A REALLY GIRLY CARD

Been really busy with work and the kids lately that I haven't had a chance to blog some of the cards I have been making lately.

Here is one of them, that I have made for a very good friend of mine whose birthday is next week. The bugaboo - 'friends wine' - image sums our relationship up completely, and is a lovely one to use on girly cards:

I've known Lynda for about 9 years, through a previous job, and when we were doing a lot of travelling with Commonwealth Games, there were a few of us who would get together over glasses of wine at the end of a long and stressful day.  We always used to room together, and she was my 'mum' on trips abroad, and would look after me and make sure I didn't get into any mischief!  I remember one particular trip to India to take the team to a Youth Games, where a couple of bottle of wine in our suitcases was definitely not going to be enough for 3 week trip that we decided to take 2 boxes of wine each!  It would have been plenty for the 2 of us of an evening, but once the rest of HQ staff found out about our stash they would pop in after their shift for a quick night cap so the 12 litres we had didn't quite last the duration of the trip.

Enough of a waffle, back to the card.  I have used kraft card to mat the paper and image, which was coloured with pro-markers.  I finally learnt to do a double bow with some white satin ribbon, so pleased with how that came out - if I had slightly longer fingers, it would make it easier to do!  A few small pearls finish the card off nicely and I am really pleased how the card has turned out.

I'd like to enter this card into the current February Colour Challenge at Catch the Bug Challenge

ANOTHER MAN'S CARD

I'm on a roll, and have made another man's card for later this month.

This was a nice and easy one to colour and make, so would like to enter it into the current Ladybug Crafts Ink TLT Challenge - Keep it Clean (and Simple):

The image is a bugaboo one, and coloured to match the paper.  Ribbon is from my stash.

A CARD USING MY FAVOURITE THINGS

I made this card a little while ago, and have to admit that I love it so much I won't be giving it away!

I love the image and because the layout really works, and it has 3 of my favourite embellishments on - ribbon; butterflies, die cut flourish.  I therefore want to enter it into this weeks Incy Wincy Design Challenge - to use 3 of your favourite embellishments (ribbon; butterflies and flourish):

The pretty dp paper is from my stash, and the image is a lily of the valley one.  It is a 5 x 5 card made using a kraft card, that I have just got into using, and have found it to be so versitile for many cards. The organza ribbon really shows the sparkle of it, and the butterflies are 3d.  One cut from kraft card, with another cut from the same dp paper, and stuck together.  A little pearl has been added to each butterfly.  The flourish was again cut from kraft card, on my cuttlebug.  Another craftwork card sentiment has been used.

LEAVING CARDS, FOR A VERY GOOD FRIEND

Back in December, I was very sorry and sad to say goodbye to a really good friend at work.  I've known Val for 3 years, and although she was only working in the office one day a week we became very closing, having the same kind of humour, worth ethic and both have kids.  She has always been there when I needed a shoulder to cry on or have a whinge, and would always brighten up the office whenever she was in.

She has left to spend some more time with her daughter Anna, and I will miss her terribly.

Work asked me to make her a leaving card, so I made a newspaper one.  After being given a few 'headlines' to use this is what I came up with:

I then wanted to make Val a special card just from me, and had the ideal digi stamp in mind to use.  With another colleague we were the 3 musketeers at work, but now I'm the only one left in the office :(, and this image really does sum up the 3 of us and our relationship outside work!

The image is a bugaboo one, which has been coloured with promarkers, and matted onto kraft card.  Some pretty dp  and a ribbon and hand tied bow, complete the card

I'd like to enter the 'Friends don't let Friends wine alone card, into the following challenges:

Catch the Bug Challenge - anything goes
Suzy Bee's  Blooming' Challenge - anything goes

Val loved both cards, although the bottom one made her cry because of what I'd written inside (it was nice!), and truth be told I cried when I wrote it.

We will definitely keep in touch, and in fact for Christmas she has organised for me to spend the day with her, with a trip around Windsor Castle, which I am really looking forward to doing. 

MENS CARDS

The first cards of every year, that I need to make are always for men, and how I struggle to do those!

