Better Late than Never

I've just realised that I forgot to blog the card I made for The Sketch File last week.  T to share so please pop over and have a look through the things we've been making and sharing over Februrary.
The sketch was perfect to use alongside an image and papers from Funky Hand.  This little fairy house is one of a series Anice is busy creating - isn't it cute?  The papers are all from trhe latest download collection "Just For Jen". - I love that there are soft and bright pinks and that the grey and white colours they are teamed with are soooo stylish!

I really can't colour in by hand so I've been practising my digital colouring skills - I think I'm getting better at giving some shade and colour depth so that the various areas aren't just flood-filled with a single "flat" colour - what do you think?

I turned the sketch upside down to make my card

Materials and Tools

Sketch from The Sketch File

All papers and Image Funky Hand

Flowers: some cut from one of the paper designs, for other's I've used the flower shape as a template to cut some from scraps of different papers

Lace, pearls and gems from Creative Treasures

Dies: Spellbinders; Lacy Scallop Circles, Plain Circles

Sentiment; made with decal paper from Crafty Computer Paper

Did you know that twice a week the members of the Funky Hand Design Team take turns to add some new inspiration to the "Get Funky and Craft" blog?  It used to be about challenges, but now it's all about sharing the things we make using Funky Hand products - it would be great if you would add the blog to your reading list and visit regularly to see what's new on there - and it would be even better if you'd take a minute to leave a comment every now and then!  There's still an Inlinkz gadget so that you can share anything you've made with Funky goodies too - we'd love to see what you're making!

Thanks for visiting - please come back tomorrow when it'll be time for the Daring Cardmakers' March Colour Combo Challenge

Ay-Ay-Ay-iPhone

For his birthday hubby treated himself to a new iphone. He's only been mythering on about needing to upgrade for the last year or so.....
I thought I'd make him a giant iphone5 birthday card to match!  Here it is posing with my own iphone4 (I might have to start whining about needing the new model now...)

Most of the icons are fairly simple when you look at them, and similar versions can be found with a quick google image search - a little bit of tweaking in Paint Shop Pro and they are ready to cut on the Craft Robo.  For some I was able to convert PSP Pre-set images (such as the phone, text message and music notes) which was even simpler.  Some I just drew on the squares.  The "Photos" icon on the phone is a sunflower - so as I had a wired, paper sunflower in my stash I thought it would be fun to use it on the card for a little bit of extra dimension.
When I ran out of ideas - or should that be couldn't remember any more, of the apps on his phone I just added a few squares with tiny punched hears on them

Materials and Tools:

Plain Black Bazzill card for card blank and top layer of "phone"

Bazzill Bling Black card for the screen

Lots of bits of card from my scraps box for the app icons

Paper sunflower

Gel pens, Glossy Accents for "camera" lens

Craft Robo; iphone template and most of the app icons

Punches; tiny heart.

I've loads to do today, so I'm keeping this short you're probably pleased to hear.....
So, that's it for today, thanks for visiting - please leave a message :)

Hot Chocolate

This week on the Daring Cardmakers it's my turn to set the challenge and as we're still in the season when a big steaming mug of hot chocolate is a welcome and warming temptation I came up with this one:

Hot Chocolate
I'd like your cardmaking to be inspired by yummy, scrummy chocolate. 

Anything Chocolatey goes - colour, favourite centres, hot chocolate drinks, chocolate cake, chocolate bars, boxes of chocolates etc. 

 I'm really sorry if this makes you feel a bit hungry ;)  but I hope you'll still have some fun creating even if you can't really eat what you make!

I decided to stick with the Hot Chocolate drink for my card and made this:

 
Materials and Tools
Smooth white card blank plus spare for tag and white square
2 shades purple Bazzill cardstock
Red Glitter card, red Seam Binding, Purple button
Dark Brown paper for upper wording
Wording on tag is pc generated
Craft Robo to cut the cup, spoon and "sending you"
Tiny heart punch
larger heart is hand cut

This would have been much easier and less bulky if I'd remembered to the sachets of hot chocolate - luckily I found this one lurking at the back of the drawer - it's a bit bigger and bulkier than those I had in mind but beggars can't be choosers!

