Going for Gold

It's my turn to set the dare this week over on http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com and I've come up with the challenge to use just gold and white.
I wanted the gold to really shine so that's why I've added in the bit about just using white to accompany it. It's be way too easy to just add a bit of gold to any card. ;)
I think it really makes for a striking card too and it's something you can use for so many different occasions.
I got to thinking that when I was making my card. I was going to make a Christmas card but  ended up not putting any message on the card because I stopped and really liked it as it was and thought it could be a good card to save as a 'stand in' for lots of different occasions.

 

The embossing folder I've used for the background is the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots one then I've wrapped some gold metallic sewing thread around that before fixing it down. The little frame is a Melissa Frances resin embellishment that I've covered with faux gold leaf so it's really bling! The heart is a wood veneer shape just covered with gold glitter.

Really simple to look at but I did get v messy making it, gold leaf and glitter is just fun that way.

 

Hope you can join in with this weeks dare too. Pop on over to http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com to see the awesome design team cards and leave your link so we can come and see your card.

Let's Weave!

Ack, sorry I've not been updating this month. I'm so far behind with everything I need/want to do crafting wise! There just aren't enough daylight hours any more and it's a case of snatching an hour or two of light when I can. I'll try and do a little round up post after this one with how I've done my last few Daring Cardmakers projects.

Today it's all about weaving over on Daring Cardmakers. Here how I've done my weaving...

First I cut out thin strips of patterned paper and then stacked them up next to each other. I fixed the edges of the paper strips with pieces of washi tape. You need a tape that comes off so make sure it's a low tack one not a super sticky tape.

 

Next peel the whole piece off your workspace and peel away carefully every other strip of paper so you end up with lines of paper with equal gaps. Stick it back down to your work surface.

 

Take some more paper strips cut to the same size as well as the ones you peeled away previously and weave the paper strips through one another. Start with over under then alternate to under over until you've got to the other end. While it's still all one piece peel it off your work space and add glue to the back then glue it to your card and then carefully peel away the tape. Trim down all the edges to finish it off.

Here's my finished card:

Everything I've used to make my card is from October Afternoon.

Pop on over to Daring Cardmakers to have a go at your own weaving and see what the rest of the design team have come up with! http://daringcardmkaers.blogspot.com

x Leo

 

 

Spooky Birthdays & Daring Cardmakers Blog Hop

We're still celebrating the Daring Cardmakers Birthday and this week we have lots of treats to share!

First off the challenge for this week is 'Spooky Birthdays' sponsored by Tando Creative and Imagine That. Your challenge is to create a birthday card with a spooky Halloween theme or if you make Halloween cards you can make a Halloween card instead. I went with the birthday theme and created a spooky birthday card. Muwaha ha ha ha...

Turns out it ended up way difficult to photograph but I guess you can kinda make out the skeleton is dangly in the aperture bit. The spider hanging from the web moves a bit too for extra spookiness!
All the Halloween shapes are chipboard shapes by Tando Creative. The papers are Crate Paper 'Party Day' and the glitter houndstooth is cardstock from American Crafts I used to create the base card. I actually had to cut it up to run it through the Cuttlebug, (it's a 5x7 size card) then stitch it back together again but it did work out that way in the end. The die cuts are Nestabilities pinked circles. I wanted it to look like bite marks or maybe like it was broken through? Most of the chipboard shapes I coloured with permanent black marker then added over some glossy accents and fine black glitter. The skull was covered in silver ink then crystal glitter, skeleton in white ink and a bit of crystal glitter and the pumpkin got embossing powder in a couple of thick layers of white to give it a creepy pumpkin texture then coloured over with a Promarker.

Right onto the extra treat this week, we're having a Daring Cardmakers Blog Hop to pass around some more parcels of gifts kindly donated by our wonderful sponsors! Here's the info from the Daring Cardmakers blog.......

Birthday Blog Hop

To round off our Anniversary Celebration Month we'd love you to join in with a bit of a blog hop.  This is a chance for everyone - even if you don't join in with the challenge - to win one of our birthday "presents"!  

We have some fab prizes to share from 

Crimson Cloud

"Crimsoncloud.co.uk is owned by Linda and Melanie, and is a mother/daughter venture - a way to indulge their joint passion of cardmaking and papercrafting.  Linda, based in South Africa, is the designer - developing their exclusive range of clear acrylic stamps sets which reflect their styles of card making. 

