Fun and Games!

This week over on Daring Cardmakers it's Rein who's in charge and has set the challenge to create a card that features some kind of game to play. What a fun idea! Here's the card I came up with:

I was pondering doing a picture match up game with stamps and tiles of cardstock but ended up doing a spot the difference. I made up the picture with stamps on a clear block then stamped it twice on squares of cardstock to make the same picture. Stamps are a mix up of Hero Arts and My Cute Stamps. All colouring with Promarkers and a little bit of patterned paper, I think they're Echo Park but they're scraps so I'm not 100% sure.
There are 5 differences in total, can you find them all? :)
Pop on over to Daring Cardmakers to see what other games the DT have come up with, http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com


x Leo

December Daily 2012

Well it's that time of year again! Can't believe it's come around again so quickly. It almost caught me off guard this year but I managed to put my book together over a couple of evenings.
I started off putting a kit of goodies together. I've been reading the Homemaker magazine last week and it had a book of vintage pattern fabric papers in along with Christmas make ideas and it gave me the idea to mix up everyday patterned papers with Christmas themed ones so I mixed up some Crate Paper Sleigh Ride, Paper Party and On Trend papers that all had a vintage look to them. I also added some papers I had in my stash from Quirky Kits, mostly from the 'Tell me more' kit. The numbers I used are from that kit, the sheet of My Minds Eye paper.

 

I think it's the easiest way to make a quick album, to start with a kit first and then work with it till there's not much left over. The bits I have got left I'm putting to one side for extra decorating once I've added the photos. The hardest bit was getting started and deciding on a size to go with. I did the 6x4 size last year so wanted to change it up this year. I ended up with 8x6" as the size for the basic book, it'll be a nice size to add Christmas cards in the back that I want to keep.

 

I started with the front and back covers which is just a two layers of paper stitched together with the sewing machine. I used a mask with mist on the back and lots of layers of papers and embellishments on the front. I'll add a piece of thick acetate over the cover to protect it once it's finished.

The pages I made up with layers of cardstock, along with some mixed up pages like an envelope, canvas, paper bag and tags stitched together.

Everything I'm just fixing together with bookrings so I can add lots to it. This is the finished book before I decorated the foundation pages.

Then these are the foundation pages done:

 

 

Lots of the embellished bits on the pages I stitched in place with my sewing machine so the edges can be lifted up and photos tucked behind them. There are pages with pockets or open parts too so I can add in bits and pieces I want to keep.

At the back I've got some journalling cards I made.

 I've added a few in the book and I've got some for spares to add after as it's filled or if I need them.

Book finished:

 

 

Looking forward to another fun December filling it up! :)

 

x Leo

Happy Birthday to Daring Cardmakers!

Big happy birthday to the Daring Cardmakers this week it's been 7 whole years since it started, can you believe that? My card for this weeks dare is above. This week it's a colour challenge set by Zuz pop on over to check out the details, http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/colour-challenge-november.html
Seven years is a whole lot of cards and a lot of fun cardmaking :)
Since I've been uploading cards to the blog for the design team I've ended up with a nice jam packed folder on my PC with all my cards I've made for Daring Cardmakers and I've just been browsing though them and remembering past dares through the cards. It's amazing how much the dares/challenges can make you think up ideas you totally wouldn't have on your own. They help to stretch boundaries of the content of your cards and the materials you're using, well for me they do anyway ;-)
I've picked out my favourite cards from my Daring Cardmakers folder and as I'm currently trying to put together some Christmas holiday cards I'm going to use them as inspiration for the cards I'm currently making. How about you, do you have a favourite set or 'top ten' fave cards you've made for the Daring Cardmakers?
x Leo

In no particular order, (well alphabetical since they're in the PC folder that way) Top 10 Favourite Daring Cardmakers Cards, (well from the last couple of years anyway).

10

Dare to make a 'rocking' card.

9

Dare was to make a card that wasn't Christmas themed but used Christmas stash

8

Dare to make a card featuring another language.

 

7

Dare to make a card inspired by an image on Pinterest

6

Dare to make a card featuring something to do with camping, (I think).

 

5

Dare to make a card featuring goodies from Tea House Bridge.

4

Dare to make a card inspired by Marie Antoinette

 

3

Dare to make a card inspired by Damien Hirst

 

2

Dare was to make a card with at least three natural materials, (feather, wool felt and wood).

 

1

Dare was to use washi tape on a card.

 

 

June Colour Combo

This week on Daring Cardmakers it's the June Colour Combo. It's Nat's choice and Nat has chosen red, white and blue. :)
I went with a party theme and made a little bag of confetti from punched out red, white and blue cardstock and a star punch then arranged it on the card blank with some paper scraps, (Crate Paper Storyteller and Paper Heart). I'm on a mission to use up lots of alphabet stickers too so I've been keeping hold of the same ones in my scraps box to keep using. I've used a mix up of Jenni Bowlin, Pink Paislee and 3 Dots Studio ones here.

