Happy Birthday

This is the birthday card I made for my sister this week. Purple is her favourite colour and so I thought this colour scheme would work for her card. The image is decoupaged from Katy Sue's "Fabulous Shoes" CD-ROM. I do like the cutting out of decoupage, it's very relaxing. The only problem is that I end up with lots of little bags of cut out images and then never get around to sticking them together. I used a create and craft die, from their couture creations range I think it is from the "Enchanted Escapes" collection. The grey pearl background card is embossed with a Celtic flower embossing folder from creative expressions and was matted up with matching purple card. The sentiment is lili of the valley and again I used the enchanted escape dies to frame it. A little faux stitching and a couple of pearls to finish it off.

WOYWW

I'm joining Julia again this week for what's on you workdesk Wednesday. As you can see the usual level of mess has returned! I've been playing with the Hunkydory Fun in the Sun kit that I won at the Bolton craft festival. I've mad two cards from the one set of decoupage, although I need to add some foliage to the flowers on one, actually I got a bit carried away with the flowers but hey ho.
Hope you all have a creative Wednesday, at least the rain means I have an excuse to stay indoors and craft.

Blooming Marvellous

You may remember that I posted my desk a few weeks ago which included some flowers stamped and heat embossed in white from the Chloe stamps I brought at the Bolton craft fair and was colouring with my spectrum noir pencils. I had fun playing with the pencils, not sure if I have the technique correct, but I used blending solution to even out the pencil lines.

I used them to make a card for a swop on a forum with the theme of "blooming marvellous". I used a craft stepper card blank from craftwork cards and used white card and craft card to mat and layer up the panels. The sentiment is from tonic and I layered it up a couple of times to give it some definition. The leaves were made with a Sue Wilson die and I tucked them behind the flowers to fill in the gaps. I added some sparklers from eBay to each of the flowers for a bit of bling.

I was really pleased with the finished card and didn't want to part with it! Apart from the time involved in colouring and had cutting the flowers (I snipped down between the petals so I could curl them more to add dimension), the card was relatively cheap to make as the sparklers were inexpensive on eBay. The biggest problem was that with the overhanging leaves it wouldn't fit in an envelope so I had to make one....

Hugs

Whoops! Didn't realise it had been so long since my last post. Life has got in the way of crafting recently. My 8 year old bunny Bramble had to have her teeth done under a general anaesthetic as they were starting to grow into her tounge. She refused to eat after the surgery so we had to syringe feed her until she decided to eat again. I also had some more radio frequency nerve lesioning done in the hope that it will help reduce the chronic pain I have in my neck affecting my shoulders, arms and upper back.
Anyway, enough whittering and onto the card. I wanted a quick card to send to a friends who is having a rough time at the moment. The image is lili of the valley and I had stamped, die cut it and coloured it with copics ready to craft with some time ago. I used a decorative label die to frame the image and the same yellow to build up the layers of the card and die cut the hugs sentiment and layered it up 3 times to make it pop. I used a soft green card for the background to complement the yellow which I chose to highlight the sunflower. The ribbon was left over from the ribbons I bought to make my wedding bouquet with. I put a length of ribbon round the front of the card and stuck it down with some red liner tape inside the card. A simple white paper insert covered this up. The ribbon is wired and so I could pinch it in slightly where I attached the bow (made with a bow maker) with glue gel. I tried to keep the card reasonably flat so it would post easily, I hope it cheered my friend up a little.

WOYWW

Once again I'm joining in with What's on your work desk Wednesday. The one day of the week when we get to nose at everyone's works in progress and occasionally feel that we are not the messiest crafter ever...
Today my kitchen table, which was stripped clear due to the leak in the bathroom on Saturday had already developed a healthy layer of crafting clutter. I've been working on a card swap for the crafttelly.com forum and so have been playing with my new Chloe stamps and my spectrum noir pencils. Not sure how the end result will turn out, but I'm having fun playing!

52 Christmas Card Throwdown

After weeks of admiring their challenge I've finally got myself organised enough to join in at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown. Their challenge this week is Christmas Elves.
It took a bit of rummaging but I knew I had an elf in a stamp set that had been a freebie with a craft magazine. Finally found it it was a nit wit freebie and it included the Christmas trees. The sentiment came from another freebie stamp set (I obviously buy too many magazines!)
I stamped the elf  and the trees on white stamping card and then coloured them in with copics and fussy cut them out. I trimmed a layer off one of the trees and added the trunk back on to make it smaller than the rest. I matted the card up on green coredinations card stock and freehand cut a white hill, which I stuck on top of the square of blue sky card. I stuck the trees in place with a mixture of flat glue and foam pads to add some dimension and added the elf on foam pads. I added glossy accents to the elf's boot and the candy cane and glossy accents and glamour dust to the stars on the trees. I stamped the sentiment in the bottom corner and job done!

Happy Fathers Day

This is that card I made for Dad today. The image and sentiment are from a Sam Poole for Creative Expressions set. I don't usually do soppy sentiments, but I liked this one. I embossed the image and sentiment on glossy white card with detail white embossing powder. I used gold gilding flakes and flake and glitter glue from Creative Expressions to show the light coming from the lighthouse. The background is white card which I stamped in versamark one of Sheena Douglass stamps of a sailing ship and map image, repeated to cover the card and heat embossed with white detail powder. I matted and layered everything up with the same black and white card and using my oval dies. I used some white bakers twine and a black anchor to embellish and a black pearl in each corner to finish.
I hadn't intended on seeing my Dad today but we had a water pipe split in the bathroom last night (so lucky we were in and got it turned off in 2 minutes or the kitchen ceiling would have come down, rather than just water dripping through the light and down the walls). Dad bless him came round this morning and helped hubby to fix it. Definitely a day to be grateful for Fathers!