I needed one for my neighbour who was 95 yesterday, and one for my uncle whose birthday is tomorrow and having absolutely no inspiration after making the Christmas cards for 2014, I took a wonder and saw this video on you tube.  Having watched the video the card looked really easy to make, so in the space of 1/2 an hour I'd made these two, and am really really pleased with the way the cards came out:

I just chose some male designer papers that I had, that I never know what to do with, and made complimenting ties with another design paper.  Both the shirt and the tie were then backed on a kraft card. These cards are really easy to make and look fab, so it looks as though men's cards for me this year, are all sorted! When I make some more, then all I would do differently would be to make sure that the paper for the shirt is a bit thinner, so that the folds are easier to do.

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

Crafty Hands Challenge - anything goes
Keep It Simple - anything goes
Simply Create Too - anything goes

CARDS FOR CHRISTMAS 2014 ALREADY MADE!

Day 2 of the new year, and I have made 60 cards already for next Christmas!

For this year's card I wanted to make something quick and easy, and for the first time every all the cards that I send/give will be exactly the same.

I have started to look on Pintrest for inspiration, and came across, what I thought was a really stunning card, and have recreated it.  I liked the simplicity of this card because it only uses one strip of double sided tape on each card.  Unfortunately though, I only had enough ribbon to tie one card, and will have to wait till the weekend, to go and buy some more from my local haberdashery to go and get more and hope they have what I need:

Now that the Papermill shops have disappeared, I am really stuck on where to get decent card from, so took a trip to Hobbycraft and found packs of 10 200gms card that would make 20 cards, so bought 3 packs.  The embossing folder is Craft Concepts - Merry Christmas and the tree a hobbycraft punch.

The embossed card, is pearl card, that I bought by mistake when I first started cardmaking, so it has taken me almost 7 years, to finally make use of it!

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

As you like it - favourite single colour and why -  i love working with red, for christmas cards, as it really says 'Christmas' to me.  By using it as the main colour in this card design, I think it looks stunning.
Happy Campers Craft Collective - Christmas

FAVOURITE FIVE CHRISTMAS CREATIONS I'VE MADE IN 2013

I've just seen a blog post here about the favourite 5 Christmas makes made in 2013, so thought that I would join in the challenge.

For me, my top make has to be my Christmas bauble wreath, which in real life looks stunning, and is something that will hopefully last for many years:

I'd like to enter my wreath into the current Crafting for all Seasons Challenge -  anything Christmas, but a card.

In terms of cards it has to be these three:

and finally the snowman with bells image, that I used on a number of this year's Christmas Cards:

My overall favourite card of the year I made though has to be this one, that was made for a colleague at work's partner Tony, who is a huge Dr Who fan, and for whom Ian couldn't find an appropriate card at the time.  Queue being asked to make a card, and a few ideas of what it should include.  This is the masterpiece that I created (!).  Tony was apparently thrilled with it, and it was the only one that was allowed on the bookcase, and not the window sil on the day, and the only one that he has kept!

I love doing newspaper style cards, and now I've done a few, and have templates set up, this one took a couple of hours from start to finish.  All the images came from 'google' and all I did was cut out the tardis 3 times and layered them up using foam pads.  I tried to make a darlik badge using an image and glossy accents, and was thrilled with the results.

PHOTOS OF CHRISTMAS MAKES/GIFTS THIS YEAR

Not having lots of time to do and make the things I wanted to, I did manage to make a door wreath from baubles for my front door.

I bought the baubles a couple of years ago in the sales, but never got around to doing anything with them, so one Saturday afternoon, I did sit down and made a wreath:

I am so please with how it came out, and the fact that it is made from a wire coat hanger, some Christmas baubles and a piece of ribbon.  I watched lots of youtube videos to find out how they were made.  I didn't really like using the hot glue gun much, and things got in a bit of a mess, but overall considering it only took about 1 1/2 hours I think I did a good job.  If I made another then there are a couple of things I'd do differently - have a slightly thicker wire coat hanger, so that the shape keeps a bit better, and not put too much hot glue on to each bauble so it come through the top attachment of the bauble.  Hopefully this wreath will adorn my front door for many years to come.

