Another birthday card

Hello again

Can you believe we're nearly at the end of 2015!  I can remember when I started at Grammar School ('in the olden days' as my children used to say - cheeky monkeys!) my teacher telling us that time would speed up and fly by so to enjoy the present as much as you possible.  How right she was!

I have another birthday card to show you today which I made for my grandson in Australia.     He is mad on all sport but loves 'footie' as they call it and is in a local soccer team.  So I thought I'd be clever and colour the stamp using Adam's team colours.  I showed my son so he could see how thoughtful I'd been putting the correct colours on Adam's card, before he took it back to Oz, he said I'd got my sports confused.  Apparently 'footie' plays with a rugby ball and soccer is with a football and the colours I'd used were for his soccer team.   I said well I've covered both in one card, so what a clever grandma I was!!  He wasn't so impressed.  Hey ho!   

Hopefully Adam will appreciate what I was trying to do!!

I used CC Scruffy Little Kitten, Alfie stamp for the main card and matted it in yellow and then used the Lili of the Valley stamp and matted it in blue for the smaller topper.  The sentiment is a stamp which I think was a freebie.

Thank you for looking.

Liz x

Birthday card

Hello

Today I want to show you a first birthday card I made for my youngest grandson, Rory.  I can't believe he is one already!  Where does the time go?

I used the Jayne Nestorenko Cute Companions Patchwork Numbers stamp and coloured both the number and sentiment with my watercolour pencils.  I then went over the star and and all the yellow using my Spectrum Noir Sparkle clear pen for a very subtle sparkle.

I then stamped, coloured and cut out various characters from the CC World of Beatrix Potter stamps.  I used Jemima Puddle-duck for the goose and chicks, Apple Dapply's Nursery Rhymes for the little mouse with the jam tarts, The Tale of Peter Rabbit for Peter and for the large robin and The Tale of Mrs Tiggy-winkle for the small robin on top of the number one.

I matted and layered the number onto dark blue and then pale blue card and placed in the middle of a 6" x 6" Centura Pearl card.

I positioned the various characters around the card as shown.  I'm still not sure whether I should have either put another character in the middle on the left or taken Jemima Puddle-duck out of the middle on the right.  What do you think?

I finished it off with an insert from the Peter Rabbit CD and stamped the sentiment on using a stamp I bought in Australia. 

Thank you for looking.

Liz x 

Birthday Train

Hello again

This is a card I made for my two grand-sons (not at the same time!).  One was in Australia and one was here in England, so no comparing.

I used my favourite lady, Jayne Nestorenko's, stamps.  This time from her Cute Companions range, Playtime.  I love this set of stamps, full of childhood nostalgia.

I stamped all the characters I wanted from the set onto Centura card.  Then I painted them, using my water-colour pencils.  

The tricky bit was cutting them all out as some of the items, especially the train wheels were very fiddly.  I think they came out OK though.

The best bit was placing all the characters in different poses until I was satisfied.  I then used Collall decoupage glue raising them up off the page.

The backing paper comes from the Cute Companions CD from Crafters Companion and the stamp is Woodware Circular Greetings.

I was very pleased with the card.  

Thank you for looking

Liz x

A never-ending card

Hello again

In January 2012 I made a never-ending card.  I hadn't made any more for ages so I decided to make one for my middle grand-daughter, Emily's birthday.  She loves fairies, as so many girls do, andI thought I would decorate the card with the Flower Fairies from Crafters Companion.

I printed off some decoupage from one of the Flower Fairies CDs for the front of the card.  I also had the Fairyopoulos Cardmaking Kit which had the sentiments on in rub on transfers.  Then I used a CC heart embossing folder matted with silver card.

On the next fold I stamped both the pixie and the toadstool and coloured them in using  my Promarkers.  I'm afraid I don't know where the stamps came from.  I have a feeling they may have been freebies, but I'm not sure.  Apologies.

On the third fold I picked pictures I had in the Fairyopolis Cardmaking Kit, cut them out and mounted them on silver card.  I also used a couple of flowers that came with the kit.

On the last fold I used pictures from the Cardmaking Kit again and also some of the little tags which were included.  Apologies for the photo being sideways on!  I can't make it import correctly!!

Then we're back to the beginning.

I have to say Emily was thrilled with the card and it stands in pride of place on her bedroom shelf.

The card is very effective and quite simple to make.  Would you believe it only takes four pieces of card? If you would like to make one, just look it up on the internet.  I made this card larger than they suggested using 8" card instead of 6" but there really is no limit to size I don't think!

Thank you for looking.

Liz x

Hats and shoes!

