Secret Crafter ~ Challenge # 4

Firstly I must say, that as soon as I saw this card sketch on Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge, I knew I had to play! I quickly decided on the patterned paper and stamp that I would use and the rest was plain sailing!

I thoroughly enjoyed playing along and this is what I came up with:

The vibrantly coloured patterned diamond paper is Paper Heart ~ Fanciful Pink Diamonds. I LOVE this paper! It has such a mix of colours on there including yellow, green, pale pink, dark pink, light orange, dark orange, red and mauve as well as having the odd sparkly diamond.

I had fun picking out the colours for Magnolia ~ Staylish Tilda, by matching my Copic Markers to the different coloured diamonds in the paper.

I have only had my Copics for a few weeks and I am loving them!! When I was thinking about buying them, I didn't really know an awful lot about them - just that I'd seen other people colour with copics and theirs looked great! I didn't even know how to colour! I decided to buy the entire set of the Copic Sketch markers largely because I had no idea as to which colours I would need and which I wouldn't. Now I am so pleased that I made this investment (it wasn't cheap!), because now I use so many markers each time I colour just one stamp! I've been reading lots of hints and tips on the net as to how to colour with copics, so I am still very much at the learning stage. Anyway, these are the colours I used for this sketch:

The plain coloured cardstock is Bazzill Bling and I used a vanilla colour and a pinky orange colour (sorry, I don't know their proper names). I inked the edges of the cardstock with orange and pink Colorbox Chalk pads. For the signpost I inked up Magnolia ~ Tilda's Signpost with orange Colorbox Pigment Chalks, inked the edges in pink and clear embossed the whole thing. Then I cut it out. Both Tilda and the signpost have been raised with double sided sticky pads.

The spotty ribbon across the top came from Fancy Pants ~ Celebrate collection, the orange velvet ric rac from Basic Grey ~ Gypsy and the pink ric rac ribbon from Crate Paper ~ Samantha.

The brads and the pink button are from Basic Grey ~ Two Scoops collection, whilst the red button is from the Euphoria collection. Ribbons tied on buttons were from my scraps.

Thanks once again for a great sketch!

Kat

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Something For The Birds - Challlenge

This week's challenge at Stamp Something is to "make a project using bird images; any types, sizes, shapes, and colors."

<<< --- Here is my card.

I used a basic white card blank.

The two patterned papers are both from the Basic Grey ~ Gypsy collection. The floral blue is Sandal and the green is Dragonfly. The dashed line around the edge of the green card was a Doodlebug Stitch rub-on. I used white broderie anglaise ribbon from Making Memories ~ Fresh Anthology trims.

I cut the plain and scalloped circles with my Cricut machine and inked the edges with Colorbox chalks. The little stork stamp is from Heidi Grace ~ Baby collection and I coloured it up with my Copic Markers.

Thank you for looking!

Kat

Having a {me} day

Dutch Dare Card Challenge # 20

There is a great sketch over at Dutch Dare Card Challenge this week.

Here is the sketch:

And here is my take:The stripey paper is Doodlebug - Fruit Stripe. I used various scraps of bazzill cardstock, inked the edges and layered them up. The words *Little Angel* I printed from my computer. The Magnolia stamp I used is Baby Tingla and I coloured her up with my copics. I cut her out and layered her onto the circle with double sided sticky pads.

Thanks for the sketch!

Kat

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A Spoon Full of Sugar ~ Challenge # 21 Lim's Sketch

This is the first time entering a sketch challenge from A Spoon Full of Sugar and I must say Lim's Sketch # 21 is really fun to do and very versatile.

I can see that I will be using this sketch often, so thank you Lim, for the sketch!

Here is my take:

This card started life with the cute little Tilda with Slate stamp from Magnolia. This is only my second time of using Magnolia stamps and I must say I am already hooked! This is also the second time I have coloured using my brand new copics! From the awesome colouring I see on blogs out there, I can see I have a lot to learn, but we've all got to start somewhere right?

I chose the colours for Tilda by trying to match my copics with the colours on the cardstock I wanted to use.

