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Tuesday 30 November 2010

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:-

Monday 29 November 2010

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:-

Sunday 28 November 2010

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.

Monday 15 November 2010

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.

Saturday 13 November 2010

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.......

Monday 1 November 2010

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:-