CPS # 195

OMG, can you believe it is the 1st December already? I have absolutely no idea where this year has disappeared to. I know I have been amazingly busy at work for a lot of it but that is about to change so there will be new possibilities for me in the New Year. Not sure what path I will go down at the moment but going to have some time off to R & R and think about what I want to do with myself. In the meantime I am grateful for this year being sooooo much better than 2009 that I know together Paul and I can survive anything!

Whatever happens I am pretty sure that the R & R is responsible for my mojo coming back and actually WANTING to get into my crafty room and create. I find if I am in a bad place I just cannot make cards and I am soooo happy that is changing. I've found myself wanting to get back into the challenge blogs and that is something I haven't done since January.

Anyhoo, this card has been made using the current sketch # 195 over at CPS. It's a pretty simple layout which showcases the Papermania Honey & Hugs papers and embellishments really well. The die cut frame and likkle owl were matted onto a scrap of red card and mounted on 3d foam. The sentiment is a cardstock sticker from DCVW and I used a Fiskars punch on the spotty paper.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

• CPS # 195 - Sketch
• Little Paper Shop #96 - Funky Punched Edge
• One Stop Craft # 108 - Christmas Cuties
• Paper Cutz #69 - Anything Goes
• Paper Issues - Holiday Card
• Pile It On #47 - Feathers & Fur
• Scrap Creations - Anything Goes
• Scrappy Frogs - Christmas
• There's Magic In the Air - Anything Goes
• Tip Top Tuesday #12 - Anything Goes
• Daring Card Makers - Spots & Stripes

Cards for Men #24

Well the time is upon us for me to procrastinate no longer and make a concerted attempt to get my Christmas cards done!!

I have so many Christmas supplies I was determined not to buy any more this year but succumbed in a small way when I saw the extremely cute pack from Papermania from the Honey & Hugs range 'Festive Frolics'. There were 6 sheets of paper, some chipboard, die cuts, epoxy stickers and I also bought a twinpack of cardstock stickers as I loved the cute little owls and wanted to make a card for Paul from this.

The colours are bright, just how I like them :) I started with an 8" square scalloped edge blank and alternated the red and green card candy around the edges. The larger panel of paper is edged in ink to provide a contrast on the blank card. The stripey paper was edged with one of my new Martha Stewart punches. The red strip is part of a cardstock sticker which is glittered and glazed. The cute likkle owls on the branch is all one sticker and it is just so glittery, I luvs it soooo much...... The sentiments are both from the cardstock stickers.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

• Cards for Men # 24 - Christmas
• Scrappy Frogs - Christmas
• One Stop Craft # 108 - Christmas Cuties
• Paper Issues - Holiday Card
• Pile It On #47 - Feathers & Fur
• Top Tip Tuesday #12 - Anything Goes
• Little Paper Shop #96 - Funky Edge
• There's Magic in The Air - Anything Goes
• Scrap Creations - Anything Goes
• Crafty Creations #95 - Christmas
• Fresh Brewed # 24 - Christmas
• Paper Cutz #69 - Anything Goes
• ABC Christmas Challenge - X is for Christmas
• Fab & Funky # 50 - Going With The Flow
• For Fun Challenges - Anything Goes
• Daring Card Makers - Spots & Stripes

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge # 35

Its a new challenge at Crafty Cardmakers and we have been set the theme of White with a hint of colour.

Now I like a lot of colour, normally quite bright so a subtle card like this is outside of my comfort zone. It is of course full of bling and twinkle so that is definitely more like me LOL

The card is quite large at 8" square but that is perfect for special cards. The scalloped edge is already on the blank so I thought it would be perfect for a Julie Hickey stylee card with loads of Craftwork Cards card candy. I know they are only like discs of cardboard but that is exactly why I like to use them. You would be very hard pressed to use this many gems or brads on just one card wouldn't you?

Anyhoo, the starting point for this card is the word 'snow' which is a Christmas Tree decoration from ASDA. It's got a snow type texture to it, a bit like artex paint and had plain white sequins on it. Of course, this was not sparkly enough so I immediately covered them with bling from my stash.

I opted for the icy colour of pale blue and punched a border in an offcut and wrapped it with some white organza ribbon with metallic stars on. Last but not least I added some posh pre-made stars from a Craftime pack from QVC.

We are sponsored for this challenge by the fabulous Joanna Sheen who is offering a prize to the winner of a £10 gift voucher so we would love to see lots of entries and I look forward to visiting your blogs.

