Wednesday, 8 July 2009

Red, white and blue...

A quick post this morning with a card combining a few challenges - Penny Black and Our Creative Corner both have a Red, White and Blue colour scheme; the sketch is from The Fresh Batch; My Time to Craft has a music theme; and Charisma Cardz want to see buttons...The image is stamped and coloured with pencils, then matted onto a scalloped rectangle cut with one of my Nesties. I used a circle punch to create the scalloped edge effect, then a bit of patterned paper and some buttons and it was done - easy peasy!

Stamp: drummer from 12 Days of Christmas set by Penny Black
Paper: Die Cuts with a View
Other: scalloped rectangle die by Nestabilities, mini buttons from stash

Nicki, xx

Monday, 6 July 2009

Brrr... cool card!

I'm carrying on with my mission to build up my stash of Christmas cards nice and early this year, and it's actually quite nice working with snowy scenes and cool colours during the hot weather! Here's a card for the sketch challenge at Moving Along with the Times and the Christmas in July theme at Stamp Something...This is the sketch and there's an optional colour scheme of Ice Blue and White which is perfect for a Christmas card. I covered the whole front of my base card with Let It Snow text paper, then added a strip of pale blue pearlescent card with some snowflake print ribbon on top. I stamped the snowman image in icy blue and inked the edges of the panel before layering it onto a Nesties shape and adding some gems. The snowflake is die cut and embossed, the swirls are die cut, and the 'Brrr' panel is from an embossing folder, highlighted with glitter pen.

Stamp: snowman by Habico
Paper: blue pearl card by Paper Mill, Let it Snow paper by Hot off the Press
Other: snowflake die and text embossing folder by Cuttlebug; swirls by Sizzix; dahlia by Nestabilities; gems and ribbon from stash

Nicki, xx

Tuesday, 30 June 2009

Cupcake heaven...

Don't you just love cupcakes? I know I do, and this card has 6 of 'em - yummmy! I made this card with the fab layout at Friday Sketchers; Paper Play has a theme of 'Sweet Treats'; and Pink Elephant asked for your favourite colour combo - easy peasy, it's pink and green all the way... Here's the sketch, it's a really simple but versatile layout. I started with a square white base card, then added some patterned paper with inked edges, matted onto bright green card. I added detail around the eges with faux stitching. The image is coloured with pencils and markers, and I've added glitter glue to the 'icing', then cut it out and made a scalloped mat with my oval Nesties. The flowers are punched with candy dots for centres.

Stamps: cake tier by Stampin' Up; cake sentiment by Debbi Moore
Paper: from the Spring stack by DCWV
Other: flower punch by X-cut; candy dots by Craftwork Cards; rub-on from stash

Nicki, xx

Sunday, 28 June 2009

Moving along with the times...

Not a lot of crafting done this weekend as I've been feeling poorly with this cold and kept having mammoth sneezing fits - not really conducive to cardmaking! However, I did manage to complete this little effort, for the new Moving Along with the Times blog - they used to be Daisy and Dandelion related but are now open to all images so I've used a stamp from a Penny Black set I bought recently... The challenge is this great sketch along with a Wimbledon inspired element - strawberries and cream with a touch of chocolate! How yummy does that sound? I took this element for my colour scheme and used a cream base card, adding a square of red swirly paper as a background. The cute little mouse image is stamped and coloured with pencils before being matted onto red and brown card. I used the same card to make a tag for the sentiment, and two diecut hears which I put through an embossing folder for a bit of texture.

Stamps: mouse from Hugs set by Penny Black; sentiment by Heidi Grace
Paper: from the Christmas stack by DCWV
Other: swirls embossing folder by Cuttlebug; heart die by Sizzix

Nicki, xx

Friday, 26 June 2009

A little bit of gardening...

Yeayy - it's Friday night! Boo - I have a horrible cold!! Just put the finishing touches to my card for the latest sketch at Sunday Sketch and Stamp...
This is the layout - I tweaked it ever so slightly to lift my text a bit higher to a blank area of the image panel, so I added my 3 little flower embellishments at the bottom instead of the top. I made a white square base card and covered it with a panel of double-sided paper, distressing and rolling the edges to show the contrasting colour. I chose this image because it fits the theme of 'In the garden' at My Time to Craft and I think she is so pretty. I coloured her with Pro Markers and mounted the image onto pink and turquoise mats.

I'm also putting this one in at Charisma Cardz - they have a totally open theme this week, anything goes, and you can enter as many as 4 times.

Stamp: Flowers by Elisabeth Bell at Sugar Nellie
Papers: from scrap box
Other: flower punch by X-Cut; paper clip die by Sizzix; peel-off greeting and gems from stash

Nicki, xx

Thursday, 25 June 2009

To Kraft or not to Kraft...

