Last Two Cards!

These are just two of the more unusual requests I get for cards... a Christmas card with a 'horse' theme and something for a couple of rock fans!


The horse one had me really stumped - I started thinking along the lines of 'Little Donkey' but it just wasn't working. Then I saw a hobbyhorse card on someone's ETSY site and I'm afraid I blatently stole the outline for my horse's head!


I knew straight away what I would do for the 'rock' card. I do like the thought of snowmen playing the guitar and what better than a bright red Flying V? The background paper was made by using the words from 'Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree' and printing them in green over and over again.

Happy Christmas everybody!

I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday...

My living room is looking like the production line in Santa's factory at the moment. I have all my boxes of 'stuff' stacked in the corner and in the right light I can see glitter stars in the rug. Ginger Boy also managed to get some glitter in his fur (whilst helping me of course) which will do nothing for his reputation as the gayest cat in the street!

Here's a few of the selection I made for a friend at work..


I love the simplicity of this one and considering it's just made from a peel-off, some stick on diamantes and a scrap of silver ribbon (cut from the shoulders of a silver vest!) I am pleased with the result. I hate those dangly things in tops that go around the clothes hanger and I always cut them out and hoard them in my ribbon stash. I once had really bad thoughts when I was looking for some ribbon in a particular colour... why not find the right coloured blouse/top in a shop then cut the ribbons out while in the dressing room? Luckily I found the colour I wanted in a department store and was saved from a life of crime...


These two are made in the style I tend to use when my cardmaking mojo isn't working. Amazing how a different colour scheme can make them look like totally different cards. Red/green paper is from one of the Dovecraft packs and the blue/turquoise paper came free with Making Cards mag last Christmas. The stickers are from the good old Pound Shop.

This card is for my friend's Newcastle United loving partner...much as it pains me to make it as I am a Mackem through and through! Still, one suffers for one's art. I traced the snowman from a Christmas designs book I got free with a magazine... the black and white 'snow' paper is from Doodlebug.

My mam is the world's greatest knitter and while I drool over cardmaking blogs, she is having craftigasms downloading American knitting and crochet patterns. I nicked a ball of white fluffy wool from her some time ago thinking it would come in handy for Christmas cards and I am pleased with the result I got by wrapping it around a triangle of corrugated card. Everybody at work who saw this wanted to touch it!

I got really excited today when I saw that I have people who follow my blog! What a great compliment - you've made my day!

Christmas Card Frenzy....continued..

The Christmas cards are being produced at an alarming rate...



Like most people I have trouble with cards for men - my comfort zone is definately more pink and bling rather than masculine. I've tried to keep this card plain but cute. The sticker started life as a gift tag from the Pound Shop but I carefully scraped the 'to' and 'from' off it to use as a topper!
These Golden Oldie decoupage sheets are really sweet... not too awkward to cut either.

These nestabilities are proving to be a Godsend! This very simple card was knocked up in minutes using glittery peel-offs and a ribbon.

I saw a card in a similar style on someone's Etsy site and I couldn't resist having a go at my own version. I traced the snowman from a Christmas designs book and just outlined it with a fineliner pen to add emphasis. The backing paper is actually double-sided wrapping paper from Paperchase - very useful for a snow effect!

Christmas Card Frenzy....

I seem to be spending all of my waking hours surrounded by all things Christmas and it's only the 2nd of December! Some really strange requests this year.....someone has asked me to make a 'horse themed' Christmas card and I have seen the perfect one on someone's Etsy site to copy.


This Rudolph card seems to go down quite well. I got the template from a patchwork magazine years ago and just reduced it to a suitable size. The eyes come from the Early Learning Centre

This is probably one of the easiest cards to make - it's just circles! I usually add texture to the pudding bit by glueing on brown beads which I have in abundance after snapping an old necklace!
This is recycled from one of last year's cards. Before throwing away any type of greetings card I always pull off useful 'bits' - this ready cut snowman was ideal to use as a topper.

A Few More Birthdays...

Birthday cards this week include a fairy card for a 6 year old, a fashion cards for a 12 year old and a 60th birthday card. Nestabilities and my new bug certainly speed up the process though I'm going to have to be careful that I don't add scalloped edges to everything! The fairy came from a kids sticker set, the fashion card uses Doodlebug papers and some stickers I got free with Papercraft Inspirations and the 60 card is made using some of my favourite DCWV Teenage stack papers. I made these three in about two hours which is why they are a bit same-ish. That pink and orange Doodlebug paper is gorgeous and I can't get enough of it.

