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Thursday 17 November 2011

Crystal Butterfly

Hi everyone. I'm still making Christmas gifts.  I'm so far behind schedule I'm not sure if I will be finished in time.  All that aside, it's great to have an excuse to do some much crafting.


This is a new trinket box that I have made.  I love making these and they make such great gifts.  This one is hand stamped with fairy writing in faded jeans distress ink.  The tag was done using the same colour.

I have used an Anitas  dimensions butterfly as well as a die cut butterfly in silver and lots of 2mm clear crystals.  I love my flowers and the ones I get from Wild Orchid Crafts are great.


The blue ribbon matches the one I used on the tag and the cream lace works really well with the ivory flowers.

I am entering this trinket box in the following challenges:-

Everybody Art - Little present
My Time To Craft - Take two - I used two butterflies
One Stop Craft - Ribbons and lace


Monday 14 November 2011

White Christmas

White on white cards are a scary prospect for me.  I've made white on white cards before, but it is always a struggle.  I quite enjoyed making this one tho.  I love this lace and Kenny K digis are so easy to use, this one just sort of came together.


This was a very easy make.  Cuttlebug embossing folders, Spun Sugar distress ink, some luscious lace and a few pearls.  I couldn't resist adding some iridescent glitter glue.


I am entering this card for the following challenges:-

Craft your passion - Let it snow
Crafty Catz - Use a digi
Fab n Funky - All white on the night
Kenny K Krafty Girlz - Emboss away
The crafty pad - White on white

Saturday 12 November 2011

Flutteby Red

It has been a week or two since my last post as life has taken over my little bit of crafty time.  Luckily, I have been able to do a bit over the last two days.  I have a list of Christmas cards that I am making  along with presents for family members.  There just are not enough crafting hours in the day.  This little wooden box was made for fun, so no pressure :-)


I love doing these trinket boxes.  Exploring the possibilities of what I can do with them and what new techniques I can try.


This one is hand stamped using tea dye distress ink on the top and the tag.  I bought the fairy writing stamp a while a go for a project that I haven't gotten around to starting yet, so this is the first time I have used it.  I have also used the tea dye ink around the sides to add colour and heat set it.  The butterflies are embossed with gold embossing powder and I have added some 2mm gems.  This is the first time that I have tried using a tag on one of my trinket boxes and I am very pleased with the result.

I am entering my box  for the following challenges:-

Craft Your Passion - Anything goes + Brown
Kaboodle Doodles - Fall colours
The Crazy Challenge - Something with wings


Monday 31 October 2011

Blue Christmas

I've been mainly focusing on making Christmas prezzies for friends and family lately, so I have not been making as many cards that I can blog.  I'm really pleased with the presents that I have made, but I can't blog them yet.

I have been experimenting with softer colours.  I like rich dark colours, but I am trying to branch out a bit with my style and colour choices.


Sorry about the picture.  I took it at lunch time today, but the weather is so gloomy at the mo and my camera is nothing special.  Please click on the image to get a better view.


I haven't used my Penny Black stamps in ages, so I pulled them out and had a play with one from the Holly Jolly set.  I like the cool icy colours in this card so I added 2mm gems and some ivory flat backed pearls and lots of glitter glue.

I am entering this card for the following challenges:-
Allsorts - Christmas Easel Card
Christmas stamping all year long - Jingle all the way.  I added a bell that does tinkle
Totally Papercrafts - Glitter it

Thursday 27 October 2011

Stocking filler


I'm still working my way slowly through making Christmas prezzies for family and friends and making cards.  This is another one that I made.


You may have noticed that I love using Kenny K digis.  I can't get enough of them to be honest.  Since I worked out how to do male Christmas cards, I am having a hard time stopping :-)

I started with my normal 5x7 white card blank and covered the front with Curry by 7gypsies.  I then stamped "Seasons greetings" in a couple of rows down the front.  I embossed and sanded a scrap of co-ordinations cardstock that was left over from matting the image.  The wording I printed has been edged with fired brick distress ink and then stuck on with foam pads to give them a bit if height.

I  will be entering this card for the "Get Dotty" challenge at Kenny K's Krafty Girlz and the "Halloween/Fall" challenge at Kaboodle Doodles as I feel the warm colours I have used really suit that time of the year. 

Thursday 20 October 2011

Christmas for two

Today's challenge for me was to make a monochromatic Christmas card.  I have to say that it was a toughie.  I couldn't decide which colour to use and then I saw the challenge at Paper Play Challenges.  They asked us to use black so that was that problem solved.  Just to push myself a bit further I decided to make a Christmas card for a couple.  I have seen them in the card shops, but have never made one myself.


