Blog Hop Recipe

I only found out about this blog hop at 10.30 so I have had to work fast adn will be blogging fast to hit the midnight deadline.

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge have a blog hop where you are given the recipe in stages at each blog you hop to. This is the card that I made.

It includes the colour brown, a rectangle, Purple (my favourite colour card stock), matting, a stamped inage as the main focus, blue and pink for an additional two colours, cream ribbon, flowers, a butterfly charm, gems for sparkle and a friendship sentiment on the image - Forever friends.

I hope I covered everything.

Posh Pens

There is a lady at work called Aneta. She helps every one with their jobs and usually has a smile for you even when she is snowed under. I wanted to make her a little thank you prezzie. The girls at work have been dropping hints about the things they would like made to go on their desks and the pen pots are quite popular at the moment.

This pen pot is for Aneta. I think that she is one of the few that hasn't hinted, but she always likes the stuff I take into work. Hope she likes this one.

Dotties World asked us to use a hand made flower. Mine is made from grunge paper which I have coloured using Spiced Marmalade distress ink. I stamped the dots on after I had cut out the stamped flowers and the whole thing is held together with a brad.

The colour scheme was inspired by the fruit colours that One Stop Craft Challenge asked us to use. I have gone for lemon and lime. The colours and flowered paper makes me think of spring, so I will also be entering the pen pot for the spring theme challenge over at The Corrosive.

Leaf Fairy

The Color Dare challenged us to use pink, green and black. I don't have many green papers, so choosing the one to use for this challenge was fairly easy. There is a lovely sketch over at Card Patterns, so my card is based on that. I bought a new border punch this week and this is the first time that I have used it. Might take a bit of practice to get it just right I think :0)

I love digi stamps. You can re size them to fit any project. I always print a few per sheet in different sizes so that I usually have something suitable for a project.

Stamp something asked us to put doodles on our design. Not something that I usually do, but I have tried my hand at some faux stitching. My Sakura glitter pens came out again for that added fairy shimmer.

Recycled

Allsorts challenge blog asked us to alter or recycle something for this weeks challenge. I taught my friend how to make pen pots last week, so I thought it was time that I had a go at making another one my self. I started off with a drink carton and a flower that I bought from the pound shop a little while ago.

SCSC asked us to use pink green and flowers in our design and Penny Black asked us to include bees and butterflies. The butterflies are a PB stamp. I went over them with a glitter pen for added interest. I found that the image wouldn't stay stuck so I have bradded that panel into place. I need to buy a ribbon punch or hole punch. that way I could have tied the panel on with ribbon.

The flower I used on the lid had enough space in the middle for a chip board flower and I have also added a button to the centre. Totally Papercrafts also asked us to use pink and green this week.

Spring Trinklets

I just couldn't wait to post my new make.

Over the Christmas period I saw a number of matchbox advent calendars and thought that they could make quite good trinklet boxes. I finally got around to making a small one today.




A trip to the pound shop saw me heading home with 20 matchboxes for £2. I now have a container full of matches that I can't use, but it was so worth it. I have inked the fronts of the drawers with Dusty Concord distress ink and made little handles out of brads and jump rings. The match boxes are DS taped together and the whole thing is quite solid.

I added two side panels by matting some cream card that I had embossed and distressed onto lilac card. I then added some white flowers which I distressed.



The top and base are miri board and I have added more distressed flowers and an Anitas dimension butterfly along with some gems. The finished item is five and a half inches wide by two and a half inches high.


I'm entering my trinket box for the flollowing challenges:
Cute card Thursday - Who wanted something dimensional
Simon Says - Who asked for Spring and glimmer
One stop craft challenge - Who said "Let it shine"

Lilac and Lemon

When Papertake Weekly asked us to use lilac and lemon this week, it was really no hardship. Lilac is one of my favourite colours and that particular colour combination looks very fresh.

I have used a long tall card blank for this one, a size that I don't normally use. The image is a digi stamp from Charmed cards and crafts and I have inked the edges of a couple of the flowers using mustard seed distress ink.

I think that this colour combo is very spring like so I will also be entering this card for the "Spring" challenge over at Allsorts.

Spring time citrus

I love learning new techniques. I'm trying to learn something new every month so I am always on the look out for something a bit out of the ordinary.

This week at JUGs they gave us the instructions on how to make a Flap card and challenged us to make one. It didn't take me long to realise that this is a variation on card that I already make, but it did teach me some new ideas on how to use it.

I like using vibrant colours on cards so I didn't need much prodding to get me to use the citrus colours for this weeks challenge at CRAFT. I have used orange, lemon and lime. I also tried some pink grapefruit, but it didn't quite fit so I left it out.

