Wednesday 30 January 2013

Papertrey Ink wedding card

Hello everyone,

Just a quick post to share a card I made for Day 2 on the Online Card Course.

Today we were asked to make the dreaded one layer card and to use a masking technique. I always panic at doing a one layer card because I don't think I can get enough interest on it, but the samples shown by the tutors were so good I was inspired to give it a shot. I made a mask from the Take 3 die from Papertrey Ink and inked up the square apertures with 3 different shades of pink ink. I then over stamped the squares with images from PTI Heart to Heart 9 to make a wedding card and finished off with the sentiment.




I used a glaze pen to highlight the bird eyes and Glossy Accents to give the cake a little zing. I love the way the ink shows through on the cake decorations.


Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs
Carol x

Tuesday 29 January 2013

Valentine card

Hello everyone and a big welcome to Keri who is a new follower this week.

I'm steering clear of  the January/February blues by following along with the latest Online Card Class - Clean and Simple Part 2. I really enjoyed part one last January and I know it helped me to simplify my designs. Day 1 kicked off to an excellent start and for our homework we were asked to use one of a selection of sketches, and maybe try some of the techniques shown in the lessons. I really wanted to try spray misting a background through a mask but I don't have any spray inks right now so I decided to make a Valentine card and clear emboss a background using a Hero Arts background stamp.




I matted the background panel and decided to try a little top mat to focus the eye into the cut out circle.


I used a scallop circle punch for this. 

I'm looking forward to the lesson for today. Thanks for stopping by and for all the lovely comments you leave me - I really do appreciate them and it brightens my day.

Hugs
Carol x

Saturday 26 January 2013

Muse challenge baby birthday card



Hello everyone and a warm welcome to Becky who is a new follower this week.

I must be on a roll. Two post yesterday and one today. The reason is that there is a new challenge blog that I wanted to play along with. The Muse challenge uses a lovely card from Amy Kolling as inspiration


Special3

I really liked the patterned paper base and the impressed panel so I interpreted it for a baby birthday card, and came up with this


I used the Papertrey Ink Sweet Baby and Sweet as Can Be sets, along with Spring Rain and Blueberry Sky card and paper. I debossed one of the matt stack dies for the main panel.

Thanks for popping in.

Hugs
Carol x

Friday 25 January 2013

Papertrey Ink birthday card

Hi everyone,

I so enjoyed using black for a card that I played around with another one for the PTI blog hop today. This is a very simple card using a stamp from Harvest Berries. I used pearlescent paint on the leaves and in a thin wash over the double ended banner die cut so the black would show through..



This really quite shiny but the camera hasn't picked that up too well.

Thanks for looking in.

Hugs
Carol x

Papertrey Ink Birthday card for blog hop

Hello everyone and a very warm welcome to Sue who is a new follower this week.

Blog-hop-logo


Today is the Papertrey Ink Blog Hop and this time Nichole challenged us to use black on  project. I love using black on cards because I think it can look really elegant but for some reason I never actually send them out because it doesn't seem to be a celebratory colour somehow. I came up with this card for the hop and I think this one might actually make it to post box!


I used Limitless Layers Ovals to make focal points on the card and used a lovely poppy stamp from Inkylicious which I stamped and embossed in white. I usually end up with specks of white embossing powder showing up when I use black card but I must have done it right this time because it ended up nice and clean. I popped the middle oval up on pop dots to give a little dimension and finished with a sentiment from Heart to Heart #9.

I also made a little bookmark using the same stamp to go in with the card.



Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the hop.

Hugs
Carol x

Sunday 20 January 2013

Penny Black Thank you card and organisation.

Hello everyone, and and a very warm welcome to Sweetlily Collection, Kodinhenki and Anita, who are recent new followers.

I'm sorry it has been a while but in my defence I have been busy doing some clearing out and reorganising, and having purged, I'm feeling much better and can think about creating some things again. My husband was away for a few days so I even swore off blog visiting and knuckled down to some hard work.

The main areas I wanted to reorganise were my die storage and my card storage. For ages I've had my card organised in loose colour combos such as blues and greens together in a box etc but the card was getting dog eared when I was looking for bits and I was always cutting into a new sheet of card when I had perfectly serviceable bits lower in the box. I got an idea from Ted on the PTI forum and bought lots of suspension files for my filing drawer and now every colour has its own file with a Ziploc bag hung over the back of each file for the small pieces of card that 'might come in useful'.



For my die storage, I had been using a zipped CD storage case, but every now and then it would get turned upside down and all the dies would fall and and need replacing. I had thought about storing them with the matching stamp sets but I would still need a storage system for those dies from other companies that do not have matching stamps. I bit the bullet and found a small set of plastic drawers that fit tidily under my desk and made dividers up from card I already had. It doesn't look pretty and I might change it in the future if I see something more suitable but it will do the job for now.


The top drawer has all my small PTI dies,


The next drawer has all the borders and larger dies,



and the final drawer has all my embossing folders and impression plates.


As you can see it fits beautifully under the desk in a handy position. All this was followed up with a deep clean and tidy so I can enjoy spending time in the room again.