I used a ball tool on the upper layer of the cup, and in the centre part of the spoon to get some realistic curvature to the shapes

I did want to keep the design quite "clean", but maybe I should have added apanel of patterned paper across the card behind the cup.  Problem is purple can be a really difficult colour to match and even harder to photograph so maybe I was just being a coward....

The first of the deliciously chocolatey ideas from the DT are on the DCM BLOG now, but there will be more to come - it's been one of those weeks when we're all up to our eyes in "life"  hehe - which is also my excuse for not having blogged more this week....

Right, I have visitors coming to stay   here for a few days so I need to do some *whispers* housework

Back soon (hopefully) with more stuff to share

Spot the Butterflies

....I wonder if you can?

Busy week this week, but I really want to get back to blogginh more regularly - it's slipped again in recent weeks!
Today I have another scrapling to share - I'm really enjoying making these - even though the surface area of the card is quite a lot smaller than a regular card, they bring a bit of extra creative ooomph with that interesting elongated shape - plus as envelopes aren't really made to fit this size. you've also got the opportunity to go a bit off-piste so to speak!  You might as well take the design off the edges of the card and use the available "envelope space"
So where are those butterflies then?

Yes - the back layer of the flower is created from 4 butterfly die cuts!

Tools and Materials

All papers, inc birdie tag; MME Lost and Found "Rosy" 6x6

Ribbon and layered up Prima flowers, black brad all from stash

Die: Memory Box Butterfly

Punch: EK Success border punch

To make the butterflies into the flower, join the ends of the larger wings together to form a ring, punch a card circle for a base and apply PVA-type glue to the circle. Gather in and onto the lower wing shapes till you achieve a shape you like - using wet glue gives you time to fiddle about till you're happy with the flower shape.

Hope you like it and will give the idea a try - let me know if you do
Thanks for looking in today

Flutterby Dreams

Oh my!  the Daring Cardmakers Blog looks fab today - full of the promise of summer and all the lovely butterflies we hope to see,  I'm nor going to give more than a passing thought to the wash-out that was last summer because at this time of year we need to keep hold of our dreams of sunshine and all things Summery!
Anyway, Zuzana has asked us to make cards featuring butterflies and the blog looks amazing - actually, it always does!
The weird thing is I've always struggled with using butterflies, dragonflies etc - I don't know why because I do love them - it's just plonking them on a card that I have a problem with!
I made a couple of cards for this challenge, but have decided to go with this one - mainly because the colours are soooo pretty and sunshiney whilst the world outside my window s so full of dreary greys and browns

I think I overdid it with the tiny butterflies - they were added after the card, minus "dream" and the glittery bits because the card looked so flat and bare, but in the end, in the way this sort of thing tends to happen it looks a bit much now!
The thing I enjoyed most about making this card was rediscovering the remnants of the gorgeous On A Whimsy papers from Fancy Pants - just how beautiful are these colours?

Materials and Tools

All papers; Fancy Pants "On a Whimsy" 12x12, sentiment cut from one of the papers

Black Bazzill card

Fibres from stash,  pearls by Prima, Ice Stickles glitter glue

Dies;  flower border and large butterfly both Memory Box

Punches; teeny tiny butterfly,(don't know the maker), slightly larger butterfly (abt. 2cms across) by Woodware

I love these two Memory Box dies, they are so darn pretty!  Might have to have myself another little die-shopping spree as I know there's at least one other butterfly to be had!

I've been a really bad blogger this week - but I have actually done a fair bit of crafting so hopefully I can get my act together and show what I've been making - it's just a case of putting the two things together - the making and the blogging!

That's it for now, I hope you'll head over to the DCM blog to see all the gorgeous butterflies - and it would be fab if you'd join in with us this week and share your own Flutterby cards with us.

