Cards for kids

I've recently decided to start collecting and then donating handmade cards to the B.C. Children's Hospital. I'm calling the project "Cards for Kids" and am working to get the first batch of cards to the hospital by the first week of February. These cards will be given to the nurses and staff at the hospital to give to sick kids at appropriate times (like birthdays and holidays).

This card is the first that I've made specifically for "Cards for Kids" and I'm quite pleased with it. I think it will be just great for a boy's birthday.

The image is from Tiddly Inks and I think it's just perfect for a boy's birthday. I raided the kids' craft stash for the paper (it's from a Crayola pack) and used alphabet stickers for the sentiment. The ribbon started out white but was coloured using Copics to match the boy's shirt.

Challenges:
Crafty Pad - happy birthday
One Stop Craft Challenge - for a child
Stamp Something - use a digi
Charisma Cardz - birthdays & celebrations
Paper Play - clean & simple

Tiddly Inks Blog Candy

Wow! For all Tiddly Inks lovers, and for anyone who hasn't discovered Tiddly Inks yet, the blog candy currently being offered is an abolute must. This blog candy has a bit of everything:


3 sets of acrylic stamps, stacks of paper, cardboard, bits and pieces of goodies, mirrors and magnets, some cardstock and envelopes, a few finished cards and most important a CD of Tiddly Inks images worth $50....you pick the ones you want up to $50. :) Wahooooo!!!!

To get qualified for the candy, link your specific blog post showing this candy by Nov 4 at 11:59 PM.  So don't forget to post this candy in an actual blog post with a link back to http://tiddlyinks.blogspot.com and this candy.


Good luck everyone!!!

Cards for men

With Father's Day happening tomorrow there has been a real flurry of challenges asking for cards for men. I completed my card for Dad a couple of weeks ago so I decided to make a couple of all-purpose masculine cards just to have on hand. Keep scrolling down to see both cards.

The first card gave me an excuse to use one of my latest purchases from Simon Says Stamp. It turns out that they carry quite a few art stamps. I ordered up two - the one on the left by Charles Wysocki and the one on the right by Gary Patterson.

I have yet to colour the Wysocki stamp satisfactorily (the tree bark is way beyond my abilities) and suspect that it may become one of those items that I look at, love and never use.

I had better success colouring the Patterson stamp and made this get well card with it.  The cat looks as if he's going to cough up a hairball or perhaps just did too much catnip. I based the card design on two different sketch challenges which was a first for me but the sketches were quite similar and actually merged quite nicely.

Challenges:

• Critter Sketch - sketch and use ribbon
• MAWTT - sketch
• Incy Wincy - for the guys
• One Stop Craft Challenge - for the boys
• Polka Doodle - masculine themed
• Raise the Bar - what a special guy
• Simon Says Stamp - PCP group - oh boy!
• ABC Challenge - "W" is for weather (OK, excuse the pun but the cat is "under the weather")

Recipe:

• Stamp Happens, Gary Patterson "All Tied Up" rubber stamp
• Copic markers
• Basic Grey "Granola" patterned papers
• Ribbon (stash)
• Brads (stash)
• Nestabilities

This next card was very quick & simple to make and will be useful for a lot of purposes. The digi stamp is from Tiddly Inks and is coloured using Adobe Photoshop. The paper is Basic Grey "Granola". I used a sketch from Corrosive Challenges.

Challenges:

• Daisy Doodles - father's day or manly
• Corrosive Challenges - sketch

Thanks for looking and happy Father's Day to all!

Daddy's Girl

I couldn't resist this digital stamp from Tiddly Inks even though my Dad only wears ties for weddings & funerals.  And yet, this just captures the feel of my relationship with him when I was a little girl. And I love that, with the addition of a few freckles, this is even a pretty good representation of me (right down to the kiss curl on the forehead).

After colourng the image with my Copics, I cut it with a Nestabilities Label, then matted it on some dark brown cardstock, also cut with the Nestabilities. I also added an embossed edge to the matte for some extra detail. This patterned paper has been in my stash for years and I'm thrilled to have finally found a use for it. I quite like the way all the colours work together. I hand-cut the tag and matted it on kraft card. Because I'm not sure when I will use this card, I didn't add any sentiment - I can slide out the tag and add the message of my choice any time.

