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

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

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! :)