Presents!!! :D

Hello again!! :)

Just so you don't think I've gone mad when you get further down this post: Blogger's being a real pain about uploading my pics- I've had to do them one at a time and they're taking ages if they'll upload at all- so I'm going to post this without the last couple of pics for now as I don't want to miss the LOTV Challenge deadline but I'll get the others up as soon as Blogger will let me!! :S EDIT: Hooray!!! Think it's actually worked now- only took about 10 times longer than it should've!!!

I hope you’re all having a good week despite the decidedly miserable weather- I can’t see my hand in front of my face inside today, it so dismal!! Well, I was planning to post my Grandad’s birthday card next but, as I’ve noticed I could still be in time for this week’s LOTV Challenge, I’m posting this one that I put together a couple of nights ago instead! I say put together not because it was a cut-and-stick type card (or these days, thankfully for me and my hands, a ‘pop-out-the-die-cuts-and-stick’ type card!! ;) ) – which I have nothing against, I should add, as they are my saving grace on many a low energy occasion!! – but because I feel I’ve been working on the components of this particular card for weeks!!

The image from Lili of the Valley has been sitting on my desk, coloured and ready to go for at least a couple of weeks (and calling to me all the while!) and I’ve been working on the papers for at least that long and finally finished them the other day only to have to wait ‘til I had the spare time/energy to actually get up and start the card itself!!

I’ve used the adorable James with Presents stamp and coloured him with PMs in the same colours as proved so popular with my last LOTV bear card: Cool Greys 1, 2, 3 & 4 with Slate, Lavender and Rose Pink applied with the Blender pen and some Crystal Stickles and Sakura Clear Stardust for a bit of Christmassy sparkle!! I was so pleased that so many people said they liked the colours I’d used for that card- they’re very ‘me’ colours so I knew I loved them but that doesn’t always mean others will feel the same!! ;) – and after the way this card’s come out with the co-ordinating papers, I think I might have found the colour-scheme for most of my own Xmas cards this year!! :) The matt behind the image is just a piece of printer paper with the edges coloured with PMs. I distressed the edges, used a punch on all the corners and ran a Versamark Dazzle Frost pad around the image layer :)

I’ve been really struggling this year to find packs of Christmas Papers in colours/styles that I’ve really liked or been inspired by- at least not at prices that I/my bank balance could stand anyway!! :/ - so, over the last few weeks, at times when I’ve not been feeling well enough to actually make a card, I’ve been fiddling on my netbook in bed and designing a few of my own :) I used the same free DrawPlus programme I downloaded and used to make the sentiment Rounds and have made a few papers in several different colourways- all of which I like and know will work with the colours of PMs, etc. that I’m loving using at the moment!! They’re fairly basic designs- the two on this card are just a snowflake font and some lines arranged on the page!! ;) - and I’m sure there was probably a quicker, much more straight-forward way of doing some of it but it gave me something to do without using *too* much energy and I have to admit the self-sufficient feeling of solving my own paper problem while saving myself some money (to be spent on other crafty bits post-haste, ofc!!!) is pretty nice!! :) The edges are distressed lightly with the TH tool and Dusty Concord DI :)

The snowflake is cut from a piece from my MS Snowflake Trim Punch with more DI and a Dew Drop in the centre (fixed with Stickles as I wasn’t sure what glue to use in case it showed through so now it sparkles, too!! :) ) and a few more of my favourite tiny pearls in the corners to finish!! :) Oh, and the greeting was added by hand at the last minute with a black fineliner as, when I showed the card to my mum just before adding the pearls, etc., she asked me where I was going to put the greeting...and it was at that point I realised I’d actually used the wrong paper...I’d intended to use one with Merry Christmas where I used the snowflake one- ooops!!! Ah, well!! lol

And I've taken a couple of extra pics: the first is a side-view as I've made this card Top-Opening- this is something I've seen on quite a few people's blogs and always really like...but I never remember to do it myself (I've always got the paper on the other way round before I think about it!!!), and the other is a pic of some of my papers (including the one I meant to use instead of the snowflakes!) as it was hard to show them much on the card as I'd covered most of them!! :)

I’d like to enter this card in the following challenges: Lili Of The Valley #66 – Untraditional Christmas :) ; CES #5 – Animal Antics :) ; One Stop Craft Challenge #99 – Snowflakes In September :) ; Die Cut Dreams Christmas Club #36 – Christmas Furry Things :) I did think about entering it into some of the CAS challenges that are running at the moment but, although it's definitely simple, I wasn't sure if it would be classed as 'Clean' with the Distress Ink...?

Thanks for reading and I hope you like my cards and the papers :) I’m going to stop rambling and go and link these up now before I run out of energy again- I wrote most of this last night but had to wait ‘til today to feel up to getting up to take the pics- the run up to Christmas is not the best time for a crafter to have even less energy than usual but it always seems to work out that way!! :S Also, apologies for being such a bad blogger at the mo' and going so long between posts/not managing to get round to see others' blogs and leave comments for all the lovely people who've left such nice comments for me recently :( I know I keep saying it but I truly hope I'll catch up soon as I love that interactive aspect of blogging so much and I really do appreciate all the comments people leave for me!! :) 

hugs,

Clean and Simple Golden Wedding Cards

Hey!! :)

Well, long time no post from me- I hope you’ve all been well and had a good weekend!! :) Just a quick post tonight to try to get me back in the swing of things blog-wise after not feeling well enough to post or even browse too much for the last couple of weeks; sorry if this seems a little rushed only I’m still not feeling too good but would really like to post something as well as enter these cards in a challenge before it closes...

