Feline Friends

Over at the Craft Room Challenge this week, they are featuring felines. I thought this was a good opportunity to use some of the feline stamps I bought last year from Tanda Stamps.

I made 2 cards but couldn't decide which one to post for the challenge! So I am showing you both cards!

For this card, I stamped the gorgeous feline on white card then heat embossed it with black. I cut the image out using the deckled rectangles from Spellbinders and cut a further 2 rectangles - one black and one white to use as layers.

I made a top fold base card from black card and scored the lines on it using my ScorePal. I stamped a sentiment and heat embossed it with white and added a ribbon.

This card used the same Tanda stamp that Zoe used for her sample card. I used wild honey, rusty hinge and brushed corduroy on the stamp which gives it a bit of a distressed look. I cut it with a circle die from Spellbinders and added brushed corduroy and walnut stain around the edges before I removed it from the die.

The background was stamped with another Tanda stamp - a spiderweb that I used pumice stone and black soot on to get a variegated look to the end result.

I rounded the corners on the layer and added to a top fold black base card. The image was mounted onto the card with foam squares to raise it a little from the card.

I couldn't resist showing you a picture of our own feline - Didi. She was lying on a duvet that I had taken off the bed and was most comfortable there when I took the photo!

12 Week Calendar Challenge

I was blog hopping the other day, catching up on all the things that are going on in blogland and I came across this neat challenge from the Craft Barn.
The challenge is to create a calendar each week for the next 12 weeks.

I decided that I would make each month of the year on a large tag, cut using the Tim Holtz Tag die. So I started doing them yesterday - catching up on the first two weeks challenge themes and doing this week's theme as well.

The first week's challenge was blue and crackle, so I coloured the tag using Adirondack Snow Cap dabber then Faded Jeans distress stain. The paint underneath provided a lovely base for the stain and gave the tag a dappled look. I then edged the card and the calendar (January) with Stormy Sky distress ink.I stamped a Stampers Anonymous Life stamp on the tag as well.

The flower was made using the tattered florals die (TH again!) and I used glimmer mist in a frosty blue colour to spray the flower to give it a bit of a shimmer.

The crackle part of the tag is on the ticket, which I stamped with a Stampers Anonymous stamp in Versafine Black ink then edged with stormy sky DI. I painted it with distress crackle - Rock Candy and left it to dry before attaching it to the tag.

The second week's challenge was red and embossed. For this one, I covered the tag with Christina Re paper that had a red flourish on the corner, then distressed it eart and Wings TH die, then embossed with a spots embossing folder. On top of that, I inked both up with embossing ink and covered with clear UTEE. I did this twice and it produced a lovely shiny coating on the hearts. I then edged the hearts with a gold pen.

I made the roses from red paper and a 6 petal flower punch. I spritzed them with gold glimmer mist then attached to the tag along with some green leaves that I cut with a leaf die.








I cut the key with a CB cut and emboss folder then inked with walnut stain and vintage photo DIs and covered with crackle paint - Rock Candy. I attached this to the tag using some seam binding that I coloured with the barn door DI.

The challenge theme for this week was green and flowers with some embossing. I stamped a new flower stamp from Montarga on the bottom of the tag then embossed it with clear EP. I added a clouds stamp and embossed that before making a mask to cover it. I then brayered peeled paint DI over the top of the embossed image. I gradually added more colours with the brayer - tumbled glass then stormy sky. The claendar (March) was glued to the centre of the tag and I added butterflies that I stamped (Tanda stamp) and coloured blue and green with copic markers, then embossed with clear EP. The ribbon is seam binding that I coloured using peeled paint DI.

I really enjoyed making these tags and look forward to the next week's theme!

Card Class Cards

This month, the theme for the class at The Scrappin' Patch will be Fancy Folds including a tri-shutter card, a pyramid card and a twisted easel card.

