Pink Appeal

Each year, my office has various events during October to raise money for Breast Cancer. This year was no exception and over the past weeks we have raised over £2000. One of our events was a Bake sale and to thank various mums and grans who helped us produce so many yummy pies and cakes, I made these cute thankyou cards.


I've also had requests for various birthday cards and these are a couple of my faves...

Orange can be such a difficult colour to use but it really makes this card stand out. The spotty paper was a magazine freebie and the flower is one of my rare attempts at stamping - it's a Build a Flower stamp set from Clear Expressions (Hampton Arts) and I must admit it is very easy to use for someone like myself who has two left hands when it comes to stamping. It's decoupaged but you can't see this very well.


So... all bouyed up after the orange card, I had a go with one of my wooden stamps and was surprised with the result - no smudging! I was so pleased I stamped it twice and decoupaged the flower head. The pretty paper was from a sample book given away with Cardmaking and papercraft a few moths ago.

Flippin' Teenagers

Had a lovely morning shopping in Sunderland - new boots, new shoes, a new top for tonight and a visit to my favourite craft shop. Bought some silver peel-off borders, Making Cards magazine (cos I love the freebie papers you get with this mag) and loads of plain card to make my Christmas cards. A successful morning.

Here's a fun card I made using La Pashe's Flippin' Teenagers. There's some fab images in this range for both teenagers and those who still think they are!


The music notes are from a Doodlebug set and the border is made with waste collected in my hole punch! Matches the dancer's skirt and made me think of disco lights.

Card Frenzy!

I've been so busy this week........so many birthdays, so little time. And I really must start making christmas cards!!


This first card is one that I often do for 'big birthdays'. It's so easy to make the outline of the letters in wordart then trace the image onto patterned paper. I'm dead pleased with the scallopped effects as well - the ones above and below 'sixty' were made with my nesties, cut into strips then carefully taped on so you can't see the joins. The scallops round the greeting were make by punching loads of small circles with my hole punch and arranging them aroung the edge of the cut out greeting. You really don't need loads of expensive equipment to get the effect you want.


Same papers used here for the girl's 7th birthday card - the 7 is also done in WordArt. Background is just stars punched in toning colours and a few spangle star confetti bits to add a bit of bling. Even 7 year olds are partial to a bit of bling!


This lady bathing card is made with one of my fave products - Jolly Nation decoupage. I tried to get the effect of wallpaper and a border behind the bath using checked paper and a spotty ribbon and I think it works well.

Finally, a 40th card for a bike mad bloke. Made with lazy crafters' decoupage - the sort that is pre cut for you! Still, everyone needs to make shortcuts every now and then and no-one knows any different! It was only when I took the picture that I realised that the 40 today sign looks a bit like a speed road sign. Total accident but left me feeling dead clever!.

Back In the Swing of Things.....

I've just had a lovely break in Turkey despite being deprived of all things crafty for a couple of weeks and I've come back raring to make cards!


I made this Hello Kitty card in about 20 minutes flat - I make so many cards for other people that I often leave it to the very last minute to make them for myself and this was made in a panic before I went to work one morning last week! I bought a great Hello Kitty colouring and sticker book in the Poundland shop which will supply me with enough images and stickers to make about 20 cards - total bargain!

I got the template for this glamourpuss in Papercraft Inspirations a few years ago and I just love the diamante collar on it - very girly. It goes great with the 'purr-fect birthday' greeting. I missed my ginger fur baby so much when I was away that I think I have cats on the brain at the moment!



I made this final one for a special work friend Stephen who has just married his lovely girlfriend Ashley in Cyprus. The image is one of my faves from Pink Petticoat and I got some wonderful embossed heart wallpaper as a sample from my local decorating shop. I'm dead brazen - I just ask for loads of samples so I 'can match the furninshings' and no-one ever bats an eyelid!

Busy Week of Cardmaking...

I got the inspiration for this anniversary card from a cardmaker I greatly admire called Michelle at The Card Grotto. She makes fabulous cards and I hope she doesn't mind my interpretation of her card. I love blog hopping and can spends hours admiring other people's creations. It's also nice to know that other people appreciate what I do - a lovely lady called Sandra has left a really nice message on my blog and has started following it so a big thankyou to her!


Next up are two very quick baby cards - I used the same basic sketch for each one but added a pink ribbon to the baby girl card. I find sketches really useful for inspiration and whenever I see a card layout that I like I do a quick sketch of it in my card ideas book.


Finally, a card that I'm really quite chuffed with. My heart sank when I got a request for a Power Rangers birthday card for a 7 year old boy. After googling 'power rangers' I found a wonderful site full of images of popular characters for children to colour - Colouring Book Pages. It has loads of characters from Disney Princesses to Wallace and Gromit. I just copied one of the pictures into a word document, resized it and coloured it with normal kids felt-tip pens. I did this a couple of times to make a decoupaged effect and just used a couple of die-cut coloured circles for the background. It reminds me a bit of one of Roy Liechenstein's pop-art pictures. Roll on the next strange request!

