Challenge 27 - Its Our Birthday!!

Crafty Cardmakers is a year old woo hoo!! We've come a long way, have tinkered and retouched and grown along the way and have a fabulous team to boot and we're celebrating with a BIRTHDAY theme!

Thank You all for your fab entries to Joy's recipe challenge, Joy's not feeling too good lately so hope she gets better soon :) Thank You also to the extremely talented CHELSEA from Gurlee Girl for sponsoring the challenge, we'll announce the winner and Top 5 soon!

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CHALLENGE 27 - BIRTHDAYS

Simple as cake for this one!! Help us celebrate our blogaversary with a birthday card :) The challenge runs for 2 weeks as usual and we'll be back next week with our spotlight challenge.

I've also put upcomming challenges in the sidebar, we're coming up to xmas season so it will help you plan ahead. If there is any technique, product or style you'd like us to spotlight drop us an email!

We're sponsored by Joanna Sheen who has a delightful online store that ships many items free worldwide! Lots of new stamp sheets from Elusive Images in store recently and some really really cute stamps and CD ROMS by SWALK which you can see here - how cute are they! Joanna is offering a £10 voucher for her store as a candy prize.

We're joined by our guest Dora for this challenge - remember if you fancy playing along in a guest spot to add GDT after your name on your entry.

Lets see what our fantabulous DT and guest have come up with, thank you ladies!

Guest Designer - Dora

Toria

Stamps used: Magnolia - Tilda opening present and Banner of Flags, Cute Companions – Balloons

All the images are stamped in Memento Ink. The flags and balloons are stamped on to matching papers. I have added colour to the flags and balloons with Spica glitter pens. The flags are stuck onto a piece of pink thread that I have sewn onto the card and I have added strings to the balloons with black pen.

Tilda is stamped onto Parchment paper and I have coloured with copics. I used nestablilities to cut out an aperture in the blue card and also for the spot frame. I added heart brads to corner of the blue card and also to the left corner to secure the balloons.

Lisa

I've used an image from Digistamp Boutique, coloured with promarkers, then used glossy accents to glaze the glass. The papers are MME, with DCWV cardstock. Green Tara flowers, with button centres, downloaded sentiment from Cuddly Buddly, mounted on a nestie die (possibly blossom 2, can't remember!). Added some little buttons in the corners and a ribbon bow to finish. Happy Birthday Crafty Cardmakers!

Dee

This is a criss cross photo wallet to hold memories of the special day. This is made using one sheet of DSP and scored and folded. The images are colored with Copics and I used a MS punch on the inside mat, two ribbons and a felt and paper flower topped of with a button. The sentiments are mounted on pieces of thin wood. The inside pull out picture mats are colored with glimmer mist and one mat is stamped with dot circles.

Julie

For my card I started with a blank square, layered with background paper I got free with a magazine, I cut a strip from a sheet from the same pack and used a fiskars punch to create the patterned edge, the image as we can all guess is Tilda coloured with promarkers and the bag is glittered. I punched the corners of the paper that I had stamped and put jewels in two of the corners. I got out and dusted!! my quickutz revolution and cut the layers of the flowers in the same papers, put these together with brads and stuck on the card with 3d foam. The sentiment was from a free magazine pack also.

Fiona

For my card I have used a gorgeous digi stamp from Mo Manning, I have coloured it with ProMarkers and some stickles. The dp is from my stash , as far as I remember it's from The Greetings Farm. My sentiment is from Craftwork Cards and the flowers and gems are from my stash.

Corry

Happy Blogaversay to Crafty Cardmakers!

For my birthday themed card I used the image Daffodils from Prairie Fairy Designs. I also used the a "spotlight technique" to highlight one part of the image. I printed the image twice & chose an area I wanted to highlight, colored it & cut it out with my circle cutters from CM & replaced it just so. I embossed the pink paper with my cuttlebug & used my labels Nestability to cut out my image. A bit of disressing & sewing jazzed things up a big & I finished off my card with some ribbon, a butterfly, a heart, some recycled flowers accents & a happy birthday sentiment.

Mandy

Happy Birthday Crafty Cardmakers !! Wow, I cannot believe we are a year old. Well done Vix and my fellow DT members past & present. I used the birthday cake decoupage from a recent magazine freebie and added glitter and lots of Glossy Accents to make the elements pop. I cut the front down so the cake looks like it is popping up. The papers and banner are from Basic Gray. I added 3d foam to the banner and multi coloured brads.

Jenni

I have used one of my own images - Flirty Fairy - and coloured her with Promarkers with some stickles on her wings and on the dress. I used backing paper from K&Co with some co-ordinating ribbon which I have stapled on (I coloured my staples black with a promarker.) and stamped some swirls onto my white cardstock . I put a bit of black Co'redinations cardstock through my Big Shot with an embossing folder to emboss some swirls then punched circles which I layered on my flowers finishing some of them off with buttons.The birthday sentiment was from Stampin Up.

Lin

I covered a square card with Karen Neuburger's Aspen Blossom floral paper, which I had previously matted onto some funky circled mirri card. I also matted up some KN Butterfly Joy Paisley paper onto the same mirrir card, after having run it through a Go Kreate Embossing Folder and run over the text with Sweet Plum and Lilac Posies Memento Inks. The image is a merged combination of three Mo Manning Digis which appealed to me as looking like a party, coloured with promarkers and edged with Lilac Posies Ink. The flowers I made myself from different lengths of lace and the flourishes are cut from the same mirri using Marianne Creatables dies. I loved the way Bella is looking over her shoulder and I am not sure if it's at Bronte (the dog), Georgie cartwheeling or Angelina's Balloon hair! Anyhow, they, and I, all wish CCM a very happy birthday........

Challenge closes on 23rd August - have fun!

SPOTLIGHT CHALLENGE - PUNCHES

Woweee what a beautiful array of easel cards you've made, how fabulous!! Thank You all so much for playing the spotlight challenge. The froggy has chosen and has picked...

58 - Julie! Well Done Julie! Please email me with your address and I'll post you a candy pack out.

Its time for another spotlight challenge! We are going to spotlight PUNCHES for this one. Some of the DT have also followed Joy's recipe challenge for this too but you don't have to, we'd just like to see your ways of using punches, be inventive and have a go at something a bit different with them. You never know what you might discover, have a rummage through your dusty old punches too and see what other ways you can use it,

I've had a mooch round if you fancy challenging yourself and getting more out of your punches so here's some great tutorials I've found.

Amazing Paper Grace - Rectangle frame from corner punch
Inspirational - Floral punch art card
Inspirational - Vintage paper posies
Inspirational - Circle scalloped edge


As always both the main challenge and spotlight challenge are open for 2 weeks each so you can also combine both challenges here too as some of the team have done.

Can I also make a quick note which goes for all challenges - You must follow the blog rules and the challenge. I know we don't like rules too much but we do have to draw the line somewhere. This challenge requires you to use punches, NOT die cuts. We've noted of late that some entrants in previous challenges here and elsewhere are being a bit too liberal in the interpretation of the challenge. You won't be eligible for any prize on offer so please ensure you have followed challenges correctly.

Onto what our fantabulous design team have created to inspire you, haven't they done well!! I'm offering a little candy pack for this including flowers, stamped images and ribbon.

Melly

I loved the wee recipe challenge this week, perfect for my wee papers from Papermania. I used my image form Lili of the Valley that my friend Susie got me, coloured with promarkers. I also used my corner punch for the edges and my Martha Stewart border punch for the easel tab. Added loads of buttons and ribbons from my stash and a wee sentiment to finish!

Josephine

The image is a combination of three digi stamps from Becky Muir which I've coloured with Promarkers. I printed it on my usual Ryman card and matted it on brown. I punched four layers of coloured card with a Martha Stewart border punch and layered them, adding the image at the top, and finished the card with some sticky gems on the brown layer. I was looking for something to go with the layered idea, and the merry-go-round horses seemed ideal.

Cath

First, the background was sponged with Adirondack Sunshine Yellow ink, then, using a punchie as a mask (with non permanent adhesive), Spiced Marmalade, Dried Marigold, Cabin Door, Victorian Velvet and Spun Sugar distress inks were sponged on, with a little Adirondack Mountain Rose. The elephants and tree (one stamp) were stamped in Versafine Onyx Black, then clear embossed. Top corners were punched with a corner punch. The outer layer is just white card, embossed with a Rollagraph, taken off the wheel and used as a stamp. Final card is Bazzill orange.

Corry

I used as many punches as I could!! I used my Fiskars corner punch for the corners of all three layers behind Elsie the Elephant from Prairie Fairy Designs. SU border punch used for small strip of bright yellow paper & MS border punch used for large light yellow paper behind Elsie. I punched out my sentiment with my SU Tag punch & SU butterfly punch for (yup) the butterflies. I made a flower with my 5/8" round punch from EK Success, popped a button in the middle & used my MS leaf punch for (yup) the leaves! I used my scallop punch to decorate the inside of my card.

