OSAAT Challenge #57 and a Freebie

Over at OSAAT we have a new challenge for you which is to make something for a new baby

For this Challenge there will be one winner and we are sponsored by

The Stamping Boutique and they are offering a prize of:-

5 digi stamps of winner's choice

In the Newsletter this week we have Dora in the Designer's spotlight. If you don't already subscribe I would suggest that you sign up as there are some fabulous images given away as freebies and you will always be kept up to date with the latest image news.

While you are there don't forget that for the Month of April we have a store collab with the theme of Mother's Day & Babies which is free with a $10 purchase.

For my card this week I have used a great digi called Tweet Tweet by Gingerloft. I printed out the image twice so I could layer the nest and tweety birds up on 3d foam to create some dimension. I coloured the image with Promarkers and kept to a very simple colour pallette. I figured this would make an ideal card for when you don't know what the couple are expecting.

The paper I used is from a First Editions pad by Dovecraft called Sweet Owl and I have added an inked edge to soften it a little. I added a strip of dark brown which has been stamped with a Fiskars punch and offset the image, something which for me is very hard to do. I pretty much always keep things straight and actually find it hard to fight this urge.... I added some Craftywork Cards Candi dots and the gorgeous felt flower embellishment was an amazing find. I had coloured the image a few days before and just needed to put the card together. I popped to the shops on Thursday, came across some scrummy embellishments in Poundland and they were the EXACT colours to match, obviously they had to be purchased so I could use one on this card ( as if I really needed an excuse to buy something...LOL )

Last but not least I finished the card off with a sentiment that has been cut using a Nestie die and inked around the edges. Now I have quite a few digi sentiments and was sure I had one with this kind of baby and nest theme. Well if I have I can't find it anywhere!! I thus decided to make my own. If like me you also can't find one I have added a JPG and PNG file to this post and you are more than welcome to snag them if you can find them useful.

I you do download them I would be very grateful if you would leave me some love. If you use them on a project please link back to me and let me know so I can come and take a peek at your creation.

I really enjoyed visiting the blogs last week and seeing the most gorgeous of creations. I hope you will join in with our challenge this week and look forward to passing on some love.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges :-

• A Spoonful of Sugar #146 - 2+ ways of adding texture (candi dots, felt, button, 3d foam raised elements)
• Betty Bee’s Buzz - Babies
• Bows & Berries #2 - Inspired by Nature
• Card Making Mama's #18 - Add some embellishments
• Catch The Bug – Four or More Layers
• C.R.A.F.T. Challenge #97 - Animals or Pets
• Craft Your Passion #52 - Anything Goes
• Creative Inspirations Paint – Inspired by Chocolate
• Dream Valley Challenges #4 – Things With Wings
• Fuzzy Wuzzy Challenge #8 - Inspirational photo (colours, leaves,)
• My Partner in Crafting Crime #24 - 3 or more layers
• My Sheri Crafts #52 - Buttons
• Our Daily Bread #56 - Card without any Ribbon
• Paper Garden Projects - Anything With a Digi
• Paper Play #14 - Animals
• Papertake Weekly #55 - Anything Goes & new (digi & flower embellishment)
• Secret Crafter #129 - Feathered Friends
• Shannon's Sentiments #21 - Include an Animal
• Sundays With Crissy #16 - Baby Card
• Totally Gorjuss #75 - Fluffy
• Totally Stampalicious – Anything Goes

Baby Girl Card

This is one of the cards I made at the crafty session about a month ago now (doesn't the time fly?)

I bought a QVC kit which was a themed one for a baby girl. All the papers, rub-ons stickers and ribbons co-ordinate with one another and the papers are double sided and some are glittered.

The glittery butterfly was cut from one of the papers and I used Craftwork Cards card candy for the spots on the wings. Only the body has been stuck down to allow the wings to stand out from the the card.

The centre panel is one of the cardstock stickers which is matted onto 2 layers of papers. The ribbon covering the join is from Docrafts and the flower is from my stash.

It is an A5 size card with the fold at the top.

Happy New Year!

Woohoo, Happy 2010 folks :)

I've started the new year off with a bang and I've made a card already....yippee.

