Robot card for Jack

Hello crafty peeps - welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you've managed to get some crafty Black Friday bargains - I haven't due to lack of funds (we've only bought TWO Christmas presents so far - eek!!) but I've been drooling over all the bargains out there.

To distract me from all the stuff I can't afford to buy I've been looking through my crafty stash and have used a few things that I've had for a while but haven't had the chance to use yet, and I've made a Robot themed card for my nephew who celebrates his birthday on the 29th December.

Robot card with movable cogs.

This card was made using a Kaisercraft stamp set called "Technologic" and the HB2U stamp came from a Clearly Besotted Stamp set called "TEXT ME". I embossed the black cardstock using a Sizzix embossing folder called "Dots", the folder isn't that large so I embossed first one side of the card then lined up the folder to emboss the other side. To highlight the dots I rubbed over it with silver gilding wax (sorry don't know the make as it came free with a magazine and the packaging doesn't have any details). I stamped, coloured then fussy cut the gears and punched a hole through the centres so that I could add brads through them and the embossed background. It's not lined up perfectly and I should have used thicker card but if you move the cogs they do actually move the others which I LOVE!!! I'm not going to go into any further details about how this card was made because it's just stamping and colouring with a hint of dry embossing. Of course if you do want a more detailed "How to make" please leave a comment below.

Close up of Robots

Another view of the Robot card with movable gears!

PRODUCTS USED

Kaisercraft "Technologic" Clear Stamps

Clearly Besotted "TEXT ME" stamps

Dovecraft 3mm "Masculine" brads

Sizzix 657253 Dots & Flowers set #2

Silver gilding wax

Memento Tuxedo Black Ink

Kraft card

White card

Black card

ProMarkers in Ice Grey 1 & 2

Clear Wink of Stella Brush Marker

I hope you've enjoyed seeing my new creation, I'm planning on working on my Christmas cards over the weekend (I'm so behind!) so hopefully I'll have something to share on Monday. Until then - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

A sprinkle of fairy dust....

Hello crafty peeps - welcome to my crafty nook! This week I need two cards for two special people - my sister-in-law Susan and my dear friend Jean. I've made a card for Sue and I'd like to share it with you.

Birthday card for my Sister-In-Law who's celebrating a significant birthday on Friday!

Originally this card was only 5" x 5" but I managed to mess up the verse inside so cut the card front off with a pair of scissors (next time I'd use a paper trimmer cos this is wonky!) I started off by colouring the card using Salty Ocean distress ink and a blender tool then added Dusty Concord until I had the desired effect. I stamped the main fairy image from a Lavinia Stamps set that I got free with papercraft essentials magazine sometime this year. I also stamped the three toadstools and the fairy dust twice using Memento Tuxedo black ink. The fairy wishes sentiment on the bottom right hand side came from a fairy stamp set that I got through the post yesterday with Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine (may not be available quite yet in the shops - subbies get it early). I coloured over the fairy wings with clear Wink of Stella and as it's a water colour and distress inks are water reactive, it bleached the wings as well as making them shimmer which I really like. I added some WOS to the toadstool caps too for added interest and shimmer. I coloured the fairy dust using some jelly gel glitter pens by Sikorea (not a spelling error, just a knock off brand from a pound shop type of place but actually really sparkly!). The butterflies are rub-ons from Crafters' Companion - a range called "Fairyopolis" (*I checked my packaging and I got the name wrong - this is the correct spelling, sorry for any confusion caused!) and it's hard to see on this photo but I added WOS to their wings too. Actually please excuse the quality of this photo, it really doesn't do this card justice (my camera is quite old and falling to bits - I have the battery fastened on with washi tape!). I mounted this finished panel onto black holographic glitter card then mounted this panel onto a 6" x 6" piece of Dovecraft "Fantasy" designer papers which features fairies and dragons, I've had it for years and wish I'd bought two packs as the dragons would look fantastic on a "Game of Thrones" themed card. I mounted this panel onto some more black holographic glitter card and added this panel to some silver holographic card. I matted this onto some plain black card which I added some clear WOS to as this card just screams to be blinged up. Finally I cut a piece of cream card stock to 7.5" x 7.5" and blended Salty Ocean and Dusty Concord distress inks onto it until I got a smooth blended effect. I added clear WOS to the edges of the card then centred the main panel onto it before sticking the finished topper onto a scalloped edged 8" x 8" card blank.

Here are a few more photos of the card.

PRODUCTS USED:

Lavinia Stamps "The Clouds Are Lined With Silver.."

Dovecraft 6" x 6" "Fantasy" Designer Paper Pack (DCDP72) copyright 2007 (blimey I have had these a long time!)

Crafters' Companion *"Fairyopolis"*  (see note in main text) rub-ons

Sikorea 10 Colour Jelly Gel glitter pens

Memento Tuxedo Black ink

Tim Holtz Distress inks in Salty Ocean & Dusty Concord

Blending tool and pads

Clear Wink of Stella (WOS) brush marker

cream card stock

Black holographic glitter card (The Works)

Silver holographic card (The Works)

Black card stock (the Works)

Scalloped Edged 8" x 8" card blank and envelope (from local craft shop)

I hope you've enjoyed my latest card, as always please leave any comments or questions below and I'll answer them as soon as I can both here and on your blogs if you have them. I will add another post once I've made the birthday card for Jean (I have an idea or two!) and if I enter the Passion for ProMarkers Challenge on Tuesday. So until then - keep crafting!

With love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

Woo Hoo - I beat my crafter's block!!!

Hello crafty peeps - welcome to my crafty nook! For the last few weeks I've been trying to finish the card component of the National Papercrafter of the Year Competition. I tackled the project first assuming that it would be the element I'd struggle with most as I'm a cardmaker and scrapbooker (an infrequent one at that!) rather than someone who makes lots of mini books and home decor items. For some reason I had no trouble with the project but really struggled to come up with card ideas that weren't baby related. I had the dreaded crafter's block!  Maybe because the closing date is Friday but something clicked yesterday and I've been up all night putting the finishing touches to the two cards I'm submitting to the competition. Of course as they are wont to do when I'm up against the clock, lots of things have gone wrong with the cards which is why I pulled an all nighter - the most annoying was deciding Tea Dye distress ink would look better inside the card if I did second generation stamping only to not have enough ink left on the stamp to give a complete image - argh!

Coffee & Cream themed card using Katy Sue Designs Simpler Times Coffee Time stamp set 

This first card is a lot more embellished then I'd normally make and I may have gone a bit overboard with the paper and silk flowers. I've also used paper doilies something I've avoided up to now as they always look a bit daft on my cards like they don't belong there. However I really wanted to have a brown and cream colour scheme for this card and the doilies were a way to introduce the cream part in a decorative manner. I coloured the main stamped image using shades of brown Pro-Markers (the skin was done in putty and tan), the parts of the image that appear red were coloured in using terracotta pro-marker. Once the image was coloured I cut round it using a circle template, I had hoped to use a Sizzix circle die but it wasn't quite large enough. I looked through my flowers and picked out ones that I could colour using Pro-Markers and ended up with a mixture of silk and paper flowers. The silk flowers were extremely easy to colour - the paper ones took more effort but I like the way they turned out. I cut a sheet of 8" x 8" paper down to 7" x 7" and blended some walnut stain distress ink round the edges. I wanted to introduce cream into the design using a doily but all the ones I had were either far too small or just a bit too big, so I decided to use four small ones behind my main image, I stuck them down on the backing paper using Anita's Sticky PVA Glue. I added the main image to the centre of the doilies then arranged the cream and brown flowers round it. I used a hot glue gun to stick the flowers down once I had them how I wanted them. I had loads of glue strings from the glue gun and one of them landed on the backing paper, when I tried to peel it off it took the top layer of the design off so I found some brown ribbon and added a strip across the rip and made a bow out of a second length. Both were stuck down using red liner tape. I felt the design looked unbalanced at this point so I added some more brown ribbon at the opposite bottom corner, unfortunately I didn't use a long enough piece and you could see the frayed edge so I layered a lighter shade of brown ribbon on top and added some flat backed clear gems to the top ribbon. I added loads of red liner tape to the back of the panel and stuck it down on an 8" x 8" scallop edged card blank. I then messed up the stamping (see above!) and ended up cutting the front of the card off and adding it to a panel of kraft card cut to 8" x 9" and scored at 1" in to make a hinge to stick the front panel onto. I stamped the image inside using tea dye distress ink and added a "Warm Wishes" sentiment from the stamp set.

