Simple 60th for a man - using peeloffs!

What a rush, I realised my friend's husband's 60th was the next day and was under pressure to make a card from us in time to catch the post :( This is despite having a 'birthday book' of all the dates I need to make cards for - perhaps it would help if I checked it regularly!

I know that Ash likes all things to do with transport so I kept things very simple with a square white card, pearlised gold card and maroon Core'dinations card squares, topped off with white again. The car, clouds and lettering were all courtesy of gold peeloffs and then KanBan sparkly gems to brighten up the headlights and a few black ones to take away the bareness a bit. Then just a sprint to post it :))

Di
x

A card for Edward

Edward is a very special young man - and he adores his Westie, called Izzy. So, Izzy it had to be when I made his latest birthday card.

The decoupaged Westie image, doggie dish and ball were all from a decoupage sheet by Jolly Nation - of course the bowl didn't come with Izzy's name already on it....that would have been just tooooo much of a coincidence:)

The background (err, easel card again!) of grass and sky used card from my stash, the ribbon and button were also from my stash. The 'Happy, Happy Birthday' stamp is an Anita stamp. I got it ages ago from a rummage box in Hobbycraft - reduced. It has a little bit of rubber missing from one of the letters - probably why it was reduced - but it's a great stamp to use on lots of cards, especially for youngsters, and it's easy to fill in the missing bit with a teensy brush and some ink from the inkpad.

For Edward's name I stamped different coloured letters onto little squares of white card using a See-D's alphabet by Do Crafts - bought from Mad about Cards. These unmounted sets come in all shapes and sizes and cost about £1 a set. I just love Mad About Cards - they have ever-changing offers in their 'Pound Shop'....some bargains to be had here, and we all love a bargain!!! On hindsight perhaps I should have drawn a line joining the letters to make it look like bunting - but Edward was happy and that's good enough for me :)

Di
x

Same old, same old.........

This is a style I've used quite a bit, so apologies for putting these onto the blog but it does show how using different colours can totally change a card. Err, if you ignore poor quality of the first photo :(

The 80th birthday card was for one of my old school Matrons - from all of us in The Wilhelmshaven Association. Liselotte (or Lilo as she's fondly known) lives in Wilhelmshaven and does a lot of work for the Association. A little plug for the Association won't come amiss as we're always searching for ex-pupils. It was a British Forces boarding school in Germany and we have reunions, a website and regular newsletters - so if you know anyone who may have gone to Prince Rupert School in Wilhelmshaven, thousands of us did as there was a high turnover of pupils due to the nomadic life we led, please pass the message on! :) Link to our website is here


Back to the cards - Matron's was all sugar pink flowers and the 60th birthday card for Liz was in our old school colours of blue, white and silver (most of the teeny bouquets used flowers from Wild Orchid crafts). Liz is also one very special lady as she started the Association off in the first place - about 18 years ago now - and we all owe her a great deal. So many friendships have been rekindled thanks to Liz.

I hope you have happy memories of your schooldays :))

Di
x

Birthday card for a friend with a sense of humour :)

Last weekend I had a great time with two dear friends from my days at boarding school. Living away from home you do forge friendships that survive - for more years than I'm gonna admit!

One of the 'girlies' is fond of cats and this is the card I made for her birthday last year. She was sporting the chain and charms, carefully detached from the card, dangling from her telephone this weekend!

I used a scalloped card with a Core'dinations background. The image is Penny Black coloured with Twinkling H2Os - the sentiment is also Penny Black. The card candy, flowers, brad and charms were all from my stash.

Thanks for calling by :)

Di
x

Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do!

These cards all started when I got the little corrugated flower pots - I think from Mad About Cards in their wonderful website bargains section...and there are loads in the packet! These will appear on some Christmas cards I think!

I used paper daisies from the wedding section in Hobbbycraft - I like the fact that they aren't 'perfect' - much more realistic. The backing papers are from a Daisy and Dandelion Picnic Patch A5 paper collection, matted onto Coredinations cardstock... as ever. After sticking it all together I just added some pearly yellowy bits of muted 'bling' to some of the printed background daisies to 'lift' them a bit.

