T'was the night before Christmas card for my Son

Here is the card I made for my son and his girlfriend. I'd had the idea for this card last year but didn't get around to making it, I'm glad I waited as they now have a kitten called Fig, and I coloured the kitten in the House Mouse stamp the same as their kitten ...

Fig 

 This just might be the first card I've made that actually turned out better than I expected. Hope you liked it too :o)
Take care and keep smiling

Art Deco Birthday card - For her

A few years back I made a card that I wasn't happy with so it got put in a box and forgot about. A few days ago I was looking for inspiration for a card and decided to look through my box of "not happy with" cards and came across it and decided to revamp it. The first photo is of the original ...

Original card

 The chocolate pictures are from Joanna Sheen's Fashion Boutique CD and are printed onto printable silk. The backing papers are from the same CD, printed onto pearlescent card.
Take care & keep smiling

Vintage Wedding Card

OK, so this took me a while to do, but other than knowing I wanted to do a vintage style card, I really had no idea as to what I was going to do. But here it is a last and now I've just to make the box for it, which shouldn't take me that long to do...

1. Base card cream 300gsm

2. Front of card - Both DP's are from Bearly Mine Designs - Designer Extreme Vol. 2 CD Rom. The floral design wa printed on to white linen card, and the beige spot was printed on to Stampin' Up Whisper White card.

3. The photo was one out of a pack of photo's I bought from Joanna Sheen. The frame to the photo was made by cutting round the Nestabilitie I used to cut out the photo (it was a standard rectangle photo) Then I hand pressed the Nestie into the cut out to get a border. Then taking a Versamark pen I went round the outline and then triple heat embossed with Moon Glow two tone EP "Gilded Burgundy Brass" (the car used for the frame was Stardream pearlescent Chocolate brown card).

4. The roses I bought from Joanna Sheen, and I painted the tops of the petals with Shimmerz "Candle Light"

5. The Cream heart lace and silver metal corners I bought from eBay and the organza ribbon was from Raspberry Ribbons.

6. The Cherub is a button from Dress It Up

7. The card insert papers are the same as the front, only both are printed onto Stampin' Up Whisper White Card. The edges were distressed with Tim Holtz Antique Linen Distress ink. The stamp is from Inkadinkado Gem Stone Flourishes which was stamped with Tim Holtz Scattered straw Distress ink.

8. The heart lace border and Butterflies are from Martha Stewart, punched from the same SU card and sponge coloured with Tim Holtz Antique Linen and the butterflies also had Mr Holtz's Walnut Stain sponged on to them, then they were painted with the Shimmerz Candle Light.

9. The sentiment is from SU, I have the stamp but I wanted the "Love" more in keeping with the card so I printed off the computer using "Comic Sans" and "Beautiful" Fonts.

There I'm not going to bore you with every single detail as there was a lot more involved in making this card, but those are the main details. Any questions ? Just email me :o)

Take care & keep smiling

Vintage Wedding Anniversary card.

Hello, well here's the finished card I made using the masked paper from the previous post...































This is a 6.5" x 6.5" / 16.5cm x 16.5cm card.
From the base up...

• Stardream pearlescent “Chocolate Brown” card.
• Main DP and Strip – Cosmo Cricket – Autumn. Mounted onto card from Pizazz 8x8 Christmas Cardstock Pad.
• Small SquaresDP - K & Co Vintage Collage Flat Paper. Mounted onto card from Pizazz 8x8 Christmas Cardstock Pad.
• “Photo” from Joanna Sheen’s “Fashion Boutique” CD Rom printed onto smooth pearl photo paper. Aged with Tim Holtz Distress ink pads – Antique Linen and Vintage Photo. Edges lightly distressed with Tim Holtz Paper Distresser. I thought I had ruined this TWICE!!! First, when I had gone over the photo with the distress inks the ink reacted with the black printer ink on the photo and turned it purple, but I decided it looked good. THEN, when I was messing with the Tim Holtz mask it caught the photo I had put to one side and took off the top layer of the photo, and that’s why there is a white patch on the womans skirt. But again I thought it looked good. That was after a whole lot of VERY bad words :oP
• The heart I made with a Tim Holtz Grungeboard flourish (see previous post). Went lightly over with Versamark pen and then heat embossed with Heat It Up Gold EP.
• The butterflies where made with Martha Stewart’s “Monarch Butterfly” punch from the same cardstock I used to mount the DP on. It’s a double sided card hence two different coloured butterflies. Again these where lightly gone over with versamark pen and then heat embossed the same as the heart.
• The “Once Upon A Time” stamp is from Hampton Art. I’ve got the matching "And they lived happily ever after. The End” stamp to go with this, which will be used on the inside.
• The lace I got as a freebie from a magazine a while back and then lastly I used Making Memories eyelets to decorate the corners.
• The sketch used for this card is one I borrowed from Just Magnolia week 5 challenge.

