'Congrats' shaker card

After more years than I care to remember, finally bit the bullet and had another try at making a shaker card. My one and only try previously was a disaster but I was driven by all the lovely shaker cards on so many blogs right now - as well as a free gift with Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine, issue 145 :)

If you want the die, back copies of the magazine can be found on line if you just Google the name and issue number of the magazine.

Followed the magazine instructions pretty closely, added in a couple of tips along the way - and this was the end result. It's pretty simple and will be fine for either a Wedding or Wedding Anniversary I should think. It's an optical illusion if you think the champagne flutes are standing on top of the background paper - they're die cut into it - amazing what a bit of shadow can do:

I used:

- 5.75" x 5.75" square white card blank

- a piece of white card, topped with a sheet of patterned paper from the Wild Rose Studio 'Wedding Bells' paper pack. The swirly patterned paper just had a few darker swirls and a couple of doves in one corner - perfect for what I wanted!

- then used a full covering of standard grade double sided self-adhesive sheet to fix the paper to the card before doing a small amount of trimming to just slightly smaller than the card front

- next die cut the two champagne flutes into the patterned paper/card - using the free die (it's a single flute BTW) from issue 145 of Simply Cards & Papercraft

- flipped the die cut sheet over,  added a piece of acetate across the die cut area using strong red line tape and swiped it over with an anti-static embossing pad 

- added a couple of little silver sparkly snippets of card behind the acetate on the stems/bases of the champagne flutes

- then it was time to face my nemesis - the dreaded foam tape. My one and only previous attempt all those years ago had ended up with the sequins sticking round the edges of the shaker aperture - such a disappointment :( But this time I had a plan!

- I crept up on a new roll of Stick-It 10mm wide foam tape (1mm thick) when it wasn't looking and patted just a little bit of talcum powder on either side of the roll to take away the stickiness along the edges yet still leave the 'body' of the tape nice and sticky

- snipped a length of the sticky foam tape and then cut it down the centre. In truth, the foam tape is fairly narrow to begin with but I knew that I would be working quite close to the top edge of the card and wanted to be sure to leave space for more tape later on in the process

 - then for each glass I removed the backing strip which meant I had two sticky sides to the foam tape and then added it right around the bowl and across the top of the champagne flute making sure that the lightly but now non-sticky talc coated edge faced into the die cut aperture where the sequins would be going

- sprinkled a few iridescent sequins into the flutes and then covered each of them with a snippet of white card

- added the whole panel to the card front using more foam tape and this time I left the backing strip in place as I added the foam tape to the edges of the 'shaker panel'

- die cut the word 'Congrats' (using a die from the Penny Black 'Hooray' set) from a snippet of the silver sparkly card which had been backed with Stick-It adhesive sheet and popped it in place on the bottom right hand side corner

- final touch was to add a little scattering of iridescent sequins around and between the champagne flutes, using Glossy Accents and a cocktail stick

One very happy bunny here - it worked!

Here are the little hints and tips I'd picked up about making shaker cards:

- swiping an anti-static bag across the inside of the acetate layer (which will have the sequins up against it) helps to ensure that your shaker 'bits' move more freely

- a few places offered the tip of using a little touch of talc on a cotton bud around the edge of foam tape once it's been fixed in place to stop the sequins from sticking to the sides. I went one step further and gently rubbed a very fine whisper of talc right across both sides of a new roll of foam tape. I'm sure it's quicker in the long run with less chance of talc smears on the acetate. I then popped the roll of tape into a card packaging cellophane bag before storing it in with my other tapes and glues etc. - I used baby powder so it smells of bath time in the nursery!

- and my final tip is one I stumbled across when looking at on line videos on the subject of making shaker cards. I wonder how many folk struggle with curves, circles etc. when fixing foam tape in place? And it's all down to the rigidity of that backing strip which protects the foam tape! If you remove it before sticking the foam tape down you can shape the tape so easily - what a simple tip! Of course you have to work quite carefully with it as you will get sticky fingers - but, as the seasoned crafter who was singing the praises of this tip said, 'why didn't I think of that one before now?!'.

BTW, I only just got away with using the 1mm thickness foam tape and the slightly cupped sequins. Would need thicker tape or two layers if adding seed beads into the mix :)

Di
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Happy Silver Wedding Anniversary!

