A sporting chance

Kathy has set this week's challenge over at Daring Cardmakers. She's like us to be inspired by the summer of sport happnening and make a card with a sporting theme.

I'm possibly the least sports-oriented person ever. DH's grandsons, however, play football, cricket, ice hockey etc and I have a nephew and friend's son who do martial arts so kids card it was...

The football was simple clip art, I shaded it with Copic markers, cut out with a circle die and popped up slightly with gel glue. Other than that it's just a bit of inking on the green panel and a heat embossed sentiment.

Supplies:
Clip art football
Sentiment from Essential Messages (Hero Arts)
Green cardstock
Bristol board
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Peeled Paint) 
Versamark by Tsukineo
Detail white emobssing powder
Copic markers
White gel pen
Black fineliner

Thanks for stopping by!

With a splash!

It's Friday so it must be DCM day - Kathy is challenging us to make a card using black and white with a splash of one other colour.

I've gone for a green alien on a night sky. This is going to a little boy who has already had a liver transplant and is currently undergoing chemo. He loves to check the mailbox each day to see whether there's anything for him and I thought he might get an extra kick out of something that's crossed the Pond to reach him.

The sentiment is three die cuts stacked together, alien's eyes have Glossy Accents and he's raised up with some glue gel so that there's a bit of dimension going on.

Stamps:
Monsters Ink (Technique Tuesday, retired)

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Paper:
Bristol board
Black

Other:
Fiskars squeeze punches (stars)
Phrases Set 1 by Spellbinder
Copic markers
White Posca paint pen
Fineline marker
Glossy Accents
Pinflair glue gel

Thanks for stopping by!

Out of this world

I'm setting this week's challenge over at Daring Cardmakers - I'd like to see something mythical or fantastic on your creations this week. Since time immemorial we seem to have been telling tales of the inexplicable, of mermaids, dragons, unicorns, pixies, selkies etc... bring it up to date a bit and you might find aliens, hobbits or gremlins. Where will your imagination take you?

Mine took me to dragons - he's a bit more Land of Honalee than Game of Thrones though!

I found some punch art dragons with a google image search and just used those as a guide to do my own thing with dies. Combining basic shapes means you can tackle almost any theme without splashing out on specialist stash!

In doing my own thing, I added ears  and a tongue which made him look more "finished" to me. The tongue, neck and his spikes are hand cut, everything else is die cut or punched shapes (some halved or partially cut/recut).

I sponged ink round all the edges as well as over the "scales" of his neck (embossing folder). He's poking his head through a castle window (stone texture again an embossing folder) to say happy birthday.

Supplies:
Circle, oval and square dies by Spellbinder
Oval Framelits by Sizzix
Tiny circle punch
DCWV textured cardstock
Scales embossing folder by Marianne Designs
Dry Stone Wall embossing folder by Crafter's Companion
Essential Messages stamps by Hero Arts
Fine line black marker
White Posca pen

Thanks for stopping by!

Super hero!

Nat is setting our challenge this week at Daring Cardmakers and she'd like us to be inspired by super heroes. It could be a card for the superhero in your life or something inspired by your favourite fictional one, go wherever your imagination takes you!

I needed a card for an 8th birthday so decided to take super hero inspiration for that. The Superman logo is so instantly recognisable that I thought it would stand up to being changed and still retain its essence.

I found an outline graphic of the Superman badge shape online and printed it, along with a big figure 8. Using those to plan it out, I used a scalpel to cut out the red layer and stuck it onto a yellow base then used a Perfect Layers ruler to do the black matting. A fine line black marker added some definition between layers and a little white pen highlighting livened it up.

The stars are stamped onto the textured blue base to get the half-tone dots and then again on textured foil and just the star part cut out and stuck on for a bit of glitz.

Die cut lettering for the sentiment, a doodled border and some sanding to scuff up the edge of the white core card finish it off.

Supplies
Red, yellow, black, white and textured blue cardstock
Silver foil
Star stamp from Kaboom set (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)
Brilliance Graphite Black ink by Tsukineko 
Corner Chomper 
Perfect Layers ruler
Fine line markers (black and white)

Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday kicks!

