Retro Sketches and a first birthday!...

Hey guys!

How are we all?  Well I hope :)  It's half way through the first week back at work and I hope everyone's coping ok?!  After Christmas, it's quite nice to get back into a routine I think :)  I can't quite believe it's Wednesday already though, that's whoosed by!

I personally am not working this week and so today I decided to be a 'real' housewife and made lemon and poppy seed cakes-yummy!  Now, that's not as much of a treat for DOH as it sounds as I'm wheat intolerant so I, obviously, HAD to wheat free cakes!  He always complains when I feed him anything he knows to be wheat free, but I have noticed that if I don't mention it then he doesn't realise and it's only when he finds out that his beloved wheat is missing that he turns his nose up!  I think sometimes that men are worse than children in that respect!  ;)  Oh well, if he does decide that he doesn't want to eat them then there will be more for me!  He he!  :)

I am here to share a card with you today that is for an ex-blogging friend of mine...that is she no longer blogs, not that she's an ex-friend :)  It's actually for her baby daughter who will be turning one soon...did someone say broody?!  Me?!  Absolutely, yes!  :)  I cannot believe that little Grace is nearly a year old already, it seems like only yesterday Kelly informed me that she was pregnant!  

My card was inspired by two things...the Retro Sketches sketch and by this gorgeous card by my sweet blogging pal at Just Me: C.  She reminded me that I do actually own patterned papers and that they are there to be used, NOT just hoarded!!  Who'd've thunk it?!  (No, that's not a typo - I mean thunk!)  She's also super lovely and writes a very amusing blog full of beautiful cards...you should check it out :)

I really enjoyed making this card despite that fact that it's very un-me!  I don't do so well when it comes to pink and girly, but once I'd chosen the patterned paper it pushed me in the right direction as far as the colour scheme is concerned and I'm pretty pleased with the outcome.  I just hope little Grace is too :)  (Ok, so I'm more concerned that her mother likes it, being a fellow card maker :))

I couldn't help adding stitching to this card, again!  I quite like my little balloons :)

Here's the wee sketch I used...

Thank you for stopping by...I'm off to make sure that the cakes aren't poisonous before I let DOH have one when he gets home! ;)  He he!

Supplies
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White, Pink Sorbet, Primrose Yellow; K&Co - Best Of
Stamps: Bo Bunny - Sentiment Stamps
Ink:        Ranger - Perfect Medium
Other:    WOW! - Ebony e/p; Spellbinders - Circle & Scallop Circle dies; thread; pearls

I made it!...

Good evening boys and girls!

Actually, it's probably still the middle of the day for a lot of you, but it's evening here :)

This is just going to be a quick post today (I can hear the sighs of relief already!) as I am multi-tasking!  We have some friends coming round for dinner in about half an hour and also another friend dropping by just before (hopefully, other my house is going to look like a rush hour railway station!) so I'm just squeezing this post in in between!  Phew!  I didn't want to fail on the one-a-day posting so soon into January; although, with my mojo on the missing list, I can only assume it won't be long :)

This card isn't for any challenge, not that I'm aware of anyway, and is a card for my soon to be sort of daughter-in-law in the sunny land of Australia!  Her birthday is not until the end of the month, but I like to be prepared!  I'm hoping we'll be able to give it to her in person (everything is crossed for that!) but if not, it's ready for the post :)

Here we go...

Right, so there's a bit of calligraphy (kinda wish I'd chosen a different font now, but hindsight is a wonderful thing!) and a bit of multi coloured stamping, some fussy cutting and a few pearls and bam, done!  I hope she likes it because I think it's going to take a while to grow on me?!  Not sure yet...

Thanks as always for stopping by, I'll see y'all again soon ;)

(Still annoyed about the grey background - please sort it out Blogger!!  Thank you!)


Supplies
Card:     Paper Mill Direct - White, Black, Raspberry Pink
Stamps: Waltzingmouse - Fancy Flourishes & Scallops & Dots; Verve - Sunny Days
Ink:        VersaColor - Indigo, Violet, Magenta; SU! - Black; Windsor & Newton - Black Calligraphy Ink
Other:    Pearls

I hope you know...

Hello, hello!

Especially to Jane, my newest follower...thanks for joining me!

