Unstampabelles December Challenge - Christmas Sponsored by Wendy

Well, here we are, the end of the original phase of Unstampabelles, which was started by Merry, AKA Wendy. Due to other commitments, Merry is passing the reins of Unstampabelles onto SUSAN.
As her final Challenge, Wendy (Merry) is the sponsor and here is what she has on offer as the prize.

The challenge is Christmas, so pretty much anything goes, but NO STAMPS please because this is what Unstampabelles is all about, papercraft without the use of Stamps.

My Design Team card for this challenge is bits and pieces. the central image is from a craft pack. the background is the backing card which came with some gems, I thought it too pretty to simply throw away, and to it I've added some Christmas Flower Soft. The sentiment is a sticker.

The background paper is a scrap, no idea where it came from originally, but I found it when I hunted through my green scraps bag.
The white corner is a spellbinders die cut out of Stampin Up's Whisper White.

The Christmas tree is really for the Half Way post, but seeing as I'm going away on Holiday, and will be away from Mid Dec to Late January, I'm posting it here.

The tree it's self is a Kaiser craft custom wood tree, which I painted the edges of in Green acrylic paint. then covered with double sided paper, Peels offs to decorate and ribbon to hold it all together. The edges were then painted with Jo Sonja's Opal Dust for that glitter effect.

When not needed the whole tree will fold flat for storage.

I've made quite a few of these, as we will be using them for table decorations when we have our Retirement Estate Christmas dinner.

Hope you give this challenge a go, apart from the non use of stamps, you have a wide variety of papercrafts you can use to enter.

Thank you for visiting my blog today, hope to see you in the New Year.
Hugs and Happy Crafting.
Beth

Flower & Lace

A friend of mine has become quite obsessed with finding card ideas using her iPad. Today she rang and said I found a card Idea, can I come and show you? of course I said 'Yes' so she arrived with a basic white card and a couple of flowers. She described the card as best she could but said she had no idea of sizes or measurements. I've tried to get her head around the fact that it doesn't matter what size card or the measurements that someone else has, you work with what you have.

Anyway, I pulled out  lace, and selected my flower and coordinating cardstock, and Wanda chose her colours, the only given was the centre had to be black apparently, according to the design she saw.
She was going to use a red flower and chose a red which was a pretty close match, but when it came to putting the elements together, we both decided that the Yellow flower looked even more impressive.

The first card is Wanda's, the second is mine. The third card is one I was asked to make for a customer who's requirements were, Noah's Ark and aged 1.

I can't give credit where it's due to the designer, because I don't' know who that is, if I ever find out, I'll amend this post with their name.

This was a quick and easy card to make so it's definitely a good card for a beginner.

Thank you for visiting my blog today. hope to see you back again soon.

Happy Crafting

Hugs

Beth

Unstampabelles Vellum Challenge for November 2013

I'm pleased to be sponsoring the prize for Unstampabelles November challenge which is VELLUM
Here is what I'm offering to the lucky winner.

The prize consists of the following items:

• 15 x A4 Sheets of Stampin Up Card stock, assorted colours
• 1 Pkt Jenni B Ovals
• 2 Pkts of 12 felt Christmas Icons
• 1 Making Memories Sheer Frame
• 1 Meter 9cm wide Burlap Ribbon
• 1 Pkt Crafty Bitz
• 1 Pkt Forever Friends Elements
• 2 Pkts Say it with Crystals
• 1 Pkt Bazzill Basic Organza Flowers

Well, I'm back to my usual card making for this challenge.
This particular design is something of a hybrid. Parts of it come from a Pergamano book, others are my own, the centre swaith is wholly mine, while part of the lower right edge is mine, not the whole design, I simply omitted some bits I didn't want to include.

The Pergamano work was done without any perforating templates, it's entirely free hand, I used an old fashioned nib pen and white ink to draw my design, then embossed and coloured on the reverse. the cut work is partly but not wholly my design, while the centre swaith is all my own design, as far as any work can be entirely 1 persons work, I know for a fact that someone else has used these circles in other designs. After the Pergamano work was completed I wrapped the vellum around a dark green base card. It's attached with double sided tape on the reverse fold line.

This type of work does take longer than the standard card, but it's so satisfying when you manage to complete a piece with out messing it up, I've done projects where I've totally ruined the piece with the last few cuts, talk about tearing my hair out, but hey, salvage what you can and use it in another card.

