Thursday 26 January 2012

Black and White


This week seems to have had a "monochromatic" theme and this 2nd card was quick and easy. The card was folded on my wooden folding board from paper mill days. The first line was scored at gatefold A5 and creased then the card placed back on the board and scored along A5 from A4 sheet line. This gives the unusual gatefold . The finished card is A5 size. The border was done with the crafty edger. I forgot to take a note of which papers I used and there're none left to refer to, sorry, but it was nice to make use of both sides on the card. A little punched flower complete with gem just add the finishing touch. I added an insert trimmed with the same border which you can just about catch a glimpse of.

Key


The first of this weeks cards for class. I used the Papermania Urban Stamp set and one colour of distress inks (walnut stain). An X cut scalloped oval provides the background for the cut out key and a little piece of brown gingham ribbon finishes it off.

Wednesday 25 January 2012

Hot Diggety Dog


Today's task was to create some cards using these decoupage from a Die-cut pack. They're pretty clean and simple. The dog with the little coat on reminds me of our own wee Suzie! The background is another tri-boss folder and the background on the shoe easel card is embossed with a butterfly folder which I think is from Craft concepts. Please correct me if I'm wrong tho! I put the Woodware crafty edger to use too, with the ribbon border amd the stars border.

Easter Bunny


I decided to play with the new egg shaped dies from X-cut in work yesterday, so combined them with this cute stamp. I'm not happy with the colouring on the outside and think the inside stamped on the cream card looks better. I'll put that one down to experience. The gold layer is embossed with one of the new tri-boss folders from paper mania.

Monday 23 January 2012

Bowling


This is a pretty rubbish photo and not the best card I' ve ever made but I got a call from a friend on Saturday who needed "a card for a man who plays bowls whose birthday is today"! PANIC! Well I trawled the net for ideas and came up with precisely nothing. This is all I could think of and it's ok. She was pleased but I felt it was a bit boring. Anyway it's done and delivered so we'll see what the recipients verdict is.

Lovely lilies


First an observation! You know you have a problem when you " just have to buy" a goody bag which costs £15 because you NEED the gorgeous embossing folder it contains!!! Thank-you Heather for putting temptation in my way!! Lol.

Today I decided to play some more with the moments in faith stamp set. Looking at it at first I found it hard to think of ways to use it that weren't going to look like sympathy cards. Then I had a brainwave and thought pink!! I was at least able to use some of the lovely papers which were also in the goody bag. Well I think it worked out quite nicely! I got to play with my elegant edges cartridge again too. I am really loving it and can see so many uses for it there're just moot enough hours in the day!

Friday 20 January 2012

Jack's cabinet


Last one for today!

Since mum was so pleased with her cabinet and it's so difficult to know what to get him, I decided to do a cabinet with a masculine feel for my favourite "old" gentleman, my step- dad, Jack. He has a large collection of cuff links so I thought it would be ideal for those. Jack loves trains, having been brought up as a station masters son, so I was able to include a couple on the drawers. He had also worked at the shipyard so the little Cunard accents suited too. I got the papers in Crafters and Co. I think they are Basic Grey but can't be sure.(they are actually Graphic 45 papers)I thought covering all the drawer fronts with pattern was going to be too much so painted some using the same basic colours as the cabinet itself. It was a well received Christmas gift.

Free stamp


I got this lovely stamp free with one of my magazines and just had to have a play. Lime green is not a colour I would usually go for I have to say but it works here. I created texture and interest by using glossy accents, gems and decoupaging the little yellow flower up. The butterfly is a different stamp and I've no idea where it came from! Perhaps it needs a greeting but I couldn't decide so left well enough alone. What do you think?

My own Christmas cards.


These were two of the designs I used for the cards I sent out at Christmas.

Snowflake card.

The snowflake was cut with the cuttlebug die again. And the background embossed. This card needed very little else and was quick for batches. A peel-off greeting and some gems were all the embellishments required.

Bauble card.

Another quick card, the bauble was cut using a Marianne Creatables die from sparkly card. I then stuck these to a sheet of turquoise and cut around them by hand. The borders were created using the Woodware Crafty Edger and elegant flourish die.

Christmas again.


Christmas tree.

This was a CASE of a card made by my good friend Rhonda. She used purple and lime but I wanted more traditional colours.
The stamp is from Woodware and I coloured it using Pro-markers, ruby, pine, gold, grass and cocoa. The ribbon was quite broad and looked bare so seemed like a good place to put the greeting peel off? A little bit of stickles and a card candi finish it off.

Joy card.

I got inspiration from a magazine for this card and chose contemporary colours. The pink sparkly snowflake is cut using a cuttlebug die. The letters J and Y were cut with the Cricut on ' George and basic shapes' and the O is another Woodware stamp. Again finished using pro-markers, some iridescent stickles and card candi.

Cards from a previous class

Cards from my 2nd class.

Rose pocket fold

I cut a 12X12 double sided paper to 11" so it would fit in the envelope. (have made that mistake before!!) the Crafty Edger ribbon border punch worked really nicely and the rose, made from a scalloped circle, just fills up the wee space at the corner. The only problem is that despite my efforts it still won't fit in the blinken envelope as the flower sits up too high! Aww well, better luck next time!

