CCM #255 Anything But A Card

Our challenge today at Crafty Cardmakers is Anything But a Card.

Because most of the world seems to be in lockdown at the moment, and I myself am shielding due to underlying health issues, the threat of Covid-19 seems to be ever present in my mind. As a consequence the idea for this journal page came to me. I know that the threat of this dreadful virus is serious, and I am actually quite paranoid myself about it, but I have tried to see the fun side of being stuck at home. I have a quite dark sense of humour hence the possibly inappropriate start to the sentiment that I came up with for my page. Just so you know, the only scooter I have is the mobility sort and the closest I come to a pool in my garden is when we had all that rain and my walking stick got stuck in the ground by over two inches with a layer of water permanently there! But a girl can dream, lol.

Anyhow enough of my waffling. I used a page from my lovely studiolight 6.5” journal, and with a clarity stencil I created a few different coloured circles in cracked pistachio, faded lilac and mustard seed. Over the top of that I spread texture paste through the Aall & Create Lotza Dotz stencil. I edged the whole thing with the same DIs as in the background. I’ve also used a few Aall & Create stamps to add some extra detail.

The little duck is also from Aall & Create, Quack, and it has a matching die set. I coloured him with copics and my polychromos pencils. The scooter comes from a Katzelkraft stamp set, as did the drink and the sunglasses.

I created the sentiment on my pc, and edged it with a black copic.

I am entering this into:-

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – #37 Anything with a critter goes
Art Impressions – #280 Kid At Heart
Artistic Stamper – April In the Garden (hope my unusual take of the theme is okay!)
Country View Crafts – April Animal Magic
Crafters Castle – April #28 Anything Goes
Crafts Galore Encore – April Anything Goes
Crafty Animals – #37 Anything Goes
Creative Artiste – #58 Anything Mixed Media Goes
Creative Fingers – #184 Anything Goes
Cute Card Thursday – #630 Wings
Die Cut Divas – April It’s all about Animals
Fab ‘N’ Funky - #477 Spots Or Dots
Happy Little Stampers – April Anything Goes With Dies
Modsquad – April Birds
Not Just Cards – April Anything Goes
Polkadoodles – #16 Anything Goes
QKR Stampede – #394 Anything Goes
Sheepski Designs – #37 Show Us Your Wings
Simply Create Too – #159 Anything but a Card
We Love 2 Create – #4 Anything Mixed Media Goes

DV #223 Things With Wings

Good Morning and Happy Easter.

Today’s challenge from Dream Valley, sponsored by Morgan’s Artworld, is Things With Wings.

I have used one of the sponsor’s images called simply digistamp 15. I printed her onto Elegance cardstock and coloured her with my polychromos pencils. The wings and bird in her hair were glittered with glamour dust.

The backing paper is very old from Elusive Images, now Chocolate Baroque! The Happy Birthday sentiment is from Crafters Companion’s new Edge’able dies.

I cut the sentiment piece twice, and then having added a layer beneath the flap so that they would stay in place, I paper pieced the white letters back into the holes that the die leaves, when it’s cut.

In the picture above I have pushed the flap with the sentiment on down flat, but actually it stands proud like the picture below so you can see more of the gorgeous backing paper.

The flowers are again really old, from my stash, and by Prima, and the ferns are cut with a MS punch from the same backing paper.

The image was cut out with Julie Hickey’s rectangle frame dies, including the scalloped black mat and the tiny frame diecut.

Here is a close up of glittered areas.

I am entering this into:-

Alphabet Challenge – A For Anything Goes
Artsy Stamper – #13 Things With Wings
Aud Sentiments – #248 Anything Goes with a Sentiment
Crafty Friends – #133 Anything Goes
Creative Fingers – #183 Anything Goes
Daisy Chain Challenges – #40 Birthday
Di’s Digi Challenge – Pretty In Pastel
Fab ‘n Funky – #476 Birthday
Not Just Cards – Apr: Anything Goes
Pattie’s Creations – #169 Birthdays
Seize The Birthday – #187 Anything Birthday Goes
Sheepski Designs – #37 Show Us Your Wings
The Fairy and The Unicorn – Apr: Anything Fantasy
Through The Craftroom Door – Anything Goes

Stay safe and well everyone.

#254 Easter

Good morning. Hope everyone is keeping well and is not too bored.

Our challenge for the next two weeks at Crafty Cardmakers is Easter. I know many of you will possibly not feel like celebrating, but hopefully some happy Easter creations will cheer you up. We would love for you to join us!

