Hope and Chances Charity Kit - December 2020

I loved the Hope and Chances Charity kit for December although the 'Thank you' sentiment wasn't right for me to be honest but I knew I could change that. The kits were sold in aid of 'Last Chance Animal Rescue', which of course tugged at my heartstrings right away.

This is the card I made from the kit:

I made the card exactly to Christine's instructions, apart from a couple of tweaks. I added Clear Wink of Stella to the flowers and leaves before popping them onto the card. An idea I got from our lovely Kath B a while ago. Then found a snippet of white card, the whitest I could find here to match and stamped the sentiment using a very old FunStamps wood mounted stamp and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink. Then die cut the sentiment into a square, exactly the same size as the one that came with the kit - and ran a silver Calligraphy pen around the edges for a little extra definition.I love the idea of creating a 'dropped shadow' by splitting a silver die cut exactly like the white one and offsetting it behind the white one.

And yes, the camera has picked up a bit of a ripple on the square silver backing layer. I think the silver card should have been thicker, although in real life it's not too noticeable. I'm just happy to help Christine's fund raising and also have a card kit to play with each month!

I'm entering this card into ScrappyMo's 'Rudolph Days' Challenge for January HERE. It runs from the 25th to the end of each month and is a great way to add to your Christmas cards (what do you mean - already?).

That brings my card count for Christmas 2021 up to 17 already.

Hope & Chances Charity kit - July 2020

I managed to get hold of July's charity paper craft kit from Hope & Chances. Apparently they flew out of the door so you do have to be quick! The easiest route is via the link above, which is Christine's blog - and her card kit posts goes live at 6:30 am UK time on the first Sunday of the month.

This is the finished card:

The kit came with everything (ready prepared), apart from the white pearls, glue and and sticky pads.

Oh, and I coloured the leaves and flowers using Tim Holtz Distress Ink pads (Peeled Paint and Fossilised Amber) - as a first real outing for my lovely blending brushes. I bought the brushes back in January and, they're really for cosmetics (loads of you had them so I followed suit needless to say) but up until now had just tinkered with them to see how they work - which I'm sure means I can link this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #16.

This is the link to the brushes I bought, although there are some very similar sets available at decent prices.

Christine always writes really clear instructions for her kits and I love how this kit had additional gold die cuts included to add as 'drop shadows' behind the white die cuts. The backing paper is by Anna Griffin and is absolutely gorgeous!

I showed the end result to Len and he immediately said 'how professional' - followed by 'ha, it's one of the charity kits isn't it'. No fooling him then!

Hope & Chances charity kit - June 2020

I loved June's 'Hope and Chances' charity kit on first sight - partly for the design, but also as it's sold for profits to go to Hedgehog Rescue! Sorry folks, it's sold out - but here's my very slightly tweaked version:

I followed the instructions almost to the letter. Although the 'window box' can be 3-D, I did chop the sides, which made it stand proud, right down - as a given option, to lie flat for posting. Perhaps it should have been left folded and the recipient could have opened it out - duh! My Ziggy green on the ivy die cut might be brighter than Christine's .......... and I also ended up with an additional flower in my kit (waste not, want not). Oh, and I 'Stella Winked' the ivy as well as the flowers. Apart from all that, it's the same - snigger.

Many thanks to all who left comments about the no-line 'fade out' ink. It's clear that I need to be patient, use softer watercolours (which I had sort of concluded) and also concentrate more on shading. Don't hold your breath though - it sometimes takes me a while to get over a disappointment and have another try!

Hope & Chances - more NHS cards kits

Christine from Hope & Chances is still producing 'rainbow' themed' card kits, with profits going to the NHS. I'm not sure how long this will continue, but whilst it does I'll continue to order the NHS kits. It's a fun way of supporting such a worthwhile cause.

And the June card kit, sold in aid of The British Hedgehog Preservation Society, just arrived here as I'm type. Am looking forward to making it as it's very pretty. At the moment there are still some left to purchase. Link to Christine's blog is above.

Meanwhile, here are the two latest NHS cards:

They're both just 4" x 4" and came with everything apart from glue, sticky pad snippets (which I popped the hearts up with) and the tiny clear gems.

