Is it a spider, is it a mouse...

It's Henry superhero digi stamp! Free from Kathrina's blog. I had a request for a sand-coloured card for a 10 year old birthday: I used 'Sandbox' embossed Bazzill with scraps of mulberry paper; inking the edges with ColorBox chalk 'chocolate and blueberries'. I coloured Henry with Whispers marker pens and cut him and my computer-generated text with Nestabilities. The corners are Basic Grey 'archaic' stickers and I pulled apart a piece of string until I felt it was the right look and then threaded through the image, round the brad and back.

Three cards shown today - Must be football season if I can manage a hat trick!
Entering this card for the Stamp something - digital challenge.

Grey teenager card

This request was for a boy's 14th birthday in grey: I immediately thought of the masculine papers in the Basic Grey Boxer collection and the Cuddly Buddly teenager download I bought ages ago. I put these together with the BG challenge sketch #21, a sentiment circle I created in Paint Shop Pro, an already grungy grey paper I found in my stash and then grunged everything with ink - Brilliance (Silver) and ColorBox chalk (Charcoal) - This is the result:

Ruby Red - Friday sketchers

Another red card, perhaps more burgundy than ruby? This time I have used the Friday Sketchers #105 for inspiration and used Clare Curd's 'Big one' papers and shopping stamp which I paper-pieced: There are 4 layers hiding there (arm on bag on trousers on base).

I'll be back later with a non-red card :)

Ruby red

I've just photographed the 6 cards made yesterday so I've plenty to blog :) The request for this card was 'a ruby red birthday card for a 19-yr old':

I've used GCD Studios 'Homespun Chic' card on a red base, with a big white flower from my Dovecraft  punch inked (ColorBox 'Rose Petals') and tucked under; mounted a PaperMania felt butterfly on to red mirri card, and positioned it with paper and fabric flowers and gems from stash. I used a sketch by Sandrine Vachon (upside down) and made the corner from my M Stewart border punch (Botanical scallop) from a scrap of mirri mounted on to white. Entering for the PaperPlay Challenge 'Flowers and Sparkle'.
J'ai une commande pour une carte rouge pour un 19e anniversaire: J'ai utilisé le sketch #80 de Sandrine Vachon (à l'envers) et également je participe avec le challenge chez PaperPlay - fleurs et scintillement. 
Papier -GCD Studios; papillon feutrine - PaperMania; tampon - Compagnie d'elfes; encre - ColorBox 'Rose Petals'; perfo grande fleur - Dovecraft; perfo bordure (utilisé pour le coin) - Martha Stewart; fleurs, strass.

Sunday Sketch & Stamp #29

My sister bought the DoCrafts goody bag over from the UK so I have been playing with the stamp and Henbury papers, using the Sunday Sketch & Stamp challenge as inspiration for the layout:

I stamped the image with ColorBox chalk ink from the 'Pumpkin Patch' queue stack - twice on white card and the flowers twice on the pink paper. I added colour by brushing 'Shabby Shutters' Distress Ink on to the leaves and cut round the image and layered that, then cut round the flowers and individual bud to make a flattened decoupage effect. Inked round the base of the image and stamped the text with the same chalk ink. Cut text with Spellbinders 'labels trio'; Border punch is by Martha Stewart. Inked other paper edges with ColorBox queue 'Rose Petals'.
2nd card using the same paper pack, purple peel-off and ribbon from the goody bag with MS border punch 'Botanical scallop' on a silver card blank:

Thanks for looking and your lovely comments - I do appreciate them :)

Paperminutes sketch

We've had 5 days holiday at home as my sister and brother-in-law came to stay and the weather was fantastic so we've been out and about sight-seeing. They left this morning and it has rained all day so I've stayed in making cards and have a lot of catching up to do! I have had 4 orders over the last few days totalling over 50 cards - no joking, though thankfully 30 are pyramid decoupage style of local scenes (my own design) so fairly quick to do. Others are a mix of vague requests and some very specific ones: All will be unique and I could lapse in to total panic at this point...!
Here's a birthday card made using the Paperminutes sketch 116 and one of Mo Manning's great digi-stamps coloured with water-colour pencils. The paper is from PaperMania 'Man's World' and the hangy thing is a wine glass decoration I bought cheaply in a pack of 6 so has a practical use too ;)

Vintage page

I have started working on the box of photos I inherited after my mom died (over 9 years ago now). Always on my mind to do a family heritage album, I was finally prompted to do this layout by the beautiful GCD Studios papers 'Ella Blue'. This page is of my mom, nan and aunt in 1946. Sadly, three of my grandparents had already died when I was born and I never knew this grandmother. I don't even have a photo of my paternal grandfather so trying to make sense of the photos I do have is important to me. As my son lost the only grandparent he had when he was just 4 months old I hope they will become important to him too.
I distressed the Bazzill 'sea salt' background with scissors and then white acrylic paint and then stamped and embossed it in white. Some layers of paper and the journaling dots are edged with Distress Ink (Walnut Stain) and I went round the title (Cuttlebug Harmony alphabet) with a brown pen too. Also used EK Success border punch (Scalloped Scallop), paper doily, Prima flowers and Glossy Accents. I'm entering this for the 'Creative Inspirations' challenge #62 'Distressed', the Crafts & Me challenge #5 'Distressed' and The ABC challenge 'V is for Vintage'.

