Cardz 4 Galz: Sunny Summer Days

Good morning.  Today's challenge at Cardz 4 Galz is Sunny Summer Days.

I created my background with an embossing folder and blended Distress Inks.  The butterflies are stamped and die cut and the flowers are stamped.  I also stamped the Happy Birthday Sentiment at the bottom.  I added a bit of glitter to the butterflies and the centres of the flowers and added some flower stamens for the butterflies' antennae.

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

Sian. xxx

Cardz 4 Galz: Pretty and Pearly

Good morning.  Today's theme at Cardz 4 Galz is Pretty and Pearly. 

I used an image by Ching Chou Kuik for my card, which I coloured with Prismacolor pencils. 

As you can see, I layered her onto patterned papers and added some pearls and die cut butterflies.

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

Sian.  xxx

Cardz 4 Galz: Mythical/Fantasy

Good morning.  Today's theme at Cardz 4 Galz is Mythical/Fantasy.  For this challenge I decided to create a card using this beautiful fairy house stamp that I bought recently, which is by Woodware.  I coloured it with Prismacolor pencils.

I layered my coloured image onto patterned papers and added some die cut butterflies and pearls.  If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you will see that I have also added some glitter - it had to be done since this is such a girly card!

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

Sian.

Cardz 4 Galz: All Dressed Up

Good morning!  Today's theme at Cardz 4 Galz is all dressed up.  I've used a digi stamp by La La Land Crafts for my card.  I coloured her with Polychromos pencils.

I die cut the oval and hand stitched around the edges, then layered my image onto the oval and matted and layered with patterned papers.  I finished my card off with a printed sentiment and some die cut flowers.

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

Sian.

Cardz 4 Galz: April Showers

It's time for a new challenge at Cardz 4 Galz.  This week's theme is April Showers. 

I've used a digi stamp by Cute as a Button for my card.  This is a 7" x 7" card, as I thought she would look too tiny on a smaller one.  This is a size I've only used a few times so far, but I think I like it.  It allows you to use a slightly bigger image, but without having too much space.  (I am not a fan of 8" x 8" as I think it's just a bit too big, probably because I spent a lot of time making ATCs so am used to working on a very small scale).

I coloured my image using Prismacolor pencils.  I think they're just about winning over the Polychromos, but only because they have a better selection of colours.

I layered my image onto patterned papers and added some die cut flowers with pearl centres. 

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

Sian. xxx

Cardz 4 Galz: Black, White and Bright

Hello.  It's time for another challenge at Cardz 4 Galz.  It was my turn to choose the theme this week and I chose black, white and bright - make a card using black and white with one bright colour.

I created my card using a stamp by Crafter's Companion which I have had in my stash for a few years now.  I thought he would be perfect for this theme.  I coloured my image with Prismacolor pencils and layered it onto patterned papers.  I embellished my card with a hand tied ribbon bow and some paper flowers with button centres.

I hope you can join us for this week's challenge at Cardz 4 Galz.

I woudl like to enter my card in the following challenges:

Craft Rocket Challenges
Crafting with an Attitude

Sian. xx

Cardz 4 Galz: Buttons and/or Bows

Good morning.  Today's challenge at Cardz 4 Galz is buttons and/or bows.  As you can see, I have chosen to use both on my card.  I started off by die cutting some flowers in various shades of purple.  I stuck them on my card and drew the stems using Promarkers. 

I added button centres to the flowers and then ties a bow from chiffon ribbon which I stuck onto the bottom of the stems.

I hoe you can join us this week at Cards 4 Galz.

Sian. xx

Cardz 4 Galz: Beach or Nautical

Hello again.  This week's theme at Cardz 4 Galz is beach or nautical.  I used a digi stamp by Make It Crafty to make my card, which I coloured with Prismacolor pencils.  I drew in the beach background myself, also with the Prismacolors.

I layered my image onto patterned papers and coordinating card then added some die cut shells and some pearls.