Today it's the Silver Wedding Anniversary of a very special friend and of course her hubby! With luck she might have opened this card before she sees this post:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- silver sparkly self adhesive film added to white card for the backing

- Centura white pearl card embossed with Crafts-Too's 'Lattice' folder

- the heart was die cut first using white Centura pearl card and a plain Memory Box die called 'Cupid Heart'

- then I cut the top layer using a Memory Box die called 'Heart of Hearts' and more sparkly silver film card. I do love this die but if you fancy it, do be aware that it doesn't actually cut the main heart shape, I had to run the card through the Cuttlebug again using the Cupid Heart. I reckon that another time it would be best to cut the main heart shape first and then use the die for all the little hearts - but time wasn't on my side and I only had a little bit of the silver film left which wasn't enough to play with

- then I cut a couple of red hearts using the same 'Heart of Hearts' die and popped them back into a couple of cut outs on the big heart shape

- after adding the big layered heart to the card I gathered up the little silver heart shaped cutouts and popped them onto each intersection of the white embossed background

- the sentiment is Craftwork Cards - I have no Silver Wedding stamps or peel offs, but there's plenty of silver going on anyhow :)

- ribbon from my ribbon box with a heart shaped charm added using silver cord

Hope you're both having a fabulous day - and here's to the next 25 years!

Di
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Monochromatic for Mrs A!

I truly didn't think I'd manage to join in the current Butterfly Challenge over at Mrs A's - I had cards in the pipeline for other challenges that I always play along with and my first butterfly attempt of a purely black and white card last week didn't follow the rools so I didn't enter it. However, where there's a will there's a way and this is what I finally made:

I used:

- 5" x 7" card blank, made using SU's 'Wisteria Wonder'

- plain purple card

- patterned card from Papermania's 'Heather' Capsule Collection

- MFT 'Bracket Edge' die

- Memory Box 'Fresh Foliage' die and purple card stock

- Memory Box 'Pippi' and 'Isabella' butterfly dies plus purple and SU  'Wisteria Wonder' snippets

- sentiment from the Personal Impressions 'Everyday Words Happy Birthday' set, stamped using Adirondack 'Purple Twilight' punched with SU's 'Word Window' and layered onto a punched SU 'Modern Label'

- final touch, some mauve sparkly gems on butterflies, sentiment and bottom left of card

- and very final, final touch - rounded off the bottom right corner

Di
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WOYWW 189 - and Happy Wedding Anniversary to Darnell

Things were just ticking along here yesterday - until an email kicked me into action:

Darnell, who is much loved in Blogland and is a regular on WOYWW as well as in the Snippets Playground has a Wedding Anniversary today - so out came the card, paper, Penny Black Stickeroos (no time for the luxury of stamping or colouring), ribbons and of course I found time to make a fresh cup of coffee.

I'm a very slow crafter so it was a little while later that this was finished:

Tah, dah!!!!!!!!!!! Happy Anniversary Darnell and Mister K - from all your WOYWW and Snippets Playground little Playmates  - hope you have a lovely day!

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card stock

- a luscious deep pink snippet of backing card by SU

- patterned backing paper by Bo Bunny from the 'et cetera Collection'

- Penny Black Stickeroo from the 'Heart and Flowers' sheet

- deep pink and cream organza ribbon from the ribbon box, along with a sweet little 'double hearts' charm - tied with some iridescent cord

To join in WOYWW - hop over to our lovely hostess Julia's here - I suspect there might be more cards and good wishes for Darnell and her hunky hubby flying around :)

Di
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Less Is More - Anniversary

This week's LIM challenge that I made this card is for is 'Anniversary':

Super fast card, in between washing, ironing and sorting out after the weekend away.

I used:

- 4.5" x 4,5" square white card stock

- a stamp bought in New Mexico, by Copper Leaf Creations called' Coyote Moon', chosen by Len - I do suspect he's a 'closet crafter' :) I used a new Memento ink pad called 'Elderberry', it's got that touch of very deep purple about it. The moon was coloured with a pale yellow Pro Marker

- sentiment also stamped in 'Elderberry' using a Penny Black 'Happy Anniversary' stamp that is dated 1997 so it was either a 'pre-loved' stamp I bought - or possibly from the wonderful 'give away your stash' table at the October WOYWW crop

- double embossed lines above and below the image

Funny, one layer cards used to terrify me but now I'm tending to go down that route for CAS/LIM cards. As I find the Pro Marker ink bleeds through the card I back the insides with plain white card, cut a fraction smaller than the card itself. That still means it's a one-layer card don't it? :)

Don't fret though, the layers and snippets will always be close to my heart.

I wish all the other bits and pieces left to do before the fat man in the red suit calls could be as fast - although thankfully I did tons ahead of our trip :) I so hope you're all getting there too - remember, if it ain't done then would it really spoil Christmas? I think not my lovely friends!

Off to bed now at 9pm on Wednesday, so, so tired, this should post at midnight and then I'll link to the LIM challenge in the morning.  Hope to check the Playground and then am off out for a girlie lunch :)

Di
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Love is in the air

That's what this card makes me think of at least, perhaps for a Wedding Anniversary:

As it's Saturday, it's a super fast card to give me time to make a snippets card and try to write the roll call. Most of the card is from a really cute Kanban kit, designed by Dawn Bibby and bought from QVC some while ago.

