Good Luck Card

My latest card is a good luck card in the shape of a handbag. The template and paper is by Pink Petticoat. I am still tempted to put more bling on the front but suspect the single gem, flower and padlock charm are more than enough. The inside is decorated with more clear gems clear embossed stamped butterflies (Elusive Images). These were stamped onto glossy cardstock coloured with blue ink. The sentiment labels are Nestabilities labels.

Graphicus April Challenge Card

Here is my card for the Graphicus April Challenge (theme - blossom, colour palette - pink & green). I have used stamps from 3 different Elusive Images themeplates for this card. The leaves (square image in centre of card) and the small blossoms cut out and stuck onto the leafy image are both stamps from the Texture Blocks themeplate. They are stamped onto glossy cardstock with Graphite Black Brilliance ink . The cardstock was first coloured with various pink and green inks (Stazon, Brilliance, ColorBox). The flowers in top left and bottom right hand corners are from the Funky Doodles Fresh themeplate. I used pink and green inks to stamp the flowers, cut them out, and misted them with pink and green spray inks from the Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Fairy Blossom set. The torn paper on the right of my card is from the Graphicus Guild paper pack. I finished off my card by highlighting the small blossoms with some dimensional glaze and a little bit of pink glitter and sticking on small pink and green seed beads to form a stem for the Funky Doodle flowers and added a small pink bow.

Dawn Chorus Card - Graphicus March Challenge

I can hardly believe this is my first blog entry for almost 6 weeks!!!!! I haven't been crafting either, due to lack of time and/or energy, which also means I haven't been online much or reading blogs. However, I did visit one blog yesterday....Graphicus....to see what the March challenge is and I decided to make a last minute card to enter. The theme is yellow/sing which reminded me that my friend challenged me last year to make her a yellow birthday card as it is a colour I rarely opt for where cardmaking is concerned. I never did rise to that challenge I'm afraid...until now! I just had to use the Elusive Images Dawn Chorus stamp as the local bird population is in fine voice right now. The papers are all from my Graphicus Guild pack.

Blog Candy - New Elusive Images Stamps

If you pop over to the Elusive Images Design Team blog and leave a comment under the blog candy alert post you could win one of these lovely new themeplates.

GRAPHICUS JANUARY CHALLENGE

Well I have finally had some time to relax and craft as the pressure is off a little since the job offer on Thursday. Hopefully I will get written confirmation soon. Here are the items I have made for the new Graphicus monthly challenge, using inks, stamps and embellishments from the Graphicus online store.

The colour scheme challenge is plum and gold and my entry is a pendant and bracelet set made from stampbord. I have used various inks in shades of plum and gold (Black Cherry Glimmer Mist, Pearlescent Purple & Galaxy Gold Brilliance, Colorbox Cats Eye, Royal Purple Stazon) with stamps from the new Elusive Images Harlequin Rose themeplate, plus ribbon, wire and beads from my stash.

For the Celebrate challenge I decided to make a new baby card in vibrant colours as a change from the traditional pastels. The mother and child is from the Elusive Images Madonna & Trees themeplate (minus the halos!) stamped onto white card using a Kaleidacolor Baby Powder inkpad. I then rubbed Glimmer Chalks over the stamped image and mounted it onto a piece of card, which also started off white before I spritzed it with Black Cherry, Sunflower and Candy Apple Glimmer Mists, and ran it through the Cuttlebug with the D'Vine Swirl embossing folder. The stamped image and mats are fixed to the base card with foam tape to add dimension.

To make the flowers I again took white card and used Versamark ink to stamp patterns from the Elusive Images Texture Blocks themeplate and heat embossed them with clear powder. I sprayed the stamped patterns with Glimmer Mists (previously mentioned colours plus Jazz Blue and Meadow Green) and when dry I removed the clear powder with an iron to leave a flat surface on the cardstock. I then used my Cuttlebug to die cut the flowers on the right side of my card. These are layered and differ in height but it's difficult to tell from my photo.

To finish off my card I added a Creative Acrylics new baby sentiment coloured with Glimmer Chalk, threaded onto Maya Road Soho Candy ribbon together with a Candy Paisley slide.

More Roses!

Here are my final 2 (for now) harlequin rose cards....this time minus the glimmer as these are coloured with various inks and paints after clear heat embossing the stamped image. I have used Coredinations cardstock again as I love it, not just for the novelty of the paler core, but the wide range of colours is excellent and they are all fabulous shades!

More Glimmer!

Here is another card using glimmer mists and the Harlequin rose stamp by Elusive Images. The frame on the sentiment is also an Elusive Images stamp, I just added the words. The embossing is courtesy of my Cuttlebug and the green cardstock is Coredinations. I think the ribbon is by Anna Griffin. This card is for a friend's birthday and I must make the insert NOW! (hate doing inserts).

GLIMMER MIST ROSE

Today I was bored and fed up to say the least so I got out the papers I sprayed with glimmer mist last week and used some of them to make cards. Here is one I made from paper sprayed with Creme de Chocolat and thanks to Wendy for reminding me to enter the new Craft Stamper Challenge - Get Glam with Glimmer!

The image is stamped in Sepia Versafine and it is from the lovely new Elusive Images Harlequin Rose themeplate which I believe will be generally available soon (this was a Graphicus Guild member's offer).

