Merry Christmas Everyone

I probably won't have time now to do any more crafting before Christmas, so this is the last of this year's Christmas cards.  I wanted something rather special for my Mum as I won't be with her at Christmas this year.  I came up with this rather simple card using lots of diecuts (a chance to play with my new decorative grand circles too).

It is a large 8" x 8" card made from two A4 sheets of pearlescent cream (it has a gold shimmer to it which I couldn't capture in the photograph, it is a very dismal day here).  I embossed the largest of the grand decorative circles into the card front before assembling.  The gold foiled patterned paper is from Papermania art deco paper pack, red glitter card, gold mirri and gold shimmer paper are from my stash.  I diecut, folded and layered eight of the largest of the nestability marvellous squares in a teabag folding style and centred them with a gemstone brad to make the star centrepiece.  The folds make it stand quite proud of the card making the edges more frilly than they appear in the photo.  The sentiment is computer-generated and cut with nestability floral oval and inked with red stazon.  Hope she likes it.

I am entering the card into Joanna Sheen's challenge "With love at Christmas" here: http://joannasheenchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/with-love-at-christmas.html

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a healthy, happy, peaceful, prosperous New Year!

Thank you for your support and all the kind comments.

Joanna Sheen "Anything Goes"

Sorry for the lack of posting recently but with the sad loss of my Mother-in-Law, I really haven't felt like crafting.  I am trying to finish Christmas cards in the next few days and have spent some time printing and fitting in inserts (not my favourite job at all) to those that I have made over the last few months.

This card has been sat on my desk half finished for a few weeks, so with the JS challenge in mind I decided to go ahead and finish it this afternoon for my niece's birthday in January.  The light is really poor, so excuse the photograph being a little dark.

It is made with mostly Docrafts products, the stamp was a freebie from their latest Creativity magazine and I bought the papers from a newly opened Range store nearby (yipee).  Hopefully now my mojo will return as I have some Grand decorative circles on their way.

Take care and keep warm in this freezing cold weather

Cold and Frosty

The current challenge at Joanna Sheen Challenge blog is "Cold and Frosty".  I chose a Humphrey's Corner decoupage image, part of a paper pad which came free with Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine recently. 

 Being a bit of a neat freak I am not keen on all the white areas around die-cut decoupage and prefer to trim them closer myself which I have done on this one.  Lots of glistening Snow Writer, and some other larger flaked glittery stuff (the name and make of which escapes me, it has been in my stash for a while but tipped into a larger box for use) make it a really sparkly card.  The background paper is from a really old QVC kit of 12" x 12" papers.  The snowball corners are glitter rub-ons and the sentiment is stamped with a versamark pad of various shades of blue giving it the blended look.  The adhesive backed pearl stars are from one of the poundshops.

Thank you for taking the time to look and for any comments you may make x

A Couple More..

Hi,
Just a quick post to show two more Christmas cards for the growing pile:

An Indentz embossing folder decorated with intricate snowflake peel-offs layered on snowflake Cuttlebug embossing folder background in a lovely denim coloured pearlescent paper.  Silver coloured large charm and ribbon were from a gift.

A Nellie Snellen Snowy Village embossing folder on pearl card, coloured with promarkers and glittered up.  I tried to give the effect of lit windows in the cottages.  Not sure about this one, think it looks a bit like a child has coloured it.  The silver, red and green braid trim I have for ages and struggle to use normally and the snowball trim was a recent purchase on holiday.

That's all for now, off to do some grocery shopping and visit Mum,

Thanks for looking and for any comments you may make x

Silhouettes

Hi all,

Happy Halloween to those that celebrate it!

My card today (made a change from Christmas cards) is for the challenge at   http://joannasheenchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/silhouettes.html following the theme of "Silhouettes".

I used an image from http://karenswhimsy.com/public-domain-images/#, cut it out with nestability labels 8 largest die and chalked in pale grey around the edges whilst it was still in the die.  The black and white patterned background card is the remains of an old Kanban paper pack which I cut using the next smaller size labels die (just the very top edge and the bottom edge of the grey background).  I used Kimmi Luvs cuttlebug embossing folder for the heart texture.  The ribbon, charms and rose are all from my stash.  The diecut letters are from Crealies alphabet die.

