Birthday card

This is another one of the cards I had to make for a customer.  I used a sketch from Pink Ink Sketch challenges and I'm also entering it into this weeks Promarker challenge.  The papers were from a 12 x 12 pad from Panduro called Summer Blues - yummy double sided papers with ribbon to match!  The image was a free gift that came with a magazine - there was a pack of 20 images from LOTV.  However the paper was not that great for colouring on - I usually stamp onto LOTVs super smooth white card -  the Promarkers blend much better on it.  Anyway, I used Cobalt, China and Powder blues, Forest and Marsh green, Cool grey 1 & 2, Pastel pink and Oatmeal.  The sentiment is from Craftwork Cards.

Sweet stop sketch

I have two 21st birthday cards to make and so used this weeks Sweet Stop sketch for inspiration for the first one.  I used some of the paper from my recently purchased First Edition Desert Blooms 8 x 8 pad.  For the base card I used rose red card, seam binding ribbon and ink for stamping - all from Stampin Up.  The colours look much darker in the photo than IRL - the red is really more of a pinky shade than the wine colour shown here - bad photographer! The stamp is a vintage Sarah Kay one from Stampavie, coloured with Promarkers - I think it would have been better to use Prismacolour pencils for this image, but I was in too much haste!  Busy, busy now with lots of schemes of work to prepare for going back to school - its so hard to believe the summer holidays are over already!  Not much time for making cards these days unfortunately.

Magnolia Challenge

My entry for the Magnolia challenge this week is a little notebook.  I chose to use embossing, paper piecing and ribbon and lace.  The papers are from a Cosmo Cricket mini deck called 'Earth Love.'  The image was coloured with Promarkers and her dress was paper pieced.  The ovals were cut and embossed with Nestabilities dies, the lace came from a local gift shop and the ribbon was bought at a craft fair.  I think the notebook was from Tesco.  I have covered the back of the book to match.

Dads birthday card

Back again from my wee trip to Co Down.  We managed to do a little bit of craft shopping on the way home, via Belfast.  I got yet another First Edition paper stack - "Desert Blooms" - lovely pink, orange and brown colour combinations.  I also got some buttons, paper flowers and a punch and a lovely wee basket that I thought would be good for displaying cards at a stall in the country market, if we attend it this year. 

I needed to make a birthday card for my Dad ASAP and so when I saw the nice simple layout of the card sketch on Cute Card Thursday, I thought it would be just perfect.  The teal coloured card is Bazzil 'Neptune' and the patterned papers are from the Basic Grey Marjolaine range.  The image was coloured with Promarkers and the mats cut with nesties.

Boys cards

Just a couple of very simple boys cards to show you today - Didn't have a lot of time to make them so I just used a couple of LOTV cute squares - they are so useful when you are in a hurry!  The blue paper came from Stampin Up (Pacific Point blue) as did the ink used to stamp the sentiment.  The red paper was from a little Sizzix paper stack. 

Sarah Kay birthday card

Here is the next of the cards I need to make - a birthday card for a daughter. The stamp is one of the vintage Sarah Kay ones from Stampavie - I bought a few of their stamps from Sir Stampalot and was very impressed with the speedy service - I ordered them online on Wednesday evening and the postman arrived with them on Friday morning! I was also pleased that they delivered to N. Ireland for the same price as the rest of the UK - some companies seem to think NI is some far flung inaccessible part of the world and charge a ridiculous amount for P & P even though we are all served by the same Royal Mail service!( - OK, rant over)!!   I used Prismacolors and Sansodor for the colouring today.  The papers used are again from the First Edition Love Letters pad.  The stamp, punch and brushmarker used for the sentiment label are all from Stampin Up - I love the way all their products work together.  I'm not a big fan of peel-offs but used them for the sentiment on this card as it would have been difficult to get the stamp in the right place if I had printed it on the computer (was just feeling too lazy!)  I am going to try to schedule the next few posts as I am going to house sit for my Mum and Dad in Co Down for a few days and they don't have internet (nor will I be able to make any cards down there!)  So if all goes according to plan, I will be away on my last wee 'holiday' this summer -  to the seaside!

Motorbike card

I thought I would work my way through the list of cards I need to make, by getting the most difficult ones out of the way first - so thats always the male ones as you can't really add lots of embellishments!  The motorbike stamp, the blue card and the pen for stamping and colouring (Marina Mist) both came from Stampin Up.  The black card was from the Papermill and has been embossed using a Cuttlebug folder.  The ticket stamps and die for cutting them out are from Whimsy Stamps and the 'nailheads' were bought in a little craft shop at the Linen Green in Dungannon.  Oh and the button came from a large collection in my button box - my MIL used to do catering in a factory that made childrens clothes - and so I got lots of ribbon, buttons, ribbon roses, fabric, lace etc and have built up as large a collection as manys a shop!!  I've just realised you can see the camera in the mirri card! (which probably came from Craft Creations.)

Look what I got!

Haven't had time to make any cards today as I was baking cupcakes and traybakes, but just thought I'd show you the nice surprise that arrived at my door!  An Interflora man arrived with this lovely bouquet and as it was really unexpected I tried to tell him he was at the wrong house and nearly sent him away again!  They were from a lovely couple who came for dinner on Sunday - and survived my cooking!

