Sending Sunshine

Hello

I hope you've had a good week. It's been a bit of a dreary one around here, at least weather-wise! But at least its not snow....

This week sees the 800th blog post from the Daring Cardmakers! 

Okay, so they've not all been challenge post as sometimes we need to add things like the names of prize winners etc, but they are mostly challenges, and that means a huge resource of ideas and inspiration, don't you think?

For our 800th post we have:

Today I (Miri) want to challenge you to 

CHEER SOMEONE UP!

You probably know someone, who is ill or sad or having a rough time at the moment?! Make a card with an encouraging or funny sentiment to help lift their spirits.
 (And try to send the card to your special friend as soon as possible!)

 

I first fell in love with Winnie the Pooh when I was studying for 'A' level English Lit and one of our lovely teachers would sometimes think we needed a bit of light relief from the likes of "To the Lighthouse", "Vanity Fair", "Brave New World", and "Murder in the Cathedral" etc. and he'd read to us from The House at Pooh Corner!

So at 17 I was late-comer to the delights of A.A. Milne, but since then I've read, re-read and loved listening to audio versions of the tales of the jolly little bear and his friends.

What a hero. What a wise and clever bear. What a philosopher!

 There's probably a Pooh quote for every occasion and I thought that for Miri's challenge I could do no better than Eeyore's “It never hurts to keep looking for sunshine.” and fill a mini envelope with sunshine and hearts.

 

 

Info
The main wording on the card was printed directly onto my base card before adding anything else
 I've used some digital papers from a 'Vintage Winnie the Pooh' 
collection by LaneandMay, bought via Etsy
All the papers are from the same set, I've cropped and resized then to get the various things I needed.  For instance the same Eeyore paper is used to make the panel with the quotation on, and also to create the Eeyore and Pooh characters which were cut out and added to the card with thick cardboard between
I made the tiny envelope, then used stars and circle punches to create the sun shapes and added various sizes of punched hearts

 That's all for today, I hope you'll feel inspired to join in with us this week.

Thank you so much for visiting, I really appreciate your messages.  
Hope you have a great weekend

Happy Crafting!

So, What's New? part 2

Hello

 I managed two cards for Friday's Daring Cardmakers challenge - I blogged a baby card on Friday and today I have my second card to share with you.
This time its another eclipse card.  I bought a new paper download set  last week and this style of card is just perfect for showing off something as beautiful as this tulip design paper

Ruth's challenge iss:

 'Something New' 

So this could be New Year, New Home, New Job or New Baby, 

 or even New Stash or New Technique! It's up to you!  

Just tell us in your post what your 'new' is!

Click HERE to see the fab projects the design team came up with

Info

I designed the sentiment using Paint Shop Pro and printed it 
directly on to my card blank.
 Next I chose just one design from the beautiful
 Watercolour Pink Tulips digi paper set by Alphabet Store, 
which I bought via Etsy. 
After resizing I printed it onto textured white cardstock,
Then arranged the BEAUTIFUL letters  for cutting. Obviously I had 
to use the 'U' twice, so needed to line it up carefully to match for
the second pass. I always put all the cut out letters and inserts in a 
small box so I don't lose them!
All the letters were then cut a further 4 times in dark 
green card and layered up before the saved top layer of 
patterned letters were added
To complete my card I added some Bakers Twine, a small heart
punched from a leftover scrap of patterned paper and a few clear gems

Alphabet die set from Altenew

 That's all for today, I hope you like this one!

Thank you so much for visiting, I really appreciate your messages.  
Hope you have a great week

Happy Crafting!

 

So, What's New?

Hello

I hope you've had a good week.  I'm shattered! It was a real struggle to even open my eyes, let alone get out of bed this morning.  Even now, the temptation to get back under the duvet just won't go away....more coffee.....

As usual with Fridays, it's Daring Cardmakersday today and this week it's all about 'New'

Today I'm your host (Ruth) and I'd like you to share

 'Something New' 

So this could be New Year, New Home, New Job or New Baby, 

 or even New Stash or New Technique! It's up to you!  

Just tell us in your post what your 'new' is!

Click HERE to see the fab projects the design team came up with
 
 I managed to make a couple of cards for this challenge and today I'm sharing the first of them
I never have a New Baby card ready when I need one, so this was a very good excuse to make one - plus, its always good to get the cute 'Elefant' die set out again!

