Dib, Dab, Dob, Splish, Splash, Splosh

 Hello!

I hope you're having a great Friday, its sunshine and showers all the way around here today.

As usual, on Fridays it's Daring Cardmakers day and this time it's Joanne in the Challenge Setter's Seat

Splish, Splash, Splosh

It's Joanne here this week and I'd like to see you get loose and unstructured with watercolours, inks or paints to create a focal point, background or accents for your project - sploosh, spray and splatter to your heart's content! It can be a little bit scary when you're not in total control of the results but it's fun to let go and remind yourself there's no right or wrong every once in a while!

Click HERE to see what the team made this week 
 

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I started by applying lots of water over a piece of watercolour card.
Next I chose four Distress Oxide colours and using bunched up scraps of old wet wipe I dabbed the colours on randomly until the card was covered, dried it off with a heat gun.

 Using one of my favourite die sets from Spellbinders (its actually part of a set for making a little book) I cut the fancy aperture into a plain white card blank. Then the inked panel was cut to size and glued inside the card.

For the butterflies I used the spare strip of inked card and a piece of textured gold card from Craft Perfect. The butterfly dies are from 2 different sets one by Hunkydory and the other by Couture Creations - both are fab because they have a plain shape and a fancy one. 

To complete I used another Spellbinders die to cut the swirly 'with love' in gold card - because the loops remind me of a butterfly's flight path! Finally I added some teeny circles cut using the berries from a holly die set - which I use more for things like this than for making holly!

 

We'd love to have you join in with us this week, just click on the Daring Cardmakers link to find out more

Thanks for looking in today

Happy Crafting!

A Pot Full of Flowers

Hello!

I hope you're having a good Tuesday - it's been dry here all day so far, and yesterday we didn't even have any thunder - I was beginning to think it was now mandatory to have at least half an hour of thunder rumbling away each day!

A couple of weeks ago my lovely neighbour was rather poorly so I thought I'd make a card to send some Get Well Soon wishes through her letterbox. Today I'm finally getting round to sharing it on here.
The structural part of the card is made using one of Karen Burniston's pop up card die sets, but I used a different die set to make the flowers.

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The flower pot was made first; I used red Bazzill card and digital design (info below) for the pot. then lots of scraps of card for all the flowers.
The flowers were created with various flower dies, but mainly those from Hunkydory's Moonstone "Fabulous Flowers" die set.

For the card base:
I've used a few of the papers from the
Cherry and Mint In Bloom Digital paper download set printed onto white Bazzill card, plus a base card made from green Bazzill card.  
Usually I use a heavier weight for card blanks, but this was going to have more layers and needed to fold (relatively) flat so I started with something thinner.

The Sentiment panel was created by cropping one of the paper designs to the shape I needed, then using Paint Shop Pro to create the box for the text and the Get Well Soon message.  Once that was all done, I resized the whole thing to fit the space on my card and printed it out.

The pop up is really clever, you just need to be careful and make sure all the flowers tuck inside when the card is closed.

Here it is half closed

I made a slide on/off Belly Band to keep the card closed and decorated it with more flowers and leaves.

All the patterned papers i used were from the digital paper set mentioned above.

Here's the closed card

My neighbour loved the card, and I'm happy to say she's up and about and almost fully recovered now.

I love this pop up and used it again to make another card which I'll share soon!

That's my lot for today, thanks for visiting

Happy Crafting!

1,2,3,4,5 but I didn't Catch a Fish Alive!

 

Hello!
It's been blowing a hoolie out there all day today, and we've had a couple of squally showers.  I know the forecast for some areas is pretty awful, so I hope you all stay safe. 

This week it's my turn to set the challenge for The Daring Cardmakers and it goes like this:

1,2,3,4,5

This week I'd like you to make cards using 1 of something, 2 of something, 

3 of something, 4 of something and 5 of something. 

 It sounds tricky, but once you get your head around the idea, you'll be just fine!

 eg. 1 image, 2 colours, 3 flowers, 4 brads, 5 gems

Go on, challenge yourself, I dare you!

Click here to see what the team made and what they used.

