Happy Birthday Series

I was playing round with my Cuttlebug and a Happy Birthday folder last week. I had embossed a number of pieces of card in different colours and decided to do something with them. I came up with these 6 cards, all of which follow the same basic layout, but with different colours and embellishments. I used Copic markers to colour the images.

Find more photos like this on Card Making World

Enjoy!

Blogging again

Well it has been a while since I put anything new on my blog. I have been busy, just not doing crafty things!
I have been busy over the past few days doing some ATCs, Skinnies and Tags for a swap. I thought I would blog them before I sent them off.

These ATCs are designed around the theme - Oriental. I used distress inks to colour the backgrounds with the spray technique - layer colours of ink onto a craft sheet, mist with water then lay the card down on the inks getting a good coverage of colours.

I used the same ink pads to stamp the images. The coin was stamped then embossed with thick embossing powder then stamped again while the powder was still liquid. The stamps were from Montarga, Rubbadubbado, Kaiser Clear Stamps and Tanda.


I used the same background technique for the next set of ATCS (Theme - Time). Again, I stamped the images with the same inks that I used for the backgrounds, except for the word stamps. The stamps used here were from Montarga and Paperartsy.

These skinnies were based on a theme - Scenic, which I took literally! The ones on the left and right used a photo that I "photoshopped" to provide a mountainous background. The pictures were taken earlier this year when we visited Mount Cook. Distress inks used to colour the pictures and again to stamp the images (except for the cats!). The bird and butterfly were stamped then cut out and mounted. The middle skinny used a Japanese picture which I coloured using Tombow markers then layered onto Japanese paper. I punched flowers from the same paper (which is why they are hard to see!) and added a bling flower to the centre of each one. Skinnies are made from a 3" x 5" piece of card.

These tags were made for a swap with the theme Paris/France. Used distress inks to colour the backgrounds and stamp the images. The tag on the left has a flower made from scrunched up circles of paper. The centre tag is embossed on the grey bits with weathered wood distress embossing powder and has a deliciously rough texture. The tag on the right used a kaiser stamp on the background, with another kaiser stamp (chandelier) and a paperartsy stamp. The tickets were cut with a TH die and stamped with ticket stamps I bought at the Craft Barn, then attached with a brad.

I really enjoyed playing with these, but I must make some more cards!!

Missed all the challenge dates!

Over the last week, have been diligently doing lots of challenges, then I missed most of the submission dates for one reason or another, but decided to post them anyway as I have used a few new stamps!

These two skinnies were inspired by the SCD challenge, which was a skinny with a theme of flora and fauna. I used my blobs on sticks stamp (courtesy of Wendy at the Stamp attic) on both, the butterfly and cat were from Tanda sets, the flowers were from a set I had bought ages ago and the little birds were from a little set designed by Sue Law. 5 more new stamps used!

This box ( top measures about 4.5" square) was inspired by a tutorial that I received by email recently. The top and bottom are supposed to be cut from Nestabilities dies, but I used a similar shape on a Cricut cartridge - Songbird. The box has sides 2" high and I stamped the new CS stamp around the outside of the box. I coloured 3 of the flower stamps and layered on the top of the box, adding leaves, again cut using the Cricut.
Added some distress ink around the edges of the top and bottom to give a bit of depth and hide the card sandwiched between the papers on the top and bottom. Sparkle on the flowers and leaves added with Kindyglitz.

This card was made with a sunflower stamp that I bought (as part of a set) in the UK. I coloured the flowers with copics and distressed the edges of the layer and the card with Scattered Straw DI.

My Challenge

As I was sitting at my desk yesterday, finishing off some cards for a card swap, it occurred to me that, since I had bought so many new stamps while I was away, I needed to make sure that I used them - at  least once!!
So I issued myself a little challenge - to use every stamp at least once during the next month. Given that some of the stamp sets I bought had at least 8 stamps, and I got quite a few sets... that is a lot of stamps to use.

So, here is the result for the first day of my challenge:

The Tanda Teaser for this week is a Man card.
This is one of Tanda's stamps from the Retro Men Set 1. I stamped it using the black Memento pad, cut it with the largest nestabilities oval, then used the same die to cut the backing, which is a leather-look paper from some scraps that I had. I also embossed the die cut to provide an edge to the piece.

Layered on a cuttlebug embossed card outlined with a gold marker, then again onto a brown card. I cut the corner pieces from the same scrap of leather-look paper with a Martha Stewart photo corner punch. The whole was then attached to the beige card.

The sentiment is from a Dark Room Studio set that I bought in Australia last year.

The second piece is an ATC book that I made for my alphabet ATCs.

For the Card Making World New Zealand Crafters Group, we are currently running an alphabet ATC swap. I was thinking about how to store the ones I have made but not sent and I found the instructions for making a little folder that contains 4 ATCs. Carol from Hamilton sent the instructions to me and I found that you could join several together to make a book.

The cover detail includes a stamp from the Les Petite Whimsies collection by Stampington and Company which I stamped on card that I had already coloured with Tattered Rose, Victorian Velvet and Weathered Wood Distress Inks. I masked the image, then stamped swirls with WWDI and little cogs with VVDI. The little cogs stamps was from my friend Zoe, who designed a set of stamps especially for our meet at Wantage.

I coloured some swirls that I had cut with the Cricut to attached to the front with brads, along with a label.
I made 7 little folders and sewed them together through the spines, then attached to the spine of the cover, along with a ribbon to add some more colour and texture.

I attached pink ribbons to the cover, then added the two cards I had made for the decorations.

Quite pleased with the result, but always room for improvement.

I will do a tutorial on this and share it with the other NZ Crafters for them to store their ATC collections.

I also made some other cards, which I have coloured using my Copics, but will share these next week as they are for the card swap and I don't want to let the cat out of the bag, so to speak!!!
Total new stamps used yesterday: 5
Enjoy!

Home again - and with lots of goodies!

Well, we got home safely and so did the luggage (Thank Goodness!!)
Had a wonderful time in the craft shops that I was fortunate to visit - especially the Craft Barn at Lingfield and The Stamp Attic at Wantage. I also bought stamps from the Tanda folks - thanks Andrew and Tanya for the prompt delivery, yet again.

Since I have only been home a couple of days, I haven't had time (or inclination) to go out to the craft room to do anything. It has been so cold and wet since we got back that I have been hugging the fire all day. However, I have cut up all the rubber stamp sheets and backed everything with EZ mount, ready to get on with it when it warms up a bit.

So what did I buy, you ask? I got several sets of stamps from Tanda - the cat sets and some background stamp sets. The large set was a Paperbag Studio set which I fell in love with at The Stamp Attic. Also got some ticket stamps and a few other bits and pieces from the Craft Barn. The sunflower set was one I picked up in a stationery shop in Bromley one day.



Another great purchase was a number of Distress Ink pads that I can't wait to use. I don't think I will need any more ink for a long time!!

Some other bits and pieces that I bought were ribbons, a few other stamps, some glimmer mists, a ticket die for the Cuttlebug, a couple of paper pads, a paper distresser, and a couple of other ink pads.

But, the best thing I bought was two sets of Copic markers, and at half the price that they are here. 

Well, I am looking forward to using everything... just as soon as it warms up!