Christmas day, the Aussie way

I’ve got a non-traditional Christmas card to share featuring Summer Time Betty from the new Summer Babes collection from Simply B Stamps.

Yes, I’ve put a swimsuit wearing, summer themed Betty on my Christmas card.  Why?  Well my sentiment says it all, this is an Aussie Christmas when the sun is baking hot, the water is warm and togs (swimwear) are the perfect apparel.  I just covered the bow on her hat with some holly and berry and gave her some Christmas coloured spots on her swimmers.

To make up my card I followed the current card sketch over at Feeling Sketchy, swapping out the butterflies for some Christmassy white berries and a seashell.  I also printed my sentiment (a mix of my own and the word art that comes with the image) on a die cut that looked a bit like a sun rather than just having a plain circle element.

Christmas is the theme over at Crafty Catz so I am entering my card in their current challenge.  I’ve also used a lot of green on my card so I’m aslo entering it in the current challenge at Crafty Hazelnuts’ Christmas Challenge.

Ingredients:

Copics

Skin E000, E00, E11, E21 (E02 cheeks)

Eyes B32, B39, 0

Lips R24, R29, R46

Hair E21, E23, E25, E27, E29

Outfit G12, G14, G16, G19, R24, R29, R46, R59, Y21, Y23, Y26, Y28

Dies, SVGs & Templates etc

Spellbinders Shapeabilities ~ Ironwork Accents

Embellishments

13@rts ~ Berries

Holly and Berry Shrinkie (handmade)

Live & Love Crafts ~ Seashells

Inks & Paints etc

Spica ~ Chocolate, Gold & Orange

Tim Holtz Distress Ink ~ Scattered Straw & Wild Honey

Papers

Bazzill Cardstock ~ Nixon

BoBunny Silver & Gold ~ Silver & Gold, Stripes & Winter

Stamps

Simply B Stamps ~ Summer Time Betty

Challenges

Crafty Catz #255 ~ Christmas is Coming

Crafty Hazelnuts’C hristmas Challenge #203 ~ Go green

Feeling Sketchy ~ Card Sketch #108

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Walk like an Egyptian

This is my second week as a guest DT on the Outlawz Sketch challenge where the awesome sponsor is Tamara, aka The Stamping Chef, and I’ve used her gorgeous Nile Goddess on my card.

Here’s the great sketch for this week, which I flipped and resized to a 6x6 square for my card.

Now of course I had to go Egyptian themed and it was amazing what my stash offered up, nothing less than a piece of paper that looks like papyrus, don’t ask me when I got it or where but sometimes I really love my stash!  I printed a couple of lines of hieroglyphics for two of the vertical line elements and raided my stash again for the gold braid for the ribbon element.  In keeping with my Egyptian theme I swapped out the bow for the an ankh that I cut from a metal sheet and then embossed.

You can’t do a card featuring a pharaoh without a whole lot of bling and I’ve got loads on my card.  I wish I’d had another of the triangle Swarovski crystals to put on the bottom of my braid but sadly I didn’t and I couldn’t find anything similar (my stash didn’t come good this time) so I just left the bottom blank.  I used the border part of the Cuttlebug embossing folder as the pattern was better sized but couldn’t get the top of the ankh embossed without flattening the sides again so I added in a bit more bling with a brad to cover it.  I picked my die cut as it was shaped a bit like a beetle and I was going for a scarab shape.  To help with that effect I added clear embossing powder to make it super shiny.

With all my bling and the sparkle on my die cut I am entering this in the current challenge at Southern Girls.  As I’ve used a Stamping Chef image I am also linking this up at their current anything goes challenge.

 

Oh and has my title got you singing yet?  Surely you remember The Bangles’ hit Walk Like an Egyptian, I know it was back in 1985, yes, really, I know, feeling old yet?! but it was a catchy tune.  This lovely image has the right pose and everything so I am entering this in Crafty Catz’s current inspired by a song challenge.

