Another Card Using Ink Around the Edges

Another card made specifically for the I Did It Creations Blog Challenge, which is to use a favourite technique. I am in love with inking around the edges of images to give them a softer feel, even though I have only been doing it for 2 days, and I also love embossing card through cuttlebug folders.

I have used a freebie image from the I Did It Creations Blog, and have coloured it with some of my promarkers. You can probably tell I love the colour purple!

The layout is from a card I spotted around 'blogland', and just loved the two tone card that was used, and the use of a boarder punch to give it a elegant look, and the card finished with ribbon. This card has mainly been made from my ever growing scrap pile.

I have cut the image and mat layer with the Labels One nesties, and inked the edges of the image, and added some clear gems to the middle of the flowers. The embossing folder I have used on the purple card is the 'daisy' folder, and on the black 'swiss dots' although you can't really tell from the photo. A piece of black ribbon and sentiment finish the card off. For a bit of dimension I have added 3d foam pads to the back of the image/mat and then put it on the card.

I love the use of the boarder punch and the two tone colours used to make this card, and will definitely be using this style, and layout again, as I think it is one that would work for any occassion.

A New Technique for Me

On my travels around blogland, over recent weeks, I have seen a technique where you use ink to 'brush' around an image or edges of the paper. I have got around to giving this technique a go today, and after seeing a video on You Tube I have this card, as a thank you to my last but one boss, because over Christmas I received a very large cut glass vase, as a leaving present, at it is stunning. It is so big that instead of the occassional bunch of flowers my OH often buys me, he will now have to by a large bouquet!


I don't have the correct tools ie distress inks; brushes, stamps to do the swirls, to follow the card that was made on the You Tube video, so I have improvised and used the things that I have got - cotton wool; normal ink pad; embossing folder; and stickles.

I've started with an A6 card, and tied a ribbon/bow around the front. Not sure how it happened but lately I seem to have mastered tying a flat bow the first time instead of having to keep undoing and redoing it until I was happy with it.

I have then cut 2 different sized nestie label one shapes (a crimbo present from my OH) and embossed the smaller one with the devine swirls folder. I have then taken a piece of cotton wool and inked around the edges of the larger label shape, and all over the smaller one. After drying I have gone around the smaller label with lavender stickles to give the card a bit of a sparkle.

To finish the card I have added a Thank You peel off and pearls from my stash.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Paper Sundaes Challenge - Something New
Allsorts - Thank You
Sew Many Challenge - New Things [nestie shape; new technique of inking]

Valentine's Card

I know it is really early in the year to be thinking about valentines day, but the current challenge on MSE is to create a valentines card.

I've had an idea in my head of what I could do since the challenge was set a few weeks ago, and since I have crafted all day today, making cards to sell, I have got the Craft Robo out and created this:

And I am really pleased with the result. The card has been created using silver mirror card and a deep read card. Not sure what this techinque is called, but I have created a page of hearts on the Robo, and put the cut out hearts to one side. I have then cut the 'punched' sheet that the hearts were cut from, and cut it about to make the template that has been stuck onto the silver mirror card.

Originally the idea was just to be able to see the 'punched' heart template with the silver card, but it looked too plain, so with the hearts that were cut out I have add these back into the 'punched' sheet, only a smaller size to each heart shape, so the silver card is still seen.

As a bit of sparkle, I have added some glittery organza ribbon, and the sentiment was done on the computer, and cut with an oval nestie.

I'm planning on making a couple of these up, to put in the basket to sell at my friends playgroup, so will have my fingers crossed that they sell.

Out Of My Comfort Zone

I've said it before, but I am always inspired to try different things that I see on Helen's blog, and a couple of months ago I saw a desk calendar that she had made using beer mats and embellishments and thought it was stunning.

Having recently got a new job, and next week my own desk, I wanted to have a go and make one for work.

This was also a great project for using up scraps of paper and embellishments, and a lot of DST and tacky glue!

It took me about 6 hours to complete because I couldn't choose from all my lovely paper and embellishments to use, but I am really really happy with the results. As you can see butterflies are a favourite of mine, and I have also tried to match papers or embellishments to a certain extent with holidays throughout the year. I was sent the santa charm, by a friend and couldn't bear to part with it so using it for December, means that I don't have to!

Unfortunately I don't have access to a binding machine of any kind, so have improvised by using fake gold cheap hoop earrings that I have had for a very long time and never wear. They hold the desk calendar together, and the 6 beer mats stand up perfectly.

I'd like to enter this project into the following challenges:

Paper Pretties Blog - Ring in the New [hope earrings count for this]

One Stitch At A Time - Anything Goes

CES Challenge - Anything Goes

Craft Your Days Away - Punch It Out/Die Cuts [butterflies; flowers for March; and boarder for May)

Southern Girls Challenge - Anything Goes

Alys Sunday Challenge - Anything Goes

Best Friend's Christmas Card

Although I made all my Christmas cards this year, there are a few people that get extra special ones. I have had this image for over a year, so don't know where it is from, but it is one that I love using.

