Step by Step for 2013 Calendar Wall Hanging

I have had a few requests from people, including a reader of Papercraft Essentials, for instructions on how I made the Calendar Wall Hanging that I shared in this post here. So here goes…

Materials:

• Plywood Plaque
• Acrylic Paint
• Patterned Paper & Textured Card
• Bunting & Number Stamps
• Digital Images
• Alcohol Markers
• Butterfly Punch Large and Small
• Cloud, Circle and Rectangle Dies & Die Cutting Machine
• Glitter Glue
• Paper Flowers
• Cup Hooks, Book Rings, Ribbon, Pearls, Embroidery Thread and Wooden Pegs
• PVA Glue, DS Tape and Foam Pads

Instructions:

1. Paint plywood base with chosen colours and distress edges. Also decorate with patterned papers and add cup hooks to bottom edge of calendar.

2. Print 4 digital images (representing the 4 seasons) and colour with alcohol markers. Mat and layer onto die cut shapes and affix to calendar.

3. Stamp and cut out bunting and numbers and punch/die cut various items. Use these, along with some paper flowers and ribbon, to embellish the calendar.

4. Create calendar pages using computer, print and mat and layer onto card. Hole punch the calendar pages and attach to calendar using book rings.

5. Add some glitter glue as a final embellishment

Hope some of you find this useful.

Thanks for stopping by
Lisa

Fancy Edges at Whimsy

Hello everyone, hope everyone is well. Still no crafting from me at the moment but we’re all adjusting to having a newborn in the house again. So I thought I would pop online and share my January challenge card as part of the Whimsy Digital Design Team. The challenge started on Wednesday 16th January but you still have over two weeks left to enter and the theme this month is…

Fancy Edges

I’ve used one of the gorgeous new digis that was released in January Dana's Digi's – Chickadee and some fabulous digital papers from Michelle R Designs - Magnolia Spring Blossom…

The image has been coloured with ProMarkers. I have used a Lifestyle Crafts die to create the fancy edge of the card, along with a Martha Stewart Half Daisy punch and a Spellbinders Picot Edge Circle Die to create my other fancy edges. I’ve also used some flowers and a ribbon slider from Wild Orchid Crafts, some organza ribbon from my stash, a metal butterfly (bought in a packet from the 99p store!), Viva Decor Pearl Pen (cream), Diamond Stickles, Paula Pascual Sentiment and grey card.

This month our prizes are…first winner:



Second winner:


And third and final winner:

A Mystery Rubber Stamp

Please hop across to Whimsy Inspirations Challenge to see what the other designers have created and to check out the challenge rules.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

• Fab ‘n’ Funky – Favourite Colour Combo
• I Love ProMarkers – Anything Goes
• Paper Shelter – Anything Goes
• MAWTT – Bling it On
• Simply Create – Linky Party #18
• Stampin with the Dragon – In the Winter Garden
• Fussy and Fancy – Circles
• Stampin for the Weekend – Something Girly
• My Time to Craft – Things with Wings
• One Stop Craft Challenge – Sparkle and Bling
• Sweet Stampin’ – Ribbon
• Totally Gorjuss – Flowers
• Come and Get It – Tic Tac Toe (Glitter, Free, Ribbon)
• OSAAT – Use a Digi
• Dream Valley – Girls Girls Girls
• By the Cute and Girly – Cute and Girly
• Crafty Calendar Challenge – What’s new? (New Digi and New Digi Papers)
• My Mums Craft Shop – Anything Goes
• Sparkles Forum Challenge – Die Cuts and Flowers
• Pretty Little Ribbon Shop – Flowers and Ribbon
• Crafts & Me - Vintage

Thanks for stopping by
Lisa

New Toy….

…..but as you can see it’s not craft related. Baby Bump decided to make an appearance a week early on Monday 14th January,  a little girl, 8 pounds 2 ounces and we have called her Emily. We’re both doing well, apart from Emily is a little too sleepy and not so eager to feed so she has lost a little too much weight (she’s now 7 pounds 2 ounces) and we are having to feed every three hours, even in the night!

As you can see her big brother is completely smitten, as am I, so between the feeds, lack of sleep and lot’s of cuddles I probably won’t have time for crafting for a couple of weeks. 

