Project: Anything but a card for MAWTT

Hello and happy almost Christmas! This week at Moving Along with the Times we have an 'Anything but a Card' challenge for you. Luckily this time of year everyone giving gifts needs gift tags so this was a great opportunity for me to make a fun set.

I started with a fun deer stamp that I haven't used much despite having it for some time. I heat embossed it in black and white directly on a tag. I then blended the background using a mix of Distress Inks and Distress Oxides. I took two large background stamps, one that has a random sort of smooshed-texture and the other that is a moroccan tile pattern and used Distress Inks sprayed with water to get irregular prints. I added some paint flicks for good measure.

I tried a different image but it was a bit too busy given the complicated background, so I stuck to the deer for the rest of the mini set. I really liked having a messy play, it's always fun to get away from cards and mix it up a bit. Can't wait to see what projects you come up with!

Project: Star Stampz Christmas cards x2

This week at Sketch Saturday we have a fun sketch sponsored by Star Stampz. Truthfully, I couldn't choose an image so I made two cards with the sketch because I was that indecisive. Here's the sketch:

The first is just so silly. This one is called Christmas Tangle and I colored her using Spectrum Noir pencils and fussy cut her out. The background paper has been in my stash for ages and though I worried it was a bit too busy it gives it a lovely retro edge that I was looking for. I stamped the sentiment on a label that I cut from a newsprint paper. I added little glitter accents to the string of lights and then added two black candies to complete the sketch.

The second one is a bit simpler, featuring Santa's Letter which I also colored using Spectrum Noir pencils. The sentiment is an ancient banner I have, maybe my first ever Christmas sentiment set, and is a bit tricky to use but I think it works well as a headline banner. I added some really lovely stitched ribbon and two shiny red stars to complete the sentiment. Both were great fun to color, I really do love the sponsor this week.

Be sure to do a sketch before Friday to join the fun!

Project: A Bugaboo moose Christmas card

I love Bugaboo stamps - Claire introduced me to them years and years ago and they quickly became a digi favourite. So whenever we have them as a Sketch Saturday sponsor I do a little happy dance.

This image is A Kid's View Moose and I haven't used it for Christmas cards before - I don't know why! I colored a bunch of these and then die cut them in a rectangle and then paired them with lovely tartan papers from a Nordic Christmas stash I have. I embossed a brown card and then added a plain banner. The little tag is in a pop of jolly red to make it pop and stand out.

I love how it came together, I decided to make a few more so I had a little collection of them to add to my Christmas card stash which is always a great thing.

Project: Christmas animals at MAWTT

Hello and happy almost December to you all!

This week at Moving Along with the Times we are celebrating our seasonality by asking for a challenge with festive animals. Hope that will inspire some fun projects for you. 

For mine, I decided to do something different. I have loads of Christmas stamps, loads of images and I thought, why go down the easy route when we could make this harder? :-P So I decided to shop my stash and take a non-Christmas image and turn it into one. I started with a Bugaboo Squirrel image and colored him using Spectrum Noir pencils. I die cut him and added another scallop die behind him. The background paper is an old one that I have had for a while and is particularly hard to work with. I love the colors but I can never find the right image - I decided that now was the time. 

To make it more festive, I added a die cut sentiment from a Tim Holtz set, and then added a little Jolee Boutique candy cane sticker - I think this one might have come from Claire as she knows I love her stickers. I'm actually really pleased with this, it looks really cozy and that's what we want from the holidays, isn't it? 

Project 448: One bulldog stamp 3 ways

Last year Claire gave me this great little French bulldog stamp and as I had just using him for Christmas I used him for wintery thank you cards. This year I decided to have a session playing with him exclusively and had fun making 3 relatively simple makes, keeping the color of the dog the same for all of them.

The headline were the simplest but probably also my favourites. I embossed a red card using a houndstooth folder (see what I did there?) and then die cut the dog in a circle. I used a Tim Holtz sentiment die set to frame the image and it's so simple but I really like how it came out. I added pearl accents to the scarf pompoms and left it at that.