Have a great weekend

Love is in the Air

It's the time of the year when the shops are full of hearts and flowers - no matter what sort of shop it is, from shoes to ironmongery there will be an "Ideal Valentines Gift" sticker somewhere....
And there will be loads of people saying "...all a load of marketing nonsense, its just about merchandising...." You've heard it all before.
Now I think that's partially correct - but it's also about taking the time out of the ordinary day to day life to step back and think about the people who mean the most to you - and letting them know how you feel.  It doesn't have to be about expensive gifts and over-priced meals out (though obviously OH, if you read this - those things would be fab...... at any time of the year!....).  It's the simple things that mean a lot - and often that's just making a special gesture - like giving a bag of Strawberry Truffles, knowing that as you don't like Strawberry Truffles he won't have to share...

I must admit, I do have a good giggle and-a-shake-of-the-head in disbelief over all those weird Valentines Cards - you know the ones; "To my Daughter/Auntie/Neighbour/Goldfish/Dog on Valentines Day",  But on the other hand it does make me think about how rarely we all take the time out to let our loved ones know that they are....loved.

I don't make New Year's Resolutions - but I did make a little promise to myself that this year I would try to be more on-the-ball with birthday cards, and also to send the odd "Just Because" card for no other reason than to surprise someone.  Obviously, being me, I have so far failed in this endeabour - but I will try harder.........

Anyway
Here is my card for our lovely Gez's "Love is in the Air" challenge over on the Daring Cardmakers this week (took a long while to get to this, didn't it hahaha....)

Materials and Tools

White smooth card blank, edges inked with a creamy peachy ink

Papers: Fancy Pants Country Boutique 12x12

Bazzill Red card, silver versamagic ink pad

Red Satin Ribbon (Creative Treasures)

Dangling Heart charm, Silver thread, clear round gem

Large hearts are cut with a Marianne Die

Tiny hearts are the waste from a MS border punch

"valentine" and kisses cut with Craft Robo

Cuttlebug Tiny Hearts embossing folder

I used  several layers of each heart shape, the left hand large heart was embossed then inked through the embossed pattern with silver ink
For the the 2nd heart I traced round the die, then cut the shape out with scissors inside the line to make a mat - this was glued to the reverse of the die cut shape before removing it from the die as there is no plain shape in the pack and I didn't want just a "holey" version.  I cut a further three die cuts with the bits removed, stuck them all together and then adhered this piece to the base heart.
I'm really happy at how this really shows off the detail of the die

Thanks for popping by today, I hope you'll be spreading the love by joining in with us at the Daring Cardmakers this week!

Hardwick Hall

I'm still working my way through the photos of the places we visited when we added a year with the National Trust to our Life English Heritage membership,  It would be nice if I got the whole lot finished before too long. I've still a few places to do and then will need to do the facing pages and put the whole thing together.  Amazing really that I've stuck at it, however intermittently as usually long-tern projects like this end up in the "never finished" pile - some before they've even really started!
So, anyway, I've reached March 2011 and we're staying at the English Heritage holiday property The Lodge at Hardwick Old Hall.  Hardwick Old Hall is "next door" to Bess of Harcwick's New Hall, which was begun in 1590,
The Old Hall itself is still closed to the public for the winter, so we have that part to ourselves for the week we are "in residence",  Hardwick New Hall is open for part of the week so fortunately we are able to visit during our stay - and look how the sun shone!  Mind you the rest of the time it was thick fog!
Mini book page for Hardwick New Hall:

 I've used the new February Sketch File LO for this one.

  Instead of putting the photo on the top, I fixed all the background rectangles together then cut the circle aperture using a Spellbinders die to make it into a frame.  The photo was then slid underneath and fixed to the yellow paper.

