Christmas again...

Last week I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that I had won a Guest DT spot at the Die Cut Dreams Christmas Challenge blog.  What an honour and complete surprise that really made my day.  I really do love making Christmas cards and it doesn't matter how many stamps I have I just can't resist buying more.  However, the stamp I've used to make this card and matching gift tag is so old that I can barely see the design on the wood mount.  It still stamps okay though and that's what really matters.

As you may have already guessed Die Cut Dreams are asking everyone to create a card and matching gift tag.  I must admit I do like to do this for special people so it's nice to have one ready in my box for next Christmas.  Eeek it's only February!

Materials used...

•  Snowflake ornament stamp by All Night Media 926J
•  Marianne die cut circular frame
• CD - yes behind the frame is a CD.  I really like the effect.  It reminds me of the little mirrors they used to sew on clothing.  (in the days of my hippy youth)
• gorgeous black and white snowflakes swirl patterned card by Kanban
• black, red and silver mirri card
• Swiss dots embossing folder 
• black organza ribbon
• large Sizzix tag die
• Black sentiment peel off

Additional Challenges...

• Winter Wonderland - It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas (well it is on my blog anyway!)
• Bah! Humbug! - Use a CD
• Stamp Something - something funky - hmmmmm think having a CD on is funky and the lettering is so reckon I can enter this.

Have a fantastic weekend everyone.  I'm scheduling this to post in the morning and right now I'm off to watch a soppy DVD - 'Letters to Juliet'.  I've seen so many trailers for this - hope it's as good as it looks.

Ann xxx

Bah! Humbug! Day ... Using CDs...

Phew, just had a very busy week at work so I've had to snatch an odd hour here and there to take part in our great new challenge at Bah! Humbug!  This week we are asking everyone to be creative using CDs or even create something to hold a CD gift.  Tons of scope in this theme and I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with. 

For my first project I decided to use a CD on the front of my card.  Love the reflective shine even if it is horrendous to get a good photo of. 

Materials used...

• Holly face rubber stamp by American Art Stamps - Paula Best design
• green corrugated card
• green mirri card and holly printed mirri card
• silver peel offs
• die cut spiky circle - Nellie Snellen die
• silver brads
• Promarkers

Additional challenges...

• Rainbow Lady - Use and old CD
• Cute Card Thursday - Shiny Happy Cards
• Fab's Big Christmas Card Challenge - Use Peel offs

My second project has been a nightmare to complete and I'm not very happy with it at all.  It just went so astray from my original idea, but oh well these things happen.

I bought an CD clock with 80s graphics on it's face from one of the Pound shops in Leeds some time back intending to alter it.  I thought it would be a relatively easy task - hmmm think again!  My original plan was to have a pink and silver theme so off came the red second hand, which is a bit of a shame seeing as I ended up using red in my design.

Another sad thing was that as the face of the clock was already so patterned I couldn't use take advantage of the mirror quality of a CD.  I did try to dismantle the clock with the aim of adding a blank CD, but I hadn't got the right tools.  Sigh, the only thing I could do was use the CD as a base and cover it with papers. 

Materials used...

• Joanna Sheen House Mouse stamps
• Nellie Snellen dies
• white card, silver and red card
• Promarkers
• self adhesive gems
• computer generated sentiment

I'm not happy with the finished clock at all and if I were starting again I would do the whole thing completely differently, but we learn by our mistakes and I do think that part of the fun of crafting is trying new things and experimenting. 

Additional challenges...

• My Time to Craft - Going round in circles
• Papertake Weekly - Putting on the glitz
• City Crafter - Cute Stuff
• A Spoonful of Sugar - Anything but a card.
• Totally Stampalicious - use some glitter or bling on your card

Have a wonderful Friday everyone and do pop over to Bah! Humbug! to check out the challenge for yourselves.  Max has found some fantastic links to tutorials for making all kinds of things using CDs.  I think I'm going to try some of them out myself this weekend. 

Ann xxx

Special Card for a very Special Friend...

Yeah as well as being Valentine's day Monday was also my fab friend Max's birthday.  Ooooooooooh the stress of creating a card for someone who is not only special, but a talented crafter too.  You wouldn't believe how many false starts and changes of mind I had when doing this card.  I must admit that when finished I was proud of my work though ( a rare occurence as I usually think something is not quite right) and as Max loved it too all is well.  It was definitely not a card that would fall off the mantleshelf in the slightest breeze.

Materials used...

• elegant lady rubber stamp from a grab bag collection bought many years ago from Frantic Stamper.
• silver mirri die cut frame by Marianne topped with extra swirl using a Spellbinder die
• pink and silver mirri patterned tartan by Kanban with matching pink card
• silver mirri die cut corners by Spellbinder
• black card and silver mirri card
• black organza ribbon and tiny black gems for the lady's jewels
• Promarkers to colour
• 8.5 x 8.5 square gatefold card base

I even did the inside - eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!

The verse is from Hallmark Card Studio and the silver mirri trimmed border was made using an Xcut border die.

My special card is also for the following challenges...

• The Cuttlebug Spot - Gatefold cards (no cuttlebug folders used but the die cut frame and corners are embossed)
• Pollycraft - Special Birthdays

Off to work on my Bah! Humbug! project now as it's very nearly Friday again.

