International Art and Soul Challenge 75

The theme for this fortnight's challenge is Recycling. Other than having a recycled element to it, your project can be anything you like.

I decided to make a card using some recycled crafty packaging in the mix.

The main image is from Woodware, which was stamped and heat embossed in gold. I coloured the image with my very elderly Twinkling H2Os. (I had to throw another one away today as it had gone mouldy inside. But then, I have had them for many years.)

The paper is from a magazine freebie pad. The clear layer under the half-front was cut from the packaging of some Crafter's Companion mirror card. It's quite thin, but kept in place between the image panel and a plain white panel on the inside.

You can't really see the clear layer, but you can see the backs of the two sticky gems!

I do hope you can join us this time.

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 132

This week at One Stitch at a Time, we're sponsored by ...

Our theme this week is Bingo!

I decided to work with the middle line down - embossing, digi and lace. (Whichever line you use, you must come through the middle square.)

I got to work with a gorgeous silhouette from Floppy Latte called Flights of Fancy.

I started by reversing it in Photoshop elements, so that the image is white on a black background. Then, I printed it onto film. I decided to use some Stickles - I've got various shades, but don't often bring it out. When I want glitter, I tend to go for either Glamour Dust or Sakura Stardust pen, but the first has a limited colour range, and the second doesn't work too well on film. So, I put Stickles in Blueberry on the back of the image over the swirly background, but not the fairy herself. When that dried (and it took ages!) I mounted the film onto some blue holographic card backed by silver mirror card, using brads.

I embossed the background black card in my Wizard, and added some pretty white lace to finish.

Hope you can join us this week!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Creative Crafts where anything goes,
Digital Tuesdays where they want 'things with wings',
Shopping Our Stash where they want embossing,
Crafting for All Seasons where they want 'things with wings',
Fab 'n' Funky where they want 'things with wings',
Stampavie and More where they want glitter,
Whimsy where anything goes,
Charizma Cards where they want 'things with wings',
Sarah Hurley where they want 'something magical',
Digi Doodle Shop where anything goes.

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 56

First, a Happy Mother's Day to all mums reading this. Hope you're being thoroughly spoiled.

Now, onto this week's challenge at One Stitch at a Time. This week, we want you to make something 3D. That can be decoupage, or anything else that stops your creation from being flat on the page!

We're sponsored this week by Michelle's Scrap

So, I could have chosen to do some decoupage, or some other technique to give lots of dimension, but I thought I'd try something a little different. I chose Tree Set from Gingerloft, and despite wanting to use several of those gorgeous images, settled for using just one, several times.

I first put together a digital background, consisting of a gradient that went between green and blue, and printed it onto paper. Then, I took the tree image, and separated it digitally into 'foreground' - the main tree and ground texture, and 'background' - the rest. I printed those two images separately, and then layered them with the background using sticky pads.

 

As you can probably see, I added a frame, which is also mounted on sticky pads.

Finally, I made a 'tray' into which the whole thing fitted so you can't see the sticky pads any more!

The effect is remarkably three-dimensional in real life, but I struggled to show that well in a photograph, so you're probably going to have to take my word for it!

I had originally thought of making it into a card, my my husband liked it and suggested it stay just as it is, so it's currently on display in our living room!

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:

Paper Playtime where anything goes,

Top Tip Tuesday where they want something 'nature inspired'

Digis with Attitude where anything goes,

Stamp Something where it's Digi Day.

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 53

This is the first of two posts for this challenge, which is sponsored by the Stamping Boutique!

The theme this week is 'Glitter and Gems' so go on, get sparkly!

This week I was working with the gorgeous Monarch Butterfly image from Delicious Doodles which is available at the Stitchy shop. It's such a pretty butterfly, and while it'd be ideal as a main image, I think it'd also make a wonderful embellishment! I decided to use it as part of a sparkly, glittery table centre.

 

And so you can see the butterfly closer,

I printed several sizes of the butterfly onto polyester film, and glittered the image using a Quickie glue pen and ultra-fine glitter. The flowers are all hand-made using either punches of die cuts for the basic shapes. They all started as white card, and I used Promarkers to colour the base colours and added accents with Twinkling H2Os. The flowers were all finished with a spritz of Glimmer Mist in Pearl.

I arranged the flowers in a bowl on a base of shredded tissue paper and added the butterflies. One has been 'suspended' over the bowl using an offcut of the film which was fixed inside the bowl.

A couple more photos showing different angles:

A bit different from my usual projects, but I'm pretty sure I'll be using these butterflies regularly - it's a great image and with the magic of digital, so versatile!

