Paul's Valentine

This is the card I made for my likkle love using Di Hickman's 1st February sketch. I saw this sketch whilst I was on holiday and just knew straight away what I wanted to do with it.

I used some Rob & Bob paper that I bought ages ago for the main background and stamped 'kisses' around each box using some clear HOTP stamps that I had in a QVC TSV. 1st time I have used these and the impression came out really clearly using a Versafine inkpad. I do like this inkpad and am very tempted to buy some in different colours.

The heart is a Sizzlits die cut and the scalloped circles were cut using my new Nestabilities set. This is the first time I have used them and although I had a bit of trouble getting the sandwich right in the Big Shot eventually I was able to get some really nice crisp cuts and the results are perfect. I added some dots to the outside for definition and mounted on 3d foam.

The card is a lot bigger than I would have made usually as the background block dictated the size (it's about 13" x 8") but it's come out just as I pictured it so I am really happy.

Valentines Card

I had been commissioned by one of my work colleague to make a Valentines card for his girlfriend.

He wanted me to encorporate 2 photos and wanted it to be pink and fluffy.

The backing paper is a bag from the Ann Summers shop, I thought it would be really cool to use as the words are 'love' related.

The 'heart' is a feather boa glued on with a glue gun. I got covered in pink feathers. The chipcoard letters are from QVC TSV - this has been my most used craft kit ever I think !

In the Night Garden Commission

This is one of the projects I was making before I went on holiday that I hadn't had time to blog.

One of my colleagues Sobia asked me to make a card for her nieces 2nd birthday. I made a card for her last year and couldn't believe a year had gone already !

Anyway she is mad about a BBC programme called In The Night Garden and she asked me if there was anything I could do to encorporate this. I hadn't heard of the programme so doing a bit of research found out a load of information and pictures. Sobia had supplied me a photo of Aminah and I came up with the idea of inserting her face into a colouring in picture from the website of one of the characters 'Upsy Daisy'.

I coloured in the sections using PiantShop Pro and decoupaged the image to provide some dimension. My hubby helped me to position the photo (I'm only a learner at these things so his help is invaluable !)

The backing paper is DCWV Peeking Posies and I used Papermania peel offs and rubons for the text.

I'm Back !

I'm back from my holiday and it's been really sunny so the post holiday blues haven't hit yet.

Paul has really missed me and I had a bouquet of flowers waiting for me on the table which was a lovely surprise. He has been really loving and attentive and said I've had months worth of kisses this weekend.

I'm getting down the pile of washing and got loads of photos to download from my holiday. I'm busy with projects at the moment so once the pressing ones have been completed I will be able to relax a bit more.

I'm working nights this week which I have never done before. The place I work is totally different at night and I've wanted to see what happens for a very long time. Also, if Paul's snoring problem persists it may be along term alternative to me not getting any sleep. Since I have comer back Paul's snoring is still very loud and persistent, but at least I don't want to kill him anymore so the holiday has done me some good in that respect!

Greetings from sunny Tenerife

What a lovely place and so warm and sunny. On holiday on my own and missing Paul terribly but getting plenty of rest, loads of sleep without a snoring husband and a sun tan to boot.

However, I can´t wait to get back as I am missing hubby sooooo much. For the 1st time ever I want to go home from a foreign holiday !

Folding Book For Colleague

Our work colleague Sam (the gorgeous blonde on the 3rd picture) is leaving Amtrak and my hubby has worked with her for over 6 years and asked me if I could make something special for her as a leaving card.

I wanted to do something different, but didn't know what. I was browsing through the Docrafts gallery and found a folding book that Joanna Wolska had uploaded and she said she had instructions on her blog . A couple of clicks away and I knew exactly what I was going to do.

Joanna is Polish but her instructions are in English too and were very easy to follow. I had a practice with paper first. I am glad I decided to do that as I felt it needed to be larger and opted to make one with a finished size of 12.5 cm square. I am delighted with how the book came out, it took a lot of putting together (getting suitable photos and even having to take some to get the workmates together) but I felt it was worth it. They are presenting it to her on Tuesday when she leaves.

