Memos, Mail, Me on a Monday - errrr except it is now Tuesday

Whoops I didn't get here yesterday to join in with Sian's Me on Monday.  I do have a note from my Mum though LOL - I spent yesterday in hospital waiting rooms with her whilst she had more intra-ocular injections done and they found that she has another problem in her good eye.  It was also Dad's birthday yesterday but as we knew we were going to be at the hospital we went out with them on Friday to celebrate early.

It was a good weekend but one of those weekends when I just forgot to take any photographs.  We spent the day in town on Friday and had a birthday lunch with Dad.  Then on Saturday I had my monthly crop - a productive day with another two layouts finished from the 'to be finished' pile and another two layouts done from scratch plus a third one started.  Sunday was a lovely lazy day filled with bacon sandwiches, roast dinner, Prosecco and card making.

It has been a pretty quiet week mail wise apart from this lovely package -

This is the problem when you join the WI craft group and start learning new crafts - at our meeting last month we did some silk ribbon embroidery - I will shortly be making this into a card and of course I need more supplies and a book to help me do more!!

It was Dad's birthday yesterday and this is the card that I made for him -

The image is a new stamp from Stamping Bella called Calvin Loves His Computer and the papers are leftovers from a class kit, I think they are Echo Park 'Happy Days'.  The sentiment is from Stampin' Up.

I also gave him this card with his birthday money in - we made it last weekend as one of the Stampin' Up make and takes at the retreat.

Right I had better pop over and see Sian at From High in the Sky and make my apologies for being late LOL!!  Hope you have a great week everyone!!

Uplifting Occasion

One of my all time favourite Penny Black stamps is Uplifting Occasion and it was one of my earliest Penny Black purchases and helped put me on my slippery slope of Penny Black addiction!!

I made this card for a cat-mad friend's birthday.  The image was coloured with Promarkers and glittered with Black Stickles.

The sentiment is by Stampin' Up and the sentiment mats are SU punches.

I am entering this card into the Penny Black and More and the Penny Black Saturday Challenge - both challenges for January are 'Anything Goes'

Blogtober Day 28 - using up kit leftovers

I had lots of bits and bobs of a magazine freebie paper pack leftover, so I started out by covering a load of card blanks with the papers.  Then I matched stamped images (all of them Penny Black) that I had coloured a while ago with the card blanks.

The sentiments are a mixture of Stampin' Up, Hero Arts and Personal Impressions

Punches used are EK Success butterfly, Stampin' Up scalloped border and small flower.

That's a few more cards to restock my for sale box.

Blogtober Day 15 - Gorgeous Grunge Birthday

Last year for Beat the Christmas Rush I made these cards and at the same time I made some Birthday cards on the same theme.

The stamped background is made using stamps from Stampin' Up 'Gorgeous Grunge' and the flowers are punched using SU flower punches.

Colours used are Blushing Bride, Smoky Slate and Melon Mambo

The sentiment is from SU 'Sassy Salutations'

The butterfly punch is by Martha Stewart

The other colour combo was Pool Party, Smoky Slate, Daffodil Delight and Bermuda Bay

Blogtober Day 13 - a 50th Birthday minibook

Whoops I went away and forgot to schedule some blog posts - never mind I still have time to do four blog posts this week and not fail with my Blogtober challenge!!

This is the mini book that I made for my sister's 50th birthday, using clear CD wallets as the page protectors.

I raided my Mum's photo albums for lots of school and holiday photographs

I used lots of papers that were kit leftovers and not large enough to use on 12x12 pages.

I used a mixture of die cut and punched butterflies to embellish the pages

The pages were joined together with eyelets set using the cropadile.

A big thank you to Anita aka the inky blossom for teaching this book many years ago at her monthly class, I have made quite a few albums since then.

If you would like to check out the other participants of Blogtober 2016 check out Sy's blog here

Blogtober Day 6 - Happy 50th Birthday

This is the birthday card that I made for my sister's 50th birthday.  A big thank you to my friend Wendy who cut out all the shaped elements for me on her die-cutting machine.  I embossed some of the shaped numbers and then decorated with various stamped Penny Black images.

