Artist Trading Coin - Simply Cards and Papercraft Magazine Issue 186

It must be the sunshine that has sent me into a spin of tidying this morning.  I decided to tackle my craft desk as it was starting to get difficult to find space to work.  But then I got distracted.  This often happens as obviously everything is far more interesting than tidying and cleaning.

I was sorting through my craft magazines.  Storing the free stamp sets, saving the odd article and then popping the rest of the mag in the recycling.  

While doing this I came across a tiny little stamp on a sheet of goodies that came with Issue 186 of Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine.  Although the stamp was small, the sentiment actually packed quite a punch, reading "If it doesn't make you feel fabulous, don't do it, don't buy it, don't keep it!  Which made me smile.

That is the point that I became distracted.  I grabbed an off cut of oxide background, stamped the sentiment.  Also with the stamp came a cute little triangle stencil, so I popped some ink through that and then die cut the circle.  I layered the front, middle and back with glue and then inked the edges.  

See how easily I'm distracted?  I can't face the remaining pile of magazines, so I may take heed from the sentiment and pop them in the recycling - minus the freebies, obvisously.

Engagement Congratulations Card

I've been going through my magazines today.  Pulling articles out for keeping and putting the rest in the recycling.  While doing that, I came across a number of freebies, so with some of them, I made this card.

The trellis background, the birds and the sentiment were all free with issue 186 of Simply Cards and Papercraft.  The trellis was a stencil which I put Distress Inks through.  

I stamped the birds onto the trellis and also onto a piece of plain card.  On the trellis piece of card, I coloured the branch that the birds are sitting on in a brown Promarker.

Returning to the stamped image of the birds on the plain piece of card, I coloured the birds using a moist paint brush and water colour pencils.  I then cut the bodies and heads of the birds out (I didn't cut the branch or the bird feet).  I then went around the edges of the cut out birds with a black felt pen.  Using foam pads to elevate the image, I stuck the birds on top of the earlier stamped bird image on the trellis to provide a puffed up 3D body effect.

I then punched a little heart and added it above the birds and mounted the image onto the same pinky/red background, trimming to size.

I found an embossing folder which came free with and earlier issue of Simply Cards and Papercraft (issue 170) and ran it through the Big Shot and trimmed to size.  I mounted the bird image onto the embossed background. Digging around my pre cut die cut box, I found the two green foliage pieces that I thought would work and added these to each side of the card.

Week 51 - 52 Week Mini Art Card / Tag Challenge 2018

So it's the penultimate week of the 2018 tag challenge.  How the time has flown.

The prompt for Week 51 is "Christmas Decorations"

For my tag, I went the traditional bauble shape.  I made a background by masking off a circle for the moon and then using various shades of blue and grey Distress inks to create the night sky.  While the mask was in position I splattered Gesso using a fan shaped paint brush to create the snowflakes.  I then left the Gesso to dry.

Using plain white card and dies that came free with issue 168 of Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine, I cut two layers for the snow scene.  I then die cut into a circle and layered the scenes using foam pads.

Returning to the sky scene, I removed the mask and dabbed some Distress ink to shade the moon,  I then die cut the sky-scape into a circle too and then layered the snowe scene . onto the sky-scape.  

Finally I added a little rectangle to the top using an off cut of the sky and punched a hole through it to allow for hanging.

Hello Dear Tag (Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine)

Playing with off-cuts of patterned paper, I made this tag.  The Dear/Stag stamp,die and sentiment were all free with Issue 167 of Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine.  Once everything was stuck down I inked the edges to tie it all in together.

Male 60th Birthday Card

I am trying to plan forward by making cards needed for September.  Our friend celebrates his 60th this year so I decided to go with a bottle of wine.

I started off by making a background with a leaf stamp by Oak House Studio on green cardstock.

I used a piece of burgundy coloured cardstock and put it through the Big Shot using a Stampin' Up embossing folder called "Oh My Stars".  I then dotted the centre of each star with a metallic gold pen and rounded the corners of the rectangle using a corner punch.

I cut the green bottle using a template from "Simply Cards & Papercrafts Magazine" issue 166, then using stamps free with the same magazine.  Next, using the Cricut, I cut the number 60 in the same burgundy cardstock.

I used a gold metallic pen for the top of the bottle with a couple of bands of ribbon to imitate the foil on a bottle.  I then added a small tag with the name of the recipient

Welcome To The World - Baby Card

This weekend my Simply Cards & Papercrafts (issue 163) subscription magazine arrived through the letter box.  This month there is a nice corner die and a stamp set featuring strawberries.

As I had time to kill, I decided to play with the die set, cutting six corner sections to create this card.  I then cut two layers of Spellbinders shapes to stamp the sentiment on.

Published Card - Simply Cards & Papercraft Magazine (issue 159)

I had a pleasant surprise this afternoon.  While flicking through "Simply Cards & Papercrafts" magazine (issue 159), I spotted a card I had submitted to them back in the summer.  Later this afternoon, Postie delivered a free gift in relation to the published card, three packs of decoupage papers.

The Daisy Card

Another night of minimal sleep, so I got up and made this card.

I used the free embossing folder from issue 153 of "Simply Cards and Papercraft".   I've had the daisy stamp for a while, which I stamped into white card. I then die cut the image to provide the stitched edge detail.

I coloured the image using Promarkers and then mounted it onto matching card stock. I added some shiny flowers to the middle of the daisy for dimension.

A Time To Celebrate Card

This card uses a mix of stamps some from my stash but the flower stamp was one of the freebies from the "Simply Cards And Papercrafts" issue 153 magazine.

This card started off as something else and as so often happens ends as something totally different.  I stamped the flowers & the butterfly onto white cardstock and coloured them using water colour pencils.  I gave a hint of gold (pen) to add a little extra interest. 

I embossed a piece of cardstock using a Cuttlebug embossing folder and then played with positions and background colours before sticking anything down.  Once I was happy I glued, I gave a feeling of dimension by layering the flowers in a decoupage style.

I then looked for a suitable sentiment.  I have a lot of stamps but sometimes it is very hard to find the right one.  I seem to think that this one came free with a magazine many years ago. I stamped the image and then die cut it into a circle.    The butterfly was then glued and positioned.

Inside the card, there is also a stamped and coloured image of the flower used on the front of the card.

A Little Thanks Card

This frog stamp was one in the free set from Simply Cards & Papercraft (issue 153) magazine. The sentiment is from a Stampin' Up set called "One Big Meaning".

I used Faber Castell pastels for colour and highlighted ares with a subtle gold colour using a Sakura Gelly Roll Pen.