Skylanders have landed!

Hi everyone,

Do you know what or who Skylanders are? No, neither did I. Not having young children anymore I have lost touch with lots of the TV programmes and children's characters of today, but I was asked to make a card by my friend whose grandson is mad about them so I had to do a little research. Eventually I found some copyright free images to use from the internet and this is how it turned out...



 



I thought I would try my hand at an easel card this time.

 

 

I'm not sure if you can see in this picture but I did some decoupage of the figures in the centre.

I made this panel into a pocket to hold some swap cards that I created from the characters. He is going to be seven years old so perhaps he will enjoy those. I raised up a border on 3d tape for the easel stopper and printed a verse. All the pictures and verse were created in the graphics program 'My Craft Studio', I use this nearly every time I make a card, it's so versatile. The 'Happy Birthday' are Britannia Dies and the name is made from silver peel-off lettering coloured green with a Dufex permanent marker. 

 

 

Here is a view from a different angle, maybe you can see the 3d and the swap cards better.

And a close up...

 

 

 

When I was a child I think I might have been frightened of these creatures, they are a bit gruesome. I can remember watching Doctor Who from behind a cushion.

 

Well, it's getting dark here as I'm writing this post, I hate it when the evenings draw in, autumn is definitely on its way :(  So I will finish up now and hope to see you again soon.

 

Lorraine

 





Got The Blues

Hello Crafters....
....I haven't really got the blues, it's just that for two days in a row I have somehow been drawn to make blue cards and I never use that colour normally. I was asked to make a card for a lady whose birthday is coming up soon and her favourite colour is.....blue.
Here it is....

The layout of this card was inspired by an example I found on Pinterest (bad place, I spend far too much time looking at stuff, lol.) I'll put a link to her boards, she makes some wonderful cards. Paperpastimes .

I used:

 

Couture Creations embossing folder-Tied Together

Spellbinders Dies- Splendid Circles, Classic Circles, Fancy Lattice and Nested Pennants
Die-namics Die- Fancy Flourish

Flowers- Wild Orchid Crafts

Pearls- Woodware pearl border

Sentiment- Waltzingmouse Stamps
 

 

 I'm going to enter this for the Papertake Weekly Challenge . 'Flower Power' . This will be my second entry but I'm sure you are allowed up to five. So fingers crossed coz the sponsor this time is The Ribbon Girl and I would really love to choose some goodies from there, great range in flowers, ribbons and trim.

 

Well, the family are hungry again I can hear their stomachs from here, lol, crafting hat off and cooking hat on.

 

See you soon,

 

Lorraine



Flower Power

Goodness! It's a whole week since I last blogged, where does the time go?
I've been really busy with family this week so crafting time has been limited. I have still managed to look at all your blogs though, and there have been some stunning cards from you all to inspire me, so, here's what I came up with...

I thought I would try a different shape card this time, I seem to be stuck in a rut of just grabbing an A5 card blank so it's time to change it up a bit. I looked around the internet and found this centre step card fold, so here it is....

 

 

I also gave myself a bit of a challenge to use the colour 'blue'. It's one colour I tend to avoid using, I think it turned out ok, don't you?
I stamped the image and coloured it using my Promarkers and then gave the petals a coat of Glossy Accents. The oval mats are Spellbinders  Classic Ovals and Floral Ovals Dies. The rest of the card was made up of matted layers of patterned paper from Papermania and lots of silver peel-offs. Oh, and a blue ribbon bow.

Today I would like to enter my card into the Papertake Weekly Challenge - 'Flower Power'.
Take a visit to their page and check out all the creations there and maybe join in yourself, it's great fun.

Enjoy your day,

Lorraine

21 Again !...

...I wish, lol.
My 21st Birthday has long since passed, but these two cards are going to be for my future Son-in-Law.  He's turning 21 soon and I was asked to make them by other family members, that's a total of four cards now that I have made for this birthday and I am rapidly running out of different ideas. They were both created entirely with the 'My Craft Studio' software and printed onto photo paper.

I have matted each layer on to black cardstock for definition and die cut the numbers with an MFT Die-namics die, then heated clear embossing powder to make them shine.
I hope he likes them.

Well I must go now, I have a hungry family waiting to be fed.

Happy Crafting
Lorraine

Papertake Weekly Challenge - take two

Don't you love a happy ending?
Friends of mine have finally decided to tie the knot so I have made this little 6 x 6 card for them.
I would also like to enter this in the Papertake Weekly Challenge.

The image is from Lili of the Valley and coloured with Promarkers.
Spellbinders Dies were used for the frame and banner.
Flowers were from Wild Orchid Crafts.

This is short and sweet today folks, sorry.

Happy crafting

Lorraine

In The Pink - challenge

Good morning everyone, do you feel in the pink?

