Buggy Challenge #5

After a long, long break I've jumped back into card making with a challenge.    I urgently needed a birthday card for my wonderful cousin Karen, who is a very glamourous lady indeed.     Sometimes inspiration is hard to find after a hiatus so having a starting point is great for a kick into action.

One of my favorite places to buy Quickutz from is Scrapbuggy

After having a wander around the site I noticed there is a scrapping challenge.   The challenge is to design something using the layout found here  Buggy Challenge #5

Okay, so it's not a scrapbooking page but I used my artistic license to use it for a card layout.   Lots to fit on to a small space but I think it still worked.

These are the Quickutz dies I used.......

 

And some Cuttlebug bits, I also used several other embossing folders.   Got to love those.!

As always, after being so careful with the gluing and colouring, as I picked it up I got a lovely big black mark  on the side.   What's a girl to do!!!!     An extra piece of sticky lace covered this up nicely.    This is the same holey lace that I used across the bottom, inking it with a silver green ink. 

Hope you enjoy and find some ideas and inspiration as I do when I wander around the blogiverse.

Stampsmith's December Challenge.

 

Items Used:

Stamps from Stampsmith -Wording -  Say it with Flair set

Picture stamp from Marilyn 2 set

Quickutz Nesting Star set

Cuttlebug - Round tag from he Baby Face Alphabet set

The challenge for the December Stampsmith Yahoo group was to make a Christmas card for a person who provides a service.

Can you guess who I've made the card for?.......    Here's a hint, once you start getting a bit older, this person becomes very, VERY important........especially to fight off the grey's and I'm not talking the little Alien variety of Grey's...lol either, whom in most cases have no need for the services of this person!  

Making - A very Hairy Christmas card.......

First step was to stamp the Marilyn with versafine black.  Wait a while so it's dries or else you will get smudging even though it is waterproof ink.    I use a cheap set of children's watercolour paints but they are just as good for this purpose.   I have gouache paints but they offer a more solid colour rather than a wash of colour so I prefer to use the watercolours.   I used glitter on the dress and earrings  and gave her a lick of mascara with a very fine black pen.

 The wording was stamped using a combination of words from the "Say it with Flair" stamp set.   I used an acrylic block and some double sided tape and arranged the words in a staggered pattern, embossed with gold Zing.    You can go back and fill in any gaps with a smaller word or object.   I filled the space with a little Christmas tree punch out.

The bauble is made using the tag punch from the Cuttlebug Baby face set.   If you look at my Quick Birthday wish card you can see I used the flower die.   I hate to throw anything out so I used the left over negative cutout as the top decoration on the bauble.   The first version just didn't work for me.   The string was to small and the colour was too washed out.....So I added colour with a bit of glitter and used a thicker ribbon through the loop, some bling......instant bauble!!!.    It is slightly raised  on the card

Right Picture (Before)

Below Picture (After changes)

I thought this would be an easier challenge than the last two as we do have Christmas here in Australia....but I found this one the hardest.!    I think having lots of ideas rather than no idea has served as a bit of a hindrance.   A wonderful friend of mine in the US has sent me a "Care Package" of lots of Halloween goodies so I'll be ready for that one next year.!   

Thanks for looking and a Merry Christmas to all.    

Quick Birthday Wishes

 

Items Used

Matha Stewart Happy Birthday punch

Cuttlebug Dies -  2 x 4" Flowers Dies (37-1508)

Leaf from the Combo Persia set (37-1919)

This was a fairly simple and quick card to make.   Many colour combinations would work great with this style of card too.    Assembling the flowers first makes it easier to arrange them.    For the leaves I manually cut the a darker colour leaf to stick behind the leaf cutout as it's much easier to do this than to fit all the little pieces into the cut outs.

Thanks for looking.   Comments are always appreciated, even the anonymous ones...lol !

KSCC#29, kitchensinkstamps

 Kitchen sink stamp Challenge #29

Items Used

Kitchen Sink Stamp set 3 step sea shells

Cuttlebug Tiny bubbles embossing folder

Beach punch

Quickutz lettering Banana Splits and alphabet from the Flirt pack

Cuttlebug Love language Combo die

Earthly Ores Colorbox

The Kitchen sink Challenge 29 called for a Monochromatic colour scheme.  

I used the brown tones from the Earthly Ores Colorbox ink set to do the shell.   The papers are from all different places and often I grab them from a scrap box.

I used a glitter and sand mix on the edge of the punched border and blow the shell and lettering.    Bronze glitter is used on the edge of the embossed tiny bubble paper.

The two hearts are  die cut from the Cuttlebug Love language Combo die in a lovely shimmer paper.

Thanks for looking.!

Stampsmith November Challenge

Items Used

Plain white bag with handle

Pipecleaners 2 Red, 2 Green

Quickuts dies - Leaves 

Leaf Shapes

Red, green & yellow Crayon

Moon Glow sprays - Bucket o' blood and Treasure Island Aqua

Stampsmith Stamp from Darling Boys sheet

The Challenge for the Stampsmith group is as follows.

Using a Stampsmith stamp create a Thanksgiving card and bag.

Make your own background paper.   Use warm browns, reds, yellows, golds and shades of green.

Make for an elderly person you know and the card should attach to the front of the bag.

I should have known by now that any challenges in the months of October/November will most likely be Halloween & Thanksgiving!.     Not being from America these are not things we celebrate nor do I know much about.   Halloween isn't so bad as I know it involves scary things...lol....but Thanksgiving?    I felt there was a little space for international interpretation.    

So how to make it harder for myself.....make it for my grandfather, who at the ripe old age of 95 is the oldest person I know...lol.!!!!  