The papers used in the book have been an assortment from my stash from K & Co, Papermania and Dovecraft. I have embellished pages using ribbons, Papermania peeloffs, fabric sticker, metallic stickers cardstock stickers and silk flowers. I have also used Prima flowers and the centres are 3d metallic squashy dots that I got from Paperchase yesterday. They are ideal for when you need detail without adding bulk like brads or gems do. The triangular sections each house a tag which has been embellished with ribbons and eyelets. These have given an a lots of individual, double sided areas for people to write messages. When I made it I thought there might be too many but in the end some people had to 'overflow' onto the pages.


The box was embellished with a die cut K & Co Frame, Primas, Paperchase gems and Chipboards letters with Liquid Pearls dots.

I have also entered this into 2 challenges on Just Bex for a project using lots of ribbons and also one where an element is painted in some way.

Below is a slideshow of all the pages.

I'm going on Holiday

I am soooooo tired at the moment due to a certain hubbie's snoring and sleeplessness in general. It is making me ill and I need a break. I want to press the pause button for a bit and so I have booked a week's pause in Tenerife.

I am going on my own which will be a first and fly off on the 1st of February which seems a way off, but I am sure will come very quickly. At the moment I can only sleep if I have had a couple of glasses of wine and am knocked out, but that isn't a long term solution, nor is it a solution that I particularly want anyway.

Whilst I am so tired I can feel myself becoming mentally unwravelled and can feel old wounds being opened that I honestly thought were healed, and healed very well too. It hasn't been helped that I read a particular book from the survivor of childhood sexual abuse that upset me greatly and made me question some decisions that I made a few years ago. The last week in particular has been very upsetting and emotional and I want to run away from everything.

For the 1st time ever I am putting myself first, and whilst part of me feels guilty for doing that, another part of me is really excited about having some time to myself to do what I want and to catch some rays at the same time. This will be the longest I have EVER been on my own, and I have never been away from home on my own so that will be an achievement in itself.

Good Luck Sharron

One of our colleague Sharron is leaving and we are going out for a drink with her on Monday evening.

I wanted to make a card for her which is quite bright and cheerful to match her personality.

It started with the large L shape which is a Sizzix die cut letter. I used a piece of chipboard and used the Cuttlebug Swirls embossing folder to add texture. I then coloured it using a Brilliance pearlescent inkpad and added 4 layers of Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE). The final layer was a small amount of a 2 tone embossing powder to make it look patchy and distressed. This is layered onto 3d foam and a small piece of black and white ribbon from Little Silver Hat is tie round it.

The other lettering is a Sizzlits alphabet Round A Bout. The large flowers are die cuts from DCWV which are to match the Peeking Posies range. I also added a Prima daisy and a Dovecraft brad to hold it all together.

The cardstock is white hammered highlighted with chalk and I used a small Whispers rubber stampto add the daisies to the background. These are coloured in using various markers and felt tipped pens.

Another Football Shirt

I have been commissioned by a work colleague and previous recipient of an Aston Villa card who wanted me to make one for a young girl who is 16. He asked me to put her name on it and a photo of David Beckham as she is mad about him.

The template is from one I made myself just piecing together the traditional club colours from card. The badge is printed onto photo paper and the lettering is die cuts from Quickutz Ginger and Olivia alphabets and Sizzlits Round A Bout alphabet.

A Handbag !

I was commissioned by a work colleague to make a birthday card for her friend. She is 20, into art and I was told colours should be blue and purple.

I used cardstock from DCWV Peeking Posies pad for the base card which has a subtle glittered finish.

I embellished the card using Prima daisies and a bit of bling in the centre courtesy of Paperchase. The 'handle' is a piece of feather boa which I bought from Birmingham Rag market some time ago. I only have a very small piece left but it was so expensive I couldn't afford to buy much of it.

The lettering on the name is rub-ons from a freebie subscriber gift from the NEC in November.

I'm a Di Hickman DT runner up !

Di Hickman has announced the New Design Team members and although I'm not a winner I am going to be a Guest Designer for the month of April !

I am really, really pleased I have been chosen. Although I have been making cards for a long time now I still think I'm not very good and there are so many people that are waaaay better than me. This is a great confidence booster.

1st Card of 2008 & Di Hickman Sketch January #1

It seems appropriate that the 1st card I make this year is also the first of Di Hickman's sketches ! In a first for me I twisted the sketch around, will wonders never cease.

