Butterflies and Gems

The challenge at Southern Girls Challenge Blog is “Brads, Gems or Dew Drops” Well I opted for gems as I had some beautiful Prima swirls just waiting to be used  and I even opened up my DCWV Mariposa paper pack which has been stored in the “too nice to use” section of my stash!

I started by inking a paper doily with blue and gold ink pads, distressed the edges of the butterfly paper and cut out the two larger butterflies from another sheet of the paper.  I inked the Tim Holtz birdcage with a gold ink pad and added a few sticky back gems and then added the Prima gems around it. The title is chipboard letters covered with PVA glue and dipped in gold glitter – well, that was messy – I’ve hoovered twice and the glitter is nearly gone – I really shouldn’t craft in the lounge!

I would like to enter my layout in the following challenges;

Southern Girls Challenge – brads, gems or dew drops

Lace and Pearls–Challenge 24

I can’t believe that we are already at week 24 in the Scrapbook Sisters Card Challenge and the theme of this weeks challenge is Lace and Pearls.

I started with a square card base which is my favourite card shape and used a piece of K & Co baking paper which has been in my paper collection for many, many years but seemed to fit perfectly with the mother of pearl buttons. The vintage adverts in the background are from a sheet of Graphic 45 paper mounted on to Bo Bunny dotted green paper. The stamps are Scrapbook Sisters Fashion House Stamps which I stamped onto apiece of Basic Grey for the mannequin and then I stamped the bodice on to the Bo Bunny green dotted paper and added some foam pads underneath to give it some shape and then finished it off with black picot trim and a faux pearl necklace.

Have a look at Scrapbook Sisters blog to join the challenge and to get a chance to win some digi stamps in the half-yearly draw.

Shimelle’s Weekly Sketch

Here is the sketch this week at Shimelle’s blog. I don’t know how she manages to keep blogging from around the world on her travels when some weeks fly past  and I haven’t blogged at all.

Here is my layout

 

The photos show Matt at about 15 months old on his first real trip to the beach. He didn’t like the feel of the sand between his toes and we had to carry him across the sand to the waters edge to paddle. We were camping in the New Forest with family and friends, the weather was hot and sunny and it is a holiday that I look back on with many happy memories – even though everyone likes to remind me of how frightened I was of the hedgehogs that came into our tent at night. I know!!!!…….hedgehogs! but they are my one phobia……give me spiders any day!

The die cut paper is from Making Memories Flutter Collection. I used Bazzil Just The Edge borders and embellished the butterfly border with butterflies punched with the Woodware butterfly punch and a couple of gems on each one. I also added a collection of smaller butterflies at the top of the page. The alphas are Doodlebug and the journaling tab is American Crafts which was my bargain purchase at TK Maxx last week at £2 for the booklet of journaling stickers.

All Dressed Up

Gayle Bond has been busy designing a new range of stamps for Scrapbook Sisters and they are adorable. As I am part of the design team I have been lucky enough to be able to play with them before they were released and this is the first of several cards that I have made.

As soon as I saw this image – All Dressed Up - I knew that I wanted to colour it with a monochrome effect. I only used 4 different copics and a brown gel pen for the beads in the necklace and bracelet. The background paper is Bo Bunny Chiffon Dots and a slightly darker dotted paper that was from my scrap box so I have no idea what it was unfortunately. I used a beautiful Martha Stewart border punch and added a piece of narrow brown ribbon. I am looking forward to colouring it again using other colours but the same monochrome effect.

Have a look at the Scrapbook Sisters Blog and you can see some more examples of this digi stamp and also the other new stamps too.

I would like to enter this card for the following challenges;

Little Claires – Anything Goes

Phindy’s Place – Monochrome

Stampin For The Weekend – Monochrome

Wags and Whiskers – Punches

For A Man

I think many of us find making cards for men more difficult than making cards for women. I know that if I am making a card for a challenge I usually make cards for women. I decided that I need ro have a few cards for men in my card box just in case I am asked for one.

For this one my starting point was the Mojo Monday sketch.

I used a free digi download from Create With TLC which although it doesn’t show well in the photo I cut out a second copy of the car and layered it up. I stuck to a monochrome scheme and used just grey copics. The patterned paper is from my stash, the circles are cut with Nestabilities, the greeting is rub-on alphas and there are three red brads for a little splash of colour – I’ve kept this one nice and simple.

I would like to enter the following challenges;

Mojo Monday – sketch

Desert Island Crafters – Use 3

My Time to Craft – Circles

Digital Tuesday – diecut and digital element

Tiddly Inks – monochromatic

Karber Weekly – Digi and Birthday

Challenge up your life– Monochromatic

Crafty Katz - one for the boys/men

Baby, Baby

This weeks challenge at Scrapbook Sisters is

 Baby Baby

Now this is a bit of a challenge for me as I think I have only ever made one baby card! We haven’t had any babies in our close family for nearly 12 years and none of my friends have had babies. I think perhaps we are getting towards the time that it’s the next generation that will be having the babies.

When it came to making a card for this challenge I realised that I don’t really have any baby themed stamps so something different for me this week as I used a die cut.

