Happy Easter....Part 1...

I don't usually 'do' Easter cards, but there are so many cute Easter images around that this year I couldn't resist making just a few.

This trio were made for my sister's 3 girls and I was pleasantly surprised to find that they loved them - they're all aged 6 and under so I thought they might be a little bit too 'grown-up', but at least I wasn't worried that they'd turn their noses up at handmade - we've had a few crafty sessions together and I take craft supplies with me most times I visit.

The cards are all made from papers and images from the Creative Cardmaking special Pink Petticoat edition, coloured with Promakers (of course!) and measure a dinky 12cm square.

The first one I made was the one at the bottom of the shot, then I worried that the little ones wouldn't 'get' the buttons (added to hide a smudge in the bottom corner of the image!). I made the other two without any embellishments, then of course thought they looked too bare for little girls, so raided my stash for the little flower and (quite hideous) butterfly.

A last minute panic when I realised that I'd spot-glittered 2 of the cards and not the 3rd one, then they were safely delivered to their recipients this morning!

Spot the difference...1 card 3 ways...

when I bought this digi-image from Cuddly Buddly yesterday I couldn't wait to use it. But oh no, disaster! My Cool Aqua Promarker has run out.  That's the 2nd of that colour I've got through, I obviously use it far too much! This was the best I could do before it completely gave up the ghost...

Looking at it now I quite like the 'shabby chic' finish I got on the stove.  This card uses a combination of digital paper-piecing (the red polka dot areas) and hand-colouring, then the images were cut out and stuck onto the gingham backing paper.  I designed the sentiment myself using MS Word.

Of course I've ordered another Cool Aqua Promarker (and a few other colours that I 'need') but couldn't wait, and really wanted my stove in that colour  - I love the contrast with the pink gingham and red polka dots.  I decided to try to replicate the colour with more digital paper-piecing, and since the backing paper is also a digi I did it all in one layer to save on ink (and cutting out time) and this is version 2....

I decided to polka-dot the kettle on this one, and make her dress the same colour as the stove to add a bit of balance.The rest of the image I left white and hand-coloured. I quite like the colour on this one, but its more blue than aqua.  So, my final attempt at stupid o'clock last night....

Now this one is far too green! I feel like Goldilocks or something...! I do prefer the digital layering on this one though.  I've left a little white border around the images, to give a more obvious layered effect, I think it just about shows in the picture.

That's it for now, no more till the new Promarkers arrive!

I'm going to enter these in the challenge over at The Play Date Cafe which is a colour challenge, don't you think they're a perfect fit?

                                            

Less is more....acetate

I haven't given myself long before the deadline (again!) so I'll keep this one short.

This is my take on a Less Is More card using acetate

I've kept it really simple, with the acetate attached to the card blank by turning the card with the fold facing the wrong way, scoring a small border on the acetate, then sandwiching the acetate between the 2 layers of card blank, sealing on all 3 sides with double-sided tape.  That way there are no edges to hide, and the acetate becomes the front of the card.  This pic might make it a little clearer (if you'll pardon the pun!)...

The card blank is 5" square and pearlised, though it doesn't really show up in the pictures, I think its from The Works.  Then I've simply added a die-cut (from Papermania?) and tied a ribbon around the acetate front. I might add a sentiment before using the card, but don't think it needs one.

More is more...

This card came about from one of my failed printing attempts for my last post. Annoyingly my printer was only printing part of the image on some of the cards.  On this one it printed the whole rose image but no sentiment.

Preview

My 'rescue' job was very simple...I've added a Craftwork Cards sentiment circle which I've coloured and glittered on the edge, and a length of chiffon ribbon.  The image is coloured with chalks as in my last post, and the scallops on the card blank also picked up with chalks.

I've got something in mind for another half-printed card in the next day or two - watch this space!

Less is more week 6

Just a quickie today as I'm in full crafting mode and don't want to waste any precious time!

This is my entry for this week's Less Is More challenge - a one layer card, off the edge.

