Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 179

Well, it's the last Crafty Cardmakers challenge of 2016, and naturally, at this time of year, we've got a Christmas theme. But we'd really like to see Christmas with a Twist! So, something a little different?

We're sponsored for this challenge by Woodware. See the challenge blog for more details.

Well, I decided to go for an image from Stitchy Bear called Bah Humbug.

Father Christmas in blue? That must be a twist!

I stared by stamping the background with Versamark and embossed with clear powder on white card, then added some colour to the sheet with Distress ink. I coloured the image with Promarkers, and shaded the background with more Distress ink. I added some stitching to a circle using my recently acquired Fiskars pricking template and some silvery-blue thread. And that's it!

I hope you can join us.

And, since this will probably be my last post here for a few weeks, I'd like to wish you all a very happy Festive Season, whatever you celebrate, and to wish you a very happy 2017.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 178

This time at Crafty Cardmakers, we want to try something a little different; our challenge is to make anything but a card! That's not something I find easy, but I had a little help from a friend who gave me an Ikea box frame. Well, this is what I came up with!

The frame is quite big - the green card I used as backing is about 9 by 9in. It's got glass too, but I removed it to get a better photo.

The background sheet uses watercolour paper shaded and stamped with a range of Distress Inks. The flowers are all hand made using dies from the Sizzix Susan's Garden range along with some greenery made with Sue Wilson dies. Petal shading was done with Pan Pastels, some flower centres use Liquid Pearls and extra detail on stamens use a little glitter glue.The colours are designed to go in our hallway - which is predominately green, although there are pinky/red lights in the glass on the front door, and an oak floor. I hope you can join us this time!

I hope you can join us this time.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 177

This time, at Crafty Cardmakers, the challenge is to use embossing: heat or dry - it's up to you!

Of course, if you're like me, you get a word in your head: embossing and you have to try all of them, and about now.

So, the image has no embossing! It's a stamped image using a Debbi Moore stamp I've had forever, and I've coloured it with Sharpie markers. It was really just an 'I wonder' moment, and there's no finesse in the colouring at all, but I liked the vibrant result. I've added a little glitter to the butterfly using a Spectrum Noir glitter marker.

For the background, I first dug out a Spellbinders Impressability plate. I inked it using a Kaleidoscope ink pad, then ran it through my Big Shot Pro. The result is techinically debossed, but it definitely adds some texture. Then, I embossed some green card using an embossing folder, then applied some of the same ink to the result with a brayer.

I've triple embossed a chip board flower. The main part uses UTE powder, and the centre is standard, both Cosmic Shimmer. The sentiment was stamped in Versamark ink and embossed with the same standard embossing powder.

I hope you can join us this time!

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 176

This time, at Crafty Cardmakers our challenge is to produce something that's an Explosion of Colour! It's my turn to host, and I'm looking forward to visiting lots of you to see how colourful your explosions really are. It's not an accident that I call this blog a Rainbow ... I love colour - the brighter the better!

So, when I was asked to make a birthday card for a friend's niece and given the remit that she loves fairies and bright colours, I immediately thought of this challenge.

My friend chose the image from my collection. It's one I've had for a long time. It's from Pollycraft - I don't even know if she's still in the digi business, but my friend said, 'It's very Holly!' I coloured the image with Promarkers and added some sparkle to her wings with a Crafters Companion glitter marker, I edged it with Distress Ink in Spun Sugar and Festive Berries. The background paper is from my Flower Power CDRom, and as you can see it's a veritable rainbow of colours. I designed the sentiment layer in Photoshop Elements and added an element of the background paper, and completed the 8 by 8 card with some butterflies cut using Spellbinders dies. They're actually three-layer butterflies, with the middle layer cut in some shimmer paper in pink which doesn't show very well in the photo but which gives a lovely effect.

I hope you can join us this time.