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

Sian. xx

Cardz 4 Galz: Furry Friends

Hi everyone!  Today I am sharing my DT card for Cardz 4 Galz.  This  week's challenge is furry friends.

I've used a stamped image on my card, which is quite an old stamp by Penny Black.   I've had this one for ages, and I seem to remember getting it for next to nothing in a sale.  It's one of my favourite stamps.

I stamped my image onto kraft paper and coloured it with Prismacolor pencils, then layered it onto card and patterned papers.  As a final touch I added some paper flowers and some sticky backed pearls in the centre.  Most of my flowers started off white and I coloured them with Promarkers.  I mostly use my Promarkers for this kind of thing now, as I stopped colouring with them when they stopped making the fine tips, which I think was a real shame. 

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

Sian.  xx

Cardz 4 Galz: Rubber Stamping

Good morning. This week's challenge at Cardz 4 Galz is Rubber stamping.  You can use a rubber or acrylic stamp, but no digis please!

I created my card using a stamp by Creative Expressions.  I started by stamping the tree, then masked it off  using masking fluid.  This is great and really easy to use because you can protect part of your work and then just peel it off.

I created my background with Brushos, first spritzing the whole background with water, then sprinkling the Brushos on.  I've made a hole in the top of each of my Brusho pots, which makes them much easier to sprinkle, but if you don't want to do this you can pick a small amount up on a paintbrush and then tap it off. 

Once my background was dry I peeled off the masking fluid and painted the tree using pearlescent watercolours.  I added some Stickles glitter glue around the spirals and some sparkly gems in the centre of each one.  Finally I added gems at the corner and the sentiment "leave a little sparkle wherever you go", which is an Idea-ology pad by Tim Holtz.

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

Sian. xx

Cardz 4 Galz: Think Pink

Good morning.  Today's challenge at Cardz 4 Galz is Think Pink - to create a pink card.  Pink is not my favourite colour.  It's far too girly in my opinion, but I do like to make pink cards occasionally.  My aim with this one was to create a card for a little girl.

The image I used on this card is by Bloobel Digistamps.  He's called pretty Pekingese and can be found in the Bloobel shop.  I think he's SO cute!

I coloured this one using Polychromos pencils.  I think I like them better than the Prismacolors for doing fur.

I layered my dog onto pink card  and patterned papers, and embellished it with some pink ribbon, pink sparkly mesh and some paper flowers.  I used buttons and pearls for the flower centres.

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

Sian.  xx

Cardz 4 Galz: Anything but Square

Good morning!  This week we are kicking off a new year of challenges at Cardz 4 Galz with a theme of anything but square.  I must admit, I do get into a rut of making lots of square cards, so it was good to do something different.

For this card I used a set of Gorjuss stamps by Santoro.  Everything except the background (which is patterned paper) is stamped and coloured with Prismacolor pencils. 

I hope you can join us for a new year of challenges at Cardz 4 Galz.

Sian.  xx

Cardz 4 Galz: Snowmen

Good morning.  We have more snowmen this week, this time at Cardz 4 Galz.  As this is Cardz 4 Galz, I wanted to make a more feminine snowman card this time, so I chose shades of pink and purple. 

The main image on my card is a digi stamp by Conie Fong.  I coloured it with Polychromos pencils and added the snowflakes in white gel pen.  I absolutely love the robins in this image.  They're so cute!

I made the background with patterned papers and purple card.  The papers are some Papermania ones that I have left over from my early card making days.  I've been making cards since I was pregnant with my youngest son, so about 13 years.  I would estimate these papers to be about 10 or 11 years old!  Anyway, they were perfect for this card.

I embellished my card with a bow that I made from purple spotty ribbon (it's not as dark as it looks in the photo, but I ran out of natural light), and some die cut snowflakes.  I glittered the snowflakes with glitter glue.

