What Sherlock Said.

....as in "It's Elementary my Dear Watson"

It's Nat's turn to set the Daring Cardmakers challenge this week and she's found a fab  "mood board" Inspiration Photo full of trinkets,  ideas and colours - the idea is that you choose at least three of the elements from the photo to use on a card - with the colour combo being just one of the three should you choose to use them - ie you can't get away with saying "I've used pink, green and blue so that's my 3 things" - sneaky, eh?

Actually, we were spoiled for choice as there are so many usable elements on the photo.  I managed to get a fair few onto this card:

 

Here's Nat's photo - can you see which things I chose to use?

It did take 3 attempts before I got everything I wanted to use on there in a way I was happy with.
 I seem to have lost the knack of using backgrounds - whenever I add papers, or inkiness the finished project looks a right old mess.  

So rejecting a card with a paper background, and then one with an inky background I just bunged all the bits onto a plain white card instead!

It's vaguely based on the April LO from The Sketch File - there's a bit of license used, but it's my sketch and I'm not offended at myself for giving it a tweak.  haha

Materials and Tools

Fancy Pants "Simplicity" pack for flower, butterfly, "label" and monogram sticker

(the grid on the label is supposed to  echo the graph paper on the Insp. photo)

Ribbon and braids from stash - the green seam binding is twisted around

 like some of those on the photo

Red Bazzill for heart (cut on Silhouette Cameo)

Buttons and Thread 

Handmade Flower created using SU Blossom Punch

Butterfly and Leaf Swirl die cuts are both Spellbinders

I had a lot of fun putting this together - OK, so it wasn't much fun when the first two were binned, or torn apart, but I did enjoy checking out the photo and spotting all the things I could use - and of course, when you finally get it to work, it's always good....or at least, a relief!

Check out the DCM BLOG to see how the rest of the team used the picture, and please join in - it would be great to see what you make

Bend Me, Fold Me

On the Daring Cardmakers blog this week, it's my turn to set the challenge:

Another Dimension 

  not Time Warps, Little Green Men from Mars, or anything else "other-world"

  I just don't want to see any flat, regular sort of cards this week - instead I'd like to see lots of interesting folds and shapes; Stepper cards, Card in a Box, Pyramids, Flip-it type cards..... Anything goes as long as the finished, standing-up card is more 3D than 2D. 

This is your chance to try out all those techniques and tutorials for unusually shaped and folded cards that you've been saving!  Yes. we all do it, don't we?

My first thought was to do another "card in a box", but I had a feeling someone else might go down that route (and I was right) so then I was all set to do a pyramid card - but I've done those before and although they are fun to make and I've not done one for ages, what I really wanted was to try something new.
So, searching through my "must try this sometime" list I came across a Bendy-fold" tutorial from Splitcoaststampers.
I love cards that stand out all over the place when on display but will fold at least relatively flat to go in an envelope - it makes it so much more fun, doesn't it? The card-in-a-box, and the pyramid ones do that, and this curvy card does it too - although how flat depends on how much "stuff" you stick on hehe
The magic bit is all done with slits and tabs.

I used a whole raft of odds and ends of card and paper for this so I'm not even going to try and list that sort of stuff
The little summerhouse is all just hand cut,with the "wood" planks drawn on - it's supposed to look a bit ramshackle, honestly!
The bushes, some bits of grass and stems were also hand-cut
For the flowers I used a few ready-made flowers plus quite a lot of punches  (Tonic) and dies from Spellbinders, MFT Die-Namics, Memory Box and Marion Smith. The tree is by Memory Box
Also used: Stickles, Card Candy, Liquid Pearls

You can find the tutorial for making a bendy-card HERE

This took far longer to make than it should - I got a bit carried away with the flowers - not helped because the little flower-shaping gadget and new dies from Marion Smith arrived on Wednesday and were screaming "play with me....NOW"  so, some of the flowers were made with those.
Anyway, that's my card for this week and you can see some fantastic fancy folds and dimensional cards over on the BLOG

That's all for this time - except to wish you a Happy Easter
Thanks for visiting

Up the Flagpole!

Soooo, Lythan came up with a fascinating idea of the Daring Cardmakers to play with this week - Although simple on one level, which was just to use a National Flag as inspiration, when you get to thinking about it there are LOADS of possibilities!
Anyway, here's Lythan's Intro: 

Flag it up!

