Christmas is a-coming!

I used to be very bah humbug when it came to christmas but last year felt a resurgance of christmas spirit and threw myself into decorating and baking and loved it (could have also been because I didn't work over the christmas period for the first time in 7 years!)

I've noticed some changes around me recently, mince pies, stollen and family tins of sweets in the supermarkets, plans at work for the all important 4th quarter and finally the christmasalicious September Crafty Templates kit that arrived the other week! What's a girl to do but try to embrace the season so I popped on a christmassy movie and here is what I came up with.

I loved the little stockings, especially coupled with the sweet little bells, made me think of elves which in turn prompted me to watch Elf while making these!

The house template was so cute, I liked the idea of opening the windows like you would with an advent calendar.

I cut the jumper template from felt and embroidered. It's perfect to send to my friend in Canada where it's so very cold.

This is not a template card, but I liked how it turned out. I love using my cuttlebug embossing folders and this one is a firm favourite, it adds just the right wintery touch.

Hope this week has been kind to you all, have fun :)

Zig-a-Zig-GAH!

I am at odds with my sewing machine. I love the look of sewn cards and it took me quite a while to be brave enough to use my sewing machine on a card for fear of ruining it and sure enough I did the first time but I keep persevering with varying results.

I started this card for my mother in law's birthday and decided that I wanted to sew the paper on for a more finished look and with some trepidation started with the sewing. The first inch went well then it all started to go wrong, it started missing stitches, zigging when it should have zagged and so on and so forth. I continued onwards and after i was finished it just looked...ugly. I took some thread and oversewed the parts that had been missed, it looks much better but I can still see where I had to correct it, I just hope the MIL doesn't!

A Special Lady's Birthday

I was going to give my mum a card that I made a while ago that she really liked, but decided she required something a bit more special. So for her birthday this Sunday I came up with this:

My first full acetate card.  I used the same template as the Celebrate card for the inside paper, added a Bo Bunny dotted card strip on the front used with my new Martha Stewart Doily Lace punch (oh how I love it so!) some grosgrain ribbon, a K&Co butterfly, a beautiful paper rose I found on etsy a while ago then added a handmade beaded embellishment and some sparkle stones. I was so pleased with how it came out, almost exactly as I had imagined it!

To while the time away while making some of these recent cards I have become addicted to the Gilmore Girls tv programme and I am working my way through the boxset. Has anyone else watched it? I just want to pack my bags and move to Stars Hollow!

Duly Noted

It's my wonderful Mum's birthday on Sunday and I wanted to make her a little something. I knew right away that I wanted to create a set of notecards after my first attempt the other day with the sunflower ones.

I have a box of gorgeous K&Co Madeline chipboard butterflies and a paper pad that I have been waiting to use so I went ahead and created some simple notelets using the papers, a butterfly, ribbon and a sentiment. I made 2 each of three designs complete with lined matching envelopes. They measure 4 1/4in x 3 3/4 in.

A bigger picture can be seen here. I love them, they are such a cute size and perfect for a quick little note. I also made a box using Chatterbox papers, sizzix die cuts and ribbon which I think she will love.

I want to keep it for myself now! I guess I'll just have to make another one :)

Princesses and Baby Love

I adore my Niece, she is so huggable, bubbly, chatty, cute as a button, adorable, ok I think you get the picture! Unfortunately she, along with my best friend and Nephew emigrated a million miles away (well, maybe not a million but enough that I can't visit every month) and I miss them all so much. They have been at the forefront of my thoughts just recently and although her birthday isn't until December I wanted to make her card now, it made me feel good knowing I was creating something for her and I also want to make sure I can package up a big parcel for all of them for christmas and need to send it mid-November to make sure it gets there on time!

She is a proper little princess, beautiful blue eyes and blonde ringlets so I know that she would love a very girly card and this is what I came up with:

I adore the Imaginisce 'Fairest of them All' collection and was sad that it has been discontinued so have been buying up as much of it as I can. I used two different papers, a chipboard sentiment, some glitter sizzixed (is that a word?) swirls, velvet trim, ribbon roses and sparkly stones. I love it and I am hoping that she will too. I now need to scrap some photos of her using the aforementioned papers!

During my little stamping session the other day I also stamped this cute giraffe, again from imaginisce, colouring him with watercolour pencils.

I used some of my new whitewash coredinations card, cuttlebug embossing folder and some other bits of stickers and trim. Please note the stitching, not something I am used to and I was quite pleased with it. I am not so pleased with the card I am working on at the moment, I used a zig-zag stitch and it zigs more than it does zag so I am currently oversewing parts of it by hand grrrrr.

I don't have anyone around me expecting so I don't usually make baby cards, but he was too darn cute so I went ahead and made one anyway. You never know when you might need a card for such an occasion, right? right?

*crickets*

Shhh, it makes me happy and you never know, someone in the family may have some type of 'tuplet' and that will excuse the ten ton of cards I plan on making - athough I hope they don't weigh ten tons, ouch!

A very productive few days.

I was lucky enough to finish work on Wednesday afternoon for a few glorious days off and decided that I should really get started on making some cards. I have so many birthdays and anniversaries coming up in the next couple of months, usually I only have 1-2 occasions to make for but I have 17 over the next 3 months and I need to make a headstart!

However, sometimes things don't always go to plan. Here is the first, created for my boss for his birthday on Sunday, although I have now found out that he does not celebrate his birthday and is particularly touchy as he is 40 this year so I guess this one is going back in the box ready for another male birthday - I always have trouble striking the right balance on men's cards. I created a template for the background, cut it out of Doodlebug dotted swiss and doodled the coloured frame on the outside to tie it in with the pre-made greeting.

I then became distracted from the task at hand and made a couple of others, not for any particular purpose but just to pull a couple of ideas together.

I have been playing around with some vintage-y ideas for a while but I can't seem to strike the right balance, this seems a little bright and the distress stickles didn't go quite how I wanted but when I catch a glance at it on my desk it looks so pretty and girly that I can't resist it! IRL the love card sits behind the flower petals.

This one below isn't floating my boat, sure it would be lovely to blog about the things you are most proud of, but hey, i'll take the rough with the smooth!

I started off cruising around some blogs looking at stamping techniques so thought I would have a go at stamping and watercolouring. I am resisting the temptation of Copics/Promarkers and I know I couldn't just start off with one of two, I'd want the whole set! I stamped the butterfly with staz-on, so far so good, pencilled with the watercolours and blended them together and I thought it looked ok, then I smothered the whole thing in perfect pearls which looks very spangly but doesn't really show in the picture.

Regardless of the fact that I just spent £30.00 on some new Hero Arts greeting stamps I couldn't find the right sentiment for the card so I used a K&Co sticker, but it had yellow/green on it and there was none on the card so I added the Doodlebug frill. I don't know what it is about me but I like things to tie together, I definitely need to try something outside of my comfort zone!

It's definitely on the 'meh' list so I think i'll just save it for when I need to dash off a quick card! More cards to post this week :)