Heart of diamonds

Here in England you can't escape the Queens diamond jubilee.  There are bunting and flags any where they can be stuck.  I wanted to avoid the red, white and blue that is covering everything right now and went for diamonds in a different way.

This started out as a box with a lid, but I didn't like the hinges or the way the lid fit, so I took them off.  After giving it a couple of coats of black paint I started gluing on the rhinestones.  I like the grain of the wood, so I haven't painted the inside of the box.    The ribbon that I added to the bottom edge is from my stash.  I'm always on the look out for ribbon and lace.

I will be entering my box for the following challenges:
Everybody Art - No cards
Anything Goes - Anniversaries - I have gone for a heart and diamonds to represent this
Creative Inspirations - Diamond - Lots of sparkle

Christmas for two

Today's challenge for me was to make a monochromatic Christmas card.  I have to say that it was a toughie.  I couldn't decide which colour to use and then I saw the challenge at Paper Play Challenges.  They asked us to use black so that was that problem solved.  Just to push myself a bit further I decided to make a Christmas card for a couple.  I have seen them in the card shops, but have never made one myself.

I have to say that this card has been inspired by a number of challenges.  The monochrome theme came from Creative Inspirations and The Crafty Pad.  Distressing your edges came from Creatalicious Challenges and Embossing came from Charizma Cardz Challenges.

I have used a Teddybo digistamp and have added black gems and black ribbon.  I love all things Tim Holtz so I have used the Tim Holtz distressing tool and Black soot distress inks.  Is there anything that man can't do?

Never Ending

This is my first attempt at a never ending card.  Is that the right name?  I made it for my daughter who turned 18 on Thursday.  How old did that make me feel?

This is what I call the front of the card, or position one.   I have used Bo bunny flocked card stock, silver cardstock, black outline stickers, black co-ordinations card stock and Kenny K Digis

This is position two.  I have used five different images and have used the same four colours for all of their outfits.

This is position three.

And this is position four.  I put a personal message on the top section for her.

Never ending cards are not hard to make, but I did find this one time consuming.  It is well worth the effort though :-)

I am entering this card for the following challenges:

Paper Play Challenges - Use two or more stamped images - I used 5

Paper Take Weekly - Anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Challenge  - Multi-fold card

Stamp Something - Anything goes

Thank you rose

I haven't played with acetate for a while, so guess what I reached for :o)

Kanban do some lovely glittered acetates.  I haven't gotten round to working out how to print onto acetate yet, so this was a great find for me.

The pattern on this one is a bit too busy to add too much to it, so I have tried to keep things simple.  The acetate has been eyelet-ted into place in the four corners and 3mm ribbon added.  The ribbon fit in nicely with this weeks challenge at Craft Your Passion who asked us to use red.  Oh La La asked us to use summer flowers.  I figured the glitter flowers on the acetate fit the bill, but couldn't resist adding a red rose.

All in all, this card is quite a simple one, but the acetate is what really pulls it together.

I will also be entering this card for the following challenges:

Crafty Creations - Thank you

The Crafty Pad - Bold and Bright or Soft Pastel.  This is definitely bold

Funky Diva

This card was a lot of fun to make.  Mainly have to admit because I got to use only of my bargains.  I found sheets of Bo Bunny velvet flocked 12x12 cardstock for just 50p a sheet.  Well I had to buy some and the colours are brilliant.

The design for my card came from this weeks sketch challenge at Stamptacular Sunday.  Spots and dots where the requirement over at The Crafty Pad and Kaboodle Doodle asked us for lots of layers.  I have used a Kenny K digi stamp (love their stuff) and added glitter to her boots, because she needed more bling.

Black and white xmas

I wanted to make a card which was outside of my comfort zone, so I decided to do a black and white card.

Choosing the stamp to use was actually the hardest part of making this card.  I wanted to add colour to all of the other stamps.  The black card is textured co-ordinations, the snowflakes are peel offs and I have added clear and black gems.  

I am entering this card for the following challenges:

A Spoonful of Sugar - Christmas card

Papertake Weekly - No red or green

Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Christmas, but no red or green

Box of Love

One of my new years resolutions this year was to try to learn new crafting techniques each month and to push myself.  I've decided to try making gift boxes.

I like things that are a little bit different so this one doesn't fasten at what you would assume is the top of the box.