My nephew celebrated reaching double figures recently! He does Taekwondo and is currently a green belt so I went with this digital image from craftsuprint which has the option of belts in different colours.

The image comes with a background and separate bits to layer up decoupage-style. I didn't use the background, just the figure and a couple of layers. The image is pre-coloured but I added a tiny bit of Copic shading as well.

The wonky spiral element is hand cut and I laid a circle die on the card as a guide for placing the die cut lettering. A doodled border finished it off.

Apologies that the image is a wee bit blurry - low light in Northumberland and a posting deadline made it tricky!

Supplies:
Karate Dude image from craftsuprint (Karate Girl is also available if you want something for your nieces rather than nephews!)
Copic markers
Black and white cardstock
Tim Holtz Typeset strip die by Sizzix
Posca white paint pen
White Prismacolor pencil
Pinflair glue gel

Thanks for stopping by!

Karate hybrid!

I got it into my head that a karate theme would be ideal for a friend's son celebrating his 7th birthday since he's just done his grading for his purple belt. Do I have any karate-themed stamps or other supplies? Well now you mention it, no I don't :o/

Time for a hybrid approach, methinks...

I turned to a good old Google search and happened on the ideal image at craftsUprint. OK, the bargain price of 64p was a little less bargainous when you factor in that I had to get other stuff to make the minimum checkout amount but it got me out of a hole and hopefully I've chosen other images that will come in handy for the peskier members of the family!

As usual, I went my own way - the image is on a decoupage sheet and although I did a bit of minimal layering on the karate dude (main image, layer that's jacket and head, separate belt) I ignored the main backdrop and cut my own circle from red card, inked the edge for depth and added a big, hand cut number to tailor the card for the recipient.

The image is pre-coloured (although I did add a bit extra shading with Copics, particularly on the belt) so it's just the cutting out that's time-consuming here.

It's always harder to impress a seven-year-old than his parents I reckon - the card was declared "cool" so I think making it hard on myself paid off!

Supplies:
6x6" card base
Karate Dude printable decoupage sheet from craftsUprint (there's a Karate Girl, too - hooray!)
Sentiment from Essential Messages by Hero Arts
Red and black card
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Fired Brick)
Memento Luxe ink by Tsukineko (Tuxedo Black)
Pinflair glue gel
Fineline marker
Copic markers

Thanks for stopping by -  if you're in the UK I hope you enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend!

Birthday bird

I needed a birthday card for my nephew this week so combined some slightly quirky stencilled stars with the very quirky party puffin!

More chat about the card in this post on the Bubbly Funk blog.

Stamps: 
Party Puffin by Crafty Individuals
Say it Loud by Waltzingmouse Stamps

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko - Graphite Black
Tim Holtz Distress by Ranger - Tumbled Glass and Broken China

Other:
Starry Starry Night Stencil by Dylusions/Ranger
Chit Chat Stencil by Claudine Hellmuth/Ranger
Typeset die - Tim Holtz/Sizzix
Copic markers
Wink of Stella clear glitter pen
Charcoal pencil
Black fineline marker

Thanks for stopping by!

Kaboom!

Kids' birthday cards are always a challenge for me for some reason but when Claire at Waltzingmouse stamps brought out this stamp and die combo I thought it would be perfect for the plethora of boys I seem to have to make for!

I usually resist dies that match a particular stamp (I'm happy with a pair of scissors!) but this word just looked like too much fun to pass up and I caved in - it would be difficult to cut by hand, I think.

This kind of card also represents one of those rare occasions where the font Comic Sans is actually appropriate! I printed off the sentiment, cut it into individual words and outlined the boxes for that comic book feel.

The die cut is raised on some gel glue to give the whole thing a bit of dimension. I coloured with Copics and then gave it the Wink of Stella clear pen treatment for a bit of razzle dazzle without being too girly. That's a bit difficult to capture on camera but the detail shot might give an impression of it if you click through to make it bigger.

