Herringbone Technique and Acetate.

It is the start of a new yr  of challenges over at the Butterfly Challenge  The challenge has now been going for 5yrs and is about to enter it's sixth yar.  There is a brand new Butterfly wheel and a slightly different  format.

Here are my inspiration cards for you.

On my first card I have used the herringbone technique to use up loads of the scraps of design paper that seem to multiply all by  themself if left unattended.
I have used Amber/Almond/ Butterfly from the wheel.

The Sentiment is a digi stamp by  Digi Stamp Boutique 'Birthday Mr Bear Sentiment'. The butterfly was already out on my desk left over from another project.  I think it is an SU. punch. Pearl was from my stash. I took out all the small pieces of design paper from my yellow folder and cut them into strips of different widths. I cut a piece of card to the size I required for my card front and used a sticky sheet to cover one side, then using the Herringbone Technique (there are loads of excellent videos and tutorals on You Tube)  covered the entire piece.  I still had loads of the wretched strips over so I just kept cutting and covering more pieces of card until I only had the following left.

 I now have several ready to go backing card pieces for future cards or even to be die cut.  Now there's a thought!

 For My second card I have used Aperture Card /Acetate/Apple Green/ Butterfly from the wheel.

 I have had this piece of acetate with the butterfly design on it in my stash for absolutely ages and have been itching to use it on just the right card.  Only trouble was that it was already pre cut so I had to find a die cut the right size to make the aperture with. Fortunately my Spellbinders deckled Rectangles were perfect.  The sentiment was a black sticker from my stash.

You can see from this picture that because I have attached the acetate to the front of the card that the inside is neat and tidy.  I have now added a Card Shape page to the Butterfly Blog and you can see instructions/ hints/tips on how to make a basic aperture card using 3 different designs on there. I will be adding new card shapes to this page as we progress through the alphabet on the challenges.

 Do hope you will come and join me. The  challenges last for the normal two weeks from today.

Love All

I normally only make one Valentine's card a yr but this year my Hairdresser asked me to make her some cards to sell to her customers and I managed to make her up a selection of 12 cards.  These are the first 4.


I have used a  Tonic Die Set  Called 'Hello Posey' but made  my own centre into it.  This is one time that would definitely advocate using a double sided sticky sheet to cut the die out with. Almost impossible other wise to use glue on the really thin cuts and it does need to be stuck down onto the card firmly.  Because of the large die size the card base is  non standard size so I made a matching envelope and decorated to match.  Printed the sentiment  off in word and the 3 pearls completed it

Entered this card only into the following challenges:

Cuttlebug Mania # Be My Valentine.

Tuesday Taggers # Romance.

Daisy Chain Challenges: #27 Have a heart.

Craft Rocket Challenge #56 Valentine.

Get Creative # 77 Anything goes with optional lots of red.

I chose to make this card in a pretty pastel pink using another  Tonic Die cut set called ' Thankyou Blossom'. I again used my own  centre that I printed off in word. Didn't feel this design needed anything else added to it so just made up a matching envelope to finish. 

Entering the above card into these challenges:
Aud Sentiments #220 Love or Valentine sentiment.
Creatalicious Challenges #156 Anything goes with optional Love/hearts.
Crafter's Castle #14 Anything goes / option valentines.
Creative Inspirations # With love.



Then I decided to go really bold and go black and silver.  The  Decorative heart stamp I think was a freebie from Craft Stamper magazine  a few years ago now.  I used a scalloped card base and attached  black card cut slightly smaller. Layered up with hearts die cut using Sweet Dixie Nesting Dies. SDD168.
The silver edging  and silver hear sticker  were from my stash. I made a matching envelope and again stamped with the decorative heart stamp. The sentiment was printed off in word and die cut using one of the centres from the tonic die sets used on the two cards above.

Entering the card above into the following challenges:
Double 'D' Challenge # Hearts any colour.
Lets Craft and Create #144  Anything goes + option from the heart.
Creative With Stamps #35 Love.
Pattie's Creations #155 Love,love,love.

For this last card I used a really dark red cardstock to die cut the centre piece using a Tonic Die set called 'Me To You'. Die cut a few small hearts using the Sweet Dixie Nesting Dies set.  Silver edging and silver heart stickers were from my stash.  I used a scalloped card base and decorated an evelope to match.

Entering this card into the following challenges:
Creative Moments #162 Anything goes/romance.
Brown Sugar Challenge#287 Love and or Valentines Day.
Card Mania #113 Love is in the air.
Dream Valley #195 Love and kisses.

