Around the House

  Hello

Thanks for visiting. 

 

Today I’m sharing my card for this week’s Daring Cardmakers Challenge, 

It’s Joanne in the hot seat and she says:

 

 There are two ways to play with this week’s challenge which is

 “around the house”

You can either 

use a household object as part of your creation (e.g. foil from the kitchen, dry wall tape from the tool box, scrape a design into paint with the prongs of a fork) 

or use an image of a household object as your focal point (e.g. a TV, a food mixer, a games console). 

You could do both for extra virtual brownie points if the mood takes you!

 

I went to the kitchen for my inspiration

I've used Bazzill card, Kraft card and silver card 

The larger tools are cut using a Spellbinders die set, everything else is cut using a Tonic crafting kit from last year

I haven't added a sentiment because I couldn't think of something suitable!

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Stay Safe, 

Viva Magenta

 Hello

Thanks for visiting. 

 

Today I’m sharing my card for this week’s Daring Cardmakers Challenge, 

which is set by Rizwana

Pantone's Colour of the year is

Viva Magenta.

This rich and exuberant colour promotes
joy and optimism.
This moodboard has lots of magenta ideas to inspire you. 

You can use lots or just a hint of this colour
when you create your card this week

 

I found this really hard!  

Apparently Magenta doesn't really exist - or it's got such a complicated make-up that no-one can really give a definitive answer to what it actually is!

I made the background using at least 6 different ink pads to try and get something I thought could be called 'magenta'  As the colour varies across the piece you can take whichever shade you think is most correct!

'Tufted' embossing folder from Spellbinders

Silver thread sewn through the card

Random flat-backed pearls glued on the crossovers

HAPPY letters; Altenew alphabet die set

Birthday die by Creative Expressions

Rose from an old Craft Box

Pearl strands from stash

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Stay Safe, 

 

New crafty things

 Hello

Thanks for visiting. 

 

Today I’m sharing my card for this week’s Daring Cardmakers Challenge, set by Miri:

New Year – New crafty things

 

Use a piece of your craft supplies (stamp, tool, stencil…) that you have never used before!

Give it a new chance or a beautiful beginning in the new year.

Maybe you even got some supplies for Christmas? Or, like in my case, the weeks before Christmas were just too busy to try out your new things.

I was lucky to have a few craft related gifts at Christmas and

 quite a few were die sets so I've chosen one of these 

to use for my card

This cute die is from Spellbinders and is absolutely adorable!

I also used inks and Nuvo mousses for colouring the birds, the

 leaves, the background and the frame

 

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Stay Safe, 

DCM January Inspiration Challenge

 Happy New Year to you

 

  I've been truly appalling at keeping my blog up to date in the last few months so I'm going to try harder this year.  

I've not been well for quite a while, but am gradually starting to feel brighter and more 'with-it', but at least for the time being I think that I need to keep it simple so I'll share some photos and maybe some basic info about what I've made and not much else!  

At least it keeps the blog alive

 

 Daring Cardmakers January 2023 Elemental Challenge

 

It's Shabneez here and as it's the first Friday of the month it is an 

Elemental Challenge.  Here is the inspiration photo:

You need to pick any 3 elements from the photo for your card - colours 

count as one element.  

There are plenty of choices: wood, spoon, key, patchwork, foliage, 

rectangle, layers etc.  

You can see lots of inspiration from the Design Team below and we 

look forward to seeing your creations!

 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 Here's my card using the pinked edge, layers, colours and foliage

I've used 

quite old papers, mainly My Mind's Eye, 

Corrugated card from some packaging 

Various die sets for the foliage and butterflies

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Stay Safe, 

 

Be HAPPY

 

Hello

As usual I'm trying to catch up with blogging! 

Keeping my blog posts short while I try to get back in control! 

As ever Friday is Daring Cardmakers challenge day and this week it's our lovely Shabneez in the hot-seat.

 Be HAPPY

It's Shabneez here and I would like to thank those of you that joined in with our challenge last week.  I've chosen an easy one this week:

Happiness is so important to us all and I'd like to see the word 'HAPPY' on your card.  It could be for a birthday, anniversary or anything that makes you happy!

There comes a point when I have to stop making excuses and start making Christmas cards! I never like making them until after my birthday, but that was a couple of weeks ago, and even if I do have a rotten cold which seems to be hanging around for ever I still need to bite the bullet and make a start on the Cword cards

 

I made a simple stencil just with a piece of scrap card by drawing the rough shapes of the apertures and cutting them out with scissores

 

I used washi tape to attach it to the card front, then rubbed a couple of shades of Nuvo Embellishing mousse with some bunched up scraps of old wet wipes and also coloured more scrap card with some lime green mousse for the letters

The trees are cut in black glitter card using one of my new Spellbinders Christmas die sets.  The HAPPY letters are from a Memory Box set of three versions of the word 'Happy' I used 3 layers for this card, but if I make more of the same style I probably won't be faffing around with that!

I had to make a new set of White on Black sentiments because I can't find the leftovers from last year.  

They'll be in a safe place....