I missed the Docrafts leapblog at the weekend, (but have a good excuse), we went to beautiful Bourton-on-the-Water in the Cotswolds, thought you might like to see a couple of shots of the scenery:

So lovely at this time of the year with the trees all changing colour.  We even had some sunshine, although it was bitterly cold.

Well, it is getting dusk here, wonder if we will get any trick or treaters this year, I have some sweeties ready!

Happy crafting!

Even More Christmas Cards

Hi everyone,

Hope you are enjoying the weekend so far, the weather is not too bad here after a foggy start, although rather cold the sun is shining at the moment.  Apologies the photos aren't great the light wasn't the best when I took them, but here are this week's efforts:

Memory Box winterland tree decorated with tiny Anita's gems, background is made from several of the tree diecuts cut in adhesive backed card mounted close together and then cut into a rectangle (I like the idea that they can be used in a different way). Sentiment stamp is a freebie from last year (I think) Docrafts magazine, I cut the edges of the tag away to make it a bit smaller.

A new Nellie Snellen embossing folder called Snowy Village embossed onto pearlescent white card and glittered liberally with some stickles in Frosted Lace and some glamour dust (which in my opinion gives a better sparkle).  Floral oval aperture cut into the backing paper which is from  a Humphreys Corner decoupage and paper pad which came free with Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine this month.  Embellished with memory box swirls and ribbon slider (behind sentiment), nestability snowflake, and tiny Anita's gems.

Stamped image which I sprayed with cosmic shimmer mica powder (doesnt show in the picture very well, but it is a shimmery lilac colour).  I coloured the tiny windows and tree lights to try to give the impression of lights, and then glittered the snow with glamour dust.  Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder was used for the background and it is embellished with a nestie snowflake and Marianne creatables frame tucked behind the image.  A few adhesive lilac gems from Helz Cuppleditch Neighbourwood range to finish.

Thank you for looking and any comments you may leave, they are greatly appreciated.  Off now to take part in this week's Docrafts Redrottie's leapblog.

Down in the Garden

This card was made for entry into the Joanna Sheen challenge blog "Down in the Garden"
http://joannasheenchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/down-in-garden.html

I used pearlescent kraft card blank and embossed two diagonal corners with a cuttlebug embossing folder leafy branch, added a strip of mushroom patterned ribbon and a panel of woodgrain paper embossed with birds and swirls Cuttlebug folder.  The image is from Joanna Sheen's House Mouse Project book cd-rom, I decoupaged one of the little mice and inked the edges a little with vintage photo distress ink before mounting it on a bronze coloured handmade paper mat.  Finished with a couple of little gold clothes pegs and a computer-generated sentiment printed on a scrap of cream paper (which I scored to make it pleated) and punched with a Fiskars border punch.

Hope you are all having a good weekend and enjoying blog hopping like me!

October Already

Hi everyone,

Can't believe it is already October, still the Christmas cards are coming along.  Here is another few, alas the sum total of my crafting for the last two weeks!

 Memory Box tree cut from silver holographic card, mounted on self-adhesive card and glittered before being hand cut out.  Crafts Too frame embossing folder straight onto card blank.  Lines of red backed adhesive tape, glittered as borders to complete.

A5 white on white (with a touch of silver) - Docrafts felt snow border (from stash a couple of years ago, you know one of the things you buy and then don't know what to do with, lol), I added Stickles (frosted lace), Kort and Godt pearls and a few adhesive gems to embellish.  The sentiment is a Papermania embossing folder trimmed down and mounted on silver holographic.  Silver bow just to finish it off.

Another white on white (with a hint of colours).  This is from the waste of the Memory Box tree cut from adhesive backed card.  It was a bit fiddly to dig out all the pieces and place them, but I think the result is quite effective.  A few Anita's tiny gems, peel-off greeting and a small ribbon bow and its done.  

Hope you are all having a good week, happy crafting

More Christmas Cards

Hi everyone,
First apologies that I did not take part in the blog hop this weekend gone and will probably be too busy next weekend as we have visitors staying.

On a positive note I have made several cards this week:

Firstly a couple of decoupage ones from sheets that I won in a quiz (thank you Jacqui)
They are mounted on Spellbinders floral oval and XCut doorplate diecuts respectively.

