Picture Cards

How's 2013 progressing for you all? Broken those resolutions yet? I haven't even STARTED mine!!!! I'll start tomorrow... Famous last words eh?! Time has a habit of running away with you, and tomorrow seems to be over before you got a chance to start those blasted resolutions!! Oh well, there IS always tomorrow ;-)

Anyway, another year, another heap of cards waiting to be made :-) I thought I would share a couple of cards I made for one of my daughters. I love using pictures on cards, it really personalises it for the recipient and always delights.

In this first card I framed a picture of my daughter with a Prima Crystal Mirror (Vintage Shapes 540715)- they do like their reflection at this age, lets face it LOL I carried on the "Frame theme" with Bo Bunny Lace Trim. The paper behind is Bo Bunny and Prima. The matting is made with Spellbinder Nestabilities dies, as are the die-cut corners.  The big chipboard rose is K&Co, and the roses all Prima.

In the next card I made the picture black and white, then coloured in the rose petals on the picture. I love the black and white with the deep red. The paper is Bo Bunny Enchanted. Fabric flowers are Prima Champagne Roses. Sentiment is a Basic Grey rub-on matted on white and black cardstock. I distressed the edges of the pictures with a Basic Grey Precision File.

Prima Butterfly inside the card.

A great idea for teenage cards I think, and you can extend the idea to boys. We will be having a challenge on the main Charmed blog tomorrow for teenage cards, I hope you will join in (there's a prize for the best one). See you there :)

Card Ideas & HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Copy post from the Charmed blog, so apologies if you follow both. Just spent half the day battling other shoppers in the sale and feeling a tad fragile LOL To be honest I hardly bought a thing, but at least I had a look; I'd be wondering what I'd missed if I hadn't. It's MUCH better to shop the sales online - you wont get sick from it either, I heard too many coughs and sneezes out there. I was armed with my trusted anti bacterial gel and used it at any given opportunity I can tell ya!

So, have you all had a lovely Christmas? I hope you managed to take a little time out. It's hard work for us kitchen workers at this time of year LOL

Anyway, I wanted to show you these card I made recently, using one of the image from our latest "Whatever the Weather" collection. Because you colour them in yourself you can match the colours to your card, so one image but three different looks.
  
  The first card uses: Whatever The Weather Image - Prima Rosarian Paper - Green Pearls - Birthday Rub-On - Prima Roses - Corners cut with a Spellbinders Die - Basic Grey PB&J Pin.

 

The image ensures you don't need a lot on the front of your card, so very economical. And of course, because the image is printed, it is there for the next time you need it.

 The next card uses the same image - Prima Zephyr paper - Prima roses - Liquid Pearls - Bo Bunny Lace - Prima Chipboard (big rose in the corner) - Prima Crystal Vintage Shapes Key - Basic Grey Brads - The keyhole is Creative Imaginations; it is part of a sale bundle we currently have on offer HERE (VALUE PACK 583888 ) - Happy Birthday Rub-On - Pink Sparkle Cord.

 My last card again uses that adorable image from Whatever The Weather collection - Prima Paper - Happy Birthday Rub-Ons - Heart Crystals - The crystal corner is a Prima SONGBIRD Crystal border (53920) cut in two - present is a rub on then coloured - Prima rose (Sugar Bloom)- Prima Lace.

So, same girl, but totally different on each card.

We would love to see your creations, so if you have used this collection please do leave a link to your card in the comments and we will pop by.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!  

We hope the new year brings you everything you could possibly wish for! See you in 2013!

Let it Shine

I had a little play with the new Let it Shine downloads (love love love this collection). I used one of my favourite images on both my cards here. I decided it would have been good if we had included a celebrate and a plain birthday sentiment in the bundle, and created a couple around this image. If you have purchased the Let it Shine bundle you can get the image with the sentiments as shown (including the circle behind the ladies, but of course without my friend, Tee's, name on there. LOL Just send us an email with your order number and I shall give you the extra bits.

I used Copics to colour in both of the images here (did I tell you the next Candy on the new main Charmed shop blog includes lots of Copics?? I'll let you know when it's on there ). This image is so versatile, and can be used for so many occasions.



Everything here is of course available from Charmed Cards & Crafts:
Image from Let it Shine Digi Collection. The sentiments were created for these cards, but you can get the image with these two sentiments if you have purchased the Let it Shine bundle. Just drop us an email with the order number.
Papers: Prima Sweet Fairy Pad
Pink Pearls
The Lilac pearls were created with Liquid Pearls
Prima Butterfly Pebble
White sparkling Lace
Metal Corner (will get this on site as soon as poss)
Pink Roses








This one uses:
Same image from Let is Shine, and again you can get the sentiment behind it (minus my friend Tee's name on it of course).
Papers are Basic Grey Hello Luscious
Trim is Bo Bunny Olivia
Flower is Petaloo with a Prima centre.
Pearls



Remember that our digis are available to everyone, anywhere, IMMEDIATELY. We also have a big collection of FREE downloads, so don't forget to get those.

