Project 109: Modern pinups for Anything Goes challenge

I wanted to enter Designed to Color's Anything Goes challenge and it was perfect timing as I was asked to make a sexy (but modern) pin-up style birthday card for a colleague.

I love chevrons and thought this was a great way to modernise the stamp, Harley Ryder from KennyK. I found the tile print papers in another paper set from Claire and thought the color combo was perfect for how I had colored her. The tag was one from my bumper set Claire cut me and I added the candies to bring out the lime green. I'm really hoping my colleague likes it for her friend.

Yes, this is another card that is full of Claire-provided kit. I wish I was there to party with her for her birthday since I can't I might as well use everyting she's giving me over the last few months!

Project 108: Animal print shoe card

Following up from previous post about my recent commissions, my colleague asked for another birthday card, this one with animal print and shoes. She's very precise in her briefing, no wonder she is used to working with corporate branding teams!

I saw Retro Sketches this week and thought the little feature bubble would be perfect for my little shoe stamp.

I used zebra and purple leopard to make it feel even more glam and over the top.

The little purple petals are great I think, and I added a touch of silver glitter to the shoe to make it super blingy. I added the embossed black strip to break it up as animal on animal print is a bit much. I used a tiny black greeting that has stiching detail that I've always really liked. All in all, another win I think!

Project 107: Purple leopard Mojo entry

Short post today!

I was asked to make a few cards for my colleague, including one that featured animal print in a modern way. Yes this was the brief. Very precise, I know.

I saw this layout on Mojo and thought it would be perfect.

I used this purple animal  print that I think I stole from Claire as the main color. The scallop-cut stamp is also from Claire. Maybe because it was her birthday I was channeling her more than usual!

I embossed the black card banner with spots and then used black corrugated card for the other. I topped it with a flower and some candies and here we all are!

Project 106: Vintage brithday brief

My friend at work commissioned a few cards and the brief was to make a birthday card for a friend  who "likes cooking, vintage stuff and has a really stylized aesthetic." This is my take on that brief!

The Crafting Musketeers were having a vintage challenge so I thought this was an appropriate entry.

I found the vintage bottle labels in my Papermania Chronology set - I was chuffed to find something that met both vintage and cooking briefs.

The keyhole stamp is an old favorite of mine, I think it's also Papermania, and I diecut the shape around it. The purple looked a bit too bluey once I set it against paper so I used a red-ish purple and gold inkpad to add the vintage texture and make it look a bit closer in tone. I used black to age it a bit as well.

I used a new star stamp directly on the gingham paper (always nervous doing that once it's been glued down!) and I really like the effect.

Finally I added some ribbon just to break it up (it looked a bit naked without it) and used one of Claire's tiny labels as the greeting.

A few more commissions for this lady so check back this weekend when I have a chance to post the rest!

Project 105: Spots and Stripes baby girl card challenge

Claire pointed out a fun challenge at The Pink Elephant for a card featuring spots and stripes. I was commissioned to make a baby girl card for someone at work and I loved the idea of making it a part of the challenge.

I love this layout for baby cards, I pinned it ages ago but I haven't made that many baby cards recently so I wanted to update a bit. As it's a girl card I wanted to have a bit more fun with some cute touches. For starters, I closed the space between the boxes and had them bleed off the card. Wall to wall pink!

I  embossed the top left corner with the little dots folder - I'm loving that folder this week, I used it just the other day for a CAS layout. I then glittered the floral paper in the bottom right with glitter glue.

I hand cut the little baby onesie and stamped it directly.

To finish it off, I added the pink grosgrain ribbon and punched the bottom with the adorable little heart scallop punch that Claire got me in NYC. I added the buttons in the top right - I love buttons on baby cards.

Very happy with the output, hope my colleague likes it as well!

Project 104: Autumnal DTC and CAS challenges

I had one of those Saturday mornings where I couldn't turn my brain off from work (despite the easy Friday night) and woke up before 6am wide awake and ready for action. I decided to go into the incredibly cluttered spare room/office/craft room and find something to do with my idle hands and alert little brain.

I saw that CAS-ual Fridays were having an autumn theme and Designed to Color had an anything goes challenge - perfect!

This stamp set was from the Little Claire subscription that Claire gave me for my birthday - I think they were part of May or June's package. I haven't used them in a while and the little wooden box of flowers really said autumn to me. I tried stamping directly onto the card...and as you can see I've had to use white paper so you can guess it went a bit wrong! I like to be honest when there's an oops moment!

True to the CAS vibe, I embossed the bottom half of the card and used ribbon as the divider between the image and the embossing. I have had that green gingham ribbon forever - I think I got it on a package years ago - and have never found a card that it really suited. Love it here though.

I scallop-punched out the greeting and added a touch of yellow and orange to match the image.

Although I'd rather have slept in, I'm pleased I was able to make a cute little something for two of my favorite challenge blogs!

