Something different...

Hey!! :)

I'm back again- so soon!!- with a slightly different post to the usual as I've been having a play with my beading stash for a change...

I've had another pretty rubbish few days as I've been feeling very down and also not great M.E.-wise either. At times like this, it's usually crafting that comes to my rescue, giving me something to do to take my mind off things and a sense of having achieved something good and maybe even useful when I've finished. So on Tuesday I tried making a card... but, as I mentioned in yesterday's post, it all went so horribly wrong from start to finish that I ended up feeling even worse than I had before :{ So yesterday evening, having shied away from the thought of trying again with the card all day (and being really fed up with myself for/about it!!), I decided to try something different and I thought I'd share the results with you :)

I got myself the antique gold findings at the end of last year as I really like the look but haven't got around to doing anything with them until now as I've not really had much time for jewellery making this year in amongst all the cards!! I also got several mix bags of beads including a Czech Glass mix in natural golden and brown tones which all the beads came from with the exception of the large discs which I bought individually :)

I had root through my beads one night last week when I made an order for some new bits and bobs (which I'm hoping to make some Xmas pressies with and I'm trying to be more organised a bit earlier this year!! ;) ) and picked out the combination of beads I wanted to use- though, of course, I changed my mind somewhat when it came to actually putting them together!! lol

Making jewelley is a great way for me to still be creative but take a break from cards sometimes- especially when I've got myself in a mess with something or am suffering form cardmaker's block!! And making these definitely let me go to bed last night feeling a little better about things!! :)

Another nice thing about this litle project is that it's just for me!! :) Don't get me wrong, I love that my cards are for other people and the feeling I get when I know that they've got pleasure from my work is wonderful but, just sometimes, it's nice to get to keep my hardwork and enjoy it myself!! ;) :) I guess that's why so many people love scrapbooking so much but, no matter how many times I say I'll try that, I never seem to!! ;)

Well, I've blethered (as my wonderful Gran would say!! :) ) on long enough- thank you for looking at my latest efforts!! :) Hopefully normal service will be resumed soon and I'll find myself able to get a card right again...but we'll see, I guess!! :S

ETA(which I'm assuming means 'edited to add'- pls correct me if not tho!!) (before posting): I wrote this a few hours ago but when I went to take the photos I remembered that my camera battery died last night and, while it was charging, I'm very pleased to report that I've gone back to the card that was going so wrong the other day and, by redoing some bits and modifying others, have manged to finish it and am actually pretty pleased with the result!! :D Hopefully this might mean that my crafty mojo's back- for a while at least as it seems to be a very transient thing at the mo'!! Not so sure about my life mojo but the crafty version's a good start!! ;) Wiil take pics of the card when the stickles is dry and hopefully post soon as it was inspired by a few challenges so I'd like to be in time to enter them!!

Bye for now,

hugs,

Another bear...

Hello!! :)

Well, when I said I'd be back next with another order card, I forgot that I'd made this and not posted it as I didn't want my friend to see it on my blog before she'd opened the real thing on her birthday!! We share a love of jewellery making and when I saw this image of the FF bear making a beaded necklace while looking through my new FF Cd, I immediately decided to use it for her card :)

I started by sizing the images in MCS, printing and cutting out- didn't think to give myself any extra decoupage layers and found I'd deleted the image when I went back to look and couldn't get the right size again!! :S I cut an aperture in the card blank with a Nestie circle and then a larger scalloped/plain circle frame from purple card which I embossed with the Spots and Dots C'bug folder and inked with Brilliance Pearlescent Purple from both edges.

I'd originally planned to use some combination of patterned papers on the base to reflect the colours in the beads but it all looked way too busy and the papers I had weren't giving the overall colour impression I wanted... so I opted instead for some Anita's ribbons and was far happier with that!!

