It's been a while ....

.... since I've posted, and with all that's going on around here, I'd say my crafting and blogging opportunities over the next few months will be pretty limited. I haven't actually made anything over the whole month of August, and now my son, my daughter and I are all back at three different schools, with three different timetables and collection schedules so life is going to be horribly hectic for the next year.

Having said all that, I made a card for my little godson's 2nd birthday.  We spent some time on holidays with him and his family in August, and he is just the most sunny, happy little chap.  Here's what I made for him:

I used last week's sketch from Deconstructed Sketches and I'm also going to enter the following challenges: Corrosive Challenges ("Let's hear it for the boys"), Crafty Girls ("Anything Goes") and Crafty Cardmakers ("Make an Impression")

I used some very old Cosmo Cricket papers (I could probably keep making cards for the next decade and still not run out of paper!) and added buttons and a double-embossed number 2.  Here's a side-shot of the dimension on the card:

Recipe:

Papers: Cosmo Cricket ("Lil Man")

Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug "Tiny Bubbles"

Fonts: "Learning Curve" and "SimHei" - www.dafont.com

Other: Basic Grey buttons

Thanks for looking!

Too close to ....

.... Christmas for non-Christmas crafting!  My friend's son has his 6th birthday today, and I am ashamed to say that today is only the second time I've managed to make a birthday card for him (last year being the first!).  Most of his relatives combine birthday and Christmas pressies, so I was determined to make a separate birthday fuss of him!!  Here's what I made:

I do think some red stitching around the outside of that lovely teal spotty paper would have been lovely, but no time.   I used the sketch from this week's Deconstructing Sketches and I'm also entering this into Totally Gorjuss ("For someone special").

Here's a side view of the layers - see the googly eyes I added to the orange sticker?  I love googly eyes!

Recipe:

Papers and sticker: Cosmo Cricket "Lil Man"

Number: Pink Paislee

Other: American Crafts eyelet, googly eyes, baker's twine

Thanks for looking!

It feels stranger when ....

.... your little brother turns 40 than when you do!!!  Well, that's what I'm thinking about it!! 

It's been a very busy few weeks - my daughter was Head of Costume, Hair and Make-up at a production of Hercules her school year put on, and I ended up helping her with some of the props and costumes (having said I wouldn't!!).  We had some very distinguished visitors here in Dublin - first Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, then Barack & Michelle Obama.  I didn't go into town to see either visit, mostly 'cos I was working and the weather was really bad too, but I watched avidly on TV and enjoyed every moment.

I've not had much time for crafting, but I had to make something for my wittle baby brudder!!  I find it difficult to make cards for him for some reason, even though he has quite a few interests.  He wouldn't like anything fussy or fancy either -  finally, I decided to go with a cricketing theme, as he loves the game and plays for his local club too.  Here's what I ended up with:

The papers are actually baseball themed ones, but it looks close enough to a cricket ball to me!!!  I didn't have time to check out many challenges when I was making this at the very last minute, but I'm entering the following:  Simon Says Stamp ("Something Sentimental"),  Little Red Wagon ("Use a Number") and Truly Scrumptious ("Anything Goes").

Here's a side-shot of the card, showing the shiny popped up numbers and the wiggly banner:

Recipe:

Papers: Cosmo Cricket "Lil' Man"

Sentiment + Numbers: Computer generated

Other: American Crafts eyelets, needle + thread, lots of Antique Linen distress ink

Thanks for looking!

Hang on ....

.... Snoopy!  Things went an unexpected direction this week with my DT entry for PaperPlay.  We are sponsored by Stitchy Bears Stamps and our challenge is a recipe:- 2 DPs, 3 flowers, 1 ribbon and 1 charm.

The latter presented a problem for me, I don't have any charms.  Then I remembered my daughter had a clearout some time back and I had "rescued" quite a few things from the bin, including a little Snoopy mobile phone charm.  When I first started card-making, I was ecstatic to discover that Stampabilities make Peanuts stamps, I bought quite a few at the time, and although I haven't used them much (some not at all), I will never get rid of them because I'm so happy that they exist!!  So now that I had my Snoopy charm, out came one of the stamps, I blew the dust off it, and here's my card:

I'm also entering this into Crafty Angels (Something old, something new), Simon Says Stamp (Sing it Baby - the song that is stuck in my head now "Hang on Snoopy", such a stupid song!), Cute Card Thursday ("whateva" - bless their DT, we had 444 entries for anything goes last week on PaperPlay - so much commenting!) and Totally Papercrafts (going to the movies).

Here's a little close-up of my image - I coloured with distress inks and highlighted the balloons with glossy accents:

Recipe:

Papers: Cosmo Cricket "Lil' Man"

Stamp: Stampabilities "Snoopy Happy Birthday"

Colouring Medium: Distress Inks

Other: Blue flower handmade, other flowers, gems, ribbon, BG button, charm from stash, needle + thread

Thanks for looking - and don't forget to enter my blog candy (click here) - only 4 days left!!!

My first card ....

.... using my Promarkers. I've been fiddling about with them, and this is the first image I've coloured. Few observations, first being that I used the wrong paper, it was quite difficult to blend the colours and they bled a bit too, but I'm happy enough with it as a first experiment.

I've followed the lovely sketch on this week's Sugar Bowl - I've used their sketches before, but hadn't used Sugar Nellie stamps, so couldn't enter the challenge. Well this week, as I've got my Gorjuss Girl image, I can enter - here's my card:

There was an extra requirement to use lace. Well, I don't have any lace, so I used my MS Doily "Lace" punch, hope that fulfils the brief!! The papers are Cosmo Cricket Lil Man - I love 'em!!

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Thanks for looking - and thanks for lovely comments left on my last post.