Project 103: Autumnal KennyK and Recipe challenge

I had a low-key Friday night and decided to do come coloring in front of the TV. So satisfying after a hard week at work.

I decided to play with Bodacious Bev from KennyK and use my second entry opportunity for the Colors of Fall challenge.

Loves Rubberstamps was hosting a 1-2-3 Recipe Challenge that involved 1 image, 2 papers and 3 embellishments. 

I love orange and red and thought I'd use the red snakeskin paper to vamp it up a bit. I used an orange lace paper for the pumpkins, both from my Femme Fatale stack by Recollections. The pumpkins are punched using an EK punch I was gifted last year.

For the embellishments, I was looking at the DT inspiration and I have a hard time determining what counts as "embellishments" sometimes! I used black and white bakers' twine, a black doiley and candies as my embellishments.

I kept it sentiment free as it was already busy. Just need to find a good recipient who likes a saucy card!

Project 102: Colors of Fall KennyK and Mojo double challenge

This week I was trapped in a series of meetings and Claire saved me by sending me a link to this week's Mojo sketch. In the 3 minutes I had to spare between sessions I was inspired and the headline card came to life.

KennyK features regularly on this blog and I loved the challenge this week of Colors of Fall.  I've had Pitstop Penny for ages but haven't used her for a while and I had the idea of making her red and gold to match the theme. I gave her choppy brown highlights to coordinate with the thick textures of the embossed brown backing papers.

The dark brown paper is actually corrugated card; the one immediately behind Penny is embossed with a woodgrain texture. I used gold ribbon for the banner and made a little gemstone swirl in the corner to add some bling. Finally I gave her racing stripe a bit of gold glitter glue (not seen in picture as I wrote this post and then went and added it for more snazziness).

I added the tiny hand-written greeting as a little wink to the sexiness of the card while keeping it really simple. I didn't want a pun or anything too autumnal so simple it stayed.

Very pleased with the result.

Project 101: Designed to color Skype playdate challenge

Final card from the Skype playdate!

We wanted to do a card that had a featured stamp image and when we saw that Designed to Color had an "Anything Goes" challenge we were glad we could interpret this in very different ways.

To make it even more of a challenge we decided to follow a "recipe" Claire had found previously. The recipe for the card didn't have a sketch or layout but had to include 3 papers, a featured colored image, a sentiment and 3 embellishments (all the same or all different).

It was a fun challenge as we took it in completely different ways. I love this little sausage dog digi stamp and thought I would go for a red white and blue color scheme for him.

I die-cut the backing label from a free navy blue paper I got over a year ago and have been holding on to. I don't know why, it's nice but not that special! I thought the scrolling pattern worked well against the geometric red background. I added a spotted light blue band as my third paper and 3 light blue stars as my embellishments. I kept the greeting very simple using a tiny label that Claire gifted me.

So that's the final post from the craft date. I have loads more that I want to share as I've been making some really special birthday cards but I need to make sure the recipients have them before I go on blabbing.

NB: Claire and I were talking about Christmas this year .I need to get my head around what I want to do. Do you think I should do enough for a big sale this year? Last year we collectively sold well but that was over two craft fairs, two offices and two groups of friends and I'm not sure I have the time to fulfill as much. What do you think? Please let me know if you're interested in Christmas cards and I'll definitely make I can get something to you - heck you can even lead the design!

Project 100: Retro sketch travel stamp challenge

Another post from the amazing Skype playdate. It was fitting that enter Retro Sketches this week as that has become a new favorite of ours, thanks to Claire.

I wanted to show off some of the stuff that Claire had sent me in my lastest craft care package so I used the washi tapes as th ebanners against a kraft card. We set ourselves a mini challenge within this sketch to use the travel stamps we both have. I used the camera where she used the planes. This is very much the spirit of our playdates - why not make a challenge more challenging but complicating the rules ourselves? :)

I kept the greeting simple as I wasn't sure who this was going to yet. I kept it masculine with the blue and natural card as I have needed a few cards recently where overly girly cards would have been inapporpriate. A very CAS result!

Project 99: NOLA Mojo birthday card

Today was the first Skype playdate with Claire and what a success. We got to gossip, craft and critique each other's work just like the old times. Unlike the old times we couldn't steal each other's stash! Boo that!

We looked at different blogs and came up with a couple of different challenges for ourselves. The headline card is my Mojo Monday entry, just in time before the deadline! Above is the sketch that we followed. If you go to Claire's blog you can see her challenge entry as well. Love her worldly card and of course I love the recipient!

My family love New Orleans and we spent Thanksgiving there last year. As a reminder, I thought I'd make my dad this NOLA inspired birthday card. I have fleur de lis dies and embossing folders, which makes the job easier, and focusd on the three main Mardi Gras colors of purple, gold and green.

I textured the green paper with a music stamp to tie into the culture and blinged up one of the embossed fleur de lis from the embossed card. I recreated the points of the fleur de lis using petal shaped purple bling. I love it and I think my dad is going to love it as well.