Delicious Darkness September Challenge - Anything Goes/ Gothic Challenge

Today sees the start of the September challenge over at Delicious Darkness and I chose to go with the anything goes theme.

I used the fabulous Cruel Cruella digi that can be found here. I coloured her using flex markers and promarkers.

I started with a piece of A4 card which I scored at 4.5cms and 7cms from one edge, then I turned it over and did the same the other side to give the folds. I printed a couple of packing papers from Debbi Moore's Twilight Queen CD for the backing papers and cut these to fit the various panels.

I matted and layered the image onto black and purple card, added the black ribbon and the little charm (that to me looks like a little barbed wire collar lol) a foiled sentiment as the finishing touches.

I hope you will join us this month and I look forward to seeing all the fab projects.

My first Blog Hop

Hi everyone

Today sees something totally new to me and blogging...my first ever blog hop! It's in honour of a dear friend Lisa who's not too well at the moment and we thought this would cheer her up. If you  started the hop at the beginning the you would have landed here from Paulinemargaret's blog

So I made this card for no other reason than to show I care and because I love this kit. The kit itself comes from craftsuprint and it's called Time For Tea. I printed all the sheets on to super smooth paper and then mounted the base layer on to a mat gold mirror card and then onto an 8x8" card blank. I cut all the decoupage out and layered up using glue gel. Once it was dry I glazed the watch faces using glossy accents.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will visit all the other members of the hop, Linda is next on the list so please pop over and leave her some love. If you are unable to visit all the ladies, then please do at least visit Lisa's page...I know she would be right chuffed to see you had visited.

So here is the order of the blog hop for you :
Maureen Scott – http://maureenjscott.blogspot.co.uk
Jackie Cornfield - http://getthejclook.blogspot.co.uk/
Vicky Fortier - http://crafting-vicky.blogspot.ca/
Zoe Russell - http://zoeblingcards.blogspot.co.uk
Teresa Morgan - http://thefatcactus.co.uk
Bettina Leikvoll - http://bettandshobbykrok.blogspot.no
PaulineMargaret Stewart - http://pauline-paulinemargaret.blogspot.co.uk
Karen Willis (Me) - http://kazkayla.blogspot.co.uk/
Linda Simpson - http://lindasimpsoncraftypieceofheaven.blogspot.com
Kay Roche - http://kayscraftydesigns.blogspot.ie/
Erin Bentley - http://followyourcraftyside.blogspot.co.uk/
Kath Muckypaws Halstead - http://muckypaws69.blogspot.co.uk
Kristy Deyette - http://kristybloominjourney.wordpress.com/
Susan Renshaw – http://susanrenshaw0404.blogspot.com
Kay Mowat - http://kaym74.blogspot.com
Fiona Walker - http://feesca1.blogspot.co.uk/
Stephanie Lukaszewski - http://stephscreativechaos.blogspot.ca/
Kyra Eunkyo Kim - http://unkylastrange.blogspot.com/
Catherine Craftyhands Wilson Dobbs - http://catscraftymess.blogspot.co.uk/
Sheena Fitzpatrick - http://sshhhcreations.blogspot.co.uk/
Lisa Tyrell - http://www.pinkylisasinkycrafts.blogspot.co.uk/

Delicious Darkness August Challenge - Anything Goes

Hi everyone, sorry I have been missing lately but I've not been well and I've had lots going on in my personal life....but I'm back and with fab news too!!

As you can see by the badge proudly displayed on the side bar I am now a member of the Delicious Darkness design team, and I'm very excited to be working with Teri's fabulous digital images.

I'm new to the 'dark' side, so I'm both excited and also a little nervous...and I hope I do the images the justice they deserve.....and so on to my first project.

So I started with an A5 white card blank to which I added so silver mirror card and backing paper from a Debbi Moore CD. I chose to use Angel Of Death for my main image, which I've coloured using flex markers in the shades of antique white, cool grey 1, powder blue and sorbet and I mounted firstly on to black card and then the same silver mirror card as the backing paper.

I also used Tombstone 4 and  Pile o' Bones and added these using foam tape to add some dimension. along with some vine corners which I cut using Spellbinder dies.

I do hope you like my first project and that you will join in with us over at Delicious Darkness Challenges. There are a few simple rules to follow of course which are laid out for you to see below:

1: You may enter any type of papercraft creation but it MUST be a dark/gothic/alternative creation.

