Some Christmas Cards

 The top two cards were based on Connie Stewart's

Flash Card technique.

If you have not heard about this, go check out YouTube.

Honestly, they saved my life.

 This one was a masculine card

for my ex train buddy, Martin.

While this one was for

my friend and ex colleague, Kate.

Had issues getting clear shots

of these and getting them posted

in time!

Some people have had to make do

with New Year Cards!

Check out the glitter on the die cut stars.

Altered Tablet Packet

 Here is the front of the altered Panadol packet.

I applied heavy gesso all over to hide

the original design before colouring with Silks.

Then added texture paste.

This is the back.

It shows the texture of the gesso.

 

The centre shows tissue covering

with photos of Penny and Alice.

 

 This was how it started.

I made it for Penny to carry with her

during chemo and other hospital sessions.

Catch Up Post

Showing just a few more of the cards

I have been making.

First one was for a birthday

end of June.

Simple multi layer, multi colour stamping

using Altenew Peony.

Next up a blank card selection

commissioned by my sister.

She wanted some water-coloured

images on blanks for grabbing when required.

Various stamps used;

Penny Black/ Tim Holtz/ Papermania

Lastly for now, a commission by

my neighbour, Rose, for her

Great Grand Daughter's 2nd Birthday.

Here I went to town using multiple paper

layers die cut into pretty shapes

to provide some interest for the Gorjuss

Girl Purrfect focal image.

Papers used;

Papermania - Lucy Cromwell.

Images water-coloured with Inktense

I added to the dress & the number

some light pink Prima Art Sugar

More to come soon.

I have an altered tablet packet,

to share using texture & Alice Cooper images

for my crafty friend, Penny.

An Autumn coloured Get Well card

& a few other cards.

Art Journal Spread

This is my first completed Art Journal entry

since November 2015!

I have started 4 others and got nowhere with them,

but today, I wanted to have a little creative 

time just for me after seemingly weeks of

cards etc. made for others.

I made this from scratch and am thrilled with it.

I thought I would enter it for a Facebook

Bingo challenge on the Hey Little Magpie Group.

I ended up using the whole Bingo Board.

When I began the spread the only thing I knew

was i wanted it to be mainly Blue

contain Love and have texture.

I achieved all of this.

Wedding Card

This card was made for Hollie.

She is a work colleague/friend and she

recently got married to Paul.

I realised after making this card

that it was going to be a nightmare to

get a decent photograph.

So I took several!

Front - Stampin' Up die

Heat embossed sentiment

First card stock layer. (Vellum covers it)

Sentiment Stampin' Up.

Inside the card.

Words - Stampin' Up

Rings - wedding set I have

In this final shot, 

I tried to capture all the layers together.

They loved it!

Seriously behind with my uploads!

I have cards here made as far back

as May! I know!

I love my new home, it keeps me

busy. I am still organizing my

craft room. It is almost done.

Although, it is only when I get started creating

that I will realize what I reach for most

and get it positioned accordingly.

I do also work full time and that steals most

of my day. Now I have a kitchen

that I love, I spend a lot of time in there, or in my

garden. I went 17 years without a garden!

Anyway enough waffle, to the cards;

This first one was a commissioned piece.

New Baby Easel card made for a work colleague.

All images stamped and water-coloured.

Next card was made for my friend, Donna.

She also has a New Baby card to make & I loaned

her the stamps in the above card.

Naturally, I sent them with a little homemade piece

of art & love.

This next card was made for my sister, Tracy.

It was sent as a encouragement card because

she is going through a pretty difficult time

in her life.

This last card was made as a birthday card

for the office to sign for a colleague.

It was the same colleague,

that I made the New Baby easel card for.

I can not seem to get my art journal going but i did 

make a quick set of blank water-coloured cards

for my sister to send. I also have a wedding card

to share and another commission piece.

I will be back later with those.

Happy Birthday, Tracy

Today is my sister's birthday.

I had planned to upload a photo

of a duvet cover I have which

provided the inspiration for the card.

However, like most things, the cable

for the external drive is hiding from me.

Been moved 6 months now and still 

have to excavate the spare bedroom 

every time I want something!!!

Anyway, the duvet has grey and pink faded roses,

the Eiffel tower and it inspired me.

Stamps - Altenew Painted Flowers

Tim Holtz - French Flight

Elusive Images - Paris wording

Roses coloured using 

Zig Clean Colour Brush Markers

Father's Day

Hello, I am back!

Bet you didn't even miss me.

Here I am with a card for my Dad.

I plan to be back with more stuff soon.

I stamped this gorgeous "brand new" stamp

design from Carabelle Studio - Bird Journal, 

onto water-colour cardstock.

I applied some coarse texture paste

through a CW Harlequin Stencil.

Once dry I sprayed with Lindy's Stamp Gang;

Clam Bake Beige

Cape Cod Coral

Then I mixed up Magicals, also from Lindy's,

Dark Truffle Brown & Milk Chocolate

into sprays and over sprayed with them.

I also made up some Nutmeg Primary elements

to spray on the texture.

Your'e the Greatest stamp - Papermania.

I love these colours.

So where have you been? I hear you saying.

Well work, obviously most of the time.

But, I am in the process of making my craft area in 

the bungalow more efficient with lots of great storage.

I do plan to actually do some crafting at some point!!

I have made a few cards that need to be uploaded and to

be perfectly honest, I am too lazy to boot up this computer

or at least I was, but it now has a new home in the guest room

which will make life far easier for me.

Got pots of flowers in my garden, hanging baskets on the

corners of the house and a Japanese Maple in the front.

It is beginning to look like someone lives here. 

My Dad cleaned all the fascias (which hadn't been done in 

a VERY long time) and it looks much neater outside.

