Wedding Wishes...

Hello everyone!! :)

Today I’m finally getting around to sharing a commissioned wedding card I made for a friend to give to her boss’ daughter (and her new hubby, ofc!!) in September... The brief was simple- my friend wanted their names and the date included and gave me the invitation so I could colour-match the accent colour of the bridesmaid’s dresses from the ribbon they had used... which happened to be my absolute fav shade of teal so I was a very happy bunny!! :)

I spent ages thinking about this card and trying to figure out what papers I could use and I also spent ages trying to colour the simply gorgeous LOTV stamp with both PMs and Prismas... in the end- after some hair-tearing and maybe even a little swearing!!lol- I remembered my Twinkling H2Os as well as some gorgeous shimmery cardstock, swirl stamps and my fav Silver Pearl embossing powder and abandoned all the things that were causing me problems to create this...

...which I was really so much happier with than I think I would ever have been if I’d continued on my original path!! :) I don’t like to say this too often, and don’t really think it that often either, but I actually really do love this card- which is a great feeling!! :) – and my friend was really pleased with it too... she even asked me to send her some photos of it as she forgot to take any before she took it to the wedding!!lol

The image is, of course, a simply beautiful LOTV stamp, Mr & Mrs, and, as I wasn’t using either PMs or Prismas to smudge it, I heat embossed with a silver glitter powder and then water-coloured with my lovely- and sadly neglected since I found PMs and Prismas!- H2Os... I used three different shades of white for the different areas of her dress and veil and mixed a few shades of teal/green/blue to get the perfect teal for the ribbon :)

I used a blue PM to alter the shade of a teal organza ribbon I’ve had for years for the bow and made a little embellishment cluster with that, a charm from my jewellery stash and some rose buds :) I used a large jump ring at the top of the chain for the charm to pull the ribbon strip in so it looked more like the bow was really tied from that strip rather than just ds-taped on- it took a long time and plenty of fiddling to get the bow to sit as I wanted it but I loved the way it came out :)

These pics show the stunning shimmery card and embossing powder- this pearl powder is a real chameleon, it takes on aspects of the card it’s on and looks so different... but always just as gorgeous!! :) The swirl stamps are from a set by Viva Decor and are sooo useful!! :) Oh, and of, course, I had to add about a zillion pearls... my little sis asked me if the little lines of three pearls are like my trademark now as apparently I add them to everything... and, you know, since she said it I’ve realised there is hardly a card where I don’t put at least one set of three little pearls somewhere- and I hadn’t even thought about it, I just love ‘em!!lol

This panel caused me a bit more hair-tearing and swearing but that was because I had failed to realise that if you’re trying to print black and it comes out blue then- wait for it!!- your RED ink cartridge has probably run out!! Now, I wonder why I didn’t think of that at stupid o’clock when I should have been in bed!!?!!lol Anyway, that aside, I was really pleased that I actually found a very similar font to the one they had used for their invitation and an identical ampersand, too (there’s a pic of the invite below - I’ve blocked out all but initials on the names as well as the date for their privacy but you can still see what I mean :) ) ... finding a matching teal shade on my PC was a tad harder, though!!lol

I also made my first ever box (well, since primary school when I had a thing for making boxes!!lol) to keep the card nice and protected when it was gathered up with all the others after the wedding... don’t know why I’ve not got round to making one before, it really adds something to a special card!! :)

The List:

• 6”x6” white, hammered texture card blank, plus the front from a second blank
• Silver Mirror Board
• Cryogen White Hi-5 Pearl card (from Craft Creations)
• Image- LOTV’s Mr & Mrs stamp
• Silver glitter and silver pearl embossing powders, Versamark pad and heat tool
• Twinkling H2Os and chalk pastels (colour picked up from the stick with a wet paintbrush) to colour image
• Swirl stamps from Viva Decor
• Teal ribbon from Anita’s and PM to alter colour
• Heart charm, chain and large jump ring from my jewellery stash
• White paper Rose buds
• White flat-backed pearls
• Computer generated sentiment- can’t remember font names of the top of my head but I can check if anyone wants to know!!

