Vintage Vegas Birthday Gift

My neice asked me if I'd make a piece of art for her house a few weeks ago, and as her birthday was coming up I said it could be her gift. She was pretty prescriptive about what she wanted - it had to contain vintage Elvis/Vegas stuff, Vargas pin-up girls and tattoo designs by "Sailor Jerry", so the resulting piece is much more her than it is me, but that's fine because she absolutely loved it :) (Her husband liked it too, which wasn't as important, but he's gonna have to see it every day, so it's just as well, lol)

It's pretty large, the frame is around 18" square and 1 1/2" or so deep, which allowed plenty of room for dimensional elements. The heart, spade, club and diamond symbols were made by melting coloured UTEE, pouring it onto a craft sheet and then cutting out the shapes with cookie cutters before it hardened. Most of the vintage movie posters/playing cards etc were found online and printed out, then distressed/inked/sanded to make them look older. As ever, click on the image to see a larger view! :)

[Edit to add - The frame is Ribba from IKEA. It comes in a few sizes, all the same depth, maybe an inch and a half or so. I used the 50cm x 50cm one (approx 20" x 20")]

Gingersnap Creations Challenge: Quotes

A new challenge has started on the Gingersnap Creations Blog today and the theme is Quotes.

I chose to quote some lines from the Rolling Stones song "Ruby Tuesday". I'm not much of a Stones fan to be honest, but I really love the Melanie version of this song, and listened to it on repeat while I worked on this :) (You can hear it here if you're interested).

The text around the edge of the tag and the notepaper were computer generated (the notepaper having been stamped first with a TH stamp and then scanned into the computer). "Ruby" is one of my favourite stamps in my collection, a PaperArtsy image that I come back to time and again. She was stamped with a black Memento ink pad then coloured with Promarkers. The background was Promarker'd, distress inked and stamped with a TH scratches stamp. The notepaper was stamped with TH's small coffee cups and my handy fingerprint "stamp" :)

Check out the Gingersnap Creations blog to see the fun ways in which the other Design Team members have interpreted the theme! Go on, you know you want to! :)

Freebie #56!

Cupcake Wrapper and Flag

There are so many of these floating around the internet and I'm sure that many of you already have some, but I received a request this week for a cupcake wrapper so I thought I'd do my own, and throw in a cupcake flag for good measure!

These pretty scalloped cupcake wrappers with their cute little flags will brighten any party table! I cut these samples out of some of the free designs that can be downloaded from Shabby Princess, but obviously you can use whatever paper or cardstock fits best with the theme of your table!

Please remember you are only allowed to download this file for your own use and may not distribute it to others in any form. I spend a great deal of time creating my designs, please respect the terms under which they are given.

Again, this template will be "live" for 1 week. Next week it will be taken down, and new ones will replace it. Don't forget, if you have any requests, pass them on! I can't promise, but I will take suggestions into account when planning future templates.

These files may not be uploaded to a group, forum or website for sale or redistribution, or shared among individuals. They are expressly for the personal use of each person that downloads them from this blog.

There is 1 file but I have put it into a zip file to make downloading easier. After saving it, open in the usual way, and drag the file out onto your desktop or wherever you wish to save it.

There are 2 versions of each template:

• An SVG version which can be imported into the Sure Cuts a Lot or Make the Cut program and then cut out on your Cricut.
• A DXF version which is Craft Robo friendly, and ready to be imported into your Robomaster software (I'm not a Robo user, so if there are any problems with this, please let me know!)

Simply click on the appropriate button below to download the file!

Any feedback on the templates is more than welcome, and if you have any suggestions for possible future templates you'd like to see, please let me know! If you make anything using one of the templates, please post a link to it here so that others can be inspired by how you've used them!
I hope you like the templates - let me know how you get on! :)

Templates © dan99crafter@gmail.com 2010

Gingersnap Creations Challenge: Pencils

A new challenge has started on the Gingersnap Creations Blog today and the theme is Pencils.

Immediately I thought of that expression "I've seen more fat on a butcher's pencil" (I know, I know! Let's not get started on how my mind works!). Lost Coast Designs came up trumps for this piece, as both the pencils and the 3 waiters (who I turned into butchers) came from their collection. The text was computer printed, the brad was not :)

The pencils were stamped first, then masked off while I stamped the 3 butchers. The aprons were cut from white card, coloured and glued onto the tag. The pencils and background were coloured with promarkers and the tag was lightly edged with Fired Brick distress ink.

Check out the Gingersnap Creations blog to see the fun ways in which the other Design Team members have interpreted the theme! :)

Apple Blossom Thank You

This is the first project I've made using stamps from Scrolls Work, and let me start by saying how blown away I was by the quality of the stamps! These have to be the most deeply etched stamps I've ever used, making a crisp, clean impression very easy to achieve!

I decided to make this card using kraft card - a striped kraft for the card base and Bazill kraft card for everything else. I used #4555 Lg Apple Blossom, which I stamped using Bundled Sage distress ink to make a background. I then coloured between the flowers with a Vanilla Promarker. The individual flowers were then stamped separately with Sepia Archival ink and coloured with 3 different shaes of blue, pink and orange. The were cut out and applied to the card using adhesive foam tape.

#1820 Thank You was stamped in Sepia Archival ink, and then mounted on a brown mat, as was the main part of the card, and then assembled with my trusty ATG gun :) As ever, click on the image for a larger view!

Freebie #55!

Baby Building Block

So many uses for this weeks freebie - be it for baby shower invitations, "it's a girl! (or boy)" cards, scrapping toddler photos. You can even leave the letters off and replace them with dots to make a dice!

Please remember you are only allowed to download this file for your own use and may not distribute it to others in any form. I spend a great deal of time creating my designs, please respect the terms under which they are given.

Again, this template will be "live" for 1 week. Next week it will be taken down, and new ones will replace it. Don't forget, if you have any requests, pass them on! I can't promise, but I will take suggestions into account when planning future templates.

These files may not be uploaded to a group, forum or website for sale or redistribution, or shared among individuals. They are expressly for the personal use of each person that downloads them from this blog.

There is 1 file but I have put it into a zip file to make downloading easier. After saving it, open in the usual way, and drag the file out onto your desktop or wherever you wish to save it.

There are 2 versions of each template:

• An SVG version which can be imported into the Sure Cuts a Lot or Make the Cut program and then cut out on your Cricut.
• A DXF version which is Craft Robo friendly, and ready to be imported into your Robomaster software (I'm not a Robo user, so if there are any problems with this, please let me know!)

Simply click on the appropriate button below to download the file!

Any feedback on the templates is more than welcome, and if you have any suggestions for possible future templates you'd like to see, please let me know! If you make anything using one of the templates, please post a link to it here so that others can be inspired by how you've used them!

I hope you like the templates - let me know how you get on! :)

Templates © dan99crafter@gmail.com 2010