Taking Inspiration

On the Daring Cardmakers this week Lythan set, what for me was a tricky challenge:

Inspired by.....Nat's signature style

"I would like you to take a trip into a world of pure gorgeousness by visiting the blog of lovely teamie Nat and getting inspired by her style. I have been a huge fan of Nat's since I started card making and I have seen her work evolve but it has always been current, stylish, clean but not simple and with a wonderful way with a focal point. Well that is my interpretation - I look forward to seeing what you take from Nat's signature style."

 

I've been thinking about this one for ages, ever since it popped up on our calendar, and wondering what the heck I could do!  To me, Nat has a style all her own; it's how she puts papers and other components together in a strong, graphic way, the way she uses quite bold paper designs without fear and of course, horror of horrors....she stamps!

I even went and bought a few new paper packs in the hope that they'd help - but in the end I didn't use any of the new stuff, and I avoided the stamping issue quite deftly, I reckon ;)

After a little scroll through her blog I'd made a little shortlist of Nat-esque things to use: bold paper background, a long strip of stripey paper, Doilies, Vellum, a big loopy word, enamel dots and a banner

Materials and Tools

Large top-fold rectangular card base

Papers: Miss Caroline "Howdy Doody" 12x12 set by My Minds Eye

Bazzill card to match

Plain creamy-white paper (no idea where this came from)

Vellum

Paper flowers and Lace ribbon (Santoro Mirabelle)

Polka dot satin ribbon

Enamel dots, Pearls

"Birthday" sentiment pc generated and printed on the same 

white paper as the lower doily

Dies:

Circle Doily (Crafters Companion) in 2 sizes, the lower in white paper, the upper one from vellum

"happy" (Memory Box) is cut from the peachy coloured Bazzill. I glued two pieces together, then cut the die twice - so there are four layers altogether

My big discovery when making this was how much I like that big flowery background.  Maybe it was upsizing the card base, maybe it was covering the whole of the card front, or maybe it was keeping the rest of the layers fairly clean and simple, but the thing that had been bothering me most - the bold pattern, I actually really liked.  And it is a very beautiful paper!

So thanks to Lythan for setting an out-of-the-comfort-zone challenge, and to Nat for consistently inspiring us with her special, signature style!

Thanks for visiting, I hope you'll check out the rest of the cards on the DCM Blog this week.

Swings and Roundabouts

It's my turn this week to set the challenge for the Daring Cardmakers and as I love adding a moving element to my cards, I thought this would make an interesting challenge for everyone

Swings and Roundabouts

I'd like to see a "swinging", "twirling" or "rocking"element on your card this week.....and, if you can also add a circle (for the "roundabout in the title), then you can give yourself a pat on the back for being a real Smartypants!

I ended up making a couple of cards, the first of which was the one I sent to my Aunt and Uncle for their Golden Wedding Anniversary last week, and has various hearts suspended in larger heart-shaped apertures, plus heart charms dangling in the top corner and a little "50" charm threaded through a tiny hole on the sentiment panel

Materials and Tools:

Large white card blank plus extra of the same card

Gold card

Black and Gold  Glitter card

Papers: MME "Charmed" metallic, from the "Record It" series 

Gold crochet thread, Gold metallic thread

Gold Ribbons, Brass Heart and "50"charms

MFT Nested Hearts die set

Tiny heart punch

Avery Elle "Love" die

As I didn't get a circle into that one, I thought I's see if I could combine circles, things on a thread AND a rocker into one card.
Some time back  DoCrafts sent me a wonderful set of large circle dies to use on one of the challenges they were sponsoring - honestly, I have used this die set SOooooooo much (Thank you again to DoCrafts for their generosity)
I started by covering enough of a sheet of white card with green spotty paper to cut a large circle, once cut, it was folded in half to make the rocking base.
Next I cut another piece of the green, plus a piece of some yellow paper and glued them to another piece of white card, butted up close together.  I taped the same size circle die over this piece of card so that the join in the papers was along the centre.  Now I taped the next size down circle die inside the first one so that when I put it through the machine  the ring shape was created.
The green part of the ring was glued to the rocker base to leave the yellow area standing up and a semi-circular aperture where the washing line would be suspended

Materials and Tools:

White card (330gsm)

Papers:  "Fine and Dandy" Echo Park (12x12)

Brown card for flagpole and pegs

Dies: Large circle die set DoCrafts/Xcut

QuicKutz  for baby clothes (a very long time since they've been out of the box!)