So, that’s my card, which despite they various problems along the way, I really enjoyed making and I hope you like the end result as much as I and my friend did!! :)

I’d like to enter this in the following challenges: Lili of the Valley – Anything Goes :) ; MAWTT - Ribbons & Bows :) ; Anything Goes - Cutting Corners- Decorative or altered corners (my embossing) :) ; CYDA - Buttons or Bows :) ; Totally Gorjuss - Sparkle (every millimetre of my card is sparkly but is so hard to photograph!!) :) ; Sweet Stampin' - Punches or Dies :) ; Crafts & ME - Swirls and Pearls :) ; Divas by Design - Anything Goes :) ; Crafting For All Seasons - White on White (I hope my teal ribbon is okay as some of the DT have used coloured embellies but if not, pls delete my entry!!) :)

Thanks for stopping by today and for all your kind comments!! :) I hope you’re all well and that your week has got off to a better and more relaxed start than mine... won’t bore you with the details beyond wondering aloud (so to speak!) why it is that nobody can ever do anything when or how they say they will!!?!! I have wasted so much time and energy on waiting for people/re-arranging things when they don’t turn up already and it’s only Wednesday... but I’m sure you’ve all been there!! :S Still, there may be some good news on the horizon, too, so it’s not been all bad... !! :) I’ll be back very soon, I hope, with my FF DT card for December... how is it December tomorrow!!?!!lol

Christmas is coming... and we’re making Christmas Tags at My Partner in Crafting Crime :)

Hey Bloggers!! :)

Well, two weeks since my last post... :( Sorry for going AWOL-  has been a pretty rough feeling few weeks here as our neighbours are having their garden completely dug out and re-paved so it has been three weeks solid of too early rude awakenings and then noise and vibrations all day meaning I’ve not been able to get the rest I need so have been feeling pretty ill and not managing to do much :S I have managed some crafting time (and an odd bit of crafty shopping to cheer me up!!lol) and have plenty of things I want to try out and share with you so I’ll hopefully get around to those soon, but for now...

... another two weeks have just flown by and it's time for another challenge over at My Partner in Crafting Crime... this will be our last challenge for now as we're taking a little break for the Christmas festivities... but what a lovely challenge it is to get us in the Christmas mood as we'd like to see your 'Christmas Tags'!! :) We're sponsored again by the fab Bows & Berries Digital Stamp Shop with the winner getting to choose some of their gorgeous digis to play with!! :)

I went a bit mad with this one as I made not one but four tags- I've not made a fancy tag before as I never really see the point knowing nobody would keep them, but I had a lot of fun with these little bite-sized projects and they were the perfect opportunity to experiment with resist embossing with different powders... something I've been meaning to have a play with for ages!! :) Heat embossing is what got me hooked on cardmaking after a teacher brought her heat tool, powders and some stamps into school to show me (about 12yrs ago!! eek!!lol)- I thought it was like watching a little bit of magic then and I still do!! :D

I was also in the mood to make something really pretty and sparkly and I think I achieved that... the trouble I had getting a decent pic because of all the glare proves I got the sparkly part at least- these shine from tip to toe!! :S lol

I used stamps that came free with Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine last month and they really are gorgeous!! :) I embossed them with a silver glitter powder and watercoloured with my Brilliance ink pads... I had intended to make them more different in colour but when I looked at my inks I realised they are mostly purples and blues from my less daring, earlier crafting days!!lol I think it helped that I'd been watching Frozen Planet the night before I coloured these... such pretty inspiration!! :)

My mum and I recently bought the new Nestie bauble dies- I love that my mum has now passed from buying craft stuff she likes so that I can make cards with it for her friends, to buying stuff so she can make her own... really nice to share that enjoyment... not going to turn down offers to go halves on stash either!!lol- and I gave them their first work out for my tag shapes :) I stamped and embossed some gorgeous snowflakes in various powders so I could see the different effects and then inked over that... I think my fav is the Silver Pearl on the lighter of the large tags and the topmost one of the smaller two- but then I just love that powder anyway, it's stunning!! :)

A different image and ink colours for the smaller ones but the same besides that... :)

A couple of closer shots of the embossing (sorry the pics aren't brilliant, I took loads trying to get the right angle for showing all the shimmer without too much glare and still didn’t really get there!!lol) ... but isn't that Silver Pearl just beautiful!?! :)

The List:

For the images-

• Image stamps by Adam Prescott free with Cardmaking and Papercraft
• Silver Glitter embossing powder, Versamark and heat tool
• Brilliance ink pads: Pearlescent Purple, Pearlescent Lavender, Pearlescent Ice Blue, Moonlight White, Platinum Planet, Galaxy Gold, Pearlescent Lime, Pearlescent Jade, Cosmic Copper

For the tags-

• Spellbinders Heirloom Ornaments 2011 dies
• Snowflake stamps from Wild Rose Studio
• Clear, White Holographic and Silver Pearl embossing powders, Versamark and heat tool
• Brilliance inks: Purple, Lavender, Ice Blue
• Crystal Stickles
• Seam binding from the Ribbon Girl in Lady Lavender and Sky Mauve

I'd like to enter my tags in the following challenges: Crafty Ribbons - Anything But A Card :) ; Fussy and Fancy - Make a Gift/Anything But A Card :) ; Paper Sundaes - Beautiful Bows :) ; Crafter's Companion - Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow :) ; CES - Snowflakes :) ; Winter Wonderland - Awwww, what a Cutie!! :)

