3-D Leaves and a Funny Bone

Welcome

I also wish to extend a very warm welcome to my newest follower Cheryl Hollingsworth.

I am about to pack up my craft room (plus) ready to move in the middle of next month, so you may not see me much over the next four weeks ... I am so looking forward to the move into my own suite, attached to the extensively extended and renovated house of my daughter and family.

This card was made for a gent in my extended family.

I started with a piece of pale green card and the Altenew 3-D Embossing Folder, Floating Foliage.

I generously inked the folder on one side with Memento Cottage Ivy ink, and ran it through my Cuttlebug - and then repeated - that was a bit nerve wracking, but it worked.

The sentiment panel is a gold edged 'visiting card'. and the sentiment is a Riley Funny Bone one, that I stamped twice in the same green ink, then in Versamark ink before clear embossing.  

To add some subtle interest and give the card a bit of a masculine vibe, I split some string down to one ply  - it gives the strand a bit of a fuzzy look and it has a an interesting crimp to it

Sone green gingham washi finished the inside

And also the envelope.

I am linking this to:

Digi Chooseday Challenge Week #42 -= Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #619 + 620 - Anything Goes

A Gem of a Challenge Week #22 - Anything Goes

Jan's Digi Stamps Designs October Challenge - Anything Goes

Use Your Stuff Challenge #496 - Anything Goes

Allsorts Challenge #752 - Embossing, Heat or Dry

Can You Handle The Pressure Challenge - Anything Goes -twist - Greenery/Leaves

Polkadoodles Challenge Week #43 - Anything Goes

Creative Fingers Challenge #264 - Anything Goes

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge #216 - Anything Goes

Owl Birthday Greetings

Welcome

Thank you for once again visiting ...

This card was made for a young man, not far off his university studies.

The image is another freebie from Gecko Girls, printed and trimmed to fit the card - I also added ink to the edges of the image to make it stand out, and distressed the edges.

I added some dimensional glue to the eyes, edge of the main clock face and the head of the key.

The sentiment was embossed using a mix of copper and gold ep that I mixed some time ago.

The background was copper metallic card with a wee bit of glimmer in it.

The die is an old Memory Box corner die, and some of the more central gears I trimmed off, to be able to add some to the corners that were a bit stark, to make it look as though the whole card base was covered with the gears. 

The insert was stamped with some saw blades masquerading as gears...

I used the same stamps on the envelope

I am linking this to:

Creative Fingers Challenge #264 - Anything Goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenge #2342 - Anything Goes

Polkadoodles Challenge Week #42 - Anything Goes

Cardz 4 Guyz Challenge #333 - Spooky, Scary or Birds

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #617 + 618 - Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers Challenge - October Anything Goes with Die Cuts

A Gem of a Challenge Week #21 - Anything Goes

We Love 2 Create Mixed Media Challenge #9 - Anything Goes

The Corrosive Challenge #10 - Anything Goes

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge #216 - Anything Goes

A Change of Medium

Welcome

As I have had to rest a lot of late, I have been knitting, and this is the result.

It started with the jacket, called 'hug me tight' on the pattern.  It is knitted in 3 ply wool.

Part way through I thought I had not bought enough wool, so ordered another ball, and it came in a slightly different shade of grey... so there was some creative knitting called for - it was only after I had changed colour across the back section and was almost finished that I realised my error, and I had not needed to buy the extra wool.  

To finish the main jacket, I edged it with a pale aqua wool, 

and made the flowers at the base of the cord, which I twisted in the three shades of wool.

To use up the surplus wool, I then found an online pattern for a hat...

And mittens,

and a friend lent me a pattern for the bootees.

All the way through I was trying to use all three shades of wool to make it look as though it was intended to be like that.

I hope you enjoyed this change of medium - hopefully I will get back into more card making shortly

Shades of Autumn

Welcome

I recently won at I Spy with My Little Eye,

and was offered a guest design position for this months challenge

I Spy With My Little Eye - Shades of Autumn

I started with the orange base and gold rectangles, but placed a snippet of card in the centre, that had been lightly sprayed with gold mica spray.  I did some faux gold stitching around the corners that showed to match it to the gold die cuts.

