Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 57 - Heat Embossing

Well, this time on the Spotlight Challenge, it's my choice of technique, and I chose Heat Embossing. You can do anything you want as long as it includes some heat embossing.

We are kindly sponsored for this challenge by The Stampman (and Lady of course!) who are offering the winner the lovely prize pictured below.

Starburst Stains Brush on The Fun - Holiday Wreath

Deep, rich, vibrant colours with a two-toned shimmer!

These are all dye based products, which give them that vibrancy and can be used on any porous surface, (paper, wood, fabric, balsa, chipboard, etc).

Instructions on how to use: Add hot water, (filtered preferrably, especially with the stains), let sit at least 10 minutes.

Shake or stir before each use.

The only problem is that I'm not eligiblefor a chance to win, but you are, if you enter the challenge! So, show us your heat embossing!

I used this technique for the background on the card below. The butterflies were stamped with Versamark ink onto a shiny shoe catalogue then embossed with gold.

For the centre image, I stamped and heat embossed the image onto white card, then I coloured the image with Sakura Stardust pens which give the end result a 'jewelled' effect that I like.

So, show us your heat-embossing.  I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:
Sassy Cheryl's where anything goes,
Papercrafting Journey where anything goes,

Flutterby Wednesdays where the challenge is open this week,
My Mum's Craft Shop where the theme is 'Things with Wings',
Get Hippity with Ippity where they want embossing,
Stamps R Us where the theme is embossing.

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 90

This week at One Stitch at a Time, we're seeing red! At least, we hope to see lots of red in your creations this week.

This week, I got to work with an image from Lil Diva called Skating Snowman Family and it's available at the Stitchy shop. Ths sponsor this week is Stitchy Bear Digital Stamps.

Isn't that a cute image? I coloured it with Promarkers and added a little sparkle with a Sakura Stardust pen. I framed the image in red card cut with my Fleur de Lis nestibility, and used some paper from my stash. The snowflakes were cut using a Cuttlebug die, and they've also got some Stardust pen added.

Hope you can join us this week.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Daisy Doodles where the theme is Christmas,
Kaboodle Doodles where the theme is 'Baby, it's cold outside,',
Polycraft Monday Challenge where the theme is Christmas Fun,
The House that Stamps Built where the theme is Christmas with snowflakes,
I Love Promarkers where anything goes,
Shelley's Images where they want red and green,
Four Crafty Chicks where they want snowflakes,

Delightful Challenges where they want red and green,
Cardmadfairy where the theme is Winter Wonderland,
Crafty Catz where they want snowmen,
.

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 89

This week at One Stitch at a Time, we've got the best challenge of all - Anything Goes!

We're sponsored this time by Creative Craft World who're offering three Promarkers to the lucky winner .


This week, I chose a gorgeous image and paper set from Reece's Scrap Pieces. It's called In the Meadow we can Build a Snowman and it's available at the Stitchy Bear shop where there's a great deal coming up.

 

The set consists of a standard digi-stamp, a pre-coloured image and five toning papers.

Here, I've used the pre-coloured image and four of the five supplied papers. I matted three of the papers with a fourth one (a dark blue) in Photoshop Elements before printing them onto Ryman Matte Ink Jet paper. I printed the image onto Glossy photo paper and added some Glamour Dust before matting onto blue card. The snowflakes were die cut using a Marianne Creatables set in my Wizard, using white card that had been sprayed with Crafter's Companion Spray and Sparkle in irridescent.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Fab'n'Funky where 'Baby, it's cold outside,'
Moving Along with the Times where the theme is 'Let it Snow',
Shelley's Images where anything goes,
Crafter's Companion where the theme is Let it Snow,
Tiffany Doodles where they want glitter and sparkle,
Glitter Fairies where they want Christmas without red, green and gold,
Creatalicious Challenges where they want Christmas with sparkle,
Winter Wonderland where they want cute Christmas images,
Two Sisters where they want sparkle,




I also coloured the image to match some paper I had, and came up with this:

I shaded the sky area of the image a pale blue in Photoshop Elements before printing, but you can't see that in the photo. (I can either use artificial light which washes out pale colours or have a really dark photo just now!) The paper and gold mesh are from my stash, and the snowflakes and stars were cut from gold card using a Cuttlebug die.
I hope you can join us this week.

