An Elegant and Simple Card

Whilst wandering around 'blogland' last week I noticed a card that was elegant and simple, but I thought was also really stunning. Trouble is I can't remember whose blog it was on :(. The idea was to use the backing paper as the main part of the card, and just add a few flat backed jems to add a bit of sparkle.

The card that I saw stuck in my mind as one that was really effective. I know I had some pretty papers in my stash, but wasn't sure how to use them until I realised that they would look fab with some flat back gems added to the middle of the flowers. So this is my take on the the effect of adding gems to flowers, and of course a bit of ribbon and a butterfly.

The papers are from the Henbury Lane pack that I have, and I think they are really pretty. I'll be looking through the rest of my backing papers, to see if I can use any more like this.



I'd like to enter these cards into the following challenge:

I Did it Creations Challenge - Keep it Simple
Flutter By Wednesdays Challenge - All Winged Things
Darling Cardmakers - There's Something in the Air

A New Style of Card

I love experimenting with different cards that I see around 'blogland' and have been following Helen at Its All Fiddle Fart for a while now, as I am in ore with what she does with her finds from poundland and accessorize. I love the newspaper style cards that she does and the 9 square ones that she does with puff stickers.

So over the last few nights I have been having a play, and have made some gorgeous cards (well I think they are but my OH doesn't).

First of all I wanted to try out one of Helen's newspaper style card, as my neice is 18 in October, and I had the perfect embellishments to make one, so this is what I have made.

Now that I have sussed the layout and what I am doing using publisher, it will be really easy for me to do other cards like this and just change the wording and background colours.

Jennifer is not a girly pink kind of girl, so I did struggle a bit with the colours, but think that the end result looks great.

I can't for the life of me think where I bought the embellishments from, but if I ever remember I would definitely buy some more, as I think that most young women would love a card like this.

I'd like to enter this card into this fortnights MSE challenge set by Jellybaby21, which was to use either a cow or makeup. One of the 3d embellishments is a lipstick, another is a powder puff (I think) and the third is a bottle of perfume, so I hope these count for the challenge. I'd also like to enter it into this weeks.

The other style of card I love is Helen's '9 square' one using puff stickers. Having found a fab shop in Poole on holiday back i the summer, I came across a fair few 'puff stickers' that I couldn't resist buy since they were only 69p a pack. Here are 3 cards that I have put together using them and I have the same amount of stickers to do another 3 cards.

My First Step Card

I've been itching for ages to make a step card, but didn't really like the usual shape one, because the images that I have never look quite right when I've tried a mock up one.

Having won a blog challenge Top 3 at Sew Many Cards Challenge this week, I was able to choose 3 of their digi Stamps. I spent ages on their website trying to decide which images to have, and in the end I saw this bear with balloons and knew it would make a perfect image for my friends little boys who is 1 in November.

So I trawled You Tube last night and found the perfect step card for me to try, made out of one piece of A4 card. I manged to make it right the first time of trying, and found the cuts and folds very easy to do.

I have used some plain blue card to back the papers and image, and the paper came from the huge stack I got from WH Smith a while ago, and I thought went perfectly with the blue card I was using.

I coloured the image in promarkers, and added glossy accents to the balloon, the light pink of the paws and the bears nose. The letters, stars and No. 1 were all cut on the craft robo.

I love the unusual shape of this card, and although putting it together was quite time consuming, I will definitely be making more for both boys and girls for special birthdays.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Creative Cottage Challenge - Boy's Challenge
Stamps R Us Challenge - Child's Birthday
Secret Crafters Challenge - Anything Goes
One Stitch at a Time - Birthdays

Autism Awareness - Rainbows

There is a fab rainbow challenge on both the One Stitch at a Time Blog, and the I Did it Creations Blog to promote Autism Awareness.

Jack and I sat and made this card together - he coloured the image in rainbow colours with my promarkers, and I stuck the ribbon and matts together for the card.

We were out shopping in our local ribbon shop and both spotted the rainbow ribbon and said together that that would look fab on a card.


So we would like to enter this card into the following Challenges:

One Stitch At A Time - Rainbows
I Did It Creations Challenge - Autism Awareness

An Altered Folder

It isn't very often that I alter something, with all the stash that I have here, but a friends little girl was 6 last week, and when I asked my friend what I could give her daughter as a present, she said that Angelina would love some craft bits and pieces, so maybe I could put a few things together for her, as she is a very crafty and creative little girl.

So I started with an expandable folder, that had 5 pouches inside, from Poundland:


Then I added a couple of 'matted' card, and few bits and pieces, and some die cut letters done on the craft robo in silver viynl, and this is the finished result.


Angelina and her mum loved the outside of the folder as well as the contents, which I have to admit that by the time I had put all the stash in the folder it wouldn't do up! I got a bit carried away, and gave Angelina a lot of pretty papers, cards and embellishments, and I can't wait to see how she uses them.

To go with the folder I made Angelina a 'Name Card', cut on the craft robo in ivory linen card, with a gold mat, and punched flowers with pink gems.

I'd like to enter the folder and card into Crafty Fairies current challenge - to use die cut alphabets, and the Southern Girls Challenge - Anything Goes.
I'd like to enter the card into the Paper Romance Challenge - Clean and Simple.

