5 LITTLE GINGERBREAD MEN

Well sadly this is very probably the last Christmas card I'll get to make this year, I really enjoyed making this little 5"x5" card using Amanda's Gingerbread men digi (available free with this months news letter) and one of the papers from her lovely GINGERBREAD PAPER PACK.

After overlaying the gingerbread men on the backing paper I printed out the whole card and cut away most of the card from behind of the gingerbread men, I then cut the bottom of the card with decorative edged scissors and overlayed it onto a strip of bright red Mirri card.

Inside the card I added a strip of bright green paper and edged it with gold peel offs so that it backed the gingermen.

The "Merry Christmas" sentiment was made using an art package, I cut it out and added it tot the card using foam pads then went over the letters, eyes and buttons with clear Sukura to make them glossy!

I hope you like it.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Vince x

5"x5" white card.
Card design - Vince Ballard.
Digi stamp - Amanda Marks.
Backing paper - Amanda Marks.
Image painted digitally

SEASONS GREETINGS GINGERBREAD MAN

Well it's nearly that time of year again and I'm still making cards to send out as I go along, you would think by now I'd have got into the habit of making my cards earlier on in the year - but NO!!


I just love these new GINGERBREAD PAPERS from Amanda they are so crisp and clean looking and make a wonderful background to her FREEBIE Gingerbread man Digi (just sign up for her December news letter to receive him)

I coloured him digitally and used little dimensional eyes that move when you shake the card and added Glossy accents to his buttons, the 3 little punched red dots and the holly berries.
I really like this little 6"x6" simple but effective card and hope you do too.

Vince x

Card design - Vince Ballard
Gingerbread papers - Amanda Marks
Gingerbread Digi - Amanda Marks

Festive Deco Folllies

This year for Christmas, as I like them so much, I decided to make some more cards using the stunning graphics from the very talented  Nancy Watt.

"The Festive Deco Follies" from MCS are so classy and make great quick and easy cards that look so effective, which is a great attribute if like me you've left your Christmas card making to the last minute this year!

The software that comes on each CD is very easy to use and enables you to add an assortment of Deco ladies and gentlemen to all types of different backgrounds (supplied) or you can even add your own, you can also add a plethora of embellishments and text too.

The "Happy Christmas" stamp is from a series of stamps by the amazing Paula Pascual

Hope you like them!

Vince x

PA RUM PUM PUM PUM DUCK

I've been wanting to use Amanda's little drummer DUCK for some time and thought he'd make the perfect "Drummer Boy" for a Christmas card.

The background paper was just text taken from the song printed onto a dull green sheet of paper.

The background to the duck was printed off and matted with red card and the duck himself was coloured digitally cut out and mounted on foam pads, I then added some gold highlights on his hat, drum and drumsticks using gold foiling. added a couple of feathers to his hat and topped it off with a little gold emblem with a red gem.

I hope you like him!

Vince :0)x

Duck Digi Stamp - Amanda Marks
Card Design - Vince Ballard
5"x7" White Card
Background paper - MCS
Christmas Sentiment - Paula Pascual

FROM HOME TO HOME

Well not long until Christmas now and so I'd better get a start on my cards.

I know I'm leaving it a bit late especially as a lot of crafters made theirs back in August, but I always seem to leave it to the last minute. (I do tend to procrastinate)

I do love this little OWL by Amanda and decided to make an easel card to show him off!
I kept the colours traditional and coloured the owl the same. Cute isn't he!

I hope you like it.

Vince x

Card designer - Vince Ballard.
Digi Owl designer - Amanda Marks.
Coloured digitally.
Owl background image by - MCS.
Merry Christmas stamp - Paula Pascual



Boo !!

Well it's almost Halloween again, so what else would I make but another Halloween card!

I really enjoyed making this 7"x5" card using Amanda's Digi orange Web Background and Mrs. Frankenstein Digi.

I matted the background onto black card then went over the whole of the web with a glitter Sakura (which sadly doesn't show up in this photo) I added a web peel off in the top right hand corner then coloured over a piece of white card with various Promakers in autumn colours, punched out some small leaves then added them with glue and foam pads around the edge of the card.

The Owl image was coloured with Promarkers and postioned with foam pads as was the plastic spider and finished off the card with the "Boo" peel off!
I hope you like it!

Vince x

Card Design - Vince Ballard.
Digi Stamp and Background paper - Amanda Marks.
Image coloured with - Promarkers.
Peels offs - Hot Off The Press.

