Fab Friday ATC Challenge

This time Leonie has set the challenge theme as 'A small thing of greatness'. Her ATC on this theme is absolutely wonderful and started me thinking about people who really make a difference! With this in mind I thought about all the people who have inspired me and who have actually 'made a difference' and I came up with Sir David Attenborough who is a truly remarkable man in my opinion. I wanted some words which summed him up and were along the lines of the theme so I hunted through some books until I came up with a quote by the polish-born american writer and humorist, Leo Rostin.

The purpose of life is to matter - to count,

to stand for something, to have it make

some difference that we lived at all.

I feel that these words really fit the man and the theme. I have kept with the sepia/vintage colouring as I am really enjoying using these colours at the moment. I printed the verse using an old-style typewriter font onto plain paper, tore round the edges and inked them with brown ink. Although it is difficult to see, there is a strip of torn paper down the right hand of the atc which has an acetate overlay of a watch. I found a photo of Sir David by googling him and again, I tore around the edge and inked it with brown. After I stuck everything down I went all around the atc with the same brown to give it an aged look.

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Sketch

This week's challenge was using a layout sketch provided by Katharina. This is the first 'sketch' card I have done and I quite enjoyed working within the confines of a brief. I decided to carry on using the same type of colours as I used for the arch I made in the previous post and the rubber stamp I used is from the Stampin Up, Lovely as a Tree set, I purchased from Sara at Time for Crafting. The button was just one from my bits box. Hope you like it!

Gothic Arch Challenge

This weeks theme was 'Heritage'. I used a piece of background paper from a Vintage Memories book, rubbed the edges with a nail file and then inked them, I also repeat stamped a leaf stamp all over in a medium brown. The photograph is one of my great-grandparents taken in the late 60's I think! which I have ripped and then inked around the edges to give a feeling of age. The wording was done on the computer and again, ripped and inked to age it. The big H is a wooden one which I just inked over with a couple of different shades of brown. I enjoyed this theme and it was nice to have an opportunity to look through some old photo's (for which I must make some scrapbook pages) which haven't seen the light of day for a while!

A4 sized Card!

I decided to go completely mad and make a full size A4 card for the spring card challenge on the TFC forum as I have been wanting to try one for a while now and this was a perfect opportunity. I used downloads from the Prima Hybrid site, very pretty packs called Enchanted Garden and Flying Above It All. I re-sized and fiddled about with the images and printed out onto pearlescent paper which I stuck to the card. I used my Kwik-Thread to thread my beads onto the ribbon and did the wording on the computer too using the same colours as the graphics. I then stuck tiny pearlescent beads to the centres of the flowers to make them stand out a little better. Quite different to my usual style but not too bad LOL. I don't know whether I would make many more of these big cards but it was fun doing this one.

Arty Girlz Weekly Challenge

This weeks challenge had the theme of 'doodling' but as I am useless with a pen and my doodling tends to look like a spider with inky feet has walked across the page I have used the computer to do my doodling for me. I used a swirly image from one of DAISIE Company's packs and recoloured it, then I copied it over and over again to create my 'doodles'. The wording is from the Stampin Up set, Sincere Salutations which I stamped with Versamark and embossed with silver embossing powder. The little dragonfly is actually a silver charm but it loks gold on here for some reason! I hope this type of doodling is acceptable for the challenge.

Fab Friday ATC Challenge

This week Leonie set the theme of 'Time'. Mine is probably a bit predictable but as soon as I saw the theme I knew exactly what I was going to do. A while ago I bought some gorgeous Chapel Road Art Stamps from Canada. The one I used is from the set called 'Rock Artishapes' and I stamped it onto gold card four times but completely off-centre each time so you get the whole stamp but broken into section. I stamped it once more onto cream hammered card and cut out the clock face and the wording. I edged the clockface with a dark brown inkpad to lift it into the foreground. I then used some wings which I stuck behind the wording to portray the image that 'time flies'. The wings came from a download from the Enchanted Garden download from Prima Hybrid which I made smaller using Serif PagePlus (my favourite dtp program). I am pleased with the final effect and happy that the colours are how I hoped they would be.

