The Black & White Days

Morning all!

It's hard to believe another friday is here and it's time for another challenge on the Alphabet Challenge Blog!
We had lots of gorgeous entries for Hilde's Garden theme.  It was Mari's turn to choose the next theme and she chose....

H for Handmade Flowers!!

What an excellent challenge!!  There are so many ways to make flowers from diecuts to material to crochet and so many more!  I can't wait to see all the entries this fortnight!

So here's my card

 The image is "Violet" by Saturated Canary.  I've coloured her with my copics and I used all my C range of grey's from 00 to 10 and the 100 black as well as a black prisma pencil.  It was a real learning experience to colour an image just using greys, it really makes you think about light and shade, a good way to practice colouring!

I'm not 100% sure, but I think the papers are an old Stampin' Up! set, please correct me if I'm wrong!  The black bubbly paper just behind the image is from my stash and had no name on it.  I diecut it with a Spellbinder die.  The ribbon is also from my stash.  The sentiment on the Stampin' Up! punched shape is by Wild Rose Studio.  The pearls are from Wild Orchid Crafts - I wasn't sure which colour to use out of the pack, so I just used them all!

My handmade flowers were made by cutting circles out of organza - 3 large, 3 medium and 3 small.  I lit a candle and started singeing around the cirles.  When I got near the end I accidently singed a bit too far into the circle and it sort of shrivled up!  I quite liked the effect, so I started going back over all the circles and singeing them all through the circles, not just around the edges.  I then stitched 3 different sized circles together and finished off the front middle with a black swarovski bead and repeated for the other 2 flowers.
I'm not sure if this technique will work for all types of organza as this one has the silver sparkly stripes through it which sort of stopped the organza from totally shrivelling up.  I'm gonna have fun trying it out though!
**If you do try this technique though, please be very careful with the candle - it is a naked flame and you are sticking material right into it so it can catch fire.  Just make sure you keep a close eye on the material and if you see a flame starting on it blow it out quickly.  And make sure you are at an appropriate area with a heat-proof mat.**

The inside is a continuation from the front.

And that's my card!

The rest of the DT have made some stunning creations so head on over to the Alphabet Challenge Blog to see them and join in yourself!

I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges:
Anything Goes; Colour combo - black with one other
Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge; Girlie time
Crafty Ribbons Challenge; Flowers
Fab & Funky Challenges; Use fabric on your card
Moving Along With The Times; Keep it real
One Stop Craft Challenge; Monochrome
The Poodles Parlour; Monochromatic
Sweet Stampin Challenge; Flower Power
Truly Scrumptious; Anything goes

Thanks for looking!
 

Silhouette

On the Mad About Cards forum, we have started doing a bi-monthly card swap.  The theme is picked by a different member each month and for this month Anne chose the theme Silhouette.

Because I’ve been so busy doing wedding invitations and heading off to rock concerts :P I decided not to take part in this one – it felt so weird not taking part in it, so I came up with an idea and made one card that fits the theme.  Well, I think it does anyway! Lol

Here it is...

When I thought of silhouette’s I immediately thought of those oriental type shadow puppetry things, so I thought I’d like to try to get the feel of that.

So I got a small branch stamp with little blossoms on it that I’ve had for ages and always thought it looks oriental and stamped it a few times onto white tissue to make a larger branch.

I then cut an aperture out of my card base and stuck some acetate over the aperture before I positioned the stamped tissue paper over it, the acetate is to make sure I didn’t make a big hole through the tissue!

I then got some bamboo skewers and cut them down with a saw to make a frame around the aperture.  I used a hot glue gun to keep the sticks in shape and then tied some button twine from the Ribbon Girl around the joins.  I also made a frame around the outer edge of the card to hide the mess in between the layers!

I used the branch stamp again on the inside of the card which carries the theme from the picture in the aperture.

I took a photo of the card with the light behind it, to try to get the effect of the silhouette that I wanted.

I’m entering this card into the following challenges;

Charisma Cardz Challenge: White and one other colour

Mojo Monday: Sketch

Moving Along With The Times: Clean and Simple

Oldie But A Goodie: Anything goes

Pear Tree Designs: Stamp something

Tip Top Tuesday: T is for....Tissue – my tip is to put acetate over the aperture before attaching the tissue for strength.

Thanks for looking!

 

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mummies out there! I’m a little late in saying it here, but it’s been a busy day. My brother, sisters and I got a lovely pamper day for my mum and my sister got one as well, I came up with the idea to do that so I could go too - genius or what?!!

