Its gonna be a long one! grab a cuppa!

Sorry for the long post...I've been such a bad blogger lately. I just dont seem to be able to keep up! In all honesty, i've not actually made many cards recently and the ones posted below have been made over the past couple of months. I thought it would be easier to put them into categories, so here goes!

Girly:This card was made for my mum's friend, who wanted something pink with butterflies. What made it easier is that it was for her 85th Birthday, so I started with my trusty old number style card and embellished with butterflies and lots of adhesive stones. It was quite a difficult card to photograph with the mirrored butterflies.

This card is for my friends little boy and girl to give to their auntie. The request was for something pink and princessy with an image of a little boy and girl on it. I've stamped the Edwin and Tilda images but then scanned in the Tilda image to the pc and re-sized her so that she is slightly smaller than her big brother! I love these papers so much, very girly and sparkly! they are from the raqnge Fairest of them all by Imaginisce.
This card is for the same lady as the one above. Her sister has paid for her to have ice skating lessons for her birthday and wanted a card to match. I found a template on the internet for an ice skate and decided to use this papermania paper in the background as it has a swirly pattern, hopefully made to look like it has been skated on! I've added some extra glitter too! I'm really pleased with how this one turned out.

I was asked to make this card for a family who have recently lost thier teenage daughter. The lady asked for something with rainbow's and angels, but I couldnt find any angel images that I felt were suitable, but in a flash of inspiration I thought I'd use butterflies instead. The background image is one I found on Google. I'd be quite touched if I'd have received this card when I lost my little girl, and hope that the family that receive it feel the same too.

For my Mummy:

Tomorrow is my mum's birthday. I like to try out a new idea or project when it comes to my mum's birthday. I like to give her something a bit more special, something that's had a bit more effort put into it. This is my first flowerpot card. I used the tutorial found on Joanne's blog, which you can find here. I love Joanne's blog, its so inspiring and has many ideas for "no tools" flowers.
I found that placing the flowers was the most difficult part. I spent a very long time moving them around, trying to get them in the right place, but in the end had to settle and just stick them down where they were before it drove me completely insane! I tend to do that all to often with my cards! Not bad for a first attempt, but there are definately things I will do differently next time.I've made another slightly different version for my son to give to his Nanny tomorrow. I've used a different stlye of flower punch and less flowers. This one was a lot quicker and easier to put together. Hopefully she will like them both. I wonder how long it will take her to realise how to find the message though! lol. Also I have added a little stand to the back of each of the flower pots so the stand up nicely.

I've bought my mum a nice boquet of flowers, which she had delivered today, and to go with them I bought her a small box of choccies. I've been wanting to make a little treat box for a while now, so today I set about making this one for her. I saw a box recently on Mandy's blog, which was shaped like a bird box. I thought it was really cute, and after a lot of searching, I still couldnt find a template anywhere. I've made this box myself based on the measuremenst of the choccies inside. I'm quite pleased with it. It's not quite how I imagined it would turn out, but a good first attempt. I've made the lid so that it just lifts off with the ribbon threaded through the top of the lid. And finally, I made this card for my step-dad to give to my mum. I'd been working on this little paper pieced cake stand a few days ago and thought it would be ideal for my mum. The cupcakes are actually from one of the Pink Petticoat Lola Rose images which I've printed and cut out and then have heat embossed the tops with clear powder, to make them look like they have frosting on them, and then just coloured the topping in red. The teapot is also a Pink Petticoat image. The cake stand is made by simply using my Stampin Up Scalloped edge punch and a swirly punch for the legs. I'm really pleased with it! I've been looking around for a stamp with a nice cake stand on, but now I dont think I need one anymore!

Craftwork Cards Inspired:

I've had these little Craftwork Cards sentiments in my draw for quite some time now, and I really love them, but I dont use them as often as I should! They were my starting point for this card & candle gift set. I love the shape of the background on this card, not sure what the shape itself is called but I know there are a set of nestabilities out there like this, with my name on them!!!! one day I will own them! but for now I just drew my own template out of card and hand cut the shape. I've gone round the edge with my quickie glue pen and then sprinkled on some glamour dust for that bit of sparkle! I've then gone round the edge of the shape with my pokey tool and pierced the card. Then just a few adhesive stones to finish.

I love these flowers. They are quite large and were a freebie with one of my magazines a few months ago! The papers are from Pink Petticoat. I've used a few pins to firmly attach the card/paper and ribbon to the candle.

This card was inspired by Julie who's blog I came across whilst looking through the Craftwork Cards blog. I've spent a long time looking over her blog and her wonderful inspiring creations. I love the use of a single colour on this card, but I decided to add silver edges to the embossed squares and flowers and a touch of silver ribbon too.

I fancied having a go at one in colour too, and this is what I came up with. Something for the fella's this time!

Something for the kids:

I'm always really inspired by Kerry's blog and was particularly inspired when I saw a card with this layout! I had this Edwin image coloured in and sitting in my box for a while so decided it was about time he was put to use. I found he co-ordinated quite well with these Basic Grey Abrosia papers.