By which I mean I want you to make a card inspired by a national flag. You can use the flag elements as a sketch, or the colours or a motif (stars and stripes for example) You can be patriotic and use your own flag or show your love for all nations by choosing the flag of a different country.

One of these days I'm going to hunt out a really good website for National Flags and see what I can steal from their layout. colours, images etc, but I found myself short of time this week so kept my card simple.  Plan A was to do something based around the English flag and our Patron Saint as St George's Fay comes up later this month - but the phrase "An Englishman's Home is his Castle" popped into my head, and with it the image of adding little flags to sandcastles on the beach - so that's the story of my card for this week

I used masking tape to keep the lower section white, then used a couple of Distress Inks directly onto the card blank to make the background, the words on the little flag were pc generated then the flag shape cut by hand, but otherwise pit was the Silhouette Cameo that did the rest of the work

Th sandcastle template is one I made for another project so that was a result.  I used clip-art to create the two kinds of flags - straight ones for those on the border and a "fluttery" shape and flagpole for the one on the sandcastle.
The big black sentiment is also SC cut - the font is called "Hobo medium" and is one of my go-to favourites 
So the materials list is pretty simple this week, all I used was ink and card!

I really hope you'll head over to the DCM BLOG and check out what the others have done - they were far more creative in their thinking than I was!
Thanks for visiting

Spwllbinders Nesties Gift Box tutorial

Spwllbinders Nesties Gift Box tutorial 
 

I've made a few of these little boxes now and they are quite simple to make. For this one I've used Spellbinders Nesties Label 26 for the top and base sections of my box, and the Square Nesties set for the actual box section.

 There are lots of photos, which I hope will make it nice and easy to follow

For this version I've used some digital papers printed on both sides of some white card.  I like to use a basic textured Bazzill type card (cut to A4), but just printing onto any white card would be fine.

I've used a few different designs as you'll see in the photos, but you could just make the box using one or two designs.  You''ll need a couple of sheets of printed card - or just use plain card in your chosen shades - you can always add some pretty paper to decorate later.

You'll also need some thicker card - I use card cut from an empty cereal packet

From the printed card

*Cut a 6cm wide strip from the long side.  Crease at 4cm as shown in the photo above

*Cut 4 of the 2nd largest Spellbinders Nesties Labels 26 die. Ink the edges and adhere 2 of each (if using different designs) together - be as accurate as possible. These will be the base and top of your box

* Cut 2 pieces measuring  9cm square, or use plain square Nesties

From the cereal packet

* Cut 6 or 7 (depending on thickness)  pieces measuring 6.5cm square

* Glue just 2 of the card squares together and set aside for the base section

* Trim a tiny fraction (1 - 1.5mm only) from 2 adjoining sides (not opposite ones - you need to keep the shape square) of each of the other squares and then glue them together. It's important not to trim away too much or the lid will be too loose at the end

Cover the card squares with the 9cm squares, wrapping around and making the corners as neat as you can.  Set the thicker of the squares aside for now

Using the thinner covered cereal packet piece, line up and mark the long strip as shown so that it will wrap around all 4 sides and have an overlap at the end. Make creases and cut slits up to the 2cm fold line

* Adhere the square piece to the side strip starting with the second section along.  Next glue the third and fourth sections under, and then the overlap.  Apply glue to the outside of the overlap piece and then glue the first section in place to cover it, and end up neatly at the corner of the box

 

 The underneath should look like this

Now apply glue to the box you've created and centre over one of the die cut pieces.  If you've done as I did and used 2 different designs, you'll need to decide which will be on the "inside" edges and which will be the outer ones

Finally adhere the thicker cereal packet piece to the 2nd of the die cut sections.

Trimming those tiny slivers from the card squares should mean that the lid will fit nicely into the top edge of the box - have a quick check before the glue has dried completely, then if you find the fit isn't snug enough, take the cereal packet piece off quickly and cover with another square of paper - that might just be enough to make it work

 It looks a bit dull and boring at the moment, doesn't it? 

But the fun can begin now because it's time to decorate!

Then you just have to make it look pretty!  Go mad and add flowers, ribbon, pretty flourishes etc to your hearts content! 

They are fun to make and easy too

 I hope you'll have a go - and if you do I would soooo love to see your boxes, so please don't forget to let me know

Happy Crafting

Red Flowers

I'm not sure how I managed to forget to do my blog post for Friday's Daring Cardmakers' challenge, but I did - and then I forgot all over the w/e too. So it's a case of better-late-than-never and apologies to Lythan for being so tardy
As it was the first Friday of the month it was our usual Colour Combo Challenge week and as I mentioned, it was Lythan's turn to choose the palette for us to work with. 
I wasn't sure what to do at first, but in the end it had to be flowers.