Craft Your Passion where the theme is 'Let it Snow',
The Craft Garden where they want Christmas without red of green,
CRAFT where they want to see stars,
Phindy's Place where they want Christmas Cards,
Cardmadfairy where they want texture,
Crafty Emma where they want snowflakes,
Rogue Redhead where they want just one design paper.

Letraset Metallic Markers

If you'd like a chance to win a set of Letraset's metallic markers, head on over to their blog here.

An Anniversary Card

A colleague asked me for a card for her parents' anniversary. I hunted throught my image collection, and found one by Lily Boo that fitted the bill, and then had a hunt for papers. I came accross some gorgeous papers too - from a free download from Crafter's Companion a while ago. They came with some labels, tea bag papers and embellishments too.

Aren't those colours gorgeous? And so you can see the tea bag folding and sentiment better,

I coloured the image with Promarkers and cut it with some nesties. I coloured the ribbon and gems with Promarkers too!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Daisy Doodles where 'anything goes with a digi',
My Craft Spot where they want Easel cards,
My Partner in Crafting Crime where they want freebies (the image, papers, teabag papers and flowers were all freebies!)
Stamps are Us where the theme is 'bling it on',

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 56

This time at Crafty Cardmakers, we want you to recycle something! It can be a box or container, or even something you add as an embellishment, so long as it's recycled. And make sure to mention what's been recycled too!

I decided to make something other than a card this time, and found a sturdy little box which originally had some jewellery in it. It was rather plain, except for the manufacturer's logo on the lid, so I decided to convert it for Christmas.

And, for a better view of the top,

The papers are from a recent Crafts Beautiful freebie, and I've added some ribbon, some mirror board cut with a Martha Stewart border punch, and a poinsettia cut with a Marianne Creatable die set in my Wizard. Unfortunately, I wasn't convinced I'd be successful, so I didn't take a photo of it in its original state.

It's a nice, solid little box, and I suspect I'll fill it with tablet as a gift, once I've made the tablet, that is!

Hope you can join us this time.

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:

Top Tip Tuesday where it's 'anything goes Christmas'
Mami Doodles where the theme is Christmas,
Wags 'n Whiskers where the theme is Christmas
Totally Gorjuss where the theme is Christmas Traditions,
Pile it On where they want Traditional Christmas,
Karen's Doodles where they want anything but a card.

Craft Barn Candy

How's that for some blog candy? Pop on over to the blog and get the details!

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 88

This week at One Stitch at a Time, we're challenging you to put your colours out of sight, and stick to Black and White!

If you want to enter this challenge, and need an image, head over to Stitchy Bear because there's a huge range of lovely silhouettes over there that would be perfect! I chose to use one of Stitchy's own silhouettes, or to be more exact, a set of two of them called Snow Angels.

Isn't that a pretty image? I added the words and made the background paper in Photoshop Elements, then printed and added some detail with Glamour Dust. I sprayed both the black and white card I used with Crafter's Companion Spray and Sparkle in irridescent, and embossed the white using a Papermania embossing folder. I cut the black border using the Tonic border punch system and a couple of punches and finished it with some clear sticky gems.

 And here's the second image, along with the rest of my sentiment. I put the insert together in Photoshop Elements.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Heartsong Inspirations where anything goes,
House of Gilli where the theme is monochromatic,
Stamps Plus Fun Equals Creativity where the theme is winter,
Papertake Weekly where the theme is 'First Christmas',
Top Tip Tuesday where it's 'anything goes Christmas'
Delightful Challenges where they want snowflakes,
Wags 'n Whiskers where the theme is Christmas.



Our sponsors for this challenge are Stamping Boutique,

and  I was lucky enough to get one of their images to work with too. It's called Smoochie the Fashionista.

