January

I have been following a brilliant blog belonging to a lady called Helen, since before Christmas. Back in February I noticed a page that she had made for a birthday calendar. I've been wanting to make one ever since and have only just started today. The decision was kick started by the challenge over at One Stop Craft Challenge, who asked for anything but a card.

Crafty Creations asked us to make our own back ground paper. I started with a sheet of thin A4 card. I went round the edges with tattered rose and then stamped a swirly pattern in aged mahogany. I have edged and stamped the date panels in the same way. This also fit in with the "make your own" challenge over at Cute Card Thursday.

The center panel design was taken from this weeks sketch challenge over at Sketch Saturday and the colour scheme was influenced by the "Pastel" Challenge over at Paper play challenges. I'm not sure what happened to the ribbon that I put across the center. It was alright until I stuck it down. I've had a play with my paper distresser on most of the panels to give it a slightly vintage look.

I got a crop A dile big bite after having had it on my wish list for what seems like years. I couldn't resist adding some eyelets. I've also added some stick on pearls.

Two Butterflies

Normally I don't make repeat cards. Once I have used a design, I very rarely revisit it for quite a long time. Today I found a sketch that I liked so much that I made two similar cards, one straight after the other. Unfortunately I can't find where I saw the sketch to credit them with it.

Sorry about the poor quality of this picture, but I couldn't get the lighting right. I made the silver and white version first and followed up with the black and gold version. The idea to use silver and gold came from this weeks challenge at One stop craft challenge who asked us to use something metallic as inspiration.



Allsorts challenge blog gave us a picture of a butterfly bracelt to take inspiration from, hence the butterflys and Simon Says asked for things with wings.

Inked Oriental

I love using digi stamps and right now, the manga style ones are my favourite. I bought this one from Stitchy Bear. Manga is great because you can really go crazy with the colours and nothing needs to look natural. I can see this one getting used a lot :-)




The design for this card came from this weeks challenge over at Creative Inspirations. Paperplay Challenges asked us to use no patterned papers which is what inspired the colour choice. I enjoy embossing and using distress inks. I think that you get a really good contrast from dusty concord and broken china which are the colours that I have used. Every thing else has fit around that. Not a bad look considering I have only use black card and white card lol.




A Spoonful of Sugar asked for a birthday card, so this one fit in nicely.

Flower Pot Wishes

Crafty Creations asked us to use distressing in our project and any one who follows my blog knows how much I love distressing. I am still learning new techniques and ways of combining them, but I can't get enough of it.

I really liked the colours I used on my last card, so I have used one of the patterned papers again. CRAFT Challenge asked us to use pink and brown, so I have edged the cream pieces of card with tattered rose distress ink and used pink flowers as part of the design.

Both of the larger cream panels are embossed for greater interest. I don't know about you, but I love the touch of luxury you can get from an embossed panel on a card. It can really help to lift the design. I've seen some amazing white on white cards on other blogs and the main thing that has made the cards stand out is the embossing. You just can't get that effect from a shop bought card.

I've used my new paper distresser on this one and experimented with tearing and curling the cream sections. I would have liked to have added more pearls, but I have run out and will have to go looking for some more.

I am also entering this card for:

Die Cut Dreams - Tear it up

Kaboodles - Embossing

Papertake Weekly - Sketch

Shades of brown

Life has been keeping me busy, so I haven't been blogging as much as I would like.

This is the first card that I have made for at least a week and it has been really nice to finally do some crafting. Penny Black and Charisma Cardz both asked for monochromatic cards this week and as penny black requested brown, guess what colour I went with lol.

Stamp something asked for something layered, so I used the sketch for the challenge over at Friday Sketchers.

Cute card Thursday asked for a touchy feely card so I have included an embossed piece of card and some velvet paper (feels yummy). The pearls on my card make it eligible for My time to crafts challenge which asked for pearls.

I have a papercrafting wish list and the Tim Holtz paper distresser has been on that list for a long time. I finally got one this week and this is the first time that I have used it.

Funky Diva

My son has asked me to make a card for a friend of his. She is a street dancer, so picking the image to use was easy. I have taken the inspiration for the rest of the card from this weeks challenge over at Paperplay challenges. They wanted us to use a "person/people stamp and some gloss, shimmer or sparkle.

I started with a plain white card blank and covered the front with silver glitter card. A few die cuts and some distress ink and it just needed some finishing touches. I couldn't get my die cuts to stick to the glitter card securely, so I have used a couple of brads as a security measure.

My son likes it and it didn't take as long as I thought it would to make.

Hope you are all enjoying the sun :0)

Naomi

Vintage Pink

Sorry I haven't blogged for a while, but life has been hectic. I am behind on my blog hopping and I have stash just crying out to be used.

This offering was inspired by three challenges. I love the Holly & Madison Digi stamps over at Charmed Cards and Crafts and don't need much prodding to use them. Dotties world asked us to use two 3D butterflies this week. I have used a charm and what the girls at work are referring to as my card signature - an Anitas silver dimensional butterfly. (Must remember to buy more).

Kaboodles and Totally Papercrafts both asked us to use digi stamps so this card fit right in.

This is my second attempt at vintage cards. I started with my usual 2 card blanks (very easy way to make easel cards) and some text paper that I have had in my stash for more than 5 years. Just like last time I got happy with a candle. This time I remembered to put the distress ink on AFTER.

This is my first time using Tim Holtz Crackle paint and I will admit that I have ordered more as a result of this card. It's great stuff and if you haven't tried it yet, you need some. I'm still working on putting multiple flowers onto one card. I think I went a bit mental with them on this one, but it was fun.

I have used a lot of different distress inks on this one. Antique linen, Aged Mahogany, worn lipstick and fired brick. I have also added gems as stick on pearls. My flower centers are pearls from a broken bracelet and the flowers them selves are Prima.