Starting School

Thanks to some inspriation on Patsy J's Blog( which is well worth a visit) I came up with this card for my neice who started school a few weeks ago.
Have not had chance to post it till now. The apple was cut on the NA cart fro Cricut also cut in the shadow side, I distressed it and added the sentiment.
The background paper was from a stash of heritage papers that I had.

Just Bex Male Challenge

This was made for the challenge over on Just Bex. The tools on the wood is a stamp that I cut the middle out of & then layered up the tools and painted with Shimmer Paints.

I stamped Happy Birthday onto cream card that I also painted with Shimmer Paint & then distressed with Colour Box chalk inks.

I used Glossy Accents on the nails, screw & other siver areas.

Friends are Everything

This card was made for a dear friend who I have never met, yes another crafter - Gill. Sadly she does not have a blog so I cannot direct you there to see some of her amazing creations; however she does have a photobucket that you can find her creations on; Gillyflower.
I wanted to make this card as she is always sending me bits and bobs to craft with. Over the last year since we have known each other, we have formed a bond. She is a very special person and has a lot to deal with in life, but she always emails with a smile and always tries to see the bright side of everything. She has also along with her own troubles helped me with mine and that I will be forever grateful.
This one is for you Gilly - a very special person.

Femme Fatale

Yet another peel off card. This Just Bex challenge seems to really have taken hold!
I used the same technique as the last card, the peel off is on acetate and then coloured with Sakura Glaze pens.
Sentiment I printed on the PC, the metal swirl embellishment from Woodware. The spotty ribbon is by Offray, Envys sent across to me - cause she is so sweet and lovely. Check out her 'Smile' design over on Bitten by Bug.
The paper is by Dovecraft, French designer Sandra Ranarison; Charcoal Prints.
Flowers cut with black card and happy birthday vellum on the Cricut.

Peel off Challenge

This peel off thing over on Just Bex seems to have got me in a peel!!

I've gone and created another one.

This peel off is stuck onto acetate and then coloured with Sakura Glaze pens cut out & then stuck onto a stamped background, which I fixed with brads to pink card & mitered round the edges with some candy striped paper.

All mounted onto the pearliest purple card I had then stamped with silver star like stamps.

Retro Crazy

My Brother in Law recently had a birthday, and he is particularly into things that are 'retro', so I set about creating a card that fitted the part.
The D is because his name begins with a 'D' and I created it using my Cricut machine and cutting 5 letters out and gluing together to make a chipboard look, I decorated with parts of various stamps and stickles. I mounted this onto a shadow D in black.
The word retro I cut small squares and stamped the letters again mounting on shadow black, these were mounted onto strong vellum which over-lapped the card that I had stuck with handmade black & white square retro look paper.
A few star embellishments and some white funky fibre to finish it off.

A Flutter for Peel offs

Over on the Just Bex forum a challenge has been set to create a card using peel offs. Not every bodies first choice for creating a card.
This is my attempt.

Pale blue hammered card which I dry embossed on the left with a Victoriana Embossing Plate the Glitter Girls one. I then stamped a butterfly twice using an Anna Griffin stamp onto blue vellum and them heat embossed with Personal Impressions; Hologram Silver. Cut both butterflies out and stuck one to the card and the other on top but only the body part.
Happy Birthday stamp from Anita's range inked with Brilliance; Mediterranean Blue & bit of Stickles added.
Then what the challenge was about {Peel offs}, I used small butterfly peel off and stuck them to vellum and stuck the body part down so their wings were free, the little blue flowers are also peel offs.

First Anniversary

Another wedding anniversary card!
Made this for a very lovely couple who had the most fantastic wedding last year.

This card is DL and has extra detail inside, I cut some green bazzill card to 10x21cm and then folded in half, 3cm down I cut 2.5cm slit in from the folded crease, then 3cm down I cut a another 2.5cm from the crease into the card.
Allowing a 1.5cm gap I then cut two more 2.5cm slits with a 3cm drop, and then another 2.5cm slit with a 3cm drop as before. This created the pop up boxes inside, you just push the 3cm cut bits forward. Let me know if you want more details as this might sound confusing.

This piece of green card I stuck to the middle of the DL card on the inside and complemented the two side areas with Dasiyd's; Green Garden Gingham paper. This was also used to cover the pop up squares and for the hearts on the front.
The beige card has white cotton strands running through it, it is from stash I have had for ages.
The brown stamping on the right is an Anna Griffin stamp; Gratitude. Color Box; Creamy Brown for this stamping and the edging of the hearts inside.
Color Box; Lime is for the edging on the from hearts, FIRST & Hearts were cut with the Cricut machine.

