Pwetty Butterfly & Just Bex Challenge

This card was made for a challenge on Just Bex where you had to pick a letter and use 3 things starting with it.

I chose B and the components were butterfly, brad and buckle. The colours blue and black would have also counted at a push!

The butterfly is a stamped image coloured in using Marvy Le Plume pens and Sakura Glaze pens for the little flowers. The flower in the centre is tiny brad from a pack I got at Lakeland. The ribbon is Papermania and the buckle was bought from Ebay a while ago. The card blank is from Let's Make Cards.

Not put a sentiment on the card yet, I need to start making more cards for my own stash as I only seem to make them for commissions at the moment. My box at work badly needs sorting out and some new vibrant stock filling it up.

Happy Birthday Grandad

The last card for Katie was to be from her small son to his Grandad.

I used HOTP papers and my favorite Penny Black teddy stamps to spell the letters of Grandad.

The tag and ribbon are also HOTP, the brad and all peel offs are Papermania.

These teddies are one of by best stamping purchases and people always seem to love the results.

Happy 65th Birthday

Katie's Dad's card was to have a horse racing an domino theme.

The papers are again from the Dovecraft male pack, the leather ribbon is Papermania as are the cork 'Scrabble' letters. The chipboard letters and numbers are from a QVC TSV. The image was snaffled off the internet and printed onto photo paper and the dominoes were purchased some time ago from Poundland.

Really pleased with how this turned out and so was Katie.

Liverpool Supporters 30th Card

This card was given by Katie to her husband who as you can tell supports Liverpool.

The backing paper is from a forum buddy who makes her own papers using one of the graphics programs. I printed this onto hammer textured paper with 50% opacity so it looked more muted. The main image is printed onto photo paper and mounted onto red card to give it more oomph. I added a strip of red to the centre to provide an area to add the sentiment and the age using peel off, a banner and rub ons.

I am really pleased with how this card came out, I am sure any Liverpool supported would be delighted to receive it.

30th Birthday Card Football

My work colleague Katie gave me a commission for 4 cards for her husband and father.

This card was made for her husband from their small son.

The papers are from the Dovecraft Male themed pack.

The trophy, ball and banner are Sizzix die cuts that I bought some time ago from Ebay. I have since purchased the ball die and have a trophy but it is much smaller than this one. The Dad sticker is from a QVC TSV kit and the sentiment is a Papermania rub on. I used curling ribbon to embellish the trophy but this got squashed in the scanner!

Happy Birthday Harrison's Nanny

The cardI made from Harrison to his Nanny was made using an image from Pink Petticoat which I printed onto glossy photo paper. This was mounted onto some more of the metallic cardstock from Craftwork Cards. This was real bargain in their sale as I got 50 sheets for £5.

The base card is from a Let's Make Cards pack. The quality of them isn't too bad although I do find that sometimes the way they are packaged actually damages the cards which is a shame.

The image was embellished with a Crayola permanent metallic marker and a bit of Stickles glitter glue. The patterned paper, ribbon and peel offs are all Papermania.

Both cards were made to be flatter than I would normally do so he could post them both in the same envelope, so no 3d foam on these designs !

I do like the PP designs. To be honest I keep forgetting I have them and when I print onto photo paper I try to use the rest of the sheet at the same time so I am making a concerted effort to keep printing them out ready to use for future projects.

Happy Birthday Andy's Mum

My work colleague Andy asked me to make 2 cards for his Mum's Birthday - one from him and the other from his son

For his I used paper that is a sheet of giftwrap from Paperchase with loads of girly images on it.

The dress is a Papermania peeloff from a QVC TSV that was placed on velvet paper and some of the detail was coloured in using a permanent metallic marker. This was then mounted onto pink metallic card from Craftwork Cards.

The card was then accented using other Papermania peeloffs and velvet letter stickers from Poundland

Rob's Birthday + Just Bex Challenge

Our next door neighbour and very good friend Rob has just recently celebrated his birthday and this is the card I made him using this sketch from a Just Bex challenge.

The patterned papers on the card were from a Dovecraft men's pack and the blue and letters are by HOTP.

The sentiment banner is from my stash, no clue who made it !

We took him out for a meal to our favourite Indian Restaurant. We have all been there many times and the food is sublime.

Mother's Day Card + Di Hickman Sketch Feb #4

This is the card I made for Paul's Mum using this recent sketch from Di Hickman.

I used HOTP papers for the background. The lacy one was a 2 page spread and I just cut the lace edge off each and it was the perfect width. I am not very good at using 2 patterned papers together but the HOTP creative packs and Sarapapers make it so much easier for you.

The scalloped edge circle is cut using a Nestabilities die. I do love these, they add so much interest to a card in a such a simple way. They cut even the thickest card very well indeed. I added bling to the scallops using gemstones from Paperchase. They used do do great value pots of 250 to 400 gems for about £2.50 - £4 and they were a decent size pot. Shame they don't seem to do them anymore. I do like the Papermania ones but sometimes they are a little bit smaller than you would like and they only have a small number of each size on a pack.

