Art Nouveau Inspired Card

Been playing again!  MCS have launched a new CD called "Opulent" which has Arts and Crafts Movement designs on it.  However, being skint I decided to have a go at an Art Nouveau inspired card using what I already had available to me and here it is!  

The main background is a sunburst design of the main image made using MCS Pro, I have used Sakura Gold and Clear Stardust pens to add highlights to the "rays" (the effect reminds me of Tutankhamun's collar). For one of the mats I have taken a punched out design from the main image and tiled it and highlighted it in the Clear Stardust.  I printed the complete design onto a full A4 sheet and cut around half the mat and layer section so the centre section would stand upright.  I'd originally been going to leave it just as a flat print but having stared at it for a wee while decided to add layers to it.  I didn't give into the temptation to cut round the collar and shape the card further - will try that another day!

August Birthday Card No 4!

I've finally finished the August cards just in time for Hubby's Birthday tomorrow!  

Although I started working on this card first it's actually the last Birthday card to be finished cos I couldn't make up my mind what the punchline inside would be!  I finally settled on "...but never mind, I suppose you'll do!"

I've used the MCS Deco Follies for the background images and the Festive Deco Follies CD for the figure images.  I printed off an additional gentleman ("Clyde") so I could raise him off the page to give some depth to the card.

I've added some Sakura clear glaze to give the shoes a polished look and also some on "Clyde's" hair to give a "Brylcreamed" shiny haired look.  The young lady ("Beaulah") has had the Quickie glue pen/pearlescent ultra fine glitter treatment to her dress.  

Must admit I really like Nancy Watt's Deco Follies artwork, it's lovely  to work with.

August Birthday Card No 3!

August Birthday Card Number 3 is the one for Dennis, a friend of my hubby who's nickname, apparently, happens to be Bush Baby (no, I'm not sure why either!)

I managed to find a picture of a Bush Baby peeping out of a hollow tree and thought it may look nice as an invertage using the MCS Die Cut Studio template and matching card stock.

I've used 2 backgrounds for this card, the main one is from the MCS "Something Special" CD while the Happy Birthday overlay is from "Back to Basics".

The torn paper effect is an image from Craft "E" Christmas' "Crystal Sparkles" which, after a few attempts, I eventually managed to use the emboss feature on (kept telling me that MCS had stopped working!).

I've used Sakura clear gloss on the eyes and nose of the Bush Baby and on the "Chez Dennis" sign but also used Crafter's Companion Spray and Shine over the invertage die cut area.  I've used Sakura Stardust in gold to give a sparkle to the torn paper image and used a gold metallic pen to go round the die-cut to tie-in with it. 

August Birthday Card No 2!

Still playing with MCS "Tattered Lace" CD book designs!   This is the first of the cards I'll be making for Hubby's Birthday.  Still working out what design to use for my one.

On the right hand side, the Leo design and background come from "Simply Silhouettes" whilst the main background of the easel section and left hand "page" comes from "Enchanted Romance".  


I've used gold metallic ink to "gild" the pages and gold gel pen to add more definition to Leo.  The "grass" is some green tissue paper which has been coloured with Burnt Sienna Promarker to bring in the colours of the background.  The clear "bling" has been coloured with Orange Promarker in an attempt to make them look like carnelian, one of the birthstones for August.

Birthday Card for Elaine

One Birthday Card down and another 3 to go this month!  

I'd just received the new MCS Tattered Lace CDs and decided to use them to make this card!  The "book" image is from the Tattered Lace CD2 and I printed off two copies, one was layered onto card and then cut out the other was cut out and the edges trimmed.  The trimmed "book" was placed on top of the other one and the "pages" arranged to give them a slight curved appearance and to give the card more depth.  The lovely rose image is from Tattered Lace CD1 and has been decoupaged.

I used Sakura Stardust in Gold to add highlights to the roses, while I used a gold metallic marker to give the edges of the papers a gilded and then gave the finished card a quick skoosh with gold Spray and Sparkle.  The velum "lace" at the bottom edge of the card came with the Tattered Lace CDs.  The finished card was made up as an easel card to enable it to stand up.