Gothic Arch Challenge

This weeks Gothic Arch challenge theme was Celtic. It took me a while to decide what to do and then I ended up making two of them - I just couldn't decide which one to post so I posted both of them LOL. I used Stampin Up stamps (Lovely as a Tree set which I purchased from Sara at Time for Crafting) for both of them. On the second one I used some embellishments I made a while ago using Friendly Plastic which I think look quite effective. I think that the second one is my favourite, I love the dragon on it!

Craft Club Fun!

Last night was our monthly craft club meeting and our lovely organiser Lindsay decided that it would be great to do an Easter challenge and as soon as she saw the lovely little treat boxes I had made (thank you Anne from the Time for Crafting forum for the instructions on how to make them) she thought they would be a fun thing for us to do and...........she would buy the mini eggs to fill them with! How could I refuse LOL. I made up a load of blank ones all ready with the DST, all the ladies had to do was decorate them. They really seemed to enjoy this and there was lots of giggling and laughing with only one or two minor mishaps with the sticking down of the ends!

Leonie's ATC Challenge

Here is my take on Leonie's challenge of "Beautiful & Bright". Beautiful background, bright man!

Apologies for the flash flare on the photo but hey, its a bright spot!

Decoupaged Birds!

Yesterday I really felt like cutting up something!!! Rather than just cut up random pieces of paper I decided to do some decoupage. I chose a fairly simple image from a Creative Paper Crafts CD, sort of shabby chic meets american quilts (LOL). Added some wording using the computer and DTP to try and use the same colouring and this is what I came up with!

Gothic Arch Challenge

This weeks challege was 'Transitions' and I have been struggling with this all week, have discarded countless ideas and filed a couple of my attempts in the 'round bin' in the corner of my craft room LOL. Anyway, today I finally came up with a concept for this that I am happy with. Hopefully you get will the idea of it just from the image but if not, the left is an 'idea' of hell and the right heaven, in the middle at the top is chocolate ...... get it now? LOL

The beautiful images are actually fractals which I found on a wonderful website, they are free to use and as soon as I saw them I knew what I was going to do so it was a good job I decided to 'waste' some time on the internet this morning LOL again! I have put a link to the site under my favourites so you can go and see all this wonderful art for yourselves.

Anniversary Card

Just finished a bookatrix Anniversary Card for our neighbours, it came out very well and they loved it, thank goodness LOL. The only problem I had was putting it in the box, the card ended up deeper than the box so I had to add some inserts to the box to make it deeper for the card!

I used my Cuttlebug to cut the letters out of some lovely red holographic card and then did a few flowers too just to decorate. The only problem I have with the letters is how to stick them on! In the end I ran them through my Xyron 250 but it did leave slightly sticky edges so to get round that I sprinkled over some clear glitter which looked great as well as eliminating the sticky areas. I also used my Cuttlebug to emboss the flower pattern on the top pages and I gently chalked over the flowers just to make them stand out a bit more. The little flowers came from my local stationers (bit of luck spotting them) and the rest was just bits and pieces I had in my stash! All in all, this is probably the best bookatrix I have managed so its obviously true, the more you do, the better you get LOL

Cute Card Thursday

Yet another Challenge Blog, don't you just love 'em - I know I do! Here is my take on 'Cute'. This is a flag card I had done earlier but it just seems ready made for this challenge LOL. You can get the instructions and template for this from Time for Crafting (link on the left) along with loads of other great templates and projects as well! I used one of those cubes with four stamps on it for the cat pics, not sure who it's made by as the writing is far too small to actually read!

Arty Girlz Challenge

This weeks Arty Girlz challenge was 'Stars' which could be interpreted either as star shapes or something to do with film stars. I went for star shapes and made a Thank You card based on the spring-up card idea which I have been using for this year's Easter Cards.

I cut out a selection of stars from plain gold and holographic gold card and layered them onto the black base card. I used the computer to print out the message and I twiddled gold wire round a pen to make the spring onto which I stuck a couple of gold star gems back to back. I also added a few beads to the top star for added interest. I am going to send this to my best friend who is always there for me when I need her! This challenge was great fun and I enjoyed it very much, thank you Arty Girlz.

