Mellow Yellow

Why on earth don't we use yellow more often?
If you have a look at the Daring Carmakers Blog,  I think you'll be asking the same question as the blog is full of sunshine this week!
It's all down to Nat's fabulous challenge:

 In an effort to spread a little sunny cheer in the cardmaking world this week we're focussing on a much underused colour in crafting - granted it can be a tricky one to match with other colours, but the focus this week is all on the colour:
YELLOW!
You can combine it with neutral shades of white, grey, cream, and black - but the predominant colour on your card must be yellow.

For some reason, I went straight to my small stash of stencils for this one - I didn't even check out the boxes of paper - not even the brand new, unopened packs I've indulged myself with in the last couple of weeks, were ignored (I will open them one day....).
I played around with a couple of the stencils, thinking along the lines of making some sort of inky background with them. then found one that came as a magazine freebie years ago.  It's very thick, and was really intended for using sections of it  for "doodling" through, but the idea of using Texture Paste mixed with some Acrylic paint popped into my head, so that's why this happened

I love how thick and gungy this stuff is, tbh I don't have much idea how I should be using it, but it's fun to spend a while playing with "different" and probably more messy (definitely so when it's me doing the playing), it stops you getting in a rut and sometimes it doesn't matter if you make a horrible mess and it ends up in the bin.  It's the adult equivalent of making mud pies, and we all know how engrossing that was
Having covered a couple of sheets of card with gorgeously gungy texture paste patterns I was at a bit of a loss as to what to do with them.  Inspired by Svenja's glorious yellow and black creation which I'd already seen, I unashamedly pinched the colour combo and just added my old favourite flower and swirls to make my card

Materials and Tools

Smooth white card 

Yellow coredinations card, Black Bazzill scraps

Texture Paste

Fresco Finish Yellow acrylic paint (Paper Artsy)

Spotty Black and White paper (MME, Record It! Charmed Metallic print pad) 

Twill ribbon

MS border punch, SU Pansy punch

Taylored Expressions Swirly Twirly, and Spellbinders Leafy Swirl Dies

Black enamel dots

That's it for this time, thank you for popping by

Strumming

Another card for the current sketch on The Sketch File Blog today. 
I had to make a new guitar template to cut this - even though I know I've already got a template somewhere in my files - I know this because I found a photo of a card made a couple of years back that I used it on!  Hey ho, sometimes it's less hassle to start over than to spend hours searching for the first one.
 

It was only when I'd finished the card that  I realised I'd added a layered panel across the card (under the guitar), when in fact I'd meant just to use the entire guitar as the horizontal panel/focus piece, with just the music notes to echo the swirly bits from the sketch

Materials and Tools

White smooth card blank, plus extra for the embossed layer

Bazzill card: Red, Black, Grey, White    

Dark Silver card

Embossing folder: Seasonal Music (Crafter's Companion) 

Silhouette Cameo: own templates for guitar and music notes

February LO from The Sketch File 

Thanks for popping by today

Mixing it Up a Bit

This is the card I'm sharing over on the "Get Funky and Craft" blog today

 I've used the "flat" paper designs from a Wordbook Download called "Huge Funky Love" - with this set you don't just get all you need to make a Wordbook, but also the paper designs without the lettery bits to use however you like. 

Just to mix things up a bit, I also "borrowed" one paper from the  "Fading Beauty" download set - just because I thought the pale green looked gorgeous with the pinks and browns of the Huge Funky Love ones. 

I usually have a little pile of papers waiting to be used or  leftovers from other projects and sometimes just shuffling that pile around shows up some very happy combinations!

Materials and Tools

Funky Hand Downloads: "Huge Funky Love" and
"Fading Beauty"

scrap of darker green Bazzill card
EK Success Border Punch 
Aperture cut with a Marianne Heart die
Taylored Expressions Twirly Swirly die
 Flowers created using Memory Box "Fabulous Phlox"die set
Small circle punch
Small brown pearls

All Funky Hand's "Love themed" downloads are  available throughout February for only £1 each - so a great time to stock up on downloads you may have missed - or a good time to try them out if you've not yet succumbed to the delights of digital ;)

Thanks for visiting today

Childhood (book) Heroes

Daring Cardmakers day again and....