I have to say that this card has been inspired by a number of challenges.  The monochrome theme came from Creative Inspirations and The Crafty Pad.  Distressing your edges came from Creatalicious Challenges and Embossing came from Charizma Cardz Challenges.

I have used a Teddybo digistamp and have added black gems and black ribbon.  I love all things Tim Holtz so I have used the Tim Holtz distressing tool and Black soot distress inks.  Is there anything that man can't do?

Tuesday 18 October 2011

Xmas Lace

Do you ever see something in a shop or online and know exactly what you will do with it?  I had one of those moments when I saw the lace I have used on this card.


The lace is 9cm wide and so lush.  I bought it at Wild Orchid Crafts where I buy all of my flowers.  I have laced lilac ribbon through the center.  It was just begging for something to go there.  My background paper is from a HOTP paper pack that I bought at least 6 years ago.  I have so much paper and card that I sometimes forget the old gems I have stashed away.  If you click on the picture, you will be able to see the lilac flat back pearls that I have added to the lace.

I made the frame to go round my image by inking with milled lavender distress ink.  I then debossed a swirly pattern on to it using a Cuttlebug embossing folder that I had inked with Duty Concord distress ink.  I added a bit more dusty concord to finish it off.  The snowflake stamp is one that I got free with a magazine last year.  I have used clear iridescent glitter glue on the snowflake and around the edge of the frame, but for some reason it turns up green in my photo.  I have also added ivory flat back pearls to the snowflake.

I will be entering this card into the following challenges:-

Allsorts Challenge Blog - Lavender and lace
My time to craft - Punches and dies.  I have used two different dies on this one.
The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - White plus one other colour

Saturday 15 October 2011

Tri Acetate

I like tri-fold  cards and have been wondering for a while if it is possible to make one out of acetate.  The answer is YES and it wasn't as tricky as I thought it would be.



I started buy marking out my folds on a sheet of paper and then the rest was easy.  Normally when I make one of these cards i use my embossing tool to mark and score where I need to fold.  It's not as easy to do with acetate, especially when you use flittered acetate.


I have used Kanban Flittered acetate to make this card.  All of the design is made using glitter and it give your card something a little bit extra.

I will be entering this card for the "Acetate challenge" over at Totally Papercrafts and for the "Cards for all occasions" over at Craft Your Passion

Monday 3 October 2011

Naughty or nice

I find making card s for men really hard.  I really have to think about them.  Can't go too crazy with flowers, don't want to over do it with the ribbon and just how much is too much on the embellishments?

Kenny K's Krafty girlz challenged us to use two or more girls on our card this week and to use die cuts.  This card instantly popped into my head.  Well if you see the Christmas images available it just made good sense.


I had the "Santa Claus is coming to town" tune going around in my head when I was looking through the digis that I have.  I have promised myself that I would make more effort to make more Christmas cards now and not leave it till the last minute panic I had last year for people I had forgotten.


This is inside the card.  ll of the working was attached using foam pads to give them a bit of height.  I have edged the different elements with peeled paint distress ink and all of the fur trim bits have been glitter glued in clear iridescent.  

I will also be entering this card for the challenges at :-
The Crafty Pad - One for the boys

Saturday 1 October 2011

Bound in lilac love.

Yes I'm sorry.  Another binder.  If you have not been to my blog before, you may not have seen my other two binders.  I have been decorating them to store my acrylic stamps in.  This is my third.  I have gone for different looks with each of them.


I wanted to show a different side to my crafting with this one.  It is a lot more personal in a lot of ways.  I actually have a hand written message on this one, which is unusual for me as I hate my hand writing.  I have embossed the edges of the doily and along the pen design.  there are two different widths of ribbon on this tag.


I love the pen nib design along the edge of this paper, so it was important to me that it didn't get covered too much.  I couldn't resist adding the lace and ribbon though.  Lilac flat back pearls work well with so many different projects, don't you think?



There is a lot going on with this binder, feathers, gems, lace and ribbon, tags flowers and more.  This wasn't a planned project, it has been very much go with the flow.  My favorite colour is purple.  Think aubergine (eggplant) or a rich plum.  There are varying shades of it all over this project.

I will be entering this binder in the following challenges:-

Allsorts - 5 Flowers
Kaboodle Doodles - The Pretty doily
Simon Says - Anything goes
Totally Papercrafts - Autumn - I have used what I consider to be autumn wedding colours.
The ABC Challenge - Anything goes 

Thursday 29 September 2011

We Three Kings

I'm still working on making simple cards.  I'm one of those people who don't feel that  a card is finished until it have flowers or ribbon or more on it.