This next one features a Nordic paper set from the stash and I chose one of the busier patterns simply because I've struggled to use them elsewhere but love the colors. I die cut the dog using the matching dies and popped him up on foam tape. I even used my ancient Happy Christmas peel-offs in one of the plain stripes as I couldn't get a sentiment to work otherwise.

I thought I would show this one even though it's my least favourite. I used adhesive fabric (I bought a set at Tiger to see if I liked it - I don't think I do) and a scrap of spotted paper already on my desk. I die cut the dog in a circle again. I think it's the colors, maybe that's why I don't love it. Or maybe I just really prefer the other two. Who knows! Still fun to try the same image a few different ways.

Project: A girly patterned Sketch

I have really enjoyed working with the images from our sponsor Paper Nest Dolls this week at Sketch Saturday, the images are so modern and fun to color. I decided to use Love Strung Ellie and colored her using Spectrum Noir colored pencils. 

I die cut it out and layered it against a spotted paper that I have had in my stash for a long time. I decided to go for pattern overload and make the ribbons patterned as well! I adore ribbon and have dozens and dozens of them. I went for girly patterned ones using some of the colors in the image. The label is ancient and from my stash from Claire. 

Hope the sketch inspires some fun crafting this week! 

Project 447: Some modern colored Christmas cards

I had a playdate with Claire this weekend and we were trying a few new techniques we found on Pinterest. We both had a few learning curves that I thought were pretty funny!

The first was not he headline card, where you mask off stripes and then blend in between. I decided to do a but and purple striped card and then heat embossed a reindeer to go over top in a matte gold color. The sentiment is from the same set as the reindeer, I think I've had him for about 3 years. I think the white stripes are a bit too wide so I need to try to get the balance right. I tried doing it with skinnier stripes but unfortunately that to extreme difficulty trying to blend in a smaller space so there are still some trial/error adjustments to be made!

This little guy was another little play, using a big snowflake stencil and then using Distress Oxides instead of inks on top. They are so chalky and a dream to work with. I don't love the blending work here but I think that is something I could get better at.

All in all a few fun techniques for a short playdate!

Project 446: A technique-rich anniversary card

Claire and I always like to show off in our cards for each other and even simple-looking cards should feature some hidden complexities.

As it's her wedding anniversary I wanted to make her something fun and cheerful. This card features a few fun things, including a new toolset she gave me this summer. She introduced me to Distress Oxides and this card features three colors though the yellow all but disappears with the pink and orange. I then spritzed a stamp with water and laid the card on top to get a bleached chevron. I then used punched hearts (that I think I got when Claire lent me her scalloped heart punch years ago) and then used a die to get the sentiment.

It looks simple but it's cheery and fun and the colors of a Tequila Sunrise - perfect for recognising their honeymoon in Mexico!

Project 445: A textured leaving card

One of my colleagues is leaving the company and I wanted to make her a little card to say goodbye. She's quite girly and I wanted to temper that with a bit of texture and technique. I cerated a patterned square with Distress Oxides blended and then used a water-spritzed stamp to create the spot background by laying the card on top. The flower is a series of burlap flowers and a fake flower and a button from my stash. The beige pearls add a bit of vintage lux and I'm pleased with how simple it is. It's not my recent CAS style but does remind me of the cards I used to make and that's not a bad thing! Just a fun little card for a week night, I'm saving a treat for tomorrow ;)

Project: A 1st Christmas card

This week at Sketch Saturday features an image from our sponsor Oddball Art Co

I loved this little toy, I just thought with the sweet santa-style hat it would be perfect for a little Christmas card. I colored it using Spectrum Noir pencils, which I love for the ability to add really great texture and depth. I opted for a simple color scheme and then die cut him out using a stitched die. I embossed some lavender card and used a stitched square card, alternating with a patterned card.

I hand wrote a little greeting as  I thought it would be perfect for my niece's first christmas card from me. I hope it goes down well! Looking forward to what everyone else is creating this week.

