Happy Birthday set

I'm into sets in a big way at the moment! I have started making them for my Madeit shop and that's why I haven't been entering challenges [or posting] as much lately.

I was inspired to add the finishing touches to the card and the bookmark with my spica pen by this week's CAS-tastic Wednesday challenge - Bling it Up!. My bling is a little understated though, but that's the way I like it. :)
Scroll down for the close-ups that show where I've added the sparkles.



The set comprises of a birthday card, a bookmark and a notebook. I used the Kaisercraft Pets Paradise "Companion" 12x12 paper (see the set here) which only has pawprints down one side - the rest of it is useable for any occasion, though this was the only sheet I had and now it's mostly gone!

Here are some closeups of the three items:



This one shows the spica pen I used on the flower and the strip:



The bookmark:



I used a mini glue dot on the loop of the ribbon to hold it in place.

And finally, the notebook:



Size of card: 4" square
Size of bookmark: 5 1/2" x 2"
Size of notebook: 2 1/2" wide, 4 1/4" high, 1/4" thick

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Kaisercraft Pets Paradise "Companion" 12x12 paper
Stamp - Hand Drawn Floral Stamps by Lil Ellaboudy Designs, Hero Arts "Classic Sentiments", We R Memory Keepers "List" stamp
Ink - Printer, Versamagic "Midnight Black"
Extra - ribbon
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Canon Pixma printer, Stampin' Up mini glue dot, Spellbinders Labels 8, Big Shot, Clear Spica pen, Snow sanding block, Helmar tape runner, foam mounting tape

Challenge: CWC014

Thanks for visiting! Hope you've enjoyed this picture-laden post of mine. :)

Christmas in July

I'm not a huge fan of Christmas in July. I'm not sure why, but I think it has to do with the fact that it serves as a reminder that Christmas is on the way... and that reminds me of all the stress that surrounds the holidays, so yeah, not a great time of year for me. That doesn't stop me from liking the below card I made for this week's One Layer Wednesday challenge though!

The challenge this week is to make a one layer card with a Christmas theme. So here it is:



I went digital again for this one, as even though I have brand new Hero Arts Christmas stamps just sitting there waiting to be inked up, I thought these ornaments from Doodle Beans were too cute to pass up! Plus I'm enjoying colouring with coloured pencils at the moment.

Here's a close-up...



...which shows that I have a ways to go with my shading technique. You can't see it in either of the photos but the coloured pencils I used are metallic and have a sparkle to them, very Christmassy. :)

Size of card: A5 folded in half

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock
Stamp - Christmas Tree Ornaments by Doodle Beans
Ink - Printer
Extra - Faber Castell metallic pencils
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Canon Pixma

Challenges: OLW13

Scrapping Essentials Designer Pack - Baby Girl - Card #3

This is the final card from the Baby Cards pack from Scrapping Essentials. You can find the other Baby Girl cards here and here, and the three Baby Boy cards I made from the same pack are here, here and here.



I had this idea in mind with the baby boy pack but ran out of ribbon before attempting it. I started in the middle with the widest strip of baby words vellum, and then added the two vellum pieces above and below. I used my tucking behind trick to adhere the vellum, with lots of sticky tape on the back side to hold it in place.
I positioned the vellum so that I got all of the words from the entire strip on the card front.
I also mounted it on foam tape as it was a bit bumpy from all the tape and ribbon ends... I think it would have to be taken out of and put back in an envelope very carefully ;)

Size of card: 4 1/2" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Bazzill cardstock, Vellum A4 Patterned - Baby Words
Extra - Pink footprint ribbon
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Helmar glue runner, sticky tape, foam tape

Well that's it from the Baby Cards pack - I hope you've enjoyed seeing them all!

Don't forget that if you're in Australia, or if you buy stamping/scrapping products from Australia, have a look at Scrapping Essentials - their Kaisercraft patterned paper stocks alone have me swooning!

