Boxes and bags

The theme in this week's Christmas countdown over at Daring Cardmakers is “boxes and bags” - make something to present a gift in.

I hope Kathy will forgive a slight stretching of the brief - I used a little tin and prettied it up with some paper crafting supplies. The tin originally contained travel sweets and came from a car showroom as a freebie. Die cutting a circle to exactly the right size hides the car branding quite nicely!

I'm afraid my camera battery died just as I needed to take my last minute photos so I had to made do with my phone - apologies for the photo quality!

I made a coordinating card as well so I’m playing again at Let’s Squash It. The challenge is totally to blame for this embossing folder in any case - I saw it on a couple of earlier entries and thought it looked lovely and then found it on a well known auction site for under three quid. Since you can pay that much for a single greeting card I decided I could justify buying it!

 

Stamps:
Festive Foliage, Compliments of the Season and Noel (all Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide by Ranger  (Evergreen Bough)

Other:
Pine Needles embossing folder by Richard Garay
Circle Nestability by Spellbinder
Stitched rectangle dies A6 size by Paper Rose
Corner Chomper 

 

Gorgeous gifts

It’s the second week of our Christmas countdown over at Daring Cardmakers and this week we’re all about gorgeous gifts. It could be a card featuring images of pretty packages, a gift card holder, a paper crafted gift for a friend...what can you come up with?

I always check out the Christmas Kickstart challenge (although I don’t manage to play very often) and owner Jo has teamed up with Gail in Let’s Squash It, a challenge dedicated to embossing folders. I’d been thinking recently I don’t play with my EFs nearly enough so perhaps this will give me a push! They have a joint challenge going on at the moment so I’ve made something to hit three targets - go me!

The sunshine is bright in Northumberland this afternoon so apologies if the photo looks washed out - just imagine understated sophistication! 

I die cut squares and rectangles for my packages, brayered ink onto my folder and embossed two of them. The third has stamped snowflakes. A bit of glitzy silver thread, a doodled border and a stamped sentiment and call it done. 

Stamps:
Flurries and Noel (both Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Delicata by Tsukineko (Silvery Shimmer)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger  (Tumbled Glass)

Other:
Moonlit Berries embossing folder by Couture Creations
Silver thread
Silver gel pen
Corner Chomper 

Thanks for stopping by, keep safe!

Come visit one (or more!) of these challenges!

     

 

November elements

It’s the first Friday of a new month (and alarmingly that month is November!) so it’s time for an elemental challenge at Daring Cardmakers. Today, Kathy has chosen our inspiration picture (it's at the end of this post) and as ever, just choose at least three elements to kickstart your project. We’re starting our run up to Christmas this week so all the challenges between now and late December will give you a chance to really get going on the festive crafting.

I confess the busyness of that tree induced a sort of brain freeze for me! I eventually chose a five point star, colours and silver circle (inspired by the plate) for a one layer card. One of my trusty acetate sheets with die cut holes got used as a stencil to brush on silver ink as the first element and I doodled a bit round the edge of the circle with a silver gel pen. I coloured the stars with Copic markers then added Perfect Pearls in similar shades to give them the pearlescent sheen of the baubles in the tree.

Retro Rubber has an “anything goes” challenge at the moment, as long as you use a stamp that’s at least a year old, you’re good to go. My star was the cover mount stamp for Craft Stamper magazine in September 2011. A larger version is still available in the Stampotique catalogue as Jo’s Star.

Stamps:
Star by Jo Capper Sandon  (Craft Stamper magazine, September 2011)
Sparkle All the Way (Crafter’s Companion)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Delicata by Tsukineko (Silvery Shimmer)

Other:
Corner Chomper
Nail art gems
Copic markers
Silver gel pen 

Here's our inspiration picture this month:

 

Thanks for stopping by, hope you are keeping safe and well. 

Link in the chain - October (and September!)

It’s reveal day at Card Chain Challenge. Mine has gone to Annerieke in the Netherlands this time. From the options on offer I chose the sketch, the theme of food and the colour palette (pumpkin, cherry, chocolate).

It’s a single layer to keep it easy for airmailing, I used some low tack tape to mask off the edges before inking. I didn’t have three sizes of the red gems so for the largest size I used a die cut “sequin” that was on my desk, coloured it red and added some sparkle pen then stuck a gem in the centre.

Stamps:
The Cafe (Cornish Heritage Farms, no longer with us)
Say It All (Hero Arts, retired)

Paper:

Bristol board 

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Spiced Marmalade)

Other:
Strobe stencil (Visible Image)
Red gems
Copic markers
Spica glitter pen (red)
Corner Chomper 

I realised I forgot to blog September’s card so I’ll do that here as well so I have a record if I want to look back. 

This one also went to the Netherlands, to Gerjanne, and I chose the sketch and the theme of birds from the month's options.

Stamps:
Layering bird (Hero Arts)

Paper:

Bristol board 

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass, Spun Sugar)
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Denim, Stonewashed)

Other:
Rubber bands stencil (Crafters Workshop)
Sequins

Thanks for stopping by, hope you are staying safe and well. 

Fright night

We're fast approaching Halloween and Rizwana would like to see spooktacular makes for our challenge over at Daring Cardmakers this week.

I don't own any stamps or other supplies that are spooky so I found a way to improvise and made a postcard! I used a cheesecloth background stamp and torn edges as masks to create a "wrapped bandage" effect  and a longer word ("KABOOM!") with selective inking and a marker pen to fill in missing lines for the sentiment. The eyes are drawn using circle dies as templates.

This year may have gone wonky in many ways but Lost Coast Designs have their usual 31 Days of Halloween going on so I'm linking up there, too.

