Easy Easel Card

Morning all. Time for another challenge over at Back to Basics and Beyond.  This week we are looking for an easel card.  There are loads of tutorials on You Tube (I've linked a quick and simple one for you).  If you have never made one before they are a lot simpler than they look and can be really fun to create.

I didn't really have a plan in mind when I started my card.  I originally thought contemporary Christmas and cut a fancy star circle in black glitter card using my cricut.  Then my husband walked in and said it didn't look Christmasy so I had a quick change of heart and made it a 25th card. I used silver glitter card to make the numbers so you could have it as a silver wedding card or a 25th birthday card.

Here's the result.

There is loads of inspiration over on the blog from the fabulous design team and we would love to see what you make.  Please pop over and join us.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Winter Blues

Morning all. Time for a new challenge over at Cardz4guyz.  How many of you are feeling the change in the seasons?  Our challenge is Winter Blues and it's an ideal opportunity to do a little crafting to chase them away.  I used another cute image from 2 Cute Ink (it must have been a club exclusive but there are loads of fun images in Heidi's shop).  I kept it fairly simple and cut a snowflake wreath on my cricut machine.  Mind you, if you'd have seen me sticking it together, you may not have thought it simple.  That day I was mostly wearing spray mount, glue dots and glitter!

Here's what I ended up with.

Please pop along and join the fun.  The DT have come up with some stunning inspiration and we love to see how you all interpret the theme.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Using a Sketch

Morning all.  Time for another challenge at Back to Basics and Beyond.  I feel right at home with this week's challenge as it's something I do a lot.  The challenge is to use a sketch.  We found this sketch on Pinterest.

If you don't use pinterest - personally I'm addict to the place and I have a massive board of sketches - then there are various sketch challenge blogs where you can find inspiration.  I used to keep a folder on my computer with sketches from sites and they are a fabulous resource when you are struggling to come up with an idea.  The design team and I would love to see how you interpret the above sketch so please join in the fun.

My card uses two cute gingerbread men from Digistamp Boutique.  I'm gutted that Sally Ann has stopped trading as she was one of my regular go to places for an image.  There are so many digital stamp sites closing and I do miss them.  Here is what I did with the sketch.

I recently bought a distressing tool and this is it's first outing and I'm very pleased with the results.  I hope you like my card and will be inspired to join us.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

One for Emma T

Morning all.  I seem to be very prolific this week.  It'll never last.  You can blame this one on Emma T from Trenouths Crafty Creations.  She's a fantastic talent and one of my Design Team Colleagues and she's always ready to comment on other people's work.  Bless her, she left a lovely comment on my penguin card yesterday and mentioned that P is for Penguin is the current Alphabet Challenge.  I was too late with yesterday's card but I have about a dozen penguin images printed out and ready to colour so I didn't really have an excuse.  The image I used is from 2 Cut Ink.  Heidi has tonnes of Christmas penguin images.  Here's what I did with him.  He's got his fairy lights in a tangle.

As the image had fairy lights on it I cut some extra with a cricut file and kept to the blue and purple theme with a few snow flakes and sentiment.

I hope you like him.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Christmas is Coming

Morning all.  I should be getting ready for work but I'm procraftinating this morning.  I decided to join in the Christmas challenge over at Fab n Funky instead.  It's a good job I work flexi time.  I'd already coloured my cute penguin image - available from Bugaboo Stamps.  All I needed was some inspiration to put it together.  I used some ancient freebie papers that I had from a magazine donkey's years ago and just added some glittery snowflakes.  Another simples card.  All I needed was the inspiration to create it.  I won't mention just how long that image has been staring at me from my craft desk.  I hope you like what I've done with it.

Thanks for reading.  Love Dawn x

Can't see the Wood for the Trees

Morning all. Time for another challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz.  Emma has chosen the theme of 'Into the Woods' - anything that can be found in the woods.  There is plenty of scope with this one and I had so many ideas for woodland critters it all started to get blurry in my head.  In the end I decided to keep it much more simple.  My blog title is something my family used to say when things got confusing and you couldn't see the obvious.  So I went with the obvious...trees!

I used a Cricut cutting file on some leafy background paper and added two leaf charms on some embroidery thread. Simples - well eventually it was.

I hope you like what I've done with it.

Pop over to the blog and have a look at the other DT cards.  We've got a fabulously talented bunch of ladies to provide inspiration and we'd love to see your take on the theme.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Happy Bird day!

Morning all.  I'm really excited to share the news that I have been accepted onto another design team.  The Back to Basics and Beyond Challenge hopes to inspire readers, especially new crafters, to use techniques that we all had to learn once. The fabulous design team offer inspiration and there is often a link to a tutorial for those who have never tried something before.

The new challenge today is to use a Mask or a Stencil.  I have to admit that I have only recently started using stencils myself.  So, if you are new to the technique, I know how you feel.  Dawn's tip of the day - tape your card and your mask down.  My leaf stencil is by far my most useful one so far and, having inked it in a couple of green inks, I then die cut a circle out of it.  I used another circle behind and mounted my bird on the front.  The stamp is an ancient digi from Doodlepantry (I don't know if they still trade in the States but EU changes to VAT regulations meant that they stopped selling in Europe so I can't link to the site - sorry).  I added my sentiment and some sequins and gems and that was it.  Job done.

I hope you like what I did with my stencil.  Die cutting the circle allowed me to use one but still fit my 'style' of card making.

Please pop over and see what the DT ladies have created.  There cards are very diverse and will give you loads of inspiration.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x