What an output ....

.... those of you "card-a-day" gals will be chuckling when I say that this, my seventh post this month, is my highest monthly total in about two and a half years!!!  Dang, am I on fire or what?!!!

Today's card is a commissioned card for a new baby.  Here's what I made:

I used the sketch from this week's Mojo Monday, and I'm also entering this into the following challenges: Lili's Little Fairies ("Butterflies"), Shopping our Stash ("Tag it"), Crafts and Me ("Tags or Punches") and Basic Grey Challenges and Simon Says Stamp both have "Anything Goes".

I used the ever-versatile Lili of the Valley baby stamp yet again (!), coloured with distress inks.  Here's a closer look:

And here's a side-shot of the layers and the little tag with the baby's name on it.  For any non-Irish readers, in case you were wondering how to pronounce the name on the card, it's an old Irish name(apologies in advance to any Irish Mammies of Oisins reading but it's not a name I particularly like!!).  Anyway, take the first syllable of the rapper, Usher's, name, and combine with Charlie Sheen's surname: Ush+sheen = Usheen.

Recipe:

Papers: October Afternoon "Thrift Shop" and Basic Grey "Oxford"

Stamp: Lili of the Valley "Baby Blanket"

Colouring Medium: Distress Inks

Punch: Nestabilities "Lacy Circles"

Other: Butterflies from cupcake wrapper, hairy string, needle + thread

Thanks for looking!

I'm a fairy ....

.... godmother!!!  Well, I'm about to be.  My husband and I were chuffed and delighted when our friends asked us to be godparents to their baby son, and today's the day of his baptism.  Have to go soon to get dolled up, but first I thought I'd show the card I made for him:

You wouldn't really guess it was for a baptism, I know, but I find religious cards very difficult, so I'm going with a kind of "launching into the Christian family" kind of vibe.

I used the sketch from this week's Deconstructed Sketch and I'm also entering this into the following challenges: Creative Inspirations ("Anything Goes"), My time to Craft ("Song or Film Inspired" - "We are Sailing"!) and Cute Pie Challenge ("Pretty Pastels").

Here's a side-shot of the layers:

Recipe:

Papers: October Afternoon "Seaside", "Weathervane"

Other: Doodlebug "Uncle Sam Stars" button, needle + thread

Thanks for looking - off to put on my glad rags now!!!

If at first you don't succeed ....

.... curse a lot, have a tantrum or two, oh - and try, try again!

That's what happened when I was making my first spinner card - none of the tutorials I read mentioned that coinage is not keen to be glued together with a spacer in the middle!!  The blasted things kept coming apart every time I tried to assemble the final piece.  But I had to persist, 'cos it was my son's birthday card, and I had it in my head exactly how it should be.  Here's the completed card:

I'm entering this into the following challenges: My Time to Craft ("Men Only"), Totally Gorjuss ("For the Men") and Creative Card Crew ("Birthday").

I didn't use any patterned paper on this card.  I stamped the cloudy sky, adding a couple of extra popped up clouds for dimension, drew and coloured the crowd, printed the sentiment, hand-cut the grass edge, stamped the little guy and then masked a Manchester United footy jersey for him.  Here's a side-shot of the layers:

Recipe:

Stamps: Basic Grey "Frog Boy" and  Hero Arts "Design Block Clouds Background"

Colouring Medium: Pro Markers

Other: Googly eyes, glossy accents, four cents!

Thanks for looking!

Ticking off ....

.... the list, one by one.  Another card done, for my friend's daughter and it's also my DT sample for this week's Sentimental Sundays.  Our challenge this week is called "Lace and Pearls" and we are sponsored by Saturated Canary

I have been admiring these lovely digis for a good while, but hadn't used any until now, mostly due to the fact that they have lots of hair and I have a lack of hair-colouring skills.  But I stumbled upon my best way to do hair-colouring, pick an image with a hat or hoodie!!!  Here's the card I made:

I used the sketch from this week's Cupcake Craft and I'm also entering the following challenges: Saturated Canary ("Love Hearts"), Shopping our Stash ("They say it's your Birthday"), ABC Challenge ("H is for Happy Birthday"), Charisma Cards ("Anything Goes") and Cute Card Thursday ("An Eye for Detail").

Something went badly wrong with the printer ink, and despite leaving it overnight and repeatedly heat-setting the image, it still smeared, but as a good friend of mine says "It's not a mistake, it's a feature", and since the image is a mouse, I think a mouse-grey face is perfectly acceptable!!  Here's a side-shot of the card:

Recipe:

Papers: BG "Bittersweet" and "Kissing Booth"

Image: Saturated Canary "Mousy Mo"

Colouring Medium: Distress Inks

Punch: MS "Valentine Lace"

Other: Ancient Papermania pearls, BG Archaic alphas covered in glossy accents

Off to make another card, my son's birthday - he is now into football - help me!!!

