Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 69 -Distress It

Our Hostess for this week is Feebsy at Crafty Cardmakers.  She would like you to distress something. You can use inks, chalks, distressing tools - anything that creates a distressed/shabby chic look to your project.  We have two great sponsors again - firstly the Digi Doodle Shop are offering one lucky person a $10 Gift Certificate for their on-line store.  Secondly, Hobby Art are offering one lucky person two fabulous stamp sets (see images of them on the Crafty Cardmakers Blog).

 

I have a lot of trouble with distressing. Lately I seem to be heading more and more to neat and tidy (at least in my card making, lol). But for this challenge I got out the inks and foam to mess up my edges and even took the scissors to the edges of the card - twice just to make sure it showed up.  I started with a white card blank and added a layer of blue (unadorned).  Next I added a layer of sage green card that I sponged with Stampin' Up Always Artichoke and then distressed with the scissors.  Next I made a patchwork with scraps of paper from K&Co Classic Baileys and a 1" punch.  This was again distressed but this time using SU Not Quite Navy ink.  On top of that I stamped some little zig-zag stitches (Tim Holtz Seamless Exdperience) in SU Always Artichoke.  The body form image is from Michelle Marsden Vintage stamp set (as are the little buttons just peeking under the reak ones), again in Always Artichoke, on cream card with a bit of sponging around the edge.  It's matted onto the sage green and then onto a Shapeabilities Fancy Tag which has been sponged with Always Artichoke.

The sentiment is from SU Oval All, punched out with the SU large oval and layered with the SU Extra Large Scalloped Oval punch.  Finally Iadded some little buttons on top of some of the stamped ones.

 

 

Dream Valley Challenge 33 - Humour

This fortnight our challenge over at Dream Valley is Humour.  Easy Peasy!  All we want you to do is make us laugh!! Just make a good humoured crafty creations following our rules and you could be one of 2 lucky winners!  And we have two fab sponsors too.  First, one lucky person is going to get a $21 voucher to spend at Bugaboo Digi Stamps, and secondly, one lucky person will receive a £10 voucher to spend at Crafty Emma's Store.

I'm afraid I can't remember where I got the stamp from but I've had it ages.  I stamped it in Stampin' Up Wild Wasabi then matted and layered it onto two different shades of green card and used a corner rounder on the corners.  The bg paper was free in Making Cards ages ago (Nancy Watts collection).   I decided to make a mobile phone charm to go with the card using a charm and some beads and to attach it to the card I stuck some ribbon under a border of card then tied it on. 

More Parchment

I belong to a parchment group.  A lot of the girls have their birthdays in May so I've been busy making Parchment birthday cards.

This first one is a pattern by Christine Coleman that was published in Parchment Magazine in April 2010.  I used the small grid for the shoes (which have pink Dorso behind) and the large grid for the border.  I've backed it with some pastel rainbow vellum.

This one is a pattern  called Pom Poms by Jenny Hunter published in Parchment Magazine in May 2010.   I have used the large and small straight grids and also the large diagonal grid.  The stems and border are coloured with felt pens and I've used some bright rainbow vellum to back it. 

 

Bloom

I love this set of stamps by Stampin' Up.  It's called Bloomin' With Beauty.  I stamped it in StazOn Dove Grey as I wanted it to look like a drawing.  Then I watercoloured the image using SU Inks (Soft Suede, Old Olive, Bashful Blue).  I cut and matted the image using Nestabilities Circles and Eyelet Circles.  Next I watercoloured the little bee from the set and matted and layered it, again using Nesties.  I added a bit of Sakura Stardust to his wings.The beautiful bg paper was free with a magazine and I used two types.  The little corners are die cut using a Spellbinders die (hardware hinge).  I stamped the sentiment and cut it with SU Modern Label punch adding a couple of the waste circles from the Eyelet Circle die to look like matching brads.

I enjoyed making this so much I made it in two other colours as well.