Using the same layout again, but this time with Tilda, whos so cute! and some more Basic Grey papers. I think this is the Bittersweet yummy chocolatey collection. Such a simple, yet striking layout.

This card is for my friend to give to her little boy on his 2nd Birthday. I've layered Thomas's face with 2 layers of foam pads and have layered the middle of the cloud with 2 layers of foam pads but have stuck the sides down with tape. The tunnell is hand cut/drawn and the train lines were downloaded from the internet and printed onto clear ascetate. I'm really pleased with how they turned out. I think I may try this with tyre treads for car cards too if I can find some to download!

Weddings & Anniversary's:

This is a copy of a card I made a few months back, only this time in Sapphire Blue! I really love the simplicity of this card and have since made another one for a friends wedding recently.
This card was made for a couple who recently got married in Canada. My friend asked me to make it incorporating a Canadian theme somehow! As soon as she said that, I instantly thought of the Maple leaf and decided to copy a card I'd made in the past with the images of Tilda and Edwin sitting inside. I was really pleased with how it turned out.
I made this card for my Mum and step-dad's wedding anniversary last month. It was a bit of a last minute card, but I was so pleased with it. I've used a stamp that came free in a magazine and have stamped it using sliver ink and heat embossed the hearts. Finished with a nice silver bow and a few heart shaped adhesive stones.
This is a card I was asked to make recently. The lady had seen one of my cards with the champagne glasses on and had asked for it to be personalised with the names/dates. She also wanted to incorporate light turquoise too. I've used this pistachio card from doodlebug. I hope its the right colour for her. Its the nearest I had to light turquoise! I've added a few punched flowers and adhesive stones to finish. Again, with all the mirror card used, this was a really hard card to photograph!
And last but not least! Hubby and I will be celebrating our 6th Wedding Anniversary tomorrow. We've actually been together twice as long! It took him a while to propose! The colour scheme for our wedding was Ivory/Gold and I like to make our Anniversary cards in gold to match. Not that I guess he would make that link though. Again the hearts on this card were a free stamp from a magazine, which I've stamped in gold and heat embossed. I've embossed a strip of white card with my swiss dots folder, added a strip of gold ribbon and edged it on some matt gold cardstock. The sentiment is stamped in gold too! There is A LOT of white space on this card, not something that I'm all that comfortable with, but I know its the sort of card that my hubby likes! Hope he likes this one too!

Well if you got to the end of this post, thank you for stopping by and reading. Hopefully I will update a bit more often in future!

A Few for the Kids!

Hi everybody, I'm sorry its been so long again since I updated my blog...I just dont seem very with it at the moment so am taking the opportunity to blog today and hopefully catch up while I'm feeling in the mood! I've had quite a lot of requests for cards just lately and really haven't had a lot of time to just have a play. I'm all up to date now though so I'm hoping to get playing with some new ideas and textures soon.
This first card is my favourite of the childrens cards! She's a little cutie! I downloaded the Prima Ballerina set from Cuddly Buddly a very long time ago and this is the first time I've ever used her, I'm ashamed to say! I really like her though. The papers are also cuddly buddly. I've kept the card reasonably simple and have layered the ballernia's dress to add a bit more depth.
My second favourite is this Edwin card. The paper is an old scrap I had in the draw. Not sure where it came from but its what started me off on this card! I've fastened some of the stars on with small eyelets and foam pads. Again, I printed off the sentiment using PSP and have cut it cut using my nestabilities.

Here is a Ben 10 Card, I was asked to make....my litte boy's not quite into Ben 10 yet so I didnt have many ideas. I did a Google image search and came up with this picture, which I thought would look good if I layered the arm giving it a bit of depth. I created the sentiment in PSP and printed it directly onto the co-ordinating cardstock. This card was for the same lady as the Ben 10 Card. She liked the layout of the first one so I said I'd have another go with this card. The Thomas Image was Googled and I've layered the face and bumpers using foam pads. And finally, this card was set as a bit of a challenge! I was asked to make it for a special needs, blind teenager. The challenge was to make a nice touchy feely card with textures! I hope I've acheived that here! I started off by cutting out the numbers and embossing them with the swiss dots folder. They are then mounted on contrasting pink card and have been stuck down with foam pads. My thought was that she might be able to feel the shape of the numbers and also the texture of dots. I've added a few embossed flowers also using foam pads and some adhesive gem stones. To the bottom I've added another strip of embossed swiss dots card with an added strip of lace. I have recently inherrited a huge basket full of lace and trims, which I'm hoping to use a lot more on my cards from now on! I'm pleased with the result of my first go with them! And to finish I've layered up 3 silk/paper flowers.

Thanks for stopping by and I promise I will update again soon! I do have some more cards to show you, so as Arnie would say "I'll Be Back!"

A few of my favourites...