Melanie is based in Brighton, Sussex and runs the web based shop - only selling products that they have tried, tested and love using. New products are regularly being tested and added to the range. 

Crimson Cloud have plenty of card samples to give you inspiration - you can check out the gallery on the Crimson Cloud website, follow their boards on Pinterest, click onto their Facebook page or simply follow their blog on www.blog.crimsoncloud.co.uk. New posts and samples are added at least once a week."

and this is the prize from Crimson Cloud - this gorgeous Christmas stamp set:

Charmed Cards and Craft 

(£10 shopping voucher plus three digi bundles of your choice - a non UK winner must take the whole prize in digi downloads) 

Funky Hand

(3 vouchers worth £15 each)

 

Back to me for this bit! You need to comment on the Daring Cardmakers design team posts on their blogs, (on the one for this weeks challenge) then hop back over to the Daring Cardmakers Blog to add a final comment once you've done. The more you comment the more chances of winning a prize you get! The links to each designers blog is above their card in the challenge post for this week so click on those and get commenting. I've also popped a list here for you if you've ended up here from another Daring Cardmakers blog ;-)

Guest Designers:

Lou Daubney

Julie Kirk

 

The usual suspects:

Nat

Sharon

Svenja

Miri

Kathy

Lythan

Beckie

 

Have fun a hopping!

x Leo

Daring Cardmakers Birthday Celebrations - Docrafts sponsored dare

Hi!

All this month over on Daring Cardmakers we're celebrating the 7th birthday of the blog. There are prizes up for grabs and we've got some fab sponsors sharing their products too so you get to have a nosy at some of the great cardmaking products out there as well as the design team showing you some ideas on how to use them. As it's a party we've also got some guest designers popping up so keep a peek on the blog all through October and make sure you get involved because you've got the added incentive of prizes too!

This first weeks dare has been sponsored by Docrafts and they kindly provided the design team with some of their Border Punch punches to use. I was sent out the Ribbon Bow Border Punch and the Poinsettia Border Punch. Both you can get from Docrafts direct and from Docrafts stockists of which there are plenty so it should be easy to find one local to you. I know my local garden centre and The Range stock all the Docrafts products so they're really easy to get a hold of and the punches are a great investment buy at just a fiver!

I had a good play with the punches and I did have a little go at seeing what I could punch out with them. I even tried out punching Washi tape. I stuck the tape to a clear card bag first, (something that you can peel the tape off of afterwards) then punched along the tape. It worked quite well although I did need to make sure there were no sticky bits getting stuck inside so if you do have a go at this make sure you do the same so your punch isn't getting jammed with sticky bits. Makes for a bit of a different look to the tape. I'd use this on scrapbooking projects too.

 

Getting back to the challenge this week, as it's the birthday celebration we're making all the challenges birthday themed and the challenge this week is to be inspired by the rainbow birthday cakes and make a birthday themed card. Here's what I came up with for the birthday card using the Docrafts Ribbon Bow Border Punch:

 

I created the bunting from scraps of cardstock and measured the length of the bow cut out to get the pieces the right size so I could punch a ribbon out of the top of each piece. I then punched out holes in the top corners of each piece and strung each together using bakers twine. I used 3D foam pads to adhere the bunting to the card blank to give it the feeling of movement. The finishing touch was just adding the stamped greeting across the top. I wanted to keep it simple and just let the rainbow colours show off and the detail of the bow punch to be the focus so it didn't need any extra embellishing.

 

As an extra challenge this week you can also make a Christmas card using similar ideas/style to your first card. Here's what I came up with:

Again I've kept it simple to make the punch outs the focus. I used the Poinsettia border punch to punch out the edge of the card as it makes a lovely decorative edge. I think you could use this for any lace looking edge too. The banner was made cutting out squares of paper then punching the bows from the edges and stringing them together as in the first card but with this one I glued down the first and last pieces of bunting first then arranged the others around it so the middle piece is at the top.

