My new toy

This is what came in the mail on Friday...

My first embossing templates arrived today... and I played with one this afternoon to see what it could do.

My first card. Simple embossed strips. The black and purple are punched but not embossed. Butterfly was a RAK. It would work out better if the card front was assembled and THEN embossed so that the pattern is continuous, but this looked okay with the other stuff on top of it.

I embossed a cardstock shield, then flipped the embossing over and inked up the reverse. I think I like it better this way than with the lines coloured! It needed a see-through sentiment that wouldn't distract from the embossing, so I used clear lettering stickers.

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Embossed directly on a card base with a coloured outside and white inside, then sanded. I had to trim the edges down to neaten it, but the sanding hides the face that the embossing doesn't quite go all the way to the inside edge.

365 cards again

My shoulder's better now, so I was going to do a catch-up and get all last week's cards done in one go, but they've changed Mr Linky and they're only keeping posts open for a week instead of a month like they used to. I guess I'll just start from Sunday and skip last week altogether, but my perfectionist streak is shouting at me about incompleteness. :( Cards coming today!

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On the other hand, not. I thought I was up to cardmaking but I got one done and I was trying to do a second and my shoulder started screeching at me, and the card didn't even work out! This is soooo frustrating!

365 Cards - Alphabet Week cont.

Day 24 - Marker, Number, Orange
Day 25 - Polka dots, Quilting, Red

This isn't really as red as it looks... the frame is actually burgandy. I'm not entirely happy with how it came out. It looks like it needs something... but i have no idea what.

Day 26 - Stitching, Toile, White
The white paper is kind of toile, and of course entirely white. I adore this paper, and it's always hard to find a good way to feature it. I was going to use a toile-print ribbon but it clashed with the stitching colour, so I used a strip of toile paper and a skinny blue ribbon instead. It's not as elegant as I had in mind, but it's acceptable.

365 Cards, Week 4 - Alphabet Week

For Alphabet week you get three things each day - use at least one on your card.

Day 21 -  Alphabet stickers, Blue, Circle

I went simple on this card. The green and purple circle was a RAK - it was a bit TOO plain so I added the silver decoration around the outside. Then I outlined the lettering with the same pen. It kind of worked out the way I wanted... it'll do anyway!

Day 22 - Distressed, Envelope, Fringe

This card is pretty far outside my comfort zone, but I'm pleased with how it came out. I was going to add a purple vellum envelope, but it was just too much of a good thing, so I used punched stars instead.
I tied the eyelash fiber (fringe) around the card, but it looked a little plain so I knotted a pearl buckle into place. Then I added some tiny mother-of-pearl charms knotted onto the ends of the fibers. I put a tiny gluedot behind each star charm to hold them in place and keep them from rattling around in the envelope. btw, I don't know why the star scanned in brown - it's BLACK! And the swirls are metallic silver.

Day 23 - Grossgrain, heart, ink

If you think you've seen this card before it's because you have! When I scanned in my trio of minicards last week I realised that I glued the heart on upside down. Rather than cutting the card apart and remounting it, I turned it into a pocket and stuck a tag in it. The tag was cut freehand from a strip of cardstock and stamped pretty simply.
This card's a three-for. We have polkadot grossgrain ribbon, hearts galore, and plenty of ink on the tag.

365 Cards, Week 4 Sketchy Sunday

Day 20 - Super Sketchy Sunday

I was going to use a printed card someone gave me for this challenge but it's too big to fit on the card base... have to think again!

And here we are. The sentiment was a RAK and I used some nice metallic cardstock and a punch to finish it off. The buttons came off an old tshirt that I just put in the rag bag.The white sticker strip is actually the scrap from another sheet, and the yellow flowers were punched from a piece of scrap cardstock, so this is a heavily recycled card!

365 Cards, Week 3 - day 18/19

I thought I was done for the week but when I looked more closely at the challenge list I forgot to do number 19... oops!

Day 18 is 3x3x3 - make a set of three mini-cards that are 3-inches square.
And Day 19 is 'Crush'. Make a card with a romantic theme. I combined them both together to make this little trio of notelets. The embossed hearts were a RAK from a friend and they're red, not orange. Silly scanner!

365 Cards, Week 3 cont.

I had a very busy week and didn't get these uploaded yet... (and my internet connection is being a BEAR today so I have to do this in very small bites.)

DAY 14 - Fresh-baked Goodness. You get a double-header for this one. These are both made from recycled images... I made a smudge when I stamped the brown, so I added a bunch of light distressing and it covered it all up perfectly. I love how it came out!

