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.

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

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

Heart card and Docrafts goody bags

I have the January 2011 Docrafts goody bag which is bursting with bright yellow 'stuff'. Kinda daunting to know what to do with it all when the outside sky is grey and dreary so I have been ignoring it somewhat.

The sun came out earlier this week and whilst tidying up my craft desk I came across the wire heart from Clarity Stamps club which I hadn't gotten around to testing yet. Valentine's Day has been and gone and its a bit early to be thinking about 2012.

But why not combine the two for a different type of card.

Very Yellow

The card base came from the goody bag and was covered with one of the yellow papers from the bag. I created the second layer from some teal card left over from a challenge card and matted a rectangle from the SAME sheet of paper which I had darkened using Wild Honey distress inks.

From the Glitter Girls Majestic Board, I created a centre element using the same teal card and some more of the SAME sheet of paper. The card is edged with Stickles glitter glue and the central oval is edged with a fine border peel off.

The topper was then stuck onto a ribbon from the goody bag which was suspended on the matting layer to add a bit of dimension.

The heart shape is stamped onto a cut off from the SAME sheet of paper. I have embossed it with gold pearl Meltdust. I find the meltdust embossing powders really good for fine lines and not just for using on meltdust papers. I have coloured the sections of the heart using sakura gel and glitter pens.

I added some gold coloured gems and a sentiment to finish it off.

I am entering the card in the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Putting On The Glitz
Sweet Sketch Wednesday - Sketch 89
The Stamp Man Challenge - Hearts
Cupcake Craft Challenges - I ♥ You

Sketchy Thursday layout - at last I published on time

I have lots of 12x12 papers that I think came from Red Hot Bed. They coordinate with each other really well and I have some sheets of letter and number sheets too. I was looking for inspiration for the sketch when I opened the box with the papers and thought they were ideal. I have used three different papers for the background. I have used peel offs to highlight the edges of the page. The photos are matted onto red paper as is the journal entry. The journal entry was made on a scrap of paper which I coloured using Walnut stain Tim Holtz distressing inks and is written with a red Sakura pen. I have used a red ribbon for the accent. The Xyron comes in useful for sticking ribbon down! The page is finished off with letters cut out from the aforementioned pages which I have edged with gold Stickle glitter glue.