Less Is More - Shaker card

I have often looked at the Less Is More challenges, and very rarely I've joined in despite loving a lot of the challenges. When I saw this weeks challenge... to be honest, I didn't like it. I thought the sketch was dull and that no-one would be able to make a card that was anything more than 'nice' with it. Then I saw this card on Lynne's blog and was blown away by it. Something about her use of dimension in such a simple sketch struck a chord with me.

She inspired me to make this one...

This card is a shaker card - with gold glitter and gold stars which you can't see well in the picture, but which give a very satisfying 'shake' noise and look lovely and sparkly. The frame was inked with distress stains and the sentiment stamped using markers direct to stamp, but the stamp was lightly inked with black first so if you look closely, the sentiment has some outlining which helps with the overall theme I think!

I am entering into the Less Is More sketch challenge

St Luke's Charity Challenge - Bling

Allsorts Challenge - Shaker card

Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes

I would love to know what you think of it!

Music/film inspired man-card

A friend of mine is currently applying to the RAF. As you may be aware, there are lots of step.. interviews, fitness tests, medicals, etc. He's now through to the final stages of interview. To help with the good vibes (he will be so gutted if he doesn't get through), I decided I would make him a card.. that way he HAS to get through the interviews, right??

He's a huge music and film fan, so I wanted to create something that reflected that... and this is what I ended up with :)

Music stamp very lightly stamped directly on the card base, then a snippet from last weeks music cards used to create a border through the middle of the card. The ticket is a stamp from a table top sale at a local craft shop, which I love - though I am struggling to think of ways in which to use it, so will have to keep thinking on it! I cut out the centre of the stamped image and stuck another piece of cardstock underneath with "well done@" (a freebie stamp from a magazine) repeat stamped. I ran a bronze ink pad around the edges of everything - it gives a lovely, but very subtle, vintagey shimmer, and the shimmer spreads across the card really easily without the colour moving. Does that make sense? So the whole card has a slight shine to it, without any actual colour except on the edges. It is certainly not an ink pad to use for clean cards though, as it's impossible not to spread the shimmer everywhere!

The stars were cut from snippets of something that didn't work as hoped. They are a piece of card stock coated in distress crackle paint - antiqued bronze I think. The crackle paint was £1 a pot at Christmas, because they're a bit dried up.. bit of water in there makes it runny again though, and it still crackles so it's all good!!

I'm going to join in the fun on the Snippets Playground... everything except the card blank came from the snippets pot.

Other challenges:
Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes
The Stamp Man - Distressed or shabby chic
Try It On Tuesday - Anything goes with a twist... something available from the Craft Barn. The little stars were made using this punch.

Now just need to wait to hear whether I can send it, or not!

More music note backgrounds

Before I share these cards, I want to put a bit of context to my slightly OTT use of the music background stamp over the past few days. I do all my crafting on a tiny budget, as I'm desperately trying to save to buy a house (a seemingly impossible task!), so everything I buy has been thoroughly considered in terms of its' value. I rarely spend more than a few £ on a stamp, and lots of my stamps are preloved from table top sales and such like. This music note stamp set me back £15 (which I know a lot of crafters won't consider to be much at all!) and I thought about it for SUCH a long time before finally caving in. As a result, I now feel that I simply have to get the best value out of it, so sat down to REALLY use it a few days ago. Hence all the music backgrounds. I have been on the hunt for a script background at a reasonable price, and I think I am resigned to having to spend the same again! If anyone sees one in a sale, I'd love to know!

Anyway, enough waffling. In yesterday's post using my music background stamp, I mentioned that I also had bright blue and hot pink backgrounds stamped and waiting for some inspiration.. Well here they are :)

Stuck to a nice simple layout for the blue one...

And something altogether more girly and frilly for the pink one! I've taken the pic at a funny angle so that you can see the shine on the frame - clear embossing. It looks so deep and rich in real life, with a real texture to it. I have been trying to incorporate more ribbons into my cards, because it's something I'm not great at! They always look so messy, I have to tie and re-tie them a million times before I'm happy with them!

I've entered the pink one for the Pan Pastels challenge - Add a Flower and the Fashionable Stamping challenge - embossing.

Thanks for looking, I'd love to know what you think of them.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I have made my first Christmas cards of the year... though I wasn't intending on starting this early! I had stamped a music background in hot pink and bright blue, and thought I'd do one in copper whilst I was at it... and these cards were born! The pink and blue backgrounds are sitting, awaiting further inspiration....

I'm quite pleased with the ribbon.. it was very fiddly and threatened to just completely not work... but I think it's turned out ok! The flowers are covered with puff embossing powder.. really odd stuff!

The embroidery floss on this one was really fiddly too.. but again, I like the outcome. The cut out in the middle is a really shimmery paper, although I don't think that comes across in the picture!

Now I just have to store them safely until Christmas... I'm all out of those little card bags, so shopping is needed! I also need to replace my paper cutter, which is blunt... so a craft shop will be happening :)

Hope you're all enjoying your wet weekend.

ETA: I've entered both of these cards into the Moving Along With The Times - Christmas challenge.

horrible ugly card - yuck!

Well, tonight i have made the world's ugliest card, which I am not justifying with a picture! The colours looked awful together, the ink ran, it was all squashed up and horrible... It's the first time I've made something that I've REALLY hated, and now I feel like having a sulk.. how very grown up of me!!!

Never mind, can't make them perfect everytime I guess! Try again tomorrow.

Hope you're all having a better day than me!

Layouts

Once you find a layout you like, might as well stick with it eh???

The second one was originally made with last week's Less Is More - three shades of green in mind... but there was so little green that I decided not to bother entering it!

And another style I've been enjoying... is it obvious that I just got a circle punch???

Hope you're all well! Welcome to my newest follower :)
M x

New Home pop-up card

Another idea taken from online inspiration... sorry for the shoddy pics, too impatient to wait for proper daylight! Or tidy up, it would seem!

What do you think??

I've left the front very plain... unfortunately in the light, you can see the heart stamps through the card (grr!). You can't see them normally unless you're looking really hard!

Robots - anniversary card

This card was made with tiny stolen moments when my husband was out of the house! It took weeks to complete, one small step at a time!

We have just celebrated our 7 year anniversary.

I'm the one on the right ;)

These are Stampendous Spots Botz stamps, paper pieced with some glossy accents for shine.

Entering into lots of Anything Goes challenges..
Divas by Design
Papertake Weekly
Papercraft Star
Anything Challenge
Joyful Stamper
Catch The Bug

Hope you've all had a lovely Easter weekend. Back to work tomorrow - boo!

Less is More

Another set of butterflies from me... now that I'm over my fear of this set, I am loving it!

Not the best pic ever, but here's my entry for Less Is More - picture inspiration. Absolutely loving those colours. They haven't shown up so well on my pic, unfortunately!

Long time no see!

I've been neglecting Blogger.. things have been soooo busy! I am not one who likes to lead a busy life - much prefer to be in the slow lane! Fingers crossed things will quieten down again now and I can get back to pootling along in my own sweet time!

I have been looking at others' posts, but haven't been commenting... there are so many beautiful inspirational blogs around, it's hard to keep up!

Here are a couple of cards I made last night, enjoying the serenity of my quiet little home with no interruptions! I'm a bit gutted because there are things I wish I had done slightly differently on each... typical!

I hadn't intended to make this card at all, but it sort of fell together because my original idea looked pants! The stamp is from a gorgeous Hot Off The Press set (three other gorgeous stamps as well) which cost 90p and I love it! I've barely used it as I find it a little intimidating - it's so pretty that I don't know what to do with it! So this is it's debut. The die cut butterfly in the middle is stacked for a bit more depth - it also means there are lots of wings, like it's fluttering fast..

I just wish I had stamped the sentiment a little higher, and that I had stayed with horizontal lines for all 4 of the corner squares... you live and learn.

I've entered this one into Craft Your Passion challenge - monochromatic

I made this one directly afterwards... The same stamp, and a sentiment stamp which came free with a magazine. I coloured the butterflies in with colouring pencils. On this one, I wish I had stamped the sentiment in black! Also... don't tell anyone, but the butterflies were supposed to be in the order of the rainbow... until I lost focus and picked the wrong one! doh!

What do you think?