Lili Of The Valley Challenge 81

Hello again.

I can't believe I forgot to enter last weeks LOTV Challenge!!  So as not to make the same mistake again, I am posting this now.

The image used on this card is one of LOTV's cute squares, the sentiment is made using one of their stamps.  The backing papers were printed from the SWALK 2 cd-rom from Crafters Companion.  The flowers were made using Nellie Snellen punches, I spritzed some left over backing papers with some mica, but unfortunately that doesn't show up particularly well in the photo.  Finally, I added some pearls to the top right corner because it looked a bit bare without!

Details of the challenge can be found here.

Thanks for having a look.

Jo x

A Special Birthday Card

Good Morning

I hope you've all had a lovely weekend.

I've got a very special card to share with you today.  Both mine and mum's birthdays are in early February, so yesterday we took a trip across the Pennines and mum and dad took us out for Sunday dinner as an early celebration.  After dinner we went back to my sisters house for a while.  My niece, Grace, gave me a card, and I couldn't wait so opened it there and then.  And here it is.

 Grace is 6, and has made this decoupaged card for me.  Isn't it fab?  Thank you Grace, I shall treasure your card, big hugs.

Have a lovely crafty day.

Jo x

Enchanted Birthday Card

Good Evening!

Didn't think I was going to manage to post today, but just about made it.  The temperature has dropped dramatically here today and I've had one of those 'can't get warm' days!

My card for today is for a friends imminent birthday.  I made the card using the latest cd-rom from Joanna Sheen - Enchanted Dreams.  To begin with, I didn't think this cd would appeal to me, but then I saw the fabulous samples!!  Even so, when you actually sit and look at these designs on your own pc, you really are wowed by the amazing use of colour, not to mention the immense detail in each of the images.  As you can gather, I am delighted with this cd!!!

This image is taken from the zodiac section as is the backing paper.  I ran some gold linen card through my big shot using a cuttlebug folder, and then die-cut a couple of swirls using a Marianne die.  I printed out the matching insert from the cd to complete the card.

And...... you'll be very pleased to hear that today I completed the last of my calendar cards!  They are all now on their way to the recipients.  This final one was made using a SWALK image, stamped on to a die-cut circle cut with a Marianne die, and coloured with Lyra's.  The backing paper I printed from the accompanying cd, and made a ribbon strip from silver paper punch with a Martha Stewart punch.  

Have a lovely evening and I'll catch up with you again soon.

Jo x

More Calendars

Good Morning

I hope you've had a good weekend.  I spent a lot of time infront of the tv and laptop watching Joanna Sheen's and Sheena Douglass's new products.  Weren't they great?  Just my cup of tea.

I have very nearly finished all my thank you calendars now, I got another 4 made over the weekend, there are only 3 in the photo because I made 2 the same!!!

 

I had a bit of trouble getting decent photos again because it is still do dull here, but hopefully you get the gist.

I made 2 of the middle calendar, made using these lovely LOTV cute squares, mounted onto a die cut oval.  I then just made up a tiny flower plate to fill the rest of the space.

The other 2 calendars are made with images from Joanna Sheen's latest cd-rom Enchanted Dreams.  For the calendar on the left, I printed the image onto glossy photo paper and printed the accompanying backing paper onto Centura Pearl paper.  The flowers (which aren't showing up very well in the photo) I made in an attempt to echo the poppies in the image, and the butterfly I punched out from the backing paper and applied tiny pearls.

The Calendar on the right was made in pretty much the same way, minus the flowers.

Thanks for your visit today, I hope you have a good day, whatever your plans.

Jo x

House Mouse New Beginnings

Hello Again!

It's another dull, miserable day here today, the light hasn't improved all day which made photographing todays card even more difficult (I know, excuses, excuses I hear you shout!!!!!).

This is my card for the House Mouse 'New Beginnings' Challenge. I think every House Mouse image I've ever seen has made me smile.

I made a square card for my base using Pearlescent card from PaperMill.  The lace backing paper and floral backing paper are both printed from Joanna Sheen's Precious Petals cd-rom.  The House Mouse decoupage is again from Joanna Sheen.  I used a Martha Stewart Deep Edge punch along one of the backing papers, and then added a tiny pearl to the centre of each flower.  I also added some larger pearls to the bottom corners.

Now for the flowers..... I've tried making flowers in the past, without much success, so not to be beaten, I decided to give it another go.  Not having a punch or stamp, I decided to draw a rough 6 petal shape in 2 sizes.  I cut these out and then drew round them 3 times per flower onto the left-over pieces of backing paper.  I then made up the flowers as shown in a demo I'd seen.  Anyway, I was quite pleased with the result.  I think they show a little clearer in this photo.

The leaves were made using an x-cut embossing punch, and then I added a couple of swirls made using a Marianne die.

I decided against adding a sentiment to the card because I think it is perfect for an Engagement, Wedding, Anniversary or 'Moving In Together' card, to name but a few!