So, after putting it all together- ribbon, then circle frame, then bear- I started on the inside where I put another scalloped circle in purple, a circle of a patterned paper (a free download from C&P magazine's site- the first sheet came free in the mag but I've printed several more from the download as I really love the pattern and colours!) and an extra box of beads from the image :)

I also printed a flipped image- included on the cd so I didn't have to do it myself this time- to put inside the card as the image overlapped the apperture and also used the circle from the apperture to cover the ends of the ribbon. Maybe not the neatest it could've been but I'm afraid I just didn't have time to try cutting paper with the matching aperture etc. :S Maybe next time! :)

I used plenty of Crystal Stickles on the beads and a bit of Sakura Glaze on the box and the bears nose :)

Then I added a greeting from Woodware's Mixed Greeting set, traced over with Sakura Clear Glaze pen, a pearl heart gem at the top to bring out the geens and blues in the beads and a couple of Papermania gems from my candy stash to finish :)

I'd like to enter this in the following challenges: Craftalicious- Birthdays :) ; Creative Inspirations- Animals :) ; Ooh La La- Birthdays :) ; The Crazy Challenge- Birthdays :) ; and Crazy 4 Challenges- Photo Inspiration ( my card has candy colours, stripes and dots) :)

So, I hope you like it- I think my friend did :) :) I've had a couple of days off from making cards- or doing anything much really- as body and mind needed a break- and then got all excited yesterday as I just received a few new goodies I ordered last week and wanted to have a play with those and ended up having one of those days where everything you try is a total disaster so I'm a bit afraid of trying again now!! :( Thanks for looking and hope you're all having a good week so far!! :)

hugs,

Sweet Peas for a Summer Birthday

Hey there bloggers!! :)

This is a card made for an order from a friend of mum's for a 50th card for her Sister-in-Law. The brief was quite open in the design- 'she loves flowers'- but more specific in the wording. I find that most of the special occasion cards people request include combinations of greetings that you just wouldn't find in the shops, in this case 'For a Special Sister-in-Law' as well as the Happy 50th bit. Have to say, I've had far more complicated things requested and this actually didn't test my stamp collection or my patience nearly so badly as some!! ;) She also wanted the card to be pretty large and so I immediately thought of the one I made for my mum for Mother's Day last year and have essentially remade that design- just with a different focal image and some tweaking to fit in the requested wording:

It's a 10"x7" card blank. The decoupaged image is from a simply beautiful kit I got on sale from C&C/Ideal early last year- the images are the entire front of an almost 7"Sq. card, though in this case there was a border strip which I cut off. I covered the bottom half of the base with half of a purple pearlescent card blank which I stamped with some beautiful Agapanthus style Heidi Grace stamps- which I love to use so much :)- in Brilliance Moonlight White Ink :) The swirls are my equally loved and well used Heidi Grace ones- I have several sets and intermix them all so don't know which is from which!! :S - stamped in Brilliance Pearlescent Purple and embellished with Clear Stardust pen for extra oomph!! The greetings are stamped in Brilliance Purple again using Woodware's Mixed Greetings and Family Christmas clear sets with the '50th' coming from a SeeDs alphabet set I got for £1 recently- Whimsy, I think :)

I've taken lots of pics as, with all the different shiny/pearly bits I used, it was hard to get them to come out well so I focused on each bit at a time- hope you won't get too bored!!

The beautiful Sweet Pea decoupage with punched corners and silver mirri behind- got slightly carried away with the Stickles here but I love it being sooo sparkly!! :)

A close up on the pearl card with pearl ink- now this was hard to get a good pic of!! ;) The ribbon is Anita's- the knot ending up over the centre of the flower was a happy accident on mum's card last year but I decided it looked good that way so this time I had to attempt to get the stamp in the right place!!

