Dad's Birthday Card

 My Dad's birthday is pretty soon, so this is for him. He is brilliant with all things technical/mechanical/wood-worky, so I used the woodgrain cardstock, and cogs (Tim Holtz's Sizzix 'Gadget Gears' die), and metallic elements (plus all the red & hearts, because he's a brilliant Dad and I love him very much!)

I used Karen Berniston's Pop 'n Cuts base die with label insert. I slid the insert along to one side for the inner cut (see where the centre creases are - not matching up.)

I then folded the other side of the card in by an equal amount (and made a couple of cuts, to make an extra little pop-up part.)

 I also used Tim Holtz's 'Brackets' On the Edge die, to shape the edges of the inner layer, and to make the red decorative strips down the sides. I used a Stampin' Up punch for the hearts, and Movers and Shapers 'Star and Circle' set.
The lettering is from from Cricut's 'Stamped' Cartridge, layered up three times.

I am putting this into the Anything Goes Challenge Blog's 'Make it Manly' challenge.

Mother's Day Card

Here's a Mother's Day Card I made this afternoon.

It uses Karen Burniston's Sizzix Accordion Flip Album die, and the accompanying Frame and Label die. I used Cricut Base Camp cartridge for the lettering, and embossed each letter with a Cuttlebug folder.

For the flowers I used a couple of Tim Holtz's different Tattered Floral dies, and cut them from velum, and Basic Grey's Curio 6x6 papers, and inked them up with distress ink. I also used Tim Holtz's Kraft Resist idea-ology papers, and his On the Edge Pennants die, plus a couple of Melissa Frances embellishments.

I'm putting it into Basic Grey Challenges' 'Anything Goes' challenge, Tim Holtz's Tattered Florals challenge, and the Southern Girls Challenge blog, who's theme is 'Waving in the Breeze'.

Sizzix Pop 'n Cuts Thank you Card

The challenge at Simon Says Stamp challenge blog, is to use arrows in your design. I cut some out by hand, and added them to the Pop 'n Cuts Base die, with Thanks insert. I also used the accompanying Thanks Sizzlits die, and Flagpole with Lantern and Sign Decorative strip (which I stamped with Stampin' Up's woodgrain stamp.) The Zig-zag strips are from Sizzix Bigz Borders and Hydrangeas die. The white plaque is from a Sizzlits Card Phrases set.

 I also like the little arrows on the paper! The patterned papers are from MME's 'Away we go' 6x6 pad.

I attached tabs to the bottom of the posts, and cut slots for them in the pop-out part, so they can fold flat easily. The arrow at the bottom of the card is attached to a strip of cardstock which I folded at an angle.

Flower Birthday Card

I have now warned my family and friends' whose birthdays are in March (and there are a lot), not to visit my blog... 

Here's a birthday card for my Mum (which falls on Mother's day this year!.. and my husband's 40th birthday... and my nephew's birthday... ) 

Anyway, I used the Sizzix Pop 'n Cuts base die, and snipped away at the pop-up bit so it was narrow enough to hide behind the Sizzix Colander (which I cut out a few times and layered up with foam pads.) For the little flowers and leaves I used Tim Holtz's Sizzix 'Tattered Flower Garland' Decorative Strip die, and Tattered Florals.

I used up some old square brads which had epoxy letters on (all the q's and z's left etc.) and peeled off the epoxy bit, and put adhesive pearls on instead. 

For the centre white part of the card back, I first embossed it with large dots, then embossed it again with the floral pattern, so both kind of show through. I didn't want the card to have a totally 'twee' feel to it, so included the polka dot/chevron element into it.

The challenge at Crafty Cardmakers, is to have flowers as the main focus of your card,

and I have entered the card in Tim Holtz's Tattered Florals Challenge.

(A little later...)

Karen (and Karen B!) asked about the front of the card, so here is what I have since added.

(Sorry about the poor lighting)

I just left a blank area so I can write a message to my Mum, and added more layered flowers, using the smallest flowers from the Tattered Florals die, and some from the 'Tattered Flower Garland' Decorative strip. The flowers overlap the top of the card, but I made all the flower backs plain white, so they blend in with the white surrounding inside the card, when it's open.

Hope that helps, Karen.

(And later still...)

I wanted to try out a pink version of the card too - if you're interested you can see more of it here.

