Craft Cardmakers Challenge #14 Digital Delights

It's Challenge #14 over at Crafty Cardmakers .

Our challenge this fortnight is to use digital elements, be that digital stamps, printed papers or sentiments on your design. So long as you use a computer generated bit thats fine!

I love using digital images and elements so this is a great challenge for me.

I used an image from Pink Petticoat and printed it out 3 times so I could decoupage certain parts of the design. The image is coloured using my Promarkers to which I have added Stickles glitter glue and lots of blingy gems to the flower centres. I matted the image onto black card and used a metallic silver pen around the edges.

The layout of the card is the latest sketch #69 from Eat, Sleep, Stamp . I covered the A5 card with paper from Doodlebug. The hearts paper is from Ki Memories and I edged it with a thick black marker to make it stand out against the backing paper better. The red circle is also from Ki Memories and I used a thin black marker to doodle a dash and kiss border along the visible edges. The sentiment panel is from a magazine freebie paper pack and has been mounted onto black card and again edged with the silver pen. I love how bright this card is, but the black and silver gives it a masculine edge.

For the insert I have combined 2 freebie digi images and put the sentiment inside the heart frame. There are loads and loads of free digi images available around the net and I hope you will have a go yourself. I use a program called Xara but most images can very simply be printed from Word so you don't need to buy an expensive program to have a play with them.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the cards made from this challenge and all the digi images that are used. The other DT members have made some fabulous examples on the blog and the prize for this challenge is some gorgeous little bee images from Tasha at Dewdrop Craftz. They are just soo blooming cute :) Unfortunately the DT can't win them though......

I've incorporated the following challenges into this card

• Eat Sleep Stamp #69 - Layout of card

Happy Birthday Grandma

It's Paul's Grandma's birthday today. She's very guarded about her age but she is either 97 or 98 and still quite sprightly..... we're definitely holding out for the telegram for the Queen when she reaches 100 but she's not that bothered, she says she's been around long enough now!

She loves my cards and says they are getting better all the time. I wanted to make something a bit more unusual for her and decided on an easel card.

The staring pint was a great sketch from Friday Sketchers and I knew I wanted to put some Forever friends into it. Paul chose the decoupage and I had one of the already glittered 3D element stickers so decided to use that. The flower papers are from a FF QVC TSV and the coloured cards are from Sizzix DCWV pads which I have had for ages and never used.

After seeing some smashing examples I bought a pack of the Nellie Snellen frame dies and love the result. It is so pretty for a central panel and I can see me needing to buy loads of them. They are a good price and I think they will get a lot of use.

And for another first, please note that my flower ensemble features my very 1st crocheted flower!!! I had a go at making some and found it difficult to follow a pattern so kind of made them up as I went along. I'm sure I'll get better with practice but I'm really pleased with my 1st attempts.

Blog Challenges incorporated into this card are as follows :-

• Friday Sketchers #87 - Layout of Card
• Flutterby Wednesday #95 - Open theme must include wings
• One Stop Craft Challenge #65 - Make it personal (Grandma)
• Color Chef Challenge #36 - Light Pink, Dark pink plus white or cream
• Crafty Creations#53 - Wings
• Pollycraft #33 - Things with Wings

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #13

What a fab response to our last challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers. I couldn't believe how many entries there were and how many lovely new goodies our blog entrants had for crimble.

The challenge this week is with a romance theme. I am one soppy old romantic and love Valentines Day so this was an easy one for me to do :)

I used last week's sketch # 150 from CPS for the layout and was initially inspired to incorporate the packaging from some Papermania spotty buttons that I had bought to make a shaker card by adding some red heart confetti and silver chunky glitter.

The heart paper is an old HOTP one.The red paper and letters are from a freebie paper pack from a magazine. The Forever Friends bear is a sticker mounted onto card and cut out. The flowers are various Primas layered together with a silver beadcap and a spotty brad on a Sizzix diecut corner.

I used the swiss dots Cuttlebug embossing folder to the shaker panels, both outside and sanded back and inside and added a little red ink to the dots.

I have also incorporated the following challenges into this card :-

• Color Chef Challenge #35 - Black Red, Grey & White
• CPS #150 - Sketch Layout
• Caardvarks - Use colour Red & Hearts
• Pollycraft #32 -Fire & Ice (hope black is allowed too)
• Practical Scrappers - Patterned Paper
• A Spoonful of Sugar #87 - Lots of Layering
• Crafty Creations #51 - Valentines or Love
• Creative Belli Challenge #83 - Hearts
• C.R.A.F.T. Challenge #34 - Red
• Crafty Catz #16 - Love
• Allsorts #36 - Hearts & Flowers
• One Stop Craft Challenge #64 - Love & Kisses
• Rainbow Lady #87 - Fur (on FF bear)
• 365 Cards Day 210 - Use the sanding technique on your card (black spotty panel)
• Chocoholics Forum Challenge - Twilight colour theme Red, White & Black

Truly Scrumptious #24

Another valentines card and this one is a bit bright and features me using green again!!!! The layout of the card is a sketch from Truly Scrumptious which I chose fr the starting point to fit this sentiment panel into. All the papers are from Creative cardmaking magazines and the sentiment is a vellum one from this mag which I ran through the Xyron and stuck to white card.