The HG flourishes complete with Glittery accents :)

The first part of the greeting on an extra little piece of stamped purple card with a Nellie's rectangle of mirri again :)

The rest of the greeting!! Just had to mask off the words to separate them as they come joined together :)

I added and insert and stamped co-ordinating swirls on it and the envelope as, for and extra special card, I think it really finishes it off nicely :)

Are you still with me!?! Don't blame you if not (so much for trying to keep it brief again, less words but tons of photos to upload!! :S) but there are so many things on here that I love- from the topper to the beautiful pearl card and gorgeous stamps as well as the whole thing being in my most favourite colours- that I simply couldn't leave any of the shots out!! Plus, I think I was just so excited that this card came together so well and so much more easily than of late that I couldn't resist getting shots of everything!! I felt so good when I'd finished this card that the feeling's lasted since!! :) :) Makes a lovely change!! :) All that was left at this stage was to cross my fingers that she liked it and decide how much to charge for it- I always feel a little awkward on that front with orders but am coming round to asking a fair price which means more money to Ayme as well as to replace my materials with!! :)

You can probably tell I'm felling a little better than I was last time I posted- thank you for the lovely comments on my last post, they really helped to make me smile and feel better and I really appreciate them :) - so I'm going to attempt to enter this in some challenges this time!! :) I found quite a few so may regret it by the time I've got through linking them all up but here goes nothing!! I'd like to enter it in: One Stop Craft Challenge- A Splash of Colour- Pink, Blue, Green & a hint of Red (in the flower if you look closely, I promise!!) :) ; Crafty Catz- Summertime :) ; Wild Orchid Crafts- Say it with Flowers :) ; Craftalicious- Birthdays :) ; Allsorts- Summer Days (the sweet peas-summer flowers) :) ; Charisma Cardz- anything but a square (I hope my rectangle is interesting enough!! ;) ) :) ; and Stampavie and more- Anything Goes :)

Right, I'm off to link those up now (gulp!!) but now my crafty mojo's at least back in the vicinity (if not always right to hand when I need it most!!) I'll hopefully be back again soon- the next card on my list, which I started last night, is another order for a special birthday so better dig out those alphabet stamps again, I think!! :) Sorry I've still not managed much commenting on all the lovely cards you've posted again- hopefully will be feeling more upto it again soon!! :)

Hope you're all looking forward to a good weekend and thank you so much if you've actually had the patience to stay til the end of this post!! :D

hugs,

Happy Bears...

Hi all!! :)

Well, it's not been a great week here for a variety of reasons so I'm going to try and do the impossible- for me!!- and keep this fairly brief as I should probably be resting or trying to catch up on other stuff...but I really wanted to post something as I've been missing blogland- amazing how quickly you get addicted, isn't it!?!- though I've still been popping by others to see all the amazing cards you've all been making, just not been upto commenting much!! :S

I'm going to show you the card I made for my Gran and Grandad's 59th - wow! :) :) - Wedding Anniversary a few days ago :) I got the idea for the interlocking front- the heart tucks in between the opposite side front of the card and the bears, which are attached at the outside edge only- from a Crafters' Companion show on Ideal/C&C last week and thought it'd work well with the stamp I wanted to use :)

The papers are from the Forever Friends With Love pad and the purple card for the heart is Gemstones pearlescent, both edged with Dusty Concord Distress after the heart was embossed with my Fantasy Floral C'bug folder. I put on several layers of Crystal Stickles over the embossing- or *de*bossing as it was the first time I'd used that folder and it seems to work the other way up to all my other folders :S Ah well, actually liked it more than the *em*bossed version in the end!! :) (It now has 'This way up!!' in bright pink Sharpie all over the back so I'll remember next time, though!! ;) )

The FF stamp is coloured with Whispers pens with waterbrushed Dusty Concord and a bit more Stickles for the present :) The greeting is from two Woodware Clear sets- Wedding Words and Family Christmas- all single words in the same font so v v useful!! :) Don't think I've missed anything out but I'm sure you wouldn't need me to explain anyway!! ;)

I'm not going to enter it in any challenges simply because I've not had the energy to find any or link them up if I did!! But I hope you'll like it- my Gran & Grandad did, I'm happy to say!! :) Seem to have completely lost my crafty mojo, though, after this week- not good for the cards I need to make or my sanity as it's usually crafting that keeps me going when nothing else does!! On the plus side, I did manage to make two- though I forgot to start with!!- so my plan to refill my boxes is still going okay for now!! :) Hope you all had a good weekend :)

hugs,

Distressed Bears...