Love and hugs

Ann xxx

Last Valentine Card for this year...

This is the Valentine card I made for my daughter Laura so it just had to be pink!  The image is the Penny Black stamp I won a few weeks back from the challenge at Penny Black at Allsorts.  Isn't that hedgehog gorgeous?

The sentiment is from a clear stamp set which I think is by Hero Arts and the paper is from the DCWV Spring stack (my all time favourite paper pad).

Challenges...

• Penny Black Saturday - Pretty in Pink
• The Stampman - Hearts theme
• Crafty Ann's - Love is all around
• Tanda Stamps - Show some love

Off on a training course about bereavement today.  Wish I wasn't as it's not a good time for me to be attending something like this, but not to worry.

Have a good day everyone.

Love and hugs 

Ann xxx

Been playing...

After work and between cooking my mum's tea and Laura's later in the evening I had a play around with the fab ideas on the new challenge blog Less is More.  I was really tired so I didn't stretch myself too much and basically experimented with the ideas put forward by Mandi on the blog. 

I even used the same sentiment as her as my brain just wasn't fully functioning.

All the playing I did was done using Serif Craft Artist which I've only just started using so I'm no expert.  I used a basic text and played around with the sizes and colours.

On my first attempt I thought it might be good to have the large 'flower' word in the same colour as the yellow on the flower, but wasn't too impressed with that.  As you can see the word was getting quite lost on the flower stem.  Hmmmmm, bit of rethinking required!  On the next sample I used the blue of the flower and shrunk the flower a little to help make the word pop more.

Better but I still thought the flower needed to be less obtrusive so I used the transparency tool on the programme to fade the depth of colour on the flower and I'm much happier with this version.

I've still got masses to learn both on the theme of less is more and on using Craft Artist, but it's great fun trying.

Do pop over to Less is More as the examples by both Mandi and Chrissie are just stunning.

Additional challenges...

• Allsorts - It's all about the sentiment
• Totally Papercrafts - Clean and Simple

Ann xxx

House Mouse Valentine Present...

Phew just made it in time even though Poundland let me down this morning by not opening till after I started work and closing before I finished.  Sheesh did they not realise how important it was that I got my mitts on a PINK sticky note pad to replace the yellow?  Ah well yellow will have to do as I want to give this to my daughter tomorrow as a little Valentine gift plus this is the last day for the House Mouse and Friends Challenge of Hearts and I don't want to miss entering that!  It's one of my favourite challenges.

A little while ago I saw these great sticky note sets at Poundland or one of the many other similar shops.  I just knew they would be great to play around with and make that little bit more special.  I know you could do the same thing (with a lot of measuring and a ton of patience) with card, but these sets are a really nice finish and being plain black mock leather they are easy to transform.

To create the top I used one of the new House Mouse stamp sets from Joanna Sheen coloured it with Promarkers and then mat and layered it on to black card.  I decided to attach a layer of acetate over the top using brads.  I thought that as it would be in use all the time it would protect the image from getting dirty.

On the inside I used the calender that was already in the pack but cut it down and matted it on to pink card and after colouring and cutting out the little meece with the paperclip I tucked in behind the calender a little.  I also added some glittery black peel off numbers for the year.

As I said at the beginning of the post I would have loved to have been able to add pink sticky notes rather than the yellow.  Laura is a pink fanatic.  They will have to do for now though and in case you're wondering yes I am daft enough to try to stamp the pointing Maxwell on every sheet.  I lost the will to live about half way down the stack!  

After a massive search I found some paper clips that I knew I'd saved for scrapbooking somewhere and couldn't believe my luck that some of them were not only pink, but heart shaped too.  Don't you just love it when things go right for once.

My sticky note holder gift was also made with the following challenges in mind...

• Sir Stampalot - All Creatures Great and Small
• Promarker Challenge - Let there be love
• Simon Says Challenge Blog - Anything but a card

Thank you for looking everyone and for the wonderfully kind comments.  I love reading them.  It really makes my day.

Love and hugs

Ann xxx

Better late than never...

This is a card a did for the new challenge blog called Less is More.  Now I really struggle with this concept so I particularly want to join in and learn from the amazing samples by the DT over there.  I've been a stalker on Chrissie's blog Simply One of a Kind for some time and have always envied her ability to wow everyone with such simple (to look at - not to do) cards.
The thing I really like about this challenge are the accompanying mini tutorials.  I just wish I had paid more attention when creating this card, because it's a steep learning curve and I think I fell off somewhere along the way.  It did start as a one layer card created using Serif Craft Artist, but ended up being chopped and messed around quite a bit.  Sigh - I will do better next time.
I'm posting the card too late for the actual challenge of black and white with a touch of pink as this was a card for a forum friend and she has only just received it.  Maybe this week I will be more organised and meet the deadline for the challenge.  I hope so as I love the new theme and ideas given on how to achieve it.
My card also fits the challenges at ...

• One Stop Craft Challenge - Love
• Totally Paper Crafts - Clean and Simple

Have a great Sunday.  I'm off to work now, but will be calling at Poundland on the way.  I need some paperclips to finish a project I've done for the House Mouse challenge and seeing as that ends tomorrow it could be another challenge I miss the deadline for.
It's this WORK thing it doesn't half mess up your crafting time.
Love and hugs.
Ann xxx