Birthday and Thank you Cards

I thought you might like to see a couple of cards I've made recently. 

This is a birthday card I've made for my sister-in-law's husband - I do find men so difficult to make cards for but I'm pleased with this one.  I've used Joanna Sheen's Jane Shasky CD which is absolutely beautiful.  There are so many lovely pages that I shall certainly be making many more cards with this CD.

A close-up of the decoupage.  I used Diamond Stickles on the background and decoupage to imitate the snowflakes.

This is the insert, again taken from the CD - I've amended it rather as I couldn't get one to fit the card base.  I used the backing paper and cut out the little detail from the insert to put on it.

This is a thank you card I made for my sister-in-law.  Again it is using the Jane Shasky CD - I loved the colour combination of the bird.  The stamp is one I bought in Australia and can't remember what it was called, sorry. 

Sorry !!!!

I don't know whether anyone else is having trouble but I can't comment on my own blog!!  How stupid is that?  I get your comments on my email but when I go in to thank you the page just goes blank.  So thank you everyone for your kind comments to my recent blogs.  I am replying by email to you all. 
Is anyone else having this problem?  Can anyone tell me what I can do about it please?  It is ridiculous.
Anyway thank you all again.  I'll still carry on blogging.  xxx

Never ending card

I have been asked to make a couple of never ending cards for friends to buy.  It is such a long time since I made them that I had to find my instructions.  Even then I still got it wrong first time!!  Honestly the amount of card I waste, faffing about!  Hopefully I will get better at it. 

Anyway the first one my friend wanted was Beatrix Potter and using quite a few cats.  I used the Crafters Companion various Beatrix Potter CDs and printed off several pages and backing sheets.

So here is what I produced.

I don't know whether you know how a 'never-ending' card works.  This is the front page.  You open up the middle card from the centre out, like a book, and get:

This is the second page which you open up from the middle upwards and downwards, giving you the next page, which looks like this:

You then open up the card from the middle outwards, like a book, and get the next page.  Thus:

With a place to put your greeting.   You open it again from the middle upwards and downwards and you're back to the beginning.  Having four different stages, it looks as though the card is 'never-ending'.

Hope you like it.  My friend seemed to be pleased with it. x 

So cute

My daughter just sent me this photo of my new grandson, Archie fast asleep in the bath. 

Shame he doesn't stay asleep for long, but maybe that's the way to send him off!!
Just thought I'd show you.  Definitely one for the scrapbook I think.
x

Double tri-fold card

I saw this sample of a double tri-fold card some while ago on the Crafters' Companion's project web-site and fell in love with it. 

So I decided to make one to welcome my new grandson into the world.

I used my Crafters Companion Humphrey stamps and CD in this card.  I have used some decoupage and hand-painted the rest of the images.

This one worked well so I thought I'd make one each for my grand-daughter and grandson in Australia as I wouldn't get to see them. 

Here is the one I sent to Emma, my grand-daughter and actually was the first one I did.

I used Jayne Nesterenko's Winter Adorables CD solely on this one, some decoupaged and some straight printing and then quite a lot of glitter!

For Adam I couldn't use anything fancy so I used Jayne Nesterenko's many Cute Companion stamps and hand-painted them.

I used the stamps from various of Jayne's stamp sets and they all seemed to mix together well.

They took for ever to decorate but I think they were worth the effort in the long run. 

I haven't heard back yet what the children's reaction was to them, but I enjoyed doing them. xx

Christmas cards

Hi

Just thought I'd show you some Christmas cards / presents I made for the girls at work and my crafty friends. 

I used the idea from Crafter's Companion Sara's Ultimate Pro DVD, which showed you how to make the card and adapted it to make a drawer too.  I then decorated the card and made the little boxes for the cards to go into.  I must admit it was a labour of love because the candles I used were the Yankee 'smellie' candles and they were slightly taller and wider than ordinary tea lights.  The adjustments I had to make for both the boxes and the cards nearly drove me mad.  I just couldn't get the hang of it.  I'm still not one hundred per cent satisfied, but I shall try again!

I also made boxes to put the cards in, using Crafters Companion new Boxer Board.

I also made some smaller ones too, together with the boxes which were a bit quicker to make!

From the feedback I've received, everyone was very pleased with them.  I must admit I was pleased with them and will probably make a few more for different occasions.

See you later x

Christmas

Hello

Happy Christmas to everyone.  Again I have been so lazy about blogging - I just don't know where the time goes. 

We had a lovely family Christmas - for a change I didn't have to do anything!  My son, Nick invited me over to stay for the weekend at his girlfriend Emma's, and his house for Christmas this time, and also to meet Emma's family. 

We had a great time. They live in a lovely part of Crawley (honestly there are some!) right near woods and a golf course, so we went walking there on Christmas Eve with their dog, Bramble. A chocolate brown labrador who is as daft as they come, with the wiggliest bottom you have ever seen!

In the evening we were invited to Emma's parents for dinner for me to meet them before Christmas Day. Mmmmn - I have a feeling there's something brewing but am not allowed to say anything until later!!
My daughter, Kate, husband Danny, Chloe, Emily and Archie also came for Christmas lunch.

Here we all are.  Can you see the pile of food on Nick's plate at the front?  We all had the same!!  And believe it or not, we all ate it too!!  It was absolutely beautiful.  Nick did everything himself - from decorating the table, to cooking the turkey, to making his own mayonnaise, horseradish sauce and making and decorating the Christmas cake!  He was so excited - he was like a little boy again!

That's it for now.  Back later x