Ei

Here's my 'punches' card. I've used the Mega Rectangle Nestability for the opening card on the front and two different Martha Stewart border punches, two Martha Stewart flower punches, one Martha Stewart branch punch and one L-Em branch punch. The large flower was created with a poinsettia Nestie and a blossom Nestie and the large leaves are individual leaves of a Sizzix poinsettia die. I've used no dp's but 'dabbed' the hammered cream card with chalks.

Jack

I decided to go with punches for my card and used several not just to punch out flowers and edge the DP but also punched a strip with a border punch and made the large flowers following a tutorial from Inspirationsl Tips, Techniques and Tutorials Blog. The DPs are from K&Co Tim Coffey Daisy pad and the stamp is a Penny Black (full details on my blog).

Judie

I have made a clock for my mummie as its her birthday next week. It started life as a piece of wood, I stained some torn pieces of paper from an old book and swipped them with mixtures of distress inks and glossed up with sepia accents. I punched out several different sizes of flowers and sprayed them with sticky fingers and then mica powders. I used a hole punch to punch out some silver holes for the middle of each flower and then added distress stickles to the edges of the flowers. I have swipped around the edge of the clock with silver leaf.

Kat

I've followed the recipe from last week and used orange, an animal and of course punches. I used a Martha Stewart corner punch on the corners of the DP and the corresponding edge punch to punch a nice lacy strip. The cute PB image is coloured with Promarkers, cut out with a round nestie and edged in dried marigold Distress Ink. The flowers are cut out with 2 sizes of EK Success retro flower punch, edged with Distress Ink and I added self adhesive pearls. I also highlighted the punched corners, border and sentiment with s.a. pearls.

Lisa

I've used a digistamp from Di's Digi Downloads, coloured with promarkers. The papers are Making Memories with coredinations cardstock. The flower was made with a Woodware daisy punch and an x-cut flower punch, leaves were cut with a Woodware punch. I then inked around the edges of the flowers and leaves with pink ink for definition and added a button. The border was cut with the Martha Stewart doily lace trim punch.

Toria

I created a tent card from yellow card and some paper free from a magazine. I cut a aperture using a circle cutter.

The Seahorse, Weed and Mermaid are from the latest Magnolia Stamp Club. They are both stamped with Memento Ink. For both the images, I created coloured paper, using combination of Starburst Stains and Mica Powder. I stamped the on white card and coloured her face and hair with Copics and Spica Glitter pens. Then I stamped her twice on to two different starburst backgrounds and paper pieced her together. I added extra colour to the seahorse, with Mica paints and then once dried, I covered it with Glossy Accents. I made a hole in the top of the seahorse and the tent card. I added jump rings and chain, which I used to hang the seahorse. I also stamped the weed on the starburst paper and added these to the inside of the card.

The fish are created using a leaf Punch and Two different sized heart Punches. They were punched out of the same starburst stain paper as used for the seahorse and then more colour was added with Mica Paint. Then covered in Glossy Accents. To finish off the cut, I cut some bubbles using a hole punch and cover in Glossy accents.

This challenge will close Midnight on Monday 16th August just prior to the next spotlight challenge. Thank You for looking and lets see you be really inventive!

Winners of challenge #24 Inky Fingers

Sorry I'm so late with this one! Thank You to The Stampman for sponsoring our Inky Fingers challenge and to Kim Reygate for humouring me and being our special guest! We had fabulous entries, I keep going back for more peeks!!




The froggy has chosen and has picked...


128 - Sue C! Well Done Sue, please email me to claim your £10 voucher for The Stampman.



Our Top 5 DT choice for this challenge in no order was..

Carina

Laura

Lorraine

Raindrop Echo

Sally

Well Done ladies, well deserved! Please grab your Top 5 blinkie from this post :)

Challenge 26 - Joy's Recipe

Thank You for your fantastic takes on Judies photo challenge, some beautiful creations there ladies well done! The winners of that will be announced at a later date. Thank You again to Joanna Sheen for sponsoring us. Thanks also to Laura for being our guest designer and Lori Aragon for being our special guest, both with stunning designs.
Our spotlight on easels challenge is still open for another week which you will find here. Don't forget both challenges run for 2 weeks each so if you make an easel for this challenge you can also enter it into the spotlight one too!

I'm a bit behind at the moment so I'll be doing the winners of the Inky Fingers challenge in the next day or two, sorry for the delay!

