Making it with Meslyn Challenge #7

okay, so where did August go?? the time has flown this month and I cant believe its september already! I guess the one plus point is that we can now take out our autumn, halloween and christmas stash without feeling too guilty!

this month's Making it with Meslyn Challenge is to make a card using the sketch below and for this I used Martha Stewart ladybird punches and also a Digi Image which was coloured with twinkling H2O's and added prima flowers and card candy with leaves which were cut on the robo.

please pop by the Challenge blog and have a go at the sketch as there all sorts of possibilities with this one! (oops I moved my embellishments around a bit..)

the prize for the winner will be
'taster pack for 2 fab Christmas ranges new to our website. Each pack contains papers, chipboards and decoupage tasters from 'Peppers Christmas party and 'Jolly Happy Christmas''

If you like the image which is just oh so adorable, please pop by Di's Digi Downloads where you can find it here.

Christmas!

well I forgot to post this card in early August when I finished it, and while sifting through and sorting out my photos I realised I hadnt, so here you go.

I got some gorgeous papers last month called Swell Noel from K& CO and when I saw one particular sheet in the pack I thought wow this was made for the stamp (or the stamp made for the paper!) which I found on ebay last year and hadnt cleaned up to use yet (it was used)
So, I dug that out stamp and in the end was pleased with the result and how the nested frames from the spellbinders lables came out too. the snowflakes are cut with the cuttlebug 3 flakes on one die, and I added pearls and stickles to finish

The image is coloured with twinkling H2O's as of course it had to be glittery, and I think they work well on this card rather than the other colouring techniques!


The sentiment is stamped and embossed with white embossing powder from purple gerbil (see right had link on my blog to their ebay shop)

Aug Workshop and Making it With Meslyn DT Challenge

sorry for not blogging or posting for a while things have been a bit up and down and busy lately, and now its back to normal for a while.

please click on the dark coloured words to link to places to find the images
I have a good few cards to share with you, and these are from yesterday's workshop, one of which I also used to set the theme for Making it with Meslyn DT challenge, which runs until the end of August.

the first card we made in the workshop and was also for the challenge and is an easel card, using Whiff of Joy Cool Oakley stamp - ideal for teens / young men, depending on what papers and embellishments you teem it up with.
-here is the card:


and some close ups of the inside which isn't too dark so you can still write a message and the front view showing the closed shape. I made this one easy to put together with no measuring and cutting by simply using a square card blank, which top half was scored in half horizontally for the easel shape, and then adding a square topper.

the embossing is done with partial embossing on the topper and more embossing on the brown card using the new Sizzix Tim Holtz brick effect embossing folders. I used antique linen, brick red and corduroy brown distress inks as well, on the white topper and on the paper.
The papers are from Bearly Mine Designs Grunge Days, which you can find here, and I have used them on another girls card as well this time.

the second card is also a Whiff of Joy Themed one and the stamp is called Dancing Party Willow, using the bearly mine Grunge Days Papers again.

the swirly flourishes are from Spellbiners Flourish Accents set and were cut in green and white and we distressed the edges of the paper with scissors / craft blades and did some faux stitching with a pricking tool and a marker.
here is a close up so you can see the colouring with twinkling h2o's and also the flower which we made by cutting nestie circles in the grunge days lilac coloured papers, scrunching them up then cutting in the petal shapes and gluing together before adding a white splat / snowflake shape centre and a bit of card candy to finish... and oh.. stickles too!


the next few cards were a choice of sentiment and colour, and are using one of my favourite Penny Black stamps called dream a dream from 2006, and the idea was to use the same shapes, papers and toppers and see what different combinations of layouts or card patterns we could come up with!
(if you want to find penny black stamps, a huge range can be found here at PB Stamps)
these cards have been coloured in twinkling H2O's

OR the odourless mineral spirits/pencil crayon technique

and I have added close-ups so you can see the difference between the two.
the centres of some of the flowers have been done with liquid pearls and the sentiment stamps are from stampin up (some of them)


We also made a soft, ultra cute card using Di's Digi Downloads image Chasing Butterflies which i just fell in love with when I saw it!

