Monday 23 August 2010

Something that is definitely not a card

After making the green butterfly card the other day, and loving it so much I have decided to give it to my mum for her birthday at the end of September, and wanted to make something to go with it to put a small gift and a voucher in for her birthday so I have made a matching box.

The template for the box was cut out on the craft robo, and I have added matching elements from the card to the top of the box, so here are a couple of photos of what it looks like:

The box made up and backing papers added to match the card. My mum loves green, so am hoping that she will like this box.

They are very easy to put together as they just need 4 small pieces of double sided tape to hold the corners together.

Here is the finished box with some green ribbon and label tied to the top of the box.

I have made the tag out of layering 3 'nestie' labels and adding the word 'Mum' which has been cut out on the craft robo, in ivory linen card, and attached to the label using 3d foam pads.
And finally here is a picture of the card and gift box together:
I'd like to enter this gift box into the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge - Miniture 3"
I Did It Creations Challenge - Anything but a card
Sarah Hurley Challenge - Anything but a card
The Pixie Cottage Challenge - Anything but a card
The One Stop Craft Challenge - Not a card
Simon Says Challenge - Make a gift

Friday 20 August 2010

A Baby Boy Card

When I was cutting out letters on the Craft Robo I did another set for 'Baby Boy'. I wasn't sure that I would have time today to make up a card, but I did, so have just finished putting it together.

Whilst browsing blogs today I saw another great sketch over at the Papertake Blog, so have had a go at following the sketch for this card. It isn't too dissimilar to the Baby Girl one I did earlier today.


The materials I've used for the card are: ivory linen card - letters and first mat; blue gingham cardstock, a piece of blue ribbon, white satin teddy bear ribbon, a star embellishment that I have had for absolutely ages, but never knew quite what to do with it, 3d pads for the letters and some pale blue flat backed gems. The star is blue glitter card, the ribbon is rather sparkly and I've add the gems as a big of bling.

Another card that I am really pleased with.

I must be on a record this week as I have made 9 cards in the last few days, so I expect to loose my cardmaking mojo sometime soon!

I'd like to enter this card for the following challenge:

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Sketch
Cards for Men - Decoupage hope the 3d letters count for this
Critter Sketch Challenge - to use glitter
The Secret Crafters Saturday Challenge - blue and cream
Paper Cutz Challenge - anything goes
Aud Sentiments Challenge - anything goes

Name Cards

Oh I love the school holidays. I have got so many cards made this week, that I am on a roll!

I needed to do a baby girl card, so decided to craft robo the letters and see what kind of card I could come up with. I spotted a great sketch on Stampin with the Dragon this morning so have used this sketch to make the card.

The letters were cut from ivory linen card, and I have matted a square of the same card onto some pink gingham, which I think looks really effective. I have then added 3d foam pads each of the letters.

For the daisy flowers I have used a woodware punch, and added a pink flat back gem to the middle of each flower to give it a bit of sparkle.

The pink bears at the bottom is pink satin ribbon, and I had a little of it left over, so have layered two bears with a heart in the middle on the right hand side with 3d pads, and added a pink flat backed heart to the middle of these bears.


I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Stampin with the Dragon Sketch Challenge
The Crafty Pad - Glitz & Glitter
The Crazy Challenge - You Are My Heart teddies are holding hearts
Glitterbabe's Challenge - Sparkle, Glitter, Bling and 2 flowers
Fab n Funky Challenge - Flower Power
My Time to Craft Challenge - Glitz and Glitter

Whilst I was cutting the letters out for the baby card, I also cut some more out to make a couple of other cards I need in the next few weeks.

This card has a different layout as the name is so long, so ivory linen card has been matted onto some gold mirror card, and a few of the woodware daisies added to embellish it. Really pleased with the end result.

Thursday 19 August 2010

A Summery Card

I've made another card today based on the sketch I used yesterday since I loved it so much.

This time I have made the card with very summery papers, and some lovely green and white paper flowers, and of course another one of my diecut butterflies.

The papers for this card both came from My Mind's Eye - Summer Papers, that were a freebie with a recent magazine, everything else has been taken from my every growing stash of pretty things!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Paper Pretties - Summer
Alphabet Challenge - P is for Punch
Charism Cardz Challenge - Diecuts (butterfly and ovals)
Anything Goes Challenge - 3 layers

Wednesday 18 August 2010

My Favourite Colour Card

I've been itching to try out the papers and embellishments of a Do Craft Goodie Bag that I bought when we were on holiday down in Poole, so tonight I have sat and made this:




and I am really pleased with it. The papers are from Henbury Lane - perfect days of summer collection, and I have matted each piece on some deep purple card from my stash. I love these papers, not only because they are purple (my favourite colour) but the majority of them have glitter on them, although it doesn't show in the photo.

The punch I have used is a Friskars one that I have had for a while, and the flowers with the pearls in the middle are from The Works. I bought them because they are unusual, since they are made out of satin organza and quite glittery. However, when I have tried to use them before they have never looked right, but I think they do now on this card.