"It's Svenja here and I'd like to invite you to take a little stroll down memory lane this week. Do you remember the time when your parents would read a good-night story for you? And then the first books you read on your own? And probably over and over again just because you loved their characters so much... 

I'd like you to create a card to commemorate this time and your

Childhood (book) Heroes. 

Be it The Famous Five or The Three Investigators, Max and Moritz or Alice in Wonderland, the girls from St. Clare's or Peter Pan and Captain Hook or someone else entirely - who were the written heroes that accompanied you through your childhood and youth?"

I'm not sure I had any books that I returned to over and over - I must have read every one of the "Secret 7" and "Famous 5" books, and I loved stories set in boarding schools - like the "Chalet School" and !Mallory Towers" books, but for my card this week, I turned to books I still love yet, for the clever stories, wonderful characters and fabulous drawings it has to be the two Winnie the Pooh books.  

....And you can forget those dreadful Disney pale imitations too - what a travesty they are - it should all be destroyed in my opinion!

Stick to the real stories told by AA Milne, and E Shepard illustrated so beautifully - why on earth would you want Pooh any other way>?

So, with my rant for the day over, here's my card

I used a template I made for my old Craft Robo years ago, but his time I thought I'd have a go at making a shaped card and add the balloon on wire so that it really "floats" above Pooh's head"

Materials and Tools

Bazzill card for bear and balloon

VeraMagic and Cats Eye Inks in brown and blue shades

Small black brad for eye

Blue wire

Silhouette machine to cut the various pieces

I'm quite pleased at the way he's turned out - I'm not going to send him to anyone, this is one for my shelf!

I thought I might as well dig out the card I made from this template originally - I still think it's cute, but that could be because I just love Winnie the Pooh and all his friends!

Please visit the DCM BLOG to see all the cards the team have made this week - and we'd love to hear about your own favourite childhood book heroes too

Thanks for visiting

Maltesers

Happy Valentines Day!

This is the box I shared on the Funky Hand Blog yesterday - another of those "must make one of those when I get a "Round Tuit"

Materials and Tools

Funky Hand Download  "I Love You Sew" printed onto white 
matte photo paper. 

Silhouette machine to cut box shape - this template is available from the Silhouette online store

MFT DieNamics Nested Hearts die set
Ribbon, Ric-rac braid and Raffia
Large brad

The paper for the "I Love You" heart detail on the lid of the box comes from the "LoveLoveLove" download - I chose this as I liked the red and black text and I think the 2 downloads can work quite well together

This box was stuffed full of Maltesers for my Other Half as they are his favourite!

Thanks for visiting today

LOVE letters!

It's Daring Cardmakers Day again and this week it's Beckie setting the challenge
What a great idea, we all thought....and then we realised how hard those letters actually were!

You are probably not surprised that it's going to be a LOVE card this week, but here is the twist ... it doesn't have to be if you don't want it to be, it could even be a birthday card of a thank you note ......

The dare this week is to use at least one item/product

 on your card beginning with each of the

 letters L.O.V and E.

What a great idea, we all thought....and then we realised how hard those letters actually were!  I started by making a list of things that started with each letter - it wasn't a long list, but I came up with a few ideas where I could use maybe 3 of the letters but not the other one.  I really really wanted my E thing to be an elephant, but I couldn't come up with how....

In the end I made this

My LOVE items are: Lace, Ombre (paper design), also Orange for the flower, Vine (Honeysuckle Vine die) and a mini Envelope

Materials and Tools

All papers: Spring Wedding Download (Funky Hand) - designs printed on white Bazzill card

White cotton Lace

ready-made mini card and envelope

Tiny orange gems, pc generated mini sentiment

Honeysuckle Vine die (Memory Box)

Heirloom Rose die (MFT DieNamics)

Blossom punch (SU)

Tiny coiled roses are hand cut

I cut the vine die a couple of times from green to give extra twirly bits to the main vine and to adding behind the various flowers.

The die was also cut in the pink papers so that I could add the dimensional flowers to the vine and have extra ones to put near the large flower. 

 Please pop over to the DCM BLOG and see how inventive the team have been this week
Thanks for visiting

Butterflies

After looking at the "Kensington Border" die (Memory Box) for ages, I finally went and bought it - probably because using the Cosmo border last week reminded me just how pretty, and versatile these border dies are.

