Autumn Leaves

This card is for the following challenges

Pink Elephant 122 Sketch

Crafty Creations Leaves and autumn colours

 I really enjoyed putting this card together.

 A touch of frosting for an early autumn morning

 stamped with Versamark for a tone on tone effect (see top tip at the end of this post)

Such a pretty little face

Materials used

All the papers and the Flower Fairy image were all magazine freebies, I think Card Making and Papercraft

Collal 3D gel

Versamark ink pad

Quicky glue pen

Glamour Dust

Peeloff from Craft Creations

CRAFTER'S TOP TIP

When I was putting the decoupage on the card I must have got a tiny amount of the glue gel on my fingers and it left a greasy mark.  I tried all sorts to try and and clean it off but nothing worked.  Then I had a light bulb moment.  Instead of making it worse by trying to get it off I decided to leave it alone and just stamp over it, using the Versamark ink pad, which made it part of the design and then finished it off with peel-off greeting.  I'm pleased with the finished effect.

Yeyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!

Look what the postman brought for me today!  I talked myself out of buying these weeks ago as I thought that they were rather expensive but when Create and Craft were selling them at half price I couldn't resist :o)  My problem now is, which one do I use first???

Time for Reflection

I made this card for the Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge which is to show time as in clocks, seasons etc  

 I've not added any extra embellishments to this as I didn't want anything to detract from the sentiment and the image

 I used a brayer and a multi coloured ink pad for the background

 I stamped the image on to acetate and then flipped it and used it as a stamp to get the reflection

Materials used

Stamps from Clarity Stamps

Adirondak Cabin Fever ink pad

Speedball brayer

1" circle punch to create the mask to form the moon

Cardstock and backing paper from stash

Back to School

I am entering this card in to the following challenges 

Sew Many Cards following the sketch

Sundays with Crissy Thank you/Thanksgiving

Catch The Bug Home coming/School colours

 My school uniform was burgundy and navy, very dull and boring but it was more years ago than I care to remember!  So when I saw these lovely bright school papers I thought that these were so much better than mine lol

 I wondered about what to put on as a sentiment and decided to turn it into a thank you card for a teacher

I think Halen is my favourite character from Sew Many Cards

Materials used

Digi stamp from Sew Many Cards

ProMarkers

Number paper and tag freebie from Crafts Beautiful

Striped paper another magazine freebie but I can't remember which one

Brad from stash

Peel off from Craft Creations

Things with Wings

This card started out completely different.  I had stamped the image and water coloured it and when I was trimming it down I released the pressure too soon and the image slipped so cut it in the wrong place grrrrrrrrrrr.  I then decided to do something different instead.

Apologies for the quality of the photos but the conservatory doesn't get much sun at this time of year.  I'm still trying to find the best place for taking them

I'm entering this card into the Crafty Individuals challenge. 

 I think I prefer this card to the original that I started

 Above and below are the same, one with the flash and one without

 The mat was stamped with a flourish from CI-235

 A close up of the wren which I had coloured with a Cool grey #2 ProMarker

 I put the bow on as I don't know what occasion I will use it for and the card didn't look right with the space left empty.  I will be able to remove it to replace it with a sentiment 

Materials used

Crafty Individuals stamps CI-191 the wren and CI-235 the flourish

ProMarker Cool Grey 2

Memento ink pad London Fog

Nestabilities Classic Scalloped rectangle

Woodware paper trimmer with deckle edge blade

Paper and ribbon from stash

I want to keep it!!!!!!!

Have you ever made a card and then not want to give it away?  This is one of those cards and I love, love, love it!  But I shall have to put it in the post today to my friend :o(

 I knew how  I wanted the card to look and it's turned out perfectly.

 I used a Memento ink pad in sweet plum along the edges of all the papers to take away the white edge

 The paper is quite a heavy weight, double sided and perfect for folding it back and being able to retain it's shape

 I was lucky enough to have 6 of the brads that I used in this colour

 The topper is a brooch from Crafty Individuals and I've removed the pin from the back

I decided against putting a sentiment on the front as I thought that it would detract from the impact of the card.  Also without the sentiment the card would look lovely mounted in a frame to be used as a picture

Materials used

Papers from a stack from Costco courtesy of my friend,  Pat

Brooch from Crafty Individuals

Peeloffs from Craft Creations

Brads from stash

Fallin' For You. Creative Card Crew DT card

The new challenge from The Creative Card Crew
The challenge is sponsored by  The Paper Shelter and has a romantic theme.  

The digi stamp that I used is called The Happy Couple

 Now that I have my craft room and everything is to hand I am using my Cuttlebug more 

and used it to create the card blank and the topper.  The Nestabilities  that I used are the Labels #1 set 

 I thought that the image would suit an easel card and shaped the topper the same as the card blank

 I used the ever faithful ProMarkers to colour the image and the papers are from a Forever Friends romance paper stack

 The sentiment is from Lili of the Valley and the ribbon flowers and pearl hearts are from my stash.

