Cuttlebug Mania Challenge - 'It's a Zoo out there'

We have a lovely theme for this fortnight's Cuttlebug Mania challenge, which starts today - 'It's a Zoo out there' and you can use any animal(s) on your entry.

Details of our sponsor/the prize to be won can be found over on the Cuttlebug Mania Challenge blog, but suffice it to say that Beccy's Place is involved - one of my favourite places to shop for digital images.

You do have to use a manual die cutting/embossing machine for Cuttlebug Mania entries (it doesn't need to be a Cuttlebug but it must be manual, not electronic). And, you can't mix the two, it must be all manual please. Then make your entry, link into the challenge, link to the challenge in your own blog post and and make sure that you also say what products you used for any die cutting/embossing.

This is my DT card:

I used:

- 4.25" x 5.5" white card blank, tent style

- layer of white card, embossed using a Quickutz 'Flowers' embossing folder and glued to a frame of SU's 'Wild Wasabi' card stock before being glued to the card front

- the image is from the really adorable 'Ellie' set, over at Beccy's Place. Printed onto white card and then coloured using Faber Castell 'Polychromos' pencils - with a little bit of blending using Sansodor blending solution and paper stumps

- then I die cut the image panel using a Spellbinders 'Lattice Edge Rectangle' die and glued it onto the embossed panel

- next die cut the swirly leaves and tendrils from a snippet of SU's 'Wild Wasabi' using a Cheery Lynn Designs 'Fanciful Flourish' die and glued it to one corner of the image panel (thereby hiding a small tear in the edge of the border - ssshhh)

- die cut three daisies using my much loved Joy! daisy die set (6002/0024) and paper from the Wild Rose Studio 'Vintage Rose' paper pad and glued those in place

- topped the centre of each daisy with a white Josy Rose nail head - finished!

Oh boy, this really was a struggle to make in the middle of my loss of mojo the other week. Every single step was like wading through treacle!

 

Teenage boy's Birthday card

Oh how I struggle to make cards for boys once they're past the 'cutesy' stage! Len's 15 year old nephew Ben had a Birthday recently and, after almost banging my head on the desk here trying to think what to make, I resorted to buying a digital card set on line. I'm only really posting it on here as my blog also serves as a reminder of who I sent which Birthday cards to, mostly so I don't do any repeats to the same person.

I used:

- 4" x 5.75" white card blank

- a digital card set which came from here, printed onto almost matt photo paper

- trimmed and glued the backing layer onto the card front

- then just cut the top layers and backed them with pieces of white fun foam before gluing them onto the card front. I already said in a previous post last week that a full layer of white foam underneath largish raised areas will help to prevent the card from ending up with 'buckles' here and there, especially after being whipped through the Royal Mail sorting machines!

A really quick and easy card and I do like how the silver outlines look so realistic. There's a £5 minimum spend on the site I bought this from, so I bought a few other card/topper sets at the same time. Now I just need to remember to use them of course :)

And another reminder for myself - this card was made for a little neighbour who is eight years old tomorrow. Card topper designed by my in-house critic - trimming and sticking by yours truly :)

I was really thrilled when a lovely bloggy friend asked if Len would do a repeat of the 'builders' card he designed this Summer - for her little Grandson. Of course he was more than happy to do so and and altered the name and age to suit. Bless her (you know who you are if you're reading this) - she even offered to pay for it! It was a total pleasure to help out and the payment was to know that you and the little chap liked the result.

Merry Monday #190 'Santa!'

It's a lovely theme to the current challenge over at Merry Monday this week - 'Santa'.

And, over at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas challenge it's 'Anything goes so long as it's Christmas' - and at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for February it's always 'Anything goes'.

