'Sorry' - Joanna Sheen's Precious Petals

Hi Folks!! Hope you had a great weekend. I was busy!! I've made it through to Monday morning phew! In for another busy week, however I have managed to squeeze in few minutes to share my 'Sorry' card with you. I made this card for the launch of Joanna's new 'Precious Petals' CDrom. I thought this precious little one would make a great 'Sorry' card.

The card is 8 x 8. I stamped, and embossed with white embossing powder, the swirl boarder onto textured green card (DCWV). I used my EK Success border punch and inked the edges. The image is printed from the CDrom and matted into more green card and another punched white layer. The letters are die cut using my Cuttlebug and Quickutz alphabet from Funky Foam.

Ciao for now!

Sandra x

Sizzix Snowman

Hi folks!

Things are really hotting up in the 'Dry' household with school Christmas performances, Carols by torchlight, Nativity at church etc. It's really stepped up a gear this year with all three children at school. What I'm trying to say is my crafting may have to take a bit of a back seat until the new year. Having said that I've still got some cards that I made for The National Cardmaker of the Year competition to share with you and the samples I made for the launch of Joanna Sheen's gorgeous 'Precious Petals' CDrom. (If you saw the launch on Create & Craft you may have heard Leonie say 'Hello' to me :oD Oooo I was really chuffed)

I made this snowman card for the Sizzix category. Alas it did not make the top 3. I wanted to show how the dies cut beautifully through lots of different materials and make a card with lots of texture. I covered a 6x6 panel with white felt using Pinflair book binding glue sparingly and securing the panel to the card blank with snowflake brads. I die cut lots of mittens from pink and blue funky foam. I created the fir trim using snow tex and sprinkled over with glitter. (You can still see the little indentations of the pegs where I pegged them up to dry) I Die cut the snowman from white Funky foam and used my Copic markers to add a bit of shading. His scarf I cut from Felt and I added glossy accents to his hat. His eyes are a couple of blue gems. I stuck the snowman down with Pinflair glue gel, arranged the mitten around him and also used the glue gel to adhere these. I finished the card off with some gems, star sequins and a pink polka dot ribbon bow.

Ciao for now!

Sandra x

It's Christmas....'Simples!'

Hi folks! There is a new challenge over on Dare U 2 Digi Stamp. This time is a colour challenge. You can add another card to your Christmas box as the palette is Red, Green and your choice of neutral. Check out all the great cards from my fellow DT. Thank you so much to everyone who joined in with challenge #26... boy do you guys like glitter :o)

I've given the Meerkat a little Christmas 'make-over'. He is available to buy here and great fun to use for all those Meerkat fans out there. The papers I used for this card are by Hot Off The Press. I embossed the large green circular panel with my snowflake Cuttlebug embossing folder. I cut the swirls from glitter paper using a Quickutz die. The sentiment is a Papermania stamp which I have cut out and layered with my Circle and Scalloped Circle Nestabilities. I coloured Christmas Simples with Copic Markers and used liquid pearls dusted with glamour dust for the fir trims and dotted his green scarf with gold stickles.

You can really see the glossy accents that I used over his eyes and nose in the close up picture. This card covers quite a few challenges... so here goes: The sketch is by Truly Scrumptious: Cupcake Crafts - Red & Green: Stamp With Fun - Christmas: The Pink Elephant - Favourite Colouring Medium: Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - Christmas: Creative Card Crew - Christmas: Pollycraft Challenge - Christmas: Cuttlebug Spot - Winter: The Cuttlebug Challenge - Glitter: Crafty Ann's Challenge - Texture: Stamp Something: Glitzy Somethings

I think that's everything covered.

Ciao for now!

Sandra x

One for the Bride...

Hi folks! Here is another card that I made for the National Cardmaker of the Year (don't worry, haven't got too many more of these to share with you) it wasn't a winner but I am pleased with how it turned out. This one was for the 'Craft with Stephanie' category.

I printed out the backing papers onto linen card from the My Craft Studio Sassy Chic CDrom and covered my card blank that I had creased into a gate fold. I used my scalloped oval Nestabilies die to cut the aperture and inked the edges. I used my Oval Nestabilities to create the frame and wound round some sheer white ribbon and finished with a bow.

