Variation on a theme...

Almost the same card as yesterday - same sketch - almost the same papers and the same stamp again paper pieced rather than coloured.

This time however I used a large 7" x 7" gatefold base card and instead of embossed panels I've used some of the stunning striped vellum from the paper pad I used yesterday.  

The vellum is attached to the plain blue card panels using tiny bits of super strong red tape hidden under the diamond trims at each corner.  The 'With Love' sentiment is one from the paper pack as is the paper used inside the card.  As I said yesterday, I think that although I got the pad on the market it is originally Kanban and I must admit it's so useful as it has plain card, loads of matching paper designs some with silver trim, vellums and even matching sentiment tags. Definitely one to buy if ever you see it around.

Challenges...

• Totally Gorgeous - bling
• Sweet Sketch Wednesday - a different take on this week's sketch
• The Stamp Man - Vellum
• Crafty Emma's - Paper piecing

Have a fabulous weekend everyone.  I'm working all weekend, but no worries maybe get some crafting done in the evenings.

Ann xxx

It's a boy...

 One of Laura's friends will be having a baby boy quite soon so I've been busy making a couple of cards for her to choose from.  This one was made using a LOTV stamp that is just one of my all time favourites - so cute!  Instead of colouring the stamped image I stamped on to various matching papers and did some paper piecing.  By accident I found that if you run the finished paper pieced work through your die cutting machine it presses it beautifully and gives a really nice flat finish.  Something to remember for the future methinks.  The sentiment stamp is one from a set by Whiff of Joy.

All the papers except for the silver mirri board are from a paper/card pad which I bought on a market stall, but I believe it was originally Kanban.  The plain blue panels are embossed with the Swiss Dots folder.

Challenges...

• Scrapbook Sisters - Anything Goes
• Sweet Sketch Wednesday - the sketch
• The Pixie Cottage - Paper piecing
• Crafty Ann's - something for a male (baby)

Off to finish a couple more cards.  Have a brilliant day everyon.

Ann xxx

Bah! Humbug! Day ... Doilies...

Hmmmmmmmmm Doilies are the theme this week at Bah! Humbug! and when a certain crafter went to the cupboard in search of traditional paper doilies she found none.  Poundland weren't their usual helpful selves either.  Not to worry after quite a bit of head scratching and a little bit of thinking outside of the box I improvised and came up with two designs which I hope fit the bill.

For my first card I used a Marianne die and nesties to create what I hoped would give a doilie look behind the mat and layered image.  

Materials used...

• LOTV angels and baby Jesus stamp coloured with Promarkers and glittered
• Nestie scalloped and plain circles (one circle cut on Cricut at 3.25 inches to get the finest of borders around the central image), Marianne scalloped circle die - oh I love these Marianne dies - just bought the rectangle one too.
• Dovecraft patterned paper 
• silver ribbon layed in stripes across patterned paper and used for bow
• tags cut using Cuttlebug tag die
• blue card and silver mirri 

Additional challenges...

• Crafty Creations - Three Little Words - mine are Love Peace and Joy on the tag.
• Kaboodles Doodles - Break out the ribbon
• Ooh La La Creations - for someone special - this is a 8.5 by 8.5 card and is intended to be for Gran to send my daughter next Christmas - oh boy am I organised or what?
• Woodware USA Challenge - Use ribbon

My second card with the main theme of Doilies was made using a real lace doilie bought as part of a very cheap set from Poundland some time ago.  I originally had the intention of using them on some vintage style birthday cards, but like so many other things just didn't get round to it.  Actually I now wish I had bought more as they are very light and work perfectly as a mat on a card.

Additional materials...

• Santa tag image and backing paper from one of vintage Christmas CDs by Joanna Sheen (not sure which one as this one was from a sheet printed out some time ago - yeah only another 6 images to use now - so pleased I no longer print the whole sheet when I want an image)
• Martha Stewart lace doilie punch
• green card and gold mirri card
• gold eyelet and cream organza ribbon
• gold corner peel offs

Challenges...

• Die Cut Dreams Christmas Club Challenge - The Gift of Love
• Charisma Cardz Challenge - mythical/fantasy - hmmmm not sure whether Santa qualifies here as my voice is one of the loudest shouting 'I believe' when 'Miracle on 34th Street' is shown each Christmas.

Have a great weekend everyone.  

Love and hugs 

Ann xxx

Bah! Humbug! Day ... Buttons and Bows...

I know I say this every week, but I really can't believe how fast the weeks are flying by.  Today sees the start of our new challenge at Bah! Humbug! with the theme of buttons and bows.  I love buttons and buy plenty, but for some strange reason I just don't use them as much as I should.  Maybe I will after this challenge.

Materials used...

• Mimi from T for Transparent set by Penny Black
• small circular sentiment by LOTV
• Promarkers
• ultra fine glitter and Diamond Dust
• Swiss Dots embossing folder
• green and pink card and snowflake paper by Papermania
• snowflake die cuts using Marianne dies
• tiny green buttons by Making Memories
• gems and organza ribbon from Stash

My card was made with the following challenges in mind ...

• Penny Black Saturday Challenge - the sketch (had to leave the swirl out as it looked too fussy on the snowflake paper)
• Pollycraft - Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr Baby it's cold outside

My second card was created using my new favourite toy - Serif Craft Artist!  This time I didn't use it to scrapbook, but made a card instead. 

 

I used the sketch from Sketch and Stash and planned the card on the pages on screen.  I thought the images of buttons and the button frame complete with bow gave a different angle to our challenge.  I printed one sheet of the design with the button brads and then another sheet with the Father Christmas on which I then mat and layered  on top of the Swiss Dot embossed panels.  