The heart is a topper embellishment that I bought from Ebay. I bought a pack of assorted handmade paper embellishments last year with the intention of making Mother's day and Valentine cards and never got the time to do it so this is the 1st one I have used. How many crafter's have similar stories I wonder?

Bad Blogger !!!

I have been a very bad blogger recently. I've not been too clever recently as I realised that my problems couldn't be solved by going on holiday for a week.

Paul's snoring when I got back off holiday drove me round the bend and I thought I was going to lose my marbles. I had a nervous breakdown about 4 years ago and felt myself slipping back into the abyss and it really scared me. We ended up buying a single bed and although it was a difficult decision to make I started sleeping apart from Paul. This has helped me stop and think about what is REALLY wrong with me. I have realised that I was slipping back into my hate myself phase which is so terribly destructive. I give the impression I am this happy go lucky person and I am so unhappy a lot of the time because my self image is so poor. I think little of myself and cannot reconcile that someone else would not think the same. I'd totally lost my confidence and felt like I didn't matter to anyone or exist. Of course this couldn't be further from the truth, but when you feel like this there is nothing you can do and no one can tell you otherwise.

I have now come to the conclusion it is because I am so overweight and feel a bit trapped. I have decided I do not want to inhabit this fat person anymore and although I have a huge amount of weight to lose have decided to embrace it is a complete change of my life, not just a diet.

Paul and I have joined a gym 2 weeks ago and are going 4 times a week. A lot of the time we are going before work as it opens at 6.30am and I can honestly say I feel so much better and more positive. It is making me feel more bouncy and alive and for the 1st time in my life I am enjoying being active. It is costing us £55 per month each to go so I feel I need to 'get my money's worth' but also I am REALLY enjoying going - it's a weird feeling. I hope the novelty doesn't wear off !

One really good thing that has come out of it is that I have been able to sleep with Paul again all this week. If he is snoring I am sound asleep and cannot hear it. One night I couldn't sleep very much and I didn't hear him snoring. This is good news, if going to the gym will stop him snoring so bad that is worth much more than £55. If I am able to sleep with him again tonight I am going to deflate the single bed as I think that we may have solved the problem.

Also I think it is making me more tired so I am having a much better quality of sleep. I also think that mentally I am much happier with myself as I am actively doing something about my problem. Win Win all round I think.

So I have got a fair few projects that I did before I went away that haven't been blogged. My MOJO pretty much left me whilst I was so low and I couldn't even do my RAK's and felt awful about that. Thanks to some wonderful friends for being there for me and pulling me out of the black hole. I have however now found my creative side again and have started fulfilling commissions so over the next few days will be blogging them all.

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.

Di Hickman Sketch November #4

Another Rak and another Di Hickman Sketch !

Used this one as inspiration using more Let's Make Cards bits, some ribbon and HOTP brads.

I'm in my purple phase still and have used some more of the lush ribbon from the NEC. How I wish I had bought 2 reels !

Di Hickman Sketch October #5

Catching up on blogging recent cards I have made using Di Hickman sketches. Used this one to make a Thank you card.

All items used were bits and pieces from various Let's Make Cards issues. I have had these packs for a while and used so little of them that I am making a concerted effort to split them up and use the elements. I am discovering that if they are in a little box on my desk I have a far better chance of using them.

Thanks to Di's sketches I am getting much more used to leaving blank spaces on my cards !

Leaving Card + Di Hickman Sketch November #3

One of the Girls at work Nicky left on Friday so I made her a card using this Di Hickman sketch as inspiration.

As soon as I saw this sketch I felt the row of circles lent itself to a message and think it works really well.

I used DCWV Peeking Posies paper as she is a bright and funky girl and loves pattern. I used a Cuttlebug alphabet for the lettering and there is a strip with circles joined together which I used to cover the join in the 2 papers.

The finish off I selected co-ordinating Prima's and added a touch of bling. She loved the card !

French Invites

I was commissioned by a work colleague to make some cards on behalf of her in laws to celebrate a 60th birthday. They are hiring a French chateau for a week and inviting key people to a party they are having.

I downloaded the photo from the website they booked through and matted on black & gold and raised on 3d pads.

The text is printed onto the card blank and the bottle and glasses is confetti on 3 d foam.

The inserts are individually printed.

Lucky them, wish I was going......

Merry Christmas H

I was commissioned by a work colleague Andy to make this card for his girlfriend.

The brief was pink, girly and fluffy. The first thing I thought of was this Penny Black image as having met H she is so thin and petite and I thought this was perfect. Not owning the stamp I went shopping on Ebay and got some stamped images. Unfortunately they got lost in the post during the post strikes so the nice lady sent them again.

I coloured in the design using a glitter pen for the outfit and Marvy le Plume pens for the hair and skin. The white areas were filled using the applique paint that you fluff up with a heat gun sprinkled with Glamour Dust fine glitter. The stamped image was matted on black and then pink glitter card. This panel is raised from the card using 3d foam.

The H started out life as a plain beige chipboard piece from Poundland (an absolutely fantastic buy I have mentioned previously, I only wish I had been able to get more than 1 alphabet pack) I coloured this with pink permanent pen, 2 layers of Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel and sprinkled with Glamour Dust.