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CHALLENGE 26 - JOY'S RECIPE

Joy has set us a challenge this fortnight which is a recipe and she would like us to use the following...

• 1. Use stickers or punches



• 2. Use the colour orange or yellow



• 3. Include and animal or fish

If you've never done a card recipe before then think of the above as the main ingredients like flour, eggs and butter so these would be the main features of the card but you're more than welcome to add in smaller quantities of your own ingredients :)

We are delighted to be sponsored by the adorable & extremely talented Chelsea who has her own online store. Thank You Chelsea!

Gurlee Girl Craft Store has expanded to include the latest Magnolia Stamps, Prima Flowers, and of course my Gurlee Girl Stamps for your crafting needs. I look forward to adding more wonderful craft products we all love to use to on our projects. Please make sure to stop by and check out the latest items available now. I only stock a limited number of inventories for each item, they will not be re-stocked. Thanks for visiting my shop. ~Chelsea~

Lets have a look at what the DT have been up to for this challenge!

GUEST DESIGNER - TINA

Joy

I used a pale yellow card which has an oval shape in the middle of it which can be taken out, but as I'm not sure how to use this type of card I left it in place and put on it 4 dolphin Peeloffs which I coloured using Acetate & Peel off pens, according to the colours on their pen lid they were yellow & orange although when I used the latter on the card it looks more like brown doesn't it? I then added a frame using watercolour pencils, at the top I used a blue one with a green at the bottom, I then added some yellow iridescent stars in the top two corners & a Gold Happy Birthday at the bottom. Finally I stuck a piece of white hand made paper on the inside so that the shape didn't come off!

Ei

Vix

I've used an image by Pollycraft coloured with promarkers and coloured the hearts on the dress with an orange sakura stardust pen. The ribbon has been dyed wth a yellow promarker and the faux stitching is a sakura souffle pen. I used a martha stewart punch (my one and only one!) and sprayed the whole card with diamond dazzles glimmer mist.

Janey

White scalloped card to start, with a piece of Kanban Edwardian Orange card for the background. The fish are digi's from Bee Crafty printed out in different sizes, coloured with Pumpkin & Bright Orange ProMarkers & mounted with foam pads. I've run them through the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder for a bit of texture and added orange Stickles Glitter to their fins. The underwater foliage is punched out from Doodlebug Sugarcoated cardstock using a Nellie Snellen branch punch and the bubbles were punched using a household hole punch!

Jenni

I have used a digi stamp from Meljens designs, coloured the image with Promarkers and mounted it on to orange then yellow card, the edges have been punched with a Stampin Up scalloped border punch then trimmed with some gingham ribbon. The sentiment was also punched with a Stampin Up punch and edged with ink. My backing papers are both K&Co.

Dionne

I picked an image drawn by Marianne Walker from I Like Markers and colored it with Copics. I sprayed it with pearl Glimmer mist and added pearls. Next I took a 12 inch stripe of paper and punched(MS) and folded it to make a border around half the image. Then I stacked 3 prima flowers and added diamond dust to the top, added ribbon and rhinestones to card.

Lin

I sponged onto white card with distress inks in Dried Marigold, Scattered Straw and Spiced Marmalade and dusted over the top with Cosmic Shimmer mica in Mango Orange. I inked up my cat with versamark and stamped it in the middle, and also stamped the paw prints and sentiment. This removed the CS and I dusted back over the areas I had stamped with CS Topaz Sparkle. I gave it a light mist with CS Angel which I mixed with water. The punched background is a MS punch around the page which I cut smaller than the sizes they recommend and by being very careful managed to get it to match, but if it didn't the flowers I intended to put in the corners could have covered up any mistakes in the pattern, as it was I was able to bring them in a bit more from the edge.

Fiona

I have used a digi stamp from PollyCraft for my image and the sentiment is from Tiddly Inks. For the borders I used one of my X-Cut border punches. I have coloured the image with ProMarkers and added some stickles glitter glue to the flowers and grass. The ribbon, paper and card are from my stash.

Julie

I stamped my image onto card and coloured with promarkers adding touches of glitter onto the flowers. I cut the corners of the card with a fiskars punch then mounted the image onto yellow card, then again onto patterned orange paper. I covered the front of a square card with a leaf patterned paper and mounted the layered image onto the card. I coloured some flowers with promarkers and added layered them keeping them together with a brad and cup which was then mounted onto the corner of the card and the gems were added.

