Vintage Love at CD Sundays

It's tine for our new challenge at CD Sundays, and this time our theme is Vintage Love.

I've used my newest CD for this card, one called Steampunk Beauty from Magik Graphics. 

The floral punched border is made with a folded piece of card, so it is hinged to fold flat when the card is closed (not that a card with this many flowers and pearls ever folds VERY flat!) and that means there is an option to display the card without raising the border.

The image, papers and sentiment are from the CD, all the other elements are bits and bobs from my stash.

I would like to share this with Craft Rocket Challenge - Love

An Anti-Valentine card

As I'm sure you know by now, romantic designs just aren't ME (although look out for one on here tomorrow, just to prove me a liar)  so I have a bit of a struggle at this time of year when so many challenges are based around Valentine's Day.

I've made this card for this month's challenge at Naughty or Nice. I generally like to make a card specifically for that challenge and that alone, but I'm sure the lovely ladies there will forgive me  for entering this one into several challenges so that I can stick the pink ink and heart stamp at the back of a drawer until this time next year!

OK, let's get on and get this out of the way.....

Well, it's got hearts on it hasn't it???

The heart stamp is a very old magazine freebie, probably getting on for 10 years old. I stamped it randomly over the card to make a background. Now normally for random stamping I would do it freehand rather than using the Misti, but the Brilliance Radiant orchid ink I was using is very pale and an almost-solid image link this really  needs to be stamped twice over, so it had to be the Misti. Instead of moving the stamp around, I moved the piece of card, popping a scrap of clear acetate over  the stamping while I lined it up each time to avoid having to clean and dry the stamp every time I moved things around. Stamping the image first on the background grid paper also helped me to line up the images that I stamped over the edge.

When the ink was dry, I used Memento ink to stamp the gloriously unromantic sentiment from So Suzy stamps over the background, then edged it all with more pink (shudder) and stuck it to the base card.

I am sharing this with

Naughty or Nice - All Loved Up (naughty, of course)

 

Just Add Ink - Romance 

Retro Rubber - Love, Love, Love   - inspired by the bold black sentiment on the pink and white background


Creative With Stamps - Heart 

House of Cards - Valentine Background and/or colours

   

RECIPE - Ham and cheese bites

Hardly really a recipe, more of a simple assembly job, but it used up some odds and ends in the fridge and came out delicious, so I thought I'd share it as my food posts have become very scarce.

You will need
- the left overs from a pack of ready made puff pastry - I used about a quarter of a pack
- 1 slice lean cooked ham, finely chopped
- about 1 tablespoon finely grated Parmesan cheese

Heat the oven to 200C (180 fan), 400F, gas mark 6.

Roll out the pastry quite thinly into a rectangle, scatter with the ham and cheese then roll up tightly and slice into pieces 7-10 mm thick.

Arrange on a baking sheet covered in non stick paper (I gave each one an artistic twist in the middle but they untwisted themselves while cooking, so don't bother being arty)

Bake in the hot oven for 10-12 minutes until well risen and golden. 

Cool (if you can bear to wait) and serve as a nibble with drinks.

No need for any brushing with egg, that would stop the pastry from rising as well, but you may want to seal the long edge of the roll with water - as you can see, I didn't because I thought that twist that untwisted itself was going to hold everything in place.

As this was a real fridge-clearer I'm sharing it with Kitchen Clearout at Madhouse Family Reviews

Band of butterflies

I made this card using a lovely Fiskars border stamp that had never seen ink before.

I wanted to get a crimson colour but I didn't want to emboss it, and I didn't have the right shade so I stamped the design once in a very bright red then again in Aged Mahogany distress ink (thank goodness for stamping platforms that enable us to do such things!). I added a gingham ribbon border and mounted it as a panel on my card, on which I had used the same two-pad stamping to add the sentiment.

It all looked just a tiny bit TOO CAS so I added a couple of punched butterflies as a finishing touch.

I'm sharing this with
Butterfly Challenge - Spin the wheel (no prizes for guessing I chose Crimson and Checks!)
A Bit More Time To Craft - anything goes
Sweet Stampin' - Anything but a birthday
Mix it Up - Anything goes + Clean and Simple

Buzz Buzz Buzz

Three buzzes for three bees!

First of all I used the First Edition Bee Happy die set to cut the sentiment from black card, the honeycomb from patterned paper and the flowers from white paper.  Then I used Brilliance inks to lightly tint the flowers and leaves.

I used the die cuts to help me plan the positions of the bees and stencilling o the card, then stamped the bee, from the Craft Consortium Tell The Bees stamp set,  three times on the card and three on scrap paper for masks.

I masked the bees and used yellow and light tan inks to stencil the honeycomb around the top and sides of the card, then attached the die cuts, coloured in the bees with markers and Stickles and matted the whole thing onto black then onto the base card.

I am sharing this with

C.R.A.F.T. - 3 of something
2 Crafty Critter Crazies - anything goes with a creature
A Bit More Time To Craft Extra - Anything Goes
Crafting By Designs - Things With Wings   
Love to Craft - Anything Goes

Bear and Balloons

I've made this card using stamps that were a freebie with Making Cards magazine a year or two ago.

After stamping the bear, I masked him to stamp the balloons (because I didn't want the poor little bear to get his snout tangled up in the strings) then coloured him in with Promarkers, using a blender to remove a little of the ink to form a highlight on the balloons. Then I cut him and some matching layers out with Gummiapan nesting rectangle dies and added a die cut sentiment, using a First Edition Happy Birthday die. The die doesn't include a dot for the "i". Now I know they are fiddly but an undotted i looks all wrong, so i found a tiny green gem to do the job. I finished with an assortment of buttons including a couple of really sweet shaped ones - but  is it just me, or is that bear button wearing a hamburger on his head?

I am sharing this with

Cuttlebugmania - Happy Birthday
Little Red Wagon - Birthday Balloons
Addicted to Stamps and More - Make Your Mark
Use Your Stuff - Button Up
Watercooler Wednesday - Anything Goes

   

Outdoor Fun at Sparkles Christmas

It's time for a new challenge at Sparkles Christmas  and this time out theme is Outdoor Fun - Christmas related of course!

My card is made using some of the pre-printed sheets that came as a gift with the CD "Through the year with Seraphina" but I think all the elements are on the CD too. I've added some adhesive snowflakes that I was pleasantly surprised to find in Lidl of all places!

I am sharing this with

Fab and Funky - Christmas
Crafty Gals Corner - Anything Goes
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - February