Easter and Anniversary Cards

 The first few are Easter cards from patterns by Stitching Cards.

This is a new pattern from Stitching Cards. I thought it was cute!

And an older, although new-to-me pattern.

And a couple of cards from a company called Form a Line. They've got quite a few free patterns, and in fact, I think the designer is the same as for Stitching cards. In both cases, I've used the free Stitching Cards font to add, or in one case, change the greeting.

This one was just the floral wreath.

And this one originally had a Happy Birthday greeting which I replaced. All the stitched cards used machine embroidery thread.

Stamping this time, and not a clear stamp in sight! The central image is a stamp by Crafty Individuals. Once it was stamped, I masked it, and then added further images using stamps from Stamperia (music and the right hand lace strip) and U Mount (butterflies) and the crackle (Crafty Individuals again). All images were stamped with Verrsafine Clair in Acorn. The background shading was added with Distress Ink. I added further colour to various elements using pastel pencils. The background paper came from a CDRom I've had for a very long time called Crafty Image Emporium. I tweaked the colour in Photoshop elements. 

And finally, an anniversary card for my OH. The background was made ages ago and not used. There's Distress Ink, a stencil and a stamp involved there. The diamond shapes were cut using Spellbinders Nestibilites. I added a gold border using an acrylic paint pen. The digits were cut using a die set from, I think, The Works. The sentiment was stamped using a pre-inked stamp I've had for a very, very long time. I bought it before I was comfortable stamping! I added some colour to the leafy bit using a Posca pen.

See what happens when you're planning to be out all day, and then the weather means you have to stay in and craft instead!

A Special Birthday Card

 I had to make a card for a special birthday.  I'd seen someone using the Lavinia Lillium stamp as a partial background recently - I think it was on the Lavinia group on Facebook, but I wasn't planning on using it when I saw it, so I didn't not the originator. Anyway, that's how I started.

I made the card base approximately 8in square, and I've created a vine effect with the Sizzix/Susan Tierney Cockburn Beeblossom die, along with a couple of other branch dies from other Susan Tierney Cockburn set from other manufacturers. I coloured the flowers with Promarkers, adding some detail with Pan Pastel. The leaves were made using olive green card. I stamped the Lillium with Versafine Clair ink, and coloured the blooms with Promarker, then outlined them with an fine Posca pen. You can't see it in the photo, but I finished the flowers by adding a layer of clear glitter marker (Crafter's Companion). I created a suitable sentiment in Photoshop Elements and cut it and a mat with a Spellbinders die set. The stamped area was shaded with Distress Ink in Tattered Rose and Spun Sugar. I added a darker shade around the whole edge using Picked Raspberry (which I originally misread as Pickled Raspberry, and that's how I always think of it!) I've digitally removed the sentiment for the photo.

I made a couple of insert pages using similar techniques.

Beeblossom is quite a dimensional flower, so there's no way this card was going into an envelope. Therefore, the next stage was to make a box. I used 12 by 12 white card to make a basic lid and tray box which I decorated to match the card. Again, I've digitally removed the recipient's name.

I added an oval label area with a mask, and a little background texture with Tattered Rose ink and a Lavinia stencil.

International Art and Soul Challenge 141

 The challenge for this fortnight was set by my team mate Chriss, and she chose Birthdays as the theme. 

I made a card for my sister's birthday. I'd been playing with infinity cards, having found a really easy method on Craftworld. And here it is:

The Front

So far, so conventional. The magic starts when you open it up, gatefold style.

Side 2

And then, you open again along the centre horizontal opening and get:

Side 3

And you open again, gatefold style to get:

Side 4

And, if you open again along the horizontal opening, you are back to where you started.

The images are all digital, sized to work on the card. Most are Dover Books clip art - either from books/CDRoms I bought years ago, or downloaded samples. You can register with the US site to get a weekly email with samples. It used to be primarily clip art, but these days it's often excerpts from other books. The exceptions are the window and lace images on side 3 which are from a Crafty Image Emporium CDRom which was one of my earliest crafting purchases, and the two-colour panel which I put together in Photoshop Elements so I can write a message because this is a birthday card for my sister.

