LIM Week 13 - Thank you

So, I did my first entry into this weeks LIM challenge - with a congratulations card - and I'm back again with a thank you (this is what happens when you're on holiday - lots of time to play!)

I've used the same lovely pale pink shimmer card as a base, I've used another of my favourite Waltzing Mouse Wild West stamps, which I've stamped onto white shimmer card in "eggplant" ink and cut with a nestie and mounted onto purple shimmer card.  I've then put a line of super-thin tape, and stuck on a row of two-tone (purple-green) flower sequins.  Super simple but I'm liking the clean lines.

Today is your last chance to enter the first ever St Luke's Charity Card Challenge - so pop on over quick with your floral entries - we'll be back tomorrow with a brand new challenge for May so come back again then too :-)

See you tomorrow with the new St Luke's Challenge which should get you all thinking!

Craftilicious x

LIM Week 13 - Thankyou and Congratulations

Lady LIM and Diva LIM have come up with another non-scary challenge this week - just what I needed to get me back in the crafting vibe after my rubbish week off.  We never managed to get to visit our friends as my gastroenteritus went on for 5 days :-(   The lovely people at Travelodge did give us a credit-voucher for most of the cost of our hotel though so we can try again in a couple of months.

Anyhow, todays challenge over at Less is More is to make a Thank you or Conratulations card.  I've started with a congratulations, but I think I will be back with a thank you later too.

 

A really simple card today.  The congrats is a sticker from a baby scrapbooking kit I've been working on for my niece who is visiting later with her new baby, and I've paired it with a lovely soft pink shimmer card stock.  Rather than it being for a new baby though, I thought I'd make a congrats on your engagement/wedding card so I've just added 3 embossed pink heart sequins.  It is much nicer IRL -  I couldn't get the light right for the photo to show the soft and delicate hues.

See you later - happy crafting.

                                                 Craftilicious x

Less is More again for Mum...

It's my Mum's birthday today, so I needed to make her a card, but unfortunately I woke up feeling not so well on Saturday and I had to cut my day out short as I felt really dizzy and nauseous.  I think I must have picked up some sort of bug so I went to bed at 6pm on Saturday night haven't really moved from the bed or sofa since.  We're supposed to be visiting friends for a couple of days so I hope I start to feel better tomorrow.

Anyhow, no matter how bad I felt, I still had to make Mum a card and before cutting our day out short on Saturday I did manage to pick up a lovely new stamp from Stampendous - one of their jumbo cling stamps.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but Mum loves hydrangeas so I knew it was the right thing to start off with.  When I stamped it, I realised it lent itself to this weeks LIM theme of off-centre as the stamp itself leans to the right, so I decided to take that as the inspiration and make Mum a CAS card, not the normal thing I give her - I think I made the right decision as she absolutely loved it and didn't believe I'd actually made it (the cheek!!)

It's an 8x8 blank card with a slightly textured finish - it needed to be this large to accommodate the jumbo stamp (I want the others in this range too now they are lovely to work with), but I stamped it on my copic colouring card 3 times and cut out the individual blooms from the extra two stamps to do a decoupage effect.  I coloured with copics, and added some fine lines with my pencils, using blues, lilacs and soft pinks.  A bit of glitter in the middle over a darker aqua copic.  I used the same aqua colour to colour tint some chipboard letters to spell out Mother, and gave them a heavy glittering with glamour dust.  A simple Happy Birthday stamp in between and then I resisted the urge to fill any more of the white space.....  I'm really happy with this second entry to LIM this week.

I did a matching insert in word - I wrote my own sentiment (borrowed from an old birthday card...) and found a clip art hydrangea which I "blurred" the edge of by 25%, and then made the whole image brighter by 40% to give it a soft enough feel to go behind the text.

Thanks for your comments so far - I'll try to get around as many of you as I can later, but I can only manage about 10 minutes at a time on line before I feel dizzy and sick again.

Thanks for stopping by again.

                                                      Craftilicious  x

LIM Week 12 - Off Centre

Morning ladies - its that time again.  This week I'm even more of a LIMette than usual - I took my husband to work early as my friend is coming at 9.30 to go out for the day and I desperately wanted to get my challenge fix before I went out.

