Less is more week 12...'off-centre'...2nd entry

I enjoyed myself so much with my digital designing when making my first card for this week's challenge that I had a go with some other shapes filled with colourful polka dots.

This one is my favourite - I think I even like it better than the bunting, maybe because the tail of the kite links up to the sentiment?

Then some balloons  - this was going to be a cluster of balloons but I kept the 3 separate while working on them and quite liked that effect too so not really an off-centre card this time (although the  balloons are 'floating' at the top of the card).

And finally (for now - I have SO many ideas running through my head now, lol!) - how cute are these scottie dogs?

Again with all 3 cards the polka dots and sentiments are printed directly to my card blanks, then the outlines and details drawn in by hand with a very fine marker.

Off to play some more now....

Lesley

Less is more week 12...'off-centre'

I can't believe I've had such a lazy day today, have been itching to craft but really really should be tidying everything away instead of making more mess...

Then it hit me, I could create my Less Is More entry on the laptop and print direct to my card - no mess!!

This is a very basic example of clipping in Photoshop Elements. I created a new image the same size as my card front, then used the polygon shape tool to create a triangle which I copied 5 times in separate layers and moved to the right positions on my card. The digital polka dot papers, bought from Pickleberry Pop, were each reduced in size  from 30cm square to 3cm square to scale the pattern right down, and then pasted into the selected triangle shape on each layer.

I then just added the text in the bottom right corner, the font is called Mawn's Handwriting - I really wish my handwriting was like that!

After printing directly to my card blank I got out the fineline marker pen and drew on the black lines, and that's it, a finished very simple card. Hope you like it!

Happy Easter....Part 2...

My 2nd post of the day to show off the Easter gifts I made for my nieces. I'm a funny one when it comes to Easter eggs, especially when I know how many of them kids get these days. Once upon a time I bought my nieces and nephews a new t-shirt or something, but I have so many now it would bankrupt me!

So this year I went to the supermarket and bought 5 of these at 61p each, wondering if the staff would be thinking I was a total meanie, although I'm sure they didn't even give a second glance...

I have to admit they don't look very exciting, about the size of my hand, and no extra bits of goodies.  But when taken out of the horrid box and added to a handmade basket with a few other bits and pieces, this is what you get...

Each basket is made from a single sheet of scalloped 12x12 Papermania cardstock, decorated with some patterned paper that I've had for years. The little panels on the side of each basket show each girl's name, the images are from Tammy DeYoung at Aimee Asher, cute eh?

The only tricky bit came when I tried to wrap them up without spilling the contents!

 I don't think I did too bad a job, and the girls (and their mum) loved them.  That's 3 down, 2 to go... but they stand out amongst their other eggs and they've only cost me about £2 each to make.

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 ;-)