Cutesy Engagement Card

Today's offering features extremely cute Forever Friends decoupage - the lazy sort that is already die cut and just needs layering! Sometimes you only have time for the easy option. The backing paper is part of a baby girl scrapbooking kit and is actually just one sheet of paper so I didn't have a lot to do at all. I've finished it off with some pale pink and brown punched flowers - a cute card for very little effort.

Spotty Frocks

Two birthdays this weekend - my sister-in-law and her best friend. So I decided to make them matching cards and what better than glamourous spotty frocks. I found this fabulous freebie digi stamp on a marvelous blog called The Creative Mind of Sylvie - she is a very talented lady has has some wonderful freebie digi images, everything from golf bags to glamourous Goths! Have a look there - I've now added her to my fave sites.

I've paper-pieced the frock with spotty papers I got free with a magazine, added some rich brown ribbon and a brown coloured diamante (I always wondered how I would use them!).

Teenage Birthday

I've never been keen on making cards for men and teenage boys are even worse! For this card for a work colleague I used the easy option - numbers. The papers are very old - the Papermania For Him range that was out a few years ago. The numbers are from templates made in Wordart then traced onto patterned paper and mounted onto navy plain paper for definition.





I've entered this card into the following challenge:

Allsorts Challenge Blog - Colour Challenge - use Teal Blue and Brown

Anniversary Couple

I found some lovely vintage images some time ago on a great site called Create With TLC and I've been dying to use them. This image of the dancing couple has a lovely 50's glamour feel to it.


The image has been coloured as usual with promarkers (pastel green) and a tiny turquoise gem added as her earring. The polka dot paper is wrapping paper and I've continued the turquoise color scheme by adding some pale turquoise gossamer ribbon.

Trusty Card Layouts

Do you have a layout for your cards that you always use when your imagination has gone AWOL?? This card below shows mine...



The image is a digi freebie I got with Complete Cradmaking some time ago - I love it cos it's so easy to colour and decoupage.

One of my New Year Resolutions is to start using up some of the piles and piles of stash that I have hoarded over the years. This paper is from a Papermania pack called Olive Essence that I have always found difficult to use - I wish packs of patterned paper came with some block colour sheets aswell so that everything matches.

I've entered this card in the following challenges...

Kaboodle Doodles - Anything Goes

Craft Your Passion Challenges - Anything Goes

Back to normal...

It's that strange time between Christmas and New Year when you can never remember what day it is and all you do is eat and watch TV! I've had a lovely trip to Hobbycraft this week where I invested in some label nesties, a couple of embossing folders for the Cuttlebug and some bits for next year's Christmas cards! I will start earlier next year.




Here's a very simple card I've made today to add to my collection. The very cute house image is from the Digi Boutique and I've coloured it with promarkers - took all of about half an hour to make.

I've entered it in the following challenges:

Let's Craft and Create New Beginnings

I Love Promarkers Anything Goes

ABC Challenge Keep It Simple


Finally, to everyone who bothers to read my little area of blogland.... hope you have a Happy New Year and best wishes for 2011

Sharon

xx

Scottish Piper

Now this is the sort of request that gets me excited! I was asked for 'something with a Scottish Piper on it for my dad's 80th birthday!" My main worry was where on earth I would find such an image but once again the internet was my friend. I googled images of pipers and found this fab image which is actually a colouring sheet for a child.



I used my trusty promarkers (Forest Green, Cornflower and Cool Grey3 ) for the colouring and I paper pieced the kilt and shawl with rather fetching tartan paper - this is the first time I have tried this technique and I am dead pleased with the result. I decoupaged the bagpipes which nicely covered up the raw edges of the tartan paper.

I've decided to enter this card into the following challenges...

Digital Tuesday Let's Celebrate (must include digi image)

Papertake Weekly Challenge Anything Goes

Passion For Promarkers Anything Goes (using promarkers)

Birthday Shoe

I found this wonderful image of a wedding shoe while flicking through blogs - I believe it's by Jim Harker, the man who draws the La Pashe series - I'm sorry but I can't remember exactly where I found it - it may have been via Jak Heath's wonderful blog - she always has loads of gorgeous freebies. If you ever have the time to trawl the interwebby you can find loads of lovely free images like this - though do be a bit more organised than me and make a note of where you get them!

It's not the best photo - I took it with the card on the window sill at work - but it's coloured with promarkers and the matting is embossed with swirls. I couldn't resist finishing it with lilac diamantes and ribbon - I'm starting to use these in every card I make!

