Star

Real life has certainly been interrupting my crafting of late and just as I think I am getting back to some semblance of normality my technology thinks otherwise.  Have I had problems with my computer & all it's related gadgets!  Computer, hard drives, card readers, software: all are playing me up!  Won't bore you with the details - just don't be surprised if I vanish again. Still, I did manage to get this one posted so I hope it was worth the wait. LOL.

I coloured the LOTV image (Star of Wonder) with my Promarkers - but of course, that is only half the tale as I also paper-pieced her woolly pully, skirt & boots so she is at least as snug-as-a-bug in her snowy scene. The papers I used for this, like the ones in the background are all from Ashalee Wall.  As for that glittering & glistening snow, that at her feet, alighting the tree & star not to mention falling from the heavens is courtesy of a couple of bottles of Stickles. The little snow-drifts surrounding all the layering isn't my usual distressing/acrylic paint but a new product to me, that of Aleene's Glitter Snow. As far as I can see, it is a bit of a misnomer as I cannot really see any glitter showing. Vaguest of traces whilst in the pot, but not exactly visible on the card itself. Well, I tried! LOL. Another snowy element is that of the Martha Stewart snowflake punch towards the bottom of the card and to finish it all off, extra pearly embellishment (from MeiFlower) and 'girly' lace across the top made by Offray.

The sentiment circle I made myself using my Cameo, echoing the star subject of the image, naming, framing and welding my various sized stars together before cutting out of pearlescent card, the same as I used for the card-base itself.

Hope you all like it!  Right, back to the beeps and whirls.....arghhhh!!!!!!!!!!

Tine :)

Challenges I would like to enter this card for are:

Inspired By Stamping - sketch
Lili's Little Fairies - bingo (pearls, lace and glitter)
Pretty Little Ribbon Shop - lace & pearls
Ladybug - Christmas cupcake imagery inspiration
Little Miss Muffet - writing/ text (I cut mine)
PaperCraftingJourney - sentiment
Creative Card - tree
Lollipop - at least 2 punches/dies
Sassy Cheryl - die cuts (digi cutter)
Penny Black @ Allsorts - (stamped images) Christmas
That Craft Place - bling (pearls & sparkle)
Creative Cutting - anything goes (using SVG cut file or similar)
Creative Craft - anything goes
Tammy's Scrapin' Corner - anything goes.

Mandy's Birds

Yes, I have indeed used Promarkers on my card this week it is just a little more 'discreet' than one of my 'normal' creations - if there is such a thing as 'normal!' LOL.

The card is for my sister-in-law who dotes on her two cockatiels.  As I like to make cards appropriate for my family & friends, a bird themed card it was - and whilst you probably can't see them very well hiding away behind the cage, I made myself a 3-layered cockatiel cut file and coloured each one with appropriate cockatiel markings using my Promarkers. The wings were put on with a dab of glue-gel so I could add dimension but of course, you can't see it properly because of the cage. LOL. Don't I make things unnecessarily difficult for myself? LOL. I then made a circular tasselled perch for them both to 'stand' on.

You can if you look carefully actually see the layers of the birds.

I didn't however, make the bird-cage itself.  This time I used one from a selection (birdcage3- from the appropriately named, Bird's Cards), bowing it out to accommodate my avian twosome.  Bird is also responsible for the two larger flowers (rolledflower1), I cut out of printed card stock, the leaves (branches1), which I embossed to give me the veins and even the sentiment, though I did re-colour this and put it in a tag. The smaller two flowers were a 5-petalled cut file from Pamela Conner, (thanks Pam).  I often have a love/hate relationship with my glue-gun when making my flowers. I need the fast-fix the glue-gun offers but I am useless at getting the right amount of glue out of it for my needs and then there are the copious amount of 'strings' emanating out of it. They go everywhere!!! LOL. Still, back on to the subject of my card,  I then got out my Promarkers once more and coloured my white satin ribbon with Ivory.

Now, of course I couldn't leave it there could I? LOL. So for the inside of my card I repeated my layered cockatiels but this time they are much larger - and just as naughty as my sister in law would recognise. They are coloured with Promarkers. One, slightly more placid cockatiel is just holding a recoloured greeting (from Bird's Cards) in his two-layered beak but the other mischievous creature is playing his favourite game of sitting on the picture frame and picking the wallpaper off!!!!  Yes, that is how they repay her when she allows them some freedom. LOL. As for the cut files here, other than the birds, I enlarged the same perch as I had created on the front and also made a bell hanging from a chain (with my SIL's name at the bottom). I added the layered frame so I can write the 'from' on later and this is 'hung' using some crochet thread onto the picture rail.