Scrapping Essentials Designer Pack - Baby Girl - Card #2

This is the second Baby Girl card made with the Baby cards pack from Scrapping Essentials. You can see the first Baby Girl card here, and the three Baby Boy cards I made from the same pack are here, here and here.

This card is my personal favourite of the bunch:



I added the little knot of ribbon as an afterthought as I made it close on the heels of the first Baby Girl card I posted (here) and looking at both of them side-by-side thought they looked a little too similar, so I knotted up a scrap of the ribbon from the pack and adhered it to this one using a bit of glue from my glue runner on the back side of the knot.

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Bazzill cardstock, Vellum A4 Patterned - Baby Words
Extra - Pink footprint ribbon
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Helmar glue runner

Thanks for looking! Tomorrow I'll post the final baby card from this pack.

Scrapping Essentials Designer Pack - Baby Girl - Card #1

As promised, the next lot of cards I will be showing you are baby girl cards from the baby cards pack from Scrapping Essentials.

I did the smart thing this time and photographed the materials before I started cutting them up -



The baby girl part of the pack included 1 yard of pink footprint ribbon, 1 sheet of pink bazzill, one sheet of white bazzill, sheet of "Baby Words" vellum (also used for the baby boy cards) and 2 pink hand eyelets.

The following card shows a creative way of using eyelets (or brads, if you've got 'em!)



The card opens in a sideways motion. Here's one of it standing up 'closed' -



Click on the images above to see them closer up, and a bit more clearly.

Size of card: 10cm square (not quite 4")

Supplies:
Card/paper - Bazzill cardstock, Vellum A4 Patterned - Baby Words
Extra - Pink hand eyelet
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Sticky tape, Provo Craft Silent Setter

Thanks for looking! I hope you are enjoying your weekend :)

Designer pack - Baby Boy - Card #3

This is the third (and final) card I made with the Baby Boy pack from Scrapping Essentials. You can see the other cards I made with the pack here and here.



Vellum Tip No. 3: Photographing vellum is kinda tricky because it's transluscent. It depends on the vellum though, and the image printed on it. As the vellum I'm using for these baby cards is clear with pastel writing I found it quite difficult to photograph, and this card was the worst.
The solution I found worked the best was simply adjusting the brightness (when using the P - Program setting on my camera) to make it neutral (0). It was way too dark to begin with but it allowed me to capture the subtle text. The off-white backdrop also helped - I was able to lighten the image quite dramatically using my photo editing software without the card disappearing into the background.

Once again, I tucked in the edges of the vellum, adhering them down using sticky tape on the backside of the white layer. I really ought to get some vellum tape - it would allow for so many more possibilities.

Size of card: A5 folded in half

Supplies:
Card/paper - Bazzill cardstock, Vellum A4 Patterned - Baby Words
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Helmar tape runner, Sticky tape

I hope you've enjoyed these cards, and perhaps found some inspiration. Next up are baby girl cards from the same designer pack.

Check this out...

Check out this blog candy giveaway from My Creative Rumblings!


Click on the image above to see how to enter and be in the running to win one of 9 blog candies! They're drawn on the 17th so be quick! :)

Happy Birthday

Don't you just love it when a picture of a card in your head comes together perfectly in reality, without a hitch? Well that's exactly what happened with the card in this post!



I knew I wanted to use kraft to go for this week's CAS-Tastic Wednesday Challenge and somehow unconsciously I made it similar to the sketch for this week from Card Positioning Systems. I'm too late for the CAS-tastic challenge, unfortunately. Inspiration didn't hit until yesterday afternoon.

I adhered the ribbon by running my tape running along the length of it on a scrap piece of paper and tucked the edges behind the white layer. The antennae of the butterfly was drawn on the white layer with pencil first and then with my black Artline pen. I popped the butterfly up with foam tape to give it some dimension.