Bit of a Shakespearean theme with my title as this lovely image is called 'Macbeth'! The latest challenge at The Sugar Bowl is a sketch with an extra option to include 'Kraft' card - which is described as being the colour of brown paper bags or envelopes. I wasn't sure that my background paper was the right colour so have taken their suggestion of using browns and creams...
This is Lilian's lovely sketch and I've used a cream scalloped card for my base, topped with a piece of Kraft-like paper with inked edges. The image is stamped in brown and coloured with pencils, the edges inked and then matted onto cream and brown card. I added some texture with the cotton twill tape behind the image and I put the punched flower shape through an embossing folder. I finished it off with a punched speech bubble for the sentiment and some brown and cream swirls.

Stamps: Macbeth by Sugar Nellie, sentiment by Papermania
Card / paper: cream scalloped card by Craftwork Cards; paper from stash
Other: speech bubble punch by Woodware; flower punch by EK Success; swirl die by Sizzix; cream flower by Prima; pearl brad by Papermania

Nicki, xx

Monday, 22 June 2009

My first Christmas card...

I can't quite believe this but I've made my first Christmas card of this year! I don't usually get started until November but I've been inspired by some challenges this week and here's my card...
I found a new blog called Winter Wonderland (thanks Jules!) and this weeks theme is Blue Christmas, and Raspberry Ribbons fortnightly challenge is to create a card using shades of a single colour so I chose... BLUE! Everything on this card is blue - the image is stamped in blue on pale blue card; the background paper and mat strips are blue; and the ribbon is a deep blue although it does look quite purple in the picture!

I stamped the image and coloured it lightly with pencils, inked the edges and layered it onto a slightly larger panel of the same colour to give a frame effect. The sentiment was done with an embossing folder then I inked the letters with a blue glitter pen. The sketch is from Friday Sketchers and this card also fits the challenge at Paper Play which just happens to have a Christmas theme this week. There we go, Christmas in June!

Stamp: from the Snowy Days set by See D's
Paper: from the Christmas Stack by DCWV
Other: snowflake and words embossing folders by Cuttlebug; snowflake punches by X-cut and Personal Impressions; ribbon, snowflake sequin and gems from stash

Nicki, xx

Sunday, 21 June 2009

True love...

Just a quick and simple card from me tonight as I haven't had any time to play today - my lovely hubby took me to Doncaster for the Stamp Magic show. I had a fab time and bought lots of lovely goodies. Here's my card for Rosie-Dee's challenge which is a pink and lime colour scheme...
I've used one of the scalloped cards I bought today, with a lovely Leanne Ellis stamp that was part of the blog candy I won from Elaine at Quixotic Cards. The image is just stamped and coloured with pencils then layered onto pink and green mats. A strip of patterned paper, a frill and some candy dots and it's done.

Stamp: True Love by Leanne Ellis from Sugar Nellie
Paper: from the Sultry collection by Basic Grey
Other: paper frill by Doodlebug; DL scalloped card and candy dots by Craftwork Cards

Nicki, xx

Saturday, 20 June 2009

Please Mr Postman...

I'm back again - I tidied a cupboard, gave my hubby a haircut, then back into the craft room! This card is a combo for 3 different challenges - a sketch; a colour scheme; and the main image was inspired by a song title... I started with this sketch from Sketch Saturday and worked in pink and green because it's my favourite colour combo and just happens to be the challenge at the Secret Crafter this week. Now, over at Stampin' for the Weekend there are 3 song titles from the 60's to inspire you - I chose 'Please Mr Postman' because I've been dying for a reason to ink up this gorgeous little stamp.

I coloured the image with pencils, lightly inked the edges and layered it onto some deep pink card. The scalloped rectangle wasn't actually big enough so I just cut it in half and fixed it either side of the panel. The flowers are punched, with punched circles and shimmery gems in the centres.

I've had another go at a real photo but I'm not convinced I'm good enough - I can't seem to get the same detail as with a scan so might go back to that!

Stamps: Post Box by Sugar Nellie; sentiment from Clare Curd Signature Range by Papermania
Papers: Regency collection by Papermania
Other: white scalloped card by Craftwork Cards; scalloped rectangle by Nestabilities; flower punch and shimmer dots by Papermania

Nicki, xx

A pear and a bear...

Yay, it's the weekend, and that means crafting! Here's my creation for the C.R.A.F.T. and Colour Create challenges... This is the sketch from CRAFT and the colours this week at Colour Create are Strawberry, Raspberry, Kiwi, Tangerine and Blackberry - you have to pick 3 and try to incorporate fruit into your design too. I cut my background squares from a dark purply-black metallic paper - so that is my Blackberry. For the pear image, I inked the stamp with 2 shades of green and a pink then matted it onto matching pieces of card - so that's my Raspberry and Kiwi. I also inked over the sentiment tag in the same colours. The silver flower shape is a fancy paper clip, held in place with one of the gorgeous brads I won in Elaine's blog candy - check out her blog as she has more candy on offer from Quixotic Paperie until 30th June.

I'm trying to move away from scanning my cards and take 'proper' photos instead but typically the weather is not co-operating so sorry this one is quite dark. I need practice and some sunshine! Oh, and see how Little Ted had to get in on the act...

Stamp: Pear by Hampton Art Stamps
Other: sentiment tag by Craftwork Cards; paper clip by Paperchase; brad by Basic Grey

Nicki, xx