Thanks for looking.

Tine :)

Challenges I would like to enter are:
Great Impressions - walk on the wild side (animals but I hope Mandy's mischievous birds count! LOL)
That Craft Place - things with wings
Clearly I Stamp - things with wings
Scrapbook Sisters Card Challenge - things with wings
Digi Doodle - things with wings
Can You Digi It - bird is the word
Wags 'n' Whiskers - birthday
Corrosive - birthday
Divas By Design - for a female
Dream Valley - die cuts/punches
Poodles Parlour - die cuts
Totally Papercraft - frame it
Tammy's Scrapin' Corner - add flowers
Unstampabelles - paper flowers (no stamp or digi image either - for once I can comply, LOL)
Hooked on Craft - celebrate
Paper Crafting Journey - anything goes.

Floral Anniversary

Hi folks - I've been missing for a few days - have you missed me? LOL. My card on this occasion is for our anniversary, so is being given to my OH next week and yes, shock, horror - I haven't coloured it!!!

The navy card base has a fabulous scintillating silver all over it and the exact measurements of my centre-step design (cut using the Cameo), were done to fit the image from Floppy Latte called Floral Monogram Frame in the centre section. Yes, I am sure you can you see have been 'playing' with my Cameo again in order to cut out the 'Anniversary' sentiment into the front panel and also 'Love' into the back panel (keeping some room there of course so I can write the 'from' too.   I didn't colour the floral frame as I wanted the actual central cut-work to be the main focus.  However, maybe only fellow Silhouette users will be able to appreciate the amount of time & 'fiddly' nature of pulling out some of the image to create the decoration for the side panels - so that all the other parts of the image were removed. I also had to alter the size of the top of the lower-case 'a' by point- editing as it would have been too delicate & fragile otherwise.

On the back - a smaller variant of the front - leaving space for me to write too.

The front panel was added using foam pads but I kept the other panels nice and flat and adding a narrow navy ribbon as the only embellishment feature. So, a little different to one of my usual cards - mainly as I didn't get out a single Promarker, LOL, but keeping it white I was hoping for a more sophisticated card which was not too 'girly' either.

Front view - so you can see the both side panels.

Tine :)

Challenges I would like to enter this card for are:
Crafty Sentiments - CAS
365 (Monday) - CAS
Sparkles Forum - wedding/anniversary
Crafts & Me - use a digi
There She Goes - use a sentiment
Dream Valley - die cuts/punches
Love to Create - die cuts/punches
Di's Digis - no squares
PaperPlay - shaped card
For Your Inspiration - night scene photo
Inky Impressions - use ribbon
Lollipop - monochromatic
Catered Crop - use white
Through The Craft Room Door - white + two
Papertake - anything goes

Thank You Tilda

I haven't managed to use Tilda in a long while but I have remedied this today and whilst this cutie was designed as a Christmas image (So Jolly - Unwrapped Tilda), I thought she was perfect for any occasion where opening presents was applicable.  I reckon she has crafting goodies in that box of hers. LOL.  Anyway, she was coloured to match in with these gorgeous papers by Corrinne Silke using Promarkers and Trias. You might have to look carefully, but I tore the edges of my papers (very carefully!!!) and gave them a bit of a 'ruffle' - just enough to give a bit of a white texture at the edges.  I then got the sewing machine out and ran a wavy line over the main dp before adding a straight sewn border to the image itself.

I made the card base using my Cameo so that I cut out a 'Thank You' border (using the Eras Bold font this time). The base comprises of a square card front attached to a separate back piece which is slightly smaller in width than the front so that all the cut-work can be seen to full advantage. I then made the insert to match the shaping too. Although I made the sentiment lettering 'For You' myself, I set it into a fancy shaped tag from Bird's Cards. This tag is actually longer than the original so I adapted it to accommodate my lettering by welding a rectangle into it using the Silhouette Studio software but then did the exact opposite for the two little decorative elements to the side of the image, as I cut those down.

For the insert, I replicated the image but made it lighter so it was more like a watermark in the background before adding my own sentiment over it. The insert shape replicates the back of the card shape so doesn't reach all the way across like a regular insert.

Hope you like it (certainly hope the recipient does!) & thanks for visiting my blog today and taking the time to leave a comment.