Mandy

For my recipe card I have used various papers in yellows and oranges (my Happy Colours), Fiskars punch for the edge of the card and an EK Success punch for the corners. The Butterflies are a Martha Stewart punch and a Papermania white felt one coloured with a yellow Promarker. I little bit of twinkle courtesy of gems and Stickles glitter glue and a lovely summery card is born :)

Please add a link to your creation into the froggy below. The challenge will close at 12am midnight GMT on 9th August. Good Luck!

SPOTLIGHT CHALLENGE - EASEL CARDS

We're baaaaack! Welcome to our very first spotlight challenge! These will run alongside our regular fortnightly challenge here but they are challenge in their own right and also run for a fortnight.

On the spotlight challenge we will look at a style of card, technique or product with the team making various wonderful samples which should give you loads of ideas. They are just for fun, no pressure challenges so no Top 5 but we will offer candy from time to time.

You will notice that the team also do the challenge from last week (which is still open for another week which you will find HERE) It is so that we all get a chance to play it but you may choose to also do that in which case pop your entry in both or you may just play the spotlight challenge, its no different than combining challenges :)

For our spotlight this time we are looking at EASEL CARDS so we would like to see your easel cards. If you've never made one before there is a good clear tutorial over at Dewdrop Craftz you will find here. Perhaps you're feeling more adventurous so have a peek at the heart shaped easel tutorial here. Once you understand how they work then you'll see by the examples you can make any shape you like :)

I'm offering a little candy for this challenge which includes some wild orchid flowers, prima wildflowers, sticky gems and stamped images.

Lets have a look at the teams marvellous creations!

Kat

I took my inspiration from the colours and the hearts in the photo and decided to make an easel card. I decided on a hexagon. Don't ask how long it took to get the shape right! I made a template and cut out the card and the DP the sizes I wanted. I used Basic Grey Kioshi DP and inked all the edges with Bundled Sage Distress Ink. The Forever Friends image is coloured with Promarkers. The card candy and punched heart are also coloured with DI and I added stickles to the heart. I finished off with a Craftwork cards sentiment and some lace, buttons and string.

Dionne

The colors were my inspiration. The card was cut with the Cricut Expression using Life's A Beach. The fish is cut from felt and then coated with stickles. The fish bowel is cut from acetate and pop doted, and I added blue/green beads as the gravel.

Ei

Here's my Easel Card. As with last week's effort, I've used the love-hearts colours but cut out a butterfly shape from an A3 card folded in 3. The lovely blue paper is, I think, DCWV. Inside is lined with teal glitter paper and the iridescent material is Fantasy Film.

Vix

For this challenge I've taken the colours as inspiration and used starburst stains to make the backgrounds which have been cuttlebug embossed (Jules Jewells folder) The flowers were white and I've sprayed them with starburst stains to match. I made a gatefold card and mounted that on my easel base and the stopper is a recycled clock from a travel clock which I've attached by cutting a hole in the base and slotting it through so you can change the batteries!

Julie

The inspiration from the photo I used was the colours and the wording, I have made a couple of easel cards but this is my first shaped one, I used a circle embossing template to cut around, the background papers are from a free sample pack I got with a magazine, the images are digi stamps coloured with promarkers. I even coloured the ribbon with promarkers which again I have never done before it was actually blue and I coloured it with a yellow promarker. Finished with some flowers layered and gems.

Lin

I picked the colouring from the photo and used the Go Kreate Concentrics Frame Pointy #1, to cut the card shape. If you want I can come back and post some pics showing the various stages, or indeed come back and edit this wording! the card and toppers are all from the Kanban Free As a Bird range.

Jenni

I used my largest nestie label die to make the top half of the card but kept the bottom a recangular shape and just rounded the corners - this worked quite well as I was able to use the smaller labels horizontally on the base. I used papers from a K&Co matt stack and a Dimension Fourth image which I coloured with Promarkers cut then out and mounted on a nestie circle.

Toria

I saw a tutorial on how to use traditional Swedish heart baskets on cards and knew I had to try it. I used paper by Papermania to create the woven hearts. I stamped swirls around the edge with distress ink - Peeled Paint and then added stickles to these. I then distressed the edges of the hearts with the same distress ink.

I stamped Fairy Dust Tilda and Watering Can in Memento ink and then coloured them in with Distress inks and copic's. I added stickles for the dust and added glitz. The waterlily and dragonflies are stamped onto parchment paper. The leaf a circle of parchment paper. I coloured them with inktense pencils, distress inks and stickles. I added Glossy Accents to the dragonfly bodies.

Don't forget you have 2 weeks to enter, if you choose to follow the challenge from last week too then enter into both :)