I do hope you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 129

 My team mate Jennie has set the challenge for this fortnight, and she wants to see Easter Chicks or Rabbits.

I had to think about this one, as I don't have any stamps that would work well for this. And then I had a look at my digital stamps and found the perfect one! It's from Phindy, and I know I've had it for many years, and I suspect it was a freebie at the time, but I honestly can't remember.

Isn't it a sweet image? Anyway, I coloured the image with Promarkers, although I added fine detail with some fineliner pens. I added a little shading with pencil, and background colour using Distress Ink. The image and mat were cut using Tonic dies.

The background uses more Distress Ink and a Clarity Stamp stencil. Finally, I added a sentiment with a Woodware stamp and Versafine Clair ink.

I do hope you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 118

 The challenge for this fortnight was set by my team mate Debbie, and she wants to see projects featuring Furry Friends, so I'm looking forward to seeing your animal-based creations.

I don't have a lot of animal stamps really, but I do have a gorgeous CDRom featuring the beautiful Ivory Cats. I will admit that I've often used it for backgrounds for unrelated projects as some of them are gorgeous, but this time I used an image.

I combined the image mat and background paper in Photoshop Elements. Looking at the flowers on the ground, they looked a little like forget-me-not, so I found my Susan's Garden Notes Forget-me-not die set and created a sprig to go alongside the image. I added a little white pen on the flowers and pale green pan pastel on the leaves, but otherwise, these are very simple flowers.

I do hope you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 103

 This fortnight's challenge is hosted by Sall, and the them is Natural World at Christmas without robins! I know that last bit caused be a bit of consternation, as every time I thought of an image, there was a robin somewhere. And then I thought of a CDRom I've had for years but rarely used. It's a Debbi Moore CD, and I can't actually remember if it was from a magazine or bought direct from her site. I combined a couple of backgrounds, borders, a sentiment, and an image in Photoshop Elements, and this was the result.

I added some silver mirror card to create a border to the printed image, and that's it.

I do hope you can join us this time.

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.

International Art and Soul Challenge 73

Our last challenge of the year is to make anything other than a card. So, a perfect chance to showcase a hand-made gift, tag or piece of home decoration. (Or something else ... so long as its not a card.)

My son's partner loves to travel, so I decided to make her a travel journal.

 I made a box to keep all the bits in too. The front is decorated with Acrylic paper and acrylic paint applied and textured using a rubber tool. The compass was cut using a Tonic die, and both it and the edges of the paper were brightened up with some gilding wax.

And the journal in the box.The journal was cut using a Sizzix/Eileen Hull Wrapped Journal die. I put a layer of Kraftex over some grey board before cutting, then decorated using acrylic paint, my gelly plate, and various stamps and stencils. I added a little gilding was to complete the effect, and made a closure with gold elastic. When the messy bit was done, I covered the inside in some white paper.

I used papers I printed from a Crafter's Companion CDRom to create the pages, although I did make them less saturated, as I wanted a more subtle effect. I printed direct to Ryman Matte double-sided card.

You'll note that I didn't add any details to the pages. That's because I wanted her to be able to add things where she wanted, rather than where I'd stuck something. So, I provided some bits to do that.

 A box containing some tiny envelopes. The post mark stamps are from Marianne, and the envelope die is from Printable Heaven.

A box filled with pouches cut using a Tonic die set, and offcuts of the Crafter's Companion papers.

And finally, some pockets cut using a Sizzix/Tim Holtz die.

 This is my first time using Kraftex. I would have preferred to use some leather or even faux leather or the journal, but I've struggled to get supplies. I know I could buy faux leather by the metre, but then I would have loads of a single colour and I'd like variety. And each piece needs to be about 6 by 13 inches, so most offcuts wouldn't be big enough. I hope the Kraftex gives the journal a robust enough cover, but won't know that for a while!

I do hope you can join us.

