21st Birthday

I was asked in December to make a 21st Birthday and must admit that it made a nice change to Christmas themed things. I did not find time to blog it when I made it but when I saw today's challenge over on the Allsorts Blog it popped right back into my head. I used Katy Sue's Fabulous Fashion for this decoupage card, the flowers were some that I'd had made in advance, I just colour tinted the ends of the flowers. I also added a key from some that I have in my stash. Both the flowers and leaves were cut from dies from Crealies.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Patterned Papers

With Christmas rushing towards us so fast now I thought it would be nice to put something on here that was not Christmas related. I made this card using images and papers from Debbi Moore's Decadence CD, I've used gold mirri card for the matting and the corners. The corner dies are from Tonic and I made some flowers in matching pearl paper using a Crealies die, adding some matching flat backed pearls to the middles to finish. I'm going to enter this into Craftyhazelnuts Patterned Paper Challenge, which is all about using patterned papers.

Tomorrow my Crafty friend and I hit the road to travel to Crafters Companion's Craftaganza retreat. As we both live here in the south of England it's going to take a few hours to reach Durham and the hotel where the retreat is being held. Once there we are in for three days of crafty fun (this is our second year attending this event). As we are also going to a Graphic 45 retreat the following weekend with Clare Charvil (My Creative Spirit). We decided rather that driving all the way home on Wednesday just to turn around Friday and drive back up to Kenilworth we're going to take our time driving down to there, stopping for some crafty shopping on the way at various shops we've only seen on the Internet. I hope to have lots to show you when we return after next weekend.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Back To Basics

Back To Basics is a fairly new challenge blog this being their 11th challenge and seeing as Decoupage is a favourite technique of mine to do it would have been rude not to have taken part in it. This card has been made for My sister-in-law and her husband who are celebrating 48 years of marriage next week, so for their card I have used a Debbi Moore CD - Art Deco Decadence and this lovely image (I use Debbi's CD's a lot for Anniversary Cards as her images lend themselves so well to this type of card). I've matched the backing paper to the image from the same CD and the flowers were made using a Crealies die. The sentiment is from The Paper Boutique and the swirls are from Tattered Lace, the ribbon was recycled from a cake that was brought from my Birthday a couple of months ago.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Celebrate in Style

This card has been made for my Mother to give to my Niece on her Birthday and it's been made well in advance as her Birthday is not until October, but it fitted with the current theme over on the CD Sunday blog this time around which is Celebrate in Style. It's been a while since I joined in with one of their challenges (sorry Ladies) so it was the perfect excuse to make this now. I've used Debbi Moore's Art Deco Summer Moments CD and one of the design sheets and backing papers. The flowers are made with a Crealies die and had been made sometime ago (I have quite a collection in different colours) with a flat backed pearl popped into the middle. The corners are made using a Tonic die, again these were ready in a box. I finished it off with a sentiment made on the PC.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Sparkle And Bling, Buds And Blooms

While I was making this card I had two challenges in mind, Allsorts where the theme is Bring On The Bling and Lavinia which is Buds and Blooms. Then I realised that I could also enter it into the Stamping Sensations challenge which is Anything Goes and My Time To Craft with No Designer Papers. I started with an 8x8 card base then cut a piece of card that would fit, about 7 1/2 inch square. I blended distress inks all over the card. Then cut out one of the files from Lavinia on the Scan N Cut. I didn't just want to put this onto the top of the blended background, so next I used a circle die from Crealies and cut a hole in the centre that I could place the cut image under. Next I stamped onto both the circle cut with the die and the background and coloured with Pro Markers. I then cut a piece of black card to matt the background onto, but before doing this I place the circle onto the black card in the middle and then placed the cut image on top. I then glittered the wings if the fairy and with foam tape on the back placed the background over the top. I finished by adding some gems from my stash.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Any Old Iron - CD Sunday

I've just finished this card which was a commission and looking at it thought it would probably be OK to put into the CD Sunday challenge. At present it is Any Old Iron, well the cars are old (they're metal) and the rings around the tub of flowers must be iron. It's on an 8x8 card base and the CD's that I used are Nostalgia from Joanna Sheen and also a favourite of mine Sue Smith's Plaid and Co. I used various Crealies dies to matt and layer with and the sentiment was computer generated.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Pixies Snippets Playground