Project: Using at Tag for MAWTT

This week at Moving Along with the Times we have a fun challenge: use a charm or tag. I can't remember us ever having a challenge like this so I was pumped - hope you are too!

I decided to use this for my dad's birthday card. He's a keen wine buff so I thought this would be a great way to incorporate a die into the tag. I started with a big kraft tag and then used Vintage Photo distress ink to give more texture to the tag. I die cut the wine bottle, the burst at the top and the 'Cheers' sentiments and then layered it all on top of an old text card stock that I had held on to for years. It came together really quickly, I added some glitter to the star burst bit I don't love it. Oh well!

Looking forward to what everyone else will do!

Project 444: A simple 30th card

My buddy at work is turning 30 and we'll be celebrating at the pub after work. He's a keen cyclist and I wanted to incorporate that into the card while keeping the rest very minimal and masculine.

The sketch at Freshly Made Sketches was a bit of fun and so I thought I would give it a go:

I took an old Sizzix stamp and repeatd it across the card to incorporate the bike. The Green, yellow and blue circles were cut out and then I added the die cut 30 on top. I thought it looked a bit like a speed sign which was nice. It's super simple but I think it will go down a treat.

Project 443: New stamps for Christmast

Every year I buy myself some new Christmas stamps in January sales and then, come Septemper I get all surprised shopping my own stash. It's really funny to discover what your craft taste was 9 months previously - was it CAS? Was it all about the sentiment? 

So this series was made from things I got in the Recollections sale. The hero card features a Tim Holtz stamp from Claire and the sentiment was from the sale. I loved the deconstructed tree with the ddefinition sentiment. It's a great combo in my book. The background is a sheet of washi paper that I found in my stash - Claire gave it to me years ago and I confess that I lost it in my files of stuff until today! I die cut it with stitched square dies and then cut the card blanks to fit. To top it off I added really minimal touches of glitter glue in green, gold and red. I like how minimalist and simple it is. 

The bears are too fun. I did the gingham bear in red and the holly in green using Stampin' Up dye inks. The papers are ANCIENT - I mean like 4-5 years ago - and I was so pleased I could make the pattern work with the die. I love shopping the stash. All in all I really enjoyed making them - I did 16 total in about 2 hours so I was pleased with my production line effors. I am solidly on track for my deadline to be done in November :) 

Project: A cheerful bunny sketch

This week at Sketch Saturday we have a really fun little sketch for you!

I decided to rotate it and play with some fun patterned papers. The image is from our great sponsor Scrap N' Dipity and it's called I Love Carrots Too! How great is that?

I colored it using ProMarkers and then fussy cut it tout. I went straight up against the lines because the white border looked odd against the kraft stock. I popped it off the paper with foam tape . It's a bit more CAS than I intended but I actually really like it.

Hopefully you'll be able to play along with us this week!

Project 442: A collage 30th birthday card

My friend gave me a brief for a birthday card that included brunch, fried chicken, crime and detective shows, weight lifting and boxing, and the closer 'basically all millenial things.' Awesome.

I decided a collage card would help me cover all the crazy stuff in this brief. I paper cut the different components. I am particularly pleased with the representation of the mystery show. I try to only add drawn accents if it's needed but I think I got the balance right. Once I had laid it out I die cut the sentiment so it would fit with the rest. I got my friend to consult on backgrounds as I was feeling indecisive and she chose the pink chevrons which was the one I was least convinced by but it works. At the last minute we decided to add the pineapple, which totally makes it.

I absolutely love it. I hope she does too! 

Project 441: A mini-masked and heat embossed Christmas card

I saw the layout at Freshly Made Sketches and thought it would work perfectly with a wreath to make a Christmas card. Please forgive the bad lighting of the shot!

The stamp is a freebie from Creative Stamping magazine set I got earlier this year (Feb? March? I used it for Mother's Day cards so must have been before that!) and I heat embossed it with Platinum Ranger embossing powder. I used Peeled Paint Distress Ink to blend a little stripe that I masked off behind the wreath. I added a sentiment with a lot of flourish as I thought it suited the wreath. I've had that set for years, Claire gave it to me as one of my first Christmas sets. I added little touches of enamel accents to make the berries pop and some white as accents.