Stamps:
Kaboom by Waltzingmouse Stamps

Ink:
Brilliance Graphite Black by Tsukeniko
Distress Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade by Ranger

Other:
Kaboom die by Waltzingmouse Stamps
Copic markers
Printed sentiment
Corner Chomper
Black fineline marker 
White Posca paint pen
Clear Wink of Stella pen
Pinflair Glue Gel
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday butterfly

My friend's daughter is at that age where she's no longer really a little girl but she's not old enough to be into "teen" things just yet, either. So,  I decided to throw a bit of sophistication into the mix this year but kept a girly pink and gold colour scheme and personalised it since I think kids tend to like that.

I got  new laptop a wee while back and it had a protective film over the keyboard area.  I used that as a stencil with a couple of Distress ink colours for an ombre effect.

The stamped butterfly was sponged with the same inks - I've added hot pink glitter to the spots on the edges of the wings and used water to lift off some of the colour in the large spots. The body was filled in quickly with a Copic and I used my usual trick of stamping just the antennae on the card and adding the cut out butterfly over the top rather than attempting to cut round anything really fiddly!

The sentiment was stamped with Flitter Glue and then flaked and the die cut lettering got the same treatment. It makes photography more difficult but it's a nice rich gold effect in real life!

With hindsight, I think I should have put her name just a wee bit higher up for better overall balance of the design but never mind, she liked it!

Stamps:
Antique Engravings and Essential Messages (both Hero Arts)

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko - Pearlescent Chocolate
Distress by Ranger - Spun Sugar and Picked Raspberry

Other:
Font One dies by Spellbinder (both upper and lower case)
FlitterGlu
Chariot of Fire Megaflake
Hot pink glitter
Corner Chomper
Film from laptop keyboard used as stencil

Thanks for stopping by!

Starry sketch

As usual when needing to make a kiddie card, I used a couple of challenges to get me going - no idea why I struggle as much as I do with these but I daren't even start to think how long this took me, even with the kickstart!

The Daring Cardmaker's challenge this week is to use stars and the current challenge at Waltzingmouse Fanatics is to use this sketch.

Apologies for the quality of the photo - as any of you who have tried to photograph mirri card will know, it's an absolute nightmare! The card looks more "integrated" in real life but this was as good as the photo was going to get, I'm afraid.

I toook the liberty of changing the third rectangular panel on the sketch to a circle as it fit the space rocket better to make a sort of planet/moon thing there. I used marker caps to stamp the "craters" on there.

This is destined for a wee boy celebrating his sixth birthday, I hope it's OK!

Stamps:
Half Pint Heroes by Waltzingmouse Stamps

Paper:
White
Silver Mirri
DCWV textured blue

Ink:
Brilliance Graphite Black and Starlite Silver

Other:
Fiskars squeeze punches - small and medium star
Tracing Wheel
Copic markers
Pinflair glue gel
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday sub

I needed a simple card for a little boy's fifth birthday and thought the Half Pint Heroes set would work perfectly as he's into sea life (through the Octonauts, obviously!) and it makes a nice change from all the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stuff currently invading their house!

I stamped, coloured and cut out a  submarine, cutting out the porthole too - a really easy way to do this if you prefer scissors to a craft knife is to use your Crop-a-Dile or other hole punch to "nibble" out a good size chunk so it's easy to get the scissors in there. I stamped the sub again on the base layer, stamped the boy's face on there and used gel glue to raise the cut out sub for some dimension.

The fish have Glossy Accent bubbles which will probably never be noticed but I felt the need to add them anyway!

Stamps:
Half Pint Heroes by Waltzingmouse Stamps

Ink: Graphite Black Brilliance

Paper: smooth white, kraft, DCWV textured blue

Other:
Copic markers
Glossy Accents
Pinflair glue gel
Dry wall tape
Tracing wheel
Corner Chomper
 
Thanks for stopping by!

Little monster

I needed a light and flat card (it needs to go trans-Atlantic) for a young man celebrating his seventh birthday. None of the kids I send cards to are really little monsters but he probaby comes closest!

He's certainly not the tidiest of children so what started out as a very clean and crisp design (just the lettering and the monster) looked a bit too tidy somehow. Once I'd added the splotches it seemed much more "in character". Being able to stamp them gave me a sense of still being in control though!