The wavy sentiment 'Hope you have a perfect day' is from Elzybells. Their closing down sale is still on and I've bought quite a few of their unbacked rubber sentiments at about £1 each. Brilliant value and excellent quality. The sentiment was stamped using Brilliance 'Sunflower Yellow' then embossed. I did all the sentiments in one go before tackling the other areas of the cards BTW. It does save the heartache of spoiling a finished card if you don't get the stamping just right :)

Di
x

Gorjuss 18th Birthday card

I made this at about 4am the other morning as a) I couldn't sleep and b) it was needed in a hurry for a friend's baby sister's 18th birthday.

I used a Gorjuss decoupage and, when assembled, layered it onto light brown background card (Core'dinations, again!). I cut this using a deckle blade in my Woodware trimmer. I love the trimmer and it's especially useful for scoring card using a different blade. The A5 deckle edged parchment effect card was a lucky find in my cardstock and the flowers and brads were from my stash as well - mostly Prima with some Papermania flowers mixed in.

The bow was tied with cream ribbon (it looks more cream in real life) edged with gold which came from Hobbycraft. I have quite a selection of ribbons in different colours and textures - it might be a throwback to when I went mad for pigtails and ribbons as a little girl I think :)

The lettering was done using gold peeloffs. For those rare creatures who still use peeloffs - one way to get the lettering absolutely straight and level is to use low tack sticky tape with a faint pencil line drawn just inside one edge. I find it easier to do this than to try to gently rub off pencil lines on the card itself. You can then mark the centre point for your lettering on the tape too. I find it easiest to write out the message on a spare slip of paper and then count the letters, find the middle and work outwards from there. Is this Granny sucking eggs stuff though?!

The insert was printed out, with a little Goruss image on the facing side opposite to the message - to tone with the front of the card of course - downloaded from the Internet. The edges of the insert were trimmed, again using the Woodware trimmer deckle blade.

Di
x

Baptism card for a little boy

Our neighbours have a lovely little boy, aged almost two. Sunday was his Baptism day and, as he's a toddler rather than a babe in arms, I didn't want to make too babyish a card. So I kept it very simple with pale blue DCWV paper - layered onto silver mirri card with a sort of watermark pattern on it. I then used peeloffs and some bling for the rest, with the cross embellishment on the front all toned in. The colours haven't come out at all well in this rather blurred photo of the card but I spotted it too late and couldn't really go and ask for it back to photograph again! The box was just tickled up with peeloffs again and tied with some ribbon from my stash (Hobbycraft). Sorry, I've tried all ways to post the photo of the box right way up but it insists on flipping itself sideways...even tried fooling it by rotatating it so it looked wrong in the first place to see if it would right itself.....no luck so I think it sussed what I was up too!!

On the subject of peeloffs, I've read a few 'sniffy' remarks on people's blogs lately about them. Many people are proclaiming they've ditched them and 'moved on'...presumably to 'better' things. I know there are so many ways of doing lettering and wording out there, a lot of which I do use - but peeloffs do have their place....and until someone comes up with silver or gold ink refills for my printer I shall continue to use them where I see fit! Rant over!! :)

Di
x

First try at 'distressing'....

....and Tim Holtz needn't worry about competition! :(

Having been a bit sceptical about distressing techniques I finally decided to have a little dip of a toe into the water. Hmmmm, this is the result!

For the background I just dabbed three distress ink pads (Dried Marigold, Peeled Paint and Walnut Stain.....aren't the names mouthwateringly great) onto my hot stuff mat and misted it with water. I then picked up the 'mess' with a piece of satin silk artcard from Inkylicious. This card is just great, it's at least 300gsm and I think anything less would have just freaked out at the amount of water I'd liberally sprayed! Then I dried it with my heat gun and stared at the resulting 'mess'. OK, so then I stamped a swirl (using a clear Inkadinkado stamp) in Walnut Stain...and this is where perhaps I should have left well alone. But, I misted again and lost the clear definition....boo,hoo!!

