Project 58: Fun with candies

Happy New Year! I wanted to mention that yes, I will be blogging again this year, but no, I will not be committing to do one post per week. I aim to still craft every week but I’m hoping to be a bit more lenient with myself as sometimes it was a stress-point to get a post done.

So straight in to today’s post – I have had a generous amount of craft bounty gifted to me for Christmas and as I had a few spare days before going back to work I gave myself time to really play with all the new kit.

I’ve themed this post candies as I realized about half way through my 2-day session that almost all of my cards featured them. Claire gave me a few new sets and a handy-dandy organizing set of really useful boxes so having them all sorted really inspired me to use them more. I see a candy-fuelled life ahead!

I started to write a short blurb about all of the cards but then I was getting bored so just the highlights (with new toys highlighted in brackets):

Headline card uses my Martha art deco scallop border punch on repeating papers. Takes ages. Never again. (Candies are new from Claire. All candies are in fact new for all cards.)

Simple divided layout using an embossed upper half, ribbon, patterned paper and stamped sentiment. (The green ribbon is from my stocking from my parents. My dad does a good job with ribbon choice. Also the green one uses a stamp that I have never found a use for before. Score.)

Next a gingham background using paper flowers, ribbon stripe in the middle, die cut and stamped sentiment.  (Some of the paper flower are new from Claire and features my new daisy-chain Martha punch from my parents.) 

A reverse-out flower punch with a very simple layout to keep the focus on the colourful flowers. (New punch from Joy.)

The only birthday card in the mix (I need thank yous for all the presents!) I made a hippie inspired card with a water-mark effect on stamps. (New tie-dye style stamps from my parents as well as the ribbon from my dad’s sale-bin-diving efforts.)

A butterfly layout where I fashioned an envelope by deconstructing a proper envelope. (no new toys other than the candies.) 

Another butterfly layout using a music stamp, butterfly punches and another stamp I have never been able to use before. (see above re: new toys.)

A card for my sister using the papers she gave me last year using an embossed thank you and simple layout. I tried to ink the thank you in light pink but it looked awful so I inked over it again in black. (as above) 

A stamped feature piece that I hand cut as I don’t have a die-cutter (yet!) using a complicated stamp and variegated gold paper. (as above) 

Finally this one is for Claire as this looks simple but was a major hassle. I put a strip of white paper down to highlight the red and white string and then managed to feed it through the double button and create the bow (15 minutes later…). The chipboard shapes were given to me by Claire last year in the $20 challenge and they were plain so I hand coloured the raised bits with a red felt tip pen. Then I stamped the sentiment. So it looks simple, but only a fellow crafter will see that it's more complicated to create. This one also does not use candies.Misleading for this post, I know.

I could have spread these out over two posts  but as I’m no longer tied to posting every week I’ll give you a bumper hit to make up for my 2 weeks of absence.

Hope you enjoyed the week of candy!