Birthday flower garden

A no layers card with the musical score of "Happy Birthday to you" which is a background stamp by DRS designs.

If you look closely you will notice that I made a slight mistake here: the way I stamped it placed the score the wrong way up... I was so happy with the way it curves and fades out that I didn't notice until I had used the heat tool on the embossing powder and by then it was too late to wipe off the ink and try again.

However I don't really mind it that much - it's not the main feature of the card, just a bit of background decoration in one corner, and as such it still works on the card. But I'll probably write the word "TOP" above the stamp to prevent this happening again.

Challenges:
DRS designs Ch. #84 (no layers)

Get well baby boy

I embellished with a pearl string, a center pearl in the flower, and blue diamonds in the top corners.

For the inside I used the polka dot background stamp from DRS designs. 

Challenges:
DRS designs Ch. #81

Peach and white card with homemade flowers

The product I used sold at Joan's Gardens is the Art Institute Designer "Dries Clear" Adhesive for the doily which forms a fancy corner on this card. The flowers were made with a petal punch, then layered with a bit of green from my plastic flower bunch, and a sequin in the centre.

Challenges:
At Joan's Gardens Ch. July 18;

Congratulations in peach

I layered a Prima flower with a white fabric flower and placed a cuf link button in the center.
The leaf coming down from the bow is again taken from my bunch of plastic flowers. The fancy corner is  made with a doily, which I glittered. I edged two of its shapes with pearl rainbow glaze and placed a gem heart between them.

The product I used sold at Joan's Gardens is the Art Institute Designer "Dries Clear" Adhesive for all flat things.

Challenges:
At Joan's Gardens Ch. July 18;

Peach card with ornate 3D flower

I punched four fancy corners and also two sides of a piece of peach coloured matting. Then I used a die cut flower from Kanban and layered it with another flower and placed a glittered pearl in the middle. I recycled the stem and leaves from a bunch of plastic flowers. The heart at its base is a brad.

The product I used sold at Joan's Gardens is the Art Institute Designer "Dries Clear" Adhesive.

Challenges:
At Joan's Gardens Ch. July 18;

Umbrella flowers recycled

Here I recycled a broken umbrella skin for the background of ma card - its fabric was far too pretty to throw away! I embellished it with a length of black plastic mini pearl string, a button, and sequins.

Challenges: DRS Designs Ch. #78 (monochromatic); 

Green and blue ovals birthday card

Keeping with the theme of ovals, this is a more CAS version of the last card.

The product I used sold at Joan's Gardens is the Art Institute Designer "Dries Clear" Adhesive.

Challenges:
At Joan's Gardens Ch. July 11; 

Orange and pink ovals birthday card

The task was to make a card with at least two ovals - I decided to go for four in this card, and edged them with a pearl and glitter coating.

The embellishments and the sentiment are metallic foil confetti and a length of silver pearl string.

The product I used sold at Joan's Gardens is the Art Institute Designer "Dries Clear" Adhesive.

Challenges:
At Joan's Gardens Ch. July 11; 

Surfboard leaving card

Someone just jumped off his surfboard here... my attempt to make a funny "Leaving" card.
The surface of the sea is done as stripes, stamped in metallic ink with the background stamp from DRS designs.

Challenges: DRS designs Ch. #75;

Pop-up cake birthday

 For this card I used two ornamental punches, one on the corners of the card and the other one on the cake layers.

The candles and flames however were cut out by hand. I used two colours on the candles to make them appear three-dimensional.

On one of the corners I hadn't placed the card quite right into the punch and ended up with a slit punched into my card. In the end I decided to turn this mistake into a feature and decorate it with a piece of ribbon and sequins.

The product I used sold at Joan's Gardens is the Art Institute Designer "Dries Clear" Adhesive.

First father's day card

 I personalized this father's day card with a photo of the child, framed with some dash-dot pen work made with silver and gold metallic pens.

It's so difficult to get nice ribbon that is suitable for men's cards... this one (I think it's by MayArts) is timeless so I expect to use it quite often - and doesn't it fold just beautifully...!

The product I used sold at Joan's Gardens is the X-Press It High Tack Foam Mounting Tape.

Wine themed birthday card

A quick-to-make male birthday card using wine themed printed images. I happy with the fresh summery feel of the colours.

The background stamp with the "Happy Birthday" score is from DRS Design. I stamped and heat-embossed it in silver. It has been pointed out that it looks like it's a fading effect - no, it's not second generation stamping. I'm guessing that it might be due to a combination of my slightly dry ink pad, a bit more pressure on the stamp than normal, and an embossing powder that doesn't have the word "detail" in its name... in short, just a lucky coincidence!

The product I used sold at Joan's Gardens is the X-Press It High Tack Foam Mounting Tape.

Fishing father's day

I stamped the gold embossed poka dots with a background stamp from DRS Designs.

The sentiment is a free digi from Clare Curd. I embossed it with holographic powder to give it some sparkle without covering up the font.

