Graduated

My eldest nephew Charlie graduated from university a couple of weeks ago, gaining a First in his Finance and Accountancy degree.  I am so proud of him and what he's achieved.
Obviously a congratulations card was needed, and after a few false starts I came up with this

 I'm not sure whether I've made up a new card fold here or not - but it was just an idea that came to me while I was faffing about with a sheet of card, trying to think how to get the mortar board to sit at this angle.
If you imagine a regular square card base where the side that is usually the inside bit that you write on is flat and the usual front side is folded into an origami style triangle (there's a name for this fold, but I can't remember it) then that's how it starts out.  I glued down part of the triangle so that only the side "hinges" and the upper section can stand up, this makes it much easier to display.
The mortar board is made separately and fixed into the folded section.
The card folds fairly flat and fits into a largish rectangular envelope

Materials and Tools

Black square card blank

Black pearlescent card, Gold card, White card

Black cord, Gold cord, black and gold paper for tassel, attached 

with large black brad

White grained paper edged with gold ink, Blue ribbon and gold cord for scroll

Numerals and letters cut on Silhouette Cameo

This photo, taken from the other side shows the squash fold bit more clearly

I was quite pleased at how this turned out and I think the "mechanism" will work for other stand up sort of cards too so will be trying it out with other "front" ideas soon.

Hope you like it

All About Me!

Well Lythan can usually be depended on to come up with interesting challenges for The Daring Cardmakers - but this time it's a really WEIRD one - especially if  you are me!

Lythan has challenged everyone to use Little Ol' Me's cards as the starting point for this week's crafting.  I must admit it has been fun to see which bits the others  have picked up on but I hope the whole idea doesn't put everyone else off joining in this week!
So it left me in a bit of a quandary as to what to myself.  Another shaped card maybe, I seem to have been in that sort of mode lately? But no, I decided just to do what I love most - make a flower then decide what to do with it!
You think I plan ahead...................
In the end I went down my tried and trusted path of flowers and swirly stuff....which as it turned out is what most of the others picked up on! 

Materials and Tools

Papers: "Wash it all Away" by Funky Hand

White Bazzill card

Satin Ribbon, Inks

PC generated sentiment 

SU Blossom punch 

Spellbinders leafy swirls die

MFT DieNamics Doily die

Papers are printed on the white Bazzill card
Twirly swirls made from scrap strips of the papers twirled round a skewer
Layers raised using Collall 3D glue
For the flower I used a few different designs for a bit more "texture", I print on both sides of the card  so I only have to ink the edges of the petals

Thanks for looking, please visit the Daring Cardmakers by clicking HERE
My wonderful and clever nephew Charlie has just Graduated from Uni with a 1st (I'm sooooo proud of him) so I'll be back soon with the Graduation card I made for him

Have a great weekend

Curvy!

I thought it was about time I did a midweek blog - I've fallen back into the bad old ways of only managing to do my DCM card blog post.  Must try harder.

So now that the special birthday this card was made for has come and gone I can share the photos.
This is a commissioned card and it has a curved, or bowed front (like an old-fashioned shop window), What with the depth of the card because of the bowed front and the rather extravagant flower set into the aperture I decided not to risk the Postie squishing it before  it even reached my customer, and made a box for it too.

Tools and Materials

All papers are from Funky Hand's beautiful

Wash It All Away download, 

printed onto white Bazzill card for texture and a nice weight

The front of the card is created using the "Extravagance" Create-a-Card die from Crafter's Companion

Plain Oval and Labels die are Spellbinders

The peony flower was made using petals cut on the Silhouette Cameo

Other items used: Cream card blank, flat backed pearls, satin ribbon

I made the box using WRMK Envelope Punch Board, and added a "belly band" to keep it shut, there's space on the label on the back to add a message
I used more of the same papers to decorate the box.  The flower is cut with an SU punch, the centre is a plain punched circle with a layer of Glossy Accents and a few beads sprinkled in while still wet

That's it for this time, I hope you like this project and will leave a little message ;)

Thanks for looking

On the Waterfront

 It's Nat's turn to set the challenge for the Daring Cardmakers this week:

Out on the Water

This week we're escaping to the waterside. It's that time of year when many of us will be heading for the beach to enjoy the waves, lazing by the pool or spending time by the lake swimming all day long or being more adventurous and doing some fun activities on the water.
Your challenge this week is to make a card that celebrates any aspect of how we humans enjoy the water on our planet.