Product Links:

   

Male Birthday Card & Papertake Weekly Challenge

I've recently seen some brilliant cards made with Karen Burniston's Accordion 3-D Flip Album Sizzix die, and wanted to have a go at making one. I can't find the die in stock anywhere, (I know I'm not spending any money till May, but my husband said a belated valentines gift wouldn't count!) so I ended up borrowing the die from my friend Donna.

Sorry about more bunting once again - can't resist it!

The chevron and print cardstock, I printed from Mel Stapz's papers here. I used Spellbinders nestabilities for the inner tag shapes, Base camp Cricut cartridge for the Happy Birthday and shadow, and Movers and Shapers Star and Circle set, and Sizzix Originals Stars die, for the various star layers.

Also, Karen Burniston's Birds on a Wire Decorative Sizzlits Strip, for the two little birds.

I used my Cropodile to make holes in the corners, and added silver eyelets to thread the twine through, and washi tape bought on ebay for the bunting.

You can see I like using lots of foam pads to build up layers, which makes the card quite bulky, so instead of folding the card with the inner parts also folding inwards, I turn them to the outside, so the rest of the card can fold flat (and it looks nicer to when you get it out the envelope!)

I also made this card, using the stamp which I won from the Crafty Cardmakers blog a couple of weeks ago.

The challenge at Papertake Weekly is to use 'Buttons and Bling', so I incorprated those into the card.

I coloured the stamped image with Copics, and layered them on foam pads. The banner die is from Papertrey Ink.

Sizzix Flip-its Monochromatic Birthday Card

I like taking part on challenge blogs, because they really are challenging! The challenge at Tuesday Throwdown is to do a Monochromatic card, and the challenge at Simon Stays Stamp is 'White on White', so I have combined the two. I'm not sure how much I like the result, but it's good to try new things!

Sizzix Easter Card

It feels almost like spring today! I am celebrating, with my first Easter card this year...

 I'm putting it on the Tuesday Throwdown challenge blog, who have an 'Anything Goes' theme this week.

I used Sizzix's 'Door, Opening & Wreath' die, Originals 'Eggs' die, and Movers and Shapers bird die.

I made my own little egg basket, and used Craft Concept's wood grain embossing folder on it. The turquoise paper and pom-pom trim are both Stampin' Up.

Sizzix Pop 'n Cuts Cupcake Birthday Card

There are lots of birthdays amongst my family and close friends in March, so I'm making a start on their birthday cards!

I used the following inspiration for this card... The Ribbon Reel Challenge, to use yellow, pink, ribbon, flowers, lace (my doily) or twine. Also, Cute Card Thursday's challenge is entitled 'An eye for detail' - I interpreted this as including lots of detail in the card!

I used Sizzix Pop 'n Cuts base die, with the label insert. I folded back the top half of the label, to make a flat surface, and draped a doily over it. I hand cut the cupcake (with a Stampin' Up scalloped edge punch for the top of the case), and attached the pearls onto it by threading them onto Baker's Twine first. I used Sizzix Bigz 3D Flowers die for the curly flowers with pearl centres, and the Sizzix originals Balloons die.

The' Happy Birthday' was cut using Cheery Lynn dies.

(A little later)

Yay! I made the Top 3, of the Ribbon Reel Challenge!

Music/Song inspired card

The challenge at Less is More is to have a Music themed card, with only one layer of card, plenty of white space, and minimal embellishments - really hard for me...this was difficult. 

I combined this challenge with the one at CAS-ual Friday - to make a song inspired card, so I did Stevie Wonder's 'I just called to say I love you'

 I used some alphabet 'snap stamps', 'i{heart}u' stamp (possibly from Imaginisce? - packaging long gone..) and a telephone stamp bought on ebay.

The heart I covered in Glossy Accents.

On the Sizzix Blog

I was really pleased yesterday... Karen Burniston who designs Sizzix's Pop 'n Cuts dies, had contacted me at the weekend about putting my Valentines card in her 'Pop[up] Spotted' post on the Sizzix Blog, so yesterday I was on it! (You can see the post here.)

Sizzix Rainbow Chevron Card (Tutorial) & some Interesting Cupcakes

I saw this chevron card by JJ Bolton a while ago on Pinterest, and thought that I'd like to have a go at making a rainbow chevron, using a similar technique. I don't have a large chevron die, but used the zig-zag border on my Sizzix 'Borders & Hydrangeas' die.