So without further ado (ie without leaving it sitting in the box for weeks before using it) here's another card  made for the current LO on The Sketch File, and some lovely Funky Hand papers that were already on my desk - printed out for some project or other that I can't even remember now!
 

 

Materials and Tools

Papers: Little Princess download (Funky Hand)

White Bazzill card for printing

Various pearls and enamel dots, Peachy-Pink Seam Bimding

"Kensington Border" die (Memory Box)

Scalloped Circle Nestie (Spellbinders)

Decal sticker sentiment

Here's the sketch - I twisted it 90degrees clockwise

 

Luscious Little Layers sketch from The Sketch File

I love those papers, the colour palette is just beautiful, like a great big bowl full of Italian ice cream and sorbet ;)
I made the sentiment piece quite thick by cutting several layers of the die

Thanks for looking, please pop by again soon - it would be great if you'd leave a comment :)

Elemental for February

It's the first Friday of the month and time for another in the Daring Cardmakers  new year-long theme of Elemental Inspiration pictures - the idea is to have a really good look at the picture then use at least three elements from it to make a card of your own. 
This time it's Sharon's turn to provide a photo and she's chosen a fabulous doodled page with swirls, flowers and other patterns on a water-coloured background.  There is so much going on in the picture!
My doodling is dire, so I decided to use the doodled shapes as my main inspiration, but use die cuts to echo the doodled shapes

Te make the background I started by using a couple of shade of Versamagic ink pads to colour the card blank.  
Next I found the Memory Box Cosmo Border die and cut it in shades to match those in the original picture - but having moved them around the card for a while I decided I didn't like them in any position (these things happen, don't they hehe),
I did however like the shape of the die and how it echoed the doodled flowers in the photo, so I cut the die in card and used it with various shades of ink as a stencil to add more depth to the background.
At which point I thought the colours were a bit too strong and was about to bin it when I thought a vellum wrap might work instead.  The vellum is slightly smaller than the card, so that there's still a border of the deeper colours.  In the end, the thing I like best about the card is how it looked at that point!
Here's Sharon's inspiration piece

I thought the "spoked wheel" doodle in the middle of the picture would make a cute flower centre so made my own version - with yer actual doodling, don't you know! Though in fact this is the bit I like the least and I think I'll change it for something more subtle
I made a big flower, added lots of swirly green bits and leafy swirls, and then picked out the profiled flower on the left of the photo to make a smaller flower for the corner of my card.

Materials and Tools

Off-square card blank

Lots of inks, mainly Versamagic Dewdrops

Vellum

Paper for flowers Kitchen Spice (Bo Bunny)

2x green Bazzill card, Stickles Crystal Ice glitter glue

Dies: Sunflower quilling dies, large and small, Leaf number 2 (both Crafters Companion)."Curly Swirlies" die (Taylored Expressons)

"Sprigs" Die (D-Lites by Spellbinders) for smaller leaves

The Design Team have made some wonderful cards again this week, and I am really loving how we can all start from the same place but take elements from the pictures to use in our own way on our cards.  It's definitely not as easy as the old monthly colour challenge, but it really makes you look at the pictures carefully and think about how you can develop the ideas into your own style of cardmaking.
Thanks for looking, hope you'll be joining in with us this week

Birdhouse Box

Yesterday I shared something made with my leftovers from today's project - that sounds a bit "the wrong way round" but that's the way it happens sometimes!  
Over at  the Funky Hand Inspiration Blog there's a "month of Love" going on - a new project every day using one of Funky Hand's "Love" themed download collections.  Not only that, but you can buy the featured sets for only £1 each during February

For my first project of the month, I chose to use the "I Heart You" download to make one of these birdhouse-shaped boxes - they have been on my list for ages and with the addition of a couple of little Love-birds a perfect project for Valentine's month.

This box opens at the base for adding some little treats - though I think it would need a little bit of tape to make sure it stayed closed.  If I made another I would try and come up with an alternative - maybe make a little door at the back and seal the base up altogether.

I printed the designs I wanted to use onto white Bazzill card then cut the box pieces out using my Silhouette machine. 