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges:-

• Little paper Shop #96 - Add a funky edge to your card
• There's Magic In the Air - Anything Goes
• Scrap Creations - Anything Goes
• The Crafty Pad #99 - Snowflakes
• Just Us Girls # 61 - 3d Embellishment
• Crafty Creations # 95 - Christmas Is Coming
• Freshly Brewed Challenges - Winter/Christmas
• Paper Cutz # 69- Anything Goes
• Crafts & Me - Snowflakes
• Fab & Funk #50 - Going With The Flow (open Theme)
• Scrappy Frogs - Christmas
• ABC Christmas - X is for Xmas
• Crafty Calendar #14 - Snowflakes
• Crafty Catz # 60 - Christmas
• Fussy & Fancy Challenge - Christmas without red & green
• Order of the Opus Gluei #82 - Frosted Theme
• Something Completely Different - Snow
• For Fun Challenges - Anything Goes
• If the Shoe Fits 56 - White with a splash
• One Stitch at A Time # 41 - Bling It Up]
• Creative Cottage #128- Non Traditional Christmas Colours

Christmas Card Poinsettia

I've been making a start on the family Christmas cards as time is getting short until the big day. Every year I say I'm going to get more organised but this year has been particularly bad as work has been extremely demanding with a lot more downs than ups. Until the last week my time has been very tight with little or no time for crafting. I've just been getting more and more tired and it resulted in me being in floods of tears at work and I am currently off sick.

I am sleeping 14 hours a day some days, then literally can't sleep on others because I am getting worked up about stuff at work. I went to the doctors and have been given anti-depressants again suffering from work related stress, panic attacks and really high blood pressure which is causing me to have headaches and nose bleeds. I'm trying to get as much sleep as I can and chilling out catching up on TV series that I have missed and doing some cross stitch. I am not depressed, just absolutely exhausted and I am really proud that I asked for help before it got any worse. I am being referred to a councillor to see if they can help me with my issues.

I made this card about 4 weeks ago, scanned it in and forgot to blog it so here we are. I used a Crafts U Print decoupage design that was a freebie with a magazine. I covered a blank with a traditional text paper from DCWV and layered strips of paper 'ribbon' in a gift package style.

The poinsettia has been glittered with stickles and I curled the leaves and petals adding foam pads at strategic points to raise certain parts of the petals. I added pearl gems to the centre for an opulent feel. This card is going to be for Grandma as she loves flowers and it has quite a traditional look to it.

Crafty Cardmakers # 34

The challenge at Crafty Cardmakers this week is to make a gift with a matching card. My crafty mojo unfortunately has been taking a back seat lately, however after a trip to the Hobbycrafts show at the NEC I came away with lots of enthusiasm and determined to get back into my crafty room as it makes me happy :) My hubby is a lot happier too as he thought I wasn't going to make cards anymore and was threatening to get rid of my stuff !!

I'd had an idea to make a couple of different things but I really wanted to make a clock. After perusing one fabulous stand I came away with bits to make not only one, but two clocks ! It was only £2 to buy the mechanism and they had a few different shaped chipboard backs. I saw the scallops in this shape and having counted there were 12 I could immediately see a flower and numbers around the edge. I had picked up a pad of papers from the new Papermania Woodland Folks set and wanted to make my set around these papers.

I used a Promarker to colour the edge of the clock and covered it in brown card. I then used a sheet of paper from the pad but it was slightly too small so used an ink pad to distress the edges and knock the colour back a little. I selected 12 Prima daisies to pop into the scallops and using a punch cut out 12 card circles. I used rub ons for the numbers and mounted them on foam pads in the flower centres.

The hedgehog is a character from one of the papers sheets which I painstakingly cut out. I can tell you the bristles were a bugger, but it is so cute it was worth it. I then poked a hole through the little hedgie and fixed the clock mechanism through it. I am so proud of how it turned out and can announce that it even works too (it has quite a loud tick though so would drive me bonkers LOL)

For the matching card I used a sheet of A4 textured card and used a large panel of a brown dotty paper from the pad. I used the left over strip of leaves paper and applied one of my new Martha Stewart punches to the edge. I added a strip of brown card underneath to provide a contrast and offset the holes so it lookes slightly different.

The centre panel was cut from a scrap of textured card which was edged with 2 colours of brown inks. I added the same image as on the clock but raised it on 3d foam pads. I added a little bit of gold stickles to the centre.

The ribbon is a gorgeous embroidered one that I picked up shopping on the cruise holiday we went on in May/June. I think it came from Funchal in Madeira. I pleated it and stitched with some hidden stitches and then used double sided tape to stick to the card. Finally I added lots of Prima flowers and some Paperchase gems to add the final touch of bling.

This is going to be a gift for a very special person. I am really pleased with how it turned out and she will appreciate the love that has gone into it.