In Loving Memory of Jake

This card was very hard to make not in terms of technical difficulty but terms of emotion, some of you already know that I have just had some very sad news.
A very dear friend of mine & my hubby's sadly died. He was only 43 & has left a wife and 2 wonderful children aged 10 & 11, life sometimes just is not fair.
The funeral is tomorrow and I am travelling down south for it, Jake & his wife have been friends of mine & Phil's for many many years and we shared so many things together, I cannot believe he is gone & we will never see him again.
So this blog is in memory of Jake...a great guy; that in his short time on this Earth touched the hearts of many with his jolly smile and stories of his Irish childhood.
With love to Maria, Rosie and Jessie.

Beetle Does it

Don't know about any of you, but when sticking sometimes you just need to lay your masterpiece under something heavy so that it does not curl.
This is what I use a, solid pewter beetle ornament! It really does the trick and as you possibly know I love VW Beetles, especially my 1965 Ringo!
What do you guys use?

DCM Softie Challenge - Well Almost

Over on DCM they have set a challenge to create something using anything soft. I hope this one counts, might be a bit tenuous lol!
This card is made using Flower Soft, you can stroke it, but very gently.

The paper is from QVC in one of their bargain boxes, the flowers in the basket are a clear Anna Griffin Stamp; With Gratitude. The medium I used for the stamp were Marvy Le Plumme Pens.
The 'Flower Soft' is from the mixed range; Heather.

Best Wishes stamp by Inca Stamps; Scripted Wishes embossed with Heat it up; Eggplant.

Fingers & Toes Tearing Challenge

Someone wanted cards for twins, so a good reason to use the tearing challenge over on Just Bex.

The card stock is 13.5cm square and I used my PC to place and print the sentiments in purple, I then used my Impression Obsession Grid Guide on another piece of card and blended Dovecraft Shimmer chalks green and purple together to create 4 medium sized squares.
The feet and hands are from a clear stamp set by Dimensions Clear on Clear, I stamped these with Brilliance ink; Pearlesent Crimson. I used Color Box pigment ink to edge the torn area; Ruby Satin.
Great if you do not know the sex of twins or they are one of each!

Traditional Twist Challenge

Seem to be on a roll with these challenges at the moment.

This challenge was over on Just Bex, create a traditional red & green Christmas card, but with a modern twist.

I used: The Christmas Stack of paper I talked about in the previous post. The tree, dotted lines and sentiment are Dovecraft, they were quite cheap a little set of 5 stamps for 99p! Color Box chalk inks were used for the tree and dotted lines; Deep Green; I edged the tree topper with same inks; Maroon and Olive Pastel. The sentiment is in black but edged with the green.

Welcome to the World

My friend just had a baby boy so thought I would do another challenge on the Bex forum to create a card for the proud parents.
I am not sure I have interpreted the challenge correctly, the theme is 0's & x's, but I seem to have not got any noughts! Oh well

I cut the cute little baby from the New Arrival cart on my Cricut machine, I coloured his skin with H2Os: Blushing Caramel; the paper was from DCVW, I bought it from The Paper Mill shop it is a pad of 12 x 12 paper. This is the Christmas Stack but many of the patterns you can use for other things, the pad has 180 sheets and 60 different designs and it is very good quality paper all for £14.99 a bargain I thought!

The branches are cut from the Zooballoo cart and so is the sentiment 'Welcome'.

Just Bex Slip 'n' Slide Challenge

Just done my first challenge on the Just Bex site. You had to create a card using a slide mount.
I had slide mounts, but decided to make my own which was allowed.
My friend Hayley is 40 next week & like me she loves VW Beetles so I set about creating a card for her using Bex's challenge.

I cut the rectangles using my trusty Cricut George Cart, I then aged the slide mount with Color Box Chalk Inks: Olive Pastel
Checked green gingham paper is Daisyd's: Green Garden Gingham; Beetle stamp is by Funstamps, Black Staz on ink to stamp; little daisy swirl stamp is on from Personal Impressions; ribbons are from American Crafts Elements and the flowers Samm kindly gave to me.
The wording I printed onto card using the PC and aged with the chalk ink.
I used glossy accents on the headlights and added a few flower gems to each slide.