Vintage tin?

It's DCM day (sorry I was AWOL last week) and we have another "step away from the cards" dare today - decorate it!

It's open to interpretation, as ever - I chose to make a little ornament that could go on the tree or perhaps over the knob of a drawer in the kitchen. It has a bit the look of vintage embossed tin and cost virtually nothing to make. 

The base is die cut from scrap mount board (free from a framing shop) so it has a bit of heft. The letters are die cut from cereal packet board and the whole lot is covered with double-sided tape sheet and then kitchen foil. I burnished round the letters with a paper stump and then used a bit of black acrylic paint to "age" the whole thing. 

A couple of tiny cones from an alder tree in our back garden and a scrap of gingham ribbon make suitably rustic embellishments, I think. Likewise, garden twine for a hanging loop seemed fitting.  

Supplies:
Styled Labels die (Tim Holtz Alterations/Sizzix)
Font One dies (Spellbinder)
Double-sided tape sheet
Kitchen foil
Black acrylic paint
Alder cones
Gingham ribbon
Crop-a-dile
Garden twine

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Step away from the cards - tag it!

Friday is dare day and Daring Cardmakers have the second of the "step away from the cards" dares in the run up to Christmas - make a tag!



Tags are usually a last minute thing for me so it was good to have a prompt that made me get some of them out of the way early. To be honest, they looked nearly as nice without the holly so if you needed a super-speedy option at the very last minute this could be it!

I used the MISTI to do these "production line " style so they were quick in any case. If you put a frame (the negative of the die cut) into the MISTI, line the stamp up so it's where you want it in the aperture and then just pop each blank die cut into the frame, the stamp will be exactly where you want it each time.

Stamps:
Noel Plate 2 (PaperArtsy)

Paper: white, green, red

Ink: Memento Luxe by Tsukineko (Love Letter)

Other:
Stitched square die (cheap and cheerful unbranded)
Square Nestabilities (Spellbinder)
Festive Greenery strip die (Tim Holtz/Sizzix Alterations)
Office hole punch
Posca white paint pen
Clear Wink of Stella pen
Crop-a-dile 
White crochet thread
MISTI

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Deck the halls

It's Daring Cardmaker day and we're getting further into the Christmas spirit - today's dare asks for a card inspired by Christmas carols and songs.

I immediately thought of this lovely big sentiment stamp with words from "Deck the halls with boughs of holly" so went with that and, of course, the holly to go with it!

Colouring is a mix of Copic and pencils. I used a scalpel to cut around the tips of a couple of the leaves so I could tuck the die cut circle in behind them. The berries have a bit of Wink of Stella glitz on them and white paint pen highlights.

Stamps:
Noel (Waltzingmouse Stamps - now available from Gina K)
Freebie holly stamp (Creative Stamping magazine)

Ink: Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)

Paper: kraft

Other:
Copic markers
Coloured pencils
Stitched circle die (just a cheap and cheerful unbranded one)
Clear Wink of Stella marker
White Posca paint pen
Corner Chomper

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Birthday kicks!

My nephew celebrated reaching double figures recently! He does Taekwondo and is currently a green belt so I went with this digital image from craftsuprint which has the option of belts in different colours.

The image comes with a background and separate bits to layer up decoupage-style. I didn't use the background, just the figure and a couple of layers. The image is pre-coloured but I added a tiny bit of Copic shading as well.

The wonky spiral element is hand cut and I laid a circle die on the card as a guide for placing the die cut lettering. A doodled border finished it off.

Apologies that the image is a wee bit blurry - low light in Northumberland and a posting deadline made it tricky!

Supplies:
Karate Dude image from craftsuprint (Karate Girl is also available if you want something for your nieces rather than nephews!)
Copic markers
Black and white cardstock
Tim Holtz Typeset strip die by Sizzix
Posca white paint pen
White Prismacolor pencil
Pinflair glue gel

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Step away from the cards!

