It’s All Christmas-sy at Forever Friends!! :)

Hello again Bloggers!! :)

I'm back again as promised- if slightly later in the day than intended!!lol As it is now officially December- how!!??!! O_o - it is time for our next Monthly Challenge over at Forever Friends & Co. And it's an incredibly easy one for you as 'It’s All Christmas!!' is our theme and, if you're anything like me at least, then all you'll have the time to think about is getting those Christmas cards, tags and gift ideas made!!lol We are being sponsored by the lovely Di's Digi Designs for this challenge so come along and join in the fun!! :)

I went all vintage-y with this one, inspired by this lovely FF stamp and some new acquisitions from the amazing Waltzingmouse Stamps- their gorgeous Festive Foliage set to be precise!! :) - and made my own background paper by stamping on parcel paper... then I got out a host of Tim Holtz's Distress fabulousness and let myself play with DIs on the edges of everything and the absolutely indispensible Antique Linen Stickles on all the corners- in my usual 'spread it around with my fingers' style of application!! :) 

I must say that, despite spending ages fiddling with this pic in two different photo editing programs, it still looks a bit more green around the gills than it really is irl- the other pics probably show the colour better but this was the best I could do!! :S

I coloured on Kraft with my Prismas- my first attempt at colouring these lovely bears with pencils on any kind of card and it’s not great but I'm reasonably happy for a first attempt!!lol

The largest snowflake is another MS punch- which I got for just over a fiver in the sales last year!! :) - and the others are Make it Crafty Chippies which I inked with DIs, then covered with Distress Crackle Paint... I actually used White Picket Fence- thought I had some Antique Linen but apparently the day I remember putting that in my basket while shopping online was one of the rare occasions I managed to rein in my stash-addict tendencies!!lol But it didn't matter as it took on the colour from the inks anyway... so no need to buy any other colours after all!! :) I also added some Stickles to them after the paint was dry, too- that I really must get some more of!!lol

The lovely sentiment is from the WMS Compliments of the Season set- another stunning set!! :)

The List:

• 5"x7" Kraft card blank plus another to cut up for the image
• Image - Forever Friends wooden stamp from Docrafts, stamped in Memento and coloured with Prismacolor pencils, OMS and paper stumps
• Cream cardstock
• Martha Stewart PATP Cherish punches
• Kraft parcel paper
• Festive Foliage and Compliments of the Season stamp sets from Waltzingmouse Stamps
• Versafine ink pads in Olympia Green and Vintage Sepia
• Distress Inks- Vintage Photo and Peeled Paint
• Make it Crafty Chippies snowflakes
• Distress Crackle Paint- White Picket Fence
• Distress Stickles- Antique Linen
• Mink Flat-backed Pearls from Crafty Emma's
• Natural Jute Twine from The Ribbon Girl
• Sakura Clear Stardust pen (just a teeny bit on the hats) 

I'd like to enter this in the following challenges: Cupcake Crafts - Colour on Kraft :) ; Ready Teddy Go - Anything Goes :) ; Joanna Sheen (the first ever challenge!! :) ) - Christmas :) ;  Anything Goes - Cutting Corners (if the corner punches used for my image mat are enough and second entries are okay?) :) ; Pollycraft - Christmas fun :) ; Fab 'n' Funky - Anything Goes :) ; Divas by Design - Anything Goes :) ; Sweet Stampin' - Punches and Dies :)

Please pop over to the Forever Friends & Co. blog for a look at the gorgeous cards my teammates have created- we have some fab and talented new ladies joining us on the DT for this challenge, too!! :) - and we'd love to see you joining in with your FF images... or if you don't have any at the mo' then any animal on your card will do so long as you follow the theme!! :)

Thanks for stopping by my little corner of Blogland today- hope you'll pop back soon!! :) I have plenty of things just waiting to be posted so I'll try and be back soon... but I really do need to get a wriggle on with the ol' Christmas cards so need to spend some time crafting as well as posting!!lol I had some good news this week as I've been asked by the lovely Melly to join the team at Dream Valley- I'm really looking forward to my first challenge with them in a week or so- on my birthday in fact!! :) Thanks for all your comments on my card yesterday, too- I really do appreciate them all and am doing my best to make it round to a few people at a time whenever I can manage it myself as I know it's been far too long in most cases!! :)

Long time, no post...