For some people that title might immediately bring  swimming pools, lakes or rivers to mind, but although we live abut as far from the sea as you can get in England, I was born at the seaside and once a seasider, always a seasider!  I did try to think of other watery themes but I was soon back to the sea.

Even so, I'm not impressed with the card I made for Nat's lovely challenge, it just didn't work out as planned and I'm still in a bad mood about that

Info:

Patterned papers are from a couple of download paper collections from

 Funky Hand: Rainbow Stripey Stripes. and  Rainbow Polka Dots.  

I resized them to quite a small size (to print at about 6.5cms wide) so that the patterns wok on tiny items - this is just one of the brilliant things about using digi designs!

Bazzill card in yellow, orange, deep blue, light blue black white and red

Windsurfer, Tugboat, Galleon, and yacht (on right) are all cut on the Silhouette Cameo using my own templates, the yacht 2nd from left is hand-cut

Orange "setting sun" die cut using the 2nd largest in my set of Xcut circle dies

Sea is created using various Versamagic and Memento ink pads.  The waves are hand cut and there's some Ice Stickles over the top

Sentiment is also Silhouette-cut, with a little anchor charm added to the corner

So, as I wasn't too pleased with that one, I thought I'd try somethin else and made this one earlier today.  I'm not usre I like this one either though!

Same windsurfer template, and more Funky Hand papers,  this time  the "Come What May" set from the  "Craft the Year Away" CD

Inky background made with Distress Inks

Circle aperture cut with a plain circle from the Spellbinders Nesties set

Swirl Corner embossing folder by Crafter's Companion, inked over and Ice Stickles added on top.  I thought the pattern on this folder looked a bit like swirly waves

Hand-cut Beach Huts - because I can't make two beach themed cards and not have a beach hut somewhere, can I?

I think the main problem I had was that I liked the card I made last week for The Sketch File better!

I thought I'd have a little wander back through old projects I've made that have a seaside theme - sometimes it's good to see what other ideas you've come up with for a similar theme - and it reminds me of things you like and things that you're not so happy with too!

I do like having a bit of fun and making a shaped card (I've been indulging myself with making a few of those recently, as it happens) - this one is a rocker card, and seeing it here, reminds me of the card I forgot I was going to make for today's challenge - oops!

This was a favourite Summer card from last year - it started with a total disaster of a card, which I pulled apart - I salvaged a couple of the elements to use, but needed to make a couple of new ones too.
Do you notice a certain recurrence of ric-rac braid when I make seaside cards? hahaha
My wander along Memory Lane found this last card which reminded me that it was supposed to be made into a picture by adding it to a canvas - well that was the plan, but I didn't get round to it and now I'd need to unearth the card first - but maybe I will, you never know

That's enough waffling, I reckon! 
I hope you'll pop over to the DCM BLOG and take a look at the cards the team have been making this week

Thanks for visiting, please leave a comment, it's always lovely to read them

Summer Streamers

I completely forgot to blog this earlier in the week, but better late than never.

There's a new sketch for July on The Sketch File Blog
for my first project using the sketch I turned it upside down and made this card

 For all that white space, there's quite a lot going on here! I started by using some stencils and inks directly onto the base card.  Over that I adhered a piece of wide sheer ribbon - I couldn't resist doing this because that particular ribbon has tiny flecks of silver glitter in it and it just reminded me of how sunlight glitters on the sea.Next some ric-rac pieces on top of the glittery ribbon.

