Make it Shine or Sparkle

Hello there,

Well, where did January go!?  It doesn't seem two minutes since Christmas, but at least I only have one more week until half term.

I am happy to say that my mojo seems to have returned now that some of the stress levels have decreased a little, and I have spent a few hours in my craftroom over the weekend preparing a few birthday cards and samples for upcoming challenges.

Today I have my next DT project for the new challenge over at Cardz 4 Guyz and this week our leader, Caz has chosen the theme of

'MAKE IT SHINE/SPARKLE'

Now that's not something I think of straight away on a male themed card, but here's my interpretation of the theme ...

I decided to use some of my gilding flakes, they shine, right?  

Now, I have never had much success with these yet, but after watching many of the professionals do this on the tv, I got out my little box and carefully opened the lid (I even dusted the lid and just inside the box with my anti-static bag, just like the pros do). What I didn't factor into the equation was my cough!!! You can imagine what happened next - I only wanted to cover the small piece of card that I needed to die-cut (sounds simple, doesn't it) but after my spontaneous cough decided to join the party, I had some lovely shiny decoration everywhere! 

Anyway, after clearing away all the bits I could retrieve, they are safely back in the box and I did manage to successfully gild my piece of card and die-cut some stars for my project. 

I hope you can join us with your own shiny/sparkly male themed projects this week.

Hugz, Jan xx

J for Jewels

Good morning,

Hope everyone is having a good week - it's my day off today, so I have some boring old chores to do - but only three more weeks left at school until my summer break (can't wait!)

I have news today of the next theme over at the Alphabet Challenge and we are up to the letter 'J', so we would love to see your projects with some added 'JEWELS'. Now that's not hard, is it?

Here's what I made for my DT inspiration this time ...

It took a while to decide on this one because I can add jewels to just about anything - but I wanted them to be part of the feature, not just embellishments (think I managed it - what do you think?)

It's another fairly simply design using a Memory Box border die as the main feature. This is cut from red pearlescent cardstock and mounted onto a 6x6" white card. I layered it with some red card and added a piece of black ribbon and lots of sparkly crystals to embellish.

I hope you can pop over and join us at the challenge this time.

Hugz, Jan xx