Easel Does it…!

Time for a new challenge at Sentimental Sundays, and this week we’re looking for your easel cards!!

Our sponsor this week was Sami Stamps (excuse me, while I do my happy dance!).  I chose Dad’s Side Kick for my card as I couldn’t wait to pop this little fella on his own skyline!

I toyed with the idea of getting all creative and trying a twisted easel card, but time was against me a little this week, so I played it safe and just made a straight easel card.  Looking at how my card turned out, I’m not sure it would have worked as a twisted easel anyway, so it’s all good!

I coloured Dad’s Side Kick in with ProMarkers, after printing and cutting the image on the Silhouette.  The background papers are both from White Fox Graphics on Etsy; I used the trace option in the Silhouette software to allow me to cut out the skyline so the cloudy sky could show through.

The sentiment was simply printed directly onto the card, and clear embossed.  I’ve popped it on some 3D tape to allow it to act as the stopper for the card too.  The contrasting green ribbon at the bottom is by American Crafts.

Easel cards make a great change – both to make and to receive!  I used to be a little wary as I thought they would be complicated, but a quick Google search later proved me wrong!  Have a go, I bet you’ll be glad you did!

I’d like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Sami Stamps – Challenge 17 DT Call

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Future Rock Star!!

Here’s a birthday card I’ve made for a young boy, which is based on the current sketch over at Sketch ‘n’ Stash.

The image is from All Dressed Up; I’ve had it lurking on my desk, uncoloured for a while now, so it was good to finally get around to giving him some colour and pop him on a card!!

I’ve coloured him using Pro-Markers, then created some mats using cardstock embossed with two different folders.  I was very lucky to spot a bargain American Crafts cardstock pack in Home Sense earlier this week – it’s lovely cardstock to work with!  The chequered mat is a snippet from the Papermania Happy Days stack.

Finally, I punched six small stars, glued them in a stack and dabbed a little Brilliance ink directly onto them.

I’d like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Sketch ‘n’ Stash – see sketch above

 

Let’s Celebrate Joyfully!!

I had a shop around earlier this week to find a cute little girl for my daughter’s 5th birthday card earlier this week.  It didn’t take long to stumble across Emma, the character in Tiddly Inks Celebrate Joyfully stamp.  I have a very soft spot for adorable images, and Tiddly Inks images are just that!!

Unusually for a girly 5th birthday card, I haven’t chosen a pink or purple colour scheme – Erin’s favourite colour is yellow (as she announced as I was halfway through decorating her bedroom pink recently….), so, using Pro Markers, I have coloured Emma’s dress in yellow, as well as using a hair colour that is very similar to my daughter’s.

The lemon and peach papers are by American Crafts, and have a lovely texture.  I added a little Scattered Straw Distress Ink around the edge of the lemon to add some definition.  The base layer is from the Snippets collection by Studio Calico.  The banner was a file from the Silhouette store, popped up on 3D pads for extra depth.

I couldn’t resist adding the cute little patch of flowers to the inside of the card, on a mat of yellow and white polka paper from the Papermania Spots and Stripes Brights stack, which matches the die-cut flowers I made for the front of the card.

All in all, it’s a card I know Erin will love!  And if you find yourself in need of a spot of retail therapy, head over to the Tiddly Inks store…you won’t regret it 😉

Now there is also the not so little matter of a DT call over at Tiddly Inks.  I have just had a peek at all the fabulous applications so far – and I’m quaking in my boots!  But, as the saying goes, nothing ventured, nothing gained…!

I’d also like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Natalie and Amy’s Challenge – Die Cut Flowers

Sarah Hurley 365 – Favourite Things (birthday card for my daughter using her favourite colours / spotty paper and paper flowers are some of my favourite things!!)

Cosmic Strawberry – Colour Challenge

Bearly Mine – August Challenge

Cards Galore Encore – Anything Goes

Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper Challenge – Anything Goes With Patterned Paper

Higher….Higher!!

It’s time for a new Anything Goes challenge at Crafting From The Heart.  As usual, we’ve been lucky to have some great sponsors – Lacy Sunshine, Chi Chi Memories and The Stamping Chef!

I’ve don’t think I’ve ever used a Chi Chi Memories image before; difficult to believe as they are sooo cute!  I have used Summer Fun Girl for my DT make, pairing it with a branch from Tiddly Inks For The Birds.  With a little playing around, I was able to merge the two images in the Silhouette software, then cut the shape out as a whole.  I used ProMarkers to colour the image, with a Sakura Jelly Roll for the polka dots.

For the background, I just added some clouds that I had left over from my hot air balloon box card, to a piece of sky blue AC cardstock (which has a lovely texture to it).  I added a little shape to the clouds by popping some shadow to the edges and blending out; they are cut from a lovely piece of hammer embossed cardstock, so they have some good cloud texture too.  I attached the sky behind another piece of the hammer embossed card using 3D pads to give some depth and then added my image to the front of the circle aperture.  A little pink and white twine, with a pink and white polka button and pink seed beads finished it off!

It looks like it’s a week of firsts for me….my first Chi Chi Memories image and now, my first entry into the Muse Challenge.  Marion Vagg’s adorable owl makes good use of his branch (see below), as does the little girl in my image!  My white layer creates a frame around the image, and I have also echoed the blue frame in Marion’s card by bringing my background through to to edges of my card.

Head over to Crafting From The Heart to see what the rest of the DT have made to inspire you this week!

I’d like to enter this card into the following challenges:

 Silhouette Challenges – Print and Cut

2 Cute Ink – Anything Goes

Love To Create – Bright and Sunny

Muse Card Club – see pic above

Back To CAS!

