Project 192: Fun little feather case

I had a special birthday card to make for a friend and I decided to go to a board on Pinterest I haven't visited in a while. I was so glad I did as I great card that I wanted to case:

Sadly the link didn't go through to a specific post for me to link to but it's credited to Connie Babbart and this is her blog.

I loved her colors and I really wanted to play with my new feather dies (see another post earlier this week where I used them for the first time) so it was perfect. For my background, I used a background stamp of scattered hearts that I have never successfully used - it looks great in mustard yellow and really worked for the texture.

The papers are cut using two xcut feather dies and the greeting is a Fiskars sentiment.

I usually change a case card more than I have here. I'm pretty happy with it even if it is more of a copy than a case!

Project 191: Pink and black KennyK thank you card

We tease my colleague a lot because her boyfriend sends her flowers and chocolates to the office - we're terrible people right?!

The last batch came in this big pink ribbon and she was so impressed by it days went by before she opened them because she didn't to cut the ribbon. I told her that if she gave me some of the chocolates I'd make her a thank you card with the ribbon - win/win!

I knew straight away I wanted to use Veronica Vamp - the image is perfect for this girl and I knew it'd work in her favorite color pink. Sadly it meant not being able to do the extra twist on the KennyK Anything Goes Challenge of black and white but that's ok!

I liked the look of Freshly Made Sketches this week and I rotated the sketch on it's side to get the shape right for the stamp image.

Initially I had the pink ribbon over the top to get that extra layer but it was really distracting and I ended up removing it when I finally stuck everything down.

The image is colored with ProMarkers and I kept it really simple with bling and the spotted ribbon as that big bow is pretty in your face!

I think my colleague is going to love it - another fun double challenge entry.

Project: Autumn Leaves at MAWTT

This week we have a fun challenge at Moving Along with the Times an Autumn Leaves theme.

I am trying out all kinds of fun new kit on this card because I had a bumber haul recently from Craft Superstore. On top of that I purchased Farmer's Daughter from Kenny K and something about her look just made me think I could make it work with this theme.

I started with a background patterened with Inkadoo leaf stamps in autumnal colors of yellow, orange, red and browny-gold. I love a bit of a DIY pattern and these stamps were in the sale so I just went for it!

Next I colored the KennyK Farmer's Daughter image using ProMarkers and diecut her out in a circle. I added the gold scalloped diecut behind her and decided she would be fun as a "blue ribbon" sort of shape so I looked for a banner to make the bottom of the shape. I thought red would tie in well with the colors and as I just bought a new embossing folder in a basket weave pattern it was a great opportunity to try it out.

Finally I added the greeting which is from a cling stamp set that I think might be Fiskars? Not entirely sure! Some touches of bling and some buttons to give it a thoroughly country feel and I'm a happy bunny!

Can't wait to see what you have done with the theme!

Project 190: Some cards just for family

I am lucky enough to be able to go back for Thanksgiving this year and so I wanted to give my mom and sister cards to top up their supply.

For my sister I made the headline card in a set of 4. These feather dies were in a sale, I bought them before I knew what I was doing and they arrived and I thought um....what now?! There are so many, I knew there would be a load of ideas I just had to see how they looked once cut.

My sister is an environmental science teacher and I thought they might work well if she needed any thank you cards for colleagues or parents or anything like that.

I die cut the feathers from a Cherry Blossom paper stack by Recollection. I tried loads of patterns and found the sutble papers and plain papers really looked best. I opted for these neutral colors and then added some brown and white baker twine with some natural string as a bow. Simple stamped greeting, no bling - I opted for a very minimal style so that the cards would be as versatile as possible.

This one is one of two, as my mom is going to a lot of weddings and engagement things. I liked the Bling card I made a few weeks ago and stuck with it as a style. This time I tried it on black card with a velvet textured paper that I've found tricky to use.

I couldn't find any sparkly paper in the right shade so I die cut a pale color paper into a ring and then colored it dark grey to make it more metallic. Big bling, a peel off greeting and that was it. Again, I didn't add any extra bling or embellishment because I'm keeping things a bit CAS this week!

I also made a handful of baby cards so they would have a mix of greetings. No challenges this week - just wanted to make what I wanted to make!

