Challenge Winning cards

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Last Christmas Card !!

I think this may well be the last Christmas card I post this year..... I now have my bah humbug head on and I am fed up with making anything to do with Christmas - roll on Mother's Day!


I love all things NitWits and couldn't wait to use some more of their gorgeous products on this year's cards. I used this cute pink snowman die cut from their Joyful Hearts range and kept the layout of the card simple to show off the image.
All the shapes are cut with nesties and I've added a touch of bling with pale pink diamantes on the squares and snowflake.

Voila! End of the Christmas cards till at least next July!

I've entered this card into the following challenges:

CRAFT Challenge - Pastelles for Christmas
Papertake Weekly - Last Christmas card of the Year
Try It On Tuesday - Anything Goes
Lets Craft and Create - Anything Goes



Happy Christmas

Sharon xx

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Rockin' and Rollin'

Amongst the odd requests I've had for cards this week is one for a 60 year old Elvis fan... it's not often that these requests stump me but it took a lot of searching the internet to come up with this idea. I found this wonderful Elvis sihouette on an embroidery transfer website, traced it onto black paper and used it as the main image on this card. I also used foam pads to give even more of a 3D effect. I'm so pleased with the result, you can tell who it is immediately!





This card fits in perfectly with the challenge this week over at Less Is More - the theme is 'music' and what better than one of the greatest artists of the 20th century!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Another Sparkling Card...


Nearly finished the Christmas cards now - just another dozen to make! Following on from my previous card, I started playing around with more of my old peel-offs and came up with this...


I've added bling to the trees in the form of red and clear diqmantes and decorated the bottom of the front of the card with an X-Cut border die. The greeting tag has been added with co-ordinating red ribbon and is done on the computer in Copperplate Gothic font for those folk who like to know such things.

This was so quick and easy to make, I made additional ones in green and blue colourways! I've entered this card into the following challenges:

Crafty Cardmakers #58 - Use It Three Times
Cupcake Card Challenges - Don't Look At The Light (Sparkly, glittery cards)

Friday, December 09, 2011

Bargain Card

When I found these peel-offs in a bargain bucket for 10p each I was determined to make something with them... here I am 2 years later and I still haven't used them - until today!



I'm enjoying the clean and simple look at the moment as I still have another 20 cards to make by next Friday! This card took about 20 min to make - mostly just cutting, trimming and sticking. It actually looks a lot classier in the flesh as I have used heavy linen card and the gold and silver is matt rather than shiney.

I've entered this card into the following challenges...

Polka Doodles - Quick Christmas card
Moving Along With The Times - Last Minute Christmas

Thursday, December 08, 2011

Blue Christmas

After a request to make a special Christmas card for a new baby boy, I scoured the internet for suitable ideas and found this delightful snow baby image by Jenni Hamilton at Card Mad Fairy's creations. There are some lovely images to be had there with prices starting from 50p - it's certainly a site to add to your favourites if you like digi stamps. There's some particularly lovely oriental images that would be fab for Chinese New Year cards.



The papers I've used are just basic pastel stripes and spots from my stash, the matting shape is from Nellie's and I've coloured him with promarkers. I don't know if you can tell from the photo but I've added white glitter to the 'fur' on his snow suit.

I've entered this card into the following challenges:

Delightful Challenges - Blue Christmas
The Pink Elephant - Snowflakes and sparkle

Season's Greetings!
Sharon

Saturday, December 03, 2011

Wishing You a Green Christmas!

Today's card is one I've made many times before in various colours - the thing that makes them all slightly different is how I decorate the baubles which are cut from nesties. I really need to invest in some shaped bauble dies if I'm going to make this card next year as most people have received a version of this one!


One bauble is embossed with a Tim Holtz folder then highlighted in silver, the second has an Anita's Glitteration snowflake and a green diamante and the third has glittery star peel-offs. So easy! I've entered this card into the following challenges:

LESS IS MORE - use the colour green
CRAFTY HAZELNUT - mainly monochromatic
ALLSORTS CHALLENGES - going round in circles
CREATIVE CARD CREW - monochromatic

Happy Crafting!

Sharon

Monday, November 28, 2011

Big Five O!

I get lots of requests to make cards for special age birthdays and my favourite way of doing this is by focussing on the number itself. I make the numbers using Word Art, reverse the image then print them onto the back of the paper. It's easy to carefully cut round the printed lines - I tend to use a pair of fine embroidery scissors for this task.



The backing paper is by Nancy Watt for making Cards Magazine and the stars are made using Sissix die-cuts. I've entered this card into the 'Milestone Birthdays' challenge at
Crafty Emma's Store CES Challenge

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Saturday Challenge

The Saturday Challenge theme over at Secret Crafter this week is Flowers and Borders - two things that are perfect for a birthday card for a 60 year old lady.


The rose image and paper came from an old issue of Making Cards. I'm going through piles and piles of card magazines at the moment and trying to use up some of the gorgeous papers that come with them. The die-cut border is from X-cut and I've added a silky burgundy ribbon and some diamantes to bling it up. The layout is my 'lazy layout' that I use when I'm in a rush and can't think of any other!

Monday, November 21, 2011

Teenage boys...

A difficult category at the best of times - you even have to be careful with the embellishments you use so it doesn't look 'lame'!



I focused on the age and used a bold, masculine paper and greeting that came with a Making Cards magazine a couple of years ago. The numbers were created with WordArt in Microsoft Publisher and highlighted with faux stitching.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Another Sketch...

I enjoyed the challenge of designing a card around a sketch so searching through The Daily Dare blog I found another that looked quite easy to follow...



This one is the current challenge over at The Digi Doodle Shop. I have loads of Christmas cards to make for various people so using this as the template (and turning the drawing upside down) I came up with the following:


The patterned paper is old Dovecraft and the image is saved on my computer with the tag Dove Art Snowman... I am unable to find the artist to give full credit so many apologies there. It took no time to make so I think I'll spend the afternoon making a batch of these.

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Cute Baby Boy

Another request for a baby card - this time just for a singleton! In an attempt to use up some of my old stash, I've used an image from a sheet of cute baby images by Ruth Watkins for Craft Creations. I've seen her designs in a number of publications over the years and bought these some time ago but as we all do, put them in a file and forgot about them! The paper is very old Papermania.


The layout is based on a sketch challenge over at Sketch and Stash Challenge Blog.



I don't usually try sketch challenges so this is a bit out of my comfort zone but I found it quite easy to follow.

The same customer also wanted another baby boy card for her mum so as they were going to the same baby I tried to make it as different as possible:



The image is an old fave from The Digistamp Boutique and the paper came from a baby boy scrapbook kit.

I've also entered this into the following challenges:

One Stitch at a Time - Use a Digi