Project 238: Starburst scrapping

Claire left a Quick Cards magazine on my desk from her visit house-sitting (or, more accurately, craft room snooping) and I browsed through it for inspiration when I came back from vacation.

I saw a whole feature on starburst cards and thought it would be a great way to use up some of the scraps on my desk.

I’m pleased to tell you EVERYTHING on this card is a scrap. I cut all of the ‘bursts’ into triangles from bits on my desk, glued them to a bigger scrap and diecut the circle.

The backgrounds are scraps from my stash and the velvet ribbon is an offcut that I thought was too precious to bin even though it was only as big as you see it!

The sentiment is a new Stamping Up one from a birthday greeting pack but I think it’s generally just happy and could be used for a thank you or celebration card as well. The punch is one of my first ever punches, still such a classic.

I’m now a convert to the starburst and will totally do this as a scrap-amnesty approach in the future.

Project 237: Tropical stamp birthday cards

I love the Creative Stamping collections and this month's Tropical collection was excellent.

I bought it primarily for this flamingo in the featured card because I have a friend who loves them and I knew it would be great for her.

For this one, I kept things relatively simple. The papers are Studio Callico and works well as a modern background. The featured stamp was colored with ProMarkers and die cut in a circle and  layered over a scallop circle in a paper from the same set as the background. There are tiny gold glue dots on the flamingo that you can't make out here. I added the paper pinwheel thing as an embellishment from Claire and then spelled out the recipient's name in gold stickers. I think this is one of my favourite makes of the year: simple, colorful and perfect for the person receiving it! (HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULES!)

This stamp is beautiful and I decided it was perfect for a colleague of mine. The image is colored with ProMarkers and then cut out and framed with an American Crafts Knock-Outs punch. The greeting is stamped onto a scallop rectangle that Claire sent me and the papers is from a Recollections stack. These colors are very me, I love blues and greens and purples, and I hope my colleague likes them as well.

I think this set and I are going to be very good friends...

Project 236: Some new kit and new techniques with an old friend

If you didn't see my earlier posts, CLAIRE IS HERE!

We had a great playdate one night and goofed around with some new kit she brought with her. Some of it were purchases I made from her as a Stampin' Up demonstrater but some of it was from her stash.

The first is a card we made using a flower stamp and die set I bought. I stamped over spotted paper and die cut it and a stem from a scrap on my desk. The ink wasn't different enough so I dotted over the lines of the image with a pen. I used a greeting from Claire's stash and was going to keep it very CAS. But my hand smudged green ink and I got it in the white space down the left side. So with some advise from Claire I added some fingerprints in a gradient of green to blue to purple down the side. Crisis averted, cool texture added, very pleased!

This card here is a super simple card using this new kite embellishment Claire and her mom gave me. I used Claire's stitched die for the baking paper and the Explore Nature greeting from my flower set used above. Just a candi and I called it quits. CAS is best with something like this.

Claire introduced me to freezer-paper masking, which is new to me. She had diecut sentiments and shapes for me and this one is adhered to a stitched rectangle. I colored it using Gelatos and a watercolor brush and added some speckles for texture. I choose blues as I'm using this for a wedding card and they have a royal blue scheme. I added pearls of different sizes and colors and again left it pretty simple. I think the masking works amazingly well and gives such an artistic touch to a simple layout.

Delighted with these projects and the chance to play face to face.

Project 235: No bones about it card

Claire is here and we are having a great time crafting, chatting, hanging out....and sometimes going to work!

She brought loads of goodies from Stampin' Up that I had ordered and I was excited to try out these dinosaur stamps. I love dinos and what was great about this set was you got whole dinosaurs and dinosaur skeleton images. How much fun is that?

I missed a colleague's birthday because he insisted we not make a fuss but I wanted to do something special. I thought this funny greeting was perfect as it's not a birthday but is so much fun.

The paper is from Do Crafts (I think) and I kept everything monochrome and masculine, even the little fake metal candi.

