TTCRD Design Team - 3 December

Hello, Lovelies!

Today is challenge day for Design Team B for the Through The Craft Room Door Challenge.   

This is a WEEKLY "anything goes" (any type of project and any theme) challenge with 2 design teams who alternate weeks to make projects showcasing the sponsor who often offers PRIZES!

This week's sponsor is DRS Designs
Prize:

I know my choice of image for this challenge mat seem a little odd, but rather topical not just as 2019 draws to a close, but more relevant to happenings relating to the TallCraftyDude.  This past year his academic performance has left a bit to be desired and he could benefit greatly from more organization and structure starting with the summer holidays and ideally continuing into the 2020 school year so we don't have a repeat performance.  😒😒😒

A blank calendar was a very versatile way to give him a month-at-a-glance way to see what is due and how soon...along with other school related deadlines.

I opened the file in Silhouette Studio, which is probably not the more natural software choice, but I;m comfortable with it and wanted to use some cut files in my library as images that would appeal to a 15 year old boy.

It looks deceptively simple, but each set of numbers needed to be added and resized individually to be able to move them around independently of each other.  If I had number stamps of the right size, I probably would have used those instead.

After printing, I added some stamping and gold mist spatter to give it a more handmade look and started to write in things for the last month of the holidays.  Perhaps a bit mean given they haven't even yet begun, but I wanted to trial a single month before creating a whole year! 

I can see using it to make personalized calendars as a great gift, though!

January 2020 Calendar

Love and stay organized!

TTCRD Design Team - 19 November

 Hi Lovelies!

Today is challenge day for Design Team B for the Through The Craft Room Door Challenge.   

This is a WEEKLY "anything goes" (any type of project and any theme) challenge with 2 design teams who alternate weeks to make projects showcasing the sponsor who often offers PRIZES!

This week's sponsor is KLM Digital Designs (Katy's Card Emporium)
Prize: $10 Gift Certificate

About KLM:
"I started stamping in 2005 thanks to the help of my mother who at the time was a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator. Over the years my mother and I have designed and manufactured our own line of digital stamps, I have also been published in stamping magazines and have been a team member for many design teams.
I am a full time police officer as well as a single parent. I love crafts and use it as an escape from every day life. My kids love crafting as well and probably have accumulated just as much supplies as I have! (Lol)"

How many of you have seen or read the classic book about gnomes by Wil Huygen?  This edition is the one I'm familiar with and I just can't imagine gnomes being coloured any other way.  Besides the colour of his boots and trousers reversed, he looks much the same as the sample image by the artist!

He was coloured with Copics and I would have preferred his beard and boots to be a lighter grey but these things happen!  I used a white gel pen to add more streaks to his beard. 

At this point I realised I had no choice, but to fussy cut him and get into the small closed in crevices with ye olde craft knife.  This was due to the Copics bleeding a touch outside the lines and where my hand-eye-coordination was a bit of a fail!  Some areas could be improved a bit with the "Colourless Blender" but not all.  Fortunately I don't mind fussy cutting!

I had a floral paper I thought about using as a background, but the apples and oak leaf on his cap clearly make him Autumnal, so this paper from Shimelle's Go Now Go collection in the 6x6 size is perfect for a card being scaled down from the full size and uses most of the colours I did

I knew an abundance of gnome puns exist so the sentiment naturally required one with messy stamping using an alphabet stamp and some glittery Thickers.

I used "fun foam" to make the gnome stand out.  It's typically adhesive on one side so I stuck this bit against the back of the image and when I was finished cutting it to size to fill most of the areas needing support, I used the Permanent Glue Dots all over the back before adding him to the card.  It's easier this way when there are lots of small pieces of foam.  The backing gets removed as you go then you just add the adhesive at the end!

There's Gnome One Else Like You Card

Love and roll with your gnomies!

TTCRD DT 5 Nov and Coffee Lovers Hop Project 2

Hi Lovelies!


Today is challenge day for Design Team B for the Through The Craft Room Door Challenge.  This is a WEEKLY "anything goes" (any type of project and any theme) challenge with 2 design teams who alternate weeks to make projects showcasing the sponsor who often offers PRIZES!

This week we have a free choice of image, so I continued with my Distress Ink and Ink Road stamps.  Unlike the previous project when I used the "packaging technique" I used a brush and was much happier.

The ink looks neon in the pictures, but it really isn't!