Friends R Us.

Special post today in honour of a very special friend namely Miss Di of Pixie's Crafty Wokshop who has now been running the Snippets challenge on her blog for 7 yrs.  Darnell got the girls in the snippets playground together and organised a blog hop as a Thankyou to Di for all her hard work.
My card took a while to colour in  and then I needed to make sure it arrived before hitting the publish button.
 My first entry in the snippets playground was way back on #3 (#1 and #2 being out of the question due to me having my wrist in plaster at the time ) and how can I ever live down the incident with the Pogo Stick and the Duck pond!! (I can tell you with the utmost certainty that that darn duck pond is very deep indeedy.)
So in honour of the occasion here is the card I made for Di. Now this digi image is us to a T when we get let loose for a day at the craft shows. We have been known to demolish/dismantle metal display stands, knock boards flying and erm even do things with the soap dispenser in the ladies!!

 Digi is from Sparkle n Sprinkle called 'Old Friends' and coloured with my trusty promarker pens and a silver gel pen. Sentiment is made using my new toy,WRMK 's Punch board. Paper is a real oldie from  my stash.  This is the card lying flat for posting and below showing open  as a step fold card and also shows the sparkle from the  silver gel pen .

  Entering into the following challenges:
Crafting By Designs # Anything goes.
Crafts Galore #60 Anything goes.
Addicted To Stamps #327 Make your mark.
Penny's Paper Crafty #416 Anything goes.
I Love Promarkers #377 Anything goes +optional use a die cut or Punch. (WRMK Punch board)
Cute Card Thursday # Anything goes.
Crafty Hazlenut's Patterned Paper Challenge. # Anything goes.
Love to Craft #31 Anything goes.
The Creative Crafter #12 Anything goes.

Brolly and Kite.

Here are two more cards as inspiration for the second week of the current Butterfly challenge:
#116 Spin The Butterfly Wheel with the Letter K.

1st Card uses all 3 colours  ( Kobe, Kobi, Kelly Green) plus Knot and Butterflies.
The digi image is by Pink Gem called Milly in the Rain.  Coloured using my promarkers and a gold gel pen.  The knot element is in the tied ribbon and the butterflies on the brolly are in the image.
The design paper is a freebie from Making Cards  Jul 2015 called Busy Butterflies. The with  Love sentiment was already made up and on my desk but had not been used on another project and  matched the butterflies in the design paper perfectly so I used here instead.

Entering this card into the following challenges:
Alphabet Challenge # W is for wings.
Colour Crazy #54 Anything goes.
Crafting With Friends #79 Anything goes.



2nd Card uses all 7 elements of the challenge.
(Kobe,Kobi,, Kelly Green), Knot, Kraft Card, Kite and Butterfly.

I have been watching quite a few You Tube videos whilst laid up with my shoulder and I found this one called W Fancy Fold Card by Jan Brown. Trying not to do too much colouring so this was ideal for making as all the cutting is done on my guillotine  which is of course designed for a right handed person. (I have never seen a left handed one so have always used my right hand. In fact quite a lot of crafting items assume that you are right handed ). I changed how I made the card  slightly from in the video.

 The terrible lighting is making the pink backing card look almost orange but it isn't.  IRL it  is a pretty pink shade.  The butterflies were fussy cut from a sheet of vellum patterend paper. I made the tail for the kite from embroidery threads plaited together and then knotted at the end with extra pink thread.

 The inside of the card showing the W shape mechanisim which folds completely flat as you shut the card up.  The design paper came from my stash but I didn't have the name on the back of it. The gold stickers were from my sticker stash along with the ribbon.

Entering this card into the following challenges:
Through The Craftroom Door #Anything goes.
Pile It On #151 Pretty in pink.
Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends #99 anything goes.





Challenge runs for another week so hope to see you soon.

Angels

Beginning of a new month and time for the girls in the Christmas Card club to show our makes. Granmargaret set the theme which was Angels or Fairies.  I chose Angels as I deal with lots of fairies at christmas on my blog. I only have one Angel stamp which is by Creative Expression. It doesn't have a name just a number on the wooden block  HH1156B. It is quite a small stamp being 1.25" x 1.75" which on its own  I Thought would be quite swamped on a card but then I had a 'What If'' moment.
What if I randomly stamp the angel all over a piece of card with clear embossing ink, emboss with Wow gold powder, stamp and emboss onto a smaller piece of card,  add an embossed sentiment  and then layer it all up onto a base card. Here is the resulting card.  I simply used yellow shimmer  and plain red cardstock. I'm pleased with the result which was easy to make and no strain on my arm.

