Forever Friends New Baby

This is the second card I made to go along with my decoupage tutorial at the Crafty Cardmaker's Spotlight this week. It was my first ever tutorial and I hope I made it clear without waffling on TOO much LOL.

The image is a Forever Friends die cut decoupage which has a lot of layers so I used 1mm thick foam pads to put it together. I used a sketch from Paperminutes for the layout and the colour scheme from the Forever Friends Challenge of green, lilac and yellow. I don't have very many baby cards and it is always useful to have one for when you don't know what sex the baby is going to be

The yellow gingham paper is by Papermania and the other 2 are from My Mind's Eye. I have used dies from Marianne's Creatables and Nestabilities for the mats. The buttons are Papermania and they have waxed cord knotted through them. The embellishments are from various Let's Make Cards packs, the Congratulations chipboard is from a Colorbok pack from QVC and 'Welcome to the World' sentiment sticker is my stash.

I would like to enter this card into the following Challenges :-

• Paperminutes #158 - Sketch for Layout
• CES Challenge #29 - Diecuts (Nellie Snellen Dies & Marianne Creatables)
• Claudia & Company #78 - 3 colours yellow, pale green & lavender
• Clear It Out Tuesday #2 - Buttons
• Colour Create #67 - Pastel Colours
• Cooking it Up with Katie #54 - Animal, lots of colour, buttons
• C.R.A.F.T. Challenge #95 - new baby
• Craft Your Passion #51 - Use a bear
• Crafty Purple Frog - Include some green colour
• Creative Card Crew - No Rubber Stamps
• Daisy Doodles #30 - use Spring Colours
• Digital Tuesday #103 - Buttons
• Forever Friends - use 3 colours in a row (green, lilac, yellow)
• Gem of a Challenge #17 - No Square Cards
• Gingerloft #14 - Die Cuts
• Iris' Spot #16 - 2 patterned papers
• Lollipop Crafts #32 - Shaped Cards
• My Partner in Crafting Crime #23 - Use at least 3 buttons
• Paper Cutz #84 - 3 Patterned Papers
• Paper Playtime #42 - Anything Goes
• Paper Romance #43 - Baby Themed Easel card
• Paper Variety - Tic tac toe (baby theme, spring colours, make a card)
• Phindy's Friday Challenge #48 - All About Animals
• Pile It On #13 - Cutie Patootie
• Scrapbook Sisters #28 - Anything Goes
• Sentimental Sunday #48 - Cute & Cuddly
• There She Goes #100 - card without using Markers
• Top Tip Tuesday #26 - 3+ buttons
• Totally Papercrafts #59 - Cuddly & Cuddly

365 Cards Day 134

I love, love, love how this cards has turned out :)

Day 134 at 365 Cards and it's Sunday so it's Super Sketchy Sunday. Shortcuts are sponsoring the challenges this week and there are 7 chances to win, how cool is that? Gloria Stengel's card today is gorgeous and I wanted to do something with acetate too. This is only the 2nd acetate card I have made and I just love how it turned out.

There are 7 !! challenges included in this card, details are as follows :-

• 365 Cards Day 134 - Sketch layout for card
• Forever Friends Challenge - Pink, Brown and flowers
• A Spoonful of Sugar #59 - Include hearts in your project
• Flourishes Timeless Tuesday FTTC #23 - Cut it out and pop it up on 3d foam
• Papertake Weekly 'My Favourite Things' - Forever Friends, Making Memories Cosmopolitan Pad & Ribbon
• The Next Level # 6 - Buttons & Bows
• Stampin' For The Weekend #6 - Colour pallete of pink & brown & a rubber or digi stamp

I cut the front off the card blank and added a piece of acetate to it. MM dotty card is added to the 'inside' of the card. I used a piece of brown for the inside of the triangle shape and on the outside is a piece of Craftworks Cards swirly paper from my friend Sarn (Thankyou xx) .All adhesive has been hidden inside the layers so the card is very neatly finished.

I cut a hole in the edge of the acetate to feed the ribbon through and this is anchored at the back of the Forever Friends stamped image. This has been coloured in using watercolour pencils and raised on 3d foam. I tied the bow separately and glued this on.

The flowers are also from Craftwork Cards. I scrunched the top one to add a bit of texture as it looked too plain just layered on top. The button is from Papermania and I tied a little pink waxed cord through it. The sentiment is a cardstock sticker by Doodlebug.

I like this card so much it is going to be very hard to part with it!

Stampin Chic, Forever Friends & 365 Cards

Lucky me, I have made this card and managed to get it to tie up with 3 different challenges.

The challenge this week at Forever Friends was to make a card of a different than normal shape. I decided I wanted to make a flower shaped card as I haven't done one before. I used a template from Mel Stampz blog to cut the card shape from a Papermania blank and then resized it to make the 2 smaller outlines.

The challenge at Stampin' Chic this week was to include stitching of some sort, whether real or faux. I used one of the outlines to add faux stitching with a gel pen. The spotted paper is from the Papermania Clare Curd Signature range.  I used rubber stamps from the same range to make the flowers. I just stamped onto some offcuts of card and shaped the smaller flowers to add dimension. The FF bear is a clear sticker mounted onto white card which came free with a magazine. The with love sentiment has been matted onto white card and I have put little dots around the edge to add definition. The flower is from the same sticker sheet. The sister sentiment is cut from a FF decoupage sheet by Papermania.  I have added stickles glue to the flower centres and random dots on the paper. 

The challenge for day 65 at 365 Cards was to make a Mothers Day Card or to make a card to honour a woman in your life. I had intended this card to be sent to my secret sister (she doesn't ead my blog, I'm safe !!) hence the sister heading. However, when I showed it to my hubby he asked if it was for his sister's birthday later this month !!! How organised am I getting, making a card so many weeks in advance. 

