Love, love, love...

Hello, hello!

How are you all?  I hope you all had a fabulous weekend and got a chance to get some crafting in :)

Well, all has returned to normal here.  We are both home, myself from visiting family and DOH from sunny Australia.  Bless him, at the wedding he got heat stroke and nearly passed out!  He was fine after a while though and by all accounts was well looked after by his nearest and dearest in my absence :)  He had a fantastic time and I know he wished he could've stayed longer, but that's life I suppose.  We're planning a trip over there, hopefully this year, to spend some quality time with his family :)

But now, it's that time of year again when I wish I'd bought a heart die!!  Every year I think, 'this would be easier if I had a heart die, I'll make sure I get one of those' and yet here we are, another year has passed still with no die!  Stars, that's another die set on my list...maybe one day I'll get round to it ;)

I have made two cards today (the withdrawal of being away from my desk has put me into overdrive!) both of which are for Valentines Day :)  This first one is for my DOH and is for THREE challenges!  It's rare that I make a card that is eligible for that many challenges!

This idea has been floating around my head for a little while now...I'm not entirely sure where it came from?!  I also wasn't sure how I was going to make it into a reality so I just went with it and here's how it ended up!  It really doesn't require an explanation so I'll not bore you!  The only thing I will say is that yes, the sentiment is handwritten :)  I haven't used the Gothic style font for ages...when I first started calligraphy it was absolute favourite so I thought it was time I had another go at it :)

I am entering this card into the following challenges;

Cas-ual Fridays - Over The Edge...the little heart is trying to make a bid for freedom!

Addicted To CAS - Love...that's pretty obvious I would've thought!

Paper Mill Direct - create a Valentine's card...and I used Paper Mill Direct card, as always!!

The second card I have to show you today is the same as one I made last year, in May I think?  The only difference is I swapped the lime green for red as requested by my brother as a Valentine's card for his partner and I thought I'd share it anyway :)  It has a completely different feel to it actually, I was surprised at what a difference changing one colour made!

Thank you very much for stopping by guys, I appreciate it :)  I will catch up on commenting I have missed and I shall certainly have a browse of blogland as soon as I can because I've missed y'all!!

Supplies

Card One

Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White, Grey, Black, Bright Red

Stamps: Hero Arts- Valentine Flourishes

Ink:        Ranger - Perfect Medium; Windsor & Newton - Black

Other:    Cosmic Shimmer - Berry Red Aurora e/p; rhinestones

Card Two

Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White, Grey, Black, Ruby Red

Stamps: Hero Arts - Valentine Flourishes

Ink:        Ranger - Perfect Medium

Other:    WOW! - Ebony e/p; Spellbinders - Classic Edges One, Circles; pearls

Congratulations!!!...

Hello there boys and girls!

Today is a very special day as my DOH's son marries his girlfriend and the mother of his gorgeous baby girl!!!  

My lucky DOH is in Australia as you are reading this to celebrate along with them...I unfortunately could not make it as it's a very expensive trip and it was far more important that he was there than I was!  I do feel a bit bad for him though as he is only able to spend a week over there and so the jet lag is going to hit him full force like a freight train when he returns back home to me :(  It has been five years since he saw his son so I know he's going to love every minute of it!

Obviously, an occasion such as this calls for a card...duh!!!  The invite that we received was in the very stylish colours of black and pearlised white, so that was my jumping off point.  This is how it turned out...

...and a little close up so you can see the pearls :)

It doesn't show very well in the photograph, but the white mat is a beautifully shimmery pearlised white card which makes the whole thing look a bit more elegant than a flat white...I think?!

I really hope that everyone is having a wonderful day and that my DOH is proud as punch and not melting in the heat!  It's 45C + where they are at the moment...slightly different from the single, and in some places minus, temperatures that we have here in the UK just now!!  He's going to get a shock when he comes home!  I also hope that he's having a fantastic time meeting his Granddaughter for the first time...she's 18 months old now and I just know she's going to absolutely adore her silly Grandad!  It's a super special trip and I know all concerned will appreciate it even if it is only a fleeting visit ;)

Thanks for stopping by guys ;)

Supplies
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White, Black; Pearlised White Card
Stamps:  Waltzingmouse - Big Day Additions, Fancy Flourishes & Scallops & Dots
Ink:         Ranger - Perfect Medium
Other:     WOW! - Bright White e/p; pearls

A little love letter...