To finish the card I have used one of my butterflies cut on the craft robo, and matted it on the same swirly paper and card I have used for the main square. The ovals are cut using 'nesties'. I have added 3 flat backed gems for a bit of sparkle to the middle of the butterfly.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

The Sweetest Thing - Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge
One Stitch at a Time - Pack a Punch
Flutterby Wednesdays - Receipe (1 Sparkle; 2 papers; 3 buttons or gems)
The Secret Crafters Saturday Challenge - What Little Girls Are Made Of
Crafts and Me Challenge - Petals and Pearls
Crafty Creations Challenge - Butterflies
Craftalicious Challenge - Pearls and Swirls

Tuesday 17 August 2010

Thank you cards

In between doing things with the kids today, I have managed to make 2 cards, as thank yous to my mum for having the boys over the weekend we were at Alton Towers, and my Aunt who sent the kids some pencils and pens to go back to school with in September.

There are a few challenges around at the moment that I wanted to enter, and so I have managed to do exactly what I wanted to do with this card card, and for once everything worked perfectly from the start. I am very happy with the way this card has turned out, so ended up making 2 that were exactly the same.


I know that the photo looks like I have used brown backing paper but it isn't it is actually green, with swirls and dots on it, hence the reason I have used green card to back the image. The buttons are also green although again they look brown in the photo.

The paper has come from a 12 x 12 stack that I bought a while ago from WHSmith, when it was on offer.

Not sure what the image is, no doubt a freebie I downloaded, but I thought it would be perfect made up for a thank you card. It has been coloured with Promarkers, and on the middle of the roses I have added some icicle stickles and also some purple ones to the wings of the butterflies.

The image has simple been matted onto green card, which has then been matted onto some gold glitter film, that I love to use with I get the chance. I've added the buttons and flowers to complete the card, so that it follows the current sketch challenge on Card Patterns.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges.

Creative Card Crew - Sparkle and Shine
Card Patterns - Sketch 77
Just Cute Bear - Buttons and Blooms
Pocketfull of Poses - All That Glitters
Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes
MSE Challenge - to use green and red (green paper/card/buttons; red roses and bow around the roses)

The Anniversary Card my OH made me

Here is the card my lovely OH made me for our 3rd Wedding Anniversary last week.

Whenever he comes up with a theme for his cards, he always thinks too laterally for me, and has to explain them before I get the connection. The shape of this card was no different.

You have probably worked out, quicker than I was told, that the shape of this card represents the shape of a leather tag, that you will find on leather goods that you buy. Three years of marriage is also leather.

Once I was told the connection, I think it is a very cool card, and the reason for the purple writing is that purple was our wedding colour.

All the parts for the card were cut on the craft robo and my OH has decoupaged the number 3.

Monday 16 August 2010

GHOST ADVENTURES AT ALTON TOWERS

I’m back from a fab Ghost weekend at Alton Towers. It was amazing and would definitely do another one. I was really scared before we went because I am so afraid of the dark, but with 50 people there all with torches it never felt like you were on your own.

The 7 hours we were there flew by, and we did a workshop to learn how to use dowsing rods, and pendulums, and then had 5 separate vigils to see if there were any spirits around that wanted to talk to us. People said that they could see people in the rooms moving around/pacing up and down etc, but I didn’t see anything, but I did get poked in the back at one point and in another area felt myself swaying backwards and forwards and had no control over it that was a bit weird.

During this vigil, my husband was convinced that he could see a little boy playing with a ball in the middle of our circle – the boy was about 3 and playing with a small red ball. At one point when we moved on to the next area, my OH went and sat on the bench in the same room that he saw the little boy, and felt the little boy sit next to him on the bench and put his hand in my OHs. If this had happened to me I would have freaked out, but it made my OH smile and happy.

In another area, we used a glass on a table, and had to try and get it to move and answer our questions. It took a while before anything happened, but once it did there was no stopping the glass move. A spirit called Charles took a liking to me, and would only answer (ie move the glass) if I was asking the questions. If someone else asked the questions then the glass wouldn’t move. The person leading the session thought that Charles was drawn to me as he could sense I had 2 boys, and Charles only had a little girl. With 4 of us using our finger tips on the glass there was no way anyone was pushing it backwards and forwards. Again it was a really unreal experience.

In the banqueting hall, 4 of us used a planchette to contact the spirits. Once we had worked out which way was yes and which was no, we made contact with a spirit of a lovely old lady, who turned out to be one of my elderly Aunt’s who died about 7 ½ years ago. I was very sceptical at first, and a little scared it made me cry for a while (in a happy way), but my OH was asking all the questions, and only she could know the answers to them. There was no doubt that the movement of the planchette was 100% aimed towards me. We then made contact with the spirit of a little girl called Elizabeth.

Finally, we went down to the kitchen area with a Medium, who used a compass to contact the spirits. The compass moved around quite a bit, and because of what had happened with the planchette in the upstairs room, I wasn’t really concentrating, as my mind was still working overtime having contacted a relative, that I missed hearing the heavy footsteps of a large man walking up to the lady standing next to me. He was a large man apparently in everyway, and his name was Jack. The lady next to me didn’t appear to be scared but definitely felt this spirits presence. All of a sudden I had a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach and this man Jack was standing behind me. I felt really uneasy as he felt evil to me, so had to ask the Medium to send this spirit back, as I didn’t want him any closer to me.

We saw a couple of light anomalies at various points during the night, that couldn’t be explained, but nothing was thrown at us and no doors were mysteriously shut or opened.

It was a fabulous experience and look forward to going on another one in the future.