Inspired by Pinterest!

It's all my niece's fault....she introduced her mother to Pinterest, and it was she - my Big Sister - who got me involved, having resisted the siren's lure for months! However, I have some gorgeous cards on my 'Cards by other people' board , many of which are very different from my own style and it's fun to pick and choose between different elements. This is one I made which follows the prototype quite closely and I love the clean lines; it was quite quick to make, too, and I suspect I shall be using the same design quite a lot.

Not my best work...

...

...and I'm only putting it here as a reminder to myself! I have had an impossibly busy month, including being away for a week which meant organising a programme to keep 40 dancers and 2 musicians happy all day, and then after we returned home the car broke down just hours before I had 3 very full days scheduled. I'm sorry to say that my friend's card was sidelined until today - I'd had the basic idea early in the month but couldn't get it to work and had to put it aside; this morning, with just an hour to spare before the final postal collection to reach him on his birthday next Monday, I cannibalised my previous efforts and by using a lot of Nesties, scissors and glue stick was able to produce something to go in an envelope. The base card is deep cream, not pink, and you can guess for yourselves what the wording inside is. The stamp is by Little Claire, sentiment is computer generated.

I have 3 birthday cards and a Golden Wedding card needed for April: I hope I don't end up making them in as much of a hurry as this one was!

Silver Weddings

Yesterday I made two Silver Wedding cards - fortunately the recipients live 4,000 miles apart and don't know each other so the cards are almost identical. I used Cuttlebug EF called 'Jules' Jewels' and a Memory Box die butterfly (silver mirri card) to compliment it; the label is a Nestie long deckel edge rectangle also cut in silver mirri card with a plain white centre. With a white organza ribbon with a silver stripe, and simple silver peel offs the card looks far plainer than the actual time taken would imply. The second version (smaller numbers, because I didn't have any more of the others) took far less time, of course, having done all my dithering already. Today what should have been a five minute job making both inserts took an hour, which included searching for a non-existent anniversary stamp, and struggling with self-adhesive labels that weren't and removable tape which also removed the surface of the paper. My next major task will be two Golden Wedding cards, but as the couples are best friends I shall have to come up with completely different designs.

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).

December birthdays old and new

A very special friend will be 70 tomorrow and this is the card I've made for her: I always make a special point of making something as different from a Christmas card as I can, so this seaside theme fits the bill perfectly. I struggled with it but was finally happy - it was the inclusion of the bright yellow that tipped the balance even though it's among my least favourite colours. I love the quotation which is an old PSX stamp I managed to track down on eBay last year and it's cut with the beaded oval Nestability . The sketch of the woman is by Stampin' Up! cut with a small classic square Nestie and matted using my new, indispensible tool, the Perfect Layers ruler. Highly recommended, it's so simple to use and results in perfectly even mats without any measuring. And no, this isn't a sales advert: I have no axe to grind other than being one very happy crafter!

Well, there's a new birthday added to the calendar for December: Holly Louise was born on Wednesday 21st and this is the card for her proud parents. The teddies by PSX are my favourite go-to stamp for baby cards, coloured with chalks and mounted on pink which I promise you is not as lurid IRL as it appears here! And the piece at the bottom cut with a Nestie Fancy Tag die really did come from the same piece of card although it looks very different. The holly background is shaded green so I 'm not blaming the scanner for colour variation there, and although you can't see it the insert sheet has its edges decorated with a Fiskars holly border punch.

I should be back next week with the final card for this year - a friend's birthday is on New Year's Eve.

Winter friends

A quick posting today of a card made for the new Joanna Sheen blog challenge which is called Christmas Wishes :) The verse is a custom made stamp, the snowman is by Inkadinkado coloured with dry pencils and cut with Classic Oval Nestabilities. The background paper is from a large batch of handmade Indian paper I bought several years ago - this particular design has made wonderful snowflakes!

I'm also entering this card in the final Bah! Humbug! challenge for Cute Christmas Critters because it gives me a way of saying thanks to Max and Ann for all their hard work and apologies for having disappeared off their radar for most of the year. Ladies, you won't have seen my previous post explaining that I've been ill for the past 6 months (or at least not well) but I am now recovered and rarin' to go with next year's Bah! Humbug! challenges :)

I'm still alive!