A card for Grandparents Day - or in my boys case 'Nanna Day'

Whilst blog hopping the other day I saw that it was 'Grandparents Day', this coming Sunday. Unfortunately now, my boys only have Nanna's and because my mum is always doing things for the kids, and sending them letters and postcards on a regular basis from wherever she goes, I thought it would be nice to make a card, that the boys can send to her - it is also another excuse to make another card!

My mum loves green, and I love swirls so I put the two together and came up with this:

The paper is from the Henbury Lane pack that I have been using a lot lately and I have backed it onto some jade green card.

I love this sketch (and have no idea where I saw it first), but it is one that I always end up going back to time and time again.

I didn't really have any stamped images that would have been a little more appropriate, ie bears with flowers (used that one the other week for a thank you card for my mum), so went for one, that she will recognised as our cat 'May' can often be found in the garden sitting on top of some empty pots we have.

Not sure what the image is or where it came from, no doubt a freebie, but I have coloured it in with promarkers and added some glossy accents to the butterfly, red heart and flower heads. It is the first time I have used this product and I love it! I think that the pearls give it a finishing touch.

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

Sew Many Cards Challenge - Grandparents Day
A Spoonful of Sugar Challenge - to use an an animal on your project
Catch the Bug Challenge - Dog days of summer
Your Next Stamp - anything goes
365 Cards - All Creatures Great and Small

A Couple of Boys Cards

My youngest son, had a party to go to this Saturday and another one next Saturday, so I have had to make a couple of boys cards. Lucky for me the boys are both football made, so I found making these cards real easy, and quite simple to do.

I loved the image for this first one which I was sent by the Jo over on MSE, and has been coloured with Promarkers.

The colours of the kit are supposed to represent Arsenal FC.

The image was matted onto some plain red card, and the strip paper was a from a huge paper stack that I got a while ago, and which again was matted onto some plain red card.

The card sentiment is from Craftwork Cards.

This second card is made for next week's party, and was made from an A6 card, using exactly the same backing papers and matting as the first card.

This image was given to me by the lovely Angie from MSE, and again the child is an Arsenal fan, so I have coloured the image with promarkers to match the team kit.

The sentiment again is from Craftwork cards.

I'd like to enter these cards into the following Challenges:

Digistamps4Joy - photo inspirations (stripy paper)
Karber Weekly Challenge - card for a boy
Ooh La La Creations Challenge - stripes
StampsRUs Challenge - child's birthday card
Meljens Challenge - stripes

Girly Pink Card

I have so many birthdays coming up that I need to start making a card or two each night for the next week to get them all done.

I've had a play tonight, and followed the sketch on Card Pattens to create this gorgeous card.

Although the photo makes the card and papers I have used look red, the larger of the two papers is in fact a fushia kind of pink and the spotty one pale pink to match the organza flowers. The backing papers are Henbury Lane 'Perfect Summer Days', and both of them are quite glittery. I have used my Friskas punch on one of the mats, and my plain and scalloped squares to make a mat for the butterfly. I've added some deep pink and pale pink bling to the middle of the butterfly to give it some sparkle. As usual the butterful was cut on the craft robo.

This card certainly wasn't one of my quickest makes, with all the matting I have done, but it certainly has to be one of my favourite recent makes. I have so many pretty papers left in the Henbury Lane pack, that I will be making up some more of these.

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

Craft Fairies Challenge - scalloped squares
Card Patterns - Sketch 80
Pollycraft Challenge - Add a little nature
Anything Goes Challenge - Say it with flowers
One Stitch At A Time - Blooms, Butterflies, Bling - i've used all three!
Aly's Sunday Challenge - Pretty In Pink
Cowgirls Sunday Challenge - Anything Goes
Alphabet Challenge - S for Scallops (there is a little one behind the butterfly
Alice in Wonderland Challenge - Sparkle and Shine
Craft Your Days Away - girly n glittery

Black & White Christmas Card

Over on MSE Fifi Folle has set a challenge to use black and white on a card, so I have come up with this card, using my new sizzix embossing folder.

I love this folder, and have added a bit of bling to each of the trees to give it a bit of definition. I have then matted it onto a bit of silver and black onto an A6 card.

I didn't think that anything else was need as the trees in themselves are very elegant.

Really like the simplicity of this card, and as it only took about 15 minutes to put together (that is very quick for me!) I will be making some more of these to send to family and friends this year. The bling was some of the art stickers that I got in the Works shop the other day, and the smallest gems fit perfectly into the Christmas Trees. I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Crafty Creations - White and One other colour
Creative Cottage - Celebrations
The Secret Crafters Saturday Challenge - Clean and Simple
2 Sisters Challenge - Monochromatic
Bee Crafty - Anything Goes

New Home Card

I loved this card the first time I made it back in January this year and needed to make a new home card. So today I have made another one.

The colours are gorgeous in real life, lots of pinks and spotty brown paper.

The image is beautiful and was a freebie quite a while ago, I think from Creative Cottage.

I think it is perfect for a new home card.

I'd like to enter it into Craft Fairies current challenge to use scalloped circles on a project, and also this weeks Allsorts Challenge - New Beginnings.