HALLOWEEN BACKING PAPERS

I  had a go at making some 6"x6" Halloween backing papers for card making and thought I'd share them with all my blogger friends.
Simply LEFT click on one of the pictures above to open the JPG then right click on the opened image to save it to your computer.

I left the bottom pictures black and white so that they can be printed onto coloured paper or card (Orange, Green and Purple make a great spooky background colours)
I hope you like them!

Vince x

Monster Bash!

These super little MONSTER DIGI'S from Amanda are SO cute!

I decided to take the "Monster Bash" sign (also from Amanda's "Monster" range) quite literally and show them after they've all have a bit of a scrap! Isn't that just what those rascally little monsters often do? Always fighting amongst themselves! Looks like none of them got off scott free!

I made a black "step Up" card and added the torn orange paper then drew in some orange shapes using an orange glitter pen. I then just added the little monsters and various coloured metal stickers.

I hope you like it!

Vince :0)x

Card Designer - Vince Ballard
Digi Stamps - Amanda Marks.
Coloured Digitally.
Metal Stickers - Paperchase.

Halloween Owl Close Up Card

Halloween is on the way once again so I decided to use Amanda's wonderful OWLS to make another Halloween card.

Halloween and Christmas cards are my favourite cards to make.

After printing the owls out onto card I coloured them using Promarkers and added glitter to the eyes, cloak and collar of the owls.

The BACKGROUND PAPER was cut to size edged with a black ink pad to make it darker and added it to the black 5"X5" card, finally I foam mounted the owls and sentiment.

Thank you for looking.

Vince :0)x

Card Designer - Vince Ballard.
Digi images & Background paper - Amanda Marks.
Coloured with Promarkers.
Sentiment Stamp - Stamps of life - "Owls2love".



Halloween Turtle Door Handle Hanger

I hope you like my Halloween door hanger as much as I enjoyed making it.

One side welcomes you in for a "bite", while the reverse lets people know you've gone out haunting.
The sentiments were typed digitally on top of Amanda's "Spider Web Pack Papers" which you can find HERE.
Her great Turtle Digi Stamps make this a really cute and quirky project.

You'll find these two turtles and more HERE.

Thank you for looking. :0)x

Card Designer - Vincent Ballard.
Turtle Digi Stamps - Amanda Marks.
Digi's coloured with Promarkers.
Background paper by "We are memory keepers"

Christmas Owl Card

I really had fun making this 5"X7" Christmas card, The tree was made from a template by HOTP, the sentiment inside the card was cut freehand, matted and stamped, the little Christmas and Santa owls are of course from A.J's Digi Shoppe and available HERE .


Card Designer - Vince Ballard.
Owl Digi Stamps - Amanda Marks.
Digi's coloured with Letraset Flex.
Sentiment stamps - Personal Impressions.
Various peel offs and gems for the tree.

Vince x

I've also added my card to Fab's Big Christmas Cards Challenge !

Reading By Torchlight Digi Stamps

As a kid I would spend hours reading my comic books under the covers by torchlight after "lights out"
I drew these little Digis a while ago and thought I'd pop them onto my blog in case anyone would like to use/colour them.
You can down load PDF coloured and uncoloured versions HERE.

Vince :0)x

SPOOKY OWL-AWEEN

Yes I know it's still only August but it's never too early to make a head start on your Halloween cards, I always have fun making them.

I picked the paper I wanted to use first so I was able to colour the owls to match.

Amanda's Mr & Mrs Frankenstein Owl Digi Stamps are so cool and were great fun to colour, you can find them HERE with many others.

Fab has also featured this card on his Halloween Card Making Blog challenge!

Vince x

Card Designer - Vince Ballard
Digi Stamps - Amanda Marks
Background papers - We Memory Keepers - Halloween pack.
Bat Rubber stamps - Exclusive Images
Owls coloured with - Promarkers
Stick on dimensional eyes
Foam pads. (Pop Dots)

Ballet Picture Frame and Uncle Sam Card.

Here are two more projects I made using a couple of the wonderful new images from A.J's Digi Shoppe. I had great fun making these, Dagas Ballerina is so cute and Amanda's son dress as Uncle Sam is a hoot!!
If you like to see more information on how these were made and look through some fantastic samples made by some very talented crafters please click HERE

Thank you for visiting.

Vince x

Jazz Hands Charlston

I sketched this little lady a while ago thinking it would make a fun topper image, but never got around to using it.
I've uploaded the image as a PNG so you can resize and colour her for yourself, if you'd like to download her just click HERE. (for Digi stamp and coloured image)
Vince x

AMANDA'S FREEBIE CARD

This is a card I made using the wonderful FREE images from "A.J's Digi Shoppe".
Amanda is a very talented artist/crafter, please go and take a look at her wonderful blog.
Vince x

LIBERTY BELLE CARD

I'm so proud to be able share my first post as a designer on A.J's Digi Shoppe Design Team.

