Wuv, Wuv, Wuv ....

.... as my son used to say when he couldn't pronounce his Ls!

Yes, it's that soppy time of year again!  My monthly craft meet was on Saturday and I spent a good few hours making a card for Paul.  Someone asked would he be appreciative of all the time I devoted to making his card?  I said "He'd better be!"  Here is the finished article:

There are oodles of Valentine challenges to enter this into: Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge ("It Must be Love"), Little Red Wagon ("Shades of Red"), Creative Inspirations ("Love is in the Air"), Cardz4Guyz ("Something beginning with L"), Moving along with the Times ("Love") and Brown Sugar ("Valentine").

The main focus of my card is the striped red heart in the centre.  I cut strips of different coloured and textured red cardstock, inked some with darker or brighter distress ink to give me an even bigger selection of colours, then lined them together carefully and stuck together behind a cut out heart shape.  I added black embossing round the edges of the card and the heart and stenciled some black on the left hand side.  The stripes look a bit pink in the light in this close up shot, but they are definitely red!!

Recipe:

Stencil: Tim Holtz "Bubble"

Paper: Basic Grey "Urban Prairie"

Other: Cardstock, black e.p.

Thanks for looking!

Blowing the dust ....

... off my blog after almost a year!  No idea why, just fell out of the habit (which, let's face it, was an infrequent habit at the best of times!!).  Anyway, I was just sorting my 2017 photos into files and decided to take the plunge back in, so here I am!

I've gone in a slightly different direction with my card-making over the past year .  I've been using much less patterned paper, have been stamping and making backgrounds and using a much more clean and graphic style.  Looking back over the cards I've made, I think my daughter's birthday card illustrates the "new look" quite well.  Here's what I did for her:

I'm entering the following challenges: Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and Crafty Creations("Anything Goes"), Creative Inspirations ("Something New" - mine is the yellow ink) and Crafty Cardmakers ("Get Inky/Messy").  I made the background by inking a large acrylic block, spritzing with water and then stamping directly on the paper.  I made star stencils and cut out the stars and also made the white letters.  I used black backing cardstock so the negative images of the stars would pop.

Thanks for looking!

On the double ....

.... there are a few times a year where friends' birthdays are so close together that I "cheat" and make identical cards for each person.  Thankfully, they don't know each other, so they'll never know!!

Here's what I made for my March birthday pals, Jocelyn and Olwen:

I'm entering the following challenges: Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge ("Use more than one die or punch"), Creative Knockouts ("Spring is on the Way"), Cute Card Thursday ("Spring is on the Way"), Moving Along with the Times ("Handmade or Die-Cut Flowers"), Fab 'n' Funky Challenges ("Flowers") and Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge ("Layer it Up").

I recently bought this WPlus9 stamp and die set and I absolutely love it - so versatile and I've made quite a few cards with it - many variables for leaves/flowers/centres, etc.  And I actually bought the die set so no fussy cutting those flowers!! The only problem I have is that I don't really have any pigment inks which make for more opaque cover if you stamp a centre on a flower - so I guess I know what my next bulk crafting purchase will be.  I had to be quite cunning about the way I combined the colours so they didn't bleed through or discolour - here's a close-up:

Recipe:

Stamps: WPlus9 "Fresh Cut Florals"

Dies: WPlus9 "Fresh Cut Florals"

Font: "Bakery" dafont.com

Other: Sequins from stash

Thanks for looking!

Looking forward ....

.... to a four-day week - it's St. Patrick's Day on Friday, so woohoo, four-day week and long weekend coming up.  So great - and then only another fortnight until Easter Holidays, hop, skip and jump to May Bank Holiday, June Bank Holiday and before we know, it, Summer Holidays!!!   Just like that!

I had a baby card to make for my friend - she was heading out to Canada to visit her daughter and meet her new baby grandson for the first time.  Here's what I made:

I've used the sketch from this week's Mojo Monday (turned on its side) and I'm also entering the following challenges: Pink Gem Challenge ("3 Bs" - baby, blue and blobs!), Daring Cardmakers ("Take the rough with the smooth"), Cas-ual Fridays ("Off the edge") and Creative Inspirations ("Use Lili of the Valley products").