We are going to do the twisted easel card because the class last month did not run (it must be too cold for people to come out!!). This, I made from Bazzill basics pale blue for the base card and the dotty Bazzill in a slightly darker shade of blue. The flowers were cut from the Tattered Flowers Alterations die (from Tim Holtz) and the leaf from the Tattered Leaves Alterations die. I embossed these with the Cuttlebug then layered them up and finished off with a diamante bling. The labels were cut using  Spellbinders Nestabilities dies and embossed around the edges.
Before attaching the embellishments to the top part of the card, I embossed double lines along the side and bottom of the top layer, just to give a bit more zing! The embellishments were added to the top layer then that was attached to the front of the card.

The tri-shutter card is a favourite of mine, but I don't make it that often. It is a good card for formal occasions but this time I have made it a less formal card, just to try it out really!! (I like to try things out!!)

I used a white base card and layered it with pale blue card then paper from my stash. The flowers were cut with the cricut and edged with pen. The buttons were glued in the centres to link into the colours of the paper used on the layers.
I used a scalloped oval Nellie Snellen die to cut the white shape on the front then layered that with one of the fancy tags from Spellbinders. The top layer is a label die fromSpellbinders.

The third card for the class is a pyramid card for which I got the idea from one of my many crafting magazines. (I will add it when I find it again!)
The base card is cut from some blue card that I picked up at a stationery store on the West Coast a few weeks ago. I just love the tonings of the card and it has a lovely texture to it as well. The top layer is paper from my stash (I have had it so long...).
The rosette is cut using an Alterations rosette die (Tim Holtz again!) and is edged with faded jeans distress ink.

The sentiment is cut with a Nestabilities Tag die and I cut the centre part with my Cricut. The stamp is from one of the Art Deco sets from Tanda. It fits this die perfectly!

I do hope we get lots of people for this class! I love these cards!

One for the boys!

Try it on Tuesday Challenge blog has a lovely one this week - One for the Boys.
I used distress inks - peeled paint, wild honey, rusty hinge and aged mahogany to colour the tag then stamped some "male" images on it - one from Tanda - an advert for fasteners and a saw and hammer stamp that was a really old school stamp from a friend. I cut a cog with the Tim Holtz Alterations Gadget Gears and embossed it with the clockworks folder. I then cut a tag from acetate and embossed it with the clockworks folder. Attached it to the tag with brads. The picture does not show it as well as it actually looks!

Roses

This card was made for a Tanda Teaser with the theme of roses.
I used a square white card as a base then added a top layer of red which I trimmed to leave a white border. The rose stamp is a Tanda stamp applied to whote card which was trimmed with fancy scissors then layered on black. I put a lace trim down each side of the black card.
For the corners, I punched corners from red and black card then layered them to produce the wavy line. I used extra black corners to form the wavy square in the centre, on which I placed the sentiment.

I coloured the rose with copic markers.

Since the card also has lace on it, I can put it in the Lots to Do Challenge for this week as well!

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.

More for my challenge

Over the last couple of days have been playing and experimenting with inks and stamps and various other stuff. Here are some of the things I have done.

The background stamp on this one is from the Tanda background set that I bought. The main image is from a Paperbag Studio set that I got at Wantage. The button on the sentiment is from the stash that Sue gave us at Wantage. Instead of a ribbon, I used raffia that I got recently when shopping for crafty stuff here.








This card uses a stamp I bought at the Craft Barn at Lingfield. I wanted to buy a whole set of these stamps but had to restrain myself. The background paper is from a roll of hand crafted paper I got from the Trade Aid shop. Punched the flowers from some scraps I bought at the Warehouse. Layered these with black then used glossy accents to attach the glass metallic beads in the centres of the flowers.

The ribbon is a white self-stick ribbon that I am trying to use up because it is so hard to get evenly attached to the card.

This is a tri-shutter ATC that I made - basically to try out the technique, but I may use it for a swap that is happening next month for the NZ Crafters on Card Making World. I used a PaperArtsy Eiffel Tower stamp, a ticket stamp, cogs and propeller stamps from my friend Zoe! Distressed with scattered straw, crushed olive and dusty concord distress inks.

6 new stamps used - total so far 11 - I think!!