The rest of the DT have made some fabulous projects, there are some great ideas for pressies there and I hope you will pop to their blogs and give them some love :)

We are again sponsored by

for this challenge and they are offering a great prize to the winner of this challenge. I'd love to see loads of entries for this one and look forward to visiting your blogs.

2 Sketches 4 You Laura #65

After my crafty mojo taking a bit of a sabbatical lately I was gobsmacked to find that I was inspired to make a card using a freebie paper pack that came with Creative Cardmaking magazine on Thursday. It is a pack of papers and stickers by Bo Bunny and I just love how bright they are.

I used a sheet of A4 card for the base and covered it with the red swirly paper. Using Laura's latest sketch #65 over at 2 Sketches 4 You I cut some strips of the matching papers using my new Martha Stewart punch. The sentiment is a sticker that I mounted on card and matted onto black card mat and some of the green paper. This is raised up on 3d foam.

The ribbon is from DCWV and the little jingle bell is from my stash.

I can't tell you how good it is to be enjoying crafting again :), it's been a long time.......

Crafty Cardmakers # 33

For our latest challenge at Crafty Cardmakers we are challenged to use stitching, either real or fake on our card.

I have done some real stitching on my card. The main starting point was the 'Grandma' panel which I have recycled from a shop bought card. The stitching was already on the panel and it is a very pretty starting point. I just matted it onto a darker purple card to provide contrast and this panel is attached with 3d foam for depth.

The pre glittered backing paper is Papermania Henbury Lane and I stitched 2 of the matching felt butterflies together and stitched them onto the card. The detail is so fine on these that it is very difficult to stick them to a card without glue showing so this was an ideal way of avoiding that issue. By folding the top layer wings it shows off the 2 colours of butterfly really well. I pricked a few trails onto the card and stitched using the metallic thread, adding a few gems for bling.

It is very easy to add stitching to your card, especially if it is with a pen so I hope we will see plenty of entries into this challenge. We are being sponsored this week by Joanna Sheen so if you would like a chance to win a prize so get those needles or pens out and get stitching !

I have entered this card into the following challenges:-

• A spoonful of Sugar #128 Relish to Embellish (Felt butterflies & bling)
• ABC Challenge - G is for Glitter (Glittered paper)
• Craft Your Passion #30 - Anything Goes
• Lexi's Creations Challenge # 26 - Anything Goes
• Incy Wincy Designs # 66 - Anything goes
• Flutterby Wednesdays #129 - Open theme

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge # 32

For the latest Challenge at Crafty Cardmakers we are to a use a freebie. Now if you are anything like me you have bought loads of magazines and got sheets and sheets of papers and design packs so I a sure it will not be a challenge for most. You can of course use a freebie digital image, many many are available on the tinterweb and it is a fabulous resource for materials for thrifty crafting.

For my card I have used a Freebie decoupage sheet that has come with Issue 60 of Papercraft Essentials. There is a great pack of 16 free sheets from Crafts U Print and they are printed on decent quality paper. This image can be found at Lee Jacobs Page and is sheet reference cup88652_353. Very good value for only 80p but even better for free :)

For the base card I folded an A4 sheet of card and cut some glitter card for snow, adding a Craftime and peel off snowflakes to the sky. I have added lots of glitter to the decoupage and googly eyes. The sentiment is a Dovecraft chipboard.

Fancy Folds Tutorial

My fellow teamie at Crafty Cardmakers Jack has found a video tutorial for the card I made for the Spotlight Challenge.

The Youtube video can be found here

Thanks Jack, I knew it had to be about somewhere :)

Crafty Cardmakers Fancy Folds Spotlight

It's the latest spotlight challenge at Crafty Cardmakers and the brief for the DT is Fancy Folds.

I love making unusual cards and consider myself a papercrafter so this is ideal for me. I wanted to make something different and a friend's hubby Barrie showed me an origami style card he had seen demo'd on Create & Craft. You basically use a large square of paper and by folding it create a frame. They had linked 3 together by slipping a piece of card into the slots at the side. They sat them very close together so you couldn't see the hinge, but I had an idea that if you made the card a bit wider you would be able to make a concertina card and this would give you enough depth to be able to decorate the pages with thicker items. You could probably make it into a kind of mini book as well. The pictures below show how the sections have been slotted together better.

The papers I have used are 8" x 8" from the Dovecraft birthday pack and the 'back' of the folded square provides you with lots of spaces to decorate so I used various stickers and 3d embellishments as below. The Front of the 'card' was decorated using lots of bling and Sakura clear glitter pen. Each finished square is 4" so the card below is about 2 feet long :)

This card ended up being about 2" thick so I made a box for it, thus creating a card with a lot of Wow Factor. Scott absolutely loves it and said he will be bringing it out as a birthday decoration every year!!

