Punch Art Cardinal

Hey! It's Saturday and it's the first day of the Easter holidays for UK schools, so I'm feeling great, lots of crafting time ahead. It's also time for a new challenge from52{Christmas} Card Throwdown. Occasionally we 'Throwdown' a technique challenge for you to follow and this week it is

I always turn to Pintrest for this kind of challenge and look for something to adapt and this time I found an idea for this little chap

I would love to see a real one, where do they live? I'm guessing in the USA since they are often on holiday cards from the States. He was made using a couple of circle die cuts, a scalloped circle and a couple of offcuts made into triangles. I am very happy that sticking him together means that I can enter this weeks challenge at Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge, it's a fun challenge blog with lots of prizes for those of us who love to create for Christmas all year round.

The background for my bird www stamped with snowflakes using the resist technique and the branch is, of course, Ornamental Pine, stamped in Mossy Meadow. I added the little ornament hanging in his beak thanks to some bakers' twine. It is stamped and embossed in silver, on red card to match the bird.

Here you can see dimensional elements on the card. The red card is also slightly textured. 

An oldie sentiment stamped in the corner. The ladies on the DT at 52 CCT have some fab ideas for this challenge, all different so hop on over and have a look.

Silent Night, Holy Night

How often does that happen, you make a card using a particular card and then get hooked and make more in the same way. For me it's meant the rediscovery of some ancient, treasured DPs that really needed to come out of their packet and be used. Today, I've used a DP for the challenge at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown

In my head the paper was for Silent Night, but when I found it it featured the words from another carol, We Three Kings. It still fitted and my inspiration was still Silent night so I used it anyway.

I cut out the paper, die cut the row of houses in black cardstock to create the silhouette and then used gold mirri card behind some of the tiny doors and windows

The gold card adds sparkle and shimmer. Then I added some very small punched stars, also made from the mirri card, you can see them better on the photo below. I used a light shade of purple for the mat which I think really brings out the colours in the paper. The mat was layered up on foam on the card front.

Then I got carried away and continued decorating the inside of my card with more paper and more 

stars plus a sentiment from an old set, I think it's called Wonderous Gift.

I do hope you are inspired by Jane's theme. I am also entering this card in this week's challenge at Crafty Haselnuts Christmas Challenge where the theme is Christmas a Music. The Silent Night challenge is great for that one too, it's  a chance to use papers, images, stamped or digital with perhaps a leaning towards the real meaning of Christmas. Looking forward to seeing the gallery this week

Underwater

Today's theme at The Male Room really had me stumped. Underwater..... um, what could I do with that? My first thought went to the stamps that feature shells, fish, lobsters... But I don't own any of those , then I thought of swimming, coming from a household of competitive swimmers, although it may not be your first thought! Nope, nothing there either. Boats...yes, boats I thought, I have boat stamps, but they are not really under the water, more on top, you would hope. Back to square one, fish. I then had a brainwave. I remembered a piece of DP featuring fish, I'd never used it before because the fish were quite large, may be I could make a card where the paper became the feature. So here it is...

I cut out the paper carefully to ensure the part of the image that I wanted was in the right place. I then 

stamped the sentiment, from Sassy Salutations in Versamark and heat embossed with silver 

embossing powder

Something was needed, so I decided to 'Drop anchor' and I stamped this one. I fussy cut it out, sponged the edge carefully with blue ink so that it blended more smoothly into the paper. Final touch was to cut out a slit and 'hang' the anchor off the sentiment.

After all that I am quite happy with my attempt at an underwater card. Sometimes it feels like cheating to just use a DP on your card but then some papers are amazing, so much so you hoard them and never want to cut them up. If you use them like this I don't think you will be disappointed.

Strawberry Cake Birthday

Here is my card for this week's challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches where Jane, our hostess for March, has picked three yummy colours for us, don't you just love them? Flowers or food, I thought, knowing me you'd be right if you said food, every time!

I decided to team up Big Day with Gorgeous Grunge . I stamped through an aperture to create the background for the sentiment. I've seen a few cards done this way and it always catches my eye.

I used Strawberry Slush card to make the sentiment stand out more and even had a small go with my marker pens to continue the colours onto the sentiment.

A small punchd paper flower with a central gem just added a bit of pizazz! I'm going to enter the challenge at Seize The Birthdaywhere the sentiment is the focal point.

Bows and Snowflakes

It's Saturday again and I'm in for a second weekend of swimming, so this is gonna be quick. The second week of challenges at  52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown means a colour challenge and this week we have a non-traditional combo of pink, blue and silver.

To make my card I first heat embos some silver snowflakes onto blue patterned paper. I added three small paper bows, made using the small bow punch. 

Some pearlised silver card for a mat and a stick on silver sentiment .....

And it's finished!

Have Your Cake and Eat it!

Welcome to Thursday and a new post from me for the sketch challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches. I'm playing with new stuff again, this time from Stampin Ups Sale-a-Bration, combined with an older favourite and with the help from a great CAS sketch from our hostess this month, Jane. This is my card...