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.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 233

Our challenge for this fortnight is 3 - 2 - 1! You need to use elements in those quantities, but what those elements are is up to you! To help those visiting your blog, it'd would be great if you could specify somewhere what your 3 - 2 - 1 are.

In this case, my three is flowers, my two is papers and my one is the sentiment.

The main background paper (and the flowers) use paper decorated using acrylic paint, stencils and a gelli plate. The gingham paper has been in my stash I'm not completely sure where it came from, but I suspect it was from Payper Box. (I used to see them at Olympia at a craft show, but that was many years ago. They might have visited Ally Pally but again, not recently.)

To cut the flowers, I used Crafter's Companion dies, and I finished them with some liquid pearl.

the sentiment is computer- generated. I cut and matted it using dies from Spellbinders.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 232

The theme for this fortnight's challenge is Dragons. I decided to use an image from the Josephine Wall/Joanna Sheen CDRom Enchanted Dreams.

First, I sized and cropped the image to 6in square. Then, I took the area of pinkish flowers in the bottom left of the image, and arranged them in an overall pattern in Photoshop Elements and added a green textured background. I printed both this paper and the image onto Ryman Matte Photo Card. (I understand they don't do that card any more, so I'm going to have to hoard my supply.)

I used an Elizabeth Craft die to make the frame. To finish, I made some flowers using Sizzix Susan's Garden dies. I added shading using Pan Pastels.

The dragon is quite a small part of the image, so here's a close up.

And that's it. Not a card, more just a way to display one of these gorgeous images.

International Art and Soul Challenge

The challenge for this fortnight is Easter. Other than that, you can make whatever you want, so long as you have an Easter theme.

Now, if you saw my recent post for the Crafty Cardmakers design team, you might spot something a little familiar. I made a pair of Easter cards using the same base dies and similar colours, and this is the second one of those.

I made a box card using, as a basis, a Spellbinders die set. I covered the panels in paper from a Kirstie Alsop set. The flowers were made using dies from a variety of manufacturers including Crafter's Companion, Apple Blossom, and Marianne. To finish the card, I generated a sentiment in Photoshop Elements.

I do hope you can join us this time.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 231

The challenge for this fortnight is Easter.

I used a Spellbinders die set for the basis of the card, and covered the panels with papers from Kirstie Alsop. The flowers were made using dies form the Susan's Garden Notes range from Elizabeth Craft, with extra greenery cut using Creative Expressions dies.

The sentiment was generated in Photoshop Elements.

I do hope you can join us!

International Art and Soul Challenge 50

The challenge for this fortnight has the theme: Choose a Movie, or in my version of English Choose a Film. Movie just sounds like US usage to me, although I know a lot of Brits use it too these days. But I grew up going to the pictures to see films or even a big picture. Funny how language changes, isnt it?

Anyway, enough preamble. I chose the film White Christmas which, of course, gave me lots of options. I chose to get out my Thomas Kinkade CDRom, and I chose an image and background from that.

I did some work in Photoshop Elements before printing, adding a faded layer of the image below a cropped version, and adding s bevel or two, as well as a sentiment. I then matted the printed result, and combined it with a rather nice 'paint effect background, and that was it.

International Art and Soul Challenge 49

Our first challenge of 2019 at International Art and Soul is on the theme of Cats and/or Dogs. Now, I'm not a pet owner. I love cats, but my husband hates them, so it's really not an option. But, some years ago, I bought a CDRom (I think from Joanna Sheen) called Ivory Cats and I've used that to make this:

To be honest, I've used this CDRom more for the gorgeous backgrounds than the images, but many of the images are lovely too. I did a little work in Photoshop Elements before printing - adding an extra frame and the wording. Then I matted the result onto embossed gold card. The background is rom the CDRom too. And then I finished the card with some gorgeous braid Ive had for ages but which seemed to match perfectly.

I do hope you can join us this time. 

International Art and Soul Challenge 43

Our challenge for this fortnight is Layer it Up or, in other words, not clean and simple!

One of my acquisitions at Ally Pally in April was a stamp from Dimension Fourth which is a segment of a map of around Paris. My son's girlfriend lived in Paris for a year as part of her degree, and I know she loves the city, so to be honest, I bought the stamp with her in mind.