This is just one of several cards we put together over wine this week, so I wll share the rest shortly! 

Project 234: Another feather birthday card

A simple post ahead of my date wih Claire. I went to a friend's birthday last night and mader her this fun little birthday card. The layout was inspired by one that I saw in Creative Stamping magazine. I didn't love their example if I'm honest but saw they used the same feather dies that I had and thought it would work well if I tailored it to my preferred colors and patterns.

And you know I love feathers...(see this post or this one as other examples using this set)

The dies are Xcut and the papers are from offcuts and scraps in my stash in yellowy browns. The woodgrain paper is from the Boho stack and I was saving it for best for years as I love it. Decided it was time to use it and a friend's bday card is a great chance.

The twine was also an offcut as well from another piece I had cut for a project. The banner is a scrap from the Hippie Chic stack and is a bit pearlescent so didn't stamp that well. Never mind. The only thing not a scrap is the coral paper in the middle!

I am so excited for my session with Claire - stay tuned for posts this week!  

Project 233: Embossed sheet wallets

CLAIRE IS IN LONDON!

Yays all around.

We are going to try to fit in a few craft sessions while she's here but I wanted to have a few little things to give her when she arrives. A while ago I saw a post about a crafter who created a little embossing folder wallet thing for another craft friend and I thought it would be perfect - except I can't find where I saw it! Pinterest? A blog? YouTube? No idea.

So I decided to make up my own!

I chose some really busy papers that are pretty but hard to use in card making as a base. I chose an alternative paper for the lining and added a little fold-down bit to give it some style and also make it easier to pull sheets in and out.

I embossed 5 sheets in card stock that matched the folders: houndstooth in purples and pinks for the butterfly wallet and basket weave in tropical colors for the floral wallet.

It's a simple gift and one that shows I'm just so anxious for our playdate.

SEE YOU SOON BUDDY!

Project 232: See you later gator card

Another week, another commission!

My colleague's boyfriend is American and is getting transferred back to his New York office. She wanted to make him a special card that would be big enough for people to sign at his leaving party on - incidentally- today, the 4th of July.

I love 'See you later, alligator' in goodbye cards. It keeps things light and fun and doesn't dwell on sentiment so people can write whatever they want in their message. I have been having fun with paper cutting lately so I decided to go big and bold on this one.

Originally she asked me to have the gator over the Union Jack but it was a mess. So busy, so hard to see anything. So I made a small flag on the corner and a bigger one on the back:

All but the blue background paper are scraps as well that I was able to cut into my shapes. Everything on the gator is cut by hand except the white eye, that's a die, as is the banner which is Simon Says Stamp from Claire. The flag was dead easy, just red and white strips layered up and the scraps used to make the mini flag on the front.

I didn't think the banner stood out enough all white when it was folded so I added some hand drawn lines for texture and depth - I really like the result and will definitely do this again.

This has been a very busy time personally and at work and yet I've managed to produce some pretty crazy commissions. When I make cards for other people I cement the idea really quickly in my head and I'm able to get the details crafted precisely; when I'm just mucking about on my own things seem to take longer and with fewer good results.

Anyway, I'm grateful my colleagues continue to come to me for fun and unique cards!

Project: Baby challenge for Moving Along with the Times

There's a baby challenge this week at Moving Along with the Times and I decided to use it try a fresh new take on baby cards.

I love this image from Bugaboo - how cheerful is this little guy? Normally the mouse has a balloon it's reaching for but I decided to cut out the balloon and make the feature the shaker in the middle. It reminds me of a baby's rattle and thought it would be a sweet little baby card.

I punched the pink hearts out of scraps that I had lying around for ages - some of these are years old and have been languishing in the bottom of a scrap folder - and I added some big silver sequins for extra cheer.

The greeting is from an old collection and the candi is from a free magazine set.

I am really pleased with this, it's so different than my usual baby cards. Can't wait to see what you do with our challenge this week! You have until 8pm (GMT) next Wednesday.