Shaking ....

.... all over.  Eeek, my baby has just turned 12 - this time next year there'll be another teenager in the house.  I don't think I'm ready!!  My daughter's teen years have been very turbulent and, at times, traumatic, although we now know why, so I have no reason to believe that his will be as bad, but still, I'm shaking in my boots more than a bit!!

Last year's card was a football one, and Jed is still super-keen on the sport, so I did another one - it's my first shaker card.  And here is it:

 

Update 01/03 - this card was chosen as Top 3 on Shopping our Stash - thank you!!

I used the sketch from this week's Deconstructed Sketch and I'm also entering the following challenges: Papertake Weekly ("Lovely Layers"), Shopping our Stash ("Embellish Me"), Cute Card Thursday ("Clever Cutting"), Moving Along with the Times ("Fantasy" - Fantasy Football?!!), Brown Sugar ("Use a Die Cut or Punch") and Sentimental Sundays ("Pack a Punch")

Jed's main present was tickets to a Premier League match, which his poor sports-hatin' Dad will be bringing him to!!  But we haven't told him which team yet, so the map background on this card is my way of a "where in the world" joke.  Lots of fiddly, fiddly details on this card - I printed the little footballs in rows, added glossy accents, cut them out and sandwiched them two by two and they are the shaker elements.  I hand-cut those little cardstock chevrons and the numbers.  I don't have circle die-cuts, so I used the inner bit of a large sprocket die to make circles, traced around a lid for the centre of the circles and cut out to make those skinny rings that make up the shaker body.  I also made the rosette by hand.  Here's a closer look at some of the details:

Recipe:

Papers: Basic Grey "Wander"

Fonts: Impact and Sport Relief - www.dafont.com

Die-Cutting: Nestabilities "Sprightly Sprokets"

Other: Glossy accents, black enamel accents

Thanks for looking!

Shopping Our Stash

Wuv, Wuv, Wuv ....

.... as my son used to say in those long-ago toddler days when he couldn't pronounce his Ls!!!  Valentine's Day has been and gone and I was only a day late making my husband's card - oops!!  Here's this year's offering:

Update 18/02 - this card was chosen as Top 3 on The Kraft Journal - many thanks!

I'm entering this in the following challenges: Less is More ("Masculine"), Totally Papercrafts, Creative Inspirations, The Kraft Journal ("Valentine/Love"), Papertake Weekly ("With a Heart"), City Crafter ("Love Bug") and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge ("Get Krafty").

I got some new crafting goodies during the week - first time in ages and ages - and I was itching to use the embossing paste.  I've seen it all over blogland in the last while and I knew I'd like it.  The Tim Holtz hearts stencil was out of stock, as was the plain white paste, so I got the stars stencil and the pearlescent paste and I'm glad - more hearts would have been overkill and the pearlescent sheen is just lovely.  I hand-drew the red heart, slathered it in a thick layer of glossy accents, and then cut it out when it was dry.  Here's a side shot of the card:

Recipe:

Stencil: Tim Holtz "Stars" stencil

Font: joeHand 2 - www.dafont.com

Other: Pearlescent embossing paste, glossy accents

Thanks for looking!

Triple ....

.... trouble.  A colleague was having difficulty finding a card in the shops for her friend, who has just had triplets, all boys - can't imagine there's a huge mass-market for the taking there alright!!  So she came to me and this is what I made:

Update 17/02 - this card was chosen as Top 5 on Crafty Cardmakers - thank you, Carole!

I took my inspiration from the babies' biblical names - this is little Noah and his brothers safe in their cozy ark - and as they were born very prematurely, but fingers crossed are holding their own so far, I like the safe and sound on the stormy sea analogy too.  I've done a couple of similar cards before using this lovely October Afternoon wave paper - it's so good for little scenes like this.

I'm entering the following challenges with this card: Craft Your Passion ("Pick any Challenge" - I'm going with #174 "All at Sea"), Crafty Cardmakers ("This is a Man's World"), Totally Papercrafts ("Hey Cutie") and Crafty Girls Challenge ("Anything Goes").

I love the little swinging name banner on this card, here's a side-shot of a giant thumb and a close-up of the banner doing its thing!!

Recipe:

Papers: October Afternoon "Seaside" and "Weathervane"

Other: Bakers' Twine

Thanks for looking!

A Bird in the ....

house, or rather 13 birds in 13 houses!!  My monthly crafting group were given little plain cardboard birdhouses, in varying shapes, at our January meet-up - we had to decorate them, bring them along to the February meet, and then we would swap them amongst each other.  Here's how mine turned out:

 

I painted it white using plain old housepaint, and then added distressed wood effect papers for the body of the house.  I had some wrapping paper with pretty birds on it, I stuck one on a couple of layers of card then cut it out, wrapped wire around the perch, painted it and then impaled the bird on it!!  I spent a while thinking about the roof, I don't have any big scallop punches or straight dies, I didn't want to do individual tiles, too much faffing about.  Then I hit on a idea which worked better than I could have hoped - I used the inside edge of a postage stamp die - carefully adhering strips of paper in two different sequences and die-cutting, then distressing and overlapping the strips and finally making a ridge tile to finish it off.  I am really pleased with the result.  Here's a closer look:

 

I'm entering this house into the following challenges: Crafty Creations ("For the Birds") and Papertake Weekly ("Anything Goes").

Here's a pic of everybody's birdhouses together - aren't they fab?!

And here's the house I received in the swap - from Svetlana.  I love the woodgrain embossed paper she's covered it with.

 

My birdhouse recipe:

Papers: October Afternoon "Seaside"

Die: Nestabilities "Postage Stamps"

Other: Wrapping paper bird

Thanks for looking and thanks to Isobel for the idea to do this swap (and for providing the houses).