Giraffe birthday card

I just couldn't find a paper anywhere in my stash that I liked for the background and in the end opted for an African sunset downloaded from the internet rather than spend all day looking - never one for being very patient if the wind is behind my sails! The giraffe and sentiment were stamped onto cream card stock with a border of KanBan African Gold card in the most lush sunset/burned earth colour. I'm ashamed to say I've had the sentiment stamp for years - and it was totally pristine so I suspect had never been used - slap wrists! Then the cream A5 gatefold card had the centre of the downloaded African sunset picture added to the inside and then the left and right pieces which I'd measured and trimmed off went onto the opening flaps of the card before I added the image and sentiment.

I know a purist might think that mixing a real life photo with a cute stamp is a bit odd - but I like it anyhow! Plus, I know just who it's going to be kept for - a friend who lived in Africa for a lot of years......and he also likes quirky things............which is just as well :))


Di
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What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday? Week 86

I've been looking agog at so many other crafters' workdesks for more Wednesdays than I can remember. So, finally it's time to stop being timid, be brave and dip a toe in the water to join in the fun!

First up is what seems like a really clear space. I cleared other stuff away - how good is that - before showing my first kind of serious attempt at a style of card  which is totally outside my little comfort zone.  I loved making this though, playing with some distressing inks and such and what's even better is that it's easier to hide any mistakes.....err, don't look TOO closely 'cos I made a couple at least :)

And this is how those of us with  no fine gizmos probably improvise to take piccies of what we've produced. Aha, and my wonderful ATG Gun that Santa brought me is also in shot (I just love how much easier and quicker it is to use than DST although other glues and of course Ultra Strong DST are still in use).
That's my ever present mug of coffee - Piglet in pink (my fave colour!).

A close up of the card wot I made - told you not to look TOO closely. The background on the card itself is stamped but taking piccies in this light is seriously not easy!

And finally, in case you think it's all too orderly for me to join in the fun of WOYWW, this is SOME of the rest of my mess! And it's very tidy for me....a bit like first day at school when you have a tidy satchel :)

Right, I'm off to have my weekly nosey round everyone else's workdesks!! You can join me for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday (WOYWW), hosted by the lovely Julia, here http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/  :)

Di
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Girlie Lili of the Valley 'Cute Squares' this time

Yippee, my pretty scalloped Nesties arrived and I tried out one set to make these cards:

I used backing papers from Papermania Capsule Collections (Blueberry Pie and Boysenberry) and by mixing them I could get two cards from two pieces of paper. The cards are from Craftwork Cards and the plain pastel card came from Hobbycraft - I think. I rounded corners, did the layering and then added some little flowers punched out from the leftover scraps of the patterned papers (waste not, want not!) using an X-Cut Dimensional flower punch which punches and embosses. The flowers have little Papermania rounded 'sparkles' in their centres and the sentiments are, once again, from Craftwork Cards.
I loved making these cards - a few more for my stock box!

Di
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Pay it forward and spread a little happiness...

I saw this on Wipso's blog and thought I would join in....it seems good fun!

It's a brilliant way of making the world a better place without expectation of anything in return...just giving for the sake of giving, to make the planet a bit more cheerier. Always remember if you smile at someone you get one back.......and of course a smile uses less muscles than a frown :)

If you would like to take part, then you need to be one of the first three people to leave me a comment on this post. I will get in touch to ask you to send me your address, and in due course I will post a little something out to you!

The first three people then in turn, will send out a little goodness to three others and so the love and the happiness continues and multiplies to spread around our little globe!

I joined in and will be the lucky recipient of something from Wipso - a talented lady whose blog I've been fascinated by for ages. Her work is beautiful.

So - how about it ? Who wants to receive a little something from me?  Those who are cynical could stop and think - hey, but I only get one thing and have to send out three! That's not the spirit of this little idea - so don't forget you will be promising to send something you have made to 3 more lovely folk from our blogging community!

Di
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Lili of the Valley 'Cute Squares' cards

When I saw these LOTV images already printed in colour onto 'Cute Squares' I just had to have some! You get five of each of four images in a pack - brilliant for quick cards. These are from the Vintage Boys set:

I deliberately kept them as unfrilly as possible and it was just a case of finding toning card/papers in my stash and matting and layering - with the addition of birthday sentiments from Craftwork Cards.

More to come of these in more girly designs once some new Nesties arrive...come on Mr Postie, hurry up!!

Di
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Quick cards - courtesy of a QVC kit

This kit from QVC is gorgeous - and quite quick and easy to make with no scrabbling for matching (or otherwise!) papers. The results look very co-ordinated and I just love every single image. It's called the 'Special Moments' kit I think and the other day I made a few cards. This first one is for my OH's teenage great-niece's birthday - she's mad about horses and is also a very good horsewoman!

Almost everything comes with the kit, including the sentiments and main card stock in beautiful patterns. The only thing I added here was a little piece of ribbon from my stash, some silver card candy and a couple of  little charms from my stash tied with pink and white Bakers Twine from The Ribbon Girl. The Ribbon Girl's stuff is just great and their service is brilliant - I can't link to their website right now for some reason but they sure are worth a visit. Loads of ribbons (natch!), lace, twines, seam binding - which is all the rage right now - and lots of other goodies.

