White corset card

This one was for my mums birthday. She loves dancing and I thought the "skirt" looked very dancy! The body is cut from a template (you can find it on my template page) and was embossed with a sizzix folder (flowers). The fringe and ribbon are from my stash which I normally get in Birmingham rag market. The only thing with this particular card is that you have to enclose a separate little note that you slip in from the top so you don't have to open the ribbon at the front. You could however modify the template and make the card open at the side instead. Up to you folks!

Molly's Birthday

This was my daughter's birthday card.  She loves everything "cute" and there is no denying this little Sarah Kay stamp comes under the "cute" category! The birthday label was stamped and cut out. The background of the card was embossed with a sizzix folder from the dots and flower set. The images were coloured with promarkers. This was a quick project but I thought the results were quite nice and simple. My daughter liked it anyway!

Birthday card

My partner was visiting a cousin who was unwell and sprung on me an hour before he was due to go that it was his cousin's wife birthday.  Could I make her a card? well I had been looking for an excuse to take a break from my study so I jumped at the chance to have a little play... Here is what I came up with... I hope you like it!

Birthday Boy!

Ok I know, I've been neglecting my blog! I am very busy at the moment with exams etc... so I don't have much time to craft and even less to blog! So to satisfy my "cravings" of everything "arty" I just have a quick hop on Pinterest from time to time in between exams preparations! I have to survive somehow!! Anyway this card was actually made in the summer when our Australian cousin we met for the first time came to visit with his dad. It was his 30th on the say he arrived so I didn't have much time to come up with something especially since I only found out when he landed! So this is what I came up with. He is very much a man's man, with typical Australian male no messing about approach if you know what I mean! I always find cards for men a challenge as I like pretty... but I didn't think a butch australian would be particularly excited about prima flowers or even vintage lace... So there you have it:

 

 

Just a little card...

This card was made with background papers from My Mind's Eye "29th Street Market". The flowers are a selection of docrafts paper flowers to which I added holographic glitter glue. The butterfly is a Cheery Lynn die cut that I inked to give it some depth. I used a stamp from My Paper World: "labelling Fields" (art. no 4003 003 00) which I embossed with Wow embossing powder "Earthtone Olive". All the edges are inked in Rangers "Walnut" distressed ink. The flourishes are marianne creatables, not sure of the reference as I lost the packaging but it is a fairly easy one to get hold of. So there you have a little card on its way to wish my partner's daughter a happy birthday indeed!

Magnolia card

Yet another birthday to accomodate at the last minute for one of my daughters' friends. I was also under instructions to make three bracelets to accompany the tee-shirt she bought her. All this yesterday 4 hours before the party! I had started the card the night before thank goodness but sometimes I think my children still believe I have a magic wand and can make anything happen!! Anyway here is the card:

Fancy a cup of tea?

When my sister sent me a lovely teacup card for my birthday I was itching to make one myself. I loved it so much! Anyway a friends' birthday is coming up so I thought that was the perfect opportunity to have a go. So here is mine:

 

The chocolate from the Hotel Chocolat was just the right size to fit in the box and my friend told me today this was the best chocolate she'd ever eaten... All this advertising and I'm not even on commission!! ...

Vintage birthday card

Here is a large vintage birthday card for a friend of mine. I know she's very fashion conscious so I am hoping she will like it! I printed the background paper from a label I downloaded off the Graphics Fairy website and I think the mannequin is also from her site.  I printed it on normal printer paper and then aged it with antique linen distressed ink from Ranger. The mannequin is a Tim holtz die cut and so is the bobin.  The border at the bottom is a Cheery Lynn border die cut which I inked with vintage photo ink again by Ranger.  I used the ame ink to distress the edges of the card too.  The top right corner was stamped in vintage photo ink with a WOW stamp called "Vintage Wallpaper" (stock code: STAMPSET12). The flowers are Dovecraft "Paper Blossoms" in natural colour.  The butterfly was given to me during an ATC exchange with the girls from Les Ateliers du Scrap. So that's it really, I hope you like it!

 

Easel card

Still for my friends' birthday, I also made this card. It was so thick I couldn't close it but still she liked it...
Toujours pour l'anniversaire de mon amie, je lui ai aussi fait cette carte. Elle était tellement épaisse qu'elle ne fermait pas mais tant pis...