I may be back on my blog a bit sooner though as I have a few blog posts to catch up on for cards I had made in advance for Whimsy Stamps Digital DT and the PCJ DT. 

Thank you for stopping by
Lisa

Black, White & a Smidge of Colour at LIM

Just a quick post from me as I’m squeezing this card in for this weeks LIM challenge. I actually made it last night but this is the first chance I have had to blog all day as I have had my parents helping me with my crazy nesting urges….the mind is willing but with just over a week until Baby Bumps due date sadly the body is not so willing!

Anyway enough waffle the challenge theme this week is a colour one and is black white and just a smidge of another colour. I needed to make an engagement card so here is my black, white and purple creation…

The ‘Congratulations You’re’ was printed onto a panel of white card and stuck onto the base card using foam tape. The ‘Engaged’ was cut from black card using MFT Die-namic ‘By the Letter’ dies and layered onto a strip of purple card edged with a MS half daisy border punch. This was then stuck to the white panel using foam pads. The leaves are CC Designs Leaf Die and the flowers are my newest dies, MFT Die-Namic Mini Royal Roses. I cut the larger of the flowers in purple and the smaller of the flowers in black and then carefully rolled them together to create a two tone effect, a bit of an experiment but I think it looks quite effective. Finally some medium pearls as the flower centres.

Hope you like!

Thanks for stopping by
Lisa

Anything Goes at PCJ

Morning all. Still no sign of baby bump yet, so I’m hanging in there and keeping my mind off the wait by crafting and blogging. I have actually done a blog post everyday, so far, this week and I think that may be a first for me!

Anyhoo, it’s time for the first challenge of the year at Paper Crafting Journey and to ease you back in gently we have a nice easy one….

Anything Goes

We are lucky enough to be sponsored this challenge by the lovely Elizabeth Bell, who draws some of the cutest digis I’ve seen. I’ve used the gorgeous Rachel Little Angel…

I have coloured the image with ProMarkers and then layered her up on a mix of Bazzil Kraft card, papers from Dovecrafts Tea House 6x6 paper stack and papers from a magazine freebie from the Pink Petticoat Vintage Rose Collection.

I’ve also used a Quickutz corner die, a CC Designs Leaves die, an MFT Swirl die, my new MFT Rolled Rose Die, a Tonic Studio Border punch, Hobbycraft butterfly punch, pearls, Viva Decor Pearl Pen, a Graphite Black Brilliance Inkpad, a sentiment from a Paula Pascual Personal Impressions set and a sentiment from a Mabel Lucie Attwell set.

Don’t forget to head over to the PCJ blog and not only see the wonderful creations from the rest of the DT but also greet out newest DT members.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

• Lexis Creations – Anything Goes
• Make it Monday – Anything Goes
• Incy Wincy – Something New (new die rolled flowers and sentiment)
• Whoopsi Daisy Challenge – Die cuts and punches
• Simply Create - Linky Party #17
• Stampin with the Dragon  - Anything Goes
• Dream Valley – Anything Goes
• Crafty Calendar Challenge – New (New die and sentiment)
• Papertake Weekly – Happy New… Stash
• Tuesday Throwdown – Shiny and New (die and sentiment)
• My Mums Craft Shop – Anything Goes
• Divas By Design – Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by
Lisa

Girl Hug

Here is some inspiration using another of January’s gorgeous new Digi’s released by Whimsy Stamps.

This is the adorable Girl Hug by Lia Stampz….

I coloured the image with my ProMarkers and die cut using Nestability Labels 18.  The patterned paper is from an old Forever Friends 6x6 pad and the textured card is Core’dinations. The sentiment is from a Paula Pascual Personal Impressions set and is stamped with Brilliance Graphite Black Ink and the ‘hugs’ has been die cut with Die-namics by the letter dies.  I’ve kept the rest of the card quite simple, with some ribbon, bows, pearls, gems and a little touch of Stickles Glitter Glue.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

• Lexis Creations – Anything Goes
• Make it Monday – Anything Goes
• Incy Wincy – Something New (dies see above)
• Whoopsi Daisy Challenge – Die cuts and punches
• Simply Create - Linky Party #16
• Stampin with the Dragon  - Anything Goes
• Dream Valley – Anything Goes
• Crafty Calendar Challenge – New (New dies)
• Papertake Weekly – Happy New… Stash
• Tuesday Throwdown – Shiny and New (dies)
• My Mums Craft Shop – Anything Goes
• Divas By Design – Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by
Lisa

Celebrate at Sarah Hurley

Morning all. The first challenge of the year is currently underway at Sarah Hurley Challenge Blog and our first theme of the year is:

Celebrate

We want to see your creations that are celebrating - they can be a celebration of the New Year, Birthdays, Anniversaries, anything you like.