I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post. For the past six months, since our holiday in Scotland, I've not felt well and although I kept trying to pick myself up and get on with things it didn't work. Finally I went to the doctor and after several comprehensive blood tests I can now state categorically that there is nothing the matter with me; possibly I have had a virus which has gone, and apart from monitoring my blood pressure for a couple of weeks I shall not need to visit the doctor again (I hope). I certainly feel very much better than I have done for months and have been trying to make up for lost time, especially in the Christmas card department!

The card shown here is not the only one I've made in the past month but all the others are just copies of some shown earlier. I thought that would save time, but choosing to make a dozen of a particularly complex design was, perhaps, not my brightest idea... This is one I've had in mind for years and in fact I made it with a stamped background many years ago. If anyone knows where I can buy Christmas tree paper like this I'll be forever in your debt - this is half of a small sheet given free with Making Cards magazine Christmas special, and I was stupidly reluctant to make a second card and use it up! The bauble shape is from Spellbinder's Heirloom Ornaments 2011 cut from holographic card, and the stamped sentiment is from JustRite Stampers Merry Little Christmas set. The large greeting is a silver peel off and since scanning it I've added a line of tiny silver peel off stars at the bottom of the background paper which improves the overall look considerably.

I intend to return to my blog with a header photo of all my handmade cards when I finally call a halt. 2012 will see me blogging much more often, showing off birthday cards made two months before they're needed, and at least 14 new Christmas cards each month. I shall sail serenely through the cardmaking year.....and if I manage that it will only be because, like a swan, I'm paddling like h*ll out of sight!

Back with a Big One

The past month has been a mix of highs and lows, hence the absence of any creative efforts from me. I think I'm now over the low spots so without further ado let me show off my latest effort: an e-NOR-mous card for my daughter's forthcoming 40th birthday. I take no credit for originality - my crafty friend Joy made one like this a couple of years ago for her son-in-law, and not only did she encourage me to consider making one like it for Claire but she gave me a template and picures plus periodic nudges to get on with it!

The template was actually a card blank from Craftwork Cards in the shape of 4 candles. I merely opened it out so there were 8 candles, traced round it on a large A3 sheet, cut it out, stuck on bits of foil paper and repeated four more times, then joined them together to make a 5 panel accordian folded card. The two problems were the flimsy nature of the foil, which creases if you so much as look at it, and the sheer size....when extended the card is 70", or 1.75 metres. The inner part of the flame is made with an X-Cut leaf punch exactly the same shape; the decorative circles are all by JustRite Stampers cut with Nestabilities Classic Circles and mounted on purple pearlised card cut with scalloped Nesties. The figures are from the Cuttlebug Hippie Chick alphabet dies.

Here are some more pics to show detail from left to right, the dark patches are shadow/reflections of me as I stood on a chair to take the photos:

It has taken many hours of work over the past eight days to make the card, and not for the first time I'm glad Claire wasn't twins :)

And now for something completely different.......

My husband and I are members of a folk dance group which meets monthly between September and May. It was founded in May 1930 and our friend Mary was persuaded by her cousin to become a member just a few months later, aged 17. She has continued with the club ever since and insists it is still the Aldershot Folk Dance Club even though it is many years since its meetings were held in Aldershot. This coming Saturday we are having a party to celebrate 80 years of dancing (no, I can't make the figures add up either: I think we just forgot to have it last year!) and I volunteered to make a special cake. Now, I'm not a fantastic cook but I do quite enjoy baking; I make good cakes but there's no way I can ice them to a reasonable standard, so after a brief panic about what I could do for decoration I came up with the idea of using my trusty Cuttlebug and papercraft techniques rather than sugarcraft. And here's the result!

It's a rich fruit cake (made to a wedding cake recipe) which has been quietly maturing for 3 months, fortified with brandy. It has a covering of marzipan (almond paste) and tomorrow I'll ice it so it has a few days to dry and harden, but I've spent much of the past two days playing with ideas for the top. I used the Cuttlebug Fancy Pants alphabet to spell out the club name and the 80 came from the Hippie Chick alphabet. The blue scalloped circle is cut with a Marianne die and overlaying that is the Spellbinder Eyelets pendant in matt silver. The whole is mounted on a 7" diameter silver circle - an inch smaller than the cake - and I'll place the circle loose on top then remove it for cutting. A serendipitous touch was the blue circle having 12 scallops when there are 12 letters in the name.