I'm sure they'll be lots of red, white and blue crafting going on this jubilee week so please pop on over to Daring Cardmakers, www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com and share what you're making with us!
x Leo

May Colour Combo

It's the first week of the month and so that means it's colour combo time for the Daring Cardmakers :)
Keilly has provided the colour palette this month, check out the challenge here, http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

Here's what I've come up with for this week:

I started by pulling out as similar colours from my paper scraps as I could find to the colour palette. There's a mix up of Papermania, Pink Paislee, American Crafts and Crate Paper papers. I used Bazzill cardstock for the base card. I'm making mood boards this week and that crept into the design for this card too with the layering and the tacking on bits and pieces.

Don't forget to have a go yourself this week. The colour combinations are a great starting point to get you digging into your older supplies and maybe mixing them up with newer bits and pieces.

Have fun!

x Leo

Tag, you're it!

This week over on Daring Cardmakers it's Gez who has come up with the challenge and we had to incorporate a tag in our projects. We were also very lucky to receive some lovely button and resin embellishment goodness from Tea House Bridge to use on our projects. Bouncing off the lovely pretty buttons I cut out a button tag from a piece of October Afternoon paper and layered it up with some Crate Paper papers to make my card.

For the background I made a little shaker bag using a glassine envelope and filled it with sequins and gemy bits along with some more of the pretty buttons then stitched the bag to the background paper to seal in the sprinkles as well as attach it to the card. It works really well as a fun different little shaker card idea.

Ready to have a go? There's a lovely Tea House Bridge goody bag up for grabs if you take part in this weeks dare too! Pop on over to Daring Cardmakers to check out all the details, www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

x Leo

DCM- Hats Off

This week Zuz has set us the challenge to create a card featuring a hat. Here's the card I came up with:

I used a scrap of paper and doodled a party hat on it then cut it out to use as the hat element. The star is a wooden Studio Calico embellishment that I glued some American Crafts paper behind. The base card I made with Crate Paper patterned paper.

I covered the inside with panels of cardstock both to strengthen it and to add the greeting to inside.

Pop on over to Daring Cardmakers to check out this weeks dare, http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

x Leo

Card Catch Up

I've been mega busy just lately so I'm playing catch up today with my finished DCM cards.

I'll start with this weeks dare set by Keilly to make a card featuring fabric. I ended up making two cards because I'm trying to use up leftovers so I kept going finishing off some paper scraps. :)

I'm enjoying layering fabric on cards right now so I used that as a starting point to making the fabric cards. There's a voile type fabric and then a organza with glitter dots layered on too. The jeans I figured could be another nod to fabric. It's a paper scrap from a sheet of Kesi'Art paper I've added colour to with Promarkers.

 The Easter egg on this one is made from fabric too - a layer of patterned fabric and a layer of calico stitched together. I've used another layer of voile in the background to make the paper more pastel coloured. Paper and the boarder sticker are both Crate paper Paper Heart.

This one was from the 'Lucky Green' dare set by Samm. I've not used so much green on a card before but I ended up really liking it. I did move the star to the bottom right corner though in the end. The other embellishment I made from Fimo that was stamped into then backed and painted over the top with watercolour pencils then when that was dry I rubbed white paint into it with my fingers to give it an aged look. The papers here are October Afternoon and the grey dot is fabric from the January/February Quirky Kit as is the star. :)

This one was from the dare I set to make a card featuring a tessellating pattern. I used hexagons and stitched them together like a quilt pattern. Papers are all leftovers from Quirky Kits so a mix up of LilyBee, American Crafts, MME and Pebbles. I thought making these kind of quilt pattern cards would be a good way to use smaller leftover bits and pieces. I used a template just printed from the computer to make the hexagon shapes. You could use anything with equal sides the same way.

Well that's the catch up taken care of!

x Leo

Daring Cardmakers - March Colour Challenge

For every first week of the month this year we're set a colour challenge over in Daring Cardmakers HQ. This week it's Kathy's turn and here is the lovely colour combo Kathy has given us to work from:

I have to admit I did struggle a little bit finding the right colours but I raided my scraps folder and found some bits and pieces. Most of them were small scraps so I ended up using them as they were and layered all the paper bits and pieces up as the background. I also added a bit of gold washi tape. You can't tell from the photo much but the polka dot paper is also metallic gold.

Head on over to Daring Cardmakers HQ to check out this weeks dare and have a go, http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

xx Leo

DCM -Marie Antoinette

Hi!

Over on Daring Cardmakers this week Sharon has set the theme of 'Marie Antoinette'. I started off with a little brain storm for ideas thinking of frou frou and pretty things and I ended up wanting to do a kind of a close up of a pretty dress or try to re-create a layered lacey/pearly dress texture.

I started by picking out a fabric from my fabric scraps which is like a crinkle voile. I also picked out a lace. It was then just a case of layering strips of them and stitching them down to a piece of paper, (Crate Paper Paper Heart). Afterwards I added some pearls just glued on with Glossy Accents to the lace edges.

I liked the background so much I didn't want to cover it too much so I just kept the embellishments simple using a badge, (Paperchase) temporarily fixed to a tag so it can be removed by the recipient. Then the sentiment and a little pearl effect ribbon slide with some lace popped through it.

Pop on to Daring Cardmakers to see all the other cards the DT have created this week and to have a go yourself. Remember to post up a link so we can come and see your creation! http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com/2012/02/marie-antoinette.html

x Leo