I don't' do nearly as much of this type of work as I used to. I'll have to see if I can get any of my ladies interested, unfortunately last time I asked they asked me if I was crazy thinking they could do this, didn't help my telling them that I'm no expert and that everyone has to start somewhere.

Thank you for visiting my blog today, hope you come back soon.

Hugs and Happy Crafting

Beth

If Friends were flowers wink

This card came about because I wanted to use my Peachy Keen Character Face stamps, which I haven't used for at least a couple of years. It's made entirely from Scraps.

A basic square card covered in some Scrap Stampin Up DSP, I then used Spellbinders Lacey Squares S4-295 to cut another scrap, topped that with a paper lace doily, then  another diecut using Spellbinders Fleur De LIs Pendant S4-204.
The Paper rosette was diecut with a Tim Holtz Alterations die called Paper Rosette, I punched two 1" circles to hold the rosette in flat. Then used Stampin Up's Pansy punch to cut the flower, again from a small scrap.
I stamped the face that I wanted and punched it out using the 1" circle punch. With an aqua/blue gem for the eye.
A scrap of ribbon was used along with a few gems to add some bling.
The sentiment is computer generated, then punched out using Stampin Up tag punches.
A tiny butter fly was punched finish it off, (I love butterflies)

I have so many scraps, I feel bad if I don't use them, so this is a warm fuzzy card, not just for the friend I give it to, but for myself as well since I don't feel so guilty about that box of scraps. (all arranged by colour and kept in 12 x 12 zip lock bags)
So now you know not only how I keep my scraps, but have a little idea of how they could be used.

Thanks for visiting my blog today, look out for the November Challenge at Unstampabelles, I'm sponsoring November and the theme is Vellum, I'll be posting my Design Team card when I find out what date I have to have it posted by.

Happy Crafting
Hugs
Beth

Simply Fabulous

After having gone through another lack of mojo, being sick doesn't help the creative juices at all, I suddenly found some inspiration in the new Stampin Up colours and stamp sets.
The following 4 cards are the result.
For them I've used the following:

• Calypso Coral card and ink pad & marker pen
• Gumball Green Card and Ink pad & marker pen
• Whisper White card
• Tempting Turquoise ink pad
• Baked Brown sugar ink pad & marker pen
• Basic Black
• Tangerine Tango ribbon
• Doily Lace edge punch
• Blossom Punch
• 1 1/4" circle punch
• Fine Feathers stamp set
• Million & one
• Serene Silhouettes stamp set
• Simply Sketched stamp set
• Flowering Flourishes stamp set (used for the insert in one of the cards)
• Mixed Bunch stamp set
• Double sided tape
• Dimensionals
• Stampin Trimmer (THE BEST EVER)
• We are Memory Keepers Crop-A Dile Corner Chompers

The Calypso Coral cards are tent fold, one Gumball Green is A5 landscape the other is A5 Portrait

The only reason I used Tangerine Tango Ribbon is because I've not yet bought any of the new in colour ribbons, so I didn't have Calypso Coral available, I thought it was close enough to use and gives a slight contrast in colour, the scanning of the cards has however, made the difference really noticeable where in ordinary daylight it's far less noticeable. 

I'm so pleased my mojo has returned, I hate struggling to create! and these 4 cards owe nothing to anyone elses work.

Thank you for visiting today, hope you come back soon.,

Hugs and Happy Crafting

Beth

Unstampabelles Challenge No 28 Stitching

Unstampabelles challenge for this month of October 2013 is Stitching, but not only stitching on cards, but stitching in general. Which gives the sewers, quilters, embroiderers out there a chance to take part.

The prize for this month is donated by Blue Edge Crafts an on line store who have been an excellent source of all things for paper craft for over a decade now.
This is what they have on offer for the prize.

Given that this challenge is for STITCHING I decided (shock horror!!!!!) that I wasn't going to make my Design Team submission a card. I have in the past done quite a bit of not just stitching, but machine embroidery on card for sewing projects. However, I do like hand embroidery as well, and in particular I enjoy Candlewicking.
So my entry for this month is an apron upon which I embroidered the Bib and the Pocket. I used plain calico, some cotton broderie anglaise lace and some grosgrain ribbon for the ties.

