So very tired

And yet so very happy as I've just got back home from my very first visit to the Birmingham NEC Hobbycraft show. I had a fab day and have a lot of new goodies to play with. So hopefully I'll have some more cards to share with you very soon.

Age Cards

I was just looking back through my pictures of cards I have made so far this year and remembered that I had made these back in January for a run of 'Special' birthdays among my friends and family, being special birthdays I wanted the age to be the prominent feature. My way of doing this is to print the mirror image of the number (created as word art on Microsoft Word) on the reverse of my card stock and then cut out, this way you won't get any printed lines showing on the front (although I do sometimes print on the front and then cut around leaving a white border which gives a nice effect) and then mat and layer each time carefully cutting the numbers out by hand.

 Items: Glitter self adhesive card from Hobbycraft, card used is Bazzill Bling and a matstack from DCWV, stamps from sets by Daisy & Dandelion, Personal Impressions and Inkandinkado, black striped vellum from stash, Sakura Metallic Pens, Stickles and brads and flowers from Papermania.

It's my first

...altered item. Thanks to the challenge over at the Stampman Challenge Blog I have attempted to alter something. I chose a glass jar (so if it went wrong I hadn't wasted any money!!) and have turned it into a modern Halloween lantern (not so messy as pumpkin and you don't get to use glitter on a pumpkin).

I made the mottled purple colour by layering tissue paper on purple glass paint and then giving a top coat of PVA glue mixed with purple glitter. Next I stamped a black jewelled flourish pattern all over with Stazon and glittered the little jewelled dots on the pattern with orange glitter. Lastly I added some ribbon and flowers and then the sparkly critters. I am pretty pleased with the result, although I wish I could have affixed the bats and spiders somehow else as the wire shows up too much for my liking.  Let me know what you think.

 

Items: Glass Jar, Purple Aqua glass paint, white tissue paper, PVA glue, Purple and Orange glitter (Craft Planet), Papermania Orange Ribbon, Wire, Halloween Accessories Digi image set from All That Scraps, Papermania Orange flowers, Jewell Flourish Stamp set from Inkadinkado, Black Stazon, Orange card

Sorry the photos aren't better quality but it was very difficult to capture the over all look when the candle was lit and the lights were out.

Moving Along with the Times - Challenge #65

Just a quick post with my entry for the MAWTT challenge.  This week was a 'To Do List' and you had to use at least 3 items off the list.  My card uses 2 different patterned papers (both DCWV), glitter (don't think I ever make a card without a bit of sparkle lol) and heat embossing. My card has a dual purpose as it's also an acceptance to a wedding invite, that reminds me better start looking for a dress! Unfortunately it doesn't show in the photo but the RSVP is on an acetate on top of the card.

Items: 4x4 white card blank, DCWV Mat Stack, Turquoise glitter, Black Stazon, Clear Sparkle embossing powder, Inkadinkado Flourish Stamp, glue and foam pads.

Crafters Companion - Beatrix Potter

I'm like a bus....no posts for ages and then several all at once..lol.  This is my entry for the Crafters Companion Beatrix Potter challenge. I have been treating myself to far too many new crafting goodies recently so haven't yet been able to buy something from the Beatrix Potter range so I have used the free download from the Crafters Companion website. Decoupage really isn't my thing (I'm a Stampaholic) but I have had a go as it was included in the freebie and would really love to know what you think.

Beatrix Potter Entry

Items: Beatrix Potter Winter Wonderland freebie download, blue pearlescent card, navy card, scalloped circle nestabilities, snowflake punch, glossy accents, pale blue liquid pearls, fiskars edge punch, silver rickrack, clear and midnight fine blue glitter

Blog Hop - The Stamp Man

Head on over to The Stamp Man Challenge website as there is a blog hop where you win prizes at each of the design teams blog.

Crafters Companion - Challenge 4

Ooh I have been busy this week, I have managed to make a couple of cards!  I was able to kill two birds with one stone as I was planning to make an 'Aunty' card for baby Elliot to give my Sister-in-Law and then having read the latest challenge was able to use the sketch and my new Popcorn Bear stamp set :)

Challenge 4 Entry

 

Items: Popcorn Bear Stamp Set, Memento Tuxedo Black Inkpad, My trusty ProMarkers, Magenta Stickles, Sakura Gelly Roll Pens, Aunt stamp from a Woodware set, Nestabilities, Cuttlebug Happy Birthday Embossing Folder, Ribbon from my stash, silver pink and navy card from my stash and a square white card blank.

