in the following challenges:


Papertake weekly challenge - anything goes
Charisma Cardz Challenge - four legged friends

Sketchy Thursdays - Sketch 2.24

I have the image of Dominic stuck on a pot in front of me for years and I can't think why I never made a scrapbook page of it before. It is such a joyous image of young child with no cares in the world.

The page base is the green coredinations. I have layered some green tone paper onto borders made with metallic green card. The scalloped edges were embossed from the Ultimate Pro and then cut out and edged with green stickle glue.

Two strips of the green metallic card were cut about 1cm wide and then a strip of gold holographic peel offs were placed in the middle of each.

The two photos have been edged with green Diamond Sparkles glitter from HunkyDory using double sided tape. It is such a messy thing to do but so worth it.

Using another piece of the green paper I stamped a tree image from the 3Birds Clearly Handstamped set repeatedly. They are so easy to use. You hardly need to apply any pressure to get a good clean image. The strip was then distressed using Forest Green distress inks and then sprayed with Crafters Companion spray and shine.

The title is stamped from the same Clearly Handstamped set.

A few peel offs and another stamp in the top corner finishes the page nicely.

I am entering this in the Sketchy Thursday challenge.

CD crafting

I was playing around with My Craft Studio and created a lovely image which I printed onto glossy photo paper. But what to do with it? Inspiration, as ever, came from a number of Challenge blogs and so I created the following card:

I only wish my ability to photograph things was better because the above does not show off the wonderful glitter effect.

How was it made...

In my MCS collection, I have Simply Silhouettes. The main image is made from a background, a silhouette of a fairy and some butterflies. As I mentioned above, I then printed the image onto photo paper. I love the fact that you can resize images in MCS to match the paper sizes in your printer. Basically, I resized the image to 10x15 photo paper and printed it out from the photo paper tray. No need to waste a full A4 piece of paper!

I then matted the image onto some more yellow paper from the Docrafts Goody bag (I know it just goes on and on) which I darkened to match the colour of the topper with Wild Honey Distress ink.

I added some Fairy trails glitter from Hunkydory to highlight some of the elements of the image. You simply cannot get the full effect of that glitter in a photo! It is magical.

The topper is then matted onto Centaura Pearl card which I have punched down the side with a Martha Stewart border punch.

I punched out some butterflies with an old hand punch I found in a drawer and have been dying to use for a while. I decorated the butterflies with a black glitter Sakura pen.

The flowers were made from copy paper! I cut out a multitude of flower shapes and then using the scrunch technique turned them into petals which I layered on top of each other to create the roses. A quick spray with Crafters Companion iridescent spray and they were done.

The whole lot is mounted onto an A5 black card (i.e. an A4 sheet folded in half!).

I am entering the card into the following challenges:

Charisma Cardz - Black and White with one other colour
Crafty Cardmakers - Fairy and two paper punches
Allsorts Challenge - Make your own flowers