I chose a couple of different red card shades, some plain and patterned grey paper and cards, and the best shade of green that I could find for the leaves to match up with the inspiration photo

Materials and Tools

Patterned Grey panel is from an old Hot of the Press pad

Oval doily and plain oval on top are cut in two shades of grey card

Red card, Red and Silver pearls, Red and Clear Dewdrops

2x Camellia flowers

Red petals Die'Sire Camellia (small) Quilling flower from Crafters Companion

Yellow inner petals Die'Sire "Lace" Quilling flower from Crafters Companion

2x Medium Roses

Created using own flower template cut on Silhouette Cameo

2x Rolled Roses

Hand-cut from scraps

Leaves cut with  Die'Sire "Leaf 2" Die and embossed with Tumbling Leaves A4 folder, 

both from Crafters Companion

Plain oval cut on Silhouette Cameo

Oval Doily die by MFT Die'Namics (Dainty Doily Duo)

Apart from just missing the grey background piece when the lid of my Tacky Glue pot fell off and the contents globbed over my desk and other stuff on it.....this went together quite well in the end.
There's a fab mix of cards on the BLOG this week, all so different in style, but sharing this lovely colour palette

Thanks for visiting, please leave a message ;)

Sketchy Scraps

I've used oddments of papers left over from making my card for last week's "Forgotten Funky" to make my first Sketch File April project.  It's always quite a surprise when I find that, "yes, there is enough in that little pile of left-over bits to make another card!"  Even if, as in this case I had to patch a couple of strips together - but you can't see that because the joins are under other parts of the sketch hehe

This is the April Sketch from The Sketch File - I've stuck pretty close this time

Materials and Tools

Papers: Funky Hand 'Retro Fun Wordbook' download.

Memory Box Fabulous Phlox die set, Dewdrops, home-made decal sentiment

That's it, thanks for visiting, I hope you'll pop back soon

Funky Retro Fun

Next up on our tour of Funky Hand's fabulous Download and CD catalogue is the Retro Fun Wordbook. 
In this Download set you get all you need to make Anice's famous wordbooks. plus each of the designs as a "regular" paper too - so you don't just have to make wordbooks with this set, but you do have all you need to make and decorate one if you do.
I've always liked this set, the colours and designs are really fab with a great mix of flowery/stripey/dotty patterns and some of the most usable plain colours I have available - I quite often print these out on card as they work so well for many projects
This time I made a card

Materials and Tools All the papers used on this card are from the 'Retro Fun Wordbook' download. Some I've resized and printed to half A4 size and some are quarters of an A4 sheet - that way I get quite a lot on an A4 sheet - even more if I print on both sides ;).  

Also used: MFT DieNamics Perfect Petal Trio die set

Xcut Small circle punch, EK Success border punch

This picture gives you an idea of what's in the download

'Retro Fun Wordbook' download

If you head over to the Get Funky and Craft Inspiration blog you'll see some fantastic projects made using this collection 

That's it for today

Thanks for visiting

Financial Times....

Serious sort of title, eh?
But it's okay, I'm not going to get into a rant about Bankers, Insurance Companies and all the other assorted crooks... ;)
No - it being Friday should give a clue.  It's all about our lovely Svenja's Daring Cardmakers challenge for this week:
Money Makes the World Go Around

I was completely stuck for most of the week as to what on earth I could do - nothing new there - I know I say that most weeks!  In the end I decided to make a piggy bank - it was going to be a shaped card, but in the end I made this

 Materials and Tools

Black, White and Pink card

Patterned papers from MME "Charmed" 6x6

Ribbon, White pen, Glossy Accents, Bakers Twine

"Happy Birthday" Text 8x8 embossing folder from Crafters Companion

Silhouette Cameo to cut the pig

Own template

Here's a quick run-down on the piggy template:
I made the piggy template from scratch in Paint Shop Pro  it's just a series of what they call "pre-set shapes"!
Ellipses for the head, eyes, snout and nostrils,
Rounded rectangles for the feet 
Triangles for the ears.

