Part Two of Housework Avoidance Strategy

So here is my second card I made today, I should really have entered this one into the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge because it was certainly "Distressing" cutting out all the stems for these acorns! However, I don't think that's quite what they meant, so I'll enter it into the following challenges instead:
Cute Card Thursday - make your own
Polka Doodles - make your own
Can you spot the common theme?

So I'm going on the basis that all my acorn branches are my embellishments, does that work? They and the two birdies came from the Polka Doodles CD "Sundae of Seasons", and beautiful though they are, they are a pain in the bee-hind to cut out! Thanks to Sakura for inventing the Quickie Glue Pen, otherwise I have no idea how I'd have stuck it down properly.

Now it's off to bed, as I have to get up early tomorrow to finish the dratted housework.

Chop, Chop, Busy, Busy, Work, Work, Bang, Bang....

As you will probably guess, I've had a busy day! Brother and new girlfriend coming to stay next week, kindly not told me exactly what day they'll arrive, so thought better get on and clean the house in readiness. Got fed up of that pretty quick and decided to make a couple of cards instead!

Two of the ladies at work are leaving in the next week or so, which is pretty drastic considering that they're only 5 of us in total! However it's all very explainable - one is 18 and off to college in Aberdeen and the other is 70, and she's NOT retiring, she has another job! That boggled my mind completely...

I had a good look at the challenges this week and have made two cards to fit with a few challenges each, here is the first one:

If you haven't guessed already this is for the 18 year old Kathleen, who's heading off to Aberdeen, I would like to enter it into the following challenges:

Sketch Saturday - Sketch
Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - Distressing
Totally Gorjuss Challenge - Not a Square
Fab 'N' Funky - digi image

To make the card, I've used a Gorjuss Girl download, which I thought was quite appropriate for college with the books, I cut out an extra image of the girlie and layered it on top of the base for a bit of extra dimension. I used some Broken China Distress Ink on the edges of my circular base card and patterned paper, then I added a layer of grey card which I've embossed with swirls, then sanded back a bit. The quote "Adventure is always worthwhile" was apparently said by Amelia Earhart. I've used 3 pink pearls and 3 stars as the final embellishments for the sketch, which is here:

As you've probably noticed, I've flipped the sketch and made it a circle. And I've not even got my Nestabilities yet!

A perfect circle. . .

My eternal quest for a perfect circle is nearly complete! My dear parents have bought me a cuttlebug and I've just ordered 3 sets of nestabilities from ebay! Who needs food anyway?

Trick or Treat?

I have a gloriously mad friend who loves to have a party for any and every occasion imaginable, and with Halloween on the way, that's as good an excuse as any! She's asked me if I wouldn't mind making gift bags for the dozen or so children who'll be going, so here is my prototype:

It just so happens to fit in well with a couple of challenges, the Tuesday Taggers Pandora's Box and also the Polka Doodles Fancy Folding (well I did have a fold quite a bit!).

I found the house template on Google and scaled it to fit an A4 sheet, I also found the brick design on Google (it was a demo for bricklayers on how to do English Bond brickwork!). I coloured it in using Cinnanmon, Spice and Caramel (That would make a good muffin) promarkers using the thick end and not being too fussy.

The pumpkins, toadstools and vampire chap are all from the new Polka Doodles CD Rom "Sundae of Seasons", which arrived in the post this morning. They are meant to print out as a full A4 sheet, but I mini-ed them by changing my printer to print "4 on 1" page. I've used some lightweight pearlescent cardstock for the roof, and only stuck it onto the house on one side, it seems to be behaving and staying in place, but this may need to be amended before the final design.

And of course, it has been filled with sweeties for the grubby little mites!

Totally Gorjuss Sketch

It's Ann's birthday next week, a dear friend, who I probably won't ever meet again in person, but is Totally Gorjuss! So obviously I had to make her a card to match. I decided to use the sketch from this weeks Totally Gorjuss Challenge and spent a good hour browsing the Gorjuss Website, and bought a couple of the individual downloads. Here is my card and the sketch:

The one I've used here is called "Toadstools". I've done everything on the PC using the free software Serif Drawplus Starter Edition and used various background images which I've "colourised" to match the Gorjuss Girl. I do still cut everything out and layer them up, although if you were in hurry you don't necessarily need to, especially if you use the "shadow" tool within the program. It does exactly what it says on the tin!

I've found I'm a bit over enthusiastic with my silicone glue - I'm squashing it down so it's almost flat, which kind of defeats the purpose, probably a good thing with this card though as it's going through the mail. Maybe I'll go back to my 3D foam, peeling the backing off is quite therapeutic you know.

Saturday Challenges

Today I'm having a go at two challenges - Sketch Saturday and Saturday Challenge, the first is a sketch (the name kinda gives it away?) and the second needs to be an easel card. I decided to combine the two, and bizarrely, even though I have never made an easel card before, I decided to make a circular one. And this is me with my lack of diecutter and hatred of freehand circle cutting.

Here is the sketch I was following:

And strangely enough it's not even circular. What was I thinking???

Here is the card I made

I have gone a bit grunge mad with it, the image was a freebie from Pollycraft called Luna's Happy Haunting, and as they are the sponsor of this weeks Sketch Saturday, it seemed appropriate to use it! I've coloured her in using promarkers, and inked the edges with a Brilliance ink pad, I've torn a bit of bright orange paper into a vague rectangle and mounted her on that.

The background was scrunched up and then inked in Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink, and then stamped with an Anna Griffin flourish stamp. I printed the sentiment off the computer and tinted it with chalks, along with the other tab, which also has a stamped flourish. I stuck some ribbon onto the background and stuck Luna down with some silicone glue.

For the base of the easel card, I covered it in parcel paper and cut a strip of some Papermania green flourish paper,and to make the little medallions to hold the card upright I punched 3 one inch circles of card. I'd gone into the craft shop in Perth on Thursday and bought some clear embossing powder, but she had no heat guns in stock, but she gave me a tip and said I could do it over the toaster! Worth a bash! You've never seen anything quite so ridiculous in all your life! There I was with my three little circles on a fish slice, holding it over the slots on my toaster, all was going well until the toaster popped! I jumped about 3 feet in the air and my little circles ended up in the toaster! Oh well it needed cleaning anyway....

The circles actually recovered from this traumatic experience really rather well, and I've coloured them in with my Spice promarker for a "resist" effect. Inked the edges a bit then stuck them on with silicone glue. Job done.

Now to sweep all the toast crumbs off the kitchen floor. And it rained on my washing.

CraftyCatz Birthday Bloghop

Just been hopping around some Craftycatz blogs in search of candy! I've also made a card for their weekly challenge and this week it is a card for a child with sparkle, well the little girl I've made this card for certainly sparkles! According to her Mum it's usually at 5 in the morning! We're off to Sophia's 4th Birthday Party on Sunday and here is her card:

I've used some Nitwits background papers and the fairy digistamp came as a free download in this months Cardmaking and Papercraft mag. I've coloured her in with promarkers and glittered her wings - although this hasn't shown up too well on the photo.

Hope everyone has had a good day!