A2Z Papercraft Challenges

 

Oh Hello Everyone,

Well how lucky are you to have Lauren and Teddy up on the blog today??   What an exciting week it has been with the launch of our very first Facebook A2Z Papercraft Challenge, so today we thought we would show you the cards Teddy made to inspire you, it is after all an Inspiration Challenge for March.  This is the picture to give the inspiration.

Now doesn’t that picture give you great ideas of boys and play and boats and sand and beaches and pennants and blue and stripes and so much more!!!

So here is the first thought, a lighthouse on the headland surrounded by crashing waves.

 The background at the top is done with white ink in a Sizzix Embossing Folder from a due pack from Tim Holtz and I believe it is called rays, the bottom section is wax resist done with scrunched wax paper ironed onto glossy white cardstock and then inked with blue.  Hint: the more you scrunch, the smaller the pattern and more wax on your paper.

The gorgeous 18th Birthday Card Size Ebony from A2Z Scraplets came as is, coloured heavy card, so I left it as it was for this card.  The baker’s twine is made by me (I love to save money using my stash items) and if you would like to know how to do it, here is a link to Pictorial Tutorial Making Twisted String.

The next inspiration came from the canvas of beach scene on the right hand wall, look at those gorgeous beach boxes on it.  So cute.

This one is a beach house using a Kaszazz Stamp coloured with Ranger Perfect Pearls (love using these to make shimmer paints, keep them in the palette and let them dry and they work the same as watercolour paints.

Birthday Boy is from the A2Z Scraplets – Birthday Set 1 Ebony and it is covered with a lovely thick coat of Ranger Glossy Accents, love this stuff because it keeps its dimension and dries so thick.

This next card is one Teddy has made several times, it is such a fun card and inspired by the blue teddy sitting on the cabin of the big boat toybox.

It is an uneven gatefold card and kept closed by those lovely turn mounts.  The Teddies are stamped in blue on vellum and then layered on navy then white.  Little paw prints are stamped randomly over the card front.

We are loving these A2Z Scraplets Arrow Words in the February Release, they are just gorgeous and there are so many to choose from with colours available too!!!  This one has been left the colour as is and coated with Ranger Glossy Accents.  (I need buckets of that stuff) 🙂

The last card is a masculine card (sometimes so hard for us to do) and it is inspired by the overall nautical and ‘boaty’ feel to the picture, and we turned it to a very ‘aged’ project.

This card has lots of DTP edging with Ranger Distress Ink Walnut Stain and the curled corners add to the overall ‘old’ look to the card.  Backgrounds are stamped with Lucy’s Stamps Aged Cube and Rabbit Proof Fence (the text), edges torn or distressed, inked and curled.  The Happy Birthday is a Stamp-It Australia greeting.

Love the A2Z Scraplets Birthday Boy Set Cardinal and covered the birthday with Viva Crackling Colour Transparent very thickly as we find it really does give a great crackle.

The Anchor is die cut from a coke can, love to recycle things.

Hope you like these cards and find something in them you can take to call your own.

See you next time…. Lauren and Teddy

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Hello Everybody,

 

Well Teddy and I have had a little trip to the Gold Coast to attend the My2Angels Scrapbooking Retreat and we must say it was a serious hit with us, well run, learnt heaps and met the loveliest people you would ever want to meet.  We must save our little coins so we can go again next year 🙂

 

 

There he is sitting on his special chair in his place on my table, he is supervising and being cheeky as he does so well.

 

So I made a card for you.

 

 

Oh oh oh, just a 5″x5″ card decorated with die cuts and a little stamp for happy birthday and the lovely seagulls.  I love this bare tree, it would be one of my favourite dies and the piggies are beautiful running through the long grass.  Such a simple, cute card.

 

Hope you like it 🙂

 

Hugs

 

Lauren

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Masculine Card

Hello Everyone,

 

Time is getting away from me and I have to get packed for Retreat in a couple of weeks, EEEEKKKK!!!!  As you know Teddy is coming with me, and he has new clothes, new craft things and his backpack filled with money!!   I might have to keep in his good books so that he will pay for my drinks and choccies!!!

 

So I made you a card.