Last of The Christmas Cards

That's it for another year...next year I really will try to start earlier as it has been quite stressful getting all the cards finished! Before we know it it will be Mother's Day!

Everything on this first card has been recycled - the lovely purple card started life as file dividers which were going to be thrown away at work. The ribbons were cut from clothing and the big silver snowflake was pulled from one of last year's cards.

I cut the baubles using two small nestie circles and embossed two of then with dots and swirls - to highlight the embossing I've coloured them with silver paint - very effective. I love the challenge of making cards like this from nothing.



This second card was actually a nightmare to make - it took ages to thread the ribbon through the holes in the Nellies die. The image is once again Ice Pop - the cutest snowman on the block. It's hard to see on the pic but the background is embossed withthe swiss dot embossing folder.



I love this final card - it's so touchy feely. The tree is made from a long triangle of card with grooves cut up each side then wound with fluffy wool. The baubles are big pink diamantes and it's finished off with a silver star and a ribbed silver pot. Very girly.

I'm now looking forward to making normal cards again!

2 Weeks To Go!

I'm frantically trying to get my Christmas cards finish - I'm getting sick of the sight of trees and snowman etc!



I love this quirky snowman image from the Digi Stamp Boutique. He's called Ice Pop and I've tried to make him frostier by using shades of ice blue. I've entered it in the following challenges:

Paper Cutz Challenge - digitally stamped snowman

A few more Christmas cards...

Back to the Christmas cards again - next year I am definately going to start making them in August!!


This card was very easy - all I used was a holly punch and some red diamantes. I made a circular base using two different size nesties then just stuck the punched holly shapes on top. The diamantes were used for the berries and a red bow finishes it off. I'm pleased with this - it has a very traditional feel to it.



I like the feel of wintery iciness in this card. The spotty paper is acually tiny baubles - it came free with a magazine a couple of years ago. The image is an Alex and felicity digi from DigiStamp Boutique, my current fave place for digis.

A Break From Christmas Cards......

I had a welcome break from Christmas cards this week when a work colleague asked for a 60th birthday card for her mam.


She asked for something with flowers so I used an old favourite - a lovely floral image I got with a Complete Cardmaking ages ago. The image was coloured with promarkers and decoupaged. I matched the image with a couple of patterned papers from the Dovecraft Happy Holidays pack, a contemporary red and green geometric pattern and a subtle two tone green pattern. It's finished off with some red diamante gems and a red ribbon. another happy customer!

It is also suitable for the following challenges...

Paper Cutz Challenge - Two patterned papers

Still Snowing #2

I spent an hour earlier this morning clearing about 10 inches of snow off the car that had been building up since Friday - I just wish it would go away now as it is seriously annoying me. I dread to think what the car park will be like tomorrow at work!




I made this simple card with a free embossing folder that came with a recent issue of Creativity magazine. I wanted something classic looking so I used a deep aubergine coloured card with gold paper and highlighted the edges of the tree with lilac ink. Purple diamantes and aubergine and gold ribbons were added to finish the look.

I've entered this card into a new challenge site I found called GingerloftChallenge - the criteria being to add a bow to your card.

Still Snowing!

It's STILL snowing here and I'm still making Christmas cards. If this continues I don't think I'll be leaving the house this weekend - the cupboards are full of food so I don't think we'll starve!

Even with all the wonderful stash you can get to make Christmas cards with I still have trouble making them for men...


I found this cute digi stamp on a wonderful site called Crafters Digital Art Center which I stumbled upon while jumping from blog to blog. There are loads of free images there but I would advise to download them as soon as you see them because the site is so vast you'll never find them again!! I printed a couple of these images, coloured them and decoupaged them and added some gorgeous starry paper from Dovecraft's Jolly Happy Christmas pack. I guess the result is quite masculine.

Snow Is Falling....

Like many in the North East of England, I woke up this morning in a winter wonderland. I reckon we had abou 4-5 inches through the night. The roads are treacherous - I took my other half to work this morning and even at 7.00 am traffic was travelling at about 15 mph.

So here I am, snug at home after doing the shopping, about to have a pleasant afternoon making Christmas cards - which I really should have started to make in September!

To get my creative juices flowing, here's a couple I've made, greatly inspired by the gallery on the DigiStamp Boutique website. I love these cute Christmas images.