The designs I used come from a book called 'The Complete Book of Candlewick Embroidery' by Sue Millard. the ISBN number is 1-85368-150-4
I really love this book and have over the years done every single project more than once. For the beginner it's excellent since it shows you how to actually do the candlewick stitch if you don't already know.
Because of copyright issues, I cannot give you the patterns.

Here is my finished apron and close up's of the bib and pocket.

 Not my usual offerings for my Papercraft Blog I know, but it meets the challenge in a different way than card making.

Hope this inspires you to have a go.

Happy crafting
Beth

Dresses galore!

I've been inspired by myriad of 'Dress' designs available on the web by some truly brilliant card makers. I've cased a few and tried my own based on someone else's idea.. Here are a collection of some of the cards I've made recently.
It's terrible when your mojo dries up making it difficult to come up with anything original, but with inspiration like this, i'm sure i'll be back in the groove before too much longer.

Of course all this fascination with dresses began with Unstampabelles recent challenge, but I was way too busy having fun finding new ideas and then re-creating them to post any for the midway inspiration. Sorry Merry!

Thank you for visiting my blog today, hope you come back soon.

Happy Crafting

Beth

Playing with Hexagons

Hexagons seem to be very popular lately, and I like so many other card makers have been playing around with them.

It's difficult to say that this is a unique piece of work, a ME original because I've seen so many of this type of card out there in craft internet land that I'm not sure that I'm not inadvertently copying what someone else has already done. So, while I can honestly say that I have not set out to deliberately copy someone elses work, this is card is to me, an original.

I've used all Stampin Up products to make this card. I've used the following Stampin Up products:

• Midnight Muse card cut to A5, then scored at 10.5cm and folded in half
• Whisper White cut to 10 cm x 14.3cm then embossed with the Honeycomb folder
• Six-sided Sampler stamp set
• Happiest Birthday Wishes (used inside the card along with some more hexagons)
• Baked Brown Sugar Classic Ink Pad
• Raspberry Ripple Classic Ink Pad
• Crushed Curry Classic Ink Pad
• Midnight Muse Classic Ink Pad
• Bermuda Bay Classic Ink Pad
• Basic Black Classic Ink Pad
• Choc chip 1/4" grosgrain ribbon
• Stamp-a-ma-jig
• Hexagon punch

It's a very basic, quick and easy card to make, the hexagons were stamped onto Whisper White then punched out with the Hexagon punch and mounted with dimensionals onto the front of the card. I used the stamp a ma jig to get the correct placement for the sentiment on the front.

This is the inside of my card.

Thank you for visiting my blog today.
Happy Crafting
Hugs
Beth

Unstampabelles September Stash & Scraps Challenge

The Challenge for September is sponsored by CraftMad, a great online forum for the papercrafter, although they do sewing swaps as well.
This is the prize on offer for the winner of our Challenge to create something using your Scraps, Old stuff/stash.

My card is made using a flower fairy card kit which I bought a couple of years or more ago from Blue Edge Crafts (BEC) Blue Edge Crafts are the On line store which operates both CraftMad and The Sticker Store.
The kit contains the makings for two cards, base cards with fancy edges, matching envelopes, the fairy images, the fairy stickers, and corner stickers as well as the sentiment stickers.

Since I already had the base card, I simply cut my pattern paper to leave a narrow border once mounted to the base card.
I ran my pattern paper through my 5" Xyron station (available from Blue Edge Crafts) to evenly apply adhesive to one side, then onto that I placed some mulberry paper which has daisy cut outs all over it.
Since this left adhesive in the flower cut outs, I then sprinkled fine crystal glitter over the top and rubbed into the flowers so that they covered the adhesive and gave a nice shimmer to the piece.

I edged the piece with some Tsukneko All purpose Ink in 74 Champagne Mist.
After placing the fairy sticker over the image, I fussy cut it out and mounted to my paper layers using foam mounts.
I used the corner stickers from the kit and added a piece of narrow cream ribbon with a faux knot. I then used double sided tape to stick the topper to the base card.

I used a punch to cut the label for the sentiment sticker which after sponging the edges is mounted over the ribbon with foam mounts.
All the papers used were from my scrap paper box, the only new thing was the ribbon.