A glitter card embossed christmas tree using Cuttlebug folder, which I also heat embossed in silver to make it stand out, a few red adhesive gems and a ribbon bow to trim it.

More cuttlebug embossing with the snowflake folder and some Kanban diecuts layered up, gems and glamour dust to finish:

Final two are Milton & Co. from a paper pad that came free with a magazine last year.  They were already coloured so I just added a little stickles glitter glue, cut them out and layered onto nestability shaped mats.  The first one involved some machine stitching and inking (I know the colours are a little odd for Christmas, but the backing paper from a QVC paper stack I have had in  my stash for ages dictated that).  The Merry Christmas sentiment on the tag is from a papermania embossing folder I played around with just embossing section I wanted, the dots in the same way too.

Thank you for looking and any comments you may make.

Off to catch up with a few blog posts now, happy crafting everyone!

Christmas Baubles

Hi all,

Just a quick post to show my efforts this weekend.  All variations on a theme as you can see:- 

I used Kanban bauble die-cut toppers I bought in a sale (not something I would usually use but as a simple quick Christmas card they fit the bill), some of which I embossed, some I added gems to.  I curved them so they were a little 3d and with some peel-off chains or ribbon bows to "hang"  them and foam pads to fix them I think they look quite effective.  All on a lilac and silver theme but the toppers dictated this really.

Embossing folders used: - Indentz (scrolls), Papermania (holly and sentiment), Cuttlebug (snowflakes and lattice)

One extra one, just made today:

This is a dl card, the backing design is from a Bearly Mine cd  printed on pearl card and then sprayed with glitter spray from the poundshop. A nestability layered snowflake with added stickles (icicle) and framed in a floral oval nestie.  Some fun pompom trim I bought on holiday and a felt snowflake complete the trimmings.

Thanks for looking, hope you have had a productive weekend too.

Blog Challenge Entry

This is my entry into Joanna Sheen's challenge blog "Going Dotty".  I had to resort to taking the photo outside to try and show the dots and glitter, not brilliant but better than I could manage indoors.  I made a stepper card scored on the Hougie from a sheet of A4 pearl card.  I printed a dotty background onto some A5 pearl card for the background.  The decoupage is from Jayne Netley Mayhew II cd.  Next I trimmed and embossed some acetate with Swiss Dots cuttlebug embossing folder (hopefully you can see this in the second close up photo).  Glitter paper was torn for the second step for the single penguin to sit on, added a bit of icicle stickles to give it more of a frosty look.  The snowflakes are made from nestabilities layered and glittered with more stickles.  The sentiment was also from the cd decoupage sheet.
Thanks must go to Sue (Bearhouse) for reminding me I had a JNM cd with penguin images on with her beautiful design team card.

Grand Calibur cards

Hi everyone,
I had a lovely birthday and nice weekend break on the Isle of Wight.  For my birthday I had some fabulous presents, including some gorgeous Liz Earle cosmetics and a Grand Calibur.  I have been playing with my new toy and so far I am very impressed with its embossing and the ease with which it cuts out the more intricate dies that my Cuttlebug used to struggle with.

The first card is made using a Cuttlebug embossing folder on my scalloped card blank, floral oval, classic oval and scalloped circle nestabilities (for the flowers), and some Marianne flourishes. A little glitter and some Kort & Godt pearls to complete the card.  I lined the card with the same lilac card to show off the scalloped edges.

The second card is one my Mum has asked me to make, it is made from Coredinations white card cut to A5 size.  I then used an XCut doorplate die to make the fancy edge at the top.  It took a bit of fiddling around and taping but I think it worked out ok in the end.  I cut an aperture in the front using the same die and used a Creative Expressions lattice embossing folder inside the card.  The colour is not really as pink as it looks in the photo, it is more of a taupe colour.  Other dies used are Marianne corners and fancy rectangle, and floral oval and classic oval nesties.  Finishing touches are a pearl heart ribbon slider, white ribbon and silver peel-off borders and a few pearls.

