Less Is More - Logo Inspiration

A very clever challenge at  Less is More  this week - to use the blog header image as inspiration for a card...

I took four elements from the image for my card  - the font (I used Baroque Antique Script), the music (on the patterned paper by Sandylion), the dull gold colour (on my butterfly) and the flourishes (represented by the ornate dies used on the corners).

Wedding Hearts

For the current wedding challenge at My Time To Craft I thought I'd try to make a version of a card I've seen in a few places... hearts decorated as the bride and groom.

For the groom I placed a grey heart with a 'collar' cut into it over a base white heart and added a 'tie' made from a blue ribbon and black pearl buttons. The bride has a white 'v-necked' heart over a flesh coloured heart and I've decorated the neckline with lace and a pearl flower.

This was a vey quick and easy card to make and would be easily adaptable for civil partnerships. Ideal for matching any colour scheme aswell.

Thinking Of You

A very productive day... three loads of washing done, a visit to a papercrafts show returning with a bag full of goodies, the other half deposited at the Stadium of Light to see the Chilli Peppers and a new frock bought for a wedding! I finally had time to sit down for a cuppa and crafting session at 6 o' clock tonight resulting in this card for the challenge at Less Is More - Paper Piecing.

Paper piecing is one of my favourite techniques and so quick to do. The image is from the Digistamp Boutique and the papers are from the Papermania sets below:

In fact this was so quick to make I'm going to make a handful for my box at work... after I've finished my mountain of ironing!

Pink Wallpaper

I love making cards using freebies!  Today's card started life as a wallpaper sample - I am always popping into decorating shops and getting samples that look as though they can be used on cards. I think this stuff is called anaglypta (sp?) or at least that's what my mam calls is - the stuff that adds texture to walls then you paint over it in whatever colour you fancy...

After matting a piece of the wallpaper on some pink card I painted splodges using paint samples and also painted some heavy paper in the same colours. Once dry, I carefully cut the paper and rolled it to make paint rollers - the handles are made from wire and tiny pieces of that rubber tubing kids make bracelets with - Scoobydoos I think thay are called.  Voila - a perfect clean and simple new home card.

I've entered this card into this week's challenge at CAS-ual Fridays - make a clean and simple card using the colour pink.

Sunderland Forever

The card for today is for a lifelong Sunderland football fan who has reached a special milestone birthday.

The main image is of course the club badge of Sunderland Football Club. I've printed the image 3 times on thick white paper and decoupaged parts of the badge to give a 3D effect.  I've matted the image on a large red nestie circle and added a red and white striped backing paper, the colours of the team's home strip.

I've entered this card into the following challenges:

Try It on Tuesday  -  Anything Goes

Cards For Men  -  Sports theme with a sentiment

Happy Father's Day

I thought I'd share a last minute Father's Day card requested by a work colleague whose dad is always helping her doing jobs around the house. Digistamp Boutique's DIY Jim seemed the ideal character to use for a specialcard for him. I found some very masculine looking striped paper in my stash and coloured Jim in using matching promarkers.

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

Fab n Funky challenges - Father's Day

Papercraft Star - Father's Day

Crafting For All Seasons - For a Man

Card Makin' Mammas - Father's Day

Blue and Green Birds and Butterflies

While flicking through various card challenges last night I came across a gorgeous colour challenge at ColourQ...

I love the pale lime green colour and couldn't wait to have a go. I knocked together a digi picture in Microsoft Publisher using a bird scene by Birdie Brown and the same butterfly I used last week by Anji which was then coloured using promarkers (Powder Blue, Cornflower, Indigo Blue, Meadow Green). I also decoupaged the butterfly, flower heads and birds' wings to add dimension.


The image was then matted on to navy and pale green paper, and I added a swiss dot embossed background, which was also matted. I finished off with a couple of card candi pieces coloured again with a promarker.

I have also entered this card into the challenge this week at Digital Tuesday where they want to see a card with a butterfly on it.

Go Emma !!!

I really enjoyed making today's card... I had a request from my friend for a cheer-leader themed card for her 6 year old daughter Emma's birthday. Instead of a party for her, Jill had booked a cheerleading session for a group of little girls at a local leisure centre - lots of shouting and jumping and pom-poms!

 

I got the digi image from a 'Bratz' colouring page for kids. I've coloured it with pro-markers and layered it on various red and turquoise papers. I've then added some layered nestie stars with buttons tied with turqoise embroidery thread. I've added the greeting using a banner effect and die-cut letters.

I've entered this card into the following challenges:

Creative Card Crew  -  Song Inspired ( Mickey by Toni Basil)

Passion For Promarkers - Lots of Layers (there's 7)

Ice Cream Flourishes...

My card today isn't for any particular reason - I just wanted to have a go at doing something I don't normally do in an attempt to meet the requirements of two different challenges:

Less Is More - a one layer card with 'flourishes'

Allsorts Challenge - use ice cream colours

My first dilemma was the one layer business - it would have to be a digi because I just don't do stamping.

Then I had an internal debate about what a flourish was - I decided it could be a curly line - like a calligraphy doodle. I then used one of Anji's freebies which I manipulated in Publisher, coloured with pastel pro markers and added a greeting and a few random diamantes. Strangely enough, Anji's current freebie is a baseball cap with a flourish pattern!

Thanks for reading...

Sharon 

xx

Butterfly Bag

You know how you can be surfing the interwebby and before you know it you've spent 3 hours flicking through YouTube... well after one such wasted afternoon, I found a wonderful tutorial here showing how to make a small gift bag out of an envelope - the result is very cute.

I had a go last night and this is the result...