Originally I had cut the letters in silver but they won't be wasted - I'm going to make cupcakes for those who don't like fruit cake and will use the letters individually on top. I think my daughter has a special cupcake stand so I'll ask to borrow that (provided I don't have to make 100s of cakes to fill it!)

I'll take a photo of the cake when it's finished and add it to this entry but I wanted to show that I haven't been completely idle.....I've also been playing with more punched flowers (pansies this time) but haven't made a card for them yet.

Sweet peas

Here is the first card I have made completely from scratch since sorting out my disaster area craft room. It was such a joy to be able to select a box of green scraps, and a box of white scraps, and my Nesties, and a drawer full of Promarkers...each neatly labelled and each returned to its designated home when I had finished the card, instead of scrabbling through half a dozen drawers that looked like the aftermath of a tornado in a paper factory! How long this idyllic state of affairs will last is another matter.

Several years ago I made a few paper flowers from punches using books by Leonie Em of Australia. Recently a new book on the subject from America appeared in the UK courtesy of Joanna Sheen, and when I saw the sweet peas I just had to buy the appropriate punch and have a go at making them (they take me back to my childhood and a beloved uncle who grew them wherever he went, from Egypt to the Cotswolds). I was pleased with the results for a first attempt though I'm sure I could improve with practice, and the greenfly that landed as soon as I had finished seemed to give them the seal of approval :)

Image and sentiment by JustRite Stampers, coloured with Promarkers and the background chalked in pale pink to tone down the bright white card. Green background is a Spellbinder's Lacey Square . The book Paper Bouquet is by Susan Tierney Cockburn, published by Lark Books in 2008. And although you can't really see it, the dark grey background is a special photographic sheet bought with birthday money from my husband along with a pale dove grey one - I try hard to get a decent close up photo of any card I can't scan and hope that these will make life easier.

And tomorrow I intend to make a Christmas card or three to catch up on some of the April challenges from the Bah! Humbug! site.

ETA: I have just discovered this card qualifies for entry in the current JustRite Stampers challenge which is using handmade paper flowers with a JRS image.....how serendipitous is that!

An excuse for a post

I don't know where the past two weeks have gone, but they certainly haven't been spent crafting! For one thing, I started to empty my craft room into the dining room next to it, with the bright idea of tidying it. We all know what happens to good intentions, don't we? Life got in the way with a vengeance and ten days later the dining table is still covered, my craft room is only marginally tidier than before (because there's less in it) and I have just had to make a Get well card in a hurry to take to the dance club tonight for members to sign, having heard that someone is in hospital. Where were all the cards I should have put by for just such an occasion? Not even made, it has to be said.

This was actually a small ready made card which I have cannibalised to make it larger - it would have been quicker to start from scratch because everything that could go wrong very nearly did; however, it is done. The die cut words are by Cuttlebug as is the background embossing; I can't remember if they came from the same combo set or two different ones. Stamped words by JustRite Stampers, cut with a Classic Circle Nestie and mounted on a Scalloped Circle. I now have to clear away even more Stuff from the dining table...and I'm off to visit two craft shows in the next three days...I have a feeling I shan't be coming home empty handed from either.

I'm obviously not going to be joining in the Bah Humbug Challenge this week, but on Friday I need to make a card for an 80th birthday which is on Sunday. Ho hum, there's never a dull moment!

Card for a gardener

I made this today for a friend who is a keen gardener.....I think it will amuse him, even though there probably isn't a weed to be seen in his vegetable plot! I took the verse from a cross stitch book by Jo Verso, printed it from the computer and cut it with a Classic Rectangle Nestability, then mounted it on brown card cut with the Scallopped Nestie. The stamps are from several different companies. Inside, opposite the sentiment, I stamped 'May all your weeds be wild flowers'.

I'm back to my campaign for using up scraps - the cream and light brown both came from my scrap box.

Bah! Humbug! Challenge #11

Gold....Silver....Copper....sounds like the Olympic medals gone wrong! But this week's Challenge theme of metallics certainly has plenty of scope, and if you think of those car colours available as an optional extra in metallic finish (at vast extra expense, of course) you can see we're not restricted to the precious metals. On the highest step of my rostrum is this Christmas star stitched in gold metallic thread, edged with a thin gold border and mounted on dark blue velvet paper. Stitching pattern from Form-A-Lines, the sentiment is by JustRite Stampers cut with Nestability dies and has a scalloped border of the same gold.