Thank you for looking and hope you have a great weekend,

Just because

Hi,

Thought I would try out a couple of things yesterday that I had been meaning to have a go at after doing a little surfing and blog hopping.  The first one is from a tutorial on Sue Wilson's blog http://particraft.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/fancy-nesty-tutorial.html.  I have done this before but not with a fancy spellbinders die and needed a little reminder of how to do it.

The image is a LOTV freebie that came with a magazine, I coloured it with promarkers and then chalked around the edge to give the cut out oval some definition.  The glittered patterned backing card is from First Edition Summer Breeze paper stack.  A little ribbon bow and some gems in some of the flowers just to finish it off.  I intended to leave the card without a sentiment for now as it would make a get well, birthday or thank you card.  The same applies to the next simple card:

The tutorial for this one came from: http://ricas-designs.blogspot.de/ although mine is very plain compared to the lovely one displayed on Heather's blog.  I measured mine out a little differently and ended up with a rectangular frame which I thought the Tim Holtz tattered floral flower I made fitted nicely.  It is just four layers treated differently - one embossed with swiss dots, one stamped and one with a pearl centre.  Each flower started out an off white and I inked them with vintage photo distress ink (my only colour at the moment).

Off  to spend the bank holiday weekend on the Isle of Wight with my sons and family, so getting up at silly o'clock in the morning, (which happens to be my birthday too).  Have fun whatever you are doing this weekend!

A Few Christmas Cards

From a Milton & Co paper stack from last year (I think it was a freebie with a magazine

but can't remember which one). Added the cut out image to a die-cut (Nellie's multi frame square), inked the edges with Versamagic wheat ink.  Stitched the topper and the backing papers to the card blank.  Finished with some stickles, a computer generated sentiment and a tiny red bow from stash.

Decoupage sheet from Kars Design House called Singing Snowmen (another golden oldie from my stash), enhanced with a little frosted lace stickles for the snow.  Die-cut nestie snowflakes and embossed Cuttlebug snowflake background with some icicle stickles for added sparkle.  Computer generated sentiment and some silver marker pen to edge the background and the sentiment.

Very simple card made using Cuttlebug tree embossing folder on Core'dinations white card, mounted on gold foil paper, added Memory Box gold tree die-cut as decoration, a small knot of gold ribbon and two ribbon borders.  I may make more like this (nice and flat for postage).

Freebie embossing folder (from last year's Docraft magazine) used on gold foil paper embellished with tiny Anita's green gems set in a Floral Oval Nestie frame.  Background spotted paper from Papermania pack (old stash) stitched on to dark green and mounted on card blank






Well I am fairly pleased with the start of the Christmas cards and the fact that I am managing to use some old stash towards making some of them.  Hope you like!

Happy crafting

Red and White

Hello,  
On Monday it will be my dear Mum's 77th birthday, so I felt I wanted a really special card.
Why is it when you need to make a special card for someone in particular the mind goes blank?  It is so much easier to make a card "just because".

Any way I eventually came up with this, not 100% happy with it but it is embellished in her favourite colour red, so I hope she likes it.  It is an 8" x 8" card, (made by fixing two sheets of A4 together).  I wanted to try out my new Cuttlebug embossing folder (similar to the elusive Tied Together Couture one I have been unable to get).   The spotty ribbon, the butterfly and some of the diecut flowers are from a Craftwork Cards kit.  The remainder of the flowers are Sizzix Bigz and Tim Holtz Tattered Florals, with some small Prima flowers dotted in and around.  A few Anita's gems and Kort and Godt pearls just to add a bit of bling and its done.

I am entering this card into the challenge at: http://joannasheenchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/try-something-new.html


Off to try and start the Christmas cards, lol, maybe!

Animal Crackers

We came back last night from a lovely weekend break to Hunstanton, we were so lucky with the weather and I got to paddle in the sea for the first time this year.  Hope you all had a lovely weekend too!


Today's card is for the Joanna Sheen challenge "Animal Crackers".  I have had the image in my stash for a while (it was from a swap on the Docraft forum ages ago) but it is a Penny Black stamp and fits the animal theme quite nicely.The navy and white card is diecut with a border die from Nellie Snellen.  A little red Prima flower and a few Anita's tiny gems to embellish. The ribbon bow and the sentiment are from a £1 shop I believe.