 

 

Oh my a Masculine Birthday Card, with a lovely sailing boat, or a boy toy on it.  Love that set of stamps of sentiments from Stampers Anonymous by Tim Holtz in that wonderful aged Typewriter Font.

 

This is an 8″ x 4″ card, a perfect size for a male card.  Layered with a panel on the front and some extra layers of scrap.  The stamp is by Stampin Up and coloured with water colours.  Embellished with liquid pearls, the sentiment and some plain old string with an anchor charm.

 

Hope you like it.

 

Hugs 🙂

 

Lauren

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Distress Ink Backgrounds

Hello Everybody!

 

Freezing cold today with the wind coming off snow nearby, I am thinking that Winter is having a last shake before she says goodbye! 

 

So I have been playing with some inks.  Yes Ranger Distress Inks and sponge applicators to make a stunning background.

 

 

This first one is just a blend of Vintage Photo, Dried Marigold and Mustard Seed.  Starting with the lightest across the centre of the card and blending up and down, then the next colour spreading further up and down, and then the Vintage Photo at the top and bottom and a little down the side edges.

Then the exciting bit, the stamping of that fabulous Windmill stamp from Kaszazz and the Happy Birthday from the set from  Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Simple Sayings.

 

 

 

Then this one is done very similarly with the base card inked again with the same 3 colours and then spritzed with water.  The panel is inked and then stamped with the beautiful Stamp-It Australia Stamp Tranquil Dawn and the Simple Sayings Happy Birthday.

 

 

Same colours of ink again, this time the background is a circular one with pale surrounded by darker and the edges with areas of pale.  The Lucy’s stamp Large Tiger is stamped and then masked so that the Bamboo can create a background with repetitive stamping.

 

Hope you like them as much as I like playing with inks!

 

Hugs   🙂

Lauren

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Movember….

Hello Everyone,

 

Well it is Movember and time to get your mo on and use your ‘stache’ to get everyone aware of men’s health and have a little fun!!

 

So I did that and here we have it!!

 

 

Gotta love the little owl it is a die from Marianne Creatables, he is so cute and one of the very rare occasions that I would use stickers!!! Yes stickers for the wording!! The Branch is a Memory Box die.

 

Gotta be loving this man, all pieced from cardstock to give the card a cute face with a mo of course!!  Happy Birthday from SU.

 

 

And lastly a cutie in a standard layout with borders, stripes, mo’s and string.  Stamp by Penny Black.  All Mustaches are from a die from Memory Box.

 

I am loving this die and have loads of ideas for him, but no time to put them into action.

 

Hope you like these, have a great day and thanks for calling in.

 

Hugs 🙂

 

Lauren

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Masculine Card…

Hello Everyone,

 

It is getting so cool and that wind is not only making it cooler but it is so noisy!! Makes me think Winter is not going to be so nice this year.  Not so sure I will like that, but Spring follows, so I can stay inside till then if needed 🙂

 

So I made a card, how good is that?

 

I have done a card before with a very similar design.  I love it, with the really nautical feel to it in a style that is so great as a really masculine card.  The main difference in this one to the other I made is I have put the string vertically and the charm at the top.

 

The charm is really a die cut in aluminium (Marianne Anchor) and then it is heated and dipped in silver embossing powder and then heated again to melt it evenly.  Sometimes it needs more than one dip and heat, and when done I have sponged it with StazOn Timber Brown.  I love using embossing powder on other items, it gives such fantastic results.

 

Well I hope you liked this one, Teddy will be back later in the week to spill his adventures.

 

Hugs 🙂

 

Lauren

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Tim Holtz Clock….

Hello Everyone,

 

Just one more day to get into the draw for the Blog Candy, how good would it be to get those lovely little flowers!!!

 

So I thought I would make a card.  A while back Hez’s Scrapbooking from Townsville had some free die cuts with purchase and I was lucky enough to get this great die cut of the Sizzix Bigz Tim Holts clock and hands, so nice!!

 

 

And this is what I did with it.  The background is stamped with a Stamp It unmounted set clocks and the die is coloured with Colorbox Mica Magic ink pads (just love them) to give that bronze dirty look.

 

A couple of brads and the hands on, a sentiment and all done.  Such an easy male card.  I really like this for an anytime card for any man.