But, I'd gotten this far, so I carried out with my sows ear. I had to trim off the edges where the ink had 'pooled' a bit and then layered it onto a cream linen card. The little Gorjuss picture is from one of Gorjuss's sets of toppers and tags, the 'Dream' tag is a Tim Holtz Adage with a little bit of brown edging and the organza ribbon is from my stash (bound to be from Hobbycraft!).

Tentatively I asked the opinion of my 'in-house critic' and was told it looks a 'bit Goth-like'. Yay, just what I'd been trying to achieve - bemused look when I punched the air and hollered 'YESS!!'.

I think this distressing lark is great fun and doubt if you get the same result twice....hopefully the next try WON'T be the same...I want it to be an improvement!!

Learning all zee time though :)

Di
x

A taste of the Orient

I spotted these 'cheongsam dress' peeloffs, by Anita, in The Range. Each sheet has four different designs with complimenting fans and a few flowers/embellies - they come in silver or gold. It was my first visit to one of their stores and it was like an Aladdin's Cave, so much so that I bought very little, there was too much to take in!

My mind was taken back to three fabulous years I spent in Singapore as an Army Brat a child, from the ages of 10 to 13, many years ago. What magical days those were! I always yearned to be the owner of a cheongsam, I had the slim figure then too :( Obviously I was too young to be wearing such exotic dresses but my Mum did relent and buy me some beautiful pink brocade PJ's with the top in cheongsam style! Much too hot to sleep in, no air. con in those days, just swishing ceiling fans...but great for dressing up in!


The dresses, fans and some embellies were made by sticking the peeloffs to pearlised paper from my stash and then trimming round the shapes. I've had the paper for ages and wish I could find the same pad again :( The paper down the left hand side of the card is from the Papermania Capsule Collection, silver self adhesive flowers strip from my stash (QVC), the sentiment is from Craftwork Cards and I just added a few clear diamantes (KanBan)to add a bit of 'bling'.

Di
x

Flexible friends

A little bit fiddly but another venture into paper piecing. The image is a 'My Favourite Things' clear acrylic stamp from Dies to Die for - quite small so a little bit tricky - the hardest bit was cutting out the point where the finger and thumb meet forming a circle. Luckily I have a tiny little hole punch....I just knew that would come in 'handy' (pun intended) one day!

The white card was embossed using a Cuttlebug Butterflies folder, and the image was stamped onto white paper for the upper body and bare foot (then coloured with flesh pink watercolour pencil), lilac marbled effect paper for the background, plain lilac paper for the yoga mat, and patterned deeper lilac paper for the yoga outfit. All from my stash. After careful assembly, praying that I didn't lose bits as I made several in one go, the completed image was layered onto deep lilac Core'dinations card, as was the sentiment (also in the stamp set) after being stamped onto lilac marbled efect paper.

For a finishing touch I just added a couple of butterflies - these are so pretty and don't show up so well in my piccie :( They are three dimensional so the wings are two layers and the top layer stands proud really giving the impression that they are fluttering. I think I got them in Hobbycraft a while ago.

My yoga days are over but I liked the link with the sentiment!

Di
x

Red roses on your Wedding Day!

I made this card last year for a friend's wedding. Her bouquet was going to be predominantly deep red roses (that took a bit of finding out!) and I used a style of card I've used quite a bit over the years which features a rose bouquet as the centrepiece.

The A5 aperture card was from CraftCreations, as was the box. The boxes come flatpacked and are really easy to make up.