Lots of Birthdays...

Loads of birthdays coming up....


I got the decoupage butterfly as a freebie with a magazine and knew it would be perfect for a girlie birthday card for my other half's mam! As usual he tells me the night before that he needs a card making cos he hasn't had time to buy one and expects me to make it in minutes. Actually it only took about half an hour but I hate being put on the spot cos my imagination just turns to jelly!

I do love making footie shirt cards and often get requests for both Sunderland and Newcastle cards - what one must do for one's art! This is the current away shirt for my friend's little lad who is Sunderland daft. It's often difficult to get a good picture of the back of a shirt to copy from so I have often gone into sports shop changing rooms to 'try on' a shirt armed with my digital camera!
My old faithful - the glam frock card. Everyone who gets one of these always says 'I would love to fit into a dress like that! I saw a similar card to this in a magazine a couple of years ago and must have made it over 20 times since - sometimes the simplest ideas are the best.

An unproductive break....

I've had a break from blogging this past month... a mixture of being busy at home and work and a bit of a deflated mojo! I've only made two or three cards in the past month and those were only for my special customers. To try to get back in the swing of things I bought some downloads from the Pink Petticoat site with a wedding theme and have been busy manipulating the images and just having a good play with sizes and colours. However, sometimes simple is best and I'm pleased with the overall look of this next card...


The image been coloured with pro-markers and the flowers have been decoupaged. I then painted over the flowers and heart with some pearlescent glue to add some sparkle.

The next card I made is just plain odd - a King Charles cavalier spaniel theme for a 50 year old lady! Hmmm... I knew that paw paper I got free with Papercraft Essentials would come in handy one day! My favourite bit on this card is the paws up the side where I tried to echo the pattern on the paper - apart from that it's a bit naff!

Fathers Day...

Making cards for blokes always fills me with dread though the products now available is starting to make the task easier


I used a cup template that came free with Papercraft Inspirations and just enlarged it on the photocopier to make this. I'm pleased with the look that the peel-offs give to the trophy - I knew I would find a use for them one day!


I think 'tie' cards for men are the equivelant of handbag cards for women! This was made with lovely Dovecraft 'male' papers and I just added buttens to the 'shirt'. I've made this card on a number of occasions in different colourways and I'm always pleased with the result.



I got this grandad decoupage from my local craft shop in Sunderland - I think the range is 'Old Codgers'. The patterned paper is from a sports scrapbooking kit and I couldn't resist adding a little Sunderland badge to it.

More Shoes... and a cute Baby Boy

I had a bit more experimentation with colours on the shoe card...

I love making these - they are just so cute. The spotty papers are all freebies from various magazines and I got a huge pack of the textured paper from my local The Works. Like most crafters I have a hoard of ribbons which finishes off the tag. In fact, these would be great to use as gift tags for girly presents.

I think that with baby cards, less is more. I don't like them to be too fussy and patterned. I made the next two cards with just stickers and ribbon - most of my stickers come from pound/trashy shops but can look great when used with the right accessories.

Betty Boop and lots of Weddings

I've had loads of requests for Wedding cards and as my cake card is a bit old hat now I've been working with some new ideas.


I got this pink cake cut out with a recent issue of Creative Carmaking which is one of my favourite magazines at the moment. There were matching papers to go with it but I wanted to keep it simple so I just used some co-ordinating cerise plain paper and added some punched hearts and a greeting.
I got this felt wedding car embellishment on a market stall in Sunderland but before I used it I photocopied it so that I have a template to make more from card. The pink heart paper was from the same place - it's amazing what you can find in markets!


I had this song going through my head when I was making the other two cards and I thought it would make a cute greeting. The 'chapel' was a rub-on I had from a wedding scrapbook kit. I finished it off with one of my trademark ribbons and I'm pleased with the result.

I loved making this card! I got a picture of Betty from google images and I just traced and paper pieced it. I carefully drew in the face with a black fineliner pen. It was really simple to make but did require some careful cutting around the hair. After people see this I have a bad feeling I am going to get requests for all sorts of weird and wonderful cartoon characters!

Three Birthdays and a Retirement!

The first card today was a request for a card for a colleague who was retiring...but without the word retirement on it. Crazy eh? I was stumped for a while then just gave up and resorted to my favourite trick of just cutting out patterned letters and spelling the appropriate word. I was even able to cheat doing this as I had loads of random letters left over from a cheapo scrapbooking kit. Not the best card I have ever made but it serves a purpose.


I got the idea for the shoe card from a recent edition of Complete Cardmaking. In the mag, the 'Kick up your heels...' greeting was stamped but that's why we have computers isn't it! The template for the shoe was a free gift in a pack of designer templates that came with Simply Cards & Papercraft a couple of issues ago. The spotty paper was also a freebie so this card was dead cheap to make and I'm really pleased with the result.



