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 414: Special baby cards

A close colleague is having a baby and I wanted to make him something special for his wife to welcome their baby girl. Another colleague also commissioned a card for them so I thought I'd feature them both here.

The headline card is the one I'm giving them - I used a stencil Claire gave me and used Victorian Velvet Distress ink to get the subtle pink clouds. I punched a bunch of balloons using a Stampin' Up punch and stamped a 'Welcome Baby' sentiment on the biggest of them. I added some stamped strings, I kind of wish I had used real string but I like the bow.

This card is really funny. Our colleague's wife is Czech and they have this cartoon called Little Mole so I was commissioned to make a Little Mole card for her to give. I don't love the banner - I will keep trying it though. The top sentiment is die cut using an XCut die and the Little Mole is paper cut by hand.

Both really fun and different baby cards, I'm going to remember the balloon treatment for the future as I think that could have legs.

Project 412: New baby sketch card

I wanted to make a few little cards to send to my parents and my sister's in-laws to celebrate the arrival of my niece. I decided to do something simple and cheerful and when I saw the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches I thought it would work well:

And the color challenge at CAS-ual Fridays was perfect for my modern baby card:

The pink paper is punched with an American Crafts punch that I haven't used in ages but always really like using, it's so sharp it works great for adding detail. I embossed the central blue panel in a houndstooth folder to give it some texture. The central greeting is a washi tape punch from Claire and I used a sentiment that is one of the oldest in my collection. It didn't quite stand out as I wanted it to so I added the darker pink background to give it more prominence. The bows are punched using a Tim Holtz punch and to make them a bit cuter I added white enamel accents to the bows, mimicking the pink enamel accents I added to the background paper.

Really enjoyed this as it features a lot of fun little tools but has a simple look overall.

Project 410: A cheerful owl baby card

My niece was born last Monday so in honour of her first week, I wanted to make her a cheerful little card. I used an owl stamp that is a bit tricky because it's mainly filled in - it's really dark in black and yet when you used coloured inks it becomes a bit OTT. I love the image though and discovered that heat embossing it makes it really lovely.

I didn't go for girly girly pinks and purples, I decided to go a bit more neutral with turquoise, coral and peach. The owl uses Recollections teal embossing powder and you can't really tell but there's a lovely iridescent shine. I then colored in some of the gaps with ProMarkers in Coral, Ginger, Pastel Pink and Cool Grey 2.

I fussy cut the owl as close as I could as the white border looked a bit weird on the cream spotted background. I punched the balloons using a Stampin' Up punch and then added some light pink string. The border features a handwritten sentiment - I just couldn't sum up what I wanted with a pre-existing sentiment. I used my new favourite pastel gems as a border and an accent in the top.

So over the moon with her arrival, I am going to post this with a little gift for her and hope it makes its way across the 5,000 miles quickly!

Project 399: A cute little sketch and baby card

Since Christmas I've been struggling for mojo at my craft desk and dipping in and out of challenges less frequently than my usual behaviour. But I really liked the layout at Sketch Saturday and tasked myself to use paper scraps as I wanted to see what I could come up with.

The whole idea came out of the heart paper, I just love the color combos and how sweet they are. It was a gift from Claire this summer and I've been a bit precious about that set - but as this is a scrap I used a fairly big piece guilt free. The green piece is also a scrap and I embossed him using an ancient diamond folder, one of the very first embossing folders I ever got. The sweet hello is from a set that I bought off of Jenn Shurkas who was selling off her old stash and I got in there lightning quick! I punched a little heart and covered it in Enamel Accents to give it a bit texture as all the paper looked a bit flat. 

This one doesn't work to the challenge but as I used the same scraps (hearts and pink border) I thought I'd showcase it here as a freebie. The elephant is a stamp/die from Sizzix that I got in the Black Friday sale, and the sentiment is the same set. The backing paper is a scrap from the Neapolitan stack from Recollections that I have been so precious with but as this is for a colleague I decided to get over myself and just use it! The little white enamel dots add a bit of lightness. 

