Bound in lilac love.

Yes I'm sorry.  Another binder.  If you have not been to my blog before, you may not have seen my other two binders.  I have been decorating them to store my acrylic stamps in.  This is my third.  I have gone for different looks with each of them.

I wanted to show a different side to my crafting with this one.  It is a lot more personal in a lot of ways.  I actually have a hand written message on this one, which is unusual for me as I hate my hand writing.  I have embossed the edges of the doily and along the pen design.  there are two different widths of ribbon on this tag.

I love the pen nib design along the edge of this paper, so it was important to me that it didn't get covered too much.  I couldn't resist adding the lace and ribbon though.  Lilac flat back pearls work well with so many different projects, don't you think?

There is a lot going on with this binder, feathers, gems, lace and ribbon, tags flowers and more.  This wasn't a planned project, it has been very much go with the flow.  My favorite colour is purple.  Think aubergine (eggplant) or a rich plum.  There are varying shades of it all over this project.

I will be entering this binder in the following challenges:-

Allsorts - 5 Flowers

Kaboodle Doodles - The Pretty doily

Simon Says - Anything goes

Totally Papercrafts - Autumn - I have used what I consider to be autumn wedding colours.

The ABC Challenge - Anything goes 

Wonderful Mum

It's half term, so the kids have a week off of school.  We are only on day three and I am thinking about my mum all what she had to put up with from myself and my two eldest brothers when we were little.  The "He took my toy" and the "I'm bored".  Sorry mum.  Well anyway..... I wanted to make a card for a mum for either mothers day or a birthday and came up with this.

The design came from this weeks sketch at Papertake Weekly and the colour scheme came from the coffee and cream challenge at Simon Says.  I think it is also perfect for the some one special challenge at Stamptacular Sunday Challenge.

I am still working with old stash, so I don't know where my patterned paper came from.  I started off with my usual 5x7 inch white card blank (90%  of my cards are that size) and covered it with latte coloured coordinates textured card.  I topped that with a piece of distressed DP which I edged with tea dye distress ink, to this I added bronze card and some more textured card called cream and sugar (I think it is Bazzil cardstock).  I added bronze ribbon, chocolate ribbon at the bottom and backed my Penny Black stamped image onto some more of the latte textured card.  I have distressed all of the edges and coloured them with tea dye.  I wanted a bit of bling to finish so I have added some square chocolate coloured gems.

Maybe I should have called this card Mocha Latte!

Prezzie Time

I love making Christmas cards...... who am I kidding..... I just like making cards. I don't often buy toppers but I couldn't resist this one. It is one of six on a die cut sheet by Kaban. They are all really cute.

I really enjoy making Christmas cards in non-traditional colours, so no doubt there will be more of those from me soon. I still have another five images from this sheet to use up after all.

The papers I have used are all from my scraps drawer. I backed the topper onto silver mirri card to give it a bit more umphf and have glued gems on to the lace. I have die cut and layered the snowflake and added gems for extra sparkle. I do like the snowflake, but I think I will add a different colour to one of the layers next time I do one as this one didn't quite match up to what I had imagined.

This card was inspired by:

CRAFT Challenge - Pastels

My Time To Craft - Jewelled

Sketch Saturday - Sketch

Glamour in red

Long time no blog. College is out of the way, so hopefully I will be able to get more crafting done.

I love working with acetate, so finding glitter embossed actetate by Kanban required me to sit down for a minute ;-). I spent the train ride home working out what I was going to do with my new buy. I'm ashamed to say that no one got much attention from me for a good hour after I got home from work tonight. Sorry boys x.

I had to adjust the card a bit from the original idea as I got home to find out that I had run out of black eyelets. (More craft shopping needed..... oh the pain he he he).

I started with coordinations cardstock which is black on one side and red on the other. Perfect for this make. I have left a one inch over hang to attach the acetate to. the acetate is held in place with two red eyelets and a ribbon. the charm was taken from a necklace which I mentioned in an earlier post.

The sentiment has been attached with foam pads so that it stands proud and I have added an extra piece of red card on the inside to cover up the pads.

I am entering this card for the following challenges:
Die cut dreams - Words only, No stamped images
CRAFT Challenge - Birthday / Celebration
Ooh La La - Bright and cheerful

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.

Dotty bout orange

This card came together quite easily. I saw the challenge over at Totally papercrafts "lots of spots" and knew exactly which papers and ribbon to reach for. Then I saw the challenge sketch at The Pink Elephant and thought "that's the one".

Everything was going really well until I realised that I had stuck everything onto my card upside down. I had a bit of a pout and then worked out how to fix it and my design error turned into a design feature lol. I simply folded the back of the card blank in half, added some of the textured card I had been matting with and some peel offs. This is the end result.

Buttons n Bow

I love cards that are a little bit out of the ordinary and I am slowly building up a collection of new ideas to use. One of my favourites is the step card. I made my first one just before Christmas for my mum and I have made a few variations on the template since.