2: You can combine your entry with any other challenges that you wish.

3: ONLY ONE ENTRY per person please
(unless using Delicious Darkness images - see 4 below).

4: Although there is no need to use Delicious Darkness images, but if you DO (and we'd love it if you did!) , you can enter more than once (with your Delicious Darkness images that is) for more chances to win prizes!

5: Your entry MUST be your own work.

6: Your entry must be a new creation, no back-links to older posts please!
7: You MUST include a direct link back to the Delicious Darkness Challenge.

8: Most importantly - have fun!!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you'll come back again soon to see some more of my creations.

JFF July Challenge-Anything Goes

Sorry I have been missing for a while, but I had an unexpected death to deal with and to be honest it rocked me to the core...plus it was complicated so it took a lot of sorting out. Anyway I'm back and today sees the start of the July challenge over at the Just For Fun Challenge Blog and the theme is anything goes.

I have been using my dies a lot recently and today I want to show you a card I made from two pieces of printed paper and a few scraps from my bits box. I love the monochromatic look and I think this would be suitable for a number of occasions.

So I started with a 6x6" card blank and cut a piece of black card to 5.75x5.752 to mat on to the front, then I cut then I printed both the white and black papers, which were freebies from Jak Heath's blog ages ago and cut the white sheet to 5.75x5.75" and matted this on to the black card stock. The sentiment I printed on to white card and cut out using a set of Spellbinder label dies and I also cut a larger one in black to mat the sentiment on, along with the large Cheery Lynn flourish, which I have cut up into smaller sections. The flowers were made using the black dotty paper and they were cut using the Spellbinder D-Lite dies Blossom One. I layered them up and added a white card candi to the center, I placed the flourish around the sentiment and added the flowers to finish off.

I hope you can join in with the challenge and I look forward to seeing everyone's entries :)

Monohromatic Monogram

Today I want to show you a card that I made for a couple of challenges over on Facebook. One theme was monochromatic, the other monogram and as I don't seem to have a lot of crafting time at the moment I thought why not combine both themes...and this is the result.

 

I printed the backing paper from Debbi Moore's Black & White Chic Boutique CD  and I trimmed this to 7.5" square and matted on to black card whick I cut at 7.75" square, then I popped this on to the white card blank. The monogram came from the square flourish frame monograms which I purchased from the Silhouette store and that can be found here. The design comes with two versions of the design, one has the letters welded to the frame (which is the one I chose to use) the other one has is a separate frame and letter. I wanted to have a mat for the design so I selected it and offset to .10 for the white and then decided I wanted the black mat to the the bottom layer so I offset my fist offset layer to .15 to get the black back ground, then I just layered them up using a glue pen because of the delicate swirls. The corners were cut from the ivy deco frame die set in the same black card and I mounted both the assembled topper and the corners using 1mm foam tape for a little dimension. A few black gems both above and below the monogram topper and the card was complete.

I would like to enter this in to the Cameo with Carley Challenge Blog for which the them this month is anything goes.

Sail Away

Today I want to share a card I made for a challenge over at the Mad Crafters Giggles group on Facebook. I love this group and the challenges they have just for fun, it gets my creative juices flowing. The theme for yesterday's one word wonder challenge was 'holiday' and I had been itching to use the new stamps I had recently purchased from another Facebook group the allows members to sell off their unwanted craft goodies.

I started by cutting a piece of centura pearl card to 6"x4" and inking with scattered straw and stormy skies distress inks, I then stamped over the blended background using a black ink pad. I have to say this stamp which is by Just Rite Stamps is very large and I didn't have a block big enough, so I had to improvise by laying the stamp on the desk and placing the card over the top and smoothing it on to the inked stamp. I've not done this before and as a novice stamper I was a little worried, but I think it's turned out quite well.

I stamped the sentiment which is from a Lili Of The Valley set again using black ink on to another piece of centura pearl card and gently blended around the edges using the scattered straw distress ink pad to tie the colour in with the main image, a little matting and layering using card from my stash and the stamped elements were finished. I cut the cruise ship on my Silhouette Cameo machine from a file that can be found in the store here and assembled it.  I used an A4 card blank which I made from a sheet of A3 centura pearl card, added the stamped elements and the topper, a few card candi for a great card for any man I think.

