Get Funky! Challenge - Let's Get Sentimental!

Good afternoon!

I just wanted to stop by and post my card for the latest Get Funky! challenge which this month has the theme of Let's Get Sentimental.

I have opted for a really simple layout this month in order to make the sentiment the focal point of my card as the theme suggests. :)

I've used some more papers from the newly released Spring Has Sprung download, I think the daisy design is my favourite right now but ask me again in a few days and I'll have probably changed my mind to one of the other lovely designs!

I cut the papers out using the xcut nesting die - postage stamp, mounted them on to green card and used a black fine liner pen to draw around the edge of the shape to highlight it. The sentiment was stamped onto the same card and then using a small circle punch I punched out one of the daisies to cover up the star in the stamped image and tie it in with the papers.

What you cant really tell from the photo is that the papers are printed onto a thin pearlescent paper which gives a lovely look and everything is mounted onto a pearlescent card blank.

Supplies:

Funky Hand - Spring Has Sprung download

xcut nesting dies - postage stamp

Papermania - 'Thank You' typography stamp/die duo

Thanks for stopping by! Im now off to find some paracetamol to try and get rid of my headache so I can pop into my craft room for a few hours. My new Docrafts kit arrived this week and I haven't felt well enough to play with it yet so its all systems go from tomorrow to get my usual 30+ samples made this week ready for my first demo on Saturday. I'll be back with some samples soon, promise! :)



Get funky! Challenge - Spring Celebrations.

Evening all! Here is my last minute entry into the Get Funky! challenge this month.

The theme is Spring Celebrations and so I've used the freebie download for this month and a paper from the new Spring Has Sprung download which I 'accidentally' bought in the sale over the weekend, oops! :) 

I've added my Boofle topper to the card using a strip of acetate attached with a brad to give an extra springy dimension to the card & glazed his eyes and buttons for a shiny glossy finish.

The sentiment is from the Boofle range too and Ive used card candy coloured with promarkers to add detail to the corners of the card.

Ni. X

Get Funky! Challenge - January Blues

Morning everyone!
I know my life has changed quite a lot since I became a DoCrafts demonstrator as there is a lot of prep work to do, admin after the demos, packing and unpacking and tidying my kit in between, as well as remaking some samples I leave in behind each time and of course the travelling to different stores; (now don't get me wrong here, I'm LOVING every minute of it and enjoy being busy!) but because of this I know I have not had much time to wander blog land or enter challenges. I didn't realise just how busy I'd been though until I noticed that I hadn't taken part in a Get Funky challenge since July!
So my post today is changing that and hopefully I'll be forgiven for going awol for a few months! :)

I needed to make a card for a new male colleague who turned 21 yesterday and the theme of January Blues  just seemed the perfect colour choice so here is my card (sorry the pic quality is not great!).

I have used two wordbook pages from the Blue Magic section on the Dreams Come True cd to make myself a simple base card. They were joined together with DST and the back page was then scored 1cm from the edge so that the front of the card is not marked by a fold line.

I love spots and dots on papers and the fact that this pattern was in reversed colour ways was brilliant for creating contrast between my pages but keeping the theme together, clever planning during the cd design me thinks!

The sentiment is a DoCrafts one stamped with a versafine ink, coloured with Promarkers and Zig Kurecolor pens. The name is white pearlescent card candy that I coloured to match the sentiment and the letters were drawn on with a fine liner pen. I used labels 8 to cut the sentiment shape and the same fine liner pen to edge the shape and faux stitch the numbers.

So that's it, a very simple card but hopefully it was well received, we'll see after he comes back to work!

I'm off to browse the DT cards now and the other entries for the challenge. Ni. xx

Get Funky! Challenge - Anice's Sketch Challenge

Here is my slightly last minute entry for the latest challenge over at the Get Funky! blog.
Another hectic few weeks here, [hopefully with some news to follow very soon ;) ] so having a sketch challenge was perfect. I find my cards come together so much quicker with sketches to follow.

I'll say this quietly but I've actually made an Xmas card this month *shields herself from the evil looks*.
I know, I know xmas in July is mad but I had some yummy new papers and stamps to play with! :)

The stamps were the new freebie from Papercraft Essentials Magazine which was a fab set of Our Betty images! Yay, more for my collection, thanks lots for the exclusive design!

As soon as I saw it I thought Betty's dress would work fab in 2 tone and decided on traditional xmas red and green to match with.....
My new papers from the Forever Friends Retro collection by DoCrafts. Also by DC are the card blank and new 'Noel' range ribbon and bow. The mini present die is by Quickutz.
Instead of adding another layer of backing paper I used a black fineliner pen to do some faux stitching, which considering I dont use it much has turned out quite well IMHO!

