Christening Card

My Daughter is off to a Christening tomorrow, and asked me to make a card for her to take. After looking through my hoards of CD's and finding nothing that was more traditional, I decided to use this image from The Rachel Ann Miller Collection. There are some lovely images on this CD really suitable for younger children too. This was from the decoupage section, the grass was a bit fiddly to cut out, but looks great once it's done.  The backing papers matched the design, and were mounted onto some turquoise blue card, as was the decoupaged topper. I made the sentiment on the PC and colour matched the text before placing onto the card. There is even a section with inserts to match on this CD too, which I used.

Thanks for taking the time to look, and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Chirstmas Cards

Earlier this month I ordered the new cover a card large background stamps from Chocolate Baroque, I cut them out straight away, but then got caught up with other family things. So while the weather was bad at the weekend, I got around to stamping some out. At least this way I thought I could colour them when I got a chance, I managed to do some while watching TV in the evenings. Although these are really background stamps, I think that they lend themselves very well to being the main image too.

The first is from the Christmas Baubles, and I've coloured it in more traditional colours. I have to say that I do tend to go from more traditional colours for my Christmas cards. All of the cards are coloured using Spectrum Noir from Crafters Companion. The sentiment is also from Chocolate Baroque.

The second card is the Holly stamp, all were stamped in memento Tuxedo Black. The sentiment on this card was from Stampin Up.All of the backgrounds in the images were also coloured with the Spectrum Noir pens.

Finally the Poinsettia Stamp, these have to be my favourite, I love seeing these brightly coloured flowers/plants around the house at Christmas. If only I didn't kill them off so quickly, houseplants and I just don't get along. The sentiment on this one was also from Stampin Up. There are another five stamps in this series of Christmas background stamps (which I've also got), and also another sheet full of beautiful stamps call Gothic Angels. Pop over to the Chocolate Baroque Design Team blog and see what the CB Design team have been making with these gorgeous stamps.

Thank you for taking the time to look, and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue.

CD Sunday - On The Beach

I can't believe how fast Sunday comes around these days, it's time again for a new challenge at CD Sunday, and this week it's Caz's turn to choose. What better theme for a bank holiday weekend than On The Beach, however in true bank holiday fashion yesterday was wet, I hope that today is a better day for everyone. I had a lovey couple of hours going through my CDs looking at all the scenes with beaches involved, I had just decided on what I was going to use, when I found this image on MCS, The Artist Collection, Crafty Characters. I instantly thought of my Grandad, I have many happy memories of days spent on the beach, with him sat in a deckchair with a handkerchief tied at the four corners and it perched on top of his head. He was very often guarding a bucket with baby crabs in too, that my sister and I had found in the rock pools.

I found some backing papers on MCS that resembled stripey deckchair material, and another that looked a little like sand, these were matted onto some bright blue card. I wrapped some cord around the stripey paper, added a postcard back and I hope I've made the topper look like a postcard. Finally I had some shells in a box that I knew would come in handy one day, so I've added some of these too. This is Linby's last week as guest designer, and I know that she, and the rest of the design team have some wonderful inspiration for you over on the challenge blog, do pop over and take a look.

Thanks for taking the time to look, and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Sweet Poppy Stencils And Lavinia Stamps

Today's card is my entry for the Lavinia Challenge #6, which this month is anything goes. Earlier this year at Ally Pally I stopped at the Sweet Poppy Stencil stand and bought the lovely Fairy Castle stencil (it had been on my wish list for a while) along with the black paste, metal scrapper, and spatula, all the things I need to get started. My first few attempts ended in disaster and the bin. So when I attended the Newbury show at the beginning of July I stopped at the Sweet Poppy stand and spoke to the lady sitting at the desk demoing and she showed me how to spread the paste, and use a magnetic mat to hold the stencil in place, she also suggested that I placed the stencil upside down so that none of the fiddly bits at the bottom got caught.

Armed with all of this info and the fact that this months challenge was anything goes, I thought I would get the stencil out and give it another go. It's still not perfect, but compared to my first attempts, I feel that this one could be used. My background was created using ink pads put down onto my glass mat, then sprayed with water and the card placed on top. Once dry I added the stencilled castle, which I left over night to dry. Once dry I started adding my stamps around the page, I added a hill in the background by just adding the colour off of a blending pad with green on it, and went around the edge of the page with Forest Moss distress ink and a blending tool to finish, and lets not forget the glitter for the fairy's wings.

