Going to the dogs

I had a lovely old rummage in my bits box for this card, as you can see! I think the papers were originally from a Craftwork Cards goody bag and I've teamed them with some doggy-style ribbon and the stamped Little Claire's "We 6 dogs" image, coloured with Promarkers.

I am sharing this with

Addicted to Stamps and More - Make Your Mark 
The Male Room - Multiple Layers
Passion for Promarkers - Four Legged Friends  

Blast from the past

Remember peel-off stickers? They were everywhere when I first started cardmaking and I still have hundreds of sheets of the things, some of them about 25 years old now.  I still use borders and corners quite often, and occasionally sentiments, but the others are mostly just gathering dust and some of them really deserve to be taken out and shown the light of day again.

As I'm sure you know, I love anything Charles Rennie Mackintosh inspired so it's no surprise several sheets of stickers in my collection are in that style - here i've used many of the elements from one such sheet.

I am sharing this with

Use Your Stuff - Stickers  

Little Red Wagon - Much ado about nothing 

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers challenge #138 - Birds and the Bees

It's B is for the Birds and the Bees at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers,  so we would like to see birds, bees, both or of course the euphemistic "Birds and the Bees" on your work.It looks as if Edna's been busy with the whole lot!

I've chosen to go the whole hog; bird, bee AND euphemism:

I'm currently mildly addicted to stamping on kraft card with Versamark ink, the watermark effect it produces is so pronounced, so I've used that for most of my stamping, with the addition of a black bee and a few strokes of pencil.

The bird has obviously just been explaining to the bee all about the "birds and the bees"  and the bee is thoroughly unimpressed with the idea! I made the sentiment using an old kiddies letter stamp set that my daughter had when she was a little girl.

Late to the Christmas party

Sorry, friends, I'm late for Rudolph Day this month - mind you I do have a good excuse!

We've just had a really lovely few days away in Dorset, you can read all about it (and see his wonderful photos) over on Mark's blog but just to whet your appetite, here's a picture of the view from our hotel bedroom window.

Anyway, I'm home now and crafting again, and once again I've been using some of the gorgeous products from the new Christmas ranges that Hunkydory sent me to review.  The products are now available on their site, along with lots of inspiration photos.

First of all I made a card using the Winter Warmers range.

I folded A4 white card into an A5 landscape orientation card and cut away all but the top 2cm of the front, and replaced it with a piece of figured acetate (it actually has a lovely sparkle that doesn't show in the photo) from my stash. I carefully cut the border from a sheet of poinsettia card and used it to cover the upper edge of the card, and trimmed the snowflake-patterned remaining part of the sheet to line the inside of the card, matting it onto gold mirri. A topper and sentiment from the poinsettia topper sheet complete the card.

I am sharing this with
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Snowflake or anything goes.
Rudolph Day at Scrappymo's

-o0o-

Next up, a card made using the  1st Little Square Book of Christmas

The outside is very simple - one page from the book matted onto deep burgundy card. Inside I've used the same burgundy card to create a pop-up insert. I cut the archway from four more sheets of the image and used 3-d adhesive to build up the layers. Then I cut out the Holy Family and the sky from one of the sheets and attached it to the pop up. I used the remaining images to make decoupage layers, removing a thin strip from the bottom of each so as not to prevent the card from folding at the hinge, and built up the layers with 3-d adhesive.
Finally I added a simple stamped sentiment layered with teal and cream.
Naturally because of all the decoupage, the card doesn't fold completely flat when closed but I love the combination of pop up and decoupage so much that it makes up for it!

I am sharing this card with

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Pop up
Watercooler Wednesday - All about occasions 

-o0o-

Finally, the Wonderful Wintertime collection and I chose a Santa and reindeer image to make one of my favourite card folds, a double easel with diagonal card.

All that silver on the card is glitzy enough but I added extra sparkle with some gems.

I'm sharing this with

Jingle Belles - Snow Much Fun 
Christmas Kickstart - Glitter, Sparkle and Shine 
Just us Girls - Fancy Fold 

Disclaimer - the Christmas products were supplied by Hunkydory Crafts for me to review, all other products used and all card designs are my own.

