Rambler

A birthday card today for a friend who enjoys rambling.  His 'shortcuts' usually turn out to be a longer way round!

The image is from craftsUprint 'Old Rambler Dude'.  I added some texture for the background using an old Cuttlebug 'Forest Branches' embossing folder.  I used a punch for the leaves. 

I am joining the following challenges:

Shopping Our Stash #414 - The Great Outdoors

Crafty Cardmakers #251 ~ Embossing

The Male Room Challenge #130 - Use Embossing

Recycling

I'm sure I'm not the only one who saves shop bought Christmas cards received, with the intention of recycling  them and turning them into handcrafted cards...... only to still have most of them unused in December!  This year I'm determined to use more of them.  With the February Rudolph Days challenge beginning today and finishing on Saturday, it was the perfect time to recycle some shop bought cards and join in the challenge.

 The first one is a card front trimmed to size, matted on dark green and attached to a card blank.  I added a few tiny white pearls where the larger berries were in the design.

For my second card, I used a Memory Box 'Stitched Rectangle Layers' die to die cut the image.  This is when I had a Senior Moment..... as the card was going through my Big Shot I realised, too late, that it was going to flatten the red pom-pom nose!  So I prised off the flatten nose and replaced it with one punched from red glitter card.  I used the red glitter card for a mat and with a left over piece die cut a scalloped strip using a die from the Memory Box 'Stitched Country Border' set.  The non-shed glitter card is from Hobbycraft and is a beautiful shade of red.

For my last card,  I made a green frame using a die from the MFT 'Stitched Circle Scallop Frames' set to frame the image I'd already cut into a circle.  The background is embossed with a Couture Creations 'Great Zane' embossing folder.  The framed image is raised up on foam pads to add some dimension.

I am joining in the following challenges with this card:

Rudolph Days February Challenge

Jingle Belles Challenge ~ Better Off Red

Winter Wonderland Challenge ~ Anything Christmas Goes

Simply Create Too Challenge #157 ~ Use Red + 1 Other Color (Green)

So that's three more Christmas cards finished to add to the box for next Christmas.

Fruit

The theme for the Twofer Challenge this month is 'Fruit'.  Two different designs, for two different occasions, using the same stamp, die or stencil.  I didn't think I would be able to join in this month, but found a stamp with two small olives on a stick in the Stampin' Up 'Sip Sip Hooray' set.  It's quite tiny and it took a bit of thinking how I could use it other than in a cocktail glass.  However, when I looked again at the olives, they reminded me of a pair of quirky looking eyes.

Here is a close up of the olives/quirky looking eyes.

I am joining in the Twofer Challenge with this pair of cards.

My first card is a CAS congratulations card.  The cocktail glass stamp is from the same set of stamps as the olives, stamped with Memento 'London Fog'.  After stamping the olives, I made a mask to cover them before adding the 'liquid' to the glass with a pink metallic ink pad.  I then coloured the olives with a green Promarker.  The grey sentiment is a stamp from the SU 'Happiness Surrounds' set.

I am joining in the following challenges with this card:

Allsorts Challenge - Week 560 ~ Make it Girly

Crafty Catz challenge #494 - Anything Goes with optional twist of Food (Olives)

I don't think there can be a child in the UK who doesn't know Eric Carle's story, 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'.    Although it was written over 50 years ago, it was always a favourite with the four and five year olds I used to teach.    The 'quirky olive eyes' were perfect for him. I stamped them on green card and fussy them individually and matted them on scraps of yellow card.  The head was an oval die cut and I used a punch for the oval body parts, in two shades of green.  The feet, nose and antennae were all cut by hand.   I added hairs on the back of the caterpillar with green and red fineliner pens.   The sentiment is a stamp from the SU 'Confetti Celebration' set of stamps, coloured with Promarkers.  Three Card Candi finished off my card.   All the card I used was snippets, apart from the red card base, so I'll be sharing my card over in the Playground. 

I am joining in the following challenges with this card. 

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #372 ~ Use Snippets

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge ~ Add a Sentiment

Addicted to stamps and More! Challenge #377 - Make your Mark

Fab 'n' Funky Challenge #469 ~ For a Child

Pop-Up Easel Card

I recently received a card with this fold, which I think is known as a Pop-Up Easel Card.  I've never tried this style of fold before, but thought I'd give it a try for a card I needed to make for card swap and this is what I came up with.

I started with a piece of cardstock 21cm x 21cm.  I used a Couture Creations 'Fireflies' embossing folder for the white panels.  The circles are all cut with Memory Box ' Stitched Circle Layers' dies and the flowers were made with punches.

The computer generated sentiment stands up as a little easel and the small sunflower is layered on a circle die cut and raised up on foam pads.  

The base of the card can be twisted round to reveal a plain white panel for the message.  The card folds flat for posting.

I am joining in the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge - Week 559 ~ Dies and/or Punches

Path of Positivity Challenge #77

Use Your Stuff Challenge #392 ~ Circles

Cuttlebug Mania Challenge ~ Flower Power

As promised in a previous post, here are the cards I made at a Stampin' Up retreat the weekend before last.  I put the finishing touches to a few of the cards at home.