In addition to "Mug Life", I also used two other Ink Road stamp sets - "Boymom" and "The Struggle is Real" for the sentiments.  In both cases each sentiment was a single stamp, but using a craft knife I cut each one so I could use part of the sentiment above the image and part below.  If I were to see myself only doing this occasionally, I'd just mask it, but I thought the stamps would be more versatile cut since I could mix them up with other stamps.

I didn't use any ink splatter on these - just clear sequins and adhered the watercoloured panels onto the card bases with plenty of foam tape to keep it from puling away and smooth out any warping.

These cards will also make up Project 2 for the Fall/Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

I Run on Coffee and Chaos

I Can't Emphasize this enough: COFFEE!!!

OK now to the giveaway part:

 

Giveaway CLOSED
📌 I have three items (and a bonus fourth prize) to give away (pictured below) and I'll pull three names for the first three prizes.

📌For the  fourth "bonus" prize: it will go to someone who has entered the main blog hop (please let me know your project numbers if you would like to be considered.  You can wait til the blog hop is over to do this since they change sometimes.)
📌 The first name drawn gets first choice, second name gets second choice and so on.  Bonus prize will be TallCraftyDude's favourite project!
📌 This Giveaway is NOT SPONSORED.  I purchased the prizes especially for this giveaway.  This year I picked stuff other than just stamp sets to mix it up a bit!  In the even the items I purchased are on back order, I'll purchase something similar in their place and update the list below. Thanks for understanding!

The prizes you get to pick from are:

This pair of embossing folders - "On the Go" by Tim Holtz and "Coffee Stains" by Creative Expressions

 

 

 

 

 

Framelits Die & Stamp Set By Crafty Chica for Sizzix called "Mi Cafecito Mi Amor"

 

Coffeesaurus Stamp Set By Gerda Steiner

Lastly, the bonus prize will be a pack containing a 6x6 "Coffee" paper pad by Echo Park and some coffee themed embellishments.  This prize will be awarded to TallCraftyDude's favourite project so PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT NUMBERS IN THE MAIN HOP YOUR PROJECTS ARE IF YOU WISH TO BE CONSIDERED FOR THIS PRIZE!  THANK YOU SO MUCH!

You will receive an entry (or entries) for each of the following.  You absolutely don't have to do everything - just how ever many you like.

If you have previously followed my socials then these are already counted for you!  (unfollowers will not be counted)
📌 The giveaway will remain open until 11:59PM AEDT on Sunday 10 November.  Please visit THIS SITE to calculate in your own timezone
📌 The winners will be drawn randomly on Tues 12 Nov so PLEASE CHECK BACK HERE
❗If the winner and I can't make contact by Tues 19 Nov, I will have to draw a new winner since I need to get these prizes out all together.
❗Please try to email me at alex@pinkcraftymama.com This really is the easiest way for me to get in touch with you since not all blogger profiles have an email attached and if you JUST leave comments, I have no other place to search for you.

So...what do you have to do to get entries?
🍵Subscribe to my YouTube channel - 3 entries
https://www.youtube.com/user/PinkCraftyMamaAlex
🍵 Follow this blog - 3 entries (in the left sidebar)
🍵 Follow me on Facebook - 2 entries
🍵 Follow me on Instagram - 1 entry
🍵 Comment (once per day per person) on a post between now and the close of the giveaway - 1 entry per post

I don't yet know how many makes I'll have done between now and then, but it will be at least three.  The more love from you guys the better the chances of me getting crafty which gives you more chances to enter.  I may continue with extra "unofficial" projects after the Hop actually ends, so be sure to keep checking back here since you get an entry for commenting!

Click here for Project 1

So today...if you want to leave a comment, tell me whether drink any other caffeinated drinks besides tea or coffee?  (or anything else if this doesn't grab you) and please don't hesitate to  email me with any questions at alex@pinkcraftymama.com


* ⬅⬅⬅ Acronyms and strange terms in left sidebar! 

Love and copious cups of coffee!

TTCRD DT 22 Oct and Cat Lovers Hop Project 2

Hi Lovelies!

Today is challenge day for Design Team B for the Through The Craft Room Door Challenge.  This is a WEEKLY "anything goes" (any type of project and any theme) challenge with 2 design teams who alternate weeks to make projects showcasing the sponsor who often offers PRIZES!

This week's sponsor is Hetty Clare.

Prize: 

This image reminded me of mornings here  - I even get up at 6:00 too (although I'm usually greeted by a cat butt).

The cartoon like image suited the theme, but did make colouring more challenging especially when trying to add realistic shading...and even more so when the whole circle was reduced to a size where the individual elements are pretty small!

