Saturday, 5 May 2012

Obliteration room

A friend of mine sent me this link yesterday. Wow.



I had been looking for inspiration for a friends birthday card.. and this was it.


Spots made using cotton buds and the ends of wooden kebab sticks.
ETA: I've entered this one into the CAS-ual Fridays Birthday challenge - thanks for the heads up, Tara!


This one is based on last weeks Less Is More sketch again... which I am going to come back to time and time again, I'm sure!

Also, some exciting news.. I made the top 5 in the Allsorts Challenge with my pirate shaker card from the last post... my excitement was only slightly dimmed when I realised there were only 18 entrants ;)

Hope you all have a lovely bank holiday weekend. I just need to finish packing my things, and I'm off for the weekend!

Sunday, 29 April 2012

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
Allsorts Challenge - Shaker card
Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes

I would love to know what you think of it!

Saturday, 28 April 2012

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!

Sunday, 22 April 2012

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.

Saturday, 21 April 2012

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.

Monday, 16 April 2012

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!

Saturday, 14 April 2012

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