P.S. I have tried to find a video demonstration or some instructions on Youtube or the internet but thus far have had no success.I am going to attempt to make some sort of tutorial if anyone is interested, please let me know.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #30

It's Challenge 30 at Crafty Cardmakers and we have been given a theme of Around the World

I have chosen Africa after rummaging through some stamped images I had from a forum sap some years ago. I was inspired to use the different images and some animal print items that I have had in my stash for a very long time.

I made a DL size dark brown card and cut a leopard print paper smaller to show a border. . I wrapped funky fibres around the card and threaded with beads which I got in an assorted pack from Poundland years ago. You know, one of those 'they will come in handy' purchases that you NEVER use, well I've only gone and used them !!!

I am really pleased with how this card turned out. Initially I was going to do a French/Parisienne theme but this card almost came together all on it's own. Perhaps my crafty mojo is starting to return???

We're sponsored by The Stampman for this challenge so it would be great to see your entries for a chance to win a prize from our generous sponsor. Please pop over to see our Design Team cards and I look forward to seeing your entries.

Crafty Cardmakers # 29

It's Challenge #29 over at Crafty Cardmakers and this time we want to see Clean and Simple cards.

We are sponsored again by our regular monthly sponsor Joanna Sheen - and there is a £10 voucher prize for the winner so you know you want to enter for a chance to win some new crafty goodies.

Clean & Simple really is a challenge for me as frequently I find it difficult to know when to stop adding to a card. I stuck to a colour palette I love of Black and White and added the Martha Stewart punched heart for a spot of colour.

The base of the card is embossed with small hearts using a Crafts Too embossing folder and the ribbon is velvet for more texture. I added a small diamante heart and a sentiment to finish.

Pop over to the Crafty Cardmakers blog to see the lovely examples from the rest of the Design Team and I hope we will be seeing lots of entries.

I'd like to enter this card into a few challenges

• Paper Players Challenge #14 - Clean & Simple
• Little Paper Shop - Clean & Simple

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge # 28

It's another new challenge at Crafty Cardmakers and for this one we have been given a Lady Ga Ga video for the song Bad Romance to use as inspiration.

There are so many different scenes with colour choices but what particularly stuck out for me were the bold red with the stark contrast of white.

I attended the wedding on Saturday of Melissa & Mike Hine and wanted to make a wedding card, fortunately for me their wedding colours were the same so it was a perfect match for the challenge too.

I started off with a base of a marbled red A4 card with a layer of white card which has been embossed with a hearts embossing folder from Crafts Too.

The stamped image is a freebie from a recent magazine which I stamped out 4 times and cut different layers from it. I mounted them onto 3d foam to decoupage and added glitter and colour with Promarkers accordingly. I added personalised colour for the recipients to make it more personal. I used my Nestabilities to cut layers for matting and added lots of stickles glue and gems to bling it up, again inspired by the video.

The spotty red ribbon with the white lace is one from my collecton, I thought it would look a bit like a garter and then I made a lace rose which I am really pleased with how that turned it, it added so much texture to it and I will definitely have a go at using it more.

Finally I added so die cut lettering from the Sizzlits Curlie Gurlie alphabet to represent the names of the Bride and Groom.

We've got a great sponsor for this challenge of Susie Sugar and she is offering a selection of die cuts to the winner of the challenge so it would be great to see lots of Haus of Ga Ga inspired cards and i look forward to seeing them if you enter our challenge this fortnight.

Sponsor - Susie Sugar at Die Cut Dreams

Prize approx £10 worth of die cuts, photo shows a selection of them

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #27

It's our 1st birthday over at Crafty Cardmakers and we are having a birthday celebration. I can't believe we are a year old already.

Well done Vix for all you hard work setting it up and keeping us all organised and we have a great DT who have made some fabulous cards.

My card was made using a birthday cake decoupage from Creative Cardmaking magazine. I have added glitter and lots of Glossy Accents to make many of the elements just good enough to eat. I cut the front of the card down so the cake looks like it is popping up.

The papers and the banner are from Basic Grey. The banner is a cardstock sticker that was really long so I cut it into 3 sections, mounted 3D foam on the back and added small brads to each letter. This will double up as a birthday card for Paul's Grandad who is 90 on the 10th August.

We are sponsored by Joanna Sheen who is offering a £10 voucher for the winner of this challenge so I hope we will see many entries for this one.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge # 26

Over at Crafty Cardmakers the challenge this week is a recipe.