The patterned paper behind the 0 is from Craft Creations.  I coloured all the images in with Promarkers and highlighted parts with Stickles glitter.  The balloon was coated in glossy accents to make it lovely and shiny.

I further embellished it with organza ribbon and small stars punched with an EKSuccess border punch.

If you want to join in with Blogtober then check out how to on Sy's blog

Blogtober 2016

A huge thank you to Sy from KarmaCraftBlog who is going to host Blogtober for me this year - it is a huge weight lifted from my shoulders.   Go check out her blog to see what you have to do to take part.  The idea is to get blogging more regularly, in the past we have blogged every day for a whole month but this year you can set your own goal of what you would like to do.  So I am going to pledge to blog a minimum of four times a week - they will probably be just very quick, snappy posts but better than my blog being totally neglected for weeks at a time!!  If you are interested then leave your blog address in the linky on Sy's Blogtober post

So whilst I am here I might as well share a card I made recently for a friend's 60th Birthday.  I was playing with new stamps and dies from Stampin' Up and managed to get two new stamp sets and two new dies sets onto one card.

The ink colours used are Mint Macaron, Dapper Denim and Flirty Flamingo.  The flowers and leaves are a new set called Penned and Painted, I love them - they are really easy to use to get a layered look to the flowers and are very easy to cut out if you use the outline stamp.  The numbers are a stamp and die set and the lacy background is a new Sizzix thinlet die set from Stampin' Up.  Fingers crossed I will make it back here for the 1st October!!

Happy Birthday Mum xxx

Today it is my lovely Mum's birthday and even though I had an imaged stamped and coloured, I had been procrastinating over what to do with it.  Anyway finally last night whilst watching the Olympic opening ceremony some inspiration struck.

I haven't made a shaped easel card in ages so using my large Go Kreate circle and scalloped circle dies I made a circle easel card.  The image was coloured with Promarkers and the roses are painted with a Wink of Stella brush marker - sadly the camera doesn't pick up just how sparkly they are.

The flowers are punched with two different Stampin' Up punches and shaped with a ball tool and foam mat.  The flourish is a Cheery Lynn die and the gems are from Majorcrafts.

I am entering the card into this month's Penny Black Saturday Challenge which is to use your favourite technique - I don't really have one fave technique but this card incorporates a lot of the techniques that I use all the time - punched flowers, colouring with promarkers and diecutting .

I'm off to see Mum later armed with a bottle of something fizzy, birthday cake and nibbles to help her celebrate!!

Happy Birthday Mr P!!!

It's Mr P's birthday today so as usual I have rustled him up a card.  I used Penny Black stamp 'Double Decker'.

The papers are from Wild Rose Studio and the sentiments are by Woodware and Paper Smooches.  I coloured the image with Promarkers.

I hope Mr P has a lovely day, we have a nice meal out to look forward to later.

Jazzy Cats

Apologies if you are looking for May's Beat the Christmas Rush - I haven't quite finished my cards yet so the post will arrive either on Sunday or Monday.

Here's a card I made earlier for the masculine challenge over at Penny Black Saturday Challenge, I'm also entering it into the Anything Goes challenge at Penny Black and More

I made it with a fairly new set of T for transparent stamps by Penny Black called Jazzy Cats, for a friend's son.

The music score die is by Amy Design NL and the sentiment is an All Occasions Die.  The pawprint paper is from Craft Creations.

My friend shares her birthday with her son so I made her a card from the same set.

The music note dies are Spellbinder D-lites.

Jazzy Cats Birthday

The theme for this month's challenge at Penny Black and More is Birthdays.  I recently got some new stamps from the latest Penny Black release and they are perfect for Birthday cards.

This is one that I made using a stamp from T for transparent set 'Jazzy Cats'

The patterned paper is from DCWV Rock Star paper stack and the die cut music is a Spellbinders D-Lites die.

I coloured the image using Promarker pens.

I know this card has been received so I am safe to share it.