Thanks for looking

Another Criss-Cross

Hi,
A quick post today just to show you a feminine version of yesterday's card.  I cheated a bit with the bookmark on this one, the flower is a recycled one someone saved for me from their birthday card.  Luckily I had some papers I had printed off ages ago (sorry can't remember where from) that matched with the colours.  A sheet of pink card and a little Memory Box diecut buckle slid onto the ribbon and a few Kort & Godt pearls.


Happy crafting!

Bookmark and Masculine Card

Hi,
Beautiful day here today, feel I should be outside but a little too hot to stay for long.


I fancied a new type of card for today and my box is always lacking in masculine cards.  I used instructions from the Scorpal site to create this criss-cross card.


I had a roam around town yesterday and found some jumbo paper clips in Wilkinsons and (as we crafters do) thought I could use those with a little embellishment as bookmarks.  The card base is made from an A4 sheet of navy linen card, scored on my Hougie, as you would a trifold.  The papers are from Hot Off The Press (from a Quilted Card Kit booklet I have had since starting crafting) so the co-ordinating papers and sentiment were all together I just had to cut them to suit.  The tag/insert is made from the same papers just slightly smaller than the back of the card and with rounded corners.  Nestability circles and a button (with the shank removed) are used to decorate the "bookmark" and a little star brad attached to the sentiment strip.

Hey presto, a card and little gift in one.


Thanks for looking and hope you like it.

Going Around in Circles

Hi everyone, I had a lovely surprise at the weekend, my first ever blog candy win!


I made this card using my fabulous Joanna Sheen Blog Candy prize.  Thank you Joanna and the team, I am chuffed to pieces with it!  It was the House Mouse Designs Project Book and included cd-rom.


I used one of the image sheets from the cd to create a circular topper for an easel card.  The Joanna Sheen current blog challenge is "Going Around in Circles" and this is my entry.  Full info can be found here: http://joannasheenchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/going-round-in-circles.html


Not a great photo I'm afraid, I had to take it outdoors as the light inside today is poor, hope you can see that it is decoupaged.  The embossing is done with a mask for a change, following the circles theme.  It is finished with Craftwork Cards card candy, Prima flowers and Kort and Godt pearls for the flower centres.  The adhesive ribbon and the lilac flowers are from Docrafts (I think, they have been in my stash for ages).


Hope everyone is ok, the sun is shining here at the moment after some earlier heavy rain.  Will we ever get a Summer this year?


Happy crafting!

Time to Celebrate

Do you find men's cards as difficult as I do?  This one is for my Brother-in-law's birthday soon.

It is always easier for me to make cards just for the fun of it.  When I have a particular one to make my mind goes blank.  Anyway this is what I eventually came up with, hope you like it. 

 I used pearlescent chocolate coloured card for the base which I part-embossed with a cuttlebug folder using a shim I had previously made with a circle cut out of it.  It didn't work quite as well as I hoped though, you can see some faint circles from the embossing inside the clock.  I then embossed a nestie circle where the plain part was.  The cogs were embossed in the card using actual diecuts and an embossing rubber mat.  A distress inked Tim Holtz clock diecut with vintage photo (my only distress pad so far) was added as the main feature.  I added some gold highlights around the outside edges with a versamark pen and some gold cosmic shimmer mica powder to jazz it up a bit.  The letters were cut with Crealies alphabet dies and the sentiment is a computer generated one printed on a snippet of patterned paper.

Happy crafting!

New Blog

Well, I have finally braved an attempt at posting to my newly created blog.  I am really learning as I go along, so please bear with me.  I have found some tips from Kathleen's  http://craftbloggers.blogspot.co.uk/ very helpful, (so thank you Kathleen), but still have loads to learn and little time to do it at the moment.  Once the school holidays begin I will hopefully get a bit more savvy!

This card was made for a challenge on Joanna Sheen's forum.  The theme was "ice cream" so using the colours of Neopolitan I picked out a pearlescent kraft card blank, some First Edition pink backing paper and ribbons from my stash.  The butterfly is in fact a white felt one that I coloured with ink and promarkers, mounted on some more pretty pink paper and embellished with a few Kort & Godt pearls.  I inked up the edges of the backing paper with vintage photo distress ink before stitching it on my sewing machine along with the ribbons and lace.