International Art and Soul Challenge 117

 The theme for this fortnight's challenge is Fancy Fold and it was chosen by my team mate Christine. 

I generally struggle with these. Unless I use a die to cut an unusual arrangement, I find this type of card hard. But, I found a template for a diamond fold card on the Create and Craft website and decided to have a go.

The fold isn't perfect (the display section isn't quite square), but I decided it was good enough, and it was a perfect  size for an image that's been languishing in my craft room for a year or two. It uses a Hobby Art wood mounted stamp for the image. I'm pretty sure that's amongst the oldest stamps I own. When I first decided to get into stamping, the biggest choice was among wood mounted stamps, and I used to visit Blade Rubber Stamps in London occasionally to peruse their selection. It's a Mackintoshesque image which is a style I love. I coloured with pencils - possibly Polychromos - as I bought three blues to try out, but then decided that a complete set was prohibitively expensive. The greys and greens are probably Derwent Coloursoft.

To complete the card, I stitched a couple of rose heads using part of a pattern from Stitching Cards and Sulky thread.

So, thank you, Christine, for getting me out of my comfort zone (even though I added comfortable things to the basic design.) 

And I hope you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 47

Our challenge for this fortnight at International Art and Soul is Funny Christmas. You can make anything you like, so long as it meets the theme. It doesn't matter if it's something personal about your make that is 'funny', although it'd be great if you'd share the reason if it isn't obvious!

I used a stamp I've had for quite a few years, and it always makes me smile, even if it's not laugh-out-loud funny.

The image is from Sarah Kay. And I like to imagine those little boys, who'd probably prefer to be playing football, and who've been cleaned and brushed up, trying to be very earnest, but of course, one of them has dropped his music while another has stopped singing while he watches. So, a smile rather than a laugh!

The image was stamped on watercolour paper but coloured with wax--based pencils. I've used a very old Spellbinders label die to cut the image. To frame the image, I've used one of my Tonic Sew Pretty square dies. I like hand-stitching and paper pricking as embellishments, and this way, I didn't get cramp in my hand while hand-pricking all those holes!

I do hope you can join us this time.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 193

This fortnight's challenge at Crafty Cardmakers is to make something with lots of layers.

For this, I made a card for a colleague and friend who's leaving the school we've both worked at for quite a long time.

For this, I used an image from Delicious Doodles that I'd already coloured - probably using a mix of Spectrum Noir and Derwent Coloursoft pencils. I matted it, then added some layers with Papermania papers, and then a computer-generated sentiment. I completed the card with some Tattered Lace flowers.

I hope you can join us with your layers this time.