November Sketch File

It's New Sketch Tuesday over on The Sketch File and I'm hoping that this one will inspire a bit of creativity.

I've made a couple of cards so far - they both use the same stash and to be quite honest, the second one was made largely from leftovers of the first - it's simpler too and only took about 10 minutes - definitely good at this time of the year

Here are my cards

Both cards;

All paper: Handmade Holidays mix of, 6x6 and 12x12 (Simple Stories)

Glitter card (dark red, gold)

Hand-cut "Wonky Trees"

Card 1;

Red Twine, Sentiment made from one of the "cards"on the paper, Bunting Hand-cut

Card 2; Zig-zag, hand-cut panel for bunting, Printed sentiment, Burgundy Stickles

This is the November Sketch;

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You can run.....

These years go round so darned quickly - I couldn't believe it was already time to come up with some fun card idea for my cousin.  His idea of the perfect birthday is taking the day off from work, having a long lie-in and being left alone to do as little as possible.  Usually he'll jump at the chance of a meal out or meeting up - but not on his birthday!  I'll add a mini gallery of some of the cards I've made for him over the years but first, here's this year's, which on the front is quite plain really

But on the inside there's big letters, bright colour and horror of horrors for a man's card GLITTER!!!! Well, that'll teach him for being such a Bah Humbug about his birthday!

Materials and Tools:

Chevron paper from the latest Quirky Kit

Coloured paper inside from Bo Bunny

Bazzill card; Pink, Grey

Googly Eyes, Black yarn for hair

Ice Stickles in various colours

Craft Robo to cut the Letters, the Running Man and the Head/Hands for the hiding man

All other wording printed direct onto the card from the pc

Here's a montage f some of the other cards I've made for him over the last few years - I'm not quite sure why it amuses me to put so much thought and effort into his cards, but it does!
Actually, it's probably because he thinks I'm bonkers!

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Sleigh Ride

Here's another card using the same paper set as I used for the Christening card I shared yesterday, but this time its a Cword card - just in case you didn't realise that from the image :? :)

Materials and Tools

Papers: "Winter Wonderland" from Funky Hand 
Image also Funky Hand 

Narrow silver ribbon 

Red Card Candy

Gold Ice Stickles

Sentiment and the little snowflake are homemade decal stickers

My colouring is dreadful so I cheated a bit and coloured the image on the pc before printing ;)

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A Christening Card

My card today is a Christening card made for one of my customers.
As you probably realise by now (haha) I've been using the new Funky Hand Christmas downloads a LOT recently, so that file is often open on my pc.  Rather than go on a paper hunt for suitable things to use, it just seemed  obvious really to open the blue collection;  "Winter Wonderland" and see if I could use them for a non-Cword card.
This is how it turned out

I just LOVE downloads as they allow you so much scope to play around with them - which is what I've done to create the base "layer" of colour on this card.
To begin with I did a bit of on-screen editing to make one of the "textured" designs into a perfect square.  I resized this to 13x13 cm sq, then positioned it so that it would print with a border onto a sheet of A4.  Once printed I folded and cut the card down to make a card with a 0.5cm border all around the printed square.
I then used a couple of the other designs to make the layers and shapes for the rest of the card. I try to always use the same paper or card to print on for any particular project to ensure that the printing quality and colour stays the same.  Different papers print in different ways so mixing designs printed on card and paper may not look uniform - better to stick to one type per project.

Materials and Tools

Papers: "Winter Wonderland" from Funky Hand

 Lace and Ribbon from  Creative Treasures

Baby feet, Teddy and Cross charms from "A Charming Place" (USA), Silver thread for attaching

Small silver brads

Sentiment printed onto plain white card

2cm circle punch

Quite a simple card, really, but I hope those concerned will like it.
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a Card a Day Links Saturday 3rd Nov

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November's Colour Combo

It's the first Friday of the month and this year that has meant a Colour Combo Challenge for The Daring Cardmakers - this is a special Friday for us too as it's the first Dare in a whole new year - we begin our 7th year of setting challenges today - doesn't time fly when you are enjoying something!

