Mother's Day

Yes, I know its still a good few weeks away, but I'm trying to be super-organised this year. Plus its the current challenge at C.R.A.F.T.

This card is also eligible for the Alphabet Challenge - R for ribbons.

And it was supposed to be entered into last week's Tuesday Throwdown, whose challenge was tags, but I forgot to upload it yesterday... ooops!

The card is a trifold a little smaller than DL, and I cut 3 panels and 3 pockets; some were run through my new Cuttlebug V2 (love, love, LOVE my new 'Bug!!) and inked up. The other panels were inked and stamped. 'Happy Mother's Day' was stamped in black StazOn and everything else was done using Distress Inks (Milled Lavender, Victorian Velvet and Dusty Concord).

The tags are chipboard flower fairy ones that I've had lurking for a while; they were a craft mag freebie. They were layered onto silver mirri and threaded with white shiny organza ribbon.

Then I added some little sentiments onto the backs.

And here is the card for my MIL; my first 'double twisted easel' -catchy huh?!
I really like how this one turned out.

Pale pink pearlescent card run through the 'Bug. White card layers inked up. Flowers were stamped and cut out, the pink ones were inked and over-stamped, the lilac ones were put through the 'Bug too (can't you tell its new?!) and then inked. 
Sentiment was stamped in StazOn, roughly masked off and over stamped with a floral journalling panel.
Obviously all inking was done with DI's, this time it was Milled Lavender, Victorian Velvet and Worn Lipstick.


Charli x

A Three-For-One

This morning I decided to spend some time getting all inky and messy, with some inspiration from a couple of challenges.

First, Play Date Cafe has red, green and black as their colour scheme.
Second, Simon Says Stamp and Show are asking to see a tag.
And lastly CRAFT Challenge want 'not a card', which a tag isn't; so here we are:

Barn Door DI was blended around a manilla tag and edged with Walnut Stain.

I stamped the keys around the edges using black Staz-On and made a couple of masks from sticky notes. Using the masks I stamped over the keys with the script background and Tim's ticket block.

I added the  harlequin backgroud (that I made myself from craft foam glued onto a block) with Barn Door.

The letters were stamped onto inchies and then inked with Forest Moss, edged in Walnut Stain, then I used a wet paintbrush to lift the colour from inside the letters for a bleached effect. The centre one is glued down flat and the others are on foam pads.

The bird, from a Seven Gypsies set, was stamped using Walnut Stain DI and then the colour was blended out using a wet brush. He was cut out and attached with foampads.

The puzzle piece was inked with Forest Moss DI and a crown (from the same set as the bird) was stamped in Staz-On and coloured with green watercolour pencil.

The tartan ribbon adds a finishing touch and ties the colours together.

Take care and happy crafting,
Charli x

Handbag

I was asked by a friend to make a card for his great-niece's 18th birthday - something funky and girlie. Well I think this covers that.

First time I've done a handbag card actually. To get the shape I cut a piece of thick card to the height of the card itself and then made a template that I used on one side of the card, then flipped it over to do the other end - otherwise there is no way it would have turned out symetrical!!

The gorgeous paper came from a Kate Knight stack that came as a free gift with a craft magazine.

This card fits nicely into the C.R.A.F.T. challenge, which this week is shaped cards.

And Another One

Next up is a card I made for a good friend of my husband's (luckily he doesn't look at my blog as his birthday isn't until 21st!)

It's my first proper 'distressed' card and I'm really pleased with it as it certainly seems quite masculine, which I usually find quite difficult (I can do girlie and non-gender-specific, but proper blokey cards are a challenge for me).

It uses paper from a fab masculine stack I found made by Paper Cellar. And the base is a white card, coloured with Antique Linen DI (of course!) and edged with Tea Dye DI, as are all the panels. The cake was a gold peel-off coloured with a brown permanent marker and coloured with DI (I promise I will get more colours soon!)

I really like the layout and it's my take on the great C.R.A.F.T. challenge sketch (all I did to it was add the rectangular layer and the greeting)

Also the theme over at Tuesday Taggers this week has been birthday cake/balloons.

First Attempt at a Blog Challenge

Well, after weeks of admiring lots of other people's entries to various challenges, and preparing myself by following the blogs of my favourite ones, I have finally made my first attempts. That's right, attempts - with an 's'!

Here is the first one:

(Also my first ever easel card - how behind the times am I?!)

This is my entry to the Fab'n'Funky Challenge: neopolitan icecream (brown, pink and white)

and also the C.R.A.F.T. challenge of using buttons.

I'm really happy with how this card turned out and may well have to use this colour combo again.