Polka dots, pink & a bow - Pink Elephant challenge

Well, finally - I've made a card for the Pink Elephant challenge! It's been so long ... and I've missed it - these challenges are great, and I really enjoy seeing what everyone comes up with.

Anyway, the challenge this week was "Polka Dots, Pink & a Bow" ... the background is handmade paper, with a strip of builders tape over the top. I used a pre-made tag, and stamped swirls and the word "Adore" with Shabby Shutters Distress ink, then backed it with black card - embossed it with CB Swiss Dots, wrapped lace and ribbon around the bottom, stapled Polka Dot ribbon to the top, and attached the tag to my card. The butterflies are CB die-cuts, and the circle is a pre-made one, embossed with Swiss Dots.

This was a pleasure to make, and I can't wait for the next challenge!

Cuttlebug hearts

It's been MONTHS since I last posted on this blog - due to family and personal crisis' ... but 2010 is going to be a much better year than 2009 ... that I'm sure of! I've made a lot of cards in the last 12 months - and it's time for me to start sharing them again ... so, here we go!

This card was made for a NZ Mail Art swap - the theme was "Hearts". I rounded and inked the the edges of the background paper, embossed the striped paper with the Cuttlebug "D'vine Swirls" folder, put it on top of a dovetailed piece of ribbon, inked the edges of CB die-cut hearts and used foam squares to attach them.

Button Card for Pink Elephant Challenge

This is my entry for the Pink Elephant challenge - the theme this week is Buttons. I had a lot of fun making this card, the brown background strip, and the slider are cuttlebugged, and the button is a gorgeous flower one that I found while going through my stash!

The tag is from a C & COMPANY tag pad ... there's 24 tags in the pad - 12 different ones - all lovely. I bought two different pads, and the tag I used is from the pad called "Life's Journey". They're 11cm x 6 cm, and fit beautifully on cards.

Moments that take our breath away

These three cards were made with a sentiment stamp from Rubbadubbadoo - this is one of my favourite sayings, and one that I agree with wholeheartedly! The top card has a sb paper background, with a cuttlebugged (Divine Swirl) piece on top. I used my corner rounder on the cb piece, and glued cb flowers on top, with rhinestones on top of them.

All of the images and sentiments on these cards have been stamped onto thick brown card - thicker than ordinary card, but not as thick as chipboard. I also made the embellishments from it - it goes great thru the cuttlebug!
The stamp on this one is from Montargo, and is my fav stamp (yes, I LOVE seahorses!! LOL) ... sb paper background, rhinestones, and a cb star. The little dots are Crystallina Kindy Glitz.
I really like this stamp - it's from Stampabilities - and the saying on it is "Carpe Diem" - Seize the Day - which goes rather well with the Rubbadubbadoo sentiment. The background card is brown, and I inked the edges of the light brown card with black ink - and if you look carefully you can see the Kindy Glitz in the wings, and the centres of the cb flowers.

Cards for men

The stamped image on these cards is one of my favourites from Rubbadubbadoo, I think it's perfect for a masculine card ... I enjoyed making the first one so much that I just kept making them!! LOL

I stamped the image onto sb paper in the top left corner, and cuttlebugged the right side, and rubbed an ink pad over the cb impression on 3 of them - this is a fun technique, and one that my dh particularly likes on my cards ... the D'vine Swirls looks good done this way, as does the Sylized Flowers ...

Christmas cards for my mother

"Surfin' Santa" - x-st & cuttlebugged. The mount behind him is card that I covered with fabric. The design is from a Xmas x-st book that my dh gave me for an early Christmas prezzie!!
"Waving Santa" - x-stitched & cuttlebugged - the stars are from the Warehouse, they're very glittery in real life.

I loved stitching these snowmen - they're so cheery!
X-stitch penguin - mounted on white card, then on black. The cuttlebug background is the "Snowflake" border.
"Xmas Ornaments" - x-stitched from my new book - thank you DH!! You can't tell from the scan, but the back stitch is all done in metallic threads ...

These cards were all made for my mother for Christmas - I gave her 12 hand-made Xmas cards, all boxed up in 2 gift-wrapped and decorated boxes. This was definitely a good gift for someone that has everything, and didn't really need any more "stuff" ...

Cuttlebug 90th birthday card

I made this card for a friends 90th birthday - she belongs to our local Embroidery Guild group, and they were having a party for her - and needed a birthday card, which I was asked to make. I consider this to be an honour, as she is a very special lady, with a wonderful attitude, and a wicked sense of humour - which is why I think she got to be a wise, wonderful and healthy 90 year old!

The card is quite a bit bigger than my usual ones, as it needed to be large enough to add a few names and messages, so I started with a large envelope, and made a card to fit! lol As you can tell, I used my cuttlebug for all the backgrounds - and all that I added was a few rhinestones, and a bit of Kindy Glitz ... the ladies were very happy with it, and tomorrow I'll find out if the recipient liked it ...

Inked Cuttlebug folder

I made this card after reading in one of my Yahoo groups about inking the inside of Cuttlebug folders - brayer ink INSIDE your folder (on the underside), insert card, and run thru your cb. This works well with Adirondak inks - it doesn't hurt or stain your folders, just clean well when finished. The flowers have been stamped then cb'd with the "Textile" folder, and the bg with "D'vine Swirls" - the cat is from my "Cat" folders - outlined with Silver Sharpie.

X-stitch Cat

And while we're on the subject of cats - my daughter stitched this cat for me, and I wasn't sure what to do with it. Then I bought a cuttlebug cat die that was just perfect! I've used the cat die-cut on quite a few cards (will share some soon), and these are the little extra's. Isn't the mouse cute??

Cat cards

I recently bought these cat stamps (Inkadinkado), and have had a lot of fun with them! There's 18 different stamps in the set, including words, some of them are elegant cats, and some are playful - and I love using them all!

The top cat was stamped on white card, and I used a corner punch to put notches in the corners, then I wrapped #8 Pearl cotton around it. Under the image is builders tape (this is self adhesive), and corrugated card, and the sentiment is from Rubber Bandits Stamps.

The middle cat was mounted onto black card, then onto a cuttlebug (Fantasy Flowers) and sb paper background. The flowers were punched out - the sentiment is from the set.

The last cat has a Sharpie border, as does the sentiment (W/house). The cuttlebug backgrounds are Stylized Flowers, and Bubbles.

Autumn

This was made for a Yahoo group swap, the theme was Autumn - I love the season, but am not that keen on the colours, orange, yellow and brown are not me. So this took me out of my comfort zone, which is a good thing.

I used my Birds and Swirls cuttlebug folder for the background paper, and brown cardstock for the card. The leaves (from the Warehouse) were stamped onto sb paper, as well as the letters (WH). The chiffon ribbon is from the $2 Shop - gold complimented it perfectly - and I used brads to attach the sb paper to the background. I'm really happy with how this turned out, and will probably make more cards with these colours!

Fish card for a man

Cards for men are always difficult to find - especially nice hand-crafted ones, most of us struggle with masculine themes. Fishing, sports, hobbies, sheds, gardening, cars, animals (not cats usually, unless they're BIG cats!), trucks, boats ... these are some ideas for you to use for the men in your life.

This fish pic was given to me by a friend - she knew that I needed to make some cards for men, and thought that this would be perfect - which it is! The flourish stamp (Hero Arts) looks like a fish hook, and the colour of the sb paper complements the fish. The sentiment is from the Warehouse, and yes, that is a small piece of cuttlebugged card behind the fish! To give the fish dimension I used foam squares to attach it to the card.

A friend is forever - x-stitch

I LOVE X-STITCH!!! I do quite a lot of it, and always have a couple of large projects on the go, but I enjoy doing small projects that I can put onto my cards. I made this for a good friend - the x-st is done on 14ct Aida, the background is two different sb papers, with red cuttlebugged strips to cover the joins. The flower is stamped (from Kiwi Stamping), then cut out.