Recipe:

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  Tiddly Inks, digi image
• 
  
  Copic markers
• 
  
  Kraft cardstock (stash)
• 
  
  Carolee's Creations, patterned paper
• 
  
  Spellbinders nestabilities, Label 8
• 
  
  Ribbon (stash)

Challenges:

• 
  
  C.R.A.F.T. - blue & green
• 
  
  Paper Sundaes - kraft & blue
• 
  
  Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Father's Day or masculine card
• 
  
  I Love Digi - for Dad
• Crafty Catz - the boyz are back
• 
  
  Simon Says Stamp (PCP group) - oh, boy
• 
  
  By the Cute and Girly - something old (pp), something new (digi stamp), something borrowed (tag concept), something blue
• 
  
  Dare U 2 Digi Stamp - for the boys
• 
  
  The Crafty Pad - make a card for any male

Special RAK Event

Lisa is a design team member for several of my favourite digital stamp designers and she recently posted the following:

I am having a special event for my sister Jayme. She is in her early 50's and has terminal lung cancer. To make it worse, her sweet dachshund Molly passed away a couple weeks ago. Today we learned her cancer has spread to several other areas and her time is running out. I am asking for all my card making friends to send her a fun card...not really get well cards obviously, but something pretty or funny that will make her smile. She is a frog collector so frog cards would be awesome!

I think its wonderful that all of us crafters are being given a chance to (hopefully) brighten someone's day by doing what we love. I made the following card for Jayme - I hope it makes her smile a little bit. If you want to make a card for Jayme too, check out Lisa's blog - she is also offering some great candy for everyone that participates.

About the card:
I went a little crazy mixing & matching designers for this card. The princess is from Mo's Digital Pencil, the sentiment ("I better get a new palace out of this") and frog are recent freebies from Tiddly Inks (PCP group only) and the mushroom is from Stretch 'n Bubbles. All are coloured with Copic markers, then liberally bling'd up with Stickles. I fussy-cut the frog and then attached him with pop-dots to the mushroom - it looks really 3-D in real life. I'm proud of myself for pulling out some unused stash, too - I used chalk pastels that I haven't touched in 6 mths around the edges of each shape. Finally, I couldn't decide which ribbon to use so I ended up using both. I think the double bow enclosure gives the card an interesting finish.

Recipe:

• Mo's Digital Pencil, "Kissy" digital stamp
• Stretch 'n Bubbles, "Mushroom" digital stamp
• Tiddly Inks, sentiment & "Prince Charming" digital stamps
• Cornish Heritage Farms, "the Kim Hughes collection - MochaChica" papers
• Ribbon, stash
• Copic markers
• Stickles glitter glue

Challenges:

• Mo's Digital Challenge - love
• Stamp Something - use two of something (2 main images; two-fold card; two ribbons)
• Totally Gorjuss - bling it up
• Paper Sundaes - favourite book, poem or fairy tale (princess & the frog)
• The Crazy Challenge - girly
• Digital Tuesday Challenge - cute people (how cute is this little girl?)
• Everybody Art Challenge - fairy tale (princess & the frog)
• Crafty Creations - use your favourite stamp (easy to see why I love Mo's little princess)
• Creative Card Crew - pink & green
• Crafty Ho's Challenge - photo inspiration (if anyone would wear this hat, it would be this girl)

You rock!

Another quick card for a couple of challenges that are ending today. The picture isn't very good (there is no natural light today, at all, due to the heavy rain) and hopefully I can remember to replace it with a better one soon.

I made this card with a bunch of freebies. The background paper was created in Photoshop using a Polka Doodles download pack, and the image is a freebie from Tiddly Inks (her PCP group members only, so join if you haven't already). The Polka Doodles challenge was to add texture/dimension so I layered the paper, popped up the sentiment and stamp image and finally added some buttons. I wish I had some flat rocks to add (wouldn't that have been the perfect touch?) but I figured these buttons were sort of suggestive of rock.

Recipe:

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  Tiddly Inks, digital stamp
• 
  
  Polka Doodles, digital pack
• 
  
  Buttons (stash)
• 
  
  Bazzil cardstock
• 
  
  Copic markers
• 
  
  Adobe Photoshop

Challenges:

• 
  
  Polka Doodles - add texture dimension
• 
  
  Tiddly Inks - don't use designer paper (so I made my own!)
• 
  
  Totally Gorjuss - round & round; use circles
• 
  
  Crazy 4 Challenges - must have a pocket (his shorts' have pockets and I also found one of the buttons in the pocket of my son's pants!)
• 
  
  Our Creative Corner - masculine birthday
• 
  
  Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - masculine
• 
  
  Charisma Cardz - 3D

Stationery set & box for Mom

My mom's birthday is coming up and I wanted to make her something special, yet practical. She loves all things handmade (although she won't try crafting herself) so I ended up making her a stationery box along with a set of personalized stationery.

