Sunday 26 February 2012

Wedded Bliss

Spent a lovely afternoon making a wedding card, the problem is, its not quite the card I set out to make.  I was going to do a 'shoe' card. I like to match the card to the colour of the bride/bridesmaids dresses, however, the dresses for this wedding are ivory (bride) and black (bridesmaids) and I just couldn't get a 'shoe' card to look like a wedding card in these colours.  (Wedding isn't till next Saturday so I may give it another go in the week.

So, I have a reserve card, so to speak, just in case.  I really love easel cards and it seemed perfect for this project. The main card is ordinary white card and I have softened the black by using grey as a backing paper.

I am going to enter this card into the following challenge: WOW! Embossing Powder
The stamp is a Matilda stamp and the bride and groom have been embossed using silver embossing powders and coloured in using Promarkers. I have added a little glitter to the brides dress which doesn't show up very well in the picture.
The circle is a die from Sizzix (circle scallop/lace).
The flowers have been made using a flower punch and tiny round stickers have been used all way around the die cut image.
The large flower that holds the easel up is also from a Sizzix die - Flower layers #9. I have used my Crop-A-Dial to attach the flower to the base card with an eyelet.

Wrong zones & attempting a couple more challenges

Was a little confused when this blog post was coming up as Saturday the 26th when its clearly Sunday this morning. For one second I thought I had gained a day (woohoo), but no such luck I am afraid - my blog was just set to the wrong time zone - its only been 3weeks before I noticed - not bad for me!!

Anyway, on Docrafts last week there was a lovely card showing a pile up of dogs and I remembered I had a similar stamp only it was with cats. Its been years since I have used the stamp but so glad I have and here is the finished card:
This one is part of a bunch which will be sold to raise funds for charity but I thought I could enter it into some challenges too. I am going to be entering this card into the following challenges:

Scrap Creations - Critter
Cutie Pie Challenge - Challenge #12 Flower Power

The image is a stamp from Whipper Snapper Designs and aptly called 'Kitty Litter'.  I used basic white card for the main card. The layers are peach card and a sheet from the Paper Cellar patterned papers (Checks). The stamped image has been mounted onto cream card.

The image has been coloured with Promarkers (loving these). Here is a (not so good) close up:

The flowers are hand made and are some of the first ones I have attempted. I used the Sizzix Flower 3D die and cut them out of mulberry papers.  I am experimenting with other papers but mulberry papers seem to be the better ones at the moment. Here is another close up:
I used a small flower punch for the little flowers at the bottom of the card and a round sticker which I think finished them off quite nicely.

Saturday 25 February 2012

What a lovely sunny day!!

What a lovely day it is today, although it is still cold out there its a lovely bright day.

The card I made last night will go to my mother in law who sells them for charity.  She is very active in our local church and one of the main charities they support is a leprosy charity which is still fighting to eradicate this disease around the world.

The image for this card is a digital image downloaded from justinklined and I adore her, her name is Betty Bumblethorpe (fantastic name).  I just love the look happy look on her face....until you realise she's holding a rolling pin.

The sentiment is a stamp from my Murray & Ethel set of stamps and I think it goes perfect with Betty.


And a close up of Betty (please excuse the round ring of light, photography is not one of my greatest skills:



The card was made using basic white card, the backing papers are from the Back to Basics II pack by Dovecraft and some shiny green card I had in my stash. The digi image was coloured in using Promarkers.

I started to sort out some of my craft stuff last weekend but it didn't go quite as well as expected because I kept finding things I had forgotten about.  My favourite 'find' was a pack of edging scissors which I then used to cut some of the card/paper for this card.

Another surprise find was a pack of sequins - and I was going to throw them away!!


Saturday 18 February 2012

Wedding Card Part 1

Decided to book a couple of days of work and have a long weekend so I am managing to get a little bit more done on the cards front.

The card that I am about to show on this post is not completely finished, but I thought I would leave it for tonight and see what needs adding to it when looking at it with a fresh pair of eyes in the morning.

