Monochrome Magic

This week's Docrafts Card Maker challenge was to make a card in black and white. My Spellbinders "Bitty Blossoms" arrived recently so I decided to use them to produce my entry. All the card, papers and embellishments are Docraft products. The background was created by layering a piece of white card, which was embossed using a folder, on to a piece of textured black card. The scalloped squares are shimmering card stock punched with a 2" Xcut punch. The papers are  from an older collections I have in my stash -  Papermania "Liquorice Sherbert". Here is my finished entry . . .

I'll have to wait until Thursday to see whether my efforts will be rewarded.

Better late than never ...

Hi. Long time no blog. I have been making several cards but haven't had time to post them in my blog as I'm at work full-time . . . counting the weeks until the summer break when I'll once again be a lady of leisure for about 5 weeks hopefully with plenty of time to blog.

The title of this blog refers to two separate incidents. Firstly my daughter decided to make a birthday card for her friend but in her usual style left it until the night before and once again it was a last minute rush. Having said that, I think our joint effort turned out not too bad in the end. What do you think?

We decided on an easel card which we created from an 8 x 8 square card. The horse and the horse shoes were made using templates created by finding and re-sizing an image on the computer. The various pieces were the cut out and stuck together. The lettering was some self-adhesive ones from my stash.

The second last  minute incident was when I realised about 5 minutes ago that the Craftwork Cards competition I was planning to enter closes today. I made two cards using the new Dolly Mixtures papers which was this month's theme. The first was a bird house shaped card using the Amy papers. . .

I created the flowers from the papers using a template from the Privilege Club Kit called Julie's Delightful Daisies. The ribbons came as die-cut elements in the paper pad.

The second one which I decided to enter was a card I made for my friends special birthday earlier in the month.

This 8 x 8 card was inspired by an entry on the Craftwork Cards blog where one of the designers had created a patchwork background for her project. I liked this idea and used it as the basis for this card using the Coleen pad. All of the elements are from CWC including papers and other paper elements from the pads, message tags and candi. The flowers were created by using some of the pre-cut shapes from the CWC kit (mention above) and then I again used the template to create the smaller ones by hand. I  used Papermania stamps to create the numbers. I created dimension by sticking some of the elements flat and raising other up using foam pads. Although it is hard to see from the photo, the numbers, flowers, banners and heart were also coated in "Spray and Sparkle" for a little extra bling.

Just off to email my entry before I really do miss the deadline.

Spring success

Great news yesterday; the card I made with the Docrafts downloads won the Spring card makers challenge this week. I'll look forward to receiving my prize of some All Aboard goodies.

Fueled by my success I decided to have a go at making the notelet/calendar which was an inspiration project from one of the Docraft designers. I have made loads of the handbag notepad using post-it pads as they are great sellers at our fund-raisers at work. However, I thought that this was a neat twist by adding an extra layer for a calendar.

The instructions on the project were a bit vague so I experimented a bit to find a basic design. In the end I found that the best way was to use the larger piece of card to make the outer layers and the smaller piece for the insert. The larger piece of card measured 17cm x 8cm and was scored at 8cm, 9cm and 13cm. This gives the base and the easel part. The smaller piece measured 8.8cm x 8cm and was scored at 8cm.

The small flap is then stuck on to the space between the 1cm score lines on the larger piece.

Your fully assembled base is now ready to decorate and should look like this ...

You attach your post-it note pad between the bottom two layers. I find that it is more secure to stick the back of the pad to the bottom layer rather than relying on attaching it to the top seam. The calendar goes on the top of the second layer. Here are the two that I made so you can see what you are aiming for!

I have a couple of friends with birthday this month so I thought that these would make a nice personalised extra gift to go with the brought present.

Spring - new papers and recycling

Here's hoping we've seen the last of the snow - well at least for the next fortnight whilst I'm off work! Thought I'd have a bit more time to make cards this week but I seem to have spent time catching up on all the chores. I did manage to download the new papers from the Docrafts Creativity Club and have made a birthday card for my good friend who has a major birthday later this month.

All the elements are from the Spring Blossom downloads apart from the table cloth which was from an earlier tartan download. I used the PC to resize the flowers for use on the sentiment and added a few gems to give it a bit of bling.

Yesterday was my wedding anniversary and to celebrate we walked across the Forth Road bridge and down to South Queensferry where we went for coffee and carrot cake. Obviously such an auspicious occasion called for a card ...

Tried for a more masculine feel by using the Gorjuss neutrals but added a ribbon/bow from the Forever Friends Black and Gold range. As you can see, we've been married a few years!

After watching the new episode of Creativity TV I went back to my Gorjuss 8 x 8 papers and incorporated some of the packaging in my design. As I was making the card I noticed some fabric samples that I'd got from M&S when I was ordering a new suite and also used one of these in the design. All the other papers are from the 8 x 8 paper pack. The buttons are from the Boofle bag. Here's the finished card . . . 

Off to St Andrew's to have a look around the university but hope to get back to the cards later in the week.