We are to use colours orange or yellow, punches and an animal.

For my card I have used various papers in yellows and oranges (my Happy Colours)

Fiskars punch for the edge of the card and an EK Success punch for the corners.

The Butterflies (I know not STRICTLY an animal) are a Martha Stewart punch and a Papermania white felt one coloured with a yellow Promarker. I little bit of twinkle courtesy of gems and Stickles glitter glue and a lovely summery card is born :)

I am suffering from sever lack of mojo at the moment and on the advice of the lovely Vix I am going to have a sort out of my papers and craft room to see if that will coax it back. At least having had a tidy up I can now see my desk so that is a good start.

I hope we will see you joining in our challenge and I look forward to visiting your blogs.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge # 25

It's challenge #25 over at Crafty Cardmakers and the DT have been provided with a photo as inspiration.

The first thing I saw when I looked at the photo as Love Hearts sweeties which I absolutely ADORE. I really, REALLY wanted to buy a couple of packets to do the posh 'stage the photo' thing but would have eaten them and as I am trying to lose the pounds I put on whilst on the cruise (and then carry back on losing again, I've got a goal you know!!) I thought it might be a good idea to give them a miss. When I was a kid I used to open up the whole packet and read the messages. I'd eat the rubbish ones 1st and the save the best ones till last like 'I love you' and 'Be Mine'. Of course nowadays they have messages like 'Text Me' & 'Email Me' so it's nice to see they have kept up with the times.

Anyhoo, I digress...... I immediately knew I wanted to use some mega cute Quickutz dies I have had for a VERY long time. You know, you just HAD to have them and then I am ashamed to admit I have until now NEVER USED THEM!!!! I am trying so hard not to do that anymore and actually use my stash.

I made an easel cards as the overall design as I do like how they make a card look more special. I used the new Papermania Summer Blooms paper to cover the front and the inside of the card. I used my ever faithful Martha Stewart Doily punch to cut the 'ribbon' and used a small magenta ink pad to distress the edges of all the papers and elements.

The Forever Friends bear is a clear sticker. I love that image and my friend Sarn had given me some stamped images which I have used many times so I think I need to invest in the stamp, it is the perfect image for many cards.

The love hearts were cut from different shades of card and layered with 3d foam. The original die is a heart shape so I cut small circles and layered the heart messages over the top to make them look more like the sweeties. I added another heart inside to provide the stand for the easel. Last but not least I added some FF message stickers from Papermania which I coloured with a pink Promarker to the inside of the card.

This is the prefect card to give to my hubby later this month as we celebrate 22 years of love and happiness. We've been married 9 years in September but you can't forget to celebrate the fact we have been going out with one another for so many years longer.

I would love to see you join in our challenge at Crafty Cardmakers and look forward to popping by your blogs.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges :-

• Creative Craft Challenges - Summer Lovin (colourful flowers and butterflies)
• Fresh Brewed Challenge 10 - Summertime
• Cute Card Thursday 120 - Summer theme
• Allsorts Challenge #60 - July Love
• Flutterby Wednesday #112 - Open theme

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge # 24

For the latest challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers we have been encouraged to have inky finkers and uses ink in one form or another.

I have opted to used my tried and trusted Tim Holtz pad to do some distressing. I had been given a load of greetings cards to recycle and found this fabulous foiled tree and leaf border. I used the distressing pad to rub over the tree to help define the embossed texture and also on the edges of the papers and card blank. The Hampstead papers from Papermania are perfect for this as the colours are autumnal. The mat is a Nellie Snellen frame which has been edged in gold pen and last but not least I used 2 colours of ink to darken the Docrafts 'scrabble' letters as they were a bit too clean looking and didn't suit the card.

Some of the girls have done some amazing projects and I would really encourage you to go take a look at them. It would be great to see you join in our challenges and I look forward to visiting your bogs and seeing your work.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge # 23

It's challenge number 23 over at Crafty Cardmakers and we want to see a card made for a man.

The card I made for this challenge was to celebrate the 65th Birthday of a special friend. I have used the Hampstead range of papers by Papermania, cut mats using Nestabilities dies and used a new embossing folder by Indentz, distressed the text and inked over the top and around the edges with a Tim Holtz distressed ink pad.

The decoupage is a Forever Friends bear which has several layers. The chipboard numbers have stickles glue added for a bit of bling and the sentiment was recycled from an old greeting card. As the recipient is a gardener for his living I have used FF stickers inside to make it more personalised.

I don't tend to make as many cards for men as I do ladies so I'm very much looking forward to visiting your blogs and seeing your lovely creations. I hope you will join us in this challenge.

