DCM 'Feeling Krafty'

This weeks challenge at the Daring Cardmakers has been set by Fran, and has set the challenge....

Feeling Krafty

Use 'natural' items on your projects, ie. wood, leaves, kraft card, balsa wood, cork, burlap, rope, natural twine etc. The choice is endless, you just need a bit of imagination!

There is a catch though - you must use 3 natural items not just a bit of kraft card!

Here's my card....

I always find it difficult to use lots of layers on my cards so have tried really hard on this card to use layers.

My three natural products were this cute little wooden button, tied with some ivory button twine/jute and not forgetting my kraft cardstock!

I was unsure whether to add these sweet little roses but the card didn't look finished, so I popped them next to the butterflies.

I has so much fun with this challenge and its easier than you might think, so why not pop over to the Daring Cardmakers blog and join in! Please check out the gorgeous cards my teamies have created!

Supplies used:
Cardstock - MME Lost & Found 2, Kraft card, EP Victoria Gardens
Ribbons - 16mm Ivory Crochet Lace, Pink Seam Binding, Ivory Button Twine from the ribbon reel
Flowers - 25mm White Hybrid Tea Rose, 40mm Pink Hybrid Tea Rose from the ribbon reel
Stamps - WMS Very Vintage Labels no 10
Other - Nesties Labels no 10, PTI Butterfly Die

TFL!

TRR Challenge #9 'Sugar Plum'

The school summer holidays seem to be flying by so quickly and I cannot believe that another fortnight has passed already and a new challenge is up at The Ribbon Reel.

It's Pauline's turn to host and she has chosen this gorgeous inspiration photo for us all .....

...and has asked us to create a card or project inspired by the photo
PLUS using PLUM, GREEN AND GREY/SILVER PLUS ANY NEUTRAL!

Here is my card....


The colour purple is not one of my favourites and having a sort through my papers, it appears I don't really own very many purple materials! I did use some small purple roses, as well as some purple backing paper. The die cut used is one of my new purchases and I loves it so much!


Supplies used:
Cardstock - Fancy Pants, American Crafts, Ivory Cardstock
Ribbons - Charcoal Grey Seam Binding, Olive Twill, 16mm Ivory Crochet Lace from The Ribbon Reel
Flowers - 25mmWhite Tea Roses, 10mm Purple Roses from The Ribbon Reel
Stamps - WMS Very Vintage Labels 10, WMS Fancy Phrases
Other - Tim Holtz Die, Antique Linen Distress Ink, Memento Lilac Ink, Nestabilities Labels 10 Dies

TFL!

DCM 'Banksy'

Another week, another Dare over at the Daring Cardmakers! This week is Samm's turn and has asked us to be 'Inspired by Banksy'.

So now is your chance to dig out those stencils, use that paint, throw in a few ironic sayings and give your card some 'street life' and show us what you've created.

Here is my card...

At first I was a little unsure how to translate a piece of street art into a card. The obvious choice for me would be Banksy's 'Little Girl with Balloon', as we have this hanging on our living room wall.

Rather than copy the image, I was inspired to use this as my inspiration. I found the following photo of my youngest son and thought I could create a stencil in true Banksy style for my card.

My partner couldn't wait to get involved with my project (the first time I think he's ever really paid any attention!), as he is a huge graffiti and street art fan. He very kindly cut the stencil out for me and of course, just had to do the spraying too!!

We originally used some Glimmer Mist spray inks and although I loved the outcome, it just didn't look quite right. We managed to find a can of black spray paint (my partners a builder so had some on his van - how lucky!) and tried this out and wow, it looks so much better. We decided to add a touch of colour and used some Glimmer Mist in blue.

Don't forget to check out my teamies blogs for their take on this weeks challenge.

Supplies used:
Cardstock - White and Black card
Ink - Glimmer Mist and Black Spray Paint

TFL!

I'm a Cupcake Cutie

How exciting, I'm a Cupcake Cutie this week!


The lovely ladies over at Cupcake Creations chose my card as one of their cupcake cuties.
Thank you so much, its made my day.

TFL!

