Cute as a Button

It's Daring Friday again, and this week it's Sharon's first ever dare - how exciting! Her challenge is for you to create a card using buttons - but hold on, it's not that simple, oh no. We'd like you to use buttons in the main feature of your card, not just as an added embellishment in the corner! Check out the Daring Cardmakers blog for inspiration.

For my card, I decided to make buttons out of Fimo clay (it's been a while since I got my Fimo out!)

I used small cutters and pressed an embossing folder, resin embellishment and jewellery mould into each one them to give texture then made holes in them with a pokey tool. I'm quite pleased ith how these turned out actually. For the lampshade, I covered a strip of card on fabric and folded it into a curve so it sits like a real 3D shade on the card, and decorated with lace and pearls.

Speaking of embossing folders, I used my new 'In Stitches' folder which gets a big thumbs up from me. So I expect you will be seeing a lot more of it ;)

Along the bottom of this, I've used lace, Bakers Twine and a little paper ruche topped with crinkled seam binding and flower. The greeting is a digi stamp and I made a rosette out of crepe paper to edge it with.

challenges:

Card Patterns - sketch 125

The Shabby Tearoom - 'Relax & Enjoy + yellow,green,pink and neutrels

Thanks for looking x

Exciting News!

Thanks to the ladies at the Shabby Tearoom for choosing my 'Teapot' card as winner of Week #71's 'So Charming' challenge. I will be featuring as guest designer in the Tearoom for Week #80 (on September 19th)

And also thank you to the Ribbon Reel girls for featuring my Ruby card in their Top 3 :)

Wish You Were Here?

A new challenge over at Daring Cardmakers and Lynda's set the dare this week, which is: Wish You Were Here -

As it's Summer here in the Northern Hemisphere (although you could actually disagree with that sometimes with the mix of weather we get here in the UK) and the kid's will be starting their Summer Break from School. We'd like to see what's your idea of the perfect getaway destination. Is it a Sandy Beach, a Tropical Paradise, Camping/Caravaning, Countryside or even a City Break! What takes your fancy?

I've gone for a city break (personally, I'm not a camping girl lol) I used the Eiffel Tower image which has been cut from My Minds Eye J'adore paper, and layered it onto a digi postcard to which I added a digi stamp and postmark.

I used my no-set eyelets (these are just wonderful :), threaded seam binding through and embellished with a cute little pencil (to use for the postcard!)

The flower is just two circles punched out of newsprint paper and scrunched with mulberry flowers in the middle.
used a little chipboard heart which I inked for a burnished look, and the glossy accent-ed.

Et voila!

Challenges:
Simon Says Stamps challenge - Newspaper

I'm A Little Teapot

Challenges:

 The Shabby Tearoom So Charming

Papercutz -Anything Goes

The Ribbon Girl Shades of Aqua

The Pink Elephant challenge -

I got the idea for this card from this sweet teapot freebie download from My Grafico which sparked the idea for this card - summer fetes / tea parties . I started by paper piecing the teapot along with the cups (from Pink Petticoat).

This is the first outing for my Marianne rose die, which I cut out of felt (loving it!) and Nellies multi frame label, cut out of Core'dinations Whitewash cardstock stitched and sanded. For the bunting I just snipped some paper into flags and attached them to Bakers Twine.

For the side border I've used some scrunched tissue paper and aqua seam binding and 

doily lace border punch finished off with this ultra cute teapot charm and button. I love the linen covered buttons, which I found (!), it's always good to put things to good use :)

 

Marianne Roses die

Nellie's Multi frame's die
Teapot digi stamp, My Grafico

Cups digi stamp, With Flowers from Pink Petticoat

Martha Stewart 'Doily Lace' punch

My Little Shoebox alpha stickers in 'Blush'

Bo Bunny 'Gabrielle' chipboard butterfly

Seam binding

Tissue Paper

Bakers Twine

Felt

Linen Buttons
Hand stitching

Ruby,Ruby,Ruby...

