Nespresso embellishment tutorial

I've been looking at my Nespresso pods for ages, admiring the beautiful colours, and wondered if there was anything I could do with them instead of just binning them when the coffee was used. Then it hit me, I could try to empty out the coffee and make some card embellishments with them.

This is one of the first embellies I made.... and I was so pleased with how it turned out, so I thought I'd show you how I did it... well, at least the first step...

I start with removing the foil lid and emptying out the used coffe grinds from the pods. I wash them and let them dry thoroughly.

When they're dry, I pinch/crunch the top a bit with my fingers, like so...

I then take a wooden spatula and flatten the pods as much as I can.

And to make them really flat, I put them under a wooden chopping board and stand on them... lol....

et voila... gorgeous, flat, colourful metal disks, ready to decorate with flowers, ribbon, buttons, twine, beads etc.

Here's a card I made with one of the nespresso pod metal disks....

(Digi image by Fred she Said, coloured with Promarkers. Martha Stewart punch, paper flower, twine, Nespresso pod)

Hope this was useful... If you try it out, I'd like to see what you do with your pods. Please leave me a comment with a link to your project.

Wee Hummingbird

A couple, or maybe three, weeks ago I won a challenge with one of my cards. The prize was $15 worth of digis from Fred She Said. This is the first card I've made with one of the digis I chose. This one is called Wee Hummingbird & Petunias. It's not my usual style of stamp, but I really enjoyed "playing" with it, and I'm sure I will use it again soon.

Image is coloured with Promarkers. The pink paper is stamped with a couple of different stamps to make it a bit less plain/more interesting.... Sentiment is made with small letter stickers.

This card goes into the following challenges:

Sketch Saturday - week 208 - Sketch.

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - challenge 186 - In the garden.

I love Promarkers - #117 - Anything goes.

Thanks for looking.

Home alone...

Poor little Maja is home from school with a tummy ache today... She had a sore tummy yesterday as well, but not as bad as today. At least we tried going to school, but unfortunately I had to take her home just after the first lesson... hopefully she'll feel better soon.

Hubby and I were home "alone" for the first time since we had children this weekend. No children! What to do first... lol... We should have been in a 90th birthday in Switzerland this weekend though... but we couldn't get anyone to look after the girls from thursday to friday evening when my parents arrived, so we had to stay at home. My parents arrived late friday evening, and after breakfast on Saturday, they took the girls with them on an overnight trip in their camper van. It was so much fun going on a "date" with my hubby on Saturday night... a film and then restaurant! Great!

I also managed to make a card this weekend... no children at home, and hubby in the garage "working" on his bike gave me some ME-time! Yay!

Image is Teen Fairy Mia by Mo Manning, coloured with Promarkers. I have used a flower stamp and a text stamp on the designer papers to tone them down a bit.... and also some paper tape. I've added a doily and some flowers, and the image is mounted on 3D dots Stickles on the wings.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

2 Sisters Challenge - #91 - Make it girlie.

Crafty Calender - Things with wings.

The Corrosive Challenge - #149 - Flowers and doilies and bling.

Paper Sundaes - #120 - Things with wings.

The Squirrel and The Fox - #17 - One for the Girls.

Thanks for looking!

Gone fishing....

We've had such a great day here today. It started off with Maja's team winning the last handball match of the season this morning. Yeehaa! It's been really warm and sunny all day too. We've been outside a lot today. We even had lunch outside on the decking, and the butter was all melted after a few minutes on the table (it was sat in the sun though...). Dinner was had outside too, and the girls have played with their lps animals in the sun for hours. Bliss!

But I guess all good things must come to an end.... I've just been sitting in bed with Susie (5), trying to get her to sleep, for almost two hours. Her ears are aching... She finally fell asleep after I managed to get her to take a painkiller by offering her money (I'm such a good mother...). Hope she feels better tomorrow.

OK... so... here's a card I made for a colleague of mine. She needed a card for her boyfriends birthday. He is really into fishing... I didn't really have a lot of fishing related stamps or digis... but I managed to dig up this mean looking fish. Hope it is what she wanted....

I added a bit of sparkle to some parts of the fish... you can see it a bit better in the pic below.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Daring Cardmakers - The Sportsman

Cute Card Thursday - Challenge 214 - Animal magic

Charisma Cardz - Challenge #16 - Blue, Black and White.

Thanks for looking.

For my mum

Oh, I almost forgot this card.... I made this ages ago, but I wanted to give it to my mum for her birthday, so I couldn't post it on here since she reads my blog.... It's been almost two weeks since her birthday, so I guess I'm in the clear with posting it now...

Image is one of  the sweet, sweet Saturated Canary girls. As always, I have coloured with Promarkers. NO design paper on this one, only plain paper that I have stamped with different stamps. I have also used an embossing folder to make dots on the black scalloped circle. To make the cute edge around the image, I have cut a Marianne Designs Creatable frame in half and glued it behind the die cut image panel. I've also added a bit of liquid pearl on the frame. To finish the card off I have added a MS punched border, some ribbon, flowers, pearls and a flourish.