Don't forget to check out this weeks challenge and have a go, www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com
You can win some of these fab border punches from Docrafts and also a £10 voucher from Ribbon Girl!

x Leo

Sweet Things - Daring Cardmakers

This week on Daring Cardmakers Zuz has set the challenge to create a card using the theme of 'Sweet Things' so a card with something sweet related, cake, ice cream etc. There's also this lovely image to take inspiration from:

Here's the card I made for this week's challenge:

 

I started off gathering together papers taking inspiration for the patterns and colours from the image. The Lace paper is a My Minds Eye one appropriately from the 'Sweetest Thing' collection. The other pink bit is a fabric and the rose pattern was one I made from a print out onto tracing paper. I didn't have any cupcake or sweet images to use that weren't 'cutesy' which didn't suit the papers so I went online to hunt one out and found a set on etsy from VintageTimes39. I printed the cake image directly onto the background paper then layered the other paper pieces on top and stitched them down with the sewing machine. The greeting was stamped and embossed with chocolate scented embossing powder to add to the whole sweet theme.

Pop onto http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com to see all the amazing DT creations and don't forget to leave a link if you have a go at this weeks challenge.

x Leo

Paint Effects

Pop on over to Daring Cardmakers this week to have a go at my dare, making a card featuring a 'Paint Effect'. There's loads of inspiration out there at the mo using painting techniques in paper crafts and the DCM design team have done a fantastic job coming up with loads of unique ideas using paint on cards so head on over to DCM HQ to check them out.
Here's my go:

I used a really simple technique using a stamped image that was stamped using a clear ink, (versa mark) then embossed with clear embossing powder, (I also added a little bit of glitter to it). Then the image was painted over with watercolour paint then dabbed with a little kitchen roll to reveal the stamped image. I kept my paint brush dry to get the look of the brush marked edges I wanted. I did try it without the embossing as the Versa Mark is supposed to be used like a watermark ink too but it wasn't as defined as using the embossing powder with it too, so if you're having a go I'd defo do it with embossing powder unless you wanted a really subtle effect.

I was also doing ombre paint effects for last weeks challenge, check out this post on the Quirky Kits blog here if you're looking for more paint effect ideas.
Have fun!
x Leo

Itty Bitty Jar

This week over on Daring card makers Beckie has set the dare to create a card using 5 or more items from our bits jars. You must have somewhere that you stash away little bits odd bits and pieces you use for crafting. I call mine my 'Junk Jar'. It's a sweetie jar that I have on my desk that gets filled with odds and ends, charms, stickers, die cuts, vintage bits and pieces, little bits of paper that I think at the time are worth saving, you know the kind of thing. Here's my junk jar contents I had to work with:

I started to sort some of the bits and pieces out into colour tones that worked together and tried to link them together in a theme. This is what I ended up sifting out:

And here's the card I came up with:

 

The papers I added are a mix up of Cosmo Cricket and Amy Tangerine. Head on over to Daring Card makers to see what other creations the design team came up with using their own junk jars and have a go yourself to see what you can come up with. :)
x Leo

Make it yourself!

This week on Daring Cardmakers the challenge is to create your own from scratch embellishment on your card. Here's the card I came up with:

Kathy has set this weeks dare and has asked us to post up a bit of a tutorial on how we've made our cards too so here's how I made mine.
First start out with a scrap of white card and a stack of patterned tapes. Stick the tape pieces on a ruler to measure them out. I started with the largest piece cutting it to 5cm then cut each subsequent piece 1cm smaller.

 Glue a star paper punch out on the top of the 'tree' and add another piece of tape for the trunk. Cut out the embellishment trimming it close to the edges in a rectangle shape and then trim the bottom edge with pinking scissors to make a 'tag' shape.
Cut out the backing paper piece for your card then stitch the tag embellishment to it across the top. Fold the tag around a pen, (or something else rounded) to give it some dimension.

Finish with the stamped greeting across the bottom of the card.

Head on over to Daring Cardmakers to see what the rest of the DT have come up with and how they've made their embellishments, http://www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com
x Leo

Daring Cardmakers - Plant a tree!