I am also going to enter this into the following challenges:
Lady Anne's Challenge - Anything Goes (must be a stamp/digi)
Creative Fingers - Anything goes
Sister Act Challenge - Anything Goes

Thanks for taking the time to look, and you kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Craft A Scene Week 3

I'm back again with my second post today. It's week three over on the Craft a Scene blog, so time for a little inspiration for you. We are still asking for you to show us your Park scenes, there is an added prize up for grabs by making it a Picnic In the Park. For my scene I've used mostly Stampscapes stamps to make my scene with the exception of the two girls on the bench, which is from Jayne Nestorenko. I used masking after stamping the girls onto the blank card, and then built up my scene around them. It was coloured using promarkers, and after matting onto an 8x8 white card base, I added some yellow flowers cut using a die from crealies, and I added some red flat backed pearls to the centres.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Crafts Too Challenge You - Summer Days
Creative Fingers - Anything goes
Sister Act Challenge - Anything Goes
Inspire Me Fridays - Anything Goes
Artistic Inspirations - Die Cuts And Puches (die cut flowers and leaves)
Lady Anne's Challenge - Anything Goes (must use a stamp/digi)

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

CD Sunday - Add A Number

Time again for another new challenge over on the CD Sunday blog, and this week it's Jocelyn's turn to pick the theme. She's gone for Add A Number, so all you need to do is make sure that whatever you make has  number on it. We still have Linby with us as guest designer this month, She and the rest of the design team have made some great cards for your inspiration for you. Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look, why not even join in.

My card is and 8x8 white card base, with pale pink centura pearl card used for matting, the frame and the corners. I used Crafters Companion Flower Fairies CD for my card, and the beautiful Rose fairy, which is decoupaged, the backing paper is from the same CD and matches the topper. I used the Cricut and Plantin Schoolbook cartridge for the letters, and finished by adding some pink flat backed pearls.

Thank you for taking the time to look, and your, kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Jeep XJ Cherokee

Today is our future Son-in-law David's birthday, and he's car mad. So rather than make the traditional Birthday card, I have made this Jeep for him. It comes as a download from a website in the US called Paper Cruisers, it's well worth having a look at, especially if you are into making models. Now not only is David mad about cars, in particular he loves off roading and owns a jeep just like this one, which is why I went for this model. His does have some deep gouges down the side where it has been pulled out of a ditch, at this point I am going to include a link to David's blog. Last year whilst we were in the US on holiday, here in the UK there was a lot of rain Taking a little off road trip with some friends, and our dog who he was looking after at the time, didn't turn out quite how they thought.  As he tells a good story I'll let you go and find out what happened to his pride and joy (the Jeep, or more commonly known as the Heep). You might want to ignore the first couple of paragraphs.

 After I had downloaded the PDF file for the jeep and I had taken a look at them, I decided that it was a good job that I had an A3 printer, as to print this out onto A4 would have made it quite fiddly to put together. It even has a winch on the front and a spare petrol can on the back.

As I have the Arty Farty Colin Car template I decided that I would make a box with an off road picture in the back of it and add some grass to the front. It was only after making the box that I found that the Jeep only just fit inside, with back and front bumpers just touching the ends of the box. I was very pleased with the end result and I'm sure I'll be making some more of these cars.

Thanks you for taking the time to look, and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Ribbons and Bows

I'm back for the second time today and this time with a card for the challenge over at My Craft Creations, which is Ribbons and Bows, and I have both on this card. This has been made for a friends Daughter who is going to be 2 on Wednesday. I started with an 8x8 card base and Angelica and Friends CD from Crafters Companion. I printed of the decoupage topper and some matching backing papers. I found some deep pink mirri card to use for the matting and cut the backing papers first to cover the card and then another contrasting piece. I cut out the decoupage and put together using glue gel, adding some glitter to the final layer on the wings. Next I cut out the name and age using the Cricut, and popped these onto the card. Finally I had three flowers I'd punched out some time ago that went very well with the card so I added these too.

Thanks for taking the time to look, and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

CD Sunday - Quick And Cute

Another week has rushed by, and it's time again for another challenge over at CD Sunday. This week the theme has been chosen by Sue B, and it's Quick and Cute. For my card I chose to use Crafters Companion's Angelica And Friends, and as many of you will know they have a section on the CD's that is called card Companions, it normally has everything you need on the one sheet to complete a card. So I printed off my chosen sheet and this is what I've managed to make with it. A 6x6 white card base, and some silver mirri card along with a little piece of ribbon and some glitter was all I added to this. Once I decided what to do it took me about half and hour to make the card.

Please do go over to the challenge blog and take a look at what the rest of the team have made as inspiration for you, we still have the lovely Linby as guest designer this month too.

Thanks for taking the time to look, and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

August Quintiles - Anything Goes

It's time again to send in my tiles for the Chocolate Baroque Quintile Swap (quintiles are 5X5 squares), and for the month of August the theme is Anything Goes. I've decided to make these small underwater scenes using the mermaid silhouettes. All of the stamps used are from Chocolate Baroque with the exception of the sea bubbles which are from Designs By Ryn.

The backgrounds were created first by spraying dylusion inks onto a glass cutting mat and then picking up the colour onto the card. For the first tile I used a mixture of green distress inks for stamping the seaweeds, and white for the more coral looking branch in the foreground. Next I stamped the small seahorses in Tuxedo Black Memento ink. and then the mermaids. Finally  I stamped the sea bubbles in old paper distress ink at the top.

For the second tile I stamped onto a separate piece of card the sea palace on the rocks and coloured using promarkers, then cut it out and stuck onto the tile using art institute glue. I then stamped the seaweed using forest pine distress ink, and used a white pen to add some detail. The mermaid was again stamped using Tuxedo Black, and old paper to stamp the sea bubbles. I then sprayed both of the tiles with spray and sparkle from Crafters Companion.

I'm also going to enter these into the Make My Monday challenge which this week is Silhouettes

Thanks for taking the time to look, and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Grandson

Yesterday was my son's birthday, and along with the card that I made for myself and hubby to send him, I also make the card for my Father-in-law to send him. Sometimes this can be quite tricky, trying to come up with two very different cards, but this year with a little help from La Pashe and the Something for Everyone CD, I managed it. As my son works on saloon cars for racing, this one was Ideal. I started with a 7x7 card base and using silver mirri card for the matting, I printed out the backing papers and popped them onto the matting and then the card. I printed out the decoupage and layered it using glue gel, again this was put onto mirri card. I then made the sentiment on the PC and added it to the corner. I chose not to add any embellishments as I felt that it did not need any.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

The Male Room - Anything Goes

Inspire Me Fridays - Anything Goes

Thanks for taking the time to look, and you kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

No 1 Son

Last week saw the launch of a new challenge blog, The Male Room. I knew that this was a challenge that I wanted to take part in, as like many other I struggle sometimes with male cards. This Thursday it's my son's birthday, I normally have no trouble with cards for him, as he's a mechanic for a saloon car race company, he rides motor cycles and also loves fishing. As long as I stick to any of these three he's happy. So this card which I'm going to enter into the first challenge, which is Anything Goes. The card base is an 8x8 green card, which I placed the backing paper straight onto. This came from Debbi Moore's Cards For Men. Next I stamped the globe stamp (from Just Right stamps) onto some white card stock and also three more times onto some scrap paper. With the scrap stamped pieces I cut out the globe from the first, the compass from the second and lastly I cut around the globe and compass together. I used these as masks and with distress inks coloured the globe with tumbled glass, the compass with firebrick red and then coloured the outside of it all with old paper. Next I stamped  the motorcycle (from Visible Image) onto card with memento Tuxedo Black, then coloured over the top with old paper. The No 1 Son was a free stamp which I got with a magazine. I mounted these onto green card and  stuck them to the card front.

I am also going to enter this card into the follow challenges
Inspire Me Friday - Anything Goes
Sister Act Card Challenge - Anything Goes
Thank you for taking the time to look, and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Craft A Scene - In The Park

I'm back again with my second post today, and this time it's time for Craft A Scene. As it's the first Sunday of the month, it means a new challenge, and this month it's "In The Park". The design team have put together some great inspiration for you, so do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look, and hopefully join in with us. For my card I used a white 6x6 card base and some green card for matting the main image onto. I then started with a piece of white card stock 5 1/2x 5 1/2, and I stamped first the two girls, the dogs (from Jayne Nesterenko) and then the trees (Stampscapes) in the foreground, then masked these off. Next I used the smaller trees (Chocolate Baroque) and stamped these in the background, finally I stamped the silhouette figures (Stampscapes) into the background. After taking off the masks I coloured it all in using pro markers.

Thank you for taking the time to look, and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

CD Sunday - Transportation

Can you believe it's August already? I'm finding it hard. As it's the first Sunday of the month, over at CD Sunday we have a sponsor, and this month it's Linby, who regularly takes part in our challenges. She has very kindly donated Debbi Moores Mechanical CD. Which leads us onto the theme this week, which is Transportation, and what better Guest Designer to have for the month of August than Linby herself. For my card I've used Joanna Sheen's Times Gone By, and this lovely image of a steam locomotive. I started by taking an A4 piece of brown card stock and folded it down to make the back of it square. With some rust card for matting, I printed off the backing paper and divided it between the front and inside (including the bit that shows). The topper is decoupaged, and the sentiment added from the same sheet as the decoupage came from. I added a verse to the inside of the card and some spellbinders cogs to embellish down the side of the card. Do pop over to the challenge blog and see the lovely card that my teamies have made as inspiration for you.

Thanks for taking the time to look, and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue