Tag team

Dawn has set our challenge at Daring Cardmakers this week. She’d like to see some pretty gift tags, perhaps using up some paper scraps if you have them. 

As a patterned paper denier (I usually experience brain freeze if I try to use it) I went for a different sort of scrap - my tag is made from the thick card on the back of a board-backed envelope - and prettied it up with a stamp.

In travels around the interweb recently I saw some things that reminded me I haven’t used my letter punches for ages (the sort you hit with a hammer to emboss into metal etc) which prompted this tag. I layered so the circle with the lettering doesn’t have the back showing (it can get bumpy!). I added just a touch of brown and white pencil colouring and a few dots of gold gel pen in the very centres of the flowers and gave the edges some depth by brushing with Distress ink.

Stamps:
Soothing Sympathy (Power Poppy, retired I believe)

Paper:
Board-backed envelope

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Vintage Sepia)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)

Other:
Metal letter punches
Circle dies
Coloured pencils 
Gold gel pen
Ribbon
Crochet thread

Thanks for stopping by!

December elements

It’s the first Friday of the last month of 2020! First Friday always means an “elemental” challenge over at Daring Cardmakers - choose at least three elements from the inspiration picture to kick start your project.

I chose the mittens, a square, some of the colours and little scattered circles. The mittens are from a digital image and I wanted a matching pair (the two mittens in the original have different patterns on them) so before printing I copied and flipped the snowflake mitten to get the other hand. I pressed a Distress Oxide pad directly onto the card base to get a slightly “shabby” background square.

Stamps:
Mittens and Merriment  (digital stamp by Power Poppy)
Sparkle All the Way (Crafter’s Companion)

Paper:
Bristol board
Premium weight copy paper to print image

Ink:
Momento Luxe by Tsukineko (Love Letter)
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide by Ranger (Cracked Pistachio)

Other:
White Enamel Accents by Ranger
Copic markers
White Prismacolor pencil
White paint pen by Posca 

Here's our advent inspiration this month! Thanks for stopping by.

Rosemary is for remembrance

Dawn has set today's challenge over at Daring Cardmakers. Dawn lost her dad recently and so would like to see cards representing special thoughts of someone. It could be a card in memory of someone, or one to let someone know they’re in your thoughts.

I had a plan for this and then found I needed to make a sympathy card for a friend who just lost her mum so my plan changed. Her mum loved her garden and the birds and butterflies that visit so this set seemed perfect.

I started by brushing on a very light coverage of blue ink from bottom left and then stamped the rosemary sprig several times to create the effect of the top of a bush. I used pencils to colour since I feel I have a bit more control in the very narrow spaces of the leaves than I have with Copics - three shades of green, two of purple and white. The tips of the stamens have dots of gold gel pen to finish them off.

Stamps:
Soothing Sympathy (Power Poppy)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Ivy, Pearlescent Chocolate)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass)

Other:
Coloured pencils
Gold gel pen
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

Harvest Home

Another Friday, another challenge from Daring Cardmakers. Shabneez is setting this week's theme and she'd like to see fruit, vegetables or grain on our projects as it's harvest time.

I'm easing myself back in to crafting after a couple of weeks' holiday. I'm never quite satisfied with the first thing I make after a break from my crafty stash but doing a bit of colouring was relaxing so I'll just settle for "hmm, that's OK".

I've combined digi and rubber here and pulled out the kraft cardstock for a rustic base with a bit of scuffing, tearing and wonky piercing done with a tracing wheel.

The kraft means it fits this month's challenge at Power Poppy, too.

Stamps:
Fall Haul digi by Power Poppy
Vintage Flourish by Indigo Blu
Sentiment from old CHF set

Paper: kraft

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tea Dye)

Other:
Coloured pencils (Prisma and Coloursoft)
White Posca pen
Tracing wheel 

Many faith and community groups use their harvest collections these days to boost their local food bank - do consider dropping something off if you possibly can, it will be hugely appreciated.

Thanks for stopping by!

April: showers and flowers!

Kathy is setting our challenge over at Daring Cardmakers today and she'd like us to celebrate the season by breaking out the spring flowers!

Hellebores are one of the earliest spring flowers and are probably about over by now but I've been eyeing up this image for ages and decided this challenge gave me a good reason to just go ahead and get it! I'm not much of a digital fan in general, I like my crafting to be time away from the computer but every now and again I give in to a lovely image! Since I just printed and then took it to my craft table it didn't feel much different to stamping and colouring in any case.

I printed on kraft and accidentally ended up doing "no line colouring" because the toner didn't fuse properly on the cardstock and mostly rubbed off as I worked. I'd done a test print card on ordinary paper first so I had a strong line image to refer to, though.

I decided to do a super-simple one layer card and just let the image speak for itself.

Supplies:
Hellebores digital stamp by Power Poppy
Sentiment from Big Day Today stamp set (Waltingmouse stamps, no longer with us)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)
Kraft cardstock
Coloured pencils
Corner Chomper

Have a lovely Easter weekend!

I want more...

It's dare day over at DCM and Miri is asking us what we'd like more of this year.

I count myself extremely fortunate to have what I have and struggled a bit with this challenge - all the things that popped into my head were pretty esoteric. In the end I decided to run with that and go for something more symbolic than concrete.


A while ago I was looking for a decent olive stamp. I remembered that on that hunt I saw a digital image that combines olive and oak. Since an olive branch symbolises peace and oak is traditionally associated with wisdom and strength I thought it would be a good representation of things we could use more of in the world right now.

I used Copic markers (cool and warm greys plus black) to colour the image then surrounded it with some charcoal pencil. I almost left it just like that but ultimately decided this die cut word was simple enough not to detract from the overall feel.

Supplies:
Olive and oak digital image (Power Poppy)
Copic markers (Warm Grey 1 and 3, Cool Grey 1, 3 and 5, Special Black)
Serenity word die set (Sizzix, retired)
Charcoal pencil
Corner chomper

Thanks for stopping by!