The other card I made was a 'Sister' card, not sure if it's an easel card, sidestep card or quite what it is as I didn't use a template but instead scored, folded, and cut until I came up with this:

 

Items: Sugar Nellie Stamp, DCWV Late Card Stack, Sakura Pens, Stickles, Woodware flower punches, Martha Stewart half daisy edge punch, stick on gems,nestabilities, ProMarkers and a plain A5 white card blank.

I've made some cards :)

OMG! It's been nearly a month since my last post but I have been really busy. I've been on holiday to Norfolk and Wales but I have still had time to make some cards for a competition in Cardmaking and Papercraft. I didn't get time to enter all the categories as I had to keep an eye on Elliot who kept escaping from his ball pit. Pictures below...

...and the little pest himself (mid escape)

Easel Card

What a coincidence! I have just made the following card for a friend to give to his wife on her birthday, and I will be able to enter it into The Stamp Man Challenge (my first challenge entry) as it's an easel card.

Happy Birthday - Wife

Items: Hero Arts 'Hearts' clear stamp set, nestabilities, red cream and patterned card from Papermill, Happy Birthday stamp from a Daisy & Dandelion set, 'My Wife' Papermania clear alphabet stamps, Versamark inkpad, clear sparkle embossing powder, perfect pearls powder, gold stickles and A5 cream card blank.

Giraffes

It's been a while but I have at last had chance to make some cards, the first is a card I made for my niece's birthday.  Her favourite animal is a giraffe and I have used some lovely giraffe peeloffs from Little Claire. The other card I have made is for a friend to give to his wife on her birthday, see second post for more on this one. Also have nearly finished filing and sorting all my stamps...at long last.

Giraffe Birthday Card

Items: Giraffe and greeting peeloffs from Little Claire, Pearlescent card, brown card, animal print card, papermania flowers coloured with promarkers, nestabilities, 'goldenrod' stickles and an A5 gatefold cream card blank.

Not enough time in the day!

I suppose it's wishful thinking to imagine that I will finally get to do some crafting this weekend (when hubby is on hand to look after baby).  I have lots of new goodies to play with: the last few months worth of Little Claire Club stamps, a Joanna Sheen Messy Rabbit stamp set, a Crafters Companion Popcorn Bear stamp set and some lovely papers that came free with a magazine (I think they were from My Minds Eye). Also need to sort and store my stamps as about half my collection are neatly filed in categories in ring binders on nice laminated sheets - but the other half are just dumped in a draw, most of these are new stamps that I have used about once but not got round to putting away, some are brand new though - reminds me I bought some nice Xmas stamps from Inkadinkado that I must put to good use ;)  Enough ramblings, below is one of the cards I made back in Jan/Feb when I was on maternity leave and waiting for baby bump to arrive.

Blooming Lovely

Items: Main stamp from Little Claire - 'Blooming Lovely', greeting stamp from a Daisy & Dandelion set, Promarkers, Memento Tuxedo Black, smooth cream card, bottle green hammered card, blue adhesive gems and a square cream card blank.

Woohoo!

At last I think I am finally getting the hang of this, I've today taught myself to put a watermark on my photos, which means I can now start uploading pictures of some of my creations :)  Over the last 5 months (since baby Elliot arrived) I have only made the cards I have really needed too, like ones for close family (luckily I had made myself a stash of general cards whilst waiting for bump to arrive!) but now I am getting back into the swing of things and hopefully should have some pictures of my recent creations to upload very soon.

I'm also still trying to complete a scrapbook I'm doing of my Mum and Dad's trip to India (they went in October 2008 and I've only done 2 pages so far - maybe they'll get it as a Christmas present......in 2012!) and I have also made a start on a baby scrapbook. 

In the meantime here is a past creation - comments and ideas on ways to improve them are always welcome.

Birthday card for a teenage boy

Blog Candy......

I'm a blogging virgin and at the moment it's all so scary, lol. I have seen all these blog candy's popping up on peoples blogs and thought I would give it a go, let's hope I've got the hang of it :)

 To see Kellie's blog and for a chance to grab the candy please pop over to her blog:

 Kellie Winnell's Blog 

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I have also just learnt another way to post candy pictures to my blog thanks to Angie, who has some get help on her blog for first timers like me.

My new blog

Hi, this is my new blog where I hope to share the cards I make.