I used a pearlescent blue card blank. The spotty background paper is Sassafraslass - Life is Beautiful - Pocket Full of Posies: Hooty. I cut out the shaped corners from Sassafraslass - Life is Beautiful - My dearest: Sweet Darling. The 'Good Luck' motif was printed onto a scrap of blue cardstock. I then went over it with my Versamarker Watermark Pen, sprinkled it with clear embossing powder and heated it up. I inked the edges with ColorBox Fluid Chalk - Turquoise.

The ribbon is from K&Co - Happy Trails and is held in place with brads from Basic Grey - Two Scoops collection. The pink and blue buttons are from Basic Grey - Euphoria and the orange button from Doodlebug.

I cut the circles from a scrap of blue cardstock and a scrap of Sassafraslass cardstock using the George & basic shapes cartridge from my Cricut machine.

I used the following Copic markers to colour in Tilda:

R20, E00,E41, E51, N9, R08, BG18, BG10, E02, E37, E29

Lots of layering with sticky foam pads to add dimension.

Thanks for looking.

kat

having a {me} day

Laura's Sketch 10 ~ Happy Anniversary

I am just sneaking in at the end of this week's sketch on 2 Sketches 4 You. Here is the sketch.

Here is my take:

I used a cream card blank. The dark brown cardstock & the one used for the dress are from K&Co Ancestry.com range. The paper with writing on is from K&Co Life's Journey range. The peel off dress is Anita's. Spot the not so deliberate error where I left part of the peel off stuck on!! Yikes! I only noticed when I looked at the photos of it! Anyone know how I can take this off without damaging the card? All edges are embossed with gold embossing powder. The 'Happy Anniversary' is a negative peel off which has been embossed in gold. I embossed with the peel off on the paper and then peeled off when done! Buttons are from Making Memories and sewn on with DMC gold thread. The gold brads in the corners are from Papermania. I used double sided foam pads to attach the dress to give depth.

Thanks for the sketch Laura!

Friday Sketch 22

Here is this weeks sketch from the Friday Sketchers Challenge Blog.

This is my take and I'm not sure I'm completely happy with it, I've spent a lot of time fiddling with it and searching for the right colours! I can't decide whether I prefer it with or without the ribbons underneath. In fact I am so unsure about it, I haven't actually stuck the ribbons down yet, that's why it all looks a bit off centre.

I used an A6 ivory card blank. The orange flowery paper is Heidi Grace - It's My Party Flowers. It has a wonderful shimmer glitter effect and I just love the orange colour and tiny flowers. The green buttons in each corner are from S.E.I. - Chick-a-doo range. The orange and green ribbons are both taken from Making Memories - Abby - Cheeky Trims.

The word 'baby' is made up of American Craft - Thickers and the chipboard letters were originally white. I coloured them in with Marvy Matchables - Wet Looks Embossing Marker No. 9. I then sprinkled them with clear embossing powder and heated them up. I repeated this process again to give it a deep glossy look. I then layered the letters on to Doodlebug cardstock in pale orange and then again on to a pink Bazzill cardstock. The mini green brads are from Making Memories - Springtime Button.

Kat

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Man's 80th Birthday Card

From time to time I am asked to create a card for a special occasion.

I usually find it quite difficult making cards for men, but once it all started coming together I actually found myself enjoying this one! As I was working on this card, the size of it began to grow, until it ended up being 21 x 19cm (8.25 x 7.5"). I can see I am going to have to make an envelope too!

My basic idea for the card started with the vintage car. I knew that this card had to have a car theme and the older the car the better. With little time to spare I scoured my LSS. Initially I was looking for a stamp with a vintage car theme. Although I did find some, I was put off by the price as I couldn't see myself using it enough to justify the cost. Then I happened upon this vintage car rub-on which was part of a set by 'Create-A-Collage' Men's Collage rub-on and knew it was {the one}. I loved the sepia colours of this car and this inspired the overall tone of the card.

After playing around with various coloured papers , I decided that the car looked best on a blue background.

I very rarely use the backs of doublesided cardstock as a main theme, but I didn't want the car image to be lost in a sea of patterned papers.