Challenges:

Simon Says Stamps - Anything Goes

The Shabby Tearoom - Inspiration pic / Red, Pinks, Neutrel, Green

The Ribbon Reel - Sketch

 

The Shabby Tearoom challenge colours were perfect as I needed to make a 40th Anniversary card, so this was a good starting point! Inspired by the picture, I made a heart shaped wreath by die cutting a heart outline and using paper kraft twine snipped into 'branches' and dotted it with flowers.

I painted Crackle Paint around the edge of the card blank and used a Martha Stewart punch on the backing paper. I used labels 2 cut out of White Wash Coredinations, sanded and layered a doily and circles on top. Some rather yummy ribbons were used, including pink twill stripe, pleated satin and lace. The card was finished off on the side with crinkly seam binding bow with a labels 4 'Ruby' tag. Also used my fabby fine paper twine again (love it) coloured with a Pro Marker to match in the theme.

Doodlebug 'All Mixed Up' rub ons

White Wash Coredinations

S.E.I 'Cross My Heart' paper

DCWV 'Pink Lace' card

Martha Stewart punch

Nesties, Labels 2 and 4

Seam binding, Twill, Pleated satin, The Ribbon Reel

Flowers

Pearls

Doily

Paper Twines

Tim Holtz Crackle Paint in 'Tattered Rose'

Very Pintresting

This week's dare over at Daring Cardmakers is certainly a fun one - Nat has set this week's, which is all about PINTREST.

As the title suggests we're looking to Pintrest for some inspiration!

We want to spread some Pinterest love this week - because the joy of Pinterest is discovering new sources of inspiration!

So the dare this week is to create a card using a "pin" for inspiration.

We want to see what inspired your creation so make sure you include the original "pin" (ideally using the handy Embed feature that appears to the right of the image on Pinterest) alongside your card project in your blog post.

If you're not a member of Pinterest you can still play along - you can either browse/search Pinterest for inspiration and still embed the "pin" in your blog post or simply share whatever pic you have used as inspiration for your card. Either way please remember to give credit where credit's due.

...and this is my inspiration pic....


 From Retail Inspiration by Mimi Kriele

I absolutely fell in love with the picture, it's beautiful! I love the colours, shabby decs and  the white wood. What's not to love?! If you've never been on Pintrest, please do go and have a look there are so many amazing images and photos, you will be there for hours :)

So as you can see, I took my inspiration from the clocks, black, brown and, book pages, crown and hints of lilac. Loved making the shabby page border along the bottom of the card, made by cutting strips of paper, layering and then sanding, inking and tearing (yep, my fave things)
The clocks and crown are digi stamps, printed onto textured card and inked and the white wash paper is a current fave, which I've stamped some shabby text on.
All finished with some flowers, pin and a seam binding bow which I've inked up too.

Challenges:

Simon Says Stamp and Show -Stitching

Simon Says Stamps - Anything Goes

Large clock, book print and white wash paper, Two Peas In A Bucket - 'Collage Kit'
Small clock, My Grafico - 'Steampunk' digi stamps

Crown,  Jessica Sprague - Echo Park 'Be Mine'

Kraft card

Lilac paper, from Basic Grey 'Kioshi' range

Shabby text stamp, Pink Paislee 'Butterly Garden'

Flowers, Wild Orchid

Pin, Making Memories 'Wedding' collection

Pearl, Basic Grey

Seam binding

Chalk inks

Steam Punk'd

Card Patterns - Sketch

Allsorts - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp & Show - Stiching

I've had a spate of 'man cards' to do recently, hence my recent rush on masculine projects. To be honest, I'm ready to get back to some flowers now lol. Anyway, for this card I've used this new 'Collage Kit' from Two Peas In A Bucket which I'm currently loving. Also used was the 'Steampunk' kit from My Grafico, which is highly cool. I've just layered the papers up, along with a giant die cut stamp shape, and used tickets cut in half along with bottom from the Two Peas kit. The cog was layered up and finished with brads and I've dotted the card with screw top brads here and there. Vlevet ribbon, twill and Bakers Twine add some texture.


