Sunday 27 May 2012

Balloon Challenge

So I found myself a lovely new blog to follow yesterday: Crafty Cardmakers, they have some really beautiful cards on there, full of inspiration.
The challenge over there this week is to create a birthday card with a balloon on it - more details of the challenge can be found here.

Here is the card I made to join in the challenge:


The balloon stamp is from hero arts (I think it's called flying airships?), I covered up the sentiment that was along the bottom of the stamp with a post it note.  I then stamped the image again onto some papermania red gingham paper and cut out the balloon and stuck that on.
The background paper was trimmed to size, it is also from papermania, and I used the waltzing mouse say it loud stamps to create the sentiment in the bottom corner. 
Some red twine wrapped and knotted was added and the balloon was stuck on with foam pads.


I hope you have a nice day, I'm off outside to the garden to enjoy the sunshine while it lasts!

Claire x

Sunday 20 May 2012

Alcohol Inks

So I decided to try something brand new to me this week - alcohol inks.  I know tons of people are very familiar with them and use them all the time but I've never had any so after a bit of an impulse buy I've been having a little bit of a play with them.  Some of the backgrounds I created with them looked a little muddy and some looked ok, so here is a card I created using one of the backgrounds I think looks alright.
The stamp i  used is by paperbag studios - which has a circle on it so I can enter Hels circle challenge this week over at Ink On My Fingers
I stamped the image, cut it out, then used my leafy lace xcut punch on some pink and black papers to create a border and layered it all up.  I then had some clear buttons so I coloured one with the remains of the alcohol ink on my blending tool and secured it to the card with some twine.
Quite a 'clean' looking card I think but not too bad for my first exploration into alcohol inks!
 See you again soon, Claire x


Sunday Afternoon

I've been left to my own devices this afternoon as the husband is off playing golf so i've had a lovely time playing with bits and bobs in the peace and quiet!
The challenge over at The Ribbon Girl blog this time is to create a pink and cream themed item, I love pink and cream together, I think they go so well to create a vintage style look. 
I made the card below using a Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous stamp inked with worn lipstick distress ink, i used antique linen distress ink on the background, cut it out and distressed the edges with my scissors.  I tore a piece of typeface paper by papermania and coloured it using the antique linen and worn lipstick too.  I couldn't find any ribbon in my stash that co-ordinated properly with my card so I coloured a piece of pale pink ribbon using the worn lipstick inkpad and then used my heatgun to dry the ribbon and crinkle it up a bit to look more aged.  I then punched some holes for the ribbon to go through using the tonic border system.  I pierced the typeface paper and used a white pen to create a stitched look, I wanted to try this technique after seeing it over on The Craft Barn blog this week, I think it turned out quite well.  I then decided the whole card needed a bit of a lift so I used a glue stick around the edges of the card and of my stamped image and some gold embossing powder to create a more vintage looking frame.  I've added a bit of a close up photo to show the faux stiching and gold embossed edge a bit more clearly.

I hope you like it, I'm a bit behind with my blogging this week so hopefully I'll be back shortly to share a couple of other cards I've made.
See you soon, Claire x

Sunday 6 May 2012

Another Yellow Card


Ok so I wasn't really happy with how the yellow cat card turned out for some reason, so I decided to have another go at a different yellow card as part of the Less Is More challenge this week to create a card around the theme yellow:


I created this using the mustard seed distress ink again. I created the left hand border using a small flourish stamp by Artemio and masking tape. The bird stamp is a Tim Holtz one from Stampers Anonymous. I liked this card more as I feel it is a bit more balanced and has a cleaner look to it.

Anyhow I think that is all for now!!
Claire x

Less Is More - Yellow

It's been quite a while since my last post but in my defence I've been busy getting married!! So now that's all over and done with I'm hoping to have more free time to craft and keep this up to date.
So firstly I have created two cards this week to enter into the Less Is More challenge which this week has the theme: Yellow.
Here is my first entry:
I created the border on the right hand side of the card by rubbing some mustard seed distress ink through some sequin waste.  I then used the same inkpad to add the yellow box in the centre of the card, stamped the cat silhouette and the butterflys which are from inkylicious. I added a box around the square of yellow ink using a fine black pen.

 
Anyhow I think that is all for now!!
Claire x