Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 60 - Beads

It was my turn to set the challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers this week so I decided that I would like to see beads used.  The project can be made using just beads or using them as an embellishment.  The important thing is that the beads are there for all to see.

We have two fab sponsors this week.  First up is The Stamp Man who are offeringa £10 voucher for their on-line store.  Secondly we have Di's Digi Downloads, who are offering a $10 gift voucher.

My project is a necklace that I made for my beautiful daughter-in-law as a Christmas present.  I used pearl beads as I happened to have a few (gross understatement here, lol) in my stash and this gorgeous leaf toggle.  I used 3 different sizes of pearls and between the largest ones I put sparkly rondelles.  To show off the toggle I decided to  make the necklace asymmetric.  I was pleased with how this turned out and my DiL was thrilled too.

Dream Valley Challenge 24 - Animals

What can I say, except Big Ooops!  I was sure I had added my card to the Dream Valley DT thread but nope, it's not there so my card is not displayed on the Dream Valley Challenge blog this week (big Boo Hoo!).  Still, I have made it and it's a great challenge so I will still post it here.  This week there is a special prize offered by Melly for one lucky person of a Surprise parcel to include ribbons, flowers and even two stamps.

I decided to have another play with my Crafty Individual stamps and papers for this.  I used the lovely Rabbit Collage (CI-202) stamped in Versafine Vintage Sepia.  I distressed the image using Stampin' Up Rich Razzleberry, then restamped just the rabbit part and coloured him with Derwent Studio pencils before popping him back on top.  The image is mounted onto blue card that has been punched down one edge with an SU punch (Spiral Border) and a fern (Darkroom Door Wilderness 2) and sentiment (SU Sense of Time) added and then distressed with SU Not Quite Navy.  Under this is a strip torn from an old book that has been distressed with SU Crumb Cake and under that some lovely paper from Crafty Individuals Background Paper Book 1.

I'd like to enter this card in the Delightful Challenge - Vintage/Distressed.

As I was pleased with how this card turned out I decided to make another but this time using CI-296 (Butterfly Collage) stamping the popped butterfly in SU Baja Breeze and the sentiment is from Hero Arts Anytime Messages.

I'd like to enter this card in Moving Along With The Times - Things With Wings challenge.

Friendship treasure

I'd been looking through my rather large collection of stamps and decided to have a play with my Crafty Individual collage stamps - the ones with the chickens and ducks. 

The Chicken stamp is CI-289 and the Duck stamp (beautiful Mallards) is CI-297.  I stamped them using Adirondack ink in Eggplant and then added colour using Derwent Studio pencils.  The sentiment stamp is also from Crafty Individual and was sent as a freebie with an order from them.  And guess where the background paper is from, lol.  Yep, Crafty Individuals Book 1.  The punched border was made with Matha Stewart's Embossed zig-zag punch.

Gingersnap Creations have a challenge where you have to use a line or set of stamps so I'd like to enter my cards into this.



Quick cards

I was so pleased with myself being all organised for Christmas ahead of time that I rested on my 'laurels' for too long and fell behind with birthday cards for January!  So I needed to make some quick cards.  Unfortunatetly there were a lot of birthdays so now I've used them all up and will have to make some more!

These two were made using a new stamp - Sweet Floral from Stampin' Up.  It's a huge stamp and it stamps beautifully.  I stamped it in Brilliance Pearlescent ink (Lavender and Orchid) and just matted and layered it onto the card blank.  Then I added a ribbon, stamped the little sentiment (SU Oval All), punched and matted it using SU punches and there you have it.

These were also made using a large SU stamp - this time Belle Toile.  This was stamped, again, in Brilliance Inks (Mediterranean Blue/Pearlescent Crimson) and matted and layered onto the card blanks.  This time two strips of ribbon were added before the sentiment was stamped (SU Four Frames and Silhouette Sentiments), cut out close to the edges and then matted onto card punched with the matching punch (Decorative Label punch).  Three pearls were added to the bottom corner to finish off.

I'd like to enter these in the Gingersnap Creations Ribbon Challenge.

Bullfinches in my garden

We had a couple of female bullfinches in the garden today.  We often have two pairs of these beautiful birds but today I only saw the females.  I had to make a parchment card for a swap and as the friend I was sending it too also loves watching birds in the garden I decided to use a pattern with a bullfinch on it. 

I'm not sure I've got his head quite right - I know they are quite 'tucked up' but this seems a bit small!  The pattern is from the Parchment Magazine September 2010 issue and was designed by Mary J Kerr.  I coloured the bullfinch with Derwent Studio pencils and then added two colours of dorso behind.

A couple more kilt pins

Here are a couple more kilt pins that I  made for a friend.  The little clear crystals hardly show up in the photos and some of the flowers are hidden.