Once I'd put all these shapes together I reduced all the bits to a single layer, reduced the colours to 2  (Black and White) and then just used the Paintbrush tool to "round" the straight lines on the ears and legs, and to draw in the back legs. Once I'm happy I make sure to save a copy (as a .gif) to use as a master image for the next stage

Next job is to think about the layers I want on my finished item and alter the picture accordingly - I almost always make a base layer which is the full piece and is handy for sticking all the other layers on to
Then I use the paint brush to cut away the lines I don't want on each subsequent section, saving each new image along the way 
So for this piggy:
Base layer is the complete image
Layer 2; cut away the ears and the back legs to leave just head and front legs
Layer 3; remove front legs so that just the head remains
Layer 3; snout with nostrils cut into it
The extra detail pieces to save are the eyes and the inner ear sections

Now I move all the pieces to the Silhouette, resize and get ready to cut - I cut the snout and the eyes 3 times each for some extra dimension
Once cut, it's just an easy matter to ink the edges and  on the head behind where the snout will go, so a darker shade shows through the holes, then glue all the pieces together in their layers and its done

To mount onto the card I raised this image on a box hinge (like the cover of a matchbox) so that I could tuck rolled up cash or a cheque between card and pig to look like it was going into a piggy bank

It all sounds much more complicated than it actually is, but I hope it makes sense

Thanks for visiting today

A Box Full of Flowers

I've been itching to make one of these "card in a box" cards for ages and at last I've done it!  Actually, I did a prototype the other day, but that was just to check how it worked.  I really wanted to use the limited "Mother of Mine" set of papers as I knew the flower design would be perfect to cut in different sizes and use to fill my box
This collection is only available for a couple more days, so if you've not got yours yet hop over to the Funky Hand website and get them PDQ!

As I so often do I printed the things I needed directly onto white Bazzill card.
An A4 piece printed on both sides for the box, then other bits and pieces to make the flowers, grass,decorative panels etc
I printed the flowery paper out in a couple of different sizes and then cut out lots of the flowers to use- some are attached on thin pieces of scrap green card, soem on lengths of wire so that they bounce around.
I cut the "grass" on my Silhouette machine and the butterflies were cut with my brand new Spellbinders "Flutters" die (the large ones) and a little punch for the small ones.

Papers: Funky Hand "Mother of Mine" download

Spellbinders labels 26(?), and Flutters butterfly ide

Wire, Stickles

Download Info:
There are three versions (Mum, Mam or Mom) of the download to choose from - each has the 6 gorgeous papers and both a ready coloured image and a plain one for you to colour yourself


Click HERE to go straight to the right page to grab a set for just £2.99

That's it for this time, I hope you like my little card
Thanks for visiting
 

Flowers Rock!

Over on the Funky Hand website, there is a special download collection available at the moment.  It's a limited time edition and although it's a special Mother's Day set called "Mother of Mine"  the papers in particular are fab for other times too. 
I decided to make a card just using the papers to share today - to show that despite being a Mother's Day collection, they are really, really versatile. 

I'm very much enjoying the giant set of circles dies that DoCraft kindly sent in my little package for the current sponsored Daring Cardmakers challenge - so I made another rocker card using the Funky Hand papers printed directly onto white Bazzill card.
I printed the flowery paper out in a couple of different sizes and then cut out some of the flowers to use on the card, the words paper makes a great alternative to adding a sentiment - wouldn't that be so cute for a baby card, Valentines. Anniversary or an Engagement card?

Papers: Funky Hand "Mother of Mine" download

DoCraft-Xcut Grand Circles die set

Spellbinders Scalloped circles die set

Green seam binding

 
There are three versions to choose from each with a coloured-to-match and plain ready-to-colour image plus 6 gorgeous papers, so where you call her Mum, Mam or Mom there's one that's just right for yours! 
Click HERE to go straight to the right page to grab a set for just £2.99

That's it for this time, I hope you like my little card
Thanks for visiting

Create a Card - new from Crafters Companion

I've been playing with a couple of the brand new "Create a Card" dies from Crafters Companion Die'Sire range over the last few weeks.  They've just been added to the website and today at 12noon they'll be launching on Create and Craft TV    ( Sky 671 Freeview 3Virgin 748 Freesat 813 or watch on your pc http://www.createandcraft.tv/ShowGridView.aspx?showId=2433117)

Here's a quick peek and some of the things I've made with these great new dies.
They don't cut out an external line so you can use them in many different ways.

 Using the  "Create a Card" Extravagance die

 Using the  "Create a Card" Precious die