As I was struggling this weekend I wanted a craft session to be super simple and not too fussy and I'm happy with the result of both of these :) 

Project 393: A very pink baby shower

I have been unable to craft and blog at my usual pace these past few weeks because I have been working non stop on a baby shower for my sister.

So many things made for this shower! So MANY THINGS.

Here's the run down:

• Game boards (I got a template online for a prom invite - yes really - and manipulated it to get the arrangement I wanted. I hated the Baby Shower game boards I found and thought this worked way better for what I wanted) 
• Labels for champagne bottles that say 'About to Pop!' that were printed, die cut, layered over a pink scallop and punched to become a tag 
• Signs for craft stations 
• Tiny folded napkins to look like diapers that hold snacks 
• Ribbon rosettes for the mom to be, x2 grandmas and me, the aunt! 
• Decorated hair bands - there was a station for all the guests do decorate some but Claire and I made x2 testers and then I decorated more with the spares

Plus a bunch of games, prizes, etc. It was all a bit hectic to organise but the final day was beautiful and fun and my sister had a great time which is what really matters. Can't wait to have that little baby in our lives! 

Project 382: Brazillian football baby card and 'Future Grandma'

A colleague is from Brazil and her brother just announced him and his wife are having a baby. She wanted to make him a card that showed his football team Flamengo as he has found out he's having a boy. She also wanted a card for her mom that congratulated her as - apparently - she has been bugging my colleague for a grandchild for some years now and she can now give her some peace!

The headline card features the card I made for her mom. I heat embossed the congratulations greeting from a baby set in white and then blended over it in Salty Ocean distress ink really lightly for the sky. I die cut a stamped plane from the same baby set (why is there a plane in a baby set??) and then colored it with ProMarkers. I cut  a scrap of green paper to look like a hill and then dotted it with Enamel Accent flowers. I added white Enamel Accents to the sky to make it look like sky writing from the plane, and then added the Future Grandma in glittery letters. What a weird card but I love it.

The next one is the card for her brother. I cut a number of red stripes and layered them over a black card. I added big black foam letters to make it more masculine and smaller red ones to balance it out. I die cut a circle and drew on some football spots, and then cut out two jerseys, a big and a small, in red and added black stripes. Finally I added a little insignia in white gel pen to complete it.

I love my random colleague commissions, they are definitely the strangest briefs and so much fun to fulfill.

Project 373: Custom baby cards

My colleagues have asked me for some interesting baby cards: two for a relative and a third for a colleague who's just about to go on maternity leave.

All of them were super fun to make, let me start with the headline. 

The brief was to make something light and fun for a baby card that wasn't too twee as we don't know her style. I stamped this adorable elephant rubber stamp from Michael's (bargain bucket I think?!) and colored it with ProMarkers, adding touches of Wink of Stella to add some shimmer. I used the stitched circle die as I think it's a bit cuter to have that as an edge. The paper is a scrap from the Neapolitan stack from Recollections and is just so nice, it's a bit precious to me! I added tiny little pink enamel dots just for added charm and I'm really pleased with the result.

Now for the really specialised ones...! This one is a request for my colleague's sister, and the brief was that it must have metallic elements, and she wanted a shaker. So I made a fairly simple layout but added loads of lovely touches, if I do say so myself! The spots are from the Endless Birthday Wishes Stampin' Up set and I heat embossed it using Ranger gold powder. The shaker is full of sequins and these diamond crystals Claire gave me. The sentiment is the same as the above, but I made it a little banner and wrapped it in purple twine. Really festive and fun, she loved it when I gave it to her the next day.

This is for the same family, for the new big sister of the baby above. I kept a similar color scheme as the one above so they'd be related. The brief for this one was 'no pink' so it felt right. She told me that the girl had an owl theme in her bedroom so I went to one of my favourite stamp sets from Get Stamping magazine, which features the same owl in three sizes. SO HANDY. I die cut the letters from a Tim Holtz Sizzix die set as my greeting. I added all the embellishments to make it more fun, with buttons and flowers and things that fit the color scheme and just added little enamel dots for extra texture.

Really happy with all of these and had a lot of fun making them. Just what I needed this week! 

