Crafty Cardmakers #78 Shaped Card Featuring a Reindeer or Two

Our challenge at Crafty Cardmakers this time around is a shaped card with a Reindeer or Reindeers. Tracey our hostess has requested that we make any shape we like as long as it is not a rectangle or a square.

We are sponsored by both and by with a £10 voucher from The Stamp Man and $10 from Di’s Digi Downloads.

I created my card by placing the patterned reindeer and tree stamps, both free from Simply Cards and Papercraft and from HOTP, either side of two stamps from Kanban, so that they were all on my acrylic block lined up and ready to go. I would normally have stamped the two different types separately because of the differences that can occur in depths of stamps. However, I knew they had to fit inside the Nestie shape I had already cut out for the shaped card. I did a test stamp and luckily they stamped fine. I then ran the whole thing through a cuttlebug embossing folder which is designed to look like random snow falling. I did it so that it debossed, instead of embossed as I knew that I was going to ink to create the night sky, and embossed dots would have picked up the ink more when I did this.

As you can see the ink did catch the edges of the holes a little more than the rest of the card, but it’s not as noticeable as it would have been had I embossed instead of debossed it. I used a zig glue pen to dot into the holes made by the folder and also the tree and ground I used Snow Writer on, I then sprinkled with glamour dust.

I cut a matching piece of card and created a spine which I glued to the back of the design side. This looks better, I think, than having to miss cutting the edge of the design in order to make a shaped card from folded cardstock with no gluing required.

This has made a lovely small card which under UK postage regulations can go for the cheapest possible amount! I might have to make a few more for the ones that have to be mailed…..

I am entering this into

Charisma Cardz – #42 Don’t Be Square

Crafty Ann’s Challenge – #77 Christmas In October

Crafty Hazlenut’s Christmas Challenge – #96 No Patterned Paper

DYSU – #95 Embossing Wet or Dry

Gingerloft Challenge – GL51 No Colouring Allowed (please feel free to delete if not appropriate but your challenge said no copics and pencils I only used an inkpad for the sky!)

Hot Shot Craft – #12 Bling It On

One Stitch at a Time – #137 Make 1 For Christmas

Penny Black and More – October Animal Magic

Robyn’s Fetish – #131 Use An Embossing Folder

Southern Girls # 56 Animal Crackers

Lexi’s Creations #77 Special Birthday

Woohooo Lexi’s Creations is three years old and in celebration of that we would like to see you create a special birthday card.

We are sponsored by with a free seat to a class of their choice and by our original sponsor and creator of Lexi’s Creations, Lexi from with 5 digis from her store.

My card is special because it’s for a little girl who is One year old. Baby’s first birthday, such an exciting time. I can still remember my own Daughter’s first birthday almost 28 years ago! She was already into so much mischief then, climbing into the bay window, putting things down the toilet and blocking it, and just generally filling my life with laughter! She started walking bang on her EIGHT month birthday! I remember my Mum bought her one of those baby walker things, this one was a huge telephone on wheels with a tall handle that the baby is supposed to hang onto and push the phone across the floor, holding on in order to steady themselves.

My Mother’s face was an absolute treat when she sat and assembled this and placed it on the carpet in front of Emily, she then got all excited as Emily scrabbled to pull herself up until she was holding onto the handle. It was at this point whilst my Mum was whispering to me ‘look, look!’ that Emily lifted the telephone walker off the ground and walked a few steps with it in the air! Happy Days…………. oooops back to the matter in hand. So my card is for a one year old.

How difficult is it to find a number one that you can print! I searched and searched but couldn’t find one with a fat enough bottom! I wanted to create a One shaped card, but couldn’t find one suitable for doing that with. Eventually I found the one I have used on my pc but it wasn’t fat enough to support what I wanted to do, so I just printed it and then trimmed it out in Basic Grey paper. I have edged it and the top layer of bp with white pen. The swirl on the number is a sizzlit die. The little circle banners are from Whimsey Stamps with their matching stamp set. The image is Panda Dress Up Dee from our own Lexi, coloured with copics, although I am not happy with the panda’s fur. The little teddy, at least I think it’s a teddy, charm was in my stash.

I am entering this into:-

Amusing Challenges – Anything Goes

Basic Grey Challenges – #80 Anything Goes

Brown Sugar Challenge – #13 Anything Goes

Card Makin’ Mamas – Anything Goes

Fairytale Challenge – #53 Monochrome with Dies and Punches

Fussy and Fancy – #74 Anything Goes

Glitter n Sparkle – #4 Monochrome

The Poodles Parlour – Anything Goes

SJ Papercrafts – #10 Birthdays

Stampin’ For the Weekend – #20 Anything Goes

Dream Valley 44 – Glitter and Bling

Our challenge today over at Dream Valley is Glitter and Bling, so basically anything sparkly, twinkly or with a bit of bling!