I made this card as a Wedding Anniversary card for a lady at work to give to her husband. That’s why it isn’t full of flowers and bows. I’ll be making her another card but with a more modern design so she has a choice as everybody’s tastes are different.

Right, I won't be blogging now for a while, my time just seems to be taken up at the moment with gardening and work, and I'm just too tired to keep up with challenges and just generally visiting my favorite blogs. So I'm going to take some time out. Thank you for visiting my blog and I'll see you around :o)

So until we meet again ... take care & keep smiling

House Mouse Challenge 30 - Happy Birthday TJ

Hmmmm, not too happy with this card, it didn’t turn out as I’d hoped, but here it is my entry for the House Mouse Challenge 30 – Shaped card…

From the base up
1.Stardream pearlescent “opal” card
2. The backing paper is from Joanna Sheen’s “Baby Love” CD ROM (there are loads of fabulous backing papers on this, and not just for baby cards) printed on to stardream pearlescent “Crystal White” paper
3. The HM stamp is called “Surprise Party”. Coloured with Derwent Coloursoft pencils, Sansodor and Sakura clear glaze pen on eyes and noses.
4. “Happy Birthday” printed on to the same as backing paper using “Toyland” font and highlighted with Sakura clear glaze pen, then triple heat embossed.
5. “3” computer generated, coloured with Sakura Lime stardust pen then triple heat embossed. The ribbon is from a gift tag I bought from a supermarket, which I just cut to suit and glued to the back of the number 3.
Thank you for looking,
Take care & keep smiling

A Whiff of Joy Challenge 22 - Green

This is my entry for A Whiff of Joy Challenge 22 which calls for the colour green to be used...

From the base up...

1. Stardream pearlescent "Rose Quartz" card.

2. Basic Grey Sultry/Vogue paper

3. Bazzil card. The stamp used is from a clear set of border stamps by Kelly Panacci (SandyLion)

4. Main image is "Willow with flower basket" by A Whiff of Joy. Coloured with Derwent Coloursoft pencils Sansodor, Gold Gel pen on the bracelet and Staedtler Triplus fineliner pens.

5 The flowers are from Joanna Sheen and the leaves are by Syntego. Ribbon and butterfly charm courtesy of eBay.

I haven't put a sentiment on the card as I don't usually put one on until I'm about to send it out.
Not really happy with this card apart from the colouring of Willow, but as I haven't got time to make another it'll have to do.

Thanks for looking.

Take care & keep smiling

Heart of Gold – My Time To Craft Challenge & ALOTA4 - Valentines Challenge

Hi di hi folks,
Here’s my entry into the My Time To Craft Challenge and The alota rubber Stamp Valentine challenge over on Paper Craft Planet. I really enjoyed making this card, mainly because I’d had this idea using the alota Ruffled Heart stamp and with this challenge I was able to try my idea out…