This is going to be a wedding card and I made it using my favourite template - Coppernob's Toe Tapper Template.  Its just so versatile and the cards are so unique.  I have another wedding card to make in Ivory & Black and I will be using the same template.

One of the things that still needs adding to this card  is the insert and for this I usually print the bride & grooms name along with the date of the wedding etc onto vellum.

So here is the first wedding card so far:



To make this card I used:

Coppernob's Toe Tapper Template
Two sheets of pearlescent card - one for the base and one for the shoe
One sheet of 12x12 patterned paper (for the shoe inner and the card inner
Silver stickers (straight lines and dots)
Ribbon
White roses
Flower punch
Card folding top score multiboard

First for the main base of the card I used a whole sheet of white pearlescent card which I folded in at 10cm. I used my multiboard to emboss the scalloped edge on the right hand side which I then cut out by hand using scissors.  A second scalloped edge was embossed approx 1.5cm in and a third one on the folded part of the card (towards the left of the picture), again 1.5cm in

I used a straight lined silver sticker which was placed 1.5cm from the scalloped edges.  Patterned paper was then measured, cut and attached to the inside of the card.  The patterned paper goes all the way to the card fold inside.

Flowers were punched out of solver and white card to match and silver dot stickers added in-between.

For the shoe I used the basic template.  If you want to add an inner sole to the shoe make sure you do this before you attempt to stick on the 'toe' section.  I also added the silver dot stickers as well. Once the toe was attached the bow and white roses were added along with a silver sticker for the outline of the shoe and toe area.  Here is a close up of the shoe:


The vellum insert will be the same size as the patterned paper inside the card and will be attached on top of it.  

When I come to do the next card I will do more step by step pictures.


Saturday 11 February 2012

Browns & Blues

What a lovely sunny day it has been even though it's really cold.

Not had the chance to do much card making so far this week for numerous reasons. However, I do need to get my butt into gear as I have a 40th Birthday card and a Wedding card to complete in the next couple of weeks.

So, I though I would get the Birthday card done and also use it to enter my very first challenge. The challenge is from Stampin' for the Weekend and it is to make a card using shades of blues and browns.

I would not have thought to put these two colours together on a card but I am pleasantly surprised by the results, see what you think:

Stampin' for the Weekend - Colour Combo


Used:

Basic white card 20cm x 15cm
Lush Brown Damask Paper #LU1013 (Spotty paper)
Plain beige, brown and blue paper
Stamps are from the Murray & Ethel Set 1
Coloured in using aqua Promarkers and background lightly dusted with blue chalk
Finished off with ribbon, flower and buttons

I love the stamps from this set and have used this particular one several times and just changed the quotes depending on who the card is for.  Anyway, I hope she likes it, I know she will see the funny side of it.



Sunday 5 February 2012

Welcome to my card making blog, this is my first entry and I thought I would start it off by showing a card I have never attempted to make before.

I made my first Easel card the other month and I love how it looks and how it folds down flat which means it will fit in a standard envelope (providing you don't go overboard with chunky embellishments).

So here is my first attempt:


and from the side (to show the easel):



For the base card I used brown card. The background is made from some scrapbook papers sent to me in a background paper swap I joined in last year.

The dog stamp is from the Popcorn the Bear range of stamps (Romance PST-ROM-GIF).  I used black Stazon to stamp the image onto white card and then Derwent coloursoft pencils to colour in.

The flower stem is the sizzix Sizzlite Flourish #10 and the flower to the right of the picture is the Sizzix Sizzlite Flower Layers #9.  I used a button for the centre with a circle sticker in the middle just to cover the button holes.The big flower on the top left hand side is the large flower from the Sizzix Sizzlite Flourish #10 and on top of that is a fabric flower (no particular brand - they were on a ribbon wrapped around a bunch of flowers I received). Again, I attached a button and a sticker.

The 'Birthday Cuddles' was also a stamp from the Popcorn the Bear range which I stamped onto white card and then used brown card to layer.

This is my second attempt at an Easel card which I have kept pretty basic as I think the Duck stamp is so pretty:



Detailed instructions of how to make an Easel card is now available on this blog - look to the top of the blog and click on 'Easel Card'