Hey!! :)

Well, it’s been far longer since I last posted than it was meant to be...think I should stop saying that I hope to be back soon as every time I do it’s ages ‘til I manage to post again!! :S I’ve not been feeling too great and spent most of last week making my little sis’ 16th birthday card and gift so not much energy left for blogging :(

Anyways, I’ve got a fairly simple card to share to ease me back in gently... ;) This is for a friend’s birthday and is unfortunately going to be a little late, but I hope she’ll like it!! :)

I’ve been wanting to try this style of card for a while- it’s one half of an A6 pearlescent blank folded in half again so it's quite dinky and cute :) My friend loves purple as much as me so the colour choice was obvious!! :) The main image and all the background flowers are from the absolutely gorgeous Papermania Hampstead set, stamped on white pearl paper with a purple sheen :) I used Brilliance inks in Pearlescent Purple and the bright green from the Peacock Trio pad to stamp them and then a waterbrush with the same inks to colour them all- very simple!! :) It’s ages since I watercoloured with Brilliance inks- used to do it all the time and had forgotten how beautifully they work!! :)

The greeting is an old Whispers one cut into a tag shape and the ribbon was white and coloured by pressing it in to the Brilliance pad :) A few touches of Crystal Stickles to finish, of course, and that was it!! :)

And another little close-up of the main flower :)

So, that’s my simple card- thanks for popping by and for any comments you leave!! :) I’ve been a bit hopeless with commenting myself lately and that may not get any better this side of Xmas as I’m always on the limits energy-wise this time of year anyway :S But I’m still loving checking out all your blogs as often as I can! :S Hope you’re all well and coping with the cold okay!! :) We've not had any snow so far but by the looks of the forecast I just saw, that may change tonight...

hugs,

Out of my comfort zone...with a few of my favourite things...

Hello!! :)

Well, I'm finally able to show you a card I expected to be posting days ago...the reason the card's taken so long is that I woke up on Tuesday morning- excited to make a card with the image I'd coloured the night before!!- to find I had a shooting pain in my wrist whenever I tried to move/do anything with my hand :( Annoyingly, as I rely on my hands/arms for extra support just to move around the house, I thought I probably shouldn't aggravate it any the more by trying to craft :S But it was slightly better yesterday so, with my lovely mum's help with the punching and other more difficult bits, I had a go at last :)

It's inspired by another selection of Challenges including a recipe which asked for yellow and/or orange as the main colours and one which wanted only two colours to be used and I thought I'd combine the two and use some new stamps I just got :) I'm not quite sure about the finished result- I like it a lot more now than I did when I finished it last evening but that's not saying much!! ;) - not sure if that's really because the card's no good or just because the colours are so far from my comfort zone that I can't see past them, though!?! I guess it's good to experiment every so often though- even if it does only confirm that you don't like/can't do something!! ;)

The Image is from my new Aspects of Design by Kay Carley 'Funky Flowers' set which I've been wanting for ages and finally treated myself to :) :) It's stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa and coloured with Promarkers- the first time my blending went the way I'd imagined it would!! yay!! :) - Canary Yellow, Honeycomb and Bright Orange with Lime Zest and Pear Green for the leaves :) I used a corner punch on the panel and the dragged a Vesramark pad around the edges to get a more defined line when I then chalked the panel to take the edge off the white card :) The greeting (from Woodware Tiny Greetings set) is stamped in Versamark and chalked :)

I used the co-ordinating stamps on the strip of orange paper with Versamark and chalk again and also edged all the papers with Versamark and chalk, too- the dotty background piece is My Mind's Eye Pretty Please :) I used a the Doily Lace MS punch and some paper lace, coloured with PMs Canary and Pastel Yellow, for another challenge :)