Still using the new Blogger interface and finding it easier as I go along.

New Hope and Chances mini kit on sale!

Christine has just put another charity mini kit of two cards onto her Hope and Chances blog, sold in aid of the NHS.

If you want one, be fast as they sell out in double quick time!  Here's the link.

xxx

Hope and Chances - May 2020 card kit

The Hope and Chances card kit for May, sold in aid of the Whizz-Kidz charity, is such a pretty one, sadly now sold out. You have to be so quick to buy these now, they're flying out of Christine's craft cabin door! They go on sale on the first Sunday of the month - June's kit is in aid of The British Hedgehog Preservation Society. I'll most certainly be hoping to get my paws on that one.

This is my finished card, I stuck to the initial design:

The kit came with everything included, apart from glue and either ink pads or pencils to colour the leaves and petals. The cream is a deeper shade than shown in the above photo - bright sunshine here when I took it!

I layered two pieces of cream card onto the A5 card front, topped it with two lovely 'fleur de lis' long die cuts and a square frame. Then coloured the leaves and flowers using Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils, two shades for the leaves and two for the flowers. It reminds me of a Clematis Montana with pink streaked flowers that we had in the back garden until fairly recently.

The sentiment also came with the kit so it was just a case of tucking that into the leafy stem and attaching it to the card front. 

Kath (from the Snippets Playground) has already posted about her card here. She cleverly did some tweaking to the kit layout and sentiment, unlike me who rather predictably followed the layout exactly. And she also added Clear Wink of Stella to the flowers and leaves, an idea which I pinched, after colouring and before attaching to the card. Thanks Kath!

Then I had to rummage right through my deep A4 Really Useful Box of pearls, gems and other small embellishments. I have tons of packets of pearls but they were all too white - then I found just a few creamy white different sized ones in an open packet. Bingo!

Our CCTV picked up a fox on camera the other night. In itself that's not too unusual, but it was heading into the dense display of shrubs and such in the front garden. Possibly just for a nosey but it's also a perfect place to make a den and bring up a family! Watch this space.

Hope and Chances Charity Kit - January 2014

I recently discovered this blog: Hope & Chances Creativity with Christine Emberson. Not only is Christine a great crafter (who also has  her own shop), she writes a good blog too. Loads of ideas on how to make the most of using your Spellbinders dies too - including some videos.

Her youngest son, Elliott, has undergone brain surgery followed by radiotherapy and Christine now sells small kits to make beautiful things, with all proceeds going to raise funds for Ronald McDonald House, Camberwell and the Royal Marsden Hospital, Surrey.

This is what I made with January's kit:

A sweet little gift box, topped with a carnation and a large pearl. I added my own row of pearls round the box itself.

A matching mini gift card.

The kit comes with full and easy to follow instructions, everything is die cut already for you to begin to play, even the little peg and the large pearl are included so all you need are sticky tape/glue, a bone folder for nice crisp corners on the box and lid - and away you go!

I found it great fun to play with the kit - and at the same time to help raise funds for two really good causes.

Sorry about the rubbish photos - don't think the sun came out to play once today!

Di
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Meece in the florists?

Am making some Birthday cards for Rach, a bloggy friend. Her son Dan raises funds for the RNLI and Rach is selling cards to help out, through her hairdresser:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card stock

- image (pre-coloured) by LOTV from their 'Mice are Nice' set. The detail on these little images is so cute when you look closely, love the little mouse wearing a flower head as a hat! I have a couple of LOTV stamps the same size and just can't trust myself to have a go at stamping and colouring all the detail. One day though :)

- green backing card is SU's 'Wild Wasabi' and the pink backing card came from the snippets folder

- main patterned paper is from the lovely selection that Kay recently sent to me, the other is a little snippet of SU card from the snippets folder

- sentiment by Craftwork Cards, backed with a circle of pink card which was punched using a SU circular punch

- lemon ribbon from Hobbycraft and a little matching bow tied round the ribbon strip

Another one for the box Rach :)