I kept it really CAS as I like a minimalist Christmas card - I just wish I had taken a better photo!

Project: Christmas sketch at Sketch Saturday

Hello and Happy Saturday! This week we have an open sketch week at Sketch Saturday, where you can pick any sketch from 215 to 482. Go nuts!

I decided to go for sketch 470 as our sponsor AMB Illustrations had this wonderful set of Christmas birds and I thought they'd look great in the layout:

I colored the images with Spectrum Noir colored pencils and die cut them in ovals. I used glitter paper strips for the diagonal crosses and patterned papers for the background. I tried them on white but they both looked better on a kraft card background. I confess that I started off liking the bauble bird more to start but ended up favouring the candy cane bird. Isn't it funny when it works out like that?

Can't wait to see what you do with an open sketch brief!

Project 438: Glitter paste fab birthday card

We're having a geometric shape challenge at MAWTT this week so please join us. Without even realising how perfectly it would work out, I made this amazing card for Claire's birthday - and I can't wait for her to get it.

I used Nuvo glitter paste with a Recollections hexagon stencil, and then heat embossed a sentiment from a Creative Stamping magazine on a die cut fancy label. I decided to keep this really simple, just adding a little flower and a stitched border. It's fancy enough and this leaves it to have more impact.

She taught me how to use glitter paste on our recent weekend away and I have absolutely loved playing with it. She is a great craft teacher, a great partner in crime, a great colleague and more than anything else a great friend. I hope she enjoys the present and card as much as I've enjoyed putting it together!

Project 440: A foxy shaker card and train silhouette

My buddy Dave at work always asks me to make him funny cards for his family. He asked me to make his girlfriend a fox card and his dad a train card.

For absolutely no reason, I decided to make the fox card a shaker. I just thought, why not? I haven't made a shaker in a while, this will be fun! And then I saw that CAS-UAL Fridays was hosting a shaker challenge so that confirmed my commitment.

Plus, while it looks simple, there are about 6 uses of dies on this card (the background square with circle removed, the acetate circle, the scallop with the ring cut out, the foam ring) so I'm entering the CAS On Sunday challenge of 'Use a Die'.

I colored a Unity Co stamp directly on the card blank and then die cut a piece of paper around it. I die cut a foam ring in red to hold the sequins and then layered on top a scalloped circle with a die cut out as a frame. I added a hand drawn border and a little printed tag that Claire had given me as a sentiment. Really pleased with it as I struggle with shakers and I was patient enough to wait for all the glue to dry on the foam and the lid before shaking it so I didn't get the sequins stuck around the edges like usual!

Now for the train. I tried my hand a paper cutting one from sight and it came out a bit sloppy and un-train-like. So I cheated a bit, printed out a train image, glued it to a black card and then cut it out as a stencil and then flipped it over. Still, I had to do it by hand so I think it's ok! The paper is an ancient one from my stash (I think it's Recollections a few years ago). I cut the tag and used Distress Inks to blend over it to give it the vintage leather feel. The stamp is a really new one from Paper Source (I indulged when I went to the US recently!) and I think it may be it's inaugural use. I added some black bling and a gold glitter dot for the train's light.

Really happy with both of them and can't wait to give them to my colleague.

Project 439: A colorful bon voyage card

One of my colleagues for 4 years is leaving and I'm sad to see her go. It's been fun working with her and her spontaneous free spirit will be missed. I wanted to make her a fun card and thought the colors in Color Throwdown this week would be perfect.

I heat embossed a full set of feather stamps in white on watercolor paper and then used Distress Inks to watercolor the background. It's a bit paler than I wanted but oh well. The green dots are enamel accents. I am pretty happy with it, I hope she likes it too!

Project 438: A modern color Christmas card

It is official: I'm starting my Christmas card makes! I wanted to ease my way into the cards this year so I decided to do some sketch shopping to get inspiration for a few complicated ones while I work out what I'm going to do for the bulk-making.