I've used a digital stamp from Digistamp Boutique. Have had my eye on these and this was the perfect excuse to buy them.  My printer has been a little temperamental though so there were quite a few false starts with the printing directly to card base technique.

I've coloured the image with chalks, and couldn't resist picking up the edges of the scalloped card blank with the pink chalk too, sorry Chrissie and Mandi!  I also added a little touch of crystal Stickles to the centres of the roses.

Less is more...

that's the name of a this brand new challenge blog and I'm looking forward to playing along regularly as I definitely prefer the clean and simple look.

The first challenge is a colour challenge, using pink, black and white and there are lots of fabulous entries already, there are obviously a lot of clean and simple folk about...

My card mainly uses items I got in one of my bargain £5 Craftwork Cards goody bags, with a few gems from my stash.  The ribbons was 'recycled at source' - I stole it from the packaging of a Christmas gift I bought for a niece.  She'd have just thrown it in the bin...!

I've just noticed that 1 of my layers is a bit skew-whiff on this pic but don't have time to take another photo tonight - please forgive me!

As well as the Less is More challenge I'm also going to enter this into the Totally Papercrafts Challenge - Clean and Simple

Vintage Heart

I don't really 'do' Valentines cards but there are a lot of love and heart-related posts out there in blogland right now...

But hearts don't just have to be Valentines, right?

I've used  Pink Petticoat Vintage Rose papers, on a Craftwork Cards scalloped card blank.  The scalloped heart was cut using my Craft Robo Lite, and the edges 'inked' with a Promarker.

I'm entering this for the Shabby Tea Room challenge - I know, no blogging for 2 months and I enter 2 challenges in 2 days...get me!

Forever Friends

This is the first card I've made from the Forever Friends Black and Gold CD-Rom bought from Create and Craft.

Annoyingly the CD-Rom won't install on my laptop so I had to dust off the desktop PC to make the card. Its a very simple card as I wanted to see the quality of the printed images before spending too much time on 'designing' with the CD. The main image was printed as a single layer from one of the background papers (I think!) and the sentiment and corners cut out separately. The card base is a 6" square scalloped card from Craftwork Cards.

I'm entering this into the Forever Friends Challenge, where the theme is 'Stars'.

Last Commission of 2010...

...I'm still crossing my fingers as I type this that the birthday 'boy' really is called John, and is 65, because if he's not I've got a quick repair job to do!

This card (and box of course!) was requested by a lady who's seen lots of my commission cards over the last few months and wanted something special for her husband.  The main brief I was given was 'travel' which is definitely very different from anything I've done in the past, so as usual I had a bit of a panic before coming up with this design.  First the box....

which you'll notice is a perfect match for the card itself...

Once again the card is 8 inches square, and all the images were sourced from the internet.  Thank goodness for Photoshop as I couldn't find a map background that I liked.  This one started out larger and multicoloured so I cropped it and converted to a sepia tone so the landmark photos would stand out more.  If I'd been better prepared I would probably have asked about destinations that were significant to John, but as it was I just chose some iconic, easily recognisable images. I've since heard that Egypt, the USA and possibly Italy do feature in the couple's travel plans, so I hope John likes it!  I'm also hoping he's not a big stamp-collector as he might notice that the postcard says its from Hawaii but the stamp is Belgian (Photoshop strikes again, lol!)....All that aside I'm really pleased with the way this has turned out :-)

Mirror, mirror on the wall...

another of those projects that evolved as I went along. I had the basic idea for a decorated mirror in my head but originally was going to do a faux-mosaic look with pink papers. After fiddling about for a while trying to work out the best size for the squares and the spacing I considered covering the whole of the front of the frame with the paper.  Eventually I came up with this design...

The dangly ribbons are to clip hair-slides etc on to keep them tidy.  I've seen lots of similar things in blogland but liked the idea of using them with a mirror.  The flowers at the ends of the ribbons are cut from fleece using the same Hello Kitty Sizzix flower die as I've used for those on the mirror.  I've weighted them with pennies to help them hang properly.  The lettering was cut with my Craft Robo Lite and the paper is a Pink Petticoat download.  