So here is my off centre card - not sure its off centre enough as I've gone for the safe corners.  I do find asymmetry particularly difficult.  I may look around for some new stuff to play with while we're out so will probably be back for a second go this week.

The wings and the sentiment are both from There She Goes, I've cut out the wings, added some glimmer dust, a knotted twine rope and some blue strips for balance.  It looked better in my head....

Happy Crafty Saturday...

                                      Craftilicious x

Easter Gift Cards

I have some Easter gift-cards to share with you today.  I made them for my bookgroup mates and gave them out last night so I can safely share today without spoiling the surprise:

From the front they just look like a card, but they hide a secret inside:

They are actually 3cm deep, and have a pocket inside into which a little chocolate lamb and some jelly hens are secreted....

Here are close ups on the individual ones - I just adore these new tilda Easter images - particularly the one with the bunny - that hat with the big bow is a delight to colour.

Here is the list of challenges for these - its quite long as there are a lot of Easter challenges out there this week ;-)


At Copic Oz the challenge is to create something to do with Easter and colour it with....  well Copics naturally ;-) http://copicoz.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-easter-challenge.html

http://magnoliadownunderchallenges.blogspot.com/2011/04/magnolia-down-under-challenge-92.html



http://craftyourdaysaway.blogspot.com/2011/04/cyda-challenge-18-easter.html


http://stampinfortheweekend.blogspot.com/2011/04/challenge-7-easter.html

http://pileitonchallenge.blogspot.com/2011/04/pio-16-smells-like-rubber.html


Thanks for stopping by today - Craftilcious x

Less is More Week 11 - Acetate!

Afternoon everyone - hope you're having a good crafting weekend.  Mine is going great - it started yesterday when my project was chosen to be in the spotlight at copic creations, then I had a great evening of colouring and got 5 of the 10 Easter images I need this year finished, and then today as the football is on, I'm "stuck" in the house all day so I can craft all day too.  Then as its Saturday, it means another new challenge over at Less is More :-) but then I find out the challenge is acetate :-(  Boo!

I am such an addict to this challenge that I now check out what each challenge is on the google-reader ap on my phone, as I take my husband to work at 8am each Saturday and I can't bear to wait until I get home to find out what it is!  So I looked at it, thought - eek acetate - no way, then I did the shopping which gave me thinking time, and I got an idea I thought I could cope with.

I got this new woodware clear stamp of a Lily a couple of weeks ago and have had a couple of goes at colouring in it with pencils when stamped onto kraft card.  Its quite hard to colour around the dotty bits though so I thought that I could colour it on acetate with copics, doing under-shading on the back, and then colouring the detail on the front so the dots wouldn't be a problem.

I store my clear stamps in folders, so the black outline they come attached to (acetate!) just sits in a pile, so I used this to colour my image (recycled acetate so no wastage and no issue of copics and stazon bleeding).  I just shaded the greens and allowed the white of the base card to show through, and then used the warm grey shades to add a little depth to each petal.  I then flipped it over, shaded the stamens and dots with browns and copper, and added brown glitter to the stamens for extra pop.  I cut a nestie circle and used the "waste" to make a circular frame and added a simple sentiment from craftwork cards - I edged the part of the circle which overlapped the white with peeled paint distress ink and left the part which overlapped the frame plain white.  Not sure the shading shows up so well in the photo unless you view it expanded.

I like this technique I've stumbled upon thanks to the LIMettes - perhaps acetate isn't that awkward afterall.....

If you haven't already checked out my new charity challenge - this month we're asking for floral images so my card fits our theme - do go and have a look - its for a very good cause :-)

Thanks - enjoy the rest of your weekend.
                                                            Craftilicious x

In the Spotlight :-)

I just visited copic creations to see what this weeks challenge is and to fill out their poll about which is the best paper to use for copic colouring and discovered that they picked me to be in the spotlight for their last challenge which I entered with my Auntie's 80th birthday cake-card - woo hoo!!!!  I'm very excited so thanks for picking me ;-)

Check out the post here http://copiccreations.wordpress.com/2011/04/15/challenge-no-48-favorite-paper/

Back later with a card...

                                      Craftilicious x

Office Funny

My friend is having a rubbish time at work, and is moving office this week to somewhere that might make it even worse :-(   I thought I'd cheer her up with a funny card.