First I used some holographic silver sticky backing from my stash behind the aperture and in the base of the box (both before making up of course :)

For the card I made a little bouquet of deep red roses from Wild Orchid Crafts mixed with some really delicate white organza lily-type flowers with long pearl stamens which I'm sure also came from there. Added a few white satin roses with diamante centres and some little silver leaves. These were from my stash but I'm sure Hobbycraft have similar in their wedding stationery section. The stems of the flowers and leaves were then bound with white and silver organza ribbon from Hobbycraft and finished off with little tied ends. The finished bouquet was stuck onto the card using ultra sticky tape The white satin ribbon with the heart sliders on was from Hobbycraft - just right as it had little white roses embroidered on it:) Heart sliders were from www.diamante-buckles.co.uk - they do other shapes such as round and square ones. They really do sparkle too!

The silver bell embellishments came from a local cake decorating shop - I just snipped the pointy bits off the back and attached with ultra sticky tape :) Then some clear bling either side of Best Wishes and Julie and Steve's names using my trusty peeloffs.

As I said, the box was simple to assemble - so long as you remember to line the base beforehand - not that it's always essential. I then decorated the top of the lid with peeloffs, a little bit of red glitter pen (Sakura) on the rose peeloffs and a couple of white glitter heart motifs with some teeny red 'jewels' from my stash. The glitter heart motifs came from The Crafty Cow.

Sorry about the lack of links - not playing ball today for some reason :(

The wedding was lovely, the bride looked stunning and everyone had a wonderful time by the way!

Di
x

A simple 'Thank You'

These are a good standby - quickly made with cream linen card topped with gold mirri card then a stamped image of trees (from a clear KanBan set), a peeloff 'Thank you' and fuzzy owl sticker by Sandylion. I love Sandylion stickers but it's very much hit and miss finding them in my local garden centre. Pot luck I think it's called!

Di
x

Paper roses

I've been wanting to try this idea out for a while. Last weekend I nipped into our local Hospice Shop and found a French Dictionery for the grand amount of 75p. This is what I did:

1. Tear out a couple of pages per rose. The dictionery was quite battered so I don't feel too guilty about attacking it!




2. Spray the pages with Memory Mists - I used Pale Ale and Strawberry Daiquiri. I've had the Mists for ages and had never used them until now - need practise I think as it came out a bit blotchy :(



3. Once the pages are dry (they took forever due to my heavy handedness!) then punch out two flower shapes per rose using a large Woodware punch.



4. Then snip petal pieces out as shown in the piccie - I concentrated on the Strawberry Daiquiri rose for now.




5. Now it begins to take shape - overlap and glue the petals as you can see in the piccie - good old fashioned paperclips come in handy at this stage. The two small centre pieces were sort of rolled together after I'd taken this piccie. The bottom end of all pieces should then be snipped off so that the rose will sit flat.




6. Finally, the rose was assembled working from the outside in using Hi-Tack glue to hold the centres of the layers together and curling the petals as I went.

7. Et voilà, c'est fini!




Things I would do differently - before assembling I'd 'sparkle' the edges of the petals, it's too tricky once it's done (for me at least). Have been a naughty girl and ordered some Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads online along with a pack of ordinary water Mister Sprays. From what I've seen I think Tim's luscious colours will be just right for more of these roses - they are quite big, about 2" across...so I'll just have to make some bigger cards won't I?!

Di
x

House Mouse bathtime

Got these decoupage sheets from Joanna Sheen's online shop. I love House Mouse images and have a few stamps but this was my first venture into House Mouse decoupage. Normally I really enjoy decoupage but this image is the easiest one - the pack comes with some really tricky and intricate ones which will certainly test my patience :) Accidentally snipping off little tails and paws will upset me I know :(

Having said that, they are sooo cute it's worth trying to Percy-Vere!!

I highlighted the 'floating into the air bubbles' with Anita's Glaze and mounted the decoupaged image onto Core'dinations light brown card (I love these packs of card, from QVC, never stuck for a colour...as yet!), then onto a cream linen card and just topped it off with a bit of perfectly matching ribbon from my stash. The ribbon comes from Hobbycraft, it has silver glitter swirls on and they do quite a variety of colours. The only thing is, it's wired, but pulling the thin wire out from each edge is easy and worth the little bit of extra time it takes.