I used:

Papers; Carta Bella "Beautiful Moments" 12x12 and 6x6

Lace, Red Pearls; Creative Treasures

White Pearls; Imaginisce 

Glossy Accents on mosaic squares

Spellbinders plain circles Die

Punches: 2 sizes of squares

Craft Robo for title

I thought I'd pop another couple of photos in too.
This is The Lodge, our home of the week

Part of the Old Hall:

The view from our bedroom window:

The nice thing about taking so long to get this book done is that it's lovely to re-visit these beautiful buildings via the photos, I hope you don't mind seeing a few of them!

That's all for now

February Colour Combo

It was my turn to choose the colours palette for the Daring Cardmakers this time, and as Valentines Day isn't far away I thought Id go for something traditionally romantic.
The colours are

Cranberry, Slate Grey, Pale Grey and White

My card took so long!  Not because it was tricky to do, but because I wanted to use the velvet ricrac braid on it as its gorgeous!  Problem was I have it in brown, deep aqua and raspberry pink....not cranberry or dark red.  So I inked over the pink one with the Fired Brick Distress ink and got a really good colour.  DI takes a long time to dry doesn't it?  I am impatient and went ahead making my card, covering any inky finger blotches (oops) with flowers and gems.  It wasn't till I photographed it and went to "develop" the that I realised that I'd managed to get the red ink all over the white lace grrr how could I have missed that?
So back to the desk to fix it and then more photographs.and here's the finished card

Materials and Tools:

Papers - various including Hot Off The Press, Funky Hand, Colourbok. Bazzill

Pink Velvet ric-rac braid inked with Fired Brick DI

White Lace, Deep Red Organza ribbon, Gems and Pearls (dark red, Grey, Silver) - all these from Creative Treasures

Punches: Small Square, Hearts are "waste" from MS Doily Hearts Border Punch

Craft Robo cut "Love"

This won't be my Valentines card for Hubby - far too heavy on the flowers and ribbon for him hehe.  I'll keep this till someone asks me for a wedding card and it'll be just the job ;)

That's it for today, thanks for visiting - I hope you'll pop over to the DCM BLOG and see the other cards - it really looks gorgeous today with all the colour coordination!

Have a great weekend

Box of Secrets

I thought I'd show what I spent the weekend making - yes I know it's Wednesday already, but some bad fairy flew past and stole away the first 2 days of the week.  Did you see them? :-o

The new Funky Hand download went on sale at the weekend and they are soooooo pretty - but the lovely grey shades really soften the pink ones so that they'll appeal to those who just LOVE lots of PINK, and for those, who like me, like a bit of pink but in a more subdued way!

That said this box is quite heavy on the pink - but I used mainly the softer designs and stayed away from the full-on Bubblegum ones.
This is how the box looks when it's all closed up

Take the lid, and the base away and the whole thing opens out to reveal a stack of small trays.  When I've made these before there's been a stack of 4 boxes, but I wanted to try it with three this time - and just as well because when I started filling the trays with chocolates I was amazed at how many it needed to look as though there were any in there at all!  Two full of those cellophane bags of Thorntons choccies went in here - and you can hardly see them.  Might need to try a two tier one next time!

As usual, given the chance to go wildly dimensional on a project (and what better than a box lid for doing that), I didn't waste the opportunity.  I used die cuts for the "streamer" bits and made a large paper rose on the top, and a border punch, sem binding and plenty of bling to trim around the lid.

Materials and Tools

Papers: "Just for Jen" download from Funky Hand (printed on thin card)

Pink Seam Binding, Silver gems, Silver-grey organza ribbon (around trays)

Punches: Large Flower punch (Woodware), 

Broderie Anglaise style Border Punch (EK Success)

Die: Memory Box Honeysuckle Border

I hope you like it.  I'm off now to empty those choccies....into my tummy!

Thanks for looking

Scraplings

Scraplings are cards made from that bit you have left over when you cut down a sheet of A4 card to make say, a 14cm square card.  I think that if you use any old scraps of leftover card to make mini cards they can justifiably called "Scraplings" though.