Just in case you hadn't noticed we have added some badges for your blog in the right-hand column on the Charmed blog. If you love our products (and we have 16,000+ product lines so there must be something you like LOL), then PLEASE let the world know. Thank you ♥

Pretty in Pink

Most of us have gotten so used to using a coloured image as the main focal point for our cards, that we forget they can exist quite happily without one. A Prima flower makes for a beautiful centerpiece; this one is from the Trinket collection.



Products used on this card:
Prima Madeline Trinket Flower
All paper is from the Prima Sweet Fairy 6x6 Paper Pad
Tim Holtz Ticket (love)
White lace.
Heart Pearls.
K&Co Blossomwood die-cuts and transparency. I love the metallic transparent bird; the colour changes as the light catches it.
I punched the two mats (inside and out) using a Martha Stewart Double Loop Punch Around the Page set.
The white heart on the front is 4" Doily Heart.
The rose inside is a K&Co Cut & Paste Grand Adhesion.

As you can see I decorated the inside too. I really think it makes the difference between a good card and a quality card. If you are making the effort to create a handmade card, then why not go that extra mile to make it special.











Thanks for visiting the Charmed corner of the Web :-)

Never give up!

I hope you have been enjoying our daily card front give-aways. Remember they are only free-for-all for 24 hours so if you want them you have to go get them.

Now then; we have all heard stories about Royal Mail taking an absolute age to deliver something. At Charmed Cards & Crafts we have a collection service which means that Royal Mail pick up from us each day. We get sacks to put the parcels in and on a couple of occasions through the years we have found the odd stray letter in them. You can see how a letter could go amiss as it nestles into the creases at the bottom of a white sack. Parcels going astray is a different matter, they are not so easily overlooked. I sent a card in a 7" x 7" box to a friend on the 30th December - First Class post - and it arrived LAST WEEK! It was not damaged in the slightest, and there was nothing on the box to say where it had been all that time - but perhaps it had been nestling in a corner in one of their darker stiff bags. I can just image them throwing the empty bags onto a great big pile and then only returning to them when more sacks are needed. Only when they pack the bags into another will they discover that they weren't quite empty. I think that scenario accounts for quite a lot of smaller lost mail. So the moral of this story is "NEVER GIVE UP" :-)

Here is the card that took over a month to get from London to Scarborough.

This is such a cute image. I've used it on a couple of occasions now. I coloured it in with Copic makers then added a little glitz here and there with Stickles.

Products used:
Scallops were cut with a Grand Nestabilites die - Basic Grey alpha's - K&Co heart crystals - Bo Bunny white rose trim - Pearls - Lace. Basic Grey paper -Mo Manning digi stamp - Prima centre - Dress-it-Up Party button - Lace and ribbon.




Thanks for popping by ♥

Frame it!

It's my turn to set the challenge on Dottie's World this week and I chose "Frame it" plus a few dots. I framed my card inside and out with hydrangea petals, plus I created a frame made from gold liquid beadz.

I cut a frame out of cardboard and adhered the liquid beadz to it. Once it had dried I stuck it onto my card and added another frame with the petals. This is quite a large card, measuring 18cm x 18cm from petal to petal.

The sentiment is from our new Once Upon a Time collection. I printed it out, cut it with Nestabilities and stuck it onto a larger scalloped circle cut from Tim Holtz Shabby Vintage paper. I then enamelled this centrepiece with clear enamel.

You can see the enamel better in this picture. The girl is from our Holly & Madison collection. I wanted her to hide surprise flowers so drew a bouquet behind her after printing her out. I then coloured the image with Copic markers.
The Blue Prima Mini Roses are mounted onto wooden buttons. Lace is Prima and the pearls and crystals are K&Co Sweet Talk.

I decorated the inside too. I used Tim Holtz Vintage Shabby papers - Prima Fairytale roses (Pink) and a Blue Prima Mini Rose, plus three blue Prima pearls. The edges were inked with brown distress ink and a dotted border drawn with a Copic marker.


Please pop over and join the challenge - we are giving away a voucher to one lucky participant this week :-)

Lets Go to the Movies

Well, not literally you understand, although I really want to go and watch the new one with Leonardo DiCaprio "Inception". I noticed it's on at the local cinema so might take the girls to watch it in the week. If you've seen it and found it to be a pile of poo then please let me know asap!