When I know when/how I will use this card, the sentiment will be adhered across the centre of the card.

I had been 'playing' with my large maple leaf stamp, embossing it and then painting it with watercolours, and very lightly spraying with more mica sprays.  

These I mounted over the gold rectangles with foam dots for a wee bit of dimension.

I also stamped in Versamark ink, and covered with copper Perfect Pearls, my small maple leaf around the plain orange corners - a very subtle detail that is not obvious until the light catches them

The third large leaf was adhered to the left hand side of the card

And some small leaves stamped on the corners of the liner and 'coloured with perfect pearls again

The envelope was stamped with the small stamp in various inks, and then loosely painted with the same (diluted) colours.

The stamps are both from small New Zealand companies, one of which is now defunct, and the other is transitioning to a new internet platform, so I cannot link it at the moment.

I am linking this to:

Stamping Sensations October Challenge - Autumn Colours

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #617 + 618 - Anything Goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenge #2341 - Anything Goes

A Place To Start October Challenge - Anything Goes

Rabisco Challenge #50 - Anything Goes

Sheepski Designs October Challenge #79 - Autumn or Halloween Colours

The Crafting Challenge - Autumn or Halloween

Creative Crafter Challenge #69 - Anything Goes

Make My Monday Challenge #211 - Autumn Colours

The Four Seasons October Challenge - Anything Fall (Inspiration photo)

(I took the orange colour)

Mood Board and a Butterfly

Welcome

*Please note: We will be announcing some challenge changes, so please make a note to check our new challenge post on 5th November.

This post is the first of two today - both DT cards... This post is for the mid-month reminder for 

We Love Stamping, where we have a mood board to inspire/challenge us.

Once again I have gone with the colours, there is also a picture of a Bird of Paradise flower that reminded me of a butterfly, so this is the resultant slider card.

As you can see, the recipient is (has just turned) five.

Again I started with some more of the mica sprayed background of gold with a tad of violet in it.

I die cut the channel for the slider butterfly, and stamped, embossed and coloured the image before fussy cutting it and sorting out how to make it slide - I was rather rusty on the technique, but You Tube came to the rescue.  The stamp and die were part of a magazine freebie set, as was the sentiment in the channel, which was also gold embossed on a snippet of the background paper.

I added gold embossed butterflies to the base panel, and also a few wee purple and orange flowers 

I decided to use them to hide an 'oops'. 

The number was die cut from purple sparkly card

Two butterflies adorned the inside panel

And three butterflies fluttered up the side of the envelope.

I am linking this to:

Simon Says Monday Challenge - Text it

Stamping Sensations October Challenge - Autumn Colours or Anything Goes

Digi Chooseday Challenge Week #41 - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #617 + 618 - Anything Goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenge 32341 - Anything Goes

Classic Design Challenge #10 - October - Anything Goes

Crafts Galore Encore October Challenge #116 - Anything Goes

Creatalicious Challenge #269 - Anything Goes 

A Perfect Time To Craft October Challenge - Anything Goes

{Pin}spration October Challenge #306 - Birthday and Orange

(Inspired by the theme and the colour)

Sparkly Ballerina

Welcome

I recently made this card for a young girl who loves dance and gymnastics.

I started with a piece of paper that had been in my spray box, that was mainly Lindy's Magicals in 

Get a Guy Gold... and it was delightfully sparkly... 

I then saw the lighter coloured piece on my desk, a snippet from a piece which had also been sprayed, but not fully used, with some of the same gold spray. That was placed on the the middle of the card,

I stamped and fussy cut the image (from an older Rosie's set of stamps)  I added the gold strip for a stage, and some brown for a shadow, but it didn't quite work out how I envisaged it... 

The dress was then stamped on a snippet, in Altenew inks from the Shades of Purple set of mini ink cubes, and fussy cut, painted very generously with WoS, and layered over the profile of the dancer,

I positioned the completed dancer on the centre panel of the card.

The 'stage' was then framed with snippets of lace to form curtains, tied back with fine gold cord.

