Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to my blog visitors.

This is a fun A4 card made with a Honey & Hugs Christmas die-cut decoupage kit to finish the Christmas postings.

Off to wrap presents now.

Have a great Christmas!!

Jill

Robin

Well, last night I finally finished the last of the cards I had promised people for Christmas which spookily was my 400th sale of the year!

After the iris folded booties the other week I had a request for a Robin. I downloaded this craft from craftsuprint, not sure I will be mass-producing them though.

It was the most realistic robin I found but also the most complicated. It involved some double and corner folds and I'm afraid it was rather experimental but it looks like a robin so we'll stick with it.

It is mounted on red and gold card to make it stand out, some peel off embellishments and a greeting and the card is A4.

Just a few family cards to do now before my rest!

Christmas Cards

So busy making cards this week in between working and a spot of attending Christmas - Do's that I haven't had enough time to stop and post!

This is one made using a clear Pepper & Friends Christmas stamp. Simply coloured with polychromos. A touch of fluffy stuff added for snow and some white peel off snowflakes.

The card is a lovely aperture one from Craft Creations.

Slowly catching up - have made 36 wedding invitations as well since I last posted so looking forward to a day or two resting over the festive period I think before I get in to playing with all the bits I have spent the year accumulating again!!

Xmas Tree

Today's offering is a bit different for Christmas.

The stamp is from a Penny Black transparent set called Winter Whites and Greens - quite impressed I managed to buy at least one set that didn't have hedgehogs in!

I stamped the tree in a lovely deep purple and embossed then dotted with Anitas gems, simply layered on some matching card and added a Merry Christmas greeting from the same stamp set.

I might now try this in some other colours - see how it looks in more traditional hues as not everyone likes lilac and purple as much as me!

Princess

A nice girly card today for my niece Maisie who was 6 this week.

The princess is a decoupage Paper Nation sheet, layered on white and pink card to match.

The card I covered with a sheet of pink flowery paper from the stash, then added some little punched flowers which I added a name and age to.

Even found a suitably pink and glittery Happy Birthday peel off in the pile to finish off!

Must crack on, soooo behind with everything!

Bert Badger

A card that anyone that has recently had a birthday will recognise!

For this card I used a very nice pearly green card from the paper mill as a base card and then a piece was used in one of the new Woodland Folk embossing folders to give the tree background.

Bert Badger himself is one of the new layered die cut folders from DoCrafts that I had to try!

It was a bit of an event but fairly pleased with him, although Graeme wondered why I was making a panda card which was a bit disappointing.

The die cuts out MANY different shapes that all layer up for the completed animal so it took a while but fairly pleased with him and will have another play sometime.

Twins

A special card I made just as my finger was giving up the other week - now going in the right direction but still can't use my right-hand properly which is a bit of a xmas card disaster!

This card is another 8x8". I cut out the bootie shapes and used an iris folding template to make a blue and pink bootie for the twins. To these I added a little punched tag and added names with teeny peel off letters and matching bow.

To make a Congratulations big enough I cut out letters using my Impress machine in silver and layered the message through the middle of the card.

I used a punch on the corners of the card to finish off which was then layered on some silver before mounting on the base card. A teeny gem in each corner too for a touch of sparkle.

New Baby

Sorry again for lack of postings, feeling rather sorry for myself this week as have an infection on my index finger, to say it hurts doesn't really cover it!!

As a result have not done much as this finger seems to be rather vital to holding pens, cutting knifes etc and is my 'mouse' finger.

This is a fairly recent card though for a new arrival.

Stamp is from a clear Penny Black set. I stamped it twice and cut out the sling and flowers for a second layer to add some depth.

The card has some decorated parchment attached to it with matching brads with some 'It's a Boy' confetti stuck on top. Cute little hedgehog coloured in copics and layered on matching card to finish.

Fingers crossed my antibiotics kick in asap as I am feeling very grumpy!!

Mini Book

Another mini folded book today.