The patterned paper is a wrapping paper from Paperchase. The black patterned is a flocked design so it is very tactile. The fluffy border is a previous purchase of an item sold as Christmas Ribbon a couple of years ago. All I know is it was a bugger to stick down ! The sentiment is a Papermania peel off. It's really nice to be able to get decent sized card sentiments these days.

The inside of the card is personalised with a photo and a special message. Andy absoloutely loved the card. He is giving it to H tonight so I will get the verdict in the morning.

Paul's Birthday + 100th Post !

It was my wonderful hubby Paul's birthday on Sunday and I made this card for him using nearly a whole sheet of Doodlebug stickers !

I was buying some lovely new butterfly papers from the Capture The Magic site never having previously purchased Doodlebug and I have to say I am in love :)

I saw these cardstock stickers and just knew I needed them for my tech mad hubby. He works in IT and just happens to be gadget mad.

I like doing this style of cards, but they are a bugger to scan and display properly !





I can't believe that is my 100th post ! I was so resistant to doing this as I just didn't have the time to do other stuff as well as making cards, but I am so glad that I did (my hubby will say told you so) I am able to ramble on about all the lovely things I have made to my hearts content. I honestly don't know if many people visit my blog but I know it has been a great way to showcase what I do to potential customer's and it's nice to write down the materials that have been used etc for each project.


As expected it does take a lot of my time, but I feel it is worth it. Also it has been a great way to get more involved in forums and other peoples blogs and that ultimately has expanded my cardmaking into other areas and now started scrapbooking albeit on a small scale at the moment.

I cannot imagine what I would do if I didn't craft !

Nanny's Birthday Book

One of my work colleagues asked me to make a special book for her. It was to be from 2 little girls for their Nanny's Birthday.

I was provided with loads of photo's of the 2 little cousins and set to work. It was decided that there should be some with them together and also some separate. Tash came up with the idea of handprints from each of the girls and I have left a page alongside so they can do their individual messages to their Nanny which would be a special touch that all Nanny's would appreciate I think.

She liked the same coloring as the previous book I made so I used the same paper for the cover. I added the chipboard circles and brads to wrap the closure round as this was a great mistake that I made on the first one. I just didn't anticipate the difficulty of keeping the book closed !

The patterned papers used inside are from various manufacturers and I used a sprinkling of Primas to embellish the pages.

The matching box and front of book were embellished using die cut lettering from Ellisons Curlie Girlie and Sizzlits extended cuts Wingo Zingo. The paper was a self adhesive irridescent film and the alphabets came out much better using this thinner medium.

I have done a Slideshow of all the pages below.

Di Hickman Challenge September #4

I made this card for my friend Dervla as she left to have her baby. The 'Guardian Angel' is there to watch over her and Baby G in the final few weeks and was made using wire & various beads I have gathered. One of my forum buddies had made and Angel of Love and I thought I would have a go at something similar. I made a few of them and they will probably be appearing in other cards.

I used one of Di Hickman's templates as inspiration for the layout. I don't usually tear small pieces so that was a little different for me. Both pieces of card are from my scraps box and I used a Cuttlebug folder to emboss the swirls and ran a silver inkpad over the top to highlight.

The backing paper is DCWV Peeking Posies and has a subtle glitter in the centre of the flowers. The ribbon at the back was left loose so I could hang the tag from it using a heart shaped paperclip from Paperchase. The tag is from HOTP to which I added some appropriate rub on sentiments from Let's Make Cards and attached it with a Papermania Brad.

Exploding Baby Box

My good friend and work colleague Dervla was leaving to have a baby and I was asked to make a card for everyone to sign.

I'd already decided that I wanted to make something very special for her and came up with the idea of putting a baby bootie inside an exploding box. This would then give plenty of flaps for my colleagues to write their sentiments in.

I made the bootie first using a template obtained from the By Donavan site. The finished bootie then dictated the size the box needed to be. I embellished the edge of the bootie with border outline stickers and a Papermania brad. The sentiment was added as it looked a little plain and the baby when born will have a surname of G.

The box was made to a finished size of 5 1/2" square and required the use of many pieces of card to get the required shape. I used a piece of mountboard for the base to make it substantial and all the pieces wer then mounted on that.

The layers were individually decorated. The base has peel off borders around each edge. The top cream layer has been corner punched with a corner adorner punch. This performed really well even though the card was very thick. I used this cut out shape to stencil through with a gold gel pen to the green layer to add a little interest.

The embellishments used inside were a mixture of items from a QVC TSV kit (baby tag with HOTP nappy pin, pram,angel tag, cutie tag,) Lisa Bearnsen QVC kit (clear quotes, B embellishment on lid) Prima flowers Pink Petticoat downloaded image.

Dervla said she wasn't going to cry - but she did ! I said I hadn't done my job very well if she didn't. She absolutely loves it, so does James to proud Father to be. I just wanted to make something special for 2 lovely people and I am very much looking forward to meeting Baby G.

As a result of making this box I have now been commissioned to make another one so i guess I'll have to cost this one up !

I have made a slideshow with all the images of the card below.