Make My Monday: Ice Cream

Hello again.  Today's theme at Make My Monday is Ice Cream.  You can either create something ice cream themed or something inspired by ice cream, eg. using ice cream colours.

I made my card using a paper set that I got free with a magazine a few years ago, and embellished it with some die cut flowers and pearls.

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

Sian. xxx

Make My Monday

Hi all.  today's challenge at Make My Monday is emboss resist. 

I stamped the flowers on my card using Versamark ink, then embossed them using clear embossing powder.  I then inked my card using Distress Inks in rainbow colours.  I sprinkled water over my background and then  added some die cut words.

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

Sian.

Make My Monday: Go Green (Upcycle)

Good morning.  Today's challenge at Make My Monday is to upcycle something. 

I chose to upcycle a wooden tray which held embellishments into a wall hanging.  The tray was already black.  I used some metallic rub-ons in various shades of gold, silver and copper on the top of the tray, then made some holes in one side and threaded some ribbon through.

I die cut some flowers in various bright colours and stuck them into each section of the tray.

I hope you can join us for this week's challenge at Make My Monday.

Sian. xxx

Make My Monday: A Hint of Summer to Come

Hi All.  This week's theme at Make My Monday is "A Hint of Summer to Come".  I've made a card using this image I coloured for the March pencils class at Kit and Clowder.  The image is a digi stamp by The Paper Shelter.

I coloured my image with Prismacolor pencils and then layered it onto sand coloured card and patterned paper.  I added some tiny sea themed beads at the corners.

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

Sian.

Make My Monday: Embossing - Wet or Dry

Good morning.  It's time for another challenge at Make My Monday, and this week's theme is embossing.  You have a choice of either wet or dry embossing.

I've chosen dry embossing for my card.  I started off by creating embossed panels with white and lilac card using embossing folders, then layered them onto a slightly darker purple.  Then I added some coordinating ribbon.  (The ribbon looks a bit grey in the photo, but is much more purple in real life!)

I die cut and embossed some flowers and coloured with Promarkers in matching shades of purple/lilac.  I shaped them using an embossing tool and a foam mat, and finished them off with pearl centres.  Finally I added a printed sentiment.

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

Sian. xxx

Make My Monday: In the Garden

Good morning.  Today's theme at Make My Monday is In the Garden.  The flowers on my card are stamps by Paperartsy.  I also used a Crafter's Companion stamp for the background script and a mini stencil by Creative expressions for the circles.

I started off by stamping the flowers then painted over them with masking fluid.  I left the masking fluid to dry overnight - a first for me, I think - I HATE having to leave things to dry.

My next step was to create the background.  I started off by blending distress inks then splashed it with water.  I also added some Cosmic Shimmer Pixie Powders.  This time I didn't leave it to dry - I blasted it with a heat gun.

Next I stamped the script in Distress Ink and then added the circles using my stencil and some Distress Oxide ink.  I also added some Distress Oxide around the edges.

I peeled off the masking fluid and then watercoloured the flowers with Distress Inks.  I think I need a bit more practice at this technique because I don't think I managed to get enough depth on the flower petals.  Maybe I'll stick with my pencils!  I am however reasonably pleased with the end result.

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

Sian.  xx

Make My Monday: Things with Wings

Good morning.  Today's challenge at Make My Monday is Things with Wings.  I decided to make a set of two cards using this lovely bee die, which is an Intricuts die by Hobbycraft.  I love these dies.  The designs are beautiful and they're really good quality too.

For each card, I die cut the bee three times, from black card, yello w card and an irridescent white card.

Then I used both the positive and negative die cuts to piece together the bee.  I love how it's turned bout, but this really did take a very long time, particularly when I did the wings.  I wanted the bees to be the main focus of my cards, so I layered them onto card and patterned paper, just adding a few paper flowers at the corners.   The patterned papers I've used on these cards are some very old Papermania papers that I must have had in my stash from not long after I started card making.  I think I must have had them about 12 years!  (I still don't have enough papers though).  I hope you can join us this week at Make My Monday.

I would like to enter my cards in the following challenges:

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends
Crafting with Friends
Crafty Catz

Sian.