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - 300gsm recycled brown card, Quill white cardstock
Stamp - "Winged Friends" DigiKit by Hero Arts, Hero Arts "Classic Sentiments"
Ink - Printer, Versacolor "Pinecone"
Extra - American Crafts Ribbon
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Helmar tape runner, Cre8tive spring scissors, Black Artline pen

Challenges: CWC011 / CPS175 / Moxie Fab World: Classy and Elegant

Designer pack - Baby Boy - Card #2

This is the second Baby Boy card I made for Scrapping Essentials with the Baby Cards pack. See the first card in yesterday's post here.



Vellum Rule No. 2: Always cut with a sharp blade! (Unless you're after a distressed look...) I made a couple of boo boos because I was using the blunter side of my Fiskars trimmer blade (I always, for some reason, cut from right to left and this causes me to wear out one side of the blade much, much faster than the other - If I take off the cutting blade to score I always have to do a practice cut when I pop it back in to find out which side is the sharpest!)

I haven't adhered the vellum down with the eyelet hands - good lord no. They just *look* like they're holding onto it. I cut more from each side of the vellum words than I needed and folded the excess behind the white layer, sticking it down with sticky tape on the back. I only got 2 eyelet hands in the pack for the boy cards so I had to be extra careful not to blow it! Thankfully the card-making gods were smiling down at me that day ;)

To get the corners of the white layer slightly rounded I used my Fiskars scallop scissors which I never use to scallop with. They are very small scallops which make very cute rounded corners.

Size of card: A5 folded in half

Supplies:
Card/paper - Bazzill cardstock, Vellum A4 Patterned - Baby Words
Extra - Blue hand eyelets
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Helmar tape runner, Sticky tape, Provo Craft silent setter, Fiskars scallop scissors

Oh and before I forget - I just want to share that the other day when I looked I saw I had 20 subscribers! From what I can gather everyone who follows me in Blogger becomes a subscriber, and it isn't as much as other people have (not by a long shot!) but I never would have thought that I would have any subscribers, much less 20 people who read my posts and hopefully get something out of them!
That's what I set out to do when I started up this blog - I wanted to put my ideas and creations out there and inspire others, and I hope I've done that for you today :)

If you're a subscriber please come out of your lurkdom and say hello - I'd love to see who you are :)

Designer pack - Baby Boy - Card #1

Good evening! Today I'm going to share one of the cards I made with this month's designer pack from Scrapping Essentials, a fantastic online scrapbooking supplies shop I design for.

I was graciously given three packs to create with this time - one for baby girl and boy cards, one for feminine cards (frangipanis) and one for masculine cards (diamonds). Each pack came with a sheet of vellum which I haven't *really* worked with before and I'm finding it takes a little bit more ingenuity to get the results you want.

Vellum Rule No. 1: You first have to ask yourself the question - "How am I going to adhere this??" before cutting it out to the desired size. If you plan on having it half underneath a strip of ribbon (as in my card below) or paper you will need to cut a bit more generously to allow for this.



I cut my desired piece of vellum about 1/2 cm wider (or taller?) than what you can see and adhered the ribbon straight onto it with tape adhesive. The ribbon was then tucked behind the white layer and taped on with single-sided tape for added strength. I added a simple overhand knot in the ribbon for added interest before I adhered it down.

The vellum print is quite soft on the white, but much better than on the blue. Click on the image and go to 'All Sizes' and then go to "Original" to see the words on the vellum clearly. It is very much clearer in real life - it's the vellum's fault for being so transluscent!

Size of card: 6x4" top folding

Supplies:
Card/paper - Bazzill cardstock, Vellum A4 Patterned - Baby Words
Extra - Blue Footprint ribbon
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Helmar tape runner

Stay tuned tomorrow - when I present - another baby boy card. I know you're excited! :)

you're my type

I thought I was being so hilarious when I thought up this card, and it still makes me giggle. I'm sure my husband thinks I laugh too much at my own jokes ;)



This is my entry into this week's One Layer Wednesday challenge - make a one layer card, and be funny. I haven't got any funny stamps so I decided to go digital.

When I saw the Steampunk digital Stamp Set from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff on Mygrafico I knew I had to have that gorgeous little typewriter. It reminds me of when I learned how to touch type (true the typewriters were electric at that stage, but still).