I love this cute image of the Statue of Liberty and as the original statue is turquoise in colour I decided to make it main hue for the card itself.

This image along with many more fantastic Digi Stamps are available here -
A.J.'s Digi Shoppe Blog

Card Design by Vincent Ballard.
Digi Stamp Design by Amanda Marks.
8"X4" card card stock.
Image coloured with Promarkers.
Background Paper by "Brenda Pinnick".
Swirl stamps by "HOTP".
White ink pad by "Close To My Heart".
Stars punched from "Cuttlebug" die.
Tag from "Stampin' Up".

Vince x

Boy With Tadpoles

As a kid I used to love to go fishing for newts, sticklebacks and tadpoles, so I thought this would make a cute card topper, I haven't had the time to do anything with it myself but please free to download him and have a go at colouring him yourself.

There are 2 sizes, two coloured and two uncoloured in PDF form    HERE.

I hope you like it.

Vince x

MOUSE FAIRY

In the late 1960s my stepfather bought my mother a tiny handmade felt mouse which is about 2" high, I thought she'd make a great card topper so drew her and made this card from the sketch.

I've uploaded her as a PDF in 3 different sizes (coloured and uncoloured) if you'd like to have a go at colouring her yourself, you can download her HERE.

Vince x

You make me smile card

I made this 7"X5" card using one the fantastic NEW digi stamp downloads from the very talented Amanda, these wonderful little ducks and a whole host of other cute characters are for sale on her Digi Shop which you will find  HERE 

Please go have a look through her wonderful characters, there's bound to be a digi or two you're going to want to have  :0)

I thought this paper matched the image perfectly so coloured the Ducky to match.

Hope you like it !

Vince x

NEW BEADS

Amelia's showing off her new beads!

 I thought this would make a cute topper for my card. if you'd like to download the Digi stamp in 3 different sizes (coloured and uncoloured) then just click HERE

Clarice Cliff Style Dress Wobble Card

Well that's just typical of me ! I forgot to keep a blank digi version of this image, if you'd like to use her anyway please feel free to download her in PDF format -   here 

The pdf also shows how to postion her on your card, if you decide to add embellishments to her such as gems etc, be sure to level them up on either side or she'll tilt to one side.

Just a quick simple card but she does look very cute wobbling from side to side.

Vince x

Poor Kitty! Digi stamp.

Look at that poor puss! I thought this would make a funny card topper.
If you'd like to have a go at colouring them yourself you can download the PDF with 2 different sized images, coloured and uncoloured    here

Hope you like it.

Vince x

BOY WITH FLOWER IMAGE

I had a bit of time to myself and thought I'd do a quick sketch for a card topper, it's a little boy with a flower gift (obviously!!  - Lol) You can download him in 2 different sizes coloured and uncoloured HERE
Vince x

IT'S A GIFT FOR YOU IMAGE

I needed an image of a ginger haired girl with a gift box, couldn't find one so I drew one instead.

There four images in two sizes coloured & uncoloured (So you can colour her any way you want to) on an A4 sheet for you to play with in PDF format HERE.

I hope you like her.

Vince x

More Deco Cards

I always make my mum two big cards for her birthday, she loves the Deco era so I made a large card using plain pastel papers stamped with Brenda Pinnicks wonderful new stamps, the figure came from Nancy Watt's Deco ladies cd.
The second card is an 8"x8" easel card again using another of the wonderful Deco ladies from Nancy's cds.

Glad to report that she loved them both   :0)

Vince x

Teddy bear hug card

This is a little card (4"x4") I made using 5 different sized circle punches for the ears and eyes and the corner of another punch for the nose.

The head was cut freehand and the mouth drawn on with black marker.

Hope you like him  :0)

Vince x

Brenda Pinnick Cards

Some cards I made using the fantastic new Brenda Pinnick Clear Stamps which are just beautiful, I love these stamps from the quirky little birds to the elegant borders and medallions. There are various styles for every sort of card design.

Vince x

Inspired by Butternutsage

This is a card I made after being inspired by the very talented Donna after admiring her work at Butternutsage
I do so love her work,  please go and have a look at her blog if you haven't done so already.
Vince x

Easter Cards

I made quite a few different types of cards for Easter but forgot to photograph them all - tut - typical of me.  :0)x

Vince x