Today I am here with a card that is about as soppy as I get...an "anniversary" card for my DOH.  I put the word anniversary in quote marks as we are not married, but we've put up with each other been together for 5 years now and every year I make him a little card which he coo's over for a bit and more often than not puts directly onto the coffee table.  If he could, I think he'd probably bin them after a week or so, but he knows there's no way he'll get away with that!!  ;)  I found all of the cards that I've made for him, and that he has kept (impressed!) in a drawer the other day whilst looking for something else, and to be honest, I think some of them would be best in the bin!!  :)

This card, I think, qualifies for the challenge over at Curtain Call just now which is 'Smitten'.  I know the challenge leans more towards the wintery warm fuzzy feeling, but I think that it's a kind of a lovey-dovey word right?!  Perfect for a declaration of love card me thinks :)

A little close up of the sentiment because it's quite teeny...DOH had to get right under the light to see it properly...bless him...it's his age  ;)

It's a pretty simple card...I drew some hearts and then fussy cut them out.  I did a little crazy stitching pattern with red and white thread to make the heart a bit more interesting...same reason for scrunching up the smaller black heart - you gotta have a bit of dimension on a super simple card  :)  I managed to complete this card, write it AND stuff it into its envelope WITHOUT adding any sort of pearls or sparkles whatsoever.  That may not be a problem for most people, but for me that's no mean feat!!!

So that's me for today, I hope you're all having a lovely Monday and enjoying what is for most people, the first day back at work after Christmas :)

Thanks for stopping by ;)

Supplies
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White, Black, Bright Red
Stamps: Verve - One Person
Ink:        Ranger - Perfect Medium
Other:    WOW! - Ebony e/p; Craft Concepts - Grunge Dots e/f; Spellbinders - Classic Edges Two; thread

With gratitude...

Hey!

Firstly, thank you everyone for such a warm welcome back!  In all honesty, I wasn't expecting any comments on my posts as I've been out of the loop for a while and thought it might take me a little while to get back into the groove again, but you gals have taken me back with open arms and I love ya for that, thank you!

Anyone noticed a theme running through my posts so far this year?!  I have birthday cards and wedding card to make this month too so I promise they won't all be thank you's!

The WOW! Embossing Powder challenge to use fabric inspired me to delve into my bag of remnants and actually use them for a change!  So yes, I'm back with another fabric based card.

This one is for my little bro, I just hope he likes it :)

As you can see, I used four different fabrics to 'fill' the die cut circular holes.  It's not very obvious from this small photo, but the red fabric in the top right corner is velvet and I defy anyone not to stroke it!  The rings around the velvet circle are popped up on foam adhesive too to give the card a bit of dimension.  I'm pretty sure that I physically CANNOT make a card without foam adhesive!  The sentiment is an NBUS stamp and I was so pleased that it was just the right size to fill the gap on the top left!  I have to admit to not having really planned this card out at all, I just kinda cut a bunch of circles in it and then shoe-horned the design around it - probably not the best technique and it made it a lot more challenging to finish the thing than it should've been...but then that's the whole idea...right?!!  Not something I'm going to be repeating soon if I can at all help it!  :)

I also have another card to show you...this little sausage slipped through the net the other day when I was posting my Christmas cards...not entirely sure how but there you go!?  I can only assume it's my age...I have a big birthday approaching this year (as does DOH actually) and so that must be the explanation!  Enough blabbing, here it is...

This is another one that I made having been inspired by a challenge (Retro Sketches) but sadly missed the deadline due to my international absence.  Not to worry, I enjoyed making it anyway!  I love embossing on tracing paper (I have run out of vellum and found that actually tracing paper behaves in more or less the same way and is cheaper - bonus!) it doesn't seem to lose it's shape as much as cardstock and I like the translucency it creates  :)  A strip of glitter card and some glitter glue on the snowflake made it sparkly enough for Christmas!  :)

Thanks for stopping by ;)

Supplies

Card One:
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White, Black, Bright Red
Stamps: Paper Smooches - Chit Chat
Ink:        Ranger - Perfect medium
Other:    Spellbinders circle dies; WOW! Ebony e/p; fabric remnants; rhinestones

Card Two:
Card:      Paper Mill direct - White, Black; Papermania - Silver glitter card; tracing paper
Stamps: Papermania - Let It Snow
Ink:        VersaColor - Silver
Other:    WOW! Silver Super Fine e/p; glitter glue; Spellbinders - Create-A-Flake 3

Thank you...again!...

Howdily doodily peoples!

Can you believe it...I have posted three days in a row now!  Woohoo!  I'm hoping to keep it up, but I'm more realistic than to think life won't throw something at me that will get in the way of daily blogging - doh!!  Ah well, make hay while the sun shines and all that :)

I'm back with another thank you card and using the sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch again too actually!  This card is also inspired by the challenge over at WOW! Embossing Powder this month which is 'Fabric'.  I'm lucky, my brother's hobby is tailoring...yep, you guessed it, I get all the off cuts!  He he :)  He has recently set up a Pinterest board actually, if you fancy having a snoop then go for it, he's very good and there's quite an amusing photo of him looking mischievous!  :)

Here is what I came up with...