DAY 15 - Colour Scheme. 

The card I made is much darker than it looks on the scan. It's not really brown, honest! It was a bit too dark and gloomy when I was done so I added a vellum sticker. I don't really like the way it came out, but the sticker isn't movable so I'm stuck with it! The green is inked, not dirty...






DAY 16 - Abstract Art

I had hoped to have the time to sit down and make a stained-glass window card for this challenge... but I didn't have nearly enough free time! So I went with one of my favourite techniques - the abstract/random background. Just press or drag your card on a multi-coloured ink pad and keep on going until you like the way it looks. The best thing about it is that it will never come out exactly the same way twice. 







DAY 17 - AD INSPIRED (green all the way)

The general idea was to make a St Patty's card today but I didn't have any need for one. So I made a lovely spring green card instead. The caterpillar is cut with my Cricut 'Stretch Your Imagination' cartridge.

365 Cards, Week 3

Oops. I assumed that Sunday was the last day of the week because that's how I think of it... but I just discovered that the 365 Cards calendar counts Sunday as the FIRST day of the week. So I've messed up my card order already. Oh well. I'll do it right from now on. This means that I've already started week 3, and here's the first card.

Day 13 - Super Sketchy Sunday.

And here we are... this is way different from my usual style! I had the diagonal background already done, so I trimmed the corners and added an assortment of stuff that I also had already done. Then I grunged everything up except the butterfly, so I could tie everything together and still keep a strong contrast in the card. btw, the butterfly and flower were cut with my Cricut and the Make the Cut program.

Day 14 - Fresh baked goodness.

365 Cards, Week 2

Okay, week one was completed in an afternoon... now for week 2.

Day 6 - Sketchy Sunday.
(I thought this was Week 1, but I had the weeks messed up so I've moved it to the right spot.

My card looks very simple but it was a LOT more hassle than it looks to get the lace and ribbon lined up properly. The background cardstocks are both textured and glimmery.

Day 7 - Feeling Fierce. I dug out my Safari paper pad for this one, used my pawprint border punch, and a crocodile image that somebody RAKed me. The colours IRL are NOT the same as the scan. It's much more harmonious than it looks here. I decided not to put a sentiment on this one - I'm making more plain cards for OWH than I used to, because I'm not very good at meeting their holiday deadlines.

Day 8 - Arch Card. Use the Arch shape to make whatever card you wish. I cut the card with my colluzzle. It's not really flat on top, the scanner chopped it off.

Day 9 - Do that Decade - the 90s. Make a card that reflects some trend from the 90s. I was almost stumped by this one... everything I could think of was already taken! But then I remembered something. I was a teacher in the late 90s, and one day I walked into a classroom and there was a book sitting on the windowsill. Their teacher was reading it to them and the kids said it was absolutely FANTASTIC. The name? Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone! Yep. The Harry Potter saga entered the world in 1997, and it won't really leave until the final movie comes out.

Day 10 - Trendy. Make a card using an item or technique that seems to be particularly trendy just now.
Honestly, I was lost on this one. I don't buy magazines, enter contest, or pay attention to trade shows, so I have NO IDEA what's popular. But everyone else says that pearls and swirls and lace never go out of fashion, so that's what I used. I made the lacy heart frame all by myself using my Make the Cut software. I was going to incorporate some real lace too but it would have been overkill. This card is way busier than anything I usually make already! BTW the embossed heart was a RAK somebody gave me.

Day 11 - Repurposed. Use paper designed for one holiday to make a card for another. This one was easy - I used a sheet of Christmas paper and made a pair of birthday cards with a strip of it.

Day 12 - Keep it Simple. Cover a card with patterned paper (using one or more designs), add ONE sentiment and ONE embellishment. I made this at the same time as the one for Day 7... can you tell? lol One sheet of patterned paper from the Safari pack, my pawprint border punch, a stamped sentiment, and for my embellishment I decided to do something I NEVER do and use eyelash fiber tied right around the card. It blends into the green much better IRL than in the scan.

365 Cards, Week 1

I know I'm late starting... but the 365 card challenge blog just rolled around to the start of a new year, and I've decided to give it another go. Can I make a card a day, every day??? I went back to the first week and started playing catch-up.

DAY 1 - White Space. This is a pretty simple challenge - you have to keep the decoration on your card within the bounds of the sketch, in this case a strip down one edge and a rectangle right at the other. I really don't like a rectangle sticking off the edge of my card, so I adapted it and used a half-circle instead.