A collection of children

I have some lovely stamps that have children on them so I decided to get out some vintage type papers to go with the stamps and make some cards.  The best thing about these stamps is that they were all prizes I won (yay!). 

The first three cards are made with stamps I bought with a voucher I won and are from Artistic Outpost called Think and Wonder.  The last two are from a fav. set I was lucky enough to win from Rogue Redhead and are from the Reading Relish plate.  I stamped them all in Versafine Vintage Sepia onto Kraft and coloured them with Derwent Studio pencils.  The papers are from K&Co apart from the last card and the paper from that is from a Crafty Individual pad. 

The Artist Stamper has a vintage challenge this month and I'd like to enter my cards into it.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 59 - No Floral Embellishments

After the Christmas break, Crafty Cardmakers are back with a great challenge - No floral embellishments.  You can use floral backing paper or even an image but NO embellishments that are flowers or have flowers on them.  We have two great sponsors for this challenge.  First we have One Stop Card Crafts who are offering a £10 voucher as a prize and we also have Digi Doodle Shop who are offering a $10 voucher.  Here is my card but don't forget to go check out the fabulous inspiration from my teamies.

I decided to make a card using a colour I don't often use - orange.  I started with a square card blank, added a matt of dark green then the burnt orange, textured card matt.  I wrapped a knotted, spotty ribbon round this layer.  Next I stamped my image - the pear from Stampin' Up Faith in Nature in SU Early Expresso onto white card and added some colour using Derwent Studio pencils.  This was matted onto some more orange card and I punched the edge with a Martha Stewart French Scroll punch.  Next I layered it onto dark green card.   I stamped the 'Best Wishes' in SU Early Expresso and used a SU Word Window punch to punch it out and then added it to the edge of the card. 

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges:

Stamp and Create - Anything Goes

Joanna Sheen Challenge - Celebrations

{Lawn}scaping Challenge - Birthday

Dream Valley Challenge 23 - Anything Goes

Well, Christmas is over and now it's the start of a brand New Year.  Over at Dream Valley we are starting the year with an easy challenge - Anything Goes.  You can make anything you like for this challenge, it doesn't have to be a card - so long as it's hand made.  We are sponsored this time by the fab One Stop Card Crafts who are offering one lucky winner a £10 voucher for their online store.

I decided to make notebooks for my nieces for this challenge.

My first notebook is a cutesy one.  I have a niece who is mad on cupcakes so my choice of stamps and paper for this one was easy!  I covered a small pre-purchased notebook inside and out with paper from Paper Mania Sweet Nothings pad.

The topper is made by stamping the cute mice (Penny Black Critter Party) onto watercolour paper and watercolouring it using Whispers pens.  Then I added some sparkle with a Sakura Stardust pen to the cupcake frosting and the candle flame.  I cut and mounted it using Nestabilities and added a bow to the bottom.  To finish off the note book I added matching ribbon to the spiral binding.

My second notebook was made for a niece who is a Stampin' Up demostrator so I used all SU products.  I covered the notebook with Greenhouse Gala paper and made the topper by stamping the flower (Ornate Flowers) in SU Baja Breeze, mounting it onto green then brown card, punching the bottom of the brown with an SU scallop punch and wrapping a piece of ribbon and a bow round it.  Then, again, adding ribbons to the spiral binding.

My third notebook is covered with paper from Paper Mania Amethyst Tones.  The topper is a butterfly (Darkroom Door) stamped in black and coloured with Sakura pens.  It's cut and mounted using Nestabilities and, again, a bow and ribbons have been added.

I'd like to enter the following challenges:

CES Challenge Blog - Anything Goes

Art Impressions Stamps - Anything Goes

I Brake For Challenges - CAS

Top Tip Tuesday - Anything Goes  (Top Tip - when recovering spiral bound notebooks you can remove the binding by gently prising it apart and then you can take the covers off to work on them, then reassemble the notebook and gently squeeze the binding back in place)

Really Reasonable Ribbons - Ribbon and Sparkle

Beads, beads and more beads!

I had a lot of fun making some Christmas presents this year using my rather large stash of beads.

First up  is a brooch made from a kilt pin.  I added beads, sewing themed charms, lengths of chain and bead dangles.

This bracelet is made using a spiral rope technique.  The beads I used were various sized pearls in cream and coffee colours with the centre of the spiral made using clear, brown seed beads.  Finally I added a pretty toggle clasp.

These are Guardian Angle bookmarks.  The silver bookmarks were bought on ebay and I added the bead dangles with the little angels at the bottom.  The coloured angels are made using lucite flowers, wings and crystals for the heads with a silver bead cap on the top.  The little pearl angle is made using two sizes of pearls and wings.  I also added an 'inspire' charm to the green bookmark.

These are mobile phone charms.  Each charm has 3 dangles, the longest one having a little lucite flower angel at the end.