1. Base card is Stardream pearlescent
2. DP – K & Co Vintage Collage Flat Paper
3. The heart was made using alota Ruffled Heart stamp – First I stamped the inner heart onto vellum with Encore Metallic Gold ink pad and heat embossed with Stamp-n-Stuff Detail Gold EP. Then cut it out and then stamped it with Rubber Stampede Signature Background stamp using the same inkpad and EP. I found it easier to ink up the stamp, lie it face up on the table then put the cut out heart onto the stamp. This way I could choose which part of the stamp I wanted to use (it’s a large stamp) and because it’s vellum I could see that the image stamped properly. Second I stamped up the inner heart with the lacy border using a white inkpad (ColorBox cats eye ink pad) and heat embossed with Stamp-n-Stuff White Detail EP, again cut it out. Lastly I stamped the whole stamp with the same gold inkpad and EP as before. After cutting this one out it was then glued together. I started with the inner heart, making sure I only put glue where the embossed image was, so as not to have glue showing. Then I glued up the white heart making sure not to glue the lacy bit as I wanted to lift that part a little to make it look like a lace. Then last but not least when I glued the whole heart to stick to the DP, again I didn’t put glue on the ruffle bit.
4. The photo comes from Joanna Sheen’s Fashion Boutique CD ROM, and was printed on Ilford Gallerie smooth pearl photo paper. I cut it out with a small border to make it look like a real photo and then mounted it onto brown Bazzil cardstock with just a 1mm border just to “lift” the photo so as it didn’t get “lost” on the DP. The picture is one of those that have had colour added but through my graphics program I change it first to B&W then added a brown tint.
5. The gold swirl/flourish was made using Sizzlets Decorative Strip die and gold silk Mirri card.
6. The embellishments used where – cream cotton lace, cream lace flowers with yellow jeweled brads in the middle, white mulberry roses, a gold butterfly charm that I bent the wings back slightly and photo corners that where made with a Sizzlits die. The flower part of the die cut can be removed if you want to, but I left it in.
I LOVE the alota heart stamp, it turned out just as I wanted it to (makes a change for me) and I bought an extra one to put in a nice package I’m putting together, which I’ll be giving away on my birthday. OOOoooops didn’t mean to tell you that :P Forget I mentioned it, my birthday isn’t until April and I’m not just going to give it away to a left comment, NO NO NO, you’re going to have to earn it. HE HE HE, (evil laugh), but I’ll let you know more nearer the time. Thanks for taking a peek.
Take care & keep smiling

Wedding Anniversary. It started with a kiss...Never thought it would come to this.

It started with a kiss in the back row of a classroom.

How could I resist the aroma of your perfume.

You and I were inseparable it was love at first sight.

You made me promise to marry you I made you promise to be my wife

But then you were only eight years old

and I had just about turned nine.

I thought that life was always good

I thought you always would be mine.

It started with a kiss

Never thought it would come to this.

(Hot Chocolate 1982)

This is the song that popped into my head when I first saw this stamp - A Kiss For Chloe by Sarah Kay. The song it's self is quite sad, it's about a lost love, ahhhh (click here if you want to hear the song). But if you just took the "It started with a kiss, never thought it would come to this" you could get away with using the sentiment on a wedding, valentine or just because I love you card.

I wanted the image to look like an old photo, don't think I quite pulled it off, I think it might have been better coloured with inks to achieve a better effect, but I don't have inks and I wouldn't know what to do with them if I did. So here you go....

Ingredients...

1. Stardream silver pearlescent card
2. DP is from Joanna Sheen's CD-Rom - Cottage Garden printed on to linen paper.
3. Sarah Kay stamp is coloured with Derwents and Sansodor, cut out using the largest oval nestabilities and mounted on to silver silk Mirri card cut out with the largest petite scallop nestie.
4. The "corset band" as I like to call it is cut from white Stardream pearlescent card and stamped using the New Year flourish by Magnolia rubber stamps and heat embossed with Moon Glow two tone EP Silver Moon Sapphire. I then went round the edges with my Veramark pen and heat embossed with the same EP.
5. The ribbon is from Raspberry Ribbons November kit. Threaded through silver 1/8" silver eyelets.
6. The flowers I made myself using white Bazzil card and three sized (11/2 ", 1" and 3/4")Woodware daisy punches. The large and medium daisies where scored using a fine embossing tool and my Scor-Pal and curled under. The smallest where "coloured" with my Versamark pen and heat embossed with Heat It Up Holographic EP (can't see it on the photo), and a Arora borialis (think I spelt that right) rhinestone. All mounted with foam pop ups.

Took a bit of getting used to this card, because of the lack of colour. But it's grown on me, and I find it a challenge using monochromatic colours. I did cheat a bit by using some browns in the colouring but like I said I wanted to get the feeling of an aging photo. Thank you for taking a peek, and I'll probably see you again in another weeks time, got to recharge my creative batteries, plus I want to finish a book I started two week ago! So until the next time...

