Purple Dress Card

I love the wee mannequins from Craftwork Cards, they're great for making really girly cards. For this one I made a checkered dress from one of the Doodlebug paper and then embellished it using purple gemstones in varying sizes. The background is a dress-maker themed sheet of the Papermania Bookprint paper which I crumpled up and then inked in purple to tie in with the dress. I mounted this and the message tag on purple card to add a bit more contrast. About two thirds of the way down the card I added some garden twine with purple ribbons tied into it to give a bit more of a rustic look to the card. Finally I added groups of three purple Candi to each corner to complete the card.

Die-Cut Christmas Tree Cards

I was hunting for some Christmassy things to use as inspiration for a card and I discovered a die-cut Christmas tree that my mum has actually had for aaaages! I combined some Kraft card with a zig-zag patterned paper from the Winter Frost paper collection by Craftwork Cards. For the background I used the snowflake patterned paper from the same range as the colours are the same as the zig-zags and work nicely with the Kraft card. Next I used the Papermania Happy Days Ticket Stub die to cut four tags from Kraft card which I then threaded onto some gold organza ribbon. I stamped the word "Xmas" onto pale pink card using the Printer Block stamps from Craftwork Cards, and then stuck these onto the tags. To complete, I punched some pale blue snowflakes and dotted them about the card to tie in all the elements.

Using the other sections of Christmas tree that I had left over I made a second card. This time I used the blue dotted paper from the Winter Frost collection and a pink organza ribbon to link together the tags to form the Xmas Tree message. I made a little hill for the tree to stand on out of the same pink that I used from the message and embellished with Kraft card punched snowflakes with pink glitter gem centers.

Brown & Gold Embossed Mannequin Card

Another card using the Haberdashery embossing folder from the Papermania Happy Days collection. This time I embossed onto brown textured cardstock, which I then lightly sanded and coloured in both the rose and the scissor elements with a gold pen. Over the buttons that are already on the embossed image I added some beige buttons from the Boofle Assorted Buttons pack.

The mannequin is another of the Craftwork Cards pre-cut ones that I then covered with some brown patterned paper from a Doodlebug pack and decorated with some gold gemstones from Anita's Pearl Gemstone Wheel. The background of the card is a sheet of paper from the Papermania Bookprint collection which I inked at the edges with chestnut ink and mounted on a sheet of Kraft card to match the mannequin.

Purple Tatty Ted Christmas Card

First off, I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas! This is a Christmas card that I made for my dad to give to my mum, who's favorite colour is purple (as if that wasn't obvious!)

I re-shaped a Tatty Ted image from the Ultimate Die Cut pack into a scalloped circle, which I then mounted on a larger scalloped circle of silver Mirri card. Behind this I used a strip of lilac snowflake paper from the Fizzy Moon Festive Fun paper pack, mounted on silver Mirri card with a sparkly purple ribbon through the center. The message tag is a die cut one from Craftwork Cards which I then mounted on silver Mirri card and decorated with purple glitter pen to tie in with the other elements of the card. To complete I added punched white snowflakes with purple gemstones at the center.

Happy Days Mannequin Card

Hobbycraft were selling off the Happy Days embossing folders so my mum bought both the one that I used for this card and the Bottle Tops one, which I plan to have a play with at some point soon! I embossed a cream piece of linen texture card with the Haberdashery folder which I then coloured with chalks and a silver glitter pen and inked around the edges in a cerise pink. Onto a 5 x 7" card blank I mounted a sheet of craft card, followed by the Blooms paper from the Happy Days collection. 

I removed the circle from the center of the embossed image using a craft knife so that I could have the mannequin popping out from the background. The mannequin was a pre-cut one from Craftwork Cards which I then covered with an embossed pink sheet of Coredinations card in the shape of a dress. To complete I added a silvery-white ribbon around the waist of the dress, a strip of silver Mirri card along the bottom and a message tag mounted on the same pink paper as the dress.