Quick Birthday Cards

I made both of these in about 40 minutes. I love these Penny Black stickers and I wish I'd bought more of them when I was in Blade Rubbers cos they are so easy to make cards with. These aren't really my usual style of card but I'm trying to bring more colour and less white space into my cardmaking.

My Bug Has Arrived!

With the money I make from selling cards I have just bought myself a Cuttlebug and some Nestabilities. How did I manage without one for so long! The Nestabilities are wonderful - I got large squares and circles and scallopped squares and circles which I thought would be the most useful to start with.

Watch this space for the results of my new toy!

30th Birthday

I took a break from making Christmas cards to make a 30th birthday card for a work colleague. I recently saw some beautiful wallpaper in a local shop (and so it should be, it was 25 quid a roll!) and I cheekily got some samples of it in both of the available colour schemes. The bags of love card is the result - the bag almost looks as if it is made of tapestry material.

Christmas is a coming....

Before we know it Christmas will be here and I've been trying to keep on top of the cards I need to make. I've suddenly got orders for about 20 'special' cards so the next few weeks wil be spent deep in all things glittery and festive. These two were made fairly quickly for my friend's sons. The penguin template came from an old edition of Papercraft Inspirations and the stocking I did myself. The other embellishments were from Christmas stickers I got from Poundland last year.

Bad Blogger!

I have been so busy working and going on holiday that I haven't posted for absolutely ages! How do people find the time to upload their daily doings so regularly??

I've been quite busy on the card front with requests for allsorts of cards...here's a few for your perusal.


This one is a variation on a theme that I am quite fond of. It is so quick to make and is great for wedding anniversaries etc.


Another quickie for an anniversary! I love these Papermania cream papers - they are so delicate


Paper is from Dovecraft's Hint of Pink value pack. Dress is one traced out of a clothing catalogue and added various gems. I think Iwould actually wear this dress myself if I was thin enough!

Another quick and simple card - as much as I love cardmaking, there are simply not enough hours in the day and nearly all of my cards can be made in half an hour or so. The heart looks embossed due to my crappy photography but it is actually made out of silver card covered in gems.

I cheated here using a ready made embellishment but I did make my own backing paper. I simply typed the word 'love' in a brick pattern and printed it out in a browny colour that looks like it's gold! I added a bit of fluffy handmade paper which everybody seems to love and was quite pleased with the result.

Football Crazy...

So the new season is now upon us and not a bad start for Sunderland with a great win at Spurs yesterday. My friend's son is football mad and these cards were made for his 10th birthday from his mam and dad and brother.

Thank You Teacher!

I've been busy all afternoon making some thankyou cards for teachers...



I absolutely hate peel-offs - they are tacky and look at their worst when they are just plonked on a card almost as an afterthought. However, like most crafters I have a box full, mostly bought when I first started to make cards. I'm trying to use up some of my huge pile of stash so ended up using these. I'm really amazed at the result. I coloured them black so they didn't look so bad then coloured parts in after sticking them onto thin paper. I doubt I'll ever be a peel-off convert but I suppose they do have their place!




I made templates for the letters and numbers in WordArt then traced them and carefully cut them out. I suppose that a die-cutting machine would save me loads of time doing things like this but I do genuinely get enjoyment from cutting out so I'm sticking with my method for the moment! The apple was traced from a magazine.




These letters and rub-ons are from a scrapbooking kit bought in Poundland.


The stars and books are from the same scrapbooking kit as before. The blackboard I made myself and the white writing and numbers are peel-offs.

Sketches

In this month's issue of Simply Cards and Papercraft, there's an article on using sketches as the basis of the layout of your card. Inspired by this idea, I've quickly knocked up these four cards this afternoon..



I love experimenting with unusual colour schemes and this floral paper from DCWV's Retro stack was a perfect background for the turquoise flower. These flowers were a brilliant find - I got them in Birthdays card shop and I think they are meant to be scattered over tables at parties! In my opinion they are ideal for card-making as the packet contained about a hundred in five different bright colours and was only 3 quid! Shame they don't come in pastel colours as well.



Same flower - different colour. The buttons in the middle of the cards come from a huge jar I bought at a car boot sale years ago and am still using. Dunno who makes the paper - I found it when I had my mass tidy-up earlier this week.