Entering into the following challenges:
Aud Sentiments #219 Anything goes + a sentiment.
Moving Along With The Times #90  Add a sentiment.
Winter Wonderland # Anything goes christmas.
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge #423 Christmas/quick and easy.
Merry Little Christmas #7 Anything goes.

Gift Card Wallet.

A new challenge has started over on the Butterfly challenge.

#116 Spin The Butterfly Wheel with the Letter K.

Kobe/Kelly Green/Kobi/Kite /Knot It /Kraft card/Butterfly.

I  had to use my ingenuity for this wheel and yes those colours really do exist!

Kobe  is a Dark tone of Red

Kobi is a  Pale Pink Magenta

As usual I have some inspiration cards to share with you.

My first one uses Kraft Card/Kelly Green/Butterfly.

I recently attended a Frame Art Craft class by  Julie Hickey and we had enough time in the afternoon to complete a card as well. I added the butterfly and the sentiment to finish the card when I returned home.  The stamp is by Julie Hickey called 'Flower Garden'. Stamped onto Kraft card, embossed with Wow metalic silver embossing powder and then painted in using Distress ink pads which were stamped out onto a pallet. The colour was  picked up using a water brush. I really loved the soft colours against the kraft card. The butterfly is cut from a vellum design sheet and I even managed to use 'Knot It'for the antenna which were made from black embroidery cord with a knot in the end of each one.  The sentiment is a freebie magazine stamp which I embossed with the same colour of Wow embossing powder onto a scrap of white cardstock. Distressed round the edges with a kraft colour ink pad. 

 

My second  uses Knot It/Kobi/Butterfly.

As I haven't been doing much crafting due to my duff shoulder I have been watching quite a few Tutorials on You Tube instead  and rather liked this idea of making an envelope card wallet  to house a gift card. 

The actual card is made from one whole piece of double sided paper. I made mine from a 10" square. It is really very simple to do the folds and there is only one part that needs to be glued together.  I added a border to the back using my Martha Stewart lacy edge punch.  The sentiment is made using my latest acquisition namely the WRMK Punch Board for letters and numbers. I love it!!! So easy to use with very little pressure needed.  The die cut flower was left over from  a  previous card I had made and not needed. 

The tutorial I was watching just tucked the gift card inside the wallet but I added an extra pocket on the back to hold  a gift card or money in place.  I made the closure using a large and then a smaller button on the inside of the flap and using thin string which I knotted  and then left long enough to wrap round the front button to close.

The challenge runs for the normal 2 weeks and hope to see you soon.

Not so Square.

Isn't January ended yet!  Time for me though to show another two makes as inspiration for the current Butterfly Challenge#115

1st card uses Yellow/Yew/You/ Your choice/ Butterfly
My Choice was to you borders.

The Butterfly is By Kaiser Craft from their Texture Butterflies set coloured using my promarkers in the Yellow and Yew. Once coloured fussy cut out . The backing paper is by Teresa Collins dated 2013 and  called Fabrications.  Card base uses Yew coloured card stock. The gold stickers and gold edging were from my stash. The cream stitched frame is by Crafts -Too and also in my stash left over from a previous project.

Entering into the following challenges
Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper challenge # Anything goes.
Colour Crazy Challenge #53 Anything goes.
Fashionable Stamping #143 Anything goes.
Creative Knockouts #281 In stitches Real/Faux.
Dragonfly Journeys #132 In Stitches.


2nd card uses Yale Blue/Yarn/Your choice/Butterfly
My choice was to make an Easel card.

 Card base is made from pink cardstock. The design paper was a freebie from Making Cards Magazine Mar 2016 called Pastel Petals.  I used my Presscut Square dies Scalloped Edge PCD77 to cut several different sized sqs out. The yarn is some variegated fringed wool from my stash.  The butterflies are  Memory Boxes Pippi and Isabella.  The sentiment was already die cut and out on my desk just waiting to be used so I did.  Side view below showing the Easel.

Entering this card into the following challenges:
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #98 Anything goes.
Crafting With Friends #78 Anything goes.
Through The Craftroom Door # Anything goes.
A Bit More Time To Craft #84 Anything goes.


The challenge runs for another week and closes on Tuesday 29th Jan. Hope to see some more of your creations.