wooohoooo.....two posts in one day! I've been busy

I've been having a play today. These are a a few creations I was inspired to make after seeing this fantastic blog full of really useful video tutorials! Its a really great resource! take a peek if you havent already discovered it! First up is a bag of Reindeer Food. I've used some basic porridge oats mixed in with some red edible glitter. I've never really considered making these before, but they are so simple and I'm sure kids will love them! The little reindeer is the template that I used for the reindeer card below. I've just resized him in psp and drawn the rest of his face on! The little poem is really sweet.And the rest of today's batch!

My second and favourite project today was this Snowman Soup! I actually bought a bulk box of these hot chocolate sachets the other day. I have tried one or two of them, but I bought them with this recipie in mind! I've added a few white marshmallows and candy cane. I have lined the cello bag with the Doodlebug Winter Asterisks paper and have printed the snowman and sentiment from my pc. The top strip has been embossed with the cuttlebug snowflakes folder. This i the final version after having made a few attempts, this was the one I settled for.

Yummy!

I've been getting ready For Christmas! and its only October....

Well as the title says I've been getting ready for Christmas. It is a little early for me. Usually I don't make any Christmas cards until at least the end of November. I have however been really inspired by all the fab cards and gifts on Splitcoast Stampers and also I'm loving the use of Kraft card stock with white brown's & reds, by the Elzybells team. I'm severely lacking in funds at the moment so the option to buy all the gorgeous new Christmas stamps is just not available! So I've set about making some of my own embellishments using my punches and a pair of scissors! I'm actually really pleased with how they have turned out, but as yet have only made a card using the punched Robin. I thought I'd share them with you though, so here they are! I first saw a punched Robin card on Ruth M's blog which is what first inspired all my punched characters!

The Robin!

I wasn't really sure what to do with the little Robin once I'd made him but after a bit of inspiration surfing, I came up with this. Something quite simple really. I really love these gingham ribbons. I've stocked up as I have a feeling they are going to be the theme of my cards this Christmas!The main man! Santa! I had good fun making him. I'd seen a couple of examples but thought I'd adapt them to come up with my own version. I've used my nesties to cut out the beard and a flower punch for the moustache. I've inked all the edges in charcoal ink to give him a bit more definition. I love my little penguin! I didnt really know what i was doing when I was making him, so made him up as I went along. I'm really pleased with how he turned out. I think I might make a little bobble hat for him though or maybe a santa hat.
Frosty's not really a punched character! I used my nesties again to cut him out, but wanted to go for a bit of a rustic look. So I pulled out my gingham ribbon again and added a button as his scarf. I've used Kraft cardstock for his buttons and hat, all of which have been inked. I decided to go with an orange brad for the nose rather than trying to create a pointy carrot type nose. The string for the arms was an after thought. I'm really pleased with how it looks though. To finish him off I've just added some highlighting with my white marker pen.

I saw Kath's card which had been made using the free template from papercraft inspirations which was what led me to make this card! I've used a combination of doodlebug card to make this card and again have inked all the edges to define him a bit more. I've used foam pads to stick his nose on to make it stand out a bit more and have highlighted it again using my white pen. The snowflakes were cut using a cuttlebug die, but I've now invested in a snowflake punch which is a lot less time consuming! Finished off with some star shaped adhesive stones in the centre of each snowflake. I never seem to use the stars so thought this would be a good way to utilise them! I then finished the card with some brown & red gingham ribbon topped with a sparkly snowflake and a brown brad. I wasn't sure whether to add a sentiment or not, but I dont think it really needs it! I think most people would gather that its for Christmas! I hope!

The reason I've been a bit absent...

...I'm having another baby! and I've been feeling so ill this time round. I'm currently 16/17 weeks and just starting to get a bit of energy back! Its been a really tough few months, as we have had lots of tests carried out to see whether or not this baby has the same disease that we lost our little girl Rebecca too. The results have come back all clear, which is fantastic news but its been an extremely stressful and worrying time.10 weeks12 weeks

I've made some cards too! The first is a variation on a card from my last post. I was asked by this lady to make a card for her Aunt who is having a tea party for her 70th birthday. I had a go at trying to fold a little table cloth, and as it turns out, its a lot harder than you would think!

I bought a few quickutz dies from ebay recently and decided to make a few simple cards for my box! I've made this card is several colours. The sentiment and border are printed directly onto the card. I've got a few orders that I need to get working on, so as soon as they are finished, I'll upload some pictures.

Thanks for stopping by!

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!

For the Men & Boys!

Some of these cards go back a while now! To start with, I was asked to make two golfing cards for a chap who's 60, as it turns out there were for the same man! Luckily I figured this out before I went ahead a copied the first card I made!I've been on ebay and invested in some Quickutz dies, a Golf Tee & Ball and a Golf Club set and the Grass die. I can see myself getting quite a lot of use out of these so thought they would be a good purchase! I can't remember where the paper for this card came from, but I'm pretty sure it was a download. The pringle design works great with golf cards! I've done quite a bit of paper pricking on this card too! I think its my latest "thing"And here is my second attempt! Decided to go with the large numbers theme on this card and embellish it with the golfing die cuts. I've used a tartan looking paper, which I think came from the Basic Grey Archaic set, very fitting as the chap is also Scottish! I've mounted the numbers onto foam pads so they stand out a bit and have tied the two together using some eyelets and elastic stringy stuff!Within the space of 3 days I was asked by two different people to make a card for a keen cyclist! This time though they were actually for different people so I was able to replicate the card! I really didnt have a clue what to do, so I took a look through my trusty old stash of magazines when I came across a booklet of mens cards, I think it was from Papercraft Inspirations last year. This is my interpretation of the card they featured which was a paper pieced mountain bike. I beleive I've seen a version of this card on Stacey's blog too! It was a bit challenging getting all the pieces to fit together!
This one is for a Watford Football Club fan! I'm never really sure what to do when it comes to football cards. I've done one a bit like this in the past, and after Googling some images, this is what I came up with. The background card is part of the Black Magic set I bought recently, it has a yellow core. I've sanded it down so it looks distressed. I didnt realise that it would make so much mess though!

And this final one was for my friends Dad for Fathers Day! The suggestion was for Automotive! Something Classic! So I thought, blokey, James Bond, Aston Martin! The image has a slight hint of green in one of the back windows, and this is what inspired the colours of the card. I really like this teal/grey combination.

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!"