Crafty Cardmakers

I have decided to slightly alter the format of our posts and from now on the Winners and Top 5 will appear in a separate post which I shall, hopefully, post before the next challenge is posted. So please scroll down to the post below if you want to see who won our 'No Floral Embellishment' challenge. Our challenge this time is hosted by Jack and she would like to see beads used. You can make a project using just beads or use them as embellishments on something you make. The important thing is that beads are there for all to see.

Our sponsors for this challenge are:

We are kindly sponsored for this challenge by The Stampman (and Lady of course!) who are ofering the winner a £10 voucher for their store, you can spend this online, in the shop or if you're lucky enough to see them at a show! They have a ton of items in store, enough to tickle any crafty taste bud. and another of our new Sponsors Di's Digi Downloads $10 Gift Voucher

I have been drawing since a child and studied graphics at College many years ago, I now work as a Medical photographer part time but my love was always drawing. I started cardmaking about 4yrs ago when I bought my daughter a cardmaking kit which we did together, but I’m afraid I got the bug! My daughter preferred scrapbooking. I then started looking online at other blogs and this then became my passion and I loved sharing my cards with likeminded people.

I love stamping and loved finding images, but sometimes I could not find what I wanted so I started to draw myself.

This then has become my second addiction and I have never looked back, I love thinking of new images, and its just fabulous to see others take them and make them into beautiful works of art. Long may it continue!

Jack

I had so many ideas for this challenge but eventually decided to show a piece of jewellery I made as a Christmas present. I used 3 sizes of grey pearl beads, sparkly rondelles and a beautiful leaf toggle that I offset to show it off.

Tracy

I had to think long and hard about this challenge, I was looking for inspiration when I saw the paper Fuchsia flowers I had made ages ago. I got out some beads and added them to the ends of the stamens. I cut the circle from the base card using a die, I printed the Fuchsia fairy off four times and made my own decoupage, printed a background paper and added lots of Glamour Dust for some fairy sparkle. I was really pleased with how the card turned out as it's different to anything I've done before.

Josephine

'Use Beads,' said the challenge. So, I used lots of them, and a little bit of beading thread and a button.

My daughter wanted a bracelet to go with a new dress, so we chose some beads, and I got my beading loom out and set to work. The beads are all by Gutterman, and the button is 'recycled'!

Sally

Use beads is the challenge and; although I love using them I hardly ever do, so this was a lovely excuse to get out the micro beads that I've had forever. I wanted to use the pink and blue mix so raided my stash for some coordinating papers and ribbons. After matting the papers onto card, I punched three hearts out of a double sided adhesive sheet, peeled off the first paper layer and stuck them on the centre panel. Then after peeling off the second paper layer I sprinkled them liberally with the micro beads. (It's a good idea to use a tidy tray for this as the beads are so tiny they go absolutely everywhere!) I stuck the panel to the card, added the ribbons, pearls and a sentiment to finish.

J (Jackie)

I've never been keen on beading, as generally speaking I find it too fiddly. So I decided to stick to a card as my project! I've been in a "clean and simple" frame of mind recently, and I decided to make my card comparatively plain and unfussy. This one uses a textured card base and a limited number of embellishments and no backing paper. I thought the stamped butterfly was crying out for beads to be used in the rings as decoration and I was really pleased with the way it turned out.

Mynnette

I was very excited to hear about this challenge because I have a Pretties Kit from Stampin' Up! that has rarely been used! I used a hat pin and beads from the kit with a piece of soft white ribbon at the top to accent my sentiment. The sentiment is another stamp from the Tagtastic Hostess set from Stampin' Up! I really like that this sentiment is a bunch of little dots--it looks so cool! I thought that since the sentiment was made up of dots, that I should use dots as my theme--so I went a little polka dot crazy! :) It was fun, though, and I think the card turned out nicely.

Aj.

I love to use beads on projects so really enjoyed this challenge.

I used a Teddy Bea image, paired with Prima papers in soft pink and matched the rose to Bea's clothing, for my beaded addition I used thin grade florists wire with some pink sparkly star beads to create the cluster accents used in the floral display. Fiona

For my card I have used a House Mouse stamp coloured with ProMarkers. The glitter heart paper is from a Country Companions paper pack. I have added white beads to the centre of my paper flowers,also I have added lots of tiny little yellow beads to the heads of some of the flowers in my main image. I have used my MS border punch on the red card and a cuttlebug embossing folder on the green card. Flowers,beads and heart mini buttons all from my stash. ALAN:

I was not sure what to do for this challenge so as that morning a new ticket die arrived it clicked. I had in my stamp collection a very classic Dress Stamp. The backing paper is one of my own designs that l will make available if wanted. The beads were added to the dress to give detail.. Tickets with Admit One were added.

Carole

I loved this challenge and knew immediately that I wanted to use the fibres that have been sitting in my stash forever to create a backdrop for the beads. So the silvery hearts are made from a mixture of angelina and crystallina fibres, and I've used a combination of white pearl beads and ones that are clear with silver shot through the middle. They were all from a purchase made many years ago on impulse and have sat in my stash ever since. As ever I have used nesting dies and edgeabilities!! Yvonne [Meggymay]

Use beads is this weeks challenge, for me this was an excuse to look out my tiny seed beads. I have edged the image and covered the inner flower petals with them. Not easy as these tiny beads have a life of their own. The fashion stamp is Craft Individuals and the papers from my stash.