Info
I've used some dig papers from my scraps box that were left over from another project

The Elefant Die set from Spellbinders

Alphabet die set from Lawn Fawn

Small banner die is from a Karen Burniston pop up card set

Bakers Twine 

 That's all for today, I hope you'll feel inspired to join in  and share your 'New' ideas with us this week.

Thank you so much for visiting, I really appreciate your messages.  
Hope you have a great weekend

Happy Crafting!

 

Birthday Bro!

Hello

Today I have another catch-up post; this time I'm sharing the card I made for my brother's birthday towards the end of last year.

 Again, I've used some of the goodies from the December 

Papercraft Society box which was by Paula Pasqual (Bright Rosa)

I used card. stamps, ink pads and a couple of the dies from the box for this card.  Alphabet die set by Lawn Fawn, Larger star dies by Tonic

Did you notice I said stamps? Yes, I was even inspired to try out some of the stamps in this box - not something that happens very often!

 

I've now had the January Papercraft Society Box on my desk for a couple of weeks., but I'm struggling more with that one - I'm not so instantly inspired in the way I was with Paula's box.  

The dies and stamps are geared towards making 'scenes' in the

shadow box style and there's an embossing folder included, part of which helps create the hinges to do this. 

 

I think its the papers I'm really struggling with though, they are very much more subdued, and don't really grab me in that "Use me.....NOW!" kind of way.

 

I'm sure I'll get round to having a go with everything in the box eventually though! 

That's all for today.

Thank you so much for visiting, I really appreciate your messages.  
Hope you're having a good week

Happy Crafting!

 

Still Got the (January) Blues....

Hello

I hope you've had a good week.

I developed a nasty headache before I was able to write a post to go with the Daring Cardmakers first challenge of 2020 yesterday, so had to give up on anything requiring staring at a screen. Yes I know it should probably have been written and ready before the last minute, but really, this is me, and the likelihood of being so organised is faint!

 

Happy New Year!

Welcome to our first challenge if 2020!

It is of course an Elemental Inspiration dare where you need to feature 3 elements from the image below on your card (with colour/a colour scheme counting as one overall element).

This month's image choice is an homage to the 2020 Pantone Colour of the Year:  Classic Blue.

You don't need to feature the colour blue on your card, there are plenty of other elements in the image that will work for any occasion, even Christmas and wintry cards if you're still in the mood for those.

Click HERE to see the fab projects the design team came up with

I used the squares, the pink flower and a stripey pattern as my main elements, and stuck largely to the lovely blues that are the main feature of the board. In the end I actually made 3 cards using the same elements, though, maybe the stripey element is a little contrived as I used baker's twine on a couple.  But it is stripey, yes? 😉

 Info
Scraps of blue, pink, white, green and black card

Flower , heart, banner and tiny circle dies, stripey stamp and baker's twine all  from the Papercraft Society's subscription box (December) designed by Paula Pasqual

Also a small square punch, leaf die, tiny gems, decal stickers.

My favourite is actually the last one, which is also the simplest and took the least time to make!

 That's all for today, I hope you like them and will feel inspired to join in this week.

Thank you so much for visiting, I really appreciate your messages.  
Hope you have a great weekend

Happy Crafting!

 

Eclipse and Flowers

Hello

Happy New Year

I hope you had a fab Christmas and getting back to 'normal' hasn't been too much of a strain.  I always struggle to get out of the Christmas Crafting Mindset at the start of a new year, it's like I've completely forgotten what to put on a card that isn’t a tree or a stocking or a snowflake etc!

Fortunately I have a couple of things I made towards the end of 2019 that I didn't get to blog at the time.  So today I'm trying to get back into the blogging routine by sharing one of them.

This is a card I made for a lovely crafting friend, and I really wanted to make some flowers for her card.  I treated myself to a 3 month subscription to the Papercraft Society designer boxes and I also wanted to use things from that.  My first box was the December one, and it was stuffed with lovely things from Paula Pasqual (Bright Rosa)

I used papers and a couple of the dies from the box for this card.  Alphabet die set by Lawn Fawn, other dies by Spellbinders

I love the way the eclipse technique works with this beautiful paper.

Here's a pic of the box and its contents:

 Anyway, that's all for today.

Thank you so much for visiting, I really appreciate your messages.  
Hope you have a great weekend

Happy Crafting!