The mirror incidentally was bought from Ikea over 10 years ago and never used (it was pine but I've painted lightly with white acrylic), and I've just checked the website and they still sell them!  Think I'll pick up a few more next time I go...

Reindeer? No I think its snow....

I started a tradition several Christmases ago of making an ornament for my friend Catherine as part of her Christmas card.  Unfortunately I don't think I have photos of any of the previous creations but they range from a classy cross stitched mini stocking (which is the one that started it all) to an extremely tacky felt Christmas tree caked in sequins.

This year I've aimed for a more classy feel, and gone with felt again. I found this fab t-shirt tutorial with a reindeer motif.  I was just going to use ordinary synthetic craft felt but my local craft shop didn't have any browns in and I've been stuck at home with the snow.  I was just about to give it up as a bad job when I remembered I had a brown felted jumper lying around somewhere, and voila, everything fell into place...

I love the texture of the felt (the jumper was ribbed).  The antlers were also a 'make-do' that has worked out very well - they're made of 2 pieces of papermania self-adhesive flock-type stuff stuck back to back . My original plan was to use a glittery pom-pom for his nose but good taste won the day and I decided to needle-felt his nose on to this one. A couple of buttons, a jingle bell and a bit of running stitch and I love the result.  I think I'll have to make one of these for my own tree, maybe mine will have the glittery nose ;-)

Calorie-free Cupcake...

I've wanted to make one of these cupcake pincushions ever since I first came across these beauties by Betz White over 2 years ago...

Hers are made from recycled felted knitwear but no matter how hard I search my local charity shops I just can't find wool garments in these gorgeous pastel colours.

So in the meantime I've compromised and used fleece fabric and I'm pretty pleased with how my first attempt has turned out...

I've made this one as part of the Christmas present for my best friend who bought me Betz's book 2 years ago and has been waiting to see a cupcake ever since!  I did make the 'cherry' myself, felting your own beads can be very addictive...

I've got an idea now for something else to go with this, so watch this space....

Hello Kitty...

This is a clock I've made for my sister who is busy decorating 2 bedrooms in preparation for (hopefully) adopting 3 gorgeous sisters.  Please keep your fingers crossed that all goes to plan!  I've got loads of block canvasses sat around so offered to make a clock for each room.

This is for the eldest of the girls who is 6 and will have her own bedroom with a Hello Kitty theme, please excuse the clashing yellow background on the photo...

Its a 12 inch square canvas with the background painted in 2 shades of pink.  The Hello Kitty image has been coloured with acrylic paint for the white areas and Promarkers for the rest.  I was going to use rub-downs for the numbers but found these stickers (5 sheets for £1) in our new local pound shop, and yes you've guessed it, I coloured them with Promarkers!

I sealed the finished canvas with Mod Podge then glued on the marabou trim with a hot glue gun before attaching the clock mechanism.  Simples....

My sis has yet to see the clock in real-life but I sent her this pic and she loves it! Just clock number 2 to create now, as well as some other bits of stuff I want to make for them - its great having lots of little girls to craft for!

Fairy Special Birthday Wishes...

this is the card I made for my niece Adel - yes an unconventional spelling of the name, but it means personalised gifts/cards can be even more special as you don't come across them in the shops.

The image is a digi-stamp from Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine, given as a freebie if you bought the mag or available to buy individually from the website. I paper-pieced the image digitally using papers from Zoe Pearn but left her skin and hair blank and hand-coloured with Promarkers. I've used Stickles on the wings and crown, which played havoc with trying to get a decent photo, sorry!

I've used rub-ons to add her name and age, although I'd usually do this digitally before printing too.  The spotty backing paper is also from Zoe Pearn and I ran the scalloped card base through the printer too so it co-ordinated perfectly.  Finished off with a little quilted star.