I used:

- 4.75" x 4.75" square white card stock

- blue backing card from the snippets folder, with corners rounded to match the 'topper'

- topper which was already die cut ready to assemble in the kit - I just added two tiny black gems to the birds' eyes

All done - and it's the weekend!

Hope you all have fun, I'm working on a birthday meal for a lovely friend's birthday and her family tomorrow, hey, ho, what do you cook for folk just home from a Cunard cruise?! OMG, OMG!!! It'll just be nice to hug her daughter Abi, my favourite young lady teenager, again.

So, whatever your plans - think of Mrs Beeton and I do hope that the sun does shine for us here in the UK.

Di
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Diamond Jubilee - 60 years

...... that's quite some record for our Queen, and I bet there have been quite a few times when she will have gritted her teeth and muttered "Keep Calm and Carry On":

So, to celebrate, I made this card above.

I used:

- 6" x 6" square cream card stock

- deep red Core'dinations card

- paper from the fabulous Docrafts Papermania 'Portobello Road' pack

- 'Keep Calm and Carry On' topper from Tracy over at Cardmakers Delights (thanks again for the chance to play with these Tracy :) I slightly trimmed the top and bottom of the topper to keep it more in balance with the layout

- stamped crown (in 'Paris Mist') using a freebie set called 'Cool Britannia' which came with this months Quick Cards Made Easy magazine

- peel off numbers '60' from my little hoard

- lots of diamantes on the crown

- Docrafts Papermania 'Portobello Road' buttons

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Pan Pastel - Challenge 20, Diamond Jubilee

Glitter Geeks - Week 21 Diamond Jubilee

Joanna Sheen - Remember When (I do remember the Coronation and wearing a paper crown)

The Crafty Pad - Challenge 172 - Colours of Your Flag

The Stamp Man - Card for a Queen

I've read and re-read the rules for each challenge, so I hope I got it right. Phew, unlike me, five challenges at once, not sure I could do that party trick very often!

Di
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Special Couple in Monochrome

Saturday's cards are always quickies as I tend to fiddle on more with a Snippets card at the end of each week ready to write the Snippets Playground roll call ready for Sunday - this card is no exception:

A quick rootle through the cupboards here revealed a whole load left from a Kan Ban kit all in white, black and silver. These cards almost fall together as the kits are so well worked out by Kan Ban (the kit came from QVC ages ago by the way).Not even a bit of ribbon needed.

I used:

- A4 white, black and silver card from the kit, scored, slightly trimmed and folded to make an A5 sized card

- pop-out die cut with the birdies on, I just added teensy little diamantes to their eyes

- an additional strip of silver and black card across, with the oval matching sentiment added to it

I hate to 'blow the teachers whistle' in the Snippets Playground and there's no way to say this other than to be quite direct, which goes against the grain for a softy like me :(

If your own blog posting doesn't have a link into the playground it truly isn't really fair to expect me to spend time adding you to the roll call - it's a two-way trip and also one of the very few playground rules. So, I'm really sorry but no link in your own post, no write-up in the roll call. Jumps back down from soap box and scurries off to tidy the skipping ropes :)

Oh dear, that's so not me, but it had to be said :(

Have a great weekend - and the roll call will be done today ready for a new week tomorrow. Oooer, it's already hot outside - move over in the paddling pool!

Di
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Ruby Wedding Card

Sorry to confuse anyone today - Friday's Feast is being cooked here tonight so I'll post the recipe tomorrow.

But, I finished the Ruby Wedding card:

There was a lot of angst here over this card I can tell you! It started out with the intention of being an easel card but once I'd made the front ready to attach to the easel part it was just going to be way too much fussiness so it's a straightforward tent fold. As it is, I think this is quite OTT but the couple it's for are very into flamboyance and such.

Despite having some lovely deep red paper embossed with red hearts, it was all gonna be just too, too much so instead - when I make the box later today - I'll line the base with some of the hearts paper. This card is going to Belgium so there'll be a little scramble here to make the box, finish off the inside with an insert and then whizz out to the post office this afternoon.

So - what did I use? Or would it be easier to tell you what I didn't use! A lot of the stuff I had scattered all over the desk in readiness on Wednesday ended up being returned into the stash boxes, honestly :)

I used:

- 8" x 8" square white card stock

- plain deep red linen card for the backing, Nesties scalloped hearts and Marianne Creatables swirly dies

- absolutely the most delicious white paper by Best Creation Inc - called 'Mr and Mrs'. The sheets are 12" x 12" and I found it in Hobbycraft - it's ready embossed with really delicate muted sparkly swirls. I used it to make a background, punched all around with a Martha Stewart 'Narrow Lace' PATP set as well as a plain edged heart to sit on top of the large red scalloped one

- mulberry paper red roses, white little satin roses, white satin and organza flowers plus pearls on nylon stalks made up the flower cascade - with a few little white and red pearlised 'hat pins' - all from stash

- the number 40 was from some die cut numbers that Sarn had kindly sent me a while back, then coloured with a silver pen and some Glamour Dust added. Just a few pearls were then added to the red heart along with the numbers

- a 'Wedding Rings' diamante embellishment by Artworks plus some silver peel off edging strips and corners all from stash added the final touches

The place was like a bomb site when it was finally finished!

