When Autumn Leaves Start To Fall - CD Sunday

It's time for a new theme at CD Sunday - am I the only one who thinks the weeks are just flying by?
The last challenge at CD Sunday didn't attract many entries, are you all knee deep in making your Christmas cards? It is only 9 weeks to the big day so perhaps I ought to join you LOL! Margaret will pick her top three winners and there is a prize for her first choice. The winner will be announced in 2 weeks time on Sunday 5th November - oooh that's Bonfire Night LOL!

The CD Sunday challenge is all about making items using craft CD Roms. You can use other craft items on your card/project but you must include something from a CD. So if you like colouring stamped images or digis you can still enter the challenge but you must include something from a CD such as a backing paper, a sentiment or a butterfly for example. In your blog post you must give the name of the CD you've used. This is especially important if the items you've used can be bought as a download as well as a CD as the Design Team can't tell which has been used unless you tell us. Your card can't be considered for a prize if you haven't used a CD or if you haven't told us the name of the CD in your post. The Design Team still leave comments on the blogs but there's no chance of winning if the above hasn't been followed. 

This time it's Jocelyn's turn to pick the theme and she's gone for 'When Autumn Leaves Start To Fall'. I knew straight away what I wanted to make as I've previously made a similar card for a monthly card swap (back in September 2013!).

The first stage was to make an stepper card. I have a set of dies that make a side stepper card but I wanted the 'steps' to be a certain height so the first attempt made using the dies went in the bin. I then searched the net for templates and instructions for various designs but after my fourth attempt ended up in the bin I made my own!

I then cut mats from dark brown card to fit the three sections. I used rectangle dies with a stitched edge from The Works (£5!). The dies weren't quite long enough so I only ran the card part way through my machine then moved the die to the length I needed and run it through the machine again. The second mat is a design printed from a CD and the same process used to lengthen the mat. The backing paper design I used is from DoCrafts Digital Designer and is called Woodland Folk and Friends. I used the Woodland Folk section called Everyday but lightened it a touch.

I inked up a piece of white card with 4 Distress Inks - Scattered Straw, Dried Marigold, Festive Berries and Vintage Photo. I left it to dry overnight and then used it to die cut all the leaves. These large leaves were cut using Creative dies that were free in a craft magazine. The words 'Autumn' and 'Leaves' are cut using Tonic DuoCap Initials - Pretoria Dies.

The tree was cut out three times from card and all glued together to make it stronger as I wanted it to overhang the edge of the card. It's glued to the card using silicon glue to raise it up from the card. The tree die is from Die'sire called Four Seasons and these leaf dies are from a Signature Collection - Autumn Morning by Sara Davies called Tumbling Leaves.

This pile of leaves were cut using dies in the set with the tree die. The acorn die is an XCut set called Woodland Gift Tags. There's lots of tiny dies in this set - perfect for using on ATCs. The hedgehog was a free die with Papercrafter magazine issue 111.

I'm really pleased with how the following leaves turned out. I think the colours of the Distress Inks worked well. I bent the edges of the leaves up and only glued along the middle vein using silicon glue so they stood out from the card.

But my favourite part of this card is this little hedgehog!

Isn't it cute? Hubby and I have several hedgehogs visiting our garden and put food out for them. 

This theme runs until Saturday 4th November at 13:00 and Jocelyn will choose her top three favourites from the entries. Her chosen number one will receive a prize so make sure you get your entries in on time and to include something printed from a craft CD - Good Luck!

