Katie's smile!

I created this layout for Scrap the Art's challenge, this time they have chosen one of Andy Warhol's iconic silk screen paintings of Marilyn Monroe. I chose to replicate an image of my daughter, it was only a little snapshot taken on a phone but I had wanted to use it in a layout but was never sure quite what to do with it. The challenge gave me the perfect inspiration and it's very apt as my daughter is fascinated by Marilyn Monroe, so it was nice to give her the "Warhol" treatment.
I printed the image on various colours of cardstock but not in a uniform manor as Warhol did for his painting. My reason for this was to use up scraps of card and try and keep to economical crafting, so the colour scheme was very much dictated by what I had hanging around rather than opting for perhaps what I would have chosen. The base page was also not bought especially, it was the paper insert that comes inside the plastic refill page protectors. I finished the design with some sketch style doodles and lettering, using a permanent marker and some brush markers. The layout was extremely quick to create, but then I decided to round the corners of each picture as I did ion the insert in the last post......this did add quite a bit of time to the project!!

Hybrid Card - Denim delight!!

This card was created from one of the kraft style card blanks left over from the card workshop I had last week, it's not completely recycled as I used a stamp, promarkers and nestabilites. But the other mounts were created from a scrap of decorative paper and denim fabric. The flower embellishment was made from tearing scraps and cutting small circles.
To create outer flower cut a circle, fold into quarters, then tear a shallow "m" shape across the top. open out and ink the edges.


TIP: to cut small circles I attach a coin (with tiny piece of blue-tak) to my scrap of card, then cut round, allowing the blade to be guided by the edge of the coin (try and keep blades upright, not angled under). Lightly sand (emery board) any jagged bits to create a smooth round edge.
Then remove coin .
(I keep a bag of old U.K. and foreign coins for this technique as they give a wide selection of sizes)


I used this technique to create the faux button inside and to round the corners of the insert.
This technique gets easier and better results with practice but inking the edges also covers a multitude of sins!!
This card is for my friend Tracey, I liked the irony of giving back the card she had previously given me (it's the card I used in the photo tutorial in the last post!!).

Kraft card.....lookie likey?!?!

Daft title.....apologies!

The whole purpose of this post is to have a practice at making kraft style card blanks, which are so popular at the moment (and I am a big fan, they suit so many styles but they are also quite expensive), plus I needed to come up with some card blanks to use tomorrow at my cardmaking workshop, especially as I had a non-existent budget.



This finished card is a bit of a cheat... a hybrid card...a mix of recycled stuff and proper cardmaking things. I made this card in honour of Chris (please check out her blog her cards are truly stunning) as the flowers were part of the prize that I received from her blog. I loved the colours of these flowers and I thought they went so well with the colour of the card, and co-ordinated with the old lace and buttons. I also used some nestabilities to cut the mats and a rubber stamp for the greeting and the floral detail inside, but I used pens and daubers for the stamping and distressing.


Right... the cards...messy and bit time consuming but turned out quite well and so far for 80p, plus glue , I have made 15 cards and have some spare paper left over.
I used some brown wrapping paper from the Post office, some cheap PVA and some old pre-used Christmas Cards. Cut a strip of brown paper (wider and longer than the card you are covering) ....using a plastic card (NO, NOT YOUR CREDIT CARD!! BAD IDEA) spread a thin layer of glue on the inside back flap. Line up the straight edge of the paper against the spine of the card and smooth down over the glue (I found it useful to smooth and press with a rag rather than my hand).
Sand the front and back of the card to get rid of any glossy surface (this can be prepped first and may not be necessary if the card is matt)

Repeat the gluing and sticking process on the back and front flap (don't try and do both flaps at once, work on the back then fold the card back up and then do the front)

Fold the paper over the front flap and trim off any excess (for some of the cards I made, I tore the paper for a distressed edge and some I created a decorative edge and left some of the white inner flap, exposed). Apply the glue to the paper and fix down.
Next you have to be patient, they need to be left to dry. I put plastic between each layer (don't forget inside the card as well, then leave a flat weight on the top, they will dry quicker without but will tend to warp.

Once dry, rub your fingernail down the untrimmed sides, then cut off the excess.

So now everything is prepped for tomorrow....who's coming...don't know....what ages are coming...don't know...might end up talking to myself but then I am used to that!!!!!

While I am here I just want to say a very big thank you to the people who have left some really lovely, encouraging and amusing comments...I truly appreciate you taking the time particularly as I know you all have fantastic blogs, which I love looking at.

BIG THANK YOU!!

Label card

I promised myself no more challenges until I had caught up with all my other stuff to do! but I couldn't resist having a go at Scrap the Art, it's quite a unique challenge site where the fortnightly challenge is inspired by a piece of art. This challenge is a bold painting by Joan Miro called Daybreak. An added bonus is the prize from Mo Manning (THREE DIGITAL IMAGES!!!). My card took inspiration from the bold primary colours and black lines. Again all the items used were found around the home.

The main image is created on three postage labels. Reposition them close together and then draw two bold lines across the labels, make these quite wide, then using a thinner pen follow these lines to create some channels to colour in.

TIP: USE PERMANENT MARKERS FOR THIS STAGE. (For the image on the card I used the kids ordinary black felt pen but of course this is water based and I had trouble with the black bleeding into the other colours!!!!)

Colour in with some felt pens (oooh I so wanted to use my promarkers for this!!). As you can see you do not have to be too fussy with this stage as when the channels are all coloured in I went back over with the black pen re-contouring and changing the thickness of the lines. On my original sample I also added a few doodles for detail.

Finally cut the labels in half with a curved line. then peel the pieces off and position on some backing paper allowing a small gap between each piece.
I attached my image onto a card blank and covered it with a piece of acetate (packaging from box). The acetate was fastened with ordinary split pins, coloured black with the permanent marker. My greeting was created on the PC but as my printer wouldn't play properly I had to trace it by hand.

Daisy + dishwasher tablet box

I created this card for Clare's weekly challenge, the challenge has a lovely photo of a daisy and ladybird...perfect I thought as I had just salvaged a large daisy from a shopping bag (it had originally belonged to my daughters, I rescued it and kept it for my cleaning stuff and obviously I used it so much.. it split...believe that and you'll believe anything!!).

It was a double layered flower and quite huge so I pulled it apart and used only half of it. It wasn't until last night after I had finished the front that I realised my dishwasher tablet box had a matching daisy on the lid....so had to use that as an embellishment inside. Where possible I like to decorate the inside of the card as I think this always finishes the card off... but in this case it was a necessity as again I used a card that was previously used. I turned it inside out and covered the inside damaged flap with paper.

I also wanted to hide the raw edge of the flower with ribbon...I would have preferred a lime green narrow ribbon but the closest one I had was from a Tesco Birthday cake, I loved the spots as I thought they went well with the ladybird but it was too wide. I stuck it along and was going to trim it off but then decided to wrap it round, it's given a lovely bound edge feel to the card so was quite pleased with the effect.

I used makeup to tint the card, this echoed the shaded centre of the daisy and made it stand out on the white. The ladybird body and head was drawn on a scrap of card and cut out, I also cut out a centre for the daisy, these were covered in nail varnish to create a glossy finish but the nail varnish soaked in the yellow card quite a bit and made the card a darker colour than I wanted.

I used the tippex to create an eye for the ladybird and as the grey card core was exposed on the dishwasher daisy, I ran the tippex round the edge to colour it white.

The card was finished with a doodle border and greeting and legs drawn on the ladybirds. last touch was a hand tied button as an accent.

TORN CIRCLES...the final frontier

Right I am beginning to bore myself but I just used up some scraps and a magazine I was about to throw out, to create one last circle card (well for the time being!!). This time I just wanted to see what it looked like if I didn't use just plain water (see Torn circles post), instead I created a wash by scribbling felt pen ink on a tile then picking up the ink with the wet brush. It shows up quite well on the light paper and creates the slight effect of another mat but I don't think it shows on the magazine pictures.

Right I am banned from using torn circles.....oh til at least....March???!

TORN CIRCLES...apertures.

O.K. now I'm getting obsessive...I noticed when I tore my last circle that it came out cleanly.....soooo I thought I would have a go a creating an aperture on a card blank. Again it worked well, it had to be scored and soaked several times and left inbetween but it tore away easily. the only trouble was, it was a damaged card blank so I had to cover the front to disguise the marks., which also meant I had to redo the aperture not difficult but I should have waited til the front had dried properly (I used PVA with the brown paper and that made it quite soggy and floppy!).

I have to mention the backing paper, I picked up and invaluable tip from June (Flowerbud) on Docrafts forum, she introduced me to Wordle a free online text programme, it's very simple and quite addictive to play with and you can create some great unique and personalised backing papers. I will have to explore this further, but I used one of my test pieces to cover the inside face of the card. I tissue dyed a heart on it as I will be entering it in the "hearts" challenge on the Daring Cardmakers blog. It also has the theme of music so I will enter it into the Creative Craft challenge "Music to my ears".

I created the embellishments from salvaged wire (it's extremely handy having an electrician husband...he strips the sleeving of scraps of wire for me...although I don't think this is standard household cable ...it's something to do with steel armoured underground cable...whatever... very handy and easy to bend!!). Salvaged beads from a necklace (Katie's not mine...I'm getting quite a collection, I'm glad she buys cheap jewellery, it breaks on a regular basis!), and the hanging ribbons from a top. The quote was PC printed on a scrap of card left over from my "moving" card.... a few doodles later............ I was left with a bit of a battered card!....I really should have let that front dry first!!!!!! Oh well live and learn.

Thanks again June for that tip