Thanks for stopping by today, enjoy the rest of your Saturday.

Jo x

Tea and Cake Anyone?

Good Afternoon

Another dull, grey day here mean't I needed cheering up!!  So today I decided to use brighter colours, and two of my favourtie things, to come up with this thank you calendar for my friend.  We love to share tea and cake together and she's one of those people that you always feel better after talking to.

I've seen some lovely shaped cards on blogs just recently, made using some of the XL dies that are available.  I don't have any of these dies, or the machine that can cut them lol, but it reminded me about my layering templates from Stamps Away, that I'd tidied up before Christmas.  So then I was on a mission to find them, which eventually I did.  Incidentally, from my experience, and reading those of others, it makes me think we'd all be much happier not tidying our crafty goodies away.  Since my last tidy up I've had my large acrylic block, 2 bone folders and a craft magazine go missing.  And they're just the things I can remember!!!!

Anyway, I cut the base card out of cream cardstock, and then cut the same shape out of pink cardstock, but slightly smaller, then smaller still for the dotty backing paper.  I stamped out all the images using a stamp set from Dimension Fourth, and then coloured in using brushmarkers.  A bit of jiggery-pokery was required to shaped the pink cardstock that the calendar sits on and again for the sentiment, but I think it worked out ok in the end.  I do enjoy colouring the images from this stamp set, I feel that 'anything goes' with them.

I do hope you like it.

My body is not letting me do much again today, so I'm going to spend the rest of the afternoon making up some house mouse cards, another guaranteed way to bring a smile.

Thanks for visiting.

Jo x

SWALK Calendar

Good Afternoon

The card I was planning on posting yesterday, which took me hours to do, I very cleverly forgot to photograph before it went to my customer!!!  I've had another increase in my medication and I feel even more 'out of it' than usual.  I'm hoping that the effects will lessen some when my body gets used to the higher dose.  So no post yesterday!

I am still making my thank you card calendars, I just can't seem to craft at a decent speed at the moment!!  I am thoroughly enjoying making them though, so I suppose that's what counts.

This one is bigger than the others I've made.  It's for my mum and dad and I wanted to used the Grandma and Grandad images from the SWALK range, these images really make me smile, and I know they'll make mum and dad smile too.

I die cut a couple of ovals onto some white card, stamped with Versafine ink and coloured in using Lyra Aquacolours.  I added some colour to the edges of the ovals using cut and dry foam and hydrangea big n juicy inkpad.  The backing paper is printed from the SWALK 2 cd-rom.  I punched both edges of some silver paper with an x-cut border punch and placed the calendar tab over this.  I felt it was lacking something, and drawing inspiration from a top that a friend was wearing, I ran some running stitches along some organza ribbon using invisible thread then roughly gathered it up.  It proved a bit of a challenge attaching it to the card, but I cracked it in the end using a combination of double-sided tape and collall glue gel.

I think that the temptation is going to be very great this weekend.  Both Joanna Sheen and Sheena Douglass are on Create & Craft over the weekend and I love their products.

Enjoy the rest of your day.

Jo x

More Calendars a Christening card and a Birthday card!!!

Good Morning

Here are some more of the Thank You Calendars I've made.  Still a few more to do!!!

As you can see I'm loving my new Big Shot and dies and am putting them to good use!

Last week, I was asked to make a Christening Card.  To start with I had a complete mental block, but once I got going I was ok.  I decided to use the Deco Art embossing board from the glitter girls.  I really love the effects achieved by using these boards, but I do find them quite tricky to use, I think I need more practice!

I embossed the whole design of the cross and swirls onto Centura Pearl cardstock.  I then embossed just the cross onto sillver paper, cut this out, and applied over the first cross using 1mm foam pads.  I then embossed the inner cross onto white glitter card which I again applied using foam pads.  I ran silver peel offs all around the edge of the Centura card, and applied pearls in the centre of each of the swirls.  This was matted onto pink pearlescent cardstock to which I applied silver corner peel-offs,

The flowers in the centre of the cross were from my stash.  I applied a large 'blob' of Collall Glue gel to a square of acetate into which I put a few white feathers.  I added some mulberry leaves, and then 'arranged' a number of mulberry flowers.  I left this for a good few hours for the glue to harden, then trimmed away the excess acetate before applying the arrangement to the cross using Collall Glue gel once again.  I'm not very good when it comes to flower arranging but was pleased with how this turned out!  To finish off I added a couple of white roses to the edges of the card.

I had been asked to personalise the card, so printed the name and date onto centura pearl paper, which I matted onto silver card and applied to the card using foam pads.

I was very pleased with how this card turned out, and my customer was delighted with it.

Finally, hubby asked me to make a 'simple' birthday card for a friend of his.  He has always been a keen bowler, and I remembered having some Paper Nation decoupage papers stashed away.  I am very fond of the Paper Nation images, and they are lovely to work with.  So in no time at all the card was ready.