The colors at Color Throwdown and the sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch were perfect inspiration.

The trees are heat embossed and die cut. The stamp set is almost 2 years old - I got it in a Michaels sale after Christmas. Which makes it elligible for Retro Rubber's anything goes challenge!

The background is blended using Distress Inks and then die cut. I added gel pen white snow blowing from the left to complete the sketch. The sentiment is also at least 18 months old and is heat embossed a floral vellum paper that reminded me of snow. I added some pearl stars just for some texture. Big fan of how it came out - now to make a zillion more Christmas cards!

Project: A back to school sketch

Hello and happy Saturday! Teachers and students are back at school and I thought it was a perfect opportunity to make a little card for my sister who is returning this year after her maternity leave. I loved the Amy Loves Books image at Sasayaki Glitter, our sponsor this week, of this girl on top of a pile of books and thought she'd be perfect.

I colored the image with ProMarkers and then fussy cut her out as she was a pretty simple shape. The background is a fun paper from Lawn Fawn that I die cut with a stitched die. The squares feature a sentiment that is getting on now, a few years ago Claire gifted it to me.

Such a fan of how it turned out, I hope you are able to join in the fun at Sketch Saturday this week!

Project 437: A classy birthday sketch and color combo

I have so many friends with September birthdays that I am always making very individual cards in the first week of the month. I don't normally do challenges for special friend birthdays but this week everything came together really well, with the colors from Color Throwdown and the Freshly Made Sketches design providing layout:

I decided to use an X-Cut die set champagne glass, cut out in white and layered over a stitched red circle. The sentiment is from Creative Stamping magazine, I think maybe the June or July issue. The border is punched using a really old American Crafts punch from their Knock Outs series. The red plastic gems are from Poundland, they were a great find in the kids' section.

Really happy with how it came together, I think my friend will love it next week!

Project: A celebratory sketch challenge

Happy Saturday! This week we've got a fun sponsor, Pink Gem Designs, and a really fun sketch to pair with it:

I decided for my take on the sketch I would invert it so the bigger panel was on the left and the small boxes on the right. I used Cat with Glasses and colored her with ProMarkers. I die cut her out using a stitched rectangle and then heat embossed x3 sentiments from Endless Birthday Wishes and used a smaller die for those. The background paper is Lawn Fawn and the strip of gems is Poundland.

I hope you enjoy playing with the sketch, be sure to enter by the 8th of September!

Project: Congrats sketch challenge

This is a very fun and silly response to our challenge for you at Sketch Saturday this week.

My friend for life Claire has just celebrated 2 years with us at our company - we've worked together before at a previous company and I couldn't resist the temptation when we were looking to expand our office in New York to see if she was up for the challenge. 2 years later, here we all are! Today marks the start of a girls weekend for us so it's a perfect entry for today.

I thought I'd do something a bit silly and light and instead of a serious congrats card I decided to go a bit whimsical. I used Harriet from our great sponsor this week, Crafty Sentiments Designs and colored it as if Claire was the little girl. I decided to stick with blues and greys and chose a backing paper Claire has admired (re: stolen) in the past. I added a vertical congrats sentiment from Stampin' Up and some string and enamel accents to complete the sketch. I think it will crack her up.

We have a prize of 3 digis this week so make sure you enter by Friday the 25th of August!

Project 436: A masked blended sketch and color challenge

I saw the colors at Color Throwdown and was going back and forth in my mind for the past few days trying to think of what to do. Then I discovered the sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch and something came together in my mind.

I masked the right hand border and blendd using Picked Raspberry, Peacock Feathers and Seedless Preserve distress ink and added some bleached water dots. I added a few feathers stamped and die cut and faised them on foam for texture. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up Balloon Celebrations.

By making it a birthday card I also wanted to enter the CAS on Friday birthday challenge.

I ended up liking the treatment so much I did it in two other color combinations.

 

I liked it so much I ended up spending the rest of my day blending and masking so the challenges were truly inspirational!