The colours also fit in nicely with the challenge over at Penny Black, who asked us to use spring colours. I don't seem to be able to make a card these days without some distress ink on it. This card has spiced marmalade and dried marigold. I got stuck for what to do with the middle, so I have gone with a less is more approach :0)

Glimmer

Totally papercrafts asked us to make a project with something with wings, so I got out a digi stamp that I bought recently and began to play. I think that these are the most therapeutic card, because you don't really think you just do. I have used my gelly roll glitter pens to give her an all over glimmer. The only part of her that isn't glittered is her skin.

Originally she was going to sit on a skeleton leaf, but I couldn't get it to look right. I haven't used them in years and I wanted to use up the ones sitting in my draw. Out of practice I guess.

I've used spring colours, because the weather has been cold and miserable here and I needed a pick me up. The butterfly charm is for the charm challenge over at Creative Inspirations and the butterfly's are for the challenge over at Charisma Cards.

I like the way the colours have come together on this one. I'm experimenting with different and larger flowers at the moment so I have included one that I put together a few days ago. I have layered some flowers for when I need a quick card. I also keep my pre done decoupage in the same box. You can have an effective card in 10 minutes or less that way.

Punky Pink

This week I was only allowed one crafty shopping trip and that was because I had run out of glue dots. In addition to the dots I bought 2 - yes only 2 - sheets of A4 card. I have a strict budget at the mo so I couldn't have the other items I wanted.

This morning, when I saw the spots and dots challenge over at One Stop Challenge, I had the perfect excuse to use the first sheet which is pink with white dots. I did a bit more blog hopping and noticed that Allsorts challenge this week is to use pink, black and white, so that just cemented the chose of papers to use.

I started a stair step in black textured card and then added a block of white glitter paper as a base. As I was cutting the two pink strips, I realised that the card that I had bought was double sided, so I used the flip side as a frame for the image.

I have layered pink crispy ribbon with Black dotty grosgrain (I think that is what it is called lol) and added peel offs, flowers and gems to finish it off. The design that I used for the center panel comes from this weeks challenge over at Friday Sketchers.

Tiggerriffic

This started out as a card for a man, but by the time it was finished, I realised that the image I have used may not work that way. Luckily I have friends that it may be appropriate for so hohum.... All's well and all that lol

I can't wait to play with paper these days, but course work, house work and kids come first, so I am not getting as much crafting time as I would like.

This week I have learned the value of taking more time with projects. Sketch Saturday gave us a great sketch to work with this week, so off I went sticking stuff down without checking what I was doing. After sticking down the second piece I realised that I had stuck things down in the wrong order. Design disaster??? NO. New inside for the card. I just flipped the card blank over and started a new "front". I've reversed the oder of the papers on the new front and used a maatching sized die cut.

I'm trying to create a stockpile of Birthday cards for just in case so the challenge over at Kaboodles fits the bill for this one. I'm also going to enter this card for anything goes over at Ooh La La.

Variation on a theme

I made a card this morning for my boss and was a bit frustrated that I couldn't do more with it as she doesn't like fuss and frills. To get over that I made another one like it :0)




I was able to do more with this one, but discovered that I really didn't need to add much more to make the card more effective. Don't get me wrong..... I like how the first card turned out, I just would have liked to have done more with it. I find making tonal or monochromatic cards very therapeutic, so I have tried to stick with two closely related colours for this one.



With this version I have added white card, vellum, brads and more gems. I have used one of my new digi stamps and edged the die cut in silver. I have added glitter to the wings for a bit of sparkle and used a fine gold gel pen on the jewellery she is wearing. I seem to have a thing about winged creatures at the moment as they keep turning up in my cards. I think that it is a very girly card so I will be entering it for the challenges at Simon Says and Stamp Something. Charisma Card Challenge asked us to use fairies which is what finalised my decision for which image to use.

I was going to do more with the center panel of the card, but it was starting to get a bit bulky and I was worried in case it needed to be sent in the post. I think that I wont use the brads in the center panel next time I make one of these.

I'm still trying to work out how to show a larger image when you click on the photos, so please bare with me on that.

Hugs to you all

Naomi

Sunshine Glam

I sometimes get asked to make birthday cards for staff at work. This one is the toughest one that I have made to date. My boss doesn't like "Frills or fuss" and hates anything that looks "over done". So I had to make a minimalist card.

I love what I have made, but there is so much more that I wanted to do with it. Her favourite colour is yellow, so I went for a bright shade to make up for the lack of embellies. I have edged the image in silver for a bit of added glitz and the white ribbon is velvet.

There will be quite a few people signing the card so I have left the middle section empty to accommodate that. I think it is quite pretty, but I am off to make another with more on it to sooth myself lol.

I'm going to enter this card for the Pastel or Bright Challenge over at Dotties World as I think that this one definitely qualifies as a bright card.