Hey, hey!

How are you all?  Enjoying your weekends I hope!  I can feel Mr. Mojo starting to re-appear which has pleased me no end ;)  Although, typically he turned up just before I'm about to go away for a week - I mean, talk about lousy timing!?  

I have made another girly card and I can't for the life of me work out where the girly-ness came from!!?  I think it was the doily and the soft colours from the new Curtain Call Challenge...

See!!?  Girly!  I have no idea who I am going to give this to - I'm pretty sure DOH would appreciate a slightly more masculine Valentine's card than this!!  That said, at least I made a card for a slightly more current event - unlike yesterday's Christmas card!

Despite being completely out of the norm for me, I really enjoyed making this card!  It has a pretty doily, an envelope made from patterned paper, a big pink heart, a SKEWED panel and glitter...it couldn't be any less me!  Maybe Mr. Mojo went visiting someone with the total opposite style to me and brought some inspiration back with him...who knows, but I quite enjoyed it :)

The 'love letter' actually slides out of the envelope...

...I guess you could write a personalised note on the back of it...that might be nice :)

And this is the gorgeous inspiration image from Curtain Call...yummy!!

Thanks so much for stopping by ;)

Supplies
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White, Pink Sorbet; K&Co - Best Of
Stamps: Hero Arts - Valentines Flourishes
Ink:        Ranger - Perfect Medium; VersaColor - Old Rose
Other:    WOW! - Ebony e/p; Glitz It - Sparkles; Doily

Wedding stationery...finally!...

Hi ya!

WARNING!! I would like to warn you all now that this is a photo-heavy post.  If you are viewing from a mobile device that is not connected to a wi-fi network then it may take about 3 years to load all the images :)

I am here today with a post that is so overdue it's borderline embarrassing/funny!  

Allow me to explain...one of my best friends got married in September 2012 - yes, 2012, and I made her wedding stationery for her.  I had meant to post all about it following the wedding, but then life happened and the blog post never did.  It then got to that point where it was too long after the wedding...you know like when you've been speaking to someone for a while and then it's gone past the point when you can ask their name?!  It felt like that.  Then, I thought I would post it on their first wedding anniversary...nice idea...it works...but no, didn't happen.  So now I'll be honest, I'm out of ideas about when would be the 'right' time to do it so I'm just gonna do it!  Has this whole thing been over-thought...you bet it has!  :)

There's not really much else I can say except that it was a fab day, I was lucky enough to be one of the bridesmaids and the colour scheme the Bride chose was beautiful!  Oh, and I love her dearly, can't forget that part!!  ;)

Here we go...

I have to apologise for the quality of these photo's...I took them on my mobile to email to the Bride-To-Be when I was coming up with ideas for her.  As it happens, after making about a billion wedding invitations, I don't actually have a single one left to take proper photograph of so that's why you're stuck with this!  Just imagine that it's a lovely lime green, less dull than it looks in the photo!  I also ended up heat embossing the floral flourishes on the real thing which I didn't do on this prototype.

Now, the next batch of photographs are from the wedding day and were not taken by me.  I would love to give credit to the photographer, if only I knew his name!  If I manage to obtain that information then I promise to come back and edit this post to give credit where credit's due!

All of the table names were names of coffees as my friend is a MASSIVE coffee addict!!  There was also a slight Art Deco theme running throughout - the font on the invitations and the font used for the rest of the stationery...

Yes, I did HAND WRITE all of the place names!  I quite enjoyed it actually as it's rare that I get to use my calligraphy for anything these days :)  The lines were drawn freehand too to break up the perfect straight lines and to add the 'handmade' feel to them.