Twine for washing line

Homemade decal sentiment

Thats it for this time, but I hope you'll pop over to the BLOG to see how the team took up this challenge - the cards are just fantastic this week!

Thanks for looking

Spring Whispering?

I've another of my Funky Hand cards to share today.  

This time I've used the "Spring Whispers" papers from the Funky Seasons CD which you can find HERE - currently available at a very special price of just £1

Materials and Tools

Funky Hand CD: Funky Seasons 
Dotted Doily Circle Frame die set(Sweet Dixie)
Hyprid Rose (MFT)

 "Twirly Swirly" die set (Taylored Expressions)
2x circle punches for details

I rather like the way the quite bright and striking colours work with the simple layout and lots of white space!

Thanks for visiting today

Starry Starry Sketch

Planning ahead for the bunch of "boy" birthday cards I'll be needing later in the Spring, I've made this card using the March LO on The Sketch File, substituting stars for the squares and little heart shape on the sketch

 Materials and Tools

Papers; Carta Bella 6x6 Summer Lovin' pad

Dies; MFT Nested Stars, Crafter's Companion Plain Oval (from Oval frame set)

PC generated sentiment, Tiny gems, Black Versamagic ink pad 

Sketch:

A really simple and quick card!  It's not often my Materials list is as short as that!
Thanks for looking

A Sprinkle of Tiny Flowers

Here's a card I shared on the Funky Hand blog last week - yes, I'm a bit slow with this blogging lark!
 The Funky Hand DT are continuing revisiting some of the older CDs and Download collections, and at the moment we're featuring a CD called Funky Seasons, and in particular the "Spring" paper sets

I've chose the "Spring Walk" papers to use for this card.  You'll find them on the Funky Seasons CD which you can find HERE

Materials and Tools

Funky Hand CD: Funky Seasons

Memory Box "happy" die set

decal sentiment

Pennants are hand cut

small flowers are hand cut from one of the paper designs

die cut word is glued so that the centre section bows outwards for dimension

Thanks for visiting today

Heartfelt

I completely forgot to put the Valentine's day card I made for hubby, so I'll do it now! 

I made this one using mainly scraps left over from other Funky Hand projects, and lots of card layers for added dimension

Materials and Tools
Sentiment is printed directly on to the card 

Funky Hand Downloads:  "I Love You Sew" and
"LoveLoveLove"

MFT DieNamics Nested Hearts die set
 Ribbon with Printed Hearts
small silver heart brads, large patterned heart brad brad
Round and heart-shaped red gems
Black card scraps:
 the hearts are backed with multiple layers cut with the same dies for lots of dimension

Thanks for visiting today

Elements for March

We have a fabulous picture found by Nat for our March Elemental Inspiration challenge this week on the Daring Cardmakers.

You need to use at least three elements from the picture to use on your card, the colours can only be counted as one element. 

 Materials and Tools:

Background stencilled with Fresco Finish paints 

Paper: MME "Find your Wings and Fly", various paper pads

Large flower created using MFT Poinsettia die set

Taylored Expressions Twirly Swirly die set

Small flowers made with EK Success punch

Twine, Gift charm, gems, pearls and enamel dots

Inspiration Picture

So from the picture I chose; The big flowery bow from the gift on the lower left, Triangles from the wrapping paper for the bunting, Twine (bunting, bow for charm and tag), Gift (the little charm), Confetti - I used the pearls and enamel dots for mine, Swirls - mine are paper rather than twine, and the Spring Colours

This is a really fun challenge to try, and I hope you'll give it a try - head over to the DCM BLOG to see how the rest of the team have used the picture to create their beautiful cards this week

"Little Details"

It's New Sketch Tuesday on The Sketch File Blog today and I rather liked the view of the sketch in the "Greys with a Pop" colours, so thought I'd have a go at using the theme as well as the LO for my first card this month

I changed the orange colour pop on the sketch for yellow - I used black and white with bright, sunny yellow on my card for last week's Daring Cardmakers Yellow theme and decided that I loved the combo - so have stuck with it.

Here's the sketch

March Sketch "Little Details"

Materials and Tools:

March LO from The Sketch File

Smooth White card blank

Bazzill card; Greys, black, white, yellow

Heart punch, SU Pansy punch, Small circle punch, Corner punch

Scalloped Oval die (Spellbinders)

Small gems (Prima)

Decal sentiment

Yellow ink

That's all for this time, thank you for visiting