The stickyback fishing themed embellishments are from my stash, I bought them years ago in Belgium. The seascape painting is a clipping from an old art magazine, it's a painting by Ferron that depicts the Bretagne.

Challenges:

Hello Kitty

Product I used sold at Joan's Gardens:
X-Press It High Tack Foam Mounting Tape (for the Hello Kitty figure).

Challenges: 
At Joan's Gardens Ch. (June 6-13);

Congratulations in pink and black

Product I used sold at Joan's Gardens:
Scor-Tape (great to invisibly attach especially a wide Organza ribbon). But for the silver beaded chain I used hot glue, of course.

Challenges: 
At Joan's Gardens Ch. (June 6-13);

This was the embossed background before I coloured it in.

Here you an see one of the buttons before I glued the little flower to the top.

Pink felt butterfly

Product I used sold at Joan's Gardens:
Art Institute Designer "Dries Clear" Adhesive (but for the silver beaded chain I had to use hot glue).

Challenges: 
At Joan's Gardens Ch. (June 6-13);

Belated birthday folksy style

I did the same as for the last card but instead of just colouring in, I painted on top of the flowers to give them a different character. I embellished them with glitter and added the coloured frames. The sentiment was done on the computer.

Product I used sold at Joan's Gardens:
Memento Ink "Cottage Green" Reinker.

Belated birthday: stamped purple flowers

First I stamped the purple flowers (a rubber stamp of unknown origin) and coloured them in. Then I masked them and stamped the background of leaves with a stamp from DRS Designs. I went on to embellish with ribbons and stuck small gem stones to the centre of the flowers. The sentiment was done on the computer.

Product I used sold at Joan's Gardens:
Memento Ink "Cottage Green" Reinker.

First christmas card

I just made my first christmas card for this year - and it isn't even August yet! Well, I wanted to make a design using a tree, so a Christmas was the way to go.

I created the background by stamping the snow flakes, then masking them to stamp the dots (a background stamp from DRS Designs). Then I added a topper for a splash of colour and some cheer.

Challenges:
DRS Designs Ch. #72 (trees); DL.Art Thankful Thursday Ch. #110 (splash); 

Layout: Ends and Beginnings

I have named this Smash book page  "Ends and Beginnings" and it is based on the essence of my thoughts and feelings on those days, jotted down in an attempt to to sort my feelings.

Using these thoughts to create this page helps me to remember the funerals I attended last year in a positive way.  As my intention wasn't to document one or both of the events, a Smash page was just the perfect solution.

As the photo might not display big enough for you to read the journalling I have added separate pictures of it below.

Challenges: Sunday Smash*ers at Clare Curd Crafts (journalling prompting the creation of a page)

Pink roses on yellow - round panel card

The recipe for this card spells the word TULIPS:

T is for the looped trim and also for texture.
U is for unusual item:  I embellished my round rose panel with a star that had fallen off from a scarf (pictured below)! So the letter U is also for used (in the sense of re-cycled) item.
L is for the loops in the punched trim, and also for the two silver leaf-shaped sequins, and for the lines I drew with a gold marker pen.
I is for the image and also for an item that has been re-cycled (which is an Easter egg packaging box - you can see part of the product picture in the previous post).
P is for pink roses and also for the pearls I used to embellish them with.
S is for the sentiment, and also for the sequins.

Challenges:
In Joan's Gardens Ch. 04-25-13;

Pink roses on yellow - square panel card

The recipe for this card spells the word tulips:

T is for the trim (under the panel) and also for texture.
U is for unusual item: I used one half of a bead on my card. That's because I had run out of dew drops, I resolved to sawing a pink translucent bead in half.
L is for the loops (in the punched trim) and also for the leaf I hot-glued to the roses.
I is for the image and also for an item that has been re-cycled (which is an Easter egg packaging box - you can see part of the product picture below.)
P is for pink roses and also for the panel they are on.
S is for the sentiment, and also for the sequins I decorated the rose petals with.

Challenges:
In Joan's Gardens Ch. 04-25-13; DRS Designs Ch. #67 (pastels);

Black and white sympathy card in lace curtain style

  

I cut a panel from lace fabric and added a lace trim underneath. Then I cut a narrow ribbon out of a roll of wide floristry ribbon and made a small bow.

I decorated the lace flowers with clear gem stones and the one above the bow with a piece of hair decoration. It's from a set that I have picked up for very little money, thinking that I would use this in crafting rather than for its intended purpose - they are little glitter glue stickers in the shape of a flower with a gem stone in the middle.

The product is kind of funny so I have added the picture to this post, along with the detail from my card. Somehow I'm not keen on decorating my hair with stickers - nor the idea of having to comb them all out afterwards - but some people obviously do...!