Another number card. I love these Papermania papers - the colours just make me think of Raspberry Ruffle chocolate bars.


Finally another request for a 'Dress' card - this time in pink for a 50th birthday. These are so easy to make and people love them. I was so pleased to be able to match the spotty paper with the ribbon - both freebies with various magazines.

Love is in the Air

Three cards on the theme of love... and all made with the same basic layout. The first is a Wedding card made from wallpaper (very expensive wallpaper) and ribbon. This card is just so easy to make - three oblongs of paper with ribbon along the bottom, a punched heart on the top and punched flowers with diamantes arranged around the cake. With the right papers this could also be made to look like a birthday cake.

The second is for an engagement. I found some Cuttlebug ring shapes in a bargain bucket at my local craft store and knew straight away I would end up making an engagement ring with them. The 'diamonds' are from the Pound Shop which is a great place for crafty bargains.


The third one took a bit of thinking about. It's for a 20th Wedding Anniversary and the traditional gift for this anniversary is china. I came across the tea-pot in some free papers I got with Making Cards magazine some time ago and with the addition of a small punched heart, this seemed the ideal embellishment for this occasion.

A Month full of Birthdays...

The first two cards are very girly - spotty frocks! I love making frock cards and they go down very well with ladies of all ages. For the first one, I got the template from an old Doodlebug sticker kit. Once I had used the original sticker, I traced the 'remains' for the outline of the frock. The spotty paper is gift wrap, the brads are paper fasteners painted with black nail varnish and the ribbon cut out of a black top.



The template for the second frock appeared a few months ago in Papercraft Inspirations and I love the shape - I would wear this myself!


Rachel is my work colleague's 11 year old daughter who is horse mad. I made her a similar card last year using JollyNation's other horse girl decoupage which she had framed so she can make a matching pair of pictures using this one.



I am absolutely useless at stamping - you'd think I had two left hands so I love the concept of downloads. Pink Petticoat is one of my fave places for downloads - they are so cute and sassy. The paper came free with a magazine and the turquoise flowers are from a local market haberdashery stall.

Easter Greetings

Easter, like Halloween, has become a popular time to send cards. I got a request from a work colleague to make half a dozen non-religious Easter cards and here's the results...


The first one is a cute little download from Pink Petticoat, coloured with brush markers and mounted on PaperMania spotty paper from the Spring Burst pack.

I love this stripy paper with the eggs on it. Another Papermania paper which perfectly matched the cute cake sticker.
Decoupaged daffodils... a sure sign of Easter when the gardens are full of yellow flowers. This card took the longest to make - about 40 minutes cos of all the cutting.


I love this quirky chicken. He was cut from the same paper that I used on the background. Cards like this only take minutes to make and I use this layout time and time again.
The only card with a slightly religious theme - there are tiny crosses on the checked backing paper! The Easter bunny came from a Papermania sticker pack.


Cute chick and paper from last year's PaperMania Easter pack of papers.

Belated Mother's Day cards...

It's taken a while to get these posted - I've just come back from a lovely week in Tenerife and everything has been upside down for the last few days. Here's a selection of the cards I made before I went away...

These first two were made with some stickers from Penny Black - Stickeroos I think they are called. Burgundy isn't a colour I often use and I thought I would struggle to get papers to match the stickers but I found loads. The top card was made using paper from a pack by the English Papar Company.I used some paper from a very old pack of Papermania papers (Rich Red) on this second Stickeroo card. The 'Mam' lettering is rubbed onto punched circles of card and highlighted with burgundy card - I often use this trick as a greeting.


These next two cards were made using La Pashe's Flippin' Women decoupage sheets. The card above is A4 size and the image is stuck onto acetate in a large aperture card. There is also a reverse to the image which can't be seen here.


I've used the same decoupage image here but just the front this time. The paper is from the Colossal flowery pack from PaperMania.


This card is for two little boys to send their beloved Nanna. I got the forever Friends sticker in a free pack from Papercraft Inspirations and the spotty paper is again PaperMania. I should have shares in that company! I stuck the hearts on the ends of the ribbon cos it wouldn't stop fraying and i rather like the effect it has made.

I got this tulip decoupage sheet with Making Cards magazine ages ago. It was quick to cut out even though it looks intricate and I love the colours.

These three are made with my favourite flower stamp. I hate stamping - I can never seem to stamp the image evenly - yet this stamp works every time for me. I'm really into doodling on cards at the minute and I've done faux stitching around the image and the greeting which can't be seen very well here!

As with most of my cards there's ribbon used on these. I love the way ribbon adds texture to a card and makes you want to touch it.

This red flower card is my favourite. There's more faux stitching around the images and the ribbon tied perfectly first time.