Hurrah a little bit of crafting...

I've just been so busy sorting and also setting up Challenge Mania that I never managed to get anywhere near my craft desk till yesterday.  It was lovely to do something even if it was only a very quick card before setting off to work.

I must admit I do like this frog and pocket stamp set that has been in my stash for ages, especially when making a card for a male when you don't really know their interests.  During my tidying session these fun google eyes turned up (well they actually spilled all over the floor and were a pain to pick up) and as they were to hand I thought why not have a bit of fun and use them for the frog's eyes.  They were just the right size so it must have been meant to be.

How cute is that frog?  I love him.  I would have prefered to use circular brads, but the squares were the only ones left in that colour so they had to do.  The card is Core'rdinations cuttlebugged using the Swiss Dots folder for the back piece and stamped on for the pocket.

To round the pocket up a little I used a double layer of foam pads in the middle of the pocket, then a single layer down  each side and finally really strong DST on the edges.  It just gives a bit of depth.

The sentiment was stamped on to the Core'rdinations cardstock, but because of the texture of the card it didn't show up too clearly so I went over the top with a Letraset outliner pen.  Maybe it's a little dark now, but hey it's readable.

If you're reading this Max I hope Niall likes the card.  I'm posting it first thing this morning with his present so fingers crossed it arrives on time.

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

• Sweet Sketch Wednesday - love their sketches - every week a new inspiration
• Simon Says - Male Card or Father's Day
• Sentimental Sunday - use old stash (my stamp set) and a sentiment (Happy Birthday)

Have a fab day everyone.  I'm off work for 3 days now so hoping to get some serious crafting in and maybe finish the sorting out.  Why is it when you empty a wardrobe donate to charity, put some things in the bin and send bras off to Yorkshire Air Ambulance there has got to be less stuff, but it won't fit back in? Hmmm, case of the toast falling butter side down I think. 
Oh disaster too late to enter challenge at Sweet Sketch Wednesday!!!  That will teach me to get into action sooner.

Bah! Humbug! Day... Santa Paws...

Yeah Friday and time for another challenge at Bah! Humbug!  This week we're going for the cute and cuddly and our challenge is entitled 'Santa Paws'.

My card was a super quick and easy to make card using a fantastic decoupage download from Pollycraft.  I'm not sure whether this is still available as I have had it on my computer for some time and can't believe it's taken me all this time to get round to using it. The 'Have a purrfect Christmas' sentiment was part of the download too.

My 'winter wishes' paper is another sheet from that amazing magazine I bought at the NEC and I've teamed it with some core'rdinations cardstock and two large white snowflake brads. 

Can't wait to do some blog hopping this week and check out all the furry friends on everyone's cards.  Think it definitely going to be a week with the 'ahhhhhhhh' factor.

Other challenges...

• Fab's Big Christmas Card Challenge - Big brads (last week but inspired the use of the snowflake brads) and 3D cards from a kit (mine was a digi kit - sort of)
• Simon Says Challenge - The Movies and dry embossing - 'Santa Paws - the movie'
• Alphabet Challenge - Xmas
• Winter Wonderland - Embossing

Have a fabulous weekend everyone.

PS- Max commented about the fabulous freebies at Pollycraft so thought I would mention that the one this week is totally gorgeous Lillybean Fairy and can be found HERE!

Ann xxx

Bah! Humbug Day ... Embossing

Wow Friday again! Can't believe how quickly these weeks go by and also how wonderfully the pile of Christmas cards is growing, especially as for this week's challenge of 'embossing' I have 3 cards to share!  Think it was such a joy to have a whole day off work that I got quite carried away with my self.

My first card features some embossing using a Cuttlebug Christmas folder in my Wizard machine.  The Christmas paper and sentiment are from a brilliant bargain magazine I picked up at the NEC.

Card number two uses the same folder and again Core'rdinations cardstock and a sanding block to make the trees pop.  However, this time I decided to use a green Sakura Glaze pen to add colour to the trees. Then before the glaze was completely dry I added glitter too.  The glitter card the image is mounted on and the ribbon were both coloured with Promarker pens.

Card number three is totally different and was so much fun to make except for the glitter that seemed to get everywhere.  To create this card I used a Dreamweaver brass star stencil and embossing paste.  I saw this demoed at the NEC and although I have done this technique in the past I had forgotten how much fun and how effective it can be.  In real life the glitter is really stunning - honest!

After a whole week of not having chance to enter any challenges my cards, as well as being for the Bah! Humbug! challenge, are also for...