He also recently painted my gas & electric meter doors

and the house number, so the only thinking

letting the place down is the pipes.

The birds love my feeder and I am content to sit

& watch them for hours.

I will be back soon with more photos

& craft things.

More Cards

First card is one I made for 

my sister. I always give a card at 

Easter but base it on a Spring theme.

Here I show the front and below

is the image of the inside.

The front was stamped using

Tim Holtz Embossing Ink 

and Floral Stamp.

I dusted over with a dusky pink

perfect pearls, then over- stamped with

Tim Holtz Florals and a stamps

from a free set.

On the inside I used Tim Holtz Dotted stamp

and two other free stamps.

Then I sent her this card to thank her

for all the lovely Christmas gifts.

(We did Xmas at Easter)

I die cut a circle of water-colour

paper & then stamped this

free fairy image.

I water-coloured the image using a mixture of

Derwent Water-colour pencils &

Derwent Inktense Pencils.

To complete the card, I die cut

Thanks (Tim Holtz)

That's it for now!

I did make two cards for two

birthdays on 4th May but sent them before

I took photos!!! What can I say, 

I wanted them gone, so busy at 

work and when I'm home I

just love to potter around 

cleaning and making my new

home lovely.

Next time I will share a few commissioned pieces.

Three Styles of Card

My first card is a mixed media piece

commissioned by one of my new

neighbour's, for her grandson.

I based this on a design by Louise Crosbie

aka. ZuZu in DoCrafts magazine.

Heavy Gesso

Patterned Tissue

Jute 

Vintage Photo Distress ink

Tim Holtz die

The second one was made for

a colleague, Caitlin, who was poorly

and ended up spending a night in hospital.

I thought she needed cheering up.

Paper - Lucy Cromwell

Vellum

Stamp: Free Cover Set

This last one is a Decoupage Easter card

I made for my Dad.

I loved the image and the paper.

The chicken wire is a Tim Holtz die.

Papermania Decoupage Kit

I can not believe that in one week's time,

I will have lived in my new home, 3 months!!!

Where has time gone! 

The spare room is still full, mainly crap I might add!

The bungalow is so easy to keep clean and I now have

my cat to share the space with.

Kia is a real darling, so clean and almost

invisible. I swore after Thomas, my old cat passed 

away, that I would never have another.

But, I adopted Kia from my sister & she

is a joy. I love to come home to her.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

This is the card I created for

my dad's birthday, which is today.

Stamps: Carabelle Studio - Bird Collage

Hero Arts - Branches

Die cut tiny birds - Memory box

Brusho in Sandstone

Perfect Pearls in Gold Brown (dusted on branches)

The light was appalling this morning,

we had torrential rain most of the day.

So the photo does not quite show the gold shimmer to the

branches.

The photo I took of the card stood didn't come out

clear either. It was a blurry mess!!

Dad loves the birds but I doubt many paid him a visit today for his

birthday. I wasn't too happy going out to work in it!

Mother's Day

On 29th January, my colleague, Hollie,

gave birth her gorgeous little boy, Theo.

He came two months early, but he was

really determined to join us.

After a long month in hospital,

he was allowed home on 1st March.

He is a mini image of his mummy.

How perfect for her to have him home

for her very first Mother's Day.

I made her this quick cute card

to mark the special occasion.

I used Papermania honeycomb stamp

with embossing ink & dusted with

yellow/gold perfect pearls.

Image, free CS cover stamp.

I had intended to share wedding invitations,

but they will keep for another day!

Home Improvements & Some Cards

Well, they say an Englishman's home is his castle.

I have found mine.

However, not everyone shares the same taste and

work was needed before I moved in!!

Here are a couple of before & after pictures.

First up is my craft room.

This was originally bedroom 3 but

previous owners saw fit to knock it 

through to the already large living room.

This makes it open plan 

one side of the bungalow.

This little beauty (bucket, throwing up here)

adorned the living room wall!

This is a picture of both areas

taken after my Dad kindly dealt with

the beast on the wall

This is pretty much how we look now

A decent photo of the new fireplace wall

will follow.

Heart was a moving in gift from

one of my train buddies, Joanne.

This is the very first craft make

of 2016!!

Colleague, Hollie, gave birth

to her gorgeous baby, Theo, 

8 1/2 weeks early he decided to arrive.

Both are doing very well.

He is breastfeeding and just being

kept in an incubator until he fattens

up a little. Hopefully he comes home

on his original due date of 31/03/2016.

Finally, handmade this as today

is my beautician, Hayley's birthday.

 This close up gives you

a better idea of the shimmer.

Background is stamped in watermark ink

perfect pearls are brushed over to

reveal the image.

French book text is used for

Alice Palace Rabbits

(I love these)

Stamping done in Hero Arts Shadow Ink

Soft Sand for border design.

Well that's all for now, I seriously need

to unpack more boxes. Been here almost a month.

Need to get the craft room up & running.

Birthday Card

Crikey, its a long time since I last posted!

But, to be fair to me, I have a very good reason.

I have just moved home!

Not up the street, or round the corner, but to a 

new county, my home Town.

I actually moved last week and have just got on 

the internet via wireless adapter.

So, here is my brother in law's birthday card,

for New Years Day and we were meant to be going 

up to stay, for his birthday. Sadly my aunt passed away

just before Christmas, totally unexpected

and we had the funeral on 30th December.

The card is made using one of Martins own photos of him

on his trail bike. He is a huge fan of Valentino Rossi so

I added a logo for him as well.

Back to the move, I now have a dedicated craft area

with far better light and excellent storage so i will

be able to create and take photographs better.

So, no more excuses for letting the blog slide.

Except, it's back to work tomorrow and I think

I have three months unpacking to do!

I do know where some of my craft materials are

& I plan to complete my 

Christmas Art Journal page first!!