Project 355: A unique chilli baby card

A friend in the office is having a baby and one of my other colleagues and I conspired to make him the most personal, random baby card. The friend having the baby loves chilli and hot sauce and everything spicy so we decided that had to play a central role.

I created a mobile from paper scraps and some string and then cut out little chillies from scraps on my desk. I glitter glued the red ones and then used enamel accents for the green. I raised them with little foam squares so they would have a 3D effect.

It looked too stark against white so I used kraft card. I'll be honest and say I think the black is too dark and should have used grey or white. Oh well. Never mind. Still the craziest baby card I've ever made!

Project 332: A baby card for MAWTT

This week at Moving Along With the Times we have a baby challenge for you. I have had a lot of babies come into my life lately so this was a fun challenge.

I used a wooden stamp from Michael's that I picked up in a sale. I colored it with ProMarkers and die cut it out and layered on an embossed diecut sheet. The background of the paper is painted with an aquabrush and Distress Inks in Victorian Velvet and Picked Rasppberry. The elephant then got a wash of Wink of Stella sshimmer. The greeting is an old one from my stash and I stamped it onto a punched washi tape strip from Claire.

All in all, really a very cheerful card with a lot of technique but happily a CAS finish.

Can't wait to see whatyou do in the next two weeks!

Project 311: Two very different cards for a sunny Sunday

I haven't been crafting this week, not because I don't have things I want to make (or need to, as US Mother's Day is around the corner...!) but because it has been one of those weeks where life got in the way. Today was going to be my catch up day, until I realized it's my 2 year anniversary from adopting our little dog from the animal shelter and the day was taken over with walks and treats and playtime for him!

All I squeezed in were two cards that I need to get in the post as they're both belated to start with. The headline card is a card for my sister in law, who just finished medical school. I used a Sizzix die set and a Recollections Trader Jane paper set, topped with some glitter glue and that was about it! Simple but nice. I really need to use this set more, it's wicked fun and the whole thing comes together really easily.

Next is this fun little Bugaboo elephant. My friend's baby girl turned 1 about a week ago and I forgot to send the little gift that I got her, rubbish friend that I have become! I love this little elephant colored with ProMarkers and I thought it worked well with this Sugar and Spice paper. I added some foam letters I just picked up from Tiger as a greeting. Kids don't care that things match (she's 1 - she's not reading this card, let's be honest!) so I decided to just go for a mix of colors.

I love how playful the final cards are, not bad for a slapdash craft session!

Project 309: A shaker baby card

I love a shaker card at the moment and this one is for a very special friend. I wanted a girl card that wasn't overly pink, but still had some special touches.

I chose a Sugar and Spice paper as the back as it's a bit tricky to work with but I thought was playful enough for a baby. The greeting behind the shaker is a manipulation of Endless Birthday Wishes from Stampin' Up, where it should say 'It's all about...' but I masked the rest and then added the 'girl' from a 'birthday girl' greeting of the same set. It's all about stretching the stamps!

The shaker is full of yellow, green and pink teddy bear punches and beads in the same colors. I did a double ring in white and teal to cover the foam behind it and added a pink kite from Claire. The greeting on the banner is from the oldest sentiment set I own!

I really like the final project and I think my friend will like it. It's really cheerful, if a bit busy, and a nice twist on the normal baby card.

Project 296: Using dies for a custom wedding baby card

I was asked by a colleague to make a card for her brother, celebrating his wedding and birth of his son. She was very specific, asking for gold rings, green and blue to be the colors and the reference to both occasions. I struggled with this one to be honest!

I decided to use my Tim Holtz letter dies and decided type would be my friend - why be symbolic when you can literally spell out what you need to say! I spelled out Mr & Mrs and put them over some hand-cut banners.

I spelled out Baby in peel offs as I thought that would tie into the Congragulations at the bottom. I hate those peel offs they are so thin and hard to use but they're really elegant so they stay in my collection. I added three little hearts to represent the three people in the family.

The rings are die cut out of gold paper and overlapped to make an infinity sign. I added the heart ribbon as an extra little touch. It's a bit busy but I think it's on brief and she'll like it.