I was worried at first, as this didn't seem to me to be the sort of image I'd choose for a black and white challenge, but I decided to have a go and was very pleased with how it turned out. I've coloured the images with Promarkers, using only black and various greys. I reinforced the white spots with a Sakura Souffle pen in white, and added some sparkle with a Sakura Stardust pen. I cut the image with a Nellie Snellen die, and added embellishments die cut with a couple Marianne dies I bought recently. The papers are from a CD called Flower Power.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges;
Digital Tuesday Challenge where anything goes,
Crafty Catz where they want a digital image,
2 Sisters where anything goes,
Stamptacular Sunday where they want a punch or die to be used,
Paper Sundaes where they want digital images.

And then I thought I'd have another go but use some skin tones this time.

This time, I used some paper I designed in Photoshop Elements, Promarkers, Sakura Souffle pen, some oval nesties, and Spellbinders borderabilities.

I hope you can join us!

21st Birthday Card

I was asked by a colleague to make a 21st birthday card. I showed her a couple of sites that had images I thought might work, and she went for Princess Jennifer Latte from The Stamping Boutique.

I altered the colour of the sentiment on the image from black to a burgundy shade, then coloured the image with Promarkers, and added a little Sakura Stardust pen for added glamour. I cut a mat with the Fleur de Lis nestibility set from Spellbinders in my Wizard.

The paper comes from a CD called Flower Power that I  bought from Crafty Emma a while ago, and it works well with the 'Barbie pink' theme I started. The flower border uses a Martha Stewart punch which I used twice. I didn't measure (or record how wide a strip I started with, unfortunately) but it turned out perfectly! I added some sticky gems and a computer generated sentiment, and a silk flower centred with a jewelled brad.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Dutch Dare where they want  us to use dies and punches,
The Paper Shelter where they want pink,
Truly Scrumptious where they've got a bingo (gems. flowers, punch)
Create Me Pink where they want flowers,
Digital Tuesday where anything (digitial) goes,
Daisy Doodles where anything (digital) goes,
Heart Song Inspirations where anything goes,

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 87

This week at One Stitch at a Time the challenge is to use a digi. That's all! Our sponsor this week is One Stop Card Crafts.

This week, I chose a lovely image from Delicious Doodles called Sniffing Daisies.

Isn't that a lovely image? And a lovely change from all the Christmas Cards I've been doing lately. I've also used another Delicious Doodles image - the Monarch Butterfly. The main image and butterflies were coloured with Promarkers, although the sky in the main image is daubed with Distress Ink using a stencil brush. The papers are from Papermania's Capsule Collection. Someone gave me a pad in my work's Secret Santa, and I've used them a lot - they're just such gorgeous colours - warm but not too heavy.

Hope you can join us this week.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Polycraft Monday Challenge where anything goes,
Papercrafting Journey where they want us to use a digi,
Fresh Brewed  where anything goes,
Stampavie and More where anything goes,
Inky Impressions where they have a photo-inspiration (I chose the colours),
Papertake Weekly where anything goes,

Paperworks where they've got a photo-inspiration
Crafty Ann's where they want a floral frenzy
Crafty Catz where anything goes
Creative Inspirations where anything goes.

Christmas in Red, Orange and Yellow

I was lucky enough to win a recent challenge at the Crafts and Me blog, and my prize was a gift certificate from Whimsy Stamps. So I didn't have to spend my voucher on postage, I opted for some digis, and I used one of them today.

I haven't used any Whimsy digis before, but I've got to say, the fact that they give you a png file with a transparent background is just perfect! I added the background shading in Photoshop Elements before I printed, then coloured the image with Promarkers. I cut the image and mats with some nesties, and when I went to put the image on the card, I decided I preferred it turned around a little - making the angel more upright. (One advantage of a circular image!)

The background paper is from the Papermania Capsule collection. I've used so much of that paper this year - I love those colours!

I fancied doing something a little different for embellishment, so I cut some pinking circles  and wrapped them with gold thread spirelli-style, finishing them off with sticky gems shaded with Promarkers.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Crafty Hazlenut's Christmas where they want bright,
Little Claire where the theme is Christmas,
Crimbo Crackers where anything (Christmas) goes,
Cute Card Thursday where they want the colours of the bonfire (among other Guy Fawkes options),
Fresh Brewed where anything goes,
Papertake Weekly where anything goes,
Emerald Faerie where the theme is 'Christmas Red',
Sparkles Christmas where they want angels,