I love this magnolia stamp, this little girl is so cute!
J'adore ce tampon de magnolia, cette petiote est tellement mignonne!

A spring feel birthday card

It's been a few weeks since I updated the blog but I have been busy making "things" so you may find over the next few days I am posting a little more than usual. First this little cutie for a friend of my daughter's. I lacked inpiration so it's only simple but I just love pink so.... do you like it?

Cela fait déjà quelques semaines que je n'ai pas eu le temps de m'occuper du blog mais c'est parce que j'étais occupée à "créer" donc au cours des prochains jours il est possible que l'activité sur le blog soit un peu plus animée. Pour commencer cette petite carte pour la copine de ma fille. J'ai eu du mal à trouver l'inspiration donc elle est plutôt simple mais comme j'adore le rose.... elle vous plait?

Magnolia birthday card

 

I was blog hoping and found myself inspired by looking at so many beautiful magnolia cards. You people out there are amazing. Anyway I decided to have a go and this is the result. I hope you like it.

C'est en regardant de blog en blog sur Magnolia que l'inspiration m'est venue! Il y a plein de gens talentueux sur le web. Toujours est-il que j'avais envie d'essayer aussi et voila le résultat. J'espère que ça vous plait!

Un anniversaire... encore un!

Hello, I am nearly ready for the take off to Paris - I am visiting my sister for a week - yeepee!  No children or men allowed for a full week  - just crafting, craft shopping and a bit more crafting!! BLISS!! Anyway before I run off and abandon you all for a week I thought  I'd show you this one. It was for a special friend of mine and I wasn't so sure that I'd picked the right colours but still here it is. The birds are Marianne Creatables, the heart a free paper and the star circle is the sizzix bigz scallopped circle. The doily underneath was just a cheap food doily and the lttle bow came from a stall on Birmingham Rag market.  What do you think?

A bit of va va voom...

Yes another birthday , (they never stop!) but this time was told it had to do with Paris so here my take on the subject...

Large handcrafted flower cut from the Tim Holts
 "distressed flowers" die, edged in rusty hinge ink and topped
with a Marianne Creatable flower.
The middle part of the flower was embossed with gold powder.

Do you converse....

Well it's been well over a week since my last post and I thought it was time to make an effort and show signs of life! My son was ill those last couple of days and decided to spray the walls with whatever was coming out of his mouth!! How much can a small child regurgitate??!!! It's unbelievable... and since I have a very sensitive nose and a rather weak stomach, let me tell you I did NOT have much fun... The 3 o'clock calls (why is it that when they're ill children always seem to shout "mummy" in the middle of the night?! daddy is much shorter and rolls perfectly well off the tongue, so why, why oh why?!!!!).  Anyway having had to stay home to look after him I thought I would put my free time to good use and produced this:

 This is a card for my daughter's friend who is thirteen this weekend. I was under strict instructions: it had to be purple, no flowers or things too girly as she is a bit of a tomboy and no little girl stamps as she is far too old for that now!! Anyway whilst I was trying to get to sleep after the second "mummy" call last night it came to me! They all love Converse shoes and since the shape is kind of easy to reproduce I decided to give it a go.

Stamp is Red Gingham Designs "Super six- Sentiments"
 from www.littleclaire.co.uk 

Ribbon from Trudy Anne Designs

I made a very rough template you can download here: Converse template 

I printed it first on paper and cut it out. I then traced the bottom part of the ouline on card (cutting one shoe first) and then scored and folded the card in half and cut the second shoe from the shape of the first cut (a bit confused?? it is really easy when you do it ! promise!). Once you have your based shape just punch some holes for the rivets and decorate with stamps etc... When you're all done with the customisation of your trainer, fix in the rivets and thread the ribbon or laces. For the bottom part I used a ribbon from Trudy Anne Designs which I purchased at the Hobbycraft show a few weeks back. I chose it because the stiching made it look a little like the lines on the bottom of the real Converse.  Anyway I think I stuck to the brief... Why don't you give it a go and show me yours....

November card sketch from Les ateliers du scrap

Here is my card for November
following the sketch from Scrapala
on "les ateliers du scrap".

I dotted glue on all the spots from the red background and glittered them with very fine white iridescent glitter.