With my turn to post on "Get Funky and Craft" Inspiration blog coining up it was a happy chance  that I found myself with a little stack of narrow card strips perfect to make into Scraplings this week.  Another very happy coincidence was that Anice has just given us a new download to play with - it will be on sale from the Funky Hand website sometime this weekend and it's gorgeous! 
I've made three scraplings using the papers and I had such a fun time using all my favourite things - quite took my mind off the horrible snow, it did!

 All the info about the fabulous brand new

 "Just For Jen" 

download collection papers I used on these cards, plus lists of the other things used on each is over on the GFaC BLOG and it would be wonderful if you would head over there and maybe even leave a message....we know loads and loads of people visit, but it often feels very lonely when so few visitors leave a comment!

Thanks for visiting, I hope you enjoyed seeing my cards today :)

Scenic

It's Daring Day again and this week not only do we have we've got a brand new to the market  product to give away as a prize - but we were sent some to play with and use for our cardmaking this week!

"It's Sharon here to set this weeks challenge and this week we have a fabulous prize on offer thanks to Docrafts!
Firstly, the challenge - the theme is:
Setting the Scene
We'd like you to make your card your canvas for creating your own miniature world!  The theme is totally your choice and you can use whatever you like to create your scene - die cuts, stamps, embellishments - but please use various elements for the 'scene', don't just use one stamp!
Our challenge this week is sponsored by Xcut – the exciting die-cutting and tool range from Docrafts. The winner of the challenge can choose one of the 4 exciting new sets of Build-A-Scene Dies each worth £19.95. Each set features a collection of dies that work together to let you build up layered designs to create a beautiful or fun scene! Choose from Vintage Hot Air Balloon, Nautical, Garden Party or London."

I've been playing with the Vintage Hot Air Balloon set and came up with another "box front" card

 The 2 not air balloons, fancy trims, hills (or cloud shapes) and the birds (you'll need to look carefully to fond them!) are all from the dies set, but there are several more pieces that I didn't use.

What is really nice about these sets is that you can lay the pieces out to make quite a long continuous background - if you've got some extra long cutting plates it'seven easier to do that.  

For the hills I just cut the elements separately so that I could build up some dimension with layers of different papers.  The cloud shapes make great landscape pieces, especially as the dies are just the upper section of the cloud so you can make them as tall or as short as you like just by the way you place them on the paper and then trimming with scissors.

 

     Materials and Tools
Papers are all from MME 6x6 pads: Lime Twist (sky and hills) and Howdy Doody (Balloons, birds and trims)
Black card
Thin wire
Dies: Vintage Hot Air Balloon Build a Scene die set
Craft Robo for little girl and her balloon

The large balloon is fixed to the front ection of the "box" and wobbles about on wire, the small balloon is fixed to the back of the card with a box hinge so that it stands off the card too.
The little girl silhouette has popped up again because I needed something for the foreground and couldn't think what to use - I thought the idea of her holding her own small balloon and watching the huge ones floating past was quite a sweet idea. Her balloon is also on wire, but it wouldn't behave nicely and kept falling forward, so I had to add a spot of glue to keep it in place.  I should have used stronger wire really
The following photo give more of an idea as to how the card works.  Pushing the "box" section upwards means it fits flat enough to fit in a large envelope

 Right, I finally got to the end, sorry it ended up so long - why is it that some blog posts take forever to write?  Despite all the interruptions I got there in the end though. 
Thanks for visiting - please go and see the fabulous "Scenic" cards the Daring Cardmakers team have made this week - they are absolutely fantastic!


Please leave a comment, it would be lovely to hear from you.....