This week, SCSC challenged us to make a multi fold card of our choice. The choice was easy. Kaboodle asked us to use spots and stripes in our design. The patterned paper was free with a magazine this month which I have matted onto some Caribbean blue bazzil. The sketch that I used for the center panel came from this weeks challenge over at One Stop Challenge and the buttons and bows idea came from Totally Papercrafts.

Birthday Boy

My baby brother turns 13 in a few weeks. I knew which image I wanted to use on his card, but couldn't decide on the colour scheme or the design. Whilst I was rooting around in my stash to make my last card, I came across some red dotty paper and some black dotty ribbon. PERFECT.



I am really happy with how the card turned out, but if I use this design again, I will use a patterned paper for the back ground. Lets call this one the minimalist version lol.

Paperplay Weekly asked us to make a card for someone special, so it as the perfect excuse to start this one. I am also entering this card for the "Digi stamp" challenge over at CRAFT challenge and for the "Male card" challenge over at Charisma Cards Challenge. I think I am starting to get the hang of this male card stuff. ;0)

Chain Reaction

Whilst wondering around on my lunch break I popped into Primani. For those of you that are not familiar with Primark, it is a shop that sells clothes and house hold items for discount prices. I was wondering around the jewellery department when I saw this necklace.

As soon as I saw it I knew what I was going to do with it. About 10 minutes after I took it out of the bag I had taken it down to it's component parts. The only question I have now is - How many cards can I make with this.

This card is called Butterfly Chain and is the first card that I have made from a necklace that cost £2. I started by attaching the drop crystal to the butterfly using a jump ring. Using my wire cutters, I cut two short lengths of chain and attached them to the butterfly with more jump rings. I then mounted the newly made butterfly chain to velvet paper.

It took a lot of rooting around in my scrap box to find the the right paper. I had the idea of a touch of elegance and needed the papers to reflect that. I have finished off with some black velvet ribbon.

Since I have had everything that I used on this card for quite a while with the exception of the chain, I am going to enter this card for the "Left over scraps" challenge over at Creative Inspirations.

Fancy Bling

I love playing with acetate, but last summer I bought some printed acetate and didn't have a clue what to do with it so I stuck it in the back of a drawer.

This week at Dotties World they challenged us to use acetate, so I was determined to put one of the five sheets that I bought to good use. This is what happened!






This card was definitely a case of "Don't think, just do" and I think I surprised myself. Most of my card blanks are 5" by 7", but I wanted something bigger for this. The acetate is A4 so I folded it in half and put a pale blue card blank in the middle to show off the pattern on the acetate a bit better.

The flower was originally white, but I coloured the bottom bloom with Dusty Concord distress ink and added a black gem. I went over board with the sakura stardream pens for the glitter effect and blinged out with more stick on gems. I need to go in search of some more of the ribbon that I used as I am running out of it now.

I'm sorry about the glare on the pic, but I have no idea how to get a good night time photo of acetate. I work during the day and it's dark by the time I get home. I tried it without the flash and it looked way worse.

Ditressed Gold

Another Mothers day card. I wanted a distressed look for this one. Nothing too clean cut, but still with (I hope) a touch of elegance.

I have used cream ribbed writing paper as my backing paper. I have coloured the poem using distress inks (antique linen and aged mahogany) to try to get a colour that is like rose petals and matted it onto dark red textured card.

The gold ribbon is from the wrapping of a Christmas present I received and I have added a gold heart charm and a gold gem at the top.

I used the Krylon 18KT Gold leaf pen to distress the edges. I hope I didn't over do it lol. I am entering this card for this months challenge over at Bizzy Becs

Tree of love

I'm still making Christmas cards to give to family and friends. This one is for my aunt.

My mojo has taken a vacation to warmer climes without letting me know, so I have been blog hopping for inspiration. On my travels I came across a blog called Whiff of Joy Tutorials and Inspiration There are so many great ideas to look at on there.

The pink text paper came from a HOTP paper pack that I bought years and years ago. The chocolate shiny paper was bought around the same time. The chocolate ribbon I bought earlier this year on a ribbon buying binge and the snowflake (originally silver, but coloured with a Krylon pen) is an Anitas dimention sticker which I bought in September. I have added dots of glitter glue all over the image to represent snow.

I am going to enter this card for Ohh La La Creations Pink and brown challenge, The Pink Elephants winter challenge, 2 Red Bananas Tree challenge and CRAFT Challenges Free for all challenge.

I really hope she likes it. Took me ages as it was my first time doing this type of card. The ones I have seen made by other people are gorgeous.

Fancy in Blue

This is my first attempt at an easel card. I keep seeing them on peoples blogs, but never had the guts to give it a go. So glad that I did. They are quite easy to make. I used an ordinary card blank, scored an extra fold and added acetate.

I wasn't sure how best to photograph it, so my apologies for putting so many pictures up.