I painted a rough background with two colours of housepaint and overlaid with a sentiment printed on acetate.  I used my trusty Lili of the Valley baby stamp coloured with distress inks.  Here's a side-shot of the detail:

Recipe:

Stamp: Lili of the Valley "Baby Blanket"

Paper: MME "Miss Caroline Fiddlesticks"

Font: "Peanut Butter Cookie" - dafont.com

Die: Nestabilities "Large Pinking Circles"

Other: Housepaint, acetate, grey marker

Thanks for looking!

Quite the ....

.... output around here these days - February being my busiest month for family and friend's occasions.  This one is a Mini club friend, who I normally wouldn't do a card for - but it was his 50th, so I pushed myself a bit ha ha!!  Here's what I made:

Update 21/02/17- this card was a challenge winner at Cardz4guyz - thank you!!
Update 01/03/17- this card was a Top 3 winner at Moving Along with the Times - thank you!!

I'm entering the following challenges: Cardz4guyz ("No patterned paper"), Moving Along with the Times ("For a Man"), Creative Inspirations ("Anything Goes") and Seize the Birthday

I kept this card quite plain, using some old background Basic Grey paper - and used a broken poky tool to scratch deep, jagged lines on it - I really like this effect and I know I'll do it again.  Added a bit of stitching and some tiny punched circles for embellishments.  Here's a side-shot:

Recipe:

Papers: Basic Grey "Ambrosia"

Stamp: Blade Rubber Stamps "Mini"

Font: "KG Sorry Not Sorry Chub" dafont.com

Other: needle and thread

Thanks for looking!

In the ....

.... good books again!  Last Valentine's Day, what with travelling to Scotland for the wedding and all that - like the cobbler's children not having any shoes, this cardmaker didn't make a Valentine's Card for her own husband!!  So this year, I thought I'd better not neglect him a second year on the trot and this is what I made:

I watercoloured a rainbow onto watercolour paper and then cut out loads of hearts, stuck them down then added punched small circles, glossy accented some bits and not others.  I'm entering the following challenges: Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge ("Use your favourite tool" - mine is actually very low tech - my Tim Holtz scissors, I cut something out on almost every card), Tuesday Throwdown ("Heart String"), Paper Creator ("Love is in the Air") and Fab 'n' Funky ("Wild About You").

It's dark now but I'm going to have to retake the picture tomorrow - the colours are just not right - they look much truer in this side-shot:

Recipe:

Other: Watercolour paint and paper, glossy accents, red thread

Thanks for looking!

How time ....

.... doth fly!  Bit too late to be saying Happy New Year, really, but here we are in 2017.  I haven't been crafting as I was sick over Christmas, then we had really busy weekends throughout January.  I've been trying to get time to clear out my craftroom, it was a tip.  Eventually got to it last weekend and did a huge tidy up and clean (the dust!!!) and since then I've made four cards, yes FOUR!!  One was just a photo one that I gave to my mother-in-law on her birthday and didn't take a picture of, two are waiting 'till their recipients have them before I post, but the fourth I can post now!

This time last year, we were headed off to Edinburgh to my cousin's wedding - here's the post I did at the time about it.  I made an anniversary card to match the card I had given them last year and here it is:

It's quite a little card - 10.5cm x 10.5cm so I hadn't a lot of room to work - I used the same papers as last time, had to use different ribbon as I didn't have any left from last year - lots of gold heat embossing and the same art deco touches and fonts.

I'm entering the following challenges: Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge ("Young at Heart"), Little Red Wagon (Colour Challenge - red and/or pink and black), Brown Sugar ("Rhinestone and/or ribbon") and Inspiration Destination ("Anything Goes").  I used some wood veneer hearts and covered them in gold embossing - here's a side-shot of the card:

Recipe:

Paper: Basic Grey "Kraft Basics"

Font: "Betty Noir" and "Yorkwhiteletter" -  dafont.com

Other: Gold e.p., ribbon from stash, Studio Calico wood veneer hearts

Thanks for looking!