Having just made the last challenge over at Pixies Snippets Playground last week, I'm ready to post my card this time right at the beginning. My base is a 6x6 card and I then cut out a square from some silver mirri using a Crealies die. Next I took the new Tattered Lace Magazine (exclusive to Create and Craft) and using one of the papers from the middle cut a smaller square for my backing. Then using the free die that was on the front of the magazine I cut out two of the beautiful snowdrop one in white and the other in green, both of the pieces of card used were from the scraps box. I then cut the flowers off of the white  one and layered onto the green. I then cut out two ovals from the left over pieces of card too matt and layer the sentiment which was was from a Flower Soft set.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Butterfly Challenge 74

Today sees the start of a new challenge over on the Butterfly Challenge blog and for this Challenge it is asking for Fancy Edges and Mint Green. I've spent a lovely morning playing in my craft room and managed to make this card. I used Tattered Lace - Ornamental Label Shaped Card Base and Edge Mat 3. I cut this from a 6x6 card base, the die just fits from one end to the other and just edge to edge, then I placed the patterned edge onto the front only. Next I had a good rummage through my scraps and found this piece of glitter card in mint green which was just big enough for the matting. The oval die is a from Crealies and the sentiment from a Crafters Companion set. The butterfly is a Tim Holtz stamp which I fussy cut after colouring, I also gave it a coat of sparkle pen but it does not show in this photo. When I stuck the butterfly to the oval I drew in the feelers with a fine liner pen. When it was closed together it looked a little bit too white, so I added some Cracked Pistachio Distress ink the the inside edge.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Something New

The challenge over on the CD Sunday blog at the moment is Something New and new to me is this gorgeous CD by Debbi Moore - Art Deco Elegant Moments. This card is for my Mum's birthday which is on Thursday. She has not got the Internet so I'm safe posting this on here now. The main image has been decoupaged and put onto the card with foam pads, so plenty of dimension going on, as I also cut out the border of of another backing paper and put this on with foam pads too. I've added flat backed pearls and some flowers made from my favourite Crealies die in a matching colour with gems in the centre. It had to be in green as this is her favourite colour

I would also like to enter this into the challenge over at Ooh La La which at the moment is Feminine and this card defiantly fits the bill.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Pixies Snippets Playground

Tuesday already and I am only just posting this card for the Challenge over at Pixies Snippets Playground. Last week I was in Cornwall, where hubby and our son were spending the week fishing. Unfortunately we had rain everyday, sometimes only a shower, but it still rained daily, not so good when you have a 14 month old child with you as well. But still it was a break and of course we had gorgeous Cornish pasties too. Anyway enough of that, inspired by the fact that it is our 36th Wedding Anniversary today, while looking through the scraps box I came across this gorgeous photo. I printed it a couple of months ago for another project, but it was a little larger that I needed, so rather than throw it away it made it to the box. Along with some gold linen card where there was just enough to matt the image and cut out the Happy Anniversary. I found some small bits of white that had not quite made it to the bin and with one of my Crealies flower dies I cut the smallest flower  three times and distressed the edges with some spiced marmalade and popped some gems into the middle after adding then to the card. The only thing that did not come out of the scrap box was the card base itself which is a 5x5 size.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

A New Forest Wedding

My sister has just been to a wedding that was held in the New Forest. So when she asked me to make a card for her this gorgeous image from Lili Of The Valley was what popped into my head. I stamped onto white card and coloured using Spectrum Noir pencils, giving the veil a touch of Wink Of Stella. I then cut the image out using a Spellbinders die and another to back it onto. The corners were cut with a Crealies die as were the flowers. I created the sentiment on my PC and printed on a laser printer then put it through the laminator with some silver foil. I know my sister was pleased with the end result, hopefully the bride and groom were too.

I would like to enter this into the Stamping Sensations challenge this month which is Anything Goes.
Last month I was lucky enough to win the fantastic prize of ribbons and embellishments. The photo did not do the prize justice.