Thanks for looking!

The challengiest ....

.... challenge of the year for me, card-wise, is my husband's Valentine's card!!  In the days before I started making cards, we used to compete to see who could buy the most non-soppy, yet still recognisably Valentine-y, Valentine's card!!  I remember winning one year with a card that was just plain matt black, no sentiment, with a tiny embossed foil red heart in the centre.  Nice card it was too!!  I was reminded of it when I was thinking up this year's effort.  Here's what I made:

I used last week's Deconstructed Sketch, and I'm also entering this into a few of the Valentine's challenges around: Craft your Passion, Kaboodle Doodles, Little Red Wagon, Moving along with the Times, also Basic Grey Challenges ("Your Favourite" - it's my favourite BG Christmas papers - "Jovial"!), Card Crafters' Circle ("Paint the Town Red") and Stampin' for the Weekend ("Distressing").  Phew, that's quite a list.

Here's a side-shot of the layers of this card, I like the enamelled hearts.

Recipe:

Papers: Basic Grey "Scarlet's Letter" and "Jovial"

Sentiment: from an MFT Pure Innocence set

Punched Hearts: MS Valentine Lace

Other: Black Tulle, zig-zag scissors, Tim Holtz black enamel accents, glossy accents

 

I was chuffed when I found out that my last card won not one, but two challenges, nice to see the old name up in stars!!!  Not to mention getting a blinky for the sidebar and winning a set of stamps too.  Yippee!!

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Made a start ....

.... on the February workload!  My mother-in-law's birthday is this Saturday, but since she comes over for dinner every Thursday evening, today was my deadline for getting her card done.  I was sticking the last bits together before I left for school this morning, and had to bring it to school for half-decent light to photograph, bit last minute-y really, but it's done and she liked it very much, so phew!!  Here's what I made:

Update 11th Feb: This card was picked as a Cupcake Cutie on Cupcake Craft - thank you!
Another Update 13th Feb: This card was picked as a winner on Mojo Monday - thank you!

I used the sketch from this week's Mojo Monday (turned on its side), and I'm also entering this into the following challenges: Cupcake Craft ("Yellow and Grey"), Moving along with the Times ("Only Girls Allowed"), Crafts and Me ("Favourite Colour Combo") and ABC Challenge ("G is for Going Dotty").

I really like yellow and grey combined, so much so I'm thinking it might look nice in the sitting room!!  I pulled together papers from 2 different manufacturers and 4 different collections, and added brads and buttons from another 3 lines.  Such diversity!!  I printed the digi image twice and cut out and layered up three petals over the base image, adding a few stripes of glossy accents for extra oomph!  Here's a closer view:

Recipe:

Papers: October Afternoon "Seaside", MME "Miss Caroline Fiddlesticks", "Stella Rose Hattie" and "Stella Rose Hazel"

Image: Digi but I can't remember where I got it - can anyone enlighten me?

Colouring Medium: Prismacolor Pencils

Other: BG "Sugared" brads, BG "Bittersweet" and "Urban Prairie" buttons, needle + thread

Thanks for looking!

From very very old ....

.... to very new indeed!

Our challenge this week on Sentimental Sundays is called "Celebrating the New" and, ironically, I ended up using some of my very oldest papers (dating from 2007!) to make my project.  We have two sponsors this week:  Milk Coffee and Whimsy Stamps



My card is for a good friend of mine who just got a new job, having had to take a few years out of the workplace due to ill health.  She's now fighting fit and raring to go, so I made this celebratory card for her:

I used the sketch from this week's Mojo Monday and I'm also entering the following challenges: Totally Papercrafts ("Make your own embellishments"), Stampin' for the Weekend ("Something Metal") and Simon Says Stamp ("Anything Goes").

The speech bubble is computer-generated.  I made the tiny staples by bending and cutting some normal ones and piercing holes through the paper to fit them (a right fiddly job that was too!), and made the banners out of scrap cardstock.  I always keep even the teeniest scraps to use for building up dimension behind things and for making little bits like this too.  I was at a scrapbooking class last weekend and got to use washi tape for the first time.  I had been a bit "yeah, another trend, whatever" about it, but have to say I'm now a convert - it's so user friendly, isn't it?!!  Bought two rolls then and there - could it be the start of another collection?!!

Here's a side-shot of the dimension on this card:

Recipe:

Papers: Hello Elsie "Zoe" and American Crafts "Bookshelf"

Stamps: Hero Arts Clear Design "Happy Hello"

Colouring Medium: Prismacolor pencils

Other: October Afternoon "Witch Hazel" washi tape, Homemade tiny staples, glossy accents, black pen

Have a load of cards to make in February, lots of family birthdays, Valentine's Day, etc.  How will I manage? Groan!!

Thanks for looking!