Happy Birthday Nicole!!

My sisters twins were 18 on Friday & my niece Nicole had requested that she really would like "one of your nice cards" …how could I resist!!

I had an idea for an "off the page design" something that she really could keep.

I had bought a wooden die cut birdcage from Anna Marie Crafts some time ago………could I bear to part with it?? Of course I could for such a Gorgeous Girlie!!

 First I painted the whole thing with White Distress Paint, probably 3 coats in all.

Then I spritzed the whole Birdcage with Ranger Perfect Pearls in white. Next, I stamped all over with an Indigo Blue background Script stamp in Versa Mark Gold ink.

I cut lots of foliage from my trusty Memory Box Fairytale Border die intermingled with a few Marianne swirls.

I gave them all a light dusting with Peeled Paint Distress Ink.

The roses are all from Hobbycraft.

This number 18 was from a Thickers Alphabet.

I cut the mini rosebud heads off the wires and glued onto the foliage.

 

The bird was painted and spritzed in the the same way as as the cage was.
I cut a flower into 2 and layered with some green feathers I found in my cupboard.
The flourishes are bits from a couple of Memory Box Bingham Hearts that I had previously cut out in two shades of pink I placed them on the wing to hide an ugly straight edge!!

For the tail I used the remaining bits of feathers and the smallest pre-made rose in my flower box!!

Tah Dah!!!

Welcome Baby Hollie

Sam & Mels good friends had a baby girl and I offered to do a card……very happy with how this turned out.

Background paper was from Bellaboo -:

Kitschy Kitchen Everything Nice.

The pink mount card and flourishes were Bazzil, the flourishes were cut using my Marianne die.
The baby embellishments were from Hobbycraft I think as were the ribbon roses.
The hearts I cut from the background paper and acetate using an old Sizzix die.
 I hole punched with my Cropadile…….the single most expensive hole puncher I've ever bought!!!

I printed all the info on safmat then stuck it onto the acetate hearts. Inked the edges with Pink Lipstick Distress Ink. Cut the word girl using a sizzles die. Mini paper roses from my stash. I wanted the hearts to dangle so used jump rings & tied ribbon onto them. I fixed the ribbon under mini bows made with my Bowdabra. 

Finally a pink diamante on each heart…..every girl needs a bit of bling no matter how small!!

Mels Aunt 80th Birthday

This was a card for a lady who loved Spring flowers. 

I bought the image from The Old Design Shop on Etsy.

The background paper is K & Co.

Mounts and flourishes assorted bazzil card stock  from Bellaboo.

I used my trusty Spellbinders die…much easier to use since I put some release foam on it for the dark green flourishes on the sides of the picture.

I generally offset these rather than try to match them up and they look wonky!!

The leaves under the bow were from a Memory Box die. The ribbon from a selection bought from Hazel Crafts on e-bay- they do great mixed bags of toning ribbons.

The sentiment is from my now dwindling stash from Craftwork Cards, and I layered it onto some flowers. The pearl edging was bought in the USA some years ago now.

The little embellishment on the bow was an old earring that I cut the back off. 

I really do not throw anything away these days!!.

Fionas birthday card

Time for a card…….

Fiona loves Chocolate and France so I couldn't believe it when I saw this paper from a Papermania  collection…….Mdme Chambourd I think??

My Embellishments are a Creative Expressions metal corner & pearl flourishes. I coloured the flourishes with a Versa mark ink pad to tone them down a bit. 

The flowers were from Hobbycraft, the sentiment from Craftwork Cards, the little round embellishment was K & Co and the metal pin holder is King Tims!!

Nellie….Summer 2013

I've been trying to scrap a bit as well as doing my usual cards. We had taken a lovely picture of our puppy Nellie in the summer last year. I treated myself to Aquarella a fab app on my Apple Mac which turns pictures into watercolours.

I printed her picture onto inkjet canvas stitched around it and generally tried to make it look a bit worn. I inked the edges with Stormy Skies Distress Inks. The letters were Tim Holtz grunge board ones from a huge pack that I'd been looking at in my stash for a long time!!. I painted them with guesso first, then Pickett Fence distress paint, then inked with Stormy Skies and Scattered Straw Distress Inks. I love that when these are all painted up hey almost look like leather……

The background paper was Bo Bunny Country Garden Weathered from Bellaboo.

The tags were from Tracy over at Crafting is my Therapy's stash, the brads bought long ago from I don't know where. 

The butterfly trellis was I think a papermania 12 inch scrapbook border, again in the stash so long that it was no longer sticky and had to be glued on!!!

The Summer 2013 was die cut from grey board using my new Crafters Companion alphabet dies….thank you Sarah…what a fab Birthday pressie!!! Painted and distressed as before.

I was really pleased with how this page turned out even though it had gone a bit wrinkly with using  paint and distress inks on the page to make a frame to mount the picture in.

 As per with me no journalling to speak of on the page but a lovely reminder of how cute our little puppy looked.

April & Eamon Vow Renewal August 2013

A very good friends brother was renewing his vows after 25 years of marriage and the family asked me to make cards. Now they're a large family so I had to make 7 in all. I decided to try and do a variety on a theme. The colour scheme was peach, cream and gold. I found just the paper… Graphics 45 Secret Garden. I had cream pearlised card in my stash and I printed blocks of colour onto the cream card to get all my mounts. All my flourishes are Creative expressions, and all the roses were cut on my trusty Craft Robo and hand coloured and rolled.

This was the fussiest of the cards and the one I enjoyed doing the most as its very me!!

I used my Memory Box heart die, I usually cut a few in co-ordinating colours and layer them, a Spellbinders die for the monogram frame, Creative Expressions pearl flourish and roses cut with the Craft Robo.

This was a frame that I bought from The Silhouette Store. 

 I cut all the roses for the cards in cream pearlised paper and coloured with a Copic marker pen.

 The lacy inserts were my favourite Spellbinders D-lite die. 

Another pearl flourish, and the off cuts from the 12 x 12 paper put to good use for the frame.

 Another Silhouette store purchase for the heart topper. 

I coloured flat back pearls (Hazel Crafts e-bay) with shell pink Adirondak alcohol ink. I used the Metallic Pens with the Craft Robo to write the monogram and date before cutting the file.

This was a rhinestone file bought from the Silhouette Store. 

I coloured the flat back pearls again with the Shell Pink Alcohol Ink.

This was the most time consuming although I think the simplest looking. 

I cut the template using acetate then had to glue each pearl on individually.

Favourite Spellbinders die again offset on each side with hand made and coloured rolled roses.

Sizzix hearts.

You guessed it….another cut file from the Silhouette store. This time I put the monogram and date in the file and used the metallic pens in the Robo to write them on before cutting the file.

I never thought it would be so hard to try and get such a diverse collection together!! I had to dig deep and keep focussed on the fact that not everyone likes a fussy card and sometimes less is more!!

They all loved their cards and a great day was had by all….what more can you ask for. xx

Well Thought I'd put the very few bits and pieces I'd made onto the blog and I simply can't believe that my last post was in July 2013 almost a year has gone by without any creating…..mind you Ian (my Hubby) did have a catastrophic injury to his hand last November and its taken us until March this year to get back to anything like normality, add to that the fact that I no longer have dedicated craft space….I think you get the picture!!…Any way enough rambling and on to the "art".