12/05/2012 by Gwyneth.

I’ve just made a new card that I’d like to enter in a challenge as follows:

• Crafty Bloggers Network - Challenge #21 - ‘Decoupage’ - lots of layers of flowers decoupaged for dimension in the central panel.
• Crafter’s Companion Monthly Challenge - Challenge 24 – Here Comes Summer - I can’t think of anything that tells me that summer is here than loads of flowers all over the place.

Here’s the card:

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1.  Closeup of greeting panel - “Penblwydd Hapus” - which is Welsh for “Happy Birthday”.  (Click on thumbnail image for a closer look)
2. Side view of oval flower panel showing dimension of decoupaged flowers (Again, click on thumbnail image for a closer look)

This is how I made it:

I designed this card front and decoupage myself in one of my graphics packages using two different Designer Resources that I’d bought via craftsUprint.

1. Background is 1 of ones from - Semi-Transparent Pretty Rose ‘Organza’ Digital Embellishments by Carol Clarke
2. Flower elements are several components from - Floral Frames and Ornaments lilacs by Susan Wood

I wanted a card front that would go on an 8″ square card but still allow me space to further decorate with some peel-off so I first put the background in place and decided on the size.  I then added the outside frame and an oval frame of flowers.  On the rest of the graphics package page, off the main card front, I took several other oval frames, resizing them and placing on top of each other to create an oval panel of flowers.  The straight banner of flowers were taken and a greetings panel was added.  Other little groupings of flowers were also dotted about to fill up the space on the page.  I then printed off the created page out onto Crafty Bob Paper and cut out the main panel and all the other individual pieces.  The main panel was stuck to an 8″ square, white card front onto which I’d lightly dusted some distress ink to take the starkness out of the white to tone it in with the card front.  I then put on fine gold border peeloffs around the main panel.  The card was finished off by sticking on all my floral decoupage layers using glue gel.

craftybob.com Update:  

There’s an EXCLUSIVE LAUNCH OFFER on the crafbybob.com site for this weekend only.  Every craftsUprint customer who places an order on craftybob.com this weekend gets a £5 CUP voucher! This fantastic offer is for this weekend only and all CUP £5 vouchers will be placed into your CUP Crafter Control Panel within 72 hours of your craftybob.com purchase.

I know that most of my followers will be crafters in their own right, so probably won’t be in the market for handcrafted items like they would make themselves.  But if you are a card-maker, not only might other handcrafted items, such as knitting or jewellery, be of interest to you, but you should check out the “Craft Supplies” and “Craft Tools” sections on the craftybob.com site for what’s available.

Don’t forget that you can see the items I’ve already uploaded to craftybob.com by clicking -> here.

CUP Update:  

CUP Mailer - A copy of the CUP mailer sent out on Wednesday, 9th May, can be seen by clicking -> here.  Lots of cardmaking ideas to be seen, as per usual.

A copy of the mailer sent out on Friday, 11th May, can be seen -> here.  If you like cards with dimension then you’ll see plenty of ideas in this mailer, including several styles of pop-up cards.

May Card Making Competition -  The theme for the May Card Making Competition has been announced.  This time you need to make a “Wedding” themed card using any CUP download.  Details are on the Craftforums site and you’ll find your “Upload Competition Entry” link part way down your “Crafter Control Panel” on the main craftsUprint site. The last entry date is the 22nd May, 2012, with the winner being announced on the 30th.

 -oOo-

You can see the cards I’ve made using design sheets from CUP in my “Crafter Showcase Area” on Craftsuprint.com - here
(Just scroll down past the top boxes to see the cards.)

You can see my page on Facebook by clicking - here.

-oOo-

Posted in craftybob.com, Challenges, craftsUprint, craftsUprint Cards | 11 Comments »

19/02/2012 by Gwyneth.

I’ve just made a new card that I’d like to enter in a few challenges as follows:

• Crafty Bloggers Network - Challenge #13 - ‘Love is in the Air’
• Joanna Sheen Challenge Blog -  “Love is in the air”
• Cards Galore Challenge Blog -  Butterflies
• Crafting for all Seasons Challenge Blog - CH #20 - Love is In the Air

Here’s the card:

This is how I made it:

I’m really into playing with my new Silhouette Cameo at the moment, so this card is made using lots of elements written and cut with that machine.

