Sorting Hat

I am a huge Harry Potter fan and so I was thrilled to hear that Bugaboo Stamps was coming out with their own line of Potter-inspired images. I bought both the character and accessories sets (by the way, buy one set by Oct 16 and you get the second set for free!) and then had a terrible time deciding which to colour first. I finally decided on the Sorting Hat and a bookmark.

Now I absolutely have to apologize for the quality of the image - I can't for the life of me find the camera (it's in the house somewhere but probably lost in a pile of scrapping supplies) and so I had to scan the bookmark in order to meet the Bugaboo challenge deadline. Of course, that leads to some sharpness problems, but at least you can get the idea of what I tried to create.

And what was I creating? Well, I wanted to make a bookmark for my oldest son who is currently reading Book 2 of Harry Potter with his Dad. He is totally enthralled with the books and is even planning to be Harry for Halloween. I think he will enjoy having his own themed bookmark! Being a 7-year old boy, though, I knew this bookmark had to be simple and sturdy.

I used 2 layers of cardstock with a 3rd patterned paper layer on top. The hat is coloured, cut out, and popped up slightly. I drew in the lightning bolts (but don't they look more like random squiggles?) and then added a good thick ribbon. Personally, I think it needs glitter and colour but his fave colour right now is black and glitter would send him screaming. Oh, the sacrifices we make for our children (lol).

Too late to stay?

Last night was just wonderful - a dear co-worker is retiring at the end of the month and a small group of us went out to dinner to celebrate. There were plenty of laughs (and no, they weren't all due to the copious amounts of wine) and lots of reminiscing. Anyway, I made this card for the soon-to-be retiree:

I chose Mo Manning's "White Rabbit (Late)" because of his somewhat tired & downtrodden appearance. I also love the time theme since it always seems that something looked forward to will never arrive. I chose very neutral colours (after the card is for a man) when I coloured the rabbit. I cut him out using a Spellbinders die and then inked the edges for a distressed look.

To make the card, I started by stamping pocket watches randomly on a white card blank. The stamps are part of a Recollections set "About Time" that I picked up at Michaels awhile back and I used brown distress ink to keep a vintage/aged look. I inked the card edges and also lightly sponged distress ink over the card to tone down the brightness of the white.


The panels are created with Basic Grey, "manilla basics" matted on green. I love how the manilla paper has text & drawings all over it (so suggestive of paperwork). I inked the edges and added brass brads to the top and bottom of each panel. The sentiment is cut out with a Spellbinders die, inked around the edges and then popped up. The sentiment inside reads "to ask you to stay?".
 
For the final touch, I dissassembled some really ugly ribbon to rescue the brown twine. I wrapped three pieces of the twine around the image and then popped the entire thing up.
 
I'm really proud of this card - I worked quite hard at the shading on the rabbit and I'm thrilled with the overall vintage appearance of the card. Of course, the best complement of all was when my friend told me it was perfect for him!
 
Challenges:
Paper Sundaes - a change of season (moving from worklife to retirement)
Pollycraft Challenge - it's a fairytale (does "Alice in Wonderland" count as a fairy tale? I think so)
Little Red Wagon - something old, something new (he'll kill me, but the recipient is the something old [well, the twine is also really old], the digi image is new)
Papertake Weekly - 3 of a kind (3 panels, 3 pieces of twine, 2 sets of 3 brads)
Tuesday Throwdown - 3 of something (3 panels ...)
Craftalicious - anything goes
Stamping Vacation - no images that start with an "S"
Midnight Madness - sketch

Reason for the Season

The current challenge over at Winter Wonderland is to make a Christmas card that uses the theme "Jesus is the reason for the season". Now anyone who knows me, knows that I am not a religious person. But I do have relatives that are quite devout Catholics so I decided to give it a try.

Of course, just because this card has a religous bent to it doesn't mean it couldn't also have a touch of whimsy. The image is fairly new from Bugaboo - part of "A Kid's View Nativity" - and I love how it manages to be both devout and fun. I coloured the image with Copic markers, keeping the colours quite neutral, with the exception of Mary's headpiece.

I wanted to keep the card clean & simple so I adapted this sketch from Sketch Saturday and only used one patterned paper (from Basic Grey).

