8th Birthday Card

It was back to Craft Artist today for this card.     I created the background with various firework images in different colours, and an Eiffel Tower image in various colours and a castle image at the base in three different colours.

I then added the sentiment.  I matted and layered the image on white and blue card and went over a lot of the image with a sparkle pen.

The recipient might not realise the nuance of the card, but his mum will ...... he is having a surprise trip to Paris and Euro Disney for his birthday !

Male Birthday Card

It's one of my nephew's birthdays, and oh how I struggle with mens cards.   However, I know he loves to go to Vegas, so a quick search on the net I found this one - hopefully it will give him a giggle.

Created in that great standby Craft Artist using a plaid backing paper from the programme, and adding the wording using the cinema gothic font.

Canal Boat Card

Back to using Craft Artist for this card - one of those difficult ones for a man!   As I know he recently had a holiday with his family on a canal  boat, this seemed the obvious choice this year.

I used one of the layouts provided but then added some extra elements.  I normally add a name and a sentiment on the front, but for once I didn't.

21st Birthday Card

I do find cards for men difficult - so it was Craft Artist to the rescue again.   I confess the first cad I designed was completely different with a cat theme (Bagpuss to be exact), as the recipient has recently got a little ginger kitten.   Then I realised it was his 21st birthday  - so a rethink was required.   He and his brother have both been keen sailors  - so I kept it simple.

1st Birthday Card

I confess I forgot this birthday was due - it wasn't on the calendar!  (Obviously when my GGNiece was born I didn't write it on last years calendar.  Bad me - off to the naughty step!

A quick play on Craft Artist, and I rectified the situation - better late than never.  It is also on the calendar ready for transfer to next year.

Nautical Birthday Card

Again designed in Craft Artist.  I used a couple of images, the ship, ad the blue with swirls.   This was copied and cropped and just the swirls added again the other side of the ship.  I drew a few lines to tie in the design (an achievement for my dodgy eyes to get them to join ok!)

Hopefully simple, but effective.

Steampunk Birthday Card

Gosh is it hot or what?   I haven't been in the mood for crafting with this heat, added to having had a busy week of appointments.  Although did have a lovely afternoon yesterday at Mamma Mia 2, with my daughter and four granddaughters - a lovely girlie afternoon in a air-condition cinema - bliss.

There is so much crafty stuff I want to get on with I just haven't got the energy.  I did sit and make four cards this morning, so I will share these over the next few days.

Here is the first one:

Designed in Craft Artist, and kept it simple - too hot to do mega thinking and designing!

Birthday Card

A card created in Craft Artist for my son-in-law to go with the Windmill and barge I painted for him as part of his birthday present. 

Belated Birthday Card

It was my neighbour's birthday, and I forgot .... so a quick card was needed.  I used one of the new art nouveau Clarity dies, with some clarity parchment behind it, and one of the Clarity stamps  (I originally wanted a butterfly where the stamp is, but had so much trouble getting it out of my new die, I had to abandon that idea.   The sentiment was created in Craft Artist and mounted on the same parchment.

(Apart from the hassle with the butterfly die that wouldn't work - this was a lovely quick card)  I do love the Art Nouveau styles.

Steampunk Plaque

I have a crafting friend who is very much likes Steampunk and Dr Who.    I need to make him a card for his birthday, but knowing that he has been a bit poorly lately, I decided to make him a plaque to fo with his card.  

I created the background paper in Craft Artist, and then painted up some embellishments from my stash.  ( I confess that when I saw the man included in some mdf that I bought - I thought I would never use that - how wrong I was - he was perfect - and if I say so myself I didn't do a bad job painting him!)

The cogs and wheels etc were painted with various patina paints as well as quin gold and paynes grey.

As I mentioned he is also a Dr Who fan, son the reverse side I created a Dr Who scene.

 

Digi Cards

A couple of quick digi cards created in Craft Artist for FB pal's birthdays

New Baby Cards

As I mentioned previously I had the youngest grandchildren here for a few days, and whilst here they learned that their Aunt has given birth to a baby.   Needless to say they wanted to make some cards.  So here are the results of their efforts:

They were given free reign of Craft Artist and each did their own thing, including the inserts (albeit I am not sharing those, but the wording was lovely and individual, and all their own ideas.)

9 year old's card

12 year old's card

6 year old's card

The six year old put her card in an envelope and sealed it before I had a chance to take a photo, so the image is above is from Craft Artist which is the programme they created their cards in,  It was mounted on white scalloped card. similar to her sisters' ones.

Card I created to send from their Dad and me

As I don't have a lot of baby files on my Craft Artist programme, I think we did fairly well in producing something different from all of us on a pink theme (although as I was last to create mine, I was running out of images to use - lol!)

