Hi, Hello, Howdy

I love making little notecards. They are a great way to use up scraps of card and also a fun way to try new things. I am addicted to making cards in 2.5"x4", mainly becuase I have a stash of envelopes in that size!

I wanted something bright and cheery that would allow me to use my newly amassed stash of Accessorize/Paperchase stickers which are just too, too cute! I also tried magic mesh which I have had kicking around for a few years and have never thought to use before.

This one came about when I was making the get well soon card and had the stripy paper leftover. The papers are K&Co Greenhouse as is the journalling spot and some die cuts. The pretty felt flower is from crafty templates sugar, sugar kit. Hopefully it's cheerful colours will brighten someones day!

Valentine Presents

My best friend moved overseas a couple of years ago taking my adorable niece and nephew with her :) I try to send cards as often as I can and created these for my niece, nephew and BF's husband (BF gets an extra special card!) The stamp images were all cut using decorative scissors from K&Co paper, along with some embossed Doodlebug card and some paperchase stickers, I love how they turned out!

I'm also sending a ton of valentine and easter chocolates, a pack of notecards and these babies...

I've been working on this flower hairclip for a while, I had the outer petals and ribbon ruffle finished a couple of months ago but didn't know how to finish the centre. I found these pretty diamante flower buttons on eBay and they were just what I was looking for and add a nice little sparkle. My niece has the most beautiful, romantic looking curly hair and I hope this will look so pretty in her blonde curls.

I really like making handbag keychains out of pretty beads so I made this one for my best friend. The beads were an absolute steal from Accessorize, in my local store they have a section for broken jewellery and I picked up some beautiful necklaces, brooches and bracelets for 10p-50p each. I was able to fix 2 and they would have cost me over £25 to buy! Anyway, I digress, one of the beads on a bracelet was covered in thread which had frayed so it was reduced to 10p, I simply removed the beads from the elastic and rewired them onto a length or keychain with a lobster clasp. The finished keychain is in shades of taupe, mushroom and soft rose, sounds a bit blah but looks really expensive, I'd like to keep it but every time I would see it on my bag I would feel guilty :)

Get Well Soon

There are so many people around me at the moment who are poorly and whilst I might not be able to visit I can make them a card to let them know I am thinking of them. I had a good day of crafting today and was pleased to get a couple of projects finished in time for posting, I'll pop a couple of pictures up later.

I love the green get well card, it's much more vivid IRL but the light was v. sucky today and I am still learning how to use my camera. It felt a bit different from the usual cards I make, I'm still experimenting with colour which you can see here

Okay, not ground breaking, but very, very bright for me! I think I like it, I also made a similar card with a different sentiment which I also post soon.

I don't have any specific rhyme or reason to my cardmaking, apart from specific occasions, I like to pull out different bits and pieces, see what works and generally have a 'play'. I have noticed that I tend to make the same birthday/hello cards so I am trying to cover some different occasions to plump out my card box in case I need a one in an emergency or if I don't have the time. I do need to make a baby card so I think that will be my next project and I'll make some extras for my box!

PS. Have you tried these?? I am convinced that they are the work of the devil because they are so delicious, you must try them, no, resist, run, save yourself!!

One for the boys!

It was my darling husband's birthday on Saturday and I had been stressing about making him a card and having enough time to get it done. I had purchased him some XB360 live points for his birthday and decided to use the box as a card to go with the points.

I made a template for the 360 itself, cut out the various buttons and doo-dads and embellished them with metallic pencils, krylon silver pen and dimensional adhesive before attaching them to the template. I wanted it to 'pop' out a little when opened so I mounted it on a strip of card with a couple of creases so it would lay flat when closed. I added on some decorated die cut circles (although one dropped off leaving that little blank of white card to the template!) some stickers and finished it off by mounting the points card on with repositionable adhesive.

I didn't have as much time as I would have liked and there are some changes I would have made but I was happy with the finished card and fortunately for me he loved it and it now sits proudly in his office. Phew!

