Craft Mad Card Swaps - September

As mentioned in my previous post, I was LATE with my card swap for my partner for September ...  I struggled with motivation

The theme for September was 1 card using a 'Sketch' and 1 card using TIC-TAC-TOE

 

Card #1 - sketch

 

I received a lovely Scrap Boys 'Christmas Day' paper pad from my Secret Santa last year, so that formed the basis of my choices for this swap.

 

I chose three different papers and cut the tags by hand.  A large snowflake was die cut from silver mirror card.  Sentiment & little holly leaves were stamped & clear heat embossed.  The leaves and berries were hand coloured with Copics and die cut.  Sentiment was die cut using the centre circle of the snowflake.

Card was assembled according to sketch, using 3D foam tabs for added dimension.

 

 

Card #2 - Tic Tac Toe - Patterned Paper, Die Cut, Embossing

 

Selecting another page from the 'Christmas Day' paper pad, I layered it onto red leathergrain cardstock using the Waffle Flower A6 layers die, and then layered that onto the white cardbase.

Hero Arts 'Merry' Stamp & Cut - 'Merry' was die cut twice out of the red cardstock and layered to add dimension, with the other sentiments stamped in black.  Stars were stamped in red & embossed, but they don't show up very well in the photo.

 

And in answer to your question ......... yes, I was humming the song all the time I was making the card!

 

A very big thank you to my partner for being patient with me!

 

Linking Card #2 with the following Challenges:

Sparkles Christmas Challenge #165 - use the word 'Christmas'

Cut it Up Challenge #314 - inspired by a song

 

 

Also included, was another one of the cards I made previously especially for my swapping partners - see my post in June on how they were made

 

PS:  Cardstock was purchased from BlueEdge Crafts  (no affiliation arrangements with this store, I just want to let fellow Aussies know of a good store :) )

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.

Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

Merry Christmas

Working on some Christmas Cards and once again, the various Challenge Blogs provide lots of inspiration!

I am loving working with these really cute Gnome stamps!

  

Gnomes were stamped with StazOn and hand coloured with copics.  Backgrounds were hand blended with Distress Inks and cut out with Spellbinders deckle edge dies, then mounted onto white leathergrain cardbase.

Hero Arts 'Merry' Sentiment die cut twice & layered, then 'christmas' stamped directly onto cardbase with StazOn black ink.

I am pleased with how this little experiment of a card worked out.  Now to work out who to give them to ..... they need to be extra special recipients LOL  and I need to work on some more!

Linking With the following challenges:

Merry Little Christmas Challenge - #47 - anything goes

Christmas with the Cuties #65 - anything cute

ABC Christmas Challenges W &/or X - Xtra Special

Items Used

Cardstock:  White Leathergrain cardstock (BlueEdge Crafts)

Inks:  StazOn black, Distress Inks, Copics

Stamps:  HeroArts 'Merry & Bright', Stampendous 'Holiday Gnomes'

Tools:  Spellbinders Deckle edge dies

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.

Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

cards made with prizes won!

I have been lucky enough to win some challenges and blog candy here and there in blog land.

Here is my showcase of things I have made with my winnings.

Spellbinder tags won from SheetLoad

This is a thank you card made with a Flourishes Damask background stamp that was part of some Blog Candy won from Linda's Blog

This is Hero Arts stamp Garden Roses K5056 and is so beautiful to use.

White cardstock was embossed using Cuttlebug & Swiss Dots folder. Oval spellbinder die used to cut & emboss the oval. The embossing was not very obvious, so I highlighted the edge with a fine gold sticker. Hero Arts Garden Roses was heat embossed with fine gold and then coloured in with watercolour pencils and highlighted with chalk. Gold organza ribbon was placed across middle of background and stamped image attached using mounting tape. Corners were highlighted with 'left over' bits from a sticker sheet. Whole thing was layered on pink cardstock. Matching envelope is stamped with black STAZON and chalked. HeroArts Blog here

here is another card using the same stamp - this time stamped with STAZON and coloured with chalks

I recently won Set 2 of Flourishes A Year in Flowers here and have been having 'fun' colouring them in - I can see lots of uses for these images and am very tempted to buy the rest of the year ;-) 

This is August - Morning Glory

this is July - Tigerlily - I really like this one.

I am currently working on the June - Rose images - stay tuned ;-)

Cuttlebug Be Inspired #29 & Cuttlebug #29

Wouldn't you know it - both of my Cuttlebug Challenge sites are having challenges for Mother's day and they both have the same number! I really got myself a bit confused there for a while - so here is what I made with both challenges in mind.

Check out these blogs - CBeInspired#29 and CB#29 they are both great blogs and a constant source of inspiration for me!

Since both my husband's and my mothers are no longer with us, I decided to make a card for a friend - actually, a friend of my sister. Her mother has just passed away this last week and I think this upcoming Mother's Day will be very difficult for her. I just wanted to let her know that we were thinking of her.

White cardstock was embossed using Cuttlebug & Swiss Dots folder. This swiss dots folder has to be the most versatile of all my folders. I then used my spellbinder die in the cuttlebug to cut & emboss an oval. The embossing was not very obvious, so I highlighted the edge with a fine gold sticker. Hero Arts Garden Roses stamp (which I won recently from Hero Arts) was heat embossed with fine gold and then watercoloured. Soft chalk highlights were added. Gold organza ribbon was placed across middle of background and stamped image attached using sticky dots. Corners were highlighted with 'left over' bits from a sticker sheet. Whole thing was layered on pink cardstock - no kindy glitz for this one. ;-)

here is the matching envelope - it is not heat embossed, as the heat from the embossing gun does terrible things to the pre-glued envelopes

I really hope my sister's friend likes my card and that I am not intruding on her grief.