Speaking of circles, the design of the image reminded me of the current Mojo Monday sketch which is something I really enjoy playing along with.

I threaded twine through the flower (as a nod to the ones on the doona and pillow) and stuck the button down with a Glue Dot.

It didn't look the same in my head as on the paper, but I like the yellow enamel dots at least! 🤦

I'll be honest I don't love the end result.  I do love the bright colours in the coloured image, but I can't quite put my finger on what bothers me.  Maybe the odd shade of purple of the sentiment?  🤷 I pulled it from my drawer of scrap cardstock and there wasn't much purple to choose from so I ran with it rather than cutting into a fresh sheet.

OK now to the giveaway part:

Giveaway CLOSED!

📌 I have three items (and a bonus fourth prize) to give away (pictured below) and I'll pull three names for the first three prizes.
📌For the  fourth "bonus" prize: it will go to someone who has entered the main blog hop (please let me know your project numbers if you would like to be considered.  You can wait til the blog hop is over to do this since they change sometimes.)
📌 The first name drawn gets first choice, second name gets second choice and so on.  Bonus prize will be TallCraftyDude's favourite project!
📌 This Giveaway is NOT SPONSORED.  I purchased the prizes especially for this giveaway.  This year I picked stuff other than just stamp sets to mix it up a bit!  In the even the items I purchased are on back order, I'll purchase something similar in their place and update the list below. Thanks for understanding!

The prizes you get to pick from are:
This hysterical Art Impressions stamp set called "Catastrophy".  Perfect for the Spoonie stamper (or if you know one!)

There is a Dyan Reaveley stencil called "It's Raining Cats" (this one is mine, but yours will be brand new, obvs! 😉)

An American Crafts "Coloring Notebook"

Lastly, the bonus prize will be an electronic gift card to the online crafty store of your choice to the value of $20 AUD (approx $13 USD, £10 GBP, €12 Eur etc.  May vary depending on exchange rate)

You will receive an entry (or entries) for each of the following.  You absolutely don't have to do everything - just how ever many you like.

If you have previously followed my socials then these are already counted for you!  (unfollowers will not be counted)
📌 The giveaway will remain open until 11:59PM AEDT on Monday 28 Oct (a whole week from today).  Please visit THIS SITE to calculate in your own timezone
📌 The winner will be drawn on Weds 30 Oct so PLEASE CHECK BACK HERE
❗If the winner and I can't make contact by Weds 6 Nov, I will have to draw a new winner since I need to get these prizes out all together.
❗Please try to email me at alex@pinkcraftymama.com This really is the easiest way for me to get in touch with you since not all blogger profiles have an email attached and if you JUST leave comments, I have no other place to search for you.

So...what do you have to do to get entries?
🐈 Follow this blog - 3 entries (in the left sidebar)
🐈 Follow me on Facebook - 2 entries
🐈 Follow me on Instagram - 1 entry
🐈 Comment (once per day per person) on a post between now and the close of the giveaway - 1 entry per post

I don't yet know how many makes I'll have done between now and then, but it will be at least three.  The more love from you guys the better the chances of me getting crafty which gives you more chances to enter.

Click here for Project 1
Click here for Project 3
Click here for Project 4

So today...if you want to leave a comment, tell me how many cats you've had in your life... (or anything else if this doesn't grab you) and please don't hesitate to  email me with any questions at alex@pinkcraftymama.com


* ⬅⬅⬅ Acronyms and strange terms in left sidebar! 

Love and cuddle your kitty!

TTCRD 8 October DT Project

Hi Lovelies!

Today is challenge day for Design Team B for the Through The Craft Room Door Challenge.  This is a WEEKLY "anything goes" (any type of project and any theme) challenge with 2 design teams who alternate weeks to make projects showcasing the sponsor who often offers PRIZES!

This week's sponsor is Sherry West Art.  You can read a bit more about her below.

Prize:  One Digi

Sherry West is the owner-designer of Sherry West Art, she’s a digital and rubber stamp artist for Stamp Addicts, a U.K. stamp company, a coloring book artist and the author-illustrator of a very silly new children’s book titled “It’s Raining Cats! It’s Raining Dogs! It’s Raining Bats! And Pollywogs!” (Morgan James Publishing) which is available now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and more. She’s also a member of the Society of the Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, former ESL teacher, published educational curriculum writer, award-winning poet, and semi-pro photographer whose work has been accepted by Getty Images. Married for 20 years to a very patient guy, 3 really funny kids, 2 fluffy dust-bunny chinchillas, 1 huge hairy dog and 13 random cats. Her art is being sold as rubber stamps by Stamp Addicts in the U.K., and has appeared on Hochanda tv twice.