• Fab's Big Christmas Card Challenge - Tone on tone - Green - Card no. 2
• Crafty Creations - Anything Goes - all three cards
• Simon Says - Distressing - sanding on embossing on cards 1 and 2
• ABC Christmas Challenge - Glitzy - Card 3

Have a fabulous Easter weekend everyone and see you on Monday for the new Pink Elephant Challenge.

Bah!Humbug! Day - Peel offs for Christmas...

This week at Bah! Humbug! we are digging deep into our craftroom stock and finding those long forgotten peel offs.  I still love to use peel offs for borders and sentiments, but when I first started cardmaking with my daughter, we seemed to buy some very weird and wonderful peel off sheets that have never seen the light of day.

Well, this week with the challenge of using peel offs to create a Christmas card at Bah! Humbug! I got some of them out.  I found a sheet that I really liked with small Christmas trees on and a stag in full flight.  With fingers crossed I got out my Cuttlebug village embossing folder to see if the proportions would fit together okay.  I was really pleased to find they did and went on to create these two cards.

I used core'dinations cardstock and the village Cuttlebug embossing folder for the main scene on both cards.  After embossing I sanded the card to reveal the white core and then used a white glaze pen and glitter to touch up the roof tops, etc.  The peel off tree and sentiment were stuck directly on to the scene in the second card.  The deer was stuck on to blue card and then attached to the base card.  Then I glittered the surrounding area to create the snow effect.

Both cards have silver peel off borders and sentiments.   The snowflakes were made using a Quickcutz die and a small punch.

Thank you so much for looking and for your lovely comments (fingers crossed and hopeful to get some).  Hope to see you joining in at Bah! Humbug! this week.

Birthday Celebrations...

As promised here is Tony's other birthday card. This was made using the same stamp set by Inkadinkado, but this time I chose to stamp the images of skulls and crosses. These were stamped on to core'rdinations card stock and then sanded to give a really grungy look.

The background paper with stars and guitars is from the Rock Star stack by DCWV.

My card is also for the challenge at the One Stop Craft Challenge where they are celebrating their blogersary and have the theme of 'celebrations' as their challenge this week.

You hoo!!!...

I have always loved Craft Stamper magazine, but since the revamp it has got better and better. This month's magazine is superb - crammed full of things I want to try and the best thing of all a free covermount stamp. How cool is this owl? I just love it!

My card is for the challenges at...

• Passion for Promarkers - this week's colours are pumpkin and cinnamon
• One Stop Craft Challenge - Embossing

Materials used:

• Owl covermount stamp from Craft Stamper Magazine
• Hero Arts sentiment stamp
• Tag cut using Cricut
• Promarkers - pumpkin -cinnamon and cocoa for shading
• DCWV - paper from 'Pocket full of posies' paper stack
• Core'rdinations cardstock
• Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder
• ribbon and brads from stash

Thank you Max...

Max at Max's Craft Creations has been having a little clear out for a little while now and I was lucky enough to be one of the winners of her blog candy. I received some Perfect Pearls, a pack of misters and a Dawn Bibby DVD so that I knew what to do with the goodies. Isn't that brilliant? I was just over the moon. Thank you so much Max and I'm really pleased you liked the thank you card.

Well I had a play last weekend and this is one of the cards I made - another will be on my blog shortly. Haven't got a photo of it yet. The flowers in the vase image is a stamp by Magenta. I stamped it on to the brown card using the Perfect Pearls Medium pad and then dusted the image with antique gold. I added an extra flowers with pearl centres to add interest.

The main image is matted on to a background created using core'rdinations cardstock embossed and sanded using Swiss Dots folder. Brads, peel offs and a tag add were added to embellish the card.

As the challenge at Cute Card Thursday is to use any kind of flowers I think my Perfect Pearl ones will count.

PS: - I think there is still time to join in the fun at Max's but you will have to be quick!!

Hands...

The challenge at Rainbow Lady's Challenge Blog this week is hands. Not an easy one Cynthia - hope next week won't be quite so taxing!!

I've had this beautiful unmounted stamp for ages and not quite known what to do with it, but thanks to Cynthia's challenge I made myself really think about how to use it successfully and though I say it myself as shouldn't I'm quite pleased with the outcome.

The card I've used is from the co-ordinations naturals range - fabulous earthy colours and when embossed and sanded they are just wonderful. I stamped on to the smooth side of the card stock using a Sepia Verse Fine inkpad so that all the card used kept the same tones.