TRR Challenge #8 'Citrus Sunshine' (again)

I used to always be creating mini albums and layouts but things have changed and I make far more cards these days. There are lots of subjects that you can scrap about but as I have children, most of mine are based on them. However, having a passion for ribbons, flowers and pastel colours and two little boys, don't really go together, so I've found it harder to scrap about them.

Our latest Ribbon Reel Challenge seemed like a super opportunity to pull out some photos and get a layout together. I based it on the following Kirsty Wiseman sketch from a few weeks ago.

and here is my layout...

The colours are perfect for The Ribbon Reel Challenge #8 Citrus Sunshine, to use Turquoise, Yellow & a touch of Green (plus neutral). My touch of green was my large button and apple green bakers twine.

I used one of the techniques learnt on my recent MIMM journal, by using bubble wrap and paint to create a circle effect on the aqua coloured cardstock. I loved adding this pom pom trim instead of hearts, as per the sketch.

I'd like to enter it into the following projects:

4CraftyChicks - 'twine'
Kaboodle Doodles Challenge - 'Primary Colours'
Creative Craft Challenges - 'Summertime'

Supplies used:
Cardstock - Bazzill, Echo Park Victoria Gardens
Trim - Yellow Bakers Twine, Apple Green Bakers Twine and Navajo Pom Pom trim from the ribbon reel
Other - Aqua Scenic Route alphabet, Thickers white mini, button, paper doily from stash

TFL!

DCM 'So Kawaii!'

This week is Leo's turn at Daring Cardmakers to set our dare. Leo loves anything kawaii so this week she has asked us to travel to Japan to get our inspiration and create a card that is

'so kawaii'

Kawaii means anything that is loveable, hug-able and basically cute! Think Hello kitty and food with smiley faces. Most of the colours in kawaii are sugary, fun and bright so I want to see a little fun bright pop colour too. If you're totally stumped this week, check out my favourite kawaii blog for some super cute inspiration, http://www.supercutekawaii.com/.

I ended up making two cards this week..

I pulled this image off t'internet of a pair of cute kawaii cherries. I wanted the cherries to stand out so started with kraft cardstock and just added a strip of colour to the top of my card. I even managed to squeeze in some green washi tape underneath the seam binding.

The papers I used were from Sassafras and had this cute little owl image on one of the sheets. I decided to cut this out and use it on another card. Okay, so this card isn't exactly full of bright vibrant colours but I love how it turned out. Again, I squeeze a few strips of purple washi tape underneath the owl.

Don't forget to check out my teamies creations to get your inspiration flowing.

Supplies used:
Cardstock - Sassafras
Ribbons - Seam binding and button twine from the ribbon reel
Flowers - Pale pink cherry blossom from the ribbon reel
Stamps - WMS Say It Loud Stamps
Other - Washi tape, button, paper doily from stash, Journalling tag from Sassafras

TFL!

A little birdie told me....

I wanted to test out some new stamps that I am considering selling in the shop and...oh my... I love them! The stamps are by Darkroom Door and I originally stamped then in black ink onto white card but they looked quite harsh. I had in mind to create a birthday card for a friend so wanted a much delicate colour palette.

So out came the white ink pad and kraft and it looks so different. I added some K&Co floral paper and stitched onto the MME pink cardstock. I love sewing on my cards but I make most of my cards of an evening once the kids are asleep and am always worrying I'm going to wake them up, so I have to limit when and how long I have it going for.

I layered some gorgeous pink 32mm crochet lace with iced lime seam binding and pink button twine and topped it off with white tea roses.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Cupcake Creations 'Sew Mad' - Faux or real stitches
MMM Challenge #10 - 'Birds or Bugs'
Paper Creations #6 - 'Stitching'
Creative Inspirations Challenge #65 - 'Summer'

Supplies used:
Cardstock - K&Co, MME, Kraft
Stamps - Darkroom Door 'Love Birds'
Ribbons - 38mm Pink Crochet Lace, Iced Lime Seam Binding, Pink Button Twine from the ribbon reel
Flowers - 25mm Off White Hybrid tea roses, 40mm White tea rose from the ribbon reel

TFL!

TRR Challenge #8 'Citrus Sunshine'

Welcome friends to another super challenge at The Ribbon Reel which has been set this fortnight by Clare. She has chosen this beautiful inspiration photo for us all ....