Lovely Letters - Crafty Templates

I was excited to find my Crafty Templates Love Letters kit in my letter box last week and couldn't wait to get started. Full of lovely red and kraft papers with splashes of cream and black, you can pick one up here

I loved the shape of the tree template and paired it with some accessorize stickers from my own stash.

I liked the look of the plain kraft hearts in the background as it doesn't overwhelm. I just added MM sticker sentiment from my own stash.

This is a combination of two templates, the button heart and banner birds. As soon as I saw the birds I knew that I wanted to colour them in a 'tattoo style', I don't have the fancy markers so I used my good old watercolour pencils and was happy how it turned out but would have liked them to be a bit more vibrant!

I used the mug template and added tabs on the side to make a little pouch and added a sachet of hot chocolate and a chocolate covered spoon as a sweet treat for the recipient :)

This one was made using some scraps from the kit, ribbon and chipboard button from previous kits, a sweet little gold birdie from a MM Vintage Findings kit (oh how I love MM vintage stuff) and a stamp from my dad's old stamp collection!

Till next time, I've been scrapping a bit over the past few days hence the lack of cards and I am seriously stressing over hubbies birthday card, I hope my idea translates but even if not I know he will appreciate the effort!

Just a quickie

It's my husband's birthday next week and I am stuck for ideas on what to make for him, I don't tend to lean towards themed cards but I have a feeling it's the only way I am going to be able to come up with something. Dang it, I'm rubbish at creating male cards! It's also his Nanna's birthday the day after so this is what I whipped up for her using my new Sizzix lilac die, a Brenda Walton butterfly and lots of brads and i-dots.

Hope to share more later in the week using the yummy January Crafty Templates card kit!

Thank you very much, thank you very, very, very much!

The thank you very much ditty from the Roses chocolate advert has been running through my brain whilst making these cards. I love giving cards and thank you cards are no exception, we received some lovely christmas gifts so these cards were a must-make.

The peach and green card is for my mum and dad who spoilt me rotten and I knew they (ok, my mum) would appreciate something frilly and girly! It looks a bit squiffy in the picture but I promise it's not!

These were made from some paper I have had for a while but it felt christmassy yet not which suited the purpose perfectly!

Shield your eyes!!

I decided to try and make some cards outside my comfort zone but didn't really succeed as well as I would have hoped as they still were too comfortable to make, I thought using brighter colours and colours I wouldn't normally use would be a challenge, turns out not so much.

I think I need to frequent some 'challenge blogs' to really get me thinking differently, if you know of a good one please leave me a comment and let me know!

Ushering in the new year.

Happy new year! I'm a few days late but I am back nonetheless. I moved house in early December, I knew that I would rather move before christmas than straight after but forgot what an upheaval it can be (seriously, who forgets that?) but I am now all moved in and settled and everything is where it should be and all I can say is thank goodness!

The biggest revelation was how much craft stuff I have, and it appears that I have enough to last until the end of this decade. I hope to give a few bits and pieces away on here then donate the rest to the local arts and crafts for seniors group.

I haven't had many opprtunities for crafting since I have moved and all hopes of making my own christmas cards were dashed due to work commitments and not being able to find anything! However, this week I was able to sit down and (semi) relax and create a few bits and pieces which I'll post over the next couple of days.

As I was organising my bits and pieces I found that I had quite a bit of K&Co Madeline papers and embellishments so decided to use some on a couple of cards but have hardly made a dent! I used some die cuts, seam binding ribbon and some hand tinted paper roses all finished off with some sparklies and pearls on the card at the top.

This one felt a little more out of my comfort zone, a little shabbier than usual. I used the aforementioned papers, some die cuts, gathered tulle, velvet ribbon and some sizzix die cut swirls painted with crackle paint and alcohol inks.

I hope you have all had a wonderful christmas and I wish you all a very happy new year and I am looking forward to sharing more craftiness during 2010!