It's Twins !

Sorry I've been so long posting again: Had my husband in cardiology intensive care half the week after being rushed in Sunday morning with chest pains! It wasn't too serious and, after the op he was already booked for, he is now home again. At the same time, his daughter had twins on Monday: All well and also home now. So a hectic week of ups and downs! Don't know when this will reach them but here's the A5 size (roughly 6x8.5") card I made to celebrate the twin's arrival. We are looking forward to going over to the UK in a couple of weeks to meet them in person :)

Challenges: Sandrine Vachon - sketch; Caardvarks - embossing + stamping; Create 4 fun - baby card; Tuesday Throwdown - Dry embossing; Cute Card Thursday - Recycle (the 'ribbon' under the flower is the lining tape from the sticky paper ribbon border as well as me using 'scrap' bits of Bazzill and other card).

Used: pearlised green, pink and blue card (Diamond craft); Cuttlebug with Floral Screen and Paisley embossing folders; Bazzill sandbox swiss embossed card; Hampton Art 'Our Baby' stamps; Brilliance inks - pearlescent orchid and pearlescent blue; Fancy Pants pins; and bits from stash with printed text.

For the home - Memo board

The PaperPlay challenge #10-23 'Home' and 'Spoon Full of Sugar' challenge 'Floral delights' spurred me to get this memo board finished that I started a week or so ago. My grand plan is to make things for my still-being-converted craft space and it was love at first sight with the GCD Studios 'Homespun Chic' papers so this board matches the tin I covered last month.

I started the board at the Tourc'h craft group. For scale, the recycled cardboard base is about A4 size (approx 8 x 11.5"). I gave it a thin coat of white acrylic and then layered the papers making sure there was good support behind the notepad so the brads holding the ribbons wouldn't rip through. All the papers, including the bird, are the same GCD papers and I love the different textures - flocked, glittered, laminated - found in there. I just added the die-cut flourishes and the Doodlebug sticker letters which I bordered with a Whispers green pen to make them stand out better. I made the 3D flower in the same style as the one on my card here (tuto en français) and cut and shaped the leaves by hand.  Now we've just got to get the room finished....  ;)

PollyCraft & PTW

The last of my colour-themed requests (phew!) was for an emerald green birthday card...
I already had this Pollycraft image coloured in with water-colour pencils so I decided to use it along with the Papertake Weekly sketch #42 and also enter in the Pollycraft challenge 'Ribbon and Bling'.

Used: PaperMania papers; ColorBox chalk ink 'Misty Meadow'; Nestabilities 'Labels 1' and Cuttlebug 'Sliders'; Sakura 'Lime Stardust' for image highlights; Compagnie d'elfes stamp; gems and ribbon from stash.

Sketch Saturday #106

I was asked to make a sapphire blue card so ... I have used the Sketch Saturday challenge for the layout:

Also entered for Cupcake Crafts challenge 'Dazzle us'.
Used: Papers from GCD Studios 'Homespun chic' and bits from stash; Dovecraft 3" flower punch; EK Success border punch; PaperMania felt butterfly; Doodlebug Ribbon; Compagnie d'elfes stamp; ColorBox chalk inks;  gems.

Is it a spider, is it a mouse...

It's Henry superhero digi stamp! Free from Kathrina's blog. I had a request for a sand-coloured card for a 10 year old birthday: I used 'Sandbox' embossed Bazzill with scraps of mulberry paper; inking the edges with ColorBox chalk 'chocolate and blueberries'. I coloured Henry with Whispers marker pens and cut him and my computer-generated text with Nestabilities. The corners are Basic Grey 'archaic' stickers and I pulled apart a piece of string until I felt it was the right look and then threaded through the image, round the brad and back.

Three cards shown today - Must be football season if I can manage a hat trick!
Entering this card for the Stamp something - digital challenge.

Grey teenager card

This request was for a boy's 14th birthday in grey: I immediately thought of the masculine papers in the Basic Grey Boxer collection and the Cuddly Buddly teenager download I bought ages ago. I put these together with the BG challenge sketch #21, a sentiment circle I created in Paint Shop Pro, an already grungy grey paper I found in my stash and then grunged everything with ink - Brilliance (Silver) and ColorBox chalk (Charcoal) - This is the result:

Ruby Red - Friday sketchers

Another red card, perhaps more burgundy than ruby? This time I have used the Friday Sketchers #105 for inspiration and used Clare Curd's 'Big one' papers and shopping stamp which I paper-pieced: There are 4 layers hiding there (arm on bag on trousers on base).

I'll be back later with a non-red card :)

Ruby red

I've just photographed the 6 cards made yesterday so I've plenty to blog :) The request for this card was 'a ruby red birthday card for a 19-yr old':

I've used GCD Studios 'Homespun Chic' card on a red base, with a big white flower from my Dovecraft  punch inked (ColorBox 'Rose Petals') and tucked under; mounted a PaperMania felt butterfly on to red mirri card, and positioned it with paper and fabric flowers and gems from stash. I used a sketch by Sandrine Vachon (upside down) and made the corner from my M Stewart border punch (Botanical scallop) from a scrap of mirri mounted on to white. Entering for the PaperPlay Challenge 'Flowers and Sparkle'.
J'ai une commande pour une carte rouge pour un 19e anniversaire: J'ai utilisé le sketch #80 de Sandrine Vachon (à l'envers) et également je participe avec le challenge chez PaperPlay - fleurs et scintillement. 
Papier -GCD Studios; papillon feutrine - PaperMania; tampon - Compagnie d'elfes; encre - ColorBox 'Rose Petals'; perfo grande fleur - Dovecraft; perfo bordure (utilisé pour le coin) - Martha Stewart; fleurs, strass.

Sunday Sketch & Stamp #29

My sister bought the DoCrafts goody bag over from the UK so I have been playing with the stamp and Henbury papers, using the Sunday Sketch & Stamp challenge as inspiration for the layout:

I stamped the image with ColorBox chalk ink from the 'Pumpkin Patch' queue stack - twice on white card and the flowers twice on the pink paper. I added colour by brushing 'Shabby Shutters' Distress Ink on to the leaves and cut round the image and layered that, then cut round the flowers and individual bud to make a flattened decoupage effect. Inked round the base of the image and stamped the text with the same chalk ink. Cut text with Spellbinders 'labels trio'; Border punch is by Martha Stewart. Inked other paper edges with ColorBox queue 'Rose Petals'.
2nd card using the same paper pack, purple peel-off and ribbon from the goody bag with MS border punch 'Botanical scallop' on a silver card blank:

Thanks for looking and your lovely comments - I do appreciate them :)

Paperminutes sketch

We've had 5 days holiday at home as my sister and brother-in-law came to stay and the weather was fantastic so we've been out and about sight-seeing. They left this morning and it has rained all day so I've stayed in making cards and have a lot of catching up to do! I have had 4 orders over the last few days totalling over 50 cards - no joking, though thankfully 30 are pyramid decoupage style of local scenes (my own design) so fairly quick to do. Others are a mix of vague requests and some very specific ones: All will be unique and I could lapse in to total panic at this point...!
Here's a birthday card made using the Paperminutes sketch 116 and one of Mo Manning's great digi-stamps coloured with water-colour pencils. The paper is from PaperMania 'Man's World' and the hangy thing is a wine glass decoration I bought cheaply in a pack of 6 so has a practical use too ;)