So when you’re finished singing why not come join the fun over at Outlawz, all you have to do is follow the sketch and have fun.

Ingredients:

Copics

Skin E000, E50, E51, E53 (R02 cheeks)

Eyes E33, E37, 0

Lips R24, R29

Outfit BG01, BG02, BG05, BG07, N0, N1, N2, R24, R29, R46, R59, Y21, Y23, Y26, Y28

Chalks & Powders etc

Ranger Embossing Powder ~ Clear

Dies, SVGs & Templates etc

Cuttlebug Anna Griffin Embossing Folder ~ Foundry

Marianne Creatables ~ Petra’s Large Oval

Embellishments

BoBunny Somewhere In Time Ephemera ~ Brad

Flourish with a Bling Pearls ~ Black

Jolee’s All That Bling ~ Multi Color Multi Shape Gems

Swarovski Crystal

Inks & Paints etc

Tim Holtz Distress Ink ~ Antique Linen

Papers

Artools Metal Sheet ~ Copper

Kaisercraft Cardstock ~ Liquorice

Papyrus Print Paper from stash

Ribbons & Trims etc

Gold Braid from stash

Stamps

Deposit Photos ~ Egyptian Hieroglyphics

The Stamping Chef ~ Nile Goddess

Challenges

Crafty Catz #234 ~ Inspired by a Song

Southern Girls #91 ~ Sparkle and Shine with a Bit of Bling

The Stamping Chef #33 ~ Anything goes

Thanks for stopping by!

Not all those who wander are lost

The card I have to share today features another of the super cute images from Simply B Stamps’ new Jude at the Circus collection, Little Hobo Clown Oscar.

Now just because these are images of young children doesn’t mean they are strictly for kids’ cards, indeed, I have made this one for a male friend.  I just picked more adult style paper and an adult theme; in this case I’ve placed Little Hobo Clown Oscar walking along a railway track, just like the stereotypical hobo.

The layout follows the current sketch at Seems a Little Sketchy; I just flipped it so the top became the bottom.  Flipped this sketch just worked perfectly for the one element I’d decided on, which was the railway track, then the little diagonal element told me where I’d place my sentiment.  I cut the railway track by hand, I just printed off a picture of some tracks and transferred them to some Kraft cardstock then hand cut the sleepers, inked them with Distress Ink in three colours to add light and shade and then assembled.  The railway station sign was cut using my Cameo and some shapes I formed up in Photoshop.  The original sketch had three embellies on the outside edge of the oval but I chose to just use the clocks embossed on the cardstock I cut the oval for them, more CAS for a guy card and it allowed me to keep the beautiful embossing showing.

Here’s a view of the inside too, featuring some awesome paper from Tim Holtz that fittingly referenced New York, my friend lived there for some time and it is his favourite place.  I love this quote from Winnie the Pooh, a true philosopher among bears!

Crafty Catz has a boys and their toys challenge, as I said, this card is for a male friend for his 51st birthday (do boys ever grow up?) and boys do love their toy trains so I’m entering my card in the challenge.

Ingredients:

Copics

Eyes B91

Lips E02

Hair T4, T6, 100

Hat & Coat E40, E42, E43, E44, E47

Pants & Tie B91, B93, B95, B97, B99

Shirt Y23, Y26, YR20, YR21

Vest & Hankie Bag R24, R29, R46, R59

Shoes E23, E25, E27, E40, E42, 0

Inks & Paints etc

Tim Holtz Distress Cardstock ~ Forest Moss, Peeled Paint, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo & Walnut Stain

Papers

Core’dinations Cardstock ~ Kraft

Core’dinations Timeless Clocks ~ Hermit

Core’dinations Tim Holtz Distress Cardstock ~ Peeled Paint

FabScraps Timeless Travel ~ Map 2

Kaisercraft Cardstock ~ Liquorice

Studio 75 Special Moments ~ 04

Tim Holtz Distressables ~ Railroad

Stamps

Simply B Stamps ~ Little Hobo Clown Oscar

Challenges

Seems a Little Sketchy #60

Crafty Catz #222 ~ Boys and their toys

Thanks for stopping by!