My 1,2,3,4,5 things were 1 word, 2 butterflies, 3 pearls, 4 poppies, 5 patterned papers

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White card blank
Die-cut hexagons cut from 5 of the designs in the Seaside Chic and Ice Cream Social digital paper sets from Raspberry Road via Etsy.  I used 2 hexagons from each of my chosen papers to create a bit of a random background
The 4 poppies (3 fully open plus 1 just opening😉) were cut from red and green card scraps, with a bit of added inking.  The die set is by Joanna Sheen
The word is also die cut, I think its a Sue Wilson die, but not absolutely sure
the 2 butterflies were die cut using the smallest in a Memory Box butterfly Trio using scraps of the same patterned papers
To finish I added 3 turquoise pearl gems behind the pink butterfly

I would love it if you'd have a go at my challenge this week - you can join in with us by leaving a link to your creations over on the Daring Cardmakers blog, then I can come over to visit you and leave a comment. Thanks for looking in today

Happy Crafting!

August Elemental Inspiration

Hello!

Gosh I'm late today!

It's been one of those weeks - we all have them, don't we?

Anyway, I'll keep this short (for once!) and try to get it posted before something else comes up!

On the Daring Cardmakers Blog today we've our August Elemental Inspiration challenge.  It was my turn to choose the picture so I hope you like it and feel inspired to join in with us.

As usual our first challenge of the month is an

 Elemental Inspiration Challenge.  

 For August we have this beautiful Summery Mood Board

 Remember, you just need to pick a minimum 3 elements  from the picture to use when making your card.  If you choose to use the colour palette, then that would count as one of your elements

Suggested elements; 

Fairground, Sunglasses, Shells, Hearts, Beach, Parasol, Sunset.....

I liked all the squares and rectangles so decided to have a go at using them, along with the gorgeous sultry pastel shades to make a background for my card. Then I chose the hearts and the flowers to make the focus element.

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To begin I inked up several scraps of smooth white card, then cut them up to create the background

I used larger pieces of more inked up card to cut out the heart shapes using a fabulous dies set from Right Rosa

More inked card for the flowers, but this time I used a thinner Bazzill white card.  The dies are from the Moonstone range by Hunkydory

I layered black and white die cuts for the sentiment, Happy is by Polka Soodles and Birthday by CraftStashUK

I added some Glossy Accents to some of the heart shapes, and finished off with a few tiny black gems for the flower centres

I like the way the background worked.  Probably because it was just a case of cutting the bits to fit across the card!

I hope you'll pop over to see the fab cards the DT have made this week, and of course it would be wonderful to have you join in with the Daring Cardmakers this week

Thanks for looking in today

Happy Crafting!

Talking of the Weather....

Good Morning!

This week's  challenge at The Daring Cardmakers is all about the weather.  How very apt - considering that the weather has been the 'hot' topic of almost every conversation over the last week or so!  Yesterday we were due to have some fence work done, but at about 10.30 in the morning, with the temperature already at 35C the guys gave up and went home.  I really didn't like the idea of anyone collapsing with heatstroke in my garden, so I was happy enough to see them go! The temperature eventually went up to 38C yesterday afternoon, which is ok if you're just sitting on a balcony at the seaside, but otherwise not!

The last few nights we've had the fan going all night and its still been uncomfortably hot, we had quite a lot of thunder overnight, and as I'm writing this I can still hear it rumbling, and its getting closer again.   

So the scene is set for this:

This week the Daring Cardmakers have a sponsored challenge so we hope you will play along, and maybe win one of our fab prizes!

Whatever the Weather
 

Just make any weather-themed card this week, and link it to our blog to be in with a chance of winning a prize.  

We have 2 collections (worth about £12.50 each) of Julia's wonderfully fun images to give away. 

Our 2 prize winners will be drawn at random next Friday after the challenge closes.  

To qualify, Please mention www.jmcdesigns.co.uk in your post and remember we're on UK time!

 

I decided to make a sunshine themed card with a simple design

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White card blank with white and yellow squares matted onto it

I inked some spare card with shades of yellow ink for the circle and the rays. I die cut the circle and just sliced random widths using my guillotine to make the rays.  I added some warm yellow-orange to the circle to heat up the sun even more.

Using the circle as a guide I lightly inked around  the white card where the sun shape would eventually be placed.  Next I adhered the sun rays in position before covering all those ends with the sun shape.

the two words were created in Paint Shop Pro and cut out on the Silhouette Cameo in two shades of grey card.

To complete, I added lots of dewdrops and other jewel embellishments in grey and yellow

 

We'd love to have you join in with us this week, just click on the Daring Cardmakers link to find outall about the challenge and the prizes we have this week


Thanks for looking in today

Happy Crafting!