Thank you for visiting my blog today, I hope you take part in this challenge.

Happy Crafting

BethSsS

Spring is coming

To celebrate the imminent arrival of SPRING, after what for us seems to have been a long cold and wet winter, todays card was born.

I went out shopping today, and called into a 'Cheap as Chips' store to browse through their 'Craft' section, I was surprised at how much stuff they actually carry that I wouldn't call cheap and nasty!
I found a couple of silicone stamp sets for only $2 each. WOW they they are beautiful.

The Stamps are manufactured by Artworks and are called scrapbook clear stamps. the one I've used on this card has flower groups, a vase, flourish and tiny butterfly. The Springtime sentiment comes from the second set which has some pretty spring borders, easter bunnies in two sizes and easter eggs as well as a flourish and the Spring Sentiment.

I used a good weight white card for my base, and Stampin Up's Whisper white and Pistachio Pudding.

I stamped the Flower group in Tuxedo Black Memento ink, and the vase in  Strawberry Slush. I stamped the vase twice, and cut out the second one to mount with dimensionals giving some height and texture.

After stamping onto Whisper White, I matted this onto Pistachio Pudding before mounting onto my base.
I used Stampin Up's write markers to initially colour my flower group, but when it fully dried decided it needed more umph! and touched up to brighten the colours with Copics, and plenty of stickles and Kindy Glitz.

The butterflies were stamped onto my WW top layer, then stamped again and fussy cut out. I used tiny dots of wet glue to stick them in the body section only so that the wings can sit up.

I had fun making this card as I just love the stamps in both sets.

Thanks for visiting my blog today, come again soon.

Hugs

Beth

Gatefold with die cut aperture card

I found the inspiration for todays card from this site: http://frommycraftroom.blogspot.ca/ the card that inspired me is called Gate-fold with Window Card Tutorial. That this is a tutorial is great, because just knowing how to cut the front of a gatefold like this opens a zillion possibilities for other cards.
So I'd like to express my thanks to Norma for her tutorial, beautiful cards and the inspiration she's given me.

Of course my card is not a carbon copy, it's my own work. and I found it really interesting and enjoyable to do this really quite easy card. Let your imagination Flow.......

Here are three photo's of my card, one closed, held down by my finger, sorry couldn't edit the finger out. the second is the card standing normally as it would displayed, and finally the card laid out flat so you can see the inside.

The base card is made using Foliart Damast Karton 250gsm card which comes in packs of 10 13.5 x 27cm  pieces from Blue Edge Crafts, you will find a link here on my blog for Blue Edge Crafts.

The patterned paper is Stampin Up's DSP Regals collection, which comes in a pad of 40 double sided 12" x 12" in the Regals colour range.

The die I used to cut the aperture is a Spellbinders Nestabilities die called Labels Twenty. I purchased this from Blue Edge Crafts. I used Stampin Up's Very Vanilla as my cream and the stamp set is Stampin Up's Because I care, which was a Hostess gift last year.
Other things used are two Stampin Up Oval punches, Stampin Up's Classic Ink Pad in Perfect Plum to sponge the edges, and I also used Stampin Up's Write Markers to colour in my stamp before stamping allowing me to have different colours and tones where I wanted them.
I finished with  some tiny crystal gems and used Martha Stewart Punches to punch the flowers and butterflies.
The inside Very Vanilla is embossed with Stampin Up's new embossing folder called Modern Mosaic.

Thank you for visiting my blog today. Please consider joining as a follower.

Happy Crafting
Hugs
Beth

Easel Gatefold Card

I was surfing the web looking for ideas for different shapes of cards and came across several places where the shape of the Gatefold so beloved by many was enhanced with the addition of an Easel section in the middle.
I saw a few ideas for decorating, but was less interested in how others had decorated their cards than the shape of the card. I LOVE, LOVE this card shape. It's Easy to do, after the photo's of my card, I'll include a diagram to help get you started.

I used the following products for my card:

• Stampin Up's Primrose Petals card stock, Classic Ink-pad and Write Marker
• Stampin Up's Baked Brown Sugar Card stock and Classic Ink-pad 
• Stampin Up's Very Vanilla Card stock
• Stampin Up's Flowering Flourishes Stamp Set
• Stampin Up's Elements of Style Stamp Set
• Stampin Up's Lattice Embossing Folder
• Stampin Up's Dimensionals
• Stampin Up's Basic Pearls
• Martha Stewart Border Punch
• Double Sided Tape
• Stickles

This first photo shows the card closed. I had to use my bone folder to help keep it closed for the photo, if this is an issue with you, you can always make a belly band to keep the card shut.