Good evening everybody! What beautiful weather we've had here in Northampton over the past couple of days! lets hope it continues as I'm going away for a few days next week! Here are a few pictures of some of the gifts I made for my stall at the fayre a couple of weeks ago! I wanted to fill out the stall with other bits and pieces instead of just cards.I really love this colour combination. I stumbled across it by accident. Its kind of mint choclatey! First up is a matching notepad and pen set. These are so easy to make, and make such a lovely gift.And to co-ordinate (use up the papers) I've made this little handbag card too. I've made a few more stationery boxes, this time however, I have re-sized and made my own template for the cards & envelopes, so absolutely everything here is hand crafted! The A6 cards and envelopes are just ever so slightly too big as the box is designed for the US card measurements. These gorgeous papers are Pink Petticoat. I downloaded them a long time ago and I really love them. The colours are easily changed to suit.
And a co-ordinating Notepad & Pen Gift set!
For the craft stall I made up about 10 candles, each displayed in an organza gift bag with a matching card. These seem to go down really well. They do make such a nice gift. I'd be thrilled if somebody gave one to me! not that thats ever likely though.

And yet another co-ordinating handbag. I love these papers. They are from the Basic Grey Sugared Collection.

Oh My Word...where has the last month and a half gone?

I'm so sorry for being such a bad blogger...I just dont know where the last month and a half has gone. It all started at the begining of May. I went to Cornwall for a week on holiday and I'm still not 100% back into my normal routine yet. After we came back from our holiday I had a couple of weeks to prepare for my stall at a local country fair. I've worked my socks off trying to get things ready in time! The show itself wasnt actually all that busy, the weather was great though and we have a really nice weekend away! It was nice to hear such lovely comments from people about my cards and gifts. Here is a piccy of my stall!

I've been asked to make quite a few cards recently and the first one I'm showing you is probably my favourite. I was browsing the docrafts gallery looking for inspiration for a Wedding card and I came across a card by Barbi which really inspired me. So I had a go at my own version and this is what I came up with. The colour scheme for the wedding is light toffee and cream so I thought I'd use these colours for the card. The wording is printed onto a cream pearlescent card, and I have personalised it with the bride and groom's name and date of the wedding.I really love this little girls first birthday card. I think it turned out really well! I've made a blue version of this card before, but this is my first go using the pink colour combination. The papers, card and ribbon are Doodlebug! who else?I was asked to make a thinking of you card for a lady recently and I decided to use a layout that i've used before using the cuttlebug embossing folders. This time though I thought I'd add a little extra to it by layering a stamped Tilda with Boquet in the bottom right corner.

And my final favourite for now! is this BBQ card. I have a stamp set from Studio G who I think are now being sold as Dovecraft stamps. They are the 99p sets. This is from "The Great Outdoors" set. I was inspired to make this card by lots of other cards on the Splitcoast Stampers Gallery. An invaluble source of inspiration!

I think that will do for today. I do still have lots more to show you, but I'll leave some for another time! Thanks for stopping by.

Tinker & Co DT Cards - Elisia Paper Pack

Here are my first few cards that I've made for Tinker & Co as part of the Design Team. The paper pack is called Elisia and you can buy it here! I really love the colours in this set, and the flowery flourish is absolutely gorgeous!
This first card is my favourite of the set. Its made using the Joy-Fold layout. I've used a combination of the three paisly papers from the set, combined with some black card. I think these colours contrast really well. The flourish element has been printed onto acetate and then cut around the edges before being fastened with a small brad through the centre of the flower. A few adhesive stones and some organza ribbon to finish and voila!

I've made this one using a sketch I used a couple of weeks ago, and have used some of the more floral papers from the pack this time. Again the flourishes are printed onto acetate and fastened with a brad.
This was quite a simple one to make, again using the blue paisley paper layered onto white cardstock with inked edges. I used my nestabilities to cut out the squares and layered over the printed flourishes so that they overlapped the square. I then just stamped the sentiment and added a few adhesive stones to finish.
And finally, using my favourite layout of the moment! I paper pieced Tilda's dress using the pink and black spotty paper, which was really quite fiddly, I'd not done this before, but I love the result so it was worth it! I love the pink & black combination, one of my favourites.


Yo can buy this kit from Tinker & Co along with a huge range of other digital kits too.

My Favourite Layout!

I've discovered that this is my favourite layout at the moment. Every card I make using this sketch I really like, which is unusual for me! So here are a few of them. First of all is this gorgeous Edwin! I decided to use papers from the DCWV Rockstar stack, which I have been very reluctant to use in the past and it has sat in my craft room for about a year now! Its one of those sets thats too good to cut up, but I was brave and here is the result! I'm glad I used it now. The little records are so easy to make and so effective. I just cut a few small circles with my nestablities and popped an eyelet in the centre, and then just added a few white highlighted lines.
I liked the card above so much so, that I wanted to re-create a girly one using some of the pink papers from the Rockstar stack. It took me a while to come up with the idea of using the Ipod as I didn't think I had a suitable alternative to the Edwin image, until I woke up the following morning, after having made the card the night before, and realised that I have a Pink Petticoat image of Lola holding an Ipod! I will use that one next time, lol! I find the best ideas usually come after a good nights sleep, but then I have to write them down quickly before I forget! And finally, I bought these Basic Grey papers a month or so ago now, and was really inspired by the colours. I had this Edwin image already coloured and he kind of matches so thought I'd use him.