Di
x

Teensy doggies

Following on from my previous post, I made more cards for charity using the same technique, and more of my scraps of card (at this rate I'll be at it forever!) - this time with ickle doggie stickers from Accessorize. Very small 'woofs' from these ones :)

Di
x

Ink pad colour swatch

A 'simples' idea which I came across a while back on someone's Blog - and once done it saves time wasted on scrabbling/testing for ink pad colours. It's self-explanatory really - just cut squares of white card about 1.5" - 2.0" square, punch holes in one corner, dab some of each inkpad on the front of each square and write (I printed labels) onto the back - name of brand/colour of inkpad. Then use a round ring of any sort but it should unclip so you can add future colours - I bought my slightly oval ones in Hobbycraft. Easy and it does save precious moments, which all add up!

Di
x

Birthday card - meeces party!

On a brighter note following my previous post - I recently made this card for my step-mum and it's being posted today in time for her birthday on Monday....she loves cute cards. I know I'm safe posting this on the Blog BTW!

It's an easel card - a style I love making. The image is Penny Black's 'Cheesecake Party' and the stamped sentiment is by Hero Arts - stamped using a Dewdrops Brilliance inkpad in Pearlescent Orchid. I stamped the images onto die-cut backgrounds which were cut using my 'Nesties' - and I used watercolour pencils to colour the meece etc with a little bit of Anita's glaze to highlight the candle wax. The background card is by KanBan from QVC and the button and spotty ribbon, plus the lace, self adhesive pink ribbon and litle pink gems are from my stash.

It's her birthday on Monday and as she lives over 300 miles away I hope she has a lovely day and that M&S deliver her flowers in good time :)

Di
x

Brick wall card - salvaged!

Saw this idea in a tutorial on the Web and had to give it a try! Great fun - so long as you don't lose track of the cut out pieces :( - and so long as you don't do as I did and think you've got the image centred on a card, without taking into account the fact that the 'gaps in the brickwork' will mean that the image ends up not quite where you expected!

However, all was not lost (thankfully after all the fiddling around with little pieces of card) - I trimmed the end result and then layered it up a bit.

I used background card for the brick wall from a pack of Papermania's Capsule Collection - Sunshine is the name of the pack designed by Tina Higgins, the image was stamped in black using a clear acrylic stamp by Habico from their Chinese Flowers set...I think it might have looked better if I'd then embossed it but my heat gun isn't playing ball right now. This one is peonies - my favourite flower, and I spied fresh bunches of them last week in Sainsburys! Time for a little treat I think :)

The rescue of the botched attempt used ordinary black card and Core'dinations orange card and some orange card candy to try to pull it all together....and to make it less sombre (OH's observation when I was fiddling round trying to decide how to salvage things!).

Di
x

Shop Window card

Before I say anything else, a confession! I got this idea from a great Blog that I follow - which belongs to another Di! She has some great ideas and is thankfully happy for others to use them so long as they acknowledge the fact. So here's the Blog (go see!) http://onthecards.blogspot.com/ - and a big thank you to Di for the idea.

These cards were great fun to make and my first try at 'paper piecing' - I used a clear stamp set by My Favourite Things from Dies to Die For http://www.diestodiefor.com/




The dresses, boots and backing layers are on paper from a Daisy and Dandelion paper pack - 'Candyfloss and Marshmallow Some bunny loves you'... from Hobbycraft. The plain backing card is by Core'dinations from QVC...loads of yummy colours and I always seem to find what I need from this set of four packs of card. The flowers and brads are from my stash and the bit of colouring I did was a mix of watercolour pencils and Whispers pens.

Next time I think I'll try using smaller card stock just with a toning card layer behind the image and miss out using the spotty paper as a background - am I mean or what? :)

Remember, I got this idea from another Di's Blog!!

