Make My Monday: Anything but a Card

Good morning.  Today's challenge at Make My Monday is to make anything but a card.  This was a good opportunity for me, as I'd had a wooden house hanging around that I bought a few months ago, just waiting to be made into something.

The first thing I did was to paint the house inside and out.  I used acrylic paints for this in shades of blue, white and platinum.

Then I measured each compartment.  The writing in pencil in the middle of each section is the measurement in millimetres.

 used some acrylic texturising medium in the bottom of some of the sections to make them look more snowy.  There is a close up picture of this below.  I also used some texturising medium on the roof.

I painted over the textured areas in white acrylic and then gave the white painted areas on the front of the house another coat.

My next step was to add glitter, again to make everything look more snowy.

I found this whole process quite tedious as I am not a big fan of waiting for things to dry and unfortunately this part of the project included a lot of that!  I was however able to make some of things to put inside the house while I waited.

I also ended up with glitter all over me and all over the house.  I'm still finding it a week later.

The next step was to fill the house.  I used lots of different things for this - various die cut and wooden elements and things I made myself.  The snowman, trees and snowballs are all made out of air dry polymer clay and painted with acrylic.  This gave me something to do whilst waiting for paint, glue and texture mediums to dry, but then I had to wait for these to dry too!

The final thing for me to do was to add the die cut snowflakes to the front of the house.  I used various different snowflake dies and cut the snowflakes from white, blue and silver card, then glued them on.  I hope you can join us this week at Make My Monday. 

Sian.  xx

Cardz 4 Galz: Favourite Flower and why

Good morning.  Today's challenge at Cardz 4 Galz is to create something using your favourite flower and to say why it's your favourite.  My favourite flowers are roses because I love the way they smell.  I grew up in a house with a garden full of rose bushes in all different colours.

The rose on the top right is probably one of my oldest stamps which I bought when I first started card making over twelve years ago.  I can't remember who it's made by!  I stamped the road and coloured it with watercolour paints.

The panel behind was created by stamping in Versamark and embossing with white powder.  Then I painted over the top with watercolours.  When the paint was almost dry I rubbed gently over the top with a tissue to take the paint off the white embossing.

I layered these elements onto pink and white card and some rose patterned paper, and then embellished my card with a pink ribbon and bow and some ribbon roses.  I bought the ribbon roses, but I need to find some time to learn how to make them (there are some good tutorials on Pinterest).

I hope you can join us this week at Cardz 4 Galz.

Sian.  xx

Cardz 4 Guyz: Remembrance or Sympathy

Today's challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz is remembrance or sympathy.  I was initially going to make a remembrance card, but sadly I have nothing suitable in my craft stash at the moment, a situation that I think needs to be remedied. 

I made my card using a stamp by Inkylicious , with a Distress Ink background, then stamped my sentiment onto patterned papers with matching colours. 

The background of the card was dry embossed using an embossing folder.

I hop you can join us this week at Cardz 4 Guyz.

Sian.  xx

Moonflower Digistamps: La Bella Muerte

Good morning.  Today I am sharing a card made using the latest release from Mooonflower Digistamps, La Bella Muerte.  You can find here in the Moonflower shop here:  https://www.etsy.com/listing/562565005/la-bella-muerte?ref=shop_home_active_1

I coloured her using Polychromos pencils, layered her onto black card, patterned papers and black lace, then added some fancy die cut corners and some paper roses. 

I hope you like her.

Sian.  xx

Make My Monday: I Put a Spell On You

Today's theme at Make My Monday is I Put a Spell on You (Halloween), or you can make a Thank You card as an alternative if Halloween is not your thing.

I created this card using a digi stamp by Ching Chou Kuik, which I coloured with Polychromos pencils.

The background is Distress Ink and Diostress Oxider, overstamped with layers of cobwebs in black, green and orange.  I also used distress inks around the edges of my main image to make it pop out.

The critters are the corners are die cuts using dies by Marianne Designs.

I hope you can join us this week at Make My Monday. 

Sian. xx

Moonflower Digistamps: Lilly Belle

Hello.  Today I am sharing the beautiful Lilly Belle by Moonflower Digistamps.

I printed her on Kraft card and coloured her with Polychromos pencils.  I layered her onto printed papers and added some die cut butterflies.  These are Intricut Dies by Hobbycraft. 

You can find Lilly in the Moonflower shop here:  https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/543271181/lilly-belle?ref=shop_home_active_3

You can see some more beautiful Moonflower Digistamps and see soem creations by the other members of the design team on the Moonflower Blog or by joining the Moonflower Facebook Group.

Sian.  xx

Cardz 4 Galz: Monochromatic

Good morning!  It's time for another challenge at Cardz 4 Galz, and this week's theme is monochromatic.    Having made one Halloween card already, I was still in a Halloween kind of mood when I made this one.  I wanted to do something a bit different than the last card, so I decided on shades of purple.

I came across this amazing digi stamp by Molly Harrison Art when browsing on Etsy, and I had to have her.  I think she's cute but has bags of attitude!  I coloured her with Polychromos pencils.   I don't usually do backgrounds when I'm colouring for cards, mainly because they're not my strong point, but this image had the moon and a horizon line, so I decided to give it a go and I'm actually fairly pleased with how it's turned out.

For the rest of my card I used patterned papers, which I stamped with that spider web stamp I was talking about in my last post!  The creepy crawlies are die cuts by Marianne Designs

I hop you can join us this week at Cardz 4 Galz.

Sian. xx

Cardz 4 Guyz: Boo!

Good morning.  Today's challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz is Boo!  (Halloween), or autumn as an alternative if Halloween is not your thing.

I don't send cards at Halloween, but I love anything dark and spooky so I love creating Halloween themed things. 

The main Image on my card is a digi stamp by Oddball Art Co, and I coloured him with Polychromos pencils.  The bats are part of the same image. 

I wanted to create an atmospheric background for this card so I blended some distress inks and then splashed with water.  I was originally going to use a small spider web stamp on the background, but I couldn't find it so instead I decided to draw a large spider web.  I'm glad I did because I like the effect, and I think this card has ended up looking quite dramatic.  (Not surprisingly my stamp turned up half an hour later when I was looking for something else - I've used it for some of my other Halloween cards!)

I hope you can join us this week at Cardz 4 Guyz.

Sian.  xx

Make My Monday: Animal Antics

Good morning!  Today's challenge at Make My Monday is Animal Antics.  I decided it was time to make something other than a card, so I made a set of cat bookmarks.   I hope you like them.

I made these using a set of stamps by Hobbyart.  I think these cats are so cute and full of character.

I stamped the cats and coloured them with Polychromos pencils.  I tried to do real cat colours for these, which I hope has worked!  I layered my cats onto patterned papers , and added an eyelet and some ribbon and fibre tassels.

I hope  you can join us this week at Make My Monday!

Sian. xx