Another clean and simple card challenge has been posted over at AAA Cards. This time the theme is ‘Easter/Spring’ and the challenge is to use small and few elements. It’s been a while since I have made any papercraft flowers, so that’s what I went with for my design team card…
When I saw the new Window Box Cards from Craftwork Cards, several ideas came to mind… but for a change, others in the Design Team had beaten me to those! As I looked at the cards a little more, this idea formed, and I spent much of the rest of the day making this garden bench, complete with flower-filled trug and birthday card with envelope. The bench and embellishments feature the new Scrumptious collection, augmented with Liquid Pearls (Flamingo and Juniper) and Star Dust Stickles.
I’m quite organised… and I have a pile of stamps that I have mentally labelled ‘I will not put these away until I have used them at least once’. Each show I go to, or order I place online, sees the pile grow by at least one stamp per time – and it doesn’t seem to reduce in size. Today, I decided to do something about it, and created these two tone-on-tone cards featuring Stampendous Cling Stamps ‘Cherish Heart’ and ‘Wild Roses’, with the tag from the Lily of the Valley ‘Set 51 Tags Monsieur’.
I was wondering how to use the fabulous beach/summer themed stamps from Creative Expressions for this week’s DT card as the sky clouded over and the temperature dropped. Though it’s allegedly summer (according to the meteorologists), this card captures memories of beach-side sun far better than the grey clouds outside! Framed by a Polaroid instant photo size frame, the individual images are layered to give depth and allow easier stamping and colouring. A perfect snapshot of summer.
No apologies here if I have any of the facts wrong. I’m really not a football fan, let alone a No.1 Fan, but when working with Good Ol’ Sport papers from Graphic 45 for Jones Crafts, I had to come up with another idea. And what better sporting achievement to immortalise in scrapbook form?
I swiped thinned gesso over the background and splattered some more, drying before I edged with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I used my Silhouette Cameo and Connect plugin for Illustrator to convert the crest into a cut file and cut it from the papers. Unfortunately, my transfer paper was a tad too sticky and removed the printed layer in places. I think it lends an athletic sports fashion distress finish, so coloured the torn bits with a mix of Faded Jeans / Stormy Sky / Chipped Sapphire Distress Inks. The fox head is coloured with Scattered Straw / Mustard Seed Distress Inks. Add the rest of the elements from the coordinating chipboard die cuts, die cuts and stickers, and embellish with soluble black pencil for shadows.
Oh the challenges of working on a design team with themes that really don’t come naturally!
Earlier this month, I was busy creating with the cracking new paper kits from Craftwork Cards: Paper Couture, Al Fresco and Harbour Boulevard. Most of the samples I made featured in the inspirational studio display for the One Day Wonder on Create & Craft TV along with the other DT creations – and one is included in the Paper Couture inspiration instruction sheets exclusive to C&C. More making details are over on the Craftwork Cards blog if you’d like them, but here’s a gallery of the pieces I made:
I have some templates available to make the dress form, which were prepared for the CWC workshop in April that had to be withdrawn. Click on the ‘Templates’ tab above to go to an order page. I also hope to film an online class as my first for my new improved blog, so keep watching this space!
Being on a design team is all about working to deadlines. Julie Hickey does such a stunning job when presenting on Ideal World/Create & Craft TV, you really don’t get even the slightest hint of the frenetic activity behind the scenes. Now I have no idea what was happening at Craftwork Cards HQ, but I do know that the samples that I had to make up didn’t arrive as planned and had to be emailed to me at about 10:30 and I had these three samples into the post by 4:15pm for special delivery the next day for the show that evening. How’s that for pressured deadlines – and I wasn’t the only one… being on a DT isn’t all fun 😉
All three projects feature the brand new Country Garden papers. The first is a small pop-up box card with punched roses. The second is an adapted large pop-up box, with freehand cut vase filled with roses. I cut one of the sheets to resemble a table cloth, cutting the corners off the flaps and adding two pop-up triangles to create the ‘table’ surface as the card opens up. The vase and flowers are mounted on springs:
This way, the card still fits in the envelope, but depth still appears as the card opens. The card is braced by a tabbed insert that keeps it open and the table top taut. The final one is a self-closing collapsable box which I have created and decorated up. All of the papers are edged with Victorian Velvet Distress Ink for a bit of definition.
The samples all featured on the Craftwork Cards Pick of The Day shows on Tues 1st – Wed 2nd April, although if you blinked you’ll have missed them as the paper packs and card packs sold out and the samples weren’t featured in later shows. Good for CWCs, but not so much for me 😉
I’ve created these two pieces for Craftwork Cards using their fabulous Botanica kit which includes papers, die cut toppers and bows as well as the Candi – read more over at their blog!
Welcome to another year on my blog, and we kick off with a card featuring the latest Creative Expressions Singles stamp – Rose Blossom Purse. The Singles range are rubber stamps pre-mounted on cling foam and cut out ready for slapping onto acrylic plates for stamping. I’ve done a simple card, concentrating on using lots of different colouring techniques for my tutorial…
I fell in love with the ‘Time Flies Collection’ from Craftwork Cards at a recent Woodware Retailers’ Day. I got hold of the 8×8″ paper pack and the elements pack and set to work to create as many individual cards as I could using the elements and as little additional kit as I could. Using mainly Pumice Stone Distress Ink and double sided tape or glue, I made 30 cards and decorated a left-over chocolate box to make a gift box. Additional materials include foam pads; Onyx, Majestic Purple and Pewter Liquid Pearls and a bit of ribbon. A really fun project for the bits in between all the Christmas festivities, and a super collection of papers and die cuts. Several of the cog background cards are suitable for the ever elusive ‘man card’ as well. Clickable gallery follows…
UPDATE 02-JAN-14: Anyone attending CHA 2014 may just see some of these 🙂