Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind....

BWAHAHAHAHA! bet I have you thinking -

Thing is I have been working on cards that I send out regularly to a group of "cardies" and I know at least a couple of them read my ramblings regularly so I am going to tease them.... well only a little bit LOL. I have completed two sets of cards I'm sending out soon for a total of 10 cards today - so I am feeling a bit devilish now! So as I can't show a picture of what I have actually been doing I thought I would share a supply picture and maybe some sort of sneak peek...

The first picture is of most of the supplies used - but I left out the Christmas ornament hook and the second is a close up of a bit of the completed project. I'm going to get these sent off today and as soon as I find out when they have received them I will let all blogland know what I have been up to! And don't you just love those raised dots on the closeup - now just how did I do that! SHHHHHHHHHHH if you know - all will be revealed with the card ASAP.

A card with scraps and few bits!

I thought I would share this card I made by using scraps of paper I had about and embossing powder, a snowflake punch, some vellum, a few clear stamps and some Aluminium foil!

I punched foil and vellum snowflakes and used the negative of the vellum too. I used kaleidoscope embossing powder all over the foil snowflake square and clear embossing powder all over the message panel that I had already dotted with a silver sharpie and stamped the message with Adirondack denim. Very simple but I think it is quite effective and shows what you can do with just a few things that aren't so special in and of themselves. Hope you like!

Thanks Wendy-AnnTaurus for telling me that I managed a DCM dare! so I have linked into DCM - I have truthfully been trying to do a few challenges and dares but its not easy keeping up lol!

Stash, Stash, Stash....

OH MY! Well I was on the hunt for storage over the last three days and all this managed to find me. I would like to thank Archivers, Michael's and Target for feeding my "little" problem lol!

Sorry about the glare across the photo but I needed to get the stash out -photographed - and get it safely tucked away before too many people noticed! ;-D

I'm also the owner of 3 rainchecks for storage - fingers crossed that it comes in now!

2008 London Marathon

OK all those that know me stop laughing!

No,... Honestly you can stop now!

OK, if you can't stop just try to listen through the tears of laughter...

I have a friend in Forum-land who is attempting this magnificent feat and is going the Charity fundraising route so obviously anything that you can spare today or in the future will help tremendously


http://www.justgiving.com/tiredmammal - remember every dollar/pound/euro helps achieve her goal and and helps the Charity as well.

Thanks for listening - oh and I will try to get something crafty up soon. I have some blanks half done and an idea for another card or two - oh dear, you really should get off the floor all those tears of laughter really can't be doing the carpet any good.

Birthday Girl!

Yes another birthday card - what can I say but birthdays in my family and friends seem to all come in clusters.

This is a card I made for my youngest cousin (yes the card says 6 - not 16 or 60!) - she is a very girlie girl and loves pink, fairies, sparkle etc... which therein lies the problem - I don't possess a lot of pink or fairies in any way shape or form - though I DO have sparkle. I think I went through all my stash to make this card. Hope you like what I came up with, especially as I am making a huge effort to use what I already have to make my cards rather than buying things I won't use.

The stickers are from PaperMania, the cardstock is DCWV - Nana's kids, Glitter stack and Brights stack, the Holographic stickers I altered with a pink overhead pen and the birthday greeting I wrote out with Sakura pink Souffle pen and then went over the top with a clear stardust pen. The little flower brads I got so long ago I don't know who made them but I did see them in Michael's recently.

I have to say the card is very much more SPARKLY than the picture shows - so I am hoping I have a happy little cousin on my hands after I give her the card and her present - a pink flamingo cuddly toy - shhhh don't spoil it! as her birthday isn't until tomorrow;-D.

Fairy Happy Birthday

Well my friend t'over pond got her card yesterday so I can safely blog it now. I liked it when I made it but now I will probably go all weird and not like it IYKNWIM. Still I like to share the triumphs and the dodgy if everything was spectacularly gorgeous that leaves no room for improvement and just where would be the fun in that!


So here is the card. My friend likes fairies but more the funky fairies well here is her fab shop - Believe in Fairies - and you can see for yourself what I mean.

