... and Now It's One For The Boys

It's that time again... time for a new challenge over at Di's Digis Challenge Blog.  Last time it was flowers everywhere, now it's time for "One For The Boys".  I made a card for my Dad's (87th) Birthday.  We are very water conscious here in Western Australia, nobody more so than my Dad; he has about ten watering cans on the go at any one time (we tease him about it, but gently, lol) so as soon as I saw this image I knew it would be perfect for his card

The image is called Seedling Ted, how cute is he?!  He's available here. I coloured with Copics and Prismacolor pencils... after I took these pics I added some gloss to the water drops and Ted's nose.
I used papers from Kaisercraft's Chapter One and another pad I can't remember the name of.  I thought the floral paper was not too floral for a "guy" card - the green is foiled, adding a nice something "extra".  The black card used for matting is from the Chapter One pad too, it has a gloss pattern embossed on it, again just adding a little something.   
I cut the scroll with a Memory Box die (Corner Bow) from the same gloss patterned paper, the cloud is also Memory Box (Puffy Clouds) and the sentiment is from Craftworks.  The black and orange strip across the middle of the card is glittery tape, I bought a pack of ten different colour rolls for a couple of bucks, didn't know how they'd go but I LOVE them - might go back to my LSS and see if they have packs of different colours
I used the same layout for the inside of my card, nothing unusual in that, lol, the black background paper is yet another pie form the Chapter One pad.
I'll be entering my Dad's card in the following challenges: 

Moving Along With The Times Man or Boy

Allsorts Challenges Birthday

Cutie Pie Challenge Escape to the Country  (Farmyard or garden animals)

Bunny Zoes Crafts Lovely Layers
As You Like It Wants to know if we like Big or Little Bows... I like big bows, but just can't seem to nail them...so tend to use little bows, like this die cut one!

The Crazy Challenge 3 Layers or More Craft Your Passion, Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends, Through the Craftroom Door, Aud Sentiments. Create and Inspire, Simply Papercrafts, Crafting With Friends Challenge 21, Art by Miran, Cute As A Button, Little Miss Muffet, Creatalicious Challenges, and Paper Creator Crafts all: Anything Goes

Flowers, Flowers Everywhere - at Di's Digis

Here we are again with a new challenge starting at Di's Digis Challenge Blog, the theme this time around is "Flowers Everywhere".  I made a card for my lovely Mum for Mother's Day... which is tomorrow here in Australia!  

It's a "Magic" card... or that's what Marianne called it in her fabulous tutorial here... it uses the "winged sides to stand up and has a "secret" panel that shows when you lift up the front panel.

The oh-so-sweet image is called Hide and Seek Mice (I do love Di's mice images!) and you can get it here.  I coloured with Copics, adding some depth to the shading with Prismacolor pencils and some gold gel pen to the base of the petals... it ties in with the gold on the paper and actually looks a bit more subtle in real life, quite effective if I do say so myself :-)I used some beautiful handmade Cherry Blossom patterned Chiyogami paper from my beloved Starfish Lane - special paper for my very special Mum :-)  It's a pain to cut cleanly, you do have to spend a bit of time cleaning up the cut edges but it's SO worth it; this paper is GORGEOUS in real life, with a tissue-y texture, gold detail and rich colours.
I punched the edges of the "wings" that help the card to stand with a Martha Stewart Edge punch - "Doily Lace", I sponged some dusky pink Kaisercraft ink on the edges to soften the effect. 

I've been drooling over Stitched Mat type dies all over blogland, I finally treated myself to a couple of sets - Stitched Mats circles and squares - from L'il Inkers (the largest one in each of their sets is the biggest of all the brands I looked at) they stitch "inside and outside" of the cut line; giving a stitched line on the outer edge of the mat and around the outside of the "hole", which gives a useful negative :-)  I'm really impressed with how nicely they cut, and their customer service was excellent too.  I inked the edges of all the circles to match the punched edges.
The flowers on the front are from my stash... they came on a branch and as they weren't the right colour I just touched them up with a Copic marker to suit.  The sentiment is a sticker, it was all joined together in three rows, I snipped them apart and voila!