I downloaded the (Free!) Rough Typewriter font from Dafont.com and then used MS Word and my new Printer (Canon Pixma IP4700 in case you are interested!) to produce the card.

In order to get it to print where I wanted it on the page (even though I was putting in an A4 sheet of card, I wanted to make it as easy for myself as possible to cut out) I have created a 4x4 card page size in Word. It is 4" wide by 8" tall. This allows me to see roughly where my cardfront will be and lay everything out accordingly. When it comes time to cutting it out I just need to work out where the 'middle' of my cardfront is (very easy to do with my handy dandy centering ruler) then cut 8" from the top and fold in half - done!

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock
Stamp - Steampunk Digital Stamp Set by Lindsay's Stamp Stuff, Rough Typewriter Font from Dafont.com
Ink - Printer
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, MS Word, Printer

Challenge: OLW11

Thanks for looking!

Birthday Wishes

The card in this post was originally intended to be a one-layer number that I spent half of "Sleepy Hollow" and some of "Braveheart" colouring in (yeah yeah, I'm slow).

True to my word in this post I masked the design, then stamped the sentiment, and THEN coloured, but alas I stamped the sentiment kind of crooked. I was all set for chucking it on the scrap pile but I stopped and thought it wasn't often that I got the masking pretty much spot on (trust me, I've wasted enough cardstock within the past week to know to take the good when I can get it!)

So I saved it from the darkness of my scrap drawer and came up with the following:



I tried the reverse 'label' trick I saw on the Hero Arts flickr pool (I really should jot down usernames or something when I do this so that I can give proper credit!) actually I think I left a comment... here it is: butterfly thank you by Lucy Abram.

It took simply ages to find the right sentiment - everything was either too long or too short, too skinny or too tall. In the end I decided to put a small one in the corner and balance it out with ribbon, and when that didn't 'complete' the card I whacked on some rhinestones.

I'm still not completely sure about it - it's not really my usual style... would anyone out there care to give me some feedback?

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Cre8tive textured cardstock
Stamp - Inkadinkado "Garden Flower" sentiment, Inkadinkado "Flourishes"
Ink - Versafine "Onyx Black"
Extra - Ribbon, Kaisercraft "Antique Rose", Prismacolor pencils "Pink", "Pink Rose", "Grass Green" and "Apple Green"
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Helmar tape runner, Big Shot, Nestabilities Labels 1

Thanks for looking!

Birthday Wishes

This is the second card I have made this week using trains! It's for a little boy turning three this week. I hope he likes it.

I was inspired by the CAS-tastic Challenge sketch this week:



And here's my interpretation:



As you can see I did deviate a bit but sometimes you've got to go where inspiration takes you (at least that's what I reckon!)

And here's the inside view:



I don't usually like showing ribbon when someone opens the card, but for this card to work the way I wanted (by having a hole to show the train engine) I was going to have to bite the bullet, this once.

To get the circle where I wanted it, I used my new Big Shot and Circle nestabilities (I think it was the 3rd smallest circle in the SM pack). I held the closed card up to the window where the light was shining in so that I could get the circle right where I wanted it.
I then marked the inside edge of the nestability with my pencil, which made it easier to position it while stacking up my Big Shot 'sandwich'.

I do recommend using scrap bits of the same paper/card you will be using in your project to give the sandwich a test run first and adjust where needed - especially when cutting cardstock - as sometimes I forget and I end up with slightly embossed edges... oops!

Size of card: BIG - again! 6" x 4 1/4"

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Canson Messages, Bazzil cardstock
Stamp - Cupcake Cuties "Boy Toy Elements" digital stamp
Ink - Printer
Extra - Ribbon
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Cre8tive spring scissors, Zig 2-way glue, Helmar tape runner, Big Shot, Nestabilities Circles (SM)

Challenge: CWC010

Thanks for looking!

