Vintage Haberdashery

When I saw this morning that the new challenge at Cardz 4 Galz is  Sew and Sew,  rather unusually for me I knew exactly what I wanted to make and had to set to work straight away.

I dug out cardstock, a topper and sentiment from an old Hunkydory kit and added a die cut dress form that was sent to me by a friend and lots of haberdashery style embellishments from my stash. A bit of distressing and a bit of inking was all I needed to add.

The butterflies on the topper, along with the buttons and bow, also mean it fits the Bingo part of the theme at The Butterfly Challenge, so I'm dropping in over there too.

Stars at Cardz 4 Guyz

Today out new theme at Cardz 4 Guyz is Stars.

I've had a lot of fun creating my starry card!

I wanted to get the effect of a starry sky, so I smooshed distress ink onto acetate and rubbed my card in it, then when the card was dry, sprinkled with darker blue brushos and spritzed with water. Because I'm impatient, I  them heat dried it before applying the waste from a sheet of peel-off stars to use as a stencil and sponged grey ink through it. However maybe the heat made parts of the peel off stick more firmly than usual, because as I tried to peel it away some broke off and was stuck hard to the background. I went to get my pokey tool to pick it off with, but then thought actually it looked rather good, so I left it in place. 

I stamped the words "Rock star" (from a Studio G mini set) over the background and then made the embellishment by stamping the star circle, which I think was a Craft Stamper freebie, onto gold mirri with black Stazon and finished it with a blue gem. I had planned to put it in the centre of the blue panel, but the gold peel off waste meant that it looked better up in the corner to balance the gold at the bottom. Finally I stamped the musical stars border, I'm afraid this is a set I've had so long I can't remember the make.

I'm sharing this with
Glitter'n'Sparkle - Fathers day/masculine
Loves to Craft - Anything Goes
Mix it Up - Anything goes/Stamping  

Summertime at Ooh La La Creations

It's time for our new challenge at Ooh La La Creations and this time our theme is Summertime.

I've used an image and papers from the Paula Oakley Collection, available here , and made a large 20cm square card with them.

I wanted that central square to fit exactly when placed from corner to corner, and was up to my ears in glue when I realised I couldn't work out the size in my head, so I think Mark was a bit surprised that although I was sitting crafting I had an urgent need for him to find the square root of 200 for me! (For future reference, it's 14.14 and a square with edges that length in cm will perfectly fit diagonally onto a 20cm square card)

If you look carefully the main image has a tiny white line around it between the picture and the turquoise edge, and I wanted to replicate that, but my white gel pen didn't show up very well on some of the papers so I went for contrast and used a black fine liner instead, then distressed the edges of each piece.

Finally I added Candi to the corners, picking up the cool blue and aqua shades.

The Fridge Raider

I love this sweet stamp of a cat stealing the milk - it's an unmounted stamp that was a gift from a friend when I first started stamping, about 20 years ago, and I don't think it was new at the time, so goodness knows how old it really is!

I've coloured the kitten with Promarkers and cut it out with the Gummiapan stitched Ovals dies. The hearts, too, are cut with a Gummiapan die, and the sentiment is a Dylusions one.

For the background I stamped various "catty" bits all over some kraft, and then tried to bleach the colour out from the cats' eyes, however the bleach didn't really take on the kraft so it's left them with a slightly ghostly effect - fine for a background but I'm glad I didn't use it for a main image!

I'm getting naughty (or at least my bad kitten is) with the ladies at Naughty or Nice where it's an anything goes challenge this month,  and also playing along at Little Red Wagon where the theme is Dogs or Cats?

Sun, Sand or Sea at CD Sundays

It is Wynn's turn to choose the challenge at CD Sundays today, and the theme she has chosen is Sun or Sand or Sea.

I've used an image and papers from the lovely Creative Crafting World CD "Through the Year With Seraphina" and as I know Wynn loves fancy folds, I had a go at making a twisted gatefold card.

I used instructions from the May issue of Quick Cards Made Easy - it's a lot easier than it looks!

I would like to share this with
A Bit More Time to Craft - Anything Goes
Make My Monday - At the Beach

Quirky Crafts - mid month inspiration

It's time for our mid month update at Quirky Crafts - have you joined in yet? Our theme is Things with Wings and there are prizes to be won!

For this card I have used Winter Bird trio from Bugaboo Stamps and some retro styled paper from a pad called Contemporary Christmas - I can't see a brand name on it.

I coloured the image with Promarkers, and a few touches of stickles, and cut it with Gummiapan Stitched Ovals dies.

I love the finished card, in fact I like it so much I'm tempted to make a "batch bake" to boost the Christmas card box - after all, we're almost half way to Christmas now!

I am sharing this with
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - June
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes
Crafty hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - June  
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge - Christmas
Digi Chooseday - Anything Goes

Resist embossing

I don't know why I don't do resist embossing more often, I do love the result it gives!

The stamp I used is a very, very old unmounted red rubber stamp from a set created by Trish Bayley about 20 years ago. Does anyone remember Trish? Back before the days of the internet, she used to run a postal crafting club. I wonder if she is still around, perhaps now blogging or designing for one of the craft businesses? Anyway, the reason I chose it is because this month's challenge at Stamping Sensations is to use your favourite stamp. Now I've been stamping for many years and have a huge collection of much loved stamps that I turn to again and again, so it is very hard to say which is my favourite, but this is one of the most-used stamps in my collection so it's definitely up there in the top few! I love the almost photographic amount of detail it includes.

I stamped and embossed it with Versamark and clear ep, then sponged over with distress inks.

The background is embossed with a Crafters Companion folder.

I am sharing this with
Stamping Sensations - Your Favourite Stamp
The Flower Challenge - Anything Goes

AAA Cards - Resist Technique