Two Peas In A Bucket 'Collage Kit'
My Grafico 'Steampunk' stamps
Black Core'dinations
Bakers Twine & Velvet ribbon, The Ribbon Reel
Cotton twill
Brads
Stitching

Up, Up & Away

Yes, another flight themed card from me today!

I'll be entering it into:

Card Patterns sketch

The Shabby Tearoom red, blue, white
The Pink Elephant challenge red, white, blue
Papertake Weekly 'Anything Goes'


For this I've use the Echo Park balloon digi stamp as the focal point, printed onto kraft and die cut with labels 4. Layered onto corrugated red card and a Sizzix die cut label.
You can just see the Tim Holtz brackets die which I've run the seam binding along. The seam binding was white which I've coloured to match the blues and tied in some Bakers Twine.

I finished off the bow with a paper-scrunched rosette and lace and secured with a brad. I topped it off with a digi stamp greeting, backed with a die cut star and chipboard flourish.

Star and script paper, Pink Petticoat
Echo Park balloon stamp, Jessica Sprague
Greeting, Cuddly Buddly
Pebbles chipboard flourish
Lace
Brad
Bakers Twine
Seam binding
Hand stiching

All Up In The Air

It's new-Dare day at Daring Cardmakers and this week it's Rein's dare using SUITCASES.

 

 As we had a little problem with our Inlinkz code going a bit awry last week and lots of people were unable to add their links, we've decided to roll-over our prize draw and include all the cards entered for this week's challenge too.

So for another week, donated by our sponsor online store Crimson Cloud .

Click HERE to visit the Crimson Cloud online store

We have this lovely cardmaking kit for one very lucky winner:

There are only 3 rules for entering our random draw:

1. Make a card for our challenge and link it back to here

2. Show it on your blog and add links mentioning Crimson Cloud and Daring Cardmakers

3. You may only enter your card for 5 other challenges.

  

So for my card, I started with a cool map I found on the internet which was cut with nesties Labels 1, along with the distressed Par Avion labels. The plane was cut from said labels, and I've sewn jet stream coming out of the engines which I thought looked quite cute :)

The border strip is raised from the main card to make it stand out (literally) folded flaps down on either side and stuck it onto the card.

The papers and suitcase / borders are from Echo Park 'For The Record' digi kit, which I'm making very good use of since I got it the other month! I've used rub ons, hand doodles and of course ink to decorate the case and the front quote is the back of some East Of India paper chains. I'm loving the paper button twine which I picked up from a food and gift event last weekend. Job done!

Challenges I'm entering this into:

Simon Says Stamps challenge 'Stitching'

A Spoonfull Of Sugar challenge 'Stitching'

Thanks for reading x

Tim Holtz Adage Tickets
Echo Park 'For The Record' digi kit from  Jessica Sprague
Doodlebug 'All Mixed Up' rub ons
East Of India paper twine and paper chains

July Flowers

Yet another new month! How can it POSSIBLY be July?! lol. A new month means we are back to the Flower Of the Month Dare at Daring Cardmakers and the flowers associated July: Larkspur and  Water Lily.

Along with a new guest DT member Angela, we have a wonderful prize donated by our sponsor this week: online store Crimson Cloud, to offer one lucky winner this week.

Click HERE to visit the Crimson Cloud online store

There are only 3 rules for entering our random draw:

1. Make a card for this week's challenge and link it back to here
2. Show it on your blog and add links mentioning Crimson Cloud and Daring Cardmakers
3. You may only enter your card for 5 other challenges

And this is the prize you could win:

I quite enjoyed making the 3D water lilly, which I made by die cutting flowers in descending size out of Core'dinations, which I sanded, inked and bent upwards. For the centre of the lilly, I used a paper cherry blossom and snipped the petals into points and inked. The lilly pad got the same treatment.

For the card base I used an A4 sheet and folded 6cm of the top over, I then attached acetate under the flap to form the middle and layered card onto the bottom of the acetate to finish.

I folded my paper into pleats for the borders and ran some Bakers Twine along them and used some cute epoxy buttons and tulle netting on the finished off with a sprig of stamens fon the embellishment on the lower half of the card. Nesties labels 4 cut in half made up the greeting.