Happily Ever After

The current challenge at CD Sundays is Happily Ever After and this immediately made me think of our old friends The Wrinklies from La Pashe. This image is "2 Peas in an iPod" which I printed from the CD "The Wrinklies" but is also available as a single decoupage sheet or a download.

I lightly distressed the edges of the backing card and paper to give a "frayed sheets" feel to the card.

Indian Summer

Several years ago, while on holiday in the USA, I treated myself to a K&Co 12 x 12 pad that is so gorgeous I can hardly bear to cut into it. I get it out for a project and find myself just stroking the papers and putting it away again - the result being that hardly any of it has been used.

But the hot, hot HOT colours and the slightly Asian feel of the designs made it perfect for the Indian Summer challenge at Make My Monday.

The papers have so much going on in them that it seems a pity to obscure the designs with anything else, so I simply covered a card with the most suitable part of one sheet and then cut out images from the rest of the sheet and from scraps of a couple of the other sheets. And I still have plenty of the papers left to stroke!

I'm also joining in with Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge.

The Carol Singers

 

Here is yet another design from Joanna Sheen's Victorian Christmas Cards triple CD - it is turning out to have been a very worthwhile buy!

This time I printed out a sheet of toppers, one of which had a small amount of decoupage, and used them with papers from my stash. For the first card, I took inspiration from the sketch at Crafty Creations Challenges

I think I'd have liked more layers in the decoupage on the second card - next time I use it, I think I'll print it twice and cut extra layers from the second sheet.

I'm joining in with

Crafty Creations Challenges #271 - Sketch
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Do you hear what I hear?

I'm dreaming of a Krafty Christmas

This card was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest, but as usual when I follow any kind of inspiration, my finished result bears no resemblance to the original. However the idea that triggered it all off, a Christmas Tree made from a piece of fine corrugated card, is still the same.

The card is actually part of the packaging from a pretty gift box of jams - it's amazing what craft goodies you can  pick up from bits of packaging! The "bells" are little teardrop shaped self adhesive gems that were part of one of my first ever TV shopping craft purchases, so they must be about 15 years old.

I'm joining in with

Christmas Cards all Year Round - Keep it Krafty
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - September
The Kraft Journal Make it Monday - Anything Goes

Autumn Leaves

I love Autumn, and the colours and textures are wonderful craft inspiration! This simple, rather masculine card uses die cut leaves in three very different textures. Although the photo doesn't really show it, the top one is pearlescent, the middle one is coffee-grounds card and the bottom one a very high gloss metallic.

I'm playing along at:

CASology week 112 - Three
Cards4Guyz challenge 35 - Clean and Simple
Just Us Girls #257 - Word Week - Leaves
Curtain Call Challenge - Lovely Leaves

Fanfare!

The music die cut I've used on this card always makes me think of a fanfare - the stave getting bigger towards the right makes it look as if it's getting louder too!

I made the background by die cutting a large circle from scrap paper and then sponging yellow ink around it, dragging it out from  the mask to give a suggestion of a sunburst effect . I often have problems holding shapes  in place while sponging, but I had a brainwave - I folded a piece of  removable tape into a loop, stuck to itself at the end and sticky side out, and used this to hold the mask in place. It came away cleanly with no sticky residue.

I stamped the treble clefs and notes before removing the mask, then after removing it I had a disaster - I dropped a black ink pad inky side down onto the card! Try as I might, I couldn't remove or hide the inky mess, so I had to start all over again.

I'm joining in with the "Black and white and one colour" challenge at CAS on Sunday.

Chocolate Mint

This week there's a colour challenge at Less is More - the chosen colours are Chocolate and Mint. Here's my card for the challenge, made using one of my all-time favourite dies.