Joint 60th birthday

A work colleague and friend  and his wife are both celebrating their 60th birthdays this year and so are having a joint birthday party as I don't know either that well so am not sure of their tastes etc or anything specific to their lifestyles . I also figured that if they were sharing a party they are important to each other so this fun image from Jellypark would be perfect.

I coloured the image using promarkers and took the colours for clothing from the photo that was on their invitation apart from the pink slippers that was just for fun.

The inside of the card I decided to fill with all kinds of facts from 1953 the year they were born. I now know all kinds of useless information like 1953 was the first year the VW beetle was introduced to the UK though no one thought it would be popular or last, how wrong they were. Anotyher fact was that Frankie Lane dominated the pop charts with I believe although there were others that many will know like 'she wears red feathers' and how much is that doggie in the window?' My son was laughing when he read this and said I can't believe that songs like those were called pop, as he remembers singing the doggie song at primary school.

The background paper I created in word by typing in the years numbers and changing the font style and size for each. I did print one in grey shades too but decided to go with the blue. I mounted this on blue mirri card as well as mounting the image base to add sparkle, well it is a celebration. The base oval for the image I added embossing to a rainbow pattern to symbolize wallpaper and wood grain to represent flooring so the image appears grounded. 

The sentiment is a peel off and the numbers are from my stash sorry not sure where from originally. 

Hope they have a fun time celebrating and get a giggle from the card too.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

crafting for all seasons-birthday

OLLCB-birthday

Ladybug craft challenge-blue and white

rogue redhead-birthday ( I know the rules state must include stamping but not sure if that includes digital stamping.I'm sure if it doesn't you will remove my entry so appologies if I misunderstood your rules)

Purple and lime green Christmas

I recently had a splurge of painting with some mica inks  that have admit I'd forgotten I had but fell in love with again after seeing how they sparkle and shine. I had this image given to me a while , well ages ago when I belonged to a image swap and have been saving it as I don't have that many Tildas but decided I'd paint it in my sparkly inks.                                                                                                                                                                   I just thought he dress would look great as shot taffeta after seeing all the beautiful little girl party dresses in the shops and wishing I was small enough to fit in them, how special they must make any little girl feel. Sorry I digress. Anyway the purple ink I have has a tonal effect with a green that just reminded me of taffeta which when it came to making up a Christmas card with her caused me to think and wonder what papers to use. I will also have this problem with another image I painted in the same colour more on that when I get around to using it.

I searched my scraps and found a small scrap from a scrap-booking set I bought from QVC several years ago so went rooting for the box that it came from and found a bigger piece, to find it had a border of lime green. I always thought it had a bit of an indian feel to it but when I put it with the image I was so happy that it worked. Not sure if it's the mottled pattern that makes it work or not but hey who cares, problem solved.

I fussy cut Tilda and mounted her on a spellbinders die cut  oval and let her feet slip off the edge. The card I decided to keep clean and simple , am so loving this style at the moment but have to stop myself adding more as I often think is it too bare and looks unfinished.

 I added white ribbon as per the sketch I followed from Tuesday morning sketches and a tag which I wrote a sentiment on in sakura gel pen. Card done.

 iI would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

Marvelous magnolia-anything goes

The ribbon girl magnolia only-winter or Christmas

My Shericrafts-non traditional Christmas colours

Tuesday morning sketches-Christmas and sketch

Creative craft challenges2-non traditional colours

Hangler and magnolia-Christmas is coming

Penny's-frame a female

crafts 4 eternity-non traditional Christmas

Hanna and friends-little presents

oh Christmas tree

A wee while ago I was lucky enough to win a marianne die from Lothian crafts. Many will know I don't have many dies and am relatively new to die cutting and how to use them so I still find them a bit of a challenge.

This one i was inspired by Mandy at a sprinkling of glitter who has a similar if not the same die, her card has green  and white accents but it did give me an idea .

I decorated my tree by by firstly rubbing with versamark ink and embossing with holographic powder, it just adds a little sparkle. I then added some 'baubles' that were magazine freebies ages ago.

