Three In A Row

Great to see the three in a row challenge at the Allsorts Challenge Blog this morning as it fits perfectly the Mother's Day card I have made for my partner's mam. As usual he left it to the last minute to ask me for it so I've just finished adding the diamantes to it 10 minutes ago!


I've kept it very simple as last minute cards usually are!. The butterflies are punched in various shades of purple, mounted on a circle then added to a long A5 card blank. Not the most exciting card I've ever made but because it's made on very white linen effect card it has an 'expensive' feel to it!

Special Lady

The challenge at Moving Along With the Times this week is to make a card for a 'Special Lady' - my Nanna! She loves roses so this decoupaged rose was the perfect topper.

I mounted it on an oval nestie but not having a scallopped oval nestie for a border, I used lots of punched yellow circles and carefully stuck them round the edge. I'm pleased with the effect. The patterned papers came from a magazine and I've added some yellow coloured card candy for extra texture.

Another card for Mother's Day

Here's another clean and simple card for Mother's Day, again using the flower die that has sat in a box unloved for over a year - it's now my new favourite die. If I have a good sort out who knows what other goodies I would find!


The striped paper is also very old - it came free with a Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine about 5 years ago - I hoard EVERYTHING! It matches the colours used in the flower perfectly.

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

Papertake Weekly Challenge - For The Girls....Or Mum

Oldie But A Goodie Challenge - Mum's the word

Mother's Day Paper Piecing

The current challenge over at the Corrosive Challenge Blog is to make a card using the paper piecing technique. This is one of my favourite techniques - I love the effect of images coloured in with patterned papers.


The bag and shoe images are both from Pink Petticoat, a great place for cute girly images and sentiments. Using Microsoft Publisher, I arranged the images slightly overlapping and added the greeting with a text box (Worstveld Sling font). I then reprinted the bag image only onto some pretty floral Pink Petticoat paper and pieced this over the original image. The shoes are also decoupaged and are coloured with promarkers. I've finished the card by adding a cute pink bow.

I'm going to try and develop this style of card with other images as I'm really pleased with the result.

Colour Challenge at The Play Date Cafe

I love The Play Date Cafe Challenge blog - it always has such interesting colour combinations in it's challenges - this week it's a lovely combination of CHARCOAL, ASH and BUTTER. As I still need to do loads of Mother's Day cards I used these colours for a handbag card. This image from the Digistamp Boutique is one of my favourites.

I've matted the image onto a scallopped square, then onto an embossed background. I've decoupaged the flowers on the handbag and used diamantes in the middle of them. A matching buttercup yellow ribbon finishes the clean and simple look. I didn't have any paper of the right shade of yellow so for the matted edging, I coloured some white scraps with the same promarker that I used on the flowers so everything matched.

Neutrals

The theme this week at Less Is More is a colour theme - NEUTRALS - use anything from off white to black with any shade of beige, brown or grey in between. The card I've made is for a work colleague who wanted a simple but 'touchy feely' card for her Grandparents 60th Wedding anniversary ( wow - 60 years!).


It's made using a lovely textured linen card with very pale beige accents. The paper used for the hearts and scallopped nestie started life as a shimmery envelope from one of my birthday cards - I recycle everything! The swirly embossing folder adds texture and I've added diamantes and a gossamer beige ribbon. I found a lovely verse on the interwebby for the inside...

May your

Diamond Anniversary

Be as special as

The day you said ‘I Do’.

Here’s to many more years

Of love and laughter together.

How sweet! Hope they like it.

Spring Has Sprung

Today's card has been made entirely from scraps - I picked out lots of spring pastels, punched flowers and added gems. Very simple but they make a great border. The backing paper is embossed using the Swiss Dots embossing folder and the number and greeting were done in Word.



I've entered this card into the following challenges:

Cupcake Craftroom - Spring Bouquet
Emerald Faerie Garden - Embossing
CES Challenge Blog - Flower Frenzy

Hoppy Leap Year!

Today's card is a bit strange - it's a birthday card for a woman who is frog mad. She collects anything froggy so for her 40th birthday card I didn't have to think too long about what image to use.


The image and papers came free with a magazine some time ago - there were loads of funky animal images which I never thought I would ever use but kept 'just in case'. I have this idea in my head that frogs have lumps all over them which spurred me to use the spotty papers and the stars were done using an XCut punch.

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

Fab 'n' Funky - Use something that 'leaps'
Sassy Cheryl's Challenge - Seeing Spots

Thirty!

The challenge at Less Is More this week is 'don't scrap it' - make a card using up some of those scraps that all good cardmakers collect...



My scraps are actually in pretty good order - I spent a happy afternoon over Christmas sorting all my scraps into colour order and putting them into plastic folders - well worth the effort 'cos you never know when you will need a tiny piece of turquoise paper and don't want to 'waste' a sheet of A4.


I found all of these scraps in my 'pink' folder - I think they are Doodlebug patterned papers from a couple of years ago. The letters are traced and cut by hand then matted onto plain cerise scraps and hand cut again to make a border. I really enjoy cutting - it's theraputic! The letters are attached with foam pads and I've finished off with a computer printed greeting. I've often made these 'word' cards - I got the idea from browsing through the card stands in Clintons - theirs cost about five quid - mine cost nothing!

Hot Pink

I've got loads of cards to make at the moment - the beginning of the year is a busy time for birthdays and with Mother's Day looming my order book is overflowing. Having loads of girly cards on order, the challenge at The Play Date Cafe caught my eye - use black and white and a splash of hot pink - the inspirational photo is gorgeous...