AWOL

Been a bit AWOL lately. Have been on holiday and had a fantastic time and then of course you have the post holiday blues and lots of catching up to do.

We had a fantastic time on a cruise around the Canary Islands with two fantastic people who showed us the ropes of cruise etiquette. Paul took lots and lots of photos which he is still sorting out, that'll teach him for taking so many. Hoping to get access to them soon so I can upload a few.

Have had absolutely no chance to do any crafting since before I went away, still don't feel like I have got back to 'normal' yet. Work has been totally hectic since I got back and that has taken up a lot of my time and energy. We had a container full of blinds and poles come from China yesterday and it all has to be unloaded by hand within 2 hours. I ache so much today and have got some really nasty bruises, especially on my arms.

Going to an airshow tomorrow at RAF Cosford, never been to one there before so really looking forward to it.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge # 21

The brief for the latest challange at Crafty Cardmakers is to decorate the inside of the card as well as the outside. I have to admit this is something I don't normally do as I don't have much time for crafting due to work commitments, but it does make a card seem more finished and special.

The image is a rubber stamp from Wild Rose Studio. I have coloured it in using Promarkers and used paper piecing for the dress and scarf. This card is for my Sister in law's birthday on and I have personalised the hair colouring to match hers. I think this is a great image for doing that. I have also coloured the wine rose to suit her favourite tipple.

The papers are from Docrafts Rose Garden pad which also has die cut sentiments which I have used both inside and out. The blossoms are layers of cherry blossoms and assorted mulberry flowers which I have coloured with Promarkers and added glitter.

The inside of the card has been decorated with matching paper, more rubber stamping which are images which my friend Sarn gave to me (thankyou sweetie xxx) and a couple of sentiments. my SIL loves clothes and especially shoes so it was great to make her a really pretty card incorporating all the things she likes.

I'm going on holiday on Friday 21st so will be taking a look at the cards submitted for this challenge when I get back. I'm looking forward to seeing all the beautiful entries and I hope you enjoy decorating the inside of your cards just as much as the outside.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge # 20

For the latest challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers we are to use distressing techniques. I personally admire very talented peeps who can do this, however I always feel that my attempts look very amateur in comparison.

The distressing techniques I have used are inking the papers with a Tim Holtz distressing pad and also a Versafine chalk pad in green, love the soft finish the chalk gave to it. The stamped image I have distressed with the edge of a pair of scissors, I love the roughed up texture it gives and this absorbs ink really well. I also bought a distressing tool from Do Crafts and used it to scratch away at the edges of the chocolate background paper.

The linen textured green backing paper and Birdcage papers are from the Chatsworth collection by Papermania. I do not usually do vintage but was drawn to these papers and the matching rubber stamps, on of which has been used here with a small amount of glitter glue added to highlight the likkle tweetie birds.

The pink paper and letters are from the Rose Garden paper pad by Papermania which has 3 sheets of matching die cuts in it. Great idea to add them into the pad itself rather than having to pay for them as a separate item.

The swirls in the corners are Doodlebug doubles sided stickers which have been generously sprinkled with fine glitter. The flowers and gem are from stash and Stickles glitterglue has been liberally added to the Nestabilities scalloped mat for an added bit of bling.

The layout of the card is a sketch from Day 35 of 365 Cards.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge # 19

It's challenge #19 over at Crafty Cardmakers and we are challenging you to make your card from the items you would take with you on a desert island.

Ideally, of course I would NEED to take my computer but I'm guessing power could be a problem so that means digi stamps would be out so of course it would have to be rubber stamps so I could colour them in with my trusty Promarkers and Twinkling H20's.

Another absolute must is yummy papers. These ones are from My Minds Eye and the pale green is a Papermania one. I would have to take my Big Shot and Nellie Snellen dies. I have only a couple of sets so far but love them so much and they make a matted layer look so much fancier.

Ribbon, anyone who knows me knows I love ribbon and have a pretty large collection. I am lucky living in Birmingham as we have the Rag Market and it is great for buying cheap ribbons and lace trims and I love having a mooch round there from time to time.

Flowers, of any type must really feature somewhere. These larger blooms were a magazine freebie and the paper cherry blossom was from a seller on Ebay. My very good friend Lisa recommended buying cream ones and colouring Promarkers. I am very pleased with the results.

Last but not least, everyone needs a bit of bling. In this case it is in the form of glitter on the papers themselves. Quite subtle for me LOL

This card is currently winging it's way to a very special friend. Hope she likes it :)

I hope you will join on our desert island. It would be great to see what 'Must Haves' you all take and whether there is anything new I NEED to buy.