I have used the heart blocks embossing folder from Cuttlebug and distressed with a little black ink pad. I have used a Sizzix die to cut the file tab and added a small sentiment from the paper pack. The paper heart is from the pack anf the small red 3d one is a Paperchase sticker. Last but not least I have layered Prima flowers with some bead caps courtesy of Ebay and a couple of Papermania brads. Vix from Crafty Cardmakers uses beadcaps a lot on her cards so I had a mooch on Ebay and bought some, they do look really effective and add a lot of dimension to the flowers.

This card incorporates the following challenges :-

• Truly Scrumptious #24 - Card Layout
• Sophisticats #18 - Springtime (colours)
• A Spoonful of Sugar #87 - Lots of Layering
• Paperminutes #97 - Pink & green colours
• Crafty Creations #51 - Valentines or Love
• Creative Belli Challenge #81 - Hearts
• Crafty Catz #16 - Love
• One Stop Craft Challenge #64 - Love & Kisses
• Magical Crafts #7 - Valentine
• Practical Scrappers - Embossing

Eat Sleep Stamp #67

I'm in a loving mood at the moment and making a batch of Valentine cards for my hubby to sell at work to his colleagues (if anyone is interested anyway..) So I've gathered together some valentine and love themed supplies and using some sketches to make some cards on this wet Sunday afternoon.

This card has been made using the layout at Eat Sleep Stamp #67 which features a large heart as the main focal point.

I used my Fiskars punch to make ribbons in black card and red paper. The papers and motifs are all from various magazine freebies all layered up on one another. The heart is a vellum shape with Forever Friends Papermania stickers on the top.

This card fits in with the following challenges :-

• Eat Sleep Stamp #67 - Sketch layout
• A Spoonful of Sugar #87 - Lots of layering
• Creative card Crew #47 - Punched edges
• Crafty Creations #51 - Valentine or Love
• Creative Belli Challenges #83 - Hearts
• C.R.A.F.T. Challenge #34 - Use the colour Red
• Ildi Co #8 - Colours Pink Red and White (hope a bit of black is okay?)
• Rainbow Lady #87 - Fur or feathers (FF bear)
• One Stop Craft Challenge #64 - Love and Kisses
• Magical Crafts #7 - Valentine
• Caardvarks - Colour Red and Hearts
• Simon Says..... Punch It

Pile It On Sweet Sprinkles Award

OMG, I've just found out I've won another award for the Happy New Year card I made.

Dalis from the Pile It On challenge blog had left me a message congratulating me on winning a Sweet Sprinkles award.

I am really chuffed as again this was another card that had been chosen as opposed to a random number generator thing.

I can't even begin to tell you how much confidence this has given me and I am so pleased that I have tried to do something different and my hard work has paid off.

Practical Scrappers Challenge Winner

I've had some fabulous news this morning.

I've just been to visit the Practical Scrappers blog and have found out I am one of the winners of the bling challenge and I get a blinky to display on my blog.

Although there is no prize, this is really special to me as it's not a random generator thing, it has actually been chosen and for someone like me who never thinks that my cards are as good as other people make this is a major confidence boost.

Woohoo, it's made my day :)

Just For You

Tis the season for amour and I love making valentine cards because I am a really soppy and romantic person.

This card is made from a lovely freebie paper pack that came from the latest issue of Simply Cards & Papercraft. It's all tweety birds and love hearts and in bright funky colours so suits me down to the ground.

I used the latest sketch at Inspirational Card Sketches for the layout. The backing paper is a red on red swirly design. The wavy heart strip was cut from another piece of the paper. The white card was embossed using the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder. I edged it with a black inkpad and distressed the edges with scissors. This is a technique that I have seen many people do but haven't had a go at myself. I like the fluffy edges it gave to the piece and can see me doing this again.

The central image is also from the free papers. I stuck it onto card to make it stronger so I could mount it on 3D foam. The little hearts are some great dimensional stickers I got from Paperchase on Saturday. I got oodles of really funky hearts for a £1. Last but not least the sentiment was added from the same paper pack.