The image is a digi from the brilliantly funny Bugaboo Stamps - she's from the Stella range.  She comes with a sentiment about Mondays being a terrible way to spend 1/7th of your life, which I like, but as its not just Mondays that are rubbish for my friend, I created my own sentiment (in barbed wire font - doesn't work make us all feel like prisoners lol!) and used a Charles Shultz quote.

Hopefully it will raise a smile :-)

There's a brand new challenge out there this week from My Mum's Craft Shop and the theme is anything goes - so I'm entering my card.

Thanks for stopping by today - Craftilicious x

Starry Birthday

Very quick post today with a card a made for my cousin's son's birthday this weekend.  No challenges this time, just a card because I made it :-)

 

The birthday boy is really into performing arts - so I decided on lots of stars for the background, which I stamped in shades of blue and red with a stamp from the WM way out west set (doesn't have to be cowboy!) and a bit of old dp with stars on too.  The image is a great Kenny K digi, coloured with copics and pencils.  I added some black glitter paper for matting and layering, and used the same behind a MS border punch for the sentiment.

Ta ta for now.

                      Craftilicious x

Waltzing Mouse SOAP CASE Challenge

The very talented Ms Brennan, who designs all the wonderfully delicious stamps over at Waltzing Mouse, has had another cracking idea - inbetween releases her lovely design team are going to play with the previous months stamps to give us all lots of great inspiration and then at the end of the week, we have to pick our favourite to CASE in a new challenge.

It started last week, and the deadline to submit entries is in about 10 hours time....   The SOAP (stamp of approval parade) inspiration  had just so many wonderful projects, I really had a very hard time picking a favourite to case, but in the end, I settled on this AMAZING wall hanging project by Mona Pendleton - isn't it just beautiful?  Do go and visit Mona to find out all about it.

Now, I don't quite have Mona's skills for antiquing and the vintage look, so I decided to interpret it into a card rather than a wall hanging.  This is my CASE interpretation:

I started with a white base card, and cut a piece of kraft paper which has the same ripple effect as Mona's background (but it doesn't show up on the photo!) and I antiqued the edges with a green and brown distress ink.  I then used a garden swirly stamp set to add interest to the corners, stamping with a similar coloured lime green ink with dark green "highlights."  I added a couple of buterflies in brown from the same set.

I then stamped one of my small stamps from the holiday lables 14 set from WM and in the lime green ink, then added a sentiment from Back in the saddle in the darker green and brown.  I stamped the next size up lable in lime green for the spotted pattern and edge it with brown.  The third layer is a DP from one of the new Prima packs - reflections.  I cut them all out with the matching nestie and layered up with foam pads.  I added some lace over the bottom layer which was white but I coloured with the ink pads.  I used the smallest stamp in the labels 14 set to cut out the tag onto which I stamped and embossed the cowboy boots, also from back in the saddle.  I then used some vintage seam binding ribbon to create a double bow with my bow easy (I honestly couldn't tie a bow without it!) and dangled the tag from the center, to which I then added a nice white rose.  I colour tinted another flower with the lime ink and added a clear gem to the center to provide a little balance to the right hand side.

It's taken a couple of hours to put together but I really loved making it and am thrilled with the results.  Hope you like it.

Enjoy the rest of your evening
                                                Craftilicious x

Less is More Week 10 - One Layer Sentiment

It's Saturday again, which means only one thing - a new challenge over at Less is More brought to you by the LIMettes Chrissie and Mandi :-)

This week it's One Layer Week, not everyone's favourite, but I'm getting the hang of it, and this time we have to make the sentiment the main focus of the card.  I ended up doing something which may be a bit too similar to Chrissie's inspiration card but I got this new set of stamps from the US that are just sentiments and I really wanted to use them and they needed the musical background.  Sorry Chrissie.
 

 

I used a DL at the base, and embossed a double nestie in the middle about 2/3 of the way up.  I then cut the large mount from scrap card and covered up the embossed shape so I could stamp the musical background "behind".  I stamped the sentiment in the middle and embossed with clear gloss.  I used a polychromos pencil to outline the nested shapes and followed with an embossing pen to add the same clear gloss.  I then used the scrap of paper to cover the outside of the nested shape and cut the smaller shape out to cover the middle, then used a star-flower tapestry stamp to create a pattern in between the two frames.  Then I made a mistake.....   I decided to dry and wet emboss a border around the whole card, but I didn't realised that the embossing pen would dry blue....   However, I think it may be one of those happy accidents as I don't hate the purple and blue colour combo.