Hope you can join us this week.

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:
Bunny Zoe where there are 'flowers everywhere!'
Flutterby Wednesdays where they want us to be inspired by beautiful flowers
Delightful Challenges where they want butterflies,
Sarah Hurley who wants flowers,
Southern Girls who want flowers
Papercrafting Journey who want 'Things with Wings',
Little Claire's Designs who want flowers.
Sugar Creek Hollow who want hand-made flowers. (All the flowers are hand-made.)
Gingerloft who want us to use flowers!

Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight on ... Silhouettes

That's right. This week, we want to see your silhouettes. And we're sponsored by Stitchy Stamps who has some fabulous silhouettes among her fabulous creations.

I've used one of Stitchy's silhouettes - she comes from a set called 'A Touch of Class'.

I printed the silhouette, some leaves and the frame onto film. The background includes some files from Crafty Image Emporium CD, and some PSE generated trees and shadows and is printed on paper. I've layered them with foam pads to get some depth. The backing paper is from the same CD, but I've changed the colour to give the yellow background. The flowers were cut with Marianne Creatables dies and the ferns were punched.

And some news about the Spotlight Challenges! They'll be moving to their very own blog as of next month. That's right, Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight Challenges has a new home, all of its own! Challenges on both the main and the Spotlight blogs will continue to run for a fortnight, starting on alternate Mondays. So, bookmark or follow the new blog so you don't miss the exciting new spotlights we've got in store for you!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Incy Wincy where they want punches or dies (fern punches and flower dies)
Lexi's Creations where they want flowers,
Tuesday Digital where they want punches (ferns)
Do You Stack Up where 'anything goes'
Papercrafting Journey where 'anything goes'
Stamp Something who want us to 'use flowers',
Crazy 4 Challenges who want us to 'use flowers'
My Grafico where 'anything goes'.

Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight on ... Plastic!

Whose idea was this? Oh, yes, it was Judie's! This spotlight is about using plastic on your creation. And I had loads of good ideas which promptly fell apart when I tried to put them into practice. Still, I tried some different options, and came up with this.

So, where's the plastic! Well, there are several bits here. First, the silhouette image (a freebie from My Grafico) was printed onto film. Then, it was backed onto some 'Shimmer Paper' from Craft Creations which definitely has a plastic coating on the front to give that gorgeous shimmer. Next, there are the flower shapes. I stamped a background stamp onto shrink plastic, coloured it with Sakura Stardust pens, cut out the flowers using my nesties and trusty wizard, punched a hole in the middle and shrank them. They're finished with some flower brads. The background (which isn't plastic) is some card given the same treatment (except the shrinking, of course) as the plastic. The butterfly is a (plastic) peeloff stuck onto some white gauze which I cut out, and the whole thing is finished with some card (Martha Stewart border punch) and some ribbon which, given I'm sure it's a manmade fibre, I'd be inclined to call plastic too.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Sir Stampalot who want 'All Creatures Great and Small'
Digi Doodles whose theme is 'Nature'
Delightful Sketches whose theme is 'Get Punchy' (border punch and die cut flowers)
My Grafico where 'Anything Goes'
So, what're you waiting for? Get out your shrink plastic, your friendly plastic, your sweetie wrappers or whatever else you can think of.

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 49

One Stitch at a Time is having a birthday! And to celebrate, there's candy on some DT blogs, and loads of prizes for this week's challenge. And the theme for the challenge is 'Pretty Things'.

Sponsors this week: The Stamping Boutique, Robyn's Fetish, Copic Markers, Hobby Habitat, Dezina World, and Robin's Nest. How's that for a lineup?

'Pretty' is one of those words that describes so many possiblities. For me, it means lovely colours, shiny things, lace, flowers, butterflies. I loved the image I chose for this challenge. It's a silhouette from Floppe Latte which is available from the Stitchy Bear shop. In fact, I liked it so much, I used it in two different ways!

This first project is fairly traditional - except that I've used Twinkling H2Os instead of my usual Promarkers. I thought the 'pretty' tag suggested adding that bit of sparkle. I adjusted the colour of the silhouette in Photoshop Elements before printing it onto watercolour paper. Then, I tried to reproduce a gradient effect using the paints. The papers are from the Papermania Capsule collection, and I've coloured some Prima flowers with the paints I used in the image.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Pear Tree Designs where it's a 'Free for All',
Craft Your Passion where 'Anything Goes'
Charisma Cardz where the theme is 'Myth and Fantasy'
Sweet Stamping where the theme is 'Love Bug' or an insect on your card (butterfly in image).
Little Claire's where 'Anything Goes'

And now for something a bit different. This time, I've gone for a largely digital effect.

