Pandamonium

Today is my husband's birthday and I am sharing the card that I made him here. I used Mama Elephant's cute Pandamonium stamps and co-ordinating dies for the main image and sentiment. The background was done using Core'dinations card in a Cuttlebug bamboo embossing folder and I sanded the bamboo part to reveal a slightly lighter shade of green. This was then layered onto a panel of black card and then onto a white card blank.

Finally I added a length of knotted Japanese Mizuhiki cord and an old Chinese coin. Then I decided to make a second card for my stash, but this time using a portrait layout. This way I had more bamboo showing and I had my little panda sitting high up in it. I chose a different colour of the Mizuhiki cord and a larger Chinese coin for a slightly different look. 

I'm really pleased with how these turned out! The matching dies made it so easy to do and although the design is quite simple, I think it makes an ideal masculine card. I hope that my husband David likes it too! 

Thanks for looking,

Lynn

Text Me!

I treated myself to a set of the Clearly Besotted Text Me stamps recently as I thought they would be ideal for making cards for young people and would be suitable for male cards too. I needed a couple of birthday cards so I made a batch of six cards, using C6 black card blanks and a variety of Spellbinders and Cuttlebug embossing folders for the yellow backgrounds. 

I stamped the phone and headphones onto black card with Versamark ink and heat embossed them using clear embossing powder. There are actually a matching set of dies for these stamps, but since I don't have them yet I fussy cut everything out by hand. I put some double sided tape onto the back of the stamped headphones before I cut them out, which made it much easier to stick them to the cards afterwards! I used Memento Tuxedo Black dye ink to stamp the various text messages and icons onto lemon yellow card, cut them out and stuck them to the phones with strong double sided tape. The phones were then added to the cards with foam pads for dimension.  

Below you can see all six of my cards, with their different embossed backgrounds. As usual you can click on any of the photos to get a clearer view.

I am really pleased with the finished results, even though the headphones took me ages to cut out! Each card also has a white insert inside, for ease of use. 

I am entering one of these cards into the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - you can find all the details here . 

Thanks for looking,

Lynn.

Moxie Fab World - Happy for Hexagons challenge

The current challenge over at the Moxie Fab World is to create something with hexagons http://www.moxiefabworld.com/2014/02/hexagons-happy-for-hexagons-challenge.html . I decided to get out my Papertrey Ink Happy Hexagons cover plate and Core'dinations whitewash card stock again, to make a patchwork background for a pink sewing themed card. Please click on the photo below for a larger view. I apologise for the quality of the photo, but I had to use flash as it was dark when I took it.

I started with a white landscape card blank and added a layer of marbled pink paper and a pink polka dot ribbon and bow. I diecut the happy hexagons coverplate five times in total - in pale pink for the hexagon frame and in a darker pink, blue, purple and jade green for the tiny hexagonal pieces. I selected some of each colour of the hexagons and ran them through my Cuttlebug with various tiny patterned embossing folders (all by Cuttlebug). Then I sanded each piece until the core was visible, giving them a lot of texture. I mounted the frame to the pink card layer using plenty of double sided tape so that I could then add the individual hexagons and they would stick to the tape. I had lots of pieces left over and another four frames, so I have kept them all for later projects.

The patchwork effect reminded me very much of quilting, so I decided to add a sentiment from Waltzingmouse Stamps "Sewing Box Hugs" stamp set and a stamped pincushion (by Our Daily Bread Designs), which I coloured with Distress markers. The cotton reel and needle dies are from Memory Box and the dressmakers dummy and buttons were cut from Spellbinders dies. I used pink and white bakers twine for the thread and to "sew" the buttons. All diecuts and stamped images were adhered to the card using foam pads to add more dimension.

I'm really pleased with the finished result and I'll be sending this card to one of my friends, who has a birthday later this month.

Thanks Sew Much ...

This afternoon I had an appointment with my Careers adviser Jane. She is a lovely lady who was ever so helpful and, as this was my final appointment with her, I wanted to give her a thank you card.

This is another variation of the patchwork card from my post here http://thehardystamper.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/coordinations-hard-core-crop-challenges.html , this time with a green frame and a combination of four different embossed and sanded hexagons. I used Core'dinations card stock again and I love all the different textures resulting from the embossing. The cotton reels, needle and thread dies are all from Memory Box and the dressmakers dummy and buttons were cut from Spellbinders dies. The cute sentiment is from a small stamp set by Waltzingmouse Stamps - I can see me using this a lot as it fits in so well with anything sewing related and I like the modern font. I'm pleased to say that this card was well received, so I expect I shall be making some more similar ones as the Papertrey Ink hexagonal cover plate die is really lovely to use, producing something that is just that little bit different.

Core'dinations Hard Core Crop Challenges.

Core'dinations are holding a series of challenges this week and as usual I am at the last minute to get my entries in. I was late finding out about these challenges, but as I love using Core'dinations card I just had to join in.