Lately, I’ve found that there is some much going on that I can’t sit, relax and let the card take shape organically….  So I’m playing along with some of my favourite sketch challenges til things calm down a bit.  Today’s card is based around the current sketch challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches:

I like the simplicity of this sketch!  It was a pleasure to head back to my very CAS style – I prefer not to use images on very clean cards, but as most of my design team work involves sponsor images, I haven’t had a chance in recent weeks to strip it back!  In  fact, this card almost felt too CAS….is that even possible? 😉

So, back to the card….  The circle, banner and back mat are all cut from AC cardstock.  The sentiment was printed on the card before cutting the shapes on the Silhouette (although it struggled to read the registration marks on the teal card, so I cut the banner by hand!).  The grey mat at the back was dry embossed with a grungy stripe folder to add a little texture.  The last element is a strip of striped washi tape, which runs across the centre of the card, anchoring all the element s together.  The right hand side of the banner and left hand side of the ring have been popped up on 3D pads to give a little more depth to the card.

I’d like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Freshly Made Sketches – see sketch above #143

Keep It Simple! – Turquoise

Scrappy Do!!

It’s time for a new challenge over at Kitty Bee’s Aloha Friday!  Our theme for this challenge is “Scraps” – we want to see at least three different scraps used in your project.  Our sponsor was Doodle Garden – the first time I’ve used one of their images, but definitely not the last; they’re so cute and very easy to work with!

On to my card then….  I chose to use Three Cheers for my project – I was looking for an image that would be ideal for paper piecing as I find this is the easiest way to use up the small odds and ends of papers that I can’t bear to throw away!  As soon as I saw this cute little girl, I could see her dress paper pieced, along with a matching bow….not to mention the flag!!

I coloured the image with Pro-Markers, then “dressed” her with the dress and bow that I had cut from a scrap of patterned paper from the Hip Hip Hooray Stack by American Crafts – in fact, all the patterned papers on the card are from the same stack, which is my absolute favourite because of the bright, juicy summer colours.  I also used scraps for the flowery stripes across the background, the flag and the sentiment.

I based the layout on the current sketch and twist challenge over at Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2. I chose to use the middle row (sentiment, designer paper, flower).  The frame and stripes have been popped up on 3D pads to create a little distance between the patterned background and the flowery stripes – might have caused a few migraines otherwise 😉 Unfortunately, I’ve just realised that our challenge goes live after the closing date, so I won’t be able to enter 😦  Never mind, I’m sure I’ll find a couple of other challenges to link up to!!

I look forward to seeing all your scrappy makes over at Kitty Bee’s Aloha Friday Challenge!

I’d like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Cards Galore Encore – Anything Goes

 Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper Challenge – Use Patterned Paper

Doodle Pantry – Any Digi Goes

Feeling Crafty – One For The Ladies

One Sweet Challenge – Flowers

Sarah Hurley 365 – Anything Goes

Happy Birthday Wishes!

Just a short and sweet post for you today, my brother is staying with us after having a foot operation on Saturday so I’m a little rushed!

Today’s card was made for my son’s friend, who turned 7 yesterday.  One of my favourite digi image cards for boys featured Rusty the Robot from Pollycraft, so I dusted the file off and printed him out once more!!

I coloured the image with Pro-Markers and used backing papers from American Crafts and Megan Turnidge.  The layout was based on the current sketch over at Sketch Saturday:

I’d like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Sketch Saturday – see sketch above

Pile It On – For A Guy

Paper Pieced Mermaid

The new challenge at Crafty Girls begins today.  The theme for this challenge is “paper piecing” and our sponsors are MilkCoffee and Sassy Design Studios.

I chose Little Mermaid by MilkCoffee for my DT card.  I paper pieced the mermaid’s tail and the starfish, and coloured the mermaid and sky in using ProMarkers.

Aside from the paper pieced areas, I hadn’t really thought about the rest of the image in much detail, which led to a “head-in-hands” moment earlier when I couldn’t figure how to create waves or depth in the sea…. After a cup of coffee, things became much clearer and I picked up where I’d left off!  I had printed a spare copy of the image, so I cut along the tops of the waves and laid the spare mermaid and sky part to protect the partly coloured image while I applied Distress Inks to the bottom half of the image.  The coffee must have kicked in around then, as I suddenly thought about moving the mask down a little and added a little more Distress Ink, to make a darker more intense colour.  I carried on a couple more times, using a mix of Tumbled Glass and Peacock Feathers for the bottom two waves to deeper the colour even more.  When I took the protective cover off, I was delighted to see the final effect – the mermaid was surrounded by a beautifully coloured sea!

I framed the image with some shimmery turquoise cardstock and based the rest of the layout around the current sketch over at From The Heart Stamps:

The papers are from the American Crafts Hip Hip Hooray paper stack.  The final touches were the yellow and white twine, threaded through a starfish bead that is from my stash and a liberal sprinkling of Crystal Stickles to make my little mermaid sparkle!!

Make sure you pop over to have a look at the projects created by my Crafty Girls team-mates!  I look forward to seeing your paper pieced projects soon too.

I’d like to enter this card into the following challenges:

From The Heart Sketches: Sketch 54 (see above)

Little Miss Muffet Stamps – Birthday (balloons or birthday sentiment)

Milk Coffee – Girly

Seize The Birthday – Anything Goes

Fab n Funky  – Spots and Stripes

Craft Your Passion – Girly Girl

Cutie Pie Challenge – Cute + Spots/Dots

Catered Crop – Birthdays

Thanks for reading x