This is the card I made for my best friend, and whereas in the past I have used paintshop pro to colour images, I now have a large selection of promarkers, so am able to colour it in and embellish it any way I want.

I have embossed the card blank with the swiss dots folder, and used red mirror card to create the largest scallop square with my nesties.

For the image I have used promarkers to colour her hair; shoes and coat, and added some ultra fine glitter power to her coat and muffle, and glossy accents for the black buttons. I also added some icicles stickles for the snowballs around the image.

The sentiment was done on the PC in a gold colour font, and backed onto a red mirror card oval. The red ribbon was from my stash.

My friend loved the card, which was fantastic. I'd like to enter this card into the Digi's With Attitude Challenge - anything Christmas

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Wow it is 2011 and I wonder what this year will bring for us all.

We had a fantastic night tonight with friends, and my new year's resolutions have to be:

1. Use up a lot more of my scraps and only buy new crafting goodies when I absolutely need them, and not because everything is so pretty, and 1/2 price. Of course this rule goes out of the window if someone else is buying the stash!


2. Start making Christmas cards early ie. Summer, and not leave it until so late to get 80 + done.


3. Be more confident, and take compliments better about the quality of cards I make and try and sell more of them. Need more pennies by the summer for the trip to Florida we have just booked.


4. Enter more blog challenges with my cards, and attempt to blog at least twice a week.

I hope everyone had a good new year's eve yesterday, and I look forward to sharing my journey of this year through my blog.

Oh Wow It Is So Long Since I Last Posted

Where has the last month and a half gone. I can't believe that it is now the last day of this year.

I've been really busy over the last month that my blog has seriously been neglected. I've been busy crafting in the run up to Christmas, and now working 5 days a weeks leaves me less time to catch up on blogs, and blog my makes.

In the run up to Christmas I made 80 Christmas cards and 40 blank birthday cards to give out as gifts this year to some of my friends and family, and to go with the kitchen organisers; ES mints; magnetic fridge pegs. I have had great compliments on my 'gifts for people' so will do it all again next year, but oh it is so time consuming!

On top of the Christmas cards; presents and blank birthday cards I made, I also had about 15 birthday cards to make to give to people. I thought I had been really organised up until Christmas eve and had written and sent all my cards, wrapped all the presents; prepared all the veg for Christmas day, hoovered and cleaned the house and put all my crafting things away so we could eat on a clear dining room table.

At 3pm on Christmas eve my OH said to my boys that they had to write the Christmas cards they had bought me. Oh god I thought, I hadn't made them buy their dad any and hadn't made the boys make any either, so out came the crafty stuff, so the boys could make their own as it was too late to go to the shops. OH was not amused that I had forgotten, but I was so pleased that I am a card maker with lots of things to make up quick cards!

I'm now all 'carded out' having made over 450 various different cards this year and have lost my mojo a bit, but have today sat and made an easy 'thank you' card with the craft robo. Hopefully, I won't be mojo less for too long, as my friend who runs the playgroup wants another basket of cards to sell, and we have just booked 2 weeks in Florida in the summer, so need to make lots of money in the first half of the year.

Here is the card I've made, and would like to enter it into the following challenges:

CRAFT Challenge - Thank You

Cute Card Thursday - Thank You

Paper Take Weekly - Be Thankful

Phindy's Place - Give Thanks

A Plain and Simple Christmas Card

Whilst blog hopping last week I saw a card, on Gemma's blog that I thought was really stunning. So being inspired by Gemma's card, and wanting to do something a bit different for my Mum, I have come up with this:


I have used a square white card, and then a mat of silver to which I have added a sheet of snowflakes that have been cut out on my craft robo. For a bit of sparkle I have used glittery organisa ribbon, and I have made the sentiment on the PC and printed it out in silver onto photo paper. The oval was cut with a nestie in the cuttlebug.

I think it is gorgeous and hope my mum will like it, and would like to enter it into the following challenges:

Creative Cottage Challenge - for someone special at Christmas
ABC Christmas Challenge - winter wonderland
A Spoonfull of Sugar Challenge - snow/snowflakes
Caardvark Challenge - holiday cards using die cuts
Paper Sundaes Challenge - let it snow
MSE Challenge set by Kelly - Christmas

Jack has been making a card for the....

Stitchybearskids Challenge.

Jack wasn't well on Thursday, so was off school. He saw me making some easel Christmas cards, and wanted to make one for his Nanna. Here is what he came up with, and we both love it for all the sparkle.

Jack cut all the card and paper out for this card using my guillotine; coloured the image; used the cuttlebug to make the matted layers; added the flatbacked gems to each of the snowflakes, and had a bit of fun using the glue and very fine glitter on the santa hat, and bottom of the jacket.

All I did to help him was stick the paper and mats to the easel card.

I think he did a fab job, and love the card. I am sure my mum will love it too.

Choccys' Challenge

I've been busy crafting these past few weeks, and have been making more of the Kitchen Organisers as gifts for people at Christmas. I made this one up last night and the colours of the paper meant that it fits perfectly into Choccys' Challenge over at Creative Craft World which was to make a card/project using brown, pink and cream.