I couldn't resist adding a real pompom to Santa's hat - another card that won't make it through the slot at the Post Office.  I really need to win the lottery before next Christmas so that I can actually afford to post my Christmas cards.

Hope you will pop over to Bah! Humbug! and take part in our challenge.  As it's the first challenge of the month we have a great prize up for grabs.  

Have a great weekend.  

Love and hugs.

Ann xxx

Tea's brewed...

Here's a card using one of the gorgeous LOTV stamps that my dear friend Irene bought me for Christmas.  Isn't it a real cutie of a stamp?  Having said that are there any LOTV stamps that aren't just adorable?  I don't think so!

Other materials used...

• Papers from one the many craft mags I bought cheaply at the NEC
• Cuttlebug button embossing border
• 'with love' sentiment' sticker from stash
• mock brads made using Japenese hole punch
• Promarkers for colouring, Sakura white glaze on teacup and dots on teapot plus a touch of glitter on tablecloth.

Challenges...

• The Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge - fantastic sketch with embossing twist.  Had to leave some of the detail from the sketch out as my design just didn't work with the flowers on.
• Stamp Something - stamp something (anything goes)
• Secret Crafter - with love

Hope everyone is having a good week.  Take care and if you happen to be having an operation on your wrist tomorrow remember to get some sleep tonight.  Then remember Rest followed by even more Rest is essential if you want to get fit fast.  Nurse Laura says so!

You know who you are!!!

Oh Baby...

Yeah, this week I'm one of the Guest Designers at the Raise the Bar Challenge and the theme is the fun title 'oh baby'.  New Baby, Christening or maybe baby's first Christmas were all ideas that came to mind, but as I had bought the full sheet of LOTV stamps that features this cute baby at the NEC last week I decided to do a new baby card for a boy.  Already got a couple of baby girl cards in my box so now I'm covered for all eventualities - well maybe not twins!

As I was putting the card together I was thinking about how fab the Cuttlebug embossing folders that feature words are and how it's such a shame that so many of the words get covered up when we add our images and other papers and embellishments.  This line of thought got me thinking about cutting the image out and mounting it on the embossing, but that wasn't quite the look I wanted.  After quite a bit of head scratching it dawned on me that if I mounted the image on acetate and then framed the acetate in the blue card the embossed writing would still be visible and the frame would mean that there was still an eye catching focal point.

As you can see in the close up picture although the frame covers some of the words you can still see enough of the writing to get a sense of the meaning.  I think I'm going to give this a try out with some of my other word folders as I really like the effect.  The frame was made using a Spellbinder die.

My baby card is also for the challenges at...

• One Stop Craft Challenge - embossing (think I may have entered this already, but this card features embossing more so I'm entering it - hope I don't get 'done'!
• Anything Goes Challenge - embossing
• Cute Card Thursday - anything goes
• Lili of the Valley - anything goes

Have a fab Friday everyone and do pop back later as it's Bah! Humbug! day too so I'll be adding my latest Christmas card.

Ann xxx

Hot Pink! ...

This just has to be for Laura.  It's the same colour scheme as her bedroom and I must admit I do love the combination of hot pink and black.  My designer paper was one of the freebies in a card magazine some time back and it led me into using this combination of colours on my card.  

The stamp is by LOTV of course and oh my, are there any uncute LOTV stamps cause if there are I haven't seen them?  The sentiment is from the same sheet of stamps and is a very useful one especially to use with this image.  All the colouring was done using Promarkers and as you can see I've embossed the border using a Cuttlebug snowflake folder.

I used the sketch from this week's challenge at Sketch Saturday.  I always love their sketches as they are very easy to work with.

When creating this card I also had the following challenges in mind...

• Crafty Ann's Challenge - A Christmas Card using non traditional colours
• Lil of the Valley - One for the Girls
• One Stop Craft Challenge - Embossing
• Crazy 4 Challenges - Square Cards

Thanks for looking and the super kind comments everyone leaves me - they do mean a lot.  Have a great day everyone.  Hope it's not as wet, wild and windy where you are as it is here.  I seriously need to hibernate.

Ann xxx

Get Well Quick...,

A small card I've just made and posted to cheer up a friend.  My new Lili of the Valley stamp - (how cute is she?) - combined with more of the papers from the My Mind's Eye pad that came with this month's Card Making and Papercraft magazine.  Coloured with Promarkers and finished off with a sentiment clear stamp from a collection by Hero Arts.

Challenges...

• Lili of the Valley - Sketch
• Craftalicious - Cute

Have a fantastic Wednesday everyone.  Working later today so won't be around till tomorrow or maybe Friday for the new challenge at Bah! Humbug!

Pink fairy flowers....

I bought this Lilli of the Valley stamp at the NEC and for some strange reason (could it be I have too many stamps) this is the first time I've used it.  I just love this delicate fairy and the way she is leaning forward to smell the flowers.  My original thought was to combine her with a quote stamp I have about taking time to smell the flowers, but on this occasion she's been used for a very pink girlie birthday card requested by my daughter Laura to send one of her friends.

I coloured her with Promarkers and used Stickles spread very thinly on her wings and skirt to add a touch of magic without too much glitter everywhere.  I haven't used my Stickles for ages (a long, long time) and I think it says a lot for the product when the stuff was still easily usuable.  No pushing pins in or anything like that.  Brilliant.

The pink base card is from my stash and the patterned papers are from a Papermania collection that I bought some years ago and I found hiding in the back of a cupboard during my big clearout session.  There is a lot to be said for this tidying up business!

My card is for the challenges at...

• Cutie Sunday - great sketch
• Promarker Challenge - Pink Birthday (my daughter would ask are there any other kind of birthday's)
• Tuesday Taggers - all that blooms

Have a fab Wednesday everyone.