a gorgeous new baby

Oh my goodness where has time gone? once again there has been so much to do and so little time. We recently acquired a new baby in the family, to be precise phils  daughter Becky and her husband Mikael had baby Issac.

craft spot

I have finally managed to comandeer the big desk under the stairs for my new craft home. HOORAY! Poor hubby relegated to the computer station in the lounge. Well he didn't really need all that space to junk up with rubbish and I was desperate to spread my wings after 9 years working off the fold down leaf of a tiny little bureau.!!!!!!!!

Sympathy Card

Unfortunately I have had to make a sympathy card for the family of a lovely lady who worked for me as a volunteer in the charity shop that I manage. She was much loved by all staff and volunteers and we are all very sad that she has passed away.

 

 

 I really wanted to keep it simple without too much fuss. 

 The stamp is a Penny Black collage image. I have stamped in lagoon blue versafine and coloured with water colour pencils, then mounted onto a piece of embossed card I had run through the Grand Calibur machine.

I quickly inked over the top of the embossed card with a distress ink pad and mounted onto a piece of blue bazzil card.  A simple piece of ribbon and a bow to finish off. I didn't have a message stamp so left it blank but shall write my own message inside. 

 

This is for you Josie RIP x

Oops been a while since my last blog. The thought was there but unfortunately time ran away with me again!!! I have just been too busy crafting!

However I have lots to post so here goes

 

Starting with Lizzies book. She has decided to do Flower Fantasy for her new circle book. I had decided to be different for a change and went with pastels.  I have used the wishing well stamp from the flower soft range along with a papermania flourish and used soft purples and Pinks. The border is a Martha Stewart around the page punch.(French Scrolls)  This was the first double page spread I made last year and I have now just completed the second set - which prompted me to post lol!!

For these two pages I went with vibrant pinks and purples and I have just realised that they are similar  colours  the last set oops too late to worry lol!

I recently went to the Make It craft show at Farnborough and purchased some of the Dylusions spray inks....................................... omg I am totally smitten!!!!!! I sprayed the background with  funky fuschia, calypso teal and after midnight which is a dark purple. I inked up through my dot mask with distress ink then stamped using my new Tattered Blossoms Heartfelt flower stamps, which Julie had given me as a birthday

 pressie.! The blooms I stamped onto card which I had inked with the dylusion sprays and cut out. The little girl is a crafty individuals image with a felt cut picture frame which I then embossed to change the colour. and also I wanted a hard shiny finish. Then I just added some embellishments to finish.

Emily's 8th Birthday

For my grandaughters 8th Birthday I decided to go cutsie!

The stamps used are from Chocolate Baroque . I coloured the birds in using my Marvy Le Plume pens as they hadn't seen the light of day for ever!!!. I also decided to play with my grand calibur as it was also feeling lonely. I went with a "pastelish" look as I tend to do grungy too often and I don't think the children would really appreciate that!!! Unfortunately I had to use a peel off number as I didn't have a suitable number stamp in the size I wanted. I do use them sometimes when the ocassion calls for them and I have nothing else suitable!!!!!!!!!!!11

A few more crafty creations

Time to dig out a few more photos of  my crafty efforts!!

I made this one last year for Dads Fathers Day

The stamps used are from Sheena Douglas. I stamped the pier and then masked before stamping the boat in the background. The images were coloured using a mix of distress inks and water colour pencils. The Foliage at the top is stamped with a Lavinia stamp and also the tree root on the left. The Background paper is from Joanna Sheen and the die cut leaves are a sissix die. To make the message I used a bottlecap and hand wrote with a fine liner pen as I didn't have a stamp suitable. The large flower was one that was made on a crafty afternoon spent with friends and put away into my stash. No idea which stamp or die was used!!!!!!!1

Snowed In!!

With all the lovely snow we had on Friday I got snowed in and couldn't go to work. Well what a shame!

Obviously I had to find something to occupy my time so out came the bits and bobs box and made a few cards to put away for the emergency birthdays etc. 

This one I made using a butterfly background stamped onto a patterned paper. I then cut a border strip from a different paper and glued to the edge. The butterflies were printed from a Chocolate Baroque cd and glittered. Then I put some lovely beads down the centres for the bodies.  I have left a plain strip across the centre ready to place a sentiment when I need the card.

The Blue Butterfly is made using the same products as the green and orange above

This is a brayered background on clarity coated card. I used the mountain meadow big & juicy ink pad. The main stamps are from Lavinia stamp and the smaller trees foreground stamps are from Chocolate Baroque. 

It is a fairly simple card but looks quite effective and once again I can add a sentiment of my choice at a later date depending on the recipient and the occassion. 

 

Unfortunately I had to make a get well card for one of my ladies at work and found this lovely image of a sunflower that I had stored in my box after borrowing a friends stamp.  It is quite a large image and this is mounted onto an 8" x 8" card as we had a lot of people who wanted to write a short message. 

The centre of the ribbon is an old clip on earring with the back cut off and I think it works very well.

 

Hot tip - scavenge any old jewellery and cut up as it works very well, its unique and doesn't cost much.

The Wedding Card

 It started with a box !!!  I found and old box that had been used as a gift box for cosmetics and thought that it looked ' Interesting '!!!  I loved the colours and thought that it would make a lovely vintage wedding card.

I found a beautiful background paper from the K & Co Classic paper pad which I decided went very well. 

Out came the new magestic square nesties as they were a recent purchase and just had to be played with, and a floral bouquet stamp from Chocolate baroque Pretty Posies A4 stamp plate. 

I decided to decoupage the bouquet to add some depth to the card. The border was made using a tonic studio punch.  To age the card I used tea dye distress ink pad and added some lovely heart embellishments which I only had in ivory but managed to colour using pro markers. 

The insert was made by printing a verse from a cd and co-ordinated using the same paper as on the front 

Well about time I posted - what a busy busy year I have just had - mainly due to daughters wedding on Dec 16th 2012. I have been tied up with all the usual bits and pieces involved with wedding planning. Invites, flowers, cake etc. Thought I really should get to grips with blog now and therefore have made myself a new years resolution to post at least once a week from now on. Fingers crossed it works out. I have lots of crafty works to post so have decided that little and often is the way to go! Thought I should start with the wedding invites.
After much messing about with ideas these are the final version. My daughter Sarah helped with stamping and embossing. The main stamp used is a flourish from a small set from papermania. The wording was done on the computer and then cut using a nestibility die.

Of course we had to make a batch lol!!

Then there were the favours and what else could we make at christmas but crackers!!!! Well they were wedding crackers really!!!

We made the blanks with the houghie board and added some lovely ribbon and raffia.

Then there was the table plan

We found some lovely serviettes for the background and a small heart stamp which we embossed in white on red card. Each table was die cut using nesties again and then hot glued with the glue gun. A small decorative button was used to add some interest.

Then the really big one - the cake!!!

Having got the cake decorated and balanced !!!! We then had to take it apart and transport it 120 miles up the motorway to the venue. Crossing fingers that it would a) survive the journey and b) not fall over once it was assembled.
On the day it was placed in situ by the hotel and we could breathe a hugh sigh of relief.
I must admit that when I saw it assembled and where it was I was a touch pleased with my efforts!!!!

And finally a picture of my beautiful daughter Sarah and her new husband Aaron