Here's my Daring Cardmakers card for this week:

 

The theme this week is trees and Zuzana has as asked us to include a tree on our cards. My tree is a stamp from a stamp set of leaves and trees I've had for a long time. In fact I think it was one of my first crafty purchases so it was a very long time ago! It's a lovely wooden stamp set though and I don't really buy wood block stamps anymore so it's good to get them out every now and then and remember how lovely they are to use. The paper layers on my card are made up of my most recent crafty purchase so I guess it makes a nice balance! I've been busy using up left over bits and pieces over the last month so I treated myself to a little something new and bought two of the new Basic grey snippet pads. I've not bought any basic grey for a long time but some of their latest collections caught my eye. I picked up the Hipster and Mint Julep ones and they're great for layering and the 4x6 size makes them perfect for cardmaking too. So, well recommended :) I'm still using up patterned paper scraps but mixing in a bit of something new once in a while really helps to give me a fresh eye with them. Pop on over to daringcardmakers.blogspot.com to have a go at this weeks challenge!

x Leo

 

Couple more Daring Cardmakers Cards

I forgot to upload my card from last weeks Daring Cardmakers so here that one is first:

This one was a recipe dare and had to include:
An Aperture of some kind
Something beginning with the letter P
A Die-cut or Punchie
The colour Blue

I used lots of left over bits and pieces from the Jan/Feb Quirky Kit, the paper, the Polaroid frame the Thickers letter stickers and the bird paper which was a notelet I cut to fit the frame all came from that kit. For the something beginning with the letter P I used my new paper tape I got from Paperchase and watercolour paint that I made an ombre paint effect with on the yellow strip of card. I wasn't sure if the Polaroid diecut would also count as the aperture so I also punched out a star from the front of the card. It just looks white on the photo but that is the inside of the card. :)

On to this weeks dare and as it's the first week of a new month it's a Colour Combo challenge. The colours for this month are pink, gold and mint:

 

And here's what I came up with:

 

 

I took inspiration from the images as well as the colour combination for my card and picked out chevron and woodgrain patterns and flowers. Most of this again I made up using paper scraps from stuff I've been working on already. The gold thread is from this months' Quirky Kit as is the woodgrain paper scrap and the peg and white flower. The chevron paper and grid paper is from the Jan/Feb kit and the 'You Rock' paper bit is an Echo Park paper that was from the December kit. You can defo tell I've been using up all my leftovers this past few weeks! ;-D The flowers are Prima ones I think they were in my junk jar on my desk.

Head on over to Daring Cardmakers and have a go at this weeks challenge and see the design teams awesome creations! http://www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

x Leo

P.S if you want to grab a Quirky Kit subscription I've just put the new places in the store you can check out the details here, http://www.craftytemplates.co.uk/quirkykitssubscription.html
I've just been unpacking some of the new goodies that just arrived and they're mega yum!

Childs Play

Our dare on Daring Cardmakers this week has been set by Sharon who has us making cards for children from little ones to older teens.

I thought about the stuff kids would like on a card so went with wacky angles, lots of texture like the furry number 8 and the packet of sparkles and there's more sparkle with the gems and sequins dots then I added the cartoony horse, that's an old Tilda stamp. I did try to have a go at an effect and used Promarkers to try to make some watercolour effect letters using white Thickers and layers of the same colour pen. I've been trying to think up different watercolour and ombre techniques for scrapbooking this last couple of weeks so it's defo something I'll be playing more with anyway.

Pop on over to Daring Cardmakers to have a go at this weeks dare! http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/childs-play.html

Spring!

Hi!

On Daring Cardmakers this week we're making cards with a 'spring'. Head on over there to check out this weeks challenge and there's an extra incentive this week as there's a gift certificate up for grabs from Little Blue Button check out all the details here, http://www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

Here's my card for this week. I wanted to make a wobbly card with a spring so made a jelly or 'Jello' for my card.

I made the spring from rolling wire around a paint brush handle and glued it to the back of the embellishment to give it it's wobble.

Don't forget to check out this weeks dare and have a go yourself, www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com.
x Leo

Make a 'cute' angle

This week Lythan has cooked up our Daring Cardmakers challenge and we have been set the task of creating cards with angles.
I had to scratch my head for a bit with this one but I set to it and ended up using washi tapes at an angle to create backgrounds. It's mega easy to do but I really like the effect. I mixed in some stamping and added some strips of paper along with the tape to come up with these cards:

Head on over to Daring Cardmakers to check out the rest of this weeks cards and have a go, http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.co.uk/
Don't forget to leave a link to your uploaded card so we can come and peek at what you've made :)
x Leo

Typography

Hi!
It's my turn again this week to set the challenge over on Daring Cardmakers. The challenge is to create a card using Typography. Basically arranging words/letters into a design. Here's my card for this week:

 

I started playing around with fonts on my computer and arranging them into the design. I was orginally just going to print them out on cardstock but it just didn't look right, I wanted to add more but not too much so I decided to make the front of the card a shaker card. To do this I printed out the font designs onto a piece of translucent paper then stitched it to the patterned paper, keeping the top part open to fill with glittery sprinkles, (they're the Martha Stewart ones they're awesome mega sparkley!). Once it was filled I stitched up the top to seal them in then added it to the front of the card and finished with the same paper inside and the last bit of the design with some Prima chipboard stickers.