I wish to enter this in to the cameo With Carley Challenge Blog which this month is an 'Anything Goes' theme.

New Challenge Over At Seemacrafts

So today see the start of a new challenge over at seemacrafts blog and the theme for this month is butterflies and rainbows. I wasn't sure what I was going to do really, until I found this beautiful cutting file in the Silhouette store...then my mind was made up.

The file is by Marji Roy and can be purchased from the store here and the comprehensive assembly instructions can be found on her blog here.

So I started by cutting all the elements on my Cameo machine, I decided I would do a coloured version but I'm sure this would look equally as great in all white with just a splash of colour for the butterfly wings. I cut the front and back frame sections and the butterfly bodies using black card, and the leaves in a green, pearlescent card and I cut the inner wing sections in a bright pink glitter paper which doesn't really show in the photo...but looks very pretty in real life.

I didn't want the back section to be open and so I cut a piece of graduating card stock in blue and green to fit in to the interior of the back section before I finished assembling the rest of the sections. I love the finished result and it was so very easy to make. I hope you can join in with us over at seemacrafts for the chance to win four of Seema's digis of your choice.

Ladybug Kitty

Today I want to show you this cute card I made using my Cameo machine for my Great Niece's Birthday next month. Keira will be 6 and is Hello Kitty crazy so I wanted to find something I could make using Kitty especially for her.

I came across this free cutting file on the September Ninth blog and the file can be found here and instantly thought it was ideal for Keira's Birthday card, so I cut out two of the base pieces in black so that I could score and join them together so the card would stand and I cut the rest of the pieces out in the appropriate colours (the pieces are actually shown in the necessary colours on the actual cutting file for reference for ease of use).

I layered the pieces up using the photo on the blog as reference to make sure I popped them in the right places (was very easy to do) then I added the little red bow around the flower, the little wooden ladybug which I had in my stash and a few little gems to add a little sparkle for a very quick but oh so cute card which I'm sure Keira is going to love.

I am entering this in to the Cameo With Carley Challenge Blog-Cute or Whimsical

Easter Chick

Today I want to show this cute little box that I made on the Cameo machine using a file from the Silhouette Store, it's by Snapdragon Snippets and it can be found here.

I started of by cutting all the parts out on the Cameo Machine using American Crafts card stock and then assembling them following the instructions given on the website here. I used the strong red double sided tape for the body and wet glue for all the other parts as I find this holds stronger. I chose not to add the ribbon which is optional and I also used little black pearls for the eyes rather than the card layers, but I love the finished item I have to say.

I found certain parts a little fiddly, but that could well have something to do with my fat fingers lol, and having made one I would probably change the order of assembly to suit me next time, but he goes together very well.

I am entering this in to the Cameo With Carley Challenge Blog-Cute or Whimsical

Faux Leather Note Book

Today I wanted to show you my first effort using Sheena Douglass's faux leather technique. I did this while visiting my dear friend Zoe, but you can find out how to do it for yourself here. I wanted to make a little note book for my Mum to jot things down and so I chose to use dark pink tones for the ink rather than the brown tones which I think actually looks more leather like.

So after making the cover following the instructions given I cut several pages of pale pink lightweight paper to fit inside and sewed them in to the cover using a waxed thread, I added the ribbon and bow to the side of the note book and I found this lovely sentiment topper in my stash. A few flowers and pearls added using glue gel and you have a very pretty and cheap to make little gift. Why not give it a try yourself, it's very easy to do and looks fabulous!

Christmas Fun Challenge-card For A Man/Anything Goes

My second post for today sees the midway point in the April challenge over at Christmas Fun and the theme for this month is either a card for a man or anything goes, so pretty much anything you fancy really as long as it's Christmas related lol. I chose to go with a card for a man as I do tend to struggle with those and hey it's a challenge right?

I have had this CD since it was released but haven't used it before, but I bought it with the men in mind and so this was the perfect opportunity to put it to the use it was intended.

So I started by printing off the topper, and 2 contrasting papers onto white lightweight card and then a piece of white A4 card which I scored at the half way point and then again in half on one side to get the fold back section. I cut out the topper, layering circle and the scalloped circle using dies and also a matching layering circle and a smaller white circle for the inside of the card and I cut some mats from the same red card for layering the backing paper on to before mounting this to the card. I added some snowflake again cut in the red card and card candi to the center of these and the plain circle to the inside for the sentiment.