Take care & keep smiling

Happy Christmas to my Dad :)

Hello and I apologise for not replying to all the lovely comments left for my HM card, but as you know it's that time of year and I've been a little bit busy. I made all those cards for my Dad to send out and I hadn't made any for myself !!! What a dope, so as you can imagine I've been frantically making cards for friends, and no I'm not going to show you them as they are what I am going to make for my Dad to send out next Christmas, so you'll see them then. Any way here's the card I made to give to my Dad...




































From the base up...
1. Stardream copper pearlescent card
2. K&Co Amelia Blocks Flat paper, with basic grey flourish stamp stamped in Versafine Vintage Sepia ink.
3. Raspberry Ribbons Gold organza ribbon from their new December kit.
4. Silent night rubber stamp from Magnolia, stamped onto K& Co Antiquity Tan Parchment flat paper and the edges were distressed with my very own finger nail :)
5. The main image is from Joanna Sheen's Victorian Christmas CD Rom that was mounted onto gold silk mirri card. The label is one I bought, which was just cream to begin with but I printed the merry Christmas back ground onto it from Joanna Sheen's CD Rom again and sponged the edges with Versafine vintage sepia ink. The Cherub/Angel is from Dress It Up.
6. The swirl/flourish is a Tim Holtz grunge board element that I heat embossed with gold EP. I don't think Grunge board is really made for heat embossing (it feels like it has rubber in it), but I though I'd give it a go. All I can say is you're OK doing it as long as you keep the heat gun at quite a distance away. It takes longer for the EP to melt, but if you hold the heat gun to close the Grunge board starts to curl (I think it might melt if left on to long) but I liked the end result so it was worth the extra time.
7. Dress It Up snowflakes.
Inside the card I printed onto K&Co Antiquity Tan Parchment flat paper, the following poem
Sitting under the mistletoe
(Pale-green, fairy mistletoe),
One last candle burning low,
All the sleepy dancers gone,
Just one candle burning on,
Shadows lurking everywhere:
Some one came, and kissed me there.
Tired I was; my head would go
Nodding under the mistletoe
(Pale-green, fairy mistletoe),
No footsteps came, no voice,but only,
Just as I sat there, sleepy, lonely,
Stooped in the still and shadowy air
Lips unseen - and kissed me there.
~ Walter de la Mere ~
I like the poem, and my Dad likes ghost stories, so I thought it apt. I like the way this card turned out, and as you can see I'm getting a bit more adventurous with the embellishments.
Got to go now, got to make a card for my Son.
Take care & keep smiling

Cupcake Challenge 16 - Chocolate Christmas

Hello people,
that cold I thought I was coming down with on Sunday hit with a vengeance Monday. I've ached in places I didn't know you could ache, I've been hot, I've been so tired it was untrue and now I've got a sore throat and am losing my voice, but apart from that I feel great! When I haven't been asleep I have made some cards the first of which I decided to enter into the Cupcake Challenge, which calls for a vintage card. You will notice that the main image, the DP and the sentiment stamp are ones I've used recently on other cards, my excuse is my brain has been too tired to come up with anything original, plus I like them...

OK from the base up...
1. Stardream bronze pearlescent card
2. DP is from Artylicous Seasons Greetings CD Rom, again I change the colour and coloured the berries in with Sakura gold stardust gelly roll pen, then sponged the edges with Versafine Vintage Sepia and Brilliance Galaxy Gold ink pads.
3. The label/tag was just plain but I found a picture of some Christmas sheet music and printed it on to the tag, again went round the edges the same as I did with the DP and added a gold organza bow and loop.
4. The main image is from Joanna Sheen's Victorian Christmas CD Rom, mounted onto a gold silk Mirri card die cut Nestabilites.
5. Prima flowers that were sponged with Brilliance gold galaxy ink pad. The red stamens came from my Blooms to Go set, they were yellow, but I rolled them around a Brilliance Rocket Red ink pad (as you do) and then added the sentiment to the largest flower. The sentiment seal is from Magnolia Rubber Stamps. Last but not least some little leaves that I actually left alone.
Not sure about the flowers, I could do with some holly leaves, but I haven't found any I like...yet.
Thank you for popping by and I'll be seeing you again real soon.
Take care & keep smiling