Thanks for stopping by, hope this card is ok for the challenge. Ni  :) x

Tatty Ted Challenge Card

Well I am truly a terrible blogger! Over a month since my last post, shows I have sadly not been crafting as much recently, think it's partly the lovely weather to be honest and I have been playing with my cricut and SCAL rather a lot!!

Today I'm sharing my card for the Tatty Ted Challenge I've been hosting over on DC, the sketch is:

The only criteria was that I wanted to use the black frame in the sketch as an actual frame rather than just normal matting/layering. So here is my own card:

The background flowers are using a Tapestry Peg stamp inked in black.

The paper is a 12x12 gorgeous Doodlebug one that I got in a sale for 20p!


The TT image has been recycled from the packaging of my TT peel-off's. :)


The frame is the new xcut NESTNG DIES!!!! Woo! Been waiting ages for these and have to say I'm really impressed with them, lovely designs and a fab price too! This is the parenthesis design.


The little sentiment was a freebie from a DC creativity magazine, I just cut off the borders!


Embellishments from DC, butterfly was a DC punch.

Thanks for stopping by. Ni :) x

Get Funky! Challenge - Master Chef Recipe

After missing last months challenge at Get Funky! due to the madness here (job interviews, job applications, my illness bug and BF's eye injury!) I have made sure to make my card for this month's challenge in good time! :)

Kathy has set the Master Chef Recipe challenge, which is as follows:
3 different papers, 5 flowers, 2 buttons, 1 length of ribbon & pearls/gems to season.
You must also use the usual 1 Funky Hand product.

Here is my card:

I have used my new (first but surely not last!) Our Betty stamp set. I love this 'Your Special Day' set which is so versatile as it comes with a variety of objects for Betty to hold (and you could add different ones too!) so look out for these in use again very soon!

Here is how I met the recipe:
3 different papers - white for stamping onto, double sided pale pink/pink floral patterned paper, hot pink card.
5 flowers - DC punched from the d/s paper.
2 buttons - bought specially on an emergency trip to a local craft store as I had no pink buttons!
1 length of ribbon - DC adhesive ric rac
Pearls/gems to season - again from DC, mini gem wheel gems as flower centers.

Betty's dress was stamped onto the hot pink card and paper pieced onto the stamped image, skin/hair coloured with promarkers. Also used one of the sentiments from the set too.
Ovals made with my very neglected (for nesties/cricut) xcut shape cutter system, which works much better on a glass mat, wish I'd known this years ago!

Thanks for stopping by, Ni x :)

Tatty Ted Sketch Challenge Card :)

Wow almost a month since my last post, I am a bad blogger, well I have very good intentions but as some DC challengers may already know there has been a lot going on here recently. Anyways enough of the boring stuff, on to a card! Yay!

This is my card for the challenge I am hosting on the DC forums which follows a sketch.

I made it using the new freebie stamp from the latest DC magazine, Tatty Teddy!

I'm so pleased DC have purchased the license for these products as this little grey bear is so cute!

I saw this method with a split patterned backing paper and ribbon strip used on a card somewhere ages ago and wanted to try it for myself. :)

The paper is by Buzzcraft which I bought in a pack from the recent Sincerely Yours papercraft show.

I stamped Tatty Ted with black versafine ink and coloured it with my waterbrush using the Soft Grey Fur ink. Then I used my craft knife to cut slit in his paw to allow him to 'hold' the mini flag I made using a cocktail stick, some pearlescent card and a star brad - simple!

I thought this was a nice different way of using the stamp instead of just as a basic image and there is scope for other items to be used in this way. Thanks for stopping by, Ni :) x

Get Funky! Challenge - Zing Into Spring

I'm back on track this month for the new Get Funky! challenge - Zing Into Spring with my card ready for uploading. :)
This month's challenge is hosted by Lou and her criteria is using spring colours of greens, yellows and lilacs as well as the obligatory FH product.

The card is for a relative who needs some real cheering up right now so I needed a quick card, with a basic, not over the top, layout and this colour scheme seemed perfect!
The backing paper is actually a spare page from a word book I've just made (to be uploaded soon!) using the Dreams Come True cd-rom hence the nice purple lines on the edges of the sheet, and it fitted perfectly on this DL card blank. :)

The frame is one of a pack from my stash as are the daffodil stickers.
The thinking of you sentiment is from my JustRite stampers set and the scalloped ovals are nesties.

A simple card this time, yes but I hope it does the trick of bringing a smile to the face of the recipient.
TFL, Ni x :)

My FF hosted Challenge - Sketch!