Today also sees us welcome Mirir (Mirjam) as our Guest Designer for the next couple of months.  Miri has often joined in with us over the last few years so it's especially good to welcome her to the team.  It'll be fab to see her cards on the blog.

This  month, Zuzana has chosen the colour palette - it's a lovely crisp red, green, white and blue mix to play with this time. 

  I'm still on a bit of a crusade to use suitable DCM challenges to make the special cards I need for Christmas.  I try to keep most of my Cword cards thin enough to send without over-stepping the measly 0.5 allowance the RM gives for standard post.  Not easy for someone who likes to "stick stuff on with abandon" as I do hehe
This one will definitely need a "fat" stamp!

The green, white, creamy brown and red were easy - they all popped up in the paper collection I wanted to use, but I struggled to get the blue into the mix.   I cut down on the amount of those papers I used and added in a lovely Bo Bunny one from a couple of Christmases ago for the snowy border.  I think it works ok now and I quite like the finished result.

Materials

Papers:

the top border and the sentiment banner both Simple Stories "Handmade Holiday" 6x6

Blue paper: Bo Bunny (I think it's "Midnight Frost")

Poinsettia made from some old paper from the Christmas Scraps box - I think they are from Fancy Pants, Small white flat backed pearls coloured with yellow ink and a sprinkling of Glamour Dust

Small flowers are made from flat, cream petals coloured with inks and formed around some white stamens (I inked some yellow)

White organza and pearl flower from Creative Treasures

Berries came from last year's Christmas Crackers, I added a couple of leaves cut into holly shapes

Wide, silver edged organza ribbon, A few blue gems

Tools

Craft Robo to cut the Poinsettia

Memory Box Snowflake border die

note; I intended have used the apple blossom type flowers from Creative Treasures rather than make my own - I could have sworn I had some in the box but when I went to get them all I found were lilac and lemony-green ones :(  The ones I've made are ok but not as nice as Tracy's, hey ho, you can't have it all!

As so often the case, I ended up making a new Craft Robo template for this card - in this case the poinsettia.  I really like this one - it's actually just the one shape which I cut in 3 sizes, a couple of times each - dead easy!
The DT have made some fabulous cards this week (they always do, though!).  The BLOG looks especially pretty when it's all colour-coordinated.  I hope you'll join in with us this week
Thanks for looking in today, please leave a message if  you can spare a minute or two!
 
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a Card a Day Links Friday 2nd Nov

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Thursday 1st Nov. r A Card a Day Blogging visiting list

 Until I think of a better way to do this, if you are joining in with 

a Card a Day Blogging

Please add your link in a comment on that day's thread on this blog - this way non-FB users can still pop round and visit everyone

please keep coming back to check for additions

This is the blog roll for today, but tomorrow I'll just start a post (I'll schedule it so that it's nice and early!) and you can leave your links in the comments

A Card a Day Blog Roll (01.11.12)

LoopyLou 

Kathy B   (you are here)

Sue Ward

Jackie

Tracey

Tip Yop (Ruth) 

 

Treemendous Funky Fun

Today it's my turn to load up my idea for Amanda's challenge over on the Get Funky blog.
Amanda thinks that

Christmas is ALL About the Kids

so that's what her challenge is about - just making things especially with children in mind. 
 I think she's wrong though hehe, I think Christmas is about ME mwahahaha hehehe.  I hope the Big Man has read my letter - as top of the list is an iPad Mini and I'm not sure they are going to be very easy to source in time to be under our tree on Christmas morning :O 

Anyway, back to the business of the day.  I hummed and hahhed for a long while thinking about something I could do for this one - and then found myself back in Primary Teacher mode and came up with something the kids could help with, and made this:

 I used one of the Spellbinders Scalloped Circles die sets and my Cuttlebug  to make mine, but any circles would be fine - and so would cutting out circles with scissors - and it doesn't matter if they are a bit wonky because that just adds to the charm.  If you want to be really boring about it - think not only cutting skills, but all the geometry,using a compass to draw the circles - or finding lots of different sized circular objects to draw around and then the sorting into size order ready to assemble...and how do you make the cone at the top - or a star shape.  And how can I make this piece of wire into a spiral?