Here is the 'Emergency Car Kit' I made for my friends son, who passed his driving car this year, and has now got his own car:

I've got a similar one in the boot of my car, as you never know when any of it may come in handy.  The things I added to the box were screenwash, de-icer spray, and an ice scraper.  First aid kit, tourch, penknive, tissues, chewing gum, emergency foil blanker, whistle, notebook and pen, and just before wrapping it, a bag of sweets.

Overall it cost about £12 to make, and I hope it comes in useful for Josh one day.   He really liked it so it was worth doing.

Here is the card I made him for his 17th birthday, when I knew he was going to be starting to have driving lessons.  I really couldn't find any images that I liked for the card, so resorted to using an image off google images, that looked a bit like Josh!  The map is taken from an atlas that is our home town, and the 'L' plates were just made on the computer.

I really can't take the credit for making these, as they were shop bought, but when I saw them in B&M in Stoke back in November, I bought 4 as presents for friends.  They were £1.99 each, but I reckon they look far more than that once you take them off the card board backing, and wrap them in tissue paper.

Haven't seen any of the people that I bought them for yet, so not sure if they thought I had made them.  One day I will have the time and a steady hand, to make something like this.

I forgot to taken and photos of the snowman soup I made, but managed to make 15 as small gifts and about 50 ES mints, which I used foil stickers from Hobbycraft to decorate them:

ALMOST THE END OF THE YEAR...

time for me to blog some of the Christmas cards I made this year.  In all I made 63 for Christmas, but over the year, I have made 169! 

The majority of the Christmas cards were all very similar, in that I individually coloured each digi stamp using different colour ways, but the same basic design.  The images are all bugaboo stamps, which I find so easy to colour - the thicker black outline is very forgiving when colouring in!  I started off with every intention of making all my Christmas cards by the end of August this year, and although I did start last January, I got lazy, and never really went back to them throughout the year.  Hence, me rushing to get them finished at the beginning of December to get them posted.

Here are the first 3 I made for my 'boys':

I'd like to enter my Husbands card into the current Bugaboo Challenge - Favourite Christmas song - Santa Baby.

All images were coloured with promarkers, and the papers were some Christmas ones, that I got when I first started card making seriously about 7 years ago.  The sentiment on my husband's card was done on the computer, and the others were the craftwork card ones I had left over from making my main cards.  Iv'e added a few stickles to different parts of these 3 cards.

Here are a selection of the other 60 cards I made.  I think I did about 6 of each design, but lost the will to live after making 45, so ended up making the cards a bit simpler by only having the image, matted at an angle on the card:

Apart from the pink backing paper, all the other papers I designed on the computer, and just changed the colour, to suit the image colouring.  Really pleased with how they eventually all came out, but cross with myself for not finishing them off earlier in the year.  Sentiments are from Craftworks Cards, and the embossing folder was just a snowflake one I have had for a while.

As I was making my cards into mid December, I had no real time to make any gifts this year which was always my intention, but I did manage to make a bauble wreath for my front door, and also a emergency car box for a friends son, to keep in the boot of his car - photos to follow tomorrow, the usual ES mints and snowman soups were made but that was in in terms of my crafty makes for presents this year.  Must do better next!

JUST BECAUSE.......

Do you ever have a day, when you want to do something for someone just because?

I work for a local Cancer Charity, and although we are a small team, we are all incredibly busy.  My lovely boss Lisa, is snowed under at the moment with work, and with things going on in her personal life, at the moment, that yesterday was my just because day.

She has been travelling a lot with work, so when she does I go and feed her cat for her, which I did yesterday.  Whilst there in her kitchen, I left her a bunch of flowers, a 2 ltr bottle of diet pepsi, and box of mint matchmakers (all of which are some of her favourite things), and this card that I'd made the day before:

Lisa came back last night, and shortly after I got a lovely text from her to say "thank you so much for the pressies and very kind card.  Made me cry!  Very, very lovely to come home too.  You are so thoughtful and it is appreciated.  Thanks for looking after Lulu".

It made my day to do something for someone else that didn't cost much, but was really appreciated.  I then found out that yesterday was world kindness day(!) which I didn't know when I planned my surprise for Lisa.

I'd like to enter this card into the:

Crafty Creations Challenge - Dies and Punches
Creative Moments Challenge - Anything Goes/CAS