Silver and white says snowflakes to me (yes, I have very selective hearing...). The big one is a stamp by Personal Impressions embossed with silver EP and mounted on matt silver. Two embossed panels have snowflakes by Crafts Too and Papermania, and the card is 6 inches square.


The partridge in a pear tree is made with a Dreamweaver stencil and matt black paste on copper coloured card, then mounted on green velvet paper. I even had a sheet of copper coloured greetings to embellish it!


The three kings stamp by Hobby Art is embossed in gold and painted with Twinkling H2Os - those non-precious car colours - which have a pearlescent finish rather than 'twinkling' in the way that Glimmer Mists or Cosmic Shimmers do. I cut the shape with Nesties Label #8, framed it with a patterned gold card and mounted it on green mirri card.

I didn't even use the buttons, charms, wire, eyelets and brads all with metallic finish that I'd unearthed before I started!

Spring is sprung

Another quick birthday card which cheered a very dismal day here. The lovely daffodil stamp is from a recent JustRite Stampers set, coloured with Promarkers and cut with a Nestabilities Classic Oval then mounted on the Beaded Oval. Background is embossed with Swiss Dots and the sentiment is cut with Fancy Labels. Green background paper is from my stash.

I have just discovered the monthly challenges on the Sir Stampalot blog . Since the theme for this month is 'Spring is in the Air' this fits the bill nicely, so here's my first entry.

Bah! Humbug! Challenge #10

The theme for this week's Challenge is 'Apertures' which seems a perfect occasion to use a pair of stamps I bought at a big craft show in Toronto, Canada, about four years ago and, I'm ashamed to say, have inked only once to stamp them in my catalogue. The resulting card was much quicker and easier to make than I feared. The snowy village scene was stamped straight onto a white card blank and coloured with dry watercolour pencils. The windows were stamped on a piece of green card the same size, cut out and a sheet of acetate stuck on the back. One of the bottom corners was a bit ragged so I applied a little Polar White Flowersoft on the acetate to be snow on the window sills - I don't know how I would have disguised ragged corners at the top but I was lucky! I then cut a strip of card 4cm wide and scored 3 vertical lines, accordian folded them and cut the strip in half. I stuck a piece to each side of the front, attached them to the snow scene and there you are: a view through the windows! A silver peel off border and greeting completed the front....and I wondered why it had taken me so long to use those stamps. Although they are by a Canadian company and may not be readily available in the UK it would be easy enough to cut similar windows freehand to go with any scenic background. The folded strips between the front panel and the scene mean that the card will squash flat to go in an envelope, but when extracted the windows stand proud like the proscenium arch on a stage.

When buying peel offs you may have seen big white sheets of geometric shapes and wondered what they are for. This card was made by punching three square apertures and sticking matching peel off frames with clear centres on the front (I use waxed paper such as the carrier sheet from labels inside the card to protect the back surface). Inside I sprinkled ultrafine holographic glitter on the sticky surface of the centres; on the outside I added small peel off motifs and coloured with appropriate pens. I stuck the edges of the insert sheet all round on the lefthand side so the glitter wouldn't rub off.

It's many years since I used this wreath stamp by PSX and having made the card I remembered why! Nothing wrong with the stamp, it's all that cutting..... I stamped it on white card with Versamark, embossed with silver EP, coloured it with Promarkers and cut it out (memo to Self: new decoupage snips are needed urgently!) The card was covered with green paper embossed with the Cuttlebug folder 'Holly Ribbons', the aperture cut with a Nestabilities Classic Circle die and the wreath stuck down overlapping the edge. The sentiment was stamped on the inside - I traced lightly the inner edge of the wreath to position it properly - and the only minor problem is that the back of the leaves show on the inside of the aperture and, because the Promarkers bleed through, it looks a bit untidy. If I make another I shall cut the wreath out double and then stick the clean copy on the back after colouring and before assembly.