Well they do at In The Pink that's where I am entering this little pink beauty today for their 1st Birthday challenge.

 



The girl is a pre-coloured Kenny K, die-cut card topper from Hobby House . These are good to use if you are not very confident colouring images yourself or if you just want to make a quick card.
The papers are from a Papermania pad and my ever faithful Spellbinders dies and a few punches to finish it off.
Well I'm off to make a start on a 21st Birthday card now - lots of relatives hitting big birthdays, lol.

See you soon

Lorraine

Papertake Weekly Challenge

Today I thought I would enter this pretty New Baby card in to the challenge taking place on Papertake Weekly.

 

                                                                                                                                                                          

The theme this week is 'Anything Goes'.

 

I've used a selection of different cutting dies on this card, here's a list:

• Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels Twenty-Five
• Spellbinders Nestabilities Majestic Labels Twenty-Five (Love these new dies)
• Spellbinders Shapeabilities Fancy Framed Tags One
• Marianne Creatables LR0218 (Pram)

 

I embossed the yellow cardstock with my favourite embossing folder 'Tied Together' by Couture Creations and added an adhesive pearl where the pattern intersects. Finally I stamped the sentiment and added an organza bow and pale yellow cabochon.  







 Hope you like it,

Come back soon,

Lorraine

Craft Challenge!

What a beautiful, bright, sunny and warm Monday morning we have here in Norwich - hope you are all getting the same.
Today I would like to share with you a Door Hanger that I altered for a challenge over on Country View Crafts . This month the subject is 'Quotations & Sayings' hopefully I have complied to the rules.
Here goes:

 



It started off as a plain chipboard tag that I painted with brown acrylic paint, then added crackle paint in Antique Linen before spraying it with Cosmic Shimmer Mist in Rich Gold. Then came the fun part - the embellishing. Small ribbon pieces from my stash, key and lock are a Sizzix Alterations die - 'Hardware Findings' cut from Tim Holtz grunge board painted and shimmered in the same way as the tag itself. The larger flowers and leaves are from Prima, I believe, the small ones are Wild Orchid Craft flowers. A small length of trim in a bronze colour, again from my stash and two glass dewdrops in red. The 'DREAM' ticket is from a strip of Adage tickets from Tim Holtz Idea-ology range which I am trying to using sparingly because I love them too much. Finally, the sentiment is from a stamp set from Stampers Anonymous 'Stuff To Say' inked on to cream cardstock and heat embossed with red embossing powder.

I really enjoyed the process of making this tag and it's the first time I have made anything like this. It was a little out of my comfort zone to create grungy and tattered, I usually stick to cute or classic styles. But I think it turned out ok.
Would love to hear your comments on it.

Well, bye for now

Lorraine

Two Cards !

...I'm on a roll here.
Hi everyone, tonight I have two cards to share with you, completely different styles.
The first one was commissioned for a 1st Anniversary so I kept it classic and mostly white with  bronze and gold touches.
The background is using one of the new 8" x 8"  Die'sire Embossalicious folders called 'Rose Garden'. I like using these larger embossing folders because I usually make A5 size cards and these larger folders mean I don't have to make a join in the pattern. I also used some of my Spellbinders' dies to make the frame and the filigree border at the bottom. The leaves and swirls were Magnolia Doohickey and Marianne Creatables dies respectively. Hope you like it?

My other card tonight is a cute card that I made for my Great-Niece, she will be 3 soon -  as you can see from the speech bubble I created on my Silhouette Cameo cutting machine. I watched a tutorial on You Tube from destamperjo , showing the process and it was quite easy.
The papers I used and the cute cat image came in a set which were free on a magazine, they are from the Wild Rose Studio - Milton & Co collection.

 

.... and finally, as you may have noticed, I've used another Flair Button from 36 Shades of Flair, I really love these embellishments, just right for this card.
Well bye for now...
..enjoy your weekend.

Lorraine

My First Christmas Card This Year.....

.....only 49 more to go :/
Hi everyone thanks for stopping by.
Thought I would start the new month with my first Christmas card as I have quite a few to make each year. It's quite hard though, creating Christmasy things when the sun is shining outside and it's in the very high twenties, but still it has to be done.
This little 'fella' is a Santa topper from The Range, the papers and ribbons are from my stash. I've managed to collect rather a lot of festive goodies over the years so I haven't had to buy any this time, hubbie will be pleased.

The cute little flair button in the corner is part of a set from 36 Shades of Flair . The owner, Kimberly had a giveaway on her Facebook page and I was the lucky winner! Take a look at all the other great buttons she has there and in her Etsy store, there's one for every occasion.
Well this won't do, I must get on, lots more cards to make and housework to do somewhere in between.
See you all later,

Happy Crafting

Lorraine