Pop on over to http://www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com to check out this weeks dare and have a go. I can't wait to see what you're making!
x Leo

Daring Cardmakers - March Colour Combo

Hi!

This week on Daring Cardmakers Sharon has provided our monthly colour inspiration and here are the lovely colours we have to work with:

Lovely chocolate browns and greens. I've gotta say the girls are killing me with all these chocolate themes! lol I'm blaming them for me having to have Nutella for breakfast today :p Ok here's what I came up with:

 

These colour challenges are the perfect way to use up scraps. I always start off by delving into my scraps bag and picking out colour of papers and card that work with the colour theme and got from there layering them up then fixing them together with washi tape and twine. So lots of off cut bits and pieces were used here so can't say what they were to start off with but the little hello tag I know is Pebbles and I've coloured it with ink to make it brown. The resin embellishment is from Zuzanas shop. I filled it with glossy accents and stuck the shell button into it. The leaves are from a vintage flower pick. Hop on over to Daring Cardmakers to check out the lovely inspiration and have a go, http://www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

x Leo

Sweet Like Chocolate!

This week Kathy has set the challenge over on Daring Cardmakers and the challenge is to create a card inspired by chocolate. Hop on over to Daring Cardmakers to see the fab DT creations and have a go yourself, http://www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

Here's my go at this weeks challenge:

 

The chocolate bar is unfortunately made of cardstock, less calories but defo not as tasty! I cut out squares using my paper trimmer then stacked them up to make the 'blocks'. I then wrapped the bar in foil and then peeled it back to create the effect of an open wrapper. The paper was then wrapped around the end to finish the embellishment. I added a little Glossy Accents at the end just to give it a bit more texture. There's Glossy Accents on the letters too so they look like they have a candy coating :). The papers are a mix of Crate Paper Fourteen and My Minds Eye Collectable from this months Quirky Kit Lite.

Don't forget to have a go at this weeks challenge, http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

 

Fly Fly Butterfly

This week on Daring Cardmakers Zuz has set the challenge of making a card featuring butterflies.
Here's what I came up with for this week:

 

I started off with raiding my junk jar which is full of bits of ephemera and odd embellishments and found the buttterfly then worked the colours from the blue airmail envelope I had out on my desk. I've been packing these all last week into the new Quirky Kits. I picked more red and blue papers and embellies to match it. The stamp is a vintage one, (also from an old Quirky Kit). The papers are Echo Park and Crate Paper and the tag is a Tim Holtz one. The wood veneer 'thanks' is Studio Calico.

 

Hop on over to Daring Cardmakers and check out this weeks challenge! http://www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

 

Setting the Scene with the Daring Cardmakers & Docrafts

This week over on Daring Cardmakers we have a sponsored dare from Docrafts. You can learn all about their new 'Build a Scene' dies win a set of the brand new dies and see what some of the Daring cardmakers design team have made using the dies, http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/setting-scene.html
Go check it out!
Here's the card I made for this week:

I ended up making a scene card from scratch. I decided on a shop window scene and picked out the papers to use then sketched out the pieces, (window frame, canopy, window box etc) on the back of the paper before cutting them out. The card base is a 5x7 size but I made an extra folded bit on the bottom, (so cut the card to 10x9 inches then folded and folded up the bottom edge the extra 2 inches then cut it off from the back panel so it was just left at the front of the card). The panel folds up along with the chalkboard so it can fit in an envelope.
For the decoration bits I used two sets of older Docrafts stamps I had. I used that as a starting point looking through my stamps to see what I shop I could make using the stamps I had to make the scene :)

Have fun making your scene cards and don't forget to check out the Daring Cardmakers blog this week for your chance to win some fun goodies from Docrafts!
x Leo