Girl on a Swing

Another card from me this morning and this time it actually a gift card to put some money in.

I’ve used this latest template from Sweet Sketch Wednesday

and a digi from Dearie Dolls Digis which is a great site for free digital images.

Here’s my card

I’m entering this into the following challenges:-


Crafty Calendar – Fun in the Sun

Digi Haven Fun in the Sun

I Love Promarkers - Promarkers & Circles


Card Stock and Papers - Craft Creations White Hammer. Crafts House – Tutti Frutti
Distress Ink – Worn Lipstick, Spun Sugar & Squeezed Lemonade
Dies – Nestabilities Standard Circles Large & Tear Drop Circles
Digital Image – Girl on a Swing from Dearie Dolls
Embossing Folder – Free from a magazine
Pens – Promarkers
Pearls – Bling Bling
Glitter – Stardust Stickles
Sentiment – Craft Works Cards
Ribbon – from stash

Have a great day and thanks for your visit.

Happy Crafting!

Sue
x

WOYWW #159 - Back to Normal…………………………..

Well, sort of.


The decorating is all finished now and I have to say I’m pleased with it, despite the upheaval of last week.

Most stuff is back in its rightful place but I’ve gone into cleaning mode and have spent the last couple of days sorting out some of the toot that has accumulated in the kitchen cupboards over the years.

It’s surprising what you find lurking in the dark corners and I’m ashamed to say I came across jars of herbs dated 2005…..shock….horror.   But in my defence, I’ve grown my own for years now and use fresh herbs when I cook so I’ve not been in danger of poisoning anyone, Lol!

As you can imagine, it’s been a busy old week and now, here we are at the middle of the week again which can only mean one thing, What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday!
Thanks to Julia,  The Stamping Ground  becomes the meeting place for lots of nosey crafters who like nothing better than a good old snooping at what’s on your desk, so why not nip across to her blog and join in, I’ll be doing exactly that when I get back this afternoon. 

Here's my space this week.

This picture was taken last night and my desk is not in too bad a state for a change.

You can see my little fold up table is beside my desk with my Promarkes on and at the back of the table is the card I finished on Monday for one of my friends twin Grandchildren, which is still awaiting it’s insert.
I used some Pee Wee glitter on part of the background of it and now I have glitter everywhere.
The table, my clothes, even BoJangles has a nice glittery coat despite the fact that thought I had cleared it all up last night…......obviously didn’t make a very good job of it.


On the cutting mat is the birthday card for the other twin and to the Left is the stack of MME papers that I was using.

The card is finished now and I used the template from last Tuesdays challenge over at Skipping Stones Design but I was too late to enter it.

I tried to make it look like the little boy, who is another digi stamp from Mo’s Digital Pencil was skateboarding down diagonal edge of the pocket.

The only other thing that might be of interest is my bargain Sizzix 'Nouvau' alphabet. 
Now when I say bargain, I mean bargain because if I remember correctly I managed to grab this back in 2004 when it was listed on a web site (sorry, can't remember where) for the incorrect price of around £20.  It was a massive mistake on their part because they were selling for around £60 at the time and everyone on the forum I belonged to was buying them, but to give them their dues, they fulfilled every order that was placed before the mistake was found.

I’m off to meet my friend Susan and her hubby at the garden centre now for a spot of lunch before the weather changes again…….you have to make hay while the sun is shining!

Happy Crafting!

Sue

x

I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles!

I seem to be using more and more digi stamps these days especially when I just want to colour but it will never stop me using conventional stamps.
There are so many techniques that you can do with rubber or acrylic stamps so they will never be replaced entirely but what I love about digi stamps is that you can make the image whatever size you like, opening it up to so many possibilities.

I fell in love with this digi image as soon as I saw it.

It’s from   Mo’s Digital Pencil  and is called   Fairy Tabia.

I’ve used a few of Mo’s images in the past and knew it would be fantastic, so when my friend Hazel asked me to make birthday cards from her grandchildren, the twins I made the Christening Cards for a couple of weeks ago, I knew exactly what I was going to use.

For my starting point I’ve used this template from  A Gem of a Challenge #48

and then doubled up on the challenges by working with the colour inspiration from The Ribbon Girl – Challenge #20

Here’s a close up of some of the detail.

Her wings have been painted with Pearl Ex-Press water colours to give a pretty iridescent shine when the light hits them and her bubbles are tiny pearls.

Thanks for dropping by.

Happy Crafting!
Sue
x

Happy New Year everyone!

No partying for me last night but I did see the New Year in with some very special people.

My God daughter Nichola & her husband Paul invited me to join Nichola’s Mum and Dad and Paul’s Mum for a games night.
We played a DVD horse racing game first and most impressively I didn’t manage to win one single race, then true to form I finished almost last in Trivial Pursuits too, Lol!