Thank you for stopping by today- I hope you like what you saw!! :) Please do pop over to the PCC blog to see the creations by the rest of our fab team and I hope you'll be able to join in with our last challenge of the year!! :)

I hope you're all well and have had a lovely weekend!! :) And thank you for all the lovely comments on my last cards!! :) I'll hopefully be back again soon as I've plenty to share... fingers-crossed we get some peace from next door so I can get some rest soon, too, cos I really need to feel better so I can crack on with Xmas prep or there will be people not getting cards or presents again... but I won’t be holding my breath as they’ve hardly started the back garden yet!! :S

A Toasty Freebie at My Partner in Crafting Crime... :)

Hello!! :)

I'm here with my DT card for the new challenge over at My Partner in Crafting Crime- apologies for being late but I've had a really bad day :S - and we have a fab theme for you this fortnight... we'd like to see you 'Use A Freebie' on your creations!! :) You can use anything you came by for free, so something you won, a free digi, magazine gift or even something you've recycled from around the house...

...or, if you fancy something new to play around with, then our lovely sponsor Bows & Berries is offering a fab November Freebie 'Toasty Gingerbread Man', which some of the DT, including me, have used on our cards this time- follow the link above to go to the PCC blog where there is a download link if you'd like to use him!! :)

This pretty simple card is actually my second attempt as my first idea was turning out to look a bit of a dog's dinner by halfway through and I'm still not sure how I feel about it... but I think I'm warming to it slowly and I think it'll make a good masculine Christmas card.... something it seems that I find even harder than ordinary masculine cards!!lol In addition to the B&B digi, the papers and stamps I used are also freebies from magazines...

I coloured with Prismas in the end- harder on the hands but every ProMarker combination I tried made the poor little guy look like he'd been for a dip in a nuclear reactor rather than giving him the nice, warm 'toasty' glow I was aiming for!! :S I just had to get my new Glamour Dust out again for their hats and the lights in the borders!! :) I also added some Clear Stardust and Clear Glaze, too, as I almost always seem to, and a doodled border to finish!! :)

When I first saw this image I immediately thought of those paper doll chains you used to cut from folded paper (I'd say 'we' but I don't think I was ever any good at them!!lol) and so I fiddled in my graphics program 'til I got a chain of little toastys and printed them off... much easier than the old-fashioned way- or at least so I thought 'til I realised to do what I wanted I'd have to cut them out anyway and I'd made them kinda small!!lol :)

The List:

• 5" Sq. Kraft card blank
• Image: November Freebie 'Toasty Gingerbread Man' digi from Bows & Berries Digital Stamps Shop
• Prismacolor Pencils... didn't even think to note down the colours though, sorry!! :S
• Free papers from a mag
• Free Xmas lights and sentiment stamps from a mag
• Glamour Dust
• Sakura Clear Stardust and Clear Glaze pens
• Brown Fineliner and Gold gel pen for border

I'd like to enter this in the following challenges: Sarah Hurley- Use more than two images (if multiples of the same is okay?!) :) ; Charisma Cardz - Cutesy :) ; Winter Wonderland - Make Your Card Sparkle :) ; Cards For Men - It's Nearly Christmas :) ; The Poodles Parlour - Let's Hear It For The Boys :) ; Bows & Berries - CAS :)

Thanks for popping by, please do pop over to the PCC blog and check out the rest of the DT's work!! :) Hope you're all well, had a lovely weekend and have a great week!! :)

Making it (a) Colourful Christmas with Something Old and Something New at Forever Friends :)

Hello there!! :)

{What a garbled post title... all will become clear(er!) soon!!lol}

Well, it's *not* the first Thursday of the month, it's the first Friday... which means I'm a day late with my card for the new  Monthly Challenge over at Forever Friends!! Ooops!! It's been one of those weeks (or months, maybe!!) and time's just run away from me again!! :S Anyway, we have a fab challenge for you this time as we'd like to see you use both 'Something Old and Something New' on you cards (or any other creations you would like to share!!)!! :) You only need to include an animal not necessarily a FF bear- though we'd love it if you did and I really enjoyed seeing so many more of them in the last challenge!! :)- and we are sponsored this time by Stitchy Bears!! :)

I have ended up with two 'Old' and two 'New' items on my card, although I could probably have got away with just using my FF stamp as both as I have had it for at least a year but this is the first time I've used it!! Tut tut... ;) The old are my FF stamp and the gorgeous K & Co. paper and the new are the fence and LOTV Circular Sentiment stamps :) I must just give credit where it's due and say I came across a gorgeous card similar to this (using probably my favourite of my FF stamps :) ) over here on Caroline's lovely blog while I was visiting entrants to our last Forever Friends challenge (one of the best things about being on a DT is the chance to discover so many fab crafter's blogs and so much great inspiration!! :) ) and I knew at once that I had to have the lovely fence stamp she'd used so that I could have a go myself as I've been wanting to get some stamps that would let me try making scenes for while!! :)