I'd like to enter my cards in the following challenges: Bunny Zoe - Anything Goes Critter Sketch Challenge - Flowers Die Cuttin' Divas - Flowers Paper Sundaes - Things With Wings Crafty Calendar - Things With Wings

Parchment Birds

This design is from Parchment Magazine February 2012 and the pattern is by Nadine Godwin.  I added bling brads and more bling to the peacock

This one is from Parchment Craft Magazine April 2010 and the pattern is by Lauren Berry.  I've done this little birdie before.  He is coloured with Derwent Studio pencils and then cut and matted using Nestabilities.  The bg vellum is some I've had for ages.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 68 - Birthday Balloon Bonanza

This week at Crafty Cardmakers our Hostess  is Mynnette

She says 'My birthday is May 13th, so I'd like to see some projects with balloon images!!! :) Any type of balloon will do - hot air balloon, helium balloon, balloon animal. And anything birthday will do, but I want a balloon on it :)

Again we have two fabulous sponsors.  First, The Stamp Man are offering a £10 voucher for their store.  And secondly, Di's Digi Downloads are offering a $10 gift voucher.

I decided to try a technique I had seen in one of the Technique Junkies newsletters.  First I put my DP (American Traditional Designs) on my card blank and added some faux stitching.  Next I stamped the large balloon, small balloon and birds using a stamp from Imagine That that came free with an issue of Craft Stamper in Stampin' Up Not Quite Navy directly onto the DP.  Then I punched out some circles of card and DP (adding some stars from the free stamp to one layer), folded each circle in half and then stuck them together before adding the whole lot to the balloon.  Lastly I added the little sentiment and some pearls.

Dream Valley Challenge 32 - CASE

We have a great challenge for you at Dream Valley this week.  We would like you to CASE one of the teams creations.  CASE stands for 'Copy And Selectivity Edit' so all you have to do is pick one of the cards and copy in your own style.  Easy!  Please state on your entry whose card you have copied and which bits inspired you.  We have great prizes this week too.  One lucky person will win a £10 voucher from One Stop Card Crafts and a second lucky person will win the new Bev bag selection from Crafty Ribbons.

I went all Jubilee with my card and created a Union Jack from some lovely K&Co Paper (Classic Bailey).  I started by downloading a Union Jack from http://rubberstamping.about.com/od/digitalstamps/ss/printable-union-jack-flag.htm

and printing it onto white card.  Then printed it onto my DP, cut out the sections and stuck them in the appropriate places (I actually stuck them on the reverse of the card as, of course, the DP was printed on the reverse and as I used thin white card it was easy to see the flag).  Next I cut out the Fancy Tag (Spellbinders Shapeabilities) and added an oval of one of the DPs (Stampin' Up Large Oval punch) to the centre, adding the Queen for a Day sentiment (SU You're a Gem in SU Riding Hood Red).  The little crown is a die from Cuttlekids that I added some bling to.

I enjoyed making this card so much I made a bunch of them.

Then I found this great card on www.papercraftjunkies.com for a Jubilee Bear card and I just had to use one of my cards for this.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 67 For The Boys

Sally has set the challenge at Crafty Cardmakers this time and she would like you to make a male themed project.  This could be for a big boy, a little boy or a baby boy, so long as it's male themed.

We have two great sponsors again this month.  One Stop Card Crafts are offering a £10 voucher for their shop and Digi Doodle Shop are offering a $10 voucher.

My male themed  easel card is for my brother.  I used a set of stamps that I have had for ages but have never seen ink before (hangs head in shame, lol).  They are from Aspects of Design (Nautical).  I inked the ship stamp and the sentiment with Stampin' Up Night of Navy and the map stamp in SU Basic Grey.  The images were then matted onto grey card and I hand cut around the edge, adding an extra layer of blue card to the ship image.  The bg paper is from a favourite pad of mine - Basic Grey Boxer (the actual sheet is called Buckle) and I added a zig-zag from the accompanying sticker sheet although you can hardly see it.  Next I added some flourishes (Sizzix) as I thought they looked like waves, some imaginisce i-rock gems to hold the easel card open and finally a little ships wheel charm.

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

That Crafty Place - One for the boys

Send a Smile 4 Kids - For Boys
Sparkles Monthly Challenge - Men Only