Butterfly card

I made this card in response to an on-line challenge. Can I remember who set the challenge, or where? No! Doh .... But never mind, I enjoyed making it. I do recall that there was a sketch to use and the idea of 'circles' as a prompt.

I used white card for the card base and stippled it with Tim Holtz Distress Ink. Cut a section of checked card and used my threading water border punch on one edge before mounting it. The three punched circles have had the edges inked and are mounted using sticky pads for dimension. The cardstock comes ready glittered, so there's a nice bit of built-in bling!

I have used a second ribbon-style strip of the checked card towards the bottom of the card, leaving a small amount of the white card below (you can't see this on my scanned version, sorry).

The small frame is cut using my Sissix die and Big Shot, and the added sentiment is a rub-on from my collection. Two pearl 'jewels' add the finishing touch to the frame.

A digital creation

While I've been out of work, I've had much more time to explore the capabilities of my Photoshop Elements 8 software. I am, I admit, a little bit addicted to just playing around with it, mostly on photos, but also, it has to be said, with other elements that could be useful in digital, or in-the-flesh scrapbooking.

And here is my latest 'test' creation, which I was quite pleased with. I do have another, grungier version (postmarks are seldom crystal clear and perfect, are they?!) but I am not sure where I filed it (doh!). I don't think I've perfected the technique yet - I couldn't see to get the 'sent with love' text to appear the right way up, but hey, in my book,  any progress is good!

I made the image with the help of the fab people on elementsvillage.com. The site is well worth a visit if you want to got more from your Photoshop program, and everyone there is so helpful.

http://notesonpaper.blogspot.com/2011/07/im-going-postal-how-about-you.html

I've posted this link as one of my UK Scrapper companions has gone all postal, and when I read her blog, I thought my creation would be just perfect to share and add to the collection of all thing maily.

And here is a photo of one of our dogs Kalika, framed by moi, using masks and brushes. I did have fun doing this!

Another week, another card ...

This is yet another of my photos which fails to do the card justice. It really does look better in real life, honest!

I made this in response to sketch challenge here:

 http://scrapology-adventuresinscrapb....blogspot.com/

The card base is simple white CS, and I've rounded the corners with a punch.I used some of my Papermania paper for the three-block background - the patterns and colours in the set are lovely, but because the paper is quite thin, I tend not to use it often. This seemed to be a great opportunity to put it to use.

Then I punched two scalloped circles, inked the edges and mounted them with sticky fixers to give dimension. The sentiment was created in Word and printed on a light card stock. Then I used a circle punch to cut out the required shape before mounting that on top. The white ribbon and thinner blue ribbon came from my ribbon stash drawer.

Thanks to everyone for looking, and for the lovely comments many of you are leaving for me - it's so encouraging.

Saturday update

OK. Today's card features a sparkly butterfly cut using a lovely Marianne's Creatables die. It is cut from slightly holographic/sparkly cardstock which look better on the in-the-flesh version than in the photo.I've bent the wings upwards and mounted the body on a sticky fixer to give it dimension.

 The cardstock came from a Garden Party (DCWV) small stack and is handily already 'blinged' so I didn't have to add any further Stickles or gems. I wrapped a silver-edged organza ribbon  and bow around the DCWV card before sticking it onto the card base.

Simple, quick, and used up up just a little more of my stash!

Just as I promised!

I promised to share some more photos of the cars I'd been making on my frugal creativity drive!

Not the best photo ever but I think you get the idea.

I've used a pink card base (I never used to like pink, so don't quite now what's happened these days, all my cards seem to be pink LOL) and my threading water punch to create the edging. I've done some inking with my Tim Holz Distress Ink pads, and used my Sizzix swirl to cut the flourish. The (Sizzix) scalloped / frame shape behind the flourish is cut from a textured wallpaper sample, and inked to bring out the relief. The button comes from my box of mum-donated stash. There's the compulsory low-level bling, too, in the form of gems and a bit of Stickles here and there on the flourish. The various elements are mounted with the help of sticky fixers to give a 3D effect.

Doesn't look bad in real life!!!!!

Trying to be good

It is true, I have been trying to be good. Why? Well, I have been out of work now since December last year and redundancy payouts don't, sadly, last for ever. So I am trying to rein in my spending habits (not that they were ever very dubious - but who doesn't like buying the odd crafty thing here and there??!!).

The result from a crafting perspective is I've been making more of an effort to use up what I've got, scraps and all. The card above is just one of a batch I've made using what's stashed away in my office-cum-craft room. The exercise has also made me use my Sizzix dies and various punches, so I am feeling reasonably pleased with myself!

I will post up some more photos as I go along.