Project 291: Modern and playful valentines

After my productive time last weekend making Valentine's Day cards, I wanted to make sure I had time to make one for my husband, as well as bump up the stash to sell a bit.

For the office, I wanted to try something modern and so I stamped some hearts onto white cards and then heat embossed them in white so they would resist my blending. The stamp is from a fashion set that Claire gave me last year. I went for non traditional V-Day colors, like green, blue, orange and yellow and didn't use more than two colors on any sheet so I could keep it very minimal. I then added a few flicks of water to get the bleach effect. Love love love.

For my husband's card, I went to this set of animal digis that I have. Not sure where they are from...had them about a year and a half so really can't recall, how bad is that? They are a bit too cute for me - I got them on a whim and never really use them because they don't really go with my style. But these little deer are cute for Vday and I thought I'd color them with Spectrum Noir pencils to make them more delicate and light. Simple oval die to capture the shape of them and then I backed them against an old Sugar & Spice paper from Dovecraft.

Both simple but special , and because there aren't sentiments they are devoid of the odiousness that marks most Valentine's Day cards.

On that - Claire and I have challenged ourselves to make odious cards for each other. Mine is done and I don't dare blog about it until she received it but man...what a treat.

Project 290: Trio of Valentine's day cards

In the run up to Valentine's Day I decided to make a bunch of simple cards to sell at my office. I usually do a mix of 'serious' (more traditional hearts and roses and stuff like that) and fun and I've learned that the fun ones always sell better. So this year I thought scrap tradition, go all fun.

Here are three that I made during a playdate with Claire on Sunday.

The headline is my favourite - these are from Unity Stamp Co and I decided to go simple and pared back, just colored ink against the card stock with some corresponding ribbons. I made 4 color combos  using green, blue and pink as the base and changed up the ribbons for each one.

Next I made these little submarine cards, using a set from Stampin' Up. The images are die cut on Sizzix nesting ovals and colored using ProMarkers. I added a patterned paper as a layer in four different colors. I looked at bling and candies but thought plain was best.

Finally I did these little froggy cards from the same stamp set. The greeting was just 'toadally awesome' so I used the 'You are' from a Unity Stamp greeting and just masked off the rest of the greeting. Pretty pleased with how they came out actually! They're die cut using a stitched circle and then a plain green circle scallop die.

I have a few more pun-tastic ideas for Vday messages but I'm pleased with these as a starting point. 12 down - I think if I can get about 20 made then I'm good to go. Watch this space :)

Project 289: A cut out engagement card

Short post today: my friend Mandy is engaged and for her card I wanted something simple and personal. She is a math teacher and I thought using grid paper would be a fun way to work that in. I cut out their names using Tim Holtz letter dies and then topped it with a little heart stamp from Recollections.

I kept it really simple and I think it's a bold look for a card, compared to the usual (often feminine/girly) engagement cards. Must remember this for the future!

Project 288: A diecut tag set + embossed birthday

It's my colleague's birthday and I wanted to make her something a bit special because she's lovely and a good mate.

The headline card is my birthday card for her, deep red is her favourite colour (which I only know because she once compared it to wine) and I thought these papers from My Mind's Eye would be perfect. I love this set - I have nothing but scraps left as I have used it so much - and I found two pieces that would be big enough to work with. The greeting is from Claire from Unity Stamp co. It's great - first time I've used it - and it heat embossed like a charm. I added the twine and used Gathered Twigs Distress Ink to the edges to further add an aged effect.

This is the set I made - 4 in total - and it features some great new additions to my stash. The papers are from Studio Calico and they're all from this great nautical set. My friend grew up sailing with her family so I thought she'd like the theme. The tags are cut from a new set from Claire as well and all feature big colorful enamel dots. I really do love them. I added the little J die to the white tag so it stands out against the yellow.

I like this as a new set layout, it was a bit time consuming to cut all the circles, tags and Js but it really was easy to assemble. Great for making something personal and I hope she likes it.

Project 287: A seahorse birthday card

My husband had an in-joke with his best friend about seahorses. I don't get it, never have, probably never would. However I indulge it for the sake of all the craft opportunities it presents: I mean they're awesome.

So I used a Bugaboo stamp that I bought in a sale last year and colored him with ProMarkers. I die cut him out and layered against a plain orange circle so the scallop edge was easier to see against the busy chevron paper (Recollections). The greeting is from a Fiskars birthday set and the enamel dots are from my new stash from my trip home at Christmas.

Super simple outcome but enough going on to make it fun for me in the process. And as we gave it to him yesterday before I had a chance to publish this post I can say he was well tickled by it. A simple weekend win.

Project 286: A doggy bday card

Today's my husband's birthday so I wanted to post the card that I made 'from the dog.' Yes: we are that weird family where the animals give/receive presents as well as humans.

This digi stamp was a gift from Claire and I colored him with ProMarkers to make him look like my dog Zippy. I cut him out and backed him in red and layered him on top of a patterned card base.

The little dots are from Paperchase and were like gold dust when I first got them but nothing gets saved for best now. The greeting is also an old one from my collection - simple and works well on the busy paper.