Happy Birthday Balloon

The card in this entry is for my nephew, Thomas who is turning 5 this month.



I didn't make up the idea of the owl holding the balloons - I saw someone's card who had done it on the Hero Arts flickr pool ages ago and it stuck in my memory.

I paper pieced this one to bits! I freehand drew the 'hills' using opposing sides of the same green paper (slightly lighter on one side than the other, I found), and the alternating colours in the balloons were all cut out bits as well (talk about fiddly!)

I used a bit of old DMC I found in my cross-stitch stash which is from probably about 10 years ago (!) for the balloons and stuck them to the back of the owl's little wing using my tape runner to make it sticky.

Size of card: BIG - 6 1/4 x 4 1/2 (I made it this size to fit into an envelope I have on hand - gotta use 'em up!)

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Grant Archival plain paper, Quill 80gsm "Cool colours" pack
Stamp - Hero Arts "Wonderful Birthday"
Ink - Versafine "Onyx Black"
Extra - Foam tape, DMC thread
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Cre8tive spring scissors, Zig 2-way glue, Helmar tape runner

Challenge: Caardvarks

Thanks for looking! Hope everyone had a lovely weekend - I know I can't wait for the next one ;)

Happy Birthday to You!

I've been making lots and lots of birthday cards lately for people - I suppose it makes sense, everyone has one, right? :) The following card is one I have made for a little girl, turning four, who likes trains. I hope she also likes pink and cupcakes!



I used a stamp by Inkadinkado for the clouds of smoke coming out of the engine by selectively inking one circle at a time. It was fiddly, and I wasn't sure whether it was going to turn out, so I did it on a piece of the same cardstock as the base layer of the card, just in case I screwed it up! I then layered with it giving it the 'white on white' look that just makes me so happy ;)

I liked the look of the scallops without a sentiment cluttering everything up, so I stamped one on the inside:



Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Polka Dots are from: Inque Boutique "Isn't it Romantic" 6x6 paper pad, Cupcakes are from: Studio B "Party Girl" paper pad
Stamp - My Sentiments Exactly "Birthday Sentiments", Cupcake Cuties "Boy Toy Elements" digital stamp, Inkadinkado "Circles and Dots"
Ink - Printer, Versacolor "Cement"
Extra - Foam tape
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Cre8tive spring scissors, Fiskars scallop border punch, Sanding block, Zig 2-way glue, Helmar tape runner

Thanks for looking!

Happy Birthday

Hello again! Today's card is not a response to a challenge (in fact, I don't think ANY of the cards I'm going to post this weekend will be for challenges - shock, horror!)

In my stash of odds and ends I found a bit of Stampin' Up polka dot designer paper given to me as a sample and thought I'd use it...



I coloured the hand drawn flowers from Lil Ellaboudy Design with Copics and Bic Mark-its. To make the two sets of flowers and leaves look different I layered them differently - I used "Pale Pink" on the smaller flower first, and then "Peach", and with the larger flower I just used the peach. On the leaves I used "Margarita Green" on the smaller set and then on the larger set I used "Spectrum Green" and then "Margarita Green" on top.

My craft desk was an absolute mess last night (which, let's be honest, isn't much different from usual). I wanted to photograph this card before I gave it to a colleague at work so I set up my light tent on the ground instead of on the desk. I was in the middle of taking shots when my vision through the viewfinder was obscured by this:



Toby wanted to check out what was happening... I took a couple of photos before he wandered off. Silly boy!

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Stampin' Up designer paper, Grant Archival plain paper, Hunter Studio Sketch Pad (160gsm)
Stamp - Hero Arts "Classic Sentiments", Hand Drawn Floral Stamps by Lil Ellaboudy Designs
Ink - Versafine "Black Onyx"
Extra - Copic Ciao "Peach", "Pale Pink" and "Spectrum Green", Bic Mark-it "Margarita Green"
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Cre8tive spring scissors, Fiskars scallop border punch, Carl corner rounder

Thanks for looking! I hope everyone has a lovely weekend ;)