I stencilled a yellow burlap pattern onto another piece of card, then rubbed some orange and red tones in the centre just using a wet-wipe, and die cut a pinked circle from it.
The little yachts are just hand-cut from some scrap pieces of various Funky Hand papers left over from other projects - it they didn't quite match, I just added a bit of ink to help them along ;)
Once it was all assembled, I drew a black line, and hand-cut some teeny-tiny triangles to make the bunting
This is the sketch:

 

 I think it would work quite well for a scrap page, using a big photo and the adding the bits and bobs over the top - I might have a look and see if any of our photos would work and give it a try.

All for now, thanks for visiting

On the Road

Someone once gave me the Jack Kerouac book "On the Road" and said "You should read this!.  I don't think I got past the first couple of pages.....
Despite being the sort who likes her "home comforts", I also love to travel and over the years I've been lucky enough to visit lots of wonderful places.  I used to even enjoy the whole "airport" experience - but now that is the part I hate most, it's thoroughly unpleasant and just reinforces my desire for a teleporter!
This week's theme on the Daring Cardmakers is set by our Inking Diva, Svenja and is all about Travel - just in case you hadn't guessed from the waffle, and it being Friday

It’s Svenja here and I’m asking you to look a little further this week as my challenge for you today is (come, sing with me):
"We are going on a summer holiday....."
It’s easy: Make a travel themed card, dream of faraway places, relax and enjoy!

I was all set to make s card with suitcases on it - until I realised why the idea had come so quickly - I'd already done that for a "Suitcase" themed challenge a year or two back...
So I thought I'd resurrect a camper van template which was  one of a summery set of Leo's fab Crafty Templates a while back to make a shaped card.

 

 Materials and Tools

Camper Van template from Crafty Templates

All papers  from "Come What May" by Funky Hand from the

 "Craft the Year Away" CD

SU flower punch, plain small circle punch

Inks, Glossy Accents, Pearls

I inked the base card behind the window apertures, then once it was all assembled added Glossy Accents to look like glass.
I cut some of the tiny flowers from scraps of the flowery paper to add some interest to the sides of the van and added flat-backed pearls to their centres

It took so long to think what to do that I ran out of time a bit - I was going to add some suitcases on a roof rack and maybe a few other holiday-related things on the grass in front of the camper van.  Ah well maybe that would be taking things a bit too far anyway.

Thats my lot for today,  I forgot to blog my first card for the July Sketch File LO earlier in the week, so I'll do that over the weekend.
Head over to the Daring Cardmakers Blog to see what the rest of the team have made for Svenja's challenge this week
Thanks for popping in today 

Welcome Baby

I love this cute elephant image from Funky Hand and have used it to make a fair few cards since it appeared on the Colour Me Happy CD a few years ago now. 
It's great to use as a fun Get Well Soon card and I've often used it as with this one, to welcome a new baby.  For some reason I always seem to make a shaped card with this image. maybe because it's such a clean, simple design - perfect for someone who isn't particularly neat at cutting out!

This one is about A5 size, made for the folks at Hubby's office to sign and send when one of the team welcomed baby no 3 to their family.

To begin with I printed the spotty patterned paper directly onto a sheet of A4 card, using the "fir to page" option, I turned the card over and chose a plainer design to print on what would be the inside of my card, using the same setting.
Next I cropped the flower design so that there were just a few of the flowers and resized so that each flower would be about 6cm across - this was just done by guesswork.  Again I printed the reverse using a plainer design.
Print job no 3 was to resize the spotty pattern so that it just took up half a sheet of the same A4 card -
The final printing task was to select the elephant image and "put" it onto the workspace on the CD, then expand the image to fill as much as possible of the lower half of the workspace.  As the full workspace is equivalent to a piece of A4 you can get a good idea how big the print will be.
This was printed and used as a cutting template for the elephant.