I used it with some images from Crafter's Companion Destinations CDRom.

I stamped and shaded with various Distress Inks, and, as you can see, used several layers.

I hope you can join us this time.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 212

Our theme for this fortnight is Things with Wings.

I decided to make a retirement card for my sister.

The image is from a Animal Spirit stamp called Hummingbird. I coloured the image with watercolour pencils before cutting it out. The background paper is from Dovecraft, and I've added a couple of die cuts from Spellbinders.

I used a scan of the coloured bird image to create an insert in Photoshop Elements.

I reversed the main image and added it, and a sentiment. Then I shrank the image and made a border top and bottom as you see. I added some yellow to match the bird's beak, and that's it.

I hope you can join us this time - I'm looking forward to seeing your Things with Wings!

International Art and Soul Challenge 33

Our theme for this fortnight is All About Boys/Men. Other than that, your project can be anything, any style, any technique, any colours.

I chose to make a birthday card for my husband who recently had a birthday. His preference is for plain and unadorned, so I mainly stuck to that.

I know it''s a funny angle, but I wanted to show the Happy Birthday.

here it is so you get a better perspective on the image.

The image is from a Pamela West CD Rom from Joanna Sheen. While a lot of those images are very flowery/girly, there are some beautiful landscape type images too. Unfortunately, having come across a blank stepper card while clearing up, and deciding to use it, neither of the papers provided for this image seemed to work for the small areas you get on these cards. So, I took a small sample of the image in a mainly blue and mainly yellow area and tiled thse to get some papers that tone well. I combined the image with an outline and the yellow paper in Photoshop Element and added a bevel to give better definition before printing. I then die cut a greeting (not sure whose die that is), and my husband's name (using a XCut die) as well as a fairy cake (Marianne die, I think. It's pale blue.) I added a little shimmer (and colour) to the candle flame and shimmer only to the icing using Crafter's Companion glitter pens.

Now, a question. I often see this style of card being made, and I just wonder how people post them. (Obviously not an issue in this instance.) I rarely make this sort of card because I find that the varying thickness of parts of the card when folded leads to the card being warped and looking quite tatty. And that's before you compress it to any extent. So, do people make boxes for these cards? Or do they unfold them out so they're rectangular, leaving the recipient to work out how to display the card? (I know that easel cards can be a puzzle for some people, so could only imagine what they'd make of one of these unfolded. I used to make birthday cards for people at work which were passed around for signing, and with easel cards, I was often taken aside by one of the people signing it to warn me that the card needed mending. It didn't - it just wasn't obvious that the design was intended.)

Any ideas/suggestions will be welcomed. I do like this style of card, but unless I solve this issue, I doubt I'll be making many of them.

I do hope you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 32

Our challenge this fortnight is to make something interactive.

Not something I've done much of, but I did buy a die set specifically for making interactive cards, and so this is it!

I started with a beautiful backing paper from Panda Bear Designs which used to be sold via the Stitchy Bear online shop. I can't find any reference to this designer online, but if anyone does know, I'd be very interested to find out. I always loved her designs. This rainbow set is probably the single set of papers I've used more than any other. The flower and butterflies are stamps and dies from Sizzix which I coloured with Promarkers. The sentient uses a die from Creative Expressions.The die set which I used for the interactive pathway is from Apple Blossom.

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

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 209

I'm hosting the challenge this fortnight, and our theme is Water! So, seaside, lake, river, rain  I want to see all manner of water!

This time, I've used some stamps, mainly from Creative Stamping magazine.

I had to use three separate masks for this - given how terrified I've always been about such things, I'm really quite pleased with myself! I coloured the image with pencils, and heat embossed the puddle. I tinted the background with some Distress Ink.. The sentiment is from Creative Expressions. The background uses a several stamps, waterdrops and some linen texture, Distress and Versacolor inks.

The inside uses photgraphs of both the background and image, as well as a computer generated addition to the sentiment on the front.

So, that's my rainy day card. I hope you can join us this time!