Still, I was all good fun and we had a bit of a laugh.

I hope you all had a good evening too.


So now, I’ve just got home after staying the night at Sue & Edd's and after a quick shower and change of clothes I’m off out again for lunch over at my brothers house, but before I go I wanted to share with you my first challenge card of 2012.

It’s a template challenge set before Christmas by the Crafty Ribbons challenge blog, but it’s still running so I thought I would use the template to make a birthday card.

Here’s the template:-

And here’s my very first card of 2012:-

Thanks for stopping by and .......

Happy Crafting!
Sue
x

Baby, it’s cold outside!

And getting colder according to the weather forecast.

I shouldn’t complain because my little South East corner of the UK always seems to miss the worst of the bad weather and on the bright side the snow will help me acclimatize ready for a trip to the snow in Breckenridge, Denver. No skiing for me this year due to bad hip and knees but lots of Après-ski and shopping I hope!

Anyway, it’s Wednesday again so that means a photo of my desk today.

As it goes, there’s not much on there because I had a tidy up after finishing a couple of cards last night.


The stuff that’s on there now is all ready for me to make my Christmas tags this afternoon and when they are done I plan to wrap a few pressies.

The card that’s lying on the table is a card for my neighbor Pat from Bo Jangles (my cat) to say Thank You for taking such good care of him and feeding him so many times this year while I was otherwise occupied with family things.

He’s such a clever cat because he also brought her the most beautiful White Orchid in a Snowflake container from M&S!

I’m so lucky to have such a good friend on hand to help out at the drop of a hat and give me one less thing to worry about....I can’t thank her enough.

Here’s Bo Jangles card.


The two cards that I finished off last night were an order from a friend.
Each year she asks me to make her Christmas cards and every year she sets me a challenge with the two cards for her twin Grand Children who are 3 this year.

Last year it was Bob the Builder and a Princess which wasn’t too bad but this year I was stumped when she asked for Christmas cards with Buzz Lightyear and Woody on them........where to start!

Seeing as I’ve been experimenting with different folded cards this year, Easel Cards, Step Cards, and Swing Cards, I decided to have a go at something different again and went for Tri fold cards.




Oh well, that’s it from me this week as I’d best get on if I’m going to get these tags made and my pressies wrapped.

Don’t forget to stop by our leader Julia’s Blog and join in with ‘What’s On You Work Desk Wednesday’, it’s good fun having a good old snoop at other crafters workspaces.

Bye for now and thanks for stopping by.

Sue
x

Make A Child Smile

It’s a while since I’ve set a dare for the Daring Cardmakers but my turn has come round at last and I’ve decided to link it to Post Pals,
a charity I’ve been involved with for several years.

They are an organisation that was set up with the intension of sending cards, letters and post cards to children who have long term or terminal illnesses and it’s not until you go to their web site and read the children’s profiles that you realise just how much these children and their siblings suffer.
It must be so stressful for the families.

That’s why, when I’m cardmaking I like to make an extra one now and again to send to one of the children. All it costs me is the price of a stamp but it could make the world of difference to a sick child who needs to know someone is sending them love and thinking about them.
Well worth doing if you ask me!

So as I say, my dare this week is to make a card with a sick child in mind and send it to one of the children featured on the Post Pals web site………..simple!

I’ve use a pre coloured Digi Stamp on this card because the colours were a perfect match for the Crate Paper ‘Orbit’ Collection papers that I’ve used…..how lazy was that!

In my defence I did put a lot of extra work into the card to compensate, by adding lots of embossing, doodling and faux stitching.

After I had made my card I had a read of some of the children’s stories.
It makes difficult reading, I can say and it also made it very hard to choose just one child to send a card to. In hindsight, what I should have done is looked at the list first and made the card accordingly but I struck lucky when I came across a little boy called Jordan who likes anything to do with outer space, so it was perfect.
Jordan also has a sister so I decided to send her a card too.
There's blog candy up from grabs too because anyone who makes and sends a card to one of the children at Post Pals can enter the draw onAnn's blog, so why not join in. Not only will you be bringing a smile to a childs face, it could put a big smile on yours if you're lucky enough to be picked!

Card Blank – QVC Kit
Patterned Paper – Crate Paper (Orbit)
Digi Stamp – Digi Stamp Boutique (Out Of This World)
Inks –Ranger Distress Ink (Peeled Paint) Tsukineko StazOn (Black)
Dies – Sizzlets (Stars)
Embossing Folders – Cuttlebug (Spots& Dots, Tiny Bubbles)
Rubber Stamps – Studio G Alphabet Set
Pens – Sharpie (Black & White) Marvy LePlume (Green)
Glitter Glue – Stickles (Green) Craft Planet (Iridescent Sparkle)

Other BitsRibbon
Buttons
Green Embroidery Thread

Sketch Saturday #56

I'm just back from a rather 'LARGE' combined Father's Day/Birthday lunch for my dad and now I'm too stuffed to do anything at all other than put my feet up and be a couch potato for the rest of the evening.