Di
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Rose perfume

I used to love an eau de toilette which smelled of damask roses - could have been made by Penhaligan. Not very wise in the Summer with wasps and bees around though :)

I bought a lovely sparkly decoupage set at Art of Craft the other week and had a play yesterday. The set comes with some gorgeous 50's dresses, a row of flowers in vases and this perfume bottle:

Ahem, perhaps the colour pink drew me to the set in the first place :)

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card stock5

- decoupaged perfume bottle from the Docrafts 'Garden Party' set

- pink mirri card

- backing paper from 'Annabelle's Meadow' paper pack by Wild Rose Studios

- some of the bright pink organza ribbon I also got at Art of Craft

- Josy Rose nail heads

No sentiment as it's one for St Luke's Hospice.

This place is overflowing right now, so my next mission is to have a big sort out and I've found a really deserving home for the goodies I'll be disposing of. The care home where my step-mum lives run a crafting session once a week. I asked some careful questions and discovered that the staff buy all the goodies out of their own pocket. I can't think of a better and more deserving place to send it all :) This isn't a hint for any goodies by the way, trust me, I have more than enough to keep them going for quite some time :)

Di
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St Luke's Hospice Monthly Challenge

I just heard I was a February winner in St Luke's monthly challenge, which was 'Love and Lace' - whoop, whoop!

The current month's challenge is 'Spring into Spring' - if I can win then you certainly can! Do hop over and have a go, and remember that you can also send cards to them to raise much needed funds.

Di
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Christmas reindeer cards

Oh boy, I already am getting waves ripples of panic wondering if I'll end up buying some cards for Christmas instead of being able to make them all. Some recipients probably wouldn't notice anyhow, but making them all is still a target I've set myself.

Sooooo, when I was scrabbling round looking for lilac backing papers yesterday, I'm almost ashamed to say I stumbled across yet another 'forgotten' box with some Kan Ban Christmas kits in - a couple of them totally unused as yet. What I like about this particular kit is that it's pretty easy to select a sheet of decoupage (today's big word?) and some backing card to co-ordinate and whip up half a dozen cards on a little production line - a production line is a sure sign of panic here :( There are poinsettias, chandeliers and reindeer in combinations of ruby/red and a sort of pink colour, along with teal. I made six cards practically the same using one of the sets of reindeer and here's one of them:

I hadn't realised just how 'puffy' these reindeer are - almost like padded satin, very strokeable! And having another look just before publishing this, they also look just a tad snooty :) The worst part though of this kit is the teeny little bits of white edging that you have to carefully snip off once the image has been removed from the 'holding sheets' in the kit - it seems worse than others I've had. That was fine for the reindeer but the sentiments were something else! As they're edged in red foiling you can't help but sometimes end up with a little speck of white showing even after they've been trimmed. But, aha, I remembered a little trick and just ran a red Pro Marker round the edge which cured it so easily :)

I used:

- DL card stock 

- Kan Ban's 'Elegance' Christmas toppers and card kit - bought from QVC just after last Christmas, even the cream card that I stuck the reindeer onto (using 3-D foam for even more dimension) came with the kit

- red mirri card from stash

- Josy Rose nail heads

Bingo - six more for the box :)

I've just remembered that St Luke's Hospice are having a Christmas Fayre next weekend so I guess I'll have to put my thinking cap on and come up with something other than mass produced cards to pop in the post to them ASAP. Hey, ho - no rest for the wicked! But there again, at the North Pole it's probably 'HO, ho - no rest for Santa' right now :)) Oooer, that reminds me ages since we watched the 'Polar Express', almost a year at least - a must in the run-up to Christmas!

Di
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The results of looking for something else......

....can turn up things you forgot you had in a craft room, n'est ce pas?

Whilst gathering together Christmas backing papers I stumbled across a whole flipping KanBan kit, bought quite a while ago, called 'Birds of Paradise'. It came with all the card stock, toppers and messages plus other bit and bobs. I'd even got as far as carefully removing all the toppers and messages from their sheets before carefully putting them into cello bags - and then hiding them! This is what I quickly rustled up yesterday:

The card and toppers are all black and white with lovely holographic (today's big word!) silver highlights. And, all you need to do is to choose what goes with what - not always easy as there are so many combinations. These would be great to make up and send to St Luke's in Sheffield.

