Tuesday, 13 September 2011

Christmas is coming ... with Humphrey! :o)

Hi,

Those of you who are Crafter's Companions will already know about Humphrey, the little elephant with a BIG heart.


Well, the fabby team at CC are launching Humphrey's Christmas today! Yippeeeeee! I can't wait. Click here to get to the Crafter's Companion website where you can find more info.

Wednesday, 7 September 2011

My First Easel Card - Wedding Acceptance

Hi,

I decided to extend my knowledge and abilities and have made my first easel card. This is the result, together with an envelobox to go with the card. I also wanted this to be a very special card as it is in response to the Wedding Invitation from my brother and his FiancĂ©e. :0) !!!!!!!!!!


Not only was this my first easel card, but it's also the first time I've coloured in a digital stamp and the first time I've used buttons in a project! I decided that because my stamp was tall and narrow my card should reflect this, so it is a slimline card - the finished size of the card when it was folded for posting was fractionally bigger than A5. The card base is ivory and it looks like it has some form of hammered finish to it, but as it has been a long time in my daughters' craft cupboard I've no idea where it came from!

I used the "Springtime Sweets and Cupcake Treats" embossing board with my Ultimate Pro (both from Crafter's Companion) to produce the hearts and ribbon border on the left side of the card. My Top Tip for embossing is to rub some soap at the top of my card (I used a freebie guest soap from the bathroom of the ferry we used to travel to and from France on!) and to run my embossing tool in this - it makes your tool run ohhhhhh soooooo smoothly across the card! :0) I used the same embossing on the left side of the envelobox to tie the project together (unfortunately it hasn't come out too well in the photo above!) :0(

The digital stamp is called "Simply Daisies" by Daisy Doodles, available from The Printable Craft Shop at Card Making World. Having printed this onto my Solar White Neenah Card, I coloured it using my Spectrum Noir Pens (from Crafter's Companion) in the following shades:
Flowers: 12, 14, 11, 1
Stems: 48, 43
Water: 171, 68
Grounding under Vase: CG1
I then cut the stamp out and mounted it onto my card using a 3D glue.

The sentiments on the easel part of the card and on the stopper both came from a Crafter's Companion Member's Monthly Download called Luscious Ladybirds. The circular "Thanks" was already on the download, and additionally there was a blank oval. I imported this oval into my normal word processing package, and superimposed a text box with the font Tempus Sans  to produce the additional wording. I printed these out onto card, cut them out and coloured the edges using my Spectrum Noir in Shade 1 to tie these in to the flowers. These sentiments were mounted using sticky pads. I bought a red organza ribbon, some coir fibre and these delightful handmade ceramic buttons in the shape of a heart from Hobbycraft. I fixed the buttons the ribbon by running the coir fibre under the ribbon, threading it through the holes in the button and then finished it with a bow. I think it gives a lovely "Shaker Style" look to the card, don't you?

I would like to enter this card for the following challenges:
I hope you like this card. Now what am I going to make as a Wedding Card :0∫ !!!!!

Tuesday, 30 August 2011

Can YOU help a cyber-Buddy?

You may or may not know Karen (Krafty Karens) who makes simply divine cards. Karen became one of my cyber-Buddies through the Crafter's Companion Forum and whilst I knew Karen had health problems, it has only been in the last few weeks that I have been aware how much they impact on her everyday life ... things you and I probably take for granted. One of the things that has kept Karen going through this is her card making (and how she produces such inspirational cards I will never ever know) and, more lately, designing new card kits.

How can you help?

  1. Please, please, please follow this link to Wendy's Blog (Wendy is another CC Buddy), read the whole post
  2. Then go over to Paper Creator Exclusives which are Karen's 5 UK designs AND/OR go to Paper Craft Kits Exclusives which are Karen's US designs. Karen receives a payment for each sale, so this is something tangible which we crafters can do to help a fellow crafter in need.

Whatever you can do to help will, I can assure you, be very gratefully received as Karen seeks private medical treatment to combat her constant pain.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, thank you in anticipation of your purchases to help Karen's "Consultant Fund" and please keep Karen in your thoughts and prayers at this time.

xxxxxxxxx

Friday, 26 August 2011

Boy's Toys!

Hi,

Now I'm back from my holiday, I've had to turn my attention to a card for my Nephew's birthday ... today!

This great card is called Boys Will Be Boys, and it is one of the 30 kits in the £5 Summer Grab Bag, still available from Paper Creator. It's a Pop Out Stepper Card and, despite this being the first time I've made a stepper card, was very easy to put together thanks to the instructions provided. The set also includes a backing paper and envelope.


Depth is added to the card with the use of decoupage layers ... and this time, I did remember to use sticky pads to raise the layers! LOL :o) !!!!! The stars are only raised by 1 layer, the sentiment tag "Boys Will Be Boys" is raised by 2 layers and the central image of skateboard and handcart is raised by 4 layers, although I've only used 2.

I would like to enter this card for the following challenges:


Hope you like it!

Friday, 5 August 2011

Wow!!! I'm a Blog Hop Winner

Last weekend I participated in the Stamp Fairy Blog Hop in celebration of Gerda's Birthday. All her DT Fairies had made cards for the celebrations, each with different themes. For those who left comments on the DTs' Blogs, and a birthday wish for Gerda, was the chance of winning the Digi Stamp that was used on that particular blog.

The lovely Karen chose me to win her stamp and you can find her stunning card here.

Thanks Karen - I can't wait to start playing with my new stamp, oh and my new speccies!

:o)

Thursday, 4 August 2011

Out of disaster came ...

Well actually, this lovely card.


This card should have been the Patchwork Flower Pop Out Stepper Card from the Summer Grab Bag from those Crafty Gals over at Paper Creator. However, following a card/printer malfunction (I've discovered that my printer now doesn't like printing the final 5cm of 290gsm white card :o(, so I'm going to have to find another base card to print on) I had to change it to something else! However, all was not lost as I had printed the decoupage layers onto a very lightweight card, and the pop out part of the stepper card had printed OK as well.

I decided to use the central part of the stepper (the base of the flower) as a layer on my card and mounted this onto a square card base made from Blackcurrant card from Centura Pearl Darks pack from Crafter's Companion. This pack just has to be my absolute fave at the mo! :o) As you can see from the picture on the right, I then mounted 2 layers of decoupage petals on the top, and pulled these forward a bit to give some depth to the card.

The sentiment also came from the same Pop Out Stepper Card, and needed to be tweaked slightly in size so it would fit onto my card.

I would like to enter this card for the following challenge:

Monday, 1 August 2011

A Floral Thank You Card

Hi,
This is the third card I made last week to say Thank You to my childrens' teachers!

If you have been reading my earlier posts, you'll know that a few weeks ago I bought a bumper pack of cards from Paper Creator. This card is Just Flowers 1 from the Summer Grab Bag. As you can see from the photo on the right, this is a pyramage kit, although I don't think I have done justice to the pyramage 'cos I forgot to use sticky pads to raise each level ... lol!

The base card is Regal Blue Centura Pearl from Crafter's Companion, which I cut and folded to a 6" square card (with the fold at the top) using my trusty Ultimate Pro. The pale blue layer and darker blue backing paper came with the kit and the main picture has a dark blue surround, although I cut this off. There are 4 layers of pyramage circles to build up the design.

I completed my card by using a floral Thank You stamp on the front of it.

I would like to enter this card for the following challenge (and I hope I'm not cheating in that I made the card last week, but didn't have time to do a blog post about it until now!):