But before I get myself settled with my needlework, I thought I would show you the card I made this morning .

Sketch Saturday has a fab template this week and I thought it would work well for a Second Birthday card I had to make. In fact it's one of four I have to do for a friend of mine because her daughter has twins.

Here’s the template:-

And here’s my card:-


She asked for a Princess on the card but I didn’t really have anything that I could use in amongst my craft paraphernalia so I had a look round for something that I could download.

I eventually found Cute Daisy May, who fits the bill perfectly I think!

I printed her out three times, once onto plain card and then onto two patterned papers and I ended up doing a combination of colouring, paper piecing and decoupage.

Once again the papers are from my 6 x 6 Basic Grey ‘Wisteria’ pad and I had the chance to use my new Hydrangea punch to make all the little flowers.

Card – Craft Creations (Embossed Linen)
Patterned Papers –Basic Grey (Wisteria)
Embossing Folders – Cuttlebug (Swiss Dots & Birds & Swirls
Digi Stamp – Cute Daisy May
Paper Punch – Martha Stewart (Hydrangeas) Fiskars Border Punch (Sunburst)
Inks –Versa Color (Olive) VersaMagic (Aegean Blue)
Glitter Glue – Stickles (Lime Green) Craft Planet (Iridescent Sparkle)
Pencils – Prisma Color Pencils
Gems – Anita’s Tiny Gems

Other Stuff
Ribbon
Computer Generated Greeting

Basic Grey - Challenge #31

This is another of the cards I managed to make this week.

It turned out to be a really bright and cheery card thanks to the gorgeous ‘Pheobe’ papers from Basic Grey and it wasn’t until this afternoon that I realised it fits in perfectly with this weeks challenge on the Basic Grey challenge site.

The cute little paper pieced birdie was a template that I found in an old copy of Paper Crafts.

Card – Craft Creations
Patterned Papers – Basic Grey, Pheobe
Gem Brad – K & Co
Flower Eyelet – K & Co
Ink – Ranger Distress Ink (Broken China)
Glitter Glue – Craft Planet (Iridescent Sparkle)
Dies – Spellbinder Nestabilities (Large Classic Scalloped Circle & Large Standard Circles)
Paper Punches – Mather Stewart (Cosmos) Small Flower unknown
Gems – Anita’s Tiny Gem Wheel

Other Stuff
Ribbon
Blooms
Small Brad
Computer generated greetings

Sketch Saturday #23

Another card made for the order that I’ve recently received and I’ve used yet another template.

This one’s from Sketch Saturday and it’s Coco’s first ever sketch. I have to say, she’s done a good job because I really did enjoy working from it and I’m sure that I’ll use it again.


Here’s my card……but be warned……it’s bright.


I think the construction of the card speaks for it’s self but I was having great problems sorting out what type of greeting to use.
Sometime I stamp them and other times I like to design and print them on my computer but in the end I decided to do something I’ve not done for a long time…….stamp directly onto the ribbon using Staz-On.


Card – Craft Creations, Creative Hammer Embossed, Bazzill Bling
Patterned Papers – Basic Grey Color Me Silly
Inks – Tsukineko Staz-On
Pencils – Prisma Color
Rubber Stamps – Stamps Away (Boy) Line Dots Alpha’s
Paint – Pébéo 3D Gloss Touch

Other BitsBrads
Photo Anchor’s
Ribbon

Spot the Difference

It’s Daring Cardmakers day today and oh boy has Rhi come up with a dare that's way too far out my comfort zone.

Hi, it's Rhi here this week to dare you, and it's...Journaling spots. They're used all the time in scrapbooking where it's extra personal to read someone's words and memories in their own hand. Use a journaling spot, be it stamped, premade, hand cut, digital or doodled, to frame your handwritten message on your card.

I’ve never even used hand written journaling spots on the few scrapbook layouts I’ve made so the thought of adding my own hand writing, which isn’t good at the best of time, to the front of a card, simply terrifies me. Could this be a dare too far?

No, of course not.
This may not be one of the best cards I’ve ever made but at least I’ve had a go.


I decided to keep it very simple and went with three little boats; all hand cut from Basic Grey Color Me Silly papers. I’ve added buttons for the port holes and the largest of the boats has an anchor charm attached.
My journaling spot is the largest sail and it reads….You sailed into my life and set anchor in my heart.
The waves have been stamped with ‘Broken China’ Distress ink and Technique Tuesday Whispy Gigs clear stamps and I finished off the card with some doodling and mock stitching.