Ma page 'vintage' avec des photos de 1946: Ma mère et ma grand-mère (la grande photo) et avec ma tante (la petite photo). J'ai utilisé Bazzill 'sea salt' et j'ai 'distressé' aux bords et avec la peinture blanche et j'ai tamponnée et embossé avec poudre blanche. J'adore les papiers de GCD Studios (Ella Blue) et j'ai découpé le titre avec la cuttlebug alphabet 'Harmonie'. Egalement, j'ai utilisé l'encre distress (Walnut Stain), perforatrice bordure de EK Success (festonnée), un papier de gâteaux, fleur de Prima et 'Glossy Accents' de Ranger.

Tutoriel pour la fleur 3D

Pour créer une fleur 3D comme j'ai mis sur cette carte:

J'ai utilisé la perfo giant fleur de Dovecraft (7,5cm) avec GCD Studios carte recto-verso ‘Homespun Chic’ et j'ai encré les bords avec ColorBox encres craies 'Rose Petals'.

1. Avec une perforatrice de 6-pétale, découpe 3 fleurs de la carte.
2. Couper la première fleur de l'entre deux pétales vers le centre. Découpez un pétale de la deuxième fleur et découpez deux pétales de la troisième fleur.

3. Façonner chaque pétale par eux s'enroule sur votre doigt.
4. Prenez la fleur 6 pétales et la forme dans un cône en superposant les pétales de chaque côté de la coupe et colle en place. Il devrait maintenant être un cône 5-pétale. Faites de même avec les deux autres gros morceaux afin qu'ils deviennent 4 et 3 cônes pétales. Les maintenir en place avec un trombone alors que la colle sèche, si nécessaire.

5. Coller la pièce de 2-pétales à un cône, mais seulement se chevauchent légèrement les bords. Mettez un trombone au bas du cône de tenir en place pendant que la colle sèche. Percer un trou d'environ le tiers de la hauteur de cette pièce et piquez avec un morceau du fil.

6. Coupez le bas des 3 cônes plus grands et les couche dans l'autre avec une goutte de colle à l'intérieur de chaque pour les retenir. Passez la pièce 2-pétale de façon à éviter le fil et la fin se démarquent le fond. Coupez l'extrémité de ce cône en s'assurant que le fil reste attaché.

7. Découpez le fond d'un tiers de la dernière pièce 1-pétale. Roulez les pétales dans un cône et voyez comment il se situe dans le centre de votre fleur: Découpez un peu plus si nécessaire, puis collez.
8. Utilisez le fil pour attacher la fleur à votre carte.

Il y a un tuto en anglais ici pour un projet similaire.

Svp ne pas copier mon tutoriel pour d'autres personnes de l'utiliser. Svp donnez le lien d'ici pour les gens à le trouver pour eux-mêmes. Merci.

3D flower card

I am finding it so hard to get anything finished at the moment: I have so many nearly finished pages and other items. We are having a big push on getting our spare bedroom habitable before my sister and bro-in-law arrive next week so crafting is getting squeezed between acting as a builder's mate! We are converting what was an old stable and will be my craft room when we don't have visitors :)  Anyway...

I made this card for our neighbour's 85th birthday yesterday and gave it her on the present, without the envelope as it is too 3D to fit a normal one. I know the stamping is minimal - just the sentiment - but it actually fits a number of challenges: Stamp with Fun - Stripes; Pollycraft - Summer Blooms; Kaboodle Doodles - monochrome; Paper Take Weekly - Say It With Flowers; Stamp Something - 2 of ...in my case this is 2 gems and 2 DPs. I don't think I've ever entered a card for so many challenges in one go!

Used Dovecraft magna flower punch to make the 3D flower (I recommend the SCS tutorial for an example of the structure); GCD Studios 'Homespun Chic' double-sided papers; ColorBox chalk inks 'Rose Petals'; Compagnie des elfes text stamp with Versafine black; gems and ribbon from stash.
Mon tuto en français est ici.

Scrapbook page with hidden journaling

In changing providers, we were without the internet for the first part of the week so I have quite a lot to catch up on again. Here's a page I made last week with the hidden story of how my husband lost his hat whilst zipping across a tyrolean at the local leisure park. It landed in the lake and he had to wait while it blew near the shore, then paddle to retrieve it (why didn't I photograph that part?). Isn't it great how scrapbooking can capture those funny little moments? It won't mean much to most people but the memory makes me smile every time I look at it :) Title translated = The little story of the Straw Hat
Mon mari a perdu son chapeau sur le tyrolean au parc loisirs. Il a tombé dans l'eau! Alors, la petite histoire caché dessous la photo:

Used: Radiant rain mist on the Bazzill background; more Bazzill for the matting; paper scraps; button and cord; EK Success 'Waves and Dots' border punch; Cuttlebug with Cuttlebug's Not the Boss alphabet, Sizzix 'Wingo Zingo' alphabet and Spellbinders Labels 3 and Circles to layer repeat photos of the hat.
J'ai vapourisée le fond de Bazzill et j'ai utilisé plus de Bazzill et chutes de papiers pour mes tapis, bouton et cordeline. Egalement ma perforatrice (EK Success: Vagues et Pois) et ma Cuttlebug avec l'alphabet 'Tu n'es pas mon patron', l'alphabet Sizzix 'Wingo Zingo', Spellbinders Cercles et Etiquettes 3.