Thanks for sticking with me through this long post!  I hope you have a good day.

Jo x

Lili Of The Valley Challenge 79

Good Afternoon

I've not posted for a few days.  I've not been at my best, my pain has been particularly bad, even with all my painkillers, and this has been causing my blood pressure to be too high again.  I'm hoping it will settle to a more manageable level again very soon.

I thought I'd have another go at the Lili of the Valley challenge.  I decided to incorporate the sketch into some of my 'Thank You Calendars' that I'm still working my way through. 

I used one of the cute squares that I'd got for Christmas (this is one of my favourite images). The backing paper I printed from one of my craft cd's onto Centura Peal paper.  The circular mat is made using a Marianne Die in a co-ordinating cardstock from PaperMill.  The mat across the centre I chose to pick out the colour of her hair and the stripes on her socks!!  I punched the edges with a Martha Stewart border punch.  The corners and vertical mat are made from cream pearlescent cardstock.  I don't have a corner die, so cut out a decorative square and then cut it in half diagonally.  Then finally, I cut out a couple of swirls/flourishes using a Marianne die, I have become addicted to these swirls!!!!

Full details of the Lili of the Valley Challenge can be found here 

Thanks for calling in today.  Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

Jo x

Thank You Cards

Hello

It's been very quiet here today.  Everyone is back at school, college and work, so it's just me and Murphy once again.  I've found it really difficult to get on with anything today, and it seems Murphy has been feeling the effects too.  I couldn't find him anywhere this morning.  I did eventually and he was quite well camouflaged!!!!

I have been getting on with my thank you cards.  I couldn't decide what to do at first and noticed some of those little calendars still sat on my craft table.  So this got me thinking.  Also, a lot of people I send cards to say they don't like throwing them away, so this got me thinking too.  So I decided to make a batch of easel cards with a little calendar as the stopper.  This way, if people want to keep them longer, they can do.  They are very like the desk calendars I was making before Christmas, but without the drawer, so a lot quicker to make.  I did enjoy making the desk calendars, but didn't really want to make another batch of them.

These are the first 3 that I've made.  

All the papers I've used are from Making Cards Magazine.  All the other card, ribbons and gems are from my stash.  I'm also putting my Martha Stewart punches to good use!!  I'd love to know what you think of them.

Jo x

Crafter's Companion Monthly Challenge

Good Afternoon

It's never really got light here today, very dull and dismal.

Today I've finished my card for this months Crafter's Companion challenge.  As always, there is a sketch to follow with the added option of a theme SOMETHING NEW.

I decided to use an image from the Souffle cd-rom, this is the first time I've used this cd, which I bought from CC just before Christmas.  The images are very, very cute and there are some lovely backing papers on there too.  I can see I'll get a lot of use out of this.  So, I decided to make a new baby card.  I know of a few anticipated new arrivals in the first few months of this year.

 

I chose this extra-cute image in invertage. I printed out an accompanying backing paper from the cd, onto pearlescent paper.  The flowers and flourishes were created using Marianne dies, and I finished them with a punched centre and a gem.  The punched border is made from silver paper using an x-cut border punch with some satin ribbon along the centre.

Enjoy the rest of your day.

Jo x

First Card of 2011

Happy New Year!

I hope you enjoyed last nights celebrations.  I stayed put and watched some films with Emma, then at midnight we let off a Chinese lantern.  I'd never seen these before and it was fun to watch it take off and then eventually disappear into the clouds.  There were a lot of them travelling across the sky last night, I much prefer them to fireworks!

I was determined to make a card today, and I've only just got it finished!!  You know when you set off with a vague plan, change it dozens of times and then end up with something completely different - well that's what happened today.

The card I was making was for my niece's birthday later this month.  I had decided I was going to use Patchwork Julie and my new Marianne Creatables frame die and that was my starting point.  This is the finished card and now I'm really not sure if it's all a bit 'too much'.

I used lilac cardstock from PaperMill as my base card.  I took some white pearlescent paper, stamped some flowers using versamark and then heat embossed using clear detail embossing powder.  I then placed a Big N Juicy hydrangea ink pad face down on my craft sheet, spritzed it with water, and then covered the paper in the ink.  I applied the same ink to the Marianne frame, this time using Cut n Dry foam.  The circle that Julie is mounted onto I ran through my big shot with a flower embossing folder.  Julie and the patchwork dog are coloured using watercolour pencils.  My background paper was then matted onto silver mirri board.  The sentiment is from LOTV, I love these sentiments, I stamped in silver and then embossed with clear detail embossing powder.  This was then matted onto silver mirri board which had been punched out using a scallop circle punch.  I then used another of the dies from the same set to die cut the feathered shape in the top left-hand corner, as I felt it needed something to balance it out.

When I was looking for this stamp set earlier today, I found a number of stamps which I haven't yet used.  So, I'm determined, instead of keep buying new, I'm going to start using craft goodies that I've already got.  How long that will last, who knows????? 

Jo