DOODLE FLOWER

This was such a quick and simple card to make as well as extremely economical!
It only needed a black pen,and one small off cut of patterned paper, plus some foam pads to 3d the elements (although little off cuts of corrugated card glued both sides would have worked equally as well).
Once I had scribbled/ doodled some flowers on the patterned paper I roughly cut them out, added some extra doodled centres matted onto foam squares, some doodled leaves cut out and finished with a doodled border and handwritten sentiment

I thought this would be a cheerful card to send someone I know who is very under the weather.

The actual design was taken from Claire's challenge at Do crafts, so this detracts slightly from the clean and simple style I have tried to adopt this year, but I did resist the temptation to use ribbons and embellishments as the design used most areas of the card surface.
I was also inspired to doodle on patterned paper as the challenge at DYSU is "patterns". I really like this look and will experiment with this a bit more...it's a great way to use up scraps!

LILY - DIGI TO SKETCH

I decided to have another go at converting a digi image to a pencil sketch....trouble is I didn't think this one through. ...so experienced some problems.

The original post and technique is here

I took inspiration from the lovely bright cheerful picture chosen for Clare's Challenge at Docrafts (apologies for turning it into a sympathy card but I thought it would be useful...thankfully dont need one at the mo!!), plus I decided to enter into Creative Craft Challenge which this time is Monochromatic.........and I decided it would be extravagant to use watercolour card so I thought I would use a standard piece of card (approx 220gsm)..not too bad as there was not much watercolouring to do....which presented the next problem as most of the image was to be white it left a lot of ugly pencil lines to exposed, particularly as I put far too much scribbled pencil on the image to be traced and ended up with lots of nasty smudged areas, the card definately didn't take well to having the marks rubbed off!!!

so this is how it ended up...wasn't very happy with it looked quite tatty!?!?!



In the end I only very lightly traced the image then sketched over with an ordinary pencil crayon. I finished the second one with a PC printed greeting and a piece of grilled organza ribbon (will post more details about that later!!)

DIGI TO SKETCH

I have made this card for a challenge at CRAFT CREATIONS
I also used a free digi image that can be found on their blog. It was perfect for an idea I wanted to try. There are now so many great digi images, many of them free which I do think is amazingly generous of artists to share their work and I think it only right to acknowledge their work and make sure you do not break any terms and conditions they stipulate.

Sometimes I have only wanted to use part of an image or not wanted a black outline or in this case, I wanted to do a watercolour techniques and as my printer is inkjet I sometimes find the outline can bleed into the colour.

So I decided to convert the image into a sketch.......



1.First import the image into "Word" to be resized.
Then draft print the image and roughly cut out the piece wanted.
Turn the image over and scribble over the back with a soft pencil.




2.Attach the image onto card (I used a scrap of Bockingford watercolour paper) with low tack masking tape (I used some cheap insulation tape my husband didn't want as it didn't stick properly...perfect!!)
Trace over the image with a ballpoint pen (it helps to use a different colour so it's easier to see where you have traced)



3.Remove the top image and using a pencil (HB or hard is best) sketch over the traced lines.




4.To colour the image I used ordinary waterbased felt pens. Scribble these onto a plastic sheet and then using a wet paint brush apply.




5.The green was very vibrant so I mixed in a bit of dark blue to darken the shade.

I trimmed the image down and tore the bottom edge and tinted with some more of the pen ink...I really like this effect ...especially as it disguised the dirty finger print I managed to put on the bottom!!


I finished the card by mounting it onto a bit of sandstone coloured card, tied some embroidery thread round and added a message printed on the PC.


I am also hoping to enter this in to CHALLENGE UP YOUR LIFE blog's "clean and simple" challenge....still trying to keep to this style this year!!!

Beach Inspired

This was a very quick card to make....took a little bit longer waiting for the paint to dry!!!

It is for a couple of challenges and primarily for my B-I-L and his partner who recently wrote me a thank you letter..it was such a joy to receive a proper and entertaining letter in the post so I just wanted to acknowledge how much I appreciated the thought. As they live near the sea (lucky things can see the sea from their flat) I took inspiration from a beach look..... plus the tester pots I had in the shed were all very suitable for this theme.

The actual design was taken from Claire's sketch challenge at Do Crafts and the distressed look is the next challenge from DYSU , despite it being distressed I tried to keep to my resolution to keep it simple....slightly difficult bearing in mind the busy sketch plan and distressing which doesn't lend itself to simple!! but I did resist the temptation to doodle round the stamped blocks!

I have found a fab new ink blending tool......MEMORY FOAM INSOLES!! my daughter and I both had to fit some insoles in new shoes and luckily we both have small feet so there was plenty of off-cuts but they were only a £1 a pair anyway. I also cut a square of the foam to make my stamping block.

The design was completed by printing the lettering on my computer and randomly cut out then stuck on, some thread bought from the charity shop (20p!) pulled the design together.

ORCHID CHALLENGE

Well I am on a roll ...I just noticed Claires challenge at Do crafts and thought the thank you card I wanted to make for my Brother's Girlfriend fitted perfectly with the picture challenge.

As Tracy had bought me a beautiful orchid as an extra Christmas pressie I wanted to thank her and show her that it's still alive!!! In fact bearing in mind my fatal touch with plants I am really rather proud of myself.