Stamping individual letters might seem a bit of a pain but I like the bigger format for the sentiment and the fact you could do any wording you liked. I gave mine a sort of "ombre" shading to go with the funky lettering style and deliberately didn't try to stamp on a straight base line.

I used Glossy Accents to give the eyes some sheen and dimension and rounded one corner for a casual feel. The inside of the front is lined with plain paper to hide the bleed-through of the Copics that's pretty much inevitable when you add shading as it tends to soak the cardstock.

Stamps:
Monsters Ink by Technique Tuesday
Brush Strokes by Hero Arts
Journal Letters by Hero Arts

Paper: Smooth white

Ink: 
Brilliance Graphite Black by Tsukineko
Adirondack Sunset Orange by Ranger

Other:
Copic markers
Corner Chomper
Glossy Accents

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy birthday human

This is a card for a young lad and it needs to go transatlantic so it's light and flat although I did raise the speech bubble up with a bit of silicone glue.

Because the colouring bled through the cardstock I added a sheet of paper inside to cover that up (it's stuck to the cardfront so it's pretty much invisible).

I drew the bubble and the trail leading up to it by hand as I didn't have a suitable stamp. My drawing skills are limited but I can just about stretch to an abstract blob!

Stamps:
Monsters Ink by Technique Tuesday

Paper:
Smooth white

Ink:
Graphite Black Brilliance by Tsukineko

Other:
Copic markers
Corner Chomper

The card made DH chortle, hope its recipient likes it too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Well done!

My nephew has just finished Year 1 at primary school and got a really good report for the end of the year, being graded well above his age in the national curriculum subjects (maths, science and literacy). Perhaps more importantly, he's trying hard in everything - bless him! I thought I'd send a "well done" card to add to the encouragement my brother and sister-in-law give him.

As ever with kids' cards, I struggled a bit  and this is nothing like the initial plan but I think it's OK!

The cheery little monster is mounted on foam pads for a bit of dimension and I doodled on and around the stars.

I used a white insert on this one - I often write with a gel pen if I do a dark card base but I thought my handwriting would be enough for a six year old to cope with without adding extra complications!

Stamps: Monsters Ink by Technique Tuesday

Paper: Black, white, orange

Ink: Graphite Black Brilliance by Tsukineko

Other: 
Small star squeeze punch by Fiskars
Typset die by Tim Holtz/Sizzix
Copic markers
Gesso and dry wall tape
Copic fineliner
Uni Posca white pen
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

Tear it up!

Time for a new "Take It, Make It" challenge over on the Craft Stamper blog. This time around we're being inspired by Helen Chilton's Terrific Tearing article which is on page 78 of the May issue. Don't worry if you haven't got hold of it yet, the challenge is open for a couple of months so there's plenty of time to play along.

I immediately had the idea of something bursting out of the card when I saw this technique so I ran with that and made a kids' birthday card with this cute monster and some bright colours. I used a textured white cardstock for just a touch of extra interest on the torn layer and added a simple doodled border as it seemed to fit the character of this little chap!

His eye stalks are raised up on foam pads and his feet are stuck to the card so he does have some movement as if he's coming out of the frame.

Stamps:
Monsters Ink (Technique Tuesday)
Essential Messages (Hero Arts)

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Paper:
DCWV textured white
Smooth white
Orange

Other:
Copic markers
Copic fineliner
Foam pads

There were some great entries for the first challenge - don't forget the winning entry will be published in a future issue of the magazine so if you fancy seeing yourself in print, why not join us?! There's a lovely stamp from sponsors Indigo Blu for the winner as well. All the challenge details are here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Up, up and away!

A departure from my usual stampy style today - only the sentiment is stamped on this one! 

It struck me while making this that it was probably inspired by this week's Daring Cardmakers challenge so I'm linking there. It wasn't a conscious thing but I knew the dare was "acute angles" and having gone to sleep trying to come up with an idea for a seven year old's birthday card, I woke up thinking kites for no apparent reason.

I don't own a kite stamp so I found a clip art kite and used it as a template to cut DCWV cardstock for a paper pieced kite. Lots of acute angles in those tail bows even if the kite itself has some right angles in the mix!