Challenge Day 2

Cold again here today so I shut myself in the craft room to try to do some cards for challenges as well as meeting my own challenge!

This is a skinny (3" x 5" card) for the Something Completely Different Cats challenge this week. I used a Tanda stamp then coloured the image with Distress Inks and a waterbrush. The edges were distressed with Scattered Straw, Wild Honey and Rusty Hinge. Coloured the eyes with green then covered with Kindyglitz.

I did another one the same using Milled Lavender, Weathered Wood and Dusty Concord, colouring the cat with weathered wood and black soot.

It was hard deciding which one to show!

Another one down for the challenge.
Total so far: 4

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!

Demonstration cards and more

We had a very good meeting of interested card makers (and one scrapbooker!) on Tuesday night. It was great to meet a couple of the NZ Cardmakers from the Card Making World Forum too. We talked about designing cards. The first two cards here are ones that I made to show some of the elements of design and the use of a sketch as a plan.

This card was a very simple one using a wide green strip layered with a lemon based patterned paper. The scalloped circles were cut with Nestabilities from green and lemon card.

The stamp on the circle was a Tanda stamp which I coloured using Tombow markers. I edged the circle with yellow ink to provide a little more contrast.

The sentiment is from my favourite Hero Arts set.

The second card was based on the same sketch but has more decoration. The green strip layer was embossed with the swiss dots folder (CB) and the lemon layer edged with a Fiskars edge punch.
I overlaid that with a purple ribbon.

The edge of the card was topped with the lemon background paper which has touches of the green and purple. The sentiment was stamped on the leftover bits of the edge punched card and layered on a piece of the embossed green. To finish the card off, I added three purple brads.

Next time we are going to look at step cards.

Catching Up

Today has been a busy one with the garden needing to be tidied up. However, I did manage to snatch an hour or so in the craft room making a couple of cards - actually, finishing off some I had started some time ago!

This card was inspired by the last CS magazine and the stamp that came with it. I stamped the image 4 times on yellow card then stamped some stitch lines across the centre, between each of the images. I layered this on green card then attached to a square ivory coloured card by stitching around the outer edge of the yellow card.

The sentiment is from my favourite Hero Arts set. I use this one a lot!!

This Mother's Day card was supposed to be for another challenge, but i missed the timeline. However, I did finish it and was quite pleased with the result. Some time ago, I bought a whole lot of Tim Holtz Alcohol inks and was playing around with them. I dabbed the applicator with three different coloured inks (so long ago I can't remember which ones - I need to write these things down!) then applied to acetate.

I stamped a Tanda image onto white card and used a Montarga sentiment. I then layered the white card on a wine base card and attached the acetate with square brads in the corners. Finished off with a wine coloured ribbon.

Busy Tuesday

Well another day and another couple of challenges (I wonder if I can keep this up??)

This card is for the Paper Craft Planet sketch challenge sk012310.

I used a dark brown base card and layered it with a lighter brown. I cut out a whole lot of circles and other shapes with my Cricut at the weekend so I was able to use some of these on this card. The yellow circle I embossed with the swiss dots Cuttlebug folder. I stamped the other piece with one of my Tanda stamps and coloured it with Tombow markers and water brush. I then used  yellow, orange and mahogany distress inks to provide the colour around the edges. The sentiment is a Hero Arts stamp. 

The second card was for the 2 Sketches 4 You challenge this week.

For this one, I used a Montarga stamp for the centrepiece and layered the white on black card. The feature at the bottom of the black card was a border stamp from Fiskars that I embossed with white. I used a Fiskars scallop border punch to create the bottom layer for the ribbon.
The card needed something else, so used some stick-on dots for the corners.

Beaded Cards

I have been back into making beaded cards again this week. It is always interesting to see what results from the different combinations of beads and colours. On this card, I used mid-blue bugle beads and shimmery clear beads with silver thread. I punched the white layer card with the Fiskars punch and layered a lighter blue card on top, with the blue ribbon to cover the join.

I have uploaded some of my other beaded cards to my Gallery at Tanda. Take a look there!