An explosion card at Back to Basics

It's time for our new challenge at Back to Basics and this time we would like to see an explosion card. If you haven't made one before, or don't know what they are, there's a handy You Tube video here that explains how to make one.  They are a fun card to send as the inside opens out to be bigger than the outside, leaving the recipient puzzled about how that happened!

 Here is the outside of my card....

 ...and here is the inside.

and here I've combined the photos so you can see inside and outside together. 

Otterly adorable!

I won this adorable little sea otter stamp and die set over at the playground a year or so back. Every time I use it, it brings back happy days of a holiday in California where we stayed a couple of nights in Monterey, famous for the number of sea otters living there. We'd been wondering, as we headed down the coast from San Francisco,  whether we would be lucky enough to see any - we needn't have worried, the place was teeming with them!

I stamped the otter, gift and sentiment onto snippets of card and die cut them, coloured the otter and gift with Promarkers and attached them to a card that I had added a "wavy" border to by using a die as a template and drawing along it.

I'm sharing this with

Shopping Our Stash - You're so punny  

Passion for Promarkers - Beautiful Borders 

Pixie's Snippets Playground - challenge 355 

CD Sundays #13 - Anything goes

It's time for our latest Anything Goes challenge at CD Sundays - and don't forget that CD element!

Today i've used the Pollyanna Pickering CD "A Walk on the Wild Side".  The two images and main background are from one of the large card design sheets, and I've added layers from two of the co-ordinating backing papers and a stamped sentiment.

Awesome spots

Sometimes even a CAS one layer card  can involve several processes - this is one of those. 

First of all I stamped the sentiment in the centre of the card. Then I masked the card edges and placed the spotty stencil from Uniko over the front. I sponged Versamark ink around the edges, leaving a roughly circular space around the sentiment. Next I removed the stencil and sprinkled  Ranger sticky embossing powder over  the card. I heat embossed it then brushed a gold mica pearl powder over the still-sticky embossed dots. Finally I burnished the card with a tissue to remove the pearl residue.

I am sharing this with

CAS Stencil challenge -  Perfect pearls/Pearl-ex 

Less is More - One layer, spots 

Jolly Pizza Chef

I've had this cute chef digi from The Paper Shelter for absolutely AGES  and have finally got around to using him.

I printed and coloured him, fussy cut and then teamed him with some food related peel offs from a very old HOTP sticker set and lots of odds and ends from my snippets box. I thought the spotty red  corrugated card was rather reminiscent of pizzas. the blue and white stripey paper made me think of a chef's apron  and that scrap of printed paper is actually a reproduction page from a very old recipe book. The recipe is for pickled sturgeon with lobster patties (well, fturgeon and lobfter in the old style of writing) so none of your cheap and cheerful stuff!

I'm sharing him with

Pixie's Snippets Playground  Challenge #354 

The Male Room - Cooking and Baking 

Watercooler Wednesday - Masculine Anything Goes 

Vintage Santa

Apart from being vintage/shabby chic in appearance, the topper I've used on this card is so old it's practically a vintage item itself! It's from a couple of sheets of printed images that a friend sent me in a postal swap over 20 years ago.

I am sharing this with

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - non traditional colours or anything goes 

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Shabby or vintage 

Fab'n'Funky - Christmas 

Butterfly and roses

You'll have seen this stamp set on here many, many times - it was a magazine freebie  some time ago - about 5 or 6 years I think: in fact I believe it has lasted a good deal longer than the magazine which closed down a few years back. Sometimes I find that magazine stamps aren't such good quality as bought ones  and they tend to go mushy or "melt" in places after a year or two. Given the price and the fact that they are usually high fashion themes that we lose interest in after a few months, that's not generally a problem but I am so, SO glad that these stamps have survived as I love Charles Rennie Mackintosh's designs  and ones inspired by his work.

I've used the stamps to create a gatefold card, using the colours suggested at the current Butterfly challenge of Gold, Granny Smith and Gunmetal (apologies, Mrs A, I couldn't really work gems or gingham into this particular card!)

