Golden Wedding #2

Although I started this card several weeks ago it was finally completed just a couple of days before the celebration - and turned out completely different from what I'd had in mind! I wanted to make something really special for my sister and brother-in-law using some of the newer Nestability dies which are far more intricate than previous sets (also the largest dies are *much* larger). I started to copy a beautiful card seen on YouTube but in the end gave up out of sheer frustration because the dies just would not cut properly...and by making many attempts I ended up running out of the special cream-flecked-with-gold card that I wanted to use as the base card with accents of matte gold on top.  I thought it might be the gold that was causing the problems - certainly in the past I've found that mirri card has a plastic film on top which doesn't always cut cleanly - but later I found a long thread on SplitCoastStampers with many complaints about the sort of trouble I had had. Also many suggested solutions, most of which I already did such as using a metal shim and also waxed paper for easy release; actually, it isn't releasing the die cut that's difficult, it's getting it to cut in the first place! My beloved Cuttlebug is about 6 years old but shows no signs of wear, cutting other dies without any problems; unfortunately the platform is too narrow to turn those largest dies through 90* for a second cut which some have found helpful. The final suggestion, which I have yet to try, was to spritz the card lightly with water before cutting, so I'll have to try that next play time. It's such a shame, because the dies are beautiful....

Anyway, having abandoned my ambitious plans I ended up with something much more akin to my regular 'plain and simple' style. The panel is indeed one of those cut with the Nesties; words are by Britannia dies (stuck down with micro dots by Letraset: so glad I found a mention of those on a forum because I've used them for years but forgotten them for a while). I remembered when we celebrated our Ruby Wedding 6 years ago that I was told ivy stood for constancy in the Victorian language of flowers so that was easy choice of border. The ivy corner is by Joanna Sheen, also the extra ivy spray along the bottom which is rather special as it's one of a pair of mirror image sprays as requested by members on Joanna's forum. So nice that she has the personal touch and actually takes note of what her supporters say - I haven't met her but she really is a lovely lady. Oh, and the numbers are from a Cuttlebug alphabet.

I did make a birthday card before this one but have yet to transfer the picture to my laptop - it had to be photographed rather than scanned and was uploaded to DH's desktop; he'll transfer it for me via a flash drive....when he can find it....

Golden Wedding

Just a brief blog today to show the Golden Wedding card I made for friends - based, fairly obviously, on the Silver Wedding card of the previous entry. The base card is cream with a subtle gold shimmer, sentiment on a matte gold then mirri gold panel. The lovely rose in matte gold is a Marianne die I bought at a craft show last Friday - I must have seen it before but this was the first time I was really aware of it and realised how beautiful it is. There's also a companion die of a rosebud and I mounted that inside, next to the greeting. The ribbon is cream organza with a gold stripe; in retrospect I think I should have added a bow on the right, but  at the time I only thought of centring it and decided that would look too linear. Oh well, the card is in the post now so it will have to stay as it is!

Where did January go?

I can't believe it's almost February, I had such plans for the start of the new year that came to naught because a bad cold laid me low for a good two weeks. But I haven't been completely idle: I've made 50lb marmalade, have four knitted jumpers (sweaters) in various stages of progress for orphans in Zimbabwe (I enjoy knitting them but hate sewing up), stitched four card bookmarks for a giveaway through FaceBook (and bought another set of six patterns...) and started to spring clean the kitchen cupboards. But what happened to my plans for making birthday cards two months in advance (I should have six made right now) and eight (reduced from 14 - whatever was I thinking?!) Christmas cards per month? I'll leave you to answer that one :(

But fear not, I produced this card yesterday :) The friend for whom I made the seaside card in my last post will be celebrating her Golden Wedding next week and I've been brooding over possible designs all month; finally everything fell into place and I'm very pleased with the result. I used a lovely pale gold pearlescent card for the base, cut to a side stepper using a template by Get in Shape Templates. The rose stamp, embossed in gold, is by PSX and I mounted it on matt gold using once again the Perfect Layers tool. Oh, that's such a wonderful invention!! I used it also for the panels on the steps where a rose patterned paper is mounted on the matt gold, which I also used to cut the numbers from the Cuttlebug Hippie Chick font. The 'Congratulations' and strip of tiny roses are gold peel offs, and I used the same roses down each side of the inner panel.

I am entering this card in the Joanna Sheen monthly challenge for January, the theme being 'Celebrations'.

There's another couple of friends celebrating their Golden Wedding in August: that will be my fifth GW card in 18 months! But next up is a very special card for a very special lady....watch this space and I hope to have something soon :)

Golden weddings

No, not ours - though we're working on it! Friends are celebrating 50 years of marriage tomorrow and this is the card I made for them.