It cracks me up and I think he's going to love it. Who knew the dog could be so talented and invested in crafting?

Project 285: Die cut only card

Back in September I bought this little die set of kites and clouds - it was a Lawn Fawn set that is meant to complement a set of stamps. But the stamps were sold out so the dies were half price. I thought they were shapes that would stand alone ok so I finally decided to test this theory.

I pulled a bunch of scraps out of my scrap folder and went to town. I decided to go for the black card base to make these pop even more and I think they look a bit more modern that way. The little 'thanks' strip die is from Sizzix for Stamping' Up.

Super simple, easy use of scraps and very cheery. Not sure why I was so intimidated by these before, they are a win.

No challenge today, just for fun!

Project 284: A personalized Steam Punk thank you

As you know, my buddy Mrs G is in town for work this week (and she works with me so it's more fun than it sounds!) and I wanted to do something a bit fun and different to give her a special thank you for her thoughtful Christmas presents.

I love this KennyK stamp, it was one of my first steam punk items and I just decided to revisit her. She's colored with Spectrum Noir colored pencils and I cut her out using a Sizzix nesting oval die. The die slipped slightly as I rolled her out so she's not quite center. No matter: I used this funky gothic border stamp down the side to add some texture. It doesn't quite work does it? Never mind, fills the space, makes it less noticeable!

I colored her in greens and greys and used the Chronology set for my backing paper. I didn't add a sentiment as I'll write her the message inside and I know she loves the KennyK images so she'll be happy with the card.

The only challenge I'm entering is the KennyK Challenge - keeping it simple this year!

Project 283: Cheery sketch challenge on a rainy day

Quick post from me tonight.  I was given two sets if Spectrum Noir pencils in December and as it is rainy and miserable today I thought I would have a little coloring session in front of the TV.

I tried my coloring on these lovely Little Claire flowers and then cut them out. I loved the layout at Sketch Saturday and arranged them in a diagonal.

I also liked the inspiration at the Little Claire blog of 1-2-3 so here's my take: 3 colors (yellow, orange and pink) as well as 3 feature images (although all from one stamp); 2 embellishments (daisy chain and button); 1 sentiment.

The backing paper is from Studio Calico and the little border and orange papers are scraps. The daisy chain is a Martha Stewart punch. The sentiment is a new Recollections greeting that I heat embossed in yellow. Both the stamp set and and embossing powder are from Claire and the $20 Challenge. I must say I am VERY pleased with the embossing since I had an epic fail trying to heat emboss earlier this week which resulted in 4 failed attempts in the trash.

It felt unbalanced so I added a giant yellow button tied with orange twine and called it a day. It's busier than my comfort level (wait until you see what else I've done this weekend, oh my...) but I like it and it's cheered up this rainy day in London immensely.

Project 282: A spots and dots challenge at MAWTT

Happy New Year loyal Moving Along With the Times fans!

We have a fun challenge to kick off the new year, featuring spots and dots. Anything spotted or dotted will do: whether using a patterned paper, a stamp, a stencil, embossing or embellishments, this is a really open brief to get your creative juices flowing.

I started with the little strip of white, blending two yellows (squeezed lemonade and mustard seed by Tim Holtz) to get an ombre effect. The orange dots are stamped from the Stampin' Up Endless Birthday Wishes set.

I decided to use a few new little toys that Claire had given me for Black Friday. The tags are cut in white using a die that also embosses (never used one of these before!) and then layered it with a larger die in the set. The greeting is stamped from the same little set, it's a nice one.

The enamel dots are Recollections from Michael's and I was inspired by some of these that I had seen Claire use on a card ages back. They're so shiny and cheerful.

I needed two special thank you cards for my bosses and so I tried an alternative color sheme here.

Hopefully you'll join us and I'm looking foward to seeing all the great entries. Be sure to check out our awesome DT team!

Project 281: A little simple thank you set

Happy new year everyone! It's been about 3 weeks since I've last crafted and it's been very hard not to have access to my stash (or a space to use it in). Our house guests left this morning and even though it has been absolutely wonderful to see my friends and be with them I have missed my desk!

Claire gave me some wonderful goodies in our Black Friday $20 challenge and I thought these little paper butterflies would be perfect for a quick set of thank you cards to thank everyone for my Christmas presents.

I used all cheats here. I am almost ashamed but they're so cute I'm not that ashamed. It's been weeks since I used my craft brain, I had to ease into it!* The cards are printed card stock, the little kraft card stock is pre-cut and all I really had to was stamp the greeting (from a Black Friday treat to myself at Sizzix).

I did 4 colors and I made 10 in total...in about 15 minutes. It really was that easy :)

Be sure to check out our MAWTT challenge this week as I'm hosting!







*These are actually not the first cards I made after getting my desk back. I actually made a DT card for MAWTT and it was a disaster. I tried something 4 times before I just had to abandon it because apparently I can't remember how to heat emboss. So I took it back about 7 notches and made super easy cards to boost my self esteem!