When I print onto card I cut the 12x12 sheets down to just under A4 width, which leaves a long narrow cut-off which I don't want to waste, obviously! 

So I resize and crop the designs on my pc and change the paper dimensions on the printer so that I can use the offcuts for smaller versions of the designs - great for the decorative pieces, layering or making embellishments

By doing this, and printing on both sides I only used 1 whole sheet of 12x12, plus an extra off cut length from my trusty box of scraps

Materials and Tools

Funky Hand Download  "I Heart You"

Silhouette machine to cut box shape

Spellbinders Nesties: plain circle and Lacey circle

EK Success border punch for "tiles" on roof and the gable design

The heart feature at the top of the box is cut from one of the papers

Little birds are hand-cut, as is the door

Perch is just a tightly rolled scrap of paper, glued up then poked through a small hole made with needle tool and bamboo skewer

The birds are attached to the box with cut up pieces of foam tape so they stand away from the box

So there's my idea for acute little Love-birds box to fill up with treats for your own loved one. I hope you like it

Little Bits of Loving

 For this week's project for The Sketch File I've made a scrapling card. It's a scrapling in more ways than one, as not only is the base card the bit left over from making a regular sort of square card from a sheet of A4, but I used scraps left over from another project to make the bits to go on it

 

I used this view of Fevruary's "Luscious Little Layers" sketch

 

Materials and Tools

Scraps of  Funky Hand Download  "I Heart You"

Baker's Twine and Silver thread

Small metal key charm

The big heart is made by covering both sides of a  scrap of card then die-cutting (DieNamics Nesting Hearts)

I then embossed it with a Cuttlebug "Swirls" folder, inked lightly with a silver ink pad, then traced over the swirls with Stickles Ice glitter glue (Crystal Ice)

The tiny punched hearts were shaped with an embossing ball tool then dixed in place with a blob of Glossy Accents

Tomorrow I'll show the project I made which left the scraps!  I hope you'll  come and see

In Safe Keeping

Our lovely Zuzana is in the Daring Cardmakers' dare-setter's chair this week and she's chosen a challenge called

In Safe Keeping

 - I dare you to create cards with pockets and/or envelopes on.

Well as soon as I saw this one I knew what I wanted to do - it's ages since I made a "pocket card" and they are quite nice to make so a good chance to remind myself how to make them!
Now, usually I make these to fit a DL envelope, so they are a tall, skinny shape, with a long insert in the pocket, I thought I'd experiment with a different size and shape this time and came up with this

The thing I don't like about pocket cards is that, as the pocket is the actual card and it doesn't open in the usual way it doesn't stand up on it's own and you have to prop it up against a wall or something if you want to display it.  I find this annoying, so I always incorporate some sort of stand "mechanism to the back of the pocket to get over that. 

I think the regular 350gsm card I use is too thick for something which has a minimum of three layers (more here the tabs for forming and sealing the pocket edges are), especially if I then cover it with paper, so I use something more like a 180g for these.
In this case I had a moment of enlightenment - they don't happen very often so you've got to grab them when they do, haven't you?  Well, this one was to cut out the "cover pocket with paper" step and instead use some Funky Hand designs which I could print direct onto some white Bazzill card, then create the basic pocket from the ready-decorated card.  I do love the effect you get by printing FH onto textured Bazzill - it really adds so much to the designs, and this paper set "Fading Beauty" has several  textured-look designs which worked really well on a card with "actual" texture

 Materials and Tools

All papers  Fading Beauty download from Funky Hand, printed onto both sides of 

Classic texture Bazzill white card

Various pearls and gems

Seam binding used for the multi layered bow 

EK Success border punch

Large flower created using SU Blossom punch

Flower centre is the stamen from a DieNamics flower die

Swirls behind the flower are "Curly Swirlies"die  by Taylored Expressons

Hand cut tiny coiled roses

Leaves behind the roses are cut from one of the"Sprigs" Die D-Lites by Spellbinders

Here's a quick peek at more of this paper set just to add some temptation - great value at £2.99

Fading Beauty download from Funky Hand,

As you can see, the insert isn't exactly finished - I've not decided what sentiment to put on it yet so will add that onto a doily-type die cut later- though, wouldn't this sort of card make a lovely note card, with all the space to write in?
I really should make more of these cards, I enjoyed making this one!