Here is the card I made…

My card is for a 21st Birthday and was created using scraps left over from a mix of Sarah's kits (I think Craft Basics and Santa's Workshop but what I should start doing is noting the name of the kit on the back of the scraps!!!). The badge, doily, and chipboard shapes are all from Sarah's Etsy store.

I’ve also used some of my new dies I was given as Christmas presents, Memory Box Parker Number Dies, MFT Dienamic By the Letter Alphabet Dies and Spellbinders Teardrop Circle Nestabilities.

Along with some flat back pearls, Liquid Pearls and Stickles Glitter Glue to finish off and add some bling.

We look forward to seeing your projects - you have until midnight on 27th January to enter.

Please hop across to the challenge blog and have a look at what the rest of the design team have created.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

• Lexis Creations – Anything Goes
• Make it Monday – Anything Goes
• Incy Wincy – Something New (dies see above)
• Whoopsi Daisy Challenge – Die cuts and punches
• OLLCB – Happy Birthday
• The Pink Elephant – Celebrate
• Divas by Design - Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp – New Something (New dies)
• Cute Card Thursday – Something New (New dies)
• Paper Play – Celebrate
• Simply Create - Linky Party #16
• Stampin with the Dragon  - Anything Goes
• Dream Valley – Anything Goes
• Crafty Calendar Challenge – New (New dies)
• Papertake Weekly – Happy New… Stash
• Tuesday Throwdown – Shiny and New (dies)
• My Mums Craft Shop – Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by
Lisa

New Beginnings – in a lot of ways!

I’m quite nervous (but excited at the same time) as I have spent this weekend completing my first commission for Papercraft Essentials. I sat at my craft desk with stage fright for quite a while before I actually started to make anything. The deadline isn’t actually until 25th January, but regular readers will know that Baby Bump is due to arrive on 20th January (OMG less than 2 weeks to go!) so I wanted to get the commission made and in the post.

So after lot’s and lot’s of crafting I thought I would share with you another part of my winning entry for Papercraft Essentials Papercrafter of the Year 2012 and this one was the non card project. I made a Calendar using digis from Pink Gem Designs to represent the four seasons:

The base of the calendar is a plywood blank that I picked up for less than 75p in Hobbycraft and I painted it with blue acrylic paint and then distressed it firstly with white acrylic paint and then sanding the edges and applying some Faded Jeans Distress Ink to highlight the edges.

Next were the images and as I really love the Chloe images I’ve used Butterfly Chloe for Spring, Fairy Chloe for Summer, Chloe in the Rain for Autumn and Winter Chloe for Winter. The images have all been coloured using ProMarkers. It doesn’t show well in the pictures but I have varied the colours I’ve used as background/sky for each image to represent the seasons as well.

I’ve used patterned papers from Cosmo Crickets 6x6 Material Girl paper pad, textured card from Core’dinations, and then various dies, punches, flowers, ribbon, pearls, gems, flowers and glitter glue to embellish.

The 2013 banner was stamped and cut by hand, the banner stamp was a Craft Stamper freebie a few months back and the number stamps have been in my stash for years and I think were from Hobbycraft. I have attached them to the calendar using Velcro dots so that I can change them and update the calendar for next year.

Unfortunately when I finished and photographed the calendar to post into the competition I was staying at my parents and they had no where I could hang it so the only picture I have showing it in full with the calendar pages is the one from the magazine and as I don’t have a scanner the picture I took isn’t that clear.

The calendar pages are printed on smooth white card, 2 months per page and are mounted onto red card and attached to tiny cup hooks on the bottom of the calendar using book rings, this way I’ll be able to replace them for next year.

I hope that my calendar for the New Year counts as a new beginning as I would like to enter it for the ‘New Beginnings’ challenge at A Gem of a Challenge.

