A Couple of Birthday Cards

I had to make a couple of cards for upcoming birthdays. The first is for my nephew who's turning 21. He's into bikes, so this decoupage from Imag e nation seemed idea.

I used a small version of the image to tile into a background paper over some Photoshop Elements generated stripes, and a larger version to print onto some shrink plastic. I've personalised the card inside, but won't show because I'm very wary of putting other people's names online. The ribbon is one of those pre-sticky ones from Tiger.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Digital Tuesday where they want something masculine,
LEJ Designs where they want us to 'show us your ribbons',



The second card is for a colleague. I made this one a while ago. While the card was being passed around at work for signatures, one person implied that she'd like to keep the card for herself rather than passing it on. So, her birthday's coming up now, and so I did something similar.

I made it into an 8 by 8 card because these image from the Enchanted Dreams CD are too detailed to print any smaller. The paper is from the CD too, and I've used a Martha Stewart border punch and butterfly dies from Spellbinders, and Marianne. To give them some sparkle, I sprayed the butterflies with Crafter's Companion Spray and Shine in irridescent.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Cute Card Thursday where the theme is 'Butterfly Kisses',
Creative Moments where they want 'things with wings',
Flutterby Wednesday where it's an open challenge,
Catch the Bug 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 45

The theme at One Stitch at a Time this week is 'New' or 'New Beginnings', and this week I was given the choice of the whole Stitchy Bear shop. (Can you imagine how long that choice took me?) But with that theme, one image soon became the obvious choice - Snowdrop Heart by Hope Jacare. Well, nothing says 'new beginnings' to me more than snowdrops - a promise of spring when it still seems some way off.

And I decided to make more than just a card! I got some printable Shrink Plastic from Crafty Computer Paper just before Christmas, and I set up a file to print various sizes of the image. Then, I coloured each image with Promakers and a little added Sakura Stardust pen. The Promarkers were quite hard to use on the plastic because it has such low absorbancy, and it was almost impossible to get an even result, so I decided to make the most of that, adding a stippled effect on top of the base layer of colour. Then, cut out, punched and shrank the various bits and made up a key ring and a bracelet.

The card image was printed on white card, and again coloured with Promarkers. The backing paper was made using a small copy of the image which I coloured digitally and then tiled. The card was finished with some ribbon and a couple of butterflies.

The thing I love about digital stamps is the way you can resize so easily. To make the things above with a rubber stamp I would've needed four different sizes of stamp, or would have needed to scan and resize the image - something which would probably infringe the copyright of the image.

Hope you can join us this week. We're sponsored by Joanna Sheen!

And, don't forget, if you add our Birthday Bash logo to your sidebar and enter the challenge, you'll be eligible for a draw to win some free images! See OSAAT for more details.

I'd like to enter these into the following challenges:
Pollycraft Monday Challenge whose theme is 'New Things'. (The shrink plastic and digi-stamp are new to me.)
Crafty Creations whose theme is 'New Beginnings' (new life at the end of winter!)
Stampavie and More whose theme is 'Sparkling' (glitter pen used on leaves and around heart.)
Creative Cottage whose theme is 'All Things New' (Printable Shrink Plastic and stamp)
Top Tip Tuesday where the theme is 'Anything Goes'
Kaboodle Doodles where they want us to 'Do it with Digis' (image and paper both digis.)
Karber who want digis with pearls. (Bracelet has both!)
Papercrafting Journey  whose theme is 'Let's Get Digital'
Stamp Something who have an 'Anything Goes' theme this week
Fairytale Challenge who want flowers
The Saturday Challenge whose theme is 'With Love' and what says love better than a heart and flowers!
Stamp, Scrap and Doodle Saturdays whose theme is 'Anything Goes'
Challenge Up Your Life where the theme is 'Clean and Simple' (entering the card)
Really Reasonable Ribbon who want hearts and ribbon (the card)
Two Sisters who want flowers

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 30

This candy is now closed. I'll pick the winner's name shortly and post it.

There's a special event happening over at One Stitch at a Time this week. As usual, there's a theme, but this time, all the artists have created a new digital image or paper to celebrate. And there's candy on various blogs too, including this one, with lots of prizes on the OSAAT blog!

The reason for the event is to increase awareness of Autism. It's a subject that's particularly close to my heart, as I work with severely autistic children. Awareness seems to me to be the biggest need. People on the Autistic Spectrum don't wear badges or have a single 'look' that identifies them. They look like everyone else. But the condition often causes them to act in ways that seem bizarre.The children I work with have little or no language. They don't understand the world around them and can often become extremely anxious and distressed in situations that appear to others to be completely ordinary. When they can't cope with the rest of the world, they often block it out by becoming engrossed in something else - a hand flapping in front of their face, self-induced pain, twirling, making loud noises, tapping something or they express their fear by crying or screaming. When that happens, they don't need people telling their parents or carers that they just need a good smack, or an irate adult shouting at them. (I've experienced both while in local parks and supermarkets.) If people are more aware of the condition, hopefully they'll consider the possibility before making the parents' job even harder than it already is.

General professional opinion is that there is no cure for Autism, but a lot can be done to allow the person to cope better with the world, and thereby to achieve their potential.

If you want to find out more about the specific charity we're supporting, go to the site below.

http://fortheloveofcameron.com/

And there's a history of why we've chosen this particular young man on the OSAAT blog as well as many of the DT blogs.

Alternatively, if you want more general information on Autism, you might find the

National Autistic Society  website useful. Or, if you'd like to get some 'first hand' information, try this interview with Ros Blackburn - an articulate autistic adult.

So, onto my card.

The theme this time is Rainbows - either actual rainbows or the colours of the rainbow, and I was lucky enough to be given Hope Jacare's image - Wish Upon a Rainbow. I coloured the image with Promarkers, and then I had even more fun with it! I designed the backing paper and frame in Photoshop Elements, and then I drew and coloured a rainbow on shrink plastic. To finish the card, I added some ribbon and a special 'rainbow' flower. I really enjoyed making this card - well, give me a theme like 'rainbow' with free rein to use colours like that - what's not to like? The name of my blog is not a coincidence!

I've put aside a few bits and pieces - some die cuts (more than in the photo - there were too many to include), charms and stickers, and one commenter, chosen at random, will win them. So, please think a little about what autism means to those affected both directly and indirectly, and if you wish to, support an appropriate charity. And then, leave a comment here, and be sure to visit the rest of the design team. Good luck!

I hope you find time to join us in the challenge this week - and that you enjoy it as much as I have!


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

 Digi Doodles who are looking for charms (the rainbow), Delightful Sketches who want ribbon in Autumn shades (I used red and gold (and blue)), Fab 'n' Funky  for whom 'Anything Goes' and Your Next Stamp who also have an 'Anything Goes' challenge this time.

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.