Please pop over to the Daring Caardmakers Blog to see all the pockets and envelopes the team have incorporated into their cards this time

That's all for this time, Thanks for visiting

Heads Up, Thinking Caps On, Get Ahead wiith a Hat

It’s Miri 's turn to set the challenge on the Daring Cardmakers blog this week

"You can leave your hat on!"

I dare you to use any kind of head gear on your card: party hats, helmets, woolly hats, crowns, fascinators etc.

So put on your thinking cap :-), create a card and share it with us!

Head over to the BLOG to see how this challenge went to our Heads....

Well, that sounds pretty simple, doesn't it?
How often does it happen that the ones that sound the easiest turn out the hardest to actually do?  Having thought about the challenge all week, I was still clueless yesterday lunchtime.  Not being a stamp and colour sort of cardmaker I couldn't reach for a stamp or digi  and most of the ideas I did have were far too complicated to make when time was running out!
I do like to make cards that I'll be able to use too - maybe if I put this out of my head it would be easier....
Back last summer I made a graduation card for the eldest of my nephews who'd gained a First from Sheffield Uni - couldn't help feeling a bit peeved that I couldn't use that one!  But then I realised that I have another nephew who will graduate from Uni this year and although I couldn't really make the same card again, maybe getting AHEAD and making one for him was the solution I needed!
Honestly, if I stopped thinking so much and just made something my crafting life would be a lot easier! 
So anyway. here's the card

Materials and Tools

Centura Pearl White with a hint of Silver card for base and upper piece

Dark Grey Bazzill (sentiment, and lower background piece)

Black. Blu, Golden Yellow  Bazzill (mortar boards)

Smooth black card and Silver corrugated paper for upper panel

Scraps of various colours and different card types for stars

Silhouette to cut mortar boards  and sentiment - own template

2x small star punches

I cut the mortar boards in three sizes - the idea being that it reflects the tradition of the students all throwing their mortar boards up in the air after the ceremonies.

So that's it for this time, I wonder if I'll be able to find this card when I actually need it? hmm
Thanks for looking, please leave a message ;)

Pretty Gift Basket

I saw a picture of one of these baskets some time ago and thought they looked lovely, so saved the picture for future reference. 
Now that all the Christmas panic is over and there's a little gap before the Birthday List gets going I have a little time to just play.

This would be perfect for presenting a bag of mini eggs, a chocolate Easter bunny or something like that, but I raided my Molton Brown stash and filled it with these...and no, I'm not giving it away!

I used two designs from Funky Hand's Little Princess download, printed on either side of an A4 sheet of card to make this.  One sheet was enough to make the whole basket, though it's easy to adjust the size to make larger or smaller versions
 

 Materials and Tools

1x A4 sheet Bazzill Bling card in Diamond White

2 designs from the Little Princess download by Funky Hand

2x medium brads

Circle punch

Ink for edging, Craft knife

I had a couple of false starts before I got it to work, so thank goodness that for once I had the sense to use some scrap paper first before cutting up the I  "real" stuff. 
Anyway, I hope you like it.

Thanks for looking

January Blues

It's Daring Cardmakers day again and this week's challenge is:

January Blues

You are free to use the title however you want; it could be a "just to cheer you up" or "sorry to hear you're feeling blue" card,  a card with shades of blue as the main colour, or something else inspired by the heading.  Lets chase the January Blues away with some quality time spent getting creative!

 Blue is my favourite colour, but it's not always the easiest colour to craft with - so many shades and tones and they don't always go together very happily.  I usually gravitate towards the turquoise end of the blue spectrum because I love turquoise the best of all, so to make it a bit harder for myself I thought I'd try to stay in the true blue area this time.

Tools and Materials

Papers: Funky Hand "Hey Baby Boy" set from CD "Wishes and Kisses"*

Silhouette-cut "hello" using one of the Winter Wedding download papers, also
Funky Hand

Multi layered butterfly; Memory Box die

Leaf swirl; Spellbinders die

Small pearls

*This CD is currently on sale for only £1 (while stocks last)

That's it for now, it would be great if you'd join in with us this week, thanks for looking