Our sponsor this time is with four of their fabulous images on offer to our winner.

It’s always difficult getting a picture of something with mirri on it, as there is always a glare, so apologies if this is rather bright!

My image is from IndigoBlu and she is called Ella Bella. I have tried very hard to get on with IndigoBlu’s flitter glue but to no avail, things do not go according to plan. However, luckily I had some Stampendous Stamp’n’Bond, which is a lovely glue embossing powder. I stamped Ella onto cardstock with a versamark pad and then sprinkled on the Stamp’n’Bond. You heat it until it goes clear at which point it is tacky. I dunked Ella into a tub of Lancashire Rose gilding flakes and made sure she was generously covered. After tidying it up this is what I was left with.

My corners were slightly more tricky. I put some double sided adhesive sheet onto card and the first one I cut out with the Memory Box Macarena corner and then peeled back the protective paper and dunked it into the flakes. However, this particular die is very slender and has very thin tendrils and it was extremely difficult to rub with the scoochy sponge to remove the excess flakes without also tearing the diecut. So the other three I had to waste flake by dunking the whole of the rest of the sheet and covering that before cutting out the remaining corners. I still have the excess, trying to see if I can find a small die or punch to use with it!!! Waste not, want not………….

The picture above is of the first one I cut, and you can see small areas where it was next to impossible to remove the excess flakes, but the other three, whilst wasteful were much easier. I dare say a thicker die would have been fine but not this delicate one.

The card was finished off with a Marianne Creatables die cut from both the white cardstock and gorgeous copper mirri paper.

I am entering Ella into the following:-

Amusing Challenges – Anything Goes

Brown Sugar Challenge – #13 Anything Goes

Card Makin’ Mamas – Anything Goes

Die Cuttin Divas – #88 Shimmer, Glimmer, Gloss

Flourishes – #192 Birthday

Fussy and Fancy – #74 Anything Goes

Gingerloft Challenge – GL51 No Colouring Allowed

Hot Shot Craft – #12 Bling It On

The Outlawz – Twisted Thursday Anything Goes/halloween twist

The Poodles Parlour – Anything Goes

Sympathy Card

This is one of those cards we all hate to have to make.

A forum friend’s Husband recently lost his battle with cancer, and I sent her this card.

I just wanted something simple with a heartfelt message and I felt that this gorgeous verse said all I wanted to say and more.

The background is a Die’Sire Embossing Folder, a lovely new 8x8 folder. The mat is Spellbinders Decorative Labels 8, and the verse I have had for a while but found on the internet.

I hope it gave her some comfort. I know my Mum used to go back to the cards sent when my Dad passed away again and again and they certainly gave her some comfort.

I am sharing this in the following:-

Challenges4Everybody – #5 Anything Goes

C.R.A.F.T. Challenge – #176 Monochromatic

Craft Punked – #41 With Deepest Sympathy

Crafts and Me – #105 Anything Goes

Crafty Sentiments – Anything Goes

Delicious Doodles – #6 Monochrome

Divas By Design – #56 Anything Goes

Eclectic Ellapu – #1 Anything Goes

Guylou’s Inimitability Challenge – Just to Die For (as in the fancy die cut not a pun!)

My Heart Pieces – Monochromatic

Lexi’s Creations #76 Hallowe’en

Our challenge today is Hallowe’en.

We are sponsored by Joanna Sheen with a £10 voucher for her store

Like my Dream Valley challenge earlier this image was mainly digital. The papers are from Memory Box’s Nightfall paper and I ran it through the printer and printed various witches and bats onto it. It already had the ravens and tree and text. Then I stamped the spooky house from Elusive Images with the tree and scrolly bit and embossed with black sparkle embossing powder. I also stamped a couple of bats from the same stamp sheet and embossed them in black and then trimmed them out. The railings are also from Memory Box, along with the gate. I created the cobwebs in the same was as before on my besom by pulling apart a cotton wool ball. I did try to make them look really old and dusty by running them through dust on my lounge unit (shhh you didn’t really hear me say that my lounge is full of dust!), but although that showed up in real life a photograph didn’t capture it.

The text was from Simply Cards and Papercrafts free downloads.

