Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 165

This time at Crafty Cardmakers, our challenge is ... Monochrome. You can use natural skin and hair colours, but apart from that, just one main colour.

I decided to keep things simple, and get out some dies I've recently added to my collection.

A very literal monochrome, I used dies from, among others, Tonic and Joanna Sheen.

I hope you can join us.

Craft Cardmakers Challenge 164

This time, at Crafty Cardmakers, our challenge is to have some stitching (real or faux) on your creation.

I first got in to cardmaking via cross stitching, so I decided to go back (at least partly) to my roots, and do a completely stitched card.

First, I pricked out the outer and inner squares in the large sheet of blue card. Then, I placed the peach card on top, and pricked that from behind, through the blue. I stitched both borders, and then, on a separate piece of blue card, pricked the flower pattern from a book of paper embroidery I've had for several years, before stitching that. I do like this pattern - the flower itself is more than just an outline, and I think it looks really pretty.

I hope you can join us this time.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 163

This time, at Crafty Cardmakers, we want you to use gems or pearls on your creation - that's it!

I decided to make a card for my sister whose birthday is later this month. I decided to use a gorgeous image from the Crafter's Companion Kimono collection, and a matching paper.

I added the sentiment in Photoshop Elements, aand finished the card with a matching insert and a couple of gem flourishes I bought ages ago but had never opened. I must admit, I worried they'd be impossible to apply, and, while they were a little tricky, they weren't as hard as I'd expected. One disadvantage of the paper I use to print digital images is that it's got a top layer which is a little tender - it produces gorgeous, vibrant colours without looking like photo paper, but get a bit of adhesive on it and it'll strip off. Fortunately, I didn't have that problem here!

I hope you can join us this time!