ATCs and more

My most recent ATC's have just arrived at the swap in the UK -

 I was having fun playing with Tim Holtz ATC die and the Mini Tattered Floral Set.

I used the latter to cut paper, card, fabric and felt...

I think my favourite one is the felt one...

Today I have been with a group of friends crafting - a lovely day!

I spent the time trying out 'flat bows' on a couple of card blanks...

Here the ribbon is basically tied through two small punched holes about 1/4 inch apart...

These cards are now ready for images between the tri-fold and more embellishments...

And colouring with my Promarkers.

The image and sentiment on this card are Kris B's digis - 'Bella and Skipper' and 'Hello my friend'

I am submitting the card to

Imagine That Freebie Challenge #5

It is an easel card with papers from my scrap bag and a few bows and gems...

Happy Crafting!!

More cards...

Last night I decided to have a go at a lever card.

 I used 2 pieces of brown cardstock (5.5 x 8.5 inches) and some pretty paper from my scrap bags.

After much scoring and cutting with a craft knife, this is what I arrived at:-

The sentiment is stamped using a free stamp from 'Get Stamping' magazine.

 I used several colours of ink pad to get a variegated image, using colours to match the paper...

Still using my brown cardstock I cut, scored and folded a card base to use in the following

Mojo Monday Challenge #290 sketch

I decided to use the 'outer parts' of 4 flower die cuts - I love these shapes and have used the flowers lots -  like in this set of ATC's - but the outside bits are also pretty!

Here is my card - all the papers are from my scrap bag and a ribbon and embellishments from my stash.

The sentiment is embossed in silver.

Happy Crafting!

Running a bit late...

I have had this digi from Lacy Sunshine on my table for days and days,

 meaning to make a card to submit in the

Lacy Sunshine Challenge #6 - Spring Fever

Anyway finally I have got my Promarkers out - my favourite at the moment is 'tequila sunrise'!

I have had this lovely ribbon in my stash a long time -

 I bought it is Australia and we left there...mmm...9 years ago!

Of course I could have bought it on one of the visits back -

 wherever I go my suitcase always comes back loaded with crafty goodies!

So this is it...

Hope you like it!

Happy Crafting!

April 21st - today's cards!

My friend Kathy sent me the card above for my Birthday at the beginning of this month

 - she also sent me some of the paper she used!

Lynn and I decided we had to have the honeycomb embossing folder from Stampin Up

 and today we came up with our take on the card:

The stamp we used is Hero Arts 'Newspaper Heart'.

I also made the following two cards today using Bugaboo digis and papers from my scrap bag...

This first one I am submitting to Kraftyhands April Challenge 'April Showers'.

This second one is for this week's challenge in our local card making group here in Abu Dhabi

 - the theme is 'Afternoon tea or garden party'

Happy Crafting!!

Another card with my IndigoBlu stamps

I recently bought rubber stamps from IndigoBlu - 'Poppy Meadow' and 'Blazing Poppies'.

 They are gorgeous!

My first card is in Triptychs

This is my second...

I stamped 'Blazing Poppies' with Jenni Bowlin 'cough syrup' on cream cardstock. I cut it down to a rectangle and matted it on to dark red card. Similarly I used two stamps from 'Poppy Meadow' to make the other two motifs. Further papers were used from my scrap bags and embellishments completed the picture. The butterfly is from a 'Cheery Lynn Design' die. I was working on the following sketch

Mojo Monday #289

Hope you like my card!

I have yet to use 'Elizabeth Bennett'!!

Happy Crafting!

Triptychs

 I have been making lots of cards using the triple stamping technique -

 and I started thinking about triptychs -

 where an image is illustrated in three parts.

I made the following some time ago - a tiny version where I cut a stamped image into three parts,

 matted and embellished them. Think along the scale of an ATC.

The butterflies are from SU's Beautiful Wings.

I had the following sketch to work on which I thought lent itself to a triptych:

This is what I came up with...it uses two of the lovely stamps from IndigoBlu, matting papers from my scrap bags, a little ribbon and butterflies from a Cheery Lynn Design die.

And something completely different - this image has been sitting on my work table a couple of weeks waiting to be coloured. I went for pretty Spring colours to match the lovely ribbon I had in my stash.

 I used the SU topnote die, matting some pretty papers,

 the base one of which was distressed around the edges with 'Shabby Shutters'.

I am submitting this to the House Mouse & Friends Challenge 'Springtime" #HMFMC142

Happy Crafting!

So what shall I make?

Just been trying to think of a card for a card-making workshop tomorrow -

 this is what I have come up with...