More Embossing

Bit of a late blog from me today, but I meant to post this earlier and just forgot - I've been working on something else and it's not been going well....so fingers crossed it all comes together tomorrow or I'll not be a happy bunny

If you saw my card for the current Daring Cardmakers challenge you might remember that I mentioned I made another card featuring embossing - actually it was the first one I made but I decided to go with the second on the DCM blog in the end as I liked the way the die cut worked.  
Anyway, here is the other card

Materials and Tools

Oyster Pearlised card blank, plus extra for the layers and the flower

Prima Leaves, Prima Pink Chalk Ink pad

Velvet ric-rac braid, Pink gems (Anita's)

Memory Box Hibiscus Die

Cuttlebug embossing folders

Craft Robo for Sentiment

Ball tools to form the flower

I cut the embossing folder along the fold to allow me to use it across my card like this.  The panel with the ric-rac and flower on is a separate piece.  I ran the pieces of the flower through my Cuttlebug in an embossing folderas the card is quite heavy and needed a bit of "breaking down" before I could add some shape to the petals with a ball tool
I inked up some scraps of spare card to cut the flower centre.
 

I hope you like it. Scarily CAS don't you think? hah hah 
 I have another card made with leftovers from Friday's Embossed card to share next time - I've not touched my embossing folders for months and now it's as though I'm addicted - mind you if it's going to go on I'll be needing to find some new folders as mine are all a bit old.....honestly, any excuse to go on a spending spree, eh?.....Your suggestions of your own favourites would be very welcome :)

Thanks for popping by today, I hope you'll visit again soon

Wise Words

I've been a bit lazy with the old blogging again lately.  I think maybe needing to get all the Christmas stuff done provided the stick for getting down to some crafting - I'm not sure what the carrot was, mind!
Anyway, I do have quite a lot of things I need to make so I'm going to try harder to get back into the crafting swing - and hopefully the blogging will follow on too.

It's Update Day on The Sketch File and there are lovely cards to see from Brenda and Jackie, and a page for my little maze book of quotations.  Even though I've chosen a very short quote this time, it was quite tricky to fit into the small oval shape I wanted to use.
The rest of the page is kept simple

 The sketch for January looks like this - I twisted it around and cheated ever so slightly by adding the ribbon

 The sketch is used on the right hand page, the left page is just an excuse to use that Memory Box butterfly die again and some more pearls

Materials and Tools

Papers: Bo Bunny, White card scrap for quote piece,

Narrow yellow gingham ribbon,

Pearls in carious sizes, inked to match the colours in the papers

Sketch: January Sketch

Dies: Spellbinders plain and scalloped ovals, Memory Box Butterfly

Thanks for visiting, please come again soon :)

Embossability

This week the Daring Cardmakers challenge is all about embossing - be it dry embossing, using embossing folders, or getting busy with embossing powders - Keilly just wants to see lots of embossed texture on this week's cards.

Do you times when you injure yourself a lot - cut your fingers, stab your thumb, bang your head - well as I seem to be in the middle of one of these phases I decided against getting the embossing powder out - firing up the heat gun could have had nasty consquences hehe

Once again it was a two card week for me.  I made the first a few days ago, but then yesterday I had another idea and made this one

Both pieces of embossed card are made as "wraps" - In the end I did stick the cream wrap down, but the yellow one is loose - I left it that way because I couldn't decide where the strip looked best - I took a few photos of it in different positions and decided somewhere in the b=middle of the the cream section looked best.

Making them as wraps meant I had to be brave and cut the folders apart so that I could do the embossing lengthwise.  Now though I can tape them up either way to use them, can't I?

Materials and Tools

Smooth cream card blank

Bazzill card: 2x shades of green, Cream, Yellow

Scraps of pink paper fr the flower centres

Pink gems

Embossing folders both by Cuttlebug

Die: Honeysuckle Border (Memory Box)

The main problem with using embossing is getting a decent photo,  I must have taken about 20 of this card before giving up and waiting for OH to bail me out.  
So I had a little lesson in photographic lighting last night - let's just hope I can remember for next time, or it'll be "I've told you all this before....." and I'll be sent to stand in the corner

I'll blog the other card another day - after I've had a go at getting a better photo than the one I managed pre-lesson ;)

So that's it for today - I hope you'll head over to the Daring Blog to see the wonderful cards the team have made this week.  I love it when the blog goes live and I see it "properly" for the first time - all the cards look so fab grouped together in a lovely long row!

Stay warm and safe in this chilly old weather - hope you have a good weekend