My First Official Blog Challenge Card- if it's allowed!! :S

Hello!! :)

Two posts in two days- I never thought that would happen when I decided to start my blog!! Hmmm, probably ought to try and get something else done occasionally too though, I guess!! ;)

I'm back with the card I made at the weekend :) I needed to make a birthday card for a 4yr old girl and knew what I was going to use as the focal point but went looking around for a sketch to inspire me to do something a little different to my norm with the layout.

Well, it wasn't long before I found the lovely Papertake Weekly Challenge sketch and was inspired! :) Unfortunately, I realised last night that, despite looking at the sketch repeatedly while I was prepping the card, I have actually deviated from it slightly in the way I've put it together!! Whoops!!! :S That's just so typical of my brain, I'm afraid, but I shall enter it anyway and if it's no good then I had fun making it and nevermind!! ;) :)

I wanted to keep it fairly simple and light for this one, both because of it being for a little one and as I've been doing quite a lot with stronger colours and inking/distressing lately and felt like something different...

The decoupage image is Bentley Bear- it came as a gift with a magazine a few months ago and seemed perfect for a little girl's summer birthday so I've been saving it :) The papers are from my Forever Friends CD- Baby section- altered to change size and proportion of the check- partly as I thought it would look better smaller but mostly because I'm awkward like that and just can't leave things alone if there's a way to fiddle!! ;) - and cropped to about the size I needed (as my printer's running out of ink again! v irritating :[ ) in My Craft Studio Pro. Greeting is one of my favourites from Woodware's Clear Magic Mixed Greetings again, stamped in Brilliance. I added the faux stitching with Papermania/Whispers pens. To finish, I added Stickles to the cupcakes, Sakura Clear glaze to the characters noses and then, as it just needed a little something, the card candy- the green one started off white and is coloured in the same pens as the stitching as I didn't have the right shade in the pack I have!! Must expand my collection asap, obviously!! ;)

I hope you like it and, even if it's doesn't meet the requirements for the challenge, thanks for the inspiration from the sketch!!

June is a very busy month for birthdays in our house so I have a rather long list of cards to get making- I'm never well prepared in advance so I'll be busy getting them done on time!! Hopefully, though, some of them will be worth sharing and I'll be back before too long :)

hugs,

The Mystery of the Seed Bead Stringer...

Hi!! :) (I feel justified in saying that now that I have a few more followers- seemed a bit silly when there was probably no-one reading my blog in the beginning!! :) :) )

Just a short post from me for now as I'm feeling pretty rubbish this evening but I wanted to put a pic of the aforementioned Seed Bead Stringing gizmo on here so people would have a clue what I was talking about!! I had never seen or even heard of one before I spotted and ordered mine a month or so ago, either, but I'm glad I found it as I've always been put off stringing even larger beads, let alone tiny seed beads, in any number because of how awkward I find it :)

Anyway, the pic...

Basically, you put your beads in the bowl and use the handle/pole in the centre to spin the bowl around (the base the bowl rests on is seperate and has it's own pole, which the bowl's hollow handle/pole sits over the top of to let it spin, if that makes any sense...). You have a long needle with a curved end (in front of the spinner in the pic) which you dip into the spinning bowl so the beads find their own way onto the needle and then you just push them up the needle and onto the thread as normal- except it's far quicker, far less fiddly and, in my case far less pain-inducing!! It's also quite good fun just to spin the thing and slightly reminiscent of those spinning-top toys I remember playing with when I was little!!

Not sure if I've explained that well at all- I really am very tired atm :S If it doesn't make sense, I'll take another pic with the parts separated or with me using it when I have more energy!!

Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with a card I made yesterday :) for now, I'm off to bed, sweet dreams,

Bracelet for a 21st and my new toy...

Well, I'm really getting into this blogging lark now, even have a couple of followers -WOW!- including the very talented Rachel whose blog is what inspired me to start mine! :) - and a lovely comment on my last post!! Thank you- makes it feel a bit more real to know somebody actually read my ramblings!! ;)

But on to the real reason for my post... the twist bracelet for my friend's 21st, currently winging it's way to her with the Cupcake Easel Card, I hope! Does anyone else get nervous when sending their hard work through the postal system?! :S

I got a new toy, a Seed Bead Stringer, a few weeks ago and this is my first attempt at using it. Apart from a minor disaster when my knots started coming undone- I seem always to have problems with knots, give me Tigertail and crimp beads any day!!- I was pretty pleased with how the process went and I think it'l definitely make stringing quicker- and less painful for my arms and shoulders, which is definitely good! I really like the end result, too, so I can see more of these being made in the future!! :)

And this is me experimenting with my new camera again!! I just love the Super-Macro mode- the lens was practically in the bowl with the beads!! :) I love this mix of white and clear AB-coated seed beads- I think I might make something similar for myself with the beads I have left!! :)

Thanks for looking, I hope you like it and are having a good week!! Fingers crossed the sun will stay for the weekend for my friend's party!! :) 

Birthday Cupcakes!!