I photographed the flowers and as an experiment I printed onto tissue to give it a softer oriental feel but still trying to keep to my resolution of "keeping it simple".

Here's a few guidelines if you're thinking of trying it .......learnt the hard way.

• Check your tissue hasn't got a gloss coating....(I found mine had a matt finish on the back).....the gloss side didn't like the ink and it didn't dry properly .........messy mistake number 1 ....Solution print on matt side!
• Attach the paper firmly along the top edge...I found it best to run a glue stick along the carrier paper and stick the tissue down ovelapping....then trim off excess...ALSO attach lightly along bottom....disastrous mistake number 2..if not attached properly, printer eats paper.....aaaaaaaaaggggghhhh!
• If your paper has previously chewed the tissue ...do not put any other proper projects through printer....messy mistake number 3, ink will have been dumped all over roller and will need cleaning and scrap paper run through till clean.
• Make sure the tissue is much larger than image printed and is printed only on the non- stuck down area..... otherwise expensive waste of ink mistake number 4.

Still despite the learning curve.... I was pleased with the result...I'm not sure it shows but it has a lovely soft fabric look to the image.
I left the image on the carrier sheet while i trimmed it in my trimmer...did wonder if I should have had a torn edge??
I then reattached this to card with a glue stick (apply the glue to card.......tissue too thin...mistake number 6!) then trimmed to leave a little white border. I wound a cord round the image(cut from a blind) and fastened the ends at the back, then finished the card by mounting the image on foam pads (or scraps of glued thick card) and adding a PC printed greeting embellished with my revolting (but great for cards) green glitter nailvarnish.

WINTER WISHES - Cute as a button/New Resolutions

I am a big fan of the blog Free Digital Stamps. Its an amazing site bringing together links for lots of free images that people create and generously share for free, and of course a perfect blog when considering card making on a budget. It's through this site I have discovered a great new challenge blog launched last week called Do You Stack Up. Their first challenge is called "Cute as a button". So I created this little snowman as a belated Christmas/Winter Wishes card for a young friend.

I actually didn't want to make the card too Christmassy. I ignored the wrapping paper I was going to use as a backing and decided to chop up some very pretty scouring pads I recently bought....they are so sparkly.... and soft!! (rubbish at scouring though!). I chopped a small square of card and covered it in wide doubled sided tape and stuck on some of the fabric I left a little overhanging edge to softly curl round
A little hat chopped from my teabag box, some of the green fabric for scarf and holly, some facial details with a permanent marker and a greeting from and old xmas card, finished my little snowman off.

I would also like to submit my card for Creative Craft Challenges, another great friendly challenge blog that I love joining in particularly as that blog started at the same time as my blog. their challenge is "New Year resolutions".....and my New Resolution is to try and "keep it simple". I love simple cards but am constantly tempted to overwork cards so I am going to try and not be tempted to keep fiddling with my cards!!....not sure how long that will last?!?

HAPPY NEW YEAR....I'm back

Wow was it really 6 months since I've blogged, I am a let down to the female race, I'm not great at multi tasking!!! I have been quite busy and several things have been happening so I'm afraid blogging took a back seat, but the nice thing is Laura from Creation Fairies has given my blog a lovely new look...BIG THANK YOU LAURA!!! I do actually love it!! and thank you for being patient with me installing it!! especially as you now have your very exciting new challenge to deal with (Laura is expecting her first child!!).

Well I have been busy crafting....of course!! It truly is my escapism but I have also completed a couple of articles for Simply Cards and Papercrafting mag, which I enjoyed but I found quite challenging...mainly because I am quite critical of my own work, I love making but putting it on show is another thing and I constantly look at other blogs and see other cards and projects that are way beyond me. I have to constantly remind myself of my own advice .... card making isn't about who's best it's about the enjoyment and the personal fulfilment., and if I am honest with myself, I love to create clean and simple cards but unfortunately these don't make for really great show pieces....oh well I will continue to explore different things here on my blog.....still with the emphasis on budget creating!!

I have still been true to my blog policy and created a couple of cards without cardmaking things.
I need a quick card for my brother-in-law who was having an operation to help sort his legs out, as i had nothing suitable in my stash I went back to my origins of doodling and drawing cards......it has to be the greatest joke of all as I can't draw for toffee, I have no art training or art background but I found like most people I can doodle and the more careless and less authentic I tried to make it.... the better it looks.

I added some doodled stitched details on the panels after I had taken the photo as I thought it was not quite right and it's surprising how it "anchored" the panels and made them look more incorporated into the card.

This card I made for my "Honoury Aunt", the flower actually came from a table decoration. I pulled the flower apart, trimmed off the plastic stem holding it together, then reassembled it with a glue gun. The label was actually an old Christmas card which I trimmed off, then shaped the top corners to form a tag, The card was also a damaged card blank. I trimmed off the damaged side and added a co-ordinating insert. Again after the picture was taken I was a bit dissatisfied, so I doodled the visible part of the insert with a glue pen and sprinkled it with glitter, this time I just echoed the scroll and holly on the tag.

Well I've done it again...rambled on too much!!! some things never change.

Now just want to wish you all the best for the New Year and most of all... wish you health and happiness in the year to come.

Happy Crafting x