The flower a tethered butterfly

My project today is a tag, well, actually a tag pocket with a little card inside, a thank you to a colleague who helped me out recently at work.  The front of the tag features a chippie of a Julie Nutting doll called Holly.

To decorate the chippie I started with Gesso and then sprayed with Smooch Glitz, I smoothed the spray with a paint brush to try and give the impression of a flat fabric like satin.  I then used a stencil and some mica to add the butterfly detail to the skirt.  To finish the doll I got out my Copics and just coloured as I would on paper, which seemed to work.

I made the flower embellies too following a tut on the Flying Unicorn Forum where they’ve got a challenge going to make these flowers and feature them on your project.  They are really simple to make but I think they are quite pretty although a tip or two, a heavy designer paper is not suited to what is essentially origami and a ¾” petal is very fiddly to fold.  The front of the tag follows the current sketch at the Outlaw’s sketch challenge, I actually remembered to get a picture of my creation so I can enter this week’s challenge, not like last week when I popped the card in the post before getting a picture!  I did add the bow element to the top and skipped the oval element, I thought Holly was a good replacement being quite tall and thin although not very rounded.

I added a pocket to the back of the tag, inspired by a post on the Flying Unicorn blog by Alda.  I sprayed it with the same Smooch as Holly’s dress and added some more butterflies to match.  I also added some designer paper to the back of the tag to match the front.  I didn’t have a smaller version of the ribbon on the front so I stamped the pattern on some plain canvas ribbon using a bindi stamp.

The little tag that goes inside was cut from a couple of Nesties.  I’ve layered the front of it to add interest and picked up the pearls from the centre of the flower in the corner embellie.  I echoed this on the back of the tag where I also used a resin flower in a matching colour as another of the folded flowers would have been too much.  I’ve left an enormous tail to the tag out of baker’s twine so I can tie this package style around the gift.

Crafty Catz has a thank you theme on their current challenge so I am also entering my tag in there as it is definitely about thanking someone.

Ingredients:

Copics

Skin E5o, E51, E53

Hair E29, E31, E35, E49

Dies, Stencils & SVGs etc

Magenta Mask – Nature Elements

Spellbinders Nestabilities – 5x7 Card Creator &Resplendent Rectangles

Embellishments

Folded Flowers using Marion Smith Mad Tea Party – Spot of Tea

Glitz Wild & Free – Alphabet & Words Stickers

Kaisercraft Pearls – Blush

Leaky Shed Chipboard – Holly by Julie Nutting

Webster’s Pages Whimsies – Lotus Flower Bloom

Inks & Paints etc

Claudine Hellmuth Studio Gesso

ColorBox Chalk – Dark Brown

Mica – Copper

Shimmerz Paints Dimensionz – Blue Lagoon

Smooch Spritz – Emerald Sprinkle & Pralines and Cream

Tim Holtz Distress Ink – Tea Dye

Tsukineko Encore! Ultimate Metallic – Gold

Papers

American Crafts Cardstock – White

Christina Re Designer Card – Shimmering Pearl

Marion Smith Nirvana – Cloud 9

Piatek Trzynastego Magic Moments – Evening in Venice

Prima Tag – Julie Nutting

Studio 75 – Rosalie in the Garden 04

Ribbons & Trim etc

Baker’s Twine – Key Lime & Princess Pink

Green Tara – Lace

Lace from LSS

Maya Arts Canvas Ribbon – Scrolls

The Paper Studio – Canvas Ribbon

Challenges

Crafty Catz #212 – Thank you

Flying Unicorn Forum – Fold It

Outlawz Wednesday Sketch Challenge

Thanks for stopping by!