I hope you will join in with the challenge and I'll look forward to showing you another project next month.

Just For Fun April Challenge-Easter

Today sees the midway point in the Easter themed challenge over at Just For Fun and I decided I wanted to make something fun to fit the theme. I have recently purchased a Silhouette Cameo cutting machine and I am totally in love with it, so I thought it would be good to make up one of the many fabulous designs that are available in the store.

I chose to use a design by Snapdragon Snippets because I thought it was a fun design and very cute.

 I started by resizing the design to the full length of A4 card stock and I cut the main card shape in bright yellow card, I then cut the main body and the decoupage layers of the bunny in kraft card and the white belly and tail using an off cut of card from my bits box. I chose to cut the 'Happy Easter' in red card along with his bow. I then proceeded to put him together, using foam pads for the decoupaged pieces and for some height to the sentiment and I added the gem to his bow and a black pearl for his eye to finish.

I hope you will join in with us, and that you enjoyed my project for this month.

Seemacrafts April Challenge

Today see the start of the April challenge over at Seemacrafts and the theme for this month is vintage. I have been trying to use some of the stash I've had for ages and cam across this topper in one of my folders, so I have no idea where it originated, but I thought it was lovely.

I started with an 8x8 white card blank and found the piece of lilac backing paper in my stash which I lightly distressed around the edges using a tattered rose ink pad. I mounted the topper on to some silver mirror card and then on to some lilac cardstock which I found in my bits box. Some lilac ribbon, card candi and a few roses were added for the finishing touches.

Seema is running a competion to see if you can tell her who has used one of her digital stamps on their project this month, with a prize of 3 digital stamps of your choosing, the winner of this months challenge will receive 4 digital stamps of their choice so I hope you will join in with us.

Christmas Fun - Green Christmas Tree

Today it's the turn of team B to show off their creations for the challenge over at Christmas Fun. We had initially been given the theme of Green Christmas Tree and so I came up with this card, but you can also now do and "anything goes" too, so as long as it has a Christmas theme you can enter.

I used one of the bendy card designs (designed by Sam Walker) which is available from the Silhouette store and can be found here, in fact every cutting file I've used on this card is from the store. So I cut the card base, the little houses and all the trees in varying sizes using my Cameo machine and before assembling I embossed the back of the card with a snowflake embossing folder. The card itself consists of 3 parts and is very easy to assemble and for me it was self explanatory although full instructions can be found on Sam's blog.

So once I had assembled the card I popped a little strip of gold mirror card behind the cut out windows and mounted the row of houses to the back of the card. I embossed all the trees using the argyle embossing folder by Crafter's Companion and placed these along the first bendy section using glue gel. I slotted the fence section in before adding the front tree to ensure I hadn't obstructed the slot and the card was finished.

JFF - Anthing goes

Today is the mid point of the monthly challenge over at Just For Fun and it's the turn of team B to show off their creations and I thought I would use something from one of the kits I've had for absolutely ages. I found this cute sheet in with my Kanban kits and decided I would use this one for the challenge.

 

I started with an 8x8" white card blank and I backed the matching backing paper also from the kit on to some plain pink card from my stash, which I then place on to the card, I placed the contrasting strip from the topper sheet across the center of the card and assembled the pyramid topper using 1mm foam tape and popped this to middle of the card.

I punched a couple of butterfly borders using a tonic punch, raised the little butterflies slightly and added a little pink gem and then positioned these top and bottom of the card. I die cut 4 little butterflies also by Tonic and layered them up for added dimension and added some matching pink gems to the body of the butterfly and popped these on the card, a little sentiment from my stash and I had a cute card that any little girl would love to receive I'm sure.

Spring Is In The Air

Today I want to share a card that I made yesterday for a couple of challenges on different Facebook groups. For one the theme was spring and on the other the theme was daffodils and I thought this fitted both perfectly.