These are great for gifts and each album page is made from one 6x6" piece of paper. After cunningly folding them a square of card is added so they keep their shape and another square piece is used as the hinge between pages.

The box lid and base are each made from 4 pieces of 6x6 paper too. A really effective project that I added a few photos to as a present and finished the box off by adding a name with some x-cut letters and a butterfly.

Jewellery

Had a lovely relaxing week at Center Parcs. One of the non-sporting activities you could book was a Jewellery workshop one afternoon so felt obliged to have a go!

It was lovely and relaxing.

We had a lovely choice of necklaces and fab packets of beads, it was really hard to make a choice and I have many more ideas logged away now for the beads I already have at home!

I chose this necklace as it was a bit different to anything I already have with the 3 'dangles' at the bottom. The example necklace had clusters of beads on the wire but the beads I had left didn't lend themselves to this so well but it is something I might try with another experiment. The main string are lots of seed and tube beads in different colours, with a few swarovski crystals now and again for a little sparkle!

Just some little ear-rings to match, they could of been more elaborate but I don't wear many dangly ones.

It was a very enjoyable afternoon and lots more ideas on the list for if I ever get any time!

Moggi

A last post for a few days and yes, yet another quick card!

This was a last minute Anniversary request from work.

We decided a cat theme would be good and this cute little die cut is from a Lily of the Valley sheet.

I punched out a couple of circles in matching colours and layered on an A5 card which I covered in a sheet of paper from a Born to Shop pad I think which matches really nicely.

Peel off sentiment on matching layers and some sparkly card candy in the corners to finish off.

I'll be back in a few days with the Christmas rush!!

Beaded Beads!

Had a fun day out today attending one of Val's workshops.

We learnt peyote stitch and then how to turn a peyote tube into a beaded bead.

Val had some bags of lovely colour assortments for us to choose from, they were all great but I opted for the lovely shades you can see in the picture. I completed all 3 beads and will now hunt around to see if I have enough matching items to make a necklace.

Bracelet

Sorry the picture isn't the best - managed not to get to take one in daylight for the second day in a row!

This is the infamous elastic-stringed affair I had a scrap with the other night.

This was a kit I bought from Beadsisters a long time ago. It is a safety pin bracelet. Each pin has a selection of different beads threaded on. I actually did this part at least a year ago and then mislaid the elastic thread, I could easily of bought some more but kind of neglected to do that and it finally turned up last week!

The safety pins were then threaded on to the elastic 'top to tail' to the desired length. The instructions asked for a reef knot to fasten the elastic but my trusty ex-scout couldn't make that work, I tried various options that also just undid themselves straight away and then found instructions for a surgeons' knot which worked perfectly.

For the final drama in what really should all of been much less of a fuss I bought some super strength superglue. Much to Graeme's amusement I put some of this on each knot (it was much runnier than I expected) - it immediately went on my fingers which then stuck together, there wasn't even a small period of stickiness, it was just instant stuck together - apparently this was hilarious!

Anyway, fingers unstuck, knots tied and currently stable the bracelet is ready to go!

Autumn Leaves

Not quite a card today - I have been messing with a few things in between feeling rather germy but don't seem to have much of sense to show! I did try to finish a bracelet I started ages ago but am struggling to tie knots in the elastic that stay (all suggestions welcome).

So here is a picture from Stourhead at the weekend. Went out for a bit of fresh air and amazingly managed to get an hour on Saturday when we didn't have thunder, lightning, rain or hail and it was lovely (it rained when we were having a cream tea afterwards - good treatment for colds I think!).

Definitely worth a visit at the moment for the lovely colours.

Sheep

After the quilled sheep episode today's post is a rather speedier affair!

Still seem to have no time for xmas but made a small amount on Monday (in between still trying to find a work surface) to try these sheep.

This is an image printed from CraftsuPrint. The A4 sheet contains one large image and is a side stacker (or whatever similar name you know them as). The large picture is mounted on a bit of white card, then blue so that it stands out. Four more pieces are then cut out, the picture doesn't show them up entirely. Each side has another 2 'steps' of the picture with a wavy edge down the side so it gives a bit of depth and something more than just a flat picture. I think they are rather sweet!