I had a busy weekend tidying my craft room and I didn’t realise just how overdue it was for a good tidy up until I came across my Christmas papers! Lol! To be fair, I purposely didn’t put them away cos I thought I’d make some Christmas cards, but I just don’t have the heart for it at the moment so they're all away now!

Anyway, this is the card I made for my mum...

I followed a fab tutorial on Heather’s blog on how to make shadow box cards.

I filled my box with hand-made wound-up roses, which I added a Swarovski crystal bead and some glitter. The glitter went on a little gloopy, but I think I quite like it - it looks a little like rain!

You can see the depth of the box here

The paper is Bo Bunny from the Vickie B paper pad. The sentiment is from a Kraftin’ Kimmie set and I added some Wild Orchid Crafts pearls to the corners.

I used the same papers on the inside

And finished it off in a matching box (I’ve been practicing tying bows, but I’m still not very good at it! And I have trimmed the ends of the bow since I took the photo.)

This card fits the following challenges:

Allsorts; Blooming Blossoms

Charisma Cardz Challenges; Bling & Sparkles

Delightful Challenges; Flowers

Oh La La Creations; Mother’s Day/ Special Friend

Paper Sundaes Challenge Blog; Spring Blossoms

Stampin’ for the Weekend; For Mum/Mother’s Day (not too much stamping on this one – just the sentiments on the front and the inside)

Stamp, Scrap & Doodle Saturdays; Glitz

ABC Challenge; R is for Roses

Thanks for looking!

Boho-Chic Wedding

I was shopping one day with my mum and came across a craft shop, needless to say we went in and spent a fortune! And while we were there, my mum spotted those diamante swirls with the flower built into it (that I would never buy cos they’re too expensive!) and she said she’d buy it if I made a card with it for an upcoming wedding that she’s going to. I jumped at the chance as I think they are gorgeous!

So this is the card I made

My mum likes cards to be personalised, so instead of an image (which I don’t think would’ve looked right with the swirl) I used the bride and grooms names as the focal point.

I thought the swirl was pretty enough without overloading the card with an overpowering paper, although I knew I'd also be using it where there would be less detail, so I used a Pink Petticoat download paper – Pretty Doodles.

I added a pocket to the inside for the gift and matched the sentiment space to the front. The swirl was a little big for the front of the card so the bits I cut off didn’t go to waste and I used them on the inside.

I then made a box, printing the same PP paper onto card. I added some pearls from Wild Orchid crafts to the corners to match the card and also used up the last of the lace that I used on the card (which my brother says reminds him of a garter!) on the lid also.

This card fits the following challenges:

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge; Pearls & Swirls

Simon Says Challenge; Mother’s Day/Girlie – I thought it was quite a girlie card!

Scrappy Frogs Challenge Blog; Flowers and Lace

Simon Says Stamp & Show; Show a Word.

The Shabby Tearoom; Bingo - Gems, flower & Die-cut

Cupcake Craft Challenges; Monochromatic

Thanks for dropping by!

Bewitched!

I am supposed to be making Christmas cards, but I couldn't resist making a wee Halloween card - and when I found this digi stamp that I bought last year I had to use it!

Here is my card

The fabulously bewitching stamp is from Sassy Studio Designs, coloured with copics and I went over some of the shadows with a paintbrush and some black soot distress ink. I also used 3 colours of distress ink sponged around the image.

I had some small black roses but wanted a big one aswell, so I used a large white rose and coloured it black with a copic marker. I then dunked the roses in some wet glue and corresponding coloured glitter - it really sparkles in real life! The beaded leaf is from my local craft supply store. The black dangly is an earring! They were in a sale in Sainsbury's and when I saw them I knew they had to go onto a halloween card! And I still have another one to use - bonus! My sister hates going shopping with me as I'm always looking at things and thinking how they could be used on a card - she doesn't complain when she wants a card though!

The papers are from the Basic Grey Eerie paper pad - love these papers, I've had this since last year and this is the first time I've used it! I also used Labels One and Labels Sixteen nesties and a couple of purple swarovski crystals to finish it off - just to add another bit of sparkle!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Creative Inspirations; Spooky
Haunted Design House; Smeared and smudged
Magical Monday Challenge; Halloween
Sassy Studio Designs; Spooky
Simon Says Stamp and Show; Something Spookay
Stampin' for the Weekend; Halloween/Fall
Stamptacular Sunday Challenge; Halloween colour challenge
The ABC Challenge; F for flowers
The Corrosive Challenge Blog; Halloween
Tip Top Tuesday; Anything Goes
Totally Gorjuss; Sparkle

Phew, a marathon number of challenges!
I hope you like it, thanks for dropping by!