Di
x

New baby cards

These cards were so quick and easy to make - a real cheat. I bought the lovely tactile felted teddy embellishments in Germany - not cheap at about £1 per card, but too cute to resist. I used scalloped edged cards from Craftwork cards, and the background papers are (again!) wrapping paper. The sentiments are from my peeloff stash, the ribbon is also from my stash - and I resisted the urge to stick little pearls round the edges for fear of overdoing things :)

Di
x

Christening card

I made this card for a very special little girl (my OH's grand daughter) who was baptised in Germany a week ago. She hardly whimpered when the water was poured over her head - I however did whimper in sympathy! Olivia, or Livvy as we know her, is a delightful little girl - aged 6 months, and her older sister Mia (aged two and a half) is my little best friend :)

For the card I used one of my current favourites - a kenetic design.  Much cautious waving of craft knife here I should add. Apparently there's a new cutting tool about called 'The Slice' which has a safe ceramic blade. Available from Joanna Sheen - http://www.joannasheen.co.uk/ - it's £5.99 with free postage. It's out of stock right now but on my 'must have' list!

I used bright shiny silver mirri card with DCWV Luxury Stack baby pink to layer oblongs and cover the base card. The pearl flowers are by Craft Creatives from The Works, mulberry paper Bible from Craftsite and I embossed in silver the 'Christening' word using an Inca stamp from Hobbycraft. All other lettering was done by hand using peeloffs - and all other embellies are also peeloffs from my stash.

Of course Livvy is too young to really notice - but her Mum and Dad liked it!!

Di
x

Butterflies card

Butterflies seem to be a popular theme right now and this card was so 'simples' to make. A little while ago I bought a butterfly punch and was longing to use it! I tried it on card first - no go! But, on paper it works like a dream, and paper is probably what you need anyhow to keep it delicate.

The card is an A5 aperture card, with already foiled 'Best Wishes' - from CraftCreations. I used my new 'Large Xcut Dimensions ButterflyPunch - 3.6cm wide - it came from Crafts U Love - http://www.craftsulove.co.uk/. They have some really nice goodies - including loads of different punches, diecutting templates and embossing folders.

The paper I used to punch the butterflies out of was in a pack of pastel shades I bought from Hobbycraft. The backing paper is....you guessed it, Hallmark wrapping paper..... with little pink, deep lilac and silver holographic butterflies on a lilac background and the pink of the punched butterflies is exactly the same shade as the pink butterflies on the background paper.

To finish off I tied a pink organza bow (ribbon from my stash) and added some bling to a couple of corners and teeny clear and lilac gems down the spine of the 'flutterbys' - from my stash.

Easy, peasy.

Thanks for calling by!

Di
x

Get well card

I made this card in a bit of a rush for a friend who has just had a total hip replacement. She's doing well and I can empathise as I've also been there and got the T-shirt - four and a half years ago now! It gave me my active life back and I'm so grateful.

I used the 'Hoot The Owl' Get Well Stamp by Joanna Sheen http://joannasheen.com/.
I like the fact that Joanna's on-line shop doesn't charge for P & P - I think the minimum order is £5 - plus their service is very quick.

The image was coloured the image using watercolour pencils - def. need more practise with shading etc, and more shades of brown.....poor Hoot does have a bit of an orange tinge :( but then he is meant to be a bit off-colour, lol!.

The background paper is from my stash, peachy orange Card Candy from Craftwork Cards and the peachy organza ribbon came from Joanna Sheen's online shop. They have everchanging special offers, just a few things at a time, and this reel of 15mm x 5m Organza Ribbon was reduced from £1.99 to 99p. Not bad huh when you can pay 39p upwards for just a metre in one well known craft store I go to.

Thanks for stopping by!

Di
x

Quick and easy frog card

This is so simple to make. The card is very small (4" x 3"). I used an acrylic stamp (bull-rushes) and stamped the image three times using a Pearlescent Thyme Brilliance Dewdrop inkpad - then added a little wooden frog embellishment from my stash, bought in my local haberdashery store. They're branching even more into a small selection of cardmaking stuff - yippee! The sentiment is a peeloff from my stash - I know, must branch out too:)

Di
x