To finish I punched a few tiny stars from card coloured to match the Coral, Rose Pink and Green I's already used and I was done 

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Stay Safe, 

 

Standing with Ukraine

September's Elemental Inspiration challenge

 

Hello, 

And yet again I've fallen behind with blogging so I'm going to keep posts short and to the point in the hope that I can keep up with new stuff and catch up on my unblogged bits and pieces too/

We'll see how that goes!

 

This week its time for September's Elemental Inspiration challenge over at the Daring Cardmakers. 

 Our lovely Miri chose the mood-board this time

With these challenges you need to choose a minimum of 3 elements from the picture to use when making your card - and we don't mind a bit of 'artistic licence!

From Miri's picture I've gone with the rectangles and circles, leaves, shoelaces and all the lovely texture'

I chose some printed Kraft paper plus some corrugated card to cut the rectangles for the background.  The piece of corrugated card still had a little bit the brown paper upper layer stuck to it, but I liked how it looked so left it there.

To echo the crosses on the shoelaces I used some thread down the side and made a couple of cross stitches too

For the circles I used my Tonic nested circles set with some white and deep blue Bazzil card

The flowers are made using a craft punch and the leaves are die cut

I've not added a sentiment yet as I'm not sure what it will be, or where it will go either! Maybe on the circles, or perhaps under the corrugated rectangle

 

Thank you so much for coming by

 

 Happy Crafting, Stay Safe, 

 

 

Standing with Ukraine

30 Candles

Hello

Yet again I'm trying to catch up with blogging! 

The good thing is that I'll be trying to keep these posts short and not resort to the usual waffling 🤣

 

My card for Rizwana's 'Cakes and Candle' challenge to the Daring Cardmakers was a birthday card for my eldest nephew

 

I gathered a bunch of papers with a Newcastle United colour theme (usual plus 2nd strip) and used them to roll up  into 'candles'.  I stiffened some twine by covering it with glue and when dry glued one end of the pieces to the insides of of the candles 

 

I cut the card blank down so that the top row of candles would stand up over the folded edge. Then I adhered some strips of narrow washi tape across the card.  

The candles were arranged and glued down and a 'celebrate' sentiment die cut from layers of black and silver cardstock to complete the card

Thank you so much for coming by

 

 Happy Crafting, Stay Safe, 

 

 

Standing with Ukraine

Long Things!

 

 Hello

This week Joanne set the Daring Cardmakers Challenge, and its a really fun one!

Monday is a Bank Holiday here in the UK so that means it’s a long weekend. Use the idea of “long” to make your card. It might be the card shape (long and thin), an image of something long (dachshund dogs! soft drinks!), something representing a long journey or a long time (a map, a bird that migrates…), anything you can think of inspired by the idea of “long”!

 Here is where you can see the Design Team: inspiration

 

I decided to make graduated zig zag fold card and used new baby dies from CraftStashUK along with some beautiful, but old SEI papers (does SEI even exist any-more?)

It did take longer to put together than I anticipated, and as I currently have a bad back sitting for any length of time is an issue didn't help!  There's a lot of die cutting involved as I wanted to add extra layers of different colours it took flipping ages to do - timing cutting between OH's work calls adds to the time scale.

Anyway, getting the card made was only part of my troubles this week.  Turns out this card is just impossible to get a decent photo of.  I took loads, both with my little studio set up, and with my phone and they were all rubbish.  This morning I called in OH to help and even he struggled to get something half-way acceptable. 

So I've decided to just post a whole bunch of pics, the best of a bad lot and hope you get the idea - its better in real life, I promise!

Thank you so much for coming by

 

 Happy Crafting, Stay Safe, 

 

Standing with Ukraine

Keep Your Cool

 

Hello

This week its my turn to set the Daring Cardmakers Challenge, and I've chosen something to match the weather

Keep Your Cool
It's been pretty hot so far this Summer - even here in the UK!  
So let's see your favourite ways to keep cool when the temperatures soar features on your cards this week.
A dip in the sea, putting your feet in a bucket of water, 

A snooze in a hammock in the shade (I wish!)

Sunhats and parasols

 Ice cream and ice lollies

A slice of juicy water melon

a long cold drink...

 Here is where you can see the Design Team: inspiration

I will admit to loving ice cream, gelato and sorbet - there is so much joy to be had just standing by those wonderful Italian style fridges filled with loads of flavours of the chilly stuff!  Sometimes I just cant choose which ones to have in my tub and end up getting OH to surprise me/

After all these years he knows me well enough to make a good selection!

 Info

 My card blank is a plain white square with the lower section embossed with a very old Cuttlebug Dots and Circles folder

I adhered two lengths of very narrow washi tape above the embossing and wound gold thread around the card between the tape.  I made a gold tassel with the thread and added a bow

 I inked up some pieces of scrap card in ice cream shades.

For the ice cream cones I used a Spellbinders die for the scoops if ice cream. The cones were cut by hand and the pattern made using a score board

The ice lollies were made using  another Spellbinders die - looking through my dies I spotted a tall gothic window shape from a beach hut set that was perfect for the job.

I added a coat of Glossy Accents and dropped some tiny beads on for the 'hundreds and thousands' and a little Glamour Dust glitter for good measure

  To finish the card I die cut the word and letters from leftover inked card and added some matching tiny hears and enamel dot

Thank you so much for coming by

 

 Happy Crafting, Stay Safe, 

 

Standing with Ukraine