Aall and Create itac17 Challenge 1 – Europe

Hello friends and welcome to a different post from me as this time I am participating in a challenge which is something that I do not normally do.  I am still questioning whether it is a good idea to participate as I have seen the other numerous posts and mine is nothing short of substandard in my humble opinion.  Maybe if I could draw properly then I would have a chance, but here I am am showcasing my take on the Europe theme.

This MDF house shape was something which I had started to play with and it had paper on it.  I ripped off most of it and painted over it with what remained of Paper Artsy Blueberry Acrylic paint.  Its patchy in a lot of places but I just left it hoping that it would end up being effective.  Once that was all dry I had a look through some of my MDF shapes and all I can say is “Thank You Dreamees”.  All my MDF shapes have come from there and I was especially pleased to find the Eiffel Tower amongst the stash.

I decided to play with my distress oxides and chose Black Soot, Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap.  I activated it with water and dragged my Eiffel Tower through it.  I heat dried it and then continues to spray with water and build up the effects on the MDF.  I left it to one side as I could not think of anything else to add at this point.  However I then realised that I had some “faces” and chose a Wonky Tonk Girl set called “Daydreamer” and inked the face and added it to the Eiffel Tower, I like the effect.  This was set aside to be placed on the house later.

Next I decided to paint some clouds and some birds to add to a travelling theme.  I used two MDF hot air balloon shapes and I embossed them to look like they were coloured. I drew in the lines with a sharpie.  I wasn’t sure if the effect was there but it looks nice.  I used red and white ribbon so I had a red, white and blue theme.

The oval MDF plaque has been covered with an embossed piece of paper.  This paper was run through the same distress oxides that were used on the Eiffel Tower but I ran the scrap of paper through a Tim Holtz Paris embossing folder!  I then used a Tim Holtz stamp and embossing powder for  “Life was meant for a great Adventure”, I thought that it was appropriate.

Everything had dried and I placed everything and glued it with my hot glue gun.  I felt something could be added and I then realised that I had some Euro coin and some Polish Zloty.  So I got them from where they were sitting and glued them into the box by the Eiffel Tower.

So this is my challenge and I feel like I have done the best my can but my best would not be good enough, but if I don’t challenge myself then I won’t know how I do.

Take care and thanks for stopping by and I’ll post soon.

❤️

A

Birthday card for my Mum part 2

As promised here is the second of the cards I made for my mother recently, this one is from my Nan and it actually gave me such a headache!

I could not get this card right at all!  I had the idea in my head but oh no the creative juice was not flowing at all!  I have used black and mirri adorable scoreable to make the most of this card. The Art Deco dies and paper are by tattered lace but I messed up the background die so many times I was going spare!  Once I had the look I was going for I was careful with my cutting and careful with the snipping and I finally got things placed.  Then I did the colouring in.  Once all that was done and glued in place. I was looking for something to make the card pop and went with my Dreamees dies and some adorable scoreable to compliment the colours in the design.  The huge bow is simply because there is a nightmare of a  mistake and I applied the mantra ” Cover the mistake with an embellishment” but it looks okay.  The daughter sentiment was from the Art Deco cut outs of Leonie Pujol’s Typography alphabet dies.

So I hope that you like this card and I’ll be back to show you some more makes in the week.  Thank you for stopping by.

❤️

A

Birthday card for my Mum part 1

It was my mother’s birthday this past week and yes that meant me having to make 2 cards (one from me and one from my Nan).  I took ages with both of them and today I am sharing my card.

This card is a little different for me as I have not done any Gorjuss or decoupage in ages.  I chose this particular kit from my stash as I felt like choosing some different colours and yes Yellow and Green is different but it is summer, well it claims to be summer, and I wanted it bright and cheery.

After getting the decoupage sorted out I chose the matching papers, from a 12×12 and a 6×6 pack.  I covered the card base with the larger piece of paper and then using some green and yellow adorable scoreable I mounted the 6×6 finally and then the image.  Everything that was left over I used to make the flowers using my Dreamees dies and some faux pearls from my stash (old charity shop faux pearl necklaces that have been chopped up and used for flower centres as and when needed).

I really hope that you like this make and that you pop by again soon.

❤️

A

All that Jazz

Hello and yes it has been a little while since I posted but I took a little break and decided that I would revamp the look on the blog (I hope you like it) and then start with some posts.

This first card I am sharing with you is one which I made for my mother to give to a friend for his 60th birthday.  I admit that I struggle with make cards and this was no exception and I played around with a few ideas before I hit my Hunkydory box.  There I found the All that Jazz stamp and then I looked on their members area to see what the design team had come up with and went with my ideas from there.  I had plenty of inspiration and I was also playing with my distress oxides at the time so I came up with the background and the design went from there.

I used an A3 sheet of Hunkydory paper which is my go to for Distress oxides.  I have enough for a card and bits left over for experimenting or keeping if I need them.  This background was made with just two colours – Broken China and Faded Jeans.  I love the way it turned out.  To make the card I covered the whole of the 8×8 card with some black adorable scoreable and then cut the oxide paper to 7 7/8 x 7 7/8 inches. I then used another piece of black and scored that to 7 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches.  Then I cut the oxide background again to 7 5/8 x 7 5/8 inches.  On this background I used the buildings from the stamp and used these along the bottom.  For the rest of the card I used a mixture of notes and instruments and the numbers 60 (from another set) to form the background.  I then placed this onto the black adorable scoreable.

The middle of the card I cut a piece of the back adorable scoreable to 7 5/8 x 3 inches and then cut my oxide background to  7 1/2 x 2 7/8 inches.  On the oxide background I added the jazz musicians and more of the notes and the wonderful sentiment that is on the stamp set.

I have to admit that this is one of my most favourite makes this year.  I also admit to being obsessed by the Distress Oxides and the effects that I am getting from them.

I hope you like the card and the new blog layout.  Stop by again soon.

❤️

A

Made for a teacher

I just had to share 2 projects that my niece made all by herself for her teacher as a leaving gift.  I only did the cutting around the MDF and anything she was a little unsure of.  The teacher had been telling them tales about her dog Buster and my niece thought it would be nice to make a little hanger with his name on, using some images she had seen on my Dreamees CDs, and she used a Tattered Lace die she had used before.  The card too, she made and designed herself choosing all her own colours.  I really hope you like them. I thought that they deserved to be shown.

❤️

A

 

Teenager birthday card number 2

Hello here I am again today sharing the second card which I made for my nephew who turns 13 on Monday.  This card is from his great-grandmother and its a football theme.

I have made this card using just the Hunkydory Football Crazy stamp set from their For The Love of Stamps range.  I used an 8×8 blank card and around the edges I randomly stamped footballs, using masking sheets to cover up and build up the image.  After I had stamped it all I went around and added some True Black Spectrum Noir to the footballs to make them look more realistic.  Next I cut a piece of black card to 7×7 and mounted that.  From here it was rather a job to know what I wanted to do so I left the card and stamped the shirts and coloured them in using DR3 and DR4 (he is a Liverpool fan), once they were dry I added the 13.  I had some strips of white card so I decided that I would play around with some effects.  I made the net from the stamp set and it was easy to get it to repeat, very clear and crisp.  I was so pleased with this that I trimmed the card and made that the centre of my card but at this point I didn’t stick it down.

With some left over black card I cut out his name using the Leonie Pujol typography dies.  I really love this range of dies and even though I haven;’t used it much I know that it will be used for personalizations.  I stuck the name to the card and then I added one of the phrases from the stamps to fit in.  Lastly I had another strip off white and stamped the Goal! phrase.  Once they were all lined up and I was happy I secured them.  I was a little dubious about the netting as it seemed too bare so I inked up the football scarf and added the phrases to the scarves and made them look like they were proper scarves.

I love this card, its taken one set of stamps and I do like black, white and red as a colour combination anyway.  I hope you like it too.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope to welcome you again soon.

❤️

A

Its been a while…….teenage boy birthday

Hello again!  Yes its been a little while since my last blog.  My crafting has been sporadic of late because I’ve had a few things to go to and have been too tired to think for a little while after. However I’ve got back into my stride and this post is showcasing the card I’ve made from me for my nephew’s 13th birthday which is next Monday.  I adore my Josh but I can’t believe he’s 13 and bigger than me now.  I knew that one card would have to be a football theme and that I am posting next time but I was stuck on what to do from me. However Making Cards Magazine to the rescue.  I was having a mammoth catch up and there was a set of cards made by Tracey Evans showcasing Mini Mike for Indigo Blu cards.  I had to order them and make a card for his birthday.  I also had to play with my Distress Oxides.  It has taken me ages to get them ( and so I don’t miss out the next set is on pre-order thank you!!) and I had not  had a chance to play with them until this weekend.

What a mess!  There was ink on my hands, in fact  more of it than on paper but for once I didn’t give up.  I referred to Tracey’s tutorial in Making Cards magazine and went for it and this is my first inky background proper! Its made up of Cracked Pistachio, Broken China, Faded Jeans and Peeled Paint.  I had also played a little with a blue theme at the same time and had inked the phrases onto this sheet but I don’t think you can see the extent of that particular experiment. It’s not too bad but I think there is room for improvement. I matched the green to a piece of Hunkydory 50 shades of Mirri Darker and used some black card as well, just to balance the design and not over Green it (I do not use a great lot of green so this has been out of my comfort zone).

For a change too I used some Neenah Classic Crest Card to ink my images and I used my Spectrum Noir Colourblend pencils for a change and I think I was right in using them for this image.  There is another image on this card and its on the inside and I’ve forgotten to take a photo of it but its plain and I really wanted the front of the card to be in this and not the inside (although its tidy)

 

I hope you like what I have shared this time and I look forward to your next visit, I do appreciate you taking time to read my blog.

❤️

Me