 Basically a piece of paper is cut to size to be matted on a folded card blank.
 A piece of ribbon is pleated and fixed with pins and then attached to the paper with double sided tape.
The paper is attached to the card blank with white glue.
Then three squares of white card are taken, layered and stamped together in 'triple stamping' mode.
These squares are separated and glued to 3 squares of coloured card.
The picture is reassembled and attached using dimensionals on the two smaller squares.
Finally a butterfly is added.

My next version is 'monochrome'.

I am going to submit this one to Rhedd and Rosie Challenge #4

which asked for a 'monochrome' make...

The backing papers for all these cards have come from the scrap bag of my good friend Kathy -

 see some of her ideas at The Teawife's Creations

Looking forward to what the card-makers make tomorrow!!

My final version is

If the pins are a worry, tiny beads may be glued on the points.

Happy Crafting!

A different fold!

This particular fold makes use of  a scoring board and one piece of card for it's base.

 I have then matted the sentiment and images and added embellishments.

I love this sentiment!!
 The shoes were embossed with green embossing powder.

The folds are as follows:

I made the following card as a Valentine...

The next card featured a set of layered petals cut from a die using the Big Shot.

The next card features 'Sunny', a digi from from Lacy Sunshine.
 I made this for the 

Lacy Sunshine Challenge #5 'Anything Goes'

My final card of this type was made using one of Kris B's digis for the

Imagine That! Challenge

 To get back to a normal fold - this card uses a folded card blank with some beautiful stamps

 from Indigo Blu.

 I made is for the Mojo Monday Challenge  #288

The sketch was

Happy Crafting!!

A few more cards...

Every three of four weeks I run a card making class here in Abu Dhabi, really aimed at beginners.

 I usually demonstrate two cards and then the ladies work on my ideas. With this week being close to Easter only four could make it on Tuesday. I decided we might be able to make 3 cards and so I showed them three ideas...This week's techniques involved matting/punching/stamping/using dies.

It was my Birthday on April 4th and I received this lovely card from my friend Nancy in Newfoundland:

 I decided to use this as the basis of my first sample. Here are my two takes on Nancy's card:

These cards feature the Stampin Up 'topnote' and Stampin Up punches for the owl and branch. The ribbon has been pleated and kept in place with pins. Papers are from my scrap bags and embellishments from the Naif Street Souk in Dubai...

On Monday I had the opportunity of calling in at Creative Hands in Dubai. I bought several items and couldn't wait to try them out! My second set of samples uses my new stamp of an Arabic coffee pot: 

The card above is a very 'clean and simple' card - just the stamps of pot and cup stamped with Versafine using a Fiskars stamping press and then coloured with Promarkers 'gold' and 'amethyst'. The sentiment is from SU 'Warm Words'.The card blank is a ready folded card in pale lilac. I am going to enter this in 

the My time to craft! challenge for a clean and simple card...I then used the stamp with a little more matting and embellishing - Here a card blank had had its edges trimmed with an edge die. Pretty paper has been placed behind and a few embellishments have completed the look.

 The third card is a slightly different take on the same theme.

Another item I bought was the Kutz Fluttering butterfly which I used for the third idea. I cut it several times to add dimension to the butterfly, placed it on a 'quilted' background and added a 'Tim Holtz' rosette. I am entering this card in Emma's Crafty Challenge with the theme of Butterflies.

My second version included matting of a pretty paper, the edge die, pins for antennae and lots of buttons. I am going to enter this card in the Glitter n sparkle challenge with the buttons theme.

 It is lovely to see what is made by the ladies from my basic ideas...this card was made by Lynn -

This card was made by Pascale -

Finally after everyone had gone, I relaxed with a  bit of stamping!!

This card is tiny - 2.75 x 4.25 inches. A white card blank, matted with a tan paper.

 The stamp is one of my favourites. I love the two and three step types!

 This is a three step - 'Bitty Tulip Bouquet' made by Kitchen Sink stamps , using three colours of tan and three of green inks. The bowl is also 3 step using greys. I am entering this card in the

 Visible Image Get Stamping Challenge

All for now - happy crafting!

After my Easter holidays...

I have just arrived back from a lovely week in the UK visiting family - whilst there I decorated quite a few candles for Easter, like the one above - all you need is a pretty serviette, a candle, grease-proof paper and a  heat gun...

I also picked up quite a lot of crafty supplies...

The first thing I decided to have a go with was the Spellbinders die which cuts and embosses,  using it for the Mojo Monday Contest 

with the following sketch

This is what I made:

I used three of my shaving foam and food colouring backgrounds and a golden doiley plus card base and matting papers in yellows. The embossed medallion was given height using dimensionals. A stamped sentiment and a few gems finished the card.

Happy Crafting!