I added the butterflies- at the last minute as nearly forgot they were part of the recipe!!- and some gems and then the finishing touch was, as usual lately, some glitter glue on all the flowers and the lace border :)

I'm entering this in the following challenges, which inspired the card in the first place: The Stampman - Take Two Colours (I hope it's okay anyway- the green was on the page before I realised!! o_o ) :) ; Crafty Cardmakers - Joy's Recipe (think I've got everything!!) :) ; Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight - Punches :) ; and Wild Orchid - Lace :) And, as it also fits these: Craft Your Days Away's first challenge - Favourite Things (my absolute favourite thing is stamping but I also love flowers, inking edges, glitter glue and my MS punches!! :D ) :) and One Stop Crafts - Summer Fun :)

I'm off to link those up now and then give my wrist (and the rest of me!!) a rest but hope you've all had a lovely weekend!! :) Hopefully my hand will let me get cracking on another card soon- I'm in trouble if not as I'm a bit behind after a week of getting nothing done!! :{ Ohh, before I go- if anybody knows of any Xmas Challenges I'd really love if you could let me know? I've been looking around for more inspiration but have only discovered a few so far!! :)

(Edited a few hours later to add a challenge I forgot- I knew there was something!! Guess that's what I get for being so close to one of the deadlines and rushing like a mad thing!!lol)

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,

Strawberries and cream...and flowers!!

Hey!! :)

Wow- it's hot, isn't it?!! I don't think this country does happy-mediums at the moment- it's either so cold you'd never know it was summer or feeling like a heatwave!! Think I prefer this to cold though!! :)

Well, this card is one I made at the beginning of the week for a friend's birthday- I have to say, it was nice to a make a femine card again after so many men's ones!! I've really enjoyed making all of them this year- I still have one more to show you sometime!! :) - but to get back to flowers and pink was a pleasant change!! Not to mention I finally got to use my new Martha Stewart Border Punch- my first!! :) - which arrived just as I was due to start on the men's cards and, much as I considered it, I didn't think Doily Edging would quite work on those!! ;)

So, I wasn't really sure what I was going to do- running out of steam a bit after making so many by then, I think- so I had a look around for ideas and came across the Strawberries and Cream theme at Cupcake Craft Challenges - which I'd planned to enter my card in and is the reason I'm posting this before I've got around to the last boy's one!- and also a sketch from Clare's Weekly Challenge over on Docrafts and this was the result:

The decoupage is left over from a kit I got to sell for Ayme last year and has been sat in a box, complete with glitter glue highlights, for twelve months so it was nice to use it! I chose various pink papers from my stash including one from the My Mind's Eye Pretty Please pad- I'm not used to trying to combine so many shades of pink and had out so many papers I couldn't see my desk (okay so that's fairly standard anyway!! ;) ) but I think they go together okay!!

The patterned paper is hand-stamped using the leaves from a gorgeous set of wooden stamps I got from Panduro a few years ago and have only used once and a swirl stamp from one of my trusty Heidi Grace flourish sets which I just love!! I used Versamark and Brilliance Moonlight White inks- I've always loved making my own background papers to match whatever project I'm working on but realised I haven't done it in what feels like ages, as I've got a few more patterned papers now, and I really must try to more often!!

I stamped the greeting, from Woodware's Jane's Script clear stamp set (another of my favourite sets), on some pearlescent linen textured white paper- it has a lovely golden shimmer which hardly shows on this shot!- and punched the corners. I used my MS Doily Lace ( yay!! :) ) punch on the central strip of paper and two Woodware punches for the flowers and edged everything in Moonlight White ink before putting it all together and adding a bit more glitter glue to the punched flowers!! :)

So, once again, inspirational sketches and ideas to the rescue!! :) I was going to go and link this up but just checked and realised I'm too late after all- oops...got slightly sidetracked midway through writing this earlier by my determination to get outside and enjoy the sun a little while the builders next door had downed tools for the weekend!! :S- but never mind, may as well post it anyway, as it's done now!! :) Thank so much for all the lovely comments on my cards this last week or so!! :) Well, I'm off to bed now!! Hope you've all had a lovely weekend!! :)

hugs,