CASE Stripes

The following two cards are a CASE of this one by Karen Baker for the crafts meow which I think is just GORGEOUS! It was one of those found-in-lunch-hour-can’t-wait-to-get-home-n-try-for-myself moments…

Basically compiled from the myriad of digi papers I have on my PC and two digi stamps – the first girl was printed twice and fussy cut and the second girl was coloured with a promarker. The hardest part was lining the stripes up but I think I will be creating this again – perhaps completely digitally?

Teachy Thanks

My best friend, who regularly says “Oh I forgot u make cards”, actually remembered and asked me to make a card and box for her sons teacher – he’s left nursery and going to big boy school now, I wish he’d stop getting older! – and I got a bit fixated on the idea of an apple for teacher but it worked out alright in the end:

The apple was a Robo Cop creation and he also cut the letters out but I did them out of white card and coloured them in with pro-markers to get the multi-coloured effect.

When it came to the card, I wanted to continue the writing paper theme but the negative of the above letters actually looked really funky so I used that too:

I tried to make the background look like a desktop, hence the pencils.

All in all, I’m pleased with the end result, I hope Miss Mallen was too!

Mega MegaMix

Its so nice to get a chance to show off to a new audience. When a casually sarcastic comment is made along of the lines of “its my birthday soon, you’ve got time to get me a nice moonpig card” What is a cardmaker to say?! Challenge accepted:

It wasn’t a straightforward make, in fact I think this is version two but when it finally came together I was really pleased with the result. The tape image I used is from SJ by the way.

Limitless Skies

One of the many blogs I follow is the incredibly talented Lucy Abrams, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a card on her blog that I don’t like and she has often been the cause of my parting with my moneys to buy some digital product or other! I decided to have a go at emulating her oft used style of creating a central panel of patterned paper with coordinating paper to either side…. I even stitched it! Get me! Neatly, too!

There is something about these balloon stamps that just make me keep using the cloud & sun I used before, even tho there are clouds and birds already in the set plus I’m sure balloons are also seen in cloudless skies!
And if you’re wondering, I’ve inherited a touch of acrophobia from my dear old dad so I don’t know how I would handle being in a balloon myself! Quite possibly with panic!

Up, Up & Away…

Stampin’ up sure kno how to tempt ya dont they? Each new mini catalogue has something even cooler and the 2012 Summer Mini is no different – curses!
I have a bit of a Jones for the sky and things that go in it – natural or otherwise so I didn’t really have a choice when it came to this ‘Up, Up & Away’ set:

I had this design in my head right away, I stamped the Simon Says Stamp cloud in Versamark, the sun - from a new Crafts Meow set I bought last week Typically Teen (I have no idea what this rough circle is meant to be exactly but it makes a great sun!) in a combination of Versamark & Stampin’ Up Daffodil Delight and the balloon in Pumpkin Pie and clear heat embossed the lot. Then I rubbed a combo of Peacock Feathers & Tumbled Glass Distress Inks over the top to create the sky… it still  needs a sentiment, tho I’m waiting for inspiration to strike!
However the above card was meant to look like this:

I’ve had these landscapes for a good couple of months, I did them back when I first got new blades for Robo Cop and I sat n got very happily inky with a combination of just about every ink I own and liberal application of Tattered Angels spray (this pic doesn’t show the shimmer sadly) but I got the dimensions wrong on that first card so I tried again with this one. I can see a few improvements I could make so its just as well I have two more of these hills, really!
Its just occurred to me that these are both American product - heavy cards depicting a very English scene…?!

Stamping On Glitter?

Hands up if you’d ever thought about stamping on glitter? No? Me neither - I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Jennifer McGuire try it. Of course I had to have a go! And I had to put my own twist on it – mainly cos I didn’t have white, micro fine glitter but I don’t let lil details like that stop me!

Back when I had a go at this die cut card, I also bought a few other Silhouette files including this Hero Arts Cherry Blossom:

After poking out all the awkward bits, I stuck it to a Woodware double sided adhesive sheet and filled in the gaps with glitter:

Then following the original example, I touched my promarkers to the glitter to add a bit of colour:

Ok so the post title is not what I did but it still looks alright, right?!

Fairy Magic

Another fine example of a card that didn’t end up like how it started out:

Clean and simple tho, huh? I’d like to enter it for the CAS-ual Fridays challenge – Pretty In Pink (sorry about the dodgy photo, I promise the fairy’s dress is pink!)

Seems Fishy.

This should be a short post; I saw this gorgeous plate in Matalan:

(there’s still a chance I will go back and buy it) and came home and made this card:

Oh and this one:

I was aiming for a cross between the inimitable CAS style of Aimes (p.s. Happy Birthday, lady) and the out-of-the-box example of Julie Ebersole here.

Not sure of the blue, now, but otherwise I’m pretty happy with it! Whaddya think?

My Name Is Not Brian…

…and I don’t shop at Money Supermarket, but my weekend is turning out to be fairly EPIC!

On Friday, I got to see my favourite comedian of the last 12 months Tim Minchin and thanks to some friends we made in the car park we got to be this close to him with little or no effort on our part:

Plus after a promise of torrential rain at our outdoor picnic/gig, the weather turned out all evening like this:

And then tonight, having already convinced the chief cook and bottle washer to get a takeaway Chinese, I am catching up with my emails and blog roll and lo and behold I get a showCASe mention from the Less Is More challenge blog!

