Spades, hearts and diamonds

These two cards were finished a few days ago but they both needed to be photographed rather than scanned and the weather has been a little chill, to put it mildly - I prefer to do it outside with natural lighting so waited until today when most of the snow has gone. Now I need to put the first card in the post to America and hope it arrives in time.

It isn't really anything to do with hearts, except that my niece's birthday is on Valentine's Day. Liz loves her garden so I had a bit of fun with this - yes, it's a side stepper just like the last card I made. I've said it before: I never claim to be imaginative and when I find something that works I'm likely to stick with it! The lady gardener is by Paper Nation, stamped and coloured with pencils then mounted on dark green using a Mega Deckle Rectangle Nestability die. The background stamp is by Hero Arts, the quotation and small images are by PSX. The little metal tulips I've had for years and cannot remember who made them, but they were just perfect to finish off the front.

I am entering this card in the Sir Stampalot challenge for February which, fortuitously, is entitled 'In the Garden'. Or more accurately, it was the challenge theme which gave me the idea for Liz's card! :)

In my last post I said I would be making a very special card for a very special lady....and here it is. I belong to the Women's Institute and our county federation has organised a competition for a card to be sent, on behalf of all Hampshire members, to congratulate Her Majesty the Queen on her Diamond Jubilee. I must say that left to myself I would not have made such a card as, although I am a monarchist and admire the Queen greatly, I just do not do things like that. However, I try to enter what competitions I can to show support for the organisers. There are over 7,000 WI members in Hampshire and maybe 100 will enter; I don't expect my card to be chosen (not everyone likes plain and simple but I'm no good at beautiful and elaborate) and if it isn't then I can change the insert and save the card for someone's diamond wedding instead!

The base card is bright white Bazzill card. The embossing folder is by Cuttlebug as are the die cut numbers; I matted the Nestie diamond and the top layer on the same silver mirri card as the numbers using the Perfect Layers Tool then raised the diamond on foam pads; there are tiny clear gems where the embossed lines intersect.

The wording inside was indicated by the Federation: I have printed it in the standard WI dark green on parchment and it is more legible than it appears here (also the tape doesn't show up as much IRL).

Wedgwood Style Birthday Card

It's been a long time since I did any card making; I'm ashamed to say I've missed at least three birthdays in that time, however my excuse is that it's been a busy month with visitors and attending two folk dance festivals. Now the weather has decided that summer is over, autumn draws near and settling down in the craft room is a very good idea, so here's the first of my offerings using a stamp I bought when my sister was staying with me and needed to be taken to a big craft shop.....well, that's my story!

The image is by Hero Arts, stamped using Versamark with detail white embossing powder. I swear the plain blue squares had straight edges and right angled corners when I cut them - can't think how they got themselves so crooked! (and they really don't look as bad on the real thing.)

Birthday Cakes

This is the card I made at the weekend but couldn't scan. It's the first stepper I've tried, using a template by 'Get in Shape' (isn't that a great name?!). I couldn't make sense of the instructions at first so did a dummy run with a piece of scrap paper and it worked perfectly, so making the real card was child's play. The cake stand image is by Impression Obsession, sentiment by Stampendous and the individual cakes are from Hero Arts, coloured with Promarkers. The main image and sentiment are cut and layered with Nesties. I used Dewdrops as cherries; next time I'll use Tippex to get rid of the line behind them as they are so very transparent. The card is for my DD - I've told her not to look at my blog until after her birthday on Friday :)