Feast or Famine!

Having made no cards at all for several weeks (I sent a couple I'd made some time ago for the April birthdays) I have 3 to show off tonight, all made in the past few days. The fact that we are going to Scotland on Thursday has concentrated the mind somewhat as the cards are all needed for early next week, together with a fourth one yet to be started. I've had a heavy cold now turned to a chest infection since Friday which hasn't helped, but now I'm on antibiotics I trust I'll improve day by day.

First card is for the Christening of our ex-daughter-in-law's baby, born just before Christmas. We are on very good terms with Karen and her new partner and I see her and Holly quite often, so couldn't let this special occasion pass by unmarked. The cross is cut with a Nestie die, the alphabet is one of Cuttlebug's but I can't remember the name. The holly die at the side is by Cheery Lynn and the holly vine at the bottom by Memory Box. The most worrying part is whether the adhesive I've used is sufficient to stop the slender die cuts from falling off the card, which is pale pink (not mauve) pearlised; name and cross are in matt silver and the holly branches are white.

The second is for our neighbour's daughter and I can't believe Amelie is five already! The number template is by Wendy Stenton, background paper from Making Cards magazine. The bugs are made with special black peel offs called Helidots, the outlines of the shapes are applied to card and cut out - which is incredibly fiddly and I have 3 friends who tried them once and said 'Never again!' but they are rather fun and a bit different (and my daughter uses them a lot and loves them!). I saw the designer demonstrating last year and she made it look so easy...maybe it comes with practice. I know I should have included a fifth creature but I ran out of steam.

Finally, a very quick card for a cat loving friend. I had heard about 'The Great Cat of Re' in a favourite series of novels about a female Victorian Egyptologist* whose family give that name in fun to a very small fluffy kitten, and I was delighted to find a stamp with this quotation. The background paper is from a jealously guarded stash - it originated many years ago as a pack of 3 sheets of tissue from a local stationer, but sadly they never stocked it again. I cut the quote panel with a Nestie die from Labels #9.

*The series about Amelie Peabody Emerson by Elizabeth Peters starts with Crocodile on the Sandbank. All are highly recommended, and I strongly advise reading them in chronological order (which is not the same as publication order). They are amusing, cosy crime, historically accurate and interesting - what more can you ask?!

For the knitters among you

http://pinkpiggywiggy.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/please-can-you-help-sweet-peeps.html

I've nothing to show in this post but it's a request for help on behalf of babies (sadly known as 'fish & chip babies') in Africa. Many born in hospital are sent home wrapped in newspaper because the mothers have no clothes for them; an English  crafter named Dawny has a pattern for a very simple knitted top on her blog and is willing to forward them via her local Women's Institute. I can't publish Dawny's address for obvious reasons, but if you follow the above link to her blog you'll find an email address to contact her directly. If anyone has double knitting yarn but can't knit I would be happy to use it on your behalf (I already knit jumpers for orphans in Zimbabwe as a Hampshire WI project) and will send you my address on request.

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.