Funky Hand papers are the perfect material to use for a project like this - you can print off extras if you need them and just use the designs you want. 

I used one of the fabulous Christmas downloads for this one - it's the  "Christmas Tree" collection and you can find it HERE. 

You can find out how I made this over on the Get Funky blog today

 

Click on Funky Hand to visit the shop and see all the other wonderful collections Anice has produced this year.

I'm planning a blue, white and silver themed tree this year - though I might change the silver for copper.... Just thinking that a few of these made from  the Winter Wonderland collection might look fab sitting on the hearth to match up with the colours on the tree ;)

That's my crafty offering for today, I hope you like it
Don't forget to visit Get Funky to see what other members of the DT have been sharing so far - and it's only the 1st November, so plenty more ideas to come - and it would be great if you joined in too :)

Thanks for looking


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Same...but different

A couple of cards today using the October LO from The Sketch File - it's the last week before the new sketch goes live, so not long left to play along.
I wanted to show how the same sketch can be manipulated to create two totally different cards.
For one I replaced the ribbon-stripes in the sketch and shrunk it down to make a row of tiny plants in pots, and in the other I replaced them with trees to make a Christmas card.

 I dug some old and very neglected Quickutz dies out to make this one

 Materials and Tools

Papers are MMT 6x6 Indie Chic "Ginger"

EK Success border punch, Spellbinders Nesties Labels 1

Quickutz Dies; 3x Small Flowers, Small Flower Pots

Hand cut paper "Bow", Imaginisce hot fix pink gems

 Materials and Tools

All papers Funky Hand "Winter Wonderland" download - printed onto card

Silver Glitter card (Best Creations), Silver crochet thread

Craft Robo to cut the five trees, EK Success small stars punch

This is the sketch I was using - you can find it HERE and see more projects made by the DT using it by scrolling through the last few posts on The Sketch File

Thanks for visiting

 

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Merry and Bright

Well that;s annoying isn't it.  I started writing my post and somehow manages to delete it.  Well, please just pretend that it was here and you read it - just imagine what it could have said, ok?

This is probably the nearest I get to "production line" Cword card making - but despite cutting the whole word in various different papers (which should have resulted in at least 6 cards) I still only managed these three before I'd had enough of that caper.

Materials and Tools:

Papers "Make a List" from Funky Hand

Card Candy "brads", Narrow ribbon, Stickles glitter glue

Craft Robo for cutting the letters

Wording for tags is pc generated

How do you make your Cword cards?  
Do you choose one or two designs and set up a production line from which you don't waver?
Do you make them steadily throughout the year?
Do you use a fairly simple design that you can vary from card to card and still make a lt in a short time?
Is every card you make the sort that is individual and completely unique - and takes ages to make?

Looking forward to feedback on this - it's always interesting to hear how other crafters work, isn't it?

Thanks for visiting today - see you tomorrow - thanks to "a Card a Day Blogging" which is keeping me on the straight and narrow!


 
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Better not Pout!

I've not made one of these cards in a while, and they are great fun to make.  They don't have to have little miniature springs, but I just can't resist making them this way as the images look so cute wobbling away whenever you touch the!
These cards squash realively flat for getting into an envelope, but pulling the rectangular section pulls the whole thing out and forms the box shape for the base.

 Materials and Tools:

14x14 card blank to make the "box" base

Funky Hand paper designs ("Christmas Tree" download) and digi images printed onto card

All Funky Hand info is HERE

Computer generated wording

Stickles glitter glue in various colours

Green Wire to make springs

Hope you like it!