I coloured the images with Promarkers, blending Sunflower and Lime to match the colour of the gold card, and used a fine liner to rule corners and partial frames on the panels.

I am sharing this with

The Butterfly challenge - spin the wheel with the letter G 

Addicted to Stamps and More - Anything Goes 

Retro Rubber - Anything Goes 

Sparkles Monthly Challenge - No Patterned Paper 

Review - Hunkydory's Christmas ranges.

I'm very excited to have been given a sneak preview of the 2019 Hunkydory Christmas products which will soon be available to buy. I was sent a selection of products in exchange for an honest review - all opinions are my own as are the designs I have created and the other materials I used.

First up, the "Winter Warmers" pack, a collection of sheets of toppers, sentiments, frames and embellishments with co-ordinating printed card. The themes are traditional festive designs such as Christmas trees, festive feasts, stockings and robins in rich, traditional colours of red, green and gold with lots of opulent gold foiling. The pack promises to make "at least" 20 cards but I think in reality it would make around twice that number.

Everything is printed on Adorable Scorable card. Normally with such richly printed card I would eke it out by matting and layering it onto a plain background, but I wanted to test the scorability  and the double borders on the background card I chose were perfect for a centre stepper  card.

I wasn't disappointed - it really does score and fold beautifully with no dimpling or puckering along the folds, and holds its shape when folded so the card doesn't flop down once the weight of the topper is added. I chose the beautiful robin topper and frame, and was pleased to find some peel off corners in my stash that echoed the curves of it and provided a perfect finishing touch.

Next, the "Wonderful Wintertime" collection,  a selection of more "outdoorsy" designs featuring winter wildlife, snow scenes, snowmen and churches, in cool winter colours featuring blues, whites and lilacs with lots of silver  foiling. This is my favourite of the collections and I know I will return to it over and over again. I fell in love with this pretty deer design and had to use it straight away!

The design of the background card meant it was perfect for a tri-fold card, but this time instead of scoring the card itself, I decided to mat it with silver onto a white background to pick up the silver borders on the toppers and sentiments. I did, however, make use of the scorability  by adding the little surprise of a pop-out sentiment!

The final product I was sent to try out is "The First Square Little Book of Christmas", a 12 cm x 12cm stack with 150 pages featuring 25 different designs. Some of the designs also feature in the "Winter Warmers" pack - others are varied in style with several very modern themes such as unicorns and several designs suitable for children. There's something for everyone here!

Being paper rather than card, the designs are perfect for decoupage as there are six sheets of each so you can use as many layers as you like, but for my first play with the pad I decided to make a fold-back card.

I hand cut the circle from two pages (I am hopeless at lining up dies on circular designs, or I might have die cut it instead!) plus the inner circle from one more page. and used them on both the inside and the outside, making sure they line up exactly when the card is closed, with the inner circle raised on foam pads on the card front.

I have really enjoyed working with these products and am looking forward to creating more cards with them - especially the "Wonderful Wintertime" collection which could have been designed for me!

Happy Birthday Lara

Today is my oldest granddaughter's 10th birthday. She's an avid reader - she asked for books, books and more books for her birthday - so I wanted to make a card using my old Bookatrix scoring board. And as she's a Harry Potter fan, I decided to give it a Harry Potter theme.

I found it quite hard to source Harry Potter themed images and papers, but eventually managed to find a download on etsy (I've since found out that Polkadoodles have some too). I used some pages from an actual Harry Potter book as some of the book pages. For the bookmark down the centre, I would have really liked to use some red and yellow horizontal striped ribbon but this read and cream vertical striped was the nearest I could find.

I made a box for the card and used some paper from the download plus the Hogwarts crest from the book to decorate the lid.

Washi tape at Cardz 4 Guyz

It's new challenge day at Cardz 4 Guyz   and today we would like you to use some Washi tape on your card.

I've used several designs of black and white tape - I love the vintage moustache one! And to go with the vintage feel I've added a die cut penny-farthing bicycle and a sentiment stamped in matching dark red.