One of our friends has just moved this weekend into a flat with her little girl so I made this little card for her.

The house is a Sizzix die cut mounted on 3D foam, the ribbons are Papermania as is the bling in the centre of the Prima flowers.

The sentiment is a ribber stamp and I have used a brand new Versafine inkpad and I am so impressed with it. It dried straight away and I got the nicest crisp impression that I have ever got with this stamp.

In an effort to re-organise my craft room I have packed all my Christams stuff away on top of the bookcases and have been switching stuff around to make the stuff I use most easier to get to. I have also condensed my flowers into less pots. I have a lot of Primas and various other flowers so I got 2 cookie jars from Asda (bargain at 99p each) and one now holds all my Prima Daisies, the other has various sizes of Primas. I still have 3 bottles of the tiny ones and I have used the other bottles to hold other bits and pieces. This has enabled me to empty 8 other containers and jars which can go to the recycling box. They looked pretty in their own containers but unless you have oodles of space they are not very practical are they ?

I have got so much stash that I need to be very careful about buying any more. I am going to TRY not to buy unless I NEED it. If I am not replacing something I have used up I think I need to seriously question whether I should purchase it or not and not impulse buy just because I see something I like. Paul will be very happy to hear that I have no doubt as he says I have too much stuff and he is probably right. (Don't tell him okay LOL)

Happy New Year Everyone

Cannot believe how quickly 2007 flew by. Doesn't seem like 2 minutes since I was nursing a delicate head last year after one too many Southern Comfort & lemonades. Last night we had some gorgeous frozen cocktails that we bought from the food and drink show at the NEC in December.

I decided I was going to tidy up my craft room yesterday as it was a mess from Christmas and I wanted to re-organise it. It's still not finished but I think it will be a lot better than it was. Only trouble is I have a lot of things I've not found homes for yet........

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful New Year. I hope you have much success with your hopes & aspirations, Good health, wealth, love, luck & happiness now and always, but most importantly a free flowing mojo to help the crafy process.

Facebook

OMG, how addictive is that !

Paul joined Facebook a few days ago and was telling me all about it. I've heard of it of course but wasn't bothered about it a I am a very busy bee already but I finally succumbed and joined yesterday and find myself a little addicted.

A load of my ex-work colleagues are on there (most are Techies in IT) and a load of my forum crafty buddies are on there too. After less than 24 hours I have 23 friends and still have loads of people who have not responded.

I am hoping that it is a novelty thing and my fascination with it will wear off otherwise I will have no time for crafting and the whole purpose of my blog will be lost.

Cardmaking with CJ

Our nephew CJ stopped over at our house on Friday night and we had a good time playing games and watching DVD.

Saturday we went to the cinema and saw Balls of Fury which was a very funny parody of old Kung Fu films set in the guise of a Ping Pong tournament. It was quite cheesy but really funny and I enjoyed it immensely. We then went to Burger King for our dinner and we took him home as him Mum is really poorly with a horrible sickness & diorrhea bug. CJ started with it on Christmas Eve and it has been passed round everyone, we are hoping he hasn't given it to us.

When we got to their house he asked me to help him make a card for his Mum to say thankyou for his Christmas Presents. I had given him a huge cardmaking pack for his Birthday so he had loads of supplies and his Mum loved it. He said he had professional help from me (how sweet is that ?) but really I sat back and let him create, I just showed him what he had in his pack as he hadn't opened all the packets up.

All in all it was great to really enjoy spending time with him. He is growing up so fast, I can't believe he is 11 already and is not a little boy anymore.

Di Hickman Card Sketch Team call

Di Hickman is on the lookout for about 3 people to become members of her design team and gave us a special sketch to use & to email our designs to her by the 26th December.

I made 2 cards as it seemed appropriate as you cut up one paper, you could use the negative as well. 2 cards at the same time can't be bad!

The first card was made using DCWV papers, scrummy Dovecraft velvet ribbon, a Craftworks Cards tag and Sizzlits Wingo Zingo alphabet


The second card was made from the offcuts of DCWV paper, a Cuttlebug embossing folder, Cuttlebug die for the curcular strip, a Papermania metal rimmed tag and Papermania big brad from the new Christmas collections. The sentiment is a magazine freebie.