These cards were an order from a family friend; she asked for two Golden Wedding Anniversary cards for two couples a week apart- only they couldn’t be the same design as the couples not only know each other but include siblings, so would definitely see each other’s cards!!! So, after some thought, this is what I came up with...I thought it might be nice if they were similar in style but just different enough...

They're pretty simple and so thankfully don't need too much explanation but here's just a little... I went with a cream and gold colour scheme and used pearl card and mirror board, Nestie Ovals and a little Antique Linen DI for edging around the Peel Off ring focal points. I also used the D’vine Swirls Cuttlebug Folder and some gold organza from my stash for the first card and some gorgeous jacquard-y ribbon (sold as an Xmas Tree decoration!) and gold thread to make a Spirelli frame from the oval on the second card. The greetings are also Peel Offs.

A couple of slightly closer shots :)

I also stamped the inserts with a Woodware Clear magic alphabet set.

I don't think they came out too badly despite,when I was coming up with the design in the first place, having to put so much consideration into how much energy I would be able to expend making them!! Clean and Simple to the rescue again!! :)

I’d like to enter this in the Crafty Cardmakers Clean and Simple Challenge :)

Well, I’m off to get this linked and then to bed- I should be in bed already but so wanted to get this posted this weekend!!- hopefully it won’t be so long before my next post as it has been since my last!! :)

hugs,

All Shopped Out...well, ‘til my next LOTV order anyway!! ;)

Hello again!! :)

I’m back with my second and third Christmas cards and my first with my new Lili of the Valley Xmas stamps :D :D I think I may have alluded to the fact that I bought rather more of these little cuties than I had intended to...but I just couldn’t resist!!! And I love them all so much!!! :) The biggest problem I had was knowing where to start playing!!

One of the reasons- aside from their utter gorgeousness that is!!- that I love these bears so much is because of a decoupage card kit I got from C&C a couple of years ago; before that I’d never bought a decoupage kit as I’ve always loved stamping too much but I loved the little bears so much that I had to have it!! I made all my Christmas cards from it that year, loving every minute of working with the gorgeous bears, and, when I went back to the remains of the kit last year to make up a card as a request from a friend, I found myself smiling from ear to ear all over again :) And so when I saw the LOTV James and Jenny bears, which are the same adorable characters, I was so happy that I went all mushy again and lost all restraint- well, not quite true I didn’t buy all of them...yet... ;)

I loved the look of my last monochrome card and the paper I used so much, and the paper was perfect for the LOTV Challenge, so I used it again for these cards :) I cut half the front off the base cards (I’m still trying to make two cards the same or similar whenever possible to build up my stocks- a particularly good idea with any Xmas cards I manage to make, I think) and then cut a square of dotty paper slightly smaller than the base cards and cut it half diagonally, too, to line both cards.

This image wasn’t the first I stamped or even coloured, but as soon as I had the stamps, I wanted to enter the LOTV challenge and the idea for this card just popped into my head so I inked her up :) The bears from the C&C kit were in black and white with just a little colour in their hats etc. and that was the look I was trying to recreate for myself. I had to wait for the Cool Greys Promarker pack I’d ordered in readiness to arrive, but then I got going :) Jenny is coloured using Cool Greys 1, 2, 3 & 4 and for her hat, scarf and shopping bags I used Slate (one of my new colours which I love :) ), Lavender and Rose Pink, all of which were blended out with the Blender Pen :) I was so worried I wouldn’t be able to get this look right as I wanted to so much but, although I know my colouring’s still far from perfect, I’m really pleased with how it came out- and better still, it came out right first time!! :) I used circle and scalloped Nesties to cut her out and then added plenty of Crystal Stickles to her hat, the ground and all around the edge for some Xmas sparkle!! :)

The sentiments and snowflake rounds are more of the ones I’ve been designing whilst playing around with the new graphics program I downloaded- I still can’t quite believe a technophobe like me could do that but I think the key to any improvement I may have made with computers is the development of a ‘dog with a bone’ mentality of just not giving up ‘til I get the (d**m!) thing to do what I want it to!! lol – printed out and cut with Nesties (I sized them to fit first) and matted on Nestie Blossoms cut from glittery black card :) The snowflake is from a free font I found online :) I also used more of the fab hat pins from Crafty Emma's :)

And this pic is just to show the circles in the paper and pearls- I promise I’ll stop taking pics of pearls soon, I just love the way they look- and it is relevant to the challenge as they're circles!! ;)

A pic of both cards together :) I love these so much that I think I’ll save one of them to be my sister’s Xmas Card and change the sentiment to include the word ‘Sister’- one of the great things about being able to make them myself!! :) But I may change my mind if I make something I think she’ll like even more so I’ll leave doing that till nearer the time!! :D

So, firstly, I’d like to enter this in the Lili of the Valley Challenge – Go Dotty for Circles :) My first of many entries I hope!! :) And I’d also like to enter it in the following: Winter Wonderland – All I Want For Christmas :) ; Wild Orchid Crafts – Make It Sparkle :) ; Paper Sundaes – Christmas in August :) ; Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight – Glitter and Sparkle :) ; Creative Inspirations – Christmas in August :) ; CES – Anything Goes :) ; and Passion For ProMarkers - Teddy Bears' Picnic :)

Wow- now I just have to go and link all those up...!! ;) Thank you to all the people who’ve left such lovely comments on my last cards- it really does make such a difference to me as I’m not usually able to be with people when they open my cards and it’s great to hear what people think of them :) :) Hope you’re all having a good week!! :) I’m off for a much needed rest then back to work later on my next big project- my Aunty’s 60th card- a learning curve for sure!! :)

hugs,