I also just wanted to extend my sympathies to the familes of the 3 men who were killed in the helicopter crash which happened a couple of miles away from home on Saturday. Such a tragedy.

An Anniversary

Yesterday was my sister and brother-in-law's fourth wedding anniversary - how time flies! I remember the day well, right from being 40 minutes late to the church to persisting and keeping my shoes on my aching feet til the very end of the night! T'was a great day!

Anyway, this is my card, I followed the beautiful sketch from this weeks Just Magnolia challenge.

I've only just realised that the green colour matches the colour my bridesmaid dress was on the day! I should really say that was intentional! lol!
I used this lovely Tilda and masked her off to get the Magnolia heart in the background. I coloured her with my precious Copics. I tried a new technique when I coloured this one, and I think I like it better. Rather than starting with the lightest shade and working my way up to the darkest and then blending with the lightest shade again, I started with the darkest shade and worked my way down to the lightest shade, blending as I went.

I cut the image with my nesties using the Out of the box technique and then, before I removed the image from the nestie, I shaded around the image with distress inks.
I struggled to find something round that was the right size for the large circle. The only thing I could come up with was a saucer, which was still a bit too big, so I used the saucer as a guide and drew a smaller circle just inside and cut that out. As my cutting of circles is not the best (lol) I used a distressing tool to rough up the edges of the circle and that disguises my bad cutting nicely!
I stamped the heart into the corners of the base card using Versamark to give a watermark look and added some pearls from Wild Orchid Crafts

I made the flower out of organza which I cut into various sized circles and singed the edges with a candle, sewed them together and added a little bead to the centre. I saw a demo for it somewhere and while back, I'll have to have a think where that was.
The flourish is a Tim Holtz/Sizzix die that I love! I also added a few brown skeleton leaves.

A fairly simple inside, just a couple of nestie shapes to follow through from the front and a few pearls to finish it off.

This card fits with quite a few challenges;
Just Magnolia, Sketch
Scrappy Frogs, make your own flower
The ABC Challenge, D for distressing
Totally Tilda Challenge, make your own flowers
Charisma Cardz, try something new (my new colouring technique and the flower)
Copic Creations, shading on or around your image

That's me, I hope you like it. Thanks for dropping by!

Thinking of you

This card was a long time in the making. I really wanted to make a card for my forum friend who sadly lost her brother. I stamped several images but none of them seemed right.
Then one day I was rumaging in a box looking for a different stamp and found this one, and I instantly knew what I wanted to do.

This is my card:

I followed the lovely sketch from Cupcake Craft Challenge

I heat embossed the Stampendous Dandie Trio image with gold embossing powder. I added a couple of flowery bits from stash and a couple of swarovski crystals. I also used peel-offs for the sentiment which I very rarely use - even though I have a book full of them! I inked the edges of everything with vintage photo distress inks - including the ribbon! The papers are from DCWV Once upon a time stack.

Here's the inside:

I wanted to write a few words so I used paper from a note book and punched along the top with my SU spiral punch, again inking all the edges with vintage photo distress ink. And finished it off in a tissue lined box.

Thanks for looking!

I missed the birthday - better not miss the challenge too!!

I missed one of my forum friends birthday last week - ooops! Sorry Christine!! And I made her a card following the challenge from Just Magnolia which is up tomorrow and I don't want to miss the challenge - especially as I made the card on sunday!

This is the sketch:

And this is my card

I coloured the gorgeous dragonfly Tilda with pro-markers.

I used papers from the Basic Grey Sultry pad, ribbon from stash threaded through some silver mesh ribbon and some card candy instead of brads. I punched the flowers and the sentiment is from a See D's set - I thought it suited both the occasion and the image down to the ground!

I didn't take a photo of the inside as I didn't really decorate it - I did say the card was already late!!

Update on invitations... Almost finished!!! Yay!!!

Thanks for dropping by!

Ruby Wedding...

I had to make a really quick card for my aunt and uncle who's 40th wedding anniversary was yesterday and we didn't realise that until yesterday!! So I came to blogland once again for some much needed inspiration! I followed the sketch from Friday Sketchers:

This is my card:

I used the New Years glass from magnolia and I used my stamp-a-ma-jig for the first time! I thought as it was a celebration card they could be clinking together in a cheers like fashion! I used a small amount of dusky pink pro-marker and blended it out to look a bit like pink champagne and coloured the whole glasses with clear stardust pen. I stuck a few pink and clear dew drops to look like some bubbles escaping from the glass. I added some faux stitching to the basic grey backing papers so it fits the Just Magnolia in stitches challenge also.

This is the inside:

I hope you liked it!