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

Sian.  xx

Cardz 4 Galz: Cupcakes

Good morning!  It's time for a new challenge at Cardz 4 Galz, and today's challenge is Cupcakes.  I have a few cupcake related bits and pieces in my craft stash, but when I saw this brilliant Cake Monster digi stamp from Bloobel Stamps I knew I had to have him!  The challenge of course was to create something feminine using a monster image (this is Cardz 4 Galz after all), so I chose to use the girliest colours I could think of - pink and purple.

I coloured my image with Polychromos pencils , cut around him and mounted him on an embossed and die cut circle with a die cut frame.  I layered him onto patterned and embossed papers and purple card.  I embellished my card with paper straws and some paper flowers, and added a printed sentiment.

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

Sian.

Cardz 4 Galz: Thank you/Thanksgiving

This week's challenge at Cardz 4 Galz is thank you for thanksgiving.

I decided to use this lovely Woodware stamp for my card, and I went with a CAS card to make the most of the stamp.  (I have other plans for this stamp as well, so watch this space!)

I coloured the stamped image with Polychromos pencils, added the Thank You sentiment and mounted it on purple card.

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

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 Galz: Dragonflies

Today is my turn to choose the challenge at Cardz 4 Galz, and I've chosen the theme of dragonflies.

I started off by creating the background of my card, which I made using Distress Oxide inks.  I dabbed the inks onto a craft mat and spritzed with water., then put my paper down onto it, drying with a heat gun and repeating until I was happy with how it looked, then I splashed it with water and dried with the heat gun again several times.  Finally I spritzed it lightly with mica spray for a bit of sparkle.

I layered the background onto pearlescent card and die cut the dragonflies from the same card.  The I die cut them again from vellum and stuck the vellum wings onto the original die cuts, shaped them and added some glitter.  To finish my card I added some gems and pearls and a die cut tag.  I stamped the sentiment on the tag with Versamark ink and embossed it with glitter embossing powder.

I hop you can join this week's challenge at Cardz 4 Galz. 

Sian.  xx

Cardz 4 Galz: Welcome Little Baby

Good morning!   Today's challenge at Cardz 4 Galz  is to make a baby card.  Obviously, this being Cardz 4 Galz it needs to be for a baby girl.

I used a cute stamp by Lili of the Valley for this card, which I stamped in grey ink so it wouldn't stand out too much against the pastel colours of the card.

I stamped my image onto a die cut circle and coloured it with Polychromos pencils.  Then I mounted it onto a pink fancy circle die cut.  I layered the mounted image onto coordinating patterned papers and added some baby buttons and a ribbon to embellish it.

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

Sian. xx

Cardz 4 Galz: Cats/Kittens

Good morning.  Today's challenge at Cardz 4 Galz is cats or kittens.  This was a great opportunity for me to use one of my new Visible Image stamp sets.  These stamps are from the Curious Cats set. 

I created the background for this card with Brushos then stamped the cat face on top.  I coloured the eyes and nose with metallic watercolours and added some white gel pen to the highlights.   then I stamped the sentiment underneath.

I stamped the whiskers in Versamark and embossed them with a fine, white embossing powder.  I added a bit of Stickles glitter glue to the whiskers and to the sentiment to give my card a bit of sparkle then finally added some paper flowers. 

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

Sian.  xx

Cardz 4 Galz: Pretty Pastels

Good morning.  Today's challenge at Cardz 4 Galz is Pretty Pastels - to make a card using pastel colours.  I have kept this card quite simple as I wanted the focus to be on the die cut trellis and flowers.

I die cut the trellis from purple card and stuck it onto a patterned paper background.  Then I die cut the flowers from vellum, coloured them with Promarkers and shaped them using an embossing tool.  I stuck them onto the trellis and added some gems and pearls for centres.

I stamped the Happy Birthday sentiment onto some coordinating patterned paper and cut it into a tag shape which I layered onto card then punched a hole and added some pink and white baker's twine.  I also added some tiny die cut butterflies and stuck some tiny pearls onto them.

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

Sian.  xx