Tatty Button Rainy Days side gatefold card

This second card is probably my favourite and uses Creative Expressions Tatty Button stamps and lots of clear embossing. I stamped the image onto the card blank and made a mask for the image using Post It notes. I coloured the sky using distress inks and splashed droplets of water on it to make rain. The image and grass were then coloured in using Pro-Markers. Once completed I clear embossed the brolly, water drops and the puddles using an embossing pen and clear powder. The black background was stamped using a chevron design stamp and black holographic embossing powder. I cut a chevron patterned piece of paper to the required size and smeared embossing ink all over it and then embossed it using the clear embossing powder and a heat tool. I love the way this panel looks as it's like plastic. I mounted this onto black card and then added a threaded red button. I scored a piece of cardstock into the two panels and threaded some waxed black cord through the widest side. I covered this up with the stamp image raised slightly using black foam tape.I adhered the smaller panel on the right hand side using red liner tape. I tied the waxed cord round the button to make a closure.

Inside panel stamped with Tatty Button stamp and Kaisercrafts Stamp

I stamped the sentiment out onto white card using Versamark ink and sprinkled various embossing powders over the words allowing some of them to mix. I then heat set the powders before mounting the panel onto black cardstock. I stuck this to the right hand side of the inside section of the card then stamped the umberella image on the left hand side using Memento London Fog ink.

It's taken me almost as long to write this blog as it did to make the cards! lol.

I'll be taking my complete entry into the post office today so I hope you'll all keep your fingers (and toes!) crossed for me.

That's all my crafty news and share. If you have any questions please leave a comment below and until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

Card for Isobel

Hello crafty peeps - welcome to my crafty nook! I would like to share with you the "welcome" card I've made for Isobel.

Little Star Welcome card for Isobel

I'm rather pleased with this card and of all the baby cards I've made in recent weeks it's got to be my favourite. I started off stamping a Baby on A Cloud stamp (can't remember who it's made by - sorry) using Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto 300gsm coated white card stock and while the stamp was out I stamped it onto a large post it note to make a mask. This stamp has a very thick outline so I cut it on it rather than just inside it to make the mask ready for some Distress Ink blending. I covered the stamped image with the mask and blended three Tim Holtz Distress inks all over the A6 card (I have a ready cut stock of A6 card so I can stamp as I want to and I renew this as it gets low.) I started with "stormy skies" and blended it all over the card being careful around the top of the mask as it didn't have any sticky on it. Then I added "chipped sapphire" and blended the two colours together until there was no blender marks - I really need to get my hands on the new round blenders. Finally I added "black soot" round the edges and blended it into the centre without adding more ink. I heat set the ink and tested the card surface with embossing powder to make sure it was dry enough to heat emboss without excess powder sticking to the surface (to test if a surface is dry just pour embossing powder over it and if loads stick you'll need to heat set it or use an anti static bag) Unfortunately I tested mine over the middle of the card and not the edges so some powder did stick, however it's a happy accident because I love the way it turned out! I got three magazines today through the post and one of them had a star stencil as it's cover gift. I used this stencil and an embossing ink pen to draw the stars then I added pinpoint dots all over the background (at this point the baby mask remains on the image) and sprinkled the card with Do-Crafts silver embossing powder which I melted with a heat tool until the  powder turned opaque and silver. I removed the paper mask from the image and once I shook out the embossing powder that had gathered inside I coloured the image using Pro-markers. I stamped "Little Star" from Fancy Pants Welcome Little Star stamp set on top of the clouds but it was really hard to read so I stamped over it using clear embossing ink and heat set silver embossing powder on the words. In all honesty it looked a complete mess so I stamped the baby image again, coloured it using Pro-markers, stamped the sentiment in clear ink and heat embossed using Rangers Blue Pearl embossing powder, then I fussy cut the image out. I added black foam tape to the underside and stuck it over the original image. I found the metal Lil Charms embellishment in my stash and attached  to the top part of the card with more of the black foam tape. Finally I stuck the whole card piece to a Papermania pink A6 card blank. I stamped "Welcome" inside and a sprinkling of stamped stars (also from the Fancy Pants stamp set) in the four corners of the inside panel. I also stamped these stars onto the outside of the envelope.

I've a few more cards I'd like to share but that's for the next blog post, so until then - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xx