Friends Forever

A new card with a 'Friendship' theme today.  The lovely stamp is from Sliekje Digi Stamps and the papers are from Pink Petticoats 'Wild Blossoms' collection.   The die-cut is one of Nellie Snellen's Multi-frames and a Martha Stewart punch has been used for the edges of the pink card.  The little gingham butterfly was from a selection at Hobbycraft.  I have also used a pink star Gelly Roll pen to make the illusion of stitching along each paper panel.

I've tried to keep my promarker colours in line with the 'Wild Blossom' colours (although I am now awaiting new shades as getting a little bored with using the same colours time and time again lol).

[caption id="attachment_1095" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Friends Forever"][/caption]

 I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Passions for Promarkers - #116 'Patchwork'

Stamps R Us - 'Friendship'

2 Sisters Challenge Blog - #55 Friends

My Time to Craft - #156 Just Between Friends

For Fun Challenges - Kids at play

Cardmakin Mama's Blogspot - Digital

Cupcake Craft Challenges - #158 Patchwork Quilt

A belated card creation

Just a quick one tonight.  Made a lovely card (well, yes I'm biased) for hubby's birthday back in June but thought I'd forgotten to take a pic.............that was until today when I realised it was on my mobile phone all along!

I decided to go with a black & white theme and used an old photo I'd sneakily acquired from mom-in-law.  The photo itself was actually in colour but after copying it I converted it to grayscale to keep with the theme of the card.

Apologies for the quality of the photo!

[caption id="attachment_1045" align="aligncenter" width="377" caption="'P's 40th Birthday Card"][/caption]

A Passion for Promarkers!

For a while now I've been looking at the rubber stamping techniques in my monthly Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine and am often in left awe by the fantastic finish others manage to acquire on their shading. I bought myself a pack of 'Skin Accent' Promarkers by Letraset a while back when Hobbycraft were having a sale. Up till now I'd always used watercolour pencils for any small bits of colour that were needed but I'd heard on the grapevine that Promarkers were the way to go. I decided to buy another pack of Promarkers and went for the 'Muted' Blending pack which I managed to pick up relatively cheaply on Ebay. Since then I've not looked back!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="342" caption="Free stamp with Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine"][/caption]

Learning to blend and shade the colours takes practice but it is certainly much easier than I expected it would be. I've since bought the 'Skin Tones' and 'Cool Grey's' pack to extend my collection a little further and although I've also bought a couple of individual pens (Berry and Holly), I could do with a few more reds and greens to help make my upcoming Christmas stamps look a little more authentic.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="342" caption="Lovely Free Digi Stamp from Sliekje Digi Stamps"][/caption]

 

I have to say that 'A' and I both find colouring with Promarkers thoroughly addictive (yes, we have no life :) ). 'A' actually said to me the other day that she could spend hours just sitting there colouring and me personally I feel about 5 again, getting such a thrill out of 'colouring in' lol.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="343" caption="Stamp from Daisy & Dandelion - Santa's Little Helpers"][/caption]

Although I've made a couple of cards using the stamps I've shaded (new post coming soon), I'm currently just enjoying the moment with my new found Promarker friends! I still feel that my stamps could look a little better, but I guess with practice and more pens to add to my collection it won't take too long.

[slideshow]

Welcome to Iris Folding

In one of my recent magazines there was a great article on the papercraft technique called 'Iris Folding'. Although rather time consuming the actual technique itself was fairly simple and I think the overall effect was really effective. My first attempt was for my friend Jo's birthday. We've spent many a morning chatting over a nice cuppa or three so I had a look round for an idea that would incorporate this. I found a super example on The Little Paper Studio which included a teapot design. I tried to create something similar and came up with my own little phrase – 'Always time for tea with friends' for the teapot tag. The only problem I came across was when trying to stick my finished design to the card face due to the thickness of the folded paper I had real difficulty with this. I think next time I would make my design a little smaller to allow more free space around the edge for sticking down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had another attempt at iris folding for my brother's birthday last week. This time I went for a slightly more appropriate theme for my brother of a hot air balloon. I managed to find a template online for the hot air balloon shape and used some left over papers for the iris folding. If you fancy having a go at iris folding have a look at Handcrafted Crafted Greetings for further instructions. They also have iris folding templates available here.

A couple of other events to make for saw me creating a 'Brownie' themed card for our Niece who was 7 back at the start of June and yesterday 'A' sang at the wedding of her Youth On Stage choreographer. I looked around for a little wedding card inspiration as I've not made one until now but I was quite pleased with the result. The idea came from Card Making Corner.





 

 

 

 

 

 

Gorjuss crafty creations

There were some lovely free backing papers with my last couple of card making magazines so had a go at a few new designs this afternoon.  Had a go at some new techniques using crushed paper circles to create flowers and inking paper edges to create a shabby chic effect.

My friend Emma bought me a lovely card for my birthday back in March from the Santoro's Gorjuss range.  I was really chuffed when I found some super decoupage packs in Hobbycraft in the same range and had a go at creating a couple of cards today.  Now looking forward to making more of these.

[slideshow]