Had some more problems with the MCS Professional software, I do wish they'd fix it instead of tempting folks with new designs!  If it crashed once it did it half a dozen times. Weird stuff is also still happening - reported problems to MCS ages ago but there are some that remain to be fixed!

Playing with Bookatrix!

Been playing again!  I was in Home Bargains the other day and found a set of 8 small cards with assorted girly designs in pink/black/white/silver.  Was bored last night and started to look at what I could do with them.  I chose the lady with the powder compact and cut out the oval design to use as a cameo and thought it would look nice on a Bookatrix.  


I wanted to add some flowers to it but didn't want to swamp the book so I decided to experiment with a stand that would allow me to add the flowers but not take anything away from the "book".  In the end I found that an "easel" made from a sheet of A4 white pearlised card was just what I needed.  I added 3 flowers made from white pearlised paper using the design on the reverse of the Bookatrix board, for the pink ones I coloured them using my Dusky Pink Promarker and finished them off with buttons as their centre.  I also coloured the peel offs and the bling on the bookmark with the same Dusky Pink Promarker.


All I need now is a Birthday Girl to send it to!

Birthday Card for Gena - 1

Been busy making not one but two Birthday Cards for my friend Gena.  

Why two? Well this one is from my 11 year old to his (not so fairy) Godmother and the other is from my hubby and me.

I got a couple of Hot Off The Press CDRoMs containing tags and backgrounds as part of a kit so I printed off some of the papers to use on this card.  I found a really nice pale pink organza ribbon with some nice flowers printed on it and a cute picot-style flowered edge, I also dug out some lace from my craft box to use as a background to the main embellishment. The HOTP kit also had a template for some assorted flowers and flourishes so I used that to make the flower with contrasting papers.  The lower and top set of petals, the button centre for the flower and the ribbon for the tag were all coloured with a Dusky Pink Promarker.  

Birthday Card for Gena - 2

This one is from Hubby and me and the papers came from a Hot Off The Press "Paper Flair Pop Up Card Kit".  I didn't realise there was so much cutting out involved looked so easy when it was demonstrated on the telly!  I had to do it in several stages cos my hands were getting too sore!

I'm not sure if you can see it but I've used Sakura Clear Stardust and Gold Stardust pens to highlight some of the details on the front of the card including the butterfly wings and sections of the background. 

I layered the papers onto a heavy pearlised card but somehow, although the front fitted the front of the card perfectly, the inside piece seemed too small.  As the pearlised card was white, I used my Henna Promarker to go round the border to try and make it not so obvious and it gave the card rather a nice bronze metallic appearance. 

The only narrow ribbon I had for the box lid was a white organza so I coloured it with the same Henna Promarker used to colour the card to match with the rest.

Birthday Card for a JCB Driver

Hubby announced today that it's his friend Davy's Birthday on Sunday.  He also said that Davy is always telling people about the lovely Christmas card I made him last year (methinks this was a wee hint!).


What to do was the next problem but as he's a JCB Driver I decided to see what I had on that sort of theme that might just be suitable.


The brick backgrounds came from MCS Everyday Men's CD & the coloured plaques from Simply Silhouettes.  The brickwork was embossed to give a texture to the card and the JCB image is slightly decoupaged.  A couple of raised "bricks" are added to the flat section keep the easel part upright.  


As I went to print off the plain brick background for the flat part of the card the MCS Professional graphics programme decided to play up yet again.  This time it locked up and has frozen me out, won't let me do anything - can't even close the window it's in.  I ended up having to open up another window and start again.  Wish MCS would fix the problems and send me an update that actually works - 4th time lucky maybe!  

Big Sis' Birthday

This is the card I made for my older sister's Birthday - I won't say how old she is though. 

I picked up some Indian handmade paper recently and decided to use it as the background over an aperture card from a pack I had in my craft box. I used some Sakura Stardust pens to pick out the floral embossed design on the paper. I then put a floral peel-off coloured with Promarkers on to some acetate and coloured it's petals with the Stardust pens then backed it with some matching pink glitter card.  Unfortunately the photo has actually come out quite dark, it looks so much better in real life!