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Squares

Here is my effort for the Papertake Weekly Challenge which was 'Squares'. Thanks to Claudia for including the instructions on how to make the square, dimensional part of the card and for setting such a great challenge. Mine doesn't show up that well in the first photo but the second one shows the dimension a bit better I think! I used downloads from Daisie Company (Kathy Hatch's Ooh La La design) which is lovely - I just love that pink and black together. As the the theme, the card itself is square, the middle section is square and I made a square frame around the inner section so hopefully that fulfills the brief!

Brilliant Little Tool

For all those of you who struggle when trying to thread your ribbon through little holes you need the Kwik-Thread which you can get from Sara at Time for Crafting. Its an absolutely little brilliant little tool and so easy to use, Sara has even made a little video to show how to use it. Please go and have a look and buy one, you will wonder how you ever managed without one!
http://www.timeforcrafting.co.uk/kwik-thread.html

I hope you will take the time to go and have a look, this site has loads of other wonderful stuff too, free templates to download and Sara is also a supplier of the absolutely gorgeous 'Stampin Up' range of rubber stamps which are amazing! I'm ordering some today LOL

Gothic Arches

The other day I stumbled across a blog about Gothic Arches and was immediately interested - something new to have a go at! The theme they had set was "Trash" meaning you had to decorate your Arch with anything you would/were throwing away, sounds easy ..... not so, LOL. In the end I created my background image from the back of an old Sky Movies magazine, added a piece of a teabag envelope, some string, an old button I found on the floor (I do hope nobody claims it now as its stuck on quite firmly LOL), 'Felix' off a box of Felix cat food and a 1p piece. As this is my first attempt I have no idea if I have done it the right way or not, sure I will soon find out though LOL.

I have put the link to this great site under My Favourite Blogs, go and check it out there is loads of interesting stuff on there!

Easter Chicks Cards

The forum on the Crafters Companion website had an Easter Chicks thread in which all those who wanted to take part went onto the list in order of signing up, then each person sends a card to the next five people listed - each person gets five lovely Easter Cards. I know its a bit early yet but we are sending them out already! Here are the first three I have received. Thank you ladies :)

Mothers Day

Had a wonderful Mothers Day today, William gave me a very funny 'talking card' with a picture of a cat on it who looked just like ours! I was also given a lovely heart on a chain and some matching earrings as well, oh and a cup of tea in bed too - lovely :)

Here is the mothers day card I made for MIL using Joanna Sheen's Dancing with Shadows CD which is lovely. I would have posted up the one I made for my Mum but it seems I neglected to take a photo of it - typical me! It was a triangle card made using the backing papers from the Artylicious butterfly CD with some cut out butterflies flying all over it, looked very pretty but you will just have to visualise it LOL.

More Digital ATC's

I can't seem to leave this image alone at the moment, it just lends itself to so many different looks. This time I have used the original colours but changed the image to different finishes which simulate different painting techniques, keeping one original as a base mark! I added in some wording, 'beautiful' and 'Rose' in this case because not only is she beautiful and smelling a rose but because of the colouring and the fact that she looks like she would be called Rose! I wanted to add some embellishments after all my computer fiddling so I found some silk roses but they were yellow, definitely not the right colour, so I decided to try and colour them with some AI's, I chose Cranberry and just dripped it on and it worked beautifully giving a really dark almost black rose colour which is really effective in real life but probably does not show up so well in the photo. I added sparkle to the jewellery she is wearing with a clear Sakura Stardust pen, every craftbox should have one! I don't know if I will part with these or the blue ones, for some reason I feel more attached to them than I usually do to one of my creations LOL. I know from a crafty friend - thats you Kath! - that some purists don't consider digital ATC's acceptable but in my opinion they have as much work go into them as any other type and they are still art however the image is made!

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Blue & Green should never be seen?

I haven't done a Papertake challenge for a while and I liked the idea of this one as I never use much green in my cardmaking! I had a green card blank already and I cut two circles, one green and one blue and matted them onto the left of the card. Then I used a trusty Pink Petticoat design which I coloured using Whispers pens and a waterbrush. I used the wording from Pink Petticoat as well which I matted using the same colours I used for the circles. I used an insert which says Happy Birthday but I shall be careful who I send it to, they will need a good sense of humour LOL