Father's Day

Another card made with ingredients from Joanna Sheen's Fashion Boutique CD.

Something simple

At heart, I'm not really an arty sort of person. This is the type of card that I would go out and buy. Very simple, with lots of white space. The stamp is from Onefourzero, coloured with Prismacolor pencils, then clear embossed. Background embossing done with the Cuttlebug and Score-It board, and die cut numbers for an aunt's 60th birthday.

Fashion Boutique Birthday Card

OH asked me to make a birthday card for his aunt. He chose the image from Joanna Sheen's Fashion Boutique CD and he also decided on the text to go with it. I just put the bits together. Backing paper is from the same CD, the text is printed onto an acetate wrap, onto which I have stamped some Autumn Leaves flourishes in white Stazon and added some white Sakura souffle pen touches. The image is matted and layered and all finished off with a double ribbon bow.

My first ever Penny Black

From the new Penny Black clear stamp set, coloured with Prismacolors. Base card is embossed with two different Cuttlebug folders. Finished with a die-cut heart.

Did you miss me? No, I thought not.

Prismacolor Pencils and Primas

I haven't been posting very much recently, because my mojo seems to be taking a sabbatical. I'm going through one of those periods where I have loads of ideas until I sit down at my craft table and then nothing springs to mind. Perhaps I have TOO much stuff to play with, and certainly too many things that I couldn't live without when I bought them, but have yet to see the light of day. This stamp is a prime example of that. It's one of four that I bought from Clarity Stamps at the Papercrafts Show in Harrogate a month ago. The other three feature stylish ladies in the Erte style, where this one has a much more modern feel. After fiddling about with the idea of more paper piecing (see my previous cards made with Clarity stamps), I decided to do something different and colour this one with some of the gorgeous Prismacolor pencils that OH bought for me from the US at Christmas. I'm still getting used to using the Magic Coloured Pencil technique, but I have to say I'm fairly pleased with this attempt. Trying to get away from the idea of having the main focal image just sat on a blank piece of white card, I masked the lady off and stamped a portion of a huge Judikins harlequin background stamp in sepia, together with a clear text stamp by Rita Marie. I then added some texture by sponging Brilliance Pearlescent Jade ink around the figure. I couldn't resist using a toning paper by Basic Grey and some Prima flowers - oh, and of course some bling in the form of iridescent gemstones in the centre of the flowers.

Thanks for looking.

DCWV Geisha

I adore the Far East stack by DCWV but I have to admit that I struggle with knowing how to use it to best effect. Here is a card on which I combined different patterns from the stack and added as a focal point a geisha image from Tanda stamps, which I coloured with metallic watercolour pencils, which gives a lovely sheen that you can't see in the scan. The card was made for a 70th birthday, hence the die cut numbers on the slider piece.

Stampbord Birthday Card

This is a birthday card that I made for my Mother-in-Law, using stampbord in two sizes. The larger piece is stamped with a butterfly image from Elusive Images, for the text, I stuck die cut letters onto the smaller stampbord pieces and triple embossed them. The backing 'paper' is from the Artylicious Damask Delights CD, printed onto acetate and backed with plain paper, onto which I stamped a couple of flourishes. Finally, I added some Sizzlits corners and a few Prima flowers, with black pearls stuck in the centre. The final card looks very sumptuous and really dimensional.

Thanks for looking.

Funky Wedding Card

I just love these American Art stamps and this is the first card that I've made with them. Image simply coloured with Tombow pens and highlighted with Sakura clear stardust pen, mounted onto white glitter card, then onto a piece embossed with the Cuttlebug. The text stamp is from CuddlyBuddly. A gem brad and odd tiny gems add some bling to the finished piece.

Elegant Lady

Main image is a stamp from Clarity Stamps, paper pieced with Basic Grey paper to tone in with the backing papers from the Periphery range. I embossed a piece of blue velvet paper in the Cuttlebug and was really impressed with how it turned out, so I'll be using that technique again. Text stamp is from Simply Friends. Flowers and bling to finish it off.

I hope you like it.

Rainbow Lady's Fairy Challenge

Well, not only have I completed one challenge this week, but I've also managed to do a second - I can hardly believe it! This one is in response to the fairy challenge set by Cynthia, aka Rainbow Lady. It's another decoupage card (which means I'll have to make a box for it), mounted on a panel which I have half-embossed with the Cuttlebug Stylised Flowers folder, and added a few gems for a bit of sparkle. Unfortunately the scan doesn't show up the full dimensional effect of the card.