Another First

Hello

How are you?  It's lovely and sunny here today, I've been down the garden to the veg plot and picked some runner beans and some carrots to have with our dinner later.  Hopefully there will be enough coming in the next few weeks to freeze lots of beans for later in the year.  We've had a couple of courgettes so far too and the tomatoes have 'set' and are coming along nicely.

A few years ago I was thrilled to bits when my nephew Charlie graduated with a First from university.  Well, now it's happened again, this time it's our niece Emily who's taken the honours with her First in Psychology!

I wanted to make the same kind of card for her as I did for Charlie, but when I looked back at my photos I found I didn't really take any that actually showed how I did it!  If only I was organised to note down what I did when I come up with something like this! I had a vague idea about how the folds worked and after a couple of tries just using paper it all clicked into place, thank goodness.  

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Card: Black, Yellow, Pale Blue, White, Gold

White paper and narrow ribbon for the scroll

Black and Gold Twine for the tassel

The sentiment and mat are cut from my own template using my Silhouette Cameo

The base card is folded to provide a hinged section for the mortar board section.  Before adhering the mortar board in place the tassel, made from fringed and tightly rolled card is added; the twisted together twines are threaded through the centre and concealed when the upper square is glued in place.

The mortar board stands up in a similar way to an easel card, whit the scroll acting to keep it in place

It folds down for posting - not exactly 'flat' but okay for sending with a 'large letter' stamp

 

Congratulations Emily, you worked so hard for what you've achieved and your uncle and I are thrilled that it's all come out so well for you.  We're so very proud of you.

That's my lot for today, hopefully I can keep up with this twice a week blogging - I mean this is two weeks running.  Go me!!!!

Happy Crafting!

Stay Sharp

Morning All!

Hope you're feeling well today.  We've had a bit of rain today - the garden will definitely be thankful, I can almost here the grass pleading for more.

As usual, on Fridays it's Daring Cardmakers day and we're in a prickly kind of mood this time!

It’s me, Miri, bringing you a new challenge and I would love to see a cactus or several cacti on your card!
cactus/cacti
Cacti always remind me of summer, sunshine, deserts and holidays… and I just can’t wait for our summer holidays to begin and for the sunshine and heat to come back again.
Luckily cacti are a huge trend at the moment and you can find them on many stamps and patterned papers. 
Click HERE to see what the team made this week
 

I made a window box card this time.  The lower edge of the front of the card blank is folded to make a kind of box shape, which folds flat to go in an envelope but when opened up stands out. The back of the card needs to be trimmed down accordingly.
To make the little plants stand out, I made a separate section for the 'sandy' base with slits cut into it to tuck the plants into.  I added  scrap pieces of card to the lower edges of the little plants and poked these tabs through the slits, then folded and glued the tabs to the underside.  When they were all in place I used double sided tape to secure the whole plant section to the window box/

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White card blank folded to create shape, back section trimmed to match.
The background was inked in blue and the front of the window box was made from a piece of yellow card.  I used an EK Success border punch to create the fancy edge
A strip of sandy coloured card was used to make the base for the plants.
The plants are die cut in various scraps of green card using a Spellbinders die set, some of the flowers are dies from the same set, others are made using a small punch

On this photo you can see the box effect and how the plants are standing 'proud' better.
To finish I tied strands of Bakers Twine around the front section of the box and added a multi loop bow.

We'd love to have you join in with us this week, just click on the Daring Cardmakers link to find out more

Thanks for looking in today

Happy Crafting!

The Shape of It

Hello!

I've been a really rubbish blogger in recent weeks so have a few un-blogged cards, so I'm going to try to do some catching up.  If I can grove enough willpower to blog a couple of times a week, I'll be happy!

Today's card is one I made for my maths geek nephew's birthday.  I really wanted to do something with a fancy and meaningful equation on it but I'm too dreadful at maths to work anything like that out, so I went for a bit of a pun with some geometric shapes instead.  
Believe me, creating an equilateral triangle when I couldn't find my set of compasses was enough of a challenge!

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White square card blank with horizontal panels in white, yellow and orange.
Circle and triangle shapes inked on edges, tiny googly eye embellishments with other features drawn in pen.
I used some speech bubbles preset shapes in Paint Shop Pro with the text added inside, then I resized them to fit my card
The Happy Birthday sentiment is from Spellbinders

 

He didn't 'laugh out loud' when he opened it, just gave a nod - which is about as good as it gets for my quiet nephew !