I took three different fabric off cuts and wrapped them around pieces of card...my OCD's will not allow too many frayed edges, I just couldn't cope with that!  I then adhered them to the white panel and added some stitching in silver.  The lines of stitching look a bit skewiff in this picture, they're not in real life...my OCD's would not allow that either!!  I heat embossed this lovely thank you sentiment in WOW! Primary Indigo powder.  I actually overheated it a bit in the middle (I burnt it!!) and it kinda went a slightly pinky colour but I like it - two tone embossing :)  Some pearls and mats and I was done...that makes it sound like it was a quick card but alas no!  I am just glad to be back crafting :)

The challenges:

Thank you for stopping by, as always ;)

Supplies
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White, Lilac
Stamps: Flourishes - With Gratitude
Ink:        VersaColor - Violet
Other:    WOW! - Indigo e/p; pearls; fabric remnants; silver thread

Thank you...

Hello there!

It's that time of year again - the time for thank you cards!  I have a few to make this year as myself and the DOH were spoiled more than usual so we have a lot to be thankful for :)

I made this thank you card based on the inspiration at CAS(E) This Sketch - luckily it's a long deadline this time so I actually got to join in over the holiday period - woohoo!

Another super versatile sketch from N@Ali...I love the sketches at CAS(E) This Sketch!

Here is my take on it...

I wanted to keep it nice and simple and true to the sketch and I think I managed that which is always a bonus :)  The matting was a happy accident of sorts...I couldn't decide whether to give it an orange mat or a black one so I was holding both colours underneath the main panel and I thought that it actually looked much better with both colours than just having one or the other!  I placed the black underneath the orange-heavy side of the panel and the orange underneath the black-heavy side to balance it out.  I don't know if you can see it very well, but I LOVE this embossing powder!!  It's WOW!'s Halloween Glitter embossing powder and it's mostly black but with gorgeous orange glitter in it and adds a bit of sparkle to an otherwise plain card :)

Thank you for stopping by, I'm hoping to be around a bit more now that I'm back!  You're going to be sick of me!  ;)

Supplies
Card:     Paper Mill Direct - White, Black, Bright Orange
Stamps: Waltzingmouse - Big Day Essentials; Verve - Kind Words
Ink:        Ranger - Perfect Medium; Distress Ink - Spiced Marmalade
Ohter:    WOW! - Halloween glitter e/p; pearls

Hello 2014...I'm back!!...

Hello there boys and girls!!!

It's been such a long time since I had the opportunity to post anything and catch up with all you guys that I think I've forgotten how!!  

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and fabulous New Year celebrations with your friends and families...I certainly did :)

It's nice to be back in the country and back at my desk...I was getting serious withdrawal when I was away!!  I was still sketching card ideas though because I knew there would be the mad Christmas card rush when I got back and I knew that if I left it until I returned home I would have a serious case of 'no-jo' and that would not have been helpful in the slightest!!  Luckily, I managed to get all the Christmas and relevant birthday cards done and sent out before the last post and I was quite pleased with myself :)

I know you're all sick of the sight of Christmas cards, but as I didn't get a chance to post them as I made them (because I was doing my best impression of a headless chicken and the camera was hidden under a pile of who knows what on my desk...poor thing!) you're going to have to suffer a selection of them now!!  Apologies, but I didn't want to miss out!  I promise I will be back tomorrow with a non-Christmas card that I've made :)

These cards were made using inspiration provided by several challenges, however, as some of them were from months ago I can't link them up - c'est la vie!  (See, I even learned some french while I was away!)

Here we go...

This card I made for my Mum to give to my Nan (her Mum!)  You can't really tell, but the panel underneath the sentiment is actually silver :)

The snowflake is suspended and twirls about in the breeze like a real snowflake would :)

...last but not least, the perfect gift for the man (DOH) who has no idea what he wants for Christmas!!

...he has used this already, in fact I think he's more than half way through his 7 pints!!

So there you go!  If you've made it to the end of this post then I love you, even if you only looked at the pictures, that's perfectly acceptable as I don't think I would read my ramblings either!  :)

A great big warm welcome to my new followers...thank you so much for joining me here on my little blog, it was a lovely Christmas present to see you here!!  I'm so glad to be back and crafting  :)

Thank you for stopping by ;)