Daring Card Makers - Cute as a Button!

It's Sharon who has set the challenge for us this week and the challenge is to make a card using buttons as a main design element. I also had a double challenge this week as I needed to make a Christening card for my cousins three little ones. I've not got a massive supply of pastel pretty baby kind of colours in my supplies and the card needed to work for both girls and boys so I decided to go for yellow and blue. For the button element I decided to make some trim with buttons on. I used some calico and tore a strip then just stitched the buttons on. I made a big long length of it so I'm thinking of making a box for the card and wrapping some more of the button trim around it.

I might also add on the names onto each of the bears I'm not certain yet but it would be nice to incorporate the names somewhere I think?

Well hope you join in with the challenge this week. Pop onto the Daring Cardmakers blog to see what the rest of the design team have been cooking up! http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

xx Leo

Daring Cardmakers - Wish you were here?

It's Daring Cardmakers time again and this week Lynda has set the challenge to come up with a summer holiday inspired card. Lynda mention caravans and it just so happens I had caravans on the brain this month! I pinned a really cute one on my pintrest board for my July inspiration so that also settled my caravan choice. I set about carving a caravan stamp from an eraser. It's something I've done before so I've had a little practice at it, (also like making lino stamps) but it is a really easy thing to have a go at and very addictive! You just need a lino cutting tool and an eraser. I sketched the design on the eraser first and then carved along the details and then carved out the shape from the edge. To test it you have to ink it then if any bits show you don't want you can carve them off.

I loved the simple naive kind of design so I kept the card design simple too. I enjoyed stamping them so much I ended up doing two cards and the caravan stamps carry on around the backs of the cards too!

I just added a little bit of washi tape and a heart stitched on with my sewing machine.

Are you playing along with us this week? Check out the Daring Cardmakers blog and play along, www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

xx Leo

Daring Cardmakers - Pintrest Inspired

Time for another Daring Cardmakers challenge! This week the design team were set the challenge by Nat to make a card inspired by the image of our own choosing from the Pintrest site. Well this one was pretty simple for me as I love Pintrest but when I came to pick my image I was totally overwhelmed for choice! I went all around pintrest typing in the search box things I loved then ended up on some pretty blogs I found via some of the images then pinned a few bits then went back onto pintrest and eventually.... I ended up with this image:

Source: papernstitchblog.com via Crafty on Pinterest

It's got a lovely fresh and clean feel while still being fun and colourful plus it's got a little bit of vintage in there so all together perfect to me!
So here's the card I've made inspired by the image above......

I used scraps of patterned paper and cut out the circle shapes using a Nestabilities pinked circles die then stitched them into garlands with my sewing machine. The greeting bit I've hand-stitched on to card with some Pink Paislee twine. I was umming and arring whether or not to put anything else on there but I decided to hold back and just keep it simple.
Pop along to The Daring Cardmakers blog and have a go at this weeks very 'pin tresting' dare!
xx Leo

Inspiration Monday

Wow, can't believe it's Monday again already that seems to have come around very quickly this week! eek! Well I've had a look around Pintrest for a image to inspire this week and I've settled on one from my own board this week:

Original image from www.marthastewartweddings.com

I just loved this idea initially of using the vintage brooches as a bouquet - (that's why I pinned it!) but when you look more into this image there's loads more to gleam from it - the colours - mixing up lots of different types of flowers and materials - just lovely! I love the idea of mixing in daisies with roses so I defo think that is going to inspire a project some time this week.

If you make anything inspired by the image this week show me show me! lol

xx Leo

Daring Cardmakers - 'Suitcase'

It's Friday! It's time for another Daring Cardmakers card. It was the turn of Rein this week who has set the following dare:

it's Rein here this week and my dare is

"SUITCASE"

I'd like you to use a suitcase in any way you like on your card.

It could be what you put in your suitcase when you're off travelling, or you could incorporate any sort of suitcase; old, new, shiny or battered into your design.

And this is what I've come up with this week...........

Funny story actually I made this card this morning about 15mins ago because I've been so busy this week with so many things rushing through my head I forgot it was Friday! Who forgets it's Friday?! I think I need a holiday! lol I grabbed my leftovers of For The Record by Echo Park because I knew I had a suitcase sticker on there so that was good to go. There's a scrap of October Afternoon paper on there too ( the crossword one). I wanted it to look more grungy so I went for a spattering of white ink, (Mr Huey Calico White). The camera is a stamp - I thought it went well with the whole travely themed birthday card. The happy bit is Thickers - got some bargain ones in the Sarahs Cards sale, these little size ones are fab for cards.

Well if you'd like to play along with this weeks dare get yourself over to Daring Cardmakers and give it a go! www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

Inspiration Monday #5

Here's this weeks inspiration Monday image I've picked out from Pintrest.........

Original image source

Love this pretty garland, how lovely would this be to hang greetings cards from! I also love the fact it's been made with washi tapes - I have a major cute tape addiction!

Daring Cardmakers - July Flowers

As it's the first week of a new month we have the birthday flowers of the month to take inspiration from this week. The flowers for July are the Larkspur and Water Lily.
Here's my card this week:

I used the Larkspur as inspiration, it has long lupin like flowers so I had a go at making that kind of shape as a branch but I wasn't getting anywhere with that so instead I focused on just one of the flowers from a close up picture and used it as inspiration to make a paper flower from handmade white paper. I used a smaller green flower to make the middle bit and squished it up then covered it in Glossy Accents and popped a couple of seed beads on top.  The bird image is a vintage book page I found on the internet and printed off. The bow I made from calico misted with Cosmic Shimmer mist. The background is a Making Memories journalling note thingy and the sticker is Crate Paper with some Adornit alphabet stickers on top.

Pop onto Daring Cardmakers to have a go at this weeks challenge, there's a prize giveaway this week too! http://www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com