DAY 2 - Pick 5. Use the following items on your card:
Your favourite colour - pink
 Favourite design technique - embossing (and border stickers)
Your favourite embellishment - flowers
Least favourite colour for cards - black (unless it's combined with pink or red!)
Favourite card size - standard 5-1/4 s 4-1/2

DAY 3 - Fun with Fabric. Use a piece of fabric to apply ink or paint to your card. I rolled up a scrap of an old tshirt so that the seam was on the outside and used a pastel rainbow pigment ink so it would be nice and juicy. I love how it turned out!

DAY 4 - 'One of a kind'. Pretty straightforward. I printed the sentiment out, and used stamps to demonstrate it.

DAY 5 - Winter and Summer collide. Use both summer and winter on your card. This one puzzled me a bit, but then I remembered a cute stamp I just bought, and I combined it with a bright summery pre-printed card and some tiny snowflake stickers.

365 Cards - Ippity Week

I just wasn't in the card-making mood this week... so today I had a whole week's worth of cards to do! Good thing I've been inspired by the Operation Write Home Memorial Day Bloghop... I was originally going to make all my cards red, white and blue in honour of the weekend, but that didn't really work out, so I settled for making them all Thinking of You/Miss You cards. OWH always needs these and I don't make enough of them!

Day 84 - Sketchy Sunday
I kept it very simple and used scraps of paper for the rays... I wish I hadn't drawn those stars in around the stamped sentiment because they didn't turn out at all the way I'd pictured them, but what's done is done! It wasn't horrible enough to need to cover it up. 

Day 85 - Flora and Fauna. Use a plant/flower and some kind of wildlife on your card.
This is where the red, white and blue theme broke down... because the first thing I thought of was some wild animal stamped images that I was RAKed, and that went with my gorgeous Safari paper pack. 

Day 86 - Keep it Simple. Use ONE stamped image, ONE stamped sentiment, and ONE embellishment. No patterned paper allowed.
I've had this printed image for donkey's years... 

Day 87 - All Natural. Incorporate something natural (flower, leaf etc.) into your card.
I tried making a leafy card with skeleton leaves... but they looked horrible when I glued them down so I trashed that one and went with something a bit more cooperative - some genuine pau shell :) I just adore those colours... 

Day 88 - Insect Frenzy. Use three different kinds of bug on your card, with at least ten bugs in total.
There are about 25 dragonflies on this card alone... I stamped the background with a stampin' up leafy stamp and layered the dragonflies on top. 

Day 89 - Courage and Strength
A very simple card. The sentiment and embellishment were both RAKs. 

Day 90 - Card Recipe.

• 5x5 Card
• 3 stamps (including the sentiment)
• String, fiber or twine
• 2 patterned papers
• 4 blossoms 

This is the only card from this week that's HARD! I'm still working on it. I've never made a card quite like this before... but that's what's great about the challenges - they really stretch my imagination!

And that's the end of Ippity Week!

365 Cards - Day 81/82/83

Day 81- Setting the Scene (make a picnic card)
The ant and cutlery are diecuts somebody gave me... I've had them for ages and I didn't have a clue what they'd come in handy for - it just goes to show you'll find a use for ANYTHING eventually!  I made my own paper plate - I cut a half-circle with the colluzzle and used my Fiskars Scrapboss to create the rim.

 Day 82 - Substitution Please (use a number in your sentiment instead of a word)
This was a lot harder than it sounds... In the end I came up with a very simple card that has a lot of hand-writing on it. Inside the card is a fancy swirly 'congratulations' stamp because it's obviously for a wedding or an engagement.

Day 83 - 4-wheel drive
I hope some little boy will like this monster truck card!

365 Cards - Still catching up

Day 80 - Keep it to yourself: Friendship (friendship card without a sentiment)
This little guy was too cute not to use. I made the background with a teardrop stamp.

Day 79 - Color Scheme

These colours just screamed 'patriotic' to me... and besides it's the last week to make July 4th cards to send to Operation Write Home... so I pulled out my patriotic stickers and made some cards. The second card also fits the Stars and Stamps midweek challenge this week - simply make a card incorporating star/s! I'll be making some more starry cards this weekend and giving them their own entry later on.

Day 78 - Imagine this money
This challenge is not to make a card including money... but to make a card INSPIRED by money. Money is not something I've ever had much of... so I give you two simple cards - I've SAVED money on these two cards because they're both recycled from a tourist brochure. We live in the Sunshine State... but all we can do is dream of enjoying the luxuries of the rich, like the gentleman enjoying himself on the left! If the good fairies ever blessed us with wealth, we'd have a house of our own.

Day 77 - Sketchy Sunday