Thanks for taking a look and for your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Blossoms and Book Pages at Creative Carte Blanche

I started following the Creative Carte Blanche challenge blog when it launched, with the intention of trying something for their challenges each month. I have to admit that this is the first time I've managed to make something to enter and I've made it just in time too. This was my inspiration for the cardboard canvas that I have made below, the gorgeous Canvas that Rachel of Fisher's Cards and Crafts made the other day. I've had the piece of cardboard floating around my craftroom for some time now and I knew that I had some gorgeous pictures I had found on the Internet, of children dressed in vintage clothing and imitating adults.  I found the perfect one for my project and printed it on to some matt canvas photo paper. I painted my cardboard with white gesso and stuck the photo onto it once it was dry. Next I made the flowers, I cut these using a Crealies die and pages from an old book, then sprayed my glass mat with Carved Pumpkin and Fossilised Amber Distress inks. I diluted with water and placed the flowers into the inks. After drying I put 5 layers of each size together and put a brad though the middle scrunching them up as I went. After sticking the flowers to the board I sprayed some of the same colour Distress Sprays randomly. I finished it all off by adding a ribbon in a matching colour through the top.

 Below a close up of the flowers made with the book pages.

Thank you for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Ooops I Forgot...

... In more ways than one. First I forgot a birthday, my mum's next door neighbour. This is someone that I grew up calling Auntie Margaret and all these years later she is still my mum's neighbour and best friend. Sitting on my desk was a Debbi Moore CD Shabby Chic Enchanted Garden. So I popped it into the disc dive and printed off some papers to use. It's an 8x8 card base and after cutting the backing paper out I went around the edges with some distress ink. The topper was cut out and mounted onto the card using foam tape, the leaves are cut from a Tattered Lace die and the flowers from a Crealies die, The birds are from an X-cut die and coloured with distress inks. Needless to say I used a verse in the card saying how sorry I was that the card was late. The second reason I'm late is that I meant to post this on here at the weekend but forgot again.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Twiggy and Toots

Just a quick post from me today as I'm off to Droitwich shortly, where the UK Stampers Network are having  their 2nd Annual Residential  Retreat. Should be a fun packed weekend and a chance to catch up with some fellow members. In the mean time I thought I would show you the card that I made for my Daughters 2nd wedding anniversary a few days ago. I used this image from the Twiggy and Toots CD from Polkadoodles (I love the owls on here). It's and 8x8 card base with gold mirri matting. The flowers are from a Crealies die shaped with a large ball tool and some gems added to the centres. The fern is from a Tattered Lace die and the sentiment from All occasions Dies.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Rainbow Bunting - February - Silver

Well January flew past and we're almost halfway through February already. Last month I told you about the Chocolate Baroque Challenge (Rainbow Bunting), well it time to make some for this month. The colour this month is Silver, so I started with a pearlised silver card as my base and added some texture paste through a stencil with writing on. I decided to leave this just how it was and not try to colour it with anything. Next I found some stamps that had been at the back of my cupboard and not used for a long time, it was from the Lovebirds stamp set. I stamped with Versamark ink and embossed with Silver EP, then rubbed over with some Distress ink in barn door. The flowers are made using a Crealies die and I added some bling to the centres.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comment which are always appreciated.

Sue

July Wedding

Well I can't believe that I'm back for the third day in a row. Hubby played golf all day yesterday so I ignored the housework and got down to some crafting. Last October we attended a wedding in Cornwall when Hubby's cousin got married. At the beginning of July it's the turn of her Daughter, this card is one of three that I have to make for the big day. I shall be sending this down with FIL as we won't be going to this one. My daughters baby is due in two weeks time and we felt we needed to stay closer to home at this time. Anyway onto the card, it an 8x8 white card blank and sliver mirri card for the matting. The image is from Lily of the Valley coloured with spectrum noir pencils. The background paper is from Joanna Sheen's Holly Pond Hill CD and the die cuts from Marianne, Crealies and All Occasions. I will be entering this into the challenge over at Stamping Sensations who this month are asking for cards using dies and punches.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue