more cards

Following on from yesterday's post, here are a couple more cards done for the £10 challenge.

Making use of a circle punch:

 traditional:

 a little paper piercing:



Some cards

Recently I had a commission form Simply Cards and Papercrafts to do the 10 cards for £10 challenge. It was surprisingly difficult, as the £10 had to include the card bases -everything except for recycled thins that anyone could get for free. And the cards had to go together visually for a magazine spread.I ended up choosing Basic Grey's Curio papers as they offered great flexibility. My shopping list comprised papers, cardstock and Liquid Pearls. Over the next couple of days I'll post all 10 cards, as the magazine has been out for some time now.

Here's the first installment:



scraplift

I am part of a chinese whispers CJ thingy  over at Scrapagogo. Each month we each receive a layout to scraplift, and I did mine on the weekend. Scraplifting sure makes quick work of making a layout! I had this one finished in around an hour!

The picture was taken when Emily and I went to Rome for a few days back in 2009. We had a really lovely time, and I will always look back on that time with just the two of us, with fond memories. Most of the bits are from a Scrapagogo kit-January's I think. And a bit of misting and paint splattering too. I really like the muted colour palette of this layout.

birthday card

I bought a set of Spellbinder banner dies in the new year sales, and decided to use them for the first time on my daughter's birthday card.

First I had patterned paper set out for the background, but the banner looked so much nicer on the plain white card.

I used the computer to print the greeting-I love that font!

Simple-but effective I think!!

Art journal

It's a while since I posted an art journal page. My art journal is a collage style journal-mostly just stuck in bits. That way I can whip up a page in about 5 minutes flat!! And without making a paint, inky mess!!

I often do a page at the end of another project, as I'm clearing away scraps. I just grab the scraps, and some adhesive and stick on bits and pieces.

By the end I have my original project, and art journal page, and my work space is cleared!! Win, Win!!

Yesterday I was working on a commission for some cards for Simply Cards and Papercrafts. My journal page will give you a hint of what the cards might looks like!!

This month....

...most of my blog posts will be about the 29 Faces in February that I've joined in with. To see how my drawings develop over the next month you will need to click on the 29 FACES tab at the top of this page.

Inspired by...

...winter weddings.

Well that was the design brief for a commission for The Scrapbook Magazine. I love getting this kind of commission, because it makes me think and I end up creating something that I wouldn't have thought to do.

When I received this commission I headed to the internet-Google images, and Pinterest. By putting ‘Winter weddings’ into the search box, I was presented with images ranging from dresses to table settings. Two themes emerged-warm and cold. The warm theme featured fabrics such as fur and velvet, and feathers. The cold theme featured icy fabrics such as satin, and embellishments and decorations based on ice-crystals, metals etc. Both themes tended to stick to all white colour schemes, white bouquets, white table linen etc but the cold theme also added icy blue. The thing both themes had in common was interesting textures.


For my layouts I did one of each theme.

The baby layout is inspired by the warm fabrics and a bridal bouquet. I used felt to create lovely soft spiral roses, and placed them in a shape reminiscent of a bridal bouquet. The soft textures lent themselves well to the photo of my new great nephew baby Patrick. Isn't he perfect?

The layout is not on black-I just added a border digitally so it didn't get lost on this white page.

By contrast the Prom layout picks up on the cold theme, with the use of icy blues, silvers and white. The use of rhinestone gems, silver sequin waste and glitter adds to the icy feel. Since these elements add a sense of glamour and occasion I thought the photos of Emily on Prom night would be appropriate photos to use.



This one uses lots of shiny bits: the silver sequin waste, leaves, adhesive gemstones,satin flowers and that gorgeous sequnined net trim that I bought at Portobello Market in London a long time ago.

 

So, two very different layouts, both very tactile as a result of an unusual prompt.

Been stamping...

... This year one of my goals is to develop my stamping skills. I came across this challenge the other day and though I'd join in- just for fun!

The challenge was to use only black and white, and to make something for a man. Well, I don't know how manly my card is, but it's definitely black and white! At first I used white on black by embossing with white embossing powder, but I didn't like it-my white embossing powder is kind of creamy and not pure white, and it just didn't look right. So instead I just simply stamped with black ink onto white cardstock. No fancy techniques, but I'm happy with the card, perfect as a 'Greetings from Scotland' card. I don't know the make of the thistle stamp, but the check one came from Scrapagogo as part of a kit. I love it's versatility!

Anyway, here's the card: