How time ....

.... doth fly!  Bit too late to be saying Happy New Year, really, but here we are in 2017.  I haven't been crafting as I was sick over Christmas, then we had really busy weekends throughout January.  I've been trying to get time to clear out my craftroom, it was a tip.  Eventually got to it last weekend and did a huge tidy up and clean (the dust!!!) and since then I've made four cards, yes FOUR!!  One was just a photo one that I gave to my mother-in-law on her birthday and didn't take a picture of, two are waiting 'till their recipients have them before I post, but the fourth I can post now!

This time last year, we were headed off to Edinburgh to my cousin's wedding - here's the post I did at the time about it.  I made an anniversary card to match the card I had given them last year and here it is:

It's quite a little card - 10.5cm x 10.5cm so I hadn't a lot of room to work - I used the same papers as last time, had to use different ribbon as I didn't have any left from last year - lots of gold heat embossing and the same art deco touches and fonts.

I'm entering the following challenges: Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge ("Young at Heart"), Little Red Wagon (Colour Challenge - red and/or pink and black), Brown Sugar ("Rhinestone and/or ribbon") and Inspiration Destination ("Anything Goes").  I used some wood veneer hearts and covered them in gold embossing - here's a side-shot of the card:

Recipe:

Paper: Basic Grey "Kraft Basics"

Font: "Betty Noir" and "Yorkwhiteletter" -  dafont.com

Other: Gold e.p., ribbon from stash, Studio Calico wood veneer hearts

Thanks for looking!

Sort of the same ....

.... made another card with just words in the middle.  It's a Golden Wedding Anniversary card, and it's also my DT entry for this week's PaperPlay.  Our sponsor this week is Inky Impressions and the challenge is called "Use 2 or more Stamped Images".  Some of the DT girls have done magnificent things with masked and merging.  I just used four stamps from the one set!!  Here's what I made:

Only when I looked at the photos did I realise what a truly disgustingly bad knot I'd tied in the ribbon, but I'd already handed it over so no way to redo.  The stamps are a Papertrey Ink set that my lovely friend Anne brought me from a trip to Cinncinati recently.  I've used two sizes of sunflower, stamped on patterned paper, and then stamped two sizes of centres, cut them out, liberally covered in gold stickles and popped up for dimension.  Here's a closer look:

Recipe:

Papers: Pink Paislee "Queen Bee"

Stamps: Papertrey Ink "Simple Sunflower" set

Ink: Distress Inks

Other: Gold stickles, metallic rub on stuff, Doodlebug brads, ribbon from stash, needle+thread

Thanks for looking!

The sun has....

gone in again.  Oh well, this is Ireland!!  We've had some glorious weather over the past week, Friday and yesterday were particularly nice - I was out in the garden planting strawberries, tomatoes, rhubarb and chilli peppers (try cooking something with that combination!!).  Having great difficulty getting my stuff back into the craftroom, somehow having more storage is messing up my head, can't work out where is the sensible place to put things.  I guess I'll keep struggling with it!!

I was asked to do a card and gift tag for a couple who are celebrating their 65th Wedding Anniversary next week.  They were married on 24th April 1945.  I just can't get over how long ago that is - WWII still had a few months left in it, for goodness sake.  I spent days and days dithering over what kind of image to use - nothing I have seemed appropriate for a man and a lady in their late 80s. Then I had a brainwave and decided not to use an image, just text!!!  I went for a sort of vintage romantic look.  Here's my card (taken today when the sky was grey and cloudy!):

I used this week's sketch on Friday Sketchers.  I'm also entering this challenge on Cute Card Thursday, their challenge is called "Touchy Feely", they want to see texture, I've used cuttlebug embossing!! 

I was asked to use pink/blue colours, but it wasn't going so well, so I ended up with the blue/yellow/white combination, which happily fits the colour challenge on this week's Basic Grey Challenges.  I'm proud to say that I've used papers from more BG collections than I've ever done at the one time before.  I've got Figgy Pudding, Skate Shoppe and Nook + Pantry all together!!!

Here's a pic of the card and gift-tag set:

Recipe:

Papers: BG Skate Shoppe, Figgy Pudding, Nook & Pantry

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Antique Linen

Font: English

Other: Crackle Paint, Big Scalloped Rectangle Nestabilities, needle and thread, cuttlebug embossing folder, Hero Arts pearls

Thanks for looking!

All that glitters ....

.... is not gold!!

It's pretty glittery outside today, we had lots of snow yesterday (well, comparatively speaking. Anyone in Scandinavia or parts of the US would fall about laughing at the piddly amount on the ground here!). But the entire country ground to a halt yesterday!!! And we were supposed to go back to school today after the Christmas hols. I checked the school's website this morning, it said we would open as normal. DS and I started walking to school in the snow - very pretty and crunchy - half way there the principal rang to say we would be closed 'till Monday - YAHOO!!!!!!

It was my turn to set the challenge on PaperPlay Challenges and it's called "Precious Metals" - I've asked entrants to feature metal, or metallic elements, on their work - could be embossing, inks, charms, findings, anything as long as it's gold, silver, bronze, copper.

Here's my card:


The number charms are faux metal - I made them from numbers I printed from the computer, traced onto cardstock, cut out and then embossed with silver e.p. and versamark several times until I had achieved the metallic look I wanted. Then I layered a load of silver Stickles on top. I also Stickled the centres of each dandelion "petal" (or whatever they're called!). Here's a close-up of all the glittery bits.

Recipe
Papers: Silver and White cardstock from stash

Stamp: Hero Arts
Colouring Media: Silver ink
Other: MS punch, pin and ribbon from stash

Thanks for looking.

Thanks for the ....

.... inspiration and permission to lift, Mandy.

I saw this card on Mandy's blog a few days ago. I really love her vintage style, and her card reminded me that we don't always have to use an image - the sentiment can be the centrepiece of the card instead. I had to make an anniversary card for DH's brother and his wife, and was really inspired by Mandy's card. Here's my take on it:

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I used my favourite ever BG paper, Phresh & Phunky. I only ever got one pack, and I dip into it VERY rarely - trying to save it for ever and ever, I guess!!! The delicious font is called "Hurricane" and I got it from www.dafont.com