The recipe for this card spells the word TULIPS:
T is for the trim (under the panel) and also for texture
U is for an unusual item I used which is the hair accessory - see detail photo and product picture below
L is for lace
I is for an item that has been re-cycled (the fabric)
P is for the patterned panel
S is for the sentiment and also for sympathy

Challenges:
In Joan's Gardens Ch. 04-25-13; 

Birthday tulips in the snow

Being asked what this card depicts, I would say it's tulips in the snow next to cross country skiing track... Well, it's either that or else it's an abstract design. 

Note that the pink tulip's stem (that's the one in the middle) is blue - there were no green stems left in the sticker set I used , and it contained only bright colours so this was the darkest of them.

Sympathy card with black and white flower ribbon

The twig is a stamp from DRS Designs, I heat embossed it in silver and embellished with a ribbon bow. Underneath is a printed organza ribbon and a narrow gingham ribbon.

Challenges:

White and blue with felt butterfly

Continuing in the butterfly spirit...

The top of this card is stamped with Polka dots, a background stamp from DRS Designs, and heat embossed. 

Below that you can see a sentiment ribbon which I colored from the reverse with watercolour pencils. 

Then comes a white faux grosgrain ribbon with debossed roses, dotted with sequins, and below that a length of white sequinned ribbon, embellished with an ornate felt butterfly. 

Challenges:

Blue and white butterfly trail

I'm not sure how I feel about card designs that don't have a centre focal point, but every now and then I seem to end up with one that I just can't NOT make if you know what I mean. Here some faux stitching along the edge is all that holds the two focal points in this card design together.

I placed a lace butterfly on top of a dotted foam butterfly and embellished it with a sticky back jewel and a trail of sequins resembling rain drops which are going to fall on the flowers.

Above the sentiment ribbon - which I colored in from the reverse with a blue Copic marker - is a foam flower with a sequin flower on top, and two fabric flowers with beads in the centre.

Challenges:
At Joan's Gardens Ch. #11-4-13; 

Blue and white birthday basket

This cardstock in a cloudy blue and white pattern reminds me of the sky on a nice weather day - it somehow makes the white basket appear as if it floats like a hot air balloon. It is cut from a wallpaper sample, decorated with a gingham bow and a button, two butterflies and three kinds of flowers: fabric, jewel and brad (the white one).

Challenges:
At Joan's Gardens Ch. #11-4-13, PanPastel UK Ch. #15;

Bunny paper card

Sometimes a pretty paper and a bow is all that is needed for a nice card...

Basket weave basket card

The basket was cut out of a wallpaper sample in basket weave. I thought about highlighting it with a brayer but decided not to as I also like the tone in tone effect on the white card. This way the card is not too busy and allows me to complement the flower basket with a birthday greeting.

For my embellishments, I let myself be inspired by the bright orange flowers I saw in a photo on the PanPastel UK blog.

The background stamp is from DRS design.

Challenges: DRS Designs Ch. #63; PanPastel UK Ch. #12; Fun with Shapes and More Ch. #130 (spring birthday)

Dark blue with silver twigs and clover

... and with a little bit of white to highlight it. A multipurpose card which could be sent to either men or women, toned down and sombre though with a bit of glitz factor. I like the slight japanese-ey feeling conveyed by the formal composition and the three shamrocks.

The topper is from Kanban and the twigs are a background stamp from DRS designs.

Challenges: DRS Designs Ch. #62;

Sympathy card with twigs

I used two DRS stamps for this sympathy card which complement each other nicely. The twig was heat embossed.

Dogs on sandy track

For this quick winter birthday collage card I recycled images from a used Christmas card. I left those cute dogs their Christmas stockings to play with but placed them on a photograph of a piece of sandy track and embellishes with a gilded button, a brad, and glittered plaid ribbons.

Challenges: Joan's Gardens Ch. (outdoor scene birthday); DRS designs Ch. #60 (plaids);

Fisherman's birthday card

Challenges: Joan's Gardens Ch. (outdoor scene birthday);

Outdoor photographer Birthday

An outdoor photograper at work.

Challenges: Joan's Gardens Ch. (outdoor scene birthday);

Stamping on ribbon for Valentine

For this Valentine's card I tried stamping with white pigment ink on satin ribbon. Here is a tipp for those of you thinking of doing the same: As the ink was soaked up into the fabric, the image was a little faint, but it became a lot crisper after using white detail embossing powder on it.

The letters in the patterned hearts in the centre of the card read the word Love. Although I used red ink, it showed up as dark pink on the white piece of cardstock - I guess my ink pad is getting a bit old. I rescued it by overstamping it with clear ink and using clear embossing powder: the "wet look" made it appear red, finally...!

I embellished it with a raffia ribbon which I untwisted after tying it into a bow. Lesson learned here: Next time I'm definitely going to use a punch tool for the holes.

Challenges:
DRS Designs Ch. #59 ("Love");

Vintage roses on yellow with paper lace

Here I used the yellow organza ribbon again but embellished the card with paper lace, a satin rose, an bow made from patterned organza and light green half pearls which look like dew drops. 

Challenges: Joan's Gardens Ch. #31 (Vintage);