Black ink only...

My two cards for today were so quick and easy to make and were both inspired by the challenge at No Time To Stamp where the theme this week is to use only black ink to create your central image. The examples by the DT over there are stunning and I couldn't resist having a go.

I used the sketch from this week's challenge at Secret Crafter. I've done cards very similar to this sketch before, but I think turning the central square to create a diamond focal point is a really good idea.

It's really quite a good idea when doing this layout to do two at the same time especially if you are using two different papers as it means you can use up all your triangular pieces.

Both the butterfly and the dog stamp are by Inkadinkado and are in the same style as those gorgeous birds that everyone uses. The sentiment 'Having a rrruff day' is also part of the dog set.

Tiptoe through the Tulips...

A huge (A4 = 21cm x 30cm) card for my mum, who is 85 going on 6, for Mother's Day. I can't believe I'm so early with this card. There have been times in the past when I have got up early to make the card, wrap the present and then rush to her house to deliver them.

I'm not over keen on the card, but my mum will love it. She will love the size and the glitter and most of all the flowers.



Earlier this week I went to the Kanban outlet shop at Shipley and couldn't resist buying a bag of huge decoupage sheets that were on offer.

This floral decoupage with matching tag was one of the items in the bag as was the co-ordinating background and border. As the bag was only £3 for 50 (yes 50!) sheets of A3 card designs it was a fantastic bargain.

I used a glue pen and ultra fine glitter to add oomph to the flowers and butterflys on the card.

As the challenge at Tanda Stamps is Tiptoe through the Tulips I think my card with its bunch of tulips fits perfectly.

I'm also entering it for the challenge at Cute Card Thursday which is Signs of Spring. The bouquet of flowers if full of spring tulips and the gorgeous blue muscari that blooms at the same time.

Emma by Jane Austen...

I've made this card for the Cinema Saturday challenge which is a new challenge to me, but a very interesting one. Do check it out - masses of fun info and links about films. Each week the team focus on one movie and base their cards/artwork on that. This week the film is Emma by Jane Austen which is my favourite Jane Austen work.

Apparently prior to starting the novel, Austen wrote, "I am going to take a heroine [Emma] whom no-one but myself will much like." Well I love the character of Emma and I love Mr Knightley even more - drool.

The idea of the film theme is to use it as a starting point so the work you do can be anything that is inspired by the film. It may be a design of paper that is reminiscent of that era or anything that you feel fits. For my card I used an image from Joanna Sheen's Cardmaker's Year CD, which I thought could almost be a picture of Emma and one of her friends in church. I've softened the whole look of the card by overlaying the patterned paper with vellum.

Another part of the challenge was...

"THE REQUIREMENT THIS WEEK:

We thought that for this week - it would be interesting to use some dots in our cards. So we are asking that in your cards you use some dots: either in the designer paper, brads, stickles, paper piercing, embellsishments ---anything at all. Dot it up :) "

For this part of the challenge I did some paper piercing on the vellum at each side of the sentiment. I thought paper piercing fit in with the era well.

As the challenge at Papertake Weekly was to make a matching set I decided to make a gift tag in the same theme to go with this card. It was also and ideal way to use up the small toppers that on Joanna Sheen's CD.

Materials used:

• Joannna Sheen 'Cardmaker's Year' CD
• matt photo paper, cream card and pergamano vellum
• gold brads and sentiment peel offs

Blast from the past...

I really did not want to let my friend, Cynthia, at Rainbow Lady's Challenge blog down by not entering her challenge this week so I have pulled a photo out of my photobucket album of a card I made ages ago. Usually when you look at things made a while ago they make you think 'Oh my thank goodness I've got better', but I actually still like this card.

The fans were made (and took ages - why can I never make quick cards?) using one of the small tag dies by Spellbinders. It took 10 tags to create each fan and to join the tags and create the fan shape I attached a brad through the hole of each tag and then fastened ribbon to the back.

The panda paper is one from a collection of Oriental designs by Joanna Sheen

A romantic dance...

Another anniversary card - I am going to be so organised this year. This time I have used a silhouette stamp from a set of clear stamps by Stamptivity. My daughter loves this image and encouraged me to buy the set - as if I need encouragement! The card layout is an adaptation of a sketch set in a challenge at Ismaki a little while back.

My card is for the challenge at Cute Card Thursday where the theme this week is Music and Dance.

Materials used:

• silhouette stamp by Stamptivity
• black glitter card
• Cuttlebug Divine Swirls embossing folder
• silver mirri card and black card
• silver brads and peel off sentiment from stash

Cupcake bling...

As promised when showing my card for the Pink Elephant Challenge here is some more of my Cuttlebug embossing on glitter card. On this card I used two different colours of glitter card and embossed the pink using the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder.

The effect doesn't really show up that well in the photo, but in reality the extra dimension created by the embossing makes the light bounce off the glitter in all different directions.

My card is for two challenges...

Bring on the Bling at the Cuttlebug Spot and Cupcakes at Charisma Cardz.

Materials used:

• pink and lilac glitter card
• silver mirri card
• Hero Arts Clear Cupcake stamp set
• gems and sentiment peel off from stash

The inside of the card has 'You deserve a day sprinkled with fun' and a tiny cupcake stamped on it which was done using stamps from the same set.

All that glitters...

may not be real gold, but it could well be gold glitter card! It's week 2 at the Pink Elephant Challenge and this week Tina has set us the challenge of using glitter and bling in our work. Oh what a hardship ? LOL!!!

I decided to use glitter card in Cuttlebug folders and had a wonderful time experimenting and checking out the different effects. If you haven't used glitter card in the Cuttlebug yet do try it out - great fun and stunning effects.


After a lot of playing I decided to use quite a subtle gold pearlescent glitter card in conjunction with one of the folders from the Cuttlebug Frills border set. It's one of my favourites from that collection.

Unfortunately it doesn't show up quite as well as it could do in the photo, but in reality it has a very softly sparkly look. Quite regal.

The stamp I used for the central image is a huge stamp called 'How do I love thee' by Stamps Happen Inc. I stamped the whole image on to cream card, overlayed this with vellum attached by brads and embellished with cream organza ribbon.

Then I stamped another layer of the rose on to cream card finally topping this with yet another layer of vellum with the rose stamped and embossed in gold.

Not the easiest card I've ever made !!!

I'd like to take this chance to say thank you to everyone who joined in last week's challenge at The Pink Elephant. We were overwhelmed by the number of people who entered and the amazing cards. There is such an enormous amount of talent out there - it never fails to amaze me.

Hope you will have chance to join in this week - do pop over here and have a look at the gorgeous samples by the rest of the design team. It would also be great if you came back to check out my other experiments with glitter card too. They will be appearing each day this week. Watch this space!!

Gold Birthday Card...

It should be safe to post this card today as it was my dear friend, Max's birthday yesterday and the card by now should be on the mantel shelf with all the hundreds of others on display.

Another very simple card using gold peel offs on vellum to create a vase of flowers. Each of the flowers has a jewelled brad through the centre to give it a bit of oomph!

As my card is done in gold it is perfect for the 'Going for Gold' challenge at My Time to Craft and also for the challenge at Created by Hand.

It also fits the floral theme at Arty Girlz.