The Second Photo shows the card with the gatefold wings open so you can see how it looks when you first open it.

The third photo shows the card with the easel standing fully open.

This is the diagram for cutting the base card.

The shape of this card is not my idea, but the decoration of it is entirely from my own creativity, the possibilities are endless.

Thank you for visiting my blog today, I hope you can take some small measure of inspiration from what you see.

Happy Crafting,

Beth

Unstampabelles August Challenge No. 26 Dress

The prize for Challenge No. 26 comes from the sticker store, you will find a link to the Sticker Store here on my blog. It's a GREAT place to get really good quality stickers for all types of applications. This is the prize they have on offer.
The Challenge for this month is to create a card with a DRESS theme without using stamps of course.

THE PRIZE

Here are two photo's of my Design Team card. To make my card I've used a silver sticker from Blue Edge Crafts, which is a sister store for the Sticker Store.
I placed my sticker carefully onto some embossed and glittery card stock then fussy cut it out.
My colour scheme as you can see is silver, red, black and white. The two silver panels on the front of this A5 gatefold card is silver card which I embossed with a Couture Creations Embossing folder called 'Diamond Trellis'.
This is the sticker sheet I used.

 The two flourishes inside the card have been die cut with  a Bellish Ezy-Press die from Kaszazz. It goes through pretty much any embossing machine. I use my e-Bosser for all my embossing and die cutting.

I hope you find this card gives you some small inspiration for taking part in our August Challenge at Unstampabelles.
Remember, NO STAMPS!

Thank you for visiting my blog today,
Hugs
Beth

Happy Birthday

The two cards I'm posting today are very different.
The first one is a gatefold card, I love these, so easy to make and for this one I've used a Martha Stewart punch for the two front side panels. Inside I've also used a Martha Stewart punch, this time a punch anywhere punch which I've used in each corner with and stamped my sentiment in the centre. There is still plenty of room to write a personal message.

Card 2 is a simple A5 card scored and folded in half. The colours used are vibrant and go really well together, quite a cheerful card, just what I needed in the depths of our Australian winter. I used the same sentiment stamp on this card as on card 1.

The colours in card two are not one's I would usually use, so I challenged myself to use them and here's the result. 

Thank you for visiting my blog today.

Call again soon.

Hugs

Beth

Unstampabelles 2nd Birthday Challenge

I'm sorry to be late with my post for the July Unstampabelles birthday challenge. I had an unexpected stay in hospital for a few days. I got home today, so it's catch up time.

Our sponsor for this month is Design Team Member Susan.

Wonderful prize offered by Susan for our July Challenge #25 - Birthday Cake

SU brads

SU ribbon

SU Dazzling Details Silver Sparkle

Wooden topper

Glitter Butterflies

Some HB Buttons

Forever Friends Toppers (male)

Foam Dots

Rub-ons – Happy Birthday

Paper Doilies

Rhinestones

Total Value around say $80.00

Looks fabulous doesn't it? so get your thinking caps on ladies and gents and get creating. 

My card is made using products from my stash, some of it I've had for so long I really have no idea where I got it from.

I like slider cards, in fact I like any cards with movement, so I went for a slider card for this challenge.

two hidden messages can be given in this card which would be revealed when the tab is pulled.

Hope this give you some ideas.

Thank you for visiting my blog today, hope you call again soon.

Happy Crafting

Beth

Tea Bag Folding

Years ago when I first got into card making, Tea Bag folding became very popular. Now however, it seems much less so. It's hard to find good tea bag papers, so I've turned to Japanese Origami papers which i've bought over ebay and they are lovely.

I've still got a couple of folders containing step by step instructions for easy folds, and I've got heaps of printable tea bag tiles, but the origami paper is really lovely to work with.

The first card I'm posting here today uses' printed tea bag tiles, these are circular and are a very easy fold, they also only require 4 pieces to make the medallion.
The second card uses the lovely double sided origami paper and this one needs 8 units to make the medallion.