Hi again!! :)

Now don't worry- no bears were harmed in the making of these cards!! ;) I shouldn't try to be funny- I've never been much good at it!! :S ;) So, I'm back to show you the first cards made with my my massive candy, as promised yesterday :) I'm trying to make a few extras at the moment for some little gifts and my 'little box for selling' which has gradually become less and less interesting a selection this year as those that were in there have been bought while I've not been feeling up to making more to replace them. So, with that in mind, I decided I'd try to make at least two of most of the cards I make- either identical or at least similar in style and components used- which should almost double the number I make without requiring double my energy!! That's the theory anyway- we'll see how long it lasts!!

The starting point, last Thursday, with these cards was stamping several images to practise my Promarker technique and test a few different papers to use them on, which left me with four out of six images that were good enough to use- not bad considering my previous record of one out of six, I thought!! ;) The other deciding factors in how the cards came out were wanting to use my candy stash and wanting to use my newest crafty purchases- namely my Tim Holtz Paper Distresser, which I'd seen used around blogland and just had to try, and my latest Distress Inkpad in Antique Linen :) Oh, and at least one of the cards needed to be suitable for giving to a friend's 5yr old grandaughter!! So, on Saturday, off I went to play- and these are what I ended up with...

I used a Daisy and Dandelion Bear Stamp, backing papers from a D&D decoupage set and the Promarkers (in Sandstone, Rose Pink and Lilac), of course, which were all a (small!!) part of the candy :) I decided the ones on the Letraset came out best by far- think maybe I'm just getting a bit more used to the pens, too!! :) (I also tried some on matt photo paper as I read somewhere that might work but not for me!!) I distressed the edges of all the paper layers with the Tom Holtz tool ( love this so much!! :) ) and then went around everything with the Antique Linen ink pad which is a lovely colour with the Sandstone marker and the paper colours :) A bit of Crystal stickles on the flower and papers and a bit of Sakura Clear Glaze pen on the nose- I cannot make a card with an animal without glazing the nose, just can't!!) finished them off!! Simple, fairly quick and fun to do and , I think anyway, a rather nice end result!! :)

A couple of close-ups of the colouring and of the greeting and ribbon on one of the cards :) The 'Thanks' is from a Dovecraft mini-set I've had for years and the swirls are from the D&D sets, stamped in Antique Linen then over the top but slightly off (terrible attempt at English there!! ;) ) with Vintage Photo Inks for a shadowed effect. The ribbon is coloured with the Sandstone Promarker :)

I'd like to enter them, as a set and as one entry if that's okay, in a couple of challenges: Craftalicious Card Challenges- Cute :) and Crafty Catz- Distressing :)

Hopefully this making multiples thing will work as well in the future as it has so far (I made two of the Black, White and Red one, too, for my gift box- if I can part with it cos I do really love it!! ;) ) and I'll have more cards to give away or add to my other little box to sell for Ayme :)

Thanks for looking and reading!! :) Not sure what I'll be back with next- probably my Grandparent's Anniversary Card...I did make another Black, White and Red one with a slightly adapted version of the same sketch for an order but I'm not very happy with it so will have to see if I can muster up enough enthusiasm to post it!!

hugs,

Yay!!! My Very First 'Top Three'!!!! :) :) :)

Hello!! :)

Now I'm not sure if it's 'the done thing' to post about things like this but, well, I'm rather excited and it's my first one so you'll have to forgive me if it's not.....

Wow, I'm very (very!!!) happy to be able to say that I was chosen as one of the top three at Hidden Treasures last week for my Black, White and Red card!! :) :) I'm so pleased that Kelli liked my card so much!! :) and I have to say this has really cheered up a fairly bad week, too!! I shall add the badge to my sidebar and feel very proud and happy each time I see it!!! :) :) They have a sketch for this week's challenge and the DT cards are gorgeous- pop over and have a look!! :)

I've not had a very creative week this week as not feeling too good (and have really had to make an attempt at tidying up some of the mountain of crafty clutter that's all around the place before we have visitors staying in a week or so- it's taking over...and I have no idea where it's all come from...*hums and looks around innocently*!!! ;) ) but will hopefully be back soon with a little 'mini-set' of cards I made at the weekend with just a few of the bits from my candy!! :) Hope you're all feeling happily creative!! :)

hugs,

Black, white and a splash of red...oh, and some grey...