After all this work I wanted to sit down and create something so I made this little thank you card using a Penny Black image which I have always loved but rarely use. I cut and embossed a frame to finish the card off and used diamond Stickles for the centre of the flower, which I hope will qualify me to enter this into the Cute card Thursday challenge which this time is Diamonds are Forever.

click to enlarge


Gosh this ended up being a much longer post than I anticipated, so thanks for sticking with me. I'm off now to blog hop and see what everyone has been up to whilst I was being so industrious.

Hugs
Carol x




Tuesday 8 January 2013

My Favorite Things birthday card

Hello everyone,

I don't know about you but I've been having trouble settling down to make a card since the long break over Christmas and New Year. It seems my mojo took a break and hasn't returned yet. I was so looking forward to having some time to craft but when I sat down to do it, I had no ideas and spent the time tidying up supplies and contemplating reorganising my craft space. Procrastination has always been my friend. I decided that the best way to give myself a push was to try a new challenge so after surfing for a while, I found the Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger challenge which had this picture as inspiration.



Yay, some of my favourite colours so I used PTI Hawaiian Shores and fine linen card, and stamped a spring rain gingham strip to mimic the chaise at the end of the bed. I also liked the texture on the white door so I used a stripe impression plate. For the focal point I used a stamp from My Favorite Things Gift Card Greetings that I got for Christmas.


It is hard to see in this picture but I blinged up the centre a little with some glitter



then matted it, added a couple of buttons and a tag, and finished it off with a few trailing stars.

Before I go, I thought I'd share a picture of this year's Christmas cake. I had made the cake and flat iced it when my daughter asked if she could finish the decoration, and she came up with this gorgeous star tree!


I am definitely going to save this idea for Christmas cards next year!

Thanks for stopping by


Hugs
Carol x


Tuesday 1 January 2013

Top 10 cards of 2012 and top 4 for Christmas



Hello everyone.

Happy New year to you and your families, and a very warm welcome to Victoria who is a new follower this week.

Well the festivities are over for another year and I have loved spending time with friends and family, but I won't be sorry to get back into some kind of routine. Like many of us, I have over indulged in yummy food and will be glad to get back to healthy eating in order to shift the weight that crept on over the last month or so. I will also be glad to get in some crafting time and want to use some of the gorgeous crafty gifts I received but haven't had time to play with yet.

As I haven't had time to make something new yet, and quite frankly, I feel too tired after New Years Eve celebrations to be creative, I thought I'd look over the past year and pick out my 10 favourites before moving on to some new makes for the coming year. I warn you that this is a long post and you may need a cup of coffee to sustain you on the journey - or you could just scroll quickly through to the end! There is a link to the original posting if you want to know more about each card.

I made this card in January for some friends who were going on a cruise and it was one of the first that I made using my Silhouette Cameo machine


I loved that I found a way to use the little anchor charm that had been in my stash for ages.

The next card  was made for a friends new baby


This used Papertrey Ink materials and I loved stamping the hearts to make the background. I decoupaged the baby's blanket to give a little dimension.

The next card was made for Valentine's Day and was inspired by a card I saw on Pinterest


The stamps I used belonged to a friend, but I loved them so much that I had to get them and they are now sitting in my stash!

This card was made for my friend Angie's birthday


and I really like how the bow turned out because I usually struggle to get them right.



The next card was made whilst I took an on line course in using the Silhouette Cameo.



 I was so pleased that I could make a shaped card and this seemed so right for a new baby card.

Next up is a card I made for a Papertrey Ink blog hop


I like this because I used a colour scheme that is way outside my comfort zone and mixed and matched a variety of dies

The next one is a really simple design and can be altered for so many occasions



I love the simple star embossed background - especially as the embossing folder came free on a magazine!

This card was made for the wedding of one of my oldest friends


and the tree shape was cut out on my Cameo. I was so impressed with how it can cut such intricate shapes, and I also tried colouring a button with Copic markers to make it match the colour scheme.me.



The next card was made using the Papertrey Ink zipper die


You pull up the strip that has the arrow on it and a sentiment is revealed underneath! The people at PTI are so clever.

The last of the cards is another one cut on the Cameo


I had great fun cutting the birdcage aperture and frame, and trying to get the cage to have some dimension. But most of all I loved putting the two little birds in the cage! I'm still not too sure about the colour scheme though but they were the colours we were asked to use for the challenge.

I made a lot of Christmas cards this year, but for the first time I made multiples of some of them.

 This one was particularly easy to replicate 


using punched circles and the stamped crackle background.

I discovered a love for the PTI colour 'scarlet jewel' this year and used it on this card


I love how rich and bold it is.

The next card was also easy to batch make and was made with a bird stamp that was not from a Christmas set.


I gave him a party hat and some notes to sing.

My final card was in my last post and is a favourite because it included stamps and dies sent to me by Ann and introduced me to a new (to me) Company called Wplus9


as well as the lovely scarlet jewel colour again.

Thank you for staying with me and for all your kind comments and encouragement over the past year.

Hugs
Carol x

PS I just realised that every single card used Papertrey Ink materials of some kind. I truly am addicted and admit to my problem!!!!

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