I cut around the paper copy of the elephant leaving a little margin all around the edge, then folded the A4 card in half and paper-clipped the paper copy in place - making sure to have the top lying above the fold so that you don't end up with just two, un-joined elephant shapes ;)

I used the A5 piece with the smaller dots just to cut out the head section and glued in place leaving the ear section unstuck, and also the part of the trunk where the ends of the wires will be hidden and sealed safely away

Then I used some black card just to cut the eyelashes piece from the template

For the flowers I cut around a couple of the flower shapes and punched some 1.5cm circles from some of the spare card for the flower centres, and some slightly larger circles to cover the ends of the wire on the reverse.
If you like using card candy, but end up being over-run by packets of the stuff,  try making your own, perfectly matching, in-the-size-you-want candy: Use craft punches, die cuts  (lots of dies have circles as part of the die cut) etc to cut the circle you need, from exactly the part of a design you want to use (like the spotty one in the centre of the green flower), next simply rub an embossing ball tool on the reverse to create the domed shape.

The wires are twirled around a bamboo skewer, leaving a few cms at each end  plain  for fixing in place. I'm a bit paranoid about  making sure the ends are all made into tight, flat spirals (using pliers) and glued into pieces of paper or card  before they are attached to the project - then I add a "cover" of a piece of card to keep everything in place and tidy.  On the trunk of this project the wire are concealed and glued with a strong glue inside the two layers of card.

Finally I made a little notice for the elephant to hold by printing the sentiment, cutting it out at an angle and adding it  to another piece of scrap card.  The ribbon bow just hides and neatens where the wires go inside the elephant's trunk sections.

I used:

Elephant Image from Colour Me Happy CD

Paper designs from Colour Me Happy CD

300gsm white card

Black Bazzill

Green wire

Very narrow pink ribbon

Thank you so much for coming to visit today - I hope you like my little elephant.

Colours for July

It doesn't seem any time at all since we were in the depths of Winter and wishing for warmer weather!  Now, here we are at the beginning of July - effectively in the second half of the month....it's all downhill to you-know-what <>
No! get out of my head, you bad Cword Fairy!

The sun is shining, there's tennis at Wimbledon and the freezer is stocked with ice cream.  We have a new Dyson "Air Multiplier" tower fan to keep us cool - we are ready for summer.

Beckie's July Colour Combo for the Daring Cardmakers is a reminder of early summer mornings, the dew on the grass, a bit of haze and a hint of brightness. Lovely greens, yellows and neutral shades.
Here's what, after a lot of paper shuffling, I came up with

 This is Beckie's inspiration photo

It took about four tries to figure out how to use the colours - various ideas popped into my head, but came to nothing when I tried to make a card - consequently there's a mass of mess on my desk!.  I don't really know why, but this seems to be the story of my crafting over the last few weeks - ideas coming, but putting them into practise is another story.  I'm hoping that things will get better soon - preferably before I forget all these ideas I've had!
 I'm taking a bit of time out just to play with all my lovely stash, have some fun and see what happens.  Maybe I'll even finish some of the half-done projects that are lying in boxes

 

Materials and Tools

Various Bazzill and Core'dinations cardstock

Pearls, Dewdrops, 2x green Gelatos for coloured areas of background,

Gold Ice Stickles

Beige flower made with torn and crumpled circles 

PC generated sentiment 

Chevron pattern embossing folder by Crafters Companion

Dies:

Small Peony; Cherry Blossom (Spellbinders)

Other yellow flower;  Carnation Creations (Spellbinders)

Die'Sire Leaf stem (on left of arrangement)  by Crafters Companion

 Leaf swirl stem on right of arrangement by
Spellbinders

Leaves under the peony by Marion Smith

 Do pop along and see the DCM blog this week - it looks a real treat with so many different styles of card all linked by this pretty colour scheme!

Thanks for popping by. please leave a message, it would be great to hear from you