Both card base's are 13.5 x 13.5cm square and are embossed. For card one, I embossed the whole card, for card two I only embossed the front.

Card one:
to finish this card I used small felt flowers with clear rhinestones in the centre, the sentiment banner is die cut with a spellbinders die from Ribbon Banners set.

Card two:
After embossing the front of my card base, I used a pnk cardstock which closely matched the pink in the origami paper and using Grand Nestabilities square dies, I cut a border which is trimmed with a narrow gold border sticker then mounted using Stampin up dimensionals. the Medallion is mounted with dimensionals in the centre. From my stash of old bits and pieces I found this lovely little button like flat bottomed bead, I think it's from Kaszazz and used a glue dot to fix to the centre of my medallion. I finished by using some diamond stickles around the outer edges, and inner joins of the medallion. The sentiment sticker also from my old stuff stash, but I believe I got it from Blue Edge Crafts.

These are two very simple little folds, I've been playing with some much more complicated ones, and to be honest, I'm never going to be one of those wonderful origami specialists, I'm not nimble fingered enough nor do I tolerate the frustration of not getting it right very well, I'm sitting here typing and giggling because it's true, I think I'll stick to the EASY ones. pretty, but easy, I'll leave the hard stuff to the experts.

The following link will take you to a good starting point for tea bag folding. Tea Bag Folding free patterns

Have fun crafting!
Hugs
Beth

Unstampabelles June Challenge CASE Card

The Unstampabelles Theme this month is to CASE a Design Team card. I also wanted to use some new dies, and the card I made for this challenge is headed over to my friend in the UK.

This months challenge is Sponsored by

Our sponsor this month is Cardmaking Online which is an Australian online only business - by not having a retail store, they avoid significant costs such as rent and electricity which enables them to bring you quality products at the lowest possible prices.  They have a wonderful range of cardmaking kits, dies, peel-off stickers, parchment craft materials and much more. Cardmaking Online is sponsoring us with a $25.00 gift certificate as our prize for this months challenge.

My Inspiration 

Card by Merry

And here is my card inspired by Merry's use of  hexagons.

I used the following products in the making of this card:

• Stampin Up's Crumb cake card cut to A5 size
• Stampin Up's Hexagon embossing folder
• Stampin Up's Whisper White card
• Stampin Up's Dimensionals
• Stampin Up's Baja Breeze Ink
• Stampin Up's scraps of double sided Designer series papers
• Scraps of Kaszazz double sided paper
• Spellbinders 'Tags & Flags' Shapeabilities S5-095
• Spellbinders Hexagons Nestabilities (smallest size) S4-368
• Hearty Crafts Easy 3D designs Owl HC7275
• PVA glue with fine nozzle
• Double sided tape

The finished card size is 14.5 x 10.5cm

The Owl is layered and mounted using SU Dimensionals as are the DSP Hexagons, the 'Hello' sentiment is computer generated and also mounted with dimensionals.

Everything else is flat mounted using either double sided tape, or in the case of the narrow and wide ric rac, the PVA glue.

Since this card needs to be posted, I tried to minimise the dimension without eliminating it altogether.

These little owls come in a pack containing 10 images.

The components for each image is individually packaged inside the outer bag.

Thank you for visiting my blog today.

Happy Crafting

Beth

Tea Bag Squared

The new die used in this card is the Couture Creations Universal Doily Die 'Tatted Lace'

Products used are:

• 14 x 28cm Stampin Up Whisper White card, scored and folded in half to make a 14cm square base card.
• Couture Creations Universal Doily Die 'Tatted Lace' C023223
• Cheery Lyn Doily Die DL 103 'Italian Flourish'
• 5cm square tea bag folding papers, you will need 7 folded into the sunflower fold.
• 13cm square of Stampin Up Certainly Celery card
• Gold border peel offs
• Pearls to finish

Use the Tattered Lace die to cut the Certainly Celery Card
Use  the Italian Flourish Die to cut the Whisper White card
Construct the Tea Bag Folded sections to create the medallion the mount this onto the white die cut doily, mount this onto the square Tatted lace die cut the mount to the base card.

Finish by running narrow gold peel off borders around all four sides, (I also added some to my medallion) and self adhesive pearls.

.

Thank you for visiting my blog today.

Happy crafting
Hugs
Beth