I used the Xcut butterfly punch (you know the pink and black one!) and cut out the butterflies and then a normal score board to do the embossed lines on the background.

this image was also coloured using the pencil crayon / sansodor technique

this post is turning out to be a long one, hope you like all the pictures, and here are the last two cards!

another Digi Image this time, precoloured and ready to cut (or you can buy it in black and white to colour yourself), is from Fred She Said and is called Emma Blowing Bubbles
here is some detail so you can see the punching and embossing and just two layers of the image... a nice way to decoupage that looks a little more interesting that just adding the image to the card.
the embossing was done with the cuttlebug bubbles and branches folders and the punching with Martha Stewart Grass and picket fence punches, I added a little wooden ladybug as the grass and the green was crying out for a little red bug!

last but not least is good old paddington bear - i think we all love him and he will never really go out of fashion, so I decided to do a tag shape card and used natural twine and nestie circles cut out in brown card to made the round bits where the string goes through.

the tag shape is made but cutting the top off a DL shaped card and the sides at an angle so very easy to do!

the middle piece of cream card, onto which I mounted the cut out and coloured paddington (twinkling h2o's), has been punched using a notch punch and makes it look like a suitcase so that worked very well!
PS I only threaded the string through the front side of the card so you can still open it

on that note this is the end of a very long post and I hope you enjoyed browsing - if you want to know where to source any of the items I used, in case I haven't added links in places, just leave me a comment or email me.

Making it with Meslyn Challenge Reminder

Just to remind everyone who wants to enter and there is yummy prize for the winner too.
Here is my original post and here is the challenge blog.

lots of weddings!

seems like there have been lots of weddings lately, and a few more still to come in August, so here are a few recent makes, some I just made because I wanted to and others for special requests.. hope you like them!

the first card is similar to one I did recently but in a different colour scheme as the bridesmades dresses were in sage green, the dove is a whiff of joy stamp and the hearts from the centre of the sizzix valentine wreath die

the next three cards are decoupage cards which i made a little more interesting with ribbon and lots of punched borders (the Martha Stewart Corner Border combo punches)

Wedding Anniversary with Woodware Stamps

Well I had so much fun making this card! The special lady who asked for it for her husband wanted something along the lines of what he likes, and since he was a sheep farmer I thought this stamp would be PERFECT for their Golden Wedding Anniversary ...

... its from a clear set of stamps called Wooly Greetings available from Woodware Stamps and I have used them so many times for friendship and other cards but this has to be a first for Wedding Anniversary.

The sheep image was stamped on paper and used as a mask and then gold ink added with a sponge dauber afterwards, as you can see below:


The punching is done with a Martha Stewart punch and the layers stuck on with foam pads for added depth, and here's another view so you can see the layers:


I hope this leads me (and anyone else browsing) to use your stamps for occasions you never thought you would use them for!

Making it With Meslyn Challenge #5

I cant believe that the time has flown since the last challenge, here is the next challenege over at Making it with Meslyn.

There is some yummy card candy and other bits from Craftwork Cards up for grabs as a prize for this challenge so hop over and take part!

This time the goodie bag Carolyn gave us was themed as 'Oriental Monochrome' and it was a really good theme to get my teeth into - the papers were so yummy I just didnt want to use them but gave in, in the end after ooing and aahing over them!!

...so for this challenege I decided to make an easel card and used TH distress ink in black soot to do the distressing; the apertures were cut with nestabilities and the colouring with the OMS pencil technique.
Here is a close up so you can see the colouring and apertures, and because the kokeshi doll (i think thats what she is anyway) was printed on ultra smooth pearlescent card, the OMS technique worked reallly really well.


The part that holds the easel shape on the base, is a piece of card folded in half and then cut with a circle nestability just past the fold line and through both pieces when they are folded, so it flips open to reveal a little place where you can write your message (here is a close up).
I mounted the flower on top of the folded circle shape.

please pop over and take part in the challenge this fortnight, there are some great goodies on offer again if you win!