Katy's Challenge 18th December - 2nd January

Christmas is nearly upon us and for Katy's Challenge this week I decided to take a break from making Christmas cards and try something a bit different. The challenge is a two week one this time, as it is over the Christmas period, and the image was of a selection of red, brown, yellow and blue buttons. I thought "Brilliant!" because my mum had just bought the Boofle Tri-Boss Buttons folder and so I began by tearing and then embossing a tan brown sheet of Coredinations card. I then dug out the Wellington Ultimate Die Cut pack and re-shaped one of the images into a scalloped circle using the X-cut dies and then mounted this on a larger circle of chocolate brown card. Next, I layered up a sheet of the stripey Wellington paper on a piece of gold Mirri card and stuck my image onto this with foam pads before added a wiggly blue border and red gems.

To complete I added a birthday message tag from Craftwork Cards,which I mounted on some blue card and decorated with gold gems, and some blue buttons with red thread through the centers. I'll let you know how the challenge goes in a couple of weeks, fingers crossed!

Warren the Rabbit Christmas Card

Another one of the Christmassy goodies that my mum bought from Craftwork Cards was these little Warren the Rabbit Christmas images. Such a cute wee rabbit! For this card I picked out colours from the background of the die cut to use in the background: a dark green to go behind a square of coral coloured Coredinations card which I embossed with a snowflake embossing folder and lightly sanded to bring out the core colour.

After mounting the die cut image on a circle of green shimmer card, I then added some matching stripey paper behind that I mounted on gold Mirri card to give it a bit more of a contrast to the coral background. To complete I added a die cut Christmas greeting (embellished with some coral gems) and some punched white snowflakes with gold gemstone centers.

Katy's Challenge: 4th - 11th December

Katy's Challenge is a sketch challenge this week, a series of varying sized love hearts that made for an interesting challenge. I used a sheet of red Coredinations card that I tore the edges of and then embossed using a love heart Tri Boss folder. I then re-shaped one of the Tatty Ted images from the Ultimate Die Cut Pack into a love heart before mounting on some silver Mirri card. Behind this I then added a strip of paper from the Ultimate Die Cut pack  with a red organza ribbon through the center to add depth. To complete, I added a silver and white message banner and three silver gemstones.

Coloured Christmas Cards

Long time, no blog! University is finally finished for Christmas and I've come home to find that my mum has added a load more goodies to her stash. Funnily enough my mum rejected the Frosty & Friends Colour Me Die Cuts that she got in a Goody Bag from Craftwork Cards so I thought that I would give them a go and see how they looked. There was a sheet of 16 mini images as well as four sheets of larger images. I coloured all the images using simple coloured pencils and fine-tipped pens. Here are some of the cards I came up with...

For this first card I combined one of the small images - mounted on dark green card and decorated with gold metallic pen - with the Papermania Noel collection (backing paper and greeting tag), as well as some gold Mirri card and ribbon and gold gemstones. 

This second one I didn't like as much but oh well, crafting is always a bit of trial and error! I embossed the outer edge of a scalloped card with a holly border punch which I then chalked to add a bit of definition. I chose a co-ordinating scalloped die-cut with a snowman and mounted it on gold Mirri card to provide a contrast to the green and maroon background. To finish I added a white and gold message tag and some gold adhesive gemstones.

Scaling things up a little bit with my third attempt I used one of the larger images for this card. Again I stuck with a red, gold and green colour scheme, using the Papermania Noel paper and adding final mini holly leaf embellishments, as well a self-adhesive letter greeting from the Papermania Cranberry & Apple set.

I used another large image for this card, changing to a blue and silver colour combination for a more Winter-y feel. The backing paper is from a really old Dovecraft pack I think, was just one I found in one of my mum's scrap boxes.

This is probably my favorite card of the ones that I've made so far. I didn't think the colour combination would work as I was going along but I think it turned out really well! The paper I used is from the Mistletoe Kisses collection from Papermania, which I discovered had these little letters that matched the colours in the paper. I spelled out a greeting that I thought fitted with the cute penguin image and ironically is the same name as the paper collection. To finish I added a punched snowflake in a pale blue which I then coloured with green and red pen to tie in with the backing paper.

Another snowman image for this card, juggling snowball this time (as you do!). I stuck with the silver and blue theme from the previous snowman card as I thought it worked well, incorporating a silver greeting tag and some sliver snowflake Candi.

My final card I think wins on the cuteness scale, I love the wee polar bear! I used a different paper from the Papermania Mistletoe Kisses paper pack and made my own greeting using some co-ordinating coloured card and silver adhesive letters. To complete I added white and silver spotted Candi in opposite corners.