For The Love Of Dogs - CD Sunday

At CD Sunday this time the theme is 'For The Love Of Dogs' which has been chosen by Margaret. When I saw the theme I wasn't too happy with Margaret! Cats I can do - I adore them, but did I have anything dog related? So I started looking through my stash and came across some cat stamp and dies that I'd bought recently and there were dogs as well as cats! Phew - Tim Holtz to the rescue LOL! You're forgiven Margaret!
My most recent sister - in - law runs a dog walking business and it's her birthday on 23rd Deember. She misses out with her birthday being so close to Christmas so I thought I'd go over the top and make her something really special. As well as running her business she owns two gorgeous dogs. Bess has been with her for a few years and Denver is one year old. I talked my brother into emailing me some photos of the dogs so I could personalise my project. So I now had loads of doggie images to use and decided a pop up box card would be the best way to show them off. I've never made one before so turned to YouTube where I found a brilliant video that shows a very simple way to make one. I you want to look it up search for 'pop up box card' and find the one by Sabrina Radeck.
As my SIL's dogs are mainly black I made the box out of black card from Creative Crafting World - Linda's black card. I also needed an element from a CD so printed off a paw print paper from Sharon Duncan's Embossibilities Celebration Cd. Out of the 22 colours I chose a light grey. I found it easier to decorate the sides and flaps of the box while it was flat, before gluing the sides together. You can do it afterwards if you want as the box closes flat for putting into an envelope. The pop up dogs were all added after the box was made in order to have them at different heights and so they could all been seen from the front. They're glued to stripes of acetate of varying lengths.

There's now lots of photos following this and you don't have to read any thing after them if you don't want to. After the photos I've explained how I did all the pop up dogs as I used a clever technique to line up stamps and their matching dies. And also there's a little bit about the real dogs.

This is the box closed ready to go in the envelope. The paw print paper is the one from the Cd. I added more die cuts from the same set as the dogs. The paper clip is only there to hold it closed for the photo. 

The CD Sunday challenge is all about making items using craft CD Roms. You can use other craft items on your card/project but you must include something from a CD. So if you like colouring stamps or digis you can still enter the challenge but you must include something from a CD such as a backing paper, a sentiment or a butterfly for example. In your blog post you must give the name of the CD you've used. This is especially important if the items you've used can be bought as a download as well as a CD as the Design Team can't tell which has been used unless you tell us. Your card can't be considered for a prize if you haven't used a CD or if you haven't told us the name of the CD in your post. Now you may think that these instructions are easy enough but in every challenge we have entries that can't be picked as a winner. The Design Team still leave comments on the blogs but there's no chance of winning if the above hasn't been followed. 

This theme runs until Saturday 21st October at 13:00 and Margaret will choose her top three favourites from the entries. Her chosen number one will receive a prize so make sure you get your entries in on time and to include something printed from a craft CD - Good Luck!

Aligning stamps with the matching die cuts:

The stamps I used were from Stampers Anonymous by Tim Holtz and is called Mini Cats and Dogs CMS272.

The matching dies are Sizzix Framelits by Tim Holtz and they are called Mini Crazy Cats and Dogs 661594.

I can't claim this technique as my own, I've read it in several craft magazines and also on Face-book craft groups.

Take a piece of card and cut out your die - keep the 'waste' piece that you would normally throw away. I used the Tim Holtz/Tonic Stamping Platform to do my stamping but you may find other ways of lining things up. I placed a scrap piece of card onto my stamping platform, put my stamp in the middle of the card and closed the lid, which picks the stamp up. Ink the stamp and close the lid to leave an impression on your piece of card. Now take the 'waste' piece with the die cut shape cut out and line it up over your stamped image. Make sure you don't move the stamped image while doing this. Either tape the die cut waste down or use magnets to hold it in place. Now place your die cut shape from earlier back into the piece of card you'd cut it from. Re-ink your stamp and close the lid, when you open the lid again you will have the image stamped centrally onto your die cut! Simples! 

There's no other way I would have been able to stamp and die cut these eyes/noses/tongues etc.

Introducing the stars of the show:

This is Bess, she's a working dog and helps my SIL keep the other dogs under control when they are being walked. She's always waiting to be given instructions on what is expected of her from my SIL. She was ring barer at my brother and SIL's wedding last year and she stole the show and everyone's hearts.

This handsome young man is Denver. He's only one year old and he's grown so big in that time. He's full of energy and loves nothing more than to be splashing around in water. He also likes watching TV especially the sheep dog trials on Country File - I kid you not!

This is the two dogs together - Denver certainly knows that Bess is the boss!