Black and White Birthday

I have made this birthday card with the bonus challenge at Emma's Cards in mind. You can find the challenge here   http://www.emmascardsuk.com/p/sketch-challenge.html
The sponsor for this special challenge is the lovely Audrey from The Lilac Garden and the theme is based on a sketch which you can see further down.

I started by using a poppy digi from one of my MCS discs and tiling it to make the backing paper. I then layered that onto black card and matted them onto the front of an A5 card blank, leaving a thin white border all the way round. I took the image of the lady from Joanna Sheen's Dancing With Shadows CD and digitally cropped her into an oval,  then gave her a black border, again in MCS. I also created the sentiment at the same time.
I made the center strip by layering black card onto silver mirri card and wrapping some lace around it. I then fixed it to the card before mounting the oval image on foam pads and placing on the card.
I hand cut the number 30 twice, once from black card and again from silver mirri then mounted the silver 30, slightly off-set, onto the black one for dimension.
The embellishments include a Memory Box scroll and a couple of Crealies scrolls die cut from silver mirri, some Foundation flowers, coloured with Promarkers and some black fluffy feathers. I added Candi to the flower centers and a few Cosmic Shimmer pearls for the finishing touches.
This is the sketch:

Lake House Bird Bath

I made this card is using my new favourite find: The Lake House Collection from Kaiser Craft. I'd like to enter it in Emma's Crafty Challenge at  http://www.emmascardsuk.com/p/emmas-crafty-challenge_05.html   The theme for this month's challenge is a sketch created by Emma Goddard, see it at the bottom of this post.
06/07/12- I am proud to announce that this card won the challenge. There were so many lovely entries, so I am thrilled to bits.

I used the trailing flower border stamp from The Lake House Collection to create the background for the 8"x8" card blank, and the strip across the centre, by stamping with Memento Rich Cocoa ink and then using Antique Linen, Old Paper and Spun Sugar Distress Ink to colour the white card. I stamped two borders on the 6"x6" paper from the collection and gave it the same Distress Ink treatment. 

The Bird Bath main image was stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured with Promarkers. Again I used Distress Inks to colour the card. I then matted that on gold mirri card. The embellishments are a lace ribbon and Foundation flowers coloured with Promarkers. The sentiment was created in MCS and inked to match. Cosmic Shimmer dots to finish.
This is the sketch for the challenge:

Michael Powell Stamp

This is just a quick post to show a card I made for a challenge at That Craft Place. http://thatcraftplaceblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/sketch.html This is is sketch for the challenge, I rotated it to the left to make a portrait style card.

I used one of the fabulous Michael Powell stamps for the main image and coloured it with Promarkers. The backing papers are from Hunkydory and the sea shell dies are from Marianne.

I used Distress inks to colour them and the doily. Other embellishments include 3 plastic shells and baker's twine to create a bit of bunting, some scraps of paper for tags and cosmic shimmer for pearl dots. I think this is a perfect stamp for summer.
You can also find That Craft Place on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/271008489659989/

Making Cards Winner

Today I'm going to brag about my card that won the Star Card in June's issue of Making Cards magazine. I submitted the card to the magazine a few months ago and a few weeks later it was returned with a letter and some lovely peel-offs to thank me. I then gave the card to a friend on the very sad occasion of her beloved horse going to the great paddock in the sky and she loves it.
It wasn't until I received an e-mail from the magazine that I realised my card had won and been published. I'd had such a hectic few weeks, and then a holiday, that I hadn't had time to read my June issue properly. What a fantastic surprise!

I used an A5 blank to create an easel card and inked the edges of the blank and the beautiful Nancy Watt Collection papers from the March issue of Making Cards with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink. I then matted the papers onto a pastel blue linen effect card for the main sections. I wanted to keep the colour scheme to a minimum to flatter the beautiful papers.

I used a vintage pearlescent card from Kanban to create the smaller mats and the die cut bird cage from Marianne. The Marianne leaf flourishes were die cut from white card and coloured with a Pastel Blue Promarker. They were mounted on the card to stand proud when the card is displayed.

A Martha Stewart punch was used to create the stopper which I then wrapped with raffia. All the white flowers and Candi were coloured with Satin or Pastel Blue Promarkers and I finished off with a couple of peel-off sentiments.
I was so pleased with this card and absolutely thrilled that it won Star Card, especially as it was the first time I've submitted to a magazine.

Annual Scrapbook

Despite my best intentions I don't do scrapbooks, but I do make an annual exception for my youngest daughter. Every year, as an early birthday present, she attends a week long residential horse riding holiday. At the end of the week is "Show Day" and parents are allowed to attend. I take lots of photos while the children showcase their new achievements and I use the pictures to make a scrapbook/birthday card for Catherine. Here is a selection of pages from this year's effort.

This year's scrapbook has 16 pages created from Grand Nesties dies and stuck back to back for strength. I used ring binders to attach the pages and tied on ribbons, lace and raffia for decoration.

I went for a grungy, distressed look so I started by colouring each page with Distress Inks and edging with Memento's Rich Cocoa. The mats for each photo were die cut from Spellbinders and given the same treatment.

I embellished the pages with flowers made from Crealies dies and butterflies from Marianne dies. They were coloured with distress inks too and Candi added to the larger flowers.

I also made ribbon tags from inked seam binding and inserted them behind some of the photos. The titles were all created in MCS.

There is one page of journaling and one for the birthday verse but I've not shown those here. I also haven't shown the pages that include photos of other children also on the holiday.

I'm pleased to say that this year's holiday was a success and the scrapbook was well received and has  joined the others from previous years as a treasured memento. Next year, however, will be the last as Catherine will be too old to attend after that and I will have to find something else as the subject of my annual effort at scrapbooking.