This is the 8th one I have made, and I think they all look pretty, so am having trouble deciding who will get which one!

OK, I have various requests to explain how I make these Kitchen Organisers, so below is details of how I do it. At the moment I have just typed up how I put one together, and there are no photos, if I get a chance tomorrow to make another, I will try and pop so photos to explain things a bit with pictures.

You will need:

DST and tacky glue
x 1 piece of A4 mountboard (I just did a search on ebay, and bought 10 sheets for about £5.00 with free p&p)
x 1 piece of 12 x 12 patterned paperco-ordinating card stock – about ½ sheet of A4
x 1 shopping list to cover
x 1 Calendar tab
x ½ coloured pack of post-its (I buy a cube from £land, that have pink/blue/green and yellow in, so would use ½ a pack of the pink post-its on one kitchen organisers
x 1 useful telephone numbers list (I create this is word and cut the shape with a nestability on the cuttlebug)
x 1 shopping list; and x 1 stamps label (I create this in word, print one photo paper and cut the shape with a nestability on the cuttlebug

optional – x 1 pen; x 2 lengths of ribbon; eyelets; magnetic strip.

The really quick way to make a Kitchen Organiser would be to cover one side of the A4 mountboard with DST, and squeeze some tacky glue around all 4 edges, to make sure the paper sticks firmly.

Cut the 12x12 paper to just a bit bigger than A4, and stick it to the already prepared mount board. Trim the excess paper away from each side of the mountboard.

Using the leftover paper from your 12x12 sheet, cut some off that is slightly bigger than the shopping list cover, this will leave you with a small piece of paper that will be used as a mat for the stamp pouch. Again I just cover the shopping list cover in DST and tacky glue and trim away the excess. I do make sure though that I have the paper slightly longer than the shopping list and put a piece of DST on the back at the top and pull the paper over to make it look really neat.

Cut your Useful Telephone Number list out. I use nestabilities, but you could just have a rectangle, with a slightly bigger matt under it. Stick these together.

Mat the calendar tab with a co-ordinating piece of card about ½ a cm bigger all around than the calendar tab.

With another piece of co-ordinating card, cut a rectangle that is 8cm x 6.5cm. With the small piece of leftover 12x12 paper cut a rectangle out that is 7cm x 5.5cm. Stick the two together to create the stamp pouch.

You are now ready to assemble the organiser.

I work from the bottom up, so add 3 thin strips of DST to the back of the mat you have created for the stamps pouch. You need to put this on each side and at the bottom quite close to the edge of the card. I also put some tacky glue around the 3 edges to make it secure. Do not put the DST on the top edge, leave it open, so the stamp book, will go in.

Now I stick this 1cm in from the right had side, and 1 cm up from the very bottom edge.

Now add DST and tacky glue to all the edges of the mat for the calendar tab, and stick this to the organiser 1cm in from the left hand side and 1cm up from the bottom edge. You can now add the calendar tab to this mat. I add extra DST to the back of the calendar tab for extra strength before sticking it to the mat.

Next add the telephone list to the organiser using DST and tacky glue, I centre this using the stamp pouch as a guide, but make sure that a book of stamps would fit in neatly so you need to stick this higher than you think.

I then add the shopping list using DST and tacky glue to the left had side centering it using the calendar tab, and stick it about 1cm away from the top of the mat of the calendar tab.

I then add the post –it notes to the right hand side and line them up with the top of the shopping list and about 1cm in from the right hand side.

That is it really.

Optional

I wanted a way to hang the organiser up and add a pen, so using my cropadile I made some eyelet holes in the top of the mount board, and on the back of the shopping list to make a ribbon loop for a pen.

To do the hole at the top, make a dot 10.5cms along the top and about 1.5cm down from the top. Punch a hole using the largest on the cropadile, add a loop of ribbon, securing it to the mountboard, by putting DST over the hole you have punched. This needs to be done on the side of the mountboard that you will be covering with the 12x12 paper. Once the loop is secure, turn the mountboard over and punch another hole directly over the first so it goes through the ribbon.

Now cover the mountboard with your chosen paper (slightly bigger than A4, so it hides the ribbon loop. Secure with DST and tacky glue. However, you need to make sure that the paper fits snug to the top of the mountboard, as you will find it tricky to trim the paper away because there is now a piece of ribbon in the middle. You will be able to trim away the other 3 sides easily.

Now, push an eyelet through the front of the covered mountboard and secure with a cropadile.

Add a strip of magnetic tape/foam to the back of the mountboard.

To secure a pen against the shopping list, attach a piece of ribbon to the back of the shopping list pad about half way down and about 2cm in from the right hand side using DST, but make sure you have a loop hanging over the right hand side edge of the pad, to hold your pen. Do not guess, you need to add the pen to the loop and have a little more slack for it to be pushed in and out. Once you have done this punch a hole through the ribbon and stiff cardboard back of the pad, and set an eyelet into the hole to secure the ribbon.

Hopefully these are really simple instructions to understand, but if you have any questions just leave them in the comments box, and I’ll try my best to answer them.