A Card by Jack

My youngest Jack had a football party to go to last weekend, so we sat and made a card together for his friend Kyle on Friday night.

Kyle is a huge Chelsea fan, as is Jack, so Jack said we had to incorporate Chelsea somehow on the card. My friend Jenny came to my rescue with some free Chelsea logo backing paper.

Jack and I love this image, and have used it a few time before, as you can customise it to suit the person you are giving it to. Kyle has bright orange hair, so Jack has done a fab job with colouring the image. He cut all the mats out very carefully with my guillotine, and stuck all the DST on each one - I just helped him line them all up. The sentiment was from my stash.



Jack would like to enter this card into the current Stitchy Bear Kids Challenge - birthdays.

A Surfing Dude Card

All the cards I need to make for the next couple of weeks are for boys/men, and I always struggle to get any inspiration for making them. I had a huge tidy up of my papers last week, and was flicking through a huge DCWV stack I have, and saw some really fabbie papers, that would make a great card for my Nephew. Dominic is going to be 16 in a couple of weeks, he lives in Greece with my sister and his dad, and is heavily into all types of water sports. Having found the papers, and a design for the card, I asked the girls on the MSE card thread, if anyone knew where I could get a surfer image from. Very kindly, Ali offered to send me a decoupage kit of a surfer, and it was waiting for me when I got in from work this afternoon.

Having been the dutiful wife and started making dinner early, it was time to get crafting, and as a result of a bit of faffing with papers, this is what I came up with, and I am very pleased with the finished card.

The layout of the card is the current sketch on Craft your Days Away, and the recipe of the card is from Cards for Men which was - 1 image; 2 design papers ; and 3 embellishments. The card candy and sentiment are from my stash, as was the red card for the mats.

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

Card For Men Challenge - recipe
Craft Your Days Away - sketch
Party Time Tuesday - anything goes
Karens Doodles Challenge - masculine
ECP Challenge - something for the boys

My New Favourite Digi Stamp....

and it was a freebie, but don't know where from.

Yesterday afternoon, and tonight I have made some thank you cards for some of the presents I got for my birthday a couple of weeks ago. I usually do just embossed cards, as a thank you, as they are quick and easy to do, but I wanted something different, so looked through the many images I have on my laptop, and came across this gorgeous bear, so have tried out a few different layouts using the same bear.

This card, was made using some of the freebie papers I got with a magazine last year, and just added a piece of ribbon, and some pearls from my stash to complete the card. The ovals were cut on the 'bug' with classic and scalloped nesties. I've coloured all the bears with my promarkers, and wanted to experiment a bit on a 2 tone bear, which I think has really worked.

For this one I was trying to mix colours that I don't often use together - blue and pink, and some of the organiza ribbon I ordered from Crafty Ribbons a while ago. I love my ribbons, and will more often then not use them on a card, but I was disappointed that this ribbon is so wide, and have really struggled to know how to use it. The paper was from a freebie pack, and the gem on the flower an odd one I had.
This card is done using the same layout as above, with a different coloured organza ribbon; gemstone card for the mats, and another sheet of freebie paper. I think this one works really well on colours, and was done specifically with my mum in mind as she loves green. It is probably my favourite out of the four cards I've made.

Finally I have attempted to do a 'patchwork' card, which is something I saw that had been done by one of the ladies on the MSE thread, and is a great way to use up scraps/offcuts, a mountain of which I have.

I did really like this card, before I added the 'x' between the different papers, but feel I have spoilt it a bit by doing so. Oh well, you win some, you lose some, and the person receiving it won't know that I was disappointed on the end result. Will definitely try this kind of card again, I just won't add the x's.

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

I Did it Challenge - anything goes
One Stitch At A Time - anything but a square
Stampin Sisters in Christ - use green
Little Claire's Design - anything goes

Amazing Selection of Birthday Cards, from my Crafty Cyber Friends

Last Friday, I became another year older, and received some stunning cards from my cyber friends on MSE.

I was truly overwhelmed by how many I received and how many people had taken the time to make and send a card, to someone they have never met.