These colours work so well together! I was torn whether to do a handbag card or a shoe card and in the end this funky image from the Digi Stamp Boutique won the day. I used black and white spotty paper which started life as gift wrap, and used a magenta promarker to colour the shoe. Bright pink diamantes add to the girly feel of the card. I think I would actually wear shoes like this - honest!

Howzat!

I'm really enjoying making these clean and simple cards lately - I get so flustered trying to match papers with embellishments etc and I do love a bit of white space on my cards so I think you'll be seeing a lot more....



Today's card is for a clean and simple masculine card for the current challenge at Creative Card Crew. It's a birthday card for my partner's brother who is cricket mad. The paper and decoupaged image are from Papermania's It's a Man's World by Claire Curd.

Less Is More - Punches or Die-cuts...

This week's challenge at Less Is More is to use punches or die-cuts on your card. I dug around in my dies case and found a lovely flower head and stem by Marianne Creatables that I had never used so decided to put it to the test...



I totally love it! Can't believe it's been there unused and unloved for over a year! I added some strips of co-ordinating striped paper I got from a magazine and some Papermania sticky letters coloured with a promarker and there's another Mother's Day card to add to the pile.

Less is More - Stripes

I had a lovely glow when I first read this morning's challenge over at Less Is More. STRIPES! I love stripes - I am always buying stripey papers in all colours. Then I had a cuppa and woke up properly and read the challenge again - ONE LAYER. Oh no! I don't do stamping at all and I certainly don't do all that messy inking business so seeing the cards already made by the early birds I was in a bit of a dilema.



Then I found this gorgeous image I have had some time called Cefer and Domino by Little Musings. What better than stripey cats! After a bit of positioning trouble I finally printed this and coloured it using promarkers. Purr-fect - my second one layer card.

Seeing Spots...

I scoured the colouring pages websites for an image suitable for a 10 year old girl and came up with this. The Bratz characters are quite funky and a major plus for me is that they have full faces - images such as Magnolia's Tilda and Edwin creep me out!


I've coloured her using Promarkers in shades of lilac and pale lime and used patterned papers from Dovecraft's basics range. The flowers are digi images carefully cut and coloured. Looking at this card for too long makes your eyes go funny!

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

Sew Many Cards - Birthday Card Challenge
If The Shoe Fits... - Anything Goes

Rosie's Birthday..

Just a quick post today - a big number birthday card for a little girl who is about to be 2. The paper is one I printed from a crafting CD when my printer needed more ink and the colours didn't come out as they should have but it's still usable.



The lettering is done with die-cuts and I've finished off with a few random punched flowers.

Happy Birthday Less Is More

I can't believe the Less is More challenge blog is a year old - how time flies! The challenge there this week is to use the colour 'aqua'. I wanted to make a card that totally sums up the Less Is More ethos and ended up with the following effort...



The flowers are made from a simple digi image as seen before in the Kitty and Peppa cards. I've carefully cut around them and coloured with a pale aqua promarker. I've scored lines above and below the flowers to add a bit of texture (difficult to see) and finished off with a printed greeting.

Voila! Happy Birthday to the lovely ladies from LIM and may your blog continue and prosper xx

Peppa Pig...

Following on from Hello Kitty, here's another quirky card for a little girl - this time a Peppa Pig fan! I acquired this image from another colouring pages web site - try googling "Peppa Pig colouring pages" and you'll see how simple it is! The papers are from the same pack as the Kitty card and I've finished with another digi stamp flower.

I've entered this into the following challenges:

The Pixie Dust Studio Pixie Challenge - Let's Go To The Zoo
Sweet Stampin' - Use an animal

Less Is More - Cut It Out

The Challenge at Less Is More this week has been to create a card with a hole or aperture. I am really loving this blog - each week I am inspired to make cards I wouldn't have thought of making by meeting whatever challenge or theme is provided. And I so love clean and simple cards - I somehow can't get the knack of those creations with all the flowers on them.


So I've made a start on Mother's Day cards - I'm pleased with the result but it was so difficult to photograph it so you can see the hole. I've added more pics so you get the idea. The aperture is on the top sheet of white card and I've attached it to the base card with 3D sticky pads. The butterfly is an X-cut punch with black diamantes on it and I made a scalloped frame using Nesties to go around the aperture. I'm going to make a batch of these in different colours - it was really quick to do.

Hello Kitty!

Today's card is for a little girl who loves all things Hello Kitty. I found the image on a children's colouring pages site which is always my first port of call when anyone requests a 'character' card. I just download the images to my computer then I can resize and alter them as required.


They have everything from Barbie to The Simpsons - a treasure trove of free digi images! I've coloured Kitty with promarkers and used Dovecraft Back To Basic papers.

I've entered this card into the following challenges:

A Gem of a Challenge - Sketch
Crazy 4 Challenges - A child's Birthday Card
Stamptacular Sunday - Seeing spots

Sunday Blues

Full of cold today! It's probably my own fault for going out last night without a coat but one must suffer for fashion! Freezing temperatures here in Sunderland - it's so frosty outside it looks more Christmassy than Christmas did!



Today's card continues the cold theme in shades of blue - a 30th birthday card using the delightful Lola Rose image from Pink Petticoat. I've paper pieced the frock with spotty Doodlebug paper and coloured the rest of the image with promarkers.

I've entered this card into the following challenges:

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - Anything Goes With Blue
Crazy 4 Challenges - Monochromatic in Shades of Blue
Crafts 4 Eternity - Blues