Cards for the troops...

I've made a couple of new cards, but most of these cards have been taken from my card box. They are all going to be sent to Kirsty Wiseman who is organising a massive appeal for cards to be sent out to our troops. I found out about this from my dear friend, Max, who has also sent a collection of her cards as has another close friend, Irene.

Basically Kirsty wants to send the cards to our troops, currently serving abroad, so that they have something nice to send to their loved ones back home. Hmmmm that's why I made a couple of romantic cards - I'm thinking along the lines of cards for girl friends and wives, but really any kind of cards would be suitable as I'm sure they will need cards for all the members of their families.

If you are visiting my blog and would like to know more about this (and I hope you do cause it's such a worthwhile cause and the more that take part the better) please visit here for details on how to take part. Kirsty writes loads and has masses of photos on too so on following the link you need to scroll down and down and down till you get to the pink writing which explains the whole campaign.

The more people who know about this the better - so please spread the word on your own blog if you can.

Woman...

Another 'anytime' card and one that has been received by my dear friend so I can post it here without spoiling the surprise for her. Twenty one gemstones on this card so you can tell it was for someone important!!!

The wonderful lady image is yet another one from the Art Deco sheet by Frances Naeve at Hearts in Touch. Fabulous images - I really can't understand why it has taken me so long to get round to using them. This one was painted using Derwent Inktense pencil crayons and then matt and layered on to a frame made using my Cricut.

I only have the two cartridges that came with the machine at the moment, but oh there are such wonderful things on them. This frame is the certificate cut at the 4" setting - I can't believe that the machine can cut such intricate detail - it's just amazing.

Friends who read my blog will know that earlier in the week I was struggling as I only had the instruction book in Dutch! Well you will be pleased to know that thanks to my friend Susan I don't need to start learning Dutch!! She sent me the link to the manual available on line at the Cricut Website. Thanks so much Susan - I think I might have struggled to do much more with no proper instructions.

My card is also for Challenge 52 at My Time to Craft which this week has the theme of 'Woman'
and for the challenge at No time to stamp where we are encouraged to use white mats on our cards.

Messy Rabbit Thank You...

This a card I made for a very kind forum friend. I used the new Messy Rabbit CD by Joanna Sheen . This CD is full of the most fantastic cute images of not only Messy Rabbit, but all kinds of other creatures too. All the images have been painted by the extremely talented Linda Hill. Oh how I wish I could paint like her!!

I created the large'Thank you' wording using Serif Home Office and then used small images from the embellishment section of the CD to decorate the words. The animals are decoupaged to make the card 3D. The blue backing paper complete with sweet daffodils is also from the CD.

As my card is full of 'All Creatures Great and Small' hopefully it will also be okay for the challenge at the Tanda Teaser.

Sorry...

This card was meant to be for the challenge at The One Stop Craft Challenge where the theme this week is to make a card that contains the word 'Sorry' on the front. Well my intentions were good. I meant to say 'So sorry' on the tag but I just didn't have the peel off for the job and had to make do with a 'with love' sentiment.

If I was sending a sympathy card it would certainly be with all the love I could muster.

Anyhow the card really designed itself - yep sometimes that happens. I put a piece of paper in the Cricut while I was experimenting and trying out the different shapes. I wanted to try the tag shape, but forgot to release the 'fit to page' button!!!

Oh my - what a large tag! Well I was going to throw it away, but somehow the tag laying on my desk kept wanting to be made into a card (please don't think I'm cracking up here)! Anyway this is what it wanted to be made into.

I think it makes a good sympathy card, but strangely enough when I showed it my daughter she loved it for sending as a birthday card to one of her Goth friends. Apparently black roses are really cool and the ribbon looks like corsetting which is also very cool. Well you learn something everyday!

Spring Days Gift Bag...

This is my very first project using my new Cricut which I absolutely love - although I possibly would love it even more if they had sent me one with an English instruction book. My Dutch is not that good - okay I'll be honest I don't know a single word.

Obviously when you get something like this you want to cut something, but not waste either paper or the sticky mat thingie by too much practising.

Well I knew that the challenge at Colour Create was to make 'something other than a card' and their colours this week are Yellow, Orange and Green. So I pulled out some DCWV 12" by 12" card in these shades and started cutting. The gems are yellow honest, but actually don't show up that well in the photo.

The bag base was made using the fit to page button and the flower frame fit perfectly (by guesswork and pure luck). I even cut the leaves and the word MUM - not a bad start for a non Dutch speaking person!

The flowers were cut on my Wizard and put in the Swiss Dots folder to give them texture. Cutting the flowers using dies was a great way to use up all the bits.

I probably would have combined the colour challenge better if I had not been so excited about the new machine, but I think my results are quite presentable and when the bag has some goodies inside and some green tissue in the top I'm sure my mum will love it.

It also fits the challenge run by my friend Jude at Creative Inspirations where everyone is asked to make something for Mum that has flowers on it. A great challenge as it is now less than 2 weeks to Mothering Sunday.

Hats can be distressing...

Well they can be if you are trying to choose one that won't blow down the road at the first bit of breeze or make you look like Hyacinth Bucket!!

However, ladies in hats on rubber stamps are never distressing - as I looked through my stamps for the 'Hats' challenge at My time to stamp I realised that I have quite a few of them and I love them all.

I decided to use this stamp by Frances Naeve at Hearts in Touch. It's from one of her sheets of Art Deco images which are fabulous. As I was checking the link I discovered that the lady image used in my other card posted today is from the same sheet of stamps!!! Must change that posting to the correct stamp designer!!

My card is also for the ABC challenge which this week is 'Distressing' - hence my title and ramblings about hats blowing off down the road.

I used the Divine Swirls embossing folder and distressed the embossing with a sanding block. As the black card I used had a brownish back I was really surprised to see the white pop through. Obviously the black must be a coating which is sooooooooo easy to remove.

I trimmed the image with a gemstone and added a tag embellished with a silver sentiment peel off. A black feather is lurking under the tag as I love feathers and Art Deco images.

It's Pink Elephant Day...

I love Mondays - the start of a new week and best of all time for a new challenge at the Pink Elephant Challenge Blog. This week we have a colour theme for everyone to try and the colours are ...

Brown, Pink and Green - a stunning combination.

Do take a look at the amazing work by the rest of the design team as they have all worked their own little bit of magic with these three colours.

For my card I chose vintage paper by Making Memories and a small lady stamp which I think is from a collection by Frances Naeve at Hearts in Touch.

I coloured the image with Derwent Inktense pencil crayons and a Sakura clear stardust pen. A couple of pink gems added to the glamour of the dress.