Fab'n'Funky Challenges #176 - Animals

Hi All,

Apologies for the late post - brain wasn't engaged!  It's my brother's wedding on Saturday and I'm not sure where the time has gone.  It actually doesn't seem real yet and we've already had the rehearsal!  Fingers crossed everything goes smoothly.

Enough of my jibbering though!  We have a brand new challenge over at Fab'n'Funky Challenges and this week we are hosted by the wonderful Zoe.  The theme is a fab one too...

Animals

So as long as there is an animal on your project, feel free to link it up.  We also have two great sponsors - Flonzcraft and StampArt Design by Kathryne.  As always, that means two great prizes!

I chose to use a StampArt image this week called Ari and Toby which features the most adorable little dog.  I went with bright colours to fend off those raindrops.

Isn't she cute?!  I made this card using Serif's Craft Artist Professional 2.  As soon as I saw those wellies I knew they would make the perfect background and all the elements came from the Backyard Bumper digikit.  I left my image blank so that the recipient - my friend's 7 year old daughter - can colour it herself.  

I really hope you can join us this week with your animals!

Happy crafting,
Rachel x

Fab'n'Funky Challenges #174 - Let's Get Fruity

Hi Everyone,

Wednesday's seem to be here before I know it just now.  It's only two and a half weeks until my brother's wedding.  Eek!  I'm sure it'll be more hectic before then too!

But I have a post to do and the Fab'n'Funky Challenges blog has been updated with the winners and Top 3 from last week's challenge of One for the Girls.  We were bowled over with all the great entries.  Thanks to everyone for making our job so hard but enjoyable!

For this week we have the brilliant Beccy as our host and she has chosen a super theme...

Let's Get Fruity

We would like to see fruit in your design.  You could add a fruity embellishment, digi or backing paper.  Our sponsor is the awesome Stamp Fairy and the DT were lucky to be able to work with their images.  I used Lenny Fruits 3 and you can find him here.

I started with a 6" scalloped card blank and printed the checked paper from Craft Artist Professional 2 after changing the colour to monochrome.  I ran this though an Embossalicious embossing folder from Crafter's Companion with a chevron design.  

My image was coloured with ProMarkers in Cool Grey 1, CG2, CG3, CG4, CG5, Ruby, Heatwave, Apple Cider and Pear Green.  I cut out the little guy with Spellbinders Grand Labels Eleven.  Finally, I added a big green satin bow and ribbon border. My button is recycled from a piece of clothing.  

I really hope you'll get fruity with us this week!  Can't wait to see your makes.

Happy crafting,
Rachel x

CHA Spellbinders - With Love

Hello Everyone,

I hope you've had a great weekend so far.  I've been enjoying plenty of crafty time.  I'm just about to start tidying my crafty stash in preparation of a set of new storage drawers arriving next week.  I think I'll still need a bigger house though!

I finally received my bundle of CHA Spellbinders on Wednesday and have been playing every day ever since!  Here is one of the first cards I made and I really liked the way it turned out.  

I started with two cuts using Spellbinders Detailed Scallops - love these dies.  I had printed the yellow gingham (yeehaa!) paper for another project but ended up not using it but it was the perfect colour base for my card.  I embossed the paper with a swirly Crafts-Too embossing folder and attached some My Paper Stash ribbon in black satin.  My topper is made up from two cuts of the Stately Circles in black cardstock and yellow gingham, then two layers of the Decagons, all off-set.  I stamped my sentiment in black although this is showing up slightly yellowy on the Centrua Pearl cardstock.  Finally I added three black gems in each corner.  

Has anyone else invested in these dies?  I'd love to see what you've been making.

Happy crafting, 
Rachel x

Fab'n'Funky Challenges #143 - Orange, Black and Choice

Hi All,

Hope you've all had a productive week.  I'll still be in Glasgow when you are reading this!  The wonders of technology!  Fingers crossed it goes to plan.

If you entered our Vintage challenge last week over at Fab'n'Funky Challenges then head over to the blog to see our lucky winners. 

This week our challenge is hosted by the lovely Jackie and she has picked a great colour based challenge...

Orange, Black and a colour of your choice

Our sponsor this week is Pink Cat Studio and the DT were lucky enough to be able to use their images for the challenge.  Check out their great designs here.

My colour of choice is green and I think this suits my little halloween guy really well.

I designed this entire card in Craft Artist Professional 2.  I started with the Spooktacular digikit and used an old Sketch Saturday layout. 

I found the cobweb embellishment and then made it into a punch.  I punched out one cobweb from the bright green material and then with the Stamp Mode on, I positioned the next two in a row.  I added the ribbon next but recoloured the orange one as it wasn't bright enough. 

The backing for my image is simply made from materials.  I also used a piece of material to highlight the text.  I used the Troutkings BTN font.  The pumpkins were individual embellishments which I resized and flipped to make a group of three. 

I used the Cutout Studio for the first time on my image and it was a piece of cake!  I applied the shadow feature on all the elements but this hasn't shown up too well.

Once I had the card printed out I used my ProMarkers to cololur the image.  I used the following colours - Forest Green, Grass, Bright Orange, Black, Cool Grey 4, Almond, Cinnamon, Lemon and the blender pen.

It's really easy to make an insert in CAP and I made a quick one for this card.

I just copied elements from the main image and added them to the insert.  Simples!

Can't wait to see all the wonderful combinations that you enter. 

Happy crafting,
Rachel x

Fab'n'Funky Challenge #142 - Vintage

Hello Everyone,

I hope you've all had a good week.  I've been busy crafting when I should be packing as I'm away on Sunday for a few days to Glasgow.  Yay!

We had a great response to our "No Patterned Papers" challenge last week over at Fab'n'Funky Challenges.  I'm always inspired by all the ideas you use to showcase your lovely images. 

Well, I had better tell you all about our next exciting challenge.  The wonderful Shirley is our host this week and she has a fab challenge for us all...

Vintage

I know there are many vintage fans out there so now is your time to show off!  We have the fantastic Flonzcraft as our sponsors.  They are a rubber stamp company based in New Zealand.  Their catalogue of images is varied and ever expanding so check out their site here.  The challenge winner will receive a $20 voucher to the Flonzcraft store with free shipping too.  There is also 12% discount for anyone entering the challenge.  Sounds good to me!

Now, onto my card and the DT had wonderful Flonzcraft stamps to use for this challenge.  I chose to use the Perfect Peacock and was really impressed with the great quality image. 

I made a 7" card blank using white cardstock as I didn't have any to hand.  The papers are all printed from the Summer Peacock digikit in Serif's Craft Artist Professional 2.  I used the Tim Holtz paper distresser to rough up the edges of my pieces.  I also went over the gold mirri layer with an emery board.  I tried using a fine sandpaper but it just took the gold off completely. 

To show off the wonderful peacock I used gold detail embossing powder.  I used baby powder to dust over my card and stop the static first and then stamped in Versamark ink.  I love this ink!  Once I had covered in the embossing powder and poured the excess back into the pot, I heated from underneath with a directional heat tool.

I was really happy with how this turned out.  I may have even done a little happy dance a la Sue Wilson!

My sentiment is from Lili of the Valley and I also used the gold embossing powder to tie in with the image.  I cut the sentiment out with a 1.5" circle punch.  The feather was part of a large embellishment collection from My Craft Studio when they were still at Create and Craft.  I finished off with some aqua gems also from Create and Craft.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenge:-

Sketch Saturday #228 - Donna's DT Week with Little Claire's

Hope you're already planning your vintage creation for our challenge.  Have fun creating.

Happy crafting,
Rachel x