Project 189: Casing an old card - pink butterflies and bling

I work with a fun and talented girl who loves all things pink and purple - as it's her birthday I wanted to do something especially girly for her card.

I haven't revisited this sketch in some time - originally inspired by pinterest I did a green version over a year ago but haven't really used it since. Which is a shame as it's such a cute card/

I decided to make my own envelope and line it with a contrasting pink and white patterned paper. I punched the butterflies in patterns and plain colours and then had them flying out of the envelope as before but this time I used a DL card to give it a bit more space.

I then added pink bling to the body of each butterfly as well as some little gem clusters. I added a stamped greeting, a blingy star and a bow over the envelope seal.

It is extremely girly but with all the white space it feels modern and not too twee. I know my colleague is going to love it as well :)

Project 188: Retro Rubber Cupcake card

There's a new challenge blog called Retro Rubber that looks like it will be a lot of fun to follow.

Their inaugrual challenge is to use your oldest stamp - what a challenge that is when I can't get through all my new ones!

I was given a wooden block stamp set of 5 girls from Claire in the earliest days of her teaching me her crafty ways. I used them a lot initially in very basic ways but this cupcake girl was always my favorite. Now, with all the beautiful clear stamps that are available I'd all but forgotten them so this challenge was a joy to dig them out.

I decided if I was using an old stamp I could use some new tools to get the balance right! The wonky heart dies are new from Xcut and I layered her over a purple gingham paper that I have had for about 4 years and saving for best - why not use it now?

I colored her with ProMarkers and blinged up her headband and the cupcake. The backing paper is from Recollections and I added the fuscia ribbon to match the outline paper and bring it all together.

It was really fun to revisit this stamp so I'm looking forward to following the Retro Rubber challenges in the future.

Project: Sparkle or Shine at MAWTT

This week Sue is hosting us at Moving Along with the Times and our theme is Sparkle or Shine. What a fun brief!

I had a great idea for this one, as I needed to make a very special engagement card for my friend Palo who is engaged to her wonderful partner Alex. She's not a super blingy kind of girl but I wanted to make something that was modern and fun and just screamed happiness.

I started with the spotty paper from the Neopolitan stack from Michael's and found a corresponding green card for the base. It's such cheerful paper and the pastels are fresh, not old-fashioned.

Next I looked at this little banner set - the banner tags are from a set at Michael's that Claire got me this summer and they are so sweet but I've struggled to find the right occasion for them. This felt like the right one!

The far banners are both gold foil card and the middle one features the sentiment You are so loved which is a lovely greeting for an engagement card. Plus with the foil and glittered flowers it adds to the sparkly theme. They are strung on baker's twine which looked a bit ragged so I added the cold-capped candies to look like brads pinning them up.

I die-cut two concentric nesting circles to get the ring shape and made that out of green glitter paper - why not add more sparkle? A giant bling from my collection is the rock at the top. You can't quite see it in the pictures but I added touches of gold glitter glue across the spotted paper.

I will have to remember this layout for future engagement cards because I think it's a fun CAS way to get a lot of joy and happiness on a card!                   

Project 187: A sexy cop card

A friend of mine is the epitome of the hot copy - in real life she is beautiful, funny and a very clever detective in the Metropolitan Police. I have been eyeing up the Hot Fuzz stamp from Kenny K for a while and decided to get it so I could make a card for my friend. Sometimes you just have to indulge!

I colored the image using ProMarkers and added the "Hey girl!" greeing - a wooden stamp that I've not used before. Perfect first outing I think.

I kept it very simple - with a fine chevron a paper, bit of Recollections spotted ribbon and a candi I called it a day. I think it is defiintely going to be a fun surprise for my friend.

Project 186: A sexy congratulations card

A friend of mine just got a great promotion as the brand director of a lad's magazine - how fun is that?! To celebrate her new role I wanted to create a sexy card that captured the fun spirit of the job. So where else to turn but KennyK? :)

I started with Harley Ryder and colored in red and grey using ProMarkers. I die cut her out in a petal and inked up the edges to give some texture. The paper is from My Mind's Eye and I chose a cut that had some texture and detail, which I enhanced with Fiskar's greeting stamps and bling. I added the flowers and red bling to make it a bit more feminine. Overally it's been more fun than my usual 'congratulations' cards!