One Stitch at a Time Challenge 57

Another Sunday, another challenge at One Stitch at a Time. This week, the theme is new babies, and we're sponsored by The Stamping Boutique who're offering five digis of the winner's choice.

I was lucky enough this week to be working with one of Sylvie's images - Baby on a Blanket which is available at the Stitchy Bear shop.

Since I don't have any new baby cards in my stash, I decided to be prepared and make two!

Both images are coloured with Promarkers, with spots added to the blanket with a Souffle pen. I've matted onto some patterned paper, and backed with some Co'redinations card. The paler one in each case is Whitewash, while the darker is the standard variety. (I wish I knew how to get hold of some more Whitewash in the UK, preferably a mixed pad. I've been hoarding what I've got, and that's kind of silly since I bought it to use it!) The card has been embossed in my Wizard using an embossing folder. Not sure whose - I didn't keep the packaging, but it's lovely and embosses a bigger area than the Cuttlebug ones - definitely a plus.

The sentiment is hand-written on a nestibility die-cut which I've shaded with distress ink in either Tumbled Glass or Spun Sugar and finished with some ribbon.

The flowers are either ribbon buds I was given for Christmas, or roses I've made using punched shapes and shaded with distress inks in the same shades as above.

When I come to use the cards, I'll probably personalise them with another circle on top of the greeting.

Hope you can join us this week.

I'd like to enter these into the following challenges:
ABC Challenge where 'R is for Ribbon',
There's Magic in the Air where they want flowers,
Lexi's Creations where they want monochrome,
The Crazy Challenge where they want us to 'just add flowers'
Craft Your Passion where 'anything goes'
The Stamp Man where they want embossing,
Crafty Catz where they want embossing,
Crafty Emma's Challenge where they want monochrome
One Stop Craft Challenge where they want monochrome.

Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight on Dry Embossing

Trust me to take things literally! When I read 'spotlight on dry embossing', i thought I'd try pretty much all embossing.

Having said that, I have used a couple of different dry embossing techniques. The background is embossed (and debossed) in my Wizard using both the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and one of their border folders. I used some lovely low-sheen metallic blue card I've had for ages for that.

The main flower and the white layer behind it were embossed using one of the Glitter Girls Keepsake board - can't remember the name of it, but it's teal in colour! It's one of the few they do that's great for square cards, but even so, it's been a while since I used it.


I added glitter to the space between embossed lines in the white layer, and to accentuate embossed lines in the flower layers. One of the things - especially about the Glitter Girls boards, but also true of embossing in general, is that you get a much bigger effect if you use expensive, pearlescent or mirror type card. The white and the dark blue have a gold sheen to them, and the pale blue is ordinary pearlescent. I cut the layers out with scissors. I'd love to get good enough with a craft knife to use one instead, because the scissors tend to stretch the card a bit so that you lose some of the depth of the embossing when you cut. (Although I did go back around the embossing after I cut the shapes out.)

To finish, I added a couple of silk flowers (can't remember where I got those - Mad About Cards, perhaps?) and a brad with a gem centre.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
The Creative Cottage whose theme is embossing,
C.R.A.F.T whose theme is dry embossing
The Crafty Purple Frog whose theme is 'sparkle'

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 38

This week at One Stitch at a Time, we're challenging you to do some Christmas crafting, and giving you the chance to win some fabulous images from Di's Digi Downloads! The theme is 'Anything Goes/Winter Wonderland'.

I was lucky enough to get one of Di's images to work with this week, and this is what I came up with.

This was a lovely image to colour. And I don't know about you, but I think he's pretty much a perfect Father Christmas!

The image is mainly coloured with Promarkers, although I've added some Sakura Stardust pen in silver for the aeroplane and Santa's buckle, and in clear for his beard. I glittered the fur trim on his suit. The background is silver mirri-board embossed in my Wizard with a Papermania embossing folder, and I finished it with some ribbon, a couple of flowers and a sticky gem. The silver metal flower came from a local bookshop and the green one from Craft Creations. It orignally had a gold glittered centre, so I covered that up with the sticky gem to keep from introducing yet another colour.

I hope you can join us at One Stitch at a Time this week.

I'd like to enter the following challenges.
Charisma Card Challenges - whose theme is Christmas,
Creative Cottage Challenges whose theme is embossing
Lexi's Creations whose theme is 'Anything Goes'
Craft Your Passion whose theme is 'Anything Goes'
Critter Challenge whose theme is 'Christmas'
Top Tip Tuesday whose theme is 'Christmas'.

Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight on Oriental Designs

Well, last week, the challenge on Crafty Cardmakers was to make a card with a 'world' theme, and this week, we're spotlighting one area of the world - the Orient!

 

I've used a stamp I was lucky enough to be given by my Secret Santa (Vixykins) a couple of years ago. I used Memento ink, and stamped the image twice onto Ryman Ink Jet card. I cut the woman out of one copy, and coloured both with Promarkers, then layered using foam pads. In the background, there's some red mirri-board that's been embossed in my Wizard with a Papermania folder, and I finished the card with some flowers and a Wizarded swirl. The largest flower I made with crepe paper, and the others are from Wild Orchid Crafts.

So, dust off your Oriental images and papers, and join us in the Spotlight!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Stamp Insanity where they're looking for embossing (mirri board in background)
Charisma Cards where 'Anything Goes',
and Scrappy Frog where they're asking us to make our own flowers (large red one)


 

The Nights are Fair Drawin' In ...

For the One Stitch at a Time special Autism Event, go here. (There's candy to be won there too!)

As we used to say as teenagers, mimicking older folks as it got dark earlier and earlier in the afternoon. Of course, there's still a way to go to the shortest day, and living in the south as I do now, night never falls as early as it did when I was growing up. But still, there's an autumnal coolness to the evenings, and a lot of leaves blowing in the breeze.

And all that's just to introduce a card!

I was feeling uninspired yesterday, and spotting a couple of autumn colours challenges, decided to dig out some leaf stamps I've never used. I embossed the image in gold on brown card and then spent a happy while colouring them with Twinkling H2Os. I've got loads of them now, so I shouldn't be short of embellisments for Autumn cards.

Then, last night, I was playing around in Photoshop Elements. I used some autumn-coloured gradients and the cookie cutter tool using a bare tree image, added a setting sun and shadow background, and you can see the result. It's printed on Ryman Matte photo quality ink jet paper, but it might've looked better on a glossy paper. Not sure about that. The card in the background was embossed in one of my new Papermania embossing folders. These look just like the Cuttlebug ones but are significantly cheaper. I'm not sure they emboss quite so deeply, but it's still a good result. The sentiment is one of a set of film based ones I bought a while ago from The Fruit Pixie. They're all in brown shades so not always suitable for what I'm doing. And the image seems to me to have a slightly dreamy quality - it's definitely not exactly life-like!

A complete contrast to today's other offering too.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges: Allsorts who are looking for Autumn colours, Charisma who want us to do something new (I've never designed my own image like that before),  Paper Play Challenges who want Autumn colours, Fairy fun Fridays who are looking for embossing.

Pretty in Purple

One of the challenges on my swap group last month was 'purple'. By now, it's either been received or it's got lost so either way, it seems like a good time to post it.

The image, of course, is one of Ching Chou Kuik's fairies, and she's coloured with Promarkers. Now, maybe it's me, but the lilac/purple shades I've got in Promarkers all seem a little grey.  Which is a pity because I love vibrant purples. (Or vibrant almost anything, to be honest!) I'm always a bit disappointed by them. But then, I haven't got he full set yet, so may be missing the brighter shades. Anyway, I've mounted her on some lilac mesh I've had for years, and also used some purple mirriboard that I embossed in my Wizard using a Cuttlebug folder. The backing paper is one I made in Photoshop Elements to match the Promarker colours, and I finished it off with some flowers. Three were stamped, embossed with holgraphic powder and cut out ages ago, and have been languishing in my box of bits since then. The fourth is even older - bought about the same time as the mesh! I finished them all off with sticky gems. And finally, I added a sentiment which I picked up at our local Wilkinsons!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Flutterby Wednesdays (Favourite colour and wings), and

The Wild Flower Patch which is looking for embossing

Crafty Cardmakers Blossoms Challenge

The final kick for me to start a blog here was the formation of the Crafty Cardmakers blog - and it's got its first challenge on right now. The idea is to use flowers somewhere on the card, and, as usual, I take things kind of literally.



I used my nestibility flower dies to make three flowers using scraps from a box of such things, playing with ways to make them more dimensional - in this instance, mountain folding each petal and cutting between petals, and finishing them with silver brads. Then, for contrast, I used an embellishment that was part of my secret Santa present from Vix on the cardmaking group. I used some coredinations card in the background - two shades, each embossed with different Cuttlebug folders and lightly sanded,and topped that off with some hand made and some textured paper I've had for a while.

I'm sure there are better ways yet to dimensionalise those flowers, so I'll keep trying different things. (Up to the limit where they're difficult to post anyway ...)