All I did was use an A4 sheet from the pack, score and fold it to A5 size, ponder over the multiple choices, stick using sticky pads (the peacock has an extra layer of the image for dimension), then add some organza ribbon from my stash. This ribbon, from Hobbycraft ages ago but I think they still stock it, is great as it has little silver sparkly swirls on it. For a long time I avoided ribbon like this as it comes wired but it's so simple to just cut your length and then pull the wire out from the end. It does widen the choices too :))

The peacock brought back a few memories - not least my Mum's superstition that peacock feathers in the house were a definite 'no-no'. Something to do with the evil eye and all that - although in Asia, the feathers of the peacock are considered auspicious and protective. Whatever, I think they are beautiful creatures and will never forget seeing a pure white peacock showing it's fabulous lacy white tail off.

It's lovely and hot here again so I hope you're enjoying whatever you have planned for the weekend. I'm driving up to Warwickshire for a meeting tomorrow - my old school association's committee meeting. And if they ask for volunteers to make 200+ table favours for the next reunion, I for one will not be standing up waving and squeaking 'Pick me, pick me!!!'. Been there, done that one :(

Have a fun weekend!

Di 
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Birthday card for a man - don't faint clean away!

Out of all the posts on here, only 16 are birthday cards for boys/men, and most of those are for boys rather than men - shame on me! Like so many, I struggle with card for 'chaps' but yesterday was different. I was rootling around in my stash, sighing at so much unused stuff and thinking that I really need to send a lot of my toppers to a charity for use in day centres and such where they would be easy for others to play with. Nothing wrong with a bit of picking up and sticking down - that's probably how most of use started out on this road years ago anyhow :) But, I'm digressing (yay, today's big word!).

In one of several boxes of toppers I found a little packet of shirts I'd already made up - from a kit bought about six years ago. We were on holiday in Gibraltar and came across a little (tiny really) craft shop tucked away in a quiet back street run by an English ex-pat - I think she had the shop mostly for fun rather than profit. I came away with some odds and ends, including a packet containing six 3" x 6" strips of precut paper and a little guide with a hand drawn sketch. It was all just folding with four little snips to finish off - great fun too!

This is the card I made yesterday:

The hardest part was finding the matching stripey background paper - it came from one of those double pages of free papers in the centre of a craft magazine yonks ago. You know, the ones you wonder if you'll ever really use :)

Actually, the really hardest part was not poking at the 'buttons' before the Liquid Pearls dried :))


I used:

- C6 plain white card stock

- Background striped paper, from stash

- Red and white backing card, both from snippets

- Folded shirt - from stash

- Buttons on the shirt - White Opal Liquid Pearls

- Sentiment - Craftwork Cards

I've got the rest of these little babies to use up and, since St Luke's Hospice Charity Card Challenge have listed Male Cards in their most requested cards, I know just where these will be going once I finish playing :) I hadn't realised that St. Luke's was the charity that my late (and much missed) French teacher Betty supported until just the other day - so it seems extra fitting that I've been sending cards to them for their fund raising without even making the connection. Someone up there is still giving me a little nudge now and then :) Right up until our last reunion she was teasingly threatening to give us detention - and I had enough of that at school (yeah, OK, generally for talking too much!).


I've mooched round some of the current challenges and would like to enter this offering to:

Totally Gorguss Challenge #97 - It's a Man Thing

Phindy's Place Challenge #72  - Stripes Somewhere

Hope you all have a great weekend, whatever the weather and whatever you're doing!

Di
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Girl's birthday card

I adore this LOTV Cute Squares image from the Vintage Girls set. Don't these two look so cute cosied up together!

The backing papers are from a Picnic in the Park paper stack which came with a magazine recently, the sentiment is Elzybells, flowers and brads from my stash (I swear the ton of flowers I have must be breeding as they never seem to go down much) - and the rust coloured card is from a Core'dinations stack - which also never seems to go down! Ages ago I bought what was such a good investment - a load of DewDrop Brilliance ink pads. Whatever sentiment I might want to stamp - there's always one which will tone perfectly - this one is Pearlescent Rust. I think they came from QVC and I've already had my money's worth.