I have to say that the proportions of the finished image did stump me a tad on the layout front and I was in a strange mood when I was trying to put this together anyway and just was not going to let the image get stuck on straight... so the odd, slanted layout came about as, while I was fiddling with bits of paper and different shaped/sized card blanks, I knocked this piece of paper to this angle... and just kinda liked it!!lol Gotta love a happy accident... much better than the usual chuck-it-in-the-bin-and-start-again kind!! ;D

I've coloured with ProMarkers and was inspired by the current challenge at Make it Colourful (hence the post title!!) to try 'colouring texture' so the fence is my first attempt at that... have another idea in my head for that challenge, too, but will have to see if I have time/energy enough to try it!!lol I'm none too happy with the sky as it's gone a bit patchy... didn't really think when I chose to use the Santa FF about the fact that the scene would need to be a night-time one... so *slight* panic when that occurred to me when I'd already coloured the fence and was committed!!lol

A close up to show the fence better- I coloured with my normal PM nibs first, starting by laying down a layer of my mid tone (Spice) and then adding the darker colours for shading (Walnut and Cinnamon) and the light (Gold) in short strokes following the direction the grain would run, aiming for a patchy, scratchy look rather than a smooth blend. Then went back in after that was dry with the lightest and darkest colours and my fine nibs for some more definition... I'm fairly pleased for a first attempt and had fun trying which is what it's all about after all!! :) This pic is also the best one to see the stardust pen I used to try to look like snowflakes in the sky- when my attempts to bleach the blue out with my blender didn't work!!lol I was too chicken to use a white gel pen as that always seems to look weird when I try it and I really didn't want to ruin the whole image at the end!! :S

I coloured the bear in my usual way (PMs: – Ivory, Oatmeal, and Vanilla with Sunkissed Pink for ears and cheeks) though he looks paler to me... don’t know if this is 'cos it's the first time I've coloured a FF on this cardstock or just because the rest of the image is so much darker than usual and is making more of a contrast...I'm learning fast how important the card is for colouring!!lol I also used my Glamour Dust for the first time, so another 'New' thing, and it is sooo pretty and much more sparkly than glitters I've used before (though you were right, Carole- it has already got everywhere and I didn't even spill it!!lol)!! :)

A couple more close ups- the lovely sentiment (I have been singing 'Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...' to myself since the Crafter's Companion challenge went live this week ...only, after I get that far, I get stuck as all that comes into my head is 'Wake up, it's a beautiful morning...' - damn that BBC Weather trailer!!lol) and some more of my pre-prepared Cricut Snowflakes, which are sat on my desk, ready glimmer-misted, and just waiting to be added to any Christmas card that needs a little something!! :)

The List:

• 5"x7" white card blank
• Forever Friends wooden stamp
• Snow Fence stamp by Alota Stamps
• Stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa and coloured with ProMarkers (picture below to save time and energy again :) )
• Corner Punch
• Beautiful DP from a K & Co. Tim Coffey pad I was given years ago :)
• MS Cherish border punch
• Glamour Dust
• Sakura Clear Stardust and Clear Glaze pens
• LOTV Circular Christmas Sentiment (stamped in Brilliance Starlite Black)
• Snowflakes- larger ones cut on Cricut from When It's Cold Outside' cartridge and spritzed with Perfect Pearls Pearl shimmer mist, smaller ones were the 'waste' saved from a MS border punch
• Assorted gems 

I’d like to enter this in the following challenges: Crafter’s Companion – Let it snow, let it snow. Let it snow... :) ; Crafts & Me – Let the music move you (song as above!!) :) ; I ♥ Promarkers – Glitter and Glitz :) ; Dream Valley – Anything Goes :) ; Pollycraft Monday –Anything Goes :) ; Charisma Cardz – Cutesy :) ; Papertake Weekly – Anything Goes plus optional (is it ever optional really?!lol) Bling :) ; Pink Gem - Cold and Frosty :) ; Little Claire’s – Christmas :)

Well, thank you for stopping by and sticking with me through another long post- I really must try harder to write less, I just like to share and have a record of not just the basics but the thought processes behind my cards as I forget things so quickly with my hopeless foggy brain but apologies if it bores people!! :S Thanks for the comments on my last few posts!! :) Do pop over to the Forever Friends and Co. blog to see the lovely cards from the rest of the team!! :) Hope to be back soon- have a great weekend folks and enjoy the fireworks if you’re lucky enough to see any!! :)