Morning! Ok so I am always blogging my FF challenge cards from the DC forums, well now I'm hosting the challenge for the first time and this is the sketch I have come up with for it:

I can't take credit for the layout as I saw this card in a big pile of samples on tv recently (can't credit the maker as no names were given, but thank you for the inspiration!) and I loved the layout so I made a sketch!

The challenge is here so if anyone wants to join please pop over, the more the merrier, I'd love new people to join us! :)
If you are not a DC member then it's free & quick to sign up and its a fab forum, not just for great challenges!

Here is my card:

I used my favourite colour purple which I normally revert back to for safety when trying something new lol!
The stamped image was a gift that I coloured in (very basically!) with promarkers and layered onto plain & scalloped circle nesties.
Scallop border punch is DC, embossing folder is CraftsToo and I inked the embossed bits to highlight.
No idea where the sentiment stamps came from as they're so old, I dont care for the text much anymore but its all I have that worked for the strip design!
Ended with my new card candy, never used it before and thought I needed to try (there goes my stash diet!), I quite like the look and love that the white will colour with promarkers to match other images.

TFL! Ni :) x

Get Funky! Challenge - Show Us Your Heart

This is my last minute submission for the latest Get Funky! Challenge hosted this time by Jules.
For the 'Show Us Your Heart' challenge the criteria was as always to use at least one Funky Hand product AND you needed to include a heart too.

Here is my card;

Another shaped easel from me, I think I am officially addicted lol! I just love them!

It's pretty obvious to see where one heart is but it's not as easy to tell from this photo that the 3 gems on the base of the card are also little purple hearts too! :)

The purple & green backing papers are the same design and are from my 'Dreams Come True' cd rom, the 1st of the excellent Papercraft Factory releases from FH! They are from the So What! & Just Happy collections.

The FF bear has been stamped and coloured with promarkers and no my colouring hasn't got any better yet! (Just realised this is an older photo as the heart also has glitter on now too!)

The letters were cut on my bigshot, using my quickutz Phoebe alphabet.

The flowers were made using the Daisy cuttlebug quilling dies with my bigshot and also have glittery centres now!

Hope Mum likes this as much as I do! TFL! :) x

FF Challenge Card - using home made 'nesties'!

Here is the card that I made for a recent fort-nightly DC, FF Challenge.
Our host was Laineymo and her brief was to make a 'Bright & Springlike' card, using spring time yellow & green colours and gingham!



The gorgeous image was a stamped one, donated by a lovely DC member (Thank You!!! <3 ) and coloured in very basically with my promarkers.

The gems were in a set of 16 pairs of adhesive corners that I picked up for 99p in Dunelm's sale.
There are three layers of gems to each corner, however being frugal and not wanting to go over the top on the 'bling', I just snipped off the larger outer layer to add to this card and will use the smaller double layer elsewhere.
By doing this I am making 16 pairs into 32 pairs, thats 3p per pair, not a bad buy then!

Now, I have a small love affair with labels 1 nesties (but do not have the cash to buy them just yet!) and so when I saw this packaging left over from some Papermania chipboard shapes I knew I had to use it!

As you can see I had 2 of these sets, I kept one as it was (left image) and cut the blue edges off the other.
To make my large shape I traced around the original pack top and bottom onto plain copy paper, rotated it 90 degrees and drew around the top and bottom again to join the sides up, simple!

Now I have 2 templates with a striking similarity to labels 1 just from my recycling!

I layered all my papers up, drew a green line around the 'nesties', added the bear on some foam pads, the adhesive corners and stapled the ribbon on with a mini stapler with loads of colour staples that I bought from The Works, for just 99p again! Ta-daa!

TFL, Ni :) x

Twisted Double Easel Card - Mini Tutorial!

Hi, thanks for stopping by!
This is my first tutorial post and its really only a mini one as it is condensed but hopefully it will help at least one person if they are wondering how to make this style of card! :)

These are my new favourite style of card at the moment and really simple to make:

You need to start with a square piece of card. Mine was 21cm x 21cm which folds to make a DL card size - so you can use a DL card blank and easily find an envelope to fit it in! :)

Fold the square in half and make a cut from the middle of the fold (thats 10.5cm along) down to the bottom edge of the card.

Score from the middle of the fold (same point that you made your cut from) on a diagonal angle down to the bottom corners of the card and then mountain fold all the score lines to give you this:

Next cut 2 topper squares of card at 10.5cm x 10.5cm and attach to the front triangles on the base card. Remember, only stick the squares to the two 'inner' triangles on your base card or it wont fold and work as an easel. I made a note of where to put the glue in the pic above so I dont forget!

Lastly, make a stopper however you wish, mounted onto foam pads to lean the topper squares against.

I used two circles on the FH challenge entry in my last post and the one below is just a strip of card that I decorated with a border punch.