I like to be a little bit unconventional...instead of 'easel' style place names, they were more like little cards :)

Table layout

Table plan

Now then...this was the best part of the whole thing for me.  When my friend went to the cake decorator/baker (whatever the proper name for the amazing cake making people is...I don'y know!) she took the invitations with her and the cake was made BASED ON MY INVITATIONS!!  Yep, super humbled at this point, especially when I saw the cake!!  She even put the little blue and white rhinestones in the same place ;)

Cake!!

...more cake?!!

On the left is the post box I made for all the cards to go in

 This is probably one of my favourite photo's of the marquee - how pretty did that look!!?...

I was so proud to have been able to do this for my friend on her special day and bless the Groom, he even thanked me in his speech ;)

So there you go...I've finally done it, it's posted!!!

Thank you for reading my ramblings and checking out my proudest crafting moment to date...I'm hoping there will be many more to come!  ;)


Hope to see you soon ;)

Something a bit different...

Hello, hello, hello!

It's been a few days since I've posted anything, but that doesn't mean I haven't been making anything!  Although, I must admit that despite all the fabulous inspiration from the challenges and my fellow bloggers, Mr. Mojo is still on the missing list...boo to him!  If you see him around anywhere looking like a lost lamb, will you please point him back in my direction - ta!  :)

I am posting today, not a card, but a gift set of notebooks.  I was on Amber's wonderful blog the other day and found this tutorial on how to make your own notebooks.  Now, I know it seems obvious once you've watched the video, but I had never thought that PVA glue would work so well as a binding agent!  So anyway, I thought I'd give it a go.

I was also still on a mission to use some of my hoarded collection of patterned paper so that's exactly what I did...here are the little fellas...

Each notebook has a co-ordinating card as the colour on the inside...if that makes any sense at all?!!!  (It would seem not only has Mr. Mojo done a runner, but so has Mr. Vocabulary!  Apologies peeps!)  For the red plaid notebook and the blue striped notebook, I used the same colour card for the labels as I did for the inside.  The black script notebook has a black card inside, but I though that it needed a lighter grey colour for the label... :)  Those little strips of card on the labels are for the recipient (my little brother) to write on so that he knows what he's using each notebook for.  He's on the hunt at the moment for a house so I thought he might use one for noting down estate agents, mortgage lenders, furniture stores etc.  That way all the information pertaining to each subject is in one place and not on a thousand pieces of paper which I find tend to grow legs and wander off just when you desperately need them!  (Is that just me?)  Another one he could use for sketching and maybe adding fabric samples for his tailoring and I don't know what he'll use the other one for, but I had to make three else it would've upset Mr. OCD, who is still alive and kicking!

Now, I couldn't just present him with three loose notebooks, that wouldn't be very professional would it?!  Just like Amber, I had to make a little box for them all to live in...

The box, as you can see, is made from black card and the wrap is made from a pearlised white card which isn't so obvious.  I used the same script patterned paper that I used for the notebook to make the tag, mounted on black card.  It does have 'Just For You' heat embossed in silver on the back, but I forgot to take a photo of that - whoops!  A bit of silver thread and Bob's your Uncle!

Here's the little rascals trying to escape...

I was quite pleased with how they turned out and I think I may make a little set for my sister too, she's as bad as me for doodling designs (she likes to make jewellery) and losing important information scribbled on scraps of paper!  She's always travelling about so it's difficult to keep track!  I think I'll pick some brighter colours for her ones though, these were chosen as more masculine colours but they don't look as pretty as bright ones would!  :)

As I used die cuts on these notebooks to create the labels, I'm going to enter this into Addicted To CAS's challenge to use...you guessed it...Die Cuts!!  I'm not sure if they qualify for this challenge as it's not a card, scrapbook page etc, but it doesn't get much more CAS than sticking a label on a sheet of patterned paper!  I'm sure someone will let me know if I've broken any rules!  :)

Thanks for stopping by guys ;)

Supplies
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White, Black, Sky Grey, Ruby Red, Ocean Blue, Pale Turquoise, Primrose
                   Yellow; K&Co - Best Of; White pearlised card
Stamps: Verve - Glad Tidings
Ink:        VersaColor - Silver
Other:    WOW! - Silver Super Fine e/p; Spellbinders - Fancy Tags 3; silver thread
                  

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