So my card for today covers all three challenges - plus I used one of the Bugaboo digital images I recently won over at Hazel's too:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- piece of 6" x 6" white card stock for the front panel onto the bottom centre of which I stamped the sentiment using a pre-loved Hero Arts stamp called 'Merry and Bright' and SU's 'Real Red' ink pad

- embossed the front panel using SU's 'Softly Falling' folder and then embossed two parallel lines across using the Hougie board

- trimmed the embossed panel down to an eighth of an inch smaller than the card blank all around and glued it in place

- as said, the cute 'Stocking Santa sack' digi image was part of my prize chosen from Bugaboo. I just re sized him and printed onto white card before colouring with Pro markers. Then fussy cut round the image and ran the edge of a black Whispers marker right round the image to redefine any areas where I  felt I'd cut slightly into the black outline (OCD strikes again!). I then made Santa sit around and twiddle his thumbs whilst I prepared the trees

- grabbed plain green and holly patterned snippets of paper from LOTV's 'Classic Christmas' paper pad and punched three trees using SU's 'Tree' punch

- at that point I realised that adding paper straight on top of quite heavy embossing maybe wasn't such a great idea so I punched out three more trees from a snippet of thin green card and glued these to the backs of the paper trees

- then noticed that the punched white edges of the LOTV paper showed slightly so just ran a dark green Whispers marker round the edges of each tree

- all that was left was to position Santa and the three trees along the top embossed line, to 'ground' them, and then glue in place

I did add a tickle of clear Wink of Stella to the bobble and fur trim on Santa's hat - which you can't see in the photos. Not surprising really 'cos it's very hard to get it to show up in photos. Snort, especially if you only decide the add the tickles after taking, editing and uploading the photo anyhow :)

Di
x

Another Fabulous Shoe

Oh, I do so love the Katy Sue 'Fabulous Shoes' CD at the Newbury craft show back in the Summer.

Made this card a few weeks ago and forgot all about it- all the elements go together so well, images, backgrounds and embellishments - and am sure I've only scratched the surface of what other extras there are:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- all elements, even the plain mauve backing paper, were printed from the CD - mostly as I'd forgotten all about the little trick of just swiping round the edges of plain card with a Pro Marker if you don't have matching plain card or paper. That would save quite a bit on ink I expect

- I thought the card was fine to leave without a sentiment as the background is already quite busy

All unpacked here, a mountain of laundry to do but that will be done bit by bit over the coming few days. There's not actually any pressure for sarongs, shorts etc to be turned round quickly here in the UK right now :(

My next challenge is to actually venture into the craft room (yippeeeee) to make my Rudolph Day card to join in the fun over at Sarn's. There's a lovely Memory Box die on offer, kindly donated by ScrappyMo. I already have the same die and it's one of my very favourite ones for Christmas time too, why not give it a whirl?

Do remember that the Playground is open for a day longer this week :) I hope to do the write-up on Sunday morning ready for a new week beginning at midnight the same day.

Have a super weekend, I think we might be busy tying stuff down in the garden judging by the forecast for 'gale force winds' on Monday :(

Di
x

Playing with Fabulous Shoes

I used:

- 7" x 7" square white card stock

- backing papers, plain, patterned plus the images all came from 'Fabulous Shoes' by Katy Sue Designs, There are 20 different collections on this fab CD, each one is divine. Plus, each collection comes with some really quirky shoe images, decoupage, patterned backing, plain backing, card templates, embellishments - the list goes on. I've only scratched the surface with this card by opting for a single layer image, die cut with a circle and layered onto a scalloped circle

- the scalloped edge down the right hand side was punched using Martha Stewart's 'Traditional Scallop' punch, with little white pearls added

- the sentiment is from the Whimsical Designs set called 'Whimsical Fun - Vol. 1', stamped using Memento 'Toffee Crunch' ink, die cut with a circle die, layered onto a scalloped circle and then a little toadstool embellishment cut out and popped on beside the sentiment

- the ribbon (a much paler mushroom colour in real life) is just tied with a little bow then topped with a toadstool charm tied on with iridescent cord

- then I added some white pearl swirls (bought in New Mexico from a bargain bin). The jury is out here as to whether they stay or not, they're a bit lost in the patterned paper but in real life do add some extra dimension - and if I try to pick 'em off I just betcha I'd wreck the card anyhow. I did ask my in-house critic and he voted for them to stay - much to my amazement.

Two posts from me today, Saturday Supper is below if you fancy cooking something a bit different.

Di
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