I coloured the image in Photoshop Elements - the sky is a pale lilac shading in to turquoise but doesn't show well. Then, I printed five copies on polyester film. I cut panels to size, and cut out rectangular apertures using my nesties to make the 'fairy light'. The card uses the last printed image, and I've mounted it on holographic card. Here, I've also used my borderabilities and some ribbon, and on both, I've added a die cut butterfly.

Here's a picture of what I'm calling my 'fairy lights' where you can see some of the shading.

I'd like to enter this into the Simon Says Stamp challenge which is for 'Anything but a Card.

And a close up of the card so you can see the detail.

I'd like to enter this card and 'fairy light' into the following challenges:
Top Tip Tuesday where the theme is 'Frame It',
Stamping with the Dragon whose theme is 'Anything Goes'.

Hope you can join us this week, and don't forget to check out the other DT members' beautiful creations..

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 37 - Traditional or Modern Christmas

This week on One Stitch at a Time, the theme is Tradional or Modern Christmas, and we've got three sponsors.

Easycraft who are offering a £10 token,
I Am Roses who are offerning this beautiful selection of flowers,

And Michelle's Scraps who are offering a $10 voucher.
And the challenge this time is easy - something for Christmas, either traditional or modern. And if you're stuck for ideas, check out the Stitchy Bear and I Did It Creations Boutique where the artists have been producing some gorgeous stamps and papers for the festive season.

My card this week features a new digi-stamp from Trees Award in Digital Stamps.

This was a lovely image to work with, and so lovely, I didn't feel the need to add much in the way of background.

I did layer the image - to give the outside of the house some height compared to the inside, and I added some polyester film for the 'glass'. The image is primarily coloured with Promarkers, although I added some detail with Sakura Stardust pen (black) for the light casing and Sakura white Souffle pen for the snowy bits. I dusted those same bits with silver glitter before the pen had quite dried for added sparkle.

I used a red card blank, and some lovely Papermania silver printed vellum in the background, backing most of the vellum with white card, attached with some silver brads. I then finished it with a bow on the plant pot, and some flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts.

I added a computer generated sentiment that has been coloured with Sakura Stardust pens for a litle glitter.

Hope you can join us at OSAAT this week - there are some fabulous prizes, and you know you need to get stuck into that Christmas crafting, don't you? (I know I do!)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Papertake Weekly who want us to use glitter (added to snow, and glitter pen used for lamp casing)
The ABC Challenge who have reached G for Glitter (added to snow, and glitter pen used for lamp casing)
Southern Girls who also want glitter (added to snow, and glitter pen used for lamp casing)
Digi Doodles Best where 'Anything Goes'
Crafty Purple Frog Challenges where 'Anything Goes'

Abstract in Acetate

The cardmaking group I belong to has recently instigated a digital challenge. Each month there's a digital image freebie from somewhere which we're directed to, and then we can see just how different the results can be. This month gave some interesting results, and this was my attempt.



First, I coloured the image in Photoshop Elements using several opacity gradients in the various colours. I only coloured some sections of the image in each of three layers, and then I printed the base and coloured layers onto acetate. I layered the various images onto silver holographic card, separating the layers with a frame of card, then added a frame on the top, some peel offs and ribbon.

My original idea had been to have a completely uncoloured layer, but decided not to use it, so instead, I coloured that version with Sakura Glaze pens and a second card was the result!



As you can see, the colours are a lot stronger this time, and again I mounted it on silver holographic card.

The original image came from Dover Books. Each week, if you sign up for it, they'll send you some free samples from their various publications, and this is one of those. If you're interested, go to http://www.doverpublications.com/sampler1/ and sign up!

A Wedding Card

I was asked by a colleague to make a card for a couple getting married in Barbados at the end of the month. There weren't many other details available - no colour scheme, for example, so I had to work with what I had.



I didn't have much stash with a suitable theme, so I hunted for a permission-free stock photo of a beach sunset, and printed it directly onto A4 card at 30% opacity along with some wording. Then, I picked a tone from the card and printed a silhouette of a palm tree onto polyester film.

I did buy some stamps of a stylised silhouette of a wedding couple and I stamped the largest of those onto shrink plastic in cocoa Versamark. I attached the resulting charm to the polyester with a gold jump ring and finished the outside with a cream ribbon and bow.