Workshop Card

This is one of the sample cards I made to inflict on everyone at Crafty Bunch this week!

I wanted to do something we hadn't done before but something that also made a decent card. Luckily I had already dropped a couple of ideas and not run with quilling chocolates that I had been asked for (!) so ended up with this pretty candle and poinsettia card.

I tried (honestly) not to make it too traumatic. The candle, wick and poinsettia petals are all quilled shapes made with 1/4 of a strip. The holly leaves were 1/2 strip and the poinsettia centres are 1/4 strip but 1.5mm so they don't stick out too much on the card.

The leaves & berries in the corners of the card were 1/4 strips again.

I know a few people seemed a bit traumatised by the experience but hope they will try quilling again! I was very impressed that the 3 new ladies soldiered on until they had finished, even though everyones work seemed to come out in miniature this time.

Cakes!

As promised - some pictures of the quilled piece that came up against yesterday's alphabet blocks!

This fabulous piece was made by Jane Jenkins. Unfortunately the lighting wasn't great in the room for photos but hopefully you get the idea - another one just to admire!

Alphabet

A couple of pics from the AGM today. These fabulous blocks were entered in the Masters Category by Leslie Davies. Everyone just stood in awe and stared at them, I think they are great.

One side of the multi-colour blocks has a capital letter. The outline of the letter has been filled with many different shapes and sizes of quilling. The other side of the block has a lower case letter with corresponding animal - these were also brilliant.

Although there were only 2 entries in this category it was very hard to choose, I will post the other one tomorrow, Leslie did get first prize for these though.

1st Birthday

Another commission today for a first birthday.

I used the little boy die cut decoupage that came with a DOCrafts goody bag a few months ago.

I mounted it on to blue card and cut round it so it stood out a little from the background.

To the card I stuck a piece of birthday paper from the stash, mainly chosen because I believe Charlie is a fan of cake! To personalise I added a '1' to the boys balloon and punched some smaller ones and added peel-off letters to spell his name.

Another quilling workshop tomorrow, I'm sure I used to have more time than this!

Flowers

A card today inspired by my recent Quilling trip.

A dutch quiller that came over for the weekend had some beautiful cards that used some laser cut background pieces. As I had one in the stash I used that for this birthday card.

The pale yellow flowers were also something we admired although I couldn't quite get the colour I wanted from them!

The petals are solid coils with domed middles which are then pinched into a petal shape.

Some leaves and stems in a lovely pale green fit snuggly in the middle oval.

I layered the card on some nice sparkly gold card I have and added some Papermania gems to all the flower centres to finish with a bit of sparkle!

Demo

Just been to a little Stampin' Up workshop (as you do!).

Saving pennies for another one in November but

it is very scary how stamps that look nothing in the catalogue become very appealing when you play with them. I just see that Jenny (I will add a link but need to finish a card before I go to bed!) has used the Ornate Flowers set that I wouldn't of looked at - very appealing and I only played with it because I asked to see what the new clear stamps looked like!

Anyway, this was a little card we did as a make and take. It used the scallop border punch, a stamping wheel, ribbon, Oval All stamp set and the lovely oval punches - a very tempting set of goodies if you are just starting out, and such lovely colour card.

Bauble

Especially for Val a xmas bauble this afternoon!

We happened to meet at our local craft establishment at a demo this morning and were made to buy the latest goody bag with a Papermania Bauble template in!

I cut a smaller bauble in card and stuck this larger one to it using paper from the Forever Friends Cosy Christmas pack.

The bauble top and strip through the middle are in a lovely sparkly gold card I have.

Holly leaves are an X-Cut punch and some little gems for berries with gold card candy in the corners.

The tree branch is from a pack of Craft Planet Canadian Pine Stems I quite fancied for the purpose!

Not amazing but fairly pleased for a first go and means I have used some new stuff!

Shakespeare

A quick pic of Anne Hathaway's Cottage near Stratford-Upon-Avon today.

I can highly recommend a visit to Stratford. This house was lovely and really interesting to see. Wouldn't like to go peak holiday season though as 5 coaches came and went while we had coffee, there were just 6 of us wandering round the house when we went in, they can have 3 bus loads in the house at once when really busy!

The house came with a lovely kitchen garden, sculpture garden and woodland walk. Then we visited Shakespeares birthplace and a couple of other buildings in the town (after lunch obviously!) - well worth a visit and at half way home from Sheffield a good excuse for another night away.

Back to some crafty posts tomorrow, although I am also hoping to find my work surface again over the weekend.

Holidays

A couple of holiday snaps today (well, there were going to be two but I keep deleting the second one - I'll add another tomorrow!).

Had a day at Chatsworth House as we stayed so close, first went there MANY years ago. The day started out very gloomy and freezing cold. By the time we had spent 2 hours in the house and had an excellent lunch the sun came out and it was lovely.

The grounds are really nice and we could of spent even longer there exploring. A very good value for money day out with a superb farm shop with restaurant round the corner, which also supplied some very yummy sausages to the House cafe for our lunch!!

Seasons

So, I finally finished my project that has just made a trip to the Quilling AGM up near Sheffield.

Somerset had a display table which we entitled 'The Four Seasons'. I made this piece in a lovely box frame featuring sheep!

The sheep are a design by Diane Boden Crane that I made larger to fill the squares better. Their fleece is tiny trimmed spirals which are also used for making Diane's quilled chocolates.

I've added a few bits to each season - crocus, sunflowers, autumn leaves, xmas tree to make them suitable and lightly chalked the backgrounds of each square to give a tint of

colour to suit.

This is a close up of autumn. I quilled a tree trunk and have made some leaves in various autumnal colours and then had to add a little fringed hedgehog.

Some of the work at the AGM was amazing so I will see what other pictures I can find to share (I took many!).

I also managed to visit Chatsworth House and Stratford-Upon-Avon on my travels, so a busy few days - back to it now though as still lots to do and 3 quilling workshops in the next 2 weeks!!

No picture!

I was going to add one last picture before I don't post for a few days but because it's late my computer isn't quite doing what I want and I need to go to bed!!

A few days off from blogging I'm afraid whilst I go quilling and sightseeing 'up north'!!

Lots of new pics next week including the secret project which is finally packed and ready for a holiday.

Shopping

Got a colleague leaving at work this week and this is so very her I had to make a little going away picture.

The image is a free stamp from a Creativity magazine which I coloured with copics. The wording is from one of the Born to Shop stamp sets. Just simply backed this with a spare piece of card and mounted it on to a background of co-ordinating Born to Shop paper and then popped it in a little frame.

Shoes

I will make a more complicated card one today - honest!!

Nearly finished the quilling now - handy as I leave on Thursday for my little trip.

Although this card is rather straight forward I am quite pleased with it and hope the lady it was made for is too as she is rather a shoe fan!

Main image is a Born to Shop embossing folder, using some lovely pearl card from AnnaMarie designs.

This is simply layered on white and matching pearl paper, some papermania gems in the corners of the white layer and some matching card candy in the corners of the main card.

Some smaller papermania gems add a touch of sparkle to the dress and hey presto!

'Evenin' All!'

Apologies all my recent posts have been rather quick on flying past - the end of my 'Quillathon' is nearly there!

Had rather a lot of commissions this month to add to the hectic time I've already made for myself.

This is for a dog loving friend whose partner is a policeman and was all a very specific request.

The back of the card is stencilled with paw prints - using ye olde technique of a lightbox! The Policeman is a 3D sheet I had from paper laughs I think.

The 3 dogs are from the Pepper and Friends range and all stamped individually, touched up with a little bit of colour (their dogs are brown and white) with copics and cut out.

1st Birthday

It is my niece Gemma's Birthday tomorrow. This sweet rabbit is a Marianne Design stencil called eline's cuddly animals, you get two in a pack - one to emboss and one to stitch. I have the giraffe, I borrowed this rabbit from a friend.