While I was in sketch-challenge mode I thought I'd try one for this project too.  I went with the one offered by CAS(E) This Sketch.  Now I really don't do a great job of CAS style cards.  They're pretty popular though.  I would also like to point out that there is a huge gulf of difference in CAS cards and just simple/plain etc ones.  It's a point of contention with me, which I'll leave for another day, but I absolutely loved what the design team made for this sketch.

I know the pattern papers make it a little less CAS and a little more busy, but all patterns come from the Cashmere Dame collection which went really well with the image.

My poor Copics really need to be refilled and I'm limited to the ones with enough juice to get the job done.  The ladybird elements didn't turn out as well highlighted as I hoped.

I made the sketch horizontal and due to the direction of the image, had to mirror it as well.

 Thinking Of You Card

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Hopefully my colouring and CAS-ability is better next time!

Love, and CAS conundrums!

TTCRD Design Team Project 24 Sept

Hi Lovelies!

Today is challenge day for Design Team B for the Through The Craft Room Door Challenge.  This is a WEEKLY "anything goes" (any type of project and any theme) challenge with 2 design teams who alternate weeks to make projects showcasing the sponsor who often offers PRIZES!

This week's sponsor is Wink Wink Ink.  You can read a bit more about them below.

Prize:  Three images as used by Design Team

https://www.etsy.com/shop/WinkWinkInk
Blog: http://www.winkwinkink.com/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/winkwinkink/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/digital.stamps/

As there is still a week of September remaining, I'm still using sketches which are the "product focus" of the month at Rediscover Your Stash as I have mentioned before.


I found this sketch online while looking for inspiration so I could translate this challenge to card projects as well.  It's the most recent one from Freshly Made Sketches.  Timing was such that it didn't work to enter this card as their challenge finished before this one started,  It was fine since I'm not sure whether my splodgy background (made using the "packaging technique" and Distress Ink) really fit into their guidelines.


I really like it and will definitely be trying it again!

The best bit is that I pulled ALL the bits of patterned paper from my scrap box as I was hoping to do with this month's Counterfeit Kit Challenge.  👍

The execution was a little tricky since it was a digi I was limited as to which paper will go through the printer.

At first I thought I'd have to mask the worm and I learned the hard way what disaster can strike from colouring first then masking on the wrong paper!

I also wasn't sure whether I wanted to watercolour, use Inktense or Copic markers.  I decided to try Neenah in the 80lb weight.  Copics will work well enough on Neenah, but my personal preference for Copics (X-Press Blending Card)  is a huge no-no when it comes to masking,

It turns out that even masking Neenah wont stop the splodgy ink soaking through and bleeding under the image, so I tried a second time and didn't bother masking.  I just used much less of the ink doing my best to avoid the worm.

Inktense doesn't work at all well on Neenah so I thought using Copics dark enough to mask the few bits of worm that  still managed to be hit with ink.  It turns out that what does and does not qualify as "worm coloured" is actually a rather controversial topic in our fam bam.  Who knew? 🤣🤷

I just KNEW I wanted "hang in there" as a sentiment and was pretty sure I had at least one stamp with this sentiment.  I also hoped for a squiggly "wormy" looking scripty font.  It was Honey Bee stamps (in a cat themed set no less) for the win! 🙌

Since the worm image was tall, I felt it was a good opportunity to try making a narrow "DL" card.  

I adhered the Neenah card front to the blue mat with a copious quantity of Permanent Glue Dots since past experience has taught me that even flattened water coloured paper will naturally want to pull away and regular adhesive is not strong enough.  I then used foam tape to adhere to the card base for a bit of dimension.  More glue dots for the sequins of course.

In retrospect, I could have stitched down the sequins and the paper layers on the front.  It wasn't possible after adding the glue dots since it would gum up the needle.  I'd have to have stitched the card layers together which would have been nice too.

That's all from me and I hope you stop by the TTCRD blog to enter this week's challenge!

Love and creative cardmaking,

TTCRD 10 Sept DT Project

Hi Lovelies!

Today is challenge day for Design Team B for the Through The Craft Room Door Challenge.  This is a WEEKLY "anything goes" (any type of project and any theme) challenge with 2 design teams who alternate weeks to make projects showcasing the sponsor who often offers PRIZES!

This week's sponsor is The Project Bin.  You can read a bit more about them below.

