Pansies for thoughts

This is a Get Well card for my niece who is having major surgery today (yes, I know I should have sent it earlier but it's been another busy week and I only made it yesterday!) The papers are from Making Cards magazine, the January issue rather than the special floral one I've used recently. I rarely copy a card exactly but that's what I set out to do, being short of both time and inspiration, but it evolved into something a little different.

I had an A4 sheet of beautiful pearlised purple card which I folded in half then trimmed to a square. Having stuck on the backing paper I took the strip I'd cut off and trimmed to make it narrower and stuck it to the back with the folded edge on the right. Cut the end to a point and made a slit in the front of the card, decorated it with a topper (and a small pansy on the back) and tried to put the 'With love' panel on the front under the band. That looked awful, because the scale is different and the stripes didn't match so I left the front plain and used the panel on the insert sheet decorated with the appropriate Martha Stewart punch.

So the card ended up quite different from the one in the magazine which pleased me greatly and it is now on its way to Essex with our good wishes for a speedy recovery.

Wild flowers or weeds?

Both of these cards were made from papers in the Making Cards Floral Special. I was so impressed with all the designs that I bought a second copy when I visited my local craft shop last week - I'm sure it will be very popular and go out of print very quickly! The first card is for a friend whose birthday is tomorrow so I'm off to the post office as soon as I've finished this and then it's fingers crossed for a prompt delivery. I love poppies and I hope Terry does too; the big single flower lends itself very nicely to a little 3D decoupage.

The second card is the one I made for Mary earlier this week before finding the pattern for the 99 ice cream shown in my last post. The two big flowers were made with a punch and the centres are crystal gems.

Goodness - two cards in one post and one of them not needed for another two weeks! Life is definitely looking up :) Now perhaps I'll think about the wedding card needed for the day after that birthday; it's not often I have to make one of those because golden anniversaries are much more frequent in our circle, but the bride's parents are our friends and we've known Jenni since she was a little girl.

This was superb timing!

Our friend Mary will be 99 next Friday. Last week I was joking with her that her birthday card ought to show a picture of a '99' which is a soft ice cream in a cone with a chocolate flake bar stuck in it. Not having such a picture, yesterday I made instead a pretty card with daisies on it. Last night I had an email newsletter from Form-A-Lines who publish patterns for stitched cards and lo and behold! one of the new sets includes a 99! Fortunately the patterns are sold by direct download so I was able to stitch it today and am very pleased: not only do I have the perfect card for Mary but I also have a card ready made for a friend's birthday in a couple of weeks (I do need one for Saturday for which the daisies aren't suitable but I'll deal with that on Friday, my only free day this week).

Forget me not!

No, not a plea to my faithful supporters but a birthday card for a friend! The papers - background with forget me nots and daisies and the two main pics - came from the recent Making Cards special issue of floral designs, a beautiful collection which is, I think, the best they've published. The unusual card was cut with another Get in Shape template bought at the big show I attended recently; the original design uses a full A4 sheet of card but I decided I wasn't keen on the proportions and trimmed a strip off top and bottom. The message panel was decorated with a Fiskar's punch; the greeting was unmounted and I have no idea where it came from.

We are away tomorrow until Friday, dancing in Somerset. Next weekend I shall have two cards to make for birthdays the following week....so much for resolving to make all cards a couple of months in advance!

Two stitched cards

A friend on an online craft forum recently posted a request for help: she has been asked to do a demo plus 'make and take' in a London store using Gutermann threads and asked if anyone could make some sample cards for her. There was a free choice of designs and L supplied five spools of Sulky thread, I received two pinks, light brown, light green and a green/gold mix. These are the two cards I made, both using patterns by Form-A-Lines. It was the first time I had stitched with Sulky which is intended for machine embroidery but I shall certainly be using it again - it is very smooth and has a lovely sheen, so not as bright as the metallics I normally use but shinier than DMC embroidery threads.

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).

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 :)