Tine :)

Challenges:

Sketch Saturday - design sketch
Digital Tuesday - photo inspiration
Paper & Such - stitching, real or faux
Crazy4 - stitching, real or faux
CRAFT - stitching
Tilda's Town - name the techniques - tearing, creating cut files/using Cameo, layering, sewing
Sassy Cheryl - polka dots (very subtle ones admittedly in the dp)
Love to Create - spots & dots (see above...LOL)
Allsorts - distressing (tore papers)
Papertake - make your own (cut files to make card base)
ABC - use 2 (2 papers, 2 cut files for card base, 2 images)
Stamptacular Sunday - dies (digi cutter)

Digital Tuesday's inspirational picture.

Inky Impressions - dies/punches 
Aud Sentiments - sentiment on a tag
DYSU - for a friend
Card Makin' Mamas - recipe 1 image, 2 papers, 3 embellishments.
CMC - anything goes with a girly twist (& use markers to colour)
Jackson's Digital Expressions - anything goes
Crafts & Me - anything goes.

Shall We Dance

Yep, another one that has been a labour of love this week as I think I had to make a fair number of separate cut files for this one before I even got my Promarkers out! Think it is 7 cut files in total - not to mention one from Bird's Cards.

The bit I hope you focus on first of all, is of course the image and I am sure you will recognise it as being from LOTV and is actually called 'Shall We Dance'. This cuddly two-some giving Fred & Ginger a run for their money were coloured with Promarkers (and one Tria marker, LOL) & I kept the colour-scheme relatively subtle, highlighting my elements with gold.

The layout is actually one from CLP (but June's therefore not the current one), so I had better go into my layers in more detail.  Behind the image is a scalloped frame I made especially to fit my image and behind that is a doily - another of my designs but you can only see the edges of it!!!  LOL.  This rests on an embossed strip which I then ran an ink pad over for colour and definition.  The horizontal elements I hoped would give a theatrical overtone to the overall design consists of 2 cut files, made by my good self, of course. :)  Well, as if anyone else would be daft enough to go to all this trouble for one card. LOL.  The one stripy dp is from Bearly Mine matted onto felt-hammered card. This medley of layers rests on the card's front base - cut out of some of my fav pearlescent card stock & using yet another of my own cut files for a scalloped loop border. This was then embellished with gold peel-offs, including those tiny ones dotted about (which were actually the residue from the chain-like peel off border). Waste not, want not, I say. LOL.  The 3 flowers were cut using a design from Bird's Cards and were inked to varying degrees.

I then had to make the back of the card, yes, another separate cut file which echoes the design elements of the front with a scalloped - looped edge to stand on and a smaller scallop at the other side, similar to the scallop of the image's frame.  There is a good reason why this is a different file - I wanted to get it to fit onto a single A4 piece of card and so needed to be necessarily smaller.  The paper insert is yet another cut file  incorporating a sentiment from Netty's Cards. I made this to follow same design as the back of the card but a little smaller so that you can see the scalloped edges on the card behind. I then inked the edges of the insert before attaching.

So, this anniversary card is going to my sister-in-law who says she keeps all the cards I send her so at least all my efforts won't end up in the bin after a couple of days! Hope you like it.

Tine :)

Challenges I would like to enter this card for are:
I ♥ Promarkers - gold, silver & bronze (all or just one)
Lili's Little Fairies - a touch of romance
Totally Stampalicious - texture
Stamp With Fun - lace doily
Truly Madly Crafty - animals
Hanna & Friends - celebrate
CardMadFairy - photo insp
Stamp & Create - something in their hands (each other, aw....)
Papertake - make it your own (made my own cut files, card base, flowers & decorative elements)
Inky Impressions - dies/punches
Stamptacular Saturday - dies (digi cutter)
Jackson's Digital Expressions - anything goes
Crafts & Me - anything goes
Crafty Bloggers Network - anything goes
Inspire Me Fridays - anything goes.

Twins First Birthday

Where did that first year go?!?  Did I have a shock when I realised the twins were about to reach their milestone first birthday - & what is more, that I was relatively unprepared and had to make a card pronto. Doesn't seem that long since I gave their parents the card I made to celebrate their birth (created well in advance that one, LOL), and a blink of an eye for their Christening card & box.  Had to act quickly - & this is what I came up with. :)

First of all I made my own card base, welding a large number 1 (basically constructed from 3 rectangles), onto one side before cutting out from white woven-textured cardstock using the Cameo. Having remembered to replicate my large number '1' before welding, I then created my welded names to set into the individual number along with a 'dashed line' above & below the lettering.  The font I used is called 'David'.  Once layered with coordinating card beneath I think it makes it look like sewing or that there is ribbon threaded through. The large numbers were mounted using foam tape for stability as well as dimension.  I also used the Cameo to create the small photo corner to pop on the top edge of the image's mat, the image's mat and also the image itself which was done as a print & cut. I could have cut it by guillotine or knife of course, but this way I knew both required copies of the image would be cut identically. In the interests of frugality as well as design, I dotted some of the cut out 'dashes' from the figure '1's beneath my papers for yet another ultra-thick 'sewing' line.

The image is by Mo Manning and is called, 'I Love It'. Cutie isn't she?  I am sure virtually everyone knows by now that I will have coloured her with Promarkers, LOL, and like the colours of card I chose for each variation, I coloured the two-some the same, but differently.

The other card is identical inside apart from the name which is written in pink rather than lilac.

The two digital dps which match my shimmering cardstock are from Karen's Scraps & Graphics and I kept a relatively simple format for the inside of my cards this time around, using two sentiments from Cindy Close on one side and adding a suitable verse to the other before giving the edges a nice deckled finish.

Thanks for visiting.
Tine :)

Challenges I wish to enter these cards for are:
Mo's Digital - hugs & kisses
Bearly Mine - girly
Papertake - all things girlie
Squirrel & Fox - kids/babies
Cards Und More - pink/no flowers
Crop Stop - photo corners
Hanna & Friends - celebrate
Simply Create Too - use it 2 times at least (no probs - everything in duplicate!)
Stamptacular Sunday - to die for (digi cutter)
Perfect Sentiment - (I hope the girls' names count as the front sentiment) - anything goes
CMC (use alcohol markers) - anything goes with a girly twist
Divas By Design - anything goes
Paper Shelter - anything goes
Jackson's Digital Expressions - anything goes.

Wedding Gift

This project is for my niece's wedding present with the big day going to take place at the end of next week.  She didn't want a present as such, having well equipped her house already, so money it will have to be and this is the relatively elaborate creation I came up with to put it in to give her.  Yes, in real life it is a medley of whites, but because the main card is Crafter's Companion Accents, it has a flecked sheen to it and the camera is picking up its bluey hues.

The colour-scheme on the inside you might recognise as I have used blue for all the wedding - themed items I have made this year but I wanted them all to match. So this project is really part 3 of the items I have made for the same wedding, (the card being here and it's matching box, here).  Just glad I got the other things made in good time.  Sorry, this blog-post is a bit lengthy but there are those who like to know how I go about making my cards, so if you are just browsing by or not a Cameo user you might just want to skip the middle bit & go to the last paragraph!!!! LOL. Wouldn't want to bore you. 

There are several types of card used throughout the project, some very thick pearlescent card (2 kinds - one single sided (the CC one ) & one double sided & needing '9-double cut' for you Silhouetters and that is way more pressure than I have needed to use before) as well as plain white card too.  In fact, there is so much going on with this project overall that I am not sure where to start but I reckon from the outside-in is as good a place as any & the first thing you will see is the shape, and this design/construction is called a 'Napkin Fold'.  Whereas if you were making a regular napkin fold item with a fancy edge (for instance using a MS PATP punch) you would fold the card/paper first & then punch around your 12x12 outer edge, in my case I was using my Cameo & I reckoned it would be easier to do the other way around. What is more I took the plunge & do something I don't usually do - and that is create perforated lines for my fold lines. Certainly made it easier to fold too.  What is more, having made a 'mock-up' to see how it was going to look before I cut into my expensive cardstock, I decided that it looked neater as a slightly smaller creation - and as the Cameo can cope with my foibles, then a different sized square base it was!  This meant that once I had finished all the folds I had a 14.5 square in the centre for my image, envelope & decoration etc. It also meant that I didn't need 12"x12" card any more but A3.

The whole design is based around the tiered-cake cut file from Silhouette so I do hope the whole project gives you the impression of a heavily iced cake. LOL. Having made my scallop-looped edged square, I then welded 4 cakes into the corners so that when I put the separately cut cakes into position above the welded area, even the tiny flames on top of the cakes were supported. Didn't want those being knocked off! LOL. To each of these 4 smaller cakes I gave a further layer of the diamond design (on the bottom tiers) as if it were piped icing.  I then added the 'hole details' into some of the created triangles of the napkin folded card to match the design on the cake and the base was done. Sounds quicker than it was, believe me. LOL.  To close it I made a band from two separate scalloped pieces, the front one wraps around to the back with perforations at the fold lines and the back basically neatens the whole thing off as well as completing the band. I then layered my embossed bands onto it before adhering together. A series of varying scalloped circles for were cut as the backing mats for my largest cake making a large topper to glue onto the centre of the band. 

