Singin' the Blues

I've always crafted - needlecraft mainly.    Like so many crafters, I came to papercrafting through cardmaking.  (It started when I went to buy a greetings card, saw a "hand-made" card I liked - then saw the price - and said "I can do that!" and a habit was formed). It suddenly occurred to me that I haven't made a card for - well, months.  Not that I'm likely to run out of greetings cards any time soon - I have a large box full of cards I've made - but I thought it was about time I got back to my roots for Sunday Stampers this week.
Hels has chosen "blue" for the theme this week, and here's my blue card.

 

Delicate and pretty isn't my usual style, so I don't know what came over me here!

I began with a shaped card which I turned into an easel card with the help of a Go Kreate fancy label die.  ( In case you haven't seen how to cut part of an aperture into a card, here's my way of doing it)

For the embossing on  the dark blue panel, I inked up a rubber stamp with silver Brilliance ink (Platinum Planet, do be precise) and put it face-up on the craft table, then put the velvet paper face down on top of the stamp and pressed it with a hot iron. If you've never done this, it can be a bit scary, but I am assured that rubber stamps can take very high temperatures.  Don't try it with clear "jelly  acrylic stamps though, as you will wreck the stamp. (Fortunately, the stamp I killed that way wasn't one I particularly liked!)

This little ballet dancer die from Marianne is one of my favourites.  I've cut her out of silver foil card and the three roses are cut from copy paper that I've coloured with Starburst Stains - you can see them a bit better in the close-up.  

 The sentiment is a digital stamp from Pink Petticoat and the label die is from Spellbinders;  the pearl pin is by Creative Expressions and the polka-dotted card is from Hunkydory. 

Hope you like it, and thanks for stopping by!

(Don't worry, the grunge will be back soon!)

Tragedy has Struck!

This week's Sunday Stampers challenge theme (set by Hels Sheridan) is "Embellishments"  and oh boy, did I struggle with this one!

For one thing, inspiration deserted me.  I just couldn't get a handle on the theme.  I eventually came up with this card; it would have been my sister-in-law's birthday card but it wasn't finished in time (so we chose one from The Box for her - you know The Box? The one where all the finished projects go?)

Then my treasured Vagabond upped and died on me.  Yesterday it was working fine, happily cutting out the die cuts you see on the card.  Today I switched it on to cut the scalloped oval at the front and - nothing.  Nowt.  Not even a whirr, so I was forced to fall back upon my faithful Big Shot (thank heavens I hadn't put it on Ebay!)

The Love of My Life, bless him, was all for jumping in the car and rushing round to Hobbycraft to buy a replacement.  I want to think first about whether or not to replace the Vagabond with another one (it would be my third - the first was under guarantee when it popped its clogs) or go for a Grand Calibur. 

Decisions, decisions!