This card was made by folding one sheet of A4 pearlescent card.


I added gold glitter border peel offs, two Kanban toppers and a couple of peel off snowflakes, which started off silver, so I had to colour them with a gold leaf pen.


I like this sentiment.  Simple bit effective.

I will be entering my card for the following challenges:-

Allsorts - Keep it simple
Crafty Creations - Clean and simple
My Time To Craft - Musical Medley - We three kings (Hymn/carol)

Tuesday 27 September 2011

Bound in Orange

If you have been to my blog before, you may have seen a binder that I altered called Bound in Blue.  I made it to give my acrylic stamps a home and soon realised that I needed more.  I had to buy another two binders in fact.

Sorry.  Lots of pictures again.  I have started documenting how I make things. What works and what doesn't.  It means that I take a massive load of pictures of each project.  This is just a sample.



I got these chip board letters as part of a scrapbooking kit that I used to subscribe to.  They have never fitted in with a project I was making so they have been in my stash for about 5 years or so.  It suddenly occurred to me that they didn't need to stay this colour, so I inked and embossed them.


Voila, new letters that I can use.


My background paper was crated using mustard seed, dried marigold, spiced marmalade, rusty hinge and fired brick distress inks.  I have stamped and embossed a rose and a gate and fence along the bottom.  I have decorated a couple of the letters with mosaic mirror tiles.  First time I have used them and they turned out to be easy to use.


I bought this pair of earrings for a pond.  they are pretty long and I liked the tassels.  I've never worn them as they were bought specifically for my crafting projects.  Since I started using jewellery in crafting I have problems not seeing component parts that I can use in cards.  It's no longer just some thing to wear, I look at bits  more as what I can make out of them.  It's great.


I removed the hook from the earring and have hot glued the whole thing to my binder.  I'm quite pleased with how this turned out, as I had no plan for how it would look when I started it.  I just sort of played.


I am entering this binder for the following challenges:-

Crafty Cats Weekly Challenge - Autumn
Just Us Girls - Fall 3D project
Sparkles Forum Challenges - Something that sparkles - I have used a number of gems on this.

Sunday 18 September 2011

Bound in Blue

At the moment all of my acrylic stamps are stored in a drawer and it is a bit frustrating finding the one that I want.  I bought this A5 binder from Paperchase for £3 to store them in.


It was just begging to be altered/decorated.


This is the backing paper I created using Faded jeans, Broken china, Shabby shutters and black soot.  I also used Black embossing powder and clear iridescent embossing powder for sparkle.  I had a lot of fun creating this.


The frame is made from grunge paper which I painted with crackle paint and then inked with faded jeans, Tea dye and vintage photo before coating with more clear iridescent embossing powder to give this sparkly effect.


You really need to click on this image to see the details.  There are close up pictures of the different areas here

I will be entering my binder in the following challenges.

Allsorts challenge blog - Alter or recycle
Creatalicious Challenge - Anything goes
Creative Inspirations - Anything goes
Fab N Funky - Bingo card (embellishment/ribbon/diecuts) (Embellishment/digi stamp/flowers)
MAWTT - Sparkle

Tuesday 13 September 2011

Blue Steam

I only discovered Steampunk a month or so ago and I am totally hooked.  I find myself staring at objects thinking "what have you got inside you that I can use?"  I'm not sure how safe mechanical looking things are around me at the moment.


I love making trinket boxes and I actually woke up thinking about the idea for this one this morning. (How sad am I?)  This time I have used blue, brown and gold.  I have inked the sides in Faded Jeans distress ink.  I still haven't been able to get any cogs, so I am still making my own from snowflake die cuts.  This time I have inked them with Tea Dye distress ink and then used gold embossing powder to get a corroded metal look.  The bits where the tea dye show through look like rust.


 My image is Jayne Jettpack from Kenny Ks Steampunk Burlesque range.  Kenny K asked us to use pearls and pins for this weeks challenge.  I didn't have what I needed so I have put pearl beads onto normal pins and hot glued them into place.



I have given my butterfly a slightly corroded look using both gold and black embossing powder.  The flowers have also been given a dusting of embossing powder and then heated  a little with my heat gun.

I will be entering my little box in the following challenges:-

Craft your passion challenges - The "F" word - Flowers
Die cut dreams - Flower power - Use at least 5 flowers
Kenny K's Krafty Girlz - Pins and pearls
Paper take weekly - Things with wings  - Butterfly


Saturday 10 September 2011

Never Ending

This is my first attempt at a never ending card.  Is that the right name?  I made it for my daughter who turned 18 on Thursday.  How old did that make me feel?