Little Victorian Snowball Fun

Howdy doody y'all,

Sorry about that appalling American accent, but today when I went into work one of the girls there showed me a "review" of a show I went to see last week at our theatre. It was an amatuer production of "The littlest whorehouse in Texas". IT WAS FABULOUS, it was funny, the singing was superb and the acting was excellent, well it was that good I went to see it twice. But this so called critic did nothing but moan about the scantily clad women and the excess use of swear words when children could have been in the audience!!! Excuse me, but what parent would take their child to see a show with a title like that, and anyway on both the nights I went the youngest people there were probably at least 16-17 and they probably swear a whole lot worse. And as for scantily clad, you see more flesh on the TV. Hmmmph, I think that "critic" should stick to reviewing children's programmes. So all day now I've been singing songs from the show, with the Texan accent, not out loud though, everyone thinks I'm mad enough without proving them right :) But now I've had my moan I'll show you my card...

So here's the list of ingredients from the base up:

1 Mars red Stardream pearlescent card

2 Hessian textured gold paper

3 DP from Artylicious Seasons Greetings CD Rom. This is the first one I printed off for my red Christmas card yesterday, but it wasn't red enough so I saved it and used it for this card. It was printed onto hessian card. I went round the edges with a Krylon Red Shimmer leafing pen, and the berries where coloured in with my Sakura Gellyroll Stardust clear pen

4 The Christmas wishes paper was a free paper I found on the web last year, but this is the first time I've used it. This was mounted onto the same gold hessian paper.

5 The little girl image is from Joanna Sheen's Victorian Christmas CD Rom. Cut with my nestabilities and mounted onto, yes you guessed it gold hessian paper again cut with my petite oval nestabilities.

6 Then to finish off I used - Prima flowers, some leaves I found in my stash (YEAH LEAVES), gold rhinestones, red ribbon and finally the corners where cut from a Cuttlebug die from the same gold hessian paper.

I wasn't quite sure about the little girl image when I first printed it out, I think because of the white background, but now it's all put together it looks quite nice. Right I'm off to go blog hopping.

Take care & keep smiling

Little Holly - Raspberry Ribbon Challenge 9

Hello and welcome to another of my Dad's cards...

I LIKE this card, it turned out better than I expected. I made it for the Raspberry Ribbons Challenge. I've been following this challenge since it first started, but never got round to entering for one reason and another, but I finally got round to it and I'm very happy.

The little girl image is from Joanna Sheen's Victorian Christmas CD ROM, which was mounted onto gold Mirri card and then edged with gold border peel offs. The DP is from Creative Imaginations, and the Christmas seal is from Magnolia's new Christmas stamps. The flowers are Prima that I highlighted with Sakura Gelly roll Stardust pens, as I thought they looked a little dull and secured with copper brads in the smaller flowers and a gem brad in the larger. Finished off with some Hunter Green organza ribbon and gold border peel offs and all mounted onto Stardream pearlescent card. Well I'd better go add it to the challenge. Thank you for looking.

Take care & keep smiling

Winter Wishes

Hallo, hier ist meine Karte für heute - German for Hello here is my card for today.

I used a sketch from Magnolia vs Stampavie, it's a nice easy sketch to follow. The background paper was made by me on the computer with some snowflake pictures I found on the web, and the half circle is white glitter card. The main image is from Joanna Sheen's Dancing With Shadows CD ROM, which had some glitter added to it, and some silver border peel offs. To finish off I used two white poinsettias, Bosscut snowflake dies, white organza ribbon,some rhinestones and two Dress It Up snowflake buttons. The sentiment was a freebie rubber stamp I got from Whiff Of Joy that was stamped onto vellum/parchment with Brilliance Graphite Black. And all mounted onto Stardream white pearlesent card. I'm quite pleased with this card, mainly because I managed to finish it in one day LOL. I AM the worlds slowest card maker. There another one done for my Dad, and on to the next one...

Take care & keep smiling