Beth

I was really struggling to come up with an idea for this challenge as I'm not good with beads. I find them too small for me to see clearly with my dodgy eyesight, but having seen the other wonderful creations by my fellow DT members was determined to have a play and this is what I came up with.

Now you're probably wondering where the beads are? If you look closely at the top of the pin I've used as a sceptre you can see five tiny ones! The stamps are from the Kanban Vivienne range stamped onto Clarity cardstock and coloured in with promarkers and a Sakura gold pen. The flowers are hand made by cutting rough circles of thin card and scrunching them to within an inch of their lives before shaping and securing the layers with a small brad. The background paper was printed by me as was the 'Queen for a day' sentiment. The gold flourishes are from a Marianne Design Creatables die.

Marie

I found this challenge well........challenging am not really a beady person and for that reason decided to have a go, they don't call them challenges for nothing ! I cut the scale pattern with my Cameo and using my spellbinders circle die made a frame from foam. The paper inside is by Crafty Individuals from their seaside range. I covered the paper in an abundance of UTEE and as it was drying sprinkled over lots of seed pearls and some coloured beads, was trying to give the illusion of bubbles ! Made the little fish from Fimo the light air drying type. While it was still pliable I inked up A Tim Holtz embossing folder and gently pressed the image against it, a little seed pearl for the eye and there you have it !

Doreen

This challenge was brilliant. I love beads and therefore I had no problems to use few of them. At the moment it is really difficult for me to use another image than Tilda *lol* I won this image (tilda with arrow) and therefor I had to use it. I colored the image with copic in soft lilac. Lovely color. The paper I used is from Creative Memories, Magnolia and Maja Design. I like to mix it. I embellished with flowers from Wild Orchid, ribbon and Alpha stickers from stash. And the beads are inside too.

Feebsy

I'll be honest I wasn't too sure what to do for this challenge but realised I have quite a few pots of Beadazzles in my craft stash so decided to look at those and when I saw the "Electric Slide" colour set they seemed perfect for a peacock. So, off I went to search for my only peacock stamp and created this card. It's quite simple really, I stamped the image with versamark onto black card and used Perfect Pearls to colour it. I then created some interest on the edge of the card with my Beadazzles. I then backed the main image with green and blue mirror card. Finally, I finished the card with some black embroiderry floss to which I added some very pretty iridescent glass beads.

Kimx

I'm not a great one for beads, although of course I have loads of them, so this was a bit of a challenge for me. Then I remembered a card I once made for a magazine that had beads wrapped around a punched heart and decided that I would make another card along the same lines.

It's a Christmas card I'm afraid but I'm on a roll at the moment so you will have to forgive me :)

Melly

I had a lot of trouble with this challenge this time! Not only do I only have beads for making my jewellery I had NO IDEA what to do! So after staring at my stash for days I suddenly remember seeing a wee Butterfly made using beads and a saftey pin somewhere! So a wee while later here's what I made! I used BoBunny papers, my butterfly die, a quote I found online, flowers and pins and loads of distress ink!

Annette

I used paper from Bo Bunny and cardstock in Red.

Stamped image from Magnolia * Sweet Crazy Love - Tilda with wrapped Heart *

Colored with Distress ink pads & re-inker.Decorated with Paper Flowers,Heart Pin with mini Beads and on the Ribbon Bow is a chain with a Heart Bead.The fastener Ribbon has each two Beads in Red.Inside Box with chocolate .

Anne Ray

I love adding beads to images and backgrounds, here I've used clear crystal seed beads added to my flower's centre. Then I've scored a diagonal grid onto the pink background and added a bead at its junction, stuck down with Glossy Accents. The image is a Fred She Said digi, layered onto a couple of die cuts, the DP is Basic Grey Out of Print and the sentiment is Stampin' Up.

Susie

I know, I know.... she's back with her Pink Petticoat again and no Their not paying my wages!!!

Both the Image and the papers are Pink Petticoat, I find them so sweet to work with.

I've added some beads to the pins to "Jazz" then up a bit and one for the center of the flowers.

Lin

I used a Mo Manning image which I coloured with flexmarkers. The paper is from Basic Grey and the little birthday sentiment embossed paper (made with a folder) has been cut along the edge with my newest Marianne die. The floral arrangement contains my beads, in the form of a hatpin with extra beads and two other pins, one shaped like a leaf.

Because I felt that our lovely winners and Top 5 were being lost in the long post of the new challenge, from now on I shall be doing a separate post for our winners, hopefully, before the new challenge goes live, so when you enter in future please look for a separate post either on the Sunday or earlier on the Monday.

Before I get down to business, I have to say that sadly we were unable to judge a few of your entries as you did not adhere to our rules. I must emphasise again, that we only accept entries for the Top 5 and winners if you enter NO MORE THAN 15 challenges, so that’s 14 plus our own challenge.