Good Luck for Exams Card

My eldest granddaughter starts her GCSE exams this week, so I made this little good luck card for her.

Space themed cake and card

A quick surprise cake for a family birthday.     He is very into space, the ISS and little did he know he was getting an R2D2 model for his birthday.  Rather than try and model an R2D2 - I designed a topper for the cake!

It then came to making a card, well confess I cheated and used the same/similar images for the basic design.

He was rather pleased with both.

Sorry I have been awol for a while ....... have been so busy.  Why does life get in the way of crafting - lol!   I have mostly doing mundane "house" things like taking delivery of a new table and chairs, and getting old stuff (and packaging to the tip!  gosh how much packaging!)   The grandchildren have also been on their school holiday so Nanny duties have been involved as well.    I have been working on a couple of projects which I will share in due course.

So anyway, today's offering is a little card created in Craft Artist.  

Unicorn Card

I had a some new stencils arrive as well as some Spectrum Noir Metallic Markers arrive.   Well I had to play didn't I?  .... and what better way to use them on a card.

I used the pens through the stencil for the unicorn.  (note you have to be quick and wash the stencil immediately, as the markers will work on plastic!)

I tried to print the sentiment on card having designed it in Craft Artist, but the printer didn't want to play (it really doesn't like thickish card), so I printed it out on paper and then edged it with one of the pens for faux matting and layering.

Superhero Birthday Card

One of my granddaughters has been doing a project at school on Superheroes.   She had to invent a hero; make a model of it, create a comic strip and on Superhero day dress up as her hero.    Her hero was Transformer Girl, who could transform into all sorts of animals.  Her model was her hero looking like a cat, and her costume was a cat.

Well when it came to her birthday card it had to be something along that theme.   So with the help of images from Craft Artist, here with have a "superhero" birthday card. 

She LOVED it!

I am sure I showed the model she made a while ago, but if not here it is again.

Card for an old school pal

front of card

insert

Couldn't resist this for a school pal, whom I have known for over 60 years.   Men's cards are always difficult, and I hope he will appreciate the "tongue in cheek" sentiment I have added.  I couldn't resist!

Steampunk Birthday Card

Steampunk for a female pal, created with Craft Artist.  Printed off and mounted on white card, and a little sparkle overlay pen applied to highlight some parts.

MDF Plaque - SteamPunk/Grunge Effect

Front

A little experiment with an MDF hanger today.    The backing paper was one from Craft Artist, which I stuck to the MDF and then sandpapered the edges to get a neat finish.  I then the "attacked" the paper with distress inks and stamps.  I used an Artistic Flair stencil for the wording and inked through it with Brown Nuvo ink, and sprinkled on clear detail embossing powder, and applied a little White Colour Cloud Blending Ink to the edge.  I sealed everything with Spray and Shine.

The cogs and clock face were painted with , Decoart paints in Paynes Grey, Quinacridone Gold (red), yellow ochre, Prussian blue and Raw Umber and a touch of IndigoBlu Townhouse Teal to create a rusty affect.  Stamperia Glass paste was then applied with a finger to create a pitted look, and also highlights with Pebeo Gilding Wax in different shades of Gold.   These were then sealed with Spray and Shine, and when dry adhered to the plaque with Sweet Poppy translucent special dimension paste.

Back

The reverse was a bit of an experiment, that gave me a lot of trouble.   The background was created the same way as the front, using the same paper which I had coloured blue before printing.  Again it was distressed and stamped.

I tried to use a dimension paste through another Artistic Flair stencil, and tried to apply some gilding wax to it, which wasn't awfully effective, so I re-applied the paste and sprinkled on some black glitter.   This didn't look quite right when dry, and on the suggestion of my daughter, I sanded the wording back to make it more "grungy", which improved it and then applied a couple of layers of Stamperi glass paste over the whole design.  (It doesn't look brilliant in the photo, but is better in real life and has a sort of under-water look to it).

I also applied some white Cosmic Shimmer Colour Cloud to the edges of the plaque, as on the front.

Front of plaque showing stamping and distressing

As you can see from this work in progress photo, for some reason the embossing powder didn't wan to play on a couple of the words.  You will note they are fine in the final result - with a little help of a fine paint brush and some raw umber paint!

Finally ... a couple more views hanging on a wall, before I wrap and send it off to its recipient.

This is the first time I have done something like this, and confess it was a bit of a learning curve.  The aim was something a bit steampunk/grunge.    Think I might have achieved it ...... sort of... lol!   Just hope my pal likes it - at least she has one of the glass angels I made to hang up, even if this doesn't make it - although it may have a place on her craft room wall.