My first shaker card!

Hello everyone, hope you're looking forward to the Bank Holiday weekend - those in the UK, at least! 

Tonight I'm bringing you my first ever shaker card. I have tried these before, without much success. Now I'm not saying it's perfect, but it does work and half the sequins aren't on the floor. I think I need a bit more practice, so this is hopefully the first of a few. No doubt a splurge on some nice sequins will be required - #impoverishedhappycrafter :)

  
I've made it using some of the new things I received the other day in my haul. It's a basic 6x6 card blank with a piece of Lawn Fawn Let's Polka as backing. The shaker part is a nice grey from my Papermania capsule collection, die cut with the new Lawn Fawn stitched squares - they cut beautifully - filled with some sequins from Hobbycraft. I need some Pretty Pink Posh! 

I wanted to see the backing paper through the shaker box, so it is backed with acetate to contain the sequins before attaching to the card - did I mention before that usually they end up on the floor? Some time looking at how to make shaker card videos might be well spent over the next couple of days.

The set is Mama Elephant Up and Away, stamped in various Memento dye inks, coloured with Derwent pencils. The balloons are coloured using my metallic Caran D'Ache, with a bit of Wink of Stella and glossy accents. The fox is hanging on with some red baker's twine.

I'm just so happy it worked, I had a lot of fun making it.

Thanks for reading, enjoy your weekend!

Monkey baby

A friend had baby no. 2 last week. Another little boy. Time for a card! I've been thinking about it for the past week and decided I'd incorporate it into the Tic Tac Toe challenge from Make The Day Special. I've chosen the diagonal Metal/Metallics-Circles-Stripes. It actually turned out pretty much how I envisaged it which is a first!

I started by stamping the balloons from the Up and Away Mama Elephant set onto a piece of white card using Memento Tuxedo Black. I coloured the balloons in with my new metallic pencils from Caran D'Ache. I love them and have to use them again soon! I cut them out (I need to get the dies to go with this set) and attached them with foam pads to the stamp on the card blank. I stamped the monkey onto the card blank holding the balloon strings and coloured him in with my Derwent Artists Pencils.

Now, the tricky bit was the tail and the little blue bundle. I used a cut out balloon to create a stencil of the bundle and cut it out of white paper then inked it up with in Aspen Mist. I got some blue and white twine and tied it round the neck of the bundle. I then stamped the monkey's tail onto some white card, coloured it in and then cut it out - that was hard! I then threaded the twine through the tail and stuck it onto the monkey and a foam pad under the bundle. Think it works well!

The jungle is the free Clearly Besotted fuschia stamp from Simply Cards and Papercraft issue 133 and stamped multiple times in Hint of Pesto. The sentiment is also from Clearly Besotted (yes I am!) and their Sweet Little Sentiments set.

I added the stripes from my Pebbles basics set down the side because I needed stripes for the challenge.

Thanks so much for reading. Please feel free to leave me a comment. I love hearing from you. I hope you've had a great Easter weekend. 

Sweet...

It's not usual I get crafting done during the day except when baby naps AND 4 year old is at nursery, but I managed it today!

We've had a few happy family events lately, one of which is a new baby for a cousin across the Atlantic. I used the opportunity to make a card and had a play with those free Clearly Besotted stamps I got from Simply Cards and Papercraft 133 and did some masking for the first time.

It's not what I'd call a typical baby card, so on the inside I stamped new baby from the Sweet Little Sentiments set.

I used a card blank and covered it with some pink spotty (yes it was a girl!) backing card from my Pebbles basics. I stamped the jar in Memento Tuxedo Black and then did a few masks of the sweet and stamped away with a selection of VersaMagic DewDrops in pastel shades. I made a mask for the 'Hope your day is as Sweet as you are' sentiment and blocked out everything but the 'Sweet'. The card topper is mounted using foam tape.

Husband was rather impressed and I have to say I thought it wasn't bad for a first attempt at some masking.

Thanks for reading. Hope your weekend has been crafty too!

Dragonflies

Hello! Yesterday morning while the baby napped I crafted like a demon. It's lucky I did because we had no power all evening from 4-9pm - not great with tiny ones. Thank heaven for my old whistling kettle and a gas hob!

So, here are two of the three (yes! 3!) cards I made. It's using the free dragonfly die and stamp set that came with issue 134 of Simply Cards and Papercraft. I like to try out some of the cards when I get an issue using similar products that I have in my stash. I get to try new techniques without buying even more stuff, especially as I was waiting for the new Clearly Besotted Stamps March release. I've also decided, that if I have time and inclination, I'll make multiples of cards. Means I can dip into my cards when I need one in an emergency.

They're both made in the same way using an A6 pre-scored card blank. I covered them with spotty paper from a pack of Pebbles Card Making Basics. This isn't ideal, as it has a score line so you can make them into cards, but it is not too noticeable when as a card back. 

I then die cut three dragonflies from a sheet of Bazzill paper - white and pink (Bazzill Bling). I added the sentiment from the Clearly Besotted sweet little sentiments stamp using Memento Tuxedo Black ink and added a couple of sticky pearls. 

I adhered the card top to the card using foam pads on the top card, but on the bottom one, I just used glue, to see which I'd prefer (glue!). I then put some glue on the body of the butterflies and stuck them into the apertures, bending the wings slightly so they were proud of the card.

Thank you for reading and I hope you like :)