Our challenge this week was set by Sheila, please pop over and join us and check out the other design team members fabby work. This is what Sheila wanted:

I love going to the cinema with my grandsons.. gives me the perfect excuse for seeing all the latest kids Disney/Cartoon movies so with this in mind my theme for the challenge this weeks is....

LETS GO TO THE MOVIES!!

So find your favourite Charmed Crafts download and turn it into a movie/movie character or relate it to a movie/character - simples no? :-).

DD1 is going to a party next week; her friend is really into pretty princess type of things, and she really really wanted me to make her a special card. So I decided that my "Movie character" would be Belle from Beauty and the Beast. The Beast had a beautiful rose garden and Belle here is scattering rose petals as she wanders through :-) A sentiment similar to the one I used is contained within the Once Upon a Time bundle and as that was my creation I quickly personalised it with the recipients name - I used the princess from our Once Upon a Time bundle and coloured her in to look like the recipient of the card, with brown hair and brown eyes, which of course also related to Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

That big corner is really sparkling and gorgeous. You can see that much better in this picture:

It's a Prima The Goods chipboard corner that I coloured pink first then smothered in large Martha Stewart glitter shards (from the Vintage Leaf Chunky Glitter pack) and topped with three pink heart crystals.

Image: Princess from Once Upon a Time coloured with Copic markers.
Sentiment: From Once Upon a Time but I modified the original to personalise.
Papers: Fancy Pants Daily Grind Paper Pad (Blue) and Basic Grey (Brown Dotted)
Swirls and FairyTale Rose: Prima
Crystals: K&Co Sweet Talk Adhesive Gems
Nestabilities die for the circle on the front.
Distress ink and paper distressing tool for some of the edges.

There's a little hand sewing on there too, using pink metallic thread. It's in stock but not on site.

I only used part of the princess image but cut around the bouquet to hang out of the circle. I actually wrote down the Copic colours I used to colour in the image (wayhey!!!):
E00, E02, R20, RV21, G07, G14, B00, B01, B12, E21, E35, E37, E29, V12, V15, V17, R8, R30, R81, R83, R85, W3, W5

Thanks for visiting; have a great Sunday.

Psst...Candy is drawn tomorrow so you have until midnight if you want to enter.

Gorjuss

I had to make a birthday card for DD2's friend so decided to try out one of our new(ish) Gorjuss decoupage sheets. This follows the card sketch I made for the Charmed forum, I posted it a few days ago so scroll down to see it :-)

I'm linking to a few challenges:
My Time to Craft (Butterflies)
One Stop Craft Challenge (Colour challenge)
Totally Gorjuss (thinking of you)
caardvarks (Birthday)
Creative Cardcrew (Die cuts)

Products used here are: K&Co paper (from Lotus Tea Rose pad (glitter flower paper) and Cut 'n Paste paper pad (pink spotted)) - the striped paper somes with the Gorjuss die-cuts - "Millie" uses Fairytale alphabets - "Giggle" is a Tim Holtz ticket - Prima Love Story flowers - Ribbon is from American Crafts, I was giving hundreds of these away for free with orders for a while, all out of stock now.

Initially I had another Prima flower instead of the K&Co butterfly - oh we do like to faff don't we LOL



Thanks for popping by ♥

Triple Image Card

I fancied having a go at other digital images other than the Charmed downloads and purchased three lovely ones from Mo Manning. I merged the images to create a little scene and coloured it in with my Copic markers. This is one of my all-time favourite cards I think, it's very heavy as it's layered with plain and patterned cardstock and a size A5 so quite big; a really substantial card.

I wrapped a plain cardstock card in patterned double-sided paper inside and out - Basic Grey June Bug - that is why it became quite heavy, and I must say I love that.

I have no fancy set-up for taking pictures, so it's pot luck really how they turn out and I sometimes need to take loads to get a decent one. I couldn't get a good one for this card, and it wasn't for the lack of trying! So it's better IRL than it looks here ;-)

I'll enter this into a couple of challenges:
Allsorts: Birthdays
One Stop: Summer Breeze

OK, so you are going to get quite a few pictures as I don't know which one to choose, as per usual. None of the photos show the true richness of the colours.

I drew stitching around the edges inside and out with a black Sakura Gelly Roll Glaze pen.

The inside of my card:

The words on the tree branch and bag are rub-ons -The gorgeous metal corners and black & white ribbon is K&Co Life's Journey - red crystals are also K&Co, Citronella I think - Paper is Basic Grey June Bug - Hip Hip Hooray wording on the front, Happy Birthday wording inside the card, the two balloons on the front and the cupcake inside are all from the new K&Co Happy Birthday 2U collection .

Thanks for not shouting at me for showing a million and one pictures of the same thing ha ha ha.

Bye for now xx