I've been dying to play around with the idea of flip-flops sine I saw Patsy Jackson's fab flip-flop card in this month's Papercraft Essentials magazine. Mine are made with the same template but greatly reduced in size. I've used thin ribbon to make the straps and finished off with a tiny punched flower. I'm still not happy with this card and may have to add something to it - it has a bit of an unfinished air about it.



Change of greeting here. The numbers are created in Word Art then traced onto patterned paper. The spotty and stripey paper came from a scrapbooking kit I got in Poundland and the flowers from Lakeland.

I've just used a really basic sketch for these cards but I think this is a great starting point for card layouts - definately a technique I'm going to use in the future.

You just don't realise how much craft stuff you have until you try and get it in some kind of order! I spent all day yesterday sorting all my scraps of paper and ribbons into colour order in the hope that when I am actually making cards I can find the stuff I need easily. All my patterned papers are now neatly stacked in a box and I have made some 'themed' shoe boxes for 'weddings', 'new baby' and 'christmas' to keep all my bits and bobs in one place!

To make the most of the boxes of unused stash I have all over the house, I have been trying to make cards using products that are out of my comfort zone. The first offering is a wedding card that isn't in the traditional gold/silver colour schemes...


The paper is from DCWV Teenage stack and the rub-ons were a great find in Poundland - I lurve that shop! It's a bit weird using cream card for this as usually I do all my cards using white card but white would have been way too harsh.


I really love the effect that I have seen in various magazines where paper is inked round the edges. I was reluctant to try this as I was sure it would just end up a splattery mess but I'm pleased with the 'aged' effect it gives.

Like most people, I save all the free papers and tags etc that you get with magazines. This decoupaged effort is from this month's Simply Cards & Papercraft. Very simple - took all of 10 minutes to make and can be added to my stock of emergency birthday cards!

I've been soooo busy...

I haven't posted for ages as I've been so busy creating cards for loads of occasions....

I got the idea for this card from a website called Lotus Arts that make the most gorgeous wedding and anniversary cards - blatant plagiarism I'm afraid. I worried about the bulk of the flowers as the card was going into an envelope rather than a box but as the card wasn't being posted it didn't prove a problem.



Baby Boy Christening card - I wasn't sure about using the image of a frock for a baby boy but those in the know assured me that it wasnt too girly. I was annoyed that I couldn't find any ribbon and paper in exactly the same shade of blue but that's just me being anal!


Made this birthday card in a hurry for a friend who is on a diet - couldn't resist taunting her with cake! The cakes are from a card-making pack I got in a bargain bucket at Hobbycraft though I think they could be easily made using clip art images and adding diamantes.


I saw a card similar to this in an old copy of Papercraft Inspirations and just had to make it. I was a bit unsure about adding the baby's head but I'm pleased with the result. The baby's hair is made with a leaf punch with the stalk cut off!


I love the Papernation decoupage characters - they are so cute and really easy to cut out. I think that this company has really revolutionised decoupage, which I used to think was a bit of an old-fashioned crafting technique. The flower arch was made using an X-cut leaf punch and a tiny flower punch.


I'm really pleased with this 'Guido' card. I love tracing - it's a greatly under-rated craft skill and I go through loads of baking parchment which makes really cheap tracing paper. For this card I simply printed a picture of Guido from a website, traced it then decoupaged it. The most worrying bit was the fork-lift things on the front of the car and I had to highlight bits with a black pen to make it look more 3D.


I saw some embellishments like these in a magazine and they cost about £2.50 - mine cost pennies! I love the challenge of copying some of the expensive crafty bits and bobs I see in magazines - my aim is to have all my cards truely 'hand-made'. As usual I can't resist a splattering of glittery stars.



This driving test congratulations card is one of the quickest I have ever made - probably took all of 10 minutes! I'm learning myself at the moment and can't wait for someone to send one of these to me..


This retirement card was a serious challenge... what do you do for someone whose interests are skiing, cycling and snorkelling?? I couldn't resist using my fave Doodlebug paper and of course it had to be pink! The ski sticks are made from cocktail sticks and black embroidery thread.


Don't you just love the Pound Shop! My work colleague wanted a birthday card for her 10 year old who is a Hulk fanatic and these stickers were perfect. The backing paper came from a craft pack I got in Lidl a couple of years ago. Some of these cheap stores are great for crafty finds.