 I started with a dark and a light shade of several colours of cardstock. (In retropect, my dark blue card was too dark, and stands out a bit too much on the finished pattern.)

 I cut out a zig-zag strip in each colour, and separated the darks from lights, (sounds like doing the laundry, but is much more fun...) and put them in rainbow order.

I then used my Scotch Tape Glider (ATG) to stick the two separate rainbows down onto white cardstock.

I used a guillotine to then cut the rainbows into vertical strips, and rearranged them, alternating light and dark strips.

I then stuck these down into the finished pattern,

 and cut around the outsides.

I just made the really simple card above, with the first one, adding a Melissa Frances rub-on.

I'll try and think of something a bit more creative with the second one!

Speaking of creative, I recently declared Wednesdays and Thursdays 'Screen Free' days in our house, so last night after school, the kids did some cup-cake decorating instead... 'creative' is one word to describe their efforts... ('Complete and utter devastation in the kitchen' are some other words which could also be used!)

Spot the burger cupcake, and the Salt & Vinegar crisp packet, among the designs!

Links to some of the products used:

   

Sizzix Pop 'n Cuts Valentines Card

I was glancing through the challenge blogs for some inspiration, and ended up making a card which used lots of them! Plus I set my own challenge... to make a Valentines card for my husband (never known him look at this blog, so I think I'm safe!) which wasn't too feminine - no bows, flowers, sparkly bits etc.

 I used Basic Grey 'Curio' paper pad, for the Basic Grey Challenges blog,

the challenge at CAS-ual Fridays is 'Love Letters'. This is quite a clean and simple card for me, given that I'm not letting myself add any ribbons, stitching, bling or flowers!

At Crafty cardmakers, the challenge is 'Vintage Love' (I love the Basic Grey paper for its vintagey-wallpaper feel)

 and DCM had what I thought was a very hard challenge of only using the colours Cranberry, Slate Grey, Pale Grey and White, but actually this really helped me stick to my not-too-feminine card, so thank you!

Papertake Weekly have an anything goes challenge this week,

and finally Simon Says Stamp Challenge blog have a heart theme.

 I mentioned the Basic Grey Curio paper, plus I also used Karen Berniston's Sizzix Pop 'n Cuts with Circle label die, her 'Birds on a Wire' decorative strip die, and 'Buckle, Heart & Paperclip' Sizzlit. The leaves were a mixture of Sizzix Sizzlit 'Branch with Leaves' and a Martha Stewart punch. I also used a Stampin' Up scalloped border punch, and a metal frame from their Hodgepodge Hardware. I cut out the cardstock behind the frame, and stuck some acetate sheeting behind it, to attach the heart to. Sorry about the artifical lighting... Busy day tomorrow, so got it done tonight whilst in a card-y mood!

Sizzix Pop 'n Cuts Bird Cage Card & Dress Form Card

 I had great fun making this card last night - using mainly Tim Holtz and Sizzix products. I went all out pink and girly! I wanted to hang the bunting from the bird cage, so it opens out when you open the card. It works really well!

The challenge at Simon Says Stamp is 'Anything Goes', and this is my entry.

 Papers: Tim Holtz idea-ology Kraft Resist cardstock, and Prima Almanac 6x6 pad

Dies: Sizzix/Tim Holtz 'Caged Bird', 'Scrollwork' On the Edge die, 'Regal Crest' and Pop 'n Cuts with Circle label.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink 'Stitched Sentiments' (The curved sentiments fit really well into the banner from the 'Regal Crest' die)

I also used Copic pens to colour an adhesive pearl black, and to colour the ribbon to the right shade.

 I saw this card on Pinterest, and though I don't have the new Stampin' Up dress dies, I thought I'd do a version with my old Sizzix 'Dress & Accessories' die. The chevron embossing folder is from Stampin' Up, and the paper from Papermania's 'Happy Days' 6x6 pad.

Less is More Card & a Moustache Cake

The challenge at Less is More, is to use only kraft and cream on the card... no other colours!! Very hard indeed...

There's also been some other creating going on this afternoon, with my eldest making a moustache cake for her friend's birthday. This has got to be the easiest cake on the planet!! Cut from a single round Victoria Sponge cake, and smothered in chocolate butter icing. Don't you love the classy presentation?! We had nothing big enough, other than this tray :) It amused us enormously...