I printed the character and carefully cut her out. I added lots of glitter to her dress and shoes. I used my Pinflair flower punch to punch out lots of tiny flowers that I used to decorate around the scalloped aperture. I also used these for the bouquet where I piled some dimensional glue gel and popped the flowers on top. A couple of pieces of ribbon finished the bouquet off nicely and I added the last flower to the brides hair. Lastly I added the decorative corners which I had die cut from the scraps of backing paper that remained.

Ciao for now!

Sandra x

Holly Wreath

Hi folks! Hope you will excuse me for my absence... I just had to squeeze in a scrapbooking retreat at the weekend. Had a fabulous time,(*waves* to all the ladies that attended) but that's another story.

This is another card that I entered into the National Cardmaker of the Year competition. This one was for the Crafters Companion category.

I stamped and embossed the tiny Holly stamp with gold embossing powder on some dark green card. I dry embossed a panel of red card, distressed the edges with black ink and matted it onto some gold mirri card. I printed out the Holly backing sheet from the Cute Companion Christmas Collection CD rom. I then hand cut lots of the holly images. I used my largest scalloped Nestability circle die to cut an aperture in the centre of the red panel. I stamped the holly on a piece of cream card and added this behind the aperture. I secured this panel to the green card using adhesive foam pads.

I glued the Holly leaves all around the aperture using dimensional glue gel. The cute little mouse was stamped and embossed. I then coloured her with Copic Markers and added snow tex to the fur. whilst wet I added some glitter to the snow tex.

Am going to have to make another one of these cards as I was little sad when I sent it off to the competition....silly aren't I!!

Ciao for now!

Sandra x

Edit: I have just noticed that this card made it to the Crafters Companion Competition entry Gallery. Here. I'm chuffed to bits :oD

Bless My Bloomers!

Hi folks!

I thought I would share some of the other cards I made for the Cardmaker of the Year Competition over the next few days. We were asked if we wanted the cards made to be donated to charity, of course I agreed, so hopefully they will brighten someones day and raise a little money for good causes too.

This was my entry for the 'Stampendous' category. I scoured the world wide web for this stamp and was so pleased when I found it. It's one of their older images produced in 1996 and she's called 'Polly Potter'. I'm so pleased how this card turned out. I used a Kraft card blank and and some Green Doodlebug frills at the bottom of the card. I layered these on with sticky foam pads to add dimension. I cut the letters from my signature, funky foam using the Go Kreate alphabet dies 'Lingfield' (larger letters) and 'London'(smaller letters). I created the rainbow by punching lots of small flowers from coloured card (the punch is a Pinflair pincer type tool) and shaping each individual flower with the embossing end of the tool into my rubbery square sticky dot eraser (yay! I found a job for it). I stuck them into place using Pinflair dimensional glue gel. Polly was coloured in using Copic Markers.

Righto... I'm off to the school PTA meeting where we're decorating a huge Christmas tree. Hope the kids will like it in the morning.

Ciao for now!

Sandra x

Wahoooo! I won............

Hi folks!!

I've just been bursting to tell you all that I came first in the Joanna Sheen category of The National Cardmaker of the year 2009 hosted by Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine. Today's the day the mag hit the shelves and I've just got back from the shops having purchased a few copies ;o) I'm so thrilled to have have come top in such a prestigious category. Thank you so much Joanna for choosing my card.

I wanted to make a baby card and had seen the 'diaper' fold (instructions here) online. I thought Messy Rabbit and Joanna's gorgeous Gingham papers would work beautifully with the card shape. I used some heavy weight cardstock to fold the card shape. Once scored and creased I used my Fiskars texture plate to emboss the texture onto the card (see close up bellow) and folded the card. It's really easy to keep folding and unfolding as there is no glue involved with keeping the shape together. I covered sections with the large pink gingham checks which I had edged with black ink. I used extra strips of card that I had punched with my Fiskars 'Apron' border punch to create the scallops. I cut the tag and label frame using my Nestabilities, inking all the edges. I stamped and embossed Messy Rabbit and the sentiment onto Bristol Board. I used my Copic Markers to colour Messy and carefully cut him out. I added a large white (WRMK) eyelet and some ribbon to the top of the tag to make it easy to pull out of the pouch.

I cut the letters from Funky Foam using my Cuttlebug and 'Banana Split' font. I finished off the card with a large white ribbon bow.

Many congratulation to all the winners and runners up from the competition.

Ciao for now!

Sandra x