I placed the rub-on to the reverse side Fancy Pants - Papa: Confident. I inked the edges with Tim Holtz Distress Ink: Antique Linen and matted it with the brown reverse side of Making Memories - Passport: Stripe. I then made up another mat in exactly the same way, although slightly larger and set my mat with the rub-on at a jaunty angle on top of the larger mat. The blue and brown check ribbon came from my stash. The brown lacy type ribbon came from Making Memories - Passport: Trims. The brown lacy ribbon is held in place by two little lemon coloured brads from the Basic Grey - Two Scoops collection and the little lemon button sewn on is from the same collection, as are the two larger buttons in the top right corner.

I just love buttons and have a real button fetish. If I can add a button to a design, then I will. Here I have layered together two buttons. The bottom button had a dip in it allowing the top button to sit on there easily. I then threaded some ribbon through the holes and tied it in a knot.

Ok, now on to the letters and numbers. I had loads of {FUN} here!!

Of course, I didn't have letters and numbers in the colours I wanted. Haven't a clue why as I have millions of the things!! But I didn't much mind as this gave me a chance to {play}. For the word 'DAD' I took the letters from K&Co Classic K Margo Chipboard Alphabet. Working one letter at a time, I sponged my VersaMark Watermark Stamp pad on top of the letter. I then covered it with Tim Holtz Distress Powder in Aged Mahogany and heated it up with my Dovecraft Heat Gun. To release the crystals to achieve the distressed look, I rubbed the letter with my finger. At this stage I thought the letters needed a touch of colour, so I lightly sanded the edges. I decided blue would look good and would match the other elements in the card. I dabbed carefully at the edges of my letters and lightly on the surface, randomly with my ColorBox Pigment Brush Pad - Sky Blue. I covered the whole with Stampendous Stamp-n Stuff Clear Embossing Powder and heated it up.The effect is what you see and I just tied some ribbon round the first 'D' using a stripey ribbon from Making Memories - Passport: Trims.


For the numbers '80' I wanted a slightly different feel, to create some contrast. The numbers used were taken from Heidi Grace Chipboard Alphabet - Cherry Lane. To create the effect shown, I reversed the process that I had used to create 'Dad'. So, I inked the numbers up with ColorBox Sky Blue pad, covered it with the clear embossing powder and heated it up. Having sanded the numbers slightly in places, I then applied the VersaMark Watermark Pad to parts of the edges and surface. I sprinkled the numbers with Tim Holtz Distress Powder - Aged Mahogany and rubbed the surface to achieve the distressed look.

The stamp I used for the 'Happy Birthday' is an acrylic stamp which was on the cover of a magazine I bought earlier this year. I stamped the image three times with the Versamark Stamp Pad on the reverse side of Fancy Pants - Papa: Confident, sprinkled them with the aged mahogany distressing powder and heated them up. I cut out each image as follows: first image - cut out in full, second image - cut out just the cake and candle, third image - cut out just the icing on the cake. I then layered up each part of the stamped images, one on top of the other, starting with the largest at the bottom and working my way up to the smallest. I used Stix 2 Anything Double Sided Craft Foam Pads between each layer to add dimension.

Finally I inked the edges of Fancy Pants - Papa: Courageous with the antique linen distress ink and attached everything on the reverside of the cardstock using double sided pads for 'Dad', 'Happy Birthday' and '80' and double sided tape for the matted car. I made up the card from two pieces of brown cardstock from Papermania Textured Cardstock.

I will use the reverse side of Fancy Pants - Papa: Adventurer on the inside of the card, to both hide the join arising from making the card and to print the message on from the sender.

Kat

having a {me} day

Thank You!

First of all, I must begin by saying a very {BIG} Thank You to my very good friend Deb, from across the pond in the US. Deb not only persuaded me that I should have a blog, but also encouraged me further by uploading the autumn themed banner you see on my blog today. Way above and beyond the call of duty, but {THANK YOU} I wouldn't have known where to start!

For some great inspiration, visit Deb's blog here ittybittyinkspots.

Kat

having a {me} day