That's it, card base complete! Told you it was simple! :)

***

Here is another double easel card I recently created for two DC challenges so you can see a finished sample:

This was for the:

* The ABC Colour Challenge 'J', colours Jet Black and Jasmine Yellow.

* Clare Curd's Weekly Sketch Challenge.

Hope the tutorial is ok, any comments/friendly criticsms welcome!

Thanks for stopping by! Ni x

My 1st 'Get Funky!' Challenge - Yay! :)

Well I said I had another Challenge project to share and so without further ado... this is it! :)

It's a special one as this is my first submission for a Get Funky! challenge. Although I love the Funky Hand cd roms that I have I couldn't take part until I started my blog - woo!
This months challenge was Going Round In Circles (see challenge here!) and Anice offered a freebie backing paper download on the Funky Hand website.

I though the paper would make a fab base for my double easel card (my 1st go at this technique also!) and I punched out two circles from the sheet of paper, mounted on foam pads, to use as the stoppers.
The sentiment is sizzix, the scallop circle a nestie, the large butterfly a DC die and I have no idea where the mini punch for the other butterflies came from lol!

The jar is so inkeeping with the theme as the whole thing is decorated with circles! :)
Again using nesties I cut the two patterned paper circles and layered up with a scalloped circle in between. On the top to finish it off is a large green brad and a clear gem.
To jazz the sides of the jar up a bit and use up the odd leftover circles from my A4 sheet I used a circle punch to cut the shapes and then added ribbon between two back-to-back circles and fixed it over the wire closure for detail.

I'm so pleased with how both of these came out, fab new card technique and, although it was meant to be a gift jar to go with the thank you card, I'm going to have to make another one as this one now lives on my crafty shelves filled with my favourite type of cakey/biscuit snack!!!
TFL. :) x

FF Challenge card - ends 30th Jan

Another challenge card from me today, really pleased with some of it, not so sure about the overall finished card though!
This was another DC challenge, this time by CrossStitchQueen, another with a recipie to follow:

* nice pastel colours

* at least one ribbon/bow

* a sentiment/greeting

* backing paper(s)

* a stamped image of any FF bear you wish

* PLUS he/she has to have a friend too.

As the only FF stamp I own is the freebie one from a previous DC mag I decided to attempt something I have seen Barbara Grey do with her stamps, a reflection technique.

You ink up the stamp then carefully roll the brayer over it to 'stamp' the image onto it. Next roll the brayer onto your chosen card/paper and the image will print backwards - a reflection of the original image! Tadaa! (If you look at my bears the one on the right is lighter in colour as this is the reflected image and some of the colour depth seems to have been lost in the transfer process.)

I wanted it to look like the bears were holding the greeting as a banner, not sure it's worked very well though as I didnt notice to start with but the cord is actually coming from the back of their paws and I needed to make a wider card so I could 'hang' the banner from the cord top rather than in the middle!

The rest of the card is pretty obvious, my favourite Happy Birthday sizzix die greeting, a paper ribbon and I cant remember where this spotty backing paper was printed from, oops!

Oopsy!

Wow how bad of me, I have not posted in over a week, hardly a good start to my blog is it!
In my defense I have been busy! Completed two cards for DC challenges, another FF one and the Recycle an Xmas card one!

The FF one was Laineymo's challenge. You had to follow the recipie of 1 bear, 2 backing papers, at least one flower and a sentiment.

The Recycle an Xmas card one was by Lisaxx. Her challenge was to make a card using parts of a shop-bought card you had received. I got this cute lil FF card which was only about 3.5" x 3.5", trimmed the top and bottom off and matted it onto red pearlescent card to highlight the red of the post box and the santa hat, also it matched this tiny strip of ribbon I had left over!

I also have another 3 cards I made for a family members and a friends birthday that I plan to share with you tomorrow! :)



Holiday!!!!

This week I am off work as working in retail you just dont get any time off over xmas so I always book myself a week in Jan to rest up and play with my new xmas goodies!

Oh and what goodies they were;
my cricut personal, paper lace & wild card cartridges, 1st MS punch monarch butterfly corner, docrafts border and larger flower punches, tons of card and an embossing folder.... phew!
Thats a lot for me, in the next few weeks i'm hoping to upload cards made using them all! :)

*****

Here is my first card of 2011, one of my resolutions was to take part in more DoCrafts challenges so this actually fits the criteria for 2!

The ABC colour challenge was to use grey, a real challenge for me as I didnt think I had any grey papers - I didn't so I made some using MCS!!
I also used my new border punch from DC to make the lace border with my new capsule collection card, and the, G for gold, embellishments using the new large flower punch layered with my small one. Yay used some of my new stash already!