This is what I call the front of the card, or position one.   I have used Bo bunny flocked card stock, silver cardstock, black outline stickers, black co-ordinations card stock and Kenny K Digis


This is position two.  I have used five different images and have used the same four colours for all of their outfits.


This is position three.


And this is position four.  I put a personal message on the top section for her.


Never ending cards are not hard to make, but I did find this one time consuming.  It is well worth the effort though :-)

I am entering this card for the following challenges:

Paper Play Challenges - Use two or more stamped images - I used 5
Paper Take Weekly - Anything goes
Simon Says Stamp Challenge  - Multi-fold card
Stamp Something - Anything goes

Wednesday 7 September 2011

Ians gone dotty

My friend from work Ian will be celebrating his birthday tomorrow.  He is great to work with and always remembers every ones birthday.  He is also a practical joker and we have all been on the receiving end of one of his pranks at one time or another.

Since he has opened his card, I thought it would be OK to post it here.


I had to take the picture late evening, so I apologise for the picture quality.

The background paper is by Bo Bunny and the dots are velvet flocked.  the i,age is a digi stamp from Teddy Bo.  I finally bought myself a Martha Stewart Border punch and the matching corner punch, so expect to see this a bit for a while :-).

Ian loved his card and it got a good giggle in the office :-)

I am entering this card for the following challenges:

Allsorts - Green and Blue
Cute Card Thursday - Use at least one punch
Fab N Funky - It's so funny
The Corrosive Challenge - Funny or use a pun

Sunday 4 September 2011

Locked in Green

It is very rare for me to make a green card.  I'm not sure why, but I've given it a go for this card.  I've had a go a putting together a Steampunk Grunge card.  Not sure what I was doing, but I had fun.  Youtube is your friend when it comes to research.



I didn't have any cogs and I kept seeing them on steampunk cards, so I had a go at making some myself using some build a snowflake dies.  Many of the elements of this card have been copper leafed and embossed.  I also embossed the backing paper that I created using distress inks.  For full details on how I put this card together look here.


This is a close up of some of the elements that I made or coloured.  The little key on the right was a gold coloured earring that I took the back off of.  The heart (originally silver coloured) was a charm from a necklace that I bought and posted a little while ago.  The buttons were also originally silver coloured.


Lots of touches of gold pen on this image.  I have dragged a bit of vintage photo ink over the image as it stood out too much from the rest of the card.


This is a clearer image of the dry embossing.

I will be entering this card in the following challenges:

Fab N Funky - Go mad with embossing
Kenny K - Vintage / Grunge
Stamp Something - Use a Digi stamp

Xmas Folds

I have finally started making stuff for Christmas.  This is my first project.  I think I have been in denial for the last month or so, but I know that if I don't start now, I wont get everything finished in time.  I apologise for the number of  pictures in this post, but I think you will understand.


The original idea for my card came from a very talented lady.  Her blog is called Mariannes Papirverden .  I am very inspired by all of her makes.  I actually followed a tutorial on YouTube to make this.


When closed, my card measures 3"x6"


The inner part of the card was made from one sheet of A4 which I cut down to size.  I will lay flat when fully opened.  I have used a version of this fold before as shown here.


The back needed something so I have stamped a lovely little bear which shows up on a lot of my Christmas cards.


This is the front of the matching bag I made for the card showing the same little bear.  The bag is made from one A4 sheet of the same paper I used inside the card.


And the back.

I will  be entering my project for the following challenges:
Christmas Stamping All Year Long - Fancy Shmancy Folds
Crafty Creations - Dies and Punches
Creative Card Crew - Anything goes
Die Cut Dreams - Make a gift bag or box

Monday 29 August 2011

Lady Raven Split

I really don't need much of an excuse to get my distress inks out, so this weeks challenge at The Crafty Pad was right up my street.  I grabbed my two current favorite colours and started to play.  I have used Dusty Concord and Broken China with some black soot to add the features.


The Corrosive Challenge asked us to "come to the dark side" so I knew I was going to use a Kenny K digi stamp and the challenge at Stamptacular Sunday just cinched it as they asked us to put a diva - girl with attitude on our creation.


If you have been on my blog before you may have seen a card I made called Wanda in red.  On it I used an earring that I bought in a local shop.  The diamonte cross I have used on this one is the other one to the set.  I love using non crafting items in my projects.  I used wire cutters to cut the back off of this stud.  I struggled a bit with the other one when I tried to bend it.  A bit of hot glue is holding it in place.

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