Charisma Cardz Challenge - Pink, Black and Green

Pink, Black and Green - sounds like an awful colour combination doesn't it? But if you look at the wonderful cards made by the Charisma Challenge design team, it is anything but awful. So I thought I would have a go...

The base card is a long piece of A4 white card, folded in half and then trimmed to fit the size of the elements chosen.

In my stash I found a piece of paper that had pink and green on it and used that as my background. The paper was edged with a Martha Steward punch and overstamped with a glitter girls flourish (not sure that shows up on the photo).

I then searched through my stash of Crafters Companion card and found some matching pink and green card. I die cut various circles and scallop circles using spellbinders dies from the pink and green card and some black card. Using a smaller spellbinders die, I then cut three white circles from glossy photo paper.

I stamped three cupcakes from a set of stamps that I got from a magazine (probably Papercraft Essentials or Crafts Beautiful but not sure). I coloured the images with promarkers using the same green/ pink theme.

I stuck everything together, added a sentiment and some ribbon to finish the card.

Less in more - challenge 11

Another Less is More challenge and another difficult one, but it gave me a chance to practice with acetate and try out an idea I had a while ago.

I have a few embossing folders which I sadly neglect but I had thought about trying to emboss on acetate to use as an overlay, so this is what I came up with for the Less is More challenge this week:

The image was stamped onto glossy photo paper and cut out with a spellbinders die. I then embossed a piece of acetate with a pattern and again cut it out with a slightly larger version of the die.

The two pieces are attached to the card using silver brads.

On the same theme, I stamped the image directly onto acetate and used black and then silver embossing powder to fix the image. Again the images were cut out using the same spellbinders die and attached to black and white card respectively with silver brads.

Need to practice that technique a bit more though.

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.

Crafters Companion Monthly Challenge 11 - Aqua and Brown

The card base is some brown pearlescent card from Crafters Companion. Using some aqua textured paper, also from Crafters Companion, I created two panels which I edged with a Martha Stewart punch. Over the top of the panels I have stuck pieces of ribbon (using the xyron sticker gadget).

The image is a stamp from CC and one of my favourite Popcorn stamps. The 'relax' sentiment is from the same set. The image was stamped onto glossy photo paper and coloured using promarkers. The background to the image was made using distress inks applied with cut and dry foam. I used the same inks to colour the sentiment.

The flowers were made from a My Craft Studio backing paper and various flower digital punches from the MCS program. I cut them out, scrunched them up, coloured them with distress inks, layered them together and then used gold flowersoft to create the centre.

I am entering the card in the Crafters Companion Monthly Challenge 11.

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.

Bling and sparkles

Two of my favourite ideas for cardmaking!

The card base and the yellow backing paper came from the never ending January goody bag from Docrafts. I haven't even got close to using everything yet.

I have warmed up the edges with wild honey distress ink and punched a border on the bottom using a Martha Stewart edging punch.

The image is from the Penny Black 'wonderful' set. I have coloured the image using glittery Sakura pens. The hedgehog spines are a copper glitter stuck on using a Sakura glue pen. I have edged the image with the same glitter.


The sentiment is from the same PB stamp sheet.

Then I have gone a bit mad with gold gems.

I am entering the card in the Charisma Cardz challenge 9 BLING & SPARKLES.

Less is more - challenge 9

I was playing around with some Clarity stamps as I have various corners. I was practising pattern building when I made a frame. It seemed perfect for the Less is more challenge and so I stamped the frame onto a white A6 card. I added a flower stamp in the centre which I coloured red with a promarker and then glazed.

The sentiment is one of my favourites from the Clarity range.

I really enjoy the Less is more challenge. I have always loved making cards with lots of bits on but now I am learning to make simple cards as well.