Thanks for looking! Hope you're still enjoying your easter hols:)

Shopping girl...

I made this card for last weeks Sketch Saturday Challenge, but I never got round to posting it in time for the challenge.... Anyway, here is the card, challenge or not....

Image is Juliet from the digi set "Girls About Town" by Charmed Cards and Crafts. I have used my Promarkers to colour in with. The mat behind the image and the stripe with the sentiment on is also coloured with Promarkers. Sentiment is by Kort og Godt (S-200) and it says "to a wonderful lady". I have used a Martha Stewart punch, and paper tape from Panduro. Can't remember where the DP is from. I have also used a text background stamp on the card blank as well.... don't remember what it is though, and can't be bothered going upstairs to check... Oh, and I've also added some rhine stones next to the sentiment, but I think they almost disappeared on the black background.

Thanks for looking, and HAPPY EASTER to all my readers!

Holly Hipster

I've made another card... This time I have used Holly Hipster by Charmed Cards & Crafts. She was real fun to colour with my Promarkers. I have also played around with my new embossing folder... I just loooove the polka dots it makes, and I know I'm going to use it loads! I have also played with a few of my new cutting dies... OOoohhh, it's so much fun!

I have added some dots with liquid pearls around the image... I really like the effect that gives. Why haven't I tried that out before??

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Card Patterns: 154 Sketch.

Allsorts Challenge: 143- It's your choice.

The Sisterhood of Crafters: Use a digital stamp.

2 Sisters Challenge: #80- Anything goes.

Saturated Canary

I've got a new favourite! Saturated Canary digis are the cutest! You just gotta love them all. This is my first card using a SC image, this one is called Hand-Me-Downs...

This is a quick and simple card, using a few pieces of scrap paper that was still lying on my desk from previous projects. Better to use them than to throw them out, right? I have used Promarkers to colour in with. I've also used some stickles on her dress... you can see it a bit better on the pic below.

I would like to enter this card into these challenges:

2 Sisters Challenge Blog - Challenge #80 - anything goes.

Just some lines - Girlie girl challenge.

The Sisterhood of Crafters - Getting Digi with it.

Allsorts - Week 143 - It's your choice.

Thanks for looking:)

What a star...

I would like to start by saying a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my little sunbeam SUSIE who is 5 years old today! Wooohooo!

I had to make a card for a birthday party on really short notice, and this is what I came up with:

I had coloured the image a while ago, but hadn't gotten around to using it. So the card was quite quick to put together. I think maybe I should start having ready coloured images lying around for times when I have to throw a card together really quick....

I'm entering this card into these challenge:
Flutter By Wednesday #190 - Anything with wings.
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Anything goes.
Divas by design - challenge 22 - Wings and things.

I cased my 9 yr old daughter's card....

Last weekend we had two birthdays to make cards for. First, Maja was going to a birthday party on Saturday. She borrowed my stamp, Promarkers and Cuttlebug to make this card for her friend:
She was really pleased with her card, and I, too, liked her card so much that I cased it for the birtday card I was going to make for the birthday we were going to on Sunday.... This is what I came up with:

I have used a Pink Gem Designs digistamp, coloured with my Promarkers. I have also used an alphabet die that I borrowed from a friend to make the letters and the number.

...the inside...

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Thanks for looking. Hope you all have a great week end!

Froggety frogg...

This is my first card this year. I got a Cuttlebug for Christmas, but I didn't have any dies to try out, so a friend of mine borrowed me her dies to play with. I have made her this card as a Thank You...

The image is "Beach Baby Jayme" from Crissy's Digi's for Whimsy Stamps, and she is coloured with Promarkers.

Cards made in 2011

Another post showing everything I've done since february... lol... maybe I should start blogging a bit more often again.... Well, this time I just want to blog all the cards I made this... ehm... last year.

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For Christmas I needed a few small things to give away, so I made these small post it note holders. They were really quick and fun to make.

Here you can see all the postit note holders I made....

This card was for my sister in law's birthday. She plays the guitar and she had just done a project with spiders at school... The left picture is the front of the card, and the right is a peek of the inside...

My niece was one in October.... this is the card I made for her.

This mermaid was for one of Maja's friend's birthday.

...and another mermaid for Susie's friend.

It's always hard to buy prensents for people that have everything... so for my mum's birthday I made her a set of five cards for different occasions. When I think about it, this was probably a stupid thing to do since she is one of the few people that buys cards from me on a regular basis.... The set consisted of:

A wedding card...

a new home card....

a happy birthday card...

another birthday card....

and a card with no sentiment...

they were all decorated on the inside as well...

I think she was pleased with the present, and I know that she has already given some of the cards away.

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The next two cards was for Maja's friends too...

And way back in january last year, I made this sliding pop up card for some friends of ours that had a baby girl.

Well.... this was kind of short and sweet... lol... I guess I should have added what stamps (companies) and materials I've used but I can't really be bothered listing all that for all these cards. And I think that would have made for a really boring post as well....