Let it snow

I made use of my collection of Cuttlebug folders for the 2nd card.(I didn't get the title 'cuttlebug queen' from my friends in Paper Mill shop days for nothing!!!!) the background was embossed using snow dots and the a larger tree using budding vine. The tree shapes were cut with a nellies die. Torn pearlised paper makes snow and "Let it snow" embossed and mounted on a scrap piece of silver sparkly card completes this one.

Samples for Cleo Crafts.

These are some more samples for the shop. If you call in you will be able to see them "in person". I tried to use lots of new products and really enjoyed making them.You know I still surprise myself at how lovely things can come out! Lol. They just seem to happen. I am still playing catch up and have got lots still to post so please bear with me. Hope you all like them so far!

Thursday 19 January 2012

Elegant cards

These two cards I made as samples for Cleo Crafts.
The cross and passion flower one is done using the new "Moments of Faith" stamps. I embossed the top part with a folder called Venus. The purple edge was cut using the circuit machine and Elegant Edges cartridge. Some card candi and lace finish it off.
The sympathy card uses a Stampendous stamp on a mat cut from "elegant edges". The background paper is from Echo Park and the border is done using Tim Holtz Alterations-Iron Gate on nightfall Core-donations which has been embossed and sanded lightly. I cut off one of the spikes to be able to wrap the ribbon behind. The whole thing was mounted on a card which I embossed with a folder I've forgotten the name of but call my "wallpaper" folder, overlapping it to get the whole area done. A few black pearls finish this one off.

And the back

Not too exciting but just to let you see!

Inside the box

Inside are lots of little drawers in which to keep "precious things." Mind you all that mum has in hers is air as she says it's 'too good to get ruined!' Honestly! Each drawer is lined with a piece of felt to keep things from being scratched. The whole chest is decorated using Prima "Madeline" papers

Now for something different

I altered this little chest as a gift for my dear mum for her birthday in August past. The chest came from Crafters and Co in Coleraine, one of my most favourite places to shop( but best avoided because I always spend far too much!) Mum was delighted with it.

This card was taught he same day as the "border tree", again to children first then adults on a different day. Because we used punches to get the layers this was another straight forward card.

First card I taught at Cleo Crafts

I know Christmas is past but I wanted to post the cards I have taught but hadn't yet put up. This card was taught to children and adults both. Easy but effective.

Trial run

First upload from iPad. Not quite sure how I managed it! Anyway this was a bit of a brainwave I had on the way home from work last night. The butterfly is not cut completely away from the white mat, in a similar way to cutting nesties on the edge of the cuttlebug to get a swing card. The card is more purple than it looks in the photo and quite plain but for a quick card I'm happy with it. I'm even more pleased to have got it posted. Now to see if I can repeat the process....

Thursday 12 January 2012

Ruth on A Passion for Cards is offering this lovely blog candy.


http://apassionforcards.blogspot.com/

+5 DIGIS

I've had these 5 Promarkers to use as a giveaway for a while and was waiting till after Christmas when the postal service had settled down again. 
So, I have 5 BRIGHT Promarkers and 5 digi images (of the winner's choice) from A Passion for Stamps to give away. You'll find all the details on A Passion for Stamps.
All I ask is that
a) you are a follower(existing or new)
b) you leave a comment on the post on A PASSION FOR STAMPS    (NOT HERE)
c) you add the pic, LINK and details to your blog
sidebar to spread the word.
It will run until 31st of January
 

Monday 9 January 2012

Hi to all my blog friends. I am sooo glad to be back. I have been without phone or internet since just after my last entry so it was great to see the engineer out to repair the fault. I have lots to share with you so here goes:-
This is a very quick and simple card I taught at Cleo Crafts last week. As you can see the front section is actually cut down from the top and folded forward before the green core-dinations card (which was punched using the Woodware crafty edgers slotted ribbon punch) is attached. This was then threaded with a narrow piece of checked paper...Doodlebug design 2385-square dance. The top section is a piece of American crafts Romance -Love spell with the plain side facing which I tinted around the edges with worn lipstick distress ink. Underneath the flap, before it was secured down, I put a piece of Echo Park Victoria Gardens-Rose Garden VG17002. An Anita's silver "elegant thank you" peel off and some gems from the local pound shop complete this card.




This was the 2nd card from class and uses tea-bag folding .The background paper is Doodlebug Design 2140 Nature Walk and the remaining supplies are just plain card and a lovely pearlised gold paper. I decided to complete the card with a little bit of punching  and added some detail on an insert this time. Everyone seemed to have great fun making this card.



Now these were just  me having a bit of a play. I saw the idea in Craft Stamper magazine and immediately knew I wanted to use this stamp, from Stampin-up, which I've had for such a long time and has hardly ever had an airing. The card on the right is the original version but then I wanted to do it again a different colour  and went to town with Cosmic shimmers misters. I intended to mask off around the flower and add my pearlescent effect but in the excitement didn't realise that I had a little section on the top right uncovered too. Anyway I actually quite like it now!! Happy accident! lol. On the third card (below) I decided to highlight the bloom a little more and added some colour to the leaves. I could play with this idea for ages changing colour and effects but I really like all of them so far. ;)


Finally for now I took inspiration from Heather at Doodlecraft and made a little wall plaque which I am going to give to a friend I haven't seen for a while. The sentiment (borrowed from same Heather) is not too clear but says "In the cookies of life friends are the chocolate chips"


I have lots more to upload but my photography needs to improve. I keep getting badly blurred images which no-one would want to see! I'm away to try again. Back soon, X.