Cheers Big Ears

Last card from the crafty weekend and I've used paper from the free My Minds Eye pad that came with a magazine recently. There have been some great freebies of late and having recently been introduced to MME I love the colours they use and how bright, yet muted they are.

The eleflump is from Creative Cardmaking magazine matted onto a scrap of pinky red paper which has been inked around the edge. The MME paper has been heavily inked and I think it really suits this paper. I have added a cream loopy ribbon from my stash with a blossom, silver bead cap and Card Candy. A nice simple thank you card using a great sentiment and scrummy papers :)

May The Wind Always be at Your Back

Another card from the crafty weekend and more papers and elements from Creative Cardmaking Magazine. I have to admit when I first saw this magazine advertised I was very dubious about their claim that the papers were good quality but they REALLY ARE!!! I personally love bright happy colours and they have been perfect for me.

I matted the sentiment in a crap of patterned brown paper. The ribbon is from my stash, the flowers were from a scrapbook storage set that I got from Costco with a Card Candy centre and again some pretty butterflies left to flap freely.

May The Sun Shine Warm on Your Face

The title of this post is very appropriate considering the gorgeous weather we have had this weekend :) We went out last night to the pictures with our friends and it was so warm I didn't have to wear a coat. I've even turned the heating off today so lets hope it's the promise of things to come.....

This is the second card I made at our crafty weekend. All the papers and elements are from Creative Cardmaking magazine and I love oranges and yellows, they are such warm colours.

I have added a strip of cardstock which has been punched with the MS doily punch. Stickles glitter glue has been added to the flowers and butterfly whose wings have been left to flap freely.

Just being going through the challenges on 365 Cards and this will match in with Day 34 which was to use the colours of green, orange, white, yellow and red. Well that's one crossed off the list :)

Baby Girl Card

This is one of the cards I made at the crafty session about a month ago now (doesn't the time fly?)

I bought a QVC kit which was a themed one for a baby girl. All the papers, rub-ons stickers and ribbons co-ordinate with one another and the papers are double sided and some are glittered.

The glittery butterfly was cut from one of the papers and I used Craftwork Cards card candy for the spots on the wings. Only the body has been stuck down to allow the wings to stand out from the the card.

The centre panel is one of the cardstock stickers which is matted onto 2 layers of papers. The ribbon covering the join is from Docrafts and the flower is from my stash.

It is an A5 size card with the fold at the top.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge # 18

The latest challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers is a challenging Challenge. This for me is a 2 part challenge. I have used a sketch from Day 155 of 365 cards which was from August 2009. As a sketch I just wasn't inspired by it so never did it.

But the main challenge was to actually USE the Flowersoft that I bought at show at the NEC almost 2 years ago. I've got 6 pots of it and have never used it because I'd heard it could go all over the place and make an awful mess. Well I did make a mess, but not as bad as I'd suspected.

The papers are all from a colour co-ordinated capsule pad from Papermania. I just love the oranges and yellows, they are so bright and cheerful and a perfect antidote for the bad weather we have been having lately.

The shaped corners and the centre panel have been cut using Nellie Snellen Dies. The Flowersoft stalks have been placed inside a real terracotta plantpot and I have attached a ribbon bow from the co-rdinated accessories with the Papermania papers. The flowers, gems and sentiment are from my stash.

So I hope that you will take up the gauntlet and join in the challenge with us. I look forward to popping by your blogs and seeing your entries.

Mother's Day Card

This is one of the cards I made recently at a crafty session my forum buddy Lisa organised in Ripple Village hall.

It is he second time we have been there and it was a fab venue once again. It was a lovely sunny Saturday and we all had a fabuous day. There was gossiping, eating, drinking and even some crafting LOL

Helen brought the travelling QVC store and I have to admit I did purchase a few items (Ok, more than a few LOL, well the prices were too good not to)

One thing that I needed to do was make a Mother's day card for my MIL. Her birthday was the 13th March and as it was only the day before Mother's day I needed to make 2 completely different cards.

I had read Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine and there was an article and all the cards used the MME papers I bought recently. I loved this particular card and knew Mom would too. It is a large card which opens on it's side so I used a sheet of A3 card and cut I lengthways to make it big enough. The central section was supposed to be a pop out but I cut it wrong. I didn't have another piece of the inside card so I made it have a centre flap instead so it still worked really well and no one else would know it wasn't right anyway. Believe me, as a previous control freak who demanded perfection it used to take a lot for me to admit I'd done something 'wrong' and bot start allover again!

