Thursday 31 January 2013

Charmed Cards & Crafts Challenge

I am entering this card into the January Challenge on Charmed Cards & Crafts Blog for the chance to win a set of beautiful Marianne Dies.  The theme of the challenge is "cards for teenagers or older children".


I (like many others out there) find making cards for men a challenge but a card for a Teenage Boy until now I have found almost impossible, then I discovered that http://www.mosdigitalpencil.com/ did some excellent digistamps for boys.  The image I have used is called Simon, which I have coloured using Promarkers.

Thanks for looking.  Till next time.
Liv

Wednesday 30 January 2013

Challenge Entry


This is a card I've made for a Card Challenge.  The theme of the Challenge is "Love".  The image is a "Dottie and George" digistamp, which I think is rather cute.

 
 
Although I don't think I will win the challenge I thought that entering challenges might be good for me.  I don't have much confidence in my work and am rarely satisfied with something I've made.  It's similar with this Blog, it's making me focus on putting my cards out there and if I get some feedback all the better.  If anyone out there is reading this and would like to leave me a comment that would be great.

Liv

Tuesday 29 January 2013

Tips when using intricate dies

Just thought I'd mention a couple of things I find helpful when cutting with intricate dies like the Anja's Squares shown in my earlier post. 

If you find that your diecut isn't easily removed from the die, try rubbing the metal die prior to use with a tumble dryer sheet.  This seems to coat the die with an invisible surface that stops the card sticking.  Repeat the process after a couple of cuts.

After using the tumble dryer sheet on the metal die, if you still struggle to remove the diecut and usually end up picking it out with a pin or pricking tool, try instead a ball of blu-tac just pressed onto the diecut.  I usually find this dislodges the card easily and I don't end up tearing them as often.

If you find that the design doesn't cut completely on the first pass of the cuttlebug, being careful not to move the cut inside the die, rotate the die 90 degrees on the cutting plate and run it back through.  Often the failure to cut the design completely is caused by the bend in the cutting plates.  Rotating the die and passing it through the cutter a second time usually eliminates this.

Hope you found the above helpful.
Liv

Anja's Squares

I've just got a new die set for my cuttlebug - Marianne Designs Anja's Squares (LR0242).  This set is generally available in the UK for about £20 and consists of five dies.  I can see that several of the dies will be useful by themselves but so I could test them for the first time I just used them all together to make the card below.


The card stock has a beautiful shimmer finish.  I used 3D pads to raise the intricate cut layer slightly and finished the card simply with just a few stick on gems. 

Thanks for looking.

Wednesday 23 January 2013

My First Post

Well this is it - my first ever attempt at blogging!  The question is, what shall I say now? 

I think I will just post a picture of a card I'm entering in this month's General Card Challenge at World of Crafters.  If you have never heard of the site before, it's free to join and everyone posts photos of their work for others to comment on.  They run 3 challenges a month covering general cards, iris folding and teabag folding.  It's a great place to get some inspiration if your mojo is flagging a bit!

The theme for this month in the general card category is "roses".  I have gone for a very Clean and Simple (CAS) design.  The image is from a craft studio CD and the border is created using a Fiskars border punch.  I hope you like it.


(Not sure the quality of my photo is up to much - Sorry.  Will have to work on that!!)

Thanks for looking.
Till next time, enjoy crafting.
Liv