The base card is a deep cream, cut to the shape of a book and covered with handmade Indian paper. The stamped roses are from my well loved PSX collection, embossed in gold then layered on matt gold, and the whole trimmed with gold peel offs.

Other friends are also celebrating their Golden Wedding next Monday; their card is in the post heading for Spain. I showed it when I made it some time back but thought it would be nice to include it again, since it uses exactly the same materials but has quite a different look. There's another to be made for next month and one for next February, plus a Ruby wedding in September, so maybe it's time to find a different theme.


Oh, and a footnote to the card with 40 candles shown in my last post - it was very well received, and greatly admired!

It's All About Love

That's the theme for Rainbow Lady's challenge for this week....perhaps she expected lots of Valentine cards but since my poor DH didn't get one this year (come to think of it, neither did I!) I'm offering something different. We have four couples among our friends who are celebrating their Golden Wedding in the next 12 months so this was a good opportunity to start the special cards. First came the choice of a cream card base rather than white. Then I went through my folders and pulled out all the suitable cream & gold background papers, deciding to use another of the handmade Indian sheets which I have in abundance. The hybrid rose is a PSX stamop I've had for years and used many times, even painting it with watercolours on one occasion (and for me that was a huge adventure). This time I embossed it with Versamark ink and gold detail powder but was very disappointed with the result: no raised lines at all, and no shine.....if asked I think a viewer would decide it was a gold picture because it couldn't be anything else, but it certainly wasn't what I wanted. So I did it again using my very old ordinary gold EP and got the right effect this time. The matte gold card was a couple of bits from my scraps box, the gold peel offs added the finishing touch and that was it: an hour's work, one GW card down and an entry for Cynthia's challenge :)

Summer? What summer?

Yes, summer is definitely on its way out and I'm marking the progress through the year with yet another change of photograph in the heading: this was taken at the Royal Horticultural Society's garden at Wisley a couple of years ago. It was a gorgeous day in October when the autumn colours were at their best against a vivid blue sky, but I don't want to anticipate autumn too soon so I'll keep the red and gold maples for another day.

If I take May as the start of summer the season ended as it began, because once again the month was notable for visitors and dancing! I exaggerate a little, since only my sister came to visit and she stayed for less than 4 days, but we filled that precious time together with laughter and visiting old haunts from our childhood because she now lives in Somerset and I live just a few miles away from where we grew up. The month finished with a terrific long weekend spent folk dancing near Warwick, which is always a highlight of our year though tinged with sadness that it's the last of the festivals and a very long time to the next one in May 2011. I filled the rest of the month annotating my new book of dances and am now waiting for the proof reading to be completed......unfortunately I can't help tweaking and 'improving' the text each time I look at it so the marked copy I receive back from DD will bear little relation to what I have on the DTP!


Apart from the Get well card of my last post I made no cards at all during August. I need to get back into the habit, though, as it is a friend's birthday on Friday, our wedding anniversary next week (42 years) and DH's birthday 2 days later and I haven't given a thought to any cards yet. The easel card shown here was made at the weekend for friends Mark & Faye celebratng their Silver Wedding tomorrow; the base card is palest mauve pearlescent and the centre panel, mounted on the same mauve and matted on plain silver, is white and silver paper that looks like lace - a strip of the same paper backs the raised panel inside. Since I haven't shown it before I'm also showing the card I made for Mark's parents when they had their Golden Wedding 5 years ago.

Golden Wedding Anniversary card

I've made this style of card many times, because it's so versatile and always makes an impact. Sorry the colour of the scan is poor, it's much too pink for the real thing which is cream and gold! I started with a sheet of ivory pearlescent card, folded and trimmed to 7"x5". I then mixed measurements and marked 2cm (just under 1") from the folded edge for the line between front cover and spine, and the same below the top to trim the front and reveal the 'pages' which are rows of narrow peel offs stuck on the inside. The corners were trimmed to a slight curve instead of straight, the first time I've tried it but it's definitely an improvement (see my blog entry for 14 February for a comparison). The gold panel uses Martha Stewart's Punch Around the Page 'Double Loop' set, and the 3D flowers are from a decoupage sheet by Mireille. I only used 3 layers which I think is quite enough, although the sheet provides seven. I added a single sided insert sheet because it has to be quite small to avoid the cutaway sections, and somehow a tiny folded insert looks wrong IMHO. I used the same border punch along the bottom, and a gold peel off anniversary greeting to tie it all together. I hope our friends like it.

Goodness me - nothing from JRS, no Nesties and no Cuttlebug! No doubt they will all re-appear when I start on my next batch of birthday cards.