Anyhoo, I cut an aperture in the card to allow the flower to show through. I covered it with the small leaves paper as I preferred this to the ones they showed in the article. I took the sheet with the large flowers and cut a couple out and applied Rangers Crystal Glaze to them. It took a good few hours to dry. Although the paper is quite strong I wished I had backed it onto card first as they warped a bit and cracked whilst they were drying. The crafty girls thought this looked ok as it gave them more texture so I think I got away with it. but that's one to learn for next time.

Liberal amounts of glitter were added for bling factor, a card candy centre and the sentiment was hand written, hand doodled and added to 3D foam with a little ribbon round it.

I love how this card turned out and MIL loved the colours and the papers so everyone was happy :)

Mom's Birthday card

My mother in law loves bears and whilst reading Papercraft Inspirations magazine I came across the templates for this Bumble Bear card.

I downloaded the online version from the magazines website as this is already sized at 100%. I cut all the bear pieces from a thick card, distressed the edges with a pair of scissors and added chalk for shading.

The tulips were cut from DCWV textured card stock in 3 different shades. I bent and curled the edges, added chalk and they are all mounted on different levels of 3d foam.

The backing paper is from My Minds Eye. The sentiment is recycled from a greetings card and the bow is Papermania. It took a fair bit of work with all the cutting out and shading but Mom loved it so it was well worth it.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge # 16

Challenge #16 at Crafty Cardmakers was to use an image of a lady on your card. I knew immediately I wanted to use the smashing papers by Debbi Moore that came with issue 13 of Creative Cardmaking Magazine.

The Art Deco ladies are so very elegant and in particular I wanted to use the purple one in honour of Purple Day which was the 26th March. This is a day to help bring awareness to Epilepsy and all you have to do is wear the colour purple. My beloved husband has suffered with Epilepsy all his life and there is a lot of stigma attached to it due to ignorance of the condition.

All the papers and elements are from the paper pack. I have added the patterned ribbon strips to a rich purple ribbon and created a layered flower using Primas, a bead cap and glittered brad. I have created depth with 3D foam pads and added lots of bling to the frame and floral accents in the main picture.

I gave this card to a very, very special lady who is like a Mum to me. She loves Art Deco and this was the most perfect card to give her for Mother's Day.

Forum Topper Swap

Carol Ann from our forum arranged a topper swap. Each participant was to make 4 toppers and we would all get 4 different ones back.

Now, I have to admit I struggled a bit because I didn't know how big to make the toppers. We'd had a similar swap last year but I hadn't taken so didn't know what to expect.

My MIL bought me a great Kanban kit off QVC for Christmas 2008 and it has loads of elements which I though would be perfect for this sort of thing. I used die cut frames and mats from Sizzix and Nellie Snellen teamed with glitter, bling and lots of layering.

I was very fortunate to stop at a hotel down by Carol's and helped her sort them all out. There was a fabulous selection sent in by our girls and it was great to see them all together before they headed back out to their lucky recipents.

Valentine Commission

I was commissioned to make a card for one of Paul's work colleagues. I was given a very specific brief by the customer, down to the layout, the type of flowers and the writing. It was rather nice to have the decisions taken away and for a client to have such a good idea of what he wanted.

I started with Calla lilies which he wanted to be in a silver wedding bucket. I made this using silver card with a border on the top cut using the Fiskars Threading Water punch. The bucket is double sided as he wanted a window so I needed it to look nice at both sides. The flowers are sandwiched in between the 2 layers and spaced using 3d foam squares.

The aperture was cut using a Nellie Snellen die, with a red frame cut to go around it. The lettering was a combination of a Cuttlebug alphabet for the lower case and a Sizzix one for the uppercase and was cut from DCWV cardstock. Gems were added from my stash.

Luke was happy with it and I believe his good lady was too. Happy customers, just how I like it.

Sorry, I've been MIA......

I have been a very bad blogger. I've had very little enthusiasm for crafting and when I have made cards I haven't blogged them. I even missed out on making a card for Crafty Cardmakers because I went away for the weekend for an emergency chillout before I went loopy. Work has been hard on me recently and with the bad weather I was just getting more and more down and finding it hard to stay buoyant. I am hoping that I am over the worst and I am able to bounce back and be my normal cheerful self.

I'd been really looking forward to a crafty session with some of my forum buddies and then I really nosedived after that. It took me a while to realise that I'd had something nice to look forward to and that had kept me going mentally and then all of a sudden I didn't have anything to look forward to any more. Now that I have realised this I am making a more concerted effort to book things up and organise weekends and basically enjoy my life more and make it more fun.

So, I've got a lot to catch up on blogwise so there will be a flurry of new posts and I'm hoping to be back to little old me ASAP