Forever Friends, Stampin Chic & 365 Challenges

The Day 59 over at 365 Cards and the challenge is to make a card with a specific sentiment on it - I Miss You. Well lo and behold, what should happen to pop up in my in box today but an email from Bethany Harty at Elegant Word Art and the freebie she is giving away today is for that exact wording. Serendipity or what ? If you have never visited Bethany's blog, you seriously NEED to !! She is just so blooming clever and produces some fabby word arts. I {heart} Bethany Harty....and she got me wanting to read the Twilight books which I am currently on the second one New Moon.

Anyhoo, the wordart I printed onto white card and used as the main backing of my card. The cardblank is Papermania and really nice quality. I incorporated this week's challenge at Forever Friends which is a sketch and to top it all off I used the colour challenge of Turquoise and Yellow over at Clare Curd's blog Stampin' Chic. I am the queen of combining challenges !!! LOL

The backing papers are from Clare's Papermania pad 'The Big One' and I coloured in the white dots yellow with a Marvy le Plume pen and also used it for topical colouring in the floral paper. Quite pleased with how they turned out, they certainly don't look like I've been colouring in for ages, I was a bit worried they would TBH. I stamped the flowers using the matching doodle stamps from the range and highlighted the centres with assorted gems.

The Forever Friends image is a rubber stamp. I have coloured the bear and the vase with watercolour pencils and the flowers are metallic Sakura pens with a little bit of Glamour Dust in the flower centres. I don't think I am very good at watercolouring, can't seem to do it right like so many talented people do but I am quite pleased with this one. I did some when I went camping at Easter and tried to practice getting the shading right. It's hard as I only have a pack of 10 pencils, I would love to have one of those lovely tins with loads of colours to choose from as I am no good at mixing them. 

Pennies are tight though and that will have to be on my wish list for when I get a job. Having been made redundant twice in the last 6 months the money we had saved up is dwindling. Paul can't get any work in IT and my Blood Pressure is sky high at the moment and the drugs don't seem to be helping to get it down. Crafting is my sanctuary at the moment and my blog is my contact with the outside world (except for hospital visits to Paul's Grandad).

I can't begin to thank you all enough for leaving comments for me and I appreciate each and every one for the validation I receive for my projects.

Forever Friends, 365 Cards & Pink Elephant

In England we have just celebrated St George's Day who is our patron saint. The challenge this week over at Forever Friends is to use the colours red and white which are the colours of our flag.

It's day 56 at 365 Cards and the challenge today is to make a clear card, either the whole card or just the front or back could be see through.

This is only the 2nd card I have made using acetate. This was the packaging from a Sizzix folder which I have recycled and embossed using the Paisley Cuttlebug folder which I am currently in love with. As the theme for the Pink Elephant Challenge this week is 'Don't Throw That Away' I am also going to enter this card as I like to recycle items as much as possible.

 I cut a scalloped border using the edge of a Fiskars Shapecutter template and adhered the acetate to the underside of the flap this created. I have used HOTP brads to provide decoration and a more secure anchor for the acetate.

The inside of the card is lined with a HOTP paper I have had in my stash for many years. The ribbon is from Docrafts and the Forever Friends image is a clear Papermania sticker that I have stuck to card and cut around. I have left the card without a sentiment just yet so I can use it for a suitable occasion at a later date.

CSAD # 173 Friday Friends & Forever Friends Challenges

Over at Card Sketch a Day it is Friday Friends Challenge. At present there is only one card on there so I should be in luck this week :)

I have used sketch #173 for the layout and also incorporated the challenge at Forever Friends to make a general birthday card.

The backing paper is from Reminisce and was a 15p bargain from the last Capture the Magic sale. I have highlighted some of the flowers with a clear Sakura glitter pen.

The birthday pressie border is from a Forever Friends Papermania kit which had a couple of rubber stamps, stickers, paper etc, the sentiment panel is from a Dovecraft Birthdays pack paper.

The stamped image was a gift and was coloured by my wonderful friend. Her watercoloring is fabulous and I am hoping she will teach me how she does it so subtlywhen I stop over at her house at the end of March :)

Di Hickman Feb #2 & Forever Friends Love Challenge

This the 4th card I have made for the Docrafts Marie Curie Cancer fund. I have used the latest sketch February #2 over on Di Hickman's blog and adapted it for use on an A6 card.

The backing paper is from the Papermania Scrumptious pack. The heart ribbon style trim was cut from a freebie paper from Crafts Beautiful this month. The Martha Stewart punch edged silver paper is from my stash.

The backing panel of brown card was run through the Cuttlebug Heart Blocks folder. The two little hearts are cut from the leftover ribbon border and I have used little peel offs for the kisses.

The main embellishment is a Forever Friends clear sticker that was adapted a little bit to make it fit the heart shape that was cut using a Fiskars template. The little bow is from my stash, probaby recycled from an old Christmas card.

This card also fits in with the Forever Friends Challenge this week which was love or valentine. As I had already made Paul's Valentine I thought a more generic love card would be a better make for me this time. I think when I showed it to Paul he thought it was his Valentine, I hope he won't be dissappointed with the one I have made him.......

CPS 101 & Forever Friends Challenges

This card was made using Sketch 101 over at CPS and incorporates the Tall & Thin Challenge over at Forever Friends.

The backing paper is an embossed wallpaper from B & Q, each of the hearts is textured, it is a lovely wallpaper and I thought the pattern would look great on cards :)

The Forever Friends is a clear Papermania sticker mounted onto a circular mat cut using a Nestabilities die. The ribbon is also Papermania and the sentiment is from my stash.