In the run up to Christmas, some of the challenges at DCM will be to "step away from the cards" and make other things (which can be Christmas-themed or not - it's up to you).

Our first non-card challenge is to make or decorate a gift bag or box.

I made a bag-a-lope using an A4 manilla envelope. This is a useful "how to" if you fancy having a go - Bag-a-Lope Tutorial. Measurement-wise I just trimmed an arbitrary "looks right" amount off the top and scored at 5cm.

It's another one that looks better in real life I'm afraid but I'm sure you get the idea! The snowflakes are glittery and the hanging bauble is silver mirri card which is difficult to photograph. The snowflake is embossed into the bauble with the die rather than cut out of a separate piece and stuck on.

Supplies:
A4 manilla envelope
White cardstock
Fancy Lattice die (Shapeabilities by Spellbinder)
Sizzlets die by Sizzix (Serenity set, retired) 
Snowflake die (Waltzingmouse Stamps, retired)
Sheer ribbon
Silver thread
Corner Chomper
Cropadile

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November inspiration

It's Friday so it's Daring Cardmakers day and despite having finished my month as Guest Designer I'm still here! I'm delighted to have been invited to stay on as a permanent member of the team which should give me a little prod to make something each week as well as being great fun!

Being the first week of the month it's an "elemental" dare - scroll down to see the picture Kathy chose or, even better, visit the DCM blog to see the picture and the different ways it inspired the team.

There are loads of possibilities in the picture so choosing three or more elements shouldn't be too difficult.

I chose the colours, butterfly (it seems a strange decoration for a Christmas tree but definitely there!), circular cushion and glitz (gold embossing and gems). I tried to keep some of the overall "busy" feel as well which made me a bit twitchy but I think there's enough white space here to counteract it!

My purple circles are domed to fit with the cushion element - I've got a couple of wooden implements that go with a dapping/doming block designed for shaping jewellery pieces which proved very useful on larger circles. An embossing stylus is great for tiny ones but not so much use when you go large!

Stamps: Wings by Darkroom Door

Ink: 
Adirondack by Ranger (Pool)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Picked Raspberry)
Versamark

Paper:
Bristol board
Textured purple

Other:
Gold detail embossing powder
Coloursoft pencil
Circle punches and die
Hello die by Waltzingmouse Stamps (retired)
Cressida stencil by Memory Box
Corner Chomper
Nail art gems
Pinflair glue gel

The elemental inspiration picture:

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Sparkle and shine

It's challenge day on Daring Cardmakers - today's challenge has been set by Nat and she wants us to make our cards sparkle and shine this week - glitter, gems, metallic paints, sequins, anything with some shiny glitz!

This is one of those cards that looks a whole lot better in real life, for some reason I couldn't make a photo of it look terribly coherent!

I stamped a leaf with Flitter Glue on dark brown cardstock and used metal leaf in autumn colours once the glue was tacky. I did make two leaves but decided I only wanted one so I  used the second one to punch out some circles to use as dots around the leaf on the finished card.

The glitter strips are just double sided tape sheet trimmed to the widths I wanted with gold and copper glitters burnished onto the tape.

Tiny nail art gems have been my "go to" for years - two slightly different sizes and colours got used here. Keeping the sheen thing going, the sentiment is stamped in a pearlescent ink.

Although I've gone down the birthday route, shine and sparkle would give you a great starting point for a Christmas card or two so why not join in with the dare this week and add to your Christmas stash?!

Stamps:
Falling Leaves (Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous)
Say It Loud (Waltzingmouse Stamps - retired)

Ink: Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)

Other:
Flitter Glue by Indigo Blu
Easy Metal by Eberhard Faber
Fine glitter (copper and gold)
Nail art gems
Corner Chomper

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Tag it

Today's challenge on Daring Cardmakers has been set by Purvi and she's asking us to use a tag on our cards.