The rose-cut envelope angled ready for pulling out.

After that, I followed this month's design sketch over at CLP using an image from LOTV, coloured with Promarkers just as I had for the coordinating card & box. The fabulous papers are from Wishing Well Creations. The image's mat was set up on several layers of foam tape to give me a generously sized pocket for the special envelope I made to hold the money or cheque. Yes, this is another labour of love as I first had to make my roses, fuse them all together then pop them onto the envelope I made too. Again, a quicker process to tell you about than to do! The flowers at the corners of the image were made using a cut file from Bird's Cards (flowers3) and were nice and flat as I had built the inside up enough for the napkin-fold to cope with. I made the scalloped border running horizontally below the image to coordinate with the design adding diamond shapes to it, again to echo the cake itself. The final touches were to add the pearly dots using Liquid Pearls.

Now of course, I have to remember to pop some money into that envelope .......LOL

Thank you all for taking the time to visit my blog today and an especially big thank all of you who take the time & trouble to leave me comments here.


Tine :)


Challenges:

CLP - design sketch 
Cupcake Craftroom - layers
Sparkles Monthly - wedding
MyGraphico - wedding
Alota Rubber Stamps - box it up
4 Crafty Chicks - box
Sassy Cheryl - fancy borders (loads of them!! LOL)
Whimsy - punches & edgers
CMC - navy/dark blues (+alcohol markers)
Di's Digis - flowers
DYSU - food (wedding cakes, all 5 of them, LOL)
By the Cute & Girly - ...a day at (Kate's Wedding)
Tammy Scrapin' Corner - summertime (wedding season)
Hannah & Friends - celebrate
Totally Papercrafts - layers
Divas By Design - anything goes
Paper Shelter - anything goes
Jackson's Digital Expressions - anything goes.

#125 Smiles Make You Younger

Theme at I ♥ Promarkers - circles
Sponsor & prize this week - Nitwits ($10 voucher for some gorgeous papers of your choice!!)

This week the DT have all used papers from our generous sponsor this week, Nitwits, and I chose this brilliant kit called 'Away We Go' which was so perfect for the layout I had made myself for this fabulous image from Mo Manning.  Followers of mine will know I have a soft spot for this cutie called 'Georgie Cartwheels', and I coloured him with Promarkers to match in with these fabby papers.

This one took a bit of planning, but that isn't anything new for one of my cards, LOL, but having decided on my layout & which of the papers should go where, I then cut all the printed circles as p&cs (for the card front as well as on the inside of the card), on my Cameo, having to import the relevant paper to each circle and rescale and pan as was necessary. Pretty time consuming I can tell you! The grosgrain ribbons & button embellishments were also from this brilliant Nitwits kit and were similarly printed off and cut using the Cameo. There are some great looking arrows in the kit too, but the ones I used here are not them. LOL. Those were angular and I wanted mine more rounded to reflect the circle theme so found these, made them into cut files and recoloured them to match in with the papers exactly. One of the bonuses of using digital papers.

I printed lots more Georgies in circles and rectangles to roll across the inside of my card and the stamp-like element punctuating Georgie's cartwheeling is also from the 'Away We Go' kit which I converted to a cut file to perfectly cut around the 'perforated' edges. I kept this blank so I can write the 'to' & 'from' later but the sentiment on the front of the card is from TLC.

This is my last card as a member of the I♥ Promarkers DT having been there for 2 years. I hope that you have enjoyed seeing my creations as part of this challenge team and I hope that you will all continue to follow my crafting progress in the blog world.

Thanks for looking.

Tine :)

Challenges I would like to enter this card for are:
Mo's Digital - anything goes using a Mo Manning image
Cupcake Craftroom - layers
Digital Tuesday - inside out (plus digi elements - image & papers)
Sassy Cheryl - summer fun  (playing outdoors in the summer - & he has to be a Brit - he has his wellies on!)
Cardmadfairy - digi image + summertime  (see above....)
Totally Papercrafts - here comes summer  (see above....)
Incy Wincy - summertime  (see above....)
Delicious Doodles - summer holidays   (see above....)
Joanna Sheen - going round in circles
Phindy's Place - use your initials (C= circles, A= acrobatics)
Sisterhood of Crafters - let's hear it for the boys
Paperplay - happy birthday
Cards For Men - happy birthday
Celebrate the Occasion - happy birthday
Corrosive - sentimentally yours
Party Time Tuesday - let's get punchy
Crafty Creations - free for all
Catch The Bug - anything goes
Tammy's Scrapin' Corner - anything goes.