CD Sunday - Little Boys

I thought the last week would go by slowly as hubby was away with some friends fishing for the week. But it raced by, and I find it's time again for our next challenge over on the CD Sunday blog. This week it's Caz's turn to chose the theme and she's chosen Little Boys. I was putting this card together, while wondering what CD to look at to see what I could use, when I realised that this would fit the theme perfectly. It started with an 8x8 white card base and some silver mirri card. The decoupage and backing papers are from Joanna Sheen's - A Victorian Christmas. After putting the backing paper onto the mirri card I added some silver and narrow red ribbon across the bottom of the card. I also added two corners cut using a Marianne die. The decoupage was put together using glue gel, and after placing on the card. I added the sentiments. Do pop over to the challenge blog and see what the rest of the Design Team have been making for your inspiration this week. We also still have Anne with us as Guest Designer.

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

Sue

CD Sunday - Shop Till You Drop

Sunday once again, so time for another Challenge over at the CD Sunday challenge blog. This week the theme is Shop Till You Drop, and was chosen by Jenny. It seems that last weeks challenge left a lot of you stumped for ideas, hopefully this one will be more up your street. We still have Anne with us as Guest Designer this week, and she along with the rest of the design team has made some wonderful inspiration cards for you, do pop over to the blog and take a look.

For my card this week I've used Crafters Companion, Frou Frou CD, but will admit to taking it into MCS and making the images that I wanted to work with a little larger. I've used Silver mirri card for the matting. Added a black organza ribbon to one side then popped the shop topper on with foam pads. I cut out the laden shopper, who is decoupaged, and added her using glue gel. The sentiment was made using the PC and after putting it onto some mirri card was also stuck on with foam pads.

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

Sue

More Christmas Cards

I can't believe that we're now in September, the sun is shinning, it's lovely and warm and I'm posting Christmas cards on my blog!! I've got a couple more Chocolate Baroque cards to show you today, made again with the cover a card large background stamps (I love these wonderful images they make really quick cards). I made some backgrounds to stamp onto by putting inks, either from an ink pad, of from Distress stains or spray inks such as Dylusions, or Sprinkys onto a glass cutting mat, and then picking up the colour onto card. You tend to get some really very random backgrounds this way.

After they had dried, I stamped onto them using the large stamps and a versamark ink pad, then embossed with WOW white embossing powder. I really like the results that you get this way, the randomness of the background seems to work well with the white embossing. Both of the sentiments are also from Chocolate Baroque and are newly released this month, they are larger than normal sentiments for Christmas, and work well with this sort of card too.
 

I'm going to enter these cards into the following challenges:-
Inspire Me Fridays - Anything Goes
Lady Anne's Challenge - Stamp 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 - Dusk To Dawn

As it's the first Sunday in the month, I'm back again with my second post today, this time for Craft A Scene. This month we want to see all of you scenes with a Dusk or Moonlight theme to them. I started my scene with a blank piece of white card and a large circle cut from copier paper, this is stuck in the middle slightly to the top, this was going to be my moon. I then tore another piece of copier paper in two and placed the first piece under the moon. Then starting with distress ink in Seedless Preserves I went around the blanked off moon. Next I used Dusty Concord, this time I took the colour to the edge of the paper. I then covered the sky I had created with the other piece of torn paper, and using Forest Moss, created the ground. Before removing my mask from the moon I went around the outside with Black Soot. After taking the paper mask off, and using Lavinia Stamps,  I stamped the two rabbits playing in the moonlight (this stamp is called Midnight Meandering). Next I stamped the Bat flying across the Moon, at this stage I decided that I would put a couple of wispy clouds  across the moon, I did this by putting a little of the ink from the pad onto a tissue and just dragging it slightly. Next I added the Willow Leaves, Toadstools and the Owl, all using Tuxedo Black by Memento. I matched some card to the Seedless Preserves and mounted the scene, then using some black card and another Lavinia stamp call Star Cluster, I went around the edge of the card with versamark ink, and then added Cosmic Shimmer mica powder in silver over the top. This was then buffed off to just leave the stars. I mounted everything on to an A5 white card base. Do pop over to the Challenge blog and see what the talented design team have been making for inspiration this month.

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

Sue

CD Sunday - Scentimental

Time again for another new challenge over on the CD Sunday blog, and as it's the beginning of the month we have a sponsor. This month it's Jems Designs and the lovely ladies have given us a CD to play with, it's the gorgeous Scentimental CD, this is also the prize that's up for grabs too. I went for something a bit different this week with my card. Using the Grand Decorative Circles Dies from Spellbinders I cut out two of the largest circles in this lovely bright orange card. then glued the top together to make a card. I then cut the backing paper to match the shape and after sticking it to the base I went around the edge with some peeloffs that I had in my stash. Next using the smallest circle in the set I cut out a circle in a cream card. There is a section on the CD that has circular toppers on and this one fitted perfectly. From the embellishments on the CD I cut out the matching bottle of perfume, and the sentiment "Daughter", after shaping a little in my hand i used some glue gel to pop it onto the card. Finally I added some flowers with pearl in the centres some leaves and some swirls. As I was finishing making an envelope for this card, a friend turned up, fell in love with the card, and bought it off of me there and then. I had to take the photo quickly before she could take it.

This month we have Anne as our Guest for the month, and both Anne and the design team have made some gorgeous inspiration cards for you. Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at them, and why not join in as well, we all love to look at what you've made.

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

Sue

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