Art Deco Developments

As I was looking through facebook this afternoon I came across this challenge:

Emma's crafty challenge #13

The challenge was to make a card or some other project using an Art Deco Theme.

I started thinking - and this is what I came up with:

I made a card blank out of pink cardstock.

The background is a black and white image of Art Deco stained glass.

I then used part of an embossed 'sunburst' using Rays - an embossing folder from Tim Holtz.

The image is an old  black and white photo of my grandmother.

I added three triangular roses from my stash.

Hope you like it!!

Favourite colours

Although I have a boxful of Promarkers and a selection of Copics,

 my cards rarely use coloured images...so this month for a change I have made a couple that do!

My first card uses an image from Copic Marker Middle East...Find them on facebook at

 Copic Marker Middle East...and is a camel.

 Have I mentioned that I live in Abu Dhabi so lots of my cards feature camels??

I printed several copies of the image, quite small, coloured them and then used them to make a slider card - as you can see the overall look is 'orange' or 'sand'.

My second card is an easel card using an image from Lacy Sunshine.

This was to take part in their Favourite Colour Combo Challenge

I used Promarkers with colours toning with 'tequila sunrise'.
The backing papers came from an Alla-Prima collection and the embellishments from my stash.

Happy crafting!

Christmas??

Every November and December I have to go crazy making my stock of Christmas cards

 - and every January I resolve to make some every month so it's not such a problem!

The plan this year was to make 3 each week! 

So by now my Christmas card basket should have maybe 18 cards in it...

How many does it have? 4!!

Anyway... I decided to make a Christmas card for the sketch challenge from

Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge

Our crafty lady crew met on Tuesday and our good friend Susan Kaiser

 showed us some tricks with a brayer. 

We made the following elements:

I decided to use part of the winter sky for this card:

The other circles used stamps and embossing in a lovely blue.

 Papers were from my scrap bags...

The sketch was

Happy crafting!

Sue

And more Washi...

I have been working on a project for the February Challenge from Pretty Paper Studio in Dubai

 which had to use Washi tape in some shape or form.

PPS February Challenge

I decided to do a hanging similar to one I have made previously for Christmas time.

Each scalloped circle in this illustrates one letter of NOEL. This time I decided to use heart shaped chipboard as my base (it is February!) and use the 'Stampin Up' stamp

 from the Curvy Verses set which says

The first three hearts will illustrate 'love', 'laughter' and 'forever' while the fourth one will display the stamp. This is the completed project:

The top heart has diagonal stripes of Midway Washi tape and the Newspaper Heart stamp from Hero Arts

The second heart has a chipboard heart shape wrapped with Woodland Park Washi Tape and embellishments from a Creating Keepsakes All in One Scrapbooking Kit and Dear Lizzy chipboard shapes. 

The third heart  has diagonal stripes of Woodland Park Washi and butterflies made from

 Stampin Up's Beautiful Wings

The fourth heart has horizontal stripes of birds on wire washi.

 I actually like the effect of this one the best!

Other embellishments came from my stash - and many from Naif Street in Dubai!

 All the papers used were from My Mind's Eye 'Bluebell' Paper Pad.

Happy Crafting!

Washi and more...

Washi - I asked my Japanese friend Chikako what washi meant - and washi just means 'Japanese paper'. It could be anything from the paper used in screens in Japanese houses to placemats made of paper. Chikako gave me some washi placemats...

I am not sure if you can see the lovely texture in this paper!

Anyway Pretty Paper Studio in Dubai issued their February challenge

 to produce a project using Washi  Tape.

If you would like to play along check out

PPS February Challenge

My project will be uploaded to PPS very soon but in the meantime I noticed

Mojo Monday's sketch challenge 280

The sketch involves a strip of ribbon or tape so I thought I would have a  go...here

is my design - a Valentine suitable for a man??

I added a red envelope to complete the look!

If you would like to play too, click the link above to find the instructions. This is the sketch I used:

Triple stamped cards

This has been my favourite technique over the last few months - where three pieces of card are layered together and stamped over. They are then separated and matted with three pieces of contrasting card...Here are a few examples:

Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday!

Kung hei fat choi!

Living in the UAE, camels often feature on my cards! 

The following picture shows three ATC's using this technique. I love to make Artist Trading Cards - small pieces of artwork where the size has to be 2.5 by 3.5 inches.

Creative Hands, Dubai

We had a super day yesterday at Creative Hands. Four of us made the trip to partcipate in a 'Hero Hues' Card making class... These are the cards we made - lots of different techniques were used...

I took this photo whilst making card number 4 - just thought it was so pretty!

Background paper with a 'watermark'

My friend Stella asked for instructions on this - so here goes Stella...

 Choose a selection of inks with which you wish to distress your piece of cardstock. Here I used Tim Holtz ink pads but others would be equally effective.

 Taking each colour in turn apply to the card, remembering to use circular movements and to start on the mat to prevent hard lines within the finished product.

 Choose a stamp - I have a medallion type here. 'Ink' it with embossing ink such as Versamark or Perfect Medium. You will see the stamp take on a shine. Then spritz the stamp with water.

 Apply the stamp to the cardstock with firm and even pressure. Dry with a heat gun.

You can now use the prepared cardstock as a background.

I used my 'topnote' die in the Bigshot, once on the 'watermarked' paper and once in a contrasting paper. I trimmed the former to give a small contrasting border. This was then stuck on a matching paper on a folded card. I then embellished with Tim Holtz rosettes, buttons and a bow.

This time after putting the 'watermarked' paper through the Bigshot I just used half of it adhered to a toning paper. I added ribbon, rosettes and flowers...

Hope you'll have a go, Stella  (in your new craft room!) and send me pics!!

Making heart embellishments with distress crackle paint

With Valentine's coming up I thought I would need some heart embellishments...

I have a couple of heart punches so firstly I punched a few shapes from stiff card.

 The clear crackle paint is applied thickly and allow to air dry.

Now colour should be applied...I used a variety of inks, smearing them onto my craft sheet and then spritzing them with water so the colour could be painted onto the shapes.

Tim Holtz distress ink , fired brick

Jenni Bowlin for Ranger, cough syrup

Colour Box, gold

This was the result after being again air dried. Now to attach them to cards!!

The Ranger range of inks can be found here

The craft mat (which I find absolutely brilliant) can be found here

Card for a little girl...

I just made a Birthday card for a little girl - I hope she likes it! Like many little girls she is very fond of fairies!

I seem to be making a lot of easel cards at the moment.

 The image is by Jane Butler at craftsuprint.

The chipboard shapes are from dear lizzy find them here

Yes I know it's February...

I have just taken down my Christmas cards...most of the decorations came down at Epiphany but many cards only arrived after that, here in Abu Dhabi - so I made a display of them - and I have just taken them down...

There were many lovely cards here...in particular I loved the homemade ones - here are six...

Alison Root

Alex Bown of Studio9Design

Lynn Hein

Evelyn Grant

Kathy McAlister

Noreen Drake Stoker

Thank you everyone!!