I found this 7-1/2"x7-1/2" wooden box at Michaels. I covered the top and bottom with this pretty paper from My Mind's Eye (thanks to Photo Express who gave the paper as part of a National Scrapbook Day free with purchase page kit). I used Spellbinders "Fleur de Lis" pendant to make the 3-D flower on top (another thanks to Scrap & Stamp for their great online tutorial). I lined the inside of the box with more of the My Mind's Eye papers (don't you just love double-sided papers!!!) and created a little divider to hold the pens separately. The pens were an incredible find at Staples. Mom is left-handed (like me) so tends to get ink smeared on her hand. These pens are ultra-fine tip so no smearing, AND they are in colours that perfectly match the stationery. How cool!

The stationery is kept simple. I used a Tiddly Inks digital stamp (available as a freebie to members of her PCP group) which I coloured in Photoshop (hand-colouring bled through the paper). I used a couple of border punches for interest (Martha Stewart for the letterhead and EK Success for the cards) then added some Stickles glitter glue and Glossy Accents for dimension and shine. Overall, I made 5 sheets of letterhead, 5 "hello" note cards, and 10 envelopes. Everything is personalized, of course.

This was quite a fun little project. I particularly enjoyed being able to make a matched set because of the use of digital images.

Recipe:

• Michaels, wooden box
• My Minds Eye "Mother" set of patterned paper
• Gems (stash)
• Martha Stewart, "scallop dot" border punch
• EK Success, "dotted scallop" border punch

Challenges:

• Stamp Something, birthday somethings
• Totally Gorjuss, pink & green (lavendar counts as pink, doesn't it?)
• Everybody Art Challenge, make a gift
• Bee Crafty, something new (Mom can use this to keep in touch with new friends)
• By the Cute & Girly, celebrations
• Polka Doodle, summer flowers
• C.R.A.F.T., weddings or birthdays
• Scrap, Stamp & Doodle, anything but a card

Mother's Day flowers

Second post today but this card is so different from the one I posted earlier (the sick pig card) that I wanted to have it separately. I made this one for my mom (who hopefully hasn't started reading my blog) for Mother's Day this weekend. Mom is always impressed by cards that open a bit differently so I decided to convert the Crazy 4 Challenges card sketch into a gatefold. The papers are from Basic Grey (my absolute favourite company for papers) and the image is a freebie from Tiddly Inks - PCP group. If you haven't joined the Tiddly Inks group on Paper Craft Planet then hurry over and sign up as Christy rewards followers with a freebie every week.

I added some glossy accents and Stickles glitter glue to the flowers & vases to give the card a bit more "zip" and then finished it off with some crystal flowers I had floating around my desk.

Recipe:

• Basic Grey, patterned paper
• Tiddly Inks, digital stamp
• Glossy accents
• Stickles
• Spellbinders
• Crystal flowers (stash)

Challenges:

• Crazy 4 Challenges, sketch
• The Pink Elephant, mommy I love you
• CCEE Stampers - Mother's Day card
• Simon Says Stamp (PCP group) - bling, bling, bling
• Crazy Challenge - bling
• Copics Colour Challenge - BG02, BG11, R20
• Creative Card Crew - April showers bring flowers
• Paper Play Challenges - stamp/digi and bling

Happy Spring

Spring has definitely arrived - the rain is pouring down, the camelia flowers are being blown off by the wind, and there is fresh snow on the mountains. Yikes!

Well, when the weather isn't cooperating at least I can make cards that are Spring-y. I finished this one off last night and I'm pretty pleased with it. I used a lot more pattern than I usually would so I'm a little concerned it might be overly busy but still...

Anyway, the images are a couple of freebies from a brand-new digi-stamp company "Tiddly Inks Digital".  You absolutely have to check out her work as it is great! I had hoped to submit this for the DT challenge but wasn't able to finish it in time as Luke came down with a screaming ear infection. I will still enter the card into a few challenges though, as follows:

• One Stop Craft Challenge - feeling fruity (the tree is growing "heart" fruit)
• Corrosive Challenges - Easter or Spring
• Everybody Art Challenge - Spring
• Fab N Funky - Spring is in the air
• Little Red Wagon - rolling into Spring
• Simon Says Stamps - distressing (used brown distress ink on the edges of the mattes)
• Cute Card Thursday - oval or egg shape (the image & matte are oval shaped)
• Totally Gorjuss - hearts

I also used the sketch from MAWTT but I haven't entered it into the challenge as I didn't fulfill the other conditions (which were to use brown/pink & ribbon).

Recipe:

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  Tiddly Inks Digital - digi stamp images
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  Basic Grey - patterned papers, "Green at Heart" collection
• 
  
  Spellbinders Nestabilities - oval
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  Copic markers
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  Elzybell stamps - sentiment
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  Glossy Accents