This card fulfils the challenges as below

• The Pink Elephant #47 - Choice of 2 sketches
• Cards for Men #2 - Use the theme 'New'
• Little Paper Shop #48 - Colours of light blue, Navy and silver
• 365 Cards Day 188 - Use a flock texture
• Fussy & Fancy Friday Challenge #1 - New
• Daring Cardmakers - New beginnings
• Paperplay #46 - New Beginnings
• 3 Clovers Thursday #45 - Celebration
• Cupcake Craft Challenge #71 - Celebration
• Charisma Cardz - Celebration
• Secret Crafter #64 - New Beginnings
• Rosie Dee's #61 - Open Theme
• Creative card Crew #41 - Anything Goes
• My Time To Craft #72 - Anything Goes
• By The Cute & Girly - New
• Rainbow Lady's Challenge #84 - New

The base card is a metallic silver and I have cut a mat in a navy blue sparkle cardstock. The papers are from Heidi Swapp and it is the first time I have brought myself to cut into it. The birdie ribbon in the centre was cut from a flocked sheet, it feels lovely just like Fuzzy Felt when I was a kid :) The circular pram is a cardstock sticker with the addition of a birdie rub-on. This is matted onto more of the navy card and mounted on 3D foam. The sentiment are stickers from a co-ordinated sticker set.

I've gone off the boil in combining challenges for the last few months and I'm going to try and make a concerted effort to do more challenges again. I really enjoyed doing this for some months last year and I felt it gave me more focus in making cards for specific reasons. I start level 2 of my college course next week so hopefully I'll be able to fit more crafting into my schedule and be more disciplined with myself instead of vegging out in front of the TV when I'm tired.

New Baby Sidestep Card

My Mother in Law has asked me to make a card for a new baby girl for a friend of her's who has moved to Canada. She asked me not to make it too big or heavy as it costs a lot to post.

My friend Sarn recently made this style of card at a cardmaking class at The Glitterpot and shared the pattern of how to make it. It uses a piece of card 6" x 12" but as I don't buy much card of that size I decided to alter the sizes slightly and make it fit a standard sheet of A4. A little tweaking later and I'd altered it to fit.

The main paper is by Doodlebug (now only got a small piece left, boo hoo) The paper on the second layer is from The English Paper Company and the spotty one at the back is by K & Co. The cardstock stickers are by Doodlebug, the baby is a photo realistic sticker from MAMBI and the welcome to the world banner is from the same pack. The New Baby sentiment is from Lets Make Cards, the epoxy bubble message is Paperchase and the silver teddy peel off is Papermania.

I really like this style of card and will definitely be making more of this shape. It looks really effective yet is quite easy to do once you know where to cut and fold.

365 Cards Day 20 & Forum Challenges

Todays challenge, Day 20 on 365 cards was to make a card that was hardly decorated on the outside and the sentiment etc was to be inside. Sarn's challenge on the forum is to make a Baby Girl card. As ever I have combined the two challenges.

In terms of not decorating the front I had a massive booboo on as I had cut an aperture in the card front using the stamp Cuttlebug die and then used the swiss dots folder to emboss the card. I matched the pattern up and there was one line of dots in the middle that had been squashed so I used an embossing tool to push them back out, then promptly PUSHED the tool all the way through one of them. I was absolutely gutted! I inked over the top lightly but it still showed up and all the rest of the card had been done so I put some ribbon over the top. Pam, I am sorry I failed at this one but feel happier that I was able to rescue it. 

 A Papermania button completes the ribbon as it looked daft without anything on it.

The inside has an embossed image from the same Cuttlebug pack that the stamp die comes from and is raised on 3d pads so it pokes through the window on the front. The sentiments are rub ons from DCWV and Poundland. 

I wasn't sure about doing a card like this and was happy with it until I poked the embossing tool through the hole. I wish the Cuttlebug folders would fit an A6 sized card blank in properly and then we wouldn't have this problem.

One of my bestest friends at work Laura was leaving to have a baby and I knew I would be the one to make her leabving card.

I bought the template for this baby book from Craft Central a couple of months ago. As soon as I saw it I knew it was perfect for her.

As we didn't know the expected sex of the baby I decided I would alternate the blue and pink colours throughout. I am especially pleased with this is it made the individual letters stand out so much better.

There is a slideshow below of the individual pages. I have used papers and embellishments from my stash and they have come from various manufacturers. I basically just gathered together all my baby stuff and just went for it. ! There are papers from Doodlebug, DCWV, magazine freebies and baby kits from Poundland.

Embellishments are as follows

- Epoxy stickers from Paperchase, Poundland, LMC,
- Chipboard from QVC DCWV TSV, wonderful themed drawers set which just happened to have loads of baby stuff, YAY!!
- 3d stickers from Poundland
- Printed embellishments courtesy of printable scrapbooking freebies from the tinterweb.

Printed ribbons were a recent purchase and many, many offcuts were tied to the book rings on the spine.

I spent a long time getting everything together for this project and I am REALLY pleased with how it turned out. Laura means a hell of a lot to me and I wanted to do something very special for her. She absolutely loved it.

Another Baby Box

This is the last baby box for a while and a little bit different. My colleague Sue wanted one for her Sister who lives in France (I'm spreading into Europe now LOL)

Not knowing the sex of the baby she said she liked mint, chocolate and cream together, so thinking mint choccy chip ice cream I set to work.

On the lids of these boxes I have been using little kits from inside a TSV that I got from QVC, but no longer had any neutral coloured ones left. I had purchased the large 'B' Sizzix die previously and had a go at doing it myself. I used tags from my stash and a brass charm and think it has come out really well. I used chocolate brown velvet ribbon for the edge and it has a touch of luxury to it.

Sue wanted to encorporate the other children in the project, welcoming the new baby into the family hence the photos of brother and sister.

Embellishments used were from the following - Prima flower, Sizzix Die, Let's Make Cards, Papermania brads & peel offs, rubber stamps, printables off the tinterweb, & Sizzlits teddy die.

The slideshow below has all the images from this project.

Exploding box for New Baby

My exploding boxes have become very popular at work as a special keepsake. Jemma wanted one for her sister who was having a baby boy.

His parents had chosen his name already so I made it and was just waiting for him to arrive to make the final pages complete. Jemma had posted pictures on Facebook of the new arrival and I put one of the pictures in the box as a surprise. She had not expected that so I was really pleased.

It was nice to know the sex of the baby so I could gather together all my blue bits :)

Embellishments used were from Papermania (ribbons & peeloffs), QVC, Prima flowers, Poundland (felt stickers, 3D embellishments), printable off the tinterweb, Let's Make Cards die cuts, Cuttlebug embossing folders, rubber stamps.

All images are shown in greater detail on the slideshow below.

Baby Ladder

One of my colleagues was leaving to have her second baby and I was asked to make a special 'card' for her. When she had her first I made a special frame for her which was to be hung in the baby's room and I wanted to do something totally different for her.

Somewhere on my travels I had seen something like this where you lifted a lid and this whole stream of stuff came out hanging on a ribbon. I decided I wanted to do something like this so it would give plenty of areas for people to write their messages on. Our Head Office is getting so much larger we need as much space as possible now !

I have created a slideshow below with all the images on it.

In used many embellishments from my stash. There are peel offs, rubber stamping, the smaller Cuttlebug embossing folders, assorted stickers and die cuts from Poundland, freebie printable off the tinterweb, items from Let's Make Cards, Sizzlit dies and ribbon.

It was very long bythe time I finished with ten cards in total, decorated on both sides. Katie's colleagues loved it and I got many comments from people saying how unusual it was and something to treasure.

New Baby exploding Box for Helen

One of my work colleagues Helen asked me to make and exploding box for imminent the birth of her baby nephew.

She wanted me to make it the same colouring as the previous one, but to make it personal we encorporated the details of the baby's big brother.

It would appear that baby projects are quite popular at the moment as you will soon see.

I used many embellishments to decorate the flaps of the box and Helen was absoloutely delighted with it.

I have made the slideshow below to showcase all the pictures.

Di Hickman Challenge September #4

I made this card for my friend Dervla as she left to have her baby. The 'Guardian Angel' is there to watch over her and Baby G in the final few weeks and was made using wire & various beads I have gathered. One of my forum buddies had made and Angel of Love and I thought I would have a go at something similar. I made a few of them and they will probably be appearing in other cards.