I emailed the designs off yesterday and am keeping my fingers crossed. It would be FAB to become a DT member and as I love doing Di's sketches that would be the best one to be on !

Happy Birthday CJ

It was our Nephew's birthday on Christmas Day and this is the card I made for him. He's now 11 and getting VERY cool so I thought I needed to do something different, but didn't know what.

I happened to get an email from a store with a sale starting so went to browse, saw this Cuttlebug folder (which I already had but not used before) and was inspired.

One of my forum buddies had uploaded a card which had been embossed on acetate so I embossed a full folder with that and it came out really well. I am so impressed with these folders as the image is so very crisp. I inked the raised words and layered it on blue so it stood out. This makes it look like a subtle shine on the card which I was pleased with. I then embossed a piece of white card and cut out individual words that summed up what we think of CJ the most. He is growing up to be a lovely young lad and we are very proud of him.

The 'medal' is a Papermania Tag with a Cuttlebug embossing folder inserted in it and embellished with ribbons and the die cut lettering is my new Sizzlits alphabet Round a Bout bought from the Ellison's sale (75% off, what a bargain !)

I wasn't sure if he would like the card or not as this is the first 'grown up' design that I have made for him but he loved it.

Di Hickman Sketch December #3 - 2 cards

This is the card I made for my hubby using this sketch from Di Hickman and some Blonde Moments patterned paper I won in a little competition (Thank you Valerie)

The stamped image is a Penny Black one. I bought some images from an Ebay seller and this was one of the designs. I WAS SUPPOSED to be using this and other designs to make special Christmas cards to sell at work but I became so busy with commissions that my time was spent elsewhere. Oh well, at least I will be prepared for next year (yeah right!)

The stamped image was coloured using Marvy le plume pens, Sakura glitter pens and the 'snow' on the umbrella was applique paint (not puffed up) sprinkled with Glamour dust whilst still wet. It looks raised and shiny in real life but the scan doesn't pick it up at all.

The sentiment is from a recycled Christmas card.

My hubby loved it :)

This card was also based on the sketch and was made for our good friends and next door neighbour. The patterned paper is DCWV, a Cuttlebug embossing folder was layered up and the snowman highlighted with a second layer. I also used a clear Sakura glitter pen to highlight some of the words and snowflakes but this is too subtle to show on the scan. The snowflake is a Sizzlits die embellished with a bit of bling and the sentiment is a Freebie Digital Download that I printed out on photo paper some time ago and now cannot find on my computer.

If I am printing photos I like to fill the rest of an A4 sheet up with other things to print so I don't waste paper and have some things to hand that I like. I find if I only use the photo at the time the rest of the paper gets dog eared and wasted anyway so it's a bit of a bonus to do what I do.

Ian's Leaving Scrapbook

A good friend at work is leaving to move up to Lancaster and I was asked to make a special leaving card for him. As he was Paul's immediate boss we know him quite well and he will be sorely missed. He has so much knowledge in his particular area of expertise I think they will struggle without him.

I decided to make a mini scrapbook, all of the pages are in the slideshow below.

He is passionate about a few things (Preston North End football team, Single Malt whisky and walking & cycling in the Lake District) so I encorporated them into the book which was assembled mainly by using images from the tinterweb printed on photo paper.

I have used backing papers from various sources and die cut lettering from Cuttlebug and Sizzlits, some Sizzlits diecuts a few stickers. There were a few pages at the back left for people to write on and I wrote a poem especially for him. I made a box for it to presented in but forgot to take a photo !

They gave it to him yesterday and he was overcome with emotion. He said he knew it must have taken a long time to do and really appreciated it.

Di Hickman Sketch December #1

Another Rak for a forum buddy who has suffered a very sudden and tragic bereavement.

I have used this Di Hickman Sketch for the design layout.

The backing paper is a magazine freebie, the paper layered on top is a hessian textured wallpaper.

The sentiments is from Let's Make Cards, the flower is a Cuttlebug mini embossing folder and this is layered on another circular design to make it bolder. The embossed image was highlighted with ink and the flower coloured in with a permanet marker.