Game of Thrones Birthday Card

You can leave your hat on!

I dare you to use any kind of head gear on your card: party hats, helmets, woolly hats, crowns, fascinators etc.

Thanks for the inspiration Daring Cardmakers!

This is a bit of a cheat of a card, a few stick on crystals, honestly, I know you can hardly see them but they are there, and some gold pen around the edge to frame this image from Game of Thrones, the favourite tv series of my eldest son, whose birthday was at the weekend.  So much for my huge efforts to locate a suitable image (including some headgear) he didn't even recognise it and only 'got' it when he opened his gift, which was a t-shirt from the same programme.  

It doesn't half make you feel old and granny-like when you have no idea about what they are watching, the t-shirt was only right because I consulted my younger son on the details!

January Blues

It's Blue Monday today according to many of the media pundits, when we are all supposed to be at our lowest ebb after Christmas.  Over at Daring Cardmakers, they are having the January Blues too, but in a much nicer way - as a prompt or dare for a card design.

January Blues

You are free to use the title however you want; it could be a "just to cheer you up" or "sorry to hear you're feeling blue" card,  a card with shades of blue as the main colour, or something else inspired by the heading.  Lets chase the January Blues away with some quality time spent getting creative!

This simple card is made with a couple of free papers from Simply Homemade magazine (not recent), a butterfly image from a pad of images I've also had so long that the front page has gone, so I know not from where it came, a ribbon from my ribbon box and a Papermaze greeting.

Elemental Inspiration for Daring Cardmakers

It's been a long time since I made a card, but I saw the Elemental Inspiration challenge come up on the Daring Cardmakers Facebook page and I just loved the inspiration piece so decided to see if I can restart my crafting mojo!

I'm not entirely pleased with this card, however it does meet the criteria for the challenge which is to include elements from the original inspiration, pop over the the site to see the original.  Here are the elements I used:

Colours
Hearts
Vintage woman image
Vertical lines

I haven't made any resolutions this year, but I would like to do a little more crafting, so this is a good place to start.

Happy Birthday Daring Cardmakers

It's the 7th Birthday of the original card making challenge blog, Daring Cardmakers.  I used to be a regualar card maker for this challenge and have also been a guest host.  As I had a few days off, I thought it would be rude not to join in the celebrations.  Take a look over at the Daring Cardmakers blog to find out more about the Birthday Celebrations and the lovely prizes up for grabls.


W is for Walnuts and Wednesday

The Lucky Snapping in 2013 photo prompt this week is Things We Can Eat featuring the letters of the days of the week.  I enjoy eating a few nuts as a snack and also love to bake with nuts which was what I was doing when I snapped these walnuts.

DCM - Patterned Paper

This week it's Leo here and I've got a killer of a dare for you,

 'Patterned Paper Mania'

This week your mission if you choose to accept it is to create a card using a minimum of SIX different patterned papers. 

You can use more if you want to but you must use at least six different ones.

It's some time since I did a DCM dare, but I had a card to  make and a pad of Pink Paislee papers, so the six patterned papers really appealed to me. Pop over to the Daring Card Makers blog to join in.

DCM - Kitchenalia

Websters Pages: Sweet as Cherry Pie & Cafe Vienna (digi) collab from Inspiration Lane

Every now and then I try to take part in the Daring Card Makers dare, this week the theme was Kitchenalia so, given my love of all things kitchen, I  thought this week would be a good week to make a card!

Dare to Waffle!

Websters Papers, bauble style stamps by Elusive Images stamped onto inked background using Dylusions inks and Glimmer Mists.

Daring Cardmakers have teamed up with Kathy's Waffle Sketch File this week for the weekly Dare!

Here is the October Sketch from the Sketch File:

Pop over to the Daring Cardmakers site to see the DT's cards and links to those entered by the 'darers'!

A Krafty thank you

It's Fran's first dare at Daring Card Makers here is what she has challenged us to do:

Feeling Krafty

I'd like you to use 'natural' items on your projects, ie. wood, leaves, kraft card, balsa wood, cork, burlap, rope, natural twine etc. The choice is endless, you just need a bit of imagination!
There is a catch though - you must use 3 natural items not just a bit of kraft card!

 

Background 'wood' stamp - Cornish Heritage Stamp, Thank You stamp - My Mind's Eye

 I was planning on making a thank you card anyway this weekend, so used this dare as my inspiration.  I have five natural items in total, the twig, the string, the manilla tag, a piece of kraft card which I overstamped, and the roses.

