Let crafting commence.

Well I've not crafted for soooooooooooo long, I finally dug some things out from under my bed last weekend and made some christmas cards.........I like to be prepared. It feels good to be crafting again even if it is just basic cards at the minute!

Selection of 60s

I was asked to make a 60th birthday card for a teacher at work. It was my first order for cards and admittedly my only order for cards other than from family members but hey ho! I tried various designs and here are the selection I made.

The first card simply involved a Sugar Nellie stamp coloured in but I thought she was quite sweet.

My second card involved the same number templates as the first and a simple anita's flower stamp.

I loved this card because it involved my favourite birthday stamp, this was my first Sugar Nellie stamp and I love her. She's just so useful.

For my final card I used my trusty Addison papers and Dawn Bibby rubber stamps.

All of the cards were simple but I was so proud that I'd actually managed to make something!!

Card for a special lady

This is a card I made for a friend of mine who had just found out she had cancer. Thankfully she is now free of the big C.

She is a pigeon fancier so I got this photo from google images and printed it out 3 times so I could decoupage the image. I was really pleased with the effect. I did the same with images of fireman for the same friend as a card to send before her big op.

Both cards went down a storm!!

Christening Gifts

Well I thought I'd better add something on here, it's been such a long while since I last came on. Here's a bit of scrapbooking for a change. This first page is one I made for my great-nephew Henley for his christening, when I found this paper in a DCWV kit from QVC I knew it was just what I wanted. I'd already made a page for Henley's big sister a few years ago and my niece was so pleased with it I thought I'd do another and the added bonus is you know your gift is completely unique.

This second page I made for my great-niece, Henley's cousin, Lilly-Mai. I kept telling Lilly's mum Louise that she had to give birth on my birthday because I had my daughter on Louise's birthday, but she was a couple of days too late! I think of the two pages I like Henley's the best, I went a bit overboard on embellishments on Lilly's page.

My Baby Girl

Here's my daughter all ready for her first day at secondary school, she went off with no problems but I was a bit tearful!

Long time no post

Well it's absolutely ages since I've posted anything. Had an eventful last few months, my brother suffered a stroke which came as a huge shock to us all but thankfully now he's on the road to recovery. Also the school I worked at merged and we had a huge task trying to move everything within our school into another building, and lastly I gave up my job at Tesco to work full time at school which is very tiring, I work in foundation stage and to say they're lively would be a huge understatement! hopefully things should settle down a bit more now :-)

Scarlet Woman

Here is my ATC for this months Paper Paradise swap, the theme is "My Favourite Colour". I used my new lady stamp bought from Paper Paradise after I'd given up all hope of ever finding it. I stamped in red Versafine ink added glossy accents to the mouth, a red rose sticker and some adhesive gems for a finishing touch.

2nd Insert

Here is my second insert for the Craftswap birthday challenge, I love the colours on this one.

The Newest Member of The Family

This is my great-niece Lilly-Mai she was born on Sunday and weighed 7lbs 14ozs and I've got to say I fell in love with her straight away, especially her dimples!

Birthday Photo

As promised here is a photo of all my fab birthday cards, ATCs and fat book pages, thankyou to everyone who sent me a fab work of art xxx

It's my birthday YAY!!!! Once I've opened my birthday cards I'll take a photo of them and pop it on here, because oh happy days I found my camera round at my sisters house, double YAY!

Envelope Take 2

I made the insert for my Craftswap birthday challenge but it didn't go with my envelope at all, so I decided to decorate another envelope to go with my insert. So that I don't waste my first attempt I have decided to make a second insert that will co-ordinate with envelope number 1. Here is my second attempt, I've used various stamps and versafine inkpads as well as a few butterfly stickers and a cigarette card to embellish. Can you spot my deliberate mistake? I thought I'd used the letter I but I had in fact used the letter J. Ooops!