And here is my card...


I found it hard to mix the blue and green at first, this was my second attempt at putting this card together and it turned out okay.


Don't forget to pop along to see my teamies blogs and the gorgeous cards they have created! There is a gorgeous bundle of ribbons, lace, etc., to be given away at the end of the challenge, so why not join in the fun!

Supplies used:
Cardstock - Fancy Pants
Ribbons - White Crochet Lace, Pearl Aqua Seam Binding. Parrot Green Leaf Trim from the ribbon reel
Flowers - Yellow Cherry Blossoms from the ribbon reel and aqua rose from stash
Other - WMS Very Vintage Labels No. 18 and Say It Loud stamps, crochet flower from stash

TFL!

TSTR # 73 & WMS # 59

It's been a hectic weekend and I have just managed to squeeze in a card for a couple of challenges.

I want to enter this for The Shabby Tea Room's challenge #73, Mix & Match (use at least three patterned papers) and also Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #59.

For WMS, I struggled to find three different papers to work with the sketch so instead opted for stitching to create the diagonals (hope that counts!).

(Edited: It took me ages to position the roses, ribbon and cameo that I forgot to use my stamp in the centre - I knew it looked like it was missing something! I opted for no sentiment on this card and instead used a decorative stamp to complete it)

Here is my card:


I had been trying to find some Webster Page cameos but they seem to have been sold out for ages so, having been inspired by Clare Buswell's fimo makes, decided to make my own and bought this beautiful mould from etsy.


I absolutely love how it turned out. I just added some grey paint once the fimo had cooled down to add definition to the image.

Supplies used:
Cardstock - Echo Park, Fancy Pants
Ribbons - Oatmeal Seam Binding and 22m ivory crochet lace from the ribbon reel
Other - White Tea Rose from the ribbon reel, small cream roses from stash, diamanté style pins from here

TFL!

DCM Birth Month Flowers

This week it's the first challenge of the month at Daring Cardmakers, so that means we'd like you to use the flowers associated with the month of August as the starting point for your cards. August's flowers are:

Poppies and Gladioli

You can use either flower, or both of them as the inspiration for your cards and as usual the team have got some ideas to show you which we hope will get you thinking.

Here is my card:


I looked everywhere for something Poppy related in my stash and opted for these little poppy flowers (well I'm not sure if they are poppies but they could be!) from Darkroom Door.

I added some ivory crochet lace behind the flowers and finished with this gorgeous pink pure silk ribbon bow (lush!).

Supplies used:
Cardstock - Bazzill, EP For the Record
Stamps - Darkroom Door Stamps
Ribbon - Ivory Crochet Lace, 32mm Pink Silk Ribbon, Ivory Button Twine from the ribbon reel
Other - Paper Doily and pink button from stash

TFL!

Day Out in London

Yesterday, we all had a day out in London. The boys have never been to London so this was there first visit with so much to take in, completely different to our little town in Hertfordshire. Jim took the boys to the Science Museum and they were in there for an absolute age and still couldn't get around everywhere. Their visit to London was finished with a trip to Hamleys! Of course, they had so much fun playing with all the toys there and were lucky to come away with a toy each too!

Whilst they were off exploring, I was lucky enough to be having a group photography class with the fabulous and super talented Kirsty Wiseman and what a perfect day it was for it too, the weather was gorgeous! It is always so lovely when you eventually get to meet people face to face that you've 'spoken' with on Facebook or blogs. I was so pleased to have Rubina, Sarah and Fiona in my group. We had just the best day with many giggles along the way (not the best thing to be doing whilst trying to hold a camera still and take photos!!)

Kirsty is a super teacher and I came away with the exact knowledge I needed to improve the quality of my photos. Here are a couple of photos I wanted to share with you from yesterday.

Attempting to use the tree as a natural frame, focusing on the leaves.

This is my attempt at an asymmetry photo.

And finally at a continual photo.

I'm off out this afternoon for a walk with the boys and will be taking my camera along to keep practising what I learnt yesterday and will be back to share some of the photos I enjoy taking.

If you are interested in a DSLR photo course, check our Kirsty's blog as I know there are more courses available at different locations.

TFL!