If you were reading my posts last Saturday, you'll be pleased to know the cakes and all the cards got made - here are the 3 mothers day cards - forgot to take a picture of the cake - it didn't last very long ;-)

 

Don't forget we have a new charity card making challenge on The St Luke's blog - say it with flowers - so pop on over and play if you've got the time.

Have a lovely sunny weekend :-)

Craftilicious x

clean and simple twine...

I haven't done much crafting this week as I've been a bit ill and also because my craft room currently looks like this while we TRY to organise it:

This is new kitchen cabinet awaiting a worksurface, occupying a tiny corner in my very cramped, and multi-purpose craft room come back bedroom (we took a sofa bed out of this corner believe it or not as it mostly just served as somewhere to put the ironing and my need for somewhere for my growing stamp collection trumped the ironing which can now go in the attic to be forgotton!) I'll show you afters, when its finished, but it might be a long wait.............

I did see something in craft stamper this month though that gave me an idea to play in the sketch challenge at http://cleanandsimplestamping.blogspot.com/2011/03/134.html  I cut some circles from my smallest nestie and covered them in d/s tape and coiled garden twine from the centre out (they used bakers twine in craft stamper but I thought this would be more textural).  I put a new craft-candy dot in the centre of each, and mounted on a woodgrain background (waltzing mouse way out west set again) with a green mount to match the craft candy dots.  The sentiment is from There She Goes.

 I took my colour inspiration from this weeks create for fun http://cr84fncolorchallenge.blogspot.com/2011/04/cr84fn22.html

An 80th Birthday "Cake"

It was my Auntie's 80th birthday on Sunday and she really likes my cards so I wanted to make her a really special one she can keep.  I saw amazing card by the very talented Kathrin aka Krumel on her blog back in February and despite the complexity being beyond my normal card making attempts, I decided I wanted to give it a go.

The most exciting part of the card, which is basically a boxy easel card, is that is has a little cake inside and a box to hold the candles.....

There are very good instructions on how to make this card over at Stempeleinmaleins (stamp something) a German blog, but most of their stuff is in English too.   This is what it looks like when you take the candles out of their little box and put them in the "cake".

I've used a really cute tilda and some matching magnolia balloons which I stamped on acetate with stazon and then stamped again and cut out the balloon part on paper and coloured and glittered and stuck them behind the acetate so that you don't have to cut around the fiddly strings.

It fits the following challenges:

http://magnoliastamplovers.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-msl-challenge-ribbon.html  - use ribbon

http://movingalongwiththetimes.blogspot.com/2011/03/challenge-92-more-than-1-fold.html  - more than one fold - this one has lots of folding!

http://justmagnolia.blogspot.com/2011/04/week-100-simon-says-stamp-special.html - anything goes

http://copiccreations.wordpress.com/2011/04/01/challenge-no-47-your-favorite-copic-technique/   favourite copic technique - this took some thought initially but then I realised that the thing I like to do most with my copics is the shading which makes the characters look like they have really shiny hair!

I did enjoy making this card, but it took me two FULL evenings, so I don't think I'll be making them to order any time soon.....

Thanks for stopping by
                                   Craftilicious x

Supporting Rescue Dogs

My friend has a couple of great dogs, one of which was a rescue, and she asked me if I could make her another set of notelets like the ones I made for her birthday for an auction her friend is running this week.  Her dog was so sad when she got him, but now he is so happy having been rescued, so how could I refuse.

So while I was in mega-stamping mode on Saturday, I made a set of 6 whippet notelet cards in their own custom designed box which I secured with butchers twine and a button.  I also made 4 individual birthday cards, all with a doggy theme.  I hope they raise a few pounds in the auction.

 Thanks for stopping by.
                                    Craftilicious  x

the cakes can wait.....