I have incorporated the following challenges into this card :-

• Inspirational Card Sketches #49 - Layout of Card
• 365 Cards Day 280 - Put red & white stripes somewhere on your card (heart embellishment)
• Creative Card Crew #42 - Distressing
• Corrosive Challenge #46 - Distressing
• Creative Inspirations #43 - Use something New received in the New Year
• Flourishes - Feel the Love
• Get Creative With Ann GCA #73 - Love Is In The Air
• ABC Challenge - L is for Layering

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge # 12

Happy New Year!!

It's challenge #12 over at Crafty Cardmakers and we have been challenged to use new items that we perhaps got for Christmas, or just new in general.

I have used my new Sizzix scalloped die to cut the base sheets of card and linked them all together using eyelets and jump rings.The papers I used are mainly from a pack called Bloom & Grow from My Minds Eye. I found myself succumbing to this gorgeous pack of papers whilst shopping on Saturday! (this is despite telling myself not to buy any more papers a I have loads already)

I have embellished the pages using chipboard numbers from Poundland which I coloured in black. The butterflies, scalloped circles and journalling tag on the last page are from a freebie pack of papers from a magazine as the colours all matched so well. The rest of the flowers and leaves were cut from the MME paper pack and have been mounted using 3D foam squares.I have covered the leaves with Rangers Glossy Accents and added a few buttons. A couple of glittered brads, a liberal sprinkling of Stickles glitter glue and as Gordon Ramsey says DONE!

I have also been able to incorporate the following challenges into this 'card'

• 365 Cards Day 290 - Use a trio of at least 1 each of a flower, chipboard & button
• Crafty Calendar Challenge #4 - Warm colours
• Creative Card Crew #42 - Distressing
• Papertake Weekly - New Year & new items
• ABC Challenges - L is for Layering
• Creative Belli Challenge #82 - Glitter
• Flutterby Wednesday #91 - Theme of 'New'
• 3 Clovers Thursday #46 - project that represents your goals for 2010 (to create beauty and to stretch my creativity by making items I haven't done before. To get out of my crafty comfort zone)
• Cute Card Thursday #94 - Theme of New (New Year & new stash)
• Crazy 4 Challenges #18 - Polka Dots
• Our Creative Corner - 3D Item
• Practical Scrappers - Glitter/Bling
• 2 Red Bananas - Something with Curves (scalloped edges on pages)
• Pile it On - New Year
• There She Goes TSG#37 - Use at least 3 different embellishments
• Corrosive Challenge # 46 - Distressing
• Crafty Catz #14 - Bright & Sparkly

There was a fantastic response to the last challenge at Crafty Cardmakers and many fabulous entries. I look forward to visiting your blogs and seeing what new things you have been using. I hope you'll join us in the challenge.

Just Saying Hello

Apologies for the poor photo. I have taken it at night and the artificial lighting has played havoc with the colouring. The blue is a bit richer in real life but at least you can see how dimensional it is.

I have made this card using a new die I have had from Sizzix which is a scalloped square. I have only used part of this shape to fall in with the layout of the card which was from Kazan's sketch # 43 over at 2 Sketches 4 You. It is ages since I have been able to participate in one of their sketches so it's nice to be back in the fold :)

The brown patterned paper is a magazine freebie from my scraps with a white gel pen faux stitching border around the edges. The blue sentiment panel is a Hero Arts rubber stamp printed onto a scrap of paper which turned out to be self adhesive.

The spotty ribbon was a gift from my Secret Sister Mags and I have attached a little butterfly charm to it with a jump ring. The chipboard spotty butterfly is one I had in a Colorbok Kit from QVC last year. I have embellished it with wire antennae and Kanban self adhesive crystals.

I have been able to incorporate the following challenges into this card :-

• 2 Sketches 4 You Kazan #43 - Sketch for layout
• Incy Wincy Designs #24 - Bling
• My Time To Craft #73 - Blue & Brown colour scheme
• Creative Belli Challenge #82 - Rhinestones
• La La Land #19 - Use a Charm
• Ildi Co's Creative Challenge #7 - Only use scraps and something metal
• Paper Play 1 Week 1 - Metallic Element
• If The Shoe Fits Fashionista Friday #17 - Chipboard
• Pile It On #30 Crystal Clear - Bling
• Crazy 4 Challenges - Polka Dots
• One Stop Craft Challenge #61 - Something beginning with B (Butterfly & bling)
• Get Creative With Ann GCA#72 - New Sizzix Die and rubber stamp
• 365 Cards Day 312 - Metallic Element (Charm)
• Sunflowers & Dragonflies #23 - Faux Stitching
• Just Us Girls #15 - Stitching
• Crafty Catz #14 - Bright & Sparkly

Woohoo, I've won a prize :)

I've just been mooching around the blogs and updating my challenge list and I've just found out I've won a prize!

I've got no idea what it will be, but I've won a bonus prize from the Blog hop that Charisma Cardz challenges ran last week where I entered my baby card in for their Celebration theme.

I'm really chuffed and doing a happy dance right now :)