To make my Easter card I started with some Daler Rowney Mixed Media paper, my go to card for messy techniques as it’s flexible yet robust enough to stand up to wet work.

Using #33 a stencil from Aall & Create I spread texture paste through it onto the card. After it had dried, using a combination of Jane Davenport Inks and Mermaid Markers, I picked out the colours mentioned beneath it to create a different type of rainbow. I laid the stencil back over to colour the words to match beneath the rainbow.

Then again using the same inks, I created the blue sky background and the green grass for the bottom. I overlaid Grass Lawn stencil from Polkadoodles to create some definition in the grass with Distress Oxides.

The Bunnies, are all cut from felt. The large one is one of Tim Holtz’s trio of bunnies, Bunny Hop, and the small ones I believe are Rabbit Border from Alexandra Renke. I shaded them a little with Hickory Smoke DI, including on the brown ones. The butterflies are all from a butterfly strip die made by Crafters Companion. I coloured the top ones to pick out some of the rainbow colours, but left the ones fluttering in the grass in white.

The large bunny has a tail made from a cotton ball which is meant to be used with a crocodile clip for colouring with chalks. The sentiment is from Sizzix, Debbie Potter’s Dainty Upper and Lower case.

This card has lots of texture to it, first the embossing paste, and then the lovely tactile and soft bunnies.

I am entering this into:-

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – Anything With a Critter Goes
Allsorts – #566-7 Something Old, Something New…… old small bunnies, new large bunny
Cardz For Galz – #118 Cute Animals
Always Fun – #157 Easter
Craft Rocket – #69 Furry Friends
Crafting Happiness – #43 Anything Goes Opt Twist Easter
Crafty Calendar – April: Add A Butterfly
Creative Artiste – #59 Anything Mixed Media Goes
Die Cut Divas – April: It’s All About Animals
My Inkie Fingers – #11 Make It Pop
My Time To Craft – #429 Easter Cuties
Simon Says Monday Chall – Add some Texture
Southern Girls – April: Anything Goes
Sparkles Monthly – #126 Easter
Use Your Stuff – #395 Easter
We Love 2 Create – #4 Anything Mixed Media Goes

DV #222 Spring Colours

Our challenge today at Dream Valley is Spring colours and we are sponsored by All Dressed Up.

I have used one of the Sponsor’s images called Love Spring Time. I printed her onto Talens Printer Paper and coloured her with copics. The papers are from Crafters Companion’s Summer Breeze paper pad, as were the butterfly and the banner sentiment diecuts.

The circle layers were created with Julie Hickey’s Layers Frames and Banners Circles Dies.

I am entering this into:-

All Dressed Up – #103 Anything Goes with an ADU image
Aud Sentiment – #247 Spring/Easter Sentiment
C.R.A.F.T. – #550 Easter/Spring
Crafty Friends – #132 Spring
Crafty Hazlenut’s Patt Paper – Mar: Anything with patt paper goes
Creative Craft Cottage – #127 For The Girls
Creative Fingers – #182 Anything Goes
Cut It Up – #196 Spring Fever with Butterflies
Dragonfly Dreams – Mar: Make It Feminine
Incy Wincy – Spring Fling
QKR Stampede – #391 Anything Goes
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge – Anything Goes
The Sisterhood of Crafters – Spring
Through The Craftroom Door – Anything Goes

CCM #252 Spring

Our challenge today at Crafty Cardmakers is Spring.

I have created a tag. I started with some mixed media paper from Daler Rowney and cut it out with Graphic 45’s Staples Large Tag, ATC and Flowers die. The back layer, which I coloured to match the colours in the image is a tag from a set of tags from Graphic 45 designed to match their dies.

I stamped Studio Light’s flower stamp from their Grunge range and then inked the background with Distress Oxides in Peacock Feathers, Salty Ocean and Squeezed Lemonade. I stamped the image again and embossed it with clear powder and then coloured it with DIs in Shaded Lilac and Wilted Violet. I fussy cut it out to add over the top of the original image.

I purposefully chose this particular stamp because of the sentiment. I feel that at the moment we all need to stand tall, or rather try to be strong in these vary difficult times! I picked out the letters of the sentiment with Dr. Martin’s Bleedproof Ink in white. It’s one of the few whites that I find actually remain white over most paints, inks etc.

The little dragonfly dies are from John Next Door and the ribbon is from my stash. I then splattered some of the bleed proof ink to finish if off.