I kept it quite simple and added more of my fiskars snowflake embossed paper and some white ribbon and hand tied bow. The sentiment is a peel-off . I think it makes quite an elegant card so thanks Mandy for the inspiration and Lothian crafts for making me a winner.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:- 

Lothian crafts monthly challenge-use a marianne die

live and love crafts-photo inspiration

try it on tuesdays-white on white

glitter and sparkle-show us some snow

addicted to stamps-embossing

ribbon carousel-holidays and celebrations

make my monday-contempory christmas

crafty ribbons- anything goes

ali craft-all white

jolly happy Santa

I





I so love this jolly happy snowman from Sugar Nellie and as I was happy with the Santa tag I made a while ago I thought something similar on a card.

I coloured him with promarkers and added some sparkle with sakura glitter gel pens.

The base I decided would be all white as this would really make the image the central focus of the card. I used white copy paper which I embossed using a fiskars board .

I mounted Santa on silver mirri-board and then on a fancy spellbinders oval. I used the snowflake embossed paper on a shaped base and layered with more snowflake embossed paper and added some die cut swirls.

 I added a powder embossed sentiment from a set by LOTV and finished off with a couple of hand tied bows.

Not sure who I will be sending this to but I think they'll like it I know if I were to receive it I would.



I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

Kaboodle doodle-inspired by a movie (The Santa Claus)

creative fingers challenge-anything goes

crafty catz challenges-Santa is coming to town

jellypark month long challenge-Christmas

Sister Act-anything goes

crafty girls challenge-anything goes

ABC Christmas-out of the box no squares

addicted to stamps-holidays

by Lori designs-paper

Christmas sweet stampin-white on white

Christmas fairy

I just love this cute fairy from Sugar Nellie and the cute squirrel this fairy is having a quick word with. I thought she would look great on an all white card. I coloured her with promarkers and added loads of stickles so she really sparkles.

The background I punched some white copy paper using a Martha Stewart snowflake punch and overlaid it on a white base card. I added base for the fussy cut fairy using a spellbinders oval die.


To finish off I added a craftworks sentiment that was a bauble but I cut the top off to make it a circle.

It looks a clean and simple design but I think its quite effective.

I

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

I love promarkers-anything goes

simon says-anything goes

paperminutes-Christmas clean and simple

city crafter challenge-snow white 

southern girls -add texture

4 crafty chicks-Christmas 

creative knockouts -tic tac toe( I used stamps,dies and sentiment)

the sugar bowl-sparkle and shine

crafty ribbons advent event

crafty ribbons is having an advent event so why not pop along  and join in with the fun.

forever Santa

More ink painting and a fancy shaped card , well a step card anyway. The image is a magazine freebie and who doesn't love a forever friends bear. I decided to keep to the simple theme and really focus on the image again. I simply added a rub on sentiment and mounted the image  on green mirri card and a sizzix fancy circle.

The side steps I covered with paper I embossed using a fiskars board , well Santa needs some snow for his sleigh to glide doesn't he?

Overall I like this card an am really liking this new style I seem to be creating at the moment but with such cute images what more do they need.  Don't get me wrong I love the cards those really clever crafters make with all the layers and details but I just can't do that kind of card without it looking such a mess so guess I'll just stick to the style that comes naturally, well until I get a few Crimble cards made anyway then I might try to stretch my artistic talents a little lol!

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges;-

ready teddy go-embossing and a teddy

Seema crafts-bright and colourful

bearly mine-anything goes

stampavie and more-Christmas

Auds sentiments-any sentiment

fab n funky - cute critters
nutcrafters-Santa

gingerbread boys

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to win a couple of sweet November CC design stamps and they are just so super cute. not only did I get the 2 cute stamps but papers and other goodies too. I used them to make these cute cards to send to family who live in other parts of the country. The gingy boys are coloured with promarkers  and the papers were all part of the prize with the exception of the white paper which is punched with a Martha Stewart punch and its just copy paper. The twine is whiff of joy butchers twine and the sentiment is LOTV which I powder embossed. The button on the second card is from my stash.

