International Art and Soul Challenge 84

The theme for this fortnight is Humour. Like many things, humour is very much a personal taste - and as a result I rarely use it in the cards I make. So, this is a struggle for me and so the humour is very gentle, and perhaps some people won't even see it as humour.

The bar of chocolate was made using lots of squares, cut using a Spellbinders die. I've layered a base piece of card, then a sticky pad, then a die cut piece, then and other sticky pad and finally a last die cut piece. I attacked the edges of the sticky pads with a Promarker in Umber so the white edges didn't detract from the end result. I finished by wrapping the 'bar' in cooking foil, then tearing off a strip.

The sentiment was computer generated in Photoshop Elements and printed on to kraft card, and the paper is a rather lovely foiled craft paper from The Works.

I do hope you can join us this time.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 257

The theme for this fortnight is Butterflies. Like flowers, I find butterflies such an easy thing to add to a card; a beautiful embellishment for any occasion.

I started with a Woodware stamp. I've bought quite a few of theirs recently - such lovely designs. I  coloured the butterfly and a couple of small details on the image with Promakrers. Then, to give it a vintage appearance, I shaded the background with Distress Ink before matting on to some mirror card. The background paper is from a pad I bought second-hand from a friend who was giving up cardmaking. I'm not sure whose it was, but it's an odd size of sheet (maybe 6" by 8", so I suspect it was made for the US market. But, the papers are lovely, and the colours gentler than I'm usually drawn to. I finished the card with a die cut butterfly, cut using a couple of Spellbinders dies.

I do hope you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 83

Our challenge for this fortnight is one I'm sure you'll want to enter. Any project, and colours. It just hast to contain flowers and butterflies.

I made something for my sister when she was feeling down.

I made the frame using an Elizabeth Craft die, embossed the card with an Embossalicious folder and added detail with some gilding wax then finished with some Modge Podge. The backgroudn was created with a couple of stencils, Versamark ink, Perfect Pearl powder and some embossing gloop I've had for many years. The fowers were made using a variety of dies, including ones from the Sizzix Susan's Garden range, Memory Box, Joanna Sheen and shaded with Pan Pastel, and the butterfly used some Spellbinders dies.

I hope you can join us.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 256

The theme for this fortnight is Celebrations. That seems a little awkward at the time I'm writing this post as we're all supposed to be socially distancing or isolating, but I think it's actually quite appropriate in its way. When things are hard, it's important to remember the positive things, and in this case, the celebrations I'm thinking about are birthdays.

My son's partner has a birthday coming up, so I made a card for her.

Quite a long time ago - maybe as long as a couple of years ago, I ordered some things from Crafter's Companion, and a free gift was included in the order. That gift, a cut and emboss folder has languished in my craft room, still in its packaging ever since. On a whim, I got it out, and I have to say I rather like the effect. I think one of the reasons I haven't used it before is because I really prefer cards with a square format.

Anyway, the resulting cut really does make a card. All I've added is a lower layer, a die cut butterfly and a pre-printed sentiment. I'm struggling to remember the manufacturer of the butterfly die - I think I got it in The Range, and the brand was something like 'Tri-cut' and it came with some stamps. Anyway, the die produces that lovely, lacy butterfly, and the only issue is that you have to poke out all those pinhole pieces which do try to stay around even once they've been cut out.

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