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Thanks for visiting

Hello Sunshine

So far I'm managing to keep up with the "a Card a Day Blogging" - it's much easier to keep it going when there's a lovely supportive group leaving you messages, I can tell you that!  If you want to join in visit out Facebook group - or if you're not on FB just join in by leaving a message on here.

Today's card is the third of those I made for the Crafty Templates September Kit

I used:

Cloud and Sun template, all papers and ribbon from Crafty Templates

Tonic punch for Flower, Hand-cut stem and leaf, heart button from stash

Sentiment pc generated and printed directly on the card Font = Troutkings (I think)

Thanks for visiting

Lighting the darkness

Today's card is one of those made for the Crafty Templates September kit - yes, I've just realised that I've only remembered to blog one of them so far - so you can see one HERE and there's one more left for tomorrow....hehe

I was very much in a CAS mood with the last lot of templates - the images, along with the fab papers and other elements from the Quirky Kit (also available from Crafty Templates) just seemed to work really well on a clean white smooth card.

What better for a card with Chinese lanterns on than a Chinese proverb for the sentiment, which I kept simple by printing directly onto the card, roughly in the place I wanted it to be before adding the baker's twine and lanterns

I Used:

Smooth white card blank

All templates and papers from Crafty Templates

Black Bazzill card, black gel pen, Baker's Twine,

pc generated sentiment

That's it for today, I hope you like it

A Little Candle

It's my turn to set the challenge for the Daring Cardmakers this week.
These long hours of darkness really get me down - all my life I've struggled at this time of year especially on the dull, hank and dismal sort of days we've had lately when it never seems to get properly light at al - so I thought we could have our very own Festival of Light and share cards featuring candles, fairy lights and even "lightbulb moments" (not that I ever have one of those, hehe).  I've called it

Let There Be Light

and the cards made by our wonderful designers have certainly provided a welcome, friendly light already - you can feel the glow by clicking HERE!
Hopefully we'll all be taken on a lovely light-filled journey around Blogland by those who join in with our challenges every week!
Here's my card:

 

 When I hit upon the title I hadn't realised that this dare would be Dare 52 in Year 6 of Daring Cardmakers challenges - so maybe I should have made a birthday cake card with plenty of candles on instead!  However I already had an idea in my head (for once) and I really wanted to give another of my new Memory Box dies an outing so stuck with Plan A

The candle is a Craft Robo template made from one of those pictures you can find by googling on " free colouring pages". 
 It's a picture I saved a while back and it didn't take long to convert it for cutting on Robo

Materials:

2 shades turquoise glitter card (Best Creations, Red Glitter card - its the stuff where the glittery layer is encased and the card has a gloss finish, Bazzill Bling turquoise, Bazzill scraps in red and green, extra white card for the upper layers, Red Stickles (berried), Ice Stickles in Gold and Silver(candle flame), Glossy Accents (berries), Silver and turquoise tiny gems (Anita's Gem Wheels), Turquoise Organza Ribbon, Decal sticker sentiment

Tools:

Craft Robo to cut:

Candle, holly and berriesUpper white layer and circle aperture

Wavy Square background

Dies: Memory Box Snowflake Wreath, Snowflake border, Cuttlebug snowflake dies

Punch: Tiny Stars

That's it for today.  I now need to come up with a plan for making some simpler, quicker cards using this gorgeous snowflake wreath because while I enjoyed making this it took far too much time and effort for any sort of "mass" production!
I hope you'll pop along to the Daring BLOG and that you'll join in and shine your own little light this week!

Oh and if you feel your blog could use a little boost - both in the number of posts you actually make, and in the number of visits you get, why not join in with my little "a Card a Day Blogging" campaign - we have a Facebook Group set up to let other members know when you've blogged or you can join in by just leaving a message here to say you're taking part - I'll add your link to those on the FB group and hopefully you'll be encourages by lots of visitors to keep up that blogging and sharing.