Inspired by Banksy!

What a fantastic challenge the Daring Card Makers have set this week!  I really enjoyed being...

'Inspired by Banksy'

If you're not aware of who he is, then pop on by Banksy.co.uk and take a look at some of his amazing street art across the world - you could also try a Google Image search on "Banksy" to find lots of fabulous ideas for your card.

 

 This was the Banksy image I chose to be inspired by and here is my card:

Background was created with Adirondack Dye Pad 'Pebble',  the Victorian girl stamp came in a bundle of pre-owned stamps so I don't know it's origin,  the hearts were a freebie on a magazine.  I even used my own handwriting (shock!) and a bit of doodling to finish it off.

Keep Calm and Sew On!

I'm not really a 'cutesy' kind of girl so the challenge at Daring Card Makers this week really made me think.  

so kawaii!

Kawaii means anything that is lovable, hug-able and basically cute! Think Hello Kitty and food with smiley faces. Most of the colours in kawaii are sugary, fun and bright so I want to see a little fun bright pop colour too.If you're totally stumped this week check out my favourite kawaii blog for some super cute inspiration, http://www.supercutekawaii.com/

I decided that the way to go was with the sugary colours rather than the japanese theme.

I was lucky enough to win this digital kit called 'Sew Cute' (see there is a cutesy element in there!) designed by  Sugarplum Paperie, Danielle Engebretson Designs and Mari Koegelenberg Creation,  from the Sugarplum Paperie blog recently and I just love the sewing themed elements and the fun sewing sentiments.  The whole of the card design is digital, printed out and stuck onto a card blank, the edges of which have been coloured with matching ink.

Honeysuckle

Background photograph altered with PSE filters.  Mandymakes Digital Cardstock Green, Motion Mask from Butterflies and Bluebells.  Digital Flowers - various, Frame- Bailey from Julie Marie.

It's Daring Card Makers start of the month again and June is the month for Roses and Honeysuckle.  I took these photographs last year at Pitlochry, so thought they would be ideal to create a digital hybrid card.

Just sneaking in for Daring Card Makers

It's my friend's birthday tomorrow and she is a librarian, so the Daring Card Maker's challenge 'The Book Club' was a perfect prompt for a birthday card.  However, although I have been on holiday all week, I just got around to making the card tonight.  So I am sneaking in just before the new challenge is launched.    Stamp is from a stamped image from Crafty Secrets (courtesy of Angelnorth).  The cute, heart button has been recycled from an ATC swap from about four years ago!

Daring Card Makers - Year of the Rabbit

Lynda has set the following dare at the Daring Card Makers Blog:

 

The Year of the Rabbit

3^rd February 2011 will welcome in the next Chinese New Year – the Year of the Rabbit. So this week I’m going to let you have TWO options to choose from:-

Make a card with an Oriental feel to it

OR

Make a card that features a rabbit.

I decided to go with the Oriental theme and found that fabulous image on the Art Freebies site, I love how grumpy those two whiskery men look, they remind me of a Chinese version of Statler and Waldorf, the two old men in the Muppet Show lol!  The background paper is K&Co and the circular stamp from an Oriental set from Tanda Stamps.

Ice & Snow

Not very seasonal for those of us in the northern hemisphere where it is probably the hottest day of the year!

However the Daring Cardmakers Dare is set this week by Keryn who is in the southern hemisphere and right in the middle of winter.

I thought I'd dress up my card a little just to create the chilly mood.

This is my card for the dare on a digital windowsill, looking out at a real scene that I took in December last year.

Here is a closer view of the card.  I made the background with Blue Denim Distress Ink and Glacier Glimmer Mist.  The Snowflake is Stewart Gill Galactica Paint in Chrome, stencilled through a template that came with Papercraft Inspirations, simply mounted on silver mirror card.  Digital paper and window element by Irene V. Alexeeva from the Amazing Snow Kit.

Pearls, Peel-offs and Paint!

Over in Daring Card Maker land, it's time for 'jewel of the month' or rather, birthstone and ...

 

The birthstone for June is the

Pearl

We'd like you to use lots and lots of beautiful pearls on your cards this week - or maybe you'll take inspiration from Pearls in another way, for instance the Pearl symbolises loyalty, faithfulness and friendship and is associated with modesty, chastity and purity. 