Well, here's my latest effort, after a week of contemplation and changing my mind about what I'd do, for a friend's 21st birthday this weekend. She's having a picnic so I really hope the sunny weather will come back for her...but knowing our English weather lately that may have been 'summer' already over! I won't be able to go so I thought I'd get into the spirit with a cupcake card! :)

This card is based on the design of my mum's Mother's Day card from earlier this year which I was very pleased with- as was she I'm glad to say!! :) I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with the way it's come out, though- often the way when you try to recreate something that you loved first time around, isn't it?! I can't put my finger on it but I feel like it's all a bit dark or something...perhaps it's just because it has ended up so very different from the vague idea I had imagined while I was struggling for so long to decide what to do/use :S

The cupcakes and little flowers are from the gorgeous Kanban Fairy Cakes clear stamp set- I embossed them with sparkly powder and coloured them with Twinkling H2Os, mixing several shades and then adding a bit of this and a bit more of that to get a range of colours that all toned together. I haven't used my H2Os in ages and have to say I had fun! :) The pink card is Core'dinations Gemstones, embossed with my new Divine Swirls C'bug folder and the papers are cut with Nesties from Forever Friends Party Time and With Love pads which I've found mix and match really well. Almost every layer is edged with a teal dye-based ink pad and the pink and purple colours from the Brilliance Twilight Trio pad- using Cut & Dry Foam again, I did say I was loving it! I think I may have been a tad heavy-handed in places, though :S The greeting is from Woodware's Mixed Greeting's clear stamp set- a brilliant set, I couldn't manage without my (quite large!) collection of Woodware greetings stamps :) And I finished it all off with some teal ribbon from Anita's...and a hefty helping of Crystal Stickles!! :)

Thought I might as well do a few extra for some future cards while I had all the kit out! I often do this as they come in so useful when I'm not well enough to deal with embossing powders etc. but still want a card I can call my own :)

This is just a shot of a few of the H2Os I used! I'm still playing around and getting used to my new camera and these colours were just too pretty to resist taking a pic- or six!! :)

Well that's all for now, if anyone comes across this then thanks for reading and I'd love to know what you think- all constructive criticism welcome, maybe then I can work out what's not quite right with this card! :) I'll hopefully be back soon with some pics of the bracelet I've made to go with the card! :) 

To get things started...

This is from a couple of weeks ago but I wanted to put something up on here until I manage to finish (okay start!) the card I've been meant to be making for a week- bad case of crafter's block...only, instead of having no ideas, I think I have too many all floating around in a jumble in my head and I just can't seem to decide what to do or how to combine them!!lol

So this was my first ever challenge card made for a couple of challenges over on Docrafts (a sketch and an FF card using green and yellow plus ribbon and buttons- I don't have any buttons apparently :S) having just discovered the world of challenges and blogs through DC, I really had to have a go when the insipration for this combination card hit! I don't think I managed to stick exactly to the challenge briefs but the card was definitely insipered by them and came out quite differently from my usual cards as a result! I'm loving playing with my new Cut and Dry Foam at the moment so most things are getting inked edges somwhere or other!! I also seem to be slightly obsessed with Forever Friends atm!! :)

The border is stamped directly onto the base card with a Woodware clear stamp set (can't remember the name, had them for years and never used them til I saw some lovely cards another blogger had made with them :) ) and I used the same chalk inkpad with Cut and Dry Foam to ink the edges. The label shapes are Nesties and the paper is from the K&Co Daisy pad. I inked the edges with the same pad to tie it all in and then layered them with the ribbon. The FF image is stamped in brown ink to tone in and coloured with Papermania/Whispers pens, using the tip of the same green cats-eye inkpad to colour the vase (masking the bear with scrap paper to save too many disastrous smudges!). The sentiment is from Woodware Wedding Words clear stamp set. As a final touch, I used just a little bit of Sakura Clear Stardust on the centres of the flowers...becuase I just didn't seem able to call it finished without any glitter at all!!

Thanks for looking and I hope you'll like it! :)

My new blog...

Well, they say slow and steady wins the race...

So, today I've set up my new blog, written a bit about me (never something I find that easy- 'will anybody actually be interested anyway?'!) and managed to add a rather pretty new background to the whole thing! And now I'm writing my first post! :)

Baby steps and all that, I'm really very new to all this blog stuff!! But hopefully it won't be too long before I'm back with something more interesting to post about...! The blog world has already given me so much inspiration and I only discovered it all a few weeks ago!! Just need some energy to put the ideas into practice now!

If anybody does actually come across this and read this far, then 'Thanks!' and please come back sometime soon :)

hugs,