Flutterby Butterfly Challenge

I finally managed to complete a card for a challenge. This week's Daring Cardmakers challenge is to incorporate a butterfly on your card, and this is my offering. The white background is stamped with an Elusive Images damask stamp and embossed with clear powder. I printed a similar design from the Atrylicious Damask Delights CD onto acetate and adhered three strips of the printed acetate with jewel brads by Making Memories. The butterfly is from the Artylicious Butterfly Bliss CD, printed onto clear inkjet shrink plastic and shrunk down. Text is also from an Elusive Images stamp.

Thanks for looking.

Monochrome for Men

Here are two more cards for men made from Joanna Sheen's Fashion Boutique CD. (I promise I will make some cards for ladies from this wonderful CD very soon, I just have to decide which of the many fabulous images to use.). Anyway, the first card is made with a mixture of black on white printed vellum and a co-ordinating white on black paper. I made the embellishments with die cuts made with the Cuttlebug, and added one plain and one fancy silver brad. The vellum sheet forms the front of the card, so it sort of 'floats' in real life. For the second card I used DCWV black and white paper together with a Cuttlebug embossed paned, and added some charms from a set that I bought ages ago at a show. Finished off with a couple of die cut corners. I'm quite pleased with these, so much that I may use one of them for OH's birthday in May.

Dragon Thank You

For some light relief from making Christmas cards in April, I made this card to say Thank You to our friends for hosting us at their Spanish villa recently. At long last I used one of the lovely dragon stamps that I got from Rubber Bandit in New Zealand. That's a long way away I can hear you say, but in fact delivery was incredibly fast - from online order to my door within a week! If only the majority of UK craft suppliers could do so well......Anyway, the stamped image is coloured with Sakura Stardust pens and then mounted onto yet more Basic Grey paper. For the greeting, I used one of my new Cuddly Buddly stamps, which are extremely useful and fantastic value for money, so of course I just had to get three sets.

Having spent some time reading the instructions for my scanner (always a good idea if all else fails), I'm hoping that I have finally solved the problem with my scanned images not always being in sharp focus, which I'm sure will come as a great relief to anyone looking here. Fingers crossed!

Two more Christmas cards

Here are a couple more cards made using the Woodware clear stamps by Francoise Read. I don't know why, but I'm always drawn to images of the three kings and these ones are great to colour in and cut out. For the first card, I decoupaged the kings and mounted them onto some nice handmade paper that I got in a pack. The second card uses backing paper from the Artylicious Butterfly Bliss CD. Greetings on both cards are from Craftwork Cards.

Rock Hard Fairy

I'm not generally a big fan of decoupage, mainly because I usually lack the patience to do all that intricate cutting out. However, when I was asked to make a card for a teenage Goth, I thought the Rock Hard fairies would provide the ideal solution. Paper from the DCWV RockStar range make an ideal backdrop for these designs, and I couldn't resist a little bit of stamping and the addition of some black gems. Sadly, my scanner doesn't cope very well with cards that are very dimensional, as this one is. Because of the depth of the card, I had to make a box for it, and for this I did a clear acetate lid.

Thanks for looking.

More Fairies

The lovely main image is from a stamp by Joanna Sheen, and I used chalks to colour it, adding just a touch of Sakura clear sparkle pen on the stars and the fairies' wings. The patterned background is from the DCWV Glitter Stack, twinned with a panel embossed with my favourite Cuttlebug folder of hte moment. A bow of grosgrain ribbon finishes off the card.

Wow! I've been given an award!!

Many, many thanks to Anne Campbell for giving me the Arte y Pico award. It was such a lovely surprise to receive this on my return from holiday. As per the rules of the award, I have to choose 5 more blogs to give the award to. I really can't decide right now, so I'll have to go away and have a browse and a think, but right now I'm just so excited to be awarded anything for my crafting that I'm on Cloud 9!!!

Thinking of Christmas in April

I can't believe it - just three days ago I was soaking up the Spanish sunshine, and I wake up this morning to find a covering of snow on the cars and the trees! Suddenly it doesn't feel quite so ridiculous to be making Christmas cards, so here is my latest attempt to get ahead of myself.

I used clear stamps by Francoise Read for Woodware and backing paper from the Artylicious Seasons Greetings CD. Finished off with die cut letters and some Zoomz, which are rapidly becoming some of my favourite embellishments.

Thanks for looking.

All for now!

I won't be adding any new posts to my blog for the next week, as I'm off to Spain for a break and hopefully some sunshine. I'd just like to say thanks to everyone who has taken the time to look at my cards. I'd be really grateful for any comments from viewers - please do let me know if you like my work or if you have any constructive suggestions about how I can improve them.

Thanks again!

No stamping here!

For a quick(ish) birthday card I used Basic Grey paper, a sentiment from a HOTP kit, which I coloured with chalk, and a few Prima flowers, all topped off with a white satin ribbon.