Fairy Dreams

I made this for the lovely Angiebabe's birthday (from DC forum)

Angie loves heavily embellished cards, &  I struggle to embelish my cards like the gorgeous cards she makes, so decided not to atempt what she does, but I did try to work outside of my own comfort zone, using one of the fab new stamps I got when I went to Ally Pally the other week.

Linda Ravenscroft stamp (Pisces, from Creative Expressions), heat embossed & coloured with Promarkers. Anita's 3D gloss & glamour dust to wings. MS punch around the page used for mats. Charms from Mei Flower. Lace from stash Dovecraft papers.

Here's the whole card.

Tfl, & for any comments you may care to leave

Retirement card #3

Well, I've been weeding my front garden for 2 1/2 hours, finally finished & decided it was time for some "me time" now. I'd like to get some of the back garden weeded out this week too, but will have to see how my back holds out.

I thought I had already posted this card which I made for a colleague's retiremment, but realised I hadn't.

My colleague loves to travel & has visited some amazing places, so I thought this would be an apt card for her (not that I think she is ever late to catch her plane though)

Easel card using 4 Magnolia stamps, coloured with Promarkers

Card candy from Craftwork cards

Kate Knight papers

Closer detail of both parts of the card

Tfl, & also for any comments you may care to leave

Hopefully blogging reinstated

Many, many apologies for my prolonged absence from blogland. I had been having problems with someone I had considered to be a friend who had been watching my movements, both physically and via this blog and the DoCrafts forum. I felt like a prisoner in my own home, unable to do anything - not  a nice feeling at all.

 I think she was trying to live her life through me which is very sad, but very claustrophobic for me - she didn't like the fact that I have other friends, and got very upset when I saw other friends, or did things with my own children :-(  I am hoping that the situation has now resolved, the person concerned is aware that I know what they were doing & how I felt about it. Time will no doubt tell if she has ceased or not. The behaviour of this person also made me feel quite low, and I had no inspriation to craft. I now want to craft again, but inspiration is slow in returning, but my mojo will return & I'll get there (hopefully soon). Anyway, onto the first card I've made in weeks.

My youngest needed a card for a friend's birthday. Sugar Nellie image, heat embossed, coloured with Promarkers. Kate Knight paper, sentiment from Craft Stamper, ribbon from Crafty Ribbons (bought a while back now)

Tfl, & for any comments you may care to leave

Stitched Up!

I made this scrapbook page for a friend of mine for her 50th birthday. Angela made a scrapbook album for her Mum's 80th, so I thought it would be nice if she had a page for herself to remind her of some of our evenings. We and a group of friends meet regularly and have an evening of crafting, usually cross stitch, but some of us will also knit, quilt, do the mending, sew names into uniforms etc - or just put the world to rights lol. We always have a great evening, which also involves some refreshments & chatting too - hence the journalling which highlights some of the activities we enjoy as a group.

Journalling is stained with "Old Paper" distress ink and edged with a brown distress ink.

Both the photos were taken at our Christmas get togethers over the last 2 years, but I didn't want it to be a Christmas themed page, & because Angela is going on a celebratory Caribbean cruise soon, I wanted it to  include bright flowers.

I thought this was the ideal title for the page since it reflects how we all first met.

I cross stitched the title, then using backstitch, stitched it onto the page.

I used a sew easy tool to indent holes to sew through. I joined 2 different papers together, and I picked out 2 contrasting colours from the papers to tie the whole page together. (I love the brown Quick Quotes paper - it looks like the flowers on it are embossed)

I stitched around the outside of the flowers for added interest and to draw the page together further.

I cut around the flowers to overlap the photos - on the lower photo the flower is actually covering up an area where there were distracting areas on the photos (flare from lights)

tfl, and for any comments you may care to leave

So thrilled for my youngest

My youngest decided she wanted to try out for our town's Carnival Princess. She was so thrilled to be selected! She said she was asked if her room was tidy (what a joke!), so she told them it was "a work in progress"! Ummm, yes, I think good  intentions are there, but it's a perpetual work in progress as something else always prevents her getting it finished. lol

Oh, in case you wondered, my daughter is the one on the right in the stripy top

tfl, & for any comments you may care to leave

Box Card

Last Sunday I went to Bristol for a craft day spent with other crafters, organised by playingwith paper who I got to know through the DoCrafts forum. We had a fabulous day, with lots of laughter as well as creativity, and it was great to put some faces to names. We all worked on the same project, but every one of them was so different, and some of them were such amazing works of art, I came away so inpsired. This is my effort.

I couldn't post this before as it was for a friend's birthday, but since I gave it to her yesterday here it is.

Mo Manning image coloured with Promarkers

Tea House papers by DoveCraft

Papermania card for mats

Edges inked with Distress Ink

Gardenia from Wild Orchid Crafts

Leaves punched with Martha Stewart punch

Ribbon from stash 

Tag cut & trimmed with guillotine, edges rounded with scissors

I should have taken pictures from the side as it doesn't look very obvious that the flowers are in an area which looks like the cut away section inside a book

I bought these papers on Saturday & decided to use them on Sunday.

On Sunday evening, my friend had asked us to make some cupcakes for her party celebrations, what a coincidence that I had used these papers, not realising how appropriate they would be!

Flowers from Joanna Sheen

This is the box I presented the box card in. I had intended making a presentation box, but then found a very sturdy box at work which had held a testicular implant! - I was thrilled to find it was the exact size for what I wanted but decided it would look much better covered (& to disguise what it had once held - though it amused my friend to hear what had been in it!)

Tfl, & also for any comments you may care to leave.

Coloured in vellum

Wallet card made for a DC swap

I decided to play around & coloured some floral vellum on the back with Promarkers. I liked the effect from it, the colour shows through subtly, but with the sparkle from the vellum, it's very pretty. I teamed it with this floral paper (think it's from an old Dovecraft pack), & card from my stash. Sentiment heat embossed & cut out using SU punches

Tfl, & for any comments you may care to leave