Here are all the beautiful handcrafted cards, I received, and I would like to say a big thank you to everyone that sent me a card - I love them all, and now have lots of inspiration for different layouts for cards.

Debbie (Padster); Sarah (Rainmac)

Margaret (Marg)

Karen - (Karen Cooke); Dawn (Addams)

Antonia - (OAP1945); Jo (Jowri)

Karen - (Flourgirl); Jenny (Dragonllew)

Susan - (TomsMom); Uma (Soma)

Tina - (Artydoll); Claire - (Mad Frog)

Jan - (Scatty Jan); Oona - (Choccy).

A Yellow 'Bingo' Card

Since the football was on yet again last night, I sat and made a couple of cards, for some challenges that has caught my eye recently.

The lovely Jan over on MSE has set the current challenge, which she has called 'Bingo Lines', and basically she has suggested making a card, using any one of these lines:

Circle; Spots; Glitter
Square; Buttons; Stars
Yellow; Punch; Flowers

I'd been thinking for a while about the line to choose and had decided to go completely out of my comfort zone and use yellow on a card. I thought that I had the ideal design in my head, and the paper to go with it, but when I tried to put everything together, it didn't really go, so after a lot of faffing about with pretty papers, I ended up changing everything, and came up with this for Jan's Challenge. Yes I know I have used the same image again, that I used on my last cards, but I absolutely love it and it can be used for so many occasions:

I have backed the design paper onto some plain yellow card, and matted the coloured image onto some gold gemstone card to give it a bit of sparkle. The punched flowers on each corner were also made using the gemstone card, and some yellow flat backed gems. The gold organiza ribbon has been tied to finish the card off - not sure the photo does it justice, but the ribbon is really sparkly. I haven't added a sentiment as I thought it may spoil the layout of the card, but this will be given to a work colleague whose birthday is in a couple of weeks.

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

Scatty Jan's Challenge on MSE - bingo lines.

Digi Doodle Shop - anything goes
Creative Card World - use a square card

Creative Cottage Challenge - fabulous florals
Forgotten Scraps - spring or flowers

Bunny Zoe's Crafts - flowers everywhere

I Am Very Proud Of My.....

Very first knitted scarf!

The reason for not making many cards lately, is that I have been practicing my knitting skills and have made this:

It has taken me a couple of hours each night for the last 2 1/2 weeks to knit, and I love it even though half way through I almost lost the will to live, as although I was knitting lots of rows, the scarf didn't seem to really get much longer.

I fell in love with the wool when I saw it in a local cheapy shop, and this scarf took 1 1/2 balls so only cost me £3.00 cash to make. Now it is finished, I have to say it is probably a little too wide, so I need to fold it in half longways. If I made any more I think I would probably only work with around 30 stitches instead of the 45 I did.

I thought that the exercise I got with my hands by knitting would help improve the movement I have in them, but it hasn't proved to be the case. After knitting 233 rows my hand are officially knackered!

I need to give them a rest for a while before I attempt to do another one. The easiest bit for me though was to make the fringe at each end. I may make more during the year for Christmas presents if I can find some similar wool as I love the effect of the 2 colours in the wool.

I love this scarf so much at the moment, that I have worn it all day at work for the last 2 days - it has kept me very warm!

I've Been Such A Bad Blogger Lately...

Why does real life so get in the way of my crafting/card making. I can't believe that I have been missing again for the last few weeks, and not managed to make many cards.

I had every intention at the beginning of the year to blog more often like at least 3 days a week, and here we are 3 weeks after my last blog. I must do better and make more hours in the day.

Anyway here are a couple of my recent cards, that I sent to Marg and Claire for winning my 'Say it with Flowers challenge





I love this image (although not sure where I got it from), and have used the same style of cards, but used different pretty papers. I have used co-ordinating ribbon to match the papers, and pearls from my stash, and used an MS boarder punch on the edge of the patterned paper. The circles were cut using nesties on the bug, and flat backed gems added to the middle of the roses to give the image a bit of a sparkle.

I would like to enter these cards into the following challenges:

Bearly Mine - ribbon and pearls
Digital Tuesday - use a die cut
Craft Your Passion - pink
Lexi's Creations - bears
One Stitch at a Time - pretty