Stamps:
Cheesecloth backgrounder (Cornish Heritage Farms, no longer with us)
Kaboom (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Copic markers
Black fineliner 
Circle Nestabilities by Spellbinder (to draw round)
White paint pen by Posca
Microglaze

Thanks for stopping by, hope you are keeping safe and well.

Dictionary day

It's my turn to set the challenge over at Daring Cardmakers this week and as today is World Dictionary Day and I need very little excuse to celebrate words I thought we could focus on them today - a dictionary definition, book or dictionary page, or make words the focal point of your project.

After a couple of false starts (why your own challenges are always hardest is one of life's mysteries up there with single sock syndrome) I came up with the idea of combining with another challenge to help kickstart and made this.

Retro Rubber has a tic tac toe challenge and I used that to give me the extra push. I chose a diagonal of rhinestones/pearls/dots, die cut/punch and metallics. The whole card front is die cut with a stitched rectangle, the sentiment is cut with another (modified to make it a shade longer to suit the stamp).

This background is designed as a texture plate for use with a gel plate, polymer clay etc but I could see no reason it couldn't be used as a regular stamp and indeed it worked just fine! I stamped on black cardstock and used metallic Perfect Pearls in a couple of autumnal shades before doodling some details with copper and gold gel pens and adding dots of gold dimensional paint to finish.

Stamps:
Sarah's Choice (Indigo Blu - had mine since 2011)
Texture Plate 3 (Art by Marlene line at Studio Light - around April 2019 I think)

Paper:
Black
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Perfect Pearls by Ranger (Perfect Gold, Copper)
Gel pens (gold and copper)
Dimensional paint by Dylon (gold)
Stitched Rectangle dies A6 size (Paper Rose Studio)

Thanks for stopping by, hope you are keeping safe and well.

Mail art in the time of Covid-19!

Svenja has set our challenge this week at Daring Cardmakers and as it's world post day, she'd like to see some mail art (or anything inspired by the phrase). 

I decided to have a go at some actual, on-the-envelope mail art using a business size envelope.

I hand drew the mask which is where the address will get written. The stamp will fill in the space top right between the airmal sticker and the pencils. I bought the Face It stamps on sale quite a while ago but must confess I haven't got round to using them until now. I did some basic colouring with Copic markers since they should be pretty weather-proof if the envelope gets caught in a shower en route! The envelope paper is not great for blending so I kept the coluring pretty simple.

Stamps
Face It (Visible Image
Pencils border (Lost Coast Designs)

Paper:
Business envelope

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Copic markers

Thanks for stopping by, I hope everyone is keeping safe and well.

October’s elements

Dawn has chosen a lovely picture for inspiration for our ‘elemental’ challenge over at Daring Cardmakers this week.  As ever, just choose at least three elements to kickstart your project. 

I picked the cable knit, book page, twine, autumn leaf and airmail envelope stripes for a collage-style card.

We recently had a good clear out prior to getting our dining room plastered and there were a couple of books that were too shabby to donate to a charity shop so I “rehomed” them in the craft room and used a page here. I embossed a torn piece of kraft cardstock and layered up with a stamped leaf and some twine. I’d just finished a book of airmail stamps and there’s a little sticker strip along the edge of the book so I used that to underline the sentiment. 

Retro Rubber’s current challenge is “anything goes” and as I’ve had the leaf set for five years or more, I’m playing along there too. 

Stamps:
Falling Leaves (Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous - I’ve had mine five years or so) Sentiment from Say It All (Hero Arts, retired)

Paper:
Bristol board
Kraft
Old book page

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)

Other:
Crochet thread
Copic markers
Cable knit Dynamic Impressions embossing folder (Stampin Up!)
Airmail stripes from book of stamps

Here's the inspiration picture if you would like to join in with us at DCM this week:

Thanks for stopping by!

S is for...

Well, Kathy over at Daring Cardmakers thinks S is for September - our challenge this week is to include at least three things beginning with S on our cards. Extra brownie points if you can manage six or even seven things!

I decided S was really for Santa so I could use the opportunity to add another Christmas card to my barely-started stash. I managed Santa in Silver Specs, a Stamped Sentiment with Snowflakes and some Sequins so I earned the extra brownie points for seven Ss while still managing to keep it CAS!

The Cool Yule dies were on sale recently and I found myself unable to resist, mostly for this Santa and the fabulous reindeer head in the set (which will make a debut soon, I'm sure).

The sentiment comes from a set I was lucky enough to win in Rudolph's Random Raffle over at Christmas Kickstart a while back - thanks Rudolph (and Jo!). 

Supplies:
Cool Yule dies (Tim Holtz/Sizzix)
Fine frames circles die (Altenew)
Bristol board
Silver mirri card
Copic markers
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Antique Linen)
Memento Luxe ink by Tsukineko (Love Letter)
Sequins
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

Masculine makes

Our challenge over at Daring Cardmakers today is set by Dawn. She says she always struggles with masculine cards so she's looking for ideas so that she can have a stack at hand - show us your masculine makes!

The men I make cards for tend to like clean and simple, no frills designs. In fact, while I was snapping this card, my hubby walked past and said "Oh, that's a nice one!" So, ink, stamps and an aperture cut with a die to use as a stencil and that's as fancy as this got. I have a couple of acetate sheets with various size circles cut in them that live on my desk ready for use as stencils.

Stamps:
Teasels (Bee Crafty)
Sentiment from Big Day Today (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door, Fired Brick)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
"Stencil" cut with circle Nestie
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by, hope you are keeping safe and well and managing to carry on as near normal as possible with whatever restrictions you have in place for your area.