Anniversary Card

I have been asked to make a number of cards for a friend, the most urgent of which is an Anniversary card.  I was looking for inspiration and so I've used the sketch on Pink Ink Challenge as it fitted with the image which I had already coloured (with Promarkers) and cut out in a circle using Nestabilities dies.  The papers are again from First Edition - the 'Love Letters' pad - yes, I do have quite a collection of First Edition pads! - they're a bit of an addiction! The punch used for the border at the bottom is EK Success 'Parisian' and the large flower was die cut using a Marianne die (I think).  The smaller flowers were made using puches by X cut and Fiskars and the label for the sentiment was punched using Stampin Up punches.  I bought the lovely pink cotton lace in a little gift shop in the centre of Belfast - it came in a 3 metre roll - I also got an aqua coloured one as well and some lovely ribbon.

Buttons and bows

Back to some cards after a very busy few days.  This is my entry for the Whiff of Joy challenge on Buttons and Bows.  I have finally been brave and started to use up a bit more of my First Edition Up Up and Away paper pad which has been sitting around for quite some time (along with few other First Edition 6 x 6 pads)!  These papers are just so lovely you are afraid to use them all up - some of them are glittered and they are more like card than paper (200gsm).  Anyway all the papers on this card come from the pad, including the punched flowers and leaves.  The little buttons, ribbon and dummy all came from the craft fair in the NEC last Autumn or else the one in Belfast in April.  The border punch is an EK Success one called Morrocco Lace - their puches are the only ones which seem to punch well with thicker papers and cardstock.  The scalloped mats were made with Nestabilities dies.

No Designer Paper

The Cute Card Thursday challenge for this week is to make a card without using any designer paper - a difficult one as I have a paper addiction!  I had to resort to plain cardstock and some handmade paper.  I used a deep mauve and lilac colour scheme.  The card came from the now shut Papermill shop - I really miss that shop - Junction One no longer has the great appeal it once had, after we found the Papermill has gone! The little hedgehog and the happy birthday sentiment are both stamps by Penny Black and as usual it has been coloured using promarkers.  The flowers and leaves were punched using X cut, Woodware and Fiskars punches. 

Anything goes with glitter!

The Magnolia challenge for this week is 'Anything Goes' with the option of adding glitter.  As we are approaching the time of year teenagers (and teachers) dread - ie. the exam results, I thought a congratulations card might be needed.  The images were coloured with promarkers, then cut out and raised on foam squares - the dress was paper pieced.  The papers all came from Cosmo Cricket Mini Deck pads - one called Joy Ride and the other called The Boyfriend.  The swirl was a Sizzix die (#4 decorative swirl) and both colours of seam binding ribbon came from Stampin Up.  The rosette effect is easy to make - you just pull a strand up from one edge of the ribbon and it gathers up!  The sentiment is from a Woodware clear set and I finished off by adding Papermania aqua adhesive pearls to the bottom left corner - not sure that was a good idea - now I think it looked better without them!  Of course I went along with the option of glitter and added Stickles 'Stardust' to the swirl, flower, leaves and the lace at the bottom of her dress!  Not content with that, I also put some Glossy Accents on the apple and feather.

Roses

The latest LOTV challenge is 'Roses' - so I used one of my cute squares to make this wedding card. The papers came from 'Pink Petticoat' and is called 'Vintage Rose Collection' - they were a free gift with the Quick Cards Magazine, earlier this year.  The border punch used was a Martha Stewart one and the green ribbon was from Stampin Up.  I used a L-Em punch for the little leaves, though it was quite difficult to use it with the Bazzil card - I think it must be for using with paper, rather than card.  I've had the ribbon roses for years so don't know where they came from.  I think I'll have to place an order with Wild Orchid Crafts for some of their gorgeous roses! - maybe they will have a stall at the NEC?

Cupcakes

Here are Hannah's decorated cupcakes.  She was very pleased when they won first prize.  I just don't know what we're going to do with them now as she certainly won't allow anyone to eat them!

She also got a second prize for her card and a third for her tea tray, so she was very happy all round.  Nathan was very disappointed however, because his eggs didn't win any prizes, although he did get a 'Highly Commended' for his tray of vegetables!

Hannah's card was made using papers from the First Edition 'Up Up and Away' pad and the stamp was from a free set that came with a recent edition of 'Quick cards made easy' magazine.  The seam binding ribbon is from Stampin Up.  The image was coloured with promarkers and she cut it out and decoupaged it.  The border punch  is Martha Stewart 'Doily lace'.

No cards today!

Today we had to get all the entries in for the Co Show and I can't believe I forgot to take photos!  Hannah has entered a birthday card, a tea tray for two and five decorated cupcakes.  Nathan entered five brown eggs and a tray containing a mix of three different vegatables - he wanted to enter one of his chickens but I managed to talk him out of that - I don't think his wee hens would like to be away from home all night, shut up in a tiny wee cage!  Hopefully Hannah's cupcakes will still look OK when we get them home again and I can post a photo then.  She made a different farm animal for the top of each of them, from sugarpaste - a bit like working with fimo!

I thought I would show you an exploding box I made for a 21st birthday - just so you have something to look at today - 'til I get a few more cards made!  The basic parts were made using brown and pink bazzil card and the co-ordinating paper came from a HOTP pad called the Cardmakers Ultimate Creative Pack - I bought it years ago from QVC and still have quite a bit of it left.  The pink braid round the lid came from a local shop.