Also: I made this cute little mini card using my blooming marvelous set from Stampin' Up - stamps and dies on a 3x3 card. Was pretty quick and easy and using all scraps it was a nice one to throw together. Need to keep this in mind!

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.

Project 211: My new favourite kid's card

A colleague gave me the best brief for a card the other day:

• Girl turning 3 likes:
• Princesses
• Pingu
• Shaun the sheep
• Lego

Usually I try to pull  out one main thing as the card but with this one I thought - let's see if we can get all of those in there!

I am really pleased with the result. I used a Little Claire stamp for the feature, colored with ProMarkers and layered with nesting Sizzix label dies. I added a touch of glitter glue to the butterflies for extra sparkle. 

Shaun and Pingu are both cut out of layered paper - the black and white are both scraps I had on my desk already so that was a win. The eyes are the off-cut of a punch I have. I sent these to my colleague to 'approve' before I stuck them all down and she was over the moon with the detail. Honestly they weren't too bad - I didn't even need a scalpel, I just used scissors. 

The dots on the Lego blocks feature the same dots. I used extra thick glue to stick them down so that they'd have that 3D effect. 

I decided all of the items along the bottom should be raised on foam rather than stuck down fully. Kids cards always have texture and layers and I thought I'd give them a bit more standout that way. 

Finally I topped them off with some sparkly letters that were freshly arrived from Claire. I think they are just perfect for the project to finish it all off. 

My colleague is thrilled and so am I - hopefully I will get a few more briefs like this as they are just so much fun! 

Project 137: WOYWW 248 First entry

I have been following Claire's submissions to What's on your workdesk Wednesday for months, and I have always wanted to enter. But I never had a workstation! Whenever I wanted to craft I would get my little buckets, boxes and bags of craft things and sit on the floor, or couch, or table and make the thing and then clear it all away. For years this is how I did it.

When we moved into our condo recently I asked (nay, insisted) that I have a craft desk in our spare bedroom and here I am, finally ready to play along!

So my headline photo is my long-awaited desk. I have my ProMarkers in little cups (until I work out my long term solution), two little plastic caddies full of bits and bobs, a pencil container, cutting mat, ATG just out of shot, and then the interesteing bits: some paper scraps, some Little Claire stamps I'm coloring in and then the sample of papers that come with the Little Clair subscription Claire subscribed me to for my birthday.

I wanted to share the rest of my little craft station as well as I'm just so excited:

To the left is my wall sticker, my paper storage unit, paper cutter and bit box of bling. To the right is a shelving unit that has everything that doesn't fit in the desk: stamps, inks, ribbons, bows and other tools. It's the first time I've ever had an area that is really my own and I'm excited to have done a few projects there already.

I thought I would share the first card I made after assembling my desk last week, a card my colleague commissioned for her neighbor's baby shower. Her neighbor, I should mention, is a professional dancer from the UK's version of Dancing with the Stars - I've purposely not put her name in this as my friend didn't want my blog to get picked up by search before the shower - but afterwards I'm definitely going to ask her to get a picture of her holding the card. My first celebrity endoresment!

 

The brief was to make it as blingy and fabulous as possible and so when I was in doubt, I added more bling. Purple leopard paper is from Claire, the flowers are from a Papermania collection and the image is one I've used before, on a previous "Knocked up" and fabulous card.

All in all, I'm so excited to be a part of the WOYWW crew, can't wait to have a nosy around your workstations! xJT

Project 126: Space monkey bday cards

Claire bought me this set of space monkeys in our last $20 challenge and they crack me up. As it is my fave little boy's 2nd birthday I thought they would be perfect.

Seize the birthday has a colouring challenge and I thought this would be great.

Stampin for the weekend had a birthday challenge so I thought I would try that as well as I haven't entered there in a while.

I used a combo of three stamps from the set and coloured then with Promarkers and a silver gel pen. The yellow border is punched with a new starry border punch from EK Success and this and the rocket striped paper are also from Claire.

I hand cut the sparkly 2 and topped it with some stars.

How cute is that? :)

Project 119: Onesie baby card

I know it's been almost a month since I last posted - I've had 4 international trips in a very short period of time (some work, some play!) so apologies for the lack of posting.

