Digistamps4Joy DT challenge #3

Digistamps4joy challenge #3 was chosen to remember Breast Cancer Awareness month - October, and it really is a super challenge - all you need to do is "think pink" and create any papercraft project with pink. And the prize? Three lucky people will each win ANY digistamp from the store - and believe me there are some really soooooper stamps to choose from! There's a FREEBIE too! So enter the challenge, you only have 2 weeks to enter your card!

I used "funky Kate" to make my card, and she can be purchased here at Digistamps4Joy. The list of other items used are:
fluorescent pink gel pen, and watercolour pencils, Copic E000, pink spotted ribbon from stash, pastel pink, ruffled, shiny BG paper (also from stash), duck brad, white card stock (embossed with Cuttlebug Snow Dots folder), cerise and silver cardstock, glitter gems (pink and silver), pink frame from Cricut Sentimentals, and of course .... silver glitter glue for the "bling"!
Did you notice the pink ribbon 'gem' in her hair? Reminded me of the breast cancer ribbon.
Do pop into the other DT member's blogs and take a look at what this great team has created. Leave a comment too, as we love hearing from you!
Debbie (South Africa) http://dkhdesigns.blogspot.com
Jen (South Africa) http://jencraftsa.blogspot.com
Margy (South Africa) http://deniquecrafts.blogspot.com
Louise (New Zealand) http://www.punknscrap.com
Audrey (United States) http://hippieaud.blogspot.com
Gemma (UK) http://handmadebygem.blogspot.com
and our Guest DT (Sweden) http://bettina-bettyboop.blogspot.com

 

"Jill" the scarecrow

Yesterday was a holiday here (Heritage Day), so I had some time to sit and draw! I'm not a feminist, but sometimes I wonder why most things in life have a 'male' flavour eg. manhole, manager, chairman, etc, and I'm sure you could come up with many more. What triggered my thoughts yesterday, was seeing a drawing of a scarecrow - yes, a male. So, all fired up, I switched on the trusty old PC and designed a "pretty little girl" scarecrow. Ok, I did give in, and drew a brother for her as well. So here is "Jill" and she will soon be available at Digistamps4Joy, together with her brother "Jack". Isn't she just so cute? I coloured her in with water colour pencils, and fluorescent gel pens. The beige background is a piece of mulberry paper with fine threads in it, and I distressed the edges with bright orange chalk. The leaves were made with a new punch I had just bought (got to get practice using it!), and I glittered the edges. Hope you like her. Now, suppose I'd better go make up her brother as well.

Gorgeous legs

I always like to 'test out' my digistamps before sending them to be sold, and this is my latest stamp - and card.

The digi, called "Fancy Legs" is available at the Digistamps4joy site.

I cut the stamp in half just below the first frill, then sewed on two narrow pieces of gathered organza onto the bottom half, and then glued the top half back on top of the frill (that sounds complicated, but isn't!). The legs were coloured with Copic E000. The dress was covered with red glitter glue, the top frill with a clear Stickles, and after colouring in the shoes with red felt pen, I added 3 flat gems. The background paper is one of those scented papers (don't know the name sorry), and I layered this onto red and gold paper, with the edges trimmed with a Fiskars punch.

This photos shows the frills, and the background paper, showing the lovely pattern on the paper.

A card from recycled 'goodies'

The brief for the Digistamps4joy second September DT challenge was ... use something that has been recycled.  I think most of us have the habit of saving just about everything ... "just in case", and all the family are saying "oh no, not more rubbish". Anyone out there got this t-shirt? So, when I saw this challenge, my first thought was .. yay, now I can use some of the 'rubbish'! So after scratching around, I decided to make a Christmas cracker-card, using the 'flower heart’ stamp from Digistamps4joy. Apologies for the glare on the gold card, but I battled to take a photo with the flash.

The base of the heart was coloured in with a Copic (E00), while I coloured the flowers in with gel pens and glitter glue. The recycled items are:

1. Gold triangle top-and-bottom trims – from a 2009 Christmas cracker
2. Gold paper peeping out behind the heart and acetate – from a 2009 gold Christmas hat
3. Hatch pattern clear acetate (see it in the close-up photo) – believe it or not …. is from the base of the inside container of a box of Zoo Iced biscuits!

Catching up, and xmas tree ornament cards

Goodness, but time is flying! In the last 4 weeks I have spent two of them away from home - and my craft room! My sister suggested for my last week away, that I take a whole bag full of crafting goodies with to the hotel. The problem with that is, that just as you get into making something in the room, you realise you left the glue at home! So, I took another route. I printed out 10 pages of images that I wanted to make cards out of, put them, my small cutting scissors, and plastic sleeves, into a large plastic pocket. It took me exactly 3 nights, after each workshop session and dinner, to cut these out while watching the TV!! Should have printed out more, but oh well, at least some cutting was done.

What I want to share with you today is the shaker Christmas cards I made, to hang on the xmas tree.  I must credit the original idea to Maria Bell of stampininspirations.blogspot.com, where she also has a tutorial on making these ornaments. I took her idea, made a few more shapes, and changed the finished product from a tree ornament, to a christmas card. This is just me being the old practical self again. I thought if I could make the ornament big enough to be able to write a message on the back, then I could send it as a Christmas card, and the recipients could hang it on their trees. My sister then came on board, and cut out some additional shapes from the Cricut cartridges, and I ended up making 12 of these different "cards". So here are 4 of the cards I made. The candle digistamp is from www.digistamps4joy.com.
Oh, and these are ALL shaker cards!!

Digistamps4joy DT & Challenge

Today is the day that Digistamps4joy announces the Design Team, and I made it - my first as a DT member, so I hope I do them proud! Our first challenge was to design a card with one of their stamps, around this image, taking into account the patterns, colour, and layout.


















So, after scrutinising the room, I decided to take up on the following characteristics:
1. stripes on cushions and wall;
2. rectangular cushions;
3. colours: white as the base colour, lime green, cerise (pink), and light blue;
4. a circle shape, as in the lamp and the spots on the one cushion, and finally,
5. a horizontal band cut by a vertical band on the left.

I used the "chef-Henri" stamp as my image, coloured him in with copics and fluorescent gel pens, and added a little clear stickles on his hat. The striped paper comes out of my stash (and yes it looks almost the same as the upholstery covering!). The circles were cut with 2 different size Nestabilities. The green 'flower' was made from 4 small hearts punched out of paper, and held together with a pink heart gem.  So, here is my interpretation, and I'd love to know what you think.

Congratulations go to my fellow DT members (2 from South Africa, 1 x UK, 1 x USA, and 1 x New Zealand) - a real global team! I'd love for you to pop into their blogs, see what wonderful cards they have made, and congratulate them. They are:
Jen  - Debbie - Louise - Audrey - Gemma and our guest designer for September - Jen (another one!).

Do pop into Mel's blog Digistamps4.joy to see all the other super digistamps she has there. There is a really really nice freebie there - thanks Jen (SA) - up for grabs for registered members.