Project 197: A mix of featured stamp cards cards

Some days you just gotta craft and I found yesterday to be that day!

I have not posted for a while because I have been busy with house-tasks (painting windowsills, reorganising the kitchen...you know all these fun tasks that you do when you have a free week in the house) but I wanted to have a bit of a play with some new ideas and all of them feature a bit die-cut central stamp. Not intentional but here we are!

First I have to brag about this little bee card (which is actually part of a set of 4). I was inspired by the beautiful Etsy shop of H Dawn Parratt - check it out if you have a chance as she does a great little colored bee card set. I openly admit stealing the diecut central image of a bee with black scallop over a yellow square background. I embossed the background with a basket weave pattern, adding a black sparkly flower border and little bee sticker from Jolee's. This set is for my Aunt Bonnie as she loves bees - hope it gets to her in time for her birthday in 2 weeks!

Then I needed some thank you cards. I decided to use scraps of strips that I had from previous projects for the middle, banner and punched bit. The white circles are also scraps if you can believe it. The scallop circle, sadly, is not from a scrap but I think that's pretty good usage! The stamp is from a Michael's black Friday sale - I think it was $0.65? This is its first outing and it stamps like a gem! The greeting is from Fiskars in a Thank You set from Claire.

 Next up is an engagement card for my brother-in-law and soon to be sister-in-law!

They got engaged a week ago and we're so excited. I decided to make their card a bit different, and used some gorgeous papers Claire had given me. I die cut the Love greeting from one of the papers and layered it over a charcoal paper. Then I used a scrap of striped paper from the same set for a vertical border and punched a border from the offcut of beige card I used for the card base. See? Scrapping all over the place. I added a little J <3 C in the bottom right hand corner for their initials and then some great little bling blob things I got from Paperchase.

No challenges in these but sometimes you just gotta craft with your own mojo!

Project 196: A very scrappy sketch challenge

Claire often puts me to shame with her use of scraps and the ability to reimagine them into new cards. I was determined to turn over a new leaf and use scraps and bits and bobs she had given me to make my thank yous this year. I've done a few different options which I'll blog about tomorrow, but for now here is one inspired by this week's Retro Sketches layout:

I'd like to point out that the spotted paper behind the thank you is actually from a card Claire sent me years ago and I liked it so much I kept it for use somewhere else. Decided that day had come! The black die cut greeting and the hexagons are also from Claire's punches and dies that she kindly sends me from NYC.

I used a blue card base and scraps of yellow for the punched border and a (rather large) scrap of blue for the middle section. (it had a cut into it from a 12x12 - that counts as a scrap right?!)

It's pretty simple but I like it overall. More to follow tomorrow on the other outputs from today!

Project: Sketch challenge for Moving Along with the Times

This week Hazel is hosting us with a sketch challenge at Moving Along with the Times:

To meet the sketch I decided to go for a masculine color and image scheme and decided to use some cool new stamps I got recently in a steam punk set. I stamped an all over cog pattern from Papermania onto grey paper and then die cut the circles.

I then stamped a clock pattern onto blue card and die cut that in a larger circle. I decided to outline the inner and outer circles in silver liquid pearl when tragedy struck and the middle circle smeared!

I decided to to make it part of the design and add a diecut ring to look like it's the inner workings of the clock. I then stamped the inner part of the clock onto another card and punched it out to add yet another layer. Not sure if it's quite saved but it's certainly better than it was with the liquid pearl problem.

As there was quite a lot of stamping I opted for a peel off greeting and then topped it off with some candies to complete the sketch. Finally I inked all of the edges with blue and purple ink in order to give it some more texture and rough-it up a bit.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what everyone else comes up with for the sketch!

Project 195: A very Minion Christmas

My colleague asked me to make a special card for her boyfriend. Her brief? "He likes minions." Right then!

I wanted to do something bold and different so I stuck with paper cutting and folding. I die cut the glasses and eyes and santa bauble but everything else was cut by hand. The hat is a precut triangle banner Claire bought me at Michael's. I left some bits overhanging for extra dimension.

It has been so long since I made a card like this and it was a little hoot for a Wednesday night. Hopefully she thinks it fits the brief!

Project 194: An alternative travel Christmas card

I had a bit of a splurge at Michael's on Black Friday this year and this amazing Tim Holtz travel stamp pack ended up in my trolley. I did a bit of a road trip with my husband and inlaws this year out West, going (briefly) on Route 66 while we were travelling through Arizona. My inlaws love nostalgic Americana and so I decided to make them an alternative Christmas card to remember our trip.

It just happens to fit in perfectly with I Love ProMarkers' challenge this week as well!

I stamped the image and added small touches of color using Berry Red and Lush Green ProMarkers. I then punched the border in metallic green paper using a Martha Stewart scallop punch.

There are some glitter glue details on the car and then a shiny gold candi in the corner. I added a Jolee's santa hat sticker to give it an extra little wink.

Simple layout and greeting free- I wanted the stamp to do all the talking here!

Projet 193: A neutral metallic Christmas challenge entry

When I saw the colors at The Color Throwdown this week I knew I had to join - they are such a pretty combination and a nice alternative to the traditional green and red Christmas.

I'm also trying to enter Retro Rubber's challenges as I need to be using my older stamps (as well as all of the gorgeous new ones I keep buying...) so I tried out their sketch challenge this week as well:

The stamps I chose for this card are from a Fiskars set that was given to me by Claire about 2 years ago. I think it might have been part of my birthday present before she left for NYC in Feb 2013 but I could be wrong...memory is getting a bit hazy during the party season :)

The stamps are on natural cardstock and then layered with a metallic silver paper. I punched white snowflakes and added touches of gold glitter glue to add a few more textures. The three candies are from a new set ("brownie") that I just bought (admittedly I went a bit candi mad recently and bought 6 new types. Oops.) and the top right is from "wedding bells".

Almost finished my Christmas cards now...just gotta get them in the post!

Project: Christmas climate at MAWTT

This week at Moving Along with the Times we have a Christmas Climate challenge: whether you celebrate Christmas in a hot or cold environment we'd like to see a project that reflects what it is like for you.

I bought the "There's no people like Snow People" in a sale for 50p years ago and I love to dig it out when I do a snow-related card.  I stamped it onto silver card and die cut the scallop shape.

The white and blue papers are embossed with a snowflake folder that I bought in a sale this summer from Sizzix - since getting my Big Shot a few weeks ago I've been a bit die cutting and embossing crazy!

I topped it with a spotted grey ribbon and some sequins and left it pretty clean as a layout. With so much indulgence for the holidays I like to keep some things minimal!

I can't wait to see what everyone else does with the climate challenge.