I took a cutting file design “Butterflies - Embellishments - Studio” by  Ann Smith and cut the top layers of various butterflies with flourishes out of holographic silver paper (a bit difficult to photograph to show the real shine of these paper wings, especially in today’s light).  I cut the bottom butterfly layers out of red Satin Board.

I then set about creating the other elements on the card.  The flowers are made using die-cut flower layers (that I’d bought from somewhere at some point in the past), into which I snipped with scissors between each petal.  I used a Glitter Girl’s embossing tool to shape the flower leaves before sticking three different sized layer flowers together using Paper Flower Expert Glue, pushing into the centre with the ball tool while the glue caught to give the flower shape.

I then did some playing around in my Silhouette Studio software with elements that either came free with the software or I’d got from the Silhouette Online Store and downloaded directly into the software.  I took a heart shape and put several copies on my page, resizing them a bit so that they were not all the same.  I then typed in the words for Love in several different languages into the hearts (Cariad is Welsh for Love).  I measured across a circle of the flowers I’d made and made a circular mat shape from an irregular/deckle edge circle, placing two smaller circles inside.  I used two rectangular shapes, again with an irregular/deckle edge, into mats that were nearly the size of an A4 card front.  Into the smaller of these shapes I dotted around lots of flourishes at different angles and sizes as a background.

I used the same red Satin Board as I’d used for the butterflies for cutting the largest rectangular mat out of.  I used an iridescent paper that has a golden sheen for first writing on with a red Silhouette Sketch Pen, and then cutting out the shapes.  I roughly went around the outside of the hearts and circle with a red ink pad to pick up the edges so that they’d stand out from the background.

I made my base card by scoring and folding an A3 sheet of Centura Pearl Snow White cardstock to make an A4, tent fold, base card.

I then simply built up my card from the prepared elements, using 2mm deep, double sided, foam tape to stick on the circle, and using Pinflair Glue Gel to stick on all the other elements.  I used silver coloured thread between the butterflies and the hearts as trails.

I hope you like it.

 -oOo-

(Please note!  - You should find a box below to leave a comment, but due to the fact that I’ve had some problems with Spam/advertising posts that are absolutely nothing to do with the content of my blog I now moderate all comments before they go live.  Genuine comments will go live when I’ve checked through the list - usually a couple of times a day.)

-oOo-

Posted in Challenges, craftsUprint Cards | 5 Comments »

16/02/2012 by Gwyneth.

I’ve decided to enter one of my cards into a couple of challenges:

• Emma’s Crafty Challenge -  Crafty Challenge #1 - ‘ Shades of Blue ‘
• Crafter’s Companion Monthly Challenge Blog - Challenge 21 - ANYTHING GOES

When I saw the title “Shades of Blue” I remembered a digital topper sheet I had that I thought would be suitable (Lady of the Lake Toppers by Rebecca Brindley) .  I put in a sheet of Centura Pearl Snow White card to print this onto, but was having a “bit of a moment” and put it in upside down, so it’s printed out on the back rather than on the iridescent side I was aiming for.  Never mind.  Decided that, as it still looked good, I wouldn’t waste ink to re-print on the other side.  I chose a blue “duo” card to make the base card from, and used strips I’d trimmed off as a half mat, using the back colour, bottom and left, behind the topper size I’d chosen.  The Greeting (Penblwydd Hapus is Welsh for Happy Birthday) is written using a blue pen in my Cameo machine.  The butterflies were cut out, also with my Cameo, out of two shades of blue Satin Board and some vellum.  The layers were mixed and matched and attached using glue gel, after giving some curving for dimension to the wings. (The butterflies were cut using cutting file Flourish Butterflies - Embellishments - Studio by Ann Smith)

Hope you like my card (and hope I’ve got all the rules right and got the details right for the challenge entries as well - having a bit of a brain fog few days so there’s no telling if what I think I’ve read is actually what is written on the challenge pages.)

Posted in Challenges, craftsUprint | 3 Comments »