Supplies:
Clip art kite
Essential Messages by Hero Arts
DCWV textured  cardstock
Adirondack ink by Ranger (Stonewashed)
Versafine ink by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Sewing machine and thread
Corner Chomper
Foam pads

The recpient seemed pleased with it which is always a relief when it comes to kids' cards - I find them hard enough I never know whether I've pitched them about right or not!

Thanks for stopping by, hope your weekend is a good one!

Happy birthday, human

My newphew's sixth birthday has just been and gone. He's interested in space at the moment so he had a glow in the dark solar system and a book about the planets and stars for his pressies this year. I thought an alien and stars on a clean and simple card might be just the thing to go with those.

This stamp set has seen good service for all the little boys I seem to make cards for (I have only one little girl to make for to break the monotony!). Although it's no longer available,  the designer (Kim Hughes) has started her own stamp company and the images in the Little Fella set are almost the same.

A little Kaz-style doodling around the stars and orange panel helps lift the design a little without being too fussy.

Stamps: Little Guy and Birthday Centers (Cornish Heritage Farms, retired)

Paper: smooth white and orange

Ink: Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Fiskars squeeze punch (small star)
Corner Chomper
Copic markers and Fineliner

Thanks for stopping by!

Hippo Birthday

I needed a birthday card for a wee boy so I took Kathy's December sketch from the Sketch File as my starting point. It's a fairly loose interpretation - I treated the embossed word blocks as four of the five strips in the sketch and added the recipient's name as the fifth.

I did try putting a circle behind the hippo but it looked better without.

Stamps: Heloise Hippo (High Hopes)

Paper: Red, white, navy

Ink: Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Typeset decorative strip die (Tim Holtz Alterations/Sizzix)
Copic markers
Tracing Wheel
Corner Chomper (We R emory Keepers)
Birthday embossing folder (Cuttlebug)

Thanks for stopping by - hope your Christmas preprations are all under control!

Say what?

The chipboard speech bubbles from Tando Creative are great fun to use with character stamps to have them "say" the sentiment on a project and provide a touch of dimension at the same time.

This is a birthday card for a boy celebrating his seventh birthday - very simple with just a stamped image and the chippie speech bubble coloured with a Copic marker and stamped with the birthday greeting. A bit of inking through the smallest holes on the sequin waste mask finish off the image panel and the chippie. I couldn't resist a little Kaz-style doodling for a border.



Speech Bubbles Small (Tando Creative chipboard)
Sequin Waste mask (Tando Creative)

Little Guy and So Happy stamps (CHF stamps - retired)
Versacraft Spring Green ink
Brilliance Graphite Black ink
Copic markers
Copic Multiliner
White and black card

Thanks for stopping by!

Little reader

I'm combining challenges again today - Effie is providing a fortnightly sketch over on UKStampers (this is number 6) and in the Crafty Secrets member forum at Splitocoast Stampers, Marcy has challenged us to layer up our images this week.

Here I've layered the hands onto the book, the book onto the little reader and the little reader onto the stack of books (so four images all together). I used scraps of card between each layer so there's a little dimension but not too much. Perhaps it's because I have always been an avid reader myself that this is one one of my favourite stamps ever!

There's a lady in my area who runs a little enterprise called "What Katy did next". She sells lots of recyled stuff aimed at the crafter - one of the things she does is rescue pages from books that are not fit for resale through charity shops etc and puts them together into packs of 50 assorted pages. You could get anything from Beano album pages through sheet music and atlas pages! My pack had quite a few children's story book pages and I've used one of them here. I rubbed gesso onto the page with my finger (using a Nestie as a stencil) and doodled a border round it to create a little "story world" for him.

Mats and decorative strips are all coloured with Copics to match the colours I used on the image.

Stamps:
Story of Me (Clear Art Stamps by Crafty Secrets)

Paper:
Old book page
Smooth white

Ink:
Adirondack by Ranger (Espresso)
Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)

Other:
Copic Markers
Tim Holtz Alterations die by Sizzix (Brackets)
Vintage buttons
Gesso
Nestability by Spellbinder (used as stencil)
Zig drawing pen
Sewing machine and thread

Thanks for stopping by!