OK, now I know I have a problem!  Back with a second entry for LIM in under an hour - I think we need a support group for addicts - LIMA?  Less is More Anonymous???  I do have other stuff to do, but I need to put stuff away on my desk before I can do my mothers day cards and I was so keen to make this card that I decided to just do it - I can make cakes tonight as my husband will be back from work late as he is at a comic convention in Birmingham.

I used the same Waltzing Mouse set as for my first entry.  I stamped 3 rows of the background text in black, and 3 rows of the star background in Rhubarb.  I stamped the matching sentiment, which I think gives the card a more feminine feel so I cut it with a nestie label and used one of my polychormos pencils to shade the border on the shape (easy to follow the indented edge with a nice sharp pencil - pens "leak" over the line).  I added a 6mm sheer red ribbon to the top of the text, and then used a ribbon punch and thread a 2mm red ribbon through the sentiment.  I hope I left enough white space for it still be CAS.

Right, I REALLY AM going to go and get on with stuff I HAVE to do now ;-)

Happy Crafting - Craftilicious x

Less is More Week 9 - A Hint of Red

Well, this weekend is a very hectic one for me - not only is it mothers day tomorrow, but its my God Mother's 80th Birthday so I have cards a plenty to make, cakes to bake and a long list of household chores, not to mention the fact that my charity challenge blog for St Luke Hospice went live today....

However, in my mind the only place housework comes before stamping is in the dictionary!   And today is Saturday, and therefore the best challenge on the block is back for its weekly feature and no matter how busy I can't resist.  I had another record 50 comments on my first entry last week and I just wanted to say thank you again to everyone who commented - I tried to get back round and comment on as many cards as I could but do accept my apologies if I missed you.

This week the challenge is a hint of red.  This is my first entry and whilst I really like the card, I'm not sure if my "hint" is a little too much red, and I've had another idea for a card with the same stamp set so I may be back later once the cakes and cards I need for tomorrow are made....

This card is made with the great new stamps from Waltzing Mouse, which I love, and this weekend they are giving you lots of inspiration with these sets so make sure you check them out.  I stamped the "hills" with a mixture of yellow and orange ink.  I then inked it up again with orange and red and moved it down a couple of mils to give the effect of the sun setting behind the hills.  I then stamped the foreground in tuxedo black - its such a great shadow stamp with the cacti!  The matching sentiment is stamped in Rhubarb Stalk.

I must be getting better at this CAS lark as I've voluntarily done a one-layer card when its not even one-layer week!!!  I also must be a mind-reader as I didn't have any red ink pads and bought them only last Sunday - so thanks for the opportunity to use them straight away Chrissie and Mandi!

See you later with more cards.

Don't forget to check out the charity blog.

Thanks again.
                      Craftilicious x

St Luke's Inaugural Charity Card Challenge

So, all the background planning is over and the nerves are at an all time high for today is finally the day that my card making challenge blog in aid of the wonderful St Luke's Hospice in Sheffield finally goes live.....

The theme for our first challenge is to "say it with flowers" and you can find out all about it HERE

I've struggled to come up with a design - which is bonkers considering I set the challenge!  I think the pressure of it being my first ever challenge blog got to me a little.  I ended up making several cards, some destined only for the recycling bin, but managed to settle on two very different designs as my DT inspiration cards which will be winging their way to the hospice this weekend...

My first card is by the very talented artist Mo Manning and is available from her digi-store.  It is printed from a lexmark printer - I find the ink doesn't smudge when using copics from this, but it did use to from my old HP.  I then coloured her with a mix of copics and polychromos pencils.  The DPs are bassil and K&Co.  The sentiment is computer generated and it is finished with a few roses and some sheer blue ribbon.

For my second card I used a lovely new sizzix embossing folder as the base, on textured lime green card stock and shaded the leaf with an orange polychromos pencil.  I pleated an orange polka dot ribbon to trim the top and then added a layered flower from a my minds eye decoupage pad with a big sparkly stick on gem in the middle.  The sentiment is from a now retired Elzybels stamp set.

I hope both cards provide you with a little inspiration :-)  Pop on over to the challenge site and check out the lovely eye candy my wonderful design team have for you.

Thanks for visiting today and A HUGE THANKYOU if you're playing along in our challenge and supporting this very worthy charity.  Please tell your friends about us too :-)

See you on 1st May for challenge number 2!!!!

Craftilicious xxx