Challenges:
Winter Wonderland - Jesus is the reason for the season
Alphabet Challenge - "X" is for Xmas
Off the Wall Craftiness - picture inspiration (I was inspired by the colours which I matched with my background paper)

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!!!

I was in a primary colour mood last night and so created a bright, cheerful birthday card that I can keep handy for my son to use for one of his friends.

The first step was colouring the birthday bear (such a cutie from Doodle Dragon Studios) with Copics, then adding some Glossy Accents to the letters and balloons. I printed off a second image so that I could cut out the box and front balloons and pop them up for extra dimension.

I chose the current sketch challenge from Midnight Madness for my card design:

I challenged myself to use no design paper - instead I took plain cardstock and dug through my (too large) collection of embossing folders. Then I added a border punched with a Martha Stewart border punch. Finally, I created 2 embellishments by cutting one column of loops (cut with the border punch) and adding a brad in the centre. The final result is a bright, fun card with lots of energy.

Challenges:
Midnight Madness - sketch
Creative Belli Blog - numbers (I dug out an embossing folder of numbers for the bottom left panel)
Fab n Funky - use a digi image
Stamp Something - something punchy (border punch used for 2 borders and embellishments)
Create 4 Fun - use a digi image
Doodle Dragon Studio - masculine (birthday card for a boy)
Pile It On - 3 things (used 3 embossing folders)

Shabby chic mini album

Update: I'm so thrilled that this project was selected in the top 3 for the Tuesday Throwdown Challenge! Yay me! lol.

This past weekend at the BC Crop for Kids, I took a couple of technique classes on creating interesting embellishments and backgrounds. I took some of those learnings, as well as several pieces provided in the class kits, in creating this mini album:

The album shape & pages were provided to us (cut using the new Tim Holtz die ornamental). The cover is brown coloured chipboard that I sanded and distressed, then hole-punched. For the cover, I used another Tim Holtz die cut that was provided to us along with some altered Ezee Pzee embellishments. The brown chipboard snowflake and flourishes are just spritzed with pewter glimmer spray - I love the shabby chic finish that resulted. I adhered a clear dew drop in the centre of the snowflake for a bit of bling. The album is tied together with ribbon that also came from the class kit.
Challenges:
Paper Playtime - ribbons, buttons and/or rhinestones (used ribbon and a dew drop)
Tuesday Throwdown - use chipboard (the cover, snowflakes, flourishes)

Whoo can Boo

This past weekend was an absolute frenzy of crafting because I attended the annual "BC Crop for Kids" (raising money for the BC Children's Hospital) and got to spend the entire weekend taking classes, doing "make & takes" and scrapbooking. Over the 3-days, I finished 7 scrapbook pages, several cards and a tonne of altered items including embellishments and some gifts. I will share the various projects over the coming weeks as I put the final touches on each one.

The first projects I want to share are a couple of "make & takes". There were "make & takes" by donation all weekend, with all the proceeds going to the Children's Hospital.

Boo!!! Halloween treat bag and bookmark

The treat bag uses a mix of Halloween papers along with a skull/crossbones that was cut on the Cricut. One of the nice parts of "make & takes" is that so much of the work is done for you - all that is left is choosing the colour/design combinations and then positioning the different elements.

I particularly like the bookmark which is a simple combination of paper circles (scalloped and plain) and an image cut from a patterned paper. The huge paper clip came from a stationary supply store so this is a really cheap and easy project. Good thing it is so easy because I have to make another bookmark before the kids see this one or else there will be fighting over who gets it.

Challenges:
The Crafty Pad - spooky
Stampin' for the Weekend - Autumn colours
By the Cute & Girly - spooky


Whoo! Owl card

This little card was made at a "make & take" put on by Gitte Bjerg-Jensen of Stampin' Up and allowed us to use the new Stampin' Up owl punch. I had a lot of fun putting together the different pieces to create these little guys. I placed them so that it looks like they are passing a message along (or perhaps talking about that middle owl?). Such a fun punch but I have to admit that putting those tiny little eyes in place was quite the challenge!
Challenges:
Crafty Creations - owls
Alphabet Challenge - "W" for wings