Dutch Dare Challenge

This weeks challenge on Dutch Dare is to make a card for a boy/man. Not something I have to do often thankfully as I really struggle for ideas. For some reason this one came together quite quickly even though I'd coloured & cut the Sugar Nellie pirate before thinking what to do. Papers are from a Trimcraft kids theme pack, I bought it a year or so ago as I needed a road image and hadnt thought I'd ever use it again.

Xmas pressies

Thinking ahead to xmas I decided to make accordian boxes and fill them with cards for some of my female relatives.

This box is for my mother in law and uses K & Co papers and chipboard embellies from a Brenda Pinnick TWV from last summer. Not really to my taste but she'll love the papers.

This card is using a sketch from Papertake Weekly and I'll be adding it to the box I'm making for one of my sister in laws. Paper is from K & Co again and I've used a small piece of lace trim from the Ribbon Box. I cant think who I bought the stamp from but I've seen her in several sizes under different brand names. The scalloped circle is another of my scal creations and I used my CM cutter to cut the plain circles. Unfortunately I sneezed as I pressed down with the layer so it's a bit squewed, oops.

Spoonful of Sugar challenge 19

A spoon full of sugar has a gorgeous sketch from Camilla this week.

I love this Sugar Nellie snowman, he's such a cheery chap. I've used my f&c watercolour pencils in the same shades as last time although I've used less of the orange shade on the fur trim. With snowflake trim from Ribbon Box, DCWV papers, a PB greetings stamp and 2 weeny holographic snowflake peeloffs.

Cupcake craft challenge

The challenge this week at Cupcake Craft is Christmas. Instead of a card I've made an advent calender.

I've used my butterfly kisses stamp again but have turned him into decoupage back & front. 10 layers in total!! Poor thing has a kebab stick running through his middle to support him. The base pattern is from a clear holly flourish stamp using Adirondack Meadow ink. The tags are using my own design on PSP printed then cut on the cricut with the help of SCAL.

sketch saturday

The sketch saturday this week really gave me a few issues as I just dont have any landscape shaped stamps. This is one of my new stamps from Butterfly Kisses. She's coloured with burnt & rose carmine with violet and cobalt green on her wings before I masked her and over stamped with versamark & blue perfect pearls. K&Co background paper with primas, ribbon & gems.

Expensive couple of days

Yesterday was the craft show at Westpoint in Exeter. My lovely hubbie came with me to keep me company & carry the bags. I found some really lovely stash there and he didnt moan at all. Think it helps that he was feeling a bit hung over and spent his time sat watching an art demo ;o)

This morning I was chatting to my mate Sara and she twisted my arm into visiting the Ally Pally show... Talk about a mad rush it was 10am, we live a good 2 1/2hrs away and once on the M4 realised we didnt have a clue which part of London we were aiming for!! Thankfully daughter was at home and she went online looking for an address and rought directions.

Nice show although it was too busy to get in to really look around each stall and we didnt really have long to browse. Hubby didnt know I was there and I had to get home before he did. Unfortunately the same daughter had told him "mum's gone to Ally Pally" so I was rumbled before he even got here. Shame if I'd known that he knew we could have stayed an extra hour or 2 :o(

I still managed to find some beautiful papers, stamps & primas that I hadnt seen at Exeter. I only had 5 minutes when I got home to hide most of it and only admitted buying papers lol.

2 days of shopping left me with plenty of ideas so even tho I'm shattered I had to come and play. This is the result.

Sketch is from Friday Sketchers, penguin stamps are from Butterfly Kisses, Noel from Lili of the Valley, papers from DCWV, Prima flowers and it's coloured with whispers pens. The penguin is stamped on to 2 pieces of watercolour paper then stuck either side of some acetate which has been mounted over an aperature.

Blog Candy Alert

Anki is giving a couple of hAnglar & stAngler stamps as blog candy to celebrate 1000 hits. So if anyone wants a chance to win a couple of these fab stamps pop on over to her blog. She's a very taletnted lady and there's some lovely eyecandy to inspire you.

SCAL again

Here's another card made with the beta inkscape then cut with SCAL on the cricut. I just love making flourishes and thought they'd make a nice tree.

I've put the tree on a white pearl card which has been embossed in a cuttlebug folder. Then nothing more than matted and layered with a few gems, a ribbon bow and a greetings from a Papermania stamp. Very simple and now I have the scal file made very very quick. I think the fiddlies thing was cutting foam squares into piecies small enough, even the tiny ones had to be cut into 4!

Ooops

Not sure why but this card should have been between the snowman & father christmas.

It's another of those lovely Sugar Nellie stamps. I've used last weeks sketch on papertake weekly with papers from DCWV and a hero arts stamped greeting. The scalloped circle is my own using scal & the cricut.

Final Sugar Nellie

Cute Card Thursday challenge is Lots Of Sparkle. I've used the last of my new Sugar Nellie stamps with a sketch from Marlene.

Colouring is with deep red, juniper, warm grey and a mix of light cadmium yellow, light yellow glaze & cadmium orange f&c watercolour pencils with an overglaze of sakura tiara pens applied with a water brush. Bit of glittered hobbycraft ribbon down the side and Wizard snowflake dies from pearly gold & glitter white card.

First Sugar Nellie

Now dont you just love those lovely people at Funky kits? I ordered a few stamps late yesterday morning and they arrived at 10am today.

I have to be honest and admit although I've bought some Sugar Nellies in the past they've never made it to a finished card. Not sure why as they're lovely stamps to work with.

This is from the new Home Grown range and I've taken colouring inspiration from the sugar nellie blog and the Dutch Dare Challenge of no square edges. Deep red, juniper green, & paynes grey faber & castell pencils in the main but with a mix of cadmium orange and light yellow glaze for his fur trim. The plain ovals were cut with my CTM cutters and I created a scallop pattern to fit in inkscape before cutting with scal & my cricut. Ribbons are from a show, snowflake is a papermania metal embellie that I've embossed with a gold glitter powder. Paper is from the last docrafts goodie bag, dont tell anyone tho as I borrowed it from my youngests stash lol. The snowflake corner is a fiskars punch but I dont know the name of the plain corner punch, only that I bought it from Art Of Craft.

Spoonful of Sugar challenge 18

It's a new challenge on Spoon full Of Sugar and this time it's to use charms.

I didnt have any that I thought were delicate enough so I used a small scalloped heart nestie and made my own from shrink plastic.

The paper is years old and from Karen Neubeurger and I used one of the new cuttlebug border folders on the frame. Tilda, the tree & tulips are all coloured with f&c pencils (mauve, rose carmine & prussian blue in the main with cream socks and a mix of raw umber & dark naples ochre for her hair) before being cutout and stuck with 3d foam. Not fun having to cut such teeny bits for the tree but it's needed to support the charms.

Ribbon storage

If you're anything like me you have hoards of ribbons. My smaller lengths used to be in a tangles mess shoved into the cupboard. While looking for stash I found a system for storing the small lengths but it was mega money for what it was. So I hit on the idea to make my own.

I started off using my ribbon slot clip punches to create cardboard "bobbins" out of scrap card but after cutting 100 or so I ran out of enthusiasm. But I did at least make a start and spent an evening threading some of the ribbons on. A few book rings and they were at least tidier. I've made a template here that I use now to cut them on the cricut.

Now I needed to find somewhere to store them, after spying my cropodile and a piece of hardboard which had came from the back of an old bedside cabinet I hit on the idea of making a storage holder. This is the pic taken before I really went to town with primas & gems but I cant find the finished pic at the mo.

Here's how I made it. This time I'm using the hardboard I took from a photoframe I'd filled with pegboard to make these wall holders. There's 2 of them with a net pole stretched between for my full reels of ribbon.

I cut the hardboard using nothing more than a scalpel and smoothed the edges with an emery board. This piece is 26cm by 9.

Using a pen & ruler I marked the middle and every 3cms.

Then I set the depth on my cropodile and punched holes were marked.

Once all the holes were punched I gave it a quick squirt with some silver plastikote spray. Hubby wonders why I dont want a nice carpet in here but what he doesnt realise is that instead of being sensible and using smelly sprays in a nice well ventilated area (I'm supposed to use the garden) I just put some newspaper on the floor and carry on regardless.

Once dry (well sort of lol) I stamped over with a basic grey flourish stamp and some blue stayzon.

