Card making' mamas colour challenge 48 - Sunday 24th June

Good evening blog friends,


Today I made a few Christmas cards...check out tomorrow's blog for my first seasonal offering! 


This morning I was inspired by Elaine's blog post http://wheelerscraftiness.blogspot.co.uk and reference to a challenge at  http://cardmakinmamas.blogspot.co.uk/ the theme 'red, white and blue'..like a lot of us Brits this year I have been really enjoying making cards celebrating our heritage and incorporating the 'oh so trendy' Union Jack (and long may the trend remain!)..and what a super challenge blog it is too! Whilst I was there I checked out the digital stamp site bugaboo stamps, http://www.bugaboostamps.com/ where I found a digi stamp for a shoe, just what I'd been looking for to suit another project....and as I looked at the image after downloading, the inspiration for this card and my entry for the challenge came to mind.....

For this card I used paper from DoCrafts Digital Designer, Portobello Road collection as the background and digitally embossed the paper with a floral Union Jack (unfortunately it doesn't show up so well in the photo). I made a rosette using the same paper and also die cut an accent from Spellbinders. The sentiment is stamped in denim and cranberry distress ink, using a Portobello Road stamp.


The main image is the shoe digital stamp from bugboostamps, which I coloured red, white and blue with letraset  Flex-markers and then went over the red sections with an embossing pen and embossed with red sparkle embossing powder. To finish off I added a big red, white and blue bow and covered the centre with a Union Jack button (as I did the rosette) and a red gem. I also added a flag charm and ribbon to the die cut.


This was a fun card!


I wish to enter this in card makin' mamas challenge no 48, red, white and blue


http://cardmakinmamas.blogspot.co.uk/






Thanks for stopping by,
Carole X

Best of British - Monday 4th June

Hello Blog Friends!


Today I have 'two of a kind' cards to share with you..very easy makes and similar to designs I have seen in shops...including a very upmarket department store in London where they were charging over £5 for a small 6x6!


Both of these are actually 5x5, they were quick to make and could be ideal for  good luck cards.

The first one is simply a kind of light brown (sounds boring, I'm sure it has a much nicer official name!) card front, which I distressed with a mixture of antique linen and tattered rose distress inks and typed the greeting in one of the 'typewriter' fonts. Using the Portabello Road paper set from doCrafts, I cut out the flag and the bunting and used vintage bakers twine as the line to hang it.

 For the second card, I used Clarity Stamps London set, which I got at Ally Pally and hadn't had a chance to use...and read on for a story about these stamps! I made the front of the card in the same way as the first one, but this time stamped the little soldiers above the greeting. I then made the Union Jack from the same stamp set, stamping quite 'roughly' for a vintage feel - I used cranberry and denim adirondacks, as suggested by Barbara Gray. The soldiers were coloured with Promarkers (of course!)

Now, I have seen Barbara Gray demo this stamp set on TV and also live at Ally Pally. I loved it and decided to buy it. The set includes one of Clarity's lovely designs with the great big 'O' that can be used as an aperture. I sat down to try and recreate one of her designs with these stamps a few days ago and after a few attempts got it right. I was really pleased with the finished result and then...I did the unthinkable! I picked it up without cleaning my hands! I have no idea why I did it, but I ruined the card, there was no saving it. So when all the activities of this weekend are over, I am going to sit down and do it again...it takes ages, but the result is so satisfying and by the end of the week, I hope to be posting my finished card...wish me luck and clean hands this time!

Thanks for stopping by...I have a special card tomorrow and I will also let you know how our own little garden party went...enjoy the Bank Holiday everyone, if you're in the UK!


Carole X

Rule Britannia - Sunday 3rd June

Good Morning Blog Friends,


Today's card is made in celebration of Great Britain....

I have made two versions of this card and I may well share the other one later in the week. This frame card is a shape I have been playing with, perhaps for our next workshop. A few weeks ago, I went along to a friend's 'Stampin' Up' party and the card the demonstrator had us making was this type of card and it had me thinking that I used to make cards like this, but not for a while; in fact so long ago that it was before die-cutting machines came along and getting that centre aperture to look good was almost impossible!

It's quite a simple idea...I used 2 pieces of 6x6 card and cut the aperture using labels one small. You then score twice along each side, for this size I scored at 1.5cms and 3cms, this shapes the card. All the card used  is from a Portobello Road paper and embellishment pack that I had at Christmas. I've used it quite a lot and it's lasting ages. I used a very pale newspaper print sheet for the front and stamped over it very lightly with Versafine vintage sepia  ink and a crown stamp from a Prima stamp set I bought in my local 'Out of the Blue' shop recently.

The bird was die cut using the Spellbinders Bird Sanctuary set, distressed with antique linen and I added another stamped crown.  After the sides were stuck together, I added a little hint of gold along the bottom with an edger die from Parisian Accents. The bunting is made from cutting out the bunting on the cover of the paper pad and the ribbon also came with the set, as did the spotty card for the back.

Thanks for stopping by!

Carole X