I tend to think of tags on gifts so I ended up making my card look like the front of a present with satin ribbon wrapped round a crisp white square. It looked a wee bit stark so I would probably have stitched round the edge to frame it but I've lent my sewing machine to a friend so a good old-fashioned pin and ruler came into play for a pierced border instead!

I cut the tag with a die and matted it using the 1/16" Perfect Layers ruler - easy with a shape that only has straight edges!

The berries for the holly are little circles made with a regular office hole punch, domed out on a foam mat with an embossing stylus.

Stamps:
Festive Foliage (Waltzingmouse Stamps - now available from Gina K)
Christmas Expressions (Cornish Heritage Farms, retired)

Ink:
Delicata by Tsukineko (Golden Glitz)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Ivy)

Cardstock: white, ribbed kraft, red

Other:
Stitched tags dies by Waltzingmouse Stamps (retired)
Satin ribbon
Coloursoft pencil (Grass green)
Hole punch
Perfect Layers ruler

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True colours

It's Friday which can only mean one thing: a new dare from the Daring Cardmakers! Svenja's "True colours" dare is asking us to go monochromatic with our cards.

I decided to try the "hidden sentiment" thing with a word die, combining it with a loose watercolour swoosh and a stamped image.

If the hidden inlaid sentiment is new to you too, I used this video tutorial to make sure my imagining of the process was actually what I needed to do to get the sentiment right!

This could be a Christmas card or just a wintery greeting, I think.

Also new to me - I've finally caved in and got a MISTI so I had a first play with it here by first stamping the trees in Distress ink and spreading it out, stamping again and spreading to intensify the colour and then stamping a third time on the wet paper for a slightly blurry image. Once dry, I over stamped with Versafine which gives a sharper image on top.

I die cut the sentiment from the image panel and then layered onto a couple more cut from cardstock. It's a bit fiddly but I think it's a nice effect.

Stamps:
Lovely As a Tree by Stampin' Up!

Paper: 
Hot press watercolour

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Peacock Feathers) 
Versafine by Tsukineko (Deep Lagoon)

Other: 
Sizzlets die by Sizzix (Serenity set, retired) 
MISTI
Corner Chomper

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Autumn inspiration

I'm delighted to be guest designing with the Daring Cardmakers for October - the original cardmakers' challenge blog, still going strong after 10 years!

The first dare of the month means an inspiration photo and a challenge to choose at least three elements from it to kick start a creation. The lovely Gez has chosen this month's picture - pop over to the DCM blog to see it or check out the bottom of this post!

I dithered wildly and finally settled on making an autumnal birthday card for my brother. From the picture I chose the vivid leaves against a black background, the horse's mane (embroidery thread combed out to a fringe) and the silver rings of the bridle (the big eyelet).

Various Distress reinkers, Brushos and lots of water made a lovely multi-coloured mess all over a sheet of mixed media paper. Once dry I die cut a load of leaves and added a touch of clear Wink of Stella to some of them (probably clearer in the close up shot). For the base layer I drew a scribbly circle on black card with a glue pen and covered with gilding flake once tacky.

The eyelet holds the embroidery thread in place and the scribbled circle forms the basis of a partial wreath shape. I spent ages fiddling with leaf position and still ended up not entirely happy with the composition! A die cut circle with a stamped sentiment, inked edges and faux stitching finished it off.

Supplies:
Black and white cardstock
Mixed media paper by Hahnemuhle
Various Distress reinkers
Brushos
Leaves dies by Impression Obsession
Circle Nestabilities by Spellbinder
Sentiment from Big Day Today stamp set (Waltzingmouse Stamps, retired)
Versafine ink by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Distress ink by Ranger (Antique Linen)
Clear Wink of Stella pen
Skeleton leaves
Jumbo eyelet
Black embroidery thread 
Zig two way adhesive pen
Mega Flake by Indigo Blu (Chariot of Fire)
Black Fineline marker

The inspiration photo chosen by Gez

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