Five cards from one Hunkydory Topper Sheet

I purchased a Special Occassions kit from Hunkydory this week which was half price and popped the free members kit in my basket. It arrived yesterday and I'm currently suffering with Vertigo so keep getting really dizzy spells which have left me stuck to my comfy chair in the living room and not crafting as at one point I couldn't even get up from my craft room chair without getting awfully dizzy. It's starting to die down now but I still can't look down into my craft drawers so set myself a challenge when this kit came to make some cards with what I had in the kits, on my desk (adhesives) and in the top drawers (some Dawn Bibby layering dies and my stamps and inks). 

I get annoyed with myself as I usually use one or two toppers from a sheet then put them away, and they then get caught up and damaged or it get fed up with them so I'm trying now to use a whole sheet at a time. With the free Hubkydory kit I used the cupcake topper sheet with both pieces of co-ordinating cardstock and managed 5 cards by just adding card blanks, the Dawn Bibby toppers, stamps, ink, adhesive, some ribbon and two off-cuts of card (mirri & pink bazille basics)

This easel card used the kit plus one piece of ribbon and adhesive (foam squares and collall all-purpose)

This card used the kit plus a Dawn Bibby die cut, stamp (free from a magazine) and adhesives.

This card used the kit, DB die cut, ribbon and some Bazille basics pink paper as the left over Hunkydory card was thinner than my card blank.

This card used the kit (just a piece of backing card), DB die cut, stamp, ribbon and adhesive)

This card used left over mirri, the kit and adhesive. 

All the cards took less than an hour in total to make, probably due to the fact I limited myself to what I had to use. 

Using up my craft stash

I have lots of craft stash I've not used so decided to make a new style of card with some of it.

I cut the front of a square card in half to make a triangle and then added in some acetate and used to spare triangle to make a sandwich with the acetate in the middle to make the card neat. The acetate was from Christmas when I made my own snowy acetate. I then used some Hunkydory backing card to decorate both the outside and inside of the card (left over from my shaped shaker card)

I added Hunkydory toppers, then stamped a sentiment in the inside of the card on a die cut.

Finally I 'blinged it up' with some Kaisercraft flower gems. 

I'm entering this into

http://clearitoutchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/3rd-year-anniversary-blog-hop.html?m=1 (used stash and sparkly gem flowers on acetate)

http://polkadoodle.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/week-8-polkadoodles-challenge-sugar-and.html?m=1 - with the yummy sugary cake

Shaped shaker card

I've got lots of crafty stash that I've got from kits or bundles, for example ive gotbshaped cards from Hunkydory kits and micro beads which I got as a free gift when I brought some embossing powders from eBay.

I decided to make a shaker card using the shaped card. I used a lovely image I brought from Polkadoodles, it's an Emma Canning digi image of a girl with an umbrella. 

I coloured her using similar colours to the frame on the shaped card, mostly Spectrum Noir BTs and CRs. I made the shaker with acetate and clear microbeada and backed this with some Hunkydory printed card so you can't see the workings when you open it. 

I stamped a sentiment onto a die cut shape and layered this onto another shape. Finally I added some bling.

I love this card and am so please with how it turned out. 

I'm entering this into the Digichoosday challenge - Shaping Up

http://digichoosday.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/wk-7-digi-choosday-challengeshaping-up.html?m=1 http://digichoosday.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/wk-7-digi-choosday-challengeshaping-up.html?m=1

http://ourdailybreaddesignsblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/odbdslc192-shaped-card.html?m=1 

http://polkadoodle.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/week-8-polkadoodles-challenge-sugar-and.html?m=1

- sugar and spice (that's what little girls are made of)

Embossing - Through The Purple Haze Challenge #29

This weeks challenge at Through The Purple Haze is Embossing. 

The sponsor for this challenge is:

http:// www.mymumscraftshop.co.uk

I've actually made two cards this week - one with dry embossing and one using heat embossing.

Dry Embossing Card

I made this card using my own hand-made embossing sheet (you can see how to do this on my last blog post.) I embossed some core-dinations card stock and layered it onto some already embossed Bazille Basics pink card. I added Tilda ribbon and this lovely digi from Polkadoodle Etsy shop - it's so sweet! I coloured this using my Spectrum Noir pens. The sentiment was part of the digi and I just stamped a doily stamp over the top so it wasn't on stark white card.

Heat Embossing Card

I decided to go for 'heat embossing' as I have the tools but don't do it much (mostly because it use to be such a pain to plug in my heat tool before I re-arranged it). My card is quite differet to my normal colour pallette but I decided to use things which I don't usually use and step out of my comfort zone a bit and this is the finished card.

I used backing paper from Kaisercraft Miss Empire Collection in Realm and matted and layered using kraft card (I love that stuff but don't use it much). I then took some orangey peach coloured paper from Craft Creations and stamped on it using Versa Mark and a rose pattern stamp I got free with Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine and then I used a white embossing powder. I also stamped the roses on the same paper (but elsewhere) with Distress Ink (Tattered Rose).

I cut the stamped and embossing pieces into 3 inch squares, rounded off the corners and then added them to kraft card. I stamped a sentiment onto kraft card and heat embossed that too (the sentiment was from a Kanban Sugar Buttons stamp set).

Stamped with distress ink

Stamped and embossed

I finished the card by wrapping twine around the card twice and tying a knot.

I hope you like my cards - I'm usually more into bright cards using pinks, blues and purples but enjoyed trying something different with my heat embossing card and using bits and pieces I hadn't used in a while.