I then (not realising there was enough backing card for every image to be made as an A5 card - Dumbo!) made this smaller card:

It's quite cute really but I could have kicked myself when I realised I couldn't count! The shaped Craftwork Cards card stock is just perfectly shaped for the already die cut layers.

And, as Get Well cards are always so handy to have to hand I then made these two for my box of standby cards.

Both of the Get Well cards (A5) were made using just what came in the kit and a little bit of ribbon from my stash. One thing I couldn't really do without :)

Di
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Childhood memories

As a kid I loved dressing up - and one of my most humiliating memories is from my early days at Infant School. One afternoon, every week, they had 'dressing up' time. For weeks I dressed up in things pulled from a huge trunk BUT longed for it to be my turn to dress up in the pale blue taffeta 'Princess outfit'.......I had a bit of a wait as my surname is waaaaay at the end of the alphabet and that's how they deemed it fair so that all little girls had a turn. Come the big day I felt so ill and sickly I could hardly drag my little legs to school, but it was so important that I managed to hang on until the afternoon and my longed for transformation into Princess Diane. No sooner did I have the dress on than 'Wooomph'.......I leave the rest to your imagination but my lunch sure went a long way down the front of that beautiful dress, which of course was ruined. Amidst squeals of horror from the other kids I then promptly keeled over in a messy heap. Hey, ho - it turned out to be Whooping Cough.......no wonder I felt like sh*t so poorly!!

So, this little stamp called 'New Hat' from Lili of the Valley (LOTV), which I've had for quite a while, caught my eye the other day as it cried out to be used for the first time. Apparently little Mia is already into dressing up so this card will go off to her and baby sister Olivia in Germany when I send them a parcel next week. There are so many gorgeously delicate cards made using this image out there in Blogland but for a three year old I went much more bright and bold! My next attempt will be much more muted but it was good fun to make.

The shaped card is from CWC, backing papers, sentiment and the little 'cherry button' are from a really cheerful Summertime set bought ages ago from QVC - the lace and doily came from my stash. I coloured the image using Aquamarkers and finished off by adding Glossy Accents to the bag, shoes and mirror - plus a few teensy pearls for her necklace and the catch on 'Mummy's handbag'.

Di
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GorJuss girlies again!

My previous post was about my first venture into using shrink plastic. I had a little idea in mind when I made the phone charms - based on some previously coloured images in this post here which I hadn't decided what to do with. I coloured the shrink plastic in colours a lighter shade than the original paper images I'd coloured, and they darkened to practically match them when shrunk. Whoopee, a success!

I raided my stash and found some 6" square patterned edged cards bought ages ago from QVC, then I just added a scalloped circle of paper and Prima flowers and brads to tone with the rest of the colours, a little CWC sentiment and satin ribbon tied down one edge which also has the phone charm threaded round it.


These are the cards I came up with:

 

Di
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Honey - I Shrunk GorJuss!

Yup, as opposed to Honey I Shrunk The Kids :) I have just one GorJuss Girls stamp and this idea came to me in the early hours of this morning. I stamped out a few images onto Shrinkles plastic and coloured them using pencils before trimming round them and punching a hole just above each little girlie's head.

This was my first venture using shrink plastic - I've had some for ages but was always a bit 'fazed' by the 'shrinking/curling and unfurling' that goes on. But, it worked a treat!! OH arrived home when I was in the midst of the 'heating in the oven' process (am not yet brave enough to use my heatgun!) and I could see him thinking 'What's she gonna get up to next?!'.

And here's a finished one, alongside an 'unshrunk' one, that I made earlier - so itsy bitsy and cute huh?! The Shrink Art mobile phone tags came from the Range last week and I suppose that's what kicked this experiment off! I can see me making quite a few different things now!

Di
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For Edward

A true ray of sunshine in our lives. Edward was born 11 years ago this coming week and has brought  so much happiness and innocent laughter to all of us........I made this card for him using some tactile stickers and also some background paper saved from a magazine ages ago. Happy Birthday Edward!

With love from  both Uncle Len and Auntie Di
xxx

New Years Day birthday

One of my friends has her birthday on 1st January ...and Happy New Year especially to those friends who I know drop in to have a peek but are too shy to comment!

After making all those Christmas cards it was lovely to play with a new stamp plus some CraftWork goodies from my stash. One of their scalloped cards (oops, it's the last one I have in white in my stash!) is topped by some of their really pretty pink paper and a Bazill Basics 'Half The Edge' strip. The cupcake image is a CraftHouse Press stamp - Cupcakes (now there's a surprise!)- K005. It was stamped onto a label cut out using a Nestie Die. Then I used my yummy Aquamarkers to colour the image (and I did several in one go, that approach seems to make sense to me) and added some teensy Papermania Bling gems to the cupcakes. I just topped it off with some Craftwork Cards flowers and card candy centres. The sentiment is also from CraftWork Cards which I layered onto a scalloped circle, cut using my oh-so-useful SU punch.and the paper is cappuchino colour from the same range as the pink paper.

I loved the fresh look of this card - and I also made some very similar ThankYou cards at the same time!

Di
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