Make My Monday: Easter Fun

Hi everyone, with Easter coming early this year and just around the corner, this week's theme at Make My Monday is Easter fun.  I used this fun image from Bloobel Digi Stamps to make my card.  It's called My Easter Eggs, and can be found here.

I coloured him with Polychromos pencils and layered him onto card and patterned paper.  To embellish my card I used a ribbon bow, some paper flowers and some eggs cut out from one of the patterned papers in the same set as the background papers.

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

Sian.  xx

Make My Monday : Use some Silver or Gold

Good morning!  Today's challenge at Make My Monday is to use some silver or gold on your project.  I've used a lot of silver, but sadly this does not show up too well in the picture. 

I decided to make a mixed media wall hanging.  Unfortunately I could not get a decent photo of the whole finished thing due to the awful weather we've been having, which has meant a lack of natural light, but I hope you can at least get an idea of what it looks like.

I've posted some close ups, and some work in progress pictures at the bottom.

I started with a  wooden heart, which I painted with white gesso and then a layer of  white acrylic paint.

Then I added some texture  using die cuts, corrugated card and some gel medium which I applied through a stencil to create the eggshell effect.  Then I gave everything another coat of white paint and added some blue while it was still wet.

Once that layer of paint was dry I added some silver paint around the edges and also some turquoise gilding wax.  I also added some silver sparkly embossing powder to the background, which I applied just by sprinkling and heating.

For the final part of my project I used some die cut butterflies and some paper flowers, which I painted to match the background.  then I added some of the silver embossing powder to the edges.  I used Versamark Ink on the edges of the flowers and the butterflies to pick up the powder and then heated it.

I stuck everything on, then added some beads to the centres of the flat flowers.  Then to finish off my project I added a loop at the top with some mixed fibres and then threaded some beads onto fibres which I hung from the bottom.

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

Sian. xx

Make My Monday: Messy Backgrounds

Hi everyone.  Today it's my turn to choose the challenge at Make My Monday.  I have chosen the theme of messy backgrounds mainly because getting messy is something I don't seem to do enough of these days. 

I decided to go with a valentine theme, although I know I'm a few days late with this!  I always think it's really difficult to make valentine's cards for men, so that's what I had in mind when I made this one. 

I created the background using Brushos and water, then added a sprinkling of Wow! embossing powder in Mermaid's Tail, which is a kind of silver, shimmery irridescent powder.

This heart is a Leonie Pujol die cut.  I die cut the heart and the swirls and embossed them with different colours of Wow! embossing powder, then stuck them onto my card.   Finally I added the sentiment "I love us", which is from and Idea-ology pad by Tim Holtz.

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

Sian. xx

Make My Monday: Going in Circles

Hello again.  Today's challenge at Make My Monday is Going in Circles - use at least 3 circles on your project.  I think I've managed to use a few more than that.

The image I've used on this card is by Di's Digi Stamps, and I coloured him for December's pencil class at Kit and Clowder.  I used Prismacolor pencils for this one.

I cut my image using a circle die and layered him onto a chain frame die.  I put it behind rather than on top for a slightly different effect.  Then I used a die to cut the smaller circles behind.  I cut the die cut into bits so I could have some circles showing all around my image.  I layered all this onto patterned paper and orange card.

The sentiment is stamped.  I used a stamp that I got free with a magazine some time ago, but I can't remember which one.  The paper flowers are another anonymous magzine freebie!

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

Sian.  xx

Make My Monday: Fancy Folds

Good morning.  Today's challenge at Make My Monday is fancy folds.  This is something I don't do very often because fancy folds are time consuming, usually involving a lot of cutting and folding.  As someone who works full time, has children and

also does some voluntary work, my craft time is somewhat limited! That said, it's nice to do something a bit difference once in a while, and this was an interesting challenge.  I found a tutorial on Pinterest for a trifold shutter card, and decided to give it a go.  I don't think it's turned out too bad for a first attempt!

This card is actually quite easy to make, using the aforementioned measuring and cutting.  Once I's done the measuring, cutting and folding I layered some pink card and patterned paper onto the various sections of my card and embellished it with die cut flowers and butterflies.  I stamped the sentiment, and finished off my card with a bit of bling.  I'm going to try this again, I think, but with the panels of patterned paper laid out differently as I think you can probably create various different looks with this design.

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

Sian. xx

Make My Monday: Blue and White

Good morning.  We are starting the New Year at Make My Monday with a theme of blue and white. 

I made this card by layering blue and white card and patterned papers.  I stamped the sentiment in navy blue ink and added a coordinating blue ribbon and some due cut flowers.

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

Sian.  xx

Make My Monday: Happy Christmas

Good morning.  Well, that time is getting nearer, so this week's challenge at Make My Monday is Happy Christmas (or Happy Holidays for anyone who doesn't celebrate Christmas). 

I made my card using a set of stamps by Woodware, which I stamped and coloured using Polychromos pencils.  I cut out the stamped images and mounted them onto patterned paper and red card, then created a debossed background using an embossing folder. 

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

Sian.  xx

Make My Monday: Snow Fun

Good morning.  Today it's my turn to choose the challenge at Make My Monday, and I have chosen the theme of Snow Fun. 

Some of you may recognise this image.  It's by Whimsy Stamps and is the image for Kit and Clowder's monthly pencils class for October.  After lurking in the Facebook group for a while I finally decided to have a go at one of the classes, and would very much recommend it to anyone.  I learnt so much just from one class, and I'm really pleased with how my colouring turned out.

I coloured my image with Polychromos pencils.  I wanted the image to be the main focus, so kept the rest of the card fairly simple, mounting the image onto white card which I embossed with snowflakes using an embossing folder, and just adding a sentiment and the die cut snowflake wreath.

I hope you can join in the fun this week at Make My Monday.

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

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

Make My Monday: Autumn Colours

Hello again.  Today I amm sharing my DT card for Make My Monday.  This week's challenge is to use autumn colours.  I have to admit, these are not my favourite colours and I find it quite hard to use them.  I am however pleased with how this one turned out.

I started by making a background using Distress inks and Distress Oxides.  I did this by first applying the Distress Inks on a craft mat and then pressing a piece of Kraft card down on top of the ink.  Then I dried the inks using a heat gun and repeated this step using the Distress Oxide.  I then splashed water onto the card and dried it with a heat gun, repeating this step until I was happy with the effect. 

I dried my card off, then ironed it between two Teflon Sheets to give a flat surface to stamp on.  Then I stamped the flowers in Versamark Ink and embossed them using Wow! black sparkle embossing powder.   The stamps are by Paperartsy and are some of my acquisitions from the Happy Stampers Festival in May (I'm going again in October and still haven't used everything I bought at the last one!)

I painted the stamped flowers with white gesso, then left my card to dry overnight (I hate this step because I'm very impatient).  The next day I coloured the flowers with Polychromos pencils, and layered my stamped image onto brown card and a Kraft 6x6 card blank.

I hope you can join in the fun at Make My Monday.

Sian.  xx

Make My Monday: Something for a Child

Good morning!  Today's challenge at Make My Monday is to make something for a child.  For this week's DT card I decided to go right out of my comfort zone for this one and make something very, very girly!  Those of you who have known me for a long time will know that I usually don't do girly (although I have mellowed somewhat over the years and a few more feminine things creep into my crafting from time to time now).  Pink, pastel colours, glitter and a unicorn - this card has everything girly that I could think of.

I used a digi stamp by Some Odd Girl for this card, and coloured it using Polychromos pencils.  I added glitter too the mane, tail, hooves, eye and horn.  I layered my image onto patterned papers and added some die cut stars.  I then added some glitter to the stars.  The sentiment is stamped and embossed using a glitter Wow! embossing power.

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

Sian. xxx

Make My Monday: Grey and Pink

Hi everyone.  It's time for a new challenege again at Make My Monday.  This week's challenge is a colour challenge - grey and pink - and I have to say I love this colour combination!

The main focus of my card is a colalge stamp by Imagination Crafts.  I stamped this twice and cut out the butterflies from one of the stamped images.  I also stamped the smaller butterflies which are part of the same set.  I coloured all of the stamped images with Distress Inks.  I layered the cut out butterflies onto the main stamped image and shaped their wings.  I then layered my stamped image onto grey card and patterned papers and added the sentiment.  I added the smaller butterflies at the corners.  Finally I added a bit of Stickles glitter glue to the butterflies to give them a bit of sparkle.  I hope you can join us this week at Make My Monday.

Sian.  xx