Then I put some ribbon around, tied a bow and knotted another piece of ribbon as a hanger.

Have fun if you decide to make one and if you're using SCAL & a cricut hang fire for a day or 2 and I'll upload the scut file.

Spoonful of Sugar challenge

The theme is Christmas at Spoon Full Of Sugar. Lots of knife work on this one, just how I like it. The corners are using a Joy Craft stencil (same one as the snowflake card from a few days ago) embossed onto white pearly card then cut out. This has been mounted onto a red pearly card and the centre cut away to match. DCWV paper below. Tilda has been coloured in using deep red, juniper green, burnt umber & medium skin tone. She's hiding behind a mistletoe wreath, stamped using a Lavinia stamp on the pearly white card with Adirondack "Meadow" ink and heat embossed with Blade Rubber holographic powder. It didnt really like the card and bled very very slightly. I used my CTM cutter to cut the circle (quicker than getting my wizard & nesties out) and cut the centre away freehand. Tilda & the wreath are mounted with 3d foam pads which is causing huge shadows from the sun. Few gems stuck in the corner as I thought paper embroidery would have been overkill.

sketch saturday

These challenge blogs are a wee bit addictive lol. This is for the sketch saturday blog. Everything except Tilda has been cut with the cricut & the papers are dcwv and a circle of watercolour paper with flourish stamps. Pic doesnt show it but there's sparkles over the flowers & Tildas wings.

friday sketchers

We've got glorious sunshine in Bristol today, looks like summer has finally appeared!! So why am I sat here playing with winter tildas? Think it might be because Friday Sketchers have a gorgeous sketch this week and I went shopping yesterday!

Tilda is coloured with faber & castell water colour pencils, medium fleshtone, rose carmine (skirt) burnt carmine (coat) and mauve (jeans) paynes grey & van dyck brown. After she was dry I added a light wash of prussian blue to the surround so that her furry collar would stand out. I might add some sparkle to her when it's time to send her on. New DCWV rose tinted xmas stack papers and a very small piece from last years stack. Trimcraft brads and a small section from a papermania xmas greetings stamp.

Cute Card Thursday

Theme this week at Cute Card Thursday is food so I decided to use my very first Tilda. Not sure why the colours are showing the way they are, everything is in a soft peach, rust & cream. Tilda is paper pieced seeing as that's this weeks docraft challenge and I've used a sketch I saw on a blog. Paper is from the Rockstar DCWV stack and the peach card has been embossed with a cuttlebug folder, the ribbon hides the join mark ;o) Flourishes are my own design cut on the cricut.

Friday sketchers challenge

I've decided that my stash is in the main pretty boring but before I go mad at the shops I ought really to use up some so.. I've decided to try and use freebie papers, something I dont know why I bought and a paper that is in my Too Nice to use box.

For the Friday Sketchers Challenge I used a ballerina stamp from Dimension Fourth which has the skirt 3d. The pink paper is from an old crafts beautiful mag, the nice paper is a double sided pebbles one bought from the Glitterpot and the dont know why I bought (well I do actually... they were in the reduced pile a couple of years ago) are the metal flourishes and flower. I also used a couple of pewter charms I bought from ebay but I gave them a quick squirt with some gold car spray. The small buttons are from Art Of Craft and the white card stock is stamped with a Rubber Tapestry clear flourish stamp using fresco pink & orange chalk pads that I've had for what seems like forever.

Not a tilda in sight

This one is for the cupcake challenge. The corners are from a joy stencil, dry embossed then cut with a scalpel to create photo corners. I used several snowflake stamps & some perfect pearls on the red pearly card and slid into the frame. The greeting is from a Hero Arts clear stamp but havent a clue who makes the snowflakes. I bought it at the Newbury stamp show a few months back so if anyone has a floor plan I might be able to work it out lol.

Ribbon Tilda

This was done using a sketch on DutchDare blog. I used scal & the cricut to cut the flower and ribbon border. I'm not happy with it tho, I think I'll change the flower for a green bow at some point.

On a roll

Here's another of my playings on inkscape. I drew the heart using the spiro tool and sent it to Paintshop Pro then made lots of duplicates and moved & rotated them into position to create this frame. Once made I sent it back to inkscape then used SCAL to cut it on my cricut. It's layered over an image of Edwin which has been coloured with watercolour pencils as well as paperpieced with black card and some glossy accents applied to the suit collar.