I used one of Di Hickman's templates as inspiration for the layout. I don't usually tear small pieces so that was a little different for me. Both pieces of card are from my scraps box and I used a Cuttlebug folder to emboss the swirls and ran a silver inkpad over the top to highlight.

The backing paper is DCWV Peeking Posies and has a subtle glitter in the centre of the flowers. The ribbon at the back was left loose so I could hang the tag from it using a heart shaped paperclip from Paperchase. The tag is from HOTP to which I added some appropriate rub on sentiments from Let's Make Cards and attached it with a Papermania Brad.

Exploding Baby Box

My good friend and work colleague Dervla was leaving to have a baby and I was asked to make a card for everyone to sign.

I'd already decided that I wanted to make something very special for her and came up with the idea of putting a baby bootie inside an exploding box. This would then give plenty of flaps for my colleagues to write their sentiments in.

I made the bootie first using a template obtained from the By Donavan site. The finished bootie then dictated the size the box needed to be. I embellished the edge of the bootie with border outline stickers and a Papermania brad. The sentiment was added as it looked a little plain and the baby when born will have a surname of G.

The box was made to a finished size of 5 1/2" square and required the use of many pieces of card to get the required shape. I used a piece of mountboard for the base to make it substantial and all the pieces wer then mounted on that.

The layers were individually decorated. The base has peel off borders around each edge. The top cream layer has been corner punched with a corner adorner punch. This performed really well even though the card was very thick. I used this cut out shape to stencil through with a gold gel pen to the green layer to add a little interest.

The embellishments used inside were a mixture of items from a QVC TSV kit (baby tag with HOTP nappy pin, pram,angel tag, cutie tag,) Lisa Bearnsen QVC kit (clear quotes, B embellishment on lid) Prima flowers Pink Petticoat downloaded image.

Dervla said she wasn't going to cry - but she did ! I said I hadn't done my job very well if she didn't. She absolutely loves it, so does James to proud Father to be. I just wanted to make something special for 2 lovely people and I am very much looking forward to meeting Baby G.

As a result of making this box I have now been commissioned to make another one so i guess I'll have to cost this one up !

I have made a slideshow with all the images of the card below.

Hello Daddy !

I had been commissioned by my friend Dervla, who is very heavily pregnant with her 1st child - to make a card from the baby to it's Daddy for when it pops, due sometime within the next month.

James is one of the most excitable people I know so I wanted to make it a fun card. They do not know the sex of the baby so I suggested we use green and yellow, also Dervla is Irish so has an affinity for green.

The backing paper is HOTP, there are an assortment of dies in this project. The circular lettering is a Cuttlebug alphabet. They cut perfectly EVERY time and after the recent problems I have had with a Sizzlits extended cuts alphabet not cutting properly then I don't think I will use another brand now, it's just not worth the hassle. Alphabets are bloody fiddly anyway and you want to be certain that it will cut 1st time. Sorry, rant over ! Anyway this font is very adaptable as you can use the letters or the circles over another colour as I have done here.

The Daddy lettering is hand cut from glitter card using a font I printed out. The star on the exclamation mark is a fluke as whe I was cutting out the circles next to it was a star and the bottom of the mark looked boring so I replaced it. It adds a bit more impact ad I think works better !

The pram and baby gro are Quickutz which I am ashamed to admit I have had for a long while and not used. The nappy pin, bottle and head are Sizzlits. I have never been able to get a good clean cut with these dies until I got a tagalong and the roller action makes a huge difference compared to the old lever style Sizzix die cutter.

I made a matching box for this project using more die cuts, the sentiment is another Sizzlits die. I also used sparkly star shaped gems. Inside the box I used lemon tissue paper and have put a packet of silver stars and nappy pins to scatter into the box.

I love this card, I loved making it for 2 very special people and I can't wait to see Baby G

Leaving to Have a Baby Scrapbook

I have been Commissioned by my work colleagues to make a card for one of the girls who is leaving to have a baby and decided I was going to do something a bit different.

I have ended up making a scrapbook style book where there are plenty of spaces left to write messages inside.

I used one of those little scrapbooks from Poundland as the basis for my book and embellished it using paper, stickers, ribbons and rub-on sentiments.

I have created a slideshow to show all the pages of the book.