The sentiment was gold embossed on the background paper, some of the sparkle in the paper can be seen in this above photo.  The stamp is from a now defunct company, and was one of my originals some 20 years ago, or more!!

The inside was finished with a strip of the background paper

And the envelope with lace and the gold tape, as I was hand delivering it!

I am linking this to:

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks 617 + 618 - Anything Goes

Snippets Playground Challenge #465 - Anything using snippets goes

(Snippets of card used for part of the background, the dancer and her dress, 

snippets of lace for the curtains)

Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenge #2341 - Anything Goes

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge #216 - Anything Goes

Polkadoodles Challenge Week #41 - Anything Goes

Crafty Catz Challenge #654 - Anything Goes

The Crafty Addicts Challenge #6 - Anything Goes

A Gem of a Challenge Week #21 - Anything Goes

Jan's Digi stamps October Challenge - Anything Goes

Ally's Angels Challenge #75 - Anything Goes

I Have the Bauble Blues...

Welcome

Some months ago, I won a year's supply of new release stamps from Uniko!  To say I was excited was the understatement.  Today's card uses the Mid-Century Modern Baubles set that was in the July/August release.  I was inspired by one of the DT cards, by Steph Mortimor, but also made it my own when I CASE'd it.

I used the elongated ornament to form a mandala, then one of the tiny stamps in the set to form the flower chain through the of the mandala, all stamped in Memento Danube Blue

When I cut the resulting mandala out of the white sheet of card, I tapped a cotton bud/q-tip on the ink pad and inked around the edge of the design to 'hide' the white edges.

It was mounted over a panel I had been experimenting with making backgrounds on.

The sparkle strip is one from a pack I was gifted by a friend, and the sentiment came from a small

New Zealand firm, Montarga

The inside was finished with a trimming from the background panel, and I also inked the edge of the panel in the ink.  (Sorry about the fuzzy image, but the card was long gone before I realised)

I am linking this to:

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #617 + 618 - Anything Goes

Ally's Angels Challenge #75 - Anything Goes

Paperminutes Challenge #816 - Handmade Background

Digi Chooseday Challenge Week #40 - Anything Goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenger #2340 - Anything Goes

Elliebelles Crafty Wednesday's October Challenge - Anything Goes

Little Red Wagon Challenge #726 - Who Wants To Live Forever/Birthday

A Place To Start October Challenge - Anything Goes

Jan's Digi Stamp Designs October Challenge - Anything Goes

Stamping Sensations October Challenge - Anything Goes Option

Steampunk Mona Lisa!!

Welcome

As soon as I saw the main image on this card at Gecko Girls, I knew who would appreciate it on a card. The freebie image was for their September Steampunk Challenge, and is no longer available.  I couldn't show it then as it is was a September birthday, and the recipient sees my cards... 

I started with some Kraft card and stamped this Graffiti Texture Background  in 

Lawn Fawn River Stone ink as the base for the card.

The image was sized and printed, and I ran the edges over the grey ink before mounting it 'off square' on some silver cardstock, that was them mounted on an angle on the base.

The cogs were die cut from the same silver card.  The dies are very old Marianne ones, and I think discontinued.  You can just see the sparkle in the silver on the right edge of the card.

The diecuts were mounted as shown, and the greeting stamped on white in the same ink, layered onto some more silver card and adhered using some silver split pins

Some more cogs and a bit of a cheeky sentiment for the inside.

The theme continued on the envelope with another (unmarked) cog diecut

The recipient enjoyed the card :)

I am linking this to:

The Crafty Addicts October Challenge #6 - Anything Goes

Creative Knock Outs Challenge #505 - Punches, Die Cuts, Stencils

Creative Fingers Challenge #263 - Anything Goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenge #2340 - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #615 + 616 - Anything Goes

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge #215 - Anything Goes

We Love 2 Create Challenge #9 - Anything Mixed Media Goes

PolkaDoodles Challenge Week #40 - Anything Goes

A Gem of a Challenge Week #20 - Anything Goes

Allsorts Challenge #789 - Vintage