Bah Humbug Challenge #8

The theme for this week's Christmas challenge is 'flying things'. I was planning to use one of the 'Winter Birds' stamps by Impression Obsession but I went to a big craft show on Friday (and Saturday....and this morning! Well, it's only ten minutes down the road) and saw a sample card which I have sort of copied - certainly took it as my inspiration. The stamp is one of a set of 'Twas the night before Christmas' by Clarity Stamps; it's a favourite poem of mine and I have a beautifully illustrated copy, but I think Barbara Gray, owner and designer of Clarity, has done a fabulous job. The card on her stand at the show had the image mounted and layered on the Nesties Label #1 and then mounted on a larger card with a ribbon accent; I decided to leave it small and have mounted a small square red card behind. It was stamped in black Versafine and coloured with dry watercolour pencils. The red mount is velvet paper which I was pleasantly surprised to find is self adhesive.

A tricky card problem.....

I needed to make a card in a hurry but spent a long time debating what to put as the message. It's for a lady in her 90s who has been declared unfit to live alone any longer and has been transferred from hospital (following a fall) to a residential nursing home. It's a fantastic place and her family are so relieved that she is now going to be well looked after, but I think she thinks she will be going 'home' quite soon.....I didn't want to cause an upset by referring to her new home so finally used that excellent 'one size fits all' phrase, Thinking of you. Now all I have to do is come up with a tactful message inside!

The background and the plain pink papers were freebies from Making Cards magazine, the words and wide border are by JustRite Stampers cut with a classic circle Nestability. The large mount is the Lotus Pendant, also by Spellbinders, and the flower in the top left corner is the small poinsettia by Marianne Dies without any embossing.

And the pink/silver ric-rac braid was in my prize package from the Bah! Humbug! ladies which arrived yesterday - I knew I wouldn't be able to wait for the next Christmas card marathon!!

Teabag Folding

It must be at least two years since I last did some teabag folding, although for a considerable time it was my greatest papercraft interst and I compiled a vast file of all the different folds I came across. The Circle of Crafters forum has monthly challenges for teabag folding, iris folding and general cardmaking; yesterday I noticed that the given fold for this month's challenge was one I had done long ago and decided to have a go, using it as an excuse for making yet another Christmas card! The fold is very easy but because it ends up as a 7 sided motif (made from 7 individual squares) it is very tricky to make it look symmetrical, and this one was made even worse by wanting to put a greeting in the middle! I achieved it eventually and it doesn't look too badly out of kilter if you squint at it in a poor light ;)

Let me clear up a misunderstanding for those not familiar with the technique: you do not do anything with soggy teabags. Like so many papercrafts this came from the Netherlands, where teabags are packaged individually in decorative paper bags within boxes. A Dutch lady skilled in origami remembered one morning at breakfast that she had forgotten to make her sister a birthday card for that day. She started folding the teabag packet, then another, and thus developed the method - it's described as modular origami in some books, because true origami is made from a single piece of paper whereas this uses 4, 5, 7 or 8 identically folded pieces. The border on the card shows 3 of the tiles before cutting and folding.

The tile is by Helen Jane's Designs, MS punch is Iron Gate and the circle cut with a Nestabilities Classic Circle.

Bah! Humbug! time #5

And I'm only just in time this week, but only just is good enough! The theme is Buttons and Bows, a tricky one for me since I rarely use either, but I remembered I had kept a red knotted ribbon which came on a special jar of chutney given to us at Christmas, and while rummaging in my embellishments I found these winter buttons by Dovecraft. Snowmen stamps I have in abundance (this is by FunStamps) and the words are from a custom made stamp.

ETA: What a good thing I checked back after posting the link on the Bah! Humbug! board.....I was in such a hurry I forgot to include the picture!!

A golden oldie in silver: Bah! Humbug! #4

The challenge at Bah! Humbug! this week is to use something that hasn't seen the light of day for quite a while but used to be a favourite - what they are calling 'An oldie that's a goldie'. I used this stamp by PSX several years ago for many of my Christmas cards because it gave beautiful results without too much work and I could produce quantities fairly quickly. All it needed was heat embossing in gold or silver; sometimes I coloured the flowers lightly but more often left them plain. I'm now thinking of trying it in white or copper EP on dark card, rather like the thistle from my Burns Night card, but for this challenge I just mounted it on a panel of red mirri with a length of silver ribbon. The dies were the two largest from the mega deckle long rectangles. And the green border is purely background - I found that a plain white card on the white blog page left more than a little to the imagination!

And I still love the stamp and wonder why I haven't used it for the past few years.