I really don’t ‘do’ less is more or clean and simple in any aspect of my life so this honourable mention is even more astounding. What a shame the queen has already released her honour roll, eh?!

Smokin’!

The first birthday in June is my best friends husband and I always associate him and his bday with a barbecue – even tho its been years and two kids ago, i think, since we celebrated with one! – and this year is no exception! Please be upstanding for a freestanding pop-up card, of which I am most proud:

Above: Popped up in all its glory.

Below left: The back                           Below Right: Folded flat

I originally saw this technique when Loraine made this one and I hunted down the instructions in the Splitcoast Stampers forum and of course added a lil jodpea magic! Please excuse me while I run off and make a toaster one now!
Happy Birthday Mr Mills!

Welcome Lila Grace!

Dear Miss Lila Grace McGuire,

We have never met nor are we likely to, as you live a million miles away ‘across the pond’ but as I stalk, ahem I mean follow your mother on Twitter I feel like I know you all anyway! So I made you a card:

This card did not set out to look like this but as I still had the elements from yesterday’s cards lying around, this is how it ended up!

So congratulations to your uber talented mama & family and welcome to the world, Lila Grace.

p.s. I’m not the only one, there are lots more cards here!

Red, White & Blue!

Who isn’t feeling just a lil bit patriotic right now? Come on, I live in my own lil world and even I’m feeling it! And even if you don’t care, red white & blue is a pretty good colour combination anyway.

Which would explain why Daring Cardmakers and Less Is More have both used them for this weeks challenge!

Luvvley Jub-i-lee!

A Pride Of Peacocks…

Having seen this wonderful card by Cristina on  A Blog Named Hero, I just knew I had to…well go straight out and buy the silhouette file, basically…and a few others while I was at it! And this is my attempt:

The background is a blend of two new (to me, anyway) distress inks; Peacock Feathers & Iced Spruce (u can call off the search, Lise, I treated myself) I bought the reinkers and I may yet live to regret it! I don’t know if you can see but there's a bit of cosmic shimmer thrown in there for good measure too.
And while I was playing about with these die cuts, I tried to see if I could use one as a mask with the flitter glue and gilding flakes… it didn't really work, I think I put too much glue on but then I put the excessively gluey bit of paper to use by adding the gilding flakes directly to it – u like?

Across The Miles

This card was inspired by an earlier card but this time I decided to try and distress an old road atlas (harder than it sounds!). I used the page for this area as the recipient is originally from round here but now lives in Australia – hence the sentiment

Does anybody else have cards...

...that jus dont want to be made? I was so determined to use the inked strip on this card but the other elements took an age to come together!

I works tho, I'm happy with it. Its been a long time since I made a paper flower too!

Con-Grad-Ulations!

 

Not a lot I can say about this card except I absolutely love it and, although the date has passed, it has not actually made it to its intended recipient yet – thru no fault of mine! The colour scheme came about from my printer having a mind of its own, the stripes were meant to be red and were intended for my huts card last month…!

I’d like to enter this for the Daring Cardmakers challenge – Hat Boutique

Feeling a bit sketchy?

I’m not much of a one for sketches, I am often amazed by how people can interpret a series of geometric shapes into a fantastic card but I don’t find they do anything for me… until… My cousin gave me a pile of old mags and I found this article by one of my faves Jo Kill and not only was I inspired to properly try my hand at machine stitching, I’ve since made four cards in the same style:

(of course I only remembered to photograph two!). I’m pleased with this woodgrain, I versamark’d and clear embossed the wood grain stamp onto white card, coloured over it with weathered wood Distress Ink, sliced it up into ‘planks’ and glued it back together onto a backing sheet after roughing up and inking the edges. I let it dry but decided I wasn’t happy with the contrast so I rubbed a white chalk ink pad over the surface to fade the colour out a bit and I like it a lot better! The Stampin’ Up! bird is stamped on a digi paper I altered in Photoshop to resemble a lovely shirt Noel Edmonds was wearing on Deal Or No Deal the other week! Inspiration is everywhere, folks!!

Who Ever Said Wood Grain Had To Be Masculine?

Well actually probably nobody but it sounded good. This is my first creation using my new (Well, new to me) Studio Calico wood grain stamp - I think we will be having many more adventures together!

WOYWW147 – Explosion in a craft factory!

Hello WOYWWers, long time no see! I was plodding away at my bomb site of a desk and I thought “this looks like some of the desks I used to see when I took part in WOYWW!” so I decided to join in this week…

I’m meant to be playing with my haul from the NEC on Sunday but all I seem to be making is a mess! so much so I can’t even find my large… acrylic… block – oh look there it is leaning up against the Scor Buddy! Ha! Moving on…!

Use the link in my sidebar to visit the hub and start the blog hop to some much tidier (and probly much messier too!) desks and Happy Wednesday!

Is It Gonna Blow, Joe?

My best friends eldest boy recently turned four and he is obsessed with dinosaurs and volcanoes – and its taught his mom more than she ever wanted to know about them too!

I knew I wanted to make a pop-up card and I searched out tutorials for a couple of designs but it had to be a volcano, really so I set about working out how to make an eruption!

I’m really pleased with the final effect – and luckily so was Joe!!