I used a very weak solution of pink and green glimmer mists to paint the petals and leaves, matted the image onto purple cardstock and tied matching ribbon around and used foam pads to stick it to my cream card blank.

The coffee coloured cardstock is Coredinations run through the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and I used the same coffee and purple card for the sentiment, simply cutting the lower edge with scallop scissors and adding 3 lilac gems. Sorry that I haven't done a very good job of capturing the glimmer mist shimmer in this photo (hence the 2 shots)!

Competition Entries

I haven't been in the mood for crafting this week (again!) but quite miss blogging so I have decided to post pictures of 2 items I made recently for competitions.

The arch is for Sugar Lump Studios "Yuletide" Gothic Arch Contest at Gothic Arches. I think the closing date for entries is this weekend. I used Glimmer Mist for the background plus a vintage santa stamp and the cute little boy is from a collage sheet by Lisa's Altered Art.

The card was made using stamps from Elusive Image's Madonna themeplate (madonna & child, star and trees for the corners of my triangular shaped card. I also used sparkly embossing powder, irridescent spray inks, my Cuttlebug embossing folder, jump rings, rub ons and Glossy Accents. This particular card was my entry for the Graphicus Website October Card Competition and although I did not win a prize I enjoyed entering and the winning card is just gorgeous. Here is a link so you can see it.

Silhouette Arch

Here is my arch for the latest Gothic Arches challenge, where the theme was silhouette. I have used the same stamp for the large embossed image and the small image inside the heart - Elusive Images 'Let Your Heart Sing' themeplate. The large image is heat embossed in gold and the small one is stamped with black Stazon and embossed with clear EP. I then rubbed over the heart shape with a stylus inked with gold and blue inks. I finished the arch by threading blue and gold feathers through a gold eyelet.

Initial Reaction

Here is a card I made for the latest Caarvarks challenge which was to make a monogram themed card. My base card has been embossed with Cuttlebug leaves and branches folders. The leaves are also cut and embossed with the Cuttlebug. The main images are stamped with birds from Elusive Images and a tree stamp I cannot remember the name of. I used various Ranger, Stampin Up and Sticky Fingers spray inks on both the cardstock and the chipboard letter B. I matted the birds onto a piece of turquoise mirricard and mounted it to the base card with foam pads after glueing on a strip of torn inked and stamped cardstock. Finally I threaded natural raffia through the We R Memory Keepers eyelets then added 2 large eyelets and one bradlet to the bottom of my card.

ARTY GIRLZ BIRTHDAY CHALLENGE

Here is my latest card which fits in with the latest Arty Girlz challenge # 52. As their blog is 1 year old the challenge was to make an item for a birthday. They are offering a prize for one lucky participant.

I have only just discovered the fabulous Coredinations cardstock and bought 4 sheets yesterday from Paddy's Stamping Place where I saw some beautiful examples of cards and boxes made using this cardstock in conjunction with the Cuttlebug embossing folders. I embossed a piece of the teal card with the leaves folder and lightly sanded the surface to reveal the inner core colour of the cardstock, adding highlights. I coloured 4 small squares of Stampbord with various shades of blue ink and stamped the bird and branches over them with Black Versafine ink. The stamp is part of the beautiful Elusive Images bird set and is entitled 'Dawn Chorus.' I used a water brush over the finished image to add a bit of sparkle with Sakura Stardust but it doesn't show up in the photo.

ARTYLICIOUS STAMPBORD CHALLENGE

Glenda (Artylicious) has challenged crafters to make a handcrafted item using Stampbord and Elusive Images stamps on her blog...HERE IS THE LINK. She has kindly offered a prize in return.....a set of her fabulous new bird stamps!!! I just had to have a go and here is my ATC/tag. This is not what I had in mind at all when I was planning what I wanted to make but the fact I could only find ATC sized Stampbord did have an influence, since, as far as I know, it is not possible to cut Stampbord. Luckily it is possible to punch Stampbord using a Cropadile!


I coloured the blank clay canvas with pale blue Versacolour ink, and then used the largest stamp from Elusive Images Damask Squares stamp set inked up with Ranger Perfect Medium, then swirled Perfect Pearl powders over the image in Patina, gold and blue to add a touch of radiance. I then stamped over that with the large Damask floral stamp and swirly butterfly using various shades of Ranger and Versacolour blue and green inks.


The next stage was to stamp the main image, a lovely peacock stamp from Glenda's Graphicus Guild, in Black Versafine ink. I coloured the peacock with Supapoint pens and Sakura's Gold Shadow pen in green. When everything was dry I used a Pergamano needle tool (probably very blunt now!) to scratch into the Stampbord to add texture and highlights (mainly the peacock's body). I ran a gold PenTouch pen along the stampbord edges and sprayed the project with clear varnish.


I used the Cropadile Big Bite to punch a hole in the top of the Stampbord and set a large We R Memory Keepers gold eyelet, threaded a green sparkly organza ribbon through, followed by lots of strands of embroidery thread in gold/green/blue. I then twisted some of the strands to add texture and stuck 3 tiny gems below the eyelet (blue, green and gold to tone in with everything else).


I threaded turquoise, gold and green beads and a feather onto a headpin wire and attached it to the embroidery thread as a finishing touch.

I really enjoyed trying something new as I tend to stick to card making, though I really should try photography next as I must have taken 100 shots of this project and just can't get it right!!!!!!