I'd like to enter this into the current challenge over at That Craft Place, which is 'Love is all around'. 

Also, St. Luke's Hospice current challenge, which is 'Love and Lace'.

Di
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Silver Wedding Anniversary card

This card came about after I'd inked some embossing folders with the brayer and made a few backgrounds. I was gawping at the pile whilst writing an email to Sandra of Stamping For Pleasure, wondering what to do with one embossed using silver ink, and she replied with the idea of a Silver Wedding Anniversary card - great ideas girl is our Sarn!! This is what I came up with:

And a closer look at the flowers:

This week Mr Postie arrived with a lovely card from Sandra, plus some Cuttlebug Die Cut Numbers to let me see the sizes and to help me to spend more pennies! I'd already made the sentiment so I went ahead and used it (although the die cut numbers would have been perfect) 'cos in the process of embossing I managed to damage the Rotary Cutting mat on my desk with the heat gun and felt I had to at least use the culprit. The mat now has 'humps' in it :( Serves me right for being impatient really.

I hold my hands up to blatantly pinching Sandra's great idea on the card she sent to me of using a lacy punch down one edge of a card and then backing it with contrasting card. Thanks hun!!

I used a plain square 6" x 6" white card, punched the right hand edge with  MS punch, and added a strip of silver card behind the lacy holes. The silver embossed card was layered onto more silver card, the sentiment is a Craftwork cards one, turned over, stamped with 25, embossed in silver (thereby ruining my desk mat - thank goodness the desk is fine though!!) and then edged with silver Stickles. The silver Josy Rose heart shaped nail heads had to get in on the act of course :))

I didn't have a nice enough single white flower so I raided my old stash and made up a little posy - little ribbon roses with diamantes in the centre, silky lace flowers with pearl stamens, and a fluffy white feather tucked in behind - tied with silver edged white organza ribbon.

The 'humpy mat' is driving me nuts, I've tried gently reheating it, sitting on it and even jumped up and down on it in a 'reet paddy' but to no avail :( Time to go and search on line for a replacement, maybe a glass one although I'm going to use something heatproof in future when embossing!!

Hope your Bank Holiday weekend is going well, whatever you're doing!

Di
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Wedding Anniversary card

This is currently winging its way to Germany, a card for my OH's son Matt and his wife Kai. Although they know about this blog it's doubtful, with two little ones to run after, that they'll call in to have a peek. If they do, Happy Anniversary for 12th May - and see you all soon :)

I went back to my favourite, the easel card. The pink and red hearts paper is from a Dovecraft Back to Basics pack, the image is a LOTV Cute Square (Love and Romance), the sentiment is from Whimsy. The pink and white pearls, entwined hearts charm, bakers twine, white guipure lace and the lovely baby pink Wild Orchid roses are all from my stash. The white ribbon with silver hearts on was bought on one of our visits to Matt and Kai - so it's finding its way back home to Germany right now! As they have a really nice garden, the image seemed very appropriate......not sure if they're into heart shaped topiary just yet though :))

I'm entering this for the latest Wild Orchid Crafts Challenge, which is White plus 2 with a twist. I couldn't see any real 'twists' in the DT cards but, if asked, then my twist is the entwined hearts - or even the topiary heart which would surely be twisted round wire to make a shape like that in real life. Oh, and the bakers twine is twisted of course :))

Di
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1st Wedding anniversary

I made this card for our friends - Julie and Steve - who celebrate their 1st wedding anniversary on Sunday. I posted their wedding card on this blog when I first started off and had a lot of fun making this card for them!

Shame the sentiment reflected the light - it's a silver Dufex one and just says 'Best Wishes', although the insert does say Happy 1st Anniversary!. The card is an 8" x 8" square white one with an embossed dots pattern. Then a silver layer of textured card, cut out round the edges using my only Martha Stewart Deep Edging Punch - no fancy 'Punch Around The Corner' ones as yet but I'm working on it! To hide the oddly matched corners I used a mix of the sentiment, 3-D butterflies ( these are lush!) and a selection of Prima flowers/pearl brads. Then my trademark organza bow down the left....and not forgetting the soooo cute House Mouse decoupage in the middle, which was the whole point of the card! As Julie and Steve are such a 'close knit' pair it seemed very appropriate! :)

Thanks for looking, and even if you don't comment it's nice that you called by!

Di
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