Project: A sporting challenge at MAWTT

This week we have a sport challenge at Moving Along wih the Times, and I knew exactly what I wanted to use. I love this Sizzix bike die and stamp set and decided to make a cute little card for my birthday stash.

I stamped and cut he bikes out and decided to keep a really CAS layout. I layered them on foam adhesive against the grey paper and layered that with the green and blue striped paper from the Wanderlust pack that I'm obsessed with at the moment!

I used a stamped and punched label greeting in the same colors that I happened to have in the stash from Claire and I added a green pearl to the top.

It's simple but effective I think as a boy card.

Looking forward to seeing your sporting creations this week!

Project 205: RIP Car cookie bags

This Friday night I went to the pub with some colleagues (and the dog) and asked if my husband wanted to join. He knows the people I work with and it's a short bus ride from our house to get to the office's local pub. He wasn't in the mood to drink so he decided to drive over, hang out for a while and then he could drive me (and the dog) back home.

And then the car broke down about 3 blocks from the pub.

My colleagues are lovely people and generously spent the next hour finding the car, pushing it to the pub (it was blocking the road and that way we could keep an eye on it from the comfort of a table with a pint!) and waiting with us until the tow truck came - about 3 hours after the breakdown.

In short: they deserved a treat for their epic loyalty. (Yes, I bought them all beer at the pub immediately after it happened as well)

I decided to make cookies this weekend and give them as a reward. It's also my MIL's birthday so I wanted to bring some along when we go to their house for dinner tonight.

I made 2 dozen normal sized Smarties cookies and 6 double-sized cookies. (US people: they're like M&Ms but not as good. Tragically the shop by me doesn't sell M&Ms so I had to use these instead.)

I filled card bags with the extra big cookies and attached a mini card to all of them that had an old car stamp and a scripted RIP stamp on the top. (Car stamp is from a Recollections vintage travel set and the letter stamps are from my local pound shop - tricky to use but perfect here.) 

Yes they're crooked, yes the stamp is cracked - I wanted it to feel a bit old and spooky and just slightly off. Plus - they're 6 guys getting cookies so they don't care!

I stapled the card to the top of the bag and it's an instant goody bag I can give to all the lovely guys tomorrow when I see them in the office. (see headline shot)

Now we need to get a new car (says my husband) but I'd rather spend the money on just about anything else. Let the battle begin!

Project 204: Another Minion card

I was asked to make a special commission for my colleague involving minions – yes, again! See this post for the original. 

This time around she asked if there was a way to have multiple minions, not just one big one. She also asked if I could incorporate her boyfriend’s name and the fact he was 28. A pretty precise brief but I’m always game for that.

This was a fun but super time consuming project! I cut almost everything by hand. The yellow blocks were cut by hand. I tried to use a corner rounder to round the heads but it was too blocky so I ended up doing each corner individually. 

The blue overalls are just squares and I cut little yellow triangles for the arms. The triangles were the worst. 

The white eyes are the punch-outs from a standard hole punch - nothing fancy. All the black details are drawn on: glasses, little icon on the overalls, hair - was just easier to do it directly than try to cut anything else! 

Finally I made the little tags and used a cut toothpick for the flag post. I don't know if it's obvious now with the greeting but the minions are arranged in a 28...might be too subtle but I think it's great and it's my creation. Let's hope she likes it as much as me :) 

Project 203: Some tattoo postcards

I was given this book of color-in tattoo design postcards for my birthday. I know, random and awesome right?!

I didn't really know what to do with them so I decided to use a few of them in place of thank you cards. They are all colored with ProMarkers and I didn't add anything to them - no bling, no glitter, no nothing. Just good old fashioned coloring and what a fun time I had doing it as well.

The headline is my favorite, this snake makes me laugh. So vicious but so colourful! I'm pretty proud of my coloring here as well.

This geisha is fab as well, she's pretty fierce.

Finally this is so random and I gave it to the girl who gave me the gift - it's a rooster with a skull coming out of it. What?! I decided to go for muted tones like a real chicken...except it has a skull.

So not my usual cards but i thought these would be  a fun little break. Pretty fun to take the break!

Project: A TV inspired MAWTT challenge

This week at MAWTT we have a TV-inspired theme! That's right, we're looking for cards or projects inspired by your favorite TV program.

Personally, and possibly shamefully, I am obsessed with the show Revenge. It is a trashy soap that is posing as a drama and I am just so hooked. The characters are mega rich, wear most extravagant gowns and are always up to no good!

I thought this Penny Black stamp looked like it could be either Victoria or Emily from the show, glam and hidden behind a hat so you can't see her face. She's colored with ProMarkers and I cut it out with a Fiskar finger blade. I added a touch of glitter to the edge of the hat and the bag just for extra sparkle. I also went over the gloves and belt with black marker to make it stand out more.

I jazzed up the background with a rich black and white damask print. I took a bit of white scrap for the greeting and decided to ink over it with purpleink so that it would stand out from the background paper. I added the little black bling instead of normal bling because I liked the dark texture - more in line with the show that way!

I can't wait to see what TV program inspired you this week, be sure to join in at Moving Along with the Times!

Project 202: Throwback Valentine's day cards

Well it's been a crazy bad week so far - if this is 30 then you can go on and count me out - so I decided to do a little Valentine's Day card session to cheer myself up.

My headline card was inspired by the RetroRubber challenge to case an old V-day card from your stash. 

I have had these little owl stamps for about a year and a half and have used them in different guises but I love using them with the little "you're a hoot" stamp greeting.

Last time I used them I didn't include the greeting, used a differnt owl stamp and color combo plus loads of buttons. But honestly I didn't change much as you'll see below - I really loved the layout and all the individual elements so I stuck with a good formula!

I thought I'd share two other cards I made for people for special commissions:

This one was an OTT brief: as many flowers as you can, traditional colors, name of the intended recipient in the middle. My colleague commissioned it and, while it's not my usual style to do red and pink, I really liked the brief actually and it was a chance to use some add-ons I don't normally find a chance to use like felt flowers. And I added three layers of textured ribbons which I thought was extra decadent!

And this one is a new technique - I used double-sided peeloff sheets, die cut hearts and covered in  textured glitter. I used a text-speak greeting, I have these fun letter stamps and when I saw they had a carat and numbers in the set I couldn't resist. Very CAS, very fun to try a new technique.

I made a few more V-day designs to sell at the office so I'll update this post with those as soon as I get some pictures :)