Alien Adventure

Having been working on cards for men this weekend, I thought I would make a card for a younger member of the male gender. This card is for a friend of my son who will soon be 7. It is made with the Stamp Fairy challenge in mind, which, this fortnight, is based on one of their sketches.

The card base is 8x8, so it is actually made from two card sheets joined together with the seam inside disguised by the insert. The central base panel is iridescent paper from Kanban. It is hard to photograph, so the colours don't look as though they go together - but trust me, they do! It is green with a sheen of purple in the right light. I embossed around the outside of this layer and infilled the area with purple Promarker and Sakura gelly roll pens. It doesn't look like it in the photo, but it makes the central panel really stand out against the white border. The scalloped circle was hand-cut with a pair of fancy scissors borrowed from my 5 year old daughter's craft cupboard! Most of the papers are Cosmo Cricket, with a little Papermania thrown in for good measure! The cute alien stamp is, of course, from Stamp Fairy, coloured with Promarkers and Flex Markers with a little doodling using a Letraset 0.5mm drawing pen. The sentiment was stamped onto white card which I inked up to tone in with the alien background layer. The three circles at the top left were cut from a 6x6 paper sheet, accented with Sakura gelly roll and glaze pens then layered up with foam dots. I love the circular foam dots (from The Range) as they are easy to peel and the 'left over' sticky foam is great for giving dimension to larger areas. They are great value too at just 99p per pack. I added lots of doodle detail all over the card and also used very thin strips of paper along my main stripes just for extra dimension and detail without cluttering the overall look of the project.

Polkadoodles Challenge Week 34

Firstly can I say, I somehow managed to make the colours seem quite garish in this image. The original card and photo are far more tastefully coloured! It seems to be something to do with compressing the image size. Not sure why though.

This week's blog challenge over at the Polkadoodles blog is to use some of Nikky Hall's fab spotty, dotty papers from her great collection of CD's. The choice of papers can be combined with any stamped image and can be for any occasion.

I have made so many cards over thelast year using Nikky's papers and I especially love polka dots. For this challenge, I decided to base my card around the scarecrow digi stamp from Sundae of Seasons as it is one I haven't yet used and I was looking for an autumnal feel The lady scarecrow is teamed with the funky giant spots kraft paper from Double Sprinkles of Kraft CD. As I couldn't resist using some small polka dots in there somewhere, I also used a dotty border from the same CD. I added a little colouring on the scalloped border using Flexmarkers, so that it would tone in with the kraft background.

I wanted the card to be a little different from the others I have made before with the spotty papers, so I decided on an acetate rounded front. I made a simple mechanism so that the card folds out flat into an 8x8 envelope for posting, then the recipient just slots a tab of the acetate into the back of the card to turn it into a dimensional bow front. I used two of Nikky's stamps, the fence and the barrel of apples (also from Sundae of Seasons), coloured them with Promarkers and Flexmarkers before mounting them with foam dots on the outside of the acetate. They are highlighted slightly with some Sakura glaze and stardust pens. The scarecrow herself is mostly coloured using Flexmarkers and is mounted using two layers of sticky pads to make her pop out from the background. The card is finished with one of the Polkadoodles versatile sentiments with a little Sakura glaze over the top.

I think I will recreate this idea with lots of other images as it was actually quite simple once I figured out what I wanted to achieve and how to make it suitable for posting.

Polkadoodles Challenge Week 33

As I am a confirmed Polkadoodles addict, I thought I would have a go at one of their weekly cardmaking challenges. This week's challenge has been set by team member Ruth and it's quite a tricky one! The theme of the challenge is 'Single Layer Cards', either printing or stamping directly on the card, and only using minimal embellishments to finish it off.

For someone like me who struggles with the 'less is more' concept, this was a challenge indeed. I really did have to restrain myself!

I used the 'Mummy' black and white digi stampi from the fabulous 'Sundae of Seasons' CD-Rom (available from Polkadoodles of course!). I coloured the Mummy using the new Flex Markers from Letraset, then hand stitched around the image with a thick cotton floss to give the impression of a red layer under the image. To add another 'fake' layer, I coloured in a rectangle around the Mummy and red stitching, again using Flex Markers. To enhance the effect, I added faux running stitches using a white Sakura pen around the rectangle, which makes it pop out from the card a little bit more. I edited one of Nikky's sentiments from the same CD and printed it directly on to the card. As I couldn't help myself, I finished the project off with a short piece of Cosmo Cricket ribbon woven through the card, tied in a knot.

It is my birthday in October, so I think nearer the time, I will leave this card laying about in the hope that one of my three little ones writes it out and gives it to me, along with birthday breakfast in bed and a whole load of crafty goodies for a present (I'm compiling a Polkadoodles wish list kids, just in case you were wondering what Mummy wants for her birthday - the last one in my 30's, so don't forget 39 'kisses' in the card lovely children!!).