Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 246

The challenge for this fortnight is to do away with patterned paper. Leave your stash of pretty papers alone, and other than that, any project is allowed!

I made a card and matching box for a friend who retired last month.

I started with some white card which I coloured with Distress Oxide ink in several of my favourite shades.

Then, I embossed two roughly 8in by 8in pieces using an Embossalicious folder. I then added a little more distress ink on some of the embossed areas and finished with a little gilding wax.

I made some flowers using dies from Sizzix's Susan's Garden range, Elizabeth Craft's Susan's Garden Notes range and finally a die from Printable Heaven along with some greenery cut using a Sue Wilson die. To complete both the box and card, I put together a label in Photoshop Elements which I die cut using Spellbinders dies. After photographing, I removed my friend's name from photos of both the card and box because I don't think it's fair to include that sort of detail in public without permission.

And that's it!

I do hope you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 72

The challenge for this fortnight is to make something for Christmas, but not to include an image! So, we'd love to see lots of sentiments, backgrounds, textures, but no focal image.

I've been enjoying paper embroidery lately, and recently discovered that Stitching Cards do True Type fonts of stitching patterns. So, I've tried one out here to create a (not very) original sentiment for a card.

The frame pattern was pricked using a brass stencil from Joke de Vette. I used some gold-coloured machine embroidery thread for both the circles in the frame and the text. I used some Lurex thread for the scallop, and I don't think I'll be doing that again. I stuck with it because I liked the effect but it's very hard to use as it twists, stretches and breaks very easily. Apart from the stitching, I've added some mirror card and that's it! (Sorry about the reflection of my finger and phone case in the mirror card - I really don't know how to avoid that!)

I do hope you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 71

Our challenge for this fortnight is UK Myths and Legends. I went for something fairly generic but which definitely turns up in some British legends: a dragon!

For this I used a decoupage image from Debbie Moore. I think the CDRom came with a magazine some time ago. I've layered the image using glue gel. For the matting, I've use a Tonic die set - I think its called Celtic Circles so it seemed very appropriate. The result if rather imposing, as I needed an 8 by 8 card to accommodate it.

I hope you can join us this time.