I am entering this into the following challenges:-

Aud Sentiments – #65 Use a Halloween Phrase or Word

Broken Box Stock – #11 Halloween

Card Makin’ Mamas – Time To Get Spooky

Challenge Up Your Life – #80 Autumn/Halloween

Shelley’s Images – Tic, Tac, Toe {I chose the colour orange, free (most of my images) and digi (most of my images again)}

Crafty Calendar – October All Things Spooky

No Matter Which Challenges – #3 Halloween Creations

So Artful Challenges – Harvest Moon

Scrapper’s Delight – Scaring Up Some Fun

Scrappy Frog – Fall/Halloween Challenge

ABC Z for Zoo

Our challenge today at ABC is Z for Zoo, which means that we want to see animal inspired creations, for example we would like you to use an animal or animal print on your creation, you can add other images too if you like just as long as you have an animal or animal print there too ( Sorry but bugs and butterflies don't count!)

We are sponsored by Pretty Little Ribbon Shop with this fabulous prize

which will be perfect for your Christmas creations!

For my card I used a combination of Prima papers from the Fairy Fauna pad and also Memory Box Viola paper pack. The corrugated pale green paper I had in my stash.

My image is from Delicious Doodles at Stitchy Bear Stamps and I think she is just beautiful. I coloured her with copics to match the background papers. The flower is from some lush glittery leopard print card that I wanted to use, but was a bit too overpowering in a larger capacity, as the colours were more yellow than orange, but as a flower I felt it fitted in better. The mat behind Katrina is the Spellbinders Decorative Labels 8 which are just gorgeous and the border was cut with a punch that doesn’t have a name so no idea what it was called.

I am entering this into the following challenges:-

2 Sisters Challenge – #113 Anything Goes

Challenges4Everybody – #5 Anything Goes

Crafts and Me – #105 Anything Goes

Divas By Design – #56 Anything Goes

Eclectic Ellapu – #1 Anything Goes

Frosted Designs – Wild (my big cat!)

Guylou’s Inimitability – Just To Die For

Southern Girls – #55 Tie A Ribbon Around It

Sugar Creek Hollow – #33 Show Some Sparkle

Totally Papercrafts – #138 Make Your Own Flowers

Dream Valley #43 Hallowe’en

Our challenge at Dream Valley this time around is Hallowe’en. So any guesses what that could mean? Hmmmmm. Ghosties and ghoulies and long legged beasties and things that go bump in the night! Clean bumps only please, LOL

We are sponsored by Bugaboo Stamps with a $21 dollar prize!!!

My creation is largely digital, well papers, and images anyhow. The papers are from Bearly Mine and were various freebies that were on offer! The images were also freebies from Simply Cards and Papercrafts Magazine, and were from last year and this year’s hallowe’en digital images that were freely downloadable.

They are coloured with promarkers. The spider web lace is from my stash as is the little besom! The cobwebs were made by pulling apart a cotton wool ball.

If you look closely I stitched around the outside with purple thread as the gorgeous spellbinder die I used created a lovely even circle of dots just begging to be stitched. I think it might have been better to have used a less busy paper though so that they would show up more.

I am entering this into the following challenges:-

Allsorts Challenge – #176 Too Cute to Spook

Challenge Up Your  Life – #80 Autumn/Halloween

CI Paints – Inspired by Halloween Treats

Crafty Calendar – October All Things Spooky

Hooked On Craft – #25 Halloween

Ink It Pink – #15 Fall/Halloween

Just Some Lines – Too Cute to Spook

No Matter Which Challenges – #3 Halloween Creations

Scrapper’s Delight – Scaring Up Some Fun

Scrappy Frog – Fall/Halloween Challenge

Design Team Call at ABC

Just to let you all know we are running a Design Team call at ABC Challenges and the details can be found here. If you think you would enjoy working with the team and can meet the requirements listed in the link then add your name to the list before 1st November.

Lexi’s Creations 75 Pink

Our challenge to you at Lexi’s Creations this time is ‘pink’ in recognition of the fact that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

My Mum was a breast cancer survivor of 25 years, but she acted quickly and was fortunate enough to only have a lumpectomy.

We are sponsored by and a lot of the team have used Priyanka’s lovely images for this challenge. I used a Saturated Canary freebie, thank you Krista, which I coloured with my copics, and trimmed out with a scalloped nestie. The glitter paper behind the image was trimmed out with another spellbinders die. This is particularly lovely glitter paper and I did not want to waste any so I gutted it by trimming a piece to fit behind my embossed bit and then placed the decorative die roughly central and cut my image mat from there. I do so hate the thought of lovely card like this going to waste behind something which you can’t see!