This box is made from one sheet of A4 thick card.  We had a photo inspiration challenge over at Everybody Art so I have taken the red and black colour scheme from there.  The card was originally black and white, so I have coloured a few of the hearts and squiggles in red to lift the pattern a bit.

I've used a circle punch to cut a notch near the opening and a corner punch on the flaps of the box.  I have added gems for some sparkle and a die cut chip board heart from last years stash.  The little flowers were originally  lilac, but I held them against my fired brick ink pad until they picked up enough colour to use.

I have eyeletted the two flaps and attached red ribbon to tie the box closed.  I don't actually have a use for this box yet, but I had one of those moments where a challenge puts a picture in my head and I know what I want to make for it.

I will also be entering this one for the Die cuts/ Punches challenge over at A spoonful of sugar.

Jolly Xmas

I've been wanting to make a stair step card again for ages.  This time I went for the traditional red and green, but I wanted to use them in a non-traditional way.  The basis of the card is red mirri board and I have raided the scraps drawer for the black and green papers.

I have punched silver and red snowflakes and stuck them onto black buttons.  I've had the reindeer topper since last year.  It is one from a pack that I bought in the pound shop last year.  I'm finding lots of great stuff in my stash.

This card will be entered for the following challenges:
JUGS - Green Red and Black
A Spoonful of Sugar - Anything goes
Papertake Weekly - Animal Magic

Purr-fect Friend

I fell in love with a sketch today. Well that's a bit strong, but I'm sure you get the gist. As soon as I saw it over at Creative Inspirations I could see the completed card in my head. Finding the time to make it was more difficult.



I have backed everything onto textured black Co-ordinations cardstock. The papers all come from a HOTP cardmakers paper pack which I bought a good five years ago. I think it is called Jewel Tones. The stamp is one of my many Penny Black collections (this one is from the Hugs collection) and I have added black pearls to the corners.


I don't use faux stitching very often as it is not something that usually springs to mind, but this weeks challenge over at the Corrosive Challenge asked us to use something faux and I couldn't think of what else to do.

I love it when a card comes together!!!

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

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.

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.

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.

Distressed Male

I always have problems coming up with ideas for male cards, so I was really surprised when the idea I had for the sketch challenge over at Allsorts was for a card for a teen aged boy.

I started with a pale blue card blank and added some black c'oridinations card, some scraps of white card and a couple of buttons. I have used two different embossing folders on my white scraps and coloured them with Broken China distress ink. The image that I used is Mikey from Dotties world.

Manga Xmas

The Sugar Bowl gave us a gorgeous sketch to work with. I've been commissioned to make a couple of Christmas cards for teenagers and the ideas I got from this sketch was perfect.

I have used Manga Girl #2 and coloured her black and red to match the rest of the card. She is matted on black textured card which is matted on silver mirri board. I used white glitter for her hair instead of colouring it in. It's a pity I couldn't get the lighting right to show the sparkle.

Light snow

MAWTT gave us a sketch to work with this week. It is nice and simple in design and will definitely get used again by me in the future with a few adjustments.

I got the stickers as part of a Docrafts pack and could never figure out what to do with them. As soon as I saw this weeks sketch I knew just what to reach for. I have backed the stickers onto silver mirri board and then used textured black card stock mounted onto red textured card stock to finish it off. I think the red board really brings out the colour of the robin.

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.

Dotty 'bout yellow

I love striking colours on a card so I was really happy to make this one for the Cute card Thursday challenge, which was to use the colours "Black and Yellow". Paperplay Challenge asked us to make something spotty and the rest was easy.

The yellow that I used is actually really vibrant and the charm says "Made with love". I'm into manga stamps at the moment so they will be showing up for a while yet on my cards I think.

Got an idea for another card, so bye for now.

Naomi

Swirly Goth

This card was created using the sketch from Friday Sketchers. I have rotated the sketch to accommodate the nesties that I wanted to use.

This is the second card that I have made this week using my Sugar Nellie stamp. For some reason she keeps making me think Goth.

I' loving my cuttlebug embossing folders at the moment, especially since I learned how to ink them so that the embossing shows up more. I'm loving the brushed metal effect that I am getting with the metallic inks, so you will probably see a few more from me like it for a while.

I like the challenge sketch that I used for this one because of its simplicity. There is just so much that you can do with it.