That's my lot for today

Happy Crafting!

The Wedding Season

Morning All!

Hope you're feeling well this sunny Friday morning!

My hayfever has been an absolute mare this week, so if you're a fellow sufferer I feel for you.  Thank Heavens for Kleenex Balsam tissues, I say!

Yet again it's Daring Cardmakers day and I have failed to add another post here since last week's.  I've just been chatting with the lovely Shabneez (she of the Happy Hijabi) and I told her I was planning to write 2 posts today, one to publish now and another to schedule for another day.  
What do you reckon?  Can I do it?

On an aside, I do wonder what her happy hijab looks like....maybe covered with smilies? Or just a fabulous mix of zany patterns and colours? At Portmeirion last year I saw a woman wearing the most beautiful arab dress (abaya?) in peacock colours that shimmered when she moved.  It was stunning.

Anyhoo, as I said it's Daring Cardmakers day and we have Ruth in Romantic Revelry this week

 As we are in the season for Weddings, and plus its always good to have a few Wedding cards in your stash!

So this week's theme is:

 Weddings

CLICK HERE to see what the design team came up with

As our Wedding Anniversary is coming up I had a plan to get ahead and make OH's card for this challenge.  However "plans" don't always come together, do they?  So I thought I'd keep it simple and make a wedding card after all.

I went looking on Etsy for some inspiration by way of digital papers with a wedding-y theme and found a lovely set by CherryWorkshop2 and one design just screamed out to be used for (another) eclipse card:

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I resized one of the designs from the
Cherry and Mint In Bloom Digital paper download set and printed it onto white Bazzill card 
The letters were cut using a Spellbinders Alphabet set.
4 more of each letter cut from mint coloured card, all layers were then glued together. The inner waste bits from the 'D' letters were adhered to small pieces of clear tape then attached to the back of the letters so that they showed through.  

I attached the background paper to my base card, then all the letters were  glued into their correct placesA piece of white satin ribbon, along with some silver twine was wrapped around the top of the card. 
I die cut small hearts from back to back pieces of more of the papers in the set and fixed them together with one end of pieces of silver twine between the layers.  The other ends of the twine were adhered behind the ribbon.
To finish I tied a double bow from the ribbon and glued in place on the ribbon above the dangling hearts 

We'd love to have you join in with us this week, just click on the Daring Cardmakers link to find out more

Thanks for looking in today

Happy Crafting!

July Elemental Inspiration

Hello

How are you?  

 We've been enjoying some lovely sunny and warm weather this week, so I hope you are too, wherever you are!  

Dawn has chosen a fab picture for our Daring Cardmakers challenge this week - its perfect for Wimbledon, who can resist a lovely Cream Tea with jam, cream and scones while watching the tennis?  Sadly, I don't have the cream tea, and I only have the tennis on the telly - but hey, you can't have it all....

Anyway....

It's the first Friday of the month which means its time for 

July's Elemental Inspiration Challenge.

We have a lovely Summery picture for you to be inspired by this week .
Just remember you need to pick at least 3 elements from the picture to be featured on your card. (the colours count as one element)

ideas: Layout, Colours, Fruit, Jar, Tea-set,  Woodgrain, Gingham, Fabric....

I chose the tea-pot (but used a coffee pot instead), Gingham, a Spoon and some Fruit (the very tiny cherries on my cupcake!).  I also kept largely to the colour scheme, though that was more because the first gingham fabric style paper I found in my stash was blue!

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Gingham stylw paper from an old MME 6x6 paper stack

I also used an embellishment piece from another of the papers in the stack to cut the matching cup shape.

Red, White, Silver and Brown cardstock

The cup, coffee pot, spoon and cupcake are all cut using various Spellbinders die sets

The plain circle and the oval for the plate are from Tonic nesting sets and the scalloped circle from a XCut nesting set

I couldn't think what to add for a sentiment, so have left it without one for the moment (because actually I didn't have time to find the perfect one to use because I was so late getting it done!)

We would love you to join in with us.  You can link your creations to our BLOG - HERE. or find us on Instagram - or better still, link to both!

I'm going to try much harder to do a couple of blog posts a week - I've been failing dismally lately.  I have a few things lined up - I just haven't managed to blog them yet.  

Anyway, that's all for this time, thank you so much for visiting, please leave a message...

Happy Crafting