I used whispers brush marker and Sakura Gelly roll pens to colour the image and the mirri board and glitter paper have been in my stash for so long that I don't know where they came from. I've gone a bit overboard on the sparkle, but hey.... every girl has to have some glitz in her life. :0)

I'm entering this card for the "3 snowflakes challenge" over at Dotties World

Starry Starry Night

When I saw this weeks challenge over at Dotties World I knew exactly which papers I was going to reach for. I have had the starry paper for a little while, but this is the first time it has made it onto a card.



The sketch is my interpretation of this weeks sketch at The Crafty Pad and I think that this one will also fit the "Swirly Girly" challenge over at Cute Card Thursday and "the Glitzy somethings" challenge over at Stamp Something.



I'm surprised that I haven't gotten fed up of making Christmas cards after having started them in June, but there is so much out there to play with and I don't think that I bought even half of what I liked.


I'm off to see if I can get one more card in before I start the ironing.


Hope you all had a good weekend.

Small sweets

I love the image I have used on this card. I think it is so versatile and sweet.

I tend to stay away from stripey paper as I am always scared that the card will look to cluttered. The image I have used is not too complex, so I think I got away with it. I love Gorjuss girl stamps and this one has probably had the most use out of all of the ones that I own.

I made this card in response to the challenge over at Totally Gorjuss

A few of my favourite things

Hi everyone. I've been itching to do some crafting for a whole week now and haven't had the time. I can't tell you how good it feels to finally have some play time.

I've made a number of cards over the last few months for the festive season, but I have only just started making for friends that I work with. This one is only the fourth, so I still have quite a few to make.







I used as many of my favourite things as I could on this card. My favourite colour is purple (you might of noticed from some of my earlier cards lol) I love working with gems, charms and ribbon (I actually have trouble completing a card without some ribbon on it somewhere). I also played with my favourite colour distress ink - Dusty Concord. The only things missing were vellum, nesties and acetate, but I couldn't figure out how to fit them into the design.



The design of this card came from this weeks challenge at Papertake Weekly and I will also be entering this card for the following challenges:


A Spoon full of sugar who asked for a Christmas card with no red or green
Allsorts who asked us to use purple (that was easy)
Paperplay who also asked for a Christmas card with no red or green
And Penny Black who asked us for a girly Christmas card. I have used a Christmas tree stamp from their Jolly Follies collection.

Here is to a day of more crafting. I'm off in search of coffee now.

Hugs

Naomi

All that glitters

Play time is fun time. This card was fun to make as I got to play with charms and glitter glue.

The charm on the far left is a stocking. I couldn't get a good picture of it. I have glitter glued all of the snowflakes on the front of the card and the ribbon is white velvet.

I made this card in response to BBCC who wanted us to make something for Christmas with lots of glitter and snowflakes. CCT also wanted us Glittery.

I've made quite a few cards with apertures and I have already thought of a few more that I would like to make.

Happy birthday to me!!

Actually, my birthday was in October. I promised myself a camera for my present to myself this year and I only got round to buying it yesterday. Up until now, I have been using the camera that I bought for my son a few years ago. (I really must buy him a new one).






I call this one Birthday Bath :-). Just us Girls asked us to make a birthday card that included dry embossing. I'm never one to leave my embossing folders gathering dust, so I made this. Purple is my favourite colour, so I started with a purple card blank and the rest just happened.

I have started playing with jump rings and have used three to attach my teddy bear charm. The ribbon is white velvet and the papers are from my scrap box. I have used a silver rose charm for the centre of my flower.



Just us Girls is still a young blog challenge site. They are only on week seven. It's always good to get in on the ground floor (so to speak) of a blog and watch it grow.

Sweet n Fuzzy

I'm a member of a craft forum where we share ideas and info. (See here for more details). One of the ladies came up with the fantastic idea of doing altered chocolate. Basically you alter the appearance of the wrapper.

This week Corrosive challenged us to make anything that was "not a card". I had a light bulb moment and this is my first attempt at altered chocolate. When I had finished I realised that I could also use this for the challenge over at Stamp Something who challenged us to make something with a "Sweet and Fuzzy" theme.

I'm not sure who this will go to yet, but it will make an excellent stocking filler.

Black and Orange

I don't make Halloween cards, but I have been asked to make a goth style card for a friends granddaughter and the "orange plus one colour" theme over at SCSC inspired me to make this card.

The actual design of the card was inspired by the sketch for this weeks challenge over at Sketch Saturday

The background black and orange paper was created using makeup sponges and ink dabbed onto white card. I did the same with the sentiment plaque (which is edged in black). I have used an orange card blank, which is unusual in the fact that I usually only use white card blanks to work with.

I have used 2mm black ribbon to create the four "lines" and black lace for a slightly scalloped edge.

As much as the colours I have used are very Halloweeny, this is a birthday card. I hope she likes it.