Crystal Butterfly

Hi everyone. I'm still making Christmas gifts.  I'm so far behind schedule I'm not sure if I will be finished in time.  All that aside, it's great to have an excuse to do some much crafting.

This is a new trinket box that I have made.  I love making these and they make such great gifts.  This one is hand stamped with fairy writing in faded jeans distress ink.  The tag was done using the same colour.

I have used an Anitas  dimensions butterfly as well as a die cut butterfly in silver and lots of 2mm clear crystals.  I love my flowers and the ones I get from Wild Orchid Crafts are great.

The blue ribbon matches the one I used on the tag and the cream lace works really well with the ivory flowers.

I am entering this trinket box in the following challenges:-

Everybody Art - Little present
My Time To Craft - Take two - I used two butterflies
One Stop Craft - Ribbons and lace

Blue Steam

I only discovered Steampunk a month or so ago and I am totally hooked.  I find myself staring at objects thinking "what have you got inside you that I can use?"  I'm not sure how safe mechanical looking things are around me at the moment.

I love making trinket boxes and I actually woke up thinking about the idea for this one this morning. (How sad am I?)  This time I have used blue, brown and gold.  I have inked the sides in Faded Jeans distress ink.  I still haven't been able to get any cogs, so I am still making my own from snowflake die cuts.  This time I have inked them with Tea Dye distress ink and then used gold embossing powder to get a corroded metal look.  The bits where the tea dye show through look like rust.

 My image is Jayne Jettpack from Kenny Ks Steampunk Burlesque range.  Kenny K asked us to use pearls and pins for this weeks challenge.  I didn't have what I needed so I have put pearl beads onto normal pins and hot glued them into place.

I have given my butterfly a slightly corroded look using both gold and black embossing powder.  The flowers have also been given a dusting of embossing powder and then heated  a little with my heat gun.

I will be entering my little box in the following challenges:-

Craft your passion challenges - The "F" word - Flowers

Die cut dreams - Flower power - Use at least 5 flowers

Everybody art - Flowers

Kenny K's Krafty Girlz - Pins and pearls

Paper take weekly - Things with wings  - Butterfly

Ians gone dotty

My friend from work Ian will be celebrating his birthday tomorrow.  He is great to work with and always remembers every ones birthday.  He is also a practical joker and we have all been on the receiving end of one of his pranks at one time or another.

Since he has opened his card, I thought it would be OK to post it here.

I had to take the picture late evening, so I apologise for the picture quality.

The background paper is by Bo Bunny and the dots are velvet flocked.  the i,age is a digi stamp from Teddy Bo.  I finally bought myself a Martha Stewart Border punch and the matching corner punch, so expect to see this a bit for a while :-).

Ian loved his card and it got a good giggle in the office :-)

I am entering this card for the following challenges:

Allsorts - Green and Blue

Cute Card Thursday - Use at least one punch

Fab N Funky - It's so funny

The Corrosive Challenge - Funny or use a pun

Sparkles Forum Challenges - Punch it

Flutterbys

I just had to fit at least one quick card in today.  The theme of this one came from SCSC who asked us to use butterflies.  The vellum is covered in them and I have added two Anitas dimensions butterflies to give it a bit of wow factor.  

I have used silver peel off trim around the outer edge of the vellum and edged the inner piece with silver leaf pen.  I did use invisi dots on the vellum, but I also used brads just to be sure that the front wouldn't fall off.

Moving Along with the times asked us for more than one fold which is where the idea for the shape of the card came from.  Bizzy Becs Creatalicious Challenges asked us for two tone so that was the inspiration for the colour scheme.

Doggone Xmas

I don't use a lot of shop bought toppers, but I really like this one... It is one of a set of six I bought earlier this year.  This card is based on the sketch for this weeks challenge over at Sketch and stash.  

The only new thing that I have used on this card it the topper.  Everything else that I have used was bought last year or even earlier (some of my stash dates back 5 or more years).  

I have covered the front of a shop bought card blank in lilac card and then embossed with snowflakes.  I have added glitter glue to the white bits on the hat for extra sparkle and dotted more around the image to represent snowflakes.  The ribbon and sentiment are ones that I have had for ages.

I am also entering this card for the challenge at Allsorts.  As it is a last minute commission card.  

Sorry for the poor colour on the pic, but I really couldn't get the lighting right :o(

All Tied Down

I really enjoy making Christmas cards in non traditional colours. I find it more of a challenge as the papers can be harder to come by (limited craft shop availability when I usually start in June/July) and I have to think a little bit harder about what I am going to use as a focal point.


This one started life as an ordinary rectangular card blank which I die cut to get the shape. I have continued on with the same set of dies through out the card.

I'm not sure where I am going wrong, but whenever I use glitter glue, my page warps. This time I decided to use this to my advantage and have curved the edges a bit before applying the glue. As a result none of the coloured pieces lay flat which emphasises the textures that I have used.

I've raised the topper with foam pads to help to give the cards some depth.

This card was inspired by:

Everybody Art - Different shaped cards

Moving Along With the Times - Christmas theme

Paper Play Challenges - Shaped card

Papertake Weekly - Photo Inspiration - I took the colours from this one.

Baby Bear

This seems to be my weekend for crafting outside of my comfort zone. Sundays card is for a new baby (pc problems prevented me from posting this yeasterday). I don't really get asked to do new baby cards so I haven't had much practice.

I have had the die cut bears for a while (one of those just in case buys) so this was a great excuse to have a play with them. The base is a pearlescent linin card I've had for a while and I have embossed some pale blue bazzil. I'm not sure where the silver card came from, wrapping from inside a crimbo prezzie I think.

This card is for the Friday Sketchers Challenge , Simon Says and Just cute bears

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.

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

Let it snow let it snow let it snow

The kids are happy and occupied, most of the housework is done and Mama needed some play time. So I did the obvious and reached for my cardstock.

I really did think that I would be sick of making Christmas cards by now, but there is so much inspiration out there, in the form of other people blogs and challenge design teams, that I just need to keep making them.

This card ended up completely different from what I had planned when I sat down to make it. The newest item on the card is the stamped image as I only bought the stamps a couple of months ago. The charms I bought back in September (I think). And the ribbon, card and glitter paper are from my old stash from years ago. (I stopped paper crafting for a few years, but couldn't bear the thought of not doing it again and kept a mini stash.)

I've had a look at this weeks challenges and would like to enter this card for:

A spoonful of Sugar Who challenged us to make a monochrome card

Creative Inspirations Who asked for non traditional Christmas colours

InStyle Stamps Who wanted us to do something inspired by snowflakes

Papertake Weekly who said "Red and Green must not be seen"

Saturday Crafter who set a snow theme

Simon Says who said "Let it snow"

Stamp Something who wanted a winter wonderland

I think that is the most challenges that I have ever entered one card for.... phew

Have a good evening. I'm off to play some more.

Colour challenge

Colour challenge this week over at PBSC we had to use the colours red, white and blue. I couldn't get a good shot of the card as I kept getting glare, even with the flash turned off.

I only seem to be making challenge cards lately. Need to do some just for fun. All of this heat has sucked the energy out of me

Pink and Blue

A few weeks ago, I discovered an addiction to die cut decoupage. The result was a CD box full of ready made decoupage just in case I ever needed to make a quick card. I'm doing well enough to admit that I was addicted now lol.

Anyway, I have decided that I need to use some of them up if I want to buy some more and this is what I have made. I think they are cute and I am already on the lookout for more from this range. I don't usually make two cards the same, but I thought a variation on a theme was warranted here. :-)