Hello!!

Firstly, I just have to say...I cannot believe it is July already- I have no idea where the first half of this year disappeared to!!! :{ When I realised the date earlier I thought 'I'm gonna have to start thinking about Christmas soon'!! Heeeeeelp......!!! Okay, think that's out of my system for now- 'normal service will be resumed shortly....'

Well, I've not managed much crafting so far this week as I've been feeling pretty awful- not managed much of anything infact, very frustrating and more than a little dull!! Did have a bit of play with my new Promarkers and the Daisy and Dandelion stamps from my massive blog candy haul a couple of days ago, though, and produced several images that will be good enough to use so will hopefully get those made into cards soon!! :) :)

In the meantime, thought I'd show you a card I made last Saturday for a family friend's 50th. I don't often use red in my cardmaking-or for anything really as it's one of my least favourite colours- but, spurred on by a couple of Black, White and Red kits I've bought and loved, I've made a few cards where I've added a little red to a mainly black and white designs when I've known it would really suit the recipent or the occasion and always end up really liking them :) And this is another I'm really quite pleased with- I think, if you're looking for sophisticated, you can't go wrong with Black and White...at least I hope so!! :)

I used the same sketch (from a Clare's Weekly Challenge on DC) as I used for the card I posted last as I really loved working with it!! :) The background paper is printed from the Kanban The Seasons CD- it's a design I really love which I thought of immediately that I saw the Hampstead stamp set as the shapes of the flowers match so well :) I tried everything I could think of to get the paper to print in black and white, rather than the coloured versions on the Cd, but the best I could do in the end was to print it in greyscale and this is how it came out- I actually think that the grey is probably better than black would have been in the end...

I stamped the image- the first time I've had chance to play with my new Hampstead set and I love it!!! :) - in black Versacolour and embossed it with a powder I mixed myself (clear powder with a little red glitter) for some Valentine's cards earlier in the year. I love the way the colour of the glitter really pops when it's on black, though it doesn't show so well in the photo :) That's matted onto red paper and silver mirror-board. The greeting is from the Jane's Script Woodware clear set again, stamped and embossed as the image, and I used a punch to get the shape on the corners. All the different papers are edged with a Brilliance Starlight Black ink pad.

I used my MS Doily Lace punch on the black strip again and coloured some white ribbon with a Ruby Promarker. Once all the paper layers were on I added the flower to complete the sketch and gems for a bit of colour on the edges of the image piece.Then I couldn't resist a bit of Clear Stardust on the image (applied with a waterbrush so it wasn't too strong) for a little bit more sparkle to finish!! :)

And a pic of the greeting I stamped inside the card. The stamps are another Woodware clear set which I've had for years and used loads for all sorts of cards (can't remember the name at the mo' tho!). I usually spend ages arranging the letters on an acrylic block trying to get them all straight before I stamp them but this time I was too tired and couldn't be bothered...so, thinking I was taking my life in my hands and would probably ruin the whole thing, I stamped each letter one at a time with a little block and was amazed to discover that it came out just as well!! What's the betting it'll be a disaster when I next try it, full of confidence from my first succesful attempt!?! ;)

I'm going to enter this in a few challenges- hopefully I'll be in time this time!! They are: Crafty Cardmakers- Inky Fingers (I've inked the edges of all my papers, stamped my image and coloured my own ribbon); Lexi's Creations- Layers (lots of layers of paper and my image is raised on 3d foam); Magical Crafts- Flower Power; Quirky Crafts Challenges- Ribbon;  Corrosive Challenges- Lots of Flowers (image, patterned paper and fabric flower); and Hidden Treasures- Ribbon :)

I'm hoping soon I'll feel upto getting around to all the blogs of the lovely people who've left me comments on my recent cards- I got to a few and left comments earlier today!! :) I wish everyone a lovely weekend- let's hope we'll have some more sun!!

hugs,