This card is for the following challenges:

Totally Gorjuss - a sketch (first time I've followed a challenge sketch and it was great fun!)

Crafters Companion Monthly Challenge - Girls Birthday

St. Luke's Hospice - Pick a Pattern

This last one's a fairly new challenge blog that I've posted about before. You can also send the original card on to them afterwards for them to sell to raise funds. When they first began it was Freepost, but that has proved to be unsustainable so you do have to pay the postage now. From my days working as a volunteer for our local hospice I did wonder about the Freepost as every single penny is so much needed, and it's a great cause. And you can always add more cards into the little box or envelope to get your moneys worth from our friends......Royal Mail!!

Di
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What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday? 96

This is my desk today............almost clear, and probably a bit boring!!! The pile of rubbish from last Wednesday has gone and I have a packet of Safmat on my desk to play with - yay!! If anyone has any tips, hints or even wants to say I've 'wasted me pennies' then please feel free to say so.

There are some stamped images plonked right in front of where I sit as a stern reminder that I need to get on with making Easter cards :)

I also now have a little plastic basket (deliberately small so I'm forced to empty it regularly) into which small stuff will be dropped ready to put away - and another basket with any totally unusable paper scraps, in ready for the recycling bin. Am a bit ashamed that I hadn't thought of the recycling bit before and also to realise over the past few days how much stuff was going into the waste basket under my desk that could have been recycled. It's OK, I'm not turning into a tree hugger, just that I'm so good about recycling everywhere else in the house - how come I missed in here?!! The sun is shining (and showing that I need to get the feather duster out) and on my little pink laptop there's a lovely thank you card from Elizabeth! Oh, and my tip for the week is to store scissors on a mug tree. It needs to have a fairly sturdy base and I got this one in a local charity shop.

And, at last, I've finished colouring the Penny Black 'Prank Call' image and made up a card:

I kept it fairly simple as I think the image says it all. The little sentiment and meeces paw prints were from a couple of Elzybells stamps - oops, and a few flowers and pearls also managed to sneak in there! The card was already deckle edged so I used a deckle blade in my Woodware trimmer to trim down the backing paper. I'm sure everyone has their own favourite trimmer but, so far for me, this one is the tops and I've bought some as presents. One friend reminds me of how wonderful she thinks it is every time we meet or speak on the phone.............no problems there for little gifts for her, more decorative blades :))

I know some of you have already signed up to this new card making challenge for St Luke's Hospice in Sheffield. It's being run on a monthly basis, so not too much pressure unless you want to add other entries. Then, if you wish, you can donate your card (by Freepost) to be sold in aid of the Hospice. I think it's a great idea and hope they do well - I'll be joining in for sure.

Make sure you hop over here to Julia's to see what everyone else is up to! I'll be hopping around once I've done the weekly supermarket run!

Lastly, thank you so much to all of you who call by and leave kind comments - I do appreciate it very much.

Di
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9 squares card

I've made a few of these over time. They look quite clean and crisp and are relaxing to make too:)

It's self-expanatory really - the 144mm square card is white linen with a silver mirri card square, topped with another white linen square. Then nine 1" squares of lilac pearlescent card topped off with cupcake stickers from my stash. Simples!

Di
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Dancing in the rain

After the weather recently this card seems quite appropriate. I found the words in my little pink craft notebook (I try to write down sayings etc. in there that might be handy for future use....and of course there's my wish list of all things crafty in there too!!).

The image is a Sugar Nellie stamp called 'Splashing Maggie' and she's so cute :) Of course I coloured her with Aquamarkers, am loving those, and added some Anitas glaze to the puddle splashes and her coat buttons. I used plain white linen cardstock and then ran some acetate through the Cuttlebug using a random dots embossing folder which I think is really for snowy efffects but in real life it works very well giving the efect of rain when it's folded over the front of the card. The photo doesn't do it justice but I suspected that would be the case :(


Di
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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
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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
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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
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