Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 199

The challenge at Crafty Cardmakers for this fortnight is Thankful. We'd love to see what you come up with.

For this, I stuck to a basic 'Thank you' card.

This card started with me playing with my new Gelli plate and some acrylic paints. I used a swirly stencil and made a print onto heavy paper but wasn't happy with the result. I removed the stencil and took another print onto copy paper, and loved the result.

The 'Thanks' was die cut - I think it's a X-Cut die - it's definitely brown in colour. The flower was made using dies from Crafter's companion, and extra colour was added with Pan Pastel.

I think I'll be playing some more with the Gelli plate! In fact, it might be a good reason to give up buying patterned paper!

I hope you can join us.

International Art and Soul Challenge 20

The challenge at International Art and Soul this fortnight, is to use a charm or a tag.

And I'm continuing in my efforts to get a few Christmas cards together with this one:

I started with some glossy card which I brayered using a couple of shades of Distress Ink: Scattered Straw and Wild Honey. Then, I attached a a Special Touch mask and added some green shades using Versacolor ink. Finally, I added the words, using a stamp from a Sweet Dixie set. 

In the foreground, I die cut a tree using a Sizzix die - three times in white and one in a glittery gold card, and stuck them together to make a more robust embellishment. I cut a mat using a Spellbinders die, and a tag using, I think, an old XCut die. The sentiment there came from a Woodware set.

I hope you can join us this time!

International Art and Soul Challenge 19

The challenge at International Art and Soul for this fortnight is Anything but a Square or Rectangle!

I've continued on my attempt to get some more Christmas cards done, and this is what I came up with.

I've used dies from a variety of manufacturers for this card. Firstly, the card itself was cut using a Tattered Lace die set. The various embellishments supplied don't really work for Christmas, so I looked elsewhere in my collection. The lower mirror board was embossed using a Cuttlebug folder, and the Season's Greetings is from a Tonic die set.

The poinsettia was cut using a Marianne die I've had vor a very long time. I added some detail using Pan Pastels.

And the robin is, I think, a Dovecraft die. I chose not to pop out the inner cuts as I liked the texture they provide.

And that's it! I hope you can join us this time!

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 197

This fortnight, the theme at Crafty Cardmakers is Fancy Folds. So, no standard book folds, and the fancier the better!

I've gone for something fairly simple, but I think it's quite effective.

Well, the front looks simple enough, but inside ...

I made the base for this card using the Marianne Carousel die set, although the lovely lacy edging is covered by my 'carpet'. The images come from the My Craft Studio CDRom Festive Deco Follies which I've combined using Photoshop Elements. I've used supplied backgrounds and added foreground elements. On the front, I had to extend the brickwork, and I added a suitable greeting.

It's something a little bit different , and of course, another Christmas card off my to do list!

I hope you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 18

The challenge at International Art and Soul this fortnight is Monochromatic. Other than that, your project can be anything you like!

I was inspired to use a free gift from a magazine for this card.

The butterfly was made using the template which was a magazine freebie a few months ago. It gives a cut line and provides a scoring board for both a butterfly and heart-shaped embellishment. I used some paper from a Papermania pad for that. I had planned on using other papers from the pad to make flowers and as the background, but maybe I'm just too wary of mixing patterns. When I tried it out, it just looked too cluttered and busy. So, I had a re-think. I stamped the sentiment using a Lily of the Valley stamp and Memento ink, and shaded the flowers and leaves with Sakura glitter pens in silver and clear. The swirls were cut using Sizzix dies, and the flowers are, I think Cheery Lynn, which I finished with seed beads.The background is actually some marbled card I bought very early in my paper-crafting career. Back in the days when I did a lot of cross stitch, I used to go to a craft show at Olympia which had both stitching and papercrafts. As I got into papercrafts, I realised I needed some patterned paper, but was wary of anything too busy, so I bought a pack of marbled card in various pastel shades. I've still got a lot of it because it's actually too subtle for most uses! Last time I went to that show, it was almost completely turned over to knitting, so I never went back. (I do knit, but not often and I wouldn't feel the need to go to a craft show to get yarn.)

So, that's the card, as well as some totally unnecessary background! I hope you can join us this time.