Stitched with white thread on pink card, good for using some thread bits and bobs, little pink ribbon added. Some Anita's crystals in the corners and layers of pink card for a girly theme.

Letters cut using stencils and Impress machine.

More Emerald!

Another Emerald card.

Managed a quick bit of quilling. Some flowers made from teardrops with little leaves and some scrolls between.

Couple of quilled hearts and a solid coil to place a '55' on.

Number and greeting were peel offs that I coloured to match the theme.

The flowers are made with lovely dutch paper that is edged with shiny green.

Time is flying by, still behind with my quilling and many commission requests keep flooding which I never like to turn away.

Never mind, just another week before I can have a rest!

Emerald Anniversary

So, finally sorted the Emerald Anniversary card - thanks to Val for her suggestion it was green!

There was a requirement for it to be 8x8" and have specific wording on it.

I chose the above design (adapted from the wedding cards I have also done in this style) because I think it is quite effective and isn't too flowery etc.

Tags punched out in different shades of green card, some with a parchment tag over the top, selection of heart punches etc and a touch of golf!

Must try one of these tag cards in a different theme sometime.

Giraffes

Well, haven't really been near any quilling all weekend which is no good for anything really!

Made all sorts of cards on request though, including 15 invitations for my Godsons upcoming 2nd Birthday party!

The stamp is from a Woodware clear set called Jungle Pals - isn't he cute?

Coloured him simply with copics and layered to suit the card and make him stand out.

Invitation stamp is from a DOCrafts Forever Friends set that I also touched up with a yellow copic and layered.

A slight distraction but I was quite pleased with the result and look forward to the soft play birthday party!!

Buzz

Today is the birthday of my nephew Toby - you might be able to tell he is rather a fan of Buzz Lightyear at the moment!!

For this 8x8" card I used a sheet of Toy Story wrapping paper and cut out 2 images which I mounted on card to make them a bit stronger. The bottom layer was stuck on card to match the background, then mounted on some white for contrast.

Message and number were cut out using my impress machine, the '3' mounted on the SU oval punches.

Squiggles and stars to finish off are peel offs from the stash.

Another Wedding!

And the same again while we are on a roll!

Colour to match bridesmaids etc and an Anita's stamp for 'Wedding Wishes'.

Everything else very similar to the last post!!

Wedding

Can post this now the event has passed!

This is one I've done a few of recently in different colours.

The stamps are two individual Hobby Art ones, layered on colours to match the wedding with the flowers also given a hint of colour.

Stamps around the edge are Anita's 'See-D's', the Romance & Whimsical Garden Collection in subtle greens with the little heart also added in matching colour.

In this case I have printed out the wording. Flowers punched out using 2 different punches stuck together around the arch with a spot of stickles in the middle.

If anyone has any suggestions for an Emerald wedding card for a man I'm all ears!!!

Xmas Robins

Today's latest quick and easy card is using a stamp I felt the need to buy after visiting Blade Rubber Stamps in London last week - I had to, it's opposite the British Museum and somehow I've never managed to go when it was open!

The stamp is one of their own called Birdtree.

I've just added some colour with copics, a little bit of stickles on the snow then covered the whole piece in holographic powder for a bit more sparkle.

Thanks

Another flying post. Might of blogged a sample of this before but needed a quick Thank You card and the SU Vintage Vogue stamps were still readily accessible!!

Using the SU stamp-a-ma-jig as well I've positioned the pretty leaf spray in each corner and the little flower either side - also using the imperial purple ink from yesterday.

SU Thank You stamp, also punched out with scalloped SU square (whoever introduced me to these products?!). A square and strip of purple to match and mounted on card of same colour.

Have also managed a spot of secret quilling but won't be posting again until the weekend - sorry Janet!

Friends

Another outing for the Stampin' Up Vintage Vogue set.

I very much stole this card idea from somewhere on the internet!

Background card from the stash is stamped using versafine imperial purple which has come up really nicely.