 Hello again

A few years ago I came across the most wonderful wrapping paper (well I thought it was wonderful).  It was full of beautiful hats, handbags, shoes and dresses.  It was so lovely I couldn't resist buying a sheet.  I wish I'd bought more - its always the way, isn't it?

Anyway it was too nice to just wrap presents in and for it to be crumpled up!  So I decided to make some cards with it.  I happened to have some gorgeous hat stickers in my stash.  Unfortunately its so long ago I have no idea who made the hats stickers.

In this first pink card, I used white glitter card and added some straight-line peel-offs onto the edges.  I then backed the wrapping paper onto silver mirri-card which I raised up using Collall decoupage glue.

I put in an insert and decorated it with Anna Griffin's punch.  The pink of the base card shows the pattern off quite nicely.

The envelope I made myself using Crafter's Companion Enveloper and their paper.  I decorated the envelope flap using the pattern on the Ultimate Pro embossing box.

On the blue card using card from my stash, I cut the wrapping paper into a 5" square and popped it onto the card.  I then cut some thick acetate and used it as a wrap.  

I attached one of the hat stickers onto the front of the acetate and cut a matching shape on the back of the acetate to hide the glue.

I also added a ribbon around the acetate wrap to hide the back of the card and tied a bit of the ribbon on the front to make a small bow.

I decorated the insert using the Anna Griffin punch and and silver peel off in the shape of a matching hat. 

The envelope I made in the same way as the pink one using the same decoration from Crafter's Companion.

Thank you for looking.

Liz x

More number cards

Hello

As promised here are some more of the number cards I have made.  

Again I have used Jayne Nestorenko's Cute Companions Patchwork Numbers stamp.  They are such a good size and look so different in various colours.

I have used different characters and items from the many Cute Companions various stamps.  Such a variety and so appropriate, as you can tell I love them!

The two options show how different the cards look changing the various characters. 

The lad on the bike is not a Cute Companions stamp.  I am afraid I can't remember who made it as I think I borrowed the stamp from friends and didn't notice where it came from.

As you can imagine I have made more cards using different numbers.  I will show them over later blogs.

Thank you for looking.  I hope you are enjoying what you see.  Some feedback would be very nice, but not necessary.

Liz x

Easter

Hello

Talk about confusing the various celebrations!  I'm now posting Easter cards!  Hey ho!

Having bought the Create-a-Card dies from Crafters Companion I decided to try them out.  This card uses the A6 daisy die which is very versatile.

I cut the die on Centura card and used some backing paper from my stash.  The cut out circle I decorated using gold Liquid Pearls around the outside, and popping on gold peel off.

The card came together so well I decided to make several.  They really were very easy to make.

Thank you for looking.

Liz x

Australian pop up box

Hello

On a previous blog (9 October) I showed a wedding pop up box I had made.  I thought it was quite unusual and when I had to decide on a card for my eldest son who lives in Australia, I thought I would use the box idea again and see what happens.  

Having to send it to Australia I was very conscious of weight so I didn't put embossed card on the flaps or the sides of the box.  It very much more flimsy than when I used additional card on the wedding card.  I wouldn't do it like that again.

The paper and toppers I used I had bought in Australia a few years before with the idea of using them on an Australian scrapbook page layout, which I never got round to.  These were ideal for my card.

I must say I was amazed at how different the cards looked using a variety of papers and toppers.  I shall definitely use the idea again when I need something unusual.

I didn't hear whether he appreciated the gesture but I have assumed he thought it was OK!

Thank you for looking.

Liz x

Millie

Hello

Today I thought I'd show you some pictures of my cat called Millie.  She is about 15 years old.  I got her from a cat rescue home when she was two when my children decided I needed something to look after as a real baptism of fire.   they had all left home!!  No peace  for the wicked.  As I was in full-time work at the time it really wasn't practical for me to have a dog (which I preferred) they decided I should have a cat.

As all my friends know I am not a great cat lover, never having had a cat before so it was a real baptism of fire for both of us!  Anyway we muddled along.  During her time with me she has managed to lose an eye (very careless and nothing to do with me!).  The vet thinks it was either a fox or another cat.  Millie seems to have coped very well though with only one eye.

Anyway this is just a bit of background on her.  As you can see she is a bit of a dipsy cat, like all cats very nosey.  I just loved this one though.  This used to be a water feature in my garden but it started to leak so I took out the water and it was left as a garden feature. 

I looked out of my craft room one day and this is what I saw.  Whether she thought the birds wouldn't see her I don't know but she sat in there for a good ten minutes before hopping out!  I must say, much as I dislike having to, she can be quite cute sometimes!!

More of Millie's adventures later on!!

Thank you for looking.

Liz x