I printed the sheet which is from Fred She Said on to a 250gms card stock and cut out the topper, decoupage and also the pricking template that is also provided on the sheet and proceeded to do the pricking of the pattern. I found the backing paper in my stash and also the blue card stock which I cut to fit an 8x8" card blank, before mounting on to the card I wrapped some blue ribbon around the center of the card and then popped it on the card blank. I didn't have a die to cut the mat for the topper with so I traced the topper in my Cameo software and offset it and then cut it out in gold mirror card. I put the topper on the card blank slightly to the left of the card and added the decoupage. A bow in the matching ribbon to the right hand side and a few card candi and a sentiment for a pretty, fresh looking card.

Seemacrafts Challenge

Today see the start of the new challenge over at Seemacrafts and the theme is something for Mum. With Mother's Day approaching what a great way to show off all your fab creations, so please do join in with us.

Anyway on to my creation. I recently purchased the gorgeous sugar rush kit from Create & Craft and decided to use this beautiful kit to make something for Mother.

I started with an 8x8" white card blank to which I added one of the pieces of card stock from the kit which I cut to 7.75x7.75" after wrapping a strip of pink ribbon around the center. I cut a pretty doily topper on my cameo machine in a beautiful gold heavyweight paper that I've had in my stash forever and mounted one of the beautiful laser cut toppers using foam pads. I added the decoupage elements and added the topper to the center of the card and added some corner die cuts that I had cut using a memory box die.

I made a matching bow from the ribbon and popped two heart shaped pins through the knot before adding this to the side of the topper. a few roses and an added sentiment finished the card off.

February Christmas Fun Challenge

Today sees the mid point of the challenge over at Christmas Fun and the theme is Baby's 1st Christmas and I chose make this card using a sheet which I purchased from craftsuprint and that I think is just too cute!

I printed the sheet on to 106gsm super smooth paper and cut out all the elements, I mounted the card front on to a 6x6 white card blank and then I added the decoupage elements using 1mm foam tape. I found some iridescent snowflakes in my stash and added a few to the card for some added dimension. I hope you will visit the blog and join in the fun.

Feburary Challenge for Seemacrafts

Today sees the launch of the February challenge over at Seemacrafts and the theme for this month is Valentine/Love and I decided I was going to use my new Bebunni love themed kit. I love this little bunny he is just too cute!

 I used a 6x6 card blank to make an easel card base and I cut a piece of white card to 6x6 for the top part. I covered this with some heart paper that I had in my stash and some plain red card for contrast, I cut a strip of silver mirror card and embossed this with some little hearts using a small embossing punch that was in a set my Sister bought me as a gift, this I then used to cover the join. I cut 4 corners using dies from the Emily Frame set by Tonic and mounted these in the corners. I mounted the foiled topper onto some of the red card and then silver mirror card and popped this to the centre of the card using foam tape to add some dimension. For the stopper I cut a strip of the same red card which I matted onto silver mirror card and popped this across the centre of the base. I added a sentiment and 2 die cut hearts to finish off  for what I think is a sweet card.

I hope you will join in with is and we have a fab prize for this month which was kindly donated by Kath (Mucky Paws) Halstead, it includes masks that she designed herself for Imagination Crafts and a tub of sparkle medium, a great prize I'm sure you will agree.

Just For Fun Challenge

Today see the halfway point over at the Just For Fun blog challenge and so it's the turn of team B to show of their projects. The theme for this month is new- new baby, new home etc and I chose to go with the theme of new job. I used a decoupage sheet from Joanna Sheen's Gruffie's selection and this is what I came up with.

I covered the A5 base card with some embossed paper that I've had in my stash forever and I cut two borders in a holographic mirror card using a Martha Stewart punch. I mounted the base layer of the decoupage and the sentiment onto the same mirror card for the mat and layered up the decoupage elements using 1mm foam tape. I added a thin ribbon to the middle of the card ans added a few gems to finish off my card.

Seemacrafts Challenge

Today sees the first challenge for 2014 over at Seemacrafts and the theme is anything goes. I had to make some cards for a friends 40th Birthday and also wanted to give a little keepsake too. He is a football fan and I came across this while looking at the designs on card-making downloads.

I printed all the sheets on to 250gsm super smooth card and cut out all the elements. assembled as shown in the photograph included in the file and decoupaged the little footballs using foam tape. I cut the acetate to size for the windows and made up the box. I cut the 40 topper on the cake twice ensuring to mirror the image on one of them on my Cameo and I attached one either side of a cocktail stick and popped this on top of the cake for a quick an easy keepsake that my friend absolutely loved.