I added extra pearls by using Liquid Pearls

The dress was coloured with an ivory ProMarker and then painted over using iridescent Stickles

 which made the ivory look much darker 

Margaret Does Steampunk!

Next week it is our son's birthday and I always try and make his cards a bit different to my normal style.  This is what I came up with

 All the "metal work" was done using my new sprocket dies from Spellbinders

 I attached them using brads and some 3D foam

 The Happy Birthday sentiment I covered with UTEE and then distressed it by cracking the enamel

I used different papers to produce different effects and added some gilding flakes to add to the design on the clock BP and on some of the cogs.

Materials used

Leathered and striped papers and the tags and paper ribbon from Making Cards magazine

The clock paper and the rusty steel (the largest sprocket) were from my friend,Pat, with thanks

Gold and antique gold cardstock from stash with the brads

Crafty Notions gilding flakes in variegated copper

Two way glue pen to attach the gilding flakes

Sprocket dies from Spellbinders

Animal antics

This is the challenge over at Bugaboo for this week.  I'm scraping in by the skin of my teeth on this challenge as there's only a few hours left to enter.  Apologies for the quality of the photos as I took them without natural daylight, although I did have my Ottlite on it's not the same as daylight.  I'll have to go in search of the best place for my photos now that the days are drawing in.  Hopefully I'll still be able to use the conservatory for a while yet

I love this bear but then I love every Lily of the Valley stamp :o)

The butterflies are so sweet

 
Thanks to Mel Heaton for the triple dot spot filler.  I'm using it everywhere lol

I tried to mimic the grass when I edged the BP with a stamp pad

Materials used

Stamped image from Lily of the Valley

Coloured with ProMarkers 

BP from Carol Ann's Studio Patchwork Petals cd

Memento ink pad

Peeloff sentiment and gems from stash

Nestabilities Labels 1 Small dies

Sew Many Challenge

I'm entering this card in the Sew Many Challenges challenge using eyelets.  As yet I haven't put on a sentiment as I don't know when I will be using it.  Maybe it will be a Father's Day card for my son from his "Daddy's Girl"

I used my Distress Inks to colour the edge of the card in typical camouflage colours

Luckily I had some suitable ribbon in my box, I didn't want anything too girlie

I borrowed a technique from Mel Heaton of using little dots in groups of three when you had too much white area

I outlined the image with pink and added a pink patch to the boots as the card will be from my granddaughter to her Daddy

Materials

Digi stamp from Sew Many Challenges
Tim Holtz Distress Inks
Ribbon HOTP Earth tones pack
DCWV textured cardstock
ProMarkers
Eyelets from stash

Ain't It Cute

I can't believe that it's been a week since I last blogged.  I've been looking at the blogs I follow and generally leaving comments but I haven't been crafting.  Feeling a bit fed up but not for any particular reason that I can think of.  I've given myself a good talking to this morning and this is the result!

I'm entering this card into the I love ProMarkers cute challenge

I love this digi stamp from Bugaboo

Not a bad bow, for a change lol

a pretty combination of spots and checks

Showing the raised panel

I used my border punch to create the bottom edge of the topper

I haven't put a sentiment on as yet but it will be on the gingham panel

Materials used

Digi stamp from Bugaboo

Cardstock from stash - can't remember the manufacturer

Ribbon from stash

Martha Stewart border punch

ProMarkers

Christmas

I've started my Christmas cards today!  I had stamped the images when my friend brought her LOTV nativity stamp round for me to play with and have finally started to colour them.  I'm going to do them in batches and have started off with 9 and have coloured all the skin tone bits.  Tomorrow I'll do the proper colouring bit and maybe start on another batch.

I've been practising using some Flitter Glue that I bought at Port Sunlight from Indigo-Blu along with a beautiful branch and bauble stamp.  You put it on your stamp as though it's an ink pad and then use chalks, mica powders etc and I've used it with my gold leaf.  Think I need a little more practice before I stamp it directly on to the card.

I'll probably not get many challenge cards done whilst I'm doing my Christmas cards as I'm limited as to how long I can sit and craft.

BFN

New Home

This card didn't start out as a new home card, it was going to be a little girl's fairytale birthday card.  It was only when I was choosing the papers that I decided that it was more of an adult design

I'm entering this card into the following challenges

Sew Many Challenges using the colour palette burnt orange, brown and yellow

Stampin' Sisters in Christ anything goes

The Pink Elephant autumn colours and black

The digi stamp is from Sew Many challenges and is perfect for layering.  I've only done the turrets on this card

The black element on the card is the sentiment and I'm loving using paper string on my cards at the moment

The colour of the rainbow paper was perfect for this card

Showing the 3D turrets

Materials used

Image from Sew Many Cards

Papers from stash

Paper string

Promarkers

Martha Stewart border punch