And it is based on this sketch

  As you can see, I've made the banners and horizontal panel by using stamps, there's no rule that says they have to be cut out! I extended the longer banner by using some richly coloured satin ribbon, on to which I threaded the label, made using the tag top punch. The sentiment is definitely a focal point so I will be entering the new challenge this week at Seize The Birthday

No particular reason I choose these colours, the just liked them together. The little cup cake stamps are magazine freebies, of course you will recognise Gorgeous Grunge on there and the new stamps are from Big Day

My blog post title is a bit tongue in cheek as I've been eating more healthily and loosing weight over the past year and I could count the number of pieces of cake I've had in that time on one hand! Still love cake though, at least I can have it on a card!

Kinda the Same

Today I had to make a couple of cards for a swap I'm part of. The brief was think Spring and friendship. To help with the colour choice I found this lovely subtle Spring palette at The Paper Players

I'm still playing around with my newest stamp set; Kinda Eclectic. This time I've combined it with stamps from an old set, Vintage Vogue. I think they go together really well. I love the sunburst behind the leaves and flower. This was the first card I made

Here you can see which elements are stamped flat and which are raised on foam pads. Like the little matching gem?

Next I made the second card, this time on a square base. This means it's all closer together. I changed the colour used for the sunburst.

This time different elements have been left flat or raised up. The letter is fussy cut out and mounted over the dots and I coloured in the centre of the flower before adding the gem

Here you can see both cards together. Which one do you prefer? I think the first is my favourite but it was fun to play around with an idea and try out different ways, I usually only make single cards.

Kinda Eclectic Christmas

It's a busy old weekend for me as our County Swimming Championships gat under way and my youngest is performing in the orchestra for his school production of Disneys Beauty and The Beast (have to admit I'm a little bit excited about seeing it ...LOL) I just have time to post a card that I made for the challenge at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown. We have a new hostess for March, Gill. She's getting us off to a cracking start with this sketch..

I set myself another challenge too, to use my new stamp set Kinda Eclectic to make a Christmas card. I just think this set is so versatile and I wanted to try it out

I was a bit stuck on my colour scheme until someone mentioned Blackberry Bliss and Kraft, I just added in some metallic gold. The label was cut out at a workshop, I have no idea what it's called, only that it is from Stampin Up. I layered it to add depth, after stamping the sunburst in Versamark and heat embossing with gold powder. This rich colour scheme would be suitable for a male friend or relative so I'm going to enter the challenge at Completely Christmas this week.

The horizontal panel is also stamped fre Kinda Eclectic and heat embossed. Finally, I added an ancient sentiment, also heat embossed (you could be forgiven for thinking that this was a technique challenge!) and a few stars fell out of a bag when I was searching for an embellishment and I thought 'they look good like that'

 My card was finished and actually I would have to say that it looks better in real life. I am obviously not a very good photographer! Hope you get chance to try your hand at creating a Christmas card for this challenge. Now, I'm off to watch some swimming!

Double Dutch Spring Card

Think Spring! That's what the team over at The Paper Players would like us to do, and I have just the card. I made it for a swap challenge, where the card 'recipe' included the Double Dutch fold, spring colours and a bird on a branch.

I used a paper blocking technique and had lots of fun looking through scraps of DP for spring colours. I used the bird punch to make the central panel and a leaf die cut which I've had for years. I sponged around the edge of the paper to add a bit of depth

The paper on both sides of the bottom have been cut to match up when the card is closed

You can just see the inside of the card on the next photo. I used the matching stamp set to stamp the bird and cut a matching wing

The shadows are a bit distracting but this shows the fold quite clearly

Here is the inside of the card

Just making this card made me feel like Spring was on its way. The snowdrops and primroses are out in the garden, lambs are in the field and the sun was shining today. Hopefully the worst of the winter is behind us and we can look forward to more spring weather.

Kinda CAS

I have new stuff!!! EVERYONE  gets excited about new stuff and I was lucky that I could start playing straight away with my card for the challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches. This week we have a colour challenge

 ...and I got my new stamps inky.

It took me a while to realise that I NEEDED this stamp set and my first card was a case of chucking it altogether to see what came out. I added foam pads to the leaves to get some dimension into my cars and a couple of gems to lift the colours. If you are wondering why the Lost Lagoon looks so pale it is because I stamped off first to get a lighter shade of blue.

You can see the blackberry bliss mat and the raised leaf in this photo. The sentiment is from Whacky Wishes- I dont use these very often but I think they go well with these stamps

I am going to enter a couple of challenges this week. Firstly, Addicted To Stamps and More have a CAS challenge on and ShowCASe your Style want to see birthday cards.

( Oops, missed the deadline on that last one, never mind!)

Wetlands Sketch

Over the last year or so I've been on the DT for a fab challenge, The Male Room. I have found that I really like creating cards for guys and now I always have a few on hand, whereas before I would have been scrabbling around trying to make something which 'would do' for a man. I have built up a collection of stamps which are perfect for male cards and none is more so that the one I've used today (luckily it also works for all sorts of other occasions too)

The challenge this time is actually to use this sketch...

And you can see my stamp set is Wetlands.

I kept to a monochrome colour scheme with Lost Lagoon ink. I even managed to find the matching cardstock for the mat. 

The small panels are popped up on foam pads as you can see on these photos. The hardest part for me was keeping the white card pristine, I'm such a messy worker! 

I used the sentiment from the same set and added some score lines for interest. This is, as you will know, my favourite style and this week I can enter the challenge at Seize The Birthday where they have a masculine birthday challenge going.