I wanted to get at least a few posts in before the end of the year and today I had a great little project.

A childhood friend is having a baby girl in February and her shower is next week. I wanted to make a simple little card with the limited craft kit that I have unpacked with me (unpacking from the move has been a challenge given the aforementioned international travel). I remembered this post from Claire and wanted to do a smaller version of it, with a few little tweaks based on what I had available.

I used four different pink and yellow papers for the onesie and just made a template myself. I had plain grosgrain ribbon so that's what I used for the line. Then I glittered some of the features of the papers (yes, Claire, I'm all about that now, *rolls eyes*) and finally added just a spot of bling and some candies.

I left it greeting free as I don't have any baby stamps to hand (I have LOADS but they were not in the box I unpacked) so I think it's ok to leave them off.

Hoping to post again before Christmas- we'll see!

Project 105: Spots and Stripes baby girl card challenge

Claire pointed out a fun challenge at The Pink Elephant for a card featuring spots and stripes. I was commissioned to make a baby girl card for someone at work and I loved the idea of making it a part of the challenge.

I love this layout for baby cards, I pinned it ages ago but I haven't made that many baby cards recently so I wanted to update a bit. As it's a girl card I wanted to have a bit more fun with some cute touches. For starters, I closed the space between the boxes and had them bleed off the card. Wall to wall pink!

I  embossed the top left corner with the little dots folder - I'm loving that folder this week, I used it just the other day for a CAS layout. I then glittered the floral paper in the bottom right with glitter glue.

I hand cut the little baby onesie and stamped it directly.

To finish it off, I added the pink grosgrain ribbon and punched the bottom with the adorable little heart scallop punch that Claire got me in NYC. I added the buttons in the top right - I love buttons on baby cards.

Very happy with the output, hope my colleague likes it as well!

Project 93: Stamping like mad double challenge

This week we had some sad news and it's really made me retreat into the craft world to be distracted. It's really been therapeutic though I'm not sure I'm quite ready to face the real world and work again. To really put my mind to work, I decided to double up challenges again.

I liked the inspiration at Designed to Color and I had a second opportunity to enter the Kenny K Steampunk challenge so I used the combination to create the headline card, a birthday card for my friend. We often joke that we'd be better suited for Victorian times so I thought the steampunk vibe would be perfect for him.

I used Captain Locke from KennyK as the feature. I used Chronology paper for the cogs and then patterned my own paper for the green die-cut on the left using two different key stamps. I textured the flower with two different green inks and cut out a cog for the center. I used green glitter drop decals for the top right corner. Candies felt a bit out of place.

I thought I'd show a few more of the stamping bonanza output here as it is the result of an epic session but only the top headline card is in the challenge. 

 

I used the same color inspiration for a baby card for my colleague who just celebrated the 12-week-scan of their first baby. They don't know if it is a boy or a girl so I thought the yellow, green and grey worked well. He's a cool graphic designer so I used bold papers and simple layout that I thought he'd appreciate. I cut the baby-grow free-hand and then stamped the greeting. I got the idea from Pinterest and then used a card magazine for the layout idea. 

 

 

Changing things up a bit, I got a great set of stamps with Get Stamping magazine. All three of the stamps on this card are from the summer adventure theme. I used my old friend the Latte stack for the papers and added the chevron paper to keep it modern. I added glitter to the images to make it a bit more blingy.

 

 Back to Kenny K for the last two. This card is for my brother in law. I colored the Wise Guy stamp to look like my BIL and found a paper (also Latte stack) that worked perfectly. I used brad-style candies along the bottom to give it a bit of hardware.

 

I won this mermaid stamp from a challenge I entered with Ginger Gem and this is her first outing for me. I made her purple and blue and colored the gradient to give her depth. The purple paper is ancient (I think Claire gave it to me 2 years ago) and I thought it had an ethereal, under-water feel. I stamped hibsicus flowers on the blue card using the travel stamps I mentioned above. I topped her off with a lot of glitter glue and some punched and pressed flowers with purple bling.

I'm grateful I have crafting as a distracting and coping mechanism; I don't hope for bad news again but at least the output is fairly productive!