The embossing was made with the lovely Tied Together embossing folder. After I had embossed the card I realised I didn’t have any pink pearls to place in the crossing areas of the embossed design so I made my own. I dotted plain PVA glue into each join and let it dry for approximately half an hour, after it had enough of a skin so that I hoped it wouldn’t flatten I liberally dusted over with Cosmic Shimmer glue and left to dry. I was perhaps a little early as a couple of the dots did drop, but the rest hardened up a treat and looked lovely and pink and sparkly.

I did every dot on every join, but realised later that I really only needed to do those that were outside of the bright pink mat, so spent a lot of time creating dots you can’t see!

The hatpins and flower are from my stash, and I made the Breast Cancer ribbon with a small scrap of white seam binding which I died pink with the same DI that I used to shade around the outside of my image. It’s one of the limited edition ones called Picked Raspberry. Originally I had used Spun Sugar around the edge to just give a soft shade, but when I came in about 30 mins after edging the image the colour had changed from light pink to a sort of yellow! No idea if this was residual ink on my new Splodgeaway Mat or residual ink from the edge of the scalloped die! You can still just about see some yellow at the very edge of the embossed area surrounding the image!

I am entering this into the following challenges:-

A Gem of a Challenge – #56 For the Girls

C.R.A.F.T. – 174 Make Your Own Embellishments (Bow Posey)

Crafty Ribbons – #29 Anything But Square

Frosted Designs – Embossing

Kenny K’s Krafty Krew – #113 No Squares Allowed

Saturated Canary - #27 Anything From Your Office/Desk (pva glue to make glitter pearls)

That Crafting Place – Make Your Own Background (the tied together folder plus pva and glitter glue pearls)

The Outlawz Copic/Promarker Challenge – Anything Goes

Totally Gorjuss – #151 Punch and Die

Totally Papercrafts – #136 Pretty Pastels

ABC Y for Y Chromosome

Our challenge at ABC this time is Y for Y Chromosome, or in other words a male themed challenge.

We are sponsored by Stamp Fairy with a $10 certificate for their store.

I kept my design relatively simple. I added some bazill card to an 8x8 card blank and layered over  some Papermania Wellington paper. All the layers are from the same paper pack. The motifs across the centre are from a K&Co card ribbon pack. The image is from Kanban from their Jasper stamp sheet and I coloured him in Blue Grey and Grey Flex and Promarkers. Three buttons from my stash are the only other embellishment. I do struggle with male themed cards as I never know what to use to fill ‘gaps’ in my design, but these buttons seemed ideal and matched quite well with the buttons on Jasper’s coat.

I am entering this into the following:-

Charisma Cardz – #38 Something For The Guys

CI Paints – Anything Goes

Here Come The Boys – #37 Monochrome

I Love Promarkers – #136 A Male Theme

OSAAT – #133 Butterflies or Buttons

The Paper Shelter – #83 Anything Goes

Simply Create – Linky Party #4

Sweet N Sassy – SNSDC73 Hip To Be Square

The Outlawz Copic/Promarker Challenge – Anything Goes

Totally Gorjuss – #151 Punch and Die

Dream Valley 42 Go Pink

At Dream Valley we also have a pink themed challenge for you this time, again inspired by Breast Cancer Awareness month. I suspect there will be lots of these challenges about over the next few weeks!

We are sponsored by Di’s Digi Downloads with a $10 gift certificate for their store.

I wanted to create for the challenge but also make something that could be used for a birthday card later. There are only so many people you can give a card to with an actual breast cancer themed image on! So to that end I chose the lovely Penny Black stamp of the kitten in the bra on the washing line. Obviously coloured in pink, with my copics. I again edged the spellbinder due cut edge with Picked Raspberry. The papers on the next two layers are from the Annabelle paper pack from Wild Rose Studio, and the paper in the background is from WRMK’s Tiffany pad.

          

I die cut three Cherry Lynn Victorian Romance die from the same paper as the background, and also from pale pink glitter card. The two plain ones I dusted over lightly with the Picked Raspberry pad to make them pop off the card a bit better as they did tend to just blend right in.

The flowers are mainly from Wild Orchid Crafts, the pins from my stash, and the lovely butterfly was the ornate end of a hair stick pin!

I am entering this into the following challenges:-

A Gem of a Challenge – #56 For The Girls

Crafting For All Seasons – #36 Things With Wings

OSAAT – #133 Butterflies or Buttons

Flutterby Wednesday – #207 Open

Simply Create – Linky Party #4

Sweet N Sassy – SNSDC73 Hip To Be Square

The Paper Shelter – #83 Anything Goes

The Outlawz Copic/Promarker Challenge – Anything Goes

Totally Gorjuss – #151 Punch and Die

Totally Papercrafts – #136 Pretty Pastels