Sunday, June 13, 2010

Card Challenge from the Campbellford Crew + 1 (me!)

Every month, five of us work from a card design and March's challenge was this:   You can see what the other ladies created here.  We always have fun doing these.


My inspiration came from this lovely lady and her amazing art.

I used the same inks as I did for the one below but used Versamark ink and clear embossed the grasses (Stampin Up) before I inked the background.  I masked off the bottom with post-it notes and clear embossed the bottom to make the snow bank.  I made the little pearls from a glue gun and used a very subtle grey ribbon to finish.  Can you tell I love this style?

 This is a quick little card I made for a friend's birthday.  The flourish stamp was stamped twice with black ink and clear embossed - just turned around the second time.  I took a tiny heart stamp and stamped it on the ends of the flourishes and coloured them with a red embossing marker and clear embossed.  Easy peasy.  And she loved it (this is a spare....)













The final card one was I made just to see if I could use this lonely butterfly I glittered.  I know its pretty rough, but I had sprained my wrist and was in a sling so the whole card was done with my left hand.  I belonged to a card kit program and inside the kit was this 12 inch strip of black felt vine.  Because right hand scissors don't work with a left hand (boy do I sympathize with lefties trying to function in a basic right hand world..:)), I had to size it into small enough pieces to stick on the cardstock.  I wielded an exactor knife very carefully and sliced it into three single pieces without amputating my good hand.  That particular day, I wanted to make cards, despite the wounded wing.  Someone once told me when I began this addictive craft that there was no such thing as a mistake.

In hindsight, looking at this card I made a mistake.  I probably should have skipped cardmaking and read a book....*sigh*.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

More Simplicity Challenge Cards.....

I am considering treatment....I think I am obsessed with Simplicity's challenges.

I had an idea to build a One Layer Scene and repeat a component of it.  I tried this technique from this wonderful artist, Michelle Zindorf.  I love her stuff and she is so brilliant and generous to share with us all the tutorials on how to do it.  However, I continue to ruin sheet after sheet of paper trying to imitate her skill.  I keep checking on her site to see if she has scheduled classes in Ontario - I would travel anywhere to take her class!
I used black pigment ink and embossed it with clear powder.  The bullrush stamp is from Stampin Up.  The sentiment is from Hero Arts.  It really wasn't that hard and I really like the look of it.  I think I need to make more of these in different colours (daylight, dusk, dawn) with the four other sayings in the set.
 
Having to repeat the pattern got me to thinking about these adorable Rosie Roadhouse ducks.  Each of them have names and these ones are Riley and Richard.

I used Marvy markers in two shades of yellow to colour them (I have copics but wanted to try the same thing wtih marvys and they worked pretty well).  The sentiment is from a set I bought at a garage sale and didn't have the original packaging...sorry!)  Tried to match the ducks bills with the ribbon.  I thought the card was....well just this side of tastefully "cheeky".

Then I used Rupert and Mabel and added several Richards in this card; making them appear as if they were gossiping about him.
The sentiment is from My Favourite Things called Twisted Sentiments.  There are some pretty cheeky sentiments in that set so be warned.  I have all the sets :)).

Friday, June 4, 2010

OLW 7 Simplicity's New Challenge...

Simplicity threw us a new challenge; one layer with bling or small embellishments as long as it works. 

Here are my two cards today....I used Frogs Whiskers little daisy here..
Scor-Pal made the double lines, repeated the little daisy stamp, smudged the centres with distress inks Shabby Shutters and Orange Marmalade, then cut out around the daisies at the bottom of the card.  I used dollar store ribbon (actually, they are from a hair bungee that had these little ribbons tied to the bungee.  I untied them and they are the perfect length and work fabulously!  Very cheap too  :))  I think the sentiment is from My Favourite Things.
I used yellow and green bling on this one for the centre of the green card, and orange and green bling for the orange one. 

I love this tiny little daisy stamp...so I was inspired to make this one too....


There is a fine line of scoring under and above each row of daisies.  On the one with black ribbon, I coloured the centre with a black sharpie and added crystal effects over it to make it bubble.  Way cool.  And on the other one I just added a little glue pen dot and sprinkled glitter dust over the centers. 

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate your comments soooooo much!!!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Our Campbellford Crew Challenge...

We are four creative ladies (and 2 young girls!) who challenge ourselves to make cards.  The month of May was my month so I got to pick the card pattern....this is what I chose....  My only stipulation was that it had to be tone-on-tone - so the same colours but different shades of colours.

I thought it only fair since I posted a hard challenge (a specific pattern and a colour palette, that I should go the extra mile.  I made two different cards.

The first one that came to mind practically made itself.  I knew exactly what I wanted; browns.  I love this feather stamp set from Hero Arts and I did each feather in a different shade; Brushed Corduroy, Vintage Photo and Frayed Burlap and stamped them on Kraft cardstock.  The little feather I stamped on a scrap of kraft cardstock, cut it out and punched it up.  I used Walnut Stain around the edge of the cards and the oval which was punched out with a Fiskars punch.  Very easy and I love how it looks!
  The second card was a lot harder!  The instructions take up a full page and I can email them to anyone who wants them!
It's white on white and in real life, it is very shimmery!!!!  Basically, I used all white but different white cardstock from different companies to give the butterflies "shades" of white.   I used Shimmer Mist Lace on the cardstock before I even started the card and had to wait for several hours for it to dry before I could start the actual card!  I also used 2 different background stamps from Hero Arts and one from Stampin Up, 8 cuttlebug folders and 3 different butterfly punches.  I dabbled Opalite Pearl and White Stickles (which are very hard to see) on the butterflies.  No two butterflies are the same and I made about 100 of them so I have lots in stock now for other projects when I need them.  And because they are white, I can colour them, stain them or paint them for other cards.  Nestabilities for the white vellum tag and I don't know where the sentiment is from, sorry.  
These cards took forever to do!!!  I reminded the ladies that they better not to expect this level of creativity every time because they drained me.  I had an idea to do the butterflies swooping upwards and once I got started, the idea kind of snowballed.  I know you all have had that happen a time or two in your own creative endeavours.... : )

Here's a closeup of some of the butterflies.....
 Liz will be posting all the other ladies' cards over at Frogs Whiskers this week....I hope (poke, poke :)