The stamp I chose was from the Darling boys sheet.    Stamped with Versafine Ink and then painted with watercolours and a very, very fine brush.  

(right)The before colouring and after.

The background paper

Using 2 different stamps of leaves, I used gold, red and yellow embossing powder.   Some of the leaves are two toned sprinkling the embossing powder in sections.    I then used red, green and yellow crayon to colour the leaves and create a resist.  

It was very hard for me not to use glitter or feminine touches but that's all part of the challenge.    I wanted the background paper to have the sparkle but old world look and still be masculine.     

 

 

I sprayed the Moonglow Shadow mists in two shades all over.      It looked like this when wet (right) but dries to a lovely walnut brown shade with rivers of darker areas where the walnut ink colour has pooled.   The whole area has a subtle sparkle of mica in aqua & red.

Assembling the bag


The background paper I used to decorate was a piece of white sticky back paper.   This made it easier to attach the backgound paper on the paper bag(recycled).  Using two colours of pipe cleaners, I wrapped around the handles to add colour. 

To be able to attach the card as required, I used 2 small pieces of red paper glued only on the straight sides to form two pockets.     I cut lots of leaves from the quickutz dies and placed them around the top edge using the larger ones on the bottom.  These were only stuck down at the top so they bottom edge would overlap the card and hold it more securely in place.

The Card

The background paper strip was used with three stripes of paper in yellow & greens.   The gold and red stripes are gift wrapping ribbon that I stuck down using double sided tape.   

The leaves are layered on a darker colour to form a shadow look.

I used my computer to make the wording as I didn't really have anything that I though was Thanksgiving related or that sort of fit the theme as well as fitting into something I could give.     It's Remembrance Day on Thursday 11th for us here in Australia and my grandfather served in the army and lost many friends and family to war.   I would like to think I've captured the Thanksgiving theme in a way that my grandfather and I would be able to relate to.   

You can see from the picture at the top how the card slips into the corner pieces and under the leaves for a complete package.  

Thanks for looking.

Tip : Your computer is often a forgotten resource for wording.   Many programs come with text and text editing.  Don't forget, you can have a lot of fun using  the text editing in the  photo editing programs which most people have now.  I usually make the text, then cut and paste several times and change the size of each so when I print it out at least one is the right size I need.

A Stampsmith Halloween

Items Used

Stampsmiths - Thank heavens 2 set. 3 girls

Quickutz - Spooky scroll Die

Quickutz - Houses Die

  Quickutz - Leaves Embossing folder 12"

My entry in the Stampsmith Yahoo Challenge - Halloween.

The challenge was of course Halloween.  

Now Halloween hasn't really taken off in my corner of Australia.   I thought last year we'd get a few knocks on the door but no....nobody.....I even bought chocolates to give...   I have US friends so I hear about Halloween and how great it is and lots of fun but I guess you have to be there.    So what was a girl to do.   No Halloween stamps, no stickers or ribbons........luckily I had bought the Spooky scroll from Quickutz for a different reason but came in so handy as did the house dies.

OH Silvery Moon

I cut the folder to the required size and used watercolours, sponge and brayer to colour the background.     The folder just sucked up the colour and water and ended up warping and buckling but it just adds to the character.              A bit of chalk is also used around the moon to give a little glow.    For the moon I used a circle of paper with a few smudges of gray chalk the glued  Angelina film over the top so it glows.   I love doing the moon like this as  it's so effective.  

I used a fine black pen to draw cobwebs and spiders all over the scroll with silver highlights.   I also drew the bats flying around the  moon.  They look a little kooky rather than spooky though. !

The little girls in the original stamp all had pretty dresses on and flowers.   I sew and have a little niece and just love the idea of making her costumes one day so that's my inspiration.     The arm of the clown girl is cut separately and raised up to give a 3d look and what girl doesn't love oodles of glitter............ So I made sure the dresses had lots of sparkle.  

(Right) The grass is a bit of freehand machine stitching in a glitter thread and some fluffy black wool for spooky grass.                                                                                (Left) I used the quickutz Leaves folder on some adhesive aluminum tape used for guttering and household repairs.   You can find the one with the texture or the plain one from hardware stores.   For Aussies, I found both at Bunnings in the plumbing section.   It takes the embossing beautifully.   I coloured the leaves and added some scrolls with the Bic Mark-It Colour Pens which come in a pastel and bright set.   These pens are great as they are alcohol based and are permant on shiny surfaces.  I found mine in the stationary section at Woolworths in Aust.   I'd never seen them anywhere else, not even in craft shops but they are brilliant for shiny paper and hard to colour things like metal and glass.   (No affiliation but I should be offered shares now...lol...)

This was a fun challenge...and challenge it was.!   I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out and venturing outside my comfort zone.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN to all my US friends....hope it's a spooky one for you....!    BOO!

It's a Girl

Items used:

Stampsmith stamps - Ooh Baby set

Cuttlebug - A2 Combo Welcome Baby

    Cuttlebug  -  Die2x6 Fruit & Tags

                        Cuttlebug - A2 Tiny Bubbles Embossing Folder

Core-ordinates paper

Colorbox Stamp Pad - Pastel (rainbow)

This was a fun little card I made for a new baby.    The gorgeous stamps are just 3 from a great set of fun baby photo stamps.  I used the pink section of three colours to stamp the babies.   Cut with the Tags and threading the ribbon through gives them a fun way to display them.

The words were cut once in white and then in sparkle pink paper and joined together off centre to create a glowing shadow.   

The Bubbles folder works really well with the paper that you sandpaper to reveal the base colour.  Mixed with the gingham, this all came together beautifully.   A few glitzy flowers of bright colours added the last bit of sparkle and contrast.