• Craft My Life – Anything but a Card
• Lexis Creations – Anything Goes
• Make it Monday – Anything Goes
• Whoopsi Daisy Challenge – Die cuts and punches
• Papertake Weekly – Anything Goes
• Passion for ProMarkers – New Beginnings (New Calendar/New Year)
• Tuesday Throwdown – Bright and Happy New Year
• Divas by Design – Anything Goes
• Flutterby Wednesdays – In with the New (New Calendar/New Year)
• Simon Says Stamp – New Something (New Calendar/New Year)
• Crafty Ribbons – New Beginnings (New Calendar/New Year)
• Simply Create – Linky Party #16
• Stampin with the Dragon  - Anything Goes
• Card Makin Mamas – Anything Goes
• Totally Papercrafts – Something New (New Calendar/New Year)
• Pause Dream Enjoy – Use Ribbon
• Stampin for the Weekend – Anything Goes
• My Time to Craft – All about the New (New Calendar/New Year)
• Totally Gorjuss – Anything Goes with Ribbon
• Dream Valley – Anything Goes
• By the Cute and Girly – Cute and Girly
• Crafty Calendar Challenge – New (New Calendar/New Year)
• Sparkles Forum Challenge - Anything Goes
• My Mums Craft Shop – Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by
Lisa

Whimsy January Digi Stamp Release Blog Hop

Welcome to the January digital release blog hop!

We have lots of new images to share with you today created by:

  

All Whimsy Stamps digital images are 300dpi for high print quality. You can re-size, flip, or rotate to fit your own project.

Here is my card using the wonderful new Elfie from Marika Collins…

I have coloured Elfie with my ProMarkers and mixed some new dies I got for Christmas (CC Designs Curly Border Die and Memory Box Parker Number Dies) with some older stash like papers from MME and a sentiment from Pink Gem. A little twine and some Stickles for sparkle finish the card.

I have also used the current sketch from Sketch Saturday to make this card and would like to enter it into their current challenge.


To find all of today's new releases please visit the Whimsy Stamps Store and whilst you are hopping don't forget to leave comments on each blog along the way as there will be two mystery DT Members who will each be choosing a winner from the comments left on their hop posts!

These winners will each win a Whimsy digital image of their choice. The Grand Prize winner of the hop will be chosen from the very last stop, which is Laura Palmer’s Blog, this winner will receive 5 digital stamps of their choice from the Whimsy Stamps Store.

The hop will run for one week and end on Wednesday 9th January at 12 Noon EST, when the lucky winners will be announced on the Whimsy Blog.

Below is a complete list of the hop in case you get lost along the way:

1. Tammy Ortiz
2. Anne Cullen
3. Charlene Brown
4. Debbie Dunn
5. Judith Hall
6. Kelly Mannix
7. Kim Taylor
8. Lisa West - Me
9. Sarah McLaughlin
10. Laura Palmer

Thanks for stopping by
Lisa

My Favourite Five Cards of 2012

Debby is hosting another Favourite Five and this time it’s Favourite Five Cards of 2012.
Here are mine:

#1 – I love Saturated Canary images and this is my favourite Saturated Canary card this year. I love the Colour scheme and the CAS design. Original post is here…

#2 – Masculine cards are always quite hard, but I was pleased with how this one turned out. It uses a Digi from Crissy’s Digi’s called Whatzup Dog, and the colours, layout and embellishments just seemed to come together. Original post is here…

#3 – This is  bit of a cheat, it’s two cards! I adore this image from Pink Gem Designs called Moon baby and this year I’ve used it to make both a Girl and Boy New Baby card and I couldn’t decide between them. Original posts are here and here…

#4 – This was a card from quite early in 2012 but I like it because it doesn’t use a really cute image and it also uses a negative die cut as a frame. The stamps are from a Little Claire set and the original post can be found here…

#5 – Again another slight cheat as this is two cards, but something I struggle to do is embellish my cards. Sometimes I add embellishments and to me they look as though they have been plonked on top and don’t form part of the design, but with with these two cards I think I got it just about right (well for me anyway!). The original posts can be found here and here…

        

I had a really hard choosing these as I think my crafting and style has really grown in 2012, I could have chosen about another 10 cards!

I hope you enjoy my selection and thanks for stopping by
Lisa