This first card was inspired by Kerry Cox's lovely card featuring Francis the penguin - I love the contrast of the cerise and white and just to add a bit of dimension I decoupaged Francis' scarf. The snow flake punch was from Hobbycraft and I finished them off with diamantes.


The second card was inspired by a lovely card by Susan Baxter of a cute little girl called Chloe. The big snowflake is recycled from one of last year's christmas cards - I always pull off the useful bits! Pale blue diamantes were added and a tiny pom pom used as the snowballl.

Now to see what I can come up with myself!

Where has this year gone to?? I can't believe it's the middle of November and I am up to my eyes in glitter and snowflakes making Christmas cards...

Here's a couple of age birthday cards I made recently as an escape from all thing festive...


This first card was a commision from a work colleague who wanted something pink and girly. I love the combination of pink and black polka dots and the gosgrain ribbon finishes the card off nicely. As with all 'age' cards I use Word Art to make the number templates and then trace on to patterned paper. The paper was a freebie with a magazine - I always keep stuff that comes free with mags - you never know when it'll come in handy.

Same method used here but with a bigger number. The stripy paper is from a baby girl scrapbooking set I got from Poundland a couple of years ago - proof that crafting needn't cost a fortune. I'm not totally satisfied with this card - it seems very 'flat'. I've tried to lift it with some doodled stitches around the number but this isn't one of my favourite cards - hopefully the recipient won't be too bothered!

Caravan of Love!

A friend asked for an anniversary card for her parents who are avid caravan fans and I knew the ideal image to use. I've always loved these Jolly Nation decoupage figures - I just wish that they would bring out some new designs! The company seems to have died a death.

I'm off to Hobby Craft today with my mam. She has recently won £300 (yes - three hundred quid!!!) worth of vouchers so I am hoping to help her spend them - share the love and all that! She loves knitting and crocheting rather than cardmaking but surely she can't be spending that much on wool!

Some for the boys..

I didn't realise I had been away for so long!! I haven't stopped making cards - it's just getting the time to post them! Here's a couple of special requests I've recently had for little boys.


Bart Simpson is a favourite character for big and little kids and I had no problem finding plenty of images of him on the internet. What was good luck was finding an image with the name of the recipient next to it! I printed a couple of the same image and decoupaged it. I over-coloured with pro-markers to intensify the colours.

I've been experimenting with making my own backing papers by repeating an image in a table in Word then removing the lines giving the effect of a repeated pattern. I used an image of Bart's head and I'm really pleased with the result...


I used the same method for making the skull and crossbones paper on this card and enlarged the image slightly to make the three accents. The decoupaged image was a freebie with a magazine - Papercraft Essentials I think.

Happy Anniversary

Summertime is such a popular time to get married which is why I seem to have been inundated with requests for anniversary cards lately.

This first card is a very simple decoupage by Craft Creations, found very cheaply (no pun intended) in my local craft shop in Sunderland. The flowers and birds were so easy to cut and it was finished off by matting the image on red card and adding a computer printed greeting.


In this second card I totally left my comfort zone by using coloured card for the base card - usually everything I do is on cream or white card. The image is from the Lovebirds collection from the Digi Stamp Boutique and is coloured with pro markers which perfectly match the Papermania patterned paper. Couldn't resist the ribbon even though it is a bit naff.

Finally, the one I'm most chuffed with is this Golden anniversary card for a friend's parents. I used a mixture of Bazzill and Bazzill Bling white textured card. The embossing is done with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and the heart dies are also Cuttlebug The flower is from Dainty Supplies in Washington who do loads of lush wedding accessories and I finished it off with a pearl headed pin. I was inspired to make this card by one of my favourite bloggers, Michelle at The Card Grotto, whose cards are simply gorgeous.

Some for the Boys

Lordy, I didn't realise I have been away for so long - I guess life and work just took over a bit! I've still been making plenty of cards though!

Here's a couple of special requests I've had recently, both of which were for 40th birthdays. The club badges were found pretty easily on the interwebby. I printed several copies of each badge on to heavy paper rather than card (easier to cut out) and just decoupaged the image to make the badge stand out. The Liverpool card is the most successful as the badge is long rather than square and I feel the card is more balanced because of this.



The Manchester United badge is more of a square shape and I couldn't make it it any longer or it wouldn't have fit widthways. Still it was very easy to decoupage. Both recipients have apparently framed their cards and it does give me a little tingle to think of my 'artwork' being on someone's wall.