A few different versacolor pads were used for the 2 sizes of flowers which were then cut out. A matching brad in the middle of the big flowers and the 'F' is cut out a second time and stuck on with 3d pads for a bit of dimension.

Additional purple layer with border cut using SU punch (which I have been looking for and finally found it had fallen in a bag!).

Birthday Bike

Another cycle card today. No great skill really required I'm afraid but not bad for something different.

Images (including background) are from CraftsUPrint.

Pyramage layers printed out and layered up with 3d pads, layered on to backing paper and some black card to show it up nicely.

Greeting was also on sheet (along with lots of other options) so something I could use a few times for all the bikey people we know!

Secret!

Made the mistake the other day of saying I hadn't posted as much because I was squirreling away with something which I wouldn't post for a few weeks!

I am 'trying' to work on some pieces for the Quilling AGM in September - which is sneaking up far too quickly for my liking.

Anyway, this is what I am working with and I hope it looks somewhat more spectacular come the end of next month - watch this space!

(Anyone that had an extra clue will be slightly wiser but actual subject matter is still secret!).

Test

Had a quick blog chat this evening with Jose, I could do with spending some time playing with links and seeing what else I can do on my blog, but you know how it is!

In the meantime I am going to try and recommend Jose's blog for you to visit as she kindly gave me some pointers this evening: Visit the blog at http://josesjottings.blogspot.com/ - if this link hasn't worked I know I will be hearing about it! Now on to fix the other things I seem to have a few issues with!!

If I had finished a card this evening I would post it - but I didn't - wasn't entirely happy with my photo transferring but will have another go (one day).

Anyone for Tennis?

I am still here! In between fighting my way back in to the small corner I have to craft in I have been trying to get some quilling together but for some secret projects that won't be blogged for a few more weeks yet (if I ever finish them).

Anyway, this card was for my sister-in-laws birthday.

It was a sheet of decoupage from Craft Creations with quite a few layers in it, even the ball 'swoosh' had a couple of layers!

I layered the background on white and tennis ball green, used a greeting also from the pack and finished the corners with some matching card candy.

Bike Card

The latest variation on a cycling Thank You card forall the people that assisted Graeme's club in a series of races.

If anyone knows of any good dies, stamps (other than LOTV), punches etc of anything to do with road racing please let me know!

For this card I used a sizzix die through the cuttlebug to leave a bike shaped space in a piece of white card. I then punched the corners with my new EK Success Swiss Cheese punch and the bottom with the matching border (aren't they fab?).

A blue Thank You stamp and this piece of card was stuck on a red base card (the team colours are red, white and blue).

The bike was then cut out again, this time in blue, and affixed to the space with sticky fixers.

A treat!

Just back from a bit of a jaunt to Manchester velodrome for Graeme to take on the Europeans! Got a bronze, a couple of French men were a bit too fast, then had a family wedding so been missing for a few days.

Thanks for the lovely crafty birthday cards I received. I was also lucky enough to get a few spends and along with a fab deal on Ebay I have a new box of lovely polychromos pencils - seems a shame to use them doesn't it!!

Pink

A last post for a few days as out and about. This is another request for someone at work.

It is a lovely big A4 card with lots of different sizes and shapes of quilled flowers, including a few nice big fringed flowers.

Some peel offs explain everything else!

As I've just played 2 hours of badminton in this heat I think that's all the words I can muster!

Jill

Dexter Dog

Had been struggling to find a suitable idea for a card for someone (amazing isn't it, even when you have so much!!), until I found this chappy!

Dexter Dog is an image from DigiStamp Boutique - I can see how these digi stamps become addictive and I think I might be using this one a fair bit.

I coloured him with copics, cutting him out twice so the top one gives a 3D effect. I used a touch of fluffy stuff for the beer top and layered on a selection of card, using my EK Success paw punch to break the lines up - thanks to Michelle for sending me a birthday card which I blatantly stole for inspiration here!!

Peel off greeting on layers of matching card to finish.