The butterfly is a rub-on I've had for ages - I think it's from DCWV but I lost the packaging when I was 'tidying up'. I've added my trademark diamantes and used peel-offs (the horror!) for the greeting then I've threaded coordinating ribbon through punched holes at the top of the 'bag' to close it.

I have entered this into the following challenges:

Moving Along With The Times - anything but a card.
Southern Girls Challenge - things with wings

Bags of Love..

Today's card is a real quickie that I haven't made for a while - a crocodile handbag card. I acquired the embossed paper a few years ago when I first started to make cards - a huge pack of paper in loads of different colours. The strange thing is that I have only ever used this paper to make handbags!

The handbag is hand cut and the handles are made from those annoying pieces of ribbon you get in tops and t-shirts - I always recycle them. I've added a thicker ribbon bow and a computer generated greeting and diamante.

I've entered this card in this week's challenge at My Time To Craft - make a card with a handbag or a hat.

A Card For Dad

With Father's Day looming I have been very busy with card orders - gave me a chance to get some more usage out of my favourite male digi - Jim from the Digistamp Boutique.

The paper is from my scraps box which I have to empty before I am allowed to buy any more patterned paper. I've decoupaged him and coloured him with matching promarkers. I've entered this card into the following challenges:

Kaboodle Doodles - All Manly Men

Di's DigiDesigns Challenges - Male Inspired

The Stamp Man - Make It For A Man

Red White and Blue

A fitting theme for the Jubilee weekend! However rather than celebrating with the Union Jack, I thought I'd make a card for our cousins across the pond. I got this fab digi image from the marvellous Anji who has freebies most days.

It took ages to carefully colour around all of those stars! I kept the design clean and simple - I wanted the image to be the star.

I've entered this card into the following challenges:

Less Is More  -  Red White and Blue
Delightful Sketches   -   Red White and Blue
Craft Your Days Away   -  Red White and Blue

Cards For Small Boys...

This is an area I struggle with - I'm just not into robots or trucks or super heroes or anything else that small boys love. For today's card I thankfully had a theme to work on. My friend's son plays for one of the kids teams at a local football club and she gave me a picture of the team badge to work from...

 

I made the badge in Publisher, added a football and traced the viper from the picture she had given me... I hope he likes it.

I've entered this card into the following challenges:

One Stop Craft Challenge  -  One for the boys

Totally Papercrafts  -  A card featuring an animal

Happy Retirement

Today's card has a bit of a vintage feel to it. The image was a freebie from TLC, a fab digi website that has daily freebies. I've decoupaged the image and coloured it with promarkers. The mustard yellow backing paper is coredinations embossed with swiss dots.

I've entered this card into the following challenges:

The Play Date Cafe - Colour Challenge

Although I've used more of a puddle than a splash!!

Moving Along With The Times - Keep It Real (use a real life figure)

Paper Crafting Journey - Use black and one other colour

Anything Goes - Use black and one other colour

Happy Bird-Day

I'm continuing with my clean and simple bird theme with today's card. I bought a lovely Pebbles baby girl scrapbook set some time ago which has been gathering dust - there's some very cute papers and chipboard shapes in it. I've used one of the bird shapes on this card with matted nesties and coordinating patterned paper. 

 

I've finished it off with a couple of card candi brads coloured pink and a brown diamante. In hindsight I wish I'd used ribbon aswell but I didn't want to over embellish.

I've entered this card into the following challenges:

CAS-ual Fridays  -   Feathered Friends

PaperPlay Challenges  -  use chipboard

Emmy's Birthday

Today's card is for a young girl called Emmy. I have no idea who she is as it is for a work colleague - my only instruction was to put her name on it!

I've cut the name using my favourite XCut Abracadabra alphabet die. The pastel papers are from Dovecraft's Back to Basics II pad, gorgeous papers in pale green, lilac and yellow colour mixtures. The yellow flower is from a paper blossoms pack in the same range and I've added a further lilac punched flower and a diamante. The die-cut leaf is from a Marianne's set.

I've entered this card into this week's challenge at The Sisterhood of Crafters - the challenge is to create a card using at least one flower.

Mellow Yellow

Another colour challenge - YELLOW -  this time from Mandi and Chrissie at Less Is More. Another colour that I'm not really keen on! 

The cute digi image is by Birdie Brown who gives away some gorgeous digi freebies - check out the link for a lovely stitched rose freebie. The image is coloured with the wonderful Spectrum Noir pens that my other half bought for my birthday, matted on yellow paper with an embossed layer under that. I've finished it off with a paper 'ribbon' and a digi daisy.

Nothing Rhymes With Orange!

Orange - a very difficult colour to wear and it is widely claimed that the word orange has no true rhyme. This is the colour that is the theme at  ABC Challenge this week. It's not a colour I use often in my cards but I managed to find these lovely 3D flowers from the Anita's Dimensions range.

The paper is from Dovecraft - Kate Knight's Wild Blossom paper pad - it matches the shape of the flowers perfectly. I've also used a dark orange ribbon, some diamantes and finished off with some fine-line doodling. Another addition for the birthday box!

A New Baby Boy

I've had 'a bit of a sort out' and came across some seriously cute baby boy collage images by Ruth Watkins for Craft Creations that I haven't used for a while. They are already coloured and ready just to cut out.

 

The blue gingham paper came in a free Sweet Wishes paper pad from Papercraft Essentials and Ive matted the image and greeting using buttermilk yellow paper. Faux stitching and a blue ribbon have also been added.

I've entered this card into the following challenges:

Let's Craft and Create  -  Special Occasion

Cute Card Thursday  -  One for the boys