I found the image as part of free decoupage but I knew that for my friend decoupage isn't quite her "thing" so instead of printing the decoupage on paper I printed it off on acetate and chose a DCWV cardstock from the neutrals that highlighted the mottled background paper that I had gotten out of the DCWV Rockstar pad and the blue from the neutrals highlighted the blue in her skirt. The teal blue is from the DCWV brights - I think it does go together - I have to say IRL it doesn't contrast as much. The "Happy Birthday" is stamped - colored over with Sakura souffle black pen and then stamped again with Archival Ink - jet black. The effect is that the "Happy Birthday" is shadowed and the shadow is glossy and raised IRL so when the light reflects in a certain way... well you will just have to trust me or try it out yourself! LOL

Oriental "Friend"

I made this card a little while ago but wanted to share it as today is a special friends' birthday and I'm not certain she's gotten her "real" card from me yet and I really couldn't let her birthday go by with out giving her a Bloggy Happy Birthday!

The papers are all digi printables and I made the little "ninja stars" - in fact this card was made from scraps from a Make and Take of larger "ninja stars" I did for an oriental theme fundraiser/kids camp. So I guess this card just proves that I really don't need that huge paper stash I have (don't we all!) to come up with a decent card I like and that is still hand assembled.

Hope you like!

Fore!

Well it's that time of year where I rack my brains for a card for my BIL. It should be easy. He loves sport, food, beer - so it should be VERY easy! So why is it not. I think it is just that male card mind block thing.

Anyway here is what I came up with - hope you like.The linen cardstock is brayered with Kaleidoscope Autumn Leaves front and back. The Wording is printed on acetate. The stamped Images are from SeeD's boys toys colored in with Prismacolor pencils and the metal square is one out of a set I picked up shopping in Portsmouth, England, both are layered onto cardstock from the DCWV neutrals pad. The eyelets are from my Silent Setter kit but I have to admit I used my Cropadile to set them this time!

Real UK Wedding traditions vs USA ones

Well there is a title for you - but I guess what I am trying to say is this a card I made because of UK tradition of sending an "wedding acceptance" a "wedding regret" an "evening acceptance" or an "evening regret". Now that I have completely confused most people in the USA I will try to explain. In my experience whilst living in England you are only invited to actual wedding ceremony if you are close family or a close friend otherwise you are just invited to the evening reception. I have to say my American family would have a hard time getting their heads around that - I even had a cousin that wouldn't go to our cousin's reception because he couldn't get off work in time to make it to the actual wedding.

I'm probably being a clear as mud here but what this has to do with paper crafting is that I can't find the UK standard acceptance/regret cards in the USA so had to make my own and I have to say I totally cased the invite which was designed by the bride and groom - as they have copyrighted it I can't really share it visually but it was a large hammered squarish-rectangle gatefold card with a heart die cut through the front showing the couple's initial's in gold and there were some freeform pen & ink vines and leaves decorating the side edges of the card - very nice.

So when I went to make the reply for their wedding I thought about it and wanted to pay homage to the couple for designing their own invitation - so went with a reverse theme - hope you like.

The black card is DCWV card that I bought at Michael's for some ridculously low price. The hearts are Quickutz hearts, the vine flourishes are Clear Stamps stamped with Brilliance Moonlight White and the flourish on the heart is Hero Arts and stamped in Archival Jet Black, finished off with some white organza ribbon that I wish I had set just a bit closer to the vine flourishes. I lined the card with white vellum which doesn't really photograph, I did toy with the idea of using some gold vellum that I have - but I still have a wedding card to make for them so I will try to use the gold then. Still I guess I am happy enough with it to share with the blogging world! lol

BTW - the card is unfortunately a regret.

New Year's Day 2008

Where did that last year go! ROFL - oh I must be old if I am losing years in the blink of an eye - just nod in agreement to amuse me because you know I can see you - lol.


Well, I thought for the new year I would post up a baby card I made recently. As I really haven't had a moment to craft over the Christmas break - which may have more to do with going to all the sales and I won't even tell you how much got stuffed in my car from the New Year's 75% off sale...in my defense there were three of us shopping for three different households.

I made this card for my cousin and his wife on the arrival of their son. I thought the blue and white was quite crisp and fresh, oh and of course there was the "boy" theme. The ribbon is a satin roll I picked up somewhere and the pram was made with a Marvy circle punch, scallop scissors, organza ribbon, Adirondack denim and eggplant with irisdescent glitter over the top. The congratulations greeting is from a See D's set which I went over again with white sakura pen. I don't have a small circle punch so I just drew around a thread spool and cut. - isn't it funny with all the gadgets there are when we end up just using a scissors, paper and glue. lol.