The first is for Kate Nolan's challenge - two stamped tags. I used two different Cuttlebug embossing folders to emboss patterns into two pieces of lavender coloured Core'dinations card then sanded the raised areas to reveal the lighter coloured core. These were then added to two tags along with some lavender coloured grossgrain ribbon, which I attached by tying buttons on with twine. The "For You" sentiments are both by Waltzingmouse stamps and were stamped onto white card which I cut to shape using Spellbinders dies.  The roses and leaves are from the "Roses in Bloom" stamp set by Waltzingmouse stamps.They were stamped onto white card, painted using watercolour paints which contain mica, fussy cut out then adhered to the tags using double sided tape for the leaves and foam pads for the roses to give them some dimension. Finally, you can't see on the photo, but I stamped "To" and "From" on the back of the tags, so that they are all ready to be used.

The second entry is for Tami Mayberry's CAS card challenge. I don't usually do "Clean and Simple" cards - mine are usually more elaborate creations and often take me many hours to make! CAS is a great idea for Christmas cards though, as it's much easier to make them in batches if the design is quick to produce. Here I used a piece of Kraft card to make the base of the card and then added a single layer of red Core'dinations card which I had embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and sanded to reveal the paler core as before. I chose Memento Ladybug red ink to stamp the sentiment and ornament onto kraft card, which I then cut out using Spellbinders dies. Both stamps are from the "Vintage Ornaments" stamp set by Waltzingmouse Stamps - I love these as they all have corresponding Spellbinders dies and it makes it so easy to get great results! I used foam pads to raise up the ornament on the card, then embellished it with a row of sparkly red diamantes. It's at this point that I wanted to start adding ribbon etc, but we were only allowed to use no more than two embellishments, so that's it - my first ever CAS card!

My third entry is for Gail Linder's Patchwork inspired background challenge. This one is totally not clean and simple! In fact it took me well over eight hours to make but I am very pleased with the result. I selected seven different colours of Core'dinations card stock from the Whitewash collection and die cut them all with my Papertrey Ink "Happy Hexagons" coverplate. I decided to use the cream coloured one for the background grid, which I stuck to another layer of similar coloured card using double sided tape. Next I pushed out all of the little hexagons, half hexagons and triangles from the other six die cuts and embossed them all with a variety of embossing folders which had small designs. Each individual piece was then sanded to reveal the darker coloured core, which took ages, and as you can imagine I had sore fingers for a while too! The next step was to insert the hexagon shapes back into the grid, forming the lovely patchwork design for the background. This was then layered onto a piece of pale blue Core'dinations card, which I had sanded around the edge. The panel was then added to a white card blank and embellished with a narrow stitched ribbon and a sewing machine charm. I used the leftover bits of Core'dinations card to die cut the dress form with Spellbinders "S5 - 145 French Frills" dies. It's hard to tell in the photo, but the dress was then stamped using one of the co-ordinating stamps by Samantha Walker for JustRite Stampers (SW - 04105 Ooh La La French Frills) and Papertrey Ink's Fresh Snow ink. The buttons and scissors were also cut from scraps of Core'dinations card with Spellbinders dies and the needle and spool were made with Memory Box dies. I threaded the needle with baker's twine (which was then adhered to the card with double sided tape), used the same twine to "sew" the buttons and also wrapped some of it around the spool, before sticking everything onto the card using foam pads to add dimension. Finally I diecut another small hexagon, this time using the smallest Spellbinders hexagon die, stamped the sentiment (from JustRite Stampers) on it and stuck it in the top left of the card (again using a foam pad).  I really enjoyed making this card and have enough "bits" left over to make a few more with different coloured hexagonal grids. I am planning to send this one to a friend who loves sewing and who has a birthday next week - I hope she likes it!





The final card is for Clare Buswell's Quick and easy Christmas cards challenge.  Clare has just secured a place on the 2014 Design Team for Craft Stamper magazine - which was how I came to check out her blog and discover these challenges. I have much admired Clare's work previously - she used to be on the Waltzingmouse Stamps Design Team until recently and has some beautiful cards on her blog http://clare-buswell.blogspot.co.uk/ . I am really looking forward to seeing more of her wonderful creations in Craft Stamper next year.

I started off with a square kraft card blank and added a square layer of gold textured card. Then I selected a dark green sheet of Tim Holtz Kraft-Core from the Shattered collection and embossed it with the December Calendar folder from the Tim Holtz Alterations Texture Fades (by Sizzix). I also embossed a strip of "Old Paper" coloured Core'dinations card from the Tim Holtz and Ranger Distress collection, using the music border folder from Tim's smaller Texture Trades set. Both pieces were then sanded to reveal the core and layered onto the card base (on top of the gold layer). My chosen stamps were all from the "Santa's Coming to Town" set by Waltzingmouse Stamps. I filled the gap at the bottom left with the sillouette of Santa and the snippet of lyrics from the Christmas song (I used Memento Northern Pine ink). I chose a vivid red from the Core'dinations Brights collection to diecut my ornament shape with a Spellbinders die, then I stamped it with the co-ordinating image and sentiment using Memento Tuxedo Black ink. A thin strip of the gold card was attached to "hang" the bauble from (again using foam pads for dimension). I think the calendar looks really effective and I might make some more cards similar to this for Christmas.

EDITED: To add that the above Christmas card was chosen as the winning entry on Clare's blog. I am thrilled and have won a 12" x 12" Tim Holtz Seasonal Impressions Core'dinations card pack!

 

I really enjoyed taking part in these challenges and would have liked to have done more of them, but there were sixteen in total and I just didn't have the time. I hope that you like the four that I managed to finish!