The poem inside the card was one I found on Pinterest... click on the pic to see it up close and personal :-) I typed it out using Precosia font, I haven't added it to my freebies page as this font was free for Personal Use only. 
Another stitched mat circle for a jotting panel and a strip of the Doily Lace to tie that in (and to compensate for the fact that I didn't have enough of the chiyogama paper to cover the whole of that panel) and done... it looks okay I think.
Well that's it for today's card, pop over to the blog and check out the rest of the DT's work; truly Flowers Everywhere, lol.  I hope you get a chance to enter the challenge this time around... there's a great prize on offer as always (from Magnalicious this challenge) woohoo! If you use one of Di's sweet images you get to go into an extra draw too don't forget!
 I'll be sharing my card at Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge, as I'm on the DT I won't be entering the prize draw - just "show and tell", lol, but I WILL be entering Mum's card in the following challenges.  

Cute Card Thursday Secrets (a hidden something) hidden panel behind the front flap

Pile It On Garden Creatures

Tuesday Throwdown Welcome Spring

Hanna and Friends Flowers

Card Mania Challenges  Flowers

Aud Sentiments  Animals + a sentiment

As You Like It Favourite; Patterned or Embossed Paper - well I DO love patterned :-) especially when it's so lush as this

Creatalicious Challenges Mother's Day/Special Lady My Mum is VERY special

The Paper Shelter Love (any kind of love) I love my Mum, that's some kind of love

Animal Friends Love

Fab'n'funky Challenges 3 or More Layers

Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends, Paper Creator Crafts, Cute As A Button, Little Miss Muffet, Create and Inspire, Creative Fingers, Art by Miran, Simply Papercrafts, Crafting With Friends #20, Craft Your Passion and Through the Craftroom Door

I'll be back soon... still got that pile in my Draft folder, lol.  Until then Happy Crafting, Donna

May Day

Here we are, first of the month again - time for a new challenge at Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge, where the "challenge" is to use some patterned paper on your creation.  I made a card for our friend's 80th birthday card... it's a "flip" card, the only way I can think to describe it to the uninitiated is in photos, so expect a few :-)

Here's the front, with the cute image from Bugaboo, coloured with Copics (and some Prismacolor pencil detail) with Stickles added to the party favours and hats and - of course - Glossy Accents to the birds' eyes.

These cards are really easy to make, and to adjust to different dimensions.  For example this Splitcoast Stampers tutorial is what I used for the idea and dimensions for my first flip (also know as swing) card, but for this one I adjusted my template to suit the wider image, resulting in a bigger card overall.  You can use dies to cut out the part that "flips" for a different effect; there are a ton of videos on YouTube - check them out.  

Mine's pretty basic, but it IS in metric unlike most others I found, this pic is just a jpg, if it's not clear enough to follow here's a link to a downloadable pdf,  (it's on my Tutorials, Templates and Freebies page too)  
I used a Cottage Cutz Best Wishes die, cut in blue card then smothered in gloss to "fill" the area next to the image... you need to think about that space when you choose an image for this type of card :-)

Anyway, here's the card mid-swing, and then completely flipped over to read the sentiment, which came with one of my Birdbrain Chick images from From the Heart digital stamps.  I just typed the sentiment on the front - tried to match the font on the FTH sentiment as best I could, I think it's okay :-)

The papers are from my stash... can't remember the origin of either I'm afraid... and the wooden 8 and 0 are from my stash too; given the paint and gloss treatment to tie them in. 
That's all there is to it... easy peasy.  I hope you get a chance to pop over to the Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge to check out the rest of the DT... hope you get a chance to enter the challenge too; great prize on offer as always, and of course the theme is so EASY!
I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges: 

OSAAT Anything with Wings

A Snowflakes Promise Anything Spring

Inky Chicks Birthday

Seize the Birthday Anything Goes Birthday

Little Miss Muffet Anything Goes

Crafting With Friends Challenge 19  Anything Goes (Always)

Creative Fingers Anything Goes

Art by Miran Anything Goes

Simon Says Challenge Anything Goes

Craft Your Passion Anything Goes

Tuesday Throwdown Anything Goes

Through the Craftroom Door Anything Goes
Create and Inspire Anything Goes

I'll be back in a few days, I've got a few things ready to blog (finally!) so it's "just" a case of finding the time to write a post up.  Until then, Happy Crafting, Donna