Go over to Through The Purple Haze Challenge Blog to see what the other Design Team members have made and why not have a go yourself

 

http://www.throughthepurplehazechallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ 

I'm entering this card in the below challenges:
http://avenue613.blogspot.co.uk/ - #59
http://onestitchatatimechallenge.blogspot.co.uk/  - #200 Use a Digi
http://pileitonchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ - Pile it On #7 Sentiment as the focus 
http://www.scribbleandscrapcrafts.blogspot.co.uk/ - #12 Anything Goes
http://doodlepantryblog.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/DPDC - #43 Any Digi Goes
http://emergencycrafterschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ - Pink or Red
http://2sisterschallengeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/challenge-173-embossing.html 
http://craftyhandsdevon.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/heatdry-embossed-background8th-challenge.html

http://heather-bittenbythebug2.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/cricut-cut-as-stencil-challenge.html?m=1 - used Cricut to make as email and used this to emboss my background

Happy Valentines Day - Minecraft Valentines Card

Ok so this is the second card I've made for my husband for valentines day (I love making him things). My husband has started playing Minecraft again so I had a great idea for a card. 

I made the heart on craft artist using squares to make the pixel design then added the text from a Minecraft text generator I found online. The sky and grass are screen shots I took from the game (Lee installed Minecraft on my computer so we can play together) and pasted these knot Craft Artist to print.

I added little shrink plastic pixel hearts for some extra embellishments (I shrunk the large heart a little and traced it onto shrink plastic then shrunk it).

This was quite a quick card as I knew what I wanted to do and being pixels it was so easy to cut the heart out.

A simple but cool card for a Minecraft fan.

Make your own embossing folder/sheet

I like adding texture to cards but sometimes want a specific pattern and can find some folders are too deep and make my card crack. I decided to have a go at making my own embossing sheet and the good news is it can be used even if you don't have an embossing or cutting machine.

My tutorial below uses my Cricut Mini. If you don't have an electronic cutting machine you can use cutting dies to make your pattern on a craft knife.

To make my heart embossing sheet I stuck Kraft card to my Cricut mat. I used Kraft card as it's quite thick and I know it cuts well in my Cricut (blade depth 5, pressure 4). I actually use masking tape to ensure it's stuck down as Kraft card doesn't seem to stick well on my mat. I could then see what size and positioning I needed on my Cricut Craft Room.

I decided on a heart background and chose a wonky heart as it looked a simple design to test this out on. I made my hearts1/2 inch tall and placed these in a diagonal pattern on the screen then hit cut.

When I comes out save the hearts from the middle as these can make embellishments or another style of embossing sheet (by sticking them to a sheet of card)

Now you can run this through your cutting/embossing machine or emboss by hand.

To use it in an embossing machine you need to make up a sandwich of plates the same way as if you were embossing a die (ie your plate, embossing tan mat, paper or card you want to emboss, you handmade embossing sheet then another plate) this gives a light emboss (depending on the thickness of your homemade embossing sheet)

My favourite way to use it is by using it in a similar way to an embossing board from Crafters Companion ultimate Pro. I put my handmade embossing sheet onto a craft mat (it needs to be a hard surface) then place your paper or cardstock ontop.  

For this example I used coredinations cardstock. I then got an embossing tool (from my ultimate pro) and lightly rubbed over the cardstock to reveal where the hearts were (This doesn't show on the other side so don't worry, as long as your not heavy handed)

I then rubbed my cards where each heart was so it embossed the paper. I carried on until I'd done all the hearts and ta-dah!

I can't wait to try this with other designs like Mickey Mouse ears! 

Love Is In The Air - Through The Purple Haze Challenge

 This week the challenge at Through The Purple Haze Challenge Blog is Love Is In The Air and the sponsor is Sassy Studio who have given us some lovely digis to work with

 

http://buysassystudiodesigns.blogspot.com

I a this Princess Leia style digi. It reminded me of when I dressed up as her for a friends party with the double bun wig.....at the moment my hair is so long and thick I think I can actually get the look myself! Anyway....back to the card.

I decided to make a valentines card for my husband using this digi. I coloured it using Spectrum Noirs and as her dress and boots are white I used IG1 and IG2 to give it a bit of shadow in the folds to give it depth.

 

I then cut it out (very rare that I cut things out that intricately) and put her to one side. 

I cut out a range of scalloped edge hearts in different sizes from glitter card and kraft card on my Cricut Mini and layered them up over to the right of the card. To save card the only heart that was full was the front heart, all the hearts are hollow so it saved wasting card. I then added 'to my husband' using text from the Wall Decor Cricut cartridge and added this to the front of the heart. 

I wanted to put the digi to the left of the heart but as I had used foam squared on the heart I had to do a bit of scaffolding work on the bag of the digi stamp. I used off cuts of card and stuck foam pads to the back of the digi, added small offcuts of card, another layer of foam pads, another layer of card off cuts, foam then stuck it to the card. This makes her stand out better and she is still sturdy (luckily I don't need to post the card!)

I added some more hearts in the corner as it looked a bit bare in the bottom right.

I really love this digi and all the amazing digis at Sassy Studio especially the Disney Princess inspired digis (I loveeeee Snow White and Belle!)

Why not pop over to Through The Purple Haze Challenge blog and see what the other design team members have made and take part in this weeks challenge.

http://www.throughthepurplehazechallenges.blogspot.co.uk/

I have entered this card into the following challenges

Challenge #99 - Men cards only - http://cardsundmore-challengeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/challenge-99-men-cards-only.html?m=1

http://www.craftysentiments.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/love-is-in-air-and-dt-call.html?m=1 - Crafty Sentiments Love Is In The Air

http://cuttinandstampinchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/weekly-challenge-14-5.html?m=1 - Weekly Challenge #14 -5

http://ladybugscraftsinkchallengeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/for-one-i-love.html?m=1 - For the one I love