Thanks for visiting - I'm off to grab a coffee now ;)

TReelly Nice Die

It's Day 2 on "a Card a Day" - we have a Facebook group to keep in touch with what other members are doing, but if you're interested in joining in and don't use FB see the post previous to this one for how to join in

I do love Memory Box dies, but they can be a right faff to use - all those fiddly little bits of "spare" card to get out and then there's the "how to glue 'em on" question.

I bought the Starry Tree  die because it's sooo pretty and because I thought it would be the answer to that annual question "How do I churn out lots of Christmas cards without losing my mind?"

Obviously the prettiness of the die completely overshadowed the "Losing my mind" bit - as I realised on the first attempt at cutting!

I did a bit of research on the web, and asked a few questions of my lovely crafty friends and now, although using these dies is never going to be as speedy as using those lovely, simple Cuttlebug tree dies (I'm running out of ideas on how to get away using them again), I think I can now get a lot more use from them than I thought I would on day 1

.

I did the "use a layer of greaseproof paper between die and cardstock" thing and that helped - I'm not sure whether you only need to do that once - but that's what I did and the dies have been a bit easier since.

Adding a card shim to the base plate of my Cuttlebug before the cutting sandwich is definitely helping - plus it's easy to change the thickness of the card or paper shim to get the best results.

Use scissors to cut close to the diecut shape - this helps prevent those complicated twisty spirally bits from getting tangled up and allows you to get the unwanted sections out in smaller pieces iyswim

The people at Cheery Lynn dies make a metal shim which seems to get brilliant reviews - I ordered one - and when it arrived I realised that I'd ordered a Big Shot one by mistake doh and double doh!  Fortunately the lovely people at Cutting Edge Crafts are happy to exchange it for the right one - but they are awaiting stock of the Cuttlebug Cuttlehug - you see, it was the name that confused me (doesn't take much)

My lovely friend Kath came up with a brilliant, and super speedy idea for gluing these intricate shapes to the card:  Apply glue to the actual CARD, then put the diecut onto the glue and toss Glamour Dust over the whole thing!  Brilliant and perfect for Christmas cards!

 So here's the design I made using Kath's method.

 Cutting all the bits in batches makes it quicker, the oval cut out makes a nice frame and hides the un-glittered areas, and I've used the the left over oval to make a topper for another card - they would also be perfect for gift tags!

Tools and Materials:
Dies: Memory Box Starry Tree, Snowflake border, Spellbinders Sxscalloped Oval
Bazzill card, White card scraps, Glamour Dust glitter, Tiny gems (Anita's gem wheels), Homemade decal sentiment stickers

Thanks for looking

A Card A Day Kick Off

I've just started a Facebook group called "a Card a Day"  and I'm hoping that lots of fellow-cardmakers will use it as a virtual "prod" to get those cards made - it's an "open" group so anyone can join in, and enlist their friends too. 

 I'm hoping it will encourage us all to use our own blogs more and to visit and leave a message on each others' blogs too - Just a "hello" to say you were there if time is short.  We all need and appreciate knowing we're not just talking to ourselves, don't we?

 Hopefully this will help with all that Christmas card making - and any other cards too so please come along and join us.  If you're not onb FB you can still join in by leaving a comment here - I'll post a link to your blog on the FB page for you

Of cou7rse, a little bit of cheating is allowed - so making a few cards on one day and then sharing one at a time is perfectly acceptable...;) 

Here's my card for today

well 3 - but as they are all pretty much the same I don't think I can get away with one a day for the next few days hehe

 

Tools and Materials:

Glitter card (Best Creations) - doesn't shed, but is a pain to die-cut as it has a sort of plasticised backing

Tiny gems (Anita's)

red ribbon, silver cord

Memory Box Snowflake border die, various other snowflake dies (cuttlebug) and punches

Thanks for looking