I got out my Cuttlebug machine and once I started cutting I couldn’t stop! All the circles and frames are cut with Nestabilities, the corners are a original Sizzix die – one of the little green ones and the teddy is a Sizzlets die which I bought a couple of years ago from the Stevenage Stamp Show – I found it in the bargain bucket and knew it would come in handy at some point.

I cut it once on a light brown card and then again on the pink spotty paper from which I cut out the pink t-shirt. I used Copics to add some shade under the edge of the t-shirt and on the feet to add some definition and also on the cheeks and ears. I then added a few touches with a black fine liner pen which really was not as fine as I would have liked I think I will buy one of the Copic fine liners from Scrapbook Sisters as they seem to be much finer. The final touch was to push out the eyes and nose and add a little piece of black card behind and a little spot of white pen to highlight.

Why not go and have a look at the Card Challenge at Scrapbook Sisters and join in!

Three layouts, 2 challenges

This is a bit of a catching up post – I hardly crafted at all at home but did enjoy the company of the lovely ladies at my fortnightly scrapbook class at Scrapbook Sisters on Thursday evening and again at the Scrap Attack on Friday evening ( which really was a laugh) and with a little bit of crafting time yesterday evening I have now finished 3 layouts.

These first two layouts are for Shimelle’s  weekly sketch,  the first one is last weeks sketch.

The papers are the beautiful Earth Love range from Cosmo Cricket  - I love the fresh green and cream and brown. The chipboard embellishments are from Maya Road and have been languishing in my craft stash for too long!

And here is this weeks layout from Shimelle’s sketch;

For this layout I have used K & Co papers which were left over from Scrapbook Sisters Birthday Bash Class last year. The embellishments are either K&Co stickers or cut from the papers with glossy accents on the butterflies and the title is American Crafts Thickers.

The third layout today is for this weeks challenge at Creative Scrappers.

The papers are the Sophie range from My Minds Eye as is the overlay on the photograph. The flowers are crumpled scalloped circles with a punched centre, glossy accents and a button and the green swirls are from the EK Success label punch.

I’ve been featured ………

I’m very happy to say that my Grunge Paper bag has been featured today on Ikki’s Cuttlebug Cupboasrd so pop over and take a look at her lovely blog with lots of lovely Cuttlebug ideas amongst other things – thanks Ikki!

Here is the original post about the bag if you would like another look – here.

I would love to see your comments and don’t forget to visit Ikki’s blog too.

A Valentine Card

The challenge this week at Scrapbook Sisters is Valentines.

I used 7Gypsies papers from a 6x6 paper pad. All alphas, key and stars are Grungeboard coloured with a gold Paint Dabber and the heart and the card base are both edged with the gold paint dabber too.

A short post from me today but why not join the challenge at Scrapbook Sisters?

4x6 Photo Love

Shimelle has a new free online course called 4x6 Photo Love starting in January with one 4x6 photo on the layout and by December there will be layouts with twelve 4x6 photos! Here is my layout;

I made the rosettes from strips of paper which I scored and folded and with two of them I used border punches to make a fancy edge to the rosettes. The little heart button was bought from a fabric shop in Rochester and is handmade. The papers are Sassafrass Lass and are quite old and definitely not much like their more recent style although I do love them all.

Just a Little Mouse

I have used this Penny Black stamp over and over again. I bought it second hand years ago from a local shop which has now closed down

I have used this weeks Mojo Monday sketch as a starting point.

As I usually make square cards and avoid round ones I decided that I should challenge myself and make a round one. I only have 2 sets of Nestabilities and fortunately they are circles and scalloped circles!.

I used black and white cardstock with Doodlebug red dotty paper (must be subconsciously influenced by the Scrapbook Sisters Card Challenge ) The little black and white buttons are from Papermania.

Challenges I would like to enter this card in;

Mojo Monday – sketch

Flourishes – Valentine

Papertake – Anything goes

Tuesday Taggers – Feel The Lurve

Bunny Zoe’s Crafts – Love is in the air

KB Challenges – Hearts

Lexi’s Creations –Valentines

Simon Says Stamp and Show – show some love

Stamping Scraping Challenge – Valentines

Cheerful Stamp Pad – Valentines

Creative Cowgirls – Love is in the air

Craft Our Days Away – Love

Red, Red, Red………..

……that’s the theme at this weeks Scrapbook Sisters Card Challenge. Now red is usually I colour that I usually reserve for my card making for my Christmas Cards so this was a bit of a different one for me. My starting point was my Gayle Bond Fashion House stamp as I thought that this classy lady would definitely wear red!  I have the original clear stamp but all Gayle’s Fashion House stamps are now available as digi stamps see here.

Instead of using Copics to colour as I usually do i have used my Adirondak ink pads to paint with using techniques that I learned a couple of years at Gayle’s Painting and Shading class.

I added an adhesive pearl border and also another small pearl as a ring and a larger one as an embellishment on the dress.

I also added a couple of die-cuts to decorate the inside of the card.

The paper I used was from my scrap drawer and is from My Minds Eye.

Have a look at the Scrapbook Sisters Blog to join the challenge.