Prize: $15 Gift Certificate

The Project Bin was started because its founder, Denise Storck (a long-time stamper and paper-crafter), couldn't find a stamp that said "You are awesome sauce", so she decided to make her own! One thing led to another, and now her small business fills a niche in the card making industry for unique word art sentiments in the highest quality photopolymer clear stamps, made in the U.S.A.

I'll be honest that I was quite our of my comfort zone when the whole design team was sent a christmas stamp and die set that we were asked to use, because I DON'T celebrate holidays.

HOWEVER, thinking outside the box (or perhaps "bin" in this case 😉), is something I've had plenty of practice in with all the curveballs I've been dodging so I was going to find a way to make it work.  Without masking, the only thing I was comfortable using was the tree.  There was both a stamp and die for it and it was pretty small, so it was better suited to a card.

There was an idea I had for a critter card "scene" with several rolling hills (Lawn Fawn Dies), sky patterned paper (cut from the top portion of Shimelle's Sparkle City writing pad) and stamped and punched trees.

The stamped trees are kind of subtle, but they needed to be kept in proportion to the other elements.  More distant objects should be smaller than the one in the foreground.

I guessed the die would cut the trees with a halo, so I recruited the SmallCraftyDude (TallCraftyDude?) to stamp the trees in various shades of green ink by Altenew onto different green  scraps of cardstock so the halo would also be green.

I didn't quite plan out the positioning of the tree stump and critters (My Favorite Things) and that's the best that I could do.  I added the sentiment, tiny acorn and even tinier heart from a Neat and Tangled stamp set.

 

Here's the entire card:

I Go Nuts For You Card

Well that's all for now.  Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you visit the TTCRD blog and submit a project of your own!


Love and crafty critters,

TTCRD 27 August DT Project

Hi Lovelies!

Today is challenge day for Design Team B for the Through The Craft Room Door Challenge.  This is a WEEKLY "anything goes" (any type of project and any theme) challenge with 2 design teams who alternate weeks to make projects showcasing the sponsor who often offers PRIZES!

This week's sponsor is The Paper Shelter.  You can read a bit more about them below.

Prize: 3 images

"If you are looking for fun, cute and lovely digi stamps for your paper-crafting or web design projects, The Paper Shelter is your one-stop boutique!
This growing catalog of high-quality digi stamps with many different kinds of options offers a multitude of themes such as everyday items, holidays, special occasions, children, adorable characters and creatures. Stamps are available in standard black and white line art, as well as in pre-colored format."

The image we were given to work with was this yummy looking ice cream sundae!

I knew my light Copic markers were not juicy enough to be up to the challenge, although they would have been one one of my first choices considering how small I printed the images.  I printed 4 or 5 to allow for mistakes and also to make more than one card at a time.  It's not twice the amount of work to make two if you make them at the same time sort of "production line" style.

Water colour was the logical next choice and would give a lovely soft effect to the ice cream, but to get into those tiny areas? I busted out the Inktense again and they worked reasonably well until tried to colour the sprinkles since I didn't think my hands were steady enough to use wet glue and tiny beads. 😒

I did manage to carefully spread some Glossy Accents over the sundae glass to make it look more like...well glass!  I should have stopped there, but no, I went straight for the Wink if Stella and succeeded in smearing the "sprinkles" even more!  Oops! 🤷.

And I didn't even mind that the Glossy Accents cracked a bit after it dried.  In larger areas, it's not uncommon for it to do that, but kinds looks a bit more realistic!























While the Glossy Accents was drying, I pulled out some of the many patterned papers which featured sweets or ice creams.  These can be a challenge since there are only so many layouts featuring this rather specific motif that one can make!

There are, however, many great puns and sentiments for cards which would work and I found I even had some relevant stamps.

I knew using the coloured sundae on a patterned background (even if I did pick fairly soft ones) would mean I had to keep the rest simple and that's just not something I do particularly well.  I wanted SOMEthing to jazz it up.

Rather than stamping the sentiments (which were not worded exactly how I wanted them anyway), I used some of the many many fonts I have and played around on the computer until the size and combination of fonts was more or less OK.

Since our printer is a laser printer, it's idea for the MINC.  Foil on black looks really striking and just what the cards needed.  It's pretty cool printing black on black before running it through the MINC!

The silver is actually holographic foil and looks very "cool" (see what I did there?) 🤣

Here are a couple more photos of my two cards.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you take part in the TTCRD challenge!

Love and "cool" cardmaking!