The little girls' hat and gloves have white flock added to give a woolly effect. The scarf was coloured first with promarkers. I then applied Modpodge and whilst it was still wet I sprinkled some Perfect Pearls in Forever red.  The snow is also glue covered in white iridescent glitter.





The tag was cut with a die from the Tim Holz Alteration range. This one is called "Tag & bookplate". I embossed it with a sizzix embossing folder "dearly and frost set" and then carefully rubbed some "walnut" distressed ink on the embossed parts of the tag. To finish it I sprayed the tag with some "mandarin" Perfect Peals mist. The second part of the tag was stamped with happy birthday and glued in place.

Molly's birthday

It's my little girl's birthday tomorrow and I just had to create a lovely card to mark the event. She loves the gorjuss range and actually since she has long hair herself this little doll reminds me a bit of her. The background stamp is by Kaban (one of my hobbycraft show acquisitions... amongst many others... ouch my flexible friend is going to cry again...!). The border is Marianne Creatables and the frame stamp is from Papermania. The gorjuss image itself is not a stamp but a "tube" downloaded from here. Basically it's the same as a digistamp as it is produce as a png file which means the background is transparent. If you're a Gorjuss fan it's worth the visit.

This one is for my niece as when I was in the mood I had to carry on...

Boy's card

I am really bad at male cards. I like glitter and pink and everything cute ... not really every boy's dream idea of a cool card. He is at this awkward teen-age when Power Rangers are definetely out, so are Batman and Spiderman - aaah these were the days.... So I found myself short of time and short of ideas for this one. It turned out much more grown up than I anticipated but still I managed to keep the glitter under control so I guess he should be grateful for that at least! My other half "supportive" comment was "it's a bit drab for a young boy"... thanks love I just needed that boost to my confidence in my moment of doubt! Never mind you can be the judge...

The large label is cut with Tim Holtz movers and shapers "styled labels" from the Alterations range and stamped with my latest fiskars stamps "Henna petals" (it's beautiful and one of my favourites at the moment). The papers " Desert Blooms" are from First Edition Papers - if you like shabby chic you'll love these! In fact I am very reluctant to use them because they are too beautiful to cut out.... Don't laugh I bet you do that too!   The tags are Sizzix sislits "tag set - small".  All edges were inked to give it the aged look so popular at the moment with a combination of distressed ink from the rangers collection.

Here is my fiskars favourite of the moment and when I have time I might even add images of embossed flowers produced with the flower supplied. The photo really doesn't do it any justice....

40th birthday...

When my friend 40th birthday finally came up I had to mark the occasion with a special card. I wanted something quite ornate but still fairly stylish as she's a classy lady! I used Amy Butler's papers (I lovvvve her designs!) and stamped florishes in rust colour all over the background. The flowers were made of shop bought and die cuts (Marianne Creatables).  She loved it, I hope you will too!

Another birthday

The advantage of having young children is that you have plenty of opportunities for making cards and papercrafts.  With 3 kids I am forever making cards or jewellery to give for birthdays and so on.  My children have come to just expect me to be able to produce something on demand. They need it therefore I should oblige. This is my job as a mother, no question asked! Here is how I obliged on this occasion....

Here goes …

Hi everyone, this is my very first post and I am quite excited to be finally able to start my blog properly. I always let other things get in the way but this time I decided nothing would stop me and I am off… I’ll start by showing you a card I made for my daughters’ birthday last week.  I am quite a fan of Tim Holtz (let face it I want him to move in! can you imagine how much crafting fun you could have with that man…). Anyway I decided to use some of the die cuts I had ordered from ebay and here is the result:

The card is a pre-cut shape by craftwork cards, this is the large version. I then printed a digital paper from the digital freebie website and stamped over it with the "French Market" stamps from the Tim Holtz range. I used sizzix die cuts again from the Tim Holtz Alterations collection of bigz dies. This one is called "sewing room". I inked the edges of the card with distress ink (antique linen) and stamped the corners in lilac with some clear stamp from My Paper World - this one is Flowers and Butterflies. The two labels are stamped images from the Toga stamp collection which I purchased in France and the small "happy birthday" flower is a "Hero Art" stamp (I think, as I can't find the packaging for it!). That's it now why don't you have a go, I'd love to see your creations!