 

 

 

When I started to make this card, it was not intended to be a DCM entry, but rather a late entry for Bubbly Funk Forum 25th Club, where we have pledged to make a certain number of Christmas cards each month, and the theme was red and green for May. 

I started with the stamped image, which came from a swap, as it had been stamped in Stazon, I couldn't use copics, so decided to dig out my watercolour pencils, which I haven't used for ages.  I also used some other gold paint for the letters.  Then I wondered how to present it and toyed with making an easel card, well I wasn't happy with that, but thought I'd use the fold I'd already made and create something a bit different.

 

As it was a fairly formal image, I didn't feel that inked edges would be right for this, so once again I rummaged about till I found some straight gold peel-offs, which just finished it off as I wanted.  

 

The 'dior' ribbon was made using a tutorial on Gingersnap Creations and when I went to find something to add to the centre I found this little link from an old bracelet with a PEARL on it -  Bingo!

This is the second card I made for the 25th Club.

A perfect fit!

I have been neglecting the Daring Card Makers with all my busy-ness, but this week I have made time to take part in the dare.  The theme is 'Anniversary', now although Brian and I will be celebrating our 29th Wedding Anniversary in June, we don't actually give each other cards, so I thought it better to make a card to give to someone else.  

The chippie jigsaw pieces have been in my 'bag of chipboard' for a very, very long time but seemed to be just perfect for this card.  Papers are all Websters, the butterfly is K&Co Wild Saffron (I still have another two left, I'm very stingy with my favourite stash lol!) The little flower is a Wild Orchid Crafts one and the text is computer generated. 

Flappers

Kathy has set the dare over at Daring Card Makers Blog this week, here is what she has asked us to do:

Getting in a Flap

I'd like to see cards with flaps this week. Little flaps that you lift up or open out to see a secret "something" hidden behind or bigger flaps that form part of the actual card. Maybe even little birdies with wings that really "flap" As long as it's a flap that lifts up from your card it will count - just flat images of a bird or butterfly flapping it's wings won't!

 I used an Elusive Images stamp over a Distress Ink background simply layered up with different cardstock.  Eyelets hold two different coloured ribbons which untie to reveal...

the message inside, another Distress ink background, this time spritzed with water, another Elusive Images stamp fo rthe foliage and a Studio G sentiment stamp.

Ruby Slippers and Sister Act!

If the Shoe Fits...

buy it in every colour, as the saying goes!

We all wear them, don't we? so this week I would like to lots of footwear on your cards.

Boots, shoes, sandals, trainers, ballet shoes, slippers.... the list is almost endless so I'm sure there'll be some fab fancy footwork to admire this week. 
One thing, though - no cheating, please - We don't want any sneaky stuff like "My Tilda's wearing shoes so I'm entering this card" - oh no, we're far too mean to allow!
(and Sue says she'll be checking up on you :-0) 

 

That's the Dare at the Daring Cardmaker's Blog this week and 

here is my card:

 

 

I'm also using the Whispers of Colour prompt on Bubbly Scrumptious for this card, it's Red, white and blue!

 

It's my sister's birthday soon and I've always loved the song 'Sisters' in the film 'White Christmas'.  My sister and I used to sing it to each other, so following the theme of musicals that started with Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend.  I've made this card showing Rosemary Cluny and Vera Ellen with lots of bling and feathers!

I used the Fiskarettes sketch again and this is the card that I am entering into the competition.

A Girl's Best Friend

This week on Daring Card Makers it's the beginning of a new month and therefore it's time for a new birthstone to inspire our card making. 
The birthstone for April is the

Diamond

"How you decide to use the birthstone is up to you, it may be a card for someone who has a birthday during this month, featuring "diamonds. or it may be a card that refers to the meaning or mythology surrounding the stone - anything goes, really as long as somehow the birthstone is hinted at."

I thought that 'hinting' was quite a good idea and, of course, diamonds must mean Marilyn Monroe and Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend!

I've had these papers for a very long time, they are from the Meg Collection from Making  Memories, the font for the sentiment is, of course, Hollywood.  The 'diamonds' and 'sapphires' are from a vintage brooch which has been kicking around in my junk box for  two or three years.  I also tried out a sketch from Fiskarettes which is part of a competition, but you have to make an original project so I can't submit this one.

How Egg-citing!

Daring Card Makers time again, I've managed to get my card done more quickly this week. Lythan has chosen  the theme for the dare this week and it is: Easter Eggs

The vintage image comes from The Graphics Fairy.