I am sharing this with
Allsorts Challenge - Travel 

Blue lighthouse

I've been having another play with the wonderful sea themed stamps in the latest issue of Creative Stamping - this time I've gone for a very CAS style by keeping it monochrome.

I stamped the lighthouse scene on watercolour paper using a water based blue stamp (it's actaully a Marvy Matchables pad that must have been in my stash for 25 years and is showing no signs of drying out yet!) then used a wet paintbrush to tease out the colour from the stamping into the areas I wanted coloured. I die cut the image before stamping the flock of gulls, to make sure they were in the right place to balance the lighthouse and didn't get chopped off in the middle.

Next I cut a strip of turquoise blue card and stamped and heat embossed the sentiment on it. I positioned the topper and strip on the base card to make it look as if the blue horizon extended out to the edge of the card.

I am sharing this with

The Library Challenge - to the Lighthouse 
Little Red Wagon - Sea It!  
CAS Watercolour - Something Blue  


AAA  Birthday (a new challenge and the first time I've played) - Use Water Colours

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers challenge #137 - Menopause

I think Edna must be getting hot flushes this week, because over at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers she's asked us for makes that celebrate (?)  the menopause!

Well, that fan will sort out those hot flushes, won't it?

One common feature of menopause is weight gain. Now here is an advantage to having been very fat all your life - the extra few pounds don't really show if you are already carrying rather a lot of them!

However they are still enough to upset my Acid drops and Whatnots lady!

So why don't you head over to the Sisterhood and share your snarky ideas about menopause (just a hint, if you are having trouble thinking of ideas, try searching Pinterest for "menopause humour")  - you may be crowned Queen or Princess of Snark.

More bees

When I posted this card the other day,  little did I know that just a couple of hours later the new Twofers theme would be announced as BEES.  Well, that saved me from having to tidy up the craft table, didn't it? I could use the same stamp set, the same stencil and most of the same inks.

The first card is a birthday card.

I stamped it with Memento ink and coloured it with pencils. I am sharing this card with Watercooler Wednesdays - All About Occasions. 

For the second card I used the stencil and shades of tan and yellow ink to make the background and edged it with black peel off borders. I stamped and heat embossed the bee across a strip of card and coloured it with markers and Stickles then added peel off borders and stuck it across my card. Finally I added a die cut sentiment.

I am popping back to Shopping Our Stash for a second entry into the Stencil Me This challenge

And finally the two cards together:

I am, of course, sharing this (hopefully) not-so-gruesome twosome with The Twofer Card Challenge 


And I'm also popping back to Country View Challenges for a second bite of the cherry in the It's a Bug's Life challenge

Awesome sunflowers

It's almost my daughter's birthday (ssh! She doesn't read my blog, so don't tell her I've already shared her card!) and  nearly every year I make her a sunflower themed card. This year I've paired with with a sentiment that uses one of her favourite words - Awesome.

The sunflower stamp is a very old Rubber Stampede stamp, stamped repeatedly over the background card and then coloured with Promarkers. The sentiment is from an Altenew set - I stamped and heat embossed it onto vellum then tore a strip to fit across the front of the card.

I am sharing this with

Fab'nFunky - June Blooms

Make my Monday - Lots of Flowers 

The Flower Challenge - Focus on background stamping 

Nail Polish technique at Back to Basics

Today at Back to Basics, our challenge is to use the Nail Polish Technique, where nail polish is floated on water and heavyweight watercolour paper dipped in it to create marble patterns. Our main challenge post includes a link to a video that will help you if you haven't tried this before.

I watched several You Tube videos before I was brave enough to attempt it, but finally got myself some usable backgrounds and used this one  with some die cut silhouette flowers. I can't say it's a technique I particularly enjoyed, but it's always an interesting challenge to try something new so I hope you will have a go!

Best friends

This best friends stamp came with a magazine a couple of years ago and I don't think I will ever tire of it.

I've just bought a fun sheet of sentiment stamps from the Clearly Besotted June release and I think this one works perfectly with the image. I coloured it with Promarkers and added a suitable boozy embossed background.

I am sharing this with

Cardz 4 Galz - Foxy (ladies)
Passion for Promarkers - Make it Pink