I am entering this into:-

All Fun Challenge – #5 Anything Goes
Bastel-Traum – #82 Spring
Blank Page Muse – Mar: Anything Goes
Ching-Chou Kuik – Mar: Easter or Floral
Daisy Chain Challenges – #39 Use Dies
Dare 2B Artzy – Mar: Anything Goes
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – #128 Anything Goes
Not Just Cards – Mar: Anything Goes
Penny Black and More – Mar: Spring Flowers
Scribbles Design Challenge – #87 In Bloom
Sheepski Designs – #36 Die Cuts and/or Punches
Sognando Scrap – #77 Waiting For Spring
Stamping Sensations – Mar: Spring Florals
Sweet Stampers – #42 Easter or Spring
The Corrosive Challenge – #3 Anything Goes
The Crafting Challenge Blog – Mar: Springtime

DV #221 One For the Boys

Our challenge at Dream Valley this time is One For The Boys, and we are sponsored by the fabulous Bugaboo.

Using one of their lovely digis, Deacon Wings, I created a Mother’s Day card.

I’ve coloured Deacon with my copics. The papers are from Polkadoodles and the sentiment was made using my Pink Main Curvy Girl Alphabet stamps. Die from Sentimentally Yours.

I am entering this into:-

A Bit More Time to Craft – #112 Anything Goes
Catch The Bug – Things With Wings
Crafters Castle – #27 Anything Goes
Crafts Galore Encore – #73 Anything Goes
Crafty Hazlenut’s Patterned Paper – Mar: Anything Patt Paper Goes
Die Cut Divas – Mar: Anything Goes
DiesRUs – #141 Things With Wings
Happy Little Stampers – Mar: Anything Goes With Dies
Lost Coast Designs – #95 Winged Things
Pattie’s Creations – #168 Anything Goes
QKR Stampede – #389 Anything Goes

DV #220 Only Girls Allowed

The challenge for the next two weeks at Dream Valley is Only Girls Allowed and we are sponsored by Crafty Ribbons with a lovely £10 voucher for the winner.

I have a lighter pic below, but that doesn’t show the stencil work in the background as well, although the one above is too ‘dark’.

I have used several Polkadoodles stamps for my project, which is a piece of home decor, together with one from Paper Artsy, the birdhouse, and the odd separate bird from Janet Klein’s collection at AAll & Create.

I started with a kraft box lid from Craftwork Cards, which I have had hanging around forever. The only other time I used one was for a similar project, lol. I measured the inside of the lid and after a couple of errors managed to cut a sheet of white linen cardstock so that it would fit inside the lid and form the inside walls as well. I coloured it with Distress Oxides in Squeezed Lemonade, Dried Marigold, Tumbled Glass, Broken China and Twisted Citron. I then used one of the new stencils from Polkadoodles and went over with a damp cloth to remove some of the colour from the background.

The rest of the stamps are all either from the new Polkadoodles range, Positive Journey, or the Weirdre Creating Rainbows collection. I stamped one of the new texture stamps twice down one edge of the inside area of the card, and also went around the edge to form a frame with another. I coloured this frame with Kuretake Clean Color brush pens. The little girl was stamped onto mixed media card and I coloured her with Kuretake as well, along with her glasses, which are separate and the stepladder.

The camera I found online as a digi image. The sentiments were stamped with Versafine Clair and I used a pergamano blending pen to use the opposite coloured ink to frame each sentiment. There are also two tiny diecut birds as I didn’t have enough different birds I could stamp.

This piece will hopefully mean something to my Daughter, who I created it for, as she has always been that little bit geeky and different and is a keen amateur photographer, particularly of Wildlife. If you were interested you could find her photography page on Facebook. Since I lost my Mum, my Daughter has become my best friend and the most important woman in my life and I would be lost without her.

milly-h-photography

Here is one of her latest bird pics.

Anyhow, now I have had a quick Mum bragging rights moment, I am entering my creation into:-

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – #36 Anything Goes
A Bit More Time to Craft – #111 Anything Goes
A Perfect Time to Craft – #3 Anything Goes
All Fun Challenges – #3 Anything Goes
Brown Sugar #298 Anything Goes
Classic Design Challenge – #3 Anything Goes
Colour Crazy Challenge – #8 Anything Colouring Goes
Crafty Friends – #130 Animals and/or Birds
Createful Heart – #17 Anything Goes
Creative Sketchy Girls – #45 Girls Only
Dare 2B Artzy – March: Anything Goes
Dragonfly Dreams – March: Make It Feminine
Not Just Cards – Feb: Anything Goes
Pearly Sparkles – #49 For the Ladies/Girls
Polkadoodles – #9 Anything Goes
The Crafting Challenge – Springtime
World Wide Open DT Challenge – #2 Anything Goes