I would like to enter this cards into the following challenges:-

Charisma cardz-Christmas

scribble and scrap-anything goes

sweet stampin-cause for celebration

lacey sunshine- anything goes

papernest dolls-anything with a bow

CMC copic challenge-anything goes

designed to colour-Christmas/winter

shopping our stash-holiday/winter

crafty sentiments-anything goes

sweet stamps-the holidays

This card I would like to enter into the following challenges;-

Party time tuesdays-anything goes

The corrosive challenge-happy holidays

challenges 4 everybody-anything goes

make it monday-anything goes

paper playtime-anything goes

cards for men-anything goes

lexis creations-Christmas

crafty boots-storybook characters

kaboodle doodle-buttons and twine

LEJ- buttons,bows or beads

Snow lovely

I  decided after some inspiration from Squirrels blog and her tutorial about how she paints with distress inks and the fact that I found an assortment of inks and mica ink stains when looking for inspiration amongst my crafty bits to get me into Christmas mode that I would be brave and put ink to paintbrush and paper.

When at school I did an extra O level whilst taking my A levels , it started out as an embroidery O level as I had done a lot of embroidery for my silver Duke of Edinburgh award but as the school said it couldn't justify paying for only 2 of us to be entered with the London school of embroidery the O level manifested into a straight art o level and so along with all the needle craft I had to do a certain amount of actual hand drawing stuff. I actually enjoyed drawing as long as I had something to work from but if anyone asks me to draw something off the top of my head I find it harder. I did quite a lot of work using inks for the O level and once I got into painting this cute Penny black snowman I started to remember how much I had enjoyed it. I did pass my O level and got an A grade which really annoyed my artistic sister who said what I did for my o level was nothing like all the painting and still life studies she had had to do and she didn't get an A.

Anyway enough reminiscing and back to Mr cutie snowman. I used blue ink for the majority of the colouring and some moonglow mica ink for the mistletoe , you can't tell but it does have a lovely sheen. i did quite a few images in the inks so you might be able to tell from some later posts , when I get around to making them into cards.

I added him to a spellbinders fancy cut oval and then simply added that to a base card backed with one of the freebie papers from bird house.The sentiment is from craftworks and was a bauble but I cut off the silver holder bit. Quite simple but I think quite effective and it really showcases this cute little guy.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

whimsy rubber team- anything goes

ABC Christmas challenge-w is for winter

stamping sensations-Christmas

crafty sentiments-Christmas 

scribble and scrap-anything goes

sweet stamps -anything goes

through the craft room door-anything goes

created with love-anything goes

stamp n doodle-Christmas friends

crafty creations-ready for the holidays
penny black and more-anything goes

Santa tag ...you're it

Thought I really ought to make a start on my Christmas crafting but I still have little Christmas craft spirit so I figured I'd start small with a tag.

I decided to use Santa from sugar Nellie as he's a real jolly soul. I coloured him with my promarkers. 

I decided to keep my tag fairly clean and simple by using a fancy oval spellbinders die for the base and a fiskars cut oval for the central base cut in mirri card.

I finished with a ribbon bow and loop.

I would like to enter this tag into the following challenges;-

Little red wagon-Christmas tag

crafty creations-dies and punches

crafting when we can-Neapolitan colour  challenge

addicted to stamps-favourite punches or dies

613 avenue-anything goes optional holiday thanks

Simple but does it need more?

Morning all hope this bright and frosty morning finds you all fit and well and happy.

My card I share with you today uses a cute LOTV stamp and as its a wee boy I tried to use bright but masculine colours inspired by my son who although his favourite colour is blue when it comes to cards he veers towards yellow and red.

I coloured this cutie with promarkers and added hightlights to his shoe laces and package ties. The papers are a mix of magazine freebies all on a plain white base card. The sentiment is from cuddly buddly. 

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

Charisma-anything goes

Lady Anne-anything goes

Paper pretties-falling for you 

scribble and scrap-anything goes

Krafty hands-red gold and green

love rubber stamps-anything goes

everybody art-autumn

Fab n funky-traditional christmas colours

crafty creations-autumn colours

Blue Christmas

Sad I know I am such a naughty crafter as I haven't yet started my Christmas card making in earnest so this will be my second only to date.  i know I should be underway but other things have got in the way of Christmas and I'm just not in Christmas mode yet on any level.

I saw that Beccy at Beccy's Place is having a month of inspirational Christmas card makes and challenges so I used one of these as a jump point and am quite happy with the result as it looks quite elegant and was so quick and easy to make once I'd decided what materials to use. 

The die cuts are from go kreate and are cut in white and blue pearl mirri card using scraps I had in my scrap folders. The peel off is some I bought a few years ago just cos I liked the colour teal near enough to turquoise one of my favourites along with white. The base I cut from a template I made when I got the go kreate dies after a lot of measuring and rubbing out of lines to get something that resembles the dies and could be used as a base card.

The poinsettia was a magazine freebie again one that has been in my Christmas folder for quite a few years, I'm sorry it was the last one as I think it looks so elegant with its embossing.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

Beccy's day 1 -clean and simple

Heck of a challenge-in the frame

just for fun-your favourite colour(blue/turquoise and white)

CAS-ual fridays-embossing

Christmas card challenges-dimension

Beccy's place day 5-nesting dies

papertake weekly-anything goes optional christmas

LEJ-monochromatic

The crafting cafe-the winter blues

deep ocean-winter

stampavie and more-die cuts embellishments

2 sisters-Christmas sparkle

crazy 4 challenges-let's frame it

Beccy's day 7-non traditional Christmas colours

Simon says Wednesday challenge-clean and simple

Je suis un rock star

After making the last rocker card I decided  I'd make another this time a little smaller. I thought this would be a good image for my brother in law as he has a birthday coming up in december and as when he was chatting about his youth he let slip that he was into heavy rock and a bit of a rebel. 

I coloured him with promarkers and added stickles to his guitar , I think he looks quite the rebel rocker.

I used some DWCV rockstar papers for the base on top of white card and used scraps of different mirricard to make the stars using  my circle scribe and layered them up.

I finished the card off by adding a star gem to balance the card and a silver peel off sentiment that I coloured with my promarkers to match the image.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

just inspirational challenges-glitter

I love promarkers-all that glitters

Bearly mine-anything goes

stempelgartenchallenge-cards with special shapes

crafty sentiments-on for the guys

papermakeups digi challenge-lots of layers

OSAAT-use a digi

Here come the boys-rocker cards

Hobbycutz-inspired by a song (je suis un rockstar)

sweet stampin-shaped cards

Patties creations-birthdays

fussy n fancy-blue and black

Penny's-lots of layers

Hanna and friends-glitter

Dream valley-humour

A cute little bunny

I love this cute bunny by  Stitchy stamps called bunny flop and I so think its just so cute. I decided to make a male card with this cutie for a change and so made a monochromatic card. The image is coloured with promarkers and I also used promarkers of the same colour range to ink up some judikins stamps top create the patterned background layers. I added sakura glaze pen stitching around the edge as well as running a black promarker around the image base card to add a little more definition.

The patterns I used for the background layers and quite retro in style as well as being geometric always good for guys. The ribbon also has silver flecks on a white background.

The sentiment I used a peel off but the individual lines are on tiles that are both matt and shiny silver and I think they work really well with the overall card.

I found a silver envelope that the card fit into so that was the perfect finishing touch, along with rounding the corners of all the layers and the card base itself too.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

Through the craftroom door-anything goes

paperminutes-movie/cinema(watership down or bambi with thumper)

craftin desert divas-anything goes

card mania-anything goes

scrapbook stamp society-anyhting goes

pile it on-animals with character

one sweet stamp-its a feast

catch the bug- november anything goes

The squirrel and the fox-animal antics

colour me create-dudes/males

the crazy challenges-B is for ...bunny

whimsy digital-anything goes

the scrapbooking queen royal digi challenge-anything goes

have a honey bee birthday

I saw this tutorial for a circle stepper card though didn't think to bookmark the page or make a note as to where it was when I thought I'd give it a go.  It took me a while to work out the dimensions for the folds but I eventually I worked them out.

I decided to use a tilda stamp I haven't used for ages and thought it would be ideal for a fun card that would be suitable for a child or younger girl. I coloured the image using promarkers but decided to use brown instead of the norm' grey or black associated with bees. I added stickles to her wings for added fun.

The flowers are some I got in a scrapbook kit but they are bright yellow so I coloured them with the same promarkers though the original of the yellow has made the flowers a slightly different colour. The centres I filled with PVA glue and micro beads.

The papers I used are brown wrapping paper and a docrafts  paper that has white daisies on it but I again coloured these using the same colours as my image. 

The ribbon I felt needed to have dots but I didn't have any ribbon of the right shade with dots so I added dots to some plain sheer ribbon using liquid pearls, which I think worked quite well.  The sentiment is from LOTV  which I stamped with versamark ink and embossed with white embossing powder.