I made my insert in the same way but also used a quote from a HOTP collage book, some adhesive stones, glitter glue which hasn't shown up in the scan and country garden shapes which I'd forgotten I had. I think this combination of envelpoe and insert go together much better.

Bit of Bling

I'm joining in an ATC swap arranged through Paper Paradise, the theme this month is Bling, I've found this quite tricky as I'm not 100% sure what counts as bling. I used some Hero Arts lady stamps and added some adhesive stones as jewellry. I also added a DaisyD flower attatched with a Dovecraft gem brad. I made an extra ATC to swap with a friend in my local craft shop.

Back of envelope

I've finally got my scanner working again so here is my envelope back

Craftswap Forum 2nd Birthday Challenge

I can't believe the Craftswap has been going for 2 years, once again we are celebrating the birthday with a challenge set by Simon. We have been separated into teams and each team has to produce and envelope book with inserts on their given topic, these will be auctioned off and all proceeds will go to the forum charity. As one of the lucky people to acquire one of last years books I can recommend putting a bid in!

The team I am in is called Seventh Heaven and our theme is bugs & critters. Here is the front of the envelope I have decorated, I tried to scan the back but my scanner went a bit wobbly. I used my Blonde Moments rubber stamps with a versa mark inkpad and clear embossed the images, i then used my mini versacolor ink pads to tap all over the envelope and used a tissue to wipe the excess off my stamped images. I then used my Sakura Gelly Roll pens to add a bit of colour to my images. I now need to make an insert but don't really have an idea of what to do yet!

Not too sure?!?

I'd really appreciate your comments on this one as I'm not sure whether I like it or not. I used a Stampbord ATC as my base which I coloured with alcohol inks, I used stream, red pepper and either raisin or cranberry, I can remember which! I then used another of my new Tim Holtz collage stamps which I stamped in blue Stazon ink, I then clear embossed the entire ATC a few times. I'm definately in two minds about this one.

Sunday Stampers Challenge-Week 11

This weeks theme for the Sunday Stampers challenge is A Ticket to Ride, so basically any form of transport. So I merrily got out my new Tim Holtz collage stamps and set to work. I used a Stampbord ATC which i coloured with alcohol inks, I used pitch black, slate and mushroom with a touch of pearl mixative but as you see the finished result went a bit green! I stamped my image with a black Stazon pad and then inked the entire ATC up with Versamark ink and added a few layers of clear embossing powder, I then edged with a silver Krylon pen. It's totally different to what I usually do but I don't think it's turned out too badly.

It's Here in black And White

Here are a couple of examples of the fat book pages I've made for the black and white list on Craftswap. The first page was made by stamping a flourish stamp from Dimensions Fourth

onto white hammered card, I then clear embossed the image. I added the wording with my Dymo then popped on a few clear adhesive stones. The second page has a Hampton Arts face stamped onto the hammered card then the word art stamped and clear embossed, I finished the page off with some Prima flowers in the corner. Both pages were stamped with black Versafine ink pads. They're simple which i think works well for this list.

She's a Lady

This is one of the pages I made for the ladies fat book list on Craftswap, I stamped my Hero Arts lady in Versafine vintage sepia onto some cream hammered card and matted it onto some cream/bronze checked paper then popped it all onto a cream hammered card page. I added some Prima flowers that I attached with brads as I love Prima, they're just so useful. All my pages were made in the same way for this list but I used a few different Hero Arts ladies on them.

Hey Mona!

Well I've impressed myself with this one, I think it's definately one of my better attempts at an inky project. This is for this weeks Sunday Stamper challenge, the theme is green. I inked a plain white card with Adirondack ink pads in lettuce and meadow and smudged the colours in with a baby wipe. I the used a green Versafine inkpad to stamp Mona and the creativity saying. I then cut a piece of acetate to fit the front of the card and coloured it with alcohol inks in meadow, lettuce, oregano and a touch of silver. I used the green Versafine pad to add my final Tim Holtz stamp onto the acetate and clear embossed the image. I attached the acetate with two green brads. I really like the effect.