 

Hugs 🙂

 

Lauren

 

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One Moment in Time…

Hello Everyone,

 

Today was a bit of a mixed bag, overcast and then rain like crazy, so heavy a person could not hear themselves thinking.  Good job I kept my mind empty today.

 

So I went to my very quiet craft room and made a card.

 

 

I truly loved making this card, I stated with some coated paper (silly me) from a pack that I bought that was called ‘silk’.  Now why did I not think it would be coated?  So I did some stamping with a background stamp and Ranger Distress Ink Peacock.

 

Then I took a clock template and inked over with Ranger Distress Ink Black Soot.  So far so good.  Then I sprayed with Ranger Pearl Mist Copper and Pearl and let this dry.  Not so good, it just comes off again.  So I wiped it over with piece of paper towel.  The final result was a muted background that was like a silver mist, but with no shimmer.

 

Hmm… so then I took some clock stamps and randomly stamped in Ancient Page Coal Black (I didn’t want it slipping off!!)  So that is my background.

 

By this time I had to cut my piece and as it ended up a little short I used some striped DP on the bottom, covered the join with a braid trim and added 3 buttons.  Then I did 2 ribbon cuts on dark gey/black paper and did I die cut of a Quickutz clock.  The clock is inked with Mica Magic Bronze, Silver and Copper and layered onto a circle die cut.

 

Finished poduct, I love it.

 

Thanks for calling to check out today’s offering.

 

Hugs 🙂

 

Lauren

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More Masculine….

Hello Everyone,

 

Today I will show the next set of cards that were made during the Skycrafting session with Lisa from Crafting Cottage, she is so good for my creative juices.

 

Here is the inspiration for this Trains for Boys

 

The measurements for the card as we did it are as follows:

Base card 5×5 inchesBrown layer 4 and 3/4 x 4 and 3/4 inches
Patterned paper layer 4 and 1/2 x 4 and 1/2 inches square
Brown Layer 4 x 4 inches
White layer (to attach papers to) 3 and 3/4 x 3 and 3/4 inches
4 x rectangles of paper 3/4 inch x 2 and 7/8 inches
Centre stamped square 2 x 2 inches.

That’s all the help you are getting 🙂

 

Now these are my two cards:

 

Now that one is to measurements as given.  Then I got a bit big for my boots and decided to use a panel I already had stamped and miscalculated (would I ever make a mistake?) the paper strips, so I pulled 2 off and inked in the place.  You didn’t know I made a mistake only I told you.  Teddy is so proud of me for admitting my mistakes.

 

Worked out ok, it still looks good and I got the chance to put my sentiment sideways, like I foget to be creative at times.  A creature of habit just like everyone else!!

 

Love them, what do you think??

 

Thanks for calling in today.

 

Hugs 🙂

 

Lauren

 

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Masculine Challenge….

Hello Everyone,

 

Well I had a wonderful day  over the weekend Skycrafting (that is Skype/Crafting) with my dear friend Lisa.  She presses me and makes me think and puts me right out there in Mojo land.  Thank you Lisa!!

 

She picked a pic from Pinterest for us to have a play with and see what we could come up with.  So here is a link to the original Sailing Away  Now hop on over to Lisa’s blog at the Crafting Cottage and see what she has done with this!!

Here is my first effort:

 

 

And my next effort:

 

 

Teddy said the second one makes him want to be a pirate in the olden days, he is such a trick of a little fella and I am so glad he chooses to live in my craft room.  I would be lost without him!!

 

For these two cards, there was lots of inking with distress ink, embossing with white embossing powder,  and flicking of ink too (actually I used a Tombow pen with the SU spritzer tool) So easy.  The string is recycled and inked with Distress ink and the charms come from my lovely supplier CharmAholic who sells on the Aussie Craft and Scrapbooking Bargains on Facey. 🙂

 

Now here is a pic of the two cards together.  Just to compare them and see the differences.  I think I am starting to get the hang of masculine, or maybe just a little more comfy with it.  Thanks Lisa!!!

 

 

I think these cards are just so nice, and just my colour, how funny that I love browns, if I were to change my name it would be Sepia.  And really I cannot decide which one I like the best.

 

Thanks for calling in.

 

Hugs 🙂

 

Lauren

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