Then mounted on silver mirri and black card. You can see how well the mirri is reflecting the frame. I'm really pleased with this one. just wish the camera would pick up a bit more of the stamping detail.

Another tilda & SCAL card

This is a Tilda from the fall stamp club using the challenge sketch from Cutie Sunday. She's sat on a nested flower I cut on the cricut using SCAL. Once cut it was embossed in the wizard with a texture plate from Fiskars and finally swiped over with a Brilliance gold ink pad. The scalloped squares are also made with SCAL on papermania papers and some rich brown card. These were all mounted on some orangey card which I'd stamped a border using a HOTP bubbles border stamp and some gold perfect pearls. Wish I had used different papers but they looked the right shade of cream & brown under my daylight bulb. Guess that will teach me not to put colours together late at night lol.

More flourish work

I've been playing again. This is Tildas snowman stamped onto a pearly white card and coloured with Faber & Castell watercolour pencils. He's mounted on a DCWV paper and a gold flourish frame made in inkscape & cut with SCAL. I used a flourish stamp & gold perfect pearls on the green background.

Here's another Tilda, this time she's hiding under an oak leaf. The corners and flowers were cut with SCAL. I've also used Swiss dot cuttlebug folder & a few papermania pearls.

Work in progress

Ok I'll admit it I ought to be spending a little bit less time at the PC and doing more in the way of housework but I'm hopelessly addicted to scal and the new inkscape.


Here's a first go at making a flourish frame in inkscape. I used cheap nasty coated card so I could see where I need to touch up the pattern. Think it could do with another small flourish in the bottom corner as well. The rose is from an old stencil, adapted in psp and cut it in several layers. Would look better if I'd used several shades instead of just the one red & green. For a first cut I'm pretty happy with it.

This is a tag advent calender that I adapted from a project I found here

Now I'm too lazy to cut everything by hand so I spent some time making the tag & tag cover in PSP then sent it to scal to cut on card printed using a Joanna Sheen cd. The santa is from a dingbat and adapted in PSP before cutting in scal. Like the frame it needs a bit of tweaking and I think I'll tip each layer with black ink next time. Hopefully I'll be able to upload the scal pattern over the next few days.

The star is a nestie die, and the numbers from Ransom font, both spellbinders. I'll be cutting the next ones on the cricut tho.

Making & cutting flourishes

I've been having great fun playing with a beta version of inkscape which has the most amazing lil tool called Spiro. Put simply it lets you turn really horrendous wobbly lines into lovely curves. Before I've spent hours trying to make them in paintshop pro, now I can make nice looking flourishes in seconds. Trouble is it's so addictive I dont want to stop making them and have left little time to actually use them on a card. Here's one I did earlier, not my favourite papers but they were the first purple ones to hand.





Papers from papermania pad, tilda coloured with my trusty f&c watercolour pencils. Scallop border made in psp, flourishes in the beta Inkscape then both sent to SCAL and cut on the cricut.

If you want to see the new inkscape make flourishes this is a fab tutorial.

You can find 2 tutorials on downloading & using the beta here.

yipppeeeeeeeeee day

It's back to school for Tyria today and she's just left, woohoo. That means less tidying to do and more time for playing.

On monday I popped over to my local craft shop and found a new stencil from Joy Crafts.

Couldnt resist playing so out came the wizard to do the embossing ;o)

The first one I just whacked an offcut of some burgundy through, cut the 3 sections & spent yonks doing the embroidery. Trouble was it's such a purpley burgundy I didnt have single paper that worked with it. In the end I went through my drawer of magazine freebies that one day I'll use and found a green rich enough. The smallest of the wizard snowflake die, gold ribbon & some of my favourite 2mm gems finished it off.

For this one all I used was a white pearlescent card with snowflake & swiss dot cuttlebug folders, white ribbon, silver thread and my trusty gems.

This is another Joy Craft stencil but one I bought last year. All I've used is cream linen and pearlescent gold card. 2 of the corners have been embossed using the pattern from the bottom of the bauble. Thread used was a gutterman variagated gold, red & green.