I really enjoyed the challenge of balancing the card so that when stood it wasn't loped sided.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

Little Claire's monthly challenge-child's birthday

The cutie pie challenge-tic-tac-toe( I used bow,pearls and glitter)

Ladybug crafts ink TLT-photo inspiration

magnolicious-anything goes

crafty creations -make it yourself(ribbons and flowers)

perfect sentiments-fall or halloween

cute card thursday-sparkle

Tildas town -anything goes

brown sugar-things with wings

Imagination crafts-glitter and sparkle

A little bit crafty-sparkle and shine

my mum's craft shop-autumn colours

marvelous magnolia-birthday bash

make my monday-autumn flowers

craft your passion-more than one fold

Better than just a bright blue box

My son says I'm too pernicketty, don't know what he means...lol.. but he is probably right. You know when the little things irritate you well I like to have a box of tissues in  most rooms for convienience and of course hygiene, no one has an excuse then when they sneeze. well my dining room is sort of a pale pinky peachy cream and sat on the sideboard I had a bright royal blue box of tissues. Initally I didn't think too much about it as I have deep royal blue velvet curtains but every time I walked by it just seemed to scream out at me, so I had to do something.

I decided to make a box cover for it and here is the result. I made it from the empty box of crunchy nut cornflakes and covered with cream paper that was from a set from costco. The paper is quite decorative so I just added some daisy images from a plate from the stampman which I had coloured in H2O's for a bit of sheen.

Now when I walk through my dining room it doesn't shout anymore but blends, so now I'm a happy bunny.

I would like to enter this project into the following challenges:-

shopping our stash-stitching real or faux
charisma cardz-anything but a card
jelly park- anything but a card
scribble and scrap-always anything goes

Sledging in the snow- a five minute card

This was a really quick card I made for my mum to send to my nephew  last year. It uses a kit from kanban that I got from QVC some years ago but for a short notice card I think its quite fun.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

great impressions-holiday card or tag

sister act card challenge-christmas

a gem of a challenge-christmas is coming

Allsorts-christmas cheer

crafting musketeers-pretty pastels

crafty calendar- all things christmas

totally gorjuss-anything goes with snow

613 Avenue-anything goes no twist

polkadoodles-christmas/anything goes

CRAFT- one for the boys

The end of summer and autumns here...

Hi all now talk about bad house keeping, I have just been tidying up my blog and found 8 posts in the draft section, 4 I deleted as there was nothing more than a title but the others all have pictures on of projects I haven't yet shares and 3 of the 4 are a couple of years old so interesting to see if my style has changed much . I'm not so sure it has so guess I should try harder.

This one is a fairy poppet stamp I have quite a few of these and sad to say I can't remember who or what I made this card for. The photo is sadly shocking as I know the butterfly is made from the stuff you stamp and iron( sorry when I remember its name I'll put it in , think my brain has gone on strike-lol).

The flowers came from a scrap booking set from Costco which I have obviously coloured as there are no orange one in the set and the papers look like velum that I have stamped and the brown was some file dividers, ribbon from my stash.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges;-

sketch n stash-layout (can't believe my card fits this sketch)

deep ocean-button it up

c is for challenge-buttons

I love Promarkers-anything goes

stampin royalty-anything goes

flutterby wednesday-any winged creature

crafty ribbons-anything goes

just inspirational challenges-autumn /fall colours

wags n whiskers-fall colours

the stampin boutique-fall colours

A little piercing

Another card I found in the drafts section. This one I did over the summer  last year as I can remember sitting in the garden paper piercing several different base cards, very therapeutic, well it was until I dropped my poky tool between the decking boards never to be seen again.

The leaves are painted in moonglow mica pigment powders or stains sorry not sure which but they do have a fab shine to them and the stamp was one of the first I ever bought and used for a retirement card.

Here is a close up of the piercing.Quite simple but very effective .

The finished card, no sentiment but this means it could be used for a retirement , sympathy or even a male birthday.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

crafty boots challenges-autumnal theme

LEJ challenges-anything goes

sweet stamps -frames

ABC challenges-whats old is new again

Nut crafters -autumnal splendour

Simon says stamp-anything goes

crafting for all seasons-autumnal colours

CRAFT challenges-one for the boys

JLJ cupcake inspirations-photo inspiration

Glitter and sparkle-leaves